Tag Archives: Ursula K. Le Guin

Bring me the brass candlesticks from aisle three….

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Ffolkes,

It’s a Sunday…. It’s also another day I can pretty much write off, in terms of getting much done, as this bronchitis is still kicking both my figurative, and my literal ass. I have no energy at all, in spite of the best night’s sleep I’ve had in over a week (got almost 7 whole hours of it, with no coughing, and no needed emergency trips…. whee!….). I’ve decided to not try to push myself into writing a lot, even though I told myself I wouldn’t give in to this being sick stuff, as I have done for much of my life… When I told myself that, I wasn’t considering how old I am, or how damn sick I am, so give me a break, eh? I’m still delirious half of the time, and not too sure when I might be back to relative normalcy….. whatever THAT may mean around here….

Instead, I’m going to include some short pearls that comprised an old Pearl, a new poem I found by Emily (new to me….), and one fresh old school pearl, the type that is easiest on my head, as well as my body, as they don’t take long; plus, bonus material…. actual thinking isn’t required…. Okay, no comments about “oh, we knew THAT!”…. I’m doing my best here, and don’t need the grief….. Any who, I hope this doesn’t drive away too many ffolkes because I’m not being fresh…

I do have stuff I COULD talk about…. Those idiots in Congress are at it again, shuffling about in their ignorance and blind maliciousness, talking about undermining some diplomatic deal the POTUS accomplished with some of the insane assholes from the Middle East, where they pride themselves on how ignorantly they can live…. It’s funny how these Republican assholes (that is, as opposed to those Democratic assholes with whom they share office space…) seem to go into the most fantastic contortions of nasty, ill-tempered, ill-conceived machinations designed (in their tiny minds) to make it hard for Obama, just because it isn’t the way THEY want it done, when, in fact, it is their own image they are tarnishing, by appearing to be small minded and childish….. And they still don’t understand why they lost the election…. I also have a wonderful little quote about gun control that I’ve been saving, and the percolating that I’ve felt going on in there on this one promises to make it a doozy, or, as we like to say around here, some damn good shit….

But, I don’t have the energy for more than what you just got, so, we’re going with the plan outlined above for the day, as it is the best hope I have of coming up with anything worth reading…. at least, that’s my take on it, and, I’m driving…. So….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Well, one must get an idea someplace.” — Stephen Hawking
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I was reading one of the old Pearls that the new WP function recommended, and thought there was some pretty good stuff in it…. I was going to just re-blog it today; instead, I’m just going to include a few of the short pearls it contained…. I hope they tickle your fancy, or at least your plain….

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from 12/28/2011

Ffolkes,

Hoy, yo soy una tabula raza. Y cuando you escribo, es muy dificil.  Pero, tambien soy un brujo, y la realidad es mi amigo. Andalé! Vamanos!……. Pop!

Okay, whew! Thought I’d be stuck in Spanish all day; it’s all because last night I had a dream about my first real trip to Mexico, many years ago, when my partner-in-crime, Dusty, and I, rode the train from Mexicali to Mazatlan, a brutal 30 hour ride. We found out an important piece of information on that trip.

Mexican beer won’t get you drunk, no matter how fast you consume it.  It’s a decent way to stay hydrated, but that’s all. If not kept cool, it starts to taste somewhat like badger piss, though I’m only familiar with that on a hearsay level. Sure won’t give a buzz, though; it’s only about 1% alcohol. We forgot, it’s a Catholic country, and still rooted in the last century, minus one, in a cultural sense. Ah well, ’twas alright; we just spent the entire week with whiskey instead of beer. Jack is Jack, no matter where he travels….  Oh, I was wrong yesterday…. I didn’t lose my mind; it’s here somewhere. It’s just that, due to intense mind fog, all thoughts have been grounded.

Okay, I’m ready…. let’s rock….

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“You could say I’d lost my faith in our politicians.” — Smart Bee

But it was a small loss, considering there wasn’t much there to begin with…. I’d be willing to have a bit more faith in them, if even ONE of them would stop consistently lying to me. Note I said consistently; I’m adult enough to realize that, being what they are, they have to lie. If they could just learn to not lie EVERY time they open their mouths, we could reach some kind of compromise agreement. But they don’t seem to want, or seem not to be able, to do that, so I’ll just have to go on wallowing in my disbelief. That way, I’m not disappointed so often…. My mind ain’t so open that just anything can crawl right in.

“Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.” — Paulo Freire

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‘You can’t go home again if home is a place you’ve never been.”– Ursula K Leguin

Sad it is that too many people in our society, of all ages, know exactly what this means, from cruel experience. Society has always had its poor and homeless, and repeated explorations into the reasons for it have all been inconclusive, for they all get to the same point and lose coherent credibility. When the vagaries and complexities of human nature are brought into the equation, the sheer number of variables makes the equation unsolvable.  In other words, nobody knows for sure why society arranges itself as it does.

We just don’t know enough for certain to be able to say with any high degree of confidence, “THIS is why this is so”. Thus, any and all attempts at finding a solution to the problem have been ineffective at best. We live in a nation with more natural resources than all but a handful of countries around the world, but we still have a small but significant percentage of our population who don’t know whether they will eat today, or whether they will sleep indoors tonight. I can’t say I’m any smarter than anyone else who has looked at this issue; I don’t claim to have any magic bullets. But I can feel compassion, and I can wish….

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

Here we have some plain common sense, in the guise of eternal wisdom. I like to think that even the most dogmatic religious devotee, of any religion, would agree with this concept. (I know, that’s a stretch, even for one with my sunny disposition, always filled with optimism…. HACK!  Oops, sorry, almost choked….) It’s difficult to object when it matches so closely the most basic beliefs of almost every sect. Though proponents of each world-view may differ greatly on the shape and nature of what they worship, none would deny that love, compassion, and tolerance are lessons taught by all of them, in their study and contemplation of human nature, and its niche in the scheme of things. In every face with which God is seen by Man, one may see these three attributes written clearly on their visage. If we have any redeeming feature written on the slate of our souls, love for one’s fellow man would be that characteristic….

“[…] For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner […] on an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies. […] That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that.” — Carl Sagan
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As promised, a bit of Emily’s amazing vision, sans accoutrement…. (also, without formatting, which apparently got lost along the way here….)

A Coffin is a Small Domain

A Coffin is a small Domain,
Yet able to contain
A Citizen of Paradise
In it diminished Plane.

A Grave is a restricted Breadth
Yet ampler than the Sun
And all the Seas He populates
And Lands He looks upon

To Him who on its small Repose
Bestows a single Friend
Circumference without Relief
Or Estimate or End

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~
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Also as promised, below you will find a fresh harlequin pearl, ripped from the very bowels…. no, wait, that’s the wrong image for someone with current issues in that direction…. Let’s try again…. Here are some fine, fresh pearls, and I hope you enjoy them…. (It seemed the best thing, to keep it simple…. nobody can say I don’t have tact, eh?…. Maybe not a lick of sense, but, tact, I got….)

“Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them.” — Leo Tolstoy

Curse away!
And let me tell thee, Beausant, a wise proverb
The Arabs have,–“Curses are like young chickens,
And still come home to roost.”

— Edward Bulwer Lytton (1805-1873) — The Lady of Lyons, Act v, Sc. 2

“Remember that when you hear a horse, it might be a zebra.” — African proverb

“No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.” — Plato, Laws

“Intelligence is the ultimate aphrodisiac” — Smart Bee

“A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.” — Albert Camus

“There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don’t.” — Benchley’s Law of Distinction

This MIGHT be the oddest pearl I’ve ever created, but, it’s fairly consistent, and very deep, if you give it a chance…. If it still doesn’t gel for you, just forget it, and go on to the next task in your list…. That always works for me….. Or, just break it down into its individual components; each is perfectly usable as a stand-alone proverb, or, as we call them, oysters….
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I have a feeling this Pearl may not be up to my usual standards, but, I just don’t care much at this point…. I’ll check, but, as far as I’m concerned, it’s done, and I can go back to bed now…. See you tomorrow, I hope….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

21 seems to be all Murphy wants today…. but, 21 what?….

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Ffolkes,

It isn’t often I am favored with obvious clues from the universe as to what is coming up on the agenda….. Therefore, it comes as no surprise this morning that I don’t seem to be able to decode whatever it is trying to tell me with all these rather blatant little pointers, these little precognitive moments….. Moments such as looking up at the clock to note when I begin, to see it is EXACTLY 5:00 AM as I type the first letters….. or that I awoke at EXACTLY 4:30 AM….. or that the EXACT meaning of a word implies a certain complex concept, while simultaneously supplying meaning to a formerly inane title segment…. I wonder if the white raven that was sitting on my chair as I came out of the bedroom has any place in all this?…. Have I ignored TV so long I can’t figure out an obvious plot device like that?…. Maybe….

Actually, the above paragraph is one of those throw-aways of which I am so fond of creating, a collection of meaningless ideas strung together in such a way as to compel one to read it, but never quite reaching a degree of meaning that will offer the reader anything other than the beginning of a headache…. Since I awoke with one that is pushing right through the Norco, making my right eyeball throb like a dub hound’s bass speaker at top volume, I figured, why not share the wealth, eh? If I have to sit here in excruciating pain, with both hips screaming, back muscles threatening spasm, and a throbbing eyeball, it’s the least I can do…..

Not that anyone else deserves the pain I feel almost all the time; I’m still trying to figure out what I did to my karmic burden to cause this state….. If one believes at all in the balance of good and evil in the universe, karma is basic, a system of understanding and approaching life with compassion rather than aggressiveness, and the joy of striving for love, rather than the pain of striving for power….

I do believe in that balance, though it often seems that our neighborhood here in the Universe at Large is somewhat overloaded with folks who don’t feel the same way, spending most of their time in the pursuit of what I consider to be useless stuff, like money, or power over others…. I mean, power over others is EASY to assume, if one has no compassion…. it is much harder, and shows much more inner strength, to be able to have power over one’s self….

SIGH…. The power over ourselves of which I speak often, even mostly, eludes us, though, which is probably a big part of why the world is so screwed up….. Not only that, but, it seems I’ve once again fallen into the trap that often gets me in the mornings…. Another intro section full of nonsense, near-sense, and epiphany…. or what could serve as epiphany, had it occurred inside someone’s head, rather than here on my screen….

Since, however, I’m not one to waste anything I can use, especially if it adds to the word count, I’m keeping all of it, and going on to bigger and better things, if I can persuade myself to stop typing anytime soon…. I’m falling into the “can’t seem to stop” mode that occasionally plagues me….. That CAN be a problem, though it does help in creating these Pearls…. Besides, as I’ve iterated previously, it’s MY blog, right? I can do just about whatever I want, as long as it doesn’t draw the government myrmidons down on me…. or, even if it does…. I’m armed, even if I don’t appear to be…. Not only that, but, I have the power of the pen on my side, and THAT is powerful indeed…. Well, that’s what I’ve heard, anyway…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, not all that could be.” — Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

Aha! That’s been my problem the whole time…. Now, why didn’t I think of that?….. I’ll have to work on that a bit, won’t I?….
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“Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the _real_ object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?” — Patrick Henry

It has been a while since I spoke on the matter of gun control, and the Second Amendment… Since I HAVE done so previously, and in a way I found to be clear, and compelling, I am including that diatribe below… This is from the POVW posted on 11/20/12, a couple of weeks after the national election….
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As I suspected, the news has become a desert…. Since the election settled so many questions that had been paramount, there has been virtually nothing going on that is worth any outrage, and certainly nothing that would stimulate enough angst to produce a rant. The Republicans are all walking around shaking their heads, and wondering where they went wrong, or trying to fool the public into believing they are going to cooperate with the administration (a load of crap if I ever heard one….), and the Democrats can’t stop grinning long enough to get anything done yet…. It’s like watching a video of a particularly exciting Sunday School class…. pretty enough, but boring as hell….

