Hajime…. I did not post anything yesterday, for the first time in a couple of blue moons. To make up for it, here is today’s effort, put together while traveling and coping with reality. I shan’t try to predict how it may come out, but, it’s done, and will soothe my sense of guilt at missing my own deadlines…. Moreover, this will be all the intro you get, as I’m still coping with that reality. Watch how easy it is when we don’t fool around with it…..
Shall we Pearl?….
“Life at its noblest leaves mere happiness far behind; and indeed cannot endure it. . Happiness is not the object of life: life has no object: it is an end in itself; and courage consists in the readiness to sacrifice happiness for an intenser quality of life.” — George Bernard Shaw, Letter, Dec. 1900,
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Image from youtube.com via Google Images
Today’s selection is a rock and roll legendary jam session from 1970, with the two best guitarists playing at the time. It’s simply outstanding, a long, incredible melding of the talent of two of the geniuses of the instrument. Almost completely improvisational, and, damn, if ain’t just plain fucking good…. Enjoy, ffolkes; it doesn’t get any better than this….
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Duane Allman & Eric Clapton Live Studio Jams 1-6 1970
I was going to include some comments on this thought from George, but, time, circumstance, and, reality have precluded any such addition. However I would venture to say, given the state of the world today, y’all can easily imagine what I might have said. So, please, do so, and, I’ll try for a rant in a few days, when I return home from my trip….. See, I can be nice….
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Pensive early and late…
Endings aren’t always a new beginning
I’m sad to say.
Sometimes it’s just an ending
there’s always a price to pay.
Still, it’s only money, he said
watching it piss away
Did everything ‘cept meet Fred
‘n had a good time the whole way.
Even the bad stuff turned out well,
life lessons are just that way.
Knowing what’s right, you can’t always tell,
we don’t always know the right things to say.
I’ll take all the hard times, without complaint,
learning isn’t always easy to take.
Kindness, patience, and compassion without restraint,
are still the best decisions we can make.
~~ gigoid ~~
5/26/2913
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Naked Pearls
Winning Ways
*******
“There is no road or ready way to virtue.”
~~ Sir Thomas Browne ~~
~~ Religio Medici, Part i, Sect. lv ~~
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“The true”value of a human being is determined
by the measure and the sense
in which he has attained liberation from self.”
~~ Albert Einstein~~
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“One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential.
Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.
We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.”
~~ Maya Angelou ~~
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“It is dangerous to make man see too clearly
his equality with the brutes without showing him his greatness.
It is also dangerous to make him see his greatness too clearly,
apart for his vileness.
Is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both.
But it is very advantageous to show him both.
Man must not think that he is on a level either with the brutes
or with the angels, nor must he be ignorant of both sides of his nature;
but he must know both.”
~~ Pascal, Pensees, n. 418 ~~
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“We are not rich by what we possess but rather by what we can do without.”
~~ Immanuel Kant ~~
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“One lives but once in the world.”
~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ~~
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“I’ve wrestled with reality for 35 years,
and I’m happy, Doctor, I finally won out over it.”
~~ Jimmy Stewart in Harvey, 1950. ~~
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Well, that will do it, I think. I’m still coping, and have little to say, other than, thanks for dropping by, and, we’ll be back to our usual schedule by Sunday, or Monday, latest. In the meantime, I’ll post if I can, or re-blog if I am pressed for time. Either way, I’ll be back eventually, so, please bear with me until then…..
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.
Looking south from La Bufadora, Ensenada, Baja Mexico
Hajime…. Today’s effort, which has already suffered a start-over, is rather eclectic, general, and long enough to choke a horse. But, it’s okay, because it’s all proven material, having come from yet another deep dive into the archives. As noted previously, I’m leaving on a trip tonight, and won’t be posting tomorrow morning, unless I have time to find one to re-blog (yeah, that’s the ticket….). So, I’ve tried to put together a worthy one to hold y’all until I can return to the keyboard with something fresh…..
In order to keep from making it TOO long, I’ll make this intro short, as has been our habit of late. It’s a good habit, I think, especially considering some of the intro sections we’ve created in the past, many of which approached a thousand words or more. But, we’re not going that route today; in fact, now I’ve related that, we’re done here. Let’s go on to the rest of today’s mess, before Murphy notices we’re gone, okay? Okay….
Shall we Pearl?….
“Since everything in life is but an experience perfect in being what it is,
having nothing to do with good or bad,
acceptance or rejection,
one may well burst out in laughter.”
~~ Long Chen Pa ~~
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We are going with our default today, simply to save time & energy, of much use elsewhere in today’s schedule…. Enjoy!….
Today’s rant is a general, all-purpose rant against the Asininnies, from the early part of 2013, while my supply of angst was nearly limitless. It’s a bit lengthy, as I took shots at most all those I consider to be part of the problems we face in today’s world. I hope you enjoy it….
From 3/15/2013:
“Republican views of the world differ from Democratic views of the world. The reason for this is that these views are based on different compilations of misinformation.” — Smart Bee
There are moments, such as this one, when I believe the people, or person, who put together the database known to me as Smart Bee, is perhaps the most intelligent creature on this planet….. I’ve been ranting about politicians for years, trying to show people how dangerous it is to believe ANY of the stuff that either party is slinging at us to try to convince us they are worthy of our votes. Now, in one short aphorism, of two lines, we are given a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of the crap we hear from them…. Essentially, this says that every one of them is full of shit, and everything they say and do is destined to fail, because it is ALL based on incorrect information, or, to be more accurate, on unwarranted assumptions about reality…..
The most important part of this description is its impartiality of indictment. Both parties are brought into scrutiny, and found wanting, of any real knowledge of the truth, because they are both basing all of their premises on false beliefs, just for starters. Add to that, since they are politicians by choice, their genetic predisposition is to self-aggrandizement, and they show an inherent inability to tell the truth. It becomes rather easily seen why our society has become, well, insane…. It’s a short trip to crazy from where they begin the journey…. and they don’t take any detours on the road….
You see, both parties are convinced of a complete falsehood, one that humanity has been struggling with for centuries…. This lie is so basic, it colors and affects everything they do to try to manipulate the world into going the way they wish it to go. As long as they continue to try to do this, our society is doomed to failure in the long run, for the lie goes against the very nature of reality…. Simply put, these people believe they can legislate morality…. They believe that they can make laws, and people will go against their very nature to follow them, in spite of the fact that the law they propose is contrary to what comes naturally to humans, to wit: self-centered, grasping behaviors that only benefit the perpetrator, and no one else…..
We have laws against stealing…. and the most accomplished thieves we see in our culture wear suits and live in Washington D.C. We have laws against killing each other, but, people still get killed, and, if the killers do so while wearing a flag, or a badge, they are considered heroes, no matter how many they kill. We have laws that supposedly protect women, children, and the aged, from suffering abuse, but, just look around you, and you will see no end to the depredations that society allows to be perpetrated upon these three most vulnerable members of our society, all very much within the legal limits of the public morality, as given in the law books….
“[…] For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner […] on an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies. […] That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that.” — Carl Sagan
The people who get involved in politics, and religion, for much the same reason, believe they are special, and entitled to take all they can from the universe, because they are the be-all, and end-all of the evolutionary ladder. It says so right there in the Bible….. They don’t care that reality says differently, because their sense of denial has been fine-tuned since shortly after they were born, and they are capable of ignoring facts right up until they slap them in the face…. (Witness the Republican melt-down in the last Presidential election, when the Republican party got slapped in the face by their own lack of contact with reality…..)
In spite of all the massive amounts of evidence to the contrary, these folks believe in their own divine entitlement as the lords of creation, chosen by God to do with this planet as we would, without regard for any of the other creatures that live here with us, or for the beauty and balance of the land that sustains us. As far as they are concerned, other people and animals, and natural resources, are theirs to do with as they wish, with God’s blessing…. The fucking assholes…..
I apologize for the vulgarity, to my readers, but not to those at whom it is directed…. To them, I say, fuck you, and fuck you again…. I regard all politicians, priests, preachers, police, lawyers, judges, and corporate misogynists of all shapes and sizes to be INSANE…. floridly, and viciously insane, without any of the moral standards that the rest of mankind embraces. These assholes are responsible for our imminent demise through environmental destruction of the ecosphere, as well as for the endless preying on the weak and vulnerable to suit their own depravity, and lack of moral fiber.
“All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.” — Joseph Conrad
Sexual slavery, corporate collusion to fix wages and prices, legislative corruption and oppression, judicial malfeasance and more corruption, governmental incompetence, religious repression and collusion with politicians, all serve the purposes of the ruling class to a T, no matter how much suffering it causes to others…. As long as they have what they want, nothing anyone else says or does matters at all….
I hate to be a harbinger of bad news, but, I call ’em as I see ’em, and I see what is real…. None of what is wrong in the world will change, until the major portion of mankind makes a change of spirit, and the people, as a whole, decide that the few among us who are bold enough to act must, in fact, act. The evil among us will not go away, or stop, of its own accord, and waiting for them to come around to a more amenable state of mind isn’t going to work, as that just isn’t going to happen.
If we wish to survive, they have to go, and mankind must find a new way to get along with each other than the out-dated ways we have been trying for millennia… Those old ways leave too much power in the hands of people who will give in to the temptation that goes along with such power over others, and must not be allowed to happen any more, not if we wish to survive to see any future at all….. The universe doesn’t care one way or another, so we’ll have to be responsible for our own actions…. as we have always been, and have always been afraid to admit….
