I'm fretting over my birds. They are not eating from my new feeder. They liked the old one I had which someone destroyed, but they're not taking to this new one. I put some fresh clean water in their bath but the feeder is still full of seeds. I guess they found some other diner that's easier on them.
You think I'm being stupid about this? Maybe, but I don't have much to care about around here except myself. I thought I had found some feathered friends.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Vagabondism 58
Vagabondism #58 "Beware of small minded people. Sometimes the things you do to win their approval simply earn their envy and malice."
dbdacoba@aol.com
dbdacoba@aol.com
Rainbows And Roses
To utter harsh words when sweet ones would serve is like eating unripe fruit when ripe ones are at hand.
Tirukkural
*****************
Hello Anna Regina Guyana
********************
Speak gently, it is better far
To rule by love than fear;
Speak gently: let no harsh word mar
The good we may do here.
Speak gently to the erring: know
They must have toiled in vain;
Perchance unkindness made them so;
O win them back again.
Speak gently: 'tis a little thing,
Dropped in the heart's deep well;
The good, the joy that it may bring,
Eternity shall tell.
(G. W. Langford)
___________________
There were three people in the room, two men and one woman, when I walked through the door. One of the men was saying "Well, I think he...." He stopped abruptly when he saw me. The woman became very red faced. I sat down and said "So, I walked into a conversation about myself and now everyone here is embarrassed except for me."
It's one of natures laws that if we bad mouth people behind their backs sooner or later we'll be caught at it. It is better to stay out of gossip and avoid the trap. As an old saying has it "A closed mouth gathers no feet."
Some people think I go through life seeing only rainbows and roses and don't look at or see the darker, uglier side of things. But I have just as much right as any one else to rage, weep and harshly judge people for the rotten things they've done to me. There are some people and some things that are near impossible to forgive. In fact, I forgive as much as I can and then just don't think about the rest of it. To carry around resentment in one's heart is a sickness.
Given the fact that everything we do has an effect on the world, to one degree or another, an effect we usually can't measure or maybe can't even know about. it is vital that we be alarmed at ourselves for sending out the words, the impressions or even the thoughts of brutality and wrath.
On the other hand the sweet, ripe fruit is always available. The good words and thoughts cast into the heart's well can bring effects for which we can be proudly responsible. But positive thinking is a habit, it requires discipline and humility and it's not for the mentally lazy. It has to be developed and it begins with denial, to refuse to accept into one's thoughts the negatives, like a baseball pitcher refusing the signals from his catcher "No. Not that one. I won't do that." Then hearing and accepting into your thoughts the right words, words of praise, approval, appreciation, love. You won't see rainbows and roses all the time, but you'll see them more often.
DB - The Vagabond
************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
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
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
:
Tirukkural
*****************
Hello Anna Regina Guyana
********************
Speak gently, it is better far
To rule by love than fear;
Speak gently: let no harsh word mar
The good we may do here.
Speak gently to the erring: know
They must have toiled in vain;
Perchance unkindness made them so;
O win them back again.
Speak gently: 'tis a little thing,
Dropped in the heart's deep well;
The good, the joy that it may bring,
Eternity shall tell.
(G. W. Langford)
___________________
There were three people in the room, two men and one woman, when I walked through the door. One of the men was saying "Well, I think he...." He stopped abruptly when he saw me. The woman became very red faced. I sat down and said "So, I walked into a conversation about myself and now everyone here is embarrassed except for me."
It's one of natures laws that if we bad mouth people behind their backs sooner or later we'll be caught at it. It is better to stay out of gossip and avoid the trap. As an old saying has it "A closed mouth gathers no feet."
Some people think I go through life seeing only rainbows and roses and don't look at or see the darker, uglier side of things. But I have just as much right as any one else to rage, weep and harshly judge people for the rotten things they've done to me. There are some people and some things that are near impossible to forgive. In fact, I forgive as much as I can and then just don't think about the rest of it. To carry around resentment in one's heart is a sickness.
Given the fact that everything we do has an effect on the world, to one degree or another, an effect we usually can't measure or maybe can't even know about. it is vital that we be alarmed at ourselves for sending out the words, the impressions or even the thoughts of brutality and wrath.
On the other hand the sweet, ripe fruit is always available. The good words and thoughts cast into the heart's well can bring effects for which we can be proudly responsible. But positive thinking is a habit, it requires discipline and humility and it's not for the mentally lazy. It has to be developed and it begins with denial, to refuse to accept into one's thoughts the negatives, like a baseball pitcher refusing the signals from his catcher "No. Not that one. I won't do that." Then hearing and accepting into your thoughts the right words, words of praise, approval, appreciation, love. You won't see rainbows and roses all the time, but you'll see them more often.
DB - The Vagabond
************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
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
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
:
Monday, May 30, 2011
Vagabondism 57
Vagabondism #57 "It is difficult at times, for some people, to tell the difference between intelligent thought and emotional reaction."
dbdacoba@aol.com
dbdacoba@aol.com
Creating A Role
He who strives will find his goals strive for him equally.
Euripides
*******************
Hello Kapalua Hawaii
**************************
Many years ago I saw a production of "The Taming of the Shrew" by Shakespeare. I didn't know any of the actors but I was particularly impress by the actor who played Petruchio. He filled out the role with strength, virility and a stage taking manliness. A few years later I met the actor when we were both hired to work in the same theatre company. In real life he was a young, short, gay fellow. It didn't matter. He had found Petruchio and played him brilliantly.
I auditioned for a Broadway show and was told by the director I could never possibly play the role I was auditioning for even though I had just played it in another theatre. That was his first mistake. Then he asked me to read for another part, a young man who falsely threatens to drown himself. The director began describing a horrible scene of me floating around in a river full of garbage and human waste. That was his second mistake. He didn't cast me but the show never took place. That was his third mistake but it's understandable considering his approach to the art of acting.
The man to find there was not the man who could jump into a fetid river but the man who could feel such a passion of self destruction that he could threaten such a thing.
There are two ways for an actor to depict a character on the stage: the right way and the wrong way, the creative way and the artificial way. Many actors fit a character around themselves like a suit of clothes. Sometimes they wear the suit, sometimes the suit wears them. But there is a principle of character development in acting that is almost mystical. It is best and only described as that at the same moment you set out to discover your character, your character sets out to find you. It sounds quite other worldly I know, but it actually happens, as Euripides must have known.
I remember two roles I played of men who were totally unlike me and how I found them. One was an official torturer for an unnamed South American dictatorship. The other was an older gay man being taken out for Christmas dinner by his young lover. Since I am neither gay nor could I ever torture anyone both these roles presented me challenges to find and portray these men honestly.
In the case of the torturer I didn't waste my time imagining applying electronic shocks to anyone's genitalia. There were no scenes like that in the play. He worked for the government. Torturing was his job. The play was about his relationship with his unfaithful wife and the sadomasochism that was part of that relationship. And when I began to search for the character on those terms he began searching for me. And one day I discovered him. I looked into the mirror and there he was looking back at me. We found each other. From then on I could play him, and he could play me.
Playing the gay man, on the contrary, required imagining things that weren't happening. Instead of eating the meal his young lover bought for him he drank wine and reminisced about his own youth when he was in love with his college English professor who eventually betrayed him and broke his heart.
Instead of sitting at a table in a three piece gray suit with an untouched plate of food next to him I imagined him as a young, sweater wearing poet, passionate about life, living again through all the sad and happy moments of his love affair. When I worked it that way the man showed up and sat right down in the chair with me.
Your goals may not be as far off the center of your life as mine were in those two cases, but the principle is the same. To imagine graphically is correct as long as it is appropriate. Floating in rivers and torturing people gets one nowhere, but to find the key that unlocks the door to your dream will set the dream on a search for you. You will know you've done it when the dream comes true. Then on to the next one.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
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
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Euripides
*******************
Hello Kapalua Hawaii
**************************
Many years ago I saw a production of "The Taming of the Shrew" by Shakespeare. I didn't know any of the actors but I was particularly impress by the actor who played Petruchio. He filled out the role with strength, virility and a stage taking manliness. A few years later I met the actor when we were both hired to work in the same theatre company. In real life he was a young, short, gay fellow. It didn't matter. He had found Petruchio and played him brilliantly.
I auditioned for a Broadway show and was told by the director I could never possibly play the role I was auditioning for even though I had just played it in another theatre. That was his first mistake. Then he asked me to read for another part, a young man who falsely threatens to drown himself. The director began describing a horrible scene of me floating around in a river full of garbage and human waste. That was his second mistake. He didn't cast me but the show never took place. That was his third mistake but it's understandable considering his approach to the art of acting.
The man to find there was not the man who could jump into a fetid river but the man who could feel such a passion of self destruction that he could threaten such a thing.
There are two ways for an actor to depict a character on the stage: the right way and the wrong way, the creative way and the artificial way. Many actors fit a character around themselves like a suit of clothes. Sometimes they wear the suit, sometimes the suit wears them. But there is a principle of character development in acting that is almost mystical. It is best and only described as that at the same moment you set out to discover your character, your character sets out to find you. It sounds quite other worldly I know, but it actually happens, as Euripides must have known.
I remember two roles I played of men who were totally unlike me and how I found them. One was an official torturer for an unnamed South American dictatorship. The other was an older gay man being taken out for Christmas dinner by his young lover. Since I am neither gay nor could I ever torture anyone both these roles presented me challenges to find and portray these men honestly.
In the case of the torturer I didn't waste my time imagining applying electronic shocks to anyone's genitalia. There were no scenes like that in the play. He worked for the government. Torturing was his job. The play was about his relationship with his unfaithful wife and the sadomasochism that was part of that relationship. And when I began to search for the character on those terms he began searching for me. And one day I discovered him. I looked into the mirror and there he was looking back at me. We found each other. From then on I could play him, and he could play me.
Playing the gay man, on the contrary, required imagining things that weren't happening. Instead of eating the meal his young lover bought for him he drank wine and reminisced about his own youth when he was in love with his college English professor who eventually betrayed him and broke his heart.
Instead of sitting at a table in a three piece gray suit with an untouched plate of food next to him I imagined him as a young, sweater wearing poet, passionate about life, living again through all the sad and happy moments of his love affair. When I worked it that way the man showed up and sat right down in the chair with me.
Your goals may not be as far off the center of your life as mine were in those two cases, but the principle is the same. To imagine graphically is correct as long as it is appropriate. Floating in rivers and torturing people gets one nowhere, but to find the key that unlocks the door to your dream will set the dream on a search for you. You will know you've done it when the dream comes true. Then on to the next one.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
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
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Vagabondism 56
Vagabondism #56 "The world has changed from when you first discovered it. Time to rediscover."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Real Age
One can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things and happy in small ways.
Edith Wharton
*********************
Hello Agra India
*********************
Though I often read what others had to say about agedness I never really understood it until I stepped onto the gently moving carousel of soup and meatloaf, gray hair and tender feet myself.
Those of us who have passed the age of so called "usefulness" have become experts at adjustment, adaptation and courage. We learn to accept a changing world which is changing faster than it did when we first thought it was changing too fast. I get a lot of spam offering to introduce me to seniors in my area. I have no trouble meeting seniors if I want to, without any help. It's younger people I want to meet because it is they who have the energy and vision that are making the changes happen.
We may not go disco dancing, jogging in the park or bounding up a flight of stairs, but we will get to the top of the stairs in our own good time, however we have to, if what we want is up there.
We have developed the courage to deal with an uncooperative body and an uncaring world. We have made many sacrifices and have learned to make them gracefully. And we have grown to know that the most important sacrifices are not things but attitudes, beliefs and false ideas.
We can appreciate the benefits of slowing down, of exploring new ideas, of gasping in delight at the grandeur of the world and savoring the sweet melody of a single flower. And if we are fortunate to have children around us we can see that life is continuous.
My friend down the street has a daughter with three children, and her mother is still alive. On Mothers Day they all got together and went to an amusement park where they all had a lot of fun, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, three generations of mothers. How about that?
As some wise person once said "Don't complain about growing old, it's a privilege denied to many."
DB - The Vagabond
(Never give up)
**********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
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
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Edith Wharton
*********************
Hello Agra India
*********************
Though I often read what others had to say about agedness I never really understood it until I stepped onto the gently moving carousel of soup and meatloaf, gray hair and tender feet myself.
Those of us who have passed the age of so called "usefulness" have become experts at adjustment, adaptation and courage. We learn to accept a changing world which is changing faster than it did when we first thought it was changing too fast. I get a lot of spam offering to introduce me to seniors in my area. I have no trouble meeting seniors if I want to, without any help. It's younger people I want to meet because it is they who have the energy and vision that are making the changes happen.
We may not go disco dancing, jogging in the park or bounding up a flight of stairs, but we will get to the top of the stairs in our own good time, however we have to, if what we want is up there.
We have developed the courage to deal with an uncooperative body and an uncaring world. We have made many sacrifices and have learned to make them gracefully. And we have grown to know that the most important sacrifices are not things but attitudes, beliefs and false ideas.
We can appreciate the benefits of slowing down, of exploring new ideas, of gasping in delight at the grandeur of the world and savoring the sweet melody of a single flower. And if we are fortunate to have children around us we can see that life is continuous.
My friend down the street has a daughter with three children, and her mother is still alive. On Mothers Day they all got together and went to an amusement park where they all had a lot of fun, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, three generations of mothers. How about that?
As some wise person once said "Don't complain about growing old, it's a privilege denied to many."
DB - The Vagabond
(Never give up)
**********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
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
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Vagabondism 55
Vagabondism #55 "May a bubble of blessing surround you wherever you go to protect you from all danger and distress."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Close Encounters
Life is a zoo in a jungle.
Peter De Vries
**********************
Hello Addis Ababa Ethiopia
***************************
New York City has a number of amazing zoos. The Bronx Zoo, which is actually The New York Zoological Society (since many things in New York have two names) and the small but excellent Central Pork Zoo, where, if you're in New York City, you should go to see the penguin exhibit among other things.
Otherwise there is the general wildlife of New York. The ubiquitous pigeons, squirrels and cock roaches (which, I'm told, is the only creature that servived the atom bomb).
There were also some strange spottings of animals over the years: an alligator living in one of the waterways, a coyote loose in Central Park, a family of Peregrine falcons nesting in the top of one of the tall buildings.
Then there was the Siamese cat.
Some people in the city keep strange animals in their apartments. I once went to a rehearsal in an apartment that had a boa constrictor living there. The snake didn't move. It slept the whole time I was there which was alright with me. And I knew an actor who turned his bathroom into an aviary for a flock of birds. He also had a parrot in the ktichen.
I went to visit an actress friend and her husband. Their apartment building had a garage attached to it. He was working in the garage so we went there. There was a monkey in a cage who was so glad to see me he pissed on me.
Then there was that Siamese cat.
Some of the ground floor apartments in the city have back yards. I knew a woman who kept her pet sheep out there.
But the strangest encounter I had was with a bobcat. I went to the ground floor apartment to rehears and found an apartment full of animals: a strange tropical bird in a cage, a turtle, a small furry dog, a Siamese cat and two bobcats. The people were environmentalists who were into saving the bobcat, so they had two of them. She told me that one of them was nice and the other one was nasty. She tried to get them both into the back yard, but while I was sitting on the sofa going over the script I was suddenly joined by a creature who jumped up on the sofa to check me out. I turned and was face to face with a wild bobcat. It was about 6 inches from my face and staring at me. I was scared. I wondered wither it was the nice one or the nasty one. But just at that moment the Siamese cat appeared from somewhere and sat down. When the bobcat saw it he lowered his head and slunk away into the back yard. With all those animals in the house I was impressed to see that the Siamese cat was the one in charge. Without lifting a paw it told the big dangerous bobcat what to do and where to go.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
------------------------------
Never give up.
