A regimen of exfoliation is hardly a cure….

Posted on July 10, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Dying is a wild night and a new road.”

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

Mankind’s Salvation: artist’s rendition of asteroid mining ship

Image from Space.com

Good morning…. Chuft-meister Schulz informs me the troops have gathered for morning reveille, so we’ll have to make this quick. Today’s Pearl is brought to you by the delightfully delirious depths of human insanity, and, by a grant from a large, soulless corporation, who really couldn’t give a shit about you, but, wants you to think they care. Any resemblance to real events is purely intentional. Of absolutely primary importance, no refunds will be issued in the case of fire, earthquake, or personal whimsy.

Since there is now no hope of any sort of coherence, or any assurances of freedom from prosecution for the events which may or may not transpire, we’d best get this slow on the road….

Shall we Pearl?….

“A friend is one who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.” — Bernard Meltzer

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Image from tmdb.com via Google Images

Okay, so…. Today’s video selection is a tongue-firmly-in-cheek selection, to add to the list of weirdness pursued at various times here on ECR…. To go along with the German version of the movie’s title poster I found to use as the art work, we have for your viewing pleasure, perhaps, the world’s worst actor in a title roll, an Italian body-builder from the Bronx, with the century’s worst perm, playing the svelte Sinbad… I swear, ffolkes, it’s really, really bad…. So bad, I had to pause the film, & stop watching the first time Lou came on screen, as I was busy trying not to shoot coffee out my nose from laughing so hard!…. Enjoy!….

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Sinbad of The Seven Seas

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https://youtu.be/37aE8QbWyVo

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Though I’m up quite early, I don’t quite feel up to a fresh rant; two weeks of disrupted sleep will do that, I suppose. To sublimate the urge, which is always present and, sadly, accounted for, we’ll use this fine politirant from a couple of years ago….. As with many of my rants, it’s all still pretty valid, as not much changes in the political scene these days…. Only the masks are different….

From 7/24/2013:

“One of the merits of democracy is quite obvious: it is perhaps the most charming form of government ever devised by man. The reason is not far to seek. It is based on propositions that are palpably not true — and what is not true, as everyone knows, is always immensely more fascinating and satisfying to the vast majority of men than what is true.” — H. L. Mencken

With this statement, Mr. Mencken has put his finger on the pulse of America, that is for certain. It goes a long way toward explaining why so many people in this country are so willing to believe the outright, egregious lies that are told to them every single day by the officials they elect every year at the polls that characterize our republic…. They do lie, you know, with almost every statement that comes out of their mouths…. They begin with the most important lie they tell, from which all the others spring, and that is the lie they tell when they tell you that they want to be elected so they can work for YOU! Each and every politician learns early in their career, if they are at all to be successful, they MUST portray themselves as a public-spirited, honest, and tireless worker whose only purpose is to make life better for their constituents….

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth…. NONE of them are at all concerned with any of that nonsense; they are there to carry out their own agenda, which has very little to do with what is good for the general run of mankind…. No, they are there to serve the interests of the men and women who pay them, those lobbyists and special interest representatives who run the businesses of the corporate masters. The people on the street cannot provide them with the perks, or the cash, that the clandestine rulers are able to come up with, other than peripherally, by electing them in the first place…. Once elected, their true colors come out into the light of day, and it can be easily seen how their actions are never congruent with what they have promised to the people who elected them….

It’s all about power and money to these folks, not service. In my entire life of observing politics around the world, I have yet to see a single elected official who could be shown to be honest, not at the national level. The one who came the closest was Jimmy Carter, and his presidency was marked by how little got done, because he was so honest that the true politicians in Congress blocked every reform he tried to institute during his time in office. His actions during that time showed him to be the exception to the usual rule for politicians, which is why, I believe, he was so ineffective as a legislator….

“Invest in America — Buy Japan!”– Smart Bee

Other than Carter, I have seen concrete proof that EVERY President of this country has lied to the American people, not just once or twice, but continuously, about nearly everything. Time and time again, public outcries are heard or seen in the news about some new revelation regarding something some politician lied about, just like it is breaking news or something, when it is actually the normal state of affairs…. I don’t know why it is, but if a man on a TV set, wearing a suit and tie, makes a statement to the public, the general public will believe it, sometimes fanatically, without ever examining it for whether or not it is true… Then, when it turns out they were lied to, they get all upset and vocalize their displeasure, never once admitting it was their own cupidity that allowed the lie to occur in the first place…. It makes me wonder what happened to people in this country, to make them go soft in the head….

“Doctors are the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.” — Anton Chekhov

Did you ever notice how many politicians were lawyers, first? Most of them, as it turns out, for the simple reason that learning to be a lawyer gives a politician two advantageous types of training… One advantage is that law school teaches the student how to lie in every imaginable way, in order to ascertain which kinds of lies are legal…. The other advantage is their primary motivation…. If asked, a very large percentage of lawyers will tell you their reason for becoming a barrister in the first place is that it is a good way to get rich, ( without mentioning, of course, that this is true only as long as one doesn’t give a shit about other people, and what that might do to them)…. In other words they make their money by taking advantage of people’s misery, holding them as hostages against their own destiny, in order to gain resources, i.e. money, and its sidekick, power…..

Then the lawyers realize that their training is perfect for politics…. The ability to lie with facility comes in very handy to anyone who wants to be in the public eye, as that is how one gets elected in the first place…. Tell people what they want to hear, and they will vote for you, every time, coming back to the same trough to eat, even though they get screwed, time after time…. Having the facility to ignore what happens to others, due to their own actions, is the other skill so important to the political set, and the training one receives as a lawyer fits right into that category….

“Watching the democratic party in a presidential contest is like watching a washing machine with a defective bearing: It starts up smoothly enough, but soon, it begins to wobble and shake, jumping violently from place to place, until it tears itself to pieces, spewing dirty laundry all over the room.” –Smart Bee

Some people will say that there ARE some good lawyers out there, and I won’t argue that…. but, they’re still lawyers, not politicians, aren’t they? They’re doing what they can to help ffolkes find their way through the morass of our legal system to get what they need, even occasionally finding some justice…. But, they aren’t going further, and going into public service, are they? They’re still in place, where they can help, but, they are so few and far between, they are hard to find, and so are very busy, seldom having the time or resources to work against their less honest colleagues. Plus, they really are very few in number, as altruists seldom become lawyers in the first place….

I can see this has evolved into a full scale rant; we’ve just begun the day, so I’ll call a halt here. I often feel as if I’m preaching to the choir, anyway, when I go through this stuff again…. It’s all familiar material around here, so it isn’t as if I’m presenting new ideas for your examination…. No, this is all old stuff, and, sadly, doesn’t seem to ever create the outrage that I feel in very many other ffolkes… which is too bad….. I forget who said that “if you keep on doing things the same ways as you always have, things will always be the way they’ve always been….”, but, they were absolutely correct…. We are on a path to our own destruction, clearly, but, nobody seems to care…

Nobody, that is, who seems able to DO anything about it, and they are the ones who will need to make the changes….. The people in authority over the rest of us are wearing blinders in this respect…. The idea that what they are doing is wrong, and will eventually kill us all, doesn’t fit into their world-view, so they won’t believe it, and will continue to refuse to make any of the changes needed to re-direct our steps onto a path less dangerous. It is up to the rest of us to get it done, and that may entail overthrowing the current crop of rulers, either by the vote, or by the less agreeable option of using the necessary force, while making sure the new crop will act in OUR best interests, rather than their own…. If it does happen, it will be the first time in history, which is fine with me…. just as long as it is not the LAST time in history….

“… democracy is not something you believe in, or a place you hang your hat, but it’s something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles and falls apart.” — Abby Hoffman

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A Failure to Germinate

Marking the days in elements of sad disarray
only holds me thrall, as I laugh while I may.
With cold, hard hands so impatient and cruel
pulling me to this vale of tears, a pathetic old fool.

Feelings sit silent, cast in shadows and light
breaking forth to implicate such vengeful might.
Just below the surface they patiently hide
to sally forth bravely, colors bright as they ride.

Tears and pain transform valued assets in hand
while comfort and serenity retreat to a far land.
Bold, bright patterns of hope garnish my ruinous state
until reality enters, full of disdainful portions of hate.

I sort out the illustrious measures of vision gone mild
only to find them transformed, now vicious and wild.
In my deepest desires I find myself calloused and cold
with faithless advocates whose souls have been sold.

My search finds little to support any hope of relief
far too much time has passed to bolster such belief.
The sad becomes real, and real becomes unfounded
until flights of such fancy are all dead, and grounded.

Nature has informed me of the newly hatched crime
of which reality boasted proudly, time after time.
The last answer we think of is always the best
as we come to terms with fate, our hope at rest.

~~ gigoid ~~

Written 9/27/2012.

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Aristotle_Bust_White_Background_Transparent

Today we celebrate the return of Smart Bee, who has decided to quit screwing with me…. For now, anyway…. Here is a very nice little pearl, speaking to the subject of Reason as a way of Life…. sort of…. Just listen to what Aristotle and friends have to say on the matter, and all will be well….

Emancipate yourself from mental slavery,

None but ourselves can free our minds.

~~ Bob Marley ~~

“Bow to no patron’s insolence. Rely on no frail hopes; in freedom live and die.” — Seneca

“knowledge is a polite word for dead but unburied imagination….think twice before thinking.” — e.e. cummings

“Seek the wisdom of the ages, but look at the world through the eyes of a child.” — Ron Wild

“Old places and old persons in their turn, when spirit dwells in them, have an intrinsic vitality of which youth is incapable, precisely, the balance and wisdom that come from long perspectives and broad foundations.” — George Santayana

“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.” — Leonardo da Vinci

“One’s mind is like a knife. If you don’t sharpen it, it gets rusty.” — Nien Cheng

“Two rules we should always have ready,–that there is nothing good or evil save in the will; and that we are not to lead events, but to follow them.” — Epictetus — In what Manner we ought to bear Sickness, — Discourses, Book iii, Chap. x

“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”

~~ Aristotle ~~

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I cannot say starting early has had any particularly significant effect on the quality of today’s effort; I think any advantage gained by the early start is mitigated by the very earliness of the hour, as it indicates a less than complete night’s rest…. or something…. I guess I just have to trust the process, once again, knowing the routines built in will suffice to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion (meaning, there’s something in each section….). That said, to little or no purpose beyond filling in space, I will take my leave…. You may now resume your regularly scheduled program of insanity, and/or terror…. Or, not…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, no matter what anyone says….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Our annual pre-apocalypse sale….

Posted on March 26, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“It is impossible to get anywhere without sinning against reason.”

~~ Albert Einstein ~~

Artist’s rendition of Mars One Habitat: Image from Space.com

Pleasant morning distractions finished, I sit to write, after a two-day hiatus…. The lay-off, while necessary, and fairly successful in terms of meeting goals set, was, nonetheless, too long for my sanity. But I’ll not regale y’all with any of the internal indications which complicate matters; instead, I’ll just say, it’s done for now, and we can go on…. It’s no doubt for the best, anyway…. Y’all wouldn’t be either thrilled, or particularly enchanted, by what I’ve put myself through, so, we’ll leave it all where it belongs, in the past….

Since I shan’t be talking about my time off, what can I find to say to get us started? Well, your guess, in this case, as in many in the past, is as good as mine. I suppose I AM in charge, nominally, but, I think it’s obvious that has never made much of a dent in Reality’s attention; if it had, you’d see a lot less dithering and angst displayed here. I wonder what might happen if I…. no, better not. Last time I tried that, I fell into the royal “we” mode, babbling about our opinions, our clothing, and our royal prerogatives until everyone was doubtlessly sick of it. It took me three days to clean it out of my style….

