Ron Flowers
&
Steven Flowers All images subject to copy right laws.
Table of contents ii
• Foreword by Ron Flowers......................................................................................iii
• Introduction by Simeon Flowers............................................................................ix
• What Is? the question directed to Ron. ..................................................................1
• Ron’s answer............................................................................................................2
• What Is ? the question directed to Steve................................................................14
• Steve’s answer .......................................................................................................16
• Postscript by Anise Flowers...................................................................................82
• Appendix A............................................................................................................83
• Appendix B............................................................................................................84
• Appendix C Personal note by Steven Flowers.....................................................85
• Appendix D Illustration credits............................................................................86
images subject to copy right laws
completed April 14, 2010 FOREWORD iii
The way this book came about was as part of a sibling rivalry that went all the way back to early childhood. As the oldest brother in the family, I found myself always trying to dominate Steve, the youngest of the three of us. We argued constantly over almost anything and must have driven our mother crazy at times.
Even after we had moved out and each of us had married and started our own families, we still enjoyed weekly phone conversations which often ended in an argument, usually involving theology. You see, Steve had become a born again Christian by this time, while I had always preferred the Eastern traditions. These verbal arguments went on for over thirty years until about two years ago when the idea arose that we should put the debate in print and maybe even develop a book of sorts. I wanted something with lots of pictures and a minimum of words.
Steve’s son, Simeon, suggested the format that we finally agreed upon. Simeon would act as moderator and ask each of us a question which we would answer without seeing the other’s response. After the first answer, we would then each respond to the other’s answer and continue the discussion back and forth until an endpoint was reached. The idea was to let the reader decide who was winning the debate. The original idea was that after the first question was resolved, Simeon would then ask another and we would debate that one. But as it turned out, we never got past the first question: What is?
Our answers are presented here for your reading enjoyment.Ron Flowers
Introduction iv
As the Psalmist writes, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is, for brothers to dwell together, in Unity.” (Psalm 133:1)
3,000 years later, and after a lifetime of debate on the issue, two brothers ask the reader to be the judge to an age old question put most simply and without presupposition as, “What Is?”
In the beginning, there was Ron? I asked Ron once, if he was a Solipsist,* to which he responded, “yes.” I was sure he was unaware of what the word meant, because it was not the answer I expected to the question. I had been trying in my own debate with him, to get to the root of an issue, and unexpectedly found it. My first thought was, “What a fool! Surely this is madness!” But, what is madness? If Ron is correct, then “madness” is meaningless as a division, because what are we dividing, if all is one and the same? And even if he is mistaken, a label holds no more meaning than it conjures up in the mind of the one making the division. So, to quote Ron, “What we see in others, is often a reflection of what is within ourselves.”
Then there is Steve, the youngest of the family, who speaks of this “thing,” this thing he speaks of as if it is almost a foreign word to us, outside of us, around us, and even in us? This thing he calls, “Love.” But what is “Love,” if it is not in relationship? And if there is “Love,” then there must also be, “non-Love.” If there is but One, then how can there be Two? Solipsism, and Pluralism? Can they co-exist?
During the writing of the project, both brothers lost their mother to natural causes, and Ron lost his wife, to cancer. And yet, in spite of it all, or perhaps as an even more seeming pressing need, they have continued on, seeking answers to these questions, in the mind of the other.
Maybe it is time, to rethink everything you ever thought about everything, for the sake of these Two Brothers, who try and solve the age old question, even if only for themselves. These two who represent us all in many ways, striving not to strive? These two, who's very existences seem to contradict each others, and yet they cannot possibly be without the other. Can their world views ever meet in the middle? Is simple disagreement proof that one or the other is wrong, or that they are both right? Can you, the reader solve this puzzle without yourself going mad?
by Simeon Flowers What Is? Steve’s son *One who holds the philosophical view that only one’s own mind can be known to exist, and that any knowledge of things outside your own specific consciousness is unverifiable.