Tag Archives: Zippy the Pinhead

But, really, the teacher obviously meant to say “provincial”….

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Ffolkes,
I’ve managed to make a decision, in spite of the massive cloud of confusion that descends upon me when I try to think about this issue…. I’m going to use the pieces of the Pearl from the 13th, which still refuses to post (another tale….), to fill in other Pearls, until all three sections have been published. Today, I’ll publish the poem, which I think is a good one, and use the rest tomorrow or Tuesday. It all sounds very logical and sensible, so, no doubt, Murphy will have something to say about it beforehand…. I’ll just be on the lookout for that, and hopefully it won’t get any on you…..

Spending more time lamenting my financial state would be both uncomfortable and tactless, as well as just too self-serving; nothing will happen on Sunday anyway. I could try to do laundry, but those pesky finances say not this month. It’s a good thing I have a lot of underwear and socks….. Hmm…. No buses today, either, except for a limited period, limited to two routes. It’s a good thing I checked out a couple of books yesterday when I posted the Pearl, as today is looking like a stay-at-home holiday for us seniors on a budget…..

On days such as today, I always enjoy the process of pearling, because it can take me out of my head, and into the universe, with all its strangeness and beauty. That is, provided Murphy leaves me alone, and Smart Bee doesn’t get smarmy…. either of those events can lead to problematic issues, such as boredom, which I detest and refuse to acknowledge in any form, or worse, angst, which can build up in short order if I get to thinking about stuff like politics, or religion, the beloved ruling class, human nature, or my own personal failures of courage (we’ve all got ’em….). Generally, though, the trips to find pearls are fun, and provide me with countless hours of entertainment (I’m pretty easy to please in that respect, since almost everything is interesting to me…..).

Once again, I’ve also managed to meander through four paragraphs of not very much, to provide a suitable intro…. Of course, given the nature of what I usually produce, I’m not certain at all that the word “suitable” ever applies, so….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“It’s getting harder and harder to act weird.” — Zippy the Pinhead
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“Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.” — Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

This statement strikes a deep chord within me…. It comes to me upon reflection that there are basically two kinds of people in the world; there are those who will see a statement such as this, read it, think about it, and either accept it, or reject it, though it hardly seems possible to do the latter, given its degree of demonstrable truth.

The other kind of person will start to read this, then give up after a few words, because the words have no meaning for them, beyond the word ‘treasure’. Once these folks discover that the ‘treasure’ isn’t jewels or gold, they stop all thought on the subject, and turn to anything else that will serve their self-interest.

In one sense, this dichotomy of nature is indicative of what is happening in the world at large today. On one hand we observe the people who reject the above statement, and live according to rules that are pathologically oriented to themselves, those who also believe in “do unto others before they can do unto you….”.

Sadly, this group is the same one that the major percentage of elected officials and members of our beloved ruling class come from, along with all of those who spend their lives playing with money, i.e., the bankers. All of these folks refuse to acknowledge the veracity of any of the sentiments expressed by the Buddha above, and in many cases, do so with pride and arrogance…

Another group of folks lend their support to those in power, though they spend a lot of time trying to convince everyone that they are acting out of altruistic motivation rather than monetary. I call these folks preachers, for lack of a better word, and the group, in my mind, includes priests, pastors, vicars, sadhu, imams, Elders, or anyone else who considers themselves a holy man, with the right to interpret the words of gods for the rest of us.

They want us to believe they are acting according to what Buddha has expressed above, but in reality, what they do bears no resemblance at all to virtue. They merely use the words to assume the authority by proxy.  In fact, their very insistence that they are acting in the interests of others, or are at all inspired to virtue, to me, is a foul lie, and worthy of their own judgment…..

I could rant for a long time on this subject, as I regard it as the most critical problem in human nature, the root cause of our current dangerous position as a species threatened with extinction. The callousness and self-aggrandizement that characterizes those among us who wish power over others will, in the long run, kill us all, if we don’t put a stop to it. Unfortunately, that would, and will, require making decisions, and taking actions, that challenge our own virtue, and place us at risk of becoming that which we are trying to destroy…. a conundrum, for certain. Time will give us the answer, and I, for one, fear to hear it…..

“It’s too bad ignorance isn’t painful.” — Smart Bee
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Calliope! Muse to all mad poets! This poem is…. it was…. it’s…. well, I don’t know what it is. It’s been percolating a couple of days, and leaked out this morning when I paused over it to gauge its readiness… which means I guess it was ready, even if I wasn’t, completely…. It seems to work, though, so I’ll let y’all figure out if it was worth the effort…. enjoy!

Dreaming of Calliope

La dame sans merci speaks aloud through endless night,
torturing dreams, with powerful words and stentorian phrases.
Manifest visions bathed in unbearable grace and light,
destroying all direction, standing lost, in unfathomable mazes.

Fate plays a part, one that will never face denial,
as fear and courage eternally vie to gain ascendancy.
Conflict becomes valid, gifting strength in open trial,
but honest emotion wears no costume so fancy.

Blood, sweat, and tears stroll on avenues of gold,
unlikely heroines heralding as in ancient lore;
Sharp, competent knives cut through tales untold,
eternally shifting reality past the naked shore.

Drifting toward origin, bereft of mandate or cause,
finished, nay, abandoned, tied with a figurative bow.
No simple gift from muses to give comfort or pause,
save that all we need to know, we already know…..

~~ gigoid

Hmmm….. well, it’s done. I’ll leave any critical analysis to y’all…. I’m too close to it yet….
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I had originally intended to write a rant, or at least a discussion of one of the pearls below…. However, the other entries herein kept popping up while I was still composing it in my head, and just seemed to point the way to where I was trying to reach better than what was percolating in my mind…. That happens a lot, since most everything important has already been said at least once…. or so I’ve been told more than once…. Any who, this pearl will lead the Gentle Reader to a very profound concept, IF that reader is sufficiently attentive, and is capable of moderate levels of comprehension and deduction…. and if not, well, they’re all good reading, and one should still walk away with a sense of having gotten SOMETHING from the experience beyond a bit of eyestrain…..

“To be truly conscious of your stupidity is one of the greatest steps you  can make toward wisdom. If you know others, you are learned. If you know  yourself, you are indeed wise. It isn’t the things that you don’t know that  get you into trouble. What gets you into trouble are those things you know  for sure that ain’t so.” — Artemus Ward (1834-1867), aka Charles Farrar Brown

“It is a misconception that spirituality brings everlasting happiness. There is no such thing. Sadness still comes to the wise, but, unlike most people, their clarity of mind allows them to see beyond the temporal emotionalism of the moment. They are farseeing, and so happiness and sorrow become the same to them.” — Deng Ming-Dao

“Why, when no honest man will deny in private that every ultimate problem is wrapped in the profoundest mystery, do honest men proclaim in pulpits that unhesitating certainty is the duty of the most foolish and ignorant?  Is it not a spectacle to make the angels laugh?We are a company of ignorant beings, feeling our way through mists and darkness, learning only be incessantly repeated blunders, obtaining a glimmering of truth by falling into every conceivable error, dimly discerning light enough for our daily needs, but hopelessly differing whenever we attempt to describe the ultimate origin or end of our paths; and yet, when one of us ventures to declare that we don’t know the map of the universe as well as the map of our infinitesimal parish, he is hooted, reviled, and perhaps told that he will be damned to all eternity for his faithlessness…” — Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), “An agnostic’s Apology”, — Fortnightly Review, 1876

THEOSOPHY, n.  An ancient faith having all the certitude of religion and all the mystery of science.  The modern Theosophist holds, with the Buddhists, that we live an incalculable number of times on this earth, in as many several bodies, because one life is not long enough for our complete spiritual development; that is, a single lifetime does not suffice for us to become as wise and good as we choose to wish to become.  To be absolutely wise and good — that is perfection; and the Theosophist is so keen-sighted as to have observed that everything desirous of improvement eventually attains perfection. Less competent observers are disposed to except cats, which seem neither wiser nor better than they were last year.  The greatest and fattest of recent Theosophists was the late Madame Blavatsky, who had no cat. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“A person is not given integrity. It results from the relentless pursuit of honesty at all times.” — Smart Bee

“All things come round to him who will but wait.” — Henry W. Longfellow (1807-1882) — Tales of a Wayside Inn, The Student’s Tale

Even the end of a pearl….. This one is an easy one, and I could keep adding evidence to the pile for the rest of the day, if I wished. But, the following note from Jubal Harshaw (the name of the character who said it…) gives me ample reason to stop here, at a point where the entire thing can still be saved from complete chaos, and certain oblivion….

“Read it?  Good God, no!  It’s bad enough to write such a thing.” — Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
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“The moving finger, having writ, moves on….”  And aren’t you all thankful for that? Another day’s effort come to fruition, or an approximation thereof, with style and, well, I won’t claim elegance, but, a bit of charm wouldn’t be so far off the mark….

For the record, the poem, should today’s post get online without any glitches, is the one I intended to put up the other day, when WordPress refused to accept my input…. (which it still won’t, for some reason… I attempted, yesterday, to edit the material into the page, but that one date’s page WILL NOT accept the material, but will only post the title. Ah well, software is, after all, written by humans…. I’m off to the Big Blue Room to try to get this posted….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Yak butter redux….

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Ffolkes,
Thwarted! WordPress’ New Post Page thwarted my attempt to post on Thursday, 12/13/12. Three separate times I went through all the necessary steps, hit the Publish button, and proceeded to watch the damn thing drop out every bit of material in the post, save the title. Nothing that I entered into the text entry box was sent to the page, so all that shows is the title, the categories, the comment section, and the buttons. Complete malfunction ensued, destroying, or at least, refusing my 1800 plus words and two pictures, including a new original poem, sending them off to somewhere in cyberspace, to be lost forever in the internet cloud. What a waste of effort…. temporary, if I can make it so….. nonetheless, wasted time is still wasted. I suppose it could be said to be more futile than wasted, to be fair….

The above, written soon after returning from the library yesterday, in two separate stages, is pure truth, sadly. I don’t do well with futility, all in all, and it’s hard to accept missing a day due to a WP technical glitch. I noted new interfaces and buttons yesterday, and recently, which may have messed with the system somehow…. Today’s post will prove the pudding, or banish it to the trash, as may be….

This paragraph begins the new day…. fresh, and full of promise, just like a new day should be. Let us hope that the sense of promise holds true long enough for at least one event of good note to occur; it sure would be nice to have some good news for a change…. It is hard to get too enthusiastic about the chance of that happening, though, given the past’s record of disappointment in that area. Murphy, may he rot in the lowest portion of hell, has been far too ubiquitous for any such luck….. In sooth, it is getting almost comical, and would be so, if it weren’t so real, and so important to me, and my quality of life….

There are signs of improvement along those lines, but rather than jinx things, I’ll just let that go with a mention, and just say I’m glad to see any kind of change in that direction, and hope for more…. So, I saved what I produced yesterday, to post today, so I’ll make good use of my time now, and start on the next Pearl, which I haven’t decided whether to post twice today, to make up, or to just skip a day, and move on…. I guess that will actually be determined by the WP page, and whether or not it will be publishing me at all…. I really do hate technical glitches…. it indicates poorly written code, and there’s no excuse for that, to my way of thinking…. But, then, I’ve never written code, so, who knows what is real?….

This intro section has turned into a daily proof, I guess, that there is no limit to how far I can, or will, meander when I’m just blathering like this. Of course, some of this one was spit out yesterday, so it really doesn’t count that way, but, hey, it all works for me, as it gets me to the diving portion of the program, which is where I like to be…. looking for a reason to write, some excuse to get all the stuff in my head out into the world, where it might do something other than just drive me bats…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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— Bother! said Pooh, as he fried Piglet for breakfast. — Smart Bee

(Piglet, I hear, made an ill-timed humorous comment about Pooh’s “hunny pot”…..)

Oh, my! Pooh’s dark side is showing again…. In previous posts, I’ve told y’all how I discovered that Winnie the Pooh wasn’t the innocent little Bear of Little Brain that most people know and love. For years, it seems, Pooh has led a dual existence, on the one side wandering the 100 Acre Forest with his friends, undergoing simple, instructive events where no one gets hurt badly, and no one cries for long. On the other hand, in his alternate universe, Pooh makes Darth Vader look like a Boy Scout, helping grannies across the road…..