Ah well, I suppose none of it matters now. We’re here, in a new Pearl, with a full tank of gas, and several new oyster beds to explore…. Since I can’t think of anything else to bore you with here, I guess we can bring this to a halting stop, counting our blessings to have made it this far without any explosions…. Tough to do with the pressure gauge running so high, so, we’ll be thankful, while we’re diving, okay?…. Okay….

Shall we Pearl?

“That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.” — Sun Tzu, The Art of War

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Image from ravepad.com via Google stock images

Whenever I think of the world’s best music, ALL of this man’s work must be included…. I listened to this concert, to make sure it was good enough to put here…. I won’t ever forget again just how much genius he displays when playing; he is, truly, one of the finest musicians ever to share his inner vision with the world….. I give you, the One, the Only, Carlos….

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Carlos Santana

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https://youtu.be/48z01HxVtjA

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Le Penseur ~~ The Thinker

Auguste Rodin ~~ Image from The Rodin Museum Website

A small discourse from a couple years ago, since I didn’t write ANYTHING while gone…. I’ll get to it…. For now, this will do….

From 2/25/2013:

“I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.”– Marcus, Babylon 5

Marcus brings up an interesting point here, when he talks of the general hostility of the universe. I don’t think he quite has a handle on the actual shape of Reality, though; in his desire to avoid responsibility for his own cupidity, he casts the universe as the villain in his play. Our universe isn’t hostile to us, as he would like to think. Unfair? Yes. Hostile? No…. The universe really doesn’t give a crap about us, one way or another. Things seem unfair, not because they are stacked against us, but, rather, because they are not stacked in our favor, a slight but distinct difference…..

Reality plays no favorites, beyond a tendency to allow itself to be adjusted by those who have an understanding of how it works, without granting them any dispensation, but rather rewarding their cleverness and wit. Those who believe the universe is out to get them are defenseless against the trials and tribulations that are a natural part of living, because they begin from an attitude of helplessness. Those who at least have the confidence to act in their own behalf, to stand up against the demands of Fate, are much more able to achieve their goals, than anyone who allows Reality to push them wherever they end up, without any direction made by choice…..

Thus, it becomes clear, courage, as well as knowledge, is necessary to the ability to confront Reality on its own terms. Not only is it necessary to pay attention to the way the universe works, seeking to learn how it interacts among all its parts, but, ’tis necessary to have the courage to act on what is known, according to what the person believes to be right, in a moral sense. Of course, the universe doesn’t care one way or another if we are moral; it rewards those who act out of immorality as well, if they are bold enough to act. We just feel better about ourselves if we act from right thought, making it easier for others to do the same. Acting immorally only benefits the one who is doing the acting…..

It should be noted, cowardice is also rewarded by the universe; the rewards aren’t very palatable, seeing our every wish denied, our every act dismissed, as incompetent, illegal, or just plain dumb….. Lack of courage, along with lack of knowledge thus become their own rewards, thereby allowing the person’s misguided views about reality lead them into issue after issue of conflict with the rest of reality. In this way, they continually reinforce their own misapprehensions, and the universe is out to get them, and everyone else…. This, in spite of the fact that they are looking at, and dealing with, the same Reality as everyone else, who don’t all seem to have the same problem…. Instead of giving them a clue that maybe they should do things differently, they merely assume that the other people have cheated them somehow…. because that is what they would do….

It’s really too bad in some ways, that so large a percentage of humanity is so lacking in courage and wit as to find the view stated above to be congruent with their own view of the way the universe operates; it’s part of what makes it so easy for those in the BRC and the 1% to control them, and to pull the wool over their eyes. These folks are so convinced of their own helplessness in the face of all they don’t understand, they will latch onto almost anything someone tells them, if it soothes their fears, and gives them someone or something other than themselves to blame for their misfortunes…. Sad, but true, and a perfect description of what has transpired in society for several thousand years now, as the BRC keeps the majority of humanity in the proverbial dark about what is true, and what is real….. They’ve had a lot of practice, and they’re very good at it….

But, then, it isn’t hard to control someone who is brainwashed to believe that it is the way reality is, so I can’t say it is due to any particularly large degree of wit or talent that allows them to do so…. It is more that the folks who they control are so stupid, they ask to be controlled, because they can’t, and more importantly, won’t, trust themselves to do it….. Sad, but true….

At his point in this narrative, I am becoming a bit enraged, a not uncommon reaction to a rant about the BRC and the 1%…. Heck, this time, I didn’t even have to mention the papists or preachers who are their shock troops, on the front lines of the brainwashing process, in order to get upset and angry over their machinations…. until now. My rage is growing, as it always tends to do when I start to rant on this subject, and I’m not ready to deal with the consequences of letting it get any bigger right now…. too much other stuff to get to today. But, just let me say this…..

Those in our society who deliberately control others for their own benefit are my enemies. I believe them to be responsible for virtually ALL of the social ills we have, as well as the global and environmental issues that are threatening our very survival as a species. They are, for their own personal benefit, hoarding the resources of the planet, and refusing to share them with the remainder of humanity, all because they can, and they want to. The welfare of others is of no concern to them, so they automatically become my foes, in my battle to try to make a world my children, and grandchild, can have the opportunity to live a full and complete life of their own, without being oppressed and controlled by assholes who don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves….. As my old martial arts instructor used to say…. “Fuck ’em….. hard.”…..

— “Bother!”, said Pooh, as he dropped his bombs.

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This one just seems to fit here….

Seeing is Conducive to Belief

Folly sits so comfortably upon my fevered brow
one would easily believe that I would know how
to look at Life with a jaded, weary eye
seeing enough, and more, to know Why.

Such seems the case, as I will it to be,
an open book of a face, it looks so like me;
what’s known to be so, needs no close attention
familiar sights require no minding, nor mention.

The eye is drawn at once to the stark and new,
and sent back to sleep by successful review.
Once we find evidence we feel we understand,
curiosity languishes, dismissed at command.

Ancient sages knew the insidious value of illusion,
preachers and pundits know the power of confusion.
Each pair of eyes contains its own point of reference,
each mind sets its own standards of preference.

Seeing is believing, for those who live in thrall,
accepting what is perceive is all they ever recall.
Unknown to them, reality follows another set of rules,
Deeper, more dangerous, and no place for fools.

~~ gigoid ~~

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Today’s final, old-school pearl is as fresh, and as classical a pearl you’ll ever see. Well, fresh when created, anyway. Let it be enough to know, it’s all new, to me, and y’all, so, y’all should likely pay close attention. This one’s about life, but, not exactly from the viewpoint to which we’re all accustomed. I can’t say exactly what my subconscious mind was up to, but, it seems to work just fine…. I’ll let it percolate, as should you, to let it bring whatever piece/peace there may be to perceive into focus….

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” — Confucius

“Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind.” — Leonardo da Vinci

“I like a bit of a mongrel myself, whether it’s a man or a dog; they’re the best for every day.” — George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950, Misalliance [1910], episode I

“Like jug, like lid” — Ingrained Serbian Proverb

“He who dies with the most FRIENDS wins.” — Smart Bee

“The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.” — Charles DuBois

“What I like is when you’re looking and thinking and looking and thinking… and suddenly you wake up.” — Hobbes

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” — Philip K. Dick

“How could the drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet the river flows on.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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It feels pretty good to be back; I hope the results justify the process, and the break taken. If not, well, we do get another chance tomorrow, don’t we? Or, rather, don’t I? I suppose, in this case, “we” isn’t all that inappropriate, as I continue to drag y’all along with me while I pursue my personal folly…. Ah well, it could be worse, I suppose…. I could have left out all the artwork…. think how boring THAT would be….. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. fair warning….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

To sell it, you MUST believe it…

Posted on April 15, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

In the world in which we live today, it can be hard to find sources of joy, the kind of all-encompassing passion that fills us, when the Universe presents us with an event that stimulates our sense of wonder…. This joy should be courted with great enthusiasm, to bring it into our lives, with the intent to make it a permanent part of our existence…. Such wonder brings with it the knowledge of beauty, that can inspire us, lift us until we feel as if we can touch the stars….

Tonight is one of these gifts from the Universe…. A few minutes ago, the first 2014 Eclipse of the Blood Moon began, when the ancient Monster in the Sky began devouring the cookie that is our Moon, threatening to eat it all, while we watch, until spitting it back out, piece by piece, as we pass out of the shadow of the Earth, which falls upon the face of the Old Man who lives in the Moon….

If you couldn’t guess by now, I’m just a little jazzed about the eclipse, and, in fact, am now in the process of watching it happen, only breaking to write a minute, because a) I forgot to charge the camera, and had to plug it in, and b) some clouds are passing by, so I have to wait a few minutes to see better….

Now, I’m going back out for a bit to watch…. I’ll be back, hopefully less motivated to get so flipping New Age on you…. It happens a lot to me when I get a chance to indulge my passion for astronomy….. It’s one of my best held secrets, you know…. I wanted to be an astronomer, and for the longest time, had every intention of becoming a science geek, who would have been completely content to have lived his entire life on top of some isolated mountain, peering through a telescope, taking pictures of galaxies and nebulae, playing with computers, & staying up all night….

Plans change, though, for all of us, so, I just keep in touch with what is going on in space, watch the occasional eclipse like this, and try to be happy with that…. Such is life…. But, it still gives me a big thrill to experience the wonder we can feel when we watch such an inspiring event, so, I tend to get a bit excited…. at least, for me…. Most of the time I shoot more for “phlegmatic”, rather than “enthusiastic”….. It fits my self-image a bit more closely….

Okay, so, I’m going out again, to see if the clouds will part for a few minutes to let me see what’s happening up in lunar orbit…. I’ll be back shortly…. Besides, you’ll never even notice I was gone….

See? What did I tell you? When will y’all learn to trust me?…. SIGH…. Oh well, at least the Eclipse gave me an intro…. I guess, given the number of clouds that keep getting in my way, Murphy is going to play his games with me for the duration of the time I’m up here in the middle of the night…. too attractive a chance for him to mess with me, I suppose… I just hope he relents long enough for me to get a picture or two before it’s done…. In the meantime….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Enjoy what you can, endure what you must.” — Friedrich Wolfgang von Goethe

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It’s going on 2 AM here in California, where I’m up trying to see the full eclipse that is taking place outside as I type; clouds still in the way…. I did find a pretty good rant, though, while searching the archives yesterday or the day before (it all runs together a lot these days, so I’m often not sure just when I did most anything…. Good thing for me we have time, or everything would have to happen all at once…. Enjoy, if you please….

From 6/7/13:

“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.” — Leonardo da Vinci

I knew when I included this above that I would be using it another time in the future. It is such a succinct observation, one that parallels my own thoughts about what happens in our minds, and in truth, about what our minds are…. “What is the mind?” Where is the proof, the hard evidence that our minds, our conscious self-awareness, actually exist in a real sense? We know, because we are inside it, that it exists; but is that existence really a part of the real world? If so, how do we know it, if not only by our own perception? I’m not entirely sure, myself, that this can be answered in any way other than by acknowledging those perceptions as having validity because we perceive them, which is, seemingly, a tautological impossibility….

Of course, we can use the definition of Reality as proposed by Philip K. Dick, which says that reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away. This accounts for the inconsistency, but does so by transferring the validity from the perception, to the absence of the perception. I know, that’s a bit of a tenuous connection, but, it points out the difficulty of trying to validate reality with perception; first one must validate the perceptions, and to do that, we must assume the mind to be part of reality, and consciousness to be the connecting tissue.

“A reverence for life does not require one to respect nature’s obvious mistakes.” — Robert A. Heinlein

I realize this subject is not one common to most folks, especially early in the morning. (Note from the future: nor, it seems, is it a common theme for late at night….. )…. I also will admit to knowing that much of what I’m saying is not particularly of interest to many people, but, I don’t write for many people. I write for me, to get out of my head all the stuff that otherwise would sit in there and cause havoc to my own equilibrium… It’s sort of an aftereffect of the course of my earlier life, admittedly a bit cumbersome, but, with the help of my trusty laptop, and a willingness to use time, given by my situation, to keep from building up so much angst and/or mental frustration that it starts to affect me adversely…. which is a polite, discrete way to say, it keeps me sane….

It’s good to take out our attitudes now and again, to examine them for necessary updating, dusting off any acquired prejudices, and giving them a good shake to let them fall into the proper shape to pick up the clearest perceptions, in order to use them efficiently, and compassionately…..

“‘T is strange, but true; for truth is always strange,– Stranger than fiction.” — Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Don Juan, Canto xiv, Stanza 101

And so am I, for I live for the truth. I accept that (strangeness) as the proper price for the understanding I have of reality, and for my own ever-increasing ability to deal with it on my own terms. It does make me a bit conspicuous at times; that is probably why I don’t go out in public all that often. It gets chancy sometimes, trying to maintain a cloak of normalcy when I’m out in the Big Blue Room, so I tend to avoid most public venues, just to avoid controversy…. I’m social, but not sociable, if you catch my drift…..

Well, I see I’ve blathered on about this until it petered out…. Not much left to say, really, about Reality, and our perceptions, that I haven’t said before….

In life, “True power is control of the routes of perception.” — gigoid

This is a universal truth, my own deduction, based on observation and historical fact. The BRC and the churches know this, and do everything they can to control what people perceive, and what they are allowed to believe. I have no illusions about the degree of their control over society… This knowledge gives me a certain degree of defense against such control, as knowing it is there is the first step to resisting its influence, or to making it appear as if I am allowing it to control me, while maintaining my own reality….

And THAT is quite enough of that…. I don’t wish to pull ALL my covers, not at once anyway, and it makes little sense to give away my best defense… I don’t think I’ve gone too far today; after all, it’s just a little bit of truth…. What harm can that cause?….

“I don’t think they could put him in a mental hospital. On the other hand, if he were already in, I don’t think they’d let him out.” — Smart Bee

More notes from the future…. Oops…. By the tone of the last line from Smart Bee, it probably wasn’t the best idea to tell it so much…. now it’s spilling my secrets for all to hear…. Ah well, I’ll just go back now, into the grip of real-time, where at least I know I’m anonymous, mostly….

“Sometimes the need to mess with their heads outweighs the millstone of humiliation.” — Fox Mulder, X-Files “Squeeze”

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

I’m not sure right now just what poem will suit tonight…. I’ll get back to you on this… Okay, I’m ready to pick one now…. Let’s see…. Oh, I remember…. Here, here’s a good one, from a modern genius, one whose work stands as the voice of the American people in the twentieth century…. at least, for those all-too-numerous Americans who spend much of their lives struggling to survive on the streets…. as this poet did….. If you haven’t ever heard of him, he’s an interesting man, well worth reading about, as is his poetry; this one is a particularly strong piece, a poem I believe will affect everyone who reads it in a powerful way …. Enjoy!…..

A Smile To Remember

we had goldfish and they circled around and around
in the bowl on the table near the heavy drapes
covering the picture window and
my mother, always smiling, wanting us all
to be happy, told me, ‘be happy Henry!’
and she was right: it’s better to be happy if you can
but my father continued to beat her and me several times a week while
raging inside his 6-foot-two frame because he couldn’t
understand what was attacking him from within.

my mother, poor fish,
wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times a
week, telling me to be happy: ‘Henry, smile!
why don’t you ever smile?’

and then she would smile, to show me how, and it was the
saddest smile I ever saw

one day the goldfish died, all five of them,
they floated on the water, on their sides, their
eyes still open,
and when my father got home he threw them to the cat
there on the kitchen floor and we watched as my mother
smiled

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

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

Relationships are tough…. we all know this, if not instinctively, we learn it before long in our lives, or suffer the consequences on a regular basis. It’s way too early, now, (or late, depending on where one stands to view it….) to get into a deep discussion of the ins and outs of Love, or how people deal with all the complexities inherent in interacting with another human on that level…. Good grief, it’s probably ALWAYS too early/late for THAT discussion; we all have a tendency to get a bit worked up over our triumphs and/or our defeats along these lines…. and I’m not what might be called stupid, so I’m not going to get caught writing about the opposite sex…. I’m old enough to know better….

But, what I CAN do, and SHALL, is to put together an old school pearl that deals with that issue, subject, material, whatever it may be…. Love, and all its ramifications, is obviously a part of life none of us can avoid altogether, though it makes us nervous at the thought of the pain we experience when it doesn’t go well…. Most of us would rather put up with that, though, to get to the rewards, which are beaudacious, to say the least. With that in mind, let’s see what Smart Bee can find to say on the matter…..

“If you don’t like yourself, you can’t like other people.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

“Women are the only realists; their whole object in life is to pit their realism against the extravagant, excessive, and occasionally drunken idealism of men.” — G. K. Chesterton, A Handful of Authors

All human history attests
That happiness for man,–the hungry sinner!–
Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner.

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Don Juan, Canto xiii, Stanza 99

“No woman ever falls in love with a man unless she has a better opinion of him than he deserves.” — Ed Howe

Parting day
Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues
With a new colour as it gasps away,
The last still loveliest, till–‘t is gone, and all is gray.

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto iv, Stanza 29

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955), when asked what his Theory of Relativity was by William Randolph Hearst’s mistress during a visit to Xanadu, the Hearst mansion

“The more you love, the more you can love — and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just. ” — Lazarus Long, Time Enough For Love, by Robert Heinlein

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

Approximately five minutes after the eclipse’s beginning, clouds began to cover the sky overhead here, giving me mere glimpses of the moon periodically, and all too randomly…. so much so I’ve managed to finish today’s Pearl, at the ungodly hour of 0322….. I did manage to get the camera charged up, just in time to take some lovely photos of the unrelieved gray sky…. Oh, well, there are supposed to be three more eclipses this year; maybe I’ll get some pictures of one of those, if they are visible here…. One may only hope….

I’m going to press my luck here, and go ahead & post this, then go back to bed, to see if I can make up for the lost three or four hours here in the middle of the night, futilely waiting for a glimpse of the Blood Moon being eaten…. To do so, however, I have to stop writing, so…. 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

Weeding dead paradigms is honest labor….

Posted on November 14, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Gripped in the tight fist of fear is a terrible way to wake up….. Good thing I didn’t wake up like that…. but, it IS a pretty gripping way to grab your attention, eh? Sorry if I startled y’all; at the moment, it seemed like the only way to wake up completely, and fictional openings, while not frequent, ARE a fairly regular occurrence here, so, I thought it might work out to get things going in a slightly different direction today…. I could be wrong; that’s been known to happen, too….

Let’s just put all that aside, shall we? I often make false starts, but, have always figured it’s just part of writing on a daily basis…. Speaking of which, I’ve noted that WordPress has added another feature to the blog sites we all have here…. At the bottom of the page, three links to previous blogs are shown, all of which, in some way, have a common theme with whatever is in the current post….. It might be the subject of pain, or fear of the blank page, or some other subject, but, they’re all suggested as further reading for whomever is taking in today’s post, should they be interested…. For me, it’s been a real treat, as it brings out a lot of stuff I hadn’t seen in a long while, some of which I find to be pretty good Pearls….

A bonus of this is that each of the new suggestions shown by the links ALSO has three more suggested posts to read, seemingly random, but with that same connection…. As a result, I’m getting to see a LOT of my older stuff, without having to go look for them myself…. It’s grand fun to cruise through some of the older ones, and see what was working then, as compared to the latest material…. It’s also given me the material I need to decide on when I can take a day or two off from writing, now that I have a bunch of archived blogs that are suitable to be re-blogged….. Yay for me….

There, are you thoroughly bored now? Or, at the least, losing interest? It wouldn’t surprise me in the least…. I can get pretty pedantic, and pompous, too, often without even realizing that I’m going there….. Let’s do something new, and cut me off…. I’m not in the habit of shortening this intro; in fact, my usual mode involves running off at the mouth, so to speak, for as long as I can, randomly, and with little purpose, other than mild entertainment…. not what I’d call compelling…. more like surprisingly sticky…. It’s kind of like reaching to pick up what we believe to be is a coin, then finding it to be covered in some slimy invisible substance that makes our skin crawl….

Now that I’ve probably alienated my entire audience, of three, let’s see if there is some further damage I can bring about in my own fumbling way… not that I wish any harm to anyone, but, there HAS to be SOME way to see if what I write is having any effect on the real world, and piles of rubble, if nothing else, indicate a certain type of progress, even if it is destructive, rather than constructive…. Those two always tend to get mixed up in my head, anyway…. Oh hell…. This isn’t working, so, I’m stopping now….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind.” — Leonardo da Vinci

Doh! I KNEW there was something I was supposed to be doing….
_____________________________

It has been some time since I sat down to really do a number on what I consider to be one of the world’s greatest handicaps to human progress, to wit: organized religion…. In fact, it may have been over a month since my last formal religirant…. I’ve taken some passing shots, of course, during my discussions of the political scene, as the dear ministers and preachers fall all over themselves in trying to please the corporate masters and political pundits who protect them, working in tandem, in common cause, to keep the common people in their place….

But, there has been no formal ranting, as such, strictly about them…. the popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, imams, sahdis, or any other iconic religious title given to the leaders of the world’s major, and minor religions…. They’re all deluded, to me, and I wish they’d just shut their damn faces….. For thousands of years, they’ve bent their efforts to molding society into a pious, obedient mass of slaves, content with their lot, keeping their tiny little minds focused on the delusional rewards they will receive in the next life…. Of course, they ignore the fact that all of what they promise in heaven could happen right here on Earth, if they would only stop the nonsense, and work on BEING compassionate, rather than just talking about it….

To be honest, though, I’ve been unwilling to rant about them much of late, because it seems they are killing themselves off, having pretty much alienated most everyone with any sort of basic intelligence…. The people who now fall for their nonsense are those who never have a chance to know anything else…. The poor children of the world are indoctrinated in these silly philosophies of pain and suffering from the time they are born, and are brainwashed into belief before their reasoning minds have any defense against it….

But, even the numbers of the faithful who fall for the delusional message they promote are falling, as more and more education is spread around, thanks to technology…. Ignorance will ALWAYS be defeated by education, given any chance at all….. and technology is becoming more and more ubiquitous in the world, so much so that even the churches are attempting to come to terms with it, never realizing it will destroy them, once and for all…. Well, we can hope, anyway…..

Any who…. I’m not really in the mood for a religirant, even though just thinking about them will usually provide me with enough outrage to create one…. (I also note that I’ve leaked out four paragraphs of “not enough for a rant” material….) Smart Bee, however, has provided me with some great shots at them, so, we’ll go old-school for a few minutes, then follow up with another great article/essay from one of my favorite columnists, Mark Morford…

The link below the group of pearls will take you to yet another of his brilliant forays into the depth and scope of reality, to remind us again how we are all just a part of something strange and beautiful, if we just allow ourselves to realize it…. It’s a great read, ffolkes, so please do so, and spread it around to anyone who needs to see it….. which, these days, is just about everyone….. In between here, and there, enjoy these little pointed sticks thrown at the eye of organized religion….

“In the beginning was nonsense, and the nonsense was with God, and the nonsense was God.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“Let’s do lunch, have your god call my god…” — Smart Bee
(See Peruaosophy, axiom #3….)

“How should one deal with a man who is convinced that he is acting according to God’s will, and who therefore believes that he is doing you a favour by stabbing you in the back?” — Voltaire

“Mystical explanations are considered deep. The truth is that they are not even superficial.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“God has always been hard on the poor.” — Smart Bee

RELIGION, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.

“What is your religion my son?” inquired the Archbishop of Rheims.
“Pardon, monseigneur,” replied Rochebriant; “I am ashamed of it.”
“Then why do you not become an atheist?”
“Impossible! I should be ashamed of atheism.”
“In that case, monsieur, you should join the Protestants.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“So, if there’s no God, who changes the water?” — [two goldfish in a bowl, New Yorker Cartoon]

Enough! Or, as our friends in Milan say, “Basta!”…. I have only one more thing to say here…. Read this:

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2013/11/12/40-billion-ways-to-dance/
_____________________________

I’ve used this poem before, but, it’s been quite a while, and it’s one of my favorites, so, I’m using it again, not caring at all if I am being repetitious…. I think I put out enough to make it seem fresh…. Besides…. It’s Yeats….

A Drunken Man’s Praise Of Sobriety

COME swish around, my pretty punk,
And keep me dancing still
That I may stay a sober man
Although I drink my fill.

Sobriety is a jewel
That I do much adore;
And therefore keep me dancing
Though drunkards lie and snore.
O mind your feet, O mind your feet,
Keep dancing like a wave,
And under every dancer
A dead man in his grave.
No ups and downs, my pretty,
A mermaid, not a punk;
A drunkard is a dead man,
And all dead men are drunk.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

_____________________________

As may be guessed by now, my ranting urge, at least for today, is somewhat blunted… Oh, not for lack of outrage, for the news is still printed each day, and it provides more than enough of that for anyone…. No, I’m just still tired from fighting the cold I’ve had for the last week and a bit…. Better, I am, but not well, if you know what I mean…. Any who, no matter which excuse I choose, the end result will be the same…. an old-school pearl, with the usual suspects as the target of the day…. I’m sure you can figure out of whom I speak….

“The triumph of libertarian anarchy is nearly (in historical terms) at hand… *if* we can keep the Left from selling us into slavery and the Right from blowing us up for, say, the next twenty years.” — Eric Rayman, usenet guy, about nanotechnology

“Our “neoconservatives” are neither new nor conservative, but old as Babylon and evil as Hell.” — Edward Abbey

POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Franklin D. Roosevelt: If he became convinced tomorrow that coming out for cannibalism would get him the votes he surely needs, he would begin fattening a missionary in the White House backyard come Wednesday.” — H. L. Mencken

(As the single most successful ‘politician’ our country has ever produced, Frankie D., with his sheer genius at shape-shifting, thus molded every other politician who ever lived…. )

“Every horse thinks his pack is heaviest.” — Smart Bee

(For those who may not quite ‘get’ why this is appropriate for inclusion in a pearl about this subject…. This is the very reason that politics exists in the first place…. think about it…. Go ahead, I dare you….)

“As war and government prove, insanity is the most contagious of diseases.” — Edward Abbey

“As one gets older, one discovers everything is going to be exactly the same with different hats on.” — Noel Coward

Well, there you have it…. This one really took a long time, but, I think it came out perfect…. Goddess knows I worked on it long and hard enough….
_____________________________

“late-60’s variant: Why did the running-dog lackey of the bourgeoisie throw the clock out the window? Because it was a continual reminder of the imminent doom of capitalism! Oh, well, you had to be there…” — Smart Bee

I suppose it had to happen someday…. My roots are showing…. At least I haven’t spent the intervening years, since the late 60’s, covering my roots with different shades and colors…. I’ve always been a radical, so far Left I’m Right…. Deal with it, ffolkes, because you know in your heart that everything I’m saying, about the government, and the churches (along with their shadowy, hidden masters, the corporate elite of the world….) is true… I haven’t bothered to alter, or stretch any truths I’ve encountered… I just lay them out for your perusal, mostly using the brilliance of others to demonstrate the points I’m making…. Now, if only my message could spread out to encompass the whole world, there MIGHT be a chance to do something to make things better….

SIGH…. I don’t think I’ll hold my breath until that happens, though… In the meantime, let’s see how this turned out…. Well, it may not be some folk’s cup of tea, but, I think, with a blueberry scone, or a croissant, it would do quite well for an afternoon’s replenishing social gathering, anywhere the culture enjoys the custom of high tea…. Of course, it would, hopefully, have more of the effect of a triple espresso, straight up, rather than a mere cup of soothing tea, but, that’s just me, and my possibly neurotic need to know I’m helping reality by encouraging it to fulfill its nature, to CHANGE….

I guess we all have our dreams….

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

Alarms, and sirens, and gunshots, oh my!….

Posted on October 18, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

In spite of massive outpourings of attempted distraction, perpetrated by my own unconscious mind, I made it here, only to find myself confronted once again by the specter of a blank mind…. Vague, terrifying echoes of past Pearls, wherein I spent hours, nay, days, it seems, searching and searching, desperate and panicked, yet always managing to, somehow, find enough blather within to fulfill the minimum required standards…. It’s a gift, though not one most ffolkes will acknowledge… I, on the other hand, lost all pride years ago, and realize that there is nothing shameful at all in admitting one’s faults…. In fact, with the right spin, those faults can be turned into assets, of a sort….

Of course, one must never try to profit from using personal faults as tools; that borders not only on the immoral, but on creepy, and I’m not going there, no sir…. Naturally, you will never mention in public that I ever admitted to that, right? I could get in a lot of trouble with the morals police…. not to mention a harsh word or two from Stephen King, the master of creepy…. Tell you what, you keep my confidence, and I’ll do my best to avoid a rant in the intro today, how’s that? Seems like a fair trade to me….

Now we’ve settled that, we can go on… Of course, I have absolutely no idea where we’re going today, as is no doubt crystal clear by now. I started this Pearl without a clue, and haven’t discovered any since beginning, so, it’s looking like one of THOSE days…. a day of pulling rabbits from hats, and flowers from the sleeve…. A day of acting like a politician/preacher, spouting off nonsensical and/or simply untrue grandiosities to distract y’all from what I’m doing with my other hand…. You know, the one with all the hair growing out of the palm….

SIGH…. I hate days like this…. It’s really hard on my honest nature to pull the same tricks as our beloved rulers are accustomed to pulling…. I mean, I can tell a story with the best of them, but, I usually remember to tell ffolkes when they aren’t reality-based, but, rather, come from my imagination…. The pundits will NEVER show that courtesy…. I remember the last time one of them tried to tell the truth in public; it made a compelling video, watching this veteran talking head blushing, blustering, stuttering, fumbling, and basically undergoing a personal meltdown, all because he was cornered into telling the reporter an actual piece of truth…. very satisfying for one of my ilk….

Now that I’ve gone completely bonkers, by trying to pass off this large pile of shit as prosaic prose, or as entertainment, it would probably be a good thing for me to find a way to bring this to a close, and get on with something a bit less, well, pointless…. though, to be truthful, I’m not sure at this point whether or not I’ve got anything remotely truthful in me today….. I’m feeling rather political, and am experiencing a very strong urge to lie to people, just because I can…. Wait, is this a rant?…. Oops…

I’m going to have to exert some real effort today just to keep this from going completely off the rails…. and yet, it sure is attractive to think about letting myself be political for a day….. I mean, it must be really liberating to be able to lie whenever you feel like it. Even more liberating must be the feeling that one is entitled to lie in order to achieve one’s ends….

Ah well, that’s a state of mind that I would NOT be capable of assuming, anyway…. I’m afraid I have a tape in my memory, left there by my father, that would start playing if I ever lied for no justifiable purpose….. For me, it’s a foregone conclusion that, if I ever tried to lie like that, this tape, playing in my father’s voice, would leave me no peace at all until I had given up any such notion….

Now that I’ve completely lost my way…. Shall we Pearl?….

“A person of honor regrets a discreditable act even when it worked.” — Smart Bee

(I rest my case….)
_____________________________

Now that the budget crisis in Washington has reached some kind of near-resolution, and the country’s credit rating remains up in the fantasy level, while the imaginary numbers used for calculating our debt ceiling are once again considered as real numbers, I guess we can assume that things will return to relative normal, for the time being, until the NEXT crisis that develops to take our eyes off the more important stuff they don’t want us to think about….

For example, I found this article yesterday, from Mark Fiore, the Pulitzer-winning video artist and political commentator, whose brilliant political cartoon videos have punched countless politicians right where it hurts the most…. in their non-functioning moral sense…. This one is, as usual, perfectly timed to bring the awareness of new revelations about the spying being done by the NSA, at our POTUS’s insistence….

http://blog.sfgate.com/fiore/2013/10/16/new-from-the-nsa-internal-patriot-discovery/

“To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” — Leonardo da Vinci

The talking heads in Washington don’t want us to know this little piece of wisdom from Leo…. If too many normal folks became aware of this, and started to use their heads for something other than a hat rack, politicians would go the way of the dodo bird, and in short order….. But, that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, would it? Well, I don’t think so….. I think we, as a nation, could use a break from these idiots, and their posturing…. It’s been really hard the last few weeks, watching the news as those Tea Party assholes paraded their ignorance for all the world to see….

This time, their rhetoric has backfired on them; public confidence in politicians in general, and Republicans specifically, has NEVER been lower, which makes me happy as a, well, a clam, which, if you stop to think about it, is usually pretty happy, by all the available evidence…. I’ve added a link below to some of the more pointed political cartoons that were published during this mess we’ve just witnessed…. Some of them are pretty sharp, and all of them indicate pretty well how LITTLE respect for politicians remains, in the public’s perception, of the responsible parties specifically, and government as a whole….

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editorials/slideshow/Shutdown-madness-Recap-of-cartoons-on-the-fight-71244.php

There…. I feel better, and didn’t have to rant. I’m sure, in the final analysis, you will appreciate that, too….
_____________________________

Tomorrow begins another cruise for me, meaning this blog will go travelogue, but, one more Pearl will be posted before I take off for the boat…. The reason I note this now is because the anticipation is distracting me somewhat from getting this Pearl done with any dispatch…. I’m gazing off into space too much, thinking about stuff left to do today, and tomorrow, before we leave, at about 1 PM…. Thus, today’s poetry selection is one that you can trust, as I had to concentrate really hard just to get it done, so I went with what I know to be a winner…. I hope you enjoy today’s selections, both by the same author, as well as two of my favorite poems of all time….

A Caution To Everybody

Consider the auk;
Becoming extinct because he forgot how to fly, and could only walk.
Consider man, who may well become extinct
Because he forgot how to walk and learned how to fly before he thinked.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

Bankers Are Just Like Anybody Else, Except Richer

This is a song to celebrate banks,
Because they are full of money and you go into them and all
you hear is clinks and clanks,
Or maybe a sound like the wind in the trees on the hills,
Which is the rustling of the thousand dollar bills.
Most bankers dwell in marble halls,
Which they get to dwell in because they encourage deposits
and discourage withdrawals,
And particularly because they all observe one rule which woe
betides the banker who fails to heed it,
Which is you must never lend any money to anybody unless
they don’t need it.
I know you, you cautious conservative banks!
If people are worried about their rent it is your duty to deny
them the loan of one nickel, yes, even one copper engraving
of the martyred son of the late Nancy Hanks;
Yes, if they request fifty dollars to pay for a baby you must
look at them like Tarzan looking at an uppity ape in the
jungle,
And tell them what do they think a bank is, anyhow, they had
better go get the money from their wife’s aunt or ungle.
But suppose people come in and they have a million and they
want another million to pile on top of it,
Why, you brim with the milk of human kindness and you
urge them to accept every drop of it,
And you lend them the million so then they have two million
and this gives them the idea that they would be better off
with four,
So they already have two million as security so you have no
hesitation in lending them two more,
And all the vice-presidents nod their heads in rhythm,
And the only question asked is do the borrowers want the
money sent or do they want to take it withm.
Because I think they deserve our appreciation and thanks,
the jackasses who go around saying that health and happi-
ness are everything and money isn’t essential,
Because as soon as they have to borrow some unimportant
money to maintain their health and happiness they starve
to death so they can’t go around any more sneering at good
old money, which is nothing short of providential.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

_____________________________

At last! I’ve finally reached the third section, and, having fulfilled the required degree of thoughtful composition, using rantable material, grade three or higher, I am allowed to stop trying to think, and let Smart Bee pick out some pearls, sans my direction, which, at this point, would be detrimental, anyway…. Best I keep my hands out of it, for now…. Let’s see what kind of mood Smart Bee is in today, shall we?…..

