Offer them a pastille, and be done with it….

Posted on August 26, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Do not speak of what men deserve. For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead Kings, and we each of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger. Have we not eaten while another starved? Will you punish us for that? Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate? No man earns punishment, no man earns reward. Free your mind of the idea of *deserving*, of *earning*, and you will begin to be able to think.”

— Odo, The Prison Letters —

~~ Ursula LeGuin ~~

The Dispossessed

In the recent past, these introductory sections have relied upon either the quote at the top of the page, or the picture just below it, to help me find a direction in which to set out for the day’s journey into the labyrinth I call my mind, to anywhere in the vast unknown territory in which the day’s Pearl may be hiding…. As a result, I have experienced what might be called an ambiguous reaction, to the reduction of stressful indecision over this process. One side of that reaction is pleasure, a feeling of contentment and relief, at not having to work so hard at it; the other side has been an unfortunate tendency to rant, massively, if not magnificently, here in the opening comments….

Now, while that may be advantageous from one standpoint, it does, in what echoes the casually cruel way of much of the Universe, ignore my routine, as it blithely destroys it…..

Hmm…. we interrupt this introduction to bring you this mildly important bulletin….. Here where I live, in the Bay Area at the top of the Bay, we just had another small earthquake…. most likely an aftershock of the good-sized shaker that occurred day before yesterday, which registered 6.0 on the Richter scale, and knocked down some good-sized pieces of the downtown area…. This one didn’t knock anything off my shelves, though the house did a little dance for about 5 or 10 seconds; it never reached the intensity of the one the other day…. Oh, well, I guess we’re done for now…. back to whatever it was I was talking about before mother Gaia interrupted with her latest little shocker….

Now, where were we? Oh, right, obliterated routine…. This daily alteration of the routine has also seemed to stimulate me, and Smart Bee, which has been coming up with some excellent pearls for ranting…. So, the rants have not only been, often, earlier in the day’s post than is usual, but, longer than is probably wise, or effective…. Hence, I think, the recent drop in the number of readers stopping by…. I have to admit, my blog is probably more work than most, what with the seriousness of much of the subject matter, and my tendency to become pedantic, pompous, & long-winded….

All of this, while, no doubt, interesting to me, is also, no doubt, boring most of you to tears…. So, I’m going to make an executive decision, to bring this to a close at this point, using one of the more efficient emergency methods I’ve acquired over time to help to overcome the seriousness and pomposity that is now threatening to get out of control…. You might recognize it, if you’ve been here before…. it’s number 4, and it works fast. Watch this….

Shall we Pearl?…..

And through the spaces of the dark
Midnight shakes the memory
As a madman shakes a dead geranium

~~ T.S. Eliot ~~

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And who (in time) knows whither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue? To what strange shores
This gain of our best glory shall be sent
T’ enrich unknowing nations with our stores?
What worlds in the yet unformed Occident
May come refin’d with th’ accents that are ours?

~~ Samuel Daniel ~~

(1562-1619)

— Musophilus, Stanza 163 —

I’m afraid I’ve gotten a little out of hand, again…. I have yet to see how long this section has grown to be; it isn’t done as I write this. I’m doing so as a warning to my Gentle Readers, to give them the option of skipping to the poetry section…. Those unfamiliar with the extent of my ramblings at times are advised to read on, to gain a clearer picture…. of what, is, as always, up to you. You are the one who is learning whatever lesson there is to be learned, aren’t you? I can merely offer my own thoughts; you must do with them what you will…. as long as you don’t try to hurt anyone with them…

This pearl has meandered, though originally, it had a specific design that didn’t include such a lack of focus…. But, as I read the news yesterday, I saw so many disturbing stories, I kept adding them to the end of what I’d already finished, several times, before even beginning to collect the pearls to make the old-school pearl at the end, which I intended to use in lieu of formal ranting….

In other words, there is so much crap going on in the world, I had to collect a bunch of it in order to get it out of my head, before it sat in there & rotted…. There will still be an old-school pearl, comprised of five, or seven pearls of virtual wisdom, that will provide, hopefully, some order, and some insight, into possible ways to deal with such an incredibly humongous pile of dross and drivel…. Wish me luck….

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on.” — Robert Frost

When Robert Frost made this statement, it was made, naturally, in light of the knowledge of his own life experience, which, at the point in history when it was uttered, had led him to believe this, with good reason…. I am sorry to say, however, that conditions in the world have drastically changed in the intervening years, and this belief is in danger of being made irrelevant, as no longer supported by the evidence…. When he lived, the world had not yet come to the crisis point which we now face, in which our history, quite conceivably, may come to a final ending…. with no more chapters to follow.

There is a specific reason for my pessimism when it comes to the subject of climate change, and Mankind’s responsibility for the pollution which has been PROVEN to be the cause of our danger…. Scientifically speaking, there is no longer any room for doubt about that; the evidence is just too overwhelming to either ignore, or minimize, or, as some still do, deny….. We, as a species, and as a member of the circle of Life on this planet, are in significant and imminent danger of dying off, the same as the dinosaurs did, millions of years ago….

The difference here and now, between what is happening to us, and what happened to the reptiles who once roamed the Earth, is that they had no choice in the matter…. The large asteroid/comet/big rock, that slammed into the Earth in the past, created an instant climactic catalyst, so powerful it caused the entire world’s balanced climate to change overnight…. This eventually led to the demise of most of the life then present on the surface of the globe, in a cosmically short time, over a couple thousand years or so….. until the diversity of life here reestablished itself, and the mammalian age began….

What is happening today is not a huge world-wide explosion, or cosmically significant instant impact, by a swiftly moving boulder the size of, oh, say, Texas?, that is causing the changes…. It has been conclusively proven that the millions upon millions of tons of chemicals, specifically carbon monoxide, along with a host of others (none of which are helpful to the air….), that are unceremoniously dumped, every day, into the atmosphere we all breathe, are responsible, in a direct-line, logical, evidential progression, for the changes we are now witnessing on a world-wide scale….

All the strange weather patterns, the melting of the polar ice, at both poles, causing the level of the oceans to rise, the rise in the overall temperature of the planet, and all the other cataclysmic events we are seeing now, are OUR OWN FUCKING FAULT, for refusing to halt the idiocy, even though our culpability has been relatively common knowledge, now, for over 50 years…..

Yet, according to the article below, after all this time, and all the evidence, there is still so much resistance to the issue in the ranks of the ignorant, fundamentalist assholes who control the House of Representatives in this country, any piece of legislation that acknowledges that danger, or tries in any way to put a stop to the idiocy, is blocked automatically in the GOP controlled Congressional House of Representatives, by these same fundamentalists who categorically refuse to even LOOK at the evidence that is killing them, and their entire families, without them even knowing it….. It makes me sick, to realize these fucking idiots are in a position to block any attempts to rectify the situation, thus, unwittingly (as they do EVERYTHING in their life….), strengthening my impulsive urge to buy a gun, almost immeasurably….

Read the article, and after you’ve calmed down, (Okay, so that’s just me….), you can do what I did…. Look through the old-school pearl(s) I’ve collected & placed below the link, shrug phlegmatically, then, start practicing the unpalatable act of resigning yourself to the most likely outcome, to wit: In about a hundred years, or possibly less, unless we make immediate drastic changes to society, and the way we approach LIFE on this planet…. well, if we don’t, we are all, most surely, going to die, painfully, and without hope of any deus ex machina, from a imaginary supernatural force that, reportedly loves our undeserving, sorry asses, so much, they will change reality to allow us to live….

Sorry, ffolkes, that just ain’t going to happen…..

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2014/08/19/valley-dems-take-issue-on-climate-change/

I don’t know about y’all, but, I’m really impressed at the depth of ignorance in our Beloved Ruling Class that is implied by this article…. simply massive stupidity at work here, ffolkes….

Oh, yeah, and then there’s this…. Below is another link, to an article about Señor Rick Perry, who is one of the “fundies” mentioned above (He is on record, as believing the idea of Man being the primary cause behind climate change is a “question that hasn’t been answered to his satisfaction”…), Consider this, ffolkes…. This man, for the moment, at least, is one of the top contenders for the GOP presidential candidate at the next election, in 2016…. Well, one of the most visible, anyway…

Don’t worry, though, he is confident the suit against him for abuse of his office’s power, )brought against him by people in his own state bureaucracy, for threatening to refuse to sign a bill, that provided funding for corruption investigations in his state), will be dismissed as baseless…. He is confident of this, in spite of having publicly stated, beforehand, he would veto the bill, if he didn’t get something he wanted from a Democratic opponent…. When it was refused, he vetoed the funding bill, thus firmly allying himself on the side of those who are corrupted, and those who believe their lies…. and, in the process, making it harder to investigate HIM…. Hmm, what do you think?

I think Mr. Perry is very slick (this is after I get control of the nausea prompted by having to think about him at all….); his whole attitude is one of skillful denial, and Alfred E. Neumann-like obliviousness (In recent months, he has adopted the wearing of some studious looking, nerdy black frame glasses, to give him a more intellectual look… In reality, he doesn’t realize that it gives him a striking resemblance to Alfred, the iconic image of Mad Magazine, and a logo for all that is crazy in life…)…. I can just hear him, talking to reporters outside the courthouse, “What, me worry?…. No corruption here, ffolkes, keep moving, no need to even look….” Remember now, this is a man who wants to be president of this country….

(No capital for “president of the United States”? What’s up with that? Oh… I stopped capitalizing it when I lost all respect for the office, back about the time of Nixon, followed by Johnson, then the sheer hell of the Reagan years, and Shrub the First, and the vacuum of time that was Jerry Ford…. Oh, yeah, and that other guy…. what was his name…. oh, right, the Junior Shrub, George the Blithering Idiot….)

So, maybe Perry is what the GOP, and all the fools and idiots who bought into the lies that have inundated the public’s consciousness now for most of the time since World War II, (that’s when the worst of the reliance on clandestine activity in the government became habitual, and the almost automatic denial and lying to the public sector has its root…. and, in many cases, is used as the justification for all of it…. Falsely, of course. but what has ever stopped a politician from lying when it suits their purpose? Nothing known to man or science, that’s for sure…), has been looking for all this time…. Maybe he will get the GOP nomination, & we’ll have him as a daily target for our barbs in the 2016 election…. One is allowed to hope, anyway….

Any who, here’s the latest on Ricky Bob…. THEN, we’ll get to the pearls….

http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Defiant-Texas-Gov-Perry-coming-to-New-Hampshire-5699362.php

Okay, so, these articles just keep jumping up at me, barking and howling until I let them get on board this train wreck…. But, this one may help…. Over the last couple of days, I’ve written several pieces on the militarization of the police all over the world, and especially in the United States…. One of my favorite columnists, Mark Morford, who writes for the SF Chronicle, and SFGATE, an online outlet connected to the Chronicle, has written his piece for this week on the same subject; he has produced his usual brilliant take on the matter for us to share….

He gives a complete and accurate summation, of the background, and the roots of the current situation in Ferguson, Missouri…. He also analyzes a lot of what is NOT generally considered, with some actual positive points of hope for a creative solution it may be possible to find…. sort of…. It’s a great read, and will, perhaps, add to your comprehension of the issues at hand…. I know I enjoyed, anyway, and, it adds to the overall picture that shows the damage to our culture, so prevalent today….

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/08/18/tear-gas-for-the-huddled-masses/#26011101=0

Okay….. Now, the pearls…. centered for visual balance, which encourages the same in one’s thoughts….

“American elect Democrats to Congress so they’ll be given what they want and Republicans to the White House so they won’t have to pay for it–neither one works.” — Smart Bee

“As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it.” — Dick Cavett, in “Playboy”, 1971

“And the people bowed and prayed, to the neon Gods they’d made.” — Paul Simon

“In any country there must be people who have to die. They are the sacrifices any nation has to make to achieve law and order.” — Idi Amin Dada

“The fascination of shooting as a sport depends on whether you are at the right or the wrong end of the gun.” — P. G. Wodehouse

“Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we storm heaven itself in our folly.” — Horace (65-8 B.C.)

“A candidate is a person who gets money from the rich and votes from the poor to protect them from each other.” — Smart Bee

Well, that was pleasant…. I guess. Perhaps if so many of them weren’t so true to life, the overall effect wouldn’t make me so uncomfortably nauseous…. This is one strange pearl, but, for a rant like this, it works, I’m thinking…. I wonder, though, maybe I should go eat some worms…. At least I’d have a reasonable reason for the nausea…. I need a little something to take the edge off before we go on…. Ah, this will do…. A little reminder the politicians, etc., aren’t the ONLY f___-ups who bear the responsibility for this whole mess…. You and I have played our parts, remember….

“In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility
then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.”

— Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 29

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To try to make up a bit for the extreme length of the previous section we’ll go with something short, and classic….. How about this one?….

Adventures Of Isabel

Isabel met an enormous bear,
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t care;
The bear was hungry, the bear was ravenous,
The bear’s big mouth was cruel and cavernous.
The bear said, Isabel, glad to meet you,
How do, Isabel, now I’ll eat you!
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry.
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She washed her hands and she straightened her hair up,
Then Isabel quietly ate the bear up.
Once in a night as black as pitch
Isabel met a wicked old witch.
the witch’s face was cross and wrinkled,
The witch’s gums with teeth were sprinkled.
Ho, ho, Isabel! the old witch crowed,
I’ll turn you into an ugly toad!
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry,
She showed no rage and she showed no rancor,
But she turned the witch into milk and drank her.
Isabel met a hideous giant,
Isabel continued self reliant.
The giant was hairy, the giant was horrid,
He had one eye in the middle of his forehead.
Good morning, Isabel, the giant said,
I’ll grind your bones to make my bread.
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She nibbled the zwieback that she always fed off,
And when it was gone, she cut the giant’s head off.
Isabel met a troublesome doctor,
He punched and he poked till he really shocked her.
The doctor’s talk was of coughs and chills
And the doctor’s satchel bulged with pills.
The doctor said unto Isabel,
Swallow this, it will make you well.
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She took those pills from the pill concocter,
And Isabel calmly cured the doctor.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

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Second in a series of very old Pearls to grace the third section, here is one from a couple of months after I began posting on WordPress… In those days, an entire Pearl was the size of what is now considered one section, which in most cases ends up here, in section three. I’m bringing back these old pearls to give a feeling of continuity, if only in my own mind…. It also gives me, and y’all, a picture of how things around here have both progressed, and stayed the same…. By the “look and feel” of this group of pearls, a five-star pearl is still the most compelling sort, when it works…. this one works…

From 10/5/2011:

Ffolkes,

A great confusion arose in my mind yesterday; a confusion so great, I could not find a way out, and several things that should have been done were not. This missive is one of those things…..I actually had most of it done, but my ever-present extremely high level of anxiety had me out doing other things that seemed more important at the time. Turns out it wasn’t but, hey, Murphy knows me by first name, so it doesn’t surprise anymore when stuff goes wrong. Hence, today, I must play clean-up on yesterday’s unfinished tasks, thus keeping me from what I’d like to do, which is to get some writing done. No hope there today, not when it takes almost all I’ve got to write a Pearl.

