Our claim to fame is twofold, you see…. Bread, AND butter….

Ffolkes,

In sooth, this picture is one that I’ve loved since finding it on Facebook somewhere. By all I perceive. and imagine in this picture, regarding the inner lives and feelings of animals, animals who bear live young, raising them as do humans until able to care for themselves, are no less loving and connected than is any human family. It is my contention, which I’ve believed for a long time, anyone who can, after witnessing animals in such displays, still claim to lack belief in the animal’s capacity to FEEL, well, I’d suggest they take a closer look into their own heart and mind.

Such a belief can only reflect an emptiness of emotion in the one who makes it; no other cause is possible. Thus, such calloused fools miss out on much of what makes life in this dimension preferable to the death we all fear. If one cannot connect to the love within them, which grows most quickly, becoming stronger and more joyously beautiful only when shared, or given away, one loses not merely all of their joy, but, their very humanity as well…..

This understanding makes the quote at the top even more poignantly true. It describes exactly the flaw in those who cannot perceive what is right in front of their face. Reality demands our attention, by its ubiquitous ability to be the very bedrock of existence, solid, defined by its very name, while simultaneously possessing the quality of change; entropy is also part of our reality, thus, our duality of perception becomes more understandable.

We perceive the universe, i.e. reality, in opposites. Light/dark allows us to see; vibration/silence brings us sound, and music, which is made more beautiful by the silence between each note. Our duality of perception reflects the very nature of reality; how else could we know it, without knowing this about ourselves. Those who never learn to understand this shut themselves out of half of what the universe can offer in the way of experience, because they cannot see what is right in front of their face….

See? Isn’t that a symmetrical little discussion? That second & third paragraphs I particularly like, for the way the first, and last sentences echo their arguments with matching phraseology…. Pretty slick, eh, slick? Well, gosh, I didn’t expect applause…. shucks….

Okay, fantasy over. Good morning…. No, I don’t know why that stuff all came pouring out; I guess the picture and quote kind of got into my head, & started fizzing or something, indicating the mutually compatible, catalytic qualities of each, if used conjointly. I just went with the flow, so to speak…. Then, of course, my bozoid nature stepped in, to supply a bit of nonsense to close it out, just to balance the sober logic of the three opening paragraphs. SIGH…. Some day, I swear, I’m going to stumble across a way to open this puppy up each day that doesn’t drive me batty with its unpredictability…..

I suppose it just goes to show the absolute power metaphor has over me, and, for that matter, over all of us stuck in this Reality for our turn on the Karmic Wheel. Our imagination, when using the limitless power residing in the Metaphorse, engenders a heterodyne effect in both; when imagination joins hands with metaphor, the possibilities are, literally, infinite. This, of course, is why we are so fond of both around here; it’s sort of our thing, you know?

Hence our actual blog title, to wit: Exploring Consensual Reality…. I like to think that says just exactly what it is I try to do by posting, taking y’all along with me as I go, flying/diving off into the depths of my imagination, and the world wide web, to find new ways to use the power of metaphor…. In short….

May the Metaphorse be with you…..

Shall we Pearl?

“And weep the more, because I weep in vain.”~~ Thomas Gray (1716-1771) — Sonnet, On the Death of Mr. West

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Oops…. Almost forgot to put in a video…. Hmm…. Okay, here’s one. I hope you enjoy it…. The Deputy and I go way back, to more of those Saturday mornings, long ago during the Jurassic Period, when I was a child. He’s a little strange in spots, but, he’s got a big heart…. Don’t put a lot of stock in the story lines, or try to make much sense of them; it will just make your head hurt…. Just let ‘em roll, and don’t worry about it…. Enjoy!….

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Yesterday, due to the effects of long-term stress, I exploded, producing over 5000 words of fresh material to post, mostly in the shape of a rant. Quite simply, I’m exhausted, a state exposed by having slept, real, actual sleep, for over 7 hours, even sleeping through the time to take a pain pill. It’s more sleep than I’ve been blessed with for over two months, so, my body is happy, mostly.

This does mean, however, there won’t be any fresh ranting today; I think I may have squeezed that lemon all the way dry. But, Smart Bee is still in a good mood, and gave me these seven pearls, all taking a look at the concept of government, as applied by human beings today; each one seems to look at it from a different view, which is handy, not to mention cute…. Enjoy, ffolkes, these tell it like it is pretty well, when it comes to pundits, and their habits….

