Wednesday, March 30, 2016

THE HOPE THAT MEMORY WILL FULFILL ITSELF



And when He did die it was sad -- such a young man, so full of promise, and His mother wept and His friends could not believe the loss, and the story spread everywhere and the mourning would not be comforted, until He was so sharply lacked and so powerfully remembered that his friends felt Him beside them as they walked along the road, and saw someone cooking fish on the shore and knew it to be Him, and sat down to supper with Him, all wounded as He was.

There is so little to remember of anyone -- an anecdote, a conversation at table. But every memory is turned over and over again, every word, however chance, written in the heart in the hope that memory will fulfill itself, and become flesh, and that the wanderers will find a way home, and the perished, whose lack we always feel, will step through the door finally and stroke our hair with dreaming, habitual fondness, not having meant to keep us waiting long,"
- Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping.


`gathered at Alive On All Channels

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS

"I have to get up at five o'clock in the morning and SPARKLE, Neely, SPARKLE!"

RIP Patty Duke







“The more he saw, the more he doubted. He watched men narrowly, and saw how, beneath the surface, courage was often rashness; and prudence, cowardice; generosity, a clever piece of calculation; justice, a wrong; delicacy, pusillanimity; honesty, a modus vivendi; and by some strange dispensation of fate, he must see that those who at heart were really honest, scrupulous, just, generous, prudent or brave were held cheaply by their fellow-men."
Honore de Balzac

Thursday, March 24, 2016

WILSON FLOATS AWAY

There are two kinds of people in this world my friend. 
Those who cried when Wilson floated away, and those who laughed.
Haha.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

BROOKS ON TRUMP



“Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. … They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance... Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly they are destroyed.”

Psalm 73

From an article by David Brooks.

In the article Brooks suggests that most of the Trump supporters are disenfranchised folks who have lost jobs and had their dreams shattered. Most of the Trump supporters I know do not fit this category. They are doing pretty fine as far as I can tell. They are certainly doing better than me, not that I have anything to complain about..

Monday, March 21, 2016

SPILLED MILK

I had an amazing dream. I was at the grocery store. They had a bargain. You could fill your cart for $ 100 with whatever you wanted.
I filled my cart, and got to the register.
They girl ringing me up slid a head of lettuce over the reader and called out “Canned Goods”.
The next items was Irish spring soap. “Baking Products” she called out.
I thought this was odd.
She grabbed a can of coffee. “Frozen Desserts” she says, and rings it up.
“Wait a minute” I said “That is not Frozen Desserts,  that is coffee.”
“Its just how we do it” she said.
“Its stupid, it makes no sense” I said.
She shrugged her shoulders, and went back to ringing stuff up. None of it made sense.
I found myself getting frustrated.  Aggravated even.
 And it was when she got to the gallon of milk, and called it “Household Goods” that I exploded.
“This is not Household Goods” I screamed, and I picked up the gallon of milk and spiked it like a football, the carton breaking and milk splashing everywhere.
“Oh no” I thought “I’ve really done it now” and I looked up to see that a manager had appeared next to the cashier. He looked at me with no real expression on his face, and said:
 “This episode belongs to you”.
I felt so ashamed.
I said “ I know. I’m so sorry. You guys can ring this stuff up however you want. Its costs me the same either way. Can you bring me a mop, please?”


Just For Today I won’t spill any milk.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

AVOIDING DEATH

… when you die, you are grieved by all the atoms of which you were composed. They hung together for years, whether in sheets of skin or communities of spleen. With your death they do not die. Instead, they part ways, moving off in their separate directions, mourning the loss of a special time they shared together, haunted by the feeling that they were once playing parts in something larger than themselves, something that had its own life, something they can hardly put a finger on.
David Eagleman: Sum.



I have been going to see a counselor for two sessions now. I guess she is like a Life Coach, as I understand it.
Last week she gave me a writing assignment. I turned it in. She said "Keep writing" and I'm like, "Oh I do, I write pretty much every day". So after that second session, I got home and realized she had not given me an assignment for the next week. I texted her, and asked what my assignment would be.
"Keep writing" she said.
"Do you have a topic?" I asked.
As I waited for her reply, I thought about maybe I might write about death. I've had a lot of death in my life. She probably needs to know about all that. There is more death still, and some more close than I want it to be. But death comes, and to us all. I cried to think I might write about death, but then her text came back.
"Research, and write a summary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights".
I was relieved.
So here it is:

I can remember as a kid watching the movies Spartacus and  King of Kings.
It seems that there has always been two kinds of people; those with whips beating other people into some kind of submission, and those being beat into submission. Its been that way since the beginning of time, I guess. I sometimes wonder how long Man had been around before he figured out that he could dominate other folks in such a way as to take away their basic human rights.

