I’m posting late today, by deliberate choice; rather than bore you with the details of why that decision even arose as a possibility, I’ll try to figure out some alternative method of filling in this oh-so-influential portion of any piece, to wit: the intro.
It’s kind of like breakfast, y’know? As the first meal of the day after our night’s journey into the arms of Morpheus, a good breakfast offers the opportunity for a much better day than those where we skip such amenities. In the same way, a good intro can influence the reception of all that follows, regardless of the quality. Whether good, or bad, it all goes better with a good intro. It’s really a shame I’m such a putz about creating them, isn’t it?
Hmph…. You didn’t have to say “yes” so quickly, or loudly. I’m sitting right here. Ah, well, since I still can’t seem to come up with any ideas of how this pathetic beginning can be saved, I’ll just give up & say, with no small sense of relief, on with the show, such as it is today, once again sans rant/discussion/intimate confession, or anything other than good music & half-decent poetry & prose…. Try to enjoy it anyway, alright?….
Shall we Pearl?
“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered.
But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula,
the big answers don’t remain stone-written.
We adjust to new conditions and discoveries.
We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum.
I am my own God.
We are here to unlearn the teachings
of the church, state, and our educational system.
We are here to drink beer.
We are here to kill war.
We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well
that Death will tremble to take us.”
~~ Charles Bukowski ~~
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Amira Willighaven
Image from Amazon.com via Google Images
In 2013, at the age of 9 years, this young lady came on the stage of Holland’s Got Talent, & proceeded to signal the return of a very old soul. She won the contest that year, and continues to amaze people all over the world with the depth of her talent. Below, I’ve included a link to her current website; in the Media section, you can find a number of performances she has given since then, & find out more about an artist you will be hearing about as long as she performs…. Amazing talent…. Enjoy!….
Idiosyncratic images, clamoring for regard,
fill up the white, white screen on which I view
my life, never seeing, nor invited to sup
ambrosial remnants of anything new.
Still, yet almost in motion, allegory sails away
bobbing gently, quick and easy to find,
signs of one happy child, seriously at play,
blissfully immersed, focused joy in mind.
Formidable cries of outraged simple justice
echo plaintive relevance, in half the time.
Maladaptive infants, destined for hospice
salvage an only child, daring to sing in rhyme.
Creativity equals unquestioning farce,
often reaching for absurdity, brazenly afire.
Instead, a blow is felt no joy will ever soften,
accepting the price, added to the cost of desire.
~~ gigoid ~~
7/28/2013
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Naked Pearls
2013 Old School Reprint….
Emily, First & Last….
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“Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door.”
~~ Emily Dickinson ~~
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“I think computer viruses should count as life.
I think it says something about human nature that
the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive.
We’ve created life in our own image.”
~~ Stephen Hawking ~~
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“In real life, unlike in Shakespeare,
the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears.
Things are not only what they are.
They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be.”
~~ Hubert H. Humphrey (1911-78) ~~
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“Time carves all.
Let yourself be carved to attain your true nature.”
~~ Master Po ~~
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“A right is not what someone gives you; it’s what no one can take from you.”
~~ Ramsey Clark ~~
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“I think the dragon’s asleep.”
~~ Famous Last Words ~~
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“A word is dead
When it is said
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.”
~~ Emily Dickinson ~~
In the words of the Colonel, “I love it when a plan comes together….” Nothing like a balanced pearl of virtual wisdom to start, or end, your day….
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Even 3 sheets to the wind, I can tell when enough is enough, making me a rich man. I won’t promise, but, I hope to have completed my ‘discussion’ by tomorrow, when I intend to post yet again. (The road to Hell is paved, etc….) Until then, chill, & maintain strangeness….
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.
“Everything flows and nothing abides;
everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.”
~~ Heraclitus ~~
The Shelbourne Public House, Cork, Ireland
Hajime…. Of late, each time I sit to begin this intro, a veil of lethargy settles heavily upon me, sending my mind off on tangential trains, each idea discarded before beginning to type, as being unworthy, or otherwise unacceptable to those vague standards my mind applies when examining them for their value. Today has been no exception, which is why I decided to just write about it, just so it’s out of my head, where it might do some good. Doesn’t seem to be working, does it?
Oh, well, so goes it for another day. I suppose I’ll need to find another direction to lead us out of where we’ve now ended up, but, that lethargy seems to be preventing any decision. I can’t say, at this point, I am convinced of my ability to get us where we need to go, but, I guess I’ll just keep typing until something presents itself, & we can go from there. Hmm…. this is a rather odd place, isn’t it? I find myself both unwilling, and, unable to decide what should happen next, & if I don’t know, whom shall I ask? The only other entity within the domicile is currently off on her own business, & really doesn’t care. Me, I’m gonna bail, I think.
It may not be the best decision, but, it’s the one I found, so, I’m going with it. I know I can do better, and, given the barest of luck, may someday do so. For today, since we obviously have no luck on which we may depend, I’m going the ruthless road, again, mostly because, a) it works, and b) I can’t think of anything else. Go figure, eh? Ah well, such is life in the blog world; entropy is always there, waiting to chime in. However, having thus disposed of yet another chance to create a masterpiece, without any clear success or failure, it’s the best I can come up with. Gosh, look! It’s a way out. I’m taking it…. Watch that last step, ffolkes…..
Shall we Pearl?
“Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called ‘Ego’.”
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~~
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Image from The Daily Express via Google Images
Back in the day, that is to say, during the 50’s, my first crush was this artist. I still think she is one of the most beautiful of women, with a voice that arrows straight to the heart of anyone, but, especially any man. She can still give me chills to hear her sing ‘Fever’….. I hope you enjoy this live concert from 1984…..
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Miss Peggy Lee Live in 1984
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Modest sounds of impatient concern….
Crowds converge at the raw and grisly scene,
comatose to compassion, curiosity tugging at the hem
with sharp, oh, sharp tools made obscene,
filing the essence of future hopes in spite of them.
Yet who has won the keys to the treasure,
who whipped up the fear of another brother?
Who spent the dreams of the old in selfish measure,
with such arrogant blindness grave issues to smother?
Fateful decisions may prompt still another pause,
to catch and release collective images of insanity.
Surely legitimate anger arises with ample cause
wallowing in self-made entrepreneurs, fluent in profanity.
A quartet of eternities must pass to guarantee change,
regardless of need, or desire, or autonomous manipulation.
Ancient rules and modern aggression is only passing strange
when golden delusion grasps futilely at its related illusory station.
~~ gigoid ~~
8/18/2013
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Naked Pearls
Notes on Life at Large….
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“Profound Truth differs from simple truth
in that the negation of a simple truth is a simple falsehood,
while the negation of a Profound Truth may be another Profound Truth.
E.g. a button with “Life is just as simple as it seems” on one side
and “Life is not as simple as it seems” on the other.”
~~ Subtle Bee ~~
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“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
~~ Aesop (620-560 B.C.) ~~
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“Food for thought is no substitute for the real thing.”
~~ Walt Kelly, Potluck Pogo ~~
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“The more crap you believe, the better off you are.”
~~ Charles Bukowski ~~
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“There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle,
hugely accommodated to the usages of man’s life:
“Know thyself”,
and “Nothing too much”;
and upon these all other precepts depend.”
~~ Plutarch — Consolation to Apollonius ~~
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“I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly,
or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.”
~~ Chang-tzu ~~
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“Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live.”
~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ~~
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Definitely a bumpy ride today, eh, what? To avoid any further contretemps, or possible litigation, I’ll end this rather abruptly, so as to keep from falling into the same sort of abyss in which we found ourselves above, in the intro. Abrupt, btw, is a good word; strong and clear. It pleases me to be able to show you exactly what it means….. which is to say, watch this, ffolkes…. See y’all tomorrow, given a fair wind & a rising tide….
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 gods conceal from men the happiness of death,
that they may endure life.”
~~ Lucan~~
Lost in the dream….
Hajime…. Today’s Pearl ended up with more material than expected; I found an old mini-rant/discussion I wrote, then put away for later use, back in 2014, which I have included below the music; sort of a bonus for my own benefit, you see. It’s not bad, for what it is, and it certainly helps me to realize how far I’ve traveled, if only in my own mind’s fertile fields…. There is also a poem from a while back, and some rather nice pearls for the old-school section. And, since I’m improvising today’s post, music to match the tone….
