Tag Archives: Life

Arbitrary signs of healing, again…..

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Ffolkes,
“Fall back! Quickly! Don’t think, just go!”…rushing through the dark, breathless and bone-deep in fear. Whispers followed, hissing “run! run!. The swollen moon above gives only shadows in the dark underworld beneath the trees, and each step is driven by the flickers of fear still running along his nerves. Branches whipping the face, panting with the sheer force of adrenaline, he bursts into a clearing. Ahead, outlined in stark, bright light from lamps hung among them trees, he sees what he most fears, the obstacle to his most cherished dreams….. his editor had arrived, and the shit would now hit the fan……
So, what? You expected bagels and lox, maybe?….read on, you’ll get over it…..
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When I ‘m not thank’d at all, I ‘m thank’d enough;
I ‘ve done my duty, and I ‘ve done no more.
— Henry Fielding (1707-1754) — Tom Thumb the Great, Act i, Sc. 3

Well said, Tom! Too often in today’s society do we see men who don’t understand this about duty. Hell, these days one can barely find a man who knows what duty is, much less how to fulfill it honorably. Duty is not something that anyone else can tell you, or give you, or make you see or do. Duty is a choice.

It is a man’s most honorable choice, and once assumed, may not be put down until finished. It is, in the final analysis, what determines the character of a man. There is no reward for doing one’s duty, other than self-respect, and none should be expected. Thanks are also not necessary, for the honor in the act lies not in how other people see it, but in how the man himself regards it.


Many confuse duty with the responsibilities given to them by others; they are not the same. A man may have other responsibilities, but those were not of choice, and thus are not duty. Duty is ONLY chosen, never assigned, and it can’t be given away. The only honorable path is to fulfill it oneself, as is expected when it is assumed. It is the true path to leading a life with honor, and for a “real man”, honor is everything. Death is preferable to loss of honor…..and that is what is missing today in a lot of men……
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“The major problem–ONE of the major problems, for there are several–one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.” To summarize: it is a well known fact that those people who must WANT to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.  To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.” — Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

Couldn’t have said it better myself….. but, having many times covered the same theme, with perhaps less humorous expression, I can recognize when it is well spoken….People are definitely a problem. And the people who want power over others are the biggest problem we have as humans. It is this single characteristic of a particular segment of humanity that has kept us from progressing to a fully civilized existence. As long as there are people who insist on everything being done “their way”, humanity will never reach its true potential.

In spite of the assurances from the beloved ruling class that what they do is for our benefit, this intransigence is keeping us from progressing beyond the larval stage. In a truly enlightened society, no man is greater or lesser than any other; tell me if you can think of one society, either now, or in the past, in which this was true. I’ll tell you right off, though, you won’t be able to think of any, because it has yet to happen on this planet. And it never will, unless we humans rein in those bozos, and send them off to rehabilitation….
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“You who’ve lost the concept of a right, you who swing in impotent evasiveness between the claim that rights are a gift of God, a supernatural gift to be taken on faith, or the claim that rights are a gift of society, to be broken at its arbitrary whim — the source of man’s rights is not divine law or congressional law, but the law of identity.  A is A — and Man is Man.  Rights are conditions of existence required by man’s nature for his proper survival.If man is to live on earth, it is right for him to use his mind, it is right to act on his own free judgment, it is right to work for his values and to keep the product of his work.  If life on earth is his purpose, he has a right to live as a rational being:  nature forbids him the irrational.  Any group, any gang, any nation that attempts to negate man’s rights, is wrong, which means: is evil, which means: is anti-life.” — John Galt

A very well-thought out and scripted statement from Mr. Galt; on first examination, it would be difficult to find any flaws in his logic. A second examination upholds that judgment, as well. Which leads me to conclude that every politician alive today is evil. If any of them aren’t, well, they never speak up, and silence is the strongest tool of those who prey upon the rest of society. What’s that old saw, “there is no need for evil to act, as long as men are silent in the face of oppression”? Something like that….or, “all that is required for evil to win is for good men to be silent”. That’s a little better said, though I forget who said it.

The point is, we are, as a society, moving rapidly toward self-extinction (and if you disagree, please, please offer me some evidence that what I’m saying isn’t so! Just one little piece of verifiable fact would suffice to create a discussion). If we don’t stop these fools, they’re going to drag the rest of us down with them into the abyss……
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A monk sat with his three students. He took out his  fan and placed it in front of him, saying, “Without calling it a fan, tell me what this is.”

The first said, “You couldn’t call it a slop-bucket.” The master poked him with his stick.

The second picked up the fan and fanned himself. He too was rewarded with the stick.

The third opened the fan, laid a piece of cake on it, and served it to his teacher. The teacher said, “Eat your cake.”

The question to consider here is, what did the student tell the teacher about the fan?  How would you describe his answer in words? My answer to both questions would be: The fan is, first of all, an opportunity to be of use. It is, as we are, best used in service to others. If you can think of another way to say it, feel free to submit your thoughts, and we can discuss them in a future Pearl……
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“Speak, thou vast and venerable head,” muttered Ahab, “which, though ungarnished with a beard, yet here and there lookest hoary with mosses; speak, mighty head, and tell us the secret thing that is in thee.  Of all divers, thou has dived the deepest.  That head upon which the upper sun now gleams has moved amid the world’s foundations.   Where unrecorded names and navies rust, and untold hopes and anchors rot; where in her murderous hold this frigate earth is ballasted with bones of millions of the drowned; there, in that awful water-land, there was thy most familiar home.  Thou hast been where bell or diver never went; has slept by many a sailer’s side, where sleepless mothers would give their lives to lay them down.  Thou saw’st the locked lovers when leaping from their flaming ship; heart to heart they sank beneath the exulting wave; true to each other, when heaven seemed false to them. Thou saw’st the murdered mate when tossed by pirates from the midnight deck; for hours he fell into the deeper midnight of the insatiate maw; and his murderers still sailed on unharmed–while swift lightnings shivered the neighboring ship that would have borne a righteous husband to outstretched, longing arms. O head! thou has seen enough to split the planets and make an infidel of Abraham, and not one syllable is thine!” — Herman Melville (1819-1891), “Moby Dick”

Now I’m glad I never read this book…..I gave up on reading this paragraph about half-way through, and have no desire whatsoever to subject myself any further to such drivel. It reminds me of The Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner, which, as we all know, was written under the influence of opiates….. I suppose people thought this was good because they couldn’t understand it, and were too embarrassed to say so, thinking they would appear foolish and illiterate. Naw…..it’s just crap, and I don’t care who thinks otherwise…..

