About

The name by which I am called is Robert. I was born into the house of Collie. I consider myself a competent generalist; I am only here in this world to be truly helpful: I am concerned with consciousness and with right livelihood. Now I am sitting here a few yards from where I was born in a little house on Maple Spring Church Road. I have become nothing; and it seems I do nothing. I will share more details of the usual personal sort later for any who may be interested. It seems more important to acknowledge personal agency, both yours and mine, than to strut and fret in some posture of authority. I make no claim to originality in these writings; they truly are findings. I read: I study: I research. Many times, concepts (if not the words themselves) will etch indelibly into some place in memory. What was it Sir Isaac Newton said about standing upon the shoulders of giants?

In the course of our education, it seems there is much we do not discover. I do not know whether information is purposely omitted or not. We now have access to a veritable tsunami of information outside the institutionalized educational process. Caesars and Pharaohs did not have such an archive. It is this virtual treasure, hopefully a cumulative wisdom, in which I discover. I pray discernment. I pray evolving consciousness. And, also, a measure of utility in these findings.

As I consider the worlds before us, become aware of the beauty, brilliance, majesty, and mystery of all that I behold there is sometimes a hesitancy about adding another meager voice to these existent millions.

Sometimes there is concern about relevance, relatedness to the lives we live.

Once upon a time while reading my Whole Earth Catalog, I encountered a quote by Wendell Berry. At that time, the word “relevant” was enjoying some prominence in popular usage, especially with respect to education. Wendell asked how can we say of a thing it is relevant or not relevant; he went on to say that life is big and full of surprises: it may be that we do not yet know what we may need to know.

The years have taught me to be more mindful of utility than I was in my time of first reading Whole Earth Catalog. I have also learned that possibility is more important than we imagined. The same can be said for quality of life which comes from conscious awareness. Conscious awareness can come from discovery, from findings throughout our days if we remain open to questions.