Priceless moments of shared arrogance…..

Posted on June 8, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
That was close…. I almost began today’s missive with a song…. Not just any song, mind you, but a particularly bright, bouncy, tuneful one from a particularly perky musical that shall remain nameless, lest I get sued for intellectual theft, or chastised by my readers for excessive tackiness, either of which is unacceptable to me, especially before I’ve finished my first cuppa….. It also saves you from having to go wash out your ears so early in the day…..

Since my morning routine has returned to some semblance of its former normalcy, or mendacity, depending on your relative point of observation, it seems my initial comments are turning on me as well. Not sure what to think about that, or what I should do, if anything….. It’s not as if what I do here in the intro section is written in stone; in fact, nothing like consistency has ever come into the equation at all. It has been both a stimulant, to be more creative, and a hassle, because I’m not always in a creative frame of mind first thing in the morning. I do prefer to write then, as I seem to have more energy than later in the day, but that preference isn’t based on how creative I can be, just how awake I am, and how long I can sit.

None of this is getting me any closer to an introductory section that will do what I wish it to do, which is pull the reader into what is written, like the siren call of the muses…. Oh, well, it’s probably a good thing I can’t seem to find a template for this; if I did the same thing every day, I’d go stark, raving sane, and lose all my sense of humor, most likely, turning this into merely another mass of poorly written garbage, in spite of how pompous and extensive my vocabulary gets, or how accurate my observations…. A conundrum is what it is, and I don’t like it….

Sadly, or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint, my likes and dislikes have absolutely no effect whatsoever on reality, so I’m going to have to just suck it up, and get on with the business of the day, just as if I knew what I was doing, or where I was going. I suppose that could be seen as another metaphor for life in general, but, I’m not in the mood right now for logical, or practical, metaphors, no matter how close to the truth they may be. I’m currently busy feeling curmudgeonly, grumpy because I can’t have my own way, and things aren’t being amenable to my manipulation today, especially my own attitude…. I can see I need to adjust it, so, pardon me if I spilled any of it on you….

I’m going to bring this section to a rapid close now, before I get into anything that could be construed as illegal, or even immoral, which is more of how I judge things in my life…. Not that I’m such that I could be held up as an example of anything other than how to grow old gracelessly, but, I do try to make my decisions based on morals, and/or ethics, rather than laws…. Always have, always will…. Regardless, I have to go now, or “bad things” could happen….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Oooh! Did you see that? Oh, no, I guess not, since you’re not here in the room with me…. I just created a new pearl format, completely by accident, courtesy of Smart Bee, and the principle of serendipity….. The following pearl, composed of four parts poetry and three parts prose, is just about as perfect as it can be, in terms of being a clever and useful concept, artfully brought to light by the way the given quotes direct the mind’s eye, to the correct vision implied by the tenor of the presented metaphorical signs…. All a short, confusing way to say, look, look, it’s a plane, it’s a bird, it’s not any of that! It’s virtual wisdom at its best…..

Curse away!
And let me tell thee, Beausant, a wise proverb
The Arabs have,–“Curses are like young chickens,
And still come home to roost.”

— Edward Bulwer Lytton (1805-1873) — The Lady of Lyons, Act v, Sc. 2

“By the streets of “by and by”, one arrives at the house of “never”.” — Cervantes

The charge is prepar’d, the lawyers are met,
The judges all ranged,–a terrible show!

— John Gay (1688-1732) — The Beggar’s Opera, Act iii, Sc. 2

“The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ‘s
In deepest consequence.

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Macbeth — Act i, Sc. 3

“Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.” — Bertrand Russell, “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.

— John Donne (1572-1631), “Death, be not proud”

Sniff…. I couldn’t be prouder, and I’d like to thank the Academy, and my director, and my mum and dad, and…..
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I’m in the mood for obscure genius, so…..

Two Lovers And A Beachcomber By The Real Sea

Cold and final, the imagination
Shuts down its fabled summer house;
Blue views are boarded up; our sweet vacation
Dwindles in the hour-glass.

Thoughts that found a maze of mermaid hair
Tangling in the tide’s green fall
Now fold their wings like bats and disappear
Into the attic of the skull.

We are not what we might be; what we are
Outlaws all extrapolation
Beyond the interval of now and here:
White whales are gone with the white ocean.

A lone beachcomber squats among the wrack
Of kaleidoscope shells
Probing fractured Venus with a stick
Under a tent of taunting gulls.

No sea-change decks the sunken shank of bone
That chucks in backtrack of the wave;
Though the mind like an oyster labors on and on,
A grain of sand is all we have.

Water will run by; the actual sun
Will scrupulously rise and set;
No little man lives in the exacting moon
And that is that, is that, is that.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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I am running late, a bit, since I got up at a completely reasonable hour, and have been dawdling over getting this done, letting my mind wake up at its own pace…. and now, I don’t have the time, or the energy, to rant, not effectively…. Once again, though, the archives will come to the rescue…. Here is a politirant I wrote on 7/14/2012, a little less than a year ago, during the run-up to the Presidential election in November of that year….

I remember the piece quite well, and consider it one of my better rants, especially as it continued through two sections, of what, then, were the longer, five section pearls of the old format…. At that length, it’s a bit long, but it’s all quite accurate, and still pretty relevant, given that the political scenery hasn’t altered significantly since it was written… But, then, political scenery never does really change anything but the faces of the people at the top, does it?….. Enjoy, ffolkes, this one is pretty good, and on the mark…. “And that is that, is that, is that.”……
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“Ignore the man behind the screen.” — The All Seeing, All Powerful, Wonderful Wizard of Oz

As the time passes and we draw ever nearer to the election this year, this becomes increasingly relevant. It is important to remember that ALL the political candidates are guilty of using the art of prestidigitation in their communications with the public. Of course, Mitt the Twitt and the GOP are showing particularly egregious new heights to which they are willing to take the art; they have paraded a series of lies before the public that are not even hidden, or palmed like cards; they’re just out there, proven as lies, but ignored. They don’t seem to care; they just deny, ignore, and issue their next false accusation or made up statistics….

‘Shit Happens’ according to… Denialism: What shit? — Smart Bee

The Democrats aren’t completely free of this syndrome, either; if you believe they are, then you have entered the Twilight Zone, and may have trouble finding your way back to the real world. I admire Obama, much the same way I did Carter; they are both basically decent men trying to do an impossible job, while constantly having to contend with an entire segment of those who are supposed to support him who, instead, are attempting to thwart his every reform, simply for the sake of divisiveness. In their fight to get ANYTHING done, they have had to resort to chicanery of their own. I figure they, at least, feel a bit of guilt about it, whereas I can see no such reaction from Mitt or any of the GOP spokesbozos…. They just deny and ignore any such suggestions of wrong-doing….

Let’s consider Mitt the Twitt for a moment. Here is a man who admits to being rich as Croesus, yet finds it necessary to hide at least half of his real worth, as if it would tarnish his image of someone who can relate to the common man. I think the common man, to Mitt, is someone who only has $50,000 worth of investments, to go along with the house they own, their three cars, and the vacation home in Maine. In contrast to EVERY OTHER candidates policy of publishing their taxes, he continues to refuse to release any returns beyond the last one; there are inconsistencies and red flag items of interest to the public in that one, too, but he refuses to discuss any of it…

This is the same man who tied his dog to a kennel on the roof of a car, and went off on vacation, without ever thinking of how terrified the dog might be, barreling along at 80 mph, with the wind blowing straight through the kennel. He laughs about it, and turns questions about it to other subjects, refusing to even comment on it. This is the same man who, when asked about a serious incident of bullying and gay bashing during his last year in high school, shrugged it off as “youthful pranks and high spirits”…..

This is the same man who…. well, never mind. I could go on most of the day, and not get to all the little incidents from just the last few months that indicate the Twitt’s complete disregard for the majority of Americans, and show clearly how entrenched he is in the 1%, and how committed he is to solidifying the stranglehold that the banks and corporations have on the rest of American society. His total focus is on the agenda of the rich, to the detriment of the poor, and I am totally astounded at just how many IDIOTS are our there in this country supporting him, in the mistaken belief that he gives a shit about them….

No politician is acting in the best interests of the people they govern. None of them. But people continue to act as if they do, and it is driving me crazy! Normal, intelligent people are backing this asshole, thinking that he isn’t going to screw them over. It is incomprehensible to me how people can blind themselves to the obvious so completely that they would fall for this shit…. I will say it one more time, and I hope they can understand it….

And then shall many be offended,… — Matthew 24:10

You are being lied to, by every politician who is currently seeking office, and by every one currently in office. If you don’t see that, if you don’t believe that, then you are deliberately fucking yourself in the place it will most hurt, and apparently, enjoying it…. The man, the party, and 99% of everyone you see on TV is LYING TO YOU!!!!! They are doing so every day, every hour, every minute, and you are accepting it like you are a starving sheep and what they are saying is manna from heaven.

WAKE UP!….. I’m stopping here, my blood pressure is spiking. That’s how worked up I get when I think of how deliberately stupid people can be…. I don’t so much mind the stupid part, but the fact that they have to CHOOSE to not see what is right in front of their face just sets me off…. and so much indignation, righteous or not, is giving me indigestion….. stay alert, ffolkes, the politicians are coming, and they’re dangerous when unregulated….
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Certain passages in several laws have always defied interpretation, and the most inexplicable must be a matter of opinion. A judge of the Court of Session of Scotland has sent the editors of this book his candidate which reads, “In the Nuts (unground), (other than ground nuts) Order, the expression nuts shall have reference to such nuts, other than ground nuts, as would but for this amending Order not qualify as nuts (unground)(other than ground nuts) by reason of their being nuts (unground).” — from the Guinness Book of World Records, 1973

I’m almost speechless. (I know, you’ll believe it when you see it…. I did say ‘almost’…. that’s something…) It’s absolutely beautiful! Perfectly priceless absolute nonsense, dressed only in legal briefs…. It is so impenetrable, I can’t tell if it is the law itself, or the judges written opinion on the law, or a passage from Nightmare on Elm Street! Which I’ve never seen, by the way….

How’s that for tangential? Any who, this was included today as a finishing touch to my Twitt-rant above. This goes to show just how the political hacks we are burdened with today work their verbal magic, to distract us from looking at things they don’t want us to see. Bureaucratese is what I’ve heard it called, a language and skill set that society has had practiced on them since the days of ancient Greece. When a document such as the one above reaches a certain level of impenetrability, the majority of people alive will either fall asleep halfway through reading it, or totally ignore it after reading the first 11 words or so. It’s a classic piece of distraction, and is probably used in courses for political science majors in college, and in law schools, as an example of how to carry off the trick.

To me, what this law indicates is that one, or more, of the people involved in writing the law have a monetary interest in being able to obfuscate the definition of “Nuts”, in order for them to achieve some financial reward owing to the indicated distinctions in that definition. In other words, a loophole or three is created, so the “Nut” vendors can make more money, charging more for each kind of Nut than could be accomplished without the legislation. It’s similar to the law in this country that was pushed through the Federal Courts back in the mid-1800’s, when a corrupt Federal judge awarded “personhood” to corporations, after being paid handsomely by those corporations for his verdict…. Same, same, alla same…. Evil is loose in the world….

— Bother! said Pooh, as he had another plate of Piglet sausage. — Smart Bee (Remember Mitt the Twitt at the NAACP?…..)

I suppose all I’m trying to say here is, once again….. Wake up ffolkes…. the beloved ruling class, the priestly hierarchies, and the corporate “persons” in the shape of banks and multi-national corporations, are continuing their campaign to hide from all of us the actual business they are pursuing, which has everything to do with benefiting them, and everything to do with screwing everyone else as much as they will allow…. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m about done with allowing ANY of it….

“I’m not tense, just terribly alert.” — Smart Bee

So, please…. DON’T ignore the man behind the screen…. he’s the one who is killing us all….
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Ollie would be proud, I think… and just in time, too. The store is now open, and I’m done with this, so, all is right with the world, such as it is today. I’m not any more certain than you are what that may mean, or even whether it SHOULD mean anything, but, obscurity is what we’re always shooting for around here, and sometimes, it’s just easier than other times….. Especially when my fingers take over the keyboard like this, and just type away as fast as they can, without any idea of what will come out….. I’d better put a stop to it, before I hurt myself, or y’all…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Twelve degrees off of plumb crazy….