Iago. She was a wight, if ever such wight were,–
Des. To do what?
Iago. To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.
Des. O most lame and impotent conclusion!
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Othello — Act ii, Sc. 1

Sorry folks. Ditto….. not everything Shakespeare wrote was good….and this is particularly bad….
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Another day, another 42 cents…..this treatise won’t be available on my site until after 8 PM tonight. I am participating in the internet-wide protest against SOPA, the internet piracy bill now before Congress. Please use one of the available methods to add your voice to others in protest. If this bill passes, virtually half or more of all websites would be taken down, just because someone else didn’t approve of it. Censorship at its worst. And after you’ve registered your disapproval, please come on back and enjoy today’s Pearl….. y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

In a manner of speaking…..

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Ffolkes,
Mornings such as this are becoming all too familiar. I sit here and stare at the monitor, waiting for an idea to float up to the surface of my mind, where I can pluck it up and lay it out for all to see. But, nothing is floating. The stream of consciousness keeps flowing by; I can feel the current. But, nothing is jumping into the net, or onto shore to flop around, and the baited hook is being ignored. Oh well, I suppose I’ll have to wing it; that’s better than diving in to catch ’em by hand……
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Q: “You’re right, of course.  I’m extraordinarily selfish.  But it has served me so well in the past.”
Picard: “It will not serve you here.”
Q: “Don’t be so hard on me, Jean-Luc.  You’ve been mortal all of your life, you know about dying.  I’ve never even given it a second-thought…or a first one for that matter.  I could’ve been killed.  If it hadn’t been for Data, and that brief little he created, I would’ve been gone.  No more me.  And no one would’ve missed me, would they?” — “Deja Q”, Stardate 43539.1

And right there is the answer to the question, why should one live with compassion and truth, honor and duty? Because if you don’t, NO ONE will miss you when you’re gone. Can there be a sadder way to die? Or, worse yet, a sadder way to live? I don’t believe there can be, at all, at all….
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“The assertion that all men are created equal was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.” —  Abraham Lincoln

“All men are created unequal.”- Lazarus Long

“All men weren’t created equal. All were created with equal rights. But they weren’t created with equal abilities, or equal intelligence, or equal physical capabilities. Every man and woman is created with equal potential of being better than merely equal, and with the right to have that potential respected for what they may achieve. They should not be judged according to what someone with greater talent in one area or another may say, for they judge and condemn only according to their own assumed entitlement.” — gigoid ©
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“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

Vows with so much passion, swears with so much grace, that ‘t is a kind of heaven to be deluded by him. — Nathaniel Lee (1655-1692)  — Alexander the Great, Act i, Sc. 3

It can be a rather sobering pastime to contemplate the staggering effects of ignorance on human society. History is filled with evidence of just how silly mankind tends to be, especially when left to its own devices. How many times have we seen or read about some tin-plated demagogue spewing their vitriolic nonsense so loudly, and with such conviction, that millions of desperate people gather behind their banner, ready to die for the cause, however ignorant, on the off-chance that their lot my be improved thereby.

Let’s see….without googling, I can offer off the top of my head, Alexander. Genghis Khan. Jesus of Nazareth. Mohamed (yes, I know, but the spell-checker wants it spelled this way. Go figure). Hannibal, Adolph Hitler, Baha’ullah, Shrub, Sr. and Shrub, Jr., and a host of other charismatic leaders with the ability to pull people into their own particular delusional system. As a matter of fact, we have spent much of our history just recovering from the times when these charming idiots held sway over society.

Myself, I’m getting pretty tired of trying to live down the absolute nonsense perpetrated by these ignorant sociopaths; I wish it weren’t so, but it looks as if ignorance is going to win the final battle with reason, and humanity will join the dinosaurs in extinction, with the dubious honor of having chosen death over life……

“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.” — Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals

“The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“It may be true that my desk here is really “nothing but” a transient eddy of electrons in the flux of universal process. Nevertheless, I find that it continues to support my feet, my revolver, and my cigars all day long. What happens when my back is turned I don’t know. Or much care. That’s no concern of mine.” — Edward Abbey

I find this to be an insightful epiphany; it’s just curmudgeonly enough to appeal to that side of my nature, which, I do confess, I encourage shamelessly. But, and here’s the important part, it’s pretty much true, in the sense that the Universe does exist and operate in ways we don’t always understand. But, there is also no need to understand everything; many parts of the Universe bring with them an understanding that needs no communication beyond perception. If it looks like a cat, and sounds like a cat, and smells like a cat, and feels like a cat, AND it tastes like a cat, it’s probably a cat. If, after performing all of these perceptual tests upon the cat, you walk away with a number of scratches, well, that is just one more piece of evidence in favor of the theory that it was a cat….. it’s kinda like Mark Twain said, “A man who has held a bull by the tail knows several things more than a man who hasn’t”……
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“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,’ said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
” What’s for breakfast? said Pooh. What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said. — A. A. Milne, “Winnie the Pooh”

Here’s a fine little example of how simple is best. What a wonderful attitude to have in the morning, in whichever form you choose, breakfast, or excitement. It is only when one attains a certain age that mornings assume the aspect of a challenge rather than an inspiration. Part of the process of aging, for us humans, involves learning how to approach each day with some degree of cheerfulness, having found that it is better to accept what is, rather than struggle to make it more to our liking.

When one is young, that unknown day ahead of us is bright and shiny, with promise and potential. As we get older, we see less of the shine, and focus instead on the potential. By now, we know any promises involving reality are false; things usually change before a promise can even be uttered. Mother Nature offers us no guarantees, we just have to take everything “as is”…..therefore, learning to get back to the childish side of our nature allows us to at least look forward to each day, even though we know its challenges…..
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Wait….no, wait a minute…..oh. Okay. It’s okay, I just had a strong feeling of veja du. ” For a moment, I thought I had entered an alternate universe.” — Vir  But, it was only my sense of humor playing a joke on me….. (Sorry, I apologize…I couldn’t resist…..) But, think of this, if you will: these are only my opinions. You should see my convictions.  Y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

In the absence of morality…..

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Ffolkes,
If is was, was is were, or was is wasn’t? If is isn’t, is confusing to say the least. Not sure what prompted that nonsense. It’s what happens when I just let my fingers type, without any input from brain. Supposedly that’s how James Joyce achieved his “stream of consciousness” style of writing; who can really say how genius works? But it certainly is hard to make sense that way. Of course, making sense is not always the goal, now is it? Sometimes it’s better to be odd, than it is to be even…..
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When I consider life, ‘t is all a cheat.
Yet fool’d with hope, men favour the deceit;
Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay.
To-morrow ‘s falser than the former day;
Lies worse, and while it says we shall be blest
With some new joys, cuts off what we possest.
Strange cozenage! none would live past years again,
Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain;
And from the dregs of life think to receive
What the first sprightly running could not give.
— John Dryden (1631-1700)
— Aurengzebe, Act iv, Sc. 1

True beauty requires no adornment, nor comment…..
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“All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly which can – and must – be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function.  As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible.  Attempts to formulate a “perfect society” on any other foundation other than “Women and children first!” is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly- and no doubt will keep on trying.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

Robert Heinlein was somewhat conservative in his political views, with an occasional foray into Atheism/Solipsism/Pantheism/Libertarianism to assuage his need for independence. The conservatism comes from his military education (he and L. Ron Hubbard were cadets at Annapolis in the early twentieth century), and an (for him) obsessive fear of creeping Communism. He wrote more than one story about revolution, or uprisings by Americans after being conquered, and all referred to the role, and duty, of the citizen in a republic, and in these stories, his conservatism comes through clearly.

But, he also had a very strong sense of personal and societal responsibility, believing each man has the duty to act in a manner that is beneficial to others, as well as to himself; society works best when the wheels are well-greased. I suppose what is attractive about his belief system is that it holds each man responsible for his own actions, while still acknowledging his duty to society. There are many, many too few men like him alive today, and there isn’t one politician alive who even approaches his level of patriotism; they’re all too busy with their personal agendas…..we need more like the one described below…..

“Boys become men by watching men, by standing close to men. Manhood is a ritual passed from generation to generation with precious few spoken instructions. Passing the torch of manhood is a fragile, tedious task. If the rite of passage is successfully completed, the boy-become-man is like an oak of hardwood character. His shade and influence will bless all those who are fortunate enough to lean on him and rest under his canopy.” — Preston Gilham
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If you understand, things are as they are.
If you do not understand, things are as they are.
— Gensha, Zen Master

Cuando se comprende sus problema, se conoce el solución. Y que es, es….. sounds pretty good in Spanish too. Though it’s not completely accurate, the Zen koan is deeply related to my little Latin pearl. For the google-challenged among you, it translates as, “When you understand the problem, you know the answer.” (Not sure, but I may have made it up, as I’ve not seen it before in print, at least, not in Spanish. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t printed, just that I’ve not seen it) The underlying reason for doing so was to find the middle ground between the two quotes, both of which are part of the solution to the Big Picture; around here we call it Consensual Reality.

Consensual Reality is the one that all of us know; it’s the one whose referents are known to all of us, and accepted as being the correct interpretation of what we perceive as real. Learning to see the whole picture is the first task to complete on the path to knowledge and truth; and learning consists of learning to accept what is, just the way it is. To do so, one must often employ Occam’s Razor, to trim away the nonsense and useless facts that accumulate in the process, carving away what is superfluous, to reveal the beauty within the Truth.

It can be a lonely path to walk, as most folks just don’t want to spend the effort to find deeper knowledge. Most are content to just get by, dealing with the peccadilloes of daily life the best they may without expending a lot of effort. But the reward is a renewed sense of self-respect, and the ability to sleep at night unbothered by fearful dreams of what might be……

Pluralitas non ponenda est sine necessitate.  (Multiplicity is not to be asserted when it is unnecessary.) — William of Occam [Occam’s Razor]
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“Truth never tranquilizes. The defining property of truth is its ability to disturb.” — Solomon Short

Bleeding heavily from wounds unseen
the warrior within fights on, on, and on.
In defense of truth, with blade so keen,
for the living dead, for the quick,
for the weak, for the aged sick,
he fights, and dreams on.

Don’t ask me any questions. I just might tell you the truth. It’s a risk only you can fathom……
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There is a pleasure in poetic pains
Which only poets know.
— William Cowper (1731-1800) — The Task, Book ii, The Timepiece, Line 285

When I came across this little gem, an image from a movie flashed into my mind’s eye. In the third Indiana Jones movie, Indiana and his father are fleeing from a German airplane, and all of a sudden become trapped in the open on a beach, while the fighter plane, guns blazing, flies right at them. The elder Jones, (Sean Connery), begins to run at a flock of sea birds, yelling and flourishing his umbrella. The flock flew up, straight into the path of the airplane, taking it down as surely as a .50 caliber Gatling. As he strolls away, he quotes the line about Charlemagne “and the birds in the sky shall be my weapons.” (or something like that), and strolls calmly away. It was a perfect audio-visual example of what is said above by Mr. Cowper…..and a fine testament to the power of language, especially in the form of a poem, even a simple couplet….
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Enough is enough….it’s important to know when to stop. It’s still early; lets go see what kind of trouble I can get myself into. My coping skills need a workout….. y’all take care out there….

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Intrusion of the Dubious….

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Ffolkes,
As the brightly colored dreidle spins, mesmerizing, laughter rings out above the noise of the crowded plaza. The sun beat down with heavy indifference, laying a mantle of sticky humidity on the poor, and on the not-so-poor denizens wandering listlessly among the filthy stalls. Occasionally, soldiers from the palace would stride past, looking neither left nor right, in squads of eight; any fewer would be an easy target for the bands of mercenaries purchased as protection by the criminal overlords of the city.

The crowds parted once again, and filled in behind, as a stranger, dressed in strangely colored garments, marched steadily toward the Speaking Stone. He reached the Stone and vaulted to the top; the crowd gathered around, and fell silent. As the sun began to sink behind the minarets to the west, the stranger looked out among the crowd, and spake thus, “Did you believe the lies? Did you doubt my words? If so, the proof of your mistaken choice stands before you. I have returned, and there will be a reckoning!” The crowd, still silent, fell back as the stranger quickly departed the plaza. Neighbor looked at neighbor, with baffled mien, until one shouted out, expressing the mutual confusion, and said “What! What the hell is that supposed to mean?”……

Sorry folks, just had to get that out…..we will now return to our regularly scheduled nonsense…..
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Alone!–that worn-out word,
So idly spoken, and so coldly heard;
Yet all that poets sing and grief hath known
Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word ALONE!
— Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1805-1873) — The New Timon, (1846), Part ii

It is interesting sometimes to see how the world works; there is always some piece of it that is stranger than we can imagine. This poem, though not of top notch quality, is nonetheless saved from total obscurity by the power of its plea. What interests me is that this gentleman is the same one who wrote the famous passage from the beginning of one of his books; it begins with “It was a dark and stormy night….” and proceeds to go downhill from there. It is considered by experts to be so bad that there is now a yearly literary contest, with a pretty hefty prize, called the Bulwer-Lytton Award.

The award is bestowed upon the author of the written passage that best exemplifies just how badly people can write. Each year, the winning pieces lend new meaning to Theodore Sturgeon’s Law of Everything, which tells us that “90 percent of science fiction is crap. But, then, 90% of everything is crap.” It’s all just another way for us to laugh at our best source of humor in life, ourselves and our personal struggle with our oh-so human nature…….
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“It is your resistance to ‘what is’ that causes your suffering.” — Buddha

In the movie, The Lion King, there is a scene wherein the young lion king-to-be is receiving a lesson from his shaman/mentor, the anorexic orangutan. The shaman would ask a question, and when the young lion answered, the shaman would hit him over the head with a stick, and say “Forget about it! It’s in the Past!”, carrying on with that until the point was obvious, to wit: Don’t hang on to baggage you can leave in the past, or you’ll drag it with you into the future.”

