Tag Archives: Mother Teresa

The remainder may go free…..

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Ffolkes,
In re: motivation…. let’s be honest. The motivation that prompts each of us to write, and then to post what we write, may be simple, or it may be complex; humans have a tendency toward both at times, depending on their predilections, and preferences in life. In my own case, since I tend to complicate matters naturally, it is somewhat complex; I suppose I enjoy the feeling of chaos at work that comes with maintaining an active mental life. In short, I’m crazy as a bed bug, and I like it…..

As the old saying goes, I don’t suffer from insanity, I revel in it…..  😆   In fact, I encourage insanity in others, often, in an attempt to give life a little spice when it falls into one of those routines, that threatens to become a rut….. There is nothing like some general insanity to liven up a party, now, is there? Who’s more popular on the dance floor than the guy with the lampshade on his head?….. Nobody, that’s who!

There are so many aphorisms floating around in my head, I often can’t remember who said what, but, I believe it might have been Voltaire, or another social philosopher of the modern age, who said, “Insanity is a sane reaction to an insane world.”….. Oh, hell, Google will know… Yep, I was right in my being wrong…. it was the psychiatrist and philosopher R.D. Laing who is credited most often with that particular phrase… though other authors seem to lay claim to it without any regard for that information…

Now that we have that out of the way, and we know for a fact that, a) I’m crazy as a loon, and b) it doesn’t matter at all for our purposes here, we can get down to business, and stop with the fluff (Whew! Tough word to type…. took me five tries…. that fluff stuff is tougher than it sounds….). I have some crow to eat, and I’ll thank you to let me chew and swallow quickly, to avoid some of the unpleasant flavor…. It still leaves a bitter after taste, no matter how quick one is in spitting it out, or downing it, whatever….

Yesterday, I ranted for quite a while about missionaries, such as those generally found in remote places lording it over the natives, and specifically targeted the most famous of that breed, Mother Teresa. I knew when I chose the subject that I risked some controversy, but, I happen to believe all I that I write, and still do.

But, a friend, one of the email recipients of the Pearls, happens to live in my building, and we got to discussing the piece in the afternoon, during which discussion, she most excellently, and correctly, scolded me, putting me back into my correct place, for having targeted whom I did. She did so without ever falling into trying to make me feel bad, but, rather, explaining, or, reminding me, mostly, of a piece of the picture I had forgotten to acknowledge….

Essentially, that piece is this: I’ve never met Teresa, and, in the eyes of a great many people, she is considered to be one of the most compassionate, truly loving examples of a follower of Christ that has ever lived, achieving relative sainthood during her lifetime for the charity work she does with the poor.

According to legend (which, right now, I am merely listing, and not questioning for veracity….), she is a perfect example of how a real Christian should live, in the sense that she eschews all worldly material goods in favor of giving herself and all she has to help those less fortunate than herself…. In light of her unswerving dedication to this life-style, and her absolute defiance of typical Church procedures, she is truly one of the heroines of the common man….

I have observed much of Teresa’s life in the public eye, as she, and her books (five of them) all came into the light of public scrutiny when I was a child, so I have known OF her for many years. When I googled her name, the first page of results showed about 15 results, of which five were informational, such as Wikipedia, or sites where images were shown, seven were positive stories about her life, (she died in 1997), and three were articles like mine, that explored the darker side of the missionary activities she perpetrated for the Catholic Church in her lifetime. One was entitled, “The Darker Side of Mother Teresa”, while another headline in the Huffington Post proclaimed, ” Mother Teresa Humanitarian Image A ‘Myth,’ New Study Says”. I’ve included below the Google links to the three articles that challenge the usual image we have of the good sister….

