Tag Archives: Jack Handey

There are shades of culpability at play….

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Ffolkes,

“How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward.” — Spanish proverb

There are moments when I feel that this whole process of creating the Daily Pearls of Virtual Wisdom is well defined by this little aphorism…. This isn’t to say that I consider what I’ve done to be ‘nothing’, but, the end result is the same, is it not? Whether what I write is brilliant and compelling, or just plain silly (that seems to cover the gamut of material I see here….  Joke….), nothing in the realm of reality is changed, for better or for worse…. Nothing I can see, that is, other than in the minds of a few die-hards who show up regularly, and, apparently, like what I’ve written, but, I don’t know exactly what they think, other than they keep showing up (for which I am eternally grateful….)…. I’m glad that what I write appeals to someone out there, even though that isn’t the expressed, or actual, purpose behind my literary efforts….

Saving my sanity was the original purpose, but, it has grown beyond that initial motivation, to include more elements of egotism; it would be foolish to deny that it requires a certain amount of ego to continue to post the kind of material I do. But, that has never been an issue for me, as my ego is plenty strong, and plenty big enough to not give a rat’s beauteous butt if people disagree with my opinions; as well, I’m always willing to enter into dialogue over my thoughts, and give folks a chance to shoot down my logic and/or reasoning, and to consider other, new information in relation to the subject at hand. My ego is even strong enough to admit it when I’m wrong, if the proof thereof is compelling and clear….

I think what has happened is that writing has become necessary for me to feel complete; when I don’t get a Pearl done in good time, I find myself experiencing a sense of diffuse anxiety, that nibbles at the edge of my consciousness, keeping me on edge, until I get it done, or make a final decision to abort for the day (that usually only happens when technical issues are present….). Once it is done, though, I feel like the above proverb, rested, and ready to face the day’s tasks with a clear head. In retrospect, looking at what I’ve just come to realize, it is a routine, a set of habitual behaviors, that I have developed, one that is very closely entwined with my persona in such a way as to affect all the other stuff I do and feel…..

In other words, I’m addicted to this, and HAVE to make a Pearl each morning, or I start exhibiting, and feeling, symptoms of withdrawal, complete with dyskinesia, unspecified malaise, and inability to concentrate. Between this process, and coffee, I am a slave to my inner needs, just like the rest of humanity, I would guess…. I just talk about it more, and admit that I’m an addict more readily…. Or, maybe, that’s just ego talking, and all of this is just another exercise in futility, disguised as an intelligent opening section of today’s Pearl…. Since the evidence is weighty in both directions, I think we get to choose, so I pick the futility…..

In other words, I’ve done nothing, once again, and now I’ll go rest….. Shall we Pearl?…..
_____________________________

“There are people so addicted to exaggeration that they can’t tell the truth without lying.” — Josh Billings

In the past few weeks, I’ve mentioned how the BRC (Beloved Ruling Class) has a nasty habit of lying to the public. When I do this, I am deliberately singling them out, in spite of the simple fact that this behavior, lying, is one that all of us, to some degree, are subject to displaying, in scientific terms, alla damn time! (That’s an Italian measurement, “alla damn”, taken from the Latin “compos mentos” — “he is insane”…..)  It’s true, we all lie (and if that isn’t a strange and beautiful sentence, I am hallucinating again…. not….)  Let me say it again, just so you get it…. It’s true, we all lie…..

Of course, those of us with an evolved sense of integrity and/or honor try to confine our lies to what we tell ourselves, to maintain our illusions about our own worth, and our own ability to cope… without which all of us are much less capable…. (Hmm… what does THAT say about our nature? Not sure I want to know….). But, in reality, many people don’t limit their lies to themselves, but use them freely to attain their own ends. I’m not sure how they rationalize this behavior to themselves, or if they even bother, but, it is clear that they do lie, and they do it without any compunction, or reservations about its relative morality….

Any who, I didn’t intend to rant here, so much as provide an explanation for the following pearl… It isn’t comprised of quotes that will inspire or stimulate cogitation, but, actual headlines, once again ripped from the real news, as listed on SFGATE, an outlet of the SF Chronicle, which used to be just a newspaper…. If you look at each of these, you will note a theme in them that otherwise may have been missed…. Look at each with this in mind; in this situation as described, how many lies have been told? Lies to protect a reputation, or prevent a lawsuit. Lies to the public. Lies about the public. Lies from the administration. Lies from corporate spokes bots, and from union fat cats. Lies from criminals taking advantage of the ignorant. Lies about sex, lies about money…. It’s all there, in seven little headlines, a simple part of our Reality, ffolkes…

SF Fire Chief bans helmet cams in wake of crash

Britain detains partner of reporter tied to NSA leaks

Scammers prey on confusion about health care overhaul

AC Transit union rejects contract offer

San Diego mayor set to return amid recall drive

BART managers, like unions, among best compensated

Markets drift as investors await Fed details

Ain’t Life © (copyright pending) grand?! Makes you want to just go out and start a petition, or something, eh?…. Yeah, I know, me, too….
_____________________________

Last night, during a tangential search for something or other, I went through some old Pearls from the site archives, and stepped in a large pile of serendipity, which I didn’t mind getting all over my shoes, at all…. I found three poems that I wrote last August, that I had completely forgotten about, all three of which are pretty damn good, if I do say so…. It was very strange, actually, as I must have literally opened a vein to create these; my conscious mind has no recollection whatsoever of any of them, or of writing them…. But, there they were, big as life, and obviously mine, staring me in the face… So, I saved them, and will submit them for your perusal over the next few days…. Some of y’all may remember them, as I saw some of the regular site-goers had been there…. Here is the first…

Dreaming, I wait….

In the most patient moments of rationality
kindness flows smoothly in a special milieu,
fallow thoughts speed first from equality
to give no anxious fever, anger to eschew.

Indignant mothers and step-sons in-law
shall fade simply from brilliant to grey,
intoning ritual dogma, fresh, avid, and raw,
falling, falling, in massive pastoral disarray.

Safety lives not, save brightly in ignorant bliss,
it follows us all, silent and infinitely frail,
foremost too often, soft as a virgin kiss,
alive, always eager, willing, and pale.

Intimate knowledge finds only the bold few
with courage and virtue to gift, unbidden.
No solemn royal version may pass in review,
true love for man, never to remain unhidden.

Sweet feathers of Emily’s hope uplift,
calm, drowsy episodes bursting with light,
With final glad cries we set ourselves adrift,
swimming in the oceans of natural delight.

When sorrow is banished, in ages yet to come,
roots solidly anchored, cold and remote,
Ample supplies of kindness sit silent and dumb,
and the old stranger shrugs on his faded coat.

Dreaming, then, I wait with shadows in the night
aspiring to inspire, a message from the muse’s heart
Never forgotten images, framed in color bright,
tempt me only, grieving, steeped in serenity’s arcane art….

~~ gigoid ~~

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Like it or not, I have to hurry now, to get this done…. I’ve a lot to do this week, in preparation for another move…. packing boxes, changing addresses with banks and agencies, renewing passport with new information, etc., just piddly stuff that all needs done so I can stop thinking about it. Hence, the following old-school, random harlequin pearl, subject as yet unknown…. Let’s see what SB can do for me on such short notice….

Here the heart
May give a useful lesson to the head,
And Learning wiser grow without his books.

— William Cowper (1731-1800) — The Task, Book vi, Winter Walk at Noon, Line 85

“Every body continues in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, except insofar as it doesn’t.” — Sir Arthur Eddington

“Instead of trying to build newer and bigger weapons of destruction, mankind should be thinking about getting more use out of the weapons we already have.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

ASS, n.  A public singer with a good voice but no ear.  In Virginia City, Nevada, he is called the Washoe Canary, in Dakota, the Senator, and everywhere the Donkey.  The animal is widely and variously celebrated in the literature, art and religion of every age and country; no other so engages and fires the human imagination as this noble vertebrate.  Indeed, it is doubted by some (Ramasilus, _lib. II., De Clem._, and C. Stantatus, _De Temperamente_) if it is not a god; and as such we know it was worshiped by the Etruscans, and, if we may believe Macrobious, by the Cupasians also.  Of the only two animals admitted into the Mahometan Paradise along with the souls of men, the ass that carried Balaam is one, the dog of the Seven Sleepers the other.  This is no small distinction.  From what has been written about this beast might be compiled a library of great splendor and magnitude, rivalling that of the Shakespearean cult, and that which clusters about the Bible.  It may be said, generally, that all literature is more or less Asinine.

