Isn't it amazing that everyone you know or have heard of who are geniuses with great creative talents are mostly running around with only one oar in the water? The very recent deaths of Michael Jackson and David Carradine of Kung Foo fame brought all this to the forefront for me. Michael Jackson was probably one of the most creative and successful geniuses in the music industry and his realities and baggage turned out to be so overwhelming and insurmountable that it obviously destroyed him in the end. Other crazy music artist names include: Mozart, Schubert, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven. Modern musical geniuses like James Taylor have been relatively public about battling mental illness and drug addiction.
In my hippy days, all my friends and I would show up at whoever had the largest screen television to watch our hero Kung Foo beat the crap out of the bad guys and loudly and with great gusto cheer him on in the process. We would listen to every word his master told him about reality and try to emulate the philosophies we learned into our daily lives. He was just this side of a god for all of us at that time.
He died HOW???
Holy crap, why doesn't reality just pull the rug out from under our feet?
I can go on and on with examples of great people all throughout history who we all looked up to and revered who turned out to be complete nut-cases in reality. Elvis Presley easily comes to mind for most everyone in that category huh? He might as well have been from a different planet toward the end of his career. Who was the great painter who cut his damn ear off for some reason only he understood? Wasn't his name Vincent Van Gogh?
The truth of my life, having been in the music world most of the time in one way or another, is most everyone I know and care about is half crazy. The most interesting, creative, intelligent people I knew and presently know in life and consider friends are all in that category compared with whatever normal means. I would bet the same is true of most of you. That out of all the people you've known, the crazy ones were the most fun to be around.
Even in my shop at the present time, I LOVE and try my hardest to bring out the nuttiness of my sometimes rather staid customers. My biggest thrill is taking some suited self important man and get him laughing right out loud at some stupid, politically incorrect statement I make. I take great pride in knowing I'm probably the only person in his life who gets away with treating him irreverently and outside his normal box. Now here's the wild part. They keep coming back for more, which tells me they like it. If I ask why, they tell me most everyone else treats them with phony respect and that gets tiresome in the long run. Being treated like normal idiots is refreshing as hell for them. So when they come in and I tell them to "Shut the hell up, sit down and wait they're turn". I know they are finally there when they say back "Oh stick it where the sun doesn't shine Paul".
I really don't think I'm stating a new idea here. I'll bet these facts have been studied and well documented by the mental health field for years now. Isn't this the most interesting thing though? All our lives we are taught to "be normal". "Don't stand out". "Watch how you behave and act". "You don't want society to think you're crazy or something is wrong with you".
And yet........and yet........everyone we love to see, hear, revere and appreciate are clearly a bubble off center aren't they? I suppose this gets back to the idea that if we were all exactly alike, what a boring ass world this would be. Then the world would be a world of robots and no one would want that would they?
Ok, my mission specalist is trying to contact me via my Viscal Assimulater.
Opps, did I say that outloud?
Never mind..........
So......who do you remember with a small smile? Your boring friends or your wild ones? You tell me........
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by clicking in the circle beside "Name/URL". Or just leave your comment anonymously by clicking on the circle beside "Anonymous".
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Come on.......DO IT!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Don't get old!
I was having lunch the other day at a Produce Deli in our little town and watched a very old couple walk through the door. They were probably in their eighties, maybe late eighties. They were both fairly emancipated, very small people who walked with super small steps to keep their balance, I guess.
I watched them shuffle over and order their lunch, then slowly make their way over to the table area where I was setting. As the little old lady slowly came right close by me, she stopped for a moment, looked me right in the eyes and simply said "Son, don't get old!", then walked on without another word to the table her husband was sitting at. For some reason, those serious, direct words coming from her affected me immensely at that moment and I'll never forget that little kind old ladies words of wisdom.
