Tag Archives: Religion

In the graveyard of the ancient toaster-ovens….

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Ffolkes,
Freeze-dried brain fever, that’s what I’ll call it. Fdbf, for short. I imagine all people get it, but it affects us who write much more severely than the general population, as might be expected of a pastime where the brain is an important factor in successful operation. We humans do tend to avoid activities that cause that organ to work any harder than necessary, so it becomes clear that having, and using, a brain is advantageous to the writer. I’d say that using it would be a prerequisite for the field, but there is so much evidence out there of the converse, I can’t say that….. The recent vampire story series, Twilight, is a prime example of literature written by a person of no brain, I’d say….. Sorry, in my world, vampires are never “cute”….. and they don’t hang around in Hollywood, even to make movies….

For a few moments this morning, it almost seemed as if I would be caught with my own case of fdbf; I was terrified when I sat down and saw a vast empty plain stretching away to infinity in my mind, completely bereft of any material at all. But, the plug loosened quickly, and words started leaking out, so I knew it was just a false alarm. I’ve had that syndrome previously, and it’s no picnic, believe me. A lot of authors go through some pretty strange rituals and activities to try to get rid of fdbf, or limit its visit, but I was lucky enough today; I didn’t have to break out the pomegranate sauce or the palm oil towelettes. Good thing, too, that palm oil is expensive…..

Even without having to cope with the absence of motivation or material, I’m a bit sticky today. I’m not even sure what I mean by “sticky”; it just seems like the right word. Like the bottom of your shoe gets something stuck on it, and every step slows you down…. It could conceivably be a side-effect, of the forced waiting I’m having to do while Social Security goes through all its bureaucratic posturing, but that helps me in no way, either to know or to prevent. In fact, like almost every time I have to deal with them, I am frustrated by their absolute dedication to procrastination and sloth. Bloody idiots….

Alright…. that’s enough blather for one day. I could rant all day on SS, and their woeful ways, but I’m sure I can find something a bit more entertaining. But, only if I ever stop this nonsense, and get on with the dive….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“Don’t bother attacking me.  I have more hit points than Godzilla.” — Smart Bee
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“I’m going to Iowa for an award.  Then I’m appearing at Carnegie Hall, it’s sold out. Then I’m sailing to France to be honored by the French government.  I’d give it all up for one erection.” — Groucho Marx, 1890-1977

Though my life is in no way as exciting as Groucho’s seems to have been, I can relate to this sentiment completely. At this point in the narrative, I have a choice…. I can go personal, I can go humorous, I can go educational, I can go fantasy, or, I can just go on with what Groucho is implying with his remark, no doubt made when he was of an age similar to mine….. which leads me into a discussion of the manual, and what is NOT in there….

However, every time I start a piece about the manual (you know, the manual of Life, that we were all due to be given at birth….), something intervenes to take the wind from the sails of my rant, so I’m going to change things a bit, to try to throw Murphy off the scent, as it were…. Old school format then; that’s what you’ll get, and you’ll like it!…. Those are your ORDERS!….

Actually, you don’t HAVE to like it, just read it and weep…. Below are some quotes (big surprise….)…. Each one is a good idea, powerful enough to stand alone… In addition, each one is of such a nature that it SHOULD have been included in your manual. As I’ve implied, a LOT of stuff got left out of the manual, so it’s a good idea now and again to add some things to the Notes, just for reference…. Here are some you may have been deprived of in your copy….

“If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of potential — for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints; possibility never.” — Soren Kierkegaard

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful until it became risky.  — C.S. Lewis  _The Screwtape Letters_

He who knows man is clever;
He who knows himself is enlightened.
He who conquers men has force;
He who conquers himself is truly strong.
— Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism

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

“The number of people who agree or disagree with you has absolutely no bearing on whether you’re RIGHT. The universe has a way of deciding that for itself.” — Smart Bee

I could go on for a long time; the manual is historically known to be poor in resources that will actually help. I have a feeling the job of creating them was outsourced….. but, the last one is worth the price of admission, all by itself…..
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A Patch of Old Snow

There’s a patch of old snow in a corner
That I should have guessed
Was a blow-away paper the rain
Had brought to rest.

It is speckled with grime as if
Small print overspread it,
The news of a day I’ve forgotten —
If I ever read it.

Robert Frost

Simple, deep, beautiful…. enough said….
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“A means of control should exist whereby access operators and their organizations are held responsible for what is posted on the Internet,” — Church of Scientology lawyer Helena Kobrin, 1995.

This is an absolutely astounding statement….. Scary, too, to think there are people out there so ignorant, and so intent on making other people think the way they do (well, if one can call such activity “thinking”….), they would go so far as to make such a ridiculous utterance, and attach their name to it. Especially a lawyer, though in one sense, I can see how this one is thinking of billable hours, as such a set of laws as she is suggesting would make litigation our newest popular sport, another national pastime, as it were, to go along with baseball and apple pie. Sue your internet provider, because they posted an article on the internet that disagrees with you…. what a unique concept! It’s kind of like shooting the milk man, because you’ve developed an allergy to milk….

I know, that example makes no sense at all…. but neither does what is said above. First, the Church of Scientology isn’t a church, so they really don’t have any right to claim the same sort of entitlement as the rest of them take, as they don’t fall into the same category of human stupidity. (Remind me to tell you about Scientology’s creation some time; it’s a story they don’t like being told….)  Second, they don’t have the right they believe they have, to tell others what they should think, and aren’t going to be able to pass laws that favor ONLY their organization…. The other, so-called legitimate religions, will see to that, even if the rest of us don’t manage to do so…. which, I might add, is a distinct possibility, as we would probably get stuck laughing so hard we missed the vote….

I’m not going to rant any further, though I could; this subject lends itself well to such treatment. But, I’ve a lot to do today out in the Big Blue Room, and just wanted to furnish a reminder to everyone that people, and I use the term loosely, who think like this, and are invested in seeking out ways to control other folks until the world is all like them, really do exist, and are out there trying to find ways to slip their idiotic ideas into the public venue, hoping to turn things to their advantage. If we, the rational members of society, do nothing, they will achieve at least some success, and life will get harder for everyone…. Be aware, and don’t allow this sort of idiocy to take hold, ffolkes…. your own blog might be at risk, and you’d never even know until it was too late…..

“Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you…..” — Smart Bee
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One might think, to look at the last quote used in section three, that I am somewhat insane. This would be to my advantage, as I am not, but, I’ll just defuse the entire question when I tell you that this quote, found many places besides Smart Bee, was first told to me by my own father….. He DID smile when he said it, but also pointed out that any joke has an element of truth to it, and should, therefore, not be entirely dismissed as nonsensical, merely because it isn’t true for the majority of time. Since my father was one of the most solidly grounded individuals I’ve ever known, I’d say his take on this was pretty accurate, and that knowledge has served me well many times throughout my life…. Be alert, ffolkes, the world needs all the lerts it can get….. 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!

But, really, the teacher obviously meant to say “provincial”….

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Ffolkes,
I’ve managed to make a decision, in spite of the massive cloud of confusion that descends upon me when I try to think about this issue…. I’m going to use the pieces of the Pearl from the 13th, which still refuses to post (another tale….), to fill in other Pearls, until all three sections have been published. Today, I’ll publish the poem, which I think is a good one, and use the rest tomorrow or Tuesday. It all sounds very logical and sensible, so, no doubt, Murphy will have something to say about it beforehand…. I’ll just be on the lookout for that, and hopefully it won’t get any on you…..

Spending more time lamenting my financial state would be both uncomfortable and tactless, as well as just too self-serving; nothing will happen on Sunday anyway. I could try to do laundry, but those pesky finances say not this month. It’s a good thing I have a lot of underwear and socks….. Hmm…. No buses today, either, except for a limited period, limited to two routes. It’s a good thing I checked out a couple of books yesterday when I posted the Pearl, as today is looking like a stay-at-home holiday for us seniors on a budget…..

On days such as today, I always enjoy the process of pearling, because it can take me out of my head, and into the universe, with all its strangeness and beauty. That is, provided Murphy leaves me alone, and Smart Bee doesn’t get smarmy…. either of those events can lead to problematic issues, such as boredom, which I detest and refuse to acknowledge in any form, or worse, angst, which can build up in short order if I get to thinking about stuff like politics, or religion, the beloved ruling class, human nature, or my own personal failures of courage (we’ve all got ’em….). Generally, though, the trips to find pearls are fun, and provide me with countless hours of entertainment (I’m pretty easy to please in that respect, since almost everything is interesting to me…..).

Once again, I’ve also managed to meander through four paragraphs of not very much, to provide a suitable intro…. Of course, given the nature of what I usually produce, I’m not certain at all that the word “suitable” ever applies, so….. Shall we Pearl?…..

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

This statement strikes a deep chord within me…. It comes to me upon reflection that there are basically two kinds of people in the world; there are those who will see a statement such as this, read it, think about it, and either accept it, or reject it, though it hardly seems possible to do the latter, given its degree of demonstrable truth.

The other kind of person will start to read this, then give up after a few words, because the words have no meaning for them, beyond the word ‘treasure’. Once these folks discover that the ‘treasure’ isn’t jewels or gold, they stop all thought on the subject, and turn to anything else that will serve their self-interest.

In one sense, this dichotomy of nature is indicative of what is happening in the world at large today. On one hand we observe the people who reject the above statement, and live according to rules that are pathologically oriented to themselves, those who also believe in “do unto others before they can do unto you….”.

Sadly, this group is the same one that the major percentage of elected officials and members of our beloved ruling class come from, along with all of those who spend their lives playing with money, i.e., the bankers. All of these folks refuse to acknowledge the veracity of any of the sentiments expressed by the Buddha above, and in many cases, do so with pride and arrogance…

Another group of folks lend their support to those in power, though they spend a lot of time trying to convince everyone that they are acting out of altruistic motivation rather than monetary. I call these folks preachers, for lack of a better word, and the group, in my mind, includes priests, pastors, vicars, sadhu, imams, Elders, or anyone else who considers themselves a holy man, with the right to interpret the words of gods for the rest of us.

They want us to believe they are acting according to what Buddha has expressed above, but in reality, what they do bears no resemblance at all to virtue. They merely use the words to assume the authority by proxy.  In fact, their very insistence that they are acting in the interests of others, or are at all inspired to virtue, to me, is a foul lie, and worthy of their own judgment…..

I could rant for a long time on this subject, as I regard it as the most critical problem in human nature, the root cause of our current dangerous position as a species threatened with extinction. The callousness and self-aggrandizement that characterizes those among us who wish power over others will, in the long run, kill us all, if we don’t put a stop to it. Unfortunately, that would, and will, require making decisions, and taking actions, that challenge our own virtue, and place us at risk of becoming that which we are trying to destroy…. a conundrum, for certain. Time will give us the answer, and I, for one, fear to hear it…..

