Tag Archives: Shakespeare

New styles of designer cheese….

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Ffolkes,
On most mornings, I can bring the power of the Metaphorse into play for the opening paragraphs of this missive. Phantasmagoria flow from my mind onto the screen, swirling and shifting into the shapes that will fascinate and entice. Odd connections and teasing concepts flutter around the reader’s head, pushing and pulling toward the edge of what is real. The very face of Reality can assume secondary and tertiary roles in passion plays of great import, and all hope of sanity retreats…..

Then, other mornings, such as this one, even the power of speech eludes me; the power of the Metaphorse is well out of reach. At this point, I’m amazed that I am able to type at all. It’s nothing untoward, I’m sure, just a lack of sugar complicating the start- and warm-up process. I should be fine after the second cup of coffee…. But it sure is inefficient, and nothing drives me crazier than inefficiency. Which is probably why Murphy likes to mess with me so much…. I’m an easy target….

Ah well, I should know by now that no matter how I feel upon arising, the lad will have preceded me and set up some fine, witty way to mess with my head within a few moments. It’s almost comforting…. Since ’tis the way of things, and there is nothing at all to do about it, I’m going to do what I probably should do more, which is try to ignore it. Maybe if I don’t give him so much attention, he’ll find some other bozo to go bother…. but, if not, at least I’ll have found a pearl or two by that time…. and I’ll settle for that….. Shall we Pearl?….
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A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” — Lazarus Long

This statement has always appealed to me, as it is a fine description of what kind of person I’ve always wanted to be. Everything I see, or perceive, is of interest to me; it’s all grist for the mill. I’ve never understood how boredom can be a problem, for there is always something new to be learned, even in the most mundane circumstances. I’ve always felt that to be bored means that one is tired of what is going on inside one’s own mind. That is not something to which I will admit, and since I believe it to be a matter of choice, I will always choose to learn something, rather than submit to feeling bored….

It doesn’t make any sense to me to limit what we can do, or see, or feel, or perceive, just because it presents a risk. Risk is involved in the act of breathing; life is risk of death, at the core, so there is no point, to me, in trying to avoid whatever life will throw at us, because it will do so no matter how we feel about it. Over that we have no control…. the only control we have is over ourselves.

We can shut our eyes and minds, and try to ignore whatever reality presents; it’s not usually a good idea, but it seems to be the favorite reaction by a lot of folks. Or, we can open our minds, hearts, and emotions, and jump right into what life brings, using it to increase our ability to understand and cope,  gaining the sense of accomplishment, and the pride of achievement that comes with learning something new….

Me?…. I’m no insect, and don’t intend to shut myself off from whatever life has for me to learn…. it’s way more fun than the alternative, for sure and for certain…. and I’m never bored….

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;
And spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.
— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 289
___________________________________    ‘Nuff said…. ‘cept, found on Facebook; my friend Patrick at work again…
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In the worlds before monkey, primal chaos reigned.   Heaven sought order, but the Phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown.  The four lands formed again and yet again, as endless eons wheeled and passed.  The wind, time and water (??) all worked upon a certain rock, old as creation, and it became magically fertile.  That first egg was called ‘thought.’  Tagahata (??) Buddah, the Father Buddah says, ‘with our thoughts, we make the world.’  Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch.  From it came a stone monkey.  The nature of monkey was IRREPRESSIBLE! — Smart Bee

This delightfully cheerful piece of rogue philosophy sounds as if it were written as an entry in a contest to write the silliest, yet most plausible creation myth imaginable. It bears a certain resemblance to certain aboriginal and Eastern religious philosophies, even using a perverted spelling of Buddha to imply, and absorb, some of that philosophy’s carte grise. The last line is particularly apt to me, as well as a nod to modern culture… you could say it’s fabulous, and would be right to say so….

The question marks are not mine; they were included in the quote, so I know not whether they are editor’s notes, or merely hints from the unknown author. All in all, I’d say that, as creation myths go, it is at least as plausible as several of the rather incredulous tales currently held as truth by different sects of different religions around the world…..

“The first egg was called ‘thought'” Exquisite imagery…. as a metaphor for the power of possibility that is the nature of an egg, this is perfect. The power of thought thus creates the world, and monkey is born…. he sits down to type, irrepressible, and Shakespeare was foisted upon the world for all to suffer…. SIGH….

If only the monkeys had, in all that time to type, managed to come up with some Neil Simon, or even Tennessee Williams, then maybe this would be a different world, and nobody would have to pretend they understood what the hell Will was talking about…. Think how many brain cells could have been saved had we not had to sit through endless variations of his themes, like West Side Story, and others of that ilk….. ghastly….
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Hmm… interesting stuff. As usual, hard to say where it came from, or where it’s meant to go, but, there it sits, just like a bowl of fruit, waiting for someone to reach in and grab a bite of sweet…. though I doubt the fruit in my bowl quite fits that description. Nonetheless, there it sits, so I can get on with the rest of today, and so can you…. 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!

Old~new dogs~tricks…..

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Ffolkes,
Good morning, I hope…. let’s jump right in….

“This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly.  It should be thrown with great force.” — Dorothy Parker

Fortunately for all concerned at this point, I haven’t. Yet. Written a novel. I’ve written enough in the past 10 months to fill the pages of at least three of them, all about 400 pages, but, it’s not a novel, nor, as I think of it now, is it very novel…. sorry….. But, that right there, that pun, even though it wasn’t deliberate, is a good indicator of what I feel right now, in re: what Ms. Parker said above, if applied to my novel of Pearls over the last near-year. In looking over the previous efforts this month, I note a distinct decline in quality. You may not have noticed it, but it is there, to my eye….

Said decline may or may not be connected to the concomitant increase in the personal nature of what I’ve chosen to write; it’s hard to tell without a full introspective overhaul. Sometimes though, going with what is felt, without too much close examination, doesn’t seem such a bad choice upon which to base bending to change….

I mean, change will happen, no matter what choice I make, so it seems a good idea to be proactive, in a sense, and make some changes in myself, or in my approach to certain matters. After all, I’m the only one who can change me, and I am also the only thing in the universe I can change. May as well take advantage of those immutable principles….

Hence, I’m changing the face of the Pearls of Virtual Wisdom. Again. It isn’t the first time; over the 12 or 13 years I’ve been putting them together on a pretty much daily basis, first while at work,then from home, I’ve gone through several procedural and structural morphs.

It all started with one pearl, and one short comment a day, and has grown to an average of 1800 words a day, with five pearls as base material. I think I’ve reached the maximum benefit I can derive by making them so long each day, so I’m cutting back a bit, starting today, and will present only three pearls a day, and give them my best shot, whatever form that may take, prose or verse….

In addition, pearls will be expanded to include more pictures, some with text, some with, well, other stuff…. about which I will either say “Aww!”, or write a haiku, or a short essay, or a rant, or whatever strikes me (not a change, but a change in stimuli….)…. No harm in trying to add some color to my day, and yours…. So, Gentle Reader, settle back, and gird your grid for a new experience…. at least, new to this blog… Shall we explore consensual reality together?…. A’Pearling we shall go….
___________________________________    Friendship is a wonderful thing; saying so is pretty obvious and trite, but nonetheless true for that. And we all know that to have a friend, one must BE a friend. This attitude, of being open to the kind of things that friends do, is especially important when one is in a place far away from those friends, when they are not there to lean on, or to help…. In life we travel, we drift apart, we follow our own paths, but our friends are always with us, even if only in our hearts… And in those times we are alone, being open to friendship can save not only your sanity, but your life….    I have friends who would do all of the things listed under the real friends category; not just would do, but have…. It’s been a while since I was in a dog pile with them, and doing so now would probably put us all in traction, but the rest of it is all true and has happened in the not so distant past. It feels good to know that I am still in touch with at least five people who used to call my folks Mom and Dad…. Mitt Romney can keep his $250 million net worth; of the two of us, I am the truly wealthy one…..
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“…it still remains true that as a set of cognitive beliefs about the existence of God in any recognizable sense continuous with the great systems of the past, religious doctrines constitute a speculative hypothesis of an extremely low order of probability.” — Sidney Hook

Mr. Hook gives us here a long-winded, Shakespearean statement about the existence of God that probably would better have been left at “Not bloody likely!”…. Both get the same point across, but the latter has more punch, as the listener doesn’t have to spend all that time trying to first figure out what the hell he said….

It is a very good statement, in its way; accurate, logical, and with a proper reservation of judgment, proclaiming the idiocy of buying into such an implausible story without being snide about it. But, as mentioned, it reminds me of a certain author, who shall now remain unnamed, who had the same habit when he wrote, to wit: “HEY! Lets cover up what this means with a bunch of extra words that will make the reader’s head spin with admiration….”.

Now, as one who writes (or types, anyway…. who’s to say whether it is writing?….), I tend to agree with Twain’s method of prose, which is spare, and attempts to pare down what is written to its barest bones, leaving nothing but meaning and style; as with golf, one is trying for the lowest score. Twain, Hemingway, Steinbeck, all believed that good writing should be accessible, and clear, without having to be translated, or put into simpler terms, and Mr. Hook would have done better, I think, to keep that in mind. The idea he is promulgating is one that does need to be spread around, and should stimulate discussion. In its present form, it will only do that amongst the few readers and folks who can easily make out what he is talking about in this over-blown statement….

