Your Majesty

Not what I have, but what I do is my kingdom.

Thomas Carlyle
****************
Hello Bruce
****************
This is the one thousand, seven hundred and twenty third (1,723) edition of Vagabond Journeys. Some of them were lost in the great computer crash of 2006 but most of those were recovered. Others have been recycled, retooled and reedited. What have you been doing lately Vagabond?

I write everyday because I wrote yesterday and I usually have something to say of varying degrees of importance and of arguably suspicious literary skill. But what do I do the rest of the time, you ask?

Okay, you didn't ask. But I'll tell you. I paint, I fret, I read, I worry, I answer emails, I do something to try to organize my still chaotic apartment, I listen to music, I fanaticize, I feed myself, I IM with Sue or Krissy, I go for long painful walks to the market, I dream, I plan. It's a life. It's not that unlike many other people's lives. But it's my life.

If you had to give up your possessions what would you miss the most? Your clothes, your books, you pictures? What about your freedom? That is probably the most valuable possession you have. The freedom to work and earn money, to pursue happiness, to live the way you want to, to raise a family, to be involved in causes you believe in, to worship, to hold opinions and express them, those gold and silver coins of your realm are some of the sacred freedoms civilization owes to civilized people who don't try to destroy it.

Freedom of expression is of particular importance to me. It is quite likely the greatest possession I have. It is not only vital to my being it is what I do, and have done 1,723 times so far. I can't imagine what my life would be like if some potency emerged to prevent me from writing, from painting, from expressing my thoughts and feelings, from doing what I do, from reigning safely and supremely in my kingdom

I say take stock of your possessions, of the innumerable things you do, the things you do today because you did them yesterday, the things that for you are the most important to be done and let those things be the measure of your royalty.

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

No Pain

In the darkest, meanest things
Something always, always sings.

Emerson
****************
Hello Bruce
****************

I will go deep and hear the forest song.
Maybe I will be alone.

I will let the winds take me far across the sea.
I will not be tied to wrong.

I will bring a light into the darkness.
I will find a sacred stone.

I will mark the path with rain drops.
I will not fail the song.

I will dance the wild meadow unconfined.
I will not know alarm.

I will cast all cords and cares aside.
I will be lost in time.

I will see my love spelled out in clouds.
I will do no harm.

I will not dwell with foolish folk.
I will not sit near crime.

I will breathe the ocean's silver air.
I will speak of right.

I will bury my book in mystic ground.
I will hear no evil mirth.

I will search on consecrated ground.
I will find the light.

I am unfettered, free from lies.
I walk the earth.

Things unravel in irrational ways behind someone else's closed door.
Let them. I will turn and freely walk the earth

Nothing lost, all is gain.
I do not need to feel the pain.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
***************************

Buried Treasure

There is no easy road to freedom.

Nelson Mandela
********************
Hello Sandy
*********************
Once you set out on the troublesome and unpredictable waters of life you will never reach a destination if you turn back to the safety of the port. It's the trepidation of facing new views, it's fear of and animosity toward taking the risks necessary to bring about the freedom we're entitled to that make the road difficult The recidivist urges that hold so many people in bondage, in a static state, comfortable with less than the rough road of progress can supply.

The rewards are rich for those who stick to the road, no matter how many boulders and wild animals appear. And what if freedom is the destination, freedom from oppression, poverty, sickness, fear or ignorance? The attainment of that objective is elation, elevation of one's life. Freedom from means freedom to. Freedom that will never be attained by backing up or standing still.

There are stories of people who have fought their way to freedom from cancer and other diseases, because the alternatives were not acceptable. There are stories of young folks who, at great risk, faced the dangers and freed themselves from kidnappers. There are stories of innocent people who painstakingly freed themselves from prison where they were serving a sentence for a crime they didn't commit. And there re stories of those who freed themselves from poverty and homelessness, even if it took many years. One story I frequently remember is of a woman who was blind and deaf, who came out of the ghetto, to earn a graduate degree is Psychology from a New York City University.

Life. No one ever said it was easy. But it's a pointless life if one sits in the port and complains about the weather instead of launching out into the rain and wind with courage, a noble purpose, a progressive goal and drawing the map to the buried treasure as you go.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DB - The Vagabond
***************************

5 Steps To Freedom

You really have to look inside yourself and find your own inner strength and say, "I'm proud of what I am and who I am, and I'm just going to be myself."