Posted on May 22, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
And then I woke up….. at sea, again. We are cruising slowly along the eastern coast of Scotland, on the way to Harwich, where the cruise started, ten days ago. It is encouraging to not be seasick, as it means I’ve managed to gain my ‘sea legs’, and don’t have to take any more of the medication, which, while effective, has a side effect that can be most unpleasant, and to which I will not again refer….. I know, it sounds pompous and obscure, but, it is grammatically correct, and better than saying outright that which could drive y’all away in disgust…. Instead, we’ll go on….

The weather yesterday in the port of Invergordon, near Inverness, and Loch Ness, home to Nessie, (the world’s oldest monster, having first been sighted in the fifteenth century), was, to put it simply, miserable and cold. The temperature hovered around 38-40 degrees all day, with a wind that reached gusts up to 50 mph. To get into the town, only a couple blocks away from the ship, we had to walk on a pier about 100 yards long, and I almost lost my hat into the bay a number of times. It was so strong a wind, it literally almost blew me off my feet, and I am no lightweight (I’m about 205 lbs, right now, possibly more after 10 days of eating well…. I’m afraid to actually weigh myself…). It also rained in spurts, so I made only two quick forays off the ship, going a bit crazy again buying little stuff for ffolkes back home….

I did get some nice pix of the landscape, and the quaint village of Invergordon where we are docked. There is a small museum just across from the ship, showing exhibits of the history of the town, and of the area. Inverness has long been considered the capital of Scotland and the Highlands, and the port area has a long history of involvement with the royal navy. I got some nice photos, and found more little pieces of jewelry for my daughter, Patricia, and my adoptive daughter, Cheryl, as well as a couple of cute little stuffed Nessies for my grandson, and Cheryl’s son Marcus. (I told you I went crazy….) I also found more magnets, and a nice pocket watch with a Celtic Knot design for myself. I feel like a real capitalist…..

That last comment is about all the rant I have in me, I think, so we should get started on the rest of today’s pearls…. Section one will be for an old-school pearl, two, of course, will be a poem by somebody, and section three will show the photos I got today in port….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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The following pearl is of the old-school variety, but much fresher….. The quotes sort of picked themselves, with little or no assistance from yours truly, and seemed to know just what they wanted to say, because it took only a few minutes for it all to come together. The point of it all is, of course, left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader, and please don’t throw anything at me….. I’m kind of run down from all the rich food I’ve been consuming for the past two weeks while on this trip. My stomach, and my brain, will both be glad when I’m home again…..

“A man is a very small thing, and the night is very large and full of wonders.” — Lord Dunsany, The Laughter of the Gods

“Patience is sorrow’s salve.” — Sir Winston Churchill

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” — Frederick Douglass

“In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.” — Bertrand Russell

“It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.” — ee cummings

“If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours…” — Smart Bee

“A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”
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Probably the biggest rip-off among all the seriously overpriced stuff one encounters on a cruise is the internet access. The cruise lines have figured out that access is important to their customers, so they will condescend to provide it to them, at a cost that is, needless to say, outrageous…..

I bought the best deal on that access, and I’m paying $0.36/minute. This has been barely enough to get my blog posted each day, with a bit left over for checking email, and reading some of the news. What this means is I don’t have enough time to go look for anyone else’s poetry, so I’m going to go once more to the well, and offer up one of my own for your perusal. I hope you enjoy it…..

Denial of Comfort

Baleful chairs become the enemy, heralded in red
seemingly welcome softness beckons with a smile,
waiting, content with slaughter, they are finally led
screaming in agony, deluged in venom all the while.

Desperate distraction becomes such a friendless fire
for all the patterns of autumn’s pale dismay,
leaving sincerely latent trails in spirals of twisted wire,
while memory insists, again, upon failure, palpably evil, and fey.

Fat, jaded tears would have fallen in good time,
if only the suitable suitor had scaled the garden’s wall.
Credence for discounted prices luckily in their prime
bring only fascinated eyes into such a hallowed hall.

Searching for answers is ever a clever portrayal
with studious accouterments to fulfill each common rule.
Arguably patient pictures of science and honest betrayal
shall evermore languish, in light of passion so elegantly cruel.

~~ gigoid ~~

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As noted above, I got some decent pix of Invergordon, including, at the end of our stay, a local drum and bagpipe band that piped the ship off as it left the dock. I even figured out how to get a few seconds of video, complete with sound, of one of the numbers they played as they marched off. I don’t think I know how to put that up on the blog, yet, but, it was still pretty cool to be able to get it with my new camera…. Any who, here are some of the best shots of the day….

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This will be the final Pearl for the trip, and it may take me a couple of days before I can get posted again, as the trip back to SF promises to be a marathon event…. I have someone to take me from London to Heathrow, but then must find my way onto the plane, where I’ll sit, and stand, and sit, and stand for the next 11+ hours to get home. I have a car set up to take me back to Vallejo, but I expect by then I’ll be pretty well toasted, and won’t be feeling much like writing, or doing anything more complicated than breathing and sleeping for a day or three…. So, I’ll say adieu for the time being, and hope you enjoyed these little travelogues as much as I enjoyed posting them…. See ya in a couple of days…… Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Engaging in palliative syncopation….

Posted on February 28, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
In the normal course of events, I don’t spend a lot of time with dead bodies; it has never been, to me, an attractive way to pass the time, nor has it ever tempted me to stop doing even the most onerous chore in order to pursue such mundane activities. However, due to the circumstances I am about to relate, I’ve recently been compelled to spend far too many of my precious minutes in the company of more than just one or two of the poor devils, and I must confess to a certain degree of discomfort in that regard. I mean, it’s not as if they will bore me to death with unwarranted chatter. But, good gracious, my good fellow, must they smell that way?….

Okay, mildly amusing, and just the right touch of macabre I was shooting for. There are times when stopping is hard; this was one, as it was kind of fun to think about what was going on, and what might happen next…. Ah, fiction…. I’ve read as much, or more, than 99% of the folks, or ffolkes, my age, and my lifelong love of reading shows no signs of lessening….

I’ve currently got 10 books on loan from the library, and reading four of them in random rotation, just for fun (Two are old Heinlein books I’ve already read, so they’re just for fun anyway….). I fully intend to write fiction, eventually, but have stuck pretty much to non-fiction in this blog, for the simple reason of maintaining what there is of my sanity….

But, that’s finished…. I’m no longer concerned about my sanity; if the world doesn’t like me the way I am, well, let’s see, how you say in English?…. Ah…. fuck them! Hard!…… Yep, I’m done trying to shield other folks from my mind’s randomness. I’ve decided that I’ve been nice my whole life, and never once killed anyone, in spite of the many, many opportunities, attached to viable reasons, that I’ve encountered over my life, so, society can just deal with all the stuff that holding in those homicidal impulses has created in me….. warts and all.

You may note a bit more harshness to future rants as a result of this decision. The time limit for our making the changes needed for us to survive our racial stupidity is approaching rapidly, and it’s time for me to step up my campaign against the PTB (powers that be), the BRC (Beloved Ruling Classes), and the PPA (preacher/priest assholes), and all those who, for their own aggrandizement, exercise power over others for gain.

It’s time now to take off the gloves I’ve been wearing, and throw some bare-knuckle punches. I’m even considering buying a power-glove to wear, to increase the effect of any blows that land. (A power glove is lead lined, weighs about 2-3 lbs., and effectively turns the fist into a war hammer….) Figuratively speaking, of course…. ( 😉 )

“I ‘m armed with more than complete steel,–The justice of my quarrel.” — Christopher Marlowe (1565-1593) — Lust’s Dominion, Act iii, Sc. 4

Actually, I think I’m kind of looking forward to it. I’ve been relatively nice so far, trying to increase credibility by maintaining a reasonable tone…. but the time is past for shyness, or, for that matter, for being nice to my targets. They have shown no mercy and no ‘niceness’ to any of us, so there is no further reason to do so, even to maintain my own integrity. At this point, laying a few on their chin, and causing some real pain and suffering on their part, ARE acts of integrity, as they serve to give notice of our intent for change.

Until the revolution actually begins, though, I think I can get a few Pearls in…. but, only if I ever learn to shorten up these intro sections and get on with it…. Sometimes, I drive myself crazy….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Once again, Smart Bee is being cute…. I can’t find anything worth a word or two, after a half-hour search…. To save time, and because it was so much fun yesterday, I’m going to find an Old Pearl to put here…. I’ll be right back…. Okay, that was quick…. Here are two Pearls, both short, as they were in the beginning…. Both were published sometime in 2008…. Actually, the first was published on June 23 of that year; the other a few months later….

A light in the darkness

Ffolkes,
Last night, the Universe lost one of its’ brightest lights. One of those people who make everyone else’s life better, just from being, has passed on to another plane of existence, and boy, I’ll bet he’s p___ed! George Carlin has left us, and it is no laughing matter, though he would perhaps disagree.

I don’t know if most folks understood just how much compassion he had for his fellow man; what else could be the cause for his particular twisted world view? He was well aware that we laugh to take away the pain of existence, and turned the power of his scintillating intelligence on everyday events that would surely make you cry, if only you weren’t laughing so hard at how ridiculous he made them seem. And the man had no fear; no subject was taboo for him. Be glad that you lived in a time that included his presence; we are all lessened by his passing…..

“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom, in the pursuit of truth as in the endeavour after a worthy manner of life.” — Bertrand Russell, “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”

And this one….George would have liked this one….

“Eternity has nothing to do with the hereafter… This is it… If you don’t get it here, you won’t get it anywhere. The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here’s the place to have the experience.” — Joseph Campbell

Y’all take care out there….and have a laugh on George!……

Okay, so this next one isn’t so short…. but, it’s a good one….

special stuff

Ffolkes,
It’s Friday. Just saying it makes it true enough….yay! Okay, enough giddiness. This morning’s offering is short, and not so sweet……

“The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be an adequate substitute for self-mastery.” — Reinhold Niebuhr

I’ve never heard this person’s name before, but his observation is spot on; far too many humans take the first choice, and this is what has led us to the precarious world in which we live. War, the state of the economy, dissolution of the nuclear family, global warming, destruction of the ozone layer, all the most serious, species-threatening issues of current events can be laid at the doorstep of this simple idea. People choose gluttony over restraint, profit over compassion, power over others instead of self-control. And it won’t change, unless we, as a species, undergo a shift of paradigm, and become mature. I fear for our children…..

Folly, thou conquerest, and I must yield!
Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain. Exalted reason,
Resplendent daughter of the head divine,
Wise foundress of the system of the world,
Guide of the stars, who are thou then, if thou,
Bound to the tail of folly’s uncurb’d steed,
Must, vainly shrieking, with the drunken crowd,
Eyes open, plunge down headlong in the abyss.

— Johann Christian Friedrich von Schiller, The Maid of Orleans

Sorry to be so gloomy, but I calls ’em as I sees ’em…..here, this may help…

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” — Henry David Thoreau

and remember…..

“Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by hitting back.” — Pat Hein

Y’all take care out there……

Well, there you have it…. two days in the work life of gigoid in 2008… and it saved you from a rant! Glory be!…..
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Soliloquy Of The Solipsist

I?
I walk alone;
The midnight street
Spins itself from under my feet;
When my eyes shut
These dreaming houses all snuff out;
Through a whim of mine
Over gables the moon’s celestial onion
Hangs high.

I
Make houses shrink
And trees diminish
By going far; my look’s leash
Dangles the puppet-people
Who, unaware how they dwindle,
Laugh, kiss, get drunk,
Nor guess that if I choose to blink
They die.

I
When in good humor,
Give grass its green
Blazon sky blue, and endow the sun
With gold;
Yet, in my wintriest moods, I hold
Absolute power
To boycott any color and forbid any flower
To be.

I
Know you appear
Vivid at my side,
Denying you sprang out of my head,
Claiming you feel
Love fiery enough to prove flesh real,
Though it’s quite clear
All you beauty, all your wit, is a gift, my dear,
From me.

~~ Sylvia Plath

Brilliant!….
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Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the center of the silent Word.
— T.S. Eliot

I’ve always been fond of this little snippet from T.S.; it has a certain charm to it. I find to be pleasantly complex, while yet describing a very basic idea. Of course, it’s not a rantable item, nor particular helpful in any sort of self-improvement activities. But, I don’t much care, I just like it, so there….

