Tag Archives: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Just fill in the holes, William….

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Ffolkes,
And then, I woke up….. afraid….. SIGH…..

I had hoped to never find myself in this position again, but, that was apparently wishful thinking, at best. I really don’t enjoy some parts of my PTSD symptoms; actually, I don’t really enjoy ANY of the symptoms I experience in that respect. Tears and emotional lability sometimes, depression others, and in between, just a bunch of anxiety and near panic attacks, for good measure, as it is said…. Who says it, I don’t know, but, you hear it all the time…. None of which is of any particular moment to me just now, as I am sitting here struggling with my emotions, trying to keep them out of my head, so they won’t make me cry (for no apparent reason I can see…..)…. Ah shit, it’s not working…. I’ll be back….

Sorry ’bout that…. I had thought, what with all the money, and cruising, and general gaiety going around, I would be immune from such attacks, but, I guess not…. Fuck, fuck, fuck….. Actually, I know why this is happening, and I’m not happy about the reason. I have an appointment with my doctor to discuss medications, and I am worried that he is going to turn conservative on me, and start getting all weird about my use of drugs that are not what he prescribes, exactly…. Unfortunately, discussing this in a public venue could conceivably have bad results, so I can’t really go into it much…. suffice it to say that my own doctor is the one causing this anxiety in me, and I need to do something about it, today…..

I can see that this is getting a bit sticky, and obscure, so I’m going on into the pearling process now, before I lose all control, of myself, and this Pearl. I hate to do this, but, I’m going to surgically excise any further nonsense in the intro section, and get on with the dive for today, before I seize up and get really weird… It’s been known to happen on such days….. For now, let’s get on with it….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Will this never-ending series of PLEASURABLE EVENTS never cease?” — Zippy the Pinhead

http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/Damaging-storms-moving-through-east-south-4569342.php

http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Quakes-kill-2-in-Taiwan-injure-33-in-Philippines-4569405.php

http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/UK-politicians-caught-in-lobbying-scandal-4569418.php

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Apple-antitrust-suit-over-e-books-set-for-NY-trial-4569709.php

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/4-wounded-in-3-Oakland-shootings-4569499.php

“One U.S. lawmaker has been to Bangladesh since the collapse of the Rana Plaza building on April 24, 2013, killing, at last count, 1,129 garment workers. That would be Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, who returned to the Bay Area Thursday after a week of meetings with government officials, garment factory owners, and survivors of the building’s collapse.

He had harsh words for Gap and Walmart, who have refused to sign a legally binding Bangladesh safety accord. “It’s very clear whether you are Walmart or you’re the Gap, you have to make a decision now whether you want to have blood on your labels. The fact is, they’ve led this race to the bottom over many years and it has led to this dangerous situation in the industry.”
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The foregoing are all taken from the news in northern California on Sunday, June 2, 2013. I collected them because I was struck by how the batch of them, taken together, is almost surreal in its degree of negativity. 13 dead in storms; 2 dead, 35 injured in quakes; politicians taking money (gasp! what will they do next?); Apple and publishers conspiring to steal money from consumers (another gasp!…); 4 wounded in shootings….. and OVER A THOUSAND garment workers dead, crushed and/or burned up in a building that collapsed, because the builders cheated on the materials, the owners didn’t care, and no safety measures were in place at all. The owners/operators crammed about five times the safe number of people and machines in the facility to grind out more cheap stuff for the big stores to sell. So many people, and so much machinery and materials, the building collapsed.

Garment workers…. That’s a nice, impersonal title, don’t you think? Not bad to describe, and disconnect from, the OVER A THOUSAND human beings who died there, all of them so poor they had to cram into one building with no possible escape, just to earn a starving wage, so fat white folks can make more money off the cheap stuff they’re making…. But, hey, they’re just gooks, right, not even Christians, or white, or anything, so it’s not like it counts, or anything like that, is it?…. Hell, most of ’em were probably women and children anyway, living on welfare…..

“Will it improve my CASH FLOW?” — Zippy the Pinhead

One day’s worth of headlines… I can’t wait to see tomorrow’s leading stories….. Somehow, I don’t think they will provide any of the balance so badly needed, unless, of course, the aliens land, and give us the answers to all the tough questions. The odds on that are slim, at best, so I think I’ll just try to not read them any more…. Of course, then I won’t know just when it all is going to finally collapse, will I? Oh well, I’ll just have to remember to read the comics first, I guess….

“… if the democratic nations fail, their failure must be partly attributed to the faulty strategy of idealists who have too many illusions when they face realists who have too little conscience.” — Reinhold Niebuhr

The world is currently in what Robert Heinlein used to call “The Crazy Years”, merrily going to hell in a handbasket; the above headlines are proof positive that we are a society out of control, with no apparent way back to any sort of sanity. I don’t know at this point if there is any chance to pull ourselves back from the brink of extinction, not with the way things have proceeded thus far. And, to be frank, it would, and will be, our just desserts, for all the lack of understanding and wrongheadedness we have displayed in our sad history….. Ah well, it must be time for a nap……

If of all words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are, `It might have been,’
More sad are these we daily see:
`It is, but hadn’t ought to be.’

— Francis Brett Harte
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Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet, has been in the news of late; apparently, he didn’t die of prostate cancer, as first reported when he died, but, may have been murdered by a CIA operative on the orders of the dictator of Chile at the time, Augusto Pinochet…. His body has been exhumed, and forensic scientists are examining his remains for poisons, and/or signs of terminal cancer…. Results are pending…. Regardless of all that, he was an exemplary poet, and great philosopher, in my opinion…. Here is one of his works that seemed to speak to my mood today….. It’s a bit grim, but, sometimes, we need grim….

A Song Of Despair

The memory of you emerges from the night around me.
The river mingles its stubborn lament with the sea.

Deserted like the wharves at dawn.
It is the hour of departure, oh deserted one!

Cold flower heads are raining over my heart.
Oh pit of debris, fierce cave of the shipwrecked.

In you the wars and the flights accumulated.
From you the wings of the song birds rose.

You swallowed everything, like distance.
Like the sea, like time. In you everything sank!

It was the happy hour of assault and the kiss.
The hour of the spell that blazed like a lighthouse.

Pilot’s dread, fury of blind driver,
turbulent drunkenness of love, in you everything sank!

In the childhood of mist my soul, winged and wounded.
Lost discoverer, in you everything sank!

You girdled sorrow, you clung to desire,
sadness stunned you, in you everything sank!

I made the wall of shadow draw back,
beyond desire and act, I walked on.

Oh flesh, my own flesh, woman whom I loved and lost,
I summon you in the moist hour, I raise my song to you.

Like a jar you housed infinite tenderness.
and the infinite oblivion shattered you like a jar.

There was the black solitude of the islands,
and there, woman of love, your arms took me in.

There was thirst and hunger, and you were the fruit.
There were grief and ruins, and you were the miracle.

Ah woman, I do not know how you could contain me
in the earth of your soul, in the cross of your arms!

How terrible and brief my desire was to you!
How difficult and drunken, how tensed and avid.

Cemetery of kisses, there is still fire in your tombs,
still the fruited boughs burn, pecked at by birds.

Oh the bitten mouth, oh the kissed limbs,
oh the hungering teeth, oh the entwined bodies.

Oh the mad coupling of hope and force
in which we merged and despaired.

And the tenderness, light as water and as flour.
And the word scarcely begun on the lips.

This was my destiny and in it was my voyage of my longing,
and in it my longing fell, in you everything sank!

Oh pit of debris, everything fell into you,
what sorrow did you not express, in what sorrow are you not drowned!

From billow to billow you still called and sang.
Standing like a sailor in the prow of a vessel.

You still flowered in songs, you still brake the currents.
Oh pit of debris, open and bitter well.

Pale blind diver, luckless slinger,
lost discoverer, in you everything sank!

It is the hour of departure, the hard cold hour
which the night fastens to all the timetables.

The rustling belt of the sea girdles the shore.
Cold stars heave up, black birds migrate.

Deserted like the wharves at dawn.
Only tremulous shadow twists in my hands.

Oh farther than everything. Oh farther than everything.

It is the hour of departure. Oh abandoned one!

~~ Pablo Neruda ~~

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I have a lot to do today, and need to get started early to get it all done… so, I’m cheating here, but in a good way. This is a Pearl from November of 2011… Much of it is apparently written around the same subject as discussed in section one of today’s effort, so I’m including it here, to save myself some time, and give y’all a bit of contrasting text to compare…. You can check for me to see if what I wrote then is consistent with what was done today, or if it was better, or worse…. Whatever it was, it’s a bit long, so, here it is, so you can get started…. It’s long, I know, but not bad, so, enjoy….. please….

11/16/11
Ffolkes,
Good morrow to you…..let us begin as we mean to go on…..

“Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” — Gene Fowler

This line is included today merely to give y’all an idea of what I go through every morning to produce this…..whatever it is. It is a pretty good description, actually, because when I’m done, I actually feel battered and bloody. Bloody well used up is what it is. Maybe it’s easier for other writers; I don’t know. But for me, to produce something that my standards will allow me to publish for others to read, is much like having a piece of my soul ripped out. The funny thing is, though it hurts a lot, I wouldn’t stop doing it, even if I could. The pain of creation, which after all requires destruction first, is a worthy payoff for the sense of accomplishment I get when I see one of my pieces online for all to see. Quite a rush actually…..

“Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.” — Aldous Huxley

This observation, as far as I can tell, is 100% accurate, and because it is, many of the problems society is facing are easily explained, if not easily resolved. For example, when was the last time you gave a thought to what else besides oxygen is in the air that you take into your lungs on the average of 15-20 times per minute.? When you last got a glass of water from the tap, did you stop to think about what was in the water you use to drink, cook with, and bathe in? As Mr. Huxley pointed out, most folks, yourselves included, seldom think about or appreciate such simple necessities, or what might happen if they were no longer available.

What will we do when the air is so full of carbon dioxide that the amount of oxygen in it is decreased below the point where it will sustain life? Will we all have to wear breathing apparatus in order to brave the outside world? What will happen to all the other animals if there isn’t sufficient air? What will you do when the water you drink is no longer safe to consume? We need water as much as we need air; our chemical make-up is 90% water, and not having enough of it to replace what we lose is a sure path to the grave within a matter of days.

There are other issues connected to this subject; the consistent degradation of our planet’s ecosystem has a great many negative effects, small and unnoticeable at first, but growing larger over time until they are added to the list of processes that will eventually lead to extinction of all of this planet’s life forms.  Part of the problem is that it is a slow, insidious process, this degradation, and the deleterious outcomes are not evident until too late to reverse.

And remember, the Universe doesn’t care, one way or the other, whether we survive or not; the rules are the rules, and fighting against the natural laws of our space-time continuum is a fool’s bet. Like it or not, we, as a species, are going to need to make some serious changes to the way we do things, if we are to survive at all. And we will need to do it starting yesterday…..

“A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary.  Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” — Albert Einstein

I really admire Albert Einstein, and not because he was a great scientist, as well as one of history’s shining examples of men and women who greatly advance human knowledge, and do so out of their love of mankind. Albert’s wisdom was not restricted to the principles of physics and math; he had a unique way of looking at the world, and the ability to share their deep insights into life and the universe for the benefit of others. He was an eternal optimist, and as the above quote demonstrates, had a firm grip on the concept of living with honor and dignity.

