Spring Cleaning?—Start Here Finish Where?

 Spring Cleaning and Other Possible Mistakes

So earlier today it seemed somehow the right thing to do to continue a project in scrolling through the wasteland of once current computer files to determine one of three things: 1) What in the world is in a file named blank 1377, 2) is it anything that has even marginal value now? And 3)what can it teach me about things I think are so important at one moment  and then at some other moment make me shake my head?

After sorting through about 30 files it became evident that each one seemed pretty important at the time they were created and it seemed okay to “save.” Some of the files deserved a “real” name so that it would be possible to find them in the digital junkyard on this computer and a few were prompts for crappy memories that important or not needed to be sent to the place where half your socks go when you do laundry.  Face it we don’t know where those socks go and you don’t know where those files really go—-perhaps in Area 51 there’s a huge warehouse where the government trades socks to some ancient race of aliens for insights on how to become more inefficient in finding reasonable people to run for elected office?  

Nonetheless, a few files were sorted through and. Became a “history” of sorts.  There were some files/events that highlighted great moments—some documents about children getting accepted to college for example, there were some job/work related documents  mostly drafts of things that  were concerns about events that never happened or didn’t happen as predicted, and there were a couple of documents that inspired  thoughts about how to spend some time in the future (and served as a reminder that there is no future—there is only now).  

There was a song lyrics file part of which will be shared below.  In short it seems all this pile of electronic data forms some sort of history of everyday events real and imagined.  Looking back upon these “events”provides some food for current learning (again see the song lyrics below). It also prompted some wondering about the value of “spring cleaning”. 

Do we get rid of some things because, although they have value they remind us that we haven’t made the changes  we were thinking of and therefore there’s no real place for this or that object?  Does Spring Cleaning remind us that we often use energy in ways that unintentionally leave tiny piles of stuff that we move around about a thousand times because  we never quite. Had time to change in the first place?  Which leads to the question—do we just clean it now or do we get angry with ourselves  and get overwhelmed and say “well we cleaned up 30 files, we took a shot at one of those cupboards etc..?  Or perhaps  did we conclude ‘what kind of experimental change in actions will it take so that these. Little piles aren’t here next Spring?”  It seems the third  response won’t leave us thinking about the “mistakes and flaws that might have left us cleaning today and feeling sort of awful about the day when that little mess started.  For in the end every single day has events that seem horrible, seem triumphant, and seem to leave a lot to be decided at some point in the future.  April 12th for example is the day the U.S. Civil War started and that happened because of a mess and left a. Mess we are probably still cleaning up.  The pharmaceutical cure for Polio was deemed safe and became a method for diminishing the impact of that disease.  So looking at those two things—one caused a lot of grief and one prevented a lot.  Also the Russians/soviets sent a man into space on this date and this event spawned all kinds of scientific efforts like makingTang grabbing some rocks from the moon, and providing speculation for conspiracy theories galore.  

The point here I that things happen—some good, some not, and in the case of space…we’re just getting started.  Almost everything that we remember will go through some “Spring Cleaning “ Spiritually anyway and as long as we focus on the current status of the “cleanness or the lesson of the mess and the ability to use decisions to change—well we can avoid feeling the mistakes last forever and that is a valuable part  in seeking peace and joy.  Life changes.. it’s Spring.. Clean a Little..  and Remember. (Song Lyrics)

The wiser I get the more that I’ve found

My body just carries my spirit around

And there’s a new circus around every turn

The best thing to do is pay attention and learn

And pass all these lesson to the next travelers by

Try to enjoy life and understand why

But if why eludes you  don’t wallow in frets

Don’t let your butterfly wings get weighed down with regrets  and 

Breathe and stretch and dance your own dance

And laugh and smile when life gives you a chance 

There’s more to this song, however , it seems appropriate to offer some additional lyrics from a song that I modified (thank you Mac and Reha) way back in 2013 this is  the very long chorus

Life is a set of changes

From time to time they will rearrange us

Sweep us between safe and dangerous 

As the wheel of fortune spins to name us

Cracks our lenses then reframes us

We can walk with saints but no one’s blameless

We can take the raindrop and make the golden ray

Take the magic from the moonlight bring it to the light of day

Find each and every promise lying out there in the fray—

But when we can’t we must make peace with the fact my friend 

That life is just that way.

