Hollandaise is a sauce, not a country….

Ffolkes,
Today’s watchword will be ‘sanity’, a word whose meaning is somewhat flexible around these parts…… It HAS to be, because my own level of that particular quality of mind is extremely variable, and depends on a number of factors, none of which are completely under my control. In fact, I long ago gave up hope of maintaining any real control over it, as my efforts, though competent enough, were not enough, by a long shot, to stem the tide of my insanity, which is incredibly powerful, if I do say so myself….

I picked this word, with such deep connection to my life, because I’m starting into a period of life when maintaining my hold on reality needs to remain strong. A lot of stuff is finally beginning to happen for  me in the Big Blue Room, from which I’ve been hiding, so to speak, while waiting for these events to arrive,transpire, and become part of current reality. All that long-winded rationalization is here to say, I won’t have as much time to write in the coming days, and the structure and content of these Pearls is liable to change once again….

I began this blog in August of 2010, or thereabouts, on another site, SFGATE, the SF Chronicle website. In 2011, I signed up on WordPress; subsequently, for a while, the amount of content grew dramatically, as I had a lot of time to fill up in the early days of my retirement (poverty didn’t catch up to me until 1/1/11, when my retirement came into effect, and my full pay income went down to the near starvation level at which it has hovered for the past two plus years…). I filled that time, after my mom left from visiting in early 2011, by writing, and the Pearls grew to comprise five sections, two or three of which were early rant-like diatribes…. It was a lot of stuff pouring out of my head….

In early 2012, the stuff leaking out trickled down to a lesser amount, though still pretty prolific…. At that time, I cut the number of sections in each Pearl down, from five to three, with at least one always dedicated to poetry, mine or someone else’s. That format has worked out very well; it has plenty of opportunity, and room, for ranting, and the poetry always manages to soothe my mind in between rants, or old-school pearls, which I use when my creative side is less active than my habitual, constant inner dialogue, which I express in the old-school format.

That brings us to today, and today’s intro section…. As you can see, I’ve once again fulfilled the intro requirements, by composing and executing (interesting choice of words to describe how I write….) a number of rather useless paragraphs. Today’s examples have something more than the usual amount of relevance, and real information, than is the case in the recent past, but, I can truthfully say that is both providential, and intentional.

Out in the Big Blue Room, I have to start coordinating my SS and State retirement benefits, so that I can maximize both for my future use and convenience of operation. I am pursuing a relationship with a wonderful woman I’ve met, and wish to spend more time on that particular phase; she’s a sweet lady, and we enjoy being together, so I want to do more of that, for certain….

Probably most significantly, I will soon have the resources to travel as I wish…. I’m going to need to sit down and do some serious planning, to, again, maximize the resources I’ll have to have them get me to all the places I want to see, and support the activities I’ll need to pursue during this latter part of my life…..

One of the most satisfying parts of finally getting some of the resources is the sweet feeling I know I’ll get when I walk into a certain store to complete the very first item on all my lists….. I’m going, first thing, into the hock shop and getting my guitar out of pawn, paying the entire loan amount off, knowing that I will never again have to put it in gaol to be able to afford to eat….

All of this will be good for my ‘sanity’, so, I’m rather looking forward to the coming months…. Today, being the 22nd, is the second day of Spring, 2013, and I’m ready to rock the house…..

Well…. that was interesting…. almost like a complete little essay, right here at the beginning, where it will probably bore everyone to death…. That seems to have happened yesterday, as my stats show only four Likes all day, from some regular visitors…. oh well, I’ve never worried about stats, and I’m not going to start now…. What I will do, in the interests of my ‘sanity, is try to keep the creative process under control, at least to the extent of not trying to compose anything particularly scholarly or precise, as I don’t think I’m quite up to either of those today…. I’m feeling pretty lazy, in fact, and want to go do other stuff, so I’ll probably end up cheating, and use a bunch of old stuff, from my archives of ALMOST FIFTEEN BLOODY YEARS of writing these Pearls…..

Sorry, didn’t mean to shout…. that has apparently been sitting in there for a while, waiting for a chance to come out….. My unconscious MAY be a little more in turmoil than I thought…. I’ll have to think about that…. Meanwhile, back here at ECR…..  Shall we Pearl?…..
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I’ve probably given ample demonstration in the past of my innate laziness; I always thought of it as being smart, figuring out the easy way to do things….. but, I also call a spade a spade, and it is a fact….. I’m lazy sometimes…… This, then, is one of those times…..

This is an old, old-school Pearl, written sometime in 2008, or so…. I never did date them, other than the date on the email that contained them, so it’s hard to figure out sometimes, just when they were first seen….. and I’m not so vain as to have kept all those emails…. Five years is old enough for our purposes; that’s our story, so, we’re going to stick with that for now…… As you can see, the process of creating pearls remains much as it was, a random, chaotic process full of fun, laughter, and despair for the author’s obvious lack of ‘sanity’…..

