“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet
and the winds long to play with your hair.”
~~ Kahlil Gibran, “The Prophet” ~~
Scenes from a train
Willamette River, Oregon
Yesterday, I got distracted by various spirea, (not really shrubs; it’s just a beautiful word, & works well as a metaphor…), a not unusual happenstance for me. In this case, it only means I once again didn’t finish the exposition upon which I’ve been working. In the normal way, this has telescoped through time to this morning, with yet another minor alteration in the content for today’s mess, which we laughingly call a blog. I did manage to piece together a pretty good, if somewhat incomplete Pearl, so, I suppose that’s something, and, better than any of the alternatives I can think of….
In order to maintain any possible remaining chances at dignity, I suggest we forgo any of my usual pathetic attempts at humor, & move on. I DID manage to remember the final pearl for this section, missing since my return to an on line presence. I imagine nobody but me even noticed, but, hopefully, you will now. With that said, to little purpose beyond taking up a bit more space, we will now exercise the discipline we have on hand, loose as it is….
Shall we Pearl?
“Humans are very peculiar.”
~~ Perceptive Bee ~~
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Etta James
Image from YouTube via Google Images…
Today, I feel like hearing Etta. I make no excuses for this; I consider her one of the finest singers to ever take the stage. Here is a compilation of some of her best live performances…. Prepare to be affected, ffolkes; her voice can rip your soul to pieces if you’re not prepared…. Enjoy!….
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Premises, premises….
Tricked, I stumble, and I fall
dreaming, through an abandoned palace.
Frightened and wary, unheard my call
fading into memory, no cup, no argent chalice.
The people, crushed, cry out to be freed
asking only to take part, or travel.
Nascent oaths spotlight such bursting need
fed by treachery, deep from our well.
Only the wicked shall find their way blocked
justice seeks them, snug in their hole.
Faint praises never touched, but naked, stalked
singing no gospel, no soul, no rock and roll.
Only the promised will remember the way
from unforgiven trails of sorrow.
To live life, and give death no sway,
saving grace for our only tomorrow.
~~ gigoid ~~
7/5/2015
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Naked Pearls
On becoming Human….
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“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.”
~~ Alexander Pope, “Essay on Man”, Epistle ii, Line 1 ~~
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“He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.”
~~ Confucius ~~
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“Anybody remotely interesting is mad, in some way or another.”
~~ Dr. Who ~~
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“It is a luxury to be understood.”
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~
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“Any human anywhere will blossom
in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities
simply by being given the opportunity to do so.”
~~ Doris Lessing ~~
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“The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas.”
~~ Joseph Addison ~~
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“I haven’t a clue as to how my story will end.
But that’s all right.
When you set out on a journey and night covers the road,
you don’t conclude that the road has vanished.
And how else could we discover the stars?”
~~ Nancy Willard ~~
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I can see by the overall look & feel of today’s offering there is still some work to do before I can consider myself back in form; this process is still a bit less reliable than I expect from my own creations. But, that’s for another day; this one is done. I’ll be back, as ever, with more sense, nonsense, and whatever else I can get away come up with…. Y’all be well, be happy as you may be, and, for your own sake, and ours, be just as strange as you can be…. See ya, ffolkes…,
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
“Believe nothing,
no matter where you read it, or who said it–
even if I have said it–
unless it agrees with your own reason
and your own common sense.”
~~ The Buddha ~~
Great Famine Victim’s Memorial, Galway, Ireland
Hajime…. It’s been said, with some elegance by Mr. Pope, hope springs eternally in the human breast. At this moment, I can tell you, that is NOT a consistent event, by any means. In fact, in my breast this morning, hope is non-existent; moreover, it seems completely out of the realm of possibility. Yesterday, about half-way through the day, I dropped into a hole I didn’t see, and have been ‘in the dumps’ ever since, mostly, with short periods of distraction, never lasting long enough to establish any sort of direction pointing out of the hole…..
In order to get this done at all today will require a bit of cheating; in and of itself, that’s nothing out of the ordinary. The only real bad part of that is the guilt I feel for failing to create something fresh, since there is certainly no lack of material in the real world upon which to focus my attention. Hell, what with the post-Brexit mess over in Europe, the email scrum going on over here, and the general state of chaos all over the world, there is a plethora of issues to examine with a critical eye. None of it interests me in the least today, as my sole task for today has narrowed down to keeping myself from committing homicide….
It helped to speak with my friend in Europe; she always brightens my day, if only to know there is at least one person out there who is on the same page; that’s a powerful motivator for those of us who limit our intake of other humans. So, I’ll quit whining about stuff I can’t currently change, and get on with trying to put this Pearl together into a consumable format, with something worthwhile to consume. I guess we’ll just have to trust the process, and see how it turns out. Since I can’t think of any more blather, or nonsense, or sense to put here, I guess we’ll just go do the best we can…. After all, all you can do is all you can do…. You may have heard that before….
Shall we pearl?….
“It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself.
Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving,
it consists in professing to believe what one does not believe.”
Todays musical selection needs little introduction; her fame in today’s world is secure. Here is a live concert, from not too long ago…. Enjoy!….
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Norah Jones Live in New Orleans
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There is no point in waiting.
The train stopped running years ago.
All the schedules, the brochures,
The bright-colored posters full of lies,
Promise rides to a distant country
That no longer exists.
