All will be best when we forget the rest. All the best is coming our way in 2022. Undoubtedly it will be wonderful, incomparable to times past which are not real; just memories. Times past are neither good or bad. Only we determine which are good or bad. However times past were for us individually, it is at least wonderful we had a role the play of life. And now our role, however it unfolds, continues. That is something to celebrate....
“Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” The sun and the moon are temporarily hidden by the shadow Earth casts. Likewise, we may turn our back to the truth when we are otherwise distracted. But, in time, as we go around the truth comes around....
"Anyone afraid of dying is a fool. It's obvious everyone in life eventually dies. Only a fool would chose to come to life if they were afraid of dying....
"God saw I was worried and God laughed. Then I laughed too." Laughing is the best remedy for stress or pain. When we identify with God we can laugh at almost any state of mind....
Last night I had another fabulous dinner at Joe Bruno's Pasta Nostra restaurant in Norwalk, CT. Upon entering the restaurant, Joe greeted me: "Hey Victor, how do you feel?' To which I replied: "Alive and healthy, can't complain." To which Joe remarked: "You must be a masochist." And then we both roared a laugh. What Joe is saying is that there is a lot of difficult, frustrating or painful shit in life one needs to deal with beyond issues of just being alive and healthy. If after all the shit one is still happy to be alive and healthy, then one must be a masochist and enjoy difficult, frustrating or painful shit. Maybe so or maybe whatever comes one's way is wonderful in some way....
NOTABLE & QUOTABLE: RUSSIA "An unidentified 'senior administration official' in a Dec. 17 U.S. State Department telephone briefing for reporters: You asked what the Russians are up to. I will let the Russians speak for themselves with regard to what they're up to. We believe, the President believes, our allies believe that if there are concerns--and we have concerns on our side, they clearly have concerns on their side--they are best discussed diplomatically...
This 5.9cm object is reputedly a charm used by a Siberian shaman. A shaman is a healer and diviner. The etymology of "shaman" is the Tungus root sā-, meaning "to know." At first blush it looks like a maskette with a smiling or angry human face, spanning the gamut of human emotions. The empty or negative space within the outline of the face is greater than the lines that form the facial features. That suggests that what's behind the face, the mind, is empty. With our mind empty, we are cured from much of what ails us and are free to see beyond ourselves, the future. Alternatively it looks like a woman's body without a head; just a pair of breasts, vagina and protruding legs. For some men that would be the ideal woman as it would cure them of much of their woes....
For most men, life begins and ends the same way; with the Big Bang, an orgasm. The first Big Bang results in embryonic fertilization and the second ends in immediately falling asleep....
This one-hand quartz watch is an entertaining timepiece. The watch's one hand is gold-colored and emanates from a gold center disk, presumably the sun. The one hand is like a ray of sunlight whose movement reflects the passage of time. A full-circle move of the one hand represents the 24 hour day. Hence, the perimeter is crowded, allowing only markers that indicate time in quarter-hour segments. The day begins and ends at the lowest vertical point on the perimeter, the darkest hours. Other than the one hand and the markers, the watch face is a dark blue cover over the watch's internal movements which is like dark matter; unseen but presumed to affect all that is seen. With one-hand indicating time, it is like a sundial. Like the movement of the sun's golden rays is the movement of the watch's gold-colored hand. However, sundials are the most primitive of time-telling machines and this watch, propelled by a quartz movement, is most modern. With a quartz movement, the watch accurately measures time with a monthly accuracy of 15 seconds, considerably more accurate than a mechanical watch. However, as it has no markers indicating minutes, reading the time indicated is a bit of guesswork with 5 minutes leeway. Ironically, the most accurate watch is also the least accurate watch. As reading the time indicated is a bit of guesswork, this watch is unlike mechanical watches which we read without thought. Reading time on this watch requires our attention, awakening us a bit, and each reading is like never before which is the nature of time. Moreover, as we cannot precisely read the time, we know we can never be completely certain where we are in time. Maybe we can't be certain of other things as well. If so, best to go slow and not make choices impetuously. As well, we are unlikely in the same time-place as most other people whose watches are more in sync. The preceding is what I see in this watch, making the watch funny. Funny in that the watch allows very different views which are at odds. In looking at things I always find something about them funny. If not, I know I don’t know what I’m looking at....
Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, etc. were once adjectives. They identified someone's superficial self-evident physical appearance, skin color and/or dress. These adjectives didn't imply anything about an individual's nature or attitude. What defined a person was a function of our interactions with them. Today, these adjectives have become nouns. As nouns, they imply various socioeconomic and personality stereotypes that form our perception of the people they identify. The nouns are generalizations and, as all generalizations, are empty of anyone real. However, we perceive others in terms of these generalizations, group identities, not as they are. Individuals also often identify with group identities and behave accordingly, not as independent individuals with their own minds. Moreover, they view themselves as different from other groups. This leads individuals to view the world as "us and them" which often leads to conflicts. Our eyes see differences between individuals as adjectives. Our mind transforms these adjectives into nouns. ...