In Life We Are Programmed Into A WYSIWYG Matrix

According to a poll, Britons don’t consider themselves officially old until they turn 66. Okay, but why 66 and not perhaps 86 or 96? It's like we are brainwashed into thinking that some 'things' happen at various stages/ages throughout our lives, so we come to accept and believe this to be the case.

I was talking to someone yesterday about travelling and he said, "Of course, I can't do that now as I'm in my mid sixties." We then met a neighbour who was full of aches and moans and she said something like, "You've got to accept this as you get older."

I wonder why we accept any sort of limitations throughout our lives. It's partly because it's something we have been told over and over and so accept as being the norm. Even the Bible talks of three score and ten being our life span.

Psalm 90:10 tells us:

"The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."

That's the King James version but the New Living Translation doesn't disagree:

"Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away."

And what's all this pain and trouble business? Why should we think that life has to be all about such negative aspects.

If, as a lot of us say, we get what we think or believe, then that's life all wrapped up and parcelled. We live for seventy years, eighty if we are really lucky - but the extra ten years doesn't appear that enticing if it's going to be all labour and sorrow.

I can't accept this or the likes of Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man:

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then, the whining school-boy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like a snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then, a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then, the justice,
In fair round belly, with a good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

That's not very cheerful, is it? Then we have ancient sayings like the Riddle of the Sphinx hidden deep in ourselves:

"Which creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?"

Oedipus solved the riddle by answering: "Man - who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and then uses a walking stick in old age."

Well done to Oedipus, but why do we accept / think that man will need a walking stick in old age? It's because this is what we've come to accept.

I feel we have to create a complete new matrix for ourselves of how we want and expect things to be throughout our lives - or even eternity. Forget the popular status quo and start developing our own personal beliefs of health, happiness and immortality. Oh, and we'd better throw in some wealth as well, while that remains the method of exchange.

What we genuinely believe sets the scene for our every day lives. Or maybe you think that's a load of codswallop - after all there are wars, tribulations, sickness and the like all around us. But who's fault is that? Gods? The State? Or could it be our own? WYSIWYG.

Ramble over.

Other Rambles As Posts:
A How Did It All Begin Ramble
Are We Really Nothing At All On A Ride To Nowhere?
A Ramble About 51412 Leading Nowhere

Even With Jokes There Is Nothing New Under The Sun

This following joke is supposedly very funny, It topped a poll after more than 100,000 people around the world cast their vote on 40,000 jokes. Here it is:

"A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: 'My friend is dead! What can I do?' The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: 'Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead.' There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says: 'OK, now what?'"

I have doubts that it is really the world's funniest joke, it's a matter of taste I suppose. But, even with jokes nothing is new.

A joke going back to the 1950s was very similar and was featured in a sketch for a BBC radio show called the Goon Show. It was written by the great Spike Milligan and featured Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine.

This is how that sketch went:

The Spike Milligan Sketch

Bentine: I just came in and found him lying on the carpet there

Sellers: Oh, is he dead?

Bentine: I think so

Sellers: Hadn't you better make sure?

Bentine: Alright. Just a minute ...

... sound of two gun shots

Bentine: He's dead.

It really does seem that in life there is nothing new under the sun. The Bible said as much in Ecclesiastes 1:9 - "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

Shakespeare agreed in his Sonnet 59

Sonnet 59

If there be nothing new, but that which is

Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,

Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss

The second burden of a former child.

O, that record could with a backward look,

Even of five hundred courses of the sun.

If it's true that nothing is new, I wonder why we keep repeating the same mistakes, the same wars, the same conflicts, the same neglect, the same ... well everything. Will we ever learn? Perhaps history can give us the answers.

A Few Other Recent Posts:
Harry Potter's Minister For Magic And The Narwhal Coincidence
Parasitism And Spirituality
Dennis The Menace Double Trouble Coincidence

The Evil That Men Do Lives After Them

Karin and I walked to a car boot sale and got talking about someone we know. As we entered the car park where the sale was being held I said, "The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones."

I know, I know, a little pretentious but it seemed to fit what we were talking about - and I was once a bit of a Shakespearean actor. Okay, the last bit is a fib. The only time I've actually been on stage was during my school days. I remember my last role well as I was the Gay Youth. This was at a time when 'gay' only meant being carefree and happy! My friend played the part of the Sombre Youth - deep stuff. We were massive hits - all right, second fib.

I digress.

There wasn't much to interest me at the sale but I bought a paperback, titled The Shakespeare Secret, for 20p. As it was likened to the Da Vinci Code on the cover I thought it might be an easy holiday read.

As I opened the book I saw that on a page prior to the first chapter was the same quote I had said to Karin - see below. This was another reason why I bought the book, the synchronicity bell sounded.

When I got home I absentmindedly opened the book and there on page 436 was the very same quote again.

So I guess there must be something relevant for me in these words. Though I'm not sure what. In fact I feel that sometimes it's the bad that is interred, rather than the good.

It's still mentioned, for instance, how Jimmy Savile raised millions - up to $56 million - for charity and was knighted by the Queen; but let's hope it's never forgotten that he was also a rampant paedophile who molested hundreds of children. This only came to light after his death.

The Shakespeare quote is from Julius Caesar, I remember the speech as I had to learn it for English Literature exams when at school. I have a good memory. I've previously written about William Shakespeare Coincidences.

What I didn't know was that Julius Caesar was performed at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York in 1864. Mark Antony was played by John Wilkes Booth and his brother, Edwin Booth, played Brutus, and their brother Junius Brutus Booth, Jr was Cassius. The coincidence about this is that a few months later John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln, supposedly with the cry, "Sic semper tyrannis" (thus always to tyrants). This was also attributed to Brutus at Caesar's assassination.

William Oxberry wrote similar words to Shakespeare: "Because it is a truth and a melancholy truth that the good things which men do are often buried in the ground while their evil deeds are stripped naked, and exposed to the world."

Personally, when I look back on the lives of people close to me who have died all I remember is the good. Some things no doubt are best forgotten.

Other Posts Which Mention Shakespeare:
William Shakespeare Coincidences
The Mystery And Enigma Of The Number 23
The Guilt Of A Moorland Pony And Guilty Quotes