Mariah Carey
*******************
Hello Sandy
*********************
Knowing yourself is often a hard task and quite tricky, particularly if you've been surrounded by people who have pummeled into a pulp your self respect by constant criticism and harping on your faults. On the other hand it can also be difficult for one has been constantly and inappropriate approved of. In either case self knowledge is one of life's direst necessities.

Mariah Carey has spelled out 5 rules for the journey of self discovery and personal self approval.

1. Look inside yourself. We can spend a lot of time, a lot of wasted time, worrying about how we appear to others. The effort involved in that expenditure is strong enough to take our thoughts completely away from how we do look to others and how we appear to ourselves. When you look in the mirror what do you see? Is my make up on right? Is my beard trimmed? How does my hair look? Should I wear this tie? Next time look at yourself in the eyes and work to see the person behind the hair and the tie. That person is there, waiting to be your friend.

2. Find your inner strength. I recently had a conversatin with a woman who was trying to research the causes for everything that she felt was wrong with her. I suggested that instead she should look into the reasons behind everything she felt was right about her and develop those. We can waste more time and effort facing our faults day after day. You're not perfect? So what? It's the good things, the right things, that keep us going.

3. Be proud of what your are. What are you, a scientist, an artist, a teacher, an athlete, a builder, a cleaner, a mother, a husband, an astronaut? Whatever it is you have a right to be proud of your place in the world. Shakespeare wrote, "There's place and means for every man alive." Take your place and perform your tasks with self satisfaction and pay no attention to the negatives.

4. Be proud of who you are. Now that you have become acquainted with the being in the mirror, groomed yourself to your own specifications and learned to proudly take your place and perform with pride your functions in the world, you realize that you are more than the face, more than the clothes and bigger than the job, no matter what it is. You are a remarkable creature, a human being, like no other on Earth. As time goes by you discover more and more about yourself. Ignore the regrets. John Cage said "We need not destroy the past. It is gone." Today is the day to live, and the future is the day to think about. The more goodness, success, fulfillment and joy you can find about yourself the more you have to be proud of.

5. Be yourself. In my unfortunate childhood I was the subject of resentment for being who I was. I learned to put up a front, a facade, in order to minimize the criticisms and scorn I was getting. There was no looking earnestly at myself in the mirror until years later. Succumbing to the world's opinions or even what you think those opinions might be robs you of the freedom to be yourself. Picking off of yourself all the false labels and cleaning yourself of the left over glue of a life of pretenses and avoidances is one of the healthiest things a person can do for themselves. Of all the freedoms we have a right to one of the mightiest is the freedom to be ourselves.

Thank you Marih

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
****************************

Watch Your Head

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom.

J. G. Ballard
******************
Hello Stuart
******************
If this was a completely sane world Ballard's pronouncement would be appropriate. But since when has there ever been a completely sane world? It seems to me the current world is crazier than it's ever been. Cruel dictatorships here, religious fanatics running things over there and terrorists in the other place. How does the human race survive?

Now, in my country, we have a group of total mad men and women in the United States Congress.

When I was younger I admit to a lot of insanity. I did crazy things. I took foolish risks. I supported groups and activities that made no sense. I fought irrationally just to win an argument. I overlooked many facts of life that were right in front of me. I was jealous, suspicious and non sparing in my harsh criticism of others. I gradually grew up, became more of an adult and saw the moronic error of my ways. Now I am not completely sane. No one is. But I recognize that reason is the only freedom in a completely insane world. Surely the members of Congress have grown up to the same understanding and rely upon reason, logic and clear thinking to conduct their business. Or do they?

Some of them are now dickering around with each other, trying to win arguments while, meanwhile, bills are written and waiting to be turned into legislation that would deprive Americans of the benefits that making living in this country worth it. There is argument about instantly erasing the federal debt which could be solved over the long run my good fiscal management, about which no one seems to know anything. And even as they argue they are refusing to go where the money is and get it. Some of those madmen still believe the Medieval idea that the wealthy are somehow superior human beings. We can't even say that these lunatics walk among us because they don't, and that's part of the problem.

