Life With No Strings Attached?

 “No Strings attached?”

So in yesterday’s mail there were “special offers”.  You know the kind that are “exclusive” just for you?  Now I’m pretty darn sure VISA and my local cable provider. Didn’t have a meeting one day and say “There’s this guy  in Michigan and we really like him as a customer so let’s get on it and design an offer…you know  just for him damn it!”   Every day we are bombarded with these offers and even more troubling than the fact that they are somehow special is the fact that  at the end of the offer there  lies the caveat… you know “the fine print” the disclaimers.    In other words the “strings that are attached.”  It a way  it makes  one think…I wish there weren’t strings attached” —right?    

Well……….HOLD YOUR HORSES…

 Before we go make generalizations about strings let’s stop a second and  imagine.  

What would a guitar sound like with  no strings attached?  How limited. Would shoe design be with no strings attached?  How dark would the basement be if you couldn’t attach a string to that simple  light and would your vintage ceiling fan work?  How  about a kite?  Let’s say you somehow got it in the air…good-bye kite!   Oh and that. Yo-yo?    

What  reason would you have to visit Cawker City Kansas?   After all no string (twine). Would mean no ball of string that measures. Over 40 feet around.  

What’s the Seeking Peace and Joy Connection?

Well you see it pays to give. Some attention to the nature and utility of  the things that connect. You to others and the nature of these connections.  Personallly I have a bunch of friends and followers on social media platforms and most of the time the effort it takes to stay connected and the headaches caused by these apps. Is more than a fair price  to pay for the support I get.from these relationships and the lessons I learn from the experiences  of so many good folks.  Sometimes I am able to use my strings to connect others and sometimes I am able to just let the string  lay there awhile and then pick it up just when I need to be connected again.     

Oh.and thoughts string together too…. For example just now when I was thinking about pulling together  some friends  I thought about casting a line and fishing  well…that would be different without  strings or a a nylon line wouldn’t it.  What are you going to do hold a worm in your hand and lean off a log while trying to sit in your lawn chair and drink a beer?  Good Luck!  

 In short, maybe we need to pay some attention to which strings we choose and who is pulling them and to take special care of the ones that have goodness  at the end or can help us or help us help others.  Maybe we could be aware of those times when strings  are attached and why and chose to hold on to some and choose to cut others and let them float…. Oh and what about the string on a helium balloon.   You can hold it for a while and when you want to set that balloon free to see how far it will go and let many people share it and see it then you can let it go….    

Well…. I’m not going to wind  40 feet  worth, however,  I’m wrapping this up for now… I’ve strung this out far enough.  

Reading between the lines part three it’s a comic but not a comedian plus a bonus rhyme

 Time its value folks debate

Time in days we track by date

Time goes fast when we are late

Time move slow  when we must wait

Time so cherished  when life’s’s great

Time used well we celebrate

Timeshall pass and seal your fate

Time too short to waste on hate

Tick Tock  

So the beginning of this is a literary appetizer I shared  it on some other social media a couple days ago, however  I wrote it for all the readers  that dare consume my idle ramblings.    Okay now pack to the “library  “reading” arena. Part 3

If you’ve been reading along and remember if you don’t read along the teacher might skip the person in front. Of. You or they may pull the old “I have to use the bathroom” ploy  and thus you’ll have to read aloud today and not tomorrow.  Oh come on now don’t tell me. You weren’t one of those people who tried to guess just when your turn would come or  at the very least you knew the kids who had a hard time reading and felt crappy for them.   So anyway if you’ve been reading along you know we have been chatting up the Library of Congress a bit.  I thought for now we could put a bookmark. In the discussion by giving a nod to one of the least respected  sections  in most libraries  including the good old loc.  The comic book section.   

Now you might think that geeky  Melvin  who lived down the block and always wore black socks with his shorts had a big comic book collection, but alas …. The goood old Library. Of congress holds the world’s largest publicly held  collection of comics.  We’re talking issues from more than  12,000 different comic series and a total of over 140,000 unique issues.  Since these issues have not been graded for quality and there is no plan to ever sell them at auction, it is hard to estimate the value of this collection but it goes  far beyond  the dime a piece that many of these gems have marked on the cover and probably  even well beyond the $4.00 each that most of these pint-sized paperbacks sell for now.  

So how many of these comic books. Do I own?  How many have I ever owned?  Why does the library of Congress own them?  

