rohnbayesjourney

halloween mosquito

that was my blood
he almost got away with it
but i picked him out of
thin air
with a loud clap

scraped the flattened specimen
off the heel of my hand
washed the blood off the other
and brushed my teeth

tonight is halloween
the night of ghouls and ghosts
and munchkins dressed up like spider man
witches and princesses

looking for thrills the scary part
is making it to the door and back
with candy - the good stuff too
not fruit 

it's a thrill to feel alive
it's scary to know you're going to die
it's a love embrace this mortality and the divine
this bolt of thunder

hiding behind a kiss
the thrill seeking it's reality
and back again with the sweet candy

how to celebrate

invite that laughter that love
with each breath

the best relationship

a video by prem rawat

the feeling of love
transformation
the comfort of understanding
sweet
gratitude

'the numinous beginning'

is how carl jung describes his early work exploring the 'unconscious'
he documented this work with a collection of paintings and calligraphy in a book called the red book

the red book has been recently published for the first time and the picture below is one of the many visual images contained in it

click to enlarge

the book of hours was the most popular book of the middle ages

 

the book of kells is an illustrated manuscript containing the four gospels and other exegesis
thought to have originating in ireland around 800 AD

 

the borgia codex from pre-columbian mexico

 

what's the point ??

creative expression is endemic to human beings
and furthermore the source of creativity lies within us and that source of creativity is infinite
that's why it's fun to do something creative - you are actually touching the infinite inside of yourself
pretty cool

is that a football ??

finding my shoes

every morning it seems like
the same ritual
where on earth did i dispose
of them last night before

i dropped my costume
unveiled my bed
and slipped off to sleep
into a place of utter forgetfulness

i don't remember a thing
i'm sure i laid there all night
detached from my shoes
and everything else i would know as mine

maybe they're in the bedroom
the room of the bed
the altar of oblivion
the boat on the water

one toe sticking out from
under the carapace
the other laid up against
the wall my shoes

reveal a truth i was here before
and one more thing
i am here again
slipping into place

i broke the cup

i threw it in the air it tumbled

and fell smack like the sound of a hoof thrown against the rough boards of a corral by a penned in black stallion recently captured from the open range at the base of the wind river mountains in central wyoming

this represents the end of my coffee habit (yeah sure) and the beginning of tea

i have a new cup handmade by audrey with no handles just the lip reaching out with a smile i dusted myself off and swept up the pieces

and entered my new life of yerba mate imported from the shady subtropical rainforests of brasil the bitter twigs and leaves ground into straw brewed infused and decocted infact into a mellower high a subtler buzz a medicine lunch

on the phone with customer support

'Hello.  My internet is down.'
'Ok.  Let me take a look . . . your modem is fine.  Try unplugging your router for 30 seconds and plugging it back in.'
'Alright . . . so how's everything in customer support tonight?'
'Not too bad.  Got some issues in Austin.'
'You probly enjoy it when everything is out, right?'
'No not really.'
'All kinds of puzzling dilemmas.'
'Yeah.'
'People with problems.'
'Right.'
'Mysterious occurrences.'
'No kidding.'

'So, is 30 seconds up?'
'Yeah go ahead and plug it in.'
'Ok . . . hmmm it seems to be working.  You know, it went out exactly at the moment my neighbor came to the door.'
'Really.'
'Yeah, the only reason I could hear the knock was because the music stopped.  I think maybe he affected the connection in my computer somehow.'
'Like the machine attained self awareness.'
'Oh . . . my . . .  God.  It's like even human beings haven't done that yet.'
'Ha ha.'
'Ha ha ha.'

one eyed and dangerous

looking for the lens

that fell out of my
reading glasses

but how can you find
something you can't see ??

i'll probly step on it
that's when i'll know where it is

nothing to speak of

when i find myself with nothing to speak of the door to myself opens a little bit and a soft light escapes

i usually walk right past looking for brighter lights and something to say something to do something to explain but occasionally i stop and open the door and go inside

sitting with me here on the table is a latte in a glass and the light reflects off it's side and into my eye

outside there are two balloons dancing in the breeze one orange and one red tied to the tree across the street

i'm waiting for migas with jalapenos to arrive and there is light coming from every side

i'm noticing i'm noticing i'm alive there's light when i close my eyes

hi charlie

indeed a safe trip was had by all 

i went down the dark tunnel to the underpass east on mistletoe with the sun dropping low and passed over at st marys thru the park 
 and into the brackenridge picked up speed coming down the creeek
until it emerged on  broadway
and set forth on the sidewalk heading north to the west of the cars that were in the road
i whirred past the bum on the bench passed out on booze dreaming of angels and past
the sprinklers at the witte museum their jets intersecting above the grass in a perfect pyramid of light  i remembered
our conversation and the necker cube and loving the water and was doused with the sprinklers last laugh
the last wave of the last fountain  spraying out over the street from it's place in the grass
i laughed

past the university and the blue hole thehome of the original ones
those here
when we found the place and adopted it for our city council for our own protection against the wind and our economy built up against all odds and built on the solid stock of our economy the hotel right there on the right where the cowboys live even now the restless the lonely
and coming down the street a couple of buddies bringing home the beer
sleepy already with the haze that beer brings and central market the oasis of light appeared and people
 shopping with their carts moving here and there left and right
i stopped and moved among them until i found the water fountain
 and then moved on  the uniited methodist church of christ is up on the left
it's all on theleft on this leg running up  broadway thru the desert of lower upper mid way until
 i saw the beacon of light on the broadway bicycle shop it's chevron shining out
blue and white guiding me upt the hill and thru the forest of alamo heights densely packed with escalades
and down morning glory again to the traffic on new braunfels highway