“Hail, holy Ass!” the quiring angels sing;
“Priest of Unreason, and of Discords King!”
Great co-Creator, let Thy glory shine:
God made all else, the Mule, the Mule is thine!”
G.J.
— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Take naps and stretch before rising.” — Things We Can Learn From Dogs

Sorry, can’t blame this one on me; it was all Smart Bee…. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it….
_____________________________

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

— William Butler Yeats, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”

I’m in a weird mood today; let’s hope it doesn’t translate into the real world in a way that I will come to regret….. Ah well, I’ve been weird before, and shall be again, so… that should do it for one day….. Like it or not, I guess I’m done, save the shouting, and the lawsuits….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole…
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

dozer3

Sweet, savory, sour, AND bitter….. nice choice…

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Ffolkes,
Honestly, I didn’t mean to wake up like this….. all crotchety, grumpy, and annoyed. But, then, I didn’t plan to wake up at 0430, with a ripping headache right in the middle of my forehead, either. Thankfully, a bit of coffee, a bit of worship, and all is well, at least for the time being, and I can think about getting this started.

Not that I’m brimming over with ideas right now; in fact, that well seems particularly dry at the moment, so we’ll have to see what happens when I start actually firing up the old brain cells for real…. Yesterday, I managed to come up with a decent religirant, and a hell of a good pearl in section three (you should go back to read it, if you haven’t…. it’s a good one….).

I’ve had to change some plans that I made yesterday, thanks to the unpredictability of other people that I failed to factor into the plans, so today promises to be another day of cleaning up after Murphy, in a sense. He managed to thwart what was on the agenda for yesterday, forcing me to reschedule it for today, costing me about $50 extra, so I’d wager he’s feeling pretty good about himself right now, having used well an opportunity for which he’s probably waited for several days. Asshole….

Can’t seem to pull the crankypants off all the way; they keep getting fouled on my socks, or maybe the lingering headache has something to do with it…. In the short time I had yesterday to read blogs, I did read one rant from one of my favorite liberal bloggers, John over at The American Liberal Times; he gave some pretty good shots to the conservative right in the political world, all with his usual mild tone, which he uses to great effect in his indictment of the idiocy generally on display in conservative writing.

I enjoy his fair-minded, even-handed manner of delivering these indictments, with which he usually supplies ample evidence of his target’s ill-conceived misconceptions about life, political reality, and justice. He also is quite steadfast, and stands tall and strong in favor of his ideals…. Fun to read….

Any who, I suppose this isn’t getting done what needs to be done around here, so I’ll quit blathering, and get on with today’s post. I’m totally unsure of what might happen, but, that’s nothing new, so….  Shall we Pearl?….
__________________________________

“Go on, EMOTE!  I was RAISED on thought balloons!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Okay, so that didn’t work out so well…. Though the truth of the above statement, as it applies to me, and my life, is indisputable, it doesn’t solve any of the problems inherent in this process, and is here only to indicate the extent of the difficulty I face today….. To begin a pearl with such a pearl is very un-pearlish…. trust me, I would know.

It’s a perfect ending line, naturally, but to shove itself into my face with the intent of starting off a pearl, well, that’s just, plain and simple, over the line…. Now that it is there, though, what can I do with it, except go with the flow, and finish it off? Nothing, that’s what…. So, here we go, with a supporting cast that will, hopefully, save this pathetic attempt at humor from blowing up completely, necessitating plastic surgery….. I like my face just the way it is, strangely enough….

“When you go in for a job interview, I think a good thing to ask is if they ever press charges.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“In Oregon, the State Legislature has come up with a State Nut. This is unlikely to happen in Missouri, since there are too many candidates.” — Smart Bee

I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?
Toil on, poor heart, unceasingly;
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A truth and noonday light to thee.

— Ellen Sturgis Hooper (1816-1841) — Life a Duty

“Memory serves wise commanders.” Tz’u-hsi, 638 AD

“Luck affects everything; let your hook always be cast.  In the stream where you least expect it, there will be fish.” — Ovid (3/20/43 B.C.- A.D. 17) Roman poet

“A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.” — G.C. Lichtenberg

If thou would’st have me sing and play
As once I play’d and sung,
First take this time-worn lute away,
And bring one freshly strung.

— Thomas Moore (1779-1852) — If Thou would ‘st have Me sing and play
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I am feeling more than just a little lazy today; can’t seem to shake off the sleepiness I woke up with… so lazy, in fact, I’m not even up to Googling for a poem, and will go with one of my own, from the archives, just to save the effort of finding one somewhere else….  I know, really lazy, huh?  Oh, well….

Here is one to celebrate, sort of, the coming, and going, of spring, which, this year, thanks to the myth of global warming, has been completely unrecognizable as a  Northern California spring, resembling more something you might find in Missouri, or Uzbekistan, or somewhere odd like that….

An Old Man, Snoring….

Winter arrives with gusts of wind and rain,
  clover spreads green amongst the hedges.
Urban gardens quiver, and dream of spring again,
  gargoyles stoically crouch on corniced ledges.

Umbrellas sprout over heads shrouded and hatted,
  dotting the sidewalks in colorful profusion.
Urban denizens pose sketches, framed and matted,
  adding casual beauty to fill the illusion.

Hissing tires, swishing along with the wipers
  join nature’s orchestra smoothly, as percussion.
Dripping gutters sound gong tones, true pipers,
  a sudden roar of wind hushes all discussion.

Dreams of summer heat form the crux of desire
  as winter chills our souls from without.
Sitting in warmth, gazing into an imaginary fire;
  content to know spring will come, no doubt.

~~ gigoid

__________________________________

The following is another display of how lazy I’m feeling today….. It is a rant I wrote back in January of this year, when I was still living with the constraints that come with living with no money to speak of, to wit: not enough food, and barely enough of anything else….. Things have changed, for the better, but, sometimes, it’s good to think back to how little I had then, and appreciate the difference…. Not that any of that has anything to do with this rant, but, it had to be said, to cover up my lack of work ethic today….. so be it… If nothing else, it’s a good rant, so, enjoy….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Is this an out-take from the “BRADY BUNCH”?” — Zippy the Pinhead

I’m rather hoping it is, in sooth…. if not, we all are in serious trouble, up the proverbial creek without a hint of a paddle. Not that it should be anything new or unfamiliar, as most of our history has been spent thus occupied. Of course, previous centuries didn’t have the distinct advantage of having either the Brady’s, or Zippy, in all his insane wisdom, as cultural icons, as well as ethical touchstones….. They had to make do with Socrates, and Plato, and stuffy old guys like that….. Aristotle was practically a rock star in his day, and remains a pretty smart dude, by all evidence, but I still prefer Carlin, I think, for the most cogent philosophy for modern times….

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.” — The Constitution of the United States of America Amendment 6, 1791

For a moment, I wondered what my unconscious mind was thinking when it made me copy and paste this amendment into the pearl, as a pearl…. especially as it seems to be in conjunction with the Zippy quote…. Here I am, five minutes later, still wondering what the hell I was thinking…. It happens that way sometimes…. just give me a few moments here, and I’ll come up with it…. Aha! Got it! Naturally, I only needed to go back to basics…. The answer to the question of how the two quotes are related is…. Reality….

Aye, that’s right, reality. It’s what we do here, explore reality, and all its implications, ramifications, and delineations. Also, it’s temperature. Well, perhaps that isn’t the right word, but…. Reality, as is clear and obvious to the most casual observer, exists in varying degrees (hence: temperature…. see?). The degree of reality that is included in an out-take from the Brady Bunch is clearly not the same degree of reality that is implied in the Sixth Amendment.

I’d say, the Amendment would hit around 8 or 9 on the real scale, with 10 being the Reality of Amber, where all roads lead. (See Roger Zelazny’s book, The Courts of Amber…..), whereas the highest the Brady’s could hope for would be a 2 or a 3 on that same scale. They’re too oppositional in nature to be rated otherwise, as well as being on opposite ends of the scale of Relative Importance to ME and YOU…..

Now we get to the meat of this matter…. Of late, there has been a lot of public discourse regarding gun control, as a result of the media’s steadfast love of gore and manipulation. Another school shooting took place a few weeks ago, wherein some crazy idiot got hold of some firearms and used them in an insane manner.

This, of course, all morality aside, is still a reprehensible act, and, IMHO, most easily solved by just taking one of his own guns and using it on him, at the time of his crime. Bang, problem solved, and since he’s standing there over the bodies he has made, no question of guilt. In such cases, the why of his guilt should not matter; whatever it is, it is reason enough to put him down, in defense of humanity. The other questions can be answered after the children have been defended….

Sadly, there are two segments of humanity who don’t agree with this logical outcome. One segment is what I term the humanitarians, a misleading term, since it usually involves the denial of much of human nature. The other, of course, is our old nemesis, the BRC…. our Beloved Ruling Class….

