Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Try God (poem)
Try God
Now we know how it was
at Pompeii,
when the volcano
began to rumble
and people looked at each
other in confusion and fear.
When the monster wave approached
the shore
on the remote Eastern Island,
and people stopped to gaze
and ask one another
what was happening,
no one had ever seen
a wave so big before.
In Europe, there were
travelers’ tales
of black swans,
but everyone knew this
was a myth,
that swans were never black
for white was their given color.
Then one day in Australia, they found
the truth behind the claim.
Now a black swan is swimming
into our living rooms,
we are turning our heads,
we stare in disbelief
at this creature formed from
impossibility.
Which way shall we run?
Dorothy Walters
October 28, 2008
Now we know how it was
at Pompeii,
when the volcano
began to rumble
and people looked at each
other in confusion and fear.
When the monster wave approached
the shore
on the remote Eastern Island,
and people stopped to gaze
and ask one another
what was happening,
no one had ever seen
a wave so big before.
In Europe, there were
travelers’ tales
of black swans,
but everyone knew this
was a myth,
that swans were never black
for white was their given color.
Then one day in Australia, they found
the truth behind the claim.
Now a black swan is swimming
into our living rooms,
we are turning our heads,
we stare in disbelief
at this creature formed from
impossibility.
Which way shall we run?
Dorothy Walters
October 28, 2008
Note: Black swan theory refers to a large-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare event beyond the realm of normal expectations
The theory was described by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2007 book The Black Swan. Taleb regards many scientific discoveries as black swans—"undirected" and unpredicted. He gives the rise of the Internet, the personal computer, the first world war, as well as the September 11, 2001 attacks as examples of Black Swan events.[1]
The term black swan comes from the ancient Western conception that 'All swans are white'. In that context, a black swan was a metaphor for something that could not exist. The 17th Century discovery of black swans in Australia metamorphosed the term to connote that the perceived impossibility actually came to pass.
Taleb's Black Swan has a central and unique attribute: the high impact. His claim is that almost all consequential events in history come from the unexpected. . . .
The theory was described by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2007 book The Black Swan. Taleb regards many scientific discoveries as black swans—"undirected" and unpredicted. He gives the rise of the Internet, the personal computer, the first world war, as well as the September 11, 2001 attacks as examples of Black Swan events.[1]
The term black swan comes from the ancient Western conception that 'All swans are white'. In that context, a black swan was a metaphor for something that could not exist. The 17th Century discovery of black swans in Australia metamorphosed the term to connote that the perceived impossibility actually came to pass.
Taleb's Black Swan has a central and unique attribute: the high impact. His claim is that almost all consequential events in history come from the unexpected. . . .
(Above excerpted from Wikipedia. Image also found there.)
Today, the Black Swan theory is being cited to explain the current financial crisis, which was deemed impossible by many experts. We might add as well the convergence of so many challenges on so many fronts which seem to be coalescing into the "perfect storm" for humanity.
And, as a further note, one thinks (of course) of the unexpected rise of kundalini and other forms of spiritual awakenings in the world today. As I said earlier, if this can happen, anything can happen--a positive force to counterbalance the negative and take us to the next level.
