Mental Gleek
gleek
\Gleek\, v. i. To make sport; to gibe; to sneer; to spend time idly. [Obs.] --Shak.
All comments/writings/thought and other gleek are the author's and the author's alone. Noone else is responsible.
It is a shame that more of us do not spend time idly, or our lives. As my friend Mary Duran once said: "Busy, busy, busy", which is also quoted in "Staughterhouse 5". And Mary did not read "Staughterhouse 5", as I am fairly sure that Mary had never been taught to read beyond a first or second year level. God bless people like Mary, who know more about life than many of us will ever learn.
Mary was one of those most remarkable people who had more wisdom in her little pinky than most people could ever hope to have in their entire lifetimes. Mary was reatrded and had only her own experiences and observations to work from. She had not been tainted by public education or the news. She was a pure soul.
We are all so busy that we are forgetting the important lessons of life that we may have learned when we were kids: lazing about in the hot summer afternoons watching the bugs and insects carry on, but we were simply watching. Now we are too busy even to notice that there are flowers. We have forgotten what joys there are in watching the stars - instead we watch the newest wars on Fox News (or so they call themselves, but there is no "news" - it is cheerleading time for the war criminals). 07/27/06
Anyone supporting Usrael (yes, the spelling is intentional to emphasize
the point that the US and Israel are one and the same), hence Condi
Rice and her "husband" George's inability to call for a cease fire and ending the
intentional slaughter of the men, women and children of Lebanon,
including UN observers and Red Cross ambulances carrying the wounded are
Repugnicants.
Anyone suppporting Usrael's slaughter is immoral, has no ethics, and were
these different times, would be supporting the "Final Solution". People
supporting Usrael at this time believe in genocide and torture and the
superiority of Jews over Arabs and are racists of the worst kind, as if
there were a good kind of racist. 07/27/06
When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis
Dahr Jamail Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon announced on Israeli army radio, "All
those in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah."
Using rhetoric that set the stage for justifying the collective punishment
of the Lebanese people in southern Lebanon, Ramon added, "In order to
prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in
southern Lebanon, villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force
before ground troops move in."
He rationalized his statements by saying that Israel had given the
civilians of southern Lebanon ample time to leave the area; thus, anyone
who remained could be considered a supporter of Hezbollah.
So of course by his definition, everyone in southern Lebanon supports
Hezbollah.
Truthout article
War is Hell
Genocide by any other name is still genocide.
NY Times article
On Thinking
It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then -- just to loosen up. Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon
I was more than just a social thinker.
I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.
That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's. I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't help myself.
I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"
One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."
This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confess, "I've been thinking..." "I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"
"But Honey, surely it's not that serious."
"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"
"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently.
She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama.
"I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.
I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors. They didn't open. The library was closed.
To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night. Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught
my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.
You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster.
This is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was
"Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.
I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed...easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery
is nearly complete for me.
Today I took the final step............
I joined the Republican Party.
anonymous