Well I own zero and have never owned any.  It would have been fun to be in the room where it happened—no not the Hamilton song—the room where somebody said…yep the Library of Congress needs to have comics.  Okay, maybe  many of our lawmakers can only digest short books with lots of pictures written for junior high boys?   I could see that given some of the other things congress folks have done.   

Now what’s the “Seeking Peace and Joy”. Point?

Like so many of you books have been and will always be  an important part of how I engage in learning and no one can read. Every  book of any type let alone every book of every type.  I would hazard a guess that there are some morals to the stories in comics and that they spark the imagination of some people…. If so, then they are the fuel. For thought that runs some mental engines and for that I salute the 1938 introduction of truth justice and the American Way… Imagine what one word  could mean… What if the saying were “truth, justice,  “OR” the American way?   What if the Man of Steel was the Man of Plastic and was stickier than a speeding taxi?   Anyway…. We have this Library of Congress and you can use it to answer questions and raise some others.  Seeking Peace and Joy is a trip through the learning library of life and every library. Has its place.   The only thing to do now is leave you with my favorite quote. About books and reading    

According. To Groucho Marx….

Outside of a dog a book is man’s best friend.  Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read…

Live and Learn —reverse and repeat

This library? A big deal? For Congress?

 Read?— Between the Lines? Part Two

The Library of Congress What’s the Big Deal?

Well it’s not just a library for congress, however, what if…. Every member of congress checked out  100 items from the library a year?   How long would it take  for each member  to get through the entire collection held as of right now?  Well …. Here’s an argument  for term limits… It would take  just about 2000 years or 1,000 freaking elections for members of the House.  Now  if the average  American (reading an average of 12 books a year and lives about 80 years  started reading just the books and left the “media” collections behind it would take 260 or so lifetimes  to get from the table of contents to the acknowledgements or index so to speak.  Yep..if you then included the media… let’s round that off to a cool millennium per person.  If you read a book from the library  every day. It would take you over 68,000 years and that’s without listening  to any of the recordings or browsing the incredible digital image collection.  

Just one more bit of info to give folks a perspective on the size of this library?  If you take the “average” size of a library for a city of 50,000 th 100,000  the Library of Congress is 1,000 times that size.  How many librarians would that take to be walking around telling kids like me to be quiet….wow!

If you want to know more about this library of congress or if you are wondering if most of our elected officials even know how to read…well you can find out a whole lot more by going to the website http://www.loc.gov and digging in.  

So what’s exploring the scope of this massive collection have to do with seeking peace and joy?  It would seem  there are two lessons that you can pull from the shelf without even using the card catalog.  What’s a card catalog?  If you are a pre-Netscape  Navigator  person try explaining that to a youth… 

Anyway the two lessons

The first is that you can learn something new every day and in the never ending  adventure we call life gaining new knowledge to overcome fear of the unknown and to solve problems/challenges having access to information sure helps.  

Second… there is a good reason to honor humility.  So you think you know a lot?  Do you know people who think they know it al?  Well… given the above facts  it would seem evidence  proves just how little  everyone might know.  Maybe we need each other to help fill in the gap and maybe the gap is like the Grand Canyon rather than the little crack in the corner of your phone screen?  

Let’s face it the Library of Congress has been collecting  information for a couple of hundred years and has materials that date back centuries including a Gutenberg Bible (which I think I used in Catholic grade school).   Yet, that’s just one collection of knowledge and even if it is the largest library in the world it’s a literal drop in the bucket.  so take some peace and joy in the notion that you can always find new clues to the mysteries of life and that you will never  be searching alone.  Know that there. Will always be wisdom to be had each day and that no one can claim to have it all.  

And speaking of “all”. This is about all I am inspired to write today… I have a book to listen to and a walk to take and encourage you to do the same.  Peace

Reading—Between the Lines (part one)

 A Nod of Gratitude to Writers, Books, and Libraries (Part One)

So at around 10:30 this morning I finished listening to a third book in the past 24 hours.  Okay “come on” you sigh “how can this be?”  Well I didn’t sleep well last night and  I listen to books at about 200-225% of normal listening speed.  So I spent about 12 hours listening to what would be approximately  750 pages of mystery fiction (3 books worth.  Now this is somewhat normal behavior for me and I listen to all sorts of things of varying lengths.  IIt’s usually a little later in the year when I start tallying up  my reading/listening, however I decided to do this today just for fun and because  I came across some interesting information about books and libraries I wanted to share  over the next few days.  Stacking the three books on the pile of other things I have consumed the total  read as of today is 407 books read for the first time this year.  I have reread  a sparse 23 titles so this puts the total at 430.  Now there are about 62 books I have started without finishing and I will eventually finish  about half of those.  

