Ffolkes,

“Be virtuous and you will be eccentric.”

~~ Mark Twain ~~

Congress is in session….

For the first five-plus years I wrote this blog, I posted every day, almost without fail. I had found producing it each day offered me the best way to feel sane, and whole, a condition which, at the time, was difficult to attain, as I was in severe pain much of the day, a condition I found to be counter-productive, to say the least. After finally gaining some control over my health issues, & finding the proper eay to treat them, the ensuing better health had an unplanned effect, to wit: I felt less need to spew out my thoughts on the internet, and less need to maintain my relative sanity by that method alone. Exercise and human interaction became more entertaining, and more attractive than it had for many years.

I remained, and still remain, a curmudgeon at the core, but, there are now more frequent instances of breakthrough empathy, and I find it more pleasant to discuss philosophy face to face with others than to write about it, & use delayed discussion, via email or comments online, as a means of interaction. I also don’t seem to feel any emotional loss for having abandoned most of my online community, at least on the primary level it once enjoyed; face to face interaction, though less ordered, & less predictable, is nonetheless more emotionally satisfying. I suppose that fits in with being human; we humans NEED to experience community, & the more intimate, up-close & personal it is, the better we like it.

This change in my personal weather pattern has had the effect of slowing down my work online; I can’t seem to find the inner angst necessary to drive me to post each day. Nor do I feel much sense of loss, & what I do feel is mostly connected to the 20 or 30 ffolkes who have been my ‘mates’ of longest standing. The real world is, after all, more compelling than the digital world, perhaps because it connects to both mind AND body at once. I am unsure of exactly why I find such amiguity preferable; I just know I do. As I have been known to say, so be it…..

On that plaintive, yet somehow positive note, I’ll leave off this wandering introspection, & get on with posting what I’ve cobbled together for today. It’s a pretty good one, if perhaps, as it’s author, a bit ambiguous. As Gilda Radner noted, ambiguity, in terms of reality, is delicious….

Shall we Pearl?

“It is an open question whether any behavior
based on fear of eternal punishment can be regarded as ethical
or should be regarded as merely cowardly.”

~~ Margaret Mead ~~

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Jimi Hendrix

This artist needs no introduction, at least, not for anyone from my generation. Even older folks know of Jimi, and the newer generations seem to know him well, also; his music is timeless, in its way. But, then, genius usually has that effect on normal people…. This is an old video, but has great sound, so, enjoy!….

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Gently Came a Wounded Child

But you shall not escape my iambics.

Soft, sinuous patterns of unearthly beauty
blithely commune with sinking stars,
as pale shadows of former virtue hover
near, ever clean, ever tolerant.
These unbidden habits are worn with age and care,
ready now for dissolution,
welcoming gladly the kiss of Death’s handmaiden.

Unknown to all, the child stands aside,
weeping for the lost days of youth,
days that now shall never be,
nor yearned for ever after.
Only darkness shall lay upon the landscape,
cold, hard, eternal.

Such then are the signs and portents
as we enter into the unknown future,
they are grave indeed.

Uncertainty will be our sole companion,
as the search for hope yields no result.
The lamentations of the gods
shall sound the elegy for Man,
who never learned to see the gift that was made,
so many echoes ago, in the hopeful past;
thus will we pass this plane of existence
as we came, baffled and afraid….

~~ gigoid ~~

written 2/2/201

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Naked Pearls

Oddly enough….

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“A short saying oft contains much wisdom.”

~~ Sophocles (496-406 BC), “Aletes”, Frag. 99

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“You’re not the only one who’s made mistakes,
but they’re the only things that you can truly call your own.”

~~ Billy Joel, “You’re Only Human” (Second Wind) ~~

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“I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

~~ T.S. Eliot ~~

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“Chaos is but unperceived order.”

~~ attributed to Fred Hoyle ~~

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“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether twenty or eighty.”

~~ Henry Ford ~~

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“Happiness follows sorrow,
sorrow follows happiness,
but when one no longer discriminates
between happiness and sorrow,
a good deal and a bad deed,
one is able to realize freedom.”

~~ Buddha ~~

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“Forget what you know and learn.”

~~ Roger von Oech ~~

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Such as it is, here ’tis; I do hope you’ve enjoyed our little foray into uncertainty. I know I have, so much so I will, no doubt, do this again in the near future. As noted above, I probably won’t post every day, but, every second or third day seems as if it will work just fine. Until I do return, y’all be well, be happy, & stay strange, In the midst of the current capitalist frenzy involved in this “season of giving” (funny how giving to the poor got turned into what we now see…), being strange is one of your most effective defenses…. Works for me, anyway…. See ya, ffolkes….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….