My Achin' Back

Let not the cares of this world drive your peace away.

Sheikh Abdul Jilliani
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Hello Marty
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I was doing some house cleaning today. Whenever I do that it turns into a stressful experience, because every time I clean something I find something else the needs my attention. And if I keep doing that the whole day turns me into my own janitor and I don't get anything else done, such as reading and writing.

So by the time I finally decided just to let things go and stay away from any further sanitary efforts, I put the soap and sponges away and settled down to what I really want to do. But by that time I had a back ache.

I sat down to rest thinking that soon the back ache would find it's way out the window. But it persisted. It was then that I was reminded that the back was not responding to the work I had been doing but to the stress of having to do it. What's wrong with a little stress now and then? Nothing much if it doesn't deprive me of my peace.

I had to think about this. What does cleaning my apartment have to do with being deprived of peace? After all I will feel better and more at peace with a clean counter. Was it resentment at having to clean the counter because it was taking me away from other things? Or was it the regret of having to leave things uncleaned for now? Or was it the simple annoyance of having to look after myself in general? Well, whatever it was I had a back ache. Clearly, the job wasn't finished.

I was reminded of how it was on the stage. I never was aware of a back ache or any other ache when I was performing. That was because I relaxed. I found a place of stillness and serenity on stage that enabled me to focus my energies on performing. If you do the work you love there should be no pain.

So I sat still and returned to that quiet state of peace and after a while I was unaware of any back ache.

So did I go back to cleaning? No. I went back to my books. Tomorrow for the cleaning.

DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
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The Road

Face the winds and walk the good road to the day of quiet.

Black Elk
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Hello Ernie
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I know an actress named Emily who says that her daily prayer is "God, give me peace." I can relate to that. Oh, how I yearn for the quiet day. My heart, my mind and my whole being hopes of the day when the vultures spread their wings and fly off, when the vipers slip silently back into their holes, and when the catalogue of my mistakes is flung into the fire to help warm the cold night of winter. I yearn for the end of sorrow. I long for the repair of my broken heart and the gathering up of broken dreams.

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
When the city sleepsAnd
I'm the only one and I walk alone

(Al Dubin/Harry Warren)

I walk alone but try to stay on the good road at last. I hope for the biting winds of winter to become the gentle breeze that clears my spirit. To have a sweet person bring me Christmas dinner on a freezing cold December night and then to learn that the sweetness was a lie and the person a deceiver is a breaking of the heart. The love I still have for that person keeps me on the good road.

Walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous. (Proverbs 2:20)

To be unable to do the work I love because of where I live is a breaking of the dream, but my heart still holds the hope that I will step upon a stage again one day. I walk alone with that hope clutched in my heart.

The good road is a lonely one and I have to keep checking the signs to see that I stay on it. But through all the sorrow, fear, noise, pain, scorn, disappointment, discouragement, loss and failure, I still walk the road believing that there will be at last a day of quiet.

Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up************************

SUMMER QUESTION

I recently received a peck on the cheek from two members of the female persuasion. Besides those I haven't experienced a real kiss in many, many years. I have no flowers. There is nothing growing outside, no trees, no bushes, no flowers, just a few pathetic weeds here and there. That, thankfully, does a lot to discourage the mosquito population, but it doesn't give me much in the way of flora. So I pose this question for those of you who have more experience in these matters.
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Which is more important, a flower or a kiss? Why?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.

Make Peace

Mankind is becoming a single unit, and that for a single unit to fight against itself is suicide.

Havelock Ellis
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Hello George
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Is the human race gradually committing suicide? It might seem that way from a wide perspective. There is always some war going on somewhere on the globe. The more guns there are the more people will be shot and killed. The more weapons of war there are the more soldiers and civilians will die. The more weapons of mass destruction there are the more massive numbers of people will be wiped out.

Leaders and politicians of many lands are eager to make war. For as Erasmus said "War is sweet to those who have never experienced it." There are many reasons why people wage war. Revenge, ancient grudges, irrational hatred, possessiveness of land and it's resources are some of them. Ethnic and religious differences, suspicion, fear and tyranny are others. Whatever they are, bundle them all together and there is a recipe for destruction, killing, wounding, cruelty, mayhem and chaos. They are all the reasons for the suicidal actions of men and nations in a world where cooperation, compassion and understanding are the only tools for survival.

