It is worth reminding ourselves that one can be entirely sincere and firm in one’s convictions–and entirely wrong. We must accept responsibility for whether we are right or wrong….Man’s “unlimited potential” is a term one hears often, and we are adjured to “fulfill it” as much as possible….The error is in treating potential as if it had no limits at all, as though life’s course were perpetually “onward and upward.” The illusion that we become “good” by progressing a little more each day is a doctrine bootlegged from technology and made into a dogma in ethics where it does not fit….in ethics, in aesthetics, in other matters of the spirit, the term progress in that sense has no place. Modern man is not ethically superior to Socrates and the Greeks, and although we build buildings differently  we do not make them more beautiful than the parthenon.  (From Power and Innocence.)

Well said.

Pulling your hair only hurts your head–

that’s what grandma always said.

If you can’t say something nice,

then tell the truth, said Cousin Ruth.

Sticks and stones

may break my bones

said brother Jones,

but words can really

piss me off!

The parole

of the troll

who stole

the payroll

won’t last long.

Inside, nestled into a corner of the brain, lies a chapel tucked away just in case we need it. Tear ducts have been installed for weeping, fingers for pointing, painting, and sometimes pinching. When glee or ecstasy overtake us, we are provided outlets for dancing and singing. On the long dark days of need, there is our inner chapel, deemed by some to be “the God gene.”  Why not?

The wind blows unseen

Fireflies dance in synchrony

Painter of sunsets