I am finding it increasingly hard to relax in a car when I am not driving. I admit, that’s a psychological problem I need to resolve, but I can’t work on that if I don’t arrive in one piece…
Happy Sink-Hole de My-Ohhh!
You may be wondering what that means. I did too when it came to me. After a bit of absent minded reflection, I came up with the following.
When you’re out wondering around in your truck, or possibly hiking or mountain biking, and you hit a sink-hole, also known as a pot hole, the best you can do is shrug it off. Perhaps, if you need to exclaim something out loud in frustration, it’s probably best to simply let out a loud “My-Ohhh” and keep going.
He’s an excellent companion on the road. He sleeps on the seat next to me and occasionally crawls onto my lap for a bit of attention. When we are offroad he’s very engaged in where we are going. He will stand on my lap with his front paws on the window, carefully observing the terrain. He doesn’t seem to mind the bouncing.
A Happy Birthday to all of you born on May 3rd. You know who you are, and by the way, thank you for being a part of my life (those of you I have met).
I look forward to many more wonderful years sharing this journey with you (both of you).
If School Busses are passing you on the right, you are in the wrong lane. Yes, naturally there is a story behind that, but there is no need to share that here…
Today I’m going to celebrate the labor movement, a.k.a. International Workers’ Day. If that’s not your deal, then perhaps celebrating the ancient spring agricultural festival is more to your liking, both are traditional May Day activities. I’m also choosing to avoid writing anything political today because the digital panopticon is coming, when it arrives, sooner than we would like it to, I want the AI subversive identification filters to find one page on this site that it can’t use as the basis for a criminal indictment against me… assuming indictments are still needed…
Yes. That is political…
The author does a clever job of setting up the reader to expect the book to end with a murder. The balance of the story presents the evidence why we should or should not accept that conclusion as postulated. The book ends dramatically and has a satisfying conclusion. Well written and entertaining but a bit long.
If you are honest, people may deceive you.
Be honest anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfishness.
Be kind anyway.
All the good you do today will be forgotten by others tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
This strikes me as beautiful.
A simple truth, repeated as often as it is ignored, is that if you tell a child it can do absolutely anything, or it can’t do anything at all, you will in all likelihood be proven right.
So true.
The only thing the sport gives us is moments. But what the he’ll is life, Peter, apart from moments?
That’s not just true of sports, it’s true of all life’s events.
The first thing that happens in a conflict is that we choose a side, because that’ easier than trying to hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time. The second thing is that we seek out facts that confirm what we want to believe.
That’s where intellectual debate enters, or should enter. We have too little of that don’t we?
Who would you pull out of the freezing water first if the lifeboat only had a limited number of places?
Your family.
What is community? It is the sum total of our choices.
What is friendship, family, community, country? Same as above.
One day very soon everyone around them will simply pretend that this has never happened. Because the family does not lose.
The quote is about a rich influential family. This is the problem with money, it can find more ways to prevent losing than those without money can.
Odile’s sister Lily.
I tried to say I would, but fear stole my voice. After a long moment, she pushed my body from hers and looked at me. Trapped in Mom’s mournful stare, I remembered things she’d said: Babies sleep through the love. A gaggle of geese, a murder of crows. People are awkward, they don’t know what to do or say. Don’t hold it against them; we never know what’s in their hearts.
Odile.
I had learned that love was not patient, love was not kind. Love was conditional. The people closest to you could turn their backs on you, saying goodbye for something that seemed like nothing. You could only depend on yourself.
Odile reflecting on Lawrence and Margaret.
There was a peculiar current in the air. He’d gone from charming to condescending; she’d become wooden. I remembered Maman’s advice to cousin Clotilde: Make the courtship last as long as you can. Once you marry everything changes. Was this what Maman had meant?
Odile decides to stay in Paris after the Nazis occupy the city.
Remaining had bee the right choice. If her parents had taught her one thing, it was to stand her ground, whether dealing with a malicious schoolmate or the domineering cataloger act the Library of Congress. You’re nothing without principles. Nowhere without ideals. No one without courage.
Odile talking to Lily.
Well, ma grande, that was the first lesson I learned as a young wife. Sometimes, when you win, you lose. I got rid of the stuffed head—the garbage man picked it up when Buck was at work. But he was angry for a good long while.
Professor Cohen to Odile. Odile is upset with her father.
Your father’s old, he won’t change. And dogs don’t have kittens, so you’re as stubborn as he. The only thing you can change is the way you see him.