He believed in the inherent goodness of every man, and lived his life in a way that it stands as an example for the rest of us. I cannot wholly agree with what he states above, because I have a much darker view of what human nature is capable of, and less faith in mankind’s willingness to submit to natural law. But what he said does show with clarity where our salvation lies, and in his own inimitable manner, he shares his deeper knowledge with the rest of us in the hope it will inspire others to act honorably……

“To laugh often and love much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to give of oneself; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sing with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier: this is to have succeeded.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

From what I gather in my study of 19th century American writers, a lot of the best were what I would call masters of advanced curmudgeonry. Emerson, Walden, Thoreau,  were all libertarians living in compromise with a democracy, and spent much of their time either complaining about society, or hiding from it in their forest retreats. This is not to say that what they wrote was bad or mistaken in premise, necessarily, but if you read their work with this in mind, it becomes apparent that they didn’t much like other folks, or put much trust in their rationality.

But, as the included quote indicates, being a curmudgeon doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t understand humanity, or what it takes to make life complete. This paragraph from Mr. Emerson demonstrates this perfectly. One cannot argue with conviction that all of these attributes listed, and experiences from a long life, are positively rooted, and make perfect sense. Whether or not we actually have all of these characteristics is unimportant; the list remains valid even if incomplete. And it provides anyone with a good map and directions that can be useful to us in our pursuit of happiness…..

So much for another day…..Hopefully, you have consumed a fair portion of food for thought, and found it palatable enough. If not, feel free to let me know, and I’ll see if I can come up with something more savory….in the meantime, y’all take care out there….
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I can’t say that was entirely painless, but, it’s done, and thus joins the ranks of so many others that have been thrown out there for y’all to peruse, and abuse, if you must…. Once they leave here, I have little control over that, so I’m becoming a fatalist in that respect…. So, we’ll leave this one to its fate, and go on with the day’s business……  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

Remember, Billy, these nascent lawyers can spontaneously ignite if mocked…

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Ffolkes,
And then I woke up….. in my own bed! All I can say is “yay”, no exclamation point; I’m too tired to reach that high on the keyboard. I got home about 2:30 or 3 PM, after spending a bit of time trying to connect with my ride. We found each other in relatively quick order, and he took me home, to my everlasting delight, where I almost squeezed milady Pat until she popped; I’m surprised she has any skin left after me kissing it so much…..  🙂   If you can’t tell, I was happy to be home, as much as I enjoyed the trip.

It warms me, it charms me,
To mention but her name;
It heats me, it beats me,
And set me a’ on flame.

— “Robbie” Burns

In order to try to mitigate the jet-lag effects, I pushed myself to stay up a while, until the fatigue caught up with me at about 8:30 last night, and I collapsed into bed. I slept somewhat poorly, even though every bone and muscle in my body rejoiced when I laid down in my own familiar bed. I could feel myself totally relaxing, almost orgasmic; unfortunately, my brain had other ideas, and proceeded to race like a Ferrari at Le Mans, despite having been up and functional for damn close to twenty-four hours.

At 8:30 PM in Vallejo, when I went down, it was 4:30 AM the next day, in London, where my body still believes me to be. Since I had arisen there at 5:00 AM to go catch the plane, this old body got pushed for 23.5 hours, which destroyed all my physical energy, but left me wide awake with a mind confused as to the correct time it should be counting….. SIGH…. It’s tough getting old…. though I’m still tough, getting old is tougher, I think….

My overactive mind kept me on the brink of awareness all night, adding in more strange dreams when I did manage to fall under Morpheus’ spell, eventually giving up the ghost at about 3:30 AM, when I gave up trying to fall asleep, and got up to start writing. While talking with milady last night, I found I DID have a lot to talk about on the trip, so I’m hoping some of that comes through this morning as I write…. One may always hope, n’est pas?…..

In keeping with that sense of hope, I’m going to call this an intro, such as it is, and start putting together a Pearl for today. If nothing else, it may tire me out enough to get a bit more sleep before the rest of the world here on the West Coast wakes up and gets active. It is a Sunday, and the middle of the long weekend for Memorial Day, tomorrow, so it should be fairly quiet, all things considered, and I should be able to get some stuff done (like composing a necessary letter to my doctor, who has seen fit to go all anal about my pain meds and the presence of cannabinoids in my lab work.

It promises to be quite a battle, as I pit my Constitutional rights against the legal department of a large HMO, which has his balls in their hand. I’ll  need to be persuasive, indeed, to be able to get him to stand up to them and make a decision based on my medical needs rather than the company’s legal policies and requirements (which, in my view, violate my confidentiality, and my Constitutional right to determine my own welfare).

Any who, that, and some other stuff that piled up while I was away in Europe, should keep ME busy…. let’s see if I can give y’all something interesting and fun to keep your minds in trim…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“We’re going to find out tonight who the oldest lady in the audience is. And we have a marvelous present for her. When we find the oldest lady, we’re going to give her … the oldest man.  The first time we tried this was about ten years ago. We had a very nice lady in our audience. She was 87 years old, as I recall. We introduced her that evening to a man from Chicago who was 96, and shortly thereafter, believe it or not, they were married. It was a lovely story. And that wasn’t the end of it either. I read in the paper recently where that woman has just given birth to a beautiful 47-year-old baby boy!” — Steve Allen

Very popular in his own time, which came at the very beginnings of television on a nationwide basis, Steve Allen was a brilliant comedian, and, in his own way, a pretty decent social philosopher and critic, along the lines of a colleague of his, in later days, George Carlin. Both had a unique, hilarious, and sharply insightful understanding of American culture of their time, and spared no one in the pointed nature of their comedic observations on that culture. This was the second offering by Smart Bee, and just tickled my funny bone, so I thought it would make a good intro for an old-school, harlequin pearl…..

As always, the random nature of this process prevents me from knowing ahead of time what will come up, or what point it will make; that point is one I prefer to leave in the competent hands, and minds, of my oh-so-very-intelligent Gentle Readers (I know, shameless, aren’t I?)….  Any who, here is a five-, or seven-star pearl, fresh from the depths of Smart Bee, all pointing at some characteristic of human nature, or human culture, if such a word can be applied to what we do on this planet on a daily basis…..

“Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo.” — Emerson

“Never try to explain computers to a layman.  It’s easier to explain sex to a virgin.” — Robert Heinlein

“I am not asleep.” — Ronald Reagan
(Oddly enough, some people believed him..)

“Doing my part to preserve order in the universe.” — Smart Bee

“A society that puts equality — in the sense of equality of outcome — ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom… On the other hand, a society that puts freedom first will, as a happy by-product, end up with both greater freedom and greater equality.” — Milton and Rose Friedman _Free to Choose_

“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” — J.K. Rowling, Padfoot Returns, — Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,2000, — spoken by the character Sirius Black

“I understand “stressed.”  It’s “desserts” backwards.”– Smart Bee, in good form…

Well, that’s seven, but with the initial quote by Mr. Allen, it’s actually eight, so, the laws of conservation of energy require one last perfect pearl, to bring it all home, and drive the point squarely on the point to be made…..

“God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant, and the cat. He has no real style. He just keeps on trying other things.” — Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) — Quoted in Francoise Gilot and Carlton Lake, Life with Picasso, pt. 1 (1964)

Who then, it occurs to me to ask, is competent to judge the quality of His Art in creating us?…… Of course, this assumes one accepts the whole God idea as a higher power, but, I find this to be a useful idea, anyway, as it certainly puts us in the proper perspective…… Oh well, since it fell apart a bit at the end there, we’ll just go on….
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I’m afraid I was a bit ruthless in the poetry section over the course of my trip, with entirely too much of it coming from my archives, egotist that I am….  So, to make up for it, I’ll find something actually worth your time to read…. Here is something from the brilliant Mssr. Pope, with a little ditty that gives a good idea of how much simpler life was in the centuries preceding the Industrial Age…… Enjoy!

Chorus of Youths and Virgins

Semichorus:

Oh Tyrant Love! hast thou possest
The prudent, learn’d, and virtuous breast?
Wisdom and wit in vain reclaim,
And Arts but soften us to feel thy flame.
Love, soft intruder, enters here,
But ent’ring learns to be sincere.
Marcus with blushes owns he loves,
And Brutus tenderly reproves.
Why, Virtue, dost thou blame desire,
Which Nature has imprest?
Why, Nature, dost thou soonest fire
The mild and gen’rous breast?

Chorus:

Love’s purer flames the Gods approve;
The Gods and Brutus bent to love:
Brutus for absent Portia sighs,
And sterner Cassius melts at Junia’s eyes.
What is loose love? a transient gust,
Spent in a sudden storm of lust,
A vapour fed from wild desire,
A wand’ring, self-consuming fire,
But Hymen’s kinder flames unite;
And burn for ever one;
Chaste as cold Cynthia’s virgin light,
Productive as the Sun.

Semichorus:

Oh source of ev’ry social tie,
United wish, and mutual joy!
What various joys on one attend,
As son, as father, brother husband, friend?
Whether his hoary sire he spies,
While thousand grateful thoughts arise;
Or meets his spouse’s fonder eye;
Or views his smiling progeny;
What tender passions take their turns,
What home-felt raptures move?
His heart now melts, now leaps, now burns,
With rev’rence, hope, and love.

Chorus:

Hence guilty joys, distastes, surmises,
Hence false tears, deceits, disguises,
Dangers, doubts, delays, surprises;
Fires that scorch, yet dare not shine
Purest love’s unwasting treasure,
Constant faith, fair hope, long leisure,
Days of ease, and nights of pleasure;
Sacred Hymen! these are thine.

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

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As might be expected after the night I spent, any ranting I might like to do would end up pretty obscure and relatively disconnected from anything similar to Reality, so I’m not going to embarrass myself, and amuse y’all, by trying to make any particular sense. Instead, I’ll bring my trip to a close, with a few comments, of course….

If one considers the judgment of success in Life, as I do, more a matter of what has been learned, about people, the world, and hence, myself rather than what one has garnered in real goods, or acquired as property, or how many times one has been seen as a success by others, for whatever strange reason, whether it be envy, naivete, or the result of extraordinary display of skills admired by those others (athletes, actors, bankers, anyone who assumes power over the affairs of others, and others of such ilk….). Success, to me, can only be judged according to the terms I set myself, not by anyone else, and learning is what I consider the most valuable skill I can employ, to achieve my version of success…

What did I learn from this trip? I think I learned the most about myself, as usual, by noting and observing the differences in my ability to travel now, and when I was younger. My reaction to those differences, naturally, set the tone for everything else I did while away; if fatigued, I got around a bit less; if not, my priorities for things to do were affected by age, to some extent. It seems that every time I turn around, some new aspect of growing older presents itself to me, in such ways that I cannot just brush them off as unimportant.

On the other hand, being older has not slowed or diminished my mind, nor dulled my perceptions; in fact, I see more, hear more, forget little, and think more quickly than ever before in my life. This allows me to enjoy more of what I see, as well as regret some of it, for the indications of how the world is under the surface. So, there are trade-offs for the aging process…. I guess I’m saying that it has been driven home to me on this trip that the world, while flawed in many ways, is a beautiful place to live, and I wouldn’t go back in time for anything; there is too much to see right now….

