Ffolkes,
The life I lead now is much different from the one that I had back in the day, prior to the advent of the chronic pain with which I now live. For example, before the pain became a contributing factor, I could pretty much do anything, physically, that I wished to do. Sports, martial arts, camping, driving, cooking, virtually all of the activities I once pursued without a thought to how it might affect me are now proscribed, as being too painful to pursue.
Even activities such as walking are now limited to how long I can go without stimulating more pain, or becoming fatigued, which is the most common precursor to the upper realms of pain, otherwise known as pure agony, a state clearly distinguishable from any ecstasy, let me assure you….
I am not relating this to garner sympathy; thanks, but no thanks. I’ve had plenty of that, and would rather just get on with things, sans any more of it. No, I’m apologizing, in my own roundabout way, for my inability to sit and read the blogs I want to read, which I would very much LIKE to do….. I find, however, if I take that time to read, for more than just a few minutes, the pain takes over, and I have to get up and move around, or lie down until the spasms go away…. neither of which gets it done….. I have been hoarding the time I can spend at the computer for producing these Pearls each day; unfortunately, that is usually about the limit of what I can do, so, I end up posting, then having to shut down, or go do something else, because I am done with sitting comfortably….
Actually, sitting comfortably is what can be called a memory; there is no chair, and no position that can justify using that word, as it applies to sitting. It just doesn’t feel good after a couple of minutes, even with slight position changes every few seconds., and, unless some miracle happens to completely heal, or cure, the torn ligaments that are at the core of the issue, I can pretty much count on sitting comfortably again oh, say, in my next life, not in this one….
I’ve learned to be okay with that; I don’t piss and moan about it all the damn time, as I used to at first. I’ve accepted it as my lot, for having been so damn physically active when younger…. Yep, that’s right….. there is such a thing as being TOO active, according to my doctor…. Anyone who pursues a lifetime of sports or martial arts is TOO active, and, according to him, will pay a price in their later years for going too far when younger…. It’s not in the manual, but, it’s true, nonetheless….. and, if I am a typical case, then, he is right….
This is where the apology part comes in, to all of the bloggers I follow, and can seldom read…. It’s not as if I don’t want to read them, I just can’t sit long enough to get caught up to all of them I wish to get to…. I know there are a few ffolkes who make it by here every day, or nearly, and I really appreciate their custom…. Those who do come by often are also some of my favorite authors, so it burns my ass big time that I cannot get to their sites as often as I wish….. and, for this, I am sorry…. I keep hoping for a clear spell of pain-free time, but, since that hasn’t been fulfilled for over 8 years now, I won’t be holding my breath…. and neither should they…. I do hope they understand, though…
Now that I’ve bared my soul long enough to thoroughly embarrass myself, I’ll get on with today’s post, hoping I can last long enough to get some of it done before having to take a break from sitting…. I’ve been up 3 times already in composing this intro, so, it’s a bit dodgy today…. I’ll get it done, but, won’t be a happy camper for a while…. C’est la vie, reader-san!
Shall we Pearl?…..
Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there were
A day when it was not.
It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.
~~ Emily Dickinson
_____________________________
Obviously, ranting is out of the question when my back is like this; can’t sit long enough to get the outrage out onto the screen. But, Smart Bee has been pretty cooperative of late, so, we’ll let it pick out some nice pearls for your consideration…. We’ll make it a random, harlequin style pearl, with no set parameters, and see what happens….. Good luck, and don’t forget your lobster bibs….
I see my life go drifting like a river
From change to change; I have been many things –
A green drop in the surge, a gleam of light
Upon a sword, a fir tree on a hill,
An old slave grinding at a heavy quern,
A king sitting upon a chair of gold –
And all these things were wonderful and great;
But now I have grown nothing, knowing all.
Ah! Druid, Druid, how great webs of sorrow
Lay hidden in that small slate-coloured thing!
— William Butler Yeats, “Fergus and the Druid”
“All things are the same,–familiar in enterprise, momentary in endurance, coarse in substance. All things now are as they were in the day of those whom we have buried.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 14
“Half the work that is done in the world is to make things appear what they are not.” — E. R. Beadle
“Rights” is a fictional abstraction. No one has “Rights”, neither machines nor flesh-and-blood. Persons… have opportunities, not rights, which they use or do not use.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”
Warning: Politicians can damage your wealth. — Smart Bee
The thief
Left it behind —
The moon at the window.
— Ryokan
“At this precise moment, no reproach proceeding from men or gods can affect me: I have as good a conscience as if I had never existed.” — E.M. Cioran
“The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance called “faith”.” — Robert G. Ingersoll
“As God is my witness – I am that fool!” — Gomez Addams
Wow…. a nine-star pearl! I’ve never made one of those before, but, I think it came out pretty well, especially for the harlequin style…. I hope you enjoy consuming it as much as I did producing it…..
_____________________________
So far today, we’ve had Yeats, we’ve had Dickinson, we’ve had Ryokan …. it must be time for someone equally spirited….
Mama said I’d lose my head
if it wasn’t fastened on.
