“Life moves pretty fast.
If you don’t stop and look around once in a while,
you just might miss it.”
~~ “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, screenplay by John Hughes~~
Alaskan Taxi….
Hajime…. Burning with brilliant lines, he ached to begin. However, he is lost, though he’s making good time. So much for brilliance, eh? I suppose to assume that mantle, it might help to begin with something more than mediocrity at hand. Such is Life, neh? And, such is karma, for Murphy knows just when to apply the heat, to melt all our hopes, desires, and expectations. Ah, well, that’s the way the cookie meets its doom, when karma is in the house. So be it….
Whatever plans I had at the outset, having met the fate of all plans in the face of reality, are now defunct. That means I have to resort to plain talk. I’ve got an extensive Pearl for y’all today, though I don’t know exactly how it came together, as about a third of it was done while three sheets into the wind; our old friend John Daniel’s made a short visit last night, and, boy, was he in a mood. The result is a ranting section, composed of two text pearls, and a video pearl of the text…. I’m not sure if the point being made will fly smoothly into your comprehension, but, there is a point to it…. if I could just remember my drunken logic…. Ah, well, it’s a chance to hear what could be considered the very best song written during the twentieth century, all in all, so, I’ll take it as it plays….
There’s also some rather fine blues, a poem, and an old-school pearl that got away from me a bit. You’ll see. And, you’ll enjoy it, too, or you can have all your money back. What a bargain! On that rather commercial note, I’ll stop fussing around, and get on with the process, which can then lead to a program, thus fulfilling my own internal requirements for daily sanity…. Who knew it would be so delicate an operation? Not me. I ain’t delicate, nohow….Ah, hell, let’s do it; I can’t think of anything else to put here, so, follow the cursor down the page, to your next assignment….
I felt like the blues, so, why not have the best? No reason not to, so, here ’tis…. Go ahead, enjoy!…..
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Accentuated Lessons
Bold statements of calculated intent
Become common rule of the malcontent.
Avarice assumes such attractive wear
Beguiling deception, illusory and fair.
Grasping and pulling with ghostly hands
Legally proper in all the signatory lands.
Seeking and finding each vulnerable soul
Anguish as payment for exacting the toll.
Wraiths of commerce’s invisible dead guards
Still haunt the dreams left in sad empty yards.
While absentee nobles sit in stiffly elegant splendor
Served by sad-faced detainees in abject surrender.
Escape from reality is illusory at best
Often we falter and fail its daily test.
Only when focused on inner strength
Does peace stay with us for any length.
Peace lies within, always…..
~~ gigoid ~~
9/27/2012
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If you are distressed by anything external,
the pain is not due to the thing itself,
but to your own estimate of it;
and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
~~ Marcus Aurelius ~~
The Sound of Silence
Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping, left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone, narrow streets of cobblestone
Neath the halo of a streetlamp, I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light, split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw, ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared, and no one dared
To stir the sound of silence
Fool, said I, you do not know, silence, like a cancer, grows
Hear my words and I might teach you, take my arms then I might reach you
But my words, like silent raindrops fell, and echoed in the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they’d made
And the sign flashed its warning in the words that it was forming
And the sign said the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls, and whispered in the sounds of silence
~~ Paul Simon ~~
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********************************
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Naked Pearls
Progress Notes….
*******
“Always store beer in a dark place.”
~~ Lazarus Long ~~
*******
“We have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”
~~ Tombstone epitaph of two astronomers ~~
*******
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold,
it would be a merrier world.”
~~ J.R.R. Tolkien ~~
*******
“Man is what he believes.”
~~ Anton Chekhov ~~
*******
“Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find
all the barriers within yourself
that you have built against it.”
~~ Rumi ~~
*******
“To make the individual uncomfortable, that is my task.”
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~~
*******
“Why don’t lawyers lie on the beach?
Cats would bury them.”
~~ Non-sequitor Bee ~~
*******
********************************
Done. Not sure just how that happened, but, I’m sure y’all are familiar with the old one about gift horses, right? Right, then. Since I can’t think of any further crap to throw at y’all, I guess I’ll go do something less productive for awhile. (Hmm… Just how long IS ‘awhile’?…. Oh, well, no matter…) Sorry for the little side trip there. Okay, let’s post this bad puppy, and get on with our day, shall we? See y’all tomorrow, come hell, or, high water….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
Hajime…. I am not sure, & don’t feel like spending the effort to find out for sure, but, I believe it was R.D. Laing who said, “Insanity is a sane reaction to an insane world.” The past few days, and, hell, weeks, have offered quite a lot of evidence in favor of the truth of that. My own involvement in the process of sanity/insanity maintenance is a core issue much of the time, though it is carried out behind the scenes, so to speak. I am hopeful the picture of me seen by the outside world is one which promotes confidence, but, also imagine that’s a groundless hope. Of course, what other kind is there?….
In the past two days, sanity took a back seat for much of the day. Somehow, I’ve managed to post; in looking back, that seems to have been slightly over-confident, as the rest of both days was spent in the morass of my own mind, trying to keep my balance, a process complicated by living with a small, fur-bearing extortionist, whom I love dearly, but have quite a time finding the inner serenity with which to handle her with any aplomb. It’s a constant day in school, learning ways to adjust to another creature’s needs and desires…. Who knew it could get so complicated? Ah, well, it’s only because I’m so damned self-critical; it’s too late to change that, and I wouldn’t want to, anyway, as it’s part of who I am….
