Archives for posts with tag: social media
Picasso, Pablo (1881-1973): Girl Before a Mirror (Boisgeloup, March 1932). New York, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)*** Permission for usage must be provided in writing from Scala.

Have the spiritual and physical ever been as connected as today?
Mind and body now as one, the masculine and feminine roam out of
bounds, each bleeding into the other
Every yin-yang a gradient of greys, inadvertently or no

Drowning in push-pull nuance and subtlety
The old dichotomies end up
as little more than fractal creases in a larger plane

What lurks beyond the conscious and subconscious integrated?
Zooming out, out, out – searching
for the most fundamental of all nature, for opposing forces
for clear contrast and structure, for the one line in the sand

But perhaps such a schism had never existed before
in the physical universe, with its unified form and unified laws
So I turned my gaze to the un-natural
and there it was, clear as day
In technology and metal, in the little mirror in my pocket
The crack that would divide, my line in the sand

That virtual rift between our analogue and digital halves,
between alluring social presentations, increasingly filtered
and the decaying lonesome reality they reflect
A difference ever widening, growing deeper by the day

Pocket mirror in Narcissus’ hand
the ever-gazed, most-loved love
Isn’t beauty’s fairness a virtue to consume?

Ruinous mirror whose shattered shards 
reflect a thousand monstrous eyes
Is facade or truth not worth devouring you?

Unventured hero of stillborn soul
lost beyond your surface deep
Is it worthiness that lurks beneath?

Mirror, mirror for lonesome heart
steamed by breath, still cold to touch
Is your company but an artifice?

What’s in a name? Understand in the old ways it was everything
All Creation was named by the Forefather on divine command
and you demean such a thing to a trivial handle?
How many creatures of lore fell foul of degenerate men
because they gave away their true name?

No! A name – a true name – is to know the naked essence of a thing
beyond linguistics and words and gutturals
to manipulate its spirit
command it if desired, kill it if so willed

Such sacred bonds of trust were not often given willingly, you understand

There are still shades of this old knowledge in our group conscience
Nicknames and middle names and usernames
and other such obscurances

And yet others – those rootless ones lacking connection no doubt –
dig deeper for truer naming conventions
The ACGTs of it all, or crisscrossing genealogies
dating back to the Forefather

Pray for them that they never find their own true name
as doubtless they would reveal it to all
and find themselves rendered back to golem-like putty
at the hands of those who still abuse such incantations

This woman gets it. Music. Sharing. Connection. Crowdsourcing.

On a relevant note, TEDxSalford 3.0 will be up for livestreaming on their site tomorrow I think. Last year I managed to get cheap full-day tickets on GroupOn, no such luck this time. Amazing experience, would’ve loved to have been there again. Lineup looks fantastic and more varied than ever: TEDxSalford.com/event/speakers

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