Do What I Say

The daisies can't tell the roses to stop blooming.

Lindsay Nelson
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Hello Jon
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"Watchman. tell us of the night."
Am I the only one awake at night?
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"De gustibus non diputandum est." So goes the old worn out Latin statement. Basically translated it means "In matters of taste there is no argument." Some people incorrectly think it means you either have taste or you don't and if you don't there is no talking to you. But what it really means is that you like nuts in your ice cream and I do not like nuts in my ice cream and we are both right.

One of the sillies and most ignorant prejudices I've come across in my life is that everyone should be in bed asleep after midnight, anything else is unnatural and probably immoral.

I worked for several years at a 24 hour classical music station in New York. My program went from Midnight to 6 A. M. My boss, a man of lesser intelligence, I'm quite sure never went to bed after Midnight and never woke up before 6. Hence he never heard my program, never heard me and didn't know how good I was. All he knew was that nobody should be working all night and no one would be up listening. As a result he turned the program into a dumping ground for a lot of unnecessary news thus destroying it for me and for my listeners. So I quit and got on with my life. That station went off the air a few years later.

People who tell other people what to think, how to behave and how to live are barnacles on socidety. They are the ones who never dare to live, who can't or won't see beyond their own prejudices. My boss was right about going to bed before midnight. But he was not right in expecting the rest of the world to do the same.

Sometimes that sophomoric attempt to control another person's life is based on envy. I knew a woman who actually envied the people who were coming down with Aids because she believed they were living a kind of libertine life she thought was wrong and hence denied herself and then regretted it.

And what if some people are living a more exciting life than you are? You can't shoot them down justified by some draconian moral precept. You can't tell the roses not to bloom.

The worst cases of "disputandum" are found on the battle fields of religion. And there's a very good but sinister reason why that is so. If people wish to worship a Creator, an invisible, unknown, all powerful deity, which they certainly do the world over, why do they burn each other's books, tear down each other's idols, destroy each other's temples and kill each other? The answer is fear.

No one except the very few true saints that have existed in the history of the human race, from whatever religion they came, can be completely sure of the existence of God or if they are worshipping their God correctly. Hence the only way to make sure your dogma is correct is to destroy all the others., either through arguments or bombs That has been going on for centuries and is still a popular means of forcing your way of life on another.

You like nuts in your ice cream, I don't. We are both right. You worship with bread and wine, I don't. We are both right. You bow five times to Allah, I don't. We are both right. You celebrate a Day of Atonement, I don't. We are both right. You worship with incense, I don't. We are both right. You worship with incantations, I don't. We are both right. You believe in full submergence baptism, I don't. We are both right. If there is a God then divine intelligence must be able to accept any form of worship that is sincere and not exclusive.

I'm a daisy, you're a rose. So go ahead and bloom. I won't stop you. You have the right.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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Yearning's Yaw 7/17/09

Envy is an insult to oneself.

Yevtushenko
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Join me on the road.
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Envy is one of the seven deadlies. Maybe it should be one of the 10 Commandments. Thou shalt not envy anyone. I guess it could fall under the category of not coveting. But that commandment refers to things and people: oxes, asses, maid servants and such. But isn't to covet a person's beauty, strength, intelligence just as bad?

To say "I envy her good looks" is the same as saying "I'm not beautiful." To say "I'm not as strong as he is" means "I'm a weakling." And to say "He's more intelligent than I am" means "I'm pretty stupid compared to him."

I think that word "compare" is the real villain. Shakespeare said "Comparisons are odorous." The commandment should read "Thou shalt not compare thyself with others." Why not? Because you rob thyself if you do. And you rob others because you start looking for their limitations.

I could envy actors whose good health enables them to keep on working into their senior years. I could envy writers I know whose books are published, being read and enjoyed. I could envy painters whose works are on display in museum and homes.

I am an individual in the vast universe of creatures. I have my own beauty, strength and intelligence. I may compete, but I won't compare.

Q. How many actors does it take to change a light bulb?
A. 50. One to change the bulb, and 49 to say "I could have done that better."

DB

By the way.

At first I thought ENDEAVOUR, the name of the space shuttle visiting the International Space Station, was a typo. Shouldn't it be spelled ENDEAVOR? Then I learn that it was named after HM Bark Endeavour, the ship of Captain James Cook. the 18th Century British explorer. So it has the British spelling.

"Bark" is another name for ship, as in "they embarked." And Shakespeare refers to love as "the star to every wandering bark, whose worth's unknown although his height be taken," referring to how sailors would navigate by the North Star.

And now for the:

SUMMER QUIZ

This is not a contest.



A young man out west just took home 88 million dollars from the lottery.



Whether you play the lottery or not, if you suddenly had 88 million dollars, or the equivalent of whatever your currency is, what are the first three things you would do with it?



You have all summer to answer if you wish.

12 responses so far.



DB

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I wish you a jolly day.

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I grieve.







My credit card bank, the only credit card that's left me, is jerking me around, sky rocketing my interest rates even though I am a prompt and frequent payer. The stress is awful.



My readership is so low I'm thinking again of weaning myself from the journal and just sticking with a few regulars through emails.



It has become even more painful lately to walk anywhere.