Prosperity & Dishonesty

Whoever profits through dishonesty
Loses big in life
And whoever loses through honesty
Prospers in life;
The immediate win is the proverbial trap
Of the impatient minds
And all dishonest minds are impatient.
01.01.15

Time & Perception

New years
Soon to become old
Bring in new things
Soon to become old
But the only thing
That is ever-present
Which defines time
Is our perception.
12.31.14

Complexity & Dysfunction

The more complex a bodily organ is
The more complicated and frequent are its dysfunctions;
The brain is our human body's most complex organ
Its dysfunctions, frequent and consequential
Are denied, marginalized, and ignored
At an enormous cost to society.
12.30.14

Laws & Enlightenment

History has revealed to us 
That as long as human nature governs
Without the censorship of inner enlightenment
Corruption cannot be conquered in spite of strict laws;
The enlightened don’t require supervision to obey the law
The unenlightened disobey regardless of consequences
Only enlightenment can save humanity from itself.
12.29.14

Reason & Season

When traditions turn economical
We pay good money for the season
And lip service for the reason.
12.28.14

Appearance & Substance

When the snow
Paints the world white
And everything seems bright
In spite of the biting, bitter cold
It enhances our instinctive notion
That appearance supplants substance.
12.27.14

Family & Love

Family love is a well-tended garden;
It supports the most beautiful plants
And grows the most wholesome fruits.
12.26.14

Re-death & Rebirth

Every thing alive
Came from dead matter;
Every life is a resurrection;
Every death, a recyclement;
All rebirth and re-death
Come in one cycle.
12.25.14

Consciousness & Thoughts

We are our consciousness
Our consciousness is our thoughts
And our thoughts are the winds of our minds
Which blow and storm out of our control;
We are all prisoners of our thoughts
Until we learn to harness them
To our mental sails.
12.24.14

Truth & Falsehood

Truth should never be afraid of falsehood;
Instead, falsehood should be afraid of truth
And if truth does not cower, it always prevails.
It is our duty to fight the indignity of falsehood
Lest it should overcome the truths we stand for.
12.23.14

Love & Life

Love is peaceful
Hate is dangerous
Cheating is harmful
Aggression is self-destructive
And sloth is detrimental;
Our best chance
At a good life
Is to cling
To love.
12.22.14

Artfullness & Cruelty

The primitive compete in cruelty
And the enlightened, in art;
Every thing cruel is primitive
And every thing artful is civilized;
One can assess a people's enlightenment
By hefting their artfulness against their cruelty.
12.20.14

Best & Only

When we insist
That no one can best us
Or that we are the only truth
What we are essentially doing
Is shunning enlightenment.
12.19.14

Reason & Emotion

When reason
Is subdued by emotion
Conflicts flourish;
When emotion
Is subdued by reason
Conflicts resolve.
12.18.14

Age & Loss

As we prosper and age
Losing friends and loved ones
Reminds us of how ephemeral we are;
We should not be surprised by loss
Because everything we’ve gained
We will ultimately lose.
12.17.14

Concern & Enlightenment

Concern for others is of five types:
Concern for those we love
Concern for those we like
Concern for those we know
Concern for those we don’t know
And concern for those we dislike or hate;
The lowest levels of enlightenment require
That we have concern for those we love or like or know
And the highest levels require that we have concern
For those we don’t know or dislike or hate.
12.16.14

Ignorance & Corruption

Corruption and ignorance are formidable foes;
They are epidemic among the unenlightened
And resist eradication by law enforcement;
Their only true remedy is enlightenment
Which is nearly impossible to achieve
When minds are resistant.
12.15.14

Love & Worth

We should never take love for granted;
To recognize its worth only after losing it
Is to squander spirit and live unaware.
12.14.14

Traditions & Beliefs

Traditions and beliefs
Frame the identity of a society
Format its individuals’ communal personalities
And program its annual festivities;
Without traditions and beliefs
Societies disintegrate.
12.13.14

Love & Fear

Behind every love
Lurks a seed of fear,
The fear of loss;
We must feed love
And starve fear
Lest it spoil
Love’s sublimity.
12.12.14

Miracles & Ordinary

Miracles turn ordinary
When they occur often;
We fly, go into space
Sequence genomes
Transplant organs
Fission atoms
Etc. and yet
Two hundred years earlier
All of these and more
Would have been
Miracles.
12.11.14

Music & Justice

The reason music
Touches our souls
Is because it cares not
Who is enjoying it;
It sings and is fair
To everyone.
12.10.14

Worry & Outcome

Worry is a fierce, destructive force
Which rarely improves outcomes;
Pursuing worthwhile ends
Is a wiser way to live.
12.09.14

Pleasure & Joy

Thrills age
Pleasures end
Happiness is ephemeral
But joy lives on inside our souls
As long as we nurture it with love.
12.08.14

Love & Hate

Love is inescapable
It is the nectar of spirit
Which is the nourisher of life;
Those who cannot find love
Fill their spiritual vacuum
With the love of hate.
12.07.14

LIving & Minds

If we think better, we will live better
For wherever we may be, and
Whatever the conditions
We live in our minds.
12.06.14

Time & LIstening

One should not begin
A conversation with a lonely soul
If one does not have the time
It takes to drain the abscess
The time it takes to listen.
12.05.14

Anger & Expression

We should not express our thoughts
Until after the anger storm passes;
Speaking while the storm rages
May provoke a heavier storm.
12.04.14

People & Goodness

If we do not try
To change who people are
We will understand them better;
If we try to change them, they will defeat us;
If we insist on believing that all people are good
We will set ourselves up to be taken advantage of.
12.03.14

Work & Art

Without the arts
Life is mundane work
With arts, it is sublime joy;
For a full life, both are necessary.
12.01.14

Defeat & Surrender

We are definitely defeated
Only when we lose our will to keep trying;
Defeat wins only when minds surrender.
12.01.14

Success & Predators

Anyone successful
Needs to become accomplished
In the art of self defense and be prepared
To defend success against the predation of failure;
As success renders us complacent
So failure foments predators
Of the successful.
11.30.14

Ignorance & Enlightenment

Ignorance is immortal and when deeply rooted
Becomes highly resistant to enlightenment;
Destructive, deadly, and indestructible
It endangers societies and nations
And the only way around it
Is to prevent it…
11.29.14

Expense & Enlightenment

Should we ever consider
Enlightenment expensive
We’ll change our minds
When we recalculate
The societal costs
Of ignorance.
11.28.14

Attitude & Pain

An attitude of gratitude
Dilutes the discontent and pain
Inflicted by distemper and disdain.
11.27.14

Anger & Destruction

Anger
Untempered by wisdom
Rages, and like a wild fire
Destroys indiscriminately
Everything in its path.
11.26.14

Laughter & Details

Laughter
Is the blithe abandon
Of life’s infinite details
That mire us in shallows;
To rise above life’s minutia
Is to laugh at frowns
That diminish life.
11.25.14

Love & Joy

Without feelings
We would be plants;
The king of feelings is love
And the queen of feelings is joy;
Between the open arms of love and joy
Life prospers and climbs to its zenith;
Between the fangs of anger and hate
It bites itself and bleeds to death.
11.24.14

Age & Life

The end of infancy is age
The end of youth is age
The end of adulthood is age
The end of old-age is age
But age never ends;
It continues after death
And comes back as new life.
11.23.14

White & Black

A little bad
Can erase a lot of good
But a little good
Cannot erase a lot of bad;
It is easier to blacken white
And harder whiten black.
11.22.14

Personalities & Consequences

Our programmed personalities are four:
Charismatic, which enhance image
Neutral, which insure normalcy
Repulsive, which isolate
Deadly, which punish.
11.21.14

Understanding & Distance

To understand
Individuals or peoples
We must live their lives;
The more distant we are
The less is our understanding.
11.21.14

Leadership & People

A leader is the spark, which lights the fuse
Nothing significant happens without leadership
Good leaders promote enlightenment and freedom
Bad leaders promote themselves and their supporters
And people are always at the mercy of their leaders.
11.19.14

