Hajime…. I may have to stop using that particular opening for a while. It is losing some of its meaning by my own lack of ability to sleep; there’s never any end, so how can I begin? I had no idea the human body could withstand such a prolonged stint of sleeplessness, without becoming terminal, or, as we like to call it, dead. As it turns out, the human body can stand almost any level of pain, or fatigue, or all-around miserable abuse; what actually suffers is our mental state, as we become tired, and lose the edge of sharpness necessary to successful reasoning. The hallucinations aren’t particularly helpful, either…. No, it’s the leg aches from constant pacing, and the anxiety that comes with the restlessness, and the general sense of futility of almost anything…

Yep, Depression aggravated by physical stress. Situational, naturally; there’s got to be an end to it sometime. If my calculations are correct, it could stop any day; the most it can last is another two weeks…. Since I’ve already done that much, and more, I can hack it. And, if I live through it, I’m going to, first, sleep for a week straight, then go hunting….

Not really, though it’s really tempting. But, at least, if I ever need to, I’ve had so much time on my hands, I came up with at least three new almost infallible murder plots (for books, of course….) to try out. Even worked out details & timing…. The thought of the targets I would select got me through more than one long night, imagining the lovely mist it would make when…. well, let’s not go there….. Too early in the day…. or in the Pearl, anyway.

But, not too early to get started. I’ve been informed Luigi has another day off, and Guido, that pro, has everything ready to go. After y’all….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.” — Mark Twain

For the most part, I see these “opinions” to be, more accurately, “convictions”, the difference being a conviction usually is placed in our consciousness BEFORE we can reason, and has the force of social custom mandating its belief. An “opinion” is a reasoned belief, formed in one’s own mind, after forming one’s own beliefs…. Thus, it’s clear that much of the actual intercommunication which occurs between most people is merely a confirmation of what we all have been told since we were born, an insidious form of mental slavery…. Our only defense against assuming the collar of the mental slave is our ability, if we choose to acknowledge it, and are brave enough to use it, to learn, to eliminate our fear, thus forming our own opinions of reality, based on what we know, instead of what we are told by others.

In short, our species, in all-too-many cases, makes a deliberate choice to be ignorant, very early in life; most of these folks do so in order to save themselves the effort and pain of using their intelligence or imagination, which frightens them. So, they learn to depend on what they are told by others to form their beliefs, thus operating under the impetus of conviction rather than reasoned will.

Closer examination reveals the decision to pursue ignorance is always, always based on fear; fear of the unknown, without the courage to face the fear long enough to learn, which is the only way to remove the fear. So, we see that courage plays a big part in the process, as well. In my experience in life, every part of it in which we are successful has required, at first, the courage to begin. In my mind, I equate this fear of the unknown, and the lack of courage to face it, as yet another form of mental slavery; giving up one’s own mind to allow others to dictate its contents, and its beliefs.

This mental slavery extends into every aspect of our society, as the greater number of people in the world haven’t the will to ever even consider that all of what they’ve been told in their life was, for the most part, just a lie used to manipulate them. I can understand their reluctance; it’s not an easy thing to admit one has been wrong any time; to admit one’s entire set of beliefs is wrong just isn’t something most people will consider, in any way. It would destroy their entire frame of existence, and leave them without the tools to find their way back to any sort of sanity.

Now, in this predator class of psychopathic humans I include a number of categories (we humans do love to organize our thoughts by category, don’t we? Well, it IS rather convenient….), to wit: Politicians (includes lawyers), professional police and soldiers, priests, imams, pastors, and all other proponents of a supernatural element of creation of Man, (ie. religionists), oligarchs in all their manifestations (bankers, the 1%, corporate heads, the shadowy elite who hide their malevolent influence from plain sight, manipulating mankind from unseen enclaves for their own aggrandizement), any and all of those who sell or deal with selling the weapons of war , snakeheads (pimps & human traffickers), abusers of women, children, or animals, or, most generally, anyone who believes they are, in any manner at all, any more important a piece of this universe than any other.

That last one is the key, you see. It’s an ego driven characteristic, to which humans are particularly susceptible, to assume that, just because we are human, an “I”, we are somehow, in some way, special, making us, in some way, more important than other parts of that universe. I don’t know exactly where it comes from; I’ve never actually felt a need to BE special, at least not more so than anyone or anything else. But. apparently, according to what I can ascertain through a passing knowledge of all of HISTORY. almost all of mankind DOES. to some extent. have this need. Perhaps it is an unconscious reaction to the sheer dispassion of the universe; obviously, in true reality, nothing is more important than any other. It’s only a man-made distinction.

