Sunday, January 31, 2016
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Our house, is a very very very fine house…
My first house was a tacky 70s aesthetic, filled with lots of vinyl furniture. It was kind of ugly, but functional. Vinyl furniture is uncomfortable on hot days, but easy to clean.
I left and came back, and it had been transformed into a movie theater. Everyone knew me, but I had to wait in line to get a glass of Pepsi. It was warm inside. There was carpet.
I left and came back, and it had been transformed into a two-story house filled with fishing gear. It had wooden walls and floors, and a second story balcony. It was beautiful. I never wanted it to change-- but it did.
I left and came back, and now it was an auditorium filled with relatives. A family reunion was going on. Some people I hadn't seen in years, some had even passed on, but they were all there enjoying each others company. The light was yellow...
I've been reading a lot Buddhist texts about change, so I suppose it's not unusual that my subconscious would create its own metaphor. Maybe I'm trying to tell myself something.
Change is going to come rapidly to my life. Some changes I'll enjoy, many I won't.
But it is inevitable. The best strategy will be to make the most of whatever house I find myself in, while remaining aware that tomorrow's house may be very, very different.
Friday, January 29, 2016
And she could laugh away the dark clouds…
On this the first anniversary of Rod McKuen’s death, here is Johnny Cash covering one of his songs.
Full lyrics HERE.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
"Other than the burning eyes and cancer, it's quite safe."
This month's water bill comes with some added reading material - a glossy four-page color pamphlet explaining recent issues with the city's water supply and assuring residents the water is safe.
Apparently, this is some new definition of “safe” that I haven’t heard before, because what the pamphlet actually says is that the water can irritate our eyes and increase our risk of cancer.
The pamphlet goes on to suggest that if burning eyes and cancer are unacceptable to us, we should buy and install filters to remove the haloacetic acid.
Control
"Listen, Ford," said Zaphod, "everything's cool and froody."
"You mean everything's under control?"
"No," said Zaphod, "I do not mean everything's under control. That would not be cool and froody."
Friday, January 22, 2016
Eve
I watched Elizabeth Lev's TED Talk about the Sistine Chapel, and one thing she pointed out-- which I had never been shown before-- is that as God is about to give Adam the spark of divinity with His right hand, His left arm is already wrapped snugly around Eve.
Cultivate your garden
"You know," said Arthur thoughtfully, "all this explains a lot of things. All through my life I've had this strange unaccountable feeling that something was going on in the world, something big, even sinister, and no one would tell me what it was."
"No," said the old man, "that's just perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the Universe has that."
"Everyone?" said Arthur. "Well, if everyone has that perhaps it means something! Perhaps somewhere outside the universe we know…"
"Maybe. Who cares?" said Slartibartfast before Aurthur got too excited. "Perhaps I'm old and tired," he continued, "But I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied."
Thursday, January 21, 2016
...or your food?
In my experience, most people are quite happy to talk about things other than the Dallas Cowboys, those idiots in Washington, and the Kardashians.
But they’re waiting for you to bring it up.
Zippy the Pinhead is on the web HERE.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
But there are millions…
The best protest songs are a little bit goofy.
"President Trump."
The President in particular is very much a figurehead-- he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful presidents the Galaxy has ever had-- he has already spent two of his ten presidential years in prison in prison for fraud. Very very few people realize that the President and the Government have virtually no power at all, and of those very few only six know whence ultimate political power is wielded. Most of the others secretly believe that the ultimate decision-making process is handled by a computer. They couldn't be more wrong.
Monday, January 18, 2016
Sunday, January 17, 2016
Dom
"He (Dom DeLuise) created so much joy and laughter on the set that you couldn’t get your work done. So every time I made a movie with Dom, I would plan another two days on the schedule just for laughter." ~Mel Brooks
Isn't that a great way to be remembered?
Keith Jarrett
When Keith Jarrett plays, I see the notes in colors.
Revenant
I had to look it up. I still don’t want to see the movie, but I hope I get a chance to use the word- especially the second meaning:
revenant [rev-uh-nuh nt] (noun)
1. a person who returns.
2. a person who returns as a spirit after death; ghost.
(Source: Dictionary.com)
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Tiny Shrunken Head
I don’t care about the joke.
I want to know why Ruthie has a tiny shrunken head.
(One Big Happy is on the web HERE.)
Friday, January 15, 2016
For fear of consequences...
The Anti-Saloon League maintained an active and vigorous lobby at Albany at all times and exercised a widespread influence over the representatives of country districts. The lobbyists were paid and felt they had to earn their salaries at least to some degree. They therefore made it their business to stir up something every year. Not one, but probably a dozen men from rural sections have said to me in private conversation that they did not believe in a given excise or local option bill, did not believe it was in the best interest of the state, and did not believe it would accomplish what was sought by the sponsors, but were afraid to vote against it for fear of the consequences on Election Day. In fact it was largely a campaign of intimidation.
