Busy Doin' Nothin'

So, various admixtures of intelligence, will, and sentiment go to the capability, character, and scope of this or that individual. 

I numinate Thomas Aquinas for scoring a 10/10 in all six dimensions. After all, the scope of the Summa(s) is no less than everything, and only the distraction of mystical union and the nuisance of death prevented him from eying every cross and teeing up every last dot and tiddle. 

This guy -- this is my kind of guy. Why settle for anything less? Way back when I was confirmed last year I took his as my saint name, so technically you can call me St. Thomas, am I wrong?

No, you're just an assoul.  

I wish you would get out of my life and shut up!

We kid. It's just that The Big Lebowski is Petey's favorite movie, and I can match him reference for reference with Napoleon Dynamite. The question is, how much do you want to bet I can throw this post over them mountains of intelligibility? 

Say, Petey... you know a lot about cyberspace. You ever come across anything... like time travel?

Easy. I've already looked into it for myself. Up here, different times are adjacent in vertical space. There's something analogous for you temporal folks, and the Happy Acres guy alluded to it the other day:

If you’re not in conversation with the great minds of the past, you’re not a thinker. For who else is there to talk to? (https://twitter.com/HappyHectares/status/1640894028588945408)

Reminds me of something the Aphorist says:

A cultured soul is one in which the din of the living does not drown out the music of the dead.

Agreed. Lately I've been conversing with my namesake via several books, the current one called Catholic Dogmatic Theology: A Synthesis, by Jean-Herve Nicolas (https://www.amazon.com/Catholic-Dogmatic-Theology-Trinitarian-Ressourcement/dp/0813234395/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1HCT2QIUCBRC9&keywords=catholic+dogmatic+theology+a+synthesis&qid=1680284174&s=books&sprefix=catholic+dogmatic+theology+a+synthesis%2Cstripbooks%2C160&sr=1-4).

Catholic dogma. Sounds scintillating!

Shut-up, Petey. You're just jealous 'cause I've been chatting online with Thomas all day.

Now, it's no secret that I've been working these last 17+ years on my own Summa Cosmologica, the question being whether I have the intelligence and capability. Put it this way: I have the sensibility down, and the scope isn't far behind. Sure, it requires a heroic will, but what's a hero? 

And so what if you're the laziest man in Los Angeles County?

I'm flattered, but you've touched precisely on a factor that is required but which cuts both ways if not more. The Aphorist gets it:

God is the guest of silence.

But it's not just a passive exercise -- or verticalisthenic rather -- because

Resignation must not be an exercise in stoicism but a surrender into divine hands.

Point is, you can't schedule these things, but then again, you can't not schedule them either. 

Which is why, every afternoon from approximately 4:25 until Tucker Time, I turn off my mind, relax, and float upstream, i.e., or lay down all thought and surrender to the void. Listen to the color of my dreams. Play the game existence to the end.

Of the beginning, of the beginning, of the beginning....

Thaaat's right Petey. Heeere's jnani. I wait at the great gate in an altered state, contemplate and wait for the Advocate. Does it help? Who knows? It's like physical exercise, which I do every day from 3:30 to 4:00. The Aphorist gets it:

We all have a key to the door that opens onto the luminous and noble peace of the desert.

And 

In man's extreme solitude he perceives anew the touch of immortal wings.

Well, one does one's best at any rate.

We only dig the channels for flash floods.

But

Thirst runs out before the water does.

So, it may look like I'm busy doing nothing, but

The mystic is the only one who is seriously ambitious.

I too get a lot of thoughts in the morning… I write them all down, but even so forget 'em after awhile.