Ffolkes,

Today’s intro section will be just that, and nothing more. I’m tired of trying to figure it out, so I’m taking a hiatus from doing so…. Our only purpose here today is to get this done, so we can get on with it. Too much going on to even explain, so, in the interests of maintaining honesty, we’ll go immediately into emergency exit #4, which, as y’all know, works like this….

Shall we Pearl?

“Pardon him, Theodotus, he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.” — George Bernard Shaw

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    Spock passed from this world yesterday…. Leonard Nimoy, who became Spock in the eyes and minds of the world, died at…

Ffolkes,

Having long been cognizant of the danger involved in living a life of free will, I accept that danger, without qualm or resentment, as the just cost it represents for the boon of living free. As our favorite Founding Father, Tommy J, was fond of saying, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance; it’s cost is counted only in the blood of its defenders.” Well, I think he said it; it might have been one of the others…. but, it SOUNDS like mi amigo Tomas, so I’m going with that. The danger, as it turns out, is not from the world at large, so much as from the Australopithecan inhabitants of that world, specifically a certain small part of the impossibly fecund  group of naked, hairless apes who infest the surface of the planet with me….

Now, this may sound as if I have a rather poor opinion of…

Ffolkes,

Those readers who have been here consistently will know right away something is up. Those who have not will merely feel a slight bit of uneasiness, without knowing why. Those who are here for their first taste of Consensual Reality, gigoid-style, are in for an epiphany, of sorts; the direction it takes is completely ruled by their own inner needs. The rest of us, well, we’re going out for breakfast….

Of course, breakfast will consist solely of a bit of smarmy dialogue, but, they don’t know that. I’ve decided, as is by now obvious, to sever all connections we had to normal reality, and spend the day out on…

Ffolkes,

In keeping with my resolution to lose weight (no, not a New Year’s resolution; I started three months ago…), and to take a more proactive attitude toward my overall health, I’m making good progress, 25 lbs; gone, so far, in 3 months…). In terms of the pain, not so much has been achieved, as yet, though I have high hopes, so to speak. In general, I also intend to be a bit less of a curmudgeon, at least in the way I look at certain subjects…. I have no intention of giving up my insistence on not suffering fools gladly; I’ll just be a little nicer to shopkeepers, and other folks who cannot properly defend themselves from my ire when they act stupid right in front of me…. It will…

Ffolkes,
Salacious, grinning demons haunt the edges of my dreams, claws dripping in the blood of innocence. Hideous screams echo through the dark halls in my mind, as the torturous maze leads me ever deeper into the nightmare of my own mind. No soothing touch is felt on skin numb to all feeling, no mellifluous voice penetrates the foul cacophony ringing in my unwelcoming ears. Time stops, and pain becomes eternal, the focus of all perception, until I awake, groaning in fear, to find myself alive, and whole, shaking, soaked in sweat, and vowing never to sleep again….

Gee, look…. it’s already 0700 in the morning, and I’m just now getting started…. If I didn’t know better, I’d believe I had finally overcome the time distortion suffered when I went to a different time zone for over two weeks…. I knew about jet-lag, but didn’t realize just how powerfully it…

Ffolkes,
My mind’s eye is clouded and grey this morning. No visions of beauty, or even of horror. No trite phrases, no witty repartee, and worst of all, no nonsense floating around in my head, clamoring for release. It’s all a void, empty space that I may have to try to rent out. I have fallen into writer’s limbo, that terrifying landscape where ideas run off the moment they arrive, and creativity is limited to sock colors. Where material is not merely hard to find, but actively resistant in spite of all efforts on my part to find something, anything to write about……

A hundred sinister eyes peered out from the darkness surrounding the traveler, closely following his progress on the road leading to the castle of the local lord. The traveler took no notice, his hooded face hidden as he stared downward at the back of his horse, seemingly…

Ffolkes,
I should know better…. Having applied for my SS Disability, I had thought that, since my last job let me go as “unfit for duty”, and since I AM unable to work due to back pain and my other physical challenges, the Federal Government, in the guise of the SS Administration, would be able to see that yes, I do need to get paid all the money I put into SS ahead of my 66th birthday.

However, in spite of my clear presentation of the facts, they denied my claim, having in their wisdom, without ever interviewing or seeing me in person, decided that I am well enough to work, able to stand for 6 or more hours a day (I can’t stand for more than 5 minutes before pain increases in my hips and back), lifting up to 50 lbs. on a regular basis, (which I can do…

Ffolkes,

For close to four years now, I’ve maintained a routine which gave me the time and space to produce these Pearls each morning. It’s been valuable to me, in at least one sense, if not many; if nothing else, my sanity, while never completely intact, remains sufficiently strong to resist giving in to all the parts of life which might make us unhappy by their complete indifference to our sensibilities. It may not sound like much, but, believe me, being able to find a spot of peace in this life is more of a gift than many folks, or, for that matter, ffolkes, may realize…. I do, and I appreciate it….

However, as today’s title indicates, if there is one thing we all need to stay on top…

Ffolkes,

Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit. : “There is no great genius without a tincture of madness.” — Seneca (8 BC) — De Tranquillitate Animi, 17

This is a truism, in my world, which extends itself to include “all the nicest folks I know”; in this way, it lives up to the same piece of wisdom, first told to me by my own father, who told me while I was still quite young, “Son, all the nicest folks I know are just a little bit tetched….” Though he was from Illinois by birth, he said it in a very Georgian, or Texan, accent, with a big smile, and a twinkle in his eyes….. These, of course, were the non-verbal signals to let me know that, though said in the spirit of fun(ny), he was quite serious, and believed it to be an absolute truth…..

I’ve found this to…