Hmmmm.................................................

The Doctor knows..................................

Fifty years ago...................................

The Rolling Stones.............................................The Last Time

Remember.............................................

via

An empty house...............................

      As for political systems, democracy is surely the healthiest for our time.  No one, except those who stand to gain when democratic values are ridiculed, would disagree with that.  But democracy is a little bit like an empty house.  You need to know what the people who live in the house are going to do with it.  Are they going to maintain the house properly, make it even more beautiful, or gradually let it collapse?
      What's neglected in the idea of human rights is the individual's responsibility to society.  The Dalai Lama often points out how particularly necessary universal responsibility is in our world, which has shrunk to the point that one can easily be on the other side of the world in a day.  It's obvious that unless a sense of responsibility develops in all individuals sharing this planet, it'll be very difficult to apply any democratic ideals.
-Matthieu Ricard, as excerpted from here

One of the many things I never knew.............

Some nations are born out of kinship, others out of conquest.  The nation of Belgium was born from a song.  In 1830, a few hundred spectators gathered in Brussels to take in what was by all accounts an unusually stirring performance of the French grand opera La Muette de Portici (The Mute Girl of Portici).  The opera's patriotic message - with its rousing song "Sacred Love of the Fatherland" ("Amour sacre de la patrie") - struck a chord with the French speakers in the crowd, who like many of their compatriots had long fled aggrieved under generations of Dutch rule.  The performance lit a fuse in the audience, igniting a nationalist fervor that swept thought Brussels as the attendees streamed out of the theater and into the streets, where thousands soon joined in a massive protest for independence.  The riots spread across the country, and within a year the fledgling nation of Belgium had declared independence from the Netherlands.
      As Europe's newest nation state, Belgium seemed imbued from the start with a spirit of forward-looking idealism.  After forming a national congress, the government invited a German prince named Leopold Georg Christian Friedrich to ascend the throne of its newly forged constitutional monarchy.  At first, the fledgling kingdom struggled to find its footing.  After severing ties with the Netherlands, Belgium lost access to the world markets commanded by the massive Dutch fleet.  As a result, the new regime faced considerable ill will from its powerful mercantile class.  By 1845, fully one-third of the population of Flanders was living off charity.  But the country had considerable assets at its disposal:  raw materials in the form of enormous coal and iron deposits in the south and east of the country, as well as a major port in Antwerp.  The country was ripe for the technological revolution that would soon transform it into the most industrialized nation on the continent.
-Alex Wright, as excerpted from Cataloging the World:  Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age

Wiki on the 1830 Belgium Revolution is here

Tough................................................

"When you are tough on yourself, life is going to be infinitely easier on you."
-Zig Ziglar

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and the beautiful...

Ennio Morricone.........................................The Ecstasy of Gold

Life its ownself...........................................

"Life is not a race - but indeed a journey. Be Honest. Work Hard. Be Choosy. Say 'thank you', and 'great job' to someone each day. Go to church, take time for prayer. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh. Let your handshake mean more than pen and paper. Love your life and what you've been given, it is not accidental ~ search for your purpose and do it as best you can. Dreaming does matter. It allows you to become that which you inspire to be. Laugh often. Appreciate the little things in life and enjoy them. Some of the best things really are free. Do not worry, less wrinkles are more becoming. Forgive, it frees the soul. Take time for yourself ~ Plan for longevity. Recognize the special people you've been blessed to know. Live for today, enjoy the moment."
-Bonnie Mohr

What is it about books.......................?