“It’s too bad ignorance isn’t painful.” — Smart Bee
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Calliope! Muse to all mad poets! This poem is…. it was…. it’s…. well, I don’t know what it is. It’s been percolating a couple of days, and leaked out this morning when I paused over it to gauge its readiness… which means I guess it was ready, even if I wasn’t, completely…. It seems to work, though, so I’ll let y’all figure out if it was worth the effort…. enjoy!

Dreaming of Calliope

La dame sans merci speaks aloud through endless night,
torturing dreams, with powerful words and stentorian phrases.
Manifest visions bathed in unbearable grace and light,
destroying all direction, standing lost, in unfathomable mazes.

Fate plays a part, one that will never face denial,
as fear and courage eternally vie to gain ascendancy.
Conflict becomes valid, gifting strength in open trial,
but honest emotion wears no costume so fancy.

Blood, sweat, and tears stroll on avenues of gold,
unlikely heroines heralding as in ancient lore;
Sharp, competent knives cut through tales untold,
eternally shifting reality past the naked shore.

Drifting toward origin, bereft of mandate or cause,
finished, nay, abandoned, tied with a figurative bow.
No simple gift from muses to give comfort or pause,
save that all we need to know, we already know…..

~~ gigoid

Hmmm….. well, it’s done. I’ll leave any critical analysis to y’all…. I’m too close to it yet….
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I had originally intended to write a rant, or at least a discussion of one of the pearls below…. However, the other entries herein kept popping up while I was still composing it in my head, and just seemed to point the way to where I was trying to reach better than what was percolating in my mind…. That happens a lot, since most everything important has already been said at least once…. or so I’ve been told more than once…. Any who, this pearl will lead the Gentle Reader to a very profound concept, IF that reader is sufficiently attentive, and is capable of moderate levels of comprehension and deduction…. and if not, well, they’re all good reading, and one should still walk away with a sense of having gotten SOMETHING from the experience beyond a bit of eyestrain…..

“To be truly conscious of your stupidity is one of the greatest steps you  can make toward wisdom. If you know others, you are learned. If you know  yourself, you are indeed wise. It isn’t the things that you don’t know that  get you into trouble. What gets you into trouble are those things you know  for sure that ain’t so.” — Artemus Ward (1834-1867), aka Charles Farrar Brown

“It is a misconception that spirituality brings everlasting happiness. There is no such thing. Sadness still comes to the wise, but, unlike most people, their clarity of mind allows them to see beyond the temporal emotionalism of the moment. They are farseeing, and so happiness and sorrow become the same to them.” — Deng Ming-Dao

“Why, when no honest man will deny in private that every ultimate problem is wrapped in the profoundest mystery, do honest men proclaim in pulpits that unhesitating certainty is the duty of the most foolish and ignorant?  Is it not a spectacle to make the angels laugh?We are a company of ignorant beings, feeling our way through mists and darkness, learning only be incessantly repeated blunders, obtaining a glimmering of truth by falling into every conceivable error, dimly discerning light enough for our daily needs, but hopelessly differing whenever we attempt to describe the ultimate origin or end of our paths; and yet, when one of us ventures to declare that we don’t know the map of the universe as well as the map of our infinitesimal parish, he is hooted, reviled, and perhaps told that he will be damned to all eternity for his faithlessness…” — Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), “An agnostic’s Apology”, — Fortnightly Review, 1876

THEOSOPHY, n.  An ancient faith having all the certitude of religion and all the mystery of science.  The modern Theosophist holds, with the Buddhists, that we live an incalculable number of times on this earth, in as many several bodies, because one life is not long enough for our complete spiritual development; that is, a single lifetime does not suffice for us to become as wise and good as we choose to wish to become.  To be absolutely wise and good — that is perfection; and the Theosophist is so keen-sighted as to have observed that everything desirous of improvement eventually attains perfection. Less competent observers are disposed to except cats, which seem neither wiser nor better than they were last year.  The greatest and fattest of recent Theosophists was the late Madame Blavatsky, who had no cat. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“A person is not given integrity. It results from the relentless pursuit of honesty at all times.” — Smart Bee

“All things come round to him who will but wait.” — Henry W. Longfellow (1807-1882) — Tales of a Wayside Inn, The Student’s Tale

Even the end of a pearl….. This one is an easy one, and I could keep adding evidence to the pile for the rest of the day, if I wished. But, the following note from Jubal Harshaw (the name of the character who said it…) gives me ample reason to stop here, at a point where the entire thing can still be saved from complete chaos, and certain oblivion….

“Read it?  Good God, no!  It’s bad enough to write such a thing.” — Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
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“The moving finger, having writ, moves on….”  And aren’t you all thankful for that? Another day’s effort come to fruition, or an approximation thereof, with style and, well, I won’t claim elegance, but, a bit of charm wouldn’t be so far off the mark….

For the record, the poem, should today’s post get online without any glitches, is the one I intended to put up the other day, when WordPress refused to accept my input…. (which it still won’t, for some reason… I attempted, yesterday, to edit the material into the page, but that one date’s page WILL NOT accept the material, but will only post the title. Ah well, software is, after all, written by humans…. I’m off to the Big Blue Room to try to get this posted….  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!

Fleeting moments of clarity and grace….

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Ffolkes,
I’m not sure I can do this….. not this way. I’m sitting on a complete Pearl, you see. The one that was completed for posting on the 13th has not made it to the Net, as I haven’t figured out yet whether it will work to edit the old post, or just add a new one with that material….. The title I came up with on the 13th was certainly one of the best I’ve done… “Despite the disaster, yak butter was still on the menu….”  Brilliant, if I do say so myself, as it tells a whole story all by itself, without any supportive material; I don’t know about y’all, but I get a mental vision of some poor sap in a dingy kitchen, struggling to chop vegetables, as he worries about the price of yak butter…. perhaps not quite Hemingway, but, maybe Raymond Chandler?…. Okay, Steven King, and he’s my last offer….

Any who…. I’ve got all this material already finished, ready  to post, and can’t seem to settle enough to sit down to write a Pearl. I’ve got pieces in progress (who doesn’t?) but it all seems pointless, when I don’t have to do anything at all, and will still have stuff to put up. I had not realized just how tied into the routine I’ve become, I guess; I’m still human, it seems, and can fall prey to mundane habit-forming drills like anyone else, until it becomes the dreaded “routine”, harder to break than a five minute egg. (Five minute eggs won’t break; they just smoosh….) These can be fatal, if not treated at an early stage….

And the verbs! What will I do with the verbs? All my conjugation, so precisely aligned to the proper time frames and concomitant pronouns, all useless! How will I ever know what day it is, if I’m always a day ahead? Since retiring, keeping track of what day it is has become hard enough; I don’t need any help in forgetting. But, it should be okay, in the end…. I’ve finally figured out the bus schedule, and it can tell me what day it is, just by what time the buses go by the house. Of course, that is assuming they are running anywhere close to on time, an event of scarcity during the major portion of the week…..

Enough blather…. I could produce such for hours, probably, if I ever gave myself the chance. But, since nobody is paying me for this, it doesn’t seem very productive, so I’ll take this opportunity to get on with today’s effort at composition, and dive on in. I must say, the water looks inviting today, all blue and refreshing….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“This is the true joy in life – being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you consistent.” — George Bernard Shaw

When I first began creating Pearls of Virtual Wisdom, there was only one quote each day, with short comments by me, only to introduce, and perhaps provide a bit of background to, the pieces I chose, generally on the subject of Liberty, Freedom, Honor, Truth, etc. In those days, this pearl would have definitely made the grade, and, given that I don’t remember all the quotes I’ve used, it may have been used back then. It still makes the grade, so much so that I’m leaving it to stand alone, aside from the closing quote from Mr. Twain, which echoes the sentiment expressed by Mr. Shaw perfectly….

“Let us endeavour to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), from Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar (1894)
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“Cruel as death, and hungry as the grave.” — James Thomson (1700-1748) — The Seasons, Winter, Line 393

The only possible comment is the same word that made up the first thought in my head when I read this… WOW…. Such an incredibly powerful line, so gripping and real, it makes me as jealous as I allow myself to feel. To write such a phrase would be enough for me; I could die happy. I’ll do so anyway, (die happy, that is….), just to spite Murphy, but, if I can write one line half as strong as this, I’ll be content, for sure…. Here is something that came to me last night…. at least, it began last night…..

Territorial imperative….

Beauty must define, as augment to existence,
as life must be more than mere subsistence.
Nature demands more.
Truth helps.

~~ gigoid

It ain’t long, but it’s much…. and better for being so, rather than the reverse….. Just as an afterthought to this section, I offer the following as proof that even genius can feel insecurity and jealousy….

“There are two ways of disliking poetry; one way is to dislike it, the other is to read Pope.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
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“Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right actions arises by itself?” — Lao Tzu

Ever since being first exposed to the precepts of Taoism, back when I was in college in the late 60’s, it has always appealed to my sense of rightness, and makes the closest approach to what I personally believe about the Universe at large. Not the mystical parts, that cater to the religious order of the time it first was clarified by Lao Tzu, but the essence of the concept of reality, as being both within our perception, and unknown to us as beyond our understanding. We may not possess the necessary sense to be capable of receiving such information, whether about reality or fantasy, and if we assume the omnipotence of a god, then we would not be able to comprehend their existence, lacking the tools to perceive them with our five or six senses…..

This knowledge, however, is tempered by the deduction that, as a physical part of the universe, we are connected to it, and to every other part, if only by sharing that existence. The connection, intuitively, is deeper than merely the physical; it extends somehow into the spiritual plane, which, though not tangible, is nonetheless a proven part of our mental reality. (What IS the mind?) It is this very lack of the ability to explain by which we may know the connection exists, as it echoes the nature of reality itself, which cannot be explained in words. Goodness knows why I’m trying, to be sure…. this is getting pretty esoteric, although, so far, it is consistently rational, if not entirely illuminating.

“Since everything in life is but an experience perfect in being what it is, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter.” — Long Chen Pa

And what better way to acknowledge and celebrate the perfection that we can see, or hear, feel, smell, taste, or imagine?…… It’s certainly preferable to a long, dusty discussion of esoteric concepts, and will encourage enlightenment just as efficiently, if not quite so verbally. In some way, I’m always looking for the perfect quote, the ultimate aphorism, that delivers that cosmic truth we are all seeking in one swell foop, and the above from Long Chen Pa comes very close to it, especially when considered in the light of what one concludes from considering the answers to the first two questions today. As a Westerner who has learned to appreciate what the East brings us, the following resonates very well….

