Ned Moore, aka gigoid, is a 70 year-old, (!!!… When did that happen?….), retired dilettante, who would rather read than eat, most days. His first blog, "gigoid’s folly", has been emailed out to folks he knows for about 18 years now. He still considers it his best defense against angst, and the ever-present specter of sheer insanity..... Due to rigorous curmudgeon training requirements, he has discontinued his Facebook presence, but still indulges in the occasional Twitter session... In essence, he's socialized, but, not overly sociable; all labels and stereotypes are forbidden in his presence... and he doesn't care what anyone thinks about that..... In fact, he doesn't want to talk anymore....
If you feel you MUST contact gigoid, his email address is:
alphagigoid@gmail.com
You can go read now.... Go on, beat it....
gigoid, the dubious
“If possible, try to find a way to come downstairs
that doesn’t involve going bump, bump, bump, on the back of your head. -“
~~ Pooh in Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne ~~
The bar at Shelbourne Public House, Cork, Ireland…
I missed posting again for another day, but, it (mostly) wasn’t my fault. Smart Bee, my database of quotes, was acting a bit fractious, & it took until late in the afternoon before I assembled sufficient pearls to make up the final section. As they say across the pond, c’est la vie, amis; or, as they say downtown, too bad, so sad. Or, more aptly, as I have been known to say, so be it. At this juncture, I’m just happy it’s done, even if I still have yet to write anything resembling a rant, or discussion of anything more than the immediate needs of the moment. And, right there, it’s another ‘so be it’…..
In fact, I’m going to continue in the current vein, & just get on with the posting process, before I lose either my nerve, or the prevailing wind. ‘Tis simple enough to accomplish, as you may or may not know. All I have to do is this….
Shall we Pearl?
“For a man can lose neither the past nor the future;
for how can one take from him that which is not his?
So remember these two points:
first, that each thing is of like form from everlasting
and comes round again in its cycle,
and that it signifies not whether a man shall look upon the same things
for a hundred years or two hundred, or for an infinity of time;
second, that the longest lived and the shortest lived man,
when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.”
~~ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations, ii, 14 ~~
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Celtic Symbol
This is one of my default musical choices, to which I generally retreat two or three times per week, to listen to while puttering, or working at something constructive (a rare occasion, admittedly… SIGH). It always serves to give me the best chance to think…. well, I think it does. I hope you enjoy it as well…
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Illusory Time
Viewed from askance, the river is long;
deep, uncompromisingly intent, swift and strong.
In duality, perception creates our only reality;
such faux metaphoric paradox enforces mutability.
By two we perceive, both zero, and one;
digital, binary, on or off, such fun.
Separate, melded, we exist, knowing not what we know
ego, striving to be solitary, looking above, seeing below.
Furiously asleep, cultural anomaly claims a victim of choice;
validly unconscious, nobody speaks, nary a voice.
Potential escapees stir in dreams, fighting to wake,
until taking the wheel, for their own bloody sake.
Pots boil in due time, when the fire’s hot,
time exists to our advantage; or, not.
The solitary warrior, head bent in pain,
fights on, with, or without gain.
Night fell, day after day it persisted;
of those who knew, none showed any care, or resisted
Angels, ministers, none had any defense, nor grace;
all that remains is a face.
~~ gigoid ~~
10/22/2016
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Naked Pearls
Ponderous points….
*******
“Any idiot can face a crisis.
It’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.”
~~ Anton Checkov ~~
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“All our decisions are made
in a state of mind
that is not going to last.”
~~ Marcel Proust ~~
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“If you think you’re free, there’s no escape possible.”
~~ Baba Ram Dass ~~
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“We shall never cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
~~ T. S. Eliot ~~
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“In comparison with heaven and earth, man is like a mayfly.
But compared to the great Way,
heaven and earth, too, are like a bubble and a shadow.
Only the primal spirit and the true nature overcome time and space.”
~~ Lu Yen (fl. 800 A.D.) ~~
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“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision
for the limits of the world.”
~~ Arthur Schopenhauer ~~
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“Around existence twine,
(Oh, bridge that hangs across the gorge!)
ropes of twisted vine.”
~~ Basho ~~
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See? That didn’t hurt at all, did it? What’s more, it may have even been beneficial, in some abstruse fashion. Rather than dwell upon what cannot be altered, or even fully defined, let us move on to the rest of this fairly fine morning, just as if we had some silly reason to do so. I shall try to post again soon; I may even write something more than the usual drivel. As it always does, time will tell, the blabbermouth…. Y’all be well, happy as you may be, and, for goodness sake, be as strange as you can be; it really is your best defense against the world’s own version of strange,…. See ya, ffolkes..
