Tag Archives: Society

Quantum mechanics isn’t for sissies…..

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Ffolkes,
Time passes, as do tears…. at least this morning, depression is not the first thing that hit me upside the head. So far, the only bad thing I’ve had to deal with is the half & half that looks weird in the coffee because I had to freeze it to get it through the month. Well, that and the urge for a cigarette I don’t have, & can’t afford to buy…. okay, morning whine finished, I’ll go on to a more bracing set of ideas….. I found this whine to be lacking in body, and the bouquet sucked….

So, living with PTSD is fun, what? Between that and the general sense of hopelessness that is conjured in one by the ever-present poverty in which I’m existing, it gets hard to hold onto hope, or even just a resigned acceptance. There are times when I want to go back & exact revenge upon the person I hold responsible for my status, and those thoughts are sweet. But, my karmic adviser is always telling me that is not a good idea, and will end up hurting me more than her. This is not a valid argument, considering the amount of crap I go through. I can deal with it, and better, if I knew that some of it was falling upon her like a horde of Mongols entering Peking (now Beijing….. and the Mongols now come there as homeless beggars…..)  But, my plans for that are not completed yet anyway, they’re still maturing…..

I’d like to think I’ve gotten beyond what was done to me, but I see that I haven’t, and I guess I’ll have to do something about that….. soon, I promise. For now, it is these thoughts of revenge, intangible as they are, that get me through the worst of the moments when I’m hitting the bottom. And that is enough of this depressing subject…. I’m going to go look for some pearls to write about, and try to shake off the strangely adhesive feelings that have been dogging me since yesterday…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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SIGH…. the only reason I did not write this in 1988 is that I did not see it until today….. it is never a good policy to suffer a fool gladly, so my code of honor demands a response…. this begins the tale, but by no means ends it….. be warned, and be nervous, if not afraid…..

“I don’t know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they  be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.” — George Bush in Free Inquiry magazine, Fall 1988

Actually, George, the Pledge of Allegiance has no legal standing, in relation to the Constitution of this country, or for that matter, in relation to what our forefathers were thinking when they founded the nation. In fact, what was said here by such an upstanding Constitutional scholarly type, is, in reality, completely contrary to everything that makes a true patriot, or an American citizen. The part in the pledge, (which no one at all is legally required to take, or state…), that says “under God” was only added in the middle of the twentieth century, by the same Congressional idiots who perpetrated McCarthyism, and the Red Scare, on the American public. It has nothing to do with the Constitution, and in fact, could be construed as a Constitutionally illegal statement, considering the intended separation of church and state that is the backbone of what our forefathers wished us to have as our legacy…. True freedom, not Christian usurpation of freedom….. A person’s religious belief, or lack thereof, is protected by the Constitution, and a patriot is one who supports the Constitution, not a church, or a corporation…..

And if his name be George, I ‘ll call him Peter;
For new-made honour doth forget men’s names.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King John — Act i, Sc. 1

(I know, I don’t much like Will’s stuff, but, law of averages, remember?….. Give me a break, it was the only George quote I could find….)

This kind of thinking from the Shrub, whichever one it was, Junior or Senior, is the same kind of narrow-minded fundamentalism that the colonists were escaping from in England back in the 16-1700’s when they came to the New World. The churches and corporations, both of which were singled out as dangerous to the republic by Jefferson, Franklin, Paine, Adams, Hamilton, and many of the other founding fathers, have tried to usurp the Constitution ever since it was ratified. Their writings, to each other, and in public venues, were filled with precautionary admonitions about allowing corporations and preachers to have access to, or influence over, members of government. And, their fears were justified, as we now are facing just the situations they predicted….. corporations are manipulating our “professional thieves”, otherwise known as politicians, to vote for laws that favor them (really, “corporations are people?”… I don’t think so…), and the ranks of our leaders are rife with fundamentalists and religious nuts of all varieties.

“Men tend to have the beliefs that suit their passions. Cruel men believe in a cruel God and use their belief to excuse their cruelty.  Only kindly men believe in a kindly God, and they would be kindly in any case.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967)

It’s difficult sometimes to tell which ones are more dangerous, or more disgusting: the corporations who buy votes from those who fit the definition of “good politicians” (…. a good politician is one who stays bought…..), or the religious demagogues who want to oppress everyone who doesn’t believe the same set of dogmatic constraints as they do. Neither one is particularly hard to spot, but they are protected by their tame dogs in Congress, who will do and say anything to make sure the cash keeps flowing…. right into their pockets.

As indicated by the almost 500 words yesterday, and again today, you can see that the Romney/Ryan ticket disturbs me; I have no problem ranting without end right off the top of my head about the lies and distortions of reality that continuously fall from their lips. As I mentioned yesterday, a lot of people are catching on to this, as Ryan was roundly booed offstage at the AARP meeting he attended to try to sell their rape of Social Security (Smart? No. Arrogant? Completely.). But, even this is disturbing to me, as it shows just how little they care, that they are showing themselves to be only interested in lining their own pockets, and the pockets of those who own them. They aren’t even trying to hide their lies anymore; they just keep repeating them, even after having been shown to be false, believing that if they repeat the lies enough, people will buy it….

“Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book iii, Chap. xi

Unfortunately, they are right, to a large extent. Millions of people in this country, who have hung on to their prejudices and bigotry with desperation as the minorities have become majorities, are supporting these assholes, merely because they are white. They don’t realize, or seemingly care, that these are the same assholes who will be screwing them over completely as soon as they get sworn in, preferring to trust in the lies, because it soothes their fears of having a black President.

Beware of the half truth.  You may have gotten hold of the wrong half. — Smart Bee

This is why I keep reiterating that this election is bringing this country to a crossroads. The outcome will show whether we intend, as a nation, to continue to fight all attempts to curtail the freedoms that were bought and paid for by our forefathers, with blood, sweat, and tears, or will become just another religious, corporate-controlled entity, with a nation consisting of slaves and their masters. I don’t know about y’all, but I’ll be at the polls as soon as they open, and will urge everyone I know to do the same…. vote early, and vote often (just joking…), but vote. We need to send a message to these fools, that there are still patriots and citizens of this country who believe in the vision embraced and established by the men and women who began this noble experiment in self-government…..

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” — Aldous Huxley
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A Failure to Germinate

Marking the days in elements of sad disarray
only holds me thrall, as I laugh while I may.
With cold, hard hands so impatient and cruel
pulling me to this vale of tears, a pathetic old fool.

Feelings sit silent, cast in shadows and light
breaking forth to implicate such vengeful might.
Just below the surface they patiently hide
to sally forth bravely, colors bright as they ride.

Tears and pain transform valued assets in hand
while comfort and serenity retreat to a far land.
Bold, bright patterns of hope garnish my ruinous state
until reality enters, full of disdainful portions of hate.

I sort out the illustrious measures of vision gone mild
only to find them transformed, now vicious and wild.
In my deepest desires I find myself calloused and cold
with faithless advocates whose souls have been sold.

My search finds little to support any hope of relief
far too much time has passed to bolster such belief.
The sad becomes real, and real becomes unfounded
until flights of such fancy are all dead, and grounded.

Nature has informed me of the newly hatched crime
that reality has boasted of proudly, time after time.
The last answer we think of is always the best
as we come to terms with fate, our hope at rest.

~~ gigoid

Now back to the normal confusion we count on around here…..
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“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence…  From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to ensure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable….  The very atmosphere of firearms every- where restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.” — George Washington (bogus?)(who cares? I don’t, it doesn’t make it any less true if it was said by someone else…..)

I am constantly hearing people these days spouting off about gun control, and how guns should be outlawed. This is a viewpoint that I have never understood, because it makes a totally unwarranted assumption (more than one actually, but one that is most important….), i.e., guns cause violent behavior, and if people couldn’t legally own them, violence would stop. This is naive, and unreasonable, given that there is absolutely no evidence to support such a contention. There is no evidence whatsoever that violence is NOT part of human nature; this is a psychological FACT, not subject to debate. People have violent tendencies, and violence is the primary response of a great many people who have never learned how to use their reason to control their emotions.

Though I’ve never owned or carried a gun, I am a firm believer in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, in its most literal sense. Without the right to bear arms in our own defense, we, as citizens, would be at the mercy of whomever was in office at the time, and would have no recourse at all to any redress of grievance against those officials, since they could not be forced to comply with law. I do NOT trust any elected official to act in MY best interests; human nature also decrees that they will act in their OWN interests first, with no compulsion to even consider anything else. Making it a law that only police and government lackeys could legally be armed is a sure way to guarantee that the average citizen would be at the mercy of these so-called leaders, mercy being a quality that they have never heretofore demonstrated in any fashion.

As I said, I don’t own or carry guns, yet. I’ve trained myself to be dangerous without the use of them, and feel no fear that I cannot deal with an armed man to my benefit; this is simply because it is the person holding the gun that is the danger, not the gun itself. Speed, power, and accuracy are the key elements to controlling a violent situation, along with some forethought and preparation, and the ability to keep a clear mind when under duress. When a person is holding a gun, they feel ten feet tall and invincible, but they remain human, and humans can be controlled with superior strategy and tactics. It does no good to hold a gun, when the target won’t sit still, or even remain visible….. and in these cases, that sense of imperviousness becomes a liability to the gun-wielder.

