Significance & Joy

We are of two temperaments;
Those who wish to leave their traces behind
And that gives significance to their lives and works
And those who have no such cares or desires
And live just for life and in the present moment.
12.20.11

Security & Insults

Hypersensitivity
Mushrooms out of insecurity;
Insult the insecure
And a mushroom cloud arises;
Insult the secure
And they do not notice.
12.19.11

Permanence & Delusions

All of life
And all its processes
Though always temporary
Are often regarded as permanent—
A perilous, slippery slope
Which conjures delusions
And promotes conflicts.
12.18.11

Happiness & Self

Those who look for happiness
Beyond themselves
Seldom find it.
12.17.11

Enemies & Wars

Powerful nations
Find great heroism and glory
In waging wars against external enemies;
Whereas wars against internal enemies, such as
Poverty, mental illness, illiteracy, waste, excesses, etc.
Are waged halfheartedly and are never won.
12.16.11

Greatness & Age

One of the reasons why
Great nations decline with time
Is because their governments
Grow demented with age.
12.15.11

Good & Bad

We are wired to generalize from details
Before proper examination of patterns;
Because of this inveterate tendency
To pass summary judgments in our minds
We summarily classify people as good or bad
When, in sooth, we all are good and bad
And only the proportions vary among us.
12.14.11

Details & Peace

The number of details
A mind has to process
Is inversely proportional
To the state of inner peace;
Peace comes with simplicity
And turmoil, with complexity.
12.13.11

Belief & Danger

The most dangerous race upon planet earth
Is the human race
And the most dangerous attributes of the human race
Are inculcated beliefs
And the most dangerous beliefs are those held as truths
Without evidence or examination or regard for others.
12.12.11

Romanticism & Reality

One of the most poignant examples
That demonstrates our inherent romanticism
Is our tendency to provide naïvely simple explanations
For our most profound and complicated emotional problems.
12.11.11

Information & Judgment

Informing one’s self by reading
Where one has no experience or judgment
Is a major source of wasteful and costly mistakes.
12.10.11

Might & Ethics

Mighty nations
Do not become powerful
Utilizing kindness and compassion;
That is why they’re all inherently unethical.
12.09.11

Enemy & Hate

The word enemy
Is a euphemism for hate
And sanctions inhumane behavior.
12.08.11

City & Cemetery

Seen from the air on a foggy day
A city resembles a crowded cemetery.
12.07.11

Virtues & Vices

A made-up mind is dangerous;
It exaggerates the virtues of its ideas
And is blind to their adversities and hazards.
12.06.11

Ceremonials & Beliefs

Were it not for ceremonials and rituals
Which keep alive the history of a people
None of us would have grown up shackled
With so many handed-down, ancestral beliefs.
12.05.11

Love & Perception

We can only love
What we can perceive
With our thoughts or senses;
What remains un-perceived
Remains unloved.
12.04.11

Beauty & Passion

Beauty
Carries no passions within itself
But it engenders passions in those who perceive it.
12.03.11

Enlightenment & Pleasure

Enlightenment
Releases our pleasures
From the body’s penitentiary
Into the free expanses of our intellect.
12.02.11

Loyalty & Place

If one dedicates
One’s loyalties
To where one grew up
Or to where one is living
Then one has missed his calling
To be equally loyal to all humanity.
12.01.11

Age & Periphery

Old age
Is a migration
From center to periphery.
11.30.11

Pleasures & Joys

Whereas pleasures and thrills
Are but ephemeral attributes of our bodies
Most joys are lasting attributes of our minds and souls.
11.29.11

Venting & Listening

We vent for relief
And to convince ourselves
That what we are saying is true
And to seek support from our listener
Who’s cornered & pressured to hear
Only our side of the story.
11.28.11

Written & Read

A lot has been written
But a little has been read
And far less has been understood.
11.27.11

Stubborn & Starved

Every stubborn person
Is besieged within himself
Holding on to a starved intellect.
11.26.11

Giving & Loss

Many have been impoverished by loss
But no one has been impoverished by giving.
11.25.11

Persecution & Oppression

Persecution and oppression
Those ostentatious arms of power
Which seek to enforce its rule and hegemony
Proceed oblivious of the dangerous anger they foment
Among those never-forgetting, ever-growing generations
Who, like a malignant mole, multiply and ramify in the dark.
11.24.11

Victory & Failure

Victory is treacherous
For it oft leads to complacency
Which could lead to failure;
Failure is motivating
For it oft leads to struggle
Which could lead to victory.
11.23.11

Coincidence & Prediction

Believing in coincidence
Is wiser than believing in predictions
For coincidence often provides opportunities
While predictions often provide illusions and disappointments.
11.22.11

Talk & Worth

Talk is cheap
But the right words
At the right time
Are priceless.
11.21.11

Shopping & Countries

Shopping for countries
Is the modus operandi of the future;
An unenlightened country that rules with cruel suppression
Will lose its intelligentsia to other competing countries,
Which provide freedom, justice, and opportunity.
11.20.11

Opinion & Change

A true intellectual
Like a true scientist
Is one who always searches
For evidence that runs contrary
To his own ideas and systems of belief
And who always sways his opinion
With the sway of new evidence.
11.19.11

Enlightenment & Violence

Cultivating a sense of aesthetics
A love for harmony and beauty
Enhances enlightenment and tolerance
And discourages dissonance and violence.
11.18.11

Audiences & Pretense

In the conduct of human affairs
The larger the audiences
The greater the political pretenses;
Politicians re-write history
To please the majority
At the expense of truth,
Which is never popular.
11.17.11

Minds & Disasters

A deadly mind
Featuring a deadly personality
Is far worse than any deadly disease;
Its distorted judgment invites recurrent disasters.
11.16.11

Beginnings & Ends

How ruthlessly does a bad end
Spoil a good life or a promising beginning;
Naught is well unless it ends well.
11.15.11

Herds & Individuals

A consistent features of Homo sapiens
That distinguishes them from other animal herds
Is their instinctive lack of herd mentality;
Their tendency to behave as individuals
Causes them to get along poorly
Makes them hard to govern
Incites them to splinter into feuding factions
And renders conflict more natural than peaceful coexistence.
11.14.11

Majority & Truth

Since Homo sapiens are delusional followers
Who will follow anyone’s promises
Of hope, wealth, and freedom
A large following or majority vote
Lends little legitimacy or credence
To ideologies, beliefs, or aggressions;
History is littered with happenings
Triggered by passionately espoused ideas
That ended up having disastrous consequences;
Truth is seldom popular but it ultimately prevails.
11.13.11