Neither of these groups will agree that allowing people to have guns should be allowed, or that killing the killers is a proper solution for the issue. In both of these positions, they are dead wrong, and, more, they know they are. This serves to make their arguments more shrill, more emotionally based, and, in their eyes, more valid, in some strange form of weird logic….

“Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform, so don’t kid yourself…” — Frank Zappa

One of the most edifying parts of this discussion, for me, is how it makes it so easy to identify those who are wearing the uniforms, and from what camp they are from, according to their colors and insignia. You can tell the humanitarians, they’re the ones wearing the faux-camouflage pants, in support of the troops, they’ll assure you; they want the police to be the only ones who carry guns, believing, for some unknown reason, that police are somehow more moral or ethical than other people. (Of course, they also would have trouble if you asked them to define the words, “moral”, or “ethical”, in any other terms than those used in a philosophy paper they memorized in college, or in seminary….)

The BRC are always easy to spot, as their sense of entitlement provides them with all the armor against opinion, or law, they ever need. They want guns to be only held by the militia, (which they control), or the police (whom they also control), because it makes them nervous as hell to know there are guns out in the land, in the hands of people who would use them, for certain, if they attempt to perform their illegal lying, cheating, and stealing anywhere in their presence. It also makes them nervous knowing that they would be in danger for real, if the truth about what they do is ever made public with enough evidence to convince the masses to act…. They don’t want to have to worry they will be over-matched in firepower when that day comes along….

SIGH…. I’ve opened a can of worms, again, I know it….. I’m not going to claim to have all the right answers to the situation we find ourselves in today. Though it is a different world, technologically and culturally, from the time when the Second Amendment was written, deciding to abandon its precepts on that basis is not, and should never be, enough to justify any change in a law that is so important to the common man, the very people for whom the laws were created, to protect them from the self-same usurpation that is now being attempted. Once the law is amended, and weakened, the term “slippery slope” becomes very real, and a valid fear for those people.

To put a cap on it for now, I’ll say this…. Quite simply, I do not trust those who would take the right to bear arms from the people (added later: I reserve the same lack of trust for those who wish to amend, or limit in any way, the right to bear arms; ANY kind of change will ultimately be used as the basis for arguments designed to completely take the right away…). I have seen NO evidence, in history, or in recent current events, that ANY governing body, or ANY group, or ANY single person, of ANY persuasion can be trusted to have guns, and use them solely for the benefit of the people, without turning them to their own purposes, first. NONE. You can’t show me any, either…. Go ahead, I’m listening….

I have studied people every day of my life, and I know too much of human nature to ever believe what I’m told of another person’s intentions; even the best intentions can change in mid-stream, turning its back completely on any commitments made previously. People lie, they cheat, they break in their minds, and they can’t, as a whole, ever be trusted to act rationally on a consistent basis….. at least, not any more rationally than can I myself….

“In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.” — Oscar Wilde

Such being the case, I’d rather keep my guns, thanks. I’ll accept the risks that go with that freedom, which includes the risk of bad people getting their hands on guns, and doing bad things to others. Don’t worry, if they do it in front of me, I’ll help…. and not by running away and hiding…. Life is dangerous, ffolkes, and one either learns to get along with that idea, or one spends a lot of time worrying about shit that can’t be changed…. A very unhappy state of affairs, to my way of thinking, and not very realistic in the long run….

“When the panorama of human existence becomes chaotic and confused, it is quite soothing to watch the sun rise in the East.” ~~ gigoid
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All things considered, this went very well, thanks to my laziness and willingness to cheat on my own standards…. Of course, if they are MY standards, then breaking them isn’t really cheating, is it? It’s merely utilization of the right to edit, otherwise known as “changing my mind”, a right and privilege none of us should ever forget we possess, as it can make the difference between success, and a handful of shit….

Sorry, forgot to hold the graphics….. “One cliche, please, with a side of graphics!” “Do you want whale sperm with that?”…..  Now that I’ve completely lost it, let’s see how it reads….. Not too shabby, all in all, and certainly worth posting…. Onward, into the day!…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

Some lessons are more painful than others….

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Ffolkes,
As much as I enjoy these morning interludes with the blogging world, there is still a certain degree of fear that goes along with publishing one’s own writing for others to read. One is, after all, exposing the inner self to the world, which, historically, has a habit of treating inner selves rather shabbily, or even cruelly, especially when they are shown for the first time, and often thereafter. It’s perhaps the biggest risk we take by deciding to share our thoughts with the world at large, a risk that is very real, and anyone with less than military grade armor protecting their ego is in serious jeopardy….

My own fear is no match for my ego, though, never has been, so it’s never been an issue for me…. I couldn’t wait to start blogging, as I’ve had stuff to say about life and society for many years, with no outlet for my outrage, or my angst, or my decidedly odd sense of humor. Once I was retired, and discovered that I had all the time I wanted to write, I jumped in without any discernible hesitation, taking to it like a duck takes to water….. but, happily, without the water all over my butt…..  🙂

Then, of course, Murphy came to live with me, as he found his perfect target in my attempted routines, my attempted regular posts, my attempted sleep, and all the other parts of life that he found he could so easily distort and pervert, such that I never know where the next conundrum will surface. I seem to be a fertile field for his machinations, and ever since, oh, a week or so into this time period, since I began blogging, he has made it his life’s work to find a new way to fuck with me, EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DAY!!! If it weren’t such a pain in the ass, I might feel special (cue Gilda Radner’s Church Lady voice for that last word….).

I didn’t mind so much, until the wearisome events surrounding living in poverty began to mount up into a mass that even my well-buried depression couldn’t keep hidden, and my PTSD became a daily issue, with the advent of unpredictable emotional storms, causing me to burst into tears at the slightest stress, or the thought of any stressful concept…… Concepts of a stressful nature….. yeah….

Such as when I found out yesterday that my older brother has been diagnosed with lymphatic cancer, and has decided not to take the treatments that might extend his life, to save his family from financial ruin…. It’s a decision that isn’t surprising; our father made the same one.

But, the butthead might have informed his brother(s) of it, so he(they) didn’t have to find out when he called to wish a happy birthday….. (Actually, I don’t know if he told my “little” brother…. if he did, and he didn’t call me, either of them, I’m afraid we are going to have to exchange a few words…. They may need to be reminded of who they are dealing with, and the proper protocols needed to keep from getting their sorry asses kicked…. I may be old, and getting feeble, but, I am still their brother, and I can still be dangerous when aroused….)

As you might guess, this little revelation has thrown me for a bit of a loop, and I don’t really even know how I feel, other than tearfully sad, fearfully mad, and a hundred other powerful emotions I can’t even name. So tearful, a break is needed, to get rid of some annoying fluid build-up that is common when I cry….. I’ll be back…. Okay, well, that didn’t work out so well….

I’m going to have to resort to more emergency procedures today, in order to get this Pearl done. I don’t know why, exactly, but it seems important to do so today. So, in sections one and three, where there would normally be a rant or two, I’m going old school, because that’s all I can do for now. I’ll do my best to make them potent pearls, even though they won’t be as floridly original, or as clear, I’m sure. At this point, enough emotion is swirling around inside me that a poem may just break out in section two, but, if not, I’ll find something sufficiently compelling in a more classical selection, if I can hold it together that long…..

I’m going to go for a dive now, and see if I can drown a bit of this sorrow in knowledge…. I have hopes, because aphorisms have always been a source of comfort to me in times of need…. So, I’ll stop torturing y’all now, and get on with it…. Shall we Pearl?….

“When you get older you have to be careful about always saying, “Things  aren’t as good as they used to be.” But it’s hard not to.” — Andy Rooney
(I don’t much like Andy Rooney, but even a blind dog can find a bone some days….)

— Bother! said Pooh, on his deathbed.
__________________________________

I was a bit nervous as to how this might turn out, given my state of mind, or lack thereof, but, Smart Bee seems to be in a compassionate mood, for a software program, anyway, so maybe it will all be okay….. Here are five pearls, each with their own message for the world to consider….. I particularly like the first one, and the last, and they DO help the pearl make its point…. That point’s a bit subtle, even for me, but, it’s there, if you wish to look for it, and it’s not bad….

“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time–a tremendous whack.” — Sir Winston Churchill

“A time to be born; a time to die.” — Ecclesiastes 3:2

“Allow your children to face the consequences of their actions.” — Brown

“If you ever feel like you’re on the verge of a nervous breakdown, just follow these simple rules: First, calm down; second, come over and wash my car; third, shine all my shoes.  There, isn’t that better?” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“If possible, try to find a way to come downstairs that doesn’t involve going bump, bump, bump, on the back of your head. -” — Pooh in Winnie the Pooh A.A. Milne, English author (1882-1956)

See? As I’ve been known to say previously, it’s all in the wrist….
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What I said above about Smart Bee’s apparent empathy today seems to be accurate…. When considering poetry to fill this space today, after determining there is no poem of my own ready to come out, it showed me an excerpt from a Yeats poem, which prompted me to go find these two gems, both of which fit my mood today, as well as the apparent theme, obviously chosen by Reality…. Enjoy!…

A Friend’s Illness

SICKNESS brought me this
Thought, in that scale of his:
Why should I be dismayed
Though flame had burned the whole
World, as it were a coal,
Now I have seen it weighed
Against a soul?