      "He is a very old man with whom you can't talk about politics,"  wrote an unnamed Nazi apparatchik after an early meeting with Otlet on October 31, 1940.  "He has peculiar fantasies about world peace."
      World peace was a distant dream.  Europe was at war.  Four months earlier, shortly after conquering Belgium on his way to France, Hitler had authorized a cultural task force to fan out across the occupied countries.  Headed by his confidant Alfred Rosenberg - the recently appointed cultural czar and author of a great deal of seminal and toxic Nazi philosophy - the group operated under orders to seize any and all valuable books, works of art, or religious objects from museums, libraries, and universities, as well as from private Jewish and Masonic collections.  Drawing on this vast library of impounded books, Hitler hoped to build a new university worthy of the Third Reich, to be called the Hohe Schule.
      ... The commission would ultimately confiscate millions of volumes - including prized first editions, rare illuminated manuscripts, and countless other, more prosaic works on every topic imaginable - as well as paintings, religious objects, and innumerable other cultural artifacts.  For all their rapaciousness, however, Kruss and his staff proved quite discriminating in choosing what books to keep.  Most were destroyed or discarded.  At one point the German army paved the muddy streets of Ukraine with thousands of seized books to speed the passage of their military vehicles...

The Rosenberg Commission's campaign of literary plunder, appalling as it was, hardly marked the first time a conquering nation had instituted a program of violent cultural appropriation.  When Kin Ashurbanipal consolidated power over the Sumerian Empire in the seventh century BCE, he impounded every book in the kingdom to fill his royal library.  Four hundred years later, the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy I ordered his armed forces to search every incoming ship at the port of Alexandria and seize any books held onboard, thus populating the greatest library the world would know for another 2,000 years.
     At other times, nations have simply chosen to destroy the intellectual heritage of the people they conquered.  When Emperor Shi Huangdi consolidated power over the Chinese Empire in 213 BC, he commanded the destruction of every book in the kingdom to make way for a new library that better reflected his tastes.  And when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Aztec kingdom in the fifteenth century, they promptly burned nearly all of the Aztecs' glyph-laden deerskin books - including treatises on law, mathematics, and herbalism (this destruction likely came as no great surprise to the Aztecs, who themselves had destroyed all the books of a previous conquered regime just a century earlier).

-Alex Wright, as excerpted from Cataloging the World:  Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age

Consequences......................................

      There's no such thing as damnation in Buddhism.  Karmic retribution isn't a punishment, it's a natural consequence.  You're only reaping what you've sown.  If you throw a stone up in the air it's no good being astonished if it falls back down on your head.  It's a bit difference from the usual idea of sin - although I find very interesting Father Laurence Freedman's explanation:  "The Greek for sin means to miss the target.  Sin is what turns consciousness away from truth.  Being the consequence of illusion and selfishness, sin includes its own punishment.  God doesn't do the punishing.'
-Matthieu Ricard, as excerpted from here

An exaggeration perhaps.........................?

"I don't know where to turn next with my career.  Such is the problem that is ceaselessly buzzing in my ears.  Indecision is the worst of evils." 
-Paul Otlet

Fifty years ago..........................................

The Temptations...............................................Don't Look Back

Lest we forget.....................................

      Otlet not only invites study as an early avatar of the networked age.  His life and work also shed light on the deeper causes and conditions of the information age in which we now live.  While the proliferation of computers in recent years has certainly contributed to the much-chronicled problem of information overload, the first rumblings of our present-day data deluge really started during the second Industrial Revolution of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the citizens of Europe and North America experienced a series of unprecedented technological transformations.  In the span of just a few decades, and enormous number of innovations were unleashed:  automobiles, airplanes, radio, telegraphs, typewriters, punch cards, microfilm, vaccines, and mechanical weapons.  Taken together, these rapid advances created a state of technological culture shock.  People and nations that had once lived in relative isolation quickly found themselves intertwined in a mesh of complex networks.  Telegraphs, telephones, railways, post offices, and expanding road systems allowed people, goods, and money to move across national borders more easily than ever before.  As a result, ideas started moving more freely as well, triggering an explosion of published information.  The resulting intellectual, commercial, and political entanglements gave rise to whole new industries, professions, and modes of thought, as well as to new opportunities for conflict - reaching the horrific crescendo of World War I.  This gave rise to a new "internationalist" consciousness that inspired some to imagine fundamentally new modes of living in a global, networked society.
-Alex Wright,  as excerpted from Cataloging the World:  Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age

Freeing...................................