There is no doubt an endemic of madness has taken over Washington. One wealthy senior was heard saying that if he were taxed he would only have $200.000 left to feed his family. One of the candidates for President said he would overturn the Supreme Court, another has suggested to put the poor students to work cleaning the schools and pay them to teach them the work ethic and the value of a dollar, instead of putting the rich kids to work to teach them the value of the wealth their parents have. And about the Occupy Wall Street protesters it was said they should take a bath and find a job. There is no excuse for that low level of ignorance, particularly among men who presume they are qualified to be President of the United States. President of the rich, President of the Middle Class, President of the poor, President of the native Americans and President of the immigrants.

About the Occupiers another senior member of Congress asked "What do they want?" I reply if you don't know what they want then you have no business being in a position where you even have the right to ask that question.

The angels with the vials of the seven last plagues has poured one of them
on the heads of Americans and only the rational, clear thinking, sane ones have the freedom to resist it.
---------------------------------------
DB - The Vagabond
**********************

The Flower Of Freedom

The hero is not one who succeeds in a single burst, but rather the one who does not relent.

David Wolpe
**********************
Hello Val
**********************
"The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower."
(William Cowper)

I think it's true to say any venture worth while is usually accompanied by a period of trial and test before success is achieved. Those tests are often difficult and painful. If you launch a ship out into the ocean without knowing where you are going you stand a chance of suffering all sorts of problems. If you start walking in a forest with no destination, it might be a pleasant walk, but you might also get lost. There's no substitute for knowing what you want.

In New Hampshire there is a mountain called Mount Washington. It's the tallest mountain in the northeast (6,288 feet). There are three ways of getting to the summit. You can drive. There's a road. When you get up there you can buy a bumper sticker that says "This car climbed Mt. Washington." You can take the train,. There's a cog railroad that goes from the base to the top. Or you can walk. There are several trials that go up. When I made the trip I took the scenic route. I hiked.

Washington is not the only tall mountain in those parts. Another one is called North Moat and though it's not as tall as Mt. Washington, the trail is steep and very difficult. On the day I hiked it when I finally came out of the timber line and into the open I was exhausted. I sat down, had my lunch and enjoyed the view. All I could see above me was rock. I couldn't see the summit. I though I might as well turn back.

But I had come out to climb the mountain, to reach the summit. So after a few minutes I picked my weary self up and kept going. I was relentless. As it turned out I was only about 15 minutes from the summit, and when I got there the view was magnificent and I felt like I was standing on top of the world.

A lot of politicians are telling us these days what the Founding Fathers wanted. We don't know what they wanted other than what they said. Freedom to farm and ply their trades without interference, freedom to worship the way they wanted to and freedom from an oppressive government. It was a simple thing to declare independence. But they had to fight a war to claim it. Death, destruction, mayhem, injury, misery, loss of property, desperate circumstances were the bitter buds of that freedom. It was enough to make some men turn back. But there were the relentless ones. They had a goal, a result, a summit and they weren't going to stop until they got there.

Are we now enjoying the sweet flower of that freedom, or not?

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
**************************
AUTUMN QUESTION

What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?

Only 5 answers so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

I await your answers.
DB
********************

Free At Last

It's not that we need new ideas, but we need to stop having old ideas.

Edwin Land
***********************"
"He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." (Isaiah)
----------------------------------------
I awoke this morning with a reaction to some dream I had been having. I dont remember the dream but the feeling I had was how important freedom was to my life and to life in general.

Shortly after, I heard a meek chirping noise and again I discovered one of the very young finches inside my apartment. The poor creatures must have been in here all night, wondering where he was and where his buddies were. I opened the door and took him to it. He wasted no time accepting his freedom.

It may be that freedom is the most important motivating force of life. We begin our days by getting free of the womb. After that we face a seemingly endless parade of locks, blocks and obstructions to get through.

The paradox to life is that freedom isn't free. We pay a heavy price for it. But as Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "No price is too high for the privilege of owning yourself."

Life, for most of us, is a process of getting free of one encumbrance only to tie ourselves up with another one. Once we stop being babies, learn to walk and then to run, the world is a big adventure and we are free at last. And then "slam" the door closes and off we go to school. That form of imprisonment goes on for many years until we graduate and step out into the word, free at last. Until we get a job.

Feeling free is not the same thing as freedom. A false sense of security is more dangerous than insecurity. Back in the 40's and 50's, when I was growing up, a major ethic, in that post depression era, was to have a job. If you had a job you were secure. It was expected that you would stay at that job, working for that company the rest of your life until you retired and it was assumed that your job was secure. There was a lifetime commitment between the employer and the employee. With the rise of organized labor a man's salary, security and working conditions improved to the point where he could think about settling down to raise a family and maybe even owning a home.

