Primitive & Enlightened

The enlightened conserve
The primitive waste
The rest suffer.
12.31.13

Greatness & Leaders

If we can realize
That history allows
Only one great leader
Every few hundred years
We would cease expecting
Greatness from our leaders.
12.30.13

Good & Repayment

Because we cannot repay
All the people who have been good to us
We should instead bestow the good we owe
On the many others who owe us nothing
In order to keep the spirit of goodwill
Afloat throughout the world.
12.29.13

Journeys & Excitement

Journeys
Which begin with excitement and end in fatigue,
Usually change our lives to the better;
But journeys, which begin with fatigue
Seldom end in excitement and often worsen our lives.
12.28.13

Gifts & Thanks

When we give gifts
That we feel we need to give
But which the receiver does not need
We are merely saying thank you
With perfunctory articles
When we could have thanked better
With a few heart-warming words.
12.27.13

Chlichés & Nothing

When we have nothing to say
But feel that we need to say something
We end up using clichés, which say nothing.
12.26.13

Reach & Worth

Our social instincts
Feed a sense of empowerment
When we project ourselves onto others;
Deriving our sense of worth
From the number of people we can reach
Has fueled the internet and made it indispensable.
12.25.13

Time & Waste

Whenever people or establishments
Consistently waste our time
We learn to avoid them;
To guard against squandering others’ time
Is the highest order of considerate politeness.
12.24.13

Ethics & Enlightenment

Living an ethical life
Entails accepting, understanding
And feeling bonded to all of humanity;
Education empowers and may lead to hubris;
Ignorance disempowers and may lead to poverty;
But ethics always leads to enlightenment and humility.
12.23.13

Smiles & Losses

We only lose or are defeated
When we lose our cheerfulness;
As long as we can remain cheerful
Our losses can be turned into gains
And our defeats, into victories;
Nothing can defeat a smile.
12.22.13

Remembered & Forgotten

What is recorded is remembered
But, what is not recorded is forgotten;
History has sharp eyes and deaf ears.
12.21.13

Buying & Hoarding

We buy what we don’t need
And hoard what we don’t need
Until we become owned
By what we don’t need;
The fear of need
Is a major motivator
Of acquisition.
12.20.13

Gains & Losses

Behind every gain
There are unforeseen losses
And behind every loss
There are unforeseen gains;
Rather than celebrate or grieve
It is wiser to wait and see.
12.19.13

Humanity & Evidence

Humanity
Does not live by evidence
Because evidence requires open-minded effort;
Rather, it lives by what it hears and reads
And by what it was made to believe.
12.18.13

Honoree & Honored

Honor can only be earned;
Honoring someone is a euphemism
For the gratitude that is felt by the many
Whom the honoree has honored with his work.
12.17.13

Fatigue & Causes

Fatigue
Which has four main causes
Disease, struggle, anguish, and age;
Is the worst enemy of creativity and productivity.
12.16.13

Brains & Addictions

Addictions
Permanently groove our brains
Rendering them impervious to reasoning;
Once our brains are addiction-grooved
We spin our intelligence justifying
Instead of resisting.
12.15.13

Greatness & Recognition

Recognizing personal greatness
Is difficult when the great are close;
It takes time and distance to appreciate
Those great people among us.
12.14.12

Charging & Giving

Charging for everything one does
Is offensive, begets ill will
And is bad for business;
Charging fairly and giving freely
Compounds profits by promoting goodwill.
12.13.13

Rest & Perfection

Taking long breaks
Is essential for perfecting work;
Working incessantly, racing against time
Without any meaningful rests
Assures flawed results.
12.12.13

Light & Faith

It would take faith to find
The inevitably present little good
In everything and everyone we dislike;
Finding the crack, which allows in the sun
Will light the way towards peaceful mediation.
12.11.13

Danger & Ignorance

The most dangerous thing in the world
Is not nuclear war, famine, natural disasters
Epidemics, fanaticism, dictatorships, or governments;
The most dangerous thing is and has always been
Opinionated ignorance.
12.10.13

