our opportunity is to add to Life
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If you want, you can click on the photo above. If you do, you will to find out about what the photo means—at least, what it means to me.
Once upon a time, I took a modernist art class. I learned much in it; did my own project on the work of Jean DuBuffet; and heard from our esteemed instructor many well-supported theories on the work of Pablo Picasso. Nothing that I learned, however, was more important than: we (you and I) can assign meaning, and thereby also no meaning, to perhaps everything and anything in our lives. And we already and always do. I have just told you a little story. It is a story offering you action, telling you about me, and announcing one of the most important things I have ever learned (that we all and each find/ give meaning to the events, circumstances, objects, situations, actions, things, and people in our lives). Like any story, the first half is hearing/ watching/ listening to it; the second is what you do with it. Are you accepting my story as fact, with curiosity, discounting it, deciding to consider it later? LukeyoutheU (and our lives, for that matter, if you choose to look at them this way) is not much more that a collection of stories. And some photographs I and some others have taken over the years. It is being presented to you (likely, unless you are somehow reading a printed version of this website) on a computer of some sort. Through the conversion of energy and the incredible ingenuity of many members of humankind. You are reading it using the physical capabilities you have; you, someone who is a continuing miracle, a complex of tissues, organs, and more. There, I have told you another story. The story I have uppermost in my mind is this: that life, including my little, itty-bitty life, a life lived out near the edge of the western half of the North American continent, has meaning(s). It has meaning beyond getting up every day and working most; more than keeping myself fed, sheltered, and looking respectable. More than having pleasant and productive social interactions with others. Life has more meaning than my credit scores, money in the bank and in my wallet, debts paid and owed. Do not get me wrong: life is, my life is, all of these things. It is also more. The story I tell myself, and that you may want to tell yourself, is this. We are not only an example of life but also an active part of Life. We may be, are, teeny-tiny parts, perhaps. But we Are; we are part of What Is. I am, you are, of the Great I Am. This awareness, this understanding, comes with may options. And not a little responsibility. Ok, so now comes the time for me to warn you: your life has the potential to be significantly opened and changed, your thoughts broadened and becoming sometimes weightier, if you continue in LyU. Thanks for coming in at least this far. Jake Knight from the start, as in the rest of life, choices if you like to look visuals listen podcast ponder books get a lay of the land contents find out first about LyU about jake knight if you want to read on, scroll down and read on I have noticed that it is often the shouters, the promisers of something entirely new, and the repeaters who get most people's attention. In LyU, I try not to shout; I more often offer useful repackaging that the brand spanking new; I hope to not too often but often enough repeat. I am not trying to dazzle, inveigle, or hoodwink. I am trying to intrigue, encourage, and invite. Some notes, notes which can help navigate this site. -If you are unsure about a word or phrase's meaning, look it up. You are on a computer connected to the internet after all. A richer vocabulary can help build for you a more creative mind. -There are, quite possibly, parts of LyU which will not appeal to you. One or more of the podcast's series, or the topic of a book, for instance. That is great! I am telling you parts of my ways not your ways. Okay! Now you know what not to consider further. -You are a marvelous being, dear reader. You really 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 Live. 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, The Future. -I ask you in LyU to think BIG but not only BIG. Also, sometimes, I ask you to be willing to think small. Medium. Even tiny. -LukeyoutheU is not a religious faith. It does, however, ask for faith: for you to have faith that you can, and that it would be food for you, to be at least partially aware of your greater self. Your next step is yours to decide. Life awaits; and it responds to decisions acted out even if that decision is not to decide. There are many options before you. more |