Speaking of which, I finally found the little poem that explains about the Pearls, at least from a minimalist standpoint. I merely take it as proof that I am not alone, that others have walked this path before me, seeking out the finest oysters, and bringing their Pearls of Virtual Wisdom into the light of day……

Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls must dive below.

— John Dryden —

(1631-1700) — All for Love, Prologue

“Nothing is rubbish if you’ve got an inquiring mind.” — Doctor Who

:sagan: /say’gn/ n. [from Carl Sagan’s TV series “Cosmos”; think “billions and billions”] A large quantity of anything. “There’s a sagan different ways to tweak EMACS.” “The U.S. Government spends sagans on bombs and welfare — hard to say which is more destructive.” — from The on-line Hacker Jargon File V423

How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo’s lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectar’d sweets
Where no crude surfeit reigns.

— John Milton —

(1608-1674) — Comus, Line 476

Order is heaven’s first law; and this confest,
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest,
More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence
That such are happier, shocks all common sense.

— Alexander Pope —

(1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle iv, Line 49

“As the tempest and the thunder affect not the sun or the stars, but spend their fury on stones and trees below; so injuries ascend not to the Soul of the great, but waste themselves on such as are those who offer them.” — Akhenaton? (c. B.C. 1375)

Lotta poetry today, yes? It’s good for the mind to stretch in different ways sometimes; keeps it flexible….y’all take care out there…..

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All things considered, not bad…. we’ll take it. Not only that, but, we won’t make any further big deal about it….. I’ve done all I can do; since all you can do is all you can do, I’m done…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Kindly confine the excess salivation to the spittoon…..

Posted on August 23, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.”

(It is when I struggle to be brief that I become obscure.)

~~ Horace ~~

from Ars Poetica

The above picture is from NASA, the US Space agency; it’s a self-portrait of the Mars Rover, Curiosity, taken in 2014, after a year of exploring Mars. I have included it today, simply because it makes me proud to be human. We have a robot on Mars, dammit! Not only were we able to send it there, let it touch down without crashing itself into small pieces, with computers, and all its delicate equipment intact, using an incredibly complex method of landing from orbit, once it had traversed the hundreds of millions of miles just to get to where it could orbit the planet….

Not only did we get it there, safely down to the surface, it is advanced enough it can communicate with us, here on Earth, well enough for us to be capable of receiving high resolution, LIVE pictures, such as this self-portrait, composed of a panoramic collage of photos taken by the robot’s camera arm…. I cannot express, loudly, or long enough, the importance of the simple fact that WE HAVE REACHED ANOTHER PLANET!

Perhaps we are not yet there in person, but, to have a representative there, a functioning explorer/ambassador of our culture, in constant touch with the home planet, is enough of a wonder to give me the shivers when I consider it…. It’s not a big step, in terms of the total distances involved in space, but it is one more significant step on the only path I can see saving us form our own foolishness, to wit; the path to the stars….

When I was a child, I read a lot of Science Fiction, along with all I was learning in school; over the years, up to high school, and into college, I became convinced that exploring the stars is the only purpose I can think of worthy of Mankind’s ultimate attention, as a goal for the entire species to reach… There is so much out there to learn, and we’ve had so little time, compared to all there is, or will be; we can never, individually, learn all there is to learn, see all there is to see, for what we know now tells us, without doubt, there is no end in sight to the sheer variety and diversity of the Universe, in all its ancient glory, all the way to the ends of the visible space, over a BILLION light years away, in space, and, in time for it takes that long, a billion years, just for the light of those distant galaxies to reach our eyes….

At my tender age, I didn’t know how foolish most men are, or how stupidity, and the cupidity of men with no honor, would place all of us, every single human alive, in the direst of jeopardy, before the end of my life here on Earth…. but, that is what has happened…. The cumulative effects of the actions of just a few dishonorable, selfish, violently insane men, who, unfortunately, are in control of most of society’s resources, have reached a critical point, where the choice of the wrong path, in the next few years, may well determine whether we live long enough, as a species, to have the chance to even reach the limits of our own solar system, much less travel to the nearest stars, a bit over 4 light years distant…

What I didn’t realize when I was young, is that the path to Alpha Centauri, or it’s twin, the closest star system to ours, and beyond, would be the ONLY path upon which we humans will have any real chance to survive. If we do NOT leave our planet soon, the internal pressures in society are going to explode, and the damage we have caused to our own planet is going to reach a point from which there is no retreat…. We need to start a solid, self-supporting colony on another planet, or three, or four, or we are not going survive past the end of the current century…. It’s harsh, but, I don’t see any way around this…. it’s simple math, and simple logic….

If we, as a species, cannot get our act together, stop killing each other, and quit fucking with the environment through our ignorance and avarice, then, for sure and for certain, we are ALL going to die, along with most of the other mammalian life on this planet…. The insects, and some of the lower orders of plants and microbes (lichen, fungus, viruses, etc…) may last a while, but, not in the form they are in now…. Life, as we know it on this planet, will cease, and never be missed by an indifferent Universe…. This, ffolkes, I’m sorry to say, is NOT speculation, and NOT a guess. If we don’t quit our bullshit, NOW, it will be too late….

I’m sure you’ve heard of, or seen, the reports from various points around the globe about sinkholes that are showing up where none were ever seen before, both in remote areas, and in settled ones… These holes are not completely understood, but one thing is clear; they are most likely a result of the melting of the permafrost, which exists under the first layers of ice in the poles, and, under the ground, all over the world… In this permafrost is a chemical substance, a gas, which, though natural to nature, is toxic in large amounts, and acts as one of the most powerful catalysts to climate and environmental changes ever discovered….

Introducing large amounts of the gas trapped in the permafrost is scientifically certain to cause changes in the chemical balance of the atmosphere, and can be shown to happen at a hyperbolic rate once begun, increasingly faster with each molecule added to the air…. This gas, once reaching a certain percentage amount in the air, will alter the percentages of gases in the air we breathe, making it toxic, poisonous for us to breathe…. AND, there are two things to note about the process we are seeing in the formation of the sinkholes….

First, once begun, there is no known way to stop the catalytic changes from continuing…. we haven’t a clue how to stop what it will do. The second item of note is this…. all these sinkholes show an intense concentration of the pertinent substance to which I referred, inside, as well as coming out, of the air in the holes, mixing with the general atmosphere, meaning the permafrost below the hole is melting, at a rate we cannot halt….

We may already be dead, and not even know it…. How ’bout them apples, eh?

I am unsure of how to view this news…. It’s all true; everything I wrote in the above paragraphs can be found in the daily news, with a bit of minor digging…. Hell, I’m not entirely cognizant of either how I got started on this, or why I didn’t stop myself…. I started off with a positive outlook, but, reality set in, I suppose, and the rest just flowed from there…. I guess this is one way to get my ranting out of the way….

I’ll leave this here, since I’ve said all that can be said on the matter; at this point, it all boils down to one question, to wit: Will we have time to find our way out of the damn near insoluble situation in which we’ve placed ourselves, live up to our promise, and beat a path to the stars? or, will we continue to allow our own worst qualities determine our fate, thus putting the first, and most likely, the last nail in our own coffin?

Sadly, your guess is as good as mine, and, I don’t have a clue; all I have left is a little bit of hope, and it has a hard time manifesting at all….. SIGH… I guess we should get on with the rest of this; I’ve made it hard on myself today, by insisting on dealing with such a depressing subject, first thing…. Perhaps it will have a good effect on the rest of this one… One can never tell, can one?…. I can’t, and, here, that’s all that matters, in the final analysis…. On that singularly obvious note, let’s be off….

Shall we Pearl?…..

While I pondered on this dangerous pastime…
I took a heavenly ride through our silence…
I knew at that the moment had arrived…
For killing the past and coming back to life.

~~ Pink Floyd ~~

Coming Back To Life

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I really don’t know what came over me up there…. I’m getting pretty unpredictable when it comes to this ranting stuff; I might have to just give it a rest for a time, though I don’t know what I’d do with all the build-up of internal pressure liable to happen if I do that; it’s been known to cause problems for NASA when it gets to be too much….. not that I really know how that works, but, when you get Federal Marshals at your door enough times, it gets old fast….

Now I’m falling into silly mode, and it’s still a bit early for that….. Well, perhaps not. Why don’t I see if Smart Bee can help out a bit? I’ll put together an old-school pearl, with random parameters set to silly, & see what happens, okay? Okay…. Let’s dive into the world wide web, & find us some oysters…. the metaphorical kind….

“Cthulhu! You’ve been SPOKEN to about biting the readers!” — Smart Bee

“First prepare the soup of your choice and pour it into a bowl. Then, take the bowl and quickly turn it upside down on the cookie tray. Lift the bowl ever so gently so that the soup retains the shape of the bowl. Gently is the key word here. Then, with the knife cut the soup down the middle into halves, then quarters, and gently reassemble the soup into a cube. Some of the soup will run off onto the cookie tray. Lift this soup up by the corners and fold slowly into a cylindrical soup staff. Square off the cube by stuffing the cracks with this cylindrical soup staff. Place the packet in your purse or inside coat pocket, and pack off to work.” — Steve Martin

“A detective story generally describes six living men discussing how it is that a man is dead. A modern philosophic story generally describes six dead men discussing how any man can possible be alive.” — G. K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” — Smart Bee

“Courtroom: A place where Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot would be equals, with the betting odds in favor of Judas.” — H.L. Mencken

“I find more and more, as I grow older, that I prefer women to men, children to adults, animals to humans… And rocks to living things? No, I’m not that old yet.” — Edward Abbey

“Now that I have my “APPLE,” I comprehend COST ACCOUNTING!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

As is usual when we go random, it ended up a bit eclectic…. Silly, but, eclectic…. Hmm, not a bad combination, for a throw-together concept… Well, onward…..

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I’m in the mood for Keats, so, that’s what you get today…. So be it, gigoid has spoken….

Ode To A Nightingale

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
‘Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thy happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O for a draught of vintage, that hath been
Cooled a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provencal song, and sun-burnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs;
Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new love pine at them beyond tomorrow.

Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Clustered around by all her starry fays;
But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast-fading violets covered up in leaves;
And mid-May’s eldest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

Darkling I listen; and for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Called him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that oft-times hath
Charmed magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is famed to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now ’tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:—do I wake or sleep?

~~ John Keats ~~

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

For this section, since I ranted already, and created a pearl above (a strange one, admittedly, but, fresh as can be….), I’m going to dip into the archives for this section…. This is not a rant, per se, but, more of a discussion, with rant-like qualities…. I enjoyed it, so, I suggest you do to….

Just kidding, it’s worth a look, if only to check out how little things have changed in the last eight months of history on this sad old ball of mud…. At least, little about humanity has changed; the universe is rolling merrily along, as always….

From 1/13/2014:

Perception is, perhaps, the most elementally intricate quality we possess as living creatures. Through the five-plus senses we bring to the process, we receive information from the universe that gives us what we require, in order to be able to interact with Reality, (another term for the Universe… for the purposes of this discussion, anyway….) in some sort of way that is meaningful to us.

This information comes to us in a variety of forms, and our minds must utilize the complex, yet subtle qualities of imagination, reason, logic, and all those mental functions that our minds have discovered to organize the information, functions whose etiology are basically unknown to us, as part of our basic nature. We don’t think about, or feel in any way, the process of seeing, or smelling, or touching, except in the context of the sense itself…. We just DO it….

Yet each sense is such that it works WITH all the others, in ways we don’t really understand, to give us the pictures in our heads that show us how our minds perceive the world outside us…. We, being the imaginative creatures we are, have evolved all sorts of ways to organize and utilize our perceptions, all of which are again connected (remember that complexity part…) to another facet of Reality, which is our motivation for what we do, an outgrowth of our judgments of what we perceive…. We perceive, we judge, we act on that judgment, all according to our basic outlook on life, and how we choose to accept, and use, what we perceive….

This subject, I know, is a bit esoteric for such a venue, but, I’m leading up to a point, which is this…. We all perceive the world differently, but, that doesn’t mean the world takes that into any account…. It’s one of our hardest lessons to accept when we are forced to admit that the Universe, in all its majestic glory, couldn’t give a tiny little crap for us, or for what we think of the way things are…. If we choose to interact with it in such a way that we are breaking the basic rules that everything works by, then we will have to pay the price, in the only way that the Universe uses to exact payment, to wit: extinction….

Now, given that, it seems to me that my ranting about all of this*** is a bit like that ant crawling up the elephant’s leg, with belligerent intentions…. In short, it’s not really a productive way to achieve whatever it is I’m trying to do, as I can see only one possible outcome, which, the odds, and logic, would tend to dictate doesn’t include any need for any worry on the part of the elephant…. All that is a long winded, pedantic way of saying that my rants, while satisfying on a personal level for the release they provide, are mostly a waste of breath, in a practical sense…. Nothing will change because I rant, in spite of the need for change being the whole purpose behind the rant…

The major part of that reason, I think, lies in the fact that I’m preaching to the choir…. None of the ffolkes, or folks, who read my blog, (with the possible exception of any bored NSA drones who may be assigned to do so merely because of my anti-government stance, shown by the use of key phrases indicating my opposition….), are in any position to make any of the changes themselves, even though many of them would be willing to do so, I think…. But, the people who inhabit the halls of our government in Washington, and in other capitols around the world, DON’T read my blog, nor do they agree with most of the things about which I rant….

