The five senses, four at a time

The five senses, four at a time

In a couple of books by William Fezler, a Psychoanalyst in Beverly Hills, I discovered how very profound an imagined experience becomes, when one sensory input is noticeably missing throughout the visualized events.

Life’s ongoing experience is part physically real, part imaginarily meaningful, as one’s mind integrates the here-and-now sensory inputs with comparable pasts to identify possible significances. All the senses are linked into the experiences of the past, now a multidimensional web of patterns waiting in one’s mind to resonate with the here-and-now inputs.

So what happens when one experiences the here and now, while one of the solid web of senses is not there? Without olfactory input, chemicals drifting into my apartment window, dry my nasal passages and cause my eyes to water and cake around the sockets; yet I know not what smell the chemical is. Without taste, food and drink has moisture and texture, sometimes even crunch, yet no flavor with which to beautify. Without touch, I am a robot moving across the terrain, relaying pictures and audio to someone else far away. In silence, the extreme jet-engine-like Tinnitus howl fills all, as it has for many decades unceasingly when real sound cannot be found. In the dark, I remember passionate multi-sensual lovemaking to fully receptive woman to the envisioned sound of beautiful instrumental music playing unified within us, long hours of joy supreme in comfort for both of us, making life’s earlier daily drudgery tolerable.

One can choose what to imaginatively fill into the missing sensory input, thus bringing a bit of chosen newness to old patterns of life, shaking the vast internal web of one’s multidimensional model of all life’s sensory relationship integrated meaningfulness, so as to “see” things anew.

by James E. D. Cline on 20050526, 2000 hrs.

(Note: this is another exercise done for the Chuparosa Writers group, the requirement be to write something short about the five senses, one missing at a time.)

“Just listening to another person is a present to them"

“Just listening to another person is a present to them”

It is not always obvious that merely listening to another person, in person and giving them feedback letting them know they have been accurately heard without judgementalism, is a gift to the other person. Yet this was the underlying theme of the ten weeks of training I received to become a “Listener” for the Valley Hot Line, back in the mid-1970’s. And for the next two years I sought to practice it well, during my three-hour-long shifts once each week, as a volunteer in service of fellow mankind. I dreaded those three-hour shifts; and when each was done, I left shaken and yet resolute, duty done for another few days. Because other’s “stuff” was heavy-duty sometimes, and when it triggered similarities in myself, I had to deal with theirs while fending off my own internal shouts, and I went by the rules ... not always my personal choice. Yet the training for the experience of being a “VHL Listener” did bring into my awareness that mere attentive listening in two-way conversation with someone, is being a friend to them, a friend in need by them, especially when sifting out their underlying emotional feelings and politely reflecting that back to them, for their conscious awareness that “someone out there” knows of their struggles, and cares. To someone in need of a friend, paying attention to them in a reflective kindly way, can be the giving of a gift to them, indeed.

J E D Cline 20050526, 1838 hrs.

(Note: this was written in fulfillment of another Chuparosa Writers group exercise, to write about one of two phrases, the “Just listening to another person is a present to them" is the one I chose.)

A nature short story in one paragraph

Hot Nouns, Vigorous Verbs-2

The next Chuparosa Writers exercise was chosen by Marlene: Make a list of 5 hot nouns and 5 vigorous verbs, write them all over the page randomly; then connect them with lines randomly; then write what comes to mind.

I put on the hottest music on my iPod: “Tantra” from album “Dorje Ling”. The 5 hot nouns I chose were: volcano, shark, tiger, lover, song. The 5 vigorous verbs I chose were: jump, swirl, climb, swing, excite. And as “Tantra” played on, I wrote (then revised a bit later):

A shark coming into view excited the fish, who then moved with a swirl; as a tiger watched the fish, the nearby volcano rumbled and edged hot molten lava a bit closer to the tiger’s perch. Overhead in the trees, two lovers relaxed from long embraces’ passion, to cautiously watch the tiger. The lovers climbed higher in the tree, swinging upon branches, a song of life in their hearts. Then the branch broke, they plunged to the ground, the tiger jumped in surprise. The lovers jumped into the water, the shark dashed at them, the tiger’s paw reached in and caught the shark. The lovers climbed out of the water in a swirl, went to warm themselves in their song, at the volcano’s edge. And the fish resumed its swim peacefully along the shore side.

Jim (JEDCline) 20050511-12

The Yellow Rose at NHM

The Yellow Rose

Here the dainty yellow rose infuses the mighty authoritarian building structure with the waft of life.

The Rose Garden of Exposition Park in Los Angeles, having replaced the race track once there, and the imposing domed Natural History Museum structure squats over the ground where once the track betters gambled, bawdy houses rocked, and liquor flowed.

Triumphant declaration of civilization moving in, the yellow rose invites all: the Sun glows its vibrant color, the air tells of sweet aroma, its petals dance in the wind while its sensuous nooks entice fertilization to make a future.

Springtime brings life back to the garden, and the staid old museum is tickled by the aromatic glow of the Yellow Rose.

J E D Cline 20050505

The Wind

The Chuparosa writer's group again has stimulated some creative writing by me, here is one, and the next one (above, "Yellow Rose" also.)

The Wind

The wind is one of those
natural phenomena
that is mostly known by its effects,
itself being invisible.

Wind is air on the move.
It can take with it the sails of a sailboat on the lake,
and the dust raised in a desert sandstorm
to frost your windshield and remove your paint.

Busy time and again,
it resonates with the land to sculpt sand dunes
rippling here and there,
its logic mysterious
although obviously powerful.


Wind is said to be caused by low density warm air
meeting high density cold air,
the heavy moving in on the lightweight,
motion happens.

Windmills turn,
tree leaves shake,
tornados twirl.

Although the massive storm winds are driven by the energy of the Sun,
we people can imitate in small ways:
blowing out a candle flame,
playing a woodwind instrument
... even whistle in the dark.

Where it came from,
and where it goes,
nobody knows;
but while it is here,
the wind blows.


Jim ... J E D Cline 20050505

Why is art important?

Why is art important, especially now in our linear-thought trained culture? School efficiently teaches us to gather data and apply it to solve our problems as found tasks. Yet art can be helpful to notice the larger framework patterns in which one exists, so as to more efficiently and harmoniously move within the patterns of life.

Art is participatory too; one's hand moves a crayon along paper and, surprise!, the world looks a bit different as a result: one has made their mark on the world, look, see! Numerous such marks can develop an evocative pattern; and showing someone else that set of marks invites the other's participatory activity: does the pattern evoke something similar in the other person, as compared to that evoked in the one who made the marks?

The art needs to suggest a mystery inviting the viewer to discover the answer; yet it must be familiar enough, in part, as a useful starting point for the viewer. The interpretation of art requires participation of the viewer(s), thus is a group experience even somewhat available to the lonely and isolated.

Our experience of the world is highly imaginative, whatever we see, hear, touch, taste, smell, and sense internally ... evokes significances derived from the sum patterns of similar ones already experienced. The Arts can communicate, to some extent, such meaningfulness without one actually physically experiencing it firsthand. The Arts on every level, such as the dramatic arts depicting social-situational patterns of events, paintings and movies describing visual patterns, stimulating as if oneself had experienced them more closely than for real, physically.

Art expands one's world, and can put things into a larger perspective for a person, newness with a sense of place within a larger harmony. This is at least part of art's importance.