January 6, 2010
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A Musing for the New Year
“Hope, Paul said to me once, which whispered from Pandora’s box only after all the other plagues and sorrows had escaped, is the best and last of all things. Without it, there is only time. And time pushes at our backs like a centrifuge, forcing us outward and away, until it nudges us into oblivion…”
“…Like all things in the universe, we are destined from birth to diverge. Time is simply the yardstick of our separation. If we are particles in a sea of distance, exploded from an original whole, then there is a science to our solitude. We are lonely in proportion to our years.”
Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason, The Rule of Four, p. 196.
Comments (21)
I’m glad to see you are still with us John. I keep reading that first paragraph over and over.
Happy New Year to you too and hoping this year your blessings will multiply.
In the grand scheme of all things, it’s amazing how small and insignificant we are as individuals,yet we all still have the power to greatly affect the world around us utilizing our greatest asset…Love , and our most powerful weapon…The Smile
. Thanks for the good read John!
@TheEmeraldPixie - It’s intereresting how few people that I used to read regularly are still around Xanga any more. I suppose many of ‘em are over on Facebook now - as I am, too, but I still like Xanga.
Hope not too late to wish you Happy New Year 2010!
Hope is eternal.
Hey, i
PAID
a hundred bucks for
LIFETIME
, and if i live long enough to be downloaded i’ll STILL be posting on Xanga
It’s tough walking the tightrope of being able to opine without being opinionated and dispensing info from the three to five newspapers i read in a day PLUS what i pick up from the web news…actually <a href="discussed THIS with my niece and her boyfriend, Malcolm Ten, a wannabe X before Yahoo! picked it up…HE thought the avatars were Africans & i told him straight up that they’re supposed to be rain forest Indians…and whilst the movie was über-PREDICTABLE, it was a beautiful piece of cinema.
Off to work
Crap…half the comment was xangafucked
THAT is one of the major reasons my stuff is so disjointed
http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/some-see-racist-theme-alien-adventure-avatar-ap WAS riffing on that & it disappeared…gotta go to work now
i kicked around the lifetime thing,, i decided against it..
due to my time ravaged self, and my doing things that could in the end make time irrelevant,, i decided i may save money going one year at a time,,
whether or not in the long run ill save money remains to be seen..
right now,, ive saved money,, if i last one more payment,, that would be the break even point,,
what do you do on facebook? i use facebook,, daily,, all day,,, swap back and forth from here to there,, but on facebook,, i just play games..
i play my games,, then come back here,, and or sort thru my email while im waiting for my energy to return for the games on facebook,,,
not my energy,, hahahaha,, the game energy…
hope is fine,,, but isnt there some kind of action/reaction clause involved?
@mejicojohn - @EminemsRevenge - Somebody else paid for me to be a LIFETIME Xanga member, and I never found out who, and I didn’t know it cost $100, and I have no idea why anyone would pay, under normal circumstances, for something that’s free. What are the advantages, if any, of paying $100 to be a LIFETIME Xanga member?
I’m reminded of the time, many years ago, when I spent something like $10 or $20 to buy a LIFETIME subscription to some left-wing, alternative newspaper. “What an incredible deal!” I thought. Well, I got two or three issues and then nothing more. That’s when I learned that it was the LIFETIME of the newspaper, not MY lifetime. A lesson for a LIFETIME. *wry grin*
@mejicojohn - What do I do on Facebook, Mejicojohn? Well, besides the fabulous SEX that I’ve been able to get, I too play games. Pretty much only Scrabble now, since no one will play me the other word games any more.
I also read the posts of my Facebook Friends, and comment on them, and occasionally post something myself. Very rarely I’ll post the same thing on Facebook and here on Xanga. I send the occasional private message. In all those ways Facebook is not really very different from Xanga. But unfortunately you can’t play Scrabble here on Xanga.
You and I should be Facebook Friends, John. What do you call yourself over there?
And an interesting reference to your “time-ravaged self”. You had me convinced you were immortal.
@EminemsRevenge - OPINE without being OPINIONATED, my friend???? Hahahaha! You fell off THAT tightrope a LONG time ago!! Hahahahahaha!
ive found a time or two a simple year sub to a periodical pretty much covered its lifetime,, once with 10 months to spare,,, hahahahaha
lifetime xanga,, is lifetime premium,, i like premium,, i think it gives you 99 profile pics to use on comments,,, or change your default pic at random without erasing your old one..
and more storage here and there,,, theres ways around the storage,, so,, the profile pic i guess is what your paying for,,, and it of course takes ads off your page..
as far as tha annonomous gift,,, that just adds a crumb of truth to what i have always said.. people are inherently good… and dont need any government entity to redistribute our wealth…
and,, yea,, that would be awesome,,, just dont tell anybody my secret facebook name tho,,, its mejicojohn…
theres a couple of similar names i think,, mines just plain,,, mejicojohn… and my profile pic is of my back,, getting on my scooter… you cant really see the scooter,,, its really a pic of my scooter club colors,,,on my vest…
@mejicojohn - The reason we need government redistribution of wealth is this, John: Some people are very decent, yes, but they’re decent in small and managable ways. Whoever paid for my lifetime Xanga was very kind. Likewise the two people who have given me computers in the past few years. I do try, I will add, to give as much as I receive, in whatever way I can. I “pay it forward”. And the fact is that, during the course of my life, I have probably given FAR more to others than I’ve received. But there’s no adequate way to keep score, and it wouldn’t really matter anyway.
