Tag Archives: Goethe

Ubiquitous persnickety swans…..

Posted on by
Reply

Ffolkes,
Life tends to run in spurts. I mean, not always, of course, but much of the time, we tend to alternate being  busy as a one-armed paperhanger with periods of feeling as if everything is moving through molasses. Cold molasses, at that. This is not always the case, obviously, but generally speaking we prefer to fill our lives with roller-coaster rides rather than idyllic barges floating down a slow, peaceful river. I think this is a good thing, as most people, if anything like me at all, would get bored quickly with Nirvana. This may be a clue into the true nature of human beings at large. What does one say about a creature who will deliberately sabotage a smoothly running series of events, just so they will be provided with something to occupy their tiny little minds? I’ve seen this a ‘sagan’ times (think, billions and billions), so much so that I, and probably you with some practice, can tell just when and how it will happen. This comes in handy in my own life, as it gives me the opportunity to protect my own affairs from the unknown and possibly deleterious effects of such sabotage, prior to its actual advent. It has the added bonus effect of keeping me alert, a condition I recommend to all.


The week prior to my monthly infusion of George Washingtons is usually spent in worry mode. Then for the next few days after George’s arrival, my brain goes into extreme juggling mode, calculating different scenarios with lightning speed, and doling out equal amounts of cash and soothing noises to those creditors slavering outside the door. After putting out as many fires as possible with inadequate water, it becomes a matter of maintaining basic existence until the next go-around, which is both easier and more difficult than it appears at first. At least this month I’m doing something more to improve my situation, so hope remains for a brighter, less stressful lifestyle in a foreseeable future. If naught else, I always have diving for Pearls to look forward to each day…..enjoy!…..

“We are all born mad. some remain so.” — Samuel Beckett

“The soul is indestructible and its activity will continue through eternity. It is like the sun, which, to our eyes, seems to set at night; but it has in reality only gone to diffuse its light elsewhere.” — Goethe (1749-1832)

The tree of deepest root is found
Least willing still to quit the ground:
‘T was therefore said by ancient sages,
That love of life increased with years
So much, that in our latter stages,
When pain grows sharp and sickness rages,
The greatest love of life appears.
— Mrs. Thrale (1739-1821)
— Three Warnings

Money isn’t everything: usually it isn’t even enough.

“Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s life.” — Mark Twain

Never tell a pawn the rules of chess.

Sometimes I surprise meself….the last line above is the shortest, but upon consideration, it could also be classed as the deepest….levels upon levels of meaning….. y’all take care out there……

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Some of the shine has rubbed off….

Posted on by
Reply

Ffolkes,
Many are the times in the past when the construction of this daily missive sent me into the realm of nonsense, looking for material to keep that freshness so necessary to an undertaking of this nature. There always must be the hook, yes? The initial images or phrases create a tone for what comes after, pulling the gentle reader along into the frame of mind I seek to create, a fallow field, as it were, in which to sow my seeds of thought, hoping they will grow into a small but complete revelation.  Needless to say, I probably don’t always hit the mark, but for the most part, I think I do pretty well. If nothing else, I’ve always been able to segue into the next phase without much fuss, so it must work, at least some of the time.
It is days like today that usually put me into the nonsense mode; cognition didn’t start until just a few minutes ago. I slept late, & realized when I got up that there was no coffee in the house (unfortunately, running out of food items is getting to be a daily issue). So, I had to drag my sorry butt to my landlord’s store, where he graciously allows me to charge food until the first of the month. This meant, however, that I had to dress enough to stay out of jail, to then actually drive at a legal speed, talk to people without scaring them (always a chore, but without coffee? Nearly impossible…), and then wait for it to finish brewing without putting any holes in the wall. It was touch’n go there for a few minutes as to whether my bills this month included new plaster. Finally, with caffeine working its magic, I sat down to begin, and found the all-too-familiar empty head syndrome in full possession of my mind. Hence, this rambling, chatty yet superficial, conversation with myself. Just so we all can get on with the day, I now give you a quite eclectic group of Pearls of Virtual Wisdom……enjoy!

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” — Aldous Huxley

He that lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend.
Eternity mourns that. ‘T is an ill cure
For life’s worst ills, to have no time to feel them.
Where sorrow ‘s held intrusive and turned out,
There wisdom will not enter, nor true power,
Nor aught that dignifies humanity.
— Sir Henry Taylor (1800-?)
— Philip Van Artevelde, Part i, Act i, Sc. 5

Knives and scissors, fork and candle, little children should not handle.

“Whatever necessity lays upon thee, endure; whatever she commands, do.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)

“Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness.” — Beckett

The Master doesn’t talk, he acts, when his work is done, the people” say, “Amazing: We did it all by ourselves!” — Tao Te Ching

Okay, so much for the uplifting part of the day. I suppose it would be good to keep that trend moving, so I’ll actually go do something constructive today. Meanwhile, y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Just Dozer

Kowabunga!

We now have superior blankets….

Posted on by
Reply

Ffolkes,
The grim-faced young man watched in silence as the light of the morning sun spread across the green grass of the park, watching dispassionately as the tall trees awakened to absorb the life-giving rays. In his mind’s eye he saw the running children and dogs, the nannies pushing carriages, the teens with boom boxes blasting out the latest hits, the old men playing chess, that would gradually populate the empty space that only he occupied now. He almost wished he could join them, but he would be long gone before any of those carefree people gathered. With only a small sigh for what he no longer could claim to be a part of, he turned and made his way along the path leading to the small lake in the center of the park. As he approached the water he did not slow his pace; instead he began to run directly at the shoreline. He picked up speed and at the precise moment he reached the water’s edge he gathered himself and leaped into the air out over the water. But, instead of crashing fully-dressed into the calm surface, he vanished, gone, as if he had never been. No one witnessed this astonishing event, and, for the sake of their sanity, it was just as well. (to be continued…)


Well, that felt good….we’ll see what happens to the young man in the next episode; your guess is as good as mine as to where he went. In the meantime, I will now return to our regularly scheduled program, after a word from our spon…..oh, wait. Sorry, I forgot. Nobody sponsors this stuff, though I wish they would. Oh well…..so, today’s Pearls are once again an unusual group, but they do have a point. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to deduce that point. Don’t fret if it doesn’t come easily; you won’t be graded on this. But, it’s good exercise for the old grey matter, and the point isn’t particularly obtuse. Maybe a little…..enjoy!

