Tagged: wisdom Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • mistermuse 1:01 am on September 5, 2020 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: groundhog, , , platitudes, , , , wisdom   

    FOR THE TIME BEING 

    It’s been some time since I laid some poetry on you, but all good things must end (i.e., your luck has run out). What I’m getting at is, I’ve decided to resurrect a few old poems, as well as come up with a new one or two. If you object, you have the right to remain Soylent* because….

    *Soylent: foodstuff made of soybeans and lentils

    A POEM OF EXCEPTIONAL TASTE

    Soybeans and lentils — what a treat!
    I can think of nothing I’d rather eat!*
    Just savor the flavor — they can’t be beat*….
    But then, I’m a groundhog, so I don’t eat meat.

    *except for watermelon: https://riversworld.live/2020/09/04/summer-means-watermelon/

    I’LL TAKE A BRAINCHECK

    “The difference between intelligence and wisdom is that intelligence is knowing half of what you hear or read is garbage, and wisdom is knowing which half.” –Seymour Fisher

    From dilemmas of that class,
    You’ll have to exempt me —
    I’m still stuck on “Is the glass
    Half full or half empty?”

    WISE-ASS PLATITUDES

    Utmost is the wisdom of the platitude —
    But most, sadly, are lacking in latitude.
    Is there never need for deviance?
    I think I shall file a grieviance!
    The grounds? Let’s just say they have an ATTITUDE.

    LONG TIME, NO SEE

    Youth is the stuff of time and place
    The race of years cannot erase,
    Seen through eyes too unwise to see
    That all was not what it seemed to be.

    Age is the stuff of hedging bets,
    Of things undone and old regrets,
    Seeing ourselves as others do,
    Thinking “And so, what else is new?”

     

     
    • blindzanygirl 1:17 am on September 5, 2020 Permalink | Reply

      Brilliant. I love ‘em

      Liked by 5 people

    • calmkate 2:48 am on September 5, 2020 Permalink | Reply

      give me lentils and soybeans any day … love SFs quote, says it all!
      Like the clip 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

      • mistermuse 6:56 am on September 5, 2020 Permalink | Reply

        That’s not the first time I’ve used that song. Here’s the clip of I DON’T CARE (sung by Judy Garland) in a post from Jan. 2019:

        Liked by 2 people

    • rawgod 4:03 am on September 5, 2020 Permalink | Reply

      • Just curious, was the soylent green? or just silent?

      And might I suggest ATTITUDE with an ATTTITTUDDE, dude?

      Liked by 2 people

      • mistermuse 7:17 am on September 5, 2020 Permalink | Reply

        Maybe this answers your first question:

        Your second question is a bit of a stretch, in my HUMBLE opinion.

        Like

    • Rivergirl 7:05 am on September 5, 2020 Permalink | Reply

      Ode to a woodchuck?
      Love it!

      Liked by 2 people

      • rawgod 9:38 am on September 5, 2020 Permalink | Reply

        Actually, Owed to a Woodchuck! But as usual for non-humans, the woodchuck never got the royalties…

        Liked by 1 person

        • mistermuse 10:00 am on September 5, 2020 Permalink

          Rivergirl did share her watermelon with the woodchucks, to whom I’m sure watermelon in the paws is worth royalties in the bush.

          Like

    • Rivergirl 7:13 am on September 5, 2020 Permalink | Reply

      Immortalized in poem?
      The woodchucks are honored.

      Liked by 1 person

    • Eliza 5:35 pm on September 5, 2020 Permalink | Reply

      This made me smile
      I like the definition of wisdom…

      Liked by 2 people

    • magickmermaid 6:19 pm on September 5, 2020 Permalink | Reply

      One of the worst films I’ve ever seen was that terrible one called Soylent Green.
      I didn’t know I had a theme song. 🙂
      More poetry, please!

      Liked by 1 person

      • mistermuse 6:56 pm on September 5, 2020 Permalink | Reply

        “More poetry”? You talked me into it, mm — more poetry coming up (but I won’t say how soon, as I don’t want to lose any readers who haven’t recovered from this post yet).

        As for your “theme song,” here’s an alternative in case you want to upgrade from I DON’T CARE:

        Like

    • arekhill1 4:39 pm on September 6, 2020 Permalink | Reply

      Nicely written, Sr. Muse.