On that hopeful note, (perhaps, some might say, an unusual occurrence around here….), I will, for the moment, leave Europe behind, and live in the NOW, here, where my heart is, hence, is home…. Here is the picture I took on the trip that best explains what I mean, as well as being the best photo of all of them….

Whoa! I realized, just now, how appropriate this picture is…. Can you tell, by looking at it, whether it is a picture of a sunrise, or a sunset?…. The point being, does it matter? If it is of a sunset, it is a fitting finish to a great learning experience, one in which I found great joy, and great pleasure, as well as the opposite side of that coin…. If it is a sunrise, then it also fits, as a fine prelude to a new day, in which there will always be something to learn, something to enjoy, and, if I’m lucky, someone to love…. So far, so good….
Day the next 013__________________________________

Well…. THAT felt good…. let’s see how it floats….. Works for me…. So much so, I won’t say anything else… except, of course,….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

Save that lanolin, we’ll use it on the new busboy….

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2

Ffolkes,
I know, now, how the White Rabbit felt, as he hurried down the rabbit hole to Wonderland, “I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date…”  Even though the only thing I’m late for is posting this Pearl, I feel the same sense of panic and hurry as did he….. No reason, really. I did sleep a bit late, and had to spend the first twenty minutes repairing and reloading Smart Bee…. it pulled its bi-monthly corrupted file trick, which requires a quick delete and re-load of the entire program, plus a re-start of the computer…. No big deal, but time consuming…. which brings us to the present moment….

Egad, what a mess…. I’ve managed to completely screw up my transaction record, so I have no idea of exactly how much is in my account, and it’s time to pay bills for the month. I’m going to have to pay everything, then stop using the cards at all until it all catches up, and I can reconcile the record with reality…. SIGH…. I never was very good with money; it comes from never having much of it to deal with, along with a hearty disregard for the concept itself… “If you want a life of trouble, fill your house with treasures.”  I first heard this, and took it to heart, when I was about 11 years old, and made a conscious decision at that time to never try to get rich…. I’ve done that, quite well, actually…..

That’s all Big Blue Room stuff, though, and has no place here in ECR…. though it IS reality, I question the relevance for anyone reading this missive, so we’ll leave that behind, and find some other way to lead into today’s post…. That will be quite a trick, as I haven’t a clue as to what will happen today. I left the entire template blank, other than the usual suspects, intending to let myself go into an artistic trance, just typing away until my fingers wore out, and then seeing what was worth keeping…. much like I write a poem, in truth. But, my left wrist hurts from too much typing anyway, and I can’t seem to find a trance-state anywhere, in my head, or out. So much for that idea….

But, look, we’ve got three paragraphs again, just chock full of irrelevant BS, about rabbits, corrupted files, checkbooks, and mysticism colored by whimsy. Perhaps it isn’t exactly Hemingway-esque, but it’s certainly better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, and it does allow us to move on to something that MIGHT be instructive, if not entertaining. We often blur the two around here, so it’s best not to ask which it is supposed to be…. we don’t always know, and hate to be embarrassed…… Shall we Pearl?…..
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“I can’t keep from fooling around with our irrefutable certainties.  It is, for example, a pleasure knowingly to mix up two and three dimensionalities, flat and spatial, and to make fun of gravity.” — M. C. Escher

If you’ve seen Escher’s work, you’ll know that what he says here is truth, a truth graphically demonstrated by the visions he transfers to each  canvas. Though I doubt I’ll ever be hailed as such a genius as he, I like to think that what I write attempts to do the same, but rather than with dimensions of space, I play with the elements of belief that we humans hold, regarding certain aspects of society. In other words, it is a pleasure to knowingly point out the lies and the truths that people hold as certainties, and to make fun of how seriously the lies are taken, which we can equate to the force of gravity…. believing these lies is what holds us back from our potential, just as gravity holds us bound to the surface of the Earth…..

Just as Escher’s paintings release us from the laws of space and time, and of how to perceive them, our imaginations can release us from the repression heaped on us by the BRC and the 1%. When we stop believing the lies we are told, we can stop being puppets of the power of custom. Just because a lot of people believe something doesn’t make it true; only the facts of the matter can do that. In the act of accepting the lies we are told by those in authority, we become party to their chicanery, accessories, before and after the fact, to the crimes being perpetrated on society, and on the Earth as a whole….

“It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater.  The clown came out to inform the public.  They thought it was just a jest and applauded.  He repeated his warning, they shouted even louder.  So I think the world will come to an end amid general applause from all the wits, who believe that it is a joke.” — Smart Bee

I think Smart Bee might have a point here….. Most people don’t look past the surface of what they perceive; they accept whatever they are told, as long as the one delivering the message is in the appropriate costume, or setting. Put a moderately good looking man in a suit, have him sit at a desk looking studious and concerned, and people will pretty much take whatever he says as gospel, even if it has absolutely no truth in it, or any connection to reality whatsoever….. The public’s reaction to the possibility of global warming resembles the above statement quite a lot. Same with the question of overpopulation, either of which issue will certainly lead to war and misery, as a minimum, or extinction as a species, eventually, as a maximum result….

Whenever I bring this up, though, I am met with a silence that is deafening, and which serves as proof of exactly what I am saying…. This is the kind of message that no one wants, to hear, or to believe is real…. So, they don’t. Or, they just ignore it, thinking it will go away if they look at it again in a few days…. Guess what, ffolkes….. It”s real, it’s not going away, and that is a FACT, not a supposition, or speculation, or misread data, or conspiracy, or anything else…. it’s a fact…. And the only way to change it, is for EVERYONE to decide to turn 180 degrees from the path we are on, even if it means getting rid of those among us who don’t want to go that way… because that way means DEATH…. for all of us, without exception…. Deal with it…..

“I used to be an idealist, but I got mugged by reality.” — Smart Bee
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Okay, no cheating today…. It’s the last day of the National Poetry Writing Month, so I’m going to do my best to come up with a fresh haiku, and a fresh poem…. We’ll see how it goes, eh?….. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here:  http://www.napowrimo.net/    I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku XVIII

More beautiful days,
the weather is amazing.
Soaking up the sun.

Off the proverbial cuff…

I never meant to kill that period of time,
it didn’t give me any choice.
It tried to hem me in without reason, or rhyme,
refused me any vote, or any voice.

You have to admit, I buried it deep and fast,
just as if I cared.
I knew, though, it would never last,
or ever be fully repaired.

No news, no pictures can bring it back,
once is all we get.
No pleas of public good, or even public lack;
in stone the past is set.

Futuristic visions now occupy my dreams,
I’m ready to go on.
Look! It fills up the screen, and it gleams!
Where’s the moment I’m sitting on?

Now, I remembered, at long, long last,
is all we really can hold.
Every moment goes by so bloody fast,
we’d best fill them all with beauty, warm and bold.

~~ gigoid ~~

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Though today’s first section cannot be strictly considered as a rant, it was an indictment, so we’ll count it as one…. That gives me the excuse to go with an old-school pearl. Today we’ll go completely random, with Smart Bee as the only one deciding what should be included…. Let’s see what comes up from the depths today, shall we?…..

“The earth hath skin, and the skin hath diseases.  One of these…is called man.” — Nietzsche

“Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire,–conscience.” — George Washington (1732-1799) — Rule from the Copy-book of Washington when a schoolboy

When asked, “If you find so much that is unworthy of reverence in the United States, then why do you live here?” Mencken replied, “Why do men go to zoos?”

“Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. (Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.)”  — William of Occam, Occam’s Razor

“It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You know, of course, that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.” — W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

“UH-OH!!  We’re out of AUTOMOBILE PARTS and RUBBER GOODS!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Perhaps going TOTALLY random was a mistake; this is pretty inscrutable. So inscrutable, even I am not sure what the point is, other than to point a finger at Man, for….. something…. Maybe the finger should go up the nose, to remove any foreign bodies that may have been inadvertently ingested through the proboscis….. Oh, well, it isn’t bad, so just enjoy them individually, and I’ll leave them off the Quiz….
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Aye, very late indeed…. let’s see how it proofs….. Hmm…. it’s not responding; it may be dead…. Oh well, it’s done, so I’m not going to fuss with it any further…. Besides, I’m hungry….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

We’ll have to spit-ball the hinges…..

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Ffolkes,
We’ve got Trouble, right here in River City, ffolkes….. Don’t worry, I won’t go all Robert Preston on you, and burst into song, or anything like that. I’m merely referring to the empty space here on the page, which, sadly, matches the empty space in my head, the space that SHOULD be composing an intro for today’s Pearl…. Extremely empty space, too…. So empty, I’m sitting here, writing about how empty it is, instead of looking around in the odd corners and niches in there, to find SOMETHING that would work to draw y’all in for the ride today…. but, I’m screwed, and the pooch knows it…. whatever that means….

Forgotten, old and grey, the ancient dogs march along the dusty street, searching for the possibility of food…. Scraggly weeds filled the cracks in the street; abandoned, stripped vehicles litter the sidewalks and alleys, many of them burned out, blackened and stark against the pale concrete of the buildings. Nothing moved, save the slowly searching pack of canines, not even rats, or any of the vermin usually seen in cities. No people walked the empty streets, and the silence bore down on everything in sight, oppressive, adding the weight of time to the heaviness of the air…..

No, I have no idea where that came from…. but it took up the space of a whole paragraph, so it stays…. I suppose apocalyptic scenes such as this one will become common in the future, if what I fear comes to pass….. When the Earth decides it has had enough of the depredations that mankind has perpetrated on this planet, our species will disappear, the same as the T-Rex, the dodo, and the auk, and Mother Nature will spend a few thousand years cleaning off the surface, which we scratched, dented, and broke apart so callously in our paroxysms of destruction, as we looked for sources of fuel for our machines…. and we won’t be missed at all…. Well, the dogs might miss us at first, but, they’ll get over it….

Okay, so now I have to balance the negativism with something lighter, so we don’t fall down into a pit of depression….. Hmm, I know….

“PUNK ROCK!!  DISCO DUCK!!  BIRTH CONTROL!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

There, that should balance things out…. Of course, Zippy has just mentioned three of the reasons that we will no longer be around…. Any species that comes up with Disco, AND Punk Rock, in the same century, deserves to become extinct, in my humble opinion…. But, then, I really, really HATE Disco…. and punks aren’t far behind in my estimation…. But, it did change the direction most satisfactorily, so, we’ll just sort of ignore the passions that may be present, and get on with the rest of today’s Pearl…. Which, I see, is coming right along, as we now have a sufficient number of paragraphs, and certainly a large enough quantity of BS, to qualify as an intro…. I’d better dive right away, before Murphy notices…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Nasrudin returned to his village from the imperial capital, and the villagers gathered around to hear what had passed.  At this time, said Nasrudin, I only want to say that the King spoke to me. All the villagers but the stupidest ran off to spread the wonderful news. The remaining villager asked, What did the King say to you? What he said — and quite distinctly, for everyone to hear — was ‘Get out of my way!’ The simpleton was overjoyed; he had heard words actually spoken by the King, and seen the very man they were spoken to.” — Smart Bee

When I first read this, a long, complex, and wonderful rant took form in my mind, on the subject of the gullibility of the public…. Unfortunately, somewhere in the process of getting this moved over and formatted, the rant broke apart, like smoke from a fire, dissipating into the ether without a sound, and leaving me sitting here, with a wonderful pearl, and nothing in my head to write about it…. “Well, shit,” he said, with feeling…..

