Learning & Suffering

We read for entertainment and information
But we must study to gain knowledge
Then think to become enlightened
Then suffer to become wise.
05.31.11

Memorials & Memories

Memorial day
The day of joys and pains
The pains of grief for the departed
And the joys of life for those still living
“Sum quad eris, fui quad sis,” said the tombstone
Translated: "I am what you will be, I was what you are."
05.30.11

Language & Effect

We all know how to cuss, curse, defame, and gossip
But some of us prefer more effective language.
05.29.11

Institutes & Degeneration

Live long enough and you will witness
The institutes you gave your life to
Degenerate and become abusive.
05.28.11

Food & Activity

In nature, animals grow fat
When their food supply is high
And their energy expenditure is low.
We are not exempt from this natural law;
Therefore, unless we reduce our food intake
And simultaneously increase our physical activity
Obesity will continue to claim more and more of us.
05.27.11

Genitals & Mind

Life is a transition from genitals to brain
In youth we are preoccupied with our genitals
In age, preoccupied with our minds.
05.26.11

Intelligence & Wisdom

Intelligence is necessary
But not sufficient for wisdom;
The intelligent may not be wise
But the wise are always intelligent.
05.25.11

Understanding & Misunderstanding

Few can explain and fewer still can understand;
In most human affairs, misunderstanding is the rule
And true understanding is the exception.
05.24.11

Promises & Worth

I need to desist from making covenants with myself
For I find that I cannot keep some of the promises I make;
Instead, I should promise not to do what I should do
That way, if I break my promise, I would feel nobler
And if I don’t, I would not feel worthless.
05.23.11

Cellphone & Inconvenience

We invariably forget
When we call a cell phone
That we could be intruding
On an intimately private moment
Or inconveniencing a crucial bit of life.
05.22.11

Knowledge & Ignorance

Outside their narrow areas of expertise
Most people who render opinions extempore
Don’t really know what they are talking about;
But being unaware of their own self-deceit
They state their opinions with such conviction
Thus giving them force instead of substance.
If Socrates were to dialogue with most people today
And show them that they have no real knowledge
Regarding the subjects they are discussing
He would be put to death again
For none of us who render opinions extempore
Wish to face the realities of our abysmal ignorance.
05.21.11

Conquering & Occupying

Conquering & occupying nations are always shortsighted;
No matter how hard they try to suppress, enslave, and evict
Demography ultimately catches up with them all
And in just a few hundred years puts them to shame
When they will have decayed and fragmented from within
And those that they had suppressed become their rulers.
05.20.11

Chronological & Physiological

While Chronological age grows with years
Physiological age diminishes with fitness;
When they begin to diverge in the sixties
To approximate your Physiological age
Multiply the number of steps you can jump-down by three
And then subtract that number form your chronological age;
When you can no longer jump down, lie on your stomach
Roll a full circle until you are back on your stomach again
Then add the number of seconds less one to your age.
05.19.11

Glory & Shame

The subjugation of primitive peoples
By more advanced peoples
Are history’s most repetitive crimes
Against humanity.
The pride and glory of nations
Is nothing but their shame
Under a different name.
05.18.11

Politics & Pretnese

Politics is the art of pretense
Of saying what one does not mean
And meaning what one does not say;
And with very few exceptions
Politics promotes pretenders
And punishes the honest.
05.17.11

Information & Wisdom

All information
Can become knowledge
When it is deeply understood;
And all knowledge
Can become wisdom
When years and suffering
Bring about its ripe fruition.
05.17.11

Greatness & Goodness

Greatness only comes of goodness—
That long-lived goodness of creativity, science, and art
That engenders peace, joy, love, beauty, compassion,
Truth, justice, ethics, wisdom, humility,
Health, prosperity, and security;
Let us not confuse greatness with power and its child, hubris
For history is littered with powerful nations that rose and fell;
There has never been a great nation nor will there ever be
For nations build their glories at the expense of others.
05.15.11

Loved & Loving

Being loved is a luxury that,
With few exceptions, is ephemeral;
But loving is as necessary as breath
For without it, life seems meaningless.
05.14.11

People & Watching

People watching entertains
By granting us the illusion
That we are the judges and diviners
Of the humanity we are observing.
05.13.11

Support & Veracity

History has repeatedly revealed
That the number of passionate supporters
Of any and all historic ideas
Adds no credibility
To the ideas’ veracity.
05.12.11

Life & Waste

We waste as much life avoiding death
As we waste avoiding life.
05.11.11

LIfe & Coincidence

If the universe were all a long sandy shore
Planet earth would be one pebble
And life one atom;
In our vast, indifferent, inanimate, spreading universe
Life, such a miraculous, coincidental microcosm
May never be elsewhere replicated.
05.10.11

Best & Best

To want to be the best there is
Is pure hubris;
To want to be the best one can be
Is a solemn duty.
05.09.11

Conflict & Motion

Without motion there is no conflict
Everything in motion—animate and inanimate
Is in conflict with its surroundings;
The absence of conflict is stasis.
05.08.11

Awareness & Comfort

Comfort is inversely proportional to awareness
The more aware of humanity’s sorrows
The less comfortable we become;
Our penultimate comfort state is coma
The state of total unawareness just before death.
05.07.11

Rich & Poor

I’ve never met a person
Who was rich in love
And was poor
Nor a person
Who was poor in love
And was rich.
05.06.11

Honesty & Purity

Honesty blossoms out of contentment;
Justification is the spin-doctor of want;
It’s difficult to stay honest when hungry
And hard to remain pure when in need.
05.05.11

Adversity & Attitude

The best defense against adversity
Is an indomitably blithe attitude.
05.04.11

Compassion & Blame

Compassion is incompatible with blame;
When blame rises, compassion falls.
05.03.11

Passion & Reason

When passions rise
Reason shuts her eyes.
05.02.11

Censorship & Opinions

Censorship invites pretense;
The suppression of opinions and beliefs
Considered immoral, blasphemous, or unpatriotic
Drives them underground where they grow unhindered
And return to haunt the censors at a later date.
Allowing unpopular beliefs the right of expression
Invites debate, which promotes mutual understanding
And diffuses aggression before it becomes a tsunami.
05.01.11