This is actually the only scene from the movie that I remember, so I guess my crap detector was on full alert. But this one scene makes the movie worthwhile for me, because this is a lesson that more kids (and adults) in this country need to have drilled into their heads. However, such a subtle concept as this is generally incomprehensible to westerners, who are conditioned from birth to avoid using their minds at all cost….to their eventual regret, and everyone else’s chagrin…..
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By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord Hymn

“Our safety, our liberty depends on preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate.  The people of the US are the rightful masters both Congress and the courts – Not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution” — Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country…. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.’ — Former US President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 — letter to Col. William F. Elkins — printed in “The Lincoln Encyclopedia”, — ed. Archer H. Shaw, Macmillan, 1950, NY

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

This section of quotes hearkens back to the early days of the Pearls of Virtual Wisdom. The four quotes above, when considered as a continuing evolution of observations of American society, show an increasingly strong sense of impending threat to the freedoms our forefathers attempted to guarantee for us. The threat is getting even stronger as time goes on, and I can only hope that enough folks out there are aware of how close to the edge we are skating, and make a joint effort to pull us all back from danger…..but, then, I AM an optimist by nature…..
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Thou wast that all to me, love,
For which my soul did pine–
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine.
— Edgar Allan Poe

Poe didn’t live long, but he loved, and lived well, miserable though he was. To love well is to live well; perfect logic trimmed with Occam’s Razor. I have loved, so I can say I have lived well. I still love, and seek more. It is, after all, our most defining emotion. Robert Heinlein, of course, said it the best, as far as I can see, when he said that “Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” That’s a goal worth living for…..
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No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. — The Constitution of the United States of America Amendment 3, 1791

This is your daily reminder of what is now missing from your life…..no joke…..
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The above posting may seem like insignificant rubbish at first glance, but if you read between the lines, you will be surprised to discover the annals of Burt Bachrach, world peace, Oxford Advanced Readers Dictionary, quantum physics made easy, and an easy-to-use step-by-step walk-through on how to make a time traveling device that actually works. — DISCLAIMER

I can’t do it any better than that; not today. Today, I’ll be lucky if I can see my way clear to tomorrow. Matters at this point are, shall we say, unsettled? Good thing I refuse to be bored; to admit that is to admit I’m tired of what is in my own head. Not gonna happen in this lifetime…..meantime, y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Arbitrary moments of sublime nostalgia……

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Ffolkes,
I’ve hit the wall. It hurts. The longer I sit here and try to find something, anything in my head, the more solid the wall becomes. I’m already bleeding on the forehead, and it’s threatening to run down my arms onto the keyboard (which, by the way, is covered with tiny little thorns on the touch pads). Oh well, such is life; I’ll just keep on typing until I bleed out……
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“We have a presidential election coming up. And I think the big problem, of course, is someone will win.” — Barry Crimmins

Of course this is funny. It’s funny because it hurts; we laugh most often to ease the pain of living. And the fact that this is funny, is for me the saddest part of the whole deal. It’s funny because it’s true; someone is going to win the election, and no matter who it is, we will once again be at the mercy of a sociopath. Not just any sociopath, mind you, but one who has received from us a mandate, to go forth amongst the people and steal, steal, steal. We constantly are forced to deal with the felonious activities of those we elect, because by electing them we tell them, “It’s okay; I’ll just bend over right here while you unbuckle your belt.”

Recently, one of our readers opted out of receiving this via email, giving “your politics” (ie., my politics) as the underlying reason. I want to make something clear, if it isn’t already. I don’t have any politics. I firmly believe that those in our society who want public office are sick people, who have their own personal agendas for seeking office; public spirit, altruism, and a desire to help others are not listed on those agendas. So let’s just say it straight out….. I don’t like ANY politicians. Not Democrats, not Republicans, not Libertarians, not Socialists, Communists, or Green Party-ists. A central government is unfortunately a necessary evil, but whenever it becomes merely a popularity contest to decide which group of thieves to live with, then I start poking at it, and buying into it as little as possible. It’s the only way I can keep from getting nauseous every time I read the latest outrage in the news…….
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He who knows nothing, loves nothing.
He who can do nothing understands nothing.
He who understands nothing is worthless.
— Paracelsus

That may be a bit harsh; they’re not entirely useless…..a person fitting this description obviously has the qualifications to be a candidate for the U.S. Republican Party’s bid for the Presidency. This fits all six of the current crop like a tailored glove……
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Never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lie down, never stay awake when you can sleep.

Dogs do this consistently. So do cats. Who are we to go against tradition? Besides, maybe they know something we don’t…… Well, at least some of us don’t know. What this really says is simpler than it seems, but is still some of the best advice one can receive. In essence, what this says is that “worry has killed more folks than bleeding to death ever did” (thanks to R. A. H. again).

The stress and unrelenting pressure that life in modern society puts on each of us, merely to fulfill those tasks essential to normal life, is so great that most folks are very seldom able to step back far enough to gain any perspective on their lives. Not only do they neglect to stop and smell the roses, they forget to even see them as they hurry by.

Learning to make one’s own pace, a pace designed to nurture and thrive rather than merely survive, is one of the most valuable lessons we can learn. It may not keep one from dying, but it makes living a lot more fun….. “The best way to get rid of worries is to let them die of neglect.”– Unknown Smart Person

Why lose we life in anxious cares,
To lay in hoards for future years?
Can these, when tortur’d by disease,
Cheer our sick hearts, or purchase ease?
Can these prolong one gasp of breath,
Or calm the troubled hour of death?
— Gay (1688-1732), Fables
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Dawn

Melting ice in a pool, waiting,
convex and patient.
Sunlight seeking.

gigoid

Long live Haiku! Poetry for the masses, indeed. Almost anyone, I think, who first reads a haiku, is often compelled to try to compose one themselves. The very brevity of its structure, displaying the absolute maximum of meaning in the minimum of expression seems to act as a challenge to even the least literate among us.

