Tag Archives: Lazarus Long

Trial by margarine….

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Ffolkes,
Not wobbling is harder than it seems it would be; it takes a lot of concentration. And Murphy is certainly no help. My primary regret is that Life doesn’t come with a handy User’s Manual. It seems to me that something important like this would come with a few instructions, but nooooo, you have to guess. How to tie a shoe? Figure it out. How to eat? If you’re hungry, you’ll eat; but be careful not to eat the wrong stuff. You have to already know the wrong stuff. Get married? Good luck, because you are on your own. Raise kids? Actually, there are a lot of books on this, but each one advises different techniques, and they’re all useless. Even if you choose the right one, there’s still no guarantee that your kids won’t end up with their picture on the post office wall.
We don’t get a manual, and we sure could use one. If we had one, everyone could be given their manual on the first day of school, and we could all learn something more useful than Dick’s inane conversations with Jane. Of course, even if we had a manual, many folks would just ignore it, or use it to gain some kind of advantage over others. That’s the part that even the manuals don’t understand or explain; human nature defies classification. No matter how good a system is, no matter how high the ideals striven for, no matter how noble are some people, there will always be someone who perverts and twists things to suit their own purposes. There is always some idiot who believes they are ‘mo bettah’ than other folks, and who will try to arrange matters so they have power. This is why we have global warming, and impending financial ruin, and constant wars. As long as there are people who desire power, we will continue to have these issues, and we will most certainly join the dodo, the brontosaurus, and every other species that has become extinct. The difference between all of them and us is that we will become extinct by our own hands. There, now don’t you feel better?….

“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” — Agatha Christie

“I am ignorant of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance, and therein lies my honor and my reward.” — Kahlil Gibran

There is no ornament like virtue,
There is no misery like worry,
There is no protection like patience,
There is no friend equal to generosity.
— Nagarjuna (c. 100-200 A.D.)

“Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” — Dalai Lama

If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m a little worried about the future….I sure hope there is one…….y’all take care out there….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,

and sometimes

I just sits.

gigoid

Dozer at play..

Kowabunga!

Walking in Jezebel’s gardens….

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Ffolkes,


Picking out today’s Pearls turned out to be a marathon. Just couldn’t find the right stuff to lead off a lazy Saturday. So, we’ll have to wing it…. Hmmm…..nothing is rising to the surface. Even stirring the contents briskly has nothing sticking to the spoon. I suppose we could take a few moments here for an advertisement disclaimer, but, it being Saturday, I don’t much feel like diving back in to the oyster beds to find where I left it. I could go nonsensical; that’s always fun. But Lewis Carroll did that already, and I don’t much feel like trying to out-Jabberwock a dead author. I suppose I should find a newsworthy event to share, or comment on the current political scene, but I also don’t feel like putting on the necessary high-top boots for wading around in that filthy pool. It stinks, also, and I’m out of nasal plugs. Well, this means we will be going to last resort tactics, and saying just this; today’s Pearls are being brought to you by your generous donations, and by a grant from the Idiosyncratic Corporation, makers of fine eccentric philosophies, which come complete with a full line of optional accessories……

I stared into the abyss. The abyss stared into me. Neither of us liked what we saw.

“Adulthood, one could say, is when it begins to occur to you that you may not be leading a charmed life.” — Adam Phillips

And Katerfelto, with his hair on end
At his own wonders, wondering for his bread.
‘T is pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat,
To peep at such a world,–to see the stir
Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd.

~~ William Cowper ~~

~~ The Task, Book iv, The Winter Evening, Line 86 ~~

“Beware the man of one book.” — St. Thomas Aquinas

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

WARNING:  The Meaning Of Life Is Subject To Change Without Notice.

Whoa, there big fella! Whew! Almost couldn’t get it to stop…..’tis a fine day for nonsense, don’t you think? Have fun with it, and y’all take care out there….

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

Pockets full of mint jelly….

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Ffolkes,
The young man’s adventure will have percolate for awhile; my creative juices are a bit dried up just now…. I once read an article that discussed the effects of stress, and how certain seminal events can put one’s level of stress through the roof. Events that were named in this category included major job stress (nasty boss, gossipy co-workers, not having a job, getting fired, etc.), death of a relative or close friend, divorce or other relationship stresses, moving, economic stress (poverty, etc.), medical issues (cancer, etc.), and a couple others I don’t recall. The author assigned a numerical value to each type of event, and a high score in a short period of time was, he contended, a short road to depression, or other mental disorder if not recognized and treated. It was a well-thought-out premise, with plenty of statistical support for his argument. I can only say that I found it convincing, but not totally accurate in its predictive function, i.e., he really had no idea what the stress did to people in a realistic sense, and seemed to not really have a feel for how much people can really take before they break. Nonetheless, it was a good yardstick to determine how much stress one has in one’s own life.