Trap & Mind

The most dangerous trap
That we repeatedly fall into
Is making up our minds
Without sufficient study.
12.09.13

Living & Dying

Two things are most difficult to teach
How to live well and how to die well.
12.08.13

Power & Arteries

When a great power
Develops angina pectoris
Because of clogged arteries
A bypass will not be curative;
It will require preventive cleansing
To ensure its survival and prosperity.
12.07.13

Law & Ethics

What is legal is not always ethical
And what is ethical is not always legal;
Crooks have always used the law
For unethical purposes;
One can hide from ethics behind the law
But no one can hide from ethics behind ethics.
12.06.13

Changing & MInds

Changing our minds
With changing times
Is healthy plasticity;
Refusing to change
Is unhealthy loyalty.
12.05.13

Ethics & Outocme

Serving where needed
Especially when one knows
One can only make a small difference
Is the ultimate triumph of ethics over outcome.
11.04.13

Learning & Praise

We learn a lot more from criticism
Than we learn from praise
A lot more from failure
Than from success
And a lot more from hindsight
Than from impressions and predictions.
12.03.13

Easy & Hard

Talking is easy, listening is hard
Believing is easy, thinking is hard
Reaction is easy, composure is hard
Sex is easy, love is hard
Death is easy, life is hard.
12.02.13 

Better & Worse

Whenever we try to look
Better that we truly are
We always end up looking
Worse than we truly are.
12.01.13

Identities & Secrets

Identities are secrets;
The way we see ourselves
Is as invisible to others
As the way others see us
Is invisible to us.
11.30.13

Problems & Causes

Whenever we come to believe
That this is the cause
Of that problem
We live to discover
That there are myriad causes
For even the simplest of problems.
11.29.13

Rational & Irrational

The problem with being irrational
Is that we believe we are rational;
The problem with being rational
Is that we believe we are rational;
But the real problem is that
It takes much time and hindsight
To discover how irrational we really are.
11.28.13

Bonds & Love

When having sex with strangers
The bond ends when lust expires;
When having sex with friends or acquaintances
The bond ends when need is surfeited;
When having sex with those we desire
The bond ends when instinct wanes;
But, when we have sex 
With those we’re in love with
The bond goes on, beyond the act
And grows stronger with time.
11.27.13

Awareness & Behavior

One never knows
When one will encounter
Someone or something
That will forever change
One’s ideas and views.
11.26.13

Questions & Answers

Oftentimes
The answer one is seeking
Hides behind the question
Which one never asked.
11.25.13

Ideas & Truth

Many a time

We ridicule ideas

Which return to haunt us

With truths we could not see

When these ideas seemed ridiculous.

11.24.13

Public & Private

Minor misbehavior can cause major harm
To a public but not to a private citizen;
Individually, we forgive but collectively, we don’t.
11.23.13

Knowledge & Humility

Knowledge
Becomes less certain
When one becomes more humble.
11.22.13

Reading & Learning

Reading
Without studying
Leads to little learning.
11.21.13

Passions & Time

Passions

The prime movers of life

Fade away as impassioned youth

Slowly yields to dispassionate age.

11.20.13

Laziness & Productivity

Laziness diminishes
The more one’s livelihood
Depends on one’s productivity.
11.19.13

Enlightenment & Animalism

An unenlightened human
Is a dangerous animal.
11.18.13

Freedom & Ages

The human ages of freedom:
Birth, the struggle and sacrifices
Youth, the triumph and festivities
Maturity, the prosperity and felicity
Senescence, the abuse and decay.
11.17.13

Coincidence & Universe

Coincidence
She wears green shadows
Intertwined with dreams
Lurks unforeseen
In silence plots and schemes
At times she hurries matters
To profound extremes
Delights in rolling fortunes in reverse
Coincidence
She sways the universe.
11.16.13

Laughter & Memory

We remember
Those who made us laugh
(Even when they were imaginary)
More than those who made us think
Or even those who have loved us
Or those who made us cry.
11.15.13

Country & Responsibility

When one’s own country
Suffers from many diseases
One must look at that country’s
Healthy attributes with gratitude
And endeavor to make things better
By healing the country’s sick parts;
Healing one’s own country
Is one’s responsibility.
11.14.13

