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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Monday, July 15, 2013

what it all boils down to


 I am a lucky person.
  "It is true that, on having reflected for some years now that scarcely anything was to be gained by being so, I have begun to be somewhat merry because I have been told that that is good for one's health." (Letter to the Abbé Trublet, April 17, 1761).(Letter to the Abbé Trublet, April 17, 1761). Voltaire to the Abbe Trublet from April 17 , 1761. This interpretation is from a statement in French translated by Barbara Bray and Helen R. Lane in 1979. The French quote is this: "Ayant fait reflexion depuis quelques années, qu'on ne gagnoit rien à être bon homme, je me suis mis à être un peu gai, parce qu'on m'a dit que cela est bon pour la santé."  This is believed to be the original source for the quote attributed to Voltaire "I've decided to be happy because it is good for my health." 
http://video.pbs.org/video/2300857107
wonderful video courtesy of PBS. 

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Domination

I was reviewing journal entries from a trip that I took to Seattle/San Francisco and back across the country to Maryland.  I flipped open a page to an entry in which I had sat down in a Seattle coffee shop.  There was a guy sitting at the table next to mine. I noticed him walk in and sit down and fire up his laptop.  He was attractive. Not too long after a woman came in and sat down next to him,
after requisite  small talk he proclaimed "Beautiful women will never know what it's like to be treated normally because they always become an object." I thought to myself that this probably goes for both genders.
Seen near Pike Place in Seattle.

Sometimes I See You and It Makes Me Sad

"like anything focused upon so intently the animal ally will begin visiting the novice shaman's dreams, imparting understandings wholly inaccessible to her waking mind...most importantly because the young shaman is now very informed by two very different sets of senses." Becoming Animal, David Abram p.217

Sometimes I see you and it makes me sad.

The boy fell to the sidewalk and cut his knee. He slowly pulled his leg up so that his eyes regarded the cut as though it were a small ravine. 

A stone was stuck in the soft crimson walls.  He went to pull it out, and winced, and quickly pulled his hand away.  Instead of pulling it out, he bandaged the knee up and forgot about it.  Slowly the walls of sediment settled and healed over themselves again.  The boy forgot about the stone.

However sometimes, in later years,when the weather is muggy and rainy, the stone gives him intense pain.  Not a dull constant pain, but a sharp pain that causes him to wince at inconvenient  moments.  This is when you meet him, in a wincing moment.  And this is why when you rendezvous on rare occasions he will say things like, "Sometimes when I see you, it makes me sad."