“All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.” — Goethe

    More often than not, sitting down to write in the morning becomes problematic, at least from a mental standpoint…. These days, the physical aspect of almost everything is complicated by the aging process, thus removing itself from the onus of discussion; I decided if I can’t feel 25 any more, at least I can show some dignity about it, and quit whining about it…. Sure, I wake up tired… doesn’t everybody this age do that? It sure has become more common over MY lifetime, so, I figure it must be one of those things they forgot to put in the manual, and one of those things we just have to deal with….

Fortunately, today’s physical outlook was greatly improved, by the application of a long-needed massage to this tired old wreck of a body…. Yep, I broke down, & spent the extra money to get a massage, and I feel at least 100% better for it….. The effects last for days, before the pain levels again get to the point of ridiculousness, and I have to drug myself into oblivion, so I’m cruising on good vibes now, left over from yesterday morning’s hedonistic, most welcome rubdown…. It also makes me realize I’m going to be doing it more often…. it’s just too damn good for me to ignore….

It’s pretty nice to wake up without the usual degree of stiffness & pain; one forgets what it is like to go without such morning gifts….. which probably explains the picture…. The flowers were arranged for maximum color effect, as part of the display at a Farmer’s Market, and appealed to my sense of artistic appreciation, as a form of art that creates itself, so to speak…. Looking at the picture makes me feel good…. it’s really just that simple, and that good feeling will, I can tell, get me through a lot of the day before it wears off….

I feel so good, I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to rant, even though there is a good headline to work with; sexual predators are one of my favorite targets for vituperation and/or vitriol, but, today, I won’t be vicious enough to do it justice….. Pedophiles, as a group, and individually, are one of my most hated categories of human perversity, right up there with pimps, politicians, bankers, and preachers…. If and/or when one of them appears before me, my hands tend to curl into claw-like appendages that I cannot prevent from reaching for their throat, to throttle them, and watch them die right in front of me, experiencing the fear and shame they give their victims, as they steal, and pervert their victims’ innocence….

I’m not sure what may happen at this point…. I’m going to take a break, then come back and decide how to proceed…. In the meantime, refresh your coffee, or your adult beverage of choice, and make sure you are well-fastened in, because the ride today could get a bit bumpy…. or, it could go as smooth as a baby’s bottom…. Let’s go see….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“You’re aware the boy failed my grade school math class, I take it?  And not that many years later he’s teaching college.  Now I ask you:  Is that the sorriest indictment of the American educational system you ever heard?  [pauses to light cigarette.]  No aptitude at all for long division, but never mind.  It’s him they ask to split the atom.  How he talked his way into the Nobel prize is beyond me.  But then, I suppose it’s like the man says, It’s not what you know…” — Karl Arbeiter: former teacher of Albert Einstein

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Below is the article I mentioned above, about the newest information from Britain, regarding the revelations of a pedophile ring in the Houses of Parliament, what they call “Westminster”, back in the 60’s and 70’s, a ring that included numerous peers of the realm, dukes, earls, and the like, and a number of Members of Parliament (MP’s), of both houses, all of whom used their positions of authority to hide their perversions…. I read it, and, can only say, one has to consider the source that printed it….

It’s pretty salacious, and depends a lot on hearsay…. but, it’s clear that, in spite of any lack of hard evidence at this point, the investigation is going to reveal a LOT of cover-ups and abuses of power…. In short, there will be more examples coming out, you can be sure…. Before they are done, I’m pretty sure that a large percentage of the British aristocracy, and a significant number of the political class, will have been taken down due to their part in the crimes being found out….

Count on it…. and that’s all I’ll say on the matter, for now…. Below the link, you’ll find a seven-star pearl, to drive home some of what I’m trying to say by not ranting…. whatever THAT means….

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/jimmy-savile/10978492/My-father-was-a-sexual-predator-like-Jimmy-Savile-says-son-of-former-Tory-MP.html

“America will tolerate the taking of a human life without giving it a second thought. But don’t misuse a household pet.” — Dick Gregory, The Shadow that Scares Me, 1968

“Wherever there is a crowd there is untruth.” — Soren Kierkegaard

“The ass is still an ass, e’en though he wears a lion’s hide.” — William Shakespeare

“We don’t pay taxes.  Only the little people pay taxes.” — Leona Helmsley, quoted in the NY Times, July 22, 1989

“Populus vult decipi.”  [The people like to be deceived.] — Some random Caesar

The Bible is true this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.

— Jordan Henderson

(A most perfect example of the term “ipse dixit”….)

“What kind of sordid business are you on now?  I mean, man, whither goest thou?  Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?” — Jack Kerouac

Hmm…. It came out a bit eclectic, but, I think you’ll get the picture…. Onward, he said, hopefully….

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I’m running late, having slept too well, and too long….. So, sue me….. Here, then, as a time-saver, is a discussion from last year, a “retrospective” that is actually pretty okay…. Enjoy….

From 11/30/2013:

A man who can fool chiefs, and even gods, must still face the monsters he himself created.” — Old Maori saying

Introspection has always been a hobby of mine, but, since turning the ripe old age of 63, it seems to have become even more of a time-consuming process for me than has been true for most of my life….