“If you’re a preacher, you talk for a living, so even if you don’t make sense, you learn to make nonsense eloquently.” — Andrew Young
(Unusual candor from one of his species….)

“If a person with multiple personalities threatens suicide…. is that considered a hostage situation?” — Smart Bee

“When an elephant is in trouble even a frog will kick him.” — Hindu Proverb

“It isn’t so astonishing the number of things I can remember, as the number of things I can remember that aren’t so.” — Mark Twain

“I didn’t understand this at first, but YOUR CONVINCING USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS HAS MADE IT ALL CLEAR TO ME.” — J. Nairn

“Wherever I go, there I am, Pooh mused.” — A.A. Milne

Try it, you’ll like it. Trust me.

I have no explanation…. I also have no excuse, but, I don’t think I really need one, do you?…. It’s all just a mirage, you know, and, reality is only that which we all agree on, or, as Phil said, that which, when we stop believing in it, doesn’t go away…. unlike me, who will now do so…. go away, that is….
_____________________________

Having been there when it was written, I have some serious qualms about having to go back over it to proof for typos and/or grammar; it could cause some serious Windows-like brain-freeze…. Oh well, life is a risk, n’est pas?…

I knew I should have stayed in bed longer…. That was an ordeal of some magnitude, and, I still am not sure that it’s all perfectly sane… I guess that makes it a perfect Pearl, and I should just shut up now, and accept the inevitable…. 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

Plotting with obscene barristers …..

Posted on July 11, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Insofar as we ever have them around this blog, a typical day starts off with my staring at the screen of my computer, desperately searching through my brain for something coherent to say…. it seems today is a typical day, despite having a brain chock full of recent memories from which to choose. So full, I suppose, it makes the choosing of one over another difficult, as they are all quite appropriate and/or immediate, and equally enjoyable for me to recall. Luckily, today is not the only day I have to make the choice, merely the one we are caught in, destined to remain until the next one comes along….

Well, I see my time away hasn’t altered my pomposity a whit, nor has it dulled my skill at saying absolutely nothing with far too many words…. SIGH….. There are moments in this writing business when I begin to understand a little better the motivation those people who used to (and, I guess, still do….) flagellate themselves, whipping themselves with sticks, or reeds, or farm implements of one sort or another, until their backs are bowed and bloody…. They do it, I believe, to punish themselves for their sinful natures, or some such convoluted reason some preacher told them, while I only consider it as a sort of behavioral tool, kind of like one uses with a recalcitrant donkey, otherwise known as an ass….. Either way, I don’t suppose it’s the most intelligent procedure mankind has come up with, so I always pass on adopting it for personal use.

Something must be done, though…. I’m tired of spending so much mental energy trying to figure this out in the mornings, and need to find a way to shorten the process of introducing each Pearl for daily consumption, or whatever it is one does with one’s Pearl…. I’ve always left that up to the Gentle Reader, and have never inquired…. My life in the Big Blue Room is becoming a bit more complicated, now that I have a partner; I need to be able to complete this in a timely fashion, so I can go deal with reality while it is open for business, from 9 to 5, generally…..

I have to laugh at this point…. which I just did….. I’m sitting here, blithely typing away, when it occurs to me that this sort of babble is the most common result of my morning expostulations, and may just be the answer I seek…. Hmmm… new possibilities are coming into view, and I’ll need to look at them closely…. but, later. For now, I’ve noticed that this pile of drivel has grown to the point where I can call it sufficient unto the day’s need…. for which you may be eternally grateful, as am I…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“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
_____________________________

At first, when the following pearl began to formulate itself, I was quite pleased… It got away from me a bit, but then, with the final line, brought it all into perfect focus, if no less esoterically obscure in concept. In other words, it is a random pearl, with a message all its own…. I like it, anyway, so here you go….

“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.” — Leonardo da Vinci

“Besides learning to see, there is another act to be learned — not to see what is not.” — Maria Mitchell

“Don’t follow in my footsteps. I think I stepped in something.” — Smart Bee, speaking for gigoid

“The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.” — Cicero

“The universe is _intensely_ beautiful.” — Smart Bee

Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Agreed to have a battle;
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoilt his nice new rattle.

Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
As black as a tar-barrel;
Which frightened both the heroes so,
They quite forgot their quarrel.

— Lewis Carroll, “Through the Looking-Glass”

“What do they call a comedian who doesn’t get any laughs? A philosopher.” — Phil Proctor
_____________________________

Hell is the place of those who have denied;
They find there what they planted and what dug,
A Lake of Spaces, and a Wood of Nothing,
And wander there and drift, and never cease
Wailing for substance.

— William Butler Yeats, Responsibilities and Other Poems (1916).The Hour-Glass

My own urge to poem is still dormant, and it is something I daren’t push, lest it disappear altogether again for another 25 years….. I’m not sure I have that long to wait, though I certainly hope so…. To sublimate my own urge, I’ll go to the classics, always a favorite….

Church And State

HERE is fresh matter, poet,
Matter for old age meet;
Might of the Church and the State,
Their mobs put under their feet.
O but heart’s wine shall run pure,
Mind’s bread grow sweet.
That were a cowardly song,
Wander in dreams no more;
What if the Church and the State
Are the mob that howls at the door!
Wine shall run thick to the end,
Bread taste sour.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

_____________________________

Icy Point Strait is a new stop on the cruise ship itineraries, with no real docking facilities, so the ship anchors a few hundred yards offshore, ferrying visitors to land with tenders, holding about 100 folks of all ages and sizes at a time. It is very sparsely developed as yet, with only about forty-eleven gift shops, a native theater, and two food outlets, all housed in a couple of brand new looking buildings clustered near the small wharf where the passengers unload the tenders to come ashore.

The shops are filled with all the usual tourist items; t-shirts, caps, scarves, etc. with logos of the local attractions; native crafts, art, and artifacts; jewelry; one counter style restaurant serves reindeer chili and lots of salmon dishes, smoked or otherwise, and there is a bar and grill restaurant at the end of the zip-line, which runs from a small mountaintop nearby, about a quarter mile, down to the shore. A shuttle to nearby Hoonah, an “authentic Alaskan village”, runs every few minutes, to allow the visitors to experience the local amenities, such as the charming “unpaved roads and no stoplights” (direct quote from the shipboard information sheet)….

Shore excursions to go ziplining, searching for bears to photograph, or catch & barbecue salmon were popular for some (it is salmon spawning season, so the rivers are full of big, hungry fish), while others got on another boat to go watch whales in a nearby area where they tend to congregate. As a foodie, chef, and plain and simple glutton, I was compelled, naturally, to put myself through the ordeal of wading through the crowds, so as to be able to say I had tried the reindeer chili. Thus, milady and I bundled up (the weather was a bit overcast, though it only showered for a few minutes, and, as always up there, a bit cold when caught out in the wind…..), braved the crowds on the little boats for the five minute ride to land, and went to see what there was to see….

An hour and a half later, we had seen EVERYTHING, except the zipline, bears, and whales…. We even saw the salmon, as they were jumping out of the water near the cruise ship all day, on their way to the spawning streams…. It is a beautiful place, for sure, and some day will probably be home to resorts and winter sports venues galore, but currently, about the biggest thrill available is strapping onto a metal chair to slide a quarter of a mile down the side of a small mountain at about a hundred miles an hour on a zip line….. not my kind of activity….. Aside from having vertigo, which would make it very hard to even get me up there in the first place, I think I’d prefer to partake of that particular variety of fun a bit closer to a medical facility, in case of, well, zlip ups (sorry, couldn’t resist….).

Below are pictures of Icy Point, a fairly accurate account of what we saw, in the order we saw it, minus the shops and stuff…. Hope I was able to capture at least some of the beauty of the landscape…. it is indeed a gorgeous environment in which to live, if one likes snow, and the frontier life….

You may have noted that I didn’t say anything further about the chili, which was the ostensible reason for going ashore…. Final verdict: it was tasty, but, not exceptionally so, and wouldn’t constitute a compelling reason for going back there, just for that….
_____________________________

Well, that was harder than I had thought it would be, but, once again, I lived through it, and so will you, I believe…. Hopefully, today’s outburst isn’t too onerous of a read for y’all…. After this long around here, you should be tough enough for almost anything, right? Any who, let’s see how it looks….. Okay, okay, it’ll do…. I think…. Well, it will have to do, because I need to get it posted and get on with the day….. I hope y’all enjoyed today’s little catastrophe….. 🙂 Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Mostly, it’s just safer not to tango….

Posted on June 7, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
And then, I woke up….. The birds were not chirping, the sun wasn’t awake yet, and I am, thanks to the tender ministrations of that asshole deluxe, Murphy, shall we say, less than the happiest camper in the park….. But, then, what else is new? I can’t complain about the hour I was awakened; at 0538, I can’t call it anything but relatively normal. Nor can I, or will I, complain about the uncomfortable, yet also fairly normal, paroxysms of coughing that greeted me upon awakening; that’s my own damn fault for smoking…..

But, when the process of bullying me into arising for the day includes polka music at top volume, I draw a thick, indelible line, and it’s best not to cross it….. Who in the world listens to loud polkas before 6 AM? I mean, it’s effective, for sure; I’m as awake as I’ve ever been. But, the price for that isn’t acceptable to me, and that is for certain…. I don’t care who it is, next time I hear that before daylight, I’m buying a gun, a big one….. Of course, it COULD have been a hallucination, but, I have to ask myself, would my own mind do that to me?…. Polkas?…. I don’t think so….

Due to the mere fact that you are not in the room with me, none of y’all were able to observe the past 35 minutes of my morning, which did NOT include any writing, once the forgoing was on screen… It did, however, include much thinking about what to write, at least during those moments when I wasn’t being seduced into reading more pages of “Gaudy Night”, the Dorothy L. Sayers novel I’m currently devouring. A bit of Dorothy’s most excellent English prose, an extended period of successful worship at the throne, and the day takes on a whole new aspect, one with much more positive features than the one that first greeted me…. Best thing? The polka music went away…. either the radio’s owner got a clue, or my medication kicked in, whichever…. it’s all good, now…

Good enough that I can consider just getting on with the day’s portion of insanity, which, I’ve always said, is better out than in…. Keeping stuff like this inside my head leads to what we call “bad stuff” happening, and, my lawyers tell me I can’t afford for any more “bad stuff” to happen, at least until I’m off probation for the last time…. You do know that’s a joke, right?….

I’m not a known name and face to the local constabulary, (that I know of….), nor am I of particular interest to anyone outside the NSA, who are currently busy watching ALL OF US, at the behest of the government, under the authority of Article 215 of the Patriot Act, signed first by Bush in 2001, and re-signed, twice, by President Obama (didn’t know that, did ya?….)…. Yep, the White House, and all the paranoids in the clandestine (sub)intelligence agencies, are accessing your email, right off your internet mail server; your phone records, direct from the phone company; plus, they’re mining and harvesting just about any other data you leave out there for consumption, and they’re not even trying to hide it…. They don’t have to, it’s legal, we let them do it…..