Smart Bee, or Murphy, or Nasrudin, whichever is responsible for this, thinks they have me trapped, and are probably sitting there, maybe even together, laughing, and waiting for me to explode…. Hah! They’re destined to be disappointment, I’m afraid, because I’ll just switch gears, and make this an old-school pearl, using the anecdote on Nasrudin to point the way for the rest of the group…. So, here you go, a five-star pearl, the point of which is now moot….

“It is important to do what you don’t know how to do. It is important to see your skills as keeping you from learning what is deepest and most mysterious. If you know how to focus, unfocus. If your tendency is to make sense out of chaos, start chaos.” — Carlos Casteneda

“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” — Oscar Wilde

“A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.” — Nicolas Bolleau-Despreaux

“He who knows best knows how little he knows.” — Thomas Jefferson

“Is it not a noble farce, wherein kings, republics, and emperors have for so many ages played their parts, and to which the whole vast universe serves for a theatre?” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book ii, Chap. xxxvi, Of the most Excellent Men
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Wishes aren’t horses, and neither do I….. which, decoded, simply means I don’t have a new, fresh poem today. I did create a Haiku, which is below…. But, for today’s poem, another treat from the archives is called for, as I just can’t create a poem whenever I wish, much as I’d like to be able to do so…. Nevertheless, I AM making a new haiku each day, so that has to count for something, right?…. Any who….. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here:  http://www.napowrimo.net/    I hope you enjoy them…..

 

Haiku XExplore reality,
my mama said with a smile;
it will teach you truth.

~~ gigoid ~~

Momentary Terror

Absently casual, memories pester endlessly
   leaving only bleeding remnants, amiable and loving.
Coming awake, I cry to still the pain, shamelessly.

Elsewhen, time gives surcease, if only to live,
   shoring broken pilings, worn and gray.
Passing on, I laugh at the pain, accept all it will give.

Time will build a shelter, warm and ever safe
   save for Fate’s busy hands.
Enduring, I follow the pain, knowing it will chafe.

Fixed against a darkened sky of starry black
   such beauty brings us to our knees.
Entranced, I welcome the pain, ’tis all I lack…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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“A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ah, yes, it does indeed….. This is the principle of human nature I exploit when I rant…. Well, I try, anyway…. It seems as if Ralph Waldo had the inclination to rant strike him on occasion, and, competent observer that he was, he examined how it made him feel, and act when he was in ranting mode. When in full flight, ranting makes one feel ten feet tall, able to leap arguments with a single quote, impervious to sarcasm or belittling remarks, and capable of chewing up the toughest pundit and spitting him out, before breakfast….. Whether or not one could actually do so doesn’t matter in the slightest, for it is what we THINK we can do that determines what we CAN do…. Like the dragons of Pern, who could lift any weight when flying, as long as they thought they could….

“Whenever you eliminate the inedible, whatever remains, however unpalatable, must be food.” — Smart Bee

Now, this is a truism; much as it seems like levity, it is quite serious, being a disguised version of a truth uttered by Sherlock Holmes, about Truth, to wit: “As I have previously stated, Watson, when one has eliminated the impossible, what remains, however unlikely, must be the truth.” (God, I hope I quoted it right… I’m lazy, and used the version in my head, rather than googling it to make sure…. but, I’m 100% positive that my paraphrase, if it be such, is completely accurate, in terms of meaning…..) Ranting is an area where this principle is key; it really doesn’t make sense to rant about something that isn’t true, unless the falsity is the actual subject of the rant…. as the following aphorism implies….

“It is a substantial advantage for any philosophy to be based on the truth.” — George Santayana

Of course, this doesn’t mean that being right will make reality conform to how we wish it to be. Much of the world, if not all, is controlled by a group of people who lie, constantly, without shame, completely indifferent to how it affects others, as long as their own needs are met first. But, they only do so because most of the public believes their lies, for the simple reason that it is too hard to believe otherwise. If they begin to see the truth of how they are controlled, they become frightened, often to the point of violence, because they don’t want to know the truth…. unless it comes from a suit on TV…..

“Given a sufficient number of people and an adequate amount of time, you can create insurmountable opposition to the most inconsequential idea.” — Devyver’s law

This is truth, too, sad as it may seem…. The general public will believe just about anything they are told, usually without any sort of critical thought applied to testing its veracity, if it is presented in a manner to which they are accustomed to being told what to do…. If the guy on the six o’clock news says it will rain money, most folks in this country would start looking for a barrel to catch it in, and wonder if it would rain in bills, or in coins… I kid you not…..

This may seem as if I have a poor opinion of the average intelligence of the average American, and in that estimation you would be absolutely correct…. I can say this with complete confidence, as it is a proven fact that the average American’s IQ is below the average for the human race at large….. fact, ffolkes, not supposition…. Of course, I could be lying, but, if so, you can just chalk it up to their bad influence…. If they can use untrue ‘facts’ to prove their assertions, I can, too….

Besides, I can show you almost 50 MILLION pieces of proof of my assertion, without having to look further than the Presidential election last year…. In that election, almost fifty million people voted for Mitt Romney, proof positive that they would believe ANYTHING…. How else could they decide to vote for a man who was PROVEN to have lied during the campaign (independent fact checking organizations showed that he lied just about 50% of the time, or, put more simply, every other time he spoke, he lied...), and indicated, on tape, his complete disdain for over half the people in the country?

It is such an incredibly huge number, it just isn’t possible to understand how gullible people can be, when one sees this statistic, (50 million votes for an asshole….). It is equally hard to believe that so many of our peers are this incredibly dumb, but, truth will out, as it always does….. It also speaks to the number of truly bigoted, racist people that are still in this country, hiding behind their cowardice, and their misguided, ignorant patriotism…. but, that’s a subject for another rant….. (All stupid people aren’t bigots and racists, but ALL bigots and racists are stupid people…..)

“Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.” — Lazarus Long

You won’t get a better, more clear warning than that; on that note, I proclaim this rant, such as it was, to be complete…..
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All in all, not too bad…. No fresh poem yet, but a decent rant, and all the rest if fresh…. Now, let’s see if it hangs together well enough to publish…. Well, we have another vote for ‘all in all, not too bad’….. So, it’s good to go, and we’re gone….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

Tattered remnants of a once proud machine….

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Ffolkes,
Mmmmm…. coffee, good….mmph, grglk, blast, hmph, okay…. Sorry, took a moment for the coffee to kick in…. Let me just say this, and we’re good to go…. Draco! Braz! Mento!  Ah, yes, all fine now…. Having uttered the proper incantation, to prepare the air for such brilliance, and to put up the wards against theft and interruption, we may now proceed to Pearl, if we are able…. We are always willing, but, often, the flesh is weak, so it’s best to “prepare the palette”, as a painter would say…. Not that I paint, no, far from it…. My drawing of a crowd looks like a convention of stick figures, kind of like watching someone count on an abacus; if you look at it for long, it will make you dizzy….

Drawing is one of those skills lacking from my toolbox; for some reason, probably having to do with spatial visualization, I can’t seem to get the hang of putting on paper what I see with my eyes. Most of my drawings resemble something by Dali during his melting clock phase, without the clarity of figures he painted so well…. An artist must know how to draw properly before turning to drawing in the abstract; since my work doesn’t come close to reality, my abstractions are just weird….. It’s okay, though, one cannot expect to be able to do EVERYTHING one wants to do, unless you are Leonardo da Vinci, or someone of his level of genius….

I can paint a picture with words, though, and pretty well, once I turn my mind to it. In fact, these introductory sections have turned out to be one of my favorite places to practice that skill, as I try one style or format after another, in my constant search for an acceptable template for this somewhat unorganized section. Those days when I write the first paragraph or two as a fictional story beginning are my practice sessions, and some of them aren’t half-bad, if I do say so myself…. Now, as I have been chastised to believe by a number of my readers, all I need to do is to continue one of those beginnings to the logical ending of the story, and I could probably get published for real…..

Alas for the world, I don’t wish to do that just now…. I’ve just begun to receive my SS disability benefits, and if I publish a book, whatever I make off its sale would be taken out of those benefits, in the form of a reduction in the money I receive each month. Since I’ve been waiting for this to happen for over two years, I don’t want to fuss with the system, yet…. If and when I can sell a book for a hefty price, of at least a half-million, I will consider publishing; any less of an initial amount wouldn’t cover what I would lose from SS over time, and would be a chancy risk to take at this point in my life…. If I can broker a deal for more than that amount, I’d consider it, as I would then have enough to cover my retirement, and all I wish to do in this period of my life….

So, y’all will have to wait a year or two…. If I can work on putting together more than one book, then publish them one after another, or a multi-book deal, I might be able to get by on what I’d make from it…. But, until I can get at least a half-assed guarantee of making enough to get by, I’ll continue to publish here on WP, for the same reason I’ve been doing it for the last two years, to wit: to maintain my sanity….. Such as it is….. Why, look! We’ve got ourselves five paragraphs here, which is plenty to qualify as an intro, cheating or not…..   On that note, Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Somewhere in suburban Honolulu, an unemployed bellhop is whipping up a batch of illegal psilocybin chop suey!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Fucking brilliant! Bill Griffith, the cartoonist who created Zippy, is an absolutely awesome social critic, and the perpetrator of some of the most obscure nonsense, (that makes perfect sense), that has ever been written, or published….. As is apparent from the frequent appearance of his quotes in this blog, I find him to be incredibly insightful about human nature, a naturally poetic prose writer, weird as hell, and an excellent graphic artist. Zippy’s comments on life and everything he sees in the strange world he inhabits are priceless, for their acute insight, for their gut-busting humor, and are strangely real, despite the unreality of almost everything in the strip…. It’s eerie sometimes, how life will imitate art; I’ll find myself having a deja vu memory of one of Zippy’s lines when I am out in the Big Blue Room, dealing with some business or another, because it matches the unreality of what was in the strip….

At first, I didn’t understand how including this line was to fit into the Pearl, or even into the pearl, but, then I realized…. I am the unemployed bellhop today, and I’m whipping up the distilled mushroom juice, right here on my computer! Look! It’s a whole new type of oyster! (Further research reveals this statement to be false, partly…. I found a couple of old Pearls that experimented with this format, slightly differently, though… so, this is still fairly unique….. end of interrupt….) 

I’ve just had a brainstorm of major proportions; since I had no warning of its advent, I went down on the first big wave, and died a figurative death…. I was hanging in limbo, sort of floating there, while the gods decided just how badly they wanted my ass in a sling, when it came to me…. This is a sign from the gods of blogging, to show me a new species of pearl…. which, having been dumped in my head, I must use, before it rots there, or the gods zap me… So, here is a pearl, in this case, the first of its kind, with five pointed quotes, and a number of comments from yours truly, standing in as Zippy, in disguise, sort of…..