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=mother%20teresa&source=web&cd=9&sqi=2&ved=0CGgQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2F2013%2F03%2F04%2Fmother-teresa-myth_n_2805697.html&ei=eW5IUYTBJoeo2wW00YHQDA&usg=AFQjCNH-3mFJygRAnYL9dRgfh_YWT0FNtA&bvm=bv.43828540,d.b2U&cad=rja

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=mother%20teresa&source=web&cd=10&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CG4QFjAJ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slate.com%2Farticles%2Fnews_and_politics%2Ffighting_words%2F2003%2F10%2Fmommie_dearest.html&ei=eW5IUYTBJoeo2wW00YHQDA&usg=AFQjCNGxL857ajNJxrzHQLKqkkYT-Swbmg&bvm=bv.43828540,d.b2U

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=mother%20teresa&source=web&cd=12&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CHoQqQIwCw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fideas.foreignpolicy.com%2Fposts%2F2013%2F03%2F18%2Fthe_dark_side_of_mother_teresa&ei=eW5IUYTBJoeo2wW00YHQDA&usg=AFQjCNHf4kcbwQD3W8Xf9PEcF0tyqopJ0w&bvm=bv.43828540,d.b2U

After speaking with my friend, I went back to read over what I’d written yesterday, and I will confess to a degree of vituperation that may have been overdone. I don’t know the woman personally, so all I have to go on is her public persona, what I know about people and their psyches, and the depths to which they will sink to achieve their ends, regardless of whether or not those ends are either moral, ethical, or even helpful at all. So, I apologize for anything I said about her being an evil person…. she may indeed be a very compassionate, truly Christian woman, so I will acknowledge that portion of the legend that has grown up around her…..

However, I stand by what I said about her missionary work, and that entire ilk of religious fanaticism, or for how observing how it is demeaning for those it purports to help.  In truth, it seems clear to me the practice is motivated by the desire of the priesthood to claim more souls, not out of any particular concern for those souls themselves. The Church doesn’t send out missionaries to save the people, it wants the souls, which translates into power over others, and a lifelong bivouac of luxury and pomp for the clergy….

Nuns are a bit different, as many of them are actually out there in the world, dealing with people, so, they tend to ignore or modify what the church itself might do or say to fit the local circumstances; otherwise they would never get anything done to help people. But, their motivation remains murky, even to them, as almost every nun, or priest I’ve ever known, if they were at all honest people, suffered from crises of faith, where they doubted their vocation… Perfectly natural, and a shame they always seem to talk themselves out of listening to that little voice in their head….

Well, I’ve started to ramble, and it is threatening to turn into another rant, (actually, in looking back, it already did that….), so I guess I’d better get on with this, or I’ll never get done today…. I’ll have to depend on Smart Bee to come up with something different to talk about, but, it never seems to have much trouble with that….

Any who, I’m sorry for picking on Mother Teresa… like the Beatle’s song said about the Queen, “I imagine she’s a pretty nice girl, but she doesn’t have a lot to say….”  She may or may not be as bad as I made her out to be; to my mind, even if she is not a bad person, she is still operating under a set of very strong delusions, but, that is not at all unusual in this world, so I can’t hold that against her…. So, sorry, Terry… I hope your compassion can extend to forgiving me for my brashness and the crime of inelegance, if nothing else….

In the meantime, shall we Pearl?…..
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“Enough is enough.” ~~ gigoid

I’ve re-read the intro section, as it seemed a bit like it was too long…. It was, indeed, but, I can’t in good conscience take much of it out, or it will fall apart from its own inner weight imbalances (it’s a very weighty discussion, difficult to keep in balance, as each word and phrase changes the moment of vector…. trust me, the math is tricky, but clear….). So, I’ve resorted to one of my own aphorisms, above, one I mutter to myself often, as an incantation against breaking free of the habit of moderation in all that I do…. Moderation is the key to long life, I believe, but, even moderation itself needs to be practiced in moderation; it’s a good thing now and again to just let go, and give one’s wild side free rein…. just long enough to release all the built up angst, but not long enough to land in jail….  😉

So, naturally, I shall default into the normal procedure for following a rant, even if it is an intro, and submit for your reading pleasure a harlequin pearl, freshly chosen this morning, complete with potential hilarity and possible clarity…. enjoy!  Oh, and, no point to this one, it’s all as random as I can make it…. so, don’t hurt yourself trying to figure out if it has one…. Of course, if it should end up with an obvious sharp point, let us know, so nobody hurts themselves on it, okay? Thanks…..