I'm like a lot of people around my young age......"^) I talk to at the shop. Most times I don't feel old at all. When I'm up and about my day, running around or at work, I feel.....oh, I don't know....maybe in my forties or younger most days. I still can do the hard yard work on the weekends. Cutting trees and limbs with the chain-saw, digging ditches or holes for placing posts in the ground, planting trees, spading up the garden. Any number of hard labor things I've always been able to do. Now of course I have to take a lot more frequent breaks for heavy breathing, complaining and plenty of water. Ok maybe now I have to do those things real early in the morning before it gets too hot. Where I used to be able to do those things all day long, now maybe a few hours and then I'm done for the day but by god, I can still do them.
One thing needs to be said here though. I have a longtime loving wife who has always and without fail jumped right in beside me on all those hard outside plans and chores. I'm certainly not sure how many of them I would have accomplished without her strong back and soul at my side all these years. In fact as one of my earlier blogs admitted, she most times was the one who started the whole thing and deserves all the credit for our beautiful house and yards.
The only times I truly might feel old is certainly when I first get up in the morning, what with all the grunting, groaning, popping noises coming from parts of my body and quiet bitching I do. Then when I first look into that bad ass lying mirror and see that white haired, wrinkly old fart looking back at me pretending to be me. I usually just cuss the old shit out and turn out the lights at least until I can brush my teeth and by then be a little more awake and partially sane.
There are a lot of great parts to getting older too for sure. My body feels the aches and pains but my mind....oh, my mind. I love what has happened to my mind as I get older and I hope wiser. I used to easily become intimidated by most anyone when I was young. I used to easily become embarrassed by the slightest little things and what people said to me in life.
Now, I could care less what people think about my thoughts or opinions about anything. I love being able to be blunt and honest and say what I mean and mean what I say without the slightest pause. I used to hem and haw and try and make up excuses when confronted by a salesman at stores or in my shop when they walked in. NOW.....oh yeah......NOW.....It's like, hell no, I don't want any of that plastic crap your selling and matter of fact, get the hell out of my face and my shop NOW! I LOVE THAT FACT! I even feel like and sometimes do a little jig dance afterward. By the way, I've had times where the customers waiting all broke out into applause after the rude and crude salesmen sulked outside.
So, I certainly don't have any idea how many more wonderful years I have left at this stage of my existence but I'm telling you right now, I'm going to live them out full blast, with all my heart and soul, laughing out loud as much as possible and to hell with what others may think of me.
The Golden Years
The Golden Years have come at last
I cannot see
I cannot pee
I cannot chew
I cannot screw (well, we'll leave that in for the sake of the rhyme)
My memory shrinks
My Body's drooping
Got trouble pooping
The Golden Years have come at last
The Golden Years can kiss my ass
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by clicking in the circle beside "Name/URL". Or just leave your comment anonymously by clicking on the circle beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
I watched them shuffle over and order their lunch, then slowly make their way over to the table area where I was setting. As the little old lady slowly came right close by me, she stopped for a moment, looked me right in the eyes and simply said "Son, don't get old!", then walked on without another word to the table her husband was sitting at. For some reason, those serious, direct words coming from her affected me immensely at that moment and I'll never forget that little kind old ladies words of wisdom.
I'm like a lot of people around my young age......"^) I talk to at the shop. Most times I don't feel old at all. When I'm up and about my day, running around or at work, I feel.....oh, I don't know....maybe in my forties or younger most days. I still can do the hard yard work on the weekends. Cutting trees and limbs with the chain-saw, digging ditches or holes for placing posts in the ground, planting trees, spading up the garden. Any number of hard labor things I've always been able to do. Now of course I have to take a lot more frequent breaks for heavy breathing, complaining and plenty of water. Ok maybe now I have to do those things real early in the morning before it gets too hot. Where I used to be able to do those things all day long, now maybe a few hours and then I'm done for the day but by god, I can still do them.
One thing needs to be said here though. I have a longtime loving wife who has always and without fail jumped right in beside me on all those hard outside plans and chores. I'm certainly not sure how many of them I would have accomplished without her strong back and soul at my side all these years. In fact as one of my earlier blogs admitted, she most times was the one who started the whole thing and deserves all the credit for our beautiful house and yards.
