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