Ignite a match in a room without light, and darkness recedes; what was once a black place is now revealed containing all sorts of objects to stimulate the imagination. Depending on the size of the match and the length of time its aglow, light will leave impressions upon the memory of things that existed before its presence.

Light, it seems, is needed to see a path across whatever space is perceived although some claim that another sense is at work during the play of the collective five senses thought necessary for insight and consciousness. However, when pressed to be more specific, no one has been able to categorize  them as anything more then some kind of extra sensory perception open for interpretation until the level of instrumentality allows science to verify and reproduce the results, suggesting more questions.

In a group of three, a scientist would argue that without the presence of these two conditions, an occurrence cannot be classified as a fact. The theologian might point out that belief and faith can be as real as any fact, while a  philosopher might say, “listen”, from a theological prospective, darkness is associated with evil rather than the unknown suggesting that the course of action to eliminate darkness is to destroy evil, rather than transmute it and make it part of the light and by so doing, changing the balance between good and evil. Perhaps a more appropriate description for this process is illumination which is why you need the match to create the light in the first place.

“So, who or what created the match?”

Time it seems is nothing more then the pattern of sequencing the brain uses to imprint events as memories so that distinctions between the past, present and future are easier to identify.

Duration, another way of referring to time includes everything between two arbitrary points defined as a pattern of continuity which marks infinitesimal amounts of passage added infinitely.

The present can best be thought of as the thought being thought of, at the moment it’s being thought, or the pause taken when traveling from what was, into what is and what it will be some time in the future. The word itself has little meaning since the universe is dynamic and in constant movement, so that the distinction between the past and future can perhaps best be visualized as a point advancing along an imaginary line.

A photograph can capture the present, but only a small part of what is occurring at the moment it was taken, now a part of the past. A series of older, submerged images can evoke patterns of thought associated with memories as they progress from the past into the future, but it often takes a conscious effort to make sense of their continuity.

Whatever exists now is part of a larger evolution of what will become the future, moving without the sensation of motion unless it is measured by boundaries extrapolated from cycles of  planetary movement and cosmic patterns, such a year, day, an hour, a minute, or a second. In other words, time is that construct that is created to bring sequential order from chaos as we move from one dimension into the next.

New years Eve is a milestone to celebrate in 2011. So much has happened this year, all those roller coaster ups and downs this past 365 and 1/4 days: earthquakes, tsunami’s, volcanic activity and changing weather patterns to political and financial upheaval and the loss of Jobs and Taylor. They are now footnotes of history, recorded and thought of as landmarks, as Earth rotates on its tilted axis wobbling around the sun.

Some say the final day of December is unnecessary, although they acknowledge that December Thirty-First is the last twenty-four hour period defined by the vertical line (The International Date Line), intersecting the Pacific Ocean as it moves to the east, thus completing one rotation of Earth as it revolves around the sun; they also claim that the instant the planet reaches the line is where the new cycle begins for Earth, dismissing the need for a Thirty-First day of December as an illusion. The International Date Line, they argue was an arbitrary concept created by scientists, mathematicians, politicians and religious leaders of the time to define the orderly transition of Earth’s spin, towards the east.

Nevertheless, this is a remarkable achievement since it took everyone, everywhere to agree for the system to work. Perhaps there is hope that there is something else on which they can all agree.

A year is not a long time to wait to find out what will happen, if anything, on December 21, 2012. The Mayans calculated it as the end of the cycle we are now in and the beginning of another. From their experiences natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and volcanic activity surrounded the passage from one cycle to the next, and all of them they noticed, tended to be on a cataclysmic level. There was no reason for the Mayans not to think that this cycle would be any different.

Some fatalists point to metaphysical texts such as those from Nostradamus and others throughout history, usually scripted in archaic language and open to interpretation, about this date. Their range of credibility is wide, and conventional thinkers discount coincidences as any more predictable than seeing chaos within order, or visa versa.