However, most Americans do not have this sort of skill set, nor the state of mind that makes it work. In the hands of a skilled warrior, a gun becomes a dangerous weapon indeed, for it will be used to achieve the warrior’s goals, as any weapon would, and not employed to merely bully others into doing what is desired, which is the usual use of these kinds of weapons in the hands of the ignorant and deceitful. And politicians, by the very nature of their sociopathy, do get rather deceitful in the pursuit of their self-centered ends. The desire to be in public office, to me, is a sure sign of a sick mind, as a healthy one has no need to assume power over others, being content to be in control of themselves.

So, I would say to those who would get rid of or alter the intent of the Second Amendment, get a grip on reality, and shut the fuck up….. truly, your lack of sophistication and knowledge of human nature gives you no right or reason to speak……
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Well, that turned into quite a little rant…. I guess I needed to get that out. In reading back over it, I have nothing to regret, for it is all the plain and simple truth. So, I’ll send it out there, with the ever-present invitation to come back at me with any thoughts you that may occur to you….. Arguments, for or against, are welcome and appreciated. Constructive criticism is also welcome, wherever it is deemed to be warranted; ignorance will be ignored if harmless, or ruthlessly exposed for what it is if not, at my discretion. But, please don’t get upset if I don’t answer a comment; I intend to answer all comments, and try to get to all of them, but my internet time just now is limited, and I’m probably missing some comments.

Flaming, or fanaticism, or personal attacks will be either cheerfully deleted, or prosecuted/persecuted, depending on the severity of the idiocy therein….   🙂   Oh, and keep always in mind that I pay little attention to my attempts at humor, other than as an artistic tool; making fun of it can only improve it, I’m sure…..   😉

Not your standard disclaimer, but I think it works….  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!

On the trail of inner peace….

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Ffolkes,
It is never a good sign when I start leaking tears within a few seconds of sitting up in the morning; it is a bit disconcerting to find oneself immersed in depression first thing in the day, even pre-coffee…. or especially pre-coffee….. So disconcerting, I have had to take some time to recover my equilibrium. Took a shower, had a smoke, and went back to bed for a bit….. and still feel like hell…. I’ve got to say, when my ex-boss perpetrated the bureaucratic blitzkrieg that forced me into retirement, I’m betting she had little idea just how effectively she was damning me to perdition, or at least poverty and misery….. so, to make myself feel just a tad better, I made a quick phone call, and asked her secretary, (my FORMER friend….) to pass on to her just how happy she could be with herself….. a little passive aggression always helps, ya know?……

Two hours later, and equilibrium is still just beyond reach…. but, life must go on, balance or no, so I’m casting my fate into the wind for the time being, and just going with the flow….. perhaps some time in the library will settle things; it is one of my places of power, so there should be something here to pull me out of this hole I’ve dumped myself in….. and if not, well, at least  I tried….

All of that being said, or whined, as the view may be, I think it’s time to get on with it…. Shall we Pearl?…..

“Writing is HELL!! Every word is like giving birth to twins.” — Andy Shedlock, May 12, 1998
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“Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.” — Eric Hoffer

I am occasionally amazed at how one short phrase, well-turned, can be applied to such a huge range of human activity; this one from Mr Hoffer is one of those. This little idea gives one a perfect way to understand the phenomenon currently being played out on the public stage here in America. The election coming up in a little over a month illustrates very well that many, many of our countrymen spend their lives in fear of things they do not want to know, and will go as far as cutting off their own noses to keep from having to look at reality without the aid of rose colored glasses….

Take, for example, the millions of middle class IDIOTS who have decided that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are the answer to their fears of having not only a BLACK man as President, but a progressive-minded one at that. They shut off their brains whenever news of something going right is published, and listen instead to the lies and misrepresentations being mouthed on a daily basis by the Republican candidates. Even when the lies are exposed, they just turn to another and start repeating it over and over, sort of like a little kid sticking their fingers in their ears and singing “la la la la, I can’t hear you” in order to shut off the truth that is in front of them.

I watched a short video of Paul Ryan the other day, when he was roundly booed by a gathering of AARP senior citizens while trying to convince them that his party’s platform was going to help them, an obvious lie, considering the platform outlines how they intend to gut Social Security and give all the money back to Wall Street and the 1%. The expression on his face was priceless! He was trying to smile, but his color had gone to an embarrassed shade of red, and his words ground to a halt, as everything he was saying was being booed by the audience, who were not about to fall for his bullshit. It was quite fun to watch, I must say….

I’m also looking forward to the upcoming Presidential debates, when the cool, compassionate demeanor of the President will be set up against the cold, uncaring, obviously prejudiced Mitt the Twitt. I wouldn’t be at all surprised, given Romney’s habit of shooting himself in the foot, if he (Romney) totally lost it, and started ranting and mouthing racial epithets. It is obvious that Mitt hates Americans of any color other than pure white (his purity being one more lie, since his family has no doubt had the same skeletons in their background that any other American family has, and he can probably claim only about 40% pure white ancestors….) and having to try to be civil, even on national TV, may be more than he is capable of being…..

I’m a bit worried about the eventual outcome, as I am fully aware of how deeply stupid the American public has become in the past 50 years, as corporate America has deluged the public consciousness with tons of lies and brainwashing, and there is almost no limit to the number of people in this country who fall for the demagoguery every time. I mean, how else could Ronald Reagan, GW Shrub, and GWH Shrub have ever been elected, if there were not an already massive number of idiots out there susceptible to their nonsense? Yes, there are plenty of fools available….

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

But, this election, I think the rest of America, the true majority of which is NOT bigoted and racist, has become so outraged at the degree of disdain shown by the Republicans for real Americans that they will come out to vote, and send these fools packing off to their bankers, to soothe the pain and embarrassment of their failure with some malicious business practices…. you know, ship a few jobs overseas, count their money in the Caymans, take a quick trip to Switzerland to check their bank accounts there….

So, join the crowd this November, come on out to vote for President Obama, and help send the false Americans back into their holes, or more accurately, make them crawl back under the rocks they came from…..

“When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.” — Richard Cardinal Cushing
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Cultural Exchange

In the Quarter of the Negroes
Where the doors are doors of paper
Dust of dingy atoms
Blows a scratchy sound.
Amorphous jack-o’-Lanterns caper
And the wind won’t wait for midnight
For fun to blow doors down.
By the river and the railroad
With fluid far-off going
Boundaries bind unbinding
A whirl of whistles blowing.
No trains or steamboats going–
Yet Leontyne’s unpacking.

In the Quarter of the Negroes
Where the doorknob lets in Lieder
More than German ever bore,
Her yesterday past grandpa–
Not of her own doing–
In a pot of collard greens
Is gently stewing.

Pushcarts fold and unfold
In a supermarket sea.
And we better find out, mama,
Where is the colored laundromat
Since we move dip to Mount Vernon.

In the pot behind the paper doors
on the old iron stove what’s cooking?
What’s smelling, Leontyne?
Lieder, lovely Lieder
And a leaf of collard green.
Lovely Lieder, Leontyne.

You know, right at Christmas
They asked me if my blackness,
Would it rub off?
I said, Ask your mama.

Dreams and nightmares!
Nightmares, dreams, oh!
Dreaming that the Negroes
Of the South have taken over–
Voted all the Dixiecrats
Right out of power–

Comes the COLORED HOUR:
Martin Luther King is Governor of Georgia,
Dr. Rufus Clement his Chief Adviser,
A. Philip Randolph the High Grand Worthy.
In white pillared mansions
Sitting on their wide verandas,
Wealthy Negroes have white servants,
White sharecroppers work the black plantations,
And colored children have white mammies:
Mammy Faubus
Mammy Eastland
Mammy Wallace
Dear, dear darling old white mammies–
Sometimes even buried with our family.
Dear old
Mammy Faubus!

Culture, they say, is a two-way street:
Hand me my mint julep, mammny.
Hurry up!
Make haste!

Langston Hughes

A comment from me is hardly needed here, but I would like to have each reader ask themselves if they can envision Mitt Romney ever reading this poem, start to finish….. I didn’t think so…..
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I’m tired, and hungry, and this Pearl, though soothing to create, is getting longer than I can deal with well, so I’m going to cheat, and insert here a visual Pearl, which is, no doubt, self-explanatory….. I will note that it is applicable not only to life at large, but also to the subject above, i.e., the upcoming election….

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Well, that was…. something. Exactly what remains to be seen….. I’m broke again, so it will be a couple days until I can publish the email Pearls, so please have patience. In addition, I don’t get a lot of internet time, since I’m at the library until payday, and I only get two hours there…. It will have to do, for the nonce…..  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!

Celebratory moments on parade…..

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Ffolkes,
Being a geek never felt better…. yesterday, in frustration, I uninstalled Smart Bee again from my computer, then re-installed it, and gloryoski, Skeeter, it worked! It’s back, and looking grand, I must say….. SIGH…. I feel much better now……

So much better, I slept well, and woke early, just to get a good start on this Pearl…. it’s really good to have material to work with. I’ve grown dependent, I guess, on having sufficient quotes from other smart ffolkes to stimulate my thought processes, and not having them was taking its toll. Now I feel so good, another poem dripped out last night while I was basking in the glow of a successful install. Not great, but pretty good, I think…. and all original, so that has to count for something, right?…. It all rhymes, too, so Mrs. Lowe and Mr. Olsen would be proud…..

