|
| FIRST WORDS by Lance Pierce & John Haynes My back to the wall, a victim of
laughing chance
There is, I think, a magic to life. I don’t know if it lies in life itself or in how we relate to it (the former may be the more likely), but it’s there - or so it seems to me. Perhaps "magic" isn’t the right word. Perhaps it’s wonder, or mystery...or some other label equally well-applied. Perhaps it’s a word that dates back to the beginning of language or has yet to be invented, but what it is to represent is that essence of life that resides deep within our being, at the center of our hope. Perhaps we can never name it, but it’s there. Perhaps we can never know it, but it’s there. It could be that what I’m seeing is only a projection of my desire for something meaningful, something mystical, something beyond the first film of experience that touches us each and every moment of our entire existence. It could be that what I’m living my life in pursuit of may only be something I find in myself and nowhere else. It could be that it is within and not without. Or maybe both. But it’s still there. While many will debate whether or not reality is malleable, life certainly seems to be. We seem to regard life a certain way, and it seems to respond appropriately. What we put into it, we get out of it. What we fully expect, we quickly receive. I can’t say that this is the way life is, but it’s certainly the way life seems. So...the filter through which we view the world, the lens through which we examine it...what is it made of? Of what is it constructed? What do we use to relate to the rest of the universe, that shapes our course? What is it that affects our existence so deeply and weaves the fabric of our lives? In a word: Ideas. It is the ideas we hold and value that characterize us. It is the ideas we cherish that make up our persona. Adopt an idea and the world is a paradise. Adopt a different one and the world is a hell. Believe this or that as you will, for a belief is nothing but an idea written in stone. Ideas define the human condition. How powerful are ideas? Consider that one idea can revolutionize an entire culture. Governments have been founded to promote or battle specific ideas. Coming across one simple idea and pursuing it to the fullest - such as All men are created equal - can change your life. But it’s not really a matter of how powerful ideas are, but what can we do with the power we wield? And that’s what interests me at this point in my life: the sheer magic of ideas. It is this line of thought that led me one day to turn to my friend, John, and say, "Let’s start a magazine." And he looked at me for a long - a very long - moment, and said, "You look tired. Why don’t you lie down?" Well, I was tired. But I didn’t lie down. And the idea stayed with me. I need a forum, I thought. I need to explore. I need to find some way to get a handle on...well, on life. But ideas are not real, I thought to myself late one night. They cannot be quantified, have no substance, contain no matter or energy. We create them from nothing and when forgotten they vanish into nothing. From whence do they derive their existence and their power? How can something so illusory be such a determining factor in our lives? I presumed then that "illusion" and "elusive" were borne from the same etymological root. "All ideas are illusion," I said to John some months later. "Illusions touch upon every area of our lives." "This is true," he said. "Let’s start a magazine." He looked at me with great concern throughout the entire pregnant pause. "You’re looking more than tired; you seem exhausted." I said, "We’ll call it Illusions, and it will be about anything illusory, anything we perceive or misperceive, anything that has to do with how the way we think shapes our lives." "Are you sure you don’t want to have that lie-down?" You see, what I was feeling was a sense of captivity, an impression of oppression. I was feeling the weight of the dogma of my own beliefs. Everything was being called into question now. Why do I believe this? I would ask myself. And what would happen if I didn’t? I found in some cases the answer was that I would see an immediate improvement in my life. There was, it seems, an instantaneous return on my investment (or lack thereof). Beliefs, I learned, can be modular. Whispers of Steely Dan in the background: This is the day of the expanding man... Ideas are illusions, I thought, and every illusion embodies an idea or ideas. The illusion is the cloak the idea uses to travel the streets incognito, unrecognized. Or...perhaps ideas scream for recognition, in the midst of our forgetting that what we see is an idea of what reality is to us - and not the reality itself. Illusions and ideas are bedmates who protect us against the world and ourselves. Illusions. That’s what I wanted to call it. It would be a magazine without an agenda, without a platform. It would be a publication devoted to exploration, pure and simple. "Reality in and of itself," said John some more months later, "is most likely stable, although I have no way of knowing." "Sounds good," I said. "Our perceptions are both shifty and shiftless, though, and reality seems to change with them." "Quite right," I said. "Let’s start a magazine." "John!" I said, choking on my tea, "Excuse me. I think I have to go lie down..." And this, that you hold in your hand right now...it is more than a magazine. It is an idea, and one that says, "Ideas are worth exploring, ideas have magic, and the very examination of them can be fascinating and rewarding." It is a meta-idea, one that exists to regard other ideas, one that screams for recognition. After months of searching, we could find no better way to express it than to say that this thing that we do, it is a journey...a journey through ideas. It doesn’t matter where we’re going or how long it will take to get there. We have no way of knowing where this road leads or even if it’s paved all the way. All we know is, it’s worth it, and we want you with us when we go. As I write this now, with Fagen and Becker’s rhythm charts guiding my mood, I think what a trying, wonderful world it is. It both fatigues and energizes me, presses me down and lifts me up. It is a world of many great winding dimensions and fascinating depths. It is magic and mystery and illusion and the incomprehensible stuff of the universe all rolled up in one big bag, and if you’re willing, I’d like you to be by our side so we can unravel it together. The illusions are the key.