      Once we are committed to a spiritual path, it is essential to check that over the months and years we are actually freeing ourselves from hatred, grasping, pride, jealousy, and above all from the ego-centeredness and ignorance that cause them.  That is the only result that counts.
-Matthieu Ricard, as excerpted from here

Unless you hurry slowly..................................

more on "festina lente" can be found here.

Wondering if this is still true.....................

Pour ce qui est des connaissances non-écrites qui se trouvent dispersées parmi les hommes de différents professions, je suis persuadé qu’ils passent de beaucoup tant à l'égard de la multitude que de l'importance, tout ce qui se trouve marqué dans les livres, et que la meilleure partie de notre trésor n'est pas encore enregistrée.

• I am convinced that the unwritten knowledge scattered among men of different callings surpasses in quantity and in importance anything we find in books, and that the greater part of our wealth has yet to be recorded.

-Gottfried Wihlhem von Leibniz (1646-1716)

Finding something beautiful.......................

Music for listening to while staring at the fire in the fireplace while it is snowing outside on a chill winter's afternoon.........

Michael Hoppe/Tim Wheater...................Song Of The Hills

Itches that still ain't scratched......................

Travis Meadows..........................................Unfinished Business
(music starts about 2:15)




I got a list of things to do before I die
If I laid one on top of the other 
it'd stand about three feet high
The devil in the details
cross the T's and dot the i's
Sure made it easy 
putting off getting around to my
Unfinished business

Well I killed a lot of years 
by sweating over things that didn't last
I killed the better part of my youth 
by growing up way to fast
And I'm almost to the age 
where there is less future than there is past
My regrets are only half the size 
of the shadows that they cast
Oh my unfinished business

Got songs that I still ain't sung
Old fights that I still ain't won
Things I need to teach my son concerning wisdom
Itches that still ain't scratched
Doors and closets that still ain't latched
And fish I need to catch
Yeah I may be tired 
but I ain't leaving with
Unfinished business

I'm going to learn a few new chords 
on this beat-up old guitar
And I'm going to be strong enough
to not be ashamed of my old stars
And I'm going to run my engine hard 
despite all my missing parts.
Spend the last of my years
trying to finish what I start
Unfinished business

Got songs that I still ain't sung
Old fights that I still ain't won
Things I need to teach my son concerning wisdom
Itches that still ain't scratched
Doors and closets that still ain't latched
And fish I need to catch
Yeah I may be tired
but I ain't leaving with any
Unfinished business

I've got kisses that I still ain't kissed
"I love you"s that ain't left my lips
Dreams beyond my fingertips
But I'm reaching, 
hey I'm reaching
I may be tired but I ain't leaving with
Yeah I may be tired but I ain't leaving with
Unfinished 
business

I got a few more things I need to do.


Thanks David

This is what leadership sounds like...........

      Another lesson I think we may take, just throwing our minds back to our meeting here ten months ago and now, is that appearances are often very deceptive, and as Kipling well says, we must

                              ... meet with Triumph and Disaster
                              And treat those two impostors just the same.

      You cannot tell from appearances how things will go.  Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are;  yet without imagination not much can be done.  Those people who are imaginative see many more dangers than perhaps exist, certainly more than will happen;  but then they must also pray to be given that extra courage to carry this far-reaching imagination.  But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period  - I am addressing myself to the School - surely from this period of ten months this is the lesson:  never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never  - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.  Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.  We stood all alone a year ago, and to many countries it seemed that our account was closed, we were finished.   All this tradition of ours, our songs, our School history, this part of the history of this country, were gone and finished and liquidated.
     Very different is the mood today.  Britain, other nations thought, had drawn a sponge across her slate.  But instead our country stood in the gap.  There was no flinching and no thought of giving in; and by what seemed almost a miracle to those outside these Islands, though we ourselves never doubted it, we now find ourselves in a position where I can say that we can be sure that we have only to persevere to conquer.