***********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
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
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Peter De Vries
**********************
Hello Addis Ababa Ethiopia
***************************
New York City has a number of amazing zoos. The Bronx Zoo, which is actually The New York Zoological Society (since many things in New York have two names) and the small but excellent Central Pork Zoo, where, if you're in New York City, you should go to see the penguin exhibit among other things.
Otherwise there is the general wildlife of New York. The ubiquitous pigeons, squirrels and cock roaches (which, I'm told, is the only creature that servived the atom bomb).
There were also some strange spottings of animals over the years: an alligator living in one of the waterways, a coyote loose in Central Park, a family of Peregrine falcons nesting in the top of one of the tall buildings.
Then there was the Siamese cat.
Some people in the city keep strange animals in their apartments. I once went to a rehearsal in an apartment that had a boa constrictor living there. The snake didn't move. It slept the whole time I was there which was alright with me. And I knew an actor who turned his bathroom into an aviary for a flock of birds. He also had a parrot in the ktichen.
I went to visit an actress friend and her husband. Their apartment building had a garage attached to it. He was working in the garage so we went there. There was a monkey in a cage who was so glad to see me he pissed on me.
Then there was that Siamese cat.
Some of the ground floor apartments in the city have back yards. I knew a woman who kept her pet sheep out there.
But the strangest encounter I had was with a bobcat. I went to the ground floor apartment to rehears and found an apartment full of animals: a strange tropical bird in a cage, a turtle, a small furry dog, a Siamese cat and two bobcats. The people were environmentalists who were into saving the bobcat, so they had two of them. She told me that one of them was nice and the other one was nasty. She tried to get them both into the back yard, but while I was sitting on the sofa going over the script I was suddenly joined by a creature who jumped up on the sofa to check me out. I turned and was face to face with a wild bobcat. It was about 6 inches from my face and staring at me. I was scared. I wondered wither it was the nice one or the nasty one. But just at that moment the Siamese cat appeared from somewhere and sat down. When the bobcat saw it he lowered his head and slunk away into the back yard. With all those animals in the house I was impressed to see that the Siamese cat was the one in charge. Without lifting a paw it told the big dangerous bobcat what to do and where to go.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
------------------------------
Never give up.
***********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
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
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Friday, May 27, 2011
Vagabondism 54
Vagabondism #54 "We may not achieve everything we strive for, but if we strive for everything, what we do achieve will be amazing."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Am I Ignorant?
I do not think I know what I do not know.
Socrates
**********************
Hello Amiens France
***********************
I don't know but I think the world generally demands more from us humans than we are capable of giving. It seems we are all expected to have ready answers to anything and everything. Books are written and published, lectures are given, interviews are conducted. There are too many authorities around who aren't really authorities at all, but opinion holders abound.
With very little knowledge of facts legislatures pass laws that make no sense. With limited understanding media editors express observations and summaries of important events. And when an interview is conducted, whether in a public forum or on the street, the interviewee is expected to come up with an answer. "How die you feel when such and such happened? What went through your mind...." Etc. Stupid questions which generally elicit very unsatisfactory answers. "Who knows what went through my mind. I don't remember."
On the other hand if you don't come up with an immediate answer the questioner assumes you don't know. The more we live the more data we carry around in our heads, the longer it takes to address the question.
I was standing on a New York City subway platform reading a paper and waiting for the train when a woman approached and asked me if the train stopped at a certain station. I began to draw up the route in my head to see if that station was on the way. But she immediately said scornfully "Well if you don't know, don't guess." In another moment or two I would have given her an answer but since she decided to be rude with me I directed her to a map on the wall midway down the station platform and went back to my paper.
Socrates was the great questioner. Starting from the assumption that he did not know he probed his and other people's minds to find the possible answers. It is a great lesson. I suggest facing the bewildering circumstances of the world with a sturdy backbone of ignorance about most things, asking intelligent questions and waiting for intelligent answers before expressing opinions or taking actions.
DB - The Vagabond
-------------------------
Never give up.
************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. Picked up another answer. Where's yours?
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
Only 10 responers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Socrates
**********************
Hello Amiens France
***********************
I don't know but I think the world generally demands more from us humans than we are capable of giving. It seems we are all expected to have ready answers to anything and everything. Books are written and published, lectures are given, interviews are conducted. There are too many authorities around who aren't really authorities at all, but opinion holders abound.
With very little knowledge of facts legislatures pass laws that make no sense. With limited understanding media editors express observations and summaries of important events. And when an interview is conducted, whether in a public forum or on the street, the interviewee is expected to come up with an answer. "How die you feel when such and such happened? What went through your mind...." Etc. Stupid questions which generally elicit very unsatisfactory answers. "Who knows what went through my mind. I don't remember."
On the other hand if you don't come up with an immediate answer the questioner assumes you don't know. The more we live the more data we carry around in our heads, the longer it takes to address the question.
I was standing on a New York City subway platform reading a paper and waiting for the train when a woman approached and asked me if the train stopped at a certain station. I began to draw up the route in my head to see if that station was on the way. But she immediately said scornfully "Well if you don't know, don't guess." In another moment or two I would have given her an answer but since she decided to be rude with me I directed her to a map on the wall midway down the station platform and went back to my paper.
Socrates was the great questioner. Starting from the assumption that he did not know he probed his and other people's minds to find the possible answers. It is a great lesson. I suggest facing the bewildering circumstances of the world with a sturdy backbone of ignorance about most things, asking intelligent questions and waiting for intelligent answers before expressing opinions or taking actions.
DB - The Vagabond
-------------------------
Never give up.
************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. Picked up another answer. Where's yours?
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
Only 10 responers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Vagabondism 53
Vagabondism #53 "This is not the atomic age, the space age, not the electronics age. It is the plastic age. Plastic bags, plastic money, plastic bodies, plastic cars, plastic homes, plastic loves, plastic lives."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Mountains And Mole Hills
What we need is to love without getting tired.
Mother Teresa
*******************
Hello Arenillas Ecuador
***********************
I don't believe in Satan, but if I did I would say one of his greatest talents is his remarkable ability to mess things up. Every day is a disaster, to one degree or another. Things explode, or they implode. Things break down and refuse to get fixed. Other things don't work right. Things don't go the way we want them to or expect them to. Everything is a mess. We tried, we failed. So what's the use?
Every important thing we do in life should be an act of love, whether we are caring for one person or caring for a million. I used to have an early morning radio program in a big city. Over the course of the morning I had at least a million listeners. I went on the air before most of them were awake. As they gradually came around they relied on me to tell them what day it was, what time it was, what the weather forecast was for the day, etc. I would also remind them frequently that they had another chance to do great things. I would pepper my announcements by saying "Thank heaven we have another day on our hands." Then, since I was in a big city with a lot of commerce going on I would say things like "Make that sale!" "Win that case!" "Pass that test!" "Sign that contract!" "Get that job."
People would often write and tell me how much they appreciated that gentle boot in the rear as they were getting ready to leave the home and head out into the jungle and how much I inspired them to meet the challenges of the day with a positive attitude.
When you are up and at 'em today remember that you have another day on your hands, and a chance to make a mole hill out of that mountain Satan made for you yesterday.
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never give up.
****************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. Picked up another answer today. Where's yours?
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
Only 10 responers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Mother Teresa
*******************
Hello Arenillas Ecuador
***********************
I don't believe in Satan, but if I did I would say one of his greatest talents is his remarkable ability to mess things up. Every day is a disaster, to one degree or another. Things explode, or they implode. Things break down and refuse to get fixed. Other things don't work right. Things don't go the way we want them to or expect them to. Everything is a mess. We tried, we failed. So what's the use?
Every important thing we do in life should be an act of love, whether we are caring for one person or caring for a million. I used to have an early morning radio program in a big city. Over the course of the morning I had at least a million listeners. I went on the air before most of them were awake. As they gradually came around they relied on me to tell them what day it was, what time it was, what the weather forecast was for the day, etc. I would also remind them frequently that they had another chance to do great things. I would pepper my announcements by saying "Thank heaven we have another day on our hands." Then, since I was in a big city with a lot of commerce going on I would say things like "Make that sale!" "Win that case!" "Pass that test!" "Sign that contract!" "Get that job."
People would often write and tell me how much they appreciated that gentle boot in the rear as they were getting ready to leave the home and head out into the jungle and how much I inspired them to meet the challenges of the day with a positive attitude.
When you are up and at 'em today remember that you have another day on your hands, and a chance to make a mole hill out of that mountain Satan made for you yesterday.
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never give up.
****************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. Picked up another answer today. Where's yours?
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
Only 10 responers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Vagabondism 52
Vagabondism #52 "Do not scorn the secrets that live in an old person’s heart."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Roll Up Your Sleeves
The world is moving along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.
Helen Keller
***********************
Hello Athens Georgia
**********************
There was a time years ago when I was doing alright financially and had some free time. I read an ad in the paper that a big, world wide philanthropic organization (which I won't name) was looking for volunteers on a part time basis. So I went to the address listed in the ad. When I walked in I found a neat, clean office and three people sitting at desks not doing anything. I went up to the first desk and said I was applying for the volunteer work listed in the paper. She smiled and took out from her desk a 4 page application, handed it to me with a pencil and told me to have a seat at a table in the corner to fill it out.
It took about 20 minutes. While I was filling it out no one spoke and when I brought it back to her she said I had to take it to the personnel director, and pointed to the man in a brown suit sitting a few feet away. I stepped over to him , handed it to him along with the pencil. He smiled, put the application in a basket on his desk without looking at it and said that if they needed me they would call. I left. I never heard from them.
A couple of days later I got a call from a friend saying he was involved in a civil rights program and that they needed more volunteers was I interested. I joined up and after filling out a one page application I was up to my ears in work: stuffing envelops, washing dishes, changing light bulbs. Within 2 days I was interviewing other volunteers, reading their applications and urging them in directions that best matched their talents, experience and interests.
In short I was doing exactly what the suit in the big, fancy, international organization was not doing. And I know I and my buddies in our shirt-sleeves-rolled-up manner had some positive results for other people's rights.
DB - The Vagabond
(never give up)
**************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. Picked up two more answers. Where's yours?
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
Only 9 responers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Helen Keller
***********************
Hello Athens Georgia
**********************
There was a time years ago when I was doing alright financially and had some free time. I read an ad in the paper that a big, world wide philanthropic organization (which I won't name) was looking for volunteers on a part time basis. So I went to the address listed in the ad. When I walked in I found a neat, clean office and three people sitting at desks not doing anything. I went up to the first desk and said I was applying for the volunteer work listed in the paper. She smiled and took out from her desk a 4 page application, handed it to me with a pencil and told me to have a seat at a table in the corner to fill it out.
It took about 20 minutes. While I was filling it out no one spoke and when I brought it back to her she said I had to take it to the personnel director, and pointed to the man in a brown suit sitting a few feet away. I stepped over to him , handed it to him along with the pencil. He smiled, put the application in a basket on his desk without looking at it and said that if they needed me they would call. I left. I never heard from them.
A couple of days later I got a call from a friend saying he was involved in a civil rights program and that they needed more volunteers was I interested. I joined up and after filling out a one page application I was up to my ears in work: stuffing envelops, washing dishes, changing light bulbs. Within 2 days I was interviewing other volunteers, reading their applications and urging them in directions that best matched their talents, experience and interests.
In short I was doing exactly what the suit in the big, fancy, international organization was not doing. And I know I and my buddies in our shirt-sleeves-rolled-up manner had some positive results for other people's rights.
DB - The Vagabond
(never give up)
**************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. Picked up two more answers. Where's yours?
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
Only 9 responers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Vagabondism 51
Vagabondism #51 "Isn’t it odd that we spend most of our adult lives somewhere between alert and asleep?"
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
A Cry For Me
Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.
Albert Einstein
***********************
Hello Guam
**********************
Now you say you're lonely
You cry the long night through
Well, you can cry me a river
Cry me a river
I cried a river over you
----------------------------------
I don't like to spend any time thinking back over my career. There are a few events that happened, funny theatre stories, that still amuse me to think about. But most of the 50 year career I don't mind forgetting.
Sunday evening I was sitting on the front porch watching the actors in the company house pack up, say good bye to each other and leave town, most of them on their way back to New York City. Someone might ask if I was jealous. But I wasn't. I sat calmly and watched realizing that was me in a former life.
The only thing that really worries me is if in all those 50 years of being a performing artist I ever did anything that was really valuable.
--------------------------------
Now you say you're sorry
For being so untrue
Well, you can cry me a river
Cry me a river
I cried a river over you
-------------------------------
Many years ago I did a play in Boston. Next door to the theatre was a cocktail lounge with a pianist. I used to like going in for a couple of drinks before I went home. One night the pianist played "Cry Me A River" in such a soulful and beautiful way that I went up to the piano, thanked him and slipped a couple of dollars into his oversized brandy snifter. After that whenever I came into the lounge he would modulate from whatever he was playing and into Cry Me A River. As a result it became one of my favorite songs and whenever I hear it I remember the magical way in which that pianist played it.
Another time, late at night, in a New York subway station I heard it played by a man with a saxophone, all by himself at the far end of the platform.
----------------------------------
You drove me, nearly drove me, out of my head
While you never shed a tear
Remember, I remember, all that you said
You told me love was too plebeian
Told me you were through with me
---------------------------------------
I wonder sometimes if I was ever able to affect someone's life as graphically as that pianist did, as the saxophonist did, for me and my life. I don't cry over what was and is no more. Life moves on. Now I'm a writer and a painter. But I still wonder if I was ever of any value, to someone, at some moment in my life, who will remember me because I touched them in the way I was touched.
---------------------------------
Now you say you love me
Well, just to prove that you do
Come on and cry me a river
Cry me a river
I cried a river over you
--------------------------------
I don't cry over what was and is no more. I cry over what might have been.
--------------------------
I cried a river over you
**************************
DB - The Vagabond
(Song by Arthur Hamilton)
----------------------------
Never give up
**************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. Picked up two more answers. Where's yours?
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
Only 9 responers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Albert Einstein
***********************
Hello Guam
**********************
Now you say you're lonely
You cry the long night through
Well, you can cry me a river
Cry me a river
I cried a river over you
----------------------------------
I don't like to spend any time thinking back over my career. There are a few events that happened, funny theatre stories, that still amuse me to think about. But most of the 50 year career I don't mind forgetting.
Sunday evening I was sitting on the front porch watching the actors in the company house pack up, say good bye to each other and leave town, most of them on their way back to New York City. Someone might ask if I was jealous. But I wasn't. I sat calmly and watched realizing that was me in a former life.
The only thing that really worries me is if in all those 50 years of being a performing artist I ever did anything that was really valuable.
--------------------------------
Now you say you're sorry
For being so untrue
Well, you can cry me a river
Cry me a river
I cried a river over you
-------------------------------
Many years ago I did a play in Boston. Next door to the theatre was a cocktail lounge with a pianist. I used to like going in for a couple of drinks before I went home. One night the pianist played "Cry Me A River" in such a soulful and beautiful way that I went up to the piano, thanked him and slipped a couple of dollars into his oversized brandy snifter. After that whenever I came into the lounge he would modulate from whatever he was playing and into Cry Me A River. As a result it became one of my favorite songs and whenever I hear it I remember the magical way in which that pianist played it.