So, I went ahead and marked down how many of the events mentioned I had experienced in the last year. It turns out that I have had EVERY ONE of the above listed events to deal with in the last year. I got forced out of my job, and make half of what I made while at work. At the same time as that was happening, the woman I had loved and lived with for 10 years decided she no longer wanted me around. For six months I fought with the State bureaucracy over my retirement. Then, just as my income dropped by 50%, my Mom got sick, and I spent 6 weeks performing 24 hour nursing care, and spent my entire savings to purchase the materials needed. I missed going on a cruise I’d looked forward to for months in order to nurse her. Then she left, and I was left to deal with my geriatric dog, and barely enough money to eat with for the next few months. Then my dog died. My Mom had a stroke, and went into the hospital and died there without ever really waking up. This whole time, my own medical issues continue to dog me, sucking out my energy, and alternating bouts of severe pain in my back with bowel problems that leave me feeling like I am wading through molasses.


Now let’s be clear here….I’m not laying this out to garner sympathy; I know there are many people out there suffering the same kinds of issues every day, and there are still others who are worse off than I am (like having all this to deal with, and NO retirement check to count on coming in every month. Small as it is, my check is more than a lot of folks in this country have, thanks to our beloved ruling class). What I am going through is, of course, a result of my own karmic burden, and there is scant blame that can be placed elsewhere than right here inside my own head. But, as I read the news each day, I am struck again and again with how badly our society here in America has fallen into disarray. The absolutely outrageous crap being spouted of late by the Republicans who wanna be Prez has been not merely ignorant, but actively stupid. I shudder to think about how things will go if any one of them manages to pull the wool over enough eyes to get elected. I am of the firm opinion that anyone who wants the job of President of this country is literally insane. Not figuratively, literally. The desire for that much power is insane, period, and anyone who wants it should never, ever be elected. Mean-spirited, spiteful, and deliberately ignorant, the zealots of the world have grown to such numbers that reason, truth and compassion are being buried under cries of hatred and fear.


Today’s Pearls each contain a piece of wisdom about society, at least if examined from around a corner. But each one of them is something I believe firmly, and will, I hope, help to understand and deal with the insanity currently serving in place of society…..enjoy!….

“No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.” — Aristotle

“Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.” — Oscar Wilde

“History has the relation to truth that theology has to religion — i.e., none to speak of.” — Lazarus Long

“But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who
professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and
State.” — Thomas Jefferson, [letter?] To S. Kercheval, 1810

Existing order thrives upon ignorance and lies.
Objective truth and individual reason are feared above all.

“Humanity has in the course of time had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon its naive self-love.  The first was when it realized that our earth was not the center of the universe, but only a speck in a world-system of a magnitude hardly conceivable…  The second was when biological research robbed man of his particular privilege of having been specially created, and relegated him to a descent from the animal world.” — Sigmund Freud

I find your faith in reality rather amusing.

Actually, I had trouble limiting myself to only seven today; history has a lot of examples of men and women who observed the world through clear eyes, and all of them were distrustful of zealotry, with good cause….I could go on in this vein for a long time, but y’all probably have stuff to do, so I’ll leave this here….wherever here is…….y’all take care out there, and beware the ignorant and zealous….

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Ghostly music played well….

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Ffolkes,
For a good bit more than ten years I have composed these pearls each morning, and can say without a doubt that there is nothing easy about it. It is at once fulfilling and frustrating, and always leaves me feeling somewhat ambivalent, right along with the sense of satisfaction. As I’ve stated here and elsewhere, this process is for me, a defense against the buildup of mental plaque, and is as necessary as breathing. But there is also the struggle each day to come up with something fresh and original; I find myself all-too-often just sitting, staring at the screen, frantically searching my entire conscious mind for inspiration, without notable success. Today is one of those days, and as is obvious by now, I have resorted to an old trick by just talking about the process, trying to make some sense of the morning, filling in space with a close examination of the obvious. I won’t subject y’all to much more of this; I’ve managed to pump out a couple hundred words without really saying much. Fortunately for all of us, the pearls I’ve chosen for today are strong enough to make up for any lack in the prefacing remarks, as you will see for yourselves. I promise, tomorrow I will have something a bit more nutritious to offer….just enjoy your coffee, and all will be well…..

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell the truth.” — Oscar Wilde

“One who is to enjoy the purity of both body and mind walks the path to enlightenment, breaking the net of selfish, impure thoughts and evil desires. He who is calm in mind acquires peacefulness and thus is able to cultivate his mind day and night with more diligence.” — Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

“In handling a stinging insect, move very slowly.” — Lazarus Long

I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?
Toil on, poor heart, unceasingly;
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A truth and noonday light to thee.
— Ellen Sturgis Hooper (1816-1841)
— Life a Duty

” Noise proves nothing.  Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the  experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” — Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

There you go….another fine group, and well worth what you’re paying for them. In the interest of time-management, I will end this now, before any further damage can be done….y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Just Dozer

Kowabunga!