Ffolkes,
Hello…..I’m trying to find myself. Has anyone seen me lately? So frustrating; I just set myself down yesterday, and when I got up, I wasn’t there anymore. I hate when this happens. It just throws a monkey wrench into my works, and I have to spend an unknown period of wasted time looking for myself in all the places I hide. This time, I think I must have come up with a new place, because I’m not in any of the old places. Oh well, for today, we’ll just have to go on without me. You go ahead, I’ll catch up…..
___________________________________
Women, cats, and golf; man was not meant to understand these things.
If this isn’t true, it should be. I can attest in all three areas that trying to understand any of them is fruitless. Golf, for me, isn’t a terribly big issue; I didn’t take it up until I was almost 40, so I don’t feel bad that knowledge of its deep magic may never be mine. Cats, in my opinion, are also unpredictable in their interactions. Cats were worshiped as gods in ancient Egypt, and they have never forgotten; it shows in their disdain for any mere human rules. And women! Boy, like any man my age, I could spend days recounting how many ways women have shown me that anything I think I know about them is ridiculously, pathetically useless in figuring out how to deal with them. No matter how well one knows a woman, they can change at the drop of a name, and exhibit characteristics we’ve never seen before, anywhere or when. It is a wise man indeed who keeps this knowledge in the forefront of awareness in his dealing with women; it’s the only chance we have of emerging from the contact unscathed. But, you know what? For all three of them, I wouldn’t have it any other way…..because it just makes them more attractive as a goal to know that bringing out the best in each will be challenging. And challenges, met with courage and wit, make us stronger, and feel more alive…..
___________________________________
“Yesterday I saw a chicken crossing the road. I asked it why. It told me it was none of my business.” — Steven Wright
Steven Wright’s may be the strangest mind ever produced by humans. I love the way his vision distorts the reality that the rest of us normally perceive, twisting it into some of the oddest configurations anyone has ever seen, and each is more hilarious than the last. When I used the old format for Pearls, at least once a year, I’d collect several of his jokes to present in a group, just because it was a great way to break rhythm, and it was always one of the best received productions of the year.
His genius lies, I think, in the way he can make ordinary life appear to be 180 degrees from where it actually is, and still make us see it as normal. The contrast between what he sees as normal, and our own, is what produces the laughter, just as if you had walked into a door and were forced to laugh at yourself. I’m just glad that he is alive now, and giving the world his unique take; it’s good to know that since he’s near my age, I’ll have had his humor to help me get through for almost my entire life. That’s a good thing; one can never have too many sources to help us laugh, even if, and especially if, it is at ourselves…..
___________________________________
“He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.” — Confucius
“He who does neither is eligible to join the crowd as a Republican candidate for the Presidency in 2012.” — gigoid
Although there are moments, when I’m reading some new report on the latest verbal bomb from the Republican gallery of fools, that I despair for the race, I have to admit it’s really handy for us writers. Every day, sometimes several times, we are presented with a huge bounty of material by these folks, who seem to not only have the habit of shooting themselves in the foot, but seem to enjoy it, and, at best, are using it as a campaign tactic to draw attention. There isn’t even any need to go deep to look for stuff the politicos would rather you didn’t know, because they have taken it upon themselves to offer that information in their own statements, made obvious by their loquaciousness on certain subjects, and their reluctance to speak on others. It’s almost as if they are printing up pictures of themselves with arrows pointing to their most vulnerable points.
I really don’t understand how so many obviously unqualified and downright idiotic people ever got the notion that they could possibly do this. The only thing I can come up with is that they are completely out of touch with any sort of objective information, and have determined that their own subjective judgments are sufficient reason to qualify them for the Presidency. In other words, they are delusional, as that word is defined as “continuing to hold as truth information that has been proven false.” Now, do we really want anyone who suffers from delusional thinking to be the one holding the button that launches the nuclear holocaust? I don’ know about you, but I would give that question a resounding “NO!”…..and not feel a whit of guilt…..
___________________________________
“The world is full of burled and gnarly knobs on which you can hang a metaphysical system. If you must.” — Edward Abbey
Here then is a logical mind. My evidence? His reluctance to impose an invented set of rules on a world that resists any such restraint is, in my mind, eminently sensible. Why do we have to make up stuff to try to explain how the universe functions? What quality does our curiosity have that compels us to seek out some kind of system to help us to deal with reality that simply exists, as it is, no ups, no extras needed? Humans seem to want some kind of order to their existence, and for some reason, can’t seem to come to terms with things the way they are. They seem to need to apply their own set of prejudices to the world, an impulse stemming from some unknown inner compulsion that has held back the tide of human progress for just about our entire history.
My own opinion is that human nature, being what it is, noted way back in the old days, that a man with no principles can manipulate other people through their own set of behavioral rules. By balancing a friendly, smiling face with a completely sociopathic conscience, they have been able to keep most of mankind in thrall ever since we first started farming and coming together in cities to trade. And they continue today to blithely steal and rob from us without compunction, and without consequence. As a matter of fact the news of late has been full of evidence of their millennial-long hold over the rest of humanity. We (the gullible masses, as identified in 1935 by H. L. Mencken, who coined the word ‘the booboisie’) have even given them a name; we now call them the 1%.
“The distinctions separating the social classes are false; in the last analysis they rest on force.” — Albert Einstein
The battle lines for Armageddon have been drawn, and the combatants have chosen their sides; the war is coming, and I wouldn’t do a thing to stop it, because freeing ourselves from the people who live for power is our only hope for survival as a species. The 1% probably believes that they will be the only survivors of a world-wide catastrophe, and odds are, they may be right. But I’ll be damned if I’ll go without putting up an epic fight, for my life, and my liberty……
“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” — Walt Kelly (in POGO)
___________________________________
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea,
Yet never in extremity
It asked a crumb of me.
— Emily Dickinson
We’ve all heard the question, in some form or another, “if you could talk to anyone in history for an hour, to whom would you ask to speak?”. Well, I’d want to talk to Emily……maybe it makes me strange (which is okay, and not entirely untrue), but I’d really like to be able to spend some time absorbing her world-view. According to reports she was rather reclusive, so it might be a struggle to get her to agree, but she is still the one I’d ask for. Having always wished I could be a better poet, I hold close to my heart the hope (as described so eloquently above) that by sharing space and thoughts with her for a time, perhaps some piece of her talent would transfer to my soul. SIGH…..one can always hope…..
___________________________________
Today’s effort was just that…an effort. But, I’m glad to say I was up to the challenge, at least in a manner of speaking. Which when you think of it, about all I have to offer is my manner of speaking. Thus, having given of all I have, I shall bid thee adieu……y’all take care out there……
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.
gigoid
Kowabunga!
gigoid 
Reblogged this on Wingstoflyhigh's Blog and commented:
Love it
Wings…..thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it. And I really appreciate the Reblog; I’m hoping it will bring in some more new readers. I really enjoy meeting new folks; I’m all about dialogue…..I’ll be checking out your blog this afternoon, and look forward to further communique’s. I post every day, so I hope you continue to stop by, and continue to enjoy it….and thanks again!