Another time, late at night, in a New York subway station I heard it played by a man with a saxophone, all by himself at the far end of the platform.
----------------------------------
You drove me, nearly drove me, out of my head
While you never shed a tear
Remember, I remember, all that you said
You told me love was too plebeian
Told me you were through with me
---------------------------------------
I wonder sometimes if I was ever able to affect someone's life as graphically as that pianist did, as the saxophonist did, for me and my life. I don't cry over what was and is no more. Life moves on. Now I'm a writer and a painter. But I still wonder if I was ever of any value, to someone, at some moment in my life, who will remember me because I touched them in the way I was touched.
---------------------------------
Now you say you love me
Well, just to prove that you do
Come on and cry me a river
Cry me a river
I cried a river over you
--------------------------------
I don't cry over what was and is no more. I cry over what might have been.
--------------------------
I cried a river over you
**************************
DB - The Vagabond
(Song by Arthur Hamilton)
----------------------------
Never give up
**************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. Picked up two more answers. Where's yours?
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
Only 9 responers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Monday, May 23, 2011
Vagabondism 52
Vagabondism #52 "Do not scorn the secrets that live in an old person’s heart."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
The Arrangement
The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.
General Schwartzkopf
************************
Hello Eritrea
**********************
While it is true that it was only a high school prom which in the 50's, even in the wild and progressive northeast, was a fairly staid, polite and predictable event, still there was something about the invitation that took me a while to sort out.
One day, in my senior year, a middle age woman was sitting at the back of the class room. She was introduced to us as Mrs. somebody from Boston. She seemed to be a quiet, genial type so we didn't pay much attention to her. If we moved to another room she followed us and was with us for the whole day.
The next day the principal of my school came up to me with a big smile on her face. She said she had wonderful news for me. It seemed that Mrs. somebody from Boston had been sent there by the parents to find a good date for their daughter to accompany her to their own senior class prom in Boston. And Mrs. somebody had checked out all the boys in my class and decided I was the one. My travel and accommodations would all be taken care of. "Isn't that wonderful" the principal seemed to say. I agreed.
But that evening I thought about it. There was something that bothered me. I couldn't identify what it was but it was enough so that the next day I told the principal I didn't want to do it. Fortunately Mrs. somebody from Boston had made some alternative choices and so another boy went in my place. He was an amiable fellow who laughed a lot and was much better at meeting new people and chatting them than I was. He came back saying he had a good time.
I went to talk with an older person whose knowledge and opinions I respected. I explained to him what the deal had been and tried to explain why it bothered me. It wasn't like a blind date. That's when a mutual friend tries to join two people up because they might like each other. I had been on blind dates and they never much worked out. In talking with this friend I gradually began to see what it was that bothered me. If the girl in question had come to my school, looked us all over and picked me I might have gone. But the parents sent a woman who wasn't a member of the family to arrange a temporary boy friend for someone none of us knew.
That was it. It was an arrangement. On the simplest and most innocent level Mrs. somebody from Boston was a pimp. And I had an unconscious realization of that and it bothered me so much I turned the invitation down. To this day I'm not sorry I did. My conscience is not sorry I did.
Ironically about 2 years later I met the girl quite accidentally when my sister and I paid a visit to the family in Boston. I didn't know it was the same family or the same girl but she reminded me of the whole event. She was a pleasant, intelligent person, not pretty but not ugly. We spent about a half hour together and it seemed clear the way it worked out back then was better for her, and if she had had the right to choose for herself, which she should have had, she most likely would have chosen the other fellow anyway.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
***************************
Never give up.
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. The Rapture is over, now let's get back to the question of Mars.
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
General Schwartzkopf
************************
Hello Eritrea
**********************
While it is true that it was only a high school prom which in the 50's, even in the wild and progressive northeast, was a fairly staid, polite and predictable event, still there was something about the invitation that took me a while to sort out.
One day, in my senior year, a middle age woman was sitting at the back of the class room. She was introduced to us as Mrs. somebody from Boston. She seemed to be a quiet, genial type so we didn't pay much attention to her. If we moved to another room she followed us and was with us for the whole day.
The next day the principal of my school came up to me with a big smile on her face. She said she had wonderful news for me. It seemed that Mrs. somebody from Boston had been sent there by the parents to find a good date for their daughter to accompany her to their own senior class prom in Boston. And Mrs. somebody had checked out all the boys in my class and decided I was the one. My travel and accommodations would all be taken care of. "Isn't that wonderful" the principal seemed to say. I agreed.
But that evening I thought about it. There was something that bothered me. I couldn't identify what it was but it was enough so that the next day I told the principal I didn't want to do it. Fortunately Mrs. somebody from Boston had made some alternative choices and so another boy went in my place. He was an amiable fellow who laughed a lot and was much better at meeting new people and chatting them than I was. He came back saying he had a good time.
I went to talk with an older person whose knowledge and opinions I respected. I explained to him what the deal had been and tried to explain why it bothered me. It wasn't like a blind date. That's when a mutual friend tries to join two people up because they might like each other. I had been on blind dates and they never much worked out. In talking with this friend I gradually began to see what it was that bothered me. If the girl in question had come to my school, looked us all over and picked me I might have gone. But the parents sent a woman who wasn't a member of the family to arrange a temporary boy friend for someone none of us knew.
That was it. It was an arrangement. On the simplest and most innocent level Mrs. somebody from Boston was a pimp. And I had an unconscious realization of that and it bothered me so much I turned the invitation down. To this day I'm not sorry I did. My conscience is not sorry I did.
Ironically about 2 years later I met the girl quite accidentally when my sister and I paid a visit to the family in Boston. I didn't know it was the same family or the same girl but she reminded me of the whole event. She was a pleasant, intelligent person, not pretty but not ugly. We spent about a half hour together and it seemed clear the way it worked out back then was better for her, and if she had had the right to choose for herself, which she should have had, she most likely would have chosen the other fellow anyway.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
***************************
Never give up.
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. The Rapture is over, now let's get back to the question of Mars.
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Perplexing Questions
Did I leave New York City, or did the City leave?
In either case why wasn't there a farewell poem?
Or was there and I missed it?
In either case why wasn't there a farewell poem?
Or was there and I missed it?
Vagabondism 51
Vagabondism #51 "A great idea can’t be expressed too often or in too many ways."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
After The Fall Of Man
There are two wolves fighting inside me. One is filled with cruelty, anger, hatred and fear. The other is filled with mercy, compassion, love and peace. Which one will win? The one that I feed.
Unknown
*******************
Hello Aseri Estonia
**********************
Now that the Rapture has come and gone and left us more or less the way it found us my hope is that it will serve as a cleansing experience. The useless limited literalism of frightened and confused mentality has had its day in the universal court and been found wanting. Perhaps a time has come when the world can divest itself of such muddy thinking and begin to realize a clearer and truer interpretation of scriptures and other visions. One doesn't even need to believe in God, at least not the god of punishment and reward pushed on the human race from desperate and overprotective religions. What it takes is to stop looking at and begin looking through, to question, not to assume. Everything in the universe has its own language but it is only by hearing that language can we understand the universe. Those who do hear it and pass on to us what they hear always speak in metaphors, similitude, allegories, parables, because the truth can't be delivered to human ears in any other way. In fact much, and perhaps all, of the universe is composed of an infinite number of metaphors, all waiting to be understood. But to take an allegory and attempt to treat it as a real event is foolishness, it's a bad trick played on innocent and gullible people.
The Bible says 144,000 people will be saved. That's a multiple of 12, as in 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 disciples of Jesus, 12 months of the year, 12 tones of the scale, a dozen eggs. It's a good number for mathematicians to use and for religious people to hang theories upon. But I once heard a priest say that if he really believed in such a finite number he wouldn't tell anyone because he wouldn't want them to get in his way.
Call me a heretic, an unbeliever and string me up for apostasy but I say all these words that get flung around, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Heaven, Hell, Armageddon, Christ, and a huge flock of other terms from other religions need to be completely overhauled and reinterpreted in spiritual terms and the old materialistic interpretations thrown out with the trash, as difficult as that may be for some people. It is time now for the bigotry of assumed holiness to be poked in the eye.
“For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares the Lord.." (Jeremiah)
"For thus says the great, nonhuman, superpersonal creative intelligence of the universe, pay no attention to the blabber mouth prophets of doom that walk among you, for they don't represent any universal truth." (Bate)
DB - The Vagabond
------------------------
Never Give Up
*********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
There's still time to answer the Spring Question, so let's go.
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Unknown
*******************
Hello Aseri Estonia
**********************
Now that the Rapture has come and gone and left us more or less the way it found us my hope is that it will serve as a cleansing experience. The useless limited literalism of frightened and confused mentality has had its day in the universal court and been found wanting. Perhaps a time has come when the world can divest itself of such muddy thinking and begin to realize a clearer and truer interpretation of scriptures and other visions. One doesn't even need to believe in God, at least not the god of punishment and reward pushed on the human race from desperate and overprotective religions. What it takes is to stop looking at and begin looking through, to question, not to assume. Everything in the universe has its own language but it is only by hearing that language can we understand the universe. Those who do hear it and pass on to us what they hear always speak in metaphors, similitude, allegories, parables, because the truth can't be delivered to human ears in any other way. In fact much, and perhaps all, of the universe is composed of an infinite number of metaphors, all waiting to be understood. But to take an allegory and attempt to treat it as a real event is foolishness, it's a bad trick played on innocent and gullible people.
The Bible says 144,000 people will be saved. That's a multiple of 12, as in 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 disciples of Jesus, 12 months of the year, 12 tones of the scale, a dozen eggs. It's a good number for mathematicians to use and for religious people to hang theories upon. But I once heard a priest say that if he really believed in such a finite number he wouldn't tell anyone because he wouldn't want them to get in his way.
Call me a heretic, an unbeliever and string me up for apostasy but I say all these words that get flung around, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Heaven, Hell, Armageddon, Christ, and a huge flock of other terms from other religions need to be completely overhauled and reinterpreted in spiritual terms and the old materialistic interpretations thrown out with the trash, as difficult as that may be for some people. It is time now for the bigotry of assumed holiness to be poked in the eye.
“For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares the Lord.." (Jeremiah)
"For thus says the great, nonhuman, superpersonal creative intelligence of the universe, pay no attention to the blabber mouth prophets of doom that walk among you, for they don't represent any universal truth." (Bate)
DB - The Vagabond
------------------------
Never Give Up
*********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
There's still time to answer the Spring Question, so let's go.
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Wrap Sure
It is now 6 p.m. in eastern Pennsylvania and the rapture is here in the form of a glass of excellent French Bordeaux and a good panatela cigar.
DB
DB
Vagabondism 50
Vagabondism #50 "I don’t mind if there’s clutter in my life. It always assures me that I have something to do."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Be Aware
The first great gift we can bestow on others is a good example.
Thomas Morel
*******************
Hello Belmopan Belize
************************
As with many youngsters I grew up surrounded by some vary bad influences. I was told what was right behavior, especially toward others, but I had few examples of that behavior to emulate. The way to be it seemed to me, was to be "out to get" others, one way or another. I became competitive in a harmful manner. And the guys I hung around with were of the same stamp. But I was about to enter a 4 step awareness program.
Step 1. I started to notice goodness. I began to realize that there were people around me who were doing kind and generous things without being asked. I was seeing pure altruism in action and it made no sense to me. Everyone had something wrong with them and it should be pointed out. They should be judged, criticized, scorned and laughed at. And yet there were people who actually overlooked what I considered people's faults and who praised and approved of them.
Step 2. I realized to my shame and bafflement that some people were treating me with the same goodness of heart and behavior. There was a genuine unselfishness in the actions of some of those around me. I was being thought of with approval and an acceptance beyond what I thought I deserved. That began to alter my own behavior, but only superficially. It didn't change my opinion of those I thought were beneath me, just my actions toward them, a tolerance which I felt they didn't deserve.
Step 3. To my great surprise I opened my mind enough to realize that the people who were being so kind to me were doing so because they recognized my negativity and were offering a source of healing to it by example. Instead of being lectured at or criticized, people were simply behaving toward me in a way that was an eloquent urge for me to be the person they wanted me to be and knew I could be. As a result I actually began to be that person. I disciplined myself to discard my negativity toward other people and learned to recognize the goodness in them and praise them for it.
Step 4. Having thus far leaned these lessons I set out to be the kind of person who could be the best example possible for others who were going through the same negative expressions I had been. Once free of scorn and ridicule it is easy to see it in others and to see how ugly it is. So I am paying back those who kindly brought me out of my own shadow by keeping the light on for others. This is a step I'm still working on.
DB - The Vagabond
***********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
There's still time to answer the Spring Question, so let's go.
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Thomas Morel
*******************
Hello Belmopan Belize
************************
As with many youngsters I grew up surrounded by some vary bad influences. I was told what was right behavior, especially toward others, but I had few examples of that behavior to emulate. The way to be it seemed to me, was to be "out to get" others, one way or another. I became competitive in a harmful manner. And the guys I hung around with were of the same stamp. But I was about to enter a 4 step awareness program.
Step 1. I started to notice goodness. I began to realize that there were people around me who were doing kind and generous things without being asked. I was seeing pure altruism in action and it made no sense to me. Everyone had something wrong with them and it should be pointed out. They should be judged, criticized, scorned and laughed at. And yet there were people who actually overlooked what I considered people's faults and who praised and approved of them.
Step 2. I realized to my shame and bafflement that some people were treating me with the same goodness of heart and behavior. There was a genuine unselfishness in the actions of some of those around me. I was being thought of with approval and an acceptance beyond what I thought I deserved. That began to alter my own behavior, but only superficially. It didn't change my opinion of those I thought were beneath me, just my actions toward them, a tolerance which I felt they didn't deserve.
Step 3. To my great surprise I opened my mind enough to realize that the people who were being so kind to me were doing so because they recognized my negativity and were offering a source of healing to it by example. Instead of being lectured at or criticized, people were simply behaving toward me in a way that was an eloquent urge for me to be the person they wanted me to be and knew I could be. As a result I actually began to be that person. I disciplined myself to discard my negativity toward other people and learned to recognize the goodness in them and praise them for it.
Step 4. Having thus far leaned these lessons I set out to be the kind of person who could be the best example possible for others who were going through the same negative expressions I had been. Once free of scorn and ridicule it is easy to see it in others and to see how ugly it is. So I am paying back those who kindly brought me out of my own shadow by keeping the light on for others. This is a step I'm still working on.
DB - The Vagabond
***********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
There's still time to answer the Spring Question, so let's go.
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Friday, May 20, 2011
Vagabondism 49
Vagabondism 49 "You have to be a fool when you’re young and get it over with. If you don’t, you’ll be an old fool."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
No Going Back
No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect.
Edward Teller
******************
Hello Amelia Island, Florida
*************************
The first person to be fired out of a cannon was a 14 year old girl named Rossa Matilda Richter, who performed under the name Zazel. That was in 1877 and she eventually toured with the Barnum Circus.
I've seen the cannon ball act a few times and one thing always strikes me about it. Whereas the flying through the air is very impressive, I'm aware that when the performer slides down into that huge tube there's a finality about it, a commitment is made, there is no going back. There are risks, men have died doing it and the flyer has no guarantees. But the decision is made and the act is on.
The basic fact that there is no going back is one of the most fascinating things to me. I can think of many examples, none as spectacular as being shot from a cannon, perhaps, but all requiring a life or death commitment. The skier who pushes off from the top of the ski jump. The boxer who steps up to his opponent for the first time. When the gavel bangs in the court room and the trial is on.