Primitiveness & Noise

One can measure one’s own primitiveness
By measuring the quantity of noise one generates
Plus the quantity of noise one tolerates.
11.12.11

Live & Die

There are so many ways to die
But only one way to live;
To live is to struggle.
11.11.11

Emotions & Instincts

If we could perceive emotions as involuntary instincts
They would become much easier to comprehend
And to accept as programmed affects.
11.10.11

Power & Shame

Power rules and justifies
Thereafter dies with all its lies
And then a new power does rise
To do the same and die the same;
Powers don’t learn nor can be wise
No body wins the power game
Homo sapiens are a shame.
11.09.11

Good Death & Poor Life

Trading a good death
For a poor quality life
Is miserly cowardice.
11.08.11

Dreams & Realities

Shattering dreams and hopes
Causes more profound grief
Than wrecking realities.
11.07.11

Internal & External

Just as it is far easier
To look good on the outside
Than to be good on the inside
It is also easier for a person or nation
To take care of external problems
Than to manage internal ones.
11.06.11

Success & Trap

Beware of initial success;
It’s a trap we all fall into.
11.05.11

Procrastination & Failure

Procrastination
Invites failure.
11.04.11

God & Bankruptcy

Nations, ideologies, and groups
Who invoke their Gods to justify
Committing cruelty and injustice
Should all file spiritual bankruptcy.
11.03.11

Self Destructiveness & Choices

Human nature is so self-destructively wired that
When it has options, it chooses to side with
Beliefs and delusions over reality
Appearances over substance
Pretense over truthfulness
Language over meaning
Sloth over endeavor
Quantity over quality
And beauty over intellect.
11.02.11

Class & Character

Class is defined by character
Rather than by any other attribute;
Kind, compassionate, courteous, giving
Humble, brave, moderate, and tolerant
Are the eight pillars of a humane aristocrat.
11.01.11

Insults & Self Worth

To become un-insultable
Is to become fortified
With the confidence of
Impenetrable self worth.
10.31.11

Frogetfulness & Attention

We only forget
What does not occupy our attention.
10.30.11

Joy & Relish

The inability to enjoy
What someone you love enjoys
Invites distance and tempers the relationship;
For love to remain aflame
Lovers must learn to relish each other’s joys.
10.29.11

Teresness & Substance

Beware—
Too many words
Dilute the substance.
10.28.11

Wine & Feelings

There are two reasons
For good wine to taste bad—
Because one’s company is bad
Or because one feels bad.
10.27.11

Can & Should

‘Nothing can be done’
Should not be interpreted to mean
That nothing should be done.
10.26.11

Reading & Writing

Reading is promenading within another’s imagination;
Writing is taking a dive into one’s own soul.
10.25.11

Society & Pretense

Pretense is the web that snares society
And the more complex the society
The greater are its pretenses.
Being true to one’s self brings peace
And gaining peace is predicated upon
Having less to do with society’s pretenses.
Perhaps, that is why
It is harder to be true to one’s self
When one lives in a complex society.
10.24.11

Atavisms & Dogmas

We either think with reason or with instincts;
Instincts imprison us while reason sets us free.
Only the brave dare jettison their atavistic chains
And dare question ancestral beliefs and dogmas;
If you want the beast to froth and roar
Ask why belief should sensor thought.
10.23.11

Efficiency & Success

Efficiency subsumes knowledge, effort,
Intelligence, hunger, passion, faith,
And health, both mental and physical;
It is the meter of human productivity
And success is its well-begotten child.
10.22.11

Power & Shame

Power rules and justifies
And then it dies with all its lies
Then a new power does rise
To do the same and die the same;
Powers cannot ever be wise
No one wins the power game
Homo sapiens are a shame.
10.21.11

Enhancement & Transparency

We use everything at our disposal
To enhance our personal positions
Unaware of our transparency.
10.20.11

Avoidance & Best

To be the best one can be
Is to apply one’s efforts
To maximum tolerance.
To be the most comfortable
Undisturbed, and at peace
Consumes avoidance effort
And stifles our best.
10.19.11

Gratitude & Humility

Those who get angry
At having gotten old
Would have gotten angrier
At having died young
Because they lack both
Humility and gratitude.
10.18.11

Avoidance & Enlightenment

Just as some people
Drown their spirits in alcohol
To avoid serious thinking and self examination
So do many others
Narcotize their minds with reading
To avoid radical change and self-enlightenment.
10.17.11

Beauty & Love

There is no beauty without love;
One must love something about
Whatever one finds beautiful.
10.16.11

Worth & Self

Self worth
That does not arise
From within the self
Is worthless.
10.15.11

Excess & Nature

Were it not for the desire of excess
That insatiable black hole in human nature
Moderation and peace would have been possible.
10.14.11

Power & Decay

The military powers of nations
Seem to grow at the expense
Of their internal decay.
10.13.11

Ethics & Nations

To bypass ethical standards
All that individuals have to do
Is think like nations.
10.12.11

Information & Knowledge

The illusion that we can know the real persons
From what we hear and read about them
Fuels curiosity and inflames gossip
And also betrays truth.
10.11.11

Age & Speed

The older we get, the faster we age
And the more each day depletes
Our dwindling life reserves.
10.10.11

Heaven & Hell

The requirements of heaven are seven:
Peace, Joy, Love, Passion, Health, Excellence
And the dedication to worthy causes;
The requirements of hell are the negatives
Of the requirements of heaven.
10.09.11

Food & Noise

Restaurants that compete
In serving large portions of unhealthy foods
With even larger portions of disturbing noise
Must think that having more to eat and less to say
Are the corner stones of a healthy social intercourse.
10.08.11

Calling & Intrusion

When we are seized
With the urge to call someone
We forget that our call is an intrusion.
10.07.11

Age & Distance

We laughed at old age
Because it seemed too distant
Then cried when we got there
Because it was too near.
10.06.11

Pain & Joy

Memories of pain and suffering
Outlast those of pleasure and joy.
10.05.11

Initial & Success

Initial successes
Blind us to potential failures;
The gambler who initially wins
Then returns to lose everything,
The initial weight loss with a diet
Followed by subsequent weight gain,
The initial passion of a relationship
Followed by a dirty divorce,
The winning of the first battle
Followed by losing the war…
10.04.11

Delusions & Realities

Humanity
Is powered by delusions
And disempowered by realities.
10.03.11

Need & Treatment

People will treat you better
The more they need you
And worse, the more you need them.
10.02.11

