“Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.”
~~ Joseph Campbell ~~
Richmond/San Rafael Bridge from the Bay….
Hajime…. Rather than spending two or three paragraphs detailing the extent of the effort necessary to post today’s Pearl, I’ll merely describe the entire episode as ‘epic’, & let it go at that. After all, the introduction of any type of literature implies some sort of ‘introduction’, not a compendium of gratuitous pandering in solicitation of sympathy. As some BBC show once noted God to have said, “I AM the Supreme Deity, y’know. I’m not entirely dim.” In this case, I’m God, with more insight…. I know, sounds not merely blasphemous, but, arrogant. But, give me a break; it’s early yet.
Oh, right. Introduction. What we have here is a Pearl of Virtual Wisdom, comprised of all the standard parts in the current format. As such, there really isn’t much more to say, so, I’ll let today’s collection of assembled thoughts on Life at Large, as expressed in various venues, speak the rest of our message, such as it may be, for itself…. If you don’t quite follow the dots to a clear picture, no worries; the journey is the thing, not the destination, or, as we are so fond of reminding ourself, especially when we get stuck in the royal we, “the map is NOT the terrain.”
I could add quite a bit more, I suppose, but, the simple truth is, it wouldn’t help, so, from this point, you’re on your own… No surprise there, eh?….
Shall we Pearl?….
“There is nothing like death. To it, everything is a metaphor.”
~~ Subtle Bee ~~
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‘Tula’ ~~ Image from Playing For Change
Today’s music features a talented singer who works with Playing For Change, as a member of their official touring band. I’ve enjoyed hearing her voice for a couple years now, since first stumbling across my first P4C video…. I consider the organization one of the few worthwhile charitable foundations in existence, & contribute to them regularly. I hope you enjoy what you hear, & visit their site, where you can participate in working for peace through music…. Abondanza!….
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Playing For Change Tal Ben Ari (Tula) & Roberto Luti Teach Your Children
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Vague Glimpses of a Rainbow
All the sad notions of propriety had fled,
Screaming their anger for pausing in song,
Until late came the rabid fog, colored in red,
As serenity cried, unafraid to live so strong.
Fallow fields in faithful patience set free,
Dragged from birth, by their own nature cast
Saving each moment against fear yet to be,
Carved into silence, by ignorance held fast.
Historical forces plod slowly ’tis often said
Anxieties streaming stiffly, one epoch to the next.
Cultural mania stands nonchalant in its stead
No sadder epitaph has such bittersweet context.
Patterned bags of forgotten virtue lie in wait
Blessed by reminders whose souls value affinity
Frozen webs surround the fields in gravid state
Grasping passionately within obvious opportunity.
Passage to future realities isn’t guaranteed
Small favors for deities was left off the menu
No roses, nor manna, nor gallant aerial steed
Left traces of fatal, yet originally gracious venue.
~~ gigoid ~~
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Naked Pearls
A few notes on Life at Large….
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“Life is too short to waste
In critic peep or cynic bark,
Quarrel or reprimand:
‘Twill soon be dark;
Up! mind thine own aim, and
God speed the mark!”
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~
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“Only the madman is absolutely sure.”
~~ Robert Anton Wilson ~~
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“One cannot live without inconsistency.”
~~ C. G. Jung ~~
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“When the fox gnaws — smile.”
~~ Lazarus Long ~~
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“I say love, it is a flower; and you, it’s only seed.”
~~ Bette Midler, “The Rose” ~~
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“My skin,
my bones,
my heretic heart
are my authority.”
~~ Catherine Madsen ~~
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“Today is what happened to yesterday.”
~~ Subtle Bee ~~
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Okay, ffolkes; I’m done. As well, it would probably be for the best not to ask. Let’s just keep it simple, & say, see y’all tomorrow. I’d like to think the odds are good, but, then, I’ve been wrong before. Be well, & happy as you may, anyway….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
“Those who live in a land of illusion
are unaware that there IS a land of illusion…”
~~ Hasidic saying ~~
The first clue….
Hajime…. During the recent past, one of the most telling things which my struggles have impressed upon me is this; everything that happens in our reality, whether we are aware of it, or not, is a lesson, & learning to pay attention to what is being taught can be not only important to us, but, critical to any further progress. This lesson, versions of which I now see everywhere, every day, seems to be, perhaps, the most critical to achieving any sort of balance in life…. In short, you snooze, you lose….
Funny how our most compelling truths seem to lend themselves to such brevity of expression, almost as if the universe conspires to make it easy for us, but, laughingly watches as we silly-ass monkeys blow the lesson off, repeatedly, thus making our own pot of insanity in which to boil…. As is patently clear from the picture I’ve chosen to adorn the top today, Leelu is a constant source of opportunity for reality to apply the lesson; damn near every day, she does something to remind me I am not paying enough attention to the moment, having, as usual, gone off somewhere in my head, losing the thread reality spins for us to hold onto, & presenting Murphy with countless opportunities to fuck with me….
Go figure, eh? Just when I thought it was safe to put my head up & look around, the bullets begin to fly…. Thus far today, I’ve lost it twice, & found my way back close to the center only through sheer will power; one more time will probably kick me over the edge. I’d best be careful from this point; if I go over the edge, it’s liable to affect the very fabric of the space-time continuum, as the pressure is enormous. Ah, well, so be it; I seriously doubt reality would suffer much, though a number of the local denizens would be inadvertently troubled by a feeling of doom. Like all of us, they’ll just have to learn to live with the ambiguity.
As for me, I’m busy, jealously guarding what remnants of rationality I can keep in one place; I’m hoping to find enough of it to make it through to full daylight; with some light on the subject, there’s a small chance I can pull it all back into line. If not, well, so much for another day, eh? I’m old enough now to be relatively fatalistic about anything that might happen, so, in essence, it all breaks even. Let’s hope, given the status of the rest of reality, as on the edge of insanity, rapidly turning into a headlong rush to total psychosis, we can find a reason compelling enough to make an effort to resist. For now, let’s go see what the rest of today’s mess can do to help find such a reason. Watch that bottom step….
Shall we Pearl?
“If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway.”
~~ Murphy’s Fifth Law ~~
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My day began badly, (my own fault); to repair the damage, this is what I put on the speakers, as I knew it would bring me closer to serenity than anything else I might try…. I hope you enjoy it as well….
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Complete Violin Concertos
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Unheralded Sagacity…
To many, who will not see beyond their nose
the world becomes a dangerous place,
a bullet in every gun, a thorn with every rose,
no magic comes to save us, reality leaves no trace.
Minds closed, wrapped tight in manufactured fears,
men become clay, easily molded into complacent form.
No chains needed, held in thrall for years,
lies become gospel, when dishonesty is the norm.
Shed the chains you wear in durance, in kind;
Oh, ye of little faith, and much doubt
Strength is found in an unfettered mind,
Cry “freedom” with a great shout.
No help from any gods can hinder so much
as our own lack of confidence;
finding the light within, knowing it as such
confirms us, becoming consequence.
Illumination…..
~~ gigoid ~~
4/17/2013
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Naked Pearls
Notes on Process & Program….
*******
“Let him that would move the world, first move himself.”
~~ Socrates ~~
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“Unknowingly, we plow the dust of stars,
blown about us by the wind,
and drink the universe in a glass of rain.”
~~ Ihab Hassan ~~
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“Just by choosing where you stand,
You alter your destiny.”
~~ Deng Ming-Dao ~~
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“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare;
it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”
~~ Lucius Anneaus Seneca ~~
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“A duty dodged is like a debt unpaid;
it is only deferred, and we must come back
and settle the account at last.”
~~ Joseph F. Newton ~~
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“A man’s work is nothing
but this slow trek to rediscover,
through the detours of art,
those two or three great and simple images
in whose presence his heart first opened.”
~~ Albert Camus ~~
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“I say love, it is a flower; and you, it’s only seed.”
~~ Bette Midler, “The Rose” ~~
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I offer no apologies; I make no excuses. It’s done, and, that is, perhaps, the most one can say of it. Saying more would just be cruel, & that is against our policies, not to mention being downright rude. See, even nonsense is beyond me. I’m outta here, before I make a bigger fool of myself than I’ve already managed. See y’all again, ffolkes, if I can find my way back…. Odds are about even, I’d say….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
“The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear.”
~~ Mohandas K., ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi ~~
I know I left it in here….
Hajime…. To say so may engender comments, or, at least, the general impression, that my curmudgeon status is in full force, but, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of discomfort and chagrin for much of yesterday, as I observed a large portion of humanity celebrating their particular form of madness, in the form of a paroxysm of common delusion, sharing the apparent unconscious joy of surrendering their rationality for a promise of supernatural intervention after they die. I suppose it is only fitting to also observe a world on the brink of a nuclear holocaust, as those most lacking in rationality lead the mass of their unwitting accomplices to extinction….
But, nonetheless, that’s the way I see it, & it wouldn’t be honest to not say so. Regardless of anyone’s beliefs, reality has come to a cusp for our species, & I can’t see much, or, for that matter, any evidence we will alter our rush to our own demise, for there are not nearly enough of us who can see the problem we face, or help the rest realize their failure to reason. Moreover, though it is difficult to accept, there is little reason to think reality will allow us to deny our own nature any longer, but, will assert its prerogatives in a way we will have no choice but to accede. In short, we’re pretty well up the creek, and there’s no paddle in sight.
Rather than dwell on that which I cannot personally change, I think I’ll just put together a Pearl, with some of what I see, and can guess, as some of the elements; this, while not likely to cause anyone to turn activist, or reformer, or any other possibly helpful state of mind, will have the simple effect of keeping me from hurrying anyone along the path we are already treading; I have to keep reminding myself it isn’t my job, or, my destiny, to fix anything; it’s only my task to observe, and report. So be it. It may not be the most ethical path, but, ’tis the one I can choose without abandoning all I know to be true….
That’s a bit cryptic, & possibly depressing, as well, but, such is life, sometimes. Wait a minute! What’s this?
A gray, bent old man just appeared; he’s wandering about the room, touching my stuff, & giggling to himself, somewhat madly….. Suddenly, he says, “Don’t you have something you’re supposed to be doing?”…. SIGH…. He’s right, so, we’ll go ahead, now, & just do it…..
Shall we Pearl?
“You can’t get wet from the word ‘water’.”
~~ Alan Watts ~~
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I’m in the mood for some old-time rock & roll, & for a blog that posts Pearls, what better music to turn to than that of this lady? She was, after all, known for a time as ‘Pearl’….. The video I’ve included is part of a collection of most of her live concert videos…. Enjoy, ffolkes; Janis had a voice that arrowed straight into the bones, & made itself felt….
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Janis Joplin Live
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Augmentation: Inner Aye
Distant, peals of thunder, vividly.
Closer, a patter of rain, falling gravidly.
Between the light and the darkness of fear
find merely the remnants of one lonely tear.
Do not hate us, though we have not sinned;
eager for courage, upon whom all hope is pinned.
Tales of insolence, hatred, or fallen virtue
fill us up, not down, in such pristine foreign venue.
Capable hands severed, able hands tied;
the future is angry, all but now denied.
Multiple times, warnings sounded across the pale
nobody heard, nobody came to tell the tale.
Gifted by time, salience fails in epic rhyme;
watchmakers watching, each a separate crime.
Logical solutions refuse to emulsify
forever pretending to cruelly crucify.
Blood will fly alongside pertinent composure,
never seeking, never finding tea, or closure.
Falsely laid trails on mountains of gold
imply no happy endings, no fortunes told.
Ages past have no time for repetition;
further chances only lead to perdition.
Destiny feels a shameful portion of guilt,
for a thousand sand castles, never built.
~~ gigoid ~~
3/2/2016
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Naked Pearls
Notes on Transcendence….
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“It’s that moment of dawning comprehension I live for.”
~~ Hobbes ~~
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“In order to make an apple pie from scratch,
you must first create the universe.”
~~ Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” ~~
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“Never let the future disturb you.
You will meet it, if you have to,
with the same weapons of reason
which today arm you against the present.”
~~ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ~~
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“I say love, it is a flower; and you, it’s only seed.”
~~ Bette Midler. “The Rose” ~~
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“Education is an admirable thing,
but it is well to remember from time to time
that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”
~~ Oscar Wilde ~~
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“Time present and time past
are both perhaps present in time future.
What might have been and what is
all point to the same end,
that which is always present.”
~~ T.S. Eliot, “Burnt Norton” ~~
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“You only live twice:
Once when you’re born,
Once when you look death in the face.”
~~ Ian Fleming ~~
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Well, it’s done, in spite of having to resort to literary trickery, just to free ourselves from the burgeoning rant in the intro section. All the elements are present, so, we’ll go ahead & post this, just as if it were worthy. I’ll make it a point to try again, perhaps tomorrow…. Until then, y’all be careful out there, & stay alert. Things are becoming even more strange than we can imagine….. Imagine what THAT is going to be like, if you dare….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
“To be willing to die for an ideal is to set a rather high price on conjecture.”
— Anatole France ~~
B&B, Galway Bay, Ireland…
Hajime…. Yesterday morning, I tried to update a program that was asking me to do so. This, apparently, was a mistake, for ever since clicking the button to agree, my computer has been giving me fits. Long story made short, it’s still doing so. To keep from becoming any more pissed off than I’ve already managed thus far, I’m cutting the intro short, filling in where necessary to complete the parts of today’s post, and getting on with the rest of the day, which will, I imagine, involve a lot of geeking to try to bring the computer back into full functionality. Usually, that’s great fun for me, but, so far, it hasn’t been, as all I’ve done seems to have worsened the problem, as yet unidentified…. SIGH…. damn Microsoft!…
As noted above, this will be short. How short? Precisely this short….
Shall we Pearl?
“Always we hope
Someone else has the answer
Some other place will be better
Some other time it will all work out.
This is it.
No one else has the answer
No other place will be better
And it has already turned out.
At the center of your being
You have the answer;
You know who you are and what you want.
There is no need to turn outside
For better seeing.
Rather abide at the center of your being
For the more you leave it
The less you learn.
Search your own heart and see
the way to do is to be.”
~~ Lao Tzu ~~
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☬
From 6/9/11:
Ffolkes,
Since Frank and Ernie couldn’t make it today, you’ll have to settle for my drivel. Of course, it isn’t drivel to me, but that’s subjective, and you are under no obligation, either expressed or by warranty, to consider it anything more than dross. Defining what happens here could be problematic anyway,and we don’t really want to get the lawyers involved, now do we? I didn’t think so….. Now that’s settled, we can get on to what really matters. And that is nothing! Nothing matters, and if it did, we wouldn’t care! We are invincible in our ignorance, and we like it! Life is way too complicated to get involved in it; I’ve decided to just ignore the whole ball of wax. Taking up the mantle of recluse gladly, I go now to dwell among the beasts of the field, who shall be my only companions.
Enough…..letting my mind loose this early in the morning can get out of hand quickly; last time I ended up in some dive in MexiCali, with a bad hangover and a new tattoo. We’d best get down to business before anything similar happens.
Oscar Wilde is one of my favorite historical figures, and ends up on these pages fairly frequently, because he had a unique view of the world at large, and a wonderful way of expressing that view. Today, we present an all-Oscar group, just because he’s so cool……..
“Reality is a crutch for people who can’t handle buttons.” — Smarmy Bee (Whoops, how did that get there?……oh well, just go on….pay no attention to that man behind the curtain…..)
“I suppose there are now few survivors among the people who had the delight of hearing Oscar Wilde talk. Of these I am one… That his talk was mostly monologue was not his own fault. His manners were very good; he was careful to give his guests or his fellow-guests many a conversational opening; but seldom did anyone respond with more than a very few words. Nobody was willing to interrupt the music of so magnificent a virtuoso. To have heard him consoles me for not having heard Dr Johnson or Edmund Burke.” — Max Beerbohm
“The basis for optimism is sheer terror.” — Oscar Wilde
“I can believe anything, provided it is incredible.” — Oscar Wilde
“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.” — Oscar Wilde
After the first night of one of Oscar Wilde plays, an ill-wisher handed him a cabbage. Unruffled, Wilde sniffed it appreciatively and said: “Thank you, my dear fellow. Every time I smell it, I shall be reminded of you.”
