Alright, not to be a copycat or anything, but following Mr Random's lead I set up my own Ed Cole Vimeo page right here. My first post is a nicely exploded-sounding clip from Mission of Burma at WOW Hall last September that still sends shivers down my spine. I hope you enjoy.





Mission of Burma 9/17/06 on Vimeo

I realize it's annoying to rant about myspace like I did last week - I just think I've been exhibiting signs of a useless myspace addiction, so therefore I rant. I have actually been excited to be receiving contacts from friends I've lost touch with over the past twenty years or so. It's funny that we tend to hold onto memories of friends we used to have when we were young, even if they are fairly inaccurate or embellished by time and glossed-over fantasy. If anyone I was friends with twenty or so years ago and lost touch with were to die or join a religious cult or the military or became a cop, would I have even known or cared, were it not for the internet? It makes me think that my friends really exist in my head, first and foremost. If I lived in any other part of the world, perhaps I would find the exact same friends, only in different bodies, with different faces. We may only be as real as our friends and co-conspirators perceive us to be.

I think this way about religion and faith, too. When a group of people believe so strongly in something, a philosophy or religion or a particular version of historical events, it almost certainly becomes real to them by virtue of their faith. When a person truly believes, there is no arguing with that belief; facts can't counter belief. Skepticism and science can't be used as arguing tools against someones absolute conviction of what is real to them.

Which, I suppose, holds true for beliefs that fall outside of the jurisdiction of faith and religion. If someone is terminally ill, for instance, and believes very strongly that they can be cured by drinking carrot juice and nettle tea, perhaps that belief can become a truth strictly out of the sick person's conviction. Or, perhaps not. Or death. If one believes very strongly in life-after-death, there is no science to contradict that. Maybe for that Hindu, Muslim, Christian, or New-Age Hippie, maybe that does become a truth simply out of the fact that it is a belief.

That being said, I believe the Easter Bunny dropped a generous load of money and candy-filled eggs for my teen aged child early this morning. All hail the miraculous Easter Bunny, back from Valhalla, back from the land of the un-dead!

Happy Easter!