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.
It’s a busy season, what with all the capitalist frenzy now attached to what began wth giving to the poor; it’s hard work to try NOT to get overly involved in the nonsense. Hard enough I don’t have another Pearl ready yet, hence this sublimation/re-blog of a former Pearl. For what it is, it ain’t bad, & I hope you enjoy it. I’ll be back with fresh stuff, soon…. Until then, be well & happy as you may be….
“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey.
We are spiritual beings on a human journey.”
~~ Stephen Covey ~~
Fall colors on display….
Hajime…. As today’s title proclaims, I’m not dead yet. However. death’s presence in life touches us all, if only in a peripheral sense, every day, & I have been exploring some of the implications of that rather extensively in recent days, which may be construed as the primary reason for blowing off this blog for five straight days. For over six years, posting daily has been my habit; to forgo doing so for so long would, in the past, have created in me a very strong sense of angst-filled tension, for having repressed all I’ve been in the habit of expressing in these outbursts….
I find myself blithely unconcerned with such frailties, as I find, when I do come back into cyberspace, nothing has…
I feel as if I should post, but, contrarily, don’t feel much like talking, or writing what I might have to say. To ease my self-inflicted angst, I’ll merely offer a few of the haiku I’ve written in the last month or so. Some were situaltionally (oops… spellchecker doesn’t like it when I make up words…) inappropriate, but a few were pretty decent, & will be included below. Nothing else to offer today, not even any further chatty discourse on not much. Instead…
Shall we Pearl?
All is ephemeral,–fame and the famous as well.”
~~ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations, iv, 35 ~~
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Seven Haiku
Samsara happens
when the inner eye opens:
Serendipity.
*******
Butterflies alight
only upon the hand which
makes them feel welcome.
*******
Becoming human
is an ambiguous task:
(choose your own final line…)
Asininity
Serendipity
What a conundrum!
*******
Emotional storms
leave us limp and exhausted;
a lesson to learn.
*******
‘Tis often the case
to find ourselves in peril
of becoming real.
*******
Trouble comes to us
when we fail to attend to
the moment we are.
*******
‘Tis formidable
to note the power of words;
moving us to feel.
*******
~~ gigoid ~~
~~ November, December, 2018
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That’s all I’ve got today, ffolkes. I shall endeavor to do more, & perhaps better, next time. I’ll also shoot for relatively soon on that. For now, y’all enjoy the season; be well, be happy as you may be, and be just as strange as you can manage. See ya….
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.
“I haven’t lost my mind, I know exactly where I left it.”
~~ gigoid, et al, Monday, 2018 ~~
Day the Next…
For a long time, I began each post here at ECR with the word, “Hajime”, which is uttered to begin any Japanese martial arts contest. Today, it holds some poignant meaning, as it has been some time since I last posted, or, for that matter, wrote anything other than a haiku. In point of fact, it’s been 30 days since my last post, & that was a re-blog of an older post. A good portion of the time was spent fighting illness, (an all-too=familiar occupation these days, along with the concomitant inability to heal as quickly as when I was younger & in better condition…), but, mostly, I was just not interested in anything but my own inner promptings, none of which were particularly scholarly, or particularly productive, in any sense…. SIGH, ah well, such is life in the big city, ffolkes. I offer no excuses, or apologies….
I do, however, have the necessary parts of a complete Pearl of Virtual Wisdom to offer today, with a semi-serious vow to follow in the near future with further ramblings from the ego-driven consciousness I call my mind, dubious as it may be. For today’s post, I’ll forgo any further attempts to either explain, or justify, & just get on with posting it. At least I’ll see if there is still anyone out there still interested in such displays of…. well, whatever they may be. If nobody comes to call, well, so be it; it’s only cyberspace, & nobody will hear me if I weep. I won’t, though I may wish to. What I will do is this: post, & be damned, even if only by faint praises. In fact, why don’t I just go ahead & do that, with no further nonsense, or sense? Purpose will have to suffice today, & we’ll see what happens in the future. For now….
Shall we Pearl?
“You cannot face it steadily, but this thing’s for sure,
That time is no healer: the patient is no longer here.”
~~ T.S. Eliot ~~
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Dalton Harris
Image from Twitter.com via Google Images….
