Tag Archives: Oscar Wilde

Marvelous mountains of popcorn…..

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Ffolkes,
On a day following the last two, this morning’s subject for discussion would naturally progress into a political rant. After all, one can only take so much BS before having to spew. Who am I to go against tradition?….. So, for a while there, watching the Republican circus in the news was getting to be a little scary. I don’t think I’d enjoy having a person in charge of this country who insisted on maintaining the degree of ignorance on display in those debates. A person who questions evolution, and at the same time questions global warming, does not have the intellectual strength necessary to carry out the duties of the job. I consider deliberate ignorance to be the biggest problem we have in today’s society, because it affects everything else. How can I justify giving control over nuclear weapons to a person whose most intellectual pursuit is Saturday morning cartoons?


Yes, it was scary for a time, but I forgot a critical factor, that of natural selection. As time goes by, each of the eight or ten Republicans who have declared their intent keeps on talking with the media. Even though some of the campaigns try to limit access to the candidate, they eventually have to speak out on the national stage, or risk being forgotten. And every time they open their mouth, out comes another little verbal bomb, some statement that shows the public just how stupid and greedy they are. It’s been kinda fun, watching them implode their own campaign by the mere act of speaking their mind. I couldn’t ask for better comedy…..if only it weren’t real….


It is unfortunate that there is nobody in the public arena who speaks sense, whether Democrat or Republican, though it shouldn’t surprise us. We voters are the ones who keep electing these schmucks. It’s almost shark-like behavior, performing time and again the same idiotic actions that let these idiots into office, and then complaining because they lied to us. Of course they lied; they’ve been programmed to lie, as history shows it to be the best way to get elected. Lie to the voters, then reverse positions once in office; it’s a time-tested sure-fire method of how to steal from the public, and convince them they like being screwed over. If you think you can explain it any better, feel free to write back and show me some evidence of intelligent life in D.C……meanwhile, here are some pertinent Pearls. Enjoy!….

How you do anything is how you do everything. — Zen proverb

He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknell’d, uncoffin’d, and unknown.
— Lord Byron (1788-1824)
— Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto iv, Stanza 179

“Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot.  In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.” — Oscar Wilde

Only the educated are free. — Epictetus

“The ultimate evil is the weakness, cowardice, that is one of the constituents of so much human nature.  When, rarely, unalloyed nobility does occur, its chances of prevailing are slim.  Yet it exists, and its mere existence is reason enough for not wiping the name of mankind off the slate.” — John Simon

“One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty in finding someone to blame your troubles on. And when you do find someone, it’s remarkable how often their picture turns up on your driver’s license.” — P. J. O’Rourke

In light of today’s political scene, the last Pearl is downright frightening…..y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

By any other name, the same….

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Ffolkes,
As humans, we seem to have a need for meaning; without purpose, we lose our way every time. What other creature do we know that can stand before the burgeoning day, watching the panorama of daybreak, and feel a need to know why? With oblivious dignity and sheer beauty, the sun rises each morning, casting its life-giving rays without prejudice or seeming cause; we watch, and wonder, why? Are all the creatures on this world doing the same? I would hope so, but I fear not. I suppose it is just as well; having imagination hasn’t seemed to lift us above our baser selves, or shown any strong evidence of possessing any evolutionary advantage. Quite the contrary, in truth; much in today’s society that can be called evil is a direct result of our imagination, and its perversion. Ah well……life goes on….

Well, there you have it, ffolkes. I’ve busted the bank. Emptied out the cupboards. Sent off the notices. I am intellectually bankrupt. My mind of late finds itself all too often engaged in sheer catatonia, bereft of thought, forsaken in my moment of need. I can only see one hopeful sign…..okay, make that none. I have no idea where my mind has gone, but I’d best stop here, as I can’t be sure of what will come out of my head just now…it could be dangerous, to my health, and ultimately, yours. So, just dive in to today’s offerings, and hold out some hope that tomorrow, things will have returned to a more normal level of insanity. It could work……maybe….

To sorrow
I bade good-morrow,
And thought to leave her far away behind;
But cheerly, cheerly,
She loves me dearly;
She is so constant to me, and so kind.
— John Keats (1795-1821)
— Endymion, Book iv

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift; the rational mind is faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” — Albert Einstein

“I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.” — Pogo, character in “Pogo,” comic strip by Walt Kelly
(I always wondered who came up with that line….)

