Ffolkes,
The squad of the Emperor’s storm troopers, ant-like in their unnatural precision, moved past the entrance to the alley, where I gripped the handle of my military-grade blaster, concealed behind a beat-up dumpster about twenty yards down the alley from the street. As the sound of their jack-boots echoed in the early morning fog, I sincerely hoped they would keep on walking, as I had only 10 minutes to make my way another two blocks to my assigned station, and didn’t need to fight a running battle all the way there.
With eyes glued to the mouth of the alley, I held my breath, watching gratefully as the last trooper slid past the wall, on their way to wherever they’d been ordered to harass the citizenry today. I wouldn’t have minded blasting them into oblivion; they deserved whatever we gave them…. Today, though, I had bigger fish to fry, and a much more important target…. Today, if my mission succeeds, the Emperor of Earth himself will die, and the no longer clandestine war to take back our world will begin, now in the harsh light of day….
“Reality is a crutch for those who can’t handle science fiction.” — Smart Bee
Okay, well, it’s not exactly Robert Heinlein, or Philip K. Dick, or even Ben Bova, but, it will do for the opening lines of a Pearl… I’ve done worse, as you well know. It’s been a while since I started with a fictional scenario, so I thought I’d try my hand at it this morning; it felt good, but didn’t come out quite as well as I’d hoped…. I guess I’m a bit rusty in that respect. It takes practice to come up with good stuff so early in the day, and I’ve been busy with other stuff… That’s my story, anyway, and I’m sticking to it….
Also, I keep waking up later and later in the mornings of late; now, when I turn over to try to go back to sleep, I actually do so, instead of my overactive brain getting me up at ungodly hours, such as three, or four in the AM. Today, it was 0610 before I was able to rouse myself to get up, and get going….. It’s a good thing, I suppose, for my overall health, but takes some getting used to, as any change in procedure is wont to do. It’s hell getting old, let me tell ya….
No complaints, though…. The perks of being retired are, so far, outweighing the disadvantages quite handily, so I consider it tacky to complain, when there are so many other folks out there who have it much harder than I do. I’ve a roof over my head, enough food to get by, and enough left over to keep me from getting bored, or sinking into despair and depression; many, many of my peers, and/or fellow citizens, are not as fortunate. I can’t say it is the result of good planning on my part, but, I did manage to come out pretty well with my retirement, so, as I say, I can’t complain….
Besides, that leaves me free to rant about the foolishness that I see going on all around me, in the public venue. I am not only free to observe the Evil Emperor and his minions, but am, thus far, free enough to enjoy the opportunity to poke at the BRC to my heart’s content, and that freedom can’t be overstated in importance, to me, or to society.
If I didn’t have this platform for all my angst and outrage, I would probably be underground, organizing the troops for revolution. Rather than slinging words of vituperative criticism at the pundits and preachers, I would probably be in hiding, somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, training fighters for the upcoming battles with the forces of evil that are loose upon the face of the earth…..
So, it’s probably a good thing, for now, at least, that I have this opportunity to blog…. it’s safer for me, safer for society, and for the time being, safer for the world…. Of course, that could change at a moment’s notice, couldn’t it?…. Yep, it could…..
Shall we Pearl?…..
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” — H. L. Mencken
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The first pearl of the day is always a bit of a question, in terms of both type, and direction. The very first quote or aphorism that Smart Bee shows me is often what determines how the day will go; just as often, though, it takes quite a bit of persuasion to get Smart Bee to give up even ONE quote worth using. Times like that are when I’m compelled to go to the archives for some older pieces. Today, it seems to be working fairly well, so this first section will be good to go with either a five-, or seven-star pearl, as long as SB continues to cooperate. Let’s see what it has for us, ‘kay?…..