I’m sorry if your illusions have been destroyed, but, I thought you should know, as I believe that Pooh uses his faux-innocent disguise to lure attractive young children into his sphere of influence, then corrupts them in any of a thousand time-tested ways, sending them on the path to perdition, and a lifetime of pain and misery…. the evil git…. Here then, are some examples of the kind of things Pooh has been up to recently, for your education and elucidation, so that you may be warned to guard your own progeny from the depredations to which they could conceivably fall prey, by becoming fond of this extremely evil creature…. The Bear of Little Brain, and Less Scruple…. (My comments appear in parentheses after the quoted text…. just like this…)

🙂

— Bother! said Pooh, as he nuked Iraq!

(Pooh’s first term as a mercenary came during the Kuwait conflict, indicating even then his willingness to use nuclear weapons, in contravention of all treaties….)

— Bother! said Pooh, as he lobbed a grenade at the intruder.

(The intruder was his neighbor, Mrs. Graham, bringing him some mail brought to her house by mistake….)

— Bother! said Pooh, as he ordered Mr. Worf to fire all phasers.

(The other ship had just agreed to lower its shield to negotiate….)

— Bother! said Pooh, as he put on the hockey mask and started the saw.

(Oh, you didn’t know? The idea for the Freddy movies, and the other massacre movies, came from one of Pooh’s home videos….)

— Bother! said Pooh, as Eeyore mounted him from behind.

(He only said “Bother” because he had just finished mounting Roo from behind, and was tired….)

Need I say more?….. Be warned, ffolkes…..
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Danny O’Dare

Danny O’Dare, the dancin’ bear,
Ran away from the County Fair,
Ran right up to my back stair
And thought he’d do some dancin’ there.
He started jumpin’ and skippin’ and kickin’,
He did a dance called the Funky Chicken,
He did the Polka, he did the Twist,
He bent himself into a pretzel like this.
He did the Dog and the Jitterbug,
He did the Jerk and the Bunny Hug.
He did the Waltz and the Boogaloo,
He did the Hokey-Pokey too.
He did the Bop and the Mashed Potata,
He did the Split and the See Ya Later.
And now he’s down upon one knee,
Bowin’ oh so charmingly,
And winkin’ and smilin’–it’s easy to see
Danny O’Dare wants to dance with me.

Shel Siverstein
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Since the election last month, the political scene has gone typically quiet, as the politicians all figure out how to make their newly shaped garments fit. The obligatory conflict between the White House and Congress trudges on toward the next subject of dire consequence, this time the tax structures inherited from Bush, and Medicare/Medicaid. As usual, the GOP wants to take all they can away from the weak and vulnerable, and give it to Wall Street, while the White House tries to cut a piece of that out for the middle class, and tries to protect the seniors. Meanwhile, the incipient erosion of rights being silently and stealthily taken from us citizens, by BOTH parties, goes on in the background, while everyone pretends they aren’t noticing….

So, any who, I just felt somewhat nostalgic for all the outrage and energy that gets bandied about during the election months, and thought it would be a good idea to put out some little reminders of how dishonest and egregiously avaricious ALL politicians are; even the ones you like are in office for their own reasons, not for your interests. Oh, they’ll tell y’all anything you want to hear, as long as you keep voting for them, but, mark my words, they will pursue their own agenda as soon as the election is over, guaranteed…. So, remember, these “jokes” about politicians and the like (preachers/priests and unscrupulous lawyers usually fall into that category in my mind….. Besides, these days a law degree is a required prerequisite for politicians who aim for high office….) exist for one simple reason…. they’re usually TRUE….. If not strictly so, there is ample evidence that they are based on true events….

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

“When you’re around it all the time, you don’t notice it so much.” — Garrison Keillor, “Lake Wobegon Days”

“So many lawyers, so few bullets.” — Smart Bee

“Election time is that period when politicians get free speech mixed up with cheap talk.” — J. B. Kidd

“It’s getting harder and harder to act weird.” — Zippy the Pinhead

(Oops, sorry, that one slipped by me…. but, then, it kind of fits, don’t you think? Okay, it can stay….)

“Don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time.” — Lt. Col. Ollie North

(I must apologize again…. Ollie wasn’t a politico, but he played one in real life. I thought it rather nice of him to share his expertise and wisdom with his co-conspirators like this….)

“I’m a fellow who bleeds every time a tree is cut down.” — Ronald Reagan, Fresno Bee, 4/28/66, while Governor

“If you’ve seen one tree, you’ve seen them all….” — Ronald Reagan, while President, recorded prior to a speech he made regarding proposed environmental legislation.

“California is proud to be the home of the freeway.” — Ronald Reagan

(And he was considered The Great Communicator?….. Sure he was…. He always communicated exactly what he wanted people to believe…. when he could remember what that was….)

“Before I begin, I’d like to recite the Lawyer’s Prayer: Lord, please let there be strife and misery among your people, Lest your servant starve…” — Clonezone takes on lawyers, from “Badger”

“Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

Okay….. I will show mercy. Obviously, there is no shortage of jokes and general lamentations regarding these less than stellar members of society, and one begins to get a hint as to why they are so reviled among their peers. Experience is the only thing that such vituperation could spring from, and the deeper the well of that experience, the more evidence one accrues to support the accuracy of the indictment of the reputations involved. Or, more simply, where there is smoke, there is often fire…. not always, mind you, but, …. often…..
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“Work is not an end in itself; there must always be time enough for love.” — Robert Heinlein

I’m not sure why I included the last statement, even though I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment. I guess it just felt like a good closing thought…. and I’d be right in that. So, before such simple elegance gets away from me…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Kowabunga!

Pertaining solely to sincere offers….

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Ffolkes,
I’ve changed my mind, though there was nothing particularly wrong with the one I had. No, I’ve reached a limit I thought, and hoped, I’d never reach, and it has moved me to change plans for when Social Security gets done fussing about, and awards my benefits. Now, instead of taking the first bit of money I get to travel, I’m buying a gun…. and, since there is little purpose in owning one if not to use it, I’m going hunting as soon as I have it in hand…..

What will I be hunting, you ask? Easy….. bureaucrats, politicians, preachers, or rednecks, whichever pops up in the scope first. Any one of those four groups, as I define them, would furnish me with an ample number of targets, any of whom deserve to die…. They actually deserve slow, agonizing deaths, but I’ll settle for blasting them into oblivion quickly, if it means I get to watch, and to pull the trigger…. The emotional release will be ecstatic, and so will the knowledge that the world is a safer place for the good ffolkes who are not party to, but are subjected to, their vicious games of manipulation and power-grabbing….

I know, you’re probably wondering why I’m so pissed off this morning…. I’m not sure, exactly, but it may have something to do with having to officially decide yesterday to give up on Christmas, again, for the third straight year. It’s not that my kids will care, they’re adults now, and will understand, but it is truly a hard thing, emotionally, to accept not being able to even think about buying gifts for others, merely because I have to keep the money available to buy food to eat in the last week of the month. All because the assholes who run the system have set it up to harass and annoy people rather than help them….

Now I’ve torn it….. I’m now just about as angry and upset as I can possibly be, and it is a very good thing that I don’t already own a gun, or I’d be out using it now. Every time I turn around, I’m bumping up against another piece of poverty, and am reminded that my situation is one that only time can fix, that I’m trapped into waiting for the bureaucrats to act. In fact, I’m so ripped right now, I’m going to have to take a short break, to pull it together enough to be able to type….. I’ll be back, as Arnie said to such good effect (maybe his only good line, ever….)….

“Humor is the best antidote to reality.” — Smart Bee

Okay, the homicidal urges have passed, for now…. Damn this emotionalism, anyway! Frigging PTSD is really a pain at times…. think about the past… pain and joy in turn, break into tears. Think about the future…. fun, but unproductive, break into tears. Think about the present, same-same. My tear ducts are getting raw and wrinkled from passing so much salty water, and I’m quite sure I can do without the assault of fluids on my sinuses every time my subconscious decides it wants to grieve again. Ah well, I’m now going to apply the most severe form of distraction I can, and then try to write about something else…. I’ll let you know if it works…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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So, my brain is being uncooperative today, so much so that it has caused me to pick pearls that fade on me…. that is, after a single paragraph, I’m stuck for anything more to say about the subject, at least anything in my usual vein of sardonicism and humorous approbation and examination. (What does that MEAN?….) Any who, I’m going to use some mental judo, and use its own weight against it… so here are two very short pearls, to make one decent sized pearl to start this now staggeringly disorganized process….

“Don’t Panic.” — The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I’m not really sure why I chose to use this today. It is, of course, very good advice, applicable to virtually every situation of which one can conceive in a rational state of mind. Or, I suppose, in an irrational state…. Panic, while useful as a motivational factor, or perhaps more accurately, as fuel for the energy to act, most often dims our bulb. That is to say, it drastically reduces our overall ability to think, channeling the mind into those patterns of thought that can lead to precipitous actions, of the type which can be highly dangerous to our health and welfare, as they so often act without attention to details, such as a tall cliff directly in the path we choose to run from a wild animal…. So, while it may be useful in increasing one’s speed and strength for short periods, one must not fall prey to its effect on the mind, which is generally counter-productive in achieving the ultimate goal, of survival….
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“If a lawyer and an IRS agent were both drowning, and you could only save one of them, would you go to lunch or read the paper?” — Smart Alec Bee

Actually, in re: attribution for this piece of brilliance, the nod may have to go to George Carlin…. If this isn’t his, then it should be, as it sounds just like something that would have occurred to him naturally.

What interests me in this little bit of humorous cruelty is the mere fact of its existence, regardless of its author’s identity. When one factors in that most people, if asked this question with a serious face, would stop to consider the question seriously, it becomes even more humorous, and more cruel. Not that anyone is going to lose any sleep over making a cruel joke about either lawyers or IRS agents; in our society, they hold the distinct title of most hated professions available to anyone…. and with good cause, whether it annoys them to hear it or not……
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I’m not sure if it was obvious, or not, but the above is an attempt to regain some control over this process today; it got away from me quite early, and I’m not certain what is going to work to get it back on track…. I hope this doesn’t mean I’ll have to drag a poem out of my head; it HURTS! Ah well, if I must, I must…. but let us first trust to Smart Bee to furnish me with at least one good pearl to turn into something worthwhile, and I’ll be happy…. or at least content….. Onward……

“Each man can interpret another’s experience only by his own.” — Thoreau
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The Tale of Custard The Dragon

Belinda lived in a little white house,
With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse,
And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon,
And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon.

Now the name of the little black kitten was Ink,
And the little gray mouse, she called her Blink,
And the little yellow dog was sharp as Mustard,
But the dragon was a coward, and she called him Custard.

Custard the dragon had big sharp teeth,
And spikes on top of him and scales underneath,
Mouth like a fireplace, chimney for a nose,
And realio, trulio, daggers on his toes.

Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears,
And Ink and Blink chased lions down the stairs,
Mustard was as brave as a tiger in a rage,
But Custard cried for a nice safe cage.

Belinda tickled him, she tickled him unmerciful,
Ink, Blink and Mustard, they rudely called him Percival,
They all sat laughing in the little red wagon
At the realio, trulio, cowardly dragon.

Belinda giggled till she shook the house,
And Blink said Week!, which is giggling for a mouse,
Ink and Mustard rudely asked his age,
When Custard cried for a nice safe cage.

Suddenly, suddenly they heard a nasty sound,
And Mustard growled, and they all looked around.
Meowch! cried Ink, and Ooh! cried Belinda,
For there was a pirate, climbing in the winda.

Pistol in his left hand, pistol in his right,
And he held in his teeth a cutlass bright,
His beard was black, one leg was wood;
It was clear that the pirate meant no good.

Belinda paled, and she cried, Help! Help!
But Mustard fled with a terrified yelp,
Ink trickled down to the bottom of the household,
And little mouse Blink strategically mouseholed.

But up jumped Custard, snorting like an engine,
Clashed his tail like irons in a dungeon,
With a clatter and a clank and a jangling squirm
He went at the pirate like a robin at a worm.

The pirate gaped at Belinda’s dragon,
And gulped some grog from his pocket flagon,
He fired two bullets but they didn’t hit,
And Custard gobbled him, every bit.

Belinda embraced him, Mustard licked him,
No one mourned for his pirate victim
Ink and Blink in glee did gyrate
Around the dragon that ate the pyrate.

Belinda still lives in her little white house,
With her little black kitten and her little gray mouse,
And her little yellow dog and her little red wagon,
And her realio, trulio, little pet dragon.