      Liked by 2 people

      • mistermuse 6:19 pm on September 6, 2020 Permalink | Reply

        Gracias, Ricardo. As the lyrics of the above song say, “I should care — and I do.”

        Like

    • Ana Daksina 1:41 pm on September 15, 2020 Permalink | Reply

      I have no grieviance with this work!

      PS — The reader who wants “more poetry” is a keeper

      Liked by 1 person

      • mistermuse 4:11 pm on September 15, 2020 Permalink | Reply

        Thanks, Ana. Actually, all my readers (including you) are keepers….and even though I enjoy my job as a “you” keeper and get well paid in Likes and Comments, I wouldn’t object to an occasional cash bonus! 😉

        Liked by 1 person

        • Ana Daksina 9:17 pm on September 15, 2020 Permalink

          You’d have no greviance with it? 🤣

          Liked by 1 person

        • mistermuse 10:09 pm on September 15, 2020 Permalink

          If by “it”, you mean my previous comment, I do have second thoughts, in that (unlike “grieviance” in the WISE-ASS PLATITUDES poem in the post) it didn’t come off as well as I intended. Even so, I won’t turn down an “additional cash bonus” for trying.

          Like

    • masercot 11:47 am on September 16, 2020 Permalink | Reply

      That first one had Rivergirl written all over it…

      Liked by 1 person

      • mistermuse 12:34 pm on September 16, 2020 Permalink | Reply

        You got that ‘write’ — her SUMMER MEANS WATERMELON post of Sept. 4 was my ‘inspiration’ for the first poem.

        Like

  • mistermuse 12:00 am on September 28, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: black cat, , , , , , , wisdom   

    CONFUCIUS SAY HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW 

    Today is birthday of Chinese philosopher Confucius, born September 28, 551 BC (not to be Confucius-ed with Chinese philosopher who long Ago Too Young die like fool, choking on egg). Confucius, of course, left us even more wise old sayings than the inscrutable Charlie Chan, which was pen name of writer called None the Wiser (not to be Confucius-ed with his agent — a gent named Ah So).

    In any case, in the interest of being fair and balanced and sly as a Fox, we herewith present selection of Confucius sayings to go along with those in CHARLIE CHAN post of Sept. 15. No matter which you prefer, may you benefit from their wisdom, and may all your male children be wise guys.

    I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

    The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat.

    Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.

    Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.

    He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.

    The funniest people are the saddest ones.

    Sad to say, my work here is dumb….make that done. On second thought, maybe right first time.

     

     
    • Garfield Hug 12:56 am on September 28, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Mistermuse you have outdone yourself in the humor category….I laughed so loudly!!😂😂

      Liked by 1 person

    • Richard Cahill 9:33 am on September 28, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      In the spirit of your previous blog, I’ll be sure to raise a stein to the memory of Confucius this weekend, Sr. Muse.

      Liked by 1 person

      • mistermuse 9:55 am on September 28, 2017 Permalink | Reply

        And in spirit of comment to previous blog post, Sr. Muse happily return Salud to you, Ricardo.

        Like

    • Forestwoodfolk 7:25 pm on September 28, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Great minds think alike. Thanks for visiting me and commenting on my blog post about quotes and their meanings. Funny that we should do Confucius at the same time
      And it was his birthday!!

      Liked by 1 person

      • mistermuse 8:25 pm on September 28, 2017 Permalink | Reply

        I used to visit your blog fairly often but somehow got off track, which was my loss. Now that I’ve come across your blog again, I’ll try to keep up more regularly.

        Like

    • Don Frankel 4:21 pm on September 29, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Nice Muse but I’m beginning to think that Confucius might be like Yogi in that he might not have said all the things he said.

      Liked by 1 person

      • mistermuse 4:37 pm on September 29, 2017 Permalink | Reply

        I got the same feeling when I read the “black cat” quote, Don. That one in particular seems suspect, in my opinion.

        Like

    • markscheel1 4:56 pm on September 30, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Muse,

      My favorite is “Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.” But it left me with the question, how do we tell the difference?