“If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will not produce food either.” — Joseph Wood Krutch
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Today’s poem is from a poet who has graced our pages before. Simply put, she’s one of Mankind’s treasures, though she was a broken spirit, with a lost soul, who finally ended her own pain. Before she left us, she gave us the power of her genius; it wasn’t enough to save herself, but, what she wrote gave it all to the world….. I hope you enjoy this example of that genius….
Insomniac
The night is only a sort of carbon paper,
Blueblack, with the much-poked periods of stars
Letting in the light, peephole after peephole . . .
A bonewhite light, like death, behind all things.
Under the eyes of the stars and the moon’s rictus
He suffers his desert pillow, sleeplessness
Stretching its fine, irritating sand in all directions.
Over and over the old, granular movie
Exposes embarrassments—the mizzling days
Of childhood and adolescence, sticky with dreams,
Parental faces on tall stalks, alternately stern and tearful,
A garden of buggy rose that made him cry.
His forehead is bumpy as a sack of rocks.
Memories jostle each other for face-room like obsolete film stars.
He is immune to pills: red, purple, blue . . .
How they lit the tedium of the protracted evening!
Those sugary planets whose influence won for him
A life baptized in no-life for a while,
And the sweet, drugged waking of a forgetful baby.
Now the pills are worn-out and silly, like classical gods.
Their poppy-sleepy colors do him no good.
His head is a little interior of grey mirrors.
Each gesture flees immediately down an alley
Of diminishing perspectives, and its significance
Drains like water out the hole at the far end.
He lives without privacy in a lidless room,
The bald slots of his eyes stiffened wide-open
On the incessant heat-lightning flicker of situations.
Nightlong, in the granite yard, invisible cats
Have been howling like women, or damaged instruments.
Already he can feel daylight, his white disease,
Creeping up with her hatful of trivial repetitions.
The city is a map of cheerful twitters now,
And everywhere people, eyes mica-silver and blank,
Are riding to work in rows, as if recently brainwashed.
~~ Sylvia Plath ~~
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Our final pearl of the day is a short, five-star statement which speaks of some of the more subtle, but, important points about how to live life well. Short it is, but, I guarantee, it’s long on wisdom…. Sometimes, it’s the shorter pearls that pack the most punch….
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“It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person,
“Always do what you are afraid to do.””
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~
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“Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair,
but manifestations of strength and resolution.”
~~ Kahlil Gibran ~~
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“It is not good for man to achieve all they wish.”
~~ Heraclitus ~~
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“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
~~- Aristotle ~~
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“How admirable, he who thinks not,
Life is fleeting,
When he sees the lightning!”
~~ Basho ~~
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Oddly, for a change, today’s thrown-together-in-a-rush Pearl came together smoothly; so smoothly, I’m caught without much to say here at the end. I’m not going to predict its quality, any more than I would ever do so, but, it feels okay, and we’ll let it fly solo, just as it is. So be it. Hopefully, I’ll have time to find a re-blog for tomorrow; after that, it’s all up in the air as to what may occur. But, then, that’s pretty much always the case, and not just here on ECR. See y’all down the road a piece, ffolkes. I may be late, but, I’ll be here, come what may….. See ya…..
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.
“Who well lives, long lives; for this age of ours
Should not be numbered by years, daies, and hours.”
~~ Du Bartas (1544-1590) ~~
~~ Divine Weekes and Workes, Second Week, Fourth Day, Book ii ~~
Gorse overlooking Glasgow/Greenock Bay, Scotland
Hajime…. Full of jitters, but, game, he sits to write once more, bereft of all peace, mired in darkness and pain. Little does it matter, yet, the demons gnawing at his vital organs allow no rest, no break from the anxiety, diffuse and intangible. The hours of the night just passed, sleeping, only to awaken confused, and afraid, to escape the amorphous dreams, veiled by the dense fog of fear, unnamed, join hands with the day, promising endless, pointless forays into anger, or pain. Thus begins another day, insane….
Good morrow, ffolkes…. I feel better now, having purged, to a small degree, some of the crap I’m fighting to get the hell out of my head. The PTSD which continues to occasionally grace my life with its unwelcome presence, is rather insidious at times, slowly building, without giving advance notice, until it strikes, with full force, usually by filling me with a strong, diffuse anxiety, which, though I know it to be false, is nonetheless disconcerting to experience….
This is generally followed by a period of flashbacks, to some of the more violent incidents in which I was involved over an 11+ year period in my twenties and thirties, culminating in a full-blown rage, the result of the final memory to be brought up, wherein I stepped over the body of a friend to control the asshole who killed him. The rage is from knowing I acted professionally, and did not give in to the desire to throttle the man myself, more’s the pity. If I had, I might be in jail, but, I wouldn’t feel so bad about it…. maybe.
I’m relating all this because it might help to explain my recent absences, and, give y’all notice there may be more to come; I seem to be winning the battle to regain my balance, but, it’s taking longer than usual…. While this is going on, the Pearls tend to suffer; thankfully, I’ve done so many of them, there’s plenty of stuff to recycle, most of which is decent enough to fly by my standards…. But, it also means I don’t get out & interact as much as I prefer, or, as much as I think is deserved. So, please bear with me; it won’t be long, and I’ll be as full of blarney and chutzpah as ever, and things will get back to, well, not normal, cuz we don’t go there, but, more predictable, anyway….
All that said, to our usual little purpose, other than sheer honesty, we’ll get on with the rest of today’s mess, without further blather. In fact, I’ve got a new trick. Watch this…..
Shall we Pearl?….
“The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.
Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for.”
Today, I feel like listening to a great voice, to provide a beacon for me to follow, back to sanity….. This woman’s voice has always had the quality of a siren’s call, for me, so, it will do nicely….. It’s sad she can no longer sing, due to Parkinson’s Disease; fortunately, she has a large body of work as a legacy….. Enjoy, ffolkes; Linda is/was an iconic figure in my youth, and remains a favorite….
“Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.”
~~ The Beatles ~~
Although the lads from Liverpool provided me with a perfect opening for a rant, I just don’t have it in me today. While searching for an appropriate filler, I came across the following, which is the intro section from a Pearl I posted in early 2014. I copied it, then shut the program, before remembering to find out exactly which day it came from, but, it’s pretty general, anyway, so, it really doesn’t matter. Here then is the intro of which I speak, which is more of a rant, anyway….. I’ve followed it with one excellent pearl which seems to fit, right after Zippy’s comment…. Enjoy!
From the archives in 2014:
Finding just the right words for an opening statement, after repeated attempts to do just that, for what is now getting close to 3 years, can frequently become, not merely a conundrum, but a chronic pain in the ass, at least until Reality steps in to lend a hand…. which it did today….
Just as I sat down to begin, I noted a light playing on the wall of the house across the street, a spot-light moving along, until it found and highlighted a tall, hooded figure skulking on the porch…. The light, which was coming from a police squad car at the corner, pinned the hooded figure, and apparently issued instructions I couldn’t hear, as the figure froze, put up its hands, and walked slowly out to the street, where two police officers met him, frisked, him, handcuffed him, and took him away in their car….
The entire scenario took about one and a half minutes to take place, start to finish, though, afterward, they sat in the car for quite a while, probably running the Unsub for priors, and starting the paperwork for whatever charges they were arresting him, obviously to include trespassing…. It wasn’t overly dramatic, or a particularly gripping scene, but, it isn’t every morning I get to witness crime being fought, and defeated, right here on my street…. It almost makes me feel safe….. Well, that would probably be stretching the truth farther than is good for it, so, I’ll take it back, and just say it was interesting to watch….
At least it didn’t turn into another Rodney King episode…. I’m not sure I can figure out yet how to work the video capture on my new smart phone, so, that’s probably a good thing, as I didn’t have the expertise to be able to film it, whereupon it would have become another in a long series of acts of egregious violence from police upon relatively undeserving victims that DIDN’T slide through the public’s awareness…. Oh yes, it happens…. In fact, NOT hearing about bad things happens, I would wager, far many more times than ever get reported, or captured on film, or digitally, on somebody’s phone, in the modern world….. It has always been so, it’s just not something people like to talk about, or admit…
That, by the way, is something I’ve never understood…. the reluctance of many people to report unethical actions by public servants like police, or firemen…. It’s as if people accept the sense of entitlement that often goes with such service, and automatically, and unquestioningly, give the privileges and perks that so many officers take as their due, without any real justification, other than their own power of authority…. which, in my mind, should produce the exact opposite effect…. It should make the person who holds any such position humble, and grateful, not make them feel powerful, and special, and deserving of all honor, merely for holding a certain kind of job….
However, if I start going into all that, I’ll get all worked up, as I already am, and begin to rant….. Since we’re just getting to the end of the intro, it wouldn’t be appropriate to start one now, so I’ll let that go, for discussion at another time…. or not, who cares? There’s always a new example to pick from, with the police…. The institution, as it exists now in our society, attracts the very worst sort of asshole to its ranks, men, and women, who are only there because it gives them the wherewithal, and the excuse, to be bullies, to assert their authority over others at every opportunity…. THAT type of personality is drawn irresistibly to police work, as it offers them the perfect outlet for their aggressive natures….
Ah well, I guess it’s only natural, but, that doesn’t make it right, or acceptable, in my book…. It does, however, make it enough material written to form the nucleus of an intro, which, after all, is what we were up to….. In fact, I’m going to go ahead, and just drop you here, so I can get on with stuff…. I think you can find the next section without my help…. I’m gonna go dive…..