Belinda is as brave as a barrel full of bears,
And Ink and Blink chase lions down the stairs,
Mustard is as brave as a tiger in a rage,
But Custard keeps crying for a nice safe cage.

Ogden Nash
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“The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind.” — Albert Camus

Albert is right, but is obviously a proponent of saying what he has to say, then stopping. In this case, stopping does not give enough clarity to this idea, which is a central one to a complete and balanced outlook, or, if you will, a balanced mind. It is indeed vulgar, as well as ultimately unproductive, to NEED to be right. What should be more important is to KNOW, or be able to learn to know, what is right…. Only then can a rational decision be made as to the correct action, or non-action to pursue. I think in this particular case, Mr. Camus was telling us something we should all know; he was not telling us all that he knew….

I find this to be true of much of his philosophy, in that it only goes so far before dumping the reader back into a place where they must use their own resources to figure out his exact meaning. I’m not sure if this is deliberate, a method to force people to think, or if it is just his own sense of independence and curmudgeonry that causes him to only share part of what he really understands. I suppose, in its way, it is a very effective technique to encourage others to think, an activity of which I wholeheartedly approve, and is also, I suppose, one of the reasons I’ve always liked his published statements, and use them fairly frequently in pearls, or rather, as pearls….

In my world, the search for Truth is pretty much the backbone of all that I do. Even the mundane activities I perform are in some way in support of that search, or, at least, I’d like to think they are…. because the Truth is very important to me, and how I feel about the world. The use of it for manipulation, or its suppression for the same purpose, infuriates me, and makes me want to carve out of any human I see doing so, that part of their soul that makes them misuse the Truth for their own purposes, or allows them to believe that they have any right to do so…. To me, it is the simplest interpretation of the Golden Rule…. If I expect myself to honor the Truth, then I would expect others to do the same….

Sadly, that is MY belief, and very few of the people in the world who are in positions of power over others have any investment at all in promoting Truth, as it doesn’t suit their self-interest…. The statement that started this discussion is, in fact, one of the best ways to identify those in society who tend to act in their own interests before those of others. The need to BE right implies that one need not necessarily be IN the right; in fact, it is often to their advantage to be wrong, and lie about what is right, twisting facts and circumstance to suit their purpose. If someone insists on being right, you can usually bet they are not being entirely truthful….

“If what the philosophers say be true,–that all men’s actions proceed from one source; that as they assent from a persuasion that a thing is so, and dissent from a persuasion that it is not, and suspend their judgment from a persuasion that it is uncertain,–so likewise they seek a thing from a persuasion that it is for their advantage.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Book i, Chap. xviii

Human nature, and the flaws that are part of that nature, afford an endless opportunity for dissection. It’s really too bad that my mind is not in a place to go any further today….. Oh, sure, I could come up with any number of examples of the kind of deliberate selfishness and cupidity that characterizes that part of our tribe that preys on the rest of us; the news is full of their lies and shenanigans every day.

But, I’m already exhausted by today’s effort to be rational, and since it is Sunday, have decided to give my mind the rest of the day off, and hope that my emotional state can go with the flow…… If not, well, I can always splurge, spend five bucks on whiskey, and sleep really good tonight…. But, that’s just hiding, and it’s indubitably not a good idea to bust the budget so early in the month….

I wish I COULD offer some simple explanation for why people can be such assholes….. but, I can’t. I guess we’ll all just have to deal with them the best we can, each in our own way….. and hope for the best……

“I feel like I’m in a Toilet Bowl with a thumbtack in my forehead!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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Once again, I am compelled to look at a Pearl from the standpoint of “well, it’s done, and that’s all I can say about it….”  Hmm…. that’s been happening a lot lately; I’ll have to think about that…. tomorrow, during my procrastination hour…… Until tomorrow, then…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Down the slalom with the Elven King….

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Ffolkes,

Please Note: Any mental functions attempted in this area must be re-evaluated during a subsequent period. It has been discovered that standard logic works sideways in this area due to the influence of the occupant. — Smart Bee

Since this is mostly true, I decided it should be included today, before starting, with the addendum of this: logic may not only work sideways in this space, it may be wrestled to the floor and tormented beforehand, in order to keep it in the properly reserved state of activity. It is a useful tool, but tends to get pushy, and start to think it is infallible, so it must be firmly conditioned to rein itself in at the first sign of any such usurpation. Just thought you should know, so you don’t accidentally cut yourself on Occam’s Razor, which has a tendency to show itself at unexpected moments….   🙂

In this paragraph, you will find this morning’s real beginning…. The above was written last night, as that is when I found the disclaimer; it’s still the right opening for today, but, I thought I’d create a bit of early confusion, and reverse polarity, thereby switching the North pole gravitational pull to the South pole, and vice versa. Of course, the two pull gradients are identical, so you can’t tell the difference without instruments, but, hey, I’ll know….

Well, it’s obvious to me, if not to y’all, that I’ve gone ’round the bend. The waiting has finally tipped me over the edge into insanity, and now I’ve got y’all worried and upset. That may be because now you’re wondering how that will affect the Pearl(s)…… Have no fears, dears. It shouldn’t show at all…. I”m always insane, so there won’t be any significant changes to the tone or the depth of the material I produce. Hah!  Fooled ya!…..

As you can also see, I’m resorting to cliches and old methods of distraction, to try to force your minds into the mold necessary for today’s journey into the bizarre corners of gigoid’s brain. It may seem like a cheap imitation, or like I’m disrespecting y’all, but, believe me, it is for your own protection. These old methods are very stable, and help to form a protective layer around you, of a material that is the opposite of bozone, so you are safe from flying weirdnesses and random enthusiasms…. Bozone? Oh…. here’s the definition….

Bozone (n.) The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future. — Smart Bee

As the dedicated scientist I am, I developed an opposite substance to the bozone, one that enhances one’s ability to absorb bright ideas, and I use it freely around here, when needed. Today, it is certainly needed, as the weird and strange are falling like rain, and my own head is firmly entrenched in some sort of odd state where nothing is real for long, and only a constant prattle will stave off the bad things that can happen. Not that prattle is unknown here….

I guess I’ve probably scared y’all enough, and we should get on with the normal (hah!) state of affairs here on ECR. Upon looking above, I KNOW it is time to get on with it…. Shall we Pearl?….
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20. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

21. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.

— Instructions for life

Smart Bee puts out these little instructions every once in a while, and most of them are pretty good ideas. Both of these strike a chord in me that harmonizes with my own experience, so they make a good little start for this section, and a cogent, potentially productive pearl…..

One of the first of these I saw was Instruction #1, which reads, “Always give more than is expected, and do it cheerfully!” Now, if that isn’t good advice for success in living, I don’t know what is. It is something my own parents taught me and my siblings without ever saying a word about it. Some people in life know these rules, but many don’t; I was fortunate, as my folks did. This little piece of advice is what pushed me to become a good student, to learn all I could in school, and it is the most useful tool for school that I know of, for it provides a reason, and a method, to seek and achieve excellence in school, or anywhere, for that matter.

#20 above is a concept, and a  habit, my father made clear his entire life, and he passed that philosophy on to his sons, for sure. (I can’t speak so much for my sisters…. one left home when I was six to marry, so I’ve never known her well, and the other became estranged many years ago, for many sad reasons….) I can’t speak for my brothers, even though I know they got the message, but this particular little idea has helped me countless times in my life, both to minimize the effects of a mistake, and to repair those effects. It is also a technique that other people note in us, one that increases trust and goodwill. One can’t possibly have too many ways to do that….

#21 This one is subtle, but effective. What it says is absolutely true; the caller will know when you smile, and I would guess that in 99% of all calls, the caller will immediately return the smile, as well as soften whatever tone they intended to use. I’ve actually seen it happen to others when speaking on the phone; you can tell when the other end is a happy person, as the one they are speaking to lights up in turn, eyes widening, lips curling, and words becoming more lighthearted. I’ve also experienced the feeling of hearing someone smile at me over the phone, and let me tell you, nothing feels better, especially if the person you call is important to you….

I could spend a long time laying out the ways these rules can help one achieve the kind of serenity in life that we all seek, but, they are really just as effective just by themselves, without any enhancement (if one could describe what I say as such….), so I’ll leave it here. As Smart Bee reveals more of these little gems, I’ll share them, because they are good to have handy…..

Listen to the MUSTN’TS child,
Listen to the DON’TS
Listen to the SHOULDN’TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON’TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVE’S
Then listen close to me-
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be.

— Shel Silverstein
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If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again
I shall not live in vain.

~~ Emily Dickinson

Yesterday, at the library, I found a book of the collected works of Emily Dickinson, and I am in heaven! For the next few weeks, I’ll be picking out the best of what I find there to share. I regard Emily as arguably the best poet that ever lived, and can only feel happy that she left 1775 verses of what she termed her “letter to the world”. Already, I’ve been impressed and astonished all over again by the depth of insight she possessed, and by the simple clarity of her poems, and look forward to reading every one of those poems before returning the book…. Hopefully, you will appreciate what I share with you as much as I do…. except for Shawna, who can’t get into Emily…. S’okay Shawna, I’ll have other stuff, too…. Enjoy!….
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One day a gate breaks down between heaven and hell. So St. Peter arrives on the scene and calls out for the devil.

And the devil saunters over and says, “What do you want?”

And St. Peter says, “Satan, it’s your turn to fix it this time.”

And the devil says, “I’m sorry. But my men are too busy to worry about fixing a mere gate.”

And St. Peter says, “Well, then, I’ll have to sue you for breaking our agreement.”

And the devil says, “Oh yeah? Where are you going to get a lawyer?”

— Soupy Sales

It occurs to me, Soapy’s next line from St. Peter would have to be…. “I don’t need one, I’ve got a fix in with the judge….”  That would give not only balance to the argument, but would accurately reflect the actual level of corruption implied in the picture of the universe painted by the Judeo-Christian model of religion. It would also probably more closely reflect Soapy’s sense of humor, which was much more pointed than he got credit for…. People just thought he was a little strange sometimes, not recognizing lines that were making active fun of the establishment (as we old hippies were wont to call the mainstream of American society…..).

In reality, this joke is another example of the bad press that the Devil always gets; it isn’t often you’ll see a joke that ends up with Satan coming out on top. No, he is always given the role of the asshole, the manipulator, the one who wants to drag us down into Hell for eternal torment. Everyone seems to forget that they have ascribed omnipotence, and omniscience to God, and that He is the one who a) made the Devil the way he is, and b) could change it if he wished…. which seems to indicate that he DOESN’T wish to rid us of Satan, but prefers he be around to tempt and distract us…. That sounds to me like just a bit of manipulation in itself; how ’bout y’all?….

The preachers would have us believe that God allows Satan to exist out of his sheer benevolence, forgetting this is the same God who, in the Old Testament, sent forty bears to a town to kill all the children, just because a few small boys made fun of one of His prophets. He is also the one who threw Satan out of Heaven for objecting to some of what He had done on Earth, then turned around and allowed him free access to us humans, just so He would have a ready-made way to test us at His convenience. Just a little self-serving, don’t you think? This God, to my way of thinking, acts more like a spoiled little kid than a deity capable of creating universes…..

Okay, I’ll quit now. It’s really too easy to shoot at dogma; it never tries to hide, and just stands there, looking dumb, as you sight in on its forehead. But, hey, it’s a necessary job, and somebody’s got to do it…. Boy, it sure would be nice, though, to see humanity grow up, and learn to face reality without crutches, and without having to invent a supernatural being to explain away the stuff that isn’t clearly understood…. But, I guess it is job security, in that sense, because it means I’ll always have something about which to write….

“I’m RELIGIOUS!!  I love a man with a HAIRPIECE!! Equip me with MISSILES!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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I was right to give warning in the intro…. without it, this could conceivably create some serious psychopathy among the readership, and who knows how many lawsuits? Thank goodness for disclaimers, eh? All in all, I’m happy with it, though. If nothing else, it shares the primary characteristic of any good Pearl, to wit: it is done. Caveat emptor, as they say…. whatever that means. I’m heading off into the Big Blue Room in a while, so I’ll leave this now, and hope it flies as well as it crawls….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

The penny screamed when I pinched it….

