Sweating the small stuff is a big mistake….

Ffolkes,

        Floundering, half-asleep, he gazes with incomprehension at the blank screen in front of him, sipping vacantly at the coffee in his hand. As he magic of the caffeine begins to smooth out his system, deep in early morning shock, it occurs to him he is retired…. so, why is he flogging himself each day to get up at 4-5 AM, to begin the process of opening a vein, preferably in a spot that won’t drip on the keyboard, and allowing some of the dross and drivel that has built up in his system to slowly leak out, hopefully with some degree of literary expertise, if not brilliance?…. In sooth, though, he often shoots for acceptable, or even tolerable, with varyiable degree of success….

There that’s enough of THAT nonsense…. Y’all might get the impression we were going to stay in the third, (or maybe the fourth…) person view, with its concomitant difficulty to maintain proper perspective, since the view isn’t personal…. Removing one’s view to another place than right there behind your eyes is a habit we are encouraged to use when writing, though I’m not exactly sure why it’s considered any more valuable than the first, second, or fifteenth person view…. There IS something to be said for the community view, though how one is to write it, I haven’t a clue, nor do I want one, thank you very much….

First, and second person view is quite complex enough for me, ffolkes…. Hell, it’s all I can do sometimes to BE the second person; I have a tendency to feel the first person view is the most valuable, as it is the ONLY one controlled fully by OUR ego, and our will…. Those don’t have a handy an effect on other ffolkes, or folks, whichever the case may be…. Plus, I find it’s easier to ran when in first-person mode, and, since the ranting section is the one most important for the purposes of this blog, and blogger, that has to take precedence of any misguided (i.e., someone else’s idea….) concept of what is considered stylish, or even good….

I mean, this isn’t Ibsen, or Bach, or even Hemingway…. it’s just gigoid, the dubious, spewing his doubts all over the place, and laughing at the threat of insanity…. for around here, we don’t suffer from insanity, we revel in it…. We do this because, a) we want to, b) it’s legally binding, c) it’s cheaper than professional therapy, and d) we can…. What other reasons do we need? None, nor are any forthcoming, though we are getting close to bailing out…. In fact, I’m assuming command, now, and making a command decision to remove us from this section, at once…. There’s the opening…. Pilot, do your duty…. and, y’all, well…. y’all had best hold on to something….

Shall we Pearl?

“Everything has got a moral if you can only find it.” — Lewis Carroll

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve been mostly in love with this artist since I first saw her perform live, in 1969, on my first trip to Winterland in San Francisco, during its heyday. She was the second act, behind Alice Cooper, who was a megastar then, while Tina was still struggling to make the grade, and still being held back, by Ike, her abusive asshole of a husband, and agent, until she finally got the strength to kick him to the curb, where he proceeded to complete his cycle of self-destruction, while she went on to become one of the biggest stars ever to grace the musical stage…. with good reason….. Nobody gives a show like Tina Turner; she gives every ounce of her soul to the audience…. Enjoy, ffolkes….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You have to realize that the government, any government, is insane.  You have  to treat it the way pagans treated their gods:  As an irrational, capricious, and powerful entity which will mete out total destruction if not sacrificed to or otherwise placated.” — Mike Long (future Libertarian revolutionary)

About all I can think of to say to that is, yep…. Since that is ALL I can think of to say, here is a rant from early last year, but, on a subject currently on our list of rantable subjects…. It will, naturally, take the place of today’s scheduled rant, which is not happening…. Your guess is as good as mine, but, I’m going with “I’m lazy”, just so there is no argument from the critics, should this ever reach the public eye to any significant degree….

From April 21, 2013:

“A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ah, yes, it does indeed….. This is the principle of human nature I exploit when I rant…. Well, I try, anyway…. It seems as if Ralph Waldo had the inclination to rant strike him on occasion, and, competent observer that he was, he examined how it made him feel, and act when he was in ranting mode. When in full flight, ranting makes one feel ten feet tall, able to leap arguments with a single quote, impervious to sarcasm or belittling remarks, and capable of chewing up the toughest pundit and spitting him out, before breakfast….. Whether or not one could actually do so doesn’t matter in the slightest, for it is what we THINK we can do that determines what we CAN do…. Like the dragons of Pern, who could lift any weight when flying, as long as they thought they could….

“Whenever you eliminate the inedible, whatever remains, however unpalatable, must be food.” — Smart Bee

Now, this is a truism; much as it seems like levity, it is quite serious, being a disguised version of a truth uttered by Sherlock Holmes, about Truth, to wit: “As I have previously stated, Watson, when one has eliminated the impossible, what remains, however unlikely, must be the truth.” (God, I hope I quoted it right… I’m lazy, and used the version in my head, rather than googling it to make sure…. but, I’m 100% positive that my paraphrase, if it be such, is completely accurate, in terms of meaning…..) Ranting is an area where this principle is key; it really doesn’t make sense to rant about something that isn’t true, unless the falsity is the actual subject of the rant…. as the following aphorism implies….

