It has been my habit in the mornings, before beginning to write, to try to consume at least a little bit of my coffee; the results of doing so are, by a large margin, better than if I start typing before I do so…. a difference which you have possibly noted, without knowing the reason for it…. I’ve always known this was a risk, ever since that time back in the 1990’s, when I came to work at NSH one day, without having had any coffee…. The events of that day are still being talked about in police stations around the state, and I’m pretty sure the federal government passed three laws in response to what happened….

It isn’t something I like to talk about, in spite of the deep lesson it taught me; it’s the kind of lesson one doesn’t need to share, even though it is a bedrock of existence, and could be of use to others…. I don’t care at all. It’s something that I  had to learn, and that’s all I need to know…. You, too…

Sorry if I sound a bit harsh about that, but, there are just some things one doesn’t want to have others know about; I don’t think there is anyone out there who can tell me they are an open book, in every respect. Anyone who does so, well, I’d have to believe they weren’t being as straight with me as they could be, and I wouldn’t be able to give them my complete trust any longer…. If they will lie to themselves, they’ll lie to others; that’s a natural law when it comes to people…. another flaw exhibited frequently by a lot of people, as well as one I don’t believe can be denied by anyone truthful….

Now that I’ve gone completely bonkers, I wonder if I can find my way back to some sort of coherency….. it will be difficult, given the extremely BAD (spelled S-H-I-T-T-Y….) material I’ve created thus far…. I swear, some days it’s not worth getting out of bed…. Here I am, half-asleep, physically uncomfortable (compared to being asleep, anyway….), without a reasonably intelligent thought in my head, yet still typing away at this, just as if I had something useful, or even interesting to say…. It’s sheer egotism, that’s what it is…. Who the hell wants to read this stuff? I don’t, that’s for sure, and I’m the one writing it…. Now, THAT is a conundrum, for sure and for certain…

Since it only took me four paragraphs to create, find, and identify a conundrum, I’d say this intro may now be considered to be, if not saved, at least salvaged…. After all, can a blog really be saved? Hell, why not? If some of the people who they say are saved are any example, the standards for doing so are pretty loose, and I think I can slip this by the morals monitors without them catching on…. If not, well, we can always do like I am right now, and retreat into sheer fantasy, talking as if someone were actually listening, getting further and further from REALITY with each word…. I can do that at the drop of a cliché…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.” — Goethe
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I’m feeling more than just a little lazy today; in addition, I’m having a lot of pain, in my hands, as I type, so I’m going to have to keep it to a minimum, so to speak…. For y’all, this means a lot of archived material…. Today, that’s probably a good thing, as I don’t think anything that comes out of my head today will be worth saving for posterity… The following, however, is well worth it, so, please, enjoy…..

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From December, 2012:

Here is a short trio of pearls, old school style, to indicate a certain point (which, as always, is left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader….). Please note, for later reference, the roller coaster characteristics of the path from the beginning to the conclusion…. Taking notes will not be necessary, or graded….

“A little experience often upsets a lot of theory.” — Cadman

“If the King’s English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me!” — Ma Ferguson, Governor of Texas (circa 1920)

“Life is always like high school. Which is interesting, because high school is nothing like life.” — Jon Carroll, SF Chronicle, November 17, 1995.

Hmm….. this is interesting. I’ve noticed previously that Pearls often would take on a completely different meaning if presented in a slightly different order, on those occasions when more than one pearl is used to make a point. At times, the conclusion may be different, while other times may cause the conclusion to remain valid, while the road taken to get to that validity traveled through a different country. This is kind of like that, except that it is so flexible, I believe it would change its face and clothing no matter which way the three quotes are ordered. In this case, I have merely inverted the order of presentation, to find that the meaning stays the same, relatively, while the path does not….

“Life is always like high school. Which is interesting, because high school is nothing like life.” — Jon Carroll, SF Chronicle, November 17, 1995.

“If the King’s English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me!” — Ma Ferguson, Governor of Texas (circa 1920)

“A little experience often upsets a lot of theory.” — Cadman

Same idea, basically, but it got there on a Segway, not a roller coaster….. I really do love the English language; it is so amenable to torture….. and as an inanimate entity, has no feelings to offend, nor blood to spill…. Well, I guess, given my heavy-handed writing techniques, some blood is unavoidable, but, it cleans up well with a bit of cold water and salt…..

“It is not a fish until it is on the bank.” — Irish Proverb
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The following poem, I think, is one of my best…. it speaks of the process of Pearling, in a deeply metaphoric style….. In my view, it does so, quite well….

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The following isn’t a rant, per se…. There are some rant-like qualities to it, but, I’d say its more of a discussion, or perhaps, an essay…. Either way, it’s better than anything I could come up with on my own today, even an old school pearl, so, I’m going to fly with it, and let the chips fall where they may….. This discussion took place on one day in December of 2012, a month I was writing fairly well, from all indications…. if not quite as sharply defined as what I’m doing these days…. Enjoy it anyway, if you please….

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From December, 2012:

“I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics but for our contributions to the human spirit.” — former US President John F. Kennedy

At last! A worthy pearl! JFK, like the current President, was a superb public speaker, “Ich bin ein Berliner” notwithstanding, and, whether he wrote his own words, or relied on his speech writers, he delivered, arguably, some of the most memorable, and insightful, aphorisms in US political and social history. The above statement is a perfect example, as he expresses a sentiment that can only be applauded, if not necessarily verified. I say verified because  there is not a lot of verification from the past that history remembers anything BUT the battles. However, one can hope….