William Butler Yeats

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Dream Of Death

I DREAMED that one had died in a strange place
Near no accustomed hand,
And they had nailed the boards above her face,
The peasants of that land,
Wondering to lay her in that solitude,
And raised above her mound
A cross they had made out of two bits of wood,
And planted cypress round;
And left her to the indifferent stars above
Until I carved these words:
{She was more beautiful than thy first love,}
{But now lies under boards.}

William Butler Yeats
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Here is a seven star pearl for your perusal, as a finish to today’s effortful outpouring of confusion…. Smart Bee was again very cooperative, giving up this group in less than forty clicks, an astounding rate of success, especially given how it has performed already today. One could get the impression that it was AI software, and was reacting with compassion to my pained mental static….. Lest that be untrue, or, in case it is, I’ll not suggest otherwise…

Meantime, here are seven pearls, that just fall together into an attractive shape, no matter which way you jumble them up…. enjoy! Should it be necessary, there are cleaning solutions and tools in the cabinet by the pantry, including items to clean your clothing, in the event of spills or splashes…. We’re big on safety here, but, Life can be dangerous, especially when dealing with ideas…. unpredictable little buggers…. Why, I’ve seen them jump right out of a frying pan, into a fire…. imagine that!….

“What UNIVERSE is this, please??” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Two wrongs are only the beginning.” — Kohn’s Corollary to Murphy’s Law

“To get really high is to forget yourself.  And to forget yourself is to see everything else.  And to see everything else is to become an understanding molecule in evolution, a conscious tool of the universe.  And I think every human being should be a conscious tool of the universe.  That’s why I think it’s important to get high.  I’m not talking about unconscious or zonked out. I’m talking about being fully conscious.” — Jerry Garcia

One ship drives east and the other drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow.
‘Tis the set of the sails and not the gales
Which tells us the way to go.

— Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Winds of Fate

“The only use of a knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present. The present contains all that there is. It is holy ground; for it is the past, and it is the future.” — Alfred North Whitehead

“Those who will not reason, perish in the act.  Those who will not act, perish for that reason.” — W. H. Auden, _Shorts_

Lastly, a perfect find for today…. The counter-curse to the one I received long ago, when the ancient Chinese gentleman said to me, “May you have an interesting life.”….. Now all I have to do is find a competent, relatively cheap, er, inexpensive necromancer to say it to me….

“May you live in uninteresting times.” — Smart Bee
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I can’t speak to how today’s effort has been for y’all, but, it has helped me a lot, to regain enough composure to get the rest of the way through the day. The process of creating a Pearl has always been therapeutic, (a big part of why I started in the first place….), and today has served to solidify that characteristic for me…. My only remaining hope is that I haven’t bored anyone to their own tears, or offended anyone enough to lose them in the process, but, that’s always a gamble in this universe, so….

In looking back over this, I have to say, it came out pretty well, all things considered…. Now comes the tough part…. Reality awaits me, outside the door, and I can’t ignore its call this time…. Ah well, such is life…. it goes on, with or without our approval or cooperation, so I may as well try to enjoy the ride while it lasts, for, as the Scots say, I’ll be a long time dead….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Exercising your legal option to forage….

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Ffolkes,
I remember what happened just recently when I tried to write pre-coffee, and since I promised not to allow it to happen again, hang on a second….. Oh, bless me, that’s good….. Okay, we’re good to go now…. Having consumed that first, life-giving sip, of “dark brown morning nectar”, (thanks, Doc….), I can now turn my mind to more productive matters…. Damn, that first sip is just so…… good! And the next few ain’t too shabby, either, as the world continues to come into sharper focus…..

Okay, now what? We are firmly ensconced in front of the keyboard, and the morning is bursting with promise…. Of course, we don’t necessarily know if that promise will be something we want, but, hey, you take what you can get, right? It’s always best to face the world with a touch of fatalism, especially when one’s subconscious mind wakes one up at 0533, with tears flowing down one’s cheeks, and no clue as to what the tears are for….. Most upsetting, without even going into the embarrassment factor….. I mean, how humiliating can it get? I’m 62 years old, a full-grown man, and my emotions are SUPPOSED to be under my control, not laying out there on my sleeve for the world to pluck at…..

Now, 20 minutes later, the tears are gone, but the fragility remains, along with the excessive amount of fluids in the head, that the body creates just to make things messier….. and that damn asshole Murphy KNOWS that I have that unreasonable fear of Kleenex, from that incident as a child, that I still can’t talk about much…. I think I told you about it….. You know, that time with the clown, the priest, the pony, and the convention of county sheriffs from around the US. It was a mess……  So, any who,  I’m stuck using TP to wipe my nose, which is really hard on it, as TP is NOT as soft as it claims…. Sometimes, this whole circus doesn’t seem worth getting out of bed for, you know?…..

But then I think about Pearls…. and I realize they are what make my life worthwhile…. The process of creating them each day has kept me sane now for going on two (or was it twelve?…) years, and I’m hoping it will stretch to include the next few months, until my SS comes through, so I don’t end up in a locked facility somewhere, babbling to myself and smiling at the butterflies only I can see…. They’re quite beautiful, you know…. Since most ffolkes, or folks, either, can’t see them, I tend to keep them to myself, though…. It’s just easier that way…. People can be so harsh…..

Now that I’ve reached the point of nearly pulling my covers completely off, I think it would be best if I just gave up trying to make any sense out of this intro, and get on with today’s dive…… Oh, look, over there!…. it’s Madonna! Oh, no, wait….. never mind, false alarm…. it was only Lady Gaga….. Oh well, I’ve got their autographs already, anyway…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Disco oil bussing will create a throbbing Naugahyde pipeline running  straight to the tropics from the rug producing regions and devalue the dollar!” — Zippy the Pinhead

So, a few days ago, the POTUS said that one of his priorities for his final term would be the issues surrounding climate change and global warming, to try to make an effort to halt the greenhouse effect, caused by the particulate emissions from billions of motor vehicles, that is threatening our very existence. He then proceeded to make it clear that he was just kidding, as he also indicated that he will most likely approve the new, massively-destructive-to-the-environment XP Pipeline, that is proposed to be built from the Arctic to the US, because it will help the economy by producing, get this, about 6000 jobs for Americans.

6000….. That’s it…. There are over 20,000,000 (twenty MILLION) people out of work in this country, so we’re talking about a percentage increase of…. hold on, gotta find a pencil & paper….. okay, that’s .0003%….. In English, three ten-thousandth of a percent. So, basically, we’re talking about giving in to the fat cats, who want the billions of dollars of profits they will make, at the expense of the environment, out of our pockets, by the completion of this project, for an increase that barely registers on the scale at all…. What I am wondering is just how many of those billions of dollars made their covert way into the POTUS’s re-election campaign treasury…..

The XP Pipeline project has been labeled as a disastrous idea by almost every environmental agency in the country, and the world; there is no doubt whatsoever that building it will adversely affect hundreds of species of animals, reducing their habitat, and will further add to the already massive amounts of pollution going into the air every moment. It will only provide a minuscule number of jobs, jobs that could easily be created by the enhancement of the alternative energy industry, or by instituting programs that would repair our national infrastructure of roads, dams, and other public facilities, all of which are in need of renovation.

No, instead, the POTUS, in a move that gives away his real agenda in office, has agreed to allow the fat cats to have their pipeline, in exchange for a reduction in the amount of static they give him on other issues, of less vital interest to the rest of us, but have a greater PR value. I am disappointed, to say the least, but not particularly surprised…. I do believe that Barry has a higher degree of morality than the average politician…. but, it MUST be remembered that he shares one important characteristic with every other politician…. he WANTED the job…. That kind of ambition is, in and of itself, an indication of a type of insanity common to our leadership, all the more dangerous because he APPEARS to be concerned for the people….. And, if he believes his own hype, that makes him the most dangerous of politicians…. remember what is said about the Road to Hell, and what it is paved with….