Today I guess it wasn’t
’cause while playing with my cousin
it fell off and rolled away
and now it’s gone.
And I can’t look for it
’cause my eyes are in it,
and I can’t call to it
’cause my mouth is on it
(couldn’t hear me anyway
’cause my ears are on it),
can’t even think about it
’cause my brain is in it.
So I guess I’ll sit down
on this rock
and rest for just a minute…
~~ Shel Silverstein ~~
from the book “Where the Sidewalk Ends” (1974)
_____________________________
I’ve just taken a quick look at the news, and nothing outraged me enough to start a rant…. thankfully, as I’m currently not in the condition to do that without more sacrifice than I’m willing to endure…. This means y’all are the winners again today, as I’ll be going with another old-school pearl, which, though less straightforward in their approach to cognitive stimulation and/or attempted thought manipulation than are rants, they are patently less pompous by a factor of infinity; moreover, they’re guaranteed to provide fewer instances of mental heartburn…. In fact, a good group of pearls will actually cure baldness in adult males, given the right amount of faith…. or, so I’m told….
“You don’t fool me!! You’re not really an idiot!!” — Smart Bee
“The improver of knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties, blind faith the one unpardonable sin.” — Thomas Huxley (1825-1895)
“I’ll tell you what kind of guy I was. If you ordered a boxcar full of sons-of-bitches and opened the door and only found me inside, you could consider the order filled.” — Robert Mitchum
(My hero!…. It has always been one of my life’s goals, to achieve this degree of “badass”….)
“I would far rather be ignorant than wise in the foreboding of evil.” — Aeschylus (525-456 BC) — Suppliants, 453
“After a while he realizes that she is beautiful – he just hadn’t noticed it at first.” — Lazarus Long
MAD, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that themselves are sane. For illustration, this present (and illustrious) lexicographer is no firmer in the faith of his own sanity than is any inmate of any madhouse in the land; yet for aught he knows to the contrary, instead of the lofty occupation that seems to him to be engaging his powers he may really be beating his hands against the window bars of an asylum and declaring himself Noah Webster, to the innocent delight of many thoughtless spectators.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”
“Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.” — Gore Vidal
Some days, SB is just better than others…..
_____________________________
I do believe I’ve done it, Olly! It’s another fine mess, just rarin’ to get read….. well, ready to be read, anyway. Let’s see how that goes….
Well, it’s definitely a Pearl, and, until someone disabuses me of the notion, I’m going to consider it to be a relatively good one…. I like it, anyway, so that’s something…. Y’all can make your own decision on that…. See ya…..
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, and Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…
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 
Pain is a sneaky slippery nasty snake!Thank you so much for visiting my page this evening I am grateful and happy to see you there! xxxx
Aye, ’tis, ’tis indeed an insidious serpent,… and, of course, I was happy to be able to get around there to do a small catch up (though it was still morning here…), & only wish I could get there more often…. Take care, my lady… 😀
You are always welcome sir help yourself to tea and cake on your arrival! 😉 xxxxxxxxxxx
Reblogged this on gigoid and commented:
Ffolkes,
I’ve been busy with the three L’s (Living Life Large)…. Plus, SB’s in a weird place; the pearls it’s showing are all rather mundane. Here’s a pretty decent Pearl from 2013, while I was still an opioid addict, thanks to modern medicine… All over now, but, it made life interesting, to say the least…
I’ll be back tomorrow, with a reasonably complete Pearl; for today, this will have to do, for all of us….
See ya, ffolkes….
gigoid, the dubious
“Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there were
A day when it was not.
It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.”
~~ Emily Dickinson
Sounds more like an absence
of EmoTions creaTinG Pain..
EmoTiOns cure..
bottom
line..
when
positive as liGht
moves as trillions of
peptide receptors in cells for
metaphor of neurohormones
and neurochemicals isREaL..
if only i could have
danced ‘naked’
with her..
or convinced
her to do it.. she
might have FeLT more.. and hUrt less..:)
Hello gigoid.. alWays welcome Pearls of wisdom
no matter Century.. Millennia.. or even
Aeons of star dust
sentient life..
and what to say
about ergonomic injury/PAIN..
to the human form as structure
from head to toe of repetitive restricted movements
ranging from walking on sidewalks to
constant trauma of martial
arts and even
traumatic
brain
injury
of contact
sports.. don’t do them
of course.. don’t even walk
straight for too long or one part
of the body will get out of balance
with the other one.. and next thing ya
kNow we are no longer foragers moving
in all directions.. inside.. outside.. above.. so
below and all around like any galaxy mini-me
human would to escape predator and capture prey
invisibly expending the least amount of energy in center
balance like the calm of Hurricane Winds of Energy as caloric
intake is rarely an all one can eat sugars and fats prize from a Super
Walmart all one can buy buffet of chips and sodas and stuff like that..