      Mark

      Liked by 1 person

      • mistermuse 7:56 pm on September 30, 2017 Permalink | Reply

        Good question, Mark. I’d say the answer is BY COMPARISON: Confucius with Trump, for example (though Trump does seem to have made some “cosmetic” changes over the years).

        Like

  • mistermuse 12:00 am on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Eleanor Powell, , Golda Meir, , , , , , wisdom   

    AGE WISE 

    For the benefit of my fellow geezers out there who may not be aware of it, May is OLDER AMERICANS MONTH (not to be confused with NATIONAL SENIOR CENTER MONTH (September) or NATIONAL ACCORDION MONTH (June). Accordionly, May you and I bask in the recognition which is due us for living long enough to pass along our well-earned wisdom to those who don’t want to hear it.

    To be sure, there is also a slight  drawback about old age: there’s not much future in it….but otherwise, it’s not a bad time to be alive. At any rate, it beats the alternative — or so they say (as if “they” have experienced said alternative).  On the flip side, there are many timely quotes on the age-old subject of age, so let’s put on our reading glasses and see if we can make heads or tails of some of them:

    If  I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself. –Anonymous

    An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have: the older she gets, the more interested he is in her. –Agatha Christie

    Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone. –Jim Fiebig

    Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. –Susan Ertz

    Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do. –Golda Meir

    Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. –Chili Davis

    You’re only as old as the girl that you feel. –Groucho Marx

    Time may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician. –Anonymous

    If you worry, you die. If you don’t worry, you also die. So why worry? –Mike Horn

    I was going to use that last quote to close with the song DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY, but on the occasion of the birthday (May 10, 1899) of the never-grows-old Fred Astaire, this song and dance make me happy to change my tune:

     

     

     

     
    • Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, MCC, SCAC 12:38 am on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Hysterical first paragraph (even the pun), and I always love the quotes you feature. I heard the first quote, btw, with “my teeth” replacing “myself” – both are apt and only slightly funny once you get old enough to be considered a senior. 🙂

      Love-love-LOVE the tap number – rarely seen in today’s dance shows (unless you want to count the choreography of STOMP or a few contestants on So You Think You Can Dance, where it is rarely featured predominantly). Thank you for making me grin by posting.

      Crazy about Astaire, but must chime in again that it’s a shame that his partners never seem to have gotten the credit they deserve – rarely credited at all, actually, when Fred Astaire numbers are posted (even here). ::sigh::

      ANYWAY, Happy Older Americans Month! Let’s get up out of our rockers and rock the month!
      xx,
      mgh
      (Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMORE dot com)
      ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
      “It takes a village to educate a world!”

      Liked by 1 person

      • mistermuse 7:57 am on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

        And a Happy to you as well, Madelyn! 🙂

        I have to disagree (in part) about Fred’s partners not getting the credit they deserve. I think Ginger got a lot of credit — the whole world knows immediately that when you say Fred and Ginger, you’re referring to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. In my opinion, it was some of his other partners who didn’t receive enough credit, even though they were considered better dancers than Ginger (Eleanor Powell, Rita Hayworth, Cyd Charisse). Of course, Ginger made many more films with Fred than they, and built the sustained magic with Fred that wasn’t possible in one or two films with other partners. But there is magic nonetheless in such clips as his tap dance with Eleanor Powell!

        P.S. I didn’t think it necessary to mention Eleanor’s name in introducing the clip because her name appears in the clip photo itself….and, after all, it’s HIS birthday, not her’s!

        Liked by 1 person

        • Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, MCC, SCAC 1:33 pm on May 10, 2017 Permalink

          Great points. btw – this would be a great post to share on today’s Senior Salon – the little couch at the bottom of May’s Mental Health Calendar has a direct link.
          xx,
          mgh

          Liked by 1 person

        • mistermuse 3:09 pm on May 10, 2017 Permalink

          Thanks for the share suggestion, Madelyn, but I don’t think you appreciate what a dufus I am with regard to the internet. I don’t see “the little couch at the bottom of May’s Mental Health Calendar,” and even if I did, I probably wouldn’t know what to do with it to share this post. I ain’t an old geezer for nothing! 🙂

          Like

    • scifihammy 2:24 am on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks for the laugh! 😀 An hilarious post – plus the bonus of Fred Astaire! 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    • Michaeline 5:29 am on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      mistermuse, I liked your posts, and especially your quotes while I enjoy the warm, sunny coast of Florida. I think of most poets that you are the most congenial, better than an epidural by far, and I wish on a star that you stay as young as you are.