“Society produces rogues, and education makes one rogue cleverer than another.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

“Ignorance of death is destroying us. Death is the dark backing a mirror needs if we are to see anything.” — Saul Bellow

“In morals, what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion, what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil.” — Mrs. Jameson (Amen sister!)

So much for ingenuity…… y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Wicked barbarian hairstyles with peach highlights….

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Ffolkes,
Back in dark ages, during the hippie era in Berkeley, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend an exhibition of art at the San Francisco Museum of Art in Golden Gate Park. The showing I attended was highlighted by a collection of the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh.  During my walk through his visions in oil, I stopped to look at one of his self-portraits, and received a revelation, or perhaps epiphany. In any case…as I stood looking at this small painting, covered with the extremely thick, bold strokes common to his works, I thought at first that it was a good piece of work, but I didn’t see what all the fuss was about his paintings, which were often simple and without pretension, scenes of everyday life. Then, for some reason, I stepped back from the portrait I was observing, to a distance of about 12 feet from the painting. When I reached a certain spot away from the painting, his eyes came to life. Literally. Alive. The entire portrait no longer had brush strokes that described a face; it WAS a face, and his eyes looked right into my soul. I could feel all of his feelings through his eyes; the anguish, the pain, the genius, all of it came through as if I was looking at his reflection in a mirror. In that moment, I was given a gift, for which I will always be grateful. I had seen beauty in its most basic form; with bold strokes Van Gogh made his vision of life come to life, and it was then I first came to understand genius, and how it can show Reality to those of us who cannot always see what people like Van Gogh see through their unique vision.


Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to have seen many things that are beautiful, both in the works of man, and in nature itself. It was a grand awakening, of a side of my own soul that previously I had not known, and I have always been grateful for the impulse that took me to SF that day. Seeing true beauty, as seen through the eyes of a genius (I know, three times, but its the best word I have on that subject), has shown me how to find it in other places, and has enriched my life in uncountable ways. So if you ever get the chance to see his work, or the sculpture of Renoir, or hear the music of Mozart and Bach, take the chance. You won’t regret it…..


All this leads me to today’s Pearls, many of which were created by men of genius, and bear the unmistakable sign of beauty that only a few people can show us……beauty is as necessary for life as is oxygen. A soul that cannot appreciate it is a stunted soul, and not fully human. These were all chosen because they touch Reality, and show it back to us, and bring us to beauty….

“There are worlds out there where the sky is burning and the sea’s asleep and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there’s danger, somewhere there’s injustice, somewhere else the tea’s getting cold. Come on Ace, we’ve got work to do…”
— The Doctor, Survival [Last lines of last episode]

‘Friendship should be more than biting time can sever.’ — T. S. Eliot

I see the lights of the village
gleam through the rain and the mist.
And a feeling of sadness comes o’er me,
that my soul cannot resist.
A feeling of sadness and longing
that is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
as the mist resembles rain.
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), The Day is done

“Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind.
To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.” — Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!
— Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), The Ballad of Reading Gaol

It is alleged that when Einstein and his wife visited the Mount Wilson Observatory in California, Mrs. Einstein pointed to a particularly
complex piece of equipment and asked its purpose. Their guide said that it was used to determine the shape of the universe. “Oh,” she
said, not at all impressed, “my husband uses the back of an old envelope to work that out.”

That is probably enough for one day; don’t want to consume too much in one sitting. Today, I’m going to hunt beauty…y’all take care out there…

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Pockets full of mint jelly….

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Ffolkes,
The young man’s adventure will have percolate for awhile; my creative juices are a bit dried up just now…. I once read an article that discussed the effects of stress, and how certain seminal events can put one’s level of stress through the roof. Events that were named in this category included major job stress (nasty boss, gossipy co-workers, not having a job, getting fired, etc.), death of a relative or close friend, divorce or other relationship stresses, moving, economic stress (poverty, etc.), medical issues (cancer, etc.), and a couple others I don’t recall. The author assigned a numerical value to each type of event, and a high score in a short period of time was, he contended, a short road to depression, or other mental disorder if not recognized and treated. It was a well-thought-out premise, with plenty of statistical support for his argument. I can only say that I found it convincing, but not totally accurate in its predictive function, i.e., he really had no idea what the stress did to people in a realistic sense, and seemed to not really have a feel for how much people can really take before they break. Nonetheless, it was a good yardstick to determine how much stress one has in one’s own life.