Why is that, do you think? Why don’t the people who govern us agree with any of what I say in my rants? It’s all stuff that can be proven, and is certainly important enough to all of us to warrant discussion… But, they don’t agree… They have their own agendas, which don’t look like anything that anyone in the great unwashed masses could come up with, even though they supposedly represent US…. These are our representatives, ffolkes…. I found this short comment in an old Pearl, which I think sums up most of my point pretty well…..

(From May 12, 2012):

“Such bickerings to recount, met often in these our writers, what more worth is it than to chronicle the wars of kites or crows flocking and fighting in the air?” — John Milton (1608-1674) — The History of England, Book iv

Did you ever wonder why a group of crows is called a congress? I didn’t. It makes perfect sense to me…. Dark, sinister looking creatures who act in odd ways, even for birds. Their behaviors tend to lean toward stealing shiny objects from wherever, or stealing the food of people or other animals and birds. When they speak, it is in a voice that grates on the ear like fingernails on a slate. In groups, they mill around, cackling and grumbling and jostling each other, until they all fly off to different areas to carry out whatever nefarious schemes they have hatched among themselves.

No, I have no problem envisioning a congress of crows; in fact, I believe they are in session, now, in Washington, D.C. …. Why, look! Here’s a list of them now!…..

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2014/01/10/congress-is-mostly-full-of-millionaires-but-who-are-the-richest/#19551101=0

Them’s some affluent crows, ain’t they?…. That’s what happens when any politician is given the keys to the treasury….. One last query…. Who gets to say how much money members of Congress get paid? Answer: They are authorized to set that themselves…. Okay, one more… Who authorized them? Why, they authorized that themselves, of course….

I’m tired now…. I’ve managed to spout off now about the Asininnies, or, at least, about the 545 of them who inhabit the top levels of OUR democratic bureaucracy, for a good, oh, thousand words or so, and once again, it will end up being read by those who mostly agree… (I’m making the assumption, reluctantly, but, with confidence, that if they DIDN’T agree, they’d leave a comment to say so…. I know MY Gentle Readers would do so….), so, I’m perfectly aware that no changes will happen because of what I’ve written….

I don’t feel any better, either, damn it!….. 😦

*** It must be noted that “all of this” should be understood to include: global warming, and the impending ecological disaster, overpopulation, criminality of the Asininnies, most especially the egregiously selfish actions of the Beloved Ruling Class, the Shadowy Corporate Masters, Snakeheads in general, (human predators…. pimps, slavers, pedophiles, and the ilk…), and the Priestly Hierarchies….. Oh, yes, and, on the rare occasion, exposing Pooh’s evil twin….

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

It definitely feels good to be able to get back to my routine, I must say…. Dealing with changes has me feeling rather cattish; cats get pretty upset when their routines get altered. Guess I must need to get out & about more, so I don’t get so crusty…. And, since I’ve probably rambled & blathered enough for 3 blogs already today, I should no doubt hit the road for the day…. I’ll be nice, and do that…. I will, however, give you fair warning…. I’ll be back tomorrow, ffolkes, so, set your watches, so you can be elsewhere at that time….. Hah!….. See ya…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Ulysses wasn’t all that brave….

Posted on June 21, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Okay, now we’re all in for it….. I tried, several times, and even sent out for the latest version of the necessary software, but, I couldn’t adjust reality to suit the needs of the few, and had to let it go ahead with it’s program, which DOES suit the needs of the many, but, at the expense of dignity…. Reality, of course, has no opinion either way; it’s level of indifference to human sensibilities is long-standing, and well-practiced. As that is the case, I’m going to just finish issuing this warning, as required, and hope for the best….

There, that should meet all the legal requirements for density; it certainly lends new meaning to the word “inscrutable”, doesn’t it? I’ve worked hard over time to hone my writing skills, and find that I have a natural bent when it comes to producing sheer nonsense; it’s a gift….. It may have a lot to do with my Bozoid tendencies, but, that can probably be said for most anyone, at least anyone who recognizes the bulbousness of their nose, and has no problem with it’s glowing redness. Gift or not, it’s a valuable skill for a blogger….

This morning, it’s a good thing I do possess the ability to blather & spew at will; I’m about an hour and a half late getting up, having inadvertently consumed, last night, about twice the amount of the Beast as I intended, or am used to, which had a wonderful effect on my sleep, if we don’t count the extra time in bed as a handicap…. What it does mean, though, is some slight alteration to the structure and content of what will come out of my creative well today; the exact nature or shape of that alteration remains to be seen, as I’m still trying to figure out, first, how to make this intro acceptable, and, second, how to end it with some style….

Of course, those are the same two issues I encounter every morning with this section, so, the contortions you are witnessing shouldn’t be anything new, or out of the ordinary, at least, not for any regular Gentle Readers; they should be quite used to this by now…. I’m never sure how this will turn out, and the fact that is does so every day is a constant surprise to me. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that I came up with something Murphy actually approves of….. which may just be the case, as this format certainly offers him, and his associates, plenty of opportunities to nail me one way or another…. SIGH…

This introduction has now entered the stage where I have to start trying to decide how to bring it to a close, without spoiling whatever message I’ve already delivered…. Actually, this one won’t be much of a problem, as it looks to be about done…. these last few lines are properly aligned for a landing approach, even if the weather is blustery…. In fact, I’m pretty sure that…. yes, it will work…. Okay, I’m taking a flier here, and going out on that proverbial limb…. I hereby declare this intro section complete, and direct you to proceed to the next available check station, where you will be issued the necessary weapons for this next stage of the journey….

Shall we Pearl? I think we’d better, before it’s too late…..

“I like nonsense — it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope…and that enables you to laugh at all of life’s realities.” — Theodor S. Geisel, a.k.a. “Dr. Seuss”

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

Some of y’all, who have been here previously a number of times, will know what is coming now…. Since I’m so late, today’s rant will be furnished out of the archives, this time with an excellent outburst aimed at mankind’s oldest, most insidious scam….

Last posted in April of 2013:

I looked for something appropriate, and here it is… a quite long religirant, from sometime in 2012, I didn’t check, and it doesn’t matter…. it was a good one, so enjoy…..

“The evidence of the emotions, save in cases where it has strong objective support, is really no evidence at all, for every recognizable emotion has its opposite, and if one points one way then another points the other way. Thus the familiar argument that there is an instinctive desire for immortality, and that this desire proves it to be a fact, becomes puerile when it is recalled that there is also a powerful and widespread fear of annihilation, and that this fear, on the same principle proves that there is nothing beyond the grave. Such childish proofs are typically theological, and they remain theological even when they are adduced by men who like to flatter themselves by believing that they are scientific gents…” — H. L. Mencken

“One of the proofs of the immortality of the soul is that myriads have believed it–they also believed the world was flat.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910)

“Convincing yourself doesn’t win an argument.” — Robert Half

Here is an old school Pearl, in a manner of speaking…. These three quotations all say pretty much the same thing, with varying types of expression. Each, to me, seems to express that same idea more succinctly than the one before, leaving out more and more words until the final statement gives the bottom line… which is one that is heavily argued by those to whom it most applies….

It’s funny (ironic funny) to me to hear some of the arguments proposed by the priestly hierarchies in support of their beliefs. Some are couched in formal robes, all dressed up so they appear as reasoned logic, rather than the unwarranted assumptions that they really are. Mr. Mencken’s expression above would be the most effective in engaging these wordy individuals, as it would appeal to the side of them that pretends to being a scientist. They might reject the arguments, since their own arguments are, in the final analysis, subjectively formulated, not based on observations but on induction, as the platform of their entire argument is all based on an imaginary entity’s theoretical wishes…..

“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so”…. Such an innocent sounding piece of doggerel…. one would scarcely believe it is one of the most insidious examples of blatant propaganda in existence. The proponents of the “Old man in the sky” group start drumming this into the minds of children as soon as they are able to talk, and, as they well know, before they learn to doubt what their elders tell them. Children naturally accept what their parents tell them, almost exclusively for the first few years of life.

This home-schooling form of brainwashing continues once they are of an age to start looking outside their family for knowledge of the world, with teachers, preachers, and kindly old aunts who continue to inundate the young minds with stories of Bible heroes and villains, drilling into the malleable minds the sense of entitlement and elitism that will provide them with the impetus for bigotry later in life. In addition, this period strengthens the brainwashing given earlier, teaching the kids that they should only trust certain people to tell them the truth, and that all the other religions in the world are not only not saved, but are not eligible for saving, due to their own beliefs, which are characterized as villainous, and as enemies, to be reviled and persecuted because they are different….

“The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.” — Oscar Wilde

This entire process, this systematic, deliberate mental conditioning, is, to my mind, pretty despicable. It denies its proponents any possible way of examining the information that other systems may possess, by convincing them that all other forms of knowledge are not only wrong, but blasphemous in nature, and should be cast aside whenever encountered, without ever examining the information for its relevance, or its accuracy.

Education is learning that you did not even know what you did not even know you did not even know. — Smart Bee

The whole system is designed to continue the delusional system into the future, while keeping the congregation in the dark of ignorance. It has no other purpose…. it is not in place to help or sustain the members of the congregation, but rather to control that population’s thoughts and behavior, ensuring the power and influence of the priests, pastors, preachers, or whatever name they choose to call themselves…..

I can only count myself as fortunate, to have been raised without the brainwashing on a regular basis. We attended a Presbyterian church, probably an offshoot of the old Church of England, where the adage about “cake, or death?” was originated…. The net result of this was that I was able to include other systems in my education, and found the entire construct to be a house of invisible cards, easily knocked down with a single bite of the Apple….

“How come you never see a politician (or a preacher) laugh? Because they know what they’re getting away with, and if they started laughing, they’d never stop.” — Smart Bee

And you know what else?…. I always thought Satan got a pretty raw deal, all for exercising the free will he was given…. and so did Adam and Eve…. Even as a child of five, I always wondered why God had set them up to fail like that…. it’s like, “Here’s the apple…. don’t taste it….” and then making sure we, as humans, had a sense of wonder and curiosity strong enough to disregard the admonition…. Even then, it looked like a set-up, and I could never reconcile the image in my head of a God, supposedly with infinite knowledge, setting up his own creation like that…. it just didn’t seem very God-like, or even fair…. and I still don’t get it, even today…..

With a subject such as this, it’s hard to know when to stop…. the issue has been one that has held Mankind back for two millennia now, preventing us from achieving our real potential as a species. All the progress we, as a species, have made in the last 3,000 years or so has been in spite of the efforts of the priestly hierarchies to keep us as ignorant as possible; at every turn of the wheel of science, the powers that be have thrown sand in the works, to try to slow down the acquisition of knowledge.

“Neither do the ignorant seek after wisdom. For herein is the evil of ignorance, that he who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied with himself; he has no desire for that of which he feels no want.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.)

The preachers, from long experience, know that an educated populace, capable of reasoning beyond the limitations placed on the human mind by religious dogma, is the greatest threat to their continued existence as the leaders of Mankind. They know that once people are exposed to knowledge (the flesh of the Apple, remember?), the less they will submit to the brainwashing that is the lot of the common man…. and it scares them to death…..

Doubt. Question authority. Ask the next, deeper question. And never, ever, give up the right to make up your own mind…. In the final analysis, that power is the only one we all have, and the only one that cannot be taken away from us without our consent…. Viva la raza!…..

Oh, and won’t it be nice when you don’t have to give tithes anymore?…..

Though old the thought and oft exprest,
‘T is his at last who says it best.

— James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) — For an Autograph

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

Since it takes less time to find one of my own poems than to search one out on the Net….. Plus, this one fits in with today’s rant better than any I could find….

Early Observations

Until I knew there was more,
I wanted to know God.
They said he was a nice guy,
and would let me live forever.

All I had to do, they said,
was live my life for Him,
always living by scripture
cleaving only to his Way.

But, everyone I saw in church,
acted different at home.
Living wild, cussin’ and fussin’,
nobody lived like they said.

Still, I tried to be like Jesus,
he was sort of cool.
He never hurt nobody
and walked on the right path.

‘Course they killed him for that,
they couldn’t stand his example.
Turned him into a martyr,
hid his real words among their own.

Then I found the Buddha,
and met Lao Tzu at the gate.
They saw things real different,
showed me how to see straight.

Right thought, and right action
replace blind obedience and faith.
Reality becomes manageable,
fear retreats, the universe expands.

Brother John said it pretty well,
“Imagine there’s no heaven,
it’s easy if you try.”
Sounds like he knew why.

Day to day, life is grand,
we walk in eternal beauty.
Open your eyes and hearts,
find yourself already immortal.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Once again, I had hoped to have more pictures today, but, the Wise Old Pine Cone has been busy with his new student, so we’ll have to settle for a fresh, old-school pearl….. We’ll make it a random, harlequin style pearl; they’re the quickest to put together, as the parameters involved are so flexible…. Enjoy!….

“This is a wise maxim, “to take warning from others of what may be to your own advantage.” — Terence (185-159 BC) — Heautontimoroumenos, Act i, Sc. 2, 36, (210.)

“The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.” — Max Lerner

“Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do ingloriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple: who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Areopagitica

“He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked.” — Kahlil Gibran

“After all is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than done.” — Olmstead’s Law

“…for the most part happiness consists in being willing to be what you are.” — Erasmus

“Honor is the reward of virtue.” — Cicero (B.C. 106-43)

Sometimes this process doesn’t work; this is NOT one of those times…. This is a good pearl, ffolkes…. Serendipity strikes again….

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

There are occasions when I think I should always procrastinate; I seem to do my best work when I’m in a hurry…. This Pearl is a perfect example of that…. not that y’all care at all about that, but, it keeps me occupied, and mostly off the streets, so, all in all, it’s a good thing….. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

These weren’t buffed OR polished!…..

Posted on June 20, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

It was a beautiful morning…. The bright, friendly sun was shining brightly out of a deep blue sky, dotted here and there with a few puffy cotton ball clouds. From where I lay in the hills above the town’s main thoroughfare, I could see the entire valley where it lay spread out before me, looking just like one of those advertisements in a travel magazine, offering 3 nights & 2 days in a beautiful country setting…. To look, one might think nothing could disturb the bucolic serenity that lay over the whole scene, covering all that lay before one’s eyes, like a haze of smoke from distant fires….

Little did the peaceful residents know of the horror that would soon be unleashed; the dark shadow of fate fell upon them without notice, or heraldry, allowing this little time of peace before all hell broke loose…. With a small sigh of regret for the peace about to be shattered, I reached down, gave the all-clear signal, and began preparations to move…. In a few short hours, the scene below would change drastically, and the beauty and grace that once lived here would be gone forever, blasted into the depths of memory by the march of time…. and a few well-placed artillery shells….. It was a shame, really, but, nobody can stop time…

Okay, enough…. I’m tired of that one already, which is unsurprising, to say the least…. I have to admit, it ISN’T one of my best….. It’s funny how my mind turns almost automatically to this sort of fictional opening…. A lot of them that I’ve done all seem to focus on the same sort of scenario, which is the beginning of some sort of military action, or spy mission, or assassination, or some other sort of situation in which guns, bombs, or other war-like implements play a major role, or act as a silent, unseen threat…. I suppose that is just an unconscious expression of human nature, falling into the habit of violence, and/or war…. Our species has a long history of involvement with such issues, he said with an ironic smirk….

Once again, though, the creation of such common tales from human experience, even though completely fabricated, has brought us this far down the page, where we (I) have a better chance of moving this along toward the day’s offering, such as it is…. I can only say this; it seems to work for me, and, although I really don’t feel like I have this process under control, it does get me somewhere close to where I need to be to get this done…. The usual obstructions are have been set aside, for the moment at least, and I’m thinking we might just as well take what we’ve got, and make a break for the border…. Hey, it can’t possibly get any more absurd, can it? No, I didn’t think so….

Shall we Pearl?…..

Take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
down the foggy ruins of time
far past the frozen leaves
the haunted frightened trees
out to the windy beach
far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.
Ah, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
silhouetted by the sea
circled by the circus sands
with all memory and fate
driven deep beneath the waves
let me forget about today until tomorrow.

— Bob Dylan —

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

I’m afraid today is going to be one of those days around here…. A lot of reasons come to mind, none of which make for a good story, so, y’all will just have to suffer, and wonder…. However, to ease the pain, here is a rant, from early in 2013…. It’s been used before, and may be familiar to some of my more regular readers, at least, those who have been coming by for a while…. It’s also one of my best, all in all, which is why I use it so much…. Enjoy, please, and more importantly, pay attention, & pass the word, right after you pass the salt, please…. These hard-boiled eggs are just too bland without it….

Originally posted in January, 2013:

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

One may always trust Oscar Wilde to be both elegantly witty and intelligently insightful, though, to be sure, many of his most closely held views were somewhat divergent with what was commonly held to be true, philosophically. This divergence was, I believe, mostly deliberate on his part, as he tended to mock that which he did not respect, and he never had much respect for…. well, anything to do with human nature vs. reason and rationality. He mistrusted most people to act morally, and was unafraid of saying so; this, of course, made him both famous, and infamous….. His infamy, I’m sure, ultimately was his undoing, much to society’s loss; as is said so often about our brightest minds, “only the good die young….”

I often wonder, (well, maybe not so often, as much as I’m wondering now…) what the world today would be like, if somehow, some of those bright stars in history had lived to an age where their accomplishments, in relation to the advancement of human thought, and the betterment of the human condition, had a broader, and more lasting effect than their absence has left us. What if Keats had written poetry until he was 85? How many more inventions would have come to us from Nicolas Tesla, had he lived long enough for the rest of the scientific world to catch up to him, instead of hounding him to an early grave? How much more good music, and art, and literature would be available to all of us, if not for this tendency for the best of us to live as a burning meteor, flaming brightly through the sky, until burned out and lifeless?

It is a sad commentary for society to know that it is often the very brilliance of these people that brings about their downfall, at the hands of the ignorant, and the avaricious…. What is even sadder, to me, is that this demonstrates another part of human nature that is responsible for almost every issue in human history, and current society, that causes people to suffer pain, oppression, perpetual struggle, and will most certainly ultimately lead to the extinction of our species, on this planet, at minimum, if not completely…..

That piece of our nature is the unfortunate characteristic, in a number of humans, to be able to put aside all conscience, and act solely in their own self interest. All of us, of course, possess this to some degree; it is an outgrowth of having a will to survive. To these few others, it is their primary modus operandi; they simply do not take other people, or their concerns, into account when deciding what they are going to do, and are not hampered by the consideration of any suffering they may cause other people, animals, or things.

As is patently obvious, to my mind, every elected official, every high level preacher, every corporate magnate, and a great many lawyers, are all of this ilk, and have, for nearly 230 years now, been quietly and efficiently plundering the pockets and rights of the American people (and those of every other country in the world, for that matter…. it is a HUMAN condition, not just American…. Ours are just some of the most obvious about it….), while simultaneously lying, cheating, and otherwise acting to secure their stranglehold on society.

Anyone who disagrees with this assessment, quite simply, isn’t paying enough attention to the world around them….. Sorry to be so blunt, but the facts are all laid out, right there, almost every day in the news media, if one knows how to look at the larger picture it presents, rather than the individual facets of that picture. Focusing on the little shit is just what those in power wish for people to do…. it keeps them busy not noticing other, more incriminating stuff they are carrying out, in the darkness where they mostly live….

“… change depends on individual acts of courage and commitment. Most such acts are private, invisible, and uncelebrated. But some find a place in the public spotlight; and their influence goes far beyond mere example.” — Arthur C. Clarke & Michael Kube-McDowell, The Trigger, 1999

Each and every one of us, in the face of what we know about reality, is responsible in some way, and to some degree, for both the way things are, and the way they will be in the future. If you don’t believe that, well, discussion is, for you, probably useless, and little hope remains. For anyone with moderate insight, however, this is plain, clear truth, and we all need to accept it before any significant progress can be expected against those who are sociopathic, which I define, and hereby name, as homo suicidus, those who would kill us all…. But, it is imperative that we act soon, for the damage we have done, and continue to do to our world, is at a point where the effects are nearly irreversible, and even if we manage to wrest control from the beloved ruling class,it may be too late to save our lives….

“In regard to disagreeable and formidable things, prudence does not consist in evasion, or in flight, but in courage. He who wishes to walk in the most peaceful parts of life with any serenity must screw himself up to resolution. Let him front the object of his worst apprehension, and his stoutness will commonly make his fear groundless.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, _Essays_, Prudence

It is my hope, small and pale though it be, that we WILL speak up, that the rational among us will rise up, and take back the control of our destiny from the hands of those who would see us all die, rather than give up their own control. It will only happen when men of courage, as defined by Mr. Emerson, stand up to those who would render us all impotent, for their own benefit. The only hope that exists for the rest of us lies in enough of us showing this kind of courage, and overcoming the fear that keeps us in thrall…..

“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Areopagitica

Myself, I don’t want to die ignominiously, gasping for breath, because I didn’t have the courage to speak up, and to fight back against the immoral, avaricious assholes who dominate society….. Instead, let’s create a whole new world, without a beloved ruling class, at all….. Who knows? We might just find out that anarchy works!….. Worth a try, I think….. And, if it doesn’t work, well, we can always try a technocracy, which we have yet to do in history….. With a bit of foresight and planning, it might just be what we need to survive our own foolishness… Maybe, Richard Brautigan had the truest prophetic vision, when he wrote “All watched over, by machines of loving grace….”

“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.” — Pablo Picasso

History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.

— Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning”

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

Once again, to save the reputation of anyone else who might be associated with any of this, here is one of my older poems….

Dreaming of Calliope

La belle dame sans merci speaks aloud through endless night,
torturing dreams, with powerful words and stentorian phrases.
Manifest visions bathed in unbearable grace and light,
destroying all direction, standing lost, in unfathomable mazes.

Fate plays a part, one that will never face denial,
as fear and courage eternally vie for ascendancy.
Conflict becomes valid, gifting strength in open trial,
but honest emotion wears no costume so fancy.

Blood, sweat, and tears stroll on avenues of gold,
unlikely heroines heralding as in ancient lore;
Sharp, competent knives cut through tales untold,
eternally shifting reality past the naked shore.

Drifting toward origin, bereft of mandate or cause,
finished, nay, abandoned, tied with a figurative bow.
No simple gift from muses to give comfort or pause,
save that all we need to know, we already know…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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

I was up a little late today, which probably shows in the intro section; it gets that way when I feel rushed….. Also, I tend to go to the archives more often, though, in today’s case, that’s not a bad thing, given the state of creative juices this morning…. To prevent feeling like I completely abandoned all routine, I’ll put together a fresh random, harlequin pearl, just so I can say some of today’s piece is fresh….. Boy, the things we put ourselves through to maintain our own good graces…. Try to enjoy it anyway, ffolkes…..

“The earth hath skin, and the skin hath diseases. One of these…is called man.” — Nietzsche

“There is, nevertheless, a certain respect and a general duty of humanity that ties us, not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even to trees and plants.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book ii, Chap. xi, Of Cruelty

“Every public action which is not customary, either is wrong, or, if it is right, is a dangerous precedent. It follows that nothing should ever be done for the first time.” — Francis Cornford (1908)

“The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 16

“Even very young children need to be informed about dying. Explain the concept of death very carefully to your child. This will make threatening him with it much more effective.” — P. J. O’Rourke

“Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something.” — Robert A. Heinlein

“Reality is what bumps into you when you stand still with your eyes open.” — Solomon Short

Hmm…. a bit esoteric, but, nice….. I like it, so, it stays…..

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

Some of y’all were probably hoping for a new episode of the Life and Times of Wise Old Pine Cone…. We actually DID get some pix taken, but, I didn’t have time to get them organized, so, it will have to wait until tomorrow…. Deal with it, you’re all adults…. I’m smiling, to take off some of the curmudgeonly crossness of that statement…. can you see it? It’s a big, happy smile….. Honest, trust me…. Well, if you’re going to be like that, I’m outta here…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Even duct tape won’t help now….

Posted on June 15, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Staring into the abyss is not easy without coffee, but, that’s what I’ve been asked to do today…. Well, perhaps that’s a bit dramatic, but, it does give you the “look and feel” I was trying for, if you’ll pardon the retreat into Appledom…. I’m pretty sure, since that phrase has been legally identified by some court or another, it’s okay to use it in general speech….

If not, well, screw ’em, because it’s already done, and I’m not about to start again, just because Apple doesn’t like me using their words….. As we’ve been known to say on previous occasions, when just such a complaint has arisen, fuck them if they can’t take a joke…. hard, or soft, your choice, I don’t care….

There, the first nonsensical paragraphs are done, now we get to the plain speech paragraph, which is MUCH easier, believe me…. When I come up with an easy-peasy kind of subject, which talking about Apple always makes so simple, producing such literary flotsam becomes almost automatic…. But, then, by now, just about anything at all wouldn’t surprise MY readers in this space….

In spite of the difficulties we face each day (Damn! There’s another of those royal “we”‘s! Gotta watch that….) to get this intro done in a timely fashion, without it becoming an ordeal beyond all endurance, I think I’ve managed to endow my audience with more than just a few formats and/or incarnations, if you will, of this introductory section, enough so that they’ve learned not to expect anything in particular, but just wait to see whatever manifests on any given day…. It’s also safer that way, in a physical sense…. less chance of explosions….

Even the explosions have reached the point of becoming mundanely routine, I suppose…. That’s what happens after the first several hundred of them….. I don’t know if it is normal to be so blasé about such volatile material, but, it’s certainly normal around here, and I’m not about to start justifying or explaining at this point…. Nobody but a regular here would understand anyway, so, it’s all moot…. Of course, if we ever get to the point where the blog is starting to get some more attention from a wider audience, I suppose I’ll have to consider a few changes, to meet the demands of the public eye….

Don’t hold your breath on that one, though, because I’m pretty stubborn, and not about to make too many changes, just to suit readers…. My curmudgeon training wouldn’t allow that anyway, as it is catering to the wishes of others, and that sort of pandering is NOT going to happen on my watch…. People are responsible for their OWN minds, and beliefs, and I don’t allow any BS in that respect….

I am responsible for what I say, and what I believe, but, not for anyone else’s words, or their ideas….. and trying to blame me for what someone else may think, even about my own words, is not only NOT going to alter my behavior, it could conceivably piss me off…. Whomever THAT happens to fall upon may just end up regretting they ever spoke…. or, for that matter, regretting they were ever born….

Hmm…. I see that I’m beginning to show symptomology of a need to rant, which isn’t surprising, as I’ve not indulged myself in that respect for a week or more, not in any detailed, fresh sense…. Soon, I’m sure…. For now, though, I’m going to go with my impulses today, which are random, and not well understood, even by me…. In fact, I really don’t know, at this juncture, just WHAT will happen from now on…. I have deliberately avoided thinking about it…. So, whatever occurs below will be as much of a surprise for me, as it is for you….. The only thing I know for sure is that the Wise Old Pine Cone took another day off, having overindulged himself radically at the ball game a couple of nights ago; he’ll be back in a day or so, with new pictures of new adventures to share…. For now, though….

Shall we Pearl?….. In fact, let’s begin with a two-fer….

“Zen Buddhists do it because they don’t want to do it because they want to do it.” — Smart Bee, showing off

“We had the sky, up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made, or only just happened.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910), Huckleberry Finn

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

In lieu of a fresh rant, which is not imminently forthcoming (Don’t ask why; the answer would be TMI…. I say that just as if we had not already reached a point of no return in that regard….), here is an older rant, from some time in 2012, on a typical issue, i.e., the BRC and their shenanigans…..

“He who imitates evil always goes beyond the limits of the example, whereas he who imitates what is good, always falls short.” — Confucius

Perfect! If ever a quote could be applied to fit one group of people, this one would; it fits the folks who occupy elected office in this country like the proverbial glove.