      Liked by 1 person

      • mistermuse 9:25 pm on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

        Not only am I better than an epidural, I’m better than an epidemic (though an epicurean might give me problems — it would be an epic contest). 😦

        Like

    • linnetmoss 6:38 am on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Haha! These were great. I have been watching my scoops of ice cream fall in slow motion for some time now, and I’ve decided that laughter is the only medicine. And a little Eleanor Powell (such a worthy partner for Fred) never hurts…

      Liked by 1 person

      • mistermuse 9:15 pm on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

        Unfortunately, those scoops of ice cream never fall in slow enough motion to catch them before they hit the ground (or your shoes) — leaving you standing there holding an empty cone and looking like an idiot (make that ME looking like an idiot — I’m sure you would look like you were just giving your dog a treat….or your dogs a treat, if the scoop hit your feet). 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    • calmkate 7:00 am on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      How delightful lol … Fred and Ginger are my favourites, you got the wrong gal.
      I intend growing old disgracefully … any one care to join me?

      Liked by 1 person

      • mistermuse 8:14 am on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

        Thanks to all for your comments. Calmkate, I’m not sure there’s any such thing as “the wrong gal” when it came to dancing with Fred — even a non-dancer like Joan Fontaine looked pretty good dancing with Fred in DAMSEL IN DISTRESS. But I agree that Ginger was special.

        As for growing old disgracefully — you go, girl! 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

        • calmkate 8:18 am on May 10, 2017 Permalink

          “wrong girl” in that it wasn’t me … 😦
          Joan was a hero of mine but last I saw she should have retired .. her partner had to carry her around the stage … it was so sad

          Liked by 1 person

    • Don Frankel 8:46 am on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      A wise man once said. “Don’t look back something may be gaining on you.” He also said. “Age is mind over matter. If you don’t mind it don’t matter.”

      If you believe that baseball is life as I do then another wise man put it best. “70% of baseball is mental. The rest of it is in your mind.”

      Liked by 1 person

    • mistermuse 11:31 am on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Don, for the benefit of the baseball uninitiated, the wise men you quoted were Satchel Paige and Yogi Berra. But there can’t be just two wise men — there must be three. So here’s a quote from Tommy Lasorda: “I love doubleheaders. That way I get to keep my uniform on longer.”

      Whatever happened to doubleheaders, anyway?

      Like

    • MC Clark 12:48 pm on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      I’m still wondering how the heck I got here…I was 25 just the other day. 🙁
      Thanks for the laughs!

      Liked by 1 person

    • Ricardo 2:57 pm on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      We grow old too early and wise too late, Sr. Muse. On the other hand, you can dispense with any effort to acquire wisdom at all, and take comfort in the assertion that there’s no fool like an old fool, and congratulate yourself for being on top of the fool chain.

      Liked by 1 person

    • mistermuse 5:19 pm on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Well, at least I’m not on top of the drool chain yet, Ricardo. Hopefully it will never come down to that.

      Like

    • Don Frankel 6:34 pm on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      One good turn deserves another and we can’t leave this guy out on this subject. “The Yankees fired me because I turned 70. I’ll never let that happen again.” Casey Stengel.

      Then there was Warren Spahn who played for Casey before he managed the Yankees and later when Casey managed the Mets. “I worked for Casey before and after he was a genius.”

      Liked by 1 person

    • Margarita 10:14 pm on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      As I said to a friend recently, I love being an old person! 😉 xoM

      Liked by 1 person

    • mistermuse 11:37 pm on May 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      As Thoreau once said, “None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.” You obviously haven’t outlived yours, Margarita. 🙂

      Like

    • D. Wallace Peach 12:19 pm on May 11, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      I love the humor in your intro and these quotes are great. Susan Ertz was my favorite, but the anonymous one about the lousy beautician made me laugh. Great post. Happy Belated Birthday!