Allowance & Surprise

One of the commonest blind spots
Which defeats our learning abilities
Is not making allowance for surprises;
We trust our routines and instincts
But are repeatedly taken aback
When we are ambushed
By the unexpected.
11.19.14

Gratitude & Humility

Gratitude
Grants us humility
If we can find it
Every moment
Of every day.
11.17.14

Places & Life

All of us think
That we live somewhere
In homes, towns, countries, etc.
But, in reality, we all live in only one place;
We live in our minds.
11.16.14

Love & Peace

If all humanity could be raised
To have one simple credo: to love
We would have peace on earth.
11.15.14

Judgement & Knowledge

We all pass judgements
On what we think we know
Only to discover later that
What we thought we knew
Was not or is no longer true.
11.14.14

Dark & Bright

The darkest alleys
And the brightest peaks
On earth and in heaven
Are in our minds.
11.13.14

Time & Wealth

Rich are those
Who spend time wisely;
Poor are those who waste time;
Happy are those who enjoy
Every sliver of time.
11.12.14

Enlightenment & Government

Human societies
When unenlightened
Will self destruct
When enlightened
Will progress
And when misgoverned
Will decay.
11.11.14

Dignity & Ridicule

To know when to bow out
And where next to go
Upholds dignity;
To cling to position and power
When one is faltering
Invites ridicule.
11.10.14

Quality & Time

Quality is long-suffering
It waits a long time
Often long after death
Before it is discovered.
11.09.14

Complicate & Simplify

To simplify is ingenious
To complicate is instinctive
To counter-complicate is courageous
To over-complicate is self-destructive.
11.08.14

Triangle & Harmony

The human triangle
Of instinct, intellect, and spirit
When it is lacking in harmony
Becomes self destructive.
11.07.14

Read & Retained

When a book sells
It does not mean it is read
And when it is read
It does not mean it is understood
And when it is understood
It does not mean it is retained;
Only what we retain from books
Remains with us to change our lives.
11.06.14

Time & Decline

When time and complacency
Erode honor, decency, and manners
Cultures flounder and decline.
11.05.14

Belief & Blindness

To have blind belief
Or blind confidence
Without skepticism
Without reflection
And without debate
Is most dangerous.
11.04.14

Betrayed & Chosen

When a younger friend dies
We feel betrayed for the loss
And happy for being spared;
But, when it’s our turn to die
We feel betrayed yet again
Instead of feeling happy
Because those we love
Have been spared.
11.03.14

Life & Vulnerability

When life tantalizes
Rendering us gullible
It takes many rounds
Before we can resist
Our vulnerabilities.
11.02.14

Love & Despair

When love turns sad
It still holds joy within its tears;
When there’s no love, there are no tears
And sadness turns to despair.
11.01.14

Great & Small

Every morning if we rise
Life should be a blithe surprise
Every night we go to sleep
We have one more day to keep
All we do, both great and small
Is important for us all.
10.31.14

Technology & Enlightenment

Advances in technology
Keep pace with the times;
Advances in enlightenment
Remain mired in human nature
Independent of time and technology.
10.30.14

Lying & Justifying

Before we can lie to others
We first must betray ourselves
By seducing our consciences
With lovely justifications.
10.29.14

Fatigue & Age

Fatigue, subjective and unmeasurable
Is the negative force that limits life
Stifles initiative and productivity
And renders aging acceptable;
Whereas energy is the fire of youth
Fatigue is the smoldering ash of old age.
10.28.14

Solution & Aggression

Whenever the solution
Is aggression
Everyone loses.
10.27.14

Love & Age

It’s easier to fall in love when young
And harder to fall in love when old;
We need to make use of our youth
To fall in love as often as we can
With all the blithe spirits
That enrich our souls.
10.26.14

Perfection & Excellance

To strive for perfection is virtuous
To claim to have achieved it is delusional
To demand it is cruel and irrational
To expect it is counter-natural
To abandon it is to abandon excellence;
Doing one’s best is as close to perfection
As any one can ever get.
10.25.14

Truth & Nature

In all of nature
There is only truth;
But in human nature
Truth and falsehood
Comfortably coexist.
10.24.14

Writing & Thinking

Writing is thinking;
We can talk without thinking
And we can think without thinking
But we cannot write without thinking.
10.23.14

Joy & God

To insist on joy
Is to insist on the best life;
When joyful, we are closest to God;
When joyless, we lose that divine spark
Which ever lights up the darkness of our souls.
10.22.14

Hunger & Vulnerability

Thirteen hungers can make us vulnerable:
Knowledge hunger from ignorance
Nutritional hunger from starvation
Sexual hunger from frustration
Financial hunger from poverty
Power hunger from weakness
Health hunger from illness
Life hunger from danger
Youth hunger from age
Faith hunger from fear
Social hunger from isolation
Beauty hunger from aesthetics
Respect hunger from humiliation
And emotional hunger from loneliness;
When most satisfied we are least vulnerable.
10.21.14

Work & Play

Taking time to play
Increases efficiency
Reduces work stress
Encourages friendships
And delays burnout;
To work is to produce
To play is to live.
10.20.14

Sex & Life

The confusion
That life is about sex
Becomes clearer as we transition
From youth to old age
And realize, to our surprise
That it is sex, which is about life
Rather than life, which is about sex.
10.19.14

Legal & Ethical

In bureaucratic societies
There are legal issues
That are not ethical
And ethical issues
That are not legal;
Such dichotomy corrupts
By teaching that what is legal
Is more important than what is ethical.
10.18.14

Laughter & Life

Those who laugh more, live longer
And those who laugh at themselves
Live longest.
10.17.14

Cycles & Life

In the cycles life
When up, we grow stronger
When down, we grow weaker
And we have little control
On when and why we cycle;
We must wait for strength
When we are weak
Then do our best
When strong.
10.16.14

Failure & Power

To know and accept
That one has lost a battle
Is to allow a new beginning
To apprehend new knowledge
To become empowered by failure
And to aspire toward a new success.
10.15.14

Anger & Ends

Anger can have five natural ends:
It can be fed and fueled to grow like wild fire
Consuming everything, both good and bad;
It can be discharged by venting or consulting;
It can be studied till deep understanding occurs
Followed by peace and freedom form hate;
It can be allowed time to die a natural death;
Or it can be used as positive creative energy
To further art or to propel historic actions.
10.14.14

Ultimate & Self

The ultimate enlightenment
Comes from enjoying simplicity;
The ultimate ignorance
Comes from enjoying aggression;
The ultimate peace
Comes form the joys of humility;
The ultimate worry
Comes from the lack of wisdom;
The ultimate corruption
Comes from a vacuous conscience;
And the ultimate fear
Comes from the lack of faith.
10.13.14

Injustice & Justice

In virtual affairs
Such as movies and novels
Justice is applauded and injustice decried;
In corporate and national affairs
Justice is marginalized
And injustice, belied.
10.12.14

Unhappiness & Self

Before we blame our unhappiness
On issues beyond ourselves
Perhaps we should first check
To see if ourselves
Are the primary sources
Of our unhappiness.
10.11.14

Love & Soul

Love emanates from the self
And like an octopus with tentacles
Feeds our souls’ hunger by attaching
To ideas, places, and people;
Without self love, there is no love
And the stronger our self love
The stronger are our attachments;
When self love cannot attach to feed our souls
Our souls dry up and die of starvation.
10.10.14

Corruption & Evolution

Corruption
Is part of human nature
But not part of animal nature;
The price of our advanced evolution
Has been our ethical decline.
10.09.14

Laws & Consequences

Permissive laws
Encourage abuse;
Restrictive laws
Foment rebellion;
Golden mean laws
Don’t favor sides, and
Are seldom promulgated.
10.08.14

Hate & Death

The circle of hate is closed;
Hate leads to vengeance
Vengeance, to hate
Hate, to death.
10.07.14

Love & Life

The circle of love is open;
Love leads to forgiveness
Forgiveness, to gratitude
Gratitude, to friendship
Friendship to life.
10.06.14