Now how is it  that I decide to read /listen to all this stuff?  Well that’s easy…. I don’t like to be afraid and the easiest  way to fight fear is to kick it’s literal butt by craving curiousity.  Of course  is there a bunch of things to be afraid of once you learn about them?  Sure, however the unknown  is what most people are afraid of most the time and gaining knowledge is  one way to turn a cowboy wearing tin foil int a knight in shining armor.  

In addition to this curiosity… I tend to surround myself with friends who are also relentless learning machines.  Some people call us nerds but oh well.  

But you have to have to have stuff to read and so the other part of the equation is that people keep writing  combinations of words that form thoughts and stories worth reading and that prompt thoughts worth having.  

Where do I get  the books? 

Well from all over…but since I qualify for the National Library Services  for the blind and physicallly disabled  I get a lot from there and I also get digital books from a paid source and I buy some from all sorts of places.  Do I have an andvantage over others?  No way… Everyone has access to millions of books in fact it’s probably millions and millions and we’ll go into  that tomorrow when we talk about. The world’s largest  library… The library of congress.  

So..a teaser about this…. Most people know. That the library was established in 1800 (well no most people don’t know that) and that Thomas Jefferson gets credit for restocking the library with his collection after  the British burned the  original library  during the war of 1812.  Jefferson gets credit for  parting with his personal colllection, however before standing to applaud you should know that he sold his books at a top dollar price allowing him to pay off  most of his personal debt at the taxpayers expense.  So the whole revolving door of politicians cashing in after “public” service started  a long long time ago and will probably be with us a while……. 

Anyway. To sum up read for knowledge and to feed curious minds that hammer back against all the fear the world provides on its own plus all the fear that people try to use to convince of things they’d rather have us believe than offering real evidence for us to think about..    And… thanks to all the writers who have the  courage to put something down  for us to take in, think about, form meanings with, and share.  

And having written that… stop and think until tomorrow. -

What’s the “tooth Worth These Days?

Now that’s. A mouthful….

Today is National Tooth Fairy  Day and since this blog has featured  theTF and other fictional children’s heroes we won’t go into the origin story.  This is more or less.a parental and grand parental update provided just protect your “cool quotient” by making sure  you are slipping the right reward. Under the pillow.  

According to Delta Dental the large dental insurance corporation the nationwide payout per tooth has risen to an all-time high of $4.70.  As with most things the cost is higher on the coasts averaging nearly a dolllar higher on the East Coast and about 75 cents higher in California.  It’s about a quarter and a nichel cheaper for tooth fairies who eat a lot of grits and whistle Dixie and nearly a dollar cheaper for tooth fairies  who know that dear is really spelled Deere and that you don’t pronounce the s in either Des or Moines.  

So…other than making sure we pay up for these markers of childhood what does the tooth fairy have to do with seeking peace and joy?   Well  just this

We should all pay some attention to what comes out of. Our mouths—-when seeking peace and joy

You see. If we would be willling to say “this is why I’m afraid of change”. Then those around us might be able to encourage us to make the leap and build the world we seek.  If we  were honest and the words “I just don’t understand, but explain your observation to me again” could come from our mouths instead of automatically closing our ears and our minds maybe  we could experiment and find lots of solutions to the complicated  obstacles that the universe  hands us…. In short if we become aware of our messages and their meanings we might find magic in what comes from our mouths and $4.70 would be the smallest of possible rewards…. For now let’s tie a string to out ignorance so the next time we are slamming a door a reward of wisdom might be had…..

Where Stories Come From? 8 Line Rhyme Time

 Life takes strangely twisted trails

We race like cheetahs crawl like snails

Through sweet success and  epic fails

We hear the chalkboard scraped by nails

Leaks from roofs drop into pails

Spirits break from concrete jails

As Karma nods and evens scales

And gives the world it’s poets” tales

Life Stories?

Cool as Ice

 Here’s a very tiny slice

Of someone’’s bold advice

Smear at fear and roll the dice

Don’t be squeaky like young mice

Or drink cheap champagne  on ice

If choice exists then please choose nice

I’ll be glad to tell you twice

Peace and Joy are worth the price

Say cheese—cake?

