Humble Homilies

Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth?

Job 39:1
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A few days ago I wrote an entry entitled "Spring Cleaning" and in it I put the following metaphor:

"If you bought a dozen apples and when you got home you found thirteen in the bag and one of them was full of worms, would you hold on to it because maybe it was one of those you paid for? Would you not send it immediately into the garbage? And then wouldn't you carefully examine the other twelve, and if you found another one with worms would you hold on to it because you know you paid for it? Wouldn't you rather trash it?

We should carefully examine, under the clear light of reason, all the thoughts we carry in the bag of our own thinking and quickly dispense with the wormy ones. Then we should go into the corners and closed up places of our minds and find the things that may have been there for years but need to be vacuumed up and thrown out."

When I lived in New York I would sometimes visit a Catholic church. I'm neither a Catholic nor a church goer, but it was the nearest church, one block away from where I lived. It was a quiet, serene place where I could sit and meditate about things, away from the noise of Manhattan.

It was a big old building with about a half dozen priests residing there. There was a zealous Latino whom everyone loved. There was a bumbler, a nice man but one who had trouble with his homilies. There was a lazy man who gave no homilies at all, but rushed through the service as fast as he could to get back to his poker game, or his stamp collection, or whatever his real passion was.

But thee was one old priest who was an inspiration. He was a gentle, intelligent, compassionate man with a sense of humor. (Because of his age he would sometimes have another priest assisting him. One day he introduced the second priest as the saint they were celebrating that day.) I soon discovered that he was the officiating priest every Thursday evening, so I made it a point to be there when I wasn't working.

When he sermonized it was from deep experience. He had seen everything and heard everything and hence was not stuck in the dogmatic world of religion. His main topic was on how important it is to allow oneself the freedom to pursue one's own spirituality even in the face of all the dangers and distraction of life. Referring to the scripture he would ask what good is it to gain all the riches of the world if one loses one's own soul. He identified some of those dangers as temptations to believe things that aren't true, to hold on to religion as an unsubstantial habitual practice or scripture as a lifeless reference manual without searching for the real meaning of things.

He spoke of great sacred writings from the world over and though he held to his conviction of what Christ meant to him, he didn't deny the existence of God's love in every corner of the world and in other traditions.

Simply put he wanted his congregation to watch and learn from life the true things from the false, that the (devil) will tell you lies and make you believe them and you'll never know where those lies come from. Those are the wild goats.

DB - The Vagabond
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WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 7 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

Weekend Puzzle Answer

Weekend Puzzle Answer

Nobody likes my puzzles. I think I'll stop doing them.

2 items are missing from the following sequence. What are they?
You may listen to the radio while you solve it, if you wish.

These are the months. What's missing are February and March, FM in other words, like FM radio.

JAM
J
JASON
D
---------------------------
DB
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It's A Mole Hill

Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn.

Arthur Golden
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A good Sunday morning to all my readers and to all my nonreaders.

Let's face it every day is a disaster. To one degree or another today was a complete bust. Things exploded, or they imploded. Things broke down and refused to get fixed. Other things don't work right. Things don't go the way you want them to or expect them to. You tried, you failed. So what's the solution? The solution is to throw up your hands in despair and admit your failure, your ignorance and your inability to do anything right and give up.

Until tomorrow.

I used to have an early morning radio program in a big city. I went on the air before most of my listeners were awake. As they slowly roused themselves from their sleeping mode they relied on me to tell them what day it was, what time it was, what the weather forecast was for the day, what happened in the rest of the world while they slept, etc. I would also remind them frequently that they had another chance to be brilliant and do great things. I would pepper my announcements by saying "Thank heaven we have another day on our hands." Then, since I was in a big city with a lot of commerce going on I would say things like "Make that sale." "Win that case." "Pass that test." Or "Sign that contract."

People would often write and tell me how much they appreciated that gentle boot in the rear as they were getting ready to leave the home and head out into the jungle.

When you get up tomorrow remember that you have another day on your hands, and make a mole hill out of that mountain of trouble you made last week.

DB - The Vagabond
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Weekend Puzzle

2 items are missing from the following sequence. What are they?
You may listen to the radio while you solve it, if you wish.

JAM
J
JASON
D

Good luck
DB
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The Old Hat

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.

Raymond Lindquist
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I have very little use for traditions. I admit there are some traditions that lend enhancement to certain holidays and celebrations. Rituals, practices and artifacts have grown up over the years that people rely on to help identify and establish the meaning and enjoyment of many special occasions. Those are harmless traditions, and even though I count them unnecessary in my life, I don't deny their importance to others.

What bothers me is rut thinking, traditional ideas and practices that keep people stuck in a certain way of thinking that is harmful and prevents any degree of ingenuity and imagination from being used.

It is strange to say that some of the most stone headed thinking I have had the disgust to witness has been in the theatre, and not only disgust but fear. Fear because theatre knocks on the door of humanity in such a profound way that it should have the conscience and commitment to suggest and prove originality and brave thinking.

I could cite hundreds of examples, probably, and they would all appear unimportant and trivial, and within the context of the situation they probably are. But they're earmarks of the kind of missing of opportunities I'm discussing.

I lost out on a role one day because I wasn't fat. There was nothing in the script about the character being fat. But the actor who played it in the original film was fat. Too many directors and producers want the production to look like the film so they hire actors who resemble the original players. How stupid.

When I played Scrooge I did not play him like Alistair Sim, even if some people expected me to. Sim made a great film and he defined Scrooge for millions of people. But when they cast me in the role they knew they were getting a different interpretation.

In one show I had to carry a live chicken across the stage. When live animals are used in professional theatre in this country they are well taken care of thanks to the animal welfare organizations. She had her own dressing room, climate controlled, and when the dressing room assignments were posted, on the door of hers was the name "Henrietta." I was miffed. Every live chicken that has ever appeared on the stage in an English speaking theatre has been named Henrietta, can't we use a little imagination, drop it and come up with a new name for her? How about Helga? Nope, she was Henrietta in the program. How unclever.

In classical theatre there are certain rules that must be followed, but how they are is open to great improvisation and creativity. In the hands of someone like Lawrence Olivier the classical characters took on dimensions not usually seen. For example, Olivier's production of "The Merchant of Venice" was not an antisemitic play, as many Jewish groups feared, rather it was a play about antisemites. Nothing was changed, but the point of view was shifted. The traditional attitude was given up and room was made for a fresh interpretation.

These few lessons point to a very important truth. Holding on to a stale idea simply because it is the tradition is an unhealthy thing for the human race. By challenging traditions and discarding the useless ones, discoveries are made, attitudes are improved and opportunities are broadened.

"Without freedom from the past, there is no freedom at all." (Krishnamurti)

DB - The Vagabond
**********************
Weekend Puzzle

2 items are missing from the following sequence. What are they?
You may listen to the radio while you solve it, if you wish.

JAM
J
JASON
D

Good luck
DB
******************

Beans

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events.

Robert Kennedy
*********************
Every day in my mailbox are appeals for money from one organization or another that is trying to do some good in the world. I feel stressed and a bit ashamed that I can't help where I know it is important. That, after I am fed and housed, I have no money left at the end of the month, due partly to my fiscal clumsiness, frustrates me. Then I think if I could afford a pittance what good would it do when so many thousands are needed to be effective, to save lives, to feed the hungry, to protect the innocent. It seems like an insurmountable problem for those who are in the battle lines against all that is wrong with the world and our society. I think of how despairing it must be for those who are in dire need to have nothing because of the silence of those who don't care. I fear to be counted among those who don't care because I can't afford 10 bucks. Does it mean that one kid in the village is not to be given a bowl of beans tonight?

The truth is we cannot measure the effect of any small act we are capable of in the overall cosmic scheme of things. I save every scrap of "junk" mail that comes to me for the day when my stupid debts are paid, the debts most of which are connived up by the greedy banks who may give money to "charity" but who can afford to give much more than they do. And when the debts are paid I hope I will be responsible for a lot more than a bowl of beans.

DB
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WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 7 responses so far. Come on folks.
Have you forgotten 2010 already?

I await your answer.
DB
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Wind Music

I believe that music is a force in itself. It is there and it needs an outlet, a medium.

