Post is backdated to the 1st of November.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.
-Eleanor Roosevelt
Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
-The Dark Knight(2008)
It’s like there’s a horse loose in a hospital. I think eventually everything’s going to be okay, but I have no idea what’s going to happen next. And neither do any of you, and neither do your parents, because there’s a horse loose in the hospital. It’s never happened before, no one knows what the horse is going to do next, least of all the horse. He’s never been in a hospital before, he’s as confused as you are.
There’s no experts. They try to find experts on the news. They’re like, “We’re joined now by a man that once saw a bird in the airport.” Get out of here with that shit! We’ve all seen a bird in the airport. This is a horse loose in a hospital.
When a horse is loose in a hospital, you got to stay updated. So all day long you walk around, “What’d the horse do?” The updates, they’re not always bad. Sometimes they’re just odd. It’ll be like, “The horse used the elevator?” I didn’t know he knew how to do that. The creepiest days are when you don’t hear from the horse at all. You’re down in the operating room like, “Hey, has anyone…Has anyone heard–” [imitates clopping hooves] Those are those quiet days when people are like, “It looks like the horse has finally calmed down.” And then ten seconds later the horse is like, “I’m gonna run towards the baby incubators and smash ’em with my hooves. I’ve got nice hooves and a long tail, I’m a horse!” That’s what I thought you’d say, you dumb fucking horse.
And then… then… then you go to brunch with people and they’re like, “There shouldn’t be a horse in the hospital.” And it’s like, “We’re well past that.”
-John Mulaney
It's up to brave hearts, sir, to be patient when things are going badly, as well as being happy when they're going well.
-Don Quixote
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
-Martin Luther King Jr
How sad it must be - believing that scientists, scholars, historians, economists, and journalists have devoted their entire lives deceiving you, while a reality TV star with decades of fraud and exhaustively documented lying is your only beacon of truth and honesty.
-Unknown
Lord, I've really been real stressed, down and out, losing ground.
Although I am black and proud, problems got me pessimistic.
Brothers and sisters keep messin' up, why does it have to be so damn tuff?
I don't know where I can go to let these ghosts out of my skull.
My grandma past my brother's gone, I never at once felt so alone.
I know you're supposed to be my steering wheel, not just my spare tire.
(Home!) But Lord, I ask you,
(Home!) to be my guiding force and truth.
(Home!) For some strange reason it had to be,
(Home!) he guided me to Tennessee.
(Home!) Take me to another place, take me to another land.
Make me forget all that hurts me, let me understand your plan.
Take me to another place, take me to another land.
Make me forget all that hurts me, let me understand your plan.
Lord it's obvious we got a relationship
Talkin' to each other every night and day
Although you're superior over me
We talk to each other in a friendship way
Then outta nowhere you tell me to break
Outta the country and into more country
Past Dyesburg and Ripley
Where the ghost of childhood haunts me
Walk the roads my forefathers walked
Climb the trees my forefathers hung from
Ask those trees for all their wisdom
They tell me my ears are so young. (Home)
Go back, from whence you came (Home)
My family tree, my family name (Home)
For some strange reason it had to be (Home)
He guided me to Tennessee. (Home)
(Home!) Take me to another place, take me to another land.
Make me forget all that hurts me, let me understand your plan.
Take me to another place, take me to another land.
Make me forget all that hurts me, let me understand your plan.
Now I see the importance of history
Why my people be in the mess that they be
Many journeys to freedom made in vain
By brothers on the corner playin' ghetto games
I ask you, Lord why you enlightened me
Without the enlightenment of all my folks
He said, cuz I set myself on a quest for truth
And he was there to quench my thirst
But I am still thirsty
The Lord allowed me to drink some more
He said what I am searching for are
The answers to all which are in front of me
The ultimate truth started to get blurry
For some strange reason it had to be
It was all a dream about Tennessee
(Home!) Take me to another place, take me to another land.
Make me forget all that hurts me, let me understand your plan.
Take me to another place, take me to another land.
