Rebates are better than debates….

Posted on March 9, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Pitiful….. just plain pitiful. Maybe, pathetic would fit better? I suppose both, or either, will do…. Hmm? Oh, sorry, forgot y’all were due in now…. Oh, nothing much, just trying to come up with the right adjective to describe my social life…. I do have a lady friend, with whom I have been spending some pleasant hours, but it’s a slow process, carrying out a campaign of courtship with virtually no funds that can be assigned to recreational purposes. Other than the small number of hours I spend with her, I’m pretty much limited to my trips to the library for my social interactions….. Not exactly party central around here, is it?…..

S’okay…. I never was a big partier, anyway…. I always preferred just a few folks sitting around shooting the breeze and imbibing adult beverages, or other recreational pastimes that shall remain unnamed, due to the statute of limitations, which has NOT expired…. 🙄 Let’s just say I wasn’t what might be called mainstream, not that I ever have been…. But, clubs and big crowds were never on the list of stuff I enjoyed a lot…. Thankfully. I never saw much sense in the group scenes that were prevalent in my youth; it all seemed to me to be the same impulse as getting excited over celebrities, and I just wasn’t going there….

What does all this boring shit have to do with a Pearl of Virtual Wisdom? Well, not much, really, other than the physical facts, i.e., here it is, sitting here at the front of this post, taking up space that could have been filled with biting sarcasm, or thrilling inspiration, or even a compelling poem. Instead, all you’re getting this morning is a chatty, boring discussion of my social history…. whoopee….

I know, I know, now you’re wondering what I intend to do from this point on…. which, if you will stop to think about it, is a rather silly question, considering of whom it is being asked….. Do you think you’ll get a straight answer to that query? If you do, you haven’t been paying very close attention…. and you will deserve whatever happens. Those of you familiar with my style will know by now that all of this is just a smoke screen, covering my retreat from reality, until I can consume enough coffee to ensure that I won’t kill anybody in the first hour after arising….. It’s not a guaranteed outcome, but, it’s better than the alternative, which involves a lot of screaming, and more blood than is convenient….

And, there, see?…. Here we are, five dumb paragraphs in, and it’s enough to call an intro! Well, we can call it that, as it is big enough; whether or not it meets ANY of the other parameters for such is questionable, to say the least. But, given the issues I’ve been encountering in getting these intro sections done, I’m not going to be overly picky. Especially on a morning like this, when I’m not even sure if I WANT to be awake at all…..

Thus, we will gird our grid, hitch up our belt, gather up our rosebuds, and get on with the show…. I’m sure we’ll all be better for it, and who knows? We might even find something worthwhile in our search for pearls…. If not, we can always drop back ten yards, and punt….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Though I have said above that all men by nature are equal, I cannot be supposed to understand all sorts of equality. Age or virtue may give man a just precedence. Excellency of parts and merit may place others above the common level … And yet all this consists with the equality which all men are in, in respect of jurisdiction or dominion, one over another.” — John Locke

Whew! As an explanation of the opening of the Declaration of Independence, this hits the top of the pomposity scale, but, all in all, is quite clear, and correct in its conclusions. It’s merely a long-winded way of saying that all men are not created with equal abilities or resources, but, they all are created with equal rights under the law…. hopefully. (That last qualifier is my contribution to the idea, prompted by my opinion of most of those involved in the justice system as, shall we say, less than completely honest, and less than completely impartial?) (I mean, really, ffolkes…. we choose our judges from the ranks of LAWYERS!…. How many honest, impartial candidates are we liable to find?…. Not many, I assure you…. it just doesn’t go with the territory….)

“Once I belonged to a group that really had THE WORD. I fought like hell for them. But another group came along and exposed the word of my group as shallow and degenerate. They had a better word. So I quit the first group and lost all the friends I had made and I joined up with this new group. I fought like hell for them. But another group came around. They exposed the word of my group as false and materialistic. Their word was very much better. So I quit the second group and lost all the friends I had made. And I joined up with this new group. I fought like hell for them. Till this one guy came along and proved that there wasn’t any word at all. That I should go off as an individual and grow! So I quit the last group and lost all the friends I had made. And now I sit home alone all day and all I do is grow. It would be nice to join up with some others who feel the way I do.” — J. Feiffer

One of the reasons we humans have such a hard time with the concept of equality lies in our own level of ignorance regarding ourselves. There is a delicate balance between what a person thinks of themselves, and what the world knows about them to be true…. If the two are not at least within shouting distance of each other, that person’s life will be filled with pain and controversy, as his own self-image is repeatedly destroyed by reality…. And, our self-image can be a very difficult thing to maintain because, as humans, we need the company and approval of other humans. The paragraph above by Mssr. Feiffer describes very well the philosophical journey that many take while learning to assess their own place in the world…. it’s kind of pathetic, in a way, but typical for all that….

“In my day, we didn’t have self-esteem, we had self-respect, and no more of it than we had earned.” — Jane Haddam

This lack of understanding of self is what allows most humans to be controlled by others. The others, by whom I mean the BRC, the priestly hierarchies, and all those with no compunctions about how they go about achieving their own ends, find those who have no self-knowledge quite easy to fool, to convince, and to control. They merely tell them what they wish to hear, no matter how outrageously false it may be, and the blindness of the ignorant will supply all the belief required, because it is what they WANT to hear…..

A man, or a woman, who knows themselves cannot be fooled into that kind of acceptance of anything without compelling evidence; their self-image allows them the confidence to make their own decisions, rather than relying on someone else to do it for them. Because they are honest themselves, they are able to differentiate truth from fiction, and thus cannot be fooled into accepting what they know to be false.

Their own self-honesty acts as a protection of sorts against that sort of manipulation, while at the same time giving them the freedom to exercise the right to make their own choices. Those who do not believe they are strong, are not….. This is why people are not equal, not in abilities; it is also why it is important that the law ensures that they at least are granted equal rights with everyone else… This at least makes an attempt at leveling the playing field, while acknowledging that a great many of the players are going to cheat…..

“For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.” — Ivan Panin

Whenever I look at humanity as a whole, I am often filled with a sadness that comes from my own knowledge of science, sociology, psychology, and extensive experience in Reality. The sadness is because I know how much promise humanity holds, such promise as to make the gods weep in envy of the beauty we are able to create with our imagination…. and I know that our own foolishness is very close to shutting off that promise forever, or at least, for this period of the history of the universe…. I suspect we will have another opportunity to interact with reality, though it may not be this particular version of it….

But, there are just too many of the selfish, unfeeling, manipulative, power-hungry assholes mixed in with all of us relatively nice ffolkes, intent on grabbing all the power and money, which they equate with happiness, that they can during their short stay here. They are, unknowingly, rushing us all to an early death, seemingly, without caring, as they do not believe they are vulnerable to the same dangers as the rest of us…. Ignorance is firmly tied to belief, and even strong evidence does not convince those who will not see it…. All I can say is, it’s a damn shame…..

“The improver of knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties, blind faith the one unpardonable sin.” — Thomas Huxley (1825-1895)

Luckily, there are still a few of us out there who don’t buy into the BS that most of society goes along with…. and a great many of us are blogging…. It gives me a bit of hope, though not much; there is a LOT of historical momentum to overcome for anything to change, and I am not aware of it happening, try as I might to see it. But, every time I read more blogs, I see more ffolkes who have a clue, so, I guess I’ll go so far as to cling to that one little hopeful sign, and keep on preaching to the choir…. It’s about all I can do these days to try to help the situation, and little as it may be, I’ll keep on truckin’ down that lonesome road…..

“The disappointment of manhood succeeds to the delusion of youth: let us hope that the heritage of old age is not despair.” — Benjamin Disraeli (Earl Beaconsfield) (1805-1881) — Vivian Grey, Book viii, Chap. iv
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It’s been awhile, and I feel like some Emily…. here’s a three-fer…. Please enjoy! (Shawna, you may skip down to the last section, if you wish…. 😆 )

I stepped from plank to plank
So slow and cautiously;
The stars about my head I felt,
About my feet the sea.

I knew not but the next
Would be my final inch,–
This gave me that precarious gait
Some call experience.

~~ Emily Dickinson
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I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us — don’t tell!
They’d advertise — you know!

How dreary to be somebody!
How public like a frog
To tell one’s name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

~~ Emily Dickinson
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I went to heaven,–
‘T was a small town,
Lit with a ruby,
Lathed with down.
Stiller than the fields
At the full dew,
Beautiful as pictures
No man drew.
People like the moth,
Of mechlin, frames,
Duties of gossamer,
And eider names.
Almost contented
I could be
‘Mong such unique
Society.

~~ Emily Dickinson
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Not being inclined to fuss with something that isn’t broken, here for your delectation is a harlequin pearl, fresh from Smart Bee to you, with only the bare minimum of rational thought involved in the selection process…. I find that irrational works better in these cases…. enjoy! Oh, yes, if there does end up being a point, you get a bonus prize for voicing it…. The nature of that prize will remain my secret, ~~until launch hour,~~ er, until such time as I find a winner…. 😀 It won’t be on the test, though, so that’s something….

“Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.” — Voltaire

“I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

“If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us.” — Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.

“Humor is, I think, the subtlest and chanciest of literary forms. It is surely not accidental that there are a thousand novelists, essayists, poets or journalists for each humorist. It is a long, long time between James Thurbers.” — Leo Rosten

“Every day, people are straying away from the church and going back to God.” — Lenny Bruce

“I searched into myself.” — Heraclitus

The cup goes round:
And who so artful as to put it by!
‘T is long since Death had the majority.

— Robert Blair (1699-1747) — The Grave, Part ii, Line 449
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Is it possible to be mindful and detached at once? Well, I guess that’s rhetorical, because it must be; that’s how I feel right now. Let’s see if the Pearl reflects that at all…. Hmm…. not too shabby at all…. I’ll take it. Such being the case, I’m going to break tradition, and leave it at that…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

In the mall of the fountain Ming….

Posted on March 8, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Picture, if you will, a man…. his head is bowed, as he sends his thousand-yard stare into the ground, every line of his figure speaking of inner turmoil and emotional pain. He rocks back on his heels, his head flown back, uttering a cry of absolute anguish to the heavens…. “I’m a fucking idiot!” A huge voice comes out of the sky, and says, “I know….”

Now, if you can extend your imagination just a tad further, placing an image of my face on the man…. Yep, that’s me…. the f__ing idiot. (Why hide the curse now? I dunno, just felt like the thing to do…. Leave me alone, I’m writing on instinct here….) Just one more bozo on the bus, without the advantage of the horn or the big shoes…. and not a squirting flower in sight! SIGH…. it’s a sad day, ffolkes, for sure….

What’s all the fuss about, you ask? Who knows?…. No, actually, this is all just putting myself through the wringer for the dumb-ass move I made yesterday…. I was reading the Pearl from yesterday, and noted that my rant spoke to a certain issue, which I glibly described as “global warming and overpopulation”, whereupon, just as if I knew what I was talking about, I proceeded to speak about climate change….

Now, climate change is indeed an issue of note, and it IS connected directly to the issue of global warming… but, neither is directly connected to overpopulation, which was NOT the issue whereof I intended to speak…. Any who, it should have read “global warming and climate change” which is what the POTUS was addressing; overpopulation, while a serious issue, is not the same thing, and should not have been anywhere near the discussion at the time…..

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa…. consider that I’ve said that six times, just like the priest would want me to do…. Besides, what can we do now about population control? Hand out more condoms? Doesn’t seem to be working too well at this point, so maybe we should re-think that particular issue, eh?

Well, the intro isn’t the place to worry about that kind of stuff…. though, it has yet to be determined exactly what kind of stuff DOES go into an intro around here… That particular item seems to change its shape every day, as I go through new and exciting (hopefully) formats and scenarios in my search for the ultimate opening. My random approach doesn’t seem very effective in finding same, but, hey, it keeps me off the streets in the morning, so, bonus….

I’m now certain I’ve piddled around long enough to call it a wrap on this intro section, but, even if I weren’t, I’d stop here, as I’m completely out of ideas about where to go with it….. Heading out for the daily dive seems like the best solution all around…. Shall we Pearl?…..

“Capt’n! The spellchecker kinna take this abuse!” — Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott

“Dew knot trussed yore spell chequer two fined awl yore mistakes.” — Brendan Hills
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Smart Bee is having a tough morning, pearl-wise; I can’t seem to find a single worthy quote…. so, I’m going to fall back on my vast repertoire of Past Pearls, which I try not to abuse by using too often. In fact, I think this is only the second time in almost two years I’ve done so…. Any who, this particular pearl is a tough one… I wrote it last July, on the third of that month, and it remains as valid today as it was then…. Perhaps more so, as the situation has changed not at all, nor will it, until people start to realize the extent of the problem…. I won’t say “enjoy”, as you won’t…. I will say, “listen up, please”…..