-Winston Churchill, as excerpted from his second speech as Prime Minister at his Alma Mater, the Harrow School,  October 29, 1941.   More on Winston here.

Though not always obvious.........................

                        "Patience is also a form of action."
                        -Rodin

An after and before twofer.........................................

Stevie Wonder........................................We Can Work It Out



Stevie Wonder......................................................Fingertips

Sort of like life its ownself..............................

"Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.  A child can play it well and a grown man can never master it.  Any single round is full of unexpected triumphs and perfect shots that end in disaster.  It is almost a science, yet it is a puzzle without an answer.  It is gratifying and tantalizing, precise and unpredictable;  it requires complete concentration and total relaxation.  It satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect.  It is at the same time rewarding and maddening -- and it is without doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented"
-Arnold Palmer

Sail.................................................

“Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
-attributed to Mark Twain

Fifty years ago......................................

The Beatles.........................................We Can Work It Out

On learning............................

"We've all heard that we have to learn from our mistakes, but I think it's more important to learn from successes.  If you learn only from your mistakes, you are inclined to learn only errors."
-Norman Vincent Peale

And the leading cause of death, of course,......

..............................................................................is birth.

More fun with "stylized facts" from Yoram Bauman, as the stand-up economists discourses on Hyper-inflation in Hell.

Wouldn't it be cool to be that kind of person...?

"I can feel the twinkle of his eye in his handshake."
-Helen Keller

I know you meant it just for play....................

Bill Haley & His Comets........................See You Later Alligator

On play............................................

"Play is where life lives, where the game is the game.  At its borders, we slip into heresy, become serious, lose our sense of humor, fail to see the incongruities of everything we hold to be important.  Right and wrong become problematical. Money, power, position become ends. The game becomes winning.   And we lose the good life and the good things that play provides."
-George Sheehan

Well, OK.............................................

via

Forty years ago...................................

War..................................................Why Can't We Be Friends

Small clouds..................................

"It may be commonplace to say that power and money don't bring happiness, that jealousy and pride destroy all the joy in life, and so on.  But the fact that it's commonplace absolutely doesn't stop us falling all the time into the trap of our usual preoccupations -- gain and loss, pleasure and pain, praise and blame, fame and obscurity -- and feeling totally vulnerable to them.  It's not every day that someone tries to stab us in the back, but it's in every moment that we're the prey of our negative emotions ... Small clouds, as they say, don't bring rain.  It's when a thought first arises that you have to do something about it, not when the emotions it engenders get completely out of control.  If you don't deal with the spark, what hope do you have of doing something when the whole forest is on fire?"
-Matthieu Ricard, as excerpted from here

Fifty years ago.................................

The Supremes.......................................I Hear A Symphony

Remember........................................

via

Sixty years ago....................................

The Chordettes.....................................................Mr. Sandman

Life coaching......................................

Tuned to a natural E.......................................

The Beatles.........................................Baby You're A Rich Man

Damn good questions..........................

      It's true that biology and theoretical physics have brought us some fascinating knowledge about the origins of life and the formation of the universe.  But does knowing such things help us elucidate the basic mechanisms of happiness and suffering?  It's important not to lose sight of the goals that we set ourselves.  To know the exact shape and dimensions of the Earth is undeniably progress.  But whether it's round or flat doesn't make a great deal of difference to the meaning of existence.  Whatever progress is made in medicine, we can only temporarily treat sufferings that never stop coming back, and culminate in death.  We can end a conflict, or a war, but there will always be more, unless people's minds change.  But, on the other hand, isn't there a way of discovering an inner peace that doesn't depend on health, power, success, money, or the pleasures of the senses, an inner peace that's the source of outer peace?
-Matthieu Ricard, as excerpted from here

When intellectuals have their sway.....................Or, be careful what you wish for..................

