Morons

"I'm not a doctor, I'm a fucking moron.  I'm not a respected source of information, even for me ... But I at least try to be honest about what I'm saying." ~Joe Rogan (source)

But of what value is an honest moron?

So Many Roads

 

Competition

"We’re in competition with China and other countries to win the 21^st Century."  ~Joe Biden (source)

No we're not.  There is no "competition."  That's stupid.

We have enough already.  Let's take care of the sick and elderly, house the homeless, feed the hungry, educate the young.

Somebody else can "win," whatever that means.

Sow Good Seeds

 Excerpted from Joyce Meyer's daily devotion:

I don't know about you, but I don't like bland food. My husband once had a stomach problem, and the doctor put him on a totally bland diet for a few days. At every meal, I heard him say over and over, "This stuff has no taste at all." His food needed a bit of salt, a little spice-- and that is exactly what the world needs.

Each day as you leave your home to go into a dark, tasteless world, you can be the light and flavor it needs. You can bring joy to your workplace by being determined to consistently have a godly attitude. You can be "salt" through simple things like being thankful rather than complaining like most people do, being patient, merciful, quick to forgive offenses, kind, and encouraging. Even simply smiling and being friendly is a way to bring flavor into a tasteless society.

Without love and all of its magnificent qualities, life is tasteless and not worth living. I want you to try an experiment. Just think—I am going to go out into the world today and spice things up. Then get your mind set before you ever walk out your door that you are going out as God's ambassador and that your goal is to be a giver, to love people, and add good flavor to their lives. You can begin by smiling at the people you encounter throughout the day. Deposit yourself with God and trust Him to take care of you while you sow good seed everywhere you go. 

I'm suspicious of preachers who become fabulously wealthy, but I do like some of the things she says.

ZZ

 Double-Z words:

1. Pizza
2. Nozzle
3. Schnozz
4. Mozzerella
5. Drizzle
   

Honorable mention for "zig-zag" for having two non-consecutive Zs.

Death And

 I saw this posted to Reddit:

And it reminded me of this:

One Word

“I wish I could say everything in one word. I hate all the things that can happen between the beginning of a sentence and the end.” ~Leonard Cohen

Brother Companion

"I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls."  ~Job 30:29 (KJV) 

 Job was pretty cool.

The Pride of Life

 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."  ~1 John 2: 15-17

That sounds very Hindu to me. 

 You can take it to far, of course.  I don't think God wants us to mope around like angst-ridden teenagers, convinced that everyone is phony and everything sucks.  I'm sure He wants us to enjoy our time here.

I see this more as a caution not to become like Hugh Hefner or Donald Trump, lives that became completely out of balance by focusing on the paraphernalia to the detriment of the purpose.

Amateur Hour

"Yes, of course, I'm voting for Trump. I don't want a politician running this world anymore." ~John Lydon (source)

I think politics is the only profession on earth that people believe could be better performed by an amateur.

You would never go to a doctor who advertised that he has no idea what he's doing, but Americans regularly elect public officials with those proud credentials.

With predictable results.

Regrets, I've had a few…

This is heartbreaking:

---

 

"Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." ~Holden Caulfield

Wild Child

 

And that reminded me of this:

Innocents

Moby's album Innocents is lush and wonderful, and has a really nice flow to it.  The songs are like puzzle pieces:  perhaps unremarkable on their own, but they click together to make something bigger than themselves.

I like his liner notes to this album, too, even if his numbering is a bit off.  Below are a few excerpts:

7.
like:life is short and difficult: don't waste your time making a short and difficult life even shorter and more difficult. (see '27').

27.
going back to '8'. what i mean is:  lots of things make our short and hard lives even shorter and harder. like: eating unhealthy food, smoking, arguing, sitting too much, self criticism, criticism of others, entitlement, bitterness, cynicism, isolation, regret. so why not make an effort to not indulge in those things? easier said than done, but isn't it worth the effort? i mean, how many people towards the end of their lives have wished they'd smoked more and eaten crappier food and spent more time being isolated and bitter? very few, i'm guessing.

28.
some things that, personally, make my life better: dogs, music, swimming, eating well, getting enough sleep, reading good books, listening to led zepplin, listening to debussy, listening to donna summer, listening to bad brains, drinking white tea, hanging out with people i really like, watching little kids dance at weddings, looking at bacteria and paramecium under a microscope, reading about science, disco dancing, trying to be helpful, watching 30 rock, and etc etc. what's on your list? maybe write it down and keep it on hand, just as a reminder. you can always add more to it.

Antacid Comparison

 

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda dissolved in 6 ounces of water:

• Cheap
• Effective
• High in Sodium 

Tums:

• Expensive
• High in Calcium
• Tastes like candy
• Doesn't Work
  

3

 My three favorite John Lennon solo songs:

1. Instant Karma! (YouTube Link)
2. Working Class Hero (YouTube Link)
3. Nobody Told Me (YouTube Link)

I know you're supposed to have Imagine on the list, but it's not. You can put it on your list if you want.

The Things We Said

This is kind of a strange song, because even though the words are hopeful and romantic the melody and vocals are rather ominous. 

The drumming contributes to that effect.  There are several times where you expect to hear a fill, but the beat remains steady, creating an underlying tension.

Full lyrics HERE.

Sky Collage

 

If you visit Alex Hyner's web page you can see these images in higher resolution and even buy a print if you want.  He's on the web HERE.

