For instance: Things that everyone tells you that aren’t true
Saturday, February 26, 2022
Wrong again...........................
Having said on more than one occasion that no really great music has been produced since the break-up of the Beatles, Kurt decided to prove me wrong. I surrender. I was wrong.
unnatural weather..........................
The demonologists were responding to an extraordinary situation, though not the one they imagined. From about 1560 onwards, Europe was in the grip not of Satan and his minions, but of the Little Ice Age. Wet springs, cold summers, frequent hailstorms, crop failure and food shortages became the norm. Glaciers advanced down Alpine valleys. Lake Constance froze over in 1563 and again in 1671-3. Baffled and terrified by what they saw as unnatural weather, people sought explanations and a scapegoat in the supposed maleficent practices of witches. It has been shown that phases of particularly bad weather coincided with collective panics leading to persecutions.
-Ritchie Robertson, The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness 1680-1790
No questions, no answers............
To the extent that a man is untrue to the law of his being and does not rise to personality, he has failed to realize his life's meaning. Fortunately, in her kindness and patience, Nature never puts the fatal question as to the meaning of their lives into the mouths of most people. And where no one asks, no one need answer.
-Carl Gustav Jung, from his essay "The Development of Personality"
Saturday, February 19, 2022
Downtown Newark, Ohio
Last night, My Sweetie and I ventured out to 1922 On The Square for a delightful meal and conversation. We then ambled over to the 31 West venue to share the rest of the evening with bluesy Bettye LaVette and her very talented band. A grand time was had............................
Friday, February 18, 2022
On progress........................
You could say higher spending is the goal. But all new luxuries become necessities in due time as expectations reset. I suspect part of the reason people don’t feel better off is because financial progress is better measured by wealth, not income. And wealth is just the accumulation of income you haven’t spent. So a lot of people are the financial equivalent of the exerciser who burns 500 calories then immediately offsets it with dessert and is frustrated by the lack of progress despite working so hard.
Wisdom...............................
So this is all I ask: Don’t be broken. Like what you like. Dislike what you dislike. BUT keep an eye on reality at all times and watch carefully for signs that you have overreacted. Adjust and move along. We’ll get through this.
Even more wisdom.......................
82. People who favor a "philosopher-king" assume that person would share their philosophy.
99. Do not feel compelled to finish a mistake merely because you have started it.
148. You could base an entire philosophy of life on what to ignore.
175. Never assume that people dislike a crisis.
388. If you do not have a stack of unread books at home then there is no hope for you.
Unfolds..............................
Each year we learn more about the incredible complexity of our universe. The mind staggers at the intimation of billions of galaxies, each made up of billions of stars, slowly revolving in every direction for unimaginable distances. And inside each grain of matter supercolliders reveal ever-receding constellations of strange particles streaking along mysterious orbits. In the midst of this kind of stupendous forces a human life unfolds in what is less than a split second on the cosmic scale. Yet, as far as we are concerned, it is this, our own short life, filled with its few precious moments, that counts for more than all the galaxies, black holes, and exploding stars put together.
-Mihaly Csikszentmihali, The Evolving Self: A Psychology For The Third Millennium
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Happy Anniversary Sweetie......................
to stay the course....................
Yesterday, in the middle of an internal tempest—a raging internal debate about my own capacities—I walked to the coffee shop down the road for a treat. On the way, I noticed that the cool air and warm sun seemed perfectly untroubled by the momentous issues and feelings that were swirling through my body.
Nearing the coffee shop, I looked across the street to the mini-mall that has a head store, a Curves franchise, a beauty salon, and some other shop I can't recall. There, in the window of the salon, was a hand-written sign saying: "Thank you for your devotion."
Now I know there is some logical explanation of why they put that sign in their window that has nothing to do with me. But, in that moment, I knew it was just for me. The universe had decided I needed some direct encouragement to stay the course—to have faith through the turbulence.
I laughed out loud, made a small bow, and got a warm cup of foggy-morning coffee with room for cream.
-David Rynick, This Truth Never Fails: A Zen Memoir in Four Seasons
Fifty years ago...................................
re-contextualized..................
A key to making Love unconditional is the willingness to forgive. With forgiveness, events and people are re-contextualized as simply "limited"—not "bad" or "unlovable." With humility we are willing to relinquish our perception of a past event.
-David Hawkins, Letting Go: The Pathway Of Surrender
no rift or cranny...........................
29. For a life that is sound and secure, cultivate a thorough insight into things and discover their essence, matter, and cause; put your whole heart into doing what is just, and speaking what is true; and for the rest, know the joy of life by piling good deed on good deed until no rift or cranny appears between them.
-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Twelve
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
strangely enough.......................
Practically speaking, if timesaving devices really saved time, there would be more time available to us now than ever before in history. But, strangely enough, we seem to have less time that even a few years ago.
-Benjamin Hoff, The Tao Of Pooh
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