Finding myself with so much material, as it turns out, is fortuitous on more than one level, for my total working time yesterday took a serious hit in the morning. I’d taken care of my granddaughter the day before, without realizing how fatigued I would become; at about 0900, after posting & answering a couple comments, I went back to bed, where I slept like a rock for five straight hours…. This, of course, left my mind in a suppressed state for a while, thus putting me further behind my intended schedule…. That’s why I say ‘fortuitous’, for it saved me a lot of time this morning, which worked out well for getting this done in a timely fashion…. which it did. Get done, that is….
To keep from going completely overboard with the amount of material, I’ll say no more here, but, shall, instead, bring this intro to a rapid conclusion, if I can remember how….. Oh, right. No worries, ffolkes; I even put this little method aside to use this morning, and it works quite well, if you don’t blink….
Shall we Pearl?
“I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare;
and I dare a little the more as I grow older.
~~ Michael de Montaigne — Essays, Book iii, Chap ii, Of Repentance ~~
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Phish
Today, I feel like some modern rock, with a deep connection to old rock…. Yes, I know, it’s a bit of a complex urge, but, I know just the right band to fill the bill. Here is one of my favorite modern concerts, which begins, and goes on, with a blend of improvisation & discipline I find encouraging, if not downright hopeful. I hope you enjoy excellent musicianship, because this is an excellent display of just that…. Enjoy!….
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Live Phish
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Written 4/12/2014:
{Chaos + Entropy } – {Compassion + Love} = 42
SIGH…. there are times, such as this, when I wonder what life might be like without Murphy’s unkind attentions, and though it might affect the balance of the universe somehow if he weren’t around to see to his chosen task , (that of filling my quota, plus bonuses, of stupid, annoying crap, with which to deal at the most inconvenient times), I’d be more than willing to try it out, just to see if I could deal with THAT any better than I do with him dogging me…. In fact, I’d give serious money to have an opportunity to try….
Sadly for me, and for all of us, I suppose, money won’t buy freedom from Reality, or from the elements of Chaos, and Entropy, that are as much a part of life as are Order, and Beauty…. There are people who believe that money CAN buy happiness, but they are deluded, existing in a way that prevents them from ever really connecting with the universe deeply, or experiencing the finer parts of life, those that come only when one is open to compassion, and to love.
Moreover, these poor, sad fools are completely ignorant of missing out on anything, believing themselves to be rich as Croesus…. which, in fact, they may be…. This, however does not prevent them from being, in truth, sadly misdirected, delusionally convinced of their own rightness, in spite of all evidence otherwise, and, ultimately, pathetically overburdened with more THINGS than they can ever use, or even appreciate.
And, when they die, none of what they’ve spent their lives pursuing can go with them, wherever they may go…. There’s no conclusive evidence indicating any particular destination to which we go when we pass on, at least, none we can perceive, or comprehend in our current state of being….
Nobody, in all of our checkered, but pretty well documented history, has ever come up with any real, solid evidence for ANY of the theories on the matter, one way or another, but, I know for a FACT, it is for sure, and for certain, wherever our consciousness may go, it won’t be carrying bus fare, or any credit cards…. and nobody, I think, will care at all how much crap they had while they were here….
Who knows where THIS came from…. not me. I found the first part in an old Pearl intro, and the rest just spewed out…. so be it….
gigoid, the dubious has spoken….
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Historical Perspective
When all has been said, and all been done,
there really isn’t much to say;
we all come to the same place in the sun,
where darkness overtakes us on our way.
The road seems long as we trundle along,
our perception of time allows us this boon.
In truth, our time here is a short, sweet song,
ending far, far too soon.
There never seems to be all the time
we would wish to have for our own.
Right at the point we find reason in our rhyme:
“It’s for you; your friend Death’s on the phone.”
Yet we all keep moving along our chosen pathway
burning each moment in imagination’s hot fire.
Future and past are held well at bay
lest we are distracted from our desire.
‘Tis no wonder history is rife with pain, and fear;
we sang sweet songs, but the key was wrong.
The only real surprise, it seems crystal clear,
is why the darkness has taken so long.
Just an observation….
~~ gigoid ~~
10/13/2015.
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Naked Pearls
Life + Death = Life at Large….
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“When I was born, death kissed me. I kissed it back.”
~~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~~
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“To know much is often the cause of doubting more.”
~~ Montaigne ~~
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“Are all your stars shining?”
~~ JD Salinger ~~
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“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 ~~
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“One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.”
~~ George Santayana ~~
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“A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us.
To live is to be slowly born.”
~~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery ~~
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“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered.
But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula,
the big answers don’t remain stone-written.
We adjust to new conditions and discoveries.
We are pliable.
Love need not be a command or faith a dictum.
I am my own God.
We are here to unlearn the teachings
of the church, state, and our educational system.
We are here to drink beer.
We are here to kill war.
We are here to laugh at the odds
and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”
~~ Charles Bukowski ~~
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Well, there you have it. One complete Pearl of Virtual Wisdom, in all its broken glory. I have yet to look back at it, as a whole, but, it doesn’t matter, as I’m gonna post it, no matter how it turned out. That’s what I call trusting the process, which, thus far, has served me well. In celebration of that, I shall take my leave, with the gentlest of touches…. How’s this for quick, and easy? 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…. Today, along with the rest of this week, (and, the rest of the month, the way it is developing), is busy, with events taking place out in the BBR. It will take up most of the day, so, I have worked hard to complete this Pearl, as I am unsure when I’ll be able to get another fresh one done. The good news, for me, is, I finished the discussion/rant on which I’ve spent a week or more. It isn’t quite as planned, but, it’s definitely a feast for the mind, so, it will do. The rest is pretty much a throw-together, with another of my old poems, and an archived pearl of pearls for the last section. Since it all flowed together smoothly, I’ll take it, and be content. So, then, must you…. I mean, that’s what blogging is, right? Right….
All that being said, to our regular lack of defined purpose, I’ll make this intro a short one; they seem to work best for days such as the one in which we currently find ourselves. I shan’t apologize; I shall, however, issue a warning. To make it through this one, you’ll need to put on your thinking caps, if you have one; the following is NOT for the weak-minded, or, anyone who is afraid to challenge their own beliefs. It’s all about doubt, which remains our most relevant tool for finding our way in life…. a statement we’ll defend another time, if necessary. Today, we’re going elsewhere, with gusto….
That’ enough; we/I have a lot to do today. Let’s begin, while we are still fresh….
Shall we Pearl?
There is nothing like death. To it, everything is a metaphor.
~~ Subtle Bee ~~
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“You’re not ready for what I think.”
~~ Fox Mulder ~~
“History does not record anywhere at any time
a religion that has any rational basis.
Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough
to stand up to the unknown without help.
But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion
and spend time and money on it
and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.”
~~ Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love (1972) ~~
The above passage from Mr. Heinlein happens to be one of my favorites, in all I have read, in more than 60 years of pursuing the truth in books. In that sixty years, I’ve read an average of a book every other day; I no longer claim one per day, though I managed that average for the first 45 years or so; I’ve slowed some, trading quality for quantity in these latter years. In all that time, I have found this to be the most tactful, sardonic, and accurate statement summarizing my own thoughts, and my own opinion on the matter of religion.
I know such a statement meets with knitted brow, (I can hear the needles clacking together…), showing obvious disapproval from the majority of humankind; I noticed that at age four, the first time I asked my Sunday School teacher to explain the nonsense I was hearing there. I have noted no lesser degree of disbelief from almost everyone in the ensuing years, though not so frequently as if I had not learned to avoid discussions of religion, at least without some observable indications of an open mind. Since turning 60, or so, I’ve given up caring if people get offended, as I simply no longer care what they think about it, and am prepared to discuss it with anyone who cares to risk it.
Moreover, I’m not alone in my distrust of religions, especially the one in which I was made the subject of attempted indoctrination, almost from birth. Quite a number of the men who led the struggle to formulate this country, whom we were raised to call our “Founding Fathers”, also shared this mistrust. For example, here are some of their thoughts on the matter, followed by a closing thought from a modern poet….
“But a short time elapsed after the death
of the great reformer of the Jewish religion,
before his principles were departed
from by those who professed to be his special servants,
and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind,
and aggrandizing t heir oppressors in Church and State.”