      Liked by 1 person

    • mistermuse 2:46 pm on May 11, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Thank you, Diana….and I’m sure Fred Astaire, from that great ballroom in the sky, thanks you as well (for the Happy Birthday wishes). 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    • Pat 3:04 pm on May 11, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Synchronicity . . . love it. I just signed up for Silver Sneakers today and didn’t even know it was Older Americans Month. First time over here and enjoyed the quotes — not done yet in these golden years – just figuring that out. Forever young (Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire) — fun to watch them again. Thank you for sharing. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    • M. Talmage Moorehead 4:35 pm on May 11, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      I can’t believe how much I enjoyed that dance. They must have practiced endlessly to remember all those details. Eleanor Powell blew me away. The guy was good, too. Hahaha

      Liked by 1 person

    • mistermuse 4:47 pm on May 11, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      I had the same reaction as I watched it when selecting it for this post — and I had already seen it probably 5 or 6 times over the years.

      Like

    • BroadBlogs 11:13 pm on May 14, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Pithy: “Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.” –Chili Davis

      Liked by 1 person

    • Bette A. Stevens 12:57 pm on May 25, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Fun and funny! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    • restlessjo 2:47 am on May 31, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Magic! What a way to start my day 🙂 🙂 How does he manage such energy and elegance combined? Many thanks for sharing.

      Liked by 1 person

      • mistermuse 11:25 am on May 31, 2017 Permalink | Reply

        In a word, Astaire was a perfectionist. Such ease and elegance came from untold hours of practice and hard work (not to mention, natural talent)!

        Liked by 1 person

    • Zinni 1:40 pm on June 2, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      It’s never too late to cherish the disappointment of a scoop of ice cream falling from the cone

      Liked by 1 person

    • Zinni 1:40 pm on June 2, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      😍

      Liked by 1 person

    • kertsen 3:30 am on June 29, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Keep up the good work. Old age is very relaxing I have great difficulty getting out of my chair.

      Liked by 1 person

  • mistermuse 12:01 am on February 15, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Greeks, , John Keats, ODE ON A GRECIAN URN, , , , , , , , wisdom,   

    GRECIAN EARNS PLATO’S PLAUDITS; ‘REMAINS’ SILENT 

    “Beauty is truth, truth beauty — that is all
    Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
    –John Keats, from ODE ON A GRECIAN URN

    On this day in February, 399 BC (according to onthisday.com) occurred the fateful trial of the famed Grecian philosopher Socrates, of whom it is said that he didn’t put anything in writing during his lifetime — or even afterward, for that matter. This might lead one to think he was either paranoid or illiterate. By all odes, however, he was neither — otherwise his life/trial/death-by-hemlock would have earned him no esteem….and in theory, the following quotes attributed to Socrates might have been not only recorded by, but credited to, Plato (as well as others Greek to me):

    Wisdom begins in wonder.

    The unexamined life is not worth living.

    To find yourself, think for yourself.

    By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.

    I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

    But why should Plato and a few of his fellow G(r)eeks get all the credit for handing down what Socrates supposedly said? I may not be quite as ancient as they, but I go back far enough to be able to confide with the utmost confidence that Socrates never denied saying the following:

    Wisdom begins in wonder….and ends the same way.

    There’s no fool like an old fool. (On the other hand, some of us “old fools” prefer to think of ourselves as misanthropically eccentric seniors.)

    It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness. (Or, you could just pay your electric bill on time.)

    My wife would talk to a wooden Indian. (That’s why I keep a wooden Indian around the house.)

    All’s well that ends well. (Well, I don’t know about that….but I suppose if it was good enough for the doomed Socrates, it’s good enough for the likes of Shakespeare and mistermuse.)

    THE END

     

     

     
    • linnetmoss 7:33 am on February 15, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      What the long-suffering Socrates actually said about wives, according to Xenophon (Symp. 2.10):
      “If that is your view, Socrates,” asked Antisthenes, “how does it come that you don’t practise what you preach by yourself educating Xanthippe, but live with a wife who is the hardest to get along with of all the women there are—yes, or all that ever were, I suspect, or ever will be?”

      “Because,” he replied, “I observe that men who wish to become expert horsemen do not get the most docile horses but rather those that are high-mettled, believing that if they can manage this kind, they will easily handle any other. My course is similar. Mankind at large is what I wish to deal and associate with; and so I have got her, well assured that if I can endure her, I shall have no difficulty in my relations with all the rest of human kind.”

