The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
Kahlil Gibran
**************
Hello Frosty
********************
I have a friend, David, who's a potter. I watched him work one day. I saw him brutally cut off a chunk of clay, thump it on the table and then throw the poor thing on a wheel. Then, while it was spinning within an inch of it's life he wet his hands and started strangling it. He forced it out of it's natural shape and then, as if that wasn't enough, he forced his thumbs into it and then his fingers and tortured it even worse into something round, Then he poked and scraped down into it's sensitive innards with some fiendish instruments, covered it all over with ugly sticky stuff and imprisoned it into an oven that was hotter than hell. When he finally rescued it, it was a beautiful, delicate, gentle bowl asking to be filled with the elixir of life.
I don't know about you, but I have been cut and thumped onto the hard surfaces by the meanness of life, thrown on the wheel and spun into fear, doubt and confusion, strangled with poverty, insecurity and tough times, pushed and squeezed with hard work until I was pulled apart, rebuilt and reformed, poked and scraped by lies and betrayals, glazed over with sweat and tears and baked in the oven of hellish experiences. And when they finally took me out I had a joyous smile on my face, an unquenchable appreciation for life and a sense of humor.
The pampered life is no life. The deep cuts made by the plow into our uncultivated being make the way for the seeds of genuine happiness, which is always much different from the simple lump of clay we start out thinking we are.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
****************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Only 5 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I await your answers.
DB
********************
Showing posts with label a sense of humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label a sense of humor. Show all posts
Friday, October 21, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Oh, You Human.
Man, the glory, jest and riddle of the world.
Alexander Pope
*********************
Hello Beth
**********************
When is a monarch not a king?
Are you glorious? Of course you are, once you start reaching up to your potential and beyond it with outstretched hope and confidence, when you are standing on some pinnacle of life you never knew you could.
How many actors does it take to change a light bulb?
Are you a jest or a jester? One day you're one, the next day your the other. The greatness of man is the gift of a sense of humor, including the ability to laugh at himself. Humor turns on the lights in the dark places of life.
12 pear were hanging high.
12 men came walking by.
Each took a pear
and left 11 hanging there.
Are you a riddle? You are, to yourself and to the world. If we did not puzzle over ourselves every day, in one way or another, what would be the point of living. "Know thyself" the ancient wise man said. We can reach for the stars, solve problems and laugh, but understanding ourselves is probably the hardest task we poor, tardy, foolish and stubborn humans have to face. "Life's perhaps the only riddle that we shrink from giving up" wrote William Gilbert. Why? Because to give up is to lose, to quit the field before the game is over, to sacrifice our glory, to settle for less than we are.
Never give up.
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Only 4 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I await your answers.
DB
********************
Alexander Pope
*********************
Hello Beth
**********************
When is a monarch not a king?
Are you glorious? Of course you are, once you start reaching up to your potential and beyond it with outstretched hope and confidence, when you are standing on some pinnacle of life you never knew you could.
How many actors does it take to change a light bulb?
Are you a jest or a jester? One day you're one, the next day your the other. The greatness of man is the gift of a sense of humor, including the ability to laugh at himself. Humor turns on the lights in the dark places of life.
12 pear were hanging high.
12 men came walking by.
Each took a pear
and left 11 hanging there.
Are you a riddle? You are, to yourself and to the world. If we did not puzzle over ourselves every day, in one way or another, what would be the point of living. "Know thyself" the ancient wise man said. We can reach for the stars, solve problems and laugh, but understanding ourselves is probably the hardest task we poor, tardy, foolish and stubborn humans have to face. "Life's perhaps the only riddle that we shrink from giving up" wrote William Gilbert. Why? Because to give up is to lose, to quit the field before the game is over, to sacrifice our glory, to settle for less than we are.
Never give up.
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Only 4 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I await your answers.
DB
********************
Monday, August 22, 2011
What's so funny?
The wisest of you men is he who has realized, like Socrates, that in respect of wisdom he is truly worthless.
Socrates
****************
In a steam driven locomotive or other large machine wood or coal is burned to heat water and create steam. The steam is then carried through pipes to mechanisms that drive pistons or other devices. There are valves to siphon off excess steam. Hence we get the expression "letting off steam."