~~ Thomas Jefferson, [letter?] To S. Kercheval, 1810 ~~
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“What is it the Bible teaches us? – rapine, cruelty, and murder.
What is it the Testament teaches us?
– to believe that the Almighty committed debauchery
with a woman engaged to be married,
and the belief of this debauchery is called faith.”
~~ Thomas Paine — The Age of Reason ~~
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“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish,
appear to me no other than human inventions,
set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”
~~ Thomas Paine ~~
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“The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity.
Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept
for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines,
and whole carloads of other foolish trumpery
that we find in Christianity.”
~~ John Adams ~~
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“…this would be the best of all possible worlds,
if there were no religion in it.”
~~ John Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1816 ~~
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For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered.
But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula,
the big answers don’t remain stone-written.
We adjust to new conditions and discoveries.
We are pliable.
Love need not be a command or faith a dictum.
I am my own God.
We are here to unlearn the teachings
of the church, state, and our educational system.
We are here to drink beer.
We are here to kill war.
We are here to laugh at the odds
and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”
~~ Charles Bukowski ~~
Let’s finish this part…. For just a moment, wrap your head around the following statement, without attaching any emotional or even intellectual importance to whether it is true, or, not: “There is no God, or gods. No Allah, no Jehovah/Yahweh, no Jesus, no Krishna, nor any supernatural force which created/controls the universe.”
Got that idea? Is it comprehensible, simply as a statement of alternative possibility? I contend this statement is the Truth of Reality; in fact, I contend there is no rational reason to suspect otherwise.
Further, the belief there is such an entity has caused more harm to our species than any other single idea. It has caused people to be divided from each other, over something that merely plays upon their fears of the unknown to manipulate them into serving purposes that have no benefit for them, beyond an ignoble death, at the hands of another person suffering from the same manipulation, by another name.
Even worse, this ‘belief’ predisposes humans to then transfer their ‘belief’ to other ideas that are not in their self-interest, such as believing one is better, or worse than any other human, simply because of where they were born, or the amount of pigment in their skin, or that money implies worth. Humans are not naturally hierarchal; we all die, so what is to make one ‘better’ than another? Yet we find it easy to believe in such hierarchal fantasies, to the point of offering up our lives for an idea we never thought ourselves, but, had planted in our head before we knew enough to be able to tell for ourselves….
You see, the idea that humans NEED a government to solve their issues between each other is yet another silly notion, not supported by reality. The concept of money as a part of reality necessary to our success is also a false idea; there is nothing hierarchal about Nature, of which money is NOT a part. Yet, because humans are easily convinced, by their training to believe ideas are real, people set themselves up to fail, to be manipulated to expend their efforts and their attention on matters which serve no useful (to them) purpose….
“Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.”
~~ Bertrand Russell ~~
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“Some writers have so confounded society with government,
as to leave little or no distinction between them;
whereas they are not only different, but have different origins.
Society is produced by our wants,
and government by our wickedness;
the former promotes our happiness *positively*,
by uniting our affections,
the latter *negatively*, by restraining our vices.
The one encourages intercourse,
the other creates distinctions.
The first is a patron, the last is a punisher.
Society in every state is a blessing,
but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil;
in its worst state an intolerable one….”
~~ Thomas Paine, opening lines of _Common Sense_ 1776 ~
~~ *asterisks denote Paine’s use of italics* ~~
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“Money made a vow to itself, that no one who didn’t love it, would ever have it.”
Irish Proverb
As can be easily seen, merely by reading the history of our species, this trio of delusions, i.e., religion, government, and money, has caused more strife, conflict, and needless death, than any other single idea, for all the time since we began to gather in cities. It has been shown that humans lose their ability to function as a truly human animal when there are more than 200 or so sets of eyes; as we gather in towns, & cities, this number grows beyond our personal need for community, and the rules of engagement between people begin to fray, and those who have the need to control others, due to their own inner fears & perversions of spirit, begin manipulating the weak minded, and we see the development of rules and hierarchies to manipulate people into losing their own self-control of what serves their interests, in the mistaken belief it is necessary, when, in truth, what is necessary is increased personal responsibility, and self-reliance.
“The races of the Galaxy look towards mankind as the essential lunatic element.”
~~ Terry Pratchett, “Strata”, pg. 60 ~~
In sixty years of observing and studying human history, and humanity itself, both individually, and, as a species, I’ve come to two conclusions. First, our most compelling talent, as proven by any historical tome anyone has written, or read, is the ability to think of endless, inventive ways to kill each other, or anything else we come across in our wandering about the face of the earth. Second, almost everything we have invented, as weapons, is simply a more complicated method of throwing rocks, both sharp, and dull; most everything we have created as tools & systems/skills for use as non-weapons, is a response to this talent, in that it is designed to keep ourselves, in one way or another, from getting killed, mostly by each other….
Both sides of this talent, of course, stem from our imagination, which, in the most pure analysis, has been shown to be little more than an anomaly of our consciousness; neither can be quantified, or touched, or in any way seen to be a part of the reality we perceive through our physical senses. In short, it may be, as some speculate, merely a local phenomenon, in this small corner of the universe we perceive elsewhere, all around us, but too far to reach physically. This paradoxical sense, I think, is what gives most humans the tendency to ‘imagine’ themselves to be more than they actually are, denying completely the simple truth of reality as it exists, to assume that reality is what we imagine it to be. In short, we are able to deny our own nature….
Perhaps this is why so many are willing to believe in the lies and untruths on which our entire culture has been based for so long. In truth, we may never know; I probably won’t; if I haven’t been able to figure it out by now, I don’t think I have enough time left on this particular plane of existence to do so. Perhaps, after I have gone on to the next great adventure, the answers will be made clear; then again, anything, at all, can be no more than speculation, thus, exercising again that imagination… I’ve figured out enough to not believe anything that comes from that source; it tends to be less than real, at least as often as it is more so….
Enough, he cried, enough…. ‘Tis a feast, no more is needed.
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Finishing the rant/discussion above took up all the spare time I had, so, we go with default, as is our wont. This is the original video, which started the whole idea of the organization. All of it is great music, by street musicians, along with the occasional music star to add their talent to the mix. I hope you enjoy it, and take the time to support the organization, which spreads love, and joy, and human kindness in all its branches, now located around the world at their music schools… Check our their website, it’s worth the time….
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Playing For Change
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In case it isn’t clear, this poem, written over four years ago, is a rather complex version of the rant/discussion above, though, at the time, I didn’t know that…. *grin*…. I hope you enjoy it anyway….
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
********************************
I’m in a bit of a hurry, for reasons I explained above, so, we’re filling in the final section with a group of pearls from an archived Pearl, which, oddly enough, fits right in with today’s post…. Go figure, eh? At any rate, it’s a good way to finish this off with some aplomb, if not complete dignity…. Enjoy!….
From 9/7/2012:
Having just spent three hours (okay, I exaggerated…. only two….) searching in vain for a pearl to finish with, I became incensed with frustration, and rather than scare my new neighbors with a verbal outburst, I calmly set a parameter, and collected the following pearls on one subject, to wit: human nature…. As far as I can tell, all of them rate a solid 10 on the truth scale….. As always, just follow the bouncing thought as it explores your own inner self….
“The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth–that the error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cured on one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.” — H. L. Mencken
“The ultimate evil is the weakness, cowardice, that is one of the constituents of so much human nature. When, rarely, unalloyed nobility does occur, its chances of prevailing are slim. Yet it exists, and its mere existence is reason enough for not wiping the name of mankind off the slate.” — John Simon
“We are all terrible little creatures.” — Martin Amis
“The tragedy and the magnificence of Homo sapiens together rise from the same smoky truth that we alone among the animal species refuse to acknowledge natural law.” — Robert Ardrey, _The Social Contract_
“Man, were he not corrupted by Governments, is naturally the friend of Man, and that human nature is not of itself vicious.” — Thomas Paine
“I think we’re all Bozos on this Bus!” — Firesign Theater
Now I feel better….. and I hope you do, as well….