Poverty & Reward

Poverty, is a contagious disease;
Treating it with enlightenment and education
Brings about uplifting self-sufficiency and solvency;
But, rewarding it, causes it to spread like an epidemic
Bringing about wide-spread insolvency and social decay.
11.14.13

Truth & Change

Being true to one’s self
Entails changing one’s truths
As one’s self changes;
All truths change with time;
Change is the only unchanging truth.
11.12.13

Emotion & Worth

When inebriated by success, we overestimate our worth 
 and underestimate our dispensability;
When drained by depression, we underestimate our worth 
 and overestimate our dispensability;
When rational and neutral, we recognize our worth 
 and recognize our dispensability.
11.11.13

Love & Beauty

Love and beauty impart meaning to the world;
When your heart chokes on the happy tears of love
When your eyes find beauty in everything that you love
You can look all around and whisper, “I have discovered God.”
11.09.13

Simplicity & Efficiency

Establishments that will not simplify
Drown in inefficiency and, in time
Commit bureaucratic suicide.
11.09.13

Regulation & Overregulation

Whereas, under-regulation begets disorder
Over-regulation begets inefficiency and fear.
11.08.13

Dislike & Why

It is much easier
To dislike someone
Than try to understand
Why they’ve become dislikable.
11.07.13

Time & Waste

The more time we have
The more time we waste;
The less time we have
The less time we waste;
But when we have no time
We waste no time;
And since time is life
Then, to live a full life
One must remain busy.
11.06.13

Friendship & Mariage

Friendship, like marriage
Requires love and hard work;
Otherwise, given time’s decay
Couples become roommates
And friends, acquaintances.
11.05.13

Anger & Decisions

Making decisions while angry
Is making mad decisions 
With an irrational brain; 
Waiting for sanity’s return
Engenders wiser decisions.
Thus Socrates said to his servant:
“I would strike you if I weren’t angry.”
11.04.13

Success & Importance

A business is deemed successful
When it is profitable;
But it becomes important
Only when it creates jobs
And stimulates the economy.
11.03.13

Power & Joy

Because joy comes of simplicity
And power, of complexity
An increase in power
Comes at the expense of joy;
Thus, the more powerful are less joyful
And the more joyful are less powerful.
11.02.13

Passions & Wisdom

When passions rise

Wisdom falls.
11.01.13

Importance & Works

Even though
None of us is important
We are made to feel important
When we impact the lives of others
And we remain important only as long as
Our works continue to impact the lives of others;
Importance can outlive us only through our good works.
10.31.13

Elephant & World

The world is the elephant in the room
And we, the billions of blind human beings
Who feel only the parts accessible to our senses
And insist that our own worldview is correct
Whereas everyone else’s view is wrong.
10.29.13

Time & Life

Time is life
And life is plentiful
For those who waste no time.
10.28.13

Q uality & Numbers

Quality is subjective
Changes with times and peoples
And is most illusive to measurement;
Wisdom directs us to become suspicious
When ever quality is expressed in numbers.
10.27.13

Humanity & World Citizens

Rejecting identity labels is necessary
For those who wish to re-join humanity
And become citizens of the world at large;
Instead of being identified by their countries
Or their religions, political parties, ideologies, etc.
Which separate them into discordant factions
They will awe their allegiance to humanity
And to their ailing planet, instead?
10.26.13

Boiling Pots & Nations

In the boiling pot
High-energy molecules
Fly to seek other domiciles
While low-energy molecules
Languish behind;
Such is the competition
Among the boiling pots
Of the world's nations.
10.25.13

Speed & Time

Speeders
Waste more time speeding
Than the little time they gain doing so.
10.24.13

Self & Perception

If we are considered beautiful
We will feel and act beautiful;
How we perceive ourselves
Depends to a large extent
On how we are perceived.
20.23.13

Treason & Country

Treason
At war and in peace
Is the furthering of one’s personal ends
At the expense of one’s own country;
At war, traitors are court-martialed
In peace, they are rewarded.
10.22.13

