Ffolkes,
From where I’m standing, or rather, sitting, it’s all cold tea. I’m tired. I just got up after more than 8 hours in bed, and I’m tired. It must be a side effect of not sleeping very well; I toss & turn a lot, which makes for painful twinges in my back and/or shoulders; not much pain, but enough to keep me more awake than asleep. This has been going on for years now, ever since my back got so much worse about 6 years ago, after working as a tarbender for about a year. Even though I now take enough pain medicine to control the pain, it doesn’t go away; it’s still there, just manageable most of the time.
There are times when the medicine is not enough to keep the pain down, and I spend a couple of days in unrelenting agony, with pain at about level 7 or 8 of 10. It hasn’t happened in a good while, but the pain I do have is starting to affect my sleep more, which is cumulatively not good; the lack of sleep adds up after a while. I’m not sure what to do at this point; more meds aren’t the answer, and there are no further treatment modalities that will improve the condition. I suppose I’m going to have to go see my doctor again, & see if there is anything I can do; something has to change, or I’m going to go back to wanting to bite people…..hard…….ah well, let us go sublimate…..
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You no longer need to punish, deceive, or compromise yourself. Unless, of course, you want to stay employed.
I must be a lucky man. A bit over a year ago, I was pretty much forced into retiring, before I had actually planned to do so. The period of time since then hasn’t been the most comfortable, but has shown me that retirement has some basic advantages over working. The primary reason to be glad is the above statement. When I talk to folks who still work where I retired from, they all have the same story to tell, and it isn’t pretty. Poor management, personal agendas, petty politics, all combine to create a living hell for even the most calloused individuals. I guess in that way, I’ve always been lucky; I manage to avoid the bad things that happen to a lot of others, not by my own efforts, but by circumstance.
When I was eligible for the military draft back in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, I dragged the process out as far as I could with applying for conscientious objector status, then appealing the decision. In the mean time, I had gone for my physical, and despite every effort to fail, I was pronounced fit for military duty, status 1A. They were holding the first lottery drawing for numbers to determine who would be drafted first, and my birthday was picked at #19, so I was sure my next stop was going to be Fort Benning, Georgia for boot camp.
Next thing I knew, the draft was over, and my birthday group had been classified 1Y, a category that would never be called again. I had slipped right through a huge crack in the floor that no one could even see. I guess dodging bullets is part of my bag o’luck, the basic quotient of luck one is issued at birth. If so, I can’t complain at all…..
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So tell me, what color is the sky on your planet?
This is a question that occurs to me a lot these days, as I bear reluctant witness to the inane mouthings of the crop of Presidential wannabes currently plastered all over our TV’s. How is it possible that only one of the 8 original prospective candidates admits to believing in evolution? Most of the naysayers say so to woo the ultra-conservative fundamentalist Christians, claiming a “faith-based” belief in creationism. I ask again, how is this possible? Has our educational system failed so badly that theories with absolutely no concrete evidence are given precedence over a concept that has been demonstrated to be true by over 150 years of scientific testing?
Evolution is no longer a theory, it is recognized as one of the laws of Nature, from which there is no appeal; every single experiment devised to test it has supplied more proof of its validity, and new knowledge of our inner physical characteristics, as written in our DNA, supplies even further validation of the concept of evolutionary change. Conversely, after 2000+ years, there is still not a single piece of evidence that one can point to, or pick up in the hand, and say ,”this is evidence of God’s will”. At least they can’t say it with a straight face, because, deep down, they know it’s just wishful thinking. The universe would be a much friendlier place to most folks if they could count on having an omnipotent interlocutor who considers them the pinnacle of creation. I’m sorry to say, however, there just isn’t anything I can see that supports that belief, other than the convictions of the deluded……
“If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.” — William James
“It’s been said that if you pray hard enough, and long enough, you can make water run uphill. How hard and long? Long enough to make it happen, of course!”–Lazarus Long
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“In Germany, they came first for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists but I didn’t speak up because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time nobody was left to speak up.” — Martin Niemoeller, German Lutheran Pastor, Dachau, 1944
A few days ago, on this site, I published an article stimulated by an article on the net, describing how the National Defense Authorization Act had been signed, quite stealthily, by the President, and would take effect January 1, 2012. I wanted to print this quote with it, but could not find it at the time. But it is the perfect description of what a lot of people in this country will be going through in the next few years. If you don’t think it will happen, I will refer you to the section just previous to this, and reiterate, “So tell me, what color is the sky on your planet?” Wake up, folks, and keep your wits about you; you are going to need them…….
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“Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.” — Eric Hoffer
See above……I rest my case….
“The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.” — Edmund Burke (1729-1797) — Speech at County Meeting of Bucks, 1784
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“A man can only do what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.” — Albert Schweitzer
When I was young, I read about Socrates, who used the word “gadfly” to describe himself. I always thought that was brilliant; to be the gadfly biting the ass of the horse that is Society, in order to cause it to move. Moving where is unimportant, change is what is necessary, in order to remain in harmony with the laws of Nature. In our time, we’ve had some good ones…..Will Rogers, George Carlin, Dick Gregory, Lily Tomlin, Lenny Bruce. All spoke their mind with wit sharp as a chef’s knife, applying just the right sting to make the horse buck. Society needs gadflies; without them, we would certainly sink into the abyss in which ignorance lives. I hope to someday be included among humanities gadflies; it does help me sleep, as well as I ever do…..of course, Society did execute Socrates for his views, but it’s well worth the risk, if what I may say is heeded……
“The fight is what’s important. Doing what is good and right is why we’re here. The end is variable and relative. A person can only do what his heart tells him and break away from the terrible things around him. We do what we can … and live with the consequences.” — Marc Zanoni
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Critically speaking, this has not been masterful. At least it doesn’t feel that way. I guess I should take a look at it in toto before making a decision on that. In one sense, I’m amazed I even got it done; it’s been like pushing through cotton candy; it feels unproductive and sticky. So, I’ll be satisfied with that for the nonce….. y’all take care out there….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.
gigoid
Kowabunga!
gigoid 