Mood & Worth

Anyone or anything
That disrupts a good mood
Is probably not worth the worry.
10.05.14

Frugality & Wealth

Frugality, when one is poor, is a necessity
But when one’s wealth is surrounded by poverty
Inveterate frugality becomes a form of cruelty.
10.04.14

Honor & Law

To hold ourselves to higher standards
Than those required by the law
Is to live honorably.
10.03.14

Good & Bad

We are dismayed to find out
That one we think of as bad
Has yet some good
And one we think of as good
Has yet some bad;
The melange of good and bad
Is a fundamental human reality.
10.02.14

Faith & Life

Thrills end with repetition
Pleasures end with satiation
Happiness founders with boredom
And joy declines when passions subside
But it’s hard to stifle the grand attitude of faith.
10.01.14

Freedom & Self

Helping others
Without expected reward
Is true freedom from self bondage.
09.30.14

Citizens & Corruption

When there is no doubt
That one, hiding behind the law
Is, with a clear conscience, corrupt to the core
Honorable citizens must unite to stomp that corruption.
09.29.14

Friendships & Trivia

Friendships are trivial
When broken by trivia
And are grand when trivia
Are never even noticed.
09.28.14

Nature & Politics

Spending personal time
On nature’s diminutive details
Brings more wisdom and joy
Than spending major time
On minor political details.
09.27.14

Primitive & Advanced

Life substantial
Lurks in the melange
Of primitive and advanced;
The advanced flee base to sky
The primitive live and die on base.
09.26.14

Laughter & Seriousness

Those who laugh most
Laugh at themselves first;
Those who laugh least
Take themselves too seriously.
09.26.14

Future & Interest

Since the future is not knowable
Then everyday is an adventure
And that should render
Every living moment
Interesting.
09.24.14

Blame & Empathy

The fact that the older we grow
The more we become aware
That our programmers
Nature and nurture
Cause us to become
What we end up becoming
Leaves us less room for blame
And more room for empathy.
09.23.14

Relish & Moments

To already be where you want to be
To want to be what you already are
Is to cease wasting time, searching
And relish each individual moment
As if it were a lifetime.
09.22.14

Animals & Us

We have a lot to learn from the animals;
They do not choose factions or borders
They do not subdivide and splinter
They do not use weapons or kill for ideas
They are ethical and do not contradict nature.
09.21.14

Planet & Children

Too much happens
To an innocent planet
That has not a defense
Against human pollution;
We would not let the same
Happen to one innocent child
But we would, to all of children.
09.20.14

Power & Waste

Youth and health
Are our only sources of power
And we must exercise these powers
Until time and disease reclaim them;
Wasting away youth and health
Is a cardinal sin against life.
09.19.14

Situation & Attitude

Nothing can defeat
A blithe attitude to life;
Regardless of situation
It is how we perceive it
And how we react to it
That really matters.
09.18.14

Love & Mores

Love violates the social mores;
We cannot choose when to fall in love
Nor can we choose whom to love
But we can choose gratitude
For love’s sublime feelings
That enrich our souls
Regardless of outcome.
09.17.14

Sleep & Youth

Just like the joys and agonies of sleep
Are re-experienced during wakefulness
So are the joys and agonies of youth
Re-experienced during adulthood.
09.16.14

Passions & Life

Passions define life’s four stages:
In youth, passions rule the mind
In maturity, passions and mind are balanced
In wisdom, passions fade and the mind rules
In senility, both mind and passions fade away.
09.14.14

Life & Living

To forge smiles out of tears
And laughs out of frowns
To temper anger with humor
And face fate with cheerfulness
To enjoy life however it comes
Nor wait for matters to recover
Is to honor the gifts of life
With artful living.
09.13.14

Enlightenment & Corruption

On the totem pole of humanity
Love is the crown and hate, the nadir;
With more love comes greater enlightenment
With more hate comes greater corruption;
Societies can measure their progress
By measuring the love and the hate
They engender and propagate.
09.12.14

Terrorism & History

Terrorism is historically short-lived;
It irrupts, disrupts, and then self-destructs
Leaving long-term order and peace to reign in its wake.
Peaceful humanity has always managed to redress
All the scars of terror with beautiful works.
09.11.14

Fitness & Struggle

Fitness is constant struggle
Physical fitness is to remain active
Mental fitness is to remain inquisitive
Emotional fitness is to remain passionate
And spiritual fitness is to remain in awe.
09.10.14

Blessing & Curse

The greatest blessing
Is the ability to love everything;
The greatest curse
Is the inability to love anything;
For whenever love abdicates
Hate fills the vacuum.
09.09.14

Blessing & Curse

The greatest blessing
Is the ability to love everything;
The greatest curse
Is the inability to love anything;
For whenever love abdicates
Hate fills in the vacuum.
09.09.14

Leisure & Art

How we utilize our leisure
Defines our intellectual altitude
Better than our achievements;
We evince our art of living
During leisure activities
More than during work.
09.08.14

Obligations & Enlightenment

Going to obligations
When we don’t fee like it
Sometimes brings our souls
Closer to enlightenment
And farther from bias.
09.07.14.

Young & Old

To think young
One must remember
That everything old
Was once young
And beautiful
And vital.
09.06.14

Dependent & Independent

Some are only happy
If they are independent
And serve a worthy cause;
Others are happy as dependents
Even when they burden society.
09.05.14

Deranged & Harm

No society
Has ever found ways
To reduce the harms caused
By its deranged elements.
09.04.14

MInd & Balance

An active mind
Is its own best entertainment;
A passive mind
Thrives on entertainment by others;
A balanced mind
Entertains itself and loves to be entertained.
09.03.14

Privacy & Isolation

Nurturing a social circle furnishes us with ideas
Which, otherwise, would not occur to us;
The effort to remain socially connected
Is compensated by a rich harvest of notions
And a wealth of emotional chords
That entertain and enlighten
The aloneness of isolation
And the loneliness of privacy.
09.02.14

Cheating & Cheated

Cheating comes in two ways:
We can either cheat others
Or we can cheat ourselves;
Cheating others destroys trust
But cheating ourselves destroys us.
09.01.14

Ignorance & Consequences

To change human nature
From primitive to enlightened
Requires efforts throughout childhood
And reinforcements throughout adulthood;
Without such efforts, we tend to choose
The easier ways with little concern
For the consequences
Of ignorance.
08.31.14

Emotions & Reason

Emotions, not reason
Are the prime movers of life;
Frequently, emotions influence reason
Whereas rarely, reason influences emotion.
08.30.14

Days & Ways

There are so many ways to love
And only one way to hate;
So many ways to like and desire
And only one way to dislike;
So may ways and days to live
But only one moment to die.
08.29.14

Trust & Mistrust

The price of trust is high
But the price of mistrust is higher;
Trust everyone and you will be betrayed
Trust the trustworthy and you will be betrayed
Don’t trust anyone and you will live in paranoid fear.
08.28.14

Hind Sight & Vision

Watching history unfold
Before our eyes
Has less lessons for us
Because vision is microscopic;
Studying the history of humanity
Before our times has more lessons
Because hind sight is vast.
08.27.14

Reality & Freedom

No mind is free;
Freedom and reality
Dwell on opposite sides
Of the human spectrum.
08.26.14

Decision & Disorganization

Disorganized mental states
To which none of us is immune
Are highly dangerous whenever
We fail to recognize their fallacies;
Making decisions and taking actions  
When our minds suffer disorganization
Is how we make our worst mistakes.
08.25.14

Emotions & Mortality

Love dies
When it cannot forgive;
Hurt lingers
When it cannot snuff anger;
Beauty dies
When desire and love abdicate;
And youth dies
When we forget our childhoods.
08.24.14

Beliefs & Clashes

Beliefs can be dangerous;
Most wars and conflicts are clashes
Between deeply held beliefs.
08.23.14

Expectations & Outcomes

Loving without expectation
Leaves the heart free;
Giving without expectation
Leaves the mind free;
Living without expectation
Leaves the soul content.
08.22.14