Actually, I’ve included it where it is as a filler; Smart Bee is being particularly uncooperative this morning. It’s almost as if it were suffering from what I am, and is trying to tell me, to wit:

” — Bother! said Pooh, as his fur turned gray and he began losing his memory.” — Smart Bee

So, in the face of such obstruction, I have only one defense, and that is to go old-school, reverting back to the type of pearls as demonstrated in section one today…. I give you therefore, the next in a seemingly endless parade of aphorisms, all pointed in one direction, or at least, all located in one dimension….. Let’s see what we find….

Content if hence th’ unlearn’d their wants may view,
The learn’d reflect on what before they knew.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Criticism, Part iii, Line 180

“Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice: It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” — William Jennings Bryan

“Our genetic heritage endows each of us with a series of emotional set-points that determines our temperament. But the brain circuitry involved is extraordinarily malleable; temperament is not destiny.” — Daniel P. Goleman

“It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.” — C. W. Leadbeater

“I have learned this at least by my experiment: if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” — Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”

“Metaphysical totalitarianism of any kind stifles the freedom we have as human beings. It is not acceptable to have a religion where the alternative to faith is punishment – that’s how you train dogs, not develop people.” — Deng Ming-Dao

“There was once a man, Harry, called the Steppenwolf. He went on two legs, wore clothes and was a human being, but nevertheless he was in reality a wolf of the Steppes. He had learned a good deal of all that people of a good intelligence can, and was a fairly clever fellow. What he had not learned, however, was this: to find contentment in himself and his own life.” — Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

Not bad, a seven star pearl, in less than a hundred clicks…. I’ll take it, and run…..
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Well, there you have it, ffolkes, another day’s random walk through the back corridors of my mind, such as it is….. Let’s go see how it looks front to back…. I can’t honestly say it’s the best I’ve ever done, but I plead both age and distraction…. My monthly gelt just arrived at the bank, and I get to go shopping for food! Yippee! I can also get my guitar out of hock, I think, so it’s all good…. In any case, that’s all I can do; there’s only so much nonsense acceptable by the universe, so I’m outta here…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Isn’t he just the bee’s knees?….

Posted on February 13, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
What we have here, is a failure…. to cogitate. A scary one, too, since I can’t seem to get a handle on how to fire up the ol’ neurons this morning…. Dendrite, schmendrite, send me your nerve impulses…. Nope, not working, and the mojo I found yesterday has rolled into a corner again…. Okay, hang on, I’ll see if one of the fuses went out…. Oh, yeah, I don’t have the upgrade installed yet; I’m still on the old tube and knob wiring, so, no fuses….

Damn! Now I’m going to have to resort to emergency procedure # 4, which I haven’t employed since setting it up…. Since at least three of the stages it passes through on the way to getting my brain functioning are only marginally legal, please stand back, and put on the blindfolds that are conveniently located in your seat’s pocket, on the left side there…. got them? Okay, let ‘er rip, Biff!…. Oooh! That’s impressive!…..

Good morning….. Emergency procedure # 4 was apparently successful, though I will have to rely on you all to supply me with any evidence of that…. From this side of the procedure, there is a degree of amnesia produced, that lasts a few days, then passes away, leaving no scars or memories of the less than pleasant process involved in using #4…. Rather handy, all in all, as it gets things moving, but doesn’t waste any time on congratulations or other extraneous activities, but allows me to get right to work…. Of course, it can take several weeks to get all my memory back, but, hey, I don’t use it all at once anyway…. Some sacrifices must be made to pursue one’s art, you know…

Now that I have once again provided y’all with ample proof of my insanity, or at least enough to make it worth wagering on, I should, no doubt, move on to the main portion of today’s virtual circus. It’s getting more and more chancy here in the intro section, what with the weird hours I’ve been keeping in the mornings…. Again, today, I was up at 0430; it is now 0522, and all I’ve been able to come up with is this detritus, even WITH coffee on board….. Hence my use of the word ‘scary’ above….. The fertile fields of my mind are becoming a trifle depleted, methinks, which, given my output, shouldn’t be a surprise….

Well, no matter how scary it is, the rest of today’s effort calls to me, so I suppose I’d best start diving. In the interests of full disclosure, shut your eyes…. I had to use my old dive suit today, and the pattern has been known to cause seizures if one gazes at it too long…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the tree of knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just keep your fucking mouth shut and hadn’t asked any questions.” — Frank Zappa Playboy Interview, April 1993

Hmm…. Frank’s take on matters are such that I generally find myself in complete agreement with what he says. Here, he has again put his finger on one of the more obvious facets of Christianity, one that defies all logical explanation in lieu of subservient belief, to wit: faith vs. knowledge, and the Christian’s unfortunate tendency to embrace the former, without any appeal to the latter….. To my way of thinking, that is not only foolish, but cowardly….. but, perhaps, that’s just me….

The fruit of the tree of knowledge gives mankind the go-ahead, to use the brain with which we were furnished at birth; the preachers would have us abrogate that use, having us, instead, give over all our power of belief into the hands of the faithful, who, naturally, have only our best interests at heart….. Sure they do…. NOT….. I’m sorry, but, no matter how many times these folks say so, I am not going to accept that they know better than I what is best for me…. Nope, not even if there were twenty Bibles out there, all proclaiming how true they are…. Oh wait, there are twenty of them, aren’t there?…. Oh, well, you know what I meant….

Why do people fall for this? I cannot understand how people, who are normally reasonably intelligent, will, by conscious choice, bury their heads in the sand to buy into this, without ever taking even one moment to examine any of it for truth, or even logical assumption. Is there some kind of mind-control drug in that incense? Maybe in the sacramental wine…. Whatever it is, it turns normally competent, intelligent people into mindless slaves, and does so with their complete agreement and approval….. To my mind, it is one of history’s saddest, most incomprehensible features, when I look at just how easily people fall for such egregious, and so obviously self-serving propaganda, as most of the dogmatic proclamations of the major religions tend to offer up.

“I hope I never get so old I get religious.” — Ingmar Bergman

I am compelled to add, “Me, too!” to this sentiment…. In the recent past, I’ve been taking a lot of shots at religions, and need to make clear that I do not hate Christians, or Buddhists, or Muslims, or the followers of any religion. I think they are being silly, deliberately and evilly so, at worst, or at best, misguided, but I don’t hate, or fear them, as is the case on their part whenever they consider me, or my criticisms of their beliefs. I don’t hold that against them, either, as it is logically consistent for them to do so, given the limitations of their dogmatic position. Since, however, the fervor with which they will often defend their position can reach a rather fevered pitch, I tend to treat many of them like a stinging insect; I move, and speak, slowly and carefully, so as not to frighten them more than they already are….

Ethical and moral behavior is not confined to those who follow the precepts of one religion or another, despite what any of the proponents of those religions will try to tell you. In fact, if you look closely, the number of folks who are believers have a much higher percentage of failure in that area than do the non-believers, which only makes sense…. The believers all have a sense of entitlement that gives them the idea that the rules of behavior don’t always apply to them, in terms of how they treat people who are not of the same faith, so, to those who are not of their own sect, they don’t bother being truthful, or honest, or ethical, as those people don’t count, in their eyes. People who make their own moral codes tend to follow them, and are much more tolerant of those who do not share their beliefs.

Basic human nature dictates these responses in people, so one can see how dangerous it is to remain ignorant, in the Biblical sense. Those who choose to buy into the myth of the Garden of Eden, giving up all their personal independence of mind for the comfort and safety of dogma, will fail to act according to their own morality much of the time, out of their sense of entitlement, and the belief that all of their sins will be forgiven, merely by the act of confessing them. Only those who consciously choose their moral code have the courage to act it out, it seems, except for those few people who actually try to live according to the morality that is espoused, but seldom embraced, by their less ethical peers.

Having the strength of mind to make one’s own moral code implies the courage to act it out…. This is why I choose to deny the dogma I’ve been exposed to all my life, as being illogical, and, ultimately, immoral…. It makes more sense to me to make my own decisions on such matters, and tell the busybodies who assume they know best for all to go jump in a lake…. Even better, just shut the hell up, and get out of the way, so the rest of us can get something relevant done, without having to put up with all the nonsense from that quarter….

“What is a church? Our honest sexton tells, ‘Tis a tall building, with a tower and bells.” — Crabbe
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Sometimes, I just gotta go with a classic…. if only for the patina of age that gives it such a shine…. Even reflected beauty is better than none, yes?….

Bright Star

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art–
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors–
No–yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever–or else swoon to death.

John Keats
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The following is a piece that I wrote just before the recent Presidential election, as section 1 of a Pearl I cannot find without more effort than I care to spend right now, even though it is still only 0633…. Tracking it down would mean scrolling through at least a month’s worth of old Pearls, from last year, and I’m not ready for that today…. However, I’ve re-read it, and consider it worth a second posting, as it covers a lot of things that remain relevant after the election, in spite of the fortunate outcome we saw…. Any who, without further ado, here is a pearl I entitled, “Considering the Etiquette of Ignorance”…….

SIGH…. the only reason I did not write this in 1988 is that I did not see it until today….. it is never a good policy to suffer a fool gladly, so my code of honor demands a response…. This begins the tale, but by no means ends it….. be warned, and be nervous, if not afraid…..

“I don’t know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.” — George Bush in Free Inquiry magazine, Fall 1988

Actually, George, the Pledge of Allegiance has no legal standing, in relation to the Constitution of this country, or for that matter, in relation to what our forefathers were thinking when they founded the nation. In fact, what was said here by such an upstanding Constitutional scholarly type, is, in reality, completely contrary to everything that makes a true patriot, or an American citizen.

The part in the pledge, (which no one at all is legally required to take, or state…), that says “under God” was only added in the middle of the twentieth century, by the same Congressional idiots who perpetrated McCarthyism, and the Red Scare, on the American public. It has nothing to do with the Constitution, and in fact, could be construed as a Constitutionally illegal statement, considering the intended separation of church and state that is the backbone of what our forefathers wished us to have as our legacy…. True freedom, not Christian usurpation of freedom….. A person’s religious belief, or lack thereof, is protected by the Constitution, and a patriot is one who supports the Constitution, not a church, or a corporation…..

And if his name be George, I ‘ll call him Peter;
For new-made honour doth forget men’s names.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King John — Act i, Sc. 1

This kind of thinking from the Shrub, whichever one it was, Junior or Senior, is the same kind of narrow-minded fundamentalism that the colonists were escaping from in England back in the 16-1700’s when they came to the New World. The churches and corporations, both of which were singled out as dangerous to the republic by Jefferson, Franklin, Paine, Adams, Hamilton, and many of the other founding fathers, have tried to usurp the Constitution ever since it was ratified. Their writings, to each other, and in public venues, were filled with precautionary admonitions about allowing corporations and preachers to have access to, or influence over, members of government.

Ultimately, their fears were justified, as we now are facing just the situations they predicted….. corporations are manipulating our “professional thieves”, otherwise known as politicians, to vote for laws that favor them (really, “corporations are people?”… I don’t think so…), and the ranks of our leaders are rife with fundamentalists and religious nuts of all varieties.

“Men tend to have the beliefs that suit their passions. Cruel men believe in a cruel God and use their belief to excuse their cruelty. Only kindly men believe in a kindly God, and they would be kindly in any case.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967)

It’s difficult sometimes to tell which ones are more dangerous, or more disgusting: the corporations who buy votes from those who fit the definition of “good politicians” (…. a good politician is one who stays bought…..), or the religious demagogues who want to oppress everyone who doesn’t believe the same set of dogmatic constraints as they do. Neither one is particularly hard to spot, but they are protected by their tame dogs in Congress, who will do and say anything to make sure the cash keeps flowing…. right into their pockets.

As may be extrapolated, if one is exceedingly clairvoyant, one may infer from the above that the 2012 Republican Romney/Ryan ticket disturbs me; I have no problem ranting without end right off the top of my head about the lies and distortions of reality that continuously fall from their lips. As I mentioned in a separate post, a lot of people are catching on to this, as Ryan was roundly booed offstage at the AARP meeting he attended to try to sell their admitted intention to rape Social Security and Medicare (Smart? No. Arrogant? Completely.).