Shall we Pearl?…..
“I share the belief of many of my contemporaries that the spiritual crisis pervading all spheres of Western industrial society can be remedied only by a change in our world view. We shall have to shift from the materialistic, dualistic belief that people and their environment are separate, toward a new consciousness of an all-encompassing reality, which embraces the experiencing ego, a reality in which people feel their oneness with animate nature and all of creation.” — Dr. Albert Hoffman
(I am forced to comment on this: While I am in complete agreement with the good Doctor on this matter, I fail to see how his uplifting, accurate, totally cool expression of what is needed for us to survive will convince a single person to take it up as truth, or how it will get people to make the necessary changes in human nature…. Telling people that they need to “feel their oneness with animate nature and all of creation.” is going to lose everyone who hears it…. In fact, it is such an off-putting, airhead kind of statement, I’d wager that, in spite of the fact that this is absolute truth, and will help people to save themselves from a certain death, nobody is going to hear it, because they automatically turned off their ears as soon as they heard the words “spiritual crisis”, followed by “spheres of Western industrial society”, and “world view”…. That kind of New Age babble-speak will shut off most folk’s heads in a New York minute….. Too bad, ‘cuz its’ totally true….)
“FUN is never having to say you’re SUSHI!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
” When they turn the pages of history
When these days have passed long ago,
Will they read of us with sadness
For the seeds that we let grow?”
~~ Rush, A Farewell to Kings ~~
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I know I’m in the now, if only…..
Oh, there it is again, fiddle faddle;
Begone, I said, vamoose, skedaddle!
It looked at me as if I were insane:
Scoffed, it did, filled me with pain.
Where does it come from?
Where does it live?
I’d stick out my thumb,
if I had more to give.
If only, should, would, could it be?
It went away again, this time free.
It will be back again, this I know;
or I’m wrong, and it won’t show.
Who cares?
Who hears?
Such goings on wobble the sphere,
I wish it wouldn’t do that here.
I’ve been wrong before…..
~~ gigoid ~~
4/19/2013
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Naked Pearls
Perspicacity
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“I love to doubt as well as know.”
~~ Dante ~~
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“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
~~ Aldous Huxley ~~
*******
“Furious activity is no substitute for understanding.”
~~ H. H. Williams ~~
*******
“Ignorance is not bliss — it’s oblivion.”
~~ Phillip Wylie ~~
*******
” I can believe anything, provided it is incredible.”
~~ Oscar Wilde ~~
*******
“Only the half-mad are wholly alive.”
~~ Edward Abbey ~~
*******
“It isn’t easy being green.”
~~ Kermit ~~
*******
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I did it, though I really can’t say exactly how it got done. That’s fine with me, as I’ve learned to trust the process, even with the recent change in my routine, when the upgrade to my email browser forced me to remove one complete step of the process, moving it to another time slot. Since to say more on that would only devolved into geek-speak, we’ll let it go, in favor of a hearty, if somewhat insane farewell. I’ll be back, tomorrow, ffolkes, should I find the proper coordinates for the island of sanity….. or, not. Ta, then….
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.
At least I thought I was dancing, ’til somebody stepped on my hand.
~~ J. B. White ~~
Trinity College, Dublin
Hajime…. Generally, I don’t make any attempt to connect the opening quote to anything below; that space is for a general concept to lead into the day. Today’s selection, as it turned out, matches perfectly with my current state of mind, so, serendipity strikes again….. The past couple weeks have been a trial for me, in at least two senses. I suspect it is the barometer’s up & down dance over that time that is causing the greater part of the pain I’ve been experiencing, as the weather does it’s spring thing. Since that pain has been so ubiquitous, my PTSD decides to chime in, threatening to send me into the abyss that ever waits on the edges of my perception, down into the dark hole of my mind, where nothing seems to have any color, or life…..
Since I also have reality to deal with, which currently involves planning a trip, executing it, and maintaining the rest of my life simultaneously, time becomes an enemy, as my mind wanders in lost corridors, and things don’t get done. For one who prefers to live with some dignity and direction, it only adds weight to that which must be carried while climbing out of the abyss. The upshot of this, at least here on WP, is that my writing suffers from stultification, and, I don’t go out online to visit all those sites I like to follow, to provide the mental stimulation my mind craves. For this part, I can apologize, and say, have patience with me, as I will eventually make it by to comment, and interact.
All that said, in apology, and in hopes of climbing another step up the wall, I’ll try to put together a Pearl, which will, no doubt, get posted late, but, done. It won’t be too fresh, but, we’ll do what we can. In order to give myself the time to do so, we’ll forgo any fooling around here, and be on our way, post haste….. In fact, we’ll go right now. Watch this….
Shall we Pearl?….
“‘Tis the voice of the Lobster: I heard him declare
“You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair.”
As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose
Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.
When the sands are all dry, he is gay as a lark,
And will talk in contemptuous tones of the Shark:
But, when the tide rises and sharks are around,
His voice has a timid and tremulous sound.”
~~ Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” ~~
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Yep, you guessed it. The intro should have been enough to tell you we’d be going default today. But, don’t worry, even if you missed it, you can still enjoy the music…. Abondanza!…
As noted above, there isn’t anything in my head worth putting on paper, or screen. Instead, here is a collection of pearls I’ve been putting together for a rant, which, taken by themselves, work fairly well to lead one on their own private rant, in their heads. Just follow the bouncing ideas, to the obvious conclusion you find at the end…. Or, just laugh along at the Asininnies, as we take our best shots…..
“There are some jobs in which it is impossible for a man to be virtuous.”
~~ Aristotle ~~
Good Question….
“The words of the prophets were written on the subway walls.”
~~ Simon & Garfunkel ~~
“Who will protect the public when the police violate the law?” — Ramsey Clark
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.” — Dwight Eisenhower, April 16, 1953
“Do not be afraid of enemies; the worst they can do is to kill you. Do not be afraid of friends; the worst they can do is betray you. Be afraid of the indifferent; they do not kill or betray. Yet only because of their silent agreement, betrayal and murder exist on earth.” — Bruno Yasienski, contemporary Soviet novelist
“All governments require enemy governments.” — Edward Abbey
“As a man can drink water from any side of a full tank, so the skilled theologian can wrest from any scripture that which will serve his purpose.” — Bhagavad Gita
“Real eyes realize real lies”
~~ wall graffiti in Palestine ~~
********************************
Dead Hands,Typing…
Puzzled anew by anomalous blocks of pain
caught, bemused, chained to routine, insane.
Stilled within breathless beauty
Engaging epiphany, insistent, called to duty.
Knees bent in lieu of a faithful rendition
suffuses, confuses, locked into stale perdition.
Clearing corrosion with hands encased in stone
Singular frozen follicles, masked by bone.
Partial focus brings unfiltered flavors to light
coloring each particle in simple delight.
Forlorn, novel conceptual artists singing in tune
nine notes in harmony, soft as the moon.
Honed blades of carbon steel flash in rhyme,
filling sensual receptors well past closing time.
Borrowed from neighbors in a week-old game
still bloody, without a proper name.
No flooded memories can justify such cost
no simple stationery, bilious, afraid, lost.
Ten times ten will never be enough
To fill so empty a stolen trough.
Bartering simplicity takes well into the night
solidly temporary pillars turned bright.
Unknown to all the pretty children who came
none were called, none had any remaining flame.
~~ gigoid ~~
2/25/2015
********************************
Naked Pearls
Random Thoughts on Life
*******
“Although it is tempting to resent disaster,
there is not much use in doing so…
Whether we remain ash or become the phoenix is up to us.”
~~ Deng Ming-Dao ~~
*******
“If you cannot find it in yourself, where will you go for it?”
~~ Confucius ~~
*******
“Love isn’t love until you give it away.”
~~ Buddha Bee ~~
*******
“Blessed is he who has learned to laugh at himself,
for he shall never cease to be entertained.”
~~ John Powell ~~
*******
“Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.”
~~ Heraclitus ~~
*******
“It is good for a man to eat thistles and to remember that he is an ass.”
~~ E. S. Dallas ~~
*******
“Faboo!, Would you like to see me make bubbles with my spit?”
~~ Wakko Warner ~~
*******
********************************
Well…. I’m pretty sure it’s done; I’ll check, but, it feels okay; today, that will have to do. I can’t say if I will get around to visiting other sites today; I am still teetering on the edge, and have a lot to do to prepare for my upcoming trip. If I don’t please know I will return, and I’m not ignoring anyone; just gotta do what must be done. I will, for the sake of my own sanity, try again tomorrow to put a Pearl together, hopefully with less trouble and effort than was required today. Regardless, I’ll be back…. and, sorry for parroting a bad actor. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes; odds remain good….
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.
“The shoe that fits one person pinches another;
there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.”
~~ Carl Jung ~~
221B Baker Street, London
Hajime…. I am not certain exactly when, but, I’m coming up on five years here at WordPress, sometime in July, or August, I think. I should check. At any rate, it’s been a while. I’ve attempted to post every day, at least once; though I haven’t quite made that goal, I’ve come pretty damn close, with well over 1500 posts to my credit. While I can regard that as a satisfying accomplishment, I must be honest enough to say, not all of it is what might be called fresh, as I’ve recycled a fair amount of what I’ve written for new posts. I call it cheating, though, with the caveat I’m only stealing from myself. So be it.