Feelings & Personalities

Those who notice beauty
Everywhere they look
Are joyful;
Those who see imperfection
Everywhere they go
Are angry;
Those possessed by feelings
Are artful;
Those who empathize
Are forgiving;
And those who love
Indiscriminately
Are humanity’s friends.
08.21.14

Rest & Productivity

Good rest
Which we should guard
Leads to good productivity;
When tired, we achieve so little
And when fresh, we achieve so much.
08.20.14

Prediction & Extrapolation

Predictions are extrapolations
Which do not make allowance
For coincidence and surprise;
Hardly anything happens as expected
Without surprise and coincidence
Altering the final outcome.
08.19.14

Scholar & Death

A scholar is one
That continues to pursue knowledge
Even when it is clear that death is near
And dedicates all attention to life
And none to death.
08.18.14

Preparing & Occurrence

Preparing for something means
That we believe it might happen
And not willing to prepare for something
Means we believe that it would not happen;
Hence, youth does not prepare for age
And age does not prepare for death
Yet both always prepare for life.
08.17.14

Biases & Minds

To jettison our biases
We would listen to those
Who disagree with us;
To reinforce our biases
We would listen to those
Who agree with us;
An open mind heeds everyone.
08.16.14

Opinions & Study

Most opinions are gut feelings
That are not evidence-based;
Opinions change with study
And the deeper we study
The more they change
And the less we study
The more opinionated we become.
08.15.14

Justification & Ethics

When the conscience aches
The mind justifies;
To justify is to suppress
Ethics and reason
In exchange for peace.
08.14.14

Life & Works

Some of us remain alive when they die
And some of us are dead when alive;
It’s our good works that define life
Works that go on living beyond
Works far more important
Than the worker.
08.13.14

Adults & Children

Adults are children
With older faces;
The child in us
Does not die.
08.12.14

Behavior & Need

We put on our best behavior
When we need something from someone
But we do not reciprocate and behave as well
When someone needs something from us.
08.11.14

Well & Too Well

When things go well
We tend to feel well
But when things go too well
We should become cautious.
08.10.14

Love & Bad

Whenever love is bad
It’s just mad desire
Mistaken for love.
08.07.14

Opinions & Biases

Opinions, un-researched
And un-rehearsed
Are biases.
08.06.14

Age & Surprise

When we were young
The old were a different species
Now that we’re old, the young are us;
Nothing and no one prepares us for age
And when it comes, it’s always a surprise;
Moi?  I can't believe it.
08.05.14

Officious & Thoughts

Officious thoughts
Which intrude on our mind
Are instinctive, primitive thoughts
Originating from the unenlightened animal
Living inside of us, barking like a dog
And disturbing our inner quietude;
The only thing we can do
Is to shoo the dog
When it barks.
08.04.14

Good & Bad Emotions

Clinging to good emotions
Shedding bad emotions
Keeps the soul joyful
And the heart fond;
Dampening good emotions
Nurturing bad emotions
Dis-enlightens life.
08.02.14

Reality & Perception

Reality
Is perception;
Different individuals
Look at the same thing
But each sees it differently;
What we don’t see with our minds
Isn’t real to us, even if it’s real to others;
We live in our minds, and our minds
Constitute our individual realities.
08.01.14

Emancipating & Binding

To love
To give
And to serve
Is emancipating;
To be loved
To be given
And to be served
Is binding.
07.31.14

Waste & Time

Wasting client time
Is the only crime
Not punishable
By law;
However
It’s ripple effects
Bankrupts businesses.
07.30.14

Action & Reaction

Time exposes
Revenge incites
Aggression loses
Simplicity speeds
Complexity slows
Diversity expands
Suppression vitalizes
Censorship advertises
Freedom emancipates
And age ultimately wins.
o4.29.14

Work & Play

Hard work is essential for success
And so is regular, well-timed play;
Balancing work and play
Is more productive;
Working long and hard
Is more destructive;
And forgetting how to play
Is most depressive.
07.28.14

MIsunderstood & Self

If we feel misunderstood
We must care too much
About what others say;
In reality, no one knows
Our inner self but we
And at deep, personal levels
We are all misunderstood.
07.26.14

Saying & Meaning

Hearing is not listening
Listening is not understanding
Understanding can only be one sided
Because one cannot possibly know
What the sayer really means 
By what the sayer says.
07.25.14

Love & Corruption

Corruption begins
When we love ourselves
More than we love all others;
It is difficult to corrupt people
Who love and respect all others
Like they love and respect themselves.
07.24.14

Awe & Knowledge

If now we are awed
By how much we know
Shouldn’t we be more awed
By how much we do not know?
07.23.14

Elements & Time

The four ancient elements
Earth, Air, Fire, and Water
Have now been supplanted by
The four modern elements
Security (Earth), Freedom (Air)
Justice (Fire), Opportunity (Water);
There are no new ideas under the sun.
07.22.14

Time & Waste

Time, being our most valuable asset
And time-wasting, a squandering of assets
Think how much collective time we waste
In bureaucratic & electronic time sinks
In preventable illnesses & accidents
And still, no society has ever declared
Time-wasting as the arch enemy of progress?
07.21.14

Force & Change

Force
History teaches us
Is unintelligent and futile;
Good changes only come with
Freedom, security, opportunity
Justice, health, and enlightenment.
07.20.14

Languages & Oceans

Languages are oceans;
The deeper you dive
The more you find.
07.19.14

Future & Worry

Since the future is always unknown
Projections about the future
Are often inaccurate
And worries about the future
Are often exaggerated.
07.18.14

Fear & Faith

Subliminal fear is a great hindrance;
Overcoming it entails first recognizing it
As a tacit enemy of good progress
And smiting it with courage
That stems from faith.
07.17.14

Goodness & Strength

Being good is never enough
To remain good, one must also be tough
Unprotected goodness always invites abuse
Strength is necessary for goodness to persevere.
07.1614

Politics & Ethics

In politics, we only say
What we’re allowed to say
Because voters are dictators;
In ethics, we only say
What our consciences discern
Because consciences are dictators;
Dictatorships are not avoidable
In human societies.
07.15.14

Joy & Thrils

Joy is simple
Thrills are complex
Happiness is ephemeral
Contentment is humility
Excellence is ideology
Honesty is a journey
And courage is faith.
07.14.14

Strength & Tolerance

The strong
Do not notice slights
And welcome differences;
Fortitude is open-minded tolerance
And encouragement of debate.
07.13.14

Angles & Life

Inside the triangle of life
Within its three angels
Of love, like, and hate
We spend our times;
Those in the angle of love
Are sustained by joy
Those in the angle of like
Are sustained by thrills
And those in the angle of hate
Are sustained by vengeance.
07.12.14

Laws & Adverse Effects

Laws
Like medicines
Should be tested in the field
Before they are approved;
Untested laws harbor
Adverse effects.
07.11.14

Bureaucracy & Efficiency

Any bureaucracy
That reduces efficiency
Increases waste and cost
And becomes self defeating.
07.10.14

Cruelty & Pervasiveness

Cruelty is nonspecific;
Those cruel to animals
Are also cruel to humans
And those cruel when angry
Are also cruel when calm
And those cruel when defeated
Are especially cruel when victorious.
07.09.14

Aggravation & Reaction

Walking away from aggravation
May prove less expensive
Than fighting it.
07.08.14

Living & Space

Living in a big country
Or in a small country
Is about the same;
Regardless of borders
We only live in homes
And neighborhoods
Which provide us
With all the space
We need.
07.07.14

Age & Tax

Whatever ends quickly
Remains young in memory
And whatever lasts
Grows old in reality;
Age is the price that life exacts
From all things that endure.
07.06.14

Reconnecting & Discovery

Reconnecting with old friends
Can be enriching and joyful;
Reconnecting with old loves
Can be disappointing and painful.
07.05.14

Association & Worth

To look younger
We associate with the older;
To feel younger
We associate with the younger;
To feel smarter
We associate with the less smart;
To look important
We associate with the more important;
But to learn
We associate with the more educated.
07.04.14