In retrospect, even this negative reception is disturbing to me, as it shows just how little they care, that they are showing themselves to be only interested in lining their own pockets, and the pockets of those who own them, without apparent shame or embarrassment. They aren’t even trying to hide their lies anymore; they just keep repeating them, even after having been shown to be false, believing that if they repeat the lies enough, people will buy them….

“Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book iii, Chap. xi

Unfortunately, they are right, to a large extent. Millions of people in this country, who have hung on to their prejudices and bigotry with desperation as the minorities have become majorities, are supporting these assholes, merely because they are white. They don’t realize, or seemingly care, that these are the same assholes who will be screwing them over completely as soon as they get sworn in, preferring to trust in the lies, because it soothes their fears of having a black President.

Beware of the half truth. You may have gotten hold of the wrong half. — Smart Bee

This is why I have been repeatedly reiterating that this election is bringing this country to a crossroads. The outcome will show whether we intend, as a nation, to continue to fight all attempts to curtail the freedoms that were bought and paid for by our forefathers, with blood, sweat, and tears, or will become just another religious, corporate-controlled entity, in a nation consisting of slaves and their masters.

I don’t know about y’all, but I’ll be at the polls as soon as they open, and will urge everyone I know to do the same…. vote early, and vote often (just joking…), but vote. We need to send a message to these fools, that there are still patriots and citizens of this country who believe in the vision embraced and established by the men and women who began this noble experiment in self-government…..

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” — Aldous Huxley

As I said above, the election came out okay…. but, the rest of what is said here remains relevant, and always in need of being heard….
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Well…. Getting up early seems to be working for me, Pearl-wise….. Even though part of this was already written, it all holds together well, and will stand in the future as one of my most complete Pearls, if nothing else…. A bit of nonsense to begin, some pointed sticks thrown around at demagoguery, a bit of classicism in the center, for balance, and a long dissertation haranguing the BRC and PTB, as well as most of the religious institutions in the world…. I’m a happy camper, you betcha….

Not just that, but, it’s DONE! Yay!….. I think…… Hmm… it’s now 0650…… Now what the hell am I going to do? Ah, perfect!…… I’m going back to bed now, ffolkes, & see if I can fall back asleep…. I’ll be back later to see how many people I’ve managed to offend, or better yet, how many found a good laugh…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Mark your place with a curlicue…..

Posted on February 7, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
These first moments of the day after arising can be a serene, comforting time, on those wonderful mornings when Murphy is occupied elsewhere. There is always such a fine feeling of potential, one of promise and hope. Then, naturally, I open my eyes to reality, and depression crashes back down, filling the world with darkness and despair….

Well, make up my damn mind, would you?…. Which is it, promising and full of hope, or dark and despairing? You can’t have it both ways, not in this house…. although, come to think of it, that might be a totally awesome experience, once…. To feel such completely opposite ranges of feeling at the same time…. it might be entertaining, for a moment or so anyway….

Nah, probably not…. more likely it would just be confusing, as if we don’t have enough in life to do that for us….. Oh well, it was a thought….. I get those now and again, but try not to let them get too messy, and I certainly wouldn’t allow one to drip all over the client’s chair; that one time was an anomaly, I swear…..

Ah hell, who am I trying to kid? We haven’t had a real client in here for ages, and the chair we use for them wouldn’t hold up anyone more than 90 lbs., anyway, so I’d most likely steer them into walking outside, rather than letting them sit down in the deathtrap…. We DO take customer service seriously, even if we don’t have many customers….

Not only do we not have many customers, we have no business. None….. it’s all just another plot device, thrown in by me in a moment of panic, to get me further down the page. It is working okay in that respect, but I don’t think this morning’s intro is going to win many literary prizes for eloquence, or elegance…. I suppose I could use it as a teaching tool, to show how NOT to write….

Of, course, then I’d have to find students, and set up a classroom, find some chalk, and a chalkboard, and….. nope, too much hassle. I’ll just let it lie, like a sleeping dog, or a politician, and we’ll move on to the next stage of this nonsense, whatever that may turn out to be…. It’s still a mystery at this point, as your guess is as good as mine as to where to take this….

Since where I took it worked, I won’t bother to detail the direction, but will merely accept the change without objection, and move on…. And, since it DID work, at least in one sense (all that is required by law….), I can legally get on with the rest of today’s effort without having to concern myself with finding a lawyer to save my ass. It’s always a good thing to avoid litigation when possible, yes? Yes…. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“Trust your hunches. They’re usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level.” — Dr. Joyce Brothers

I find this to be a fascinating statement, from a person many of today’s youth won’t recognize as a celebrity. Dr. Joyce, as we called her when I was young, was a celebrity from back in the 1950’s and 60’s, who became famous at first as a prodigy child contestant on a quiz show, The $64,000 Question; she later found celebrity as a radio and TV talk show hostess, and a syndicated newspaper column, answering questions about relationships, love, and life in general. She had a calm, friendly, confident manner that was easy for people to accept, and her brilliant mind gave her answers a certain depth and cachet that otherwise would have been lost, had she been less intelligent, or less charismatic…..

What I find to be interesting here is her reliance on the subconscious mind for accurate data resolution and interpretation, and her confidence in proposing that people explore that connection. I was around at the time, and the world was NOT in a place, philosophically speaking, where the reliance on subconscious activities was considered to be a mainstream belief. In fact, it almost put her in the category of mystics and clairvoyants, as far as established society was concerned….. To many, she might have well just said that we should all become witches….

I suppose what helped in the long run toward acceptance of this kind of thinking was her documented genius, that gave what she said a certain validity. In addition, she was at her most popular right at the time when society itself was going through some severe upheaval, during the late 50’s and early to late 60’s, so her ideas found more acceptance among the young, then spread to the rest of the culture as the Cultural Revolution went on, and society became more open to such free-wheeling philosophies.

Another effect of that time, that many people lose sight of, is the polarization that occurred in society, as the two intrinsically opposite philosophies, of liberalism and conservatism (as they are understood today….), became the two camps of ideology that would engage in a struggle for control of the government, and society, for the next 60 years, right up to today….. It’s a struggle between two ways of looking at life, and neither one is aware of being under the control of a third party, one that remains in the shadows, unseen and unheard, expect at their own command…..

Okay, here is where those of you who don’t buy into the conspiracy theory of life can skip on to the next section… to your own peril, but, hey, to each his own, right?….. I’m not particularly paranoid about such things as conspiracy; most of the time I think the things the ffolkes who believe in them see, that support their ideas, are seeing examples of human stupidity, rather than conspiracy. But, I am also a scientist, FIRST, and there is just too much evidence that supports the idea that there is a small percentage of humanity that controls the majority of resources (ie, food, land, money, armaments…), and as a consequence, have far more influence and control over the rest of us than is either just, or ethical.

This small group of mega-rich fanatical egotists believe that, because they can, they have the right to hoard all of those resources for themselves, and have the right to determine who should have any access to them. They believe this because they are allowed to do so, having grabbed all the controls (to wit: the guns and money….) long ago, and have arranged matters so that the great bulk of society is not only under their control, but is unaware of being in that position….

To tie this all together for y’all, let me say this…. I have a hunch that this is true. I don’t always have evidence that I can point to that is obviously definitive in the direction of proof of that assertion, but, if what Dr. Joyce tells us is true, my subconscious mind is aware of the facts, and can show me where to find them, if needed. That hunch tells me that, YES, there are a small group of assholes who are in control of society, for their own benefit, and they don’t give a fuck about the rest of humanity…. and there is evidence to support this hunch, even if it isn’t right out in the open where everyone can see it easily.

As yet, I don’t have any viable suggestions about how to go about kicking these punks to the curb; all I know is that we need to do so, and soon, before they kill all of us with their own brand of stupidity…. This isn’t to say they are altogether stupid, or that it is their primary defining characteristic…. but, they are human, and as such are subject to Murphy and his natural law…. So, I suppose it is a matter of watching for the right moment to catch them just at that instant when their own humanity will bring them down….. and hoping that moment comes soon…..

“Do you like “TENDER VITTLES”??” — Zippy the Pinhead
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Of late, I’ve been writing quite a bit on aging, and it’s effect on me… an occupational hazard, I suppose, for us retirees. Last night, I was reading some WordPress blogs, and was introduced to this Australian contemporary poet, David Lewis Paget. In looking through his poems on PoemHunter.com, I found this one, which speaks very eloquently of this period of life, and beyond, and I’m happy to include it here as part of the ongoing discussion…. It’s a bit long, but worth it…. Enjoy!….

Age Rage

I was wandering through the Nursing Home
In the town of Morton Rise,
Seeking an old and weathered face
That I’d known in another guise,
For Richard Spratt was my father’s friend
That I hadn’t seen for years,
I was going to let him know his friend
Had taken a turn for the worse.

The eyes that stared from the armchairs there
Were blank, and devoid of pain,
They’d taken the pills that dulled them down
So they wouldn’t be restrained,
The nurses treated them all as fools
This gross humanity,
Whose only sin was they’d given in
To age, and infirmity.

It was all so very depressing, I
Imagined my future there,
Staring in immobility
From the prison of one of their chairs,
Waiting my turn to be spoon-fed
By a very impatient nurse,
Who shovelled the food all over my chin
As I sat, and inwardly cursed.

I wandered the home there, room by room
In search of his friendly face,
This Richard Spratt in a cricketer’s hat
I remembered from Ambergate,
He’d batted a decent fifty, while
My father polished the ball,
And took five wickets alone that day
In his bowling, over all.

It was nigh on forty years before
That I’d watched them play as a child,
Out on the green at Ambergate
With the weather, warm and mild,
But the years dismay as they pass away
And my father grew so old,
Now he lay in bed in a kind of dread
As the bell of his lifetime tolled.

I said that I’d find his friend for him
And let him know, at the last,
That he was remembered, thick and thin
For a friendship, forged in the past,
There were days when they both had sunny skies
And met each day with a grin,
But time drew shrouds like storm-filled clouds
And the end was looking grim.

I heard a shout from a private room
And went to investigate,
Quite a commotion in the gloom,
I hoped I wasn’t too late,
And there was a nurse stood over him
In a wheelchair, Richard Spratt,
He’d thrown his meds all over the room
And sat in his cricketer’s hat.

‘You know what to do with your pills, you witch, ‘
He shouted, and turned to see
Just who was stood in the doorway, I
Was grinning from ear to ear,
‘Well I’ll be… You can get out of here! ‘
He said to the wayward nurse,
Who said, ‘If you’re going to be like that…’
And left the room, with a curse.

I told the news of my father then
And I swear, he sat and cried,
Just a couple of tears escaped
That he hid, he still had pride,
‘Life is a trail of sorrow, son,
But we’re all on the same long train,
Your dad and I in the tunnel, while
Your carriage is still on the plain.’

‘What do you value of life the most? ‘
I saw the pain in his eyes,
‘Youth was that great and precious thing
That with age, you realise!
I’d give it all for an hour to spend
In the glow of my lady’s eyes,
The touch of her skin and a hint of sin
But the thing that we love, it dies! ‘

‘I’ve often thought of those balmy days
On the green in our cricket whites,
And think I hear the crack of the ball
On the willow of sweet delight,
I remember your father’s terse ‘Howzat! ‘
When he scattered another’s bails,
Now I sit in this prisoning wheelchair, here
And all I can hear are wails.’

‘Wails from the ones who want to die,
Wails that they want to live,
The future is lost to the best of us
We have but the past to give.
You’d like to know how I feel right now,
Like a leopard, caught in a cage,
If only I could be young once more…
But all that I feel is rage!’

David Lewis Paget

4 October 2012
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“The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all. Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this is also vanity. For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? As the fool.” — Ecclesiastes 2:14-16

To look at this, one would tend to be persuaded of its veracity, or at least of its intention to be so. The latter part is the more accurate assessment, because, in truth, this is a complete and utter lie, a lie that I consider to be one of the most egregious of those told by the fanatics who wrote most of the Bible….. “And how dieth the wise man? As a fool.” What a crock of shit!

Think about this for just a second, okay?…. A wise man approaches his death with equanimity and dignity, arranging matters so that he dies having lived a life filled with the joy of loving, and with compassion for his fellows. The fool dies badly, fearing what comes after, but more afraid to continue living in misery and fear….. Those are very simple observations, based on reality, and what I’ve observed of it in my time.