So, I went ahead and marked down how many of the events mentioned I had experienced in the last year. It turns out that I have had EVERY ONE of the above listed events to deal with in the last year. I got forced out of my job, and make half of what I made while at work. At the same time as that was happening, the woman I had loved and lived with for 10 years decided she no longer wanted me around. For six months I fought with the State bureaucracy over my retirement. Then, just as my income dropped by 50%, my Mom got sick, and I spent 6 weeks performing 24 hour nursing care, and spent my entire savings to purchase the materials needed. I missed going on a cruise I’d looked forward to for months in order to nurse her. Then she left, and I was left to deal with my geriatric dog, and barely enough money to eat with for the next few months. Then my dog died. My Mom had a stroke, and went into the hospital and died there without ever really waking up. This whole time, my own medical issues continue to dog me, sucking out my energy, and alternating bouts of severe pain in my back with bowel problems that leave me feeling like I am wading through molasses.


Now let’s be clear here….I’m not laying this out to garner sympathy; I know there are many people out there suffering the same kinds of issues every day, and there are still others who are worse off than I am (like having all this to deal with, and NO retirement check to count on coming in every month. Small as it is, my check is more than a lot of folks in this country have, thanks to our beloved ruling class). What I am going through is, of course, a result of my own karmic burden, and there is scant blame that can be placed elsewhere than right here inside my own head. But, as I read the news each day, I am struck again and again with how badly our society here in America has fallen into disarray. The absolutely outrageous crap being spouted of late by the Republicans who wanna be Prez has been not merely ignorant, but actively stupid. I shudder to think about how things will go if any one of them manages to pull the wool over enough eyes to get elected. I am of the firm opinion that anyone who wants the job of President of this country is literally insane. Not figuratively, literally. The desire for that much power is insane, period, and anyone who wants it should never, ever be elected. Mean-spirited, spiteful, and deliberately ignorant, the zealots of the world have grown to such numbers that reason, truth and compassion are being buried under cries of hatred and fear.


Today’s Pearls each contain a piece of wisdom about society, at least if examined from around a corner. But each one of them is something I believe firmly, and will, I hope, help to understand and deal with the insanity currently serving in place of society…..enjoy!….

“No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.” — Aristotle

“Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.” — Oscar Wilde

“History has the relation to truth that theology has to religion — i.e., none to speak of.” — Lazarus Long

“But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who
professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and
State.” — Thomas Jefferson, [letter?] To S. Kercheval, 1810

Existing order thrives upon ignorance and lies.
Objective truth and individual reason are feared above all.

“Humanity has in the course of time had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon its naive self-love.  The first was when it realized that our earth was not the center of the universe, but only a speck in a world-system of a magnitude hardly conceivable…  The second was when biological research robbed man of his particular privilege of having been specially created, and relegated him to a descent from the animal world.” — Sigmund Freud

I find your faith in reality rather amusing.

Actually, I had trouble limiting myself to only seven today; history has a lot of examples of men and women who observed the world through clear eyes, and all of them were distrustful of zealotry, with good cause….I could go on in this vein for a long time, but y’all probably have stuff to do, so I’ll leave this here….wherever here is…….y’all take care out there, and beware the ignorant and zealous….

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

We now have superior blankets….

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Ffolkes,
The grim-faced young man watched in silence as the light of the morning sun spread across the green grass of the park, watching dispassionately as the tall trees awakened to absorb the life-giving rays. In his mind’s eye he saw the running children and dogs, the nannies pushing carriages, the teens with boom boxes blasting out the latest hits, the old men playing chess, that would gradually populate the empty space that only he occupied now. He almost wished he could join them, but he would be long gone before any of those carefree people gathered. With only a small sigh for what he no longer could claim to be a part of, he turned and made his way along the path leading to the small lake in the center of the park. As he approached the water he did not slow his pace; instead he began to run directly at the shoreline. He picked up speed and at the precise moment he reached the water’s edge he gathered himself and leaped into the air out over the water. But, instead of crashing fully-dressed into the calm surface, he vanished, gone, as if he had never been. No one witnessed this astonishing event, and, for the sake of their sanity, it was just as well. (to be continued…)


Well, that felt good….we’ll see what happens to the young man in the next episode; your guess is as good as mine as to where he went. In the meantime, I will now return to our regularly scheduled program, after a word from our spon…..oh, wait. Sorry, I forgot. Nobody sponsors this stuff, though I wish they would. Oh well…..so, today’s Pearls are once again an unusual group, but they do have a point. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to deduce that point. Don’t fret if it doesn’t come easily; you won’t be graded on this. But, it’s good exercise for the old grey matter, and the point isn’t particularly obtuse. Maybe a little…..enjoy!