Cycles & Behavior

One need not promise
Habits, urges, or inclinations
Never to succumb again
To their temptations;
One better say
I shall cycle in and out
Until I discover new ways
That block my cyclic behavior.
07.03.14

Overshooting & Undershooting

In recipes as in all processes of life
Experts use the right amounts;
Novices either use too much
Believing more is better
Or they use too little
Fearing to use enough;
When the goal is the bull’s-eye
Overshooting and undershooting
Equally miss the target.
07.02.14

Enlightenment & Gouvernment

Without mass enlightenment
Law and order are impossible to enforce;
Ignorance can easily defeat the strongest government.
07.01.14

Coincidence & Destiny

Planning our lives
Is an exercise in futility;
Coincidence always redirects
Most of the courses of our lives
And reshapes our destinies.
06.30.14

Judgement & Reflection

Judgement
Without deep study
And sincere reflection
Is but a reiteration
Of our biases.
06.29.14

Emotion & Motion

We cannot express emotion
Without motion;
Our expressions, speech
Body language, and writings
Are all but motions
That express emotions.
06.28.14

Saying & Meaning

In parlance
What we do not say
Often hides what we really mean.
06.27.14

Attitude & Mood

Since attitude sets the mood
One must work on attitude
To change the mood.
06.26.14

Denial & Intellect

Denial must be a force
Stronger than our intellect
For us to deny the obvious
And espouse the impossible.
06.25.14

Joy & Distance

Enjoying the daily nearby
Is far more important
Than waiting to enjoy
The occasional far away.
06.24.14

Forgetting & Remembering

Forgetting joy is easier
Than forgetting suffering;
Forgetting pleasure is easier
Than forgetting pain;
Forgetting love is easier
Than forgetting hate;
And forgetting the good
Is easier than forgetting the bad.
06.23.14

Weakness & Danger

Of all our weaknesses
The ones that are most dangerous
Are those that we perceive as strengths.
06.22.14

Relax & Upset

Learning to relax
Takes time and talent;
Getting upset
Takes neither time nor talent.
06.21.04

Religion & Harm

Religion should never become
An excuse to do harm.
06.18.14

Memories & Age

Only memories
Grow younger
With age.
06.17.14

Victories & Compromise

Without some compromise
Victories are oftentimes
Worse than defeats.
06.16.14

Enthusiasm & Disillusionment

Untempered enthusiasm
Often ends in disillusionment.
06.15.14

Bias & Knowledge

The biased
Don't really know 
That they are biased.
06.14.14

Criticism & Integrity

The veracity of criticisms is proportional
To the intellectual integrity
Of the criticizers.
06.13.14

Gossip & Facts

Those who float on gossip
Sink under the facts.
06.12.14

Elderly & Youth

Attraction
To the elderly
Is a divine gift;
Attraction
To the youth
Is an instinct.
06.11.14

Cost & Law

If there were no crooks
We would have fewer laws;
If we all obeyed the law
Life would be cheaper;
Keeping law and order
And ensuring security
Come at a great cost
To society.
06.10.14

Honesty & Spirit

Honesty
Is a solemn burden
For the spiritual souls;
Dishonesty
Is an easy way out
For the poor in spirit.
06.09.14

They Say & Evidence

They say?
But who are they?
What evidence do they sway?
And why on earth do we believe
Sans evidence, what ever they say?
06.08.14

Quality & Prevalence

Everywhere
High quality is rare
Average quality is common
Low quality is prevalent;
Expecting high quality
Around every corner
Is not realistic.
06.07.14

Cyclic & Dynamic

We are cyclic beings;
Our ideas and thoughts
Are dynamic, always change
With times, moods, experiences,
And can seldom be held down;
To regard things as static
Is to misrepresent life.
06.06.14

Conscience & Pretense

When our individual conscience
Conflicts with our social conscience
Only the brave among us dare declare
Their disapproval; most of us say naught
And pretend that all is well with the world.
06.05.14

Caring & Living

Caring makes the heart grow weary
Caring makes the heart grow fond;
Not caring reduces weariness
But it also stifles passions;
To care or not to care
Is to live or not to live.
06.04.14

Minds & Body

Those who live in their minds are most fulfilled
Those who live in the minds of others are most tortured
Those who live in their bodies are most vulnerable
And those who live in all three are most normal.
06.03.14

Disease & Old Age

Old age is not disease
Nor is disease old age
And when the two coincide
Old age need not be blamed.
06.02.14

Superstition & Reality

Our aversion
To unpleasant realities
Renders us susceptible
To pleasant superstitions
Which undermine truth.
06.01.14

Trouble & Pleasure

In youth
Our bodies house more pleasures
And our minds house more troubles;
In age
Our bodies house more troubles
And our minds house more pleasures.
05.31.14

Traditions & Reason

Handed down traditions
Generation after generation
When not challenged by reason
Can assume a divine status
And become implacable
Even when they are harmful.
05.30.14

Retaliate & Wait

Most things that upset us
Are temporary and will change
If we do not retaliate and just wait.

Victories & Losses

Most victories 
Are preceded by losses;
Those who know how to win
Have learned more from their losses
Than from their victories.
05.28.14

Happiness & Seeing

Often times
We do not know
How happy we are
Until happiness absconds;
We need not seek happiness;
Often it is too close to be visible
Until we decide to see it.
05.26.14

Politeness & Primitiveness

Politeness
The shared kindness
The respect for others
The courtesy of behavior
Is not innate in us;
We are born primitive
Then shed our primitiveness
Only when we become civilized;
Impoliteness is residual primitiveness.
05.26.14

Intransigence & Arrogance

Challenging our minds and beliefs
Because of evolving evidence,
Rejecting intransigence,
Embracing change,
Seeing truth as dynamic,
Keeping our hearts wide open
And our minds in constant search,
Renders life more understandable
And makes us mature with humility;
Intransigence, often, is ignorant arrogance.
05.24.14

Euphemisms & Harsh Words

Euphemisms
Avoid harsh words:
Preowned instead of used
X-spouse instead of divorced
Political instead of pretentious
Estranged instead of abandoned
Why not once-young instead of old?
05.24.14

Fatigue & Passions

Fatigue sets our limits
And limits our aspirations;
Given enough time and toil
We can get tired of anything;
Resisting fatigue
By rekindling passions
Is the art of rejuvenating life.
05.23.14

Denial & Confrontation

Things we deny
Before they happen:
Are old age, chronic illness
Death, loss, betrayal, injustice,
But then when they happen
We find that we are braver
Than we thought possible.
05.22.15

Joy & Suffering

Joy contains suffering;
Everything that brings joy:
Pets, children, love, success,
Triumph, health, beauty, power
Brings its problems with it
And sadness if it ends.
05.21.14

Nuclear War & Ignorance

Only ignorance can be
Deadlier than nuclear war,
Especially when it is espoused
As unshakable knowledge.
05.20.14

Understanding & God

To enjoy
The trivia of life
To be entertained
By the trifles of living
To perceive and believe
The mundane as miraculous
To regard as equally important
The important and the unimportant
And to find equally beautiful
The homely and comely
Is to understand God
With our hearts.
05.19.14 

Wasting & Loss

Most of us
Would have more
If we had wasted less;
Wasting time and money
Are the commonest reasons
For ending up with little.
05.18.14

Reading & Understanding

To read is easy
To understand is hard
To understand what the writer
Really meant is even harder
And to understand beyond
What the writer meant
Is hardest of all.
05.17.14

Earth & Person

We are always more moved
When we see one person drown
Than when we see all of earth drown;
Personal catastrophes are heart felt
Abstract catastrophes are ignored.
05.16.14

Reading & Books

In the past
Our literary passions
Were fed by reading books;
Now they’re fed by reading Facebooks.
05.16.14

Moderation & Passion

When passions rise
Moderation rises into excess
When passions decline
Moderation declines into apathy;
Walking the tight rope of moderation
With passionate youth is difficult.
05.14.14

Inebriation & Intoxication

Inebriation without intoxication
Comes to us when our intellect
Is overcome by three emotions
Enchantment, anger, or fear;
Abstinence, in such cases
Is seldom a choice.
05.13.14