Hey… what’s this under the couch?  Part of a candy cane?

The Eclipse-Trump Bible-Dark Side Conspiracy? Stop and Think?

 In Honor of the 2024 eclipse

The “Darker” Side of the Moon

So here on the big blue marble or the little blue dot depending where your ego stands on the whole space thing, we just had a chance to pay attention to the dark side of the moon as it passed in front of the moon—well sort of.  We actually saw the same side of the moon we always see, however, the moon got itself directly in between us and the sun on Monday.  Even so this seemed to be a good opportunity to revisit a “moon”  related blog entry that may prompt some reasonable thoughts.  There are a few revisions as this was offered a few moons ago… so to speak.  Enjoy!

So… those among you who are real music history  experts will find mistakes here.  Some of them are probably  important, yet read for the spirit of this okay?  

Today, or someday that looked a lot like today except it was 50 years ago—holy crap  this entry is featuring something that. Was  a half century  ago which is like a high school senior of my generation writing about something that happened before the depression, the invention of television, smart phones, YouTube, the internet, and yes even before shopping malls remember them?  So if there are some slippery inaccuracies  put them in the same category  as things we don’t know about dinosaurs and get over it.

anyway about fifty years  ago today more or less the Dark Side of the Moon climbed  up the billboard chart and well it kind of stayed there not for a week or three but for  930 some weeks it has appeared  in the top 200.  Now these were non-consecutive, but this still merits a ‘stop and think about it” moment.  That’s 18 years… so if Dark Side hit the charts when your child’s was born in 2006 it would still be there.  

also Dark Side. Has sold  over 45 million copies and some of the money it made was used to finance Monty Python’s classic  “Holy Grail.”   Some other things most people don’t know… it was recorded  at Abby road.. yep that place where some quartet  from Liverpool was known to do some fooling around.  Also  unlike  a lot of efforts today the entire content of the work was performed live on the road before the studio albums were pressed.   

However… this entry. Isn’t really about the music…it’s about the moon.  

The moon  and the things we use to put things into space have  been in the news in recent days due to the fact that a Japanese  mission to deliver stuff to the moon crashed  instead of landed there and a privateers test rocket experienced a malfunction  and blew apart in the sky.  This happened again recently and these “events were called “rapid unscheduled disassembly events.”  Now … here’s what has. To make folks wonder … why are we giving so much attention to the rockets that blew up instead of the new pile of trash  we just put on the moon?   Well maybe there’s an answer..

There’s already  a all kinds of stuff  we have left up there.  

Okay we left a flag or two.  There are some golf balls up there.. We have of course left some moon cars up there because they don’t have a place in the trunk for a big subwoofer  and no cup holders or heated seats.  

We needed to reduce the weight of lunar landers in order to relaunch and meet the mother ships so astronauts  tossed  all kinds of stuff  some of which had meaning..like a  bible left on the dash of one of the moon cars—(now you can get a “Trump Bible for $60, but what would you pay for a “Moon Bible??” Unfortunately,  some of the stuff?—can we really be proud of this?   

Like… 96 sealed bags of astronaught crap.. Yes there is moon poop and we left it there.  Now in order to  see this in context we pick oup  our own pet dog crap and dispose of it  in a civilized way… So how do we justify leaving  bags of stuff all over the night sky?  Well NASA  actually has claimed they might go pick up these bags at some later date in order to study  it.    Don’t you want to hear that conversation?    “No Eugene, you stay here for a second….…Thomas and Claire are going to study the geologic samples and Harmony is looking at the atmospheric data… we’ve got 96 bags of 100 year old diarrhea  sitting on the table  in your lab and the world needs to know  how space impacts the digestion of Tang and freeze-dried burritos.” 