The idea he is expressing here is one that is generally discouraged by those in leadership positions in modern religions. Discussing the veracity of the claims that religion makes is not encouraged by any of the sects I know of; in fact, doing so tends to produce some rather volatile reactions, to put it mildly. Most folks have a hard time maintaining their cool when their religious beliefs are challenged, due, I think, to the strong emotional connection they add to those beliefs.

Their feelings are so tied into those beliefs that, in their minds, questioning one is the same as attacking the other….. Not logical, but true nonetheless, and not a good thing to leave out of one’s calculations; I never discuss religion without being rather heavily armed…. and not only with knowledge….

Here’s the thing that bothers me about the whole concept of an omnipotent entity…. How can we, who are not omnipotent, claim to understand either the actual form of a God, or the motivation of such a being? How can we claim to be certain that this omnipotent entity, capable of creating an entire universe, not only looks just like us, but actually wants us to bow down and worship Him, or Her, or It? Even when I was five years old, nobody could, or would, answer that question, other than to say, “because it’s in the Bible.” Even then, I recognized when I was being put off, and it just made me wonder more….

Certainty is only a symptom of lack of imagination. — Smart Bee

Over time, as my knowledge of the world grew, I came to realize that the entire system is just another man-made institution, with the whole purpose of taking advantage of, and controlling, the general run of folks who are just trying to get by in life. I learned that the louder a person proclaims himself to be a Christian, the less like Christ they act. Being “safe in the arms of Jesus” is the perfect excuse to deny any responsibility for one’s own acts of immorality; Jesus forgives everything, right? Well, he does…. it says so right here in the New Testament, so it must be true….

“Our father who art in heaven..  I sincerely pray that SOMEBODY at this table will PAY for my SHREDDED WHAT and ENGLISH MUFFIN.. and also leave a GENEROUS TIP…” — Zippy the Pinhead

I don’t claim to know God. I don’t know how God looks. I don’t know what God thinks, or even if what that entity does can be called thinking at all. I’m not omnipotent, so I have no frame of reference from which to approach such a question. I do know this, though…. whatever anyone says about God is bound to be wrong. It has to be; there is no way for us to understand anything about such a creature, not if we are to assume they are truly gods. If they are gods, or God, then I refuse to believe that what is important to me as a human is important to them; it just doesn’t make any logical sense. None….

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, Frump insists that the natives are monotheists, each having no other god than himself, whom he worships under many sacred names. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

Looking at a Universe without God doesn’t scare me…. I think it is quite beautiful, no matter how it came to exist. Knowing one way or another how it was created, or happened, or evolved, or whatever, isn’t important to me, in either the short, or the long run. Learning about it, experiencing its joys and trials, appreciating both its gifts and its penalties, these are much more important. Do your Duty. Honor the Truth. Respect Life. Share your Love. I don’t think that God needs my approval, or my worship in order for the universe to carry on…. it’s just fine the way it is…..

“There are no physicists in the hottest parts of hell, because the existence of a hottest part implies a temperature difference, and any marginally competent physicist would immediately use this to run a heat engine and make some other part of hell comfortably cool. This is obviously impossible.” — Richard Davidson
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Okay, enough of being serious…. here we have another find from Facebook, where all of today’s images were found…. it needs no explanation….___________________________________

There you have it… the freshest Pearl you can find, just for you…. I love it when a plan comes together…. Well, sort of together…. it’s still over 1800 words….SIGH….Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!


Irrational numbers often resist emulsification….

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Ffolkes,
I’m giving up. Or, more accurately, I’m acknowledging that I’ve given up; the actual giving up part was accomplished some time ago, and I’m just now getting around to letting y’all know…. You may well ask “what are you babbling about now?”, and would be within your rights to do so. I’m talking about giving up some of my angst, just letting it go…. the part that I keep around to worry about whether this blog gets done by a certain time.

My sleeping pattern has achieved true randomness, I think; I can no longer tell when I might get sleepy at night. It seems to alternate between falling out at 6 PM on Monday, then being wide awake at midnight on Tuesday. Then Wednesday, I take a 3 hour nap, until 4 PM, and fall out again at 8. It’s absurd, and I can’t get a handle on it…..

I don’t know if this is a functional result of getting older, or if it is because of the medication I’m taking, (or not taking…. there are at least five things my doctor tells me to take that I can’t afford, so I don’t….), or just my PTSD throwing me mental curves and sliders. Whatever the cause, I can no longer count on being up by a certain time, so it makes no sense to get all worked up when I don’t get this Pearl done before 8 or 9 AM.

So, I won’t…. I may be a Bozo, but once I do figure something out, I’m not shy about implementing changes….. Just because one’s nose is big, red, and honks doesn’t mean one can’t be efficient…. We may all be Bozo’s on this bus, but the bus stops now and again, and one must get off and join the rest of the circus…..

That said, we can get on with the process of finding pearls. They may not get published as early as is usual, but they’ll get there. I’m just not going to sweat over it quite so freely….. Shall we Pearl?…..
___________________________________

“You can’t use tact with a congressman. A congressman is a hog. You must take a stick and hit him on the snout.” — Henry Adams

The political arena has been quiet of late; we are between elections leading up to the main one in November, and waiting for the National Conventions of each Party to take place. The Republican front runner, Mitt Romney, has placed a gag order on himself, having recently acknowledged that, thus far in his campaign, his greatest problems have occurred when he opened his mouth to speak. So, he has been watching what he says very carefully, and in the process, is saying nothing at all.

Well, that is, he’s saying nothing if one doesn’t count his normal quota of lies and made up statistics. Why, just two days ago I read where he told a group in the Midwest how Obama’s administration had increased some debt percentage “more than ANY previous administration”. This of course, is completely false, as the numbers show, in fact, that the particular statistical number to which he referred, has DECREASED more than any previous administration had been able to do….. typical.

So, this leaves me little to rant about. I guess I’ll have to go look through the news before writing these pearls, to find something to use as the latest evidence of the ongoing chicanery and yes, illegal activities being acted out on the public stage. Hang in there, I’ll be back in about twenty….

There, see? Nothing…. no outrageous statements, no news of new idiotic policies. Well, there was one story, about how Romney is now claiming that cutting spending will cause a depression (that’s Democratic cuts, not Republican cuts…. they’re different, you know… sure they are…. trust me….). Of course, he doesn’t bother to explain his reasoning for this claim; he just knows. I guess the information came in via radio, straight into this brain from the Cosmos… Hardly worth picking at, even for me….

Ah well, I’ll just wait. I am certain that it won’t take more than a day or two for the pressure to build up, and Mitt will have to blurt out some new idiotically absurd new statement that demonstrates his complete cluelessness. He’s been in the public eye now for several months, and if his history there is any indicator, it won’t be long before he opens up and inserts his size 10 loafers…. and I’ll be waiting….

“There are things worse than a public speaker with a three word thought, a three minute vocabulary and a three hour speech, but I have not been able to think of any over the last three days.” — Smart Bee
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“He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.” — Rafael Sabatini

A few days ago, I posted a quote from William Yeats, about making our words inevitable…. The above line is the opening line of the novel, “Scaramouche”, and is, in my not-so-humble opinion, one of the best opening lines ever written. With style and wit, and a strong sense of inevitability, it sets the tone for the entire book, and gives a taste of flavor from the feast to follow….. I would recommend the story to anyone who enjoys a well-told historical novel, rich in detail, and with engaging characters living in a time of great change.

The story is set in France, during the same period as Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities”, i.e. the period leading up to the Peasant’s Revolt, and the French Revolution, in the late 18th century. Love, hatred, political intrigue, revenge, all play their part to paint a beautifully detailed picture of the period, telling a story that holds one captive to the final page. I won’t bore you with a discussion of how it can be related to current times; you can see for yourself when you read it. But, even without any political overtones, the book remains a great read, and well worth a trip to the library…..
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The Day Is Done

The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.

I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o’er me
That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time.

For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life’s endless toil and endeavor;
And to-night I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who, through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction
That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.

~~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Poetry break…. enjoy!
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“At once it struck me what quality went to form a man of achievement, especially in literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously — I mean negative capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” — John Keats (1795-1821)

I have previously given my opinion on Shakespeare, and won’t bore you again with more samples of his impenetrable verse; it always gives me a headache anyway…. But it is nice to find evidence that my less than enthusiastic take on Will is shared by others who are not afraid to state an unpopular opinion. The fact that the person who makes this statement is possibly the best poet who ever lived gives me a lot of satisfaction; if anyone is entitled to an opinion about Will’s work, John Keats is certainly one of them.

Keats is acknowledged as probably the most influential poet of all time, not merely during his own life. His work changed the face of the entire genre; one can only lament his early death, and grieve over all the genius that was lost…. And not just genius, but brave genius, to be honest enough to say what he thought about the most revered playwright of all time….

It’s tough to be right, when everyone one else believes you to be wrong…. but it’s well worth it, to my mind…. Especially if it means I don’t have to try to sit through another reading of Will’s nonsensical refuse, trying to find some way to puzzle out what he was trying to say with all the extra verbiage he piled on to his verse….
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“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.  Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.  Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.  Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.  Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.  But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” — Buddha

Obviously, this needs no adornment, nor comment from me, other than to say it is my idea of the correct path to a full and complete life, based on right action, compassion, and love…..
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I’ve said it before…. All you can do is all you can do…. hopefully, it is enough. 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!