I enjoy the process; it reminds me at times of the state of mind I use when diving for Pearls of Virtual Wisdom, a modified state of limbo, where impressions and feelings guide my direction more than reason or facts. It’s an easy way, I’ve found, to touch the very center of reality within ourselves; sort of an alternate form of conscious meditation. Sounds a bit like New Age psychosocial babble-speak, I know, but, hey, it works for me….
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“No matter where you are, there you are.” — Oliver’s Law of Location

Here you are. Caught implacably in time between the past on one hand, and the future on the other. You cannot go back, only forward, though you hold the past in your heart. The future holds your hope, but only by being where you are now can you get to the future you desire. The seed of hope is planted today, and will be reaped in the future, as long as it is nourished and nurtured on each successive now. Wishing it were otherwise won’t make it so, nor will whining, complaining, or denying. Only by accepting can we be in the moment, where we belong……

“Yes! Living in today’s complex world of the Future IS much like having a hive of bees living in your head. But, there they are!”– Firesign Theater, “I Think We’re All Bozos on This Bus”
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Opening to the inner eye, sinuous and subtle
floating truth, no fat, no rebuttal.
Fling away, share the innocent trouble,
as wells of laughter begin to bubble.

Okay, that’s another good start. I can feel more of this one in there somewhere, but it’s not ready to come out into the light just yet. Have patience, it’s all new to me, this poetry stuff. I gave up spending a lot of time in the pertinent state of mind needed to compose; too many interruptions from Reality for a lot of years. I’ll get it yet…..meantime, y’all take care out there….

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Purveyors of faint praise….

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Ffolkes,
Today is Friday, which means it is also Friday the thirteenth. I am compelled to say, “Yipee!” and dance a quick jig, because I always have a good day when one of these rolls around. Maybe it has to do with my lack of superstition, though I do have certain personal rituals I perform that ensure the success of any venture (like the little dolls I make to stick pins into when one of my enemies annoys me, or rubbing a child’s head before buying lottery tickets). I could also claim that it is a lucky day for me because I’m a triple Scorpio. Well, I could if I gave any credence at all to astrology; it’s a pretty flimsy theory, without much evidence of being real. I’d say that astrology is just about as true as the myths of creation that tell us that the world was made about 8000 years ago, and all the evidence to the contrary was planted here to fool us into thinking it is real. Sorry, not buying it; why would I think an omnipotent entity  would play tricks like that? Seems a bit petty to my way of thinking….okay, enough distractions, lets get on to the meat of the meal…..
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“It has been said that there are two theories of history: conspiracy and blunder. If there is some truth to that, it is surely equally true that blunder seldom receives all the credit due it as an explanation of complex events.” — Michael Scully

I would say that this is probably pretty accurate; after all, it is the winners who get to tell the story, and why would they make themselves look any worse than they already are? I believe that much of mankind’s progress up to now is, in fact, a result of blundering about, breaking the china and scaring the horses, until something serendipitous falls into someone’s lap.

The example most often given regarding inspiration that brings progress is that of Isaac Newton and the apple, which, according to history, fell upon his head unexpectedly, causing him to fall down and begin writing the 3 Laws of Motion. I think it more likely that he was trying to climb up to get the apple, and took a good fall onto his head; he just blamed it on the apple, and since he was the only witness, who can gainsay him?

This points out one of the less attractive, and most problematic of the characteristics of humans, and that is our inability to get beyond our childish feelings of insecurity. The older we get, the less able we become to handle the embarrassment or ridicule that follows a mistake, and the more contortions we will assume to keep others from seeing our Bozoid Tendencies. You see, like the Firesign Theater said, “I think we’re all Bozo’s on this bus!”; we all have the unfortunate ability to perform ridiculously stupid acts at times.

Most folks, though, don’t like to be thought of this way, and will go through almost anything to prevent themselves from looking inept in front of other folks. Me, I wish they’d just learn to laugh at themselves, and everyone else; maybe then they could grow up enough to be able to look directly at the things in society that we need to change, instead of childishly refusing to even look at the situation. Emotional maturity means dealing with whatever happens, without letting emotions control one’s actions, or reactions, and most of mankind doesn’t exhibit anything close to that sort of maturity……
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A Mexican newspaper reports that bored Royal Air Force pilots stationed on the Falkland Islands have devised what they consider a marvelous new game.  Noting that the local penguins are fascinated by airplanes, the pilots search out a beach where the birds are gathered and fly slowly along it at the water’s edge.  Perhaps ten thousand penguins turn their heads in unison watching the planes go by, and when the pilots turn around and fly back, the birds turn their heads in the opposite direction, like spectators at a slow-motion tennis match.  Then, the paper reports, “The pilots fly out to sea and directly to the penguin colony and overfly it.  Heads go up, up, up, and ten thousand penguins fall over gently onto their backs. — Audobon Society Magazine

I can’t help it. I this is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read; the mental image of thousands of birds falling over kicks me right over into hilarity. And I really, really like the idea of some bozoids spending hundreds of thousands of dollars  to use their supersonic flying machines of death to create a work of visual art, with only one witness, the pilot. Superb irony! It brings reality right up next to fantasy, and gives it a big hug……

The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. “Where shall I begin, please your Majesty ?” he asked.  “Begin at the beginning,”, the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” — Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
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“The entire world is being driven insane by this single phrase: ‘My religion alone is true.'” — Ramakrishna, Hindu saint & reformer

I guess that Christianity and Islam are not the only world religions that suffer from the actions of their more fanatical devotees. It seems to be a particularly human characteristic to take perfectly rational religious beliefs and twist them into a form that has a dual purpose, to wit: 1) the beliefs now support their own personal agenda, no matter how bigoted and ignorant, and 2) the beliefs now justify that agenda on religious grounds.

It’s been said that a good theologian can dip into Scripture and pull out any number of ideas that seemingly support their own brand of madness; much like a statistician, who can make the numbers in a database say anything at all. I’m sure there are a few genuinely religious preachers out there, who actually try to apply the principles of their religion into life in the way it was intended. But mostly, they are just politicians who have found an even easier set of marks to exploit….

“Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.” — Lazarus Long
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All I ask of you is forever to remember me as loving you.

A beautiful sentiment, one I would be happy to claim, had I but said it first.  I live alone now, having been summarily dismissed from my last relationship almost two years ago. But I can truthfully say that this is a statement I could make to each of the women I’ve loved, and for that matter, still love. None of my relationships was terminated at my instigation; I’m not a person who gives vows of fidelity lightly.

But as Tom Robbins pointed out in one of his books, “Finding love is easy, but, how can you make love stay?” I don’t know the answer, obviously; if I did, I’d still be married. What I do know is that my feelings for Carrie, Martha, Ellen, and Julie will never change. When I wrote my own vows for my marriage, one of them promised that I would love her more each day until the day I died, and beyond. I meant it then, and I still do. It’s the hardest thing I know of to be alone, when those you love have chosen to be elsewhere. And it’s especially hard when you don’t know why……
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“Thinking, understanding, reasoning, willing, call not these Soul! They are its actions, but they are not its essence.” — Akhenaton? (c. B.C. 1375)

When? Oh, four thousand four hundred eighty-seven years ago…..is that all? I’ve got acne scars older than that! Well, perhaps not. But I am continually amazed at some of the things I find that were written this long ago. It gives credence to the idea that mankind’s first steps toward modern culture were the result of how our minds work, and our penchant for using our imagination to understand the universe around us. It has been said that the first science was Astronomy, which makes a lot of sense. But, simultaneously, we used Philosophy, and the principles of logic and reason, to apply meaning to what we observed.