“Somehow, in the midst of their horrid history, the best among the _gaijin_ learned a wonderful lesson.  They learned to distrust themselves, to doubt even what they were taught to believe or what their egos make them yearn to see.  To know that even truth must be scrutinized, it was a great discovery, almost as great as the treasure we of the East have to offer them in return, the gift of harmony.” — David Brin – Dr. Pak’s Preschool

There’s the key, ffolkes, right there in front of you…. Even truth must be scrutinized, or the universe will have its way with you, and you may never find the gift of harmony that is also there for the taking….. There, not so esoteric, after all…. not too shabby, eh what?…..

“The ancient Taoist sages were poised and alert…. like ice on the verge of melting.” — Taoist proverb
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All things considered, this didn’t come out too badly. It’s going to have to do, as I now have more material ready to post than I’ve ever had previously, and I’m not sure quite what to do about it. I know what I’d like to do, but, I’m still waiting for the green light from SS on that, so…. I suppose I’ll just have to pretend it’s the day before tomorrow, when it’s really the day after yesterday….. if you see what I mean….  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!

Yak butter redux….

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Ffolkes,
Thwarted! WordPress’ New Post Page thwarted my attempt to post on Thursday, 12/13/12. Three separate times I went through all the necessary steps, hit the Publish button, and proceeded to watch the damn thing drop out every bit of material in the post, save the title. Nothing that I entered into the text entry box was sent to the page, so all that shows is the title, the categories, the comment section, and the buttons. Complete malfunction ensued, destroying, or at least, refusing my 1800 plus words and two pictures, including a new original poem, sending them off to somewhere in cyberspace, to be lost forever in the internet cloud. What a waste of effort…. temporary, if I can make it so….. nonetheless, wasted time is still wasted. I suppose it could be said to be more futile than wasted, to be fair….

The above, written soon after returning from the library yesterday, in two separate stages, is pure truth, sadly. I don’t do well with futility, all in all, and it’s hard to accept missing a day due to a WP technical glitch. I noted new interfaces and buttons yesterday, and recently, which may have messed with the system somehow…. Today’s post will prove the pudding, or banish it to the trash, as may be….

This paragraph begins the new day…. fresh, and full of promise, just like a new day should be. Let us hope that the sense of promise holds true long enough for at least one event of good note to occur; it sure would be nice to have some good news for a change…. It is hard to get too enthusiastic about the chance of that happening, though, given the past’s record of disappointment in that area. Murphy, may he rot in the lowest portion of hell, has been far too ubiquitous for any such luck….. In sooth, it is getting almost comical, and would be so, if it weren’t so real, and so important to me, and my quality of life….

There are signs of improvement along those lines, but rather than jinx things, I’ll just let that go with a mention, and just say I’m glad to see any kind of change in that direction, and hope for more…. So, I saved what I produced yesterday, to post today, so I’ll make good use of my time now, and start on the next Pearl, which I haven’t decided whether to post twice today, to make up, or to just skip a day, and move on…. I guess that will actually be determined by the WP page, and whether or not it will be publishing me at all…. I really do hate technical glitches…. it indicates poorly written code, and there’s no excuse for that, to my way of thinking…. But, then, I’ve never written code, so, who knows what is real?….

This intro section has turned into a daily proof, I guess, that there is no limit to how far I can, or will, meander when I’m just blathering like this. Of course, some of this one was spit out yesterday, so it really doesn’t count that way, but, hey, it all works for me, as it gets me to the diving portion of the program, which is where I like to be…. looking for a reason to write, some excuse to get all the stuff in my head out into the world, where it might do something other than just drive me bats…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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— Bother! said Pooh, as he fried Piglet for breakfast. — Smart Bee

(Piglet, I hear, made an ill-timed humorous comment about Pooh’s “hunny pot”…..)

Oh, my! Pooh’s dark side is showing again…. In previous posts, I’ve told y’all how I discovered that Winnie the Pooh wasn’t the innocent little Bear of Little Brain that most people know and love. For years, it seems, Pooh has led a dual existence, on the one side wandering the 100 Acre Forest with his friends, undergoing simple, instructive events where no one gets hurt badly, and no one cries for long. On the other hand, in his alternate universe, Pooh makes Darth Vader look like a Boy Scout, helping grannies across the road…..

I’m sorry if your illusions have been destroyed, but, I thought you should know, as I believe that Pooh uses his faux-innocent disguise to lure attractive young children into his sphere of influence, then corrupts them in any of a thousand time-tested ways, sending them on the path to perdition, and a lifetime of pain and misery…. the evil git…. Here then, are some examples of the kind of things Pooh has been up to recently, for your education and elucidation, so that you may be warned to guard your own progeny from the depredations to which they could conceivably fall prey, by becoming fond of this extremely evil creature…. The Bear of Little Brain, and Less Scruple…. (My comments appear in parentheses after the quoted text…. just like this…)

🙂

— Bother! said Pooh, as he nuked Iraq!

(Pooh’s first term as a mercenary came during the Kuwait conflict, indicating even then his willingness to use nuclear weapons, in contravention of all treaties….)

— Bother! said Pooh, as he lobbed a grenade at the intruder.

(The intruder was his neighbor, Mrs. Graham, bringing him some mail brought to her house by mistake….)

— Bother! said Pooh, as he ordered Mr. Worf to fire all phasers.

(The other ship had just agreed to lower its shield to negotiate….)

— Bother! said Pooh, as he put on the hockey mask and started the saw.

(Oh, you didn’t know? The idea for the Freddy movies, and the other massacre movies, came from one of Pooh’s home videos….)

— Bother! said Pooh, as Eeyore mounted him from behind.

(He only said “Bother” because he had just finished mounting Roo from behind, and was tired….)

Need I say more?….. Be warned, ffolkes…..
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Danny O’Dare

Danny O’Dare, the dancin’ bear,
Ran away from the County Fair,
Ran right up to my back stair
And thought he’d do some dancin’ there.
He started jumpin’ and skippin’ and kickin’,
He did a dance called the Funky Chicken,
He did the Polka, he did the Twist,
He bent himself into a pretzel like this.
He did the Dog and the Jitterbug,
He did the Jerk and the Bunny Hug.
He did the Waltz and the Boogaloo,
He did the Hokey-Pokey too.
He did the Bop and the Mashed Potata,
He did the Split and the See Ya Later.
And now he’s down upon one knee,
Bowin’ oh so charmingly,
And winkin’ and smilin’–it’s easy to see
Danny O’Dare wants to dance with me.

Shel Siverstein
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Since the election last month, the political scene has gone typically quiet, as the politicians all figure out how to make their newly shaped garments fit. The obligatory conflict between the White House and Congress trudges on toward the next subject of dire consequence, this time the tax structures inherited from Bush, and Medicare/Medicaid. As usual, the GOP wants to take all they can away from the weak and vulnerable, and give it to Wall Street, while the White House tries to cut a piece of that out for the middle class, and tries to protect the seniors. Meanwhile, the incipient erosion of rights being silently and stealthily taken from us citizens, by BOTH parties, goes on in the background, while everyone pretends they aren’t noticing….

So, any who, I just felt somewhat nostalgic for all the outrage and energy that gets bandied about during the election months, and thought it would be a good idea to put out some little reminders of how dishonest and egregiously avaricious ALL politicians are; even the ones you like are in office for their own reasons, not for your interests. Oh, they’ll tell y’all anything you want to hear, as long as you keep voting for them, but, mark my words, they will pursue their own agenda as soon as the election is over, guaranteed…. So, remember, these “jokes” about politicians and the like (preachers/priests and unscrupulous lawyers usually fall into that category in my mind….. Besides, these days a law degree is a required prerequisite for politicians who aim for high office….) exist for one simple reason…. they’re usually TRUE….. If not strictly so, there is ample evidence that they are based on true events….

“Crime must pay, or politicians wouldn’t seek re-election.” — Smart Bee

“When you’re around it all the time, you don’t notice it so much.” — Garrison Keillor, “Lake Wobegon Days”

“So many lawyers, so few bullets.” — Smart Bee

“Election time is that period when politicians get free speech mixed up with cheap talk.” — J. B. Kidd

“It’s getting harder and harder to act weird.” — Zippy the Pinhead

(Oops, sorry, that one slipped by me…. but, then, it kind of fits, don’t you think? Okay, it can stay….)

“Don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time.” — Lt. Col. Ollie North

(I must apologize again…. Ollie wasn’t a politico, but he played one in real life. I thought it rather nice of him to share his expertise and wisdom with his co-conspirators like this….)

“I’m a fellow who bleeds every time a tree is cut down.” — Ronald Reagan, Fresno Bee, 4/28/66, while Governor

“If you’ve seen one tree, you’ve seen them all….” — Ronald Reagan, while President, recorded prior to a speech he made regarding proposed environmental legislation.

“California is proud to be the home of the freeway.” — Ronald Reagan

(And he was considered The Great Communicator?….. Sure he was…. He always communicated exactly what he wanted people to believe…. when he could remember what that was….)

“Before I begin, I’d like to recite the Lawyer’s Prayer: Lord, please let there be strife and misery among your people, Lest your servant starve…” — Clonezone takes on lawyers, from “Badger”

“Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

Okay….. I will show mercy. Obviously, there is no shortage of jokes and general lamentations regarding these less than stellar members of society, and one begins to get a hint as to why they are so reviled among their peers. Experience is the only thing that such vituperation could spring from, and the deeper the well of that experience, the more evidence one accrues to support the accuracy of the indictment of the reputations involved. Or, more simply, where there is smoke, there is often fire…. not always, mind you, but, …. often…..
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“Work is not an end in itself; there must always be time enough for love.” — Robert Heinlein

I’m not sure why I included the last statement, even though I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment. I guess it just felt like a good closing thought…. and I’d be right in that. So, before such simple elegance gets away from me…..  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!

A deflated souffle tastes the same….

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Ffolkes,
At my age, having a good reason to get up each morning is a blessing, not necessarily in disguise. If one gives in to it, the related physical challenges we face in performing daily activities can intimidate, and make one want to just stay in bed, so the motivators we have that get us right up, looking forward to the day with enthusiasm, are worth their weight in gold, so to speak. For me, writing these Pearls is one motivator; I’ve become pretty addicted to the daily opportunity to spew out the stuff I would normally stuff into some dark corner of my mind.  I would be far less content had I not started blogging after I retired, if I had not come to accept that I was actually done working for the rest of my life, and started to spew out all that stuff I’d been stuffing for so long…..

Some might challenge the value of what I write, but, then, everybody’s a critic, yes? If somebody doesn’t like, or agree with what goes on here, well, they’re free to comment (within the boundaries of polite conversation, of course….), or, to go elsewhere for their reading. If they have some sort of philosophical objection to what I say, and feel the need to express vituperative emotional attacks, well, then, they can either come to my space, where I can kick their ass, literally, or they can, figuratively, kiss my ass, and take their venom somewhere somebody will appreciate it….. I hear the KKK is recruiting again…. and, obviously, the Westboro Baptist Church of Idiocy is always on the lookout for new bigots….

