Around You

"Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved."  ~Saint Seraphim of Sarov

Brainwashed

[embed]https://youtu.be/Q2O9k91Jvsg[/embed]

Full lyrics HERE.

Here's the question:  if you suspected that you had been brainwashed by your culture to act certain ways and believe certain things, what is the first thing you'd do to regain control over your life?

 

We had still duties which we ought to perform…

In this excerpt from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, ©1818, young Victor Frankenstein mourns the death of his mother:

She died calmly, and her countenance expressed affection even in death. I need not describe the feelings of those whose dearest ties are rent by that most irreparable evil, the void that presents itself to the soul, and the despair that is exhibited on the countenance. It is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she whom we saw every day and whose very existence appeared a part of our own can have departed for ever—that the brightness of a beloved eye can have been extinguished and the sound of a voice so familiar and dear to the ear can be hushed, never more to be heard. These are the reflections of the first days; but when the lapse of time proves the reality of the evil, then the actual bitterness of grief commences. Yet from whom has not that rude hand rent away some dear connection? And why should I describe a sorrow which all have felt, and must feel? The time at length arrives when grief is rather an indulgence than a necessity; and the smile that plays upon the lips, although it may be deemed a sacrilege, is not banished. My mother was dead, but we had still duties which we ought to perform; we must continue our course with the rest and learn to think ourselves fortunate whilst one remains whom the spoiler has not seized.

Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus is in the public domain, and may be downloaded freely (in multiple formats, including Kindle and EPub) from Project Gutenberg, HERE.

"I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times and I think that He wanted Donald Trump to become president, and that's why he's there."  ~White House press secretary Sarah Sanders (source)

Hmm.

 

Instead Of

“Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours.”  ~Hermann Hesse

Well, that's not exactly a picker-upper, is it?

To Test

To Test Whether We Are Attached to Something
By Ajahn Jayasaro (via)

We can test whether we are attached to something by observing our reaction to its absence.

If we are attached to goodness, we feel upset with people who act badly.
If we are attached to our teachers, we feel angry with people who criticize them.
If we are attached to our views, we feel frustrated with people who oppose them.
If we are attached to peace, we feel aversion to unpeaceful situations.

If we devote ourselves to goodness wisely, we feel compassion for people who act badly.
If we devote ourselves to our teachers wisely, we are patient with people who criticize them.
If we hold our views lightly, we find ourselves stimulated by people who oppose them.
If we follow the path of peace wisely, we see unpeaceful situations as a challenge.

I think I know.

"All options are on the table," John Bolton said. What he meant by that was, "If they don't give us what we want, we might just kill them and take it."

It's a behavior we accept on the international level we would never accept on the individual level. The next time you go grocery shopping, display a firearm and explain to the clerk that you would like to negotiate the price, that "all options are on the table." In 8-10 years you can tell me what happened.

There are countries like Nicaragua and Honduras that have asked for America's help, but instead have seen their aid slashed.  Trump wants to build a wall to keep them out.  He said that they are disease-ridden and violent.

Then there are countries like Venezuela that have not asked for America's help,but it looks like they're going to get it whether they want it or not.  Their humanitarian crisis has touched his soul.  He feels compelled to do something, to take action.

I wonder what's different?

"We're more popular than…"

I think I prefer John Lennon to Jesus Christ.

Jesus was perfect right out of the box.  By definition, he could do wrong.  Everything he did was bathed in goodness and light.

John, on the other hand, was a deeply flawed individual, but he worked really hard to overcome his demons.  He stumbled at times, but he fought forward and ended a better person than when he started.

It's the second example that is more relevant to my life.

Chang and Eng

Excerpted from The Two, the biography of the original Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, by Irving and Amy Wallace, ©1978:

On another visit to Philadelphia, the fact that the twins were genuinely united saved them from a fine or jail. A spectator, shaking hands with Chang, squeezed his hand painfully hard. Immediately, Chang punched him, knocking him off his feet. The man rose, summoned the law, and the twins were hauled before a magistrate on charge of assault and battery. The magistrate, after studying the twins connecting band, addressed the complainant. The judge agreed that Chang could be jailed for assault, but added that if Eng were also jailed it would amount to false arrest and the complainant himself would have to be prosecuted. Needless to say, the injured party dropped his charges.

It's a strange thing to think about, but I've wondered what would happen if one person, conjoined with another, committed a crime.  This judge didn't really answer that question, he just found a clever way to avoid making the decision himself.

The book was a lot more interesting than I expected it to be.  The brothers were far more than just sideshow freaks.  They retired from show business at an early age, married sisters and fathered 21 (!) children, owned slaves and ran a successful farm, met Abraham Lincoln; they led full and happy lives.

The walls have ears, the screen has eyes

I used to be on a lot more social media sites, several years ago, but gave most of them up after my Mom was diagnosed with cancer.

It was then that Facebook started popping up ads for quack cancer cures. They told me I could treat my mother with laetrile. They promised a complete cure.  I didn't fall for it, of course, but it was still upsetting; they were telling me things I wanted to believe.

And the thing is, I had never posted about my mother's health. Apparently someone close to me did, then Mark Zuckerberg connected the dots and pointed me out to the scammers as an easy mark.

That was when I walked away from it all.

I still have my email and my blog, but that's all.   I'm much more careful than I used to be.  I use "Private" mode for most things, to eliminate the cookie trail, and I use the Tor Browser sometimes to mask my information further.

It's not paranoia.  They really are watching me, watching all of us.

That's the world we live in.

I Think…

[embed]https://youtu.be/FeGmP0E5bHE[/embed]

I don't hear a guitar in there.  It seems to be just a bass, a tambourine, a drum, and a sporadic keyboard.

That's a little different.

P.O.'d

Yesterday I received a Christmas card from my sister-- a card she had mailed two months ago.

Mona recently sent a card to my Dad, who lives three miles away.  It took two weeks to get there.

The post office used to be so good, and now they are almost useless.  We've had to start paying all our bills online, not because we want to, but because we were being hammered by late fees in spite of mailing payment sometimes weeks before the due date.

We can't depend on them anymore.

And that's a shame.

We need

 

 

"We need magic and bliss, and power, myth, and celebration and religion in our lives, and music is a good way to encapsulate a lot of it." ~Jerry Garcia

 

 

The Lesser Of

I'm paraphrasing, but already the Democrats are saying things along the lines of, "No matter how deeply flawed our candidate is, you still have to vote for him because the alternative is even worse."

This feels like the prelude to another truly awful choice.

It shouldn't have mattered anyway.

After 9/11 happened, the company my father worked for sent out a memo saying they would no longer use a local motel.  They said it was owned by Arabs who refused to fly the American flag.

My father stopped by this motel on the way to work the next day, and saw the American flag flying.  He went inside and talked to the manager, and discovered this motel was owned by an Indian gentleman.

He reported these things when he got to work that day.  The motel was flying the American flag, the motel is not owned by Arabs.

But the company never rescinded the memo, and they never used that motel ever again.