{"id":28812,"date":"2025-09-12T12:15:01","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T16:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=28812"},"modified":"2025-09-12T12:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T16:15:09","slug":"its-already-happened-welcome-to-the-other-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/its-already-happened-welcome-to-the-other-side\/","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s Already Happened: Welcome to the Other Side!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"intrinsic-container intrinsic-container-16x9\" style=\"width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qBWVWjdNWC0?si=BDP7b3vF9Hy5M0CA\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"smalltext\"><em>[Video: &#8220;Turn Around,&#8221; a TV commercial from sometime in the 1960s promoting Kodak film and cameras. The singer, apparently: either Harry Belafonte &#8212; who&#8217;s also credited as a <\/em>possible<em> co-songwriter, with Malvina Reynolds and Alan Greene &#8212; or Ed Ames; I&#8217;m sure somebody knows the truth (see, e.g., <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=S0Z_Mi2Nvn0C&amp;pg=PA137#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this book<\/a>)!]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From <em><a href=\"https:\/\/whiskeyriverscommonplace.blogspot.com\/2005\/11\/on-contrary.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">whiskey river&#8217;s commonplace book<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>One day a young Buddhist, on his journey home, came to the banks of a wide river. Staring hopelessly at the great obstacle in front of him, he pondered for hours on just how to cross such a wide barrier. Just as he was about to give up his pursuit to continue his journey he saw a great teacher on the other side of the river. The young Buddhist yells over to the teacher, &#8220;Oh wise one, can you tell me how to get to the other side of this river?&#8221; The teacher ponders for a moment, looks up and down the river, and yells back, &#8220;My son,&nbsp;<em>you are<\/em>&nbsp;on the other side.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>(<em>[source: <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=N4ynDwAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA23#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>, among many others]<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;<a href=\"https:\/\/whiskeyriverscommonplace.blogspot.com\/2005\/11\/some-reckless-words.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">and<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>The Options<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you die<br>here are the options:<br>everything or oblivion<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A centre of light and around it<br>all you love, those dead<br>and those abiding still<br>and each holding<br>an object of endearment<br>you lost long ago<br>before you came to<br>know and be simultaneously<br>at last<br>at rest<br>beyond words<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or else your cells<br>stop their chemical<br>talk, the neurons say no<br>and their warmth leaves you<br>not even the absence of black&#8212;<br>nothing of earth&#8217;s up, round, biomass span<br>just the nonexistence<br>you tried to conjure once<br>by closing your eyes and<br>sleeping, except that dreams<br>fired their figments<br>across space at you<br>and your muscles straining<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While we live<br>we pick one of these options<br>to live by, and neither is understood<br>the way the robin in the tree is<br>who speaks to us of March lust,<br>the way water and clouds are<br>which tell us to walk out<br>into the day, how to step<br>on grass and mud and feel the pull<br>upward and then sag an hour later<br>down, we with our little time<br>and our ideas and our blood.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>(David Zieroth [<em><a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=EwMUEQAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PT91#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;<span class=\"explannote\" title=\"ibid.\">and<\/span>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Picasso is riding on a train and someone sits down next to him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recognizing who he is, the person asks, &#8220;Why don&#8217;t you paint people the way they really are?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Picasso asks, &#8220;What do you mean by the way they really are?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The man eagerly pulls out his wallet and shows Picasso a picture of his wife and says, &#8220;This is my wife.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Picasso responds, &#8220;She looks rather small and flat, don&#8217;t you think?&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>(Bonnie Myotai Treace, Sensei <em>[source: unknown for now, but the same story in different words is <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/artofpossibility0000zand\/page\/11\/mode\/1up\">here<\/a>]<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From elsewhere:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cYou play pool?\u201d [congressman Boyette] asked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> [Galaxy, his paid escort, said,] \u201cI could kick your ass any night, Spanky.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWell, listen to this. The woke police are trying to get all the eight balls changed from black to rainbow-colored!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Galaxy rolled her eyes. \u201cWho said that?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFox.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWho on Fox?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJudge Jeanine,\u201d said Boyette. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Galaxy let out a hoot. \u201cI\u2019m going to pretend you know that\u2019s total bullshit.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNo, it\u2019s not. She says they\u2019ve got Washington lobbyists putting pressure on all the billiard companies.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Galaxy said, \u201cYou find more dumb ways to kill a vibe than any guy I\u2019ve ever been with.