Today’s musical choice is from Dalton Harris, a young Jamaican singer, who took the UK by storm this year, with the power of his voice, and his artistry. In every song he performed on the X Factor UK stages, he took an iconic song by megastar artists, & turned it into his own, singing it as if it were written just for him. His vocal range is crazy, reminding me very much of a singer from the golden age of music, by the name of Jackie Wilson. I would say, for as long as he lives, he will be a well-known artist on a world-wide scale. I hope you enjoy this video, which includes all his songs that led him to this year’s winning position in the X Factor talent competition, UK version…. Abondanza!…..
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Funny Bones
Dreaming the way home, lost, unseen,
from the dance, where
he felt so free, and clean.
Sorrow couldn’t find him there.
Waiting, filling up the hours, hoping,
some connection can be found
keeping busy as bees, coping.
Love creeps in, without a sound.
Fat days, skinny nights, passionate
visions of semi-conscious entities,
cannot seem to fully illuminate
or hide our innermost frailties.
Resolute, find the perfect sense, codify
simple rules with every breath
never waiting, anxious to modify.
fear nothing in life, not even Death.
~~ gigoid ~~
5/3/2013
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Naked Pearls
Signposts….
*******
“It matters not how long you live, but how well.”
~~ Publius Syrus, “Maxim 829” ~~
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“The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.”
~~ Chinese Proverb ~~
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“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.”
~~ Socrates ~~
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“There is no heroic poem in the world but is at bottom a biography,
the life of a man; also it may be said, there is no life of a man,
faithfully recorded, but is a heroic poem of its sort, rhymed or unrhymed.”
~~ Thomas Carlyle ~~
~~ Sir Walter Scott, London and Westminster Review, 1838 ~~
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“A smile is the whisper of a laugh.”
~~ Anonymous ~~
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“What difference does it make how much you have?
What you do not have amounts to much more.”
~~ Seneca ~~
*******
“Are all your stars shining?”
~~ JD Salinger ~~
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There you have it, ffolkes, such as it is. I shall continue my current, if temporary process, & leave it at that. I have a feeling I may try this again quite soon, & like all us humans, I do like to follow my feelings, & try to make them real. Whether or not I can do so remains to be seen, in that oh-so-elusive element of time we like to call the future. Until then, be well, be happy, & enjoy the season. See ya soon, ffolkes…..
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.
I’m feeling some guilt over having not posted or written at all for almost two weeks…. The cold I caught has been the primary culprit, but, let’s not forget the laziness, a partial reason for catching cold in the first place. In any case, here is a Pearl from the not-too-distant past to sublimate. I’ll be back eventually, perhaps when I’ve found my mind, which I lost some years ago…. In the meantime, be well, & happy as you may be…. I remain strange….
“True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes.”
~~ Halifax ~~
Morning Glory in Blue
Hajime…. Bozoid, or not, it’s got to be done. Since my degree of bozoid is rather highly developed, that will require an incredible amount of focus, and will, in order to fulfill our chosen duty. Given the last night’s draw, having fought for sleep until successful (well, to a degree… three sets of two hours isn’t too bad… that’s more down than up, so, hey, bonus….), and the concomitant extra smegs of energy, I have no real excuse for not getting it done, unless I retreat into whine and sour cheese. Therefore, what you see is what I’ve got, and it’s all you get.
Today, that isn’t an insignificant amount of material. In fact, there’s a rather extensive diatribe in the ranting section, with a seven-star pearl that…
“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.”
~~ Seneca (BC 3-65 AD) ~~
Unexpected beauty….
The last time I posted here was 15 days ago; since that time I passed my 68th birthday, dealt with some rather emotionally wearing events, (a friend who had a stroke, family issues, etc….), and spent a lot of time seeking the conviviality of human interaction, with mixed results. None of what occurred acted to stimulate my need to write about any of it, other than this short summarization. This tells me my former consistency in writing is no longer a compelling factor in determining my choice of whether to spend time in the virtual world, or to spend it dealing with Consensual Reality. Moreover, it has become clear to me that the interaction fits in more closely with my current state of mind, such as that may be….
In short, I don’t feel any particular guilt, or loss, at having neglected the online community in favor of actual human interaction on a face-to-face basis. As I have previously noted, so be it. My only excuse, which isn’t one, is to quote Popeye, to wit: I am what I am, and that’s all what I am. At this point, all I can say for sure is I WILL write; it just won’t be as often as it once was, as it no longer plays such a critical part of my campaign to remain relatively sane. Not to say being so isn’t handy; it just isn’t as important as I once held it to be. In fact, I’m rather enjoying the delicious ambiguity of facing Life while standing on the edge…. and, for the nonce, that’s good enough.