Maynard Keenan
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Make no mistake about it. In spite of what others may claim, New York is the City of Wind. If it weren't people would suffocate. The straight streets and long avenues create wind tunnels that stretch form the Hudson River to the East River.

One year I had a radio station job on 45th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. On my way to work one day I walked down 6th Avenue to 45th Street and the wind was so strong I couldn't turn the corner. I grabbed the side of the building to pull myself around but still couldn't do it. I had to go back up to 46th Street where the wind wasn't so strong and walk around to 45th on 5th Avenue.

I had some friends visiting me from northern New England one winter. I told them to make sure to dress warmly because New York could get very cold because of the wind. They didn't quite believe me until we turned on to 5th Avenue at Central Park East. We had to lean over in order to walk. When we reached our destination one of them said he had never felt wind like that.

There is music everywhere in the universe and most of it can't be heard. Music is a thing in itself and is content to be silent to the human ear. We can hear some of nature's music: the crashing of the waves, the rustling of the leaves, the thunder in the sky and the song of birds. But to bring out the hidden sounds we need to become a channel for them.

Some people like to hang up wind chimes on the porch and listen to the tinkling of the various tones as the breeze flows through them.
Wind chimes can be made of glass, wood or metal, they each have their distinctive sound. If you were to hang such a wind chime almost anywhere in New York City the wind would probably blow it away.

But there was one place in the city where wind chimes actually worked, on a grand scale. Some one had built a collection of large metal tubes joined together into a cluster. The collection was stabilized to the ground The tubes were tuned to various tones and as the strong winds of New York blew through them they made the most wonderful music. Nature's pipe organ.

DB - The Vagabond
**********************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 7 responses so far. Spring is coming.

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

Who Owns You?

Who has a stiffer battle to fight than the man who is striving to conquer himself.

Thomas a Kenpis
*********************
"Not forever by still waters
Would I idly quiet stay;
But would smite the living fountains
From the rocks along my way."
(Willis)

I accepted there would be troubles when I admitted myself into the world of an artist. There would be no getting off the road and no going back, though I didn't realize it at the beginning. How do I do it? I asked. And how did I continue without the gift of being a poet?

There are no excuses. A performing artist is not one who puts on shows. The play, the dance, those are the effects. They are the results of the treacherous highway traveled alone. I would not deprive anyone of such a journey. But I would warn that it goes through dangerous territory. It goes through green pastures and still waters. It goes through the poppy fields. It passes the signs that say "stop, rest, you've done enough." Those are the danger signs.

It goes up steep, slippery slopes and through dank swamps. It cuts through jungles where vipers dangle from trees, it takes you into blazing, arid deserts. It takes you through the valley of the shadow of death.

How will I survive this, is the question that frequently surrounds you and the answer is always silence. You're on your own. It takes you through the lion's den and the fiery furnace. It puts you on the front line of battle and in the hold of a slave ship.

The highway takes you out on to a stage to hear excited applause for your work, cheers, approval, anointing, love. Your cup runs over. It takes you into wealth, and then into poverty, so that you know the value of both. It teaches you not to believe everything you tell yourself about yourself.

You pass road signs that say "You are not welcome here." There are no mile markers on this highway and ultimately no company. You're on your own. And that is as it should be, until you become your own best company.

"There is only oneself facing forever the problem of one's self discovery." (Lawrence Durrell)

Has anyone reached the ultimate destination? If so that one has achieved a remarkable and necessary goal of existence, the justification for all mercy and all strength, the white stone with a new name, that person has achieved completeness. Unchallenged and divinely approved ownership of himself.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
******************************
WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 7 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

Spring Cleaning

While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.

Benjamin Franklin
**********************
In a month it will be Spring. That traditionally means spring cleaning. Time to go through that box of letters you forgot to answer, are the taxes done and the other bits of paper work, go through the closet and get some things to the dry cleaners or to your local Salvation Army or Good Will. The vacuum cleaner needs to go into some of those corners you overlook when you do the vacuuming. When it gets warm enough you need to get into the garage and straighten up. As you go through your cleaning, rearranging and freshening up you will no doubt find things that you can live without, litter, unnecessary ballast, scraps of this and that you don't even remember receiving, burdens of responsibility you no longer feel the need to bear. It's a good time for awakening, for new beginnings and fresh starts. But there is another form of cleaning that needs to be done and not just in the Spring but all year, every day.

As human being we face one insurmountable obligation. It is to understand ourselves. We may avoid the task as much as we can but sooner or later certain circumstances of life will force us to face ourselves squarely and erectly in front of our own examining committee. Then it is time for the best kind of cleansing.

There will come a point in life's journey when an awakening will come, probably more than once, a startling question or series of questions we will ask of ourselves: Who am I and who am I not?

The human being is a very complex creature, a compound of ancestry, background, up bringing, family, education, environment, hopes, aspirations, failures, successes and thousands of other influences on us. If life is a puzzle, so are we.

When the great awakening starts you gradually realize and accept that some, perhaps many, of the thoughts you think are not your thoughts. Things you think you believe are things you don't really believe, knowledge you are sure of is not knowledge at all, things you fear are merely phantoms with no substance to them at all.

Then you may ask where these ideas, thoughts and phantoms come from. They may come from some other influence but if they are phantoms then it doesn't matter where they come from. They are trash. It's an amazing thing to realize that the thought I am thinking is not my thought. The idea I have been cherishing is not my idea and if I really faced myself squarely I would know it isn't really what I think or believe. And the most dangerous are those false ideas we have formed on our own, the messes we have made for ourselves and then claim as our own.

Worst of all is that those thought, ideas, fears and beliefs have an effect on us. They are parasites eating away at our happiness and the harmony of our lives, they are not just dust collecting in the corners or taking up space in the garage, they are viciously confusing us and making life a greater burden than it needs to be and masking from us our true selves.

If you bought a dozen apples and when you got home you found thirteen in the bag and one of them was full of worms, would you hold on to it because maybe it was one of those you paid for? Would you not send it immediately into the garbage? And then wouldn't you carefully examine the other twelve, and if you found another one with worms would you hold on to it because you know you paid for it? Wouldn't you rather trash it?

We should carefully examine, under the clear light of reason, all the thoughts we carry in the bag of our own thinking and quickly dispense with the wormy ones. Then we should go into the corners and closed up places of our minds and find the things that may have been there for years but need to be vacuumed up and thrown out.

It isn't easy, neither is spring cleaning, but no one ever claimed that understanding ourselves was easy. But the essential part of knowing who we are is knowing who we are not.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 7 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

Singing With Planets

Bach is like an astronomer who finds the most wonderful stars.

Frederic Chopin
**********************
I know that most of the readers to my humble blog are not classical music lovers. If you are then you know about Johann Sebastian Bach, (1685 - 1750). Today is his birthday.

I like to say that Bach was not inspired the way Mozart, Beethoven and others were. Bach was music. Music flowed out of him like breath. He was the inspirer, the inspiration for all music that followed him.

Even if you aren't a music lover or just a Rock fan, if you can do it and haven't really listened to at least some of the music he wrote you must consider your life incomplete, at least as far as music, and all that it implies, is concerned.

Here, thanks to Krissy Knox, is the Bach Cantata #131. Enjoy the brief lecture before it, by the conductor. Then listen. Listen into it, deeply, not just to it. It's in three parts, so click to the next part as shown on the screen.

There are some amazing things happening. Both the bass and tenor solos are accompanied by a quiet descant from the chorus, something that rarely happens. The second chorus has music that could have been written in the 20th Century. The tenor solo is accompanied by a solo bass violin. Imagine that. And the final chorus is bright and lively, and very modern.
It's not just beautiful music, it's cosmic.
Enjoy
DB
##############
http://youtu.be/_JY2RsBYSEM
J S Bach - cantata BWV 131- Aus der Tiefen - Ton Koopman ( 1 )
lecture on: explanation of Bach composing the music to Psalm 131 after the fire

http://youtu.be/GmNuL-mSPeQ
J S Bach - cantata BWV 131- Aus der Tiefen - Ton Koopman ( 2 )

http://youtu.be/cU-xnyHWy2U
J S Bach - cantata BWV 131- Aus der Tiefen - Ton Koopman ( 3 )

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Weekend Contest Results

HELL'S BELLS
Last weekend people had fun with the ball.
This weekend let's play with the bells

It was a close race with three excellent entries but, a new contestant, my very own Niece, Lora, came through at the eleventh hour (actually at the 11:55 hour) with the most bells on. She gets the grand prize, a replica of the Liberty Bell in marshmallows. Good going Lora

DB

Congress Beware

In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.