If men have been around for 10,000 years, it sure took  a long time for them to finally come up with a document like Basic Human Rights, which was written and adopted in 1948. Due largely in response to the Holocaust, the world finally attempts to get its shit together as a whole. Two other documents that established a basis for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are The Magna Carta and the United States Constitution and Declaration of Independence(just a guess).

The Preamble states its reason for existence: that most of the problems in the world start when  one group of humans seek  to control and take advantage of another, resulting in a loss of dignity, freedom and equality. The effect is always a decline in their standard of living leading to violence, suffering and great loss of life.
The preamble states its purpose; to establish a more verdant, just, and compassionate society within and between the nations, insuring peace and dignity for all the people.

The Articles establish certain principles; freedom, dignity, equality, and brotherhood. That these principles are extended to all humans regardless of religion, race, social class, personal or political opinions. It seeks to eliminate discrimination for simply being who you are.
In short, and in the words of the NA program, it seeks to establish a world of  “Principles Before Personalities”.
It abolishes anything that would interfere with the ends of these principles, such as slavery, torture, arbitrarily applied laws, denial of protection under the law, and restriction of the freedom to go anywhere of your own choosing under the law, and to have a safe place to live. It also assigns specifically certain social security’s such as the right to work with minimum standards towards hours and pay, the right to health care, the right of a free elementary education. In exchange for all this we have a responsibility to protect the rights and freedoms of other people.

When I feel myself  losing faith in the world, I turn to Spartacus, and King of Kings. I enjoy Peter Ustinov’s role as a slave buyer who eventually does the right thing, and his relationship with Charles Laughton, the kindly senator. I think I probably developed my attitude towards women from Spartacus’ pure and worshipful relationship with Virinia. Of course, everyone is moved by all of Spartacus friends when they stand up and claim to be Spartacus, even being crucified in his place, lining the Appian Way to Rome with their bodies.
In King of Kings, it is not turning water to wine, or walking on water, or even the resurrection of Christ that touches my soul. It’s when Jesus comes to John the Baptist in prison as a true friend would, and later sends a message that there has been none greater than John the Baptist, but that even the poorest is at least equal to John . Also the  part where Jesus is moving through the crowd and suddenly turns asking “Who touched my robe?” and a woman says “I did, in order that I might be healed.” And Jesus is moved by that.

It’s the Golden Rule, and the world isn’t such a bad place when you give it, and yourself, a chance.  

Thursday, March 10, 2016

I CARRY YOUR HEART



"Every person passing through this life will unknowingly leave something and take something away. Most of this "something" cannot be seen or heard or numbered or scientifically detected or counted. It's what we leave in the minds of other people and what they leave in ours."
- Robert Fulghum

"here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)"
ee cummings

Tuesday, March 08, 2016

THE PSYCHIATRIST

I called him because I felt like I needed to talk to someone about my sister after she died.
He said “I’m not taking patients right now.”
I said “You mean new patients? I came to you two years ago. I wouldn't be a new patient”
And he said “No, I’m not taking ANY PATIENTS AT ALL”.
He didn't sound too good. I think he was having a breakdown.

Tuesday, March 01, 2016

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS LEFT THE BUILDING

"Unfortunately, Rubio recognized reality and found his voice 254 days after Trump’s scabrous announcement of his candidacy to rescue America from Mexican rapists. And 222 days after Trump disparaged John McCain’s war service (“I like people that weren’t captured”). And 95 days after Trump said that maybe a protestor at his rally “should have been roughed up.” And 95 days after Trump re-tweeted that 81 percent of white murder victims are killed by blacks. (Eighty-two percent are killed by whites.) And 94 days after Trump said he supports torture “even if it doesn’t work.” And 79 days after Trump said he might have approved the internment of Japanese-Americans during World II. And 72 days after Trump proved that he does not know the nuclear triad from the “Nutcracker” ballet. And 70 days after Trump, having been praised by Vladimir Putin, reciprocated by praising the Russian murderer and dictator. And so on."
George Will

More here..."The Albatross"