Ffolkes,
The highest form of generalship is to conquer the enemy by strategy.”
~~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War ~~
“My greatest fear in life is that no-one will remember me after I’m dead.” — Anonymous
Too often, this blog begins with the word “I”…. Well, in sooth, I say, “too often”, when what I actually mean is, “too often for my comfort.” This, of course, is the natural result of a person who wishes to write, but, really doesn’t wish to indulge in much of the ego-driven parts of writing that are necessary to achieve any sort of prominence….
Ambition is required, if one wishes to become popular, whether in the blogosphere, or in the mainstream media venues, such as newspapers, radio, & TV; ambition; this is unfortunate, at least, for those of us who’d rather remain on a path with oh, let’s just say, a higher degree of spiritualism, or perhaps just less ego-driven….
But, then one must consider two things…. One, it’s MY blog, and we are often dealing with MY issues, so, using “I” becomes nearly impossible to avoid…. Second, being a pretty smart guy, with a fairly accurate sense of how smart I am compared to the average joe, I try to avoid either shoving that in people’s faces, or dwelling upon it, as I don’t view it as necessarily anything to be proud about….
All it does, actually, is saddle me with more perceptions than most, to my way of seeing it, and, that particular ability, for certain, is both a blessing, AND a curse. Factor in the simple FACT that smartness, or intelligence, has NO PROVEN SURVIVAL VALUE, and you can begin to see why I try to avoid overt egotism…. It really isn’t very nice, not to mention self-defeating….
In the past five or six days, since right before Christmas, I’ve been climbing out of a deep hole, which my mind seems to have fallen into without me even noticing I was off balance; that’s what comes from depending on vertigo to do that…. it’s unreliable, as is now patently clear…. SIGH….
Whatever the failure in my early warning system happens to be, I found myself in a position where I was bursting into tears rather frequently, due to some stressful issues I’m dealing with, which seem to have triggered some unknown, and certainly unwanted, unresolved feelings of sadness and emotional pain, left over from one of the many instances in my life where I experienced far more of them than I ever thought possible, and, apparently, stored up for later use…. Go figure…
I’m finally starting to see some light, and, I’m hoping this morning’s events will help, as I get to go do something that SHOULD shore up some of my feelings of inner conflict…. Of course, I have another appointment tomorrow morning, wherein I expect to have to fire the opening salvo of what promises to be a quite bloody battle with my HMO, and the modern medical society they manipulate and corrupt at every turn…. That, however will be, I’m sure, food for a future rant, not for now….
Ha! Thought I’d fall into that one, didn’t you?…. Nope. In fact, it would be a good idea for y’all to hold on, because, I’ve blathered and bitched enough for one morning…. We’re goin’ in, and goin’ in hard!…. Not only that, but, we’re doin’ it NOW!….
Shall we Pearl?
“Avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry (NB: Circumstances can force your hand. So think ahead!)” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”
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I am all about quickness today, so what you get is another day of chill-out music, from the classical music genre…. This kind is nice to play while reading, and can provide a bit of armor against splashing, after a fashion…. The page to which I am linking is one with 112 selections of various pieces by various artists, and looks like a beautiful group to pass the time with…. enjoy…..
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To fill in the space quickly, here is a short rant with an attached old-school pearl as augmentation…. It is from a period when I was apparently writing better than other times; I’ve found some excellent stuff in the period’s archives…. including this one, one of several from this month… If nothing else, you can enjoy its brevity….
From 9/18/2012:
Religion has never attracted me as a pastime that led to any particularly desirable activities. From the very first, even as a small child, I always thought the people at church were trying to get me to believe something that was not only hard to believe, but they wanted me to believe it, just on their word that it was true….. What they were saying wasn’t anything like what I perceived to be true about the world at large; none of it sounded like common sense, if you get my drift…. Plus, the more I resisted what they said, and asked questions that they couldn’t answer, the more insistent they became….. Most kids have a pretty good crap detector, and the whole church thing seemed based on fluff and wishes to me…..
Any who, it seems a lot of my saved up oysters have been on that very subject, i.e., religious dogma, and alternative ways of looking at the universe, and how it works, and what it means…. (you know, all the good stuff….), so I thought an old-school grouping would perhaps help ffolkes get a clue about what I do believe….. which can, I have to admit, change from one day to the next….. gotta keep room for new data, y’know…… shall we Pearl a bit?…..