Okay, I know, this is the intro section, and it’s too early to rant, so I’ll let all that go (although there isn’t a single untrue word in any of the previous paragraph… every word is corroborated by other evidence, available to anyone….)…. for the moment. I’m starting to get a bit pissed off about it, but, right now, I’m still engaged in my own battles with my HMO, which seems to have a problem with communication… and which, I found out, is also accessing my emails….. Yep, the “secure” email system they have, I discovered, isn’t secure at all, as almost anyone can look at the emails in the inbox they provide for me, on their site, as long as they’re part of the HMO…. Needless to say, I’m just a little angry about that, and intend to deal with it later today, when the rest of the world arises….

With that in mind, I suppose I’d best quit blathering, and get on with today’s effort…. If I don’t get to it soon, I’m going to end up hitting the archives again…. which, all things considered, isn’t a bad thing… It just doesn’t get all that much out of my head, unless I get lucky, and find an old rant that makes it all worthwhile…. For now, we’ll see what Smart Bee has to say this morning, and go from there….

Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

The intro section went so long on me, I am going old-school, right out of the gate, to give a little balance to this…. The pearls all picked themselves, so I have no clue as to what they mean, taken together…. But, upon looking them over, I can see that, once again, Smart Bee’s sense of whimsy, and irony, are both in full play….. Enjoy!…..

Pressed for rules and verities,
All I recollect are these:
Feed a cold and starve a fever.
Argue with no true believer.
Think too-long is never-act.
Scratch a myth and find a fact.

— Phyllis McGinley

“On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one’s mind. It becomes a pleasure.” — Oscar Wilde (1856-1900), from The Importance of Being Earnest

“Throw strikes. Home plate don’t move.” — Satchel Paige

“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.” — Leonardo da Vinci

“Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. . . . the human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.” — Frank Herbert, Dune

“A man who can fool chiefs, and even gods, must still face the monsters he himself created.” — Old Maori saying

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

— Deng Ming-Dao

There you go…. and, I’m sorry, but, if you can’t bring meaning out of THIS group of pearls, there is little hope of it ever happening, not without some serious practice, and learning to use one’s mind for something other than figuring out how to open potato chip packages…. 🙂
__________________________________

Some poetry can stand alone, sans embellishment by comment, and should be left to do so…..

The Bait

Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
With silken lines, and silver hooks.

There will the river whispering run
Warm’d by thy eyes, more than the sun;
And there the ‘enamour’d fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray.

When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Will amorously to thee swim,
Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.

If thou, to be so seen, be’st loth,
By sun or moon, thou dark’nest both,
And if myself have leave to see,
I need not their light having thee.

Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legs with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poor fish beset,
With strangling snare, or windowy net.

Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest
The bedded fish in banks out-wrest;
Or curious traitors, sleeve-silk flies,
Bewitch poor fishes’ wand’ring eyes.

For thee, thou need’st no such deceit,
For thou thyself art thine own bait:
That fish, that is not catch’d thereby,
Alas, is wiser far than I.

~~ John Donne ~~

__________________________________

“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.” — Leonardo da Vinci

I knew when I included this above that I would be using it another time in the future. It is such a succinct observation, and one that parallels my own thoughts about what happens in our minds, and in truth, about what our minds are…. “What is the mind?” Where is the proof, the hard evidence that our minds, our conscious self-awareness, actually exist in a real sense? We know, because we are inside it, that it exists; but is that existence really a part of the real world? If so, how do we know it, if not only by our own perception? I’m not entirely sure, myself, that this can be answered in any way other than by acknowledging those perceptions as having validity because we perceive them, which is, seemingly, a tautological impossibility….

“A reverence for life does not require one to respect nature’s obvious mistakes.” — Robert A. Heinlein

I realize this subject is not one common to most folks, especially early in the morning. I also will admit to knowing that much of what I’m saying is not particularly of interest to many people, but, I don’t write for many people. I write for me, to get out of my head all the stuff that otherwise would sit in there and cause havoc to my own equilibrium… It’s sort of an aftereffect of the course of my earlier life, admittedly a bit cumbersome, but, with the help of my trusty laptop, and a willingness to use time, given by my situation, to keep from building up so much angst and/or mental frustration that it starts to affect me adversely…. which is a polite, discrete way to say, it keeps me sane….

I think about stuff like this because, to me, it is important to know our own place in the scheme of things, and we can’t do that without a clear understanding of both ourselves, and the way we perceive, and react to, the universe at large; in other words, our response to our perceptions, and, ultimately, our response to Life. We determine our own happiness according to what we do with what we perceive, and I believe it is critical to stay aware of that process, and how we are utilizing what we perceive. It’s good to take out our attitudes now and again, to examine them for necessary updating, dusting off any acquired prejudices, and giving them a good shake to let them fall into the proper shape to pick up the clearest perceptions, in order to use them efficiently, and compassionately…..

“‘T is strange, but true; for truth is always strange,– Stranger than fiction.” — Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Don Juan, Canto xiv, Stanza 101

And so am I, for I live for the truth. I accept that as the proper price for the understanding I have of reality, and for my own always increasing ability to deal with it on my own terms. It does make me a bit conspicuous at times; probably why I don’t go out in public all that often. It gets chancy sometimes, trying to maintain a cloak of normalcy when I’m out in the Big Blue Room, so I tend to avoid most public venues, just to avoid controversy…. I’m social, but not sociable, if you catch my drift…..

Well, I see I’ve blathered on about this until it petered out…. Not much left to say, really, about Reality, and our perceptions, that I haven’t said before…. In life, “true power is control of the routes of perception.” — gigoid This is a universal truth, my own deduction, based on observation and historical fact. The BRC and the churches know this, and do everything they can to control what people perceive, and what they are allowed to believe. I have no illusions about the degree of their control over society… This knowledge gives me a certain degree of defense against such control, as knowing it is there is the first step to resisting its influence, or to making it appear as if I am allowing it to control me, while maintaining my own reality….

“I don’t think they could put him in a mental hospital. On the other hand, if he were already in, I don’t think they’d let him out.” — Smart Bee
__________________________________

The last line above might just be the most coherent of the lot….. Let’s see if the rest of it lives up to the advance reviews…. Well, it isn’t the worst to ever come down the pike… whatever that’s supposed to mean. It will do. Rather than saddling y’all with more of my lack of wit, I’ll call it a day, and hope for the best….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

The penny screamed when I pinched it….

Posted on December 1, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
What an odd sensation I’m experiencing this morning! I am awake, almost fully, it seems, but every bone and muscle in my body wants me to go back to sleep….. I can barely hold my head up from what feels like fatigue (after almost 10 hours in bed….), but my mind is alert and ready for the day, so to speak. Weird…. I’m typing while leaning on my right arm, and my back is bowed, all because I’m tired, or feel that way. I know I shouldn’t be tired, but, there you go…. More gifts from an aging body, I guess, and not one I’m going to worry about, or give in to. Not that I’m bursting with creativity or anything like that this morning…. I’m just tired of giving ground, and I’m not ready for my rocking chair yet….

Oops…. that was a conclusion, given too early, I think. Now I don’t know where to go with this intro section, having already delivered the punch line, so to speak. But, in keeping with the theme of no complaints, I’ll forge onward, despite the self-induced literary suicide I just performed. Well, suicide is maybe a bit harsh…. let’s just call it a faux pas, and let it go at that. A faux pas is much easier to repair than a suicide, that’s for sure…..

Trite, trite, trite…. what was I thinking? Oh well….. It’s looking like today may just be more of an adventure than even I was prepared for; so far, I’ve found myself performing several little contortions that do not bode well for the rest of the day. An egoistic curmudgeonly moment, followed immediately by clumsy lexicography are not the most hopeful signs of brilliance I can think of, off hand. This may take some rather severe mental contortions to make it to the end. Ah well, I had a feeling when I awoke that this would be one of those days, so I mentally “girded my grid for the big one”, as the bozos say….

Hmm…. “gird your grid for a big one” is a phrase that I see might need some clarification, but, oh well. Now is not the time, so unless you feel like plugging it into Google, to see if it knows where it is from, I guess you are S.O.L., as they say downtown, because I’m not going to do that right now. I could, but, I’m not…. leftover curmudgeon, I guess. But, I’ll soften enough to give you a hint…. it comes from one of the Firesign Theater’s albums, and the word “bozo” is a second hint….

Well, none of the above is going to win me any literary prizes, and I have sputtered through five or six paragraphs already, so it’s probably all for the best to go on to the regular program. Not that I think that will be of any use, or help…. this one is already too far off the tracks to worry about trying to get back on…. we’ll just wander through the uncharted territories today, and let the chips fall where they may…. Shall we Pearl?….
__________________________________

“I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics but for our contributions to the human spirit.” — former US President John F. Kennedy

At last! A worthy pearl! JFK, like the current President, was a superb public speaker, “Ich bin ein Berliner” notwithstanding, and whether he wrote his own words, or relied on his speech writers, he delivered, arguably, some of the most memorable, and insightful, aphorisms in US political and social history. The above statement is a perfect example, as he expresses a sentiment that can only be applauded, if not verified. I say verified because there is not a lot of verification from the past that history remembers anything BUT the battles. But, one can hope….

Actually, I believe what Jack said very strongly, in the sense that there are different histories that are remembered, most of which become altered in some way over time, as does all memory. The great teachers and philosophers who have lived have left their mark on the world in more ways than always show, in spite of the records of their deeds not always surviving intact. But, throughout history, there have been men, and women, who have done much to advance the human condition, whose words and deeds were never seen, and never recorded, but, nonetheless. whose effects still ripple down the river of time.

Some of the great minds in history, such as Lao Tzu, Zoroaster, Genghis Khan, Gautama Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Mohammed, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, and many others, all made such advances in the human spirit, and their ideas keep proving their worth every day by their relativity to modern society. Men like Leonardo da Vinci, whose genius was so bright it shines even today, and modern philosopher/scientists such as Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking, have advanced that human spirit as much as anyone.

I’m not being as eloquent as I’d wish for such a deep subject…. What I’m trying to get to here is that we all, each and every one of us, have the power and opportunity to do the same as these historical figures, to advance the human spirit, just by the way we live our lives. What the philosophers say, and write, and the wisdom they pass on, is all very good, and a lesson to the rest of us…. But, what the average person does every day in their lives is just as important to the future as any scientific breakthrough, because what they do will determine what their children learn, and THAT is where the advancement really takes place, in the moments of teaching that happens every moment for children, and their adult teachers.

Living a life of integrity, with honesty and duty as the watchwords for action, is the best teaching method there is; to provide a good example for a child holds no less promise for mankind than all the work of all the genius’ of all time. How each one of us approaches life will, in the end, determine what happens to our species as a whole. It isn’t easy, especially given all of the people in society who do NOT wish to have any part of advancing anything but their own interests…. especially when so many of those kinds of people are in positions of authority. But, it can be done, and is done, every day, by millions of men and women of good spirit…. They are truly the future of mankind, and, if there is any hope for survival, it lies in their honest hands….

“So live that you can look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell.” — Smart Bee
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The Wild Old Wicked Man

BECAUSE I am mad about women
I am mad about the hills,’
Said that wild old wicked man
Who travels where God wills.
‘Not to die on the straw at home.
Those hands to close these eyes,
That is all I ask, my dear,
From the old man in the skies.
Daybreak and a candle-end.

‘Kind are all your words, my dear,
Do not the rest withhold.
Who can know the year, my dear,
when an old man’s blood grows cold? ‘
I have what no young man can have
Because he loves too much.
Words I have that can pierce the heart,
But what can he do but touch?’
Daybreak and a candle-end.