Myths & Heroes

Myths
Shine brighter
Than their heroes.
10.01.11

Mindsets & Belief

Most mindsets do not last;
If we don’t believe such thoughts
They would pass on and leave us alone.
09.30.11

Regard & Disregard

Those who have learned to disregard
Always come out ahead;
Rather than take note and react,
Or feel insulted and avenge,
Or feel offended and suffer,
Be fierce with your disregard.
09.29.11

Still & Age

The most condescending English word is ‘still’:
-You still look good…
-You are still strong…
-You’re still working…
-You’re still independent;
The young have no idea
How much the word ‘still’
Can hurt an aging soul.
09.28.11

Rational & Irrational

Rational and irrational
The two types of thinking
Both seem equally logical to the mind.
09.27.11

Information & Wisdom

Information is stored
Knowledge is learned
Judgment is earned
And wisdom, burned
Into the soul.
09.26.11

Mind & Fallow

A bright mind is fallow
When unsown with interests and passions.
09.25.11

Good & Wrong

A good idea
Especially when wrong
Can often lead, in ways unforeseen
To unpredictably good outcomes.
09.24.11

Thinking & Knowing

We always think
Beyond what we know;
And even though we know
That we can never know enough
We still believe everything we think.
09.23.11

Wealth & Desert

Wealth is like water;
With it there’s growth
Without it there’s desert.
09.22.11

Love & Wounds

Love wounds are cruel
And come from both directions;
When one gives and doesn’t receive
Or when one receives and doesn’t give;
They would be less cruel if they would bleed.
09.21.11

Said & Heard

In conversation
Whatever is said
Is seldom understood;
Every ear filters out
What it doesn’t wish to hear
And lets in what it wants to hear
Including whatever remains unsaid.
09.20.11

Desire & Fulfillment

In youth
We miss the fulfillment of our desires;
In age
We merely miss our desires.
09.19.11

Excelence & Endowment 09.18.11

Excellence
Is only achieved
By the well endowed;
But alas,
The well endowed
Don’t always achieve
Excellence.
09.18.11

Tolerance & Enlightenment

The measure of enlightenment is tolerance
And the measure of primitiveness is intolerance;
For tolerance is rooted in humility, respect, empathy
Whereas intolerance, in hubris, disrespect, and ignorance.
09.17.11

Energy & Output

Human energy
Which is personally discernible
Cannot be measured by any science
And is evident to others only through output.
09.16.11

Democracy & Meritocracy

A democracy
Cannot in time
Remain a meritocracy
Because the voting process
Decays into an emotional exercise
Of unenlightened, uninformed masses.
09.15.11

Ideologies & Identities

Ideologies woo
The collective conscience
And foster unifying identities.
09.14.11

Life & Living

It takes a long life
To learn how to live.
09.13.11

Justice & Power

A nation’s sense
Of international justice
Is inversely proportional
To it’s military powers.
09.12.11

Government & Efficiency

A government’s efficiency
Depends on the enlightenment
Of the people it governs.
09.11.11

Difficulty & Attitude

There is no difficulty
That cannot be subdued
With the right attitude.
09.10.11

Mediocrity & Compassion

Tolerating mediocrity
And treating it with grace
Is the noblest expression
Of human compassion.
09.09.11

Individual & Group

One’s individual conscience
Is anesthetized by one’s group;
What we can sanction collectively
Is often unconscionable individually.
09.08.11

Terrorism & Counter-terrorism

In our fight against terrorism
We have countenanced our own.
09.07.11

Reason & Bias

Irrational and unreasonable thinking
Feeds the roots of humanity’s biases
Which bear most of its evil fruits.
09.05.11

Aging & Learning

Aging begins
When we stop learning.
09.05.11

Robots & DNA

Unaware living things
Are DNA Robots;
Aware living things
Are DNA robots
With illusions of choice.
09.04.11

Delusions & Truth

Delusions that enhance life’s quality
May be better than life disruptive truths;
But painful truths are infinitely better
Than life-damaging delusions.
09.03.11

Bad & Good

If you do something bad
Your good will soon be forgotten
For it’s the last impression that counts.
09.02.11

Laws & Adverse Effects

All enacted laws have adverse side effects
Which are not discovered until after the laws are passed.
09.01.11

Hardware & Software

People differ
Not because of their minds
But because of what’s in their minds;
While people’s hardware is relatively similar
Resulting in what is regarded as human nature
People’s software is infinitely diverse and impressionable
Programmed by genes, nurture, time, place, and coincidence.
08.31.11

Kingdom & Size

The smaller the kingdom
The happier the king and his people;
There’s an ideal size beyond which
All things diminish.
08.30.11

Democracy & Dictatorship

Democracy is a rebound reaction to dictatorship
And, like a rebound marriage after a divorce,
It discovers its deadly faults with time.
08.29.11

Peace & Anguish

Five things shatter inner peace
Worry, hurry, anger, loss, and fear;
And all five are consequences
Of disproportionate attention
Paid to our physical beings
And blatant inattention
Paid to our spirits.
08.28.11

Amour & Attraction

Amorous relationships
Are more attraction dependent
Than love dependent;
Liking tightens the love bond
And disliking shatters it.
08.27.11

Time & Waste

No matter where you are
And regardless of what you’re doing
Some one will waste your time
Or you will end up wasting it.
08.26.11

Mind & Freedom

Mental freedom is assessed on two scales:
The resistance with which one adopts a new truth
And the readiness which one sheds an old belief.
08.25.11

Making Love & Having Sex

Having sex
Is like grabbing a bite
From a fast food drive-in
And gulping it quickly without relish;
Making love
Is dining on a white table cloth
With hors d’oeuvres and champagne
In an ambiance laced with Mozart at sunset.
08.24.11

Pleasures & Sharing

A pleasure shared
Is a pleasure doubled.
08.23.11

Mind & Speech

When we need to speak our minds
We’ll talk to any one who would listen;
Our minds are like blown up balloons
One puncture and they readily deflate.
08.22.11

Love & Death

The reason we love life
Is because we are life
And the reason we shun death
Is because it takes all that we love away.
08.21.11

Capitalism & Excess

Capitalism
Thrives on excess
And languishes in austerity.
08.20.11

Mind & Pullution

If one grants access into one’s mind
Of unfiltered ideas and notions
One’s mind becomes polluted
With unexamined thoughts.
08.19.11

Nature & Cycles

Our minds are made of cyclic intertwining circuits;
Like nature, we cycle in and out of seasons
In and out of love, passions, pleasures
Careers, routines, aspirations, wealth
Relationships, ideas, beliefs, moods, biases
Birth, life, illness, death, resurrection, and infinity.
08.18.11

