C.G.Ayling

Author: cvdw4051

  • The Nature of Man

    Humanity is of a universal nature.

    Do Eskimos differ from Aboriginals? Are Aboriginals different to Africans? Do Africans differ from Asians? Are Asians different to Arabs? And possibly most telling, are Europeans different to them all?

    Assuming all you’re considering is their skin, perhaps they are. Yet how shallow a perception is that?  Does the color of our skin, which seldom exceeds a millimeter, reveal the nature of the human being housed within?  Is character clearly displayed in bold letters etched upon the surface of one’s flesh?

    Not really.  Indeed not at all.

    However that is precisely what we do.  We restrict our consideration of our fellow humans to how they differ from us, instead of how similar we are.

    To gaze upon closed flesh, or to dive into an opened soul, those who on the surface swim, never delve the depths, within.

    Humanity is motivated by fundamental needs, and those needs are universal across all cultures, regardless of their diversity or distance from one another.

    Needs can be separated into physical and spiritual.  {Isn’t it strange how our genetic encoding seems to encourage us to divide rather than to bring together?}  Physical needs are tangible.  They include food, drink, shelter, and survival.  Spiritual needs are intangible.  They are far more complex, however they are as universal in nature as our physical needs.  Our most essential universal spiritual needs include acceptance, dignity, security, hope, understanding, compassion, and love.

    Are our physical needs more important than our spiritual ones?  It would seem that until we fulfill the physical requirements of our bodies we cannot even consider our spiritual needs. Yet it strikes me this isn’t the case at all. Why?  Because a life that lacks these spiritual elements is simply not a life worth living.

    Can you imagine living without acceptance? How would you feel if no one accepted you as you truly are?  How would you feel if you were forced to live a lie?

    Can you imagine living without dignity?  How would you feel to be treated as somehow less than human?  How would you feel to be beneath consideration?

    Can you imagine living without security?  How would you feel if every element of your physical and emotional well-being was outside of your control?  How would you feel if your very existence was at the capricious whim of persons unknown?

    Can you imagine living without hope?  How would you feel if you had nothing to hope for? How would you feel if you knew everything you did was in vain?

    Can you imagine living without understanding?  How would you feel if you didn’t know who you were, or who pulled your puppet strings?  How would you feel if you didn’t know your purpose, or the point of life itself?

    Can you imagine living without compassion? How would you feel to be treated callously?  How would you feel to be treated cruelly?  How would you feel if you realized you simply didn’t matter?

    Can you imagine living without love?  Imagining this may be so difficult as to be virtually inconceivable.  Why?  Well, love is the glue that binds our spiritual needs into our emotional whole.  Knowing we are loved grants us acceptance, dignity, security, hope, compassion, and understanding.  And giving others our love ensures their crucial yet intangible spiritual needs are also fulfilled.  Love is a circle, that which you give you somehow get back.

    Humans are social beings. We don’t need to be told life is better if our fundamental spiritual needs are fulfilled. And yet our nature seems to dictate that we deny others these very things. We want, expect, and even demand them for ourselves, but we’re not willing to freely give them to others.  How strange is that behavior?  To treat others with acceptance, dignity, security, hope, understanding, compassion, and love costs us nothing, yet we still seem unwilling to do so?  How bizarre is it that?

    The things we can buy contribute nothing to meet our spiritual needs, yet we hold them as inordinately precious.  If we have nobody with whom to share our possessions then everything we possess is worth precisely as much as it contributes toward our spiritual well-being, namely nothing.

    How did it come about that we value tangible objects more than we value the intangible elements which make life worthwhile?  When did we become so confused as to value things more than we value the intangible elements which are in fact priceless?

    Priceless…

    Priceless does not mean “of enormous monetary value“.

    Priceless means “of such enormous value no monetary amount is adequate compensation for its loss“.  Priceless describes the things we hold in our hearts, not the objects we hold in our hands.

    Our spiritual well-being is priceless.

    Wherever we are, we are spiritual beings. Wherever we are, we are the same.  Let us strive to value and treat all humanity equally, for all humans truly do share fundamental needs and those needs are more of the spirit than they are of the flesh.

    {P.S. If you’d like to learn when I believe we started to become confused over the value of objects versus the value of feelings, you might start here.}

  • Appropriate Language.

    My middle daughter has a cat named “Kaiya”, we have a female dog named “Bacon”.  After an initially, shall we say …frosty, relationship they are now the best of friends.

    Anyway, my youngest daughter took Bacon for a walk.  On her return she told me, in a shocked voice “Bacon tried to chase a cat!”

    I looked at her deadpan, and said “Well, I can’t say I’m surprised – the cat probably took one look at Bacon and hissed ‘Hey, aren’t you Kaiya’s bitch?’”

    My daughter thought it was almost as funny as I did.  My wife scowled and accused me of teaching my 13 year old bad language…

  • The Pilgrimage

    I am delighted to announce the release, mere moments ago, of the second novel in my Malmaxa series. 

    It has been a tough battle, with multiple things going wrong – yet ultimately making everything right.  You see, today is the birthday of my favorite middle daughter – Dannielle. When I realized this would come to pass, the nature of the universe and of life and its meaning struck me.

