To thine own self be true

it is now not likely that two things shall happen that Trump was angling for as recently as two weeks ago.

1. Him winning the Nobel Peace Prize which he felt he richly deserved after singlehandedly destroying and insulting so many people, countries, allies, and traditional relationships while treasonously lining his pockets.

2.The passing of a motion he proposed that would have made it impossible to ever investigate the POTUS again. (Looks like the dictator’s permanent pipe dream got thwarted by events of the week. America is in the process of re-experiencing lawful controls, democracy, and a much needed spiritual and moral freedom. It now has a real opportunity to recover the Constitution’s promise and the original American Dream.)

sounded like a pathetic, lying, dying Last Hurrah. “How can you impeach me?” “Everybody but the Dems love me” “But I’ve done so much good for America and the world”. ‘Twas like HAL in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey taking himself apart one mental bar at a time without astronaut help. It looks like the long hoped-for Great American Correction may have begun at last…

Time for some bubbly after much long pain, suffering, chaos, and willy-nilly destruction. I am breaking out a Coppola red tonight for sup. Today’s overdue comeuppance, truth, and just deserts have been long worth waiting for and celebrating.

Childhood should remain an innocent, sacred time as long as possible (a la Blake and Wordsworth). It is a time for free rein of Imagination and Creativity: the key period in which kids learn to make things and express their uniqueness.

*The greatest gift an adult can give children is to provide a safe, stimulating environment in which they can be and express themselves freely. As a teacher, I always swore by making it possible for children to succeed by giving them a range of opportunities and experiences.

(The Blakean “mind-forg’d manacles” Blake associated with Experience will inevitably come later, but by then kids will long have had a chance to be innocent, free, and be more fortified against change, chaos, absurdity, and the inevitable limits of others, contexts, and self. )

One of a continuing series of authors and the famous whom I’ve encountered in night dreams. Auden was younger than this pic, in his forties, but his face was still very recognizable, even without the deep lines of his later self.
I only had time to ask him one question which, strangely enough, was about Tom Eliot: “Was he anti-Semitic?” “Oh God, yes.”
There were other questions at the back of my mind, notably about his Time poems and how he used and referred to Time in his poems, but by then my reverie-consciousness had moved on….

(Above pic: the British Library via BBC has published many interesting CDs with twentieth century British and American authors reading and interviewed. It is terrific to hear what some of these writers sounded like; so much depends on a writer’s speaking voice–you get closer to their public personas and gain many clues into how they felt and thought when expressing themselves.)

is symptomatic of the belated end of the long-past British Empire in the Brexit era. Other long-time businesses will likely follow. Harrod’s? Anything is now possible.

“But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have to stand naked”
–Bob Dylan, “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”, Bringing It All Back Home, 1965 A.D.

Google ‘Canada Post store’ to see most of the very limited edition items now available. (There is also a First Day cover and a cut sheet.)

(taken by my daughter on her patio)

what’s an individual to do?

Well, having causes and taking actions for what believes in still works. I still drop money in the jars for causes and support charities I believe in that need support. I still speak up when someone in public/a business tries to screw me around. I still leave the phone messager on to filter intrusive calls attempting to get me to waste money for their agendas. I still hit Mute when the commercials come on. I only support legitimate charities with identification at the door.

Much of the ‘outside noise’ and non-stop selling is an attack on the senses (loud music at the movies and crap music at some eating places) and sanity designed to distract large masses of the hoi-polloi. Overall, most of what passes in our society today is aimed at creating the lowest common (buying, consuming), unthinking denominator. You see this unthinking, too, in how most people walk around with earbuds or lost/buried in their drug-phones, disconnected from the immediate physical world and Nature. Hence, by extension, the climate crisis and people’s inability to identify plants, flowers, trees, animals and birds.

Every day I put out food for the backyard squirrel and birds. They are in tough with a 1/5 loss of birds in the past half-century, for instance. If one has a value, one should support it and put their money toward it.

It is important to remain grounded in one’s personal life. Yesterday I painted the fence because it needed to be done. Who else would do it anyway?

It is also important to look after one’s own health even it means annoying trips to the doctor and spending money for prescribed medication for real health conditions one may have. It means overcoming pride and ego even if it means, for instance, using a cane to get around better and more. Common sense stuff.

Speaking of filthy lucre, it often means that money in and of itself is not the be-all, end-all of a person’s life. Money is only a means to an end, and at best, as in the case of philanthropy or someone like Bill Gates, can be used as a positive to help others.

Re. ‘things’. All things are, of course, ultimately disposable and though some may be very valuable and precious to an owner, you can’t take it with you, as has often been remarked. These daze I find myself divesting myself of more and more. ‘Things’ are largely the antithesis of spiritual matters and experiences in any case.

I spend most of my days against the background of self-inflicted man-made crises, suffering, and craziness on a higher plane of regard, where I have long lived thanks to Nature and the Arts. It is there I continue to find meaning, sense, understanding, appreciation, escape, and more moral and uplifting calm and focus. It is a place I still consciously choose to live that keeps my soul and integrity intact after 70 interesting, relatively growthful years.

If I was to give any advice to someone it would be:
-choose where and how you want to live and practise/experience your own preferred values and dreams. Inner peace is only possible by going this way. One can’t do better than to follow one’s own bliss.
-be true to yourself, as Hamlet said. Don’t be drawn off your best self and instincts. Be honest with others as well.
-take care of yourself first because you can’t succeed or survive if you destroy yourself or let others pull you down toward lower/lowest levels.
-spend a portion of each day enjoying and experiencing the Nature around you
-learn something new every day. Take charge of your own education and edification.
-explore the Arts. They have so much meaning, purpose, wisdom, depth, spirit, and refreshment to offer individuals. Imagination, thinking and awareness are key parts of fully-lived experience.
-live more at the individual level and develop your consciousness to come to know yourself, others, Nature, and the world. It is no one else’s life and you only get one shot at this life as far as we know. Don’t let others control or live your life for you.
-much of life is absurd, funny, and ironic. Enjoy these aspects and learn to laugh at yourself and life.
-learn to accept, let go, and be truly free of external controls and restraints. Many of our limits are self-imposed.
-be thoughtful and mindful of others. Give freely of self to those in need and especially to those you appreciate. Gifts of self are the highest gifts of all.
-family is the most worthwhile social unit to be attached and devoted to. If you are prepared to die for companion or a family member, then you have likely ‘maxed’ as a compassionate, empathetic person.

Superior shit stuff all the way: Trudeau. “Some animals are more equal than others.”
Smiling as he apologized yesterday: the depth of his sincerity and honesty.
He has long had zero credibility and substance.

His favorite/main trait is ‘dressing up’ and making fun of non-caucasians. He is a huge fake. The mass of Canadians have been deluded about his essential nature.

How he ever got to be PM was a massive con game going back to Andrew Coyne’s 20 page love-in with T2 in Maclean’s: he’s Trudeau’s son; therefore, he’s meant to be PM. This kind simplistic ‘reasoning’ unjustly rocketed a privileged frat boy to levels way beyond his morality and common sense.

Yesterday his response was”Forgive me and love me all over again, everyone.” Not!!

I have no problem answering the ‘which one/face is the real Trudeau?’ It was and still is the fratboy face in the photos and video.  Facts: He was 29! and a teacher (role model and leader of the young) in two of the photos. He now has zero credibility on the world stage. He has lost any right to govern and lead this country. In the end, Trudeau diehards (especially in his own riding) are as dumb and selfish as Trump diehards. There is no way he should be re-elected. That is not common sense fairness nor justice.