What Passes For Wisdom Around Here

 People incapable of faith more often find refuge in certainty than doubt.

Sometimes the faith to believe in a miracle comes easier than the gullibility to believe in the rational explanation.

Everyday life for a mortal being is mostly about doing things today that won't matter tomorrow, therein accounting for their urgency.

Generally speaking, the more you learn of how the world works, the less you blame yourself.

Most happiness, like most worry. depends pretty much on how small a thing you can make important.

Me, Myself and You

 The most life-changing "what if" we ever ask is, "What if it isn't all about me?"

The trouble with caring only about yourself is that it's always the first step to not caring about anyone. 

What you discover about self-love is that it doesn't last, and it's the devil to go your separate ways.

Today's Deep Thought:  "A miracle is something without which whatever happened would have taken a miracle."

In Every Moment That You Share

We shared a vow to love forever.

Now life's a fading winter's day,

And bent with age I fear "forever"

Was always just some fond cliche'.

But then I feel your glance upon me,

And in your eyes that light sublime,

And, lo, I realize, "forever"

Had never anything to do with time.

For when a love's a boundless loving,

And when with heart and soul you've cared

Then truly have you loved "'forever"

In every moment that you've shared.   

Tender Subjects

 I asked, "How can anyone who really knows me ever love me?" only to discover that it was the only way anyone ever would.

"It's not easy -- loving someone through the chinks in their armor -- especially when the love they return is so often trapped inside."

"To truly know someone is to know the thing they never speak of -- and to recognize the silences that speak of it."

It Seems Backwards

 It seems backwards.  In the callowness of our youth, we are asked to decide on education, career, marriage and parenthood.  In the experience of our old age, we are asked to decide on what to have for lunch.

Fate vs Free Will

How do I reconcile Fate and Free Will?  Well, here's an attempt.