Substitute "NRA" for "Anti-Saloon League," and you could print that in tomorrow's newspaper.
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Here Comes the Sun
Mona took this picture of the setting sun peaking through the clouds on her way home from work- not bad for a snapshot on a cellphone!
Complete harmony and sympathy...
It was interesting to me to see how the reactionary legislator who was unfriendly to this kind of legislation would always manage to find such strong legal and constitutional arguments against it. Always declaring in favor of the principle and being in complete harmony and sympathy with what was sought to be done, the clever debater could invariably find a way of explaining that, in his opinion, the proposed enactment would not bring about the result desired. Although he himself had no suggestion to cure the wrong that was so apparent from the studies of the investigating commission, he could always find such legislation was either in opposition to the constitution or improperly drawn.
(Do you know what I'm never asked? "So, what are you reading?")
...and send it soaring
Radha Krishna Flying Kite
Water Color Painting on Paper
Artist：Kailash Raj (via HinduCosmos)
I enjoy seeing the goddesses and gods depicted enjoying very human pastimes.
Right Now
"Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones." ~ThÃch Nhất Hạnh
Empty without her
"She never failed to indicate, by her attitude to me and to her more intimate friends, and she has openly proclaimed that she thinks I am the greatest man in the world; and I have no hesitancy in saying to the world that my life would have been empty without her." ~Al Smith on his wife Katie, from his autobiography Up to Now ©1929
It just makes me happy to know that there were always people in love with each other.
A basket hanging on the door knob
The politics don't matter; regardless of the era, it's always the same problems and the same solutions and the same objections by the same vested interests, all in a never ending cycle of greed and selfishness. I skim those parts.
The joy comes from learning about the things they did for fun.
This excerpt from Al Smith's autobiography talks about how they used to spend New Year's Day. (It was written in 1929, so keep in mind that what was "thirty-five or forty years" to him is 120 or 125 years to us.)
We carried on all the usual social obligations of young men. The mention of New Year's calls will awaken memories in some of the old-timers in New York of the custom of calling on friends on New Year's Day. The business of preparing and printing New Year's calling cards was an industry all in itself, and a man's affluence and standing were judged by the elaborate card he was able to leave with his friends when he called to pay his respects on the first day of the new year. The custom was so universal in lower New York thirty-five or forty years ago that the people who, as the result of sickness or death in the family, did not keep what was called "open house" on New Year's Day left a basket hanging on the door knob to receive cards of would-be callers.
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
"Nobody had ever heard of such a thing…"
This is an excerpt from Al Smith's autobiography Up To Now, ©1929:
A lost sport to the children of today is sleigh riding. It is next to impossible now in New York City, except in Central Park, or here and there on the west side of the city. Prior to 1894, no appropriation was ever made by the city for the removal of snow. It remained on the streets, just as it does now in the country sections of the state, until the warming suns of spring melted it away. When Colonel Waring was appointed street-cleaning commissioner by Mayor Strong in 1895, he shocked the whole community by appearing before the Board of Estimate and Apportionment and asking for two million dollars to remove the snow after a snowstorm. Nobody had ever heard of such a thing and it created much discussion. Tobogganing and sleighing on hills was a popular sport. Dover Street was probably the center of it, because there is a sharp incline from Franklin Square to Walter Street. I remember one side of Dover Street where there were no buildings and which abutted upon the masonry work of the Brooklyn Bridge, and which, after a night's sleighing, would be left as smooth as glass. People were not then required by ordinance to remove snow from the sidewalk.
Won't you be my neighbor?
One of the very striking differences between the New York of my boyhood and the New York of today is what I might call the absolute disappearance of neighborhood spirit. When I was growing up everybody downtown knew his neighbors-- not only the people who were immediate neighbors but everybody in the neighborhood. Every new arrival in the family was hailed not by the family alone but by the whole neighborhood. Every funeral and every wake was attended by the whole neighborhood. Neighborly feelings extended to the exchange of silverware for events in the family that required some extraordinary celebration. Today on Manhattan Island, people live in large apartment houses and do not know the family living right on the same floor with them.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Prayer
But later, much later, I thought about my way of praying. It started in school with a play about ancient Egypt. Each character uttered a prayer: the mighty Pharaoh prayed for a victory, his opponent asked for his own success, a sick man begged for health, the doctor asked for people to be ill, and each prayer, clean and swift, like a white bird, shot upward. In Heaven, it met with the other prayer that had asked for just the contrary. They turned against each other in bloody battle, and usually both fell back lifeless to the earth. A large number of girls had taken part in that play. I thought I had a beautiful role. I was a poor little boy, the son of a fellah. My mother told me to pray, but I didn't know how. I had no wishes, so I just looked at the river that fertilized our field, at the warm sun, at the ripe fruit in our garden, and I said, "Thank you, God, for the warm sun, for the blue Nile, for my father and mother," and my little-boy prayer, like the others, sailed straight up to the throne of God. Nobody defied my prayer, and nobody else thanked the Maker. They were all asking Him for things. He turned his face upon the little barefoot boy…
I was about twelve years old at the time. From then on I had always thanked God for the gifts He bestowed upon me, and they were many.
