Reflective Journeys - Vitae: Excerpts from 20 years of reflective journeys

By G. Kassabgi

What if our conscious thoughts are living forms: vitae. What is happening in the brain when a ‘mind’ and ‘consciousness’ are felt internally? Where does consciousness come from? Are consciousness and nature somehow interconnected?

I cannot think of a more interesting thing to ponder, and so for over 2 decades I’ve explored concepts surrounding these types of reflections using a poetic shape: a type of mirror for the reader’s mind. Occasionally these pieces are directly and specifically aimed at the center of the inquiry, and often they were tangential or in the shadow of the central themes. In the shadow of a source we are sometimes able to see things that would otherwise not be seeable.

The collections have approached the questions surrounding these vitae as such, each inspired by a unique living organism:

Methuselah: an exploration of our journey through time, above all else we must consider the dimension of time. There are things that transcend the dimension of time, what does this mean and how can we, our lives so brief and fragile, comprehend this?

Architeuthis: questions about things known to exist but unseen. Let’s think about this: “things known to exist but unseen” — empiricism is challenged! What do we make of the countless things that believed to exist? To “believe” is not exactly equivalent as to “know”, and this is no academic detour. Questions of faith surface quickly.

Actias Luna: the incredible metamorphosis and transformation: the caterpillar and moth. An inevitable destiny understood in a manner apart from cognition. Here we begin to ponder what it means to ‘know’ something in ways having nothing to do with cerebral thought processes.

Tuugaalik: the unicorn whale. What unfolds as we live out a dream is more transformational, more awe inspiring than we could have ever imagined. Notice the use of “live out a…” here and remember that thoughts as vitae do precisely this: they live. Questions about ‘knowability’ run deep – what we come to know often unfolds in ways we could not have imagined!

It is thus the ambitious aim of these collections, to present the reader with an ensemble, a framework of mental mirrors to approach some of the most elemental questions.

“In reality every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have perceived in himself.” - Marcel Proust

We return to our vitae towards the end of this work and, for the first time in over 2 decades, attempt to assemble some of the puzzle pieces.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: May 7, 2024
• ISBN: 9781663260284

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Reflective Journeys - Vitae

EXCERPTS FROM 20 YEARS OF REFLECTIVE JOURNEYS

Copyright © 2024 G. KASSABGI.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-6027-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-6026-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-6028-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024903183

iUniverse rev. date: 04/13/2024

Dedication

For my paternal grandmother and earliest mentor: Irma Gregoretti and for my life partner/love of my life: Valerie Ward. Amazing women of different generations, from different worlds, each an infinite source of life, wonder and grace.

Prologue

It would certainly have been more straight-forward, and less time consuming, to write down thoughts in typical long form. This is the most common approach. Two decades ago I decided that the poetic form was the deepest way to capture certain ideas, certain questions. The impact of many questions deserve nothing less, actually.

Twentieth Century philosopher Martin Heidegger argued that the speech of genuine thinking is by nature poetic and the voice of thought must be poetic because poetry is the saying of truth, the saying of the unconcealedness of things¹.

The truth can indeed be the unconcealedness of things but concealment is always relative. What is revealed to one remains fuzzy to another even over time. But is it ‘truth’ (whatever definition of it) we seek or something else? No, I believe the ultimate goal of writing is analogous to a mirror. The poem’s ultimate objective, over time, is for the reader to see herself. Thus ‘truth’ is that which harmonizes most deeply with a reader.

Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows - Edmund Burke

What does a reader perceive in herself while re-reading a poem? This is not a question that can be answered, and the reasons for this are significant. But first we are compelled to ask a more elemental question: what can we know? … and related to this: how do we know something?

Within any question is a quest (Reflective Journeys: Acitas Luna) and the relative gravity of a question has to do with the relative impact of having answers to it. Let’s take a relatively insignificant question, like: what time did I wake up this morning? The answer to this has little impact (unless I needed it for an alibi to a criminal case) so the question’s gravity is close to zero. The vast majority of questions fall into this realm. Now consider the question: what can we know? The immense gravity of such a question creates forces that warp the figurative space involved in considering it. There can be no absolute answers to such enigmas, which is itself a recursive phenomenon (we are asking whether or not we can know: what can be known).

Besides a selection of poems, here also are included a few essays from prior collections. Essays are an entirely different shape from poetry, the mind digests them in different ways – more directly and overtly inquisitive.

In the essay Abstract Living Forms (Reflective Journeys: Architeuthis) we proposed that our lives are filled with living entities that are not biological but instead abstract – ‘vitae’. A relationship is an abstract living form and it has stages of life analogous to a biological life form: birth, childhood, adolescence, etc.

In the essay Unknowable (Reflective Journeys: Tuugaliik) we begin to explore the question of what we are able to know and why. Our aim here is not an academic one, to be sure. Epistemology, the science of knowledge is about understanding how we know things, why we believe what we believe, and how certain we can be about these beliefs.

