Ffolkes,
I have, in past Pearls, frequently pulled my own covers, and admitted my tendency toward procrastination. I won’t go further down that road today, but I have several items of mail that need to be answered soon, and I’ve put them off long enough. Even we procrastinators must eventually buckle down and do the work; we just like to leave it until the deadline is looming, having come to know that our best work is done when crowded for time. I know it drives other folks nuts, but that is just a bonus; it’s not something I count on when I set out to wait. It’s just how folks who are slaves to the clock tend to react when someone has no investment in the same neurosis. I can’t help it that it bothers them; it’s their problem, not mine. As long as I get the work done in an acceptable fashion (i.e. completed), no one has the right to decide for me when I’m going to do it. So there!…..
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Why lose we life in anxious cares,
To lay in hoards for future years?
Can these, when tortur’d by disease,
Cheer our sick hearts, or purchase ease?
Can these prolong one gasp of breath,
Or calm the troubled hour of death?
— Gay (1688-1732), Fables
This is good advice. One of my favorite authors said it like this, “More people have worried themselves to death than ever died from being shot.” The power of human imagination allows us, to a certain extent, to predict future events, based on our perceptions, and our knowledge of past events. But this power is too strong for some people; the things they imagine happening frighten them, and they react to this fear as if it were real, already an accomplished fact. These people allow their fear to dictate how they respond to the outer world, with all its formidable complexity, often going in to full retreat from reality in order to avoid the situation. They fear not only the events which they believe MIGHT happen, but they also fear their own ability to deal with what they fear. And they are correct in that assumption, for as long as a person allows their fear to dictate what they will or will not do, then they are living in a prison of their own making……and will stay there until they face the final fear we all have to face in the end……
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“Give, expecting nothing thereof” — St. Thomas Aquinas
See, now this is the kind of thing that just sets me off……the sentiment herein defined is, to my way of thinking, the highest form of expression of one’s true humanity. When we are acting with our only motivation one of help and succor to a fellow being, it is acting in perfect harmony with the universe. When we help another, without expectation of reward, we are showing the finest state of being possible in this plane of existence.
If we can assume that this concept is true, THAT is what pisses me off. See, the first thing that comes to my mind in considering whether others think the same or not, is that every religion that mankind has created is based primarily on a concept that is diametrically opposed to the notion that man has the ability to act morally on his own. What do I mean by that? Well, all religions are based on the concept that in order to get to Heaven, or achieve Nirvana, or leave the Cycle of Reincarnation by achieving illumination, then one must give of themselves to the church, and accept the church’s version of reality.
If one examines that principle, what do we see? People are being lured into accepting whatever the church, or monk, or priest says, and following the precepts they provide, all for the sake of being included in the category of the saved. How is that not deceitful? The religious and political pundits would have us expect reward for right action, when the Truth is that our actions are purified by the choice, not by the act itself. When we act in service, we are being human, in the finest sense of the word; when we act in expectation of a reward, we drag our spirit down into the dirt…….which is where those that would have power over others would have us. Whether they are of a political or religious bent, they want us confused, disoriented, and afraid; people in that state are much easier to manipulate…….
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“Don’t try to have the last word. You might get it.” — Lazarus Long
This is more good advice, of which you will find a lot attributed to this character. Lazarus Long, for the uninitiated, is a character in a number of stories written by Robert A. Heinlein, the Grand Master of Science Fiction. The stories were part of a series he created to describe an “alternate future history” of the United States, one he formulated out of his own imagination. The stories cover a period of about 2200 years, from about 1912 onward. Lazarus Long was reputedly born in 1912, and he lived for the entire period of history covered in the books. This made him “The Senior”, the oldest surviving human in the year 4154, or thereabouts.
In that lifetime, he acquired a lot of knowledge, and a number of his aphorisms can be found in a compilation titled “The Notebooks of Lazarus Long”, which is included in its entirety in the book “Time Enough For Love”. The Notebook is filled with excellent advice for achieving a happy, joyful life filled with love, all codified and organized out of Heinlein’s amazing imagination. If you get the time, and the inclination, try to find a copy of the book, and read the Notebooks. It’s well worth the time and effort……
Oh, fear not in a world like this,
And thou shalt know erelong,–
Know how sublime a thing it is
To suffer and be strong.
— Henry W. Longfellow (1807-1882) — The Light of Stars
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I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain
There’s more than one answer to these questions
pointing me in a crooked line.
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine.
— the Indigo Girls, Closer to Fine
I really don’t feel like I need to say much about this. IMHO, it’s a very fine example how brilliantly strong poetry can be melded with excellent music to become even brighter and stronger. Beautiful metaphor, powerful structure, and compelling music make this song something special, and I’m just glad I was alive to hear it…….gotta love the Indigo Girls…..brains, talent, beauty, they’ve got it all……
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“The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), What Is Man? (1906)
Intelligence and imagination are our most powerful tools in the survival game. The bottom line is that having these characteristics gives us a greater number of possible actions for any situation or query; we have more available options for potential behaviors than most of the other creatures with whom we share this planet. So, in essence, when faced with a need, question, or situation, our imagination gives us more choices from which to pick our response. In the above, Mr. Clemens points out our failure to use this ability to its full potential.
The CHOICE is the point; though we have more available choices, we often tend to pick the one that is helpful only to ourselves, and at the cost of someone else’s misfortune. Dogs, cats, etc. are all limited in their choices to what is programmed in their nature; they don’t have the ability to choose their response. The fact that we do, and still choose to pick the least ethical path, is a dark stain upon our nature……which s why I mostly like dogs and cats more than most humans……
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Well, it’s been an interesting morning. Let us hope that the interest remains palatable; too often ‘interesting’ ends up being ‘chaotic’, or even ‘depressive.’ Whatever happens, remember to make the right choices, and be happy that you have choices at all….. Y’all take care out there……
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.
gigoid
Kowabunga!
gigoid 