I see the lights of the village
gleam through the rain and the mist.
And a feeling of sadness comes o’er me,
that my soul cannot resist.
A feeling of sadness and longing
that is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
as the mist resembles rain.

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), The Day is done

(I often forget about Longfellow’s poetry, and it is what he is famous for, at least during his own time…. Now, of course he is known as one of the Trinameral Poets, that category which includes himself, Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, John Cougar Mellencamp, James Earl Jones, and so forth…. all good poets for sure, so he is in good company…. but, what is with those names, eh? Bit egotistical, don’t you think?…..)

“Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

(Goethe had a knack for this kind of deep, many leveled insights, pointing out with just a few well chosen words a very complex principle of human nature, or interaction… This one, no matter how one interprets it, is true as the day, and gives an appropriate feeling of emotional content, namely sadness, both for the one lacking in vision, and for the person observing them…..)

“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man except one thing: the last of the human freedoms— to choose one`s own attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Victor Frankl

(Not much to add here; this is pretty clear, and also quite true…. It has been said that true freedom, is the release from pain, which is absolutely congruent with this idea. When one chooses one’s reaction, and makes their own choice of how to feel, they are choosing to let go of their pain, and gaining their freedom, if only in their own mind…. Another way of saying you can’t make a truly free man do anything he refuses to do…. You can kill him, but you can’t make him change his mind, or take away his freedom in that respect…..)

Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time. — John Keats (1795-1821) — Ode on a Grecian Urn

(Just too beautiful a line to leave out…..)

Behold on wrong
Swift vengeance waits; and art subdues the strong!

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book viii, Line 367

(Hmm…. this is a bit depressing, if it means what I think…. Nah, I must be wrong, so, never mind…. Oh, I see now…. Okay, well, I guess so, but, I think I’ll use my stick for that….. Ya think?….)

Well, there you go…. you will probably see this format again, though with different quotes, of course…. And, I think I can even do it this way with a normal pearl, maybe even a Seven Star…..  Wait! I didn’t mean it as a threat! Come back!….. Oh, hell….. Ah well, c’est la vie…. hopefully, they’ll find their way to the exit, or on to section two…. If not, I’ll send out a search party after I’m done here…..

“I always have fun because I’m out of my mind!!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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I’m working on a poem, but it’s only half completed, so this morning will see another haiku, served up freshly composed, and a poem I wrote last October, about Love, sort of…. Hope you like it…..  As every day this month, this is for the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here:  http://www.napowrimo.net/

Haiku V

I can write haiku
quick, at the drop of a pun.
Such wonderful fun.

~~ gigoid ~~

Beyond Agapé

Passion burns, shining like iridescent paint
yet solitude stands mocking such mundane complaint.
Schemes and dreams promise to tempt attraction
never ending effort spends wit in perverse reaction.

Hale and hearty reports of honor and love
draft recruits to collect manna from above,
while searching each soul for that which will serve
to bring pure sensation to each expectant nerve.

How simple to fall into complete helpless hope
of two hearts bound in tradition, with cultural rope,
living a simple life, shared, in joy and in grief
promises consummated, in consensual belief.

Reality dictates our degree of control over its state
insisting on changing whether or not we can wait.
Love will be present when we are completely at peace,
allowing ourselves, to give of ourselves, without cease.

~~ gigoid ~~

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Go boldly forth, my simple lay,
Whose accents flow with artless ease,
Like orient pearls at random strung.

— Sir William Jones (1746-1794) — A Persian Song of Hafiz

I had intended to rant in this section today…. Unfortunately for me, (I won’t presume to say the same for y’all….), my back is killing me today, and I’ve a number of things to accomplish, in preparation for my upcoming trip(s) to Tejas, and to Europa…. which is a roundabout way of saying I’m about to cheat again…. Here is a pearl from 2011…. bonus points if you can figure out the month it was written, from whatever context you may find…. Enjoy! And, good luck, or as we say downtown, buena suerte!….
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Ffolkes,
As I’m sure you’re aware of by now, it takes a really, really weird guy to do this every day, rain or shine, clothed or not, and that the process of putting these ideas down and sharing them is one that brings me not just pleasure, but pain as well. (Like anything worthwhile in Life, I suppose). I’m writing for a blog site, and wrote a piece yesterday that took me back, in first person with full audio memory, to a time of my life I’d just as soon forget most days. But it helped ease the pain somewhat, and reminded me that I don’t write for recognition, or praise, I write because I must! Not writing is……unthinkable. I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t write; I think it would act much like my bowel disease, causing alternate bouts of mental diarrhea and constipation, with the accompanying pain and discomfort. Since I don’t enjoy that, particularly, I choose to write….. lucky you……

“A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew.” — Herb Caen

A good pun is its own reword.

“Cato requested old men not to add the disgrace of wickedness to old age, which was accompanied with many other evils.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Roman Apophthegms, Cato the Elder

“Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it.” — G. K. Chesterton, Autobiography, 1937

“It’s said that ‘power corrupts’, but actually it’s  more true  that power attracts the corruptible.  The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.  When  they do  act,  they  think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is  insatiable, implacable.”  — David Brin, The Postman

“People who don’t Think probably don’t have Brains; rather, they have grey fluff that’s blown into their heads by mistake.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne
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“Well, Stanley, this is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into…. What do you have to say for yourself?”  More bonus points are available to anyone who can give me the first name of the person who said those lines, frequently….

Okay, so, I’ve read back over what we have here, and I think….. Well, quite frankly, I don’t know what to think…. I’m going to leave it alone, and let it fly, as is, trusting to luck and my lawyers to keep it from becoming legally actionable…. In the meantime….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

A smattering of simple sugars…..

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1

Ffolkes,
In the grand scheme of things, I would normally begin this with some unadulterated nonsense, or perhaps a purely fictional story opening. Occasionally, I will speak of how Murphy’s latest japes have enhanced my morning, or of how I’m feeling emotionally, or physically, as those two states occupy a lot of my attention these days. Today we are trying something relatively new, which I will call pure honesty, and I hope to hell it works….

I can’t seem to find an opening format for these introductory comments that is suitable for daily use. It has to be funny, and/or compelling enough to draw attention, but not so heavy as to frighten away those who like lighter reading. (They are the ones who are NOT usually in the choir, and need to hear my messages the most….) It should tease a little about what is coming up later, but not give away any of the suspense I am trying to build in some cases. In short, it is driving me crazy, and that has been reflected in these paragraphs almost every day, with yesterday’s being the exception. That one was a short excuse, telling why I was cheating by using archived material, and was completely atypical.

But, nothing I’ve ever tried has fit the bill sufficiently to make me use it again, other than to try to remember what has worked in the past…. which brings me back to yesterday’s post, from here in Oregon where I’ve been visiting for a couple of days now…. That post had perhaps the shortest intro in a couple of years, and my statistics from yesterday were highest I’ve ever seen here… 21 Likes in the first 24 hours, an unprecedented number, and once again, over a dozen of them were ffolkes who hadn’t been here before, to my knowledge. I am jazzed about that, even thought I don’t write for statistics, per se; I write for my own sanity and pleasure. But, it’s nice to know other ffolkes are enjoying what I write as well, so I’m pleased with the turnout yesterday….

In hopes of keeping those numbers up, today’s intro will again be relatively short, as this will be it…. I’m done with it, and want to get on to the end, so I can go play with my friends in the Big Blue Room…. a visit to taste beer is on tap for later, which will be great, as they’ve got some prize winners on hand for tasting… should be good…. Any who, I don’t know how this will turn out yet, so let’s go see what happens…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“I’m in direct contact with many advanced fun CONCEPTS.” — Zippy the Pinhead

There is no doubt in my mind that this is true and complete, to the best of Zippy’s knowledge, which is extensive and quite varied in nature. However, for our purposes, we will ignore all that, and go right to what matters…. which is rutabagas….. You never see anybody making any dishes out of rutabagas any more; I’m not sure it’s available for sale anywhere… Of course, it’s no big loss, as they were just about the most tasteless, useless foods I’ve ever encountered…. Hmm… I seem to have written meself into a corner, with no way out… Too bad, really, I like the Zippy quote….

Well, that sinks it…. I’m don’t have it this morning, so, I will once again need to dip into the past for an acceptable pearl or two…. I’ll be right back with one for this section….. Okay, here’s a good one, from late in 2011….
———-

“To get people to think they are thinking begets friendship, whereas actually to make people think begets resentment. There is no level so low to which people will not stoop, even honorable people, to avoid the difficulty of thinking.” — Smart Bee

So true, so true…..it fascinates me at times, this reluctance on the part of most folks to using the one and only evolutionary advantage they possess over other creatures. Compared to other animals, we’re not particularly fast, nor very strong, and our teeth and nails are not very good weapons compared to those of a leopard, for just one example. We need to wear clothing to protect ourselves from our own planet’s weather extremes. We rely on other species for our sustenance, being unable to create it ourselves. And, in the final analysis, we’re pretty fragile, physically speaking; even a soft blow administered to the correct point can cause death.

Hell, our bodies have more than one design flaw; how about how our food and air processing facilities? They cross each other at a critical junction, at the throat, and can frequently cause problems that can have mortal consequences. Our elimination process and sexual organs also cross paths, in a manner of speaking; the outlet for the former is right next to the points of ingress and egress of the latter, depending on gender. From a strictly engineering viewpoint, it’s not a very good design.

It’s clear that there is little chance of humans ever dominating on the basis of physical characteristics; most animals are much better equipped for that. Our mind, our imagination, our perception of more than merely physical energy in the universe, these are our advantages over other creatures. We have the ability to remember the past in the present, and use those memories to extrapolate the future. This is an incredible evolutionary leap, one that allows humans to readily turn their perceptions of how things work into tools that enable us to alter reality to suit our wishes. We can’t really fight our way out of a paper bag, and our defenses against predators is weak in comparison to other animals. But the power of our minds is sufficient to neutralize all physical and environmental advantages of the other inhabitants, and gives mankind the means to not merely survive, but to thrive and dominate.

So, the question remains: why are so many people so averse to using their minds? Well, I don’t know, for sure. I could make some guesses, and they might even be accurate. But it really doesn’t matter, because the only creature who can cause us to change ourselves, is ourselves. Nobody can make us do anything we don’t want to do. Most folks learn the power of the word “No” at a young age (age 2 is customary for most folks), and get so impressed with it that it becomes their default position for anything that appears ‘difficult’. Sad, but true…..and wishing won’t make it go away. I can only wish I were smart enough to figure out how to get folks to see the light, before its too late, and the bulb burns out for good…..
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I’ve looked deep inside, and I can’t find a poem in there today, but I have this poetry challenge to meet, so, once more, I’ll dip into my older material for one…. Here is one of my favorites….. And the link to the home page of the National Poetry Month Challenge is  http://www.napowrimo.net/

After the odyssey….

Portraits of iconic symbols, crashing, singing, forgotten;
evolving into mature innovation, as yet pale, and rotten.
Still water justly breeds, impenetrable primal verses resound;
unholy moments tarry, emotion swirls in passion unbound

Spiritual ovulation precedes each pregnant pause;
gravid, time moves on, following destiny’s cause.
Cast adrift on waves of confusion, to a final, damp landing;
salvation beckons sweetly, fed well on understanding.