There is an unbroken line from the playground bully to the hydrogen bomb. The more people realize that, the more careful they will be to stem violence at whatever level they find it. If the unjust and violent win worldwide suicide is inevitable.

These words of mine are not new. They have been uttered for centuries, since before it was even possible to blow up the whole earth, as it is today. Who heeds them? There is a worldwide madness that keeps building more and better destroying machines and methods. Why don't those who say "Stop. What are you doing?" have the podium, instead of the justifiers, excusers and profiteers. There are too many super rich who make their millions from building weapons, and as long as nations will buy those weapons they're in business to make more.

Of what value are we as human beings if our story is the History of War? And if the final chapter of that story is that we finally and ultimately erase ourselves from the planet, leaving it to the ants, cockroaches and mosquitoes, what a waste. The insects care nothing for our borders, armies, monuments and museums.

Valor, courage and bravery are great qualities wherever they are found. But there is no glory in winning a Peace Prize if there is still no peace. And of what value is a Medal of Honor on the chest of someone who lost a leg in a road side bomb?

There is a civil war going on in this country. It isn't between the liberals and the conservatives, it isn't between the rich and the poor. On one side are those who want to do violence, to make war, on the battle field, the football field or the play ground, and those who sit back and give them permission to do it. Who's on the other side?

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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This invitation is still open for anyone and everyone to post an entry of their own on my journal, Vagabond Journeys http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/.

A new year is upon us and since it is a time for celebrations, remembrances, resolutions and plans for the future I think people have things to say.

Not to take away from the postings on your own journals, but to add to the joy of my own is why I invite you to write for me.

I want to read what your thoughts are about this magical time of the year. This invitation is open to everyone: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, Agnostics, Atheists and the Uncertain or the Confused. Tell me your thoughts on any subject you wish.

There are no limits in regard to length. The only limitation is that, for reasons so far unexplained to me, my blog does not take photographs, animations, videos or pictures of any kind. I deal in words.

Please accept my invitation. Send your entry to my email address dbdacoba@aol.com I will copy and paste it into my journal and it will be displayed promptly. You may sign your name or not as you wish, and you may leave a link to your blog or your email or not, as you wish. I will do NO editing or censoring. Eloquence is not necessary, mind or heart or both is all.

I have 13 Guest Authors so far. Check them out.
All are welcome. Admission is free.

DB - The Vagabond
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Still Waters

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.

Joseph Addison
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Hello Ally
**********************
I once knew an actor named Brown (I don't remember his first name, sorry Mr. Brown) who had one very effective process in working out his performances. He began with the idea that what his character wanted, above all things, was peace. Like water seeking it's own level he wanted to achieve calmness, and every thing in the play that disturbed him was something to fight against. It gave him a good solid objective for every role. I saw him perform a few times and it was clear the technique worked well for him.

When he described it I thought about how easy it would be to apply that, not only to acting but to many of our actions in life. We want to be happy. We want to be wealthy, or at least solvent. We want to be healthy. We want the things that concern us in our lives to be harmonious and uncomplicated. We want our work to be done satisfactorily. We want our lives to run smoothly. In short we want peace.

But our days seem to be filled dealing with things that interfere with that peace, that calmness, and even though some of the efforts we make are joyful ones, they still relate back to the state of ultimate contentment.

But there's another side to that coin, it's the tight shoes theory. Why wear tight shoes? Because it feels so good to take them off. Why take on difficult or strenuous activities? Because it gives us a sense of pride and accomplishment. We can sit back, relax and congratulate ourselves for having done it, whatever "it" was.

There are a great many things wrong with the world that we can get all riled up and exercised about if we really want to. There's no point in turning the back and ignoring them. But there are people working hard to make still waters where trouble rears it's angry head. If something rocks your boat it helps in the calmness category to support them. To assuage guilty feelings is not enough, nor the point. That brings no lasting peace. But to care is the positive remedy for all the world's ills, and that is best done from a place of quiet confidence.

Sometimes contentment requires a humble and contrite spirit. If real peace is achieved those states are well worth having. They are the cure for active feelings of rage, resentment and revenge. With those emotion close to the vest there is no such thing as peace. Those are the disturbances that Mr. Brown would have fought against as the play progressed. To dispel all the negatives from one's heart and mind is the pathway to the still waters.