A passage for its sheer beauty, Boris is the reference librarian at The Paris Library. He is shot in his home by Gestapo. I read it three times.
He didn’t remember falling, didn’t feel his head hit the floor. He sensed Anna beside him, saw the red run down his shirt over her ashen hands. He heard the Nazis shout. It was all too much. Boris longed to slip up the spiral staircase, to walk along secluded rows of books, to lose himself in the sweet quiet of the Afterlife.
The novel has a beautiful ending. The story movingly describes the true nature of friendship, how easily it can be lost, how important it is to cherish it and how important it is to hold on to it.
Don’t listen when someone tells you not to bother a person—reach out to make a friend. People don’t always know what to do or say. Try not to hold that against them; you never know what’s in their heart. Don’t be afraid to be different. Stand your ground. During bad times, remember that nothing lasts forever. Accept people for who they are, not for who you want them to be.
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
(Shakespeare actually stole that from Seneca.)
I know I’m a fool. Name me a bunch of people that think themselves wise and I’ll give you an “Administration.”
It is important to acquire knowledge, but it is more important to acquire knowledge around knowledge (sometimes referred to as wisdom).
We are living in an age where some knowledge is enough for a few to make them think they know everything.
I’m tired of tyrant talk. Every preachy word seems calculated to win a vote from some group of voters. I have yet to hear a cogent explanation reinforcing a policy decision. It’s clear, at least to me that there is no policy behind the policy decisions. Correction: The policy behind the policy decision is the aggrandizement of power and wealth and political control.
I live in fear that Trump will find a way to serve beyond the constitutional limit of two terms.
I saw a bumper sticker that said, “don’t blame me, I voted for Trump.” I live in fear that person will never understand their culpability.
I live in fear I will have to live with my children. I love them, but they don’t deserve that.
I live in fear America as I know it, as I was taught it, as I have experienced it, is gone. I live in fear my children won’t the same experience I have had.
All I see around me is greed and self interest, by the highest, most privileged people in our country. It feels like there is nothing I can do to change that.
My hope is that, in my lifetime, I can live again without fearing what the future holds for us.
You haven’t experienced Nirvana (or as close as we can get to it musically) until you’ve heard Joe Robinson’s rendition of “Europa,” (Earth’s cry, Heaven’s Smile).
When I listen, I feel the wonder of the universe, the potential for beauty that we all possess. My wish is that everyone could experience the joy, the amazement, the hope, that this song brings to me.
I’m a bit up in years, still this song gives me hope that the world has more to offer all of us than what we are being told to expect. The messages we receive daily from the people that presume themselves to be our leaders are off the mark. Listen to this song and you will know the true path forward.
Note: Carlos Santana wrote “Europa” and performed it beautifully, as did Gato Barbieri, but Joe Robinson’s virtuoso guitar is really the best. Take a listen on Spotify: Europa.
I think I understand why Trump is bent on tariffs. As difficult as it is to admit this, I think he is motivated by the desire to onshore, a desire to bring manufacturing back to the United States. I’m also certain that is not his only desire, but I won’t delve into his other motivations here.
The problem is that on shoring is extremely complicated. It can’t be achieved by making the cost of foreign goods more expensive. That is an idiotic notion. Making the United States the word leader in manufacturing requires more than the stroke of a pen. It will take decades of work. Building infrastructure, hard and soft. Hard: facilities. Soft: Education and training. Tariffs can’t accomplish those things. Needless to say, government would have to play a very active role in both of those arenas. Not something that can be accomplished in a “cost cutting” environment.
There is another complication. I believe the goal of on shoring antithetical to interests of the monied class in America. On shoring would likely bring about a restructuring of wealth in America. Outsourcing has created wealth in America for an influential few. That would naturally impact those few if manufacturing were brought back on shore. I find it hard to believe the newly created money class in America that relies on the “investment driven” money that outsourcing creates would be willing to get behind a transformation that would mean less wealth for themselves.
This is a hand-rolled, ad-free, AI-free, algorithm-free website. This bit of written consciousness allows me to share my enthusiasm about the things rolling around in my head. Once I release those things to these pages, I can let them go, confident that they can grow on their own (or not) with no further guidance from me.
Reading this is totally optional and not even necessary. If you do, please recognize that you do so at your own risk. Shalom.
Inflict severe damage to:
Quite the stunning list of achievements if it can be pulled off. wait a minute, I think that might be old news.
