Ffolkes,
Round and round and round it goes…. and what we find here we’ll never know. Thankfully, too…. It goes to show that one can never tell just exactly what the universe might be up to when we aren’t paying attention, because it sure is always a surprise to me. And that is just the way I like it, for the most part.
Oh, there is that part of me that enjoys, and even craves, routine and known limits. Life is much safer, and less dangerous when well organized and maintained on a schedule. But, it can also get boring, which is not allowed in this version of reality. I decided long ago that to admit boredom is to admit being tired of my own head, and what is going on in there, and I will not permit that to take place. Not going to happen on my watch, nope, no sirree….
“The chain of habit coils itself around the heart like a serpent, to gnaw and stifle it.” — Hazlitt
Thus having banished all boredom and ennui (figured while I was at it, I’d make it a useful decision, and get rid of some other crap I don’t need….), we come to this. Why, you may ask, would I wish to punish others like this? And that, I say to you, is just plain cruel, not to mention judgmental. You may not have seen it, but in my disclaimer, published many moons ago, I told everyone that all criticisms would be cheerfully ignored, and so they shall be. I’ll let it go this time…. but don’t let it happen again, or you won’t be allowed in the pool, much less on a dive…. sheesh, interrupting my spiel with critical remarks…. some gall….
Where was I? Oh, right, no ennui…. so, we end up with Pearls, rather than just sitting around staring at walls and complaining. I figure that alone has to be worth something, even if it is only self-congratulations.
But, worthy, or worthless, this is the name of the game, and for the moment, it is the only game in town (that’s why I start at 5 AM in my time zone….). All that being said, necessary or not, it does clear the way down to the water’s edge, and the bags are all ready to collect some pearls…. shall we dive in then, and seek the makings of a Pearl?……We shall….
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“Happiness follows sorrow, sorrow follows happiness, but when one no longer discriminates between happiness and sorrow, a good deed and a bad deed, one is able to realize freedom.” — Buddha
“It’s a good rule to follow the first law of holes: if you are in one, stop digging.” — Denis Healey
I’ve put these two pearls together to form two sides of an idea, sort of (“sort of” is a very precise term from the social sciences, referring to the dubious practice of making things up to try to explain something beyond explanation….)… The first part of the idea, from the Buddha, is very subtle, and is most likely not well understood by the layman theologian. This is why I’ve inserted the second line; it helps the reasoning process to start in a simpler place, and it can’t get much simpler than the first law of holes….. Of course, it is a law that, in spite of its simplicity, its wide distribution, and its commonly-agreed usefulness, there are still folks who end up breaking it…. go figure…..
But, once someone has conquered the intricacies of thought that are involved in figuring out how to keep themselves out of holes, it becomes desirable to move on to greater thoughts…. or at least possible. It must be admitted that the Buddha’s statement here is one of the most basic, and most subtle, concepts in Buddhist thought, and is quite possibly the most difficult for Westerners to grasp in its fullness.
The Western mind is very attached to things; we are trained consumers from our first exposure to TV at a very young age, and the pressure to acquire goods and services, to spend, spend, spend continues throughout our lives. Accepting the valuelessness of all we buy and sell is a hard step for us to take. It’s not easy being green….
But, we must learn to be green, if we really want to be free…. free from the emotional morass, free from the eternal fire sale, free from the need to even pay slight attention to all the nonsense that is thrown at us to convince us to partake of the material world’s offerings…. but, once we realize that all of that is no more substantial than cotton candy, that all of what we are being asked to buy is just an illusion, having nothing to do with happiness or freedom at all, then we become truly free to think and do what our minds tell us is right, instead of just going along with whatever is on TV…. and that is a start toward being truly free….Free of influence, and free to think…. the truest and most basic of freedoms….
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“A friend once asked if it was true that no politician ever failed by underestimating the intelligence of the peasants and livestock. I told him we would never know, because their intelligence was something that was impossible to underestimate.” — President Weishaupt, “Church & State” by Dave Sim
I’m pretty sure that this is another of those observations that the beloved ruling class would rather didn’t get too well known. It is obvious to the most casual observer that those in power have no respect for those they rule…. if they did, they wouldn’t feel it necessary to lie to us at all, much less all the damn time. But the fact is, they don’t respect the public’s intelligence, and rightly so, for the public hides any intelligence it might have even from itself.