Immanuel Kant
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One of the most amazing events of history is when the uprising of the common people topple a government. Hiding underneath the day to day commerce of a nation is the passion of its people for freedom and human rights. That passion is like a store house of explosives. The spark that ignites it is inevitable. We are now seeing evidence of that passion exploding out of the hearts and minds of citizens in some foreign countries where there has been tyranny, suppression, laws against liberties and powerful, dictatorial governments, unconcerned and unconnected to the people they are supposedly responsible for.

Far too often that oppression is founded on flimsy and arbitrary religious traditions. When a country is run by religious beliefs and not by reason, regulations and actions become violations against the very center of civilization.

The recent legislations proposed by the House of Representatives and various state legislatures display a serious lake of reason. To deprive American citizens of valuable programs under the ruse of balancing the budget is nothing more that playing arrogant politics with the welfare of the nation.

Where is the concern, the willingness to improve our lives instead of threatening them, where is the compassion? Most members of Congress have no idea what it is like to be poor, to be homeless, to be a single parent, to be unemployed, to be on welfare, to live a life of silent desperation. And so they are free to make decisions and implement laws to suppress us, control us, take away some of our opportunities, lower our quality of life and our ethical standards. American tyranny is not coming from the White House.

But there is a stockpile of passion in this country also. Those of us who are not sleeping with the rich , dining with the privileged, voting with the gullible or conversing with the ignorant are aware of it. Don't look for conspiracies Congress. There are none. There is anger, frustration and fear.

DB
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HELL'S BELLS
Last weekend people had fun with the ball.
This weekend let's play with the bells

The winner is the one who comes up with the most number references using bell or bells. So ring 'em up.
dbdacoba@aol.com

Good luck
DB
*************

Fading Flowers

Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life.

Thomas Jefferson
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I have often said I believe friendship is the network that holds civilization together. The true value of a friend is something we often take for granted.

Yesterday a friend asked me if I ever get depressed. I didn't identify any particular depression. I don't like depression, it interferes with my attitude, And last night I talked with another friend whom I have known for 40 years. We did several plays together and now we talk on the phone about once every 3 months, but we are good friends. He is going through some dark times and talking with him would tend to depress me. I didn't let it, for his sake as well as mine.

But reading this quote from Jefferson I am pondering my former friends and that is a depressing thing to do. I suppose it's partly due to my vagabond life, always shifting physically, mentally or emotionally, putting down roots, then uprooting myself to move on. But even so I have friends from way back who are still in my life.

People move away, one loses contact, you can't find an address or a phone number and so it goes. I have lost friends because they got married and the wife or husband didn't like me. But the worst is when someone cuts you off without a word, without an explanation and who won't take your calls, leave a message or answer a letter.. There is a man in New York who stopped being my friend because he is convinced I lied to him about an important matter dealing with money. I didn't, but I can't talk to him about it since he will not communicate with me.

As Gertrude Stein put it "Before the Flowers of Friendship Faded Friendship Faded."

A friend is one who appreciates you and is happy and complimentary if you do something good. But a friend is also some one who tells you your wrong if you do something wrong. If you didn't like my performance tell me what you think is wrong with it so I can consider it and maybe improve. If you don't like my writing and you're my friend, speak up. If you don't like me and don't want to be my friend say so, don't just disappear down a dark alley. I know what a broken heart is and can deal with it.

Sometimes I want to say "Aw. You can all go to hell!" But I don't mean it. I will always care about the people I care about and those who feel the need to apologize to me don't need to, they've already been forgiven.

DB - The Vagabond
************************
HELL'S BELLS
Last weekend people had fun with the ball.
This weekend let's play with the bells

The winner is the one who comes up with the most number references using bell or bells. So ring 'em up.
dbdacoba@aol.com

Good luck
DB
*************

Hear Them Laugh

Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.

Hermann Hesse
**********************
If there are angels they must be having a riotous time for themselves observing the human race. What could be funnier?

We gather together in order to protect ourselves from the elements. Then, since we can't be relied upon to govern ourselves, we establish governments and write laws. Then we turn government into politics. Politics allows us to take up sides based on a variety of reasons, most of them trvial, some of them nefarious. Then things become so divisive that we start brawling with each other over simple points of conduct which should be clear and obvious to everyone. The brawling turns to violence. Down comes the government.

Then we agree to monarchy, dictatorship which soon becomes tyranny.
But now we have a powerful leader to protect us from the elements. He surrounds himself with a strong army to protect us and to protect himself from us, in case his arbitrary decisions make us uppity, which they soon do. We tear down the dictator and establish a government of the people And start the process all over again. But we still haven't learned selfgovernment. Who's that chuckling.

If we have money we spend it on style and fashion. The very wealthy buy homes that are much too big for them. The women appear in some of the most outlandish get ups simply because they are designed by some world class vendor of spectacles. Those are accompanied by expensive hair dos that produce a "look." Men are just as ridiculous, remember the Nehru jacket, pink shirts, oxford grays and the duck tail hair cut? Then men begin to have either too much hair or none. I hear laughter.

Then there are the automobiles. Not vehicles to transport people around but metallic chariots to challenge the opulence of our neighbors.

We start out, having discovered fire, to eat food because it tastes good. But then we turn to eating it because it's fat free, sugar free, or low in cholesterol, never mind how it tastes. We float medicines to take care of every little wrinkle and twinge, and then we recall them because they cause more harm than good. Who's that laughing?

We create amazing communication devices and then turn them over to be used for inane and useless entertainment which allows people to discuss the intricacies of a silly plot over their decaf. We make up methods for keeping ourselves informed of world and local events, and instead of objectivity they soon become opinion sources mirroring the divisiveness of our politics. Then they have to be scrubbed clean so they can start over.

We enjoy making up conspiracy theories while we ignore the real ones. We all praise the courage and bravery of our soldiers whatever country we're from but no one asks where the weapons come from.

Then there are our sports. Balls are thrown, kicked or smacked around by people who make an astonishing amount of money doing it, so they can buy a house too big for them or a fancy metal chariot. While other sports are about knocking people down to score points. And it's all done by people wearing bizarre clothes. More chuckles.

And the arts. People doodling with paint, making squiggles and blobs, then hanging it up with a strange title and a price tag, other people even come and buy it. Ballet, two people naked from the waste down jumping around in front of everybody. Opera, a woman singing at the top of her lungs while an orchestra is trying to drown her out. Much laughter from above.

I think I understand it. In ancient Greece they would present a trilogy of tragedies on a single story and then follow them with a satire on the same story. I think that's what the Great Creator has done. After making light and firmament the stars, the sun, the moon, the earth, the creatures who swim in the sea and fly through the air, those who creep upon the ground and those four footed beasts who roam the earth, he decided to make a satire, a joke, so he created man (male and female, created he them.) then rested and left it to the angels to enjoy the joke. And they are still laughing.

DB - The Vagabond
******************************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 7 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

Leave The Cat Alone

Anyone who can laugh at another creatures suffering had better be prepared to laugh at his own.

Bate
**************
I don't want to write this entry, but a long time ago I said I would, so here it is.

One day I was standing in a radio studio with another announcer, a young, talented, intelligent fellow, when we were visited by a goon, another fellow who used to hang around and do odd jobs trying to get on the air. He told us about his friend's cat. It seems his friend, for a joke, would put his cat near a wall, then rub its fur the wrong way and watch it hit its face into the wall. The goon then broke out in a big loud laugh. The other announcer and I were quiet for a moment and then he said that it seemed the friend was a sick person. I agreed. A dark cloud fell over the face of the goon. He didn't understand it but he realized there were at least two people in the universe who did not think abusing an animal was funny.

