little i

From 73 Poems by e.e. cummings, published posthumously © 1963:

who are you,little i

(five or six years old)
peering from some high

window;at the gold

of november sunset

(and feeling:that if day
has to become night

this is a beautiful way)

I can't be funny.

This is an excerpt of a letter Will Rogers wrote about the death and funeral of his sister Maude sometime in the early 1920s.  The sadness is compounded because the poor man felt he had to hide from his public persona.

From Will Rogers: His Story As Told By His Wife, by Betty Rogers, © 1941:

Today, as I write this, I am out in Oklahoma among my people, my Cherokee people, who don't expect a laugh for everything I say.

That silent prayer that those three hundred ministers uttered didn't save my sister. She has passed away. But she had lived such a life that it was a privilege to pass away. Death didn't scare her. It was only an episode in her life. If you live right, death is a joke to you, so far as fear is concerned.

And on the day that I am supposed to write a humorous article, I am back home at the funeral of my sister. I can't be funny. I don't want to be funny. Even Mr. Ziegfeld don't want me to be funny. I told him I wanted to go. He said, "I would hate you if you didn't." I told W.C. Fields, the principal comedian of the show. He said, "Go on. I will do something to fill in." Brandon Tynan, my friend of years, said, "Go home where you want to be and where you ought to be."

I have just today witnessed a funeral that, for real sorrow and real affection, I don't think will ever be surpassed anywhere. They came in every mode of conveyance, on foot, in buggies, horseback, wagons, cars and trains, and there wasn't a soul that came that she hadn't helped or favored at one time or another…

Some uninformed newspapers printed: "Mrs. C.L. Lane, sister of the famous comedian, Will Rogers." It's the other way around. I am the brother of Mrs. C.L. Lane, the friend of humanity. And I want to tell you that, as I saw all those people who were there to pay tribute to her memory, it was the proudest moment of my life that I was her brother.

And all the honors that I could ever in my wildest dreams hope to reach would never equal the honor paid on a little Western prairie hilltop, among her people, to Maude Lane.

If they love me like that at my finish, my life will not have been in vain.

It Takes Two

[embed]https://youtu.be/7fWpfP9dwWo[/embed]

I've never actually seen a couple dance the tango, except in movies.  In the movies it's always an overdressed couple in an expensive nightclub, and the dance scene is seldom about the dance.

This setting gives it a whole different feeling.

Preferred Not To Think About It

Excerpted from Will Rogers: His Story As Told By His Wife, by Betty Rogers, © 1941:

It was impossible, too, in spite of the ever increasing demands upon his time, to convince Will that he should plan ahead. His was a casual day-to-day existence. He hated to be tied down to prearranged plans and would not make an engagement two weeks ahead if he could possibly help it. He didn't know where he would be in two weeks' time and preferred not to think about it. If he wanted to do something, he wanted to do it immediately.

As a young man he found himself bankrupt in Argentina, bankrupt in South Africa, and bankrupt in Australia; as a married man with three children, he found himself bankrupt in California-- and I'm only halfway through the book.

So, as appealing as an unplanned life may sound, there is a downside.

different/same

“The lamps are different, but the light is the same.”  ~Rumi (via)

Faith

“Faith is a state of openness or trust…  In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to the truth, whatever it might turn out to be.”  ~Shunryu Suzuki (via)

I'm always leery of people who claim to believe in a "literal interpretation of the bible" or "strict interpretation of the constitution."  They're claiming to have, either through divine providence or their own superior intelligence,  supreme knowledge of the One True Way.

I suspect they're just full of themselves.

Now

The mind is constantly trying to figure out
what page it’s on in the story of itself.
Close the book. Burn the bookmark. End of story.
Now the dancing begins.

~ Ikko Narasaki (via)

Wake Up

"You cannot live without dying. You cannot live if you do not die psychologically every minute. This is not an intellectual paradox. To live completely, wholly, every day as if it were a new loveliness, there must be dying to everything of yesterday, otherwise you live mechanically, and a mechanical mind can never know what love is or what freedom is."  ~Krishnamurti (source)

Or, as Arlo Guthrie put it:

[embed]https://youtu.be/cU1frTC4sTs[/embed]

Klee

It's interesting how art affects a person differently at different stages in their life.  I've known who Paul Klee is for as long as I can remember, but it's only recently that I've found him completely captivating.