The stigma of chronic satyriasis….

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2

Ffolkes,
This will be somewhat of a different Pearl….. How? Well, I can’t say for sure, but my entire morning routine has been usurped, leaving me somewhat bemused. Up late, & therefore up late; this always throws me off a bit. Then, when I checked into WP, somebody had read one of my older posts, from March, so I had to go see which one they read, which sent my head off in odd directions pre-coffee. Very distracting, and I didn’t even know I could BE distracted from this….. unsettling, to say the least.

No worries, though, and no matter. We’ll just apply that old American life skill, so important in today’s world, to wit: sheer denial. I’ll just ignore it, and it will go away, right? It seems to work pretty well for most folks in society; why not me? After all the time I put in to keep folks from denying all the weird stuff that goes on out there, I think I deserve a little bit of denial time, where I can pretend that life is fair, and Murphy is no more real than the Easter Bunny. (Which, if you think about it, has to be one of the most confused icons in existence…. imagine a bunny, having for centuries been the living representation of fertility and sex, then being forced by the Catholic church to become the representation for the Resurrection of a virgin birth deity…. it HAS to be a bit taxing for the rationalization department of the mind….)

“Reality is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” — Smart Bee

See, off into tangential stuff already…. this doesn’t look good, ffolkes. I think I’d best get started….. let’s go Pearl, and see if we can get this to fall in line…..
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And God said, Let us make man in our image. — Genesis 1:26

Okay…. the quotes are hiding again today, so we’re settling for this. Does this bother you as much as it bothers me? Probably not…. but, that’s okay, we all know I’m strange, so deal….

It bothers me on a couple of levels, actually. First, let us remember that this was written by a man, not God Himself (though I’m sure He could have; probably doesn’t have a functioning word processor yet…. He’s kind of old school, by all reports….) With that in mind, who was He talking to? Was it a prescient use of the royal ‘We’? Was the Holy Spirit standing there giving design advice? To be honest, I’m not sure I really want to know… especially if it was the latter; I’m certain I couldn’t feel completely safe having a God with an imaginary friend….

“I think I just heresied on several important religions.” — Smart Bee

Second, in “our image”…. This would seem to imply that God looks like us, or more accurately, I guess, we look like Him. What kind of omnipotent deity needs to display ego like that? And how do we know that he was talking about us in the first place? Maybe man is the platypus, and that is what God really looks like. I think I’d feel better if it was true, though not any more convinced that God is perfectly sane…..

Egotist, n.:   A person of low taste, more interested in himself than me. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

But, to be perfectly honest, this seems like an advertising campaign to me, started by a group of deists who weren’t pulling in enough during the services to keep them in the style to which they wished to become accustomed. So they wrote this book, and kept repeating that it was sacred until enough people started believing it, and the donations started to pour in, because, hey, God looks like Me! It’s got to be one of history’s all time most successful scams, and the system has gotten more sophisticated through the centuries, until today, most folks are completely indoctrinated in this nonsense by the time they are four or five years old.

“It is an open question whether any behavior based on fear of eternal punishment can be regarded as ethical or should be regarded as merely cowardly.” — Margaret Mead

It amazes me that people, who are normally quite sane and discriminating in their thinking, can fall for this so completely. The entire system of religious belief seems to me to be founded on a pack of rather unbelievable lies, or at least wishful thinking, based completely on the absolute refusal of its proponents to acknowledge reality as it exists, instead assuming an unproven, and unprovable, set of concepts that supposedly are designed to make life better, but in reality merely afford a higher standard of living to an entire group of people who would otherwise starve for lack of any real skills at living, i.e. preachers. I guess, if one has the stomach for living a deliberate lie, it can be a good gig….

“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” — Thomas Paine
___________________________________    Obviously, no further comment needed…. But, doesn’t it just make you proud to speak and write English?…. Besides, I’m still having trouble finding material this morning, and this is a good little distraction…. Onward….
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A Thing of Beauty (Endymion)
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkn’d ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
‘Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.

John Keats

No worries….. just a beauty break….
___________________________________    Too funny….. priceless expressions!  And better material than anything else I can find today….
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Bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act iii, Sc. 4

Huh?

A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Winter’s Tale — Act iv, Sc. 3

I repeat, Huh?

One fair daughter and no more,
The which he loved passing well.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act ii, Sc. 2

A rather lukewarm, left-handed compliment, I’d say…. and completely misogynistic….

How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Julius Caesar — Act iii, Sc. 1

Okay, so this one makes some kind of sense…. but it’s still just a self-plug for the play…. More proof Will was a hack….

But now I am cabin’d, cribb’d, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Macbeth — Act iii, Sc. 4

This one comes close, but then veers away from clarity and dives right into obscurity…. typical…. One more….

Oh that the desert were my dwelling-place,
With one fair spirit for my minister,
That I might all forget the human race,
And hating no one, love but only her!
— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto iv, Stanza 177

Oops! That’s not Will…. but it does highlight my point about him, and stands as good contrast for all that went before…. Kind of like a mouthwash on a hangover morning, yes? Or, like the first sip of coffee in the morning; everything comes into focus…. I feel fortunate that Shakespeare’s work has an On/Off Button, which I tend to keep taped on Off….

“The last good thing I saw on TV was the off switch.” — J. Craig Brunson (craig@ukpr.uky.edu)
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What an epic battle! I hope none of the blood splattered on your clothes…. this turned into the most difficult of all the Pearls I’ve ever created. In the end, I was forced to give up trying to find a quote, and went for the cheap laughs…. But I’m not taking any of it back, as it took too much effort to get it into the shape it now assumes. We’ll see how it looks once we get it onto the blog page before I make any decisions as to its value….

In all honesty, I may not even re-read it, as I confess that I’d be tempted to just delete the whole thing…. Ah well, I suppose even I must occasionally settle for less than my best effort…. Given the handicaps I encountered all morning, I could say that it was brave of me to plow through to the finish…. brave or stupid, one or the other…. So be it…. no more waffling…

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!

Major fun for trapezoids….

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7

Ffolkes,
Maybe I should follow Robert Heinlein’s advice more often, and wash my hands after writing. It’s possible that what gets on them during that nasty process is turning toxic, and slowly destroying my brain. If so, this is one of those things that should be included in the manual for burgeoning authors…. but, then, perhaps it is not there for a reason. Perhaps that particular piece of knowledge has been deliberately withheld in order to limit the total number of authors who are writing at any one time. Perhaps there is a quota that the Universe maintains, so that too many authors aren’t haranguing the public all at once.

Nah…. I don’t think so. That would imply assigning just a bit more intelligence to the universe than I’m willing to believe in, even considering Murphy, and his interfering ways. No, there must be something else going on to make my brain feel so much like mush. I’m sleeping too much, I can’t concentrate, I’m easily distracted, and subject to fits of emotions I thought I’d banished years ago (such as the guilt described yesterday…. haven’t felt that in many moons….). If I didn’t know better, I’d think I was coming down off crack, or some other addictive drug, and suffering the withdrawal symptoms. But, since the only addictive drug I’m using is prescribed, and I’m not out of it, that doesn’t explain it either.

Perhaps it’s the celibacy thing catching up to me. I don’t think I’ve ever had a period of my life where I’ve gone so long without a least token physical intimacy, even when I was married….  🙂   Since I have not experienced such a drought before, I can’t say whether the symptoms are congruent with what I’m experiencing now, but I have heard that it can be quite strenuous on the organism when the absence of that particular form of exercise is in effect. It isn’t something I’ve ever really thought about…. I don’t think that’s it, though, it just doesn’t make sense, unless one believes that to create well, an artist must suffer. Suffer, okay, but is there any need to be cruel?…. Oh, yeah, forgot…. Murphy…. well….

Whatever is going on, it’s like pushing through clouds of cotton candy to find a thought; finding one worth writing about may turn into a real struggle, if this intro is any indication. I suppose it would be best to just ignore this brain thing as much as possible, and get on with the rest of what is planned…. who knows? It may turn out just fine…. we’ll just have to dive in and see, won’t we? Shall we Pearl?….
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“And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.” — John Dryden (1631-1700) — Britannia Rediviva, Line 208

Wow! Have you ever seen a better description of this blog?  🙂   I’ve been torturing words now for over 12 years, at least in a bloggy sense; that’s about how long I’ve been doing these Pearls. I’ve learned over the years not to hear their screams, or read the petitions, or pay any attention to the ones who try to distract me with their flexibility of meaning; I just strap them into the rack and start hacking away. Sometimes in the intro, I force them to assume the shape of a short fantasy; other times I will completely embarrass them by telling them they are haiku, or a poem, when they know for certain I am no poet. I can be pretty cruel to the words in my head…..

I figure it’s only fair, considering how they treat me much of the time. I don’t ask much of them, really…. just the morning group of five good pearls I can use to create these missives, and I’d leave them be. But much of the time, such as today, they insist on playing games, hiding, shifting about, presenting only the quotes they know I’ve already used, or massive amounts of Shakespeare, which they KNOW just annoys me…..

