Oh wow I guess I wrote a little masterpiece of stupidity for the equinox yesterday (I think so anyway). I'm not sure if people are getting the central joke/core concept, which is based on the "mike hawk" ads I saw in skating mags when I was a kid (also apropos). People are always somewhat aghast when, for example, I'm learning wing chun and I say something like "oh you have to be stupid". I've loved stupidity at least since encountering buddhism but likely before and that's just a sophisticated alibi. I do have the aspiration to one day go beyond revelry in absolute cultural poverty. Apologies if I'm being too self-indulgent.... oh and my name is Zach:
Only 3 days ago I was thinking of inane ideas for a Pizza Hut rip-off. I came up with Pizza Hub, which is probably the funniest, and if one were going with a ship theme,--space or otherwise--Pizza Hull, but there was something to Pizza Hunt that was not only stupid but suggested something deeper. I thought it might have something to do with how you could make the n really small or do something like Hu to the nth power so the sign would basically say "Pizza Hut", but was that from whence it drew its strange occulted power? Was that even funny? I couldn't really tell anymore.
I mean it was obviously funny that you don't hunt for pizza, you bake it, so why would you go to a place that's like tracking down the pizza that you're already trying to get--there's no doubt about that. But that's mere plausible whimsy. Something else was stirring within "Pizza Hunt", something more mysterious and powerful, as if it could speak, nye, roar something I could not yet say.
Sometimes the enigmatic is so bleedingly obvious it takes a few days to see what you it was staring at you right in their own face! Finally it dawned on me: "PizZack Hunt". This, I thought, was what Pizza Hubt was trying to tell me all along.
And then I had really strange idea. Maybe this could be my name. Maybe I could leave everything and find a new community and put everything I have into it. They would call me "P" and sometimes even "Peaknuckle" for fun. And after 40 or 50 years of giving it my best, all the sweat and toil, tears and laughter, the unexpected blessings that punctuate seasons of unyielding despair... finally someone would come to me and ask, "What does P mean?"
And I would say, "PizZack... PizZack Hunt. '83 baby... I went to college in the 2000's."
That’s what I love about exercise, it’s a way of meditating, getting into your body. I lift too but mostly do bodyweight stuff now after getting arrogant with the deadlift. I feel the ‘flow’ most when running downhill in a forest or on a mountain, there’s no room for conscious pondering, just this body/sense unity where you’re simultaneously scanning the upcoming terrain and adjusting your feet in the moment.
The equinox also crept up on me this year; my daughter was born on the winter solstice so after a hazy few months this equinox feels like it’s demarcating the first phase of her life.
I know there is a lot we disagree about, Rhyd, but it's this sort of thing I love to read from you--the DEEP Pagan perspective, beyond whether or not there are gods and whether or not magic works. Paganism--when you really get it, which is often only in glimpses--is about a worldview, a different way of understanding things and valuing things from that of the Overculture. So thanks for this, and for what you do.
Happy Equinox from the Antipodes, Rhyd, where we're just going while you lot are all coming! If that sounds stupid, I won't apologise...
Great piece. Read upon waking this morning while still somewhat stupefied, and it triggered a revelation for me regarding my father, whose name was Denis. Suffice to say he would have had an happier life if he had occasionally removed his head. Thank you!
After lifting weights intensely (or occasionally from another intense type of workout or just hard physical labor), I often feel like my mind is diffused throughout my body. I couldn't focus even if I wanted to. It's not like a body scan in meditation, which often feels more like thinking about feeling; it's that my whole body is awake. From the outside, it probably does look like a stupor: all unfocused eyes and sitting still aside from maybe sipping water.
I love that whole body awake feeling. I get it from weight training but also from intense yoga workouts. This is when I feel most connected to the body.
This equinox (autumn in Australia) I have run around like crazy in the wild wind with my two dogs and generally felt a profound sense of wellbeing. I have also made an effort to get out in the sun first upon waking, to appreciate it while we still have it before the winter comes. This seems to be helping me to sleep better, too.
I love your posts and can relate to the post workout stupids, when I can't think of what I want to say. Sometimes I just sit, after the gym, in the comfy couches and just allow myself to be, for a while. I generally drink alot of water then, also.
I'm sure you're familiar with the modern rebirth of headless? 😸 https://www.headless.org/
My gym session today will now be much richer but just as stupid as ever, thank you, happy equinox!
