Comfort ~ “Home Sweet Home” October 7, 2011
Posted by nrhatch in Art & Photography, Blogging, People, Poetry.comments closed
A friend arrested
Charge: child endangerment
Questions swirl inside
The key fits the lock
and opens the door into
a vast, empty shell
Stripped bare, the mattress
leans against the wall ~ waiting
for the next “owner”
Rivulets of sweat
create perspiration pools ~
A/C on the blink
The stern judge grants no
leniency ~ we must decide
where fragile truth lies
One door closes as
another opens ~ freedom
and keys exchange hands
Pride and Prejudice
lightens Bleak House with needed
humor and great wit
Related posts: Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Comfort * Comfort (Mayfielder) * Comfort (Chittle Chattle) * Comfort (Pseu’s Blog) * My Pet (Time After Time) * Sole Comfort (Pix & Kardz) * Comfort ~ Hot Springs (Maggie’s Photography) * Comfort (Inspired Vision)
“There’s Naught So Queer As Folk” October 7, 2011
Posted by nrhatch in Humor, People, Spirit & Ego.comments closed
Wikipedia ~ Solar System (in Public Domain)
My Great Aunt Edie, born and raised in Scotland, rarely criticised people for acting in ways that she couldn’t fathom or understand.
Instead, she would say, with a slight smile at the corner of her mouth, “There’s naught so queer as folk.”
Today, I echo her sentiments.
Ego is a funny thing.
Ego wants to be right. Ego wants to be right at all costs, even at the expense of our happiness.
Ego doesn’t want the foundation of its beliefs to be shaken by differing opinions offered up by others.
When someone expresses an opinion counter to Ego’s view of the world, Ego feels threatened. In response to the perceived threat:
* It resists.
* It bullies.
* It retaliates.
* It “unfriends” the offender.
* It withdraws support.
I knew that not everyone who knew “Andi” would agree with my opinion that she hadn’t died in a car crash on Monday because she’d never existed at all.
A few people who “knew” her said they had sensed a fictional tapestry being woven, rather than a real life being lived. Nothing definitive, though.
In writing the post, I thought maybe someone who knew her might come forward with evidence that Andi had existed as more than a fictional character in an artfully woven tale ~ that someone would refute my speculation by saying, “I met her.” “I had lunch with her.” “We went rock climbing together.”
No one has.
A few offered counter speculation that she MIGHT actually have lived and died. But, thus far, no one seems to have met her outside the realms of the cyberworld.
Did she exist?
Maybe. Maybe not.
I wondered. I searched a bit. Others did too. Nothing “concrete” surfaced pointing to an answer one way or another.
I can live with uncertainty. We must. Life is uncertain.
Much of what we think we know about others is incorrect ~ even those we meet and greet in the “real world.” We have as many reputations as acquaintances and NONE is accurate.
How many times have family, friends, and neighbors (when faced with evidence of a “secret life” or wrongdoing by someone they thought they knew) scratched their heads and said, “I never would have suspected”?
If people can live secret lives in broad daylight . . . how much easier is it to create a fabricated life in the shadows of cyberspace?
We generally only know as much about others as they are willing to reveal.
But Ego wants certainty.
So Ego accepts what it wants and rejects the rest. It weaves its own story line to fill in gaps. It fantasizes. It creates. It imagines that it knows more than it does. And once Ego has created its perspective on things, it views its view of the world as the right view of the world.
When Ego’s largely self-created but steadfast beliefs are countered, even by speculation, it rears up. It snorts. It paws the ground. It urges the “enemy” to change its tune. It rallies the troops. It gathers a posse. It insists that the opposition withdraw.
“Take that back!”
And . . . if we don’t?
Well, here, I’ll just echo Edie’s sentiments: “There’s naught so queer as folk.”
Quote: He who trims himself to suit everyone else will soon whittle himself away. ~ Raymond Hull
No rules. Just write.
What about you?
When you disagree, do you state your truth calmly and clearly and let others accept or reject it? Or do you pepper your position with strident comments like, “I’m RIGHT” or “You’re WRONG!”?
Is it easy for you to agree to disagree?
Related posts: Tell Me Lies, Tell Me Sweet Little Lies * The 2011 Sexiest Blog Award * I Am Truly Humbled * Taking the Bait . . . Hook, Line, and Sinker * Disintegrating Facts * Aah . . . That’s Better! * Why? There’s Naught So Queer As Folk (Pocket Perspectives) * The Secret Lives of Wives (Life in the Boomer Lane)
What A Broccoli Head! October 7, 2011
Posted by nrhatch in Art & Photography, Food & Drink, Humor.comments closed
Aah . . . that’s better!
I saw this clever cartoon on Facebook and had to share. I’ve searched in vain for the original source so I could link back to the artist. If anyone comes across the attribution information, don’t be a broccoli head . . . speak up!
Spirit Lights The Way 