I have a friend who told me to flip the switch in my mind, ‘just a little to the right of one o’clock’, and therein I would find the tranquillity I sought. Sounded crazy at the time—but that statement was one of the most profound statements anyone ever shared with me.
I like finding a ‘switch’ inside myself that takes me from an agitated state, into one of tranquillity. Something I feel we should all learn to find inside ourselves.
Sometimes I find mine, and sometimes I forget to look, sometimes I think I actually enjoy being agitated and that it acts just like washing the clothes, stirring me up so I can let all the dirt out. But, the truth is, there is enough dirt to last on this planet, what is truly rare is ‘ourselves’ in a state of tranquillity, self induced, and not with the help of pharmaceuticals.
And yet, there are those who become addicted to tranquillity, too, and I can’t say as I blame them, but it does become a bit much when the mother says to the little boy reporting that the house is on fire, ‘let it be’, I mean that’s one extreme way to annihilate all the house work.
Tranquillity, the absence of agitation of any kind, can be had, with the flip of a switch somewhere in the mind. But, it took me years to find mine. For many years I could feel myself go into a state of tranquillity every now and then without knowing what I had done. The first time I recall was in maths class when I was about twelve, so relaxed did I become from taking my mind somewhere else that I fell out of my chair. I can remember other children doing the same. Self induced states of tranquillity to avoid the pain of a boring subject, or teacher talking in monotone, but to find that switch self consciously as an adult takes a lot of work, that’s why they have seminars on it and charge you lots of money.
I spent a small fortune seeking tranquillity once upon a time, and I am here to tell you, I didn’t have to except that like most people looking for something without the effort it takes to find it, I gave money to people who promised to help me. They did help relieve me of the agitation of how to spend my money. No one else can help you find your own tranquillity switch, it takes one person sifting through the rubble of one’s own mind because all the switches are in different places inside every individual, ain’t it just like an angry god to do that?! Hide the tranquillity switches, quick...people all need to be agitated enough to put fires out, providing they discover fire, too, and they did, man did they.
Now, I am sure you were hoping I might be able to tell you how to do it, because I claim to have found mine, but the truth is, mine goes missing, too, and ‘a little to the right of one o’clock’ can become a different position depending on where you live on this planet, and if you are currently standing on your head or lying down, and of course what time zone you be in. Daylight savings can play havoc on locating a tranquillity switch, I promise.
The only thing I can tell you for sure is that if I have one, you probably do, too, or perhaps, like the difference between sexes, one seeking itself out of fear of the other’s more powerful one, hahaha, if you believe that, I have some swamp land I will sell you eventually, good night Freud, you were a smart man, but....
PS...Brother John just informed me that his tranquillity switch is in his little toe, so whenever it bothers him, he just hits it with a hammer and the tranquillity switch is turned on...and if that doesn’t work he takes a pair of channel locks and pinches his earlobe and everything comes ' a little right of one o’clock'.
PSS...I am not going to tell you what he does with his trowel!!!!
Showing posts with label self help. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self help. Show all posts
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
My Friend Ben
I have been reading Benjamin Franklin by Carl Van Doren published in 1938 by The Viking Press. I am not through it yet and already, I feel I must write about it. It is a book I was allowed to take for free from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand on February 2, 2011, between 11:00AM and 2:30PM during a book giveaway. As you might imagine, there was a host of us there sporting boxes.
My husband, daughter and I wheeled our free book selections out on office chairs with swivel wheels that were also a part of the giveaway. We each had selected from our own preferences. My husband’s was history and geography, my daughter’s was science and literature, mine was American studies and literature. How could I do any better than with a book written about Benjamin Franklin?
Today is only five days later and I have already begun a painting in relationship to the American I always admired superficially, having owned a copy of Ben Franklin adages that sat on my coffee table for many years. About his life, I knew relatively nothing other than a story of a kite, lightning, electricity and moral fabric tossed about through adages slurped randomly. I knew I liked Benjamin Franklin, but I really didn’t know why. Call it intuition, or not, if the thought frightens you.
I’m finding I was savvy to feel rather kindly toward Ben, even if he validated a few things that make me cringe with my political correctness lens that hasn’t yet been fully deleted (I’m working on it with a little help from my own Junto, a scheme I have adopted from Ben who adopted it from Cotton Mather). Ben’s industrious capacities cannot be denied, he accomplished a lot before the advent of light technology, and he had to use ink and type and set it and before that, create what was to be said, he was a one man google-anonymous-blogger without the light show and the quickness, but will all the punch.