“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, Taoist

So, as it turns out, I am a coward. What I mean by that is, when it comes to emotional pain, I will go through all sorts of contortions to avoid it. I will distract myself, I’ll deny, I’ll forget…. all time-tested methods of putting something unpleasant aside. I can say in my own defense that a) I’ve already experienced enough turmoil in my life, and don’t need more, and b) I have yet to start lying to myself about being a coward in this area…..

How does the butterfly koan apply? That’s for me to know, and you to figure out…. No, really, sorry, I didn’t mean that, just fooling around. It applies because the world exists in duality; we perceive that universe by defining and evaluating those dualities according to their relation to each other (light/dark, etc.) as well as according to our own preconceptions and/or preferences. Sometimes what we perceive is clear and readily defined, while at other times, one can make no “heads or tails” of what we see, hear, taste, smell, or feel. And sometimes, the perceptions are just so powerful that we cannot easily deal with what we are perceiving, so we retreat from them. Or I do, anyway….

Now, my cowardice in this respect is, perhaps, justifiable. I put myself through a lot of hard times during certain periods in my life, and the emotional toll was heavy. I am now more in balance, but the feelings and thoughts I had can come back in full force, at unexpected moments… Such is the case when I read about the sex trade, and think about how many of my sisters in the world are still being abused, physically and mentally, by the misogynistic assholes that perpetrate the atrocities so prevalent in that trade.

I have previously re-blogged several articles from blog sites written by women who have survived, and left, the sex trade. The stories they tell, and the insights they have come to have, are incredibly powerful, and wrenching to the emotions. It is a rare thing for me to be able to stop myself from crying after reading the first paragraph, and it can take me ten minutes to read a two page article, as I have to stop and compose myself before returning to the story being related. I am always astounded by the strength of mind it took for them to get where they are, and I grieve for the pain and misery they still must contend with, as survivors of Hell, burdened with PTSD (my old friend….).

Reading their stories also has the effect on me of wanting to buy a gun, and start eliminating some of the traffickers from the planet. This urge arises out of my anger and guilt, for it is males who perpetrate the atrocities, and I am ashamed of how low others of my gender can sink. But, alas, until I CAN afford to buy one, that little dream will have to wait…..

All I can do is to try to make people aware of the extent of the problem, by directing them to the stories told by the women who have lived through that Hell, with re-blogs and pearls such as this one. That is why I say I’ve been a coward, because my mind cravenly hid the awareness that connects to the outrage I feel when I get started on this issue, not being brave enough to put my emotions up on that higher level….and used the technical glitch I’ve been having with WordPress as an excuse (I’m currently unable to connect to any other WP sites if I’m signed in… I just get sent to a blank page while the browser falls into an infinite loop….).

Hence this somewhat dispassionate discussion of the issue. I’ve managed to get through this without bursting into tears, so I’ll consider myself lucky, and make myself a promise to re-blog for them as soon as I can get there to do so…. and I’ll not let myself chicken out…. This is an issue that will not go away; we men will never be free until we free our sisters from this bondage….

To read some of these articles yourself, use the WordPress search function to find these three sites, by blog titles…. Diary of A Dublin Call Girl; rmott62- Are We Not Human?; and Stella Mar, a Manhattan Call Girl…. All three have powerful messages that need to be spread around the planet….
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For some reason, this just seemed to fit…. not that I have any intent of checking out of this hotel anytime soon…. But, it kind of goes along with the other material…. It’s a bit long, but I know that won’t scare any of MY readers…. Any who, please enjoy a bit of the classics….

A Poet’s Epitaph

Art thou a Statist in the van
Of public conflicts trained and bred?
–First learn to love one living man;
‘Then’ may’st thou think upon the dead.

A Lawyer art thou?–draw not nigh!
Go, carry to some fitter place
The keenness of that practised eye,
The hardness of that sallow face.

Art thou a Man of purple cheer?
A rosy Man, right plump to see?
Approach; yet, Doctor, not too near,
This grave no cushion is for thee.

Or art thou one of gallant pride,
A Soldier and no man of chaff?
Welcome!–but lay thy sword aside,
And lean upon a peasant’s staff.

Physician art thou? one, all eyes,
Philosopher! a fingering slave,
One that would peep and botanise
Upon his mother’s grave?

Wrapt closely in thy sensual fleece,
O turn aside,–and take, I pray,
That he below may rest in peace,
Thy ever-dwindling soul, away!

A Moralist perchance appears;
Led, Heaven knows how! to this poor sod:
And he has neither eyes nor ears;
Himself his world, and his own God;

One to whose smooth-rubbed soul can cling
Nor form, nor feeling, great or small;
A reasoning, self-sufficing thing,
An intellectual All-in-all!

Shut close the door; press down the latch;
Sleep in thy intellectual crust;
Nor lose ten tickings of thy watch
Near this unprofitable dust.

But who is He, with modest looks,
And clad in homely russet brown?
He murmurs near the running brooks
A music sweeter than their own.

He is retired as noontide dew,
Or fountain in a noon-day grove;
And you must love him, ere to you
He will seem worthy of your love.

The outward shows of sky and earth,
Of hill and valley, he has viewed;
And impulses of deeper birth
Have come to him in solitude.

In common things that round us lie
Some random truths he can impart,–
The harvest of a quiet eye
That broods and sleeps on his own heart.

But he is weak; both Man and Boy,
Hath been an idler in the land;
Contented if he might enjoy
The things which others understand.

–Come hither in thy hour of strength;
Come, weak as is a breaking wave!
Here stretch thy body at full length;
Or build thy house upon this grave.

~~ William Wordsworth
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In keeping with today’s theme, I’m re-printing here a pearl, part of a five-section pearl, from when I was even more prolific than now. This one is from a Pearl I posted on March 24, 2012…. It’s got a little bit of everything in it…. enjoy!

Here are a few historical observations on our preferred form of public entertainment……

“Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.” — Plato, The Republic. Book VIII. 558

“Democracy is more cruel than wars or tyrants.” — Seneca, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium CIV, c. 63

“Termiter’s argument that God is His own grandmother generated a surprising amount of controversy among Church leaders, who on the one hand considered the argument unsupported by scripture but on the other hand were unwilling to risk offending God’s grandmother.” — Len Cool, American Pie
(Okay, it’s not political, but, hey, funny, right?….) (and kind of appropriate, if I stop to think about it…..)
(kind of sounds similar to the current controversy over creationism and evolution….)

“I contemplate with sovereign reverence the act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and state.” — Thomas Jefferson, to the Danbury (Connecticut) Baptist Association in 1802
(Whoops! How’d he get in here?….)

Man is a religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion – several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight.” — Mark Twain — The Damned Human Race
(Okay, okay…. busted! Religion and politics seem to have merged in my mind this morning…. funny how that happens…. but it still fits the category, so, deal….)

and, on a final note, let’s combine the two previously revealed (reviled?) culprits in one fine, almost-a-limerick plea for mercy….

Dear Lord, observe this bended knee
This visage meek and humble,
And hear this confidential plea
Voiced in reverent mumble:
Give me Shylock, give me Fagin
But O God spare me Ronald Reagan!

— Ansel Adams

If God is omnipotent, why does he need my money? (Sorry, couldn’t resist…. I’m done for now…..)

See? Not everything from the past is old and grey and useless…. sometimes it’s new, black and white, and useless….
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So, you may have noted that today’s Pearl contained very little new material…. This is due to necessity, which dictates I take a trip to Kaiser this morning, so, I opted to produce a Pearl out of the past, since I’ve got so much material, not even I have any idea just how much there is to choose from… but, it’s a LOT!

So, to save some time, I raided the past…. Deal with it, is all I can suggest…. As I look back over what I’ve done today, I find it hangs together pretty well…. I’m keeping it, as it fits my needs perfectly…. As we are all humans here, you will naturally expect me to act in a self-serving manner, so, it won’t surprise you to be escorted out briskly, now that I’m done with you…. See ya…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Don’t laugh; Americans are often ludicrous…

Posted on March 7, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Well, crap….. What a way to start the day…… I suppose there’s no getting around this one, so, you’ll have to excuse me for a bit, while I deal with the oh-so-damned-important issue that Murphy has thought up for my delectation this morning…. I’ll be right back, hopefully…. Bloody ass….

What a PITA…. No, you don’t really want to know….. Murphy has been conspicuously absent for a couple of days, and I should have known, given his proclivity for mischief, that he was cooking up something special for me, and, sure enough, this morning I awoke to this, this,…. hell, I’m not sure how to even describe the scene that greeted me on awakening today. So, rather than put everyone else reading this into the state I’m in, we’ll just ignore what happened, and take it as a good omen that it didn’t cost me any money, only time and angst, of which I, sadly, have in plentiful supply….. Well, okay, it also took an entire roll of paper towels and some vigorous scrubbing, to get rid of the obscene graffiti, but that comes with the territory, I guess….

None of that, however, is of any help with this intro, or in getting this Pearl started, and it has distracted me so much that I’m close to using emergency procedure #7, which, given its nature, I try to use only once in a decade; its effect on the nature of space and time is somewhat unpredictable, and I’m not sure we can afford any wobbles just now in the space-time continuum. It’s suffering enough right now from global warming and overpopulation, and doesn’t need further stress that could lead to a breakdown of unimaginable proportions. Planets careening out of orbit, suns exploding, lions mating with sheep, it would be a universe gone mad…. You can see why I hesitate to use #7 very often….

Or, I suppose I could go with procedure #5…. I haven’t used that in ages. Of course, it’s an expensive one to use, being constructed of platinum as it is, and only able to withstand a single use before melting down…. Platinum is hard to find, and not cheap, so I think I’ll wait on that one, too… I reckon, since all the others don’t seem to be quite the right procedure to get this done, we’ll have to fall back on emergency procedure #1, with which, I’m sure, you thought you were familiar…. and, you’d be right, as I use it often, more often than any other….

What is procedure #1, you ask? Well, you are smack dab in the middle of it…. that’s the one where I sort of ramble around a conversation, drifting from one nonsensical paragraph to the next, all without ever saying a damn thing that could be considered to be literary, or even relatively intelligent…. You will note, please, at this point, we have now reached the required five paragraph minimum for an intro, and, as is plain to see, not a damn thing said that could be construed as “writing”…. more like babbling, I would say….

Having thus fulfilled the minimum requirements, I’m going to go with the flow, as it were, and head off to dive…. It seems like the best idea for all the concerned parties…. I can get out of this ridiculous situation, and you can cease having to keep from getting the splashes on your clothing…. What a deal! Shall we Pearl?…..
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“It is useless for sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while wolves remain of a different opinion.” — William Ralph Inge, D. D. 1860 – 1954

I’ve seen this little statement before, and like it a lot, for its honesty in describing our Beloved Ruling Class in relation to the flock of sheep that comprises most of mankind. And, yes, this is the beginning of another politirant….. This one is prompted by the most recent activities that our leaders, if such word applies, have been shown to be engaged in by the news outlets I watch…. to wit: the legislation under review and up for vote in the House of Reps that is concerned with the economy, to wit: the “sequester”, and the recent comments by the POTUS re: global warming and climate change…. Let’s see what we can note about these issues, shall we?….

I have noticed that the Congress, and the POTUS, are currently at odds, as usual, over the economy, and arguing over how to address an issue over which they have absolutely no control…. I just don’t get it, actually…. There is no evidence whatsoever that anything the government does, or has ever done, about the economy has any effect at all on it…. none.

Zero. Zilch. Nada damn thing…. The economy of the world, or even just this nation, is not subject to any manipulation by us; it’s too big, too amorphous…. It’s like trying to herd cats…. a lot of effort for small results, and you end up with a bunch of pissed off felines… If you know anything about cats, you will realize that this is never a good thing….

Yet, because the public demands that something be done, the politicians start their idiotic posturing, pontificating, and, otherwise polluting the airwaves with nonsensical suggestions as to what should be done to fix the problems. NONE of those ever work, nor will they ever work; the economy does not move according to any rules that we can control, or even know, and any action we take is just as liable to have a bad effect as a good one….. But, the public wants the government to fix it, so the politicos in the BRC try to make noises as if they actually could do something helpful, when in fact, anything they do is as liable to hurt, as it is to help….. Sad, but, true as the day is long….

It’s actually kind of fun watching the contortions they go through for issues such as this; since I know for a fact that none of it will have any real effect on the issue, I can enjoy the parade without worrying about whether it will actually do anything useful…. It is a bit depressing to watch, since I am aware of just how little can be done, but, the show can be entertaining, and it does pass the time…

The most depressing part is knowing that the public is actually buying all of what they are saying, and really do expect something to change for the better… But, then, I am always amazed at the depth of human stupidity. I don’t know why, as I KNOW how dumb people can be… I am one, you know…. but, it always is a surprise to see just how deeply that stupidity is ingrained in the human condition…

Of course, this stupidity is part and parcel of why we are experiencing the second issue I mentioned above… global warming and overpopulation. I will be very interested to see exactly how the POTUS intends to address the issue, as he has promised to do, several times now since his inauguration. Since the issue is well advanced beyond the point that most people think it is, what he does, or proposes to do, will be a telling factor in deciding how seriously the issue is being taken, and whether or not it will have any chance at all of being either enough to help, or soon enough to make a difference… Both of these are critical factors, as the point of no-return for the ecological balance of this planet is so near, it may have already been passed some months ago…..

