Listen To The Violet

CONTEST - Following the contest will be today's journal entry "Listen To The Violet"

Here's a contest for you. How hot is it? When I first ran this contest the winner was a school teacher who wrote: "It's so hot my hot flashes cool me off."

it's your turn. How hot is it?
It's so hot my toaster pops up before I push it down. (DB)
Its so hot we are using our dog's panting as an extra fan (SH)
it's so hot that sweat runs uphill. (BK)
It's so hot....the microwave popcorn packets are popping in the cupboard (LS)
It's so hot I saw two trees fighting over a dog. (Donna)
It's so hot here in Texas that people have been deliberately committing crimes so they can go to hell and cool off. (JV)
it's so hot here I tried to order another vodka on the rocks but my breath caught fire.
It's so hot....
Good luck, prizes will be awarded, the decision of the certifiably mad judge is final.
DB
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Language is the house of being.

Martin Heidegger
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Hello Lily
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We would know a lot more about nature and the world we live if we could understand all, or even some, of the languages around us. People try to, and think they do, understand the singing of some of the birds. Others study the dolphins' talk and still others are listening to the whales.

But the fact is that everything that exists has a language, and what a story some of them could tell. Take, for example, the humble violet. If we could read it's biography it would tell us of an almost microscopic story of struggle and travail to become what it is: tiny, tender fingers grasping a bit of earth, growing unseen underground, bravely pushing against enormous weight to slip out into the sunlight and breath the air to open up to be what it is, a beautiful little flower.

The small rock lying in the meadow could tell us how it was once part of a mighty boulder, baked and changed by the intense heat of volcanic action. thrust to the surface by mountainous underground movements, picked up by an advancing glacier, scraped against other rocks which left scars on it's surface finally, as the glacier receded, to be left at rest in the meadow.

Take the meadow itself. Walk through it, see it and listen to the endless chatter of tales being told, stories traded, information shared.

That old house down the street has histories of love, pain, romance, lives thrown away and lives revived. It won't all be in the town records, but the house knows.

There is language everywhere, in the Earth, in the Solar System, the Galaxy and on. And we are only just beginning to translate. We need dictionaries to give us the terms for the inaudible, invisible universe around us.

That's why there are poets.
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Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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Love and Contest

Check out the contest after the journal entry.
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Though lovers be lost love shall not.

Dylan Thomas
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Hello Ken
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At one time I wrote "I have loved and lost, but I will live to love again." At the time I wrote that it didn't seem possible. But as certain as Spring someone came along and grabbed my heart. Since then I've been wary of proclaiming to myself any tautologies of my, or anyone else's, susceptibility to the untreatable madness we call "love."

Most of my history of love affairs has been about loss. It's a sad and heart breaking thing, but as my friend Skip says "It sure gets your emotions flexed." and is that a bad thing after all?

When we lose the perfect soul mate, the perfect life partner, the perfect man or woman, the one to make our lives complete, we are sure another such a one will never come along again. Until the next time. What I have discovered in my rough and tumble romantic history is that, just as Thomas says, the propensity, the desire, the affection, the need, the self sacrifice, the idolatry are never lost. They abide in us, silently and patiently, waiting for the door to open to express themselves in whatever way our imagination and circumstances provide.

Strange things happen. You may meet someone you find not attractive, not your "type," only to find yourself in love with that person six months later. It happened a year later for me. She was sitting next to me at a party. I thought she was interesting but not my type. A year later at another party she was again sitting next to me and I saw a different quality to her. We had lunch. Then she invited me over for dinner. I stayed. That was a six year relationship which ended only when she met another guy more to her liking. C'est l'amour.

Sometimes it's not another person but a group of people, a family, an organization, a cause, a job, all of which can be lost, and the pain may be awful, but it just proves that the love still exists in the heart and it needs to find another way to manifest itself.

Love comes because it's always there. You don't need to wear your heart on your sleeve (or leave it outside on a plate, as I am guilty of doing sometimes). I think the answer is to appreciate that the sensitivity, the affection, the passion and the adventure are all a permanent part of your being and, yes, love yourself for them and be ready to share them when the arrow flies. To be in love, to be ready to love, to be eager for love, one is never more alive.

Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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CONTEST Here's a contest for you. How hot is it? When I first ran this contest the winner was a school teacher who wrote: "It's so hot my hot flashes cool me off." Now it's your turn. How hot is it? It's so hot my toaster pops up before I push it down. (DB) Its so hot we are using our dog's panting as an extra fan (SH) it's so hot that sweat runs uphill. (BK) It's so hot....the microwave popcorn packets are popping in the cupboard (LS) It's so hot I saw two trees fighting over a dog. It's so hot here in Texas that people have been deliberately committing crimes so they can go to hell and cool off. (JV)

It's so hot.... Good luck, prizes will be awarded, the decision of the certifiably mad judge is final. DB ************************

Stand Up

Contest to follow.
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Only when we have drunk from the river of darkness can we truly see.

Brother Theodore
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Hello Kate
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The comedian Brother Theodore, Theodore Gottlieb (1906 - 2001), probably saw more and drank more of the river of darkness than most of us, even the most sinister of us, can imagine.

He was captured by the Nazis and taken to Dachau Concentration Camp where he witnessed all the terrible tortures, including seeing the guards laughing loudly as they watched men being eaten alive by vicious dogs.

He escaped Dachau by signing over his family's fortune to the Germans hoping t see his family again, which he never did. Having run into trouble in Europe he moved to America with the help of Albert Einstein, a family friend.

He worked at many odd jobs while developing an act as an anti existentialist monologist. He tried performing it in California whiteout success. During the time of his greatest struggle his wife left him and his son, his only child, went with her.

He eventually found a place for himself playing small out of the way clubs in NYC and developed a cult following. He was finally recognized by some of the TV talk show hosts and made appearances on TV, particularly toward the end with David Letterman.

Starting from an absurdist premise such as that we should walk on all fours, or that we shouldn't eat food because it's bad for us, he would weave a speech that challenged all the pretensions and broke all the rules.

The title of his act was "Stand Up Tragedy"
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Fortunately most of us never have to look into a river of darkness, much less drink from it, though we may have approached it sometimes during a dark night of the soul. We can be thankful for Theodore who knew it well, witnessed it, drank from it and yet could make humor out of it. Dark humor, for sure, but there's nothing wrong with that.
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DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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CONTEST


Here's a contest for you.

How hot is it?

When I first ran this contest the winner was a school teacher who wrote:
"It's so hot my hot flashes cool me off."

Now it's your turn. How hot is it?

It's so hot my toaster pops up before I push it down. (DB)

Its so hot we are using our dog's panting as an extra fan (SH)

it's so hot that sweat runs uphill. (BK)

It's so hot....the microwave popcorn packets are popping in the cupboard (LS)

It's so hot I saw two trees fighting over a dog.

It's so hot here in Texas that people have been deliberately committing crimes so they can go to hell and cool off. (JV)It's so hot....

Good luck, prizes will be awarded, the decision of the certifiably mad judge is final.
DB
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CONTEST

Here's a contest for you.

How hot is it?

When I first ran this contest the winner was a school teacher who wrote:
"It's so hot my hot flashes cool me off."

Now it's your turn. How hot is it?

It's so hot my toaster pops up before I push it down. (DB)

Its so hot we are using our dog's panting as an extra fan (SH)

It's so hot....

Good luck, prizes will be awarded, the decision of the certifiably mad judge is final.
DB
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