“It is a substantial advantage for any philosophy to be based on the truth.” — George Santayana

Of course, this doesn’t mean that being right will make reality conform to how we wish it to be. Much of the world, if not all, is controlled by a group of people who lie, constantly, without shame, completely indifferent to how it affects others, as long as their own needs are met first. But, they only do so because most of the public believes their lies, for the simple reason that it is too hard to believe otherwise. If they begin to see the truth of how they are controlled, they become frightened, often to the point of violence, because they don’t want to know the truth…. unless it comes from a suit on TV…..

“Given a sufficient number of people and an adequate amount of time, you can create insurmountable opposition to the most inconsequential idea.” — Devyver’s law

This is truth, too, sad as it may seem…. The general public will believe just about anything they are told, usually without any sort of critical thought applied to testing its veracity, if it is presented in a manner to which they are accustomed to being told what to do…. If the guy on the six o’clock news says it will rain money, most folks in this country would start looking for a barrel to catch it in, and wonder if it would rain in bills, or in coins… I kid you not…..

This may seem as if I have a poor opinion of the average intelligence of the average American, and in that estimation you would be absolutely correct…. I can say this with complete confidence, as it is a proven fact that the average American’s IQ is below the average for the human race at large….. fact, ffolkes, not supposition…. Of course, I could be lying, but, if so, you can just chalk it up to their bad influence…. If they can use untrue ‘facts’ to prove their assertions, I can, too….

Besides, I can show you almost 50 MILLION pieces of proof of my assertion, without having to look further than the Presidential election last year…. In that election, almost fifty million people voted for Mitt Romney, proof positive that they would believe ANYTHING…. How else could they decide to vote for a man who was PROVEN to have lied during the campaign (independent fact checking organizations showed that he lied just about 50% of the time, or, put more simply, every other time he spoke, he lied…), and indicated, on tape, his complete disdain for over half the people in the country?

It is such an incredibly huge number, it just isn’t possible to understand how gullible people can be, when one sees this statistic, (50 million votes for an asshole….). It is equally hard to believe that so many of our peers are this incredibly dumb, but, truth will out, as it always does….. It also speaks to the number of truly bigoted, racist people that are still in this country, hiding behind their cowardice, and their misguided, ignorant patriotism…. but, that’s a subject for another rant….. (All stupid people aren’t bigots and racists, but ALL bigots and racists are stupid people…..)

“Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.” — Lazarus Long

You won’t get a better, more clear warning than that; on that note, I proclaim this rant, such as it was, to be complete…..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As it always seems with Charles’ poetry, it is almost TOO real to be comfortable…. He had a very strong knack for describing life in no uncertain terms, none of which were comfortable, in spite of their close fit to reality….. Enjoy, if you can….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today’s final section will be as fresh as it’s going to get today; all but three of these pearls were picked fresh from Smart Bee’s database, just for y’all…. Well, getting done had a little to do with it, but, really, mostly, it’s for y’all….. Honest… Come on, now, I’m no bloody politician…. I tell the truth well over half the time…. Besides, if this works out the way I’m intending, it’s all good advice, from one viewpoint, or another….

“Be cheerful while you are alive.” — Phathotep (24th Century B.C.)

“Beware lest clamor be taken for counsel.” — Desiderius Erasmus

“You are all depending for your spirituality on someone else, for your happiness on someone else, for your enlightenment on someone else…. You have been accustomed to being told how far you have advanced, what is your spiritual status. How childish! Who but yourself can tell you if you are incorruptible?… I desire those, who seek to understand me, to be free … from the fear of religion, from the fear of salvation, from the fear of spirituality, from the fear of love, from the fear of death, from the fear of life itself…. You can form other organizations and expect someone else. With that I am not concerned, nor with creating new cages, new decorations for those cages. My only concern is to set men absolutely, unconditionally free.” — Krishnamurti (1895-1986) From his last speech to the Theosophical Society

“Don’t take the bull by the horns, take him by the tail; then you can let go when you want to.” — Josh Billings

“Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.” — Sigmund Freud

“Fool! said my muse to me, look in thy heart, and write.” — Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) — Astrophel and Stella, i

“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.” — Francis Bacon

With the final words of Francis Bacon ringing in my ears, justifying all I do here, I shall take my leave….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am still half-asleep, it seems, yet, I have completed this Pearl, in good time, no less. Go figure….. I am, as can be seen, clueless as to how that came to be, so, I think it’d be best for me to just fade quietly into the background, and let y’all get on with your day…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, probably with a bit more oomph available for use…. I still have Emily’s feathers….

À bientôt, mon cherí….