“Long engagements give people the opportunity of finding out each other’s character before marriage, which is never advisable.” — Oscar Wilde
“Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing.” — Oscar Wilde
“Experience is the name that everyone gives to their mistakes.” — Oscar Wilde
“Bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others.” — Oscar Wilde
Whoa! I didn’t realize how many of his gems I had stored away…..but hey, well worth it. I only wish I could have been around to hear him hold forth……. y’all take care out there….
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Due to the aforementioned computer issues, we’re going with default where necessary. It turns out, necessary extends into nearly every function I ask it to complete. Hence, our choice today to include another collection of classical tunes. Enjoy!….
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Classical Music
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Unbidden, treasure unfolded…
Taken by surprise, Psyche sits numb
Amidst tall phrases worn of elder time
Seeking a not-new place from which to come
No shiny new horizon, nor altered paradigm.
Sudden regrets shape dreams as times maintain
Shades of memories bring poignant clear sight
Visions of duty, each chosen wild campaign
Shouts echoing clamors to enfold the night.
Arisen from less than eternal havens of sleep
Facing moments created in torment and pain
Destiny weighs upon those chosen to keep
As the sparrow flies now to sever the twain.
Faded pathways lead away, hazy and long
Burned out verges, so long unknown
Images of yesterday, clear and strong
Bleed into today, though ’tis but my own……
~~ gigoid ~~
6/13/2012
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Thanks to the computer issues of which we have already spoken, Smart Bee, and Arthur, too, are being persnickety, to the point of obtuseness. To keep us on track, it became necessary to raid old Pearls for today’s post. Here is one from WAY back in time, before I had a clue how to deal with WP…. I’ve edited it a bit, just to format it into the current motif. I hope you enjoy it, cuz it’s what there is today….
☬
From 6/8/11:
Ffolkes,
The morning light pours over the far hills, warming air gone still in the night’s cold, with amber drops of dew glistening along the branches of awakening trees, gilding the edges of the day. Birdsong trills, insects hum, as a meandering brook winds through the forest, rushing along in its’ desperate race to the sea. The water babbles as it moves, all the voices blending together into a continuous stream of just-unheard secrets, gravid with meaning. The air begins to move, heated by the burgeoning warmth to swirl through the leaves, adding its’own thoughts, dreams to the chorus thus formed. Thus does the world turn, unheralded, implacable, real. Thus is another pearl born; ask me not how, or why, for I no longer know. Knowing I must is all I know, or need to know….
“If you want to know all about the sea, you go and ask a sailor, or a marine biologist, or an oceanographer, and they can tell you a lot about the sea. But if you go and ask the sea itself, what does it say? Grumble, grumble, swish swish. It is too busy being itself to know anything about itself.” — Ursula K. LeGuin
Leave the past behind;
leave the future behind;
leave the present behind.
Thou are then ready to go to the other shore.
Never more shalt thou return to a life that ends in death.
~~ The Dhamapada (c. B.C. 300) ~~
“It is the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance.
It is the dream afraid of waking
that never takes a chance.
It is the one who won’t be taken
who cannot seem to give.
And the soul afraid of dying
that never learns to live.”
~~ Bette Midler, “The Rose” ~~
“I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be “happy.” I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.” — Leo C. Rosten
It may not be Art, but it is Frank, and Earnest….. y’all take care out there…..
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Well, I did it, though I couldn’t say exactly how it happened. I’ll take it, though, and run. Hopefully, I’ll have a successful day in geekland, which will allow us to return tomorrow, when I will have a new, freshly leaked poem, and whatever else I can cobble together to make up the rest of this mess. For now, I’m outta here, & off to geekland…. See ya, ffolkes; wish me luck, if you will… If you won’t, well, so be it…. Ta, then….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
“For one human being to love another human being:
that is perhaps the most difficult task
that has been entrusted to us,
the ultimate task, the final test and proof,
the work for which all other work
is merely preparation.”
~~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~~
Reluctantly poised….
Hajime…. We humans are weird. While such a statement could be construed as critical, in this case, it is more of an observation, based on personal experience. To fully comprehend the depth and meaning would require more time than I’m willing to spend today, so, y’all will once more have to deal with any disappointment on your own, cuz I ain’t talkin’…. Don’t worry, it’s nothing untoward, merely, well, weird, and it won’t delay the production of today’s Pearl any more than it already has with this paragraph.
Of course, this means we don’t have anything more to put here in the intro, a not unusual conundrum. One might think, after two days of sloughing off the work, I’d be a bit more organized, but, then, thinking can often lead to inaccurate conclusions, especially when the subject matter, i.e., me, is rather an ambiguous figure, to say the least. If we said more than the least, we could be sued rather heavily, which is why we never do. And, yes, we have now devolved, rather suddenly, I might add, into complete blather & nonsense. It’s our default when we are thus challenged, as you may remember.
Our Pearl today will be okay, anyway. I finally put together a decent rant, stimulated by, of all things, a question somebody asked me on Facebook. The rest is pretty standard, and, if I don’t get started putting it together, it won’t get done. To make that happen, I’ll end this now, here, so there won’t be any further forays into the outer reaches. Hell, at this point, I’m thinking, if I don’t do this right now, the end results will be completely unpredictable, never a good thing for us….. Let’s just get the hell out of here, while we can….
Shall we pearl?….
“By definition, when you are investigating the unknown,
you do not know what you will find.”
~~ The Ultimate Principle ~~
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Herself, Ms. Raitt
Some days, it’s just got to be the best. Here’s a session I haven’t heard yet, so, let’s have a listen, shall we?….
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Bonnie Raitt BBC Four Sessions
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“I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind.”
~~ Antoine de Saint Exupery ~~
In the most recent months, my thoughts have begun crystallizing, in a large sense. By ‘large’, I refer to Life at Large, the panorama of human experience on Planet Earth, in all its hideously insane, yet, somehow, vividly fascinating glory. In a cosmic sense, we humans haven’t been around very long; it’s only been about 10 or so thousand years since we left off living on the land full time, without the civilizing (?) influence of writing, gunpowder, and the concept of religion. (Thank you to Tom Carlyle…). Yet, in that minuscule portion of close to five billion years of known Universal history, we have come to the rather grandiose opinion we are the pinnacle of the whole shebang, the highest form of life as we know it, with all the attendant privileges and rights, whatever we conceive those to be.
So, here we are, a motley, unrestrictedly reproductive organism, in season all year round, barely past the time of sleeping on soft leaves in a cave lit by torches, wandering over the face of the planet, even probing our proboscis’ all over the solar system, in our search for new places to fuck. By ‘fuck’ I mean fuck in all its incarnations. We are always looking to fuck; each other, other species, the environment, space/time, biologic creation, the physical universe, the moon, other planets, etc. We want to fuck with, around, on, and up against damn near everything we encounter, from dirt, to atoms, to practically anything our wicked, inventive imaginations can think of, and/or turn into reality….
See, that’s our problem, too. We can’t seem to stop ourselves for any appreciable time from fucking with everything, yet, our overactive, innovative imagination is too powerful for us to keep up with, being the simple animals we really still are, in terms of our nervous systems, perceptive and cognitive abilities, and, some of our physical characteristics, which, in and of themselves, can override any of the other talents/abilities/natural characteristics we may possess. For example, certain smells can literally stop your entire metabolism, instantly creating urges to run, vomit, scream, or otherwise indicate systemic panic; the same can happen with a subliminal perception, which, under given circumstances, can send the bravest, strongest human running in terror, without even knowing why they have panicked.
But, we think we are so cool; Terry Pratchett, I think, described it well when he accused us of being so primitive we still thought digital watches were cool. In truth, we are simply out of our depths, for the most part, though it may seem otherwise, if you listen to TV, or, mostly, anyone else who has an opinion. The only REAL truths we now can depend on are the ones we find within our selves, for everything in the world we have created around us is based on false data and conclusions, which, in the face of their relation to actual physical reality, become delusional, and thus, dangerous to us.