Bureaucracy & Complexity

In attempting to stem abuses 
We implement bureaucracies
Which, because of their
Growing complexities
Invite more abuses.
10.21.13

Loyalty & Disloyalty

Un requited loyalty is very common;   
Many of us continue to bestow
Loyalties on certain entities
That are disloyal to us?
10.20.13

Greatness & Fame

Most famous people are not great
And most great people are not famous;
Humanity progresses and prospers
Through the tireless labors
Of ordinary people.
10.19.13

History & Justice

History is nature
And nature repudiates justice;
The history of humanity is nothing but
The survival and prosperity of the fittest
At the expense of the weak and unfit.
10.18.13

Thoughts & Interlopers

Our thoughts
Anguished or sad
Are not our thoughts
If they intrude, uninvited
Upon our happy temperaments;
Officious thoughts are interlopers
And should be shunned and repudiated.
10.17.13

Wine & Company

The taste of wine 
Is less wine dependent
And more company dependent;
In good company
Even bad wine tastes good
And in bad company
Even good wine tastes bad.
10.16.13

Cheerfulness & Violence

If maintaining cheerfulness 
Were our universal human ideology
The world would have more joy and less violence;
Most violent human deeds are committed with a frown;
It is almost impossible to countenance violence, cheerfully.
10.15.13

Societies & Decline

Human nature is such
That when societies reach their zenith
They become complacent, begin to decline
And, invariably, blame their governments for it.
10.14.13

Pretense & Like

When we behave 
Without pretense
Some will like us;
But when we pretend
To be what we are not
Some will pretend to like us
But no one really will.
10.13.13

Madness & Nature

Madness is not just natural
It also is inducible;
Keep us angry, hungry, and desperate
Until we reach our breaking points
And we will all go mad.
10.12.13 

Money & Life

Many of us
Who spend more life
Making more money
End up with less life
To spend it.
10.11.13

Speech & Impact

Why say anything
If it won’t make a difference?
Why waste effort if no good will come of it?
Because it’s our duty to politely express ourselves
And because impact is not predictable.
10.10.13

Masses & Misconceptions

Mass misconceptions
Are inapparent to their times;
In the twentieth century, for example
Tobacco killed more people (circa150 million)
Than all of that century’s wars combined (circa 123 million)
And we all still think that wars and violence
Are our greatest man-made killers.
10.09.13

Traditions & Beliefs

Traditions
Symbolize beliefs;
Our faiths and histories
Are resurrected on special days:
Death, birth, marriage, holy days, anniversaries
Are all memorialized by traditions
Which remind us who we are
And where we came from.
10.08.13

Brains & Computers

If we can think of our brains as computers
And think of our appearances, thoughts
Actions, and personalities
As living programs
We would find it easier to understand
And forgive others for what they are
And have inner peace.
10.07.13

Madness & Harm

Widespread madness is unavoidable;
Crusades, colonization, inquisitions, slavery
World wars, genocides, terrorism, fanaticism, racism
Illicit drugs, tobacco and alcohol abuses, dangerous diets
Poorly-researched supplements, risky behaviors
Violent campaigns, hazardous fashions, etc.
All reek of harmful madness.
10.06.13

Broken Souls & Joy

A broken soul is one
That has lost its cheerfulness;
When one breaks a soul
Breaker and broken
Lose their joy.
10.05.13

Heart & Tongue

Whatever we say
With our calculating intellects
Is censored by society and situations
And what we really mean often remains unsaid;
Our tongues’ utterings are audible
Our hearts’ flutterings are inscrutable.
10.04.10

Intelligence & Biases

Unintelligent biases are as common
Among the intelligent and educated
As they are among the less fortunate.
10.03.13

LIke & Dislike

Those who dislike us
In time may grow to like us
But those who grew to dislike us
Seldom change their minds. 
10.02.13

Age & Desire

Passions and desires
Divide life into three stages:
Youth, a struggle to fulfill desires
Adulthood, a stage of mature fulfillment
Age, a stage of loss of desires and passions;
Nurturing passions, against age, keeps us youthful.
10.01.13