Vanity isn’t ALWAYS misplaced, you know, as long as it is not embraced as a lifestyle, but rather acknowledged as an amusing form of self-love, one that can serve to motivate toward improvement. Only when assumed as a faith, producing a sense of entitlement based on unreal expectations, does it become ill-conceived, and ugly. (Gee, and doesn’t that sound more like those who preach against vanity, with their sense of entitlement as one of God’s children?….)

It is much the same as with any human characteristic, or emotional state; moderation is the key to handling them with grace and common sense. When people make too much of ANY of their emotions, or their personal characteristics, they tend to go overboard, and act without restraint to achieve their wants…. SIGH…. In this way, as in many, most people are like children, with no control over their own inner self as yet….

But, given their way, the men (very, very few women fall so deeply into the religious BS to become preachers/priests) who want to control the rest of humanity through religion would have us remain children, at least in our emotional responses…. Children are much easier to control than adults, as they are conditioned to accept whatever they’re told by an adult…. If a person manages to get to adulthood without being so conditioned, well, they can kiss that constituent goodbye, because very few of us ever return after becoming aware of how the church is fucking with us…..

Bah, humbug…. I’m a bit worked up now, and it’s getting hard to organize my thoughts enough to keep this on a logical track. I just get so mad, when I think about all these centuries that humanity has wasted under the influence of all those who act for their own benefit, and screw the rest of us. I get SO angry, it takes all of my will to keep from getting up from my chair, grabbing some weapons, and going out to hunt…..

But, then I would have to give up my own philosophy, because, who will play God? If I go out and start eliminating those whom I believe need to be absent from reality, for the betterment of all, then I am making myself into God…. which kind of goes against all I believe. I hate them, those assholes, but, killing is THEIR method of choice for assuming or maintaining the status quo, and really doesn’t fit in with my own choices. I guess I’m just going to have to keep looking for the right way to bring their chicanery out where all can see it, and make fun of it enough to make it go away….

Not the most logical, or strategically or tactically practical plan I’ve come up with, but, for now, it’s the best I’ve got…. If y’all have any ideas, I’d be interested, for sure… We need to figure out some way to boot their asses out the door, before it’s too late…. though I suspect that moment may have passed yesterday…..

“So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.” — Bertrand Russell
__________________________________

I’m at a loss for words to express how this one came out…. After re-reading it, I’m almost impressed. Allowing subconscious control works better than I had imagined, I’d say…. In future posts, we’ll see if we can’t expand that little capability, and see where it takes us…. For now, I’m probably better off to bid thee adieu for today, and let the chips fall where they may….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

This order can’t be filled…. it’s digital….

Posted on February 4, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Okay, wait….. hang on, the coffee’s ready……Oh, that’s good! I’m glad…. now, nobody will have to die. This is a good thing; we hate having to dispose of dead bodies before dawn; there isn’t much room left in the backyard…. Besides, I’m feeling too lazy to put an ad in the paper for a new lackey…. SIGH…. It’s so hard to get good help these days….

Now that the fantasy portion of this missive is past, it might be a good thing to explain that, though I often speak lightly of eliminating those in this world who annoy me, I’m actually a pussycat, and have yet to become a “made” man in my life, an accomplishment of which I am deservedly proud.

Like all of us, I’ve had numerous occasions in life when the urge to end it for someone else becomes nearly unstoppable…. why, just the other day, this guy…. well, it doesn’t matter, because I let him live, little as he deserved it….. I’ve done that several times over the years, and thus far have been able to control the urge before giving in to it…..

This isn’t to say I left those idiots to get on with their life, or whatever excuse they use for one, without exacting some payment for their asininity; I don’t believe in letting stuff like that slide, or they’ll begin to think they can do it to anyone…. No, each of the folks who annoyed me enough to have caused me to come close to losing control have paid for their lack of sense, and the payment was such that they regret their foolishness, for certain.

But, they walked away, so in the ultimate sense, they were lucky…. in pain, but lucky to be alive, and knowing it…. Actually, I found the time with that cowboy in Nebraska to be quite rewarding, though I’m sure he had a hard time explaining to his booted and belt-buckled buddies why he’d pissed his pants while talking with the long-haired hippie in the gift shop….

So, when I write of using one of the myriad of techniques for killing I’ve learned, or talk about my wish to see someone suffer great harm, be advised that it is mostly just talk, designed to help me get rid of the urge, instead of hanging on to whatever has annoyed me…..

Often I accompany such threats with vulgarity, because swearing is more of a release than almost anything else we do without resorting to actual violence, and using it diminishes the need to bring ourselves to the point where such potentially dangerous emotion becomes reality…. When life does get to that point, and I am required to step up and use what I’ve been trained to use, I consider it a loss, a fail, for it means I lost control of myself….

“True power is when we have every justification to kill, and don’t.” — Oscar Schindler

Non-violence HAS to be a choice, and only those who truly KNOW violence, from both sides of the coin, can really understand how hard it is to try to live without resorting to its finality. Those who retreat from violence in fear give themselves no choice, and suffer the consequences of that decision regularly, as life will tumble them about just as if they were clothes in a dryer. Those who use violence regularly, as a means of coping with the world, will almost always come to a violent end, eventually, as there is ALWAYS someone who is bigger, or faster, or stronger, or smarter…..

Only those who are perceptive enough to learn to make the decision to NOT be violent, even thought they know how to do so, have an even chance of getting through life with the most satisfaction, of being able to control what happens around them, without giving in to the urge to kill….

Having made my decision today, as must be done daily, to do my best NOT to kill anyone, I guess I should quit blathering about it, and get on with today’s business….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“Asking a Republican Senate and Democratic House to make a law is like trying to fry a single egg in two pans.” — New York Times, Jan. 20, 1981

Vice versa is no doubt true, in my estimation, as well as my experience, as the reverse is what we are currently dealing with in the seat of our pants, er, government…. such as it is. If you can’t tell, let me make it crystal clear…. I’m more than just a bit tired of all of them, and really wish they’d leave us all alone for a while, and let us set things to order…..

It shouldn’t take more than a week or two, if they’ll agree to stay out of the way, I’m sure…. Once we have things set up the way we want it, there won’t be any need for them to return to work, anyway, but we don’t have to tell them them at first…. We’ll just let them think they’ve still got the keys to the kingdom, then just laugh at them when they start to whine about the changes….

Oh, didn’t I mention, the first task would be to boot their asses out, in a figurative sense? I mean, we don’t really need them do we? We can take care of each other without all the interference and manipulation we now suffer…. We just have to figure out how to do this without bloodshed, as it has always been accomplished up to now…. it doesn’t seem to work very well, does it? The world is not going to shit, it is already doo doo, and I don’t mean doo dah…. We don’t have the time, or the resources to spare, to keep doing the same old shit we’ve been doing, so, they’ll just have t get over it…. It’s not ABOUT them, even though they want it to be…..

It is about survival…. our survival as a species. I keep pounding on this point because I’m in a near-constant state of panic, because, for all accounts and purposes, it may be too late for us to stop the global climate changes by reducing our particulate emissions. We’ve been pumping shit (shit that is composed of varying percentages of Carbon monoxide, toxic industrial poisons, and about a hundred other substances that have no business in our air….) into the atmosphere now for about a hundred and fifty years or so, since the beginning of the industrial revolution, and the cumulative effects are now at a point of irreversibility. The climate is changing, as we watch, and there is no longer any way to stop it….

For the past 25 or more years, the amount of stuff going into the atmosphere has been doing so at a rate of HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF TONS (tons, not pounds or ounces, but tons….) PER HOUR. Per hour…. now, today, as of this moment, we are dumping over a thousand tons into the air every three seconds, according to the World Clock at Poodwaddle.com, here…. You can see for yourself, here…. http://www.poodwaddle.com/clocks/worldclock/ It’s frightening, but it’s all real, and true….

I guess what I’m trying to get to here is that the folks who are currently in our government, running things, AREN’T doing anything about all of this, any more than those who came before them…. In fact, a disturbing number of them refuse to accept the truth of the matter, an idiotic viewpoint all-too-common among the faith-based among them…. The rest of them don’t want to acknowledge the issue because it threatens their pocketbooks. Whatever their reasoning, or lack of it, they aren’t going to help at all; in fact, they are the biggest part of the problem, and need to be removed before we will be able to actually DO anything that might help, late as it is….

President Barry has promised to address the issue, strongly…. Well, it’s a bit late, Barry, but, let’s see what you can do…. But, I’d suggest getting off your ass and doing it fast, because the storm is building, and it will blow us all to hell, quickly, if we don’t batten down the hatches and get to work at dealing with the core issues….. which are human cupidity, human avarice, human indifference, and human stupidity, the REAL Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse…..

How admirable, he who thinks not,
Life is fleeting,
When he sees the lightning!

— Basho
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Momentary Terror

Absently casual, memories pester endlessly
leaving only bleeding remnants, amiable and loving.
Coming awake, I cry to still the pain, shamelessly.

Elsewhen, time gives surcease, if only to live,
shoring broken pilings, worn and gray.
Passing on, I laugh at the pain, accept all it will give.

Time will build a shelter, warm and ever safe
save for Fate’s busy hands.
Enduring, I follow the pain, knowing it will chafe.

Fixed against a darkened sky of starry black
such beauty brings us to our knees.
Entranced, I welcome the pain, ’tis all I lack…..

~~ gigoid

I’m not sure what to think about this poem, but, it had to get out, or it would have festered…. Does that mean it is ulcerous, or merely has the potential to be so? You tell me….
__________________________________

Once again, fate has conspired to force my hand, to the point where I must prevaricate in order to stay on track…. which is to say, I’ve been stupid, and lost my way to wherever it was I’d planned to go…. As is my wont in such cases, we will go old school, with a group of pearls that all have something to say about something or other…. Today, we’ll address stupidity, and how all of us on the bus may fall prey to it at times…. Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes, the bear eats you, as they say…. Here are some thoughts on the matter from some pretty famous ffolkes, and a couple not so widely known, but respected for their wisdom in their own circle….

“The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The terror of their tyranny, however, is alleviated by their lack of consistency.” — Albert Einstein

“There is no sin except stupidity.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), “The Critic as Artist”, 1891

“There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967), “An outline of Intellectual Rubbish”

“Stupid is as stupid does.” — Mrs. Gump, Forrest’s mama

“The only evidence against evolution are its opponents.” — Smart Bee

Boy, if that ain’t the Truth, in big, shiny letters ten feet tall!…. In contrast, below you will find one of my all time favorite aphorisms, from my all time favorite author, advising us of what we CAN be, if we choose….

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” — Robert A. Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
__________________________________

Well, there you have it. Such as it is, it is all my own, save the quoted aphorisms, so take it all with a big dose of well- salted skepticism; don’t worry, it’s all designed to stand up to that kind of scrutiny, I hope. I’ve proofed it once, so it must be done…. and, as such, is no longer my concern, right? Okay, I’ll drop it…. just remember, it doesn’t HAVE to make sense, it just has to be real…. and there is no question of that, at all, at all…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Just another well-planned wardrobe malfunction….

Posted on December 30, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Having survived the nightly battle with my pillows, I awoke pretty early today, with no real story or discussion in mind, but lots of eagerness to begin writing. Now, I’m wondering why I bothered, as I’m sitting here staring at the blank screen, without a single word coming to mind. It seemed to take forever just to formulate that first sentence….. which is kind of surprising, actually. As I lay in bed this morning, just before getting up, several story beginnings were vying for attention in my head; now, they’re acting like virgins at a biker bar, bashful and reticent, and refusing to come out of the ladies room…..

Of course, none of the story lines would be allowed in a ladies room, even in a biker bar, so the analogy isn’t really accurate, but you get the picture. I don’t like to think that this reluctance to be written has anything to do with Murphy; as yet he hasn’t shown that kind of influence INSIDE my head, just in the outer world. But, it could be my own foolishness fussing with me, copying Murphy’s techniques; that is a scary thought, itself, and I sincerely hope it isn’t the case. I don’t think so, but, what with all the quotes from Zippy running around in there, one never knows for sure….. and, when under the influence of his darker side, Pooh can be pretty tricky, in a nasty sort of way…..