Another attempt at so-called levity…

Ffolkes,
Today’s offerings are more of our usual,  a subliminal array of choices; no conscious thought went into the selection process. But there does seem to be some sort of coherency, if only in attitude. (Hmph!)  So, without further ado, enjoy……

“In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.” — Friedrich Nietzsche (Unfortunately, this applies to most religions, not just Christianity…..nrm)

“Dear Lord, I’ve been asked, nay commanded, to thank Thee for the Christmas turkey before us… a turkey which was no doubt a lively, intelligent bird… a social being… capable of actual affection… nuzzling its young with almost human- like compassion.  Anyway, it’s dead and we’re gonna eat it. Please give our respects to its family…” — Berke Breathed, Bloom Country Babylon

Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence. — Smart Bee

Beauty is skin deep. But how rich you are can last a long time. — On the role of beauty and handsomeness in love — Christine, age 9

“The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the old man who will not laugh is a fool.” — George Santayana (1863-1952)

Actually, my goal is to have a sandwich named after me. Or at least an ice cream sundae…. — Smart Bee

Y’all take care out there….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
And sometimes
I just sits.

~~gigoid
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I’m still lazy, so, deal…. but, I’m going to at least be honest, and use my own work to be lazy with…. Here is a poem I wrote last October, prompted by, and a response to, the quote that is given just before it…. I hope you enjoy it, it’s one I’m happy with, and it’s positive enough for today’s mood….

“But groundless hope, like unconditional love, is the only kind worth having.” — EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow, “Cynthia Horner’s Eulogy”, Apr. 1994

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“Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” — Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”

I’ve always felt that a return to older ideas is not necessarily a counter-productive activity to pursue in seeking change in one’s own situation. Though there are hazards to adopting some ideas that are old, those can be mitigated to a degree with some care in choosing which ideas are considered for use. (Duh….) In other words, if we use ideas such as the one above, first heard about a century and a half ago, we have to take care to ascertain whether those ideas are effective or not when used…. This statement from Henry David can, I think, because of its very celebrity, and long-time inclusion in mankind’s treasury of wisdom, be considered one idea that is always true, no matter how much time has passed since it was spoken….

Choosing which ideas from the past that will be most helpful can be a daunting task, simply because when one is speaking of historical wisdom, there is a LOT of material from which to choose, much of which is considered to be very wise, while some others of which may not be such good advice…. One cannot always know with certainty what an idea will do, once adopted in a real sense, and used in a real-life situation…. Sometimes we win, and sometimes we lose, badly….. Of course, the latter events generally are very instructive, in the sense that they teach us what NOT to do in the future….

I suppose we could say that failing at experimenting with reality is most likely humanity’s preferred form of learning, to wit: sticking our finger in the fire to learn that it hurts to burn flesh…. Not terribly smart, but effective; most folks only need one lesson…. We dignify the process we go through in learning, by calling what we get from it ‘experience’, but, it remains a rather bozoid method of learning, depending as it does on our ability to survive the answers that Reality provides to some of our more volatile questions…. like finding out we can’t just do what we want to the planet, without suffering consequences that are incompatible with human survival.

This is approaching rant-like proportions, but, I think I can fix that…. What we’ll do at this point it to admit the truth of how we learn, and just realize we can improve our chances if we learn a bit faster, and more from using our imagination, than we do from subjecting ourselves to the lashes and bumps that experimentation can entail…. In light of that, I will now provide several pearls, all of which are good advice on how to learn, and how to live, and hopefully, do so with some dignity, some laughter, and a lot of joy…..

“If you want to go far in a decade you have to go far each year. If you want to go far each year, you have to make sure that you do something significant each day.” — Deng Ming-Dao

“We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.” — Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door.” — Emily Dickinson

“Be patriotic – question authority.” — Bumper Sticker

“The strong live off the weak, and the smart live off the strong.” — Smart Bee
(Well, not ALL of us….. but, most….)

“I’m sitting on my SPEED QUEEN..  To me, it’s ENJOYABLE..  I’m WARM..  I’m VIBRATORY..” — Zippy the Pinhead

I suppose one can never accuse me of failing to be eclectic, nor of taking Life too seriously…. It got away from me for a moment, but Zippy, as always, managed to put things into their proper perspective….. Sometimes, all it takes is a bit of warm vibration to make life alright….
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I’m a little afraid today…. yesterday’s Pearl seems to have fallen off the scales, stat-wise, but today’s effort may just drive everyone away for good…. Or not, and, I don’t really care one way or another, as this is still all about getting this crap, er, stuff, out of my head…. I’ll go look it over, and see how it came out….. Be right back….

See? That never takes long….  Okay, well, it isn’t quite as bad as I’d feared, so I’ll go with it…. I know, I’m easy…. But, I do get posted every day, so, that’s something, I guess….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..