There are many well traveled theories within epistemology: empiricism (the idea that we get knowledge from our senses, eg. seeing, hearing, touching), rationalism (gaining knowledge through reason and thinking), constructivism (constructing knowledge based on our experiences and reflections on those experiences) and so on. These epistemological paths often intersect and combine in our thought processes, for example we might consider something to be ‘known’ because of both empirical (we see it) and foundational (it conforms to underlying knowns) reasons. Academics will refer to this as coheritism.

It’s important sometimes to look beyond all these ‘isms’ and escape from an academic viewpoint. Before we might develop some new theory or an extension to an existing one we should explore and experiment!

What if our conscious thoughts are living forms: vitae. What is happening in the brain organ when a ‘mind’ and ‘consciousness’ is felt internally? Where does consciousness come from? Are consciousness and nature somehow interconnected? What happens when we apply reason to elemental questions such as these through the prism of abstract living forms?

I cannot think of a more interesting thing to ponder, and so for over 2 decades I’ve explored concepts surrounding these types of reflections using a poetic shape: a type of mirror for the reader’s mind. Occasionally these pieces are directly and specifically aimed at the center of the inquiry, and often they were tangential or in the shadow of the central themes. In the shadow of a source we are sometimes able to see things that would otherwise not be seeable.

The collections have approached the questions surrounding these vitae as such, each represented by a unique living organism:

Methuselah: above all else we must consider the dimension of time. A tree several thousand years old in a mountainous desert gives us pause. There are things that transcend the dimension of time, what does this mean and how can we, our lives so brief and fragile, comprehend this?

Architeuthis: the giant squid and questions about things known to exist but unseen. Let’s think about this: things known to exist but unseen — empiricism goes out the window! What do we make of the countless things that are unseen and believed to exist? To believe is not exactly equivalent as to know, and this is no academic detour. Questions of faith surface quickly.

Actias Luna: the incredible metamorphosis and transformation: the caterpillar and moth. An inevitable destiny understood in a manner apart from cognition. Here we begin to ponder what it means to ‘know’ something in ways having nothing to do with cerebral thought processes.

Tuugaalik: the unicorn whale. Questions about ‘knowability’ run deep… What unfolds as we live out a dream is more transformational, more awe inspiring than we could have ever imagined. Notice the use of live out a… here and remember that the questions as vitae do precisely this: they live. What we come to know often unfolds in ways we could not have imagined!

It is thus the ambitious aim of these collections, to present the reader with an ensemble, a framework of mental mirrors to approach some of the most elemental questions.

What are the abstract living forms of a question? What can these ‘vitae’ tell us about ourselves, our universe, the dimensions we can and cannot perceive and the nature of thought?

In reality every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have perceived in himself. - Marcel Proust

We will return to our vitae towards the end of this work and, for the first time in over 2 decades, attempt to assemble some of the puzzle pieces.

---

¹ the unconcealedness of things

Heidegger’s The Origin of the Work of Art from Poetry, Language, Thought

Table Contents

Dedication

Prologue

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Methuselah

Methuselah

Time

Dimension

Light

Machine

Legacy

Seed

Portraits

Pendulum

Formula

Ladder

Pawn

Ship

Infinity

Leaf

Leg

Word

Summit

Cage

Image

Child

Crowd

Bench

Gift

Object

Trail

Gentle

Forget

Past

Fight

Empire

Dream

See

Enough

Courage

Walk

Paradox

Relevant

Alive

Doors

Chapter 2 - Architeuthis

Architeuthis

Lobster

Kraken

Window

Grace

Thought

Farm

Child

Embrace

Currency

Father

Creek

Untruth

Poem

School

Timeless

Sea

Artichoke

Magic

Day

Tomorrow

Source

Clothes

Fates

Strength

Irma

Wish

Essay: Abstract Living Forms

Vitae Tractatus

Chapter 3 - Actias Luna

Actias Luna

Source

Nature

Man

Small

Minuet

Anything

Traps

Poet

Things

Form

Doubt

Rarity

Epoch

Simple

Real

Pigeon

Roadside

Sea

Filter

Childhood

Inside

Adjective

Stoic

Flower

Precognition

Complex

Art

Question

Metacognition

Chestnut

Elemental

Traveler

Moth

Chapter 4 - Tuugaliik

Tuugaliik

Begin

Poem

Ant

Magic

Smoke

Glare

Distant

Projection

Burl

Dreamscape

Philosophy

Dog

Waiting

Caterpillar

Forever

Orchard

End

Unicorn

Woods

Pieces

Dog

Persistence

Break

Curves

Always

Gods

Silence

Scottish

Instant

Essay: Unknowable

Essay: Inhuman

Musings

Eight

Draw

Thirteen

Man

Nine

Things

Expressions

Vowels

Digits

Nine

Age

Essay: Vitae

Introduction

Through the 4 ‘Reflective Journeys’ collections:

Methuselah: An exploration of our journey through time. A bristlecone pine in the California White Mountains: ‘Methuselah’, is one of the world’s oldest living things. It lives in a desert climate at over 10,000 ft elevation. Over 46 centuries old, it was a seedling before the Egyptian pyramids were erected. Its living presence through the millennia is a unique reminder that the intersection between life and time is something not easily contemplated.

