Ffolkes,
“Delicious ambiguity”….. Gilda definitely had that one right. Allowing oneself to feel that vibrant, awake feeling that comes with each new day, or new event in our lives can be the very best part of it. Feeling a bit unsure of what the day may bring can be a bit scary, or a bit fun, or both, like watching Doctor Who, but the feeling of anticipation, if appreciated, is well worth whatever scary it may be. And sometimes what happens is good, and then we are alight with the fire of joy….. Not a bad way to start the day, I guess….

It’s a damn sight better than waking up in tears, or in pain. Of course, there is always pain, my constant companion, but most mornings it is not enough to make me cry, at least. And on mornings such as this, when it is not bad, the contrast is most welcome, for sure. Gosh, I should probably do something special in honor of such an auspicious beginning. Still, I’ve been up almost 10 minutes now, and Murphy hasn’t shown his face, so it might behoove me to wait, just to see if he has planned any of his own special activities for me. It can be a bit stressful, waiting for that other shoe to drop…. especially since I know he is watching, and waiting for just the right moment to spring his surprise, whatever it may be…. more of that delicious ambiguity to chew on…. and it did give me a chance to use “behoove” in a sentence….

It almost feels as if a poem is inside me, churning and simmering, but I never know about that until it’s ready to leak out, and I have no idea how to make it go faster, or on command. I hope there is, as it’s been a while since I wrote one, and I’d hate to think the impulse is all gone, back to wherever it hid for 35 years or more. I’ve enjoyed it a lot, and it’s one of the best ways I’ve found to clean out junk in my head that should have been thrown out years ago…. and all unconsciously, for the most part, so I don’t spend a lot of mental energy worrying about it, or about the process itself. It just happens…. I write the poems, and the crap inside disappears…. it’s a good deal, I think….

Well, now that I’ve knobbled, and wobbled, and meandered about, I guess I can go diving now, & get this show on the road. I’ve certainly pushed the envelope of what constitutes an introduction again, all the way to four meaningless paragraphs filled with very little beyond personal ambivalence. Not bad for having only been up less than a half hour….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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1. everything is a system
2. everything is part of a larger system
3. the universe is infinitely systematized both upward (larger systems) and downward (smaller systems)
4. all systems are infinitely complex. (the illusion of simplicity comes from focusing attention on one or a few variables).

— Smart Bee

I like this collection of assertions, though it’s hard to be sure why. It is, of course, complete and utter twaddle, in terms of its usefulness as a tool for dealing with everyday life, but it has a certain consistency of error that gives it a certain piquant charm. The error is one that is inherent in any generalized assertion, and that is the simple fact that generalizations are pretty useless when dealing with Reality, and can, in fact, lead to, shall we say, unwanted events? Okay, disasters……

Sure, one can look at anything as a system, using only a small piece of imagination, and a generous helping of metaphor. But, in Reality, calling a rock a system of interlocking atoms and molecules does not alter the fact that it is a rock, and no matter how complex, or upwardly and downwardly compatible it may be considered as a part of a larger system, it is just a rock…. If it is traveling rapidly on a line with your head, you’d better duck, and not worry about whether or not the systems involved are complex or simple, or how compatible they are with yours. I guess that would be what the author would call focusing on the wrong variables…. and what I’d call leading to an unwanted event. Unless, of course, you wanted to take a hit in the head from a rock…. In which case, well, more power to ya….

I suppose the real value of such assertions is in the learning possibilities, from the mental exercise it takes to ponder and evaluate the statements it makes, testing them in one’s mind against the parameters of Reality as they are understood. Strictly from that standpoint, these assertions hold up very well, if in no other way than channeling the thoughts into certain patterns, and causing (hopefully) the mind to question the results of whatever is produced. When predicting the weather, it is always a good idea to look out the window before saying anything….

That’s all…. just found the pearl, and it stimulated a bit of jumbled cogitation, so I thought I’d share it…. It isn’t a particularly deep set of ideas, but they reach deeper into real life than may be first apparent. I think it’s always a good thing to explore whatever comes into our perception, even if it doesn’t always appear all shiny and important at first. It may, after all, be nothing more than a discarded, broken piece of glass from an old bottle, but it could have been a diamond ring…. as John Prine has already said in an old song….

“Do you imagine that the universe is agitated? Go out into the desert at night and look up at the sky. This practice should answer the question” — Lao Tzu
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Today is one of those days when I feel the need to retreat into the classics…. and for that, a little John Keats always hits the right spot…. Enjoy!…..