Okay.. with the crash of the Japanese  hauler there is  about 400,000 tons of stuff  that mankind has left on the moon.  Are we really ever going to go back and are we going to clean up this stuff?  Will we wreck our own planet enough  so that we absolutely have to use the moon and if we really think that maybe we should send some things up there worth going back to get.   Here are some suggestions..

Let’s send a hundred new and classic cars  (they weigh about 4 tons). So guys would stare up there and devise ways to get  a 68 Charger or a 73 Corvette.  

How about we send 165,000 cases of beer … some folks will go to almost any limit to get beer.  

or maybe before we send anything.. we should stop and think about why… 

Did we plant that flag up there to say ….. we own the moon or did we do it to say… we let our curiosity drive our science and our human need to  seek new knowledge?    If we can be proud of seeking new knowledge and wisdom can we take a bit  of time everyday to seek that right here  on earth?  And while we’re. Doing that  can we help each other seek some peace and joy too?  … or are resigned to have a bad moon risin’?  (With a bag of crap to stare  at tonight?  

Thanks for revisiting this entry and as a very small reward we have thrown in a “Lovely Little Limerick”

When it was all said and done

The Moon slipped in front of the Sun

We might not know why

We all stared at the Sky

But the fancy sunglasses are fun

Too Much Totality Time for Reflection

 Is Too Much Totality a Bad Thing?

Well several of our neighborhood folksier standing out in the yard modeling those cool glasses or standing with their head in a cardboard box and it wasn’t even a party where we had free flowing spirits or anything.  It was, of course, the eclipse.  Now, like many fishing stories this eclipse  will have been the most awesome event ever in a few years with people claiming that they were in the path of the “totality” even if it was a cloudy day and let’s say the moon blocked about 80% of the sun and the clouds came in to handle the rest.

People will swear birds were flying backwards, crickets were chirping out FreeBird”, and several Catholic nuns were found to be with child.  Now, we might dispute these “facts”, however, folks will. Tell these stories because let’s fact it how often do we get to use the word “totality?”  Oh, and these stories will. Be told because most humans have a healthy sense of and need for belonging.  

Belonging is important, however some people. Would like to claim they don’t need anybody else.   Well… every now and then there are some individuals who seem to know everything and know how to do everything for themselves or at least they think so.  It seems that we might ask such folks if they’d like to do some do-it-yourself dentistry or a prostate exam or open heart surgery or maybe a circumcision?

So perhaps we can settle on the idea that most of us need some belonging.   Yet, it seems like a lot of our social discourse  including seeking jobs and sharing  governing ideas is set up  to divide and exclude.  In seeking peace and joy there will be moments of solitude and reflection, however maybe. The first step could be inquiry about similar goals, similar paths, and maybe differences could be not a reason for reflection, but a chance to recognize other people may hold the ideas and skills needed to bring a team’s effort to a better place on the journey to meeting goals. Maybe we can help each other seek some peace and spread and share some joy?  

Well this post is separating you from some time you could use to connect with others so let’s wrap it up with  a couple of Poetic  or pathetic  efforts about  belonging and connection.

First the  limerick

I know your opinions are strong

But maybe just one may be wrong?

And if they’re about

Keeping most others out

I just might not want to belong!

…and here’s an eight-liner to wrap thing up.

Who needs one more rejection?

To reach goals it means selection

Have to meet the right connection

Hope to pass the first inspection

Perhaps have the right injection

Prove you don’t have some infection

Sign a form for tax collection

Then be judge against perfection?

One final ECLIPSE note

So…

Every story has been spun

Cars and busses on the run 

Lodging options cost a ton

In places where there’s next to none

Parking lots won’t be much fun

So get there early everyone

Enjoy the astrophysics fun

Salute the Moon  it’s Good-bye Sun???? 

 

Something’s Got To Change..Right?

