as the pattern gets more intricate and subtle, being swept along is no longer enough

(monologue by Timothy 'Speed' Levitch, from the movie, "Waking Life")

On this bridge, Lorca warned, "Life is not a dream. Beware, and: beware, and: beware." And so, many think that because THEN happened, NOW isn't, but didn't I mention: the on-going Wow is happening Right Now. We are all co-authors of this dancing exuberance, where even our inabilities are having a roast. We are the authors of ourselves, co-authoring a gigantic Dostoevsky novel starring clowns. This entire thing we're involved with, called the world, is an opportunity to exhibit how exciting alienation can be. Life is a matter of a miracle that is collected over time by moments, flabbergasted to be in each other's presence. The world is an exam to see if we can rise to our direct experiences. Our eyesight is a test to see if we can see beyond it. Matter is here as a test for our curiosity. Doubt is here as an exam for our vitality. Thomas Mann wrote that he would rather participate in life than write a hundred stories. Jacques Ahmeti, who was once run down by a car, recalled falling into a lucid faint, a sudden exhiliration as he realized at last something was happening to him. An assumption develops that you cannot understand life and live life simultaneously. I do not agree entirely, which is to say that I do not exactly disagree. I would say that life understood IS life lived, but the paradox is: bug me and I can learn to love and make love to the paradoxes that bug me, and on really romantic evenings of self, I go salsa dancing with my confusion. Before you drift off, don't forget -- which is to say, remember, because remembering is so much more a psychotic activity than forgetting -- Lorca in that same poem said that the iguana will bite those who do not dream, and as one realizes that one is a dream figure in another person's dream, THAT is self-awareness.