Dreams directly fall, in night’s grey bower, unbidden;
lingering flavors in simple taste, lovingly, cleverly hidden.
Childish laughter sounds, joyful, bright, and clear;
no need ever to hide, no more monsters to fear.

Temper most foul arrives under unregistered mail;
forgotten taunts live on, lashed by an ancient flail.
Plain dealing delivers such lasting specks of honest hate;
savage in retrospect, never hasty, always running late.

Forever, cries an ambient lover of the pending night;
his pale, weak issue forms its own failing light.
Still, fortune favors such as those who apprehend;
Sweet love of Gaia, let it never end.

~~ gigoid

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Well, it seems clear that my fresh material isn’t up to snuff today…. it seems so to me, anyway, and I’m the one who has to stomach it first….. Which means I’m going into the past yet again, but with fresh material…. This will be a random chosen old-school Pearl, the best I can do on short notice…… The point may or may not be apparent, but, what else is new?….

“If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave…” — Ernest Hemingway, “A Farewell to Arms”

“When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.” — William Arthur Ward

“In a mad world, only the mad are sane.” — Akiro Kurosawa

“A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Man’s many desires are like the small metal coins he carries about in his pocket. The more he has the more they weigh him down.” — Satya Sai Baba

“Whoever has even once become notorious by base fraud, even if he speaks the truth, gains no belief.” — Phaedrus (c. 8 A.D.) — Book i, Fable 10, 1

I feel like one
Who treads alone
Some banquet-hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled,
Whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed.

— Thomas Moore (1779-1852) — Oft in the Stilly Night

“And thereby hangs a tale.” — Francis Rabelais (1495-1553) — Works, Book v, Chap. iv
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Aye, thereby indeed hangs a tale…. and a fluffy tale at that….  😆   I’ve done all the damage I can do, so I’m outta here….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Further than ever toward the native state…..

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2

Ffolkes,
Okay, so writing on a train isn’t practical…. at least not in one of the little roomettes they give you as a sleeper for a single passenger. The little table provided just isn’t cut out for working on, as it is cocked off to the side of the room. So, I’m sitting here trying to type in a very weird, uncomfortable position, which will kill my back  before too long. Oh, the sacrifices one must suffer for one’s Art!…… Or even, for Bill, or Harry…. Sorry, couldn’t resist….. Since I’m stuck writing in these primitive conditions I let myself get away there….. it won’t happen again….

In fact, this is so difficult, I’m going to cheat, full time, for the first time ever…. All three sections today will be filled with old material, written for earlier Pearls, and you’ll just have to lump it, if’n you don’t like it…. Even the second section, with a poem for this month’s challenge, are from past Pearls…. so deal with it…. I’m having to….

Not only am I cheating to the extent of pulling from old stuff, but, this intro section is going to end up shorter than usual, as well…. Not that that is a bad thing, mind you….. Given the normal state of affairs here in the morning in the intro section, this one is downright upright. In fact, it’s so together, I’m going to leave it as is, and get on with the rest of today’s effort….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Here is a most excellent Pearl, from January of this year….. some of you may recognize it, as it wasn’t too long ago, but, I like it, and it’s a good one, so I feel justified…. Enjoy!…..

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

One may always trust Oscar Wilde to be both elegantly witty and intelligently insightful, though, to be sure, many of his most closely held views were somewhat divergent with what was commonly held to be true, philosophically. This divergence was, I believe, mostly deliberate on his part, as he tended to mock that which he did not respect, and he never had much respect for…. well, anything to do with human nature vs. reason and rationality. He mistrusted most people to act morally, and was unafraid of saying so; this, of course, made him both famous, and infamous….. His infamy, I’m sure, ultimately was his undoing, much to society’s loss; as is said so often about our brightest minds, “only the good die young….”

I often wonder, (well, maybe not so often, as much as I’m wondering now…) what the world today would be like, if somehow, some of those bright stars in history had lived to an age where their accomplishments, in relation to the advancement of human thought, and the betterment of the human condition, had a broader, and more lasting effect than their absence has left us. What if Keats had written poetry until he was 85? How many more inventions would have come to us from Nicolas Tesla, had he lived long enough for the rest of the scientific world to catch up to him, instead of hounding him to an early grave? How much more good music, and art, and literature would be available to all of us, if not for this tendency for the best of us to live as a burning meteor, flaming brightly through the sky, until burned out and lifeless?

It is a sad commentary for society to know that it is often the very brilliance of these people that brings about their downfall, at the hands of the ignorant, and the avaricious…. What is even sadder, to me, is that this demonstrates another part of human nature that is responsible for almost every issue in human history, and current society, that causes people to suffer pain, oppression, perpetual struggle, and will most certainly ultimately   lead to the extinction of our species, on this planet, at minimum, if not completely…..

That piece of our nature is the unfortunate characteristic, in a number of humans, to be able to put aside all conscience, and act solely in their own self interest. All of us, of course, possess this to some degree; it is an outgrowth of having a will to survive. To these few others, it is their primary modus operandi; they simply do not take other people, or their concerns, into account when deciding what they are going to do, and are not hampered by the consideration of any suffering they may cause other people, animals, or things.

As is patently obvious, to my mind, every elected official, every high level preacher, every corporate magnate, and a great many lawyers, are all of this ilk, and have, for nearly 230 years now, been quietly and efficiently plundering the pockets and rights of the American people (and those of every other country in the world, for that matter…. it is a HUMAN condition, not just American…. Ours are just some of the most obvious about it….), while simultaneously lying, cheating, and otherwise acting to secure their stranglehold on society.

Anyone who disagrees with this assessment, quite simply, isn’t paying enough attention to the world around them….. Sorry to be so blunt, but the facts are all laid out, right there, almost every day in the news media, if one knows how to look at the larger picture it presents, rather than the individual facets of that picture. Focusing on the little shit is just what those in power wish for people to do…. it keeps them busy not noticing other, more incriminating stuff they are carrying out, in the darkness where they mostly live….

“… change depends on individual acts of courage and commitment. Most such acts are private, invisible, and uncelebrated. But some find a place in the public spotlight; and their influence goes far beyond mere example.” — Arthur C. Clarke & Michael Kube-McDowell,  The Trigger, 1999

Each and every one of us, in the face of what we know about reality, is responsible in some way, and to some degree, for both the way things are, and the way they will be in the future. If you don’t believe that, well, discussion is, for you, probably useless, and little hope remains. For anyone with moderate insight, however, this is plain, clear truth, and we all need to accept it before any significant progress can be expected against those who are sociopathic, which I define, and hereby name, as homo suicidus, those who would kill us all…. But, it is imperative that we act soon, for the damage we have done, and continue to do to our world, is at a point where the effects are nearly irreversible, and even if we manage to wrest control from the beloved ruling class,it may be too late to save our lives….

“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

It is my hope, small and pale though it be, that we WILL speak up, that the rational among us will rise up, and take back the control of our destiny from the hands of those who would see us all die, rather than give up their own control. It will only happen when men of courage, as defined by Mr. Emerson, stand up to those who would render us all impotent, for their own benefit. The only hope that exists for the rest of us lies in enough of us showing this kind of courage, and overcoming the fear that keeps us in thrall…..

“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Areopagitica

Myself, I don’t want to die ignominiously, gasping for breath, because I didn’t have the courage to speak up, and to fight back against the immoral, avaricious assholes who dominate society….. Instead, let’s create a whole new world, without a beloved ruling class, at all….. Who knows? We might just find out that anarchy works!….. Worth a try, I think….. And, if it doesn’t work, well, we can always try a technocracy, which we have yet to do in history….. With a bit of foresight and planning, it might just be what we need to survive our own foolishness… Maybe, Richard Brautigan had the truest prophetic vision, when he wrote “All watched over, by machines of loving grace….”

“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.” — Pablo Picasso

History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.

— Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning”

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    I forgot yesterday to post a link to the NaPoWriMo site, so here it is today, where it will be every day this month, or as long as my poetic urges hang tough…. Any who, you can see all the entries here:   http://www.napowrimo.net/

A year has gone by
draped in melancholy tears
A mere stitch in time

~~ gigoid

So, I wrote this haiku on the one year anniversary of this blog, in August of 2012…. The poem is also from last year, in August, and it has an odd provenance, to wit:

”    Yesterday afternoon, (which would have been 8/15/12) I sat down with the urge to write. A number of fleeting images chased each other around in my head, vying for who would be first to fly…. after some negotiations, I wrote what appeared to be a paragraph of prose in an abstract style, re-read it, scratched my head, and left it alone for the night….. This morning, when I sat down to start today’s Pearl, the paragraph was still there…. but it had changed somehow in the night…. I don’t know if it is my mind that changed, or the paragraph, but all of a sudden, it wasn’t a paragraph….. a few strokes, a couple of format and structural changes, and voilá, it’s a poem!  Completely finished, too, needing nothing more from me…. I’ll call it…. ”

Serendipity Morning

My mind wants to fly,
my soul wants to hold close, the source,
strong, the moments of time;
each as precious as golden thread,
binding together such elements of longing desire.

Love hovers, always patient,
seeking the open heart,
reaching for the promise of tomorrow…..
only for one, only for now, only what is real….
Dreaming, the morning calls,
heavy with mordant belief,
replete, and eternally alive…..

~~ gigoid ~~
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I am a wordy son of a gun, when I get rolling…. Here is another old pearl, excerpted from a Pearl posted in 2012, and though a bit long, as is often the case, it has the advantage of being at least mildly amusing going for it….. Enjoy!…..

“Comedy = Tragedy + Distance” — Lenny Bruce

“Comedy is tragedy plus time.” — Carol Burnett

I’m sensing a theme here…. both of these people are known comedians (I know, kind of like known criminals, but legal….), yet both have deduced a common principle of humor…. It would be interesting to know the timing of these statements, if only to see who was plagiarizing whom. Regardless of which of them was the more dishonest, both were right, and both saw clearly how pain is directly tied to humor….. I’ve heard it said that we laugh because, if we didn’t, we would cry…… and I think everyone alive can identify with that…..

“Blessed is he who has learned to laugh at himself, for he shall never cease to be entertained.” — John Powell

I’m either lucky, or smart, and since I know for a fact that the only luck I’ve ever seen is of the bad variety, I’m counting on smart….. I’ve known this for many years; in fact, I distinctly remember a moment when I was about 4 or 5 when something happened to drive the point home to me, and I stood there laughing at myself, distinctly enjoying my own silliness, and realizing that I would always be able to do so….. It was also a revelation about humor in general, because it allowed me to identify with other people, and what they found to be funny, thus enlarging my world by several degrees…. and opening up vast new worlds of humor….

I once read a book that proposed the theory that the feelings we get in life that are of value to us are not merely pleasant to feel, but are actually good for the body and system, to the extent that experiencing those valuable feelings would stop, and in some cases, reverse the aging process. In other words, laughter doesn’t just make you feel younger, but actually makes you younger by its effect on your overall well-being. Whether or not this is true, it feels true, and I’d like to think it so…. it would be very heartening to know that the more I laugh and enjoy life, the longer it will go on…. talk about a win-win situation! Even if it is not absolutely true, having “value experiences” seems like it can only be good for us; there doesn’t seem to be a down-side to this idea…..