A few items worth discussion have come up…. There is more noise being bandied about regarding gun control again, as I see some folks posting statistics about guns and people getting killed…. What, did they think?…. Were they expecting that, all of a sudden, after the election, human nature was going to change? It always amazes me how much outrage, and surprise, people seem to exhibit when another atrocity killing is brought out by a news outlet. People are going to lose their cool, and their control…. that is a fact of life, and a law of nature.

This issue, of the failure of human nature to control its homicidal urges, isn’t going to change, and wishing otherwise is a fool’s game. In addition to this fact we need to consider another, of equal importance…. guns are real. When they are used to kill, it is not as if the gun is responsible, yet people seem to think that allowing the government to regulate who can have guns, and who can’t, will somehow stop all that from happening. It won’t, and thinking it will is the worst sort of self-delusion….

“Gun Control – the belief that government, with its great wisdom and moral superiority, can be trusted with a monopoly on deadly force.”– Smart Bee

Smart Bee has hit upon the main argument against gun control, as desired by the idiots who think it will help. Sorry, don’t mean to be derogatory, but it is undeniable, inarguable idiocy to think that the government is capable of controlling itself any more than individuals can; what evidence is there to even hint as much? None, none that can be seen, because there is none that can be produced. If you think that the government has even the slightest intention of using such a monopoly with restraint, or with any sort of integrity, well, then, you have fallen into some serious deep shit in your mind, and will need to seriously consider some intensive psychotherapy.

Hell, just take a look at recent statistics as to how many civilians have been gunned down by corrupt cops…. It may surprise you to see that the numbers are at least equal to, if not greater than those deaths by gun that are attributed to civilian citizens. In the town I live in, alone, there have been at least seven civilian deaths at the hands of police, using guns, just this year…. I’ve lived in a lot of rough towns, and in my estimation, this is not a particularly large town, nor a particularly violent one.

“Most people seem to think that trampling individual rights is OK if it is “for the good of society as a whole.”  However, society is but a large number of individuals, and how can harming the individual parts better the whole?” — Andrew Ford, forda@agcs.com

Hearing a government official claim that by restricting a right it is good for society as a whole is, to me, the very same as hearing someone wearing robes and a conical, comical hat, claim they are looking out for ‘my’ interests over their own…. I’m not gonna buy it, not now, not ever. There is NO TIME when it is acceptable to restrict an individual’s rights, unless their exercise of that right is denying the rights of another. Doing so is entering the slippery slope that leads to the loss of that right. The good of society does not lie in that direction, but rather in a direction that protects that right, and all of the others we were left as our legacy.

Hearing ANYONE say they are acting “for the good of society” reminds me of the thief saying he is taking my things “for my own good”….. it doesn’t compute. Nor would I trust it if it did…. I may be a cynic, but in this case, I know I’m right…. The beloved ruling class is NOT going to look out for your best interests, or mine…. No matter how often they say they are, or how often they try to convince you, they are NOT going to do that. They are trying to control you, and screw you, and unless you hold on to your rights, and protect them with your own gun, then they will continue to try to take them away…. Sad, but true….

“Sure, understanding today’s complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head!  But…. there they are!!!. . .” — The Firesign Theater, “I Think We’re All Bozos on this Bus!”

I have made friends with the bees in my head; they know that I am armed and dangerous, to anyone who tries to convince me that our beloved ruling class has my best interests at heart. They don’t, and never have done…. I know this to be factual, and continued attempts to try to convince me otherwise are not only doomed to failure, but are likely to prompt an unexpected response; I can personally guarantee it will be one they will regret…. And, if they so decide, well, all I can say is “just desserts”….
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POETRY, n.  A form of expression peculiar to the Land beyond the Magazines. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

I don’t pretend to always understand exactly what Emily was up to in her poems; to try to unravel the mind of a poet, and a woman poet, seems to me to be a task fraught with both frustration and danger; hence, my reluctance to approach that task…. However, understanding is, fortunately, not a prerequisite for enjoying her poems…. I hope you do, too…. Enjoy them, that is….. At least it’s not a magazine….

‘T was just this time last year I died.
   I know I heard the corn,
When I was carried by the farms,–
   It had the tassels on.

I thought how yellow it would look
   When Richard went to mill;
And then I wanted to get out,
   But something held my will.

I thought just how red apples wedged
   The stubble’s joints between;
And carts went stooping round the fields
   To take the pumpkins in.

I wondered which would miss me least,
   And when Thanksgiving came,
If father’d multiply the plates
   To make an even sum.

And if my stocking hung too high,
   Would it blur the Christmas glee,
That not a Santa Claus could reach
   The altitude of me?

But this sort grieved myself, and so
   I thought how it would be
When just this time, some perfect year,
   Themselves should come to me.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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Though I am up, and awake, and relatively free of major pain (I DID take my meds upon arising, so it’s all under control, for the moment….), there isn’t a whole lot that is sticking in my head for long…. I seem to be unable at this point of maintaining any train of thought for long; that’s the main reason I went with an old rant in section one. Fortunately, not as much mental effort is needed to produce an old-school pearl, so, that’s what we’ll do now, and hope for the best…..

“He is nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent.” — Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 BC), attributed

“The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.” — Hubert H. Humphrey, 1965

“Among mankind money is far more persuasive than logical argument.” — Euripides

“Life is cruel? Compared to what?” — Edward Abbey

“Every day should be passed as if it were to be our last.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 633

“We have met the enemy and they are us and you are me and we are all together” — Walt Kelly, Lennon, and the Beatles

“If you can see a thing whole… it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives…But close up, a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. You need distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful the earth is, is to see it as the moon. The way to see how beautiful a life is, is to see it from the vantage point of death.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, Dispossessed

Sometimes, the less effort I put into these pearls, the better they turn out…. like this one, which became a quite excellent little monograph on human nature, and Life at Large…. Serendipity hides all over the place, neh?….
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Having arisen at a time that is, for me, of late, rather late, I am somewhat later getting done…. I hope that hasn’t adversely affected this Pearl; I hate when that happens!…. Let’s go see….

Once again, through a process I don’t fully understand, this came out okay…. Enough so that it can go out, just the way it is, with only minor proofing, and a lot of hope…. I hope somebody reads it, that is…. See ya next time…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Milly, I found the Senator! He’s stinking drunk!….

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Ffolkes,

I’m up, I’m up…. Even if I don’t want to be, I’m up, sitting here, blinking vacuously at the screen and wondering just what the hell I do now…. I’m SUPPOSED to be writing, but, hey, it’s only 0500, and I just got here; I’ve barely had time to sip twice at my salvation-in-a-cup. In my weak moments, I resort to old habits, and thank God for small favors, before realizing the He didn’t have anything to do with it: I’m the one who ground the beans, measured the water, and set the timer…. Besides, I think my coffee maker is so new, He would find it too hard to program, and would give up…..

I know, I know, it’s cheap, going right into blasphemy, first thing in the morning, but, let no one ever say I lack courage, or common sense…. Well, perhaps the latter could be a bit more of use to me…. However, I’m pretty sure none of the major religious leaders is up right now…. Most of them are old, like me, but, not all of us don’t sleep at night, as I don’t….. Well, I do go to bed, and I stay there for quite a while, but, mostly, that is to give my back a break from fighting with gravity….

Sleep itself is not necessarily on the menu, as a general rule, other than as a sort of tossing and turning, let’s try this position sort of way, with the occasional moment or two of actual deep sleep, when I accidentally fall into a more comfortable configuration…. This is usually about when I need to turn over, to relieve one sort of pain or another, which is enough to wake me from any real restful sleep…. It’s not pretty, but, ’tis my own way, and I’m getting used to it, such as it is….

Besides, it’s been a long time since I took any real shots at the religious morons out there…. They generally are less of a worthy target than the politicos, as some of them actually are trying to be good people…. They’re just deluded, and that often isn’t their fault, as most of them were indoctrinated into the church’s dogma before they had any defense against it. Take the Pope…. please….. (Thank you, Henny….)

No, really, take the Pope… Here is a very nice man, by all accounts…. a simple man of Christ, who actually believes the doctrine of Peace that Jesus of Nazareth preached way back when, and tries to apply the principles therein to his own life, with dedication and humility…. At least, he LOOKS that way, and, by all reports, he IS that way, so, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt….

But, he also has to be smart enough to know what a crock his entire church is based on, and how much of mankind’s misery the church has been responsible for over the centuries…. Any historian that will read history with their eyes fully open will agree with that assessment…. The churches, in conjunction with corrupt aristocrats and bankers, throughout the last four millennia, have worked diligently, and to great effect, to oppress and manipulate the common man into an obedient, malleable mass of humanity, controlled by the very delusions that cause their misery….

“L’homme est bien insense. Il ne saurait forger un ciron, et forge des Dieux a douzaines.” (Man is quite insane. He wouldn’t know how to create a maggot, and he creates gods by the dozen.) — Montaigne

If you doubt the accuracy of that claim, allow me remind you of one Pope Leo X, one of the papacy’s finest examples of corruption and perversion…. Leo X, who indulged in a number of heinous activities during his reign in the Vatican, including nepotism and the selling of ‘indulgences’, was also infamous for saying, to his cronies, way back in the mid-1500’s, “How well we know what a profitable superstition this fable of Christ has been for us and our predecessors.” Oops! Did he really say that? According to the reports, yep, he did….
Pope Leo X    These days, most of them are more careful in their language; they confine their corruption to their sexual proclivities, which are obviously bent all out of shape by their life-long celibacy, enforced at first by their own inability to relate to their peer group, thus becoming isolated and twisted from jealousy…. Then, when older, they “answer the call”, which apparently means taking up the standards of pedophilia, rather than the more common abuse of, and/or promiscuity with, women of their own age group, as practiced by the men of that belief group who are NOT in the clergy….

How else to explain the numbers of them that fall into that particular hole, than to assume there is something about celibacy that isn’t good for the human psyche?…. Besides, we ALL know that if we don’t get our pipes cleaned now and again, they clog up…. That’s just common knowledge, something anyone over the age of 15 knows, a fact of life which most of us come to terms with, one way or another, without becoming sexual predators against children…. In the Catholic Church, something seems to push them over the line on a more-than-regular basis…. It could be the sacramental wine, I suppose, a great many indiscretions over the years have been ascribed to its use…

Or, it could just be that they’re all seeing with a blind eye, ignoring any potential negatives altogether, as much as possible, because the entire profession is too profitable a scam to give up…. Since this is the sort of behavior that is most common to all men, I’m betting that it is also the case here…. People choose to believe whatever makes them feel the best; it is really that simple…. Anyone who can tell people, in a convincing manner, that if they believe what they are told, they will feel better all the time, then they will fall right in line, usually without ever looking at whether or not what they hear is at all the truth…. If someone in the pulpit, or on the TV, wearing a suit, tells the general public something, no matter how outrageous or unbelievable, most folks these days will just nod their heads, say “yep”, and fall right in line with whatever they’ve been told…..

Hmm, I seem to have fallen back into my ranting mode, without realizing it for oh, about six or seven paragraphs there…. Felt rather good, actually, and my head feels much lighter now…. I love it when a plan comes together, even if it wasn’t my plan…. Not only have I taken some rather good shots at the religious icons of the day, I’ve also fulfilled the daily intro requirements, in one swell foop…. Can’t ask for more than that, can we?….. Nope….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“It ain’t over until it’s over.” — Casey Stengel
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Having sufficiently cleared out most of the dross I found in my head this morning, I’ll not take up the gauntlet to take a run at my other favorite targets of choice, to wit: the Beloved Ruling Class…. Well, at least, not a rant run, anyway, but I will condescend to throw some old-school style pearls at them…. Here is one with the parameters firmly set to pick out some critical comments, that point out how our own leaders tend to be our worst enemies…. Life is tough when you can’t trust those who are ostensibly looking out for your interests, but, for the most part, that’s what we’re stuck with here in the twenty-first century on Earth…… Pay heed, ffolkes, and stay alert…. Knowing the truth is our last best defense…..

