Reflections From a Murky Pond

Who Want Seconds?

That’s what it comes down to; does anyone want a second helping of the poisonous pottage that Obama’s been serving up?

I can’t see where anyone except the suicidally depressed would want to choked down any more of what the useless, little boy has cooked up. Then, I wouldn’t trust the pathetic fool with an Easy Bake Oven, much less nation – except, possibly, one of the Sub-Saharan Africa pseudo-states where he could do little meaningful harm.

Face it, the boy couldn’t even make a shit sandwich without what passes for his better telling him ho to do so!

This election stinks! The 2012 Presidential election is essentially a party line vote and predicated more upon party loyalty than anything else – and that is no way to do things.

Obama Or Romney? Some Choice.

So this will be America’s choice. Do we want the narcissistic, little Black boy who’s screwed things all to Hell and back, or do we want the narcissistic little White boy who’s unlikely to fix it?

I, for one, would have preferred a better set of choices – or, at least, a real choice – but the Establishment and Lamestream Media prevent that coming to pass – as the nature of the Republican Primary debates clearly showed.

Ah well…Like all Americans, I’ll hold my nose and try to vote Obama out – but I’ll keeps stocking up on ammo and other needful supplies.

Mr. Rogers – The Garden Of Your Mind

Auto-tuneish or not, it’s cool and fine that PBS is doing what they can bring Mr. Rogers into the 21st century.

For good or ill I was exposed to a great deal of literature as a young child and encouraged to take full advantage of that privilege. Consequently, I became an avid reader starting at what most would consider a very young – I won’t, however, say “tender” – age.

It followed quite naturally that my reading greatly influenced my thoughts upon many things

While many, many books of varied sorts influenced my views on myriad topics, I truly believe that no single work influenced my thoughts on living more than Robert Heinlein’s Time Enough For Love.

Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein finishes his “Future History” as presented to world by his then-editor, John W. Campbell. In it we are given a cornucopia of other stories, as Lazarus Long, now some 2300 years old, is induced to reminisce about his life as part of a complex deal to preserve the ‘wisdom’ of the oldest man alive. Each of the stories that Lazarus relates are fairly complete by themselves, and many authors would have chosen to publish each of them separately so as to maximize his monetary returns.

Heinlein, being the author and the man that we was, chose to keep them all as one piece, as each story helped to illuminate his overriding theme, on just what is love in all of its myriad aspects and why it is so important to man’s survival as a species.

This is a book that I strongly and most emphatically recommend for everyone, though not, perhaps, for children as young as I was when I first read it as it contains much that I prepubescent child cannot viscerally understand. This does, however, present a problem as many of the “lessons” contained within this work are best learned as young as possible.

Many Christians will have issues with this work; of this I have no doubts. I would suggest trying to get past this as the work contains many ethical and behavioral lessons of great worth.

If you can bring yourself to do so, put the situational details aside and absorb the underlying context and message.

Go to your your library and check it out if they have it. If not, buy it. In any event, read it. Personally, I’d suggest buying it since I’ve been returning to it for nigh on 40 years and love it still. It’s the sort of book that becomes an old friend and teacher – one that you keep coming back to and finding new meaning, joy, and sorrow in.

Time Enough For Love also contains two “interludes” which comprise the 64-page The Notebooks of Lazarus Long (Kindle), which I believe is a useful addition to anyone’s traveling library in the same fashion that Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Mushashi’s The Book of Five Rings, and Machiavelli’s The Prince are.

And yes, I know; it’s more than odd to include a work of fiction – science fiction at that! – alongside philosophical works such as I have done. Mr. Heinlein was that sort of man though. He, much like that radical rabbi from Nazareth, knew that parables teach far better than anything else.

It’s hard for people and societies to become who the God(s) intended us to be. It’s a complex process will little direct feedback. It’s also clouded by the plethora of disparate visions of just what the God(s) intended.

Becoming Who God Intended Is Hard

It seems to me that we need to make it easier for people and society to understand what leading a moral and ethical means. Rather than focusing upon what the God(s) intended us to become, people – and the world as a whole – would be better served by looking to Man’s Best Friend.

Becoming The Person Your Dog Thinks You Are Is Easier

For most people, if they concentrated on being the person that their dog already thinks that they are, almost everything else will fall into place quite naturally. Perhaps that’s even part of Natural Law, a part we’ve chosen to overlook with disturbing consistently over the last 15,000 years.

And let’s face it, there’s a solid chance that the God(s) intended each of us to be the person our dogs already think that we are.

I’ll even go so far as to posit that this may be why we have dogs. The God(s) may have provided them for just this purpose – to make it easier for us to be what we were meant to be. Of course, if this is true, then it’s equally likely that the God(s) provided cats to keep us in our place and from being too prideful. 😛