The only times I truly might feel old is certainly when I first get up in the morning, what with all the grunting, groaning, popping noises coming from parts of my body and quiet bitching I do. Then when I first look into that bad ass lying mirror and see that white haired, wrinkly old fart looking back at me pretending to be me. I usually just cuss the old shit out and turn out the lights at least until I can brush my teeth and by then be a little more awake and partially sane.
There are a lot of great parts to getting older too for sure. My body feels the aches and pains but my mind....oh, my mind. I love what has happened to my mind as I get older and I hope wiser. I used to easily become intimidated by most anyone when I was young. I used to easily become embarrassed by the slightest little things and what people said to me in life.
Now, I could care less what people think about my thoughts or opinions about anything. I love being able to be blunt and honest and say what I mean and mean what I say without the slightest pause. I used to hem and haw and try and make up excuses when confronted by a salesman at stores or in my shop when they walked in. NOW.....oh yeah......NOW.....It's like, hell no, I don't want any of that plastic crap your selling and matter of fact, get the hell out of my face and my shop NOW! I LOVE THAT FACT! I even feel like and sometimes do a little jig dance afterward. By the way, I've had times where the customers waiting all broke out into applause after the rude and crude salesmen sulked outside.
So, I certainly don't have any idea how many more wonderful years I have left at this stage of my existence but I'm telling you right now, I'm going to live them out full blast, with all my heart and soul, laughing out loud as much as possible and to hell with what others may think of me.
The Golden Years
The Golden Years have come at last
I cannot see
I cannot pee
I cannot chew
I cannot screw (well, we'll leave that in for the sake of the rhyme)
My memory shrinks
My Body's drooping
Got trouble pooping
The Golden Years have come at last
The Golden Years can kiss my ass
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by clicking in the circle beside "Name/URL". Or just leave your comment anonymously by clicking on the circle beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
Monday, June 8, 2009
One man, one vote?
You know what? It hit me one day as I was again setting there with my absentee ballet at the kitchen table, trying to figure out the best way to vote about the issues of the moment. Do I really know anything at all about these issues? The answer unfortunately is hell no!
The really sad part is I never know anything about them. I always feel fairly guilty and plain stupid about just guessing what might be the best thing to vote for. I almost always base my vote on weird things like how much will this cost? When I look down at the cost, if it's in the millions, much less billions then my vote is always NO. Another method I'm using lately is to vote out all incumbents, no matter which side their on or who they are. I figure everyone there at any given time are idiots who never seem to do the right or logical thing about anything.
Watching the news or listening to the radio for real, true knowledge about the issues is like winking in the dark. They all have their own agenda having nothing whatsoever to do with what's right and proper for the masses in America. As I've said in some of my other blogs, their ALL full of bullshit. They act like they care about us and know some kind of truth but their all just stating their own opinions, which are just that and nothing more.
So the conclusion I'm slowly starting to formulate is our system is out of whack to say the least. The whole "one man, one vote" thing is ridiculous to the extreme. Who in the hell thought this up? Did they really imagine that all of the regular, normal folks out there had the intelligence, insight and knowledge to decide what the best course of action is for the many, complicated issues facing us all the time?
Did they envision some way to properly educate the public enough for them to make these decisions intelligently? If so, does that not smack of indoctrination or
lead to just plain lying to us to achieve their particular agendas?
How do any of us know if the information we are getting is anything close to a real and honest truth about anything? So my guess here is no matter how smart and informed you think you are, it's mostly your own self delusions and egos, not any kind of reality.
Ok, here's my own personal truth. I don't know shit about any of the super important issues facing our nation and the world. The only things I do have a fair handle on would be my business, customer/friends, my loving family, gardening and a little music ability. Other than that all I can offer would be fancy, smancy sounding philosophies that in the end don't mean shit.
So is there some other way we could go about choosing leaders and making decisions? Well, as I just made clear. How in the hell should I know. I'm just a Barber, for christ sake.
Do you have any idea to help out mankind with this? The next paragraph will give you a chance to lay them out for others to see. Just follow the instructions.......
