Ffolkes,
“Friends are the flowers in the garden of life.”
~~ Smart Bee ~~
This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the Lagoon Nebula, an object with a deceptively tranquil name. The region is filled with intense winds from hot stars, churning funnels of gas, and energetic star formation, all embedded within an intricate haze of gas and pitch-dark dust.
The Lagoon Nebula
Image by the ESA/NASA Hubble Deep Space Telescope
Good morning…. Thanks to the machinations I’m compelled to use in order to get any sleep at all, I was up for almost three hours last night, (in the middle of the damn thing, at that!), then fell out so hard I overslept my usual time for posting…. SIGH…. So much for the best laid plans, eh? Ah well, it’s a good thing I had some time yesterday, & got the rant done then…. That saves almost half the available time, right there….
So, I’ll use my newest grand technique to explain myself, thus,
[dignified silence]
There, we have now regained at least a modicum of our dignity, while simultaneously saving a bunch of time…. It also, to my intense relief, reestablished to some degree my aplomb, without which I feel naked in public…. Ah, that’s better…. Okay, Luigi, hit it!….
Shall we Pearl?….
“Education is the best provision for old age.”
~~ Aristotle ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Image from melauspartners.com via Google Images
To find a different mix for y’all, I went back several pages in the You Tube search, and found a perfect batch…. It’s advertised as over 3 hours of classical music for babies…. Probably better for them than anything but mother’s milk…. If the expression on that babies face is any indication, it’s pretty damn good, for sure….That would be my guess, anyway…. Enjoy!…
***********************
Classical Music for Babies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morning Muse
“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”
~~ Genesis 1:1 ~~
See, now, THERE! Right there! The very first time I heard that, as a child, I remember thinking to myself, “The beginning of what?” My second thought was, “Did anybody SEE that? Must’ve been cool.” Well, okay, the second one I just made up. But, the first one is still clear in my mind, and, still pretty thoroughly unanswered in any meaningful way, by anybody I know, or have heard about. Since then, of course, a number of other thoughts and comments have occurred to me at various moments, but, they’re mostly sarcastic, sardonic, or downright cruel, so, we’ll just go on…
The absolute uncertainty I perceived as inherent in the statement, clearly obvious to me even at that age, at that precise moment, was thus established in my mind as the prevailing tenor of all such proclamations, before those telling it to me could reinforce it as something I was supposed to accept as true…. I believe this revelation, which occurred at the age of about 4 or 5, if I recall correctly, is primarily responsible for having saved me from so much of the anguish and trouble I observe in so many of my peers…. In short, it set off my crap detector, and, I listened…
In the intervening 60 years, I’ve made a fairly wide, thorough study of religion(s), as much as possible for an overly literate layman. Whether my conclusions based on my studies are correct, or not, is for me to decide; y’all can make up your own, if you’ve a mind to (Little joke there….) I guess it’s obvious by now, I’m going to tell you some of those conclusions…. See how sharp y’all are?….
It seems to me, from all my studies, the only reasonable conclusion I can make, basing my reason on my extensive reading, is this: all the major religions were created…. They are all just fabulous stories, thought up by unscrupulous sociopaths, more interested in other people’s morals than their own (or, possessing an even greater measure of fear of Life than the average insane person…), who wished to manipulate the others of our species, who were also too afraid of life to face it directly.
All they saw around them, this large, terrifying, UNKNOWN universe, full of strange noises and powerful elements they did not comprehend, caused them to retreat in fear into their own minds, rather than screwing up their courage to go out into the world, to try to find out what it all meant, or how it worked, and, most importantly, to understand, and to see what else there was to see…. It’s easy to give in to fear like that; I know it, you know it. We’ve all felt fear at the unknown… But, one has to make a choice, to face it like a human, with curiosity, and courage, or, like a sub-human, running for his mama back in the cave….
Rather than THINK about what they heard, and about what they saw, these unfortunates, many of whom were brainwashed before they had a real chance to learn how to reason, accepted the first thing they heard to explain what they feared, the first one to offer surcease, most often hearing this from a person who had been brainwashed the same way at the same age, never questioning what they were told, thus removing from them any responsibility to ever make up their own minds about anything.
It’s a harsh reality about Reality; once one gives away their right, or willingness to make their own personal decisions about what to believe, one may as well fasten a slave’s collar around their own neck, willingly…. Better yet, through the nose, for that is how they’ll be led around for the rest of their lives. The saddest part of this is that such people will never break free, for, to do so, they would have to give up believing what they’ve always held to be true…. and, we already know how they feel about facing their fears. They’d have to first admit they were wrong, then decide to do what they’ve NEVER done…. which is to have the courage to take responsibility for their own actions….
It’s a tough world out there; I think it’s really too bad so many ffolkes have such a hard time with a) understanding what they perceive, and b) understanding themselves…. I find it sad, that so many people miss out on most of the real beauty in life, which comes from connecting with that understanding, and making it connect yet again to the real world…. Believe me, the rewards are much greater, and much more tangible than promises of immortality one cannot help but disdain; immortality is not just an Illusion, it is also Reality…. Two sides, one coin, ffolkes…. No God needed…. Actually, I just thought of a way you can see God, right now…. Go into the bathroom, turn on the light, and, look in the mirror…. There you go….