“This just in from a Nicholas Notifier up north.  Everyone’s favorite farmer and political commentator off the interstate near Chehalis has just come up with the prize line of his career. “Limit congressmen to two terms.  One in office.  One in jail.” — Jonathan Nicholas’ column in The Oregonian, Friday, March 29, 1991

“From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared or feared rather than loved.  One might perhaps answer that we should wish to be both, but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.” — Machiavelli

“I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: ‘The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.’ In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.” — Bertrand Russell, Education and the Social Order

“I like the way ONLY their mouths move..  They look like DYING OYSTERS” — Zippy the Pinhead

(Do I really NEED to tell you of whom he speaks?…..)

“What part of “shall not be infringed” don’t you understand?” — Smart Bee

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.” — Alexander Frazer Tyler (1748-1813), — The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic

“There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.” — Montesquieu, 1742
_____________________________

Several moons ago, I used the following poem in a post, to reintroduce the poetess to my Gentle Readers, along with myself, as I’d forgotten her work, and her brilliance, for many years before stumbling across this poem. It remains one of my favorites, even though it also remains a mysterious panorama of images and meanings in my mind…. I always find something new in it…. Any who, please enjoy….

Witch Burning

In the marketplace they are piling the dry sticks.
A thicket of shadows is a poor coat. I inhabit
The wax image of myself, a doll’s body.
Sickness begins here: I am the dartboard for witches.
Only the devil can eat the devil out.
In the month of red leaves I climb to a bed of fire.

It is easy to blame the dark: the mouth of a door,
The cellar’s belly. They’ve blown my sparkler out.
A black-sharded lady keeps me in parrot cage.
What large eyes the dead have!
I am intimate with a hairy spirit.
Smoke wheels from the beak of this empty jar.

If I am a little one, I can do no harm.
If I don’t move about, I’ll knock nothing over. So I said,
Sitting under a potlid, tiny and inert as a rice grain.
They are turning the burners up, ring after ring.
We are full of starch, my small white fellows. We grow.
It hurts at first. The red tongues will teach the truth.

Mother of beetles, only unclench your hand:
I’ll fly through the candle’s mouth like a singeless moth.
Give me back my shape. I am ready to construe the days
I coupled with dust in the shadow of a stone.
My ankles brighten. Brightness ascends my thighs.
I am lost, I am lost, in the robes of all this light.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

_____________________________

“If you can see a thing whole… it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives…But close up, a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. You need distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful the earth is, is to see it as the moon. The way to see how beautiful a life is, is to see it from the vantage point of death.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, Dispossessed

Whenever I stumble across this passage from the book, I am astounded, each and every time, at the vision it has the power to create….. It fills the mind with deeper and deeper meaning, revealing more with each passing moment of reflection, vibrating with power, resoundingly shouting out with the certainty of truth. To use it as the beginning of a discussion would only detract from its shine, as well as being a bit selfish, as if I were trying to share some of the glory of its creation….

To make the proper obeisance to dignity, I won’t do that…. What I WILL do is say, with sincerity and conviction, I think this is one of the most powerful, and most beautiful, passages in English literature, ever, and leave it at that…. Oh, and we’ll see what kind of grouping that SB can find to complement the ideas herein, sort of as a frame for its luster, so to speak… Best of luck to us (me and SB….), she’s a tough act to follow….

“The more people I meet, the more I like my cat.” — Smart Bee

He took his vorpal sword in hand
Long time the manxom foe he sought
Till rested he by the tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought

— _Jabberwocky_, by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson)

“Though leaves are many, the root is one ; Through all the lying days of my youth, I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun. Now I may wither into the truth.” — W B Yeats

“Before I sink into the big sleep, I want hear the scream of the butterfly.” — (The Doors) When The Music’s Over

“A gentleman reads and reflects.” — Rules of a Gentleman

Hmm…. Smart Bee seems to be unable to come up with a final quote, one that will finish this off with a flourish… I’m going to cheat, big time, and go with what I consider the most basic wisdom of everything I’ve learned in my life…. which is why it is part and parcel of my own philosophy…

7) “Do your Duty.  Honor the Truth.  Respect Life.  Share your Love.”

8) “Go back. Everything you need to know is in the first seven axioms.”– Axioms 7 & 8 of Peruaosophy, the Philosophy of Pearls,  circa 1980, by gigoid
_____________________________

I have a feeling about this one…. I only wish I knew precisely what feeling it is…. Let’s see what happened here to cause that….. Nope, still not a clue… but, oh, well…. such is life, as the French are wont to say, though, they say it in French, of course…. Any who, it’s done, enough, so, I’m outta here, to go see what’s up in the BBR today…. See ya…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Dozer

Since when do laxatives count?….

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2

Ffolkes,

At this point in the proceedings, it may be noted that I have heretofore previously stated my lack of appreciation for the aging process, at least as it applies to my own case. Most of the time, I feel inside like I’m still 25, and I can do anything I wish to do, from a physical standpoint. Of course, I’m not 25 anymore, and wishing it so won’t do, so, I just piss and moan about it, and I feel better….. Well, not really…. but, it sounds like fun. No, mostly I complain here, in writing, and dump it all on the blogosphere, where I’m sure people turn their heads away in embarrassment for me, and try not to snicker….

I don’t much care if they do, as long as the end result has me in less pain…. Take today, for instance… I wake up, and come out to my coffee machine, which has graciously gone off at the correct time, and provided me with coffee upon my arising. I pour and fix the first cup, and try to sit down to enjoy it…. whereupon my lower back explodes in pain, letting me know that it intends to make my day a living hell, if I let it….

I have no intention of doing so, however, but, it won’t be pretty, as, I can tell from the way the pain began, this episode is going to do its best to put me in bed for the day…. I hate when this happens, as it makes the production of this Pearl a struggle to complete…. Hurts some, too….

Given that information, I think I’d best cut today’s intro section short, and get right into the main events of the day, while I can…. Watch your step, as the drop-off may be quite steep…. I’m going to apply the take-off acceleration now, so, please, be careful, or at least hang on to your cabin-mates, and keep your safety lines untangled….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Everything that goes up must come down. But there comes a time when not everything that’s down can come up.” — George Burns (1896-1996)
_____________________________

Yesterday, a new reader was gracious enough to leave a nice comment, and to offer a couple of articles for my perusal, as possible subjects for a future rant…. Both articles are definitely rant-worthy material, so, I’ll oblige his suggestion by starting here….

I talk a lot about the BRC, (Beloved Ruling Class….), and the thievery they commit daily against the public, but, I don’t always provide a lot of examples, preferring to allow ffolkes, and/or folks, to seek out their own evidence…. This is because there is just so damn much of it, and it is so easy to find, I find it a better way to drive the point home, for people will believe it more when they come across the proof themselves, rather than having me provide it for them…. That way I can’t be accused of making it up, or coloring it…..

This article, supplied to me by a reader, is a perfect example of what I’ve often said about the news, to wit: it’s chock full of evidence of the chicanery and nonsense being perpetrated by our beloved rulers, and I don’t even need to point it out, for it’s right there for all to see…. Please, take a moment to read this one, about the governor of Louisiana, that fine old den of corruption in the southern US…. Try not to let the lack of hard evidence presented by the author to support the assertions made influence you, at this point…. just accept it as true for the sake of the argument they make, and worry about the actual paper proofs later…. It’s all there, believe me….

http://grist.org/news/bobby-jindal-to-axe-officials-who-took-on-big-oil/?utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&sub_email=dlw38%40sbcglobal.net

What is amazing to me in this article is the sheer effrontery shown by Governor Jindal…. He has no compunctions whatsoever in showing his corruption for all to see, blithely firing people who are trying to make his special interest supporters toe the legal line for their actions, and, in the process, help the people of his state. No, he just ignores any and all cries of outrage, and continues to stuff his pockets with the money they’ve poured into his campaign coffers, while the people of the state, and the state’s environment, is shredded by the corporate assholes who caused the entire problem….

This article shows exactly how far the issue of corruption has progressed in society, as the leaders we have elected are no longer bothering to cover up most of their machinations, but are showing their colors bright and clear in the public eye, deliberately firing people who might have made a difference, with no thought or regard for what his own constituency may want. His loyalty is all with the companies who have raped and pillaged the coastal marshes in their search for sources of oil, because they are the ones who are paying him, and the people can just go to hell, as far as he is concerned….

But, as I have pointed out previously, the people of Louisiana have only been given exactly what they deserve, for they are the ones who believed his lies during the election process, and elected him to office, knowing full well he was going to screw them over…. I sometimes wonder how these people manage to dress themselves, or feed themselves without help….  I am not particularly surprised by the situation there, though it saddens me to see it. Those marshes and coastal waterways are an important ecological formation, with a lot of animal life that depends on it to live, and I hate to see that get screwed up….

The other article sent by my friend Dave is one that, though also not particularly surprising, is even more disturbing, as it shows just how pervasive is the extent of corruption in government…. Canada has the reputation of having one of the most responsive governments in the world, one that seems, for the most part, to care about the people for whom it is working, and tries mostly to do things in a way that promotes societal well-being…. That is their reputation, anyway, even if not fully deserved….

It seems, however, that the madness that infects all the other states in the world seems to have found a place to germinate in the Canadian bureaucracy as well, causing its members to begin to follow the path to madness all the others have been flying down for many years….. This article describes a new policy being promulgated among the Canadian bureaucracies that will easily qualify them to join the ranks of those governments that have given up hiding their paranoia, and are busily pursuing insanity as a way of life….

Scientists, whether employed by universities, or private industry, or the government, are notoriously touchy about being told what to publish; this is an issue that is well-established in history, with the outcome always coming down on the side of the scientists…. In other words, history has shown us, many times, that it is counter-productive for society to muzzle researchers, for they always find a way to get the knowledge out, and all attempts at squashing it are a waste of time…. They keep trying, but, they don’t seem to learn from the past, a sure way to find oneself extinct, as Reality has a way of enforcing its will that is quite unstoppable by any human intervention…..

But, stupidity will have its way, so, they keep trying…. Read the article ffolkes, and realize just how far the world has gone toward piling itself against the wall of reality….. I mean, really….. snowflakes? They’re afraid of snowflakes?…. No, they’re afraid of knowledge, and it makes the BRC nervous to think about the public having all the facts…. Hence, their commitment to blocking the spread of knowledge at every turn, and trying to confuse and distract the public from seeing what they are up to behind the scenes…..

http://grist.org/climate-energy/canada-bans-researchers-from-discussing-snowflakes-findings-scientists-protest/?utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&sub_email=dlw38sbcglobal.net

The proof is there, ffolkes, for anyone to find…. The supposed leaders of our society, at all levels, are corrupt, not to mention clinically insane. They lie to the public in order to get elected, then continue to lie, cheat, and steal for as long as they are allowed to do so. They reward their constituents with more lies, and now have the nerve to show their true allegiance right out in public, as soon as they are sworn into their offices, laughing in the face of the public….

Isn’t it about time we all looked at our own complicity in this situation? How long are the people of this country going to allow their public officials to act, not only in ways that don’t benefit the public, but in ways that are actually dangerous to them? How long will the public ignore the unprincipled acts of liars and cheats, whom they have chosen to be their leadership? I’m afraid the answer is all too obvious, to anyone who is able to see, and think about what there is to see…. My own answer to those questions is, too long….. I haven’t seen any indication, in history, or in the present case, that would show that the public was able to throw off the yoke of the unseen masters of society, those super-rich, selfish assholes who determine just how events will transpire….

There is no point in history where mankind has been free of the influence and control of those in society who control all the resources. None…. If anyone can look back, and point out to me any time when that isn’t true, please, do so, and I will discuss the ramifications of that with great pleasure…. But, I’m a fair student of history, and I don’t find any place in all that time where our species has been free of the control of these silent rulers…. nor do I think we’ll ever be able to do so, not until a much greater percentage of the public is allowed to see the evidence of their handiwork, and realize just how badly, and how long, they have screwed the rest of us….

