Beware of the madness as you broadcast the hatter
It’s time to call out the worn pitter patter
The labels aren’t lazy it’s truth that they tatter
This goes beyond smirks and innocent chatter
For it divides towns and homes often shatter
Ideas become narrow and minds become flatter
than pancakes poured out from dried up brain batter
Wonder not when you preach if these syllables matter.
It’s all because the Sizzle and the Buzz
Every now and again it’s interesting to take a gander at the “National Day” calendar to see what’s being featured and/or “celebrated. Today’s entries somehow seem fitting in a world climate that tends toward duality and polarity. It is truly tempting to choose one of the topics and let that focus taint the whole day, however in the seeking Peace and Joy Universe, well, it frequently seems allowing for multiple perspectives and letting the balance or the meaning to develop where it might. So that leaves us with a buzz and a sizzle on our canvas—here goes.
“You’re Killin’ me “Smalls!”
Ask most any kid to tell you what the. Most deadly animal on the planet is and even. When the kid is somewhere between 2 and 92 you’re likely to be told “you’re. Gonna need a bigger boat” because those sharks are hungry and swimmers make a tasty snack or of course there’s lions and tigers and bears—oh my! Oh and there are deadly snakes and those poison frogs. Well like inflation and migrants we might need to fear those. Critters, however, the deadliest assassin swarms in at about 1.5 miles per hound does it work with just. A little buzz and a little sting or bite. We’re talking mosquito madness here. To make it even more interesting, of course not all mosquitos carry deadly diseases and deposit them in your blood stream. In fact, unless there are trans-mosquitos that dress up like butterflies and such it’s always ladies night at the blood bank as males live on nectar not A negative. Not only do males miss. out on going vampire.. they miss out on a lot of life as they only live an average of 10 days while their female counterparts live a couple months or so unless you watch them gorge themself with your good and then clinch your fist pumping them to overflow and watch them explode as they exceed the three times their body weight that they can usually handle. So life would be safer if you could identify the females easier, alas, with around 3,500 varieties and around 200 in the U.S. it’s hard to make. A solid ID So some poor boys are going to have to die even if they aren’t guilty.
If you have lived in various parts of the country you will get to know that there are many mosquitos that are just tiny annoyances and leave little bumps and then in “river towns and swampy places” there are creatures that when mature might qualify as a “state bird.” Unfortunately they are hard to avoid no matter where you live and many products a person might use to deter them are fairly toxic. If you want a natural defender citrus (lemon) eucaliptus is probably your best shot according the AI generator consulted today. But enough about being poisoned to death let’s see the opposite side of the calendar….
Also if you want to get rid of a few mosquitos by using Mother Nature invite in a few bats. They feast on about 3000 of them in a good night and speaking of feasts.. here’s the other. Item on the ledger. To balance the day…
It’s “bacon lover’s day!!!”
Now here’s proof that AI will never outsmart humans. TheAI generator asked if we needed suggestions on how to celebrate bacon? Are you freakin’ kidding me? Well you don’t dress it up in a tux or a flowing silk gown and take it to the prom or storm out on the field or dump Gatorade on the coach. You don’t go out and buy a Hallmark card and slip a fiver in. It. You don’t light. Candles on a cake for 6 preschoolers to spit at as they “make a wish.” It’s simple… It’s bacon… you cook it to whatever level of of crisp you want it and you eat it, you put it on other things you’re going to eat and eat it. You figure out how much might be the right amount to eat and well of course add just a little more… it’s bacon!
So just like. A lot of things in the universe we have to understand. There is a balance of things. You know I time to reap and a time to sew. Time to play disco and a time to play real music… a time to kill (mosquitos) and a time to live in pure joy—eat some bacon and then some more bacon.
Okay.. it. Is time to go see. What the fridge has with bacon on it so let’s wrap this up (in bacon) and experience a tasty little limerick.