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by clicking in the circle beside "Name/URL". Or just leave your comment anonymously by clicking on the circle beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
The really sad part is I never know anything about them. I always feel fairly guilty and plain stupid about just guessing what might be the best thing to vote for. I almost always base my vote on weird things like how much will this cost? When I look down at the cost, if it's in the millions, much less billions then my vote is always NO. Another method I'm using lately is to vote out all incumbents, no matter which side their on or who they are. I figure everyone there at any given time are idiots who never seem to do the right or logical thing about anything.
Watching the news or listening to the radio for real, true knowledge about the issues is like winking in the dark. They all have their own agenda having nothing whatsoever to do with what's right and proper for the masses in America. As I've said in some of my other blogs, their ALL full of bullshit. They act like they care about us and know some kind of truth but their all just stating their own opinions, which are just that and nothing more.
So the conclusion I'm slowly starting to formulate is our system is out of whack to say the least. The whole "one man, one vote" thing is ridiculous to the extreme. Who in the hell thought this up? Did they really imagine that all of the regular, normal folks out there had the intelligence, insight and knowledge to decide what the best course of action is for the many, complicated issues facing us all the time?
Did they envision some way to properly educate the public enough for them to make these decisions intelligently? If so, does that not smack of indoctrination or
lead to just plain lying to us to achieve their particular agendas?
How do any of us know if the information we are getting is anything close to a real and honest truth about anything? So my guess here is no matter how smart and informed you think you are, it's mostly your own self delusions and egos, not any kind of reality.
Ok, here's my own personal truth. I don't know shit about any of the super important issues facing our nation and the world. The only things I do have a fair handle on would be my business, customer/friends, my loving family, gardening and a little music ability. Other than that all I can offer would be fancy, smancy sounding philosophies that in the end don't mean shit.
So is there some other way we could go about choosing leaders and making decisions? Well, as I just made clear. How in the hell should I know. I'm just a Barber, for christ sake.
Do you have any idea to help out mankind with this? The next paragraph will give you a chance to lay them out for others to see. Just follow the instructions.......
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by clicking in the circle beside "Name/URL". Or just leave your comment anonymously by clicking on the circle beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Overpopulation
It has constantly amazed me that no one, the news media included NEVER even bring up probably the biggest problem facing mankind. That being just plain too damn many people on the planet. Overpopulation is beyond a doubt the largest problem the world has at this point in time and no one even mentions it at all. This is unbelievable to say the least. Are all the great thinkers just plain stupid? Are they avoiding this plain as day issue for some reason? Is it just too touchy of a subject for them to discuss? Are they just plain chickenshit because of the delicate nature of trying to tell people about responsible birth control? Is religion somehow holding the subject at bay because of their weird and completely irresponsible precepts about birth control?
I fully understand that its a hell of a complicated issue because we're talking about somehow telling people or even somehow forcing the issue on how many children they can have but does that mean we just keep on pumping out humans until we destroy the earth, without even discussing it?
Overpopulation begins growing very slowly, but over generations the growth rate increases more and more rapidly, similar to a snowball affect. It took the human population thousands of years to reach 1 billion in 1804. However, it took only 123 years for us to double to 2 billion in 1927. The population hit 4 billion in 1974 (only 47 years), and if we continue at our current rate, the human population will reach 8 billion in 2028. Doubling from our present count of 6.8 billion to 13.6 billion will have a much greater impact than our last couple doublings combined.
One thing which must be taken into consideration is the amount of time, money, and effort we have spent toward saving and extending lives. Billions of dollars have been spent in this field, and successfully. However, something that we also must look at is the effect this has had on our own number. How much have we contributed to birth control, family planning, and preservation of the environment? Nature is a balance of existence. In order to coincide with nature, we must balance the saving and extending of lives with controlling the number of lives which we produce. We mustn't use resources any faster than they can be reproduced. We need to respect ourselves by learning to respect the environment which we depend on for our own existence. If not, we will cease to exist.
The super politically incorrect part of this whole subject is all the intelligent, normal, working responsible people of the world try to hold their own birthrate down to something they can be responsible for. They choose to wait until they can afford everything involved with having children. They understand that it is a hell of a lot of work and gladly do that work out of love, respect and just plain trying to bring a contributing member of society into the world who is equipped with the resources and plans to be self reliant.
