We each create our own mythologies. LukeyoutheU has a number of them—stories, beliefs, understandings of life. Some you may find useful and good. To get the lay of LyU land, check out the tables of contents c. If you enjoy conversations, listen in on the podcast's series p. To purse ideas in a longer format, here are some books b. Those inspired by visual images, or the photographer's take on them, can visit v. Or you may want to make your own way, poking around on, or off, this website. The decision, of course, is yours.
Thanks, Jake Knight underlined words in black go to the sequential page in light blue go to that page (books) in darker blue go to that page in a new window (lpo) LyU, the website c, is a sprawling structure, the genesis of which came to me in 2015. Like any great big house, you can know its rooms, additions, and secret passageways only by exploring it. If something on a page interests you, I suggest you read/ select it. If your decision takes you to another page that page will be on this site. If a link is offered to a page outside of LyU, that website's name is made known (in parentheses next to it). The podcast p has six series; I cohost them all. My cohosts, one per series, come from a variety of backgrounds and beliefs. Each of us has their our mythologies/ stories to tell. An inquisitive, nontraditional Christian who relishes Greek myths and believes i n reincarnation is my cohost on some conversations with marc scm; a spiritually awake and increasingly self-realizing Manhattan lawyer is on the consciousness shift tcs; an extremely well-traveled, nonreligious humanist who has been successful in living the life he wants is on a considered life acl; a text-first, believing Christian and I discuss first a book in the New Testament luke's perspective, and ours lpo and then four highly charged chapters from the Old earliest of days eod; an ancient-Arabic reading, practicing Muslim, who also happens to be a modern-day pharmacist, cohosts heroes of the bible and the quran hbq. I find, well, to put it bluntly, I find truth in what each and all of them say. Their stories are of my mythologies. Part of how I understand life. LukeyoutheU's books b are on various topics. I try to be, I am, all about life, and Life. The books talk about some of my understandings of it. The books are short. If you decide to buy and read them, they will cost you money and your attention. Just because the LukeyoutheU website is listed first, the podcast second, and the books third does not mean LyU has to be experienced in that order. I have built this house with many doors, and not a few windows. Go straight to the books, if you would like; or visit whatever or wherever else you would like. There are other parts and considerations baked in, as well. I leave it to you to find them as you will. The universe is not indifferent to us; and it also does not accommodate our every want. We are deciders, as individuals, peoples, and as a species, in some parts of life, and receivers in others. The proportions of our influence are not all fixed. We are not alien to life; and we have no choice, zero, except to be active players in it. Deciding, consciously or unconsciously, to try not to participate is to actively withhold the potential good of our individual participation. Put another way, life is like being at the beach on a hot and sunny day. You have two likely options. You can swim in the water and body surf the waves, treading water while you wait for the wave you want, the rideable ones appearing on their time, not always at a time convenient for you. Or you can stay always on the beach. On the so-thought solid land. The sand hard but not firm. Either way, you are going to have to work. You do the work of swimming in the water; or the work of baking in the sun. Let's go at this one more way. Life, the universe, is complex, with simple parts to it. We can know some of its complex parts and probably not all of its simple ones. I think a model, an idea to follow, is that we go for the useful and good. Not just the useful; not only the good. The useful and good. LukeyoutheU is nothing less than about finding, that is, making, meaning in life. I correct myself: meanings in life, plural. None of us has the exact same meanings of life and nor can we. We all find, and put, meanings into and onto so very many ideas, things, people, habits, understandings. I do not think all meanings found or decided on are of the same value or use. It is plain to my sight that they are not. What I try, though LyU, in life, is to continue to improve my meanings. I want to help bring about what I consider a better life for me, for others, for the planet. I hope, in LyU, to assist you, as you allow, in discovering, finding, making your own meanings towards the betterment that you desire. Some of which, maybe many of which, may, or may not, be like mine. Once upon a time, I took a modernist art class. A good friend had signed up for it and suggested it to me; I went along for the ride. In the class, we were shown slides of much of the world's most famous modern art. I was drawn to much of visually, some of it viscerally, and a few examples intellectually; as for some other pieces, I scratched my head. We were presented well-supported and impassioned theories on the work of Pablo