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Ffolkes,
What an odd sensation I’m experiencing this morning! I am awake, almost fully, it seems, but every bone and muscle in my body wants me to go back to sleep….. I can barely hold my head up from what feels like fatigue (after almost 10 hours in bed….), but my mind is alert and ready for the day, so to speak. Weird…. I’m typing while leaning on my right arm, and my back is bowed, all because I’m tired, or feel that way. I know I shouldn’t be tired, but, there you go…. More gifts from an aging body, I guess, and not one I’m going to worry about, or give in to. Not that I’m bursting with creativity or anything like that this morning…. I’m just tired of giving ground, and I’m not ready for my rocking chair yet….

Oops…. that was a conclusion, given too early, I think. Now I don’t know where to go with this intro section, having already delivered the punch line, so to speak. But, in keeping with the theme of no complaints, I’ll forge onward, despite the self-induced literary suicide I just performed. Well, suicide is maybe a bit harsh…. let’s just call it a faux pas, and let it go at that. A faux pas is much easier to repair than a suicide, that’s for sure…..

Trite, trite, trite…. what was I thinking? Oh well….. It’s looking like today may just be more of an adventure than even I was prepared for; so far, I’ve found myself performing several little contortions that do not bode well for the rest of the day. An egoistic curmudgeonly moment, followed immediately by clumsy lexicography are not the most hopeful signs of brilliance I can think of, off hand. This may take some rather severe mental contortions to make it to the end. Ah well, I had a feeling when I awoke that this would be one of those days, so I mentally “girded my grid for the big one”, as the bozos say….

Hmm…. “gird your grid for a big one” is a phrase that I see might need some clarification, but, oh well. Now is not the time, so unless you feel like plugging it into Google, to see if it knows where it is from, I guess you are S.O.L., as they say downtown, because I’m not going to do that right now. I could, but, I’m not…. leftover curmudgeon, I guess. But, I’ll soften enough to give you a hint…. it comes from one of the Firesign Theater’s albums, and the word “bozo” is a second hint….

Well, none of the above is going to win me any literary prizes, and I have sputtered through five or six paragraphs already, so it’s probably all for the best to go on to the regular program. Not that I think that will be of any use, or help…. this one is already too far off the tracks to worry about trying to get back on…. we’ll just wander through the uncharted territories today, and let the chips fall where they may….  Shall we Pearl?….
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“I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics but for our contributions to the human spirit.” — former US President John F. Kennedy

At last! A worthy pearl! JFK, like the current President, was a superb public speaker, “Ich bin ein Berliner” notwithstanding, and whether he wrote his own words, or relied on his speech writers, he delivered, arguably, some of the most memorable, and insightful, aphorisms in US political and social history. The above statement is a perfect example, as he expresses a sentiment that can only be applauded, if not verified. I say verified because  there is not a lot of verification from the past that history remembers anything BUT the battles. But, one can hope….

Actually, I believe what Jack said very strongly, in the sense that there are different histories that are remembered, most of which become altered in some way over time, as does all memory. The great teachers and philosophers who have lived have left their mark on the world in more ways than always show, in spite of the records of their deeds not always surviving intact. But, throughout history, there have been men, and women, who have done much to advance the human condition, whose words and deeds were never seen, and never recorded, but, nonetheless. whose effects still ripple down the river of time.

Some of the great minds in history, such as Lao Tzu, Zoroaster, Genghis Khan, Gautama Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Mohammed, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, and many others, all made such advances in the human spirit, and their ideas keep proving their worth every day by their relativity to modern society. Men like Leonardo da Vinci, whose genius was so bright it shines even today, and modern philosopher/scientists such as Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking, have advanced that human spirit as much as anyone.

I’m not being as eloquent as I’d wish for such a deep subject…. What I’m trying to get to here is that we all, each and every one of us, have the power and opportunity to do the same as these historical figures, to advance the human spirit, just by the way we live our lives. What the philosophers say, and write, and the wisdom they pass on, is all very good, and a lesson to the rest of us…. But, what the average person does every day in their lives is just as important to the future as any scientific breakthrough, because what they do will determine what their children learn, and THAT is where the advancement really takes place, in the moments of teaching that happens every moment for children, and their adult teachers.

Living a life of integrity, with honesty and duty as the watchwords for action, is the best teaching method there is; to provide a good example for a child holds no less promise for mankind than all the work of all the genius’ of all time. How each one of us approaches life will, in the end, determine what happens to our species as a whole. It isn’t easy, especially given all of the people in society who do NOT wish to have any part of advancing anything but their own interests…. especially when so many of those kinds of people are in positions of authority. But, it can be done, and is done, every day, by millions of men and women of good spirit…. They are truly the future of mankind, and, if there is any hope for survival, it lies in their honest hands….

“So live that you can look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell.” — Smart Bee
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The Wild Old Wicked Man

BECAUSE I am mad about women
I am mad about the hills,’
Said that wild old wicked man
Who travels where God wills.
‘Not to die on the straw at home.
Those hands to close these eyes,
That is all I ask, my dear,
From the old man in the skies.
Daybreak and a candle-end.

‘Kind are all your words, my dear,
Do not the rest withhold.
Who can know the year, my dear,
when an old man’s blood grows cold? ‘
I have what no young man can have
Because he loves too much.
Words I have that can pierce the heart,
But what can he do but touch?’
Daybreak and a candle-end.

Then Said she to that wild old man,
His stout stick under his hand,
‘Love to give or to withhold
Is not at my command.
I gave it all to an older man:
That old man in the skies.
Hands that are busy with His beads
Can never close those eyes.’
Daybreak and a candle-end.

‘Go your ways, O go your ways,
I choose another mark,
Girls down on the seashore
Who understand the dark;
Bawdy talk for the fishermen;
A dance for the fisher-lads;
When dark hangs upon the water
They turn down their beds.
Daybreak and a candle-end.

‘A young man in the dark am I,
But a wild old man in the light,
That can make a cat laugh, or
Can touch by mother wit
Things hid in their marrow-bones
From time long passed away,
Hid from all those warty lads
That by their bodies lay.
Daybreak and a candle-end.

‘All men live in suffering,
I know as few can know,
Whether they take the upper road
Or stay content on the low,
Rower bent in his row-boat
Or weaver bent at his loom,
Horseman erect upon horseback
Or child hid in the womb.
Daybreak and a candlc-cnd.

‘That some stream of lightning
From the old man in the skies
Can burn out that suffering
No right-taught man denies.
But a coarse old man am I,
I choose the second-best,
I forget it all awhile
Upon a woman’s breast.’
Daybreak and a candlc-end.

~~ William Butler Yeats
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“The sage wears clothes of coarse cloth but carries jewels in his bosom; He knows himself but does not display himself; He loves himself but does not hold himself in high esteem. Thus he rejects the latter and takes the former.” — Lao-Tzu

In spite of how it must appear, there is a small degree of organization to this blog’s contents. Most days I try to make sure that the first and third sections, while possibly related, are essentially about different concepts. The second section is, of course, reserved for whatever poetry strikes my fancy that day, whether classic, humorous, or original (Though it does seem that my recent outpouring of original poems has run dry, I don’t think I’m done with that, yet…..).  It seems to work for me…. well enough, at least, to keep my internal critics quiet most of the time.

Today, it seems that most of what I’m seeing for pearls are related somehow to what I spoke of peripherally in today’s first section, to wit: the importance of integrity in human life. Integrity…. hmm…. not the precise word, or the characteristic I am thinking of, actually; it’s more than merely integrity. I suppose one could say the concept to which I’m referring is too mystical an idea to be presented clearly, and not be too far off the mark….

However, not being one to ignore a challenge to my vocabulary, I’ll take a few unseen moments here and find the correct word to facilitate further discussion, because, hey, if I can’t, no discussion, right? Right…. Be right back…. instantly, by all you will know and see…..  Well, the challenge is a strong one, and I think best answered with more than one word to describe what I’m trying to say. Those words are all contained in Axiom #7 of Peruaosophy, to wit: Do your Duty. Honor the Truth. Respect Life. Share your Love.

I know that it is my own philosophy, and some may think that is cheating, but, not so. All that I hold to be true is in that axiom, and it represents the four cornerstones of my personal foundation. I find that when I am able to live up to all of these concepts, when I am able to use their direction in guiding my actions, my life is much smoother, and my moments of joy are plentiful, to balance the pain that life brings all of us in turn. This, to me, is the best way to advance the human condition, little by little, with the efforts of each man and woman adding its weight to the forward momentum.

Yes, the actions and discoveries that the best of history’s minds bring to us are wonderful, and work to make the lives of every human better…. It is the everyday efforts of each man, though, that takes that wisdom and turns it into reality, by using ideas, and integrity, to add their experience to that of the rest of society. Since there is a large number of folks who do NOT subscribe to this kind of ethical behavior, choosing to make their own self-interest their primary concern, it is the duty of those who do believe in these ideas to carry them out as best they may, so that the world can retain some semblance of harmony. It doesn’t always work, and, in fact, is in constant jeopardy of not working at all, but, it is the only way that will make the changes our society needs to survive…. which is another discussion for another time…..

“And now there is merely silence, silence, silence, saying all we did not know.” — William Rose Benet
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All in all, not a bad start to December. Now, if the configuration issues I noted yesterday on my site have been cleared up by my renewal of the domain name, all will be well. I am hopeful, if not sanguine…. And, if I want to get this posted today in time to get anything else constructive done, I’d best draw this to a close…. No poem, yet, but, I think you’ll like what I’ve added there…. I’m off to the library and farmer’s market….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

With a fool for a client…

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Ffolkes,
Life is an adventure, with a new lesson to be learned every day. Here’s a new one about aging that I just figured out…. I’ve spoken of how men need purpose to function with integrity and competence, and how having a purpose gives them the ability, and will, to accomplish whatever tasks are needed to fulfill that purpose. Whatever effort it takes is not to be considered an obstacle, but rather a spur to act….

Well, I have found this to have exceptions as one ages… small, but significant exceptions. If I had a task to perform, it used to be I could go out in any weather to work at it, without ever considering how uncomfortable I might get due to rain, or cold, or mud, or whatever inclemency was happening. I find now, at 62, that a morning of wind and rain is sufficient to cause me to adjust my plans to accommodate my frailty, or at least my lack of will to ignore that frailty….. I need to go shopping for food, but the rain, and having to use the bus system for transport, has me altering my original intent, adjusting the schedule to keep from getting all soaked and miserable….

I don’t feel a bit of guilt, either, which is odd…. I used to hate to have to change my schedule to suit the elements, or even to suit other folks, and doing so added that guilt/angst to my daily emotional stew. This doesn’t seem to bother me at all, which, I suppose, makes me as much of an egotist as anyone else…. but, it is an interesting lesson to learn about myself, and how my attitudes are changing as I get older. Life is strange, is it not?….

“If you want to have a long life, you must give up all those things that would make a long life interesting and fun.” — Smart Bee

What with the change in schedule, my head is now completely disoriented, so I should be ready to start writing…..  funny how that works, eh? The fear of some mere raindrops is enough to stir me up sufficiently to get the old neurons flashing at each other, as my head wraps itself around the concept of staying warm and dry, as opposed to wet and cold, and shivers in relief…… Since I now have at least an hour before the next bus, I will try to re-assume some semblance of efficiency, and start the morning dive…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Once again, Reality has stepped into my space to give me a message from Murphy, to wit: F___ you…. and the plans you made…. So, in order to assemble an adequate Pearl, I have to go old school…. Here are a series of quotes, all on different subjects, sort of, but all tied together…. Identifying the twine used to tie it is the task of the Gentle Reader, with the caveat that there is no Quiz at the end, and no grades will be given, should it elude your best efforts to pin it down…. Hell, sometimes, it’s a bit murky to me, but, hey, gotta do what we gotta do…. Mmmmm, oatmeal…..

“We are not endeavoring to chain the future but to free the present. … We are the advocates of inquiry, investigation, and thought. … It is grander to think and investigate for yourself than to repeat a creed. … I look for the day when *reason*, throned upon the world’s brains, shall be the King of Kings and the God of Gods.” — Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899)

“Happiness follows sorrow, sorrow follows happiness, but when one no longer discriminates between happiness and sorrow, a good deal and a bad deed, one is able to realize freedom.” — Buddha

“Food, sleep, fear, propagation; each is the common property of men with brutes. Virtue is really their additional distinction; devoid of virtue, they are equal with brutes.” — The Hitopadesa (600?-1100? A.D.)

