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Arriving at a new reality

The nature of nature, the power of power, the power to the second power, squared that is. And what is the deepest meaning of “the second”? Is it merely the moment, the next tick before the tock? Or could it be more, that which is dual and the duel between the self and that which is greater?

And what’s with all these questions? Must we think? Questions and answers are the finest of the duels when properly done. But we are not done, adding layers of ever more dualities. And the weight is crushing. “With, without, who will deny that’s what the fighting’s all about.”

Men and women, the young and old, rich and poor, strong or weak, the healthy and sick; the winners, the losers, the right from wrong, the good and bad, us and them, will it ever end? And is it really so simple to choose just one over the two? Nothing is simply black and white, life is shades of gray.

It’s not just about white from black, red from yellow, black and blue; plus or minus, conservatives or liberals, Christian, Muslim or Jew. It’s about the future altered by the past, and in the end it always comes down to you.

And it gets so overwhelming, how do we keep up? Should we just give up? Or is there a way we all can succeed, a way to “pierce through” the limits of our imagination and break free from the chains of our struggles? It is enlightenment that leads to a newer and better reality? To pierce the duality is life’s great hope and all its answers.

“Pierce the duality to arrive at a new reality,” an instruction given me long ago from a fellow engineering student named John McGrew, now a Doctor of Psychology at Indiana U. We engineers do psychology and poetry, too!

Ever since, many a duality I have tumbled to grow bigger and better. The man and woman became lifelong partners with great passions in their dreams. The genders, races, ages, and conditions became the extended family; the one into the many, the many into the one.

The sky, land and water became the Earth, and Mother Nature now cries as she tries to survive the human condition. Those with money became both selfish and charitable; and those without it became empowered, yet constrained in a self-imposed captivity by the chain called negativity. The cold became the absence of heat.

And as I watched the elephant sitting upon and crushing the ass, I became the eagle. An American first I will always be. It is my strength. It is now become so easy and could be for you, the joy of knowing the depths of feeling free. Nearly impossible to tell, it can only be lived; if only I could explain.

It simply takes a weapon, the arrow called choice to burst the bubble that confines us and reflects back upon us. Always choose the arrow with the sharpest point; that is what I say.

And what would be the point? What tip shall become the penetrating end of choice? Could it be the inward view, as we point our shots out, that is the source of our realization? Could the point be our insight, the ability to discern truth?

To take the shot, pick up the bow and arrow of choice tipped with insight. Then draw its string back full with the might of the heart. But is not the heart both day and night, and what good is the shot into the dark?

When taking aim, only the sight of mind can make the shot worthwhile, realistic. It is the view within, the eye of the mind that leads to freedom and fulfillment.

Hearts and minds form the ultimate human duality, exploited throughout the ages in their division. But the left-brain shall know the right, and the right shall learn from the left; connecting the spontaneous heart to the deliberate mind in the quest of freedom, and knowing its purpose and balance between the one and the many in its name. And only their connection will yield the view into the truth that sets us free.

Jeffrey M. Woollard lives in Rainbow.

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