Forty-four hundred years is a long time to be working on the same issues, and it seems to me we should be getting somewhere a bit faster than we are. But then I realize that there is another side to human nature, one that is not so moral and ethical as our scientific bent, and this side of us is in constant competition with our virtues to assume control of society. And they are winning, mostly because they have no compunctions against cheating, or lying, or manipulating events to suit their own purposes. We’ve been at this long enough; let’s make a concerted effort to nullify the negative effects of deliberate ignorance and fear. Perhaps we can even find a way to survive our own nature…..
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The abyss stares back at me, unblinking, unmoved.
With passion unveiled, with honor unproved,
Seeking the path only begun
In hope of love, never undone.
I am as I am, unafraid, and so very alone.

There, that’s not bad, is it? Not much, but not bad……I’m stopping here, as I refuse to press my luck any further, even if it is Friday the 13th. I hope youse have as good a day as I intend to have. Y’all take care out there……

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

This truffle intentionally left in ignorance….

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Ffolkes,
Here is the Pearl I put together on 5/28/11…. a bit of a blast from the relatively recent past. I believe this one was posted on SFGATE on that date last year….. today it appears with a couple of short pieces at the end as a bonus round. It seems I’m not completely out of things that need to be said…..

Ffolkes,
The process of diving for pearls in the ocean of knowledge that is the WWW is one I have tried not to analyze too closely, for fear the delicate sense of nuance would fade away under the scrutiny, and be forever lost. Leaving the matter of choosing up to my subconscious has worked out very well for me, and I’m afraid to bring it up into the light of logic, which resides most comfortably in the conscious mind.

And that’s okay by me….. researching, outlining, organizing, and composing are fine if I’m looking to write a review, or describing the cooking technique for a certain recipe. But when it really needs to be subtle, when it really needs to stimulate zazen, as does a koan, then I find it works best to allow myself to see through a curtain of intuition, and make the subliminal choice. Today’s offerings were chosen in this fashion, with only one criterion to apply, to wit: life is one big joke, so don’t let your serious face freeze in place…..

“I don’t ask questions, I just have fun!” — Bugs Bunny

You can’t get there from here, you have to go somewhere else first. (thank goodness!)

A wide-eyed, innocent UNICORN, poised delicately in a MEADOW filled with  LILACS, LOLLIPOPS & small CHILDREN at the HUSH of twilight?? — Zippy the Pinhead

On Monday, when the sun is hot,
I wonder to myself a lot;
‘Now is it true, or is it not,
‘That what is which and which is what?’

“On Tuesday, when it hails and snows,
The feeling on me grows and grows
That hardly anybody knows
If those are these or these are those.”

“On Wednesday, when the sky is blue,
And I have nothing else to do,
I sometimes wonder if it’s true
That who is what and what is who.” — A.A. Milne, Winnie The Pooh

“It’s wonderful to be here, it’s certainly a thrill…”–The Beatles

In the words of little Ruth Anne, “…and that’s the Truth! Thpppppt!”–Lily Tomlin.
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Between those who use their neighbors, and those who use a cane.
Between those in constant power, and those in constant pain.
Between those who run to evil, and those who cannot run.
Tell me which ones are the cripples, and which ones touch the sun.
— Ceili’s Muse “What you do with what you’ve got”

Just another cleverly disguised criticism of modern day politicians and/or preachers. (For clarity’s sake: I use the word ‘preacher’ to describe any and all of the ministers, priests, pastors, vicars, or cult leaders who believe that their particular vision of God and Reality is the only one that is a) true, and b) acceptable to their degree of ignorance (i.e., subordinate). They all tend to proselytize, which is no end of annoyance…..). I hope you’re not getting tired of my taking shots at the talking heads at every opportunity; I have no intention of stopping or moderating any of it, until the Constitution is safe from further degradation, and the seeds of ignorance have been dug up and burned……
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Speaking of which…..

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” — Francis Bellamy, 1892

In case you didn’t notice, there is nothing in here about God. This is the original version of the pledge of allegiance; the phrase, “…under God…” was only added 62 years later, in 1954, by President Eisenhower. At that time, the stage was set for the eventual burning of the Bill of Rights, as more and more of our segments of government were taken over by fanatical Christians of one flavor or another. It was fairly simple, actually. We already expected our politicians to lie to us; Eisenhower wasn’t the first to do so in a major way when he conveniently “forgot” to mention to the American public that we were sending ‘military advisers’ to Vietnam in 1954, along with enough weapons and materials to equip them, and most of the South Vietnamese Army.

Every major politician in the last century, except perhaps Kennedy, who had other ways of concealing his true intentions, has shamelessly lied to us, telling the public whatever they needed to hear to get elected. Now, it seems it would be more honest to add one more short statement at the end of the pledge, one that makes it clear what is really meant…..to wit: …..with liberty and justice for all white Christians.” What do you think? Wouldn’t it be closer to the truth that way?….. but, oh yeah, I forgot….truth isn’t the point here; prejudice is……
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It’s a long and winding road, and as with any journey, it begins with but one step. The trick is to be prepared to take that step when the time is right. I’m ready, just waiting for wherewithal; as soon as it arrives, I’ll be on my way, to new horizons and new things to learn…..until then, this keeps me busy and fairly content. Y’all take care out there……

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Fundamentally flawed, but functional…

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Ffolkes,
Just so you know…..in order to deal more effectively with the lack of material in my head, I’ll be taking at least a couple days off, sort of. Not all the way off; I’ll be recycling older pearls. I figured out that, as I’ve been doing this for over 10 years,  some of the older ones hadn’t been seen yet by some of the newer readers.  A few days will suffice to both give them a treat from the past, and give my head some time to recuperate, and generate some more fresh food for thought…..that will begin tomorrow, so watch this space for blasts from the past…..
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A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow in the morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
— T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

One of T.S.’s most powerful poems, and one of my favorites. A stiff and pointed stick jabbed right into the eye of society, making them see the stark landscape of modern life, devoid of compassion and joy. I’ll bet someone like Newt G. or Mitt R. would read this and feel very, very uncomfortable, without knowing why; but we would know, for it is a bitter condemnation of the modern way of life that venerates money, and ignores human suffering….
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“If a Nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be … If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” — Thomas Jefferson

“..it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.”  That about says it all. This, then, is why we are being systematically oppressed by our own leadership. This is why “they” were able to deregulate the Bill of Rights, right in front of us, and almost nobody knows, or cares. The American public, for the largest part, has abrogated this responsibility; we can no longer call ourselves free men, for we have given it up in favor of a false sense of security, and misguided trust in people who claim to have our interests at heart, but in reality don’t even really like other Americans. I would guesstimate that over 90% of the voting public has no idea that the Bill of Rights has been declared null and void; hell, that number of them probably couldn’t even name the Bill of Rights. It is disgusting, and frustrating, and downright scary how little people seem to care about having volunteered to become slaves of the beloved ruling class. I’m tempted to give in to my baser urges, and start slapping people silly when they display their ignorance in public. It may not return the Bill of Rights, but I’ll sure feel better…..

