Painting With Shadows

The blog of photographer Kim Ayres

So you think you know?

16:41 ,
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The world is not as it seems.

Some people never seem to realise this.

Some people suspect it, but fear to investigate too closely.

Some people understand it on one or more levels, and spend time and effort trying to relate this understanding to other people, in the hope something can be done about it.

Some people know it on so many levels it makes getting out of bed in the morning a daily quandary.
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38 comments

Jayne Martin said...

I totally get this and sometimes find myself sliding into the role of dispassionate observer just to get through the day.

5:14 pm, December 06, 2009
Susan Carpenter Sims said...

I have definitely had days of the getting-out-of-bed-quandary sort.

I have also had days when the mystery and unknownness of the world makes me leap out of bed with joy. (Ok, maybe not leap. I'm not really a morning leaper.)

I try to live by the poet Keats' concept of Negative Capability: "The ability to rest in mysteries, uncertainties, and doubts without any irritable reaching after fact or reason."

But yeah - some days it sucks.

5:24 pm, December 06, 2009
Barlinnie said...

There comes a time when the final release to some can be a blessing. Until then.. we cherish each and every morning that we wake.

The glass must ALWAYS be half full, never half empty.

5:34 pm, December 06, 2009
Midnitefyrfly said...

I can't help but wonder exactly which area of worldly deception you are pondering.

With the Holiday season upon me, I have lately been thinking of two of them. Money and Religion.... sigh.


I think I might just have to go to a Zeitgeist meeting and hope that Echelon does not start to pick up on my THOUGHTS!

Sometimes I just go back to bed :)

5:41 pm, December 06, 2009
Anonymous said...

Yep- the dialectic in a nutshell. Oh I love that Keats quote Pollinatrix. Gotta steal that for an addition to my drafts that I can't finish! Today I'm out of bed!

7:49 pm, December 06, 2009
mapstew said...

As I have said before,

"Sometimes I just sits and thinks.

And sometimes I just sits."

8:36 pm, December 06, 2009
Joan Crawford said...

Somebody just needs a nice dose of Soma


:)

8:46 pm, December 06, 2009
hope said...

Ah, I thought that was called Monday morning. :)

Here, have some honest sympathy and a hug to go with it.

9:38 pm, December 06, 2009
Fay Campbell said...

And some people get it - that it's just one. Then as Jimmy says, the glass is always half full - in fact, who cares if it's half full or half empty. Let's drink it down and fill it again.

10:22 pm, December 06, 2009
Helen said...

Hey Bearded One - On the days that I do get out of bed, I like to wear my T-shirt that says "I'm up, I'm dressed. What more do you want?"
Nah, not really. I love every new day. You just never know what's going to happen, and I tend to get a little bit excited about this prospect.......

10:29 pm, December 06, 2009
Stella said...

And sometimes the Universe justs dumps on you..........

11:12 pm, December 06, 2009
Jennifer said...

I only have questions after reading this post.

What does the world appear to be like to those who do not realize it is not what it seems?

Why does the understanding of the truth of the matter come to create "daily quandary" for others?

Very thought provoking...I wonder what is creating this for you personally and it has stimulated my own thoughts of balance between ignorance & true fact or perception of reality.

11:13 pm, December 06, 2009
erika said...

I do. I think I know.

11:31 pm, December 06, 2009
Pat said...

I hate the mornings when it is an effort to get out of bed. The only thing for me is to get on with it - get stuck into routine work that doesn't require deep thought and 9 times out of 10 by lunchtime the sun will be out again.
Pollyanna:)

11:43 pm, December 06, 2009
Attila the Mom said...

Oh I hear ya. And sometimes you wake up and the world has completely changed.

I think that when it comes down to it the important part is maybe just that we wake up. Wherever we find ourselves. ;-)

11:59 pm, December 06, 2009
Nicholas Garcia (Nick) said...

A very curious post indeed. Just enough information to stimulate brain activity, but not enough to be committed. Thank you for sharing the write...nikgee

2:26 am, December 07, 2009
Cannwin said...

We just found out my 7 year old has a fairly moderate vision impairment... evidently the world isn't all it seems to him either.

And we thought he was just clumsy!

3:35 am, December 07, 2009
debra said...

Things are definitely not always as they seem. Sometimes they are even better...

3:55 am, December 07, 2009
The Hangar Queen said...

It's feast or famine for me and there never is a sense of crossing some dividing line.
Then one day in the middle of a sea of oats you find an orchid.

Earlier this year I sat in Bock's living room for what seems like two days having a drink fueled debate on Prime Numbers. For one golden moment it seemed like a door opened in one conciousness and led me too an maths insight that warmed me body,soul and mind.

I know it sounds like a nerdy wet dream but moments like that eclipse all of the bad ones.

This life of ours in hard work but I'm learning to love the job.

4:56 am, December 07, 2009
Admin said...

I will send you some of my excess optimism! ~ :O) (the world may be crap, but we can love it anyway) Hope its OK for you tomorrow.

7:31 am, December 07, 2009
Katie Roberts said...

Forgot to log in. That last hopelessly inadequate comment was mine.

7:34 am, December 07, 2009
A Daft Scots Lass said...

Indeed

9:04 am, December 07, 2009
Anonymous said...