Many scientists point to convincing evidence which does support the claim that the climate change now occurring is from human manipulation of the environment. The disagreement is about how close we have come to the point of no return, and what needs to be done to restore the balance, resulting in essentially no action.

Some within occult circles see this change as a tangible point in the evolution of consciousness. They claim a spiritual alteration will occur, and its effects might not be immediately perceived. How this will manifest is still left uncertain.

Perhaps this will be the day extra-terristrials will make contact with Earth, possibly to offer their help in solving our environmental problems. Will we accept it? or will it lead to suspicion and mistrust?

We only have to look back and recall , “To Serve Man,” a third season episode (#89) of The Twilight Zone, based on a short story of the same name by Damon Knight. It was first published in the November 1950 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. The story was adapted by Rod Serling for television and directed by Richard L. Bare. It was the episode that everyone was talking about the next day.

The story told in 25 minutes is narrated in flashbacks by Michael Chambers, a linguist who is now on a space craft on its way to an alien planet. The Kanamits, a race of nine foot tall aliens came to Earth, a year earlier. Speaking telepathically to the United Nations, they offered their technology to help us solve our environmental and social problems, during the height of the cold war. The outline of their offer is presented as a book entitled, “To Serve man”, and given to the world freely. The initial reaction is skepticism and suspicion. Soon, by ending famine, showing us how to achieve energy efficiency cheaply and by  curing all sorts of diseases, the Kanamits  earned humanities’ trust. In less than a year an exchange program had begun, transporting humans to the Kanamits home planet.

As he is boarding the steps of the spacecraft, Chamber’s assistant who is helping him translate the text, runs up to gate and yells, “To Serve Man, its a cookbook.” But its too late for Michael Chambers who is being fattened up for the menu.

A year is not a long time to wait to find out what will actually happen, if anything, on December 21, 2012. But the countdown has begun and all eyes will be focused on unusual events that may occur in the coming year leading up to December 21, 2012, including first contact with alien life.

Everyone is capable of tapping into the primordial currents of creationism and transmuting them into form by showing others, how for them, something is created; hopefully inspiring others to perceive in themselves their own truth and become co-creators in whatever form is comfortable for them.

Some creations are more memorable then others perhaps because they evoke a collective memory or a  common experience, tapping into some recognizable form that resonates individually and encourages  them to be creative as well. Usually, its difficult to articulate this using language without also changing the boundaries of imagination.

The creation itself is less important than the process, as everything is preparation for whatever structure will be created, open to the possibility that something unknown may appear at any moment to change the focus and alter the manifestation of the construct; while remembering that creation is just one’s perception made tangible.

How do you contemplate creativity? Feel free to use the comments section to share your own ideas about creativity.

As the release of The Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn, Part 1 continues to dominate box office receipts, it has earned over 250 million in the first seventeen days since its premier on November 18th, 2011. Its difficult to assess which of the four installments, based on Stephanie Meyer’s love story between Bella, a teenage mortal and Edward, an immortal vampire, is best. I suppose it depends on which part of the story resonates most with the person reading the book; beginning, middle or the end.

My preference still remains the second book, New Moon. In this part of the story Edward decides on his own that it is best for Bella that he remove himself from her life. Rather then treating her as an adult and letting her participate in the decision, he disappears for the rest of the book then re-emerges at the very end. Although this suggests they had a co-dependent relationship, it merely implies that vampires can be as insensitive as mortals.

Bella’s depression, crushed from his rejection is visceral to anyone who has had a similar experience; withdrawing from life unable to utter his name and flirting with danger in the hope of somehow capturing his attention. A vulnerable place to form a close friendship with Jacob, two years her junior, another kind of immortal being, a Native American who can change into a wolf, and has the ability to pull her back from isolation by mending the broken pieces of her heart, then falling in love with her. Its the suffering that is so identifiable that makes the reader care for Bella and the way she grapples with her pain.