As for me, I now have even more than mere enthusiasm for literature to get me up. Being the discrete personality I am, I’m going to leave that thought unexplained for the time being…. Suffice it to say that I’ve recently found another good reason to look forward to the day, and am enjoying the play of new, or at least long-unexercised, emotions and thought patterns. Anticipation of pleasurable events is a state that we often forget, when we’ve been stuck in a rut for a time; it is one of life’s great little treasures, and though seldom remembered, is sorely missed when absent from our lives. It’s nice to be able to feel it again….

That said, I should probably get on with this…. it isn’t going to write itself, much as I’d like to think it might. I’m still waiting for technology to come up with a reliable voice activated text editor, (still too slow and inaccurate for my standards), or, as in the Harry Potter movies, a pen like the one Rita Skeeter used, that wrote what one was thinking, in lurid style….

(The writing industry will undergo another upheaval when a good voice activated computer system is developed, for there will be a HUGE number of people writing stories, about whatever tripe that enters their minds, who never before would have done so, as they cannot type…. Such a software program will revolutionize the publishing field, and we will need to figure out an entire new way of figuring out what should be read, and what should be passed over, for there will be an incredible increase in the amount of material to read….)

“Old grammarians never die-they just fall into a comma.” — Smart Bee

Ah well, my meandering mind has slipped its leash again, I see…. No matter, we’ll just dive in now, and forgo any further wandering about…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“He who proselytizes in the cause of unbelief is basically a man in need of belief.” — Eric Hoffer

This is true…. you never see an atheist going door to door, trying to convert the pious to their unbeliefs. However, I would go further on this train of thought, and add that, “He who proselytizes, in any cause, in basically a man in need of a life.” I’m sure it occurred to Mr. Hoffer, but he was too busy trying to explain this statement to somebody who didn’t understand the word ‘proselytize’….. For my own case, I have never, ever understood why people feel compelled to go door to door to try to get other people to believe what they believe; it’s one of the most persistent delusional systems I’ve ever witnessed to believe that anyone wants to hear what they have to say, much less find their beliefs palatable, or superior to their own…..

“More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren’t so busy denying they made them.” — Smart Bee

Humans seem to have an immense blind spot when it comes to their own actions and beliefs. Most of them never seem to question the things they are told, even when those things are presented with no evidence other than faith. Of course, the people who are invested in the religious system, the preachers, to wit, start their indoctrination when their constituents are very young, and are prone to accept whatever an adult says as truth.

This ensures a life-long predilection to being simple to control, or slavery, if you will. Unless there is some sort of rebellion of spirit, and new knowledge is entertained, these poor saps will spend their entire lives believing that what they have been told is real, when, in fact, they are fitting themselves with shackles, that will forever imprison their minds, and their imagination…..

“To defend one’s self against fear is simply to insure that one will, one day, be conquered by it; fears must be faced.” — James Baldwin

In my life-long quest for the truth, I’ve come to believe that religions, while originally intended to benefit people, have historically been taken over by the predators who live to control others. Oh, some of them may indeed believe that their beliefs are true, and act accordingly, but the majority are, as far as I can tell, only concerned with maintaining status quo, thereby benefiting themselves, while never actually allowing any progress in the development of the human condition. They would have society behave as if we were still living in caves, and cowering in our meager shelter when the storms and lightning are raging outside, fearful of the power of what we do not understand, and therefore fear….

“A universe of death, which God by curse Created evil, for evil only good; Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, Abominable, unutterable and worse Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived, Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.” — Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II

(Side note: I’ll bet Milton had a hard time sleeping….)

The Universe is a big place, and there is a lot to learn. Fearing that knowledge, or fearing what changes that knowing will always bring, is the act of a coward, to my mind, and should not be encouraged. Supernatural beings of unlimited power are not a required component to the understanding of Nature and the Universe; we need not fear that our lack of knowledge of how things work is unattainable. Just because we do not understand a part of reality does not mean that whatever it is, is beyond our understanding.

It is not necessary to ask for exemptions, or intervention by our own personal gods, for us to achieve happiness, or even contentment; that is completely within our own power, if we but acknowledge that part of us that is free, and connected to everything else we can perceive. The connections may not be fully understood, but they are there, and if we can only learn to recognize it, the power to change reality lies within us, all the time…. As Epictetus said, “Happiness lies in learning to accept a simple truth. There are some things you can change. And there are some things you cannot.” It’s really quite that easy, you know, once one learns to accept this fact of life…. No dogma required…..

“If brains were outlawed, nothing would change.” — Smart Bee
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I’m working on a poem, but it isn’t quite finished yet, or as one poet said, I’m not yet ready to abandon it…. So, today you’ll have to once again settle for one of the poems I can find in my morning session with Google…. which provides a pretty diverse statistical universe to choose from, if I do say so…. In that sense, you won’t have to settle, for anything less than the best…. Enjoy!

A Draught Of Sunshine

Hence Burgundy, Claret, and Port,
Away with old Hock and Madeira,
Too earthly ye are for my sport;
There’s a beverage brighter and clearer.
Instead of a pitiful rummer,
My wine overbrims a whole summer;
My bowl is the sky,
And I drink at my eye,
Till I feel in the brain
A Delphian pain –
Then follow, my Caius! then follow:
On the green of the hill
We will drink our fill
Of golden sunshine,
Till our brains intertwine
With the glory and grace of Apollo!
God of the Meridian,
And of the East and West,
To thee my soul is flown,
And my body is earthward press’d. –
It is an awful mission,
A terrible division;
And leaves a gulph austere
To be fill’d with worldly fear.
Aye, when the soul is fled
To high above our head,
Affrighted do we gaze
After its airy maze,
As doth a mother wild,
When her young infant child
Is in an eagle’s claws –
And is not this the cause
Of madness? – God of Song,
Thou bearest me along
Through sights I scarce can bear:
O let me, let me share
With the hot lyre and thee,
The staid Philosophy.
Temper my lonely hours,
And let me see thy bowers
More unalarm’d!

John Keats

Since there are now so many Pearls, I am starting to forget if I’ve included a poem in a previous episode, or not; in the case of this one, I suspect that I have done. Oh well…. It’s not as if it is a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, is it? No…. so, enjoy…..   🙂
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MOUSE, n.  An animal which strews its path with fainting women.  As in Rome Christians were thrown to the lions, so centuries earlier in Otumwee, the most ancient and famous city of the world, female heretics were thrown to the mice.  Jakak-Zotp, the historian, the only Otumwump whose writings have descended to us, says that these martyrs met their death with little dignity and much exertion.  He even attempts to exculpate the mice (such is the  malice of bigotry) by declaring that the unfortunate women perished, some from exhaustion, some of broken necks from falling over their own feet, and some from lack of restoratives.  The mice, he avers, enjoyed the pleasures of the chase with composure.  But if “Roman history is nine-tenths lying,” we can hardly expect a smaller proportion of that rhetorical figure in the annals of a people capable of so incredible cruelty to a lovely women; for a hard heart has a false tongue. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

I love Bierce’s Dictionary….. I’m always amazed at how relevant what he wrote back in the mid-1800’s is so apropos for today. The humor he displayed, such as in this, pokes fun at whomever it mentions, and manages to speak the complete truth, aside from those parts which are obviously made up…. I downloaded a free copy of it for my own reading pleasure, and have a great time flipping through the pages, looking for new pieces I can use here….. This one was found in Smart Bee, actually, which has quite a large number of entries from the dictionary, but, I find useful pearls in there regularly…. Just for fun, here are a few other entries from The Devil’s Dictionary…..

ZEUS, n.  The chief of Grecian gods, adored by the Romans as Jupiter and by the modern Americans as God, Gold, Mob and Dog.  Some explorers who have touched upon the shores of America, and one who professes to have penetrated a considerable distance to the interior, have thought that these four names stand for as many distinct deities, but in his monumental work on Surviving Faiths, Frumpp insists that the natives are monotheists, each having no other god than himself, whom he worships under many sacred names.

WORSHIP, n.  Homo Creator’s testimony to the sound construction and fine finish of Deus Creatus.  A popular form of abjection, having an element of pride.

MYTHOLOGY, n.  The body of a primitive people’s beliefs concerning its origin, early history, heroes, deities and so forth, as distinguished from the true accounts which it invents later.

GRAVE, n.  A place in which the dead are laid to await the coming of the medical student.

Beside a lonely grave I stood–
With brambles ’twas encumbered;
The winds were moaning in the wood,
Unheard by him who slumbered,

A rustic standing near, I said:
“He cannot hear it blowing!”
“‘Course not,” said he:  “the feller’s dead–
He can’t hear nowt [sic] that’s going.”

“Too true,” I said; “alas, too true–
No sound his sense can quicken!”
“Well, mister, wot is that to you?–
The deadster ain’t a-kickin’.”

I knelt and prayed:  “O Father, smile
On him, and mercy show him!”
That countryman looked on the while,
And said:  “Ye didn’t know him.”

Pobeter Dunko

Great stuff, what? There are more than 150 pages in the dictionary, and I’m enjoying every one….. and, if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you can see why he gets my nod of approval…..
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Not too shabby, if I do say so myself…. Aside from its most obvious positive quality (it’s done….), I’m not completely unhappy with what I’ve put out today…. That is almost as good a feeling as winning a lottery ticket, so I’m going to content myself with that for the time being. Especially as it doesn’t cost me a dollar.  Let’s all hope that Social Security soon comes to their senses, and that the new battalion of flying pigs will finish training soon, to begin their scheduled flights, an event that is beginning to seem more likely than seeing a communique from SS in the near future….  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!

A simple five-body orbital computation….

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Ffolkes,
A blank slate is filled with promise, and it is the fortunate man, indeed, who can view the new day as such a slate. Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that I feel fortunate today, and look forward to the day with pleasure. I’m even feeling positive about this morning’s Pearl, as it seems to be falling right into line with the sense of hopeful anticipation I feel; the screen, and the potential Pearl, was, until I began typing this, completely blank, and therefore, filled with possibilities….. Makes me want to jump up & holler “damn skippy!”

Of course, that entails the risk of tweaking my injury, causing worsening pain throughout the day, so we’ll leave out the jumping part, but keep the rest. It does feel good to wake up in a positive frame of mind, to be sure. So much so, it makes me sad, for all the days of late that have not been so blessed. (Side comment: Yow!, as Zippy would say, some mornings the coffee just really hits the right spot……) I’m going to need to be careful when I go into public…. people will think it strange to see me in this state, given my normal curmudgeonly appearance….

Hell, who knows, I might even shave to greet the day, an act I’ve not performed in, well, a long time, possibly years. Normally, I shave when I feel grubby, which can take a couple weeks, in the right bacheloric frame of mind. (Not sure if ‘bacheloric’ is a word, but it should be…) In my full-on old curmudgeon bachelor cloak, I’ve been known to frighten small children, and cause dogs to bark frenziedly, so it might be a real treat for the neighborhood….. Of course, it will confuse them no end to see me with a clean-shaven, smiling face, anyway, so what the heck….