Something I have never been able to understand is sadism, the enjoyment people get out of cruelty, Why does the human race allow and find pleasure in bull fights, dog fights, cock fights and other forms of animal savagery? The Europeans used to enjoy bear baiting and horse baiting. Now there are fox hunts which don't allow the fox to escape. I heard of one which took 7 minutes for the fox to die. There are fox hunts in America that plug up the fox hole for the same reason. Is it so much fun to watch the dogs tear apart the living fox?

When I was a kid there was a guy who would catch a frog, tie it to a string, tie the string to a stick and hold the frog over a fire watching it jump around trying to escape from the flame, The guy would laugh as if it was a comedy act. I was always glad when the frog got away.

Here in my own county there are boys who will catch a feral cat and barbecue it, enjoying the screeching. Some people will catch a dog and skin it alive. They take videos of these things and post them for others to "enjoy."

In some places they poke out the eyes of birds so they will sing. Or cut off their feet so the birds can't land and will fly until they drop dead.

I recently read an article written by a man who was interviewing some boys who had been brought in on animal abuse charges. He was a crime reporter and said he thought he was fairly hard nosed and toughened about things, but the stories of abuse some of these boys told him made him gasp.

What has been woven into the human race that allows for the level of viciousness practiced by some twisted people? What can be done to cure it? How can compassion for our fellow creatures be injected into the sadists of the world? How can the urge for cruelty be erased from human consciousness? With no laws to protect animals in unenlightened countries, loosely defined and laxly enforced laws in more modern countries, the miserable lives of some laboratory animals, the wretched events in some slaughter houses and the barbaric cooking methods of some kitchens, it seems like a totally impossible thing to convince the human race to start taking care of its animals instead of torturing them.

I'll leave this topic now except to ask one more question. Eagles are cruel, predatory beasts. They don't like to eat anything that's dead. Instead they rip pieces off the squirming, writing creature under their feet to feed themselves and their young. Why is the eagle our national symbol?

DB
*********************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 7 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

A Day In The Theatre

Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.

Robert Heinlein
*************************
Have you ever noticed that no matter how big the ocean liner or tanker is when it docks it is tied up by a rope. With all of our newfangled gadgets it is the simple rope that does the job. Something once thought up and fashioned by some brain child to make it easier to keep the boat in place. A rope.

Some of our most important inventions are very simple things that virtually never change. Think of the golf tee. Golfers used to tee off from a pile of dirt or sand until someone thought of putting a stick under the ball. Now the tee is taken for granted.

Three of the most important inventions of use in theatre are tape, Velcro and, of course, everyone's favorite two fisted, brass knuckle, steel toed, betrayer of human intentions called the computer.

There have always been quick changes in the theatre, change of costume, change of character. The ancient Greeks used to do it with masks. But that changed when theatre tried to become more "realistic" and the lace took over. To accomplish a quick costume change by unlacing and lacing up took some doing, and lots of help. Changing scenery was just as complicated, muscle straining and time consuming. It gave rise to a new skilled laborer known as the "stage hand" for whom there is now a union.

At some point in the history of the entertainment business the lace was replaced by the button which did speed things up a bit but not by much. The button was an improvement but it came with a hazard. Buttons, like laces (and actors), could come undone and sometimes in a most embarrassing way. I have found myself twice on the stage with my fly open because in the rush to get the costume on I forgot to button up or they became unbuttoned somehow.

Soon the zipper replaced the button and costume changes became speedier although there were other hazards which the zipper presented that never occurred with the button or the lace. They had the same problem of being forgotten about, leaving the actor with the embarrassing job of zipping up as surreptitiously as possible while playing the scene. Worse than that however is that the zipper could get stuck, half way up it could get snagged by the tail of a shirt. Imagine, which is neither unusual nor extraordinary, two young apprentice girls fussing over an actors fly, trying to get the zipper unstuck while his entrance cue is coming up.

But costume changes and set changes still took time and often if the changes were major the producers would put in a cross over to take up the time. A cross over is done in front of the curtain and usually consists of other characters following (sometimes chasing) each other across the stage. Other times an extra something was inserted to take up time. I read somewhere that the song "On The Street Where You Live" which was sung in front of the curtain was put into "My Fair Lady" to cover the huge set change.

Theatres were built with a lot of space above the stage called "The Heaven" where scenery could be stored when not on stage .Gradually set changes became easier with winches taking the place of pulleys and weights. Then the winces became electronically operated which gave rise to a specialty stage hand know as the "winch operator." I was a winch operator for one season in Boston. It's very tricky, but it works.

Now about tape. There are two kinds of tape used in the stage: spiking tape and glow tape. Spiking tape is used in TV and films also. It comes in several colors and is placed on the floor so the actor can find where he is supposed to be when he enters, or where he has to move if he's already on. The audience won't see us looking for our tape because we are very clever at finding it, some of us. I have know of actors who seem to have never heard of spiking tape, especially one soap opera actor who will remain nameless. Along the way some lazy person invented glow tape. This tape will glow in the dark if it has been in the light for a while. Glow tape is used to find our place when we have to enter the stage in the dark or to find our way out and not run into the scenery, as some dunderheads do, if we have to exit in the dark. Believe me in happens. I was the dunderhead who ran into the scenery during a performance of Zorba when I didn't see the tape. The glow tape is on the floor, the steps and the corners of all the furniture and other set pieces that we are liable to run into in our rush to get in place. I remember a production where I had to enter in the pitch dark on the upper right side of the stage and sit in a chair in the lower left side. When I stepped onto the stage I saw something that looked like the runway of a major airport at night. In Arthur Miller's "The Price" the second act picks up exactly where the first one ended. One actor had some glow tape on the back of his coat so I wouldn't run into him when we came into place to start the act.

Historically, about the same time glow tape became available Velcro hit the stage. There are still laces to be done up, buttons to be buttoned and zippers to be zipped, but when it comes to the quick change it's the scraping sound of the Velcro that tells the story.

The computer has become a great blessing and curse to the theatre as computers are notorious for being. With computers all the lighting effects can be preprogrammed. For example, if the lights are supposed to dim out slowly, say on a 7 count, it can be programmed to do that and the stage manager and electrician no longer have to count to seven together. if they ever did. When I started in theatre a dimmer board was a rack of large handles and to do a black out one had to jump on the rack and ride the handles down with body weight. Now the computer does it with a click.

In the theatre as anywhere else we live under the constant threat of Murphy's Law. As a result, even with all the new fangled gadgets there still have to be the skilled crew people around, the costumer with safety pins at the ready, the electrician with his eye and hands on the dimmer board and the stage hand watching.

The computer is also used in some theatres to perform complicated set changes. The massive effect in "Les Miserables" for example. But even then if a piece of scenery has to be temporarily held in place before it flies back up to heaven the stage hand will tie it off. And what will he use to tie it off?

A rope.
---------------------------------
DB - Vagabond Journeys
******************************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 7 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

My Friends

Day by day I grow more knowing in the ways of the trees and the moss and the snow on the ground, and all things are my friends.

Knut Hamsun
********************
It reached up to 56 degrees here yesterday (13.3 c) but there are still patches of snow here and there, hardly enough for a good snow ball fight. Since it was unexpectedly warm I went out and stood around without the feeling that I had to get somewhere.

Maybe it was the January thaw we didn't get in January, or the Indian Summer we didn't get last Autumn, or maybe it's the early Spring Punxsutawney Phil predicted. Whatever it was it didn't speak of the Februarys I have known in the northeast.

Every house on this street has a tree. We have our own. I went and put my hand on it. It's still asleep dreaming of buds and blossoms and maybe of the bird that comes each year, builds her nest and chatters away.

There were a series of clouds. I sat on the porch for a while and watched them, the magical sky puffs that never repeat themselves.

Down below was the determined river, catching the light and sending it back in sparkles, nature's jewels.

As I sat there I watched the cars go by. One person was in a big old hurry to get someplace while someone else was just as anxious to go in the opposite direction. I thought about movement. The river was energized to go somewhere but it's waters never stop coming. The clouds are on their way majestically. They may occasionally block the sun as they go but they can't block the light. The snow is waiting patiently to be lifted up into the air. The tree will soon awaken and start growing, slowly. One day the bird will return and start a family. Day by day things move and grow.

