Menoculayshunal; Wonderment Of Ponderment

It's all about looking for The Light...

No, where were we? Thinking. It's all about thinking. At this stage. 

Being so busy in the thinking just now, a button on Voovoo the Vaio was hit that produced a sudden click and BOO! The thinking had taken me away from a focus on what the hands were doing. Who knew the camera could be triggered thus? The temptation was to trash the result. However, the decision came to keep and use the frame (with a little editing). It is quite illustrative of the greater concept, of the endeavour. Of this little series about moving from the earth to the ether and beyond...

Thank you to all who were so receptive to last Monday's post. In the ponderment prior to typing, it was recognised that this is effectively taking up once more the Mac History series. That fell away, possibly, because this stage needed to be reached. The stage of sharing experiences and events that, to some, will seem rather foreign, even fantastical. Realising that that autobiographical was returning to posts, the previous postings were perused, to see where to connect, where not to repeat unnecessarily. It soon became apparent that, for the most part, the 'history' is purely material. It was 'kept safe' so as not to jingle too many bells. 

There were a handful of posts in the spiritual element. The one that started it all off, though, the event on the hillside with grandad and sheep... somehow that cannot be found. Or never got posted. It is essential to explaining The Journey, however. 

This toddler was taken by her shepherd grandfather up towards the copse on the hill, looking for wee lambies that may have been born overnight. He set her down by some tussocks with an instruction to stay there until he came back. While he was away, another fellow came and sat with her. There was a sense of safety. Of Love. As grandad came back towards them, the stranger departed saying only, 'remember Jesus.' Being but a toddler, the girl asked the grandad where his friend Jesus lived. The grandfather nearly dropped her down the hill. 'Where did you ever hear that name, lass?' 

'He told it me just now.' The grandfather took his time, but then told the girl that Jesus must be her friend only, as he did not know him personally... and that she should not mention that name to her grandmother, or anyone else for that matter.

Which she didn't. For a very long time. 

There is no way to ratify or rationalise experiences such as these. It was the first of several such... revelations (?) Altogether disconcerting when one is actually rather logically-minded and deeply interested in the scientific. It would not be denied. At age seven that girl asked her mother whether she could attend Sunday School. Turned out she was jolly good at Bible Study. She earned herself her very own bible in return. (Still held.) But even in those early years, there were questions. Questions, questions. Despite studying with the Baptists at that time, the girl sought answers from others; Jehovah's Witnesses, Roman Catholics... and later, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs, Bahai, Sufis. When teaching Sunday school within the Scots Kirk (Presbyterian) there came a trip to the Isle of Iona, where another important experience took place. That physical healing was big enough, but there was also a spiritual legacy. The teaching became more open, more questioning and encouraging the children to question, just as Jesus himself had of his teachers. That was not particularly well received by the establishment. Time to move on.

Meanwhile, one followed the line of logic in life, starting out first in agri-economics and statistics, number-crunching,  but getting involved in computing as it developed from mainframe to LANs and then 'personal computers'. That first degree in computing set me free in many ways. Due to it, emigration to Australia came about. Analyst/programmers were 2nd on the list of prescribed professions for max immigration points. 

That career itself did not last so very long (it's all in Mac History if you are really keen) and along came medical studies and alternative therapies. For a pure science fix, membership of the Australian branch of the National Space Society, lay studies in astronomy at the Sydney Observatory under Dr Nick Lomb. Oh, one could go on about those times; the obtaining of one's own telescope, the participation in studies on logistics of living on Mars, the attending of conferences with big names such as Alan Shepherd, John Young, Buzz Aldrin, Carl Sagan... but these are all material things and were an alternative attempt at finding one's place in the great mystery of life.

This one was deliberate!

How to marry up the night search for the Leonids and finding oneself in the company of a stranger, tall, silent... oozing Love... and dressed like a Native American chieftain?! How to marry up the ever-present 'inner-voice' with the figures and numbers of logic and maths?! How to draw all the threads of so many philosophies and tie them into one explanation?!

It is too easy to pass off another's experience as irrelevant, or having no bearing upon one's own life, simply because we have not had those experiences ourselves. It requires of us to be very grown-up about life to accept that there are a great many experiences to which we will never be exposed, but that does not mean that they are not experienced by others. Even looking at these as one's own history, the logician keeps a balance. It is the sceptic within which, in some way ratifies the experiences. This is not a person who can be passed off as fanciful, feeble-minded or frivolous.