Waking Life

...because Then happened, Now isn't. But didn't I mention the ongoing "wow" is happening right now? We are all co-authors of this dancing exuberance where even our inabilities are having a roast. We are the authors of ourselves, co-authoring a gigantic Dostoevsky novel, starring clowns. This entire thing we're involved with called the world, is an opportunity to exhibit how exciting alienation can be. Life is a matter of a miracle that is collected over time by moments, flabbergasted to be in each other's presence. The world is an exam to see if we can rise into direct experience. Our eyesight is here as a test to see if we can see beyond it. Matter is here as a test for our curiosity. Doubt is here as an exam for our vitality.

Is the real world any more real than the world of dreams? Who is to say I am not dreaming all this, and I'll wake up one day as a alien in another universe, having dreamed the whole of earth and its history during an afternoon siesta. Can I dream or think of dreaming inside a dream?

An assumption develops that you cannot understand life and live life simultaneously. I do not agree entirely. Which is to say I do not exactly disagree. I would say that life understood is life lived. But the paradoxes bug me, and I can learn to love and make love to the paradoxes that bug me. And on really romantic evenings of self, I go salsa dancing with my confusion. Before you drift off, don't forget. Which is to say, remember. Because remembering is so much more a psychotic activity than forgetting. And as one realizes that one is a dream figure in another person's dream, that is self awareness.

Waking Life is a movie. It is not a story though. It jolts the visual and auditory modes of perception by way of a surreal narrative, created solely by the juxtaposition of dialogue. It is a two hour eat-all-you-can lunch buffet for the mind. A fluid visual style created by rotoscoping non-photorealistic animation on live action footage creates the basis for a constant repertoire where one bouquet of ideas melts into another. It is a movie, which you may find has an uncanny resemblance to your life, or to your dreams. Do you know the difference between the two?

You haven't met yourself yet. But the advantage to meeting others in the meantime is that one of them may present you to yourself. Examine the nature of everything you observe. For instance, you might find yourself walking through a dream parking lot. And yes, those are dream feet inside of your dream shoes. Part of your dream self. And so, the person that you appear to be in the dream cannot be who you really are. This is an image, a mental model.

If this was a dream,
My dream,
Born inside me,
Would I be fighting on the losing side?

If this was my fight,
My strife,
Fought for my life,
Would I forbid my heart to beat?

If this was my heart,
My love,
Alive with my blood,
Would I be bereft of you right now?

If this was my dream.

The excerpts from the scripts of the movie, given above, are from this site, and all copyrights rest with their rightful owners.