One of the most commonly notions regarding human nature is our Ego, which I have capitalized, for that is how it affects us. However, to promote a more productive frame of mind I have found to be of value, I will forgo further capitalization, to encourage each one reading to devalue the importance of how ego drives your bus, so to speak…. You see, we are more than merely a mind, or, and ego. In fact, the ego may only be a hallucination, as some philosophers AND neuroscientists have suggested. Our existence is also greatly affected, in reality, by physical forces, not all of which we directly perceive, and, by spiritual forces, which are also not necessarily easily identified. Yet, each of those two forces, physical, and spiritual, can instantly assume greater significance than anything our mind perceives, up to and including the potential loss of life…
For example, in the physical world, there are many forces we don’t perceive directly; magnetic, gravitational (other than as motion induced by its presence), certain wavelengths of light and electromagnetic, and, others we can only perceive by instruments. Any of these, sufficiently strong, can be dangerous to us. Spiritually, who can deny the power of what happens to us under the influence of love? Or fear of losing love? There are also many spiritual/emotional forces in our makeup we don’t perceive, or comprehend at all….
However, the ego, due to its own nature as part of us, believes in itself so strongly, it acts as if none of that is anything it cannot overcome to achieve its own ends…. To my current way of thinking, this is a bit grandiose, given our history of success at making reality do what we want. Yes, we have made great technological advances, but, none of them have improved the human condition a whit, and, in fact, are now becoming a danger to the entire species, by continuing to treat the universe as its own toy…. simply because we deny our own nature, which remains divided, unaware of the potential progress to be made by ‘merging the three parts…. which, in truth are but two, the mental and the physical; the spirit is the bridge between them, upon which we refuse to walk…
This discussion was provoked by an exchange I had on Facebook yesterday, prompted by a not unusually provocative statement by a friend (Red, the Fabulous), who is, in my estimation, one of the five smartest people alive. And, yes, I know y’all might think that’s hyperbole, but, it isn’t. In any case, the following exchange took place, which I reproduce now because it is a fine summary of all I’m trying to say here today, in just a few lines…. To wit:
Red: “I want to live in a world where people know how to merge. ”
Me: “If you’re talking traffic, you;re dreaming. If you’re talking life, well, it might be some time yet… *wink* ”
Red: “Yes.”
T.C: “Physically, mentally or spiritually? ”
Me: “They are all three the same exact thing; our inability to ‘merge’ them is a big part of all the troubles you see in the world… I, too, would like to live in such a world, in which we all could look past our ego’s need to divide them, and us… ”
That’s the word I needed… divided. We have a divided nature. It’s natural, in a universe that exists in duality. But, we let one part of our nature overmaster the rest of what the universe has to tell us; by doing so, we create our own inner conflict, which is reflected into the society we have created. Until we learn to ‘merge’ the different parts of our nature, to see the connections there are in life, then we will remain separated, from ourselves, from each other, and from our own universe. In doing so, we condemn ourselves to our only real hell, which is living disconnected from life…. and the love that is possible when we are part of everything…
Serendipitously, I have already shown the exactly right pearl with which this discussion should be closed… Here, then, is the correct path, as indicated by, naturally, a poet….
“For one human being to love another human being:
that is perhaps the most difficult task
that has been entrusted to us,
the ultimate task, the final test and proof,
the work for which all other work
is merely preparation.”
~~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~~
********************************
A Failure to Germinate
Marking the days in elements of sad disarray
only holds me thrall, as I laugh while I may.
With cold, hard hands so impatient and cruel
pulling me to this vale of tears, a pathetic old fool.
Feelings sit silent, cast in shadows and light
breaking forth to implicate such vengeful might.
Just below the surface they patiently hide
to sally forth bravely, colors bright as they ride.
Tears and pain transform valued assets in hand
while comfort and serenity retreat to a far land.
Bold, bright patterns of hope garnish my ruinous state
until reality enters, full of disdainful portions of hate.
I sort out the illustrious measures of vision gone mild
only to find them transformed, now vicious and wild.
In my deepest desires I find myself calloused and cold
with faithless advocates whose souls have been sold.
My search finds little to support any hope of relief
far too much time has passed to bolster such belief.
The sad becomes real, and real becomes unfounded
until flights of such fancy are all dead, and grounded.
Nature has informed me of the newly hatched crime
of which reality boasted proudly, time after time.
The last answer we think of is always the best
as we come to terms with fate, our hope at rest.
~~ gigoid ~~
9/27/2012
********************************
I couldn’t, in good conscience, call this one a Naked Pearl grouping; it’s just too odd. It starts oddly, ends oddly, and uses an odd path to get where it ends up. The best I can call it is to say it’s a random harlequin pearl, and let it go at that…. For one thrown together in jig time, it’s really not bad…. Enjoy!…
*******
“To be, or what?”
~~ Sylvester Stallone ~~
*******
“There’s no easy quick way out,
we’re gonna have to live through our whole lives,
win, lose, or draw.”
~~ Walt Kelly ~~
*******
“Self-improvement is a dangerous form of vanity.”
~~ Alan Watts ~~
*******
But where shall I start?
The world is so fast, I shall start with the country I know best, my own.
But my country is so very large, I had better start with my town.
But my town, too, is large. I had best start with my street.
No, my home.
No, my family.
Never mind,
I shall start with myself.”
~~ Elie Wiesel ~~
*******
“Depend not on fortune, but on conduct.”
~~ Publius Syrus ~~
*******
It is the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance.
It is the dream afraid of waking
that never takes a chance.
It is the one who won’t be taken
who cannot seem to give.
And the soul afraid of dying
that never learns to live.”
~~ Bette Midler, The Rose ~~
*******
“A child of five would understand this.
Send someone to fetch a child of five.”
~~ Groucho Marx ~~
*******
********************************
This is pretty late getting done, compared to our usual time to post; oh, well. Such is life in the fast lane, ffolkes, so, we may as well just deal, and get on with the day. Hopefully, this will help make that go better than it otherwise might. Then again, perhaps not. Time will tell, as it always does, the mouthy bastard. I, personally, shall merely say, see y’all tomorrow…. and, that’s all the warning you’ll get….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
“The fact that we are human beings is infinitely more important
than all the peculiarities
that distinguish human beings from one another.”
~~ Simone de Beauvoir, “The Second Sex” ~~
Guarding the entrance to Cobh/Cork Port
Hajime…. To this point in the day, I have, in the hour and a half since arising, spoken to a friend in Europe, played extensively with Leelu, performed numerous morning ablutions, and, finally, stared bemusedly at this blank screen for a solid ten minutes, trying desperately to find something worthwhile to say. Since, clearly, I’ve had no luck in that regard, I decided to just start typing, to see what came out; what you see is what I’ve got. That particular piece of cyber-slang, i.e., wysiwyg, seems to be cropping up a lot here in the intro, doesn’t it? Go figure….
I suppose, if I were the type of person who was able to slough off responsibilities I’ve assumed, I could just slip in some sort of template; sadly, no such template exists, and I don’t feel like creating one. I’ve often thought of doing so; it would certainly make this process easier if I made it a form I just filled in each morning. But it’s just too much like giving in to expediency, something I swore not to employ in my life, or my work, without dire need. No such need exists, so, that’s off the table, along with almost every other method which might be of that sort of help. That kind of help I can do without….
Instead, I’ll turn to outright honesty, as you see, by admitting I’ve got nothing today. Don’t know why, as I’m rested, and I’ve already proved, at least to myself, my mind is adequately alert to begin the day. It will just have to do; as y’all know, around here, we’re firm believers in “all you can do is all you can do….”; today, this is all I can do. So be it….
Shall we Pearl?….
“There can be no black melancholy
to him who lives in the midst of nature and has his own senses still.”
I tried to find a live concert of this band, but, none I checked out had very good sound. Instead, here is an audio version, in video format, of the album of their best hits…. This is country music at its very best, as far as I am concerned…. Enjoy!….
“Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, since they can be fulfilled only through man’s subordination. Anarchism is therefore the teacher of the unity of life; not merely in nature, but in man.” — Emma Goldman “Anarchism: What It Really Stands For”
I was going to rant, using the above as a starting point. However, as I sat here, contemplating the breadth and depth of what is contained in the words, I became convinced any words from me would merely confuse the issue. As far as I can tell, this says it all; there’s very little I could add to make it clearer than it already appears. To show I CAN be a nice guy, that’s all you get.
