Black Voice News Online - The Cosmic Poetic Ladder

The Cosmic Poetic Ladder

Thursday, 07 June 2007

Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D.

As a 13 year old boy my Mother, a high school English teacher, confused me each time she said: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and then followed this with: "a thing of beauty is a joy forever." Since two of my outdoor jobs were tending to the flower and vegetable gardens and painting the house, the latter caused me to think of my flower garden (though the flowers did not last forever). Her first saying led to a mental picture of my "A" frame step-ladder--with its two ladders hinged at the top and its opposite end resting on the ground, as if each leg represented four humans. In other words, her two phrases seemed to be at opposite ends of the cosmos. So great was my mental conflict over these two phrases that one day I rode my bicycle to a downtown book store in Greensboro, North Carolina to look up "beauty" in a "big fat" dictionary. Item 13 under "beauty" sort of correlated "a thing of beauty is a joy forever" with the top step of the step-ladder. However, at the bottom, each leg was like an individual "beholder" living a unique life, having a unique philosophy, and being uniquely individualist. But as people climb each step, their lives, their philosophies, and their individualism become more and more alike until, at the top, they have a "Group Mind" and a "Group Spirit."

These ideas, coupled with my minister saying that all humans--by being made in the image of God--are related in spirit thereafter fashioned a mental picture of types of Beauty that resembled the steps of an "A" Frame ladder. Since God (the Infinite) lasts forever, then things with God-like attributes have Ultimate Form in the Sublime. One archetype Form is "the Beauty that lasts forever." This is because it contains all the Ocean of Nun's beauty of potential possibilities and because its Sublime contents apparently last just short of forever-contents seemingly infinite to a human's mind. However, unsophisticated individuals see beauty-not as a unity-but based upon what satisfies their unique taste. For them, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." As they reach higher planes of existence, they will begin to see that "All is in One and One is in All." To realize this perspective leads to an awe-inspiring inner atmosphere -- an atmosphere checkered with reverence -- an atmosphere causing one to be forever overwhelmed with pleasure in its highest realm.

The "A" Frame applies to many profound concepts of African Tradition as well as to your daily life. For example, in the process of studying the stars and planets (? 12,500 BC), Ancient Africans devised concepts of Symbols, Forms, Numbers, Shapes, Patterns, and Models which, by being located around the top of the metaphorical "A" frame ladder, possess "Lofty" features. In descending this ladder from the Sublime to the Earth, the offspring of each Lofty thing takes on more and more matter and therefore acquires more and more boundaries so that mental pictures can appear. Individual "beholders" interpret mental pictures uniquely. Nevertheless, the "A" Frame supplies you with a mental picture of where you are and where you are going and how you want "to step" in order to get there. It conveys which is the most important step; where to begin discussion with your audience to establish "common ground"; and how much time to spend on each step. Climbing each steps leads you to the truth. Regarding the truth, the "A" Frame suggest how deep and how high to go so as to make truth "crystal" clear and transparent for the purpose of creating, enhancing and maintaining harmony.

website: www.jablifeskills.com

Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D.