********************************
Okay!…. That went well, for a change. This is one I put a lot into; in a certain sense, it might be considered an iconic Pearl, a representative of all Pearls, with an example of all of what I do. Of course, I don’t see it addressing any of the ‘why’ I do it, but, hey, we can’t have everything. At least, not all at once; that’s a bit much to expect…. At this point, you may expect your day to continue, and, in that, you’d be right. You see, this one is at an end; at least, as far as I can make it so. Since I can feel it slipping away from me, I’ll just say this…. See ya, ffolkes. I’ll be back, in a day, or possibly two, depending on how efficiently I can deal with the demands upon me set by what is happening out in the Big Blue Room. Should be an interesting week; lets get started on it, ‘kay? ‘Kay! Be cool, be strange, be alert, and most of all, keep those thinking caps close at hand….
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.
“It is never too early or too late to care for the well-being of the soul.”
~~ Epicurus ~~
Late summer bloom….
Hajime…. In human experience, it is clear that the subject of ‘delayed gratification’ is associated closely with a great many of our difficulties. Taking the short-term view, while gratifyingly immediate, can often lead to long-term consequences, very few of which are as beneficial as our intentions would have them. In short, we screw our own pooch, regularly. I would say this is not an arguable conclusion, as the evidence is overwhelming.
Now, one might assume, from the professorial tone of the previous paragraph, today’s post will be another long diatribe against the machine. And, you’d be right. However, my diatribe, which has, in segments, been ongoing for several years, won’t be our major feature. In fact, there’s no rant, at all, in any real sense. There is material in that section today, but, you won’t find it hard to get through, as it turned old-school. We have music, we have a new poem, and a damn fine group of excellently polished pearls for your edification. You could say, this one has it all, and be correct. Go ahead, say it….
Okay, so, the obligatory nonsense is in place, we’ve got some rational dialogue, and we’re three paragraphs in; couldn’t ask for better progress. I mean, after all, Dave Letterman coined the perfect phrase to describe us, when he said, “Hopelessly lost, but, making good time….”. That’s us, to a T. Or, if necessary, to a Z. Whatever either of those means. I don’t believe I ever really ‘got’ that one, but, hey, it’s embedded in the language, so, gotta use it now and again, or it goes bad. Words do that, you know….
I think that, right there, is a good indicator, showing us it’s definitely time to get on with this, before it all goes wonky. I’ll be rational, and executive-like, & make the decision to cut this off, ruthlessly. How’s this for ruthless?….
Shall we pearl?….
“As great scientists have said and as all children know,
it is above all by the imagination
that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope.”
~~ Ursula K. LeGuin ~~
********************************
I had no intention of ranting today, though the urge often occurs. I’m trying to keep from that sort of indulgence for the time being. Sometimes, when looking for pearls for the old-school, Naked Pearls section, I do come across pieces such as these, which I can only describe as perfect pearls, for they create an entire discussion in one’s own head, in order to ascertain the full import of the relatively few words used. In short, they compose a pearl of virtual wisdom, which can, in its essence, only be considered a rant, against all the elements of human nature that cause us so much misery, and keep the bulk of us from feeling or experiencing life as it CAN be lived. I hope you enjoy this trip into the minds of a number of rather smart people….
*******
Thoughts on the Human Condition….
*******
“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered.
But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula,
the big answers don’t remain stone-written.
We adjust to new conditions and discoveries.
We are pliable.
Love need not be a command or faith a dictum.
I am my own God.
We are here to unlearn
the teachings of the church, state,
and our educational system.
We are here to drink beer.
We are here to kill war.
We are here to laugh at the odds
and live our lives so well
that Death will tremble to take us.”
~~ Charles Bukowski ~~
*******
“…there is no poison on earth more potent, nor half so deadly,
as a partial truth mixed with passion.”
~~ Michael Jay Tucker~~
*******
“The entire world is being driven insane by this single phrase:
‘My religion alone is true.'”
~~ Ramakrishna ~~
*******
“There is no nonsense so arrant
that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority
by adequate governmental action.”
~~ Bertrand Russell, “An outline of Intellectual Rubbish” ~~
*******
“And the people bowed and prayed, to the neon Gods they’d made.”
~~ Paul Simon ~~
*******
“The more laws and order are made prominent,
the more thieves and robbers there will be.”
~~ Lao Tzu ~~
*******
“… But when he [the people’s champion]
has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty,
and there is nothing to fear from them,
then he is always stirring up some war or other,
in order that the people may require a leader.”
~~ Plato, “The Republic” ~~
*******
“What happens to your fist when you open your hand?”
~~ Zen Buddhism ~~
*******
********************************
Image from lastfm.com via Google Images
I finished a poem last night; don’t know why, but the last three stanzas just bled out in about an hour. In honor of poetry, here’s a performance by one of the greatest musician/songwriter/poets of the modern era. I consider his “Sound of Silence” the definitive poem/song of the latter part of the previous century; I know it’s just my opinion, but, go listen, then tell me it doesn’t nail modern society with one swift bullet. In any case, this is a pretty decent collection of his work, in a good studio, with good sound, and, his usual collection of great musicians to play with him…. Enjoy!….
********************************
Paul Simon BBC Sessions ~ 2006
********************************
********************************
********************************
Illusory Time
Viewed from askance, the river is long;
deep, uncompromisingly intent, swift, strong.
In duality, perception creates our only reality;
such faux metaphoric paradox enforces mutability.
By two we perceive, both zero, and one;
digital, binary, on or off, such fun.
Separate, melded, we exist, knowing not what we know
ego, striving to be solitary, looks above, sees below.
Furiously asleep, cultural anomaly claims a victim of choice;
validly unconscious, nobody speaks, nary a voice.
Potential escapees stir in dreams, fighting to wake,
until taking the wheel, for their own bloody sake.
Pots boil in due time, when the fire’s hot,
time exists to our advantage; or, not.
The solitary warrior, head bent in pain,
fights on, with, or without gain.
Night fell, day after day it persisted;
of those who knew, none showed any care, or resisted
Angels, ministers, none had any defense, nor grace;
all that remains is a face.
~~ gigoid ~~
10/22/2016
********************************
Naked Pearls
Serenity’s arcane art….
*********
I’m going to happydance among the stars and wear my stripes any way I want to.”
~~ Stripes the tiger ~~
*********
“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 ~~
*********
“To dare is to lose your foothold for a moment.
Not to dare is to lose your self.”
~~ Soren Kierkegaard~~
*********
“How could the drops of water know themselves to be a river?
Yet the river flows on.”
~~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery ~~
*********
“Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it,
you will live along some distant day into your answers.”
~~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~~
*********
“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow,
you gotta put up with the rain.”
~~ Dolly Parton ~~
*********
“Take a breath of the new dawn and make it a part of you.
~~ Hopi proverb ~~
*********
“Change is inevitable, growth is intentional.”
~~ Glenda Cloud~~
*********
“The road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began
Now far ahead the road has gone
And I must follow if I can.
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way.
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.”
~~ J.R.R. Tolkien ~~
*********
********************************
Boy! That’s a big one, isn’t it? So big, I’ll forgo further torment, and just say, see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes. I believe we can safely say it is now an obsession, without being inaccurate. So be it….
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.
“I may be going to hell in a bucket, but at least I’m enjoying the ride.”
~~ Bob Weir ~~
Stability….
Hajime…. Today’s Pearl reflects the evolution of which I spoke, briefly and obscurely, yesterday. It seems to have evolved along with my new routine, with just as much forethought put into its institution, i.e., none at all. It just happened that way, much like the Universe. Go figure, eh? In this particular case, it works, perhaps as well as any new thing in the Universe, if somewhat less comprehensibly. In the end, it won’t matter, unless the relative degree of confusion I’ve created turns out to be less than called for in the contract. What contract, you ask? Well, you may ask; it doesn’t mean you’ll ever find out.
Hmph. I guess I slipped over into curmudgeon mode, without realizing it. Must be the shoes, which I’m not wearing today. Whatever it is, it has created a rather odd, if creative, Pearl. We have a multitude of pearls today, all strung together into a self-directed rant to offset the romantic qualities of our old-school offering. None of that tells you much, but, that’s the way it’s supposed to be; what fun is it to know it all ahead of time? The Doctor wouldn’t like that. So, why don’t we stop teasing, and tempting the Fates, & save ourselves some of the mess that can engender? We’ll pull out the good, ol’ ruthless gene, & get where we need to be in a New York minute….
Shall we pearl?….
“Live the questions now.
Perhaps then, someday far in the future,
you will gradually, without even noticing it,
live your way in the answer.”