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend. — Henry David Thoreau

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.  Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.  Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but
downright force.  Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.” — Patrick Henry, Debates In The Virginia Convention

“Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.” — Oscar Wilde

Quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? [Who guards the Guardians?]

Thou wast that all to me, love,
For which my soul did pine–
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine.
— Edgar Allan Poe

“Few people have the imagination for reality.” — Goethe

Now, was that so terribly painful? It was? Oh….well, sorry, but I guess it’s just another short proof of the old saw about getting what you pay for, n’est pas? For the nonce…..y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you….Mr. Potato Head

Posted on by
4

Ffolkes,

It’s going to be hot today; when we get up and there is no fog, it means the planetary air conditioning has been turned off. You may as well turn on your fans right now. I’ve found that for fans, a little seductive whisper and stroking of the on/off button will get them turned on very quickly. Funny, to look at them one wouldn’t guess that they would be romantics, but there you go. You just never know with small machinery what will do the trick; they take on some pretty human characteristics after being around us for awhile. I used to have a toaster that would throw the bread all the way to the sink if you pushed down too hard on the handle; she had to be gently moved into position before she would work correctly, and praised the whole time she was warming up. Inanimate objects sure can be finicky, can’t they?….. How about y’all, do you have any stories about stubborn appliances? I know I’m not the only one who has to talk to them to get them to work……

Today starts a new era; I’ll be submitting my first piece to Textbroker.com, and from now on should be able to pull in at least a modest income, which will make all the difference in my anemic budget. I’m hoping it’s as much fun as it looks like it will be. We’ll see….meantime here is a very pointed group of pearls, chosen for their part in the gestalt of the group. As is usual, the point is left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader…..there will be a quiz, but it will not count against the final grade in the course……

Dust is an armor of poor quality.

I have but three enemies: fear, anger, ignorance.

“It is inconceivable that a judicious observer from another solar system would see in our species — which has tended to be cruel, destructive, wasteful, and irrational — the crown and apex of cosmic evolution. Viewing us as the culmination of *anything* is grotesque; viewing us as a transitional species makes more sense — and gives us more hope.” — Betty McCollister, “Our Transitional Species”, — Free Inquiry magazine, Vol. 8, No. 1

“Before you criticize people, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’ve got a mile-long head start. And you have their shoes.” — The Lion

“Individuality seems to be Nature’s whole aim — and she cares nothing for individuals.” — Goethe

“If you want to know all about the sea,  you go and ask a sailor, or a marine biologist, or an oceanographer, and they can tell you a lot about the sea. But if you go and ask the sea itself, what does it say? Grumble, grumble, swish swish. It is too busy being itself to know anything about itself.” — Ursula K. LeGuin

If, after reading the above, you do not have a better idea of where you fit into the scheme of things, well, too bad. There’s always tomorrow…y’all take care out there……

Sometimes I sits and thinks,

and sometimes

I just sits.

gigoid

dozer3

A different sort of hermaphrodite….

Posted on by
3

Ffolkes,
This is definitely a different sort….it floats. Of course if it didn’t we’d just have to find one, or fix one, that would show the same characteristic. It’s a dirty, lonely job, but somebody has to hate it, so why not us? It’s not as if they aren’t paying us well, right?…..And if it was so bad we couldn’t take it, it would just fall to someone who didn’t know the right way to hold one. So let’s have no more nonsense; just get in there and grab it by the toe and start twisting…..right? Alright then…..
The foregoing was brought to you with support from a grant by a local drug dealer with delusions of adequacy. He’s trying to buy his way into respectable society; we don’t think he’ll ever be accepted, but that is no reason we can’t take his money, since we’re doing something about all the lost souls he creates. We turn them into body slaves for sick old men and women who have never been treated for their bipolar disorder. It’s just another public service that we don’t much talk about, because it’s embarrassing to have everyone fawning over us. People sometimes have no dignity…….
Okay, enough fooling around, let’s get down to some serious literature……well, I guess we would, if I could think of something serious. Somehow this morning my brain is refusing to wrap itself around anything too heavy; hence the above two short paragraphs of…….hmm, well of whatever they are. Can’t seem to come up with a description, which isn’t surprising; it’s pretty far out in left field. I suppose we should come in out of the cold now, so with no further ado, I give you today’s Pearls of Virtual Wisdom. Remember to wash up afterward…..

“I once wanted to save the world. Now I just want to leave the room with dignity.” — Lotus Weinstock  (I can definitely relate…..)

“Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum — “I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“He who has a WHY to live for can bear with almost any HOW.” — F. Nietzsche

“Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone.” — Sigmund Freud”Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone.” — Sigmund Freud

“Genius is not a possession of the limited few, but exists in some degree in everyone. Where there is natural growth, a full and free play of faculties,  genius will manifest itself.” — Robert Henri

” — Bother!” said Pooh.  “Eyeore, ready two photon torpedoes and lock phasers on the Heffalump; Piglet, meet me in transporter room three.”

So, I’m going to end on that note, and head down to the transporter room to see them off. Y’all take care out there……

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

Dozer at play..

Kowabunga!