All the important arcs in the novel develop from this place, where her despair emanates and hope seems lost until Edward, thinking that Bella has committed suicide, decides to end his own existence, later proclaiming, “I couldn’t live in a world without you.” Bella puts the rejection aside an flies to Italy, in a plane,  to save him from suicide and confronts the gods that rule the underworld, the Volturi offering her life in exchange for his. Only when it is agreed that Bella will become a vampire, does she escape death.

Rising Dawn captures the last stage of Bella’s transformation into an immortal. The film, directed by Bill Condon and screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg chronicles her marriage, honeymoon and unexpected pregnancy. Although vampires have sex, and enjoy it, they have not been known to breed. It sympathizes, as does the book, with the issues surrounding a mothers right to make the choice to continue a pregnancy even at risk of her own life; everyone else seems to know whats best for Bella and treats her like a child so much so that she needs a bodyguard, Rosalie, to protect her decision.

Although it only lasts for three weeks, its a difficult pregnancy characterized by severe malnutrition, broken bones and an irregular heart beat. Only then, Edward is forced to change her into a vampire. After a bloody Cesarean section he injects a syringe of his venom directly into her heart and proceeds to encircle her lifeless body, biting her arms legs and neck.

Bella lies motionless as the venom heals her body, changing her into a new born immortal; a life she felt she belonged to throughout the three previous books. Memories pass in reverse using flashbacks from the previous movies as her      heart slows, then stops. Surrounded by the Cullen clan, her eyes open and they are now red. This is where the movie, Breaking Dawn, Part 1 ends.

How will Bella adjust to immortality? The fans will have to wait until December 2012 to find out. Already filmed, it wont be released until then. But, If anything can be said about the last installment using the book as the basis, it will most certainly include all the events that will happen from now before the words, …”and she lives happily ever after,” are uttered.

The film has a running time of 117 minutes and is rated PG-13 and although it remains faithful to the novel, it was not my favorite part of the story.

As November 18th, 2011 approaches and the premier of Twilight, Breaking Dawn, part 1, draws near, the excitement of Bella’s marriage to Edward Cullen is intensifying as she approaches her  destiny, fated in Stephanie Meyer’s four part novel, The Twilight Saga. As with the Harry Potter series, the fulfillment will not be in discovering what will happen, as the outcomes have already been revealed in the Novel; but how well the film adaptation visually portrays memorable events from the book. With that in mind, I have decided to re-post an essay I wrote after reading all four installments, seeing the first three films but before the release of the last two. I am not a fan of Stephanie Meyer’s style of writing, since I found The Twilight Saga written like a romance novel  encountered on the supermarket check out counter next to The National Enquirer. Never the less I did notice similarities to several ancient myths which made up for any of the story’s shortcomings.

Elements Of Mythology And Bella’s Journey

When Twilight, the four part novel written by Stephanie Meyer first appeared as a book in 2005, then in film in 2008, similarities between this story and other legends and myths were evoked. One tale that comes to mind is of the young maiden Persephone, kidnapped by Hades and brought to the underworld to be his consort and queen.
The legend has always had the appeal of an epic conflict that proliferates over her abduction. Demeter, her mother, goddess of fertility, is so overcome by emotion, she becomes vengeful, refusing to let anything live or grow. Begrudgingly, Hades agrees to let Persephone go but not before she tastes Pomegranate, the fruit that will forever bind her to the underworld forcing her to return for part of the year, delineating the four seasons.

Another tale describes a king with three beautiful daughters. The most attractive was the youngest, Psyche, who was so dazzling that people began to neglect the worship of Venus, goddess of love and beauty. Venus, a jealous god, asked her son Eros to make Psyche fall in love with an ugly creature. When he saw her beauty, Eros dropped the arrow meant for her and pricked himself instead, falling in love with her, marking the beginning of her long journey of trust, betrayal, sacrifice, redemption, transcendence and rebirth, told from her perspective.