But the big things….I have no health insurance, and will have no Medicare when I’m 65. We’ve talked about that. No individual is going to give me Medicare (even though there are some who could make it possible, very easily, and I’ve tried to explain it to them). No individual is going to give me a lifetime of medical treatment. For the big things like basic shelter, food, medicine, etc. there needs to be an adequate safety net. And the “government” is the only thing big enough to guarantee that safety net.
All the government is, in theory, is all of US together, taking care of one another. Since we don’t all know each other personally, and there are too many of us, we need an intermediary to spread the wealth where it’s needed.
I know you’ll know never agree, John, but that’s because you have your basic needs taken care of. And no small amount of “luck” has played a part in that.
actually,, its not that we dissagree about the principle,, and i may never have said that.. actually i have in a post or two,, and a comment or two here and there…
ive also said socialism is very workable and a good plan…
socialism is when a group of people work together,,, for the sake of math well say thats 10 people,,, and have a product, or service that nets the group $100. they would each go home with $10.
if one person goes home with $55 and 9 go home with $5,,, then we have a business,,, we can call it a corporation,,, probably all union workers because that would in fact be a hefty rate of pay..
if one person goes home with $99.91 and the rest go home with $.01 then we have our current government. and that has strayed a long way from socialism,, altho thats what we like to call it…
every couple of years,, all money is taxed back by our fearless leaders.. all meaning 100%.
theoretically,, if you keep dividing a number,,, you can never get it to 0… to represent all of the money,,, but as we move along,, more money is printed out of thin air and loaned to banks to distribute as loans to businesses and people,, keeping money in circulation.
ok,, its not actually printed,, a lot of money is printed,, most money is nothing more than numbers on a computer..
since there is nothing to back the money,, it is worth less,, and takes more to buy what you want/need to buy…
inflation,, or devaluation tho,,, hahahaha,, is not the subject…
redistribution… as of yet,, whos any money been redistributed to? from what ive seen,, to the same people our fearless leaders were going to take it from to redistribute to the man on the street… leaving the man on the street to foot the bill… somethings wrong with that picture…
health care.. or health reform,, i prefer to call it health reform,, hahahaha,, because it is easier to argue against their plan…
universal insurance is not reform…its a mandatory insurance,, or tax to make sure everyone pays,, whether they are ever sick or not..
and insurance companies dont sell you insurance to lower your health costs.. they do it to make money,,, see,,, corporation,,, above…
a government run business is notorious for waste,,, and destined for failure… see,,, medicare in your comment above… and social security..
under the designed plan,, social security should be busting at the seams with money. it has been diverted tho for other use,,, or in my words,, stolen,, by our fearless leaders…
reform,, in my mind anyway would have to start with tort reform… it even has the word reform in it…
millions of dollars to a hapless patient… ok,, we all feel sorry for the hapless patient. but here we have a social agreement with a lawyer… its about a 50/50 split… the hapless patient goes home with no legs or whatever,, if he goes home at all,,, in which case some familly member gets the money…
the lawyer then meets with 10 more hapless patients to figure out the split…
whos actually winning here? the hapless patient,, or the lawyer?
and whos losing,?? the incometent dr,, or his patients in the waiting room? or the drs insurance company? or the patients insurance companies who are still waiting to be seen??
the drs insurance will go up,, he may have to hire a few more employees to cover his back,, (paperwork) he will raise his rates to compensate,,, he is a business…
the insurance companies now have to pay the dr more to cover his expenses,, so the patients insurance goes up…
in the end,, the only losers are those still waiting to be seen.
our fearless leaders can in fact afford to lose money with a government run insurance company,,, by fabricating more money… of course what that will do to the cost of a loaf of bread,,, another necessity,,, is another story.
no,, guaranteed insurance is not reform,,, and the fact everyone will have to buy it,,, would be more liken to a tax than insurance,, well,, a kind of insurance,,, the kind the mafia sells you to keep your business safe…
tort reform wont be brought up while discussing health reform,,, all our fearless leaders are lawyers,,, well,, theres that one,,, could be more,, hes a dr isnt he,,, hahahahaha,,, no one wants to reform their own business,,, they want to make money..
a government has its place,, to provide an army to protect its homeland…plroblem is,,, they alll eventually mutate into a monster…
kind of like this short comment…
RYC, I don’t remember what problem I might have mentioned between me and my father besides the generic not being understood or generic fear of saying something controversial or criticizing that might upset him or generic father not saying positive and encouragement.
Still around my good friend! Miss some of the old debates….I’ve gotten forgetful of all that I used to rally about. Take care.
Just saw your note on my post about being snowed in – ha! – perhaps he is trying to avoid discussion about child #4, but this mama has baby fever! We’ll see how long he can hold out, which may be forever as he seems pretty solid in his “decision” that 3 is enough.
. And yes, you are right, I should be content with what is, I just get a little stir crazy not having any adults to talk with some times – it kind of messes with my mind, but I’m working on it. How have you been?
are you on facebook?
@writers_blck - So if you had yet another baby, Rachel, wouldn’t that prolong the time during which you’d have little interaction with other adults?? I really don’t understand “baby fever” at all…but then, I’m a dude.
And yes, I am on Facebook. Are you? I’m much more active there of late because I can play Scrabble as well as post my thoughts and read others’ thoughts. A couple of my Scrabble adversaries on Facebook were met right here on Xanga.
sometimes oblivion sounds appealing