For today, I’ve cobbled together three parts of a Virtual Pearl of Wisdom, which will suffice to deliver this update, and to move things onward to an acceptable degree…. I’m still available via email, and will check back to answer any comments; otherwise, I’ll be out in the BBR, facing Reality with the rest of the poor creatures here on Earth who must do the same, sans my own particular take on its relative importance…. which kinda describes what we all are going through in our own perceptive miasma. It may not have the clarity of Plato’s take, or the elegance of Sartre, or Voltaire, but, it’s way better than Machiavelli’s cynicism, as well as being much more palatable than any religion’s views on reality. I’ll take Peruaosophy any day over any of them. (To see Peruaosophy, check the About page listed on my home page…..)
That’s all I’ve got today for this; I’ll be finishing up the piece I’m working on for my friend, but, will otherwise emulate a lump of laziness for the rest of today, & see what tomorrow brings, just as we all shall do in the end…. For now,….
Shall we Pearl?
“One who is plenteously provided for from within needs but little from without.”
~~ Goethe ~~
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
This is what I mostly listen to these days. If I need to tell you why, you weren’t paying attention…. S’okay, no worries… just listen, & enjoy….
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After the odyssey….
Portraits of iconic symbols, crashing, singing, forgotten;
evolving into mature innovation, as yet pale, and rotten.
Still water justly breeds, impenetrable primal verses resound;
unholy moments tarry, emotion swirls in passion unbound
Spiritual ovulation precedes each pregnant pause;
gravid, time moves on, following destiny’s cause.
Cast adrift on waves of confusion, to a final, damp landing;
salvation beckons sweetly, fed well on understanding.
Dreams directly fall, in night’s grey bower, unbidden;
lingering flavors in simple taste, lovingly, cleverly hidden.
Childish laughter sounds, joyful, bright, and clear;
no need ever to hide, no more monsters to fear.
Temper most foul arrives under unregistered mail;
forgotten taunts live on, lashed by an ancient flail.
Plain dealing delivers such lasting specks of honest hate;
savage in retrospect, never hasty, always running late.
Forever, cries an ambient lover of the pending night;
his pale, weak issue forms its own failing light.
Still, fortune favors such as those who apprehend;
Sweet love of Gaia, let it never end.
~~ gigoid ~~
3/10/2013
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Naked Pearls
Experience teaches us….
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“Trails got to be here somewhere.”
~~ D. Boone ~~
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“When you aim for perfection, you discover it’s a moving target.”
~~ George Fisher ~~
*******
“Pray to God, but keep rowing to the shore.”
~~ Russian proverb ~~
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“A little experience often upsets a lot of theory.”
~~ Cadman ~~
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“The thinking man’s approach to most problems is a good nap.”
~~ Sagacious Bee ~~
*******
“Everything in excess!
To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites.
Moderation is for monks.”
~~ Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love” ~~
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“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
~~ Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken” ~~
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Rather than belabor any points at all, I’ll end this here, and now, with the usual caveat, to wit: I will be back, though ‘when’ remains uncertain. In the meantime, y’all be well, and happy as you may be. As should be eminently clear by now, I’ll be working on being as strange as reality will allow, a habit I thoroughly recommend be adopted by all…. See ya, ffolkes….
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.
“Service to others
becomes a necessity
in seeking virtue.
~~ gigoid, 10/9/2018 ~~
New Vineyards near Eugene, Oregon….
In the past eight days, since last posting a Pearl, the various parts of today’s post fell together in a random order that eventually achieved some coherency just yesterday. My life outside this room where the computer lives has been, more than I care to think it could be, ‘interesting’, and I use that word in the oriental sense, not occidental. Friends in crisis, personal demon wars, trying to stop smoking tobacco, risky business, all have occurred of late in rapid=fire succession, unwilling to allow one the time to either prepare, or recover. SIGH…. (that’s a West Counties sigh, long, sad face, slowly indrawn breath exhaled with force and a shake of the head….). ‘Tis easy to see why I’m so hard-pressed to get anything done, with so much distraction from any purpose I choose to follow….
But, all of us live in the same reality (that’s why I explore it….), with one difference, that being our own perception of it. That said, it remains both no MORE difficult, or, any LESS difficult than anyone else’s reality, no matter how perceived; in the end, we all must face it alone. That’s why I have come to believe so strongly in the old proverb about ‘living in the shelter of each other’; without each other, we all get lost, and lonely. Sometimes, that can happen even when we are with each other, so, it’s a good thing to also remember the other old proverb, i.e., ‘if you want a friend, be one’….