While conversing with a friend yesterday, I had occasion to use the title of today’s video selection, a quite valuable factoid, which you see below, under the artist’s name. I call it a factoid, when, in truth, it is more like a solid, immutable truth about human nature, which all of us need to be aware of, and use in all our interactions. When we don’t remember this little gem, it costs us, every time…. Ffolkes, I give you Ron White, with any number of examples of how You Can’t Fix Stupid…. Enjoy!….
********************************
Ron White You Can’t Fix Stupid
********************************
********************************
********************************
Naked Pearls/Self Directed Rant
*******
“To use power
is to make yourself infinitely vulnerable
to greater powers”
.~~- Bene Gesserit ~~
“In dealing with the State, we ought to remember that its institutions are not aboriginal, though they existed before we were born: that they are not superior to the citizen: that every one of them was once the act of a single man: every law and usage was a man’s expedient to meet a particular case: that they all are imitable, all alterable; we may make as good; we may make better.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Man is ready to die for an idea, provided that idea is not quite clear to him.” — Paul Eldridge
“It’s silly to go on pretending that under the skin we are all brothers. The truth is more likely that under the skin we are all cannibals, assassins, traitors, liars, hypocrites, poltroons.” — Henry Miller
“The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.” — H.L. Mencken
“Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays,”Self-Reliance” (First Series, 1841)
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” — Edmund Burke (1729-1797), in a letter to William Smith
********************************
Intelligent Crimes
The value of wit is often said to cause harm,
for those who think, such is its greatest charm.
The new and the bold cannot be fulfilled
if innovation and change is left unwilled.
Society behaves at its base as a mob
conformity and submission its primary job.
Any sign of rebellion against the mob’s rule
is met with resentment, naming such rebel the fool.
Intellect and talent are looked at askance,
expressing artistry stands nary a chance.
To stand out from the rest of mankind
is fraught with danger, for body and mind.
Often I stand to watch in solemn dismay
as beauty and joy are left by the way,
ignored and reviled by the unwashed masses
who prefer darkness, and acting like asses.
With shouts of derision the normals make known
their fear of intelligence, greater than their own.
They hope to stop all semblance of progress;
for thoughts and ideas, they couldn’t care less.
The world struggles on in spite of all opposition,
managing to maintain its advanced position.
Pulling the foolish along in spite of reluctance,
helping each to learn the survival dance.
Hard though it may be to keep up with the future
genius manages its plans to develop and nurture.
In the final analysis, those who live by reason
enjoy life the most, season to season.
~~ gigoid ~~
10/7/2012
********************************
Naked Pearls
Life & Love
*******
“When you arise in the morning,
think of what a privilege it is to be alive
–to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love….”
~~ Marcus Aurelius ~~
*******
“I must say that the biggest lesson
you can learn in life, or teach your children,
is that life is not castles in the skies, happily ever after.
The biggest lesson we have to give our children is truth.
We’re all built with illusions.
And they break.”
~~ Goldie Hawn ~~
*******
“Hold tenderly that which you cherish,
for it is precious and a tight grip may crush it.
Do not let the fear of dropping it cause you to hold it too tightly:
the chances are, it’s holding you, too.”
~~ Bob Alberti ~~
*******
“We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.”
~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ~~
*******
“Love is a verb.”
~~ Limon ~~
*******
“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered.
But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula,
the big answers don’t remain stone-written.
We adjust to new conditions and discoveries.
We are pliable.
Love need not be a command or faith a dictum.
I am my own God.
We are here to unlearn the teachings
of the church, state, and our educational system.
We are here to drink beer.
We are here to kill war.
We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well
that Death will tremble to take us.”
~~ Charles Bukowski ~~
*******
Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.
~~ Grandma Moses ~~
*******
********************************
Having thus assuaged my own sense of duty, I may now escape into the day, to find some real-time trouble to cause for the machine. I guess I’m really going to have to do what I’ve always thought would be necessary, & learn to program computers. The time is coming when it may become our final weapon in the upcoming societal wars…. Guess it’s time to begin the tactical/strategic planning, and begin the campaign…. Ah, well, tomorrow is soon enough, right after I post another mess like this one. See y’all then, ffolkes; I can’t make myself stop….
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.
“Remember this,–that very little is needed to make a happy life.”
~~ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Meditations, vii, 67 ~~
Choosing the next species of prey….
Hajime…. I shan’t apologize for today’s mess, but, I will say this; it’s a mess. Oh, from an objective standpoint, it probably will seem to be fairly normal, for a Pearl of Virtual Wisdom. But, don’t let that fool you; it’s not normal. But, then, I suppose one could say that about this blog in general, without fear of contradiction, so, we’ll just pretend none of it makes any difference, (which it doesn’t, really…) and be done with it, for the nonce. A nonce, by the way, is middle English for ‘don’t ask’….
Perhaps that was a bit brusque. Yes? Well, so be it; neither we, nor the gods, can change the past, even with a software editor. If you couldn’t tell, my muse is still missing in action; I’m sort of wandering around here in the intro, looking for something to say, or, alternately, to not say, which might make the difference, pulling this pathetic attempt at coherence back from the edge, into the realm of literature worth reading. What? Oh, I think that’s a little harsh, don’t you? Yeah? Wanna step outside & say that?….
Whoa…. Sorry, I didn’t realize we had a hothead in the group today. I’ll have to be more careful from here on. In fact, since that sort of used up all I had to put here, perhaps we’ll just be on our way down the page, to see what sort of other trouble we can get into. Hmm…. I think, even THAT may be more than we’re capable of today, but, what the hell? The insurance is currently paid up, for a change, so, we’ll take a chance. If y’all would kindly resume your seats, and place your adult beverages in the holders provided, we can get this slow on the toad…. Ready or not, here we go…..
Shall we Pearl?….
“The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.”
~~ John Berry ~~
********************************
It’s been a week or so since I last played any of this organization’s music. Since it is all music from some of the finest ‘unknown’ street artists in the world, playing together, sometimes in a studio, sometimes out of doors, and always with more musicians doing the same song, elsewhere in the world. Some of the best cuts of covered songs I’ve heard in my life have been produced, with more old, and new material coming all the time. Here is one of their most excellent Live Outside series; the rest may be found on You Tube, by checking the choices offered at the end of this video…. Enjoy!…. Then go donate some cash; they’re doing good work, at all the schools for music they’ve opened around the world, and operate solely by donation and sales of music.
One might think since I had a day off, there would be a fresh rant. So much for expectations, eh? I do have one I am working on, but, it’s not done, and I’m not done with it. To fill in today, here is a pretty decent, fairly short little indictment of the Asininnies and Mundanes from the second day of 2014…. I hope you enjoy it….
From 1/2/2014:
Above, in the intro section, I referred to an idea that occurred to me while I sat in the morning air, engaging in my favorite pastime, random thinking about Stuff…. This idea is a delicate one, and needs to be explored a bit more deeply on my part before I bring it out into the light of day…. I’ll just say this: it has to do with the Internet, the Asininnies, and You/Me(Us)…. and it’s a bit disturbing….. In case you don’t recall, Asininnies are those humans on planet Earth who live by the code of Me First, regardless of what other people or animals may have to say about it…
They are the Beloved Ruling Class, those professional politicians (parasites) who claim to lead, but more accurately, crave power; the Shadowy Corporate Masters, those bankers and old money warmongers who buy and sell the world at their whim, including the loyalty of the BRC, and those others who are also Asinine by nature…. There are more… The entitled Police and Military Goons, The Athlete Rock Stupid Role Models, The Media Cowards, who unconsciously help the Asininnies accomplish their manipulations by parroting their lies without complaint, or exposure….
Most heinously, which adjective I use deliberately, these Asininnies are all supported by the efforts of the last group in the category…. the Priestly Hierarchies, those deliberately delusional fanatics who live by faith rather than reason (though they would claim the opposite….) By encouraging their constituencies to follow their lead, and accept all that the worldly authorities tell them to do in their lives, they teach the people how to obey, both by example, and by designed application of guilt over original sin….
What a scam! Convince people they are bad because of what some original member of the tribe did, which may or may not have happened in truth, then, use the ensuing manufactured sense of guilt to cause behavioral changes at direction…. Willing mental slaves, all for the price of a good story line…. gotta love those early Christians and Muslims, eh? They knew human nature, with its susceptibility to the lie, and its gullibility to the apparent truth….. What ticks me off is that it continues unabated after thousands of years…. It goes a long way toward proving Robert Heinlein’s statement on the subject, to wit: “Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.”