“If Mother Nature doesn’t make mistakes then why does dessert taste better than dinner?” — Smart Bee

Shifu: “If the instrument is broken, the music will be sour.”
Daniel: “The music does not play the musician.”
Shifu: “Normally there is truth in that.”
Daniel: “Really? Good. Because I really didn’t have any idea what I was talking about.”
— from Stargate

“Call on God, but row away from the rocks.” — Indian proverb

“My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

” — You know it’s going to be a rotten day when you wake up face down on the pavement.” — Smart Bee (?)

Hmm… for a five-star, it’s not bad, if a bit strange… I think two more ought to bring the Force, if not the Metaphorse, back into balance for now…. let’s see what comes up….

“A life lived in fear is only half lived.” — Spanish proverb

“By the time this message gets back on topic, WE’LL ALL BE DEAD!” — Smart Bee
(Doh!   😳   Sorry, this one doesn’t count… Smart Bee isn’t supposed to do that…. bad Smart Bee, bad dB!…. One more, for good measure….)

“Good generally conquers evil. Unless, of course, good is stupid.” — Smart Bee

And there you have it… Smart Bee came through in the end with the perfect closer…. Okay, onward, or we’ll never get done….
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In the interests of brevity, along with elegance and depth, where else would I go, but to Emily?…..

Rouge et Noir

Soul, wilt thou toss again?
By just such a hazard
Hundreds have lost, indeed,
But tens have won an all.

Angels’ breathless ballot
Lingers to record thee;
Imps in eager caucus
Raffle for my soul.

~~ Emily Dickinson

Her poems are small enough that two is not crowding….

Rouge Gagne

‘Tis so much joy! ‘Tis so much joy!
If I should fail, what poverty!
And yet, as poor as I
Have ventured all upon a throw;
Have gained! Yes! Hesitated so
This side the victory!

Life is but death, and death but death!
Bliss is but bliss, and breath but breath!
And if, indeed, I fail,
At least too know the worst is sweet.
Defeat means nothing but defeat,
No drearier can prevail.

And if I gain – oh, gun at sea,
Oh, bells that in the steeples be,
At first repeat it slow!
For heaven is a different thing
Conjectured, and waked sudden in,
And might o’erwhelm me so!

~~ Emily Dickinson
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Faith, n: “That quality which enables us to believe what we know to be untrue.” — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

Calm down! And sit down, and relax…. I am well aware that, upon first seeing the above aphorism where it is, you immediately figured I was going to start in on another rant of major proportion, again heaping scorn upon the priestly hierarchies, and the myriad of folks who fall for their rather unbelievable fantasies…. Even I, however, have my limits….

I wrote around a thousand words above, in a general way, about religion, or, at least, religious figures, and I’m not going to burden you with another…. No, this was chosen just to get your blood moving, and to relax you for a final, short group of simple pearls, all on a particular subject, or as near as I can make them…. What that subject might be is for you to guess, should you wish to exercise your imagination in that way…. Otherwise, just enjoy them for their, well, whatever they are….