The internet makes it easy to see a gallery of an artist's work; HERE, for example.

The Middle Way

"when the road forked / he took the middle way / and disappeared into the desert…" ~Robert Shelton, The Angel and the Anchorite, ©1978

can/must

Just because we can do something doesn't mean we have to do it, and just because we posses something doesn't mean we deserve to possess it.

I read an article that said the coming revolution in artificial intelligence and automation is going to cause social upheaval as millions of people are thrown out of work. Self-driving cars and trucks eliminate the need for taxi drivers and truckers, self-checkouts eliminate the need for cashiers, robots will cook the meals in restaurants and assemble consumer goods.

But we don't have to build those things. We can leave things the way they are, or even go back to a simpler time if we want to. If a robot is going to ruin our lives, then lets not build it.  It's not "progress" if it's making everyone unhappy.

And on a different topic, Republicans believe that because they have accumulated a pile of money it logically follows that they deserve to have accumulated a pile of money; and furthermore, it would be a sin and a disgrace to tax that pile of money to take care of the people they took it from.

I don't think it's wrong to expect a little better than that from people.

But I'm never alone…

[embed]https://youtu.be/3AUkUfH29yA[/embed]

Full lyrics HERE.

It's easy to forget how expressive Alice Cooper could be on the slow songs.  The makeup and goofy anthems like School's Out came to define him, and he is so much more than that.  I'm sure the song above is largely autobiographical, whether or not he realized it at the time.

If you like concept albums, be sure to look up The Last Temptation. It's all about sin, fall, and redemption-- not exactly themes he is known for-- and I'd rank it high on my list of favorite albums. You have to listen to it in its entirety at least the first time; out of order, the songs lose their context. But this is one I'd recommend everyone listen to at least once.

Power to the People

A minority of voters control the House, primarily because of gerrymandering. The Democrats have to win by about a 9% margin to regain control.  The Republicans can lose by 8% and maintain power.

A minority of voters control the Senate because 250 years ago, when the constitution was written, the population differences between states were negligible. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

A minority of voters elected the president due to a fluke in the electoral college. The last two Republican administrations have taken power despite losing the popular vote.

The Supreme Court has been stacked with partisan ideologues from the minority party due to the reasons above.

I think it's time to stop pretending the constitution is sacred. Throw it away, and devise a new system that actually represents the will of the people.

"The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall." ~Che Guevara

I turn on the porch light for the moths when it rains.  They are attracted to the light, and find shelter from the storm.

It's like lighting a tiny lighthouse.

Just Enjoy

"My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it is on your plate."  ~Thornton Wilder

Unawares

"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."  Hebrews 13:2

Create and die

"Sentient beings are like silkworms: create their own traps and die in them."  ~Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche (via)

I like the imagery.  It's kind of a thumbnail sketch of maya and karma and several other words that don't have easy Western equivalency.

Find Out

"Instead of searching for what you do not have, find out what it is that you have never lost."  ~Nisargadatta Maharaj

Experience

Experience to Let
by Ogden Nash
from I'm A Stranger Here Myself © 1938

Experience is a futile teacher,
Experience is a prosy preacher,
Experience is a fruit tree fruitless,
Experience is a shoe tree bootless.
For sterile wearience and drearience,
Depend, my boy, upon experience.
The burnt child, urged by rankling ire,
Can hardly wait to get back at the fire.
And, mulcted in the gambling den,
Men stand in line to gamble again.
Who says that he can drink or not?
The sober man? Nay, nay, the sot.
He who has never tasted jail
Lives well within the legal pale,
While he who's served a heavy sentence
Renews the racket, not repentance.
The nation bankrupt by a war
Thinks to recoup with just one more;
The wretched golfer, divot-bound,
Persists in dreams of the perfect round;
Life's little suckers chirp like crickets
While spending their all on losing tickets.
People whose instinct instructs them naught,
But must by experience be taught,
Will never learn by suffering once,
But ever and ever play the dunce.
Experience! Wise men do not need it!
Experience! Idiots do not head it!
I'd trade my lake of experience
For just one drop of common sense.

I'm sure Phil thinks he's the only one who can see him.  :D

Perspective

"Looking at life from a different perspective makes you realize that it's not the deer that is crossing the road, rather it's the road that is crossing the forest."

A quick internet search finds this quote attributed to several dead celebrities, none of whom are likely to have actually said it.