Today, I’m still busy, and without my usual sense of unease with not making the deadline I’ve set for myself each day. This has allowed me to fall completely into cheat mode. Below you’ll find a fresh pearl, composed of material previously posted, including my longest-ever rant. It’s all fairly standard stuff, for around here, so, no surprises there. I’ll even go so far as to let it speak for itself from this point on, as I intend to cut this short, Moreover, I’m doing that now, before I lose my nerve. I’ll just push this button, right here, and….
Shall we Pearl?….
“Education is about the only thing lying around loose the world, and it’s about the only thing a fellow can have as much of as he’s willing to haul away.” — George Lorimer
George needs no introduction; quite simply, he was the best. Ever. You can argue if you like, but, that would not be a stellar use of time…. Instead, just listen to the proof…..
One of my Gentle Readers complained of no rant yesterday, so, today, I’m making up for all the rants I’ve missed the past week or so. This may be the longest rant I’ve done, though that’s a guess. It is pretty long, and, though written early in 2014, it all remains perfectly valid, as far as I can see…. I hope you read it all, and pay attention, because it’s all about stuff that affects you directly…. Enjoy!….
From 10/18/2014:
“He must needes goe whom the devill doth drive.” ~~ John Heywood (c. 1565) — Proverbes, Part ii, Chap. vii ~~
“As you know, I planned a trip out there for some time, so it fits in very nicely.” ~~ president George Bush, on his trip to LA after the riots ~~
“Nobody goes to bed hungry in America” — R. Reagan
“Politicians aren’t born, they are excreted.” — Cicero
“That it should come to this!” ~~ William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act i, Sc. 2 ~~
The above five-star pearl is a lead-in group, mostly aimed at those with whom the following discussion is concerned. Below you’ll find two links to articles discussing two separate, but related issues from the news yesterday, found in the UK Guardian’s US edition online. They are both in-depth pieces, with a bit of egregiously egotistic back patting in the first one, but, both are more involved, in-depth, and in tune with the truth than any news organization from the US I can find, with the most important issues made clear, the culpability of the responsible parties made obvious, and the downright evil prevarication by the FBI director laid out for all to see….
After those first two articles, I’ve also included an excellent column on the same subject by one of the Guardian’s staff opinion writers, named Trevor Timm. He gives a good summary of the exact points I wish to cover in his opening paragraph, which I’ve included as an excerpt, below the link. After that, I’ll have a few comments, and we’ll see how it goes from there…. Hitch up your belts, & make sure your backpacks are secured ffolkes, this could take a while…. but, as Lord Peter has been known to say, “This ain’t a joke, Charles! It’s important. Damn important!”…..
“Whisper acknowledged that it researches the location of specific users it believes are posting newsworthy information, but emphasised it typically uses GPS data.
Whisper stressed the IP location data it uses for people who have asked not to be followed is rough and unreliable.
“We occasionally look at user IP addresses internally to determine very approximate location,” the company said. “User IP addresses may allow very coarse location to be determined to the city, state or country level.”
It added: “Whisper does not request or store any personally identifiable information from users, therefore there is never a breach of anonymity. From time to time, when a user makes a claim of a newsworthy nature, we review the user’s past activity to help determine veracity.”
The company strongly rejected any assertion of wrongdoing. “The Guardian’s assumptions that Whisper is gathering information about users and violating user’s privacy are false,” it said. “The privacy of our users is not violated in any of the circumstances suggested in the Guardian story.”
Four days later, Whisper rewrote large sections of its terms of service and introduced an entirely new privacy policy.
Whereas the previous terms and conditions described all of Whisper’s tracking of user location as “voluntary”, the new terms now warn users to “bear in mind that, even if you have disabled location services, we may still determine your city, state, and country location”.
Since becoming aware that the Guardian planned to publish its story, the anonymous app has also inserted a new line into its privacy policy.
It now warns users that turning on the app’s geolocation feature may “allow others, over time, to make a determination as to your identity”.
“…he recognised their embrace of encryption responded to “perceive[d]” market pressures in the wake of Snowden’s disclosures. But Comey suggested that end-to-end mobile device encryption amounted to a safe haven for criminals.
“Are we no longer a country that is passionate both about the rule of law and about their being no zones in this country beyond the reach of that rule of law? Have we become so mistrustful of government and law enforcement in particular that we are willing to let bad guys walk away, willing to leave victims in search of justice?” he said.
Comey acknowledged that the Snowden disclosures caused “justifiable surprise” among the public about the breadth of government surveillance, but hoped to mitigate it through greater transparency and advocacy.
Yet the FBI keeps significant aspects of its surveillance reach hidden even from government oversight bodies. Intelligence officials said in a June letter to a US senator that the FBI does not tally how often it searches through NSA’s vast hoards of international communications, without warrants, for Americans’ identifying information.
Comey frequently described himself as being technologically unprepared to offer specific solutions, and said he meant to begin a conversation, even at the risk of putting American tech companies at a competitive disadvantage.
“Where we may get is to a place where the US, through its Congress, says, ‘You know what, we need to force this on American companies,’ and maybe they’ll take a hit. Someone in some other country will say, ‘Ah, we sell a phone that even with lawful authority people can’t get into.’ But that we as a society are willing to have American companies take that hit. That’s why we have to have this conversation,” Comey said
“FBI director James Comey wants a US government-mandated backdoor into your iPhone and your Google account. But Comey doesn’t want to call his proposed privacy invasion a backdoor. He doesn’t understand how it would work. And he expects everyone who has been horrified by the NSA’s mass surveillance to just sit back, weaken their personal security and trust that the government will never abuse it.
Comey also claimed on Thursday that the “Post-Snowden pendulum” needs to swing back in favor of the government, neglecting to mention Congress has passed literally zero laws reigning in government surveillance. In fact, the main reason the major tech companies are pushing forward with encryption is because the government refuses to follow the will of the people and curtail the NSA’s powers at all. If Comey wanted a careful debate about the right balance of privacy and security before decisions like Apple’s are made, like he also said on Thursday night, maybe he should’ve advocated for that when the NSA was massively expanding their powers for years in complete secrecy.
Twitter tweet October 16, 2014: “Comey’s right: Deployment of strong crypto should be preceded by thoughtful debate. Which we had & correctly resolved 15 years ago.— Julian Sanchez (@normative)
So while we break out the world’s smallest violin as Jim Comey complains about the “Post-Snowden pendulum”, remember: the US government, through its own secret actions, brought this on themselves.”
“Who’s the more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?” — Obi-Wan Kenobi, “Star Wars”
I can’t say, with any degree of accuracy, but, I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard such a load of pure bullshit, straight from the bull’s butt, in a very, very long time…. When Richard Nixon raised his peace sign fingers, and stated, “I am not a crook.”, was probably the last time…. I swear, this man, this Comey, who heads up the FBI, obviously has the lowest opinion of the American public’s intelligence of almost anyone I’ve ever seen…. The demon-spawn from hell, Newt Gargoyle, or Gribble, or Grinch, Grngich, or whatever his weird-ass name was, came close on a regular basis, as did that ghoul, Dick Cheney, but, this Über-cop, this gestapo at the head of our nation’s largest domestic police force has, I believe. taken the cake….
Moreover, he implies that anyone who doesn’t support his, and the government’s, grab for power over every aspect of our lives is unpatriotic, a cowardly enemy of American principles, which, according to HIM, start (and, by implication, end…) with submissive respect for the “rule of law”, suggesting that the American public should feel privileged to allow them to have access to ALL of their private information…. Of course, the implied insult here is that only criminals and other unsavory characters should have something to hide from them, and their oh-so-perfect moral position….
What a crock of shit! I can’t say it any plainer than that…. and, I’ve probably said enough by now, anyway…. I’ll leave you with one last wake-up pearl, to think about when you’re assigning blame for what is happening in today’s world….. The FBI director, in his remarks, asks what he considers a rhetorical question, to wit:
“Have we become so mistrustful of government and law enforcement in particular that we are willing to let bad guys walk away, willing to leave victims in search of justice?”
I can only answer with a resounding “Yes, we have! We have lost ALL trust in the police. and the government, with good reason. I wouldn’t trust you to tell me the correct time!”
Well, I might not say that last part to his face, maybe, but, I can assure you, I’d want to, very badly, and would have to exert significant effort of will to refrain from doing so…. though, why I would bother, I don’t know…..
“Who’s the more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?” — Obi-Wan Kenobi, “Star Wars”
I was going to leave it at that, but, as I finished, I received an email from EFF, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit activism organization made up of people, like me, and, hopefully, y’all, who are concerned with keeping the internet free of corporate influence and government oppression, to guarantee the open, free interchange of ideas and communication that characterizes how it is supposed to be, as intended by those who created it…. They are one of the entities who brought suit against the government about this issue, in a suit which is now about to be heard by the Supreme Court, along with several others they have supported, or helped to organize…
Below, I have included three links to articles on their home site, which speak to the information and issues of which we spoke above in this section. Each article clearly explains how the government and other entities are trying to subvert the internet, making it a tool for oppression, rather than a tool for expanding human knowledge and culture…. These explain how the government, and their myrmidons, the police, are working to take away the usefulness of having such a means to spread knowledge, wanting instead to keep it for their own use, which involves the control over our lives they so desperately desire….
Good info, ffolkes, well researched and written, very clearly presented…. I’ve donated to this one, which I don’t do, as a rule, but, they’re working hard to protect US, that is, YOU and ME, so, they deserve my support…. If nothing else, it will give you an idea of how the situation stands today….