“When Eudaemonidas heard a philosopher arguing that only a wise man can be a good general, “This is a wonderful speech,” said he; “but he that saith it never heard the sound of trumpets.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Eudaemonidas

‘When they tell you to grow up, they mean to stop growing.” — Tom Robbins

“I have known noble ones who lost their highest hope, and then they disparaged all high hopes. They lived shamelessly in temporary pleasures, and hardly had an aim beyond the day. “Spirit is also voluptuousness,” they said. Then they broke the wings of their spirit; it now creeps about, and defiles whatever it gnaws at. Once they thought of becoming heroes, but they have become sensualists. A trouble and a terror is the hero to them. By my love and hope, I implore you: do not cast away the hero in your soul. Maintain holy your highest hope. Thus spoke Zarathustra.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_

“All religions issue Bibles against Satan, and say the most injurious things against him, but we never hear his side.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

(Well, actually, Robert Heinlein did write a book called, “Job, A Comedy of Justice”, in which the main character happens to meet up with the Devil, when he was picked up hitchhiking, is taken to His home, and hears His side of the whole story… It’s a great read, if one can suspend belief, and exist purely in imagination for a time…. It’s also funny enough in spots I’ll warn you to be seated when you read it…. I will note, in Twain’s defense, that the book was written well after he died, so he can be forgiven for not knowing of it….   😆    )

“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: (1) not going all the way; and (2) not starting.” — Buddha

Well, I don’t think I could have picked a better closing pearl if I had it specifically in mind…. good job, and good recovery, Smart Bee! Well done….
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I am almost afraid to go back over this to proof… but, here goes…..  I’m really not sure how it happened, but, this is a good one…. I like it, and since that is all that counts, ultimately, it can go out as is, with my blessing, if not my hopes…. Those have already been realized today, when my first tax refund hit the bank electronically…. I’m considering dinner out tonight, as a start….

It’s nice to not have to think about how that might run me short at the end of the month, as it is already almost that time…. More proof that patience, while not an absolutely essential quality to possess, is surely of some value in preserving our dignity, if not our comfort….. And THAT is surely an example of “Enough is enough”….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Such scintillating sartorial services seem simply swell….

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Ffolkes,
Blast and damn! Waking up to such ill-favored language isn’t my idea of paradise, to say the least. Not that I’m offended by vulgarity or profanity; far from it, I’ve been known to curse the air blue a time or two myself. But. to have to overhear other folks’ domestic arguments first thing, before even having the small protection that coffee affords in such situations, is not on my list of favorite morning activities….. nor do I expect it ever will be. I suppose this is the problem with living in an apartment rather than a house; the neighbors are practically in your lap….

Ah well, soon enough, I’ll be able to move into a better place, once my benefits have actually begun, and I can find a place to move into that fits my needs for space and quiet…. Hopefully, I’ll be able to persuade a certain someone to come with me, but, if nothing else, I need to find a place where there isn’t someone living in my pocket… It’s an inherently dangerous situation, in that one of my neighbors is clueless, and places himself in severe danger at times due to his ignorance….. Not that it is my responsibility to protect him from his idiocy, but, when it spills over into my life, I have a tendency to react unfavorably; hence, he’s come close to dying three times now, and never even knew it…. Probably better all around, I’d think….

S’okay, though, the issue seems to have been resolved, at least to the point where he is only ragging on his wife, and not his neighbors…. I just wish he wouldn’t do it so early in the morning…. She could show some sense, too, and kick his ass occasionally, if only verbally, but, hey, to each their own, right? I have no interest in their issues, and just wish they didn’t spill over into their neighbor’s hearing….

Well, my little discussion of societal issues on a small scale has taken up the intro section, mostly. There isn’t enough room left to start anything poetic or fictional without getting all mixed up, and it’s too late to fall back into nonsense. Ranting is out, unless I want to lose everyone even more rapidly…. Hell, now what am I going to do? I haven’t a clue as to where this should either go, or do, or even if it should be continued…. it may be unsalvageable at this point…. hard to say, what with all the blood leaking out now…. Kinda makes it hard to see what’s what….

