'the fears'

That stuff is no good. 'the fears' of what?

Everything? Time to head for the hills. Montaigne a French essayist of Life the man who coined the word 'essay' touched base with him for he first time this past week. Essay, to attempt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_de_Montaigne

The English essayist William Hazlitt expressed boundless admiration for Montaigne, exclaiming that "he was the first who had the courage to say as an author what he felt as a man. ... He was neither a pedant nor a bigot. ... In treating of men and manners, he spoke of them as he found them, not according to preconceived notions and abstract dogmas".^[42] Beginning most overtly with the essays in the "familiar" style in his own Table-Talk, Hazlitt tried to follow Montaigne's example.^[6]
Ralph Waldo Emerson chose "Montaigne; or, the Skeptic" as a subject of one of his series of lectures entitled Representative Men, alongside other subjects such as Shakespeare and Plato. In "The Skeptic" Emerson writes of his experience reading Montaigne, "It seemed to me as if I had myself written the book, in some former life, so sincerely it spoke to my thought and experience." Friedrich Nietzsche judged of Montaigne: "That such a man wrote has truly augmented the joy of living on this Earth".^[43] Saint-Beuve advises us that "to restore lucidity and proportion to our judgments, let us read every evening a page of Montaigne." ^[44]
The American philosopher Eric Hoffer employed Montaigne both stylistically and in thought. In Hoffer's memoir, Truth Imagined, he said of Montaigne, "He was writing about me. He knew my innermost thoughts." The Welsh novelist John Cowper Powys expressed his admiration for Montaigne's philosophy in his books Suspended Judgements (1916) and The Pleasures of Literature (1938). Judith N. Shklar introduces her book Ordinary Vices (1984), "It is only if we step outside the divinely ruled moral universe that we can really put our minds to the common ills we inflict upon one another each day. That is what Montaigne did and that is why he is the hero of this book. In spirit he is on every one of its pages..."
20th century literary critic Erich Auerbach called Montaigne the first modern man. "Among all his contemporaries," writes Auerbach (Mimesis, Chapter 12), "he had the
clearest conception of the problem of man's self-orientation; that is, the task of making oneself at home in existence without fixed points of support." <sup>[45]


  Where am I? How is that working for you Guy? 'the task of making oneself at home in existence without fixed points of support.' Why am I not working at Safeway right now on my first day of training? did I obey some higher moral calling or succumb to 'the fears' ?.. My insomnia fired up last night after my usual first 3 hours of sleep with the help of a full 5mg of Melatonin  as the time approached for the alarm .. 6:10 AM the thought occurred to me forget it I am done... debilitated beyond redemption... They will survive without me at Safeway. I had only contacted some friendly young woman in their corporate hierarchy who had assigned me the Safeway Red Hill for .. OJT
On the Job Training. No one else even knew....
  I passed Andronico's today, they are busy clearing it out, a big sign says reopening February 26 or was it the 28th. Safeway Community Market.
  I don't have the courage of a Montaigne to drop facts of his bodily sufferings as he writes on grand social themes.. I can't even tackle the grand social themes let alone the banality and misery of my own biological crap.. but who the heck really wants to hear about, passing kidney stones etc.. (in Montaignes case) well still I haven't actually read him.
 There are things to do and today with my foggy head and with my usual shoulder bag , weight, over my Shoulder with various NY Times, New Yorkers, Bill Press' Buyer's Remorse .. always ready to drop some new bomb on the innocent Obama supporters of the world. As Congressman Keith Ellison said on the back cover of the Book "Bill Press speaks truth to power" I wonder if President Obama noticed that or is the President just being very practical in not supporting Mr Ellison in his attempt to become President of the DNC. However the fact that Congressman Ellison is still a Muslim and can't seem to escape his defense of Farrakhan the Black Muslim leader years ago, maybe it's best he not be the face of the new DNC. What an adult writes down or speaks can be held against him even if he is merely a youthful soul still getting many lessons of life and making many mistakes on the path.
  Don't be afraid of mistakes someone reminded me again lately. Get out there and keep trying, maybe something will work. Tell you what... just being Life works. I got to wonder without that bag over my shoulder.  later.</sup>

 

Peace to President Trump

In the midst of the fear and tumult of the change of direction of our country I ask you all to reflect on the violence and war that we have become sadly acclimated to over time. I ask every man or woman who believes that things have reached such a state, that you wish, and even boldly state …’ I hope someone takes him out’ to think again about what you are saying.

You might reflect on Iraq, where we ‘took someone out’  we had agreed upon was evil, you might think of Libya and how that worked for us as we went about our business to relieve the world of a leader who seemed a just target of our sense of justice.  What is the power of your thoughts? Who is filling the world with fear and violence? What capacity do you have to create the world you fear through your fear? Are you so certain of the future? A friend reminded me a week or so after the election. ‘the only thing we know, is we don’t know’. How many lessons of violence bringing more violence do you need to experience in your lifetime? Pause and reflect on how many easy steps of violence reaped massive 'blowback'.