Love & Opportunity

In life we follow love and opportunity
Wherever they go, we go.
08.17.11

Loyalties & Ideas

Loyalties are
Physical, emotional, or abstract;
We are either loyal to business or family or friends
Or to abstract ideologies such as nation, religion, belief, or love.
08.16.11

Beauty & Health

How quickly
When one falls ill
Health becomes beauty.
08.15.11

MInd & Kingdom

As long as I can keep my mind
I can fashion my own, private kingdom
And rule it as a benevolent monarch.
08.14.11

Thin & Thick

Beauty becomes blurred
Behind the veil of years;
It is most visible in youth
When the skin is thick
And the veil is thin,
And least visible in age
When the skin is thin
And the veil is thick.
08.13.11

Silence & Speach

Even when there’s nothing to say
Or even when nothing needs to be said
People still speak because silence is awkward
While speaking without saying anything is comforting.
08.12.11

Sex & Health

The sick are not sexy
And the sexy are not sick;
For sex appeal is contingent upon health
As is procreation and survival of all species.
08.11.11

Sovereign & Size

A greater sovereign
Has less joy than a lesser sovereign
Who has less joy than the tiniest sovereign,
The one who is head of his own family or small business.
08.10.11

Public & Human Nature

Whoever deals with the public
Ends up with a low opinion
Of human nature.
08.09.11

Truths & Offense

Many of life’s universal truths
Offend humanity with their nudity
And without proper vestments
Are barred from society.
08.08.11

Insults & Slavery

To allow one’s self to become insulted
Is to allow one’s soul to become conquered
Is to allow others to invade one’s mind
Is to surrender one’s independence
Is to submit one’s free intellect
To sudden mental slavery.
08.07.11

Works & Impact

We are our works;
Nothing else lasts
Or has lasting impact.
08.06.11

Convince & Overpower

Whoever convinces me
Overpowers me
If that takes all my doubts away.
08.05.11

Knowns & Unknowns

Everything we think we know
Is in many ways, temporary
To be supplanted later on
By what we do not yet know.
08.04.11

Identity & Place

We are what we believe we are—
If our genes sprout in Christian America
We believe we are Christian Americans
And if they sprout in Muslim Arabia
We believe we are Muslim Arabs.
On the other hand
Our dear cats and dogs
Do not derive their identities
From wherever their genes sprout;
They believe they are just cats and dogs
Regardless of where they happen to grow up
And they do get along with each other
Shamefully better than we do.
08.03.11

Emotionalism & Credibility

Emotionalism
Cancels credibility.
08.02.11

Certainty & Opium

If one’s mind is so certain about an idea
That it allows not a measure of doubt
Then one’s mind has been narcotized
By the sweet opium of certainty.
08.01.11

Love & Misfortune

To love the good in others is easy
But that’s not what love is about;
To understand the bad in others
As the inevitable consequence
Of life’s pernicious coincidences
And to respond with compassion
To their dealt misfortunes
Is the epitome of humane love.
07.31.11

Death & Democracy

Of the many types of death
The most insidious and pernicious
Is the death by democracy.
07.30.11

Fear & Children

Fear of children is overwhelming
When parents become elderly
And children become covetous.
07.29.11

Courage & Fear

Courage is not about fighting others
It’s about fighting the fears within us.
07.28.11

Hunger & Virtue

Craving and virtue sit on opposite poles of the brain;
The more we crave, the less virtuous we become
The less we crave, the more virtuous we can be
For hunger is the archenemy of virtue
Satiety, its friend
And starvation, its deadliest poison.
07.27.11

External & Internal

On the highways
Two faces travel together
The faces of the cars and those of their drivers;
Throughout life
Two faces travel together
The faces we wear and the faces we are;
In both situations, the external faces
Have little to do with the internal ones.
07.26.11

Highways & Courtesy

On the highways
Courtesy is abandoned
And individual speeds are maintained
To the peril of other motorists.
07.25.11

Anger & Generalization

Anger
Is the shortest way
To nasty generalizations.
07.24.11

Peace & Caring

Peace comes when we can wear
A different stocking on each foot
And neither notice nor care.
07.23.11

Control & Irrationality

It’s easy to be in control
When one is calm & rational;
Most out-of-control actions
Are committed when we’re
Angry or temporarily irrational.
07.22.11

Projection & Influence

We are projectors;
The wider and farther
We socially project our lights
The more we shine and influence.
07.21.11

Action & Reaction

Every action
Is but a reaction;
Everything we feel and think
How we dress and behave
Everything we say or do
Are all but reactions
To the life we’re in.
07.20.10

Tiers & Intellect

The tiers of human intellect
Rise with their scrutiny of evidence;
Those who believe what they hear or read
Without taking time to investigate the evidence
Sit lower than those who investigate before believing;
And those who dare evolve beliefs based on newer evidence
Sit isolated in the highest realms and don’t cheer with the masses.
07.19.11

Truth & Feuds

Truth smirks
When factions feud.
07.18.11

Delusions & Reality

Delusional minds cannot know
Nor can they ever be shown
That they’re delusional;
The deeper the delusion
The fiercer it defies reality.
07.17.11

Reason and Irrationality

It is not possible to reason
With an irrational mind;
Irrational minds use good logic
To justify their irrationality
And reject good reason
Which exposes their irrationality.
07.16.11

Forces & Us

The four forces that weave
Our time-space cocoons
For us as individuals and groups
And constantly reshape our world
Are religion and ideology
Science and technology
Resources and demography
Climate and natural forces.
07.15.11

Conflict & Compormise

Whenever conflict polarizes people
Truth lies in between their feuding beliefs
But neither faction is capable of viewing that reality
Which is discernible only through mediation and compromise
Often last resorts utilized after mutual exhaustion.
07.14.11

Charlatans & Humanity

Charlatans are of two types, corrupt and delusional;
The corrupt pretend that what they do is right
While the delusional believe that it is right
And in between these two extremes
Reclines deceitful humanity.
07.13.11

Laws & Freedom

All laws, rules, commandments, and traditions
Put limitations on personal freedoms;
Total, uninhibited freedom
Is primordial anarchy.
07.12.11

Humans & Gullibility

Human race gullibility
Provides the fertile soil for—
Rhetoric, advertising, ideologies,
Charlatanism, healing and health beliefs,
Political views, religious feuds, nationalism
And all kinds of sales and marketing schemes.
07.11.11

Fortunes & Pyramids

Those with fortunes
Build pyramids…
07.10.11

Corruption & Storm

Corruption, is like air
Pervasive, tacit, everywhere
But, every now and then, a storm
Reveals its devastating effects.
07.09.11