I’m going to resort to Emergency Procedure #1, which is the oldest, and simplest of the procedures I keep to fix things around here…. it merely involves a big dose of denial…. I declare the above to be a full and complete introductory section of a Pearl, and proclaim it “done”, as far as modern literary science can determine. No further attempts at levity, or rationality, will be needed, or allowed. Please move along to the next section, and thank you for your patience, and your patronage….. Or, more simply put…..  Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Mother Theresa epitomizes for me the blinkered charitableness upon which we pride ourselves and for which we expect reward in this world and the next. There is very little on earth that I hate more than that.” — Feminist Germaine Greer

I’ve been saving this one up for a few days, letting my outrage and angst build up, so that I can rant on this subject with the proper degree of vitriol and meanness…. This woman (Mother Teresa, that is…. Germaine’s an ass, mostly, but she is honest, at least….) deserves every bit of hard language and disdain that I, or anyone else, can summon, as I consider her to be one of the most delusional, most obsessively crazed, and most viciously hypocritical women who ever walked this planet. I kid you not…. The picture that everyone paints of her shows her as a modern day saint, full of sweetness and light, and filled with the grace of God’s love…. and I say, bullshit!….

From all I can tell, this woman has spent her entire life pushing her beliefs on everyone around her, in places all over the world that have no desire for her to be there (I’ve always wondered why the Vatican allowed her to travel around so many places like they do, but figured out they wanted her out of Italy, mostly, and didn’t care what she did anywhere else….as long as she wasn’t bothering them, they don’t care…), and who would just as soon she took her bleating, sheep-like religion somewhere else. She purports to spend her time helping the poor, sick, downtrodden victims of the world, but in reality spends all her time lording it over those weaker than herself, and making sure they are kept in the poverty where she finds them, fulfilling their enforced image as victims….

From all reports, this woman is both tireless and relentless in her fight against poverty, but, in truth, what she is, is totally invested in the vision of her own rightness, and, in my view, she spends a great deal of her time making sure that she is seen as a saint, pointing up the differences between herself, and those she purports to help. Then she will make some off-the-wall platitude, or sappy statement, about love for one’s fellow man, but will never, ever issue any statement against those who keep so many of their fellow man in the state of being victims, or against any of the priests in her own church, who prey on the weak and vulnerable of their own flocks…. She is NOT interested in anything that does not serve her own interests, much like another group of self-centered individuals I know of….

Of course, the BRC loves people like Mother Teresa; she does a lot to keep them in power, without them ever having to pay her at all…. Her constant harping at the middle class to help out, by giving to charities that support her work, provides them with consistent, effective advertising for the maintenance of the system that creates the poor in the first place, without them ever having to address the issue at all. She does it all for them, by her complicit acceptance of their right to rule; it’s a common practice among the religious institutions to encourage their constituents to obey worldly authority, or temporal rule, or whatever words one uses to describe the Beloved Ruling Class.

Without the complicity shown by the priestly hierarchies to the true corporate rulers of society, their place at the top of the heap would be much more difficult to maintain…. Without the priests and preachers constantly telling their followers to obey the rule of law, it would be much more difficult for those who are victimizing the rest of us to carry out their deceptive practices. It would seem to me to be the place of religion to PROTECT their flocks from the degradations of the ruling class, but the fact is that they are in collusion with that same group, with the unspoken but strong agreement on both parts to keep the rest of society in a state of confused fear, making them manipulable, and easily controlled….

Mother Teresa is one of the worst of the lot, in my mind, for the very reason that Ms. Greer points out in the initial pearl, as well as for her blatant hypocrisy, and her evil spirit, which KNOWS exactly what she is doing. She is obviously an intelligent woman; one couldn’t be so successful at anything without some basic mental advantages…. To me, that is her worst crime. She knows what she does is wrong; she knows just how hypocritical it is for her to speak of compassion for the weak, when her entire persona uses that same vulnerability to promote her own agenda. She is the worst sort of predator on the planet, preying on the weak and helpless of her own species, and demanding respect for doing so….