I thought about myself as a part of this scene, of my growing and moving here and there. We live and we accumulate a catalogue of joys and sorrows, successes and failures, gains and losses. To ponder those things it is a comfort to be among friends such as these. The tree cares nothing for my mistakes and won't leave me. The clouds don't judge me. The river will keep flowing past me even if I get things wrong. The sun shines on my justice and my injustice and so will the rain when it comes. The squirrel that runs along the wire has long ago become accustomed to my presence and is undisturbed from its activities day by day. When the bird returns she will chatter and not care if I listen or not.

I am glad to be with my friends. They are good company. They don't argue with me, criticize me or care about my faults. They keep on shining, moving and growing along with me. Day by day.

DB - The Vagabond
**************************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 7 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

New Lives

To be alone is to be different, to be different is to be alone.

Suzanne Gordon.
**************************
He lives in a cabin on the mountain side, he has a basement apartment in the village. He owns the mobile home parked behind the boarding house. There is a bench in the park where he sometimes sits when the weather is good. His office is down a long hallway in midtown. His small boat is moored off the coast. Very few people know his name. I have been searching for him.. He's a vigilante.

Time and calendars stopped the day he was born. He was 36 years old the day he was born. It takes courage to row to his solitary island where he meets with line, tone and word. I think I understand him, but not yet.

There is no more excuse, justification, illusion, fear. Human evolution is no longer responsible for action, inaction or inanity. He is of the society of the different, and he is given the task of holding the light that separates the future from the present. There is no passing that light even if he wished to. He is of the society of the alone, and thus he is ignored.

He circles the landscape and walks the streets. In his hands he carries the new born child who will become man as man has never been; was never known by those who pass him as he silently touches their lives. The ideal man who will not be known by those of us who measure goodness and rightness by our limited lives. The child/man of ideals can point the way to the present but cannot take us there. I live with them in the past and yet I think I understand him, but not yet.

All that we call, have called, will call human nature was only temporary. The call from the child of ideals is for dropping off that illusion and forming a new society, a different society, a society of the different. We can't escape it. All that we hold most dangerous, the divine, the spiritual, the cosmic, the regenerative, the selfless, the deathless, the virtuous, the kind, the merciful, the peaceful, the true are now hidden in the ideal and held silently in his hands. The ideal man/child is waiting to grow.

When will he be accepted? There is no when. Time has stopped, calendars have stopped. They were only illusions. It is possible, it is inevitable that the human will grow, has grown. And with that growth the fear of the possable will destroy itself, along with justification, excuse and limited lives.
No one should be left behind. Not even me.

DB - The Vagabond
***********************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 8 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

Weekend Contest Answer

Weekend Puzzle Answer

Let's play ball.
base ball
foot "
------- "
---------
and so on.

Starting at the top how many balls can you add. The person with the most number wins the nifty prize.

And the winner is Pacifica of the email lions. You may question some answers but there are twice as many as any other contestant.

Baseball, football, dodge ball, debutante ball, tennis ball, golf ball, bowling ball, moth balls, soccer ball, basketball, bocce ball, carpet ball, croquet ball, foos ball, hand ball, net ball, volleyball, stick ball, lacrosse ball, curve ball, disco ball, crystal ball, exercise ball, medicine ball, raquet ball, stress ball, beach ball, rubber ball, billiard ball, rice balls, meat balls, juggling balls, bounce balls, suction ball, squeeze balls, hedge ball, rugby ball, tether ball, ping pong ball, yoga ball, eight ball, baoding balls, foul ball, sushi balls, eye ball, steel balls, blue balls, wiffle ball, snow ball, odd ball.

Congratulations Pacifica you win the genuine autographed snow ball.

DB
********************

Don't Look Back

Hate will put the world in a flame. What a shame.

B. B. King
*****************
Weekend Puzzle

Let's play ball. I'll start.

base ball
foot "
------- "
---------
and so on.

Starting at the top how many balls can you add. The person with the most number wins the nifty prize.

Good luck
DB
********************

Warming Up

The actor, no less than the soldier, must be subject to iron discipline.

Constantine Stanislavki
*************************
During my acting career I had a small sign taped up on the wall in front of me when I was at my desk with the two words "IRON DISCIPLINE."

One day in New York I was talking with a young man who had just purchased a guitar. He also had a book on how to play it. "Learn How To Play A Guitar In 10 Easy Steps" or something like it. I saw the book. It showed how to finger some basic chords and how to play some songs. I asked the fellow if he did any warming up exercises since there were none in the book. He said that he couldn't be bothered by that stuff, he just wanted to play music.

Quite coincidentally, almost as a gift from the god of music, there was an interview a few days later, in the New York Daily News, with one of the current stars of the rock music world. A guitarist.

Among other things they discussed, the interviewer asked him to describe an average day in his life. And he told about having breakfast and then spending 2 or 3 hours warming up, with scales and finger exercises. He told of how important it was to help him with the music he would practice later.

I clipped out the article and sent it to my young friend. I don't know if he ever went on and mastered the guitar or not. But at least he knew what real musicians do.

I once had a part time job as an accompanist for a dance company. By the end of the morning session those dancers were flying across the studio. But they all began at the bar, bending and straightening, under the expert eye of the dance master and choreographer.

Singers vocalize every morning. I know artists who will begin the day making simple drawings before they approach the canvas. Somerset Maugham said that if you want to be a writer you have to write every day. One day at Marlboro I accidentally came upon a trombonist who was getting ready to play with the orchestra and he was rapidly playing up and down chromatic scales, not an easy thing to do on any instrument;

Actors don't have the benefit of a musical instrument, a dance studio or a typewriter to start the day. But we have our own tools and technicalities. We keep the body in shape to be able to express the most subtle meanings in the gestures we make with grace and articulation. Same with the voice. Memory is an all important tool for an actor. There was a famous actress who used to memorize a sonnet every day. We may have audition pieces that we work on to make better. But if there is a rehearsal or performance of the day we have the script and any serious actor will pick it up and work on it to gain a further understanding of it and gain more agility with the speeches.

With an actor, a musician, a dancer or a painter, just as with the writer, the mind works through the medium the artist has and it must be handled with the utmost discipline to be dependable. When you see a performing artist work you are seeing what floats on the top of the barrel, what flies across the room and not the iron sweat of discipline.

DB - Vagabond
***********************
Weekend Puzzle

Let's play ball. I'll start.

base ball
foot "
------- "
---------
and so on.

Starting at the top how many balls can you add. The person with the most number wins the nifty prize.

Good luck
DB
********************

The Story Of A Painting

Find the seed at the bottom of your heart and bring forth a flower.



Shigemori Kameoka

***********************



The painting I'm currently working on is based on a drawing I did years ago. I was performing "Other People's Money" and while the young woman had a long scene about the doings on Wall Street I was sitting at my desk with a large yellow legal pad and a pencil. My character was supposed to be taking notes. But instead I was drawing. I wasn't drawing her or any object. It was just a free sketch expressing the thoughts and feelings I had listening to her speech. Every night I would add to it.



When the show closed and the set was struck I assumed the drawing was thrown away. But one member of the crew saved it, scanned it into her computer, erased all the horizontal lines from the legal pad, printed it out and gave it to me. I've carried it in my box for years and it's now becoming a painting.



Yesterday my artist friend Bruce sent me the following. With his permission I'm passing it along. It reminds me of my own painting. Please enjoy it as much as I do.





To Paint the Portrait of a Bird



by Jacques Prévert 1949



to Elsa Henriquez



First paint a cage
with an open door
then paint
something pretty
something simple
something beautiful
something useful
for the bird
then place the canvas against a tree
in a garden
in a wood
or in a forest
hide behind the tree
without speaking
without moving …
Sometimes the bird comes quickly
but he can just as well spend long years
before making up his mind
Don't be discouraged
wait
wait even if it takes years 
the swiftness or slowness of the bird’s arrival
have no bearing on the success of the picture
When the bird comes
if he comes
observe the most profound silence
wait for the bird to enter the cage
and when he has entered
gently close the door with the paintbrush
then
paint out all the bars one by one
taking care not to touch any of the bird’s feathers
Next paint the portrait of the tree
choosing the most beautiful of its branches
for the bird
also paint the green foliage and the coolness of the wind
the dust of the sun
and the noise of the insects in the grass in the summer heat
and then wait for the bird to decide to sing
If the bird doesn't sing
it’s a bad sign
sign that the painting is bad
but if he sings it’s a good sign
sign that you may sign
Thus you gently pluck out
one of the bird’s feathers
and write your name in a corner of the painting.