At this point, there isn’t any way to check which is the correct supposition, so we’ll use our normal method of dealing with odd stuff around here, and just ignore it until it either goes away, or fixes itself. It seems to work for me….. even if I have to clean the walls more often than most ffolkes do….. I’m just happy that modern cleaning solutions are effective at removing blood stains from almost any surface; otherwise, the landlord would NOT be a happy camper….. and neither would I be….

Okay, that’s probably enough. Since I was unable to come up with a literary opening, having to settle instead for more inane babbling on my part, the normal course of events around here would lead us into the primary sections of the Pearl in question, via the dive into Smart Bee’s massive database of wisdom and humor. And so it shall be today…. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“History is a lie commonly agreed upon.” — Nietzsche

I often wonder how the future will view these times, it being a given that the fabric of our society is based primarily on lies and/or delusions.* Which ones will stand the test of time, and end up in the books as being the one everyone agrees upon? It has also been said that history is always written by the winners, and that seems to me to be fairly close to the real truth of the matter. It would be a bit more acceptable to me if it weren’t so bloody predictable, and that there was at least a small chance that the events we experience would be reported truthfully. Alas, I am not hopeful that will ever be the case…..

* (Note the use of the technique of the positively stated assertion, using the assumption of its truth as proven, the same as exemplified in ALL religious doctrines as the basis for their truth and relativity…. Just thought I’d make it clear, that this is real, serious stuff…. 🙂 ….)

In all honesty, I’m not convinced that we, as a species, will have much of a future. Given the current state of the environment, I can’t see us lasting more than a couple hundred years more, without some major changes to society, changes that are not imminent, or even under consideration. When I first started this blog, over a year ago, I posted a link, to a World Clock at Poodwaddle.com ( I love the human imagination!…..). You can find that clock here: http://www.poodwaddlecom/clocks/worldclock/ This clock has a number of faces, one of which shows exactly how much CO and CO2, along with unnatural amounts of other toxic substances, are being pumped into the atmosphere every second, by industrial and manufacturing facilities, and by cars and other vehicles.

I am a scientist, first. I chose the path of the scientist in my youth, before my tenth birthday, before the warrior’s path I chose later. In essence, scientists ARE warriors, and vice versa, as battling the universe requires study to be effective, and acquiring knowledge requires the curiosity and courage of a warrior, in order to find, and face, Truth. Each path, or persona, complements the other, and, in my time, have led me on a journey of great beauty and wonder. This journey, though, is in danger of being ended before its time, by the asininity of the human race….

There are some scientists who believe that humans do not have the power to harm the planet, and the danger is not as great as others, and the evidence, might indicate. In one respect, they are right…. I don’t think the planet itself is in danger from what we are doing, though I’m sure it is suffering pain from the symptoms we’ve managed to saddle it with in our time. No, our activities, such as polluting the air and water, wasting resources, and killing the other creatures we live with indiscriminately, only endanger us, and the other life forms on the planet. Once we are gone, the planet will easily clean itself of the trash we deposited everywhere, and move on to the next evolutionary step in the parade of Time.

“Where man walks the earth hurts.” — Smart Bee

Many years ago, I used to believe in the ingenuity of scientists, to overcome the technological difficulties we’ve created, and find a way to keep us alive, perhaps by colonizing space, and leaving Earth behind. But, the figures don’t lie, and the figures say we don’t have the time to fool around waiting for space travel to solve the problems we have. By the time we could achieve any kind of significant progress there, we would be forced to live in domes, and wear protective gear to go outside them, to walk on the surface of our own world. That is if there are enough remaining resources to build the domes, and to power them sufficiently to survive.

The other possible solution is for the ruling classes of our species to come to their senses, to reverse their moral compasses, and start acting in the best interests of everyone, instead of just themselves. The whole problem with pollution we have today exists solely because the ruling classes, the people who control all the resources, don’t have any moral compass, or, choose to deliberately ignore its demands. They choose to deliberately structure society in their own favor, so that they have the power and control over what occurs, while the rest of us try to survive on what they don’t want. It is the same picture that history has drawn for all the millenia since we came out of the caves to live in cities, and the 1% of mankind who is in control is not interested in helping anyone else, unless and until they have secured their own….

Even the lies we agree upon in history show this to be true, so I don’t think there is a huge chance that we will see any changes before it is too late for it to matter. I just don’t see those in the beloved ruling class all of a sudden reversing the entire course of the history they’ve chosen to allow to happen; it is not in their nature to be altruistic to even a small degree. We are either going to have to rise up and throw them out on their asses, or suffer an ignominious death, when the air we can no longer breathe begins to choke us as we walk down the street toward our destiny….. which at this point, leads only to a coffin…..

“I can’t decide which WRONG TURN to make first!! I wonder if BOB GUCCIONE has these problems!” — Zippy the Pinhead
__________________________________

Absence

I have scarcely left you
When you go in me, crystalline,
Or trembling,
Or uneasy, wounded by me
Or overwhelmed with love, as
when your eyes
Close upon the gift of life
That without cease I give you.

My love,
We have found each other
Thirsty and we have
Drunk up all the water and the
Blood,
We found each other
Hungry
And we bit each other
As fire bites,
Leaving wounds in us.

But wait for me,
Keep for me your sweetness.
I will give you too
A rose.

Pablo Neruda
__________________________________

So, there I was, cruising through Smart Bee, and the following quotes popped up, not in this order, but, enough so that the picture they make together is relatively clear. It is merely a reiteration of a theme common to this blog, and needs no significant explanation in order for almost anyone to enjoy…. If the meaning isn’t clear, well, that’s okay, too…. Each of the quotes is good, simple stuff (hmm…. that word, again….), the stuff of which real, not virtual, wisdom is made. And, the crown of potential achievement offered by the overall view of reality that these show is virtually unlimited….

Whew! That’s quite a lot to ask of a few simple aphorisms, but, it’s just the kind of guy I am, I guess…. I just want everyone to be happy, that’s all…. (actually, Aristotle said, approximately, “He who tries to be friends with all, is friend to none.”) Well, maybe that’s a bit presumptuous…. but, I do want everyone to use what they have between their ears, and I’m not talking about their fabulous hair…. In any case, I think this makes a good pearl, so good, it WILL be on the Quiz, should we ever have one…..

“The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell.” — Bertrand Russell

“Being good at being stupid doesn’t count.” — Smart Bee

“Such is the human race. Often it does seem such a pity that Noah and his party didn’t miss the boat.” — Mark Twain

“I give up, what is the meaning of life?” — Smart Bee

“For several years more I maintained public relations with the Almighty. But privately, I ceased to associate with him.” — Jean-Paul Sartre

“I have partaken of the Great Banquet of Life. What I need now is the Great Alka-Seltzer of Life.” — Smart Bee

See? As I said, numerous times before, it’s all in the wrist….. and, timing is everything. TTFN….. (ta ta for now…)
__________________________________

SIGH…. another attack of whimsy there at the end, but, all in all, not too bad, I think. Actually, after going back over it to edit and proof, it’s better than not bad, by a few notches, at least. Once again, it has reached that point of doneness that qualifies it for publication, and I’m glad. It was pretty hard work, in spots…. At any rate, as I said, it’s done, so, I’m off to a spot to publish….

The library is out, so coffee shop is in; the email Pearl Drops should be happy, they’ll get their morning nonsense right in their inbox….. I know, I’m making an unwarranted assumption that seeing my Pearls makes them happy, but, hey, what else do you think keeps this going but my ego? Or, at least, the assumption of an ego…. Whatever…. I’ve now lost all credibility, I’m sure, so I may as well take your leave, before I do any further damage….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.gigoid

A valid reason to stay exfoliated….

Posted on December 21, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Reason be damned, and rhyming can go hang; it’s time again to ramble…. As I sat down to begin this morning, two opening scenarios paraded across my inner eye, beginnings for new story ideas. One was pretty good, and would make an excellent opening for a J.D. Robb novel about Eve Dallas and Roarke…. The other was okay, but was basically a rewrite of one I’ve done previously, to a slightly different plot line (different planet, different culture, same basic societal upheaval and heroism in the face of cataclysm…. you know, the usual literary hack stuff….)….

Both, however, failed to meet one of today’s requirements, to wit: it must practically write itself, because I’m just not up to it today…. I decided, in my sleep, that I’ve been way too intense lately, taking everything too seriously, and generally giving myself a hard time, by railing against reality, and its stubborn refusal to give me what I desire….. Bloody a__holes….. Ah, hell….. It’s hard to get angry at reality, since it isn’t an entity we can attack verbally, or physically, not if we expect any reaction, anyway. In fact, we cannot attack it at all. It’s just too much more than we are, in a universal importance kind of way; our ability to affect the way things happen in life is nowhere in the same vicinity as the immutable nature of reality, other than in our imagination. On the scale of cosmic significance, reality trumps just about anything I can come up with…..

“Reality can be hazardous to your health.” — Smart Bee

Perhaps our imagination is the problem; that would make sense, as it is also our strongest asset in dealing with the universe at large, and nothing comes without a price in reality, not even the use of our given tools and characteristics. We imagine how we would like things to be, and when reality does not bother to match what we imagine, the disappointment we feel also becomes real, if not justifiable to our feelings…… Aha! I’ve accidentally uttered the magic word!….. Now I feel really stupid….

Feelings….. I forgot all about feelings. (D’oh!…..) I see it all, now…. It isn’t our imagination that gives us such a difficult time with what reality gives us to deal with, it is our feelings about what we must do that are the problem. Well, that makes much more sense…. What was I thinking?…..

Sheesh, I can’t believe I took myself, and y’all, on a three paragraph trip into nonsense, all because it was too early for me to be using my mind. I forgot to mention it was 0545 AM when I started writing today, and no matter how alert and awake I may have felt, I can see now that I had no business trying to philosophize so early…. Good grief! If I wasn’t such a hypocrite, I’d say I should be taken out and shot…. but, I will accept that derogatory title if I must, as I am ever so allergic to brass cartridges traveling at high velocity in my vicinity, especially if on a vector coinciding with my personal space….

I suppose that I’ve once again left myself with no alternative but to get on with the usual stuff that goes on around here, to wit: diving for pearls. Given my recent ramblings in this section, I’m considering eliminating the introduction, or imposing a limit of one paragraph before beginning the dives each morning. Perhaps not; I’m pretty wishy-washy about that stuff and this blog; I try not to change what works, and much of what I do is sort of an unconscious set of actions anyway, so I don’t pay a lot of attention to it sometimes. And now I really AM rambling, so….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

Mind is the one and only creative power. All attempts to account for creation from any other standpoint are futile… Our most important study, then, is our own consciousness. — Charles Fillmore, “Christian Healing”

“???”

As nearly as I can describe, using the keyboard, this was my immediate response to the above. Three query marks appeared in my inner eye, just as you see them here, surrounded by what I can only say looked like a thought balloon such as you’d see in a comic book. I also must point out that neither the questions, nor the image by which my mind indicated its bemusement, surprised me, somehow, though they certainly should have, since I’ve never, to this point in my life, had anything cause me to respond with an instant immersion into comic-speak….

I guess my reaction is explainable as justified by the contrast between what is said in the statement, and the title of the piece from which it came. For the life of me, I cannot figure out whether the author is being facetious, serious, or merely using the idea as context in some way that isn’t clear with the statements standing alone. As it stands, the statements are perfectly rational, and, as such, could be said to be perfectly antithetical to the precepts of Christianity that I know, and certainly to the precepts of any of the sects that would be involved in mystical healing of imagined flaws in the human soul (Original Sin). Well, I guess that could be any of them, so, that won’t wash, exactly….. but, I’m still confused, as identifying Mind as the “only creative power” seems to go against everything Christians assume about divinity, and creation, unless I’ve missed something important over the last 60 years…..

“There are scores of thousands of sects who are ready at a moment’s notice to reveal the will of God on every possible subject.” — Smart Bee

Bah, humbug! Now I’m going to have to track down this article, or book, or whatever it is, and see the whole thing to get the perspective I need to figure this out. My curiosity won’t let me do anything else…. Besides, once I do get an idea of what the author was doing when he made this assertion, I’ll have a better idea of how to point the ensuing rant. If I go with what I have now, I’ll probably end up making all sorts of contextual assumptions that could be entirely false, and completely ruin any hope of future respect for my opinions, especially from myself, as I should know better than to assume anything about context from just one assertion.