“One of the things older folks like to give is advice, as a form of  consolation for not being able to give bad example.” — Smart Bee

And if nothing else, it sure makes it a good thing to enjoy life to its fullest, so how can you lose? Nobody knows us like ourselves, so it should be pretty easy to come up with something about ourselves, and our often comical dealings with reality, to laugh at regularly, thereby giving ourselves a few more years to enjoy living…. And, if it is a just a bunch of backwash, well, at least you got a good laugh out of it…. that can’t be all bad…..

A guy calls 911: “My buddy and I are hunting, and he accidentally shot himself! I think he’s dead…. what should I do?” The operator, true to their training, says to him, “First, make sure he’s actually dead.” There is a moment of silence, then a gunshot is heard…. The guy comes back on the line to say, “Okay, now what?”…..

See, now isn’t that better?…..
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It may look from the outside as if this Pearl is much like any other, but that is misleading. I’m sitting here, fighting nausea from some rather curvy, up and down just like a big boat on the ocean movements by the train…. I can’t recall this ever happening before, so maybe it’s a new gift of the aging process… Oh, joy….

Good thing I’m done, or nearly so…. Once I’m done putting this together, I’ll go explore the train, to find a spot in the Parlor Car, where the Wi-fi spot is located, so I can post this in a little while…. This train stuff isn’t as easy as I remember it; I think I’ll fly from now on…. Oh, quit your bellyachin’ Ned…. I think I’ve done all I can do here, so…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Such scintillating sartorial services seem simply swell….

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9

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rejection

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

dozer3

Soon, my child, this will all be toast….

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Ffolkes,
I hardly know where to begin…. It isn’t every day one rejoins the mainstream, after struggling for about six months to keep posting, busting buns to keep in touch with the Internet world at large, and the blogging world in particular. Not enough time to do either one to my satisfaction, given an average of about 55 minutes of time to get done what is necessary to post, check email, answer email, do any research, banking, etc. Today, provided Murphy doesn’t, or hasn’t stepped in to take a hand, I’ll be connected to the Net at home, by 8 PM latest, again, given no technical glitches are thrown up last minute.

I really am speechless, almost. I don’t know whether to spit, grin, or scratch first, and since it is still, at the time of this writing, speculative fiction, I’ll just leave it alone, and let it all hang loose in that respect…. there will be plenty of options, so I’ll procrastinate later about it….. For now, it will be useful to point out… I didn’t post yesterday, the 10th, because I was too busy with real world activities that couldn’t be put off (more later on that stuff….), and today, same thing again. But, one of the productive things that got done today was the arrival and set up of the new modem, so that all will be in readiness tomorrow when the service is activated…..

What this all boils down to is that the intro, at least these first three paragraphs, are, were, written on the 11th…. after this paragraph is the intro from the 10th, with the material I wrote that day after that….. All of it is being posted either very late on the 11th, or on the 12th early, whenever I can get it done after activation. So, some of it is a bit fresher than the rest, but it is all part of a tough week, and you know what they say about authors and tough weeks… No? I thought you did…. Well, I don’t…. Any who…. onward, or in this case, backward…..

From 1/10/12

Ffolkes,
Far from being inflexible, I like to think I am pretty fluid in my attitudes about change. Any other approach to the matter is useless, as change is going to happen regardless of our take on it, so I’ve always tried to use that to my advantage, rather than spending a lot of time and energy trying to slow it down, or stop it altogether, a pastime certain to be filled with disappointment. This is why we are trying out a new technique today, or, rather, a new schedule for writing this blog when matters in the Big Blue Room require attention during the time set aside for pearling…..

I don’t know if it will work well, or not at all, so it should be a new experience, if nothing else, to find out. I can’t say I’m really enthused about having to go out into the BB Room so early, (gotta catch the 0700 bus, the first one that runs each morn….), as the weather has been nasty, cold, and wet all night, by the sounds of it, and I am feeling wimpy. But, one must do what one must, so I’ll bundle up and trundle off to the hospital to get these x-rays done for the state, so they can quit stalling around with my disability case. I swear, they’re finding every possible way they can to slow the process down, and wait until the last moment to spring them on me, for the most frustrating effect….. Apparently, Murphy works for them as a consultant on time management….

Now that the experiment has begun, I guess we’ll see how well I can write under deadline, which is sort of what I’ve done today, adjusting the schedule to accommodate this trip to Sutter-Solano this morning, and a trip to Kaiser this afternoon…. Hopefully, a trip to the library to post will fit in there between them…. that’s the plan, anyway. Plans, as we know around here, are for other people to depend on, not us…. Here at gigoid-ECR we know better than to tempt Murphy by making them, or, if we do, we don’t tend to get too worked up about having to alter them to suit reality, since we know already we will be suffering the kind attention of that particular icon, no matter what else may happen….

So, I would suggest that today, everyone take advantage of the seat belts that are attached to your seats…. Though we have never had to use them, it’s always a good thing to be prepared, right? Today’s blog could conceivably turn on us, and could conceivably necessitate some rather circuitous flying to get us past any turbulence, which may upset one’s tummy, if nothing else. Just close your eyes….. wait, no, that won’t work…. you can’t read your way out if you do that…. Well, just buckle up, hang on, and hope for the best, I suppose…. all you can do is all you can do, as you know…. Shall we Pearl?…..

P.S. to the intro: I’m rather confusing at times, I know…. it’s a gift. I don’t mean to be, actually, but, in trying to make things clear, I get carried away by details, and, it goes downhill from there…. At this particular point in time, I have no idea where this Pearl fits into real time…. I don’t know when it will be posted, the 11th, or the 12th, so any further attempts to provide any time markers seems futile. Thankfully for all of us, this means there is nothing left now but to go on…. this time it’s for real, no matter what day it is outside…. Shall we Pearl?……
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I don’t think anyone would argue if I said the world needs some work, in order to be the kind of place where everyone has an equal shot at a good life. On the bottom line, that seems to me to be the basic desire of everyone I know of who has any degree of what I’d call common sense, and it really doesn’t seem like a lot to hope for…. until one looks around at the way things are, and realizes that most folks aren’t going to have a chance in hell of spending a lot of time in a contented state….. That is, I’m certain, as confusing as I can put it, but, nonetheless, is perfectly accurate, if a bit pedantic…. The following old school pearl kind of created itself, as the best do, so you’ll need to keep an open mind to catch the point…. but, it’s a good point….

“Brains first and then Hard Work.” — Eeyore, Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

“Boys become men by watching men, by standing close to men. Manhood is a ritual passed from generation to generation with precious few spoken instructions. Passing the torch of manhood is a fragile, tedious task. If the rite of passage is successfully completed, the boy-become-man is like an oak of hardwood character. His shade and influence will bless all those who are fortunate enough to lean on him and rest under his canopy.” — Preston Gilham

“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“At least I thought I was dancing, ’til somebody stepped on my hand.” — J. B. White

“Let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

“I gained nothing at all from Supreme Enlightenment, and for that very reason it is called Supreme Enlightenment.” — Gautama Buddha

There you go…. Not to worry about grading; this is only on the pass/fail schedule, and won’t be on any quizzes…. But, you should pay attention, anyway, if for no other reason than is given by the Buddha….
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Is It Alive?

Fighting into the light, words push hard to exist
each step closer to real brings another unique twist.
Shedding meaning for meaning, until bright, alone, and right
sculpting useless shapes, yet undefined, in pale morning’s light.

Never knowing the face is part of the lasting charm
bringing elegant focus, before sounding the alarm.
Advantageous time sends out messages, fears finding voice,
mulling options for flexibility, virtually without choice.

Fortunate man, who embraces the power of change;
’tis magical knowledge, bonding common to strange.
Weaving words of wonder, made strong by love and duty,
into a tapestry of life, and everlasting beauty.

~~ gigoid
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“Pluralitas non ponenda est sine necessitate.” (Multiplicity is not to be asserted when it is unnecessary.) — William of Occam [Occam’s Razor]

Sometimes it’s a good thing to look at the original idea, when one is often found to use it in its various historical incarnations. (Huh? What did he say? I’ve gotta tone down the syntax complexity a bit…..) We all use some form of this in our lives; the concept has been common knowledge for many, many years. (William of Occam lived in the 12th century (?)…..) It’s really too bad that in all that time, the idea has never taken root in the general population’s mind, such as it may be. People don’t commonly use this priceless logical rule in their daily lives, and never know they have the opportunity to go through life with much less difficulty than they do in fact…..

The absence of the Razor in the everyday affairs of society is never more heavily felt than in the political arena, as year after year, and century after century, mankind continues to blunder around like a wounded rhinoceros, experimenting with various forms of government designed to keep the people happy and content to NOT kill the ruling class, (and vice versa…), and failing miserably. I can’t think of a single period from our relatively short but busy past that would indicate that we were choosing the most logical or effective forms of getting along as a culture, can you? Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems to me that if even a small amount of logic were applied to any of our governmental formats, they might just work better…. Maybe not, but, since it’s never actually been tried, why not?….

“It is difficult to legislate morality in the absence of moral legislators.” — Smart Bee

This, being absolutely true, shows just how using Occam’s Razor could be of value. The Razor implies that if legislators are not moral, then remove them, with prejudice if necessary (Razors are, after all, for cutting things off, or out, whichever works best….). Allowing them to pursue their immorality in creating laws has already cost our society many steps toward improving the human condition, and there is no room for sentimentality in such instances, not when it affects the entire world, which includes us, and every other living thing. The inanimate world doesn’t need our help at all, protected as it is by natural law from any such attempts by us to make changes to those laws. It has its own way of enforcing those laws, strong enough that compliance on our part is mandatory…..

One of the more useful characteristics of Occam’s Razor is that it can tell us when we are losing our way, so to speak. If we eliminate all the dross, and what is left isn’t working, then we are, culturally speaking, ‘in the weeds’ philosophically, and the ground is bound to get even muddier. I have, unfortunately, reached that point in this discussion…. In other words, I’m lost. When I started it, I had an idea of where to go, and started to go that way… it wandered a bit, then I got interrupted by my morning jaunt to the X-ray department. Now that I’m back, and a poem forced its way onto the screen, I’m lost, and can’t find a way back…. SIGH…. One of the risks of multi-tasking, I guess….


Oh well, just think about Occam’s Razor now and again ffolkes, and see if we can’t figure out how to put it to more use on a societal level…. it couldn’t hurt, right? No worse than what has been going on so far…..

“Th’ MIND is the Pizza Palace of th’ SOUL” — Zippy the Pinhead
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Okay, it will do…. It hasn’t been the most comfortable of Pearls to create, but it seldom is when a poem is involved. Add in the other extras today, and it goes off scale. So be it. I don’t have the time or energy to worry about it now, not if I’m going to get done all I need to do today. I hereby declare this Pearl to be finished…. Gotta go, so….   Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

It’s almost as if I really existed!…..

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Ffolkes,

It is official. I’ve gone and gotten old, beyond all shadow of a doubt. My mind, and my attitudes, still would like me to believe I am 25 years old, even though I don’t think I’d enjoy being that young again, from an experiential standpoint. Besides, my body KNOWS it isn’t 25 any more, and will let me know post haste, if I am incautious. Trying to move as if I still were in my physical prime can have disastrous results, and I don’t remember being anywhere near as skeptical as I am now, about most things. That point, about my physical degradation over time, was driven home to me yesterday, on my trip down the hill to post the Pearl….