I’m not sure how scientifically minded many of y’all are, but, I am… scientifically minded, that is, and I can tell you without fear of contradiction (from anyone with any reliable scientific knowledge, anyway….) that the atmosphere of this planet is, without doubt, and without evidence to the contrary, on the very edge of becoming unbreathable for humans….

The millions of tons of carbon monoxide, and other toxic substances, that are being pumped into the air EVERY SECOND, and that has been pumped in now for over a hundred years, has reached the point where it will begin a process of leaching oxygen from the air, and the balance of gases we need to survive will change…. Hell, it IS changing, and fairly rapidly, until it is no longer of a balance that we can safely breathe; moreover, once begun, the process is irreversible. The process is beyond our capability of stopping… This is scientific FACT, not speculation, not a guess…. The process has already begun, the only question remaining is, how quickly will it happen?

“In the game of life you get to choose where you keep your brain – heads you win, tails you lose.” — Smart Bee

So, we’ll see where the POTUS keeps his brain, as he speaks in the next few days about this issue… Whatever he decides to do, I would be willing to bet that it won’t be enough, and it won’t make a damn bit of difference, other than in a few Presidential approval polls, perhaps. After all, even though he is a fairly reform-oriented politician, he is still a politician, and you can lay good money, without fear of losing, on the fact that whatever he does is designed to benefit him and his Presidency, and any benefit for the public is a secondary concern….

He IS a politician, after all, and his primary concern is for his own success; it’s NOT the welfare of the people… He has merely discovered that being the “People’s Champion” is currently a good political stance to take…. If it ever becomes too itchy a coat to wear, he will take it off in a heartbeat…. Count on it…. You don’t get to that level of the game without being a complete asshole in some respects, and I don’t think anyone who WANTS to be President can be accused of not being ambitious, and, in the process, sociopathic….

“No people in the world ever did achieve their freedom by goody-goody talk and moral suasion: it being immutable law that all revolutions that will succeed, must begin in blood, whatever the answer afterward. If history teaches anything, it teaches that.” — Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)

In this case, we aren’t talking about freedom, unless by that, one means the freedom to stay alive…. and the BRC isn’t going to do anything about it, I don’t believe…. Or, rather, I’ll believe it when I see it, and, so far, no dice in that respect. I’m enough of a cynic to believe, sadly, that it isn’t GOING to happen, either… because I don’t believe that the POTUS, or the rest of the BRC, gives a damn about the rest of us, as long as they have their own….. This much is obvious from history, but, when did mankind at large ever pay any attention to history?….

If you have some evidence that contradicts that belief, I would dearly love to see it…. Truly, I would, because, quite frankly, my own intelligence, and the evidence I have now, forces me to conclude that we humans are shortly about to come to a bad end…. not with a bang, not with a whimper, but, choking to death in our own planet’s toxic air, victims to our own stupidity, and cupidity….

Daniel: “We’re damned if we do, we’re damned if we don’t; we need other options…” — from Stargate
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The verses you see below are from the poem, The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot…. which I thought would be the perfect poem to accompany my little politirant above…. but, it’s too long, so I’m including the most famous, and, most relevant, verses from the poem, and furnishing you with a link, should you wish to peruse the entire work; it’s pretty long, but well worth the time and effort to get all the way through…. But, I understand the limitations we all have on time, so, I give you this abbreviated version, and hope you enjoy it as much as I do…..

Excerpted from The Waste Land

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

~~ T.S. Eliot

Link to entire poem: The Waste Land
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Having ranted above, arguably, sufficiently unto the day, we will, of course, go old-school for the last pearl today…. I really like the harlequin style pearls that have been resulting of late from choosing pearls without any preconceived notions, so we’ll go with that technique again today…. after a short break to feed my remaining vice…. Enjoy!….

“In the beginning was the word. But by the time the second word was added to it, there was trouble. For with it came syntax…” — John Simon

“Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music.” — Diogenes (B.C. 412-323)

“Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile!” — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William S. Smith, Paris, Nov. 13, 1787

“Every sensible man, every honest man, must hold the Christian sect in horror. But what shall we substitute in its place? you say. What? A ferocious animal has sucked the blood of my relatives. I tell you to rid yourselves of this beast and you ask me what you shall put in its place?” — Voltaire

The soul’s dark cottage, batter’d and decay’d,
Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made.
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become
As they draw near to their eternal home:
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view
That stand upon the threshold of the new.

— Edmund Waller (1605-1687) — On the Divine Poems

“Reality? Nope, not for me, …It makes me laugh.” — Smart Bee

As far as I can tell, this is just about a perfect seven star pearl…. The conclusion, of course, is left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader….. 🙂
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All in all, this didn’t come out too badly…. I’ll take it. It isn’t often it’s so clearly acceptable, but, hey, even this blog has to get it right occasionally, right? Right…. Hence, I send it on its way, to stand alone, just as if it was important, or even sane… We know better, though, don’t we? Fear not, I’ll never tell…. and, before I get fully into piffle mode, I will bid thee adieu until tomorrow…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Byzantine tapestries sang the chorus….

Posted on March 4, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
A soft breeze was flowing off the water, bringing scents of faraway places to the veranda of the little house, sitting neatly at the edge of the sandy beach. Behind the house, tall palms and elaborately green foliage spread up the side of the mountain, which sloped down to the beach on both sides of the house. Ominous looking clouds hovered around the peak, seeming to warn of hidden dangers beneath their cottony billows, lurking in wait for unwary climbers. When the evening sun began to set, quickly, as it does at these latitudes, into the western ocean, a young woman stepped off the veranda, and began walking toward the water. She strode straight forward, into the waves, until she began to swim, outward, away from the shore, toward the open sea……

I think we’ll leave our protagonist right there, with all the possible scenarios that would fit the paragraph still in the nascent stage of which I am so fond…. Sorry, I know it annoys some ffolkes when I do that, but, some days, it’s all I can do to come up with a way to grab your attention for what follows. The subject matter around here, versatile as it is, can be somewhat dry; political science and/or religious monologues don’t draw attention quite so quickly as say, sex…. which I have so far been able to avoid using as a hook for this blog. I’m not sure why I made the decision, as it was made unconsciously, but I haven’t ever really tried my hand at writing about sex, other than as a peripheral factor in other discussions…

Actually, I find, as I get older, I am becoming, not so much more puritanical, though that is certainly part of the outcome, but shall we say, less urgently concerned with prurient matters than previously in my life. Oh, that isn’t to say that I’m not interested in sex any more; far from it. My participation in any such behavior is only limited by a distinct lack of willing partners, not by inclination.

This state of affairs (or, rather, lack of affairs….), while, I’m sure, temporary, is nonetheless somewhat disheartening, as you may imagine…. I’ve never been very good at celibacy, even though, having been married for a long time, I’m well acquainted with dealing with that unhappy state….. SIGH…. Not that I’m particularly invested with any real belief in astrology, but, I’ve always fit the description of a Scorpio to a T, in that regard, so my appetite for sex has always been strong….

If one REALLY believed the astrologers, then I would be considered to be a very sexually oriented person, as I am what is called a triple Scorpio, with my Sun, Moon, and Rising Signs all in Scorpio at the precise moment I was born, along with, I believe, three, or perhaps, four of the other planets…. I forget exactly…. A friend who was “into” astrology once cast my horoscope, but, I didn’t pay much attention beyond what I’ve relayed to you here….

Ah well, it’s all moot right now anyway; I don’t have an available partner, and if, or when one appears, there remains the obstacle of my pain, and the medication I take for it, which tends to both decrease the urge, and make difficult the process, because of the narcotic nature of the medication. I can perform just fine, but it requires a lot of focus, concentration, and effort, not easy at my age, but, well worth it…. I just don’t get the opportunity often right now. (A euphemism for “not at all, at all….. SIGH…..) There is one good thing to say about age and our attitudes about sex in general…. it isn’t any longer connected to the sense of urgency as when I was younger, so it is less painful when it isn’t happening regularly…. Thanks be for small favors, eh?….

Okay, I’ve now rambled and babbled about enough to call it an intro… it’s certainly long enough, though I’m not sure what any of it has to do with literature, or any of the stuff I usually write about. Ah, well, such is life here at ECR…. I never know exactly where I’m headed, so I am not burdened with too much angst ahead of time, worrying about how it will come out. Since I’ve now probably lost you completely, we’d best get on with the rest of today’s effort….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“We lie about the truth, that’s what ruins us here. And do you know why we lie about the truth? Not because we like to, but because we are scared to death of it. If we looked the truth in the eye nine out of ten of us would run to the graveyard and demand to be buried at once.” — Babbaluche the cobbler

Can you feel it? There it is, lurking just beyond the limit of perception… it’s a group of pulsating platitudes…. A bundle of asinine assumptions…. A plethora of petulant postulates…. A mixed bag of pointed metaphors and moral indictments…. Yes, it’s once more time for our morning politirant, that wonderful time when we bring to bear all of our sarcasm, sardonicism, cynicism, and tendency toward blather, aiming it exuberantly at that perfect group of targets, the Beloved Ruling Class, a term I borrowed, but only because it is so perfectly accurate, with just the right amount of sneering disdain….

Today’s pearl is one that barely needs explanation, or discussion, but, what kind of blog would this be if I let one like this go by without at least taking a shot or two at my favorite bunch of idiots? Not a very honest one, that’s for sure…. If the nose grows, you must let it show, and, due to the habitual bozoid behavior of the political beasts in this country, that nose is on the news every night…. attached to one political pundit’s face or another…

Honestly, I don’t make them say any of the stuff they do, nor do I need to make any of it up; I don’t have to do anything, and they provide me with ridiculous statements and outrageous lies for discussion with every other breath…. I only wish I got paid for every time they tell me/us a lie; I’d be able to afford to buy my own political office within a week or so…… Of course, if I wanted to be in a political office, I’d have to live up to the promise I made myself many years ago, and immediately commit suicide… It would be the only way to save my honor…..

Though I understand the process involved, I’ve never been able to fully understand the “why” questions that arise out of the natural progression of the political circus…. Questions like, why do we still elect people who lie to us? Why do we overlook the lies they tell us? Why are people so idiotic as to do this over and over and over again, for the past two hundred plus years in this country, and all over the world for centuries before that.

As far as I can see from history, especially considering the lies that are inherently part of the religious writings, lying for profit has been the chief sport of society since approximately 5000 BC…. If you don’t believe me, read it yourself…. it’s all there in writing, for all to see, provided they have the wit, and the inclination to accept, or even recognize, truth when they read it…..

“If you wants to get elected president, you’ve got to think up some memorable homily so’s school kids can be pestered into memorizin’ it, even if they don’t know what it means.” — Walt Kelly, The Pogo Party

It’s been said, by people wiser than me, that comedy, and humor, as expressed in comics, by comedians on stage and TV (in this century), and in the literature of the time, are all excellent indicators of the attitudes that are common to society, and show the true feelings of the people who are considered “the common man”. This cartoon strip, Pogo, by Walt Kelly was published in newspapers for 26 years, until his death in 1973; his wife continued publishing, using other artists, until at least 1983. In my opinion, after his death, it never reached the degree of genius Walt himself showed, though it faithfully carried on his tradition of gentle, yet telling, criticism of society, and of government in particular.

Note, if you will, in the above caption, the implied distrust of political candidates in general, which implies a lot about officials already elected, and “serving” in office. Mr. Kelly, and his work, were probably considered “suspiciously anti-American” by Joe McCarthy and his Band of Bigots, who were so prominent in the early 50’s. Since he continued to publish long after that group came into disrepute, I imagine his popularity, and genius, were sufficient protection to deflect any trouble from that quarter. Since I’m lazy, and this is already getting pretty wordy, I won’t go googling to find out exactly what occurred, but, I’d lay good money on my version being relatively accurate….

The strip did post one particular episode after Walt Kelly’s death, for Earth Day in 1983, that has become a classic iconic poster for that movement’s organization, and the last line, uttered by Pogo himself, still appears at times to support their cause at events…. on posters, of course…. Here is the strip made into a poster…. from Wikipedia…. I guess that answers my questions from above, doesn’t it? We now know why we let them lie…. because we are all as guilty of acting out of ignorance and self-interest as are our leaders….. If we are to be honest, at least with ourselves, we must accept responsibility for allowing the mess to build up in the first place…. The next question seems to suggest itself, I think….