“Be one heart full of love in the hearth of Jesus through Mary. God bless you.” — Mother Teresa, Apr. 17, 1984

See? Is this delusional, or what? I’d bet the tone of voice used in these would be a dead giveaway; “God bless you” probably comes out sounding more like “God damn you!”, I’d wager…..  If you’ve ever seen the movie “Sister Act”, think of the scene near the end, when the police are hauling away the criminal, who shouts at Whoopi Goldberg’s character, Sister Mary Clarence, “You’re nothing!”, whereupon she replies, “Vince…. Bless you!”, with the emphasis on the ‘bless’, giving it the exact same emotional tone of “fuck you”…. brilliant! I would dearly love the opportunity to say that to Terry….

If I ever get a chance to meet her face to face, (and I hope like hell I do….) I WILL tell her what I think of her hypocrisy, right to her face, and see how well she can refute my arguments…. I would expect her to fall back on her supporters, though, and to pretend to ignore what I say, as I doubt seriously she would have the courage to try to refute what I say to my face….  If she did, it would be her only hope of convincing me that what I’ve related here is not correct. I might be persuaded to listen to what she has to say, if she would say it to my face…. but, since she will probably never hear of me, I doubt it will ever happen….

And that’s okay with me, too, because, I don’t really enjoy confrontations any more…. Too much chance of random squirts of adrenaline, and it’s so often a futile undertaking, as the general run of opponents for such battles of wit aren’t very well armed, as a rule. I think I’d enjoy going a round or two with Terry, myself; if nothing else, it would be a memorable opportunity to take a saint down a few pegs…. I’d enjoy that, a lot…. Nothing much worse than a mealy-mouthed hypocrite to put a bad taste in your mouth….

“Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proven innocent.” — George Orwell

Eurybiades lifting up his staff as if he were going to strike, Themistocles said, “Strike, if you will; but hear. — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Themistocles
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Occasionally, ranting will stimulate poetry, and today is one of those occasions, apparently…. I wrote the following in about 20 minutes flat, within moments of finishing the above religirant, so I would have to assume that the two are connected in some way. Any other assumption, I believe, would be mistaken…. Since I’m too close to it, maybe y’all could let me know how you like it…. or not…. I do like the last stanza, particularly, so, it’s worth it, if only for that…. I hope you enjoy it, controversial as it may be in content…. It’s all quite real, and immediate, to me…..

Rejection

“Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so…”
I’d be crying a river, I thought
if ever such crap I bought.

Sorry if it hurts your sense of style,
but, hypocrisy always gives me bile.
Being lied to accidentally is okay,
but, deliberate lies make me angry, and fey.

Oh, God, hear what I pray!
Keep me from your followers today.
Having to listen to so much that is wrong
makes me puke, before it makes me strong.

I don’t know why it isn’t clear to other folks,
which is alright, you know, different strokes.
But, why should that mean that they must
force me to believe, or fail in trust?

Spare me the lies, and the make-believe,
fairy tales are easier to hear, and to weave.
They give us a lesson which we can feel
but don’t pretend at all to be real.

Reality can scare us, that’s a given fact,
still, met with care it will leave us mostly intact.
Met without fear, standing tall and alone
Life will allow us to make it our own.

Folly beckons, and so many follow
mass delusions seem to me most hollow.
I’ll have to stick to my own chosen way
while so many go so sadly astray.

It’s lonely at times, it may seem sad,
but really isn’t, and I’m quite glad,
that knowledge is always stronger than fear,
year after year, tear after tear…..

~~ gigoid
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There is no other choice but to go old-school here…. another rant seems like overkill. So, here is another harlequin pearl for your perusal, and intended pleasure…. Abondanza!

“A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”– James Madison

“If you can’t elucidate, obfuscate.” — Smart Bee

“Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth.  When perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be allowed; nor has anyone who is apt to be angry when he hears the truth, any cause to wonder that he does not hear it.” — Tacitus

“Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.” — Eric Hoffer

“In the handbook, it says that most people ignore the strange and unusual; while I myself *am*… strange and unusual.” — BEETLEJUICE (aka, gigoid… You hadn’t guessed I was the inspiration for this character?…..)