Ooh! Ooh! Here’s another one…

“Ignorance: When you don’t know something and somebody finds it out.” — Jethro Burns

Okay, that’s a good start…. Now, we all know that politicians lie to us…. It’s what we’ve taught them to do, by our calm acceptance of all the other lies they’ve told, from the very beginning. We expect them to lie… then, when we catch them at it, there is this huge public outcry, as if it had never happened before. Sometimes, the behavior of the American public toward the political beast reminds me of a shark…. to wit: no memory of the past to slow down their willingness to rush into dangerous situations….. For millions of years, sharks and dolphins have lived together in the oceans. For just about all that time, whenever a shark attacks a dolphin, it gets killed, unless the dolphin is injured in some way, or, it is a baby inadvertently left alone. Always, if things are even, the shark dies, because the dolphins are faster swimmers, but, more importantly, they’re smarter.

After millions of years, you would think the sharks might learn to let them alone, but, they don’t, which is evidence of their lack of ability to learn. The American voting public has the same problem…. they never learn to expect to be lied to, and always seem surprised to learn that their elected officials are, shall we say, less than perfectly honest? It, quite frankly, drives me nuts…. What is it about people that does that to them? Why are they so UNwilling to use the mind that (presumably) sits between their ears, rather than just carrying it around from toilet to toilet, which is all most folks seem to do with it? (Almost forgot it was a question….) I wish I knew….

“There is one way to find out if a man is honest–ask him. If he says yes, you know he is crooked.” — Groucho Marx

I’m starting to feel a bit of anger, actually, (Surprise!) and I have a hard time not letting it out on the voting public, the idiots. But, it really isn’t all their fault, as the people who run for office are the ones who are actively imitating evil, and, obviously, exceeding the limits of their example. And the voting public can’t help never being able to quite reach the good for which they reach. This is why I get angry about it…. The folks who run for office tell the public they are going to work for the people when they are elected; we all know they are lying, but we elect them anyway. Now, how stupid is that? Pretty stupid, in my book…..

On the one hand, the stupidity displayed by the politicians is deliberate, in its adherence to principles of theft and prevarication; on the other hand, the stupidity displayed by the voting public is, perhaps, not deliberate, but at minimum, misguided, and, ultimately, just as evil, in placing its trust in evil people. In the dispassionate view held by the universe, stupid is as stupid does, and the sentence of death is the same for both types of stupidity, deliberate and unconscious. It (the universe…) doesn’t care about why, it only looks at results….

What can be done about this? Not a damn thing…. Not only do I find that most people are unconsciously stupid, but they are stubborn about it, even when it is clear how being stupid is hurting them. Rather than use their minds to find a new way of dealing with these issues, they retreat into platitudes and dogma, and run right back out to vote for another idiot who promises them manna from heaven, or, more accurately, from Washington D.C. If confronted with their idiocy, they become even more stubborn, as they are unwilling to accept they might have been wrong, usually refusing to either examine any evidence of being wrong, or, denying its existence altogether.

The politicians, who choose to live in stupidity, by lying and cheating and stealing from their own people, don’t even WANT to choose otherwise. Why should they? They’ve got it easy, with a ready supply of host bodies on which to practice their symbiotic parasitism, a body that not only accepts all their lies, but encourages them to even further depredations with their complete acquiescence with whatever the politicos want. All the politicians have to say is that the public is in danger, from this, that, or the other…. The public will then allow them to do whatever they choose, as long as they’re fooled into feeling safe from whatever fictional fantasy they have been told is dangerous…..

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift; the rational mind is faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” — Albert Einstein

It’s an interesting spectacle to observe from the sidelines, but it arouses in me a strong feeling of sadness, with the anger underlying, as I watch, day after day, as so many millions of foolish people get taken advantage of by a few assholes. It definitely makes me want to buy a gun, even though I would only use it if pressed; I have a feeling I may get pressed some day, if I continue to make noise about all this.

I’m fairly well protected thus far by a lack of notoriety; the BRC and the PTB aren’t going to worry about me until I have an audience a lot larger than a couple of hundred folks, of which perhaps fifty regularly read my work. If what I am saying began to gain popularity, and was being read by millions, I’d be in danger; until then, I’m as safe as I can make myself with the tools at hand… which, if I say so myself, are not entirely inconsequential…. If I said any more, I’d be giving away my precautions, and that wouldn’t do, so, just rest assured… I am ready to deal with anything short of assault weapons, with what I have on hand…..

“Many, if not all, of my presidential opponents are certifiable idiots.” — Miriam Defensor Santiago — The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1993

See? I’m not completely alone! Actually, if you pay close attention, you will note this was uttered by a politician, about their peers, so it really doesn’t count as support of what I’m saying here. What, exactly am I saying here? Hmm, okay, since I’ve already written about 1200 words or so on this, it’s a good place to wind it up…. so, here goes…

Ffolkes, you are being lied to, daily, and hourly, by those who have been elected to office to look out for your interests. I hate to tell you, but those folks never intended to do anything of the sort. So, it would be a good thing if everybody in this country would OPEN THEIR FUCKING EYES AND GET A DAMN CLUE!!!!!….. I don’t think I can say it any clearer than that….. That’s all, for now…..

“Ignorance kills daily. “– Smart Bee

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

It’s been a while since I posted this poem by Emily D….. It is one of my favorites of hers, though I’m not sure exactly why…. Maybe it’s the length, which is about four times her usual measure….. with Emily, the more, the better, in my book….

I measure every grief I meet

I measure every grief I meet
With analytic eyes;
I wonder if it weighs like mine,
Or has an easier size.

I wonder if they bore it long,
Or did it just begin?
I could not tell the date of mine,
It feels so old a pain.

I wonder if it hurts to live,
And if they have to try,
And whether, could they choose between,
They would not rather die.

I wonder if when years have piled–
Some thousands–on the cause
Of early hurt, if such a lapse
Could give them any pause;

Or would they go on aching still
Through centuries above,
Enlightened to a larger pain
By contrast with the love.

The grieved are many, I am told;
The reason deeper lies,–
Death is but one and comes but once
And only nails the eyes.

There’s grief of want, and grief of cold,–
A sort they call ‘despair,’
There’s banishment from native eyes,
In sight of native air.

And though I may not guess the kind
Correctly yet to me
A piercing comfort it affords
In passing Calvary,

To note the fashions of the cross
Of those that stand alone
Still fascinated to presume
That some are like my own.

~~ Emily Dickinson

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

I had not originally planned, when I got up today, to go with older material… It just sort of worked out that way. To forestall any whining from the peanut gallery about cheating, here is a fresh old-school pearl, randomly chosen, for no good reason at all, at all…

“In the beginning was the word. But by the time the second word was added to it, there was trouble. For with it came syntax…” — John Simon

“I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.” — Alan Watts

“It is a difficult task, O citizens, to make speeches to the belly, which has no ears.”– Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Marcus Cato

“Ignorance is no excuse.” — Smart Bee

“It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.” — Voltaire

“Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before,” Bokonon tells us. “He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.” — Kurt Vonnegut, “Cat’s Cradle”

What though the field be lost?
All is not lost; th’ unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield.

— John Milton (1608-1674) — Paradise Lost, Book i, Line 105

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

All things considered, this will do…. Of course, one must remember, this is the place where Peruaosophy comes from, where the very first axiom gives the root/core idea that, to me, MUST be understood, if one wishes to get through all this with a minimum of fuss, to wit: “Axiom #1 — I think I am. That’s close enough.”

For today, it certainly is….. See ya, ffolkes….. More pictures tomorrow, I promise…. which I don’t do lightly….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

A pleasing sound of running water….

Posted on May 27, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Like milk, spilling out of a cereal bowl, fog poured over the rim of the mountain, white, cold, pushing frigid gusts of wind ahead as it rushed down the side of the hills, swooping swiftly toward the camp in the trees at the foot of the peak. As darkness begins to thicken among the trees, the camp’s inhabitants snuggle deeper into their blankets, secure in their tents, heedless of the mist gathering between, turning the air surreal in the twilight. Dim shapes of sentries move around the perimeter of the camp, rifles at the ready; fog made their job more difficult, causing each to narrow eyes to peer into the gloom, and grip their weapon tightly, in fear of what could no longer be seen….

Enough, already…. My old friend is back, and I’m not a particularly happy camper, myself, this morning…. hence, the little fictional opening, to loosen up the old neurons, hopefully with a bit of style, while waiting for my magic cream to take effect enough to let me sit…. Great fun…. But, I’m determined to get this done, regardless of how I feel, so, I may as well get on with it…. no whining allowed today….

I am going to cheat a bit…. I have a lot to do today; this will need to get done, so I can do it all before I give out…. an event I can already predict to occur sometime around 11 AM…. By then, the pain, and gravity, will knock me down and out for an hour or two, so I can get something else done this afternoon…. Sheesh, you’d think I was still working, or had kids or something…. No, just duty, and obligatory completion of same, so, as I said, no whining allowed….

However, that is why this intro is so short, and lacking in rational organization; I just dived in without any plan, other than to get done as quickly as I can…. I am even going to resort to method #4, early in the game, to get us out of the intro without any fuss…. In fact, I see it coming up now, so, I’ll see you in the next section….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“The writer who loses his self-doubt, who gives way as he grows old to a sudden euphoria, to prolixity, should stop writing immediately: the time has come for him to lay aside his pen.” — Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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

The following is a fairly long diatribe, that served me well a few months ago; it was first posted two years ago, and by golly, is still valid…. so, please enjoy…..

From 1/12/2014:

(From May 12, 2012):

I don’t FEEL any better, either, damn it!….. 😦

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

As is my wont, here is a poem of my own, to prevent sharing the blame, which is more certain around here than sharing the wealth…. there isn’t a lot of that floating around…. I’m wealthy in friends and family, but nothing that could be deposited in a bank…. This MAY be my best poem, period; it was written 2/2/2012…..

Gently Came a Wounded Child

But you shall not escape my iambics.

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Fortunately for us all, old-school pearls don’t take a long time to create, as long as Smart Bee isn’t playing games at Murphy’s behest…. We’ll see how it does before settling on an archived example…. We’ll leave the parameters random, so SB doesn’t feel constrained to stick to our usual subjects, & see what happens…..

“If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.” — US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

“I think the mistake a lot of us make is thinking the state-appointed psychiatrist is our “friend.”” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased.” — Kehlog Albran, The Profit

“Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.” — H. G. Wells

“One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” — Maya Angelo

“If the government doesn’t trust us with our guns, why should we trust them with theirs?” — Smart Bee

“What you think means more than anything else in your life. More than what you earn, more than where you live, more than your social position, and more than what anyone else may think about you.” — George Adams

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

Hmm… I suppose one can’t complain about quality when in a hurry like this…. It’s okay, it’s just not going to wake up the Pulitzer committee…. I can deal with that, since I’m done…. HAH!

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

You know it’s been a tough Pearl when I come this close to including the Desiderata…. which is fine, but, a bit sappy. I know it’s just a made up philosophy, thrown together by a song-writer in the early twentieth century, but, a LOT of what is in there has been of very good use to me, in terms of being good advice on how to live life with some dignity and grace…. But, that’s a story for another time…. This Pearl is done, and I’m outta here…. See ya, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

1000? 1000? You let him get to 1000? Oh, DAMN!….

Posted on March 24, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Provided I can manage to complete this Pearl of Virtual Wisdom today, including the act of posting, I will have reached a significant milestone, for a project that has long since achieved its original goals, ultimately growing past all suspected intent…. That is, it’s significant to me, in my life, having been the focus of my existence every morning now since August of 2011…. This will be my 1000th post on WordPress….. I know, I said that before, but, I checked this time, twice already…. I specifically noted yesterday’s post, #999, when the editing page uploaded it to my domain, before closing the sidebar summary… Last time I looked, 999 + 1 = 1000…..

Oh, yay….. I’m so proud and happy, I could just bust a button…. Sort of….. I mean, other than the way I’m busting them now, from having gained too much weight on those parts of my corpus where my buttons serve some purpose…. If I weren’t so excited and discombobulated by the emotions that aren’t reverberating through my soul, I’d probably think about letting out a really loud cheer, but, since I don’t want to scare Patricia, or the cat, I’ll pass on that, too….. Y’all will just have to take my word for it…. I’m jazzed….

I thought about fireworks, but, you can’t see them, so there’s little point in that…. I suppose, if I were a true geek, I’d spend the time to figure out how to show some fireworks on the site today, such as with an animated .GIF file, or a short video, You Tube style…. Or, maybe in the background, like a few sites I’ve seen…. Unfortunately for you, though not for me, I have yet to take the time to learn how to do any of those things, so I’m safe from that, and so are you. Besides, all the neighborhood dogs hate it when I set off fireworks….

I also thought about some other sort of celebratory activity to offer the Gentle Reader today, but, how much interaction can one stimulate on a once-a-day blog? A chess game in the comments? Boring. Some sort of contest? I suppose, but, Bitcoins are dead, and I’m not funded well enough to have very many winners show up. I COULD announce the QUIZ, and, since it would be coming AFTER posting the 1000th Pearl here on WP, nobody could say they hadn’t been provided with enough material with which to work, or time to study up on the archived material, with or without healthy, delicious snack foods…. But, if I do that, what will I threaten anyone with from now on?…. Graduation won’t be for another 9,000 posts, so it’s way too early to think about the final….

Wait a minute…. Stop typing, damn it….. Okay, shut down, I hear something……. Cheese it, it’s the cops!….

“Here pigs will fly, lightning will strike twice, hell will freeze over, and eventually, things will get really interesting…”– Smart Bee

Maybe not, but, that’s probably how it will feel to anyone silly enough to be here when we hit the ground…. You see, all the above, everything above this line, was written yesterday…. Well, actually, so was this line, but, hey, I’m TRYING to get back to real-time…. give me a moment, okay? I had to go get the correct tool for this…. Okay, success…. one last turn, and…. okay. There…. THAT won’t be happening again…..

Sorry about the hijack, there, ffolkes….. My evil twin, Judas, the Faithful, tried to fool y’all into thinking he was me…. To look at what he wrote, he seemed to have been doing pretty well at it, too…. But, it’s over now, and it really IS my 1000th post on WP, so, we have some good stuff lined up for you today…. What that might be, I haven’t a clue, but, we’re hoping anyway….