Victory & Hangover

Victory is intoxicating
Then comes the hangover.
07.08.11

Life & Stages

Birth, rise, demise, and death
Are the four stages of life
And all four are modifiable
Depending on circumstances.
07.07.11

Law & Lawlessness

An un-enforced law
Invites lawlessness.
07.06.11

Spirituality & Materialism

To those who dwell in the houses of spirit
Having less is more;
To those who dwell in the palaces of gold
Having more is less;
Unlike spiritualism, materialism is insatiable.
07.05.11

Cheerfulness & Beauty

Nothing is more attractive than cheerfulness;
To retain cheerfulness in the face of adversity
And to make cheerfulness one’s primary persona
Is the most irresistible kind of beauty.
07.04.11

Ideas & Veracity

The love of an idea
Leads one to invest
Great time and effort
In working towards that idea,
Which imparts great significance to it
Regardless, unfortunately, of its veracity.
07.03.11

Years & Thieves

The years are thieves
Benevolent at first
Ruthless at last;
They give us all
Then take it all away.
07.02.11

Age & Aging

Age advances quickly for the old, slowly for the young;
That is why the old can hardly believe their advancing ages
While the young can hardly believe that they will ever get old.
07.01.11

Wealth & Nobility

While one’s wealth is measured with money
How it was accumulated marks one’s honesty
How readily it is spent reveals one’s generosity
And what it is spent on defines one’s nobility.
06.30.11

Worth & Joy

Those most successful envy those who are most joyful
And those who are most elaborate and complex
Envy those who have attained simplicity
For a life’s worth is measured with joy
Joy imparted and joy received.
06.29.11

Coincidence & Worship

The history of life in its entirety
And the entire life of every living thing
Are complex series of seeming coincidences
Which must occur in exacting, specific, sequences
Otherwise, life as we know it, would neither exist nor go on.
It is this mysterious order that orchestrates the universe
This harmonic, incomprehensible, miracle we call nature
That awes us and summons our souls to worship.
06.28.11

Myths & Explanations

Humanity’s desperate need to explain the unexplainable
Is humanity’s womb that gives birth to its myths;
Indeed, myths are humanity’s ancient children
To which we cling in spite of science
And all its modern explanations.
06.27.11

Words & Thoughts

Our words unlock unconscious thoughts held hostage in our
brains
For when un-verbalized, these thoughts remain unintelligible
A muddle of blurred, un-expressed, un-formulated mirages.
With language we think and are able to excavate our dormant
thoughts;
Begin a conversation and you’ll discover some inner thoughts
Thoughts that had lain dormant inside your brain for years
Thoughts that surprise and help you understand yourself.
Begin to write and your thoughts will flow like a brook;
They will organize themselves into artful expressions
They will tell you stories you’ve never heard before
And you will find out what your mind is like
And who you are and how you were constituted.
06.26.11

Sex & Lovmaking

The act of sex is natural
And everyone who wishes to
If healthy and young, can do it.
But making love is a musical production
An art form only practiced by lovers
For it takes all the passions of love
To choreograph the exotic dances
Necessary for the lovemaking
And for sustaining the duet
Long after the act ends.
06.25.11

Importance & Nature

If the whole world were to think that you are important
And if you were to believe that you are important
Would that make you important?
Look at us in relationship to our cosmos;
Think how microscopic and ephemeral we are
Think of our frail lives upon our miniscule planet
And remember that our vast, unconcerned universe
Would not even notice if our galaxy, our entire Milky Way
Were to be swallowed by a cosmic black hole and disappear
And then tell Mother Nature how important you think you are.
06.24.11

Life & Death

Life without death
(The grand motivator)
Would not be worth living;
For if birth were to continue
Unchecked by death
Life would become
Eternal punishment.

Let us be grateful to death
For it makes rich our lives
With a sense of urgency
With heated emotions
With achievements
With appreciation
With excitement
With traditions
With mystery
With values
With art
With age
With beliefs
With creativity
With imagination
With what’s noble and elevated
With everything that tethers past to future.

If life were ageless and infinite
There would be no ripening
Time would have no worth
And we would all be prisoners
Swarming, competing, and loveless
Upon a sullied ball that was once called Earth.
06.23.11

Speaking & Breathing

The urge to speak
Can become stronger
Than the urge to breathe;
For it’s easier, at certain times
To have one hold back one’s breath
Than to have one hold back ones words.
06.21.11

History & Coincidence

Whenever one thinks
That one is making history
One thinks like a gullible fool.
No one alone ever makes history;
Only coincidence makes historic figures.
06.20.11

Youth & Wisdom

Without youth
Life would not explode
Spring would never dare
And wisdom would recline, content
Rocking in her chair.
06.19.11

Art & Nationality

Art knows no boarders;
Once it is born, it belongs to everybody
It’s the artist who gets saddled with a nationality
Thus Shakespeare is English but his plays are universal
And Beethoven is German but his music delights all hearts.
06.18.11

Love & Terrorism

It’s easy to love humanity
When all is going well
It’s hard when one is in hell,
That place where the absence of love
Provides fertile soil for terrorism.
06.17.11

Marriage & Love

Marriage is a natural reaction
When love is the catalyst;
Whenever the catalyst is gone
The reaction slows down
And is often abandoned.
06.16.11

Compassion & Gratitude

Compassion begins with the gratitude that stifles blame
The gratitude for having not suffered as much as others
And for having not been pre-wired and pre-programmed
As badly as others.
Wherever we begin and whoever we become
Has more to do with forces from within and without
Forces we have been endowed with or have received
Forces out of our reach and out of our control
For all of us are but the children of coincidence.
06.15.11

Success & Mothers

Success in our minds
Is measured with superlatives
The most popular, the best seller
The possessors of the greatest quantities
The richest, the strongest, the highest paid
The number one, the winner, the Miss or Mr. world;
But no one ever refers to the mothers as successful
The mothers who bore and shaped those successful children
Nor one ever refers to the hard-working poor as successful
Nor to the ordinary folks who are happy & content with life
Nor to the teachers of humanity like Socrates and Christ.
06.14.11

Persecutor & Persecuted

When the persecuted
Become the persecutors
They excel in wielding cruelty
And violating the human rights
Of those who oppose them.
06.13.11

Good & Day

What makes a good day?
Nothing external to one’s self,
Nothing good or bad that happens;
What makes a good day, really good
Is merely that one feels good about the day.
6.12.11