“They have exiled me now from their society and I am pleased, because humanity does not exile except the one whose noble spirit rebels against despotism and oppression.  He who does not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any measure of freedom, truth and duty” — Kahlil Gibran, from “Spirits Rebellious”
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” It is not the writer’s task to answer questions but to question answers. To be impertinent, and, if necessary, subversive.” — Edward Abbey

Perfect description of my attitude toward writing’s place in society; it couldn’t be said better. To be a gadfly, to question authority, to learn and share what is learned, regardless of who it embarrasses, this is the purpose a writer should always accept as integral to their work and expression. It wouldn’t be as necessary if people would just think for themselves, but it should be obvious by now that that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. If I were the kind of person who could just walk away from someone in need, maybe I could forgo some of what takes up so much of my time.

But, regardless of how stupid someone might be, they don’t deserve to be oppressed by assholes whose entire agenda is focused on self-aggrandizement. I still believe that anyone who actually WANTS to be an elected official in this country is clinically insane, with sociopathic tendencies. Only when one is blithely unconcerned with the fate of other people can one seek that much power over them. It’s just plain sick, and I intend to keep pointing it out until they’re all put in therapy, willing or not……
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“The land of the free!  This is the land of the free!  Why, if I say anything that displeases them, the free mob will lynch me, and that’s my freedom.  Free?  Why I have never been in any country where the individual has such an abject fear of his fellow countrymen.  Because, as I say, they are free to lynch him the moment he shows he is not one of them.” — D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930)

Hmmm…..I guess things around here haven’t changed so much after all. Mrs. Grundy and her ilk still oversee the morals of everyone else, shouting down any differences with strident cries of Infidel! Blasphemer!” At least here on the net, it’s still considered bad form to type in ALL CAPS…… but, we  need to be careful; those who care about such things are still trying to get legislation passed that will attempt to censor what can be posted online, and limit what the net can be used for. Don’t let them do it; they’ve already taken too many of our rights as it is. We can’t afford to lose any more…..
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“Poetry has been to me “its own exceeding great reward;” it has soothed my afflictions; it has multiplied and refined my enjoyments; it has endeared solitude; and it has given me the habit of wishing to discover the good and the beautiful in all that meets and surrounds me.” — Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Me, too! As I’ve said before, or at least intimated, poetry is, in my humble opinion, the ultimate use of language; any idea expressed in a poem is more readily digestible to the human brain than any prose can possibly be. How many of us learned the alphabet by singing the “Alphabet Song”? The very basis of the written word, the alphabet, naturally lends itself to rhyming, which stimulates the mind to learn in a way that seamlessly coordinates with the way our minds perceive, so that deep knowledge is passed on with each short phrase, knowledge deeper than the mere meaning of each word, made clear to us by its structure, and organized compatibly by the cadence.

Perhaps that could be new project for me. I’ve never been happy with my own ability to produce a good poem; they always fall short of my expectations. Maybe it is time, now that I’ve had more experience with the language, to see if that experience has enhanced my creative side……hmmm, we’ll see……if anything moderately attractive comes of it, I’ll post it here, and take the risk of allowing others to see it, and judge its quality……

“A poet that fails in writing, becomes often a morose critic. The weak insipid white wine makes at length excellent vinegar.” — Shenstone
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Whew! Made it! I thought this would never end. Well, not really. It was enough fun that I lost track of where I was. But, we’ve finally come to a logical place to stop, so we’ll emulate Spock, and call it a day….. y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Political rhetoric for sale or lease: Entropy spoken here….

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Ffolkes,
I’ve been bitten by a tsetse fly….in the past three days, I have slept as much as I’ve been awake, but not in a normal pattern. About every 5 hours I start yawning and looking for my pillow, and go down for a 2-3 hour nap. Then I’m up to almost midnight, and up again at 5 AM, wide awake. It’s a bit strange, almost like some of the weird hours I kept when studying for finals at Berkeley.

I don’t know if they still do this, but one schedule I tried, thought up by a friend in the cooperative dorm I lived in, was perfect for finals week. One would go to bed (for the day) at about 3 PM, getting up at 10 or 11 PM, to start studying all night. At dawn, with the study material still fresh in the mind, one goes to take the final exams for that day. Afterward, a small meal, engage in a bit of business or recreation, then back to bed for the day, and up again at 10. A reverse cycle, as it were, and once accustomed to it, one became almost used to working in the quiet of the early morning hours, and always having an open seat wherever one went, as everyone else in the world was asleep.

But it got kinda lonely, too….it’s not a good schedule for anyone who wants a social life……thank goodness for no more final exams (except, of course, the ultimate final exam, requiring no study, and which everyone passes…..)
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“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” — H. L. Mencken

Mr. Mencken’s insight was first published back in the early twentieth century, and was actually less of an insight as it was an eerily accurate observation of American politics in the last hundred years. Since the end of the World War II, (the last time Congress actually declared war, as justified in the Constitution) our country’s leaders have involved us in at least five “police actions” (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq again), all supposedly necessary to protect us from the evils of communism, tyranny, or terrorism. Hundreds of thousands of young Americans have been sent to their deaths in far away places, all to make the old men back at home feel more comfortable in their insulation from reality.

I’m not the first to take note that young men die because of what old men believe, and hopefully I won’t be the last. This country has been hijacked by the 1%; they are no longer even trying to conceal their control over the rest of us. They have forgotten what one of their own said about 50 years ago: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” — John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963), 12 March 1962  For myself, I intend to enjoy watching the 1% reap the whirlwind they are creating……. which is a cleverly disguised euphemism for helping the whirlwind spin faster…..
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“It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor  of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.” — H.L. Mencken

Some days, H. L. just makes a lot of sense. I admire his perspicacity, and his unadulterated courage to say exactly what he believed, without compromise. A hundred years from now, his words will have the same weight, but hopefully, won’t be a common response to what is real. It would be nice to make this sort of joke a thing of the past, but I don’t see much chance of human nature changing anytime soon, so common virtues will probably remain uncommonly sparse among the denizens of human society…..
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What happens to your fist when you open your hand? — Zen Buddhism

In one sense, this koan is but a simple puzzle; the answer, obviously, is that the fist goes to the same place that our lap goes when we stand up. Now, you may ask, exactly where is that? Good question…..so, what do you think the answer might be? Another response might be, the fist is transformed, changed from a state of limited purpose to one of unlimited possibility. A fist can only be used in a small number of ways, but the open hand has few limits to its utility.  Perhaps one might say that the fist moves from the realm of reality to the confines of memory, abiding there until needed again.