I mean, I really admire this human being, the way he was being, inside of where he lived and when, and even now, I would like very much to be locked into an elevator with Benjamin Franklin for awhile, it would not prove onerous, but uplifting, perhaps to the next floor of my own conscious participation with the world I live in. That is why I am determined to paint part of what I learnt about him that makes me like him so much, a plan for living, a list of desirable virtues he longed to groom in himself, a list complete as twelve things, or so he thought, until a good Quaker friend pointed out his many instances of lack of humility, to which Benjamin had to agree when he viewed what must be repeated with the acceptance for others’ opinions.
The list went from twelve to thirteen then. Obviously messing up the mathematical beauty of how it fit into taking Ben through the list one at a time for a week, for twelve weeks, to begin to repeat again and make way to practice all traits for a month of each year at its conclusion, but nevertheless, it works well to remember humility before going back through the original twelve again, lest we forget our requirements to be parrots. And, the original list with the addition is herewith set out as the desirable virtues our young Benjamin set off to instil in his internal world:
1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. 2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. 3. Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. 4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. 5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing. 6. Industry: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. 7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly. 8. Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty. 9. Moderation: Avoid extremes, forbear resenting injuries do much as you think they deserve. 10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation. 11. Tranquillity: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. 12. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation. 13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates (Benjamin Franklin by Van Doren, p. 88).
Now, I am committed to attempting this exercise throughout the year 2011 to see what I can see inside myself surfacing daily under scrutiny by my own conscious act. Temperance, I have but one day today followed and realized that once I met my limit of three fudgsicles, I resorted to placing my foot upon the kitchen bench and stretching out the desire to finger the remnants inside the freezer. Woe, is me, I do not drink, but man can I eat when contemplating. I must take up a race to the other side of the house to keep my date with number one on day one, this is going to be a long year.
More on the painting next time...
My husband, daughter and I wheeled our free book selections out on office chairs with swivel wheels that were also a part of the giveaway. We each had selected from our own preferences. My husband’s was history and geography, my daughter’s was science and literature, mine was American studies and literature. How could I do any better than with a book written about Benjamin Franklin?
Today is only five days later and I have already begun a painting in relationship to the American I always admired superficially, having owned a copy of Ben Franklin adages that sat on my coffee table for many years. About his life, I knew relatively nothing other than a story of a kite, lightning, electricity and moral fabric tossed about through adages slurped randomly. I knew I liked Benjamin Franklin, but I really didn’t know why. Call it intuition, or not, if the thought frightens you.
I’m finding I was savvy to feel rather kindly toward Ben, even if he validated a few things that make me cringe with my political correctness lens that hasn’t yet been fully deleted (I’m working on it with a little help from my own Junto, a scheme I have adopted from Ben who adopted it from Cotton Mather). Ben’s industrious capacities cannot be denied, he accomplished a lot before the advent of light technology, and he had to use ink and type and set it and before that, create what was to be said, he was a one man google-anonymous-blogger without the light show and the quickness, but will all the punch.
I mean, I really admire this human being, the way he was being, inside of where he lived and when, and even now, I would like very much to be locked into an elevator with Benjamin Franklin for awhile, it would not prove onerous, but uplifting, perhaps to the next floor of my own conscious participation with the world I live in. That is why I am determined to paint part of what I learnt about him that makes me like him so much, a plan for living, a list of desirable virtues he longed to groom in himself, a list complete as twelve things, or so he thought, until a good Quaker friend pointed out his many instances of lack of humility, to which Benjamin had to agree when he viewed what must be repeated with the acceptance for others’ opinions.
The list went from twelve to thirteen then. Obviously messing up the mathematical beauty of how it fit into taking Ben through the list one at a time for a week, for twelve weeks, to begin to repeat again and make way to practice all traits for a month of each year at its conclusion, but nevertheless, it works well to remember humility before going back through the original twelve again, lest we forget our requirements to be parrots. And, the original list with the addition is herewith set out as the desirable virtues our young Benjamin set off to instil in his internal world:
1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. 2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. 3. Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. 4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. 5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing. 6. Industry: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. 7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly. 8. Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty. 9. Moderation: Avoid extremes, forbear resenting injuries do much as you think they deserve. 10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation. 11. Tranquillity: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. 12. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation. 13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates (Benjamin Franklin by Van Doren, p. 88).
Now, I am committed to attempting this exercise throughout the year 2011 to see what I can see inside myself surfacing daily under scrutiny by my own conscious act. Temperance, I have but one day today followed and realized that once I met my limit of three fudgsicles, I resorted to placing my foot upon the kitchen bench and stretching out the desire to finger the remnants inside the freezer. Woe, is me, I do not drink, but man can I eat when contemplating. I must take up a race to the other side of the house to keep my date with number one on day one, this is going to be a long year.
More on the painting next time...
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