4 - Wednesday, fanuary 20, 1988 - North Shore News BoB HUNTER © strictly personal ¢ THE THING that still fascinates me most about life is life. I, for one, still don't really have a clue what it’s all about. And that’s after four and a half decades of living in the most information- saturated period of history. I hesitate to estimate how many books I've read or movies or tele- vision shows I've seen in my life, but it would add up to several years worth of time spent absorb- ing data. And still I don’t know. All I know is that every time I think I’ve peeled off another Jayer of reality in terms of personally understanding, or at least thinking I understand, another layer comes into view, more opaque than the last. It has been said that a phil+so- pher, by definition, is an amateur, since we have no way of knowing what a fully-realized philosophy would be like. We have yet to stumble upon a single universal philosophy that did not outrage dozens, if not Gibbins _ managing station MIKE GIBBINS, the former _ Edgement Village Texaco station ‘operator who received a swell of community. support when the company: annouticed plans to Iet him go, says that he expects to live longer now that he is not running the gas outlet. Gibbins, 57, handed over the reins to new operator Glen Hunter in the middle of December, but remains as the North Vancouver station’s service manager. “In that respect I think I’m go- ing to live longer. Now I’m not working 12 hours a day, I’m work- ing eight,"’ said Gibbins, who ran the station for cight years before Texaco announced ia the fail it would not be renewing his lease. Community support — _ in- cluding a petition with hundreds of names — eventuaily convinced the oi] company to keep Gibbins on at the gas station. Gibbins, who says he sees people as friends and neighbors rather than customers, said: ‘‘I'd like to thank (patrons) very much for their support in the past.’" en DANCE SCHOOL : PRE-SCHOOL ‘1, DANCE SPECIALIST net. Weekday Classe For 2 year r olds & parents “KINDER:DANCE” 3 & 4 year olds BALLET CHARACTER 5, 6 & 7 year olds 985-4071 Capilano-Highlands Edgemond Blvd. N. Van. hundreds, of other philosophies. In other words, all our pisiloso- phers so far have been flops. Yet on the basis of the notion that we must know more today than we did yesterday, life — in- deed history —~ seems to bea progression toward higher and higher levels of knowledge and presumably awareness. When changes come, they may in fact be the result of a glacial build-up of pressure over a long period of time which suddenly ex- plodes into a whole new situation. It is as though everything has been born anew. Just take this year, for instance. It is a dramatically different year, and all of us who survived the previous one are different peo- ple, to one degree or another, than we were 12 months ago, whether we recognize it easily or not. We are wiser for the wear. Sure we are! We are warier about stock mar- kets, for instance, and much more knowledgeabie about trade, to mention a couple of areas of ac- quired expertise. We've surely ali awakened 10 how outrageous the interest rates an credit cards are. These are small bits of wisdom, but important. They add up. We also know strange facts such as that you can fly a light aircraft from West Germany to Moscow without detection. No wonder the Russians were willing to make a deal with the West! We know also quite a bit about the White House basement and the Mulroney family's wardrobe closet, stuff that we didn’t know before. We are all aware, too, thal we may be headed toward some sort of breakdown of the world finan- cial system, but that scarcely seems to matter compared with the fact that for the first time since the dawn of the Atomic Age, we can go to sleep without worrying par- ticularly that there’s going to be a nuclear war overnight. Maybe those crackpots who welcomed the day of Harmonic Convergence, back in August, when Earth supposedly entered a Time Beam Jeading to the New Age, were right, after all. J expect it would be quite hard to spot a New Age until it’s at least a little old, so rather than making any hard and fast predictions yet, Dr. Mark Cousins Naturopathic Physician #405-1124 Lonsdale Ave. For appointment call: 984-0040 * 984-8863 Mil just shp into the lineup waiting to see what wonders awail us, Philosophically, there's not much else to do anyway. ce e have yet to stumble upon a single universal Philosophy that did not outrage dozens, if not hundreds, of other philosophies. In other words, ail our Philosophers so far have been flops.’’ Because one thing that has not changed is my fundamental ig- norance about the purpose or nature of life. The question “‘Who am I?"' remains as unanswerable as ever, Sigh. Reviewing my belief systems, | find I still tend to favor the Pribholm-Bohem holigraphic model of the universe, which postulates a pool of consciousness beyond time and space of which the physical universe is a holigraphic projection. If this is remotely true, then each of us — everything, actually — would be an aspect of what we might as well call God, for lack of any better word. In effect, we'd be acting out the dreams of God, as it were, This would make everything meaningful, presumably. Ata lesser level, | also find I am still open to the Seth possibility — that each of us is part of a larger “‘oversoul’’ manifesting itself in the guise of many different in- dividuals existing in various times and places simultaneously. According to the Seth viewpoint, our concept of time is trite beyond belief. In fact, past, present and future are part of the same con- tinuum. What this might mean is that anxiety about the future is useless since it is here already. Life. A real teaser, eh? @ On the North Shore since 1955 PARTS & ShRVvicH PARTS & SERVICE _— VACUUM CLEANERS Farts Cept. open 9:00 to 5:30 Mon. to Fri, Sat 9 to 5 Vacuum parts, bags & tools or Dring your cisaner In for servicing. ‘1629 Garden Ave., North Vancouver 987-2251 in-home service for ail major apollances is as near as your phone. A GREAT CHANCE TO PRESHEN UP WITH BATH { ESSENTIALS: TOWELS, RUGS & SHOWER CURTAINS AT TERRIFIC SAVINGS! EVERY SHOWER CURTAIN 25% OFF Regular “PRICES SALE ENDS JAN. 31 OR WHILE STOCK LASTS. 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