DB - Your Patient Vagabond
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AUTUMN QUESTION
My sincere apologies. The old gremlin has been at work again and I have lost the file that contained the 6 answers I got for the question. I spent 2 days trying to get it back but failed. Hence I am unable to post the answers I got. As for the rest of you, you're off the hook.

I've decided to drop it and turn my attention to a Winter Question. For those who answered, I am very sorry.

DB
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Forgive Me

One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life is to forgive everybody, everything, every night before you go to bed.

Bernard Baruch
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Hello Sue
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THIS IS THE LAST DAY
The Summer Question is closing it's doors at midnight EST.
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I read thoroughly the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran, as well as a lot of philosophy, history, science and other dust covered tomes. In all three of those sacred texts great stress is laid on the commandment to forgive, friends, enemies, everyone, including ourselves. In fact the issue is so big and important the writers must have felt there was some divine power behind forgiveness.

I've found that it is much easier to forgive people than I ever thought it was back in my smart aleck days. Oh, I can make excuses for people: he has a headache, she's having a bad day, they just don't understand. But that isn't the same as forgiving.

True forgiveness is a matter of consciousness, it is holding in thought the truth about human life and human behavior. Nothing is easier in this uncertain world than to do something wrong, to make a mistake, to miscalculate or, worse, to be motivated by something sinister, like hunger or greed, to do damage to another person or his property. Those demons are all part of the great struggle we have as human beings against the powers of darkeners that would destroy us.

None of are exempt from that struggle, not even the rich and beautiful. In fact, and this is an important fact to know about, it is often that the rich and beautiful succumb to the temptations to do harm more often than those who grapple with the chains of a difficult life.

An even more important discovery about forgiveness is that it is a mark of maturity. The idiot who engages in road rage or any process of "getting even" is still back in his childhood, refusing, like Peter Pan, to grow up.

The first urge we have to forgive is usually met with a counter urge. "What! Forgive that bastard. Never!" But if the need to forgive has divine power behind it, that counter urge has no divine power to strengthen it no matter how vigorously our nerves may shake with anticipation. The so called reality of revenge is an illusion. The anger that lives with one who cannot forgive takes over and controls that person's life. Heaven forbid if that anger is salted with the heavy spice of violence. Eat dynamite and drink human blood, there's nothing left.

I won't make a list of the people I need to forgive. For one thing, that would only legitimize my negative feelings about them and for another thing, I've already forgiven them. When one person or event pops into my mind I simply remind myself I've forgiven them and that's that. I have set them free and I've set myself free.

But, ironically, the buzzing fly of conscience that may keep me awake at night is that I need to forgive myself for more than any one else has done to me. If I could genuinely and completely forgive myself for all the stupid things I did and the smart things I didn't do, which seems like an impassible, life long task, that would be freedom and a divine state of being indeed.

"Let there be peace in the world and let it begin with me."

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
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This is it, your last chance.

SUMMER QUESTION

It's been a long, hot, wet and sticky summer, so here's the hot, sticky question..

Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

22 interesting answers so far.

You have until midnight.
I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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Get Around To It

I wish, of course, peace, grace, and beauty. How do you do that? You work for it.

Studs Terkel
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It was a scorcher here yesterday and will be another one today. Burning sunlight, scalding water, pea soup air. Every time I opened the refrigerator door I felt like one of the Pigeon sisters. If you don't know who they are, they are in the original play of The Odd Couple. It was so hot they sat in front of their open refrigerator.

I once knew an actor named Brown, I don't remember his first name. We never did a play together but one day he talked about his approach to acting. He decided that what every character he played wanted was peace above all else. He would determine what peace meant to the character he played and everything that interfered with that peace had to be dealt with, violently if necessary. It was an interesting process. It wasn't my system but it was a good one. It doesn't matter how you cook the meal as long as it tastes good when you're done.

He could have chosen grace or beauty as his focus and achieved similar results. The point of his acting was that whatever the harmonious state is if it isn't present then it needs to be worked for. Even if it is not achieved by the end of the play, and it frequently isn't, the effort to achieve it is what makes the drama.

Robert Persig writes about a couple who lived in a chronic state of low level distress because of a leaky faucet they were too lazy to fix. Think how many annoyances we may put up with in life simply because a) we haven't correctly identified what gives us peace, grace and beauty, and b) as a result we haven't taken the sometimes easy steps to correct them.

