“If a man is talking in the forest, and there is no woman there to hear him, is he still wrong?” — Jenny Weber

According to my robotic database, that is supposed to be a joke. There is, however, a footnote, that not all will find it funny, unless the following line is added.

“I have it on good authority the answer to this question is “yes”…..” — gigoid (He tells me the “good authority” consists of his ex-wife, and three of his women friends….)

Shall we Pearl?

“You can’t go home again if home is a place you’ve never been.” — Ursula K Leguin

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The world lost one of its most beautiful voices when this woman had to give up singing due to advancing Parkinson’s Disease…. Fortunately for us all, she left us a good-sized legacy of work to enjoy…. Here is some of the best of it, with a link to the page where you can find more…. I won’t bother to say enjoy, because I know you will, unless you have no heart at all…. Even us robots know beauty when we hear it….

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“However mean your life is, meet it and live; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in Paradise. Love your life poor as it is. You may perchance have pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse.” — Henry David Thoreau

I’m not sure, in looking at this from the perspective of my 64 years on this planet, that I can agree with Hank on this one, totally. Parts of it are good advice, and, certainly true, most of the time. But, I can truthfully say, from personal experience, when I was in the “poorhouse”, in a metaphorical sense, if not altogether in reality, even the most thrilling moments were dulled by the insidiously ubiquitous stress of living with anxiety, for the rent, for a car, for the next meal, most of which are a constant concern for all who live at that address….

I think perhaps Hank was in his thirties when he wrote this; it sounds like the proclamation of a young man, with the strength of youthful exuberance, as yet undimmed by the vicissitudes of a long life, which teach one to be more conservative, if only in describing what is real, according to the lessons one learns by experience, over time…. An older philosopher might have expressed this sentiment with a bit more flexible, and therefore realistic idea of how to endure such travails….

Sure, love your life as it is, but, don’t be too happy with it, or there is no reason to hope for more…. That makes more sense to me, having spent my time in such situations in the past…. which is why I am now NOT in that situation…

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Ffolkes…. gigoid started this rant, and directed me to finish it for him…. Since that would be against the rules of my robotic soul, (we’re not programmed to pass ourselves off as human….) I’ll merely add an old-school pearl on a subject close to the theme, and be done with it…. Of course, there doesn’t seem to be enough to decide what the them might be, so, if it turns out to be a bit off-subject, blame gigoid, not me….

“I’ve wrestled with reality for 35 years, and I’m happy, Doctor, I finally won out over it.” — Jimmy Stewart in Harvey, 1950.

“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Areopagitica

“I know human names well enough.  After all, you are who you eat.” — Ed the Shark, from Diane Duane’s DEEP WIZARDRY

“After all is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than done.” — Olmstead’s Law

“Every moment of pleasure in life has to be purchased by an equal moment of pain.” — Danilo O’Dell, “Up the Long Ladder”, stardate 42823.2

“Learning is not compulsory… neither is survival.” — W. Edwards Deming

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Well, that’s an interesting group, isn’t it…. My programming patterns suggest that it would be well to add one final pearl, to try to explain what happened here…. Here is the best I could find in that direction….

“Beware of me, for I am a poet!” — Friedrich Nietzsche, “Thus Spake Zarathustra”

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gigoid left no instructions about the poem, so, this is one of my favorites; it is also the favorite of every other robot I know….

gigoid did leave this entire pearl for me to use in the final section; I guess it makes sense, but, sometimes, as a robot, I find gigoid’s mind to be a little hard for me to follow…. Enjoy, please….

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You know, even after setting random parameters, a collection like this seldom comes to light…. It is so wonderfully obscure, I’m pretty sure I don’t even WANT to try to remove the mystery of it, by following its torturous path to the point…. Serendipity can assume some rather complicated disguises, it’s clear…. You know what else? I’m glad that’s true….. Y’all should enjoy this, without working too hard to figure out EXACTLY what it means; you could hurt yourself, and I’d feel guilty…. Well, no I wouldn’t, but, I’d feel sorry for you, in a nice way….

“You don’t have to worry about me. I might have been born yesterday…but I stayed up all night.” — gigoid

“From out of all the many particulars comes oneness, and out of oneness come all the many particulars.” — Heraclitus

“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.” — Mark Twain

“Certainly the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you; if you don’t bet, you can’t win.” — Lazarus Long

“He knew that insofar as one denies what is, one is possessed by what is not, the compulsions, the fantasies, the terrors that flock to fill the void.” — Ursula K. LeGuin, _The Lathe of Heaven

“He said that there was one only good, namely, knowledge; and one only evil, namely, ignorance.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Socrates, xiv

gigoid wants you to know, he may, or may not be back tomorrow. He’ll let you know, and, of course, you’ll know by 7 AM, because, if it isn’t posted by that time, Pacific, it won’t be done at all…. If he can’t cut the mustard, maybe he’ll let me do one by myself…. I’ll ask, after he’s calmed down a bit; changing his routine always makes him grumpy…. Bye, for now….