No, they’re not very nice to me, so I feel no compunction about torturing them to get them to do what I need them to do. If I didn’t, I’d never get anything written. If I didn’t write as much as I do, I’d build up all this incredibly strong angst and tension, and eventually it would have to come out…. and at that point, it can be dangerous, especially if there is anyone else in the immediate vicinity of the blast zone….

So, you see, this blog is really a public service in disguise…. No thanks are necessary: since they are my words, I take responsibility for them, and consider it my duty to keep them from harming others (except, of course, when I want them to do so…..). I just didn’t want y’all to think I was hiding anything important…. I like to call this my Literary Guantanamo Bay for Wayward Words, where we have the leeway, and the executive authority, to torture those nasty little terror-inducing buggers into submission….
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“I believe that it should be perfectly lawful to print even things that outrage the pruderies and prejudices of the general, so long as any honest minority, however small, wants to read them.  The remedy of the majority is not prohibition, but avoidance.” — H.L. Mencken, “Baltimore Evening Sun”, March 31, 1924

The key idea here is in the last line… I like to call it On/Off Button Training, and should be required of all children from the age of 5, with periodic refresher courses throughout life. It is a lesson that apparently has been completely forgotten or ignored for a long time by society at large, and our culture badly needs to re-learn it.

Put most simply, this lesson says, “If you don’t like it, turn it off. Change the channel. Walk away. Mind you own business, and let other folks mind theirs.” The lack of general knowledge of this principle is, in my mind, responsible for at least three-quarters of the issues that are currently being argued in the public arena, especially that of LGBT rights, women’s rights, and separation of church and state.

Mrs. Grundy, Robert Heinlein’s archetypical busybody, and the forces of religious intolerance, have been creating a firestorm of outrage and public hullabaloo for years now about these issues, especially gay marriage. For goodness sake, why is it so hard for them to understand? If they don’t like gay marriage, then don’t marry a gay person! Sheesh! Seems pretty simple to me….

But, for some reason, a large part of humanity seems to think that what they believe should be what everyone else is forced to believe, and for the most part, they refuse to even listen to any arguments that would belie that delusion. It is impossible to reason with someone who refuses to even discuss an issue, who has closed their mind to any possible change.

So, it places all of us who would rather try to get along with folks rather than fuss and fight all the damn time to use our own On/Off Button, and switch channels, or walk away when we are confronted with their ignorance…. But, make sure you are watching your back as you turn away; they can turn vicious if they feel threatened by your indifference…. just like any small rodent…..

“And what is a good citizen?  Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual.  Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point.  A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps.” — H.L. Mencken
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“It may be irrational of me, but human beings are quite my favorite species.” — Doctor Who, Ark in Space

It probably seems to most folks reading this blog that I don’t like people very much. I tend to spend a lot of time finding and pointing out the things I see in them that I don’t like, and discussing them at nearly interminable length, which would seem to indicate a lack of affection for the species as a whole. In reality, the opposite is true…. I love people… I love watching them, listening to them, thinking about them, writing about them…. They afford me no end of intellectual stimulation, entertaining comedic genius, and fertile fields of thought and endeavor to explore, virtually and actually.

Human society and culture is an incredibly beautiful, complex tapestry of emotion and creativity; nobility, cruelty, heroes, villains, puppies, cats, love, hate, and all the rest of the things that make people what they are unfolds before us every day, growing and adding length and breadth to that tapestry of existence.

I can’t think of anything more interesting than the drama/comedy that is human history in the making…. I might wish it to be a more compassionate world, with less tyranny and oppression, without slavery and starvation. I might wish that my life would not be so complicated by ignorance and intolerance, and I might wish that the small percentage of humanity that holds the remainder in the grip of their own avarice would die horrible deaths worthy of their own evil natures.

But, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Nor would I say that any of these changes are particularly apt to happen without many more people in the world taking an interest in them; most folks just go through life trying to get by, and not be bothered with anything more complicated, and one can’t really blame them, bless their cowardly little hearts…. My own method of dealing with how much I’d like to see reality change is to write about what I see, and what I think can be different, with the right set of attitudes.

This desire to see the changes arises out of my love for my fellow man, not from indignation or outrage, though they are present. But what I write, and what I’m trying to accomplish, is to help folks deal with life in a way that allows them more freedom, of whatever kind they wish to have, whether monetary, intellectual, religious, or physical; my motivation is to share the strength and freedom of thought that I have sought so hard to achieve… Mankind has much more potential than we are showing in our actions, and I would love to see more of it fulfilled, rather than stifled, as in current society…. we can be so much more…..

“Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.” — Albert Einstein
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“Such bickerings to recount, met often in these our writers, what more worth is it than to chronicle the wars of kites or crows flocking and fighting in the air?” — John Milton (1608-1674) — The History of England, Book iv

Did you ever wonder why a group of crows is called a congress? I didn’t. It makes perfect sense to me…. Dark, sinister looking creatures who act in odd ways, even for birds. Their behaviors tend to lean toward stealing shiny objects from wherever, or stealing the food of people or other animals and birds. When they speak, it is in a voice that grates on the ear like fingernails on a slate. In groups, they mill around, cackling and grumbling and jostling each other, until they all fly off to different areas to carry out whatever nefarious schemes they have hatched among them. No, I have no problem envisioning a congress of crows; in fact, I believe they are in session now in Washington, D.C. ….
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“God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.” — Billy Graham

First, let me apologize…. I hadn’t meant to go into a rant this morning, especially about religion; sitting down is as difficult as standing up or walking, so the time it takes to express the outrage necessary to produce a rant is more than I wanted to take. But then this popped up in front of me….

After I had picked myself up from the floor and recovered my breath, I still could barely stop chuckling and giggling long enough to use the mouse to cut and paste it to this page. Now that I have, I find myself almost speechless at the sheer arrogance, the complete lack of respect shown for humanity at large by this astounding statement.

In one short phrase, this deeply disturbed man has attempted to manipulate his listeners into a complete subjugation of their will, and in doing so, implies that they are not only unworthy in a moral sense, but are not smart enough to be allowed to think for themselves. I’m surprised he didn’t ask for money in the same sentence…. You can bet he did before the end of the speech….

I remember seeing Billy Graham when I was quite young, speaking on TV to a football stadium full of enthusiastically cheering, excited, identical clones in white cotton dresses, with skirts below the knees, and blue suits, with white shirts, no vests, and skinny ties. Even at the tender age of 11 or so when I saw it, my first impression of him was of a used-car salesman, with a smarmy-looking smile at inappropriate moments, and a smooth, fawning manner of speaking that ranged from sly confidences to outraged proclamations of evil and sin, all delivered in very obviously scripted stages.

The words and phrases he used, straight out of the King James Bible, mostly, seemed to promote love and tolerance, but the underlying message was one of elitism and divisiveness, as indicated by the insistence that only those who accepted JC according to their rules would be allowed into heaven…. The rest of us would be consigned to everlasting hell for having the audacity to think differently…. It was pretty over-the-top, as far as I was concerned, though entertaining in a circus sort of way….

It is now 50 years since I saw that particular revival meeting, and Mr. Graham has continued to spew his particular brand of ignorance for that entire time. He is indeed one of the men of whom St. Francis of Assisi warned us to beware, a man of one book. And the above statement, to me, is proof of just how little he thinks of the general run of human beings. His basic message is, “You are a miserable sinner, and have no right to exist, other than at the mercy of God. You are not smart enough to keep from sinning on your own, so just shut up and listen to what you are told….”

It is certainly proof, I guess, that the world takes all kinds, for there are millions of folks out there who regard what Billy Graham says as just as much gospel as what is in the Bible…. but then in for a penny, in for a pound, I suppose…. Me, I’d rather listen to a ball game…..
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One more time unto the breach, and out again on the other side… Not bad for starting two hours late, and I only had to take about a dozen breaks to stretch and move a bit. I’ll take it…..

Hmm…. I just realized there is no poem….can’t have that… be right back….

“I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for religion — I have shuddered at it. I shudder no more — I could be martyred for my religion — Love is my religion — I could die for that…” — John Keats

Okay, so it’s not a poem… but it’s from a poet, and one of the best. I like the thought too, so it will have to do for today. I’ve been stuck with a fork, I’m done…. Y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Pretty loud for the deluxe model….

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2

Ffolkes,
Tab key or no tab key, I don’t do Shakespeare…. Not even with a headache, nor when I’m half asleep, as now. It’s a bit weird that ever since I started writing about how much his work bothers me, it seems to pop up in my database every third quote. Ubiquitous barely begins to describe it, which I have to believe is Murphy’s doing. Only he could arrange matters so that the very thing that most annoys me is forced upon my attention on a regular basis. Statistical mathematics won’t account for how often one of Willie’s obscure little couplets or impenetrable verses comes up in the dB…. but, he IS the world’s most published asshole, so what can I expect?

That said, it won’t be necessary now to subject you to an entire section of his work, and my shooting at it for several hundred words. This one paragraph took care of the itch… so we can get right to the important stuff for the day. I won’t go into the physical struggles extant today; they’re hard enough to deal with without trying to write about them as well.