The guiding notion of the Enlightenment, and later of Marx and Lenin's 'scientific' socialism, was that henceforth the alliance of happiness and justice would no longer come about through the individual quest for wisdom, but through the rebuilding of society as a whole.  And before building a new society, the old one first had to be completely destroyed.  It was at the end of the eighteenth century that the idea of revolution took on its modern meaning.  Personal salvation was from then on subordinate to collective salvation.
-Jean-Francois Revel, as excerpted from here

Games......................................

"There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.   And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all."
-Dr. Seuss

“Life is more fun if you play games.” 
-Ron Dahl

“We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!” 
-Benjamin Franklin

If they are losing that much money.......

...................................that means we must be gaining a fair percentage of it.  Good for us.  We went to Get Go a few days ago to buy gas.  While the sign at the station said $1.95 per gallon, using my Sweetie's Giant Eagles reward card, we actually paid $.75.  We filled up both cars.  Compared to what we paid last Spring, we saved over $60.00.  I was giddy for the next twenty-four hours.  Doesn't take much to make me happy.

Random stuff I found on my computer...............

Fifty years ago.....................................

The Beatles.........................................................Act Naturally

The short answer is........................................

.............I hardly ever eat there anymore, and my kids never do.

Why I was a history major...........................

via

Important information..............................

................................................that I plan on using tonight.

On taking............................................

........................................................sometimes it is appropriate.

Happy 5th Anniversary to this blog..............

Seems like just yesterday, but it was January 22, 2010 that this little adventure began.  Five years and 13,400 some odd blog posts later, I must say its been fun.  I've met, literally and figuratively, some wise and fascinating folks.  If I may be so bold, I claim them as friends.  I've been exposed to some fabulous, and valued, influences.   My horizons have been broadened and I feel amply compensated for my efforts.  Thank you all.

Fifty years ago..................................

Beach Boys................................................Help Me Rhonda

Mostly snow covered now.................

The Brothers Four.................................................Greenfields

Only in America.......................................

      There was no incentive, then, to move higher.  And perhaps the office of governor of New York was high enough for one lifetime.  It already marked an extraordinary rise for a boy born in Queens, behind a shop, to immigrants from Italy who spoke no English;  for the son of a grocer in a stained overall who saved crusts for those even needier than he was.  The boy Mario had soared through baseball, law and politics, but to them he was still the lucky scamp, and he would test out his policy ideas on Momma later to get her earthy, tart reaction.  His ideal America was just this, a bickering, diverse family in which each member nonetheless worked for the enterprise and all were in it together;  and where almost no one, certainly not he, so indulged the sin of pride as to think themselves worthy of the very highest place.

-excerpted from this The Economist obituary for Mario Cuomo

Sides.......................................

“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.” 
-Abraham Lincoln

Fifty years ago..........................................

Del Shannon.......................Keep Searching (Follow The Sun)

Opening paragraphs...............................

      The real way positive psychology got its start has been a secret until now.  When I was president-elect of the American Psychological Association in 1997, my e-mail tripled.  I rarely answer phone calls, and I never do snail mail anymore, but because there is a twenty-four-hour-a-day bridge game on the Internet, I answer my email swiftly and diligently.  My replies are just the length that fits the time it takes for my partner to play the hand when I am the dummy.  (I am seligman@psych.upenn.edu, and you should feel free to email me if you don't mind one-sentence answers.)

-Martin E. P. Seligman,  Flourish:  A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being

Last night was poker night.......................

The Little Things...................................

      There are five key relationships:  a relationship with God, a relationship with the members of our families, a relationship with others, a relationship with ourselves, and a relationship with things.  If we fail to follow this order, we can be certain that, sooner or later, problems will arise.
      After all, true happiness does not come from things themselves or from what we accumulate or achieve.  True happiness comes from the right relationship with God, others and things.  Things and achievements -- of course it is always good to have them -- may provide undeniable pleasure.  but it is the kind of a momentary and evanescent pleasure and can never provide the deep fulfillment one is looking for.  Favorable circumstances may produce enjoyment, but they are unable to provide fulfillment.
      If we were overly concerned about big things in life, we would usually miss the little things that make all the difference in the world.  Ironically, these little things can be more important than the big things because they embody, in one way or another, our relationship with God, with others, and with ourselves.  They tell the story of our subtle connections, exhibit our values, and define our very identity.  No mater what, we cannot escape this simple truth:  we do what we are.  Confucius put it this way:  "And remember, no matter where you go, there you are."