Without further ado, let us get on with today’s process….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“OVER the underpass!  UNDER the overpass!  Around the FUTURE and BEYOND REPAIR!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

In celebration of the return of SB, I offer this brilliant aphorism from Zippy as thanks, and as a tribute to the power of nonsense in Life. If it weren’t for the concept of ridiculousness, I’d be just another bozo on the bus, rather than a sharp, progressive purveyor of reason and honor…. and Pearls of Virtual wisdom might never have been liberated from their shells….

In the Harry Potter books, and movies, I was particularly impressed with Ms. Rowling after reading the part about Boggarts in the second novel, and finding out the spell that banished them, to wit: Ridikulous! shouted in stentorian tones while thinking of what you fear in a comical venue. Such sharp insight! It was a perfect, perfect piece of story-telling, and gave me a whole new perspective on the depth of the whole Hogwarts experience…. “Never tickle a sleeping dragon” indeed!….. With that in mind, and in recognition of the return of plenty to a world in dearth, here is an old school pearl, with a message about how to live well, and happily….

“Don’t try to have the last word. You might get it.” — Lazarus Long

“Ignorance is not bliss — it’s oblivion.” — Phillip Wylie

“Stereotypes are like a supermarket. They are convenient, economical, and useful. They do our thinking for us. We don’t have to waste time trying to make sense of our ignorance. Stereotypes slice through the niceties of language, tide us over the loose ends we don’t understand and wrap up into a comfortable package our narrow – mindedness about everything and everybody except ourselves” — Chuck Stone (Washington Post 6/3/96)

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” — Abraham Lincoln

“A man who carries a cat by the tail is getting experience that will always be helpful.  He isn’t likely to grow dim or doubtful.  Chances are, he isn’t likely to carry the cat that way again, either.  But if he wants to, I say let him!” — Mark Twain

“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live.  It is asking other people to live as one wishes to live.” — Oscar Wilde

“As God is my witness – I am that fool!” — Gomez Addams

And, on that note, we shall forge onward with renewed vigor, and a carefree heart!……
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Confidentially Paranoid

Only when the bright sunlight of dreams draws nigh
can the dark glass of reality factor true value..
Destiny’s horses run in fear as time goes dry,
for grappling with fate in such traitorous venue.

In pallid costumes made of graven cast-off tales,
fallen angels and demons show the measure of faith.
No sad transactions should escape these well-marked trails,
no angry relatives cast insults to a sedentary wraith.

Meaning can always hide in literal cold intent,
yet show mere facets of honor to perishable youth.
Sincere contentions leave with sorrowful bent,
while bastardly arguments fill in poorly for the truth.

Gone are moments filled with florid blasts of rhyme
left to moulder on the shoulders of unreasonable hope.
Only courage can save these measures of unspoken time
to gather new issues of powerfully broad and painful scope.

~~ gigoid
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It is time, the Walrus said, to speak of many things…… or at least one…..

“Shakespeare was an intellectual ocean, whose waves touched all the shores of thought; within which were all the tides and waves of destiny and will; over which swept all the storms of fate, ambition and revenge; upon which fell the gloom and darkness of despair and death and all the sunlight of content and love, and within which was the inverted sky lit with the eternal stars — an intellectual ocean — toward which all rivers ran, and from which now the isles and continents of thought receive their dew and rain.” — Robert G. Ingersoll (American lawyer and orator)

Now, to look at this, one might think that this Ingersoll person was a smart fella, having obviously read a lot of Shakespeare. I am forced to point out, however, that being able to read does not necessarily mean one can think, or that one is entitled to an opinion. There are clues within this statement that reveal its weaknesses, the foremost of which is that it is a large load of bullshit…… I, too, have read a lot of Shakespeare, though not by choice. At first, I read him because it was assigned in school by some ignorant English teacher who had fallen under the normal delusion taught in most schools about Will, i.e., his stuff was good…. when in reality, most of what he wrote is just a pile of shit piled really high….. Afterward, I read him to find further examples of his failings to show people in proof of my assertion, to wit: he is the most over-rated, and most egregiously pandered to author of all time….

Oh, he was prolific, and wrote a lot of stuff that is fairly good, by any standards…. but, given the massive amount of stuff he wrote, that is merely proof of the law of averages. For the most part, what he wrote is too wordy by half, obscure in meaning that clouds the story, or has no connection to the story at all, and tends to a flowery saccharine flavor by the choice of his words. He did achieve a large popularity in his own time, either due to good press, or the normal bad taste of the public; I don’t really care. In today’s world, his story lines are trite, and tend to stick to common themes that every author treats; in addition, his use of slang went completely overboard, and has turned what may have been decent rap in his day, into such tripe that it just sounds like random noise, similar to the common run of rap today…. it amazes me how many bad musicians there are in the world…. but that is another story….

In order to demonstrate for you the absolute nonsense that flowed from his pen, I’ve included some samples of his work below…. they pretty much speak for themselves….. badly…… so I’ve added my comments in parentheses…..

O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon ‘t,
A brother’s murder.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act iii, Sc. 3
(Ooooh, such tension and horror….. NOT…. merely mundane, as far as I can tell…..)

“The venom clamors of a jealous woman poison more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth.” — William Shakespeare
(I’ll bet Will was real popular with the women of his time….. NOT)

Where the bee sucks, there suck I;
In a cowslip’s bell I lie.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Tempest — Act v, Sc. 1
(Huh? What? Is this part of the play?…..Which part?…. Which play?)

O, that he were here to write me down an ass!
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Much Ado about Nothing — Act iv, Sc. 2
(Don’t worry, Will, I’m here…..)

A plague of sighing and grief! It blows a man up like a bladder.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry IV — Act ii, Sc. 4
(I suppose if your society doesn’t yet have rubber, or balloons, a bladder is the best you have…..)

Most forcible Feeble.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry IV — Act iii, Sc. 2
(Oh, aye, what a handy turn of phrase…. NOT… What does this mean?….)

They fool me to the top of my bent.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act iii, Sc. 2
(Uh, to where? I think more likely, he’s the one trying to fool…. the audience….)

O, never say hereafter
But I am truest speaker. You call’d me brother
When I was but your sister.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Cymbeline — Act v, Sc. 5
(Honestly, this sounds like something I’d write when really, really drunk, and think it was hilarious…..)

Okay, that’s probably enough for one day…. I’ve got well over four pages full of stuff of his like these, so there is a lot to choose from…. Just doing what I can to spread the truth, as I see it…… and this truth needs telling, to get society away from this ridiculous celebrity worship when it comes to him, and to artists like him, who rely on public opinion more than Art to determine the value of their material…. Call me Ishmael, if you must…. just don’t forget to call me…..
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Boy, that was great fun! Lots of material, old friends to pick on, and a new poem, which is always better out than in…. can’t beat that with a stick. I’m going to sign off here, so as not to tempt Fate into retribution so early in the day….. 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!

Stealing from politicians is not a crime, by definition….

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3

Ffolkes,
Far into the night, I searched within, only to find….. nada…. No quotes. No ideas. No nothing. So I went to bed, and figured the morning would bring some inspiration…. fat chance! Now I’m stuck, writing off the top of my head, which is already complaining. I may have to retreat back to bed, just to get away from the drama, which I do not enjoy, and refuse to put up with in my life at all anymore. I have even considered putting my No Drama Allowed sign up on my front door, just so it is clear to all and sundry who approach….. I have yet to do that one, but it’s close, it’s close….

For the nonce though, we’ll have to come up with something for today’s Pearl, which is looking a bit thin at this juncture. Aha! I’ve got an idea, and it should work well…. let’s go see…..  Yep, I think it will work…. It may be disturbing to know, in this age of digital everything, but today’s quotes are all taken from books…. real, physical books, that I held in my hand and read by turning the pages….. It was fun….. and reassuring to know that even though my database of quotes is gone (until further notice), I still have a place to go to find what I need…. And it is a very fulfilling feeling to pull it out of the pages; I’ve always been a heavy reader, and it’s good to remember that real books are still the best source of, well, everything you want to know….

Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged few.” — Helen Keller

Being in my current position, it is natural to fall into the trap as described above by Ms. Keller. It reminds me in a way of the same thought from Socrates (I believe) who said, “If every man brought his troubles to a central place, where it was said that all men would bring theirs, and each would take away an equal amount, most would be happy to just take up their own troubles and go home.” I guess it has always been a natural tendency among us humans, to compare our own situation to that of others, and make a judgment about relative worth…. not an admirable trait, but understandable, given our ego-driven natures.

I do know for a fact that I am better off than most of the world; I am still overweight, and much of the world hasn’t enough food to ever get to that state. I also live indoors, with plumbing, and have enough clothing to cover myself in inclement weather. I have a steady, if currently small, source of income, even though retired. I have medical insurance, and even though the co-payments are hard to handle, I have no fear of not receiving medical care if needed. All of this is much more than probably 50% of the people alive on this planet have as resources, so I can hardly consider myself to be entirely poverty-stricken…. I’ve actually been there, or close to it, and this is not the same…..

One time, in my early twenties, I fell into an unemployed state for several months, and during the last month and a half, it got to the point where I was actually hungry a lot of the time. I was living in my truck, on the streets of Berkeley; the truck, fortunately, had a camper, so I did have a place to sleep and stay dry, but couldn’t ever get off the streets for long. I lived one entire month on a jar of peanut butter, some bread given to me by friends, and a jar of excellent multivitamins, which kept my teeth from falling out of my head from scurvy, and the like….. It was not a pleasant experience, at all, and I didn’t particularly enjoy the feelings of depression and despair that went along with it. At the end of the month of PB and vitamins, I was able to find a job, and have not been unemployed for long since then, for the most part.