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend. — Henry David Thoreau

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.  Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.  Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but
downright force.  Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.” — Patrick Henry, Debates In The Virginia Convention

“Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.” — Oscar Wilde

Quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? [Who guards the Guardians?]

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

“Few people have the imagination for reality.” — Goethe

Now, was that so terribly painful? It was? Oh….well, sorry, but I guess it’s just another short proof of the old saw about getting what you pay for, n’est pas? For the nonce…..y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Subliminal toast….

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Ffolkes,
It seems that my computer has developed some idiosyncrasies. I usually don’t turn it off very much, as I run a program that crunches data for a couple of cloud computing projects, one from UC Berkeley called SETI@home, and one from the American Physical Society called Einstein@home. But I decided to give the computer a break a couple nights here recently, and now it seems to want to find little things to do that annoy me. This morning my word-processing, database, and project program, Open Office Suite, wouldn’t open from the taskbar button; I had to work around it by using an already created document to open a new doc. Then Firefox, my internet browser, wanted to update itself for the sixth time. Just goes to show that our inanimate objects tend to take on human characteristics the more we use them. As I spend probably more than 10 hours a day working on this little machine, it has no doubt taken on some of my curmudgeonly traits. Ah well, as long as there is a work-around…..c’est la vie!
Today I have gathered a group of Pearls from some of history’s finest minds. Some were included simply for the beauty of the writing, others for the power of the ideas being presented. All are worth reading and contemplating, and should provide everyone with a good feeling or three with which to fortify their attitude for the day. If not, well, I’d have to say you really aren’t trying hard enough…..enjoy!

“Nature, whose sweet rains fall of just and unjust alike, will have clefts in the rocks where I may hide, and secret valleys in whose silence I may weep undetected. She will hang the night with stars so that I may walk abroad in the darkness without stumbling, and send the wind over my footprints so that none may track me to my hurt: she will cleanse me in great waters, and with bitter herbs make me whole.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) — “De Profundis”

“When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), “Caesar and Cleopatra”, Act III

“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.” — Thomas Jefferson to A. Stuart, 1791

“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on “I am not too sure.” — H.L. Mencken

The other shape,
If shape it might be call’d that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb;
Or substance might be call’d that shadow seem’d,
For each seem’d either,–black it stood as night,
Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell,
And shook a dreadful dart; what seem’d his head
The likeness of a kingly crown had on.
Satan was now at hand.
— John Milton (1608-1674)
— Paradise Lost, Book ii, Line 666

“A wretched soul, bruised with adversity.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Comedy of Errors — Act ii, Sc. 1

I love these lines, “black as night it stood, fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell, and shook a dreadful dart!” And good old Will, he must have spent some time on the streets, or at least in a state of poverty, to be able to describe so perfectly in one line how it feels at the end of the day…”bruised with adversity.” Bruised indeed….. y’all take care out there….

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Unbidden, patterns of silk bear witness….

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Ffolkes,
The Flight, continued:  As he pounded through the forest toward the river, with his terror lending him speed, he felt himself nearing a nexus, a time of decision. His pursuer had pushed and herded him for three days, deeper and deeper into the wild, and everything he was, and hoped to be, depended on what took place now, at this juncture of time. Finally, he caught a glimpse of water through the trees, and coming around a corner, found himself in a small clearing and beach formed by a turn of the river. And he was not alone. Somehow, through what arcane magic he knew not, his pursuer stood between him and his boat, arrogant and evil, and calmly fixed upon him that terrible gaze. Before he knew it, he had blurted out what was uppermost in his mind, “Mom! You’re the one who has been chasing me? Who’s taking care of the fish?”. Sadly, and with great gravity, she replied, “Your Aunt Millie’s got them at her house.” And with that, she vanished, leaving him alone, and very, very confused…..
There, it’s done. Now no one can complain that I never finish anything…..today’s Pearls had to be ripped out of their hidden lairs, and fought every step of the way. You wouldn’t know it to look at them, but they are worth a lot, if only for the effort it took to obtain them. Still, they retain their intrinsic value, as good advice. Good advice, you will remember, is worth everything you pay for it…..