That leaves the vast majority of ignorant, cave men/women all over the world putting out babies without a second thought. People who barely, if at all even know where babies come from, much less care. People who have no idea how their going to feed, cloth and shelter their children. People who have no education and have no intention of trying to provide their ongoing brood with any real knowledge of the world. The end result is we are obviously headed for a world populated by ignorant idiots.
With our present complete silence on this growing subject, I can see no answers coming up the pike, only more and more ignorant and increasingly dangerous humans inhabiting the earth. The truth is, this whole thing will not implode during my lifetime or even our children's lifetime but implode it will without some kind of real, thoughtfull and intelligent action on our parts.
I'm thinking, even hoping that nature might just handle it for us with famine, disease and natural disasters. I've often pondered that our planet seems to have a kind of destiny and even perhaps an intellegence we can't even imagine. I can only hope those lofty thoughts could be true for the sake our our future.
Luckily so far, it seems nature does those kinds of actions in the backward, third world locations, so I might be right that nature is a lot smarter than us supposedly intelligent humans.
Lets hope so...........
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by clicking in the circle beside "Name/URL". Or just leave your comment anonymously by clicking on the circle beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
I fully understand that its a hell of a complicated issue because we're talking about somehow telling people or even somehow forcing the issue on how many children they can have but does that mean we just keep on pumping out humans until we destroy the earth, without even discussing it?
Overpopulation begins growing very slowly, but over generations the growth rate increases more and more rapidly, similar to a snowball affect. It took the human population thousands of years to reach 1 billion in 1804. However, it took only 123 years for us to double to 2 billion in 1927. The population hit 4 billion in 1974 (only 47 years), and if we continue at our current rate, the human population will reach 8 billion in 2028. Doubling from our present count of 6.8 billion to 13.6 billion will have a much greater impact than our last couple doublings combined.
One thing which must be taken into consideration is the amount of time, money, and effort we have spent toward saving and extending lives. Billions of dollars have been spent in this field, and successfully. However, something that we also must look at is the effect this has had on our own number. How much have we contributed to birth control, family planning, and preservation of the environment? Nature is a balance of existence. In order to coincide with nature, we must balance the saving and extending of lives with controlling the number of lives which we produce. We mustn't use resources any faster than they can be reproduced. We need to respect ourselves by learning to respect the environment which we depend on for our own existence. If not, we will cease to exist.
The super politically incorrect part of this whole subject is all the intelligent, normal, working responsible people of the world try to hold their own birthrate down to something they can be responsible for. They choose to wait until they can afford everything involved with having children. They understand that it is a hell of a lot of work and gladly do that work out of love, respect and just plain trying to bring a contributing member of society into the world who is equipped with the resources and plans to be self reliant.
That leaves the vast majority of ignorant, cave men/women all over the world putting out babies without a second thought. People who barely, if at all even know where babies come from, much less care. People who have no idea how their going to feed, cloth and shelter their children. People who have no education and have no intention of trying to provide their ongoing brood with any real knowledge of the world. The end result is we are obviously headed for a world populated by ignorant idiots.
With our present complete silence on this growing subject, I can see no answers coming up the pike, only more and more ignorant and increasingly dangerous humans inhabiting the earth. The truth is, this whole thing will not implode during my lifetime or even our children's lifetime but implode it will without some kind of real, thoughtfull and intelligent action on our parts.
I'm thinking, even hoping that nature might just handle it for us with famine, disease and natural disasters. I've often pondered that our planet seems to have a kind of destiny and even perhaps an intellegence we can't even imagine. I can only hope those lofty thoughts could be true for the sake our our future.
Luckily so far, it seems nature does those kinds of actions in the backward, third world locations, so I might be right that nature is a lot smarter than us supposedly intelligent humans.
Lets hope so...........
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by clicking in the circle beside "Name/URL". Or just leave your comment anonymously by clicking on the circle beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
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