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the bible is filled, it would seem more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.” — Thomas Paine — The Age of Reason
“History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love (1972)
“I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings.” — Albert Einstein
God: What one human uses to persecute another. — Anonymous
The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.– Robert Heinlein, “Job”, 1984
“No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my own constitution; the only wrong what is against it.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
“If the lord had meant us to have faith, he’d have given us lobotomies.” — Zlatko
“A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally long life of decent living and good works followed by one outburst of taking the name of the Lord in vain, then have a heart attack at that moment and be damned for eternity. Is that the system?” — Robert A. Heinlein
“I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being.”–Albert Einstein
“Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.” — Buddha
Well, there you go…. a complete mish-mash of different philosophies and outlooks, each with its own little piece to contribute to the whole, all ended perfectly with a piece of profoundly simple wisdom… not the virtual kind that is common around here, but real wisdom, that you can put in your pocket, take away with you, and use as needed…..
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I’m using mine, only because it’s quicker, and I’m lazier than the average joe…. goes along with the smarter part…. Yep, I am aware that intelligence is merely a FACTOR of laziness in humans; one of the primary motivating factors for using our imagination is to find an easier, or quicker route to achieving our ends, whatever they are…. Think about it, ffolkes, you’ll see what I mean…. Meanwhile…. Here is one of my personal favorite poems…
Fried eggs got nuthin’ on me
Ah’m not even sure of mah name,
or how Ah come to be;
no idea from where Ah came.
Ah does like a mystery tho’,
puzzlin’ things out so’s Ah knows,
good from bad fo sho,
Ah sho don’t want no rock pillows.
If’n Ah cain’t figure out what’s best,
Ah just falls back on mah Daddy’s words,
seems he knowed just whut’d stand the test,
‘n how to gentle the scaredest birds.
‘Course, he’d lived a good long time,
‘n had lots of stuff go on by;
Went to a war, n’ lost a piece or two,
never once used it fer an alibi.
He tol’ me once Ah’d best learn to learn,
school’s only cool if ya ain’t already a fool.
Yer own good measure you can earn,
by startin’ yer learnin’ with the Golden Rule.
Always seemed to me as Ah growed up,
he mostly only spoke if it wuz true,
‘n by doin’ that clued me to what’s up,
kept me from stuff that’d a made me blue.
Without ever sayin’ the word itself,
Ah learned ’bout honor, ‘n helpin’ others
not some fake stuff from some shelf,
but, knowin’ whut’s right, ‘n that we’re all brothers.
Ah’ve been around long enough now, Ah think
to get around the block at least two times.
I s’pose long as my head don’t shrink
Ah’ll keep on doin’ right, ‘n makin’ these rhymes…..
~~ gigoid ~~
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Smart Bee seems to have gotten over its snit, this pearl came together in jig time, with a nice little group of pears all pointing in one direction…. Well, close enough for pearls, anyway; my Gentle Readers have seen enough of them to see what point we’re trying to make without undue difficulty. Any newbies will find it reasonably clear, as well, I think, for it’s a simple idea being promoted today…. See if you don’t agree….
“Each man is the smith of his own fortune.” — Appius Claudius Caecus
“It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past. Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.” — Jim Bishop
“All my life, I always wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific.” — Jane Wagner, _The Search For Intelligent Life In The Universe_ — [Performed by Lily Tomlin]
“Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know.” — William Saroyan
“All time in all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all bugs in amber.” — Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Slaughter-House 5
“Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it: men come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the harp. In the same way, by doing just acts, we come to be just; by doing self-controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled; and by doing brave acts, we come to be brave.” — Aristotle
“Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: “I’m with you kid. Let’s go.”” — Maya Angelou
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“This tagline is dedicated to my bird friend- Fred” — gigoid
Well…. considering that I’m currently in a state of mind I wouldn’t wish on an enemy, this didn’t come out too badly…. It’s also nice to have a little space from pain, which, thanks to the rain stopping for a few days, has been relatively manageable for two days now…. But, then, all is relative, is it not? I’m outta here, ffolkes… I’m gonna go see my grandson, and, for the first time in his life, be allowed to give him a Christmas present…. Now, THAT should make me feel better…. In fact, I’m counting on it…. See y’all later, ffolkes…. maybe even tomorrow….
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
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
PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.
À bientôt, mon cherí….
gigoid 