Think about it, ffolkes. Humans, as they exist, are natural anarchists; we don’t do well with too much order. It’s too artificial, because the universe isn’t built that way…. Chaos and order coexist, side by side, connected, and we are merely a 3D representation of that quality…. THAT is something about which it would be well to have faith, for it is as much a part of you as water….
********************************
Early Observations
Until I knew there was more,
I wanted to know God.
They said he was a nice guy,
and would let me live forever.
All I had to do, they said,
was live my life for Him,
always living by scripture
cleaving only to his Way.
But, everyone I saw in church,
acted different at home.
Living wild, cussin’ and fussin’,
nobody lived like they said.
Still, I tried to be like Jesus,
he was sort of cool.
He never hurt nobody
and walked on the right path.
‘Course they killed him for that,
they couldn’t stand his example.
Turned him into a martyr,
hid his real words among their own.
Then I found the Buddha,
and met Lao Tzu at the gate.
They saw things real different,
showed me how to see straight.
Right thought, and right action
replace blind obedience and faith.
Reality becomes manageable,
fear retreats, the universe expands.
Brother John said it pretty well,
“Imagine there’s no heaven,
it’s easy if you try.”
Sounds like he knew why.
Day to day, life is grand,
we walk in eternal beauty.
Open your eyes and hearts,
find yourself already immortal.
~~ gigoid ~~
5/12/2013
********************************
Naked Pearls
Notes on Life at Large
*******
“We cannot put off living until we are ready.
The most salient characteristic of life is its coerciveness;
it is always urgent, here and now,
without any possible postponement.
Life is fired at us point blank.”
~~ Ortega y Gasset ~~
*******
“All is mystery;
but he is a slave
who will not struggle
to penetrate the dark veil.”
~~ Benjamin Disraeli ~~
*******
“It is the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance.
It is the dream afraid of waking
that never takes a chance.
It is the one who won’t be taken
who cannot seem to give.
And the soul afraid of dying
that never learns to live.”
~~ Bette Midler, The Rose ~~
*******
“I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over.
Out on the edge, you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”
~~ Kurt Vonnegut ~~
*******
“The higher we soar, the smaller we seem to those who cannot fly”
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~~
*******
“There is nothing more notable in Socrates
than that he found time, when he was an old man,
to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.”
~~ Michel de Montaigne ~~
*******
“To see the world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.”
~~ William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence” ~~
*******
********************************
There are days it is advantageous to NOT examine either the process, or the results of the process, too closely, lest it fall apart right before my eyes. Today is such a day. It’s done, but, we aren’t going to ask how, or why, or anything else. We are merely going to bid y’all a fond farewell, until tomorrow, when, by gosh and by golly, we’ll do this again. Hey, why the hell not?…. See ya, ffolkes….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
Hajime…. Our Pearl today is a bit of a poser for me, but, I decided that won’t stop us, not today. I’m going to visit my grandson, and I am determined nothing will get in the way of that. I am so focused on that, I’m going to give y’all an unprecedented opening, as short as I can make it. Today, literally, what you see is what you get, because I’m flipping the switch on our most radically efficient Tardis toy, right now. I’d hold on if I were you….
Shall we Pearl?….
“At the root of human responsibility is the concept of perfection, the urge to achieve it, the intelligence to find a path toward it, and the will to follow that path, if not to the end at least the distance needed to rise above individual limitations and environmental impediments.” — Aung San Suu Kyi
********************************
Johann Sebastian Bach Image from openculture.com via Google Images
I decided yesterday I wanted something inspiring, classical, and new to this venue. I don’t believe I’ve used these, but, if I have, I shall expect y’all to respect my privacy, and say nothing about that. I’ll return the favor in the foreseeable future…. Right. Regardless of all that, I think you’ll enjoy these; a lot of people think they’re pretty special, myself included…. Enjoy!..
The fresh rant upon which I’ve been working continues to morph on me, so, we go once again to the archives, this time for another in our long series of indictments of the Dogma Dogs and their millennia-long deception, for which they will forever be damned, according to their own morality, what little of it exists… Deluded assholes, insisting on sharing their delusion with others, to our mutual denigration…. Enjoy!…. Or, not, up to you, as always….
From 11/24/2012:
“Happy is he who dashes the heads of his enemy’s children against rocks.” — Psalms 137:9
I don’t know about you, but that kind of strikes me as a little harsh, don’t you think? I mean, talk about exploring the deepest depths of evil possible to the soul of man! And we thought that our modern rock and rap lyrics were funky?….. Rappers get pretty nasty, but I haven’t heard this degree of nasty from anyone on the radio…. yet…. Not that I haven’t heard some egregious BS, but nothing so graphic and personal as this little song from the priests of Judaism…. fine upstanding fellows that they are…. NOT!!
First, I have to say, I hope this is a sham, or at the very least, a misquote. If it is an accurate reprint from that Psalm, well, it indicates a number of things to me, some about the past, some about the present…. Mostly, though, when I read it, I get a horrible visual image in my mind’s eye of some grinning moron holding a baby by the ankle, and….. no, I’m not going there, even for the writing practice…. I guess I’m a coward, if that means I’d have to continue to make graphic a concept that should never ever have even occurred to anyone, much less been written down….
What was the purpose of this, I wonder? As a teaching song? As a victory hymn? From an Old Testament version of the 3 Stooges? I’m not even sure I want to know that much about it, come to think of it…. It kind of makes one wonder, what kind of culture would have such a concept as a part of its morality…. but, sadly, through most of human history, if I’m not mistaken, acts like this, and others just as egregiously violent and cruel, have occurred over and over, and continue to do so today in some parts of the world, where civilization is only a thin veneer over the native cultures.
Our own society shows signs of the kind of culture that would grow out of such concepts, a sort of casual attitude about violence when aimed at an objectified enemy. The less humanity we ascribe to those enemies, the easier it is to perform inhumane acts against them…. Just another of the charming traits of which our species may boast….. It fits right in with our tendency to react with anger to fear, and with our tendency to act violently to achieve our ends. Sometimes, it’s enough to make me wonder how we got as far as we have down the evolutionary path.
“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau
This concept is probably what has saved us, at least to this point. We are indeed creatures of a dual nature, reflecting the duality of existence in which we live, and perceive in the universe. The light to our dark side, our saving grace, are these elements of compassion and empathy that we can also display, given the right circumstance and opportunity. The Dalai Lama, who has been known to show some rather deep wisdom, has said that compassion and kindness are his entire religion, and that mankind cannot survive without living according to the precepts of such characteristics. I happen to believe he is most likely correct.
The attitudes that that Old Testament culture created and sent crashing through Time are bound to lead us to extinction, for they completely ignore the laws of nature. Our own greed and unwillingness to accept our own place in nature will remove us from this life, as surely as we are stripping the earth of its material resources in our search for wealth and power. None of the people involved in that effort to achieve power are either aware of, or willing to consider, their own complicity and guilt, and will fight to their own death to preserve their assumed right to oppress the rest of reality in their personal quest for domination.
The sad part is that they are taking the rest of us with them down that road…. and it is all because basically, deep down where it counts the most, a lot of people are, quite simply, assholes….. Quite frankly, the universe will be better off without the great majority of them. It’s a shame all the good ffolkes have to pay the same price, isn’t it?…… Ah well…..
“May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you’re dead” — An Irish toast
********************************
Fatal Supplication
But what becomes of our deepest dangerous dreams?
Does fantasy rescue any part of life’s imperiled favor?
Reality becomes but silvery pairs of mismatched teams,
Dining with affable elegance, such diffident waste to savor.
Who decides what sorrows to carry bravely to term?
Will fragrant moments of sanity make hasty manifestation?
Only Time’s patient mutability sends messages so firm,
Yet salient impersonal vexation lends credence to ripe imagination.
Can folly bring out sadness and rampant visions of beauty?
What kindness can be found in distant open relations?
With countless faces the dead disturb with dire impunity,
From separate caches of wisdom come simple stylish privations.