Off hand I remember three occasions from my life and career when I faced the no-going-back.
My last roller coaster ride which was at the Westchester County Fair in Yonkers, New York. I knew it would probably be my last roller coaster and I wasn't sure I should do it, I was getting a little to old for such frivolities. But I sat in the car, pulled the bar forward and waited. In a moment we started the long ascent and I thought "Oh boy, what have you done? You better enjoy this because there's no going back." The coaster had two loops which scared me a bit but when we went over them I didn't even notice it. The ride was over in a flash. I was glad it was over, but I was glad I did it.
For a few years I was the morning DJ for a popular music radio station. The station signed on at precisely 6 a.m. There was a lot of work to do to get ready: turning on and checking equipment, gathering news, choosing records, scheduling the commercials, both live and recorded, reading the meters and cueing up records. At exactly 6 o'clock I pushed a button that played the Star Spangled Banner and I thought "Well, I hope I'm ready." For the next 6 hours I was going to be on the air without a break. There was no going back.
About 15 years ago I played Zorba in the musical. It was a huge role that required a lot of acting, singing and dancing. Zorba is hardly ever off the stage. I used to say it required so much energy it was like running up a mountain. 5 minutes before every performance I would sit back stage with a terrible pain in the back of my neck and wonder how I was going to get through it. It was pushing out onto a ski jump, it was stepping into the ring, it was waiting at the bottom of a cannon. But the music would start, I walked out on to the stage and began. There was no going back. 2 hours later it was over. I was glad it was over but I was glad I did it.
Whatever it is, no matter how complicated, how unpredictable, how dangerous it seems to be, if we make the commitment and go through with it without turning back, the result will not be the monster we thought it was and we'll be glad we did it.
DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
***********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
There's still time to answer the Spring Question, so let's go.
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
Edward Teller
******************
Hello Amelia Island, Florida
*************************
The first person to be fired out of a cannon was a 14 year old girl named Rossa Matilda Richter, who performed under the name Zazel. That was in 1877 and she eventually toured with the Barnum Circus.
I've seen the cannon ball act a few times and one thing always strikes me about it. Whereas the flying through the air is very impressive, I'm aware that when the performer slides down into that huge tube there's a finality about it, a commitment is made, there is no going back. There are risks, men have died doing it and the flyer has no guarantees. But the decision is made and the act is on.
The basic fact that there is no going back is one of the most fascinating things to me. I can think of many examples, none as spectacular as being shot from a cannon, perhaps, but all requiring a life or death commitment. The skier who pushes off from the top of the ski jump. The boxer who steps up to his opponent for the first time. When the gavel bangs in the court room and the trial is on.
Off hand I remember three occasions from my life and career when I faced the no-going-back.
My last roller coaster ride which was at the Westchester County Fair in Yonkers, New York. I knew it would probably be my last roller coaster and I wasn't sure I should do it, I was getting a little to old for such frivolities. But I sat in the car, pulled the bar forward and waited. In a moment we started the long ascent and I thought "Oh boy, what have you done? You better enjoy this because there's no going back." The coaster had two loops which scared me a bit but when we went over them I didn't even notice it. The ride was over in a flash. I was glad it was over, but I was glad I did it.
For a few years I was the morning DJ for a popular music radio station. The station signed on at precisely 6 a.m. There was a lot of work to do to get ready: turning on and checking equipment, gathering news, choosing records, scheduling the commercials, both live and recorded, reading the meters and cueing up records. At exactly 6 o'clock I pushed a button that played the Star Spangled Banner and I thought "Well, I hope I'm ready." For the next 6 hours I was going to be on the air without a break. There was no going back.
About 15 years ago I played Zorba in the musical. It was a huge role that required a lot of acting, singing and dancing. Zorba is hardly ever off the stage. I used to say it required so much energy it was like running up a mountain. 5 minutes before every performance I would sit back stage with a terrible pain in the back of my neck and wonder how I was going to get through it. It was pushing out onto a ski jump, it was stepping into the ring, it was waiting at the bottom of a cannon. But the music would start, I walked out on to the stage and began. There was no going back. 2 hours later it was over. I was glad it was over but I was glad I did it.
Whatever it is, no matter how complicated, how unpredictable, how dangerous it seems to be, if we make the commitment and go through with it without turning back, the result will not be the monster we thought it was and we'll be glad we did it.
DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
***********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
There's still time to answer the Spring Question, so let's go.
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Vagabondism 48
Vagabondism #48 "I loved and I lost, but I will live to love again."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Birds
I checked on the birds this morning and the bird feeder was gone. It fell down to the alley below and broke. I had to throw it out. It was held up by strong leather laces. It looks as though they may have been cut, I don't know.
News From The Bird Bath
There is always a maybe with dreams.
LeBron James
*******************
Hello Caoxian, China
*********************
I sometimes mention, with a veneer of complaint, that no one ever visits me. When Just Plain Bill would drive over here we would enjoy manhattans and crab cakes at the King George. But both Plain Bill and King George have passed into the spirit world. Since then no one has come by to have a chair and share a chat with me.
So this Spring I bought a bird feeder and filled it with seeds, and I set out a pan of water. Now I have a small community of goldfinches that come by every morning and every evening. The chow down, sit around and chatter with each other. They are well fed, clean, polite and well behaved. There's only one thing wrong with them. They don't like me. Whenever I approach them they panic and fly away in all directions.
So last night I had a dream. It began with two giggling girls out on the balcony where the birds congregate. When I opened the door they ran down the fire escape stairs. It was evening and getting dark when I heard footsteps on the stairs. When I asked who was there I got no answer. I began to think I was being burglarized so I called 911 but couldn't get through to anyone who could help me. Then a few people came through the balcony door. But they turned on the lights and made themselves comfortable. Others came through the front door, used the kitchen and the bathroom and sat around the living room talking to each other. They made themselves at home, fixing drinks and putting out plates of food. My apartment was filled with a bunch of people I didn't know and none of them were paying any attention to me, in fact they acted as if I wasn't there. Meanwhile I was sitting in the corner with the phone to my ear still trying to get a hold of someone at 911. Then I woke up.
It was morning, the goldfinches were chattering outside and I thought it was starting all over again. I opened the door to look out and the birds flew away.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
************************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Never give up.
********************
LeBron James
*******************
Hello Caoxian, China
*********************
I sometimes mention, with a veneer of complaint, that no one ever visits me. When Just Plain Bill would drive over here we would enjoy manhattans and crab cakes at the King George. But both Plain Bill and King George have passed into the spirit world. Since then no one has come by to have a chair and share a chat with me.
So this Spring I bought a bird feeder and filled it with seeds, and I set out a pan of water. Now I have a small community of goldfinches that come by every morning and every evening. The chow down, sit around and chatter with each other. They are well fed, clean, polite and well behaved. There's only one thing wrong with them. They don't like me. Whenever I approach them they panic and fly away in all directions.
So last night I had a dream. It began with two giggling girls out on the balcony where the birds congregate. When I opened the door they ran down the fire escape stairs. It was evening and getting dark when I heard footsteps on the stairs. When I asked who was there I got no answer. I began to think I was being burglarized so I called 911 but couldn't get through to anyone who could help me. Then a few people came through the balcony door. But they turned on the lights and made themselves comfortable. Others came through the front door, used the kitchen and the bathroom and sat around the living room talking to each other. They made themselves at home, fixing drinks and putting out plates of food. My apartment was filled with a bunch of people I didn't know and none of them were paying any attention to me, in fact they acted as if I wasn't there. Meanwhile I was sitting in the corner with the phone to my ear still trying to get a hold of someone at 911. Then I woke up.
It was morning, the goldfinches were chattering outside and I thought it was starting all over again. I opened the door to look out and the birds flew away.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
************************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Never give up.
********************
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Vagabondism 47
Vagabondism #47 "No matter how well you do it, you can always do it better. Aim for perfection and see how close you come."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
To Flip Or Not To Flip
The choices we make determine the choices we get to make.
Dana Bate
****************
Hello Abu Sunbul, Egypt
*************************
I once knew a young man who was a typist for a law firm but who had plans to become rich. One day he said "The only thing I want to worry about is whether to shop at Gucci or Fendi." He might as well have said Tiffany or Cartier. Those may be hard choices for a wealthy person, but they are non choices for a man on a limited budget such as myself. Sometimes, if I happened to go that way, I would stop and admire the fabled window displays at the Tiffany building. But go through the front door? No.
Rich or otherwise our lives are comprised of choices. Like beads on a string, one choice leads to another and another after that. And each choice we make eliminates all the others, at least temporarily. It's very tempting to look back over our lives and wonder what would have happened if we had gone left instead of right, or if we had taken a chance on something which we avoided. But it's a thoroughly pointless pastime. You didn't go left, you didn't take the chance, so don't think about it. Or if you do, do it to learn about yourself. (Arlene understands that. Don't you Arlene?)
Choices are very simple, whether to have a fried egg or a boiled egg for breakfast. On the other hand they may be very complicated, which college to go to, what career path to take, whether to get married or not, where to settle down. Once one of those choices is made it opens up a whole series of other choices, other beads for the string, and each one of those choices presents another series of choices. Ethical, financial, social, professional, religious, physical, etc. we never run out of choices.
Some things look like choices which aren't. Did you choose to drop that jar of jam on the floor? Of course not. It's what to do next that is your choice Did you choose to have the automobile accident? No, but what's next, to go and rage at the other driver or to calmly get the important insurance information and get on with life? Sometimes life throws us a curve ball. The choice is to hit it or let it pass.
I used to be a horse player, I wagered money on horse races, and I was good at it. I made a profit because I was very careful and conservative about how I used my money. I carefully researched every horse in a particular race, never played favorites because they were favorites, or long shots because they were long shots. The odds didn't concern me. Profits large or small were what concerned me. I used to refer to it as investing in a small business, with four legs, a head at one end, a tail at the other and a small person sitting on it. A major lesson I learned from that experience was that the time to worry is before I put my money down, not after. Once the wager is placed sit down, enjoy the sunshine, watch the race and wait for the result.
Sometimes it seems as if life is waiting for you to make a decision, but not offering any advice. Then as soon as you make a choice life says "Okay. In that case you have the following options" and you wonder why you didn't know the options before hand. It's not knowing what is behind the doors you are facing that makes life frustrating and makes choosing difficult.
Then there comes the most difficult choice of all, to give up on life or to go on living.
"To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?"
(Shakespeare)
Drowning in a sea of troubles is a very real possibility and a very real choice. But if the only armor you have against the approaching tide is a rock then throw the rock at the sea and search for another one. The tide will go out and if you fill up the shore with enough rock hard choices when it comes back in again it may not reach you.
To compromise myself by letting all the results of my wrong choices and the flying arrows of outrageous bad luck wash over me and then quitting the fight is not my option. Even in the face of creeping errors and meager opportunities, I have other roads to seek and other doors to open. In front of all the great philosophers I read, from ancient Greece to modern California, my rule of life is summed up in three simple words: never give up.
DB - The 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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Dana Bate
****************
Hello Abu Sunbul, Egypt
*************************
I once knew a young man who was a typist for a law firm but who had plans to become rich. One day he said "The only thing I want to worry about is whether to shop at Gucci or Fendi." He might as well have said Tiffany or Cartier. Those may be hard choices for a wealthy person, but they are non choices for a man on a limited budget such as myself. Sometimes, if I happened to go that way, I would stop and admire the fabled window displays at the Tiffany building. But go through the front door? No.
Rich or otherwise our lives are comprised of choices. Like beads on a string, one choice leads to another and another after that. And each choice we make eliminates all the others, at least temporarily. It's very tempting to look back over our lives and wonder what would have happened if we had gone left instead of right, or if we had taken a chance on something which we avoided. But it's a thoroughly pointless pastime. You didn't go left, you didn't take the chance, so don't think about it. Or if you do, do it to learn about yourself. (Arlene understands that. Don't you Arlene?)
Choices are very simple, whether to have a fried egg or a boiled egg for breakfast. On the other hand they may be very complicated, which college to go to, what career path to take, whether to get married or not, where to settle down. Once one of those choices is made it opens up a whole series of other choices, other beads for the string, and each one of those choices presents another series of choices. Ethical, financial, social, professional, religious, physical, etc. we never run out of choices.
Some things look like choices which aren't. Did you choose to drop that jar of jam on the floor? Of course not. It's what to do next that is your choice Did you choose to have the automobile accident? No, but what's next, to go and rage at the other driver or to calmly get the important insurance information and get on with life? Sometimes life throws us a curve ball. The choice is to hit it or let it pass.
I used to be a horse player, I wagered money on horse races, and I was good at it. I made a profit because I was very careful and conservative about how I used my money. I carefully researched every horse in a particular race, never played favorites because they were favorites, or long shots because they were long shots. The odds didn't concern me. Profits large or small were what concerned me. I used to refer to it as investing in a small business, with four legs, a head at one end, a tail at the other and a small person sitting on it. A major lesson I learned from that experience was that the time to worry is before I put my money down, not after. Once the wager is placed sit down, enjoy the sunshine, watch the race and wait for the result.
Sometimes it seems as if life is waiting for you to make a decision, but not offering any advice. Then as soon as you make a choice life says "Okay. In that case you have the following options" and you wonder why you didn't know the options before hand. It's not knowing what is behind the doors you are facing that makes life frustrating and makes choosing difficult.
Then there comes the most difficult choice of all, to give up on life or to go on living.
"To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?"
(Shakespeare)
Drowning in a sea of troubles is a very real possibility and a very real choice. But if the only armor you have against the approaching tide is a rock then throw the rock at the sea and search for another one. The tide will go out and if you fill up the shore with enough rock hard choices when it comes back in again it may not reach you.
To compromise myself by letting all the results of my wrong choices and the flying arrows of outrageous bad luck wash over me and then quitting the fight is not my option. Even in the face of creeping errors and meager opportunities, I have other roads to seek and other doors to open. In front of all the great philosophers I read, from ancient Greece to modern California, my rule of life is summed up in three simple words: never give up.
DB - The 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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Vagabondism 46
Vagabondism #46 "Every person must sacrifice his life to something; freedom is being able to choose what that is."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
The Great Snatch
You have to get close to a theory to see the cracks.
Unknown
****************
Hello Alborg, Denmark
*************************
The Bible is a wonderful document, filled with wisdom and practical truth. But unfortunately it is also a document upon which to hang theories about things that have nothing to do with wisdom and truth. One can put this verse with that verse and a few other verses and in the process prove almost anything.
From my own curiosity I read everything I could find on the Internet about the theory of the Great Rapture, the event coming this Saturday when there will be a worldwide earthquake and the elect and true believes will be taken up to the air along with Jesus Christ who will then shut the door on salvation, as God shut the door to Noah's Ark which then floated for 150 days while the Earth was destroyed, or rather those who lived here. Then those of us who are left behind will suffer torments of scorpion like creatures and beg for death for another 150 days until the End Of The World comes in October.
This theory is so full of cracks it's almost impossible to list them all. But it falls apart at the very beginning when Camping basis his findings on a myth. He traces the creation back to the year 11,013 BC and identifies Adam and Eve as part of that creation. In fact creation was well up and running before the patriarchs came up with the myth of the Garden of Eden to explain hubris, right and wrong, the true and the false. If one actually believes there was such a garden, with Adam and Eve and a talking snake one might as well believe there was once a race between a tortoise and a hare.
At best this canard is an exercise in trying to measure the cosmos by simple arithmetic. At worst it is a dogmatic claim of divine reward and punishment which does nothing but frighten a lot of innocent, gullible people.