I suppose I should make a choice here; keep wandering fruitlessly through my transparently muddled thoughts, or get on with the process of posting today’s effort. Given my state of mind, the latter is our most likely, and most amenable choice. To keep from getting completely out of hand with the chatty nonsense, I’ll do that now, and do it the quick, easy way. That looks like this….
Shall we pearl?….
“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.”
~~ Oscar Wilde, “Oscariana” ~~
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Image stolen from Google Free Images
While searching for some music, I came across this concert, which happened to be the first time the old boys had been invited to the Glastonbury Rock Festival in England. Go figure, eh? At any rate, it’s hot, right from the start, so, here ’tis. Enjoy, ffolkes; the old boys still bring it….
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After the odyssey….
Portraits of iconic symbols, crashing, singing, forgotten;
evolving into mature innovation, as yet pale, and rotten.
Still water justly breeds, impenetrable primal verses resound;
unholy moments tarry, emotion swirls in passion unbound
Spiritual ovulation precedes each pregnant pause;
gravid, time moves on, following destiny’s cause.
Cast adrift on waves of confusion, to a final, damp landing;
salvation beckons sweetly, fed well on understanding.
Dreams directly fall, in night’s grey bower, unbidden;
lingering flavors in simple taste, lovingly, cleverly hidden.
Childish laughter sounds, joyful, bright, and clear;
no need ever to hide, no more monsters to fear.
Temper most foul arrives under unregistered mail;
forgotten taunts live on, lashed by an ancient flail.
Plain dealing delivers such lasting specks of honest hate;
savage in retrospect, never hasty, always running late.
Forever, cries an ambient lover of the pending night;
his pale, weak issue forms its own failing light.
Still, fortune favors such as those who apprehend;
Sweet love of Gaia, let it never end.
~~ gigoid ~~
3/10/2013
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Naked Pearls
Framed in Idyll….
*********
“He who has the courage to laugh
is almost as much a master of the world
as he who is ready to die.”
~~ Giacomo Leopardi ~~
*********
“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,
we must carry it with us or we find it not.”
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Essays” ~~
*********
“I see my life go drifting like a river
From change to change; I have been many things –
A green drop in the surge, a gleam of light
Upon a sword, a fir tree on a hill,
An old slave grinding at a heavy quern,
A king sitting upon a chair of gold –
And all these things were wonderful and great;
But now I have grown nothing, knowing all.
Ah! Druid, Druid, how great webs of sorrow
Lay hidden in that small slate-coloured thing!”
~~ William Butler Yeats, “Fergus and the Druid” ~~
*********
“Nature, whose sweet rains fall of just and unjust alike,
will have clefts in the rocks where I may hide,
and secret valleys in whose silence I may weep undetected.
She will hang the night with stars
so that I may walk abroad in the darkness without stumbling,
and send the wind over my footprints
so that none may track me to my hurt:
she will cleanse me in great waters,
and with bitter herbs make me whole.”
~~ Oscar Wilde, “De Profundis” ~~
*********
“Sometimes you win,
sometimes you lose,
sometimes you get rained out.”
~~ Satchel Paige ~~
*********
********************************
I’m happy I found our final pearl of the day. It reminded me of what’s truly important, which is, as we all know, the ability to be comfortable with ambiguity. I mean, hell, that’s about all we get from Reality, right? May as well learn to like it…. In any case, we’re done here, so, I guess I’ll call it a day. I will, in all fairness, warn y’all; I’ll be back again, to test your sense of complacency. Get used to it….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
“If a man insisted always on being serious,
and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation,
he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.”
~~ Herodotus ~~
Spring morning ~ Ketchikan, Alaska….
Hajime…. According to all I’ve been told most of my life, there are limits to what we may expect from Life. I don’t remember ever quite believing it, since all I could observe around me failed to support such a thesis. (Yes, I was precocious….) So, I’ve always tended to go beyond what others might feel is prudent, which was fine with me, but, tended to make my young life a bit more, shall we say, ‘interesting’? But, then, nobody ever learned much from never being challenged, did they?
Y’all might, at this point, wonder just what the hell I’m getting at, but, that would show your own self-absorption. If you thought about it a moment, you also might remember you shouldn’t expect what you expect around here, and it wouldn’t surprise you to find out I’m not getting at anything. Well, nothing particularly meaningful, or, for that matter, relevant. I was just sort of wandering around in my head, and that’s what I found. I do that a lot, which, if you’ve been here any number of times, you’d already know, and have skipped down to the music.
For any Gentle Readers who remain at this point, it probably won’t cause any further feather-ruffling to announce we’re done here, and will be moving on, as soon as I figure out a reasonably intelligent way to get myself out of this cul-de-sac of reasoning in which I’ve inadvertently placed myself. I’m afraid I’m going to have to resort to an old, tried-and-true method, we used to call #4….. Actually, it’s pretty cool, not to mention efficient. How does it work. Easy. Just like this….
Shall we pearl?….
“A reverence for life does not require one to respect nature’s obvious mistakes.”
~~ Robert A. Heinlein ~~
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Norah Jones
Image from desktopimages.com via Google Images
A friend reminded me to include music, which I do using his own stated preference, with great pleasure. Especially for the opportunity to include the music of this daughter of an icon, sister of another, as well as an iconic talent herself. In today’s world of hype and illusion, her music stands out, as real. Here’s a live concert from a few years back, purported to have good sound quality…. Let’s go see if that holds true, shall we?…. Enjoy, ffolkes….
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Stray Cats
The veils that billow and fold
between dreams and reality
may sometimes part,
showing the visions of one to the other,
blending, bleeding as one,
only to bring us up short,
closely jammed against immovable fate.
Still, we keep our watch,
seeking to find the vision
that brings with it the mark of reality’s regard,
a humble mind, and a compassionate heart.
Events of broad impact draw us away again,
distracting with shiny glitter and tinny music,
leaving our feelings raw and bruised,
the victim of universal disregard.
Now, in the twilight of years, the music is fading,
and the glitter has all gone….
yet the memory of visions remains sharp and clear,
melancholy reminders of reality’s promises,
unkept…..
~~gigoid~~
4/12/2013
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Naked Pearls
Justifiably Inane….
*******
“Words must be weighed, not counted.”
~~ Polish Proverb ~~
*******
“The truth is always the strongest argument.”
~ Sophocles — Phaedra, Frag. 737 ~~
*******
“Hypotheses are not to be multiplied without necessity.”
~~ Occam’s Razor ~~
*******
“The shortest distance between two people is laughter.”
~~Victor Borge ~~
*******
“My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool;
it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.”
~~ Ursula K. Le Guin ~~
*******
“If you are out to describe the truth,
leave elegance to the tailor.”
~~ Albert Einstein ~~
*******
“Appearance must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain.
Ample are time and space–ample the fields of nature.”
~~ Walt Whitman, CONTINUITIES ~~
*******
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It may be premature of me to make any judgments, so, I won’t. What I will do is continue the efficiency so bravely provided in the intro by using the old #4. In the closing section, that looks like this…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes. Just try to stop me…. Hah!….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
“Do not go where the path may lead,
go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~
Sidewalk Show….
Hajime…. Although we are always good to go when it comes to doubtful challenges to our purpose, there is no profit for anyone in being coy. Also, let it never be said we have been anything but obscure, lest, for good reason, we end up in court. Nobody likes going to court. Therefore, in the interests of fair play, and good whiskey, I am hereby declaring this Pearl open, with the concomitant, and irregular, degree of nonsense, as well as a complete, full helping of blather. Not bad for 0600, eh?
Now I’ve got that out of my system, I’ll tell you a bit about this Pearl. It’s done. There isn’t much of it, and what there is, is a bit strange, even for us/me. There’s no point in fretting over it; Reality is what it is. I’ve included one of my older poems, just because I can, and it seemed to fit the mood. There’s an old-school pearl, with a decent, if obscure message to decipher, for those inclined to make a foray into my less than normal cogitative processes. Just don’t take any of it too seriously, and all will be well.
I’m also going to be nice, since the day began otherwise, as a sort of attempt at balancing the scales. By that, I mean we are leaving now, to make our way down the page, manually or on auto-scroll, your choice. Or, you can do it the simple way, just reading and using the down arrow on your keyboard. It makes no never mind to me; remember, I’ll never know which one you choose, so, your privacy is intact. More than you can say in most cases today, right? Right…. Let’s do this, before I lose my chutzpah….
Shall we pearl?….
“We must respect the other fellow’s religion,
but only in the sense and to the extent
that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.”
~~ H. L. Mencken ~~
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A Dubiously Soft Morning
Idiosyncratic images, clamoring for regard,
fill up the white, white screen on which I view
my life, never seeing, nor invited to sup
ambrosial remnants of anything new.
Still, yet almost in motion, allegory sails away
bobbing gently, quick and easy to find,
signs of one happy child, seriously at play,
blissfully immersed, focused joy in mind.
Formidable cries of outraged simple justice
echo plaintive relevance, in half the time.
Maladaptive infants, destined for hospice
salvage an only child, daring to sing in rhyme.
Creativity equals unquestioning farce,
often reaching for absurdity, brazenly afire.
Instead, a blow is felt no joy will ever soften,
accepting the price, added to the cost of desire.
~~ gigoid ~~
7/26/2013
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Naked Pearls
Notes on Process and Program….
*******
“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”
~~ Oscar Wilde ~~
*******
“Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker.
Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy.
Speak your mind
and fear less the label of “crackpot”
than the stigma of conformity.”
~ Thomas J. Watson, Sr. ~~
*******
“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.”
~~ E. E. Cummings ~~
*******
“A process which led from amoeba to man
appeared to the philosophers to be obviously progress
– though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known.”
~~ Bertrand Russell ~~
*******
“The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears,
for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.”
~~ Albert Einstein ~~
*******
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, –that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
~~ John Keats — Ode on a Grecian Urn ~~
*******
“Let us endeavour to live that when we come to die
even the undertaker will be sorry.”
~~ Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar (1894) ~~
*******
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Once again, chutzpah or no, we’ve made it to the end of another Pearl. Yippee…. Before we are undone by such enthusiasm, allow me to get the hell out of here. I will, in spite of all advice to the contrary, do this again tomorrow. Take warning, take heed, take a chill pill, & I’ll see you next time…. Hasta la bye-bye, amigos….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
Dharma: “What is the greatest mystery of all?”
Yudishthira: “That each day, death walks the earth,
and we continue to live as though we were immortal.”
~~ The Bhagvad Gita ~~
You said you had a deadline….
Hajime…. In my recent explorations of Reality, there seems to have arisen within me a large fog of apathy, regarding the state of the world….. My angst seems to have resolved itself into a big package of “I don’t give a shit”. This seems to have destroyed my outrage, and just in time, too. It was killin’ me….
But, I digress. Today, I have very little accomplished in the way of putting together a Pearl. There is a short, five-star necklace below, with a message I am not really sure of; it’s there, but, it’s a bit murky. Oh, well, such is Life in the big city, ffolkes; we’ll all have to deal with it, one way or another. I can’t say I’m particularly enthusiastic for our chances of a Pulitzer, or even making the WP front page (my use of expletives as ammunition keeps that off the table…. something about the word ‘fuck’ they don’t like….), but, at least there will be a post. So be it.
That’s all I’ve got. I’m trying to finish a task for a friend, so, tomorrow may again be a throw-together-if-not-throw-away version; we’ll see how efficiently I can multitask. I used to be pretty good at it, so, we’ll see. In the meantime, I’ll also take this moment to apologize to my usual blog visits; I have been unable to find any angst with which to comment, and have been unusually silent. It’s no doubt the same falling angst levels previously mentioned, so, I’m not sure when I’ll be back in touch on that level. I haven’t forgotten anyone; the funk in which I’ve been mentally mired for weeks is starting to clear, and all will eventually be as well as it may be….
That’s my story, and, I’m sticking to it. For now, let’s get this slow on the toad…..
Shall we pearl?….
“Time…do you really believe the past arranges itself
for our convenience into those paltry little squares they print on calendars?”
~~ Subtle Bee ~~
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Naked Pearls
Affordable wisdom….
*******
“Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.”
~~ Aristotle (384-322BC) ~~
*******
“What you see is from outside yourself,
and may come, or not, but is beyond your control.
But your fear is yours, and yours alone,
like your voice, or your fingers, or your memory,
and therefore yours to control.
If you feel powerless over your fear,
you have not yet admitted that it is yours,
to do with as you will.”
~~ Marion Zimmer Bradley, “Stormqueen” ~~
*******
“Sure, understanding today’s complex world of the future is a little
like having bees live in your head.
But there they are . . .”
~~ Firesign Theater, “I think we’re all Bozos on this Bus!” ~~
*******
“OMNIVERSAL AWARENESS?? Oh, YEH!!
First you need 4 GALLONS of JELL-O and a BIG WRENCH!!…
I think you drop th’WRENCH in the JELL-O
as if it was a FLAVOR, or an INGREDIENT…
…or…I…um…
HERE’S the WASHING MACHINES?”
~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~
*******
“What the meaning of human life may be I don’t know;
I incline to suspect that it has none.”
~~ H. L. Mencken ~~
*******
********************************
Well, there you go. That’s what we’ve got, ffolkes. I know, pretty pathetic, right? Oh, well. The good part is, I can try again, maybe even tomorrow. One way or another, I’ll be back, to make some more noise…..
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
“The mountain remains unmoved at seeming defeat by the mist.”
~~ Rabindranath Tagore ~~
Laocoön and His Sons
Image from Wikipedia via Google Images
Hajime…. Putting this Pearl together has taken me about two weeks, mostly waiting for parts of me to heal sufficiently to type. During much of this period, it seems my life was ‘farmed out’ by Murphy, to Eris, that ancient nemesis of the Greeks. Who is Eris? Ah, you know her, even if you don’t…. Allow me to elucidate….
“:Eris: /e’ris/ n. The Greek goddess of Chaos, Discord, Confusion, and Things You Know Not Of; her name was latinized to Discordia and she was worshiped by that name in Rome. Not a very friendly deity in the Classical original, she was reinvented as a more benign personification of creative anarchy starting in 1959 by the adherents of {Discordianism} and has since been a semi-serious subject of veneration in several `fringe’ cultures, including hackerdom. See {Discordianism}, {Church of the SubGenius}. — from The on-line Hacker Jargon File V423
As may be surmised, it’s been different around here. Enough so it’s given me some new epiphanies to assimilate into my personal files, some of which are quite penetrating in their effects. Of course, they’re only of value if I take them in, so, we’ll see how that goes, eh? In the meantime, I have for you today a complete five part Pearl, with old-school galore, some great music/entertainment, a relevant exploration of modern times, and, a pretty decent poem…. I’m happy with it, so, y’all, in spite of any possible trepidation, will be happy with it, too, should you make it all the way to the rather distant end. To save us all a bit ot time, we’ll get right to that, okay? Okay….
Shall we pearl?….
“A wise man,
recognizing that the world is but an illusion,
does not act as if it is real,
so he escapes the suffering.”
~~ Buddha ~~
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Pearl
We lost Pearl in 1970. Though with us for only a short while, her spirit shone bright. A friend’s blog acknowledged her passing, which showed some synchronicity, as I had already decided she was just right for this Pearl. Here is a live performance, one of only a few we have to see on You Tube. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do….
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As this Pearl evolved, it grew. Go figure. In the process, I decided to make it epic enough to be able to stop ranting altogether. It’s a manifesto, so to speak, of all I think is real, and true for today’s world. I don’t need to keep beating a horse that’s not coming back alive, so, this may be the very last one. It’s pretty complete, I think. You tell me….
“As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.”
~~ Josh Billings ~~
I suppose it is fortunate, for me, writing requires enough focus of attention to distract me from a lot of perceptive stimuli from external, or even internal sources. In short, I can concentrate sufficiently I don’t mind the 96º heat, as long as I’m perched within five feet of my only fan. I also can keep from thinking about pain, in my shoulders, hips, and back, or my hunger, from dieting, or any of the other silly little things we use to keep from actually thinking about stuff we don’t want to face, or deal with, or are painfully uncomfortable. That makes this act one of survival, as well as one requiring some rather merciless honesty, self- and, otherwise; without it, I don’t believe it will be worth it.
I am exceedingly weary of living in a culture/society which is based on deception, exemplifying what I believe to be the worst part of human nature, i.e. the ability to put our humanity aside to pursue our personal gain or agenda. To a small extent, we do it naturally, as a survival tool. However, in a larger sense, most of us don’t always base life on our own agenda; we feel connected to, and responsible to the rest of humanity. But, those who do choose self over species, as their primary focus of living, throughout history, have been allowed to order our society, based on false information and deception.
At this point, I feel I should explain my assertions, which are, in essence, three. My observations and study have led me to realize these three concepts, held to be true by the great majority of humanity, are all false in their basic assumptions of reality. This allows a distance between what is real, and what is seen to be real. This basic disconnection from true perception, in my mind, is what has caused most of the trouble and misery our species’ history has experienced for more than ten thousand years. The three concepts to which I refer are religion, money, and government.
Intermezzo:
At this point in this exploration, it becomes clear I have bitten off quite a bit more than can be adequately addressed in a single attempt, no matter how clear, or solid the connection between the three relevant elements. In truth, nobody will much care, anyway, but, that is irrelevant, as well. What remains relevant, to me, in essence, is to relate just how I think these three ideas/concepts/delusions have kept humanity from achieving our potential, and, in the process, the potential of our entire world. Together, given the nature of the human beast, the potential godhead, these three ideas have provided the means for our complete undoing, as a species, and, as a viable form of life.
I guess that’s a bit depressing, isn’t it? Okay, I’ll stop for now. I was going to stop ranting altogether, but, perhaps such an assertion would be premature. For now, let us go on, to this…..
During the research period while composing this, the following extensive collection of old-school pearls was amassed. Let this suffice for any further indictment of the three villains of human history. Besides, this just shows, I’m not the only one who has had second thoughts about all the bullshit we’ve been fed from the cradle. I’ve put them into three categories, for simple clarity…. Enjoy, ffolkes.
And, please. Think about it all, will you? Thanks….
*****
“In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him.”
~~ Ian Anderson ~~
~~ Jethro Tull, Aqualung ~~
“The mistake began when God was created in a male image. Of course, women would see Him that way, but men should have been gentlemen enough, remembering their mothers, to make God a woman! But the God of Gods–the Boss–has always been a man. That makes life so perverted, and death so unnatural. We should have imagined life as created in the birth-pain of God the Mother. Then we would understand why we, Her children, have inherited pain, for we would know that our life’s rhythm beats from Her great heart, torn with the agony of love and birth. And we would feel that death meant reunion with Her, a passing back into Her substance, blood of Her blood again, peace of Her peace! Now wouldn’t that be more logical and satisfying than having God a male whose chest thunders with egotism and is too hard for tired heads and thoroughly comfortless?” — Eugene O’Neill, “Strange Interlude” [1928], Act II
“So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.” — Bertrand Russell
“Any system of religion which has anything in it which offends the mind of a child cannot be a true system.” — Thomas Paine
“Some foolish men declare that a Creator made the world. The doctrine that the world was created is ill-advised, and should be rejected. If God created the world, where was He before creation? How could God have made the world without any raw material? If you say He made this first, and then the world, you are faced with an endless regression … Know that the world is uncreated, as time itself is, without beginning and end.” — The Mahapurana, Jinasena
“God is an invention of Man.
So the nature of God is only a shallow mystery.
The deep mystery is the nature of Man.”
~~ Nanrei Kobori, — late Abbot of the Temple of the Shining Dragon, Kyoto, Japan ~~
*****
“All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.”
~~ Aristotle ~~
“The value of money has an objective regulator only when it is linked to a real commodity, like gold, itself requiring the cost of human labor to be produced. By comparison, the value of inconvertible paper money has no objective regulator, its marginal cost of production being nearly zero.” — Lewis E. Lehrman (See? Nothing real… Only what we agree to hold so….)
“As far as I’m concerned, if something is so complicated that you can’t explain it in 10 seconds, then it’s probably not worth knowing anyway.” — Calvin
“I refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly. Tuna-fish casserole is at least as real as corporate stock.” — Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
“What do they call a comedian who doesn’t get any laughs? A philosopher.” — Phil Proctor
*****
“Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate’er it touches…”
~~ Percy Bysshe Shelley ~~
“It’s said that ‘power corrupts’, but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. When they do act, they think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is insatiable, implacable.” — David Brin, The Postman
“Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.” — Giordano Bruno (1548- burned at the stake, 1600)
“As formerly we suffered from crimes, so now we suffer from laws.” — Tacitus
“He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and
ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.” — Albert Einstein
“In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.” — Bertrand Russell
********************************
I am working on a poem, which seems to be leaking out in a chaotic fashion; it looks good, though, so we’ll let it play out as it pleases. Here’s one that fits, today, and often. Especially when it is followed by an old-school pearl that carries its title…. Keep reading….
Notes of process and program…
Poems, alas, don’t chase through my head,
bumping and pushing each other like brothers at dinner.
They’re more ripped out of my innards, instead.
Time and circumstance reveal no ultimate winner.
Simmering and bubbling near my unconscious mind
these maddening rhymes blind me sans glimmer.
Building until bursting as if to be dined and wined,
the remaining denizens appear much slimmer.
Fiery visions retain such glorious fatal dimension,
in retrospect, yet fail to leave a permanent scar,
until blessed, or cursed, with focused attention,
singing, crying, bleeding, fast as a movie star.
Pretty soon can’t be soon enough, she said
to a chameleon colored thief bathed in moonlight.
Fancy candles in stripes of blue, gold, and red
foster honest dreams in shades of white.
Passage to daylight is problematic, at best:
beastly ghosts of insomniacs cast no shadow.
Even judges with robes can pass the wrong test
while the rest of us go with what we know.
~~ gigoid ~~
1/3/2013
********************************
Naked Pearls
“Notes Of Process And Program…”
*********
“It seems like once people grow up, they have no idea what’s cool.”
~~ Calvin & Hobbes ~~
*********
“We must beware of whatever insights we have into ourselves.
Our self-knowledge annoys and paralyzes our daimon
– this is where we should look for the reason Socrates wrote nothing.”
~~ E.M. Cioran ~~
*********
“”Human beings are perhaps never more frightening
than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.”
~~ Laurens Van der Post, The Lost World of the Kalahari (1958) ~~
*********
“Be prepared to go mad with fixed rule and method.”
~~ Horace (65-8 B.C.) ~~
*********
“Honor isn’t about making the right choices.
It’s about dealing with the consequences.”
~~ Midori Koto~~
*********
“Reality is in the eye of the beholder.”
~~ The Keeper, from Stargate ~~
*********
“When I was a lark, I sang;
when I was a worm, I devoured.”
~~ Theodore Roethke ~~
*********
“I’m pretty tired. Think I’ll go home now.”
~~ Forrest Gump ~~
*********
********************************
Well, ffolkes. There you have it. Not only do you have it, but, you’ve got ALL of it. I don’t believe I can do this any better, but, what the hell? I’ll be back again to try. Could take a bit of time, but, it seems the wait might be worth the effort. See y’all tomorrow, as long as the sun comes up….. Pretty good odds, I’d say….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
Hajime…. I’m tired of reblogging old Pearls, so, I’m putting this together with what I have ready, and, so be it. I’ll even be super-nice, and forgo any sort of long, rambling intro, in favor of just getting it done with as little hullabaloo as we can manage. That shouldn’t be hard, given the already overbearing handicaps under which I’m operating, as a matter of course, for the time being. This, of course, is superfluous to our purpose, but, then, little is not.
All that said, with the standard lack of direction fully acknowledged, if not compensated for, I’ll just get on with it, as it will be hard enough. I guess what I should, and will do, is pay attention to our final opening pearl’s advice, and put the damn stones down as they need to be…. Let’s go do that, ‘kay? ‘Kay!….
Shall we pearl?….
“Do not look for all the answers at once.
A path is formed by placing stones one in front of the other.”
~~ The Giant from Twin Peaks ~~
********************************
Pensive early and late…
Endings aren’t always a new beginning
I’m sad to say.
Sometimes it’s just an ending
there’s always a price to pay.
Still, it’s only money, he said
watching it piss away
Did everything ‘cept meet Fred
‘n had a good time the whole way.
Even the bad stuff turned out well,
life lessons are just that way.
Knowing what’s right, you can’t always tell,
we don’t always know the right things to say.
I’ll take all the hard times, without complaint,
learning isn’t always easy to take.
Kindness, patience, and compassion without restraint,
are still the best decisions we can make.
~~ gigoid ~~
4/26/2013
********************************
Naked Pearls
Logic, untwisted….
*******
“It costs so much to be a full human being
that there are very few who have
the enlightenment or the courage to pay the price…
One must abandon altogether the search for security
and reach out to the risk of living with both arms…
One has to embrace the world like a lover…
One has to accept pain as a condition of existence…
One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing.
One needs a will stubborn in conflict,
but apt always to
total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying.”
~~ Morris L. West, “Shoes of the Fisherman” ~~
*******
“Make no judgments where you have no compassion.”
~~ Anne McCaffrey ~~
*******
“Belief gets in the way of learning.”
~~ Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love ~~
*******
“Fear is the lock and laughter the key to your heart.”
~~ Steven Stills ~~
*******
“I looked more widely around me,
I studied the lives of the masses of humanity,
and I saw that not two, or three, or ten, but hundreds,
thousands, millions, had so understood the meaning of life
that they were both able to live and to die.
All these men were well acquainted with the meaning of life and death,
quietly labored, endured privation and suffering, lived and died,
and saw in all this, not a vain, but a good thing.”
~~ Leo Tolstoy ~~
*******
“Heaven embraces the horizon.
No matter how jagged the profile, the sky faithfully conforms.”
~~ Deng Ming-Dao ~~
*******
“Comedy. Sudden, violent, comedy!”
~~ Monty Python ~~
*******
********************************
There. I feel a little better. It’s not epic, but, it’s a Pearl, so, I’ll take it. And, so will you, for the nonce. I will keep working at this, and may be able to resume steady production in the fairly near future. Yay, me. Or, not. Time will tell; always does. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, one way or another….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
“The attacker must vanquish; the defender need only survive.”
~~ Master Po ~~
Mount Hood from the Coast Starlight….
Hajime…. I’d hoped to have a complete Pearl for y’all today; I’ve been working on one for about a week now, in between sessions of learning completely new physical paradigms developed to keep the various kinds of pain with which I am familiar from becoming so ubiquitous, naught else in my life is relevant. To be honest, it’s something of a PITA, in more ways, and senses, than merely one. In fact, calling it a major PITA wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility; hell, it might just be a colonel PITA…. Sorry, a little military humor there…
I’ll give fair warning; you may find this a bit odd. Not to say we are anything but odd most of the time; today it might be more obvious. I’ve been up since 3 AM, having given up the effort to sleep after a solid seven hours of futility and pain, not necessarily in that order. It’s now 0430, and the pain in my shoulder continues to scream, unabated, every time I lift my arm more than a quarter-inch. To scratch my nose using my left arm right now is a sure invitation for an impromptu bellow, as the motion slips a sharp, hot knife into the shoulder, at first movement…. Yes, it’s annoying, and yes, I’m pushing hard to get this done before I must go kill something…..
A new poem was also on the agenda for today, but, it’s stalled. The essay/rant I’m working on has gone epic, and isn’t quite ready for public consumption. So, what we have is a partial-Pearl, sans rant, but with a fairly recent poem. Music, too, to go along with this insane diatribe, and the old-school pearl, upon which our entire process depends. It’s a pretty good one, so, rather than just talk about it, let’s go get it done, before the authorities get wind of last night’s clandestine foray…. Oh, didn’t I mention that? Oh, well, another time. For now, let’s get this slow on the toad….
Shall we pearl?….
“I’m stealing back to my same old used to be.”
~~ Arlo Guthrie ~~
********************************
Bob Dylan
Image from freegrafix.com via Google Images
**********************************
Blood On The Tracks
**********************************
**********************************
********************************
Retrospective, defined in folly….
Yesterday
I wrote a poem.
It bled out of my head,
like I’d been struck with
an axe,
right through the artery,
in the neck,
spraying blood around
everywhere,
like a pulsing garden hose….
It hurt, at first,
then came the feeling,
of quick relief,
of timeless beauty,
of pain avenged,
of lust aroused,
of outrage aflame,
of deep compassion,
of endless empathy,
of truest love….
Now it’s gone, cast away
like pearls before twine.
(Grin…)
You thought
I was going to call you
a pig,
didn’t you?
Hah!
Well, you’re not.
You’re a person.
I know, because
you’re reading this poem…
if that’s what it is.
I think it is,
so,
maybe it is.
Or, maybe,
it will be,
someday, when it
grows up,
and learns to rhyme.
Whew…
Just in time…..
That’s all.
Reality often sucks wind,
y’know?
S’okay, though….
It keeps us busy,
and out of some of the
mischief,
so much part
of our
nature.
We all can do
only what we
do.
Or, don’t.
Two sides, one coin.
~~ gigoid ~~
8/31/2014
********************************
Naked Pearls
Grin and bear it….
*******
“Believe me!
The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness
and the greatest enjoyment from life
is to live dangerously!”
~~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche ~~
*******
“The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
~~ Chinese proverb ~~
*******
“Far more crucial than what we know or do not know
is what we do not want to know.”
~~ Eric Hoffer ~~
*******
“These times of ours are serious and full of calamity,
but all times are essentially alike.
As soon as there is life there is danger.”
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~
*******
“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes you get rained out.”
~~ Satchel Paige ~~
*******
“Truth is always exciting.
Speak it, then.
Life is boring without it.”
~~ Pearl S. Buck ~~
*******
“All go down the hooooooole.”
~~ Baby Plucky. ~~
*******
********************************
Having completed my chosen duty, I’m ending this quickly, so as to be able to get it posted in a timely fashion. I can’t say just now when I’ll get another fresh Pearl done; it’s getting hard to predict my ability to sit & write at all. For now, I’ll merely say this: I WILL be back, if only to post another archived Pearl, of which there are legion. For now, y’all be strange; it’s cool out there, and dangerous as hell. Stay alert, & be happy as you may….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
“If you understand, or if you don’t.
If you believe, or if you doubt.
There is a universal justice
and the eyes of truth are always watching.”
~~ Enigma ~~
Sans Ambergris….
Hajime…. No, sorry, it’s really not all that obscure, if one has a clue as to what I meant by the above caption, showing George Salmon, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, who oversaw its passage into the 20th century. Actually, I just like the picture, because it reminds me of my trip there. The ambergris came to mind when I recalled the habits of grooming & hygiene among the general run of people of that period in history, before indoor plumbing became a common fixture in society. That, by the way, is the clue….
Ambergris, for those who don’t know, is an ingredient used in making perfume; it comes from whales, sadly, which were becoming commonly used for their commercial products in that era. One living in cities of the time needed to develop a calloused attitude toward odious fumes in the air, much of it from the people…. Hence, sans ambergris describes most of the urban populace, all but those who indulged in such methods as perfume to mask their ‘aura’….
Not bad, altogether. Two paragraphs of completely purposeless drivel, complete with sarcasm, veiled, vaguely insulting insinuations, and, a travelogue, all in one place. I’ll take it, and move on to more cogent matters, any time now. Possibly. Or, this could go on for some time, until my hips or lower back stab me, or Leelu demands play time.
Shall we pearl?….
“Jesus died too soon.
If he had lived to my age he would have repudiated his doctrine.”
~~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche ~~
********************************
Naked Pearls
“A wise man needs no advice; a fool never takes it.”
*******
“The higher we soar, the smaller we seem to those who cannot fly.”
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~~
*******
“If there is a sin against life,
it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as
in hoping for another life and
in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.”
~~ Albert Camus ~~
*******
“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain.
It’s not something you learn in school.
But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship,
you really haven’t learned anything.”
~~ Muhammad Ali ~~
*******
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
~~ Anais Nin ~~
*******
“The more you judge, the less you love.”
~~ Honore de Balzac ~~
*******
“If you’re already in a hole, there’s no use to continue digging.”
Roy W. Walters
*******
“Be what you is,
’cause if you is what you ain’t,
then you ain’t what you is.”
~~ Satchel Paige ~~
*******
********************************
Plans change, if we’re smart. In fact, without you noticing, they changed right here and now. Today’s Pearl, therefore, is brought to you by forces of entropy. So be it. It will do for what it is. I’ll try again, trust me. See y’all then, if I can get my glasses clean….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
Hajime…. As may be clear to some, given the selection of pearls today, I’m off the rails. Yesterday, I stumbled into a whole I didn’t see (spelling is deliberate), tumbling rapidly down the slippery slope of insanity, to a point long familiar to me, where pain, anguish, and tears mark the day. I can only say, in retrospect, it was not much fun. Moreover, my fragility continues this morning; it’s taking a lot of effort to not go off on little things. I can feel the pressure building again, and will spend today finding ways to keep from melting down….
Of course, there is no way to do so, once the critical mass of emotional power is reached, so, that mostly involves keeping my nose buried in a book, or busy doing stuff that means little, but occupies much attention. I prefer reading; it has always been my choice of preference when a break from reality is called for by the press of events. When the alternative involves weeping, and anguish unleashed, almost anything is better. SIGH….
Today, and for the foreseeable future, these blog posts may become even more important to staying sane. On the other hand, there are signs that trying to fulfill this particular chosen duty may not be so helpful any more, and, in fact, may be causing more stress than relieving it. It’s hard to tell just now, as almost everything in reality seems to resist my concern and/or rational handling, causing yet more angst to build up. Since the whole purpose of this is to release that angst, it may need to be altered, or even eliminated, in order to find any peace. Just now, my head’s not in any kind of space to decide, so, we’ll see how that goes….
As is now obvious, by the contents of this intro, I’m wandering around in my own head, trying to piece together some sort of order I can use to complete this missive. As is also obvious, to me, at least, it isn’t doing so well at that; order doesn’t seem to be on today’s menu anywhere. And, what the hell am I going to do if I can’t even order the menu? I guess I could retreat into delusion, & pretend God will show me the way, but, I’m afraid that particular set of nonsense never did much for me; everything I read about what God supposedly wanted sounded too much like somebody else’s idea of what THEY wanted.
Okay, now I’m falling into a rant mode, which, in this state, could prove extremely dangerous for all of us. Rather than try to use it, or abuse it, we’ll end this meandering diatribe now, and see if Smart Bee will give me enough pearls to complete the task. Since the first effort at that failed, odds are a bit iffy. But, we’ll try, and see y’all at the end of whatever happens…. Wish me luck; I’ll need it….
Shall we pearl?….
“YOW!! I’m in a very clever and adorable INSANE ASYLUM!!”
~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~
********************************
Naked Pearls
Guesswork….
*******
“Any one can hold the helm when the sea is calm.”
~~ Publilius Syrus — Maxim 358 ~~
*******
“It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.”
~~ Leonardo da Vinci ~~
*******
“Because I could not stop for Death —
He kindly stopped for me —
The carriage held but just ourselves
And immortality.”
~~ Emily Dickinson ~~
*******
“Do you love it do you hate it
There it is the way you made it”
~~ Frank Zappa, “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It” ~~
*******
“Kids, don’t gross me off..
“Adventures with MENTAL HYGIENE” can be carried too FAR!”
~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~
*******
********************************
“GOOD-NIGHT, everybody..
Now I have to go administer FIRST-AID to my pet LEISURE SUIT!!”
~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~
All I can say is, go figure….. As it turned out, the group of contributors today is one of the most eclectic, yet solidly balanced, set of pearls and authors I’ve ever seen. The actual old-school message may be a bit obscure, but. it works, and is much deeper than it may seem on the surface… another ‘go figure’, I’d say.
Ah, well, that’s what happens when sanity is on vacation. I’ll say this: tomorrow is another day. Whether I am up to creating Pearls remains to be seen. One way or another, I’ll be back; I just don’t know right now how that will look, or feel. Ask Steve, if you can get him on the line…. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for the actual event to see what happens. So will I….. See ya, ffolkes….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
gigoid 