I’m doing some writing on the side for a friend, and have also procrastinated on getting it done as quickly as I like, so, I’m gonna leave this be so it can get posted, & do my best to quit complaining at myself long enough to get something else done. Wish me luck, ‘cuz I have a feeling I’ll need it….. For the nonce, I’ll see you down the page a ways….
Shall we Pearl?
“Go softly, for you tread on my dreams.”
~~ William Butler Yeats ~~
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John Lee Hooker
Image from chickenmamba.com via Google Images…
Here’s another artist who should need little introduction. If one knows anything of the blues, he is an icon; if not, well, he’s still an icon, just one of whom you don’t know, to your loss…. until now, of course. I’ve included two live videos, as anything he does live is impeccable, IMHO…. I hope you enjoy it….
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For old times’ sake, just because….
From 10/16/2014:
“The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.” — Steven Weinberg
In the past year and some time, I’ve written many words… more than I care to think about just now, and a number that some would say deserves the term “interminable”….. None of them comes closer to summarizing how I feel about life in general than this…. I’ve never seen it before, to my knowledge, which detracts in no way from its deep resonance with my core beliefs.
I spend a lot of time discussing those parts of life that lean toward the direction of farce, with no little outrage at the depth of human cupidity and well, bozoid tendencies. In my own way, I suppose, this could be construed as my own effort to try to understand the universe, and our place in it…. I hope so, anyway…. because understanding life has been my only quest for the greatest part of it that I remember, reaching back to when I was five or six, and desperately trying to blend in with all the orange monkeys, while secretly wearing my own coat of blue…. For the two years after beginning school, and being exposed all day to the world outside my family, the gap between myself and my peer group seemed to be unpredictable, in terms of what they perceived, and what I could see and understand.
This isn’t to imply I was an outcast; merely an “egghead”, or other such complimentary terminology, as I found the actual school part of it all quite simple. This did, on the positive side, give me enough time to learn to adapt, and make myself likable for other reasons… sports being one, and applying the principle of “to have friends, be a friend”; I was always generous with helping others in school, with whatever I could do. Plus, I do LIKE people, as a rule…. they often disappoint, but, if one pays attention, they also never fail to amaze, in so many ways.
This study of my peer group from my first memories has persisted throughout my life, and remains today my primary focus of self-directed education, so to speak. I love to sit in public places and watch crowds; I don’t much like being IN crowds, so much as watching them interact with each other, all according to the dancing rules we all learn, from kindergarten onward…. From the first time I ever attended a county fair, my favorite activity at each, was to race through all there was to see, spend all my disposable income, and then spend the remainder of my time sitting near the front gate plaza, watching the people as they came to the fair….. endless entertainment, and still is…. only now, I walk the streets when I’m able, or sit in the public parks, libraries, and coffee shops, wherever I live….
“Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
One of the things I’ve learned about people is that human nature is just that… a force of nature. It has not changed much, if at all, since we humans were living in grass huts at the junction of a river; there are still good people, and bad people, and they are most often the same person…. because we all have our own unique view of the world, and our own feelings about what we see and believe we understand. We don’t always have all the information we need at critical times in our lives, and so make decisions that affect our behavior or outlook, decisions which become habits, leading us to believe these habits are justifiable because they work to keep us comfortable…. until they don’t. Life always changes, there is nothing that can stop it from doing so; if we do not learn to change ourselves, to adapt to the changes in the universe around us, it will end up destroying us.
The universe has no mercy, no pity; these are human concepts, and not a part of reality at all. But, being human, we crave justice, for things to be fair…. we bend our efforts to changing the universe to meet our wishes, never realizing that it is folly, that reality does not work that way, and there is nothing at all we can do to alter that reality according to our wishes without suffering the consequences. How quickly those consequences will result in our demise as a species is, of course, a matter of some debate. I tend to believe that we are nearing a breaking point, and the universe is going to be submitting a bill for payment to us, for the damages to our living domicile for which we are responsible, in the very near future…..
It must be noted that most of what I write about, whether I write well, or merely a lot, lends itself equally well to tragedy as it does to farce. In fact, it should also be noted that this is a good metaphor, for human nature. We are contradictory creatures, you, and your Uncle Bob, your Aunt Shirley, and I, and everyone else who makes up human society, filled with warring impulses, and wildly differing viewpoints. The expression of our nature in the real world reflects all of that, in all its tragic, farcical, gloriously foolish splendor…. We inspire and disgust each other on a daily, sometimes hourly basis, especially if one watches a lot of TV, with its completely distorted approximation of reality…. I have pretty much given up on TV completely, as it merely serves to fuel my outrage, and that, as you may have noted already, needs no further encouragement….