    The very last edit I made to the novel was to modify the dedication.  Dannielle is now included therein, and importantly so.  Happy Birthday Dannielle, may you delight in having this auspicious day recorded for posterity, and may you have many more.

    The Pilgrimage is already available on SmashWords, and has been submitted to Amazon, where it awaits approval.

  • Oh what a tangled

    web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.  As anyone familiar with my posts on various forums will have realized, I love old quotes, and adages.  Many of which are contradictory, yet still remain true.

    In this instance, I am not deriding myself – however, I am a wearing a chastened face as I look at my growing string of promises, all broken.  Promises, in regard to the imminent release of my second novel.  Well, what can I say, save I’ve let myself down – again.  I’m now home, sick with a chest cold.  And posting on my blog when I should be editing and formatting The Pilgrimage!  From the sublime, to the ridiculous!  Does my vanity know no bounds?

    Admissions made, I am frankly delighted with the progress I’m making  on the second novel.  It is a fantastic piece of work, and you can quote me on that!  Seriously though, it expands on Malmaxa, while simultaneously tightening the threads initiated in the first novel.  As I said in an email to a friend who made the mistake of purchasing Beltamar’s War (before I reduced its price, but hopefully not its worth, to zero) and is currently reading it.  Where was I?  Oh, yes – as I said in a recent email “You are the type of reader I hope to gain – one who sees below the surface and realizes early on that paradise comes at a cost.”  Well, The Pilgrimage begins to expose the cost of the paradise presented in Beltamar’s War.  I truly hope that my readers, as few as they are, derive as much satisfaction reading the ongoing tale as I am getting writing it, and in reading it again as I near the end of editing.

    If you haven’t snagged a free copy of Beltamar’s War, please do so soon, for that offer might well end “real soon now”.  Then again, it might not.

    No fixed deadline on when The Pilgrimage will be done, and no arrogant assertions such as “when its ready”, either.  I know myself a little better than that…  I doubt if I will ever be completely happy with my own work, therefore it will never be “ready”, and I think that might be a very good thing.

    But soon… and no – that is not a promise!

  • Motivational Delay

    Occasionally I wonder about the things that serve to motivate, and those that have the opposite effect.  Pressure is one to these things.  With me, a little pressure is a motivator, a lot… is not.  Likewise for  tasks, a few tasks are a good thing, but stack too many and none of them get done.

    If you’ve read many of my words you’ll realize that this is really a form of apology.  I tried hard to have the second novel in the Malmaxa series – The Pilgrimage – ready for release last weekend.  Real Life jumped on that dream, squashing it beneath the burden of 17 hours of unanticipated overtime.  Then exhaustion took over and kicked me while I was down (I’m simply not as resilient as I was in my long lost youth).  By Monday I was back on track, doing my usual couple of hours work on the novel every night – that is, on the nights I didn’t just collapse into bed.  By this Saturday evening I had made up about six of the 17 hours I lost.

    Which leaves me in the unenviable position of still having eleven hours work before I am reasonably happy with its state.  For some this might be a motivator, the final stretch, the last leg, and any number of other phrases.  Yet for me… it really isn’t.  Reluctance to relinquish my creation into the harsh light of critical eyes is building.  With that reluctance came a thought, and a frantic hand grasping at the straw of reprieve.  The first novel in the series was released on June the 6th, last year.  That date meant something in the context of Malmaxa (no, it has nothing to do with 666 – that would be way too obvious), on reflection 6/6/12 is coming so soon that rushing The Pilgrimage simply doesn’t make sense.  So… looks like it will be “sent to the presses” of virtual eBookhood on June 6th, 2012.  I hope it is worth the wait.

  • Delay…

    Much to my chagrin, I am forced to delay the release of the second novel in the Malmaxa series – The Pilgrimage.  Unfortunately real life reared its ugly head and resulted in my having to work for 17 unanticipated hours over the weekend.  Hours I had hoped to spend on the final pass through the novel.  So… a few more days till it is out and about.

    Some good news though, I have reduced the price of Beltamar’s War to free, in celebration of the second novels imminent release.  To secure this price simply visit SmashWords – feel free to tell anyone you know about this likely limited time offer, and notify Amazon, who should price match SmashWords (Amazon don’t allow me to give it away).

  • The Home Stretch

    A brief note about Malmaxa II – The Pilgrimage.  I’m pleased to say that I’m in the final leg of the race to release the second book in my series.  Well, perhaps less of a race and more of a marathon…

    The Pilgrimage was essentially complete when I released Beltamar’s War, or so I thought.  After all it was initially part of the original draft.  On the advice of a literary agent, Amy Hayden of Linn Prentis Literary, who declined to represent me yet managed to inspire me with her rejection, I split the first draft into two novels.  I’m glad I did as it allowed me to focus on cleaning up the first part of the tale – I am quite happy with Beltamar’s War in its current form.

    I started working on The Pilgrimage in earnest almost a year ago.  I thought I’d be done with it in a “few months”.  Was I wrong, or what?  Well, that “few months” turned into about a year.  Hopefully it will be time well spent, and I’m looking forward to readers’ comments.

