Urine & Sex

Ask an old man with a big prostate
To choose between being able to
Urinate well or have good sex.
Then ask a young man
With a normal prostate
The very same question.
After a short pause from the old man
And a long pause from the young man
They will both choose the very same thing.
06.30.10

Aging & Loss

Aging gracefully
Is the living art
Of ignoring loss.
06.29.10

Dictatroship & Democracy

In a democracy, the only ones
Unable to speak their minds
Are the politicians.
In a dictatorship, the only one
Able to speak his mind
Is the dictator.
06.28.10

Problems & Solutions

I never trust simple solutions for complex problems
Complex problems demand equally complex solutions
And expose thousands of simple solutions that don’t work;
When there are thousands of treatments
It means there is no treatment
And when there are thousands of solutions
It means there is no solution.
06.27.10

Making & Finding

I would rather
Make beauty
Than find it;
What I find fades
What I make lasts.
06.26.10

Mind & Entertainment

To the unlocked mind
The mind free to think and learn
Unmindful of all that it was ever taught
Daring to see things for what they really are
Then weighing them on the universal scale of joy—
To this self-taught, independent, satirical mind
The best entertainment comes from thinking
Comes from within.
06.25.10

Readers & Authors

Readers, beware of book praise
No author publishes negative comments
Or tries to solicit them from readers or editors;
Authors, like dictators, surround themselves with praise.
06.24.10

Age & Spouses

There will come a time
When those of us who reach old age
Will become undesirable sexually
Unappealing physically
And uninteresting socially;
This is when we most appreciate our spouses
For whom we remain ever attractive.
06.23.10

Truth & History

It is futile to campaign
Against truths that expose aggression
Or injustice, or are otherwise inconvenient;
Sooner or later, they will prevail
And those who had tried to bury them
Will be ridiculed by history.
06.22.10

Death & Security

Most of those who will die fat and rich
Will have squandered most of their lives
Struggling for financial security.
06.21.10

Men & Women

Men and women
Would have little to do
With each other
Were it not for sex.
06.20.10

Procreation & Selection

Though we are programmed to procreate
We’re not programmed to be selective
Of the ones with whom we copulate;
This minor genetic miscalibration
Is responsible for most marital misery.
06.19.10

Evidence & Belief

The less the evidence
The stronger the belief.
06.18.10

Dogs & Suicide

We need to learn
How to love from dogs;
Dog lovers do not
Commit suicide.
06.17.10

Freedom & Counter-thoughts

A free human being
Protects the freedoms of others
Especially their freedoms of expression
And especially when expressing counter-thoughts.
A human, a group, a nation, an ideology, or a religion
That does not protect the freedoms of counter-thoughts
Is enslaved by suffocating censorships and myopic dogmas.

Excused & Culpable

Note how we make excuses
For those wrongdoers whom we like
But hold as culpable those whom we dislike.
06.15.10

Public Toilets & Us

Do you have any idea
What the public toilets call us?
They refer to us as the dirty animals.
06.14.10

Pre-Owned & Pre-Married

We need to learn from the car dealers
Who call their used cars, pre-owned
And call the divorced, pre-married
A much kinder euphemism.
06.13.10

Fragmentation & Unity

Unity is ephemeral;
It is forged under threat
And fragments with security.
Fragmentation is natural;
It subdivides with security
Unto the edges of loneliness.
06.12.10

Death & Generosity

Dying is a generous act;
It’s giving up your only seat
For someone you don’t even know.
06.11.10

Enlightenment & Education

Enlightenment
Cannot be taught;
It can only be acquired
Through personal endeavor.

You won’t learn it
In schools or travels
Or in readings or arts
Or in places of worship.

Enlightenment is not education;
It’s an epiphany that only comes
To those fearlessly independent souls
Who burnish their free-willed minds
With painfully discovered truths
Unmindful of nation or religion
Or of group or family.
06.10.10

Shame & Nature

Those who preach
Unnatural behavior
Attract audiences
Who are ashamed
Of their natures.
06.09.10

Beyond Dogma & Life

The select few
Who dare think beyond dogma
Are the same few
Who dare live beyond life.
06.08.10

Laughs & Frowns

I trust those who laugh
More than those who smile
And those who frown
More than those who cry.
06.07.10

People & Us

I’ve never met People
That everyone talks about;
People who like this
Or People who do that
Or People who don’t understand
Or People who feel, or talk, or act…
Oh, you do, of course, know what I mean,..
Everyone I know or have ever known
Excludes one’s self and one’s audience
When they discourse about People;
Who are these People and where are they?
These common People that everyone talks about.
06.06.10

Mediocrity & Self

Mediocrity is universal;
Every one of us
Is a mediocre
Or has been one
At certain times
Or in certain situations;
Tolerating mediocrity
Is tolerating one’s self.
06.05.10

Statesmen & Politicians

Democracy
Deselects statesmen
Who dare displease
In favor of politicians
Who aim to please.
05.04.10

Approval & Truth

One should not seek approval
Before embarking on one’s own journey
Nor should one expect approval
When declaring one’s own truths;
Those who require approval
Spend a lot of life acquiring it
And achieve little because of it.
06.03.10

Approval & Truth

Shame & Nature

There is no shame in nature
Indeed, shame is an exclusively human invention
Brewed in awareness, flavored with conceit, and laced with envy.
06.02.10

Humanity & Remembrance

It’s difficult to be proud of humanity
Because of how it has treated humanity
And because most of its grand achievements
Are rooted in aggression or tainted with cruelty;
When it ends, and if anyone is left that could recall
It will be remembered not for its science but for its art
That ever gentle dimension of its ferocious history
Where beauty was truth and truth was beauty.
06.01.10