The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself in spite of being unacceptable.
Paul Tillich
***********************
Hello Barbados
***********************
I can't think of anyone who frustrates and annoys me more than myself. My life is a living example of Murphy's Law. I need to wear a sign that says "DOLT" when I go out in public so everyone will be forewarned.
I did my income tax today and as usual I got it all finished and in the stamped envelop when I discovered something I forgot and had to redo the whole thing. I used to have it done by the end of February, but these days I have too much to do. I need a personal accountant, lawyer, butler, maid. cook, chauffeur, masseuse, a clinic full of the proper doctors and nurses, a closet full of new clothes, a couple of cats to frolic in the back yard, a dog to walk me every day and a big house to keep them all. In short, I need to be a billionaire so that I would have the people around me to take care of and clean up after the doltish things I do.
Instead I have a few twittery birds on the balcony, eating up all my bird seeds and no one else around (thank goodness) to witness the perilous circumstances I have made and keep making for myself.
I question why I put up with me. No one else would. I think it has something to do with worth, value or permission. I feel i have never achieved and probably never will the one thing that certifies me, that pays the price of having been born, that compensates the world for allowing me to be a citizen of it.
Wouldn't it be something if everything was harmonious? To see the sleek appearance of rightness and fitness everywhere, to realize an unbreakable alliance of beauty and logic, to have one's honest hopes meld into graceful realities, and never have to face problems whose solutions are elusive or questions that have no answers, is to live the acceptable life. Everything is less than, including me.
No I'm not putting myself down. I'm accepting myself as being unacceptable. It gives me something to strive for, and that's probably why I have too much to do. I would have a lot more time to do things it I didn't persist in making doltish mistakes. The only thing I can say for myself is that it's a damn good thing I have a sense of humor.
DB - Vagabond
********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
4 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
This Week's Contest
This is one I put up a few years ago and people seemed to enjoy it, so here it goes again.
You are now ordered to take a famous remark, a cliche or otherwise and restate it in the most verbose manner possible. Example:
Night is an inappropriate time for the manufacture of animal feed.
(Make hay while the sun shines.)
Get it? Ken Riches won this contest the last time, so you're up against some heavy competition.
5 entries so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Good luck. Enter as often as you wish. The decision of the ornery, biased, curmudgeon is final.
DB
******************
Showing posts with label Murphy's Law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Murphy's Law. Show all posts
Monday, April 11, 2011
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Careful Calculation 11/16/08
Never was good work done without much trouble.
Chinese proverb
******************************
This is a Chinese version of Murphy's Law "If anything can go wrong. it will."
Too many people think expecting the worst and planning for it is dark and pessimistic. My mother was not known for having much wisdom, but one of the wisest things I ever heard was from her when she told me that when I was driving to always expect the other driver was going to do something foolish. That advice has saved me a lot of trouble and maybe even my life. If more people practiced that caution there would be a lot less road rage, I bet.
One of the most important work ever done in the history of the world was the establishment of the United States of America. From standing up to and defying our government, to finally beating them and throwing them out, was ablaze with troubles.
We didn't have the manpower to fight the well trained, well disciplined British Army. The money was not coming from the colonies to pay the troops or supply them properly. The politicians were all arguing with each other over what to do. Some of them wanted to stay in the British Empire. Others were putting their lives on the line to be independent. There were so many times we almost lost; so many times we almost gave up. There was nothing easy about it and no lack of trouble.
George Washington knew what serious trouble was first hand, starving troops, men dying of wounds, or abandoning him. And yet he went ahead and won. If he had lost he would probably have been taken back to London and died a traitor's death, being tortured to death in a public square.
Even after we won some of the conservative colonists wanted to make him king. And that would have put us right back where we started from. Fortunately Washington refused. He was a smart man.
We have our country today because he and others were willing to put up with the trouble and to get the job done. Thank you.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Chinese proverb
******************************
This is a Chinese version of Murphy's Law "If anything can go wrong. it will."
Too many people think expecting the worst and planning for it is dark and pessimistic. My mother was not known for having much wisdom, but one of the wisest things I ever heard was from her when she told me that when I was driving to always expect the other driver was going to do something foolish. That advice has saved me a lot of trouble and maybe even my life. If more people practiced that caution there would be a lot less road rage, I bet.
One of the most important work ever done in the history of the world was the establishment of the United States of America. From standing up to and defying our government, to finally beating them and throwing them out, was ablaze with troubles.
We didn't have the manpower to fight the well trained, well disciplined British Army. The money was not coming from the colonies to pay the troops or supply them properly. The politicians were all arguing with each other over what to do. Some of them wanted to stay in the British Empire. Others were putting their lives on the line to be independent. There were so many times we almost lost; so many times we almost gave up. There was nothing easy about it and no lack of trouble.
George Washington knew what serious trouble was first hand, starving troops, men dying of wounds, or abandoning him. And yet he went ahead and won. If he had lost he would probably have been taken back to London and died a traitor's death, being tortured to death in a public square.
Even after we won some of the conservative colonists wanted to make him king. And that would have put us right back where we started from. Fortunately Washington refused. He was a smart man.
We have our country today because he and others were willing to put up with the trouble and to get the job done. Thank you.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)