Having felt at least some of what the folks who are stuck living in such poverty feel, I empathize with their situation completely. I also feel a great deal of disdain for the average American, who has no idea of how fortunate they are to be living in this country, where the opportunities to pull one’s self out of the hole of poverty are so much more available than in much of the rest of the world. I listen to these political pundits, screaming their outrage at how the poor are shiftless, and only want handouts, and to have society provide them with food and shelter, all at the expense of “hard-working Americans who pay taxes”, and I am completely filled with my own sense of outrage. These people have no idea of how lucky they are, or how little part they played in securing the resources they command, and have no idea at all of what it is like to not have those opportunities available to them.

These people are the same ones who spend so much time chasing the Devil, and spouting off about religion. They assume that the poor of the world are poor because God wants them to be that way, or that they are somehow responsible for their own poverty, having offended God. Ms. Keller also had something to say about them, which I believe completely, and share in her wish to see more of it in the world….

” It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.”

Pretty smart lady, that Helen Keller….. the world will never see her like again, and that is a shame, to be sure……
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Children’s Rhymes

By what sends
the white kids
I ain’t sent:
I know I can’t
be President.
What don’t bug
them white kids
sure bugs me:
We know everybody
ain’t free.

Lies written down
for white folks
ain’t for us a-tall:
Liberty And Justice–
Huh!–For All?

Langston Hughes

This poem gives voice to and defines the vast distance that still exists in this country between the folks who feel this way, and their opposite numbers on the other side of the issue. Racism is alive and all-too-well in this country, and this election is proof of that pudding. The Republican Party has adopted a platform that just barely avoids outright statement of such bigotry, but not by much. Their inner circle has already made public that the agenda of the GOP is to make Obama a one term President; there is no mention of taxes or the economy, jobs, medical insurance, war, or any other of the possible issues that are under the public eye. Their single goal is to get the black man out of the Oval Office; they don’t care, obviously, how many people they alienate in their efforts, either, as they chose the single most contentious candidate possible.

Yesterday, or the day before, I mentioned that this country is at a crossroads, which elicited some support among commenters, with good reason. This election is going to show exactly how many people are still out there ready to buy into any set of lies in order to maintain their own bigoted outlook. The Romney/Ryan team, and the GOP, has given up any hope of mainstream acceptance, and has sided with the fundamentalists and fanatics who believe that government should be secondary to religion. They have managed to alienate about 75-80% of the American public with their fascist, religion-based platform, while still garnering the support of millions of dim-witted people who are only concerned with their racist agendas. The campaign has already shown how racism has survived intact, and on election day, every bigot, every fanatic, and every religious nut in the country is going to vote to show their support for policies that will be the worst possible thing that could happen to them, all because they believe that a black man should not be President.

I am appalled, not only by the actual people who are voicing these asinine concepts, but by the media, who reports what the GOP candidates say, just as if it made any sense, thereby lending credence to the idiocy they espouse. But, I am also encouraged at the response to all of this, which appears to be swinging in favor of the incumbent President. All the most recent polls show the Democrats to be leading, in every issue, and the GOP campaign is scrambling around in terror, in absolute shock that their policies are being rejected by the majority of Americans. I am growing more hopeful of an outcome that we can live with, instead of one that promises to send society into chaos. It may be a slim hope, but it is a strong one, and I can only hold good thoughts for the ascendancy of reason over ignorance in our society in the years to come…..
__________________________________

I came upon a treasure trove of quotes in one of my copies of the Bathroom Reader’s Institute’s tomes, called Uncle John’s Ahh-Inspiring Bathroom Reader…. If you are unfamiliar with these books, take the time to access their website, where you can get a good idea of what they are like…. fun, interesting, and chock full of both nonsense, and sense…. Here are a series of quotes from some modern and historical figures, all of which pertain to the current campaign for the Presidency in this country…. at least peripherally….. These all have a pointed remark that leads us to some disturbing conclusions about public life in America, but, what else is new?…..

“Fundamentalism isn’t about religion. It’s about power.” — Salman Rushdie

“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

“A little learning, indeed, may be a dangerous thing, but the want of learning is a calamity for any people.” — Frederick Douglas

“The universe is an intelligence test.” — Timothy Leary

“There is no place in a fanatics head where reason can enter.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

“There is no act of treachery or meanness of which a political party is not capable; for in politics there is no honor.” — Benjamin Disraeli

There, that should lead to the proper level of confusion and glassy eyes…. I’m just glad the polls are showing some progress in the number of folks who have come to realize that the Romney/Ryan ticket would be disastrous, for everyone, not just a few. Perhaps there is still a chance for common sense to assume a place in public life…. one can always hope…..
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Another odd Pearl today, ffolkes…. it’s getting to be a habit. I can’t say it wasn’t fun, trying to figure out how to create material out of nothing much, but I think I’d rather try to get back to the old routine one of these days…. This waiting game is getting tedious, to be sure, and I will be very glad when something happens to change my situation….. It is said that having to wait for change leads to patience, but in this case, I wish they would just keep their bloody mouths shut…. I guess I’m getting cranky, which is understandable, if not desirable. So be it……. 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!

Bath water? What baby?……

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3

Ffolkes,
I am forced to confess that I’ve become an internet addict…. I can’t conceive of going back to the days before the entire repository of human knowledge, minus the traditional confidential security material, was available at request, in the blink of an eye. One can feed the elephant’s child for as long as they wish, in any field or subject, and never run out of material to learn. I miss what I now feel to be a necessity, a connection to the net at home, where I can fulfill any question or impulse to find out something at my whim. Being reduced to a limited time per day is somehow diminishing, and emotionally stressful…. hmm, maybe I could plead that to the cable company, to get my hook-up for a discount…. might be worth a try….

Meantime, I am reduced to creating my Pearls ahead of time, so that I can post them quickly…. this gives me a little time to catch up to email, check in with Facebook and Twitter, check the time for the ball game at the news site I frequent, and then do any online research I’ve remembered from when at home…. all of which adds up to a routine I’m still evolving into some sort of efficiency, reluctantly. It’s still annoying to have to develop a whole new routine, just because I had to move, but I suppose I can’t complain too much…. I’m still living indoors, and have enough to eat, which is a damn site better than a lot of the world’s population can say…. Can’t forget that, even when it gets better, or worse, there are always people in a tougher spot…..

What this all boils down to is that today’s effort was actually created yesterday, almost completely…. it was necessary to fill in around the edges, as you will see after reading today’s poetry effort in the second section of pearls. That effort drained me pretty thoroughly, and I retreated into the past a bit…. sections one, three, and the closing section are all pearls created years ago…… a mild form of hebephrenia, as is were…. and, sorry, no, you’ll have to look it up….. 🙂   Try a Dictionary of Psychiatric Disorders…. which is appropriate for use in this blog….

I’m now ensconced comfortably with a cuppa coffee at the local Wi-Fi & java spot, ready to cram a day’s worth of internet into an hour and a half. The Pearl is ready, so I’m going to begin the process of moving it from my laptop to the blog site, with a short stop to send out the email Pearl, which continues a tradition founded over 10 years ago, in the dawn of the personal computer age…… and has been my primary source of defense against insanity for all that time…. Shall we Pearl?……
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There are times when getting bogged down is unavoidable; the nature of the Universe demands this, in order to maintain the proper degree of entropy. I think it is one of God’s greatest jokes, one that begs for understanding. I mean, just look at the way things are set up; is this not prat-fall funny, having a well-ordered Nature, and then tossing in entropy to keep things interesting? Things fall apart, and that’s just the way it is…..

proof by forward reference:
Reference is usually to a forthcoming paper of the author, which is often not as forthcoming as at first.

proof by semantic shift:
Some of the standard but inconvenient definitions are changed for the statement of the result.

proof by appeal to intuition:
Cloud-shaped drawings frequently help here.

— How to Prove It, Part 7

“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.” — Francis Bacon, English philosopher (1561-1626)

As always, the lesson is left as an exercise for the gentle reader…..
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Playing by the Rules

All my days I looked for love,
And found it everywhere I looked.
The years were joyous and fully booked
Seemingly by command from Above.

In return for all of the beauty in Life I found
I played life by the Rules that we all know,
It was from my father I learned the how,
Honest love, given freely, hand-fasted, gladly bound.

It seemed a while as if it were all real,
that fulfillment and contentment could be
as real as the children given us to oversee,
to teach them of Life and Love, and how to feel.

Then storm clouds of grievous change arrived, unbidden
Insidious, deceitful, three steps forward, then one back.
Tearing holes in our beautiful cloth, a heart heard to crack,
Gleeful demons eating life’s bounty, fangs dirty, and hidden.

Pain and sorrow grew, in defiance of all I tried,
Sanctuary turned into a reluctant scene of ritual battle,
Love still lives, but herded like doomed and pitiful cattle,
While the keening of my soul sounds as if I’d cried.

Betrayal in love is, allow me to assure, no small pain to take.
Time has no power to reduce its place in my heart or soul.
My truest love became a stranger, a powerfully sharp toll,
Solitude has become my lot, no killing time for necessity’s sake.

Love yet surrounds me, everywhere; I’m not one of those fools…
Children are forgiving, I’m glad to be able to say,
They show me life’s solid purpose, the old, right way,
I guess  don’t know any other way, than to Play it by the Rules.