Rejuvenation & Aging

Note how as we age
We all try to rejuvenate
Some of our visible parts
To keep them looking young;
This global human inclination
Reveals an awareness of aging
And a tenacity to cling to youth
Unshared by other living things.
05.12.14

Beauty & Feeling

When we’re adored
We feel more beautiful
And when we’re ignored
We feel less beautiful
And when we’re abhorred
We feel least beautiful;
For beauty has more to do
With feeling than appearance.
05.11.14

New & Old

What is now new
Will soon become old
And what was once old
When it is rediscovered
Will become new again;
All we have to do is wait.
05.10.14

Expensive & Costly

If we think education is expensive
Think how more costly ignorance is
If we think prevention is expensive
Think how more costly disease is
If we think construction is expensive
Think how more costly destruction is.
05.09.14

Mood & Goodness

It is hard to be good
When one is in a bad mood
And it is also hard to be bad
When one is in a good mood;
Insisting on a good mood
Makes us better people.
05.08.14

Success and Malevolence

Success may beget covetousness
Covetousness my beget malevolence
And malevolence may sabotage success;
Defending success against malevolence
Is just as important as succeeding.
05.07.14

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.
05.06.14

Excellence & Seriousness

Excellence
Presupposes seriousness;
Nothing excellent can be achieved
Without serious effort.
05.05.14

Loneliness & Age

Living is harder than dying
And aging is harder than living
But, aging alone is hardest of all;
Spending frequent, quality time
With our lonely elderly
Is our solemn duty.
05.04.14

Excellence & Seriousness

Human creativity has excelled
In science, art, and faith
But, it has failed
In peace.
05.03.14

Ignoring & Not Noticing

Ignoring insults, affronts
Irritations, and aggravations
Upholds peace and averts turmoil;
Ignoring comes of maturity and wisdom
As failing to notice comes of inner strength.
0502.14

Peaks & Planes

When we are climbing one peak
We should never delude ourselves
That once we have reached that peak
Easy planes will lie ahead;
Beyond every peak lie peaks and peaks
That we will need to climb and climb.
05.01.14

Complexity & Simplicity

Turmoil comes of complexity
As joy comes of simplicity
As anguish comes of guilt
As thrills come of wealth
As happiness comes of acceptance.
04.30.14

Trust & Trustworthy

To trust everyone is foolish
To trust no one is foolish and cruel
To trust only the trustworthy is impossible
Because one can never know who they really are
Until they have been repeatedly tested with one’s trust.
04.29.14

Bureaucracy & Enlightenment

Enlightenment is always
Inversely proportional to bureaucracy;
When bureaucracy increases in complexity
Enlightenment and joie de vivre decline.
04.28.14

Mistakes & Discoveries

More discoveries have been made
Through unintentional mistakes
Than through dedicated searches.
04.27.14

Humility & Show

False humility
Is what we show
And real humility
Is what we feel.
04.26.14

Worth & Self

Most of us derive our self worth
From what other people think of us
Instead of what we think of ourselves.
04.25.13

Knowing & Self

Most of us do not know when we have been defeated
Nor when we are too old to be doing certain things
Nor when we’re no longer good at what we do
Nor when we become addicted to things
Nor when we become inappropriate
Nor when it is time to stop.
04.24.14

Pleasures & Seriousness

We always take our pleasures seriously:
Think of food, sex, sports, vacations
Entertainments, arts, grooming
Comfort, attire, drinks, addictions, etc.
But we often trivialize the serious side of life
Think of loyalty, empathy, dedication, excellence
Hard work, responsibility, service, honesty, and sacrifice.
04.23.14

Age & Desire

Sexual desire has three ages:
When young and sensual
Almost everyone desires us;
When middle-aged and dignified
Mostly those older than us desire us;
And when old and no longer attractive
Only those in love with us desire us.
04.22.14

Love & Fear

Yes, I have been to many places
All the same
And watched the empty faces fade
Heard the lonely chattering of slippy dentures
And the eerie whistling of the hearing aid
And yes, at times, I was dismayed
But never lost my faith
Except when love was absent
Then, I felt afraid.
04.21.14

Present & Past

When living in the moment
Memories of joy are erased by pain
And memories of pain are erased by joy;
We need to remember the past
In order to put the present
In its proper context.
04.20.14

Democracy & Enlightenment

Democracy thrives
When its voters are enlightened
And falters when they’re not.
04.19.14

Self & Love

Excessively liking ourselves
Can make us disloyal to criticism
And loyal to praise, which is dangerous;
It is best to temper our self love
With the ice of reality.
94.18.14

Knowledge & Layers

The layers of knowledge are four:
.Not knowing that you know
.Knowing that you don’t know
.Knowing that you know
.And not knowing that you don’t know
Of these four layers, the most wise
Is knowing that you don’t know
And the most dangerous
Is not knowing that you don’t know.
04.17.14

Excellence & Requirements

Excellence in work
Requires seven things:
Intelligence, knowledge
Love, passion, hard work
Higher personal standards
And patient, dedicated time.
04.16.14

Love & End

Familiar faces
Let us not pretend
Though life may decimate and send
Our unsuspecting souls across
Uncharted times and unfamiliar places
Wherever we are loved we end.
04.15.14

Duration & Negotiation

If we can remind our minds
Before we enter a conflict
That nothing ever lasts
We would negotiate
Instead of fight.
04.14.14

Whole & Part

To know the whole
Before knowing the part
Is the only way to see reality.
04.13.14

Wealth & Nations

The wealth of nations
Depends more on their citizens
Than upon their natural resources.
04.11.14

Freedom & Injustice

Legal injustice,
The use of noble laws
For ignoble purposes
Is the price we pay
For freedom.
04.11.14

Causes & Meaning

Devoting
Our ephemeral selves
To good causes beyond ourselves
Renders our lives meaningful
And launches our works
Into the future.
04.10..14

Fear & Faith

When fear overcomes us
Our intelligence will fail us
And we make bad decisions;
To subdue fear with faith
Is how we can prevail.
04.09.14

Pains & Gains

When bad things cannot be helped
We can render them more palatable
By learning their valuable life lessons
Which transform our pains into gains.
04.08.14

Joy & Purity

Insisting on joy
Keeps us pure.
o4.07.14

Providing & Free

Providing things
Free of charge
Is often risky.
04.06.14

Speeding & Why

Those who habitually speed
Have no clear idea why
They are speeding.
04.05.14

Riches & Weatlh

Of all our riches:
Friendship, romance
Wealth, health, beauty
Passion, love, Joy, attitude
Wisdom, power, skill, character
Genes, talent, and knowledge
The only asset we can trade
That is not a part of us
Is wealth.
04.04.14

Hoarding & Giving

De-junking
Contributes to recycling
Whereas hoarding
Contributes to junking;
Still, we all die with mountains
Of things we could not give away
Even though we did not use.
04.03.14

Pets & Love

Pet love
Depends on actions
And requires no words;
Human love
Depends less on actions
And much more on words.
04.02.14

Quality & Quantity

It takes quality
To recognize quality;
But, recognizing quantity
Requires no intellect.
04.01.14

Inequality & Happiness

During our lives
Happiness equalizes us
In spite of our inequalities;
Happiness of the wealthy and mighty
Is no sweeter than the happiness
O those with very much less;
And all our envy is naught
But envy of happiness.
03.31.14

Inconvenience & Truths

Telling inconvenient truths
Can have dire consequences:
Some will believe you and like you
Some will believe you and hate you
Some will call you a lier and leave you
Some will call you evil and persecute you
And not one will come to your aid
Except a few fearless friends;
Telling inconvenient truths
As Jesus had shown
Is never popular.
03.30.14

Looking & Touching

If you’d rather
Look at a woman
Than touch her
You’re not in love;
If you’d rather
Touch a woman
Than look at her
You’re not in love;
If you vacillate violently
Between Looking and touching
And cannot make up your mind
You’re in love.
03.29.14

