Life

This Christmas is good. So much of the year was absolutely lousy. I’m glad it’s ending on the upbeat. There are more than a few painful memories in 2008. A new Harley goes a long way towards easing a painful memory. And my in-laws Julie and Bob have come through with the goods: raffle tickets for a 2009 Harley Dyna Low Rider. ...

Once again, it’s the holidays; I’m not feeling very cheery.

“Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell, and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.” William Saroyan (1908 – 1981)

Eight forces sustain creation: Movement and stillness, Solidification and fluidity, Extension and contraction, Unification and division. —Morihei Ueshiba

The Art of Peace functions everywhere on earth, in realms ranging from the vastness of space down to the tiniest plants and animals. The life force is all-pervasive and its strength boundless. The Art of Peace allows us to perceive and tap into that tremendous reserve of universal energy. —Morihei Ueshiba

“Long you live and high you fly And smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry And all you touch and all you see Is all your life will ever be” —Pink Floyd, Breathe (second stanza) One chooses or not. Nevertheless, one is; you are; I am. At the root of not knowing who one is a failure—or a refusal—to choose. Our personalities, our identities, our ingrained patterns of behavior are all antithetical to choice. Personality, identity, ingrained behavior are the default that suffers no possible alternative, only itself. It (personality, identity, ingrained behavior) is a mechanism, the design function of which is survival—primarily /its/ survival. ...

“so far as i am concerned, poetry and every other art was and is and forever will be strictly and distinctly a question of individuality…poetry is being, not doing. if you wish to follow, even at a distance, the poet’s calling (and here, as always, i speak from my own totally biased and entirely personal point of view) you’ve got to come out of the measurable doing universe into the immeasurable house of being…nobody else can be alive for you; nor can you be alive for anybody else. toms can be dicks and dicks can be harrys, but none of them can ever be you. there’s the artist’s responsibility; and the most awful responsibility on earth. if you can take it, take it—and be. if you can’t, cheer up and go about other people’s business; and do (or undo) till you drop.” ...

If you have not Linked yourself To true emptiness, You will never understand The Art of Peace. –Morihei Ueshiba

Word of the Day Schadenfreude n : delight in another person’s misfortune We all know someone like this. Maybe we have experienced schadenfreude in our own lives. It happens when a person is deeply invested in the failure of another. It is small, sad and toxic. You might try this: for the rest of the week, observe the people in your life. Do they show empathy or schadenfreude? To whom do you feel closer?

Over on O’Reilly, Rick Jelliffe took Popular Mechanic’s 25 Skills Every Man Should Know quiz. I eagerly read through the quiz and I noticed two things. First, I eagerly read through the quiz. Second, I have smirked—on occasion—at women’s magazines that have similar quizzes. It’s all relative to what you believe is important. How did I do on the quiz? Let’s say simply that I felt rather smug. We all like to score well on tests, right? ...