Shall shallow emotion serve to provide such explanations?
When does avaricious intensity assume primary focus?
Plain answers slide softly through with multiple mitigations,
While conceptually indignant concepts engage a fatally personal locus.
~~ gigoid ~~
9/20/2012
********************************
Our final pearl for today is a collection of nine most excellent gems of brilliant luster, all speaking in a general way of Life at Large, with an ample portion of Things We All Should Know, But Often Forget. There’s also a bit of Things You May Never Have Considered, which provide just the proper bit of spice to liven it up. All in all, it’s a damn good pearl, so, pay attention. There might just be something you need….
“We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse.” — Bumper Sticker
“We’re not talking about the same thing,” he said. “For you the world is weird because if you’re not bored with it you’re at odds with it. For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must accept responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.” — Don Juan
“At ebb tide I wrote a line upon the sand, and gave it all my heart and all my soul. At flood tide I returned to read what I had inscribed and found my ignorance upon the shore.” — Kahlil Gibran
“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” — Oscar Wilde
“Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.” — Voltaire
“Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses. Love is content with the present, it hopes for the future, and it does not brood over the past. It’s the day-in and day-out chronicle of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories and working toward common goals. If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things that are missing. If you don’t have love in your life, no matter what else there is, it’s not enough.” — Ann Landers
“I say love, it is a flower; and you, it’s only seed.” — (Bette Midler) The Rose
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” — Muir’s Law– John Muir, American Naturalist — My First Summer in the Sierra , 1911, page 110.
“You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything. So I thought, once. So did we all. And the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he _must_ do.” — Ursula K. LeGuin, “A Wizard of Earthsea”
********************************
“Heaven doesn’t want me and Hell’s afraid I’ll take over….”
~~ gigoid ~~
How do you like the latest incarnation of our newest innovation, to wit: a final, closing pearl upon which to set loose my final creative urges, whatever they may be? I have yet to make a final judgment on whether to continue, but, today’s version is one I like. I found the above statement without attribution; not surprising, as I’ve heard it many times for most of my life. Since it fits my persona so well, I thought I’d just claim it for today, without any intent to harm, with merely the desire to be silly, and, perhaps, eke out one final chuckle from the Gentle Reader…. Without knowing how it will work, I’ll make my escape, with the usual caveat; I’ll be back tomorrow to try again…. See ya….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
Hajime…. For reasons which shall remain mysterious, today’s intro will set a new record for brevity. To do so, I’ll need to dump y’all off at the oyster beds rather abruptly; it can’t be helped. To keep to the plan, this is all you get…. I know, a pain, but, needs must, Mr. Windigate, so, we’re outta here….
Shall we Pearl?….
“If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.”
~~ Marcus Aurelius ~~
********************************
Star Trek: Renegades Image from startreknews.net via Google Images
When the internet became ubiquitous, an internet version of Star Trek began to show up online, in movies an episodes made by various fans. This movie is one of those released last year some time, and lives up to all its history…. Enjoy!…. Oh, and, there are more on the You Tube page where this resides….
I got nothin’ today…. Here is a discussion of politics from 2013, with a short rant from 2012….. It’s all still valid information, only, now, it’s worse by a factor of about 4…..
From 4/18/2013:
To attempt to soothe the ruffled feathers of my friend who wants me to rant, I give you now a rant from 2012, post-election category…. It kind of fits in with the morality play above…. sort of, maybe…. any who, enjoy…..
“Integrity is when what you say, what you do, what you think, and who you ARE all come from the same place.” — Madelyn Griffith-Haynie
Okay, I know we are all probably sick to death of politics, and the election, and everyone would like to have a break from talking and thinking about it….. I know I am. So, I’ll try to make this fairly short, and make it the last political diatribe for at least a day or two. It may be possible, if nothing in the news jumps up to stimulate my outrage (which may be on a short vacation itself….. I hope. I could do with the emotional space….).
Any who…. here is what I was thinking when I came across this little gem…. What if we devised a test, that in some way would enable us, as voters, to determine the relative status of each of the candidates according to this rule? A way, as it were, to measure their degree of integrity, which is something I think we can all agree would be a good thing to see in a politician, unlikely as it may be. If we could, say, set up a scale of integrity, and make it law that a person had to score in the top 5% of the scale in order to merely be eligible for office, I think we might see a whole new set of politicians, who had never before been seen in public.
In fact, in thinking about the current crop of those in office, it is entirely possible that ALL of those in office now might not be eligible…. I am not excluding the President, out of fairness, though I personally believe he might score in the top 10%…. I still have questions about some of the stuff he has signed that didn’t seem to be very well publicized, as they didn’t exactly fit with his image….. The newest version of the Patriot Act, the NDAA, that he signed last New Year’s Day comes immediately to mind….
I don’t care if he did try to mitigate some of the deleterious effects of the law, he still signed the damn thing, thereby seriously endangering a number of the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution. Plus, the method he used to keep it from the public awareness was rather suspect, in my mind, and reminiscent of the old days under Nixon, Johnson, Reagan, and the two Shrubs, may they all rot in whatever level of Hell they are destined to occupy….. (I know, I know…. not being a Christian, that curse has little weight, but, hey, it’s a pretty clear indicator of my opinion of all of them….)
As I suspect it might, this grew to be somewhat more than I intended it to be, so I’ll cut it short here. But, my suggestion above, about the test for integrity that should be a given for political aspirants, is completely serious, and I wanted to get that out. Maybe by the next election, we can get the rest of the country to buy into it…. which should be interesting, and fun. I’ll be looking forward to the expressions on the faces of all the supporters of those now in office, when their people gloriously fail to pass the test…. and to the results it will have on society, should it ever be adopted…. I don’t see any way at all that it could do anything that wouldn’t improve the situation…..
And so I penned
It down, until at last it came to be,
For length and breadth, the bigness which you see.
~~ John Bunyan — Pilgrim’s Progress, Apology for his Book ~~
********************************
Notes of process and program…
Poems, alas, don’t chase through my head,
bumping and pushing each other like brothers at dinner.
They’re more ripped out of my innards, instead.
Time and circumstance reveal no ultimate winner.
Simmering and bubbling near my unconscious mind
these maddening rhymes blind me sans glimmer.
Building until bursting as if to be dined and wined,
the remaining denizens appear much slimmer.
Fiery visions retain such glorious fatal dimension,
in retrospect, yet fail to leave a permanent scar,
until blessed, or cursed, with focused attention,
singing, crying, bleeding, fast as a movie star.
Pretty soon can’t be soon enough, she said
to a chameleon colored thief bathed in moonlight.
Fancy candles in stripes of blue, gold, and red
foster honest dreams in shades of white.
Passage to daylight is problematic, at best:
beastly ghosts of insomniacs cast no shadow.
Even judges with robes can pass the wrong test
while the rest of us go with what we know.
~~ gigoid ~~
1/3/2013
********************************
Naked Pearls
Human Philosophy
*********
“I think I am! I think I am!”
~~ the little engine that philosophized ~~
*********
“The unexamined life is not worth living to a human.”
~~ Attributed by Plato to Socrates, Apology ~~
*********
“Food for thought is no substitute for the real thing.”
~~ Walt Kelly, Putluck Pogo ~~
*********
“Als das Kind noch Kind war,
gab es diese Fragen:
Warum bin ich mich, und warum nicht dich?
Warum bin ich hier, und warum nicht dort?”
(“When the child was a child,
there were these questions:
Why am I me, and why not you?
Why am I here, and why not there?”)
~~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~~
*********
“It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.”
~~ Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 780 ~~
*********
“Except for our thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.”
~~ Descartes ~~
*********
“Self-trust is the essence of heroism…
It speaks the truth, and it is just,
generous, hospitable, temperate,
scornful of petty calculations,
and scornful of being scorned.
It persists; it is of an undaunted boldness,
and of a fortitude not to be wearied out.”
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, _Essays_ ~~
*********
“It takes a very long time to become young.”
~~ Pablo Picasso ~~
*********
“It is the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance.
It is the dream afraid of waking
that never takes a chance.
It is the one who won’t be taken
who cannot seem to give.
And the soul afraid of dying
that never learns to live.”