The final crack in this theory is that the Creator is going to destroy His own creation. Simple arithmetical reason takes over here. If the creator has to destroy part of his creation he is an imperfect creator, he has destroyed part of himself. And where does that leave the people who are up in the air? Up in the air.
There will be no worldwide earthquake on Saturday. The local forecast is for scattered showers. But there may be a great shake up of some people's religious beliefs.
The way I see it is that goodness is the only rational way to define godliness. On one side I want to dissuade the so-called godly, pious hypocrites from the idea that they are going to heaven while everyone else is going to hell. Someday I may even inform them that their hypocritical ways puts them already in hell. Human behavior can be improved, the evil in it can be jettisoned. I believe that everyone is redeemable from even the worst kind of badness (ungodliness, ungoodness) and there is endemic rightness (righteousness) in people, however and in whatever ways one can discover it.
My own brand of bible thumping has to do with trying to get rid of an anthropomorphic god in people's thinking, to accept an inherent natural god with spiritual power and love, a kingdom of heaven within us as stated by Jesus. My religion, if you can call it that, does not come out of some fragrant field of flowers, or from some rosy cheeked pastor with flashing teeth. It comes from striving and grappling with years of poverty and pain, and having witnessed the healing of the desperate through strong faith in themselves.
On Saturday, May 21 when the Rapture, The Great Snatch, comes or doesn't come, I think I'll join my good friends in the bar.
Dana Bate
The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*********************
Unknown
****************
Hello Alborg, Denmark
*************************
The Bible is a wonderful document, filled with wisdom and practical truth. But unfortunately it is also a document upon which to hang theories about things that have nothing to do with wisdom and truth. One can put this verse with that verse and a few other verses and in the process prove almost anything.
From my own curiosity I read everything I could find on the Internet about the theory of the Great Rapture, the event coming this Saturday when there will be a worldwide earthquake and the elect and true believes will be taken up to the air along with Jesus Christ who will then shut the door on salvation, as God shut the door to Noah's Ark which then floated for 150 days while the Earth was destroyed, or rather those who lived here. Then those of us who are left behind will suffer torments of scorpion like creatures and beg for death for another 150 days until the End Of The World comes in October.
This theory is so full of cracks it's almost impossible to list them all. But it falls apart at the very beginning when Camping basis his findings on a myth. He traces the creation back to the year 11,013 BC and identifies Adam and Eve as part of that creation. In fact creation was well up and running before the patriarchs came up with the myth of the Garden of Eden to explain hubris, right and wrong, the true and the false. If one actually believes there was such a garden, with Adam and Eve and a talking snake one might as well believe there was once a race between a tortoise and a hare.
At best this canard is an exercise in trying to measure the cosmos by simple arithmetic. At worst it is a dogmatic claim of divine reward and punishment which does nothing but frighten a lot of innocent, gullible people.
The final crack in this theory is that the Creator is going to destroy His own creation. Simple arithmetical reason takes over here. If the creator has to destroy part of his creation he is an imperfect creator, he has destroyed part of himself. And where does that leave the people who are up in the air? Up in the air.
There will be no worldwide earthquake on Saturday. The local forecast is for scattered showers. But there may be a great shake up of some people's religious beliefs.
The way I see it is that goodness is the only rational way to define godliness. On one side I want to dissuade the so-called godly, pious hypocrites from the idea that they are going to heaven while everyone else is going to hell. Someday I may even inform them that their hypocritical ways puts them already in hell. Human behavior can be improved, the evil in it can be jettisoned. I believe that everyone is redeemable from even the worst kind of badness (ungodliness, ungoodness) and there is endemic rightness (righteousness) in people, however and in whatever ways one can discover it.
My own brand of bible thumping has to do with trying to get rid of an anthropomorphic god in people's thinking, to accept an inherent natural god with spiritual power and love, a kingdom of heaven within us as stated by Jesus. My religion, if you can call it that, does not come out of some fragrant field of flowers, or from some rosy cheeked pastor with flashing teeth. It comes from striving and grappling with years of poverty and pain, and having witnessed the healing of the desperate through strong faith in themselves.
On Saturday, May 21 when the Rapture, The Great Snatch, comes or doesn't come, I think I'll join my good friends in the bar.
Dana Bate
The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*********************
Monday, May 16, 2011
Vagabondism 45
Vagabondism #45 "Do something remarkable, then appreciate yourself for doing it."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
The Waiting Game
Knowledge is like an apple waiting to be picked.
Lindsay Nelson
(Thank you Lindsay)
*********************
Hello Alajuela, Costa Rica
*****************************
It was a perfectly clear night, not a cloud. And there was a full moon. A young fellow decided he wanted to take a picture of it, so he started to run back to his house which was about 50 feet away. I told him to slow down, the moon wasn't going anywhere. He turned, laughed, carefully got his camera and took his pictures.
The moon waited patiently to have its picture taken once again. The moon waited patiently to have its rocks handled and its soil stepped on. The apple of knowledge hangs from the tree limb, in plain sight, waiting to be picked.
"Ah, but," you say, scratching your head in bafflement, "isn't there such a thing as hidden wisdom?" Of course there is. But that which is lost can be found, that which is strange can be explained, that which is buried can be dug up, that which is a mystery can be solved, that which is hidden can be discovered. It happens everyday.
But it requires an effort. It means reaching for it, reaching for the apple, reaching for the book, the flute, reaching for the moon, reaching out to life. There are no permanent walls up between us and the wisdom of the universe. It waits.
DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
*************************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Lindsay Nelson
(Thank you Lindsay)
*********************
Hello Alajuela, Costa Rica
*****************************
It was a perfectly clear night, not a cloud. And there was a full moon. A young fellow decided he wanted to take a picture of it, so he started to run back to his house which was about 50 feet away. I told him to slow down, the moon wasn't going anywhere. He turned, laughed, carefully got his camera and took his pictures.
The moon waited patiently to have its picture taken once again. The moon waited patiently to have its rocks handled and its soil stepped on. The apple of knowledge hangs from the tree limb, in plain sight, waiting to be picked.
"Ah, but," you say, scratching your head in bafflement, "isn't there such a thing as hidden wisdom?" Of course there is. But that which is lost can be found, that which is strange can be explained, that which is buried can be dug up, that which is a mystery can be solved, that which is hidden can be discovered. It happens everyday.
But it requires an effort. It means reaching for it, reaching for the apple, reaching for the book, the flute, reaching for the moon, reaching out to life. There are no permanent walls up between us and the wisdom of the universe. It waits.
DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
*************************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Vagabondism 44
Vagabondism #44 "In order to understand what it means to be awake, we must first wake up."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Fiddle Sticks
There are many theories about art, from philosophers, academics, critics and others, but for the artist there is only one practice, and it cannot be put into words.
Dana Bate
*******************
Hello Bridgeville, Delaware
*******************************
I knew a bass violinist who practiced and played as any other musician would. But sometimes I would see him just staring at the instrument from across the room as if it was a strange being filled with silent mysteries.
I had the same experience once when I purchased a charcoal pencil. It wasn't the first charcoal pencil I owned, but it was brand new and before I sharpened it I just stared at it imagining what mysteries were waiting for me from that primitive drawing material wrapped in wood.
A bass violin and a charcoal stick don't have much in common except one thing, potential. The fiddle isn't going to do anything until the musician sets one of those strings vibrating. The stick isn't going to do anything until the artist applies it to a piece of paper. But then the process begins. One tone leads to another, one line to another. Something vital is taking shape. The practice of imagination, of artistic creativity is happening and a dialogue is taking place, fingers are reaching for tones that want to be heard and lines that want to be seen, choices are made that insist on themselves.
For the poet the words the poem needs and insists on live in the great cosmos of language, waiting to be found, plucked and drawn out. The poet is practicing the art of poetry, the dialogue is alive, the lines vibrate.
We do not think of beauty or truth. If the work is done right things happen, they reveal themselves, they live always as potential within the fiddle and the stick, but when drawn out and given wings they attache themselves with a delicate and invisible force to the artist and his world.
Let the critic say what he wants, he will not know the magic moments of conversation between the artist and his work, the divine dialogue that has no name.
Dana Bate
(never give up)
*******************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Dana Bate
*******************
Hello Bridgeville, Delaware
*******************************
I knew a bass violinist who practiced and played as any other musician would. But sometimes I would see him just staring at the instrument from across the room as if it was a strange being filled with silent mysteries.
I had the same experience once when I purchased a charcoal pencil. It wasn't the first charcoal pencil I owned, but it was brand new and before I sharpened it I just stared at it imagining what mysteries were waiting for me from that primitive drawing material wrapped in wood.
A bass violin and a charcoal stick don't have much in common except one thing, potential. The fiddle isn't going to do anything until the musician sets one of those strings vibrating. The stick isn't going to do anything until the artist applies it to a piece of paper. But then the process begins. One tone leads to another, one line to another. Something vital is taking shape. The practice of imagination, of artistic creativity is happening and a dialogue is taking place, fingers are reaching for tones that want to be heard and lines that want to be seen, choices are made that insist on themselves.
For the poet the words the poem needs and insists on live in the great cosmos of language, waiting to be found, plucked and drawn out. The poet is practicing the art of poetry, the dialogue is alive, the lines vibrate.
We do not think of beauty or truth. If the work is done right things happen, they reveal themselves, they live always as potential within the fiddle and the stick, but when drawn out and given wings they attache themselves with a delicate and invisible force to the artist and his world.
Let the critic say what he wants, he will not know the magic moments of conversation between the artist and his work, the divine dialogue that has no name.
Dana Bate
(never give up)
*******************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Vagabondism 43
Vagabondism #43 "They who find the right path in life never really return to where they started. It’s a new beginning."
Tick Tock
The very bedrock we trust for stability is alive with change.
Wendy Johnson
**********************
Hello Bamthang, Bhutan
*********************
I'm glad my Google account is working again and I can post this entry. At least for now. We'll see what happens. Tomorrow is another day.
--------------------------------
What is yur bedrock? Is it your home, your family? Is it your business, the company you work for, your job? It could be your church or your community center. Maybe it's your nest egg, the chunk of money you saved up for yourself. Whatever it is you are 99.99% sure it's going to be there tomorrow, and you're probably right. There are many things we have come to rely on. But the one thing we can definitely rely on with no hesitation is that everything is changing.
Some changes are obvious. Time changes. We can see it change as we watch the seconds ticking away on the clock. The weather changes (Ho, does it ever). We can watch things grow. The tree outside your house puts out buds, then new leaves and they grow. Then the tree gradually and colorfully changes them into old leaves until they clutter up your sidewalk.
Other changes are hard to see. You can't see the rock that juts out of the sand on the beach, the rock you've enjoyed sitting on ever since you were a kid, slowly eroding. But it is. You can't see the pebbles on the beach slowly becoming grands of sand. but they are.
Even the money in your savings account is changing, because it's not measured in dollars and cents. The dollars and cents are changing in value, because values change.
The most remarkable change of all is the change in perception. We change more slowly than the leaves on the tree and faster than the pebbles on the beach, but we grow, and as we grow we change. Watch a favorite movie you haven't seen for a while and notice the things you never saw before. Or read a book you've read before. It will seem to be a different book. Best of all look at yourself in the mirror and see the changes that have taken place. I don't mean to look for wrinkles and gray hairs. Look yourself in the eye and seriously consider the person you are looking at. That is where the most profound change is taking place. The molecules are rushing madly about realigning themselves, reconnecting with other molecules. The conscious and unconscious thoughts are swimming and splashing around in the ocean of your being. Quickly or slowly the memories and hopes are constantly redesigning, reorganizing themselves.
Things change, times change, people change, changes change. Isn't it exciting?
DB - The Vagabond
never give up
************************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Wendy Johnson
**********************
Hello Bamthang, Bhutan
*********************
I'm glad my Google account is working again and I can post this entry. At least for now. We'll see what happens. Tomorrow is another day.
--------------------------------
What is yur bedrock? Is it your home, your family? Is it your business, the company you work for, your job? It could be your church or your community center. Maybe it's your nest egg, the chunk of money you saved up for yourself. Whatever it is you are 99.99% sure it's going to be there tomorrow, and you're probably right. There are many things we have come to rely on. But the one thing we can definitely rely on with no hesitation is that everything is changing.
Some changes are obvious. Time changes. We can see it change as we watch the seconds ticking away on the clock. The weather changes (Ho, does it ever). We can watch things grow. The tree outside your house puts out buds, then new leaves and they grow. Then the tree gradually and colorfully changes them into old leaves until they clutter up your sidewalk.
Other changes are hard to see. You can't see the rock that juts out of the sand on the beach, the rock you've enjoyed sitting on ever since you were a kid, slowly eroding. But it is. You can't see the pebbles on the beach slowly becoming grands of sand. but they are.
Even the money in your savings account is changing, because it's not measured in dollars and cents. The dollars and cents are changing in value, because values change.
The most remarkable change of all is the change in perception. We change more slowly than the leaves on the tree and faster than the pebbles on the beach, but we grow, and as we grow we change. Watch a favorite movie you haven't seen for a while and notice the things you never saw before. Or read a book you've read before. It will seem to be a different book. Best of all look at yourself in the mirror and see the changes that have taken place. I don't mean to look for wrinkles and gray hairs. Look yourself in the eye and seriously consider the person you are looking at. That is where the most profound change is taking place. The molecules are rushing madly about realigning themselves, reconnecting with other molecules. The conscious and unconscious thoughts are swimming and splashing around in the ocean of your being. Quickly or slowly the memories and hopes are constantly redesigning, reorganizing themselves.
Things change, times change, people change, changes change. Isn't it exciting?
DB - The Vagabond
never give up
************************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Friday, May 13, 2011
Underneath The Stones
Only there, in the silence of the painter or the writer can reality be rendered, reworked, and made to show its significant side.
Lawrence Durrell
***********************
Hello Djibouti
***********************
We are artists and it is our responsibility to define life to itself. Reality is a gossamer thing that must be poked and probed at all times. Both the scientist and the artist are those who turn things upside down and look underneath. We do it from similar curiosity, but for different reasons.
I, as an artist, like most artists, am on a campaign to reveal the truth about truth, the reality about reality, the beauty about beauty and to render unto humans the shock of pleasure I experience when I discover the reality of the things we take for granted.
I'm not a poet. I wish I were. But I know that in the silence and aloneness of my life I continually reach for the poet's words to express what I find in that silence. To the philosopher the truth will reveal itself in a momentary flash of lightning as a giant landscape with all of it's details clearly seen. At that point the artist attempts to recreate what the philosopher saw. We can only do it in part, but it is in that doing that the mysteries and secrets reveal themselves.
One of the great secrets is the need and reasonability for the thinker to hold the specific and the general in mind at the same time. Every single extant, or thing that is, has its own individual sacred identity which gives it its right to exist, And it is also a part of the whole creation without which the universe would be incomplete. The attachment of a single truth to the whole of reality is more than just a natural network, it is the signification of the determination of existence and beauty.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
Lawrence Durrell
***********************
Hello Djibouti
***********************
We are artists and it is our responsibility to define life to itself. Reality is a gossamer thing that must be poked and probed at all times. Both the scientist and the artist are those who turn things upside down and look underneath. We do it from similar curiosity, but for different reasons.
I, as an artist, like most artists, am on a campaign to reveal the truth about truth, the reality about reality, the beauty about beauty and to render unto humans the shock of pleasure I experience when I discover the reality of the things we take for granted.