Behavior & Sincerity

Good behavior
Is superior to sincerity;
One is judged by good behavior
But no one can ever judge sincerity.
09.30.13

Loud & Unaware

Loud people
Noise-pollute quietude
And bother everyone else
With their lack of awareness;
And if asked to lower their voice
They become offended and defensive.
09.29.13

Mistakes & Schools

Mistakes are of two types
Those discovered after the fact
And those foreseen and avoided;
It’s only after we have learned enough
From having made a lot of mistakes
That we can avoid making more;
Mistakes are our best schools.
09.28.30

Good Ideas & Challenges

Good ideas grow out of challenges;
Trouble-free and need-free environments
Which we can provide for our children
Stifle their creativity training.
09.27.13

Debate & Fighting

The enlightened
Debate and learn from each other;
The opinionated
Argue to prove each other wrong;
And the primitive
Fight whenever they disagree.
09.25.13

Friends & Company

Very good friends
Are those we like enough
To crave and seek their company;
Friends who don’t seek each other’s company
Are comrades.
09.25.13

Thoughts & Words

If we were all held accountable
For all our unarticulated thoughts
Instead of only our words and actions
We would all be regarded as brutes.
09.24.13

Favors & Inconvenience

When we are asked
To do someone a favor
And we feel inconvenienced
It is because we had forgotten
The many times that we had asked
For favors, and were graciously obliged.
09.23.13

Exceptions & Rules

All rules have exceptions
But exceptions have no rules;
When we cannot make allowance
For exceptions, we commit injustice
By failing those unsuspecting innocents;
In life, exceptions are the rule.
09.22.13

Nothing & Emptiness

'Nothing'
Does not exist;
Wherever there is space
Filling up the emptiness
Then there is something;
Space contains our universe;
Space is the most abundant ‘thing’.
09.20.13

Special Interests & National Welfare

Individuals
Lobbies, unions, parties
Special interest groups, etc.
If they would place the welfare
Of the countries they live in
Above their own interests
They would behave
Differently.
09.19.13

Ideas & Fools

If it is foolish
To fight about ideas
Then the whole world
Is one big fool.
09.19.13

Relationships & Appearances

What most attracts us in relationships
Besides the mutual fulfillment of needs
Is personality, character, and behavior;
Appearances are appetizers
Which are forgotten
Once the meal is served.
09.18.13

Foreigeners & Tongues

A foreigner
Is not the person
Who came from a different land;
It’s the one who speaks a different tongue;
Our ears are our most xeno-discriminative organs.
09.17.13

Laughter & Play

Laughter and playfulness
Are our highest flags of health
For when we don’t feel well
We don’t laugh nor play.
09.16.13

Anger & Danger

Anger harms thrice;
It harms the one enraged
It harms the target of one’s rage
And harms those who are within range;
No one is safe from our most dangerous madness.
09.15.13

Behavior & Others

Since when must good behavior
Be contingent on the behavior of others?
09.14.13

Insults & Reasons

If you approach
Disagreeable situations
Looking for insults
You will find many;
But if you approach
Looking for reasons
You will understand.
09.13.13

Own & Give

Everything we own
Shall be taken away;
Everything we give
Shall stay.
09.12.13

Loss & Change

Permanent loss
Changes us permanently.
09.11.13

Words & Worth

Words
When numerous
Diminish in worth.
09.10.13

Excuses & Heart

Excuses stop
Only the halfhearted;
For the whole-hearted
Excuses become challenges.
09.09.13

Charm & Wisdom

Political elections
Favor charm over wisdom.
09.08.13

Initial & Success

Initial success is a proverbial trap;
It promotes fallacies and superstitions
And blinds us to ultimate truths.
09.07.13

Best & Best

To always do one’s best
Is more noble and humble
Than to always try to be the best.
09.06.13

Intelligence & Wisdom

The intelligent are many
But the wise are few.
09.05.13

Conscience & Justification

Our conscience
God-made or man-shaped
Is vulnerable to justifications;
Many an evil deed has been committed
With a clear conscience.
09.04.13