 

Fears abound there is a heap

We have heard the cliff is steep

We’re often told to fail’s not cheap

Dreams are only for your sleep

Just to the edge so many creep

Some however sprint and leap

And learn they hold some magic deep

That opens moments hearts will keep

I Think Therefore I am - Not Sure Where the Easter Bunny Lives?

 Where Does the Easter Bunny Go?

Today is the birthday of Rene Descartes the famous  philosopher who invented the need for graph paper so that we could  draw an x and a y axis and then plot some points which conveniently  are called Cartesian coordinates.  We then draw a line between these points, do a little subtraction and division, and come up with a slope and then like magic we could use a hybrid of geometry and algebra to figure out where some other points may wind up.  So thanks dude for giving us the math to send people to the moon and also for. Adding countless chapters to our books in high school if not a whole extra year.

This math mess was a big contribution to science and tech, however this deep thinker is better known for coming up with the great idea for a t-shirt with that sculpture of “the thinker” on it.. the shirt reads.. “I think therefore I am”.   There are of course a lot of modifications from this root.  One well known example is “I drink therefore I am—drunk”  

This proclamation was born from asking one of the basic questions that humans seem to wrestle with.  

How do we know we exist?  Good question.  Until we get that answer what’s the point in wondering what we are supposed to do now that we know we exist?

Well this blog would say.. that’s simple Seek Peace and Joy in all things and to do this you can read about 700 more entries.  Or… you can follow the golden rule.. or you can serve somebody and understand that the universe is larger than you and there are all kinds of things that can be done to fill all sorts of purposes and as long as you are seeking with the idea that it isn’t all about you..life will be okay most the time.  

However, we don’t have to tackle all of that stuff today.  There are other pondering that float across the sky that might be a little easier.  Let’s explore shall we?

In the world of fables and lore, it is well-known and clearly established that Santa Claus lives at the North Pole.  He lives there with Mrs. Claus and some unknown population of elves, deer, and probably some big workshops, warehouses, and a big closet full of red suits.  Oh and in this day in age there is a big bank of servers where he tracks address data, what people want for Christmas, and age, gender, other behaviors  etc.. Oh wait he just hacks into Facebook, Google, and amazon for that.  

So we know about Santa, however yesterday was Easter right?  Where does the Easter Bunny live?  Does he just hang out in Santa’s basement most the year playing video games and watching “Tik- Tok” and YouTube and then subcontracting elves to convert left over Valentine’s Day Chocolate into eggs?   

Or perhaps does he share a condo in Mexico City with The Tooth Fairy and a few leprechauns  using those pots of gold nobody can ever find to fund wild ballroom dances?

Oh… wait a minute maybe the whole rabbit thing isn’t such an easy question after all?   So perhaps it is okay to spend some time contemplating  the whole why do I exist thing and exploring answers with each other remembering that the world is bigger than us and using a couple of basic notions like.

No matter how life goes forth —

I can start. Where I am.

I can use what  I have and

Just do what I can.

Having come to this point it is time to hand this off to you.  Life goes forth  and often does so in strange rhythms and these rhythms often spawn  poetry of sorts.. so here is an 8-line rhyme and a limerick for you to enjoy while we go off to search for the Easter Bunny or our pot of gold.

Idle thoughts by Jim Whalen

Questions. Whirl and swirl then slam

Is this real or a scam?

Sweet potato or a yam? 

Do you swear if you say damn?

Are you lion? Are you lamb?

do you like green eggs and ham?

Into my head these thoughts I jam

Because I think therefore I am!

And a “Lovely Little Limerick”

Clear your mind out with a broom

You’re going to need some thinking room

Your brain and mind are not apart

Was stated plainly by Descartes

Of course, “cogito ergo sum”

Is Legal Weed Okay? This is just for Laughs

 The day after Easter was sunny

Had three eggs and a white chocolate bunny

Then the basket we’d pass 

Someone rolled up the grass

All the sudden everybody  was funny