Ffolkes,
~~ Garrison Keillor ~~
Leelu demonstrating some serious relaxation skills….
Hajime…. The battle begins anew, but, with true Sun Tzu-like efficiency, ’tis already won. Most of what you see below is done; what I’m writing now is fresh. But, those are two separate occasions in time, as much of the material below, though ALL fresh as the day, was done at various times in the past two or three days, as the urge struck, or an idea grabbed me & pulled me to the keyboard (which, I might add, both Leelu and I think is pretty odd behavior….)
It’s odd. I mean, even for me. I can’t think of a single nonsensical thing to say. I mean, other than just saying that. It really doesn’t make much sense to say I can’t make nonsense, when saying so is nonsense itself, now, can I? No, of course not. That would be rude, and possibly could be construed as literary pandering, of the most egregious sort. We’d never do that sort of thing to OUR readers. Of course not, so, just put it out of your minds.
What I can say about it is this; diddly-squat is still diddly-squat, six syllable words or not, right? So, I think, given our predilection for using them gives us the cache, if not the legal right, to use either sense, or nonsense, at our discretion, should we ever find any. We are, after all, not only trained professionals, we are now hopelessly stuck in the royal ‘we’ mode of speaking. Such a bother! We hate when that happens.
Okay, I’ll stop now. I don’t much like the royals, anyway; too many ties to some rather nasty people for my taste. But, that’s neither here, nor there, nor anywhere, which, I believe, is exactly where we are now. Take your pick. Me, I’m going to take my leave, for bigger and better things. Well, other things, one may hope. Luigi will take y’all where you need to go, and, I’ll see you at the closing section…. Oh, you might want to put down your beverages; Luigi gets a bit rambunctious when he’s on his own….
Shall we Pearl?….
~~ Gray ~~
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Image from rollingstone.com via Google Images
I read somewhere about a rumored new biopic of Janis’ life and/or times. In honor of that possibility, and, as an excuse to listen to this again, here is possibly her best album, with, I hope, some decent quality sound. It has to be LOUD, you know, to get the full effect, and all the nuances of her voice…. Enjoy, ffolkes; there was nobody like Janis Joplin. Ever.
Janis Joplin
Pearl
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“I am further of opinion that it would be better for us to have [no laws] at all than to have them in so prodigious numbers as we have.” — Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book iii, Chap. xiii
Mssr. de Montaigne, with his plaintive observation of the events of the sixteenth century (in the midst of the Renaissance in European history), he sends an eerily appropriate message to us who live in the twenty-first century. I, too, have come to the firm opinion that anarchy would be preferable to much of what I see happening in the world today. From all I can see, there isn’t much of a future for our species, unless we make a significant change in the way we A) treat our planet, and B) treat each other…..
The only question in my mind at this point is which of these two severely explosive issues, each of which can conceivably lead to the total extinction of our species, will come first to a point of no-return. Both are rife with the possibility of imminent explosion, into such conflagration the world has not seen since the last time this happened (if it did; some say so, though, I don’t see a lot of physical evidence, just racial memory….).
If the society of the world reaches flash point, there are SEVEN BILLION people, all of whom will revert to the law of the jungle in a heartbeat, if it comes down to “me or them”. With the weaponry and technology available today, there is little doubt anyone left living will live at a level similar to how our species lived before the age of electricity.
If the environment reaches one of a number of critical points, there will be no way to stop whatever occurs from happening, for we cannot know exactly how it will happen, nor what will stop what we don’t know of…. All we do know is, if one of two or three events occur, our planet will no longer support life in our form…. at all. It is entirely possible we won’t even be able to breathe the atmosphere that remains on the planet, if certain chemical reactions reach a critical point…. It’s possible there wouldn’t be any oxygen in it to breathe….
“Animals can be driven crazy by putting too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s — “Time Enough For Love”
What we are witnessing today, every day, is a very real, graphic example of the truth of this assertion from Lazarus. I’m sure all of us remember the high school science class where we read about, or saw the film about, what happens when rats are put into cages and allowed to breed indiscriminately; the resultant pictures were anything but pretty. Imagine the scenes from our future, if we continue to stretch the resources of our “cage” as we have been doing, without any thought for the future, for many too many centuries…. We have acted as if it was all ours to use as we saw fit, and what we saw has been anything but fit…..
“Hello… IRON CURTAIN? Send over a SAUSAGE PIZZA! World War III? No thanks!” — Zippy the Pinhead
People are going to reach the same point as did the rats; count on it. (Especially when they figure out they can’t order any pizza!….) And, there are a LOT of us our here who don’t want to die. So, it’s going to get ugly, ffolkes; I don’t see much of any way to avoid what is coming, because the forces of history, and of climate, are too large and ponderous to stop in time…. Negative, yes; also realistic. All we can do is all we can do, and that’s be prepared, to live, and to help those we care for to live, long enough to see if the light of reason will ever shine again in this world gone dark.
I’ll tell you one thing. I don’t intend to go down easily; I’ll be using the lesson one of our greatest poets gave us, when he wrote,
but rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
~~ Dylan Thomas ~~
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For me, some poems bleed out; some just leak. Others have to be squeezed out, but, this one, this sort of oozed out last night as I sat thinking about…. well, stuff. Don’t ask me what it means, not yet. I’m not sure anything I tell you would be anywhere near the truth…. All I know is, I feel better.
There’s a certain
panache,
almost a feeling of
glory,
one feels
upon returning
from
Hell
to
Purgatory.
Or,
so those say,
who say those
sorts of things,
I guess.
I don’t know,
for sure.
I didn’t go
there.
I only went
to
Hell.
I only live
in
Purgatory.
But,
I like it.
Right now,
anyway.
Other times,
not
so much.
It’s not bad,
if I don’t
think.
Sigh.
Too bad.
I
do.
~~ gigoid ~~
Written 11/17/2015.
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I hardly know what to say of this pearl; all of those chosen were offered up without any particular difficulty by Smart Bee, and, each and every one of them is a gem of particular value, in terms of pearls of virtual wisdom. Heck, I could easily write a thousand words in support of each, or, use any one to illustrate some point about modern society. Together, I can’t quite grasp what they are attempting to convey; perhaps y’all have an idea. I had one thought, which is to, perhaps, switch them around a bit, to find the order that brings them all into focus…. At any rate, just thinking about any of them tends to work the mind in a way that can’t hurt, unless one is not accustomed to such activity…. Have fun, it’s a nine-star glittering gem, with a crashing great final pearl…. Well, I think so….
“One does evil enough when one does nothing good.” — German Proverb
“You should go to a pear-tree for pears, not to an elm.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 674
“The more one judges, the less one loves.” — Honore de Balzac
“I love to doubt as well as know.” — Dante
“In art as in life, form and subject, body and soul, are one.” — Edward Abbey
“I change myself, I change the world.” — Gloria Anzaldua
“The supreme irony of life is hardly anyone ever gets out of it alive.” — Robert Heinlein
“Death the last sleep? No, it is the final awakening.” — Sir Walter Scott
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There you go, ffolkes. I can’t do it any better than that. I’m not even going to TRY to top any of it here in the closing section. I’ll merely note my relief, and happiness y’all made it this far, and, without any injury, or reports of impending litigation. NOW I’m done. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, for sure and for certain. How can we be certain? Well, it’s like Charles Schulz (Yep, him; ‘Peanuts’) once said, “Don’t worry about the world ending today; it’s already tomorrow in Australia.” Ta, then, luvs….
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
gigoid, the dubious
The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.
PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.
“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch
À bientôt, mon cherí….
gigoid 