"Audentes fortuna iuvat." (Fortune favors the bold) Life is a black glass filled with water. However, because it's black, looking in and about the glass we can't tell what's in it. Even when mortally thirsty, many dare not drink from the glass, fearing it may not agree with them; might even harm them. Others might take a small sip and wait for something better to come their way. Only the brave drink it all to experience life to the fullest. They don't fear death because they know that whether you drink it or not, everyone is going to die....

Life is a present gift wrapped by the past. To get to the present, we need to remove the past....

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....