Note: There were no posts last week because my wife and I took the opportunity to visit friends in Florida. One day we went to tour Palm Beach and the Mar A Lago area. Eye opening is my nice way of putting it. We were not able to even glimpse Trump’s operation because the security operations had walled it off since he was in town.

What we saw was a display of extreme wealth including harbors filled with huge yachts. It was a display of how health has hugely aggregated to the very few. And if one was willing to look, close by, were clear indications of poverty. It was a marked educational opportunity which I don’t want to have to see again.

The Unconscious and Spirits

The Defined and the Undefined

Day to day we proceed through our lives and take comfort in the belief that we know where we are going—at least for now. Of course we have to accept options in our existence. But there are some that are clearly defined and some undefined. We don’t usually trouble ourselves with sifting the difference and whether each option presented us is defined and undefined. That would be maddening. Instead we decide to simply accept a working definition of such things as reality and mental illness. How much more reassuring.

Other Options

But I have a problem. While I can lay weighing options aside like most people, I still want, from time to time, to open options and considerations. Two of my favorites are the unconscious and the existence of spirits. The first option is probably of more interest to the psychologist but people can often be engaged in discussions about spirits. 

The Unconscious 

There isn’t a lot of substance that can be concluded about the unconscious partly because it has no substance. It seems that it exists because we have all had the experience of seeing something materialize in our thoughts and that we have no idea why it suddenly came to us. So we accept it and don’t debate its origins. That’s probably the best tactic.

Spirits

Suddenly we tap into something which seems to intrigue people a lot more. Partly it seems it is because it taps into our religious inclinations and almost everyone has had religious experiences and has been raised in one tradition or another.

Where it gets dicey is when we talk not about an inspiring diety but get into what may be lurking around us. My belief in that regard is that we are not designed to experience spirits and do not have the sensory mechanisms. 

At the same time I find spirits intriguing because there is the possibility that our lack of experience may simply relate to the construction of our senses.

Diversity of Experience and Belief

What these things all come back to is the degree to which we seek diversity and inspiration in our lives. Some of us are so inclined, some less so. But in the end we come back to the authors realm. Even in the most clearly defined writing endeavor there are matters of choice and the presentation may be challenging and open creativity. 

Are we kidding ourselves is the question that comes to mind again. But at base we are talking about enriching our personal and collective environment. And isn’t that what we want in our lives.

And then again, don’t we have the need to explore possibilities? Human history has taken some amazing turns short term and long term. Often we are blindsided but it is these types of explorations which permit us to respond to challenges.

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power by Roger B. Burt

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page

Creating Characters and Plots by Roger B. Burt

Stepfamilies: Professionals and Stepcouples in Partnership

Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health by Roger B. Burt