~~ gigoid

Okay, ffolkes, this one hurt, a lot, but it had to come out…. I’ve been in tears for an hour now, first drowning in feeling that arose from inside, unasked, then letting those feelings out onto the screen, and they’re not going to stop anytime soon, I can tell. This is an old, old pain, and apparently has been hiding for a while, buried much deeper than I had previously given credence to; it fucking HURTS!….. It’s a damn  good thing that I’m an optimist, and too bloody stubborn to give up believing in Life, and all that is good and beautiful in it…. that’s all I can say…. otherwise, I’d be damned depressed right now….. I  gotta go…..
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As a firm believer in taking responsibility for our own karma, I often allow instinct to guide my behavior. This is not to say that it is my sole guide, but evolution gave us certain advantageous traits, and allowing them free rein can be, and often is, a very comfortable path to success. (Success = survival)  Reason, and perception, and those other parts of us arising out of our intelligence that can be valuable as survival tools can fail us at the test, and instinct provides options. Thus this morning’s offering…. many of you are, ostensibly, therapists. These are good tools in being effective as one who serves others in the fertile fields of the human mind…..

“A bitter jest, when the satire comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind.” — Tacitus

“If rejection destroys your self-esteem, you’re letting others hold you as an emotional hostage.” — Brian Tracy

“You may forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one with whom you have wept.” — Kahlil Gibran

Thoughtfully kind, self-confident, and compassionate. Valuable traits indeed……
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The following pearl, also a former Pearl, is from the summer of 2008, as are the first section, and the third section of today’s Pearl. I know it’s a bit lazy, and possibly a bit confusing, but, bear with me, as I go through these difficult times, bereft of my usual resources, such as Smart Bee, and an ISP at home…. I’ve been around writing these Pearls for a long time now, all in all, and there are a lot of them I don’t even remember…. it’s kind of fun, like finding a long lost stash of comic books…. any who, enjoy….. even if it isn’t Monday…. please?….

First Impressions…

Ffolkes,
…..can last a long time, even when the secondary & tertiary experience is contrary. Which is why I try to be particularly lucid on Mondays. But then, nobody’s perfect……

“Be able to be alone.  Lose not the advantage of solitude, and the society of thyself.”–unknown smart guy

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom. — Theodore Isaac Rubin

It is good to be alone sometimes. And wisdom is its’ own reward. But this next one, this is powerful truth!

“Fifty bucks, same as downtown!” — The Philadelphia Kid

See, it’s all in the wrist….. And don’t worry about the lesson today; it isn’t there…..unless you wish it to be……

This is the oddest Pearl I’ve created in a while; if you are familiar with what goes on around here, you’ll know that is saying a lot…. which is, no doubt, enough said…..  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!

Scratching at the nadir of indifference….

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11

Ffolkes,
I’ve always known that Murphy was an asshole, but this month he has gone to new, extreme lengths to mess with my head, and I really don’t appreciate it.  As a non-corporeal entity, he no doubt feels safe from any retribution on my part, but I swear, I will figure out how to have a negative effect on an iconic force of nature, and he will pay, and pay, and pay for all the crap he puts me through….. and if not, well, it’s fun to think about it…..

I suspect that he really doesn’t have to extend himself very far to get cooperation from the USPS; they’re set up to aid his kind of purpose by the very nature of their business. They are responsible for carrying dreams and hopes to people who are desperately waiting for them to arrive, and it only takes a minimum of effort to slow that process down, thus putting the people waiting through a world of pain and anguish, merely by the act of being later than expected, or reasonably desired. And, the work is so mindlessly boring, once the routines are learned, that the people who move the mail generally end up slowing things down just to amuse themselves, not caring who is being screwed over by their lack of integrity….. SIGH…. I HATE Murphy, with a passion as great as any I’ve ever felt, and I WILL figure out a way to hurt him….

That being said, we may as well get on with the business at hand, which, while it may not be as important as what is coming in the mail, it is at least as interesting, in its way…. it’s too bad it has to wait until I can get online to get finished, but, I’m just not finding what I need without the resources there…. for the nonce, interest will have to be enough…. Shall we Pearl?……
__________________________________

George Carlin was the most accurate, the most loved, and the most honest social and political philosopher of the twentieth century, without peer, and may well hold the same distinction for the twenty-first century. He pulled no punches, spared no feelings, and was as honest as the day is long. Nothing he ever said, in any of his monologues, or in what he wrote, was ever inaccurate; he spoke only of what had actually occurred, and what everyone could see around them in society. He was pitiless in his condemnation of stupidity and ignorance, and all of its proponents, who, as we know, are legion. Nobody in the public eye was spared the sharpness of his wit, or ignored and thereby enabled because they were too powerful; he speared them all, just as he does in the above statement……

Mitt Romney is one of the people (and I use the term advisedly…) who is in The Big Club…. He’s a relatively new member, but is well-liked by the others in the club, because he doesn’t seem to be bothered by people thinking this kind of stuff of him; he almost seems to enjoy being put into the elitist category, and almost smiles when he is vilified by the poor or vulnerable. Proof positive lies in the off-the-cuff statements he made last week at the fund-raising dinner, where he thought he was among friends, and could say what he really believes; it is obvious that it is not just that 47% of Americans about whom he was talking that he disrespects. It is ALL Americans who don’t make more than $100 million a year who have his disdain….. and that includes about 99% of the available people…. He doesn’t really care about ANY of them, even his own family…. they are just props for him to make him appear like the rest of America; they don’t really mean anything to him, beyond their images….

Romney and his cronies want to consolidate the power they already have, bringing their greed and total lack of compassion to new heights of calumny. They want to lower taxes for the rich, and raise them for the poor and middle classes; they want to take back the money I, and millions like me, have put into Social Security, and, like George says, put it back in the pockets of Wall Street’s denizens, thereby casting the most vulnerable part of the population, senior citizens, into poverty. They want to turn back the clock to the days when women, and people of color, and immigrants, were second-class citizens; they want to marginalize well over half of the population of this country, all in the name of the almighty dollar. They want to make being gay, lesbian, or transgender a crime; Paul Ryan has stated that he supports a law making it a crime for a woman to become pregnant without being married. They want to impose the religious beliefs of what is now a minority of citizens on all 330 million of us, no matter what our religious beliefs might be; their only concern is to maintain their own ascendancy…..

All of the statements I just made in the above paragraph are absolute truth; you can check out the veracity quite simply, by reading the Official Platform of the Republican Party for the 2012 election. It’s all there is black and white…. and yet, there are millions of STUPID, STUPID people who are going to vote for him, just because he isn’t black. It totally amazes me how these people, with the evidence right in front of them, will give their support to a man who will proceed to fuck them over royally as soon as he is in office. He holds as much, or more, disdain for them as he does for the rest of America, because he knows that they are so ignorant and bigoted they will let their fears of a “black President” overcome their common sense, and give their vote to him, merely because he is white…. and you thought racism was a thing of the past!…….

This country is, whether it realizes it or not, is at a crossroads, a nexus in time, where the fate of not just this country, but humanity at large is riding in the balance. If the election goes to the Republicans (who are making every attempt to control the vote in their favor, by passing illegal voter suppression laws that are continuously being struck down in court….) the overall effects on society will be felt over the entire world. This country will become even more isolated and at odds with the rest of the world than it is now, and the possibility of a world-wide conflagration is not entirely impossible….

So, as an American, each of us needs to make a decision…. Are we going to give in to the elitists who want to completely control the rest of us to their advantage, and take the chance of an end-of-time scenario, or will we make the choice to take back the controls they have usurped, and return the power to the people, where it properly resides? I can only hope that there are enough of us shouting out the truth to get the attention of all those who think they can let it go, that things will get better on their own…. otherwise, we are ALL up shit creek, and no paddles in sight……

“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Abigail Adams, Paris, Feb. 22, 1787
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Fatal Supplication

But what becomes of our deepest dangerous dreams?
Does fantasy rescue any part of life’s imperiled favor?
Reality becomes but silvery pairs of mismatched teams,
Dining with affable elegance, such diffident waste to savor.

Who decides what sorrows to carry bravely to term?
Will fragrant moments of sanity make hasty manifestation?
Only Time’s patient mutability sends messages so firm,
Yet salient impersonal vexation lends credence to ripe imagination.

Can folly bring out sadness and rampant visions of beauty?
What kindness can be found in distant open relations?
With countless faces the dead disturb with dire impunity,
From separate caches of wisdom come simple stylish privations.

Shall shallow emotion serve to provide such explanations?
When does avaricious intensity assume primary focus?
Plain answers slide softly through with multiple mitigations,
While conceptually indignant bigots engage a fatally personal locus.

~~ gigoid

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Due to the unfortunate demise of Smart Bee, I am forced to search through my older Pearls for material…. I came across these gems, two consecutive  Pearls from sometime around April of 2008, while I was working at the state hospital…. they kind of fit in with today’s earlier themes, so I’ve included both below…. pearls were shorter then, but, hopefully, no less compellingly true…. enjoy!…..

Babbling brook

Ffolkes,
Generally I refrain from picking on politicians; it’s too easy. But, the American political arena has consistently made a hobby of attempting to legislate morality (to impress the great mass of religious sheep who habitually vote), and this hobby has created an unfortunate cultural phenomenon, what I like to call “warped honesty”.