Dawlish Fair

Over the hill and over the dale,
And over the bourn to Dawlish–
Where gingerbread wives have a scanty sale
And gingerbread nuts are smallish.
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Rantipole Betty she ran down a hill
And kicked up her petticoats fairly;
Says I I’ll be Jack if you will be Gill–
So she sat on the grass debonairly.

Here’s somebody coming, here’s somebody coming!
Says I ’tis the wind at a parley;
So without any fuss any hawing and humming
She lay on the grass debonairly.

Here’s somebody here and here’s somebody there!
Says I hold your tongue you young Gipsey;
So she held her tongue and lay plump and fair
And dead as a Venus tipsy.

O who wouldn’t hie to Dawlish fair,
O who wouldn’t stop in a Meadow,
O who would not rumple the daisies there
And make the wild fern for a bed do!

John Keats
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“Happy is he who dashes the heads of his enemy’s children against rocks.” — Psalms 137:9

I don’t know about you, but that kind of strikes me as a little harsh, don’t you think? I mean, talk about exploring the deepest depths of evil possible to the soul of man! And we thought that our modern rock and rap lyrics were funky?….. Rappers get pretty nasty, but I haven’t heard this degree of nasty from anyone on the radio…. yet…. Not that I haven’t heard some egregious BS, but nothing so graphic and personal as this little song from the priests of Judaism…. fine upstanding fellows that they are…. NOT!!

First, I have to say, I hope this is a sham, or at the very least, a misquote. If it is an accurate reprint from that Psalm, well, it indicates a number of things to me, some about the past, some about the present…. Mostly, though, when I read it, I get a horrible visual image in my mind’s eye of some grinning moron holding a baby by the ankle, and….. no, I’m not going there, even for the writing practice…. I guess I’m a coward, if that means I’d have to continue to make graphic a concept that should never ever have even occurred to anyone, much less been written down….

What was the purpose of this, I wonder? As a teaching song? As a victory hymn? From an Old Testament version of the 3 Stooges? I’m not even sure I want to know that much about it, come to think of it…. It kind of makes one wonder, what kind of culture would have such a concept as a part of its morality…. but, sadly, through most of human history, if I’m not mistaken, acts like this, and others just as egregiously violent and cruel, have occurred over and over, and continue to do so today in some parts of the world, where civilization is only a thin veneer over the native cultures.

Our own society shows signs of the kind of culture that would grow out of such concepts, a sort of casual attitude about violence when aimed at an objectified enemy. The less humanity we ascribe to those enemies, the easier it is to perform inhumane acts against them…. Just another of the charming traits of which our species may boast….. It fits right in with our tendency to react with anger to fear, and with our tendency to act violently to achieve our ends. Sometimes, it’s enough to make me wonder how we got as far as we have down the evolutionary path.

“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

This concept is probably what has saved us, at least to this point. We are indeed creatures of a dual nature, reflecting the duality of existence in which we live, and perceive in the universe. The light to our dark side, our saving grace, are these elements of compassion and empathy that we can also display, given the right circumstance and opportunity. The Dalai Lama, who has been known to show some rather deep wisdom, has said that compassion and kindness are his entire religion, and that mankind cannot survive without living according to the precepts of such characteristics. I happen to believe he is most likely correct.

The attitudes that that Old Testament culture created and sent crashing through Time are bound to lead us to extinction, for they completely  ignore the laws of nature. Our own greed and unwillingness to accept our own place in nature will remove us from this life, as surely as we are stripping the earth of its material resources in our search for wealth and power. None of the people involved in that effort to achieve power are either aware of, or willing to consider, their own complicity and guilt, and will fight to their own death to preserve their assumed right to oppress the rest of reality in their personal quest for domination.

The sad part is that they are taking the rest of us with them down that road…. and it is all because basically, deep down where it counts the most, a lot of people are, quite simply, assholes…..  Quite frankly, the universe will be better off without the great majority of them. It’s a shame all the good ffolkes have to pay the same price, isn’t it?…… Ah well…..

“May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you’re dead” — An Irish toast
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It is most likely a mistake to mention it, but Murphy has yet to raise his head up high enough to take a shot, so I’m going to take my chances with this one, and let it fly. I’ll make a trip to the library, and get it posted as soon as I find an appropriate poem to include in the second section reserved for that element…. which often can make or break the day’s effort. Be that as it may, I’ll take my chances…. I’ve already paid the fee…..  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!