Who can say what is good or what is bad?
01-29-2013, 05:23 AM
I've noticed a lot of reflecting on the past from people offline and on in the last few days, and I recall a dream last Sunday that brought back a vivid memory from when I was 4, so who knows what's up. But the last few days I've been thinking a lot of a dream I had soon after (a day or 2) of reading this Tao story:
There was a farmer who found out his horse had gotten away and run off. His neighbor commiserated only to be told, "Who knows what's good or bad?" It was true. The next day the horse returned, bringing with it a drove of wild horses it had befriended in its wanderings. The neighbor came over again, this time to congratulate the farmer on his windfall. He was met with the same observation: "Who knows what is good or bad?" True this time too; the next day the farmer's son tried to mount one of the wild horses and fell off breaking his leg. Back came the neighbor, this time with more commiserations, only to encounter for the third time the same response, "Who knows what is good or bad?" And once again the farmer's point was well taken, for the following day soldiers came by commandeering for the army and because of his injury, the son was not drafted.
Who knows what's good or bad?
Apparently I thought about it on a cosmic scale as I dreamed on November 9, 2004, that I was a member of an alien species. I can't say anything about the species I was as I never thought about it. Our planet had colonized our star system, but we stood to destroy each other with incredibly powerful weapons as our people were fighting to rule it all (the one who controlled the resources controlled the fates of all, and no one wanted to be at the mercy of another faction). Then an alien device came that revolutionized us. It was one of the two Voyagers that had been launched from Earth as a greeting to any who might it in the deep reaches of space and it was made public before any agency could cover it up. It fueled the imaginations of many. There was life out there, and they had sent us an alien artifact!
Within 20 years, our entire system and species, inspired by this achievement, put aside differences and instead contested on who could make the best inventions, the best crafts that could visit this system in return. We now had a goal that united our people instead of separated us in hate. Orators of all kind said that if a species could put aside its differences that it could send out messages into the void, we could do the same. Indeed, they must've known about us to have sent us this message. We heard bits of their bizarre lanuage, and their hauntingly beautiful music (once some of the damage had been cleaned up), though we found the human form odd and yet somehow tantalizing. And though the technology was primitive, we saw it as a subtle message that we were squandering what technology we had when we were capable of joining a galactic community rather than speeding along our own destruction fighting each other, and out in the galaxy were all the resources we could ever want. Our species, revolutionized, the threat of war nearly gone, and we wanted to visit these wise & benevolent Earthlings and thank them for helping us, and within a century or two it happened. We launched a craft that could travel using artificial warps.
Making it to the Sol system, we weren't sure what to expect. We were a bit disconcerted when we saw little sign of any activity. Finally, making it to Earth, it finally became clear what had happened. Several doomsday devices had been employed. There was little left than a radioactive slag, and they had only reached a little ways into colonizing their system.
While we explored, this sad but beautiful darkwave song by Bella Morte (Funeral Night) played for me to hear [one I've --the dreamer when awake-- heard a lot recently at the time because someone put it on a tape for me to hear], something I guess our sensors picked up somehow (but I'm not sure, I guess it was just dream logic, but in the dream we couldn't understand the words, just found it sad & haunting):
As here we stand hand in hand
In this funeral night
Can't I see that we both will fall
Can't you see my dry tears
On this skin so cold
Even now the Reaper comes
Though you are here I am afraid
I am afraid, my love
with night fading fast
Warmth is but a memory of youth
As our day grows old
I can't bear to part
With so many things I hold so dear
But all things must fall
How well I know the grave
We must stand strong
And face our fears until the end
'Til the day when truth is found,
When at last we can rest
The news of the annihilation of the species that had saved ours caused us to collectively mourn them. Perhaps, it was theorized, that craft had been sent to us (probably to anyone) before the final, self-destroying wars were truly began, so that they would not be lost to living memory. And since they saved us from a similar fate, we always did. The Earthlings never knew of us, but we mourn them, and their bad example and last desperate act saved us from making the same mistake. We used our new crafts to find other worlds, to save them from the same fate. We had been transformed from a militant warrior race into an intergalactic mission of mercy, attempting to inspire other worlds to turn away from the path of self-destruction.
Many worlds came to owe Earth a debt of gratitude, and Venus and Mars were cleaned up and colonized by various species, and became a world for enemies to come and make their peace (as did multiple space stations). All these meetings included a tour of what Earth had become, a sight that would haunt many species and inspire them to turn away from relentless warfare.
