Let’s talk about communal meals. Everyone can understand the concept of a communal meal, yes?

We eat with our families as children if nothing else, so communal meals have meaning. They even have meaning for other species. Much of the dynamic behind a communal meal shapes and gives structure to the social hierarchy of pack animals say, but your personal interpretation of the shared symbol may differ from other people.

Gives it juice too, so to speak, to continue as that pack. Indeed they do. So you don’t really make a new symbol, you just interpret the symbolism in personal ways.

For some, the symbolism of god is comforting. These people also tend to put faith in institutions and abstract ideals. Most of this gathers together under the same umbrella of meaning as god.

Yes, symbols of our aumakua keep us in contact. Links to the amulets that tell us who we are, too. Even those without a tradition of amulets, well guess what, you still have them. Brand name clothing, popular technologies, styles of jewellery.

Popular technologies? You mean Second Life could be, is probably… might also be … an amulet? It is indeed an amulet, yes.

Can anyone fail to identify the prosperous individuals in society? Can anyone not identify a rich man when they see one?

Yes sure, the gold rings and Rolex watches are a dead give away.

Even dressing down they’d really have to work at disguise. It comes across in their manner. Even their speech, their personal vocabulary of meaning marks them as among the financially “elite” set.

These things only have meaning in the context of interaction, communication.

We have a lot of ‘one pants millionaires.’ One pants millionaires are posers. It means people try to appear rich by the way they look and talk. Someone pretending to the role because they went through the trouble of buying an expensive suit of clothing, but don’t have the actual background or a real understanding of the meaning behind that social set.

I see that in people in role play here about being royalty. Yes, it’s the same thing, just real life versus Second Life.

They are so far removed from it in real life, they can only fake what they perceive as admissible.

So how much of your life would you say is governed by this domain of meaning?

87.135% A lot.

Can you really act out of context with it? An artist can engage in radical interpretation, or re-interpretation, but they don’t invent symbols out of nothing.

Yes, an artist can fool herself about this big time, too.

A story, whose characters have absolutely no basis in reality, couldn’t actually be told.

I was taught everything is derivative. When we go to commune with ancestry at our heiau, in trance or meditative or dream, we are reminded we are derivatives. Another word for derivative might be descendant.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~