To be continued, after a suitable interval to consult with Google, and subsequent sources…. And besides, even as simple and easy as it is, ranting on the Christians today is more than I want to get into…. Call me lazy, call me irresponsible, call me irresistible, just don’t call me late for lunch…..

“Toes, knees, NIPPLES. Toes, knees, nipples, KNUCKLES… Nipples, dimples, knuckles, NICKLES, wrinkles, pimples!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Nipples, knuckles, and nickles….. Genius! Sheer genius!….. And toes, too!….
__________________________________

An Old Man, Snoring….

Winter arrives with gusts of wind and rain,
clover spreads green amongst the hedges.
Urban gardens quiver, and dream of spring again,
gargoyles stoically crouch on corniced ledges.

Umbrellas sprout over heads shrouded and hatted,
dotting the sidewalks in colorful profusion.
Urban denizens pose sketches, framed and matted,
adding casual beauty to fill the illusion.

Hissing tires, swishing along with the wipers
join nature’s orchestra smoothly, as percussion.
Dripping gutters sound gong tones, true pipers,
a sudden roar of wind hushes all discussion.

Dreams of summer heat form the crux of desire
as winter chills our souls from without.
Sitting in warmth, gazing into an imaginary fire;
content to know spring will come, no doubt.

~~ gigoid
__________________________________

It is Friday…. I mention this only to point out that the day of the week only has two points of interest for me; hours of operation at the library are different every day, and the bus schedules are different on weekends. Other than that, my only interest in what day it is has to do with whether or not there is a possibility of mail. This lack of pressure about what is required for any particular day is one of the real perks of being retired, one that is seldom mentioned in all that I’ve seen and read on the subject, despite its real significance. I really enjoy the sensation of being in total control of my own time, with no other entity in the world who decides for me what I am to do at any particular moment…. It is a luxury that we do not appreciate when we are not retired, as we almost never experience it…..

Such freedom of time is limited, of course, by other considerations, but those are all connected to personal issues, not to reality’s issues. It is this freedom that allows me the time to create this blog every day, a task to which I dutifully cling as my lifeline to sanity. I guess that the years of work, during which my time was extremely tightly scheduled, for reasons associated with what others wanted/expected of me, created a need for some organization of that time, in order to feel some degree of control that is generally necessitated by conditions from the outside world. So, I try to do my writing when I am most able to do so, physically, which means first thing in the morning…..

None of this really has any point, other than to illustrate that I’m a lucky guy, for one with so many issues to deal with; I am both beset upon by reality, and rewarded by it immensely….. Now, if only I could get reality to hand over some of what is mine, I’d be set….. In the meantime, I needed a pearl, and all I could find were these little gems from a variety of sources, all of which, taken together, make a pretty fair set of principles on which to base one’s life, and one’s attitudes about life….. I’d say anyone who was true to all of these would be considered an asset to whatever part of society he or she inhabited…. Abondanza!……

“I would rather suffer defeat than have cause to be ashamed of victory.” — Quintus Curtius

“It is not the one with many possessions who is rich, but the one who has no needs.” — Philoxenos

“When we look at a rock what we are seeing is not the rock, but the effect of the rock upon us.” — Bertrand Russell

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like “What about lunch?” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

“Most people seem to think that trampling individual rights is OK if it is “for the good of society as a whole.” However, society is but a large number
of individuals, and how can harming the individual parts better the whole?” — Andrew Ford, forda@agcs.com

“But if a man happens to find himself … he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.” — Google says….

“I should have been a plumber.” — Albert Einstein

I think, without irony, life would be pretty dull….. Don’t you?…..
__________________________________

Since I can’t seem to find a perfect pearl to finish with…. one more try….. Well, not perfect, perhaps, but close. Bonus points if you can figure out which one it is (hint: It’s not the last one in line, from Albert, though his is one of my favorites….)….. Okay, I’m done. I’ve been playing around in my head now for almost three hours, while the rest of the world is waking up. I’m going to go shower up to face the day, then maybe go back to bed until time to catch the bus to the library….. Just kidding, but, hey, I can if I want to, so, who knows?….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

By all means, make it palatable….

Posted on December 8, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Having survived, and even thrived, through another morning’s immersion into the mundane issues of physical demands, I sit to write with clear head, and burgeoning hope. The clarity of mind is welcome, if a tad surprising, and the hope is undefined, but welcome nonetheless for its bolstering qualities. Heretofore, I have been tempted to rail and rant against the inevitable presence of our resident nemesis, but even Murphy cannot disturb me this morning, as I bask in the glow of….. Wait, that isn’t me. I don’t bask, nor do I glow, so what is that doing in my paragraph? And Murphy ALWAYS disturbs me, it’s his job….

Must have been some imp, fussing with my typing hands, slipping that in on me when I wasn’t paying close enough attention. Mischievous little suckers, those imps…. Well, then, good morning, again, or, on looking, initially….. The perfect word to describe my current SOM (State of Mind) would be “discombobulated”, a word of fine pedigree and stately pronunciation, and perfectly descriptive of how it feels this morning to use my brain. Of course, that right there should have been a clue, when I first sat up in bed; one isn’t normally accustomed to “feel” one’s brain when it is working, any more than we “feel” a muscle move when we ask it to perform a task, or “feel” our fingernails growing….. “Feeling” the brain in action would seem to indicate a certain stiffness and/or a degree of dysfunction….

But, then, dysfunctional brain issues are nothing new in my world, so it doesn’t surprise me that I didn’t notice at first how things were going to be today. There are steps I can take, and will take, to reverse the course of my brain’s initial direction, so it isn’t a catastrophe, merely an inconvenience. Hmph…. inconvenience…. there’s another word that I’ve become all too familiar with in the last couple of years, at the behest of the federal government…. Ah well, inconvenience has yet to transform into impossibly frustrating, though it does approach that level regularly, so I guess we’ll just accept this as one more day started out with less than normal smoothness, and get on with it….

With all of that noted, whatever it was, we should now proceed to our daily attempt to bring some degree of comprehension to reality, to try to stimulate some random coherence amongst the population, with the overall intent of increasing the total amount of thinking that goes on in any particular day on this planet…. The more thoughts floating around, the better chance we have of one of them helping the situation, desperate as it may be. All you can do is all you can do, and this is what I do….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“I always have a quotation for everything — it saves original thinking.” — Dorothy Sayers

I knew there was something about Ms. Sayers I liked! Besides her books, of course….. My muse seems to be taking a short sabbatical, and I’m stuck here, trying to figure out something about which to write, or rant. I really do feel like I’d like to take some shots at the government, but an appropriate pearl doesn’t seem to be forthcoming. However, some others have surfaced that will do quite nicely for an old school pearl, so I’m forced, as it were, to fall back on that format….. Here then are some relatively random, but pointed thoughts on government, and the peripheral co-conspirators of those who delve into that cesspool of human ambition….

“Men who allow their love of power to give them a distorted view of the world are to be found in every asylum: one man will think he is the governor of the Bank of England, another will think he is the king, and yet another will think he is God. Highly similar delusions, if expressed by educated men in obscure language, lead to professorships of philosophy, and if expressed by emotional men in eloquent language, lead to dictatorships.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967)

“A Galileo could no more be elected president of the United States than he could be elected Pope of Rome. Both high posts are reserved for men favored by God with an extraordinary genius for swathing the bitter facts of life in bandages of self-illusion.” — H. L. Mencken

“Big Business and State Socialism are very much alike, especially Big Business.” — G. K. Chesterton, G.K.’s Weekly, 4/10/26

“A man attains an elevated position only when his mediocrity prevents him from being a threat to others. And for this reason a democracy is never governed by the most competent, but rather by those whose insignificance will not jeopardize anyone else’s self-esteem.” — Nicolo Machiavelli

“Men often believe — or pretend — that the “Law” is something sacred, or at least a science — an unfounded assumption very convenient to governments.” — Smart Bee

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.” — Patrick Henry 3 Elliot at 45, Debates In The Virginia Convention

“It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.” — H.L. Mencken

I LOVE this job! Oh, wait, that’s right, nobody’s paying me…. well, it’s probably a good thing, then, that I enjoy it so much….. That last line turned this from an merely average poke at the PTB, aka our beloved ruling class, into quite an adequate rip. So be it….. and let us thank our lucky stars I didn’t fall into a rant, which, by the look of the above, would have been a doozy….. (I must have used that word previously, as Spell Checker ignored it completely…..)
__________________________________

“All men are poets.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“All poets are mad.” — Robert Burns

‘Perhaps not to be is to be without your being.’

Perhaps not to be is to be without your being,
without your going, that cuts noon light
like a blue flower, without your passing
later through fog and stones,
without the torch you lift in your hand
that others may not see as golden,
that perhaps no one believed blossomed
the glowing origin of the rose,
without, in the end, your being, your coming
suddenly, inspiringly, to know my life,
blaze of the rose-tree, wheat of the breeze:
and it follows that I am, because you are:
it follows from ‘you are’, that I am, and we:
and, because of love, you will, I will,
We will, come to be.

Pablo Neruda
__________________________________

All of us have our little illusions about life, and how we fit into the big picture. For example, I like to think that I am fortunate to have been born with more than an average appreciation of the world in which we live, or perhaps, a deeper understanding than most of how it works, and just how beautiful it is. This isn’t to say that I am better than any other person in any way; it’s just that my perceptions have always been faster, and deeper, and more accurate than those of my peer group, by all the evidence I can muster. It is not just a blessing, either, for it is just as much a curse, tending to cause a certain distance between me and others, one that takes time, and familiarity, and a certain willingness on my part to adapt, to keep that distance from becoming a problematic issue…..

“People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.” — Jean Jacques Rousseau, “Emile, ou de l’education”, 1762

To look at this blog, it would seem that I am one who knows little, as I tend to ramble on incessantly, seeming to care not at all that I am exposing my potential ignorance to others. And, quite simply, I don’t care…. For most of my life, I spent a lot of time keeping my mouth shut, and my opinions to myself, even though I could see that what I was thinking was more accurate, and certainly more reasonable, than what I was observing others to perceive, and/or think. Or, in many cases, what passed for thinking….

Over the last 60 years, mostly, I kept my silence on a wide range of subjects, to preserve peace, and to ensure that my opinions, which were often radically different than those of my peer group, did not produce enmity among them. Since retiring from work, and reducing my social interaction to the lowest level of my life, I find that all those opinions and thoughts are pouring out of me at an almost alarming rate. I also find that I quite simply don’t give a shit what anyone thinks about it….

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeoning of chance;
My head is bloody but unbowed.
It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll;
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

— Henley

Not that I will not listen to opposing viewpoints; I am always ready to consider reasonable contrary evidence. But, if anyone gets offended, or upset in their emotional status in any way, by what I’ve written, well, all I can say is, too bad, so sad….. Any such will just have to learn to live with disappointment, I guess…. Actually, now that I’ve gotten used to being able to express myself without any self-imposed limitations, outside the boundaries of good taste, and compassion, I enjoy hearing what others may have to say about my thoughts. Dialogue with a challenging mind can be an intense pleasure, for sure, and I like it when people argue with me with passion, and reason.

“Speak the truth, but leave immediately after.” — Slovenian Proverb

However, I have also found that this piece of advice to be a valuable one. Sometimes (most times, actually….) it is a good thing to say what is there to be said, and then leaving….. This allows the other party to assimilate the ideas, and to come to some conclusions about it, without having the distraction of my presence. If their reaction is one of great passion in a negative sense, then it is better that I’m not there to either witness it, or to suffer its perpetration upon my psyche; in extreme cases, it saves me from having to duck and cover, or to defend myself on a physical level, neither of which is a preferable outcome to peaceful dialogue. So, I tend to say my piece, then boogie, as it were, to avoid any potential unpleasantness….

Having now submitted nearly eight hundred words in support of the first aphorism in this section, I’ll try to bring this to a logical close. I guess I’ll do it like this….. I saw a picture on Facebook, with some accompanying text that is the perfect ending for this small diatribe…. It’s a small piece of advice, well-stated, that summarizes what I’m saying quite nicely, to wit:

“If you really want to learn how to not care about what others think, just study your cat….. Seriously, they don’t give a shit.”