Acts of rebellion, or challenges to authority, are not only against the law, they are against custom, which is much stronger than law in controlling behavior. It is a strong, free man indeed who can act against what society holds as customary, for he will certainly be reviled for doing so. People don’t like to be told they are stupid, especially if they are….
SIGH…. This is a subject upon which I could rant all morning, but it is also one I recognize as being relatively useless to rant about. Nobody wants to hear it. Nobody who needs to hear it, wants to hear it, for sure. Sometimes I think that most people actually enjoy being led around by the nose, told what to do, what to buy, what to think. I guess it is a very simple, easy way to live, precluding as it does any need to think or do for one’s self….
I suppose if that is what one wants out of life, then it is a form of justice that that is what they get… All I know is that I hate to be included in that segment of the population, and will fight to the end to keep from having to put up with that sort of control over my life…. even if they won’t respect me in the morning…..
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“The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn’t want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.), 55 BC
Once again, I will proceed to shout into the wind, knowing ahead of time that what I say here will cause no particularly large ripples of effect upon society’s pool of serene, calm water. But, it has to be said…. Mankind has to be considered to be a biological failure, by all the available evidence, such as the above statement. Though uttered about 2100 years ago, this might have been stated by Rush Limbaugh, quoting the Great Communicator (known in my world as the Great Fabricator….), and could be considered as the platform for the current Republican party, minus, of course, the little complaint about moderating and controlling authority.
2100 years, and we are still arguing over this sort of nonsense! Whether or not the stated ideas are necessary to the health of society is completely unimportant; the mere fact that we are dealing with the same class of concepts is what is disheartening. If we are to accept this, we must admit that we have made no progress whatsoever in dealing with human nature as it applies to society; we still find the same idiotic dances being danced, and the same idiotic processes keeping us from getting anywhere in a real sense.
Nor will we ever see any progress in this area, because this points out another fact that is not widely known or accepted, to wit: not only are we no smarter than we ever were, but we have actually lost ground over time, as the general intelligence of the average man continues to drop.
My cynicism is, unfortunately, justified, and I am not happy about it…. Ah well, at least it’s never a dull moment here in the real world; there is always something to keep us from getting bored…. too bad one has to wear a hazmat suit to watch TV these days….
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“Faith lives in the same apartment building as Doubt. When Faith was out of town visiting her uncle in the hospital, Doubt fed the cat and watered the asparagus fern. Faith is comfortable with Doubt because she grew up with him. Their mothers are cousins. Faith is not dogmatic about her beliefs like some of her relatives. Her friends fear that faith is a bit stupid. They whisper that she is naive and she depends on Doubt to protect her from the meanness of life. In fact, it is the other way around. It is Faith who protects Doubt from Cynicism.” — J. Ruth Gendler, The Book of Qualities
Awww…. isn’t this so cute? Isn’t it just the sweetest little thing you’ve ever read? And isn’t it just the biggest pack of BS you’ve ever seen? Yes, to all three…. This is a perfect example of how far someone whose faith-based beliefs will go to convince people of the value of their delusions. If one follows the logic that is apparently here, it all seems quite valid.
But a closer examination shows that there is NO logic here at all. It is all an emotionally based argument. “Their mothers are cousins.” What tripe! This is logic? I don’t think so…. What is worst here is that they make Cynicism sound like something to be avoided, rather than something anyone with a logical mind uses as a tool of great versatility….
But, it is quite attractive, don’t you think? It’s a very pleasant little trip into fantasy, and as such, lulls the reader into acquiescence with its precepts. It is a very dangerous form of lying, as it doesn’t claim to be truth. It even admits to a bit of Doubt (“They whisper she is naive…”), just so one will think it is even-handed, and respectful of truth.
But, in truth, it is a vicious lie, intended to trick the reader into believing what is obviously not so by appealing to the cuteness gene we all hide from each other until a picture of a puppy is produced, whereupon we all go, Awwww, and agree that there is nothing quite like a puppy picture.
Guess what? This isn’t a puppy picture…. it is a picture of a dead puppy, disguised as a cat and a fern….
“Someone’s got to raise some hell, it might as well be me.” — Jimmy Buffet
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God’s Problem Now: His wife’s graveside service was just barely finished, when there was a massive clap of thunder, followed by a tremendous bolt of lightning, accompanied by even more thunder rumbling in the distance. The little, old man looked at the pastor and calmly said, “Well, she’s there.”