Truth is a restraint on power. Therefore, the first thing a would-be tyrant must do is perfect the art of lying.
Take a moment out of your busy day, busy destroying America, to ask your beloved ChatGTP this question: “Is President Trump breaking the law?”
Read carefully the answer. Apart from Ed Martin’s vocal defense of Jan 6 rioters, (a hand picked Trump appointee) the answer given does an excellent job of revealing what little regard Trump has for the law.
It’s unclear to me why this hasn’t opened your eyes to the sort of man you are cozying up to. Is making money so important to you?
According to research, we resist change for some very deep rooted reasons:
To make matters worse, it’s now recognized that behavioral patterns can be genetically encoded and passed from generation to generation. This is referred to as epigenetic coding.
Where am I going with this? If you are watching the news and what you see seems unbelievable to you, it’s likely because of these innate predispositions working against you. Now that you know how your brain is reacting when it takes in the daily news cycle, take a moment to remind yourself that you are predisposed to looking the other way, and take a second look with fresh eyes.
It’s been 80 years since World War II ended. Those 80 years will go down in American history as the best years America has put together. We’re now launching into a new era, an era of degradation and decline. Led by Donald Trump, the world will be changing dramatically and not for the better. Trump has placed tariffs on almost every country, except Russia. Why is that? It’s not just because he loves Putin, I think he has bigger plans in mind. It sounds crazy, but I think he’s planning a new alliance with Putin, a merger if you will between the United States and Russia. I’m not sure what the objective is other than simply to jointly rule the world. If extremists on the right can cook up conspiracy theories then so can I. It wouldn’t surprise me if Trump and Putin have been planning this for the last four years. If it happens, it’s going to make Trump voters look very, very stupid. Sadly, that will be small consolation. If it doesn’t happen, I’m happy to take my lumps for getting overly excited. It seems to me there are not enough people getting excited today about the path that is being set for us.
I’d like to play catch with someone. A baseball glove and a ball. What a joy that would be. Some of my best childhood memories are playing catch, mostly with friends. In the driveway, in a vacant lot, anywhere we could. I would ask my dad to play catch with me but that wasn’t his deal. If I didn’t hit him in the chest he would get annoyed with me. I’m not sure what part of “practice” he didn’t understand. That’s okay, I had friends to play with. The problem is, today I don’t know anyone with a desire to pull out the leather and toss a few.
That’s too bad. You’re never too old for a game of catch.
A relatively unknown religion from most peoples perspective. I recently learned that adherents don’t really think of it as a religion. A good percentage don’t even believe in a god, or only loosely believe. There are Christian Quakers, Hindu Quakers, Buddhist Quakers, and many other “denominations.” A part of me wishes I had stumbled into their belief system when I was younger.
“We favor queries over strictures because of a concept known as ‘continuing revelation,’ or the idea that we cannot know all there is to know, and we will always later realize that we were wrong. The principle has helped me cultivate humility and compassion for myself after missteps. Because there can be no one best way…” -Gail Cornwall
The world could do with a lot more humility and compassion, that much is clear…
Do you own a Tesla? If you do, you should think carefully about trading it in…
The best way for you to get rid of it would be to simply burn it, that’s what’s happening to Tesla stock. If you really love your vehicle and you don’t want to get rid of it, you can wait till the revolution comes. When it does, someone will burn it for you…
I’m finding it easier to listen to blues songs. Partially because of the stress we are all under these days, it just seems to be a good fit. I know I’ve become more emotional, I sometimes cry when I listen to a good blues song. I told my doctor that and she said, “that just means you’re human.” I hope she’s right, but what does that mean for people that don’t listen to blues music?
When you read the title, I suppose your first thought was, “oh, he’s being melodramatic.” You’re wrong, I’m prescient. It would be good if I were wrong, but all signs indicate that I’m not.
Trump has signed an Executive Order stating that the Executive has broad authority over the management, “the integrity,” of federal elections. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Constitution grants Congress limited authority over the place, time and manner of federal elections and nothing more. There is no stated role for the Executive under the Constitution. Trump is weaving from whole cloth a new role for the executive, one never asserted before, one ensuring his chances for himself and his party to remain in office basically forever. Trump has told us he would seek a third term and he told us there “were ways.” Now we see exactly what he has in mind.
One thing is clear about the Supreme Court, they are afraid to call anything unconstitutional. We’ll see what Roberts does with this one when it reaches him.