~~ Linux Songs Poems no. 570 ~~
Since I’m not in a ranting mood, here is an archived pearl from a day on which it seems I was in the mood…. Enjoy!….
From 4/18/2014:
As noted above, I am in the mood to rant…. However, the depth of my anger today is beyond all reason; I’m feeling extremely homicidal…. It will take ALL of my will power to NOT become proactive…. Think about that, and you’ll see I’m not in a very good mood at all; in fact, it’s been hard to keep myself from casually booting the cat through the window, or some other powerful release of what is bubbling and churning in my head and gut…. To go there, in a real sense, I would have to have already purchased the weaponry that is part of my ultimate plan, which, sadly, I haven’t completed yet…. It’s harder than it seems to find just the “right” weapon(s) for the purposes to which I plan to put it/them….
“Frankly,” he said, “I’m just trying to get to the end of my life without becoming an asshole again.” The Buddha couldn’t have said it better. — Slomo, aka John Kitchin, San Diego, last lines of the Mark Morford column, 4/16/14…. ( http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/04/15/the-saddest-job-in-the-world/)
“Me, too”, he said…. The above article is a good one; it kept me from killing anyone for three whole days, before I had to replace the old restraining thought patterns that keep me from breaking down, & carrying out one of the many fantasies that parade through my head whenever I start thinking about the BRC, the Asininnies in general, or the state of the world at large…. It makes me positively homicidal….
Every time I look at the big picture, extrapolating what I perceive out into the future, I see our species ending its short stay on Earth in the all-too-near future, ignominiously choking out our last painful breaths of a now toxic atmosphere, dying in sheer agony, in a world gone mad, broken and sad, from trying to contain our common insanity….. I see the real world, full of uncaring, selfish, avaricious thieves who prey upon the rest of mankind, to the detriment of all, knowing, but not caring how much pain and misery they cause others….
When I look at these images in my mind this morning, I am enraged…. so much so, I must go take a short break…. When I return, I’ll put together an old-school pearl…. Maybe that will allow me to calm down enough to make them fit just the way I like…. I’ll be right back, ffolkes, after I calm down a bit…. God! I HATE adrenalin….. I spent way too much of my life under its influence, and it just pisses me off when it rears its ugly head again…. Ah well, I’ll be back….
“… And yet the true creator is necessity, which is the mother of invention.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.), “The Republic”, Book II. 369C
There! I feel better already…. finding a good pearl, that describes reality so closely in our current state, is always a good thing, in my book…. For the remainder of this group, let’s see what rant-like material regarding my favorite targets we can find today…. Enjoy…. and you can thank me later for not ranting….
“Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there.” — P. J. O’Rourke, Parliament of Whores (1991)
“Democracy can learn some things from Communism: for example, when a Communist politician is through, he is through.” — Jacoby Smirnoff
“In this world there is always danger for those who are afraid of it.” — George Bernard Shaw
“Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin; the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.” — Robert A. Heinlein — Lazarus Long
“The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.” — Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
“Government [is] an illusion the governed should not encourage.” — John Updike, Couples
“I am Porky of Borg. You will be assim…bdeh…assim…I’m takin’ over!”– Smart Bee
This is, perhaps, the strangest pearl I’ve ever composed….. I like it….
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Visible life
Forty-two days of pressure and internal rain,
leave marks of salvation, often in pain.
Such sharp reminders of yesterday’s remorse
fight heavily to keep a straight course.
Rash moments, bright, and routinely immense
Give us pleasure, bereft of common sense.
Still the night comes soft and eternally dear
to bring out wishful dreams so vitally clear.
Life’s myrmidons give freely in protest
lifting with skill, soul pieces first to infest,
Loudly brash, with no such voices to remain
Sealed in infamy, branded ugliness all too plain.
Now come brave signs of chapter and verse
Shielded by ignorance, irritable and terse.
Gravid portions of in-between retaliation
leave only pale marks of initial gestation
With hope even pallid warriors grow brave
Leading all humanity, to a warm, stale grave.
Hope never falters, nor leaves any trace
Yet lingers forever in a welcoming space.
Cheerful faces yet shine out of time
for tricking and fumbling sweet melody sublime.
Fill in the spaces with a long, strong retort
life is ever visible, if only as last resort.
~~ gigoid ~~
6/6/2015
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Naked Pearls
Fun
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“Dreams have wings,
And other things
That smile like butterflies.”
~~ Bobby Matherne ~~
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“The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green earth
in the present moment,
to appreciate the peace and beauty
that are available now.”
~~ Thich Nhat Hanh ~~
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“There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness.”
~~ Han Suyin, “A Many Splendored Thing” ~~
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“A merry heart lives long.”
~~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Act II, Sc. 5 ~~
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“The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals.
The struggles within yourself —
the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us —
that’s where it’s at.”
~~ Jesse Owens ~~
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“I haven’t a clue as to how my story will end.
But that’s all right.
When you set out on a journey and night covers the road,
you don’t conclude that the road has vanished.
And how else could we discover the stars?”
~~ Nancy Willard ~~
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“YOW!!! I am having fun!!!”
~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~
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It came as something of a surprise to find myself here at the end, yet, when I went back to look, there it was, a complete Pearl. Not too shabby, either, if I’m any judge. I’ll go post it, and we’ll see what Consensual Reality has to say about that….. For now, it means we’re outta here, as I’ve certainly caused enough damage for one day. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes; who knows? Maybe there will be something new and fresh…. never can tell….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
gigoid 