There are Breadcrumbs

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And then there are breadcrumbs, which leads us inevitably to the question of whose forest is this anyway?

The notion is that the path to truth, reality, belief - define your own target or endpoint, your "existential inclination" if you will, is a subjective journey, one we take alone. What’s the old Woody Guthrie lyric? Lonesome Valley? 

You gotta walk that lonesome valley,

You gotta walk it by yourself.

No, nobody else can walk it for you,

You gotta walk it by yourself.

OK, so Woody was never known as an upbeat cheerful lyricist. Still, a couple of points of clarification for that lonely assertion:

First, we need to realize that at every point along our personal journey to our desired ultimate destination, there are breadcrumbs. Someone has been here before. They have written, painted, composed, sung, danced - recorded perhaps in media or languages we have not yet recognized, their thoughts, feelings, about their experience at this same “here,” but perhaps in some other now, perhaps surrounded by an entirely different forest that nonetheless crosses ours at this same point.

Second, we need to remember that those are their breadcrumbs, scattered along their path. We can pick them up, sniff them, even - depending on your own interpretation of the ten second rule - pop them in our mouth and see how they taste. But they are not our breadcrumbs. They do not mark our path. We can gather them up and - again, depending on how completely we employed the ten second rule - stash them away in our pocket for later reflection and consideration. But they are not our breadcrumbs, they may or may not even be part of our forest.

Let me try to clarify what I mean if it is not too late for that. And yes, I realize that this sounds like one of the very first “computer-based text only” games. I think it was called “Colossal Cave Adventure.” Circa 1976?

Anyhow it went sort of like this - green words on a black screen - because that was all there was: “You are standing in the middle of a forest. At your feet there is a key. Pick it up?” And here you type either Y for yes, or N for no. If you typed Y you were presented with a variety of “next steps.” “There are three doors in a room. There is another key on the ground. Pick it up?” In my analogy the key becomes a breadcrumb left by previous travelers. If you pick up the breadcrumb, you have typed Y, but the number of “next steps” possible in our particular, personal, experience are infinite. The breadcrumb is a nugget from someone else’s journey in the "Colossal Cave Adventure." We can chose to employ it on our journey or not. 

What I am warning us against here is the common inclination to become a “fan” of some other pathfinder or another, of someone else’s particular existential inclination. Remember “fan” is the shortened version of “fanatic.”   As we pursue our own goals, our own existential inclination, we may find that some artist, philosopher, theorist, politician, or even celebrity, has been dropping breadcrumbs that we really like. But again remember, those were their breadcrumbs dropped along their path in their forest as they followed a "next step" determined by the desired endpoints of their existential inclination. 

We may use those breadcrumbs, if we choose, in pursuit of our own endpoints, but if we begin to substitute their inclination for our own, if we begin to use their breadcrumbs as a guide to a journey that leads to their endpoints we are in grave danger of crossing the line that separates a casual fan from a rabid fanatic. We may well find ourselves walking down a path in a forest not truly of our own making. We end up chanting in a crowd. Wearing strange costumes that identify us as part of that crowd. Getting tattoos about which our children will ask embarrassing questions down the road.

In a Distilled Harmony view of the world, it is the second tenet, Enable Beauty, that fosters our ability to make sure that we stay focused on our own forest, that we only use those breadcrumbs that help us move down the path that leads to the future we truly desire - our existential inclination. But before we get into that let us dial back a bit to the first tenet, Foster Harmony, because remember, the only way to the second tenet is through the first. Harmony and Beauty, to steal a concept from quantum mechanics, are entangled. Simply put, Harmony is the sunlight of creativity. I find that I am hard put to be creative in a discordant state. This is different than physical exercise that can purge negativity. If I attempt a creative task when in a bad mood I find that my bad mood leaks through onto my project. The words don't flow, lines wobble, colors clash. Yeech. 

Obviously there are a fair number of creative types who can channel their angst into their art. Or at least like Van Gogh, for example, are accused of doing so. Where else do we get horror films? Where - for crying out loud - did Picasso find Guernica?  Hopefully, discordantly fueled artists get the same release from their work as long distant runners - able to leave negativity behind them along the longer road. However, that reality is not part of my forest.

In my forest, the primary objective, the existential inclination is Harmony, and Harmony is the primary ingredient of Beauty. If all beautiful things carried a list of ingredients, Harmony would be the first thing on the label. So those are the breadcrumbs I seek. Beautiful objects, moments, sounds, images, people that remind us, and reflect the underlying foundation of, Harmony.

It is often difficult to remember that notion here in the throes of the pandemic. But it gets easier if we remember that entangled nature of Beauty and Harmony. You can't have one without the other. Empty parking lots, shuttered businesses, crowded hospitals, spiraling death rates. One could think that Harmony and Beauty have taken themselves off to some foreign galaxy, far, far away - especially now that winter is truly coming - at least here in the northern hemisphere.

But remember, symphonies still sound as sweet as before. A smile is still a smile even if it is on your screen. You can still see a sunset and flowers while wearing a mask. Maybe, having to gather Harmony and Beauty a crumb at time will remind us what treasures they truly are, and we will, eventually, bake sweeter bread for that knowledge.

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