But, hey, it DOES give me something to rant about, whenever a new piece of evidence is allowed to be published…. Even if the stuff that we see isn’t any real threat to them, it’s encouraging to see that there is SOME degree of resistance to them, even if it is doomed to failure in the long run…. The people who run the world, for real, have had a long time to practice staying out of the public eye, and running things from the shadows….. and they’re very good at it, so, don’t expect any large revelations, or any huge lights being thrown on the shadowy limits of their existence…. They won’t allow anything that has any real chance of doing them harm to occur, you can be sure of that…..

Including shutting up people like me, should they ever feel the tiniest bit threatened by my words, or my attempts to make known just how deeply their control extends into our lives….. If I was doing them any real harm, you can bet they would have shut me down by now, so, it’s clear that, for now at least, I’m just another voice, shouting in the wilderness, without any real hope of harming them, or even giving them a moments discomfort….. But, I’ll keep trying, because, hey, that’s who I am….

gigoid has spoken…. so be it….

“A form of open-mindedness is the pathway to wisdom. Close your mind and you open the way for ignorance to flourish, but you will never even know it.” — Smart Bee

Whoops…. Sorry, thought I was done. But, then, this pearl dropped into my lap, and it just MADE me add it in here, to make the point, finally, and completely…. The following paragraph is unattributed in Smart Bee, my quote database, so I don’t know who said it first… Nor, I think, do I WANT to know, for they are evil, evil, I say…. This is a perfect statement of the attitude of almost every human being alive today, at least, every one of them who is involved in the governing of countries….. Read it, think about it…. this is EXACTLY the way they view the world, and it is sick, sick, sick, ffolkes…. no other word fits so well…..

“It is not possible to find morality in struggles for power. Your enemies view you as you do them and likely regard themselves as virtuous in their attempts at mayhem upon you. In struggles for power, your judgments should be based entirely on self-interest and finding as direct and economical a route to your goal as possible. If that route is bloody and barbaric, so much the worse for those who oppose you.” — Smart Bee, channeling a politician, or other card-carrying member of the BRC….
_____________________________

On a day like today, I am compelled to use only my own material, making it legal for me to call this Pearl “fresh”….. Hence, the following poem, which is the one that most closely fits with the above rant…. Enjoy!…..

Intelligent Crimes

The value of wit is often said to cause harm,
for those who think, such is its greatest charm.
The new and the bold cannot be fulfilled
if innovation and change is left unwilled.

Society behaves at its base as a mob
conformity and submission its primary job.
Any sign of rebellion against the mob’s rule
is met with resentment, naming such rebel the fool.

Intellect and talent are looked at askance,
expressing artistry stands nary a chance.
To stand out from the rest of mankind
is fraught with danger, for body and mind.

Often I stand to watch in solemn dismay
as beauty and joy are left by the way,
ignored and reviled by the unwashed masses
who prefer darkness, and acting like asses.

With shouts of derision the normals make known
their fear of intelligence, greater than their own.
They hope to stop all semblance of progress;
for thoughts and ideas, they couldn’t care less.

The world struggles on in spite of all opposition,
managing to maintain its advanced position.
Pulling the foolish along in spite of reluctance,
helping each to learn the survival dance.

Hard though it may be to keep up with the future
genius manages its plans to develop and nurture.
In the final analysis, those who live by reason
enjoy life the most, season to season.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

Oh boy! I’ve ranted, and rhymed, so now I get to go old-school, and nobody can say anything!…. Well, not legally, anyway…. I don’t think anyone will mind, actually, as it MUST be time for a bit of humor after all the seriousness above…. I know I could use a good belly laugh, or even a few mild chuckles…. Let’s see what Smart Bee can find today….

“…Or, I may not feel that my belief-system needs to be self-consistent in a post-Goedelian epoch.” — Dan’l Danehy-Oakes

“We can’t all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.” — Will Rogers

“You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything.  So I thought, once.  So did we all.  And the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower:  until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he _must_ do.” — Ursula K. LeGuin, _A Wizard of Earthsea_

“Everyone, I think, remembers Voltaire’s famous line about freedom of speech. The version of it that you are familiar with is actually based on a faulty translation. What Voltaire actually said was this: “I do not agree with what you say, sir, though I will defend to the death your right to say it. But for now … shut up!” — Steve Allen

“The people always have some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness…. This and no other is the root from which tyranny springs.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.), “The Republic”
(Oops, how did that get in here?…. Oh well, it’s too pretty to throw away…. Just consider it as a late addition to the rant in section one….)

“Does history repeat itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce?   No, that’s too grand, too considered a process.  History just burps, and we taste again that raw-onion sandwich it swallowed centuries ago.” — Julian Barnes

“The reality you have dialed is not in service. Please check the value of pi or consult your local deity.” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

I’m not sure how I did that…. The last couple of hours is all a blur, miserable moments of grinding pain in my hips and back, interspersed with furious typing spells, and cursing at Smart Bee in as many languages as I can remember…. It’s done, though, and I’m definitely not doing it over….. Let’s see if I can sit long enough to read it all; it grew to a point where it’s a bit intimidating…..

Well, it’s long, but, it’s not the worst I’ve ever done, for sure…. Plus, as I said, it’s done…. I’ll take it, and not count the change…. See ya, I’m gonna go take a pill, and, hopefully, crash without burning for a while…

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Novitiates aren’t expected to tango so well….

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1

Ffolkes,

The glory of autumn’s yearly advent, with it’s increasingly cold temperatures, and ever-growing daily cloud cover, greeted me as I awoke this morning…. Strangely enough, I was NOT outside, camping in a tent, nor was I sleep-walking, so this meant somebody, who shall remain nameless, left the windows wide open! Grabbing the nearest t-shirt, I jumped up (as much as I can at this stage in life…), and came out to get started on today’s Pearl. The entire space-time continuum breathed a heavy sigh of relief as I entered the kitchen, to find my coffee already brewed and waiting for me….. the same heavy sigh that escaped my lips upon taking in that first, life-giving sip…..

Today, and the next few days, promises to be an epic story, as I head off for the wilds of Texas once again, braving the land of the Shrub to honor my friend, a blonde, native California girl, who somehow found herself living there at the end of her life. I’m even flying into the airport in Houston named after the Junior Shrub, (I think it’s his…. it might be Daddy’s airport, but, doesn’t matter; either one is anathema to my mind….)

(Great word, anathema…. just for fun, ((I DO know what it means….)), I looked it up at Thesaurus.com, and got the following list of related words/ideas….

execration
n. hating

abhorrence
abomination
anathema
blasphemy

condemnation
curse
damnation
denunciation

detestation
hatred
imprecation
loathing

malediction
odium
profanity
swearing…..

Excellent, eh? Whenever I contemplate the notion of the two Shrubs, and all the damage they’ve done to my country, I feel, and exhibit, every one of those words….. End of digression…. for now…. they’re such easy targets, y’know?….)

Where was I? Oh, yeah, headed to GWB International Airport in Houston, on the way to meet Carole’s family, which was the essence of my last promise to her…. When I visited Carole back in April, during one of her stays in the hospital for stem cell therapy, my time was short, but, she wanted me to meet them very much, so, our plan was to have a BBQ at her house in Montgomery, when she had recovered enough to do so…. That plan, as is plain, cannot be, so, I am going to the memorial they are planning for Tuesday, and fulfilling my promise to her, though later than I had wished….

Traveling is harder than it used to be, for sure, but, a promise is a promise; in my world, there is no question of whether or not I should go….. I said I would, so I will. End of story, though not the end of fulfilling it; I only hope I can find the right words to give them, that will help to ease them past the pain of losing such a beautiful spirit. I’ve never been very good at that, but, I’ll do all I can to help, and maybe it will…..

On a housekeeping note, I will continue to post the daily Pearls, as long as my new travel computer lives up to expectation. I’m pretty sure I’ve got it ready to go, so, we’ll see…. This one is being written on the old, home laptop, and will be the last one so created for three or four days…. Here’s hoping it works, and Murphy loses track of where I am…. I guess I’ve meandered and blathered sufficiently to make this legal, if not exactly compelling, hauntingly unforgettable prose….. Though excellence is always the goal, one must occasionally remember that excellence can be a relative term….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“What thing is man, that thou art mindful of him?” — Heb 2:6, wyclif, 1382

“Don’t try this at home, kids. This should only be done by trained, professional idiots.” — Plucky Duck
_____________________________

“An Irishman is not drunk as long as he can hang onto a single blade of grass and not fall off the face of the earth.” — Smart Bee

Okay, so this really isn’t a pearl…. but, it IS about the funniest mental image I can imagine; I literally burst out with a guffaw when I first read this, and almost lived up to the text meme, ROFLMAO…. Since I am taking off in just a couple of hours, this has to be a relatively quick creative process, so, for this first section, I’ll go with an old school pearl, a harlequin random variety, which is the quickest to come together, even though it is also generally the most obscure type…. go figure, eh?…. Let’s see what SB has for us today…..

“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.” — Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1844-1900)

“I know not any thing more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time the difference between idea and reality. It is by this kind of observation that we grow daily less liable to be disappointed.” — Samuel Johnson (Boswell: Life of Johnson)

“Regrets and complaints about relations are to be attributed to the same cause, which is not old age, but men’s characters and tempers; for he who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but for someone with the opposite deposition, youth and old age are equally a burden.” — Plato,_The Republic_, Book 1

“Just as there are laws of Conservation of Matter and Energy, so there are in fact Laws of Conservation of Pain and Joy. Neither can ever be created or destroyed. But one can be converted into the other.” — Spider Robinson

“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.” — Albert Einstein

“If you want to know all about the sea, you go and ask a sailor, or a marine biologist, or an oceanographer, and they can tell you a lot about the sea. But if you go and ask the sea itself, what does it say? Grumble, grumble, swish swish. It is too busy being itself to know anything about itself.” — Ursula K. LeGuin

“Hello.  Just walk along and try NOT to think about your INTESTINES being almost FORTY YARDS LONG!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Brilliant…. just brilliant….. I am humbled in the face of true greatness…. Okay, I’ll explain this one, because it’s turned itself into an important pearl…. First, look at all of the first six, one after another, then consider them together. Try to imagine living your life according to the precepts implied in the statements….. Then, add in the last one, but, don’t allow it to color any of the others, merely append it, as an example of what the first one is gives us, if we only let it….

Don’t fret if it doesn’t gel for you…. it’s all good, and tomorrow’s another day…..
_____________________________

Since I’m feeling the build up of weird that will protect me as I travel today, I am convinced that one of my own poems will have to be included, if only to remind me of my own limitations…. I hope you enjoy this little piece of my soul…. Actually, now that I think about it, here are two pieces….

Haiku

Bright sun rises up,
glory against a blue sky.
Joy is now, today.

~~ gigoid ~~

After the odyssey….

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

“If it takes a man and a half a day and a half to dig a hole and a half, how  many days does it take a monkey with a wooden leg to kick the seeds out of a dill pickle?  Thirteen, because boy dogs can’t have puppies.” — Smart Bee

It isn’t often that I am brought to my knees in humility, but, when I read this little piece of absolute nonsense, I did so, and did not feel a bit of embarrassment. This is so brilliantly off center, it should be enshrined at the entrance to the building where the Pulitzer Committee meets each year to pick out the best of what has been written…. This, with no connection whatsoever to a single piece of reality, is the perfect frame for the pictures painted by the committee’s choices…. Well, to my mind, anyway….

If it isn’t already clear, I’m not having the easiest time this morning with original thought, or prose. It’s perfectly understandable, given the number of things my mind is chewing on, in order to feel like I’m not forgetting something before I go off to the hinterlands. In fact, I’m so distracted, I’m going to do something entirely unprecedented, and quit this Pearl in the middle….