And show me that somebody out there really cares…

 

Mona and I have seen The Mavericks several times, and they never disappoint.  They are probably the best live band in America.

I hope the song above makes you smile.  Full lyrics HERE.

Things We Said Today

 The great thing about SomaFM is that they expose you to music that's difficult to find on your own.

Full lyrics HERE.

SomaFM is at (of course) SomaFM.com.

A Radical Proposition

 

“In a consumer society, contentment is a radical proposition. Recognizing abundance rather than scarcity undermines an economy that thrives by creating unmet desires. Gratitude cultivates an ethic of fullness, but the economy needs emptiness.”  ~Robin Wall Kimmerer

Fear Not

 "And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed."  ~Deuteronomy 31:8

I've read the religious texts of all the major religions and a lot of the minor ones, and "fear not" is a common thread that runs through them all. 

But I do fear.  

I worry about Mona's health, my father's health, my friends health.  I worry about finances.  I worry about plumbing.  I worry about the hoodlums next door, who use drugs and sell drugs openly.  (Yes, we've called the police; No, it didn't do any good.)  I worry about the big things, climate change and fascism that no longer creeps, but leaps.  "Proudly Stupid" is a movement that seems to be growing daily.

Anyway.

My favorite person in the Christian bible is Jesus' dad, Joseph.  He didn't do great things; he didn't preach stirring sermons or walk on water.  He just rolled with the punches.  He came home to find an Angel of the Lord in his tent, and didn't freak out at all.  They just had a little conversation, then he packed his bags for the trip.

I wish I were more like that.

Glass Box

 

That little glass room on the second story has become an architectural staple locally.  Not just drug stores, but banks, restaurants, pretty much everybody puts one up there.

I don't necessarily want to live up there, but I'd like to turn it into a greenhouse, maybe have a few brightly colored parakeets flying around;  a rocking chair.

"K"

 

Full lyrics HERE.

I've been listening to that song since the 60s, and didn't learn until today, when I went looking for the lyrics, that it's "Nights," not "Knights."

The image in my head has been wrong for decades.

 

Fire

 

And that reminded me of this:

 

To be honest, I don't think I've ever listened to the whole song.  After that great opening line I generally get bored and wander off.

Full lyrics HERE.

Ghosts

 “There are such things as ghosts. People everywhere have always known that. And we believe in them every bit as much as Homer did. Only now, we call them by different names. Memory. The unconscious.”  ~Donna Tartt, in The Secret History ©1992

How Can You See God?

 "There is a Zen story about a student who felt he hadn’t really received the deepest essence of his master’s teaching, and so he went to question him. His master replied, 'On your way here, did you see the cypress in the courtyard?' Perhaps the student was not yet very mindful. The master was saying that if, on the way to see our teacher, we go past a cypress tree or a beautiful plum tree in blossom and we don’t really see it, then when we arrive in front of our teacher, we won’t see our teacher either. We shouldn’t miss any opportunity to really see our cypress tree. There are wonders of life we walk past every day, and yet we haven’t truly seen them. What is the cypress tree on the path you take to work every day? If you cannot even see the tree, how can you see your loved ones? How can you see God?"  ~Thich Nhat Hanh, in The Art of Living ©2017

Change

 "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.  Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert."  ~Isiah 43:18-19

Algorithms

"Gotsta"

 

You have to have a certain amount of menace to your personality to pull of the word "gotsta."Mr. Rodgers couldn't pull it off.  Bob Ross couldn't.

I can't.

Full lyrics HERE.

Who Called Me Friend

 It's strange how poets and poetry can hit you at different times in your life.

I've known about Ted Berrigan for most of my adult life, and I thought he was Okay, but for some reason he is resonating with me now in a way he didn't before.

Via the Electronic Poetry Foundation:

Last Poem
by Ted Berrigan

Before I began life this time
I took a crash course in Counter-Intelligence
Once here I signed in, see name below, and added
Some words remembered from an earlier time,
"The intention of the organism is to survive."
My earliest, & happiest, memories pre-date WWII,
They involve a glass slipper & a helpless blue rose
In a slender blue single-rose vase: Mine
Was a story without a plot. The days of my years
Folded into one another, an easy fit, in which
I made money & spent it, learned to dance & forgot, gave
Blood, regained my poise, & verbalized myself a place
In Society. 101 St. Mark's Place, apt. 12A, NYC 10009
New York. Friends appeared & disappeared, or wigged out,
Or stayed; inspiring strangers sadly died; everyone
I ever knew aged tremendously, except me. I remained
Somewhere between 2 and 9 years old. But frequent
Reification of my own experiences delivered to me
Several new vocabularies, I loved that almost most of all.
I once had the honor of meeting Beckett & I dug him.
The pills kept me going, until now. Love, & work,
Were my great happinesses, that other people die the source
Of my great, terrible, & inarticulate one grief. In my time
I grew tall & huge of frame, obviously possessed
Of a disconnected head, I had a perfect heart. The end
Came quickly & completely without pain, one quiet night as I
Was sitting, writing, next to you in bed, words chosen randomly
From a tired brain, it, like them, suitable, & fitting.
Let none regret my end who called me friend.

Impact

"The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. It’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt."  ~Leo Buscaglia

Q-X

 The best thing about "Don Quixote" is getting to use an "X" and a "Q" in the same word.

(That was an aside.)

Stupid

 It never occurred to me to study Stupid People, but Carlos Cipolla did.  You can read his Five Universal Laws of Human Stupidity online, HERE.