      These words, in the judgment of the guests, did not go wide of the mark.

      Liked by 3 people

    • Don Frankel 8:20 am on February 15, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Muse are you saying that Socrates was like Yogi in that he didn’t say all the things people say he said? Or was it just that there was no pen and paper as yet and he didn’t feel like hammering away with a chisel and a piece of stone? He thought it was just to crude.

      Liked by 2 people

    • mistermuse 8:29 am on February 15, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks, Linnet — I appreciate your very interesting comment.

      From what I’ve read (admittedly limited) of the writings of Plato and Xenophon re Socrates, Plato’s were the more brilliant/less literal, and Xenophon’s the more prosaic….so, assuming that the latter took fewer or no liberties with Socrates’ words, “What the long-suffering Socrates actually said about wives” was indeed on the mark. However, whatever the “By all means, marry” quote lost in translation, length-and-literatim-wise, it apparently captured gist-wise.

      Like

    • mistermuse 8:38 am on February 15, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Don, I think they had papyrus by Socrates’ time, but they definitely didn’t have a Yogi Berra. Too bad, because he was a man for the ages!

      Liked by 1 person

    • arekhill1 12:01 pm on February 15, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      As our nation undergoes this period of fractious foolishness, Sr. Muse, reflect that it was old fools who elected one of their own as our leader.

      Liked by 1 person

    • mistermuse 1:33 pm on February 15, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Apparently, they wanted one of their own kind in the White House, Ricardo (notice I said “they” instead of “old fools” because I disavow guilt by association).

      Like

    • Colane Conundrum 4:57 pm on February 18, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      I recall that Socrates called writing “the dead flower of speech.”

      I’m not sure if he was responding to my blog … or maybe he just wasn’t a good gardener?

      In any event, we’re lucky Plato recorded all of Socrates’s wisdom so future humanities students could groan about it in Philosophy 101. I can’t remember quite how they go, but I recall one where Socrates said “Don’t put words in my mouth!” while Plato scribbled away furiously, putting words in his mouth.

      Or something like that. I’m not sure; I didn’t do to well in humanities. Clearly.

      Liked by 2 people

    • mistermuse 5:54 pm on February 18, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Clearly a Conundrum. I, on the other hand, might be labeled a Punundrum, judging by all the groans my writing seems to induce. It probably has something to do with a prophet being without honor in his own puntry (I know that’s not exactly what Jesus said, but Jesus, give me a break).

      Liked by 2 people

    • literaryeyes 9:10 pm on February 22, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Good one: Wisdom begins in wonder….and ends the same way. And lots of confuciousness in between.

      Liked by 1 person

  • mistermuse 4:36 pm on December 8, 2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , wisdom, youth   

    WE HOLD THESE (REVISED) TRUTHS 

    Today, we shall consider that
    Mirror which we call truth,
    When we see that where we’re at
    Is years past the face of youth.

    Now, truth can be a revelation,
    Or in the cards we cash;
    Truth may deal in hesitation,
    Or may come in a flash.

    Far be it from me to tell you
    What you should/should not believe.
    Let’s just say you would do well to
    Neither youth, nor self, deceive.

     
    • Michaeline Montezinos 12:37 am on December 9, 2014 Permalink | Reply

      mistermuse, I liked your poem. The search for truth can be difficult. It is buried a pile of poor TV broadcating, the often deceitful social media and waves of stupid commentary. I am always on a quest to be true to myself. I began when I was about 7 years old.

      Liked by 1 person

    • mistermuse 7:53 am on December 9, 2014 Permalink | Reply

      When you were 7 years old? You mean only 20 years ago? Who says most 20-somethings are shallow and immature!

      Like

    • arekhill1 10:25 am on December 9, 2014 Permalink | Reply

      Who’s saying I’m not shallow and immature? Age has nothing to do with it.

      Like

    • mistermuse 3:00 pm on December 9, 2014 Permalink | Reply

      You’re probably right. According to the bible, Methuselah lived to the age of 969 and had 700 wives and 300 concubines. If nothing else, he was a glutton for punishment

      Like

    • Don Frankel 4:14 pm on December 9, 2014 Permalink | Reply

      “Beauty is truth and truth beauty. That is all ye need to know.” Supposedly.