 Say Cheese—cake that Is

So today in the U.S> it is National Cheesecake Day.  Like so many other days we celebrate food and like many other foods cheesecake can be a symbol of much more.  What’s that mean… well take for instance caviar vs bologny —and speaking  of bologny just keep reading.

The History  of Cheesecake?  

Like the history. Of many things like civilization, organized farming, and circumcision, the history of this dessert is a bit blurry.  The Greeks get credit for “inventing” it because they wrote down the recipe.  Now this is about as reasonable  to believe as Columbus “discovering” America when there was already other humans here—oh well lets lumber ahead.  

Of course the Americans had to get their own type of cheesecake going which is really the reason this day appears in the Seeking Peace and Joy Universe.  

You see the story has it that our cheesecake was invented due to the fact someone was attempting to recreate some softer French cheese but it came out too soft and was so tasty it couldn’t be just thrown away so….

Seeking Peace and Joy… and Cheesecake?

Well of course… you see seeeking peace and joy often involves trying something (an experiment) and finding that the result is unexpected…and then… well seeing what you have where you are and doing what you can with that.  The ultimate experience turns out better than the brief disappointment  brought on by the fact that didn’t go exactly as planned at the start.  

Okay you can count on things like this happening when seeking peace and joy and experimenting but don’t expect  you results  to be a string of nationwide restaurants that seem to thrive even though they are called factories.  You know calling things something they aren’t  is another American tradition like honest politicians—well I guess history tells us things aren’t always what they seem (remember that Trojan Horse thing?…

Oh and cheesecake can retry much come in any flavor not only because it’s basically whatever you want on a graham  cracker crust… but because it’s not really cake so it doesn’t have to follow the rules for cake…. And speaking of folllowing the rules…this post is shorter than  many because I’m not following my own rules of giving people at least a couple of minutes worth of reading ….oh well..Let them eat cake!!

Hey Don’t—Maybe?

 Don’t steal the music from our musical chairs

Don’t throw your hands up like nobody cares

Don’t discount the nature of private affairs

Don’t trivalize the burdens that your fellow man bares

Don’t laugh at the shoes that the working class wears

Don’t swallow like sheep what the loudest voice swears

Don’t throw away fabric if you can sew a few tears

Don’t stomp on the dreams of the child who dares

Wishful Warnings-

Don’t Do That?

Words WITH Friends

Words With Friends Day and More…

Well here sit it’s day 200 and the “day” calendar says it’s “Words with Friends” Day and also Daiquiri Day—both are are worth shining a little Seeking Peace and Joy illumination over.

Put quite simply this blog and the related podcast —there’s a link on this page) ARE in my mind and soul “words with Friends.”  In so many ways that phrase “words with friends” captures  what the blog and podcast hopes for.  They are perspectives, observations, hopes, dreams, impulsive thoughts, and smatterings of lessons that I’ve stumbled across and feel compelled to share.  These musing are not advice insomuch as there’s no guarantee they would be helpful and also this whole seeking peace and joy  thing has always been intended. A s my putting the pieces of the compass I use to seek peace and joy.  I’m not much for telling anyone where to go whole folks have often. Rightfully so told me where I can go.  

Anyway…. Words are the currency I have to share and like to use to say “hey friends…. Life is too short to learn from our mistakes.unless we learn from the mistakes and adventures of others as well.” That’s why we need a “red-facebook” where we could only post anonymous or after the fact screw ups for each other.  We don’t need all the smiling photos all the time as much as we need to know we are with each other as we stumble, get up, rub the sore spots, and go forward with curiosity  and caring.   

My reward for sharing words with friends has been encouragement to keep writing and more importantly I’ve dragged my meaning—making process out into the sunlight well most of the time.  For me it puts the “why” and what’s next? Squarely in the present for a good look and doing this spits out the clues I need to make choices or recover from them or at least  to have the ability to strip away most of the fear I have  of future mistakes and worries.  That’s what I get from this deal and holy crap that’s one special gift these words with friends gives me every time I pound them out.   Thanks and Bless You for reading and listening

P.s.  it’s also National  Daiquiri Day and if you were all here today we’d break out the lime (or strawberries) and yo ho  ho a bottle of rum and drink to friendship knowing that this drink became popular because during WWII other blue spirits became scarce.  Necessity is the mother of invention and relaxation with a fruit drink laced with rum or tequila is the crazy uncle of some people’s creativity I suppose.  

Anyway the point is… I can’t.share a drink with some or all of you  and some of you have made the wise decision to shun the mind altering  drug involved.  I do however  salute all of you my friends and that’s enough words for today.