Born to be Alive

"A tree is alive, and thus it is always more than you can see. Roots to leaves, yes-those you can, in part, see. But it is more-it is the lichens and moss and ferns that grow on its bark, the life too small to see that lives among its roots, a community we know of, but do not think on. It is every fly and bee and beetle that uses it for shelter or food, every bird that nests in its branches. Every one an individual, and yet every one part of the tree, and the tree part of every one."  ~Elizabeth Moon

Banana

 

And this reminded me of my favorite joke when I was eight-years-old:

"Knock Knock."
"Who's there?"
"Banana."
"Banana who?"
"Banana Banana."

"Knock Knock."
"Who's there?"
"Banana."
"Banana who?"
"Banana Banana."

"Knock Knock."
"Who's there?"
"Banana."
"Banana who?"
"Banana Banana."

"Knock Knock."
"Who's there?"
"Banana."
"Banana who?"
"Banana Banana."

"Knock Knock."
"Who's there?"
"Banana."
"Banana who?"
"Banana Banana."

Keep repeating this until the other person gets angry, then:

"Knock Knock."
"Who's there?"
"Orange."
"Orange who?"
"Orange you glad I'm not a banana?"

I never said it was a good joke.

Little Goblin Radio

 

This just made me smile.

Whew!

 

@MyGumsAreBleeding is on Instagram HERE.

Everybody Knows

 

By far one of Cohen's most cynical:

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes…

Full lyrics HERE.

Hmmm...

Excerpted from an article by María Luisa Paúl published in the Washington Post:

When he (Dutch art detective Arthur Brand) answered the door on the night of June 21, the street was dark and utterly empty — except for a cardboard box holding an artifact that had inspired legends, pilgrimages and prayers for over a millennium. Carefully, Brand carried inside the stolen reliquary of the “Précieux Sang,” or “Precious Blood” in French — an ornate, jewel-encrusted container that protects two lead vials with pieces of linen believed to be doused with the blood of Jesus.

You can read the full article HERE.

In the extraordinarily unlikely event that the vials do contain the blood of Christ, then we could clone him and bring him back.

Who's to say that's not the divine plan?

If I close my eyes, I can see…

 

John Prine always looks like he's about to smile, doesn't he?

I love the imagery in this song.  It just has a certain laid-back summer feel to it.

Full lyrics HERE.

The Notorius RRV

 

The BBC has a nice article about Indian artist Raja Ravi Varma, which you can read HERE. 

His artwork is all in the public domain, and there is a nice collection available on his Wikipedia page, HERE.

Wow.

Last month my father bumped his arm and tore the skin.

It wasn't serious, but he was upset and insisted he needed to see a doctor.  I thought he just needed to put a band-aid on it, but he's 92 years old and has some cognitive issues, so I indulged him.

We went to the clinic, and as I expected they put a band-aid on his arm and assured him that everything would be all right.

Today we got the bill.  His copay was $35, and they billed the insurance company $655.

$655.  To put a band-aid on an arm.

That's bullshit.

Take a song and make it better

 

Wislon Pickett and Duane Allman.  Wow!  Full lyrics HERE.

One Effervescence

 

Mona thought he was saying "effervescent everywhere," and I thought he was saying "One love."  But he wasn't.

The actual lyrics, which are really quite lovely, are available HERE.

Meet Harvey Dinnerstein

Billion Year Old Carbon

 

If you've never heard his version before, you're in for a treat. Full lyrics HERE.

Versatile

 

via 3QuarksDaily

The Lowest / The Highest

"Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world."  ~Bill Bullard (via)

Startles Me

"Something startles me where I thought I was safest…"  ~Walt Whitman, in This Compost

An Imbecile Asked

 A certain Bektashi dervish was respected for his piety and appearance of virtue.  Whenever anyone asked him how he had become so holy, he always answered, "I know what is in the Koran."

One day he had just given this reply to an enquirer in a coffeehouse, when an imbecile asked, "Well, what is in the Koran?"

"In the Koran," said the Bektashi, "there are two pressed flowers and a letter from my friend Abdullah."

~Indries Shah

"Would. You. Like. To. Play. A. Game?"

Excerpted from "The World as a Game" by Justin E.H. Smith, available at Liberties Journal:

What is a game? Ludwig Wittgenstein famously chose this nebulous concept to illustrate what he meant by “family resemblance,” where the individual members of a class can be determined to fulfill no necessary and sufficient conditions for admission, and instead only share some traits with some others in the class, others with others. Yet we can at least identify two types of game, which seem not just distinct from one another but very nearly opposite. One class of games, which includes peek-a-boo, charades, and musical improvisation as representative instances, is characterized by free expressivity. It is the manifestation of what Friedrich Schiller called the Spieltrieb, the “play-drive,” which is innate in all human beings insofar as they are free. The other class includes chess, fencing, and wargames as its representative instances. If there is still some dose of freedom operating in this sort of game, it is freedom under severe constraints. The purpose here is to win, and one does so by means of strategy aforethought. In such games, serendipity and spontaneity are disadvantages. While some such games may, like Schillerian free play, be “fun” (especially when you win and the other guy loses), at their outer edge they shade over into a domain of human endeavor that has little to do with leisure at all. At their most serious they can determine the fate of the world.