Okay, okay, I know…. I’m not a Christian, and I’ve used it before, but it’s funny as hell, so it stays…. Besides, I’m done fighting with Smart Bee for the day…. I won’t go into it heavily, but I will say that finding pearls today was a real fight. I’m hoping to spend some time later today searching out new sources of pearls, so hopefully this won’t happen again…. In the meantime, it’s not a bad ending; gotta be worth a chuckle, at least…. 🙂
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What an ordeal! I must have rebooted Smart Bee 25 times, trying to find a different set of pearls to choose from, without any success to speak of at all. Either it needs updating, or I’ve run through all 111,111 quotes in there. Hard to believe, even as long as I’ve been using it. Ah well, I’ll just have to resort to Google tomorrow, and more often…. which is fine, just a bit more time consuming than depending on what I have on disk. So be it…
One of these days, well, it will be another of these days…. but we’ll deal with that bridge as we cross it. In the meantime, y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.
gigoid
Kowabunga!
“The national budget must be balanced”
Politicians are great drivers of society – they keep driving around roundabouts and don’t know how to get off 🙂
Reblogged this on gigoid and commented:
Ffolkes,
Having survived my trip, I return, to find myself constrained by age-related BS to re-blog today’s post. I shall return on the morrow, fresh as I can make it, given the materials at hand…. I hope you enjoy this one, from a bit over four years ago, when the Pearls looked a bit different than today…. Abondanza!
SMiLes.. as science illustrates
nicely now.. mechanical cognition
and or reasoning.. logic.. etc..
restricts social empathic
feelings like
two pathways
in the brain as two pipes
that can either shriveL noW
oR E X P A N D greaTLY
over now of use or lose it..
SAdly.. religions and sciences
at least.. in past ways of philosophy
have reduced feelings to words..
sAMe.. making Faith a belief
in what is not experienced
instead of trust in what
HAS BEEN EXPERIENCED
AS iS STILL TRUST iN WHAT
iS EXPERiENCED.. biG difference
in metaphors with no feelings and
feelings that represent reaLITy
REAL.. but again.. as alWays
per the pipeline analogy..
some folks cannot
feel the wonderful
Oxytocin Loving
feeLinG attachment
to a cat or even a
stuffed Teddy bear
as they for whatever reason..
nature or nurture.. never develop or LOSE
that hUman poTentTal.. and the sAMe
applies to the very limited science of
pre-cognition as associated with
the intuitive over thinking
pARt of the BRain
in general..
add in the
element of sexually
provocative material
that will take one out
of the baseball statistics
thinking way of mind that
haha.. some folks use to delay
orgasm.. as ‘they’ say.. in the heat
of the moment for the desire of the
other partner.. yes.. it works the same
way to increase social empathic feelings
in oxytocin way as well.. along with the
intuitive mind as limited studies do
show a greater correlation
with pre-cognition
when we get
rid of the
science
study
reason of
the test day
at hand.. anyway..
once one understands
the fuller metaphor of this..
one comes to understand as
mentioned before here in discussion..
just ’cause one person don’t see the
fuller face of the REAL MAGIC of the
God of Nature makes it no less real
than the person
who cannot
feel the warm
and fuzzies oF tHeir
kitty kat REAL.. FEAR OF THE
DaRK AND CYNISM OF THE LIgHT
truly can be a self-fulfilling prophecy
to stay wHere a person iS iN
terms oF dArk and liGht
and aLL the ‘tween..
but on the other
hand tHeir
can be
the odd case-study
that science cannot do
as it don’t fit the ethical parameters
of doing science on hUman BeinG that
proves without a singularity doubt for those
who see a little more of The liGht of what ‘they’
call aS the Faith of what is real and experienced
as is.. in greater and greater liGht away from
A dARKness of doubt.. as doubt is an EmoTioN
no different thaN Faith.. when real and fELt..
beyond empty shells of both Bibles..
Kurans.. and science text books too..
and sure… science suggestS now
that most all reason is
precipitated first
before analytical
thinking and REASON
beFORe THAT EVEN dipS out
of the deep ocean waters noW
of the collective subconscious
mInd that is at least somewhat
genetically influenced since the
beGinniNg and end of Now
beyond our understanding
in conscious ways
of analytical
and artful
word play
and REAsON..
ANyWAY.. wE either
gRow iN neW or stagnate
iN sAMe.. and trUly i sTArt
oFF each day.. jUst lETtinG
iT aLL FloW iN ZonE.. buT in
forTune of no work and jUst
aBout aLL play aWay from
the all work and no
play liFe of
decades
beFoRe..
a strange world
oF liGht i liVe in accordance..