We’ll just put on our SCUBA gear, clean off our masks, and dive right in to look for some delicious pearls for this morning’s offering. That will be a lot better than several paragraphs of complaints, n’est pas? Oui! C’est vrai! (I think that’s right; French isn’t my strong suit, outside the kitchen or the bedroom….) Any who, let’s go Pearl!….
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“If you understand, things are as they are. If you do not understand, things are as they are.” — Gensha, Zen Master

This is a wonderful koan couplet, and a very apt corollary to axiom #2 of Peruaosophy, to wit: “The Nature of the Universe is Change. Unpredictable, innovative Transformation of Reality is the Norm. If you have a problem with this, you are in for a rough ride in Life.” The connection, which may appear unclear, is actually quite logical. If one accepts the above as true, then axiom #2, in conjunction with Murphy’s presence, implies that just when one learns to accept things as they are, they change. A nasty habit, to be sure, but much like a hive of bees in one’s head, there they are…. deal.

All of us can no doubt come up with a myriad of examples of this process at work in the world at large, because, thanks to the efforts of Murphy and his army of willing helpers, each one of us is at the mercy of a Universe that cares not at all whether we understand what is going on, or if we prefer our corn flakes dry. (That’s called a humorous euphemism, and they’re rare, as a species, so take note…. If you’re not keeping a record of this stuff, you should be…) Most often, I think the examples we find would be work-related, or in some way connected to some sort of bureaucracy, as they are the Universe’s greatest allies at making us feel shitty.

“In a mature society, “civil servant” is semantically equal to “civil master.” — Lazarus Long

No matter who we are, or where we live, bureaucracies give us all a pain in the tush. Need to drive a car? A number of bureaucracies, some of them among the largest in the world, will do their best to lengthen and complicate the process of finding, buying, and licensing the car, not to mention the hoops you will need to negotiate through in order to legalize your driving at all. Need to put your kids in school? Welcome to the American educational system, which has taken over from the US Army in the use of forms in triplicate. Want to have a dog or cat companion? It may astound you to learn, as it did me, that even cats and dogs MUST be licensed; society says you can’t have one unless the fee is paid, and the animal has been duly placed on a number of lists, available to any law enforcement agency or TD&H who wants them. (TD&H = Tom, Dick, & Harry… they’re veterinarians…)

“The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterward.” — Walter Bagehot

So, the final two queries in the previous paragraph assume a larger importance, as they can teach us how to deal with bureaucracies without shooting innocent people. (Though I sometimes have doubts as to the innocence of some bureaucrats; a lot of them seem to enjoy making life difficult for others… A lot of them must be frustrated politicians, I guess, with the need to lord it over others, but can’t get the votes to get themselves elected into an office, where they can indulge their baser instincts for theft and oppression to their heart’s content…..) But, if one learns to deal with how the bureaucratic mind works, one can think their way around all the obstacles that they will throw up between us and our goal…. it’s not much, but it helps, and one should always take any help offered in situations such as this….
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“Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the _real_ object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?” — Patrick Henry

Here is the question that those who would get rid of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution would have us ignore. There are a large number of people, otherwise nice, intelligent folks, who have decided that the American people shouldn’t have guns available to them.

Their justification is that too many criminals have access to more firepower than do the police forces in each community, and their preferred solution is to make it illegal for anyone except the police and armed forces to carry weapons of that nature. Hell, it’s already illegal to carry a knife longer than 3 inches, because the PTB are afraid someone might stab someone. GASP! You mean there are bad people out there? People who would be less than nice to everyone else? What a surprise!

In case it wasn’t clear, those last two sentences, or queries, should be infused with sarcasm if read aloud. Sarcasm is one of my natural responses to being taken for a fool, especially when it comes to human nature. Humans are violent. Period. It is in their nature. Anyone who cannot acknowledge that fact probably still believes in the tooth fairy, and is a sure candidate for early Alzheimer’s disease, because they have a very strong sense of denial.

It is a fact, and trying to deny it, or pretty it up as a “tendency” just makes those people who indulge in expressions of violence that much more dangerous. The scariest part of the whole gun issue for me is the insistence on the part of the police and those who want the guns taken away from us that THEY can be trusted to use their guns rationally, and within the limits of law, whereas the general public cannot be trusted to do so….

Now, I will ask you to think about that for a moment. Can you think of any historical period, or any culture anywhere in the world, that demonstrates any sort of support of that assertion? Has there ever been an entirely trustworthy group of policemen, anywhere? If so, please name it for me, and I will add that information into the discussion.

But, I will warn you, I am pretty widely-read and educated about world history and culture, and I cannot think of a single time in history, up to and including today’s world, wherein the police, or the government that controls them, and the armies, was more trustworthy than the populace. In fact, most of history proves the opposite, that the mere act of becoming a police officer tends to corrupt those who are accepted as such; it is a form of power over others, and as such is guaranteed to attract those who are drawn to power for its advantages.

No, I’m sorry, I can’t place any credence at all in the assumption that the police, or the government, should be considered trustworthy; not when there is NO evidence anywhere, or any when, that would indicate any such thing. The facts of the matter, and recorded history, provide innumerable examples to show how UN-trustworthy most police and political armies are, and trying to say otherwise places that person squarely in the camp of the unmitigated LIARS that are always looking for ways to take advantage of other folks.

Our country’s founding fathers spent time, energy, and blood, sweat, and tears to ensure that we would not have to put up with that sort of situation, and anyone who tries to get rid of the Second Amendment brands themselves a traitor, in my eyes…. and traitors should be shot….

Wars kill people. Governments cause wars. Let’s ban government! — Smart Bee
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PAIN:  One thing, at least it proves that you’re alive! — Smart Bee

Living as I do with a certain amount of pain all the time, I can verify the accuracy of this statement. And not only is it true, it also supplies me, as it probably does for others with the same type of issues, with a good reason to learn to appreciate the pain, silly as that sounds. It’s kind of like the feeling I got one day when I was married. I was taking a short nap before getting up to go to my second job, when my wife came in & woke me to tell me I had only ten minutes before I had to leave. It didn’t occur to her that those ten minutes were all I wanted in the world right then; she just thought she was helping.

But the feeling it produced is best shown by what I thought at the time, which was, “It’s really rather a comfort to know that there will always be somebody there to wake me up when ‘they’ think I should be up… annoying, but comforting all the same.”  And it may be perverse, but it’s true, nonetheless. I appreciate my pain, because it does let me know I’m alive, for sure and for certain…. If I didn’t have it, I’d expect to wake up dead some morning, and not even know it…. and that would be the final embarrassment….  🙂
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I know a place…

I know a place where summer strives
With such a practiced frost,
She each year leads her daisies back,
Recording briefly, “Lost.”

But when the south wind stirs the pools
And struggles in the lanes,
Her heart misgives her for her vow,
And she pours soft refrains

Into the lap of adamant,
And spices, and the dew,
That stiffens quietly to quartz
Upon her amber shoe.

— Emily Dickinson

No comments…. just needed a shot of beauty, so here it is…..
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ASS, n.  A public singer with a good voice but no ear.  In Virginia City, Nevada, he is called the Washoe Canary, in Dakota, the Senator, and everywhere the Donkey.  The animal is widely and variously celebrated in the literature, art and religion of every age and country; no other so engages and fires the human imagination as this noble vertebrate.  Indeed, it is doubted by some (Ramasilus, _lib. II., De Clem._, and C. Stantatus, _De Temperamente_) if it is not a god; and as such we know it was worshiped by the Etruscans, and, if we may believe Macrobious, by the Cupasians also.  Of the only two animals admitted into the Mahometan Paradise along with the souls of men, the ass that carried Balaam is one, the dog of the Seven Sleepers the other.  This is no small distinction.  From what has been written about this beast might be compiled a library of great splendor and magnitude, rivaling that of the Shakespearean cult, and that which clusters about the Bible.  It may be said, generally, that all literature is more or less Asinine.

“Hail, holy Ass!” the quiring angels sing;
“Priest of Unreason, and of Discords King!”
Great co-Creator, let Thy glory shine:
God made all else, the Mule, the Mule is thine!”
G.J.
— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

As I’ve previously demonstrated, I am a big fan of nonsense; something about it just appeals to me. As Willie Wonka said, “A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” This may be one reason I’ve been able to write so much in the last few months about such serious subjects, as I tend to throw in some nonsense to break the pattern of seriousness.

Mary Poppins had that much right about the teaspoon of sugar and the medicine, and what’s good enough for Mary Poppins is good enough for me. Though I can’t claim to approach her status of “practically perfect in every way” I think that sharing her appreciation of whimsical interludes in life at least shows some sense and style. And what’s the point of going through life if you can’t do it with some style?….
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All in all, not a bad effort, I think. If nothing else, it’s been fun, of a sort, trying to write around the headache and back pain. Yes, I know, it’s a poor definition of fun, but we take what we can get, or in this case, what we can afford. It looks to be a busy day, as the outside world has intruded enough that I will need to make a trip to the post office. With no further ado, I shall bid thee adieu until tomorrow. 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 fight for four pies….

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1

Ffolkes,
Blood poured down my face from the gash above the eye, annoying but not yet blinding. I slapped a surgiskin patch on it to keep it clean, and keep the blood out of my visor, and wondered how I would live down giving myself the only injury in a live engagement…. I spied a helmet peeking over the fence across the courtyard of the abandoned building, and squeezed off a couple of quick rounds in the general area to let them know I wasn’t asleep.

