Saturday, March 30, 2013

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 89

SATURDAY, MARCH 30th, 2013

Deflecting rays of illumination...

In approximately 390 b.c. Plato wrote the Allegory of the Cave.  Or the Analogy of the Cave.  Or Plato's Cave.  Or the Parable of the Cave.  Whatever you want to call it, the idea is that there is this cave with men chained to a rock wall since they can remember.  The chained men face forward and look into complete darkness in the direction of another rock wall.  The only thing these men ever experience are shadows cast onto the opposing wall, created by candlelight.  This is their reality.

As the story goes one man is eventually freed and follows a distant light near the entrance of the cave and climbs his way to freedom.  Upon reaching daylight and freedom, he shits himself and runs back to the safe confines of his rock wall, chain and shadow puppets.  He then gets himself cleaned up and promptly deploys Jazz Hands to express complete, utter joy.  Of course we're speaking of shadow puppet jazz hands, also known as obscured reality jazz hands, also known as jazz hands in the name of false pretense.

I believe what Plato was trying to teach is that reality is what we make of it, that sometimes our perception of reality is confined and that education for education's sake is a worthy cause.  Also known as enlightenment.  Additionally, the underlying message is that what we seek is freedom, without actually wanting freedom.  What we really desire is safety at the expense of enlightenment.  This could definitely fall into the category of cowering (see Rule #8).

What makes us feel free is safety.  What really sets us free is something located at the outer reaches of our comfort zone.  In other words, that which we believe sets us free actually binds us.  To be shackled to a desire for freedom is like having a mental illness...one we all happen to share on some level.  Don't let shadow puppets convince you otherwise.

Today's Jazz Hands were done by candlelight.

Day eighty-nine complete.

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