I was listening this morning to a commercial (for a car which shall remain unnamed, for fairness’ sake). (the heck with it, it was rude….Subaru Forester). The announcer gleefully touted about 8 features of the car that demonstrated its’ superiority over other vehicles, speaking for about 38 seconds. The remaining 22 seconds in a full minute were taken up by one of those announcers who can speak 500 words a minute who gave the legal disclaimer, which consisted of a disclaimer for all 8 talking points in the advertisement. Amazing! Nothing in the commercial was true, but because of the disclaimers, they could say it anyway. It boggles the mind. Obviously, none of these people (the ad folks, the car sellers, or the politicians) have ever heard of axiom #4, or worse yet, #7. (#4: Excellence is its’ own reward. #7: Do your Duty. Honor the Truth. Respect Life.  Share your Love.) The sad part is, most folks haven’t heard of them. Sigh……

“In the mountains the shortest way is from peak to peak: but for that one must have long legs. Aphorisms should be peaks.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Be alert folks……Y’all take care out there…..

yesterday, continued

Ffolkes,
There were some good responses to yesterday’s offering, and today I just want to finish up the line of reasoning begun. The two quotes below explain a lot about human nature, which is, without a doubt, our greatest handicap as well as our salvation. Enjoy!

“Morality is the best of devices for leading Mankind by the nose.”–Friederich Nietsche

“If stupidity got us into this mess, why can’t it get us out?”–Will Rogers

And never forget…

“Those who are clever, who have a brain, never understand anything.”–Winnie the Pooh

Y’all take care out there….

Not too bad for a flash from the past…..
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Such as it is, it is what it is, and cannot be more…. So be it…. It’s another Pearl fashioned on the run, and posted in haste…. hopefully, this will not detract from its relevance and veracity…. 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!

Age before beauty, beauty before fish sauce….

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35

Ffolkes,
In the beginning, there was fish sauce…. and not much else. Of course, this was because things were still new and confusing, and no one had even thought about ice cream, or margaritas. But, the weather was good, so it was okay with most everybody…… people didn’t used to be so greedy. Then, of course, came the rules, first set up by a preacher, and things have gone downhill ever since…..

Life got really hard once there were rules, because, hey, no more fish sauce at bedtime, and folks have been playing the blues ever since that fateful day. We’d probably all rather have the fish sauce, but the blues are a pretty good trade-off, when you stop to think about it. And nobody pays any attention any more to the preachers, so things will get better, unless we start that old politics thing again. Boy, every time we try that crap, somebody’s got to get all elitist and big-mouth, dissing everybody else and hogging all the money, which we need for ice cream and guitar picks….. I hate when that happens….

So, rather than fall prey to the depredations of rogue politicos, or assholes, as we call them downtown, I think we should go diving in the web for pearls, & see if we can find some really shiny ones…. Toothsome, over at adollyisciousirony, also known as All About Lemon, her blog site, has started another game, a story game, and today’s first section will talk about that…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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One of my absolute favorite blog sites is called All About Lemon, aka adollyisciousirony, or Toothsome’s Place…. Dolly posts the most amazing stuff, and is always starting a new game for bloggers to play along…. Now we have the Story Game…. Dolly gives the first five words of a story, then the next blogger writes five more, then another blogger writes five more words, and so on to the end of the story that develops, with each blogger tagging one of their blogging friends or followers to provide the next five words, AND, with each blogger providing a link to the original post, to the tagger’s post, and to their site, where they’ve listed their five words…. Once the words are written, that blogger then tags another blogger to give five more words, and so on… So, the original story line started here, …….

http://allaboutlemon.com/toothsome-story-game/    …….  

with these five words from Dolly…”Once upon a Toothsome Day,”……

then, Illustrious Illustrator Mark Armstrong added, “a truck full of donuts” at his site, here: 

http://wp.me/PRFVr-1DO

So, now we have, “Once upon a Toothsome Day, a truck full of donuts…”

Linda Vernon, the next taggee, added these words, …..  “pulled up at Al’s house…”

as listed on Linda’s post at: 

http://lindavernon.wordpress.com/falderal/   

Linda, to my surprise, tagged me follow her, so…… here is my response, with five more words of brilliance, of course….. The story now reads…..

“Once upon a Toothsome Day, a truck pulled up at Al’s house….”

My contribution is: “leaking glazed all-bran crullers”…..  So, the story now goes like this….

“Once upon a Toothsome Day, a truck pulled up at Al’s house, leaking glazed all bran crullers…..”

Now, it becomes the turn of the person who I am tagging, and that person is:  WillowDot21, from her site here:

http://willowdot21.wordpress.com/  

Good Luck Willow!

Keep an eye on Dolly’s site to see the eventual finished product of our fooling about……
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Denial of Comfort

Baleful chairs become the enemy, heralded in red
seemingly welcome softness beckons with a smile,
waiting, content with slaughter, they are finally led
screaming in agony, deluged in venom all the while.

Desperate distraction becomes such a friendless fire
for all the patterns of autumn’s pale dismay,
leaving sincerely latent trails in spirals of twisted wire,
while memory insists upon failure, palpably evil, and fey.

Fat, jaded tears would have fallen in good time,
if only the suitable suitor had scaled the garden’s wall.
Credence for discounted prices luckily in their prime
bring only fascinated eyes into such a hallowed hall.

Searching for answers is ever a clever portrayal
with studious accouterments to fulfill each common rule.
Arguably patient pictures of science and honest betrayal
shall evermore languish, in light of passion so elegantly cruel.

~~ gigoid

Ouch, that hurt…..

“I was reading the dictionary.  I thought it was a poem about everything.” — Steven Wright
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Where else can you find intellectual games, with no pressure to win, that allow you to pick your own conclusions, other than right here, exploring consensual reality with me? Nowhere, that’s where…. So, here is another old-fashioned pearl for your perusal, with the conclusion right there in plain sight, for anyone to see…. it’s Hobson’s choice, all over again….

Politics is what happens to democracy when not enough people care. — Anonymous, Thursday, 1992

After his Ignoble Disgrace, Satan was being expelled from  Heaven.  As he passed through the Gates, he paused a moment in thought, and turned to God and said, “A new creature called Man, I hear, is soon to be created.”
“This is true,” He replied.
“He will need laws,” said the Demon slyly.
“What!   You, his appointed Enemy for all Time!  You ask for the right to make his laws?”
“Oh, no!”  Satan replied, “I ask only that he be allowed to make his own.”
It was so granted.

— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill  in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” — Voltaire

“A man that expects to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic and is locked up. But a man that thinks people can be turned into angels by legislation is called a reformer and allowed to walk free.” — Mr. Dooly

Sometimes, it’s just too easy….. but, somebody’s got to do it…..   🙂
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Well, that was a thoroughly enjoyable Pearl to make, other than the poem, which hurt like hell getting it out. But, better out than in, as I always say….. And, it’s cost effective, too! The overhead is really low on that stuff….. but, I know you’re not interested in the economics of writing a blog, any more than I am, so we’ll just forget all that, and bid thee adieu for another day…..  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!

 

Tether ball rules still apply….

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Ffolkes,
Yesterday was a wash, computer-wise. I managed to post, by going to the library, but had no extra time to read any blogs, or answer any comments, as life intervened to eat up all the extra time I thought I had. But, that event also brought in a bit of cash, so I can spend more time today, at the coffee shop with the Wi-Fi node, and even enjoy a bagel with my morning writing and surfing. Also didn’t have time for email yesterday, as the library network isn’t appreciated by my email browser, so that will be another task for today’s session….

Chatty housekeeping done, we should probably just go on to the diving portion of the program, not that diving is very deep, what with no Smart Bee to peruse. The old, unused pearls are there for a reason, that reason being that they didn’t make the grade the first time around, and it’s a longer process to find something usable. It’s a good thing I am a patient man, in the final analysis, or I’d be my own worst enemy….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Beauty as we feel it is something indescribable; what it is or what it means can never be said.” — George Santayana

This observation by Mssr. Santayana seems to me to explain most of the movies that come out of Hollywood, or anywhere else. Each of us, though we cannot always say what we see as beautiful, knows what it looks like when we encounter it; every movie made is an attempt to attract people with visions of commonality, beauty that all can agree on, and, of course, pay money to see. It’s a manufactured market, only there because people want to experience those feelings, and are convinced that they can by participating in the public viewing of someone’s idea of beauty (or comedy, or evil, or any other intriguing related emotional experience)….

It reminds me of the concept of perfection…. We all have heard that “nobody is perfect”, or “nothing is perfect”, and there are numerous philosophical treatises that attempt to prove that perfection is beyond human attainment. My question for these people is this: if there is no such thing as perfection, then why do we have its image in our minds? It seems more logical to me that perfection is merely very rare, but examples of it are bound to occur, just by the law of averages, and when it does, we have the perceptive ability to see it, to acknowledge and appreciate its perfection….

The statement also can be viewed as another way of looking at the nature of reality, or the Tao of life. Is not the very first line of the Tao Teh Ching a paraphrase of the above? “The Tao that can be named is not the true Tao.” It touches on the very base of natural law, of how reality is not what we can say of it; it is more than just the description of it. By observing what is real, our perceptions remove the part of what has occurred that gives it body and substance, what makes it real…. If Albert Einstein’s God is the true one, then He left clues to this aspect of reality all over, but especially in physics, as noted by the famed Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which so poignantly points out the folly of placing one’s total faith in what is perceived…. because by seeing it, it has already changed, to suit another of reality’s aspects, Change….