Well, okay, it’s almost the end anyway…. Shhh, I’m trying to write here…. No, really, I’m done. I’ve done enough damage for one day, and will have another shot at it tomorrow, anyway, so, I’m going to find the perfect pearl to shut this down at this point, and get on with the rest of today, which, obviously, promises to be “interesting”, at the very least….

“The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events, the firmer becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side of this ordered regularity for causes of a different nature.  For him neither the rule of human nor the rule of divine will exists as an independent cause of natural events.  To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering with natural events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot.

But I am persuaded that such behavior on the part of the representatives of religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal. For a doctrine which is able to maintain itself not in clear light, but only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with incalculable harm to human progress.  In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast powers in the hands of priests.  In their labors they will have to avail themselves of those forces which are capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity itself.  This is, to be sure, a more difficult but an incomparably more worthy task.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Perfect!….
_____________________________

Well, it FEELS like a good one…. let’s see…. Well, it may be only my opinion, but, I think this IS a good one…. As such, it deserves to be left alone now, and allowed to go off on its own, to seek and fulfill its destiny…. So be it…. gigoid has spoken….. and will, no doubt, do so again tomorrow….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Only the most severely impertinent will survive….

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Ffolkes,

“What we have heah, is a failyuh, to cogitate…”  As I sit to write this morning, all I can see in my mind’s eye is the little bald asshole prison warden from the movie, Cool Hand Luke, standing on the levee, chewing on his toothpick, offering his asinine observation in a deep Southern drawl, and spitting. The line, of course, is supposed to be “a failyuh to communicate”, but, in this case, the other word is more accurate…. I’ve been sitting here staring at the screen now for 15 minutes, and this is the best I’ve been able to come up with…. not a good omen….

I must say, though, that I seem to be getting used to this cognitive state; there’s no sense of panic involved in the reaction now, and that is a small blessing. Of course, it doesn’t cut down the frustration to any appreciable degree, but, that’s something I’ve also become accustomed to experiencing regularly, and no longer feel such a degree of impending doom when my mind is blank…. Sadly, this is the result of the building of callouses, which, though it keeps one from the worst of the feelings we can feel in such instances, also limits perception, to some degree, and that can cause problems itself, through lack of understanding, or misunderstanding of details….

None of this is getting me any closer to finding anything to write about; that’s why I’m still circling around, babbling about the process itself, instead of immersing myself into a trance, or some other form of creative stimulus, to find at least something that will titillate, or, at minimum, enchant the few readers who come by each day…. As I’ve said previously, such blather seems to be the best way to fulfill the legal requirements, while still avoiding any real writing…. I’m uncertain, as always, as to how it is received, but, since there haven’t been any major complaints about allergic reactions, or flaming re: idiotic opening comments, I’ve stuck with it, as it works, sort of…

I’m really going to have to try to find a better way to get this section completed; this daily battle with my own head is getting to be redundant, which can often lead to boredom; if there is anything in this universe that I work to keep OUT of my life, it is boredom. To my mind, to be bored means that one is tired of what is going on in one’s own head, and that is something I will NEVER allow. I refuse to be bored, and I have to admit, it does save me a lot of angst and ill feeling…. not to mention never having to watch TV, unless I choose to do so…. Actually, it’s been so long now, I’ve probably forgotten how to program a VCR…. which I didn’t even learn until one of my kids showed me how….

Okay, I’ve managed to complete the legally required number of paragraphs, and can’t think of anything more mundane, or more interesting, to keep this going any longer; it’s already gone on too long, from an ethical standpoint… It’s skating on the edge of being cruel, I know, but, we’re done now, so, it won’t become an issue today…. Maybe tomorrow we’ll let it go completely over the line, and spend the morning explaining the explosions to the local authorities…. I love playing with the heads of public officials…. One never gets bored when fucking with the man….

Shall we Pearl?

Thales said there was no difference between life and death. “Why, then,” said some one to him, “do not you die?” “Because,” said he, “it does make no difference.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Thales, ix
_____________________________

Not only did my mind stay blank this morning, causing the above intro to go into mundane mode, but, I got up late, having had a hard time getting to sleep last night, and making up the lost time on this end…. As a result, I’m going to cheat a bit, and fill in this section with a pearl from 2012… I don’t feel too bad, because it’s a pretty good one….

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human  mind to correlate all its contents.   We live on a placid island of ignorance  in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should  voyage far.  The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little;  but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” — H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Sometimes, I think we have already arrived at this point in time….. but, if not, then we are not far away…… With this firmly in mind, please find the following, all of which lead one gently to an idea that may, or may not, make you feel better. Which, of course, is NOT the purpose…. nonetheless, the conclusion framed by these quotes is one you NEED to know……

“It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have  been searching for evidence which could support this.” — Bertrand Russell

“Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.” — Dalai Lama

As a man can drink water from any side of a full tank, so the skilled theologian (politician’s too!) can wrest from any scripture that which will serve his purpose. — Bhagavad Gita

“Discourse on virtue and they pass by in droves. Whistle and dance the shimmy, and you’ve got an audience.” — Diogenes

“Anyone who isn’t confused doesn’t really know what’s going on.” — Edward R. Murrow

“The only real failure in life is the failure to try.” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

Here is the second of the three poems I found day before yesterday; if it isn’t clear, it is a reaction to the election process that took place in 2012….I hope you enjoy it…..

Destiny’s Vote

It was a special day, written on tablets of stone
with fanfare, and crepe paper, a symphony of lies,
played with verve, but discordant, and alone,
never more the grand parade, no more apple pies.

Heated dialog full of prejudice, hate, and fears,
fills up the airwaves, a cacophony of callow untruth,
playing up to ignorance, bringing anguish, and fearful tears,
while Nero’s fiddler sits down, in the only open booth.

Watchful and afraid, I see the coming conflict
clouds of ignorance and intellect, preparing to fight,
one to fight with darkness, and abject fear to depict
opposed at the base, banishing fear with truth, and light.

Seeds of anger and bigotry are planted very deep,
growing best in darkness, hiding in shame and fear,
waiting for moments of trouble, its destiny to keep,
looking for weakness, seeking to draw its victim near.

Sing not yet a funeral dirge for tolerance,
that particular die is not yet cast,
there still remains a good and honest chance,
our common dream of freedom may yet hold fast….

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

Having saved a shit-load of time by going to the archives for sections one and two, we’ll use a fresh pearl here in three, plucked this very morning from the virtual oyster beds I keep to cultivate these gems of virtual wisdom…. May they leave you with no unwarranted assumptions, nor supply you with any unwanted epiphany, and, most importantly, may it leave you with no open wounds…. It is, after all, about human nature….

“Either CONFESS now or we go to “PEOPLE’S COURT”!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Live with wolves, and you learn to howl.” — Spanish Proverb

“Fortunate indeed, is the man who takes exactly the right measure of himself, and holds a just balance between what he can acquire and what he can use.”– Peter Mere Latham

“”In God We Trust.” I don’t believe it would sound any better if it were true.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

“The man of superior virtue is not conscious of his virtue, and in this way he really possesses virtue. The man of inferior virtue never loses sight of his virtue, and in this way he loses his virtue.” — Lao-Tzu (fl. B.C. 600)

Now, that’s just about a perfect pearl…. but, not quite there, I think…. two more ought to do it…. remember to consider all seven of them together, and completely ignore this little blurb in the middle….

HUMAN NATURE

Once I shot a bird,
When I was very young.
I watched it fall, and die.
And I thought that it was fun.

— W.C. Mackie

“As great scientists have said and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope.” — Ursula K. LeGuin
_____________________________

EMERGENCY INFORMATION: How to breathe. 1. Inhale. 2. Exhale…..
(Provided at no charge for your convenience….)

Well, that was fun…. sort of. It was real, anyway, and got the day started with surprising aplomb… Damn, what IS that noise?… Hold on… For three days now, in the mornings, a small beep, three at a time, has been sounding off, very quietly, somewhere in my apartment (a studio), and I can’t locate it to see what little electronic device it is… Before I find it, it stops, after about four or five sets of three beeps….. Maddening…

And, totally off track, sorry…. Let’s see what happened here…. Okay, so instinct must have kicked in to salvage the process, because it ain’t bad, given its total lack of any redeeming features outside its obviously good intentions…. Yes, yes, I know where that can lead us, but, I’m counting on the consensual philosophical stability that I trust my gentle readers to possess to turn us from that path….. Besides, it’s all an illusion, right? One must always hold out hope for the best….. Or, so I’m told….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Terrified outbreaks of uncontrolled shrugging….

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Ffolkes,
As he sits down to begin, no angels sing, no thunder rings out, the earth remains still, and silent. Only the steady tick of the mantle clock breaks the quiet, until, slowly at first, then picking up the pace, he begins to type, words that have struggled to come forth from earliest memory. Like penitent soldiers, they line up on the page, tired, dusty, line after line, turned out from where they commonly hide, to face the light of day, and the harsher light of regard….. No promises of genius, no hope of publication, no real purpose…. just words, in a row, cast up in denial of repression, and hope of redemption….. Another day dawns, bringing, as always, trepidation, layered thinly with unreasoning hope, challenging all to arise, and survive another day…..

Well, I guess Hemingway doesn’t have to worry much that I’ll be challenging his reputation for powerful prose…. I can’t say the above stinks badly…. In fact, it isn’t bad at all, just rather lacking in direction, which isn’t surprising, since it has none to speak of; none was required, nor desired. All I wanted were some pretty words strung together in a reasonably rational order, just to draw y’all in, and perhaps, give a glimpse of something darker, and deeper, than is first seen… In that respect, it worked okay, I suppose, and, it has the added advantage of being done… Done deals are much handier than stuff left undone, for sure, wouldn’t you say?…. Rhetorical question, obviously, so don’t bother to reply….. unless, of course, you’re the type of reader who talks back to what you read…. in which case, feel free….

Yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah…. If this is the best I can come up with, I may as well start mailing this in…. coming into the office doesn’t seem to be working out for me…. Oh, wait, right, I’m not going in to any office…. SIGH…. Oh, well, I didn’t like having to go, anyway, so it’s just as well, I suppose, that I don’t have to go in anymore. I have a feeling that, in spite of the nasty, rude method used to force me to retire before I was ready, the actual state of retirement was the right way to go for me… As it turns out, my body was done with work; flogging myself to continue toiling away would probably have ended up being a bad idea, prolonging my misery, and making it even harder to deal with the physical aspects of getting old.

Now, I have things exactly the way I like them, with the added advantage of a secure, adequate income, an advantage I did not have, or even seek very hard, during all my previous years. Even when working, my necessary outgo always seemed to exceed my income; now that I’ve reduced my needs and wants to the bare minimum, the amount I’ve managed to retire on is entirely adequate to meet those needs, and still have enough to save up to travel on a regular basis. As long as I’m careful, I should be able to live long enough to see all the places I’ve dreamed about seeing all my life….

I almost feel guilty that things have turned out so well for me…. but, then I think back over the last three or four years, (or, in further retrospect, the last 25 years….) and realize that, hey, much of it has been a miserable time, and any good things happening now can be seen as the Universe acting to balance things out…. Karma is asserting itself, I would guess, and all I can say is, it’s about damn time… I don’t claim, even in my most feverish dreams, to be the best man alive, but, I’ve always tried my best to be honorable, to do my duty and hurt others as little as possible; that has to count for something, right?….

Okay, you can stop laughing now… I didn’t really expect an answer, but there’s no need to be rude, either…..  Just kidding, it’s all good….. I should know better than to ask for that kind of feedback; nobody enjoys feeling dumb, even me…. This intro section, I think, is getting completely out of control, and needs to be given the three finger salute, soon (Control-alt-delete…). Sorry ’bout that, it’s what happens when I get too much sleep, and try to write with a clear head…. I wasn’t paying close attention, and this section turned into a ramble of massive proportion, covering far too many subjects in way too few paragraphs (or, too many, relative to your viewpoint, I suppose….)…. I’ve hardly left any room for normal pearls, whatever those might be.