I have often wondered if my view of the world is the same as everyone elses, but then as we cannot climb or be party to each others vision of reality, then its impossible for me to ever find out.

10:14 am, December 07, 2009
BB said...

Ain´t that the truth !
Still we got to push the skelleton forward, It´s just like my grandad
used to say -Plenty of time to rest underground !
But life always seems to reserve some good surprises for us all.

10:18 am, December 07, 2009
Mimi and Tilly said...

Sometimes I get so confused with all the layers (what it is, what it isn't, what it might be) I stay in bed. I did that yesterday and it was lovely. :)

11:46 am, December 07, 2009
Someday..... said...

It is my belief that some people are just more sensitive than others. I will admit to being the "sensitive" type -
What rolls off others backs sticks to me. I analyze, over analyze, rethink and try to understand - and it can be exhausting.

1:23 pm, December 07, 2009
Tgoette said...

Nothing ever is as it seems. All things when filtered through the human mind are discernibly altered by the strength or weakness of that mind and it's level of perception. Which is why some see the world through rose-colored glasses while others see it through amber lenses. You may look at a tomato and see an iguana while I see Sarah Palin riding an iguana. Just a difference of perception.

3:34 pm, December 07, 2009
Kim Ayres said...

Thanks for all the comments :) As usual, I find I've written something where I had a fairly clear idea of what I meant, yet many have given it alternate interpretations.

But that's OK, it's all part of the fun :)

The world is not as it seems.

We filter the world according to our experiences, beliefs, and educational and cultural understandings.

If any of these change, our world changes.

When we eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge, we realise we are no longer in Eden. Eden was a state of mind, not a physical existence. Once lost it is never regained.

We cannot go back to believing in Santa Claus once we cease to believe he exists.

The world changes.

Sometimes these new understandings, these new truths, are enlightening and make things easier to understand and the world a better place.

Sometimes they are horrifying and we yearn for the day when we didn’t know. (“Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis a folly to be wise” - Thomas Gray)

I always felt the deepest sympathy for the guy in The Matrix who just wanted back in, and to no longer know it wasn’t real.

6:01 pm, December 07, 2009
Jimmy P said...

with the risk of sounding religious...we take these moments and sometimes wonder if the theologian or the spiritualist isn't so crazy after all, maybe what is crazier, is knowing that the world is more different then we have always wanted it to be, but still sit back stubbornly and try to believe it is what we want it to be, or worse, what we were told it was when we were younger. I think if we come to the realization that the world is not what it seems, we will see that theologians along with their bible, have been there for centuries.

6:04 pm, December 07, 2009
Kim Ayres said...

Jimmy P - at the risk of sounding irreligious, I tend to place theologians in the category of those who still believe in fairy tales

6:24 pm, December 07, 2009
Jennifer said...

I was thinking the exact thing..."ignorance is bliss".

7:39 pm, December 07, 2009
Apex Zombie said...

I know the world isn't what it seems, and that I'm just a collection of random ideas, but I like those ideas.

10:15 pm, December 07, 2009
Restaurant Gal said...

I am very ready to know just one thing to be what I thought it to be, or should be...and to not want to stay in bed and sleep away all that isn't. That said, all that I had hoped it to be with one special person is surprisingly more than I expected. So, I push through the rest and and accept a peculiar resignation that feels quite foreign to me.

10:28 pm, December 07, 2009
Falak said...

There are times when all we want to do is to know the whole truth the and when do we wish we never knew even part of it.

12:48 pm, December 08, 2009
Katie Roberts said...

Damn cryptic philosopher, minimalist poet - had us all worried there for a minute! ;) Now I see the veil was the revelation, not the void on the side.

Glad you're OK, btw :)

1:46 pm, December 08, 2009
Jimmy P said...

kim-Theologians and fairy tales...hmmmm, im not even sure where to start to be honest. promise I'm not offended, on the other hand, as a first time "commenter on posts" I'm actually pumped that you responded, i love your blog. I've been 'addicted' to it ever since the "blogs of note". back to it, theologians and fairy tales, why and how the comparison? seems a bit too easy to make...is it because of miracles? general principles? good fuzzy feelings? horrible atrocities? "For now we see through a glass, darkly" is kind of where I was going with your post. what do you think?

12:05 am, December 09, 2009
Susan Carpenter Sims said...

I have to admit, the fairy tale comment has been bugging me a bit.

There's a lot of things I could say about that (pointing out the brilliance of certain theologians, the narrative nature of all human existence, etc.), but mostly I just want to say that I use fairy tales to teach college freshmen how to write and use critical thinking.

And there's a lot that's worth believing, or at least contemplating, in them.

2:28 am, December 09, 2009
Kim Ayres said...

I could of course write volumes and get into debates lasting decades about all the nuances and levels of meaning behind the theologians/fairy tales comment.

And I know that if you are a believer in some kind of metaphysical being you would call God, then anything I say will not convince you otherwise.

With those caveats in mind, my basic meaning was the idea that theologians are studying ideas of things for which there is no proof, only untestable propositions based ultimately on emotions and desires.

They may well come up with some interesting ideas, which even have historical and sociological implications. But they are not forwarding our understanding of new truths.

I do not place them in the same category as scientists or philosophers.

6:10 pm, December 11, 2009

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