Now I’m really mad; listening to the DI dress me down for banging my own head on the lander door wasn’t what I had anticipated for my return to quarters after the exercise. I had hoped to catch some extra Z’s, as I’d been boning for the psych strategy test tomorrow, but my clumsiness had ensured a visit to a smarmy, sarcastic medic, followed by the opportunity to hear the dulcet tones of Sergeant O’Brien in full chewing mode……

Enough…. I’m tired of O’Brien, and he hasn’t opened his mouth yet…. Goes to show I shouldn’t let myself write before going to bed…. it always comes out strange when I look at it in the morning…. Either that, or I need to finish one of these little stories when I write it. Oh, I hate when I get all logical on myself….. I’ve had fun before. This isn’t it.

This is getting me nowhere, so I’m going to just get on with this morning’s dive…. Pearling sounds safer than anything else I can think of right now, so…. off we go, then…..
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“Evolution is as much a fact as the earth turning on its axis and going around the sun.  At one time this was called the Copernican theory; but, when evidence for a theory becomes so overwhelming that no informed person can doubt it, it is customary for scientists to call it a fact.  That all present life descended from earlier forms, over vast stretches of geologic time, is as firmly established as Copernican cosmology.  Biologists differ only with respect to theories about how the process operates.” — Martin Gardner, “Irving Kristol and the Facts of Life”, — The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. XII No. 2, ppg. 128-131

Although this is a very clear, concise statement of facts, it fails to account for one piece of evidence that, while seemingly contradictory, actually is proof of its overall relevance. This is the mathematical certainty that the average intelligence of the species is declining over time; I’ve presented this proof previously, and so will not go over it in its entirety now. But, like with the evidence of the Copernican theory, it has been firmly established, so we must, as a species, find some way to overcome our own intransigence.

Our own competence at killing other life forms has propelled our species to the top of the food chain, at least by all appearances. In doing so, we have removed many of the challenges to our survival that had been a check on how fast we increased our numbers. The removal of these limiting factors has allowed us to breed without restraint, which is why we have negated the normal laws, and applied the special laws of peripheral relevance that are dumbing us down.

We breed so fast that reality can’t kill us fast enough for us to get smarter; the number of lower intelligence members of the species has grown to the point where the number of births far outstrips the number of deaths, and the process continues to spiral down, down, down, toward the bottom of the gene pool….

So, if it seems to you that things are getting crazier, and that more stupid stuff keeps happening all the time, don’t panic…. you are right. It IS much crazier than before, and stupid stuff will continue to happen, right up until our species’ name gets called to board the train for extinction… the same train we have sent thousands of other species on to their demise…. SIGH…..

“No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up.” — Lily Tomlin
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Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. — Mark Twain

One of Mark Twain’s most attractive features as a writer was his grasp of common sense. Here is an idea that all of us know instinctively is true; all of us have observed, at one time or another in our lives, just how powerful laughter can be when used against evil.

This is knowledge so ubiquitous that it has been overlooked in today’s political world, and is not used nearly enough to suit me. I think we should, instead of criticizing and degrading folks like Mitt, and Newt, and others of their political ilk, we should just greet everything they say with a burst of sheer delighted laughter, and just point a finger while howling and holding our stomach. I think it would do wonders….

Imagine, if you would, a large room full of average American folks, in their everyday dress, sitting quietly in their chairs,waiting for their hero to come smile and talk to them, just as if they mattered. Instead of hecklers, placed throughout the crowd at strategic points, are people with a well-developed sense of humor, who will proceed to laugh uproariously whenever the candidate makes some outrageous statement, which usually doesn’t take long….

I think, with good timing and the right lines, we could eliminate quite a few of these bozos, embarrassing them so heavily they’ll never show their face in public again…. Well, we can hope, can’t we?  And if nothing else, laughter is good for the soul, so they say…. Let’s see if it can’t be useful in creating a new political landscape, shall we? Personally, I look forward to applying this technique in the coming months leading up to November…..
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Inner State

Bereft, mind empty
none remains real or true
The page is alone.

gigoid

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The text above is from “Dune” by Frank Herbert; the image was found on Facebook. If you try repeating this to yourself when afraid, you will find that it is quite effective, not in reducing fear, but in getting past the fear. I speak from experience in this, having first read this when I was in my teens, and then used it innumerable times in my work with the mentally ill…. Most simply put, it works….
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If you are not the poet, perhaps you can be the poem. — Smart Bee

It has happened…. I couldn’t find a suitable pearl, in just under two hours of searching. I was thorough, I think. I visited two different websites, and checked out a number of categories at each, all to no avail. I’ve developed a callous on my index finger from hitting the “next” button on my database of quotes, and keep seeing the ones I’ve used in the last few days. Naturally, since I used Shakespeare as a subject just yesterday, a good 40% of what I was forced to go through was more crap from his quill…. Murphy at work….

So, we have an unprecedented event today… I’m giving up until tomorrow…. What I have already done will have to do….. Disgusted I am, but resigned as well….
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So be it. I’m not going to consider this a loss; I’m going to think of it as an evolution. That way it will be a challenge, and I can approach it just like any other logical problem. Of course, that’s no guarantee of success, but will serve for the nonce to get on with the day. Considering how the first four hours have gone, it promises to be interesting, in all the senses of the word…. 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!

Frankly blank, she pondered swiftly….

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Ffolkes,
With reluctance, I approach my keyboard, shaking and nervous. There is something hidden in there, I know it. I can feel it, desperately poised to leap out and grab my fingers, making them form words from I know not where. If I give in, where will we go? How will I know if what is written will fly, or even walk? Will there be poetry? There is no way to tell, and the time is come to decide, for good or ill. I am afraid…. I am very afraid…..

Okay, now that is out of my head, we can get on with this morning’s normal business, or as close to normal as we ever get around here….. Sorry about the first paragraph; that stuff comes out and jumps onto the screen before I can get my head together. I think it is probably some part of me that wants badly to be paid for writing, as opposed to most of me, who just wants it outside the boundaries of my head, and I don’t care whether it’s rewarded in that respect at all. All I want is a bunch of “Likes” from my friends, and I’m good to go…. Considering how much I write, nobody’s going to want to pay me by the word, that’s for sure; they’d go broke in no time….

It’s all moot, though, so we’ll just get on with the daily Pearl…. always best to let the stuff that first comes out fly freely away, and get itself out of the way. It’s best not to mix that stuff with real pearls…. shall we dive?…..
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“We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.” — Helen Keller

Coming from anyone else, this would have less meaning; from Ms. Keller it assumes the aspect of eternal truth. If there is anyone in the world who suffered more to achieve self-hood, I have never heard of them, in all of my long years of reading and learning.

Having experience in working with the deaf, though never when combined with blindness, I can say without fear of contradiction that it takes a strong will and perseverance of unusual depth to be successful. Those who face the world with only three of the usual five senses of perception face a much more difficult path than those of us who can see and hear, and those who succeed, as did Ms. Keller, have indeed learned to be both brave and patient, in the finest sense of those words…..

Nothing more needs to be said about this, really. It is a powerful truth, given to us by someone who paid the full, complete price to learn that truth, and as such, it behooves us to listen, and to pay attention….
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“His ignorance covers the world like a blanket, and there’s scarcely a hole in it anywhere.” — Mark Twain

This year’s presidential election promises to be, if nothing else, an interesting spectacle. I am completely amazed at how the Republican nomination process has shaken down; the winnowing process was filled with ignorance, misguided appeals to fringe conservative groups, in-fighting, and all the usual nonsense that all the pundits go through during these events. In the end, they came up with….. Mitt Romney?

Yep…. perhaps the most dishonest politician ever to partake of the banquet of money the public payroll provides ( he has used his elected positions unmercifully to increase his own private wealth, taking advantage of insider knowledge and the “good-old-boy” circuit to the maximum) to come down the pike in many years. Well, not so many years, I suppose…. we did have an ex-CIA chief in the POTUS office not too long ago, and we all know how honest those folks are….

But, Romney? I’m sorry, it’s almost as if they have given up, and have acknowledged that there is NO ONE in the mainstream of the Republican pantheon of potential candidates who has any real connection to the American people. Romney is firmly entrenched in the 1%, and no matter how often he says otherwise, nobody is buying his assertion that he is not.

Not only have the rest of the party’s pundits given in, they seem to be letting him continue his policy of shooting himself in the foot every other day, by uttering some new lie. His repeated attempts to perform damage control are necessary, as he doesn’t seem to be able to speak without making something up. I know of two websites whose sole purpose consists of identifying each one of them, as they fact-check what he says every day, and every day find new instances of deliberate untruths…. It’s amazing, and would be amusing, if it wasn’t so scary….

It’s scary because, in spite of all his lying, in spite of his flip-flopping on policies according to whatever audience he is addressing, and in spite of his obvious lack of qualifications to BE president, his political machine keeps right on trundling down the public path to the Republican Convention, where his status as the latest incarnation of “The Great White Hope” will be formalized. The Democratic Party is, no doubt, celebrating almost every night, as he is doing their work for them…. They don’t have to say a word, just smile and point to Romney’s latest gaffes, of which there are legion…. Easy money, as far as I can see….