Nature & Homo sapiens

Nature is cruel but indiscriminate and haphazard
Homo sapiens are cruel, calculating, and deliberate.
06.11.11

Passion & Reaction

Every passionate action is but a reaction
Against undesirable conditions
In favor of desirable ones.
06.10.11

Trust & Betrayal

If I trust everyone
I will be betrayed by a few
But if I trust no one
I will betray everybody.
06.09.11

Morals & Ethics

When it is considered moral
To sacrifice ethics for national interests
Nations teach citizens that power is above ethics
And that’s when nations begin their inevitable decline.
06.08.11

Eagerness & Reward

Eagerness
Is directly proportional
To reward.
06.07.11

Crooks & Laws

Crooks are the reason
We have crooked laws
Which punish the innocent.
06.06.11

Arms & Peace

In the arms race
Most barriers are surmountable;
In the race for peace
Most barriers are insurmountable.
06.05.11

Power & Decay

Military power ultimately begets social decay;
What do we gain by conquering others
If we’re going to be conquered by our ills?
06.04.11

Size & Quality

The ideal size
Which promotes the highest quality
Is seldom the biggest size;
Yet still we hold growth
As the main measure of success.
06.03.11

Cars & Personalities

On the highways
Where the personality of the driver
Is perceived through the physiognomy of the vehicle
Cars seem to maintain a personal speed
Which they decline to alter
For another car’s sake.
06.02.11

Peace & Excitement

The reason peace never lasts
Is because it lacks excitement
And youth find it boring.
06.01.11

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

Gut & Veracity

Gut feelings
Our intuitive guides
Become most dangerous
When we refuse to examine their veracity.
04.30.11

Argument & Eloquence

The sheer force of a dominant personality
Can make an implausible argument seem plausible
With the seductive eloquence of its oratorical speech.
But put the same argument into writing
And it will lose its enthralling charm
Much like the words of a song
Without their music.
04.29.11

Audiences & Pretense

The only speakers who don’t pretend
When they stand before their audiences
Are soothsayers who neither seek approval nor applause.
04.28.11

Greatness & History

History ultimately laughs
At everything and everyone
Whose ‘greatness’ does not help
All of humankind without discrimination.
04.27.11

Science & Art

Emotion
Snuffs out science
And inflames art.
04.26.11

Ignorance & Consequences

Ignorance is deadly;
Perceptions, opinions, choices, decisions, and actions
Are so distorted by ignorance to make them seem rational
In spite of contrary evidence and disastrous consequences.
04.25.11

Loud & Crowd

Every crowd
Has someone loud
Who is never heard.
04.24.11

Need & Pretense

We are most obsequious
When in need.
04.23.11

Attributes & Effeteness

Freedom, wealth, and security
Are the three coveted attributes
That ultimately defeat societies
By rendering them Effete.
04.22.11

Speed & Quality

The faster is a society
The more it emphasizes quantity
And the less it recognizes quality.
04.21.11

Freedom & Dictatorships

When a people have been corrupted by too much freedom
It takes firm internal dictatorships to enforce reforms.
04.20.11

Bizarre & Devout

The most bizarre beliefs
Attract the most devout believers.
04.19.11

Mind & Truth

No one can help
What occupies one’s mind
Nor can anyone change what one truly is.
04.18.11

Governments & Laws

A bad government can ruin a good people
Just as a bad law can encourage the wrongdoers
And discourage the noble and the good elements in society.
04.17.11

Beliefs & Conditions

For a belief to spread and prosper
It must meet four conditions:
First, it must infuse life with meaning
Second, it must not be refutable by evidence
Third, it must temper and glorify the hardships of living
Fourth, it must promise hope beyond this life and unto eternity.
04.16.11

The Ten Secular Commandments

1. Learn to tolerate mediocrity
2. Give equal respect to the elite and simple
3. Learn to think for yourself
4. Find your own guilt in your hate
5. Learn to live with injustice
6. Accept age and decay
7. Have compassion for all, especially those you dislike
8. Spend all your money by the time you die
9. Look for God in your own heart
10. Let ethics define your morals.
04.15.11

Insanity & Sanity

Insanity is universal
We all have been insane
With anger, hunger, love, hate, passion, youth, power
And only realized it after we had returned to sanity;
No one is sane at all times
And no one is insane at all times
The most rational among us have insane moments
And the most insane among us has some lucid moments;
Mental instability is one of the defining features of humanity.
04.14.11

Freedom & Abuse

The destiny of freedom
Is to commit slow suicide
Through cumulative abuse.
04.13.11

Socialism & Capitalism

Socialism deflates with time and then implodes;
Capitalism inflates with time and then explodes.
04.12.11

Confusion & Reality

Let’s not confuse
Faith with insight
Success with worth
Morality with ethics
Popularity with truth
Fame with substance
Beauty with goodness
Leadership with wisdom
Expertise with knowledge
Power with farsightedness
Education with enlightenment
Religion with spirituality
And what we appear to be
With what we really are.
04.10.11

Jails & Skies

No matter where we think we live
Or what addresses we give
All of us, at all times,
Live within our minds
Which can be jails or skies.
04.09.11

Generalization & Imagination

To generalize
Is to advertise
One’s restricted vision
And limited imagination.
04.08.11

Dreams & Spirit

Selling dreams
Has always been
The most lucrative enterprise
In humanity’s socio-spiritual history.
04.07.11

Withholding & Lying

Withholding the truth is the darker side of lying
Yet all our institutions, secular and religious
Withhold truths from their peoples
Without ever blushing.
04.06.11

Answers & Myths

We demand answers
To be able face uncertainty
But in our yearning for certainty
We ignore truth and favor myths
Because they appease us with explanations.
04.05.11

Adults & Children

Adults are grownup children
If one enables their irrational pouts
They’ll learn to use them more
But if one ignores them
They’ll use them less.
04.04.11

Age & Interest

As we age
Unless we maintain some creative output
We become less and less interesting
To more and more people.
04.03.11

Education & Enlightenment

An education
That does not lead to enlightenment
Levels its peaks on the restful platitudes of inculcation
The dwelling place of most teachers, schools, & universities;
The truly enlightened
Are those self-educated few
The ones who pursued the truth
At the expense of great personal endeavor
And wide spread societal indignation and humiliation.
04.02.11

Corrupt & Wise

Corruption
Is far more characteristic
Of human nature than wisdom
Consequently, our species’ name
Should be reformed, for truth’s sake
From that of wise man, Homo sapiens
To that of corrupt man, Homo corruptus
04.01.11

Life & Bribe

Life is our most irresistible bribe
The offer that we cannot ever refuse
The source of our most ugly justifications.
03.31.11