Then Said she to that wild old man,
His stout stick under his hand,
‘Love to give or to withhold
Is not at my command.
I gave it all to an older man:
That old man in the skies.
Hands that are busy with His beads
Can never close those eyes.’
Daybreak and a candle-end.

‘Go your ways, O go your ways,
I choose another mark,
Girls down on the seashore
Who understand the dark;
Bawdy talk for the fishermen;
A dance for the fisher-lads;
When dark hangs upon the water
They turn down their beds.
Daybreak and a candle-end.

‘A young man in the dark am I,
But a wild old man in the light,
That can make a cat laugh, or
Can touch by mother wit
Things hid in their marrow-bones
From time long passed away,
Hid from all those warty lads
That by their bodies lay.
Daybreak and a candle-end.

‘All men live in suffering,
I know as few can know,
Whether they take the upper road
Or stay content on the low,
Rower bent in his row-boat
Or weaver bent at his loom,
Horseman erect upon horseback
Or child hid in the womb.
Daybreak and a candlc-cnd.

‘That some stream of lightning
From the old man in the skies
Can burn out that suffering
No right-taught man denies.
But a coarse old man am I,
I choose the second-best,
I forget it all awhile
Upon a woman’s breast.’
Daybreak and a candlc-end.

~~ William Butler Yeats
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“The sage wears clothes of coarse cloth but carries jewels in his bosom; He knows himself but does not display himself; He loves himself but does not hold himself in high esteem. Thus he rejects the latter and takes the former.” — Lao-Tzu

In spite of how it must appear, there is a small degree of organization to this blog’s contents. Most days I try to make sure that the first and third sections, while possibly related, are essentially about different concepts. The second section is, of course, reserved for whatever poetry strikes my fancy that day, whether classic, humorous, or original (Though it does seem that my recent outpouring of original poems has run dry, I don’t think I’m done with that, yet…..). It seems to work for me…. well enough, at least, to keep my internal critics quiet most of the time.

Today, it seems that most of what I’m seeing for pearls are related somehow to what I spoke of peripherally in today’s first section, to wit: the importance of integrity in human life. Integrity…. hmm…. not the precise word, or the characteristic I am thinking of, actually; it’s more than merely integrity. I suppose one could say the concept to which I’m referring is too mystical an idea to be presented clearly, and not be too far off the mark….

However, not being one to ignore a challenge to my vocabulary, I’ll take a few unseen moments here and find the correct word to facilitate further discussion, because, hey, if I can’t, no discussion, right? Right…. Be right back…. instantly, by all you will know and see….. Well, the challenge is a strong one, and I think best answered with more than one word to describe what I’m trying to say. Those words are all contained in Axiom #7 of Peruaosophy, to wit: Do your Duty. Honor the Truth. Respect Life. Share your Love.

I know that it is my own philosophy, and some may think that is cheating, but, not so. All that I hold to be true is in that axiom, and it represents the four cornerstones of my personal foundation. I find that when I am able to live up to all of these concepts, when I am able to use their direction in guiding my actions, my life is much smoother, and my moments of joy are plentiful, to balance the pain that life brings all of us in turn. This, to me, is the best way to advance the human condition, little by little, with the efforts of each man and woman adding its weight to the forward momentum.

Yes, the actions and discoveries that the best of history’s minds bring to us are wonderful, and work to make the lives of every human better…. It is the everyday efforts of each man, though, that takes that wisdom and turns it into reality, by using ideas, and integrity, to add their experience to that of the rest of society. Since there is a large number of folks who do NOT subscribe to this kind of ethical behavior, choosing to make their own self-interest their primary concern, it is the duty of those who do believe in these ideas to carry them out as best they may, so that the world can retain some semblance of harmony. It doesn’t always work, and, in fact, is in constant jeopardy of not working at all, but, it is the only way that will make the changes our society needs to survive…. which is another discussion for another time…..

“And now there is merely silence, silence, silence, saying all we did not know.” — William Rose Benet
__________________________________

All in all, not a bad start to December. Now, if the configuration issues I noted yesterday on my site have been cleared up by my renewal of the domain name, all will be well. I am hopeful, if not sanguine…. And, if I want to get this posted today in time to get anything else constructive done, I’d best draw this to a close…. No poem, yet, but, I think you’ll like what I’ve added there…. I’m off to the library and farmer’s market…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

C’mon, it’s only twins! Bonus time….

Posted on March 23, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
I’ve tried to play nice. I like to think I’m a patient man, and I’m probably wrong, most of the time. But not this time; I have been patient. Since my first outburst of anger and disbelief, over a week and a half ago, I haven’t even mentioned it, except in passing. As said, I’ve been patient, but I’m done with that now…..

Close to two weeks ago, I contacted WordPress Support, to report that I was having difficulty accessing certain blog sites around WP, a problem that sometimes included not being able to access my own site, unless viewing it as a visitor; when signed in, I was blocked from my site, and a number of others. Each attempt to access those sites, usually from a link in the notification emails I get when one of the blogs I follow posts a new article or poem, sends me to a blank error page, and the path to get there involves a remote login location, different each time.

It wouldn’t be so bad, I suppose, if the sites I couldn’t get to were some that I was not too familiar with, or wasn’t that into (though I haven’t found any of those). But, they’re not…. they are all favorites, sites I’ve been following daily since I found them. I’m still trying to stay convinced that it isn’t deliberate, or a conspiracy, because of the sites blocked, at least four of them are rather pointed in their posts, the point generally pointed in the direction of the PTB in the USA, and very vocal in their support of their politics, and critical of the politics of their opposite numbers in society.

But, whatever the content, I can’t get to them to read, or comment on their work….. it’s been very frustrating. If any of the following are reading today, please forgive me for not being around; I can’t do anything about it right now; but I won’t stop complaining, either…. the sites I cannot get access to include: Jueseppi’s at the Obamacrat; allaboutlemon, Dolly’s site, including the Art Game; Vina Kent’s site; 3chicspolitico, can’t get there: starsrainsunmoon.com, Mari Cayuso’s poetry & photos site; Cauldrons & Cupcakes; Tony’s blog, Finding Subjects; and a few others I don’t remember offhand…..

So, if I don’t hear from WordPress today, which I have come to believe is not going to happen, (they have been ignoring me now for well over a week), then tomorrow I will begin my siege….. I will flood the Support section with emails and support requests (though I have already sent seven such requests, only one of which received any response at all). I will again post about the problems here on this blog. And, I will request that everyone else join me in a big raspberry for the Support department, which has been strangely silent throughout this entire ordeal.

If I still get no response, I will ask for my money back, for the domain name I am supposed to own and control, but which I cannot even consistently view. And I won’t stop there…. there are more damaging places to post such complaints, PR-wise, and I guarantee, I’ll find them…. I don’t like being ignored, and I’m more than just a little pissed off about this. Mostly it’s the lack of response that gets me; I just don’t understand why communicating with me is such a hard thing to do. It’s not like I’m hiding or anything; I’m right here every day….. and the posts are here to prove it…..

Enough!…. this nonsense has taken up enough time and energy, that could be better spent elsewhere…. and now will be. Shall we Pearl?….. I think so….
___________________________________

One of the most perverse things about the universe is that it doesn’t care what you believe. – Anonymous, our old friend….

Due primarily to that aspect of human nature called the Talent of Reality Denial, this is a hard concept for many Americans to comprehend, especially those hampered by a Christian upbringing, an unfortunately large figure. Christians are taught from an early age that the universe DOES care what they believe; they are desperate for that to be true (because if it isn’t, then they are not special, or privileged by birth; there is nothing concrete to indicate in any way that they are intrinsically better than anything else on this planet….), so, by their belief, they make it so, for them.

For these folks, entitlement, and its concomitant arrogance, come naturally, as a side-effect of considering themselves to be “chosen” by God, that it is their destiny to be His favored children. This belief bestows on them a heavenly mandate to utilize all the earth’s resources, animal, plant, mineral, water, etc., solely for their own benefit (which they generally interpret as permission to rape and pillage the rest of creation, because, by God, the Bible tells them it is their right, and their just reward for their faith). Looked at from a rational point of view, this is, of course, poodwaddle of the highest degree (I don’t think I made up that word; I’m sure I’ve seen it elsewhere….. sure fits, doesn’t it?…)

So, it becomes clear why so much time and energy is spent on divisive arguments over morality, and in public debate over the advisability of following the completely self-destructive policies of these self-styled Lords of Creation, right up to the point of extinction. It can’t be otherwise, when those who regard themselves as having heavenly mandate refuse to give up their privileged status, and are unwilling to even consider any other options. In the tiny little black holes they call their minds, any hint of such a rational viewpoint is automatically and viciously rejected out of hand as being a danger to their way of life.

It’s odd, really, that there are so many things in the universe that are a danger to their way of looking at things; it’s like they have no faith at all in their faith, or in each other, and suspect themselves of giving in to temptation at every turn. Makes one wonder just how much faith and belief they really feel about their dogma, if they are so fearful it will be forsaken at first opportunity…..

I think it would be a sad and fearful way to go through life, never feeling comfortable about the universe, always expecting it to try to turn me into my worst nightmare…. a thinking, rational being….. and regardless of whether these folks believe it, or not, the universe just doesn’t give a shit…. at all….. massive, immutable indifference is the best we can expect…. thank you, Universe!…….

“How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?” — Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Sign of Four
___________________________________

EXCERPTS FROM LIFE’S LITTLE INSTRUCTION BOOK, VOLUMES I AND II

35. Plant a tree on your birthday.
47. Don’t waste time learning the “tricks of the trade.” Instead, learn the trade.
53. Vote.
68. Be brave. Even if you’re not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference.
100. Read the Bill of Rights.
198. Feed a stranger’s expired parking meter.
209. Observe the speed limit.*
267. Lie on your back and look at the stars.
271. When facing a difficult task, act as though it is impossible to fail. If you’re going after Moby Dick, take along the tartar sauce.
322. Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Theresa*, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.
393. Learn how to operate a Macintosh computer.*
513. Never laugh at anyone’s dreams.
558. Never betray a confidence.
595. Be the first to fight for a just cause.
817. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
939. Never be ashamed of your patriotism.
— H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

I’ve seen some of these on previous dives, but never found so many in one batch before….. Most of the ones I’ve seen are like these…. pretty good advice, all in all. In this list, my only hesitancy involves # 209, which obviously needs a qualifier statement, #322, a list from which I would delete Mother Theresa (she already has enough time in her day; she doesn’t need any more time to fuck with anybody else, adding to all the smarmy, self-serving false piety she already gets away with…..) and # 393, which is just sick…. no, not sick, just foolishly naive…. the rest of them are stuff that I can get behind, and would even consider pushing, if stalled….
___________________________________

Here are a few historical observations on our preferred form of public entertainment……

“Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.” — Plato, The Republic. Book VIII. 558

“Democracy is more cruel than wars or tyrants.” — Seneca, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium CIV, c. 63

“Termiter’s argument that God is His own grandmother generated a surprising amount of controversy among Church leaders, who on the one hand considered the argument unsupported by scripture but on the other hand were unwilling to risk offending God’s grandmother.” — Len Cool, American Pie (Okay, it’s not political, but, hey, funny, right?….) (and kind of appropriate, if I stop to think about it…..) (kind of sounds similar to, and no more believable than, the current controversy over creationism and evolution….)

“I contemplate with sovereign reverence the act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and state.” — Thomas Jefferson, to the Danbury (Connecticut) Baptist Association in 1802 (Whoops! How’d he get in here?….)

“Man is a religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion – several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight.” — Mark Twain — The Damned Human Race (Okay, okay…. busted! Religion and politics seem to have merged in my mind this morning…. funny how that happens…. but it still fits the category, so, deal….)

and, on a final note, let’s combine the two previously revealed (reviled?) culprits in one fine, almost-a-limerick plea for mercy….