Knowing & Deluding

Those who know a lot about a little
But profess to know a lot about a lot
Delude the unsuspecting public
With false hopes.
09.03.13

Expense & Trials

If you think that:
Education is expensive, try ignorance
Democracy, try dictatorship
Tolerance, try intolerance
Freedom, try oppression
Science, try superstition
Paying taxes, try chaos
Healthcare, try illness
Love, try loneliness
Life, try death.
09.02.13

Pretense & Media

Those who wish to study
The art and science of pretense
Should do time watching the media.
09.01.13

Hearing & Beleiving

Of all the creatures in nature
The one that readily believes
Almost everything it hears
Is the human being.
08.31.13

Nomenclature & Truth

Our nomenclature
Homo sapiens
Is a misnomer;
Given our history
Instead of Wise man
We should be renamed
Foolish man, Homo insipiens.
08.30.13

Power & Decay

The greater the external power
The greater the internal decay;
What undermines great powers
Is greater inner powerlessness.
08.29.13

Abuse & Laws

Those who are most accomplished
At manipulating and abusing our laws
Are the very ones we entrust with our laws.
08.28.13

Affordable & Available

What’s unaffordable is unavailable;
An arrangement too expensive, is not an arrangement
A relationship too expensive, is not a relationship
A treatment too expensive, is not a treatment
A solution too expensive, is not a solution.
08.27.13

Denial & Realities

Denial and disbelief
Of our grim and sad realities
Postpones our pain, but hastens our fall.
08.26.13

Success & Excess

Excess
The prodigal son of success
Like a contagion spreads;
No society or government
Are resistant or immune
To its wasteful decadence.
08.25.13

Opinions & Reception

An opinion voiced
Is an opinion shared;
We owe it to humanity
To express our ideas
Regardless of how   
They might be received.
08.24.13

Opressor & Oppressed

Throughout recorded history
Oppressed peoples become resilient
And return to oppress their oppressors;
For in time, the oppressed grow stronger
And the powerful, grow weaker and decay.
08.23.13

Seesaw & Honesty

Between the rich and poor
Holding the social seesaw
Lies the hinge of honesty.
08.22.13

Money & Means

The promise of big money
Hypnotizes the frail conscience
Allowing it to justify dishonest means
With the hope of bringing about a rich end.
08.21.13

Opinions & Comrehension

Opining with feigned authority
On topics beyond our comprehension
Invites adversity and wasteful conflicts;
Having the courage and integrity
To hold back opinions and say
“We honestly don’t know”
Fosters fruitful debate.
08.20.13

Terrorism & Heroism

Without the ideal of heroism
Most terrorists would be less willing to die
For what they believe to be an honorable cause.
08.19.13

Age & Stage

Celebrate age
As an act on a stage
Were youth, made up as old
Plays the part, and feeling young
Walks off the stage to grand applause.
08.18.13

Ideas & Love

Falling in love with our own ideas
Is detrimental to our intellects;
Searching for evidence
Against our ideas
Keeps our minds open
And our intellects razor sharp.
08.17.13

Fat & Love

Fat is a possessive lover;
Once it finds us
It clings to us
And refuses to let go.
08.16.13

Simplify & Tolerate

The brilliant simplify
And the bright legislate;
The bureaucrats complicate
The powerful misappropriate
And the rich dominate;
The rest of us
Tolerate...
08.15.13

Terrorism & Peace

Terrorism comes of ignorance
As peace comes of enlightenment;
Fighting terrorism with enlightenment
Takes more time but gives better results
Than fighting it with sheer power alone.
08.14.13

Thoughts & Temporary

Thoughts that intrude upon us
When good, should be enjoyed
When bad, should be ignored;
For thoughts, uninvited
Are thoughts, temporary.
08.13.13

Dying & Living

Dying well 
Is as important
As living well;
Many a good life
Has been spoiled
By an ugly death.
08.12.13

Knowledge & Ingnorance

Knowledge 
Is always limited
Whereas ignorance
Is almost always limitless.
08.11.13

Thinking & Humanity

Thinking clearly 
Is not possible for humanity;
How prosperous we would all become
If every one of us could always think clearly.
08.10.13