Fat & Back

The worst health trap is fat
From that, only a few track back.
03.3011

Seeds & Identities

Since we are but seeds
And when and where ever we are sowed
Determines our nationalities, religions, cultures,
Collective personalities, biases, beliefs, and dogmas
Why do we take our programed identities so seriously
And separate into warring factions?
03.29.11

Killing & Worth

If you have to kill to prove your worth
Then you are, indeed, worthless.
03.28.11

Law & Reason

The law’s romantic egalitarianism
Which makes no allowances
For the mentally disturbed and insufficient
Blatantly adjudicates as if we were rational being.
03.27.11

Media & Us

The media
Being meretricious
Ensnare us all into their web
Which should reveal to us
How vulnerable we are.
03.26.11

Purity & Corruption

Corruption endures—purity is ephemeral;
Everything noble upon this planet
Is ultimately corrupted
By human nature.
03.26.11

Love & Truth

Love is toppled by unpleasant truths;
Dare state the facts about a loved one
And watch what happens.
03.24.11

Fools & Prophets

Only fools and prophets
Dare speak the truth.
03.23.11

Metaphysics & Mortality

The exclusive awareness and fear of mortality
Which are not shared by any other animal species
Have engendered the metaphysical dimensions of humanity.
03.22.11

Space & Significance

We occupy such a minuscule space
In our infinite, spreading universe
That we could not possibly feel
That we Amount to much
Were it not for our egos.
03.21.11

Humanity & Dogma

Humanity, throughout its history
Has resisted enlightenment
In favor of dogma.
03.20.11

Programs & Age

It is neither possible to escape
The brain’s youthful programs while young
Nor its geriatric programs while old.
03.19.11

Speach & Disrobing

Once one speaks, one disrobes
And exposes his mind to all.
03.18.11

Waste & Mind

Waste not a breath on one
Who has already made up his mind.
03.17.11

Excellence & Nature

Everything excellent
Is ultimately tainted
By human nature.
03.16.11

Eagerness & Subterfuge

Our eagerness
Betrays our subterfuge.
03.15.11

Governments & Age

Governments, like people, age
Then, given enough time, they become demented.
03.14.10

Tolerance & Fanaticism

The most dangerous attribute of fanatic believers
Is their intolerance of alternate or opposing believers
For whom they have evolved a set of derogatory terms;
We can therefore assess our degrees of fanaticism
By measuring the magnitudes of our intolerance.
03.13.11

Self & Others

We are the most delusional
When we compare and contrast ourselves
To those others that we approve and disapprove of.
03.12.11

Age & Speed

One of the attributes of age
Is an inexorable decline in motion
In the speed and accuracy of movements;
In youth, we find it hard to sit still
In age, with pleasure we repose.
03.11.11

Nurture & Neglect

Love is a garden
When nurtured
Yields flowers
When neglected
Grows weeds.
03.10.11

Reality & Humanity

Everything that dilutes reality
Attracts humanity.
03.09.11

Awe & Submission

Beware of awe
It leads to submission.
03.08.10

Gossip & Awareness

Gossipers delight
At others’ misdeeds
While totally unaware
That their own misdeeds
If they were ever found out
Would provoke equally juicy gossip.
03.07.11

Simplicity & Truth

We always simplify
What we don’t understand
With commonsense explanations
That we come to believe in
Although they’re not true.
03.06.11

Write & Fight

Those who write
Do not fight.
03.05.11

Beauty & Age

With age
Beauty migrates
From without to within.
03.04.11

Favors & Insults

It is far easier
To forget a favor
Than to forget an insult
And much easier
To discharge gratitude
Than to discharge anger.
03.03.11

Popularity & Power

Let us not confuse
Popularity with quality
And power with virtue.
03.02.11

Hunger & Virtue

Dear Lord,
Do not let me go too hungry for too long
Lest I should become vulnerable and succumb.
03.01.11

Judgment & Humanity

Judgment is mine said the Lord
That’s why I didn’t give any to humanity.
02.28.11

LImits & Quality

To have the foresight to limit growth
And the insight to limit success
In favor of life’s quality
Is a unique attribute
Of the reflective wise.
02.27.11

Worship & Pretense

Worshiping with the faithful
Are faithless conformists
And devout pretenders.
02.26.11

Intellectual & Magical

Labor intensive intellectual endeavors
Are unpopular among Homo sapiens
Who favor magical thinking
To reality testing.
02.25.10

Affluence & Crash

Affluence, the daughter of power and wealth
Is the slippery slope of excess
That ends in a crash.
02.24.11

Entice & Incite

To entice the masses, offer them delusions;
To incite their fury, take their delusions away.
02.23.11

Anachronism & Death

Orderly death amplifies and enriches life
Whereas disorderly death diminishes and impoverishes it;
Parents who die before their children
Bring meaning and dignity to their children’s lives
Whereas children who die before their parents
Bring tragedy and misfortune to their parents’ lives;
When the younger die before the older
They impart uncertainty and doubt to the living;
Anachronistic death is frightening.
02.22.11

Desire & Age

When I was young with more desires
More things were irresistible;
Now that I am old with less desires
More things are resistible;
It’s not with virtue but with age
That we resist temptations.
02.21.11

Ethics & Law

Our enlightened conscience
The source of our ethics and morality
Must be held to higher standards than the law.
What is legal is not always ethical
And what is ethical is not always legal;
The honorable few favor their conscience
When conflicts arise between ethics and the law.
02.20.11

Ethics & Sides

In most conflicts
It is unethical to favor
One side over the other
Because all sides have issues
They ought to be ashamed of;
It is far better to favor
Ethical principles
Over sides.
02.19.11

Inculcation & Ideologies

The best means to propagate an ideology
Is to inculcate with it those born to it
Till they hold it indisputably sacred
So that their absolute loyalty
Supplants their reason.
02.18.11

Science & Soul

The more advanced technologically
The more neglectful spiritually
For such is the frail balance
Between science and soul.
02.17.11

Pollution & Enlightenment

No one can enlighten a mind
Polluted with fanatic beliefs.
02.16.11

Constitution & Consequences

Constitution precedes passions
Passions precede desires
Desires precede actions
And actions precede consequences.
02.15.11

Science & Belief

It seems that humankind
Has an aversion to scientific evidence
That challenges its natural belief systems.
02.14.11

Hubris & Learning

It all comes from hubris—
Disliking our enemies means
That we are better than they are
And that we can learn nothing good
From those who are lesser than we are.
Acting like brutes, we ultimately resort
To solving our problems with force
Instead of ripening with humility
By learning from our enemies.
Only the humble learn.
02.13.11

Killing & Contagion

Killing is contagious;
The greater the numbers
And the farther the distances
The easier it gets.
02.11.12

Thoughts & Seriousness

Since thoughts are ephemeral
And change with times and places
It would be wiser not to take them seriously
Until we have examined them critically.