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>(Carl Hiaasen [<em><a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=jJkZEQAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA27#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Song for Autumn<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t you imagine the leaves dream now<br><span style=\"margin-left: 1.5em;\">how comfortable it will be to touch<\/span><br>the earth instead of the<br><span style=\"margin-left: 1.5em;\">nothingness of air and the endless<\/span><br>freshets of wind? And don\u2019t you think<br><span style=\"margin-left: 1.5em;\">the trees, especially those with <\/span><br>mossy hollows, are beginning to look for<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the birds that will come \u2013 six, a dozen \u2013 to sleep <br><span style=\"margin-left: 1.5em;\">inside their bodies? And don\u2019t you hear<\/span> <br>the goldenrod whispering goodbye, <br><span style=\"margin-left: 1.5em;\">the everlasting being crowned with the first<\/span> <br>tuffets of snow? The pond <br><span style=\"margin-left: 1.5em;\">stiffens and the white field over which<\/span> <br>the fox runs so quickly brings out <br><span style=\"margin-left: 1.5em;\">its long blue shadows. The wind wags <\/span> <br>its many tails. And at evening <br><span style=\"margin-left: 1.5em;\">the piled firewood shifts a little,<\/span> <br>longing to be on its way.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>(Mary Oliver [<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poetrymagazine\/browse?volume=186&amp;issue=2&amp;page=27\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Once upon a time, all the professors disappeared, swallowed and digested by a new system. All the centers of learning closed because they were outmoded, and their sites were converted into living quarters swarming with wise, well-organized people who were incapable of creating anything new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Knowledge was an item that could be bought and sold. A device called the IWM 1000 had been invented. It was the ultimate invention: it brought an entire era to an end. The IWM 1000 was a very small machine, the size of an old scholarly briefcase. It was very easy to use-lightweight and affordable to any person interested in knowing anything. The IWM 1000 contained all human knowledge and all the facts of all the libraries of the ancient and modern world\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the IWM 1000, you could write any type of literature, compose music, and even paint pictures. Creative works were disappearing because anybody, with time and sufficient patience, could make any work similar to and even superior to one made by artists of the past without having to exert the brain or feel anything strange or abnormal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lovers would make the machines conjugate all the tenses of the verb to love, and they would listen to romantic songs. In offices and administrative buildings tape-recorded orders were given, and the IWM 1000 would complete the details of the work. Many people got in the habit of talking only to their own machines; therefore, nobody contradicted them because they knew how the machine was going to respond, or because they believed that rivalry could not exist between a machine and a human being. A machine could not accuse anyone of ignorance: they could ask anything.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>(Alicia Y\u00e1\u00f1ez Coss\u00edo [<em><a href=\"https:\/\/ecuadorfiction.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/The-IWM-1000.pdf\">source<\/a>: &#8220;The IWM 1000,&#8221; from <\/em>1975<em>!]<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>My Autumn Leaves<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I watch the woods for deer as if I\u2019m armed.<br>I watch the woods for deer who never come.<br>I know the hes and shes in autumn<br>rendezvous in orchards stained with fallen<br>apples\u2019 scent. I drive my car this way to work<br>so I may let the crows in corn believe<br>it\u2019s me their caws are meant to warn,<br>and snakes who turn in warm and secret caves<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>they know me too. They know the boy<br>who lives inside me still won\u2019t go away.<br>The deer are ghosts who slip between the light<br>through trees, so you may only hear the snap<br>of branches in the thicket beyond hope.<br>I watch the woods for deer, as if I\u2019m armed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>(Bruce Weigl [<em><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/unravelingstrang00bruc\/page\/54\/mode\/1up\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Video: &#8220;Turn Around,&#8221; a TV commercial from sometime in the 1960s promoting Kodak film and cameras. The singer, apparently: either Harry Belafonte &#8212; who&#8217;s also credited as a possible co-songwriter, with Malvina Reynolds and Alan Greene &#8212; or Ed Ames; I&#8217;m sure somebody knows the truth (see, e.g., this book)!] From whiskey river&#8217;s commonplace book: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Carl Hiaasen, Mary Oliver, a koan, et al.: 'It\u2019s Already Happened: Welcome to the Other Side!'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[183,247,1393,115,250,4878,251,4159],"tags":[595,2246,2929,4316,6187,6188,6189,6190,6191,6192,6193],"class_list":{"0":"post-28812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-everyday-life","8":"category-ruminations","9":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","10":"category-advertisingpackaging","11":"category-art","12":"category-fiction","13":"category-poetry-writing_cat","14":"category-essays","15":"tag-mary-oliver","16":"tag-bonnie-myotai-treace","17":"tag-zen","18":"tag-koans","19":"tag-david-zieroth","20":"tag-carl-hiaasen","21":"tag-alicia-yanez-cossio","22":"tag-bruce-weigl","23":"tag-kodak","24":"tag-commercials","25":"tag-turn-around","26":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TurnAround_Kodak-1.png?fit=1263%2C719&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-7uI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28812"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28828,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28812\/revisions\/28828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}