That, then, is the current scenario we have in the world today, as I pointed out above…. Internet, Asininnies, and Us…. In the near future, I’ll expand on the idea that occurred to me, but, I’ve taken enough time and energy this morning to make sure all the players are known, and clearly…. I don’t want any confusion about any of that after I begin my rant, whenever that may be…..
For now, I’ll just put together a short five-star pearl, which, hopefully, will give y’all a preview of the rant that is to be…. Let’s see what SB can do about that…..
“I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the man.” — Seneca (8 BC) — On a Happy Life, 2, (L’Estrange’s Abstract, Chap, i.)
“Now that the government is going to balance the budget, it is up to the rest of us to budget the balance. Some folks think we are getting too much government these days. They should be very happy that we are not getting all of the stuff we are paying for.” — Smart Bee
“The devil knew not what he did when he made man politic.” — William Shakespeare
“We are locked into a system of “fouling our own nest,” so long as we behave as independent, rational free-enterprisers.” — Garrett Hardin
“Know yourself. Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.” — Ann Landers
Perfect…. Good enough to go on, for sure…..
********************************
Stray Cats
The veils that billow and fold
between dreams and reality
may sometimes part,
showing the visions of one to the other,
blending, bleeding as one,
only to bring us up short,
closely jammed against immovable fate.
Still, we keep our watch,
seeking to find the vision
that brings with it the mark of reality’s regard,
a humble mind, and a compassionate heart.
Events of broad impact draw us away again,
distracting with shiny glitter and tinny music,
leaving our feelings raw and bruised,
the victim of universal disregard.
Now, in the twilight of years, the music is fading,
and the glitter has all gone….
yet the memory of visions remains sharp and clear,
melancholy reminders of reality’s promises,
unkept…..
~~gigoid~~
4/12/2013
********************************
Yep. It’s another random, harlequin pearl that speaks about Life at Large; this one mostly talks about how to live it with some boldness and style….Or, maybe that’s just me; y’all can decide for yourselves….
“Confront a child, a puppy, and a kitten with a sudden danger; the child will turn instinctively for more assistance, the puppy will grovel in abject submission, the kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance.” — H. H. Munro
“Keep your fears to yourself; share your courage with others.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
“I am the shadow my words cast.” — Octavio Paz
“Arouse the mind without resting it on anything.” — Diamond Sutra
“Courage is the greatest of all the virtues. You cannot consistently practice any other virtues without being courageous.” — Maya Angelou
“Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom.” — Subtle Bee
“It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.” — ee cummings
“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own God.
We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.” — Charles Bukowski
“Do not go gentle into that good night
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light”
~~ Dylan Thomas ~~
********************************
Well, it’s done. As noted in the intro, it’s a mess, but, it’s my mess, so, back off. Just kidding, of course. I do that sort of thing when I’m trying to distract y’all from thinking about the relative quality of our output…. Is it working? Oh. Okay, then, we’ll just go, and try again tomorrow. Provided I am still alive, (good odds on that), and still crazy, (even better odds there….) I’ll be here, with new stuff to throw at y’all…. See y’all then, for sure and for certain….
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.
“A man of quality is not threatened by a woman of equality.”
~~ Gentle Bee ~~
Best Shot Two
Hajime….. Time, Space, and Reality at Large can be a rather complex three-body problem to solve, especially when our routines for dealing with the chaotic world in which we live become less than reliable. To be honest, the changes that seem to be taking place aren’t unwelcome; it’s hard to complain about getting more sleep. But, adjusting the elements of Reality thus affected is not as simple as it may sound, or look. That said, I think it’s probably a good idea to let this subject die a natural death, by negligence. So be it.
Okay, we’ve managed to obscure the issue fairly well, so far. Let’s see if a bit of nonsense will help us get to our necessary jumping-off point, shall we? Zippy always enjoys it so much when we do. Why, look! There’s our spot now! Okay, we’d better go, so hang on….
Shall we Pearl?….
“A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party:
there is no battle unless there be two.”
~~ Seneca ~~
********************************
The process today is a bit choppy, but, I think we can get done, if I go with a default for this section. Classical music, of course, is our default, for it seems to soothe my fevered brow when I write, or read… Go figure…. Oh, and, enjoy, too, if you wish….
I mentioned, somewhere, I’m not into ranting for now; so be it. In keeping to that policy, here is an archived piece, an old-school pearl from another day I wasn’t up to the challenge of speaking out…. Ah, well, so be it…. Enjoy the break from routine, if you would; I intend to do so for an extended period of time…
From 12/5/2013:
Any ranting I do today will be related to the above subject, in order to keep the details fresh in what is left of my mind…. Plus, I haven’t kept up with what is happening out in the Big Blue Room, which tends to keep me from picking a current event to rag upon, more’s the pity….. That does mean a bonus for y’all, as I’ll naturally fall back into the default position here at ECR when this happens…. Yes, you know what it means, ffolkes, another old-school pearl, a group of small but tasty pearls, all in a certain direction, or implying a certain theme…. Sure, those themes may not be immediately apparent, even to the most discriminating of Gentle Readers, but, more often, they simply bash one over the brows, driving home the desired point with all the delicacy of a professional wrestler….
I am, as is already obvious, more than just a little verbose this morning, having not written ANYTHING for over four days…. but, I don’t think that will hurt this section, since I’m going to segue right into the remainder of this section’s contents by using the old magical phrase, “slick as Natty Bumpo’s Chevrolet sedan!”…. Or, as we like to say here on ECR… let’s dive…. Ooh, ooh, let’s go really old school, too, with poetry brackets and everything all mellow….
I knew, by the smoke that so gracefully curl’d
Above the green elms, that a cottage was near;
And I said, “If there ‘s peace to be found in the world,
A heart that was humble might hope for it here.”
~~ Thomas Moore — Ballad Stanzas ~~
“I readily relapse into my reflections on the uselessness of our education. Its aim has been to make us not good and wise, but learned; and in this it has succeeded. It has not taught us to follow and embrace virtue and wisdom, but has imprinted their derivations and etymologies on our minds. We are able
to decline ‘virtue’ even if we are unable to love it; if we do not know what wisdom is in fact and by experience, we are familiar with it as a jargon learned by heart.” — Michel de Montaigne, Essays
In the vacant places, we will build with new bricks.” — T.S. Eliot
“As long as we’re going insane, we might as well go the whole way. A mere shred of sanity is of no value.” — Smart Bee
“Be not ashamed of thy virtues; honor’s a good brooch to wear in a man’s hat at all times.” — Ben Johnson
“We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Beware the Jabberwock, my son
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch
Beware the jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious bandersnatch
~~ _Jabberwocky_, by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) ~~
********************************
Bluebird
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I’m not going
to let anybody see
you.
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he’s
in there.
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody’s asleep.
I say, I know that you’re there,
so don’t be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he’s singing a little
in there, I haven’t quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it’s nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don’t
weep, do
you?
Virtue is not left to stand alone.
He who practices it will have neighbors.
~~ Confucius ~~
***********
“One of the greatest joys known to man
is to take a flight into ignorance
in search of knowledge.”
~~ Robert Lynd ~~
***********
Virtue is a habit of the mind,
consistent with nature and moderation and reason.
~~ Cicero ~~
***********
The mind ought sometimes to be amused,
that it may the better return to thought,
and to itself.
~~ Phaedrus ~~
***********
“Be a moving target.”
~~ Raoul Lionel Felder ~~
***********
“It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible,
but also for what we do not do.”
~~ Moliere ~~
***********
…for the most part happiness consists in being willing to be what you are.
— Erasmus
***********
Life is the only game in which the object of the game is to learn the rules.
~~ Zen Bee ~~
***********
“May the Forces of Evil become confused on the way to your house.”
~~ George Carlin ~~
********************************
Well, that was something…. Interruptions by a cat insisting on cuddle-time, a call from a friend in Europe, and small coffee disaster made it even more of a struggle than usual. As is our wont today, to this we say, so be it. We are practicing our dispassion today. And, we shall see you tomorrow, when we shall try again to achieve some minor brilliance, and get this approximately right. We’ll also try to lose the royal ‘we’, if possible. See y’all then, ffolkes, as long as reality stays on course….