“A little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Madison, 1787

“There are moments when art attains almost to the dignity of manual labor.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” — Frederick Douglass

And that inverted Bowl they call the Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop’d we live and die,
Lift not your hands to It for help – for It
As impotently rolls as you or I.
— Omar Khayyam/Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubaiyat

Hold a true friend with both hands. — Nigerian Proverb

“If you find yourself in a hole the first thing to do is stop diggin.” — Unknown Old Cowboy

Boy, if that ain’t the truth! Probably wouldn’t hurt to get rid of the shovel as well……y’all take care out there…..

Sometimes I sits and thinks,

and sometimes,

I just sits.

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Ben Franklin was a Sanctimonious Ass….

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Ffolkes,
It may be harsh, but it has to be said….Ben Franklin was a sanctimonious ass, and I mean that in its’ basest, most derogatory sense. Who else but an ass would say things like “Early to bed and early to rise,  make a man, etc….” or “The early bird gets the worm”?  As one of my favorite sci-fi authors said, approximately, “all the aphorism about the worm proves is that the worm should have stayed in bed.” And early to bed, etc., is fine for those who fall asleep instantly, having the benefit of no worldly problems, and remain asleep through the night due to having no imagination. I’m 60 years old, and I can’t remember the last time I could count on falling asleep easily without first consuming a significant amount of adult beverage, or staying asleep for more than a couple of hours before some physical prompt has me up and going to the bathroom, or just laying in bed wondering how long it would be until morning. As far as I’m concerned, Poor Richard can take his little Almanac, and his advice, and place them forcibly in one of his orifices where the sun don’t shine…..just as it isn’t here at 0530 as I sit to compose this, having once more awakened at 0515 for no apparent reason. Wise man, my dying ass…..
I dove for these Pearls yesterday as I was in the throes of extra-pyramidal side effects, due entirely to the asinine ordering requirements dictated by Kaiser Permanente for dealing with a controlled drug. Thanks to those obscene regulations, I have spent much of the last three days with dyskinesia, malaise,  and an intermittent splitting headache just for good measure. In case you are not a former PT, dyskinesia is that condition of muscular and nervous agitation that makes one’s muscles twitch and dance, combined with a feeling of restless dread and diffuse anxiety that makes the nerves hum like a redneck with a kazoo. Add in the headache, (of the ilk that blurs the vision and causes whimpering in strong men), and you can imagine how difficult it is not only refrain from biting my self, but to refrain from biting anyone who crosses my path. All this, of course, is then complicated by trying to deal with people who have become bureaucrats, who have no conception of anything outside their own little sphere of inattention, and whose sole purpose is to keep anything from getting done. It’s enough to give one visions of mayhem and violent death for all bureaucrats, preferably by my own hand.
Sorry about the above rant……well, actually, I’m not. I could actually care less right now what anyone thinks, about anything. Nonetheless, I do think that the following Pearls will strike some good chords in many folks, and even more in those ffolkes who are familiar with this process, and how it provides some fine rules for life, or at least for looking at life in a different way. Regardless, they are what they are, and I hope you enjoy them…..much as I can hope anything at all……

“I sometimes think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a, star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a gray mist on the sea’s face and a gray dawn breaking.
— John Masefield, Sea Fever, first stanza.

Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow but a vision.  But Today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore to this Day. — Sanskrit proverb (I like this one a lot; it covers a lot of bases….)

“It’s not denial. I’m just very selective about what I accept as reality.” — Calvin (“Calvin and Hobbes”) (Calvin is actually a sociopathic idiot, but Hobbes, I firmly believe, will someday be considered one of the 20th and 21st centuries’ most cogent philosophers….)

“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death….Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967), “Selected Papers”

So live that you can look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell.

Well, there you have it. That’s the best I can do, under the circumstances that currently prevail. My greatest desire just now is that tomorrow will be different, if only I can survive until then without committing any acts that would land me in jail. Wish me luck…..and, y’all take care out there……

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!