      Like

      • mistermuse 4:48 pm on December 9, 2014 Permalink | Reply

        I’ll go with “supposedly.” I need to know a lot more about computer viruses because my computer has become infected, and even my more-savvy wife (whose computer I’m on now) can’t cure it. Until it gets fixed, my computer use is going to be limited to when her computer is free, so MONEY: THE LOOT OF ALL EVIL may be my last post for a while.

        Like

    • Michaeline Montezinos 5:49 pm on December 9, 2014 Permalink | Reply

      Sorry to hear that your computer is on the fritz. mistermuse. You are bit off the numbers regarding my age. I do thank you for the compliment, however. I am 39 and in a holding pattern while flying above the airport, the final destination for every body. It may be a long wait since my family thinks I am getting younger than growing older. Must be in my genetic pool and all the clean living I have done since my gradustion. My eight grade graduation, that is. I did get a bit flirty in high school, I admit. That is the time when teenagers get to have some fun. Hope you get your computer fixed soon, Dear heart.

      Like

  • mistermuse 1:28 pm on March 29, 2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: agnostics, , Arianna Huffington, , , cynics, , , , , , , skeptics, , , wisdom   

    SCOFFER, BUT WISER 

    I tend to be drawn more to the wisdom of those who question everything than to “accepted” wisdom, since no one knows everything — no one I know and trust, that is. But what of God, who (I was taught) does know everything. As an American, how could I not trust God? The proclamation IN GOD WE TRUST is all-inclusively bannered on our country’s legal tender –which, if you stop to think, seems an odd bearer for it, given the admonishment that money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10).

    Be that as it may, the thing about God is like the thing about truth — exactly whose God, whose truth are we talking about? To paraphrase the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, you’re entitled to your own God, your own truth — but not your own facts. If you take the discrepant God of divergent religions for a fact, how can a fact divided against itself stand?  Aren’t we left with the logic that no deity conceived by humans has a basis in fact? But you knew that …. right?

    I don’t believe in any religion’s God (which isn’t the same as not believing in a Creator), but if I did, why would I want to take the life of, or coerce, a man of a different faith — both of our faiths are, after all, only fallible beliefs. Better to take the measure of human folly, as observed and recorded by those who have questioned everything:

    The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunk man is happier than a sober one.  –George Bernard Shaw

    If absolute power corrupts absolutely, where does that leave God?  –George Deacon

    I don’t pray because I don’t want to bore God.  –Orson Welles

    When I was a kid, I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.  —Emo Phillips

    Religion, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.  –Ambrose Bierce (THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY)

    Many a long dispute among divines may be thus abridged: It is so. It is not so. It is so. It is not so.  –Ben Franklin 

    Well, you could become a Southern Baptist. I mean, instead of having to obey the Pope, you could just obey your husband.  –Arianna Huffington

    The only thing that stops God from sending a second flood is that the first one was useless.  –Nicolas Chamfort

    When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, “Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don’t believe?”  –Quentin Crisp

    I too much respect the idea of God to make it responsible for such an absurd world.  –Georges Duhamel

    Amen.

     

     
    • arekhill1 2:48 pm on March 29, 2014 Permalink | Reply

      I think that it is obvious that if there is a God, He eats over the sink.

      Like

    • mistermuse 7:54 pm on March 29, 2014 Permalink | Reply

      Or maybe over the john. Either way, it all ends up down the drain.

      Like

    • Don Frankel 3:38 am on March 30, 2014 Permalink | Reply

      Reminds me of the time my cousin went to Ireland. She was in a Pub when she was asked if she was a Protestant or a Catholic. She said. “I’m Jewish.” To which she was asked was she a Jewish Protestant or a Jewish Catholic.

      “World without end. Amen.”.

      Like

    • mistermuse 6:27 am on March 30, 2014 Permalink | Reply

      Love your “cousin” story, Don. It’s the perfect example of a one-track mind.

      Like

    • carmen 5:22 am on December 18, 2015 Permalink | Reply

      I think it makes more sense to believe that man made god(s) rather than the other way ’round.