Ants & Homo sapiens

Ants have
Successfully evolved
As individually stupid
But collectively smart.
Unsuccessfully, however
Homo sapiens have evolved
In the opposite direction.
02.10.11

Rational & Irrational

The most dangerous thing
About being irrational
Is that one truly thinks
That one is being rational
While the rest of world is not.
02.09.11

Hope & Courage

Facing death with hope
Is exhilarating
Facing it only with courage
Is frightening.
02.08.10

Reckless & Righteous

Those among us
Who were the most reckless in youth
Seem to have become the most righteous with age.
02.07.11

Belief & Debate

Unexamined beliefs are frequent causes of conflict
Because they close the minds to open debate;
Mistaking the arguments of belief
For arguments of the intellect
Is responsible for much human misery.
02.06.11

Meaning & Life

If one does not discover
A personal meaning for one’s life
Then one’s culture, time, and place
Will inculcate one’s unsuspecting soul
With their orthodox, atavistic meanings.
02.05.10

Feedings & Death

Life feeds upon the living and the dead
Whereas death only feeds upon the living.
02.04.11

Worship & Awe

Worship is how we react to awe:
When awed by love
We worship with yearning adoration
When by gratitude, with thankful praise
When by majesty, with supplicating wonder
When by beauty, with humbling enthrallment
When by power, with obsequious flattery.
02.03.11

Bureaucracy & Efficiency

Bureaucracies
Sacrifice efficiency for the sake of control
And are more concerned with what's legal
Than with what's ethical.
02.02.11

Consistancy & Society

As individuals
We are incapable of long-term consistencies
Because time changes our minds and behaviors;
Consistency is a societal phenomenon
Forged under social pressures.
02.01.11

Desire & Age

In youth we desire
In age we desire to desire.
01.31.11

Religious & Spiritual

One can chose to be either religious or spiritual—
The religious vision insists on its given beliefs
And accepts no arguments against its truths;
The spiritual vision forges its own beliefs
Which change as the mind grows wiser
And the conscience, nobler.
01.30.11

Competence & Tests

Good medicine is cheap
Compared to bad medicine,
Which is horrifyingly expensive;
The competence of physicians
Is inversely proportional
To the number of tests ordered
Before correct decisions are made.

Beliefs & Peace

As long as believers
Refuse to revise their beliefs
Humanity has no hope for peace.
01.28.10

Treatment & Relaity

When there is no treatment
We seek all kinds of treatments
With myriad irrational justifications
Rather than accept and capitulate
To intransigent realities of fate.
01.27.11

Accept & Pretend

We are most comfortable
With those who accept us as we are
And are most uncomfortable
With those who cause us to pretend.
01.26.11

Without & Within

If one’s estimable worth must come from without
Then one cannot have sufficient worth within.
01.25.11

Seals & Disfigures

A good death
Seals a good life
And a bad death
Disfigures it.
01.24.11

Enjoyment & Pain

What ever we enjoy once
We want to enjoy again and again
Until the excess of enjoyment is shrouded by pain.
01.23.10

Wisdom & Hubris

I trust those
Who know when they don’t know
And mistrust those
Who don’t know when they don’t know
For there’s more wisdom in not knowing
And more hubris in knowing.
01.22.10

Alcohol & Punishment

Lucky are the ones
Who do not or cannot drink
For they will not have to endure
The myriad punishments of alcohol.
01.21.10

Death & Way

As long as there is death
There’s a way out.
01.20.10

Cyclic & Noise

We are cyclic beings
We swing back and forth like bells
But only make noise at impact.
01.19.11

Importance & Fame

Populations
Don’t recognize importance
Unless what’s important becomes famous.
01.18.11

Resolves & Light

Morning resolves
Swoon in the afternoon
Die in the lap of darkness
And then resurrect at daybreak.
01.17.10

Living & Dying

As soon as we begin living
We also start dying
For dying is but a living act
That has everything to do with life
And nothing to do with death.
01.16.10

Power & 'Trust

Nothing powerful
Can ever be trusted
Yet we naively believe
That powerful nations
Are trustworthy.
01.15.10

Hope & Reality

Hope is good
But false hope is bad
Because it bribes the minds
And detracts them from facing reality.
01.14.10

Complexity & Frailty

Our brains,
The most elaborate organs in the cosmos,
Are also, because of to their infinite complexity,
The most vulnerable to distortions and dysfunctions
Rendering mental & emotional disorders the commonest
And also the least acknowledged frailties of humanity.
01.13.11

Tragedies & Victories

Tragedies are safer than victories;
With tragedies we unite, mature, and develop
With victories we become effete, excessive, and fragmented.
01.12.11

Beliefs & Viruses

Beliefs are nervous system viruses;
Once they invade the brain
They colonize it for life.
01.11.11

Forefathers & Obsolete

Much of what we learn from our forefathers
Becomes obsolete during our lifetimes
If we can learn to think for ourselves.
01.10.10

Much & Cost

The price of having too much
Is too costly for the spirit.
01.09.10

Corruption & Age

Corruption is inevitable
And grows steadily
As systems age.
01.08.10

Open & Closed

A made-up mind
Is a closed mind.
01.07.11

Acceptance & Wisdom

To accept
The inescapable
Is wiser than anger
And braver than rage.
01.06.10

Death & Growth

Natural death
Is necessary for natural life
And should not be resisted;
It clears away the old shrubs
And paves the way for new growths.
01.05.10

Joy & Simplicity

There is greater joy in the simple
Than there is in the elaborate
But only a few know that.
01.04.10

Counter-natural & Evolution

Unlike the rest of the animals on planet earth
The fact that we, alone, need to be governed
Tells us how counter-natural we have evolved.
01.03.11

Superiority & Fortune

If you ever think
That you’re superior
To the less fortunate others
Shed your blind hubris and think;
Exchange genes, habitat, and nurture
With those you’ve deemed inferior
And you’d soon discover that
We’re naught but the fruits
Of our chance moments
In time and space.
01.02.11

Violence & Enlightenment

Violence is primitive
Enlightenment is meek;
Those who resort to violence
Especially, purported self defense
Be they individuals, groups, or nations
Are intellectually and spiritually bankrupt.
01.01.11