Genius is making the Difficult and Complex, Simple and Easy

 And not vice-versa.  That is the important lesson and principle usually lost in instruction.  By that, one will be able to distinguish those who know enough, and those who have no idea what they are talking about -- and so everything is equally impressive and intimidating.  Unless it is so, nobody will listen to them -- and think them important messengers and interpreters of the gods themselves.

In their world, it is most important to be highly regarded as an expert -- and never humbled by their own ignorance, which is the beginning of every journey to great discovery.  That's not what they are interested in -- really and vitally, and it is only that passion, that opens the doors to endless discoveries.  And so it is not so important how much they already know, but the great discoveries that await them.

That is the great disillusionment of "aging" -- that what they know, is not all that can be known -- and there are worlds yet to be discovered, that they have to begin like everyone else -- as though they know nothing.  That is the hardest lesson to learn -- that what one knows, is only the beginning to what can be known -- and is not all that can be known forevermore.  That is the quandary of every time and age -- and the difference between the young and the old minds.

The young mind wants to know what works; the old mind holds on to what it knows despite that it does not work -- now and if it ever did.  Yet it will be unchanging in what it knows -- and insist that is what everyone else must also know -- even if what they know, doesn't work.  That is knowledge for knowledge's sake -- as though merely accumulating as much as possible, was the magic.

The mass media would like us to believe that the only reason their explanation does not work, is because not enough people believe it -- and only when there is 100% belief in it, that the miraculous will happen.  Of course, the reason people believe something, is that it works -- regardless of how many people believe in it, or even nobody believes it. It is the belief that has to be brought into line with what is actually happening, and not the belief -- that unless everybody is in on the mass delusion, reality will not manifest.

And so every attempt is made to undermine individual experiment and discovery -- in deference only to the experts (high priests) and those who feel they should have exclusive rights to tell everybody else what to believe.  In no event, should anybody be allowed to think for themselves -- just as it has always been -- according to them.

According to their dogma, The Truth has always been passed down from one generation of the Chosen to the next -- and everybody else is forbidden from that knowledge, or even inquiring into it.  That is their turf, or exclusive jurisdiction.  It even says so -- in The First Commandment, and First Amendment -- that there is deliberate intention to create a caste above all the others -- as The Fourth Estate -- beyond the kings, nobles, clergy and peasants.  That is just the way it has always been -- as God intended, and they were charged with enforcing.

Thus thinking independently and for oneself -- becomes the ultimate trespass against the social order -- as much as they can get everyone else to subscribe to -- and like.  But it goes far beyond "liking," and letting each individual determine such matters for themselves.  They must be forced to conform for their own good -- and nothing else will do -- because only they know better, what is best for all.

That is the stuff of parables -- since the beginning of consciousness.  There is a reason ancient wisdom rings true for every succeeding generation -- and that always begins with the advice to Know and Trust One's Own Judgment -- no matter how much pressure is placed on one to conform to what one knows violates every sensibility they know to be true.

In such quandaries, they must resort to the basics of what they know to be true -- and test each assumption they've accepted without questioning, or even suspect that it couldn't be true -- and get down to the error of their ways.  Only then does the possibility of discovering a greater possibility than ever thought possible become the inevitable.

The greater life has a mind and intelligence of its own -- far more than anybody's small part of it -- that they think to impose upon the whole.  That is the proverbial Zero-Sum Game -- of one seeming to dominate all the others -- at their expense, for however long that lasts.  But it too, will not be forever.

A simpler, more powerful truth will be revealed.  The many ad hoc explanations give way, are integrated and assimilated into one more comprehensive, simple explanation.  The one thing, is more significant than all the others -- that merely cancel one another, rather than giving greater force to the essential truth of the matter.

It doesn't matter how difficult and hard a movement appears that makes it productive -- because what really matters is the movement of blood and essential nutrients within that accounts for all the productivity in healthy benefits.  That is true for the dying as well as the world-class athlete.  When that movement stops, life ceases, and further growth is not possible -- because it is that sustenance and connection with the greater environment, that has to be maintained and enhanced for the highest actualization of all those possibilities.

Everything One Does is an Exercise

 No one is as certain as a person who has no idea what they are talking about.  People who know better, are much less certain that they know -- before they have bothered to find out for themselves.  Most just accept what others tell them is the truth of the matter.  It's much easier this way.  They never have to question anything -- just presume to know what they are doing, because they think they know what everybody else is doing and thinking.

Undoubtedly, the world is changing -- just as it always has.  Change is simply what we have to deal with -- neither good nor bad.  That is simply the challenge of the moment -- time and place.  In no time was it easier, or more difficult.  So what is one to make of it all?

Not just a part -- but the whole.  Health is being as good as one can be -- all their life.  For many more, that is now possible.  Exercise is a good thing -- and not the last thing one should be doing.  Eating has a purpose, and not just the latest entertainment.  Lifestyle is the best one can conceive of being.  That was not preconceived a long time ago by people who knew more than we do today.  In this time, we know as much and more than was ever known before -- because we have greater access to all of it -- the good, the bad and the ugly.

Quality of life is increasing one's exposure to the good -- and eliminating, or at least avoiding the bad as much as possible.  Those are the options in life -- we can choose to exercise -- some more than others, and by those choices and outcomes, we create our lives.  Nobody can and should do it for anybody else -- and ensure those outcomes for everybody else.  That is simply not possible -- because we are born as individuals, of which the meaning is, wholly unique and indivisible.  We all own our lives -- whether any constitution guarantees that or not.  It is simply a fact of life -- just as herds of zebras will attempt to cross a crocodile-infested river -- but not all will survive.  Most will, or the species will not survive.

Humankind is blessed to be much more adaptable -- and have more options capable of being exercised.  One doesn't necessarily have to be the singular world champion at it for it to be useful and meaningful.  It just simply has to do the job -- and serve its specific purpose -- and that invariably means, doing what absolutely needs to be done -- first and foremost, and not being distracted by all the entertainment and trivial available.

At this time, as every other, it is a challenge to determine which are the urgent and which are the trivial -- just because another thought of it, and wants to sell it to everybody else.  In that way, a lot of people lose their way -- in games, alcohol, drugs, and self-aggrandizing/isolating activity.  They are convinced by the marketers that "fake" is better than "authentic," and come to prefer it -- even if it endangers their existence.

So "exercise" is not "fake," but the real -- what one actually does, whether in front of a large group of witnesses, or for their own better judgment exclusively.  Those latter, are far more likely to know the real course of their lives -- than the many deceived by the applause of those who know even less than they do, or they would be doing it themselves.  But the truly meaningful, is doing it themselves -- and finding out the truth of any matter -- with minimal risk to one's continued viability.

One has to risk not knowing -- in order to learn the new, and in that wager, only risks the unknown.  Those who presume to know, never bother to find out -- so certain they are, that they already know everything that can be known, and are even convinced, they discovered/invented it themselves.  

Such people think they know all the right answers, when they have not even begun to ask the right questions -- and think all those who do not know what they do, must be censored and persecuted until they come around to seeing what they do -- as the only way things can ever be.  That is the timeless history of civilization, evolution and actuality.  What one does, is the way life and the world is.  That is the exercise of life -- and not just meaningless practice.   It becomes the real.