Reality is an interesting concept. It has some rather compelling qualities that make it attractive, not the least of which is its insistence, as Philip K. Dick observed, on not going away, even when you stop believing in it. Sadly, or perhaps it is inevitably, due to the duality of said reality, it also has many qualities that are less than perfectly attractive, or desirable as a regular experience. In fact, if I had to spend ALL of my time there, I think I’d just shoot myself, and be done with it…..

I suppose, because of it’s dual nature, reality thus could be described as what is called, in legal terms, an attractive nuisance, like having a swimming pool in your back yard…. Our problem is that reality is in everyone’s back yard, and the nuisance factor is not only thus made universal, but, for some unknown reason, multiplied by a factor of at least ten….

Or, it that just me? Am I the only one who has such problems with reality? I shouldn’t think so; I consider myself to be fairly competent at dealing with life. I have, after all, made it this far without any major fuck-ups or jail time. Maybe y’all could tell me if you have the same sort of trouble getting reality to act right?….

Regardless of the answer, it must be dealt with, and therein lies the heart of the matter. None of us, especially those of us with any experience at it, really LIKE to deal with reality; the greatest number of us arrange life so we don’t have to confront it too often…. If you believe that to be untrue, I suggest you take a look at the most recent spate of TV “reality” shows, or consider the fact that, although I’ve been hearing about these Kardashian people for several years now, as so-called “celebrities”, and I still haven’t a clue as to what hole they crawled out of, or why they are said to be such…

Before, oh, say, four years ago, I’d never heard the name Kardashian at all, except as part of a late night commercial, as some rug store by that name kept going out of business and had their rude commercials all over the late night TV screen…. You know the ones, that offer 70% discounts, and overuse the phrase “everything must go!” by a large margin…. Up until their names began showing up in the media, I’d never heard of a Kim, or a Khloe, or any of the others who are now considered part of the glitterati…

Ah well, complaining about reality is a fool’s game, anyway, and the public’s idea of fame is pretty fickle. I suppose, as long as I don’t let reality dictate my emotional state, I’m ahead of the game…. by a long way, it would seem, as the general run of society seems to have trouble getting reality to act in any fashion that suits them…. which is also, in my estimation, pretty normal, as I’ve noted all my life that most folks are oblivious to much of what goes on around them, and haven’t a clue as to the true nature of what they perceive…. It does keep most of them occupied and out of my hair, but, it doesn’t do much toward making things more equitable for everyone, which is, as I see it, our main difficulty as a society….

But, I’m guessing I’m NOT normal, and that’s just fine with me…. In fact, I wouldn’t have it any other way….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it.” — James Stephens

I like that; “there are lumps in it.” Now THAT is a fine way to see reality, IMNSHO….

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“Who is ever secure? Every one of us searches for security. We seek it from our family, from our friends, from our pets, from strangers and from “God.” Once in a while we experience it, only to discover that it was merely an illusion. And yet we never learn that security is an impossibility. For we are only human beings.” — Chen-It Ong

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/one-slender-man-attacker-deemed-mentally-incompetent-20140702

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/meet-slender-man-the-online-phantom-that-inspired-attempted-murder-20140604

Have you been following this story? About the two girls who stabbed another, in perhaps our society’s most telling incident of the century, thus far…. I can’t think of a crime that more perfectly describes what is wrong with our society than this one…. I’m not going to rant about it, any more than this short diatribe; I will however ask this question, which is derived from a fact of media reporting that also indicates where many of our issues begin, to wit: In all of this, no mention is made of any of the parents of any of the 3 girls involved….

My question is “Where the FUCK were the parents of these children when all of this was going on?”…. That’s all…. just think about the answer, whatever it may be, and you will see whereof I speak, when I say we are all going down the tubes to extinction, without a fucking clue that we are even on that path…. But, as noted, I won’t rant any more than this…. Instead, we’ll look for some pearls to provide the pokes to the underbelly of society…. or, whatever portion of that belly I can reach….

“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.” — Albert Einstein

“Why this is Hell, nor am I out of it.” — Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

“It seems these two Airmen decided to rob the local 7-11, a stupid move in and of itself.  But wait, its stupid to rob a store when you’re in the military ’cause the haircut will give you away every time.  But wait again, its even stupider to do it in UNIFORM with you NAME emblazoned in 1 inch letters on the front.  But wait yet again, its even stupider to tie up the clerk and try and ring up customers purchases from behind the register while in uniform outside an Air Force base.  Especially when your first customer is a Chief Master Sgt. — Smart Bee

“Don’t overestimate the decency of the human race.” — H.L. Mencken

“His ignorance is encyclopedic.” — Abba Eban

(Hmm…. I wonder… to which President do you think Abba was referring?…..)

“I’m continually AMAZED at th’ breathtaking effects of WIND EROSION!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

(Me, too…. especially if you consider this a metaphorical reference to the effects of TV on the human psyche…..)

“That’s the secret to life… replace one worry with another…. — Charlie Brown (by Charles Schulz)

(Yep…. cartoonists always have their finger on the pulse of society….)

Enough, before I get so worked up, I go LOOK for someone to bite….

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Today, you’re getting one of mine out of sheer laziness; I’m too much so this morning to even go look for one by someone else. That would require at least three of four clicks before I could even start to copy and paste, which is more than I’m willing to go through right now…. Yep, that’s pretty lazy, and I don’t care…. Hmm… the subject matter in section one today seems to have been a choice for discussion some time back. I was apparently thinking about it, anyway, as I found this poem of mine, that speaks pretty directly to that theme…. I hope you enjoy it; as I recall, this one took about three and a half pints of blood replacement after penning it….

As noted previously, at points scattered throughout today’s Pearl (both evidential and direct announcements….), I’m lazy today, which has also made me late getting this done…. These pearls, and therefore this pearl, were gathered while multitasking, looking for the above parameter-bound group. These just jumped up & told me, unequivocally, they were to be used in section three, and would be just fine as a random harlequin batch…. They were right, but, I’d planned to put in pictures here today…. So, you get a bonus…. a weird bonus, but, a bonus….

Above each quote, you’ll see a picture… The pictures are either mine, or taken from the London Daily Telegraph…. If you wish complete attribution, you’ll have to go to their site to get it, as I forgot to note which page of their issue it came from…. All of the pictures are examples, in my view, of extreme beauty, of the sort only Nature can produce, beginning on Earth, and proceeding outward, toward the far galaxies…. but, they DON’T have any connection, that I know of or planned, with the quotes below each one…. Maybe next time….

“Whenever anybody says he’s struggling to become a human being I have to laugh because the apes beat him to it by about a million years. Struggle to become a parrot or something.” — Jack Handey, “Deep Thoughts”
“Of all mankind, each loves himself the best.” — Terence
“This is a revolution, damn it!  We’re going to have to offend SOMEbody!” — John Adams (1735-1826), 1776
“Let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
“Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.” — Aristotle
“What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out,  which is the exact opposite.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967), “Sceptical Essays”, 1928
“In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards.” — Bertrand Russell

There you go…. so be it, such as it is….

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It’s done, which, today, is all I really was shooting for….. and, since it is, I’ll even be nice, and leave it at that…. You’ve been a wonderful audience, so, each of you may choose from a variety of prizes by the door, in the ugly green box, as a bonus for your attention today…. Me, I’m outta here…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….