Me, too! Me, too!….. Oh, sorry, got carried away with enthusiasm there for a second… let’s see what Smart Bee has for a couple of closers for today…. to finish the too-obvious point we’ve got going here….

“Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.” — G. K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Perfect!…. For extra credit, you may leave the conclusion in the comment section for others to laugh at, er, admire….. Or, you may just go on, like the rest of us….  😆
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Well, that went smoothly enough; let’s see how it flows…. or, if….. Well, I’m not certain that the word, “flow” is the right one, but, we’ll go with it for now…. I like it. But, then, I DID write it, so that’s probably a good thing, all in all. Whether or not y’all feel the same, well, I hope so, but, I’m not gonna hold my breath…. I’m too much aware of my own shortcomings, and my own relative importance…. fortunately. If nothing else, I hope it gives y’all a chuckle or two, or maybe causes a moment of outrage or other real emotion…. I’ll settle for that…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

Malicious exploitation of rabbinical robes….

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Ffolkes,
I may have discovered the answer to one of those questions that has perplexed mankind since our species first kicked the sticks out of the crib, to wit: Why do people get so cranky when they get old? I can now tell you…. it’s all the fault of Mister Time, or Mistress Time, if you prefer (there is a lot to be said for the idea of the Time Bitch, or She Who Turns Hair Gray, a name I’ve heard numerous women authors suggest for use…..).

Now, I know you’ll probably ask what is new about that, and I’ll tell you, if you’ll give me  a chance…. don’t rush me, I just got up….

See, and there is the other reason for our cranky pants…. while I was writing the previous paragraph, lovingly polishing the phraseology, the subtle, yet simple answer that had come to me… went. Gone with the wind. Kaput, got thrown out with the bath, done a bunk…. Oh, wait, there it is…. never mind…

So, anyway, the Time Bitch gets us all eventually, and we get cranky because, not only does it HURT, but, here we are, with all this knowledge and experience that we’ve spent a lifetime learning, and these sneak attacks on our breath, strength, hair, and skin have added up to turn us into physical shadows of our former selves. All the things we’ve learned to enjoy doing are now proscribed, due to our body’s inability to meet the physical requirements of the activity. Our favorite forms of recreation or work are kept from us as no longer feasible. This, as you might guess, gets to be old quickly….like us.

So, we have to learn a new skill, called rationalization, also known to small children as pretend, or the world of make-believe. (Well, maybe not new, just a new application for it…..) We learn to say things like, “Oh, that’s okay, I’d rather sit here and read my book, really. You go ahead and swim over to Hawaii without me….”, or, “You guys go ahead, I’m just going to sit here and watch all the people. I don’t really enjoy xxxxing.”  (xxxx, being, of course, one of our previously favorite things to do….)

We learn to pretend that we don’t really mind not being able to walk without a stick of some kind, or that places that used to be close are now far away (such as the floor….), or that we have to choose hamburger even if we can afford steak, because we can’t chew it….

So, don’t wonder any more about all those cranky old folks wandering around in the world. They’re just adjusting to the new requirements Life has placed on them, and it takes some practice…. In the meantime, I think I’ll try to get over my morning irritation with my body by diving into the WWW for some pearls… wan to come along? Let’s go Pearl…..
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“Ever notice that fifteen minutes into a Jerry Lewis telethon you start rooting for the disease?” — Jim Sherbert

It’s a good thing for me I was raised without having to experience one of the more severe religions, because I’d probably have died from making myself feel guilty by now, for making fun of iconoclasts revered by the rest of society. Mother Teresa, Jerry Lewis, Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, Swaggert & Bakker et al, they have all felt the lash of my pen, pricking at them for their hypocrisy and self-aggrandizement. The pearl above describes my feelings exactly whenever I’ve spent more than five minutes watching one of Jerry’s telethons, which have been going on TV since I was seven years old (not quite an eon, but close enough….)….

