Damn, I was really hoping it would do the trick, too…. I was going to start the new year off with a new story line beginning, but that part of my brain seems to be off duty. Now I’m compelled to fall back on the old meandering randomness that is so often the default here. Ah well, I guess it’s better than a long, boring discussion of last year’s events, or a list of my resolutions for the coming year. Of course, I never make resolutions at New Year’s advent; I am of a different opinion than most of society regarding that habit. In fact, I commented rather succinctly on that subject only last year…. Here is what I found I had written in the Pearl of Virtual Wisdom posted on January 1, 2012….

“According to all reports, today is the beginning of new year, a relatively subjective event in my estimation. I’m an odd duck, I suppose. I was asleep last night by 9:30, and by gosh, I didn’t make any resolutions. Of course, I never do, so that’s nothing new. I figure if I need to make a change in myself, it’s probably best to take care of it when it becomes apparent, rather than waiting and adding it to a list of things you may never get around to anyway.

Most folks, I think, try to be honest with themselves when coming up with resolutions, and may even make an honest effort to honor it. But, mostly I see or hear that the resolutions lasted right up to the first time temptation appeared, and then went flying out the window. My take on the whole matter is to make those kinds of introspective insights into what we need to do better in our lives a part of every day activity. Resolutions should be made each night before bed, and carried out in the morning, not put off to the end of the year. Year-end resolutions set unreasonable standards, and as such, are generally a fail-fail situation. For my money, that is a sucker’s bet, and homey don’t play that game…..let’s see what flotsam has washed up on the shores of my mind during the night……”

Since I can’t think of any way to say any of that any better, I think I’ll just say, “you can say that again”, and let it go at that. And, by golly, look! We’ve managed to fill up the intro space, so we can just go on, and jump right into the new year without further fooferah….. and I don’t care a whit that Spell Checker doesn’t like that word; I do….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Life isn’t weird; it’s the people in it.” — Smart Bee

This is one of the reasons I love Smart Bee, for its cheery reminders to look at reality from different perspectives; it always helps me to gain a wider understanding. It is also fitting to begin the New Year with one of its little gems, especially when it fits into my own world view so seamlessly. Weirdness, to my mind, is what gives people their snap (or, in at least one case, their Snaap!). Those who fight against weirdness, who try to conform as much as possible to what society wants of them, are dull, listless, and have leeched all the color from their existence, choosing to live in reality’s version of limbo, a world painted all in grey, quiet, and depressing. It is those ffolkes who embrace the strangeness in life who have found the secret of filling life with color, music, and beauty….

“Believe me!  The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)

SIGH…. I must be getting old…. This year, for the time being, at least, I’m counting my refusal to make any resolutions as living dangerously. Normally, (there’s that word again…. I should stop using it, since it has little relevance around here….), in my checkered past, I’d do something a bit more flamboyantly dangerous, like go out drinking on New Year’s Eve, or maybe go out drinking on New Year’s Day morning. Or, when I was a Dad with teens, I’d try to keep track of my kids on New Year’s Eve…. boy, now that’s dangerous! This year, since nothing of what I intend for my life can happen until my SS disability is awarded, I am on HOLD, unwilling to partake of anything particularly complicated because I am….. and that makes me feel OLD….

“Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along and not bothering.” — Winnie the Pooh

Perhaps it is an indicator of some sort, to base much of one’s behavior, or at least intended behavior, on the philosophy of a teddy bear, but this little idea from Pooh, in his Uncarved Block mode, is probably one of the most valuable pieces of advice one can take, even if not used consistently. I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t mind if people consider me weird for feeling or thinking that way; in fact, it is rather a compliment, to my way of looking at things. But, then, having been raised in a family where ‘weird’ was encouraged, I suppose that isn’t a surprise…..

“Life treats all of us like dirt; it is how we react to being dirt that determines our own worth.” — gigoid

I imagine, nay, I’m pretty certain, this thought is not original; only the words I’ve used to express it in this form are mine. It is, however, perhaps the most important lesson that I have learned in my life, and I do not say that lightly. The four pearls in this pearl (don’t fret, just flow…), if put together as an old school pearl, would say the same thing they are saying with my comments, which is to say, a very important idea for anyone who wishes to live life well, with dignity and honor. Sure, we are all going to have moments of pain, moments of joy, and more than plenty of moments of nothing much going on….. but, how that makes us feel is completely up to us. We can, as the Navajo say, “walk in beauty”, or we can trudge through life with our heads down, plugging on toward the cemetery, oblivious to the beauty by which we are surrounded…. The choice is our own…..

“Truth does not change, although your perception of it may vary or alter drastically.” — John & Lyn St. Clair Thomas, “Eyes of the Beholder”
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anyone lived in a pretty how town

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn’t he danced his did

Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone’s any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain

ee cummings
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“If the obstacles of bigotry and priestcraft can be surmounted, we may hope that common sense will suffice to do everything else.” — Thomas Jefferson

Oh well, so much for THAT hope! From all I can see in today’s society, what Tom J was afraid of has come to pass. If one takes almost any of the articles in the news that talk about the activities of government, religion, or society at large, it is obvious that bigotry and priestcraft have corrupted every level of those entities, and influence just about every human interaction that we see. Common sense is nowhere present, in any of those same activities under discussion. Of course, he forgot, in this instance, to include the bankers, but perhaps that is where the bigotry comes in…..

By its precise meaning, bigotry doesn’t include the idea of cheating, lying, and stealing from whomever one encounters; those activities, for a bigot, are only appropriate when done to those outside the personal group, to “foreigners, niggers, and chinks,” or some likely other group they’ve chosen to bless with their ignorance…… But, in a sense, bankers can be said to be universally bigoted, for they have no qualms about lying, cheating, or stealing from anyone, in any group, even their own. I guess that would qualify them as Ultimate Bigots…..

“As an ox goeth to the slaughter.” — Old Testament — Proverbs vii, 22; Jeremiah xi, 19

I would imagine this is how the bankers and preachers (either of which is capable of turning into a politician, at the drop of a hint….) views the masses of humanity who do not subscribe to their venality. In this view, they may be at least partially justified, by the apparent willingness of those masses to submit to whatever is done to them. Why should the politicians stop lying, when their lies secure for them the keys to the treasury? Why should the preachers not spread their delusions, when the masses are so willing to accept them, because it saves them the effort of either thinking about morality, or even better, saving them from having to BE moral….. The bankers, of course, need no excuses to carry on their despicable acts of calumny upon the remainder of society; their sole motivation is based on profit for them, and nothing else concerns them at all…

“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” — Thomas Jefferson

Back to Tom…. He was a bit over the top sometimes, in the force of his expression, but never, to my mind, in his sincere commitment to Truth, and his sincere love for Mankind. I would like to think I join him in this sentiment, especially today, when we are so besieged  by attempts to tyrannize our minds by our own beloved ruling classes. The war against immorality continues unabated, and too many folks in the world have withdrawn from the battle, accepting the lies and delusions that are foisted upon them.

It is important, in my opinion, that the rest of us, who can see the depredations assaulting the common man every day, keep on shouting from the rooftops to the rest of our compatriots, if only to save our own sanity….. and, before the strain of the conflict brings us to our knees, and we enter Zippy’s domain, doomed to extinction…..

“I just forgot my whole philosophy of life!!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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