What are we going to do about it?……
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“No harm can come to a good man in life or death.” — Socrates

Yesterday, I was in a sentimental mood, which arose naturally from having the opportunity to meet with my brothers, and one of my nephews, now an adult, for a late lunch. All three of us Moore brothers had not been together in person for about 10 years, so there was a certain poignancy attached that had nothing to do with my older brother’s impending battle with cancer, though that certainly added to the emotional content. In short, it was an emotion filled afternoon, and great fun to be able to sharpen my wits against a familiar pair of stones, with their equally facile wits scraping along against my rocky nature…..

My brothers, of course, are as strange as am I, with similar, if not always congruent, senses of humor; essentially, it would be fair to say we’re a trio of fairly odd ducks, especially when taken together…. Since my older brother is now 66, I am 62, and our baby brother is 58 this year, it gives us a combined total experience level of 186 years….. not bad….. but, a bit difficult to contain in one small restaurant booth without some randomness leaking out… It was entertaining to have my nephew there, as he hadn’t observed all of us together since he was quite young; he’s now 23, I think… and grown into a fine young man, unsurprisingly…. Any who, it was a wonderful two or three hours; my younger brother came to pick me up, so we were able to have an extended conversation, which was as enjoyable, and as widely-ranging, as ever….

There is no meaning attached to the choice of this poem today…. I picked it because I’m still feeling sentimental, and it is just a very soothing piece, one to encourage mellow contemplation, and quiet enjoyment of memories…. so, please feel free to do so….. 🙂

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

~~ Robert Frost
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Well, it seems that the Pearls are starting to assume a somewhat new consistency of structure and organization, as a simple result of having a sore hip and ass…. I need to spend less time in this chair, and more time walking to strengthen my legs and back muscles, to help support the hip, which has been sore, I believe, due to advancing arthritis that is slightly inflamed.

Any who, I’m not whining about that, I just wanted to explain why this third section has been so often an old-school pearl of late…. which reason being, the old-school pearls take less time to construct than do rants, or discussions of some other idea of note. That’s it…. also, I think one rant a day is enough to ask any of you to have to sit through, and think about…. I’ll start losing ffolkes due to fatigue before they can get to the closing….

So, here is another harlequin pearl, randomly picked to suit whatever was going through my tiny little mind at the time…. enjoy!…..

“A lady came up to me on the street and pointed to my suede jacket. “You know a cow was murdered for that jacket?” she sneered. I replied in a psychotic tone, “I didn’t know there were any witnesses. Now I’ll have to kill you too.” — Jake Johansen
(I swear I will remember this from now on when I’m in my leathers….)

“A Renaissance man diffuses to refine himself.” — Steve Hug
(Brilliant!….)

“I’ve seen many politicians paralyzed in the legs as myself, but I’ve seen more of them who were paralyzed in the head.” — George Wallace
(I actually remember reading this the day after he said it in some speech he made, when I was in college….)

“You’ve buttered your bread–now sleep in it.” — Gracie Allen
(I LOVE Gracie!….. She was a comic genius, and much deeper than she ever allowed herself to appear in public….)

“Before you put on a frown, make absolutely sure there are no smiles available.” — Jim Beggs
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

“To get anywhere, or even to live a long time, a man has to guess, and guess right, over and over again, without enough data for a logical answer.” — Lazarus Long, in Time Enough for Love, by Robert Heinlein
(Obvious to many, but unknown to even more…)

“Hopelessly lost, but making good time…” — Letterman

I gotta say, that last one is me, all over….. 🙂
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At the risk of sounding complacent, I like this Pearl. Hence, if I am to be completely honest, I would also have to say that I am completely indifferent as to whether or not anyone else enjoys it, but, alas, I’m human, and subject to the weaknesses we all share, including the tendency to lie to ourselves…. So, in short, I hope other ffolkes, and folks, enjoy it as well. I put some good effort into it, considering the limitations faced by being forced up & out of bed at 5 AM to get started by hip ache, and enforced breaks every few minutes for the same reason. It’s all good now, as this Pearl is now officially done… So be it…. gigoid has spoken, and will now shut the hell up….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Several of the anchovies have objected….

Posted on March 3, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Damn it! I knew this would happen! If I had listened to my own advice, I would have put it away somewhere safe…. But, nooooo….. I had to carry it around in my pocket like a book of matches or something, and now, it’s gone. Poof! Disappeared from my front left pocket, sometime between the time I put the pants on in the morning, to when I wanted to use it later that afternoon. My Dad always told me, if you want it safe, put it in your pocket; he forgot about holes, obviously, because that’s what happened here. Or, that’s what I assume, anyway, as it certainly wouldn’t have jumped out of the pocket, and there happens to be a medium sized hole, right at the bottom. Well, the size wouldn’t matter anyway, since it can assume almost any shape, and adjust its size as needed…..

Okay, you tell me….. what did I lose? I tried to write the above without a clue as to what it might be, and it looks as if I’ve succeeded at that quite well, thank you….. It’s all quite true, and there is actually an object, or rather a thing (yes, such a flexible noun is necessary….), that I seem to have lost…. well, that is, if one may assume that it was ever truly mine…. I’ll not keep you in suspense any longer, as I see there really isn’t any way to guess, unless you’re able to read my mind….. Have yet to find anyone who can do so, not with any success…. Besides, I know for a fact that anyone reading my mind would quickly go mad, from trying to decipher, or keep up with what is going on in there at any random moment….

Sang-froid…. that’s what I lost…. Since it’s rather an uncommon word as used in English, and is in French to boot, I’ll tell you that it means, essentially, composure under duress, a sort of unflappable calm that one carries with them as a defense against the massively emotional, chaotic happenings that take place regularly in Reality. These days, people would say I had lost my “cool”, or my “chill”….. and they would be accurate, mostly. It is a quality common to those who are true leaders, or to any competent philosopher; one that is not common to anyone who allows Reality to determine their feelings for them, as reactions to stress or trouble.

As a personal quality, it is extremely useful, as it provides one with a state of mind that is impervious to the depredations of Reality upon our senses, allowing one the mental space to think clearly, and to avoid the indignity of being forced to react in a manner controlled by the events we encounter. It inspires others who witness its presence to emulate its serenity, thereby being as useful to others as to ourselves. In my own case, I have not yet reached a point in my personal voyage where I can wear the cloak of invulnerability it supplies at all times; it isn’t yet that large or stable…. so, I’ve kept it in my pocket, and put it on when I can, to try to stretch it out into a larger garment that I can wear always…..

Well, there you go…. four reasonably concise paragraphs on one subject, and no sign of a pearl. I suppose the little meander we just took through that corridor in my mind was interesting enough…. if you’re a psychologist of sorts, or someone interested in self-improvement as a way of life. Otherwise, I’m hopeful it didn’t put anyone to sleep….. No matter, it filled up another intro section, and this time it’s not necessarily nonsense, as it it real, and all of what I’ve written is, in my mind, gospel…. or, what I hold in that regard…..

Now that it’s out of the way, it would be well to keep it moving, so you don’t have time to stop and think about what I’m doing…. (pay no attention to the man behind the curtain….). In hopes of maintaining the illusion of sanity I’ve created thus far today, we’ll go on now, to the area where Smart Bee is waiting for me to start today’s dive…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“As a draft-animal is yoked in a wagon, even so the spirit is yoked in this body.” — Upanishads (c. B.C. 800)

Each of us is faced at times with the consciousness of our own approaching encounter with Death, the moment in time when our yoke is removed, and our spirit is freed, to once more join the rest of the conscious minds in the universe in roaming through realms of Reality we cannot see in this form. This Reality we cannot see is much larger, in one sense, than the one we can now perceive; it has to be, to be able to accommodate all the souls that have gone before, and all that are now present on Earth, that will someday join the rest of them, when they die…..

Every human being alive must face their own Death (I am capitalizing the word to give it the proper respect as one of the most important concepts we have as humans….); this is a truism no one can deny, or refute. Many people have banded together, to assume the belief that our universe was created this way by a supernatural being, who, for some unknown, and unknowable (self-explanatory, I think….) reason, decided that we are “special”, and gave us, and only us, the knowledge we have, and our very lives. This, of course, is rather hard to believe, as it doesn’t really account for much of what is observable truth in Reality, being, as it is, complete speculation, devoid of any concrete evidence to support it…..

“There is no conclusive evidence that there is life after death. There is also no real evidence to the contrary. Soon enough, you will know. So, why fret about it?” — Lazarus Long, aka Robert A. Heinlein

I first read this aphorism when I was in my early teens; it codified, and made succinct, what I had already concluded about the major religions of the world, i.e., they’re a collection of unwarranted, and unproven, assumptions. What’s more, they are all highly unlikely, given the observable parameters of the real world. It became obvious to me, as it is to many, that what the religious folks were trying to get me to believe was intended merely to soften my mind, making it more amenable to suggestion, of which they have an endless supply. Preachers, priests, imams, nuns, all are quite willing to give other people advice and suggestions on how they should live, in exhaustive detail, for as long as they are allowed to do so….

Since I had very little desire to have other people decide for me how I should think, or live my life, I rejected the dogma they tried to force into my head, turning instead to other sources of thought about Life, Death, and Reality. I found an endless supply of folks who had thought long and deeply about all of these ideas, and gladly did I read all I could of everything I could find on the subject. In addition, I read science fiction, during the years when its popularity had just begun to climb to the heights it now occupies; sci-fi has always been literature that explored, and continues to explore, the very limits of thought, both in the real world, and the world of the mind.

As is seen by the first pearl above, these thoughts and ideas are not new with me; mankind has been thinking about these concepts since we first sat around the campfires, wondering at the beauty of the heavens we saw above our heads, and all around us. In all that time, no conclusions have been reached that seem to cover ALL of the questions we have about the universe. We still don’t have a clue as to “what is the mind”, or “what is thought”…. and if we cannot understand ourselves, what chance do we have of unraveling the secrets of the universe around us? Not much, would be my guess…

That, fortunately, does not mean it is impossible to know the truth, nor does it mean we are condemned to die in ignorance and fear…. I know this because I have learned in my time that our fear is a direct outgrowth of our ignorance; we fear what we do not understand. Now, if I were a God, why would I make people that way, unless for some ulterior motive, having to do with motivations that are human, not divine? No, it just doesn’t make sense to me to assume that we were put here with a deliberate handicap, just to see how we dealt with it; that seems more like an evil scientist at work than a compassionate deity.

“One must marry one’s feelings to one’s beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one’s life.” — Etty Hilsum

Since I believe firmly in the Law of Conservation of Energy (proven true in this universe, to all our knowledge), and, I believe that our minds/souls are a form of energy we currently don’t fully understand, and cannot perceive directly, then the concept of Death is nothing to fear, as it merely means that my current state of energy will be replaced with another state, one I don’t currently have the ability to perceive. What that state may be like may be unknown, but that doesn’t mean it is something of which I should be afraid…. I prefer to look at it as the next great adventure….

So, when my father died, I asked him to leave me some trail-sign, to let me know how to find him in the next reality; he smiled at me, and said he would do that… and I was much comforted by that, knowing that our connection as family can never be severed, and that, someday, I would once more have the pleasure, and comfort, of his presence…. Now that’s something to look forward to, don’t you think?…. Much better than worrying that what I do now is going to determine what happens to me after I die, a silly proposition, at best……

“Do not think that man is but flesh, skin, bones and veins; far from it! What really makes man is his soul; and the things we call skin, flesh, bones and veins are but a garment, a cloak; they do not constitute man. When man departs this earth, he divests himself of all the veils that conceal him.” — Zohar
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The last week or so has been rather a struggle, pain-wise; one of my hips is annoyed at the chair I use, and is showing its displeasure in the most obvious way. This, while understandable, given my age and degree of arthritic decline, is not particularly comfortable. (As you can see, I’m trying not to whine…. not very successfully, I’m afraid….) Any who, to cut a long story down to size, and to alleviate some of my pain by sitting for less time, I’m including here a poem I wrote, from last October, that touches on the subject of pain….. actually, it’s more of a solid punch than a mere touch….

Denial of Comfort

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid
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Once again, Smart Bee has usurped my prerogatives, herding me to the place where I can do naught but allow him/her/it to pick out a group of pearls for this section. I guess what I wrote above could be considered a religirant, so a seven-star pearl is quite appropriate for our purposes today. This, upon looking at its final shape, is what I’d call a harlequin pearl, addressing several different categories of reality, each with its own importance to itself, and to the whole…. and if you think I know what that means, you haven’t been paying close attention…. Any who, here are seven pearls for your perusal, and edification…. Enjoy!….

“Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.” — John Milton (1608-1674)

“An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.” — Samuel Johnson

“In regards to Oral Roberts’ claim that God told him that he would die unless he received $20 million by March, God’s lawyers have stated that their client has not spoken with Roberts for several years. Off the record, God has stated that “If I had wanted to ice the little toad, I would have done it a long time ago.” — Dennis Miller, SNL News
(… 🙂 …)

“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” — James Madison

“* I’d say it’s an element of any post-allegorical discussive climax of the positionist stance. Either that or a load of bollocks.” — Daniel Bowen’s TOXIC CUSTARPEDIA

“Rule a kingdom as though you were cooking a small fish.” — Lao Tzu

“I’ve got to get back to Reality. Where IS that silly Blue Dragon?” — Smart Bee
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Thus, we see, as time majestically passes by, ignoring our pleas to slow, how easy it is to be insane…. It’s fun, too! Before anyone can take it upon themselves to call for the men in white suits, I’m going to escape back into my own little head, and let stuff percolate until tomorrow, when once more, I will take up the standards of Truth, and smite mightily the foes of Reason…. or, maybe not. Sounds good, though, doesn’t it?….. I’ll stop torturing y’all now…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Our fluffy maroon penguin isn’t satisfied….

Posted on February 24, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Try as I might, I don’t have it in me, much as I wish I did…. what it might be, well, your guess is as good as mine. I’m often struck in the mornings at how empty is the mind at low tide….. Then, I wake up, and it all seems so pointless. Well, maybe not pointless, but confusing, anyway. Of course, I’m used to confusion…. it sometimes seems as if confusion is a state I never leave. But, it all adds up after a while, and even if I knew what I was speaking of, I probably wouldn’t have a good way to describe it….. Nor would you….

There, hows’ that for pointless? Just thought, or rather, felt, today needed a bit of insanity at the start, just so we don’t lose track of what is important…. which is maintaining at least a semblance of normality, at least long enough to get past the social worker’s visit at noon. Why, you may ask, is a social worker coming to visit?….. I don’t know, I guess they’re worried that I’m going too crazy here by myself, and want to see if I need a companion to live with me…. Actually, that’s a lie…. there’s no social worker coming over, and I’m not in any social need…. I just made it up, because it seemed to fit the way the paragraph was headed. Then, I realized, there’s no justification for a SW, and no plot reason I can make up quick enough, so, I gave up, and told you the truth….

I suppose I might now show a little class, by turning the discussion to the concept of telling the truth…. but, what I just wrote above seems to me to be a good example of how the truth can be really, really hard to find, and recognize when its found, because, just like me, they might be making it up…. and how are you going to be able to tell?… Answer me that, Mr. Smartypants…..

Sorry, didn’t meant to call names…. As you might have guessed by now, this is sort of an experimental intro section…. I couldn’t think of anything else to do, so I just jumped in and started typing, almost randomly, until some direction suggested itself…. A bit like trying to put together a bicycle at Christmas, using the instructions that were written by a three year-old Japanese student of English…. “Insert tab A into hole B, to be pleasing the handlebar”….. So far, I’m not sure how its working…. y’all would be a better judge of that, cuz you’re the handlebar, so to speak…. It isn’t particularly difficult, as it’s kind of nonsensical, and I fit right into that slot….

I suppose it isn’t particularly enlightening either, so I will cease and desist for today, and get on with the scheduled dive….. At this point there is little choice left for me, without starting over, and that is way too complicated for me…. I’d probably hurt myself, whining….. Since I promised myself I wouldn’t whine any more, I will now begin to tell the truth….. Well, I should say, I’ll tell you my version of it, as I see it….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Since my mind is somewhere out in left field today, I figured I’d try an experiment, using an old-school pearl format….. Rather than having a thought in mind when I went diving for pearls, I let my unconscious mind take over, and pick whichever pearls it wanted, without really paying any attention to what they were about…. I have written this short intro PRIOR to looking at them, so I don’t know if they will fall together into a real pearl, or just sit there and look pretty, as the aphorisms they already are….. I’m a little nervous…. let’s see what Smart Bee has for us this morning, shall we?….

“Conscience and cowardice are really the same things.” — Oscar Wilde
(An interesting notion…. I may use this again for its own discussion, another time…..)

“Find out just what any people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; … The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” — Frederick Douglass, U.S Marshal, son of a slave, 1857
(See the above, re: Oscar, and, ditto….)

“Do I look like someone who cares about what God thinks?” — Zippy the Pinhead
🙂

A shot rang out, “BARNEY” hit the floor. No more purple dinosaur!”– Smart Bee
(YES!!!!!!)

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total oblivion. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me and turn my inner eye to follow its path. When the fear is gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” — The Litany Against Fear (Frank Herbert, -Dune-, 1965)

“Dianetics is a milestone for man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his invention of the wheel and the arch.” — L. Ron Hubbard
(I can see L. Ron, laughing himself into a puddle, as he contemplates the fact that all those Dianeticians took him seriously when he said this…..)

A king who was mad at the time,
Decreed limerick writing a crime;
But late in the night
All the poets would write
Verses without any rhyme or meter

— Smart bee
🙂

“Take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
down the foggy ruins of time
far past the frozen leaves
the haunted frightened trees
out to the windy beach
far from the twisted reach
of crazy sorrow.

Ah, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
silhouetted by the sea
circled by the circus sands
with all memory and fate
driven deep beneath the waves
let me forget about today until tomorrow.

— Bob Dylan

Hmm… an interesting group…. I’ve added some comments, prompted by the pearls as I read them, but, otherwise, I think it floats by itself, don’t you? It’s kind of like a summary of stuff I write about, each with its own representative pearl…. cute!….. Onward, he cried!…..
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A lot of you may have heard of Philip K. Dick; he was a science fiction writer in the mid- and latter-part of the twentieth century, one who achieved only moderate success during his life, but has since become one of the most revered authors in the genre, as more of his work is published and brought into the public eye. He wrote the story that was made into the movie, “Minority Report”, and several other of his novels either have been so immortalized, or are in the process of being made into films. He wrote over fifty novels, but was never been known for his poetry; in fact, before these were found, most didn’t know he wrote it at all. One of his children apparently found these three poems in his papers after his death, and I share them now, to demonstrate just how powerful his writing could be…. Enjoy!…..Note: The picture itself was found on Facebook, at the Philip K. Dick page his fans have created……
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“Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.” — Adam Smith

This is so true, I want to shout it out from the rooftops…. It is the kind of insight that leads to jokes like “Lord, protect me from the works of thy followers.” which are so prevalent in our society. We’ve all witnessed the excesses of fanaticism at times, and, I’m sure, have suffered indignity of some sort at their hands at some point in our lives. Nobody escapes it, as such fanaticism is like having roaches; they are impossible to completely eradicate. Of course, there are methods of killing roaches that are foolproof (placing them in a complete vacuum, for example), but it means killing off the entire species , and the rest of us would doubtless find objections to that scenario…..

“It is hard to be brave, when you’re only a Very Small Animal.” — Piglet, Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

These simple minded fools who become fanatics, whether it is over their country, their religion, their race, or their collection of plastic flamingos, all suffer from the same lack of courage as Piglet describes here. In their case, it isn’t because they lack the ability to be “larger”, like Piglet, but because their minds see themselves as “small”, in relation to all they don’t understand, and this gives them the same sense of constant fearfulness that comes with never knowing when some larger creature will notice you, and eat you, or not notice you, and crush you under foot, with careless indifference….

“Again, our observations of the stars make it evident, not only that the earth is circular, but also that it is a circle of no great size. For quite a small change of position to south or north causes a manifest alteration of the horizon. There is much change, I mean, in the stars which are overhead, and the stars seen are different, as one moves northward or southward. …All of which goes to show not only that the earth is circular in shape, but that it is a sphere of no great size: for otherwise the effect of so slight a change of place would not be so quickly apparent. Hence, one should not be too sure of the incredibility of the view of those who conceive that there is a continuity between the parts about the pillars of Hercules [the strait of Gibraltar] and the parts about India, and that in this way the ocean is one.” — Aristotle, De Caelo, Fourth Century B.C.

As a consequence of all that fear, most of the folks who assume fanatical stances refuse to see, or perceive, as much as they possibly can, and this includes reading, or watching, or listening to things that challenge the truth of what they have chosen to believe. The things they DO choose to believe never challenge them to think, or to go outside their comfort zone in any way; any such suggestion is viewed with anger, mistrust, and fearful rejection, no matter how nonthreatening it may be to normals…. If it doesn’t fit into their narrow little view of things, it is evil, and not to be trusted, in their minds, or what passes for one….

As the quote from Aristotle shows, mankind’s knowledge of the natural world has grown beyond the guesses and speculation that are rampant in the ancient writings about religion, and, thankfully, most of the world is able to understand, and accept the facts in question. It is only those whose fear of the universe is such that they cling to outdated, misguided systems of belief that, though they offer comfort to their preconceptions and misapprehensions, have nothing to do with the real world on any level. And, damned if they don’t get upset, and violent, when those misapprehensions are challenged in any way!…. Idiots….

Sorry, I get disgusted sometimes, especially when I think about those assholes who encourage the idiots, i.e., the priests, preachers, and other members of the priestly hierarchies…. I regard them as the WORST of humanity, in complete lock-step and purpose with that other group of reprehensible semi-humans, the BRC, or 1%, as they’re known these days in the news. The entire purpose of the religious institutions on this planet is to provide behavioral control of the population to the ruling classes, under the guise of religion, by manipulating the masses of believers into following whatever dictates the ones in power may come up with, in order to receive their heavenly rewards…. I swear, it’s the biggest, longest running scam in history….

I’ve already gone a bit overboard here, and really haven’t begun to roll with my indictment/rant yet. Since this is the last pearl for today, I’ll stop here, and just say this…. There are a lot of really stupid people on this planet, as well as a great many good, intelligent, compassionate ffolkes…. but, the money, and the power, reside with a very small number, with representatives from both groups, and as far as I can see, most of them are bat shit crazy, in the sense that they don’t care at all about any of the rest of humanity, as long as they get theirs….. We, the intelligentsia, are perhaps the only hope left to the world before it is too late…. Only if enough of us rise up and throw their sorry asses into the pits will we have a chance of seeing another millennium on our calendar…. THAT is a fact, not a guess; the evidence is there for anyone to see….

So, wake up, ffolkes, and folks, because the day is coming when you will wish you had listened to people like me…..
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Well, it’s been a fascinating process today…. Let’s go back and see how it all came out…… Once again, I’m forced to admit, it ain’t bad…. I’ve seen, and written, better, perhaps, but, it will do for today…. I’m feeling lucky, so we’re going to fly, right from here….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..
—

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

gigoid

Bubba won’t know, he’s a Rotary….

Posted on February 22, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Struggling for emotional control isn’t a new experience, not for those of us who deal with the joys of PTSD. There are times when it is impossible, and tears begin to flow at the drop of an emotion, strong or not. On those occasions, I may as well just go back to bed, because getting anything constructive done will be more effort than its worth. Other times, it’s better, to the extent that it takes more emotional impetus to break my control; those days I spend staying very busy, so that those strong emotions remain below the surface of my attention, thus allowing me a degree of control over any outbreaks of angst and salty water leakage on my face…..

So, it doesn’t surprise me, particularly, to find myself in that latter state this morning, as I spent much of the day there yesterday, and it seemed to work okay…. I got through the day without any major mishaps; no casualties, or injuries requiring stitches, and, thankfully, no major breakdowns in public. THOSE are a pain in my old butt when they happen, as I’ve always considered myself to be a person who is able to present a calm, equable demeanor to the world, and it’s humiliating to find myself on the sidewalk, waiting for a signal to change, with tears pouring down my face, while I fight back sobs….

That image doesn’t exactly fit in with my own, or, rather, with the one I would hope to present to the world at large. Unfortunately, it does fit in with my state of mind when some kind of emotional storm is produced by some stressful news, or a stressful experience of any kind, and it’s something I need to either cure, or learn to cope with, as it isn’t going to go away on its own. How I will do that remains, at least at this point, a mystery to me…. which doesn’t bode well for the immediate future….. Stop right there…..

Okay, I caught myself, so that’s good…. I was about to fall into a mind trap of my own making, one I’ve encountered previously….. I was allowing my depressive feelings to color my judgment, and using that coloration to fuel the depression itself. If I continue in that vein, I would soon be blubbering, and lost in sadness and angst for the rest of the day, so I’m glad I realized what I was doing….. I do have a tendency to let myself indulge in such maudlin depression sometimes, and fall into the trap of not seeing how I’m keeping myself there…. It takes a while sometimes for me to catch up to myself, and dig my way out, so I’m glad I realized where I was headed, and took that hard turnaround in the last paragraph…..

Okay, so here’s where we ended up….. it’s all crap, but it’s five plus paragraphs of fair prose, if somewhat querulous in subject matter, and presentation, so I’m going to let the intro fly the way it is…. We’ll go on from here, to the daily dive, into the incredibly vast ocean of human thought, and see if I can’t find something a bit less peevish, and a bit more erudite about which to write…. as our old friend and incurable optimist, John Carter, said, on the occasion of his first trip to Mars….. “While I live, there is hope!”…. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Albert, though absolutely correct in his assessment of the danger of atomic war, was somewhat premature in this prediction of the form our doom will take. He, himself, were he alive today, would probably agree that we now face a much graver, if no less permanently fatal, danger, one with even more grave consequences for humanity than an atomic holocaust. There is a possibility, slim though it may be, that we could survive an atomic war, though civilization would be in greatly reduced circumstances. The danger we now face is worse, in that it allows no possibility whatsoever that we will survive it at all….. None….