It is this latter sort of game alone that machines are capable of “understanding.”

I hadn't really thought of games or computers in that way before.

Also:  "expressivity" is a nice word.

&

Rachael & Vilray love the music of the 30s and 40s, and write music in the style of the era.  It's a lot of fun:

 Their website is HERE.

Let's Go Back to That

Red Brocade
by Naomi Shihab Nye
(via)

The Arabs used to say,
When a stranger appears at your door,
feed him for three days
before asking who he is,
where he’s come from,
where he’s headed.
That way, he’ll have strength
enough to answer.
Or, by then you’ll be
such good friends
you don’t care.

Let’s go back to that.
Rice? Pine nuts?
Here, take the red brocade pillow.
My child will serve water
to your horse.

No, I was not busy when you came!
I was not preparing to be busy.
That’s the armor everyone put on
to pretend they had a purpose
in the world.

I refuse to be claimed.
Your plate is waiting.
We will snip fresh mint
into your tea.

No Problemo

"The problem is not that there are problems.  The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem."  ~Theodore Rubin

  –•‒

"The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem."  ~Captain Jack Sparrow

Sometimes It's Sad

"People need a little loving and, God, sometimes it's sad all the shit they have to go through to find some."  ~Richard Brautigan

Get Knocked Down, Get Up Again

 

Full lyrics HERE, but you might have more fun figuring them out for yourself.

Broken Hearts and Bruised Emotions

"It is a grave misconception to regard the mystical progress as passing mostly through ecstasies and raptures.  On the contrary, it passes just as much through broken hearts and bruised emotions, through painful sacrifices and melancholy renunciations."  ~Paul Brunton

This should be more common knowledge.  People need to know that hard times don't mean you are living your life wrong.

37

 

Weird. I hope it's not true, because I have headaches and I don't have the name of a local exorcist.

The Egg

 The Egg by Andy Weir is a very short short-story. It is available online HERE.

Jailbreak

 

"The whole earth is in jail and we're plotting this incredible jailbreak."  ~Hugh Romney, also known as Wavy Gravy

Wavy Gravy is the most incredible person in the world.  If you haven't seen his movie, look it up-- you're in for a treat:

Jazz

 

I wasn't able to ascertain the original artist, the name was lost in a series of reblogs.

God would go to jail in Mississippi.

About half of fertilized eggs die very early on, before a mother even knows she is pregnant. Tragically, many of those that survive to become a recognized pregnancy will be spontaneously aborted after a few weeks. Such miscarriages are both remarkably common… (source)

Almost half!  That's interesting.

God doesn't seem to be as concerned with the plight of fertilized embryos as Southern politicians are.

This Magic Moment

“When you are washing the dishes, washing the dishes must be the most important thing in your life. Just as when you are drinking tea, drinking tea must be the most important thing in your life. Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the whole world revolves—slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment. Only this actual moment is life.”  ~Thich Nhat Hanh

Changing Colors

Maybe I'm wrong, and the Democrats really are doing their best.  Maybe they're just impossibly naive and hopelessly inept. 

It doesn't really matter "why" anymore.

In the short term, we need to find ways to circumvent the government to get the things we need.

In the long term we need chop away at the root of our problems:  capitalism.

This should be in the bible:

Come, Come, Whoever You Are
Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come.

~Rumi

 

The people who ended abortion are the same people who built a wall so the scared, hungry people on the other side couldn't bother them.

That's why I don't think this isn't about Christianity at all.

Cats and Birds and Windows and Weather

I saw this:

And it reminded me of my own cat, Joey:

Sent

I saw this:

And it made me think of this:

Roe

Decades of draconian drug laws didn't end drug use, they just taught a generation of hippies how to circumvent the law and evade detection.  Even in places where drugs have been legalized there is still a thriving underground market, because they can do it cheaper and better.

Maybe, out of respect for authority, people will just stop having sex.

But history indicates otherwise.

 

Let's Draw a Sheep!

 

Obligations

 

Nothing Else on Earth

"“A fresh road, and fresh plans!” he cried. “I’ve stopped thinking all the time of what’s going to happen tomorrow. What’s happening today, this minute, that’s what I care about. I say: ‘What are you doing at this moment, Zorba?’ ‘I’m sleeping.’ ‘Well, sleep well.’ ‘What are you doing at this moment, Zorba?’ ‘I’m working.’ ‘Well, work well.’ ‘What are you doing at this moment, Zorba?’ ‘I’m kissing a woman.’ ‘Well, kiss her well, Zorba! And forget all the rest while you’re doing it; there’s nothing else on earth, only you and her! Get on with it!’”  ~Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantakas, ©1946

Mercy

She asks me to kill the spider.
Instead, I get the most
peaceful weapons I can find.

I take a cup and a napkin.
I catch the spider, put it outside
and allow it to walk away.

If I am ever caught in the wrong place
at the wrong time, just being alive
and not bothering anyone,

I hope I am greeted
with the same kind
of mercy.

—  From Helium by Rudy Francisco, ©2017

is/not;is/not

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”  ~Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 

There is a nice translation of Meditations available at Project Gutenberg, HERE.