I'm not a poet. I wish I were. But I know that in the silence and aloneness of my life I continually reach for the poet's words to express what I find in that silence. To the philosopher the truth will reveal itself in a momentary flash of lightning as a giant landscape with all of it's details clearly seen. At that point the artist attempts to recreate what the philosopher saw. We can only do it in part, but it is in that doing that the mysteries and secrets reveal themselves.
One of the great secrets is the need and reasonability for the thinker to hold the specific and the general in mind at the same time. Every single extant, or thing that is, has its own individual sacred identity which gives it its right to exist, And it is also a part of the whole creation without which the universe would be incomplete. The attachment of a single truth to the whole of reality is more than just a natural network, it is the signification of the determination of existence and beauty.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Vagabondism 40
Vagabondism #40 "When you reach bottom look around and read the signatures of all the great and famous people who’ve been there before you."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Don't Look Back
Contents:
1. Don't Look Back
2. Spring Question
3. Contest Contest
-------------------------------
Memories are slowly throbbing into forgetfulness.
Dana Bate
******************
Hello Arauca, Colombia
""""""""""""""""""""""
There's a famous Japanese film called "Rashomon" directed by Akira Kurosawa. The story is about a husband and wife traveling through a forest. They are attacked by a bandit who rapes the wife. The husband dies. The story is played out 4 times and each time it's different. All three of the characters claim to have killed the husband, including the husband himself through the voice of a medium. But a simple rag picker who was hiding in the bushes and saw the event happen claims the husband accidentally fell on his own sword. It is a mystery that is never solved because we are not told which story is true if in fact any of them are.
What the movie depicts is the unreliability of subjective realism. Many of my memories, and yours, are fictionalized recreations of events that seem to have taken place. In all likelihood no film was made at the time you did things or things happened to you that you now grasp with certainty in your memory. If someone was there who witnessed the events and recalled them to you they might seem to be totally different experiences from the ones you remember.
That I like my version of the events I cherish in my memory is a comfortable state of mind but why should I hold on to a fiction, if that is what it is. We struggle to let go of bad memories. And so we should, because they negatively affect our lives. Lessons learned? Get on with life. But holding on to good memories may be just as destructive, particularly if they mislead us.
"Live for today. Live for the now." People are always saying things like that. I agree, but I say "Live for the future also." I think one of the best treatments for the condition known as oldness is to have a future and be working toward it. In fact having more than one future is preferable. The repetition of ones daily chores and duties loses its hum drum, threadbare old rags if it is helping to define a future.
I sometimes cite people, places and events from my past to illustrate a point in this journal. Some stories are rich enough in lessons to mention more than once, but I don't dwell on them.
Out behind the theatre there is a park with benches, and every day a small gathering of old men sit around, like birds on a fence, and talk about things. One of them tells about when he used to go fishing. Another one who was in the Navy during the war in the Pacific tells about surviving the typhoon, as if he was teaching a history class. A third who still has a head of hair tells the same old lame jokes about his "hairdresser." When I worked at the theatre and had a break, I would sometimes sit out in the back, at a respectable distance, and listen to them. I soon realized they were telling the same stories to each other over and over again. One of the younger ones once said to me "You see these old guys here? They can tell you what happened 40, 50, 60 years ago, but they can't remember what they had for breakfast It's pitiful." I kept wondering if one day one of those old coots would get tired of the repetition, get up and go do something brand new. I hope so.
It doesn't concern me to remember what happened 40, 50, 60 years ago, and I'm not worried if I can't remember what I had for breakfast, although I probably do. I'm only concerned if I can't remember what I was about to do. But give me a moment and I'll think of it. I'm not senile, just slow. I'm 72, I have a right to be slow.
So I let the memories throb themselves into oblivion while I think about what I'm going to do this afternoon, tomorrow, next week, next year. Every day is a new day and a new life.
DB - The Vagabond
********************
Never give up.
*********************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Contest Contest
It's time to put the Ipod in its place.
I am stealing this one from Beth. Don't tell her.
Ipod = ________.
You are to come up with a song or other title in which you substitute the word "Ipod" for one or two of the other words. Example:
"Somewhere over the Ipod"
Answers will be published every day. Send them to:
dbdacoba@aol.com
Looking forward to your clever entries.
DB
************************
1. Don't Look Back
2. Spring Question
3. Contest Contest
-------------------------------
Memories are slowly throbbing into forgetfulness.
Dana Bate
******************
Hello Arauca, Colombia
""""""""""""""""""""""
There's a famous Japanese film called "Rashomon" directed by Akira Kurosawa. The story is about a husband and wife traveling through a forest. They are attacked by a bandit who rapes the wife. The husband dies. The story is played out 4 times and each time it's different. All three of the characters claim to have killed the husband, including the husband himself through the voice of a medium. But a simple rag picker who was hiding in the bushes and saw the event happen claims the husband accidentally fell on his own sword. It is a mystery that is never solved because we are not told which story is true if in fact any of them are.
What the movie depicts is the unreliability of subjective realism. Many of my memories, and yours, are fictionalized recreations of events that seem to have taken place. In all likelihood no film was made at the time you did things or things happened to you that you now grasp with certainty in your memory. If someone was there who witnessed the events and recalled them to you they might seem to be totally different experiences from the ones you remember.
That I like my version of the events I cherish in my memory is a comfortable state of mind but why should I hold on to a fiction, if that is what it is. We struggle to let go of bad memories. And so we should, because they negatively affect our lives. Lessons learned? Get on with life. But holding on to good memories may be just as destructive, particularly if they mislead us.
"Live for today. Live for the now." People are always saying things like that. I agree, but I say "Live for the future also." I think one of the best treatments for the condition known as oldness is to have a future and be working toward it. In fact having more than one future is preferable. The repetition of ones daily chores and duties loses its hum drum, threadbare old rags if it is helping to define a future.
I sometimes cite people, places and events from my past to illustrate a point in this journal. Some stories are rich enough in lessons to mention more than once, but I don't dwell on them.
Out behind the theatre there is a park with benches, and every day a small gathering of old men sit around, like birds on a fence, and talk about things. One of them tells about when he used to go fishing. Another one who was in the Navy during the war in the Pacific tells about surviving the typhoon, as if he was teaching a history class. A third who still has a head of hair tells the same old lame jokes about his "hairdresser." When I worked at the theatre and had a break, I would sometimes sit out in the back, at a respectable distance, and listen to them. I soon realized they were telling the same stories to each other over and over again. One of the younger ones once said to me "You see these old guys here? They can tell you what happened 40, 50, 60 years ago, but they can't remember what they had for breakfast It's pitiful." I kept wondering if one day one of those old coots would get tired of the repetition, get up and go do something brand new. I hope so.
It doesn't concern me to remember what happened 40, 50, 60 years ago, and I'm not worried if I can't remember what I had for breakfast, although I probably do. I'm only concerned if I can't remember what I was about to do. But give me a moment and I'll think of it. I'm not senile, just slow. I'm 72, I have a right to be slow.
So I let the memories throb themselves into oblivion while I think about what I'm going to do this afternoon, tomorrow, next week, next year. Every day is a new day and a new life.
DB - The Vagabond
********************
Never give up.
*********************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Contest Contest
It's time to put the Ipod in its place.
I am stealing this one from Beth. Don't tell her.
Ipod = ________.
You are to come up with a song or other title in which you substitute the word "Ipod" for one or two of the other words. Example:
"Somewhere over the Ipod"
Answers will be published every day. Send them to:
dbdacoba@aol.com
Looking forward to your clever entries.
DB
************************
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Vagabondism 39
Vagabondism #39 "The closer you get to the center of everything, the closer you get to all those who are also getting there."
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
Under The Old Man's Hat
Wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it.
William Shakespeare
************************
Hello Boa Vista, Brazil
************************
Now isn't that a remarkable thing? Wisdom is not found in the board room, the class room or in any chamber of any congress. If you're looking for wisdom you might as a man who sleeps under the night sky in a cardboard box when he has to.
The man in the blue suit with a brief case may approach the beggar and give him a dollar but can he give him any wisdom? Not likely. The beggar has more than likely faced things the man in the suit can't even imagine.
,
Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat
Please put a penny in the old man's hat
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do
If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless you!
When Jacob, the Patriarch of the children of Israel, came to meet Pharaoh he blessed him. Why? Because it was customary for the older man to bless the younger? Maybe. Because Pharaoh was letting Jacob's family live in Egypt during hard times? Perhaps. Because Jacob, an old man who had seen loss and gain. war and famine, who had fled from a life threatening situation and then gone back to face it, who had learned to survive under desperate circumstances, who had slept out under the night sky with a rock for his pillow, was wiser then the young monarch of Egypt and wanted to convey good wishes to him? No doubt.
Jacob was a prophet, a seer, who spoke with angels, who could look into the hearts of his twelve sons and tell what would become of them, who could look into the heart of Pharaoh and read Pharaoh's own poverty of wisdom and the future of Egypt, who could instruct his sons not to bury him there after he died, and to be prepared for their eventual removal.
The old man with the hat would appreciate a penny, or a dollar, but he quite likely knows more about the pharaoh in the suit than the man in the suit knows about himself. In fact, he knows so much he can only say "Bless you."
When a state legislature votes a bill into law in the face of thousands of people out on the street crying to them not to do it, you know where wisdom is not.
Harken to the cry of the street and regard it. It is the whisper of wisdom.
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
never give up
****************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
William Shakespeare
************************
Hello Boa Vista, Brazil
************************
Now isn't that a remarkable thing? Wisdom is not found in the board room, the class room or in any chamber of any congress. If you're looking for wisdom you might as a man who sleeps under the night sky in a cardboard box when he has to.
The man in the blue suit with a brief case may approach the beggar and give him a dollar but can he give him any wisdom? Not likely. The beggar has more than likely faced things the man in the suit can't even imagine.
,
Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat
Please put a penny in the old man's hat
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do
If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless you!
When Jacob, the Patriarch of the children of Israel, came to meet Pharaoh he blessed him. Why? Because it was customary for the older man to bless the younger? Maybe. Because Pharaoh was letting Jacob's family live in Egypt during hard times? Perhaps. Because Jacob, an old man who had seen loss and gain. war and famine, who had fled from a life threatening situation and then gone back to face it, who had learned to survive under desperate circumstances, who had slept out under the night sky with a rock for his pillow, was wiser then the young monarch of Egypt and wanted to convey good wishes to him? No doubt.
Jacob was a prophet, a seer, who spoke with angels, who could look into the hearts of his twelve sons and tell what would become of them, who could look into the heart of Pharaoh and read Pharaoh's own poverty of wisdom and the future of Egypt, who could instruct his sons not to bury him there after he died, and to be prepared for their eventual removal.
The old man with the hat would appreciate a penny, or a dollar, but he quite likely knows more about the pharaoh in the suit than the man in the suit knows about himself. In fact, he knows so much he can only say "Bless you."
When a state legislature votes a bill into law in the face of thousands of people out on the street crying to them not to do it, you know where wisdom is not.
Harken to the cry of the street and regard it. It is the whisper of wisdom.
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
never give up
****************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Monday, May 9, 2011
Vagabondism 38
Vagabondism #38 "The quality of the answer you get depends upon the quality of the question you ask."
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
The Big Machine
Even civilization is impermanent.
Erik Hansen
*****************
Hello Bridgeport, Connecticut
*****************************
I remember one day, when I was a child, reading in the New York Times, an obituary of a woman who, when she was a child, played in the garden on which the Empire State Building now stands. I remember thinking that was a remarkable thing. It was the first indication I had that many things around me I took for granted hadn't always been there. I got interested in history.
With the rise and glut of new electronic gadgets available to us, we tend to just accept what's there and ask no questions. In almost every country there are scientists, engineers and technicians working out even more advanced methods of communication and transportation. Robots are taking over our menial tasks and leaving us time to do what? Waste time? Get lazy? Forget where we came from?
Hundreds of years ago people from Europe crossed the great ocean to set up a new world. They killed as many of the natives as they thought they needed to, uprooted the fields and planted crops, cut down the trees and put up houses, made gardens and then destroyed one of those to build the Empire State Building and kept building.
There have been many great civilizations of the past. Most of them seemed to have disappeared by being overrun by a stronger one. What makes us think we are exempt?
I read somewhere about a robot that has another robot attached to it that can make repairs on the first bot. How soon will it be before someone makes a machine that can't be destroyed, even by another robot or a cave man with a club? And what if it is designed to be or accidentally becomes aggressive.
Robots don't have to be the size of little tables that roll around on wheels or humanoid looking machines that stagger along, Star Wars robots. They can be as large as a drone aircraft, or a space station or the Empire State Building.
So our civilization is not permanent. I'm not a Luddite. I just think we have the freedom, the right and the obligation to decide what's going to become of us before some big, omnipotent machine decides for us.
DB - Vagabond
--------------------
Never Give Up.
***********************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Erik Hansen
*****************
Hello Bridgeport, Connecticut
*****************************
I remember one day, when I was a child, reading in the New York Times, an obituary of a woman who, when she was a child, played in the garden on which the Empire State Building now stands. I remember thinking that was a remarkable thing. It was the first indication I had that many things around me I took for granted hadn't always been there. I got interested in history.
With the rise and glut of new electronic gadgets available to us, we tend to just accept what's there and ask no questions. In almost every country there are scientists, engineers and technicians working out even more advanced methods of communication and transportation. Robots are taking over our menial tasks and leaving us time to do what? Waste time? Get lazy? Forget where we came from?
Hundreds of years ago people from Europe crossed the great ocean to set up a new world. They killed as many of the natives as they thought they needed to, uprooted the fields and planted crops, cut down the trees and put up houses, made gardens and then destroyed one of those to build the Empire State Building and kept building.
There have been many great civilizations of the past. Most of them seemed to have disappeared by being overrun by a stronger one. What makes us think we are exempt?
I read somewhere about a robot that has another robot attached to it that can make repairs on the first bot. How soon will it be before someone makes a machine that can't be destroyed, even by another robot or a cave man with a club? And what if it is designed to be or accidentally becomes aggressive.
Robots don't have to be the size of little tables that roll around on wheels or humanoid looking machines that stagger along, Star Wars robots. They can be as large as a drone aircraft, or a space station or the Empire State Building.
So our civilization is not permanent. I'm not a Luddite. I just think we have the freedom, the right and the obligation to decide what's going to become of us before some big, omnipotent machine decides for us.
DB - Vagabond
--------------------
Never Give Up.
***********************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Vagabondism 37
Vagabondism #37 "America does not have an elite ruling class; it only has one that thinks it is."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Rocks And Bones
We see nothing truly till we understand it.
John Constable
***************
Hello Anlong Veng, Cambodia
******************************
"He undressed me with his eyes" she said.
I took a basic geology course in college. I always enjoyed looking at nature, including mountains, rocks and pebbles on the beach. But until I found out something about them I didn't really know what I was looking at. Once I learned about igneous, stratified and metamorphosed rock, inclusions and erosiaon, I began looking at rocks in a new way, analyzing the stone walls I walked past and tried to imagine what was happening under the ground of chunks of rock that were sticking out of it. I made a special trip to the Museum of Natural History in New York to look at the moon rock.
I always loved good music and had an ear for it but it wasn't until I studied it and learned about intervals, (two tones sounding together or one after the other), triads, (three notes sounding together) plus other tones added on to make complex chords, rules of harmony ad counterpoint, forms, (fugues, sonatas, theme and variations, etc.) and instrumentation, that I really began to hear and appreciate music.