“All things are to be examined and called into question. There are no limits set on thought.” — Smart Bee

For those who didn’t make it to page 249 of “The Anthropic Cosmological Principle” by John Barrow and Frank Tipler, I quote

“In a randomly infinite Universe, any event occurring here and now with finite probability must be occurring simultaneously at an infinite number of other sites in the Universe. It is hard to evaluate this idea any further, but one thing is certain: if it is true then it is certainly not original!”
— Smart Bee

“I am covered with pure vegetable oil and I am writing a best seller!”  — Zippy the Pinhead

So, there you have it…. and it almost makes sense…. close enough…..
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Tableau at Twilight

I sit in the dusk. I am all alone.
Enter a child and an ice-cream cone.

A parent is easily beguiled
By sight of this coniferous child.

The friendly embers warmer gleam,
The cone begins to drip ice cream.

Cones are composed of many a vitamin.
My lap is not the place to bitamin.

Although my raiment is not chinchilla,
I flinch to see it become vanilla.

Coniferous child, when vanilla melts
I’d rather it melted somewhere else.

Exit child with remains of cone.
I sit in the dusk. I am all alone,

Muttering spells like an angry Druid,
Alone, in the dusk, with the cleaning fluid.

Ogden Nash
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I found this on Facebook a while back, and used it then, because it is exactly what my own father taught to me as a boy, back in the 1950’s. I’m using it again, with no shame…. I still operate by these rules, and believe the world would be a better place if more men did…. a different place, indeed…. If you have any comments, or, heaven forfend, objections, please feel free to discuss it in the comments section, and we can reach a consensus…. always preferable in reality…. Seriously, though, don’t y’all think that society would benefit from having ALL men act this way. Of course…. So, let’s shoot for at least half, and things will HAVE to improve, I’d say….

Rules of a Gentleman

1. A Gentleman is always presentable.

2. Lives a passionate life, with a compassionate nature, and dispassionate judgment.

3. Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.

4. Opening a door for a lady is not optional.

5. A Gentleman is one who puts more into the word than he takes out.

6. Nothing beats a good hat, as long as it is removed indoors.

7. Anything worth having, is worth working hard for.

8. A Gentleman will never instigate a fight, but he is allowed to end one.

9. A Gentleman reads and reflects.

10. The best suits are tailored (ties should never be a focal point).

11. A Gentleman means what he says, and says what he means.

12. Be gracious in manner, humble in tone, and thankful for what is given.

13. A Gentleman lives beyond his zone of comfort.

14. The line between confidence and arrogance is very thin, and a Gentleman is aware of it.

15. Drinks are not meant to be mixed.

16. A Gentleman can drive a stick-shift

17. A Gentleman can jump if need be.

18. Know the differences between courage and stupidity.

19. A Gentleman is observant, and takes action without delay.

20. To a lady, a Gentleman will readily offer both his coat and his hand.

I particularly like numbers two, six, eight, eleven, and eighteen…. but, numbers four and twenty are very cool, too, as they reflect one, or more, of the axioms of Peruaosophy…. I’m referring to the axioms that relate to the relationships between men and women, which are an endless fascination to me…. as they are for all men, I think… Well, for Gentlemen, anyway….
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All things considered, not too bad, if a bit light on actual writing. It will have to do, as I’m now involved in dealing with issues complicating the renewal of my domain… wish me luck….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

What’s a few platitudes among enemies?….

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Ffolkes,
It’s  been said, with good reason, that true freedom is the release from pain, and I am ready to go on record as willing to testify to that in a heart beat. Not all gone, of course, some degree of it is bound to be my constant, boon companion for the rest of my days, and I can live with that, albeit reluctantly. But, for the greatest part, my recent overload seems to have eased off enough to make life worth living again. SIGH, now if I can score a bowl of oatmeal, and my check hits the bank today, I’ll be a happy camper…..

Yay, me….. and enough about me. The last few days of pain and angst have been too self-oriented for me, too involved in personal drama for my spartan tastes in that department. Yet the pain grabs hold, and occupies the major part of one’s attention, until it fills the world, so it seems. Finding any objectivity becomes a struggle, and the perceptive world shrinks to include only the pain, and the struggle to get past it. When the fever breaks, so to speak, and the struggle lessens, the sense of relief is so great, it is actually greater than the pain, and the world almost seems to be in balance for the time being…..

“Pain is just nature’s way of telling you you’re alive.” — Smart Bee

So, I’ll take advantage, and use the time to try to write something more than just an intro, or an old-school pearl, with mostly quotes and a few comments. Who knows, maybe there’s a poem in there, waiting to come out…. We’ll see I guess…. I think I should get to it before my body decides I’ve had enough of a break, and gives me more BS to deal with….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Perhaps one of the only positive pieces of advice that I was ever given was that supplied by an old courtier who observed: “Only two rules really count: never miss an opportunity to relieve yourself; never miss a chance to rest your feet.” — Duke of Windsor

I would say the Duke was going for the cheap laugh here, and missed, slightly, but the old courtier knew something of life, for sure. Both rules are quite important to a life lived well, as they both offer techniques to keep one prepared for whatever life may present…. as well as offering advantages in life over those who do not use them….

First, think about NOT taking care of business when you can, and later having to deal with say, a bus ride over a road under construction; the pain would be excruciating, although the dancing one would be forced to exhibit would be, I’m sure, quite entertaining to others on the bus. Or, perhaps you find yourself meeting the Queen, who wants to discuss your latest book, for the next hour, while you stand there and dance in place, growing redder in the face by the moment… It’s a good rule…. Always take the time to be prepared, is what it can be boiled down to, and it isn’t just for Boy Scouts….

The second line is similar in its proactive nature, and in being prepared for action. Jim Brown was considered one of the greatest running backs in NFL history, setting records for almost every category of statistics for his position during his relatively short career (He played nine years, getting out without ever suffering a major injury…. an unusual accomplishment for NFL retirees…..). He claimed that one of the secrets for the consistent bruising power in his running style, and his apparent tirelessness at the end of games, had to do with his habit on the field, of resting completely between plays…. When he carried the ball, and was tackled, he did not spring up and run back to the huddle… He would lay on the ground for a couple of breaths, then slowly roll over onto his hands and knees, taking another breath or two in that position.  Only then would he push up onto his feet, whereupon he would WALK slowly back to the huddle, always getting there in plenty of time, but with his breath already under control, and his muscles relaxed, ready to run again.

Using ideas such as these to give oneself the advantage in a game is the same as in life. Foresight and preparation are as important as skill and dedication, and the intelligent use of available resources for maximum benefit is far more effective than merely reacting to perceived need. These are skills that, it seems, are more apparent to older ffolkes, as it is the kind of thing one learns over time, rather than as one illuminating lesson, sent down in a flash of thunder by the gods. Old folks know how to save energy, as we only have so much, and it wouldn’t do to run out right in the middle of a tango, now would it? No, it wouldn’t….  in fact, that would be quite embarrassing, and none of us old farts would ever be caught flubbing a tango….

“Whose undertakings are all devoid of desires and purpose, and whose actions have been burnt by fire-of-knowledge, him the wise call a sage.” — Gita, Chapter 4, Verse 19.
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I sat here, and opened up a couple veins, but, nothing has flowed out but random globules of greasy, grimy, gopher guts…. sorry, just a bit of adolescence left over…. No poem is forthcoming from my head, though, so we’ll have to go classic, or perhaps, exotic…. we’ll see what comes up when I get to Google…. Ah, perfect….

A Dog Has Died

My dog has died.
I buried him in the garden
next to a rusted old machine.

Some day I’ll join him right there,
but now he’s gone with his shaggy coat,
his bad manners and his cold nose,
and I, the materialist, who never believed
in any promised heaven in the sky
for any human being,
I believe in a heaven I’ll never enter.
Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom
where my dog waits for my arrival
waving his fan-like tail in friendship.

Ai, I’ll not speak of sadness here on earth,
of having lost a companion
who was never servile.
His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine
withholding its authority,
was the friendship of a star, aloof,
with no more intimacy than was called for,
with no exaggerations:
he never climbed all over my clothes
filling me full of his hair or his mange,
he never rubbed up against my knee
like other dogs obsessed with sex.

No, my dog used to gaze at me,
paying me the attention I need,
the attention required
to make a vain person like me understand
that, being a dog, he was wasting time,
but, with those eyes so much purer than mine,
he’d keep on gazing at me
with a look that reserved for me alone
all his sweet and shaggy life,
always near me, never troubling me,
and asking nothing.

Ai, how many times have I envied his tail
as we walked together on the shores of the sea
in the lonely winter of Isla Negra
where the wintering birds filled the sky
and my hairy dog was jumping about
full of the voltage of the sea’s movement:
my wandering dog, sniffing away
with his golden tail held high,
face to face with the ocean’s spray.

Joyful, joyful, joyful,
as only dogs know how to be happy
with only the autonomy
of their shameless spirit.

There are no good-byes for my dog who has died,
and we don’t now and never did lie to each other.

So now he’s gone and I buried him,
and that’s all there is to it.

— Pablo Neruda

Translated, from the Spanish, by Alfred Yankauer
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“I’m having an emotional outburst!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“It’s the last one, I promise!” — gigoid

Repercussions, Part IV

Reality Considered As A Slippery Slope

“Yes! Living in today’s complex world of the future IS much like having a hive of bees live  in your head. But…..there they are!” – Firesign Theater.

Sometimes, in my more lucid moments of reflection, I wonder if everyone else ever feels like that. If they did, then maybe it wouldn’t bother me so much when I do, because a burden shared is a burden eased…. To this, I can personally attest…..

In the immediate aftermath of the events described in detail yesterday in Part III, I continued to work at NSH, on the adult units, and for some strange reason, not a single psychiatrist or psychologist, nor any other therapist or administrative staff, suggested that perhaps the staff members who were involved might wish to talk about those events. It didn’t occur to me that maybe I should take some time off; I thought keeping busy was best, and when staff take time off, the ones who remain have to cover the time one would be off, thus making the job even harder. So I came to work, but I had changed, both my attitude, and my approach to the job.

Holding group therapy, and other normal, mundane functions of the job became low priority in my sphere of perceptions, while being alert to the possibility of small situations that could conceivably worsen became my focus. In retrospect, I firmly believe that my adrenal gland was regularly and periodically giving me doses of our natural defense system’s ‘pick-me-up’ in response to how I perceived the events around me. My hearing became extremely acute; I distinctly remember hearing a small noise one evening while standing in an office doorway, one night a few months after the incident with Al, and when I had tracked it to its’ source, I found that I had to go around three concrete walls, and through two metal doors to find what turned out to be two young men arguing, but not in particularly loud voices. No one else had heard anything.

Instead of a mental health therapist, I became a ‘brain cop’, ever alert to the slightest quirk in even the most delusional of individuals, often being able to intuit what they would do before they acted, magically appearing just as they would start to move. Even these agitated individuals can be fairly easily redirected, or at least distracted from their initial violent impulses, with the correct timing. And if the timing wasn’t quite right, well, I became even faster at assuming physical control, with the intent of entirely removing violence as one of their behavioral options, no matter what the situation.

As became obvious later, I was becoming somewhat grandiose myself, trying to assume the sole responsibility for the safety of ‘everyone’ in my space. I had forgotten, or refused to remember, a very old saying in the field of mental health, which cautions, “You will know that a nervous breakdown is imminent when you begin to believe that what you are doing is very important.” In my narrowed field of perceptions, what I was doing assumed a HUGE importance.

After a year of this, I wish I could say that I’d had enough, and asked for help. Perhaps my feet would have found the path I needed to follow sooner. But, I didn’t; another friend at work finally worked up the nerve to point out to me some of the things I was doing, and how they weren’t in my best interests, or in the best interests of the folks I was there to help. She was very compassionate and supportive, and despite what I wanted to believe, I’m not deliberately stupid, and had to admit the veracity of what she was telling me. I was broken inside, and no matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t going to be able to fix what was broken by myself…..good thing for me, I didn’t have to do that all alone. In that, I was a fortunate one….

I asked to see the on-duty physician the night my friend spoke to me, and after some discussion, often somewhat heated on my part, I decided to leave work, due to a temporary disability caused by repeated exposure to extreme stress. In the next days, I began seeing a psychiatrist, at the suggestion of a lawyer I had been advised to see, who would ensure that my claim for disability  got me the help I needed. For the next two years, I saw the good Doctor K, and my time with him became a weekly hour of calm in the midst of the intermittent storms in my mind. My last year of work had been marked by sleeping problems, periods of anxiety & depression, and the advent of the beginning symptoms of a physical disorder that wouldn’t fully manifest for another five years, but caused a constant feeling of lethargy and general malaise.