“All cruelty springs from weakness.” — Seneca
“Thousands of days of civilians … have produced a… feeling for the aesthetic modules –” — Zippy the Pinhead
“He who has never hoped can never despair.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), “Caesar and Cleopatra”, Act IV
“Do not do what you would undo if caught.” — Leah Arendt
“Never rise to speak till you have something to say; and when you have said it, cease.” — Witherspoon
Wow…. Okay, I get it now…. Smart Bee, and my unconscious mind, is messing with me/us. Although I confess to actually understanding the point made here, I also confess it has little to do with anything terribly important, other than on a personal level for each of us. But, then, I suppose, in some ways, that could be seen as another metaphor for Life…. Let’s see what a couple more will do for, or to, the overall gestalt of meaning that has been created with such alacrity by the above esotericism….. (Sorry, couldn’t resist….)
“A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” — Albert Einstein
“If any man can convince me and bring home to me that I do not think or act aright, gladly will I change; for I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed. But he is harmed who abideth on still in his deception and ignorance.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, vi, 21
Well, if those two can’t fix it, nothing can, that’s for sure and for certain…. These two quotes could possibly fix society, should they ever become common practice, I think…. Timing is everything, right? Right…..
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Even for those of us who can suffer from the experience, watching the open sea as it streams by a ship as it moves through the water is an endless fascination, a constantly changing panorama of colors and shades of light, never exactly the same from one moment to the next. There are occasional instances of heart-stopping beauty, or stunning surprise, as one of the denizens of that vast underwater universe leaps into the upper world, to unknown purpose, bringing us a glimpse of another reality, dangerously beautiful as our own, living as we do on this drier side of the interface….. Here is a classicist’s view of that which I speak…..
It keeps eternal whisperings around
Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell
Gluts twice ten thousand Caverns, till the spell
Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound.
Often ’tis in such gentle temper found,
That scarcely will the very smallest shell
Be moved for days from where it sometime fell.
When last the winds of Heaven were unbound.
Oh, ye! who have your eyeballs vexed and tired,
Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;
Oh ye! whose ears are dinned with uproar rude,
Or fed too much with cloying melody—
Sit ye near some old Cavern’s Mouth and brood,
Until ye start, as if the sea nymphs quired!
~~ John Keats ~~
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Back in 2004, for several months, I wrote a column for a small local newspaper, both print and online versions. It was titled Gigoid’s Folly, and was intended as a platform for encouraging public discussion of computer issues, and the effects of those relatively new issues on everyday life in America…. This was one of the articles posted….
Reality, in its’ inimitable way, has somewhat less-than-politely smacked me (and you as well, if you hadn’t noticed) smartly about the head and shoulders, bringing inevitably to mind the following truism, inspired by Samuel R. Delaney, to wit: “True power in the real world consists of control of the routes of perception.” It is also too bad cupidity isn’t always immediately painful… or, in the words of Fred, the philosophical penguin from Odd’s Bodkins, “Politics is poopadoodle.” And that’s the last you’ll hear from me about that subject. Well, maybe not the very last, but enough for this decade…..
“The nature of the Universe is Change. Unpredictable, innovative transformation of reality is the Norm. If you have a problem with this, you’re in for a rough ride in Life.” (Some of you may have heard this previously.) The opposite possible reaction is also true, that is, flexibility in the face of change tends to smooth out even the most turbulent situations. Consider this also: each of us differs in our reaction to changes in the world around us, giving rise to even more variables, (often called the “spice of life”).
Fortunately, or in some cases, unfortunately, each new situation also creates new choices for us to make. Choices create opportunities, both good and bad, each of which may perhaps necessitate even more changes. This “hall of mirrors” effect can make reality a slippery concept, and can obviously produce a great deal of confusion. Very frequently we are left feeling as if we were going through life without any real control over what happens to us, internally or externally.
As may be surmised by the above, I’ve felt this way myself at times. There is soooo much information out there, and so little time to comprehend even a significant portion of what is available . The rapid advancements in computer technology over the last quarter century have certainly aided in narrowing the gap, by providing the means to manipulate more and more data, faster and faster. Far from easing our sense of lack of control, however, this increased capacity for data manipulation can bring about further feelings of being out of touch, as our own ability to process the data we perceive is outstripped by the seemingly endless parade of information made accessible by new and faster machines.