“The best way to lose freedom is not to do anything.” — Smart Bee
********************************
A Dubiously Soft Morning
Idiosyncratic images, clamoring for regard,
fill up the white, white screen on which I view
my life, never seeing, nor invited to sup
ambrosial remnants of anything new.
Still, yet almost in motion, allegory sails away
bobbing gently, quick and easy to find,
signs of one happy child, seriously at play,
blissfully immersed, focused joy in mind.
Formidable cries of outraged simple justice
echo plaintive relevance, in half the time.
Maladaptive infants, destined for hospice
salvage an only child, daring to sing in rhyme.
Creativity equals unquestioning farce,
often reaching for absurdity, brazenly afire.
Instead, a blow is felt no joy will ever soften,
accepting the price, added to the cost of desire.
~~ gigoid ~~
7/26/2013
********************************
Since we’re cheating full out today, here is an old, old-school pearl, with a rather ironic beginning, just to keep things confusing, as if today’s effort here weren’t enough. It’s a good one, though, so, enjoy!….
From 9/18/2014:
In order to say there is at least one fresh section today, I offer for your consideration the following old-school pearl, a random, harlequin style, with no obvious parameters…. often, these turn out to be the very best kind, so, we can hope…..
“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I do not believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they cannot find them, make them.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
“Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense.” — Robert Frost
“You can’t make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you’re doing is recording it.” — Art Buchwald
“Certum est quia impossibile est.” [It is certain because it is impossible.] — Tertullian (160-240 AD) — De Carne Christi, c. 5
“One truth stands firm. All that happens in world history rests on something spiritual. If the spiritual is strong, it creates world history. If it is weak, it suffers world history.” — Albert Schweitzer
“Destiny is but a phrase of the weak human heart – the dark apology for every error. The strong and virtuous admit no destiny. On earth conscience guides; in heaven God watches. And destiny is but the phantom we invoke to silence the one and dethrone the other.” — Edward Bulwer-Lytton
“He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his ignorance.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Socrates, xvi
Works every time…..
********************************
‘T is done, and, done to death, I’d say. I’ll skip the usual witty repartee, if such as this can be so labeled, and leave you to the rest of your day. I hope you enjoyed this little journey through the past. I’ll be back tomorrow, most likely, but, hopefully, with some material a bit fresher than today. In any case, we’re outta here, and now…. See ya, ffolkes. Count on it…..
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.
Hajime…. A week from tomorrow, I’ll be taking a trip, which is the activity I most enjoy in life. This may be a result of being raised as an Army brat, moving from base to place to base for much of my first ten years. We lived in Fort Ord, Fort Lewis, Japan, and Southern California in those times we visited relatives, all by my tenth birthday, when my father retired from the Army. Since leaving home, I’ve traveled as often as possible, for I feel I am fulfilling all my own dreams when I do. I enjoy having a base from which to go, but, for me, the journey is the thing, not the destination, or the beginning point.
In this case, I’ll be traveling for only about six days, to go see a friend get married. I have volunteered my services as a caterer for the reception, which is my usual gift to the bride and groom, as it takes a large burden from them during the time leading to the ceremony. It should be an interesting challenge, as it will be my first event since reaching an age where I cannot count on being able to do much of the actual work myself. Instead, I’ll be coordinating everyone else’s efforts, to make sure the event come off without a hitch. I’m looking forward to all of it, with great anticipation, and a small degree of fear, which will serve to keep me sharp, focused on working smart, instead of hard.
All that said, I’ll add there seems to be some lingering effect on my creativity, or, my angst, which drives it. In any case, these Pearls, for the first time in ages, will be a secondary concern; this means I’m going to fake it, a lot. We’ll begin that today, with a rant from the archives, instead of anything fresh in that section, as it takes the most focus and time to create a worthwhile rant. So be it. I’ll try to keep the rest fresh, but, no promises, as my head is already in Texas, organizing a work crew and space. In twelve days, I’ll be back home, probably ready to collapse for a few days, but, also, ready to write….. I hope.
At any rate, speaking of it gave us a grand opening for today, if naught else, so, we’ll take it, and run. In fact, we’ll break into a sprint, by using one of our standard tricks, to keep y’all fooled , er, occupied while I push this hidden button over here…. See how that works?…..
Shall we Pearl?….
“Even a fool knows that you can’t touch the stars,
but it doesn’t stop a wise man from trying.
~~ Judge Harry T. Stone ~~
********************************
Image from redmp3.su via Google Images
I feel like the blues today, so, here is the King of the Electric Blues, himself…. Live in Dortmund, Germany in 1976, he does his thing, and does it in style…. Abondanza!….
As promised, here is one from the archives…. Not to worry, it’s short, and not at all serious-minded…. Enjoy!
From 10/21/2012:
Okay, so there I was, cruising through Smart Bee, and these little gems popped up. Each one tempted me to begin a rant, or a discussion, but, none of them completely grabbed my attention enough to do the trick. They are all much too valuable to throw out, so I had this idea to include them as a “new-school” pearl….. Y’all can take the ideas herein described, and formulate them into your own pearl of virtual wisdom…. there is plenty here to work with; I’ve used many similar pearls myself to create unforgettable rants, or brilliantly funny forays into nonsense. (Sure I have….. trust me….)
“The correct way to punctuate a sentence that starts: “Of course it is none of my business, but –” is to place a period after the word “but.” Don’t use excessive force in supplying such a moron with a period. Cutting his throat is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you talked about.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”
“In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.” — Mark Twain
“In regard to disagreeable and formidable things, prudence does not consist in evasion, or in flight, but in courage. He who wishes to walk in the most peaceful parts of life with any serenity must screw himself up to resolution. Let him front the object of his worst apprehension, and his stoutness will commonly make his fear groundless” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, _Essays_, Prudence
“I figure that if God actually does exist, He’s big enough to understand an honest difference of opinion.” – Isaac Asimov
“There’s more than one way to skin a cat, but there ain’t no way to make the cat enjoy it.” — Jed Clampett
“Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book ii, Chap. xii, Apology for Raimond Sebond
“Once you can accept the universe as being something expanding into an infinite nothing which is something, wearing stripes with plaid is easy.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
So, you should find it reasonably simple to do the same yourselves (creating a pearl, that is, not wearing plaid…) …. and if not, well, they are all fairly strong stand-alone dribbles of good advice/good observations, so you aren’t completely without recourse…. No refunds, though, we’re not completely without shame…. Remember, you get what you pay for in this world, right? TANSTAAFL….. (for the uninitiated, that is, There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch….)
********************************
Vague Glimpses of a Rainbow
All the sad notions of propriety had fled,
Screaming their anger for pausing in song,
Until late came the rabid fog, colored in red,
As serenity cried, unafraid to live so strong.
Fallow fields in faithful patience set free,
Dragged from birth, by their own nature cast
Saving each moment against fear yet to be,
Carved into silence, by ignorance held fast.
Historical forces plod slowly ’tis often said
Anxieties streaming stiffly, one epoch to the next.
Cultural mania stands nonchalant in its stead
No sadder epitaph has such bittersweet context.
Patterned bags of forgotten virtue lie in wait
Blessed by reminders whose souls value affinity
Frozen webs surround the fields in gravid state
Grasping passionately within obvious opportunity.
Passage to future realities isn’t guaranteed
Small favors for deities was left off the menu
No roses, nor manna, nor gallant aerial steed
Left traces of fatal, yet originally gracious venue.
~~ gigoid ~~
9/6/2012
*******************************
Naked Pearls
Rare Thoughts
*********
“God, to me, it seems
is a verb
not a noun
proper or improper.”
~~ R. Buckminster Fuller ~~
*********
“One should always be a little improbable.”
~~ Oscar Wilde ~~
*********
“We do not walk on our legs, but on our Will.”
~~ Sufi proverb ~~
*********
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishin in.
I drink at it, but while I drink
I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is.
It’s thin current slides away, but eternity remains.”
~~ Henry David Thoreau ~~
*********
“We have art that we do not die of the truth.”
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~~
*********
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
~~ Anais Nin ~~
*********
“To teach is to learn.”
~~ Japanese Proverb ~~
*********
“What is the first business of one who studies philosophy?
To part with self-conceit.
For it is impossible for any one to begin to learn
what he thinks that he already knows.”
~~ Epictetus ~~
*********
********************************
Well, it’s done. Again. Today, I can only thank my sense of duty; without it, this doesn’t get done. Since it is, I’ll forgo any further torture, or, for that matter, possible entertainment value, and merely say, see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes. There doesn’t seem to be any way to get out of it….
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.
“‘The early bird catches the worm’ just shows that the worm should have stayed in bed.”
~~ Lazarus Long, Time Enough For Love ~~
Wait! I swear it moved….
Hajime…. Leelu is home from the vet, and is fine, though still a bit unsettled, and seems to be healing well, so far, with not a lot of pain. I’m a mess, but, I’ll be fine now she’s home, once I get rid of the useless guilt I’m experiencing for putting her through it. Ah, well, I guess I’ve already pulled my covers, so, it won’t matter if people know I’m a softie about my animal mates. I don’t regard it as a weakness, anyway, but, rather a strength; my connection to Life is strong, and balanced, so, such compassion is not out of place.