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.
“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.”
~~ Bob Dylan ~~
The Original Angry Bird
Hajime….. Since we begin with a such a cogent quote from one of our society’s most prolific and long-lived bards, I’ll have to try to keep this within the parameters thus implied. We’ll see how that goes, what with insomnia, curmudgeonly reaction to same, and an extended period of cat training yesterday, I’m in a bit of an odd mood. Sometimes that works well to improve the results here; other times, not so much. Whichever it might be, we’ll use our advanced sage training to make it palatable…. You know, good & bad don’t exist but in our minds, that sort of thing…
Of course, that presupposes I have the chutzpah and general wherewithal to pull of that kind of advanced philosophizing; the hour of the day can affect that heavily. I guess I just wait for the correct moment to apply the fix; once I’ve got enough coffee on board, that should be an obvious jumping-off point we can use to our advantage, such as we may. Otherwise, what happens could turn on us, making it hard to cash your checks, er, get y’all home in one piece….
Having thus assured us all the bozoid tendencies upon which we rely are firmly in place, we can, I think…. no, make that we must, I think, get ourselves out of this convoluted mess I call an intro, and on to the oyster beds, before it gets any more slippery/slimy than it has already gone. In fact, I’m going to use one of the new tricks I found in another drawer in the Tardis…. It’s pretty cool; all it does is this…..
Shall we Pearl?….
“To be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough;
the prime requisite is rightly to apply it.”
~~ Descartes ~~
********************************
The Death of Socrates Image from en.wikipedia.org via Google Images
Today’s video selection is not musical, but, rather a sublimation for ranting, as it were. The social phenomenon that is Last Week Tonight showed, in the recent past, how powerful a tool the internet and media can combine to fashion, a tool that can actually change the course of societal events. I’ve included a link to the show’s You Tube page, where about 50 or more of the episodes are listed; the one with which we begin is a recent show, dealing with some of the issues we are seeing in today’s news…. I won’t say enjoy; I will say, pay the fuck attention…. It’s all stuff you’ll do better for knowing….
“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” — Professor Bernardo de la Paz
I am not sure when I first read the above statements from the professor, but, I know it was before the age of twenty. Even then, it struck a deep chord of familiarity, as if it were something I had always known. For sure and for certain it is I have lived my life by this standard, ever since my earliest memories…. It may have come from my family environment, or, perhaps it’s just a lucky gift of nature; I don’t much care, nor, worry over how it came to be, for it has made my life, if nothing else, my own, which, as far as I can see, is pretty rare.
I have a feeling it came from my father and mother, who taught us about personal responsibility; this was enforced by having four siblings, all of whom insisted on their own brand of individuality. Since we had the example set by our parents to follow, we all learned to accept life as it came, without the more obvious problems that can arise…. Oh, not to say it was paradise; no Army family of seven is ever completely peaceful. But, none of us ever suffered injustice or dishonesty from anyone at home, which gave us armor against those dangers in the world away from home.
Having this ‘advantage’, it makes it easy for me to see how lacking such a background could cause problems for people, both as individuals, and for society at large…. But, having put off completing this piece too long, I no longer have the urge, or the time to explain that statement…. For today, and now, let it suffice to say, the lack of ability to take personal responsibility for one’s actions, without causing undue inner struggle or conflict, is the primary reason our species cannot seem to find any peace. I see this failure of morality/ethical training as our single most telling flaw, one which, if we do not/can not discover how to negate, will eventually kill us all.
As I see reality, we have a choice. We can change our ways, and assume the weight of responsibility for our acts, and find a way to survive the coming cataclysmic environmental events. Or, we can die, ignobly, as the poet said, not with a bang, but a whimper. To my mind, it is that simple. Not, by any means, a simple task, but, a simple choice…. I’m not sanguine about which choice we’ll make…. For now, here are a few pearls which speak to the matter, in their own way…. Enjoy, ffolkes; it’s easier than listening to another of my interminable rants….
“Man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits… For my part I would as soon be descended from [a] baboon… as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies … treats his wives like slaves … and is haunted by the grossest suspicions.” — Charles Darwin
“Despite its suffix, skepticism is not an “ism” in the sense of a belief or dogma. It is simply an approach to the problem of telling what is counterfeit and what is genuine. And a recognition of how costly it may be to fail to do so. To be a skeptic is to cultivate “street smarts” in the battle for control of one’s own mind, one’s own money, one’w own allegiances. To be a skeptic, in short, is to refuse to be a victim.” — Robert S. DeBear, “An Agenda for Reason, Realism, and Responsibility,” — New York Skeptic — (newsletter of the New York Area Skeptics, Inc.), Spring 1988
He’s not a politician. He’s just ethically challenged.” — Morality Bee
“Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.” — John Adams
“Humanity has in the course of time had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon its naive self-love. The first was when it realized that our earth was not the center of the universe, but only a speck in a world-system of a magnitude hardly conceivable… The second was when biological research robbed man of his particular privilege of having been specially created, and relegated him to a descent from the animal world.” — Sigmund Freud
Okay…. I’m feeling generous; five is enough…. We’ll speak on this again, trust me…. For now, go enjoy the poem….
********************************
It’s been a while since we heard from this poet; it’s time…. Enjoy! He’s a bit crusty, but, always hits people where it counts….
air and light and time and space
‘-you know, I’ve either had a family, a job, something
has always been in the
way
but now
I’ve sold my house, I’ve found this
place, a large studio, you should see the space and
the light.
for the first time in my life I’m going to have a place and
the time to
create.’
no baby, if you’re going to create
you’re going to create whether you work
16 hours a day in a coal mine
or
you’re going to create in a small room with 3 children
while you’re on
welfare,
you’re going to create with part of your mind and your
body blown
away,
you’re going to create blind
crippled
demented,
you’re going to create with a cat crawling up your
back while
the whole city trembles in earthquakes, bombardment,
flood and fire.
baby, air and light and time and space
have nothing to do with it
and don’t create anything
except maybe a longer life to find
new excuses
for.
~~ Charles Bukowski ~~
********************************
Today’s final pearl, old-school variety, is special, but, don’t ask me why. Instead, read it, let it percolate a bit, then, decide for yourself why I might say that. I even gave y’all a clue, at the top of the section. If you require it, call it homework, or a challenge. Anything you want….. I call it
Esoterica/Life at Large
“You cannot put the same shoe on every foot.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 596
“Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Meditations, viii, 51
“We are being educated when we know it least.” — David Gardner
“All conversations with a potato should be conducted in private.” — Wilner’s Observation
“The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who would be friends.” — Shirley MacLaine
“How you do anything is how you do everything.” — Zen proverb
“Life is too short for grief. Or regret. Or bullshit.” — Edward Abbey
“I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind.” — Antoine de Saint Exupery
“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.” — Anais Nin
“But my dear man, reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.” — Alan Watts
Emancipate yourself from mental slavery,
None but ourselves can free our minds.
~~ Bob Marley ~~
********************************
What an ordeal! Suffice it to say, again, it’s done. It was such an ordeal, I’ll not bore you further, but, will take my leave, stage virtual. I will, however, leave you with the knowledge of my return, tomorrow, should Fate be kind…. Of course, we make our own Fate, so, well, you get the picture…. If nobody stops me, I’ll be back…. 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.
“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”
~~ Samuel Clemens, (Mark Twain) ~~
Galway Bay Sea Wall, looking South East
Hajime…. Having daily examples as to the veracity and ubiquitous nature of Murphy’s Laws, it should’nt have surprised me this morning when he decided to make my title all-too-appropriate. As some of y’all know (because I haven’t explained in a while) the titles of these Pearls are NOT connected, in any way other than subconsciously to what takes place below them, in the blog itself. I create them before actually finishing the blog, when I’m preparting the email version to be sent out.
When creating a title, the primary characteristics I shoot for are two-fold. First, it must make little or no actual sense in reality; second, it should have nothing at all to connect it to the contents of the day’s post. That’s it. If it turns out to be a compelling phrase that actually brings new people in to read, simply because of its weirdness, so much the better. Once it is done, and typed into the subject line, THEN I go finish writing whatever parts of the Pearl aren’t done…. Simple, yes?