Since there is more information than we can possibly utilize, how then can we make the best use of what we are able to absorb? To be brutally honest, I don’t know of any sure-fire answers. I know that I spend at least four hours a day just trying to stay abreast of the latest news that interests me (i.e., sports, computers & technology, food & dining, community & culture, business, etc.), and I constantly have the feeling that I’m missing a lot, even though I consider myself to be pretty efficient at processing information.
Modern software offers a multitude of ways of condensing many different information sources into one easily accessed program, such as web portals/directories, email newsletters, RSS feeds, news services, bulletin boards, forums, and many other formats. This is where the choices I mentioned become critical. Each person has to decide how they prefer to receive and process information, and choose the means appropriate to their personal learning style. I use the word ‘critical’ in the sense that it’s important to make good choices, as it is extremely easy to waste a lot of time & energy sifting through a multitude of less than optimal sources for information. The World Wide Web is HUGE, and believe me, there are more crappy sites than good ones!
In today’s frenetic world, as it takes progressively greater efforts to keep up with daily life, it becomes attractive to many to just give up, to pay little or no attention to the integrity of one’s sources of information. It’s easier by far to not read the news (from numerous different sources, for purposes of verification and corroboration), but to sit down, stop thinking, and listen to it on radio, or more often these days, watch it on TV. After a hard day of work, where the need to be mentally alert is paramount, most folks don’t want to expend the energy required for reading and/or critical thought, and make little effort to ascertain the validity of what they see or hear. Only a small percentage of people regard thinking as relaxation.
Aha! At last we come to the key! The mind is not separate from the body, though we tend to speak of them as such. They are one organism, and the requirements for keeping one’s consciousness in optimal operating condition are the same as those for keeping physically healthy, to wit: adequate nourishment (accurate data), adequate rest (time for dreaming), and lots of exercise (cogitate, ponder, cerebrate, deduce, infer, reflect, reason, imagine, ruminate, invent, deliberate, meditate, consider, speculate, think!).
The last activity in the above paragraph, exercise, is indubitably the most important factor, though a balance of all three is, of course, essential to optimal health. The mind is just like a muscle; the more you use it, the stronger it becomes. If you don’t use it, it becomes atrophied, flaccid and weak, good for little beyond deciding whether to pop the next beer before or after the commercial with the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders in it.
Thus, once again we see that the choices we make in life are critical indicators of our direction, or lack of it, and provide proof for the assumption that personal responsibility is the ultimate deciding factor in determining the course of our lives. Choose ignorance and sloth, and life becomes an unending succession of making choices based on lowered expectations, and a lifetime of limited opportunity. Choose to exercise the will, strive to evolve, and life becomes a wondrous landscape of enrichment and enlightenment, where everything perceived is interesting, and serves as the springboard for the exploration of unimaginable vistas.
Of course, there is a great deal of middle ground between these two ideals, as with any subject involving people. It’s difficult to fit all human beans into the same jar…. we don’t always fit. I suppose it’s part of our charm to be unpredictable, (rather like a pale imitation of reality itself)….. it remains to be seen if we have sufficiently charmed the Universe into allowing us to proceed unmolested along the path to our destiny. Such situations seem to be self-correcting anyway, as we continue to do a pretty good job of molesting ourselves! 🙂
~~ gigoid~~
11/08/2004
First modified for blog use, on GoodBlogs.com, 7/12/2011
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I have a feeling this is a pretty good Pearl…. let’s see how it hangs together on reading…. Well, as I said above, it ain’t Bob Heinlein, but it works for me…. and will have to do for y’all, because it’s the best I’ve got today….. Hope you enjoyed today’s ride, even without the seat belts I promised…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.
gigoid
gigoid 
as always a journey of many thoughts connecting dots to form a picture of you !
I love this quote…”Reality is a crutch for those who can’t handle science fiction.” — Smart Bee”
Have a great day gigiod!
Take Care…
)0(
maryrose