I was trying to frame my thoughts RE: the individual organizing principles that keep us doing this life thang day-in-and-day-out…from sex, drugs and rock & roll; to cars, surfing, clothes, religion, I-Pods – and the list goes-on-and-on – when my Illuminati Buddy mentioned those “safe boxes” everyone “goes to” — to get out of the humdrum that is our daily existence. And there it was: “safe boxes”; our Grey Havens here on Middle Earth.
For my readers who don’t understand the allusion – the Grey Havens was the departure point for those who could no longer dwell in Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Most of the departees were elves – who had watched magic disappear from their world (as ‘Men’ began to spread through Middle Earth) and were sufficiently disconsolate to leave (trust humans to ruin yet another world).
So the Grey Havens was a port that took you to the East and to eternal peace – which is what our safe boxes are: a place where we feel safe and secure during our time here, and, dream about what we will do in the hereafter.
In our safe boxes – whether we have self-medicated ourselves there, or, if we have a stratagem that delivers us to the safe box – we can forget our troubles. We no longer have to live in a painful present: we can alter our present to suit our desire. Even more exciting – we can fantasize about possible futures and put a golden hue on the past – giving us those godlike powers that lie dormant in the work-a-day world.
Is it good? Is it bad?? I don’t really care – all I know is that it allows each-of-us to return to whatever social arena we prostitute ourselves in for the next day’s round. I guess the Grey Havens is a form of death – since our bodies don’t really play much of a role there: we split from our flesh transmitters — much like the victim of rape escapes the scene of the trauma and the violation of the body.
I know enough of people and the human condition to realize that we all need a crutch…something to lean on, something we can trust. And I see us, as a species, retreating into our black boxes more-and-more. Is there some sort of salvation in Facebook? In tweeting?? In the starz of the cyber universe??? If there is, I have yet to taste it. Hell! I can’t even see it!! Those tiny digital screens…but there exudes a soma that hypnotizes those who wish to eat-of-this-particular-lotus…
Why do organized religions speak of eternity? Eternity is…is…well – it’s forever! I’m not quite sure how I’d handle it. That’s why I don’t think I would stay at the Grey Havens for very long – nor would I wish to remain in the East of Middle Earth for very long. Our human “safe boxes” also become tedious to me, all except for music – which makes my path to the future while connecting the-past-and-the-present. Yet playing a song the same way each time creates its own prison for me – I always want to take the theme or expression into a hitherto unexplored place…
And behind each hidden gate
A new path may wait
And I will take the paths that run
West of the Moon
And East of the Sun…(tonight’s take on Tolkien)