With time away from work, and compassionate care from my psychiatrist, and the presence of my family, my anxiety and depression became less pronounced, and eventually I processed my feelings about what had occurred to the point where I was no longer troubled by daytime flashbacks and nightly dreams of the horrible events. I found my way back to my center, but as a changed person. I am much more in touch now with my emotions, and have learned not to block them out as much when they are too strong. It has taught me that it is okay to break down, and even to cry, as long as you remember to believe that you can always get back up…..

Hopefully, The End….

P.S.  I can’t leave it there, being who I am now…. Tomorrow, or, if not by then, in the near future, I’ll finish this story, as far as it has gotten since last explored. I got back up, yes, and am still up, but, there remains not only a lot of pain and anguish in my soul about those events, but echoes of that pain that I still hear today, in spite of my nearly constant struggle to mitigate anything that will bring me this kind of emotional turmoil. Reality does intrude, though, and life still must go on…. Any who, enough of being mysterious and obscure…..  More later….

The picture is an image of a Celtic Knot from the MS Clip Art collection.

P.P.S.  Above the title of this last section, I made a promise…. and it seems now like a good one to fulfill. I’ve read over this again, and felt again all the anguish I felt then… but with a hopeful sign. The aftereffects have not lasted as long, and I’m achieving some emotional stability earlier in the process… That’s a good thing…. But, I’m tired of all this re-hashing of old business, and hereby resolve to put it away for a time…. It’s certainly taken up enough of my life’s portion of time spent on negative events and issues, and it’s time I try to spend some time elsewhere in my reality…. So be it… gigoid has spoken….
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Now that the delusional third party nonsense is over, I think I’ll get on with life. I have high hopes…. for what I’m not sure, but, in the wake of the last few days, I’ll take whatever comes up, gladly. Hmm… as I look outside, I see that Murphy has turned his attention to the outer world, and it is raining significantly, which will complicate my trip to the library…. Ah well, c’est la vie, as they say in Nice, and probably Lyon, too….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Adequate portions will not be forthcoming….

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Ffolkes,
It is unclear to me, even when I most try to understand, just how I’m supposed to cope with the different issues that keep arising. Without getting detailed or graphic, allow me to just say that I have three medical conditions that cause me either physical and/or emotional pain on a daily basis. Sometimes, only one is active, or giving me a problem. Sometimes, there are two of them working at once to drag me down. And some days, like yesterday, and, so far, today, all three of them bless me with their own particular demands for my attention, whether to merely acknowledge what cannot be changed, or to cope with symptoms that become extremely out of control or prominent. When all three are clamoring for my mind’s time, they each have their own little ways of grabbing the attention they want…..

One has to do with pain, of a muscular type, and is the most easily controlled; usually extra medication and time will fix it. Another, unfortunately, doesn’t respond to that kind of treatment, and requires a different approach to avoiding issues, essentially dietary boundaries that must be maintained. The last is the most insidious, and strikes in my mind, the depression and tears and guilt that swamps me at times, and only can be dissipated by spending a long time trying to do something positive, or other kinds of activities that distract me from the dark thoughts that come with the emotions…..

None of them are any fun, to speak of. And days like this, when all three are active, are massive challenges to get through. Today may be especially hard, for environmental reasons that I won’t go into right now…. If you can’t tell, I’m trying really hard to be discrete, and to not turn this into another litany of complaints, that only serves to worry those who care about me, and I don’t want to upset anyone for something that I have to do on a daily basis…. today, and yesterday, have just been a bit more difficult…. lots of back and abdominal pain, interspersed with tears, guilt, and adrenaline rushes, and aftereffects of adrenaline, which, in me, lasts for hours and hours…..

That part is over, so today becomes a challenge for two types of pain, which isn’t so hard to deal with, in one sense…. Once I’ve finished this morning’s Pearl, the only task I have for the day is to make it down to the library to post and check the yahoo email, and I’ve become accustomed enough to the walk that I think I can do it without any extra difficulty, as long as I rest up well first…. No worries, as the library is open until 9 tonight….. Easy money…. Now that I’ve bored y’all to tears with my problems, I think I should turn my head to the process of diving….  It should turn out to be a more positive activity, and work out as well as anything else….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“I just had a mental breakdown. Got any jumper cables?” — Smart Bee
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“The simple rights, the civil liberties from generations of struggle must not be just fine words for patriotic holidays, words we subvert on weekdays, but living, honored rules of conduct amongst us…I’m glad the American Civil Liberties Union gets indignant, and I hope this will always be so.” — Senator Adlai E. Stevenson

“It is not a man’s duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support.  If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man’s shoulders.  I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too.” — Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

Okay, I give up. It’s been three hours now, almost, and these two pearls, excellent though they are, make up the entire results of those three hours…. That’s right, two. I keep refreshing Smart Bee, but it seems to want to keep offering up stuff I’ve been rejecting for years as not useful…. too short, too silly, too long and boring, or just boring. So far, every time I’ve rebooted SB, it seems to start showing me even older stuff than the time before….. Bah, I’m taking a break….

The remainder of today’s Pearl is hereby canceled. I can’t do it…. I’m in pain, and I can’t concentrate. I hate to waste the above two quotes, as they would make very good material. But, they’ll still be available…. I’ve been down for two hours, taking a break, and don’t feel much better. So, this will have to do. Think about the above quotes, when you have a moment; they’re good stuff. I’m going to get myself to the library, add a poem, post this, and try to get back here, where I can get back to what my body wants from me today, i.e., curled up in bed, trying to ignore it all…. see ya….

“I’d like some JUNK FOOD…  and then I want to be ALONE….” — Zippy the Pinhead
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“If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.” — Maya Angelou

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

~~ Dylan Thomas
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Here is the second part of the series begun yesterday, about a dark time in life for me…. this is some more background material about my skills and training, and a lead-in to tomorrow’s piece, wherein the hammer comes down…. or came down, right on my head….

Repercussions, Part II

In 1973, at the age of 23, I attended school to study to take the state examination for a license as a Psychiatric Technician (PT). The classes were subsidized by, and took place at, Atascadero State Hospital (ASH) in Central California. Junior college credits were given through the local J.C., Cuesta College in nearby San Luis Obispo. In conjunction with the classes, students were allowed, and encouraged, to work 20 hours per week in the hospital, as a supplement to the clinical hours required to complete the courses. So began my journey in the mental health industry, and unknown to me at the time, down the path to darkness…..

The hospital at Atascadero is a maximum security facility that houses up to 1200 individuals, committed to the bleak, prison-like hospital by the courts, as being either unable to stand trial due to being unable to understand the charges, or because they were unable to cooperate in their defense, due to mental illness. Some of these men (it is an all-male facility; women in the same legal categories were housed elsewhere, at Patton State Hospital, or PSH, in San Bernardino) were also committed by the courts as being Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity, or were those who had manifested symptoms of mental illness after being convicted of crimes and sent to prison. A very few of them were not insane, but were master manipulators, career criminals with very good lawyers who had convinced the court to send them to the hospital rather than prison. These individuals caused a great many problems, as they would manipulate their less functional peers into giving up their property, or doing their will, or  incite them to violence, just to watch the results from a safe distance, for amusement.

Working in a maximum security facility as a therapist is possibly one of the most difficult jobs man has ever created; a prison-like environment makes it difficult to create the ambiance necessary to allow the men being treated to feel safe and comfortable enough to deal with their individual problems. The danger of housing so many people with mental illness is an ever-present and overriding concern, as one of the primary characteristics of those with these types of diagnoses is a lack, or even absence, of impulse control. As a result, managing assaultive behavior becomes a necessary adjunct to treatment.

The Department of Mental Health, working with employees from all the state hospitals, developed a policy for dealing with the issue, and training in Management of Assaultive Behavior (MAB) was given to every employee who came into contact with the committed individuals. Since the facility was classed as maximum security, the training was especially important for the Hospital Police, who were responsible for maintaining the security of the physical plant, and for the therapists (psychiatrists and psychologists, nurses, psychiatric technicians, and ancillary staff such as occupational and rehabilitation therapists) who were the primary care-givers for the individuals. These teams were taught specific techniques for recognizing the warning signs of impending violent behavior, re-direction when possible, and for physically controlling individuals who were acting out in a violent manner, without causing or sustaining injury.

Most of these principles and techniques, if not all, were very similar to the Judo and Ju-Jitsu that I had been taught, so my prior training and experience became valuable tools for me in being able to keep safe both the aggressors and victims involved in the violent episodes so frequently found in settings such as ASH. I became one of the people who specialized in MAB, which necessarily meant that whenever a violent incident broke out, I was one of the first to respond, as I was adept at controlling the situation without any of the participants sustaining injury, the primary goal in such instances.

Working in such a high stress environment as a maximum security hospital was both physically and emotionally draining, and after three years at ASH I had had enough, and moved north to work at Napa State Hospital in order to get back to being a therapist rather than a glorified cop. I obtained a position as a PT in a treatment program for adolescents. To me, it was  a wonderful change; the kids in the program, a co-educational environment, were smaller as a rule than the full-grown men I was used to, and there were far fewer individuals who resorted to violence than at ASH. It was also different for being co-ed, as I had previously not worked with any women, or girls, in a therapeutic setting. Because of my experience in MAB, violence on the unit where I worked became a non-viable behavior for the adolescents, and after a few months the number of incidents that took place were greatly reduced.

After a few years at NSH, I decided to take an extended sabbatical from working as a PT, and traveled around California for a few months, until not working became a bore; I was raised to be productive, and needed to get back to work. I applied to and was hired to work in another state hospital in Camarillo, a relatively small town near Ventura in Southern California. At CSH I once again worked with adolescents, as they had a similar program patterned after the one at NSH. My martial arts training, which I had continued all this time, once again proved to be a valuable tool, and I again became the first responder at any outbreaks of violence among the individuals under treatment.

I met my wife at Camarillo; she was another PT in the adolescent program. We worked together, began dating, fell in love, married and started our family. It was a challenging period for me; between work, parenting, maintaining my marriage, home maintenance, and the myriad of little things that are the activities of daily life in this country, I was a very busy, very stressed individual. But I loved it that way, and was happy and content for some years. The economy at that time changed for the worse; we were unable to keep up with our mortgage payments, and lost our house to foreclosure. We decided to move north, to the Sonoma Valley, to raise our children in a country setting, with very well-respected schools, and a much lower crime rate than the southern California area in which we had lived.

I eventually hired on back at NSH, but the adolescent program was no longer open, so I began working with adults, on an all-male unit with individuals with a wide variety of diagnoses. As the level of security at Napa was not maximum, and the degree of training was not up to the higher standards at ASH, the units in the program where I worked were very dangerous, a situation which ultimately led to my downfall. It was about this time when I calculated that in my career as a PT, I had worked in the most stressful environments in the entire world, outside of battlefields, constantly in danger, and my martial arts background had become not just useful, but absolutely critical. I estimated the number of violent incidents in which I had been involved, and found that over the years I had an average of one major incident (translation: a knock-down, drag-out fight) per week since I had started as a PT at ASH. My calculations came to a minimum of 728 incidents. I was appalled, but also somewhat proud of this figure; in all those incidents only one of the individuals had sustained a minor injury, and I had sustained one minor injury myself. Not a bad record all in all…2 failures and 726 successful outcomes.

However, the damage to my psyche that had accumulated through the years had by this time reached an unprecedented and dangerous level, and I was finding it extremely difficult to maintain the now uncertain equilibrium I had achieved. My experiences had left me burdened with an indelible yet hidden wound in my soul, in my very center. The experiences to which I’d been exposed culminated in an incident that brought all of my pent-up stress to the surface, and affected me so deeply that I still feel the effects today……I became, quite literally, one of the “walking wounded”, a condition with which my generation, due to the Vietnam War, had become all too familiar. It was a single incident, that happened one night in 1984, and to this day I have never fully recovered…..

To be continued…..
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Naturally, Murphy felt he should make a contribution to today’s effort; I don’t know how I could have ignored the possibility. Ah well, blame my distractions…. but, regardless of his efforts, or my own, seemingly, it is done. It seems like a lot, considering how I feel, and I have to point out to myself, and y’all, that a lot was created way in the past, and a lot was faked, big time. Like I said, though, it’s done, and nothing will make me give it back…. I’ve tortured myself long enough, I”m done….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

And take what the day gives us….