-Jean Maalouf,  Your New Adventure:  Make the Most of the Rest of Your Life

Fifty years ago................................

The McCoys...............................................................Fever

Turn out the lights......................................

The Doors.........................................When The Music's Over

Forty years ago.................................

Carl Douglas...............................................Kung Fu Fighting

Day by day.....................................

Fifty years ago........................................

The Supremes...................................Stop! In The Name of Love

Good advice in unsteady times..................

Sixty years ago.....................................

Bill Haley & His Comets...........................Rock Around The Clock

What's with the Eggo............................?

Guess I'm slowing down.............................

The Beach Boys.................................................Disney Girls

Victor Davis Hanson..............................

..............................is not impressed by "multiculturalism."

If the Western establishment were truly moral, it would reject multiculturalism as a deductive, anti-empirical, and illiberal creed. It would demand that critics abroad first put their own house in order before blaming others for their own failures, and remind Western elites that their multicultural fantasies are cheap nostrums designed to deal with their own neuroses.

Finally, it would also not welcome in newcomers who seek to destroy the very institutions that make the West so unlike the homelands they have voted with their feet to utterly abandon.

Full essay is here.

Oops..................................................

via

A question for today.................................

Is a hippopotamus a hippopotamus, or just a really cool Opotamus?

-Mitch Hedberg

Fifty years ago..........................................

The Temptations....................................................It's Growing

Set out.............................................

      In theory, there are said to be eighty-four thousand approaches, or entrance doors, in Buddhism.  The large number is to indicate that, in fact, anyone can start wherever they are.  To climb Mount Everest, you could set out from the traffic jams of a Parisian suburb or from the lush greenery of a Nepalese valley.  The goal is the same, but the ways you might travel are different.  In the same way, on the spiritual path we all have to start at the point where we find ourselves, each with a different character, set of dispositions, intellectual and belief structure.  Everyone can find the particular means tailored to their needs, allowing them to work on their thoughts, gradually set themselves free from the yoke of negative emotions, and finally to perceive the ultimate nature of the mind.
-Jean-Francois Revel and Matthieu Ricard,  The Monk and the Philosopher:  A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life

Others.................................................

All the joy the world contains
Has come through wishing happiness for others.
All the misery the world contains
Has come through wanting pleasures for oneself.
Is there need for lengthy explanations?
Childish beings look our for themselves,
While Buddhas labor for the good of others.
See the difference that divides them?

-Shantideva

On faith and reason................................

"Faith becomes superstition when it parts from reason, and even more so when it goes against reason.  But when it is combined with reason, it prevents reason from remaining just an intellectual game."
-Andre Migot

Discovery............................................

Deep within ourselves, it's important to maintain invincible compassion and inexhaustible patience.  It's not a matter of either passively submitting to the mercy of anyone who attacks us, or trying to eliminate them by force (there'll always be more to come), but discovering that our major adversary is the desire to harm others - something we'll need to combat mercilessly.  That's what we have to understand and, as much as we can, get others to see, too.
-Jean-Francois Revel and Matthieu Ricard,  The Monk and the Philosopher:  A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life

Flows to the source...............................