Hear that sizzle man senses awaken
Comes a joy that none have mistaken
Oven baked— campfire fried
Just can’t be denied
Every day’s better with bacon
Well… the previous entry suggested some new perspectives on the athletic gala we have come to know as the Olympics. Every four years we bring a herd of the world’s strongest, fastest, and most strategic people together to compete for a little piece of metal made of bronze, silver, and silver with some gold plating. Every time they light the big torch there are some epic stories born or continued. For the U.S. there were some remarkable performances by individuals and by team athletes. Simone Biles “comeback” triumph reminds us that we all get a little freaked out sometimes and yet we can reach deep inside and find the spirit needed to let us soar again. Sure.. even though you have a carpeted floor we’re not encouraging you to do that reverse double back flip with a twist no matter how many shots of tequila you’ve mixed with Red Bull. Oh and for the fourth straight Olympics Katie Ledecky got flagged by the DNR for violating the no wake signs and brought home multiple medals. The US Women’s Soccer team and hooptsters were impressive in the clutch and well the US men’s basketball. Team passed the ball to the quickest three-point scorer of all time and said “hey Mr. Golden State-offer up the golden rainbow and bring us home the gold,” and he did.
The point is… when the flame was burning a lot of people brought their best to share under the five rings and for two weeks we saw great sportsmanship, human effort, and the results of people trying to be just a little better at their purpose.
Now… the flag gets passed to the next host and in a few short years we will see the torch come to life again and get passed. Well… what if?
What if the flame could stay lit eternally? What if we could all strive to find the triumphant spirit within us or within each other? What if we understood the idea of keeping our torch lit and passing the light within and outside us onto the next person in the line and finally this light would be used to keep the flame in the big marshmallow pit above the stadium glowing.
Do we really need to let the torch go dark or can we treat it like a candle? You know when you use your candle to light someone else’s candle they both burn brightly and yours doesn’t burn any less bright.
In the next few days we will see countless highlights of the Paris games and rightfully so, however imagine the peace and joy that could be spread if we decide to let the games end for now and yet keep our torch glowing and keep sharing it?
Or Do We Have the Courage to Keep it glowing?
So we are nearing the closing ceremony of the 2024 summer Olympics from Paris…well mostly the surfing couldn’t be staged in the foreground of that erector set otherwise known as the Eiffel Tower. As always there have been some extraordinary achievements like the swimming of Katie Ledecky and the tumbling of the U.S. women gymnasts. In a couple days this blog will expand on some of this, however for now let’s take a “big picture” look at the games and ponder on what these humans and the things they do bring into our awareness if only for a couple weeks every four years.
Maybe the first thing to note about the Olympics is that there were a couple of “new” events as is often the case. It is unfortunate that the IOC did not include javelin catching again this time around. It is one thing to throw a cannon ball and use a fiberglass stick to leap high enough to get a frisbee off your two story house. It would be something altogether more dramatic to watch guys in tights not only throwing the spears but also catching them and throwing them to each other. Maybe we’d learn that throwing weapons around at each other doesn’t add much to bringing the people of the earth together. It is difficult not to offer the question of what would war look like if throwing these heavy metal balls (called shot puts?) was the only weaponry allowed when armed combat couldn’t be avoided? It should be noted, however, that live pigeon shooting (1900 Olympics) was also left off the medal menu so hope grows slowly.
Both break-dancing and ballroom dancing were events and while these activities are an art form and take athletic skills, it would seem judging a Waltz and somebody throwing down a sheet of cardboard and cranking up a boombox might offer a challenge. Perhaps like the gymnastic all around competition maybe these dancing events along with synchronized swimming could be combined? In fact, perhaps it might be time to really push the global envelope and do away with “judged” events altogether. It would seem that the world is pretty much saturated with people willing to judge each other even when we might lack the internal and external skills we are observing so that we can compare people we don’t know.
Determining the winner in many of the events is far easier and yet somewhat more brutal. Take for instance, hundreds of sprinters trained collectively hundreds of years and then less than ten of them knelt in the starting blocks and bolted out with blazing speed. Less than 10 seconds later one of the racers broke the tape 5 one thousandths of a second faster than the rest. So what if you finished second? Could we all possibly finally get the message that
COMPARISON IS THE THIEF OF JOY?
Anyway, since the games last two weeks it seems appropriate that this blog give it at least two entries and that means we’ll pass the baton on for now. Thanks for navigating the hurdles on this topic so far.
