"The ends justify the means" is a commonly used expression when the means involve meanness. However, rarely is mean behavior justifiable. Means that involve meanness have ends that are ultimately mean for all involved as meanness leads to mean outcomes. The means however justify the ends when we are kind in our means....
“The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.” Ironic observation in that short-term happiness cannot be sustained without freedom. Often it's a Faustian bargain for those who trade, with ideological rulers, their freedom for happiness. The rulers then gradually limit everyone's freedom, leaving little freedom; as in prison, a place where few are happy....
"Some squirrels in south Georgia, they'll taste a little bit more nutty. Up here [Baltimore], our acorns and stuff aren't really as strong as the ones down south. Most of them up here, it just tastes like squirrel. If you put enough seasoning on it, you can make it taste like anything you want it to taste like." Ben Cleveland is a football player for the Baltimore Ravens. He comes from Georgia and ate squirrel meat when there wasn't much else to eat. As he attests, the difference in the taste of the same meat is subtle but significant. Dressed up with enough seasoning (like humans dressed up in costumes and playing different roles), what we experience is the dressing and not the essential meat. Each of us is who they are but we rarely present ourselves as we are. We dress ourselves up as to how we want to be perceived. Our dressing so disguises who we are that others will see us as they want to see us....
"Ah, aha, haha, hahahaha." A mantra. Ah, pleasure. Aha, the realization that enjoying our selves is the purpose of life. Haha, laughing at the simplicity of this realization. Hahahaha, laughing at how silly we were not to have realized this earlier....
When we see God in each other we are one with each other. When we are one together we are one with everything....
It takes a certain level of scientific sophistication to know that an eggplant is a fruit. But we don't have to know anything about scientifically classifying vegetables to know not to put eggplant in a fruit salad. The Japanese have a classification system which clearly identifies which fruits to put in a fruit salad. To the Japanese, all vegetables are vegetables but some vegetables are "fruity vegetables." For example. eggplant is a vegetable, not a fruit, since it is not fruity. Only fruity vegetables go in a fruit salad. The foregoing is an interesting contrast in classification systems; one based on phylogenetics and the other on our physical experiences. While knowledge of the former identifies who is somewhat educated, the latter identifies who is less likely to ruin a good fruit salad. Often those who are well-educated lack common sense....
Fools look at the world through their individual and/or collective minds. The wise see the universe with their eyes and the minds of others....
At times I see you as another. At times I see you as myself. When my self evaporates I don't see you or me just us....
"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."...
I went to the State University of New York at Binghamton where I studied English literature and poetry and graduated in 1973. Initially, I seriously thought of making a career out of writing poetry. However, I soon realized that the number of submissions to poetry magazines was many multiples higher than the number of subscribers. Clearly, in the poetry business there were more mouths than ears. Thus, pursuing a career as a poet seemed a fool's errand. Upon graduating, many of my friends were surprised when I decided to go into the commercial world. Some asked me why I thought, after having not even taken one course in the subject, I could make a go of it in business. My simple view was that I was likely to succeed in whatever field I chose because I was informally voted as most likely to succeed. That is, in the animal world the most successful males in a group have access to all the females they desire. As I didn't know anyone at my age who had bed more girls, I figured girls identified me as the most likely to be successful and whose genes should be passed on....