Over the past few days, I have been on the island of Hatzic Lake, British Columbia. I am here in the land of the lotus eaters. This little community is right next door to Mission, and near Abbotsford, which is apparently the fastest growing city in Canada. It is picturesque and au naturelle.
Preying eagles, hungry coyotes, and of course the ever so popular ducks that casually land in the swimming pool, totally and perhaps strategically missing the lake altogether. It's nature. Predators, prey, squatters and runners, all participating in the quest to survive another day.
I watched the last episode of LOST, and I am proud to say, I am lost on what the show is about, so I am thankful that I did not invest 3 years of my life watching it. However, with my 2 hours of experience with this mental mystery, I wonder if the island is a metaphor for our own reality where we each hide a piece of ourselves on a special island of our own, so that we always have a common bond with our own reality.
Watching out the window, the eagles and ducks appear to have this figured out. Their DNA and natural instincts prescribe their natural way of life. You will never see a mouse turning on a hawk, mid field, and the hawk fleeing for its life. Here on the island, there are rules of the game and one must respect the law of order. And there are distinct roles on this island of personkind: we have healers, thinkers, doers, dreamers, predators and victims.
The island and its time travel qualities is a well played out theme in literature and life. We often escape to islands when we want to get away from it all. There is something attractive about being marooned and isolated from the land lubbers. We like to escape and be in another place. Johnathon Swift created "Gulliver's Travels" as a metaphor for the way he saw things, but couldn't express, due to political and social constraints. Alfred Tennyson wrote "The Lotus Eaters" in 1832 to explore the concept of escapism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lotos-Eaters
This age of technology creates a new kind of escapism, and leaves yet another gaping hole to the questions: Are we there? Is this my reality, or is it someone else's? Does anybody really know what time it is? Is anybody out there? Can anyone hear me?
The movie, "Matrix", explores the supposition that we are subject to a master mind / mainframe, and that we are living via the programming of another. There is a Biblical parallel to this - the concept that the book is written, and fate unfolds as we make choices along the way, but that we are all destined to a truth. We just don't know what it is yet until we find it.
The answer to all these questions, is it depends on where you are standing. To illustrate, look at the impact of time zones. At this moment, my daughter is in Australia, a continent island surrounded by the sea. She is living in my tomorrow, while I am living my my today. Conversely, she is living in "her" today, and I am living in "her" yesterday.
You get the point. Time is relative and so is experience, and yes we are all living on our own islands under the sun. But there is a single truth that I have learned thus far in my journey: if you are the prey to the eagle, duck.
Preying eagles, hungry coyotes, and of course the ever so popular ducks that casually land in the swimming pool, totally and perhaps strategically missing the lake altogether. It's nature. Predators, prey, squatters and runners, all participating in the quest to survive another day.
I watched the last episode of LOST, and I am proud to say, I am lost on what the show is about, so I am thankful that I did not invest 3 years of my life watching it. However, with my 2 hours of experience with this mental mystery, I wonder if the island is a metaphor for our own reality where we each hide a piece of ourselves on a special island of our own, so that we always have a common bond with our own reality.
Watching out the window, the eagles and ducks appear to have this figured out. Their DNA and natural instincts prescribe their natural way of life. You will never see a mouse turning on a hawk, mid field, and the hawk fleeing for its life. Here on the island, there are rules of the game and one must respect the law of order. And there are distinct roles on this island of personkind: we have healers, thinkers, doers, dreamers, predators and victims.
The island and its time travel qualities is a well played out theme in literature and life. We often escape to islands when we want to get away from it all. There is something attractive about being marooned and isolated from the land lubbers. We like to escape and be in another place. Johnathon Swift created "Gulliver's Travels" as a metaphor for the way he saw things, but couldn't express, due to political and social constraints. Alfred Tennyson wrote "The Lotus Eaters" in 1832 to explore the concept of escapism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lotos-Eaters
This age of technology creates a new kind of escapism, and leaves yet another gaping hole to the questions: Are we there? Is this my reality, or is it someone else's? Does anybody really know what time it is? Is anybody out there? Can anyone hear me?
The movie, "Matrix", explores the supposition that we are subject to a master mind / mainframe, and that we are living via the programming of another. There is a Biblical parallel to this - the concept that the book is written, and fate unfolds as we make choices along the way, but that we are all destined to a truth. We just don't know what it is yet until we find it.
The answer to all these questions, is it depends on where you are standing. To illustrate, look at the impact of time zones. At this moment, my daughter is in Australia, a continent island surrounded by the sea. She is living in my tomorrow, while I am living my my today. Conversely, she is living in "her" today, and I am living in "her" yesterday.
You get the point. Time is relative and so is experience, and yes we are all living on our own islands under the sun. But there is a single truth that I have learned thus far in my journey: if you are the prey to the eagle, duck.
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