I’m afraid I’m going to have to make an executive decision today; given the number of typing errors I made to get that partial sentence done, it’s a good thing, too! I’m on the road, and I’m exhausted. I’ve got stuff I NEED to do while I’m here, or I take the risk of making the trip a waste of time. I have to go meet people, and make nice, neither of which is currently on my list of stuff that excites me. Actually, though, seeing old friends doesn’t really fall into the same category as with other people I have to make nice for ; with old friends, it is NOT an obligation, but rather, an opportunity….one I enjoy…
But, given my levels of pain, the cold I’m still fighting, and my exhaustion from the effort to stand upright, to function while fighting gravity long enough to get where I’m going, it’s getting hard to pretend I do want to meet and speak to anyone, or to otherwise act as if I wouldn’t actually rather be in bed, moaning piteously, and feeling sorry for myself…. I’ve gotten pretty good at that part…. The upshot of all this self-indulgence is that I will be cheating again today, pulling stuff from the archives to fill in what I don’t have the wherewithal to produce…. Well, maybe I’ll have enough in me to create one pearl, for section one, but it will have to be a fully automated sort, or it won’t get done today…
Any who, in the interests of saving my energy for the stuff I have to do, I’ll also cut this intro short, and NOT subject y’all to an interminable meander through the empty halls of my mind….
Shall we Pearl?….
“Any idiot can face a crisis. It’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.” — Anton Chekhov
____________________________
Okay, so we’ll try to put together one pearl, to see if it can be done without bloodshed…. Hopefully, Smart Bee is in a good mood, and willing to help….
“After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” — J.K. Rowling, The Man with Two Faces, — Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 1997, — spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore
“A man is not aware of his virtues (if any). Nevertheless, one hopes that they exist.” — Edward Abbey
“Don’t get hit.” — First rule of fighting
“Be careless in your dress if you will, but keep a tidy soul.” — Mark Twain
“Anything you do can get you shot, including nothing.” — Murphy’s Military Laws, #15
Hmm… not bad, but, it needs a two-fer, to round it off…
“The years teach much which the days never know.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Experience”
“Nothing endures but change.” — Heraclitus (540?-480? B.C.)
Well, points ought to be awarded for the effort, even if SB faded on me a bit at the end…. The two-fer is a trifle weak, but, it will do…. I can say for sure this isn’t the worst pearl to ever come down the pike, while still admitting it won’t win any Pulitzer Prizes….
____________________________
To avoid sullying the reputation of any others in today’s post, I’m including a poem of my own, so nobody else gets any of the no doubt well-deserved blame for any of this….
Portraits of iconic symbols, crashing, singing, forgotten;
evolving into mature innovation, as yet pale, and rotten.
Still water justly breeds, impenetrable primal verses resound;
unholy moments tarry, emotion swirls in passion unbound
Spiritual ovulation precedes each pregnant pause;
gravid, time moves on, following destiny’s cause.
Cast adrift on waves of confusion, to a final, damp landing;
salvation beckons sweetly, fed well on understanding.
Dreams directly fall, in night’s grey bower, unbidden;
lingering flavors in simple taste, lovingly, cleverly hidden.
Childish laughter sounds, joyful, bright, and clear;
no need ever to hide, no more monsters to fear.
Temper most foul arrives under unregistered mail;
forgotten taunts live on, lashed by an ancient flail.
Plain dealing delivers such lasting specks of honest hate;
savage in retrospect, never hasty, always running late.
Forever, cries an ambient lover of the pending night;
his pale, weak issue forms its own failing light.
Still, fortune favors such as those who apprehend;
Sweet love of Gaia, let it never end.
~~ gigoid ~~
____________________________
I found the quote below while perusing SB a couple days ago, saving it for a future rant… I’m not sure now when that might happen, so I’m putting it here, then following up with an appropriate related discussion, from a Pearl first posted in April of 2012…. enjoy!
The truth is that Christian theology, like every other theology, is not only opposed to the scientific spirit; it is also opposed to all other attempts at rational thinking. Not by accident does Genesis 3 make the father of knowledge a serpent- slimy, sneaking and abominable. Since the earliest days the church as an organization has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions. It was, for centuries, an apologist for slavery, as it was the apologist for the divine right of kings.” — H. L. Mencken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hurting other people unnecessarily is the only “sin”. All the others are made up nonsense. Hurting one’s self isn’t a sin, it’s just stupid.” — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
Original sin…. who said it was? And why does anyone believe it?
I saw Robert Heinlein’s quote, as related above, about sins the other day, and it got me to thinking about the concept upon which much of Christianity is based, to wit: Original Sin. Supposedly, as a metaphor, God made a snake, which talked Eve (whom God had refused to warn about snakes, merely saying “do as I say”) into talking Adam into taking a bite of the apple, which oddly enough (it’s hard to indicate a raised eyebrow in prose), was the metaphor for the knowledge of Good and Evil…..
Then, when they had done so, this merciful god proceeded to punish them, with a most severe sentence for a first offense, for disobeying his decree (thereby blaming them for what he, being omnipotent, already knew would happen…. He set it up that way, in a lose-lose scenario; you can’t claim omnipotence and say he didn’t know it was likely…..). What a cruel, hateful set-up! It all sounds so….. human, doesn’t it?
To my way of thinking, this always seemed like a petty, small-spirited, even vicious thing for God to do…. very childish, in most ways that count. And don’t give me all that crap about free will and choosing God’s love…. it’s not free if one is punished for using it. You also can’t tell me that God loves Man, not if he goes around setting him up to lose like that.
Please also note, the knowledge that this merciful, loving God didn’t want us to have was the knowledge of Good and Evil… knowledge which, if we did not have it, we could not judge whether what God did to us was good, or evil, now could we? In other words, God did not want us to know that He was playing us for fools…. another scenario that, according to the creationists, was completely his idea….
I remember distinctly when I first heard the story of the Garden of Eden, when I was about four years old, or so… and I remember thinking, at the end, why did God put the apple tree in Eden, if he didn’t want Adam or Eve to eat from it? I didn’t know anything about the metaphorical nature of the story then… even I wasn’t that precocious, smart as I am. But I do remember thinking that it didn’t seem quite fair to put it there, and then tell them not to eat it. (Fairness is an important quality to a child, especially to a child from a large family….)
Even at age four, the question “Why?” was at the forefront of my thoughts when I heard the story, but nobody would ever answer me when I asked, other than to parrot the eternal evasion, “God works in mysterious ways….” The whole charade left me with the distinct impression that, not only was God not all he was cracked up to be, but, the adults who were telling me the stories seemed to be playing the same game with me, that God was playing with Adam and Eve, trying to get me to buy “a pig in a poke”, in a manner of speaking…
Even a four year old knows a crock of crap when he hears it….. I didn’t fall for it then, and I still can’t seem to find anyone who can give me an answer that doesn’t make God look like a cranky five-year old who needs a nap….
“God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. It says so right here on the label. If you have the kind of mind that can believe all three of those things at once, then I have a wonderful deal in a bridge for you! Cash only, no checks….” — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
____________________________
Well, I knew from the start this would be a tough one, and I was write…. oops… I was right, wasn’t I? Any who, it’s done, and I’ll try to get it out to the usual suspects, the get it posted online, so I can just go on to the next thing, followed closely by the next…. See ya…..
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole,
and everyone else, too….
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why…
–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.
gigoid