The effect of the past few days on today’s Pearl is not easily calculable, so, I won’t be testifying as to quality; it will be complete, and as user-friendly as I can make it; beyond that, all bets are off. I’m not feeling particularly artistic, nor am I in my sharpest state of mind, as pain & worry has again taken much of the ease from my recent sleeping habits. Again, all I can say is, so be it. Duty is duty, and fatigue/pain/lack of chutzpah is no excuse for abrogating it.
In order to ensure all the above is true, I’m going to end this intro, here, sans nonsense, sans humor, sans damn near everything which could possibly hinder our efficiency…. even proofing is on ‘as you go’ mode, to save time. So, if y’all spot errors, just write them down & let me know privately; I’ll ignore them then. Thanks for that. Now, let’s just pretend we’re professionals, and get on with it without any particular fanfare, shall we? Okay, why not?….
Shall we Pearl?….
“The road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began
Now far ahead the road has gone
And I must follow if I can.
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way.
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.”
~~ J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Lord of the Rings” ~~
********************************
Now, don’t tell me y’all didn’t know what kind of music we’d have today…. I gave enough clues, for sure. Oh, well, you’ll enjoy it, so, no worries, right? Right…. Abondanza, ffolkes; the playlist on this sounds pretty good….
I’ve been in no condition to rant, so, here’s one from the archives for today…. Enjoy!….
From 2/3/2013:
“People see what they have been conditioned to see; they refuse to see what they don’t expect to see.” — Merle P. Martin
This statement is one that will find some strong agreement here, as it is as clear an indictment of the unwashed masses as I’ve ever seen; it places some of the blame on their oppressors, as it should, but still manages to show where people are responsible for their own ignorance, in spite of how they may be conditioned…. One may not be responsible for their conditioning, but they are still responsible for what they refuse to acknowledge as truth, and Mr. Martin has given them little room to wiggle out of that responsibility…..
In some ways, y’all might think that I tend to obsess about those who are manipulating society. and the impending global catastrophes that I see as inevitable. In a way, you could be right…. it COULD be called obsession, since I do take at least one shot a day at the BRC and the priestly hierarchies; if I don’t hit them regularly, I just feel empty, and incomplete….. But, I don’t lose any sleep over it, so I think my concerns are still in the rational stages of evolution. What can be challenging is finding new ways to approach the subject, that will show the assholes for what they are, and what they are doing to the rest of us, and still not bore the reader senseless…. it’s hard to motivate someone who has fallen asleep….
“The worth of the State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it, and a State which postpones the interest of their mental expansion and elevation to a little more of administrative skill, or of that semblance of it which practice gives in the details of business… will find that with small men no great thing can be accomplished.” — John Stuart Mill, ‘On Liberty’, 1859
The other day, someone asked me a question about a statement I had made, to the effect that I believed that the usurpation of the Constitution began within minutes of it being signed…. She asked me how I knew that, and at the time, I gave her the answer that occurred to me at the time, to wit: I know this because I know human nature, and the money lenders and bankers wouldn’t have wanted to wait even a minute to try to get their two cents into the process, in order to start turning it to their advantage….. And Mr. Mill has, with this statement, shown us how they went about that perversion….
During elections, and often in the time prior to the announcement of the candidates and their platforms, there is a loud lamentation that there are no GOOD candidates to be found, that the men and women who end up running for office are NOT the most qualified for the job, but merely those who WANT it for their own reasons (you can bet that altruism is NOT one of those reasons….). In fact, to my mind, the single most qualifying characteristic I would like to see in ANY candidate would be a lack of desire to get elected; in other words, in order to be well-qualified, they have to NOT want to get elected…. It’s the only way we can trust them not to steal so much….
“Intelligence has nothing to do with politics.” — Londo Molari
What we have in reality is that ALL of those who run for office are people who WANT POWER; the exceptions are too few to be statistically significant, so I use the word ALL with that caveat. Sure, occasionally, a person who really doesn’t want to be in office, but happens to be the most qualified, gets persuaded by friends that they can do some good, and they are popular enough, and intelligent enough, to get elected. Once in office, though, they generally discover that their opportunities to do good for others are severely limited by the efforts of their peers, who have no interest whatsoever in looking after the people, unless it serves their own purpose.
“Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.” — Elbert Hubbard
It’s hard to say whether writing pieces such as this one is a part of my five minutes, or whether it is part of the other side of the coin, which prevents me from reaching my limit…. Either way, I’m starting to understand that, since I’m shouting into the wind, pretty much, with these political and social diatribes, I need to keep them fairly short, and uncomplicated, or I will lose my audience to boredom with the repetitive nature of what I’m writing. Yes, we need to be aware that most of our Beloved Ruling Class are assholes, and need to be culled from the human herd….. but railing about it too much will only defeat my purpose, which is to educate and stimulate, hopefully to action that will serve to help the situation….
So rather than exceed my limit for the day, we’ll leave this here, and hope that what I’ve written will cause at least a touch of bleeding in the BRC, even if it’s only a scratch…. Better now to go look for some poetry, to soothe my fevered brow….
“I know everything about everything, except that.” — Smart Bee
********************************
Funny Bones
Dreaming the way home, lost, unseen,
from the dance, where
he felt so free, and clean.
Sorrow couldn’t find him there.
Waiting, filling up the hours, hoping,
some connection can be found
keeping busy as bees, coping.
Love creeps in, without a sound.
Fat days, skinny nights, passionate
visions of semi-conscious entities,
cannot seem to fully illuminate
or hide our innermost frailties.
Resolute, find the perfect sense, codify
simple rules with every breath
never waiting, anxious to modify.
fear nothing in life, not even Death.
~~ gigoid ~~
9/6/2012
********************************
Our final, old-school pearl for today is somewhat, um…. well, different. I’m not entirely certain there’s a single thought to which it leads , but, there seem to be quite a number of pieces of rather cogent advice on how to look at life with some humor, and, how to live it with some style. I can’t think of any particular word or phrase to describe it, so, we’ll just call it Random Thoughts on Life at Large…. Enjoy!….
*********
“Plato says,
“‘T is to no purpose for a sober man to knock at the door of the Muses;”
and Aristotle says
“that no excellent soul is exempt
from a mixture of folly.”
~~ Michael de Montaigne ~~
~~ Essays, Book ii, Chap. ii, Of Drunkenness ~~
*********
“A good laugh is sunshine in a house.”
~~ William Makepeace Thackeray ~~
*********
“In certain trying circumstances,
urgent circumstances,
desperate circumstances,
profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.”
~~ Mark Twain ~~
*********
“Power is an illusion; only stupidity is real.”
~~ Fatalist Bee ~~
*********
“Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily.
All other “sins” are invented nonsense.
(Hurting yourself is NOT a sin–just stupid.)”
~~ Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love” ~~
*********
“A process which led from amoeba to man
appeared to the philosophers to be obviously progress
– though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known.”
~~ Bertrand Russell ~~
*********
“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.”
~~ Mark Twain ~~
*********
“Take a breath of the new dawn and make it a part of you.”
~~ Hopi proverb ~~
*********
********************************
I’ll be damned. Well, most likely, anyway, if one buys into the delusion that holds sway over most of the planet. Since I don’t, it’s just a phrase, without much meaning other than to express my surprise at being done. As mentioned, there will be no claims as to quality; all I’m going to say is, it’s done, and done as well as I can do it, given the circumstances in play. As we’re fond of saying ’round here, so be it. I’ll add I’m going to try to do this again tomorrow, and if the past five years gives any indication, I will be here, pretty much for sure, and for certain. See y’all then, ffolkes, if my cat allows it….
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.
“Fewer possess virtue, than those who wish us to believe that they possess it “
~~ Cicero ~~
Are you ever going to finish?….
Hajime…. For some time this morning, while working on what you’ll find below, I considered what might appropriately be used for an opening. Now the time has come to write one, it’s all gone. I’m a bit foggy today, having slept, again, more than expected; of course, my expectations for sleep are dead low, so…. Nonetheless, I don’t think my body, or mind, quite knows how to deal with it, which leaves me in a quandary of confused emotions. I can’t say that state is particularly uncommon, either, but, knowing that makes it no less uncomfortable. Hmph. So be it.
I confess to some nerves today, anyway; Leelu is going in to have her procedure to prevent kittens, an event for which I already am suffering guilt and remorse, even though I know it’s best for everyone. She’ll be at the vet’s until Saturday morning, so, it will be very quiet and subdued around here until then…. Can’t say now how it will sit with me; my PTSD can surprise me sometimes. But, we’ll all get through it, and, now, I’ve used up all there was in my head to put in the intro. Pretty clumsy, eh? Oh, well, we’ll just resort to a very old literary trick, and get where we need to be without further ado. It’s subtle, so, you’ll need to watch closely, or you’ll miss the change….
Shall we Pearl?….
“Mankind has become so much one family that we cannot insure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must also resign yourself to seeing others also happy.” — Bertrand Russell
********************************
Yep. You got it. Classical music, just because I like it, and it’s all I want to hear today…. Deal with it, or leave it off Or, enjoy….. please.
Our rant today will be from the archives, just because I said so. It is about a subject I call A Plague of Evil, which is a euphemism for the sexual abuse that men perpetrate on women every damn day, as a matter of course in this society, which is completely sexist, biased toward men. Our culture is based entirely on their cowardice, exhibiting that cowardice in every aspect of their insanely blind ignorance of themselves, and the world at large…. The simplest way to comprehend the basic flaw in the male of the species is best said this way: men are cowards at heart….