Well, a thousand or so words should be enough for a retrospective musing on human nature….. especially when they flow out as smoothly as these. I’ll leave this here, and most likely come back to it another day…. I will leave you with this fine observation from Mssr. Darwin, of The Origin of Species fame…. a book which gave birth to perhaps the finest scientific advance of the millennium, the since-proven Theory of Evolution….. surely a magnificent creation of the human spirit that encompasses both of the elements, farce and tragedy, we explored above….
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin
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“But groundless hope, like unconditional love, is the only kind worth having.”
~~ EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow, “Cynthia Horner’s Eulogy”, Apr. 1994 ~~
Unsolicited Gratitude
Fear becomes familiar when reality bodes us ill
pain assumes first position, no matter our will.
Powerless, we founder, no strength to prevail
anguished and afraid, against unwanted Fate we rail.
Still, a grain of hope deep inside, hidden well against need
gives us reason to survive, our starving souls to feed.
Failure of courage burdens time, of being bested,
until our souls, in submission, become foully infested.
Bitter tears wash through us each day, with little care,
no thought, no feeling, no wish, or need to be fair.
Rendered clueless, confusion falls upon us, as prey,
we surrender a piece of our soul, little as we may.
Yet, always, a bright beam of hope is seen from afar,
no matter how dreary, or dark, it may seem where we are.
None knows, nor would consent to tell, it seems
from whence it hails, or why it so brightly gleams.
Saving our sanity, absolving our unwanted fears,
dispelling the myths and lies that come with the years.
Each man has known the precious gift that hope may give
And gives glad thanks, as long as he may live.
~~ gigoid ~~
10/10/2012
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Naked Pearls
Stones on the Path….
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“Fate is a river. Free will is a paddle.”
~~ Subtle Bee ~~
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“We can not live for ourselves alone,
our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads.”
~~ Herman Melville ~~
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“Time carves all.
Let yourself be carved to attain your true nature.”
~~ Master Po ~~
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“What I gave, I have; what I spent, I had; what I kept, I lost.”
— old epitaph
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“Seek not to follow in the footsteps of men of old;
seek what they sought.”
~~ Matsuo Basho ~~
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“Creation is a mighty joke, but the laugh is at my own expense.”
~~ Meher Baba ~~
*******
“All is flux, nothing stays still.”
~~ Heraclitus (540?-480? B.C.) ~~
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Well, there you go…. Such as it is, I offer it up for your perusal, and, hopefully, your approbation. If not, well, the effort is always worthwhile, for all one may learn. I’ll quit pontificating, or, even merely being naturally pedantic, long enough to bid thee farewell, until the next time, which will probably be in a day or three. Who knows? This little foray may have broken the dam upon my fountain of expression; I guess we’ll see, won’t we? Until we do, y’all be well, & happy as you may be. As has probably become obvious by now, if nothing else, you can leave the ‘being strange’ part to me….
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.
As expected, BBR events and prior commitments have precluded working on a fresh Pearl, so, i’m posting from the archives to signify my absence, and my steadfastness; one out of two ain’t bad…. In any rate, I should be done with my other stuff soon, and will celebrate with a completely fresh pile of nonsense & blather. As long as I only say that, with just that degree of ambiguity, the odds are good for fulfilling such a prediction. That’s my story, & I’m sticking to it. Y’all take care, & be strange, which is better than any alternative….
Hajime…. As y’all know from previous Pearls, the word, ‘hajime’ is Japanese, meaning, “begin” or, “beginning”. It is spoken to two judoka, or karateka, as the word to start a match between them. I use it here, simply because it brings me a small bit of focus, merely to speak it in my head. I need the focus, because this is a special Pearl, in some ways. Two events occurred today to break the monotony of my semi-reclusive existence, as I fight my way past the issues I’ve been facing all year. One I’ll relate just below, in this section; the other will serve as today’s rant replacement for that section. First, the SECOND event, in terms of when they happened; the first resulted in the second…. You’ll see..