I can hardly wait to go check out Smart Bee, to see what it has in store for today. Brilliant quotations on profound ideas from the greatest minds in history will literally fall into my lap for inclusion in today’s effort. If it all lives up to its promise, this will be a very shiny one indeed…. And, whatever the poetry section comes up with is bound to be a good one…… Shall we Pearl?….

“Not all birds can fly. What separates the fliers from the walkers is the ability to take off.” — Carl Sagan
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“You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat.  You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles.  Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there.  The only difference is that there is no cat.” — Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio…

Ah, Albert…. I love Albert. I hold him in the highest esteem of anyone, alive or dead, of whom I am cognizant; believe me, that is very high esteem, indeed… We’ll not see his like again…. This quote shows one of the reasons why he was such an outstanding human being, aside from his status as the brightest genius of his time. In a few simple words, he makes a complex subject understandable for those whose minds pale in comparison to his own, yet without showing the least bit of condescension. Not to mention, some pretty good humor…. “the difference is that there is no cat.”  I laughed out loud, myself, as it is just so appropriate to the subject…..

This also demonstrates the power of his genius. He was able to look at common things in our universe, and see the physical implications of how it worked at its most basic level. He once was asked by a friend, as they walked along the beach, why he thought that sand was so strangely different when in differing amounts of water, i.e., on the ocean floor, fully drenched, it is loosely adherent, and the grains separate easily. When dry, it is also loose, and the grains do not stick together. But, at the ocean’s edge, it is hard, almost like concrete, and will form into any shape, and hold that shape until it dries out…..

Albert  paused, picked up a handful of wet sand, and gazed at it for a moment, then launched into what he thought was the reason, to wit: surface tension causes the different properties at the different levels of saturation. This, of course, is absolutely correct, and shows just how his mind almost automatically uses Occam’s Razor to narrow in on the most simple, and most correct, explanation for the question at hand. It is almost as if he was born with software for his organic computer/brain that the rest of us have never heard of, much less loaded onto our machines.

Albert Einstein, to me, is the most perfect example of how a human being can live with honor, integrity, and a deep love of both the physical universe, and for his fellow man. Every act in his life was carried out in a way that demonstrated his passion for living, and showed both the power of his intellect, the depth of his human compassion, and the steadfastness of his love for his fellows. I don’t think there is a better example in all of history to hold up for young people to admire…. Even without the genius which marked his inner life, his actions and statements all show that he lived a life of which anyone could be proud, and could do well to emulate…..
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Beauty crowds me till I die,
Beauty, mercy have on me!
But if I expire today,
Let it be in sight of thee.

~~ Emily Dickinson
————————————

In the 17th century, Kikaku, one of the ten disciples of the great Japanese poet Basho, composed a haiku:

Take a pair of wings
From a dragonfly, you would
Make a pepper-pod.

Basho told Kikaku: “That’s not a haiku. You kill the dragonfly.”

Kikaku recomposed the lines:

Add a pair of wings
To a pepper-pod, you would
Make a dragonfly.

— Amal Naj, PEPPERS
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“Of all the things I’ve ever lost, I miss my mind the most.” — Smart Bee

Having spent the last three hours experiencing typus interruptus, while dealing with issues out in the Big Blue Room, I come back to find this as the first pearl to catch my eye. Such a sad lament, one I can identify with closely, as it parallels my own experience. I first lost my mind back when I was a teen, and have been misplacing it periodically ever since. The set of psychosocial circumstances that lead up to the actual misplacement are often somewhat bizarre, but, then, that could be said of both life in general, and my own in particular….

Brutha: “I mean about … what gods are … how gods came to exist.”

Barman: “Gods don’t like that sort of thing. We get that in here some nights, when someone’s had a few. Cosmic speculation about whether gods really exist. Next thing, there’s a bolt of lightning through the roof with a note wrapped around it saying ‘Yes, we do’ and a pair of sandals with smoke coming out. That sort of thing, it takes all the interest out of metaphysical speculation.” — Terry Pratchett, “Small Gods”

Terry Pratchett is very popular among hackers, among others, mainly for statements such as this, which I’ve included here because it gives the flavor, if not the actual texture, of what I’m trying to say here. This is a particularly apt metaphor for me, because I rail so much about the lack of rationality in religion, and the cupidity of those who choose to follow its precepts. In my way of looking at the Universe, or universe, if you prefer to be politically correct, if there are going to be gods, then they should act like gods, not like spoiled old men with odd ideas about, well, almost everything…. Most of the stuff that I was raised with in the Christian sect my parents chose to expose us to seemed to me to be the actions of someone that modern society would send for psychiatric treatment, not someone who either wanted, or needed, my worship….

“All authority is quite degrading.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

When one couples the mistrust and disbelief, with which I view those points of dogma associated with Christianity, with this truism from the mind of Oscar, it helps to explain my own reason for that mistrust. The concept of God as espoused by those sects gives the ultimate authority to God, with the express implication that this authority extends to his representatives here on Earth, and THAT is ultimate degradation! Especially considering that those same representatives are supposed to also be considered as the ultimate authority on what God wants, or expects, from His creations.

You know, it just annoys me no end to capitalize the He, or His, when in reference to God, just for the sake of literary accuracy…. so, I’m not going to worry about it from now on, as I find the whole concept of a God who wants worship to be distasteful in the first place…. Just WANTING to be worshiped, to my mind, indicates that it is not deserved….

Any who, to get back to the  earthly reps of gods…. These charlatans, by the apparent sincerity of their own faith, and their skillfully enthusiastic words, all of which reinforce the underlying, inherent elitism, always manage to convince others that what they are spewing is the truth, and that they are indeed the voice of god, or that a book written by partisans is an unbiased account of reality.

To someone with my severe sensitivity to crap, this makes me itch, and has done so since I was about four years old, the age I first felt some doubts about the stories I was being told…. Even then, a lot of it tended to stretch my sense of rationality to the limit, and caused me to doubt the veracity of the tales we heard. Call me strange, it’s okay…. I’ve heard it before, from a LOT of Sunday School teachers…..

“Always store beer in a dark place.” — Lazarus Long

This kind of thinking is more along the lines of what I hold to be true, according to what I’ve observed in my life. It may seem a bit obscure, but this statement from Lazarus is one I’ve found to be one that grows larger the longer one considers all its implications, and all of its power as metaphor. And, if it has no other effect, it may help someone keep their beer in a drinkable state….. which I’ve found to be as important in the larger picture as just about anything else I can think of….

“It’s all there…. all there inside you already. Happiness, love, serenity, peace, all are waiting for us to discover them, right there where they have always been, inside us, abiding…..”  ~~ gigoid
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C’est bon! C’est un fait acompli! Boy, am I glad to finish this one…. It’s been a real experience this morning, and afternoon, what with trips to the pharmacy, surfing in Smart Bee, some rather convoluted reasoning and ranting, etc., I’m bushed…. It must be age-related fatigue, or perhaps just the normal daily letdown after completing the Pearl…. whatever, it’s done. 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

Kowabunga!

But for the grace of Sally….

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Ffolkes,
So begins another day in Paradise, eh? Paradise being defined, of course, as wherever I am. As the romantic fool that I am, I’d love to be able to say that “Paradise is wherever ____ is….”   the blank space used here to delineate the lady who makes me feel that way. Sadly, I currently have no name to put in the space, though I hold out hope that it won’t stay blank forever. Until then, I, like every other old fool in these parts, have to furnish my own paradise, such as it may be…..

No worries, though…. all things considered, I am a pretty easy going guy, and it doesn’t take a lot to make me happy…. A good book, a bite to eat, and I’m pretty much good to go. I’ve learned to live without the extreme pleasure of morning conversation, or the balm of knowing there is someone at home who cares enough just to want to be there. I do miss that feeling, though, that knowledge that there is someone out there who gives a shit what happens to me, and actually spends time thinking about me during the day, just as I miss having someone to occupy my mind in that way. Ah well, life goes on, and that kind of relationship only happens when we stop thinking about it, and start getting on with life…..

In that spirit, I think I’ll make this one of the shortest intro sections in several months, and get on with today’s dive. I’m trying to cultivate patience, in my quest to keep from killing any federal employees, so I will extend that cultivation into the area of relationship, and be patient for the appearance of someone with whom I can find happiness…. who knows, maybe they’re already nearby, and I just haven’t been attentive enough to what is around me…. Time will tell….. In the meantime, Shall we Pearl?…..
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“”We’re not talking about the same thing,” he said. “For you the world is weird because if you’re not bored with it you’re at odds with it. For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must accept responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.”” — Don Juan

So far this morning, my mind is playing tricks…. It is allowing itself to become distracted by any little thought that passes by, refusing to settle in to one train of thought for long. I’ve now been at this about an hour, and not even this wonderful pearl from Carlos Castaneda is able to push my brain into an analytical mode of operation, at least, no so far……

I first read the Don Juan series of books, the first four anyway, when I was in my twenties, having first come across them when in college. They were a significant part of my philosophical training, and included my earliest attempts at moving away from the more classical forms of philosophy. I even went so far as to experiment with the mushrooms used by the Indians to produce visions, the psilocybin branch of fungus whose use became popular through the books. I can’t say I saw the visions I expected, but, it was definitely a learning experience….. I’m just not sure exactly what I learned….

But, that is what Don Juan is saying here, after all…. We don’t really pay attention to the universe, because we are too busy trying to control it, so we end up missing the perceptions that would be the most valuable to us, while we are trying to change that which cannot be changed. The universe is filled with “stuff” about which we know nothing, because we are unable to free our perceptive abilities sufficiently to see, or hear, or feel them. We are like blind men, shuffling about a dark room, bumping into furniture we cannot see, and exclaiming that we love the pain in our shins….

For example, in one of the Don Juan books, the brujo, Don Juan, describes to Carlos Castaneda a method of traveling rapidly across the desert…. The runner assumes a bent over posture, with arms hanging down by their sides, in a posture that appears as if they are bending over to grasp an object on the ground. While standing in place, one begins to bring the legs up to the chest in a high kick, but without kicking, but dropping the leg down as the other comes up, producing a running in place movement, with the feet rising high over the ground at each step, and bounding like a kangaroo when it hits the ground. The runner then focuses their vision a fairly long distance ahead, leans forward, and begins to run across the landscape, like a bounding, bent-over beast…..

It all sounds rather odd, and awkward, but, I have experimented with it, and can honestly claim that it is exactly as effective as it is claimed to be. While on a visit to my uncle, who lived near the desert in Phoenix, AZ, I went out into the open desert nearby to try to perform the described method. I assumed the posture, began moving my legs (and found my breathing automatically fell into a synchronous pattern that matched the leg movement), and then leaned forward to run….

