Robert Mix's Blog: Gilgamesh

A bit over a week ago, one of my blog readers ("ZM") tossed a bomb my way (by email)! It was his 129 page allegorical fiction piece, and he asked me for comments. It was difficult to read, but loaded up with a lot of ideas and references to various religious and philosophical ideas. The best metaphor for what his book did would be a handful of tiny seeds being tossed into my brain, and now a whole bunch of them have germinated and started sprouting, all of these little ideas...

After finishing up my Barron's review earlier today, I went outside to do my three favorite Tai Chi forms. The first one I do is the one I know the best (the "Yang 108"). I have known and practiced this form for years. So there I am, maybe 1/3 the way through. And then it happened to me! A Cognitive Fog! A Rick Perry Moment! I could not remember the next little sequence... This happens on occasion (the forms I practice are long ones). When it does happen, I usually back-up and try again. Or back up and try again, but doing it faster, as my body often remembers it better that way. Eventually I got it right. And then I did the other two and came back in.

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Over the past several days, it looks like I am partially achieving a goal I have had for a long time. To spend more time with an "Open Mind", just a quiet observation mode, without all the internal chatter that usually is racing around in my head.

I believe I can attribute some of this, at least as in the form of a catalyst, to my reader ZM's book. He sent it to me after reading my article on Taoism a couple of weeks or so ago. In an email to me, he mentioned the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is the oldest mythological tale in the world apparently (1000 years older than the Old Testament). By coincidence I had bought a copy of Gilgamesh a couple of months or so ago (when Border's (the book store chain) was liquidating their inventories). I went and bought a lot of books... So after I finished ZM's piece, I decided to go ahead and read Gilgamesh. I was anticipating a Tough Read (hey ZM's was hard, CD at ZH is hard, FOFOA is hard) so I am getting somewhat used to hard-to-read items, but much to my surprise I found Gilgamesh to be easy. Here's a quotation, my favorite:

"Only the gods live forever. Our days are few in number, and whatever we achieve is a puff of wind."

This was Gilgamesh talking to his friend Enkidu.

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So, my mind has been on a roll now. A little higher percentage of my time is spent "awake" now. Will this persist and make the quality of my life better? We will see.

In the meantime, for those of you who would like another way down this rabbit hole (and I am convinced we are talking about just one phenomenon), try this book which is easy and an eye-opener:

The Power of Now (Eckhardt Tolle)

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To finish this up I invite you all to share some music that my wife and I went wild-crazy dancing to Friday night. She is a "Latina in Good Standing" and it was time to go and dance (yes, fellas, all Latinas like to dance, get on board)! And it has been a long time. Hey, getting liquored up with your sweetheart and the right music...

Click the link(s) if the video does not work.

This is pretty close to the version we heard at the Latin night club: