” Do you know that disease and death must needs overtake us,
no matter what we are doing?
What do you wish to be doing when it overtakes you?
If you have anything better to be doing when you are so overtaken,
get to work on that.”
~~ Epictetus ~~
Beacon Hill Park, Victoria, British Columbia
Hajime…. While I’ve managed to put together a Pearl for today, I’m fairly certain it will fall short of our ‘normal’ offering, at least in terms of sustainability, (whatever that particular piece of neo-slang means…). This, of course, is par for this course, since we haven’t made any attempt at ‘normal’ in more decades than I care to remember. Moreover, any such foolish attempt would never get past the alarm system we have set up, to let us know when we are approaching the golden mean, where we aren’t welcome, anyway….
We don’t worry about it much, except on those long, slow, cold winter nights, when we also mourn the loss of our good manners, and other such noisome behaviors for which we have no tolerance, or use. In the final analysis, which is, no doubt, coming soon to a reality near you, we don’t give a tiny shit, especially when we can’t figure out how to stop using the royal ‘we’ as our default mode of expression. In spite of its advantages, it also carries a strong feeling of, well, let’s just call it ‘loser-ism’, difficult to shake off with any dispatch. Plus, you wouldn’t believe how grungy one gets….
Very well, I’ll stop. Or, perhaps, it would be better to say, I’ll start now. Making sense, that is. That makes the patently ridiculous assumption we are capable of making sense, which, as this little outburst makes clear, may not be so easy to accomplish. But, I’ll persist, if only long enough to wrap up yet another intro section filled with dross and drivel. If I don’t wrap it up, the mess tends to spread down the page. In the interests of doing just that, before it’s too late, I hereby declare this section closed. Move along, now, nothing more to see here….
Shall we Pearl?….
“The flesh surrenders itself.
Eternity takes back its own.
Our bodies stirred these waters briefly,
danced with a certain intoxication before the love of life and self,
dealt with a few strange ideas,
then submitted to the instruments of Time.
What can we say of this?
I occurred.
I am not… yet I occurred.”
When I thought about music for today, I tried to think of music that gave me a happy feeling. These guys were the first group that came to mind, with a specific song playing in my head, to wit, “Listen to the Music”…. I didn’t check this concert out ahead of time, but, like most musicians of the era, I imagine they just keep getting better over time…. Enjoy!….
********************************
The Doobie Brothers
********************************
********************************
********************************
Funny Bones
Dreaming the way home, lost, unseen,
from the dance, where
he felt so free, and clean.
Sorrow couldn’t find him there.
Waiting, filling up the hours, hoping,
some connection can be found
keeping busy as bees, coping.
Love creeps in, without a sound.
Fat days, skinny nights, passionate
visions of semi-conscious entities,
cannot seem to fully illuminate
or hide our innermost frailties.
Resolute, find the perfect sense, codify
simple rules with every breath
never waiting, anxious to modify.
fear nothing in life, not even Death.
~~ gigoid ~~
5/3/2013
********************************
Naked Pearls
Notes on Process and Program….
*******
“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 ~~
*******
“A heart is not judged
by how much you love
but by how much you are loved by others.”
~~ The Wizard of Oz ~~
*******
“Everything flows and nothing abides;
everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.”
~~ Heraclitus ~~
*******
“One must be partially insane to remain sane.”
~~ J. Bothwell Avison ~~
*******
“A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears:”
~~ Montaigne ~~
*******
“We’re not talking about the same thing,” he said.
“For you the world is weird
because if you’re not bored with it you’re at odds with it.
For me the world is weird
because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable;
my interest has been to convince you
that you must accept responsibility for being here,
in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time.
I wanted to convince you
that you must learn to make every act count,
since you are going to be here for only a short while,
in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.”
~~ Don Juan ~~
*******
“My skin,
my bones,
my heretic heart
are my authority.”
~~ Catherine Madsen ~~
*******
********************************
Well, there you go. It’s a Pearl. I can’t tell just now whether it’s worth the name, but, it’s done, and that’s what counts right now. I suppose, if it doesn’t make the grade, y’all will be happy to let me know….. In the meantime, I’ll make another attempt, & be back tomorrow to subject y’all to it…. Perhaps I should say, I’ll be back to share it with y’all…. Either way, I’ll be here…. Take that as you will…. 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.
“And though the course may change sometimes,
Rivers always reach the sea.”
~~ Led Zeppelin, Ten Years Gone ~~
A portrait of focused intent….
Hajime…. I gave up on my deadline, which is probably obvious for those who come here at a regular time. It’s now an hour after my self-imposed time to be done, yet, here I am, just beginning. I’ll be trying to ignore my inner voices, who are already clamoring for panic mode, to see if it will help me keep this reasonably coherent (not that’s ever kept us from posting before…). Should I meet with any success, it’ll be a first, so, you may offer congratulations any time. Hah!
That’s right, ffolkes, I’m teetering on the edge again. If there was a god, he might know why, but, since we don’t cater to such nonsense, I’ll just have to assume I have a good reason, so I can get on with enduring its depredations, in whatever form they may take this time out. Thanks to the nearly limitless abundance of material with which my imagination can formulate new nightmares, day or night, well, that form is pretty, well, formless, so I never know quite what to expect in the way of new, depressing thought patterns. Lots of crap in there with the good stuff to work with, so, it can get a little weird….
How ’bout that picture, eh? It’s the latest I have of Leelu, showing off her developing calico coloration, as well as her magnetic personality. Notice how sharp and clear the picture is, behind and around her; she, in contrast, is a bit fuzzy. I think that’s due to her magnetic nature, which complicates taking digital pictures; she always appears as if she is moving, even when sitting still. Probably has something to do with the cat characteristic of being capable of inter-dimensional travel; alternately, it could be my old, shaky hands…. It’s still a nice picture of her, at nearly a year old….
I’ve blathered sufficiently to meet our everyday standards, so, I guess I’ll go try to throw the rest of this together. Hell, if I’m lucky, it might even get done before noon. I’ll see what I can do about that…..
Shall we pearl?….
“Is is not true that we have only one life to live;
if we can read, we can live as many lives
and as many kinds of lives as we wish.”
~~ S.I. Hayakawa ~~
********************************
Y’all knew this was coming, right? If you didn’t, you should have; there have been more than enough clues, for anyone who’s been coming here for any length of time. No worries; it’s all good. I hope you enjoy today’s selection, chosen, as always, for the picture that grabbed my attention….
********************************
Classical Music
********************************
********************************
********************************
Since I’m in White Rabbit mode (I’m late, I’m late, etc…), here’s one from the archives…. Enjoy!…
From 3/26/2014:
“If Patrick Henry thought that taxation without representation was bad, he should see how bad it is WITH representation.” — Smart Bee
If I’m to believe this article’s headline, Barry says he wants the NSA to stop being bad boys, and play nice with the rest of us….. I believe I’ll wait to see if any of this really happens before I break out the champagne…. This president, I’m sorry to say, has developed a particularly nasty habit, over the course of his time in office, of playing fast and loose with the truth, a tendency which, when observed in the past, in EVERY other psychopathic resident of his position, only becomes worse the longer the perpetrators believe they’re getting away with it…. When action is overdue, talk is cheap….
Due to my intense disappointment in his actions thus far during his administration, I’ll save my trust for later, when… no, IF I see ANY of his statements come to pass, in truth…. If, as I suspect, all goes according to historical example, we’ll see some superficial posturing by the White House pundits, that might eventually get around to SUGGESTING some changes that should be made….. But, none will actually occur in reality, and any real discussion will get bogged down in committee…. Meantime, the media will find some other outrageous issue to distract them from ever following up to see if anything happens along the lines of actual reform….
Now I’ll finish reading the article, & see how my prediction fared…. Ah, I see now…. Upon reading it through to the end, I came across the key phrase, the one indicating the real strategy behind the White House announcement…. to wit: “The president’s plan, however, relies on Congress to pass legislation — something that has so far seemed unlikely.”
Immediately upon reading this, my crap detector went off, with a loud “AHA!”, (inadvertently sending the cat flying across the room to hide in the plants, thinking I was about to come after her for something she did, no doubt…. she has a guilty conscience, I’m sure…. Right….. I’d believe that…. if I believed she had one at all….), when I realized I knew, now, just WHY Barry is adopting this stance, at least, if you believe what he says here…. which, understandably, I’m now having a hard time doing….
If he just leaves it up to Congress, it’s a foregone conclusion nothing will be done ….. Not by THIS one…. The current Congress has been, for the last three years, at least, the absolute worst one, EVER, for getting anything actually DONE…. This includes ALL of the past elections of congress we’ve seen in our history… I shit you not, this Congress has passed fewer laws, and had fewer bills presented at all, than ANY previous sitting of that august body, by a factor of about 8….. They’re determined to be known as the newest holder of the title of “Do-Nothing Congress”, formerly held by one in the early, or late, 20th century, I believe….
(Side note: This, of course, can be attributed to the Republican majority in the House of Representatives…. The party’s pundits, all older, white, Christian conservatives, determined, and stated in public, soon after Obama was elected, that their entire focus for the time he is in office would be to ensure that NONE of his legislative reforms ever took place, or made it into law…. It didn’t matter to them whether or not any of his programs would actually HELP the citizenry they represent; they were determined to undermine every reform he attempted….
For the most part, they’ve been successful in allowing NOTHING, or, nothing much, anyway, to get done…. all because of their unstated, but obvious, bigoted fear of the black man in the White House, an affront to their sense of Caucasian entitlement, not to mention the severe blow to their sense of reality…. They hadn’t even noticed when they ceased to be the majority in the real world….)
After reading the entire article, I find my opinion confirmed…. This announcement is just another stall tactic, one designed to give the impression to the public that something is happening, when nothing actually IS happening, or GOING to happen, other than business as usual for the spy agencies, who have continued ALL of the activities of espionage they are accused of carrying out…. The government has absolutely no intention of giving up their new toys, and they will continue to lie their little faces off to keep that from becoming public knowledge….
The NSA is STILL spying on the citizens of every nation of the whole world, including their own citizens, without ever having actually slowed down, or ceased ANY of the programs they’ve begun…. If you actually believe it when they tell you they have, well, then, you deserve to have them in your face…. Sorry, ffolkes, but, it’s just plain STUPID to believe these people are going to tell us ANYTHING they don’t WANT us to know….
Oh, every once in a while, we’ll see in the news they’ve sent one of their lackeys chiefs to Congress to discuss issues, or make statements, none of which actually address anything relevant…. they’re just making more smoke….. In the process, nothing is actually being done to stop them at all, not by Congress, not by the Courts, and certainly not by the White House…. No, it’s all just smoke, ffolkes, sent up to get in your eyes, trying to make you think they’re listening to your concerns…..
Right…. sure they are….. I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but, to these myrmidons of the shadowy corporate masters, your concerns are something to be used against you, to fan your fears of the “unknown other”, while simultaneously listening to your every spoken word over the airwaves…. Whatever they tell you they aren’t doing, or can’t do…. well, ffolkes, the smart money says they are not only capable of everything we suspect of them, but are already beyond that level, and are capable of far worse…. Count on it…. Not only are they lying about what they are doing, they are lying about what they CAN do…. which we will ONLY find out when we find the police at our door…..
Think about it, ffolkes!….. When you break down the walls between yourself and the truth, and really THINK about their purpose, the bottom line concept of their given task as spies, LYING, especially about what they are doing in the dark, away from the public eye, is an important part of their JOB!…. And, guess what? They’re good at it….
I hate to be such a curmudgeon about all of this, but, the evidence just keeps pushing me back into that mode, pissed off and ready to start picking off real targets, instead of merely suggesting them…. If you couldn’t tell, I think I pissed myself off…. I’d better go now, before I get REALLY worked up, and can’t find my way out of this rant…..
“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” — Eisenhower, First Inaugural Address January 20, 1953
“I don’t mind being in touch with reality, as long as I don’t have to live there.” — Smart Bee, channeling gigoid again
********************************
Honorable Request
Days, filled to a brim with fluff and time, pass
dimly into memory, bit by combative bit;
ever mournful, yet loud with life and sass,
only in dream do we meet, and dance, and flit.
Souls, spinning ’round in gleeful wonder, comply
as they must, never given a reason;
somberly proper, yet limber and quite spry,
dancing on to greet each bright new season.
Storms, angered by apathetic care, rage
proceeding into ministerial glare, unknown;
clothed in colors, purified solely with sage,
past an infinite future, already flown.
Life, plumbed to its depths and secrets, keeps
flowing with currents, strong and fairly found;
love stands, asking release, as it slowly weeps,
seeking refuge unasked, to stay honor bound.
~~ gigoid ~~
10/13/2012
********************************
It’s too late to try to persuade SB to be nice, so, here’s an old, old-school pearl from the archives, billed as a damn good one…
From 6/7/2014:
I am compelled, at this point, to confess…. I still am not completely at my ease, physically. To be brief, there remains a small knife embedded in my right hip…. Well, that’s how it feels, anyway. With the meds, and rest, it’s doable; within an hour or two, it begins to get sharper, though, and by noon, it’s enough to make me want to hurt somebody, preferably someone else…. But, it is NOT going to keep me from finishing this Pearl…. This does mean I’ll be going old school though, as I was not able to get out yesterday to take any new pictures for this….. I’ll try to get back to that, as soon as I can get out of the house to a place where there are some reasonable subjects to shoot…. with my camera…. For now, let’s dive, shall we, & finish out this mess?….
“Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words;” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Cleobulus, iv
“Common sense is the least common of all senses.” — Hobson’s Homily
“We’re not talking about the same thing,” he said. “For you the world is weird because if you’re not bored with it you’re at odds with it. For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious,unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must accept responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.” — Don Juan
“All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book i, Chap. ii, Of Sorrow
“Rules make the learner’s path long, examples make it short and successful.” — Seneca
“Of all mankind, each loves himself the best.’ — Terence
“The world, dear Agnes, is a strange affair.” — Jean Baptiste Moliere (1622-1673) — L’Ecole des Femmes, Act ii, Sc. 6
Now THAT is a pearl, ffolkes…. and a damn good one, too….
********************************
Having cobbled this one together in a rush, it probably ended up as a good metaphorical representation of my state of mind today; like ice, on the verge of melting…. However it came out, it is, as we are fond of noting, done. So be it. I’ll try again tomorrow, if I can find my routine around here somewhere; it seems to be hiding a lot of late. See ya, ffolkes; I’m determined, if not sanguine….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
Hajime…. Our Pearl today is a bit of a poser for me, but, I decided that won’t stop us, not today. I’m going to visit my grandson, and I am determined nothing will get in the way of that. I am so focused on that, I’m going to give y’all an unprecedented opening, as short as I can make it. Today, literally, what you see is what you get, because I’m flipping the switch on our most radically efficient Tardis toy, right now. I’d hold on if I were you….
Shall we Pearl?….
“At the root of human responsibility is the concept of perfection, the urge to achieve it, the intelligence to find a path toward it, and the will to follow that path, if not to the end at least the distance needed to rise above individual limitations and environmental impediments.” — Aung San Suu Kyi
********************************
Johann Sebastian Bach Image from openculture.com via Google Images
I decided yesterday I wanted something inspiring, classical, and new to this venue. I don’t believe I’ve used these, but, if I have, I shall expect y’all to respect my privacy, and say nothing about that. I’ll return the favor in the foreseeable future…. Right. Regardless of all that, I think you’ll enjoy these; a lot of people think they’re pretty special, myself included…. Enjoy!..
The fresh rant upon which I’ve been working continues to morph on me, so, we go once again to the archives, this time for another in our long series of indictments of the Dogma Dogs and their millennia-long deception, for which they will forever be damned, according to their own morality, what little of it exists… Deluded assholes, insisting on sharing their delusion with others, to our mutual denigration…. Enjoy!…. Or, not, up to you, as always….
From 11/24/2012:
“Happy is he who dashes the heads of his enemy’s children against rocks.” — Psalms 137:9
I don’t know about you, but that kind of strikes me as a little harsh, don’t you think? I mean, talk about exploring the deepest depths of evil possible to the soul of man! And we thought that our modern rock and rap lyrics were funky?….. Rappers get pretty nasty, but I haven’t heard this degree of nasty from anyone on the radio…. yet…. Not that I haven’t heard some egregious BS, but nothing so graphic and personal as this little song from the priests of Judaism…. fine upstanding fellows that they are…. NOT!!
First, I have to say, I hope this is a sham, or at the very least, a misquote. If it is an accurate reprint from that Psalm, well, it indicates a number of things to me, some about the past, some about the present…. Mostly, though, when I read it, I get a horrible visual image in my mind’s eye of some grinning moron holding a baby by the ankle, and….. no, I’m not going there, even for the writing practice…. I guess I’m a coward, if that means I’d have to continue to make graphic a concept that should never ever have even occurred to anyone, much less been written down….
What was the purpose of this, I wonder? As a teaching song? As a victory hymn? From an Old Testament version of the 3 Stooges? I’m not even sure I want to know that much about it, come to think of it…. It kind of makes one wonder, what kind of culture would have such a concept as a part of its morality…. but, sadly, through most of human history, if I’m not mistaken, acts like this, and others just as egregiously violent and cruel, have occurred over and over, and continue to do so today in some parts of the world, where civilization is only a thin veneer over the native cultures.
Our own society shows signs of the kind of culture that would grow out of such concepts, a sort of casual attitude about violence when aimed at an objectified enemy. The less humanity we ascribe to those enemies, the easier it is to perform inhumane acts against them…. Just another of the charming traits of which our species may boast….. It fits right in with our tendency to react with anger to fear, and with our tendency to act violently to achieve our ends. Sometimes, it’s enough to make me wonder how we got as far as we have down the evolutionary path.
“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau
This concept is probably what has saved us, at least to this point. We are indeed creatures of a dual nature, reflecting the duality of existence in which we live, and perceive in the universe. The light to our dark side, our saving grace, are these elements of compassion and empathy that we can also display, given the right circumstance and opportunity. The Dalai Lama, who has been known to show some rather deep wisdom, has said that compassion and kindness are his entire religion, and that mankind cannot survive without living according to the precepts of such characteristics. I happen to believe he is most likely correct.
The attitudes that that Old Testament culture created and sent crashing through Time are bound to lead us to extinction, for they completely ignore the laws of nature. Our own greed and unwillingness to accept our own place in nature will remove us from this life, as surely as we are stripping the earth of its material resources in our search for wealth and power. None of the people involved in that effort to achieve power are either aware of, or willing to consider, their own complicity and guilt, and will fight to their own death to preserve their assumed right to oppress the rest of reality in their personal quest for domination.
The sad part is that they are taking the rest of us with them down that road…. and it is all because basically, deep down where it counts the most, a lot of people are, quite simply, assholes….. Quite frankly, the universe will be better off without the great majority of them. It’s a shame all the good ffolkes have to pay the same price, isn’t it?…… Ah well…..
“May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you’re dead” — An Irish toast
********************************
Fatal Supplication
But what becomes of our deepest dangerous dreams?
Does fantasy rescue any part of life’s imperiled favor?
Reality becomes but silvery pairs of mismatched teams,
Dining with affable elegance, such diffident waste to savor.
Who decides what sorrows to carry bravely to term?
Will fragrant moments of sanity make hasty manifestation?
Only Time’s patient mutability sends messages so firm,
Yet salient impersonal vexation lends credence to ripe imagination.
Can folly bring out sadness and rampant visions of beauty?
What kindness can be found in distant open relations?
With countless faces the dead disturb with dire impunity,
From separate caches of wisdom come simple stylish privations.
Shall shallow emotion serve to provide such explanations?
When does avaricious intensity assume primary focus?
Plain answers slide softly through with multiple mitigations,
While conceptually indignant concepts engage a fatally personal locus.
~~ gigoid ~~
9/20/2012
********************************
Our final pearl for today is a collection of nine most excellent gems of brilliant luster, all speaking in a general way of Life at Large, with an ample portion of Things We All Should Know, But Often Forget. There’s also a bit of Things You May Never Have Considered, which provide just the proper bit of spice to liven it up. All in all, it’s a damn good pearl, so, pay attention. There might just be something you need….
“We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse.” — Bumper Sticker
“We’re not talking about the same thing,” he said. “For you the world is weird because if you’re not bored with it you’re at odds with it. For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must accept responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.” — Don Juan
“At ebb tide I wrote a line upon the sand, and gave it all my heart and all my soul. At flood tide I returned to read what I had inscribed and found my ignorance upon the shore.” — Kahlil Gibran
“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” — Oscar Wilde
“Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.” — Voltaire
“Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses. Love is content with the present, it hopes for the future, and it does not brood over the past. It’s the day-in and day-out chronicle of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories and working toward common goals. If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things that are missing. If you don’t have love in your life, no matter what else there is, it’s not enough.” — Ann Landers
“I say love, it is a flower; and you, it’s only seed.” — (Bette Midler) The Rose
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” — Muir’s Law– John Muir, American Naturalist — My First Summer in the Sierra , 1911, page 110.
“You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything. So I thought, once. So did we all. And the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he _must_ do.” — Ursula K. LeGuin, “A Wizard of Earthsea”
********************************
“Heaven doesn’t want me and Hell’s afraid I’ll take over….”
~~ gigoid ~~
How do you like the latest incarnation of our newest innovation, to wit: a final, closing pearl upon which to set loose my final creative urges, whatever they may be? I have yet to make a final judgment on whether to continue, but, today’s version is one I like. I found the above statement without attribution; not surprising, as I’ve heard it many times for most of my life. Since it fits my persona so well, I thought I’d just claim it for today, without any intent to harm, with merely the desire to be silly, and, perhaps, eke out one final chuckle from the Gentle Reader…. Without knowing how it will work, I’ll make my escape, with the usual caveat; I’ll be back tomorrow to try again…. See ya….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
I can thoroughly identify with Seneca today; his statement on life gives a perfect voice to how I feel…. For about ten days now, I’ve been experiencing a new physical phenomenon, during which much of my skeleton sings to me, while my left hip, shoulder, and my hands all provide a counterpoint of shrill, soprano high notes to augment the song being sung, with sharp high notes, shooting into my brain with knife-like intensity, just for fun….
This takes place for a good portion of the day, interspersed with minor periods of relatively pain-free time, during which I try to act normally, just as if I didn’t think it would start again in a few minutes…. Otherwise, I’d have never gotten anything done, at all….
It’s not only becoming tiresome, it’s gone beyond old, into ancient news, that I’d just as soon turned to dust, along with me, and everything else, because I just don’t give a SHIT about any of it…. In fact, I’m seriously considering withdrawing from the human race completely, & becoming a reclusive curmudgeon, even more so than I already am, to the point of claiming hermit status…. I swear, I’m not far from just buying weapons, and putting up signs that trespassers will be shot…
Add into the daily picture that there are other people to deal with, and I’m convinced…. It’s time. I am sick and fucking tired of having to deal with other people, at all…. I’m at a point where even friends are included in those who are annoying me; I am almost ready to start biting ffolkes, which I can truthfully say is the first time in my life to have experienced this kind of angst, so great even those I care about are excluded…. and I don’t feel an ounce of guilt about it, either…. Even the compassionate concern people can show would be unwelcome just now; I’m just not in the mood to be nice to anyone….
In fact, at the moment, ‘nice’ sounds really stupid, and not at all the kind of thing I want associated with my name…. Some of what is transpiring in my life just now is a result of my being ‘nice’, and I can tell you, for sure, that old saw about ‘no good deed goes unpunished’ is spot-on the money….. I’ve acted out of compassion, producing results which are all-too-predictable, as well as uncomfortable; in addition, such produces critical judgments from others, which, while true to varying degrees of context, nonetheless do naught to help me feel better about any of it…. I just can’t help operating from the basis of compassion; call me a fool, but, it’s just the way I’m made…. I guess I took the sage seriously, when he said,
“Our purpose in this life is to help each other, and if you can’t help them, at least don’t cause them any harm.” — Buddha
Now, of course, it’s all muddled, and unclear…. So, I now must wait, until right action becomes clear, a process complicated by pain, and the difficulty it adds to thinking at all…. You see, all I want to do right now is crawl in a hole, and hide from it all…. Unfortunately, that would be even MORE uncomfortable than I am already…. not to mention what it would do to my hair…..
No, it wasn’t a typo; I just wanted to see if y’all were paying attention…. I wasn’t, so, it kind of caught ME unawares, as well…. Oh well, I can see it’s going to be one of those days…. I may as well get us out of here, and start trying to fill in the rest of this mess…. Oh, look, here’s an opening into the rest of the Pearl, right there ahead in the fog…. See it? It’s kind of a shiny one, isn’t it? Let’s catch it while we can, okay? Okay…. Hang on, ffolkes, I’m taking us in!….
Shall we Pearl?
“A man is not aware of his virtues (if any). Nevertheless, one hopes that they exist.” — Edward Abbey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Music always works for me…. Here is a playlist compilation of the best movie themes played by an orchestra…. Enjoy!…
“One always overcompensates for disabilities. I’m thinking of having my entire body surgically removed.” — The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
“There is no opinion so absurd that some philosopher will not express it.” — Cicero
I’ve decided to let my sense of the absurd take over the rest of today, so, this is all you get in the way of a rant…. These two pearls express almost perfectly how I feel; rather than complicate my life, and yours, they will have to do…. If nothing else, take with you the lesson implied….
So be it….
gigoid has spoken…. Well, sort of….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A couple of months ago, I wrote a poem during another episode of pain much like this has been…. Since I’m being absurd, here ’tis again…
Tempered Flesh, with Blood
Tiresome, the darkness, sitting in the sun,
submissively balancing over the pit.
Quiet as old terror, each brick one by one
building crescendo, sans music, sans style, sans wit.
Shadows thrown offer speculative fiction,
earning respite from burgeoning miscellany.
Light’s presence offers potential benediction,
if not divine, perhaps, then, beautifully zany.
Hours pass in days, minutes in a week,
challenging Reality to argue, adding a subtle smirk.
One humbly submits in hope of grace, small respite to seek,
in spite of prescient insistence ’twill never work.
Wave upon wave crash against the bloodied shore,
wearing down all natural defense.
All light is extinguished, darkness evermore;
if preserving life and love, sin no more.
~~ gigoid ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This pearl was constructed for the most part, yesterday, during a period of space from the agony that held sway most of the day. The final two entries, (though fifth and sixth in the list below) were picked out this morning, to fill in the necessary remaining thoughts leading to our point…. That point, naturally, has been left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader….
“It is in the shelter of each other that people live.” — Irish proverb
“Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it.” — Alice Walker
“I exist as I am, that is enough.” — Walt Whitman
“The chief good he has defined to be the exercise of virtue in a perfect life.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Aristotle, xiii
All cruelty” springs from weakness.” — Seneca
“No human thing is of serious importance.” — Plato
‘T is strange, but true; for truth is always strange,
— Stranger than fiction.
~~ Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Don Juan, Canto xiv, Stanza 101~~
Hmm… I hadn’t noticed before putting all of it together, but, this seems to be a paraphrase of Axiom #6 of Peruaosophy, to wit: “And God so loved the world, She said, “Quit whining!”…. Works for me….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All in all, I think I’ve done well, if only because I made it this far….. Y’all can make your own judgments as to that; that’s your job, after all…. Me, I’m outta here…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if I haven’t retreated to some cave in the mountains….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
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.
Today’s title has no connection to the Pearl for today; it is in quotation marks because it is a lyric from a song, by Country Joe McDonald, called the “Fixin’ to Die Rag”…. Some of y’all may remember it, from the late 60’s/early 70’s, when the song was an iconic statement of the draft resistance and the movement against the Vietnam War, played by Country Joe & The Fish every time they had a gig, anywhere…. It’s there at the top of today’s Pearl, just because I like it…. nothing more….
I had intended to start off today with a fictional opening; it’s been a while, and my skills can always use the practice, and the test. But, it seemed appropriate to explain the only thing I could come up with for a title, which was NOT original for a change…. usually I have plenty of nonsensical phrases and words floating around my head, enough to grab a couple for a title, since there’s no requirement to make it mean anything at all. But, for some reason, that line was the first one to come up, and seemed right, so, here we are, lost again, simply because my brain didn’t feel like cooperating with the program…. SIGH…
It’s almost as discouraging as my stats from yesterday, and the last few days…. pitiful. But, I’m plenty full of angst and or emotion to perform ANY of the required functions today…. Hell, there MAY be a new poem in there; I’ve got that full, sick feeling in my gut that can sometimes presage a poem being considered by my subconscious mind. But, for that, we’ll have to wait and see; there’s no pushing or pulling that will speed that process up; poems bleed out of me when they wish….
But, it also could mean a rant; I haven’t seen anything out of the normal course of events recently that would stimulate one, but, I’m sure there is a headline out there just waiting for me to pounce on it, and expose another lie or two by some pundit…. I have great faith in their tendency to produce such rantable proclamations on a daily basis, from one talking head or another…. Here, I’ll demonstrate…. be right back…. There, that didn’t take long, did it? Here’s a headline guaranteed to make any conspiracy theorist sit up and take notice….
I don’t know about y’all, but, this appears to me to be yet more evidence of how the big corporate entities, such as PG&E, can pretty much do whatever they want, without any real fear of any oversight, or consequence, due to their undue influence over those responsible for that oversight….. The regulatory commission that oversees PG&E’s operations as a public utility is made up of people who are very much in that company’s pocket; just look at any vote on this issue by this group, and you will see a consistent pattern of corruption…. See how easy it is to find something to make us mad, at how badly the powers-that-be are screwing the public? Easy peasy, as they say now….
I’ll show some discretion, though, and will refrain from any further ranting until later in today’s outburst….. if at all. At this point, I still haven’t a clue about what will happen from this point; your guess would be as good as mine right now. So be it…. It’s time….
Shall we Pearl?….
“Nothing is good in moderation. You cannot know good in anything until you have torn the heart out of it by excess.” — Oscar Wilde (to Andre Gide)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I said I didn’t know what to do yet, I wasn’t kidding, and, yet, here we are….. Hmm, I’ll have to think about this..
Okay, I’m done. I’ve decided to reprint an older rant, one that remains valid today…. especially now, since there is this alleged “reform” bill before the House, supposedly one that will curtail some of the NSA’s spying…. Of course, the bill does nothing of the sort, but, they’d like us to believe it does…. This rant, then, applies today as much as it did on March 26 of this year, when this rant first appeared here, and the bill now before the House was in the talking stages…. Enjoy, and, please, pay attention, ffolkes, it’s all stuff you need to be aware of, for your own safety and privacy….
From 3/26/2014:
“If Patrick Henry thought that taxation without representation was bad, he should see how bad it is WITH representation.” — Smart Bee
If I’m to believe this article’s headline, Barry says he wants the NSA to stop being bad boys, and play nice with the rest of us….. I believe I’ll wait to see if any of this really happens before I break out the champagne…. This president, I’m sorry to say, has developed a particularly nasty habit, over the course of his time in office, of playing fast and loose with the truth, a tendency which, when observed in the past, in EVERY other psychopathic resident of his position, only becomes worse the longer the perpetrators believe they’re getting away with it…. When action is overdue, talk is cheap….
Due to my intense disappointment in his actions thus far during his administration, I’ll save my trust for later, when… no, IF I see ANY of his statements come to pass, in truth…. If, as I suspect, all goes according to historical example, we’ll see some superficial posturing by the White House pundits, that might eventually get around to SUGGESTING some changes that should be made….. But, none will actually occur in reality, and any real discussion will get bogged down in committee…. Meantime, the media will find some other outrageous issue to distract them from ever following up to see if anything happens along the lines of actual reform….
Now I’ll finish reading the article, & see how my prediction fared…. Ah, I see now…. Upon reading it through to the end, I came across the key phrase, the one indicating the real strategy behind the White House announcement…. to wit: “The president’s plan, however, relies on Congress to pass legislation — something that has so far seemed unlikely.”
Immediately upon reading this, my crap detector went off, with a loud “AHA!”, (inadvertently sending the cat flying across the room to hide in the plants, thinking I was about to come after her for something she did, no doubt…. she has a guilty conscience, I’m sure…. Right….. I’d believe that…. if I believed she had one at all….), when I realized I knew, now, just WHY Barry is adopting this stance, at least, if you believe what he says here…. which, understandably, I’m now having a hard time doing….
If he just leaves it up to Congress, it’s a foregone conclusion nothing will be done ….. Not by THIS one…. The current Congress has been, for the last three years, at least, the absolute worst one, EVER, for getting anything actually DONE…. This includes ALL of the past elections of congress we’ve seen in our history… I shit you not, this Congress has passed fewer laws, and had fewer bills presented at all, than ANY previous sitting of that august body, by a factor of about 8….. They’re determined to be known as the newest holder of the title of “Do-Nothing Congress”, formerly held by one in the early, or late, 20th century, I believe….
(Side note: This, of course, can be attributed to the Republican majority in the House of Representatives…. The party’s pundits, all older, white, Christian conservatives, determined, and stated in public, soon after Obama was elected, that their entire focus for the time he is in office would be to ensure that NONE of his legislative reforms ever took place, or made it into law…. It didn’t matter to them whether or not any of his programs would actually HELP the citizenry they represent; they were determined to undermine every reform he attempted….
For the most part, they’ve been successful in allowing NOTHING, or, nothing much, anyway, to get done…. all because of their unstated, but obvious, bigoted fear of the black man in the White House, an affront to their sense of Caucasian entitlement, not to mention the severe blow to their sense of reality…. They hadn’t even noticed when they ceased to be the majority in the real world….)
After reading the entire article, I find my opinion confirmed…. This announcement is just another stall tactic, one designed to give the impression to the public that something is happening, when nothing actually IS happening, or GOING to happen, other than business as usual for the spy agencies, who have continued ALL of the activities of espionage they are accused of carrying out…. The government has absolutely no intention of giving up their new toys, and they will continue to lie their little faces off to keep that from becoming public knowledge….
The NSA is STILL spying on the citizens of every nation of the whole world, including their own citizens, without ever having actually slowed down, or ceased ANY of the programs they’ve begun…. If you actually believe it when they tell you they have, well, then, you deserve to have them in your face…. Sorry, ffolkes, but, it’s just plain STUPID to believe these people are going to tell us ANYTHING they don’t WANT us to know….
Oh, every once in a while, we’ll see in the news they’ve sent one of their lackeys chiefs to Congress to discuss issues, or make statements, none of which actually address anything relevant…. they’re just making more smoke….. In the process, nothing is actually being done to stop them at all, not by Congress, not by the Courts, and certainly not by the White House…. No, it’s all just smoke, ffolkes, sent up to get in your eyes, trying to make you think they’re listening to your concerns…..
Right…. sure they are….. I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but, to these myrmidons of the shadowy corporate masters, your concerns are something to be used against you, to fan your fears of the “unknown other”, while simultaneously listening to your every spoken word over the airwaves…. Whatever they tell you they aren’t doing, or can’t do…. well, ffolkes, the smart money says they are not only capable of everything we suspect of them, but are already beyond that level, and are capable of far worse…. Count on it…. Not only are they lying about what they are doing, they are lying about what they CAN do…. which we will ONLY find out when we find the police at our door…..
Think about it, ffolkes!….. When you break down the walls between yourself and the truth, and really THINK about their purpose, the bottom line concept of their given task as spies, LYING, especially about what they are doing in the dark, away from the public eye, is an important part of their JOB!…. And, guess what? They’re good at it….
I hate to be such a curmudgeon about all of this, but, the evidence just keeps pushing me back into that mode, pissed off and ready to start picking off real targets, instead of merely suggesting them…. If you couldn’t tell, I think I pissed myself off…. I’d better go now, before I get REALLY worked up, and can’t find my way out of this rant…..
“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” — Eisenhower, First Inaugural Address January 20, 1953
“I don’t mind being in touch with reality, as long as I don’t have to live there.” — Smart Bee, channeling gigoid again
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s an Emily day….
For Death—or rather
For Death—or rather
For the Things ‘twould buy—
This—put away
Life’s Opportunity—
The Things that Death will buy
Are Room—
Escape from Circumstances—
And a Name—
With Gifts of Life
How Death’s Gifts may compare—
We know not—
For the Rates—lie Here—
~~ Emily Dickinson ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am compelled, at this point, to confess…. I still am not completely at my ease, physically. To be brief, there remains a small knife embedded in my right hip…. Well, that’s how it feels, anyway. With the meds, and rest, it’s doable; within an hour or two, it begins to get sharper, though, and by noon, it’s enough to make me want to hurt somebody, preferably someone else….
But, it is NOT going to keep me from finishing this Pearl…. This does mean I’ll be going old school though, as I was not able to get out yesterday to take any new pictures for this….. I’ll try to get back to that, as soon as I can get out of the house to a place where there are some reasonable subjects to shoot…. with my camera…. For now, let’s dive, shall we, & finish out this mess?….
“Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words;” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Cleobulus, iv
“Common sense is the least common of all senses.” — Hobson’s Homily
“We’re not talking about the same thing,” he said. “For you the world is weird because if you’re not bored with it you’re at odds with it. For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must accept responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.” — Don Juan
“All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book i, Chap. ii, Of Sorrow
“Rules make the learner’s path long, examples make it short and successful.” — Seneca
“Of all mankind, each loves himself the best.’ — Terence
“The world, dear Agnes, is a strange affair.” — Jean Baptiste Moliere (1622-1673) — L’Ecole des Femmes, Act ii, Sc. 6
Now THAT is a pearl, ffolkes…. and a damn good one, too….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I can just see Ollie, with that exasperated expression, turning to his partner, & saying, “Well, Stanley, this is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into!”…. But, it IS over now, so that’s something, right? If nothing else, you can always pretend it didn’t happen…. We Americans are good at that, what with all the practice we get dealing with our beloved rulers…. Hell, we learned it from them!…. And, on that cynical note, I’m outta here…. See ya, ffolkes….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
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.
Ffolkes,
So begins another day in Paradise, eh? Paradise being defined, of course, as wherever I am. As the romantic fool that I am, I’d love to be able to say that “Paradise is wherever ____ is….” the blank space used here to delineate the lady who makes me feel that way. Sadly, I currently have no name to put in the space, though I hold out hope that it won’t stay blank forever. Until then, I, like every other old fool in these parts, have to furnish my own paradise, such as it may be…..
No worries, though…. all things considered, I am a pretty easy going guy, and it doesn’t take a lot to make me happy…. A good book, a bite to eat, and I’m pretty much good to go. I’ve learned to live without the extreme pleasure of morning conversation, or the balm of knowing there is someone at home who cares enough just to want to be there. I do miss that feeling, though, that knowledge that there is someone out there who gives a shit what happens to me, and actually spends time thinking about me during the day, just as I miss having someone to occupy my mind in that way. Ah well, life goes on, and that kind of relationship only happens when we stop thinking about it, and start getting on with life…..
In that spirit, I think I’ll make this one of the shortest intro sections in several months, and get on with today’s dive. I’m trying to cultivate patience, in my quest to keep from killing any federal employees, so I will extend that cultivation into the area of relationship, and be patient for the appearance of someone with whom I can find happiness…. who knows, maybe they’re already nearby, and I just haven’t been attentive enough to what is around me…. Time will tell….. In the meantime, Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________
“”We’re not talking about the same thing,” he said. “For you the world is weird because if you’re not bored with it you’re at odds with it. For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must accept responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.”” — Don Juan
So far this morning, my mind is playing tricks…. It is allowing itself to become distracted by any little thought that passes by, refusing to settle in to one train of thought for long. I’ve now been at this about an hour, and not even this wonderful pearl from Carlos Castaneda is able to push my brain into an analytical mode of operation, at least, no so far……
I first read the Don Juan series of books, the first four anyway, when I was in my twenties, having first come across them when in college. They were a significant part of my philosophical training, and included my earliest attempts at moving away from the more classical forms of philosophy. I even went so far as to experiment with the mushrooms used by the Indians to produce visions, the psilocybin branch of fungus whose use became popular through the books. I can’t say I saw the visions I expected, but, it was definitely a learning experience….. I’m just not sure exactly what I learned….
But, that is what Don Juan is saying here, after all…. We don’t really pay attention to the universe, because we are too busy trying to control it, so we end up missing the perceptions that would be the most valuable to us, while we are trying to change that which cannot be changed. The universe is filled with “stuff” about which we know nothing, because we are unable to free our perceptive abilities sufficiently to see, or hear, or feel them. We are like blind men, shuffling about a dark room, bumping into furniture we cannot see, and exclaiming that we love the pain in our shins….
For example, in one of the Don Juan books, the brujo, Don Juan, describes to Carlos Castaneda a method of traveling rapidly across the desert…. The runner assumes a bent over posture, with arms hanging down by their sides, in a posture that appears as if they are bending over to grasp an object on the ground. While standing in place, one begins to bring the legs up to the chest in a high kick, but without kicking, but dropping the leg down as the other comes up, producing a running in place movement, with the feet rising high over the ground at each step, and bounding like a kangaroo when it hits the ground. The runner then focuses their vision a fairly long distance ahead, leans forward, and begins to run across the landscape, like a bounding, bent-over beast…..
It all sounds rather odd, and awkward, but, I have experimented with it, and can honestly claim that it is exactly as effective as it is claimed to be. While on a visit to my uncle, who lived near the desert in Phoenix, AZ, I went out into the open desert nearby to try to perform the described method. I assumed the posture, began moving my legs (and found my breathing automatically fell into a synchronous pattern that matched the leg movement), and then leaned forward to run….
It was an incredible experience, as one begins to almost fly over the ground, touching only with the feet for a second or less, then bounding on…. I didn’t keep count, but after only a moment of running, I stopped, and turned to look back at where I had begun…. I was astounded to see that in a mere few seconds, perhaps fifteen or so, I had traversed several hundred yards…. literally about five times as far as I could run over flat ground in the same amount of time, running normally…. I was dumbstruck, but, being a scientist by training and nature, I proceeded to try it again, with exactly the same results…. I’ve tried on different types of landscape, and it is as effective on the beach, or on a hilly mountain area, as it is in the desert; even in urban landscapes, as I’ve covered several blocks in mere seconds in my experiments…..
Now, of course, I don’t run at all, (too much risk of tweaking my back….) but, should it ever be needed, it remains a way that I could travel a long distance with little effort, for I found that after running this way, one is NOT fatigued, but, if possible, one feels even more energetic at the end of the run than at the outset. It also serves as a reminder that the universe is much bigger than just what we see, or pay attention to in our little bubbles of attention. It is our place as humans to explore all of that universe that we can, to try to understand as much of it as we may….. And the quest to know must go on until we are laid beneath the ground, to pass on to the next stage of existence…..
“People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.” — St. Augustine
I guess it all boils down to this: Pay attention!…… You never know what may come in handy…..
__________________________________
“Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
Black Cat
A ghost, though invisible, still is like a place
your sight can knock on, echoing; but here
within this thick black pelt, your strongest gaze
will be absorbed and utterly disappear:
just as a raving madman, when nothing else
can ease him, charges into his dark night
howling, pounds on the padded wall, and feels
the rage being taken in and pacified.
She seems to hide all looks that have ever fallen
into her, so that, like an audience,
she can look them over, menacing and sullen,
and curl to sleep with them. But all at once
as if awakened, she turns her face to yours;
and with a shock, you see yourself, tiny,
inside the golden amber of her eyeballs
suspended, like a prehistoric fly.
Rainer Maria Rilke
__________________________________
The price of Truth varies over time, and according to the whims of circumstance. Though its intrinsic value is, of course, immutable, the consequences of its publication, or its suppression, can change drastically. I had originally thought to put a diatribe here, a pointed rant on a frequent flier in the skies of ECR (Exploring Consensual Reality…. you know, this blog, the place you ARE….). The rant, however, faded from my mind after a couple of pearls showed up to distract me…. then came the other two of those included below, and I saw that I was done…. These four simple statements make a very valid, pointed argument for Reason, and Truth, and for their value in bringing some sort of order from the chaos in which we live…. So, here is an old school pearl, with a very sharp point….. read it carefully….
“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” — Oscar Wilde
“If the Bible proves that God exists then comic books prove the existence of Superman.” — Smart Bee
“It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.” — Buddha
“Who then is free? The wise man who can command himself.” — Horace (65-8 B.C.)
See? Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? And you’ll be glad to know that this WILL be included in the final exam, to be given someday, far in the future….
__________________________________
“I’ve wasted an excellent opportunity to remain silent.” — Smart Bee
I sure have! Too late now, though, so it will have to do. I’ve already labeled it for placement in the “it’s done” category, and as you know, once it goes there, there’s no turning back….. I’m off, to try to figure out how to pass the time until the mail gets here, to either delight, or depress, me, depending on the contents, or lack, thereof…. Boy, isn’t grammar, punctuation, and syntax wonderful? I think so…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..
—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.
Ffolkes,
Brave stories of epic battles and perilous quests are written every day, by authors all over the world. Visions drawn, songs sung, tales told, authors fill the Net with letters, words, phrases, and paragraphs, some noble, some rotten. Fantasy and real life, romance and mystery, light and dark, serious and fun, people give their self to their work, seeking to find that part within themselves that makes them what they are, that makes them feel not just the desire to write, but the need.
Each of those authors has their own routines, that they have worked out over time, that help them to write. These routines are sometimes rigid, written in stone; if the routine is disrupted, no writing gets done. Others’ patterns are more flexible, allowing the author some leeway before crashing the boat into the rocks of no inspiration. Each author’s routine is based, in part, on their own physical and mental characteristics, and is unique in that respect, just as we are…..
“Writing comes easy. It’s just a matter of staring at a blank piece of paper until your forehead bleeds.” — Ring Lardner
None of those other authors, though, have an ass that hurts before it even gets sat upon. None of them are limited to only 10 minutes in the chair, before needing to get up to move and stretch….. Well, that isn’t true, I guess…. I know of at least one fellow author who also suffers from lower back pain, and she also has troubles with this…. But, it only verifies what I’m saying, and that is that it is getting hard to get these Pearls done, from a physical standpoint, and my routine will have to be adjusted to accommodate those physical limitations.
I’m going to have to alter my writing habits, to include longer, more frequent breaks, as my back is complaining more and more as time passes, and I’m starting to get pressure sores on my buttocks from sitting so long. This may have an effect on my writing; I can’t tell yet whether that effect will be positive or negative. I’m hoping against the latter of course, but expect it will, if nothing else, slow down the process quite a bit, in order to maintain the quality of what goes in here…..
All that being said, again to little purpose, we should no doubt get on with the scheduled activities, before we have to start all over…. Shall we Pearl?….
___________________________________
“Few persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer censure which is useful to them, to praise which deceives them.” — La Rochefoucauld
Certain members of the French aristocracy occasionally had some pretty accurate insights into human nature, and this is certainly in that category. La Rochefoucauld gives us a very rational explanation for why our beloved ruling class finds it so easy to lie to the public, not only in this country, but in every country. One of a politician’s most basic skills is this ability to praise with deceit; since so many of those who end up in politics begin their journey toward Hell in law school, I suspect that there is a class that is given to law students that covers this principle, which would obviously also be a good skill for use on juries…..
People are lazy, and don’t want to have to think, if they can help it. If they hear something that tells them they are good people, or somehow they have been made special, just by being born white, or Christian, or ignorant, and are willing to buy into whatever they’re told by a person wearing a tie, why, they will follow that person straight to Hell itself, smiling all the way….
So, politicians learn at their mother’s knees to feed into this aspect of human nature, and pick up the skill of lying with a perfectly straight face at an early age. That skill has often been perfected by the time they reach mid-puberty…. which accounts for their tendency to marry and breed at a young age, thus making sure that there will always be more willing dunderheads available for brainwashing…. And people are much easier to fool when they’ve been programmed from an early age…. I think this is, to me, the most reprehensible part of the whole idea of controlling others, i.e., the abuse of children that is essential to the continuation of the process…..
Yes, abuse of children, that is what I said. To me, to deny knowledge is abuse, and to force ignorance upon a child is a most heinous crime. Denying a child the opportunity to learn and grow is even worse than merely lying to the public, to my mind, for it takes away that child’s entire life of possibilities, turning them into a robot, easily manipulated by more false information.
“I’ve been thinking, but it’s an accident I swear!” — Rush Limbaugh’s ex-script writer, now working for Mitt Romney as a speech writer….
One of the primary characteristics of anyone who desires to control other people is a total indifference to any suffering they may cause others. It doesn’t enter into their consciousness, or into their calculations, to worry about what might happen to anyone else; only what happens to them matters….. This isn’t news, just look at any of them on TV, and you can see it in their eyes…. no soul in there….
The Devil hath not, in all his quiver’s choice,
An arrow for the heart like a sweet voice.
— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Don Juan, Canto xv, Stanza 13
In fact, there are some of them who can’t keep from showing their disdain, especially in their eyes…. Note how Mr. Romney’s eyes glitter and sparkle when he talks about denying rights to minority groups, or when he talks about war. You can see him doing an inner happy dance at the misfortune of those who would suffer from his policies, such as when he speaks of breaking up immigrant families. I think I would tend to worry about a President of this country who became sexually aroused at the thought of bombing little brown people; but look deep into Mitt’s eyes when he talks about that subject, and you’ll be convinced…. the man is certifiably insane, and he has millions of people backing him….
“Never before have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church?” — Black Adder II (or in Politics?)
It’s time to make sure my ammunition is dry….. and my escape route is thoroughly planned and secured…. both may be needed sooner than I had hoped….
___________________________________
Old school pearl here…. and the conclusion IS left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader……
Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom. — Smart Bee
“Somehow, in the midst of their horrid history, the best among the _gaijin_ learned a wonderful lesson. They learned to distrust themselves, to doubt even what they were taught to believe or what their egos make them yearn to see. To know that even truth must be scrutinized, it was a great discovery, almost as great as the treasure we of the East have to offer them in return, the gift of harmony.” — David Brin – Dr. Pak’s Preschool
“It is well for people who think to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean….For those who do not think, it is best at least to rearrange their prejudices once in a while.” — Luther Burbank (1849-1926)
“You can teach an elephant to dance, but the likelihood of its stepping on your toes is very high.” — Gary Moss
He was determined to discover the underlying logic behind the universe Which was going to be hard, because there wasn’t one. — Terry Pratchett, “Mort”
Okay, that should be enough to get the idea across. Or through. Or around. Or whatever….. if not, well, no worries. It will be on the quiz, but the quiz doesn’t count toward the final grade…. mainly because this is Life, and you don’t get graded using that system; Life’s more of a “pass/fail” class….
These five pearls do have a point they ‘sort of’ lead up to, and the line of near-logic to follow there isn’t completely hidden. But, I’d take an aspirin first, if you plan to spend any significant time trying to fuddle it out. Like most things I put together, there is a humorous intent, but don’t get burned trying to find it…. not worth it, from the risk/gain aspect. And it might be a good idea to wash up after…..
___________________________________
Where the map differs from the terrain, believe the terrain. — Swedish Army Manual
Wow! This is deep! The Swiss Army dude or dudette who wrote this little gem must have been an Uncarved Block, to have written such a universal rule, disguised as a simple reminder to a simple soldier….. This rule is applicable to everything. Everything. Next time you are listening to some pundit expounding their political theories, use this as a tool to analyze their remarks. Simply view what they say as a map, a map they are using to describe their version of reality, which is the terrain.
The map they describe always differs from the terrain that exists in reality, and using this analogy simplifies finding the differences, as one merely need to look at reality to see the truth. It is by far one of the handiest little tools I’ve ever seen for determining the distance the speaker is from actual truth….. The officers in the Swedish Army must have to be careful giving orders, as their soldiers are armed with more weapons than the ones they carry in their hands…..
