Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Dear Friends,




A Requiem for Mubu…

Mubu was a man easy to underestimate. He was the drunk guy, that black cat with an odd accent to his English. He was clever, drinking cheap vodka from a water bottle at dawn on a bench on Main Street. He was fooling the cops.

Right.

He had a volume of “Plato’s Republic” tucked in his left jacket pocket. A heap of Tolstoy was under his skittering knee and dancing thigh. He read from a selection in his open book of great philosophers. Spinoza was that morning’s topic of Socratic to-and-fro. At some moments he took a long pull on that bottle of grain alcohol sweetened with antifreeze and bilge water. Altogether, it went down sweet and too well to be a simple recipe.

He has taken his knowledge to the Edge of the Universe, alas. At his end, he likely stared into the void behind his shuttered eyelids. He saw Everything and Nothing as the lights went out, I’m pretty well sure. He may have seen a bright light at that moment. I hope so, but that, we still bound to our flesh, cannot know with any assurance whatsoever.

Okay, Mubu. Many underestimated you. I did. You managed to bring yourself to the Edge and thence Beyond. Quite an achievement, even for The Cool Black Prince of the Streets. Very daring. You won the game in losing, perhaps. Were you playing “catch me if you can”.

I’ve quit that game, yet I marvel at the star shine that you’ve left with your dust. I value the friendship you forged with me and the space that you will always occupy in my heart, so long as it beats and I still breathe.

Yeah. One last thing. Stumbling home from the news of my friend’s demise, I bumbled upon a big rusty washer in the mud. It looked like a sort of coin. It was left to emerge from the sodden soil to come up under my modern boot heels from the derelict telegraph lines of well more than a century ago. The rust and white moss on it fashioned it into something like a token from the I’Ching; a transport from the past and future. Allow me to toss that coin this morning and say thank you, Mubu. Praise be.

Oh, the fortune is favorable. Mubu now lies forever long as this Earth lasts in a grave, at peace, next to his father. Finally, our traveler has made it back to the soil of Africa. He got out of school early and is at rest from his diligent studies.

Qui Fuerunt, Sed Nunc Ad Astra, Mubu.

Hic Finis Est.

S

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Genius Conquers Chaos…

Dear Friends,

A recent little ditty.


Genius Conquers Chaos
© Solomon 2014

Genius conquers chaos
in a soul so near its horizon
in the mirror dark
a soul so simple
simple and eager to love

Chain sawed and/or whip sawed
ragged and ready at the edge
at the edge of time
show me what you know
or show me nothing at all

Genius conquers chaos,
reckons trouble as a gift

I’ve now seen a shadow
looking toward any decision
in the mirror dark
a face so telling
simply willing to love, love 

Genius conquers chaos,
reckons trouble as a gift

This game of life or death
our hands a ‘twined in mumbly-peg
got me on the line
our inspirations
well, now, ours and mine do tell

Genius conquers chaos,
reckons trouble as a gift

Let us go into our Silver Mine
let us dance to The Bride of Dawn
she dripping dew perfumed with laughter
down and gone and forever
forever the shadow that beckons light
all the troubles that bring delight
all the notions that surprise
let’s go down to our Silver Mine.

Genius conquers chaos
reckons trouble as a gift
Genius conquers chaos
reckons trouble as a gift

Genius conquers chaos
Genius conquers chaos
Genius conquers chaos…


Sunday, February 16, 2014

Dear Friends,


I’ve been pondering a couple of perhaps related notions, poking round in their crooks and crannies, for the past few days. One is the seemingly farfetched idea proposed by a contemporary cosmologist and mathematician, Max Tegmark, that our Universe is made of numbers.

Now, nobody ever bumps into the numeral One or π when walking through the park, of course. But we do know that everything in nature, everything from the smallest scale to the greatest, everything from very basic physics to the most complex chemistry, even the the paths of individual fish in a school or children meandering in a gaggle across the schoolhouse playground can be described in algorithms composed of chains of numbers and mathematical notations. Four digits describe all of the genetic code in every life form we know of. Might the reason for these obvious and real facts be that the Universe is actually made of nothing but numbers?

Maybe.

So, where do numbers come from? It’s not like Pythagoras invented the numbers in his theorem. If he hadn’t come along, somebody else would have soon discovered the same mathematical expression for the theorem that became synonymous with his ancient moniker. Triangles would exist without he, Plato and Euclid ever pondering their perfect forms.

What else do we know in our Universe that is composed out of ethereal digits? Computer code, more or less rigorous math and logic, is one answer. Might all that we know be merely an elaborate string of code written by some extra-universal teenager frittering away a the billion-year nighttime while shrugging off his homework assignment for the next morning’s class in Cosmic Engineering and Applied Creation?

Maybe.

Like all computer code, of course, the one that might lie at the foundation of our perceived Universe, has bugs. Take Infinity, as an example. Math hates infinities. There are an infinite number of them, for one thing. Yes, that was a pun.

There is also the problem that physics has with infinities. Everything we might understand about what happens at the birth of our Universe is blown to smithereens by our best equations arriving at the numbers of Infinity. Likewise, we cannot use our mathematical tools to peer into the heart of a black hole, for therein lie infinities. Oh, and we get back to π! What is the deal with such a sublime number that perfectly describes what we observe but has no end? Sounds like a bug in the code to me.

What do you think?

Looking Forward and Beyond,

S

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Dear Friends,

Tonight's little visual ditty from a public domain image: "Metropolis", 1927.



Res Ipsa Loquitor,

S

Sunday, December 15, 2013

My Electric Lady…

Dear Friends,



This evening's little doodle from some public domain art of unknown origin. It's pretty raggedy, as am I as I prepare to careen into slumber and dreams.


Res Ipsa Loquitor,

S

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Dear Friends,

My assistant, that rancid and untrustworthy bastard snuck into my lab after hours. He mixed up my chemicals. Come swiftly, now, with the antidote, Nurse Ratchid!

Res Ipsa Loquitor,

S


And yet again…

Dear Friends,

They came again to my fevered dreams. Strange but familiar.

Hic Finis Est

S