    I have just finished working on the artwork for the cover, and I’m doing my last pass through the text now.  I think I’ll release it to Kindle and other eBook formats before the end of the weekend.  But… I have been known to be wrong before, so watch this space for news.

    A preview of the cover appears below.

    Selene, shortly before she receives her sixth marks.

     

     

  • Perceptions, of Time.

    Time is something which fascinates me.  You see I don’t believe time actually exists.  Yes, we have mechanisms to measure this “thing” very precisely.  Almost everything we do is somehow tied to time.  Yet there is nothing we can do to change it.

    Here is an interesting mental problem.  If we could travel faster than the speed of light and we travelled away from the earth while training an infinitely powerful telescope upon it, we would witness events that happened in the past.  In a manner of speaking, or thinking, we would be “overtaking the past” or travelling “back in time”.

    Now what would happen if we did this for a year, then turned around and raced back toward the earth, still faster than the speed of light?  When we turned around wouldn’t we be a year in the past?  Or, would a year have passed?

  • Logic vs Medicine

    During a conversation with my wife, the topic of routine screening mammograms as a means of prevention of breast cancer came up.  I am a logical person and not at all averse to defying conventional wisdom when it flies in the face of logic.  For me logic wins every time, there is simply no contest.

    Back to the topic of this post.  In the USA The America Cancer Society recommends “Yearly mammograms are recommended starting at age 40 and continuing for as long as a woman is in good health”.  Various other people, much more learned than I, disagree with this timeline.  This includes USA based organizations like The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force – though mammograms are generally recommended, their frequency is generally reduced from once a year to once every two to three years.

    Conventional wisdom would seem to indicate that if mammograms detect cancer then get them done often, since early detection is key to defeating cancer.

    Logic calls foul.  First, let us look at what a screening mammogram actually is.  Simply put, the breast is crushed between two plates until it is flat and dense, then it is irradiated by X-Rays.  This is done twice for each breast, with X-Ray pictures taken in the vertical and horizontal planes.

    Sounds wonderful doesn’t it?   To me it sounds like detection is not only barbaric, but downright dangerous as well.  I wonder what happens to a benign tumor when it is crushed, then irradiated twice every year?  I can’t imagine it is anything good.

    Although this primitive technology is capable of detecting breast cancer early, perhaps it is also capable of causing breast cancer by its invasive nature – logic certainly seems to warn of this danger.  (While “invasive” might not be the precisely correct word, X-Rays do penetrate the body.)

    Am I recommending that women don’t get annual mammograms?  Absolutely not.  I am not a doctor so I am making no recommendation either way.

    What I am recommending is you take conventional wisdom with a grain of salt.  If it seems to defy logic, it is probably worthy of deeper investigation.  If the conventional wisdom originates from people who will benefit financially from your listening to them (namely a doctor or radiologist), then perhaps you need to take a pinch of salt, and throw it over your left shoulder – right into their eye.

  • Chosen Soldier

    I’m in the process of reading a very interesting book called “Chosen Soldier”, by Dick Couch.  It details the selection process and the initial training that goes into the making of a Green Beret.  Green Berets are one of the US Elite Special Forces, and are held in high esteem both within and outside the USA.  Make no mistake, these men are highly skilled and highly regarded by anyone with a military background.

    Now, I expect you’re wondering why I’m reading this material?  What does it have to do with Malmaxa?

    Well, I consider myself a student of human nature. I find the motivations people have for doing things often to be of greater interest than the things they do.  I look back on my youth when I served in an army I believe was the best in the world at what it did.  We were young, patriotic and motivated to defend our country.  Before going on a patrol in which I had a premonition of dying, I once wrote a line by Horace in my personal diary.  It read “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”.  Like many premonitions it was proven wrong.  However that is not the point.

    So, what is the point then?  Well, put simply, it is that when I entered military service I truly believed that quote – it was the principle motivator for my volunteering for service before my allotted time came.  Others I knew dodged the bullet by avoiding or delaying service.  Back then, I held them in low esteem.  Today, I simply accept that they saw things differently than I saw things.  Where I believed I was serving the greater good, they believed otherwise. It saddens me to say that I now believe they were more right than I was.

    Perhaps neither of us was right, and neither of us was wrong.  We just weren’t on the same team.

    Nowadays I am adamantly opposed to war, yet I am even more opposed to injustice.  Please do not hold the volunteer servicemen and women of any country in low esteem.  They truly do serve their people.  The ones deserving of your derision are those in power who are willing to sacrifice the lives of these honorable soldiers in unjust wars. And yes, I firmly believe war is never just.

    In case you haven’t already looked up the translation of Horace’s quote, and even if you have, here is mine “Sweet it is, and fitting, for one’s country to die.”  In Malmaxa there is conflict. There is a war in which people fight and die. And just like here on this planet we inhabit and treat with no respect, the inhabitants of Malmaxa and do not know or ask why there is war.

    If you are drawn to National Service then by all means serve your compatriots with pride and honor.  But do not serve blindly without question, while believing yourself to be without blame.