Festooned in gay silk pantaloons…

Ffolkes,

“The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions.”

~~ Cicero (B.C. 106-43) ~~

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Site of Aristotle’s School, Mieza, Macedonia

Image from Wikipedia article on Aristotle

Good morning….

Shall we Pearl?

“From out of all the many particulars comes oneness, and out of oneness come all the many particulars.” — Heraclitus

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In the interests of keeping things balanced, here’s another American band from the golden age of Rock and Roll…. I spent many a happy hour at concerts by these lads…. though I’ll be honest and admit much of the memory of those times can be a bit blurry…. Go figure, eh?…. Enjoy, ffolkes….

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    I’m still fighting the issues I’ve been dealing with for a week now, so, you get something from the archives, the nature of which has yet to be determined at this writing.. I’ll make it a good one, never fear…. Ah, here’s a good one, speaking on the subject of religion, I believe…….

From 11/8/2012:

“Who, being loved, is poor?” — Oscar Wilde

Hmm…. While I happen to agree with this little gem from Oscar, I’m afraid I’m just not in the correct mood to do it justice…. I’ll have to try again…..

“If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.” — Jimmy Buffet

That’s better….. This is a perfect quote for today, since it both points out the problem, and the solution in one lyrical phrase. Jimmy’s good at that kind of turning of a phrase, being an excellent songwriter. Now, if only I could find something, anything, that I found amusing enough to laugh about. At the moment, the only thing that seems to work is letting myself picture the SS caseworker undergoing the pleasures of a stint in deepest HELL! When I envisioned some devilish figure poking him with a pitchfork, I have to admit, I chortled. And when the devil then picked him up with the blade and tossed him into a lake of fire, I guffawed…. and felt much better. Shoulda thought of it a long time ago….

“Baby, after considerable thought I’ve reached the conclusion that the only conceivable legitimate answer to the Universe as constituted is a peal of hysterical laughter.” — Keith Laumer, _Night of Delusions_

Yet more proof of this theorem…. I’ve heard it said all my life that the reason people laugh is so they don’t have to cry, and found it to be absolutely correct. I’ve also heard it said, by those who believe in Him, that if God had wanted us to be sober, He wouldn’t have given us a sense of humor….. While I can’t necessarily agree with the idea of God, I can see what they’re getting at, and agree wholeheartedly. (Hey! Look! Something a Christian and I can agree on!…. Who’d a thunk it?….) I mean, why else would a platypus exist at all?….

“It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs.” — Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) — Natural History, Book ii, Sect. 20

This sounds a lot more reasonable than supposing that God is the sort of weak, spineless entity that requires worship and obedience from His creations. I mean, if you’re going to have a God, then why give him all the worst characteristics of a fool? The only people I know of who demand that sort of obeisance are pretty psychopathic, and take medications for their delusions; or, in some cases, elected officials will get this way. I just can’t see an entity who is capable of creating a universe even spending one second worrying about being worshiped; it just doesn’t make any sense at all, and, quite frankly, I can’t understand how anyone in their right mind could ever buy into that idea. Such worship would make me feel uncomfortable, at best, and I just can’t see a God worrying about it overlong…. If such a God were to worry about anything, it would be wondering how He had screwed up in making such idiots in the first place…. and, in figuring out what asshole even gave them the idea….

“A long tradition has regarded low self-esteem as a powerful and dangerous cause of violence. Our review has indicated, however, that it is threatened egotism rather than low self-esteem that leads to violence.” — Case Western Reserve University psychology study as quoted in Thomas C. Palmer, Jr.’s Boston Globe article (3-31-96),” Self-Esteem Self-Threatening?”

Here is a clue, though, as to how it all came to this….. As noted previously, Christianity, as with any other religion, gives its followers a sense of entitlement, and an opinion of their importance all out of proportion to reality. It is this sense of elitism that leads to a lot of the violence in the world, rather than low self-esteem; when one argues with a believer, their anger is immediately brought out as a defense against having to consider any validity in the arguments presented, and they will often resort to violence to try to force their beliefs on the unwilling. In fact, I’d say that 90% or more of all violence between humans is a result of a challenge to the pride one feels in their beliefs, or to the pre-eminence of their religious mania. Yes, greed enters into this equation, but greed is just another form of that same feeling of entitlement, so it doesn’t alter the facts at all; it supports them…..

The trouble with reality, is that it’s taken much too seriously. — Smart Bee

Smart Bee once again comes through…. it has faithfully supplied the proper quotes for this discussion, and here provides the perfect quote to bring this now over-long treatise to a close. We humans have a talent of screwing things up pretty radically, just because we can; it’s a gift. And then, of course, one must factor in that bloody Irish demi-god, Murphy, whose kind attentions are unwelcome by all. I once saw a pearl that said “God created the world in seven days, and then said, “I’m going on vacation…. Murphy, you’re in charge!”, and I knew…. the Universe is just one big joke, and because of our nature, the joke is on us…. so we may as well learn to laugh, and enjoy it the best we can….

“With YOU, I can be MYSELF..  We don’t NEED Dan Rather..”– Zippy the Pinhead

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    This woman’s poetry has been amazing me for about four years now, almost. She was one of the first poets I found on WordPress, and I still find an amazing piece every time I visit her site…. Here is one I first posted back in 2012…. You can find her site at: http://starsrainsunmoon.com/

First posted here on ECR 7/30/2012.

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    Here is a classic style old-school pearl, on the rather large subject of life at large….

“For a man can lose neither the past nor the future; for how can one take from him that which is not his? So remember these two points: first, that each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle, and that it signifies not whether a man shall look upon the same things for a hundred years or two hundred, or for an infinity of time; second, that the longest lived and the shortest lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ii, 14

“Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.” — Heraclitus

“To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.” — Benjamin Disraeli (Earl Beaconsfield) (1805-1881) — Sybil, Book i, Chap. v

“The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.” — Carl Jung

“Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.” — Aristotle

“Better clean death than dirty life.” — Frank Herbert

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own God. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.” — Charles Bukowski

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Ah well, what can I say? It’s done, and, I’m certainly not going to go back & do it over…. In fact, I’m going to take the money, all zero dollars of it, and make a run for the border…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, provided I can continue to fail to find a reason not to do so….

À bientôt, mon cherí….