that's where the danger lies i raced to the other
side when space permitted
turned right at the sunset ridge apartment buildings
climbed the tor upinto the devonhood and sprinted the last
hill thru the drive and past the gate to the backyard
where the sacred spring lies
parked the bike and there baptized

found on the picnic table at UIW campus

 
near the rivet a tiny little guy
drawn into the wood and standing next to a maze on one hand and on the other a giant mushroom
arrows are pointing into the maze and next to the magic mushroom a panda emerges from the clouds chewing on the exclamation pointed bamboo
behind the panda and over it's right shoulder floats a lotus and a clump of grapes - drops are falling from the lotus which turn into hearts and rain down on all below

this completes my account of the drawing if you cannot see it plain enough due to the vagaries of light under this oak at noon or the limitations of my cell phone camera

but what i really like about the picture - besides the fact that it's here on the picnic table with me on this glorious spring day in san antonio texas a wispy breeze barely felt and a perfect temperature leading no doubt to the variety of dress employed by the students and their shoes oh my the high heeled black power stompers and the persian grey slippers the common tennis shoe and the flip fop sandal are all passing by - but what i like most is the comment placed near the maze by an anonymous author setting up a challenge for any takers to try and conquer it's devious ways

'Bet you can't do it! $10!!!'

and the reply carved carefully nearby 'cause there's no way you loser you cheater'

but there is
and it's the shortest route possible visible
at the bottom left corner of the maze apologies
for mentioning it zig zag zog you're in and out

simple and sincere

we live in a world of conflict
misunderstandings and missing in action

simple and sincere communication can resolve conflict
but how do we communicate simply and sincerely ??

we are bombarded with information that is spun intentionally
in order to elicit a response 
or unintentionally thru the opinions perspectives beliefs and assumptions of the speaker
simple and sincere communication is rare

(i'm just thinking this thru  . . . the whole idea started this morning in response to an email describing a conflict that happened and which represents one of many that have occurred in my life which ofcourse i took part in creating intentionally or unintentionally probly because i wasn't sincere or simple instead was looking thru one filter or another of my ideas assumptions beliefs and opinions)

simple and sincere communication comes from a simple and sincere person
so how does a person be simple and sincere ??

learn from those who are ?? yup that's a good answer

progenitor

I would like to claim as my progenitor the Rev. Thomas Bayes.  He is the inventor, ofcourse, of Bayesian statistics whereby one can prove the existence of the unknown through statistical inference.

This is a mighty skill and very useful as we shall see and practiced with zeal and due diligence by my family tree whose branches and fruits extend thru the reverend ministers and minister's wives of the Presbytrey and the Baptist (without excluding the Methodist).  The reality of things unseen and unknown having been previously the exclusive purvey of theology, the advent of 'Bayesian statistics' shed new light on what might be called 'possibility'. 

According to the theorem there need be only a paucity of evidence regarding any unknown phenomenon which when subjected to the rigors of this analytical persuasion results in knowing of (if not knowing) the nature of a non-existent thing.  This seems to me the essence of all religion after all and a true intellectual epiphany of one who was schooled in the logic and theology of 18th century Scottish Academia.  Indeed how could it be otherwise when that which we seek to know holds no attributes other than those described by scripture and dogma, the combination of the two sometimes referred to as 'magma'.

Ascending the throne of heaven has never been more lugubrious, the spokes of the ladder never more luminous.  We can assume to know and that assumption carries the assurance of logic therefore the world comes to be known in it's surety and lies fallow at our feet awaiting our gruff command and our great pronouncement, something of imminent domain, fecund with possibility and rich with the fat of the goose.  Indeed we call upon the giant universe to bring forth whatever we want and although it sounds entirely implausible it is no problem at all for those of us versed in 'Bayesian statistics' and bathed in the blessed Knowledge of our illustrious progenitor, the inimitable, the inestimable, the inevitable Rev. Thomas Bayes.

reading an email

i have something to say about something
i often do
finding the right words is the way of writing which
is my point writing
used to be symbols and pictographs - glyphs as in gyroglyphs
like the giant giraffe that used to roam africa : ) there see it happened
again the gylph appears

my friend
wrote me a letter the other day on email
and signed it with
.......__o
.......\<,
....( )/ ( )
i couldn't figure it out until i read the subscript
Riding 70 miles for a cure
Tour de Cure 2009
ok now we have the same arcane symbology of our written language representing cryptograms in the form of bicycle riders
the point as i type away on my apple computer book happily tapping keys assigned meaning by abc but also replete with apples and wizard signals and my typepad blog too with a full row of arcane pictographs along the top - 'my tool bar' ah yah i'm feeling like a cave man now working with my tool kit chipping away on the stone making fresh marks

is that it all comes around in a big fat circle
doesn't it and what does it mean to be human ??
and what is our origin ??
maybe your kids one day reading their kindle will know a question that
we forgot what am i doing here ??
no really

let's go
.......__o
.......\<,
....( )/ ( )

in the sauna

i'm writing in the sauna on my yellow legal pad
the pencil is dripping with sweat
drops fall off my nose onto the paper forming small puddle shaped no-write zones
that i must navigate around carefully     to reach my destination

  my writing    is becoming squiglier and some letters have gone issing
only a fain t recollection  of   wh  at might have b een

the next page is sogg   y too
real estate       scarc   e

   encroaching from the     south
the swift heel of my hand prints it's own stamp
   while the fingers   of the sea
reach up quietly into the rece ding m  ap

into           the   mangroves    and into the   f arms and valleys of         my land
the   cities and towns of my construction 

cvilizati n itself     and the s elf

     the tide is     rising
                  the sea is winning
            it's 128 degrees in here
         ti  me t o jump in t he po     ol