Let me come out swinging, and get directly to a point - yes, I said "a" point as opposed to THE point, because I wonder if one ever really arrives at anything that can remotely be considered THE point. I’m in the business of idea dissemination. Ideas intrigue me, astound me, demand my attention, and - I really believe this - amplify me in some way. Ideas make me more human, in some inexplicable manner. Until recently, however, I’ve been in an awkward position when it comes to sharing intriguing ideas with others...it appears the standard communication outlets are more or less unavailable. Can’t teach at the universities; I never bothered to go to college, and I get the idea them big colleges want you to have lots of book learnin’. I can’t make it on TV as a commentator, spin doctor, analyst, or expert...not too photogenic, you see, and incapable of reducing profound concepts to 15 second sound bites. Radio doesn’t want me....I’m not shocking enough, or tend to clear my throat and say "Uh...." from time to time, or am basically uninterested in what Arbitron has to say about anything. So when Lance approached me with the idea of a magazine devoted to exploring the way we perceive and believe, a magazine of ideas shared and paradigms shifted, a magazine devoted to exploring the innumerable illusions we all breed and feed, I said: No thanks. Oh, it wasn’t that Lance’s concept for Illusions was beyond my grasp, and it certainly wasn’t because the idea didn’t fascinate me. No; in hindsight, I’d have to say that my reluctance to get involved with Illusions was due to simple stubbornness from that part of me that absorbs new ideas and ultimately assimilates or rejects them. Like everyone, I have to be hit on the head more than once before I pay attention. So after Lance spent a few months tapping me on the head, it finally dawned on me: A magazine. A publishing company. A way to share intriguing and interesting ideas, and shed or share a few of these illusions I’ve been carting around with me. Ideas and illusions are closely intertwined. Example: if you believe - if you KNOW - that the Earth is the center of the Universe, and that the moon, the sun, and all the stars revolve around the Earth, then hey: you have an idea of how things are. A pretty good idea, maybe, based upon the information available to you. But maybe not such a good idea. Let’s say some guy comes along and demonstrates rather conclusively that the Earth actually revolves around the sun, as it happens...well, then, your whole paradigm is shattered. Suddenly, everything you knew about the motion of celestial bodies has been dashed to bits, and rather rudely. A new idea replaced the old model of reality, and now you’re starting anew. New ideas accepted seem always to lead to at least one illusion uncovered. Again: an idea accepted = an illusion uncovered. Everything—and this includes conventional wisdom—seems always in flux. Minds are changed on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. It can’t be helped: we’ve simply got too much information available to us. Unless we’re committed to living in denial, this is the way it’s probably going to be...our minds are going to change! But why be alarmed? After all, if we didn’t change when exposed to new ideas, then we’d all still be laying in a crib somewhere, crying our heads off and soiling our diapers. Ya gotta grow. A changed mind, a consciousness just a few illusions lighter, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Here at MoonShadow Press, our goal, our vision, is to share ideas with you from a vast pool of sources. We want to dig a little deeper, to go below the surface and profile those ideas not yet enrolled in the mainstream consciousness. Don’t worry, we’re not interested in telling you how you ought to think, feel, or believe. Nope; all we do is present the ideas—in the form of interviews, articles, book reviews, or what have you—and you do the rest. If an idea appeals to you, causes you to think, then great: we did our job. If not, tell us why not, and share your opposing view with our other readers. On the other hand, if you read something here and an illusion or two gets shattered, by all means: share that with us, too! Tell us how it changed you, how it made you feel. I leave you, then, with something to ponder: everything that exists in time, space, or mind, first began as an IDEA.
go to page 2 |