No Reason

In this rain-filled (thankful) Sunday mailbox...

Storyteller J.K. Rowling (of the "Harry Potter" series) was born today in 1965, in Yate, near Bristol, England.

The most successful story invented by humans to date is that of money, more specifically the story about the power of the dollar: everyone believes it. As diverse as, say, religions are from Toyota, they both exist because humans have grown to believe in fictions. These fictions are products of our imagination which in turn determine our future. check out this TED talk by Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens): “Why Humans Rule the World”

All fiction is subversive in that it – fiction – is built by the symbol system we created to displace our dependency upon sign. Beneath/within all fiction is the potential “verse,” the song, the joy.

Finding unconditional joy is especially subversive in modern Western culture, where the dominant paradigm equates happiness with conditional joy, which often means material or social gain. Our society was founded upon the “pursuit of happiness,” – Scott Tusa in Joy as a Radical Act.

The Declaration underscores the pursuit, neither attained nor attainable. That said, joy – “happiness” – is not a commodity, notwithstanding advertising claims to the contrary. Unconditional joy is in the innate process of the Watercourse of which we are eternally a part. It is not “outside,” out there, always just beyond our grasp. Rather, it is found in our quiet recesses, in liminal moments. It is our reason for being. There is no reason for it.