Shouting into the Mist

By Stephen James Kinkade

Shouting into the Mist is a contemplative self-reflection based on the theory of perception and the inescapable existential component of human existence. Any manifestation of life has a message which is shouted to an ultimately indefinable audience, to be understood and misunderstood, as well as interpreted, reinterpreted, and misinterpreted. Through one's journey in life, and how that life intertwines with other lives amidst the balance of social constructivism, temporal concepts reveal the fragile malleability of history, fact, and existence of the individual and humanity. Arranged in multiple shouts of narratives, poetry, and essays, Shouting into the Mist started as a journal of exploration into the beautiful chaos of the individual's confoundingly simplistic nature. The themes and self-reflections served as a cultivation mechanism for meditative thought and purposeful dissociation, to enhance theoretical understanding and application of counseling techniques and methodology. Forever in search of the indefinable within the self, scrutinizing dichotomies explore the crevices of the moral psyche, self-concept, and autonomy, as they have been done, are done, and will be done for years to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: May 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644715406

Book preview

Teeter-Totter Shock Absorber

How does a spine tingle? Does it always go from top to bottom? As I try recalling, everyone who has ever described a spine tingle to me has said, "Down the spine." This is in regard to whether or not it is a tingle, a shiver, or any other word that could describe that feeling. Can a tingle travel up the spine? Even more mind-blowing…could one single tingle start in the center, or any non-endpoint for that matter, and travel in both directions at once? Baffling, I know. If one can start in the center, could it travel in opposite directions at different speeds, thus, letting the tingle be felt for different durations on different extremities of the spine? Could the tingle speed up and slow down like cars changing lanes on the highway? What about if two tingles could start at once? Can they? Do they? What happens in the middle then? What if more than one tingle starts and they both only go in the same direction, only to single out your head or your butt? If you had the choice, which would you choose to not experience the tingle, knowing that this tingle may never happen again? Even further, what if the tingle starts somewhere else? What fun are answers when you have them?

Do answers matter? If you are given an answer, will you accept it? Do you only accept what you wish to accept? When something is not accepted, is the other something sought? Further, if something is accepted, are the other somethings left to be unexplained?

Salt

I hope your palette is clean. This is your drink, appetizer, meal, and dessert. For your sake, order water. Eat everything as it is cooked. Food is cooked a way for a reason. Chefs use each pinch of spice and each temperature setting for a reason. One side of the food is cooked for a certain length of time to give the desired taste. When the food arrives, taste it first. Taste it again. Add salt if you so desire. Why should you experience things as they were not meant to be? Take it as it is the first time. You can always eat a different meal some other time. Hell, you can always eat at a different restaurant.

A grain of salt is small, almost unnoticeable. It may seem unimportant. Grain after grain can and will add up, altering taste after taste after taste. What becomes true? What becomes real? When is reality distorted, changed, and recreated? Soon, salt becomes a habit. Everything has salt added. Piles and piles infiltrate every meal. The original food almost becomes unbearable as intended. Eventually, we can fear what we do not prefer. We teach ourselves avoidance and desire. It is funny how some food can spoil while it is still warm.

Salt obscures. Salt blinds. Salt masks. Salt alters. Salt hides. Are we afraid? If we construct and alter our own reality, do we ever perceive anything at all? Do we need to perceive anything at all? Let us be machines. Let us be automatic. Life is simpler that way. No worries. No dislikes. Just likes.

Is it even worth salting the smallest portion of a meal? How trivial is size? If you need to salt it, why order it? Small servings can sometimes taste the best. Sometimes they make the meal. Sometimes a cherry makes a sundae a sundae.

Remember: if you are not immediately satisfied by a meal and do not foresee being satisfied by the end, you can always get up and walk out. But would you?

Handshake

Pleased to meet you, as I extend my right hand forward, grasp yours gently but firmly, and try not to have a limp arm if you are a man. On the other hand, if you are a woman, I extend my hand forward in the same manner, but give a gentle squeeze with my thumb and forefinger as I only move my forearm up and down twice at the most, not to overextend my hand’s visit with yours. A wise man once told me that your handshake tells a person a great deal about yourself. Why is this? If the whole process gets broken down, it is revealed as an inconsequential and superficial judgment process. As a process, the handshake is successful; however, why do there have to be rules?

For introductory purposes, shaking a person’s hand is a perfect, yet arbitrary, way to get acquainted with someone. Elementarily speaking, or writing in this instance, a handshake could easily be accomplished with the left hand, however, as a world and society, right-handedness is dominant and we have to hate on someone…so I feel sorry for all you southpaws out there. Then again, we might as well do a little jig, maybe to Cotton Eye Joe or something as we make sure to intertwine our legs thrice over, starting with the left intertwining first if we are approaching a male, and the right if a female. In either situation, however, neither person would be able to make eye contact, and must tug on one ear of the other, and then give an Eskimo kiss on his or her nose to complete the process. Imagine how normal that would all seem if there were no such thing as a handshake.

Getting down to the mechanics of a handshake, it can be seen how superfluous and inefficient a handshake can be. The hand: right or left, left or right. Why is it the way it is? Examining it more closely, though, if one shakes with the left hand instead of the right, he or she can be seen as improper. Just imagine a world like that of Alice in Wonderland, where you are Alice and the receiver of your left hand is the Queen of Hearts. Then you would have to go through a whole game of croquet just to prove yourself worthy in redemption of painting the roses red. It could be fun…that is if you like singing and painting and talking to lifelike cards…but then again, you would probably have to be named Lucy, living in the sky with diamonds. Thus, that is precisely why you should choose the right hand—because it is easier to speed the process up…unless you like causing trouble and throwing people for a loop. Seriously, what if you’re holding something in your right hand? Is it really that necessary to avoid using the left hand? With the number of handshakes we perform in a lifetime, I’m surprised that our finger muscles in our left hand are not underdeveloped. I remember getting a fortune cookie when I was younger that said I would develop carpal tunnel syndrome unless I used my left hand more. For this reason, I