Regardless of that, how can anyone claim to be concerned about the rights of the little man, and still approve the Patriot Act, or whatever they’re calling it now, large parts of which are in direct opposition to the Bill of Rights….. He signed that off on his first day of office, in his FIRST term…. That act, to me, was a dead giveaway that all was not as it seemed, in his case…. Subsequent events have proven that my initial unease was, and is, well-deserved, as he continues to smile and play to the people’s desires on one hand, his left, while covertly screwing them by signing them into slavery with his right hand…..

“The only guarantee of the Bill of Rights which continues to have any force and effect is the one prohibiting quartering troops on citizens in time of peace.” — H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), 1951

Ah well, I don’t suppose I’m surprised by these revelations; there have been hints and clues to be found since his first term as POTUS, and probably before…. I am, however, pretty disappointed, because I had held out some hope that he was different, and that the changes he would try to get done would be of help to the common man, i.e., me, and the rest of us here in the trenches of reality….. I had hoped that he would NOT compromise with the !%, standing up for the people instead….

I should have known better….

“If doctors ever tell you that you’ve “flipped out,” don’t believe them, and just keep on doing what you were doing, because something tells me “the Man” is behind this.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“If I’ve offended anyone, my efforts have been rewarded.” — Smart Bee

“I had a hunch something like this would happen.” — Written on grave
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Democracy

Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.

I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.

I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.

Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.

I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.

~~ Langston Hughes
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” — I’d love to, but… there’s a disturbance in the Force.” — 13 of 101 Easy Ways To Say NO

I’m going to remember this one…. We all have times when we need an excuse to say no to someone who asks for our time, especially as once you give in to them, they won’t stop asking…. I would say “that’s human nature” but you might think I meant it as an excuse. Let me assure you, I don’t…. or rather, I do…. or,…. hell, I don’t know what I meant…. but, it ain’t no excuse….

People will take advantage of others at every opportunity, it seems, and I don’t regard that as an acceptable characteristic, and hate to encourage it by giving in to the emotional blackmail that almost everyone resorts to to try to motivate people into doing their will….

Robert Heinlein made what I consider to be the best summary of this issue when he wrote:

“Do not confuse “duty” with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.”


“But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants “just a few minutes of your time, please — this won’t take long.” Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time — and squawk for more!”


“So learn to say No – and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you. (This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don’t do it because it is “expected” of you.)”

None of us likes to refuse what others ask of us, but you must learn to differentiate between altruism, which is an indulgence we can little afford, or exercising our personal choice, which may, or may not, meet the other person’s needs…. But, then, their needs aren’t really your problem, are they?…. Nope, they aren’t…. no matter how much, or how often, those others may try to get you to buy into it….. Or, in other words, you have to CHOOSE to feel guilty, ffolkes…. nobody can do that for you, no matter what they tell you….

So be it…. gigoid has spoken…..   🙂
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Well, it’s done, but that may be the best I can say about it…. In fact, I’m taking a chance here, and letting it go, in full appreciation of the risk I’m taking in doing so…. I could seriously damage whatever credibility I may have created with this one…. Oh well…. It’s a good thing I don’t do it for profit, or for fame…. sanity is good enough for me, and that’s all I hope for at the end of each Pearl….. Currently, I have to admit, the jury is still out…..   🙂

Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Mitigating the dangers of priestly concern….

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Ffolkes,
Eerie, plaintive organ music is playing in my head, and there is something lurking just around a corner, at the edge of my vision, that darts away if I try to look at it. There’s a cold chill in my room, and I keep having to look over my shoulder, as it just feels like I’m being watched….. If I didn’t know better, I’d think someone was trying to mess with me, by setting me down in a horror flick, complete with evil poltergeist, and maybe a slasher….. Of course, I don’t have a basement, or an attic, where I can go explore the patently scary-dangerous noises, or any teenage girls on hand to provide the obligatory screams, but, I wouldn’t put it past Murphy to try to fuck with me in a new way like that; he’s pretty inventive at times…..

Ah well, so be it….. I’m not a big horror film fan, ever since 1954 when my older siblings dragged me to see the opening of the Creature From The Black Lagoon. At four years of age, it wasn’t a big hit with me, and I’ve never liked that sort of movie ever since; just never saw any sense in paying people to scare me. I manage to find enough things in real life that perform that function just fine, thank you very much, and didn’t see why I should give someone money to do so, especially since money seemed so hard to come by (four-year-olds don’t get a lot of money-making opportunities…..).

I spent the entire movie in the lobby, after the monster’s first appearance, until the ending, when I went back in to find my sister and brother, and caught the ending scene. Even at four, I was a bit skeptical, to see the chisel-jawed hero knock the Creature out with a right cross…. Though I was only four years old, that didn’t seem realistic, to see a normal sized man punch out a seven-foot tall creature that made an eighty-foot long boat rock when he climbed aboard…. My innate feel for the physical world told me that was silly….

That was my last experience with attending horror flicks; I’ve kept my personal promise to myself, to never waste money on fear, especially as entertainment….. I just don’t get it, myself. Why is it considered a good thing to make yourself afraid? Many, many people get a big kick out of it, and I’ve never been able to understand why that is; I hate the effect that adrenaline has on me, and did so even before my experiences in living with it all the time. It has never been “fun” to feel those kinds of feelings, not to me, so I have a hard time understanding the impulse. The experiences I had later in my life, when I was getting regular doses of adrenaline administered to my system, only served to reinforce those feelings in me, and I still avoid horror films, to this day…..

It’s just another example of diversity, I guess, and goes to show that it’s probably a good thing that everybody is so different. All those people who like the horror film genre can have their entertaining sessions of manufactured fear, I can totally ignore it, and nobody is bothered at all….. Just don’t ask me to go with you to explore the attic when there are funny noises coming from it, and an organ is playing in the background….. You’re on your own, in that case…… You may borrow a knife, or a baseball bat, but, no way I’m going up there with you….

Shall we Pearl?……
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“Excellent.” — Moritz von Schwind (1804-71), Austrian painter, last word

I suppose it’s normal to begin to think about Death more often as one gets older. It does seem to assume a larger significance in our view of the world, as the time for its manifestation approaches, even though we know not at all exactly when it will happen. As dying words go, this one is, well, excellent, and I can only hope that I will have something as elegant and classy to say when my time comes….. Something on the order of, “Wow, that was quite a ride!”, or “I wonder if there will be ice cream in the afterlife?” You know, classy stuff, deep with insight and philosophical significance…. Right…..

Epitaphs also become more of an interest with age, I’ve found. I saw a really cool one this morning as I cruised Smart Bee…. “Here lies XXX XXXXX, for all that it matters.” Very droll, eh? Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always found epitaphs to be a very interesting, even intriguing form of literature, with some of the finest examples of wit, and even wisdom, ever written by human hand (though, come to think of it, what other type of hand might be writing, I don’t know….. just an expression….).

Limericks, poems of all kinds, questions, answers, declarations, assertions, complaints, insults, political comments and judgments, all can be found at their best on gravestones, tombs, and crypts all over the world, from all periods of history…. I’ve seen translations of the funereal hieroglyphics on the walls of Egyptian tombs that, essentially, were jokes in the form of an epitaph, and some of the ones I’ve read from early American times were absolutely hilarious. Books have been written, I’m sure, compiling the wit and wisdom that is displayed in such hallowed grounds, and I may just spend some time at the library trying to find one, because it would be an extremely interesting read…..

The subject’s interest is, of course, easily understood, as Death is just about as common an experience as exists, for all of us. And, it isn’t hard to comprehend why such a serious subject is such a magnet for humor; if we don’t laugh at Death, we will most certainly cry, for it is the single most terrifying experience we have to face in our lives, once the trauma of being born is healed, or, at least, forgotten. We humans, for some reason, have no idea what happens before we are born, or after we die, and that lack of knowledge is terrifying to most people…. well, to ALL people, really. Some just handle it better than others, I suppose….. All of which is why, I suppose, most people eventually try to assume the following attitude about life in general….

“Don’t take life so seriously… it’s only a temporary situation.” — Smart Bee

This sort of assumed lackadaisical outlook is, if nothing else, comforting for most folks, and ffolkes, too. I’m a firm believer in laughing at Life, Death, and the whole nine yards of Reality, especially at myself and my attempts to deal with all the above, and not only because it feels better than the alternative…. It’s also healthier. But, that aside, dealing with the serious side of Reality is a hard row to hoe, most of the time, so balancing that stress and struggle with some humor works well to mitigate the difficulty we all experience in getting on with our lives through the moral and ethical morass that is modern day society.

We aren’t going to get much help with anything from the BRC, or the priestly hierarchies, and society itself is too amorphous to depend on for anything so mundane, so we may as well take the reins for our own happiness into our own hands…. and part of that is facing the concept of Death with courage, and humor, and a sense of wonder, rather than letting it fill us with dread and unreasoning fear…. Mind over matter, ffolkes….. if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter…..