If you can fix it, fix it. If you can't, live with it until you can. But don't let it become a permanent part of your life. I knew a woman who had a circular card on her desk labeled "A Round Toit." In other words instead of saying "I'll take care of that when I get around to it." she had a round toit and got things done.

I have an unfinished painting and an unfinished story. I have an unfinished life. So do you. Life is unfinished business. There is always something to do. There is always more peace, grace and beauty to be made. Isn't that a wonderful thing?

DB - The Vagabond
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Weekend Puzzle Answer

A minimalist cryptogram

1 = ONE, WON
P. M. = EVENING
AZURE = BLUE
O = RING
U = YOU
R = ARE
& = AND
2 = TOO

B'S GHH GH1 TXTPE P.M.
I'M ALL ALONE EVERY EVENING

GHH GH1 ZTTHBFI AZURE
ALL ALONE FEELING BLUE

1L'O CATPT U R & AYC U R
WOND'RING WHERE YOU ARE AND HOW YOU ARE

& BZ U R GHH GH1 2.
AND IF YOU ARE ALL ALONE TOO.

BPXBFI NTPHBF
IRVING BERLIN

DB

Rumors Of Peace

I know of no greater work for humanity than in the cause of peace.

Frank Kellogg
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Some people are under the bizarre and malevolent misconception that in order to make peace you have to make war, that in order to heal the sprained ankle you should chop off the leg. We have seen some evidence of that thinking lately in this world. Some people fight with their neighbors over issues that might be solved by negotiation. Other's are fighting in foreign lands. Everyone who has ever known about these things has said that when one nation wages war in a foreign land it is always justified as fighting to protect the first nations freedom, and it never is.

The only thing that can protect freedom is peace. The urge for war must be finally overcome in order for there to be peace. That reads like a truism, and it is. Then why is it so hard for people to accept? Because they don't want to let go of a vestigial reaction which they will tell you is germane to the human being.

That sort of thinking reminds me of the people who said the automobile would never work because we are humanly incapable of traveling faster than 8 miles an hour, or it is impossible for humans to survive in outer space

But peace is just as possible as the International Space Station. It takes the same kind of commitment, I recently heard an American politician say that he was very uncomfortable with the fact that there are Russians living in the Space Station, That man is living in a wartime mentality. The Cold War is over. What should we do, attack the Space Station to drive the Russian out? Some people might think so.

In spite of all the "wars and rumors of wars" we are at a point of development and advancement as to be able to perceive and find "peace and rumors of peace" in our world. The causes need to be faced and eliminated. And what are they? Martin Luther King, Jr. said it very well: "Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation."

That is the challenge, the goal and the destiny. It must be done.
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WEEKEND TEST
(This is your last chance. If I don't get any entries on this one, there'll be no more weekend tests. You will have to fend (whatever that means) for yourselves.)

You are to fill in the blanks. It may take some General Research, but that's okay.

Okay, here's a big hint.

1. T___ L___
2. D___ H___
3. U T___
4. Kurt W___
5. J___ P___ d___ C___
6. B___ B___-G___
7. K___ A___
8. B___ K___-m___

Good luck.
DB
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Designated Dabbling 11/17/08

The smallest good deed is better than the greatest good intention.

Emmanuel Duguet
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What is your next step in life? It's the one right in front of you.


I was living on the upper West Side in Manhattan. I was in rehearsal for a play on the upper East Side. The rehearsals began at 10 a.m. It was summer. On days when it wasn't raining I would walk to work across Central Park. I allowed myself plenty of time so that I didn't have to rush and could enjoy a leisurely stroll.

Every morning I would pass a woman, who was well but comfortably dressed and who carried a plastic bag. Every now and then she would bend over, pick up a piece of litter and put it in the bag.

Since we saw each other every morning we soon got to nodding and then greeting. One morning I stopped to chat with her. I noticed that she wasn't picking up all the litter, just some. now and then. I asked her about that and she explained that she was out for her morning walk in the park and not to clean it up, so she only dealt with the trash that was in front of her as she walked.

I have thought about that woman and her remark often over the years. It is a great life lesson. We can't change the world, but we can improve it, one step at a time.

Wherever we go in life we leave a trail behind us. Is it a clean one?


"Let there be peace in the world and let it begin with me."


Vagabond Journeys