Make me forget all that hurts me, let me understand your plan.
Oh, won't you let me, won't you help me,
won't you help me understand your plan.
Take me home, take me home, home, take me to another place.
--Arrested Development
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.
--Anais Nin
The concrete and literal word "chair" calls up a picture. The ghostly abstraction "democracy" calls up an idea. When you and I talk about a "Chair we are talking about the same thing. Should we discuss a " democracy" we are using the same word but we could easily be talking about two wholly different things.
You might be speaking of "democracy" as exemplified by the United States as of this very day-a form of democracy, by the way, that will change a little by tomorrow, and is not quite the same today as it was yesterday. I may be thinking of "democracy" as it existed in 1776. Or, possibly, of the "democracy" of New Zealand, Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, France, ancient Greece, Plato's Republic. The word "democracy" can mean a host of different things. Are we even sure that we could agree as to exactly what "democracy" means in our nation on this day and at this very hour and moment? Could you write a definition of it that would hold water? Could I?
You will find, I think, that all violent arguments arise from misunderstandings about the meanings of words, from the different values that we give to such abstract words as truth, equality, peace, business, regimentation, bureaucracy, freedom of speech, love, justice, and the rest.
What strikes, riots, mayhem, and murder have been caused, for instance, by the silly terms "capital" and "labor." We have been trained by the cartoonists to think of a "capitalist" as an overstuffed person wearing a suit marked with dollar signs and a "laborer" as an oppressed and underfed workingman in overalls. And yet what really is a "capitalist?" And could the "laborer," by chance, be the boss who is walking the floor at night, worrying about the payroll and the overhead, while the chap on the assembly line has taken his wife to the movies?
Of course, abstract words have a legitimate value and use. We couldn't talk about democracy if there were no such term. But we should be careful not to use this type of word as though it represented a definite object like a "chair." The phrase "American democracy" is merely a convenient shorthand symbol that stands for the varying ideas and theories of 145 million Americans and the myriad practices that go to make up a highly complicated and
changing manner of living.
These abstract words are freely used in the political world. A candidate will offer us a "world peace" that is to be based on freedom , "justice," and "equality."and yet such abstractions as these have never existed in the pure state and never will. But they are tempting abstractions, nevertheless. When we hear them, we had best be cautious. Ask questions of ourselves. What has the candidate promised? "Freedom""Freedom" from what? And liberty" to do what? This "freedom" he is going to give you is already restricted by your obligations to your family, your business, your duties to your community, state, and nation; by your inherited characteristics, by your environment; by your wealth and education, or by the lack of them; and by a thousand laws. What is our candidate going to do about all that? What new kind of "freedom" can he give us?
….
These abstract political words are the words that demagogues fool us with. They have led charlatans to power. Misunderstandings about them have brought on wars between nations. They should really be bundled up and bound with a red ribbon and stamped with a danger sign, for dangerous they are. It is just as well to keep in mind that Hitler said his Germany was a “democracy.” That's how far an abstract word can stray.
Remember Karl Marx's three steps to revolution. The third and last step was to destroy the people's faith in the institutions at their government. The step before this was to debase the currency. The first step of all, however, was . . but let me quote Karl Marx himself: "The first step in the science of revolution is the art of confusing the public with words that have a pleasant meaning." That is why the first thing that a dictator does is to take over the radio and the press. He takes over words.
While the late President Harding was still in the Senate he tossed his hat into the ring and ran for the highest office in the land on the resonant word "Americanism." At one of his press interviews a reporter asked: "What does 'Americanism' mean, Senator?""I haven't the slightest idea," replied Harding, "but I know it's a damn good word with which to carry an election." Here was an honest confession. But the real political charlatan gives us no such warning as this. He can use these cloudy abstractions with sinister effect unless the public is on its guard.
