Men Nib

Men Nib

The ‘Dirt' on ... the Straight Line [part 2/2]

Lines keep us on the straight and narrow. They keep us lined up one behind the other. They minimize eye-contact. Straight lines keep us separate from each other as effectively as the straight lines that mark out parking spaces or lanes in a pool.

When a stranger makes a bee line in our direction, we shuffle off to the side while lowering our eyes, even if we are quick to glower at them once they have passed. These brief moments of meekness might be symptomatic of the deep-seated unease we have internalized about straight lines that have forward thrust and power.

The handyman's drill is a perforating tool, as is the core drilling drill, as is the spear, the sword, the bayonet and the knife. Each has been designed to inflict wounds, be that to wood, to an animal, to Earth's core or to the other who happens to be on the wrong side of our needs.

Bullets are nasty in the sense that they are let loose-to-kill from a distance. One who has a pistol or an assault weapon can kill without seeing the colour of their intended victim's eyes or hair - and not be splattered by their blood - but because of their round shape, bullets wounds are often easier to repair than wounds resulting from a sharp thrust of a straight line a.k.a a blade. Never underestimate a straight line. Upright and rooted, it will seize the opportunity to impale. In flight, it pierces hearts.

Hanging is not as common these days as it used to be, but it may well make a comeback. Why not? Killing is not about to go out of fashion any time soon and hanging is, after all, a cheap, quiet and efficient way of terminating a life. Be that as it may, once the deed is done, the symbol of such a death is the silent and taut straight line of the rope.

The thicker the straight line, the deeper the separation. Although the once formidable Great Wall of China has become a quaint tourist attraction, and the Berlin Wall has been down for some years, its huge concrete slabs having become massive canvasses for politically correct graffiti, the straight and continuous lines of concrete blocks that make up the very misnamed 681 kilometers of the Separation ‘Fence,' intended to separate the Palestinian population from the Israeli, are still being poured.

Even if this ‘fence' has for now reduced the number terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, as the Palestinian population is fast approaching that of the Jews, it is literally ‘cultivating' organic and viral throngs of Palestinian disenfranchised youth who have never seen an Israeli man or woman – not even a child. Their only notion of an Israeli is similar to that which prisoners have of their maximum security warder: people in uniform, weapons dangling from the hip, who demand obedience, shout orders, curtails their freedom and sometimes kills even the very young and the elderly.

When in the ‘democratic' world, we happen to glimpse squadrons of soldiers, elsewhere in the world, marching as one in straight lines, these images do conjure horrific possibilities. Ditto of the helmeted anti-riot police as they stand in a solid black line behind their bullet-proof shields. Having said that, not all nasty separation lines are thick and bold. Thin straight lines of wire spiked with barbs are deceptively transparent.

When someone says, ‘Let me say it to you straight," we know the words will be hard-edged and sharp. We know such words hurt and we know that some, spat out at specific time and place, have power to kill. Interestingly, though words can be as deadly as arrows, our tongues are rounded. They are soft. Our teeth are not soft but, they, too, are rounded. So are our nails, and so are beaks, claws and talons.

The rod is another deceptive thin, straight line. Ironically, it is in its flexibility that hides the sting. Standing straight, ramrod straight, goes beyond the demand for good posture. Standing straight is said to denote moral strength and consistency which have often been confused with good character. After all, the various psychopaths who have become leaders of men and of armies may have had impeccable posture and sharp straight lines ironed in their uniform shirts, but that hardly made them ‘good' people, certainly not in the human, soul-full sense.

When two straight lines intersect, they become a cross. Straight lines are aggressive: not only do they separate but they also cross out. They cancel. They censure thoughts and they cancel people.  They are the paper and pen parents of the Delete key. Circles and ellipses, symbols of unity, would never even dream of committing such random acts of social aggression.

"Truth, is, god of such things," prays the little dot still unformed under the nib of my pen, "best of all, I'd like to be a spiral that grows and grows into Infinity. But, please, please, do not make me a straight line. Straight lines are repressed. They don't interact with anything. All they do is cross each other and they are ... dangerous to mankind."

About the Author

Naked Spirituality - A Soul's Quest

By day, a teacher, by night, an explorer - I began to search for life's meaning, initially through writing fiction and more recently through learning, practicing, and writing about spiritual philosophy.

A couple of years after my last set of back-to-back novels, "Far From Maddy" and "Morgan in the Mirror", my writing took an entirely different tack.

Home, Sweet Home

Inspired by the teachings of my Spiritual Guide – and pushed along by my soul's whispers - in 2009, I embarked on Late But *IN Time*, a collection of spiritual articles inspired by my inner-most thoughts on all Matters of the Heart and Soul.

The series began with twelve articles complete with illustrations. It deals with what I consider uncompromising, hardcore spirituality and is an ongoing *live* project.

My next creative endeavour lead me to making my own podcasts. Each of the

These clips are conveniently set out on Magnify.net - from last to first, so work your way up from page 3 to page 1

That was followed by blogs as series - some 5 to 10 blogs per topic - plenty of space and enough words through which to properly unpack each topic from a spiritual perspective.

Together and separately, these articles, blogs and podcasts amount to a *free* guide to what I have  decided to call Naked Spirituality, the only approach to spirituality that, I believe, if practised with an open heart and diligently, can truly set us on The Path of spiritual evolution.

FYI, I am not selling anything; no workshops; no massages; no seminars; no retreats; no crystals and no books on the Law of Attraction.

There is nothing here, there or anywhere that I have written on the topic of Spiritual Philosophy that seeks to be marketed, but there is plenty that can/should be/ought to be practiced ... daily

What are some cool songs I could learn for the guitar?

Here are some examples of what I'm talking about that I already know how to play:
Halo theme
Super Mario theme
Zelda theme (also Gerudo valley)
South Park theme
Drunken Lullabies by Flogging Molly
96 Quite Bitter Beings by CKY
Iron Man by Black Sabbath (also NIB, Paranoid, and War Pigs)
Pokemon gym theme from the old gameboy games

I want some suggestions that would be a crowd pleaser and people could be like, "Hey! I know that song... thats awesome."

Thanks for any help.

If you know the basic guitar chords there are loads of nice songs you can play. Here's a few:

Amazed by Lonestar
Breathing by Lifehouse
Clocks by Coldplay
Dreams by The Cranberries
First Cut Is The Deepest by Cat Stevens
Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen
Here Without You by Three Doors Down
Horse With No Name by America
Hotel California by The Eagles
House of the Rising Sun by The Animals
Pianoman by Billy Joel
Please Forgive Me Bryan Adams
Wonderwall by Oasis

This site has the chords for most of these songs and some other easy ones. It's in an Ebook you can download...

http://www.pluckandplayguitar.com/easy-guitar-songs.html

Antony Parviainen Trio - NIB