It all seemed like the American Dream working itself out as the philosophers of 20th Century ideas had envisioned it. America was, after all, the land of the free. But the fact was freedom under those conditions was not attainable. An employer owned your job and therefore he owned a major part of your life. It was a false sense of security which seemed better than the desperate insecurity that had beleaguered the early 20th Century.

The 60's came and things began to unravel. Employers started replacing workers and workers started changing jobs. The work place was no longer the arena of freedom. Also, along came the skyrocketing cost of things like health care which meant that the simple job a man had was no long capable of taking care of the family he had begun. The husband's salary was not enough so the wife also had to go to work, meaning that holding the family together became an improvised affair. As the expenses and responsibilities piled up something was slowly disappearing from the mental environment. It was the sense of freedom. We were tied down to jobs, debts, family obligations and physical limitations.

We went looking for things to give us a sense of freedom. Vacations are a usual choice. Depending on a man's income he could take the family skiing in the Alps, or to a cottage on the beach or he could sit around in the living room, spending time with the kids, watching TV, resting and playing games. But wherever he went the vacation ended and he went back to the servitude of the job he never left.

He could be inventive, enterprising and manipulative, and rise in the ranks of wage earners, but whatever his specialty, profession or career he was still tethered to it.

Then came retirement when he thought he'll be free at last. But what he found was a whole new set of responsibilities and a life of commitments, because he is used to it.

The fact is that he lives his life according to theories he has inherited from the past, from his parents, teachers and society in general, hence he is bound to them. His first step toward freedom is to know that and not let those ideas control his life, as useful as some of them may be.

At some point, after all the slavery he's been through or put himself through he may realize that freedom is something that exists only in his thoughts. He's paid a heavy price for that realization, but at last he can begin to do the amazing thing of taking possession of himself. He's had the right all along to claim ownership. It doesn't matter who he works for or what he does, how big his family is or where he lives, who his friends and neighbors are or how much money he has. None of those things define him. He is a single entity, a unique idea in the vast universe of existence with total authority for being there. It took a long time, many struggles and a hefty price to find out that he has always been free.

DB
Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
*************************

SUMMER QUESTION

Summer is moving along, people.

It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you.

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

dbdacoba@aol.com

15 answers so far.

You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.

DB
************************

For Now

If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours, if they don't, they never were.

Richard Bach
**********************
I'm pleased that four of my blogger buddies returned and set up a correspondence with me: Ally, Geo, Ken and Mark. The ever friendly Arlene is writing also. So, now I have four blogs to read and some emails to answer.

Setting people free is a double action. The initial thrust was to free myself from a heavy burden of obligation, the duty of reading and responding to blogs of people who rarely write or have written only once. I accomplished that, allowing for anyone who wanted to from that group to get back in touch with me. The other action was to free those who don't care that much to be read by me or to get comments from me. That action seems to have been accomplished with grand strides as my blogger list has gone from 89 to 4.

Over the years, since 2008, when I first established Vagabond Journeys, I've felt very close to some people on a friendship basis. It's a sad thing if I have to lose some of those friendships. But life turns and people change. Love never comes with guarantees.

I can't name the names of people I miss today, there are too many of them. To say I wish them all well is also a nameless wish therefore. To issue a blanket "fare thee well" to everyone who has ever been in my life may satisfy some selfish itch but does little for the real welfare of those people. But to hold them in my thoughts as ones who affected me in positive ways, to hold the momentos of our friendly relationships as sacred artifacts in my life and to never forget them is the best wish I can give to people.

To the gone but not forgotten I say "Stop by again some day. You are always welcome."

DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
***********************
Summer Is A Comin' In
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
******************

Let Freedom Ring

No price is too high for the privilege of owning yourself.

Friedrich Nietzsche
**********************
Many people have paid a hefty price for that privilege. Most of us are still paying.

There have been amazing stories of skilled and enterprising slaves who were blessed with an opportunity to make enough to buy their own freedom, in a real sense to buy themselves. Others, not given the skills or opportunities, have paid the dangerous price of escape, often without success.