“It’s OKAY — I’m an INTELLECTUAL, too.” — Zippy the Pinhead
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It’s Death Again

It’s Death again – He’s always there –
Watching, waiting – e’er the stare!
Every time I look behind
Or reach to pull the window blind,
I catch a glimpse of grubby hood –
A little clue to where he stood;
The glint of light that caught the scythe.
Perhaps if I could pay a tithe…
But O! no use, he’ll never go.
The adamant phantom; don’t you know
He will but wait until it’s time
For me to hear His fateful chime? –
The toll that claims my destiny,
To Hail: ‘You’re next, it has to be…

Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2009
———-
Seen on a headstone in a graveyard in England:

John Macfarlane (dates unknown)

Erected to the memory of
John Macfarlane
Drowned in the Waters of Leith
By a few affectionate friends.

🙂
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“I’ve never killed a man, but I’ve read many obituaries with great pleasure.” — Clarence Darrow (1857-1938)

I really love the power of understatement; this one from Mr. Darrow is an excellent condemnation of a huge class of people, unnamed as yet, but whose names are indelibly etched on our memories, just waiting to be included in a list of people the world would be better off without…. We all have a list by that title in our heads; anyone who denies it is a liar, plain and simple, and fooling no one. As a human being, it is part of our nature to hate, and nobody is so morally chaste as to escape those kinds of feelings now and then. Nobody…..

Sometimes, what amazes me about modern life is that there are so FEW outbreaks of random violence… I’d think that, with all the pressure our society puts on people, there would be a lot more of us who crack, enough to lose control over our baser impulses, and start trying to cross names off our list of preferred targets….. The way they usually go about it isn’t the most logical, or tactically intelligent, but what do you expect from somebody in an emotional crisis? Logical thinking? Not going to happen, sorry….. I’d say it would be time to get nervous when some guy starts blasting away, then disappears, only to attack again later, in a new place…. That would indicate more planning and strategy, and a much more dangerous person…..

I’m not sure just why I started this pearl…. It might have been in response to yet another random shooting spree reported yesterday in the news, in which a teenager started firing at people because of some argument he/she had with another teen, or something like that… another totally insane reason to start killing people, but, then, do you really expect rational from these people? It isn’t rational to expect them to have an understandable reason for their insanity, it doesn’t work that way…..

But, the media will spend an incredible amount of time and energy exploring every nuance of what this idiot was doing when they snapped, until no secrets are left to the young person’s life…. In looking at the entire incident, including the media coverage, I am tempted to give a big sigh, and lament the death of society, or at least the apparent death of decency…..

Amorphous anxiety seems to be our legacy as members of today’s culture; our lives consist of a series of unpalatable events fueled by unwarranted lies, and made worse for a societal tendency toward sloth combined with a severe lack of compassion; the sheer futility of it all seems to be the only message that comes through clearly. The fatal flaw in human nature that keeps us from becoming truly moral creatures is still in control of our destiny, and any impetus toward rationality is disallowed.

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.” — Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

This is the flaw we possess, all of us, and that which has plagued us throughout our history. One of my blogging friends commented a day or two ago with a relatively famous quote, in response to another discussion around the recent spate of reported shootings…. “All that is needed for evil to succeed, is for good men to look on and do nothing.” (She didn’t report the attribution, but according to Google, it was first stated by a man named Edmund Burke, with a number of slight alterations in wording since its appearance.) This single truth has been the biggest stumbling block to human progress for our entire history, and continues today to keep us from making any progress toward improving our chances of survival in the long run.

Once more, I’ve painted myself into a virtual corner, so to speak, since I don’t have any good solutions to offer to our dilemma. Oh sure, I can tell anyone what is needed for us to start making the world into the kind of place that would be home to EVERYONE…. I think, down inside, all of us KNOW what is needed for the world to be a better place. But, until it becomes common practice for people to make decisions based on compassion and love, rather than ambition and avarice, things aren’t going to change much, because the folks who don’t care about others aren’t going to stop what they’re doing…. there’s nothing in it for them if they do. Only when good men stand up, and refuse to allow that kind of usurpation of the rights of everyone else, will any changes take place…..

So, you tell me….. When is that going to happen? And how do we convince people that it needs to happen? Answer those two questions, and we might have a direction to go……

“If you ever go temporarily insane, don’t shoot somebody, like a lot of people do.  Instead, try to get some weeding done, because you’d really be surprised.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey
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I tend to cook, and then eat what I cook, rather than pull weeds, when I’m feeling homicidal, but that’s just me…. otherwise, Jack’s advice is unusually relevant, and surprisingly valuable, coming as it does from perhaps the world’s most egregiously  stupid person…. (Don’t worry, Jack doesn’t mind the insults; his creator made him that way deliberately, so I doubt he’d sue me for stating the obvious success of his caricaturization….)  That single thing is probably why I’m so overweight…..

Well, here I am, at the end of another Pearl…. I find myself almost melancholy; the process of creation has, of late, been particularly….. satisfying…..  So, going on to the rest of the day’s activities brings some sadness at having to cease an enjoyable experience. Now, all I have to do is take my own advice, delivered so freely, to allow the change to happen without reluctance, or resistance from me, accepting the good feeling, and going on to the next…. Okay, I can do that….. Watch me…..   Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Once titillated, thrice shy….

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Ffolkes,
Bilious clouds of smoke, greenish-yellow in the light of the street lamps, poured from the windows, while screams echoed off the walls across the way. As I stood in a shadowed doorway, I spied a figure in a window of the burning building’s second story, hooded, carrying a small bundle. As I watched the panicky movements, the figure suddenly tossed the bundle out of the window, where it fell softly down, almost seeming to float.

Without a thought, my legs moved, propelling me across the street to a point below the window, just in time to catch the bundle, which plopped into my arms lightly, without harm. As light from a nearby street lamp fell upon the bundle, I moved the covering blanket, to reveal the face of a small female child, with somber dark eyes that looked directly at mine, seemingly reading my innermost thoughts, and finding them to be distasteful….. as I looked back into those ancient eyes in a girl’s face, she spoke, “Well, are you just going to stand there, or will you flee now, assassin?…..

Hmm…. seems our assassin friend has found himself in a bit of an unusual situation, doesn’t it? Too bad we’re going to leave him to figure it all out himself… I’m okay with it, but it doesn’t really strike me just right, so I doubt if I’ll ever use those precise opening paragraphs for anything…. Always good practice though, and a good way to loosen up both fingers and brain cells….. works for me, anyway…..

That said, we should probably get right to the Pearl….. yesterday was an exhausting one for me. Nothing to do with WP, other than the 200 emails I’m now getting every day to deal with….. I had some errands that took me all over town on buses, a slow way to get around, and tiring for a old fart such as I’m turning into these days…. it’s a slow, insidious process, but the effects of age are nonetheless relentless in their advances.

Oh well, no complaints, just tired today…. fortunately, none of my physical degradations have affected my mind as yet, so let’s go give that a work-out, shall we?….. A-Pearling we will go……
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“Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.” — Robert Lindner

A few days ago, another blogger here on WP, odie mama, (http://eyesofodysseus.wordpress.com)  asked me a question. Well, it was more of an observation with a question mark behind it, but, …. it intrigued me. She said that even though I write about serious subjects with a cynical approach, a feeling of hope seemed to infuse the tenor of what is written, and asked me to comment on that….. It has taken me a couple of days for the idea to percolate, and this morning I found the pearl that helps to explain it, to me, and to her…..

I believe that the hope she is perceiving lies in the truth of the above quotation. The most powerful weapon of reason we have as humans is Doubt. Some may question that assertion, but to my mind, it is clearly the case. Nothing is more valuable in our search for the truth among all the lies we find strewn in our path; examining any claim with doubtful eyes is our best defense against the manipulations perpetrated upon us by other unscrupulous people. And those people whom I like to call our beloved ruling class know this…..

They know that when the people are informed, when education is free and universal, and the press is free, the task of manipulating the common man becomes much more difficult. This  annoys them no end, so much so that they spend a lot of effort trying to remove or restrict anything in society that will promote doubt among the general populace. Cut educational funding, promote religious agendas that thrive on ignorance, dress up their lies in fancy clothes to look like truth; anything that will make folks refrain from thinking is good, in their eyes.

And that is the hope that is so apparent here….. though I speak of serious subjects, and lament their prevalence, and effects on people, Doubt is ever-present. I tend to challenge ANYTHING said by a talking head, especially if they are a politician, a priest, a pastor, or an imam. Whatever…. they are all just trying to foster and maintain their own version of slavery, so, as far as I am concerned, they deserve none of my respect, nor any of my mercy…. and they will find none of it here….. That is the hope that I spread….. Doubt….. a powerful ally on the Scholar Warrior’s Path….. and one hated and feared by all those in power, or who seek power over others…..