If the safty valve isn't allowed to open the machine will shut itself down or blow itself up, and that's what happens to a lot of people. Those who are steamed up all the time about something and don't have or don't use a means of blowing off steam are in for trouble of one form or another. Either they will implode, go into denial, stop thinking, stop doing and stop dealing with the things they need to deal with. Irresponsibility, defiance, anti intellectualism, anti culturalism, the self dumbing down of people are the way marks of such implosion. Then there are the exploders who try to wipe out the things they can't deal with through violence, the prevention of other people's rights, using personal power to corrupt righteous causes and eventual self destruction.
All of those negatives could be prevented by a little blowing off of steam. I think, and many others think so too, that the best valve to open for the stressing and squirming of the overwhelming difficulties of life is a sense of humor. There isn't anything in life that can't be graced by a sense of the comical, a sense of irony, absurdity, the ridiculous; a sense of humor.
The ability to laugh at ourselves is a great talent which anyone can develop. Comedians are in the business of showing us how funny we are. The great thinkers of the world all exhibited the ability to laugh at things. Socrates obviously had a sense of humor, Einstein certainly did, I think Jesus Christ did, although I'll get an argument about that from some stuffed up Christians who haven't found their own steam valve yet. One can not successfully carry with them a huge load of thoughts and actions, of cares and responsibilities without occasionally being able to see the funny side of things. That's why the kings and monarchs of old had court jesters.
We are all inadequate at having the truth and wisdom we are supposed to have. It is healthy to be reminded of that now and then. If the major politicians and the big CEOs are too stuck on themselves to be able to see it then they would each do well to have a jester on the payroll to remind them. There would be a lot more cooperation and a lot less mud slinging.
DB - The Real Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
******************
SUMMER QUESTION
Summer is moving along, people.
It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
16 answers so far.
You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
************************
Socrates
****************
In a steam driven locomotive or other large machine wood or coal is burned to heat water and create steam. The steam is then carried through pipes to mechanisms that drive pistons or other devices. There are valves to siphon off excess steam. Hence we get the expression "letting off steam."
If the safty valve isn't allowed to open the machine will shut itself down or blow itself up, and that's what happens to a lot of people. Those who are steamed up all the time about something and don't have or don't use a means of blowing off steam are in for trouble of one form or another. Either they will implode, go into denial, stop thinking, stop doing and stop dealing with the things they need to deal with. Irresponsibility, defiance, anti intellectualism, anti culturalism, the self dumbing down of people are the way marks of such implosion. Then there are the exploders who try to wipe out the things they can't deal with through violence, the prevention of other people's rights, using personal power to corrupt righteous causes and eventual self destruction.
All of those negatives could be prevented by a little blowing off of steam. I think, and many others think so too, that the best valve to open for the stressing and squirming of the overwhelming difficulties of life is a sense of humor. There isn't anything in life that can't be graced by a sense of the comical, a sense of irony, absurdity, the ridiculous; a sense of humor.
The ability to laugh at ourselves is a great talent which anyone can develop. Comedians are in the business of showing us how funny we are. The great thinkers of the world all exhibited the ability to laugh at things. Socrates obviously had a sense of humor, Einstein certainly did, I think Jesus Christ did, although I'll get an argument about that from some stuffed up Christians who haven't found their own steam valve yet. One can not successfully carry with them a huge load of thoughts and actions, of cares and responsibilities without occasionally being able to see the funny side of things. That's why the kings and monarchs of old had court jesters.
We are all inadequate at having the truth and wisdom we are supposed to have. It is healthy to be reminded of that now and then. If the major politicians and the big CEOs are too stuck on themselves to be able to see it then they would each do well to have a jester on the payroll to remind them. There would be a lot more cooperation and a lot less mud slinging.
DB - The Real Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
******************
SUMMER QUESTION
Summer is moving along, people.
It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
16 answers so far.
You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
************************
Monday, January 31, 2011
I'm The Joke
Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century.
Dame Edna Everage
*****************************
I have a problem. My problem is a sense of humor. I have a fondness for the absurdities, ironies, bewilderments, perplexities and paradoxes of life. I find them amusing. It is funny when those things affect other people. I laugh with them if they laugh. But I am particularly amused when it's my feet that are stuck to the fly paper or I'm the one who bumps his head.