Today, however, about 30 seconds after writing it in the email, Murphy himself stepped in; I saw it. An invisible hand pushed a jar of magic cream over the edge of the table where my computer sits (I tend to keep it close by….), knocking it to the floor, where the lid flew off, and the cream flew out, spreading itself in a nicely formed splash pattern, all over the couch and floor, BETWEEN two parts of a shelf, where it was nearly impossible to reach….
Perfect place for me to ruin my back completely to clean it up….. SIGH…. He is SUCH an asshole!
However, I managed to get it cleaned up, in spite of the massive pain in my back, the curious cat, who had to investigate both the spill, and the cleanup process, closely enough to be in the way the whole time, and, the immensely painful, dangerous act of trying to get up from the awkward position on the floor needed to get AT the fucking mess…. Now, it has furnished me with WAY more than enough BS to fill up this intro, so, I suppose that would be the iconic silver lining all those assholes talk of all the time….
Fuck this. Let’s get to the oyster beds before somebody comes to the door, and I end up in jail for killing an innocent person, Not a great start to the day, I’d imagine…. Instead, I’ll employ one of our newest toys, which I found in an old cabinet, in a dark corner of the Tardis….. Looks old, but, serviceable…. I’m going to push this button, right here, marked, “Anywhere at all”…..
Shall we Pearl?….
“When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale.” — G. K. Chesterton, Heretics, CW, I, p.143
********************************
Ludwig van Beethoven Image from dectrendsk.esy.es via Google Images
Even though most of the time I choose to ignore my training as a consumer, like every other American child, I was taught how to make decisions based solely on expediency….. I’m making one such today, simply because Leelu is trying to make it impossible to finish this post before taking an hour to play with her; she just wasn’t satisfied with the half-hour I already gave her…. She’s sitting, now, about four inches from the computer, staring at the screen, trying hard to be in the way….
SIGH…. That’s why you get this choice, because it was simple, and, you can take over the finding of any further selections for yourself, by following the link to the page on You Tube where this version of the Fifth lives…. Enjoy! I gotta go figure out how to get the next section done before she starts biting for attention….
All seems infected that th’ infected spy,
As all looks yellow to the jaundic’d eye.
~~ Alexander Pope ~~
~~ Essay on Criticism, Part ii, Line 358 ~~
“In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.” — Buddha
This particular icon, which I stole from another blogging friend, isn’t often seen atop this section. But, this particular example of mindfulness and insight from Gautama Buddha, made its use mandatory. So be it…..
Let’s examine this assertion for its relevance in today’s world, shall we? Why not? We have little better to do than try to discover some of the reasons our world is in the throes of a desperate need for accepting change, for, if we do not, I suspect there is little hope for our entire species, as well as many others, to survive the coming century. Hopefully, we can find a consensus amongst the people of the world which will afford at least an opportunity to live through it, rather than merely more proof there isn’t any chance at all….
How, you may ask, do the words of the Buddha apply today? Well, let’s see….. Hmm…. Perhaps, the quote above the Buddha’s laughing face, by Pope, says, in essence, much the same as does the Buddha; the difference is only one of POV, and, perhaps, a matter of syntax, and, who the fuck cares about that?
We all SHOULD, of course, but, hey, nobody much even likes to say “syntax”, much less learn what it means, or how important it is to communication…. Humans are funny that way; if they don’t wish to learn something ( which is, in essence, denying their very nature, as the creature most able TO learn….)( Maybe….. Hard to say exactly what the dolphins have figured out already that we don’t…. They are the only ones on this planet with a bigger brain, comparatively….), they just WON’T. Perverse, as well as lazy, it seems….
Since we humans ARE lazy, and, I’m human, I’m going to change directions here. The concept under discussion is the human mind, and, how it works for us, essentially. The accuracy of Buddha’s observation, and understanding of that nature shows us, in an unequivocal fashion, how the world’s status today, in a state of inordinate chaos, in society, in government, in personal relations between people, has, at its root, this part of our nature, for it leads us to depend on the illusions and delusions we are taught from the cradle, to use expedience as a reason for acting, to using Ego to drive ALL of our social interactions, until the confusion reaches the point at which we see it, where nobody on the planet has any sort of peace….. not to mention the simple fact we are going to kill our entire species, taking thousands of other life-forms down with us, if we don’t change rapidly the way we are approaching life.
That said, it seems Smart Bee wants to place much of the blame on our theory, a badly mistaken one, that we NEED to be governed, for our own good…. Such bullshit! Let’s see what he/she/it found for us, rather than listen to my ranting any further, shall we? We shall….
“I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.” — H. L. Mencken
“The sense of justice springs from self-respect; both are coeval with our birth. Children are born with an innate sense of justice; it usually takes twelve years of public schooling and four more years of college to beat it out of them.” — Edward Abbey
“On a throne at the center of a sense of humor sits a capacity for irony. All wit rests on a cheerful awareness of life’s incongruities. It is a gentling a awareness, and no politician without it should be allowed near power.” — George Will
“A hand grenade exploded in a school of fish will supply food for days.” — U.S. Armed Forces Survival Manual
“Lawyers: the best argument against gun control..” — Fuckin’ A Bee
“Money confers the power to command the labor of others. Love of money is love of power. And love of power is the root of evil.” — Edward Abbey
“The “beast” is a myth we have created, a scapegoat, upon which we project the image of ourselves we are unwilling to acknowledge. When anyone behaves in a peculiarly unpleasant manner we tend to answer that he behaved “like a beast,” when the fact is, of course, that no beast every behaves so iniquitously as men frequently does… The myth of the beast is perpetuated from generation to generation. The result is a perversely distorted view of the nature of other animals, and a profoundly impoverishing failure to understand our true kinship with the rest of animated nature. So-called primitive peoples have never lost this kinship with other animals… Without the benefit of a Darwinian theory of evolution our technologically less advanced peoples in their creation myths and in their conduct toward the animal world exhibit a far deeper understanding of the interrelatedness of all living things than does so-called civilized man.” — Ashley Montagu,_The Humanization of Man_, 1962
********************************
Poetry-wise, today, I got nothin’. Here’s a poet damn near everyone has heard of, but, few have read, or appreciated, though she is responsible for the very nature of ALL the poetry we see today…. From a VERY LONG fucking TIME AGO, here is the poetess who began much of it all…..
He Is More Than a Hero
He is more than a hero
he is a god in my eyes–
the man who is allowed
to sit beside you — he
who listens intimately
to the sweet murmur of
your voice, the enticing
laughter that makes my own
heart beat fast. If I meet
you suddenly, I can’t
speak — my tongue is broken;
a thin flame runs under
my skin; seeing nothing,
hearing only my own ears
drumming, I drip with sweat;
trembling shakes my body
and I turn paler than
dry grass. At such times
death isn’t far from me
~~ Sappho ~~
circa 600 BC
********************************
I couldn’t help myself. The picture is too perfect for today’s final pearl. You’ll need to read all of them before you will know why…. Tricky, I know, but, hey, works for me, eh? Enjoy, ffolkes. Oh, some of them may appear weird, or out of place. They’re not; just go with it, you’ll see…. Well, I hope….
**********
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.
~~ Alexander Pope ~~
~~ Essay on Man, Epistle ii, Line 1 ~~
**********
“Most people prefer certainty to truth.”
— Observant Bee
**********
“Then again, e=mc^2 may only be a local phenomenon.”
— Einstein
**********
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro…”
~~ Dr. Hunter S. Thompson ~~
**********
“Healthy mindedness is inadequate as a philosophical doctrine,
because the evil facts which it refuses positively to account for
are a genuine portion of reality;
and they may after all
be the best key to life’s significance.”
~~ William James ~~
**********
“The things you can’t laugh at control you.”
~~ Buddha Bee ~~
**********
“Take a dog for a companion and a stick in your hand.”
~~ English Proverb ~~
**********
“Love is a dog from hell.”
~~ Charles Bukowski ~~
**********
“‘T is but a part we see, and not a whole.”
~~ Alexander Pope ~~
~~ Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 60 ~~
I like balance. Don’t you? Balance is good….
********************************
Having thus completed THIS duty, I can now go perform the next. That’s how it works; the completion of one duty provides the privilege of acting upon the next. Otherwise, it becomes hard to look one’s self in the eye each morning in the mirror…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, as long as the sun comes up again…. As I’ve said in the past, the odds on that are pretty good….
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 