You probably won’t believe me, but, this line is the first one I’ve actually typed today, on Monday, the 24th of March….. Yep, we are now officially, and actually, back in real time, ffolkes…. and today will be the 1000th time I’ve had to complete one of these silly introductory sections….. I have to say, it’s been a long road to here, with a lot of poorly written stuff before getting to this, which may, or may not, be any better. In any case, we’re finally up (it’s actually 5 AM already….) and we’re good to go for our celebration today…… whatever form that might take….

You see, I deliberately didn’t think about anything like that, to keep from breaking tradition; we’ve gotten this far without showing any real intelligence, I don’t see why I should start today…. Not that acting intelligently would help, or anything, it just might make it SEEM more worthwhile to anyone viewing it from the outside world…. Since that’s out of the question, we’ll just trust to luck, like always….

Shall we Pearl?…. I think we should, this has gone on far too long already, don’t you think?….

Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
(That last infirmity of noble mind)
To scorn delights, and live laborious days;
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
Comes the blind Fury with th’ abhorred shears
And slits the thin-spun life.

— John Milton (1608-1674) — Lycidas, Line 70
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I’m going to switch things around a little today, & put the old-school pearl first; most days I put the rant here, to get it out of the way so ffolkes can get to the rest, which is often lighter, and mostly, less hard to chew, either figuratively, or metaphorically. Putting the rants here seems to be a habit, though not one ever examined, or thought out, so, I don’t think we’ll be trampling on a time-honored tradition or anything like that. No, we’re just randomly screwing with things, just to see what happens….. Hopefully, once I take this all apart, I’ll be able to get it back together again…. If not, well, here are some thoughts on Love, & so on & so forth….

“He is not a lover who does not love forever.” — Euripides

(I like that one….It happens to mirror my own feelings on the matter….)

“Unless you love someone, nothing else makes any sense” — E. E. Cummings (1894-1963)

“A person should take a bath once in the summer, not so often in the winter.” — from Kids Say the Darndest Things

“Communications are the lifeblood of a relationship, carrying the nutrients.” — Smart Bee

“God help the man who won’t marry until he finds a perfect woman, and God help him still more if he finds her.” — Benjamin Tillett

“We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

“Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, viii, 51

Hmm…. It seems the pearl’s contents settled during shipping, causing some alterations in direction…. this appears now to be more of a set of rules, or advice, for married men, or men in a long-term committed relationship, anyway….. Same thing from this end…. Believe me, I know….

In light of that, it’s probably just as well I found this last pearl, as it is the perfect ending for any man who is considering the ancient traditional method of destroying a perfectly good relationship, to wit: marrying their lover…. Having been there, done that, a number of times, I can say with complete confidence that it isn’t a particularly good decision in today’s world…. Better to maintain a healthy cynicism, and keep the following in mind….

“From stupidity there is always something to be learned, but it’s always the same thing: don’t be stupid.” — Robert M. Adams

Bitter? No, not at all, why do you ask?….

😆
_____________________________

Since today’s Pearl is a milestone, it will probably be best to include a poem of my own…. I COULD try to bleed out a fresh one, but, I’m not sure it would meet my standards today, so, we’ll just go with one of my older poems, and let it go at that…. At least you can’t blame anyone else for any of this, right?….. Since the first section dealt with an aspect of Love, here is my take on the emotion that, perhaps, defines us as a human being….

Beyond Agapé

Passion burns and shines like iridescent paint
yet solitude stands mocking such mundane complaint.
Schemes and dreams promise to tempt attraction
never ending effort spends wit in perverse reaction.

Hale and hearty reports of honor and love
draft recruits to collect manna from above,
while searching each soul for that which will serve
to bring pure sensation to each expectant nerve.

How simple to fall into complete helpless hope
of two hearts bound in tradition, with cultural rope,
living a simple life, shared, in joy and in grief
promises consummated, in consensual belief.

Reality dictates our degree of control over its state
insisting on changing whether or not we can wait.
Love will be present when we are completely at peace,
allowing ourselves, to give of ourselves, without cease.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

I had hoped to be able to produce a fresh rant today, but, the political arena is currently quiet, as the professional pundits prepare their next set of egregious lies, in their ongoing campaign to maintain the level of societal fear they require to control the populace. Since they won’t give me anything solid to chew on today, we’ll go with an old-school pearl, with parameters that SHOULD produce a set of pearls that will poke fun and/or ridicule at our Beloved Ruling (Cl)Asses, essentially the same effect my ranting would create in the audience…. Well, we’re hoping…. It’ll be fun, if nothing else….

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” — H. L. Mencken

“Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear — kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor — with the cry of grave national emergency… Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.” — General Douglas MacArthur, 1957

(Note: this seems to be a corollary, or, perhaps, a codicil, to the opinion of Hermann Goering, the WWII German Reich Marshall, who just “happened to be” the counterpart of General MacArthur, on the opposite side of the war….. However, the quote by General Mac shows how the theory was applied in our country, AFTER WWII, by our own elected officials, right here in the good old USA….. see below….)

“Naturally the common people don’t want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, IT IS THE LEADERS of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is TELL THEM THEY ARE BEING ATTACKED, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. IT WORKS THE SAME IN ANY COUNTRY.” –Goering at the Nuremberg Trials

hardcore signature virus: “As a juror in a Trial by Jury, you have the right, power and duty to acquit the defendant if you judge the law itself to be unjust.” — John McPherson, mcpherso@macvax.ucsd.edu

(Mr. McPherson is quoting, I believe, Alexander Hamilton, if not Thomas Jefferson….. Y’all know him, right?…. He was our first Treasury Secretary, the one our Founding Fathers trusted with the money?….) (This quote may not fit EXACTLY, but, I find it is always a good idea to remind people of this concept, as it is patently one of our most important rights as a citizen….. especially if we must consider our law MAKERS to be corrupt…. If you’ve been paying attention lately, you’ll know whereof I speak….)

“America!! I saw it all!! Vomiting! Waving! JERRY FALWELLING into your void tube of UHF oblivion!! SAFEWAY of the mind –” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Once is an accident, twice is coincidence, thrice is enemy action.” — Robert Hugh Moore (1912-1984), given as advice to his sons

Please note the name of the author of the last pearl…. It is the name of my father; his words are a piece of advice he gave me, and my brothers, on more than one occasion, before my tenth birthday…. I’ve included his words to me and my brothers (don’t know if he gave it to my sisters, but, it was part of OUR lessons from him, for sure….) because the words he gave us are the perfect ending to this indictment of the BRC.

Actually, in my mind, the last two pearls are perhaps the most powerful of the group, in terms of the proper viewpoint to maintain when thinking about our beloved leaders (yes, “beloved” is VERY sarcastic in this instance…. 5 points for Gryffindor….)

In fact, the whole pearl is one I would classify as a very powerful faux-rant, addressing how little we can afford to trust the elected officials in our government…. In fact, it cries out for one final pearl, to advise us exactly how closely we should be paying attention to what they are up to, especially since they claim to be doing it in our name, and for our benefit….

“This is a wise maxim, “to take warning from others of what may be to your own advantage.” — Terence (185-159 BC) — Heautontimoroumenos, Act i, Sc. 2, 36, (210.)
_____________________________

I was up a bit late this morning, but, since I slept for eight straight hours without any significant breaks to deal with pain, or cat, I don’t much care….. Plus, this is one Pearl I want to be RIGHT, so I’m taking some time to try to make it so…. Having done so as well as I can at this point in the day, I’m going to trust my instincts, and let if fly…. See you tomorrow, provided ennui doesn’t set in so badly I fade away….. I’ve managed to avoid it so far, so, I’ll be positive, & just say…. See ya…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

A Swift Kick In The Pants, Inc….

Posted on February 25, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Terrible things could happen now…. they could, you know. And, we’ll deserve every second we experience of mind-numbing, soul-chilling, petrifying terror, because, hey, we’re the ones who left the door wide open, inviting it to enter our domain, bringing with it our ultimate doom…. Yes, it’s our own damn fault, and we will know the truth of the matter, because we have been warned, having previously been given wisdom such as this….

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” — Albert Einstein

(A bit more powerful a message when combined with the graphic art, isn’t it?….)

This is not new wisdom, that we’ve never before seen or suspected; history has provided us with innumerable instances proving the truth of this particular aphorism….. Time after time throughout our relatively short span of existence on this world, we find nearly innumerable examples of men or women who had prior knowledge of an issue of questionable morality,, and, by their silence, for whatever reason, allowed it to take place, to the detriment of all….

It doesn’t make it right, knowing how common a problem it is, but, it is certainly not an uncommon issue for mankind…. Such issues are not, perhaps, of those we are given by Reality, our favorite gifts, …. In fact, many don’t look on this, or any knowledge, as gifts, and THAT is a big part of the entire problem….

Our problem, then, can be seen as a failure of spirit, that has to do with a basic virtue, one that has been claimed as the basis for all other virtues; without this characteristic, none of our finer qualities are ever seen in the light of day…. That pillar upon which all other virtue rests, then, is Courage…. Yes, plain and simple, courage….

I have found, in my fairly long life, that most of mankind are cowards…. Sad to say, but, true nonetheless, since all the evidence is clear…. I say this, as well, knowing I’m not an exception, though it IS something I’ve tried hard to mitigate, in order to feel I have the right to call myself honorable, and meet my own eyes each morning in the mirror…. Fear is a hard thing for most of us to admit, even though it isn’t considered abnormal; it’s strength, and the way it causes us to lose control frightens us…

However, that is also its saving grace, as the guilt one feels, for having given in to it, can, and does, stimulate us to greater effort, whereupon we can find that courage within ourselves, the next time we are in danger of giving in…. This is how almost everything we do, and have done, of an ethical nature, ever gets done…. because someone discovers they DO have the courage to act when there is danger, moral, ethical, or physical, threatening them, or threatening those for whom they care…..

That is what it takes, you see…. No virtuous act can ever take place, unless good people have the courage to act in the face of the Evil that exists, in spite of the fear they feel in the presence of that Evil. If they don’t summon, or find somewhere with themselves, the courage to act ethically, or morally, if that is needed, then Evil has free rein to let itself out to play in human affairs, to the detriment of us all….

Each of us has to find that courage within ourselves, the courage to put aside our fear, to carry on with what we know to be right, even though expediency and comfort are left behind in such cases…. Living with honor and integrity is never the easiest path we can take; it is always fraught with danger, because it doesn’t avoid evil, because it’s too hard, but, rather, confronts it, endeavoring to deal with it in a straightforward, upright fashion…. thus, preserving one’s own honor, when forced to have truck with what always leaves us feeling a bit dirty….

Now that we have wandered so far afield this morning, I’m not sure what will happen to this Pearl…. Minor ranting isn’t uncommon in the intro, but, I do try to limit it to no more than eight or ten paragraphs, so we don’t take forever to get into just the first section…. a resolution which, this morning, is NOT unfolding according to plan…. Allow me to sum up, and get on with it, if you will…

All of what I wrote above is true and complete, to the best of my knowledge, and constitutes a fairly accurate assessment of today’s situation here on planet Earth…. Evil is out there, and when we… that’s you, and me…. fail to stand up to it, look it in the eye, and tell it to “fuck off, you bloody sod!”, then it will continue to manifest its existence, causing untold pain and suffering for us all…. So, be brave, ffolkes, and don’t let Evil have its way without at least some token resistance, ‘kay?…. ‘Kay!…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Asked what he gained from philosophy, he answered, “To do without being commanded what others do from fear of the laws.”” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Aristotle, xi
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Today’s pearl is one that I’ve worked on ahead of time, so, the fact that I’m up later than usual, and got a slow start, won’t have much effect on when it gets posted today…. all in all, a good thing…. It DOES mean that I’m ahead of myself, and need to slow down a little, or I’ll be bumping into myself from behind…. which is not only hard on me, but isn’t so good for the space-time continuum…. I’ve seen some pretty bad cosmic aftershocks from that kind of metaphorical/metaphysical dust-up….

To counteract any possible chance of THAT taking place, (my insurance guy told me I can’t afford ANY more repair bills for space and time…. those metaphysical construction guys charge OUTRAGEOUS prices to fix things!….), this will be an old-school Pearl, attempting to balance out the mini-rant in the intro, and the religirant from the archives in section three…. So, here is a group of fine pearls, fresh and shiny…. just for y’all….

“Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions;… that laws were like cobwebs,–for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it were something weightier, it broke through them and was off.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Solon, x

(So much for the concept of legislating morality, eh?…. Remember, ffolkes, Solon was the first human to codify and bring order to the concept of the Law, so, he should know…. gigoid….)

“If you were going to shoot a mime, would you use a silencer?” — Steven Wright

(I wouldn’t…. I’d want everyone to know…. gigoid)

“Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.” — Vladimir Nabokov, quoted in “Time”, 1981

(“Me, too”… gigoid again…. I guess I’m commenting on these pearls…. 🙄 )

“A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.” — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

(Just as an exercise…. when was the last time you heard a modern politician use a historical basis for anything they are going to do? And, how many of them are aware they are repeating some of history’s most well-recorded cultural patterns with their own actions?…. I can answer both…. the correct number of those of our leaders who either pay attention to the forces and lessons of history, or have any idea of their own part in that, is ZERO…..)

“Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.” — George Bernard Shaw

(Good point….)

Enjoy the present hour,
Be thankful for the past,
And neither fear nor wish
Th’ approaches of the last.

— Abraham Cowley (1618-1667)

“It’s all in there, don’t y’know?…. All there inside us already…. Happiness, love, serenity, peace, courage, compassion, all are waiting for us to discover them, right there where they have always been, inside us, abiding until we find them again…..” ~~ gigoid the dubious

(This last pearl is one I wrote as the final line for a mild religirant back a couple of years ago…. It is my own first attempt at an aphorism, of any real success, which makes it worth mention…. to me, and, after all, it IS my blog…. gigoid, delving deeply into egoism….)
_____________________________

In cruising through the archives of past Pearls, I came across this poem, one of my own, (today only, I’ll say it…. “one of my own, of course”….) first posted in October of 2012…. It’s better than I remember it to be, which means I did something right…. It’s also got a lot of ME in it, if you know what I mean…. Enjoy….

Raging at Aging

As old as you feel, we are told, is old as you are,
custom assures such vision will carry us far.
Reality begs to differ, may it be so bold
it’s really quite painful, and very, very cold.