I think I stop talking now, and see what kind of mischief Smart Bee has in store for me…. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

Well, this is taking a long time, but, so far, it seems to be worth it…. I had to be firm, but Smart Bee finally came up with the first five pearls below, which hang together well, and make a very strong point about living well, or at least living, as opposed to ignoring life as it goes by… Then, as if by magic, the last two came forward, shyly asking to be included…. When I added them on, I was amazed, at how well they fit, and how they enhanced the given concept…. Of course, all that might be just my weird sense of humor, but, hey, it works for me….

“It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.” — Ursula K. LeGuin

“By space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like a dot; by thought I encompass the Universe.” — Pascal, Pensees, n. 265

In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes:
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 123

“From out of all the many particulars comes oneness, and out of oneness come all the many particulars.” — Heraclitus

“Truth can be a dangerous thing. It is quite patient and relentless.” — R. Scott Richards

See what I mean? Now, let the mind drift, with only that thought to anchor you to reality for the moment…. then, take in the two aphorisms below, and either grin, or guffaw, in acknowledgment and glee… I did, so I thought you should have the same opportunity….

“The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten.Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to.” — Chuang Tzu

“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” — Baruch’s Observation

Bang! It takes an accurate blow to drive in a nail with one clean strike…. Okay, put down the hammer now, I didn’t mean it…. calm yourselves…. Here, here’s a poem to look at, just give me the hammer, and I’ll put it away….
__________________________________

If you weren’t able to tell, I’m in a sort of odd mood today…. That, in and of itself isn’t all that odd, and isn’t a problem, but, it does affect the content herein, and nowhere quite as much as in this section… To go with today’s ambiance, I offer the following gem from one of my favorite contemporary poet/artists…..

Tryin’ On Clothes
I tried on the farmer’s hat,                                                  
Didn’t fit…
A little too small — just a bit
Too floppy.
Couldn’t get used to it,
Took it off.

I tried on the dancer’s shoes,                                       
A little too loose.
Not the kind you could use
for walkin’.
Didn’t feel right in ’em,
Kicked ’em off.

I tried on the summer sun,
Felt good.
Nice and warm — knew it would.
Tried the grass beneath bare feet,
Felt neat.
Finally, finally felt well dressed,
Nature’s clothes fit me best.

~~ Shel Silverstein ~~

__________________________________

Below you will find one of my favorite rants, regarding the events in 2001 that have caused many of the restrictions placed on freedoms we, as US citizens, formerly held, restrictions with which we now live, and regard as normal…. I see this as evidence of the accuracy of what is written below, and supports its validity today…..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom.  It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” — William Pitt (1759-1806) speech on the India Bill, Nov. 18, 1783

I had not intended to start with a political rant, but this just came up, so here we go…. This is as true today as it was in 1783, perhaps even more so. Since 9/11/01, when those fanatic idiots carried out their insane delusions of grandeur on the world stage, the “necessity” for Homeland Security has been the watchword of the political pundits who unfortunately are in charge of the legislative and executive branches of our government. Bill after bill after bill keeps coming down the pike and bulling their way through into becoming law, or even worse, is created by executive order, without the benefit of review by Congress, useless as that may be.

The entire incident that happened that day was blown completely out of proportion by the media. Yes, it was a tragedy, in which something over 3000 American lives were lost, in three separate incidents. The videos of those planes hitting the buildings in New York must have been replayed a thousand times before noon, all over the country, until every American who had access to a TV was informed of what had occurred….

The American media, and the political machinery that manipulates it so effectively, then proceeded to flood every channel with the after-effects, making sure that the sorrow and fear of every person they could find willing to speak of it on camera was put on the evening news, and ensuring that no rational, dispassionate examination of the events would take place. Before the first day had passed, the national reaction had been whipped to a frenzy, stirring the fears of every paranoid in society, and making it seem as if the entire nation was filled with anger and vengeful righteousness. Though I didn’t join in the paranoia, I could feel it happening all around me, as normally intelligent people became so angry they lost all sense of proportion, or for that matter, all sense of truth.

In the ensuing years, whenever the politicians have wanted to distract the nation from what they were actually doing, all they needed to do was mention the word terrorism, or national security, to immediately put attention off of them, and onto the pitiful  group of fanatical Muslims they blamed for the attacks (completely ignoring all the reasons those same politicians had provided those fanatics  in the first place, reasons designed to stimulate an attack….). And thus, the Hunt for Osama bin Laden was on!

In this country, as a result of those attacks, approximately 5000 American lives were lost (that figure is larger than the actual number, purposely…. it is near enough to correct to make the point…). At this time, in the quest to find Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, over 50,000 Afghani civilians have been killed. In Iraq, which we somehow decided to invade, even though they had nothing to do with 9/11, well over 250,000 civilians have died to soothe our national pride. In that same period, we lost another 1000 or so soldiers in fighting and bombings. And, as a side effect, the US Bill of Rights has been effectively eliminated, by Executive Order, disguised as Homeland Security (June, 2013 — Now authorized by what is so laughingly called the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012…. signed by President Obama on New Year’s Eve of 2011, while everyone was partying, not paying any attention to their so-called “rights”…..).

“Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated” — George Bernard Shaw

So, what is my point here? My point is this…. those pathetic fanatics killed more than they had ever been able to kill, one time. Since that one time, our country has killed over 300,000 civilians in retaliation; you can call it what you like, I call it schoolyard revenge by bullies. It has caused every politician in this country to wrap themselves in the flag, not to proclaim their patriotism, but to manipulate the unreasonable fear they created in the public to keep them from realizing the truth of the matter.

That truth is this: we are in no real danger from Al Qaeda,  or from any other splinter faction terrorist group, nor have we ever been in any real danger. They may be able to pull off stunts such as this one occasionally, but for the most part, the world has gotten pretty good at either catching them in hiding, or stopping their plots before they actually carry them out. Governments have a LOT more resources than terrorists, no matter how rich they may be personally.

No, the pathetic, desperate people who become terrorists are created by those same political pundits who are reviling them and hunting them down. They are not a real threat to anyone, as they don’t have the wherewithal to perform more than one act of violence at a time; they cannot wage a war, they can only try to act as guerrilla forces, at best. Mostly, they are just sad schemers, planning glorious deaths, that ultimately have no meaning, other than to provide the Western politicos another unreasonable fear to use against the American public, in order to continue their raping and pillaging among their own people.

The entire issue is one that is repugnant to me; I have watched in horror, not as terrorists have been hunted, but as the rights of the American people have been taken away in the name of “security”. Security from what? We don’t need more security from terrorists; those techniques for dealing with it are well-established, and effective, as they employ the very same methods used by the fanatics to achieve their ends. No, we need more security from our own pundits, who have utilized this tragic events for their own benefit, to the everlasting regret of every true patriot….. bloody assholes, every one of them…..

“I have formed a very clear conception of patriotism. I have generally found it thrust into the foreground by some fellow who has something to hide in the background. I have seen a great deal of patriotism; and I have generally found it the last refuge of the scoundrel.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Judgement of Dr. Johnson, Act III

So be it…. gigoid has spoken….
__________________________________

Well, there you go…. Such as it is, it is done, and I’m glad, as it took a supreme effort this morning to stay on track…. Not sure why, but, it no longer matters, as long as it proofs okay….  Which, in fact, it does…. I will reiterate…. So be it.  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Parking parallel is de rigeur on Mondays….

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Ffolkes,
Fiddle di dee, fiddle di die, the cow jumped not over, but, onto the moon, bending and breaking it beyond all recognition. The cat wasn’t playing a fiddle, but did have a boom box blasting…. according to the latest reports. Little dogs do more than just laugh at such sport, they usually pee on it. And dishes, well, they’re well known to prefer dark, sharp knives over spoons anyway….

“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” — Willie Wonka

Especially when it attacks first thing, before coffee, before reason…. It is smart, therefore, to just go with the flow, and let it out as needed, knowing full well the consequences of such actions. One must, however, consider the overall effect, and keeping it inside can cause much more damage than letting it out. As I am fully aware of all this, when it strikes me, I just let it right out, and use the time I didn’t spend agonizing over it to clean up whatever spillage there might be…. saves me time and energy this way, y’know?….

It also allows me to find a way back to reality from the fringes inhabited by all such nonsense; such foolishness cannot spend too much time close to the normal side of reality, lest it turn mundane, so one must go where it resides in order to pluck it up for use. I find it to be a quite relaxing time, those hours spent in pastimes reminiscent of circuses and carnivals, soaking in the happy laughter of fools, and the merry giggles of the clowns. Even the “nyuck, nyuck, nyuck” sounds coming from the Stooges corner bring no annoyance, as they blend right in with the blaring of the bicycle horns and big, red noses worn by so many in that neighborhood…..

Hmm… looks like I wandered a little further away from the mundane than I had realized; that last paragraph slipped over into nonsense again, instead of heading back toward sober reason. I do enjoy my time there, but, I tend to have trouble letting go of it; for a while upon returning, it is difficult to even consider religion or politics, without applying some Carlinesque twists, to soften its gravity.

Needless to say, it also makes it hard to rant about much of anything else, as everything is viewed through a prism of humor and silliness, and doesn’t appear half as bad as it actually is in real time. All in all, this is probably a good thing, as it keeps reality from hurting too much on a daily basis; it merely makes it hard on the political/religious reformer in me, to NOT be able to rant sufficiently….

I suppose that idea makes y’all burgeon with hope for this Pearl, but, that, too, is a foolish thing to do… As yet, this Pearl has no obvious shape or intent, so it’s next to impossible to say what will happen… The first pearl Smart Bee shows me will often set the tone for the whole day, so we’ll see how that goes… I do know that starting with nonsense always makes me happier… I may be a reformer, and a curmudgeon, but I really do enjoy life more when my bozoid side comes out early in the day…. Who knows? We might even end up with something amusing, or elevating, rather than something depressive and dark…. I suppose, though, we’ll never know if we don’t get on with it, so….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“I only wish I may see your head stroked down with a slipper.” — Terence (185-159 BC) — Act v, Sc. 7, 4, (1028.)

Now, see what you’ve done!…..
__________________________________

Okay, so I get it now…. The universe sometimes gives us directions we may not clue into fully…. I see, now, why reality chose to push me toward silliness and bozosity today (Bozosity is the state of being a bozo….). What we have, following this introductory blurb, is a group of aphorisms about religion…. I guess it made more sense to put it like this today, than it did to rant about it, as I normally do… Or, maybe reality is tired of my rants… either way, y’all win today, because this is just as pointed, just as accusatory, and, in its own quiet little way, as much of an indictment as are my most telling, and compelling rants on the subject…. Enjoy!  And be careful, the point it makes is quite sharp, and WILL cut you if you are negligent of care…..

Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl’d,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 87

“Religion is the opiate of the masses.” — Karl Marx

“You can’t depend on the man who made the mess to clean it up.” — Richard Milhouse Nixon (1952)

SCRIPTURES, n.  The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

— Bother! said Pooh, after he spoke the Lord’s name backward.

“If God is dead, who will save the Queen?” — Smart Bee

“True myth may serve for thousands of years as an inexhaustible source of intellectual speculation, religious joy, ethical inquiry, and artistic renewal.  The real mystery is not destroyed by reason.  The fake one is.  You look at it and it vanishes.  You look at the Blonde Hero–really look–and he turns into a gerbil.  But you look at Apollo, and he looks back at you.  The poet Rilke looked at a statue of Apollo about fifty years ago, and Apollo spoke to him.  ‘You must change your life,’ he said.  When the true myth rises into consciousness, that is always its message.  You must change your life.” — Ursula K. LeGuin

Whoa! Sorry, that last one slipped in there without telling me… but, it kind of fits, if you look at it with just the right squint to the eye…. I mean, if the first six quotes didn’t give you a clue about how religions are bad for you, the last one drives the point home, with the very last line….. I don’t know about y’all, but I LOVE THIS STUFF….. Oh, and just in case it wasn’t clear already….