Receiving & Favors

Receiving desperately needed favors
Can be taken in six different ways:
We can either receive with shame
Or with joy, or with gratitude
Or with indebtedness
Or with reluctance
Or with grace;
Only those who
Receive with grace
Give back with grace.
03.28.14

Death & Suing

Free and prosperous countries
Can sue themselves to an early death
When those who are doing the suing
Don’t hold their country’s welfare
Above their own.
03.27.14

Ideas & Truth

When we cling to ideas
Insisting that they are true
In spite of contrary evidence
We justify our irrational convictions
By believing that the contrary evidence
Is part of a conspiracy to hide the real truth.
03.26.14

Animals & Fakes

Whenever we pretend
That we are not animals
We turn into awkward fakes.
03.25.14

Intelligence & Destiny

Intelligence can be
Put to good use
Or to bad use
Or to no use
It can be dulled
Or it can be sharpened
And all of these five destinies
Have little to do with intelligence
And everything to do with character.
03.24.14

Life & Significance

Significant life
Is lived between
Our two main loves:
Our first and our last;
Outside these two loves
Life has a difficult time
Finding significance.
03.23.14

Wisdom & Passions

As wisdom is of age
And passions are of youth
We must guard our passions
Against wisdom’s platitudes
Lest we prematurely age
And lose our fires.
03.22.14

Alphabet & Hands

Holding hands is intimacy
Touching shows intent
Shoving implies rejection
Raising a fist reveals anger
Hugging declares familiarity
Shaking hands implies formality
Waving hands says hello or goodbye
And so much can be said with a finger;
The alphabet of the hands is international.
03.21.14

Justifications & Guilt

Justifications are subterfuges
Which beguile the consciences
To countenance the unethical;
Auto-deception, for so many
Is the best means to allay
Their feelings of guilt.
03.20.14

Remorse & Corruption

Remorse
Is the triumph of
Our inner sense of justice
Over our sense of entitlement;
Corruption
Is the triumph of
Our inner sense of entitlement
Over our sense of justice.
03.19.14

Life & Love

We are the seeds
Of the entire human past
Blossoming in scattered times & places;
The human chain of smiles & tears
Will grow longer and longer
So long as life and love
Continue to survive.
03.18.14

Lies & Assumptions

Liers can only manage to lie
After making two giant assumptions:
That they’re smarter than others
And that they’re not transparent;
If they knew how smart others are
And how transparent they are
They wouldn’t lie.
03.17.14

Aim & Worth

To aim at ambitions
Beyond our achievements
To challenge ourselves
Beyond our abilities
To live for struggle
Instead of for rest
Is to bring worth
And meaning
To life.
03.16.14

Love & Vision

Love begins before vision
Where security, warmth, nurture
Moisture, and musical heartbeats
Create the crucible for nascent life;
That is why our first love kiss
Is instinctively shared
With closed eyes.
03.15.14

Pain & Wine

Pain
Is the essential food of art
And joy is its wine.
03.14.14

Bureaucracy & Soul

Bureaucracy
When uncensored
Feeds on the human soul
Until it becomes morbidly obese,
Enslaving its human subjects
Promoting inefficiency
And hindering life.
03.13.14

Classes & Countries

All countries have four classes of citizens:
a) Those who willingly obey the rules and laws
    unaware of supervision or fear of retribution
b) Those who obey because they heed supervision
    and fear retribution
c) Those who readily disobey whenever there is no supervision
    or fear of retribution
d) And those who blatantly disobey, elusive of supervision
    and evasive of retribution;
The first two classes of citizens hold their countries up
And the last two classes pull their countries down.
03.12.14

Humanity & Separation

Three distances separate humanity:
Physical, emotional, and intellectual;
The easiest to narrow down
Are the physical and emotional
And the hardest is the intellectual.
03.11.14

Corruption & Enlightenment

Corruption
Entails the belief
That one is above the law;
Hence, the antidote to corruption
Is not more laws, but more enlightenment.
03.10.14

Thinking & Facts

Thinking and deciding
Without studying all the facts
Is a most dangerous human habit.
03.08.14

Intellect & Inertia

Creative minds
Bring smiles to tears
Tether past to future
And smite intellectual inertia.
03.08.14

Love & Worth

Love is our measure of worth;
What we love is worth more
Than what we do not love
And if we love nothing
Life feels worthless.
03.07.14

Truth & Euphemisms

Absolute truth rejects euphemisms;
Jesus never used them
But we all do?
03.06.14

Manners & Respect

Our manners
Declare our human altitudes
Of self respect and respect of others;
Whosoever causes us to lose our manners
Will cause us to diminish ourselves
With those who respect us.
03.05.14

Love & Self

Love of those
Whom we don’t know
Is the most selfless kind love;
Loves of those we know
Often originate from
Love of self.
03.04.14

Love & Bankfuptcy

When the three children of love:
Kindness, compassion, and empathy
Are supplanted by the three of hate:
Cruelty, torture, and terrorism
The sublime human soul dies
And spiritual bankruptcy
Impoverishes earth.
03.03.14

Occasion & Celebration

Waiting for an occasion to celebrate
Is wasting the time between occasions;
One should celebrate every moment
As if it were a great occasion
Because every moment
Is a great occasion.
03.02.14

God & Days

God
In daily life
Is unavoidable;
Try passing a day
Without saying, ‘Oh, God’
Or, ‘For God’s sake’
Or, ‘Jesus Christ’
Or, ‘Dear Lord;’
The number of times
We mention God
Is infinite…
03.01.14

Love & Aspiration

Aspiring towards something
Hoping for something
Wanting something
Come of loving that something;
Love powers all aspirations, hopes, and desires;
It is the grand generator of life’s energy and actions.
02.28.14

Best & Excellence

Excellence means
That one has done his best
And that his best is better than
The best of most others.
02.27.14

Superstition & Evidence

There is no mind
Immune to superstition;
To cleanse the mind of superstitions
One must be willing to examine the evidence.
02.26.14

Spirit & Defeat

It is hard to defeat
A cheerful person who
Confronts anger and hate
With a peaceful smile;
The Jesus spirit in us
Is undefeatable.
02.25.14

Children & Future

A country
That neglects its children
Risks its future.
02.24.14

Peace & Passion

Without hungers, passions and desires
There would be no conflicts or wars
No love, hate, or romance
No struggle or competition
No art, science, or creativity
No corruption, cruelty, or killing
No ideology, friendship, or community
And no reproduction, family, or learning;
Without hungers, passions, and desires
Universal peace would quietly reign
But life would not be worth living.
02.23.14

Bombs & Demography

Powerful bombs decimate
And nuclear bombs devastate
But demographic bombs dominate.
02.22.14

Cheerfulness & Beauty

Cheerfulness beautifies
Is more attractive than beauty
And, unlike beauty, blossoms with time;
Clinging to cheerfulness is vital
Clinging to beauty is futile.
02.21.14

Wisdom & Skepticism

Saints will love their enemies
Fools may even trust them
But the wise remain skeptical;
Wisdom is intelligent skepticism.
92.20.14

Applause & T'ime

We should restrain our applause
For ideas which, at inception
Seem noble and laudable;
Most of them, in time
Prove not to be so.
02.19.14

Importance & Joy

Insisting on joy
Means not letting anyone or anything
Rob us of our peace or infect us with anger;
What is important is only important
If we assign it importance;
Nothing is important
In and of itself.
02.18.14

Honesty & Corruption

The tug of war
Between honesty and corruption
In spite of all the laws and regulations
If given enough time
Is usually won by corruption.
02.17.14

Suffering & Empathy

Thinking of the suffering of others
If we conjure up empathy
Lessens our own.
02.16.14

Tragedy & Person

Tragedies
When small and personal
Have a great impact
But, when big and national
May pass unnoticed.
02.15.14

Dishonesty & Euphemism

If we use a euphemism
Instead of calling a crook, A CROOK
We would encourage unethical behavior;
An honest person should have no tolerance
For dishonesty.
02.14.14

Friend & Time

Spending time with a friend
Especially when you don’t have time
Is time well sacrificed.
02.13.14