At birth we are given a jigsaw puzzle with a picture on the box.  We are not required to construct that picture.  We are just required to use the pieces in the box.

~~~

Six Thoughts In Addition To The Previous Ten

Genius is the ability to do what no one thought possible, and to do it in a way that can clearly be improved upon.

One thing you can learn from your dog is when to go lie under the dining room table and await developments. 

You'll know that AI has completely replicated human intelligence when it forms a Flat Earth Society. 

If Time were to pause, say for ten minutes, how exactly would it know when to start up again?

Never act for "a whole list of reasons."  Rarely does a compelling reason occur as part of a list.

It is perhaps fortunate that the intelligence it takes to be a human being is not a requirement for admittance into the species.

Ten More

 I wish that politicians who can't add 2 + 2 would stop saying, "By my calculus... ."

We all have a life story, and the clue to the ending is not necessarily in a chapter already written.

It's curious how so many people who are old and cynical believe exactly what they were taught when they were young and gullible.

There is this sense you get in old age of having outlived your completed memoirs.

One of the easier questions to answer in life is why you have so little when you ask so little.

The strongest person is vulnerable in some way, and the weakest person strong in some way. In exactly what way neither knows until they are tested, and in fact, until they are tested, neither knows which person they are.

Maybe the world is made such a perilous place so that no one would ever think they were meant to face such peril alone.

You get to an age when fewer things pique your curiosity than pique your don't-give-a-damn.

In explaining one's self to others, one should make especially clear the part where the explanation is over.

 

After a lifetime of receiving consolation prizes, I finally finished first and discovered that it is not only more gratifying but more consoling.

Happy Michaelmas!

September 29, Michaelmas Day, is almost upon us. There's still time, however to send a greeting to a friend or relative.  Why would you?  Well, here are a few reasons you might.

To a Friend:

Here's wishing you a Michaelmas
That's cheerful, warm and homy
And filled, dear pal, with mem'ries of
The fifty bucks you owe me.


To a Neighbor:

Dear neighbor, just a word to say,
Wish you well this Michael's Day,
Wish you joy in everything,
Wish return of following:

-- one lawn rake

-- one weed trimmer
-- one pair garden shears
....


To a Sister:

A cheery card to darling Sis
To wish you Happy Michaelmas,
And just to mention, by the way --
I've had Mom since Labor Day!

Just Sayin'

I've just been to a seance.  Everyone sat around trying to conjure up ghosts from the past.  No, wait, that was my class reunion.

The devil on God:  "If you ask me, He does have a tendency to demonize His opponents."

I am not your dog, but if every time you saw me, you gave me a backrub, I would run to greet you, too.

How to decline an invitation:  "I'd love to come.  Sounds great.  I'll really look forward to it.  Wait, Friday?"

Don't know about you, but I have never seen a high school diploma on a doctor's wall.  I mean, if you had a high school diploma, would you hide it? 

Maunderings, Old and New

 Test your self-esteem:  "If you were the last person on earth, would you be ugly, beautiful or of average good looks?"

Two things I don't have to worry about -- being liked just for my money and being liked just for my likability.

You wonder if there are people comfortable in their own skin who would still like to be somebody else, only keeping their own skin. 

If you had drop-dead good looks, and everyone you met actually dropped dead, would you ever get tired of it?

Do you suppose there are people in the world actually starving to death because they don't know how to work self check-out?

There are couples who will always be first to arrive at a party no matter how many times they drive around the block.

I'm not saying that history is not interesting, although I don't understand this obsession with its chronological order.

Thoughts From Our Resident Cynic

 There is no more fruitless exercise than trying to impress your relatives.  The only thing that impresses your relatives is your ability to fool other people.

I have never heard the words, "It's all part of God's larger plan" without wishing God had a smaller plan.

It is hard to respond to ignorance, since it rarely has any questions.

Nobody ever said, "That's a very good question" and answered it.

In Genesis, we have the story of Adam and Eve, a then-average couple living in Paradise, a then-average neighborhood.  It is the story of the insatiable human desire to rise above the average.

Thoughts for the Thoughtful

An Elderly Skeptic Looks Back

Often in thought did I question and doubt,

    But always, when stricken by grief,  

Did I find on my tongue a questing prayer

    To the God of my disbelief.

***

We all have conversations with God, the churchgoer weekly and in public, the skeptic daily and in private.

Life is an ongoing battle, the ultimate triumph finding someone to surrender to.

"You can accept a falling out that changes your plans, but it's hard to accept a betrayal that changes your memories."

As much a part of friendship as offering help when needed is accepting help when offered.

A Lone Wolf Laments

Those times I pridefully said, "No, thanks." 

Oh, how I've come to regret them.

Oh, why, when people offered to help

Did I not just smile and let them.

Speaking For Myself

All I have ever asked of a teacher is this:  "Teach me not what you have been taught but what you have learned."

What makes evil so hard to uproot is that it can usually cite tradition.

If everyone would know their own best interest, and act upon it, the world would have no need for altruism.

The difference between instruction and education?  Parents instruct their children; children educate their parents.

It varies from person to person,

One multiple doesn't suffice --

The number of times you must do it

To learn not to do it twice.

How's That Again?

You get to a time in life when you would consent to be ignored just for the attention.

There was never an awkward silence that could not be turned into a regrettable conversation.

Before there can be a theory that explains everything, one must define everything.

It is hard to have a political debate with a person whose brain has been redistricted.

There is in most religions a patriarchal strain that believes it was actually Eve who tempted the serpent.

It is rare that the circumstances that give you an advantage in life cannot configure themselves into a set or principles.

Always An Easy Way

 "There is always an easy way out, and it often comes disguised as some kind of noble act, as when you decide that someone who deserves better from you would be better off without you." 

No Need For Words

In the end a loving relationship consists largely of silences, trust having no need for words. 

 

Mental Droppings

 Where do I get my ideas?  I have a microwave with a HALF BAKE setting.

You'll know that AI has completely replicated human intelligence when there are robots who believe they were made in the image of God.

You can be happy for a reason, or you can be inexplicably happy, the latter supplying more occasions. 

The words, "winning is everything" are most often used when there is no other discernible purpose for the activity.

The truly charitable heart does not give some and hold some back but rather gives all it has and trusts that some will be given back.

You will never disprove by evidence what has always been believed despite the evidence.

You'll know that time is traveling backwards when annoying becomes cute.

Afterthoughts #2

You don't know loneliness until the person in this world you most confided in dies, and you run to tell them who died.

Whether you believe in God or you don't, it's very hard to prove the contrary.

There are few earned rewards in life that a person will not sacrifice to preserve an unfair advantage.

It is often wise to reserve judgment -- and wiser still to recognize the moment  you've been reserving it for. 

Most people have a hidden agenda, hidden mainly from their own awareness, known pretty much to everybody else.

The words, "If I had it all to do over again, I wouldn't change a thing" would make even experience want to leave teaching.

Afterthoughts #1

 A milestone in life is the day the challenge of discovering who you really are is replaced by the challenge of being the person someone thinks they married.

The most basic strategy is to get time on your side.  The most basic tactic is to sit and wait.

Evidence: a body of facts insufficient to prove anything you don't already believe.

Truth: whatever justifies your advantage in life.  If you have no advantage in life, then everything is a lie. 

Reality: a set of default perceptions for people with no imagination

Nothing unites people in a tighter bond than denying the same obvious truth.

The painter has this in common with the golfer -- that both know how hard it is to apply a proper stroke to a still object.

First Love

From somewhere there came a harmony

Of trumpets and strings and saxes, 

And the planet seemed to be standng still.

'Twas I spinning on my axis.