Nevertheless, somebody said it, and I rather like it.

She laughed

"She laughed at my jokes."  ~A.A. Milne, on what first attracted him to his wife Dorothy

Soulshine

[embed]https://youtu.be/pDIQ7Otf1mw[/embed]

Full lyrics HERE.

Fading

 

[embed]https://youtu.be/sCLbiIMU_zM[/embed]

I remember missing the bell at recess when I was a small boy.  While I was engrossed watching bugs in a field, the rest of the class had lined up in rows and marched in unison back to their desks.  I looked up and found myself all alone.

It's a peculiar kind of loneliness when you realize everyone has left, and no one noticed you weren't with them.

The older I get, the more familiar that feeling becomes.

Full lyrics HERE.

Goes right on in his kindness

"We must take time, take pains, have a plan, form spiritual habits, if we are to keep our souls alive; and now is the time to begin. A man to whom religion is a reality, and who knows what is meant by 'the practice of salvation,' keeps his balance, because the living center of his life is spiritual. He cannot be upset, not shaken. The same hard knocks come to him as to others, but he reacts to them by the central law of his life. He suffers deeply, but he does not sour. He knows frustration, but he goes right on in his kindness and faith. He sees his own shortcomings but he does not give up, because a power rises up from his spiritual center and urges him to the best."  ~Joseph Fort Newton

Gods and Goddesses

"The god you believe in is always a reflection of self."  ~unattributed (via)

I had never looked at it that way, but it does fit.  The god of the Westboro Baptist Church is angry and unforgiving, the god of Fred Rodgers was patient and kind.

Might Become Friends

This made me smile.

Excerpted from The Human Comedy by William Saroyan, ©1943:

Ulysses Macauley was up very early, skipping through the morning's first light to the yard of a man who owned a cow. When he reached the yard, Ulysses saw the cow. The small boy stood and watched the cow a long time. At last the man who owned the cow came out of the small house. He was carrying a bucket and a stool. The man went straight to the cow and began to milk. Ulysses moved in closer until finally he was directly behind the man. Still, he couldn't see enough, so he knelt down, almost under the cow. The man saw the boy but did not say anything. He went right on milking. The cow, however, turned and looked at Ulysses. Ulysses looked back at the cow. It seemed perhaps that the cow did not like to have the boy so close. Ulysses got out from under the cow, walked away, and watched from near by. The cow, in turn, watched Ulysses, so that the small boy believed they might become friends.

The Past

It took me a beat to understand this one.

Cat and Girl is on the web HERE.

Conversation Turned to Assertion

The words below were written by Edward R. Murrow in 1952, as a forward to his book This I Believe.  His words still ring true today:

There was a time in this and other countries when sermons by great preachers and editorials by distinguished editors were the subject of prolonged and considered discussion in social gatherings. There was also a time when the writing of letters was an art so well developed that some of the letters were worth keeping and later being published between covers. But the speed of modern communication has largely turned conversation into assertion, and letter-writing into telegrams. The reporter and the listener, or the reader, are overrun and smothered, trampled down by the newest event before they can gain perspective on the one that just passed by. It has become a cliché to say that the modern man has been debased and materialized by the circumstances of his daily life.

We do, it is true, live in a society that is materialistic and mechanistic, where most of the goods we use are mass produced. We employ the same phrases, buy nationally advertised products, wear nationally branded hats and suits; the majority of newspaper editors have abdicated to syndicated columns. The voice of one broadcaster is heard from one end of the country to the other. There exists a real danger that the right of dissent, the right to be wrong, may be swamped because the instruments of communication are too closely held. We face the risk of forgetting that today's minority may become tomorrow's majority, and that every majority in a free society today was not so long ago a minority.

Old Men Know

Old Men
by Ogden Nash
from Hard Lines © 1931

People expect old men to die.
They do not really mourn old men.
Old men are different. People look
At them with eyes that wonder when…
People watch with unshocked eyes;
But the old men know when an old man dies.

Ogden Nash was known more for his humorous poems, but he could be poignant when he wanted to.

He was 29 years old when he wrote the poem above.

Pause

“Mindfulness is a pause-- the space between stimulus and response: that’s where choice lies.”  ~Tara Brach

Autumn in Japan

Autumn Mountain
Ryohei Tanaka, 1991
(via Odds&Ends)