~~ Bette Midler, The Rose ~~
********************************
Well, there you have it; yet another mess from gigoid’s fertile mind. I make no apologies, nor have I any regrets, other than to find it done before actually being fully awake. We’ll see how it flies before making any judgments. Meantime, I’ve got stuff, so, I will see y’all tomorrow, should the wherewithal to do so find its way into my presence…. Odds are good, once again….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
“The company of just and righteous men is better than wealth and a rich estate.”
~~ Euripides ~~
Trained consumers on Portobello Road
Another day dawns, bringing with it the promise of change, as it does each morning…. How we meet that possibility can determine not only how goes the day, but, lest we find some alertness quickly enough, for many days to follow…. It would be swell if I could figure out a way to recapture the feeling of power and hope with which it has been my wont to greet the day; these days it’s more a feeling of resignation combined with the will required to actually move my aching bones out of bed….
Fortunately for me, and, quite frankly, for everyone else who may come into contact with me today, there is coffee. Also quite frankly, on the day anyone tells me I would have to give it up, or die, well, I’m afraid that’s the day I’d die, even if it were true. Harsh, maybe, but, true as the day. But, I digress….
Not bad for trivial, eh? How else to start such a grand day at the office. Oh, wait. Never mind. Well, the triviality part is true, so, we’re good, even if we don’t have to go into any office any more. Hey, look, it’s a literary device! What will he think of next to get out of actually coming up with a real introduction? Easy, duh…. Anything at all will do, since the only way to find out is to keep coming back to see. Hah!
Whoops. No teasing the GR’s, dude, or I’ll take away the time you’re allowed to access the keyboard. Who am I talking to? Why? Does it matter? It COULD be one of my alternate personalities, ala The Belle Jar. It could be robot I once used to write, the day I didn’t feel like it. Or, it could just be another device, which, for those of y’all who’ve been here before, is the surest bet for any real money. But, again, I digress.
Why look, ffolkes! It’s an intro. It’s of legal length, has been in and out of reality at least three times in four paragraphs, and is still at a point where it could fall into a mini-rant, had I less discipline. As it is, I’ll once again bow to the one fatal flaw we humans share, our tendency to go for what is most expedient, by using this as another plot device to get us the hell out of here, and, on with the slow, er, show…. What did you expect at these prices, eh?
Shall we Pearl?….
“Don’t be confused by surfaces; in the depths everything becomes law. What is necessary, after all, is only this: solitude, vast inner solitude. Walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours–that is what you must be able to attain.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
********************************
The Divine Miss M in Flight
Image from wsj.com via Google Images
Okay, so, the recording quality on this one isn’t the best; You Tube can be inconsistent, depending on the age of the recording and the skill of the recorder. But, Bette’s laser voice is in clear evidence, and that’s good enough for me…. Enjoy, ffolkes; she’s one of the best performers ever, in my opinion, with one of the most expressive voices I’ve ever heard.
Having been offline so long, I’m still getting caught up to what’s been in the news of late (I don’t watch TV or listen to radio anymore….), my rants have little upon which to fix their focus, so, we’re dipping into the archives to sublimate…. Here’s one about the wealth gap, and the Asininnies, which I think remains relative…. Enjoy!….
From 1/31/2013:
“A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in the banks.” — Johann L. Uhland (1787-1862) — Speech, May 27, 1836
Mr. Uhland is correct in his observation, if a bit slow in making it. In truth, most likely, the usurpation of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights began within moments of its adoption as law, and has been continuing on a daily basis ever since. In the fight against that usurpation, a major battle was lost sometime around the middle of the 19th century, around 1836 or so, when a corrupt federal judge, at the insistence of his corporate masters, approved a legal decision that gave corporations the same rights as people, opening the door to further machinations by which the banks and corporations could, have, and continue to, steal from the public without consequence…..
Today, there is a new push to reform some of the laws that enable the moneylenders to control society as they do; the concept of corporate personhood is under fire by an enraged public, tired of the endless cycle of working to try to get ahead, only to find that there is no path visible to go anywhere but down. As that astute social philosopher, George Carlin, pointed out, they (the bankers and corporate rogues) don’t want a populace capable of critical thinking; they just want workers smart enough to operate the machines, but not smart enough to wonder why they are doing so for so little compensation.
Modern technology has, thanks to the Internet, made keeping this issue out of the public eye impossible, and the corporate stranglehold on society is being challenged much more often. In one sense, this newfound spread of information is holding back the needed changes, as a lot of energy is dissipated in the public discourse that might otherwise build up into the kind of frustration that leads to revolution, and societal upheaval. But, it is also making it much harder for the miscreants who want to control everyone else keep their machinations out of the public eye. There are too many holes for them to plug….
The power these self-serving assholes hold over the rest of us is accustomed to being able to hide from public scrutiny, and I’m sure there will be attempts made to curtail some of the information they are concerned about making common knowledge. In fact, according to some of my latest email updates from the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), there are a number of bills trying to get forced through Congress, without public discussion when possible, that are intended to limit the freedom of speech that is currently unrestricted, for the most part. A recent setback occurred when an honest judge (i.e., one that stayed bought….) rewarded his corporate masters with a decision regarding cell phones that is a serious threat to a number of technological freedoms…. In other words, the fight continues today, and it is just as important today as it was back in 1776, and 1836, when the battle was joined…
The Beloved Ruling Class, and their corporate owners, will do all they can to limit the public’s awareness of what they are doing, and they will continue to try to erode the rights of the common man. They have, by their historical behavior, and their current actions, indicated their intent quite clearly… and that intent is to arrange matters so that what they want is law, and the rest of us can go fuck ourselves silly…. because they don’t care. These people are not concerned with anything that does not serve their own ends, and will lie, cheat, steal, and kill to maintain their power…. This is not supposition, this is fact, based on history, and on observation of current events….
I guess the only real question to be answered is, how long are the rest of us going to allow them to have their way? They are killing us all with their indifference to anything but their own purposes, and we are letting them do it. Myself, I’m getting a bit tired of it, and would like to see society become a bit more active in the resistance shown to the chicanery toward the rest of us, all perpetrated by the Powers That Be… up to and including revolution…. But, then, that’s me…. I’m a bit impatient, and I’m tired of their shit….. I’m hoping more people are getting that way, as our only hope of survival in the long run is to kick the bastards out…..
“All the world over, I will back the masses against the classes.” — William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898)
********************************
Old/New Glory
Political truth…
Oxymoronic, and trite.
Politics is crap.
~~ gigoid~~
written 7/29/2014
********
Confidentially Paranoid
Only when the bright sunlight of dreams draws nigh
can the dark glass of reality factor true value..
Destiny’s horses run in fear as time goes dry,
for grappling with fate in such traitorous venue.
In pallid costumes made of graven cast-off tales,
fallen angels and demons show the measure of faith.
No sad transactions should escape these well-marked trails,
no angry relatives cast insults to a sedentary wraith.
Meaning can always hide in literal cold intent,
yet show mere facets of honor to perishable youth.
Sincere contentions leave with sorrowful bent,
while bastardly arguments fill in poorly for the truth.
Gone are moments filled with florid blasts of rhyme
left to moulder on the shoulders of unreasonable hope.
Only courage can save these measures of unspoken time
to gather new issues, powerfully broad, painful in scope.
~~ gigoid ~~
written 2/25/2015
********************************
This is what I’d call a pearl of destiny… Oh, not because I believe in destiny, naturally; way too constricting, especially if one attempts to account for reality. But, I digress. I call it that because it just sort of found its way to where it needed to be, all on its own. All I did is keep hitting the correct key to examine the next random oyster to find the right pearls. At first, it seemed to head one way, then veered off in another, finally settling in the form you see before you. Actually, I like the way it turned out, a lot; it has, if I may say so, a certain elegance, which can be a good indicator of the quality of the results…. You tell me, and, please, enjoy the exercise…..
“knowledge is a polite word for dead but unburied imagination….
think twice before thinking.”