Translated from the original French by Bruce Kennett

BRUCE KENNETT STUDIO

1234 West Side Road : : North Conway NH 03860

Phone 603-447-2338 : : Cell 603-387-3725
www.brucekennettstudio.com

Thank you Bruce
DB
************************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 6 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

Doing Well

Only the mediocre are always at their best.

Jean Giroudoux
*******************
None of us are mediocre unless we decide to be, or rather unless we decide not to be excellent.

I was making a film years ago. The director was a bit lackadaisical in her approach but I was working very hard to give the best performance I could. But one day the director said to me "You don't have to work so hard. You're giving it better than it deserves."

I instantly recognized that comment for what it was, a temptation to lay back to "phone it in" as we say in show business and to eschew doing my best work. Naturally her attitude made it more difficult to perform up to my own expectations, but I dug in and refused to let it intrude on what I hoped to achieve in the role.

Actually that woman did me a favor. That remark of hers has stuck with me through the years, and whenever I have felt myself giving in to an uninteresting performance I remember that moment and how it made me feel and how much I fought against it in my heart and mind. Since then whenever I felt that a script or a production was of a low level, if I got frustrated with the production or the people in it and felt that I was giving it my best work out of futility, I'd bring myself out of it by remembering not to feel I'm giving it more than it deserves.

One of my personal mantras is: if you strive for good, you'll be okay; if you strive for very good, you'll be good; if you strive for excellent, you'll be very good; if you strive for perfect, you'll be excellent, and that's good enough for me.

If a thing is not worth doing, don't do it. If a thing is worth doing, then it's worth doing well. Period. I rest my case.

DB - The Vagabond
***********************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 6 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

The Contrapuntal Mind

Ideas control the world.

President James Garfield
**************************
I once took a photograph of a stream, a clear slowly moving stream. It was a fascinating picture because there were a few autumn levees floating on the stream, reflected in it was the branch of a tree overhead still holding on to some of its leaves and some rocks on the bottom of the stream. It was a bright sunny day, the branch, the leaves and the rocks were well lit by the sun. The picture was showing three realities at once, the reflection of the branches, the gently rippling water supporting the floating leaves and the rocks underneath. All the great ideas that control the world exist on several levels.

Near where I took the picture there was a meadow with a very friendly horse. The horse came up to the fence to greet me and I took its picture also. I don't know what happened to those pictures. The got lost somewhere along the vagabond trail.

I remember that horse. It was easy to recognize it as a horse. It looked like a horse. It looked they way horses look. It was a horse. It was also a friendly horse. It behaved in a way only that horse could. It came to greet me. Other horses could greet me but they wouldn't be that horse. That horse could greet other people and probably did, but then it wouldn't be greeting me. I appreciated that animal who looked like a horse because it was a horse and a horse who was friendly toward me, because it was a friendly horse. But those experiences of appreciation enabled me to see and appreciate something else and that was the idea of horse. That horse is similar to a zebra. But it's not a zebra. A zebra is a different idea. I was beginning to see the ideas of natures creations. The ideas that control the world have several levels.

If you are fortunate enough to view a statue by Michelangelo you are seeing marble, Marble is a fascinating, beautiful stone and something to admire. You are also seeing a work of art, a figure well designed, beautifully formed and rendered for your pleasure in the medium of marble. And what you are also seeing if you are really observant is the idea of that marble statue, the idea of art. The thing in itself, its vitality and the idea of its existence. The idea of a statue which encompasses and explains all three. The idea of a horse. The idea of a stream. All the ideas that rule exist on several levels.

I am always urging people to listen to music they way I do. (Aw, here he goes again.) Music, as much as poetry, is an art form of ideas. One must look into the stream not just at it. One should listen into the music, not just to it. If you listen into a Bach cantata, when you hear a solo, you will also hear along with the song two or three other events happening in the orchestra. They are each individual expressions of the idea of music. It's called "counterpoint" and it's one of the ideas that rule the world.

DB - The Vagabond
**********************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 6 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

Inner Space

Life would be so wonderful if we only knew what to do with it.

Greta Garbo
*******************
Why does it take decades fro most of us to really understand ourselves and know what we want to do with our lives. We may have a clear enough idea once, but then things come along to cloud it, jobs, making a living, raising a family. And when we get to our senior years maybe we rediscover what it was we wanted to live for, and maybe not. I sometimes query myself about some of the things I wanted during my childhood, trying to remember.

Some people never do discover themselves, but they probably don't know it since their lives have been occupied doing something, and maybe it was important and fulfilling to them in a way.

Then there are some lucky people who got started when they were young on exactly the right highway to take them to the lives they wanted. Listening to the astronauts being interviews I note that most of them were inspired to work somehow in the space industry when they were quite young. They were intrigued by such things as the flight of Yuri Gagarin, or John Glenn, and later by Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon. The activities of the astronauts and cosmonauts are still inspiring kids today.

I wanted to be an astronaut when I was 12. Only there were no such things in those days. No one had been to the moon, no one had even been into outer space, in fact nothing had been there. The sputnik hadn't been launched yet. That wasn't going to happen for another 6 years. But I knew we would travel into outer space and I wanted to do that.

I was soon completely talked out of any venture into space by those who thought they were authorities on the subject. So I did the next best thing, I went into show business.

Like Greta Garbo I retired from my acting career. That was about 10 years ago. I was never a star like Garbo, but as she I was peppered with questions about it. I don't know what she did with her life after her retirement, she was a solitary figure who could occasionally be seen out for a stroll in Manhattan, but rarely spoke to anyone.

I enjoy watching NASA TV, seeing the launches and the work being done on the space station. I no longer think about going into space (though wouldn't that be fun?) but my life's adventure now is into a different universe. It's a mental space I lift off into now. Just as vast and unexplored. And one of these days I hope to achieve orbit.

DB - The Vagabond
*************************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 6 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

Thinking And Non Thinking

Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power.

Henry George
**********************
Do we really think? Or do we just think we're thinking. Do we think that what we think we're thinking is really thinking? Try saying that three times fast.

Physicists tell us that the mere act of observing a phenomenon will cause it to alter its behavior. Is it also true about our thinking? A good actor will be thinking his character's thoughts while at the same time thinking his own. It's a tricky juggling act particularly if observing his thoughts will change them, which they often do.

The philosopher Martin Heidegger wrote a book, which was a series of lectures entitled "What Is Called Thinking?" In it he writes "What is most thought provoking, is this - that we are still not thinking."

That brings up the previous question. Do we think we are thinking when in fact we are not? And why not? Is it due solely to our ignorance of what thinking is, or is there something about thinking itself that prevents itself? As absurd as it may seem, is it possible that the act of thinking about thinking will prevent us from thinking? That is one of the Rubik's cubes of existentialism. What does a bubble look like from the inside?

Some clever artists have designed pieces that present the same paradox. i remember one that was set up at the front of a building in New York. It was a tunnel which a spectator could walk through. From the outside it had unmistakable transparent plastic walls which ran from top to bottom as a normal wall, But when people were in the tunnel they were clearly putting their hands through the wall. I entered and found that the walls were in fact curved out so that they were impossible to touch. It was an illusion but it told a story about how we look at things and hence how we think about them. One wanted to enter the tunnel and touch the wall, but the wall prevented being touched.

Heidegger also wrote "What must be thought about, turns away from man. It withdraws from him. But how can we have the least knowledge of something that withdraws from the beginning, how can we even give it a name?"

What an illusive thing is thinking? There are many different was to think, or to think we are thinking. There is letting the mind wander, which is not really thinking. I have a quote somewhere that says the reason why people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory. There is rampant imagination, which is close to letting the mind wander, but which sometimes leads into dark and gnarly trails in the jungle. There is structured imagination such as an artist or designer will use. But the end of that is not thinking, but some sort of product. There is the thinking that is the pondering over someone else's thoughts, such as I am doing right now. Reason is a good use of one's mind but is it genuine thinking? Lastly, and most rare, is original, inspired thinking. That is thinking that has no rules and whose results are the most illusive of all. But if the more we think the more thinking withdraws from us how will we ever know not only how to think but what thinking itself really is.