That probably won’t make me particularly popular with most men, but, that’s fine with me, because, quite frankly, I don’t like the assholes anyway…. Let me say this to any males reading this…. just read, and try to set aside your fears & prejudices, none of which you ever thought about before, and just listen up. Try to understand…. much as it strains those almost useless neurons…. And, if you have any questions or comments, use a bit of sense, and make them intelligent, okay? I don’t want to have to put it into the kind of physical message most of you understand best….
From 5/10/2012:
“I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round.” — John Lennon
Men are afraid of women… hence all the jokes about them taking over, over slyly ruling us without us knowing it. Men’s fears of just that thing are what cause him to hate women, because they do not understand them, and fear arises out of lack of understanding. Here are a few examples of such lies, the lies that perpetuate the war between the sexes…..
“My notion of a wife at 40 is that a man should be able to change her, like a bank note, for two twenties.” — Warren Beatty
A lady is one who only shows her underwear intentionally. — Smart Bee
— Yo momma……so fat she has to buy two airline tickets. — Smart Bee
“A beautiful woman is paradise for the eyes, hell for the soul, and purgatory for the purse.” — Smart Bee
“Passionate kiss like spider web, lead to undoing of fly.” — Confucius say (No, he didn’t, but liars don’t care….)
Really, really sexist and paranoid, yes? Yes….
The mere existence of these jokes, and others like them, indicates clearly what men are afraid of in women, and that is their sexuality. We… well, men, not necessarily we men, because not all of us hate them… No I don’t understand them, but that doesn’t make them any less fascinating or wonderfully different. I am aware of my own self, and my own powers, and they have naught to do with what women can do; I feel no need to compare the two, or to assume one is stronger or better. They are just different, and what is different about women is not to be feared, even if not understood. It is just to be learned, that’s all….and the learning is a totally awesome trip, I assure you….
But, back to the sexuality that men fear. It is because these men have never learned to understand themselves, or their place in the scheme of things, that makes them unable to understand women, and turns their ignorance to fear, from thence to hatred and abuse against them. Men cannot stand the thought that a woman might be more important than him, and that is a certain sign of lack of confidence, and of ignorance. Men who know their place in life, and who are confident of their own ability to cope with that place and its demands, have no need or desire to be more important than anyone; they are complete within themselves….
Too many men in this world don’t come anywhere close to this kind of self-knowledge; most go through life without exercising more than two neurons at once, and those tend to lose function whenever the blood goes elsewhere than the brain (such as during an erection). Most men are so afraid of women that they spend half their life telling jokes like the above, and spreading the nonsensical lies that perpetuate this atrocity.
Yes, atrocity, because it is this fear and loathing, of both themselves and women, that leads to issues such as domestic abuse, sex trafficking, prostitution, and abuse of children. The only women who are actively engaged in these activities are those who have been brainwashed to believe the crap they’ve heard all their lives, and who have given up their own humanity; they are very few in number. Otherwise, it is men who perpetrate these vile actions on women…. all because of their own fear and ignorance…. and I say, shame on them, for they are not men, in my world…. they are vicious, unredeemable beasts, and should be put down like the dangerous creatures they are…..
“In the dark colony of night, when I consider man’s magnificent capacity for malice, madness, folly, envy, rage, and destructiveness, and I wonder whether we shall not end up as breakfast for newts and polyps, I seem to hear the muffled cries of all the words in all the books with covers closed.” — Leo Rosten
********************************
A Seasonal Approach
Absolute stillness grips a frozen field,
anticipating dawn with such patient yield
morning burgeoning in dark winter’s hold
brings promise of tales yet to be told.
Lengthening days of pale sun unto night
slowly tell of time’s subversive flight
bringing such original songs of natural fire
with melodies complex in casual attire.
The months are certain they will always win
it is just the way it has always been.
None may argue, nor yet slow life down
Nor dim the eternal beauty of nature’s gown.
Winter evolves from fall into spring,
sending flocks and hearts ever awing.
Summer follows suit, t’other way ’round
Spring into fall, often without a sound.
Life is meant to be lived, beginning to end
choices abound, and change can be a friend.
Yielding with grace to reality’s compelling ploy
fills our plain existence with clean, honest joy.
~~ gigoid ~~
10/2/2012
********************************
Naked Pearls
Pay attention!
*********
“Be loyal.”
~~ Things We Can Learn From Dogs ~~
*********
“Even if you’re on the right track,
if you stand still you’ll get run over by the next train.”
~~ Will Rogers ~~
*********
“Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.”
~~ Edward Abbey ~~
*********
“The great thing about getting older is that
you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.”
~~ Madeleine L’Engle ~~
*********
“Don’t think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.”
~~ Malayan Proverb ~~
*********
“He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.”
~~ Lao Tzu ~~
*********
“Often when he was looking on at auctions he would say,
“How many things there are which I do not need!”
~~ Diogenes Laertius — Socrates, x ~~
*********
“Deem not life a thing of consequence.
For look at the yawning void of the future,
and at that other limitless space, the past.”
~~ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Meditations, iv, 50 ~~
*********
“Iyam what Iyam.”
~~ Popeye ~~
********************************
I can’t say how it happened, but, it’s done, so, we won’t complain, or even question. Instead, we’ll use the same trick we used in the intro, and be done with it for today. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, unless I figure out a way to stop myself….
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.
Hajime…. My morning routines are evolving again. I’ve had to set the deadline for getting the Pearls done in the morning an hour or two ahead, as I’m now able to sleep, and not up every morning about 3 AM. Yay, me…. In addition, it’s good to know my age is not keeping me from undergoing changes needed to keep on a balanced, steady course. Once we lose the ability to change, our time here is done, pretty much, for only the dead do not change. Well, as pointed out to me once, they do rot, which is change, but, it no longer concerns them, does it now? Right.
Hmm…. I can’t say that’s the most gripping, or compelling opening I’ve done, but, I can say it’s not even close to being either one. I’d delete it & start again, but, I’m already later than I’d hoped to be this morning, so we’ll just pretend it’s fine, and get on with it. I still have three sections to complete, & we won’t get there if I keep waffling. Of course, the question as to whether or not ‘getting there’ is a worthwhile pastime is one we won’t bother to justify with a response. That would be both self-serving, and inefficient, and we do try to avoid both of those, when we can…. Today, that’s looking a bit iffy….
Ah, well, so much for vaulting ambition; I think even moderate ambition, or modest, will also be out of our purview, so, let’s not even go there, okay? Instead, I’ll stop fooling around with this, & get on with it. After all, it’s only a matter of time until none of much anything will really matter to us, so, really, what’s the point, eh? Of course, that’s giving in to despair, but, we’re getting rather adept at that, so…. I think, most likely, this would be a good time for me to push this button, which will take us where we need to be, without any further idiocy from the author, who has completely lost his way, and is now stuck speaking in a completely different person. Damn it…. Fuck it, I’m pushing it now….
Shall we Pearl?….
“To find a fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.”
~~ Plutarch ~~
********************************
I couldn’t think of anything new and different, and we just did classical yesterday. So, today, I’ll please myself. Here is my favorite female artist. Red hair, hot guitar licks, and a voice that can send chills up your spine…. The video I chose was the latest I could find, from 2013 BBC sessions she preformed…. Enjoy, ffolkes; I will, for sure….
“The only way to combat criminals is by not voting for them.”
~~ Dayton Allen ~~
In the past couple weeks, I’ve avoided ranting extensively here. I’ve been putting most of that angst into comments on other blogs, so there hasn’t been enough left here to stimulate my outrage, even though there is more than enough in the news to do so. What I see there only convinces me my bad feelings about what may happen in the next few years are not unjustified….. In fact, the above quote mirrors much of my thought process, for I’ve come to the conclusion that that longer we encourage the idiots who are ostensibly in charge of society, by voting, by paying taxes, by allowing their lies to be truth, the longer the trouble we face will be with us, eventually leading us inexorably to our extinction.
Rather than try to force out all that is in there, boiling over, I’ll throw out some pearls, from which you can build your own rant in your mind. Oh, it’s not hard; don’t be afraid. Just follow the bouncing ideas, and you’ll see how much fun it can be to take the Asininnies for a spin down Insult Lane…. Here, then, for your viewing pleasure are today’s pearls, to string together & throw at the Beloved Ruling Class, the Dogma Dogs, the Faceless Mrymidons, and all the other Asininnies we have come to know and, hate so well….
“All riches come from iniquity, and unless one has lost, another cannot gain. Hence that common opinion seems to be very true, “the rich man is unjust, or the heir to an unjust one.” Opulence is always the result of theft, if not committed by the actual possessor, than by his predecessor.” — St. Jerome (340?-420)
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William S. Smith, Paris, Nov. 13, 1787
“Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.” — Laurence J. Peter
“Lysander said that the law spoke too softly to be heard in such a noise of war.” — Plutarch — Life of Caius Marius
” When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl!” [When cryptography is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy!”, ROT-13 encrypted] — Brad Templeton of ClariNet
“We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them.” — Titus Livius
“Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction.” — New Testament — Matthew vii, 13
Lions in the street and roaming,
Dogs in heat, rabid, foaming,
A beast caged in the heart of the city.
The body of his mother lying in the summer ground,
He fled the town.
Went down south across the border,
Left the chaos and disorder
Back there, over his shoulder.
One morning he awoke in a green hotel,
A strange creature groaning beside him.
Sweat oozed from its shiny skin.
Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin.
