Really, really, really slushy

When i went shopping this morning it was pissing outside, except at intervals, when the piss froze and it snowed down. The whether didn't seem to be able to make up its mind. After having lived in Norway for three and a half years you'd think i'd already have wisened up and adopted the waterproof clothing everybody wears here, but I make do with my regular sneakers, jeans, t-shirts and sweaters -- everything on top of nice, thick, woolen underwear and socks, of course, and accompanied by a handy leather jacket, scarf and cap. Yes, you do get wet, but the wool keeps you warm. Plus, you don't have to spend on freakishly expensive waterproof gear and look the same everywhere you go.

In any case, even though this time it meant plodding through slush and at times uncertainly sliding on the compacted snow on the road with wet and fogged up glasses, i love the walk to Vilkis. It's two kilometers of rolling hills, with glimpses of the fjord at times and always the mountains, in the distance. It gives me time to think.

Today i was wondering at how we human beings seem to have power to create our own reality, at least at times, as if we were able to affect the way the universe is with the force of our thoughts. We certainly are able to transform other people and other animals, at least. White slavers justified themselves by saying that blacks and indians were inferior human beings, or animals, or lacking certain sensibilities. They treated their slaves cruelly and, in doing them violence, many times it was violence that they reaped: in real life Segismundo does not forgive Basilio so easily. So even nowadays, the fruits of that violence still stop people from seeing each other as people. I suppose sensibilities were damaged on both sides, in the end.

What crossed my mind this morning, however, was the possibility that mind might affect reality, not only other people. What if simply by thinking we affect the way the universe is? What if we see stars and galaxies because mind makes them that way? We thinking entities, i mean, not only humans and other animals, but all those that may exist out there, in other planets and stars, or in this one, embedded in matter or vacuum or outside or across our little bubble of space and time. What if what we see is part of their making?

This thought implies that i do believe in a creative force in the universe, after all. A force with personality, of which I am a part. But this is all speculation, fancy and ripe with the appeal of endless beauty and possibilities, i think, and from such I may draw strength and energy, now and then, but to treat the whole idea like more than --again-- a possibility, would be crazy.

This is why i don't understand how a concept such a faith could have been born from other than the will to dominate or influence others. For a person to wish that something were true is one thing, but to convince oneself that it is so, or why such conviction should be necessary, I can't comprehend. No, faith was impossed by force (as History confirms), with threats and violence, and that is why the mechanics of religion can only work when introduced to young children, and then only if carefully nurtured and protected.