The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself in spite of being unacceptable.
Paul Tillich
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Hello Barbados
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I can't think of anyone who frustrates and annoys me more than myself. My life is a living example of Murphy's Law. I need to wear a sign that says "DOLT" when I go out in public so everyone will be forewarned.
I did my income tax today and as usual I got it all finished and in the stamped envelop when I discovered something I forgot and had to redo the whole thing. I used to have it done by the end of February, but these days I have too much to do. I need a personal accountant, lawyer, butler, maid. cook, chauffeur, masseuse, a clinic full of the proper doctors and nurses, a closet full of new clothes, a couple of cats to frolic in the back yard, a dog to walk me every day and a big house to keep them all. In short, I need to be a billionaire so that I would have the people around me to take care of and clean up after the doltish things I do.
Instead I have a few twittery birds on the balcony, eating up all my bird seeds and no one else around (thank goodness) to witness the perilous circumstances I have made and keep making for myself.
I question why I put up with me. No one else would. I think it has something to do with worth, value or permission. I feel i have never achieved and probably never will the one thing that certifies me, that pays the price of having been born, that compensates the world for allowing me to be a citizen of it.
Wouldn't it be something if everything was harmonious? To see the sleek appearance of rightness and fitness everywhere, to realize an unbreakable alliance of beauty and logic, to have one's honest hopes meld into graceful realities, and never have to face problems whose solutions are elusive or questions that have no answers, is to live the acceptable life. Everything is less than, including me.
No I'm not putting myself down. I'm accepting myself as being unacceptable. It gives me something to strive for, and that's probably why I have too much to do. I would have a lot more time to do things it I didn't persist in making doltish mistakes. The only thing I can say for myself is that it's a damn good thing I have a sense of humor.
DB - Vagabond
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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
4 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
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This Week's Contest
This is one I put up a few years ago and people seemed to enjoy it, so here it goes again.
You are now ordered to take a famous remark, a cliche or otherwise and restate it in the most verbose manner possible. Example:
Night is an inappropriate time for the manufacture of animal feed.
(Make hay while the sun shines.)
Get it? Ken Riches won this contest the last time, so you're up against some heavy competition.
5 entries so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Good luck. Enter as often as you wish. The decision of the ornery, biased, curmudgeon is final.
DB
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Showing posts with label income tax. Show all posts
Showing posts with label income tax. Show all posts
Monday, April 11, 2011
Monday, March 22, 2010
Assess Thyself
The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax.
Albert Einstein
*****************
Being a retired fellow with no income except social security nd pensions, my income tax is fairly simple these days. That was not always the case. During my career I was performing all around the country. The theatre companies, recording studios and film companies were located in different states and when tax time came I had to file in all of them.
I had an accountant in the Empire State Building in New York City. Every year I took all my receipts and records up to his office in the lofty heights and left them with him. To do it myself would have been an impossibility, not only because of all the various forms from everywhere, but even more because of the ever changing tax laws and regulations in all those places. Soon I would get in the mail a large envelope filled with documents to sign and addresses to write checks to. I don't know how he did it.
I have come to see that the income tax is as much a subjective business as any thing else. What should be a precise and dependable system is open to interpretation and that includes the IRS itself, evidently.
One year a reporter for a New York newspaper, noting that the IRS will figure out your Federal Income Tax for you, took his records to the IRS offices in all five boroughs of New York to have them figure it out. He got five different results. The IRS was not pleased when he published that.
Some people do try to cheat on their taxes. There's no question about that. But there are also many cases in which people could save themselves money if they knew about and understood their rights. That's why it's a good thing to have a professional help us with the job, and hope that the pro can understand it.
Once I filed my taxes on April 15. I was in New York at a large post office. I stood in line for over an hour. I vowed I would never do that again. One other time I arrived at the post office on the last day, because I had been out of town. I saw a long line of very unhappy looking people. I went to the stamp machine and bought more stamps than was necessary, stuck them on the envelop and put it in the slot. I'd be dammed if I was going to stand in that line just to save a dollar.
I consider filing my taxes an aggravating but necessary interruption in the possible harmony of my life. So I get it done as quickly as I can to save myself the anxiety and bother.
If you haven't done your taxes yet, get to it. It may be difficult and complicated for you. But if Albert Einstein had difficulty understanding his taxes you're in good company.
DB
****************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
2 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB - The Vagabond
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Starting today I'm collecting the Brian stories into one journal The Brian Saga
http://thebriansaga.blogspot.com/. They will be in his chronological order from his youngest days (The Little Black Disk) to his oldest (Brian and Christine). They will appear gradually as I get them written and edited.
DB
Albert Einstein
*****************
Being a retired fellow with no income except social security nd pensions, my income tax is fairly simple these days. That was not always the case. During my career I was performing all around the country. The theatre companies, recording studios and film companies were located in different states and when tax time came I had to file in all of them.
I had an accountant in the Empire State Building in New York City. Every year I took all my receipts and records up to his office in the lofty heights and left them with him. To do it myself would have been an impossibility, not only because of all the various forms from everywhere, but even more because of the ever changing tax laws and regulations in all those places. Soon I would get in the mail a large envelope filled with documents to sign and addresses to write checks to. I don't know how he did it.
I have come to see that the income tax is as much a subjective business as any thing else. What should be a precise and dependable system is open to interpretation and that includes the IRS itself, evidently.
One year a reporter for a New York newspaper, noting that the IRS will figure out your Federal Income Tax for you, took his records to the IRS offices in all five boroughs of New York to have them figure it out. He got five different results. The IRS was not pleased when he published that.
Some people do try to cheat on their taxes. There's no question about that. But there are also many cases in which people could save themselves money if they knew about and understood their rights. That's why it's a good thing to have a professional help us with the job, and hope that the pro can understand it.
Once I filed my taxes on April 15. I was in New York at a large post office. I stood in line for over an hour. I vowed I would never do that again. One other time I arrived at the post office on the last day, because I had been out of town. I saw a long line of very unhappy looking people. I went to the stamp machine and bought more stamps than was necessary, stuck them on the envelop and put it in the slot. I'd be dammed if I was going to stand in that line just to save a dollar.
I consider filing my taxes an aggravating but necessary interruption in the possible harmony of my life. So I get it done as quickly as I can to save myself the anxiety and bother.
If you haven't done your taxes yet, get to it. It may be difficult and complicated for you. But if Albert Einstein had difficulty understanding his taxes you're in good company.
DB
****************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
2 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB - The Vagabond
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Starting today I'm collecting the Brian stories into one journal The Brian Saga
http://thebriansaga.blogspot.com/. They will be in his chronological order from his youngest days (The Little Black Disk) to his oldest (Brian and Christine). They will appear gradually as I get them written and edited.
DB
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