The good want power, but to weep barren tears.
The powerful goodness want : worse need for them.
The wise want love; and those who love want wisdom.
— P.B. Shelley, “Prometheus Unbound”

— How many assholes does it take to change a light bulb?  None, assholes never see the light anyway. — Smart Bee
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“A shelf of classics for our young adults: Tolkien, Hesse, Casteneda, Kerouac, Salinger, Tom Robbins, and “The Last Whole Earth Catalog”. — Edward Abbey

Gosh! I didn’t realize I was so well-grounded in the classics! Not only have I read at least one book by each of these authors, but, I’ve read more than one by all but one of them, and…. I read the entire book printed on the margins of the pages of the “Catalog”, narrated charmingly, and so effectively, by the vintage, loyal, stalwart, inadvertently abused, but well-loved VW bus, Urge, who detailed the times and travels of the people chiefly responsible for the creation of the Catalog itself……

“How can they say my life isn’t a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten?” — Cindy Adams
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“The wise man can pick up a grain of sand and envision a whole universe.  But the stupid man will just lie down on some seaweed and roll around until he’s completely draped in it.  Then he’ll stand up and go, “Hey, I’m Vine Man.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

Now, that’s deep!   🙂   Deep enough that I hope you were wearing high tops…. but I do like the metaphor of the wise man and the grain of sand; hadn’t heard that in a while…. Cute, and lots of whimsy points… but not quite right….

“Whenever anybody says he’s struggling to become a human being I have to laugh because the apes beat him to it by about a million years. Struggle to become a parrot or something.” — Jack Handey, “Deep Thoughts”

More approximate wisdom from Jack….   🙂   Admit it, you smiled…. Struggle to be a parrot, indeed!…. clever. Not quite what I’m looking for yet, though…. Onward…..

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance. — Confucius

Not verified as truly the words of Master C,, but reasonable; it sounds like him. And that’s more like it, I think; we keep getting closer to a real pearl…. one more shot at the big money, ffolkes, then we’ll move on….

“A man’s gotta know his limitations.” — Dirty Harry [Clint Eastwood] in “Magnum Force”

Hmm…. I guess it just goes to show, you never know where you may find something unexpectedly valuable…. like a pearl heretofore hidden in the persona of a macho, maladjusted cop with PTSD, and a penchant for blowing his problems to bits with a big gun…. probably very stress relieving. It would be for me, for sure…. And… I think that the journey to get here, if you will look back over it, can be considered the true lesson, as is always the case when considering journeys, and destinations……
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“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate now knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.” — Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude

I am blessed with at least seven people in my life who fit into this mold, not including my children, who would also fit the given parameters. I’d also like to believe that my brothers and sisters, all four of them, would be there if needed; I know I would for them, and will be if necessary. We’ve all never been terribly close since moving apart, but also have always felt and shown loyalty, and love for each other.

So, that makes me a pretty lucky man, all in all, and I know it…. it humbles me, constantly, when I consider it, and it is a thought that carries me through some rough mental battles with myself, and with reality. Even if I don’t call for help, I know it would be there if I asked, and that can be enough…..

“The road to a friend’s house is never long.” — Danish proverb
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“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage amongst his books. For to you Kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned by the flicking of a finger.” — Chinese proverb

This proverb is one that has ruled my existence, from the moment I first came across it in my early teens. In one aspect, it is a concept that supports and verifies what I wrote above about Doubt, and to my mind serves as solid evidence as to the truth of what I said there. This statement has also served me well as a social tool in my work, in every field I’ve embraced, if you can believe it. On a number of occasions, in mental hospitals, restaurants, and computer rooms, I have printed this onto a chalkboard, or an easel being used for a presentation at a meeting, just as a random act of intellectual subversion, and each time, the results have far surpassed whatever I had envisioned.

The sight of this quote displayed wherever I put it never failed to produce a response from all who read it, and those responses often painted a clearer picture of that person’s personality than anything else they ever said or did. Some would read it, and assume a puzzled frown, trying to assimilate its meaning. Depending on their success or failure, they would then smile and go on with whatever they were doing with a sense of calm and serenity… Or, others would frown in thought, then say something akin to “Pshaw!” and shake their heads as if to clean off their shiny coats of mud. Still others would widen their eyes, and look around for a pen, furiously scribble it down, and rush off to show it to someone else…. A very few would read it, and say something such as, “Oh, what a nice reminder….”  These folks were generally the ones who were my friends….

To my mind, this approach to life, that of a scholar as opposed to a warrior, is the only choice I could make to be happy, and true to my nature. I acknowledge within myself that violence is a part of my nature, as it is for all of us naked apes; it is not something that is wise to overlook. But that part of my nature has ever been dominated by the part of me that HAS to have thoughts to ponder, the part that needs to read and absorb the perceptions of other minds, the part of me that would literally die if I did not embrace it as my purpose, my raison d’etre. I can no more stop reading and thinking than I can stop breathing, or eating, or any other essential life function…. it’s the way I’m made, and it has always been a joy to me to know this, and to give free rein to my intellect, refusing to limit its consumption to any single viewpoint or system of beliefs….

And so, I walk the Scholar Warrior’s Path; I walk that path with my books close at hand, pausing often to read, and consider…. the path is much clearer ahead of me that way, and I walk it with joy…. seeking Truth, and Beauty, and Love.  I’ve found all three, and life is good, no matter what is happening around me, or to me…. So Be It…..
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“My Teacher said that that that that that man used is incorrect.” — Smart Bee

I love the English language!  You have to say it out loud, but if you do, you can see that the above sentence is absolutely correct usage….. brilliant!  Not worth a whole pearl, which is why it is here at the end. But, it had to be included…. just because….

I think that went well…. no major foul-ups I’m aware of…. of course, proofing is yet to come, but, it all looks good to go for the time being. With a start like this, the day promises to be fairly productive and agreeably pleasant. Who knows?  Maybe the woman I am to fall in love with, for the last time in my life, will walk into my life today…. not bloody likely, given current indicators, but, hey, worth a moment or two of anticipation before putting it back into the “I’m Patiently Awaiting” file, where it doesn’t distract me from the matters at hand….

On that note, I will put this to bed, in the vernacular of journalism….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse  Be With You…. (say it out loud, it sounds better…. it’s a hard “s”….)     🙂

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Unwarranted pleas for anecdotal briefs….

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10

Ffolkes,
Well, I’m going for wishy washy this morning…. yesterday was so stressful, I couldn’t get to sleep until after 1 AM, an hour of the day which I haven’t come within 2 hours of seeing in months. Then, because I’m so worn out, I sleep 3 more hours than normal, which felt good, but put me behind right from the get….. I hate playing catch-up….always that light sense of panic one feels until getting back to normal schedule (whatever normal is when there is nothing ON the schedule after the “Get up” entry each morning)….

Adding to my stress yesterday was my banishment from WordPress…. yes, banishment. I still have been unable to get any Help or Support types to get interested in my problem; why should they worry that I can’t access my own domain, or web page? Or that over a third of the sites I try to go to, to read the posts of those I follow, are also blocked to me; I keep getting dumped off the network to an error page.

It seems like a straightforward problem to me; there is obviously some kind of coding error in the links that are being generated for emails and well, almost everywhere. I got sent to an error page by clicking on all sorts of links, in emails, on the notification toolbar, on gravatar icons, titles… they all were generating errors, and frustrating me endlessly.

Even more frustrating is the absence of ANY response from WordPress…. it’s as if they all went on vacation together, or are at some conference, and forgot to leave anyone watching the shop….. I’ve sent them eight support requests (well, angry demands are more accurate for the last 3; I’m afraid I let my anger color my language a bit….), and have received only one short response, to ask me if I had followed the FAQ suggestion of clearing cache and cookies (which I had done three times by then). To say the least, it pissed me off royally….May the bird of paradise shit on their heads……

So, since I don’t want to spend another day in frustration, I have decided to go wishy washy, and not carry out my threat to write this morning’s post as a rant about WP’s lack of support for users…. yet. Instead, I will immerse my mind into the complex and indefinable process of Pearling, and see if my difficulties extend to the publishing arena…. so, shall we Pearl?….. Yes, I believe we shall…..
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“How infinitely superior to our physical senses are those of the mind! The spiritual eye sees not only rivers of water but of air. It sees the crystals of the rock in rapid sympathetic motion, giving  enthusiastic obedience to the sun’s rays, then sinking back to rest in the night. The whole world is in motion to the center. So also sounds. We hear only woodpeckers and squirrels and the rush of turbulent streams. But imagination gives us the sweet music of tiniest insect wings, enables us to hear, all around the world, the vibration of every needle, the waving of every bole and branch, the sound of stars in circulation like particles in the blood. The Sierra canyons are full of avalanche debris – we hear them boom again, and we read the past sounds from present conditions. Again we hear the earthquake rock-falls. Imagination is usually regarded as a synonym for the unreal. Yet is true imagination healthful and real, no more likely to mislead than the coarse senses. Indeed, the power of imagination makes us infinite.” — John Muir, American Naturalist (1838-1914)

John Muir probably did more for the American people than all of the Congress’ in session for the last 235 years. His advocacy for preserving the natural wilds of this country made it possible for every American to be able to see, and understand, how important and valuable the land and natural life of the wilderness we enjoy as legacy really are in the overall scheme of life. Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, and many more of this nation’s parks and wilderness areas are retained in their natural state, thanks to his efforts during his lifetime.