“A mind not to be changed by place or time, the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” — John Milton
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It’s probably a literary law of some kind, but, when one is given a hint like the one above, one MUST take that hint…. Far be it from me to ignore a slap to the side of the head like this one…. Here, then, is the poem to which Ms. Le Guin refers, above…

Archaic Torso of Apollo

We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,

gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.

Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast’s fur:

would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.

~~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~~

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“I don’t want to panic, but my alphabet soup says, “Forget about me … just try to save yourself.” — Tom Wilson (“Ziggy”)

Now you know just how I feel every morning! This is the real reason I gave up on Alpha-Bits cereal, in spite of what was published, and in spite of whatever you may have heard. I got tired of being warned every morning re: approaching Armageddon, and started eating more oatmeal, just so I didn’t have to face that every day. It’s disheartening to be reminded on a daily basis that your breakfast is significantly smarter than the majority of US citizens, at least when it comes to their government, which is completely controlled by corporate interests, as well as when it comes to society at large, about which one may confidently say the same.

We won’t even bother to mention the religious hierarchies’ connections to temporal authority, or to the shadow masters; we took our shots at them above, and wish to be fair, if not merciful. We’ll just say this on that: if you think the churches and preachers are NOT in the pockets of the corporations, well, I suggest you try to obtain for yourself a new mind, because the one you have isn’t working very well….

I mean, think about it… Who are the favorite members of any congregation, no matter what the denomination (clue: it has to do with the word “denomination”….)? Why, the men, and a few women, who contribute the most to the church roof fund, right? The ones who put the most gelt in the collection plate are the ones the church leaders pander, er, cater to, not the ones who reach out with empty hands….

“If this isn’t war, why is CNN massing on the border?” — Smart Bee

Let us also NOT get into the culpability the media holds for its part in the farce that comprises the play put on the world’s stage by society. We could point out the numerous, obvious perpetrations of cluelessness, or lament the lack of courage in modern journalists, either of which is common in the media.

How else can one explain how sheer lies are repeated endlessly, without challenge? How can one explain why certain questions aren’t asked, or certain articles suppressed, at the request, or the legal insistence of governmental authority? It isn’t explainable, unless one remembers that the media relies on government to supply the reason for its existence, and one is reluctant to bite the hand that feeds, eh what?….. Sycophancy is not limited to dweebs, and/or acolytes…

Instead, let us indict the true culprits for today’s worldly mess…. ourselves.  Pogo, by Walt Kelly, said it long ago…. “We have met the enemy, and he is us…..”  We are responsible for all that is wrong with the world, because we, the great unwashed masses, allow the governments and churches, and their puppet masters, the corporations, to determine how the world will be run…. We accept all their lies, and go on with living our lives as slaves, subject to the whims and twists of fate, because we refuse to take the reins of our own lives into our hands, and assume control….

The shadowy rich assholes who are the real power behind all the governments of the world are not going to stop their self-centered, selfish hoarding of the world’s resources, nor will they ever make a decision based on the welfare of society as a whole. They will always make their decisions in relation to what is most beneficial for themselves, and what will allow them to maintain their stranglehold on the rest of the world….

That is their primary concern, and they have guarded that concern for well over three thousand years, without ever letting the rest of humanity realize to any great degree just how much they control…. No other theory holds any water, nor fits the given facts of history, as well as this, and I regard it as gospel truth…. According to the available evidence, this is not a theory, so much as it is a fait accompli….

“In the game of life you get to choose where you keep your brain – heads you win, tails you lose.” — Smart Bee

I guess I had a rant in there after all…. We are all screwed, ffolkes, just as often and as hard as THEY want; moreover, unless we decide, as a group, to do something about it, it isn’t going to change until we are all dead and gone, leaving this planet, and the universe, to go on without our promise, or our participation…. I hate to be a downer, but, I don’t see how we can fix it, without some serious upheaval, for which I am not particularly hopeful, given the general level of “stupid” in much of humanity…. Oh well, as Epictetus said, “Happiness and freedom depend on the realization of one principle. Some things are within your control. And, some things are not.”  So be it….

“UH-OH!!  I think KEN is OVER-DUE on his R.V. PAYMENTS and HE’S having a NERVOUS BREAKDOWN too!!  Ha ha.” — Zippy the Pinhead
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I am afraid I have to report that most, if not all, of the above was written while in an altered state of consciousness…. which should make for some interesting reading, you betcha…. Let’s just see….. Well, since it would be overly egotistical to call it brilliant, I’ll merely say, well done, and let it go at that…. For a morning so devoid of original direction, it seems to have found its way into the light fairy well, which bodes well for the rest of the day…. That is, if I were the type to be susceptible to precognitive signs….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

A large herd of nincompoops passed by here…..

Posted on by
5

Ffolkes,
Weird…. the thoughts going through my head are quite simply, weird. Of course, this is not new, nor is it surprising; I’ll bet even you didn’t react much when I said it…. because, I’m sure, it has been previously established that weirdness, and this blog, are one and the same thing….. What this means, in terms of today’s intro, is that I’m once more stuck in my head, and can’t come up with anything to write about, other than the trouble I’m having thinking of something to write about…. It’s almost an endless loop, which, if I fall into it, will keep me stranded in literary limbo forevermore….. The question I have to ask myself at this point is, do I want to allow myself to fall into that loop, or keep on writing…. it’s a tough decision these days…..

I am convinced that if I don’t write, my head becomes all clogged up and I get grumpy and even more curmudgeonly than usual. The process of putting down all this stuff on paper, or at least, on screen to save, is what has kept me sane these last two years…. If I hadn’t had this, I would either have killed someone, or ended up in a psyche ward, drooling and talking to myself (not so different than some mornings around here, but, not a place I want to spend a lot of time….). Now that the most basic stress factor in my life  has been mitigated, I find that I still need to do this, to keep my brain clear of any buildup of angst.  So, I guess I’m stuck with it….

All of which means little to y’all, but, it did get me two paragraphs in, so, not a complete loss….. Now what? Damn me, if I know…. I’m having trouble deciding on the color of socks to wear, and there are only two colors to choose from….. I wouldn’t count on me to come up with anything at this point. Maybe I should go find a pearl, to see if it will give me a direction to take….. hold on, be right back….

“The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.” — Henry Kissinger

Obviously, Henry has been in this kind of situation before…. but, he’s right, and since we have no alternative to this, I can allow that to clear my mind of all indecision, and just go with whatever flows out of my head…. Since it is the ONLY alternative available, we have no choice to make, which means the choice is made…. That’s logic, right? Right…. So, onward, troops, into the day, fearlessly, and with hope held tightly to our bosom…. (Do authors have bosoms? Hmm….)  Logic has pointed us in the correct direction, or, if not, we are at least moving in ‘A’ direction, and that is better than sitting around on our collective asses….

I’ve blathered now through four or more paragraphs, and nobody should have to put up with more than that, so, we can end this now, and get on with the rest of today’s effort, such as those may be….. Just to make sure you understand the rules, I leave you with this reminder….. Remember it well…..

“You offend Shai-Hulud by sheathing your crysknife without having  drawn blood.” — Fremen proverb (from Dune, by Frank Herbert)
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As you may have noted, my brain is broken…. and I am not sure which tool is going to work to fix it…. What this means in terms of today’s Pearl is that you will have to put up with more than the usual degree of smarminess, and the occasional random insult, as I try to cope with creating a Pearl out of what is laying around in my brain, rather than a true creative episode, building and sharing images of grand eloquence, made up of just the right words….. Today, though, those words are hiding from me, so I have to allow Smart Bee to have its head, so to speak, because anything in mine has to be viewed with suspicion, and handled with care, lest it explode, whereupon, we get blamed for an act of terrorism…. Of course, that last word is probably what comes to mind when y’all think of this blog anyway…..

Nevertheless, I’m going old school, and you can’t stop me…. (Believe me, you don’t WANT to stop me today….. just let me have my way, and everything will work out fine….)…. Here is a group of pearls, all of which are pointed in a certain direction, which SHOULD be obvious…. If it is not, well, I guess you’re S.O.O.L., as they say downtown…. well, they said that when I hung out there…. any who, here….

“Critics quarrel with other critics. With an artist, no sane man quarrels.” — George Santayana

“Our discontent begins by finding false villains whom we can accuse of deceiving us. Next we find false heroes whom we expect to liberate us. The hardest, most discomfiting discovery is that each of us must emancipate himself.”– Daniel J. Boorstin

“Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”– Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Rape of the Lock, Canto v, Line 34

“There’s a lot of stupid people out there. Just to prove it, think of how dumb the average person is, and then realize that half of the people out there are stupider than that.” — George Carlin

“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

“All things that are born must die. Work hard for your own freedom from sorrow.” — Buddha

“Do not speak of what men deserve.   For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead Kings, and we each  of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger.   Have we not eaten while another starved?  Will you punish us for that?  Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate?  No man earns punishment, no man earns reward.  Free your mind of the idea of *deserving*, of *earning*, and you will begin to be able to think.” — Odo, The Prison Letters (Ursula LeGuin, _The Dispossessed_)

Oooh…. now, THAT’S a pearl of virtual wisdom, if I ever saw one…..  Print it!…..
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SIGH….. I know I’m probably not doing this Poetry challenge the way it’s supposed to be done, but, I can’t find it in myself to care much, as I’m not trying to win, or anything like that…. I’m only participating because someone thought I would enjoy it, which I have…. but, I can’t make poems come on demand; it doesn’t work like that for me. They happen when they happen, and if I try to force it, they just put on Harry’s Invisibility Cloak, and disappear…. So, I don’t force them, deadlines or no…..

Fortunately, I’ve got a backlog of poems that HAVE leaked out over the last eight months or so, which is what you will see again today…. This one is kind of wordy, and a bit clumsy-seeming, but I like it, for its unabashed pride in its own inherent meaning…. which sounds really obscure, but feels right…. The haiku is, once again, fresh as the day, composed just a few moments ago….. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here:  http://www.napowrimo.net/    I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku VII

The sun has come up,
once more we rise, and then shine.
Standard issue day.

~~ gigoid ~~

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 concepts engage a fatally personal locus.

~~ gigoid

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“I am ignorant of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance, and therein lies my honour and my reward.” — Kahlil Gibran

This is a valuable piece of thinking, a very powerful attitude to have, and a beautiful expression of an ancient truth; Kahlil Gibran had a knack for all three attributes in his writing, and is deservedly regarded as one of history’s finest poets, as well as a respected philosopher. He was able to insert deep, insightful messages into the public’s consciousness, through his amazingly eloquent poetry, and exceedingly logical treatises and stories. This concept, that the search for truth is as important to us as the truth itself, and is worthy of our mindfulness. One cannot learn, until they will admit they do not know…..

“Real life isn’t like this.” — Smart Bee

Well, yes, it actually is, SB…. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt, and assume SB meant this facetiously….  We aren’t born knowing what is true and what is false, not in any absolute sense…. But, we are born with what I like to call a “crap detector”, a part of us that whispers in our ears, “they’re lying about this”, anytime someone tries to feed us  bullshit, i.e., something that isn’t true…. Some folks are pretty good at lying, and make it hard to tell; others aren’t…. but, all of us have a pretty good idea, and if we listen to that little voice, we learn quickly just what we can trust and what we cannot….

“I’m growing older, but not up.” — Jimmy Buffett

One of the secrets to a successful life is this attitude, in conjunction with the above mentioned characteristic…. When we are small, our minds have not yet learned to fear, or to hate, or to make any assumption other than “What does that mean”, or “Is this crap, or food?”….. which makes the decision making process quite simple, reducing each event to its most basic components of meaning.

This simplicity of mind can be cultivated in later years, and is valuable in giving us the ability to detect crap quickly, and make our decisions accordingly. If one merely tries to rely on what they know, and what they’ve learned, they’ll soon be buried in their own ignorance…. The oldest ffolkes around all know that one has to keep a child alive inside us, if we are to be able to enjoy life…. it’s all just too damn serious if you don’t….