Now, as long as he doesn’t manage to fool enough of the voting public to make it close, we’ll be fine, and come December, all of this will be a memory of just another bad dream…. and if not, well, we can always call Al….

“He probably just wants to take over my CELLS and then EXPLODE  inside me like a BARREL of runny CHOPPED LIVER!  Or maybe he’d like to PSYCHOLOGICALLY TERRORIZE ME until I have no objection to a RIGHT-WING MILITARY TAKEOVER of my apartment!!  I guess I should call AL PACINO!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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“Just remember–when you think all is lost, the future remains.” — Robert Goddard

This is one of those pearls whose depth of meaning and relevance are not apparent at first glimpse. But, in examining it further, I have come to believe that this is something I hope that I gave to my own children, as it is an idea that can save one’s sanity, and one’s hope, in the face of whatever challenges life may present to us. Nothing that happens, no matter how all-encompassing it may be, can ever take away this simple fact; the future remains.

It is often the case that we spend a lot of useless time lamenting those events in our lives that set us back on our road to our goals, or in trying to fix whatever has gone wrong. When we are in that state, we are not looking at the entire picture that is there to be seen; we are focused on just what we are doing. It becomes easy to forget that by acknowledging the future, and its possibility for change, we limit our effectiveness at what we are trying to do, thus increasing our own difficulty.

By accepting the presence and power of change, we can use it as an aid to our progress, rather than as an obstacle to be overcome. Simple, like most deep truth, and effective…. the greatest gifts come in the smallest packages, it is said, and in this case, it is perfectly true…..
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“I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.” — Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

It seems I’m not as alone as I had thought in my lack of enthusiasm for Shakespeare. It’s heartening to know that someone with such a logical mind sees, as do I, Shakespeare’s deliberate obscurity as a vice rather, than the virtue it is made out to be in so many quarters.  I freely admit that some of what he wrote is wonderful, in spots, but 80% is crap, plain and simple, and I can only hope that he wrote it on deadline, and didn’t get paid much for it…. That would explain a lot…..

“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.” — Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals

I offer in proof of my assertion the following excerpts from various works of his; if you can explain to me either their relevance, meaning, or artistic merit, please do so… I am listening…

“I will show myself highly fed and lowly taught.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), All ‘s Well that Ends Well — Act ii, Sc. 2

“One draught above heat makes him a fool; the second mads him; and a third drowns him.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Twelfth Night — Act i, Sc. 5

“All his successors gone before him have done ‘t; and all his ancestors that come after him may.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Merry Wives of Windsor  — Act i, Sc. 1

“A mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I ‘ll not march through Coventry with them, that ‘s flat: nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on; for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There ‘s but a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like an herald’s coat without sleeves.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry IV — Act iv, Sc. 2

“Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine,
His honour and the greatness of his name
Shall be, and make new nations.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry VIII — Act v, Sc. 5

That’s probably enough… pile too many of these in the same place and the odor is incredible!  Besides, more proof can be found almost anywhere…. there’s a lot of this kind of crap floating around the pool…. My invitation stands, by the way; if you can show me how this stuff is any good, please do so! Otherwise, thanks for listening to my gripes….  🙂
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Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea,
Yet never in extremity
It asked a crumb of me.

— Emily Dickinson

I needed this…. While searching for something else, I came across this…. I’ve used it before, months ago, but it never pales. I don’t really have any comments, except…. thank you, Emily…..
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What an odd Pearl! I am sure of only one thing after this…. I’m done with it. Beyond that, I will make no prognostication. Probably a good thing, all in all….

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!

Prudish pianos sit, forlorn in the mist….

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2

Ffolkes,
The beast has fallen from the mizzen mast, and the jib is down. I was awakened by the laughing of clowns, injecting the first cup of coffee intravenously, to save time. It struck me as I stretched prior to beginning that I had not brushed the cactus, but it looked as if I had. Such thoughts being extraneous to our purpose here, they shall be deleted. Such is the fate of unwanted, unloved cogitations, cast adrift at their most vulnerable moment, salient only to themselves. Thus it began, strangely tart, but uncommonly picturesque. The band refused to play Mozart, so Copeland had to do….

If the above is any indication, it might be a good idea to buckle up…. the ride today promises to be a bit unsteady. Should be fun though… I haven’t felt this much strong whimsy in a while…. I can see the priests, pundits, and bankers running off screaming already, deathly afraid of my savage wit…. Sure, that’s the ticket…. Before I slip entirely under the waves of insanity here, let’s get on with the Pearl, shall we?…. It would be best, I think….
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All things considered, insanity may be the only reasonable alternative. — Smart Bee

This explains this morning’s attitude… I must have been percolating this idea in the back of my mind all night, and woke up with it still buzzing around in there… It makes sense, in a perverted sort of fashion. Especially after looking at what I wrote yesterday. Oh, not that it wasn’t good….in fact, it was one of my better efforts in a while, over 2500 words, all fairly potent. No, what I refer to is the subject matter of which I wrote. A lot of it consisted of indictments of mankind or society for crimes against citizens, serving to show just how bad things are when viewed pessimistically, and how insanity in the face of that seems almost necessary, to maintain any scrap of self-control. Insane may be crazy, but it IS a choice to stay true to oneself, rather than to give in to the insanity someone else may thrust upon us.

People often wonder why there are so many disturbed folks out there, which amuses me no end…. How could it be otherwise? The pressures on every person alive in today’s madcap world is intense and unrelenting; what surprises me is how FEW truly insane people there are to be found outside institutions. Most of the really, truly mad ones are in those institutions, where they have discovered they are safe from the depredations that society forces upon everyone outside the fences. They receive three hots and a cot, and all they have to do is keep from making any sense when the doctor is around, or when anybody with a nursing license is watching, and they have no worries. Free food, free TV, medical care, and all on somebody else’s dime. What a deal!

So, don’t look down your nose at those among us who have chosen the path of insanity in order to cope with the world at large. They may be on to something…. they certainly have a lot less to worry about than most of us do. All they have to do is be creative in their delusions, let out the inner demons now and again, dance a jig in the common room each night,  and they can be just as happy as a clam at high tide….

“Once you accept his assumptions even a madman seems reasonable.” — Smart Bee
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~ A wonderful poem by Audrey Hepburn ~ Written when asked to share her “beauty tips.” It was read at her funeral years later.

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.


I trot this out now and again, just because it is as beautiful as she was…..
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Political tags – such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth – are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. — Robert Heinlein

This is a truism in my world. I read it many years ago, and after examining it extensively, have found it to be a perfect reflection of reality as I perceive it. It is a very useful statement for the understanding of all sorts of concepts regarding what happens in the political arena, serving as it does as sort of a program, allowing one to identify the players quickly and accurately, according to the role they assume and display for viewing by the public.

What is unfortunate about its veracity is how it seems to work in the modern world. It seems to me that of the two identified types of people, only the first type, those who wish everyone to be controlled, are the ones in office, or running for office. By nature and inclination, the second type does not involve themselves any more than necessary in the political process; it offends their sensibilities to even have to watch it played out in the public arena.

They do whatever is required to maintain their own independence from excessive control by others; that also is natural to them. This, sadly, leaves a great portion of humanity to its own devices, allowing the beloved ruling class, comprised solely of those who wish to control others, to abuse and oppress them to their heart’s content.

Ah well, Mr. Heinlein would suggest that those folks are only getting what they deserve for refusing to use what little intelligence they have to protect themselves, and, in at least that sense, he is correct. It just makes me sad to see so much pain and anguish among them when it is so unnecessary; I’m a sucker for hard-luck cases.

In the end,  I suppose it doesn’t matter at all in a cosmic sense; we all will do whatever it is we choose to do, and if that choice is to wear blinders, and bend over when asked, well, we would get exactly what we deserve from life…. Not me, though…. I like my butt just the way it is, thank you very much….

Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.”
— Sun Tzu (fl. c. B.C. 500)
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“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.” — Francis Bacon

Francis was a pretty smart man. Smart enough to have folks suspect him of writing a lot of Will Shakespeare’s works, apparently during his copious free time between joshing with the queen and the other courtesans, writing his philosophical treatises, and abusing the peasants. Of course, we see a lot of this quotes lying around, gathering dust, and a short examination of them reveals why…. most of them bore the reader to tears before they get to the point of what he wrote.

Yet this short little piece ascribed to him indicates more, as it is startlingly clear and absolutely accurate. It must have been written in his early years, as it also is in direct opposition to a lot of his later writings, which tend to rely on faith and religious principles he should have avoided altogether. As a matter of fact, now that I mention it, his writing over time seemed to become increasingly heavy and obscure, reflecting the confusion in his mind, no doubt, created by the disparity between the above obviously rational line of thought and the religious doctrine with which he became enamored in later years.

His later writing also demonstrates just how true the above line is, as over time, as he came to believe in more certainties, his writing and mind became more filled with doubts. In his youth, when he allowed himself to entertain doubt, he was clearly more certain of what he knew.