I find myself at a loss for words. Given the nature of this enterprise (i.e., blogging), that is certainly problematic, not to mention inconvenient in the here and now. However, if I don’t at least make an effort to put together enough words in a logical manner, I’ll feel even worse for wear. And, yes, that gives an indication of just how screwed up my head has been of late, as I have been touting a lack of angst over not posting, an outburst which, clearly, is a lie told to myself. When that happens, I can no longer fail to acknowledge the truth, painful as it must be….
The sad truth is, I have been under attack from the most perfidious and most dangerous of my personal demons, to wit: myself. To be more precise, ’tis a demon of my own making, which brings to bear my own unnamed fears upon my serenity/stability, with all that implies. Long story short, it uses my own skills and thoughts to undermine my peace of mind, with convincing authority, as it all comes from within. To be completely honest, it’s scary, and infuriating, to realize how vulnerable we are to ourselves… More infuriating is knowing it’s all bullshit, just personal weakness in the face of introspection. Nonetheless, bullshit or not, it’s kept me from writing, or thinking clearly, which, in my world, pretty much screws the pooch…. & if I have to explain that one, well, guess what? It ain’t happenin’, cuz I don’t wanna go there…
Since none of the above has any real bearing on anything but my own discomfort, I’ll make the adult decision to move past it without further comment; I’ll just have to come to my own terms with myself. Maybe, if I could find the wherewithal to get a poem down on paper (yes, I know, but, there’s no equivalent digital phrase that describes it so well…), some of this angst would bleed off, & I could spend a bit of time on what I WANT to do, rather than what my inner lack of balance ends up trapping me into doing…. SIGH…. Ah, well the hell with it…. Let’s just get this slow on the toad for the day, & try again another day….
Shall we Pearl?
“Time destroys the speculations of man,
but it confirms the judgment of nature.”
~~ Cicero ~~
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Image from residentmusic.com via Google Images….
In my world, this particular musical set represents what I consider the best representative example to be found of Eric Clapton’s work. I listen to this while working, while relaxing, while reading… whatever I may do, it provides a smooth, brilliant background, without becoming tiresome or redundant. It shows off his skills in every style he has learned to play, & his band mates are some of the best to ever play, IMHO…. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do….
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Meander….
Inimitable, grieving, garnering mere bargains, to taste;
naked apes, priapic by nature and choice,
filled up the only valid chalice, laid it to waste,
nobody asked, nor ever raised a single voice.
Formidable, dreams becoming so real;
clearly extraordinary, in a tawdry sense.
Deals to make, illusions to steal,
busy, busy, building fence after fence.
True nature’s existence, so to speak,
rests interiorly, as well as in your face.
Duality’s persistent insistence ain’t weak;
ignorance of reality leaves not a single trace.
Herds of commonality congregate before portals
shaking each other by the collar as they dance.
Chasing their illusionary dreams, as if they weren’t mortals,
born believing they ever had a chance.
Irony lives deep in the human soul, part, parcel, post;
holding four aces, betting a pair of jacks, or queens.
Expedience beckons toward mendacity, at most,
fox mocking grapes, while it dances and preens.
The wheel turns, inevitable, ponderously mundane,
grinding grain, chaff, and dust.
Bolstering connections aids those who may abstain
from the paltry tale of the bold, and just.
~~ gigoid ~~
10/5/2016
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Naked Pearls
Extra cheese, please….
*******
Before I speak, I am master of the words;
After, the word is master of me”
.~~- Ibn Gabriol ~~
*******
“The first place that I can well remember
was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it.”
~~ “Black Beauty”, by Anna Sewell, 1877 ~~
*******
“By the accident of fortune a man may rule the world for a time,
but by virtue of love he may rule the world forever.”
~~ Lao Tzu ~~
*******
“Don’t take the bull by the horns, take him by the tail;
then you can let go when you want to.”
~~ Josh Billings ~~
*******
“The present contains nothing more than the past,
and what is found in the effect is already in the cause.”
~~ Henri Louis Bergson (1859-1941) ~~
*******
“Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow–
You are not wrong who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.”
~~ Edgar Allan Poe, “A Dream Within A Dream” ~~
*******
“Th’ MIND is the Pizza Palace of th’ SOUL”
~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~
*******
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Well, ffolkes, there you have it, such as it is. It’s not Pulitzer-worthy, to be sure, but, it’s all as fresh as I could make it, & it’ll have to do for the nonce. It will be at least a day or two before I post again, as I have committed to doing a small piece of work in collaboration with a friend, & that will garner all my attention for at least a day or two. Until I return, fear not; the universe is proceeding as it should, in spite of how we deal with it, or form opinions on how it may be to our perception….