Hah! Gotcha! The funny thing is… you think it was a joke, when, in fact, it’s the absolute gospel truth…. Dig it.
Gosh, look, ffolkes! It’s a pearl, without any pearls…. I guess we’ll have to fix that before we get to today’s poetry section, which I think you’ll find says much the same as I just spouted off, but, in a slightly different scansion….
First, let’s see what SB has to say about this subject…. Usually, when I ask for this, I have to be picky…. we’ll see….
“Let’s leave religion to the televangelists. After all, they’re the professionals.” — Smart Bee
“John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he temporarily died to save it from himself. But none of that really matters because most people will be tortured for eternity anyways.” — Matt Miller
“If you follow the flock, you step in shit!” — Darkwisdom
“Anyone who can’t laugh at himself is taking life too seriously for my taste.” — Smart Bee
“Things don’t bug you if you don’t think about them.” — Calvin
(Think about it….)
“The common dogma [of fundamentalists] is fear of modern knowledge, inability to cope with the fast change in a scientific-technological society, and the real breakdown in apparent moral order in recent years That is why hate is the major fuel, fear is the cement of the movement, and superstitious ignorance is the best defence against the dangerous new knowledge. When you bring up arguments that cast serious doubts on their cherished beliefs you are not simply making a rhetorical point, you are threatening their whole Universe and their immortality. That provokes anger and quite frequently violence.” — G. Gaia
“It is amusing that a virtue is made of the vice of chastity; and it’s a pretty odd sort of chastity at that, which leads men straight into the sin of Onan, and girls to the waning of their color.” — Voltaire
“The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.” — Stanley Milgram
“Maybe Jesus was right when he said that the meek shall inherit the earth — but they inherit very small plots, about six feet by three.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”
Okay, nine is probably enough…. However, I couldn’t resist two last thoughts provided by SB’s largess in this subject; one is a question I’m fond of asking priests/preachers, the other is my usual response to those twenty-two year old ‘elders’ the LDS bozos send around to my door…. I promise, then, I’m done with this…. for today.
For the priests, when they ask me if I believe in God….
“Is being an idiot like being high all the time?”
~~ Janeane Garofolo ~~
And, for the traveling side-show carnies, when they ask me, “Have you been saved?”….
“Bite off, dirtball.”
~~ Richard Sexton, richard@gryphon.COM ~~
Naturally, as soon as I considered this done, Smart Bee presents me with the absolutely perfect pearl to finish off this religirant….
Calvin: “Do you believe our destinies are determined by the stars?”
Hobbes: “Nah.”
Calvin: “Oh, I do.”
Hobbes: “Really? How come?”
Calvin: “Life’s a lot more fun when you’re not responsible for your actions.”
— “Calvin and Hobbes,” Bill Watterson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rejection
“Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so…”
I’d be crying a river, I thought
if ever such crap I bought.
Sorry if it hurts your sense of style,
but, hypocrisy always gives me bile.
Being lied to accidentally is okay,
but, deliberate lies make me angry, and fey.
Oh, God, hear what I pray!
Keep me from your followers today.
Having to listen to so much that is wrong
makes me puke, before it makes me strong.
I don’t know why it isn’t clear to other folks,
which is alright, you know, different strokes.
But, why should that mean that they must
force me to believe, or fail in trust?
Spare me the lies, and the make-believe,
fairy tales are easier to hear, and to weave.
They give us a lesson which we can feel
but don’t pretend at all to be real.
Reality can scare us, that’s a given fact,
still, met with care it will leave us mostly intact.
Met without fear, standing tall and alone
Life will allow us to make it our own.
Folly beckons, and so many follow
mass delusions seem to me most hollow.
I’ll have to stick to my own chosen way
while so many go so sadly astray.
It’s lonely at times, it may seem sad,
but really isn’t, and I’m quite glad,
that knowledge is always stronger than fear,
year after year, tear after tear…..
~~ gigoid ~~
Written 3/18/2013.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today’s final old-school pearl is a true nine-star gem, with some really good ideas of how to live Life, not just in a way that brings honor, and peace of mind, but, with also with Love, and respect for Life’s other side…. Death…. Enjoy!….
“When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them.” — Chinese Proverb
“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” — Robert A. Heinlein
“A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure.” — Buddha
“After the verb “to love,” “to help” is the most beautiful verb in the world.” — Baroness Bertha von Suttner
“One kind word can warm three winter months.” — Japanese proverb
“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.” — Lao-Tzu
“Don’t SAY things. What you ARE stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
— Social Aims
“After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” — Albus Dumbledore, in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
“There’s this to say for blood and breath,
They give a man a taste for death.”
~~ Housman ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not too shabby for panic mode… I hate being late, as I’ve related previously, so, I’m happy to have (apparently) saved this Pearl from the shit pile… Oh, sorry, too gross for this early…. Ah well, chalk it up to a bit of left-over curmudgeonry, from arising late…. Hey, nobody’s bleeding, or missing any major body parts, right? All is well, then. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, as long as I continue to elude the authorities….
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….
Like this:
Like Loading...
gigoid 