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Ffolkes,
Vast, empty corridors stretch into infinity, with doors every few yards on both sides. Silence rolls ahead of the quiet footsteps that pace down the hall, seeming to absorb the slight sound of the soft shoes worn by the tall, darkly humanoid being who paced there. Shimmering pillars of moonlight shone through the windows that marched between the doors on the east side, throwing shadows across the floors and walls as the trees outside trembled in the soft breeze. No other movement, and no other sound invaded the space around the walker as he moved toward a door on the inner side of the hall, where a light blazed from under the bottom edge, glaring against the softer moonlight on the walls. Even as his hand moved toward the handle, the door opened wide…..

And then I woke up, and smelled the coffee…. Not too shabby, I suppose, but I never know where to go from where I stop…. just as well, then, I guess, that I don’t keep going, so I don’t end up somewhere I hadn’t planned to be…. Boy, this waking up business is getting complicated…. It has been some time since I felt a shortage of material, but there seems to be a large void spot in my head today, soaking up any directed focus I try to put out. It being Sunday, the library isn’t open but a few short hours this afternoon, so I have plenty of time to get this done before posting. That is a good thing, considering how it’s gone thus far. I can see already it will be one of those days when I spend an inordinate amount of time waiting for inspiration to strike, hating every moment until something pops up that I can use…. It’s that purpose thing I told y’all about the other day; us guys just feel better when we have a defined purpose….. even in the small things in life….

Without a defined purpose, like most men, I tend to wander around like the proverbial bull in a china shop, crashing into delicate items left and right, creating havoc. That is what it feels like anyway, a sort of out-of-control rushing about, with shattering glass sound effects and the whole nine yards. It’s probably not as bad as it seems to me, but, mine is the only perception that counts, and I don’t much like it…. However, there have been any number of times during life when I’ve had to do stuff I didn’t much like doing; we all have that cross to bear. So, I guess I’ll quit whining about it, and get on with the search for material I can turn into a Pearl. There has to be something out there I can use; Smart Bee has never failed me yet, and I don’t expect it to do so now….. fool that I am….

So, without further ado, shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“If you disclose your alms, even then it is well done, but if you keep them secret, and give them to the poor, then that is better still for you; and this wipes off from you some of your evil deeds.” — Koran (c. 651 AD)

“Don’t let your mouth write a check that your tail can’t cash.” — Bo Diddley

“It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won’t go.” — Bertrand Russell

“It is as useless to argue with those that have renounced the use and authority of reason as to administer medication to the dead.” — Thomas Paine

Okay, so here’s the deal…. The three first pearls in this group were collected in one swell foop, all together. The fourth one I added this morning. When I saved the others, I didn’t know just why; the three quotes don’t seem to have much of a connection, though all are good trains of thought around the subject of righteous behavior. The last one almost ties them together, but actually speaks to a different subject altogether. So…. it’s a wash…. none of it means anything, and I’ve wasted the time it took to put them together. SIGH…. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a spectacular failure of systemic nature like this one. All the usual lack of control I use to semi-direct the subject matter had no effect at all….

Sure, all four of these are pretty good pieces of advice, or good knowledge to possess…. but they don’t do anything special, and they don’t fit together like I intended…. I’m not sure now what I ever intended, as those first three, looked at now, have very little to do with each other, and certainly don’t stretch to cover a portion of reality that means anything important. The last one is damn good, for what it is, and shows us that we are not the only culture to have to deal with the deliberately ignorant; they’ve apparently been around, bugging the rest of us, for a long time. But, it doesn’t tie all the others together into a neat little lesson for the Gentle Reader, not by a long shot….

Hell, now what? I guess I’ll try to find a closing pearl that can save this section from complete uselessness….. Hmm, how about this?….

“If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of potential — for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints; possibility never.” — Soren Kierkegaard

Now THAT’S a pearl! And, now that I see it clearly arranged, it actually DOES save this section from uselessness. It issues a joyous peal of hope, that passion for potential, that is exactly what I try to capture in a POVW (pearl of virtual wisdom). The last line says it well, and goes a long way to pulling the entire exercise in imagination together into a coherent mass…. A bit jumbled, and tumbled, but coherent. What we are trying to do here at Exploring Consensual Reality is just this, to bring the joy of the elevated spirit and mind to life, to give everyone who reads this, that sparkling, electrifying connection with the potential that exists in every single moment….. Grab on, ffolkes, and hang on for the ride of your life…..

“Each of us has a spark of life inside us, and our highest endeavor ought to be to set off that spark in one another.” — Kenny Ausubel

“When you said “HEAVILY FORESTED” it reminded me of an overdue  CLEANING BILL..  Don’t you SEE?  O’Grogan SWALLOWED a VALUABLE COIN COLLECTION and HAD to murder the ONLY MAN who KNEW!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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I’m feeling a bit stressed today, for reasons best left alone for the time being. But, it gave me an urge for some Emily…. so, here she is….

To my quick ear the leaves conferred;
The bushes they were bells;
I could not find a privacy
From Nature’s sentinels.

In cave if I presumed to hide,
The walls began to tell;
Creation seemed a mighty crack
To make me visible.

————————————–

One wasn’t quite enough, I wanted more, so…..

Delight becomes pictorial
When viewed through pain,–
More fair, because impossible
That any gain.

The mountain at a given distance
In amber lies;
Approached, the amber flits a little,–
And that’s the skies!

~~ Emily Dickinson
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Okay…. I’m not feeling all that well after all; since I started this a couple hours ago, my body has decided to give me a few symptoms to deal with, (which I won’t detail…. too graphic, and unnecessary….). What it boils down to is that I’m not up to a lot of sitting and cogitation right now…. so, I’m going to fall back on some of the stuff I’ve written previously…. About a year or so ago, in a form of self-therapy for some depression I was fighting to overcome, I wrote a four part series of short pieces that described my life, and the events that led to my acquisition of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is what I have as a complement to the relatively constant physical pain with which I live…. I’m just lucky, I guess….

Any who, I’m going to reprint those four articles, beginning today, as the third section of the daily Pearls. As I created these documents, I re-lived a lot of the events, which was both painful, and helpful…. I’m hoping that doing so again will also help again, as the darkness threatens to creep into my head, and I cast about, seeking the light…. and, it can’t hurt, so, I’m doing it anyway…. So, here is part one of what I called “Repercussions”….

REPERCUSSIONS, Part I

When I was four, my father was stationed in Japan with the US Army, at a base near Okinawa. He was there for about 18 months, and the rest of the family, my mother and, at the time, four kids joined him there for the last seven months of his tour of duty. During that time, I was made aware, simply by traveling to and living there, that the world was much larger than I thought, and there were a lot of different kinds of people living in it. He was an officer at the time, so the six of us lived in a large house on base, with two Japanese housekeepers. Learning about Mariko and her sister, whose name escapes me, taught us many things about Japanese culture, and my mind grew in leaps and bounds.

One of the things we learned were some basic Judo (the gentle way) techniques, by one of Mariko’s friends who was member of a dojo (school). This exposure to the martial arts stayed with me, but after returning to the USA, there was little opportunity to pursue the arts further. Especially when my parents had another child, and money became a permanent issue in the household. But I never forgot Mariko, (who made the best cinnamon roles ever), or any of my experiences in Japan.

Much later in my life when I went to college, at the University of California at Berkeley, Judo was offered as a physical education course, and I at last had the opportunity to study in earnest what so long ago had made such an impression on my young mind. I took the course for 3 quarters (UCB had switched to a four-quarter-per-calendar year schedule some years before my admission), much as a duck takes to water, and after less than 9 months I had been awarded a second-degree brown belt, Nikkyu, one level below a black belt, 1st degree.

I loved the arts with a passion I had not felt since I first discovered science-fiction at age ten. It was, perhaps, a lesser passion than when I discovered that girls weren’t so yucky after all, but studying the arts became a significant part of my life, and I have studied one art or another ever since, a matter of about 42 years. After Judo, I took some lessons in Karate (the empty-hand), Tae Kwon Do and Shotokan styles, a little bit of Tai Chi, and some Aikido.. Then in my late twenties, I joined my first class in the Chinese art of Kung Fu. All my other exposure, Tai Chi aside (which though useful in that respect, is an art not primarily designed for use in fighting), had been to arts developed in Japan and Korea. I learned that all of those arts had been patterned after the precepts of Kung Fu many centuries before.

The origins of Kung Fu are shrouded in some mystery, but the consensus is that the monks of the Taoist temple of the order of the Shaolin were the first to learn the basic art, and developed it as a means of protecting their temple from the degradations of the numerous marauding warlords fighting over the various geographic regions in China. It is said that the art was brought to them by none other than Bhodi Dharma, an ancient warrior of India who traveled all over the Far East during his life, using his unspeakably powerful skills, developed by him during many years of studying Yoga, to protect the weak and oppressed, much like a wandering knight in Europe during the age of chivalry.

The Shaolin monks developed the skills they learned to such a high degree that the temple was eventually destroyed by warlords who had developed cannons, because they feared the monks so much. The monks scattered over the rest of China taking their skills with them, teaching them to the people, and to monks at other temples. It was said that a Shaolin monk could disappear from sight, could walk through walls, and fly through the air, and their reputation protected them probably as much as their fighting skills.

In the 1970’s there was a show on TV called Kung Fu, loosely based on a figure in Shaolin history, their greatest warrior, whose name on the show was Kwai Chang Caine. Though subject unfortunately to the occasionally bizarre demands of Hollywood culture, it was nonetheless a relatively accurate representation of how such a monk would have approached the new culture in the United States, and gave a good idea of how effective the skills learned by the monks could be, even against superior forces and weaponry.

When I was first introduced to Kung Fu, it seemed as though all the other arts I had studied became irrelevant. I had graduated from the high-school level of Karate and Aikido to a more advanced university, that started with basics, then led the student into deeper and deeper knowledge, not just of the techniques of fighting and training, but knowledge of both the body and the mind, which are never considered to be separate entities in Chinese culture.

The techniques learned became only a part of what one learns; much of the rest of what is taught was concerned with learning to control one’s mind and spirit. The first lesson was the most important one, and it consists of one concept…..restraint. Simply put, we do not learn these skills to fight, but to grow; to learn how to accept the danger that exists in human society without being paralyzed by fear, allowing one’s higher principles to guide action for the betterment of all creatures.

Learning Kung Fu, as well as the other martial arts I studied, was a seminal part of my own developing philosophy of life, and has been, in my mind, an invaluable tool in my own growth. But learning the arts, as I was later to learn, would have repercussions so powerful, and so all-encompassing, that they would send shock waves of pain and anguish down every step of my path in the world; repercussions that would stay with me for the rest of my life…..

To be continued…….
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Well, I kind of feel as if I’ve cheated a little bit, but, given the way I feel physically right now, that’s just too bad, so sad, because it’s done now, and nothing will make me go back and do it over. It will be all I can do to get down to the library to get this posted later, so I’m going to go deal with my physical issues, and hopefully get past them….. I’ll be fine, it’s just miserable for a while, until it all passes…. life goes on……  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Echoes of apologetic mumbles….

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2

Ffolkes,
This post was written yesterday, on Thanksgiving Day, but I was unable to post it, due to foreseen difficulties I was unable to resolve. So, for the second time in history, I missed a post. Much as I hate it, I am not overly upset, merely heavily confused, because my routine is now shot to shit…. So, this will get posted this morning, Friday, and we’ll pick up the thread at the appropriate time tomorrow…. Needless to say, I also have been unable to do much reading on other ffolke’s blogs, so please be patient with me…. I’ll be back eventually, full time, and will bug the hell out of y’all then, whenever I’m not on the road to somewhere I’ve never been….. Any who, here is what I spewed out yesterday….. enjoy!…..

Well….. That’s a pain, for sure…. I am up early, ready and able, hell, even enthused about writing today’s Pearl, and I just realized I might not be able to post it today. Both the library and the coffee shop where I go to connect to the Internet are closed today, due to the fact that it is Thanksgiving Day.

Kind of ironic, isn’t it, that on this, one of the most inherently social holidays, there is no social venue for people to gather, unless it has something to do with the holiday. Businesses other than restaurants will all close, so there is actually NO place for folks like me to go to hook up. I don’t have the money to eat out, nor to eat in, really…. I mean, I have food to last me the month, but I guarantee it’s no turkey dinner. That doesn’t bother me at all…. but knowing I may not be able to post this is quite upsetting, to say the least…. It is hard enough living in poverty, without it being shoved in my face like this…. No library until Saturday, so tomorrow’s post is looking like it won’t get online, either….. SIGH. Funny how our society turns away from the people who need the most help, especially on those days when it hurts the most.