Hmm…. I see even this little bit of composition is enough to stimulate my pedantry; so be it. I’m done for now, so, I’ll merely say, be well, be happy as you may be, and, keep up the level of strange, if only in self-defense…. I know I will….
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.
I began blogging here on WordPress in August of 2011, during my first year of retirement. At the time, my health was not great; I lived with chronic pain which prevented any sort of exercise, & at one point reached 250 lbs., on a relatively diminutive frame, (5’7″). Blogging provided me with a means of distracting myself from what seemed to be a long, uncomfortable road toward death. To avoid allowing this to become either excessively lengthy, or excessively maudlin, I’ll merely say the production of a Pearl of Virtual Wisdom each day became both the focus of my everyday routine, as well as a life/mind saving grace….
Long story short, six years passed, during which time I was fortunate, or stubbornly persistent enough to evolve toward a more joyful existence, until, thanks to having resumed personal responsibility for my health & well-being, (achieved by kicking doctors and the AMA in general out of my life….), I am again living in much better balance. My weight is hovering around 175#, (very acceptable…), my arthritis is much better, with concomitant pain reduction sufficient to allow physical exercise (I walk 2+ miles/day….), and, most significantly, spend a LOT less time worrying about all of those things which compelled me to require distraction. To continue the policy of long story short, blogging has become a secondary, or auxiliary, part of my life. Where once I would have felt great angst at not having written, or posted a Pearl, I now feel satisfied, if only at the lack of angst…..
There…. Having once again said much, to little purpose, I feel as if I’ve gone a little way toward making it up to my neurotic tendencies by doing so, though I’m well aware it’s merely another way to distract myself from things I don’t wish to consider right now. If I didn’t keep shortening what could easily become much longer by the addition of sarcasm, nonsense, or blather in general, we’d never even get to the music, much less the old-school pearls. Goodness forfend! As a means of guarantee, here’s a rather abrupt ending to this rather ambiguous opening. Watch closely….
Shall we Pearl?
“The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal
depends not on what he feels, but on what he does;
just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.”
~~ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Meditations, ix, 16 ~~
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Despite having more than enough time to choose & find some proper music by which to read, I’m going with one of our default choices here on ECR (Exploring Consensual Reality, for those in the pre-coffee darkness…), to wit: a collection of some of the finest classical music on Earth, by some pretty talented composers. All of it has stood the test of time, and, I suspect, will do so again today, here…. Enjoy!….
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Premises, premises….
Tricked, I stumble, and I fall
dreaming, through an abandoned palace.
Frightened and wary, unheard my call
fading into memory, no cup, no argent chalice.
The people, crushed, cry out to be freed
asking only to take part, or travel.
Nascent oaths spotlight such bursting need
fed by treachery, deep from our well.
Only the wicked shall find their way blocked
justice seeks them, snug in their hole.
Faint praises never touched, but naked, stalked
singing no gospel, no soul, no rock and roll.
Only the promised will remember the way
from unforgiven trails of sorrow.
To live life, and give death no sway,
saving grace for our only tomorrow.
~~ gigoid ~~
12/19/2014
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Naked Pearls
More Signs on the Path….
*******
“The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment,
o appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.”
~~ Thich Nhat Hanh ~~
*******
“Hang sorrow! care ‘ll kill a cat.”
~~ Ben Jonson — Every Man in his Humour, Act i, Sc. 3 ~~
*******
“There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man.
The true nobility is in being superior to you previous self.”
~~ Samuel Johnson ~~
*******
“It is a good thing to be rich and strong, but it is a better thing to be loved.”
~~ Euripides ~~
*******
“Education is not a preparation for life;
Education is life itself.”
~~ John Dewey ~~
*******
“Some say that my teaching is nonsense.
Others call it lofty but impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
this nonsense makes perfect sense.
And to those who put it into practice,
this loftiness has roots that go deep.
I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”
~~ Tao Te Ching ~~
*******
“No matter where you are, there you are.”
~~ Oliver’s Law of Location ~~
*******
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I love it when a plan, even an ill-considered plan, comes together…. I wish to point out the rather ‘perfect’ status of our final pearl today, for it perfectly says all there is to say at this point. Not that it matters at all where we are, but, here we are. And, now, we’re not…. or, about to not be. Hmm… That might just be a little TOO subtle, even for me. I’ll just say, be well, ffolkes, and happy as you may be. Being strange is also an option, one I strongly recommend…. See y’all in a day or three…
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.
Entrance to the Spanish Arch
gigoid 