I’m referring, of course, to the effects of global warming, and the continuing assault on the environment made inevitable by human greed and avarice, and to humanity’s massive denial of the facts that are being shoved in our faces. This denial is so strongly entrenched that it prevents most people from even looking at the evidence that is available, because, mostly, they don’t WANT to see it. It makes them afraid to even think about the subject, so they refuse to do so, in spite of the fact that doing so will eventually cause their demise, as well as that of everyone, and everything, they hold dear….

I spend a lot of time, and words, on trying to convince people that this issue is not one that is going to go away, and will not be solved by ignoring, or by denying, its presence. I try to always point out that none of my predictions are confined to this blog, that there is ample scientific evidence, freely available, online, or in libraries, and news reports, that shows very clearly just how little time we have left to stop our depredations on the environment, and that demonstrates quite plainly how critical it is to find some way to correct the damage we’ve done. Otherwise, there is absolutely no doubt at all that we, as a species, will join the ranks of the Dodo, and the T-Rex, and all the other promising life forms that once existed on Earth, that are now extinct.

If you have, or know of, any evidence to the contrary, I hope you will be kind enough to show me where I can look at it; I would be thrilled to find some hopeful data on the subject. However, I’m fairly confident no one will take me up on that, because, to my extensive knowledge, there is no such evidence, so it would be hard to produce out of thin air…. which is what we all will be breathing in the relatively near future….

Normally, at this point, I’d go into my usual rant about the responsible parties in this mess, to wit: the Beloved Ruling Class, otherwise known as the 1%, or the Corporate Masters and their Pious Lackeys, the Priestly Hierarchies and Political Hacks…. They hide behind their private estate, or bureaucratic, or sacred, reinforced concrete walls, and watch, as the rest of us labor on their behalf, as the atmosphere continues to become overloaded with millions of tons of particulate matter every second, and the oceans are filled up with toxic unnatural substances that cannot be destroyed, or eaten, or otherwise used to enhance life. Our planet is being turned into a refuse dump, and we are about to lose our jobs as subsidized scavengers…..

Today, however, I’m reserving my anger for the Universe at large, for its cruel, dispassionate treatment of me and my family, so I don’t want to take the time for my usual indictment of those assholes…. Besides, there’s always tomorrow, right? I can say that now, and maybe for a time, but, I won’t be able to always say it…. We have been served our final notice of eviction ffolkes, and, any folks listening in…. The landlord, a lady by the name of Gaia, is tired of our constant degradation of the property, and wishes us to vacate, so they can repaint, and put down new carpets…..

“You know,” he added very gravely, “it’s one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle — to get one’s head cut off.” — Lewis Carroll, “Through the Looking-Glass”
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Random Visions/Coloring Between the Lines of Grief

Everywhere is dark, and shining,
with points in dissonant pain.
Sharp, senses dull past divining,
tears burn, a torrential rain.

Escape! Flee within to cower,
find an unconscious cave.
Call on Morpheus’ power
deny reality’s beckoning wave.

Light breaks, drawing the inner eye,
leading to the slippery slope.
Risk is critical, we may only sigh,
yet welcome, for bringing hope.

Sanity seems far out of reach
Insanity’s a stronger friend.
Decisions made will merely teach
our way toward Death to wend.

Lost, while still on familiar ground,
the future yet undesigned.
Making way on paths unfound,
to Now, as yet undefined.

~~ gigoid
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“Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.” — Bhagavad Gita (c. B.C. 400)

I first read the Bhagavad Gita when I was about 17, and, along with the Tao Teh Ching, it has had a profound effect on my life, and the attitudes I bring to living it. The above verses are what led me to my belief in the mind’s immortality, as a form of energy like any other in this Universe, thus, subject to the Law of Conservation of Energy. This has served to remove the fear from Death for me, as I am now able to view it as a mere change of form, to one whose characteristics I do not know, or remember, from previous changes. (How would you know you were alive, unless you had once been dead?) Once fear is removed, Death becomes just another part of living, and is welcome as such, for the inherent beauty it possesses as the complement to Life…..

“All anger arises out of obstructed desire.” — Bhagavad Gita

This is the second verse from the book that I found to be extremely valuable in learning to live with dignity, with honor, and without fear. This statement, by its very nature, implies that our anger is under our control, placing it into our bag of assets to be used when needed, rather than in our bag of liabilities, or, emotions that keep us from reaching our potential as humans, like fear, anger, greed, etc….. Fear can be seen as the desire to be safe from harm, obstructed, and thus comes under the aegis of our emotions that can be changed, by merely changing our desire…. By learning to deal with fear, anger becomes our ally, rather than our enemy…..

In turn, these two principles, when used conjointly, give us the emotional freedom to make clear decisions about reality’s demands and issues, without our emotional responses coloring the decisions with their negative outlook, and tendency toward denial and obstruction. We become immune, or at least, indifferent, to the emotional storms that plague most people’s minds and hearts, for we know how to adjust our attitudes to suit the conditions under which we find ourselves, instead of falling prey to letting the circumstances dictate our response. True freedom, indeed…

Today, when I found this, I was immediately reminded of all of these ideas; concepts I had lost track of in the distractions of living. As I remembered, the pain and anger I’ve been feeling since hearing the news of my brother’s illness fell away, no longer able to sustain their hold over my emotions. I am once more able to see how this is not an issue to be angry about, but rather one to use as an opportunity to grow, and to perhaps be able to give my brother the love and support he needs, despite what he may want, in his own grief…. He is afraid, and trying to keep from either showing, or sharing that fear with his family, and I won’t allow him to die that way, or to be without his family, when it is so unnecessary…..

So, I am feeling better in that respect, and though I am still filled with sadness, I know now that is just my own self-pity, feeling sorry for myself for having to face HIS death, which reminds me of my own…. Grief is, in truth, misplaced in looking at death, and in reality is more of a solace for the living, than it is a tribute to the dead; our grief is more a feeling of loss in ourselves than it is sorrow for their passing. But, it is not a time for sadness, ultimately, but rather a chance to acknowledge the beauty of a Universe that gives us this opportunity to experience the change in our consciousness….

I’m betting that when we change over, we are in a place where our minds are much more in tune with the very base of reality, and able to direct the formation of the next form it takes…. Hey, that makes as much sense as any of the other suggestions of what happens that I’ve heard, and has the advantage of fitting the facts of observable, recordable reality, pretty precisely….. and if I’m wrong, well, I’ll deal with that when I get there…. 🙂

I’ll tell you this quite frankly…. if the Christians are right, or the Muslims, or any of the other organized institutional churches, then I will definitely have a few words for whatever is passing itself off as God, to answer for the actions of His/Her/Its followers…. and I won’t be taking any BS for a response….

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

Well, I don’t know about y’all, but I feel MUCH better…. Proof positive, better out than in…. Ffolkes, what we have here is a Pearl of Virtual Wisdom, of the finest grade, shiny and new, and all original, outside the few short quotes…. Get it while it’s still steaming! Me, I’m gonna go enjoy the sunshine, while I can…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Near the end of the Plasticene Era….

Posted on February 18, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a word! It’s a train of thought! It’s…… Bloggerman! Faster than a speeding thought, able to leap tall metaphors in a single bound, this mild mannered writer for a large internet blogging community, risks humiliation and embarrassment on a daily basis, bringing to the reading public the views and opinions they won’t see on TV…. Join us today, as he once more joins battle with the forces of evil, cleverly disguised as normal priests and politicians, whose wicked agenda makes them seek to harden your water, frighten the baby, poison your cat, and make your whites dingy….. Now, that’s evil….

Obviously, it’s time for coffee…. I’ll be back…. The above paragraph sort of wrote itself, as I sat waiting for the coffee to finish, so I let it have its way, and since it came out in an acceptable form, we’ll let it stay…. It’s probably too late to start over, and it might stimulate a chuckle or two, so, what the hell…. It can’t be any less appropriate than the intro sections from the last few days, which have been rather painful to create, with all sorts of contortions and hoops to jump through, a process this old body/mind conglomerate just doesn’t tolerate so well any more…. And what you are hearing now is the LAST complaint for today falling from my mouth, or out of my head, or onto the screen, choose your own metaphor…..

Nobody likes to listen to complaints, unless they are funnier than whatever else is going on, and that isn’t the case here, is it? I may not be the world’s greatest writer, yet…., but I know funny, and so far, this isn’t it….. Unless, of course, the chaotic ramblings and silliness that seems to characterize this intro section appeals to your funny bones, in which case, welcome…. Can I get you something to drink?…. Some hors d’oeuvre? A plastic bunny? Some Milk Duds?…. We like to pamper our fans here at ECR….

See, that’s what I mean about these intros…. I’ll be going along fine, and my head will take a 112 degree hard turn to the right, or left, and leave me wondering what the hell to write next…. such as in the last paragraph…. Sheesh! As if I can afford snacks!…. I know, I know, they meant well, (whoever ‘they’ were….), but it doesn’t alter the fact that they’re promising stuff I can’t deliver…. which will tend to piss people off, and they’ll never come back…. Ah well, the entire process of creating intros seems to have become somewhat degraded, or at least become rather unwieldy, and probably is in need of some time in the shop for repairs…..

Since stuff of that nature is far outside the parameters of my current budget, I guess I’ll have to keep on keeping on, as they say, and try to make this work for a while longer….. I need new shoes, and socks, and a bunch of other stuff that will have to take priority over even a simple lube job on an intro section…. That is all if and when my SS money ever comes through….. Until then, these introductions, such as they are, will have to do…. In today’s case, it is definitely a matter of “making do”, or maybe I meant, “making do do…..” Shall we Pearl?…..
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PRESIDENCY, n. The greased pig in the field game of American politics. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

You can’t see me, but I have this big smile on my face…. It has been there since I first read this, this morning, and has flashed on each time I see it…. I had forgotten just how funny, and how eerily accurate, as well as wonderfully sarcastic, the Devil’s Dictionary could be….. In any case, this is some funny stuff, and a perfect example of how the Dictionary’s author somehow obtained a direct line to the future of this country, in order to be able to so exactly describe how our modern system has evolved, and demonstrate how it has become, rather than high comedy, an example of low farce….

Of late, you’ve seen me put out a lot of words on the Beloved Ruling Class (BRC), and the priestly hierarchies, those two entities I hold responsible for the miserable conditions that most of our society is forced to endure, and whom I also hold responsible for the danger of species extinction that we face… It is their narcissistic insistence on having it all for themselves that has put our entire species at risk, along with a large number of other species, who will also be affected by the mess we’ve created in the environment.

I keep on shouting, even though it mostly feels as if I’m shouting into the wind, because, in all honesty, I don’t want to die, and I’d like my kids to have a chance to live their entire lives, too, and perhaps even have some hope of a future for their own children…. Currently, there isn’t much hope of that…..

Yes, ffolkes, there isn’t much time left to get this done…. Every second, more and more tons of particulate matter are being poured into the air, and the cumulative effects have actually, finally, reached the critical flash point that ecologists have predicted for years…. Soon, plants that provide oxygen to the air will begin to die, (actually, they are dying as I write this…. as I said, it is late in the game….) and the balance of oxygen and carbon monoxide in the air will start to rapidly change, at a geometrically parabolic rate, (to wit: faster and faster the longer it goes on….) until it is unbreathable for us, and for all the other mammals, sea creatures, and plant life-forms that are dependent on the levels of those substances as they are now…. This process isn’t unknown….. we have been warned about it, now, for going on 50 years, or more, since the effects were first noted….

But, nobody who cared to do anything about it was listening, and still today, there aren’t anywhere near enough of our BRC who are convinced of the risk, so virtually NOTHING has, or is being done, to resolve the issue…. Instead, it is subjected to massive denial on the part of almost every government in the world. They, and most people, have no idea that the bill for our idiocy is about to be presented, and we left our wallet in our other pants….. I think it’s obvious the Universe doesn’t take checks, or give credit…..

I wish I knew the proper sequence of words to use, the words that would inflame the masses, that would inspire the world to rise up, and throw off the yoke of oppression that the 1% has fitted us with, to finally give them their just desserts, and save our own asses in the process…. Alas, I don’t seem to have them in me…. not yet, anyway…. There are probably a few ffolkes out there who agree with me, and would help, if they also knew what to do, or say, to get things started…. But, mostly, I think I’m either shouting into the wind, or preaching to the choir….

In either case, it doesn’t seem to be helping much, other than keeping me from losing my sense of perspective, and actively going out hunting, to try to at least thin the ranks of the ones who are causing the problems…. That would make me feel better, for sure, but, I’m not ready to live the rest of my life on the run, so, I’ll save that option for when things are even worse than they are now….

I’ll also keep shouting, even if it’s into the wind, because I’m also not ready to give in to despair, and loss of hope. Call me stubborn, call me irresponsible (you’d be wrong in that, but, hey, it’s a free country…. mostly….), but don’t call me late for dinner. Also, don’t call me to help you further any of the agenda items that I see on the part of those in power, because I can guarantee that would put me over the edge, and you would be right there, in the explosive field of destruction when I went off…. If you want help to work against anything they’ve started, I’m there…. In the meantime, keep your powder dry, and your field of fire clear…. This final pearl explains why….

“If we don’t survive, we don’t do anything else.” — John Sinclair

And one more, just because there must always be hope, or life isn’t worth living…

“In a just cause the weak o’ercome the strong.” — Sophocles (496-406 BC) — Oedipus Coloneus, 880
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A couple of months ago, the urge to write poems became too strong, and a bunch of them forced their way out of my head, up into the light of day…. Thirty-nine of them, to be precise…. In the intervening time since the last one leaked out, the urge has been quiet, making me afraid that I’ve lost my muse in that arena….. That is almost as frightening as having it take hold, to push me through the terrifying process of creating a poem, and letting it go public…. However, there are indications that there are some more verses percolating down there in my subconscious, so I’m trying to be patient, and wait for whatever it is to surface….

Which is why y’all have lately been treated to some of the best poetry I can find out there on the Net, among the clouds of information so bravely presented…. Here, then, is another classic, from one of my favorite poets, and yours (well, except for Shawna…. To each their own…. 🙂 )…. I’ve used this before, as it is a subject on which I am expert, and speaks to me quite plainly…..

Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there were
A day when it was not.

It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.

~~ Emily Dickinson
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“You, who claim that you long to rise above the crude concerns of the body, above the drudgery of serving mere physical needs — who is enslaved by physical needs: the Hindu who labors from sunrise to sunset at the shafts of a handplow for a bowl of rice, or the American who is driving a tractor? Who is the conqueror of physical reality: the man who sleeps on a bed of nails or the man who sleeps on an inner-spring mattress?Which is the monument to the triumph of the human spirit over matter: the germ-eaten hovels on the shorelines of the Ganges or the Atlantic skyline of New York?” — John Galt

As far as I know, John Galt is a fictional character, who is often used to illustrate some obscure point of justification for the attitudes of the elite, the 1%. This statement seems to be a pretty good example of that, though it is a bit unclear, but, that, I believe, is a deliberate device on the author’s part to make the reader think the speaker is more mindful than he appears….

Anais Nin, the author of the book, or books, I’m not sure which, with Galt as the protagonist, is also often held up as the apologist extraordinaire for the moneyed classes, for her unapologetic defense of the lack of compassion, and rejection of human equality, that so characterizes the BRC, and the 1% of humanity that controls 99% of the physical and financial resources…

Yes, them again… Sorry, but, their influence over our lives is ubiquitous, touching on every aspect of what we do, and what we don’t do; as a result, their name tends to show up in a great many places where I’m trying to throw some light on certain examples of their activities, which they would just as soon stayed in the dark…..

So, anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, Galt and Nin, poster children for the hidden masters of society….. I began with the phrase, “As far as I know”…. That was deliberately vague, but accurate, in that I’ve never been able to read one of Nin’s books all the way through….

Oh, I’ve tried, and have read enough to get a pretty good idea of how the rest of it would go…. I’ve started “Atlas Shrugged” any number of times, with identical results each time, no matter how sternly I spoke with my inner judge to keep quiet until I was done…. It wasn’t the heavy, pretentious, wordy style of writing that made it so hard to finish, or even the presumption of validity, or the transparent misuse of logic, that made me give up on finishing the book(s) of hers I opened……. It was the nausea that built up over the course of the book’s events, directly related to the demonstration of the lack of human compassion, and narcissism, that infuses the main character’s behavior, and that of many of the books’ characters, which is so transparently a part of the author’s own beliefs.

In short, it literally made me sick to read this woman’s thoughts about how reality should be considered, according to her absolutely self-centered philosophy…. It is very nearly a clinical description of sociopathy, with its complete insistence on the validity, and priority, of one’s own rules of behavior over society’s standards…. If the character of John Galt ever came to life, and manifested in my vicinity, I might just give myself a day off from my vow to never kill anyone without first trying to at least talk them out of their asininity…. which is to say, the very idea of meeting someone like him(her) makes my blood boil….

Ah, me…. It can’t be good for my blood pressure to pump itself up so early in the day, so I’ll leave this little diatribe where it is…. I think by now, I’ve made it pretty clear how I feel about the 1%, whom I choose to call the BRC and the priestly hierarchies…. Besides, much more of this, and I take the risk of losing ffolkes out of repetitive boredom…. not a good recommendation for a writer, and certainly not something of which I wish to ever be accused.

Go ahead and read Anais Nin’s books…. If nothing else, they’ll give you a good idea of how the 1% tries, nay, succeeds, in combining the use of logic and lies to keep the public in a state of fear and confusion as to what is real; reading at least some of it will keep you abreast of what they believe, or claim to believe…. A sociopath chooses their beliefs like a shirt, and can change them just as easily, and as swiftly, in order to meet their own needs, and fulfill their own agenda, which has nothing to do with doing anything for you that would be helpful…. It’s all about them, and what they consider “rational”, or “practical”…..

“There is no conflict of interests among men, neither in business nor in trade nor in their most personal desires — if they omit the irrational from their view of the possible and destruction from their view of the practical … A wish for the irrational is not to be achieved, whether the sacrificial victims are willing or not. But men will not cease to desire the impossible and will not lose their longing to destroy — so long as self-destruction and self-sacrifice are preached to them as the practical means of achieving the happiness of the recipients.” — John Galt

See? I rest my case…..

“Concentrate on th’cute, li’l CARTOON GUYS! Remember the SERIAL NUMBERS!! Follow the WHIPPLE AVE EXIT!! Have a FREE PEPSI!! Turn LEFT at th’HOLIDAY INN!! JOIN the CREDIT WORLD!! MAKE me an OFFER!!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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Well, that was certainly an outpouring, wasn’t it? Of what, precisely, there appears to be some confusion, which means my work here is done….. And with some style, too!…. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb here, and say… Mikey likes it. Or, he will, when he sees it…. Now that I’ve convinced even the most stubborn among y’all of my dedication to sheer insanity, I will leave you be….

If you are having some second thoughts, or even first ones, about the time you spend here, immersed in my particular brand of consensual reality, look at it this way…. You COULD have to live INSIDE my head, instead of just peeking in through these windows…. Be brave, I’ll be back, tomorrow, given a choice…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Muttered curses followed the abbot out the door….

Posted on February 17, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
I’m here. I’m up. I don’t want to be, but here I am. Why am I forcing myself to do this? No frigging idea…. I could be in bed, warm and comfy, trying to get a bit more sleep. I could be, but, I’m not, thanks to….. karma. I know, I know, you’re saying, “what?!” It’s too early for dealing with karma, mostly, but, that’s all it could be. The only thing I can figure is that over time, several small things must have snagged on a curve in the pipes, and built up into a major event that needs accounting.

(Note the clever use of metaphor, karma being equated to raw sewage, sans graphic illustration…. Not too bad, pre-coffee….)

Typical bookkeeping on the part of the universe, to hit me with the bill for this all at once, at 0530 in the morning…. I don’t see why it couldn’t have waited an hour or two, or submitted separate bills for each transgression… But, no, that would be too easy for me…. the karma droids have apparently been taking lessons from Murphy, the asshole….

Not that karma has no resources of its own to exact payment for our foolishness. No, indeed, it does just fine finding ways to allow the universe to fall on us, in a way that not only hurts, but humiliates as much as possible. I suppose if one had to do that kind of work, such little perks would be an important part of the compensation, though I can’t see myself doing it for long without some sort of side bonus that would add to the enjoyment. But, then, that’s me, and I’m special….

That’s it…. I can’t take this any more…. I’m wandering around here, trying to find a way to open this Pearl with some style, and this is the best I can come up with…. Pathetic! Coffee’s ready, so I’m outta here for a minute or three…. I’ll be back when I’ve regained my senses….

I’m back, but I’m not certain I’ve regained much in the way of creativity. I’m still stuck here in this pathetic pastiche of minimally related ideas and words, desperate to discover a path back to some kind of literary credibility, and hoping for even a smidgen of inspiration…. Diversionary tactics and distracting trips down the path to nowhere aren’t going to get the job done, no matter how badly I want it to…. No big surprise there, though…. SIGH…. What is it about mornings that brings out the fatalist in us?

Okay, I’ve got it! I’ve just had a flash, an idea of such importance I’m not sure if I can even describe how big it is…. I just realized that Murphy, as much of an asshole as he is, still has to have a boss, right? Somebody has to sign his check on payday, I bet, just like the rest of us…. All we need to do is find that guy, and remove him from reality, or take away all his pens, or something ….

Murphy isn’t going to keep doing what he does without getting paid; he’s too big of an ass to work for free (I think, to do his job, one would HAVE to be free of any kind of altruistic impulse, or any sense of compassion….), so if we keep him from getting paid, maybe we could get, if nothing else, a little break from his attentions, at least until they find a new patsy, er, force of nature….

What do you think? Will it work? No? I was afraid of that…. Oh, well, you can’t blame a guy for trying…. and, if nothing else, it got me the rest of the way to the end of this intro section…. Sorry about the obvious use of the distraction, but I really thought I had an idea there for a minute…. Just goes to show one should never, uh… well, one should always… No, wait…. Okay, people shouldn’t ever…. Oh, never mind, this is all screwed up anyway, so let’s just get on with it, okay?…. Shall we Pearl?
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“Any body of men who believe in hell will persecute whenever they have the power.” — Joseph M. McCabe (1867-1957)

This statement is made as an assertion, without any supporting evidence, other than the author’s confidence in making it. While it happens to be relatively accurate, it points out the danger of making any such assertions when applied to human nature. One may never predict, with any expected degree of accuracy, just how a human being will act in a given situation; that is part of what makes us human.

But, observation over time can give us a pretty clear indication of some of the more likely reactions, as people tend not to hide even their basest impulses in situations involving power over others…. In fact, one might accurately say that, very often, the opportunity to have power over others will prompt those base impulses to manifest themselves in action, giving rise to such aphorisms as “power corrupts….etc.”….

In beginning this pearl, my initial thought was to explore and rant, but, I’m more curious about a part of this issue that seldom is examined, to wit: What is it in human nature that causes us to more often choose the path of weakness over that of virtue? By this I mean that, if one assumes the truth of what Mr. McCabe has said, then what is it in men that makes it so?

Why is it human nature to choose to ignore evil, giving our tacit approval by our silence, rather than showing the courage to speak out? Why do people make the decision to put aside their compassion and empathy, and live life without any regard for what effect their actions have on those around them? In short, what is it in mankind that makes us such assholes?…..

I don’t think that is an unreasonable question, vulgarity aside, and given the evidence of history, I don’t think it is an unreasonable conclusion to draw from the available facts. People, given half a chance, will choose to fuck over somebody else rather than give up a single thing they consider their right to have, or to do; I don’t think there is anyone who can deny that this is an unfortunate truth about people, as a group, and as individuals. Too many people refuse to use the mind they are born with, and spend their entire lives living with blinders, and blundering around reality, breaking china and annoying the other customers…..

“All our actions take their hues from the complexion of the heart. As landscapes their variety from light.” — W. T. Bacon

Sure, there are a few of us out there who do use their minds to better purpose, for the most part, and generally try to find, and employ, virtue and morality as best we can. But, it seems that in order to be the kind of person who cares about other people, one must give up that part of their human nature that allows them to take advantage of other people, to deny empathy or compassion, and live according to only one rule, which says, “Me First!”…..

Those are the people who WANT to be elected to office, so they can legally steal, and arrange matters to better suit their own needs and desires; people who care about others don’t want any part of having power over them, and thus are never, or, at best, rarely seen in the public venue….

I don’t know what that part of human nature is, precisely, that makes people choose evil over good, but, it is common in our world, and the people who display that particular characteristic have managed to gain a stranglehold on the rest of us, by their insidious, hidden, obsessive hoarding of resources and power.

It isn’t a situation that is going to respond to normal pressure in order to resolve; drastic, extreme measures are the only method that will have any lasting effect…. Unfortunately, I don’t think any such action is going to take place outside of the realm of speculation, because it is already too late, and nobody is paying attention to how close the final curtain is to coming down…..

Now that I have thoroughly depressed myself, and you, I’ll go on to another pearl, with this admonition… Please think about this fact, that there are a small number of people whose choices of how to live are going to kill all of us, themselves included, unless society makes changes in the way it works on a moral level…. This is not speculation, there is ample evidence to be found, based on scientific fact, and supported by logic and observation. Whether we as a species go out with a bang, or a whimper, is up to us…. as it has always been….