“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” — Willie Wonka

This is why we, as humans, are subject to both Murphy’s Laws, and to the Principle of Bozoid Tendencies….  Both are of great importance in maintaining a healthy outlook on life, to keep us alert, and to give us that child-like ability to laugh at ourselves, and at the messes we can get ourselves into…. I ask you, what would Life be, without being able to laugh at ourselves? Pretty damn boring, I’d say…. That’s why I always let the nose grow, whenever it shows, and encourage others to do the same… Firesign Theater was righter than they knew when they said, “I think we’re all Bozos on this bus!”…. We all are in the same vehicle, headed goodness knows where, and the driver got left behind at the last restroom stop….

“HOORAY, Ronald!!  Now YOU can marry LINDA RONSTADT too!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

This pearl has been brought to you by the letter “C”, and the number 7…. All statements made herein are the author’s creation, for which he takes the credit, but, not the blame…. The Devil made me do it!   Sure, he did…. Anyway, I’m done now. I’m not at all certain that this isn’t the strangest Pearl I have done in quite a while; I have a strong feeling it is…. Strange, that is…. I’m going to cut my losses here, and be done with it…. Ta ta for now….
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Strange indeed…. amazing what the mind can accomplish when the body is in excruciating pain…. Today’s version of hell is being brought to me by an impacted, infected tooth, that is telling me, very emphatically, that I need to call the dentist…. It doesn’t care that the dentist won’t be in the office until 9:00, it just wants attention, NOW….. So, if I miss a punctuation mark or two, or any other typos, you’ll understand why…. Be right back….. Okay, I’m back, and I’m outta here… this will do fine, since there’s no way in hell I’m doing it over….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

This recipe calls for “floated ferrets”….

Posted on by
5

Ffolkes,
For a time, it looked as if I was going to make it work….. Then, of course, Reality stepped in to remind me not to make assumptions like that, so, I put aside my anger, and disappointment, and unloaded….

No, sorry, this isn’t going to work, and I’m not speaking in any fictional voice this time…. I had thought to begin today’s Pearl with another spate of fictional fantasy, but, the stuff that is coming to the surface isn’t what I was hoping it would be, quality-wise, and I just don’t feel like forcing it out, then polishing it to a point it would fly unassisted. I don’t like to post stuff that comes out like that; I feel like I’m settling for less than my best….

So, here I am, chatting away, nattering, really, with nothing particularly compelling to say, or discuss…. I guess I could talk about my Life, such as it is, but I doubt that would be any more compelling, and would most likely end up as being much more embarrassing, on a  personal level. Besides, I have found that blogging tends to magnify the apparent size of problems, at least in the sense that issues sound worse than they are, and people get the wrong impression of what is real, inadvertently causing them distress…. It’s best not to get too detailed in these moments of sharing….

I suppose I could mention a new piece of information that I realized regarding my SS disability. Once it begins, I am forevermore restricted from working at all for pay. This, apparently, includes writing books…. If I publish a book, any money I make from its sale will be deducted from what SS pays me as benefits, because it would be viewed as income, meaning, to them, I am able to work…. So, in order to be able to enjoy my retirement without worrying about whether or not I can make anything from what I might write, I must forgo all attempts to better my situation, and must accept no more in compensation than they are pleased to give me, until I die….

From one aspect, I can see the virtue in this, as it seems to say that the money should only be given to people who are unable to make money any other way than the accepted forms of work. In  other words, if one is educated, and able to use their mind for acquiring income, without using the body, then they are not qualified for disability, no matter how badly disabled they may be, or how much it costs them to perform whatever mental functions they do to make money; writing, speaking, etc. It doesn’t seem to matter that they may be doing all that in pain, or at great physical cost; if they make money, they are disqualified to the extent that they are allowed to make no more than they receive from SS….

As usual with any federal bureaucracy, this policy is treated as if it is a religious tract, and the people who make decisions about whether or not to allow exemptions or exceptions to the rule are chosen for their unwillingness to make any changes at all. They are bureaucrats down to the bone, and their sole purpose in life is to maintain the status quo in re: federal regulations, to make sure NOTHING is done to challenge their validity, or make them more flexible, and thus, more able to help the people for whom they are ostensibly designed. That would make too much sense, and would never be allowed to be taken under consideration in any federal institution.

So, I have to decide if I can make more from “potential” book sales than I would make, for certain, as a disabled retiree…. which is a scary proposition, to be sure. There is no guarantee that anything I publish would sell well… One may hope, but it wouldn’t be wise to count too heavily on the tastes of the general public to support me in my golden years…. That particular grouping is a bit too unpredictable to make that something worth betting on with real money…. People are too random to ever let myself fall into that trap….  But, there is also my pride to consider, and my belief in myself….

Ah well, having reached an age where I can use my mind to look ahead, as well as behind, I know the best thing to do for now is NOTHING. I’ll just go along for a while, and see how I like living on disability, and whether the amount I’m able to count on will be enough for my wants…. I know it will meet my needs, for I’ve been doing that for over two years now, on less than half what I’ll be getting….

If what I will be making is enough to fix my financial picture, set up a legacy, and get some traveling done, then I’ll just go with the flow for a while…. Then, when I’ve got several books ready for publishing, I’ll maybe take a chance, and put them on the market…. I figure I’ll need to make about a half-million or so to be able to cover my retirement for the remainder of my time, so, after a time of waiting, I will have a better chance at making it work…. Hey, it’s a plan, anyway…. Even if it doesn’t come to fruition, it’s will give me a direction in which to travel…..

Well, that was certainly chatty and informative, wasn’t it? Being positive y’all are mostly asleep by now, I’ll quickly change directions, and see if the cabin movement will wake anyone up, without frightening anyone with loud noises…. I’m not sure where all this personal chat stuff came from; I guess I’ve been brooding more than I thought, being forced, again, to wait for the bureaucracy to finish grinding its wheels…. I’ve got verbal confirmation, but, so far, nothing else…. Oh well… Since this intro has grown beyond all rational bounds, I’d best be off to dive….  Shall we Pearl?
__________________________________

I’m uncertain at this juncture whether a rant is on tap, so we’ll begin with an old-school pearl, to see how the waters are today…. Random pattern, with, hmm, let’s see, I know…. I’ll keep the word “truth” in mind today as I cruise, using it as the touchstone for picking today’s pearls, and we’ll see what we can come up with for your edification, and positive delectation…..

“It matters not what you are thought to be, but what you are.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 785

“You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything.  So I thought, once.  So did we all.  And the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower:  until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he _must_ do.” — Ursula K. LeGuin, _A Wizard of Earthsea_

“It is not enough that we swallow truth: we must feed upon it, as insects do on the leaf, till the whole heart be colored by its qualities, and show its food in every fibre.” — Coleridge

“The goal of all life is death.” — Sigmund Freud

“Beware of me, for I am a poet!” — Friedrich Nietzsche, “Thus Spake Zarathustra”

Well, that turned out fairly well….. Let’s see what else we can find…..

“..  does your DRESSING ROOM have enough ASPARAGUS?” — Zippy the Pinhead

Whoops!  😳  Sorry, couldn’t help myself…. One more, then I’ll leave you be for the moment….

“Being intelligent is not a felony.  But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor.” — Lazarus Long

There you go, a complete, accurate take on truth in advertising in modern America…. Really, it is…. Oh, hell, just let is simmer for a while, until it gets to a consistency you can use….. Meanwhile, we’ll go on….
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I had hoped that a poem was percolating in my head, but, if so, it’s not giving out any advance notices…. so, I will retreat into one of my default positions, and find an appropriate piece by another of my favorites…. We’ll see what Google comes up with today…. Okay, this will do nicely…. Here is one from a most powerful voice; the poem has nothing to do with anything in particular for me today, I just like it….. and so will you, I think….

SWEENEY AMONG THE NIGHTINGALES

APENECK SWEENEY spreads his knees
Letting his arms hang down to laugh,
The zebra stripes along his jaw
Swelling to maculate giraffe.

The circles of the stormy moon
Slide westward toward the River Plate,
Death and the Raven drift above
And Sweeney guards the horned gate.

Gloomy Orion and the Dog
Are veiled; and hushed the shrunken seas;
The person in the Spanish cape
Tries to sit on Sweeney’s knees

Slips and pulls the table cloth
Overturns a coffee-cup,
Reorganized upon the floor
She yawns and draws a stocking up;

The silent man in mocha brown
Sprawls at the window-sill and gapes;
The waiter brings in oranges
Bananas figs and hothouse grapes;

The silent vertebrate in brown
Contracts and concentrates, withdraws;
Rachel née Rabinovitch
Tears at the grapes with murderous paws;

She and the lady in the cape
Are suspect, thought to be in league;
Therefore the man with heavy eyes
Declines the gambit, shows fatigue,

Leaves the room and reappears
Outside the window, leaning in,
Branches of wisteria
Circumscribe a golden grin;

The host with someone indistinct
Converses at the door apart,
The nightingales are singing near
The Convent of the Sacred Heart,

And sang within the bloody wood
When Agamemnon cried aloud,
And let their liquid droppings fall
To stain the stiff dishonored shroud.

~~ T.S. Eliot
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Okay, so I’ve decided to cheat…. I’m feeling lazy, and late, so I’m going to fall back on some of the material I’ve written in the past…. Below you will find two Pearls, both of which were created sometime in 2006 or 2007; it’s hard to tell, but from the format, and the placement in my archives (which are NOT clearly labeled for posterity….), that is about when these first appeared. Both were written for the 250 or so ffolkes who received it when I was sending them out at NSH, from my office in Program 3…. The first is from a Friday, the second is from the following Tuesday, I think…. Any who, I think they’ll be perfect for today’s mood….

Fit is never a problem…

Ffolkes,
No I don’t know, so don’t ask. It is Friday, and it promises to be very….interesting. And it has already been a somewhat remarkable week, in perhaps too many ways. I can’t recall feeling this fatigued, even on a Friday, for a long time. Some of it is no doubt medication related, but the brain is not just tired, but deep-fried. Hence….

Warning: Whimsical when bored.

Paradise : two cubes with dots on them.
Paradox : Dr. Kildare & Doc Holliday

“Consciousness is that which it is not, and is not that which it is.” — Sartre

“This writing business. Pencils and whatnot. Overrated, if you ask me.” — Winnie the Pooh

Y’all take care out there….

Next, this little gem, from a few days later….

if you have to ask….

Ffolkes,
When I am distressed I tend to retreat; I think that is a natural reaction. What may be the important thing to consider is to where we retreat. What gives us shelter from Reality and its’ harsh and painful nature? Most times I’ll pick up a book, and try to find something in it that eases the pain, or at least postpones it until I can deal. Here is what I found today……

“It did not matter, after all. He was only one man. One man’s fate is not important.
If it is not, what is?
He could not endure those remembered words.”
— Ursula K. Le Guin

Too, too deep, and yet deeper still we shall go, in search of a Truth…

Y’all take care out there…..

So, there you go…. a double blast from the past…. I hope you enjoyed it….  🙂
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Alright, so it turned into a real battle today; this Pearl did NOT come quietly….. But, it’s done. Let’s see how it drapes on the wall….  Aside from the altogether-too-long intro section, not too bad. The intro, though not quite classifiable as a rant, nonetheless used up most of what I might have had to say about either politics or religion today, so, they get a rest, no doubt well-deserved…. I try not to give them very much slack; they already have things too much their own way….

Any who, it all works, I think, for another attempt to rescue my head from tearing itself to shreds from inside…. which is often how it feels in there…. Don’t think too much about it, it will only give you a headache, like it does me…. Better to just ignore it, and now that you’ve finished today’s torturous path through the wilds of Neddom, (homeland of the dubious few, the ONLY place where gigoid’s rules are valid), you can congratulate yourself at having gotten through the experience without bruises, bloodshed, or excessive stains on your character….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3