AwAY from most oF hUmaNitY
but held up by the giants
of Before who thOught
different and were
not afraid
to GO against
the storing gRains
of sAme mY fRiend..
wHere tHere is no sky..
theRe is no Sun.. tHere is
no moon or ground of limits
jUst plAY GroUnd FRiEnds noW..
AnD One of my favorite quick facts
to look up that support noW the most
bizarre of human REAL MIRACLES
IS THE dude who fell 47 stories
on 66th street in New York.. NY..
and survived on the
alley bottom concrete..
as even the
Medical Director
called it a real miracle..
physicists attempted to
provide a reason for it..
per his fall of 124 to
127 miles per hour
wHere virtually
most everyone
dies from
10 to 11
stories high..
but StiLL
it’s never
happened
before..
and just proves
that one can have faith
that it can and WiLL happen
again.. ’cause iT’s NoW
real.. i experience this
kind of occurrence frequently..
so i have the faith of JOB ’cause
i’VE been tHeRe.. dONe iT.. and
keep doiNG it ’cause i
intuiTivELy kNow aS
F E E L in G
tHere is so
much more..
so i have that
REAL FAITH.. BELIEF
AND HOPE.. AND JUST DO
MORE.. and truly my
friEnd
THaT
IS MAGIC..
REALnoW..
iN terms of the
REAL EMOTiOn
and mastery of tHe
iNternaL REAL FeeLinGs
of Hope.. Faith.. and Belief..
that even science shows can
make a positive action consequence
in real placebo effect or the opposite
Voo Doo like effect in real science
assessed Nocebo way..
as of course the
severe degenerative
arthritis that MRI’s
still shoW in my
spine are there
sTiLL
with
zero
pain now..
and once was
a body that could
not stand up straight
after a lunch without
passing out can practically
float across land without ever
needing to catch a breath of tire..
after 5400 plus miles in 33 months
now.. and sure there is leg pressing
a half a ton now 30 times on a Parallel
Leg Press machine with free weights too..
like a feather in a breeze.. per HUMAN REAL
POTENTIAL THAT HUMANS ACCESS PER
LIMITED POTENTIAL INTELLIGENCES
that range from intuitive intelligences
to reasoning intelligences.. social
intelligences.. existential intelligences..
musical intelligences.. and limitless
other intelligences that humans
do not even experience
or have a label
for at all..
problem iS in
a twitter world of 140
characters the task of Apollo
is generAlly speaKing a lone
one.. my friEnd but never the
less the sAMe task of
Animal Nature
from the
step
out of
the Ocean
deep way
back
when..
as rowing
that never ends
starts.. finishes..
or beGinS.. i make
the most of it.. NoW.. ‘CAUSE
i CAN AND WiLL AND JUST DO iT NOW..
There are only some hUmans who are
a disGrace to the gifts of God oF aLL
Nature.. some don’t give up and do
even
more MaGiC
mY FriEnd..
i have HopE
Faith and Belief
‘CAUSE IT’S REAL
AS THE SEVERE DEGENERATIVE
ARTHRITIS IN MY SPINE.. ETC.. ETC..
IN LIgHT
AwAY
FROM DARK..
SeeKinG It.. FinDinG iT
and pracTiCinG iT iS thE
test.. the challenge
of both aRt
and Science
of Human
Mind and Body
BaLanCinG REAL
SOuL.. SpiRiT As
EmoTioNs.. as HeARt
FeeLinGs.. botH fELt
and GiVinG.. ShaRinG..
but no.. i do not get
near the roof
of 47 story
BuilDinGs
as i also keep
those baseball
statistics near and
dear as heARt and ReAson
fully intAct oF aCt of Now As
a BaLanCinG acT oF BaLanCeNoW..:)
Hi, Fred…. I’m back, & see my old thoughts can still flip your switch…. *grin* Nice song in response; I’m reminded of the anecdote some eastern mystics tell to illustrate the value of proportion, e.g., a mouse, dropped down a thousand foot mine shaft will bounce gently off the walls, hit the floor lightly, shake itself off, & scurry off to find food; drop a man down the same hole & you have a puddle of organic material that will never look for food again….
Timing is everything; balance is the key.
Love,
gigoid
SMiLes..
Welcome back..!
As the mouse
Of i
Says
Hi
iN
MaGiC
KinGdoM
REALnOw..;)