It was the same with art. When I first tried to draw the human figure I couldn't see past the skin. I was being instructed to look for certain structures of the body, cranium, rib cage, pelvis. It took me many months before I finally began to see them and could then begin to understand other outcroppings of the figure, the shoulder, arm, hand. hip joint, leg, knee and foot. I learned about the bones and how the muscles attached to them and how they functioned. I learned it so well I could tell where those structures were even if a person was dressed. The she could really say "He undressed me with his eyes." But I wasn't doing it in the way she might think. I could see how an artist could paint a dressed figure and make it look realistic, because the human figure was there for the clothing to embrace.
So what is the most difficult thing to see, to understand? Us. The human being. It's because we aren't igneous, stratified or metamorphosed rock. We aren't tones, intervals and triads. Instead of cranium, rib cage and pelvis we are a complex of thoughts, feelings and actions. It would be a simple matter to know ourselves if we were as easy to analyze as a bunch of rocs. (Some people think other people are.) But when you look in the mirror what do you see, a pair of eyes, a nose, a mouth? If you're a woman you might fuss with your hair. Some men do that too. But you know what you're looking at isn't the real you or all there is to you. The real person is invisible and won't be seen until understood.
DB - The Vagabond
-------------------------
Never give up.
*********************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
John Constable
***************
Hello Anlong Veng, Cambodia
******************************
"He undressed me with his eyes" she said.
I took a basic geology course in college. I always enjoyed looking at nature, including mountains, rocks and pebbles on the beach. But until I found out something about them I didn't really know what I was looking at. Once I learned about igneous, stratified and metamorphosed rock, inclusions and erosiaon, I began looking at rocks in a new way, analyzing the stone walls I walked past and tried to imagine what was happening under the ground of chunks of rock that were sticking out of it. I made a special trip to the Museum of Natural History in New York to look at the moon rock.
I always loved good music and had an ear for it but it wasn't until I studied it and learned about intervals, (two tones sounding together or one after the other), triads, (three notes sounding together) plus other tones added on to make complex chords, rules of harmony ad counterpoint, forms, (fugues, sonatas, theme and variations, etc.) and instrumentation, that I really began to hear and appreciate music.
It was the same with art. When I first tried to draw the human figure I couldn't see past the skin. I was being instructed to look for certain structures of the body, cranium, rib cage, pelvis. It took me many months before I finally began to see them and could then begin to understand other outcroppings of the figure, the shoulder, arm, hand. hip joint, leg, knee and foot. I learned about the bones and how the muscles attached to them and how they functioned. I learned it so well I could tell where those structures were even if a person was dressed. The she could really say "He undressed me with his eyes." But I wasn't doing it in the way she might think. I could see how an artist could paint a dressed figure and make it look realistic, because the human figure was there for the clothing to embrace.
So what is the most difficult thing to see, to understand? Us. The human being. It's because we aren't igneous, stratified or metamorphosed rock. We aren't tones, intervals and triads. Instead of cranium, rib cage and pelvis we are a complex of thoughts, feelings and actions. It would be a simple matter to know ourselves if we were as easy to analyze as a bunch of rocs. (Some people think other people are.) But when you look in the mirror what do you see, a pair of eyes, a nose, a mouth? If you're a woman you might fuss with your hair. Some men do that too. But you know what you're looking at isn't the real you or all there is to you. The real person is invisible and won't be seen until understood.
DB - The Vagabond
-------------------------
Never give up.
*********************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Email Galore
I have an overflowing bath of email to read and respond to. When I finish I may be able to get back to reading a blog or three.
DB
DB
Don't Talk Of Bulls
It is not the same to talk of bulls as to be in the bullring.
Spanish proverb
******************
Hello Centennial, Colorado
**********************
I can talk about acting because I have been on the stage. But I won't. Instead I will surmise that almost any occupation in life whether a profession or a hobby, is too often looked upon and thought upon as being much simpler than it is.
I'm not much of a sports fan but I will occasionally watch a baseball game. I enjoy watching the pitcher before the pitch because I know something about the thinking going on. It's a battle of brains between the pitcher and the batter. When the pitcher winds up to throw the ball a decision has been made. There is an agreed upon tactic between the pitcher and the catcher based upon observation, study, intuition and the character of the game up to that point. Many factors come into play with each pitch. But most people are probably totally unaware of the thinking that is going on. Don't talk of bulls.
If you go to a tennis match you will see everyone watching the ball. The heads all go back and forth, back and forth, great exercise for the neck. My head goes back and forth in the opposite direction, or more likely I look at only one of the players. I like to watch the thinking of the one who is receiving the ball because it doesn't matter so much if he hits it, it's where he hits it that counts. Don't talk of bulls.
I had a nasty neighbor once who said that I looked tired. I told him I was double shifting. He wanted to know what I did. When I told him I was a radio announcer he said "Oh, well, that's not hard work." I wondered if he had ever been on the air in a radio studio with many thousands listening and a minute and a half to fill with entertaining talk. I think probably not.
No doubt there are jobs that are harder than broadcasting but it sounds easy because we make it sound easy. Don't talk of bulls.
Ballerinas float effortlessly through the air on their toes. Have you ever seen a ballerina's toes? Don't talk of bulls.
A well kept garden is a beautiful thing, lush, fecund greenery and many colored flowers, delighting the eyes and offering sweet aromas to the air all the way down to the ground. But what's under the ground, where all the work is being done, only the flower and the gardener know. Don't talk of bulls.
One day a building on my block in New York which was still under construction caught fire. Burning pieces of the building were blowing off and falling to the street below. It was a tall apartment building about 50 stories of it had been completed. The fire was on the top floors. The only way the fire fighters could get to it was by the construction elevator on the side of the building. But that elevator stopped two or three stories above the blazing inferno. I watched in awe as those people jumped into the fire, at the risk of life and injury, not knowing what was underneath them, to put the fire out. Don't talk of bulls.
There has been a lot of talk about the recent assassination of Osama bin Laden. Too many people have opinions about what the Navy SEALS did or did not do, what they should have done or should not have done and so forth. All of those opinions come from people who were not there. Don't talk of bulls.
DB - The Vagabond
------------------------
Never give up
********************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
,
DB
******************
Spanish proverb
******************
Hello Centennial, Colorado
**********************
I can talk about acting because I have been on the stage. But I won't. Instead I will surmise that almost any occupation in life whether a profession or a hobby, is too often looked upon and thought upon as being much simpler than it is.
I'm not much of a sports fan but I will occasionally watch a baseball game. I enjoy watching the pitcher before the pitch because I know something about the thinking going on. It's a battle of brains between the pitcher and the batter. When the pitcher winds up to throw the ball a decision has been made. There is an agreed upon tactic between the pitcher and the catcher based upon observation, study, intuition and the character of the game up to that point. Many factors come into play with each pitch. But most people are probably totally unaware of the thinking that is going on. Don't talk of bulls.
If you go to a tennis match you will see everyone watching the ball. The heads all go back and forth, back and forth, great exercise for the neck. My head goes back and forth in the opposite direction, or more likely I look at only one of the players. I like to watch the thinking of the one who is receiving the ball because it doesn't matter so much if he hits it, it's where he hits it that counts. Don't talk of bulls.
I had a nasty neighbor once who said that I looked tired. I told him I was double shifting. He wanted to know what I did. When I told him I was a radio announcer he said "Oh, well, that's not hard work." I wondered if he had ever been on the air in a radio studio with many thousands listening and a minute and a half to fill with entertaining talk. I think probably not.
No doubt there are jobs that are harder than broadcasting but it sounds easy because we make it sound easy. Don't talk of bulls.
Ballerinas float effortlessly through the air on their toes. Have you ever seen a ballerina's toes? Don't talk of bulls.
A well kept garden is a beautiful thing, lush, fecund greenery and many colored flowers, delighting the eyes and offering sweet aromas to the air all the way down to the ground. But what's under the ground, where all the work is being done, only the flower and the gardener know. Don't talk of bulls.
One day a building on my block in New York which was still under construction caught fire. Burning pieces of the building were blowing off and falling to the street below. It was a tall apartment building about 50 stories of it had been completed. The fire was on the top floors. The only way the fire fighters could get to it was by the construction elevator on the side of the building. But that elevator stopped two or three stories above the blazing inferno. I watched in awe as those people jumped into the fire, at the risk of life and injury, not knowing what was underneath them, to put the fire out. Don't talk of bulls.
There has been a lot of talk about the recent assassination of Osama bin Laden. Too many people have opinions about what the Navy SEALS did or did not do, what they should have done or should not have done and so forth. All of those opinions come from people who were not there. Don't talk of bulls.
DB - The Vagabond
------------------------
Never give up
********************
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
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
,
DB
******************
Friday, May 6, 2011
Vagabondism 35
Vagabondism #35 "You can’t bury your anger, but what you can do is bury the thoughts that cause the anger. Go get a shovel."
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
Make Your Own Story
Imagination does not rest.
Constantine Stanislavski
***************************
Hello Abeche, Chad
*****************************
Much, and perhaps all, of human life is fundamentally a fiction. We contribute more to making ourselves up than we think we do. One of the most utilitarian tools and greatest natural blessings the human being has is imagination. It is the bedrock of great ideas and inventions, great plans and accomplishments, great art and great scientific discoveries.
Like breathing, our imagination never stops working even when we are asleep. There isn't much we can do about what imagination gives us in our dreams as it flutters around like a moth into one place and one event after another or soars like a rocket ship into far off lands without the discipline of reason.
But when we are awake our imagination can work like a lighthouse coaxing us to a fantasy world, a beacon that lights up our way through important paths of accomplishment, a flash of realization in uncertain moments.
But imagination undisciplined can also lead us up creaking stairs to a dusty attic of bad memories, down dark alleys of fear and into reptile infested swamps. And that is why I keep harping on the idea of using one's imagination in creative ways, of hitching it up to the wagon and taking us where we want to go instead of letting it lead us to uncertain destinations.
It isn't difficult to be in charge of one's creative mind. In fact what makes it easy is that the imagination is constantly asking to be used, it makes no judgements on the user and it has an infinite amount of resources to reward those who learn to consult and rely on it.
Three actors and one director were sitting around a wooden table in the rehearsal hall. We were trying to find the proper ending for the first act. The one we had been using wasn't working and we all knew it. I remember staring at the grains of wood on the top of the table and saying to myself "The answer to this problem exists. I know it does. And it is going to grow invisibly right out of the top of this table like a flower." I waited calmly and suddenly got an idea. I offered it to the group, the director picked it up, made some minor changes and when we played it out the act ended perfectly.
I have come to trust creative imagination, my own and others' and it always helps to make life a better story.
DB - The Vagabond
--------------
Never give up.
******************
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
6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Constantine Stanislavski
***************************
Hello Abeche, Chad
*****************************
Much, and perhaps all, of human life is fundamentally a fiction. We contribute more to making ourselves up than we think we do. One of the most utilitarian tools and greatest natural blessings the human being has is imagination. It is the bedrock of great ideas and inventions, great plans and accomplishments, great art and great scientific discoveries.
Like breathing, our imagination never stops working even when we are asleep. There isn't much we can do about what imagination gives us in our dreams as it flutters around like a moth into one place and one event after another or soars like a rocket ship into far off lands without the discipline of reason.
But when we are awake our imagination can work like a lighthouse coaxing us to a fantasy world, a beacon that lights up our way through important paths of accomplishment, a flash of realization in uncertain moments.
But imagination undisciplined can also lead us up creaking stairs to a dusty attic of bad memories, down dark alleys of fear and into reptile infested swamps. And that is why I keep harping on the idea of using one's imagination in creative ways, of hitching it up to the wagon and taking us where we want to go instead of letting it lead us to uncertain destinations.
It isn't difficult to be in charge of one's creative mind. In fact what makes it easy is that the imagination is constantly asking to be used, it makes no judgements on the user and it has an infinite amount of resources to reward those who learn to consult and rely on it.
Three actors and one director were sitting around a wooden table in the rehearsal hall. We were trying to find the proper ending for the first act. The one we had been using wasn't working and we all knew it. I remember staring at the grains of wood on the top of the table and saying to myself "The answer to this problem exists. I know it does. And it is going to grow invisibly right out of the top of this table like a flower." I waited calmly and suddenly got an idea. I offered it to the group, the director picked it up, made some minor changes and when we played it out the act ended perfectly.
I have come to trust creative imagination, my own and others' and it always helps to make life a better story.
DB - The Vagabond
--------------
Never give up.
******************
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
6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Vagabondism 34
Vagabondism #34, "Somewhere, someone you don’t know has a good opinion of you, and they’re right."
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
Ode To Herman
A great man does not lose his child-heart.
Mencius
********************
Hello Puebla, Mexico. Celebrate.
*********************
Two times in my career I played the same role in a play by Arthur Miller called "The Price." It's a story about two brothers, one a scientist and the other a cop, the cop's wife and an old Jewish man who comes to buy the furniture piled up in their attic. It doesn't sound like much of a plot and it isn't, but during the course of the play each of the characters is brought into a state of self realization that is a blessing for all of them.
I played the cop, the first time in Virginia and the second time in New Jersey. In the New Jersey production the old Jewish man, Solomon, was played by an old Jewish man named Herman Arbeit. Herman was born in 1925 and had a long and vigorous career.
It has never occurred to me that I could ever stop learning things and I certainly learned things while working with Herman. Most of the first act is a long scene between Solomon and Victor, the cop. I was impressed by Herman's intensity and commitment. We had to take a bus from New York to the theatre in New Jersey. Herman was always the first one on the bus. He was thrilled, in his quiet aged way, to go to work. And being with him on the stage was an adventure. He truly went to his role with a child-heart.
Herman once wrote: "In addition to learning and growing in a craft, acting proved to be enormous personal therapy, not only giving me insights to personal problems but challenging me to take the strength garnered onstage and incorporate it into my daily life."
I just read in the trade paper that Herman recently died. I'm sad. For the all too brief run of "The Price" he was a positive force from whom I learned things about acting and life.
DB - The Vagabond
--------------------
Never give up.
***********************
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
6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Mencius
********************
Hello Puebla, Mexico. Celebrate.
*********************
Two times in my career I played the same role in a play by Arthur Miller called "The Price." It's a story about two brothers, one a scientist and the other a cop, the cop's wife and an old Jewish man who comes to buy the furniture piled up in their attic. It doesn't sound like much of a plot and it isn't, but during the course of the play each of the characters is brought into a state of self realization that is a blessing for all of them.
I played the cop, the first time in Virginia and the second time in New Jersey. In the New Jersey production the old Jewish man, Solomon, was played by an old Jewish man named Herman Arbeit. Herman was born in 1925 and had a long and vigorous career.
It has never occurred to me that I could ever stop learning things and I certainly learned things while working with Herman. Most of the first act is a long scene between Solomon and Victor, the cop. I was impressed by Herman's intensity and commitment. We had to take a bus from New York to the theatre in New Jersey. Herman was always the first one on the bus. He was thrilled, in his quiet aged way, to go to work. And being with him on the stage was an adventure. He truly went to his role with a child-heart.
Herman once wrote: "In addition to learning and growing in a craft, acting proved to be enormous personal therapy, not only giving me insights to personal problems but challenging me to take the strength garnered onstage and incorporate it into my daily life."
I just read in the trade paper that Herman recently died. I'm sad. For the all too brief run of "The Price" he was a positive force from whom I learned things about acting and life.
DB - The Vagabond
--------------------
Never give up.
***********************
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
6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Vagabondism 33
Vagabondism #33 "Give to the poor and enjoy the praise. Give to the rich and incur the guilt."
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
I sing of the unsung hero.
Those who help others without expecting an award are truly kind.