Picasso, especially Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, our instructor being a renowned scholar of the artist and the piece. I wrote a paper on Jean DuBuffet's l'Hourloupe series. I did not see the black lines as marks of separation but representing unseen connection. As much as I enjoyed the class, and I did, I began to understand something over the course of the semester that is more significant to me than the artists, that is bigger to me than the pieces themselves, and one of the great gifts available, I think, from modern art as a whole. It is this: an understanding of perspective and participation. Art has two parts, an active creator and a passive viewer, a giver and a taker. If you want to see it that way. But in the larger, dare I say real-er, whole-er, picture, art involves and reflects both the artist(s) who produced it and the viewer/ reader who considers it. Art (and life) can seem like a one-way street, talked about as a one-way street, feel like a one-way street, where there are creators and consumers. Probably many see it that way: we viewers looking at fixed work. Consumers buying visual goods. Really, though, art is a two-way thoroughfare. The viewer is, or at least can be, an active participant in it. Consciously or unconsciously, we decide what the art (and what life) means to us, even if we decide that meaning is "nothing." I encourage you to take that latter understanding, and make it broader. Apply it to your own as-you-have-experienced-it life. I think you will likely get to this: that each and every one of us, and all of us, apply meaning in and to our lives, to life, all the time. We apply it always. Sometimes multiple types of it. To all the things, events, and people in our lives. We usually do so on an unconscious level. (And thank goodness for that; otherwise we could easily be consciously overwhelmed.) Nevertheless, we do. Whether we are consciously aware of it, or not. The meanings we give, the truths we hold on to, are the footings and foundations of our lives. Are the additions we put onto the house we were born into. We reveal the meanings we have given/ are giving by the stories we tell, the way we tell them, the order we tell them in. By the nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, speech we use. We continuously describe/ ascribe meaning to the people (foolhardy, smart, attractive), things (shiny, clunky, ancient, new), and events (thrilling, devastating, boring, significant) in life. I carry in me stories that help me to live, to make sense of life. I would guess you do, too. The particular story I hold among the uppermost: Life, including my little, itty-bitty life-being lived out here in a suburban town not too far from the western edge of the North American continent, has meaning. Multiple meanings. I would like to suggest to you that your life, wherever lived, does, too. I have noticed that it is oftentimes the shouters, and the promisers of something new, and the repeaters, who get most people's attention. In LukeyoutheU, I try not to shout. I offer what I hope to be useful repackaging more often than the brand spanking new. I aim to often enough reiterate, but not too often repeat. I am not trying to dazzle, inveigle, or hoodwink. I am trying to intrigue, encourage, and invite. Some notes which can help you with this site. You earned them for exploring this page. -If you are unsure about a word or a phrase's meaning, give yourself a present look up the word. You are likely reading this using a computer connected to the internet. If not, find one; or look in a magical book known as a dictionary. A richer vocabulary can help build for you a more creative mind and a robust life. If you think I have used a word or phrase poorly or wrongly, let me know. You can see how to correct me in the footer. -There are, quite possibly, parts of LyU that will not appeal to you. One or more of the podcast's series, or the topic of a book, for example. Great! I am telling you parts of my story; I am not telling you about, or predicting, yours. If you find something you do not like, move along. Now you know what not to consider further. There is possibly still more available for you here on LyU. -I ask you to think BIG, but not only BIG. I also ask you to to think also small. Medium. And tiny. Each in its own good time. -You are a marvelous being, dear reader. Really, you are. You have a body, a mind, physical senses; an inkling that there is more to know, more ways to grow, that you have yet experienced. In addition to who you currently are, and what you have already given to the world, you are a being who can know, perhaps already knows, that you want to even more live. You can. We are players in, active characters in, inexorably part of, Life. The decisions you make, yes you, dear reader, you even now, have an impact on, sometimes visibly determine, your future; the futures of those in your orbit; and, even, possibly, The Future. -LukeyoutheU is not a religious faith. It does not asks you to have a particular faith. It does, however, ask for faith: for you to have faith that you can be, and that it would be good for you to be, at least partially aware of your greater self. Your next step is yours to decide. Life awaits; it often seems/ does respond to decisions acted out (even if that decision is not to decide). more |