Oh wow I guess I wrote a little masterpiece of stupidity for the equinox yesterday (I think so anyway). I'm not sure if people are getting the central joke/core concept, which is based on the "mike hawk" ads I saw in skating mags when I was a kid (also apropos). People are always somewhat aghast when, for example, I'm learning wing chun and I say something like "oh you have to be stupid". I've loved stupidity at least since encountering buddhism but likely before and that's just a sophisticated alibi. I do have the aspiration to one day go beyond revelry in absolute cultural poverty. Apologies if I'm being too self-indulgent.... oh and my name is Zach:
Only 3 days ago I was thinking of inane ideas for a Pizza Hut rip-off. I came up with Pizza Hub, which is probably the funniest, and if one were going with a ship theme,--space or otherwise--Pizza Hull, but there was something to Pizza Hunt that was not only stupid but suggested something deeper. I thought it might have something to do with how you could make the n really small or do something like Hu to the nth power so the sign would basically say "Pizza Hut", but was that from whence it drew its strange occulted power? Was that even funny? I couldn't really tell anymore.
I mean it was obviously funny that you don't hunt for pizza, you bake it, so why would you go to a place that's like tracking down the pizza that you're already trying to get--there's no doubt about that. But that's mere plausible whimsy. Something else was stirring within "Pizza Hunt", something more mysterious and powerful, as if it could speak, nye, roar something I could not yet say.
Sometimes the enigmatic is so bleedingly obvious it takes a few days to see what you it was staring at you right in their own face! Finally it dawned on me: "PizZack Hunt". This, I thought, was what Pizza Hubt was trying to tell me all along.
And then I had really strange idea. Maybe this could be my name. Maybe I could leave everything and find a new community and put everything I have into it. They would call me "P" and sometimes even "Peaknuckle" for fun. And after 40 or 50 years of giving it my best, all the sweat and toil, tears and laughter, the unexpected blessings that punctuate seasons of unyielding despair... finally someone would come to me and ask, "What does P mean?"
And I would say, "PizZack... PizZack Hunt. '83 baby... I went to college in the 2000's."
i have the same experience when i lift heavy at the gym and call it “going ape mode”
That’s what I love about exercise, it’s a way of meditating, getting into your body. I lift too but mostly do bodyweight stuff now after getting arrogant with the deadlift. I feel the ‘flow’ most when running downhill in a forest or on a mountain, there’s no room for conscious pondering, just this body/sense unity where you’re simultaneously scanning the upcoming terrain and adjusting your feet in the moment.
The equinox also crept up on me this year; my daughter was born on the winter solstice so after a hazy few months this equinox feels like it’s demarcating the first phase of her life.
How lovely to see the equinox as a significant marker point in her life.
Thank you for this Ryhd, it's wonderful.
I know there is a lot we disagree about, Rhyd, but it's this sort of thing I love to read from you--the DEEP Pagan perspective, beyond whether or not there are gods and whether or not magic works. Paganism--when you really get it, which is often only in glimpses--is about a worldview, a different way of understanding things and valuing things from that of the Overculture. So thanks for this, and for what you do.
I really appreciate this post. I will not think of the word "stupid" the same again.
Me either.
Happy Equinox from the Antipodes, Rhyd, where we're just going while you lot are all coming! If that sounds stupid, I won't apologise...
Great piece. Read upon waking this morning while still somewhat stupefied, and it triggered a revelation for me regarding my father, whose name was Denis. Suffice to say he would have had an happier life if he had occasionally removed his head. Thank you!
After lifting weights intensely (or occasionally from another intense type of workout or just hard physical labor), I often feel like my mind is diffused throughout my body. I couldn't focus even if I wanted to. It's not like a body scan in meditation, which often feels more like thinking about feeling; it's that my whole body is awake. From the outside, it probably does look like a stupor: all unfocused eyes and sitting still aside from maybe sipping water.
I love that whole body awake feeling. I get it from weight training but also from intense yoga workouts. This is when I feel most connected to the body.
This equinox (autumn in Australia) I have run around like crazy in the wild wind with my two dogs and generally felt a profound sense of wellbeing. I have also made an effort to get out in the sun first upon waking, to appreciate it while we still have it before the winter comes. This seems to be helping me to sleep better, too.
I love your posts and can relate to the post workout stupids, when I can't think of what I want to say. Sometimes I just sit, after the gym, in the comfy couches and just allow myself to be, for a while. I generally drink alot of water then, also.