Promotion & Reality

Promotion and propaganda
Are far more effective
In affecting change
Than is evidence;
The human response to appeal
Wreaks havoc on what’s real.
02.12.14

Friendship & Time

Friendship circumvents time;
Friends resume where they had left
Regardless of how much time has passed.
02.11.14

Love & Peace

If we can go to bed
With love in our hearts
Then none of the thoughts
Which bothered us all day long
Will be able to diminish our peace
Because love always washes away
All worry, anger, hate, and pain.
02.10.14

Power & Riders

Those who ride power
Have no idea that power
Is the real rider that is riding them.
02.09.14

Truth & Lies

Those who tell the truth
Know how costly it can be;
But those who lie
Are always surprised to find out
That telling lies ends up being costlier
Than simply telling the truth.
02.07.14

Proof & Crooks

Crooks forget
That it is impossible
To prove beyond doubt
That something happened
When it really did not happen.
02.07.14

Fear & Victory

If we could un-frighten ourselves
By re-examining the evidence
We would win our battles;
When we enter into a conflict
With fearless confidence
Our opponents cower.
02.06.14

Media & Intelligence

The news media
Use a great number of words
To express what could have been said
In but a few, intelligent sentences;
Wasting their watchers’ time
With elaborate packaging
Is causing them to lose
Enlightened audiences.
01.05.14

Governments & Lawlessness

Governments
Always pay more attention
To illegal and criminal activities
But less attention to their etiologies;
Researching and preventing lawlessness
Would be far more cost effective and fruitful
Than merely trying to outwit and regulate the lawless.
02.04.14

Excess & Waste

Excess and waste
May seem normal to us
But they are symptoms of decay;
If we could reverse this inevitable decline
We could rewrite our own history.
02.03/14

Behind & Lurks

Behind love lurks need
Behind lust lurks desire
Behind hate lurks anger
Behind aspiration lurks hope
Behind abuse lurks selfishness
Behind despair lurks hopelessness
Behind coercion and violence lurks ignorance
And behind ignorance lurks self-destruction.
02.02.14

Little & Lot

All of us know
A lot about little
And little about a lot;
But those of us who think
They know a lot about a lot
Cause the most human harm.
02.01.14

Thoughts & Viruses

Thoughts, contagious like viruses
Can infect our vulnerable minds
Become tenacious obsessions
And erode our mental peace;
These thought-like viruses
Can infect individuals, groups
Entire nations, or the whole world
Changing how we think and behave.
01.31.14

Essence & Seen

In human affairs
What remains unspoken
Unwritten, and  unshown
Is the true, critical essence
Concealed behind the scene.
01.30.14

Love & Vacuum

Love
When it departs
Leaves a painful vacuum
Which if not filled by another love
Will echo in our souls for the rest of our lives.
01.29.14

Ideas & Life

Ideas are the offspring
Of mother and father ideas;
They are the begotten children
Of their times and places;
They can only come
When their times come;
They are the instruments of change
Which set the rhymes and rhythms of life.
01.28.14

Truth & Popularity

Truth sayers are not popular figures
Because humanity has an aversion
To crude, unembellished truths.
01.27.14

Reality & Magic

Because we are so constituted
To prefer magic and superstition
To the inclement vicissitudes of reality
We believe those who forcefully advocate
Simple solutions for our complex problems
Offer simple explanations for complex issues
And proclaim to see the unforeseeable future.
01.26.14

Power & Freedom

Corruption rises in proportion
To the power and freedom we attain;
In the powers and freedoms we all seek
Lurk the seeds of abuse and self destruction.
01.25.14

Forgetting & Forgiving

We forget favors others bestow on us
But not favors we bestow on others;
We forget insults we hurl at others
But not insults others hurl at us;
With nonchalant ease
We forgive our own mistakes
But labor and feel magnanimous
When we forgive the mistakes of others.
01.24.14

Hope & Faith

When we let go
With hope in the future
Letting go is sweet melancholy;
But, when we let go
With no future hopes
Letting go is bitter grief;
Holding on to hope
When we let go
Is faith.
01.23.14

Forgiving & Relief

Forgiving
Relieves the forgiver
More than it relieves the forgiven;
Not to forgive is to invite anger and hate
To become permanent residents
Of one’s vacant heart.
01.22.14

Nature & Grooming

Nature’s beauty
Is superior to human-made beauty
Except when it comes to grooming;
A well groomed person looks better
Than an ungroomed person.
01.21.10

Oblivion & Joy

Oblivion is nature’s gift, essential for joy;
Unless we forget all the world’s miseries
And humanity’s continuous sufferings
We would not be able to achieve joy.
01.20.13

Living & Struggling

Living the good life
Must be done in spite of
And not after troubles are over;
The art of living is the art of struggling.
01.19.14

Boredom & Passions

Boredom comes from the lack of passions;
A mind, which cultivates passions
Has no time to get bored.
01.18.14

Love & Peace

Love, a tense, laborious passion
And peace, a placid state
Seldom coexist;
But, regardless of cost
Youth prefers love’s turmoil
Age prefers the tranquility of peace
And to remain young, we need to retain
Love's youthful passions regardless of cost.
01.17.14

Joy & Grief

Joy takes away grief;
Inviting it into grief is a virtue;
Barring it to remain mired in grief
Is refusing to celebrate spring
After a long, bleak winter.
01.16.14

Complexity & Joy

Complexity diminishes joy
But does not diminish crime;
Still, as a society, we compete
In elaborating more complexities
But remain incapable of simplifying.
01.15.14

Corruption & Society

In advanced societies
Corruption is concealed
And considered shameful;
In primitive societies
It is a source of pride
And considered normal.
01.15.14

Youth & Age

Growing younger with age
Is our most important task;
Regardless of limits imposed
By our ever diminishing bodies
Our minds must be kept ablaze
With youthful fires and desires.
01.14.14

People & Play

Taking time to play
Makes us better people;
In all of us there is a child
Who wants to frolic and play
And should be encouraged to do so.
01.13.14

Pollution & Primitiveness

When in the not-so-far future
Our planet develops pollution asthma
Our planetary antipollution police
Will shutdown all polluting industries
And our suffering, future generations
Will refer to our smoggy centuries
As the ecologically primitive era.
01.12.14

Self & Selfless

Those who don’t talk about themselves
Nor promote their own opinions and ideas
When they have a captive audience
Are the ones worth listening to.
01.11.14

Photographs & Reality

Photographs
Taken when we’re ready
Always seem happier
Than our realities.
01.10.14

Denial & Trouble

With our planet
Exploding with troubles
We continue to falsely believe
That the troubles of others are not ours
And that our troubles are not those of others.
01.09.14

knowledge & Hubris

If knowledge
Does not teach us
How much we don’t know
It closes our minds with hubris.
01.08.14

Agreement & Dissonance

When we wait
For everyone to agree
We achieve nothing
But dissonance.
01.07.14

Hearts & Peace

Preparing our hearts
To seize coincidences
To dislike with difficulty
To doubt first impressions
To give without expectation
To trust with caution
To love with ease
To temper anger
To humor life
And to antidote hate
With deeper understanding
Are but means to inner peace.
01.06.14

Languages & Peoples

Languages are costumes we wear
Which unite and separate us;
They unite those who speak the same tongue
And separate those who don’t;
Even within the same language
Different uses differentiate groups;
How we speak and what we say
Announces where we came from
To what we wish to belong
And whom we wish to be.
01.05.14

Forgetting & Remembering

Forgetting the bad
Is just as important
As remembering the good;
How horrible life would be if we
Remembered the bad & forgot the good?
Forgetting should be guided by forgiveness
And remembering, by gratitude.
01.04.14

Memories & Childhood

Regardless of current age
When we’re with childhood friends
We reflexly become children;
Memories tether past to present.
01.03.14

New Years & New Loves

New years bring new loves;
The wealthiest among us will be
Those who at the end of the year
Will have amassed the most love.
01.02.14

Effects & Causes

Effects
Have causes;
The less important
Are the more visible
And the more important
Are the less visible.
01.01.14