Axiom # 2 of Peruaosophy states: “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.”  Since Peruaosophy is my own philosophy, I can tell you, without fear of lying, that the axiom is absolutely true. It has been tested by every method I could think of, all through my life, and I can assure you that it is a factual statement. Trust me….

Okay, so you don’t have to take my word for it…. test it yourself. If you can find a single time when you can say that it is untrue, you document that, and send it to me. I’ll check it out, if any are sent in, but I have serious doubt that I’ll get any replies, as I’m confident of the axiom and its veracity. It doesn’t mean it is better, or more real than any other viewpoint or world view, but I’d wager it stands up to any of them without flinching or looking away….

Now see what I’ve done? I’ve talked myself into a corner, and can’t figure out how to tie all this mental meandering together with any aplomb. I’m sadly short of quotes, so we’ll have to make do with whatever I can come up with on short notice….. let it suffice to say that I believe in beauty, as little as it can be described, and I believe in perfection, in reality, and in the nature of everything….

After all, to be perfect, one would need to also be perfectly imperfect, else how would one tell?  And I know for a fact that many of us are imperfect; at times, I am so myself, on rare occasions…..  🙂  Besides, nature itself is full of examples of perfect beauty, anyway…. just take a walk in a garden when it is blooming with roses, and you will find any number of physical examples of the concept……

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart: the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned….

— William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming

His head,
Not yet by time completely silver’d o’er,
Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish youth,
But strong for service still, and unimpair’d.

— William Cowper (1731-1800) — The Task, Book ii, The Timepiece, Line 702
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A new (to me) poet, talking about my favorite gems, in metaphor, of course…..

Chain Of Pearls

Mother, I shall weave a chain of pearls for thy neck
with my tears of sorrow.

The stars have wrought their anklets of light to deck thy feet,
but mine will hang upon thy breast.

Wealth and fame come from thee
and it is for thee to give or to withhold them.
But this my sorrow is absolutely mine own,
and when I bring it to thee as my offering
thou rewardest me with thy grace.

Rabindranath Tagore

From Poemhunter.com….. Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region’s literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its “profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse”, he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature. In translation his poetry was viewed as spiritual and mercurial; his seemingly mesmeric personality, flowing hair, and other-worldly dress earned him a prophet-like reputation in the West. His “elegant prose and magical poetry” remain largely unknown outside Bengal.
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A while back, I wrote a comment regarding another blog, concerning the proposal made in that blog of writing some new amendments to the Constitution. Most of the suggested amendments made good sense, as they removed most of the entitlements that Congress had awarded itself over the years. However, there was one suggested change with which I wholeheartedly disagree…. this is the response to that suggestion… the address of the original blog is included, in case you want to read it first…..  To wit:

In Response to a Proposed 35th Amendment

From the blog site at:

A Proposal for a New Bill of Rights

After reading the above blog, I posted the following comment:

Sir, or madam,

Excellent post, well reasoned and presented…. I have a few comments, if I may….

It has long been a delusion in human society that morality can be enforced, or induced at all, by legislation. This is, as proven time and time again throughout thousands of years of human history, an idea that is doomed to fail, every time it is attempted. That is not speculation, or guesswork. Look it up…..

Therefore it is my suggestion that you forget #35, in favor of the Second Amendment already in place in the Bill of Rights; this concept is based on a false assumption, and making a flat statement of what (YOU believe) my rights are, or should be, is not acceptable to me as a citizen of this republic, or as a human being responsible for my own actions .Bearing arms is not a privilege, nor will I, and most likely at least 150 million, or more, other people in this country, accept that idea for a moment, a fact that should be obvious to any one with practical understanding of reality. I do not, nor will I ever believe that Federal, State, or Local jurisdiction have either the right, nor the authority to say differently, and I doubt seriously that there are very many in this country who do believe that. I reject utterly the statement that they, or you, or anyone else, has the right to decide for me what I will or will not own, or keep, or use in my defense. After guns, free speech would be the next to go….any bets?

That, my friend, is a fact of life, and of human nature. We only have those rights we can defend…. and this is merely another doomed attempt to legislate morality into human nature. Violence exists. Period. Get used to it, because you are not going to remove it from people’s core nature, or from reality, any more than attempting to remove guns will stop crime, or killing, or the tendency toward violence that is part of the nature of Man. Better to understand the impulse, and work toward educating people in how to cope with that part of themselves constructively, rather than destructively…..

The rest of your amendments are perfectly in alignment with what I believe is needed to improve the conditions of inequality and elitism so prevalent in today’s society, and would receive my full support.

To be honest, up to recently, I never owned, or saw a need to own a gun. As one who has followed the Warrior’s Path since my early teens (and probably before; I was raised on army posts from birth to age 10), a long-time student of martial arts, and the theories of war, I learned how to deal with violence in many ways, with many techniques, a large number of which I had to apply in my work for years, physically controlling out-of-control psychotic mental patients, without hurting them, or getting hurt. I got pretty  good at it, especially in recognizing it before it manifested fully, and diverting it.  I am very familiar with violence, in a great many of its guises. So, I can generally deal with whatever physical violence may occur in my immediate vicinity.

Now, however, I’m not as fast as I once was, nor as well-conditioned; I’m better at foresight, it comes with age. And I can foresee a time when I could conceivably need the equalizing factor of a weapon like a gun, in order to live up to my standard of handling events without injury, as far as I can…..so, I’m probably going to buy one or two… because of that, and even more, because of insane (sorry, don’t mean to flame; but, it isn’t fully sane to attempt to change human nature) talk such as this, of watching society willingly slip on their slave collars… it is NOT going to happen in my world….

If anyone, or anyone’s brother, or anyone else, tries to take away the Second Amendment rights I now have, well, I can only say, good luck with that….. and bring lots of friends…you’ll need them….

Oh, and I’d keep in mind…. those folks like the police in Sanford, Florida who were complicit in covering up the murder there,  aren’t going to disarm themselves, now are they?…. How far will you trust them to behave with honor, and respect for YOUR rights? Get real…..and I don’t mean that disrespectfully, but in hope that you will open your eyes to what is plainly there to see….
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It took some doing, but it all got done, and done well, as far as I can tell…. but, then, it’s mine, so what do I know?….. 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!

Insanity runs in our pod-group this cycle….

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Ffolkes,
Hmm….. The demise of Smart Bee as a resource for this blog is confirmed; there is something magical going on (translation: I don’t understand why it’s happening….) that is preventing SB from operating correctly, and I’m out of ideas of how to fix it. I’m going to have to think about this, seriously, and without delay; no other choice, if not the chicken-with-the-head-cut-off option. With no internet access on demand, quotes and poetry are limited to my library (non-digital), and a lot of old Pearls…. I may have to authorize some selective mining from that last source…. I do have a lot of stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day for a long time, and may just work again for inspiration….. Hmm….

Okay, I know I’m desperate when I start and finish a paragraph with the same word, especially one that isn’t even considered standard English. Of course, my English is anything but standard, I should hope…. Any who, I’m going to think about this now, and come back to it when I’ve developed a strategy…..

Okay, I’ve figured out the right approach….. I’m going to pretend it never happened….. Hey, if the GOP can base their entire platform on denial of reality, why can’t I base my blog on the same blissful ignorance? There’s obviously millions of people out there who will buy into that kind of rhetoric; witness the money collected by the GOP from people from whom they will proceed to destroy if allowed into office, to wit, lower middle class folks who are scared of the black man in the Oval Office, and will throw their support blindly to anyone who promises to get him out of there….. Denial is big-time politics, ffolkes, for sure…. and if it works for them, I’ll give it a try….

No, I won’t, don’t worry….. I couldn’t….. I don’t know yet what I WILL do, but, it will all happen as it is meant to do, so I’ll just write around the edges…… Shall we Pearl?…..
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Religion has never attracted me as a pastime that led to any particularly desirable activities. From the very first, even as a small child, I always thought the people at church were trying to get me to believe something that was not only hard to believe, but they wanted me to believe it, just on their word that it was true….. What they were saying wasn’t anything like what I perceived to be true about the world at large; none of it sounded like common sense, if you get my drift…. Plus, the more I resisted what they said, and asked questions that they couldn’t answer, the more insistent they became….. Most kids have a pretty good crap detector, and the whole church thing seemed based on fluff and wishes to me…..

Any who, it seems a lot of my saved up oysters have been on that very subject, i.e., religious dogma, and alternative ways of looking at the universe, and how it works, and what it means…. (you know, all the good stuff….), so I thought an old-school grouping would perhaps help ffolkes get a clue about what I do believe….. which can, I have to admit, change from one day to the next….. gotta keep room for new data, y’know…… shall we Pearl a bit?…..

“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the bible is filled, it would seem more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.” — Thomas Paine — The Age of Reason

“History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love (1972)

“I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings.” — Albert Einstein

God:  What one human uses to persecute another. — Anonymous

The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.– Robert Heinlein, “Job”, 1984

“No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature.  Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my own constitution; the only wrong what is against it.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

“If the lord had meant us to have faith, he’d have given us lobotomies.” — Zlatko

“A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally long life of decent living and good works followed by one outburst of taking the name of the Lord in vain, then have a heart attack at that moment and be damned for eternity. Is that the system?” — Robert A. Heinlein

“I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in     youth.  I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being.”
–Albert Einstein

“Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.” — Buddha

Well, there you go…. a complete mish-mash of different philosophies and outlooks, each with its own little piece to contribute to the whole, all ended perfectly with a piece of profoundly simple wisdom… not the virtual kind that is common around here, but real wisdom, that you can put in your pocket, take away with you, and use as needed…..
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November Dreams of Spring

Crass and cold, the beggar finds me swollen, so frail and fat
with painful stepping motions, running, like a Republicrat.
Building with straw and spittle, should artists come aground,
we all pay heavily, a billion for a bloody pound.

Too desperate, too ashamed to play such a part
We ask for belief, and sweet liberty, dressing up so smart.
It falls between the simple cracks, always in a hurry
To find a shrunken ego, ashen, swift, and full of worry.

Never there was a more penitent group, such a sterling way
To fast in luxury, making sure the guilty enter, but do not stay.
Forgotten gods can find their diffident suitors tonight
With dream-fitted convention, and a natural sense of delight.

For all the silken babies cried, to see the broken dreams of power
forgiven moments of certitude serve, filling up the maiden’s bower.
All the patient, loving veterans of ancient foreign time,
give up their first impressions, dying, dying for a rhyme.

~~ gigoid

Odd, isn’t it, how we sometimes fall into a trance to write…. or, maybe that’s just me…. ah well, regardless, enjoy!….
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Often of late, I find myself staring at the screen with a vacant expression, listening to the patter that passes for thoughts in my head. I can sit like this for a long time, just meandering here and there in my memory, re-living good and bad moments from what has turned out to be a lot more years than I ever thought about, really. Until I became 60, I had never thought about how it would feel to be that age, a discovery that surprised me to a certain degree. But, as I thought about it just now, I realized that I really had not considered what I might be doing in my 60’s, either as a career, or as a person. Part of the surprise, I know, is connected to the fact that I am currently without a life-partner, as the ones I chose as my supposed mate seem to have chosen to be elsewhere. This, being alone, was not part of my plan……

I had thought to be sharing all the joy, and all the pain that my life has brought me, with a person who I thought was as committed to that as I. Instead, I am left wondering, as Tom Robbins put it in “Skinny Legs and All”,  “How do you make Love stay?” His premise is is based on the idea that love is easy to find, but impossible to keep, given the craziness of the modern world, and the state of confusion and angst that seems to be the legacy of everyone these days. I’m not sure I completely agree with his final assessment, but I can see how it came to him, having had many similar experiences in my years. I hope he is wrong, and there are still people out there who can actually give their word to someone else, and mean to keep it….. If not, then the world is beyond hope, to my way of thinking, and we may as well just give up….

Of course, there is still that small part of me that won’t do that; I’m not sure if I should call it being stubborn, or stupid. Maybe it is what Emily calls Hope, that will not die easily. Whatever it is, it keeps me getting out of bed every day, with the view in mind to see what the world has to offer, whether it is more BS like I’ve been putting up with now for a few years, or whether there is some sort of justice to the world, and I’ll soon meet, or get together with, a person with whom I can share all of what I have inside me to give, and who will live up to whatever promises we can make to each other. And if not, well, I guess I’ll just keep flirting with the young lady at the coffee shop, and listen to her talk about her boyfriends, smiling to myself, grieving for might have been, and hoping for what might yet be…..

Leave the past behind;
leave the future behind;
leave the present behind.
Thou are then ready to go to the other shore.
Never more shalt thou return to a life that ends in death.
— The Dhammapada (c. B.C. 300)
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Whew! That last section turned on me…. it became quite a self-confession, didn’t it? Well, it’s a bit revealing, but it’s too well written to get rid of, so I’ll just have to suffer the embarrassment of hanging my laundry out for all to see…. and what the hell, it’s all true, so the chips can just fly where they may….. in the meantime, y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

Sometimes I sits and thinks,

and sometimes

I just sits.

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

A surfeit of hand-blown candlesticks…..

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Ffolkes,
What is the world coming to? Smart Bee has crashed on me. I am bereft of my dB, and woe is me! What, oh what shall I do now? If I could run around in a circle and scream without hurting myself, I would do. Since I don’t want to spend the next two days recovering from such an ill-conceived idea, were I to carry it out, I’ll not do that. Instead, until I can find or obtain another zipped install file for it on the ‘net, or find one on my computer somewhere, I’ll have to make do with what is in my head, and what is in my old pearl files, which are chock full of oysters with pearls that never made the grade….

This whole process is becoming somewhat problematic; between the loss of Smart Bee, and no ISP at home, getting the Pearl sent out is turning into an ordeal of no small proportion. Not to mention, of course, my new physical challenge, which is a bit scary, so I’ll leave it out for now…. Nevertheless, it’s getting tough to do this, from a tactical standpoint. So far, major strategic alterations have sufficed to solve the tactical difficulties, but those tactical challenges seem to be still growing, and my strategy once again needs to be re-examined and adjusted to deal with the issues. Always a pain in the proverbial ass….

So be it, he said, with grim determination. If that’s the way it is, so be it. And…. deal….. Okay, so I will. Deal, that is…. for now. Any who, it’s another good reason to get on with the show, so….. shall we Pearl?…..
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An undertaker calls a son-in-law: “About your mother-in-law, should we  embalm her, cremate her, or bury her?” He says, “Do all three. Don’t take chances.” — Myron Cohen

I’m not sure why, but I find the above joke to be extremely funny. It may be because of the relationship I had with my ex’s father. I often had the same thoughts about him, though he is still alive, last I heard. He is one of those ignorant, bare-faced hypocrites who got into a line of work that fed right into his own sense of entitlement and bigotry, i.e., a county sheriff.

As a member of the San Bernardino County cadre of paramilitary wannabes, his racism and natural belligerence found a supportive home; his favorite jokes were about the “beaners”, and he was proud to have thought up a line for when he had to confront any Hispanics when on duty, to wit: “Comprende pistola?….. When he would laugh after delivering that line, it made my skin crawl….

He was psychologically, and probably physically abusive to his children, and probably to his wife as well, though she escaped him by dying at age 51, so it’s hard to tell…. Any who, when he does pass, I’d prefer they use the above method for parking his remains….. call me Ishmael, if you must…. or call me harsh….. I don’t care either way, he’s an Asshole, with a capital A, and to my mind, the world will be a better place without his particular brand of narcissistic, ignorant selfishness……

I’m not sure where this mini-rant has been hiding, but I’m glad it got out of my head, so I can replace those memories with some more amenable to my persona……

In contrast to my former father-in-law’s somewhat skewed and colored view of life, here are some more positive thoughts on how to achieve longevity, along with some pretty good karma….

Eat less and chew well.
Ride less and walk often.
Have fewer clothes and launder often.
Worry less and work harder.
Waste less time, and continue to learn.
Talk less and listen more.
Frown less and laugh often.
Speak less and act more.
Blame less and praise others.
Take less and give a hundred times over.

— Kenzo Futagil, describing the secrets of life. — He lived well over a hundred years.

Since we managed to discuss two completely opposite poles of human nature in one pearl, does that make this educational, or just moderately interesting? Or was it a complete waste of time and energy? That last one is my call, I think, for this side of the coin, and I say that no, it is not a waste, because, if nothing else, one can take away Mr. Futagil’s advice, which is purely good……
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Painful candor

I sit, and ponder, then try to write…
seeking always to avoid sounding trite.
My record so far is less than grand;
we’ll not be striking up the hometown band.

Poems come to me, with cadence and rhyme,
that’s the easy part, every time.
Finding words of wisdom herein to include,
makes short shrift, however, of my attitude.

Still the words keep floating up in my head,
harbingers of danger, of wisdom, of dread.
Challenge is issued. in the weight of persuasion
Fey shadows of intent for any bright occasion.

Following along becomes habit and routine,
which naturally tells us where we have been.
New vistas beckon just out of sight
Pulling me forward, from day into night……

~~ gigoid
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Old-school professor speaking here…. just follow the dancing idea to the ending, where you’ll find the perfect finishing pearl, to tie it all up in a bow…. and if not, well, okay…. I tried….

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country…. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” — Former US President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 — letter to Col. William F. Elkins — printed in “The Lincoln Encyclopedia”, — ed. Archer H. Shaw, Macmillan, 1950, NY

“Despite its suffix, skepticism is not an “ism” in the sense of a belief or dogma.  It is simply an approach to the problem of telling what is counterfeit and what is genuine.  And a recognition of how costly it may be to fail to do so.  To be a skeptic is to cultivate “street smarts” in the battle for control of one’s own mind, one’s own money, one’s own allegiances.  To be a skeptic, in short, is to refuse to be a victim.” — Robert S. DeBear, “An Agenda for Reason, Realism, and Responsibility,” — New York Skeptic — (newsletter of the New York Area Skeptics, Inc.), Spring 1988

“A reverence for life does not require one to respect nature’s obvious mistakes.” — Robert A. Heinlein

“The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop.” — P. J. O’Rourke, Parliament of Whores

“Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

“Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism — how passionately I hate them!” — Albert Einstein

Okay, so it meandered a bit further afield than I intended…. a direct result of not having my normal resources at hand…. but, it still manages to make a pretty coherent statement….. and if it isn’t clear, well, that never hurt anybody, did it?…… Confusion is good for the soul, they tell me…..   🙂
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They were bigger than me, Ma, but I didn’t give up!….. And, you should see the other guy…..

Due to circumstances well beyond my control, and even further beyond my desire for control, this Pearl is complete. It’s not “Gone With The Wind”, but it’s probably better than “Debbie Does Dallas”, at least from a morality standpoint….. I’ll see what I can do about providing some video…. in the meantime, y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!