Architeuthis: questions about things known to exist but unseen – and the giant squid, a creature the size of a school bus that up until recent years had never been seen alive. Architeuthis reminds us that nature, and its life forms, remain full of important questions, full of mystery. Life directly in front of us, in the depths of our consciousness, calls out for exploration. This is the precious gift of this oceanic creature, in the context of mankind and its quests: a reminder of the wonders that surround us and the fundamental questions that prevail.

Actias Luna: the incredible metamorphosis and transformation: the caterpillar and moth. An inevitable destiny understood in a dimension apart from cognition. The North American luna moth, its journey from leaf to moonlight is a silent miracle, repeating itself over millennia. A life as brief as her unfolding transformation is astonishing. Our own unveiling journey holds similar magic, once we tune into it.

Tuugaalik: the unicorn whale. A continuation of the three prior themes. The metamorphosis takes shape and the caterpillar awakens to recount a journey. Questions about ‘knowability’ run deep… with fantastic real stories that are far more incredible than any mythical ones. What unfolds as we live out a dream is more transformational, more awe inspiring than we could have ever imagined.

I’ve assembled selected pieces from each collection together here, in their original form. The order of the writings has been retained, oldest appearing first as well as the original essays.

It is my sincere and ambitious wish that this new collection harmonize with the reader in new ways and the vitae that arise from it serve the reader well.

Continue the discussion online at www.ugik.com

Chapter 1

2001–2006

Methuselah might look down upon us, from her deserted heights, and imagine what mankind has been preoccupied with. But the great tree does no such thing. We must contemplate such things on our own, from within, and wonder.

The more abstract the truth you wish to teach, the more you must seduce the senses to it.

- Nietzsche

Methuselah

Oh Methuselah how you tease

Us beneath you on your desert perch

With your patient pinecone seeds

On your rocky veranda we lurch

~

…The answer lies not in your possessions; it is clearly you that is possessed by them

…Man is quick to understand that which summons infinity to illuminate its existence

…Within the core of the empire’s success, are found the seeds of its demise

… At the heart of objectification what is most in danger, is man himself

…And thus silence was what he used, to caress the beast from within

…To truly comprehend the machine, is to be able to see beyond it

…For but a brief moment he had existed only within change itself

...We fathom not the meaning of time, only our time of meaning

…That which is poorly abstracted, travels poorly through mind

…The existence of very many creates an illusion of none at all

…In the great chess boards of life, are we players or pieces?

…For to behold oneself as a whole, is to see a stranger

…Listen to the link and the music of the whole is heard

…All darkness illuminates a room of consciousness

…Only in our internal darkness are we able to listen

…Beasts of thought give birth, to things of no end

~

In the end, he’d come to understand

That true strength

Of one’s passion is at hand

In the childhood moments

Time

The water that drips upon our lives

            Drops from an endless ocean

            Felt neither within nor without

            We seek to measure,

                what we may not comprehend

But a drop will quench life’s thirst

            Dew from a spring we have not seen

            As the hand that has shaped our clay

            We build bridges we cannot cross

A span of thought,

                the bitter scent of universal distance

            A torrent that carves valleys of rock

            As the river carries mountain to the sea

            We tremble as part of earth’s optic blink

One sound from a panorama of interstellar music

            With that which man holds in his glass, he may well drown

            That from which man drowns,

                whisked away as mist in a cloud

            We fathom not the meaning of time,

            Only our time of meaning.

Dimension

In a first, a single thread of consciousness

            suffices, along the fabric of space

In a second, symbols drawn, reader engaged

In a third, sculptures in marble, forms in clay

Thus it is, that in a fourth, another thread on its own

            once more returns, but now, along fabric of time

Might we not imagine then, that in a fifth,

it is time that traverses across a plane

And that perhaps in yet a sixth, time once more emerges

            into shapes, sculpted by forces we may not imagine

Should we not dare to envision further,

that in an inevitable continuation

yet another fabric shows itself,

neither of space nor of time

once again falling in line,

along a single thread

no Strings attached

For if man was to perceive such a structure,

‘tis not through the infinity of a prior dimension

but rather an emptiness of the next

Light

As the tree bends with wind’s force,

            that which our eyes perceive, we strive to absorb

Neither straight, nor curved, neither long, nor short

            a shape found in thus having not any shape at all

What essence is this that travels through the immense?

            an image that the forces of time may not mold

A time machine,

            lifting darkness from both the present and the past

We shape mental prisms so that we may interpret our lives,

            only in our own internal darkness are we able to listen

Machine