Simplicity, Simplicity & but a good cigar

“all my life I have seen a world that hates evil more than it loves good.”

(From the movie Luther)

            Replacing $100 bills with warm hugs, selling coffee for a few kind words, outlawing advertising and the commodification of human life, and placing priority on the quiet afternoon spent in the garden sounds like the quiet desperation of life unlived. But, in the ever misbegotten pressing need to establish worth, each human has placed in contrast their life against the rest. In return, forfeiting for each the opportunity to be something besides the other. But life punctuated by death places an urgency on the human experience that written in such short sentences often removes the possibility of developing complete thoughts. And while the answers might not be easy or presumptuous for one to undertake, there is hope that the personal narrative can be edited into a complete story/ sentence of each one as human and a part of humanity. But how does one edit the experience of life—complete the short sentences into one? How does one become human and a part of humanity? Life often never moves beyond trying to stay alive.

Doorway

 

In my hat

Sat a cat

Little ball of fur

 

In a nap

happy a cat

snore into purr

 

hat entrapped

In warm cat

Never so unsure

to do

 

1. listen to the tide and wonder if the sound of the ocean is really nothing more than the echo of the moon.

2. Pray. Pray not to escape from a moment or receive a miracle but to learn how to have a conversation. 

3. See if your thoughts make sense to someone besides yourself. Worry if they do.

4. eat

5. sing happy birthday to the next person you see.

6. pretend you are painting a picture every time you put jam on your toast

7. help a dog chase a car barking loudly as you do

8.  be patient things are best when they are ripe or cause cancer in the state of California

9. let a moment go so you can have another but try while you are waiting for the next to figure out where these moments go.

10.  walk into a classroom and give a passionate lecture until security comes

to do

 

1. practice my psycho-therapeutic doodles

2. pet a dog

3. smile

that should be enough for one day

Ten Reasons not to take a bath

 

 

 10. you do not have the proper training and the certification is too expensive. 

    9. slippery slope: if you start taking baths people might start expecting you to change your clothes, have manners, brush your teeth, drive on the right side of the road, stay awake at work, no end to what it might lead to.

    8. for the ten year old boys, you need to eat more beans so you can have a 'proper' bubble bath

    7. you are trying to be environmentally conscious and your neighbors keep visiting. This is what they call a two for one.

    6. most of them are heavy and you will probably need someone's help carrying it out the door and if you already have one why do you need to take another one?

    5. life is short enough already. Make it taller add some dirt.

    4. after all that soap and water your clothes will no longer have the needed friction additives to stay on and you are so sexy already. Also, by not taking the bath, you will probably not see yourself naked which will help maintain this delusion as well as preserve your eyesight.

    3. aged wines, cheeses, etc., get better and more expensive with time so the worse you smell and the longer your natural odors are allowed to mature the more valuable you will become and in time you will mature into a beautiful aroma sought after all around the world.

    2. the plumbing already has to deal with you using the potty chair

     1. you lost your rubber ducky

to do

 

 10. Eat a piece of cake off a stranger's plate with your fingers.

9. Listen to the questions you asked when you were younger.

8. Find a rock to skip and share it.

7. Plant a tree in your neighbors lawn.

6. Run through the streets laughing like a fool.

5. Listen to a friend tell a joke and then stare, dumbfounded.

4. Find something worthwhile to say and then don't repeat it.

3. Let your ego go so you can finally find where you are.

2. Whistle into the wind. Let the wind join your one voice.  Much better than peeing into the wind.

1. Let a conversation go silent so you can hear each other. 

The Ivan Karamazov Problem

I don’t believe in the political process. I believe in the human process. Politicians are good at deciding how to use other people’s resources. Humans have the choice to use each their own resources.

"“I must make you one confession,” Ivan began. “I could never understand how one can love one's neighbors. It's just one's neighbors, to my mind, that one can't love, though one might love those at a distance.”"
          --Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers of Karamazov.

The choice to engage change in the society we live in does not need to be a matter of policy; instead, change is the journey of tiny steps, daily choices that finally lead to one meaningful opportunity. Please. Don’t waste time making politically charged statements to amass virtual followers; rather, choose to live a life that beckons real change to those around.

Don’t take the cowardly approach of politicians and address issues from a distance. Love thy stranger, not thy neighbor; instead learn to love thy neighbor. Engage in the real world.

It is easy for a politician to talk about immigration, homelessness, etc., from the distance of a perceived morality. It is quite another thing to reach out to a struggling individual and invite them into our home and into our lives.

It is easy to label people, stereotype and categorize people. It is hard to engage, celebrate, and embrace one another. But there is so much more to myself than me. There are other people.

The growing tide in political debate and even the daily life is one day after another turning into a slowly glowing bloodbath of humanity replaced by the virtual troll.

Each person who does not agree is branded a terrorist, a nazi, a racist, whatever is most convenient and appears to be trending. But in a culture of manipulation, in the end, the manipulator even forfeits their own identity. A life of contrasts or comparisons in favor of a life of meaning and choice.

I know these posts probably seem like I am saying the same thing. I probably am, but the nice thing about only having one reader (myself) is that there is only one voice to twist my words and only one mind to remember them even if they are written down. Maybe, someday, even I will learn.