Moving isn’t the problem
How
we move
or don’t
move is..
at leASt that’s
what my body tales
me as i continue to get
even stronger at age 56..
never ever moving the same
and sure resting my feet while my
fingers take over.. albeit a ‘little’ too long
as sitting down.. ‘they’ say now is worse
than smoking a pack of cigarettes and sure
it only makes since.. stuff moves to survive..
in some
ways
at
least
of animation now..
but what cha gonna do
if that’s what you do to get
paid to do to live.. action
consequence..
dark or light..
positive or
negative..
it doesn’t
matter how
good we do the
job.. it’s how the job
does us in the end/
Beginning of now.. mY FriEnd..
there are cures so far beyond medical
science that ‘they’ know not what they do..
it comes from within2.. with no limits expected by oThers..
@least
for me..
and nah..
i did not alWays
FeeL like a Lucky one..
and nah.. never free..
one must
work
even
harder to heal..
even if that means
rest for 66 months..
for those like me who faiLeD E-Scape..:)
“I see my life go drifting like a river
From change to change; I have been many things –
A green drop in the surge, a gleam of light
Upon a sword, a fir tree on a hill,
An old slave grinding at a heavy quern,
A king sitting upon a chair of gold –
And all these things were wonderful and great;
But now I have grown nothing, knowing all.
Ah! Druid, Druid, how great webs of sorrow
Lay hidden in that small slate-coloured thing!”
— William Butler Yeats, “Fergus and the Druid”
Move
connect
create..
minus any
one of those.. incomplete..:)
“All things are the same,–familiar in enterprise, momentary in endurance, coarse in substance. All things now are as they were in the day of those whom we have buried.”
— Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 14
That
changed..
except for Human Nature..;)
“Rights” is a fictional abstraction. No one has “Rights”, neither machines nor flesh-and-blood. Persons… have opportunities, not rights, which they use or do not use.”
— Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”
A wrongest
right not
using
rights.. so
many folks JuST DOn’t DO..;)
“Warning: Politicians can damage your wealth.”
— Smart Bee
And the worst possible
thing they can do.. is
convince you..
you
need it..;)
“The thief
Left it behind —
The moon at the window.”
— Ryokan
Priest.. Scientist..
Politician.. Philosopher
etc..
wHo
stOld..
Freedoms..
i follow the moon..
sHe aLways Glows
when
out from
bEhind cLouds oF Lies..;)
“At this precise moment, no reproach proceeding from men or gods can affect me: I have as good a conscience as if I had never existed.”
— E.M. Cioran
‘Sorry’ that
nothingness
meditation cRap
bores me to death as life..
i’LL move and
FeeL iT aLL..
even the bad
stuff
outside
for challenge
for even more liGht
ouT of dArk muse too..;)
“The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance called “faith”.”
— Robert G. Ingersoll
Me
means
me..
i have faith
in me.. and
that’s what ME sAid too..;)
“As God is my witness”
– I am that fool!” — Gomez Addams
Amen.. God IS A Joke
to me..
as Long
as i Laugh..
God Laughs
as mY Witness..:)
“You don’t fool me!!
You’re not really an idiot!!”
— Smart Bee
i’M reAlly
good
at
this..;)
“The improver of knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties, blind faith the one unpardonable sin.”
— Thomas Huxley (1825-1895)
onLY
Faith
i kNow
iSReaL..
’cause i seNse
And FeeL iSREAL..;)
“I’ll tell you what kind of guy I was. If you ordered a boxcar full of sons-of-bitches and opened the door and only found me inside, you could consider the order filled.”
— Robert Mitchum
Robert
Mitchum
WAS A great actor..
and great actors
also
sell cars too..
the most cars.. that is..
i hate buying shit.. i’M Free..
and never ever a son of A Bitch.. at lEAst to mE.. he HE..;)
“I would far rather be ignorant than wise in the foreboding of evil.”
— Aeschylus (525-456 BC) — Suppliants, 453
Judging from politics
lately..
ignorance
equals evil..
AKA
Trump equals Minions..;)
“After a while he realizes that she is beautiful
– he just hadn’t noticed it at first.”
— Lazarus Long
Beauty IS A
FeeLinG..
an EmoTioN
thaT groWs as FloWer
or withers as hUman..:)
“MAD, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that themselves are sane. For illustration, this present (and illustrious) lexicographer is no firmer in the faith of his own sanity than is any inmate of any madhouse in the land; yet for aught he knows to the contrary, instead of the lofty occupation that seems to him to be engaging his powers he may really be beating his hands against the window bars of an asylum and declaring himself Noah Webster, to the innocent delight of many thoughtless spectators.”
— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”
HeHe.. Ne0..
A secret sMiLe
of Mad..
when one understands iNsane..;)
“Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.”
— Gore Vidal
Jesus F. iN Christ..
alMost everyone reads
today.. a similar 33 percent
or more..
share
ignorance..
StiLL..
Human
Nature..
free
open
vs.
closed
ignorant..
And that’s genetics2..
as living in caves is
boring.. but there
are fewer
‘Tigers’
iN
‘THeRe’..;)
“Some days,
SB is just better than others…..”
-gigoid
SmArt Bees
keep
practicing tHeir Buzz..;)
Oh by the way.. i’Ve been
missing thumbs up..
and it only
seems
fitting
she
showed
uP at 7:11 this morning.. hehe..;)