A good example of what to avoid, I would say, if one wishes to maintain any rationality in their thinking. It sure did mess up poor Frankie’s work…. I mean, who would WANT to be known as Willies ghost-writer, anyway?…..
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The path is the way.
The way is the truth.
It is found, but not held;
walked on, but not followed.
— Tao Teh Ching

When I was 16, my father took me on a trip to visit the UC Berkeley campus, to see if I really wanted to attend there after high school. We drove up from our home near the Central Coast of California to the burgeoning megalopolis on the east side of the SF Bay where Berkeley sits, with my eyes and mind on overdrive, taking in a completely new landscape, one completely foreign to my naive mind, which had spent most of the previous years living in a town of 750 souls. In retrospect, I don’t think that I could have made any other decision, as I was in the throes of intellectual ecstasy, taking in vast amounts of new perceptions and experiences as fast as I could swivel my head.

One of the places we visited on campus was the bookstore at the student union. Having been a book addict since the age of 9 or so, it was like falling into heaven. My dad had a hard time getting me to leave to go look at other stuff, as I was entranced by all the books I’d never seen.

On a table near the check-out stands, on a clearance table, was a slim book with a beautiful black and white image of a typical Chinese painting of mountains with bamboo shoots in the foreground, and some ideograms running down the side. The English title of the book, at the top, read merely, “Tao Teh Ching”. Visually, it was the most beautiful book I’d ever seen. Little did I know how much that simple tome would change my whole life, and the way I viewed the world.

It goes without saying at this point that I bought the book. On the drive home, I lost myself in Lao Tzu’s 88 verses that comprise the Tao Teh Ching, and have been lost in the beauty and truth they provide ever since. “The Way that can be known is not the true Way.” That is the first line of the book, as per that translation, and my mind was freed from all its previous restraints.

It was as if I had been awakened from a long sleep, and awoke with eyes so clear that only the truth could be seen. My father, I’m sure, thought I’d lost all sanity as I read, gasped, and made little moans of awakening surprise at the things that the book showed me. It is a day I will never forget, and one that, in my mind, set me on the scholar/warrior’s path that I have walked to this day…..
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I suppose by this time I should be accustomed to my own lack of organization when it comes to these Pearls. When I awoke this morning, an hour later than I thought I would (thank goodness for an hour of sleep that I wasn’t expecting!….), I was, as usual, unsure of where we might end up. As usual, I needn’t have worried, as it all came out okay, and didn’t take all that long. I’m content. Well, as content as I ever am, anyway. 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!

Curiously lacking inflation collars….

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8

Ffolkes,
As a general rule around here, titles and/or subject lines don’t have any connection to material. Today’s title came within a hair’s breadth of breaking that unwritten rule, until it morphed into final form, which was well out of the range of possible inclusion (I don’t keep any inflation collars on hand, so….). But, it didn’t look good there for a while, when I couldn’t seem to find the proper non sequitor phrase… A close call, but all is well now….

As well as is possible at this point, anyway…. What with the interruption of almost making sense, combined with a certain lack of spirited energy, this morning’s turn at the keyboard is turning into more of an effort than I had imagined. I already took an extra hour in bed, and it looks as if I won’t be making that up anytime soon, the way things are progressing. I think it would be best if I get started, before any further interruptions can occur…. let’s go Pearl, shall we?…..
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I don’t have an attitude problem–it’s supposed to be like this. — Smart Bee

I like this. It’s what I’ve said to any number of folks who have challenged me regarding my intransigence in the face of ignorant behavior. I am always tempted to add, “I am an American citizen, and it is not only my right, but my duty to challenge authority,”  mainly because I believe it to be absolutely true, thought not an attitude currently favored by most of society, more’s the pity…. We’d be a lot better off if more folks took their duties as citizens more seriously….

“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.” — Thomas Paine

All of our founding fathers were convinced that only an educated populace had a chance of maintaining the freedoms they secured for us. They knew firsthand how unscrupulous churches and governments, working hand in hand, had oppressed and subjugated the people for centuries, and they were determined that it should NOT happen here. So they engineered a system whereby each citizen has the opportunity, and the right, to a complete grounding in basic knowledge, in order that they could make informed decisions regarding the laws with which they would be living….

The Church hates a thinker like a criminal hates the police. — Smart Bee (So do politicians…)

For over 200 years now, the beloved ruling class and their hidden supporters, the prelates of the churches and synagogues, have been repeatedly and subtly attempting to undermine the purpose behind educating people, trying to limit the amount spent on education, or luring people into believing the nonsensical alternatives that religion offers in lieu of independence of thought, thus minimizing the effects of the education received outside their influence.

They (the politicians and priests/preachers….) continuously bombard the public with lie after lie, until the lies are accepted as truth, just because there is nothing else offered. They then use those lies to further confuse the public as to what is really happening, and go about their business of stealing and grabbing power wherever they find the opportunity….

“I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State.   My idea  is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.” — George Carlin

So, my attitude is not the problem…. the problem is that not enough of us have this attitude, and the PTB have virtually no competition in their fight for our attention; there is nobody allowed on the political stage who is singing a different song than the one approved for public consumption by those who control such matters…. Hell, we’ll know we’re making progress if even one such person ever gets the chance to even speak…. In the meantime, all we can do is for those of us who know our duty to keep plugging away, calling them out for their lies, and making as much noise as we can, to try to draw some attention to those places where it isn’t appreciated, but needs it the most…..

“Every sensible man, every honest man, must hold the Christian sect in horror. But what shall we substitute in its place? you say. What? A ferocious animal has sucked the blood of my relatives. I tell you to rid yourselves of this beast and you ask me what you shall put in its place?” — Voltaire
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I sit beside the fire and think of all that I have seen,
Of Meadow-flowers and butterflies in summers that have been;
Of yellow leaves and gossamer in autumns that there were,
With morning mist and silver sun and wind upon my hair.
I sit beside the fire and think of how the world will be
When winter comes without a spring that I shall ever see,
For still there are so many things that I have never seen:
In every wood in every spring there is a different green.
I sit beside the fire and think of people long ago,
And people who will see a world that I shall never know.
But all the while I sit and think of times that were before,
I listen for returning feet and voices at the door.
— J.R.R. Tolkien

There was a lot of pretty good poetry in Tolkien’s work, a fact sometimes overlooked in critical essays. Some of it isn’t very good, of course, but many of the verses, such as this one, are very good efforts, and not only fill in the story background, enriching it, but would very easily stand alone, and still deserve reading out of context. I’m not going to say any more, as this one just makes me feel good….
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O Proserpina,
For the flowers now, that frighted thou let’st fall
From Dis’s waggon! daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes
Or Cytherea’s breath; pale primroses,
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phoebus in his strength,–a malady
Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and
The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds,
The flower-de-luce being one.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Winter’s Tale — Act iv, Sc. 4

Delivers in such apt and gracious words
That aged ears play truant at his tales,
And younger hearings are quite ravished;
So sweet and voluble is his discourse.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Love’s Labour ‘s Lost — Act ii, Sc. 1

Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured,
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This many summers in a sea of glory,
But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride
At length broke under me and now has left me,
Weary and old with service, to the mercy
Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me.
Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye:
I feel my heart new opened. O, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes’ favours!
There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have:
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.
— William Shakespeare, King Henry VIII — Act iii, Sc. 2

Kirk: “Spock, comment.”
Spock: “Very bad poetry.”
— “Catspaw”, Stardate 3018.2.
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A young man came to Socrates, asking to be admitted to his school, that he might learn from the master himself. Socrates grabbed the young man, dragged him into a pool of water, and ducked him under until he was gasping and clawing for air. Finally he released the young man, and waded back to dry land. Then Socrates questioned the man. `What did you most want just now?’ The young man replied, `Air.’ `When you want knowledge as much as you just wanted air, you shall have it.’

When I was a mere lad, around 11 or 12, I first heard this story; when I heard the last line, I had an epiphany, and the search for truth became my primary goal in life from that point on, lasting to this very day. I had not seen this story in print for many years, so it was just like finding an old friend, and I am filled with good memories. I remember with fondness the breathless feeling I still get when I have learned something new, or seen a new poem, or witnessed a new sunset…. and how the process of learning has always been the same to me as breathing, an essential part of life, one that I will never forswear….
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“Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, since they can be fulfilled only through man’s subordination. Anarchism is therefore the teacher of the unity of life; not merely in nature, but in man.” — Emma Goldman “Anarchism: What It Really Stands For”

This probably looks a bit intimidating…. I know I was when I first looked at it. It is probably also much too deep a subject to take up as the last pearl of the day…. so I won’t.

I will go so far as to say that while I can agree with much of what Ms. Goldman says here, I cannot fully embrace Anarchy as a viable form of government for mankind. For such a system to work, every member of society MUST be educated and aware of their own place, and their own duty to BE their own government, their own moral guide.

Unfortunately, though I have to applaud the idea, it is far beyond what the average person is capable of either understanding, or of practicing. Hell, look at the world as it is… and then, when you stop laughing, you can just nod your head in agreement that humanity at large is not ready for Anarchy, as attractive as it may sound to those of us who might be willing to try….
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Whew! That was a struggle, to be sure…. I hope it turns out as well as it could be hoped; I’m not doing it over, so once again, it will have to fly on the wings it has…. It’s a big relief, though, just getting it done, so I’ll take that and run…. 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!