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” — Ray Bradbury

The buses run only on a holiday schedule, greatly reduced, so all of us poor folks and seniors, who depend on the bus to get around, are stuck today, limited to where we can walk. Libraries and other government agencies are closed, so there is no place to go to get off the streets, if one has no home (I’m lucky in that regard, and in having food…..). But, if one has no family event to attend, or money to eat out, then this holiday is pretty well more of a depressive reminder of how tough things are, than it is a reason to be thankful…. Myself, I’m thankful enough, for what I have…. which is little enough, all things considered, but enough to be worth being thankful. But, I am also rather depressed, because I can see how hard it is for those who have less than I do, and I know that things would be much different, for me, as well as for those who suffer more, if the society in which we live made any real attempt to help those in need…..

Now, I don’t know how it is for others in this society who are living on the edge, but for me, going to a shelter to get food on a day like today would be kind of the last straw. It would be the final indicator that I have lost the ability, and the means, to take care of myself, a severe blow to the little bit of pride I have left. It is enough of a come-down to realize that I used to have a house, a couple of jobs, a family, a car, bills, the whole nine yards, and would most likely be planning a dinner myself, to cook when the kids came over to celebrate the holiday, had things worked out the way I wanted them to…. Alas, though, my ex-wife had other plans, as did the woman I thought loved me up until three years ago, and my dreams of a quiet retirement with my true love were destroyed by the reality of betrayal….. C’est la vie!….

I’ve managed to get over that, for the most part, (though, obviously, not completely….) as I try to obtain my just rewards for all the years I’ve poured money into the SS system. The system protects itself very well with layer upon layer of bureaucratic paper that stands between anyone attempting to obtain their benefits and the actual use of them, so the battle with them wages on in the midst of all the rest, aggravating my PTSD, and making it harder for me on days like today, when everything in the world is pointed toward letting us poor folks know just how badly we’ve screwed up by not having enough of the greed gene, and how little society really cares for those who don’t quite make the grade, financially, whatever the reason for that….

“A nation’s advance as a civilized society can be properly measured by the manner in which it treats the poor and the elderly – often the same people.” — Smart Bee

Once, many years ago, I took some business administration classes at the local JC, one of which was taught by a banker. In class, I once noted to the teacher that all of our reading, and all of what she had been relating to us, in toto, indicated that there was in our society only one actual form of discrimination taking place, and that was financial, or economic discrimination…. In other words, the Haves are all conspiring against the Have Nots, and all the laws are in the favor of the Haves. I asked if she thought that this would ever change, if society would ever really achieve any sort of social progress beyond what the dictates of the rich would like it to have…. She didn’t even pause to consider her response; she just said no…. She didn’t say as much, but it was obvious that she, and every other person who was on the side of the Haves, would be making sure of that….. Financial and economic discrimination is real, and is just the way they want it, so it isn’t going to change, ever…. You can take that to the bank, so to speak….

With one hand he put
A penny in the urn of poverty,
And with the other took a shilling out.

— Robert Pollok (1799-1827) — The Course of Time, Book viii, Line 632

I suppose that if society did make those kinds of effort, or if there was any social progress that was actually going to be allowed to happen by the beloved ruling class, then I’d have less to write about, as I do spend a lot of time railing at the members of that esteemed group. I doubt seriously that much change will occur, and I am certain that whatever does happen won’t be enough to change the overall structure of our culture, that allows, and even encourages, this kind of discrimination according to economic principles. Those who are in power have been there for a very long time, and they’re not about to give up their comforts, much less their profits, without a fight…. and any kind of fight at all will mean that we have lost our way, again…. Ah well, it’s enough to dishearten the most optimistic person alive, and it certainly causes me some distress, even as it promises no end to what I will have to write about….

Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus (Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon) — Hogwarts School Motto

Shall we Pearl?….. Actually, I suppose you could say we already started, what with the nearly a thousand word rant above…. It IS more of a pearl than an intro, but, we must stick to our purpose and routine…. Oh, wait, no we mustn’t, necessarily…. I forgot I have no clue as to where to post this, so getting it done is a moot process, if not a altogether a moot occupation…. Ah, fuck it, I’m sticking with it, for the nonce…. if only for the chance to use the word “nonce”, one of my favorites…. Onward….
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“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them.  That only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality.” — Lao-Tzu

I’m not sure how to take this…. I found this quote from Lao Tzu AFTER writing the above intro, and AFTER writing the third section’s pearl below. As always, Lao Tzu makes obvious the reason why I am feeling my discomfort, and points out how to get past the pain, caused, as usual, by my own perceptions, and my reaction to them. But, at the same time, this time, it occurs to me that although we cannot force reality to do what we want it to do, there does seem to be a rather unbalanced percentage of results that favor the bad guys, rather than evidence that supports an even, or even random, set of chances. I mean, yes, this does parallel my own philosophy’s axiom #2, almost exactly, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to me when the universe does present us with natural and spontaneous changes.

And, really, it is not. But, from what I can see, objectively, it seems easier for the bad guys to take advantage of the system as it exists, and for them to achieve the results they desire. It seems that if the universe were truly a random deal, then those chances of success would be equal for both the rich and the poor; seems only fair to me…. But, then, I am not the universe, and most simply put, I care, and it doesn’t. That is what makes the difference, and is why the bad guys win so much more often…. If one is the kind of person who cares about others, then fairness becomes an issue. If one doesn’t care about others, then it is not an issue, and one can use all the advantages the universe offers to those who would lie, hurt others without compunction, and cheat their own mothers, (well, who knows… they MIGHT feel guilty about it, but they would still do it….) to achieve their own ends. This is why the world is like it is, quite frankly…. because there are two types of folks in the world, and one of them insists on playing fair….

You know what, though? I don’t care, ultimately, how unfair it is….. Each of us has to make a decision about how we are to approach life, and whether or not we will be the kind of person who will take advantage of others to get what we want. To do so is to give in to the Dark Side of the Force, in my mind, and I just won’t do it…. Yes, I could have a lot more, and be a lot more comfortable, physically…. I could be rich, if I didn’t care about other folks…. But, I do, and I also enjoy being able to look at myself in the mirror in the morning without any shame…. I mean, doing that is already a dangerous occupation, as my face is far from what I’d call pretty, or even handsome…. but, it is an honest face, and that is what I care about….

So be it…. Let reality  be reality, ffolkes, and let the chips fly where they may…. All we can do is all we can do, anyway, right? Right……

“You cannot believe in honor unless you have achieved it. Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.” — George Bernard Shaw
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When asked for his own [favourite poem], Dylan [Thomas] slowly said, “This is the best poem in the English language,” and then repeated, gravely and with feeling, these lines:

I am
Thou art
He, she, it is
We are
You are
They are.

— Richard Burton (1577-1640), — quoted in Andrew Sinclair’s “No Man More Magical”

Strangely enough, that’s enough….. In my humble opinion, Mr. Thomas ought to know…..
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“Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations,– entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigour, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad;…freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected,–these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.” — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) — First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

Point by point, how are we doing with these “bright guiding principles”? Do they still provide us with, and hold us up as, the example to the world of a truly free people? Well, let’s just see, shall we?….

“Equal and exact justice to all men, etc.”  Well, as much as I’d like to say yes, I really can’t, you know. And you DO know, don’t you? The rich are treated much more leniently than are the poor, when it comes to the enforcement of just about any law, this is an accepted fact in society, and hardly needs any more documentation. Anyone who says otherwise is either a professional liar (i.e., one of those who get the preferred treatment….) or is from another planet, and just got into town….. Well, hmmm…. Also, political entities always assume immunity from the laws they create, and the record of the courts in both prosecuting, and convicting them of misdeeds, is simply atrocious.

“An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.” — Simon Cameron (1799-1889)

And, please, don’t get me started on how the law favors religious groups…. To begin with, they don’t pay any taxes, and that is quite enough for me to swallow, thank you very much….. Sure, the cops are always happy to bust a preacher for drinking or whoring, but that is kind of like a sport for them, and how many ever end up in prison, anyway? Almost none…. Hell, when a preacher/priest/minister vouches for a criminal, it can mitigate their treatment to some degree…. Sorry, but I just don’t call that equal under the law, especially when a preacher will lie even faster than a politician will, and that is supposedly the fastest thing on Earth…. Don’t even try to tell me you don’t expect your politicians to lie…. and, if that is true, then preachers and priests are sure to follow their lead, or lead the way, take your pick….

‘Kay, number two…. “peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations…. entangling alliances with none.” Well, this one is kind of hit and miss, I’d say…. Of course we DO have some rather embarrassing alliances (dictatorships, drug regimes, political tyrants whose country is in a strategic military space, etc.) but, those don’t count, as they are “clandestine” alliances that nobody is supposed to know of….. Our degree of honest friendship is rather limited, as well, to those countries who will vote with us in the UN, or those over whom we have some sort of economic control…. but, hey, everybody WANTS to be an American, right?…. Not any more, I should think….

“the support of the State governments in all their rights,” Well, the states get supported just as long as they follow Federal guidelines and political boundaries…. This one sort of got a bit messed up at the start, and has never really recovered since the early 1800’s, when corporate interests gained control of all three branches of the government, arranging the laws, and the courts’ decisions on those laws, so that corporate interests are always considered first, before those of individuals, or private, small businesses, or the states, or townships, or any entity except those few who have gathered all the strings into their grasping hands….. You can think otherwise as much as you’d like, but that is the simple truth, and will remain so until enough people realize it, and begin to act together to create change, as happens periodically throughout history.

Well, onward…. “freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected”   Freedom of religion…. as long as it doesn’t offend the Christians…. Freedom of the press…. as long as it doesn’t offend the churches or the corporations too much…. Freedom of person… well, not since the NDAA went into effect on 1/1/2012…. According to that evolutionary descendant of the Patriot Act passed by a Congress completely under the influence of panic back in 2001, an American citizen can be arrested and held, without any judicial review, or any oversight at all, for an undetermined amount of time, and the authorities do not have to explain why to anyone at all…. Not exactly the “writ of habeas corpus”, is it?….. “trial by juries”…. Well, only if one is ever charged…. under the NDAA, the citizen can be “disappeared”, without any trial, or explanation at all….. a bit scary, isn’t it?

My question, for all of us, is this….. Why are we not talking about all of this, as a matter of public discourse? Why are we allowing our government to suborn our legacy of freedom? Why do we accept that the government, and politicians, lie to us, and steal from us, and constantly act in their own interests rather than ours, seemingly with our complete approval……Why?….. Are we that stupid?….. According to Tom’s standards, we didn’t do very well on our report card.

But, then, the very enemies that Tom warned us of during his lifetime, the corporations and banks, have conspired to keep us from getting any better marks; they have in truth been winning the battle, ever since early in the 19th century, soon after Tom’s term as President….. The corporations and bankers are the true rulers of this society, world-wide, and have been for many thousands of years, mostly without the major part of society even being aware of their control over events. Nothing that happens, anywhere, is unplanned by them, or at least unknown to them; if something happens, you can be sure they made no effort to stop it. This is because it is entirely within their purposes to have the pirates, liars, and thieves of our society in charge of the governments, and they will do nothing to curtail any of their greed or ambition, as it serves their purposes perfectly, keeping the weak and poor kneeling before the rich and powerful.

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m getting just a bit upset about some of this stuff, and, well, to be honest, I’d like to see some of what has been usurped put back the way it should be, before I check out of this hotel…. More will follow, you can be sure…. I’ll be back with more evidence of the chicanery under which we are laboring to live….. Be alert, ffolkes, the world needs more lerts!…..
__________________________________

“I appoint you ambassador to Fantasy Island!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” — Mark Twain

I’m not sure which of these two is the right choice…. either one seems to be appropriate, given the state of the rest of this Pearl. I’ve been fussing and farting around with it now for about four hours, give or take an hour or so of break and distraction time, so, there really isn’t much more I can do to it, or any further damage I could cause…. My hit points are about exhausted, and Godzilla is going to escape…. again….. So, I think, all in all, it would be best if I go with Mark Twain’s idea, and pause here for a breath or two, to greater effect than further twaddle would be…. You can thank me later…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!