~~ e.e. cummings ~~
“What kind of conflict do you like? Where will you jump in and fight the good fight — body, heart, mind or spirit? If you say you don’t like conflict at all, then you have stopped growing, because it is only through engaging differences to find common ground or to triumph that we become new and invigorated. Pick your battles, but always have some place you embrace conflict.” — Callan Williams
“In charity there is no excess.” — Francis Bacon
“Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and at last some crisis shows what we have become.” — Brooke Foss Westcott
“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” — Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
WARNING: The Meaning Of Life Is Subject To Change Without Notice. — Classic Smart Bee
“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” — Albert Einstein
“The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them… Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.” — Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592), 1580
“My life is light, waiting for the death wind,
Like a feather on the back of my hand.”
~~ T.S. Eliot ~~
********************************
Well, we’re up a bit late, so this is a bit late getting posted; oh, well…. Such is life in the blog world, so they say; of course, nobody listens, but, hey, they said it, and it’s got to count for something!…. Enough, she said. I’ll see y’all tomorrow; as I’ve noted previously, nothing seems to keep me from doing it, so, why not, eh? See ya…..
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
Good morning…. I suppose it’s only natural to be a bit thick at this time of day, regardless of how much sleep I may have been blessed to receive. But, does it have to be thick as a brick? It sure would make it easier if it didn’t take so damn long to find two neurons willing and able to work together long enough to get started on this, at least until the coffee can kick in. Of course, that would eliminate more than half of my opening ideas, since I generally end up doing just as I’m doing now, to wit: beginning the day with whining and complaints at how early it is….
I would imagine it’s getting as old for y’all as it is for me; it’s really a shame I can’t seem to think of anything else much of the time. Nobody told me it would be so difficult to come up with interesting, believable, compelling literature first thing in the damn morning. And, damn if I’m not experiencing some of the strongest feelings of deja vu I’ve ever felt…. What to you think? Should we go for three full paragraphs of cheap whining, or just get on with the regularly scheduled insanity? I vote for getting the hell out of here….
Since my vote is the deciding factor, that’s what we’ll do. Sorry for the boring intro; I’m sure you’ll give me, just this once, the benefit of the doubt, and forget the whole thing, won’t you? No? Ah, well, fuck it, then…. Luigi, fire that puppy up, and get us out of here, now! I’m done with this….
Shall we Pearl?….
He that holds fast the golden mean,
And lives contentedly between
The little and the great,
Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,
Nor plagues that haunt the rich man’s door.
Today’s video has been preempted by pictures…. One of the more consistent Gentle Readers of this blog has moved, and is involved in exploring an area of the country new to her and her partner and dogs. They discovered a very beautiful hiking area near where they are looking for a home, and posted some picture of the hike…. I thought they were great pictures, of a very beautiful part of the country, so, rather than a video today, here are a couple pictures, and the link to her site, where you can see the rest…. They’re worth it, even if the drought is affecting the forests heavily…. Enjoy!….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The Earth is degenerating these days. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer mind their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.” — Assyrian Stone Tablet, c.2800BC
Mankind, as a species, is fond of touting how special he is; one is constantly hearing how advanced our culture is, how magnificent the works of art we have produced, how wonderful is our species! The pinnacle of Creation! Which makes us, possibly, about the stupidest creatures ever conceived, for basing our sense of entitlement on a massive sense of delusion and denial of reality….. If we can assume, for the purposes of discussion, the tablet referred to in the above quote was created on today’s date all those years ago ( as likely a date as any other day….), our species has made absolutely NO progress in the past 4,815 years! Whoever wrote those words on the tablet could easily have been born in 1950, for our world today exhibits EXACTLY the same symptoms of decay as described…..
Now, I don’t know about y’all, but, it seems a little specious to claim such a position of ascendancy when we cannot even bring ourselves to make sure everyone in the species experiences the same advantages as any other; what is the point of having a society/culture, if it doesn’t provide the same advantages to ALL its citizenry? None I can see. Yet, we continue to behave as if there is no tomorrow, lying, cheating, preying upon each other as if the future did not exist…. There are times when it seems we understand, for there is evidence, such as in movies, when a character can make a statement that catches the fancy of the public, who repeat it endlessly, without ever realizing it applies to themselves…. such as, “My mama says “stupid is as stupid does….”
Yes, Forrest’s mama had it right; what wasn’t clear to most folks is that it was talking about THEM. Most of the people I see in this world have no clue they are a slave; they live their lives just as if they had some choice in what they do, never realizing they are hemmed into such a narrow field of existence, they cannot see they are confined at all, believing themselves to be free men…. And the beat goes on, as it has for almost 5000 years, without ever getting anywhere that might actually brings us all into a future we can live with….
This rant isn’t going much of anywhere; I’ve already whined and complained for four paragraphs, without ever buckling down to any specifics…. Part of that is the simple fact there is SO MUCH about which I could rant, it’s hard to pick one…. Should I rail against the industrial machine? Should I indict the pundits, who lie and cheat and steal their way around the halls of government? Should I condemn the Dogma Dogs, who sycophantically endorse the corporate mandate, promising immortality and manna from heaven for the privilege of wearing a slave collar? Or, should I just bemoan the fact of my peer’s lack of honor and strength of will? Any and all of these are part of the core problem, but, I’m tired of them all…. and, that’s only a partial list!….
Ah, the hell with it. I’m gonna go find some pearls to sublimate, and be done with it for today…. We’ll all just have to deal with it…. If the group gets a bit smarmy, well, chalk it up to the mood I’ve put myself in with this rant….
“Bother!” said Pooh, as he found his smack had talc in it. — Smart Bee
“It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceregal palace, while he is still organizing and conducting a campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative of King-Emperor.” — Winston Churchill, — speech to the West Essex Conservatives, February 23, 1930
“It makes no difference who you vote for– the two parties are really one party representing 4 percent of the people.” — Gore Vidal
“And if I said a year ago that these [social] programs weren’t working, perhaps I have been vindicated.” — President George Bush, on how Lyndon Johnson was to blame for the LA riots
“Definitely, times have changed. If you flunk out of high school today, you will likely have to settle for being just Vice President.” — Smart Bee
“I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they’d never expect it.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey
“Keep the war alive.” — A White House official, — describing President Bush’s 1992 reelection strategy
“Do unto them before they do it to you.” — American proverb
“Talk of revolution is one way of avoiding reality.” — John Kenneth Galbraith
“Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sure sign he expects to be paid for it.” — H. L. Mencken
“You’re standing where I want to pee.”
~~ gigoid, to Ronnie Raygun, in one of his favorite dreams ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Piraeus calls me, silently
Sizzle, sizzle, crash, bang, boom.
Intellect burning with subsequent doom.
Lingering long over decisive style,
Whistling up chaos all the while.
Such frozen thoughts may shatter,
Should we infer, but, no matter.
Firing blanks is children at play
Blooded sages all gasp in dismay.
Nonsense is good sense at times
Mundane objectives trip lightly in rhymes.
Fallen angels dance on a pin
Until each sinner enters within.
Fast moments with natural rain
Bring ashes, yet still must remain.
Final thoughts clamor for more
Find them only on a far distant shore.
~~ gigoid ~~
Written 9/3/2012.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now, THIS is a pearl!….
When the night has been too lonely,
and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter
far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun’s love,
in the spring becomes The Rose.
~~ Bette Midler, “The Rose” ~~
“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.” ~~ V. Smart Bee ~~
“Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.” — Marcus Aurelius
“The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.” — John Berry
“In morals, what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion, what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil.” — Mrs. Jameson
“The mountains, too, at a distance appear airy masses and smooth, but seen near at hand, they are rough.” — Diogenes Laertius — Pyrrho, ix
“Do every act of your life as if it were your last.” — Marcus Aurelius
“To him who is in fear, everything rustles.” — Sophocles
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself
(I am large, I contain multitudes).
~~ Walt Whitman, ‘Song of Myself’ ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well…. That was something. Rather than try to figure out exactly what, I think I’ll just go proof, and be done with it. Given the state of my attitude so far today, it’s probably for the best if we don’t make any further attempts at rationality; besides, my lawyer’s on vacation, so, I’d rather not have to deal with any consequences just now.
It’s Monday. I’m going to pretend it’s Sunday, again. I can do that; I’m retired….. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if I can remember where I parked the Tardis….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
gigoid 