Monday, October 16, 2006

Civilized hieroglyphics

I eagerly visited the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art last weekend to take a new look at the treasury with hopes that this time it might awaken some new interpretations. I typically find that practical and functional art pieces are my favorites. I didn't make my way all the way through the museum, but I spent a good amount of time in front of the Egyptian hieroglyphics; I determined that the hieroglyphics are more civilized than the written or spoken word. The written or spoken word, no matter how descriptive, has a way of being taken out of context so easily that it is alarming. A phrase, comment or word can be easily slanted to mean something in which it wasn't originally intended. And this is the same with photos and video. Sometimes, despite the truth being directly in your face and in plain English can be misinterpretted based on previous notions that were slanted in the beginning. This is how things can become something out of nothing. Hieroglyphics and other pictures can be interpretted regardless of language and are therefore more universal than mathematics, which in itself is a language to be learned. It has long been my determination that that which seems to be more civilized is in fact less civilized than previous generations before us. With the exception of slavery.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Black and white

Still working on this idea and will provide more information and facts to support my reasoning in the future. Several years ago I was led into a discussion about black and white. My take on it initially was that there are many shades of gray in between the two, meaning that what may be good/right for some may not be good/right for all. One side may be more good/right than the other. This way of thinking assumes that both the black and the white are percentages that add together to create 100% and that most times the majority wins, like in an election. However this way of thinking about black and white creates good/winners and bad/losers rather than acknowledging the fact that it is in human nature for people to act good/right. If both sides (black and white) had all of the correct and untwisted information, they would choose to be good/right in the purest sense of the word.
How can you determine if something is black OR white? Perhaps it is 100% black AND 100% white at the same time with both black and white doing what is good/right, in the purest sense of the word. The only condition is that everyone must be a winner to create harmony.