I can remember lying on my bed in the state of Washington, when my father was stationed there at Fort Lewis…. I would stare at the bottom of my brother’s upper bunk, and imagine all manner of things, including about myself, and my place in the universe…. Even at the tender age of 8 or 9, as the son of an Army sergeant, I had been many places, and seen more of the world than is usual for anyone other than Army brats…. our proud designation for ourselves…. The quest to maintain one’s personality in the face of all the changes going on around us gave me the impetus to perpetually be aware of more than is the norm for kids of that age; at least, it always seemed so, from what I can tell from my knowledge of others of that age….

Now that I’ve reached an age that completely got skipped in my earlier musings of what life would be like, I seem to be thinking back and forth more often, making connections with the past that explain certain elements of my own persona as they manifest today…. My hair, for example…. (I know, I know, my hair isn’t generally the subject of a rant, but, that’s not really what this is…. this is more of a…. a retrospective, yeah, that’s it…. a retrospective…. so, calm down, I’m not going to get all graphic, or gloomy, or pick at anyone in particular, other than myself…. ‘kay?…. ‘Kay!….)

So, I was looking at my picture on my About page, and can only say that, well, there I am…. My hair is even longer now, (a bit grayer, too….). as I see no particular reason to cut it…. which is the root thought that stimulated this entire subject today…. A little while ago, I was standing outside a moment, with my hair not yet tied back into the usual ponytail, and the wind was blowing it around a bit…. I started to get annoyed, then realized I could only blame myself for it getting in my face, because the solution to that problem is right over there in the drawer, where the scissors live…. I thought to myself, how many times has someone asked me, “why don’t you cut your hair?”, and realized I couldn’t count that high….

My own reaction to that particular query is to think, (again…), to myself, “Well, actually, the question that occurs to me to ask is, why don’t I NOT  cut my hair?”…. It seems to me, when I stop to consider the matter logically, and reasonably, that if the hair grows, as it has always done, it must have some sort of evolutionary purpose for doing so, right? It seems logical to me…. Therefore, it seems logical to ask, as well, “who am I to fuss with evolution?” This line of reasoning, naturally, tends to piss of most of the folks who make the original statement to me…. but, I figure that sort of anger is a personal problem, don’t you? I can’t go around taking the heat for what other people don’t like about me, when their anger is based on THEIR beliefs, not mine….

In a way, I suppose it’s the old hippie in me…. Aha, you say, now we’re getting to the meat of the matter! And, typically, I am supposed to say, at this point, “Just what do you mean by that? I don’t know what you’re talking about….”   Then, I smile, and get on with what I was doing, which is explaining why being a hippie is not what most people would think…. I mean, there were a lot of popular misconceptions floating around all during the 60’s (Believe me, it was a very confusing time…. I know, I was there….), when there were a lot of people who thought that there was something wrong, or even evil, about being described as one of those misunderstood knights of the sub-culture….

Yes, I said knights…. Jedi knights, before they were the iconic, eternal, peaceful warrior as made popular in later years…. Hippies were the knights of the 60’s and 70’s, diligently tilting at all the windmills we could find, poking our noses into the business of the military-industrial complex, which I now refer to as the BRC, until they were sick of the sight of anyone with long hair…. Back in the day, even the most rigid of conservative hawks understood that they were witnessing a change of culture, and there was nothing they could do to alter the course that history was taking…. The power of love, and compassion, and freedom swept through the entire world, as well as refreshing American society, with repercussions still being felt today….

One of the most important characteristics of hippies that I don’t think most people understood is that we were only interested in revolution in the sense that revolution means change; no hippie worth the name ever wished to violently overthrow anything that didn’t threaten violence first…. But, it is also true that real hippies have no objection to using violence to defend themselves, a fact which always comes as a big surprise to those who would try to oppress them. As with any tool, honor has to be the regulatory agency for determining which tool should be used, and how…. This, sadly, is a concept that those who prey on other people, who seek power over them, can never truly understand, as it is not a part of their perception of reality….

I see that I’ve reached a point where this must either get very pointed, or fade into the background for the time being…. I’m feeling mellow, due to re-connecting with the halcyon days of my youth, so I’ll show mercy here, and opt for the latter…. Besides, I’m all out of introspection for the nonce, and there’s no telling when it might drop back by…. I’ll leave y’all with one final pearl, to seal the deal….

“Oh, how we fear the metamorphoses through which we truly become fledged humans, real mensches of the species homo sapiens. Yet even if we do not willingly undergo them, changes pursue us just the same. The woman who never bears a child metamorphoses in different ways. We may dig in our heels and dare life never to change, but, all the same, it changes under our feet like sand under the feet of a sea gazer as the tide runs out. Life is forever undermining us. Life is forever washing away our castles, reminding us that they were, after all, only sand and sea water.” — Erica Jong: Parachutes and Kisses

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All things considered, it came out okay; that’s actually just a guess, but, I guess we’ll go with it, trusting to my basic skills to carry the day…. That may be ill-considered, but, what the hell…. It’s Monday, right? I can always blame it on that….. Tomorrow, it’ll be Tuesday, which means all bets are off, so, we may as well get started on getting there…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…..