___________________________________
Well, this has certainly been an experience. The relative value of that experience is something I don’t believe I want to get into just now…. “Meandering” is a good word, I think, to describe the way my head worked this morning, but, at least I’ve meandered to an ending point…. I could just as easily fallen into a rant…. Plus, I just noticed that there is no poetry, to speak of, today, except for one little couplet from a longer poem. Ah well, so be it…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..
—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.
Ffolkes,
When one is open to accept it, inspiration is never hard to find. A walk outside can provide ample sights, sounds, or other stimuli that will trip the creative urge into action; a beautiful rose, covered in morning dew, the web of a spider in the sunlight, the cry of a hawk on the hunt, any and all can give the artist the wherewithal to express his vision. Even without leaving the house, the same sort of stimuli are to be found; the odor of breakfast cooking, the cat asleep in a patch of sunlight, the smile of a loved one… all are grist for the artist’s mill, if he/she is open to perceiving them.
Conversely, when one’s creativity is blocked (and who knows why it happens… it just does….), no perception, no beauty, no grand music will pull the artist out of their misery. Continued exposure to such stimuli may help the condition over time, but, mostly, when blocked, there is nothing the artist can do but suffer….
Fortunately, I have chosen to use pearls to create my Pearls, and the process of searching them out will generally push right through any blocks I may have set up in my mind, at minimum allowing me to produce a Pearl, though it may not be on a par with others that were produced previously. Not being a judge of that (well, I do, but, my opinion on what I produce is, naturally, a bit prejudiced, so I tend to discount it…..) I cannot speak to the resultant quality of said Pearls, but at least they are not stuffed somewhere in my head, causing trouble with whatever is currently at issue…. thank goodness…..
With all that said, to what purpose may never be known, we shall now proceed to the morning dive, and get started on producing another in a long line of daily outbursts from my mind and imagination…. and the wide world of human wisdom. Shall we Pearl?…..
IMAGINATION, n. A warehouse of facts, with poet and liar in joint ownership. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”
___________________________________
“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” — Winston Churchill
Winnie had a good point here, one that is fully supported by Sun Tzu’s Art of War, which I consider to be the last word on anything to do with war or conflict. Sun Tzu says, “All war is the art of deception.” He goes on to delineate the ways in which this principle is applied to various scenarios of conflict, thus demonstrating the flexibility of the principle. However, in Sun Tzu’s classic tome, he makes an assertion that is unfortunately ignored by modern leaders, and that is that the army, whose purpose is war, and the people, whose purpose is peace, are two separate entities, and require different methods of leadership if one is to achieve success.
In today’s world, politicians, religious leaders, and all those who seek to assume power over the people, all regard the process of obtaining that power to be war. In essence, the political figures of today’s society consider themselves at war with, the public, and thus justify to themselves all the lies that they tell to them to achieve their ends.
They become irritable and righteously indignant when confronted with their lies, and turn the criticism back on the critic, labeling them as “biased media, controlled by the left” (or right, depending on who is speaking), or as “unpatriotic”, or “blasphemous”…. all of which are more lies, used simply to distract the public from the true issue, which is their lies…. Did you ever notice that? When a politician is confronted, especially on camera, about a lie, they never directly answer the question, instead turning it into a personal attack, either on the questioner, or the media reporting it. No addressing of the lie ever takes place….
“It’s hard to decide if T.V. makes morons out of everyone, or if it mirrors Americans who really are morons to begin with.” — Martin Mull
This is not hidden knowledge… the above scenario between politicos and reporters takes place EVERY DAY, on TV, in newspapers, and on the Internet. Every day…. and the war on humanity, declared by its own leaders, continues to drag on…. If one were to read ALL of The Art of War, one would know that the worst thing a society can do is to engage in long, drawn out wars; such wars always end up destroying both combatants….. and that is what will happen here, if things don’t change…..
“Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.” — H.L. Mencken
___________________________________
But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Don Juan, Canto iii, Stanza 88
This is a perfect example of why I love poetry. Three short lines of simple words and phrases, and we have an expression of an idea so huge it encompasses all of mankind’s literature, history, and culture. It describes and celebrates, all at once, how the power of words can affect the entire world, all with the slightest of effort and resources. Moreover, its very brevity, and clarity, give proof of exactly what it claims; it is a perfect example of how powerful good poetry can be, and illustrates the very concept it discusses. Sheer genius, as far as I’m concerned….. and, in no need of further embellishment from this quarter….
___________________________________
And on the 8th day, God said, “Ok, Murphy, you’re in charge!” — Smart Bee
Now we know what happened! This completely explains what has heretofore been misunderstood about history. This is the ONLY logical, or even illogical, explanation for what has taken place on this planet for the last 5000 years or so…. nothing else fits. I imagine one of two things happened back in the beginning days of society…. either the above line was left out of Genesis, or it got eliminated from the printed manuscript by some overzealous editor who had no direct knowledge of Murphy (thus making him the perfect person to demonstrate not only Murphy’s presence, but his power…..). Either those, or the printer didn’t have enough room on his press to fit in the last line, so he just left it out, and pretended not to have seen any such line….
Well, it makes as much sense as what they’re trying to convince us of does, now, doesn’t it? Yes, it does…
___________________________________
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright What the hammer? What the chain?
In the forests of the night, In what furnace was thy brain?
What immortal hand or eye What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
In what distant deeps or skies When the stars threw down their spears,
Burnt the fire of thine eyes? And water’d heaven with their tears,
On what wings dare he aspire? Dare he laugh his work to see?
What the hand dare seize the fire? Dare he who made the lamb make thee?
And what shoulder & what art, Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
Could twist the sinews of they heart? In the forests of the night,
And when thy heart began to beat What immortal hand or eye,
What dread hand & what dread feet? Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
— William H. Blake (1757-1827), “The Tyger”
I’ve included examples of this type of poem previously, though there aren’t many that I can find. The sheer talent, and perseverance required to create one of these leaves me breathless with admiration. Thus, it is included here for your perusal and enjoyment, gratis, and sans embellishment….. “What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?” Indeed….
___________________________________
“But the greatest of all reformers of the depraved religion of his own country was Jesus of Nazareth. Abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, easily distinguished by its luster from the dross of his biographers, and as separable as the diamond from the dunghill, we have the outlines of a system of the most sublime morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man; outlines which it is lamentable he did not live to fill up… The establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this benevolent moralist, and the rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems*, invented by ultra-Christian sects, unauthorized by a single word ever uttered by him, is a most desirable object… *eg. The immaculate conception of Jesus, his deification, the creation of the world by him, his miraculous powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity; original sin, atonement, regeneration, election, orders of Hierarchy, etc.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William Short, October 31 (Halloween), 1819
I don’t believe that adding anything here will make the point any better than it is, so we’ll just let it fly, and only add that I agree with this fully…. and to say that I think it admirable. If one believes in God, then this becomes the only rational point of view to be found in the literature on the subject……
___________________________________
“Discourse, the sweeter banquet of the mind.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book xv, Line 433
As always, coming to the end of another Pearl is both satisfying and deflating. But, I hope always that what I’ve written may produce thoughts and/or comments from the Gentle Readers, as what Mr. Pope says is as true as the day for me…. hell, I’ve written replies to comments longer than the pearls that stimulated them. So, feel free to comment, as it strikes your fancy….
Meantime, I’m going to go take a walk; it’s a beautiful morning here in California, and I need the fresh air & exercise…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you……
—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.
gigoid 