The Beach Boys..................................Long Promised Road




So hard to answer future's riddle
When ahead is seeming so far behind
So hard to laugh a child-like giggle
When the tears start to torture my mind
So hard to shed the life of before
To let my soul automatically soar

But I hit hard at the battle that's confronting me, yeah
Knock down all the roaddblocks a-stumbling me
Throw off all the shackles that are binding me down

Sew up the wounds of evolution
And the now starts to get in my way
So what if life's a revelation
If the mind speaks of only today
So real, the pain growing in my soul
Of climbing up to reality's goal

But I hit hard at the battle that's confronting me, yeah
Knock down all the roaddblocks a-stumbling me
Throw off all the shackles that are binding me down

Long promised road
Trail starts at dawn
Carries on to the season's ending
Long promised road
Flows to the source, gentle force, never ending, never ending

So hard to lift the jeweled sceptre
When the weight turns a smile to a frown
So hard to drink of passion nectar
When the taste of life's holding me down
So hard to plant the seed of reform
To set my sights on defeating the storm

So I hit hard at the battle that's confronting me, yeah
Knock down all the roaddblocks a-stumbling me
Throw off all the shackles that are binding me down

Oh, yeah-eah-eah-eah

Hit hard at the battle that's confronting me, yeah
Knock down all the roaddblocks a-stumbling me
Throw off all the shackles that are binding me down

Oh, yeah-eah-eah-eah

Hit hard at the battle that's confronting me, yeah
Knock down all the roaddblocks a-stumbling me
Throw off all the shackles that are binding me down

I'd love to see you

About the journey.................................

"Start today.  Do not expect blistering success every day.  Expect setback and anguish.  But that's life, growth and how we get really, really good:  sticking to the path and finding alternative routes."
-Nicholas Bate

Defying....................................

"There is always a God beyond our concept of God because our concept of God is a finite view within infinity, always  existing on one circumference of the infinite network of concentric circles.  At the center is the God beyond God, beyond knowing, transcendent, defying both control and description.  It is to this ultimate source that we all are tethered.  It is to this that all great traditions point, knowingly, or unknowingly, incompletely, with differing degrees of intensity or richness."
-Timothy Carson,  The Square Root of God

A Word About Transitions................

Moreover is not a good way to begin a poem
though many start somewhere in the middle.

Secondly should not be placed
at the opening of your second stanza.

Furthermore should be regarded
as a word to avoid.

Aforementioned is rarely found
in poems at all, and for good reason.

Most steer clear of notwithstanding,
and the same goes for

nevertheless, however,
as a consequence, in any event,

subsequently,
and as we have seen in the previous chapters.

Finally's appearance at the top
of the final stanza is not going to help.

All of which suggests (another no-no)
that poems don't need to tell us where we are

or what is soon to come.
For example, the white bowl of lemons

on a table by a window
is fine all by itself

and, in conclusion, so are
seven elephants standing in the rain.

-Billy Collins

Act.................................................

“However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?” 
-Gautama Buddha

Fifty years ago.......................................

The McCoys..................................................Hang On Sloopy

Chilling...................................................

While us folk who borrow money to invest in real estate are pretty happy with the recent low interest rate environment, at least some of us tend to worry a bit about deflation.  We are not alone:

Putting it all together points to rising risks of deflation in the US. There is absolutely no way the Fed can raise rates in this environment. In fact some Fed officials are quite open about taking any 2015 rate hikes off the table.

Back story, with all sorts of charts, from the Sober Look blog.
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And a good day it is..................................

On forgiveness...................................

‘Even the stuff that forgiveness was supposed to be good for – stuff like murders … it’s so rare,’ he told me. ‘More important is can you forgive your brother-in-law for being annoying? Can you forgive traffic? Those things happen every day. Big things? They happen once in a lifetime, maybe twice. It’s a waste of forgiveness. That’s my perspective. But forgiveness is really important for smoothing over the normal, interpersonal things that rub everyone the wrong way.’
-as excerpted from this The Dish post

On my way back to you.............................

Kris Kristofferson...........................................Why Me Lord

Just saying.............................................

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Proof (as if you needed any) that there is a God...

Fifty years ago.........................................

The Beatles.................................................Eight Days A Week

Zen Bagel............................................

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Testing............................................

1. Jack is looking at Anne, but Anne is looking at George. Jack is married, but George is not. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person?

• A) Yes
• B) No
• C) Cannot be determined

I will confess to answering too quickly and incorrectly.  Question (and answer) and back story, can be found here.