Ffolkes,

“All nature is but art unknown to thee.”

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

Peeking Beauty….

Hajime…. Today’s post is a testament to the power of either my sense of duty, or, OCD take your pick. Having mentioned in yesterday’s re-blog I would post today, I am caught, by my own rather compelling need to live up to my words. I’m not particularly interested in knowing wherefrom the impulse may have arisen, but, there ’tis, in all its intense glory. So, I’ve cobbled this Pearl together, almost literally out of thin air, in order to live up to my statement, ill-advised though it may have been. I’m a Bozo, to be sure, but, an honest Bozo, and can be trusted to live up to my own word, if naught else. Sarge wouldn’t like it if I didn’t….

Life of late has been full; it’s strange, in many ways, to experience the aging process while my mind still feels young & strong. In many ways, getting old resembles the experience of being young, for I am continually learning new paradigms under which I must live, if I am to live with any elegance (a deliberately chosen word, I would add; I decided long ago Life should be approached as if we were creating a fine work of art, to embody the grace we seek to include in our living, to match the implacable grandeur so amply displayed by Nature and the Universe…..). Achieving any significant degree of such elegance, I find, becomes not harder, but, more involved & complex, as we grow older. We know HOW to do most things, but, in ways that assume a certain degree of physical capability no longer available to our aging bodies; our task thus becomes the process of learning HOW all over again….

I suppose that all sounds a bit convoluted, but, it is nonetheless the case. Rather than spend any more time trying to explain the Why of it, I’ll just get on with the show, just as if it made any difference in the overall scheme of things. Besides, the weather today is looking rather fine, & the wide world is calling me to take my camera, & go find some beauty to record, so it can be shared. It’s not a grand plan, but, ’tis my own; this process, though still necessary, has become a secondary impulse, with the need to go walkabout assuming a primary importance, no less compelling than my need to maintain sanity. It’s all relative, ain’t it? On that true, if obscure note, I think I’ll flip this switch over here, which will take us abruptly to where we need to be….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Experience is not what happens to you.
It is what you do with what happens to you.”

~~ Aldous Huxley, in “Reader’s Digest”, 1956 ~~

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This weekend, specifically yesterday, was/is the yearly Playing For Change Day, during which musicians all over the world gather at street corners, in large venues, such as festivals, to play & sing for peace throughout the world. I hope y’all will consider taking part, as well as consider contributing to the cause, which helps children and communities in many countries come together to learn to play & sing, and to work together as people do best to make change in the world…. I hope you enjoy today’s selection, and that you enjoy taking part in humanity’s saving grace…. making music….

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Playing For Change
Redemption Song

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Back in 2012, I had just applied to SS for my benefits, but, was still living in relative poverty until it arrived, with no chance or hope of being able to travel further than the nearest grocery store on payday. But, I dreamed of it all the time, particularly of going to Ireland, where I’ve been called ever since a child. I made it, eventually, and have been there twice now, with plans to go back as soon as I can figure it out. This poem explains my urges in this respect quite well, if with a bit of mild corn…. I hope you enjoy it….

Days and Nights of Eire

Comforting, a dream creeps oft into my mind
On the elven hills of Eire lives the vision I find.
Elegant, gracious, everlastingly draped in beauty
Just payment of simple homage lives as joyous duty.

Fairies and druids walk abroad in ghostly parade
Gracing each hearth with its own welcoming shade.
Castles and heroes yet live in tale and song
Proving love for the land in each heart strong.

From cold of winter into glorious young spring
Brown, and gray, to emerald green songs to sing
Soft rains always follow winter’s great tempest
Eire dons its emerald coat from east to west.

Old and strong, connections call out in dreams
Nothing that was known remains as it seems.
Immersion in ancient runes and battle hymns
Offering sanity in place of grievous whims.

Time and place can tell a much different tale
Judgment should never be a final sale.
Yet something solid and real calls me to go see
Where dreams of loving beauty may actually be….

~~ gigoid ~~

11/3/2012

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Naked Pearls

“I find your faith in reality rather amusing….”

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“If you really knew me,
you would know that all your assumptions are wrong.”

~~ Ann Muir Thomas ~~

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“Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.”

~~ Alexander Pope — Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue i, Line 136 ~~

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“Live as if you were to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were to live forever.”

~~ Mohandas K. Gandhi ~~

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“Integrity is when
what you say,
what you do,
what you think,
and who you ARE
all come from the same place.”

~~ Madelyn Griffith-Haynie ~~

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“Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.”

~~ Aristotle (384-322BC) ~~

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“It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself.”

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~

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“Look back on time with kindly eyes,
He doubtless did his best;
How softly sinks his trembling son
In human nature’s west!”

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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“For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.”

~~ Lewis Carroll ~~

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“All I kin say is
when you finds yo’self wanderin’ in a peach orchard,
ya don’t go lookin’ for rutabagas.”

~~ Kingfish ~~

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Well, ffolkes, there you have it. I’ll be back in a day or two, hopefully having finished the half-done poem still in the process of leaking out of my head. If it continues to dribble, I’ll think of something. In the meantime, I suggest y’all be all you can be, even if you’ve never been in the army. Probably better if you haven’t, I should think, though no more or less of a lesson. In any case, I’m outta here, and so are you. Be well, & be happy as you may….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
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, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….