Get that thought out of your minds. Start looking at the positive, a challenge is a good thing.

I ask my friends who proudly belong to the ‘Left Coast’ to ponder our direction for the next century and right now. You might pause to think about Conservative, what does that term mean? Is there a place in our lives where Conservative behavior is of value? Is there a place in our Country’s life where a Conservative approach might bring some stability to the world? Well define Conservative you say.
You define it I say, and test yourself if you dare to think about the spectrum of thought that the world represents. Maybe start with Indigenous peoples of the world. What manifestations of Conservative thought brought them sustainability over centuries in their relationship to their environment?

 Perhaps these issues played a role in bringing about the results of the recent election:

Immigration:  11.4 Million Illegal Immigrants in the US as of 2012, maybe that number has continued to decrease from it’s estimated peak of 12 Million in 2007. Whether there is much wisdom in building a wall or not (and I think it is a waste, ugly, unnecessary, destructive to the environment, harmful to wildlife) the current attitudes of our ‘Progressive’ leadership here in California seems to believe there is no cost to our kind generosity in welcoming those from afar. With a wink wink, well you made it congratulations, here’s your drivers license, your medical care we will work it out further down the road. We need your hard work and willingness to accept low wages. Unfortunately when you build up such a long period of ignoring the law you undermine your own people and the law. It is terribly cruel to think that President Elect Trump might begin to enforce the law now after so many years when we have ignored it. The good thing about laws is that it let’s everyone be treated on the same basis, according to law. Without laws the forces of authority, our government might just enforce their sense of justice based on whether they liked you or not. It might become a very cruel world. What about the Haitians ? what about the Cubans? What about the poor Venezuelans? How about the millions in a devastated Middle East? Come on over … equal access outside of the law.. that should be fair.

  Is that just racism? Xenophobia? How many people do we welcome from afar? To me these are legitimate questions that might wish to be addressed by all Americans.. Left, Right and in the Middle. Something is going to be done. (Gulp) Well let’s see... and yes by all means protest all illegitimate attempts to enforce the law.


The National Debt: outside of the TParty fringe there doesn’t seem to be still a voice of heeding the problem. From maybe 11 Trillion debt when Bush Jr. left to what has mushroomed to 19.9 Trillion debt under Obama, apparently only Red State Americans seem to recognize the dangerous course we are embarked on. So far it appears that President Trump may ignore ‘the fringe’ voices of warning and expand our debt to new levels, something which the Democrats have been very good at, heeding the advice of Nobel Prize winning Paul Krugman, that the government is the engine of our economic strength and no debt is too much, putting us into the ‘too big to fail’ zone and consigning future generations to consumer capitalism in a wishful thinking mode. Already under Krugman’s urging, Obama and Jerry Brown’s policies .. the ‘Liberalization’ of building restraints to overcome community resistance
is seen as the path to prosperity.  Included necessarily with that an ever expanding population growth, ‘more bodies mean more consumers means more wealth’ that seems to be the theory. Somewhere a Conservative approach needs to gain ground.

 America’s divide. Don’t even say Abortion. Don’t even bring up the subject. What do you say? Can it even be discussed without producing such a rage of anger and moral certainty of Male and Female supporters in Blue State land that you risk .. getting your ears burned and having someone go off on a tirade of indignation. People are entitled to their opinions … The fetal heartbeat starts at 6 weeks. When does ‘the soul’ of a human come into being if you were to believe in such a notion? Some say that the moment of birth with the babies first breath the entire Cosmic imprint is placed in us.. you know all that Astrological hokum.  What Conservative approach might be good for us in our life and our notions of ‘Respect for All Life’. People have the right to their opinions, our minds and other peoples are filters of existence,

 Is it all breaking bad? Do we play a role in how it breaks or maybe even gets mended? If we do have a role then hopefully we step back from hysteria and fear trust in the Constitution and the resiliency and worthiness of our system.

These days...

  'In the old days we ranked as a nation of patient, put-upon, outraged, insolence swallowing, good-natured, all enduring moral cowards -- and willing to put up with anything, rather than have a "scene"
and get laughed at. The foreign tourists spoke softly and politely, some dreadfully plain truths about us, but the facts were at hand to justify them. Mr. Goodwin's single handed fight with a railway company -- a fight which was victorious, and at once changed the whole American Railway System from the position of public master to public servant ---makes plain the fact that the nation of moral cowards still exists; for the tyrannical offense which fired the Crusader-spirit of Mr. Goodwin was one which had been of daily occurrence on our railways for thirty years -- and swallowed by the victim every time --- swallowed and generally with meekness. We are always blaming our tyrants; whereas the blame does not lie mainly with the tyrant, but with the citizen: for in a republic a tyrant cannot exist if the citizen do a citizen's duty and individually resent and punish every infringement of his rights.' Mark Twain 'Life on the Mississippi' published 1883.