Sung Ch'ang-Hsing
*********************
Hello Aytos, Bulgaria
********************
One summer evening, when I lived on the second floor, I was sitting by an open window looking down at the street below. My neighbor was sitting in the drivers seat of her car with the door open. A commercial van came speeding down the street, crashed into the open door, knocking completely the wrong way, and kept going.
The girl screamed. I didn't know whether she was hurt or not but I immediately picked up the phone and dialed 911. I told them what I had seen, described the van, gave them the address and said I would stay by the phone if they wanted to call me again.
Because of the commotion other people came out to the sidewalk to see what happened. A man from the building next door went back into his house and came out a moment later to tell her he had called 911. Within seconds the police arrived. She thanked the neighbor and gave him a big hug.
I resisted the temptation to rush downstairs to say "Wait a minute. I'm the one who called 911. That's why they got here so fast. I'm the one who should be getting the hug." Instead I just sat back and watched, glad to know she wasn't hurt, just frightened.
Harry Truman once said that you can get a lot of things accomplished if you don't mind who gets the credit. Recognition for a good deed should be one of the rewards for doing good, but, alas, it is not always that way.
In my life and my career I have seen many examples of people who have solved things, fixed things and improved things without getting the proper credit for them. Indeed it has happened to me many times.
In the acting trade the supporting player is usually one who never receives the credit he deserves, particularly in comedy. A good supporting player is the one who sets up the scene, the speech or the laugh line for the principle player. It is very tricky work and requires a master actor to do it properly. But a supporting player never gets the recognition or applause he deserves. The good ones know that and live comfortably with it. And any star worth the name knows and appreciates the work his supporting actors do.
One of the famous supporting players was Francis Courtney Wemyss, (1797–1859). In his autobiography,Twenty‐Six Years of the Life of an Actor and Manager (1847), Wemyss talks about working with some of the major stars of his day. He became a wealthy man because he was sought after by them.
I once watched Maurice Breslau, in an ancient Greek tragedy, perform a character who had no dialogue whatsoever. He played the friend of the principle male role and he filled out every scene completely. He didn't follow, he accompanied.
In the music business a piano accompanist is a person of immeasurable value. Singers and instrumentalists rely so much on a good accompanist, who never gets the congratulations from the audience, that they are willing to pay the price for that musicians artistry.
One of the most popular accompanists was the beloved Gerald Moore (1899 - 1987). Moore accompanied all the great performers of his day. He wrote "The accompanist who 'follows' but does not anticipate is a dull, pedestrian sort of fellow, without electricity, a fallen arch in the march of time."
There will always be someone in the shadow of greatness adding his or her own greatness to the event. When you notice such a one, intensely supporting the star who is tearing up the stage with drama and music, and realize how much that person is adding to the experience, sing a silent hymn of praise for the unsung hero.
DB - The Vagabond
-------------------------
Never give up.
*********************
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
6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Sung Ch'ang-Hsing
*********************
Hello Aytos, Bulgaria
********************
One summer evening, when I lived on the second floor, I was sitting by an open window looking down at the street below. My neighbor was sitting in the drivers seat of her car with the door open. A commercial van came speeding down the street, crashed into the open door, knocking completely the wrong way, and kept going.
The girl screamed. I didn't know whether she was hurt or not but I immediately picked up the phone and dialed 911. I told them what I had seen, described the van, gave them the address and said I would stay by the phone if they wanted to call me again.
Because of the commotion other people came out to the sidewalk to see what happened. A man from the building next door went back into his house and came out a moment later to tell her he had called 911. Within seconds the police arrived. She thanked the neighbor and gave him a big hug.
I resisted the temptation to rush downstairs to say "Wait a minute. I'm the one who called 911. That's why they got here so fast. I'm the one who should be getting the hug." Instead I just sat back and watched, glad to know she wasn't hurt, just frightened.
Harry Truman once said that you can get a lot of things accomplished if you don't mind who gets the credit. Recognition for a good deed should be one of the rewards for doing good, but, alas, it is not always that way.
In my life and my career I have seen many examples of people who have solved things, fixed things and improved things without getting the proper credit for them. Indeed it has happened to me many times.
In the acting trade the supporting player is usually one who never receives the credit he deserves, particularly in comedy. A good supporting player is the one who sets up the scene, the speech or the laugh line for the principle player. It is very tricky work and requires a master actor to do it properly. But a supporting player never gets the recognition or applause he deserves. The good ones know that and live comfortably with it. And any star worth the name knows and appreciates the work his supporting actors do.
One of the famous supporting players was Francis Courtney Wemyss, (1797–1859). In his autobiography,Twenty‐Six Years of the Life of an Actor and Manager (1847), Wemyss talks about working with some of the major stars of his day. He became a wealthy man because he was sought after by them.
I once watched Maurice Breslau, in an ancient Greek tragedy, perform a character who had no dialogue whatsoever. He played the friend of the principle male role and he filled out every scene completely. He didn't follow, he accompanied.
In the music business a piano accompanist is a person of immeasurable value. Singers and instrumentalists rely so much on a good accompanist, who never gets the congratulations from the audience, that they are willing to pay the price for that musicians artistry.
One of the most popular accompanists was the beloved Gerald Moore (1899 - 1987). Moore accompanied all the great performers of his day. He wrote "The accompanist who 'follows' but does not anticipate is a dull, pedestrian sort of fellow, without electricity, a fallen arch in the march of time."
There will always be someone in the shadow of greatness adding his or her own greatness to the event. When you notice such a one, intensely supporting the star who is tearing up the stage with drama and music, and realize how much that person is adding to the experience, sing a silent hymn of praise for the unsung hero.
DB - The Vagabond
-------------------------
Never give up.
*********************
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
6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Vagabondism 32
Vagabondism #32 "What you do is, you start with the easy stuff, then you move on to the difficult stuff, and if you keep going, you'll soon be doing the impossible stuff."
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
Solving The Puzzle
Some of the mountains I have climbed turned out to be made of Paper Mache, while some of the simple jig saw puzzles of life seem to have an infinite number of pieces.
Dana Bate
***********************
Hello Atlantica, Bolivia
************************
One of the most amusing exercises in the arena of mental competition is when a philosopher or other thinker propounds a solid, sturdy idea and creates a phalanx of those who are armed and ready to prove him wrong and is met by another one just as determined to prove he's right. A whistle is blown and the fight is on. What makes it even more interesting is that there is no end game.
People are still trying to prove the Socrates was right, or wrong. But Socrates said "For knowledge too cannot continue to be knowledge unless continuing always to abide and exist. But if the very nature of knowledge changes, at the time when the change occurs there will be no knowledge, and if the transition is always going on, there will always be no knowledge, and, according to this view, there will be no one to know and nothing to be known."
Well !! That sort of erases the lines on the playing field and takes down the goal posts. So why are we trying to know things if all we know is there is nothing to be known? (I'm sure Socrates had a sense of humor, a guy I would have liked.)
The gray bearded, brass knuckle fact is that everything is in transition. Does that mean we should stop trying to know anything since there is nothing that can be known. If that's so then we should close all the schools, burn the books, bury the paintings, lock up the labs, stop playing music and, in short, stop thinking. I once read about a Swami in India who spent his life staring at the sun until he was totally blind because the sun was the only thing that didn't change.
I also remembering reading a solipsistic music critic of the 17th Century who said that all the possible combinations of tones had already been invented and there would be nothing new in the field of music. That was before Bach, Handel, Haydn. Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Mahler, Wagner, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Ellington and Brubeck.
A physicist was asked if he didn't find it frustrating that the theories of natural law kept changing with new discoveries. He replied that that's what made it so exciting. An old cactus in the desert will suddenly sprout a blossom. A new galaxy will be discovered. An eagles egg will crack open and a new life will emerge into the world.
One should not claim that the mountain is solid, impenetrable rock and not Paper Mache until one climbs it, as Socrates and many other have done. He who collects the largest number of jig saw puzzle pieces may know a lot more than I do, but he will never know it all.
DB - The Vagabond
-------------------------
Never Give Up
************************
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
6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Dana Bate
***********************
Hello Atlantica, Bolivia
************************
One of the most amusing exercises in the arena of mental competition is when a philosopher or other thinker propounds a solid, sturdy idea and creates a phalanx of those who are armed and ready to prove him wrong and is met by another one just as determined to prove he's right. A whistle is blown and the fight is on. What makes it even more interesting is that there is no end game.
People are still trying to prove the Socrates was right, or wrong. But Socrates said "For knowledge too cannot continue to be knowledge unless continuing always to abide and exist. But if the very nature of knowledge changes, at the time when the change occurs there will be no knowledge, and if the transition is always going on, there will always be no knowledge, and, according to this view, there will be no one to know and nothing to be known."
Well !! That sort of erases the lines on the playing field and takes down the goal posts. So why are we trying to know things if all we know is there is nothing to be known? (I'm sure Socrates had a sense of humor, a guy I would have liked.)
The gray bearded, brass knuckle fact is that everything is in transition. Does that mean we should stop trying to know anything since there is nothing that can be known. If that's so then we should close all the schools, burn the books, bury the paintings, lock up the labs, stop playing music and, in short, stop thinking. I once read about a Swami in India who spent his life staring at the sun until he was totally blind because the sun was the only thing that didn't change.
I also remembering reading a solipsistic music critic of the 17th Century who said that all the possible combinations of tones had already been invented and there would be nothing new in the field of music. That was before Bach, Handel, Haydn. Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Mahler, Wagner, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Ellington and Brubeck.
A physicist was asked if he didn't find it frustrating that the theories of natural law kept changing with new discoveries. He replied that that's what made it so exciting. An old cactus in the desert will suddenly sprout a blossom. A new galaxy will be discovered. An eagles egg will crack open and a new life will emerge into the world.
One should not claim that the mountain is solid, impenetrable rock and not Paper Mache until one climbs it, as Socrates and many other have done. He who collects the largest number of jig saw puzzle pieces may know a lot more than I do, but he will never know it all.
DB - The Vagabond
-------------------------
Never Give Up
************************
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
6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Monday, May 2, 2011
The Birds
The birds have stopped coming around to eat my seeds. I didn't know why until a neighbor told me today she saw a cat on the fire escape. So I guess the cat scared away the birds and now I won't be able to enjoy their company. I'm very sad.
DB
DB
Amassing Matter
Awareness requires a rupture with the world we take for granted.
Shoshana Zuboff
********************
Hello Anaheim, California
********************
That there is a separate reality, separate from the duties and hum drumities of our daily lives, separate from our habits and traditions, separate from our orthodox beliefs and practices, separate from all the exoteric knowledge we gather around us, there is no doubt. The proof is that there are too many people searching for it.
The search goes on even in the face of the adamantly determined who insist there is no other reality, that what you see is what you get, etc. The search goes on even though people who know the reality is there are unable to see it or know what it is.
The search has taken many forms over the centuries. One common thread seems to run through all attempts, that the truth lies outside of our physical, material lives, that it resides beyond what we can see, hear or feel.
The human body, therefore, becomes not a receptacle for truth but rather a barricade preventing us from reaching reality.
So the searcher must somehow get beyond the body, a "rupture" as Zuboff says, with what we think ourselves to be, a vigorous and definitive move out of our physical world into a higher, or at least a more robust experiential state.
The frustrating thing is that instead of less matter, the result seems to be more matter.
World religions have proclaimed themselves in the front of all search for the truth and yet massive temples have been built and are still being built to one person's idea of God or another's, with all the accumulated paraphernalia of worship.
The mortification of the flesh is another age old trap in the long search. People will whip, cut and burn themselves to reach a point of pain where they no longer care for the body in the hopes of receiving some divine light thereby. Other than collecting a lot of scars I can't imagine what else it accomplishes.
Meditation is another tool for the searcher. It is certain that Buddhist and Hindu meditations have accomplished remarkable things. But do they create a state of permanent enlightenment? Who knows? But the lonely monk in his humble cell may be amassing more humbleness than humility.
Drugs are another way people have tried to find the truth. That is another age old practice from the Oracles of Delphi to LSD. But it's only using matter to see and hear beyond matter. It has had uncertain and often fatal results.
People will say "The simple truth is..." and say something that is neither simple nor true. I would be lying to myself if I did not believe that it is possible, in spite of all our feeble human efforts, to reach past the veil and into the Holiest of Holies. And I believe that if I ever did that I would be astonished at the utter simplicity of what I found there.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
****************************
Never Give Up
****************
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
6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Weekend Contest Answers
In your opinion, when he is finished digging up President Obama's school records, what's the next conspiracy Donald Trump will find?
The answers were:
That Obama was really a woman at one time and had a sex change and never revealed it.
Maybe he's still a woman and in drag. Then we would have to find out who fathered his/her children.
I think he'll go to calling him an alien, that he's not really human.
That Trump, himself, is not 100% American. His hair used to live in some yak shack in Tibet and has been artificially made so thus does not qualify as American on a certificate of origin.
Thank you all. I think I'll award the good housekeeping seal to the alien answer.
DB
Shoshana Zuboff
********************
Hello Anaheim, California
********************
That there is a separate reality, separate from the duties and hum drumities of our daily lives, separate from our habits and traditions, separate from our orthodox beliefs and practices, separate from all the exoteric knowledge we gather around us, there is no doubt. The proof is that there are too many people searching for it.
The search goes on even in the face of the adamantly determined who insist there is no other reality, that what you see is what you get, etc. The search goes on even though people who know the reality is there are unable to see it or know what it is.
The search has taken many forms over the centuries. One common thread seems to run through all attempts, that the truth lies outside of our physical, material lives, that it resides beyond what we can see, hear or feel.
The human body, therefore, becomes not a receptacle for truth but rather a barricade preventing us from reaching reality.
So the searcher must somehow get beyond the body, a "rupture" as Zuboff says, with what we think ourselves to be, a vigorous and definitive move out of our physical world into a higher, or at least a more robust experiential state.
The frustrating thing is that instead of less matter, the result seems to be more matter.
World religions have proclaimed themselves in the front of all search for the truth and yet massive temples have been built and are still being built to one person's idea of God or another's, with all the accumulated paraphernalia of worship.
The mortification of the flesh is another age old trap in the long search. People will whip, cut and burn themselves to reach a point of pain where they no longer care for the body in the hopes of receiving some divine light thereby. Other than collecting a lot of scars I can't imagine what else it accomplishes.
Meditation is another tool for the searcher. It is certain that Buddhist and Hindu meditations have accomplished remarkable things. But do they create a state of permanent enlightenment? Who knows? But the lonely monk in his humble cell may be amassing more humbleness than humility.
Drugs are another way people have tried to find the truth. That is another age old practice from the Oracles of Delphi to LSD. But it's only using matter to see and hear beyond matter. It has had uncertain and often fatal results.
People will say "The simple truth is..." and say something that is neither simple nor true. I would be lying to myself if I did not believe that it is possible, in spite of all our feeble human efforts, to reach past the veil and into the Holiest of Holies. And I believe that if I ever did that I would be astonished at the utter simplicity of what I found there.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
****************************
Never Give Up
****************
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
6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Weekend Contest Answers
In your opinion, when he is finished digging up President Obama's school records, what's the next conspiracy Donald Trump will find?
The answers were:
That Obama was really a woman at one time and had a sex change and never revealed it.
Maybe he's still a woman and in drag. Then we would have to find out who fathered his/her children.
I think he'll go to calling him an alien, that he's not really human.
That Trump, himself, is not 100% American. His hair used to live in some yak shack in Tibet and has been artificially made so thus does not qualify as American on a certificate of origin.
Thank you all. I think I'll award the good housekeeping seal to the alien answer.
DB
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