Feeling free is not the same thing as freedom. A false sense of security is more dangerous than insecurity. Back in the 40's and 50's, when I was growing up, a major ethic, in that post depression era, was to have a job. If you had a job you were secure. It was expected that you would stay at that job, working for that company the rest of your life until yu retired and it was assumed that your job was secure. There was a lifetime commitment between the employer and the employee. With the rise of organized labor a man's salary, security and working conditions improved to the point where he could think about settling down to raise a family and maybe even owning a home.

It all seemed like the American dream working itself out as the philosophers of 20th Century ideas had envisioned it. America was, after all, the land of the free. But the fact was freedom under those conditions was not attainable. An employer owned your job and therefore he owned a major part of your life. It was a false sense of security which seemed better than the desperate insecurity that had beleaguered the early 20th Century.

The 60's came and things began to unravel. Employers started replacing workers and workers started changing jobs. The work place was no longer the arena of freedom. Also, along came the skyrocketing cost of things like health care which meant that the simple job a man had was no long capable of taking care of the family he had begun. The husband's salary was not enough so the wife had to go to work also meaning that holding the family together became an improvised affair. As the expenses and responsibilities piled up something was slowly disappearing from the mental environment. It was the sense of freedom. We were tied down to jobs, debts, family obligations and physical limitations.

We go looking for things to give us a ssense of freedom. Vacations are a usual choice. Depending on a man's income he could take the family skiing in the Alps, or to a cottege on the beach or he could sit around in the living room, spending time with the kids, watching TV, resting and playing games. But wherever he went the vacation ended and he went back to the servitude of the job he never left.

He could be inventive, enterprising and manipulative, and rise in the ranks of wage earners, but whatever his specialty, profession or career he was still tethered to it.

Then comes retirement when he thinks at last he'll be free. But what he finds is a whole new set of responsibilities and a life of commitments, because he is used to it.
At some point, after all the slavery he's been through or put himself through he may realize that freedom is something that exists only in his thoughts. He's paid a heavy price for that realization, but at last he can begin to do the amazing thing of taking possession of himself. He's had the right all along to claim ownership. It doesn't matter who he works for or what he does, how big his family is or where he lives, who his friends and neighbors are or how much money he has. None of those things define him. He is a single entity, a unique idea in the vast universe of existence with total authority for being there. It took a long time, many struggles and a hefty price to find out that he has always been free.

DB
Vagabond Journeys
*********************

WEEKEND PUZZLE
*******************
A'S UBAW' MB IXCWUO SG ZCG BR NAKAW'
AR MXCM CAWM OWBYUX
MXOW A'NN IXCWUO MXO ZCG
MXCM A DMVYM SG DMYRR.
'ICTDO WPFPLG ZCWMD GPY
ZXOW GPY'VO BNL CWL UVCG
MXOVO'NN FO DBSO IXCWUOD SCLO MBLCG.

Good luck
DB

*****************

Gacious Gaffs 11/20/08

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Gandhi
************************

Alas, with senior citizenship come regrets. In youth all of our errors we tend to take little notice of, quickly forgive ourselves for and pass them over for the next adventure But they turn out to have done nothing more than stack up under the proverbial carpet. Then comes the house cleaning time when we lift up the carpet and have to clean up the mess.

Isn't it a shame that we can't go back and undo all the dumb things we did? Why weren't we perfect at the time? Why did I forget to do this, failed to do that and did the other thing wrong? Maybe I thought I was doing the right thing at the time.

The fact is that there has never been a human who didn't make mistakes. How do they get by without taking a hatchet to their heads?

"To err is human, to forgive, divine," goes the old saying. Sure, we have to learn to forgive those who have done us wrong, either intentionally or by accident. That's a divine thing to do. But what about forgiving ourselves?

Some of my past mistakes still haunt me, and they will attack me unexpectedly, like mosquitos. I mentally dig a hole and bury them and some of them stay buried, some don't. Others are too big to bury. What to do, what to do?!

Gandhi is telling us that we have the freedom to make mistakes. Well, it seems to me that if we have the freedom to do that then we also have the right and freedom to forgive ourselves for those mistakes. Most of us don't exercise that right often enough. And so we live with the memory of errors that should have been discarded into the trash heap and left to rot somewhere long ago.

You will be surprised at what other people think of you when you realize how often they don't. So when the next regret pops into your head, look it right in the eye and say "I forgive you."


DB