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Husband and Wife
Excerpted from Rainbow Roof and Other Poems by Russel Wragg, © 1938.
This was published during Franklin Roosevelt’s second term. The topics are interesting choices.
Friday, January 8, 2016
"Oh, the mistakes were the very best parts!"
The Bellamy Brothers paired their latest album with an album of Greatest Hits, and I think that was a mistake. This album would have stood on its own merits.
(By the way, keep an eye on their website and go see them live if you get a chance. They put on a great show!)
Values
"Youths are passed through schools that don’t teach, then forced to search for jobs that don’t exist, and finally left stranded in the street to stare at the glamorous lives advertised around them." ~Huey P. Newton
If a television show said a dirty word or flashed a quick peek at a boobie, their call center would light up from angry parents; apologies would be made, fines would be paid, jobs would be sacrificed.
But when almost 10 minutes of every half-hour is dedicated to preaching the Gospel of Materialism, teaching children that happiness is something you buy and a well-lived life is measured in possessions, all you get is crickets…
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Founding Fathers™
They were human beings, just like us, who had a problem. They came together. Some had ideas that were rejected, some were accepted; some people won, some people lost.
They cooperated and found a solution-- and that's the part that needs to be taught and remembered.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
(extra)Ordinary Moments
Recently, a practitioner asked me about the benefits of meditation. I knew that she was hoping I would talk about dazzling lights, profound insights, or psychic powers. Perhaps to her disappointment, I shared with her my growing sense of appreciation for the ordinary moments of my life-- a cup of tea in the morning, warm sunshine, laughter. Before, I had taken these things as a given rather than a gift. Now as I practice more, my experience of them has become richer, deeper, and more meaningful.
Monday, January 4, 2016
(War) Pigs
I think what people sometimes miss is that hidden behind the gravelly voice and scary logo lurks absolute joy.
It may be the joy of a pig wallowing in the mud, but it's joy nonetheless. (Also: I love it when their songs have a bit of a pounding piano in them.)
Full lyrics HERE.
Saturday, January 2, 2016
"I know why."
We had all assembled.
Why? Why did we walk like meek sheep to the slaughterhouse? Why did we not fight back? What had we to lose? Nothing but our lives. Why did we not run away and hide? We might have had a chance to survive. Why did we walk deliberately and obediently into their clutches?
I know why. Because we had faith in humanity. Because we did not really think that human beings were capable of committing such crimes.
Your are not a prophet. But:
by Rumi
Translated by Coleman Barks
A mouse caught hold of a camel’s lead rope
in his two forelegs and walked off with it,
imitating the camel drivers.
The camel went along,
letting the mouse feel heroic.
"Enjoy yourself,"
he thought. "I have something to teach you, presently."
They came to the edge of a great river.
The mouse was dumbfounded.
"What are you waiting for?
Step forward into the river. You are my leader.
Don’t stop here."
"I’m afraid of being drowned."
The camel walked into the water. "It’s only
just above the knee."
"Your knee! Your knee
is a hundred times over my head!"
"Well, maybe you shouldn't be
leading a camel. Stay with those like yourself.
A mouse has nothing really to say to a camel."
"Would you help me get across?"
"Get up on my hump. I am made to take hundreds like you across."
You are not a prophet, but go humbly on the way of the prophets
and you can arrive where they are. Don’t try to steer the boat.
Don’t open a shop by yourself. Listen. Keep silent.
You are not God’s mouthpiece. Try to be an ear;
and if you do speak, ask for explanations.
The source of your arrogance and anger is your lust
and the rootedness of that is in your habits.
Someone who makes a habit of eating clay
gets mad when you try to keep him from it.
Being a leader can also be a poisonous habit,
so that when someone questions your authority,
you think, "He’s trying to take over."
You may respond courteously, but inside you rage.
Always check your inner state
with the Lord of your Heart.
Copper doesn't know it’s copper,
until it’s changed to gold.
Your loving doesn't know its majesty,
until it knows its helplessness.