This is the beauty of a Zen koan; it poses a question that sends the mind on a journey toward illumination, suggesting little-known paths in our own minds that can lead us to deeper knowledge of ourselves, and of reality. It is not the easiest path to self-improvement or self-growth, but then, the human mind gets lazy if things are too easy. We do better if we  push ourselves, at least a little, and goodness knows we all can find ways to do better in life…..anyone who doesn’t think so is only fooling themselves…..
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Farewell, Love, and all thy laws forever:
Thy baited hooks shall tangle me no more;
Seneca and Plato call me from their lore,
To perfect wealth my wit for to endeavor.
In blind error when I did persevere,
Thy sharp repulse that pricketh aye so sore
Hath taught me to set in trifles no store
And scape forth, since liberty is liefer.
Therefore, farewell: go trouble younger hearts,
And in me claim no more authority;
With idle youth go use thy property
And thereon spend thy many brittle darts:
For hitherto though I have lost all my time,
Me lusteth no longer rotten boughs to climb.
— Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542), Farewell, Love

Sir Thomas must have had a really bad break-up to get this despondent and cynical. But he sure made a good poem out of it; I hope that was solace for him in his despair……
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“When they took the fourth amendment, I was silent because I don’t deal drugs.  When they took the sixth amendment, I kept quiet because I know I’m innocent.  When they took the second amendment, I said nothing because I don’t own a gun.  Now they’ve come for the first amendment, and I can’t say anything at all.” — Tim Freeman

I sincerely hope that y’all don’t get tired of hearing about this, because I have every intention of harping on it until the Bill of Rights has been restored. If you weren’t able to figure it out before now, I’ll make it clear…. I’m pissed. I’m royally and truly pissed off at our so called leadership; they have led us straight into voluntary slavery, and we have no one to blame but ourselves. I’d be glad to discuss this with anyone who can present a logical argument, or even an illogical one; we all have to find our fun somewhere.

If you don’t think you’ve lost any of your freedoms, try saying the word “bomb”, in any context, while standing in line in public. And get ready to spend the next hours in police custody, trying to convince them you’re not a terrorist about to blow up a bank. Think I’m kidding? Read the news……

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
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Well, here’s another fine mess I’ve created. I’ll have to start handing out brooms with each day’s offering…..ah, me, “.. 

I think I’d better go back to my DESK and toy with a few common MISAPPREHENSIONS…” — Zippy the Pinhead

T’would be best for all, methinks…..y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Sagacity or primitive speculation, unveiled….

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1

Ffolkes,
For a bit over a year now, I’ve been writing about fifteen hundred words a day, spread among different Pearls, articles, and blog posts for different sites. Over the last few weeks, I’ve noted a bit more of a struggle to get it done than previously; fresh ideas are getting harder to dredge up from the confines of my mind, and I suspect that the well is getting a bit dry, as I’ve been drawing on it heavily for some time now. I’m not sure what to do about it; I can’t stop writing, or I’ll become even more of a curmudgeon than is already the case. I guess I’ll just keep on plugging away, and see what develops……
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“In ecology, as in economics, TANSTAAFL (There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free  Lunch) is intended to warn that every gain is won at some cost. Failure to recognize the no free lunch law causes the buffalo-hunter mentality syndrome — the unthinking assumption that there will always be plenty because there always has been plenty.” — Dr. Robert W. Prehoda

Today’s society still suffers from Codyism (buffalo hunter’s syndrome); as a matter of fact, Codyism is one of the primary pillars upon which capitalism exists. For capitalism to function correctly, it must have a constant source of new markets into which it can expand. Without constant growth, the system begins to feed upon itself, and falls into chaos quickly. But none of the folks who are invested in propping it up want to believe that the resources of the planet are limited. As far as they’re concerned, there is no end to what can be created from the resources at hand; what they refuse to understand is that in the very near future, those resources will no longer be at hand. And since we have yet to learn how to create more resources from nothing, they won’t be coming back. When the finite limits of the planet have been reached, it’s going to be a big shock to to all the Bill Codys out there, counting on the buffalo to return. But, y’know what? That’s never going to happen, and wishing won’t make it so…..
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The only problem
with Haiku is that you just
get started and then
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Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering. — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

Most of us probably lost the ability to do this around the age of 11 or 12; after that we’ were all too busy dealing with hormonal storms to spend a lot of time soothing our souls. And it’s unfortunate that so many never again learn to find this particular spot in their psyche, a loss they feel without understanding why. Only the wisest know that finding our way back to this childish peace of mind is one of the most important tasks we can perform as an adult.

Being able to tap into the serenity and joy that naturally accompanies any trip down this path is a valuable skill, one that everyone needs to cultivate as a method for relieving the stress and anxiety that everyday life creates within all of us. Albert Einstein found a marvelous way to walk this path when he said, “I stopped opening my mail a couple of months ago, and I’ve never felt better in my life!” (Or something like that….it’s close…) We can all take this as good advice (except perhaps, for those who send mail; they might find this somewhat stressful)…..doing nothing can be good medicine for the modern spirit, despite what you may have heard about idle hands…….
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Christian, n.:  One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

This will possibly offend the Christians out there. For that I have no apology, for I don’t believe either of these definitions is very far from truth; I’m just not convinced that faith has shown itself to be a motivation for integrity. More often it is used as motivation for proselytizing.  As a matter of fact, I’d say that about 98% of the Christians I know would fall into one of these two categories. And I would also challenge any of those Christians to mitigate their anger until they have made a complete self-analysis, and found whether or not it applies to them.  After doing so, I would welcome any evidence they might have to present that would disprove these assertions. I don’t think I’ll be hearing from very many of them…..or, if I do, their arguments won’t have any relation to these statements, or resemble ‘evidence’ any way but superficially, but will instead make a personal attack on the author. Any bets?…..
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No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. — The Constitution of the United States of America Amendment 5, 1791

It galls me to have to say it, but……another one bites the dust……I’ve been writing about this all week, and will continue to do so until the NDAA is repealed. I want my Bill of Rights back!……
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I see something at the end of the tunnel. I’m not sure it’s a light, though. Might just be a fig newton of my imagination……at any rate, another day is dawning, and is demanding my attention. Since I’ve been cranking on this since about 4:15 AM, I suppose I can finish up and get on with it. Two hours isn’t bad, compared to some mornings of late. I hope your day goes well…..try to have some fun. Y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!