All went okay, until I began the walk home, uphill for three full city blocks. By the end of the first block, my hips and back had stiffened up enough to let me know they didn’t appreciate my efforts, and were threatening to put me into complete muscle spasm all over my back, if I didn’t quit bothering them…. Since I still had two blocks to go, I had to adjust my gait to that of the old toddlers you see waddling around in convalescent homes, using a cane or walker to transverse the 20 feet to the next room at the blazing speed of 20 feet per 4 minutes, taking four-inch steps, one at a time, with a pause between each one, to make sure all is balanced. It took me, literally, 18 minutes to walk the final two blocks, and I felt as if I’d been running a marathon….

So, I’m convinced…. I’m not 25 anymore, and never will be again. It’s a pain, but there it is, all shiny, highly resistant to being ignored, so what are ya gonna do? Fighting against it, quite simply, hurts, and I have no intention of adding any pain to my already overfull account….. So, I’m old…… I admit it…..

Since I am, I suppose I’d best just get over it, and deal…. Rather than fall immediately into a whine, or even a rant about it, I’ll just act my age, and say, “Bring it on, universe!”….. Well, no, that wouldn’t be quite age-appropriate, would it? I’ll just quietly accept the news, sigh a bit, and toddle off to take a nap…. Well, I would, but I just got up, so, that will have to wait until later….. Since all the other alternatives are out of order, so to speak, I guess I’ll just forget the whole business, and get back to what I’m supposed to be doing this time of day…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.” — Oscar Wilde

One may always trust Oscar Wilde to be both elegantly witty and intelligently insightful, though, to be sure, many of his most closely held views were somewhat divergent with what was commonly held to be true, philosophically. This divergence was, I believe, mostly deliberate on his part, as he tended to mock that which he did not respect, and he never had much respect for…. well, anything to do with human nature vs. reason and rationality. He mistrusted most people to act morally, and was unafraid of saying so; this, of course, made him both famous, and infamous….. His infamy, I’m sure, ultimately was his undoing, much to society’s loss; as is said so often about our brightest minds, “only the good die young….”

I often wonder, (well, maybe not so often, as much as I’m wondering now…) what the world today would be like, if somehow, some of those bright stars in history had lived to an age where their accomplishments, in relation to the advancement of human thought, and the betterment of the human condition, had a broader, and more lasting effect than their absence has left us. What if Keats had written poetry until he was 85? How many more inventions would have come to us from Nicolas Tesla, had he lived long enough for the rest of the scientific world to catch up to him, instead of hounding him to an early grave? How much more good music, and art, and literature would be available to all of us, if not for this tendency for the best of us to live as a burning meteor, flaming brightly through the sky, until burned out and lifeless?

It is a sad commentary for society to know that it is often the very brilliance of these people that brings about their downfall, at the hands of the ignorant, and the avaricious…. What is even sadder, to me, is that this demonstrates another part of human nature that is responsible for almost every issue in human history, and current society, that causes people to suffer pain, oppression, perpetual struggle, and will most certainly ultimately   lead to the extinction of our species, on this planet, at minimum, if not completely…..

That piece of our nature is the unfortunate characteristic, in a number of humans, to be able to put aside all conscience, and act solely in their own self interest. All of us, of course, possess this to some degree; it is an outgrowth of having a will to survive. To these few others, it is their primary modus operandi; they simply do not take other people, or their concerns, into account when deciding what they are going to do, and are not hampered by the consideration of any suffering they may cause other people, animals, or things.

As is patently obvious, to my mind, every elected official, every high level preacher, every corporate magnate, and a great many lawyers, are all of this ilk, and have, for nearly 230 years now, been quietly and efficiently plundering the pockets and rights of the American people (and those of every other country in the world, for that matter…. it is a HUMAN condition, not just American…. Ours are just some of the most obvious about it….), while simultaneously lying, cheating, and otherwise acting to secure their stranglehold on society.

Anyone who disagrees with this assessment, quite simply, isn’t paying enough attention to the world around them….. Sorry to be so blunt, but the facts are all laid out, right there, almost every day in the news media, if one knows how to look at the larger picture it presents, rather than the individual facets of that picture. Focusing on the little shit is just what those in power wish for people to do…. it keeps them busy not noticing other, more incriminating stuff they are carrying out, in the darkness where they mostly live….

“… change depends on individual acts of courage and commitment. Most such acts are private, invisible, and uncelebrated. But some find a place in the public spotlight; and their influence goes far beyond mere example.” — Arthur C. Clarke & Michael Kube-McDowell,  The Trigger, 1999

Each and every one of us, in the face of what we know about reality, is responsible in some way, and to some degree, for both the way things are, and the way they will be in the future. If you don’t believe that, well, discussion is, for you, probably useless, and little hope remains. For anyone with moderate insight, however, this is plain, clear truth, and we all need to accept it before any significant progress can be expected against those who are sociopathic, which I define, and hereby name, as homo suicidus, those who would kill us all…. But, it is imperative that we act soon, for the damage we have done, and continue to do to our world, is at a point where the effects are nearly irreversible, and even if we manage to wrest control from the beloved ruling class,it may be too late to save our lives….

“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

It is my hope, small and pale though it be, that we WILL speak up, that the rational among us will rise up, and take back the control of our destiny from the hands of those who would see us all die, rather than give up their own control. It will only happen when men of courage, as defined by Mr. Emerson, stand up to those who would render us all impotent, for their own benefit. The only hope that exists for the rest of us lies in enough of us showing this kind of courage, and overcoming the fear that keeps us in thrall…..

“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Areopagitica

Myself, I don’t want to die ignominiously, gasping for breath, because I didn’t have the courage to speak up, and to fight back against the immoral, avaricious assholes who dominate society….. Instead, let’s create a whole new world, without a beloved ruling class, at all….. Who knows? We might just find out that anarchy works!….. Worth a try, I think….. And, if it doesn’t work, well, we can always try a technocracy, which we have yet to do in history….. With a bit of foresight and planning, it might just be what we need to survive our own foolishness… Maybe, Richard Brautigan had the truest prophetic vision, when he wrote “All watched over, by machines of loving grace….”

“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.” — Pablo Picasso

History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.

— Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning”
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Between what I see and what I say
Between what I say and what I keep silent
Between what I keep silent and what I dream
Between what I dream and what I forget:
Poetry.
— Octavio Paz (1914-1998)

No More Clichés

Beautiful face
That like a daisy opens its petals to the sun
So do you
Open your face to me as I turn the page.

Enchanting smile
Any man would be under your spell,
Oh, beauty of a magazine.

How many poems have been written to you?
How many Dantes have written to you, Beatrice?
To your obsessive illusion
To you manufacture fantasy.

But today I won’t make one more Cliché
And write this poem to you.
No, no more clichés.

This poem is dedicated to those women
Whose beauty is in their charm,
In their intelligence,
In their character,
Not on their fabricated looks.

This poem is to you women,
That like a Shahrazade wake up
Everyday with a new story to tell,
A story that sings for change
That hopes for battles:
Battles for the love of the united flesh
Battles for passions aroused by a new day
Battle for the neglected rights
Or just battles to survive one more night.

Yes, to you women in a world of pain
To you, bright star in this ever-spending universe
To you, fighter of a thousand-and-one fights
To you, friend of my heart.

From now on, my head won’t look down to a magazine
Rather, it will contemplate the night
And its bright stars,
And so, no more clichés.

Octavio Paz
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“But my dear man, reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.” — Alan Watts

I enjoy the words of Alan Watts, and have done so since first reading one of his books in college, many years ago. His command of English is so deep and wide that he is somewhat hard to read, due to the weight and depth of both the material under discussion, and of the words he chooses to use. But, working one’s way through to the end of what he writes is well worth all the effort, for he explains the complex, and yet simple, wisdom of the Eastern religions and philosophies, in Western terms, so they are comprehensible to those same Western thinkers, with a clarity heretofore unseen. This particular line is one of his most simply written, yet is still deep and insightful…..

With one swift phrase, Reality is laid bare for all to understand, showing its flexibility, it’s malleable nature able to become whatever we perceive it to be. Each of us has our own interpretation of what we perceive as reality, and it is often very different than what others may believe it to be. Sometimes, I am absolutely amazed at the variety of perceptions that people describe, and feel a lot of satisfaction, on one level at least. That is the level of interaction…. I think it is just wonderful, that people from so many different backgrounds, and so many different ways of looking at the same thing, can still live together on one planet in relative harmony.

It would seem apparent that so many differing viewpoints would cause a lot of trouble, and to some extent that’s true…. There is a lot of trouble on this world, and Reality is not a place for the weak or timid to hang out safely. But, mostly, all the various attitudes and outlooks on life seem to shuffle along without much conflict, at the personal level, compared to what might be expected. One of those little unexplained miracles in life that we often don’t see, or appreciate….. The phenomenon is even more pronounced in institutions such as mental hospitals, where the visions of reality are of such a nature as to seem limitless in their variety. I was always impressed at how people from so many different parts of the galaxy were able to live together in peace….   🙂

For me, the best part about the nature of Reality is this chameleon-like quality: it can be anything we want it to be. We can accept the perceptions it sends us, and even see, and understand, what those are describing to others, thus making it convenient for us to communicate about it. Or, we can choose to alter those perceptions, either in the way we receive them, or in the way we interpret them; either method gives us control over exactly how we view what is now a somewhat questionable form of Reality.

(It occurs to me that maybe I should use the capitalization technique, as with the words ‘pearl’, and ‘Pearl’…. Yeah, that’s the ticket… Okay, so ‘Reality’, capitalized, is what we all agree to see, and ‘reality’ is what each of us sees personally, with the word ‘see’ used to indicate ‘perceive’ because it’s a shorter word, took less time to type, and allowed me to further obfuscate matters in order to create the need to clear them up….. That should help clarify where we are in a sentence, even if it doesn’t actually simplify things at all…..)

Speaking of knowing where we are, this discussion seems to have reached a point where the next destination may be out of reach. Oh, not that the reality of it is too abstruse, or complicated, or even merely disgusting. No, it’s just too esoteric for me at 0815 in the morning, after already composing a couple thousand words on human nature and and the nature of Reality. It is almost a depressing come-down to have to consider ending this, since it was flowing so well, but, the perfect closing pearl showed itself, and I’m not one to argue with Smart Bee, or Zippy….. Stay alert, ffolkes, Reality can suck, and it can bite, when it’s not being nice…..

“I guess it was all a DREAM..  or an episode of HAWAII FIVE-O…” — Zippy the Pinhead
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It bodes well for the new year that Pearls are coming out cleanly. I can’t say this is the best stuff I’ve ever written, but it was fun, and cleansing, to some degree, so I’ll take it. I wouldn’t go so far as to say my standards are deliberately low, to encourage posting, but it is patently true that being ‘done’ is the primary requirement, before any question of quality of content enters the picture. This one definitely meets that one, as I don’t feel a poem trying to leak out today. In fact, I’m going to surprise you, and myself, and end it right here……  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!