In Twilight, Bella travels a similar path to Psyche as she describes in narrative her experience of herself as flawed, idolizing Edward but wondering why “a perfect god” would be so drawn to her. When he abandons her in New Moon, using a pretty flimsy excuse, she  articulates in vivid detail her feelings of isolation and the depths of profound depression. So severe is her pain that she flirts with danger and death to evoke Edwards presence even though she finds it difficult to utter his name, a common reaction when one is faced with unexpected rejection.  Finally, after finding redemption by offering to sacrifice her life to save Edward, traveling underground to face the gods of the undead, the Volturi,  she still experiences severe trials of strength and character as Bella and Edward marry and her transformation into an immortal begins when she discovers she is pregnant.

Bella’s unnaturally rapid pregnancy brings her close to death in the last novel, Breaking Dawn, and Edward is forced to change her after she gives birth to a beautiful, angelic and gifted child they name, Renesemee. A central theme of the last part of her journey, told in diary narrative, chronicles her rebirth as a vampire who is in total control of her blood lust, contrary to the behavior expected from “newbies,” suggesting that the Cullen’s, who carry the burden of being “damned,” are by their actions not. They have chosen out of free will not to feed on humans. This conscious choice and love made it possible for Edward, a vampire, to produce a child of beauty and warmth, and contrary to what is believed, redemption is possible even for vampires who exhibit compassion and prove by how they live their lives that they are not without souls.

Breaking Dawn will be filmed in two parts and is currently in production. The journey of Kristen Stewart, the actress who portrays Bella in all five films is how she will emote her narration in her performance in the last two films so that the audience can identify what it might feel like to be immortal. Rarely in literature is the opportunity presented to covey the evolution of both perspectives, before and after, from an autobiographical point of view.

Unrequited Love And The Twilight Saga

The notion that seeing things anew was always more of a metaphor than a fact of life, or so I thought; but being hopelessly myopic had been at best a restriction that, over time, was something I had become accustomed to. Little did I know how much it had effected my perceptions about so many things.

The first thing I would reach for in the morning were my glasses, usually very expensive and so thick that I could never hope to get frames that were fashionable. Everything was so out of focus that when my vision worsened I had no clue what was happening until I started noticing a perfectly formed halo with rainbow colors around lights, especially at night.

Perhaps this was a vision from above sent to me as an indication I was evolving spiritually, I initially thought, until crossing the street at night became dangerous because I could not judge the speed of oncoming traffic.

It was not until I consulted my opthamologist did it occur to me that I had posterior cataracts and they were progressively getting worse to the point that I began tripping over wires I could not see. It was then I decided to have surgery although my judgement was clouded for years by fear of all things medically invasive. But the decision was made and I intentionally avoided googling the procedure, so that I would not back out at the last minute.

Having experienced bypass surgery, popliteal aneurysms, rotator cuff surgery, I had become accustomed to viewing my scars as a metaphor for Frankenstein’s monster, squeamish of all things related to hospitals regardless of how simple the procedure seemed. After all, I thought, bleeding and infection can change the simplest procedure into a nightmare.

One eye was done first. This is common to ensure that if something does go wrong, the other eye is not effected. When the bandage came off I was amazed that not only had my vision been restored to 20/20, but light and color was so intensified and clear,  I had never realized that I had been seeing all things through rose colored glasses. In my case it was brown. I though white was a shade of sepia . I had missed all the vividness and subtleties of shades and the blueness of light. With the right eye for comparison,  I learned a lot from roaming the  streets of Manhattan covering one eye with one hand, then switching, noticing different images as the left eye, once the weaker, was now   dominant, and everything right of the mid line became a total blur . Although this effected depth perception, I could compare  the differences in light between the two. The right side was like wearing brownish tinted sunglasses. All colors I thought were red, I saw differently. The right eye was corrected one month later, and now I can see without glasses.

Perhaps that old saying that seeing things through rose colored glasses is more than just a cliche. All I can say for certain is that it motivated me to look again at many things that I took for granted as true because I could not see what other people saw,  and drew different conclusions based on my limitations. Maybe this has psychological and philosophical implications that go beyond just sight, and involves the basis of many foundations I built upon as my journey of discovery continues with new insight.