The sheer effrontery of these people is what annoys me. All of them suffer from Grundyism, and to me, this is one of the worst human characteristics there is, common as it is. Grundyism, a term inspired by Robert Heinlein’s concept of the Mrs. Grundy’s of the world, is best illustrated by visualizing Mrs. Grundy, the prototypical nosy neighbor, peering with one eye around the corner of her parlor window, keeping a beady, judgmental eye on everything going on in her neighbors’ yards and houses, in order to provide her with ample supplies of gossip about which to spread innuendo and lies to her like-minded companions, Lady Nosy-Parker and the church secretary. Nothing that she does is ever a subject for her dissection in her daily phone and back-fence conversations, only the (in her eyes…) morally questionable activities that she observes in her neighbors.

Mr. Heinlein has suggested that the best way to deal with a sentence from one of these less-than-stellar characters such as “I know it’s none of my business, but…” , is to place a period after the word “but”, not bothering to be too careful as to worry about how forcefully that period is put in place. His attitude suggests that blood is acceptable, but mayhem is going a bit too far for mere gossip. Unless, of course, it is true, in which case, applying the period with a baseball bat, though messy, has been found to be gratifyingly cathartic, once the body is disposed of….. I suggest the use of lime and acid in combination; it is not fast, but extremely thorough….

Or, I guess, one could just say, “Go mind your own fucking business, you moron!” or some such polite suggestion, and leave it at that…..Offend them hard enough and they may watch you, but they will hesitate to talk about it…. I’ve found, personally, that an occasional wild-eyed stare at their house, mumbling and laughing maniacally, while fingering the sharp edge of an axe, to be fairly effective in keeping them quiet….. I love to see the curtains drop down over the window in a huffy rush…..
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A man can’t get rich if he takes proper care of his family. — Navajo Proverb

I love this statement. I’ve never seen it before, and it struck me hard when I first saw it. It is the kind of statement that reverberates…. it just doesn’t go into the mind and sit there, smug in its truth. It gently leads the mind to thinking about it, to examine it, and subtly yet firmly plants a thought that grows and grows, until its wisdom is not just clear, but shining.

In thinking it over, I found it could conceivably be used as a basis for a rant against the 1%, and I still may do so. But not just now…. I find it to be a soothing thought as well, and the mental energy of producing a rant would be counter-productive, I think. So, take note of this pearl…. it is one of the shortest I’ve ever made, with that characteristic common to all the shortest of them, to wit: it truly needs no help to make its point….. This is true morality, ffolkes…..

Integrity needs no rules. — Smart Bee
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First Love

I ne’er was struck before that hour
With love so sudden and so sweet,
Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower
And stole my heart away complete.
My face turned pale as deadly pale.
My legs refused to walk away,
And when she looked, what could I ail?
My life and all seemed turned to clay.

And then my blood rushed to my face
And took my eyesight quite away,
The trees and bushes round the place
Seemed midnight at noonday.
I could not see a single thing,
Words from my eyes did start —
They spoke as chords do from the string,
And blood burnt round my heart.

Are flowers the winter’s choice?
Is love’s bed always snow?
She seemed to hear my silent voice,
Not love’s appeals to know.
I never saw so sweet a face
As that I stood before.
My heart has left its dwelling-place
And can return no more

John Clare

As an integral part of my eternal search for lustrous pearls, I save time by subscribing to email lists that will send me material. One of those is a poetry site, Poem Hunters.com; I started using their email service about two or three weeks ago, and have found their choice of poems to be very helpful, and erudite, as well as satisfyingly diverse. I’ve now been introduced to at least four new poets (new to me….) whose work I find to be very good. This is one of them…. enjoy!
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Some mornings go better than others…. on those mornings, I kind of wish I still was putting out five pearls a day instead of three. Ah well, I also like it this way, and it seems to be working well, so, “it ain’t broke, so I’m leavin’ it alone….”  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!