If That's Gone

"I am going to see what happens if I let go. Then I’m going to see, who am I? Or am I just this person that was defined by what I did? And if that’s gone, if you have to make up yourself, who are you?"  ~Paul Simon (source)

O'er e'en

The March of Xerxes
Luigi Alamanni
Translated by Sir Aubrey de Vere

WHEN in the wantonness of kingly pride,
Vain Xerxes spurred his war-horse through the tide,
And bore his fleet o’er mountain-tops,—e’en there
The Eternal bade his evil heart despair:
O’er Hellespont and Athos’ marble head,
More than a god he came, less than a man he fled.

Xerces was a Persian ruler who invaded Greece about five centuries before Jesus was born.

There's something refreshing to me about the honesty of the time.  He didn't jump through rhetorical hoops to show that offense was really defense, or pretend that he was all about freeing an oppressed people;  he simply wanted their stuff and intended to take it.  He may have been kind of grabby, but he was unflinchingly honest about it.

As he assembled his army and marched off there was an eclipse, which was taken to be a Very Bad Omen by his advisors, but he had a full head of steam worked up and pressed on.  Then along the way a horse gave birth to a rabbit, and again his advisors said "You know, this means something," but he insisted everything was fine and pressed on.

He finally met the Greeks at The Battle of Salamis, and- as the omens predicted- he was soundly defeated.  The soldiers who didn't die in battle died of starvation and dysentery during the ignoble retreat homeward.

But eventually we got a good poem out of it.

You can read about Xerces HERE.

Brand New

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One of the best love songs ever written.

Full lyrics HERE.

Guilt Consciousness

Excerpted from Henry Wallace, Harry Truman, and the Cold War by Richard J. Walton ©1976, Henry Wallace writes in his diary about  meeting  J. Robert Oppenheimer:

I never saw a man in such an extremely nervous state as Oppenheimer.  He seemed to feel that the destruction of the entire human race was imminent…  He has been in charge of the scientists in New Mexico and says that the heart has completely gone out of them there; that all they think about now are the social and economic implications of the bomb, and that they are no longer doing anything worthwhile on the scientific level…  He says that… Secretary (James F.) Byrnes has felt that we could use the bomb as a pistol to get what we wanted in international diplomacy.  Oppenheimer believes that method will not work.  He says the Russians are a proud people and have good physicists and abundant resources.  They may have to lower their standard of living to do it but they will put everything they have got into getting plenty of atomic bombs as soon as possible.  He thinks  the mishandling of the situation at Potsdam has prepared the way for the eventual slaughter of tens of millions or perhaps hundreds of millions of innocent people.

The guilt consciousness of the atomic bomb scientists is one of the most astounding things I have ever seen.

That's the part of warfare that isn't mentioned very much.  After all the flags have been waved, the medals have been pinned to chests, and the post-parade confetti swept up and put into bins, the participants are left alone to reconcile their consciences with the terrible things they have done.

Peace and Love

pic.twitter.com/tbqqrl7PL9

— #RingoStarr (@ringostarrmusic) June 21, 2016

Ringo Starr is on Twitter HERE.

Hey, There!

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I love the way the crowd is really rooting for him to hit those high notes- and goes wild when he pulls it off!

Even If

"Even if you know what’s coming, you’re never prepared for how it feels."  ~Natalie Standiford, How to Say Goodbye in Robot © 2009

The Angel in Him

"He said it was written about Julian, my child. He knew I was splitting with Cyn and leaving Julian. He was driving over to say hi to Julian. He’d been like an uncle to him. You know, Paul was always good with kids. And so he came up with Hey Jude. But I always heard it as a song to me. If you think about it… Yoko’s just come into the picture. He’s saying, ‘Hey, Jude - hey, John.’ I know I’m sounding like one of those fans who reads things into it, but you can hear it as a song to me. The words ‘go out and get her’ - subconsciously he was saying, ‘Go ahead, leave me.’ On a conscious level, he didn’t want me to go ahead. The angel in him was saying, ‘Bless you.’ The devil in him didn’t like it at all because he didn’t want to lose his partner."  ~John Lennon about Hey Jude (via RoofRabbit)

…that you really are.

Small Work

"If we just worry about the big picture, we are powerless. So my secret is to right away do, whatever little work I can do. I try to give joy to one person in the morning, and remove the suffering of one person in the afternoon. If you and your friends do not despise small work, a million people will remove a lot of suffering."  ~Sister Chan Khong (Vietnamese Nun and Peace Activist- Living at Plum Village- France)

I'll never look at dandelions the same way

(Source:  paramnesic debris)

Play it sweetly…

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Full lyrics HERE.

You would assume, after listening to this song, that it must have leaped into the composer's head almost as a completed whole.  The lyrics, melody, and soaring instrumental solo fit together so seamlessly that it's hard to imagine they weren't conjoined with one another from conception.

But they weren't.

Carole King composed the melody then handed it to David Palmer, who wrote the lyrics.  Saxaphonist Tom Scott added the solo during recording.

(The "Jazzman" who inspired the song was rumored to be Curtis Amy, who played with King on her breakthrough album Tapestry.)