The possible answer Heidegger provides is to see the withdrawing of thinking from the thinking man as also a "drawing with" or a pointing towards. We pursue real thinking and its meaning in our lives because we need to. The physicist may never catch up with the object's changes as he observes it. But will we ever catch up to true immutable thinking? I don't know. But I'm thinking about it.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
***************************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 6 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

Weekend Puzzle Answers

Weekend puzzle: STEW
ANSWERS

There were no winners today. Pacifica came close by answering all but 2 of them, so an honorable mention goes out. But the grand prize of a genuine crazy quilt ladle will have to wait for another time.

If you can see how the clues translated into answers you will be ready to jump in the next time I do a puzzle like this.

change Internet provider (6) turnip
switch from off to particle (5) onion
Calloway born old (7) cabbage
auto rust (6) carrot
pan to the office (6) potato
crush a hotel unit (8) mushroom
vigor for each (6) pepper
sounds like a basement type thing (6) celery
worn around the neck down south (8) collards
southern California jungle beast (8) scallion
answer to exist (5) beans
drink to the king (4) kale
beer joint to the French, yes (6) barley
bad humor afoot (4) corn

Better luck next time.
DB
******************************

Erase The Dark

There's much to be said for challenging fate instead of ducking behind it.

Diana Trilling
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It seems that many people throughout the stretch of my life have had, what they thought, were certain prophesies and projections about what is going to become of me. At each level of my years the predictions changed but all were generally negative and about dire circumstances.

It all started when I was a child and my mother, for some unknown reason, told me I would always have trouble with my teeth, So as a good obedient son I developed life long dental problems. When I got a bit older I learned to start challenging these edicts. As a so-called rebellious teenager I was told I would live to be a lonely old man with no friends. Well I'm a senior citizen who lives alone, but I'm not lonely and I have some good friends whom I trust.

Then, as I grew, some former friends told me that at my age I would start suffering heart problems, lung problems and my kidneys would do this and my mind would do that. Decades ago a neighbor held up my pack of non-filter cigarettes and said If I smoked those I would soon be dead It's inevitable. It's fate.

Well I've successfully challenged all of those prophesies. Even more insidious were the teachers who told me I wasn't able to understand certain things, that I wasn't intelligent enough. A very poor teacher at a New York City film school informed me that I didn't know anything about acting. That one was amusing since I have a collection of programs from theatres all over the eastern United States and a box full of excellent reviews.

Lately I've been told I have only ten more good years of life left and that I should be bed ridden by now. A year ago I was walking with a cane. Now I don't need it except for when there are snow banks to climb over. My expectations about myself are not unrealistic but they are real. Why haven't I crushed into a helpless lump and fulfilled my artificial destiny? What's the secret DB?

Simple. I agree to disagree. Opinions are not scientific facts. I have managed to unplug the radio that is broadcasting all the dire news about my disintegration and demise. When opinions attack me either from others or from myself I mount an immediate challenge. The challenge is in two parts: Second, affirmation and First, denial. Denial must be accompanied by affirmation or we are staying in a state of denial, and that's no good because we are making a fact out of the thing we're denying, a "graven image." Denial is like erasing the false equation from the blackboard so we can write the true one. Compassion is true, hatred is not. Forgiveness is true, revenge is not. Fulfillment is true, remorse is not. Well being is true, illness is not. Denial is easier than affirmation, we generally know what we don't want. We must be thoughtful and certain about what we do want for ourselves.

Denial and affirmation require work. It's a daily job. And it requires faith in the natural laws of human thought. Thoughts have power and nature doesn't care how they're used. We can choose to use them for dark, negative things, or we can deny those things and replace them with positive things that enlighten our lives and the world.. That's our right.

DB - The Vagabond
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Weekend puzzle: STEW

change Internet provider (6)
switch from off to particle (5)
Calloway born old (7)
auto rust (6)
pan to the office (6)
crush a hotel unit (8)
vigor for each )6)
sounds like a basement type thing (6)
worn around the neck down south (8)
southern California jungle beast (8)
answer to exist (5)
drink to the king (4)
beer joint to the left end, yes (6)
bad humor afoot (4)

Enjoy your dish.
DB
******************************

To Be And How Not To Be

I never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.

Galileo
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Let's face it all of us are ignorant about most things. You may not feel like an ignorant person until you find yourself confronted with a problem about which you know nothing or find yourself in a conversation with experts in some alien field. In those cases it is best to keep your mouth shut and leave it up to those who know.

But being ignorant about almost everything might mean that you are an authority on something, and if so you have something to teach or show someone. You might be a total dodo about everything else but you can put a roof on a garage or place kick a football.

If we can find out what a person knows about, even if they don't know anything else, we can learn something from them.

The dangerous combination is ignorance and arrogance, people who don't know but think they do. Some of the biggest messes in the world have been created by those people. What we can learn from them is how not to do something. I've had teachers who taught me how not to teach. I've seen actors who showed me how not to act and directors who taught me how not to direct a play.

Those ignorant/arrogant are rampant in the world. Look at politicians for example. Look at TV personalities. particularly in the news and political opinion sectors. I remember one case during the bombing of Baghdad. At first there were a few very brief video clips to see and one of them showed an Arab man running at night. One of our senior TV news reporters said there seemed to be a man running in his bathrobe. I hooted. He may wear a bathrobe in Scarsdale or wherever he lives on his fat network salary but someone should have shown him a picture of an Arab in his robes.

The big difference between ignorance and stupidity is that ignorance is curable. I have learned to freely admit I don't know something if I don't. I will put up with the scorn if it's followed by an explanation. By the same token I won't put up with being told what to do by someone who doesn't know. I spent an hour in a recording session one day with a director who didn't know the first thing about recording a commercial but thought she did. She was arrogant and insulting. The product she wanted and got out of me was second rate. I refused to work for her again. How many times have you talked to some clown at Tech Support who had no idea what to do? Someone should teach them that if they don't know something they shouldn't act as if they do.

There are lessons to be learned at every dealing of human with human if we are willing to look and listen for them. Personally I hope to achieve and maintain the level of awareness and acceptance implied in Galileo's statement. "I never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him."

DB - The Vagabond
*****************************

Weekend puzzle: STEW

change Internet provider (6)
switch from off to particle (5)
Calloway born old (7)
auto rust (6)
pan to the office (6)
crush a hotel unit (8)
vigor for each )6)
sounds like a basement type thing (6)
worn around the neck down south (8)
southern California jungle beast (8)
answer to exist (5)
drink to the king (4)
beer joint to the left end, yes (6)
bad humor afoot (4)

Enjoy your dish.
DB
******************************

I'm The Joke, Part 2

It's the ability to take a joke, not make one, that proves you have a sense of humor.

Max Eastmen
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As I wrote a few issues ago I don't mind being laughed at if I do something really stupid that's funny. In spite of all the disasters we may face there is a lot of humor in life and we should be free to enjoy it, whether the joke is on us or not.

So here is one of the stories I like to tell on myself. It makes me chuckle every time I think of it.

Decades ago a girl friend and I decided to spend a weekend at one of the big resort hotels in the Poconos, here in Pennsylvania. They put us in a nice, comfortable room on the first floor with a good view. It was in a remote part of the hotel, three long hallways from the main area. We settled in and then went exploring.

In the main area we found a spacious dining room with a cafeteria next to it. Just outside and in view from the dining room was a swimming pool. Then there was a grassy hill going down to a lake where there were canoes. Near the lake was a small forest. We went for a long walk in the forest, then took a canoe out into the lake exploring all the edges of it. We had a late dinner in the dining room and retired.

In the morning I woke before she did. I wanted a coffee, but rather than disturb her by calling room service I got dressed, left her a note and walked the length of all those hallways until I got to the cafeteria where I bought a coffee,

Immediately I noticed three grounds keepers out by the pool. They were standing around it and peering into it. One of them had a long pole with which he was pushing at something down in the bottom of the pool. Curious, I went outside to see what they were doing.

