Wednesday 12 January 2000

Pic of the day: "Amber Tea". Explained on the box as "black tea with honey flavor".
Amber = honey? That's just too sweet! I thought it so funny, actually, that I bought this box even though I rarely ever drink tea.

In the winter, the trees seem almost human.

But it does not start there. It does however start in the morning. I overslept, and then I absolutely had to shower. (None of your business.) So it was bright of day as I walked along the road through the forest to catch a later bus.

My train of thought this morning started with the Gurgle Girl, as is good and proper. (This has nothing whatsoever to do with the shower, just so y'all know.) After that, it moved on to the former journaller known as Dreama. I guess this is where you can come aboard.

Dreama used to write a quite popular online journal until the end of 1999, at this point she stopped. She had done that once before, but this time it is the end, she writes: No more journals. But just because she doesn't write a journal doesn't mean she's dead or something. She is still haunting the places where online journallers hang out. (Well, or at least the "community" gang.) So she is now the former journaller still known as Dreama.

Anyway, I talked briefly with her about the transfer of symbolic energy through attention. I'll talk more about it here. This concept is essential to understand some of the thinking of the New Age philosopher and author James Redfield. Despite the scruffy company he keeps, Redfield actually has some nice verifiable ideas. Unlike numerology, astrology etc that relies on interpretation, his observations can be recognized by most any trained awareness. And one of his concepts (though not his own invention) is the transfer of energy between people.

You have probably noticed how children scream for attention. They seem to need it as much as food and water. When you are out walking in the mall, you are bound to hear children pleading: "Look, mama! Look, papa! Mama, mama, mamaaaa!" It's not like the martians are landing or anything. The things the small children have to say are of little or no importance. In fact, by the time they get the attention, they may have forgotten what they wanted to say. The thing is, they wanted the attention, and they wanted it intensely.

The positive feeling we get from attention may lead us to feel energized, which is why it sort of makes sense to talk about "energy". It is not an actual physical energy like electricity. It is just a way to refer to something less known by the name of something well known. Strange and Charm quarks are not actually stranger or more charming than other quarks ... it is just that our language has not produced suitable names yet for these things. In the same way, western languages do not have a good name for the "attention energy".

Through my adult years, I have noticed how (healthy) kids blossom up when given attention. The idea that a grown-up will actually listen to them, not just accept their presence but be interested, can really bring out the best in a child. I suspect that this continues into adulthood and is a driving force behind the activity known as "dating". Dating, a very common thing in the USA it seems, is a kind of tentative pair-bonding. Like (good) sex, it contains a strong element of mutual interest in each other. Of the other person actually being there, present in mind as well as body. Certainly this attention is again making people energized and making them feel more well and more alive.

Some people, twisted by extreme fear, are unable to accept attention that is freely given. Their fear knows that this energy supply is fickle and may be closed off at any time. So instead they choose to rely on a supply of attention they can control themselves: By striking fear or provoking anger, they have a low-quality but steady supply of attention which they can control. In this way, we see that almost any interpersonal behavior is a battle for attention energy. There seems simply to be not enough of it to go around.

I did not get time to talk much with Dreama about this last night as we met on IRC. But I was still thinking along these lines as I left home this morning and walked through the woods, where the formerly leafy trees now stood naked, silent and sleeping. I was surprised at their beauty.

According to Redfield, the ability to see the beauty around us is a sign that we are taking in a surplus of energy. He recommends going to beautiful places in nature in order to break through to the spiritual energy that surrounds us all, but that most are unable to tap into directly. The more people who are able to channel this energy into their life and share it with others, the more there will be to go around. Rather than fight each other for the scraps, we can harvest it straight from the trees, as it were! :)

Personally, I get this "energy" from religion ... think of it as the attention of God. (Of course, the God portrayed by some religious people is not one whose attention you would want: A narrow-minded, spiteful avenger looking for an excuse to torture people who don't even know him. I'm obviously not thinking along those lines here.)

I don't worship trees. But I do feel some kinship with them. As I did today, walking in the subdued daylight of a wet January morning, the trees sleeping lightly by the wayside. Without their leaves, they are forced to breathe like we do, slowly burning carbohydrates and absorbing oxygen. Oxygen released by other plants, or by themselves long ago. Normally they would build carbohydrates and supply oxygen for us, but now they are like us, only slower. Almost human, in their naked sleep. A deep feeling of sympathy for them filled me.

People make an issue out of the fact that we share 99% of our DNA with the chimps. What lacks to this perspective is the knowledge that we share most of our functional DNA with all multi-cellular life, including plants. They are not alien life forms, they are basically like us, only with the super-power to absorb sunshine and store it in the form of carbohydrates and free oxygen. On the other hand, they lack our freedom of movement. And of thought.

But in our sleep, we are both so alike: Vulnerable, dependent, breathing slowly while waiting for the light that will wake us up and let us start growing and giving again.