Actually, I believe what Jack said above very strongly, in the sense that there are different histories that are remembered, most of which become altered in some way over time, as does all memory. The great teachers and philosophers who have lived throughout history have left their mark on the world in more ways than always show, in spite of the inconsistency in the records of their deeds, which did not always survive intact. Indeed, throughout history, there have been men, and women, who have done much to advance the human condition, whose words and deeds were never seen, and never recorded, but, nonetheless, are words whose effects will endlessly ripple down the river of time.

Some of the greatest minds in history, such as Lao Tzu, Zoroaster, Genghis Khan, Gautama Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Mohammed, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, and many others, all made such advances in the human spirit; their ideas keep proving their worth every day, by their still valid relativity to modern society. Men like Leonardo da Vinci, whose genius was so bright it shines even today, and modern philosopher/scientists such as Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking, have advanced that human spirit as much as anyone.

I’m not being as eloquent as I’d wish for such a deep subject….

What I’m trying to get to here is that we all, each and every one of us, have the power and opportunity to do the same as these historical figures, to advance the human spirit, just by the way we live our lives. What the philosophers say, and write, and the wisdom they pass on, is all very good, and a lesson to the rest of us….

But, what the average person does every day in their lives is just as important to the future as any scientific breakthrough, because what they do will determine what their children learn, and THAT is where the advancement really takes place, in the moments of teaching that happens every moment for children, and their adult teachers.

Living a life of integrity, with honesty and duty as the watchwords for action, is the best teaching method there is; to provide a good example for a child holds no less promise for mankind than all the work, of all the geniuses. of all time. How each one of us approaches life will, in the end, determine what happens to our species as a whole.

It isn’t an easy life, especially given all of the people in society who do NOT wish to have any part of advancing anything but their own interests…. and especially when so many of those kinds of people are in positions of authority. But, it can be done, and is done, every day, by millions of men and women of good spirit…. They are truly the future of mankind, and, if there is any hope for survival, it is held in their honest hands….

“So live that you can look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell.” — Smart Bee
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Also from 12/1/12:

“The sage wears clothes of coarse cloth but carries jewels in his bosom; He knows himself but does not display himself; He loves himself but does not hold himself in high esteem. Thus he rejects the latter and takes the former.” — Lao-Tzu

In spite of how it must appear, there is a small degree of organization to this blog’s contents. Most days I try to make sure that the first and third sections, while possibly related, are essentially about different concepts. The second section is, of course, reserved for whatever poetry strikes my fancy that day, whether classic, humorous, or original (Though it does seem that my recent outpouring of original poems has run dry, I don’t think I’m done with that, yet…..).  It seems to work for me…. well enough, at least, to keep my internal critics quiet most of the time.

Today, it seems that most of what I’m seeing for pearls are related somehow to what I spoke of peripherally in today’s first section, to wit: the importance of integrity in human life. Integrity…. hmm…. not the precise word, or the characteristic I am thinking of, actually; it’s more than merely integrity. I suppose one could say the concept to which I’m referring is too mystical an idea to be presented clearly, and not be too far off the mark….

However, not being one to ignore a challenge to my vocabulary, I’ll take a few unseen moments here and find the correct word to facilitate further discussion, because, hey, if I can’t, no discussion, right? Right…. Be right back…. instantly, by all you will know and see…..  Well, the challenge is a strong one, and I think best answered with more than one word to describe what I’m trying to say. Those words are all contained in Axiom #7 of Peruaosophy, to wit: Do your Duty. Honor the Truth. Respect Life. Share your Love.

I know that it is my own philosophy, and some may think that is cheating, but, not so. All that I hold to be true is in that axiom, and it represents the four cornerstones of my personal foundation. I find that when I am able to live up to all of these concepts,  able to use their direction in guiding my actions, my life is much smoother, and my moments of joy are plentiful, to balance the pain that life brings all of us in turn. This, to me, is the best way to advance the human condition, little by little, with the efforts of each man and woman adding its weight to the forward momentum.

Yes, the actions and discoveries that the best of history’s minds bring to us are wonderful, and work to make the lives of every human better…. It is the everyday efforts of each man, though, that takes that wisdom and turns it into reality, by using ideas, and integrity, to add their experience to that of the rest of society.

Since there are a great many folks who do NOT subscribe to this kind of ethical behavior, choosing, instead, to make their own self-interest their primary concern, it is the duty of those who do believe in these ideas to carry them out as best they may, so that the world can retain some semblance of harmony.

It doesn’t always work, and, in fact, is in constant jeopardy of not working at all, but, it is the only way that will make the changes our society needs to survive…. which is another discussion for another time…..

“And now there is merely silence, silence, silence, saying all we did not know.” — William Rose Benet

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I can’t say it is the most organized, logically constructed piece I’ve ever produced, but, it’s not bad for off the cuff, and it will do for our purposes here today…. The message, after all, is a good one, and worth whatever we do to share it with others…. (Remember, ffolkes, if I don’t keep telling myself things like that, I’ll lose all my hope for the future, so, just leave it alone, ‘kay?….)…. So be it….
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Having thus fulfilled all of my self-imposed duty without much effort, I will proceed to see if it will fly at all…. Well, it will fly…. It won’t fly fast, and it won’t fly very straight…. and, hopefully, it won’t crash. Without making any judgments as to the veracity of any of those three statements, or to the quality of any of this, I hereby pronounce it completed…. therefore, it is approved for posting, which I will now proceed to do….. See ya tomorrow…. and, I promise, we’ll have some fresh pearls to share….

Y’all take care out there,
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.