It was an incredible experience, as one begins to almost fly over the ground, touching only with the feet for a second or less, then bounding on…. I didn’t keep count, but after only a moment of running, I stopped, and turned to look back at where I had begun…. I was astounded to see that in a mere few seconds, perhaps fifteen or so, I had traversed several hundred yards…. literally about five times as far as I could run over flat ground in the same amount of time, running normally…. I was dumbstruck, but, being a scientist by training and nature, I proceeded to try it again, with exactly the same results…. I’ve tried on different types of landscape, and it is as effective on the beach, or on a hilly mountain area, as it is in the desert; even in urban landscapes, as I’ve covered several blocks in mere seconds in my experiments…..

Now, of course, I don’t run at all, (too much risk of tweaking my back….) but, should it ever be needed, it remains a way that I could travel a long distance with little effort, for I found that after running this way, one is NOT fatigued, but, if possible, one feels even more energetic at the end of the run than at the outset. It also serves as a reminder that the universe is much bigger than just what we see, or pay attention to in our little bubbles of attention. It is our place as humans to explore all of that universe that we can, to try to understand as much of it as we may….. And the quest to know must go on until we are laid beneath the ground, to pass on to the next stage of existence…..

“People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.” — St. Augustine

I guess it all boils down to this:  Pay attention!…… You never know what may come in handy…..
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“Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

Black Cat

A ghost, though invisible, still is like a place
your sight can knock on, echoing; but here
within this thick black pelt, your strongest gaze
will be absorbed and utterly disappear:

just as a raving madman, when nothing else
can ease him, charges into his dark night
howling, pounds on the padded wall, and feels
the rage being taken in and pacified.

She seems to hide all looks that have ever fallen
into her, so that, like an audience,
she can look them over, menacing and sullen,
and curl to sleep with them. But all at once

as if awakened, she turns her face to yours;
and with a shock, you see yourself, tiny,
inside the golden amber of her eyeballs
suspended, like a prehistoric fly.

Rainer Maria Rilke
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The price of Truth varies over time, and according to the whims of circumstance. Though its intrinsic value is, of course, immutable, the consequences of its publication, or its suppression, can change drastically. I had originally thought to put a diatribe here, a pointed rant on a frequent flier in the skies of ECR (Exploring Consensual Reality…. you know, this blog, the place you ARE….). The rant, however, faded from my mind after a couple of pearls showed up to distract me…. then came the other two of those included below, and I saw that I was done…. These four simple statements make a very valid, pointed argument for Reason, and Truth, and for their value in bringing some sort of order from the chaos in which we live…. So, here is an old school pearl, with a very sharp point….. read it carefully….

“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” — Oscar Wilde

“If the Bible proves that God exists then comic books prove the existence of Superman.” — Smart Bee

“It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.” — Buddha

“Who then is free?  The wise man who can command himself.” — Horace (65-8 B.C.)

See? Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? And you’ll be glad to know that this WILL be included in the final exam, to be given someday, far in the future….
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“I’ve wasted an excellent opportunity to remain silent.” — Smart Bee

I sure have! Too late now, though, so it will have to do. I’ve already labeled it for placement in the “it’s done” category, and as you know, once it goes there, there’s no turning back….. I’m off, to try to figure out how to pass the time until the mail gets here, to either delight, or depress, me, depending on the contents, or lack, thereof…. Boy, isn’t grammar, punctuation, and syntax wonderful? I think 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!

Pertaining solely to sincere offers….

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Ffolkes,
I’ve changed my mind, though there was nothing particularly wrong with the one I had. No, I’ve reached a limit I thought, and hoped, I’d never reach, and it has moved me to change plans for when Social Security gets done fussing about, and awards my benefits. Now, instead of taking the first bit of money I get to travel, I’m buying a gun…. and, since there is little purpose in owning one if not to use it, I’m going hunting as soon as I have it in hand…..

What will I be hunting, you ask? Easy….. bureaucrats, politicians, preachers, or rednecks, whichever pops up in the scope first. Any one of those four groups, as I define them, would furnish me with an ample number of targets, any of whom deserve to die…. They actually deserve slow, agonizing deaths, but I’ll settle for blasting them into oblivion quickly, if it means I get to watch, and to pull the trigger…. The emotional release will be ecstatic, and so will the knowledge that the world is a safer place for the good ffolkes who are not party to, but are subjected to, their vicious games of manipulation and power-grabbing….

I know, you’re probably wondering why I’m so pissed off this morning…. I’m not sure, exactly, but it may have something to do with having to officially decide yesterday to give up on Christmas, again, for the third straight year. It’s not that my kids will care, they’re adults now, and will understand, but it is truly a hard thing, emotionally, to accept not being able to even think about buying gifts for others, merely because I have to keep the money available to buy food to eat in the last week of the month. All because the assholes who run the system have set it up to harass and annoy people rather than help them….

Now I’ve torn it….. I’m now just about as angry and upset as I can possibly be, and it is a very good thing that I don’t already own a gun, or I’d be out using it now. Every time I turn around, I’m bumping up against another piece of poverty, and am reminded that my situation is one that only time can fix, that I’m trapped into waiting for the bureaucrats to act. In fact, I’m so ripped right now, I’m going to have to take a short break, to pull it together enough to be able to type….. I’ll be back, as Arnie said to such good effect (maybe his only good line, ever….)….

“Humor is the best antidote to reality.” — Smart Bee

Okay, the homicidal urges have passed, for now…. Damn this emotionalism, anyway! Frigging PTSD is really a pain at times…. think about the past… pain and joy in turn, break into tears. Think about the future…. fun, but unproductive, break into tears. Think about the present, same-same. My tear ducts are getting raw and wrinkled from passing so much salty water, and I’m quite sure I can do without the assault of fluids on my sinuses every time my subconscious decides it wants to grieve again. Ah well, I’m now going to apply the most severe form of distraction I can, and then try to write about something else…. I’ll let you know if it works…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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So, my brain is being uncooperative today, so much so that it has caused me to pick pearls that fade on me…. that is, after a single paragraph, I’m stuck for anything more to say about the subject, at least anything in my usual vein of sardonicism and humorous approbation and examination. (What does that MEAN?….) Any who, I’m going to use some mental judo, and use its own weight against it… so here are two very short pearls, to make one decent sized pearl to start this now staggeringly disorganized process….

“Don’t Panic.” — The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I’m not really sure why I chose to use this today. It is, of course, very good advice, applicable to virtually every situation of which one can conceive in a rational state of mind. Or, I suppose, in an irrational state…. Panic, while useful as a motivational factor, or perhaps more accurately, as fuel for the energy to act, most often dims our bulb. That is to say, it drastically reduces our overall ability to think, channeling the mind into those patterns of thought that can lead to precipitous actions, of the type which can be highly dangerous to our health and welfare, as they so often act without attention to details, such as a tall cliff directly in the path we choose to run from a wild animal…. So, while it may be useful in increasing one’s speed and strength for short periods, one must not fall prey to its effect on the mind, which is generally counter-productive in achieving the ultimate goal, of survival….
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“If a lawyer and an IRS agent were both drowning, and you could only save one of them, would you go to lunch or read the paper?” — Smart Alec Bee

Actually, in re: attribution for this piece of brilliance, the nod may have to go to George Carlin…. If this isn’t his, then it should be, as it sounds just like something that would have occurred to him naturally.

What interests me in this little bit of humorous cruelty is the mere fact of its existence, regardless of its author’s identity. When one factors in that most people, if asked this question with a serious face, would stop to consider the question seriously, it becomes even more humorous, and more cruel. Not that anyone is going to lose any sleep over making a cruel joke about either lawyers or IRS agents; in our society, they hold the distinct title of most hated professions available to anyone…. and with good cause, whether it annoys them to hear it or not……
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I’m not sure if it was obvious, or not, but the above is an attempt to regain some control over this process today; it got away from me quite early, and I’m not certain what is going to work to get it back on track…. I hope this doesn’t mean I’ll have to drag a poem out of my head; it HURTS! Ah well, if I must, I must…. but let us first trust to Smart Bee to furnish me with at least one good pearl to turn into something worthwhile, and I’ll be happy…. or at least content….. Onward……

“Each man can interpret another’s experience only by his own.” — Thoreau
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The Tale of Custard The Dragon

Belinda lived in a little white house,
With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse,
And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon,
And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon.

Now the name of the little black kitten was Ink,
And the little gray mouse, she called her Blink,
And the little yellow dog was sharp as Mustard,
But the dragon was a coward, and she called him Custard.

Custard the dragon had big sharp teeth,
And spikes on top of him and scales underneath,
Mouth like a fireplace, chimney for a nose,
And realio, trulio, daggers on his toes.

Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears,
And Ink and Blink chased lions down the stairs,
Mustard was as brave as a tiger in a rage,
But Custard cried for a nice safe cage.

Belinda tickled him, she tickled him unmerciful,
Ink, Blink and Mustard, they rudely called him Percival,
They all sat laughing in the little red wagon
At the realio, trulio, cowardly dragon.

Belinda giggled till she shook the house,
And Blink said Week!, which is giggling for a mouse,
Ink and Mustard rudely asked his age,
When Custard cried for a nice safe cage.

Suddenly, suddenly they heard a nasty sound,
And Mustard growled, and they all looked around.
Meowch! cried Ink, and Ooh! cried Belinda,
For there was a pirate, climbing in the winda.

Pistol in his left hand, pistol in his right,
And he held in his teeth a cutlass bright,
His beard was black, one leg was wood;
It was clear that the pirate meant no good.

Belinda paled, and she cried, Help! Help!
But Mustard fled with a terrified yelp,
Ink trickled down to the bottom of the household,
And little mouse Blink strategically mouseholed.

But up jumped Custard, snorting like an engine,
Clashed his tail like irons in a dungeon,
With a clatter and a clank and a jangling squirm
He went at the pirate like a robin at a worm.

The pirate gaped at Belinda’s dragon,
And gulped some grog from his pocket flagon,
He fired two bullets but they didn’t hit,
And Custard gobbled him, every bit.

Belinda embraced him, Mustard licked him,
No one mourned for his pirate victim
Ink and Blink in glee did gyrate
Around the dragon that ate the pyrate.

Belinda still lives in her little white house,
With her little black kitten and her little gray mouse,
And her little yellow dog and her little red wagon,
And her realio, trulio, little pet dragon.

Belinda is as brave as a barrel full of bears,
And Ink and Blink chase lions down the stairs,
Mustard is as brave as a tiger in a rage,
But Custard keeps crying for a nice safe cage.