“Grown men, he told himself, in flat contradiction of centuries of accumulated evidence about the way grown men behave, do not behave like this.” — Douglas Adams

“Civilization is almost exclusively masculine, a civilization of power in which woman has been thrust aside in the shade. Therefore it has lost its balance and is moving by hopping from war to war. Its motive forces are the forces of destruction and its ceremonials are carried through by an appalling n number of human sacrifices. This one-sided civilization is crashing along a series of catastrophes at a tremendous speed because of its one-sidedness. And at last the time has arrived when woman must step in and impart her life rhythm to the reckless movement of power.” — Rabindranath Tagore, before 1941

“Broken promises don’t upset me.  I just think, why did they believe me?” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“I love my country too much to be a nationalist.” — Albert Camus

“But, sir, the people themselves have it in their power effectually to resist usurpation, without being driven to an appeal of arms. An act of usurpation is not obligatory; it is not law; and any man may be justified in his resistance.  Let him be considered as a criminal by the general government, yet only his fellow-citizens can convict him; they are his jury, and if they pronounce him innocent, not all the powers of Congress can hurt him; and innocent they certainly will pronounce him, if the supposed law he resisted was an act of usurpation.” — Theophilus Parsons, in the Massachusetts Convention, on the ratification of the U.S.  Constitution — [Jonathan Elliot, ed., “The Debates of the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution”, — (New York, Burt Franklin:  1888), 2:94 ]

“Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.” — Noah Webster

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Today’s poem is one of mine written in 2014, making it one of the most recent…. I hope you enjoy it; if nothing else, the title fits in quite well with today’s rather ambiguous theme, which is, patently, based almost exclusively on the concept of “What The Fuck!”…. if you catch my drift….

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This pearl is of the type I’ve named “high percentage” pearls, which refers to how they were discovered in my database, the ever-faithful Smart Bee. (You, too, may know the wonders of Smart Bee; it’s free software you can find by just typing the name into Google. You will find many links to the web site where you can get your own copy…. if you wish….) Upon searching for today’s pearls for the final, old school section, the following seven pearls were presented for my perusal almost in order, with only five other quotes even submitted, some of which almost made the cut. So, the percentage of good pearls was a “high percentage”, get it? Good. I think you’ll enjoy whatever the message is; it’s a bit quirky, but, good thinking, all in all….

“One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.” — Oscar Wilde

“I quite agree with you,” said the Duchess; “and the moral of that is — `Be what you would seem to be’ — or, if you’d like it put more simply — `Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to theirs that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'” — Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland

“He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hopes for the human condition is a fool.” — Albert Camus

“Anything is possible, but only a few things actually happen.” — Rich Rosen

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.” — Henry Ford

“OVER the underpass!  UNDER the overpass!  Around the FUTURE and BEYOND REPAIR!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“If you make a mess, clean it up.” — Mom

See how cool that was? No? Well, I thought so; I shan’t comment on anyone else’s lack of perception, at all, at all… Besides, the only two you really need to figure it out are the second, and the last. How can you go wrong by doing what Mom taught you?…..

Well, okay, I get your point; there are times Mom wasn’t always right on the ball; she DID have a few odd idiosyncrasies…. But, this one is one we all know is a good one, so, moot point, and a fine waste of our time, so thanks very much, you bozos…. Oops, mustn’t call the little voices in one’s head any bad names, even if they’re hopelessly parenthetical…. Sorry, but, shoot, use your head, kids…. Would Mom steer you wrong? No…..

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Regardless of any comments, or any differing opinions, and, even in my less than stellar state of perception, I know a done deal when I see one; this is a done deal. Since I have very little doubt about that, it enters the realm of ‘fairly possible’ to assume we’ve finished, and will be asked to leave. All of which, apparently, means we are outta here, in some sort of weird individual code, made up just now by my ridiculously silly mind. Whatever the hell it means, or even doesn’t mean, we’re still outta here, so, bye, bye, for now…. Or, as we are commonly wont to say here at ECR, see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. probably.

À bientôt, mon cherí….