So what's the problem? The problem is that when I describe the things about my life that I think are amusing many people don't see it that way. I guess they think I'm complaining and feeling sorry for myself. Or even worse some people will ascribe to me a dire condition that must be dealt with somehow. Everything has an amusing side of you just look for it
Last night I was talking to a friend who reminded me of that Thanksgiving when my stove and oven weren't working and how I bought some canned food to eat and my can opener decided to break down before I got the first can opened. It was a peanut butter and jelly Thanksgiving. If one can't see the humor in that one is lost.
If I can't remember names so what. I have a lot of things in my brain to remember. It does not mean I am losing my mind. It amuses me.
It is difficult and painful for me to walk. I stagger. I am not falling down, coming apart and ready for a wheel chair. I stagger, that's all. I went to meet two friends in Philadelphia one afternoon. One of them was a few years older than I. We had to walk a long block to a bus stop and we both staggered. The other person looked at us a said how awful it was that we were both staggering. I said that we weren't staggering, we were just warming up for our tap dance number. My staggering friend laughed out loud. The other person didn't think it was that funny.
There isn't any experience in life that doesn't deserve to have it's funny side. I was in a production of "Arsenic And Old Lace" at a theatre in Florida. The comedy, if you don't know it, is about two charming old ladies who benevolently poison all the lonely old man who come to live with them in order to put them out of their misery. It's very funny.
We did 40 performances of it and many of them were in the afternoon. We would frequently have church groups who were bussed in to enjoy the show. But one afternoon, in the middle of the first act, a large group got up and walked out. As they were leaving to get back on their bus the house manager asked them what was wrong. They said they couldn't stay because the play was about "serial killers." Heaven help those pious people and grant them each a sense of humor.
I can get to laughing when I think back to some of the silly things I have done in my life and some of the amusing predicaments I have been in. Now I find there are many comical things about being a senior and I'm enjoying every one of them.
If you catch me trying to find my slippers in the morning go ahead and laugh. I don't mind.
Dana
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
******************************
Dame Edna Everage
*****************************
I have a problem. My problem is a sense of humor. I have a fondness for the absurdities, ironies, bewilderments, perplexities and paradoxes of life. I find them amusing. It is funny when those things affect other people. I laugh with them if they laugh. But I am particularly amused when it's my feet that are stuck to the fly paper or I'm the one who bumps his head.
So what's the problem? The problem is that when I describe the things about my life that I think are amusing many people don't see it that way. I guess they think I'm complaining and feeling sorry for myself. Or even worse some people will ascribe to me a dire condition that must be dealt with somehow. Everything has an amusing side of you just look for it
Last night I was talking to a friend who reminded me of that Thanksgiving when my stove and oven weren't working and how I bought some canned food to eat and my can opener decided to break down before I got the first can opened. It was a peanut butter and jelly Thanksgiving. If one can't see the humor in that one is lost.
If I can't remember names so what. I have a lot of things in my brain to remember. It does not mean I am losing my mind. It amuses me.
It is difficult and painful for me to walk. I stagger. I am not falling down, coming apart and ready for a wheel chair. I stagger, that's all. I went to meet two friends in Philadelphia one afternoon. One of them was a few years older than I. We had to walk a long block to a bus stop and we both staggered. The other person looked at us a said how awful it was that we were both staggering. I said that we weren't staggering, we were just warming up for our tap dance number. My staggering friend laughed out loud. The other person didn't think it was that funny.
There isn't any experience in life that doesn't deserve to have it's funny side. I was in a production of "Arsenic And Old Lace" at a theatre in Florida. The comedy, if you don't know it, is about two charming old ladies who benevolently poison all the lonely old man who come to live with them in order to put them out of their misery. It's very funny.
We did 40 performances of it and many of them were in the afternoon. We would frequently have church groups who were bussed in to enjoy the show. But one afternoon, in the middle of the first act, a large group got up and walked out. As they were leaving to get back on their bus the house manager asked them what was wrong. They said they couldn't stay because the play was about "serial killers." Heaven help those pious people and grant them each a sense of humor.
I can get to laughing when I think back to some of the silly things I have done in my life and some of the amusing predicaments I have been in. Now I find there are many comical things about being a senior and I'm enjoying every one of them.
If you catch me trying to find my slippers in the morning go ahead and laugh. I don't mind.
Dana
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
******************************
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