      Liked by 1 person

  • mistermuse 9:45 am on October 18, 2013 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Conservative, Liberal, Libertarian, Non-fiction book review, Nurturant Parent Morality, Strict Father Morality, wisdom   

    WHY YOU THINK LIKE YOU THINK (BOOK REVIEW) 

    I’ve read a ton of books in my time — mostly fiction in my long-ago youth; mostly non-fiction in my dotage: biographical/autobiographical, historical and philosophical (including religious thinking, which, forgive me, covers a multitude of sins). Some of this reading has been for pure enjoyment and/or information, the rest for seeking answers to existential questions; but I suspect that almost all of it has been (consciously or not) a means of seeking to understand why people (including myself) are what they are. Although the old adage “seek and you shall find” has led to many eureka moments over the years, I’d never found a book that gave me “a whole new understanding of public discourse”* in the way that a book called MORAL POLITICS (2nd edition) does.

    It should be said at the outset that the title of the book (by cognitive linguist George Lakoff) doesn’t do it justice. Books about politics (moral or otherwise) rarely dig deep into why people are what they are….furthermore, this book is about much more than politics. The book’s subtitle, HOW LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES THINK, expands the sense of it, but again is about much more. It concerns not only how liberals and conservatives (and libertarians and moderates and others) think, but WHY they think how they think (they, of course, includes us — you and I). Seen In context, politics is but one public stage for the larger human drama (comedy?) in which we all play a part….in which we all ARE a part.

    I’d love to quote extensively from MORAL POLITICS, but that wouldn’t be kosher, would it? Instead, here’s a sampling of Part and Chapter titles, as well as several brief quotes from the book, to give an idea of the concepts that may take you, the potential reader, past where you’re at — If you are up to questioning hand-me-down mindsets and want the real “inside story” (and who, I ask with jaundiced eye, doesn’t have a passion for moving beyond received wisdom):

    Part II: Moral Conceptual Systems

    Experiential Morality
    Keeping the Moral Books
    Strict Father Morality
    Nurturant Parent Morality

    Part III: From Family-Based Morality to Politics

    Moral Categories in Politics

    Part IV: The Hard Issues

    Social Programs and Taxes
    Two Models of Christianity

    Part VI: Who’s Right? And How Can You Tell?

    Raising Real Children
    The Human Mind
    Basic Humanity

    RANDOM QUOTATIONS

    People who “deviate” from the tried and true path arouse enormous anger because they threaten the identities of those who follow traditional “straight and narrow” paths, but also because they are seen as threats to the community.

    The Bible, in itself and without interpretation, can say nothing at all about the kind of politics one should have. It is only through Strict Father and Nurturant Parent interpretations of the Bible that one is led to a conservative or liberal religious politics.

    Libertarians provide a very interesting challenge to the study of variations on a central model. Libertarians see themselves as forming a separate political category, neither liberal or conservative, but something unto itself. Analysis….suggests that their view of themselves is not entirely accurate.


    The fact that libertarians and political liberals both strongly advocate civil liberties is a superficial similarity. They do so for very different reasons, out of different moral impulses, with a very different spirit. Though two steps away from mainline conservatism, libertarians are conservatives in three very important respects: (1) Their concern with noninterference by the government comes directly out of conservatism. (2) They preserve primary conservative moral priorities: self-discipline, self-reliance, and individualism. (3) They do not give priority to the values of Nurturant Parent morality: empathy, nurturance, interdependence, fairness, and responsibility for others.

    *From a blurb on the book’s back cover quoting the late sociologist Robert Bellah (book is available on Amazon and elsewhere).

     

     
    • Don Frankel 1:17 pm on October 30, 2013 Permalink | Reply

      I ask myself that question all the time. I think every thinking person needs to.

      Like

    • mistermuse 7:00 pm on October 30, 2013 Permalink | Reply

      Would that everyone thought that way, Don – that would be the end of ideological and religious extremism.

      By the way, you probably noticed a delay between the time you made your comment and the time it was posted. That is because, on this site (unlike SWI), the “post-man” (me) sometimes has to approve a comment before it appears, so (depending on how often I check), a comment may not appear for hours.

      Thanks for the comment.

      Like

c
Compose new post
j
Next post/Next comment
k
Previous post/Previous comment
r
Reply
e
Edit
o
Show/Hide comments
t
Go to top
l
Go to login
h
Show/Hide help
shift + esc
Cancel