Dear Lord, observe this bended knee
This visage meek and humble,
And hear this confidential plea
Voiced in reverent mumble:
Give me Shylock, give me Fagin
But O God spare me Ronald Reagan!
— Ansel Adams

If God is omnipotent, why does he need my money? (Sorry, couldn’t resist…. I’m done for now…..)
___________________________________

Haiku

A muse long absent
panicky fear consuming
creativity.

Shameless, isn’t it, what we will do, when nothing else will do?….. But all things considered, not too shabby….
___________________________________

Statistics and their use allow one to jump from an unwarranted assumption to a preconceived conclusion without so much as even a slight hesitation. The use of such condensed information allows that compendious information may be sufficiently reduced to facilitate discussion among experts who can interpret the findings without any relation whatsoever to reality. — Anonymous, dammit….

It is frustrating, to say the least, to find a beautifully reasoned, perfectly clear statement of the obvious such as this, and not be able to congratulate or praise the author. It sounds like something Dave Barry would have said, if a bit more slangly than this seems to be. Or, possibly, Mark Twain, though he also tended to simplify his writing to more resemble actual speech. But, whoever wrote this is someone with whom I’d enjoy spending time, drinking wine and dissecting the rest of humanity’s foibles and incredible diversity…. I think I’d enjoy it a lot….
___________________________________

I find myself this morning to be completely discombobulated…. Now, this may seem to be a rather radical claim, considering the relatively well-organized material I’ve just produced, despite its tendency to skip from one concept to the next with little or no warning or preparation. Nonetheless, it is true…. and here is why…..

It is now 0512, military time…. that’s a touch after 5 AM to the rest of us in this time zone on the west coast of the US, which means I’ve been at this for just over three hours now, having arisen at a few minutes after 2 AM, abandoning all my futile attempts to shut off my mind and return to dreamland. Not that I ever got very far into that fabled place; it’s tough to do so when one must get every other hour or so to deal with either pain, muscle spasms, or just plain restlessness.

SIGH…. life is tough, n’est pas? This too shall pass, I’m sure… when I’m tired enough, I’ll sleep. But, meantime, it gets my schedule all turned around… company coming today, around 1130 or so, and by then I’ll be approaching zombie status…. it could be worse; it could be someone I don’t want to see who is coming, so I’ll just suck it up, put a period on this, and get on with it…. just gotta figure out what to do now, and for the next six hours until my friend arrives…. piece o’cake….. Y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Rare memories of lucidity, squared….

Posted on February 5, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Perhaps my favorite way to start the day is like today…..oblivious. Waking up all the way doesn’t seem to be in the cards this morning; I’m well into the second cuppa, and my eyes still feel grainy & heavy, and my brain is threatening severe consequences if I continue to flog it in this fashion. But it will just have to learn how to deal, because it’s too late now; I’m on a roll. Fingers flying, thoughts racing, passion unleashed, check, check, check. Let’s boogie!….

Oh, by the way….the doctors were finally able to pinpoint what was wrong with me. I have been diagnosed with “witzelsucht” (vit’sel-zoocht) [Ger.] “A mental condition characteristic of frontal lobe lesions and marked by the making of poor jokes and puns and the telling of pointless stories, at which the patient himself is intensely amused.” That explains it……
___________________________________

“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

T’is sad, is it not, that this natural law has been rescinded in our case? Modern technology and medicine have made it possible for those born stupid to have the protection and nurturing of society, allowing them to live long enough to breed, thus ensuring that mankind will never run out of them. (More’s the pity….) Society has taken this so far as to print warning labels on the most innocuous of presumably dangerous items, like, for example, a warning on shampoo to not drink it. Seems a bit over the top to me, but for some reason, society seems to feel that people shouldn’t have to experience the results of their own stupidity; instead they attempt to legislate certain types of stupidity out of existence, and assume that will solve the problem.

But this is the type of problem that builds up over time; as more and more really dumb folks continue to live and breed more of their ilk, society is slowly “dumbed down”. Soon, the number of people who have difficulty remembering how to tie their shoes on Thursdays will have increased to the point where they become a majority group, and stupidity will become even more fashionable, and more difficult to keep from preventing all progress. In fact, in looking over the latest news out there, it may already be too late……
___________________________________

“I share the belief of many of my contemporaries that the spiritual crisis pervading all spheres of Western industrial society can be remedied only by a change in our world view. We shall have to shift from the materialistic, dualistic belief that people and their environment are separate, toward a new consciousness of an all-encompassing reality, which embraces the experiencing ego, a reality in which people feel their oneness with animate nature and all of creation.” — Dr. Albert Hoffman

I find it to be a saddening thought that, as mildly and innocuously as this statement is constructed, it would nonetheless serve no purpose as an introduction to the subject for anyone who actually needed to make the described changes. (See above) In other words, this is preaching to the choir, and nobody who is not in the choir is going to pay any attention to it, regardless of the truth it speaks, just because it isn’t written passionately, or in a way that will appeal to their self-interest (it’s too complex; most folks won’t follow it easily, and will give up after a few words).

Personally, I think it is a perfect statement of what is necessary if humanity is to survive the next hundred years, or less; though scientifically certain, it depends on several factors, any of which could have an effect on the time we have left, plus or minus. Kind of like stopping smoking will affect one’s chances of cancer or other cardio-pulmonary disease, and just as final, only species-wide. Unfortunately, as soon as one of the misguided reads the words “spiritual crisis”, they will turn their attention off, for sure and certain. Their personality’s primary concern is meeting their own wants, which they regard as needs, and that process doesn’t include the consideration of changing anything but their underwear…..and they would just scratch their heads and shuffle off in confusion at how Chief Seattle, quoted below, states the underlying reason they will never comprehend…..

“[T]he earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” — Chief Seattle, 1854 (c.1786-1866)
___________________________________

Yar: “Captain Jean-Luc Picard, I wish I could say you’ve been like a father to me, but I’ve never had one so I don’t know what it feels like. But if there
was one person in this universe who I would choose to be like, someone who I would want to make proud of me, it’s you. You who have the heart of an
explorer and the soul of a poet. So you’ll understand when I say, ‘Death is that state in which one exists only in the memory of others’, which is why it
is not an end. No goodbyes, just good memories. Hailing frequencies closed, sir.” — “Skin Of Evil”, Stardate 41601.3.

I’m not sure why, though I have my guesses, but, when I first read this, it brought tears to my eyes; and as I sit here writing this, they continue to flow….. I didn’t see this episode, as I’d already given up on TV, for the most part, by the time it aired. But, I understand the relationship between Yar and Picard, having seen a few of the previous shows, which gave some of the back story. But that’s not why I cried; I’m pretty sure it was the phrase “if there was one person in this universe who I would choose to be like, someone who I would want to make proud of me, it’s you.”

That says it all to me, perfectly. It is how I have always looked at my father, and can only hope that my son feels the same of me, if he doesn’t already. That sentiment is why we live, it is our purpose, to instill in our children the desire to emulate what we acted out for them. No other purpose is needed to make a life worthwhile, to make it complete. There is no greater reward, either, than to watch your children face their lives with dignity and courage. To my mind, my father excelled at his purpose, and if I did half as well as him, then I will know I have done well, indeed…..
___________________________________
“[There is] a duty in refusing to cooperate in any undertaking that violates the Constitutional rights of the individual. This holds in particular for all inquisitions that are concerned with the private life and the political affiliations of the citizens…” — Albert Einstein

Funny, how a very fundamentally American sentiment should be so aptly put by a man who grew up speaking German. I suppose it is time for me to discontinue using so many of Albert’s documented pearls, until I go learn a few more details of his life. I just now realized, as I pondered this quote, that I have very little actual knowledge of the events that led him to be the man he was by the time of his death in the latter half of the twentieth century. Most of what I know consists of stories about his scientific activities, and his philosophical utterances. Oh Boy! Something new to look up & study! Frabjous joy! (and in the words of Nora Roberts, “yes, I capitalize the “N” in “Nerd”). I’ll be back after I’ve assuaged my curiosity and fed the elephant’s child a nourishing diet of information, and stimulated the fountain of unrepentant data mastication…. and, no, I have no more idea of what that means than you do. Hopefully, I’ll be all better when I return to this…..

Mmm….that was tasty. Wikipedia provided a nice little repast of Albert’s early years, which were surprising in certain respects. He was literally a man of the world, having traveled with his family at an early age, only living in Austria later in life, just prior to World War II. He was nationalized as an American citizen in 1940. In retrospect, I must say that we, as Americans, can only be glad that he came here and espoused our philosophy of government, which he evidently did much more thoroughly than most native born citizens.

Actually, I’ve found that to be true of most immigrants that I have known; those who become citizens have a deeper understanding, and appreciation, of the intentions of the founding fathers when they created this Union. We are also very fortunate that one of history’s true genius’s, on a par with Leonardo da Vinci and Socrates, has seen fit to grace us with his elegant thoughts, which are characterized by his compassion, his genius, and his clarity of vision. He makes a great ‘funny face’ too, when somebody asks him the meaning of life…….
___________________________________

A doctor, an architect, and a computer scientist were arguing about whose profession was the oldest. In the course of their arguments, they got all the way back to the Garden of Eden, whereupon the doctor said, “The medical profession is clearly the oldest, because Eve was made from Adam’s rib, as the story goes, and that was a simply incredible surgical feat.”
The architect did not agree. He said, “But if you look at the Garden itself, in the beginning there was chaos and void, and out of that, the Garden and the world were created. So God must have been an architect.”
The computer scientist, who had listened to all of this said, “Yes, but where do you think the chaos came from?”

I find that, in general, a lot of folks don’t think about how they perceive the universe. I don’t mean in a physical sense; anyone who’s had an earache or toothache knows exactly how those tools function, on a very basic level. No, I’m referring to the very essence of what we perceive, the nature of how our minds are constructed to function. Every one of our senses depends on the concept of duality in nature; life, and everything life perceives is dark or light, light or heavy, sweet or sour, savory or bland, hot or cold, air or vacuum, loud or soft, melodious or discordant, etc., ad infinitum. Even life itself mirrors this duality, for how would we know we were alive, if we had not once been dead?

Every one of our senses is based on the sense of touch, in one form or another. Eyes require light to strike the retina, as differentiated from lack of light. Ears require vibrations in the molecules of the air to differentiate noise from silence. Smell, taste, both require the presence or absence of certain molecules to comprehend the data they receive. And nerve endings in the skin require pressure or another form of energy such as kinetic, gravitational, or electromagnetic (heat from a fire, cold from the snow, UV rays from the Sun, sharp or dull objects, soft or hard, etc.)

And how do we think? We think the same way, understanding our perceptions according to value judgments we make, and labeling them for use in the future. Our sight is clear, or limited, what we hear is also clear, or limited, or blocked. And our thoughts themselves are judged, as logical or illogical, as valuable or ineffective, as profound or simple. It is our nature to perceive, and to imagine new patterns in what we perceive, subtle, and complex, or astutely simple. It may be the only ability we possess as humans that will eventually save us from our own folly…..
___________________________________

It’s been an interesting morning so far….. tough going in spots, smooth in others. It all came together fairly well, though I had to rely just a bit on some work done prior to today; s’okay, though, the nice thing about today is that there is always another one tomorrow. So far, anyway….. y’all take care out there…..

Sometimes I sits and thinks,

and sometimes

I just sits.

gigoid

Kowabunga!

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: Leonardo da Vinci

To sell it, you MUST believe it…

Weeding dead paradigms is honest labor….

Alarms, and sirens, and gunshots, oh my!….

Plotting with obscene barristers …..

Mostly, it’s just safer not to tango….

The penny screamed when I pinched it….

C’mon, it’s only twins! Bonus time….

Rare memories of lucidity, squared….

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