The power and strength we felt in our halcyon youth
desert us with age, yet another unwelcome truth.
Irony rules our time here on this bountiful earth
as we reflect the changes, over time since our birth.

As physical powers fade from this fragile shell,
we learn our mind can serve us, quite as well.
The strength that once filled our bones and hearts
is now applied by will, to more arcane arts.

Life’s greatest gift is our freedom of choice;
no matter how often we forget, we still get a voice.
Energy, or apathy, by our will we may choose,
failing to do so, our only way to lose.

Each of us lives in the grip of time and space,
always seeking our balance, our own chosen place.
One must accept reality, for, ’tis true at the core,
all we can do, is all we can do, and nothing more.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

As noted above, I was reading through some Pearls from a couple years ago, and came across some old rants I’ll be recycling, due to their continuing relevance, as well as because they’re good rants… This one is fairly mild, in all, but does hit the point to made squarely on the head…. Enjoy….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From 12/12/12:

“He who proselytizes in the cause of unbelief is basically a man in need of belief.” — Eric Hoffer

This is true…. you never see an atheist going door to door, trying to convert the pious to their unbelief. However, I would go further on this train of thought, and add that, “He who proselytizes, in any cause, in basically a man in need of a life.” I’m sure it occurred to Mr. Hoffer, but he was too busy trying to explain this statement to somebody who didn’t understand the word ‘proselytize’…..

For my own case, I have never, ever understood why people feel compelled to go door to door to try to get other people to believe what they believe; it’s one of the most persistent delusional systems I’ve ever witnessed, to believe that anyone wants to hear what they have to say, much less they will find their beliefs palatable to others, or find anyone who believes them to be superior to their own…..

“More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren’t so busy denying they made them.” — Smart Bee

Humans seem to have an immense blind spot when it comes to their own actions and beliefs. Most of them never seem to question the things they are told, even when those things are presented with no evidence other than faith. Of course, the people who are invested in the religious system, to wit: the preachers, begin their indoctrination when their constituents are very young, when they are still prone to accept whatever an adult says as truth.

This ensures a life-long predilection for being simple to control…. or, in short, mental slavery, if you will. Unless there is some sort of rebellion of spirit, where new knowledge is injected, these poor saps will spend their entire lives believing that what they have been told is real, when, in fact, they are fitting themselves with shackles, that will forever imprison their minds, and their imagination…..

“To defend one’s self against fear is simply to insure that one will, one day, be conquered by it; fears must be faced.” — James Baldwin

In my life-long quest for the truth, I’ve come to believe that religions, while originally intended to benefit people, (by their iconic progenitors, anyway…. I’m sure Jesus was a quite nice man, and wanted the best for those to whom he preached his own philosophy of compassion….), have historically been taken over by the predators who live to control others.

To be fair, some of those who become priests, or any of the other varieties of religious fanatic that prevail in our society, may indeed believe that their beliefs are true, and act accordingly, but the majority are, as far as I can tell, only concerned with maintaining status quo, thereby benefiting themselves, while never actually allowing any REAL progress in the development of the human condition. They would have society behave as if we were still living in caves, in essence, still cowering in our meager shelter while the storms and lightning are raging outside, terrified of the power of what we do not understand, and, therefore, allow ourselves to fear….

“A universe of death, which God by curse
Created evil, for evil only good;
Where all life dies, death lives,
and Nature breeds Perverse,
all monstrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, unutterable and worse
Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived,
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.”

— Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II

(Side note: I’ll bet Milton had a hard time sleeping….)

The Universe is a big place, and there is a lot to learn. Fearing that knowledge, or fearing what changes that knowing will always bring, is the act of a coward, to my mind, and should not be encouraged. Supernatural beings of unlimited power are not a required component to the understanding of Nature and the Universe; we need not fear that our lack of knowledge of how things work is unattainable. Just because we do not understand a part of reality does not mean that whatever it is, is beyond our understanding.

It is not necessary to ask for exemptions, or intervention by our own personal gods, for us to achieve happiness, or even contentment; that is completely within our own power, if we but acknowledge that part of us that is free, and connected to everything else we can perceive. The connections may not be fully understood, but they are there, and if we can only learn to recognize it, the power to change reality lies within us, all the time…. As Epictetus said, “Happiness lies in learning to accept a simple truth. There are some things you can change. And there are some things you cannot.” It’s really quite that easy, you know, once one learns to accept this fact of life…. No dogma required…..

“If brains were outlawed, nothing would change.” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

As things turned out, this may be one of my best all-around efforts to date…. Balanced, but with enough lightness of spirit to keep it afloat, I think… Whatever the reason, I’m happy with it, and it’s done, so, hey, we know what that means, don’t we? Yep…. See ya, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Freeze-dried chipmunks? No,thanks, we prefer ferrets….

Posted on February 22, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“For a true master,
Sitting on a throne
Is no different than
Sitting on dirt.”

— Deng Ming-Dao

This is what I would consider a perfect pearl…. Short, sweet, to the point, and deep as Rush Limbaugh’s bigotry…. which is mighty deep, as he demonstrates so well on a daily basis…. I like it especially because it expresses a point of virtue, one that most people don’t want to have to accept…. It sometimes amazes me how people can lose touch with the more basic parts of life, such as, well, dirt….

It cracks me up to see young mothers panicking when their kids get dirty, even though I shouldn’t laugh at such ignorance, but should rather try to educate…. I suppose the whole idea of dirt being bad for us is another example of how just a little bit of knowledge can get one in trouble, if the individual hasn’t learned yet to try to learn anything BEYOND what they are initially told by someone in authority…. This whole believing authority business, as you can see, has its own drawbacks, as those who are in the habit of accepting what a TV pundit says unequivocally may often find themselves dealing with a LACK of sufficient knowledge to deal with whatever the problem may be.

So, these young mothers hear one phrase, “dirt has germs”, and without any further information, make their decisions based on this incomplete picture, which doesn’t tell even HALF the story of germs, and how they can affect us…. In fact, just hearing that much gives a FALSE picture, as the truth of the matter is that the more we expose our children to the dirt on this planet, the better off they are, as they will develop the proper defenses against the germs that ARE present, by exposure to them….. If the body isn’t exposed to the germs, it doesn’t learn how to fight it off….

I had a bad case of the flu at a young age (10), which, miserable as it kept me for a week, taught my immune system how to fight those particular kinds of bacteria very well…. Well enough that I haven’t had a single case of the flu since, no matter how virulent the current year’s mutation has been…. my body has the proper defenses to keep it at bay….

Now that we have wandered so far afield right out of the gate, I’d best try to bring this back around to some point we can dive from…. I’m not sure just how I got off on that tangent…. I hadn’t really intended to start writing about immune systems first thing…. I guess the quote from Deng Ming Dao got me thinking…. See? I told you it was a perfect pearl…. I think maybe we should find some more, and see what they can do for us, in the way of illumination, elucidation, and edification of our spirits….

Shall we Pearl?…..

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,–
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle ii, Line 13
_____________________________

“Alienation without must be accompanied by alienation within; that is the law for every social level, even individuals. To harm one’s fellows, even one’s enemies, harms you, takes away some essential element from your self-respect and self-image.” — Greg Bear

“In keeping with my non-Aristotelian or relativist-Existentialist bias, I do not classify ideas as simply “true” or “false.” I prefer to assign them probabilities, on a scale from 0 (the Aristotelian “false”) to 10 (the Aristotelian “true”). A rating of 5 means that I am still sitting geometrically on the middle of the fence, above 5 means that I presently lean somewhat toward belief and below 5 means that today I lean somewhat toward finding no value in this gloss at all (for me). I admit cheerfully that I am such an advanced case of Aggravated Agnosticism that whenever I do move something into 0 or 10, I get nervous, wonder if I am becoming as simple-minded as the Pope or Dr. Carl Sagan and start looking for evidence to move that meme toward 1 or 9. — Robert Anton Wilson, in the Introduction to his play “Wilhelm Reich in Hell”

Of late, I’ve been wondering why I rant so much about the world’s problems, or, as Jimmy Buffet expressed it so eloquently, why have I spent so much of my life, “looking for answers, to questions, that bothered him so….”? (from his song, “A Pirate Looks at Forty”….) Back a couple of years ago, about half-a-year after starting this blog, I guess I had been thinking along the same lines, as I wrote the following little piece, for a Pearl in the Five-Star Format that I was using at the time, with five shorter but more pungent and wide ranging sections to each daily Pearl, each section based on its own pearl.

This post, providentially found by the WP related-post bot, provides me with a ready reference list for any of the subjects that need to be addressed in today’s world, if we are ever to grow up and reach our maturity as a species…. It’ll be handy, just in case I’m having trouble, in the mornings, coming up with something toward which I can turn the poison in my pen….

At this point in time, two years in the future, I can see that, not only have we made very little progress at resolving any of the listed issues, there are several that could be added to the list that have surfaced in the intervening years. Since doing so will depress me, I’m not even going to think about the additions, until AFTER reading the list as it is…. At the other end, I’ll add some issues that I have seen come up in the period since this was posted…..

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

From April 2, 2012, on the very day the world’s most famous author of unknown works, Anonymous, assumed the new user name of Smart Bee….. Well, that’s what we call him/her on this blog…. :

“Conscious is when you are aware of something and conscience is when you wish you weren’t.” — Smart Bee (Anonymous, by any other name, smells as sweet…)

Insane politicians (is there another kind?). Human trafficking. Racism. Bigotry. Child abuse. Spousal abuse. Slavery. Crack cocaine, heroin, morphine, or other drug abuse. War on crime. War on women. Televangelists. Fundamentalist zealots. National Security Agency. FBI. CIA. Untold trillions of dollars of national debt. Genetically modified food. Military Industrial Complex. The 1%/99% Society. Taxes. Global warming. Air pollution. The oceans are dying. Terrorism. Nuclear accidents. Massive global weather changes. Ozone depletion. Overpopulation. AIDS. Mutating viruses. The Bohemian Club. Reaganomics. Nationalism. Elitism. Illuminati Conspiracy. Women’s reproductive rights. Bill of Rights (or rather, loss of same). War on the US Constitution. Rampant ignorance. Lawyers. Priests. Rabbis. Imams. Puppy mills. Wall Street. Corporate personhood. The IRS. Insane politicians. (Did I say that already? Well, it deserves mentioning twice….) Rising incidence of halitosis.

Except for the last, which is more of a personal foible, I’d say that’s a fairly extensive, and mostly complete, list of stuff I am aware of that I wish I weren’t….. all right off the top of my head, no research. It certainly keeps my sense of outrage in good shape….. which is why we all need to practice the following sentiment at every opportunity…. otherwise, we are all going to be up Shit Creek without a paddle, proverbial or otherwise…..

“Speak out. You’ve got to speak out against the madness.” — Steven Stills

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

Back in the Future: 2/22/14

Here are some additions to the list, also taken off the top of my head…. which, to me, is possibly the most depressing part of this pearl, to know that I am so tuned in to what is wrong in the world, and that there is just so FUCKING MUCH of it I see that is, simply, Evil, and even more sadly, Useless….. Some of these are repeats, as the issues haven’t been resolved, or seen any progress toward resolution….

More NSA. Edward Snowden. Gun control madness on both sides of the question. Corporate shenanigans of every ilk. Bank convictions, for crimes against customers, for which minuscule fines are paid, and nobody goes to jail. Sexual slavery/Abuse of Women (continued….). Abuse of Children. Abuse of Animals. Abuse of the Disabled. Abuse of Humanity. Human rights violations. Pedophiliac priests, enabled by pedophiliac bishops and cardinals. Mass extinction of animal, insect, and plant species due to pollution by Man. Religious fanatics using government positions to further insane fundamentalist agendas…. Signs of societal breakdown as seen in epidemics of bullying, flash mobs, new, increasingly bizarre psychiatric disorders, loss of manners, loss of any sense of honor, divorce rates, increases in prison populations, and numerous other obvious signs of a distressed, decayed culture….

I could sit here for hours, and never stop coming up with more stuff that adds to the evidence of such a complete lack of morality and organization, all of it merely more evidence that we are virtually guaranteed to see the eventual complete breakdown of society, and the impending extinction of our species, along with many others, from the increasingly irreversible toxic effects of global warming, and over-population…. all off the top of my head….

Goodness only knows what could happen if I tried to codify this evidence, using researched statistics and scientific study results…. Maybe, if the list got long enough, and scary enough, someone would listen….. I kind of doubt it, though….. According to all the overt indications, and, all the covert, ‘between-the-lines’ evidence that exists, for those with the wit to perceive it, well…. it all says that nobody has heard any of this yet, and nobody is at all likely to hear what I’m trying to say in the future…. because, nobody WANTS to accept what is right in front of their faces….

That happens a lot with the Truth…. ever notice?…..

“We believe that an informed citizenry will act for life and not for death.” — Albert Einstein on atomic energy, Jan. 22, 1947

If Albert could be so wrong, what hope is there for the rest of us?….

FOOL, n. A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity. He is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscient, omnipotent. He it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude and the circle of the sciences. He created patriotism and taught the nations war — founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine and Chicago. He established monarchical and republican government. He is from everlasting to everlasting — such as creation’s dawn beheld he fooleth now. In the morning of time he sang upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existence headed the procession of being. His grandmotherly hand was warmly tucked-in the set sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares Man’s evening meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal grave. And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of human civilization. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”
_____________________________

I suppose one of the reasons I continue to rant, in spite of how obviously my heavy-handed approach is driving readers away, is that I am a sucker, a patsy, when it comes to people…. I AM one, and, I can’t help but love them, and feel badly that there is so much pain and misery in our world, all caused by such a small percentage of assholes, who seem to not care at all about other people….

Often, I fantasize, dreaming of how I would like to treat some of the corporate sharks, misogynist politicians, peodphiliac priests, or overly-entitled myrmidons, if I had them in a position where I could “educate” them a bit…. Sadly, my fantasies probably resemble the torture they put us through, as I tend to be a bit vengeful when I think about the lack of compassion, or connection to other humans, these asininnies show every day.