Pax ominbus……
__________________________________

Not too shabby, for one created sans any help from my muse…. Though, come to think of it, that last section may have been a late gift from them….. Hmm… I guess now I’ll have to apologize to them for doubting their loyalty and work ethic…. So be it. Now that the delusional portion of the program is completed, it must be time to send this on its way through cyberspace into the internet cloud…. as soon as the library opens….. In the meantime….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

And take what the day gives us….

Posted on November 25, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Vast, empty corridors stretch into infinity, with doors every few yards on both sides. Silence rolls ahead of the quiet footsteps that pace down the hall, seeming to absorb the slight sound of the soft shoes worn by the tall, darkly humanoid being who paced there. Shimmering pillars of moonlight shone through the windows that marched between the doors on the east side, throwing shadows across the floors and walls as the trees outside trembled in the soft breeze. No other movement, and no other sound invaded the space around the walker as he moved toward a door on the inner side of the hall, where a light blazed from under the bottom edge, glaring against the softer moonlight on the walls. Even as his hand moved toward the handle, the door opened wide…..

And then I woke up, and smelled the coffee…. Not too shabby, I suppose, but I never know where to go from where I stop…. just as well, then, I guess, that I don’t keep going, so I don’t end up somewhere I hadn’t planned to be…. Boy, this waking up business is getting complicated…. It has been some time since I felt a shortage of material, but there seems to be a large void spot in my head today, soaking up any directed focus I try to put out. It being Sunday, the library isn’t open but a few short hours this afternoon, so I have plenty of time to get this done before posting. That is a good thing, considering how it’s gone thus far. I can see already it will be one of those days when I spend an inordinate amount of time waiting for inspiration to strike, hating every moment until something pops up that I can use…. It’s that purpose thing I told y’all about the other day; us guys just feel better when we have a defined purpose….. even in the small things in life….

Without a defined purpose, like most men, I tend to wander around like the proverbial bull in a china shop, crashing into delicate items left and right, creating havoc. That is what it feels like anyway, a sort of out-of-control rushing about, with shattering glass sound effects and the whole nine yards. It’s probably not as bad as it seems to me, but, mine is the only perception that counts, and I don’t much like it…. However, there have been any number of times during life when I’ve had to do stuff I didn’t much like doing; we all have that cross to bear. So, I guess I’ll quit whining about it, and get on with the search for material I can turn into a Pearl. There has to be something out there I can use; Smart Bee has never failed me yet, and I don’t expect it to do so now….. fool that I am….

So, without further ado, shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“If you disclose your alms, even then it is well done, but if you keep them secret, and give them to the poor, then that is better still for you; and this wipes off from you some of your evil deeds.” — Koran (c. 651 AD)

“Don’t let your mouth write a check that your tail can’t cash.” — Bo Diddley

“It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won’t go.” — Bertrand Russell

“It is as useless to argue with those that have renounced the use and authority of reason as to administer medication to the dead.” — Thomas Paine

Okay, so here’s the deal…. The three first pearls in this group were collected in one swell foop, all together. The fourth one I added this morning. When I saved the others, I didn’t know just why; the three quotes don’t seem to have much of a connection, though all are good trains of thought around the subject of righteous behavior. The last one almost ties them together, but actually speaks to a different subject altogether. So…. it’s a wash…. none of it means anything, and I’ve wasted the time it took to put them together. SIGH…. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a spectacular failure of systemic nature like this one. All the usual lack of control I use to semi-direct the subject matter had no effect at all….

Sure, all four of these are pretty good pieces of advice, or good knowledge to possess…. but they don’t do anything special, and they don’t fit together like I intended…. I’m not sure now what I ever intended, as those first three, looked at now, have very little to do with each other, and certainly don’t stretch to cover a portion of reality that means anything important. The last one is damn good, for what it is, and shows us that we are not the only culture to have to deal with the deliberately ignorant; they’ve apparently been around, bugging the rest of us, for a long time. But, it doesn’t tie all the others together into a neat little lesson for the Gentle Reader, not by a long shot….

Hell, now what? I guess I’ll try to find a closing pearl that can save this section from complete uselessness….. Hmm, how about this?….

“If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of potential — for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints; possibility never.” — Soren Kierkegaard

Now THAT’S a pearl! And, now that I see it clearly arranged, it actually DOES save this section from uselessness. It issues a joyous peal of hope, that passion for potential, that is exactly what I try to capture in a POVW (pearl of virtual wisdom). The last line says it well, and goes a long way to pulling the entire exercise in imagination together into a coherent mass…. A bit jumbled, and tumbled, but coherent. What we are trying to do here at Exploring Consensual Reality is just this, to bring the joy of the elevated spirit and mind to life, to give everyone who reads this, that sparkling, electrifying connection with the potential that exists in every single moment….. Grab on, ffolkes, and hang on for the ride of your life…..

“Each of us has a spark of life inside us, and our highest endeavor ought to be to set off that spark in one another.” — Kenny Ausubel

“When you said “HEAVILY FORESTED” it reminded me of an overdue CLEANING BILL.. Don’t you SEE? O’Grogan SWALLOWED a VALUABLE COIN COLLECTION and HAD to murder the ONLY MAN who KNEW!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
__________________________________

I’m feeling a bit stressed today, for reasons best left alone for the time being. But, it gave me an urge for some Emily…. so, here she is….

To my quick ear the leaves conferred;
The bushes they were bells;
I could not find a privacy
From Nature’s sentinels.

In cave if I presumed to hide,
The walls began to tell;
Creation seemed a mighty crack
To make me visible.

————————————–

One wasn’t quite enough, I wanted more, so…..

Delight becomes pictorial
When viewed through pain,–
More fair, because impossible
That any gain.

The mountain at a given distance
In amber lies;
Approached, the amber flits a little,–
And that’s the skies!

~~ Emily Dickinson
__________________________________

Okay…. I’m not feeling all that well after all; since I started this a couple hours ago, my body has decided to give me a few symptoms to deal with, (which I won’t detail…. too graphic, and unnecessary….). What it boils down to is that I’m not up to a lot of sitting and cogitation right now…. so, I’m going to fall back on some of the stuff I’ve written previously…. About a year or so ago, in a form of self-therapy for some depression I was fighting to overcome, I wrote a four part series of short pieces that described my life, and the events that led to my acquisition of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is what I have as a complement to the relatively constant physical pain with which I live…. I’m just lucky, I guess….

Any who, I’m going to reprint those four articles, beginning today, as the third section of the daily Pearls. As I created these documents, I re-lived a lot of the events, which was both painful, and helpful…. I’m hoping that doing so again will also help again, as the darkness threatens to creep into my head, and I cast about, seeking the light…. and, it can’t hurt, so, I’m doing it anyway…. So, here is part one of what I called “Repercussions”….

REPERCUSSIONS, Part I

When I was four, my father was stationed in Japan with the US Army, at a base near Okinawa. He was there for about 18 months, and the rest of the family, my mother and, at the time, four kids joined him there for the last seven months of his tour of duty. During that time, I was made aware, simply by traveling to and living there, that the world was much larger than I thought, and there were a lot of different kinds of people living in it. He was an officer at the time, so the six of us lived in a large house on base, with two Japanese housekeepers. Learning about Mariko and her sister, whose name escapes me, taught us many things about Japanese culture, and my mind grew in leaps and bounds.

One of the things we learned were some basic Judo (the gentle way) techniques, by one of Mariko’s friends who was member of a dojo (school). This exposure to the martial arts stayed with me, but after returning to the USA, there was little opportunity to pursue the arts further. Especially when my parents had another child, and money became a permanent issue in the household. But I never forgot Mariko, (who made the best cinnamon roles ever), or any of my experiences in Japan.

Much later in my life when I went to college, at the University of California at Berkeley, Judo was offered as a physical education course, and I at last had the opportunity to study in earnest what so long ago had made such an impression on my young mind. I took the course for 3 quarters (UCB had switched to a four-quarter-per-calendar year schedule some years before my admission), much as a duck takes to water, and after less than 9 months I had been awarded a second-degree brown belt, Nikkyu, one level below a black belt, 1st degree.

I loved the arts with a passion I had not felt since I first discovered science-fiction at age ten. It was, perhaps, a lesser passion than when I discovered that girls weren’t so yucky after all, but studying the arts became a significant part of my life, and I have studied one art or another ever since, a matter of about 42 years. After Judo, I took some lessons in Karate (the empty-hand), Tae Kwon Do and Shotokan styles, a little bit of Tai Chi, and some Aikido.. Then in my late twenties, I joined my first class in the Chinese art of Kung Fu. All my other exposure, Tai Chi aside (which though useful in that respect, is an art not primarily designed for use in fighting), had been to arts developed in Japan and Korea. I learned that all of those arts had been patterned after the precepts of Kung Fu many centuries before.

The origins of Kung Fu are shrouded in some mystery, but the consensus is that the monks of the Taoist temple of the order of the Shaolin were the first to learn the basic art, and developed it as a means of protecting their temple from the degradations of the numerous marauding warlords fighting over the various geographic regions in China. It is said that the art was brought to them by none other than Bhodi Dharma, an ancient warrior of India who traveled all over the Far East during his life, using his unspeakably powerful skills, developed by him during many years of studying Yoga, to protect the weak and oppressed, much like a wandering knight in Europe during the age of chivalry.

The Shaolin monks developed the skills they learned to such a high degree that the temple was eventually destroyed by warlords who had developed cannons, because they feared the monks so much. The monks scattered over the rest of China taking their skills with them, teaching them to the people, and to monks at other temples. It was said that a Shaolin monk could disappear from sight, could walk through walls, and fly through the air, and their reputation protected them probably as much as their fighting skills.

In the 1970’s there was a show on TV called Kung Fu, loosely based on a figure in Shaolin history, their greatest warrior, whose name on the show was Kwai Chang Caine. Though subject unfortunately to the occasionally bizarre demands of Hollywood culture, it was nonetheless a relatively accurate representation of how such a monk would have approached the new culture in the United States, and gave a good idea of how effective the skills learned by the monks could be, even against superior forces and weaponry.

When I was first introduced to Kung Fu, it seemed as though all the other arts I had studied became irrelevant. I had graduated from the high-school level of Karate and Aikido to a more advanced university, that started with basics, then led the student into deeper and deeper knowledge, not just of the techniques of fighting and training, but knowledge of both the body and the mind, which are never considered to be separate entities in Chinese culture.

The techniques learned became only a part of what one learns; much of the rest of what is taught was concerned with learning to control one’s mind and spirit. The first lesson was the most important one, and it consists of one concept…..restraint. Simply put, we do not learn these skills to fight, but to grow; to learn how to accept the danger that exists in human society without being paralyzed by fear, allowing one’s higher principles to guide action for the betterment of all creatures.

Learning Kung Fu, as well as the other martial arts I studied, was a seminal part of my own developing philosophy of life, and has been, in my mind, an invaluable tool in my own growth. But learning the arts, as I was later to learn, would have repercussions so powerful, and so all-encompassing, that they would send shock waves of pain and anguish down every step of my path in the world; repercussions that would stay with me for the rest of my life…..

To be continued…….
__________________________________

Well, I kind of feel as if I’ve cheated a little bit, but, given the way I feel physically right now, that’s just too bad, so sad, because it’s done now, and nothing will make me go back and do it over. It will be all I can do to get down to the library to get this posted later, so I’m going to go deal with my physical issues, and hopefully get past them….. I’ll be fine, it’s just miserable for a while, until it all passes…. life goes on…… Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Kowabunga!

gigoid

Ned Moore, aka gigoid, is a 70 year-old, (!!!… When did that happen?….), retired dilettante, who would rather read than eat, most days. His first blog, "gigoid’s folly", has been emailed out to folks he knows for about 18 years now. He still considers it his best defense against angst, and the ever-present specter of sheer insanity..... Due to rigorous curmudgeon training requirements, he has discontinued his Facebook presence, but still indulges in the occasional Twitter session... In essence, he's socialized, but, not overly sociable; all labels and stereotypes are forbidden in his presence... and he doesn't care what anyone thinks about that..... In fact, he doesn't want to talk anymore.... If you feel you MUST contact gigoid, his email address is: alphagigoid@gmail.com You can go read now.... Go on, beat it.... gigoid, the dubious

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