At that moment the man with the pole pulled it up out of the water. At the end of it was a net and a frog squirming around in it. Two of the men took the pole with the frog down to the lake to let it out in its natural environment, the other man stayed behind.

Now please bear in mind that I was two sips into my first coffee of the morning and two puffs into my first cigarette. I was not fully awake yet. That is neither an alibi nor an excuse, It is merely a reason.

I asked the man, "How did the frog get into the pool?" He looked me in the eye without the slightest hint of scorn or ridicule in his face or his voice and simply said. "It jumped."

DB
******************

Weekend puzzle: STEW

change Internet provider (6)
switch from off to particle (5)
Calloway born old (7)
auto rust (6)
pan to the office (6)
crush a hotel unit (8)
vigor for each )6)
sounds like a basement type thing (6)
worn around the neck down south (8)
southern California jungle beast (8)
answer to exist (5)
drink to the king (4)
beer joint to the left end, yes (6)
bad humor afoot (4)

Enjoy your dish.
DB
******************************

Rain, Stew And Things

The difficulty lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones.

John Maynard Keynes
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I like rain. When it rains most people run inside and hide. But I like the rain, especially in the summertime, not just because it cools everything off, but because it cleans the air. It's like Mother Nature giving one of her children a bath. After the rain everything looks so clear and clean. It creates a fresh look at the world.

Many people also don't like the bathing that makes them take a fresh look at themselves, their lives and the world around them. A fresh look implies the possible necessity of changing things. People refrain from taking up and considering new ideas or seeing old ones in a brighter light.

Why adopt some new idea or some new way of doing things if it hasn't been tried before? Because if we don't, it will never be tried. Why hold on to old ideas and old ways of doing things even though they have proven to be ineffective and incorrect? Because they are familiar. That kind of thinking is like the serpent swallowing its own tail, slowly poisoning itself to death. The focus is in the wrong direction.

We always have a chance to bag up all the trash and take it to the dump. It's not a new beginning, it's a new look, without all the clutter, at the same things that hove been going on ever since there were humans walking the earth.

I know there are people who disagree with me, even in this email/journal land, people who will say the rain only brings mud, but I say let the rain come, let the bathing begin and let's have a fresh look at this strange, unpredictable, mysterious thing known as the world we live in.

DB Vagabond Journeys
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Midweek puzzle: STEW

change Internet provider (6)
switch from off to particle (5)
Calloway born old (7)
auto rust (6)
pan to the office (6)
crush a hotel unit (8)
vigor for each )6)
sounds like a basement type thing (6)
worn around the neck down south (8)
southern California jungle beast (8)
answer to exist (5)
drink to the king (4)
beer joint to the left end, yes (6)
bad humor afoot (4)

Enjoy your dish.
DB
******************************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 6 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

Free The Slaves

If one of us is chained, none of us are free.

Solomon Burke
***********************
I was in the check out line at a supermarket in New York. The cashier was starting to check my groceries when the woman behind me put her's down right next to mine. So when the cashier finished with my stuff she started to reach for the next item on the table and the woman yelled at her, "No, no. That's mine!" which is exactly what she wanted to do. I turned to the woman and I said "Why do you do that?"

"What?"

"Put your stuff down right next to someone else's? The girl can't tell the difference."

"That's not my problem, Sir" she snapped back.

"Well" I sighed. "Yes it is."

There was silence. The woman was speechless. I think it was maybe the first time she had ever faced the idea that maybe she had problems she didn't know about.

I think the most important action a president of this country has ever done was when President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and unilaterally freed all the slaves. The results of that were huge and far reaching for the nation and its citizens, and one of the things that contributed to his death.

What many people didn't realize at the time and many still don't is that slavery was legal in America, until the law was passed making it illegal. But abolitionists knew something the slave owners didn't know, and that was that the slave owners were also slaves. Slaves to a belief, a false principle, a practice that was doomed to failure.

So is slavery gone from the world today? Absolutely not. Human ownership of other human beings still persists in some areas of the world. Unsuspecting girls are bought and lured away from their homes under false promises and forced to work as prostitutes, In some countries daughters are sold to rich men as child brides. There are places where people are enslaved under forced labor from which they cannot escape. These are conditions that exist to one degree or another everywhere in the world.

Legal slavery may be abolished in this country but there are laws in every land which allow for the most horrifying treatment of people and animals. There are firm beliefs, often based an religious grounds, of negation, exclusion, separation. segregation and physical and verbal abuse. There are people convinced of and preparing for the end of the world, apocalyptic warfare, great disasters and human extinction. Those beliefs, like the wrong ethic of the slave owner enchain people to a life view of the worst conditions and behavior. And those who hold those beliefs are vigorous about trying to enslave others to their own way of thinking. There is a relentless effort world wide to imprison the human mind and to deny it the freedom to think clearly. And it's working. The most insidious form of slavery has yet to be recognized.

All of us can go through our lives sometimes under the control of a master of which we have no knowledge. This slave master gets to live in our minds by devious ways. It begins by telling us something that is true. There is no argument. Then it proceeds to something that isn't but might become true.
And when it occurs we begin to trust what we are thinking. Finally it tells us something that can only be true if we respond in a certain way, and that way is a negative one. It assumes rights over other people, rights we don't have. It grants us entitlements that exclude ethical choices. It is malignancy that masquerades as instinct, intuition, competition and gratification. It joins the constellation of memories, systems, reasons, experiences, beliefs and faiths which would make us happy people, moves in and makes itself at home. The final result is that it destroys us as it destroys itself.

There is only one destiny for the evil of every form of slavery and that is for it to be recognized, exposed and deleted.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 6 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

The Real Bagel

Dive into the sea of thought, and find there pearls beyond price.

Moses ibn Ezra
***********************
I was doing a play in Virginia. Most of the actors were from New York. One day the husband of one of the actresses came to visit. He brought me a big bag of genuine New York City bagels. I was delighted and shared them. If you know what a real bagel is then you know there are a lot of things in the world that call themselves bagels that aren't.

The unfortunate thing is that this metaphor of the bagel crops up in almost all human activities and experiences. There are many things that aren't what they seem. The fact is a thing doesn't have to be true, it merely needs to seem true and people will believe it. There are things which call themselves science that aren't. I'm sure one of my scientific friends can give me examples of that. Now, in this country, we have a group of people calling themselves Christians who aren't. I know a few Christian friends who can cite examples of that. I can give you an example from my own life. I spent my working days as an actor. Drama is not life. It resembles life, and if it's done right it resembles life so well that we can believe it. But theatre isn't trying to fool anyone. It doesn't try to pass itself off as anything other than what it is: fiction, entertainment, art.

The insidious legerdemain that allows people to construct a facade so strikingly realistic that people will believe in it, buy the product and worship the false god, has a grip on too many. The tricksters know a great historical and worldwide secret. The secret is it is easier to let someone whom we think is an authority decide for us what we should think and do.

I have visited a few drama classes on various educational levels and witnessed a teacher who has no idea what he is doing pass on the most egregious nonsense to a bunch of unsuspecting students who think they are learning the right thing. How does someone like that get away with it? Because what he or she is teaching seems to be right, it resembles the truth. But it's not the real bagel. And I'm sure that sort of foolery goes on in all sorts of classrooms in one way or another.

But it doesn't stop there. We are stuck in a hall of mirrors. The false claims of advertisers about the amazing values of one product or another, some of which get recalled, the slanted journalism of our contemporary media, some of which gets apologized for and the outrageous remarks about right government by some of our politicians and commentators, very little of which ever gets intelligently challenged, or if it does it doesn't make the TV news.

So what is the antidote to all this sand bagging? I defer to Moses ibn Ezra. The answer is to start thinking and not just thinking but thinking deeply about the things that matter the most to us in our lives. Skepticism is the first step toward wisdom. Stop, look, listen, ask, think, and the deeper we plunge into the limitless sea of thought the more discoveries we make, discoveries which will, among other things, expose the false but true seeming for what it is. Truth is a difficult thing to understand, but the false is easy to believe, until it's error is seen.

We must dive deeply into reality and cease accepting without question the seemingly real. The "pearls beyond price" are there to be found and gathered by all of us and they are the gates to true things and the defense against the false.

DB - The Vagabond
*****************************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 6 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
******************************

moses ibn