In addition, he wrote prolifically, singing the praises of life in the wild, and the sheer joy of learning to be at one with the creatures and plants with whom we share our planet. Every one of the quotes and expressions of his that I’ve seen shout out with the absolute love he held for all of Life, and the beauty it shares by its mere existence. The American people owe him a greater debt than they will ever be able to pay, or that most will ever know……
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“Cowardice” and “self-respect” have largely disappeared from public discourse. In their place we are offered “self-esteem” as the bellwether of success and a proxy for dignity. “Self-respect” implies that one recognizes standards, and judges oneself worthy by the degree to which one lives up to them. “Self-esteem” simply means that one feels good about oneself. “Dignity” used to refer to the self-mastery and fortitude with which a person conducted himself in the face of life’s vicissitudes and the boorish behavior of others. Now, judging by campus speech codes, dignity requires that we never encounter a discouraging word and that others be coerced into acting respectfully, evidently on the assumption that we are powerless to prevent our degradation if exposed to the demeaning behavior of others. These are signposts proclaiming the insubstantiality of our character, proclaiming the hollowness of our souls.” — Jeffrey R. Snyder, Fall 1993 _The Public Interest

This is an interesting spot of reasoned discourse, and as indicated by it’s anonymity, probably very close to the truth of the matter at hand, to wit: why society is failing to preserve itself. All of Mr. Snyder’s points are wickedly accurate, and serve to act as their own proof, as these critical observations are rather stridently argued over by those spineless, politically correct slaves to public opinion.

These pitiful assumptions of false attitudes are all mostly a long-winded attempt to distract from the validity of the points in question, so that the public isn’t “offended” by things they don’t like to be told. In fact, the degree of panic found in most pockets of society where this sort of venal shiftlessness is common generally approaches the flash point in mere seconds, as the pundits of PC and perpetrators of societal cowardice boil up like a pit full of snakes that has been poked with a stick, whenever they are confronted with any ideas in conflict with their own foolishness. It’s kind of fun to watch, actually, as long as one is holding the stick……

“There are well-dressed foolish ideas just as there are well-dressed fools.” — Nicholas Chamfort
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“I think we are trying to run the space age with horse and buggy moral and spiritual equipment. Technology you see has no morals; and with no moral restraints man will destroy himself ecologically, militarily, or in some other way. Only God can give a person moral restraints and spiritual strength. While our world is shaking and crumbling, we need to realize that one thing will never change, and that is God. He is the same today as he was ten million years ago, and will be the same ten million years from today. ” — Billy Graham

Have you ever heard a bigger crock of shit in your life? I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound antagonistic, but this all just hits me in the wrong spot; it is illogical, cowardly, ignorant, and hatefully passive aggressive….. We’ll take this line by line…..

First line, Mr. Graham begins with a quick and severe judgment of human society today that clearly indicates that he has no respect for anyone else’s opinions or ideas, accusing even the best of us of having the intelligence and education no more complete or moral than that of a hundred fifty years ago. He patently holds us to be no more than savages in a world beyond our comprehension.

In the second line, he makes an absolute statement of fact out of his distorted and ignorant anthropomorphizing of technology, proceeding to predict the demise of the species without bothering to differentiate the methods by which he claims our fate to be inevitable. (It has always been noted that oracular statements have a tendency toward vagueness….. ask the ancient Greeks about Oracles….) (And though I might agree as to the distinct possibility of our extinction, I cannot accept or condone his reasons for believing it to be inevitable. It’s not inevitable…. yet….. just more and more likely if matters don’t change dramatically…. but the moral strength to engender that change is NOT the sole purview of him and his ilk, nor is it to be found anywhere else than it already exists, within the human spirit, slumbering until roused…..)

Then comes the worst part…. ONLY God can give moral restraint and spiritual strength to a person. With one negative assertion, for which no evidence is either quoted or claimed, he has denounced the moral status of literally billions of people in the world, over 2/3 of whom possess moral restraints, and spiritual strength that is obviously greater than his own, (they don’t go around questioning and criticizing HIS moral state, or trying to convince him to convert to their beliefs….). 

And none, not one of those BILLIONS of people is even aware of either his existence, or of his opinion of their status in the Universe….. if they were, they would no doubt laugh gently, shake their heads, and go about their business, a response he would be incapable of emulating, or even understanding…. for he obviously has a deep fear of his own unworthiness, which he then projects onto every other human being he sees. He does not trust or respect himself, so it is impossible for him to trust or respect anyone else. This, of course, makes God the perfect fall guy to blame his weakness on, so he can set himself up as the arbiter of God’s will for the rest of us pitiful sinners….

In the last two lines, his sense of proportion and his memory completely escape his control…. After delivering his last judgment of the state of the world, he assumes again, and assigns to God the power of immutability, for a mere twenty million years. Either he forgot that God made the Universe about 5000 years ago, as his belief system dictates, or that it has been proven by scientific study over millenia that the Universe is AT LEAST 20 BILLION years old, by the latest evidence.  Proven, not deduced, not assumed, not estimated, not guessed at, not divinely inspired…. proven, with, you know, concrete, documented evidence that you can, like, hold in your hand, see with your eyes? It seems clear to the most casual observer that a measly 20 million years is obviously a euphemism for “I don’t know what the fuck I’m saying now, so I’ll just make something up….”

I’m thinking Billy might have benefited by running this by some of his co-conspirators before releasing it for publication; someone a bit sharper, a bit more in tune with reality, might have suggested to him that he tone down the judgmental rhetoric, and check his math…. not to mention explaining to him the advantages of trying not to insult the very people you are trying to convince of your sincerity…. it’s a dead giveaway that what is to follow is nothing more than a long con, just another slick way to get the marks to give up the gelt, while distracting them so you can slip out of town in the dark of night…..

“I guess the hard thing for a lot of people to accept is why God would allow me to go running through their yards, yelling and spinning around.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey   (I’m not sure why, but it just seems to fit…..)
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Beauty is truth, truth beauty, –that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
— John Keats (1795-1821) — Ode on a Grecian Urn

A small bite of what is probably the world’s most famous poem…. tasty, yet filling. No comments required…. just enjoy…. ‘Nuff said…..
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“…I am opposed to all attempts to license or restrict the arming of individuals…I consider such laws a violation of civil liberty, subversive of democratic political institutions, and self-defeating in their purpose.” — Robert A. Heinlein, in a 1949 letter concerning “Red Planet”

When I first read this, it sounded exactly like something that might have been pulled from a letter written by either Thomas Jefferson or George Mason (quick quiz: how many of y’all know who George Mason is, or rather, was?…..) However, it was no real surprise to find it attributed to Robert Heinlein, whose life-long belief and support of the Bill of Rights and the concepts on which this nation was founded was apparent to anyone familiar with his writing.

He graduated from Annapolis, and might have spent many years in the Navy, had not injury shortened his enlistment; one doesn’t even walk down that path without a firm grounding in democratic philosophy and belief in the rights of the common man. This dedication to the principles of our founding fathers (and mothers; let’s not forget the women who were behind the men who started the Revolutionary War…. how far would it have progressed had those women set their minds against it?……) is one of Heinlein’s most enduring traits, and one that brought him my instant respect and admiration, along with millions of other Americans….. he was a most erudite, and popular bard during his life, and his body of work will endow him with the same popularity as long as men seek to maintain their Freedom…..
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Today’s Pearl came together fairly well; no major difficulties were encountered, and it all looks fairly interesting (well, heck, I guess I wouldn’t have bothered to write it if not, eh?…). Interesting, at least, to one whose mind flits around from subject to subject as mine does as a matter of course. I can only hope that it stimulates the same in other’s eyes and minds….. why else would I put it out there?

Here’s hoping that my woes with WordPress have faded into history…. and if not, well, you might just see another post from me today, one I will be compelled to create should my difficulties continue to be ignored…. in the meantime, y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!