The Perception of Chaos

Excerpted from the essay "Peril" by Toni Morrison, in Burn This Book ©2009:

I have been told that there are two human responses to the perception of chaos: naming and violence. When the chaos is simply the unknown, the naming can be accomplished effortlessly—a new species, star, formula, equation, prognosis. There is also mapping, charting, or devising proper nouns for unnamed or stripped-of-names geography, landscape, or population. When chaos resists, either by reforming itself or by rebelling against imposed order, violence is understood to be the most frequent response and the most rational when confronting the unknown, the catastrophic, the wild, wanton, or incorrigible. Rational responses may be censure, incarceration in holding camps, prisons, or death, singly or in war. There is however a third response to chaos, which I have not heard about, which is stillness.  Such stillness can be passivity and dumbfoundedness; it can be paralytic fear. But it can also be art.

 

Rubber Duckie I'm awfully fond of you…

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I woke up with this song in my head.

I have no explanation.

It's a puzzler.

Killing Saddam Hussein made things worse.

Killing Muamar Gadaffi made things worse.

Removing Hosni Mubarak made things worse.

Now they want to bomb Bashar al-Assad.

I wonder what will happen?

A Filibuster Full of Bluster

Filibusters are amazing things.

"I'm just going to keep talking until I get my way!"

"Well, okay, but if you sit down you lose your turn!"

It's almost incomprehensible to me that this is how powerful, educated men and women conduct their business.

It sounds more like a kindergarten, or Pee Wee's Playhouse.

 

Get the whole world to sing along…

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Kenny Roger’s fan club voted this as the song they most wanted to hear on his Farewell Tour.

Full lyrics HERE.

Chocolate

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I miss comedy duos.

I like gentle humor with a touch of absurdity, comedy that doesn’t put anybody down or make anybody angry.

"Pics or it didn't happen."

This is one of those times I feel woefully out of step with American culture.

To me, snapping cell phone pictures of the hearse outside the church, then taking more pictures of the casket inside the church, is disrespectful and tacky.

Obviously, there are a lot of people who feel differently.

Photos via CBS News.

New-Fangled Whatchamacallits

From CBS News:

(President Barack) Obama noted that while he now has a smartphone, he can’t use some of the basic functions -- like texting, taking photos or listening to music.

Let's hope he is exaggerating for comedic effect.

Me, Too

I Am
by Mike Frawley

I am a soldier of the world
choosing no sides I lay no blame
carrying nothing but this smile
armed with peace I take my aim

I am a child of the universe
far brighter than any star or sun
I share a sacred bond with you
for we are not two we are one

I am a friend to all who suffer
sight for those lost in blindness
even if they burn with hatred
my only action will be kindness

I am a student of great truths
will walk with love arm in arm
helping any who welcome her
to all others I will do no harm

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose…

• "If the politicians had just gotten out of the way and let the military do its job, we would have won that war!"  That's what I grew up hearing people say about the Viet Nam war.


• "If the politicians would get out of the way and let the military do its job, we would have won this war by now!"  That's what Republican critics of Franklin Roosevelt said in 1943. (from Alben Barkley's autobiography, That reminds me…)


• "If the politicians would get out of the way and let the military do its job, we would have won this war by now!"   That's what critics of the Roman Senate said about the handling of the Second Punic War, 216 B.C. (Livy, The War with Hannibal)

Don't Sweat

Sherman's Lagoon is on the web HERE.

It's Okay

One Big Happy is on the web HERE.

Long Time Passing

From the essay “North American Butterflies: Are Once-Common Species in Trouble?” by Scott Hoffman Black in the current issue of Wings, the official publication of The Xerces Society:

I grew up during the heyday of the American muscle car and have teenage memories of rocketing down Nebraska country roads in my 1971 Mustang Mach 1. Back then even a short drive resulted in hundreds of dead bugs splattered across the grille, so I was always washing my car to keep it clean and shiny. When I returned to the Midwest last year with my wife and two kids-- now driving the a much more sensible and fuel-efficient rental car-- I was struck by the paucity of bugs. These days you can drive the entire four hundred miles across the broad state of Nebraska and your car will be practically spotless when you get to the other side.

I live in East Texas, but the metric still applies: there are a lot fewer bug splatters than there were thirty years ago.

Can you help me?

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This is quite different than the original (YouTube Link).  Her interpretation casts the song in whole new light.

Full lyrics HERE.

Man, God, Cats

I know the Hindu hierarchy puts man at the top, but I’ve never really bought into that. I think it’s sort of a species-based narcissism, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to find more enlightened beings than myself inhabiting animal bodies just for the fun of it or to take a break:

God: Oh, man, you were so close to achieving moksha this time when you got hit by that truck! Are you ready to incarnate and try again?

Man: I don’t know, Lord. I’m really tired. Would it be okay if I just slept in the sun the next time out, and maybe have a waiter bring me some snacks from time to time?

God: Of course! Enjoy your time as a cat!

This'll probably lift your spirits:

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Full lyrics HERE.

The Soundtrack to a Bad Day

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Full lyrics HERE.

The backstory- it was inspired (believe it or not) by James Joyce's Ulysses- is on Wikipedia HERE.