Since it would be unethical to treat them as they treat others, (I have NO wish to resemble them in ANY way….), I find myself at an impasse, with frustration mounting as I observe the world at the mercy of these assholes…. Since I have, thus far, refused to buy a gun, lest I give in to the temptation to use it, I turn to poetry, to try to find a moment of peace among all the reasons to feel anxious about the future…. On a good day, like today, I’ll find something like this…..

No Man Is An Island

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

~~ John Donne ~~

_____________________________

Having thus completed the obligatory rant, and poem, we will now turn to the old-school for our final section today, as is our habit…. Smart Bee has been a bit unpredictable this morning, with a lot of dross thrown out along with the good stuff…. But, I trust it to use its own good judgment, so I’ll let it set its own parameters today, and trust it will find some pearls of good luster for us to consider….

Ah, wait a second…. You there, in the floral print shorts…. your mask is cracked; you’ll need to replace it from the spares before you jump in…. Don’t want to have that go out on you at a depth of 30 feet, do we?…. No, we don’t…. Got it? Everybody got their knives, for any stray barracuda that show up? Okay, let’s go for a dive, ffolkes, and find some oysters….

“As good almost kill a man as kill a good book: who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself.” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Areopagitica

“The world is full of fools, and he who would not see it should live alone and smash his mirror.” — Claude le Petite

“Men know that if a woman had to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she would probably save the infant’s life, without even considering whether there were men on base.” — Dave Barry

SATIRE, n. An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author’s enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness. In this country satire never had more than a sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein we are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like all humor, being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover, although Americans are “endowed by their Creator” with abundant vice and folly, it is not generally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the satirist is popularly regarded as a soul-spirited knave, and his ever victim’s outcry for co-defendants evokes a national assent.

Hail Satire! be thy praises ever sung
In the dead language of a mummy’s tongue,
For thou thyself art dead, and damned as well —
Thy spirit (usefully employed) in Hell.
Had it been such as consecrates the Bible
Thou hadst not perished by the law of libel.
Barney Stims

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.” — H. L. Mencken

“Life is not the way it is supposed to be. It is the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.” — Virginia Satir

Sometimes, SB outdoes itself, and this is one of those times…. A brilliant pearl, almost a necklace, it’s so well constructed…. If I were you, ffolkes, I’d spend a bit of time, if necessary, in decoding the message this pearl delivers…. Not only will it be on the Quiz when it is given, you will find yourself enjoying the process of finding the encryption algorithm…..
_____________________________

Perhaps it is because I wrote this, but, I like it…. That being the case, I’m going to go with my instincts, and let this go out as it is, and not fret over any possible consequences…. It’s a bit like life, in that metaphorical sense…. which is, after all, what we do here, play with our metaphorical senses…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes, if they give me another chance….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Crash test dummies don’t do it….

Posted on February 2, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I stood
Among them, but not of them; in a shroud
Of thoughts which were not their thoughts.

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto iii, Stanza 113

This excerpt is one I’ve used previously, in a Pearl from long ago… Other than not knowing the title of that particular Pearl, or what was in the pearl in which this was used, I remember it very well, in that, the verse held the same meaning for me then, as it does now. In essence, this expresses how I feel a lot of the time, when I consider myself in relation to my fellow man….

Often, I feel as if I am seeing something in the what the world presents for our perception that they don’t, that I am perceiving more details than most people….These perceptions, because they are different, and more extensive in many cases, cause me to entertain thoughts and ideas that always seem to shock or surprise others, because of their dubiously exotic, yet obviously valid nature, which is, all to often, in direct contrast to their own perceptions and thoughts.

The most common reaction I get from folks when I offer an insight into an issue out in the BBR somewhere (in line in a store, in a restaurant, etc….) is a puzzled expression, and/or a question about either “why” or “how” I came to the conclusions I’ve offered…. In many cases, I’ve learned to just stay out of situations where I could possibly help, because people get upset when it is offered; I guess they think that accepting the offer of help is tantamount to giving up, or seeming incompetent, so they get all grumpy and sober, insisting on fixing whatever the problems without assistance.

This little behavioral fillip is one that most humans have, to one degree or another, when their own mental acuity is put into question, either by circumstance, by someone’s tactlessness or cruelty, or by the bozoid nature of their own efforts….

Me, I just keep tumbling along the road to freedom, wherever it may lead me, keeping my thoughts mostly to myself, as I’ve found the public doesn’t want to hear it, unless you’re wearing a power suit, a red tie, (with stripes is good…. blue, if you can get ’em….), and a flag pin, while talking on TV…. Now, dress up like that, get on TV, speak nicely to them in small words, and they’ll believe just about anything they’re told….

Tell them face to face, in words of more than two syllables, and they will slam shut the doors to their minds like the closing of a bank vault; at that point there is no reason, and no rhyme, they will ever allow in…. Change can be scary, you know; people are well aware that when they allow themselves to learn something, something always changes on them…. and they don’t like it….

Perhaps this is why I find this blogging experience to be cathartic…. It allows me to say what I have to say, that would otherwise sit inside me and cause trouble, without it getting to the point of being burdensome, while at the same time, offering to the world some of the diligently imprudent, yet occasionally wise thoughts that have passed through my head over the years…..

Some of it is pretty good stuff, very helpful in living a life well lived… Other parts of it may not be quite as useful, or particularly attractive to those who don’t enjoy using their minds for anything other than finding food and companionship, but, hopefully, what I create will entertain and/or amuse y’all as much to read as it does me to share….

And, if not, well, there’s always the pearls to get you through the day…. They’re pretty infallible in their wisdom, you see, having been around long enough to have withstood the test of time, having long since proved their worth, as good advice, or solid logic…. or, merely as beautiful…. Whichever it may be, these pearls, and the Pearls that they form, will be here long after I am, and I hope they give someone pleasure to read, as they do me to write…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“All I kin say is when you finds yo’self wanderin’ in a peach orchard, ya don’t go lookin’ for rutabagas. — Kingfish
_____________________________

A year ago, in January of 2013, my life was much different, in several ways, too numerous to mention now, obviously, or we’d never get anywhere…. However, if we use the following old pearl from a Pearl I posted early in that month as an indicator, one can see my thoughts haven’t traveled far in a different direction at all…. This sortofarant is one I wrote the second day of the month…. I was pleased with it back then, and am even more so now, for it saves me a shitload of work this morning, and my back, in its current state, thanks me…. I hope you enjoy it, too….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From 1/2/2013:

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

One can always trust Oscar Wilde to display both elegant wit and intelligent insight, though, to be sure, many of his most closely held views were somewhat divergent with what was commonly held to be true, philosophically, by many in the mainstream of society. This divergence was, I believe, mostly deliberate on his part, as he tended to mock that which he did not respect, and he never had much respect for…. well, anything to do with human nature vs. reason and rationality. He mistrusted most people to act morally, and was unafraid to say so; this, of course, made him both famous, and infamous….. His infamy, I’m sure, ultimately was his undoing, much to society’s loss; as is said so often about our brightest minds, “only the good die young….”

I often wonder, (well, maybe not so often, so much as I’m wondering now…) what the world today would be like, if somehow, some of those bright stars in history had lived to an age where their accomplishments, in relation to the advancement of human thought, and the betterment of the human condition, had a broader, and more lasting effect than their absence has left us.

What if Keats had written poetry until he was 85? How many more inventions would have come to us from Nicolas Tesla, had he lived long enough for the rest of the scientific world to catch up to him, instead of hounding him to an early grave? How much more good music, and art, and literature would be available to all of us, if not for this tendency for the best of us to live as a burning meteor, flaming brightly through the sky, until burned out and lifeless?

It is a sad commentary for society to know that it is often the very brilliance of these people that brings about their downfall, at the hands of the ignorant, and the avaricious…. What is even sadder, to me, is that this demonstrates another part of human nature that is responsible for almost every painful issue in human history, and current society, the issues that cause people to suffer pain, oppression, perpetual struggle, and will most certainly ultimately lead to the extinction of our species, on this planet, at minimum….. I’m pretty sure we don’t have time to mount any significant exodus to another planet, to save at least some of the species, before our own stupidity catches up to us, in a fatal sense….

That piece of our nature is the unfortunate characteristic, in a number of humans, to be able to put aside all conscience, to act solely in their own self interest. All of us, of course, possess this quality to some degree; it is an outgrowth of having a will to survive. To these few others, it is their primary modus operandi; they simply do not take other people, or their concerns, into account when deciding what they are going to do, and are not hampered by the consideration of any suffering they may cause other people, animals, or things.

(Note from 2014: In fairness, let’s add those criminals in the world who prey on the weak and poor, like the mafia, the drug cartels, etc…. We’ll include anyone who involves themselves in prostitution or the sex trade in any way, or otherwise abuses women and/or children out of their own misogyny and greed…. A lot of the poor, who are resentful at the treatment at the hands of those in the same category, who disguise their evil behind the public face of politics or religion, become of the same nature, losing the connection to their own humanity, using violence, and physical power over others to survive in the world created by the corporate masters, and their dupes and myrmidons, in the established powers that be….)

Anyone who disagrees with this assessment, quite simply, isn’t paying enough attention to the world around them….. Sorry to be so blunt, but the facts are all laid out, right there, almost every day in the news media, if one knows how to look at the larger picture it presents, rather than the individual facets of that picture. Focusing on the little shit is just what those in power wish for people to do…. It keeps them busy not noticing other, more incriminating stuff they are carrying out, in the darkness where they mostly live….

And, if it doesn’t work, well, we can always try a technocracy, which we have yet to do in history….. With a bit of foresight and planning, it might just be what we need to survive our own foolishness… Maybe, Richard Brautigan had the truest prophetic vision, when he wrote “All watched over, by machines of loving grace….”

“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.” — Pablo Picasso

History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.

— Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning”
_____________________________

Again, to maintain integrity, rather than shuffle off any of the blame for today on anyone else, here’s another of my old poems, one that talks about the chronic pain, and the emotional lability that PTSD brings, that I live with…. a poem which, in its own sardonic way, expresses the joy those bring….. NOT… I’m pretty sure I wrote this when I’d forgotten to take any meds for too long, and was feeling the result of that….Or, it could have been a day when the meds weren’t working very well, or the pain was too much for it…. Either way, it’s real….. or, rather, it was real when written, a reality that remains, as it always will, a threatening potentiality….

Pieces of broken spirit….

Deep within the inner abyss, tears lay in wait
Ever on the verge, tending to infuriate.
Real moments of sadness cracking our need
Swift, deadly waves of appalling terror freed.

Memory hurts badly when visiting now
Leaving me alone, forgetting even how
Killing the sunshine still pouring over all
Darkening all spirit, holding it in thrall.

Knowing no blame seems almost to heal
Yet healing is blunted, plainly not real.
Innocence is pointless compared with pain
On the soul it tattoos an indelible stain.

Hours become days, days turn to a year
Serving up only a compendium of fear.
Blind groping for light finds only dark
In caverns of terror, angry and stark.

Trails of endless sorrow fill up the nights
Confounded at last by unfathomable sights.
No hope can find its way to the fore
Never to sail safely, lost forever more.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

For some unknown reason, today, my mind keeps finding reasons NOT to compose…. I suppose it might have something to do with the fact it’s Sunday…. Nah, that doesn’t make sense, as I often don’t know what day it is until after noon, when I look at my calendar, or happen to notice when I look at my phone…. Ah, I know, more coffee…. Hold on….

Okay, well, better, but still no burst of creative urges billowing up from my subconscious mind…. I guess we’ll have to settle here for an old-school pearl, or we’ll never get done…. (You KNEW that was coming, didn’t you?….) Let’s see what Smart Bee has for us today, shall we?…. Hey, cut the complaints! It’s this, or you’ll be sitting through a half-baked, ill-considered, badly written rant, to no particular purpose, which I will make sure to take AT LEAST two more hours to write…. So, settle down, or I won’t distribute the Valium until we’re in the air…

“It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs.” — Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) — Natural History, Book ii, Sect. 20

“I don’t pretend to understand the universe–it’s much bigger than I am.” — Einstein

“If Shaw and Einstein couldn’t beat death, what chance have I got? Practically none.” — Mel Brooks

“Nobody ever complains that you are treating them like a child when you listen to their stories, encourage their dreams, and tell them how special they are.” — Callan Williams

“To certain individuals of small minds and overweening ambition, there is no greater insult than to be proved wrong.” — Thomas H Dyer 1984

“The most virtuous of all men is he that contents himself with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.” — Plato (B.C. 427?-347?)

And taste
The melancholy joy of evils past:
For he who much has suffer’d, much will know.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book xv, Line 434

Well, who knew? A comment on Life at Large, its ever-present counterpart, Death, and, how to cope with both… Not bad for off the cuff…
_____________________________

In spite of factors that have precluded much fresh material today, I think this is probably done, anyway. Oh, right, we’re here at the ass-end of section three, so it HAS to be done…. because I’m not going back to do it over now…. With that little piece of deliberately factoidal wordplay as my excuse, I’ll just slip out this door over here… See ya…..

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

Ned Moore, aka gigoid, is a 70 year-old, (!!!… When did that happen?….), retired dilettante, who would rather read than eat, most days. His first blog, "gigoid’s folly", has been emailed out to folks he knows for about 18 years now. He still considers it his best defense against angst, and the ever-present specter of sheer insanity..... Due to rigorous curmudgeon training requirements, he has discontinued his Facebook presence, but still indulges in the occasional Twitter session... In essence, he's socialized, but, not overly sociable; all labels and stereotypes are forbidden in his presence... and he doesn't care what anyone thinks about that..... In fact, he doesn't want to talk anymore.... If you feel you MUST contact gigoid, his email address is: alphagigoid@gmail.com You can go read now.... Go on, beat it.... gigoid, the dubious

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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: John Milton

Offer them a pastille, and be done with it….

Kindly confine the excess salivation to the spittoon…..

Ulysses wasn’t all that brave….

These weren’t buffed OR polished!…..

Even duct tape won’t help now….

A pleasing sound of running water….

1000? 1000? You let him get to 1000? Oh, DAMN!….

A Swift Kick In The Pants, Inc….

Freeze-dried chipmunks? No,thanks, we prefer ferrets….

Crash test dummies don’t do it….

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