Potentialism

I think it was Maharishi Mehesh Yogi who said that transcendental meditation granted entry into the whole realm of possibility. I'm sure it was Jesus who said "With God, all things are possible to them who believe." I want to believe, but I also want to see. I have no trouble imagining all sorts of things for myself, but it's getting very boring and unfruitful. What we all need is an environment that allows us to play with "reality" - testing limits, making changes, constructing objects, manipulating substances - altering the physical world: Earth.

Whenever I see some smart ass with a Backhoe or track hoe, I get a little jealous. I have seen landscapes that I could really develop if I had that much earth-moving power at my call. Having sworn off all types of wealth, my poverty now contains my potential as if it were a steel trap. I have a lot of things: shovel heads with no handles, a nice metal yard rake, a grubbing hoe, a fork-spade with three of its four teeth left, a length of soft barge rope, and some garden hose tipped by my prize possession - a brass cone nozzle. My work would be formally called something like Terra-forming with hydrological excavation if I were a capitalized business man. But I'm a starving artist, instead.

When I read - i think it was Life Comes From Life by A. C. Bhaktividanti Prahuphada, it inspired me to divest myself of all possessions. I don't regret having done so those many years ago, but taking it too far can be discouraging sometimes. My belief and commitment to voluntary simplicity hasn't fundamentally changed in thirty years, but my circumstances caused me to vier way off course. It's all coming full circle now and the bewilderment of my wasted years are now offset in a renewed hope and a more viable doctrine for the day-to-day life of a potentially influential pauper named Charley.

I'm connecting now with abstractions in a class = potential. Now a 56-year-old man with no estate that can be represented, no college degrees, no credit, no bank account, no income, no car, etc. but still claiming to have potential must seem a bit incredulous. I do have an Internet connection, a fairly nice bike, and a credit union account with a few USD in it. Not much stuff. And I have a few friends. Quite an asset! Some of these confirm my remaining potential. It's a start!

Just believing that you are potentially reading this helps more than anything. Yeah, you. You know who you are.