Who can say what is good or what is bad?
There was a farmer who found out his horse had gotten away and run off. His neighbor commiserated only to be told, "Who knows what's good or bad?" It was true. The next day the horse returned, bringing with it a drove of wild horses it had befriended in its wanderings. The neighbor came over again, this time to congratulate the farmer on his windfall. He was met with the same observation: "Who knows what is good or bad?" True this time too; the next day the farmer's son tried to mount one of the wild horses and fell off breaking his leg. Back came the neighbor, this time with more commiserations, only to encounter for the third time the same response, "Who knows what is good or bad?" And once again the farmer's point was well taken, for the following day soldiers came by commandeering for the army and because of his injury, the son was not drafted.
Who knows what's good or bad?
Apparently I thought about it on a cosmic scale as I dreamed on November 9, 2004, that I was a member of an alien species. I can't say anything about the species I was as I never thought about it. Our planet had colonized our star system, but we stood to destroy each other with incredibly powerful weapons as our people were fighting to rule it all (the one who controlled the resources controlled the fates of all, and no one wanted to be at the mercy of another faction). Then an alien device came that revolutionized us. It was one of the two Voyagers that had been launched from Earth as a greeting to any who might it in the deep reaches of space and it was made public before any agency could cover it up. It fueled the imaginations of many. There was life out there, and they had sent us an alien artifact!
Within 20 years, our entire system and species, inspired by this achievement, put aside differences and instead contested on who could make the best inventions, the best crafts that could visit this system in return. We now had a goal that united our people instead of separated us in hate. Orators of all kind said that if a species could put aside its differences that it could send out messages into the void, we could do the same. Indeed, they must've known about us to have sent us this message. We heard bits of their bizarre lanuage, and their hauntingly beautiful music (once some of the damage had been cleaned up), though we found the human form odd and yet somehow tantalizing. And though the technology was primitive, we saw it as a subtle message that we were squandering what technology we had when we were capable of joining a galactic community rather than speeding along our own destruction fighting each other, and out in the galaxy were all the resources we could ever want. Our species, revolutionized, the threat of war nearly gone, and we wanted to visit these wise & benevolent Earthlings and thank them for helping us, and within a century or two it happened. We launched a craft that could travel using artificial warps.
Making it to the Sol system, we weren't sure what to expect. We were a bit disconcerted when we saw little sign of any activity. Finally, making it to Earth, it finally became clear what had happened. Several doomsday devices had been employed. There was little left than a radioactive slag, and they had only reached a little ways into colonizing their system.
While we explored, this sad but beautiful darkwave song by Bella Morte (Funeral Night) played for me to hear [one I've --the dreamer when awake-- heard a lot recently at the time because someone put it on a tape for me to hear], something I guess our sensors picked up somehow (but I'm not sure, I guess it was just dream logic, but in the dream we couldn't understand the words, just found it sad & haunting):
As here we stand hand in hand
In this funeral night
Can't I see that we both will fall
Can't you see my dry tears
On this skin so cold
Even now the Reaper comes
Though you are here I am afraid
I am afraid, my love
with night fading fast
Warmth is but a memory of youth
As our day grows old
I can't bear to part
With so many things I hold so dear
But all things must fall
How well I know the grave
We must stand strong
And face our fears until the end
'Til the day when truth is found,
When at last we can rest
The news of the annihilation of the species that had saved ours caused us to collectively mourn them. Perhaps, it was theorized, that craft had been sent to us (probably to anyone) before the final, self-destroying wars were truly began, so that they would not be lost to living memory. And since they saved us from a similar fate, we always did. The Earthlings never knew of us, but we mourn them, and their bad example and last desperate act saved us from making the same mistake. We used our new crafts to find other worlds, to save them from the same fate. We had been transformed from a militant warrior race into an intergalactic mission of mercy, attempting to inspire other worlds to turn away from the path of self-destruction.
Many worlds came to owe Earth a debt of gratitude, and Venus and Mars were cleaned up and colonized by various species, and became a world for enemies to come and make their peace (as did multiple space stations). All these meetings included a tour of what Earth had become, a sight that would haunt many species and inspire them to turn away from relentless warfare.
Who can say what is good or what is bad?
![[-]](https://gayspeak.com/images/duende_v3_local/collapse.png)
