As anyone who might happen upon these digitized thought balloons will quickly discover, they have either nothing, or maybe everything, to do with grilled cheese sandwiches; and most likely never touch on anything relating to cooking or the kitchen... except perhaps, the very first posting. And so, with your indulgence, may I present, the ramblings of a reforming philosopher...

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Mello Jell-O... Quite Rightly!!

Being “In The Moment” is one of those Zen-like concepts that seems readily expressed these days, for the promotion and enhancement of personal awareness, in relationship to just about anything. However, like most philosophical insights it’s real nature is about as difficult to grasp as it is to nail Jell-O to a tree... in a forest where no one is present, to hear whether or not the potential timber yells “ouch!”
 
For anyone who has ever been “on stage” for a theatrical performance, act, speaking assignment, skit, solo, concert, or similar event being presented to an audience, the heightened levels of sensory consciousness generally experienced bear vivid testimony of a very tangible, and keenly focused vitality that is frequently generated. This ethereal essence augments the particular talents being utilized for the event and assists in conveying the artist’s message more powerfully across the footlights. The performer, if skilled sufficiently in harnessing the dynamic, becomes “the moment” with each note, gesture, word, or flourish; and onlookers, willing to temporarily suspend their personal realities for the cost of admission, vicariously embrace the magic.
 
The performer captures the moment; the moment becomes enchanting; and those of us in the plush velvets are caught up in the bubble of emotional euphoria being generated. This is the invisible, sparkling opiate that hooks thespians to the boards and seals their common kinship with each other.
 
In a separate form, a master archer is able to envision an arrow piercing a target’s center mark within the same instant he or she withdraws it from a quiver and notches it in a fluid, full draw and release motion of the bow. Years of self-discipline and keenly focused practice permit the warrior to become “one” with the event; having compressed the individual coarser segments of the act into a singularly perfect, combined moment of purest thought and movement.
 
In the wisdom of Yoda and early 80’s Cinemasophy this would translate as “Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.”
 
During circumstances of extreme external stress or trauma, either our perceptions, or the properties of time itself seem to change dramatically. The shift occasionally permits us to view and experience otherwise instantly occurring events as slow motion, drawn out, and intimately inspectable, micro-second slices, which give the illusion and overall effect of being “in the moment!”
 
Can you imagine then, if our awareness was somehow “quickened” to the point where time ceased entirely?
 
Actions and their consequences would be generated within identical points of existence, while a paralleled decision to initiate the action in the first place would be correctly determined WHILE the button is being pushed.  Talk about being “In THE Moment!!”
 
This non-time fictionality could then be easily extrapolated backwards from our reference point to the specific nano-fraction flash of existence; when the so called “Big Bang” may, or may not, have taken place. Within that slivered wafer of potential eternity, all possibilities of reality both in advance of, and post advent of the mega-boom would co-exist in some mystical realm or another. And, of course… the fact that you and I are currently able to experience any of this, in whatever rippled status we have somehow been caught up, must mean we are part of the whole shebang.
 
Are we perhaps then, not only “IN The Moment,” but also co-equal witnesses OF it?  Somewhere off in the distant expanse of possibilities do we have the potential of not only being the actors, but also the audience of the plays we are currently producing?
 
And now that my brain is in synaptic hyper-drive, I believe I could really enjoy a bowl full of Jell-O.   J.

Article Copyright J. Michael Lyffe - 2014

1 comment :

  1. as a performer I strive to be in the moment, also to be in the sweet spot ... where the audience and the performer enter a tribal experience ... The actions and thoughts of the one impact the other. It doesn't happen often, but when it does - we are, indeed, co-equal witnesses

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