Perhaps the difference is the lengths to which one is willing to prove it; personally, I don’t care if anyone other than those I love have any opinion of me at all, never have, so I’ve never felt a pressing need to prove I’m special in any way. But, for those who occupy any of the above categories, there is no limit to the depths of perversion or violence to which they will descend, in order to achieve their ends. Lying, cheating, stealing, killing, all are acceptable in their eyes, if only they get what THEY want…..

What I believe I am, at this point in time, is clear-sighted, in re: Life at Large. This clarity of vision is part of why it is hard to be happy, for all I see happening in the world, on the larger scale, tells me there are hard times coming for everyone. Sure, life in the trenches, where most of us live. still exhibits examples of how good life can be, mostly in the relations people have with each other. But, on the world stage, our species is approaching a number of potentially lethal crises, of which 98% of the people alive are not even aware.

It’s easy to show the truth of that assertion; the evidence is presented every day on the news, on the internet, and, most tellingly, in the small, daily events which show just how corrupt, and perverted, and, sick our society has become. If I have to detail each one for you, you’ve already missed the point, which is to see the whole picture. The whole picture our species has painted is out of focus, ill-conceived, and, in the ultimate sense, a complete and utter tragedy….

Why a tragedy? Because, quite frankly, with the power of imagination we possess, along with the POTENTIAL for virtue with which we are imbued, we could have been much more. In fact, we could have been “special”.

Instead, we have become a scourge, a lethal threat to not only our planet, and every other creature living on it, but, to our own species, as a small percentage sucks the souls of the rest of the species for their own self-interest, which is nothing more than the cowardly, ugly habit of preying on their own kind. In short, cannibals. Or, as we call them here, Asininnies…..

I could do this forever, it seems. That’s the problem; there are SO many problems, it seems there is no end to them. Another problem? Almost all of them can lead us to extinction, one way or another.

It pisses me off, but of all the permutations of possible futures for mankind I can formulate in my imagination, using what I know of history and our nature, only one, or maybe two paths remain open to us that can lead us to what I consider our true destiny as a species, which is to explore the stars. What other purpose could our imagination have., but to lead us there? Only the infinite nature of the entire universe can fulfill the potential promise we have in the power of our minds. But, until we can learn to live in harmony on THIS planet, I don’t think we’ll make it very far out into space. The odds, at this point, are against it….

Oh, and the video at the top? Of Fum, and Gebra? I imagine some of y’all are wondering how it fits in to this discussion. Simply this; watch the video. Also, watch the video of how Fum and Gebra became friends. As you watch, note, please, how you feel to watch them play, and interact. Then, think of the paths of which I spoke, those available to us which have the only chance we have to survive into the future….

Fum, and Gebra are showing us one of those paths, the one I would prefer to take, to wit; to learn our ACTUAL place in the universe, join in friendship with the other animals we live with, to become a part of the real organism of which we are a only a part, Terrestrials. When we are capable of opening our minds to such a possibility, we MIGHT just find a way to survive the next hundred years. If not, well…. I suggest you prepare for hard times, like we have never seen before…. Me, I’d rather go to the stars…..

“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.” — Antoine de Saint Exupery, The Little Prince

“Integrity is what we do, what we say, and what we say we do.” — Don Galer

“The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking, for it is merely useful for the sake of something else.” — Aristotle

“Do something every day that you don’t want to do; this is the golden rule  for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.” — Mark Twain

“Good character, like good soup, is usually homemade.” — Practical Bee

“Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow” — Alice M. Swaim

“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that’s the essence of inhumanity.” — George Bernard Shaw

“Great thoughts come from the heart.” — Marquis of Vauvenargues (1715-1747) — Maxim cxxvii

“”On with the dance, let joy be unconfined” is my motto, whether there’s any dance to dance or joy to unconfine.” — Mark Twain

********************************

Today’s Pearl is done. I say that with some small sense of relief, yet, also, some reluctance to stop what became an epic of its kind. I haven’t checked, but, it could be one of the biggest Pearls I ever created, all in all; moreover, all of was/is completely fresh, written solely for this post. Not bad for someone who has been inhabiting one of the lower levels of a personal Hell for sixteen days, all of which, individually, and, taken together, have been illuminating. Tomorrow should indicate whether a corner has been turned. Until then, y’all be real. I’ll be back to take another shot at this in the morning….