second-hand stuff

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I read this morning on a BBC internet bulletin board:

Doubt means that you have not yet finished thinking. That the subject matter is ‘a work in progress’.

Lately there is the habit of looking elsewhere for something to consider, something to munch, something to expatiate about ... find someone else's wisdom or conviction and then chew on that. It's a bit like picking gum off the bottom of the cafeteria table -- seeking flavor in something second-hand that is then sanded and refinished to a lustrous sheen, something re-chewed into a revised 'importance.'

Second-hand stuff is interesting, I guess, but it's still second-hand. When I want to consider the first-hand, I find the grey sky and the cardinal's song more inviting these days. Second-hand, perhaps, and yet somehow closer to the mark. Old chewing gum has a way of tiring the jaws...not to mention the germs. :)

What isn't second-hand? Doubting something else. Rechewing something else. Elevating or dismissing something else. And all the while, before picking that old stuff off the bottom of the nearest cafeteria table, there is something which lacks all doubt and certainty, is easier than re-chewing, has more flavor.

Where the cardinal sings, the universe is at ease. Where a sneeze explodes, all need for flavor or doubt is erased ... or perhaps just explains without explanation what requires no explanation. Breath comes and breath goes. Wily and wise explications rise up and fall away. And those muttering "this moment" are forced to stop trying.

What a relief.
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