-Wilfred Funk, Litt. D Word Origins: And Their Romantic Stories
I am sitting in the morning
At the diner on the corner
I am waiting at the counter
For the man to pour the coffee
And he fills it only halfway
And before I even argue
He is looking out the window
At somebody coming in
"It is always nice to see you"
Says the man behind the counter
To the woman who has come in
She is shaking her umbrella
And I look the other way
As they are kissing their hellos
And I'm pretending not to see them
And instead I pour the milk
I open up the paper
There's a story of an actor
Who had died while he was drinking
It was no one I had heard of
And I'm turning to the horoscope
And looking for the funnies
When I'm feeling someone watching me
And so I raise my head
There's a woman on the outside
Looking inside, does she see me?
No, she does not really see me
'Cause she sees her own reflection
And I'm trying not to notice
That she's hitching up her skirt
And while she's straightening her stockings
Her hair has gotten wet
Oh, this rain, it will continue
Through the morning as I'm listening
To the bells of the cathedral
I am thinking of your voice
And of the midnight picnic once upon a time
Before the rain began...
And I finish up my coffee
And it's time to catch the train
- Suzanne Vega, Tom’s Diner
Alone on a train, aimless in wander
An outdated map crumpled in my pocket
But I didn't care where I was going
'Cause they're all different names for the same place
The coast disappeared when the sea drowned the sun
I knew no words to share it with anyone
The boundaries of language I quietly cursed
And all the different names for the same thing
There are different names for the same thing
There are different names for the same thing
-Deathcab
… So, so you think you can tell
heaven from hell?
Blue skies from pain?
Can you tell a green field
from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
… Did they get you to trade
your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
a walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?
--Pink Floyd
To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth. -Pearl S. Buck
I'm a fountain of blood. In the shape of a girl. -Bjork
Few people know so clearly what they want. Most people can't even think what to hope for when they throw a penny in a fountain. -Barbara Kingsolver
The world can only be free when men are content in themselves and each draws from his own fountain. -George William Russell
There is no pain, you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move, but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child, I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain, you would not understand
This is not how I am
I have become comfortably numb
I have become comfortably numb
-Pink Floyd
And it wears me out
It wears me out
-Radiohead
“ ”
-Perfect Days (2023)
Komorebi is a Japanese word that refers to the shimmering of light and shadows created by leaves swaying in the wind. It's often used to describe something that "only exists once, at that moment.
-Unknown
Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before
-Star Trek
That's normal. What was that? This is normal.
-Frozen 2
There's nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop
And an illustrated book about birds
You see a lot up there, but don't be scared
Who needs action when you've got words?
-Meat Puppets
Stand up
You've got to manage
I won't sympathize
Anymore
And if you complain once more
You'll meet an army of me
- Björk
Rubeus Hagrid: "I am what I am, an' I'm not ashamed. 'Never be ashamed,' my ol' dad used ter say, 'there's some who'll hold it against you, but they're not worth botherin' with'".
-J.K.Rowling
Wake up (wake up)
Grab a brush and put a little make-up
Hide the scars to fade away the (hide the scars to fade away the shake-up)
Why'd you leave the keys upon the table?
Here you go create another fable, you wanted to
Grab a brush and put a little make-up, you wanted to
Hide the scars to fade away the shake-up, you wanted to
Why'd you leave the keys upon the table? You wanted to
I don't think you trust
In my self-righteous suicide
I cry when angels deserve to die
In my self-righteous suicide
I cry when angels deserve to die
Father (father)
Father (father)
Father (father)
Father (father)
Father, into your hands I commend my spirit
Father, into your hands
Why have you forsaken me?
In your eyes forsaken me
In your thoughts forsaken me
In your heart forsaken me, oh
Trust in my self-righteous suicide
I cry when angels deserve to die
In my self-righteous suicide
I cry when angels deserve to die
-System of a Down
How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them. -Benjamin Franklin
There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing
Is it raining, is it snowing?
Is a hurricane a-blowing? - uh!
Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of Hell a-glowing?
Is the grisly reaper mowing?
Yes! The danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing!
A-aa-aaa-aaaah!”
― Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory