Ffolkes,
The young man’s adventure will have percolate for awhile; my creative juices are a bit dried up just now…. I once read an article that discussed the effects of stress, and how certain seminal events can put one’s level of stress through the roof. Events that were named in this category included major job stress (nasty boss, gossipy co-workers, not having a job, getting fired, etc.), death of a relative or close friend, divorce or other relationship stresses, moving, economic stress (poverty, etc.), medical issues (cancer, etc.), and a couple others I don’t recall. The author assigned a numerical value to each type of event, and a high score in a short period of time was, he contended, a short road to depression, or other mental disorder if not recognized and treated. It was a well-thought-out premise, with plenty of statistical support for his argument. I can only say that I found it convincing, but not totally accurate in its predictive function, i.e., he really had no idea what the stress did to people in a realistic sense, and seemed to not really have a feel for how much people can really take before they break. Nonetheless, it was a good yardstick to determine how much stress one has in one’s own life.
So, I went ahead and marked down how many of the events mentioned I had experienced in the last year. It turns out that I have had EVERY ONE of the above listed events to deal with in the last year. I got forced out of my job, and make half of what I made while at work. At the same time as that was happening, the woman I had loved and lived with for 10 years decided she no longer wanted me around. For six months I fought with the State bureaucracy over my retirement. Then, just as my income dropped by 50%, my Mom got sick, and I spent 6 weeks performing 24 hour nursing care, and spent my entire savings to purchase the materials needed. I missed going on a cruise I’d looked forward to for months in order to nurse her. Then she left, and I was left to deal with my geriatric dog, and barely enough money to eat with for the next few months. Then my dog died. My Mom had a stroke, and went into the hospital and died there without ever really waking up. This whole time, my own medical issues continue to dog me, sucking out my energy, and alternating bouts of severe pain in my back with bowel problems that leave me feeling like I am wading through molasses.
Now let’s be clear here….I’m not laying this out to garner sympathy; I know there are many people out there suffering the same kinds of issues every day, and there are still others who are worse off than I am (like having all this to deal with, and NO retirement check to count on coming in every month. Small as it is, my check is more than a lot of folks in this country have, thanks to our beloved ruling class). What I am going through is, of course, a result of my own karmic burden, and there is scant blame that can be placed elsewhere than right here inside my own head. But, as I read the news each day, I am struck again and again with how badly our society here in America has fallen into disarray. The absolutely outrageous crap being spouted of late by the Republicans who wanna be Prez has been not merely ignorant, but actively stupid. I shudder to think about how things will go if any one of them manages to pull the wool over enough eyes to get elected. I am of the firm opinion that anyone who wants the job of President of this country is literally insane. Not figuratively, literally. The desire for that much power is insane, period, and anyone who wants it should never, ever be elected. Mean-spirited, spiteful, and deliberately ignorant, the zealots of the world have grown to such numbers that reason, truth and compassion are being buried under cries of hatred and fear.
Today’s Pearls each contain a piece of wisdom about society, at least if examined from around a corner. But each one of them is something I believe firmly, and will, I hope, help to understand and deal with the insanity currently serving in place of society…..enjoy!….
“No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.” — Aristotle
“Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.” — Oscar Wilde
“History has the relation to truth that theology has to religion — i.e., none to speak of.” — Lazarus Long
“But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who
professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and
State.” — Thomas Jefferson, [letter?] To S. Kercheval, 1810
Existing order thrives upon ignorance and lies.
Objective truth and individual reason are feared above all.
“Humanity has in the course of time had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon its naive self-love. The first was when it realized that our earth was not the center of the universe, but only a speck in a world-system of a magnitude hardly conceivable… The second was when biological research robbed man of his particular privilege of having been specially created, and relegated him to a descent from the animal world.” — Sigmund Freud
I find your faith in reality rather amusing.
Actually, I had trouble limiting myself to only seven today; history has a lot of examples of men and women who observed the world through clear eyes, and all of them were distrustful of zealotry, with good cause….I could go on in this vein for a long time, but y’all probably have stuff to do, so I’ll leave this here….wherever here is…….y’all take care out there, and beware the ignorant and zealous….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.
gigoid
Kowabunga!
gigoid 