Why, you may ask, should such a confirmed cynic feel so good about the future? Easy. I don’t hurt anywhere. It’s amazing to note how much power is in the short little phrase, “Sleep is a weapon.” Not only is it a weapon, but, it is a weapon of great power and flexibility, ubiquitous in the good it creates within our bodies, thus, by concatenation, our minds as well. I had not realized how much stress I had been absorbing, and ignoring, during this past two months, as I fought insomnia and my own brain’s rebellion at making changes to its chemistry. The major effect of ONE solid night’s sleep is, seemingly, incalculable. (The great massage beforehand didn’t hurt, either…. *grin*)

Pain is a familiar old friend, but, on those days when he/she/it takes a break, I can’t say I miss it at all. And, having that space from the pain leaves the mind free to perform functions much more pleasant than the constant effort to diffuse, distract, or otherwise obfuscate the pain and accompanying misery of insomnia. In short, hip, hip, hooray! About bloody time, too….

Without even thinking about any of the issues that surround this news, which in and of themselves have contributed to the difficulties, we will go forth into a new day, with the firm understanding that from this point on, I will only feel better, and stronger. and more clear in my mind, as I resume the scholar/warrior’s true path, from which I strayed so long ago. I know, a bit pompous, but, when giving one’s self a pep talk, enthusiasm is good, even if pompous….

Besides, I’m a pompous guy. I was trained thoroughly, as we all are, in how to observe custom, and whenever seriousness or sobriety is called for, the ability to fall into pomposity is a valuable tool. Sure keeps the mundanes off your back. As long as one doesn’t buy into the crap BEHIND the reason for the customs, they’re simple to follow. And the mundanes never know you’re strange….

Where was I? Oh, right. Harbinger, future, & all that. Well, I think that’s quite enough fantasy for one morning, don’t y’all? It’s probably best if we get this slow on the road, before I turn all maudlin or something. It can happen when I start rambling like this. Okay, Luigi ( Yeah, he’s back…. we had to take him back; he’s got tenure….), let’s get moving for the oyster beds…. Fire that sucker up, & let Zeke kick us up to the edge… Ffolkes, if I were you, I’d hang on…..

Shall we Pearl?….

From 2/26/2013:

“We are going to have to find ways of organizing ourselves cooperatively,sanely, scientifically, harmonically and in regenerative spontaneity with the rest of humanity around the earth…. We are not going to be able to operate our spaceship earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common.” — Buckminster Fuller

Bucky said this some time around 1968 or 69; Google would know…. but I remember it well, as part of the argument that first convinced me of the imminence of the danger from overpopulation, pollution, climate change, and all of the other foolish, self-destructive behaviors in which our specie has engaged for millennia. The cumulative effects of all of these issues is approaching a flash point, a point that, quite possibly, may already have been reached, and passed, without anyone noticing….

Perhaps the worst example of the entire problem is the movie “An Unpleasant Truth” with former VP Al Gore narrating a summary of these issues, with all the then currently available evidence, all of which taken together was rather impressive, as well as unarguably accurate. In other words, it told the exact truth, and clearly….

I call this the worst example because this perfectly told truth of the matter was ridiculed, reviled, and dismissed, by the governments, and the public, one by ignoring it, and the other by refusing to listen, reacting instead to an unfortunate delivery style. Yet, every word Al spoke in this movie is true, and is being proved today, with the already extreme climate changes we are witnessing on a world-wide scale….

“What are the facts? Again and again and again — what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” — what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!” — Lazarus Long

Sadly, the stupids keep on decrying any changes have happened, and blithely ignore the warmer, dryer winters, the cooler, wetter summers, the shrinking polar ice (at BOTH poles!…), the instability in the biosphere, the tons of carbon monoxide, chemicals, and particulates being added into the atmosphere every second, and all of the other evidence that PROVES them wrong. It isn’t a matter of there not being any real evidence, it is a matter of the evidence being ignored, or challenged, that is proving to be the hardest obstacle to be overcome, if we are to survive beyond the next 100 years.

Yep, that’s my estimate, based on all the different estimates I’ve read about, the evidence I’ve examined, and my take on how society is dealing with all of it….. I don’t see the changes needed happening, not yet, nor is there much indication that a way to stop the assholes in power from their insane intransigence, and selfish hoarding of resources for their private use.

The atmosphere is almost full, and the balance of the gases and elements that make up the air we breathe is, WITHOUT FAIL, going to begin to change, eventually changing into air that will not support our life form, meaning, we won’t be able to breathe it; we will suffocate….. This process, well understood by science, has already begun, and will happen faster with each passing day, once it reaches a certain critical point…. That point, if not already reached, is not far off.

“Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.” — Lazarus Long

Now, I know there is hope, and that everyone who reads this will give me positive reasons for that hope…. and I agree with all of them. I don’t want to die, and I don’t want my children, or their children, to have to face the same issues in order to save themselves. To be completely honest, I’d much rather just shoot the motherfuckers who are causing all of it right now, and be done with it…..

Sadly, that won’t work, so we’ll have to figure out something else to do. I am not enough of a genius to be able to figure out exactly what that might be, though I have some ideas that would help, I’m sure. But, I’m not in a position now to have those ideas instituted, so they are moot, unless I can assume such a position….

Hope is, therefore, just about ALL I have left…..

“He who receives a good turn should never forget it; he who does one should never remember it.” — Charron

“Men are rewarded and punished not for what they do, but rather for how their acts are defined. This is why men are more interested in better justifying themselves than in better behaving themselves.” — Thomas Szasz “The Second Sin”

“It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.” — Virginia Woolf

“A little hobgoblin fools consistent minds.” — Witty Bee

“In adversity remember to keep an even mind.” — Horace (8 BC)

“Nae man can tether time or tide.” — Robert Burns — Tam o’ Shanter

“To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be ever a child.  For what is man’s lifetime unless the memory of past events is woven with those of earlier times?” — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC), Orator

“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” — Oscar Wilde, “Oscariana”

“It seems that nature has concealed at the bottom of our minds, talents and abilities of which we are not aware. The passions alone have the privilege of bringing them to light, and of giving us sometimes views more certain and more perfect than art could possible produce.” — La Rochefoucauld

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Okay, right. So, here is where I stamp your papers, and tell you your application for admission to Utopia has been rejected. Sorry, we’re full up, so, until somebody dies (doesn’t happen often; we’re immortal), you’re S.O.O.L…. which is the correct way to write that particular euphemist abbreviation. But no worries, I’ll be back tomorrow, when you may submit another; there’s no limit to how many times you may apply, as there is no limit to how often you will be rejected out of hand…. Hah! Take that, sultry poltroons! Oh, wait…. Sorry, forgot this wasn’t the Daffy Duck cartoon….

Never mind. I’ll see y’all tomorrow. unless one of you is successful in your assassination attempts…. Good luck with that; I’ve got a Tardis, so, how are you going to find me? That means, I’ll be here, regardless of the legality….