“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start my friend, anyone can start from now and make a brand new end.” — Carl Bard
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A Faery Song

{Sung by the people of Faery over Diarmuid and Grania, in their bridal sleep under a Cromlech.}

WE who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of years,
If all were told:
Give to these children, new from the world,
Silence and love;
And the long dew-dropping hours of the night,
And the stars above:
Give to these children, new from the world,
Rest far from men.
Is anything better, anything better?
Tell us it then:
Us who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of years,
If all were told.

William Butler Yeats
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“Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, viii, 51

Okay, that does it! Now I have two-thousand year-old philosophers making fun of me! Marcus must have somehow entered a time warp, found a laptop with internet access, and read a couple of my intro sections; only if that were true could he have nailed me so well…. Shoot, and I thought I had everyone fooled…. This is embarrassing, to say the least. I’m so upset, I’m going to have to resort to an old-school pearl to calm myself down enough to get done with this missive. Oh, well, at least with an old-school pearl, I don’t have to try to think on a conscious level, so I should be able to avoid any further humiliation at the hands of a dead celebrity…..

This will be an unusual pearl, as the entries have yet to be picked, and will reflect solely what seems apropos at that moment in time…. which COULD end up brilliant, or it could be crap…. let’s go see what Smart Bee has for us today…..

“When will I learn? The answers to life’s problems aren’t at the bottom of a bottle. THEY’RE ON TV!” — Homer in “There’s No Disgrace Like Home”, from The Simpsons

“It’s amazing how much “mature wisdom” resembles being too tired.” — Lazarus Long

“If you juggle with knives, you’re likely to get cut.” — Kieran Donegal

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on,–
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.

— John Keats (1795-1821) — Ode on a Grecian Urn

“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 (1533-1592) — Essays, Book iii, Chap ii, Of Repentance

“God: What one human uses to persecute another.” — Smart Bee

Okay, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before…. Here are two pearls, either of which would make a fine closing pearl for this group, though with totally different outcomes…. I’m giving them both, and you can use the one you like better, or both, or neither…. Reader’s Choice, as it were…. here you go….

“I am a traffic light, and Alan Ginsberg kidnapped my laundry in 1927!” — Zippy the Pinhead

or…..

“Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.” — Oscar Wilde

Ta da! Cue music, fade lights, and, exit, stage right, or left, or, hell, just go….
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For a while there, I thought they were going to win, but I was able to persevere, and emerged the victor in the end…. Now that I have finished sharing my delusions, I can go forth and carpe that old diem…. Well, maybe I’ll have some oatmeal first….. I’m satisfied, if not content, with today’s effort, and, since it is done, so are you…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Well, it does match the door stop….

Posted on February 16, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
One week into the six, and my ass hurts already….. I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it all six weeks here in front of the computer without suffering from some major ass bite. Which is fine, if only I had some way to exercise without turning into a lump of pain. That, to me, is the worst part about having the type of pain I do, i.e., I can’t DO anything I used to do, in the way of physical exertion…. it’s all history, thanks to the cumulative effects of hard physical exercise during the first 40 years of my life…..

Some years ago, when I was first seeing my doctor about my back, and the pain therein (which, at the time, was constant and unrelenting….), he told me that my condition was becoming increasingly common in men and women who had been athletic for much of their lives…. It seems that in later years, the body begins to break down faster, and to a greater degree, than those of people who were not so sports oriented. According to him, my years of playing football, basketball, and baseball, when added to my martial arts conditioning, and over 700 fights in which I engaged in my work, all served to take its toll on my back and joints…. If I had stuck with being a nerd, rather than a warrior/nerd, I’d have been better off, it seems….

I found, and still find, it ironic, that the very activities that I was always told would keep me healthy until my dying day are responsible for the rapidly deteriorating tissues and joints that are giving me fits, here in my declining years. And still, because of the way our culture is skewed, sports and physically extreme activities are encouraged, because it is a billion dollar business, selling sports, and sports accessories.

Sports figures are made into cultural icons, and even held up as examples for the young to emulate, no matter how strange or stupid they may be….. There are a number of things that the BRC encourages among the populace, such as sports, for one, that are NOT what they seem to be….. More than anything else, these activities, (the movie industry, travel industry, and others) exist for the benefit of the BRC, not the people, and actually serve to distract the public from what is actually going on…. The public is actually encouraged to take part in these activities, as the leaders know that those things keep the public busy with stuff that really doesn’t matter, and not focused on what they are doing behind the scenes, about things that DO matter….

How the hell did that happen?….. Here I am, only four or five paragraphs into the intro, and I’m ranting already…. I didn’t even notice when I slipped on the Ratty Old Robe of Outrage and started in on the BRC…. it’s becoming too natural, I guess; I barely know I’m doing it…. Well, it could be worse, I suppose…. I could be the kind of person who didn’t give a shit, and not get outraged at all…. which wouldn’t make ME a happy camper, though there might be some who would smile and nod in approval….

Ah well, it’s quite liberating to let that kind of angst out, so I’ll just let it go without further comment, and get on with today’s Pearl…. Once more, I’ve managed to create an intro out of virtually nothing; that’s got to count for something, right? It says so right here on the label….. Right….. Shall we Pearl?….
__________________________________

“Laws are only words words written on paper, words that change on society’s whim and are interpreted differently daily by politicians, lawyers, judges, and policemen. Anyone who believes that all laws should always be obeyed would have made a fine slave catcher. Anyone who believes that all laws are applied equally, despite race, religion, or economic status, is a fool.” — John J. Miller, And Hope to Die (in _Jokertown Shuffle – Wild Cards IX_)

Fiction is the repository and temple of the Metaphorse…. which explains this passage from a novel I haven’t read, but obviously need to get around to finding, so I can. This is such a perfect statement of Reality in society today, it could only be said in a work of fiction, because anyone stating this in the public venue would be shouted down by the aforementioned politicians, lawyers judges, policemen, and may I add, preachers/priests and the rest of the priestly hierarchies…. none of whom would wish for the truth of the idea become commonly held knowledge, or even a point of discussion…. They have too much invested in keeping things just as they are to allow any such utterance, without the protection of metaphor….

With metaphor, in both prose and poetic form, the truth can be intimated, and made clear for those who otherwise would never even consider the concepts involved, without being connected directly to Reality itself. Most of society has been brainwashed since birth, and are trained to accept as true anything told to them in a newspaper, on a TV by a person in a suit, or by someone holding a Bible, no matter how disconnected from Reality that may be. Reading things in a book, a piece of fiction, they are taught, is suspect, and not to be believed without corroboration from someone in authority….

“God said it, the Bible told me, and I believe it, so that’s the end of it!” How many people do you know who would say that? It saddens me no end to know that even I, who tend to drive that sort of person crazy in no time at all, know several folks who feel this way. I have to say, if nothing else, these folks are stubborn, but, stubbornness is not always a survival technique… it can also serve as a death warrant. One has to learn to give up knowledge that is shown indisputably to be false, or face consequences not to their liking.

As I’ve stated before, I have no issue with ffolkes who are sincerely devout in their beliefs…. I’ve found that people who do try to live by the rules that Jesus put forth are generally good people, with good instincts, and have a lot of compassion and kindness in their nature. I have at least two people in my own family who fit that description, and at least three of the people with whom I grew up are what I would call true Christians, because they use their faith as a supportive tool to enhance their lives, not as a crutch, or a reason to feel entitled…..

In other words, they don’t use their faith as a mask, to hide from the world what they really are like inside…. or, as tool of manipulation, to further their own agenda, which generally involves theft from everyone else, in one form or another….. I have found, by experience with real people in the real world, that a good 95% of those who claim to be Christians are NOT true believers…. Only about 5% of those who call themselves Christians make any attempt to live up to that social reformer’s rigorous standards….

Of that figure, 95% of all self-identified Christians, the great majority can be considered, and are generally labeled, as the ignorant masses, whose minds have been under the control of someone else their entire lives. The smaller percentage of that number, probably only about 1 or 2% of the 95%, are those who either don’t believe in the dogma at all, but use it as the modus operandi for their sociopathy, or those who at least believe it on the surface, but only because it is to their advantage to do so… They would believe anything at all, if it kept them in power….

“Always watch where you are going. Otherwise, you may step on a piece of the Forest that was left out by mistake.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

I’m not sure whether those who stubbornly cling to their faith (i.e., they walk through the Forest with eyes closed….) are like that because of their nature, or their nurture, and in the final analysis, it doesn’t matter. But, it sure would be nice, for those of us who ARE aware of the truth behind the lies we’ve been told all our lives, to have a few more of us out there, working against the small percentage of people who are taking advantage of the massive ignorance and apathy of the great masses of people, who don’t have the time or mental energy to care about anything but what is happening right in front of them.

Those who control society for their own personal benefit, without any regard for the rest of humanity’s suffering at their hands, aren’t going to change, and they aren’t ever going to give up what they’ve got without a struggle…. I can only wish for enough ffolkes like myself, who can see the truth, to find a way to save at least a few of our species, if only for some galactic zoo of extinct species…… If enough of us get together, there is still a small chance, though the odds of success are diminishing, second by second….

“I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.” — John Wayne

(Did your jaw drop as far as mine when you read that?)

Bah! Enough pessimism for one day…. let’s go find something a bit more uplifting, shall we?….. As a parting thought, please note the following, which serves to illustrate and define the general feeling in modern society, in terms of ethics and morality…. Consider, if you will, the cultural paradigms that are needed to make this statement a joke, one that no one at all would think was out of place…. In other words, by its calm acceptance of the implied lack of ethics, it shows how deeply ingrained is the attitude (made crystal clear by Mr. Wayne…), in the members that make up that society….

“I think our No.1 problem is that nobody wants to take responsibility for anything, but don’t quote me.” — Randy Glasbergen, “The Saturday Evening Post
__________________________________

The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt

Knock knock!
Who’s there?
Me!
Me who?
That’s right!
What’s right?
Meehoo!
That’s what I want to know!
What’s what you want to know?
Me, who?
Yes, exactly!
Exactly what?
Yes, I have an Exactlywatt on a chain!
Exactly what on a chain?
Yes!
Yes what?
No, Exactlywatt!
That’s what I want to know!
I told you – Exactlywatt!
Exactly what?
Yes!
Yes what?
Yes, it’s with me!
What’s with you?
Exactlywatt – that’s what’s with me.
Me who?
Yes!
Go away!
Knock knock…

~~ Shel Silverstein — from the book “A Light in the Attic” (1981)
__________________________________

Having spent most of my severe angst in section one, I’m not even going to try to start another rant, but will instead move right to an old school pearl…. Gotta save a little of that negative energy in case some store clerk gets uppity…. 🙂

This one is truly random, with just a hint of order hidden amongst the entropy and chaos, kind of like a hidden treasure, y’know? Well, that’s how it’s supposed to work, anyway. If not, well, it’s all good stuff to think about, and will get us through to the end….. or close enough for our purposes here today…. Someday, I’m going to have to figure out just what that is…..

“The correct way to punctuate a sentence that starts: “Of course it is none of my business, but –” is to place a period after the word “but.” Don’t use excessive force in supplying such a moron with a period. Cutting his throat is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you talked about.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“When you live in the shadow of insanity, the appearance of another mind that thinks and talks as yours does is something close to a blessed event.” — R. Pirsig

“I know th’MAMBO!! I have a TWO-TONE CHEMISTRY SET!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
(You’ve got to love Zippy’s ability to put his finger on what’s REALLY important!….)

A word is dead
When it is said
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

— Emily Dickinson

“Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman–a rope over an abyss. A dangerous across, a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and stopping.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, “Thus Spake Zarathustra”

— Bother! said Pooh, as he talked Kanga and Roo into a threesome.
(Oh, that Pooh!…. such a naughty bear…..)

“Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have kindled this inner light.” — Albert Schweitzer

Well, there you go…. If y’all can’t figure out a moral, or a hint of one, from that seven, well, I’m failing in my task…. But, if you can’t, no worries, as it’s my fault for being too obscure, and not leaving enough sign posts to the clues…. We don’t grade in this class anyway, it’s not even pass/fail, and doesn’t count toward graduation…. In fact, the only way to take this course is to audit it unofficially…. Ah well, as I said, they will all stand alone, anyway, so…. if nothing else, enjoy!….
__________________________________

I don’t like to judge these Pearls as they go out, other than from the basic standards I apply to everything I do in life, so I’m not going to say anything about this one except I’m satisfied with it, and it’s done…. Those last three words alone make it all worthwhile, given the effort it took to get there…. So be it…. there’s another three appropriate words for today…. 🙂

Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

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

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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: Death

Rebates are better than debates….

Don’t laugh; Americans are often ludicrous…

Byzantine tapestries sang the chorus….

Several of the anchovies have objected….

Our fluffy maroon penguin isn’t satisfied….

Bubba won’t know, he’s a Rotary….

Near the end of the Plasticene Era….

Muttered curses followed the abbot out the door….

Well, it does match the door stop….

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