Ogden Nash
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“The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind.” — Albert Camus

Albert is right, but is obviously a proponent of saying what he has to say, then stopping. In this case, stopping does not give enough clarity to this idea, which is a central one to a complete and balanced outlook, or, if you will, a balanced mind. It is indeed vulgar, as well as ultimately unproductive, to NEED to be right. What should be more important is to KNOW, or be able to learn to know, what is right…. Only then can a rational decision be made as to the correct action, or non-action to pursue. I think in this particular case, Mr. Camus was telling us something we should all know; he was not telling us all that he knew….

I find this to be true of much of his philosophy, in that it only goes so far before dumping the reader back into a place where they must use their own resources to figure out his exact meaning. I’m not sure if this is deliberate, a method to force people to think, or if it is just his own sense of independence and curmudgeonry that causes him to only share part of what he really understands. I suppose, in its way, it is a very effective technique to encourage others to think, an activity of which I wholeheartedly approve, and is also, I suppose, one of the reasons I’ve always liked his published statements, and use them fairly frequently in pearls, or rather, as pearls….

In my world, the search for Truth is pretty much the backbone of all that I do. Even the mundane activities I perform are in some way in support of that search, or, at least, I’d like to think they are…. because the Truth is very important to me, and how I feel about the world. The use of it for manipulation, or its suppression for the same purpose, infuriates me, and makes me want to carve out of any human I see doing so, that part of their soul that makes them misuse the Truth for their own purposes, or allows them to believe that they have any right to do so…. To me, it is the simplest interpretation of the Golden Rule…. If I expect myself to honor the Truth, then I would expect others to do the same….

Sadly, that is MY belief, and very few of the people in the world who are in positions of power over others have any investment at all in promoting Truth, as it doesn’t suit their self-interest…. The statement that started this discussion is, in fact, one of the best ways to identify those in society who tend to act in their own interests before those of others. The need to BE right implies that one need not necessarily be IN the right; in fact, it is often to their advantage to be wrong, and lie about what is right, twisting facts and circumstance to suit their purpose. If someone insists on being right, you can usually bet they are not being entirely truthful….

“If what the philosophers say be true,–that all men’s actions proceed from one source; that as they assent from a persuasion that a thing is so, and dissent from a persuasion that it is not, and suspend their judgment from a persuasion that it is uncertain,–so likewise they seek a thing from a persuasion that it is for their advantage.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Book i, Chap. xviii

Human nature, and the flaws that are part of that nature, afford an endless opportunity for dissection. It’s really too bad that my mind is not in a place to go any further today….. Oh, sure, I could come up with any number of examples of the kind of deliberate selfishness and cupidity that characterizes that part of our tribe that preys on the rest of us; the news is full of their lies and shenanigans every day.

But, I’m already exhausted by today’s effort to be rational, and since it is Sunday, have decided to give my mind the rest of the day off, and hope that my emotional state can go with the flow…… If not, well, I can always splurge, spend five bucks on whiskey, and sleep really good tonight…. But, that’s just hiding, and it’s indubitably not a good idea to bust the budget so early in the month….

I wish I COULD offer some simple explanation for why people can be such assholes….. but, I can’t. I guess we’ll all just have to deal with them the best we can, each in our own way….. and hope for the best……

“I feel like I’m in a Toilet Bowl with a thumbtack in my forehead!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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Once again, I am compelled to look at a Pearl from the standpoint of “well, it’s done, and that’s all I can say about it….”  Hmm…. that’s been happening a lot lately; I’ll have to think about that…. tomorrow, during my procrastination hour…… Until tomorrow, then…..  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!

By all means, make it palatable….

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Ffolkes,
Having survived, and even thrived, through another morning’s immersion into the mundane issues of physical demands, I sit to write with clear head, and burgeoning hope. The clarity of mind is welcome, if a tad surprising, and the hope is undefined, but welcome nonetheless for its bolstering qualities. Heretofore, I have been tempted to rail and rant against the inevitable presence of our resident nemesis, but even Murphy cannot disturb me this morning, as I bask in the glow of….. Wait, that isn’t me. I don’t bask, nor do I glow, so what is that doing in my paragraph? And Murphy ALWAYS disturbs me, it’s his job….

Must have been some imp, fussing with my typing hands, slipping that in on me when I wasn’t paying close enough attention. Mischievous little suckers, those imps…. Well, then, good morning, again, or, on looking, initially….. The perfect word to describe my current SOM (State of Mind) would be “discombobulated”, a word of fine pedigree and stately pronunciation, and perfectly descriptive of how it feels this morning to use my brain. Of course, that right there should have been a clue, when I first sat up in bed; one isn’t normally accustomed to “feel” one’s brain when it is working, any more than we “feel” a muscle move when we ask it to perform a task, or “feel” our fingernails growing….. “Feeling” the brain in action would seem to indicate a certain stiffness and/or a degree of dysfunction….

But, then, dysfunctional brain issues are nothing new in my world, so it doesn’t surprise me that I didn’t notice at first how things were going to be today. There are steps I can take, and will take, to reverse the course of my brain’s initial direction, so it isn’t a catastrophe, merely an inconvenience. Hmph…. inconvenience…. there’s another word that I’ve become all too familiar with in the last couple of years, at the behest of the federal government…. Ah well, inconvenience has yet to transform into impossibly frustrating, though it does approach that level regularly, so I guess we’ll just accept this as one more day started out with less than normal smoothness, and get on with it….

With all of that noted, whatever it was, we should now proceed to our daily attempt to bring some degree of comprehension to reality, to try to stimulate some random coherence amongst the population, with the overall intent of increasing the total amount of thinking that goes on in any particular day on this planet…. The more thoughts floating around, the better chance we have of one of them helping the situation, desperate as it may be. All you can do is all you can do, and this is what I do….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“I always have a quotation for everything  — it saves original thinking.” — Dorothy Sayers

I knew there was something about Ms. Sayers I liked! Besides her books, of course….. My muse seems to be taking a short sabbatical, and I’m stuck here, trying to figure out something about which to write, or rant. I really do feel like I’d like to take some shots at the government, but an appropriate pearl doesn’t seem to be forthcoming. However, some others have surfaced that will do quite nicely for an old school pearl, so I’m forced, as it were, to fall back on that format….. Here then are some relatively random, but pointed thoughts on government, and the peripheral co-conspirators of those who delve into that cesspool of human ambition….

“Men who allow their love of power to give them a distorted view of the world are to be found in every asylum: one man will think he is the governor of the Bank of England, another will think he is the king, and yet another will think he is God.  Highly similar delusions, if expressed by educated men in obscure language, lead to professorships of philosophy, and if expressed by emotional men in eloquent language, lead to dictatorships.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967)

“A Galileo could no more be elected president of the United States than he could be elected Pope of Rome.  Both high posts are reserved for men favored by God with an extraordinary genius for swathing the bitter facts of life in bandages of self-illusion.” — H. L. Mencken

“Big Business and State Socialism are very much alike, especially Big Business.” — G. K. Chesterton, G.K.’s Weekly, 4/10/26

“A man attains an elevated position only when his mediocrity prevents him from being a threat to others. And for this reason a democracy is never governed by the most competent, but rather by those whose insignificance will not jeopardize anyone else’s self-esteem.” — Nicolo Machiavelli

“Men often believe — or pretend — that the “Law” is something sacred, or at least a science — an unfounded assumption very convenient to governments.” — Smart Bee

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.  Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.  Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force.  Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.” — Patrick Henry 3 Elliot at 45, Debates In The Virginia Convention

“It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.” — H.L. Mencken

I LOVE this job! Oh, wait, that’s right, nobody’s paying me…. well, it’s probably a good thing, then, that I enjoy it so much….. That last line turned this from an merely average poke at the PTB, aka our beloved ruling class, into quite an adequate rip. So be it….. and let us thank our lucky stars I didn’t fall into a rant, which, by the look of the above, would have been a doozy….. (I must have used that word previously, as Spell Checker ignored it completely…..)
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“All men are poets.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“All poets are mad.” — Robert Burns

‘Perhaps not to be is to be without your being.’

Perhaps not to be is to be without your being,
without your going, that cuts noon light
like a blue flower, without your passing
later through fog and stones,
without the torch you lift in your hand
that others may not see as golden,
that perhaps no one believed blossomed
the glowing origin of the rose,
without, in the end, your being, your coming
suddenly, inspiringly, to know my life,
blaze of the rose-tree, wheat of the breeze:
and it follows that I am, because you are:
it follows from ‘you are’, that I am, and we:
and, because of love, you will, I will,
We will, come to be.

Pablo Neruda
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All of us have our little illusions about life, and how we fit into the big picture. For example, I like to think that I am fortunate to have been born with more than an average appreciation of the world in which we live, or perhaps, a deeper understanding than most of how it works, and just how beautiful it is. This isn’t to say that I am better than any other person in any way; it’s just that my perceptions have always been faster, and deeper, and more accurate than those of my peer group, by all the evidence I can muster. It is not just a blessing, either, for it is just as much a curse, tending to cause a certain distance between me and others, one that takes time, and familiarity, and a certain willingness on my part to adapt, to keep that distance from becoming a problematic issue…..

“People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.” — Jean Jacques Rousseau, “Emile, ou de l’education”, 1762

To look at this blog, it would seem that I am one who knows little, as I tend to ramble on incessantly, seeming to care not at all that I am exposing my potential ignorance to others. And, quite simply, I don’t care…. For most of my life, I spent a lot of time keeping my mouth shut, and my opinions to myself, even though I could see that what I was thinking was more accurate, and certainly more reasonable, than what I was observing others to perceive, and/or think. Or, in many cases, what passed for thinking….

Over the last 60 years, mostly, I kept my silence on a wide range of subjects, to preserve peace, and to ensure that my opinions, which were often radically different than those of my peer group, did not produce enmity among them. Since retiring from work, and reducing my social interaction to the lowest level of my life, I find that all those opinions and thoughts are pouring out of me at an almost alarming rate. I also find that I quite simply don’t give a shit what anyone thinks about it….

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeoning of chance;
My head is bloody but unbowed.
It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll;
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

— Henley

Not that I will not listen to opposing viewpoints; I am always ready to consider reasonable contrary evidence. But, if anyone gets offended, or upset in their emotional status in any way, by what I’ve written, well, all I can say is, too bad, so sad….. Any such will just have to learn to live with disappointment, I guess…. Actually, now that I’ve gotten used to being able to express myself without any self-imposed limitations, outside the boundaries of good taste, and compassion, I enjoy hearing what others may have to say about my thoughts. Dialogue with a challenging mind can be an intense pleasure, for sure, and I like it when people argue with me with passion, and reason.