   ..  Mark Twain's works, should they be banned, maybe just ban them from young people's eyes in our age of enlightenment? His  'racism' though not evident in 'Life on the Mississippi' is revealed rather surprisingly for me, in his otherwise awesome book called 'Roughing It' published in 1872. Native Americans and African Americans might get exposed to language that hurts one's pride, all of our pride. I think we have come a long way with still a long way to go. Very grateful for the work of Mark Twain and hope that as long as their is a Red White and Blue.. United States of America that he is held strongly as a voice of the heart and soul of our history. I hope his work is never banned.

   His experiences of the 1860's traversing the USA by Stagecoach, the stories, experiences on the way.. from his descriptions of Utah.. look out Mormons you wouldn't want to read this. To his adventures in Virginia City, in the Nevada Territory, his close calls with getting rich, bad luck, the murderous
life style of the Wild West .. I think it was the first 29 burials in the Virginia City cemetery were all victims of murder. From there to virgin Lake Tahoe which he proceeds to burn down almost the entire forest accidentally..  Gold Mining in the Sierras.. on to San Francisco where I can't even remember his adventures there.. surviving 'the Great Earthquake' oh yes that one.. what was it 1866? Then on to Hawaii, the Sandwich Islands, too much incredible journey. ... and he comes back to SF what does he decide to do? Decides he is going to be a lecturer.. rents a big SF Opera house convinces many friends to buy tickets.. positions friends who promise to laugh loudly at his jokes... it all works!

   The Racism of the 1870's is not the Racism of today .. we have come a long long way. We grow, we emerge, many people grew up with racism, grew up emerging from the previous generations misconceptions. Mistakes of youth, perceptions when we are young that gradually get shed through
being confronted with living truth... other people.

 

Hoka Hey! Hoka Hey!

 From the first page of 'Black Elk Speaks' subtitled 'Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux' from conversations transcribed in May of 1931 by John G. Neihardt, first published in 1932.



My friend, I am going to tell you the story of my life, as you wish; and if it were only the story of my life I think I would not tell it; for what is one man that he should make much of his winters, even when they bend him like a heavy snow? So many men have lived and shall live that story, to be grass upon the hills.

 It is the story of all life that is holy and good to tell, and of us two-leggeds sharing in it with the four-leggeds and the wings of the air and all green things; for these are children of one mother and their father is Spirit.

This then is not the tale of a great hunter or of a great warrior, or of a great traveler, although I have made much meat in my time and fought for my people both as boy and man, and have gone far and seen strange lands and men. So also have many others done and better than I. These things I shall remember by the way, and often they may seem to be the very tale itself, as when I was living in happiness and sorrow. But now that I can see it all as from a lonely hilltop, I know it was the story of a mighty vision given to a man too weak to use it; of a holy tree that should have flourished in a people's heart with flowers and singing birds and now is withered; and of a people's dream that died in bloody snow.

 But if the vision was true and mighty, as I know, it is true and mighty yet; for such things are of the spirit, and it is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost.

 So I know it is a good thing that I am going to do; and because no good thing can be done by any man alone, I will first make an offering and send a voice to the Spirit of the World, that it may help me be true. See, I fill this sacred pipe with the bark of the red willow; but before we smoke it, you must see how it is made and what it means. ......

 He goes on to tell the story about how the first pipe came to his people ... it involves a beautiful woman, Bison, and men; both good and bad,  etc..

 Black Elk Was 13 years old at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, he tells the history of those days, as seen through his young eyes. He was a medicine man, nephew of Crazy Horse,  and his people began to recognize his powers early... I found it irresistible reading. I believe that we are getting ready for the days of 'The Holy Tree' to be rediscovered... Anyways powerful fire for the brain. Hoka-Hey! Hoka-Hey!

  A very funny story that perhaps surpasses Mark Twain to make you laugh out loud at 2AM is 'High Horse's Courting' ...

  As I pondered life and where was my Warrior's Spirit... if I had any at all.. last night... any ways get out there into the greatness of the day and try not to burnout my gears with the dreams, thoughts and plans of the evening.

 

Rain in California

So for those outside of California ... the San Anselmo Creek AKA Corte Madera Creek/ the Fairfax Creek did not flood. But the drama was intense... The rain has been off for about an hour or two. The Library closed and I stopped in the Marin Coffee Roastery on SA Ave as the rain was dumping, then walked over the walkbridge beside the coffeeshop, someone was filming the almost flood about a foot from the walkway, a Dad was checking it out with his son... I walked on caught a Fairfax bus as I waited for the 68 Inverness Stage Coach.... Anyways forgive me if I annoyed anyone

with annoying conversation at Peri's during Obama's Farewell Address. 

Got on the bus with Flood Warning going off in Fairfax just about when the rain slowed and hopped on the Bus that finally made it out to Forest Knolls past numerous disasters... Good Work to the Stagecoach drivers and all the drivers of California for having a safe ride through nasty weather.

Dismantling the Wall if I can. That Left/Right world of trouble.

What is it about morality that it is so selective?