~~ Jim Morrison, “Celebration of the Lizard” ~~
********************************
I’ve been feeling as if there’s a poem in me, percolating, but, it has not yet reached the stage where I can open a vein to let it out. Here, instead, is the last one I wrote, not so long ago…. I hope you enjoy it…..
Augmentation: Inner Aye
Distant, peals of thunder, vividly.
Closer, a patter of rain, falling gravidly.
Between the light and the darkness of fear
find merely the remnants of one lonely tear.
Do not hate us, though we have not sinned;
eager for courage, upon whom all hope is pinned.
Tales of insolence, hatred, or fallen virtue
fill us up, not down, in such pristine foreign venue.
Capable hands severed, able hands tied;
the future is angry, all but now denied.
Multiple times, warnings sounded across the pale
nobody heard, nobody came to tell the tale.
Gifted by time, salience fails in epic rhyme;
watchmakers watching, each a separate crime.
Logical solutions refuse to emulsify
forever pretending to cruelly crucify.
Blood will fly alongside pertinent composure,
never seeking, never finding tea, or closure.
Falsely laid trails on mountains of gold
imply no happy endings, no fortunes told.
Ages past have no time for repetition;
further chances only lead to perdition.
Destiny feels a shameful portion of guilt,
for a thousand sand castles, never built.
~~ gigoid ~~
3/2/2016
********************************
Naked Pearls
Dragon Bookends/Random Thoughts
*********
“Safety is on the shore, but the pearl is in the ocean.”
~~ Chinese Proverb ~~
*********
“When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.”
~~ George Bernard Shaw ~~
*********
“Clouds come floating into my life,
no longer to carry rain or usher storm
but to add color to my sunset sky.”
~~ Rabindranath Tagore ~~
*********
“Art has an obligation to offend.”
~~ Edward Albee ~~
*********
“When I was a lark, I sang; when I was a worm, I devoured.”
~~ Theodore Roethke ~~
*********
“Man needs, for his happiness,
not only the enjoyment of this or that,
but hope and enterprise and change.”
~~ Bertrand Russell ~~
*********
“No falsehood lingers into old age.”
~~ Sophocles ~~
*********
“If you can, help others. If you can’t, at least don’t hurt others.”
~~ the Dalai Lama ~~
*********
“Enjoy yourself–it’s later than you think.”
~~ Chinese Proverb ~~
********************************
Well, I beat the odds, though slowly. It’s all fresh though, except for the poem, which is about as fresh as I can do. Regardless of aught else we might say, it’s done, so, I’ll be nice, and end it here, and now. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, unless somebody comes up with a better plan….
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.
“Be a hero! Teach your children to think for THEMSELVES!”
~~ Truly Wise Bee ~~
Ketchikan, early morning, pre-invasion
Hajime…. It’s Tuesday, I believe. I know that’s accurate, because I checked off-screen before going on to this next sentence. Rather studious of me, but, then studying is part of what I do, and, am. In order to begin today’s Pearl in the proper mindset, I’ve managed to complete the silly thing before starting this intro. Not that switching stuff around has ever worked wonders, but, sometimes, it’s matter of going with the flow, which may, or may not be present, at all. If, by this point in the narrative, you are NOT confused, I’m doing this wrong.
Distraction, obfuscation, it’s all par for the course here in Amurrica when one speaks of communication. Nobody out there in the real world is telling all the truth, ffolkes. Lying, or, in some cases, pure fabrication of factoids, has become our major means of transferring information from one to another; there is nothing on TV, and very little on the internet, which can be trusted to be truthful at all times. The pastime, or skill, however one views it, of lying has become an accepted means of obtaining one’s desires; at this point, I don’t see how it can be entirely eradicated as part of human interaction. Everybody lies, ffolkes. Even you, even me. We all do it, for we have been trained since birth to use the truth as a means of manipulation, rather than a means of education, or, of meaningful interaction.
Hmph. I see I’ve fallen into rant mode. Must have something to do with having used an older rant for that section below. Ah well, having caught myself up, I shall throttle the impulse, and, with some attempt at grace, bring this intro to a close, well before it gets out of what control we still possess. Since that will mean a rapid extraction, I’ll just use this little box right here. Watch what happens when I push this button….
Shall we Pearl?….
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.
We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence,
but we rather have those because we have acted rightly.
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
~~ Aristotle ~~
********************************
I’m running a bit late, and don’t feel like fussing with finding “just” the right music for today. Instead, we’ll go with what I know to be music that will grace any situation, providing soothing, relaxing music to read by. Enjoy!….
And the crowd was stilled.
One elderly man, wondering at the sudden silence,
turned to the Child and asked him to repeat what he had said.
Wide-eyed, the Child raised his voice and said once again,
“Why, the Emperor has no clothes! He is naked!”
~~ The Emperor’s New Clothes ~~
Today’s pearl for this section is a favorite of mine, for, in today’s world, we have many emperors, all of whom are naked. I’m late, & not particularly in the mood to rant, so, here is one I’ve reproduced previously, meaning I thought it was pretty good. Hence, here ’tis, again. Enjoy!…
From 1/1/13:
“If the obstacles of bigotry and priestcraft can be surmounted, we may hope that common sense will suffice to do everything else.” — Thomas Jefferson
Oh well, so much for THAT hope! From all I can see in today’s society, what Tommy was afraid of has come to pass. If one takes almost any of the articles in the news that talk about the activities of government, religion, or society at large, it is obvious that bigotry and priestcraft have corrupted every level of those entities, and influence just about every human interaction that we see. Common sense is nowhere present, in any of those same activities under discussion. Of course, he forgot, in this instance, to include the bankers, but perhaps that is where a portion of the bigotry comes in…..
By its precise meaning, bigotry doesn’t include the idea of cheating, lying, and stealing from whomever one encounters; those activities, for a bigot, are only appropriate when done to those outside the personal group, to “foreigners, niggers, and chinks,” or some likely other group they’ve chosen to bless with their ignorant regard…… But, in a sense, bankers can be said to be universally bigoted, for they have no qualms about lying, cheating, or stealing from anyone, in any group, even their own. I guess that would qualify them as Ultimate Bigots…..
“As an ox goeth to the slaughter.” — Old Testament — Proverbs vii, 22; Jeremiah xi, 19
I would imagine this is how the bankers and preachers (either of which is capable of turning into a politician, at the drop of a hint….) view the masses of humanity who do not subscribe to their venality. In this view, they may be at least partially justified, by the apparent willingness of those masses to submit to whatever is done to them. Why should the politicians stop lying, when their lies secure for them the keys to the treasury? Why should the preachers not spread their delusions, when the masses are so willing to accept them, because it saves them the effort of either thinking about morality, or even better, saving them from having to BE moral?….. The bankers, of course, need no excuses to carry on their despicable acts of calumny upon the remainder of society; their sole motivation is based on profit for them, and nothing else concerns them at all…
“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” — Thomas Jefferson
Back to Tom…. He was a bit over the top sometimes, in the force of his expression, but never, to my mind, in his sincere commitment to Truth, and his sincere love for Mankind. I would like to think I join him in this sentiment, especially today, when we are so besieged by attempts to tyrannize our minds by our own beloved ruling classes. The war against immorality continues unabated, and too many folks in the world have withdrawn from the battle, accepting the lies and delusions that are foisted upon them.
It is important, in my opinion, that the rest of us, who can see the depredations assaulting the common man every day, keep on shouting from the rooftops to the rest of our compatriots, if only to save our own sanity….. and, before the strain of the conflict brings us to our knees, and we enter Zippy’s domain, doomed to extinction…..
“I just forgot my whole philosophy of life!!!”
~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~
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Choosing a Theme
Powerful words playing hide and seek in my mind,
teasing with subtle cruelty, pretending to be kind.
Grand visions and flowery verses of beauty and truth
evaded my inner eye all through the days of my youth.
Affable interludes interspersed with allegorical wit
softened the crimes, against all reason, to finally acquit.
Time became at once an enemy, and an ally
Never once compelled to provide an answer why.
Giving gifts of simple kindness are their own pay,
spreading ripples of compassion are felt far and away.
Love given freely is precious, we are ever told,
increasing love received, more than a hundred fold.
Living long and with passion has centered my soul,
allowing me room, and time, to choose my own goal.
Now that I’ve gone past any need to pretend
I love everything in life, even knowing it will end.
~~ gigoid ~~
10/21/2012
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Naked Pearls
Notes on Life
*******
“A word is dead
When it is said
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.”
~~ Emily Dickinson ~~
*******
“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”
~~ Oscar Wilde ~~
*******
“We live in the kind of world where courage is the most essential of virtues;
without courage, the other virtues are useless.”
~~ Edward Abbey ~~
*******
“Keep looking. What’s lost will be found.”
~~ Fleer’s Double Bubble Fortune ~~
*******
“If what Proust says is true,
that happiness is the absence of fever,
then I will never know happiness.
For I am possessed by a fever
for knowledge, experience, and creation.”
~~ Anais Nin ~~
*******
“Life is full of infinite absurdities,
which, strangely enough, do not even need to appear plausible,
because they are true.”
~~ Pirandello ~~
*******
“.. I wonder if I ought to tell them about my PREVIOUS LIFE as a COMPLETE STRANGER?”
~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~
********************************
Done, and done well enough. I’m not even going to fuss around at all here in the closing section. It may come as a surprise, but, I do know how to exit gracefully. You doubt my word? Okay, then, here you go. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes. Neither of us can stop it….. Who would wish to do so? Not me….
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 