Funny that while we were  raised under premise that it’s ‘inside that counts’ and given that most of the wars throughout written history were fought because of “imaginary friends”; nowadays it seems everyone is going to great lengths to persuade us that “real life” rocks and that your facebook friends and online romances are non-existent… Well, not really.

         Common sense is called common not because it will make one a torchbearer of the humanity and avant-garde – it will indeed keep you ‘common’ and it’s merely a know how for the masses – prone to entropy by definition – a working knowledge and a manual to navigate the uncommon territories of this rushing century… Those who are running in front of the rest of us and moving the time itself as they go, as they run –  they are never common and it’s us, who shclep behind them who need the “common sense” to explain to ourselves what the hell has just happened?!

        Just look at the history of science – or of the very religion, or fashion, and of course – the development of the technology; it’s always the unexpected, carried out by the most unusual folks, that constitutes the progress of the humanity; the rest is wallowing in the entropy of the common sense… Sense can’t be common, you see – because to be sound one has to think for themselves; what we can pick up from our surroundings and what we do get via socialization – is the working knowledge of life, how to adapt to the existing – and not how to create the new.

        It irks me when i read some self-righteous blockhead telling everyone their feelings are not real… Oh, really? It’s as if i know in person and went hiking or something with Clintons and Obamas, who did shape my actual life; it’s as if i know in person all the chemists and engineers who invented stuff that i now use in daily life… Neither have i met philosophers from the past, nor the classical writers – yet all of these folks together have shaped my life and made it what it is.

        I don’t get it where this obsession with the physical started –  we were thought it’s the spirit, you know, that makes the world go round… Now suddenly the rabbis are railing and psychologists are outdoing themselves to persuade you that what you get online is an illusion, while it’s the “real life” that counts… Sure, the “real life” – which at it’s core is equally fictional – only custom tailored according to the needs of governments, clergy and industrial lobbies.

         That would be my main rant of the day – i won’t even link to countless mediocre articles that sing praises to the “real life” vs online experience, it’s a waste of time – more so that these people would never get published, wasn’t it for www; it’s this very media – which they fail to appreciate – that gave them the possibility to voice their worn out ideas , in “real life” it takes much more than that to get published.

        By now you know i am for ever enchanted by Kabbalah – and i admire kabbalists for their use of internet too – i’ve never heard a kabbalist ranting against it; as they try to see the light in everything – they decided internet is a great opportunity to spread wisdom and started working hard; the result of it is that nowadays you get online for free knowledge and tools that only 50 or 70 years ago were  available only to the chosen few.

           In real life, personally, i interact with very few people on a regular bases – maybe it’s just the way i am wired, but i really don’t feel the need to spend extended periods of time in someone’s physical presence, in order to relate to them; i do have wonderful  neighbors and friends whom i know all my life, not to forget my extended family – i am part of their lives and they – of mine; but as genius Churchill put it: small minds are busy with other people, mediocre – with events, great ones – with ideas.

          I don’t really care what you had for lunch and with whom do you sleep, but i do care and would love to share the magic of your life, the extraordinary that you live in the ordinary – and that’s what i am willing to share of myself too; i follow numerous blogs and have numerous online friends – you, guys, make me happy and fulfilled by sharing your thoughts and artwork and sometimes just ramblings and miniature sketches of lives i otherwise wouldn’t get to know; in this dimension it’s highly unrealistic all of us will get together  in the same time at the same place – but, you know, it’s ok with me, the feelings i experience and the inspiration i get from you is real – and that’s just about all i need.

          For art is anyway deprived of the casual – in movies you don’t normally get to see the actors emptying their bowels and in books you’d hardly focus on food that didn’t turn out right or on days in which nothing special happens… Right, real life is made of hours and hours of maintenance of the physical, but i don’t need to share that part with you – in order to relate to your magic, or to your pain per that matter… And posting text after text on the subject of presumed illusion of the internet vs the reality … Sure, it’s as if these bores are historical Buddha himself and it’s as if they get to see the reality as it is… They don’t – and with their lack of imagination they can’t even enjoy the online experience, poor dahlings ( i do feel sorry for them, i just wish they stopped bombarding my inbox and my fb wall with their views as i find them utterly uninspiring, ’tis all.)

If you happen to be one of those people – please go back to watching reality tv or whatever you find a realistic and empowering thing to do, and let the rest of us enjoy what we find pleasurable and fulfilling, kay?

Photo credit: Philippe Halsman ‘s Dali Atomicus (1948), public domain

Visual archive of this picture taken by Philippe Halsman -28 jumps were necessary and a room full of assistants, cats and buckets of water