“Speak the truth, but leave immediately after.” — Slovenian Proverb

However, I have also found that this piece of advice to be a valuable one. Sometimes (most times, actually….) it is a good thing to say what is there to be said, and then leaving….. This allows the other party to assimilate the ideas, and to come to some conclusions about it, without having the distraction of my presence. If their reaction is one of great passion in a negative sense, then it is better that I’m not there to either witness it, or to suffer its perpetration upon my psyche; in extreme cases, it saves me from having to duck and cover, or to defend myself on a physical level, neither of which is a preferable outcome to peaceful dialogue. So, I tend to say my piece, then boogie, as it were, to avoid any potential unpleasantness….

Having now submitted nearly eight hundred words in support of the first aphorism in this section, I’ll try to bring this to a logical close. I guess I’ll do it like this….. I saw a picture on Facebook, with some accompanying text that is the perfect ending for this small diatribe…. It’s a small piece of advice, well-stated, that summarizes what I’m saying quite nicely, to wit:

“If you really want to learn how to not care about what others think, just study your cat….. Seriously, they don’t give a shit.”

Pax ominbus……
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Not too shabby, for one created sans any help from my muse…. Though, come to think of it, that last section may have been a late gift from them….. Hmm… I guess now I’ll have to apologize to them for doubting their loyalty and work ethic…. So be it. Now that the delusional portion of the program is completed, it must be time to send this on its way through cyberspace into the internet cloud…. as soon as the library opens….. In the meantime…..  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!

From chaos, order grows….

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2

Ffolkes,
Sometimes, we are compelled to celebrate days that pass that have some kind of significance, even if we have no real reason for celebrating…. Take today, for example. Seventy-one years ago on this date, this country was attacked at Pearl Harbor, and our involvement in WWII began. Also of note today, if I pull it together enough to get this done, I will post my 550th Pearl of Virtual Wisdom here on WordPress…. Two events on opposite ends of the scale of importance to the world, yet both of equal weight in my mind, due to their relationship to me, i.e., they’re in MY head today…. Self-interest is powerful, neh? It gives a small clue as to how that little quirk of humanity’s can cause so much trouble in the world…..

Don’t worry, I’m not going to start ranting so soon…. This isn’t a lead-in to a rant, it’s an intro, and I couldn’t, for the life of me, find anything else in my early morning brain that would suit. This really doesn’t do it, either, but, it is at least flowing out, rather than sitting there like a lump, saying, “Gee, boss, I thought this would work…”

I’m telling you, the crap one has to put up with from one’s own brain can be really frustrating at times…. I mean, here I am, awake, and ready to write, and all it can come up with is Pearl Harbor Day, and 550 posts. Whoopee…. Besides, given the state of things around here just now, I wouldn’t trust myself to rant…. it might turn on me, and I’d start confessing to all sorts of weird stuff….. Such as admitting to preferring the music of Abba to most anything written by Wagner…..

No, I’m not going there…. Abba is scary enough to keep me out of that. I’m hoping that Smart Bee will have a lot of good material for me, which means, given the ubiquitous attentions of Murphy on which we may count, that there won’t be much of anything to use. Bah! Now I’m getting grumpy, flinching from the blows before they’re even thrown…. I haven’t even seen Murphy yet, but my shoulders are already hunched in preparation…. Oh, wait, there he is…. I just discovered that the heating unit in my room has stopped giving out heat, and is cheerfully blowing out cool air for my comfort, even though it’s cold in here…. SIGH…..

Now I have to call the landlord, and allow someone in my room to fix it…. what a pain. I’ll have to make the bed, and cover up all the burn holes in the carpet (just kidding….no holes, just normal bachelor dirt….)…. It is simply more proof that Murphy hates me, for whatever reason he may have decided on years ago, and will continue to make my life miserable as long as he is around. Since he is an immortal, existing merely as a Natural Law, or Principle of Existence, that promises to be a long time…. Ah well, at least he is something to write about that is always present, and always providing me with new examples of his imaginative creativity in causing chaos for people….

Well, this intro has gotten completely out of hand. It started off weakly, got worse, and proceeded to wander all over the landscape. I’d best start today’s dive soon, as this is looking as if it could spend the whole day just spewing out irrelevant nonsense, about nothing much at all. Of course, that phrase might conceivably apply to all that I write, but I won’t tell anybody if you won’t. Six paragraphs, I think, is quite enough torture for one day, so I’ll now attempt to get on with the rest of this post…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.” — Mark Twain

As is his stock in trade, Mr. Twain once again gives humanity a solid poke in the ribs, in a humorous, even comfortable way that makes us want to laugh about our all-too-human foibles, instead of crying, which would really be more appropriate. In his assessment of both the character of most men, and most dogs, he is absolutely correct, and shows in one simple, sardonic phrase, just how ugly people can be. In fact, I can honestly say that, in my life, I have met many more dogs who deserve to go to Heaven, than I have men or women. Of course, I wouldn’t wish that on any dog, but, you know what I mean. Dogs are better ffolkes than most folks, in the world I see around me….

And this leads me into a perfect ranting jump-off point…. “Heaven goes by favor”  This is all too accurate; in order to get into the club, one has to meet a certain standard, that of faith. Of course that standard is pretty easy to meet, as all it requires is a verbal commitment ( accompanied,  I suppose by a heart-felt commitment….) that one believes in JC, or Mohammed, or Buddha, or whomever, and will try to follow their teachings. No pressure to actually do so, just commit to it, and you’re in. Or, go ahead and live your life walking the path of evil, then convert on the deathbed, and you’re in…. according to their rules…. Or, in other words, it’s all who you know…..

“An ancient buddha said, Mountains are mountains; waters are waters. These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains.” — Dogen

I’ve recently been reading an author whose work I had read in my youth, when I was devouring science fiction on a daily basis. Samuel R. Delany has written some powerful novels, as well as shorter works. The most recent I read, Babel-17, uses the structure and meaning of words in language as the basis for the plot. In the book, he relates how important perception is to meaning, and how the way we use language can actually work to program the brain, just like the organic computer it is. What struck me is how the process he describes, which is what can be observed in people, if you look closely, shows just how powerful a tool language can be, when used in full consciousness of what it means, and what it CAN do…..

People base their entire existence on a few words, and what those words mean to them. If someone else (say, a preacher?) is able to influence the person’s choice of the words that have that power, then that person becomes the willing slave of whomever supplies him with the words. This is a subtle process, that operates below the level of consciousness that most folks are aware of; they don’t realize how they are being manipulated by the very words they use, into thinking along certain lines, and in certain ways, all of which benefit the manipulator in some way, much more than they do the one whose thoughts are being channeled.

“This is Daddy’s bedtime secret for today: Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue.” — Eugene O’Neill

Mr. O’Neill was a decent playwright, but as a philosopher, he sucked, plain and simple. This is merely the parroting of basic Christian dogma, and as such stands as a perfect example of how religious institutions tend to lie to their constituents….. I can say this because I have my own secret for today: Man is NOT born broken; he is born as a blank slate, and what is written upon it is only what they are taught to write. Since the first premise is false, the rest of the train of thought becomes irrelevant, and you can easily see where it is just an attempt to get people to accept the untruths, and keep their patterns of thought within the boundaries drawn by dogma….

Sorry if such an idea is offensive, but, I don’t need to be “born again”, I did just fine the first time. I’m not broken. I’m not guilty of original sin, any more than is anyone else. That single concept, original sin, has been the most destructive idea that Man has come up with in all of our long history, and is responsible for much of the torture, warfare, and egregiously evil events of the last 3000 years. I kid you not…. That simple lie, that we are all somehow born inherently sinful, and guilty of something, is pure hogwash; it is the most blatant falsehood to have been thought up, and perpetrated upon the rest of mankind, EVER!

What a ridiculous idea! To think that a newborn, of any species, should bear the guilt for an action performed before their birth, is just plain stupid, and self-serving. Not to mention that the act we are supposedly guilty of is the acquisition of knowledge, which is, to me, NOT something for which we should be punished, but rather deserve to be rewarded. Of course, knowledge is its own reward, so that really doesn’t matter, or shouldn’t.

But, in order to gain control over others, preachers have, since the beginning of history, tried to convince the rest of us that they are the only ones who have the right answer, all based on a bald-faced lie, and a false assumption….. And, since a large percentage of mankind is too lazy to think for themselves, or to risk thinking independently of others, THEY FALL FOR IT!  It almost makes me ashamed to be human, to be truthful….

But, we have dogs as our companions, and they love us, so we must not be ALL bad…. right? Right…. so, just follow your dog’s example, and just BE moral, don’t try to follow what others may tell you is moral. You’ll do a lot better, in life, and when it counts, after life…..

“#8 Go back. Everything you need to know is in the first seven axioms.” ~~ Peruaosophy, Axiom #8, by gigoid
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Of late, say, in the last two months, my pain level has gone up near the top of the scale more than once. I try not to complain too much about it, as I’m not the only one in the world who lives with pain, and I know it could be worse than it is (because it often is worse than it is…. Also, I see others with worse conditions to deal with, and it brings mine into perspective….).

Earlier, I was perusing the book of poems I took from the library with Emily D’s collected works, and found one of hers that I have loved for a long time, since way before I really understood pain. She certainly had some deep insight into its nature, which leads me to surmise she had some experience with it in some way…. Hard to achieve this kind of insight without some direct exposure. Whether that is true or not, this poem is a very accurate take on pain, and tends to soothe my soul, whenever I come across it again…..

Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there were
A day when it was not.

It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain

One of the reasons I love Emily’s work is its breadth of expression, of all the human emotions on which it touches. After seeing the above poem, on the very next page I found the following, and knew again the sheer genius of her spirit…..

I had no time to hate, because
The grave would hinder me,
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity.

Nor had I time to love; but since
Some industry must be,
The little toil of love, I thought
Was large enough for me.

~~ Emily Dickinson
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It is now two plus hours since starting this morning’s effort, and I’m beat. I’m afraid I’ll have to go to my default position when feeling thus; old school pearls are that default. Here are a series of pearls, pointing in an obvious direction today. It’s all about how to live life in such a way that you can get up in the morning, and be able to look yourself in the eye in the mirror…..

“What is left when honour is lost?” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 265

“Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in their readiness to doubt.” — H. L. Mencken

“Avoid fried foods which angry up the blood.” — Satchel Paige

“If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it if you have love, compassion, and tolerance. The clear truth of a person’s love of God is if that person genuinely shows love to fellow human beings.” — Dalai Lama

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” — Albert Einstein

“When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced.  Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.” — Old Indian saying

“Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving in words evidence of the fact.” — George Eliot (1819-1880) — Impressions on Theophrastus Such (1879)

On that note, I’m outta here…. to refrain from giving any further evidence….
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SIGH…. One of these days, I’ll find out where the rest of my mind went…. Hope springs eternal, eh what? I’m again uncertain of how to look at today’s effort, but, since that is not anything unusual, we’ll just go with the flow, and let it fly. I’ve seen, and done, worse…… Pontius rhea, as they say in Piraeus, meaning, “it all flows”, sort of…..  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!