To thine own self be true

who don’t look after their kids and put them in dangerous situations. Sometimes government has to intervene for those who are vulnerable and can’t say No. Uh, perspective, decency or civilization anybody?

Segue into Bangladesh and the incredible world-wide problem of forced child labor. This stuff is worse than Dickens as a kid working in a blacking factory. At least he got to go ‘home’ unlike these abused, exploited kids. All the evil done for greed, making money, and using others as a means to an end. Sickening. So much for child labor laws in truly primitive countries.

“Man’s inhumanity to man/Makes countless [millions] mourn!”–Robbie Burns, “Man Was Made to Mourn”

Today/Sunday I received a special d registered letter announcing I’d won Alberta Retired Teachers’ Association’s 2015 Writing Contest–Poetry category for my poem “Free”. Enclosed was a $200 pre-paid Visa card. The poem will be published in the winter issue of ARTA’s News and Views.

and often mispronounced Feb-u-ary. Should be Feb-rue-ary.

is pronounced cah-m, not call-m.

Erudite–should be pronounced air-uh-dite, not air-ee-uh-dite.

often mispronounced by people trying to impress others as eck-cetera though not written as ect. Actually pronounced and spelled in full as et cetera.

Still enjoyable–those upsurge moments and bursts of inexplicably-sourced energy in one-on-one conversation or epiphanic consciousness. The absolute best of Greek menos.

Much as in the dancing shiva, one foot of the dwarf of ego in order for an individual to break free of ego limitations holding one back in many ways. The upturned hand–an acceptance through reflection and contemplation connecting one more with the spiritual world.

Having to deal with ample external irrationality as revealed through daily and historical events. Goodness knows we each of us already have to deal with our own inner irrationalities necessarily expressing them periodically, constructively.

Of mysteries, there are multitudes. Reason cannot hope to explain many/most.

Nature is best simply experienced as is without rational/izing overlays, reason’s explanations or mental structuring. Especially if one wants to experience Blake’s Eternity in a flower.

Ultimately, we have to live on many levels, in many worlds to get the most out of life experience. Life is not just one level (e.g., physical/flesh or mental/rational) or our personal interpretation of it. Eliot and Prufrock’s desire to reduce the universe into a ball is naïve, simplistic, limited/limiting, and terribly unrich, uncomplex, and unrealistic.

Grandson and dog conk out at a party on couch. Using chairs to prevent him from falling. We were raised also with an ad-lib version of bed for kids, using two large living room chairs together. Quick common-sensical solutions for sudden naps or overnighters for kids who might otherwise accidentally fall or roll off a high adult bed.

who deliberately chose to walk through the Remembrance Day throngs in Ottawa back to his office only to happy to have selfies taken as the ceremony ended and the salivating CBC sensing a significant moment extended their coverage allowing Justin to become the ‘real story’ and climax of the national ceremony.

He had a choice. CBC had a choice and both choices were about agenda and Justin/Liberal aggrandizing, or rather inflicting Trudeau’s frivolousness on a captive nation of viewers.

This Liberal bent was reflected, too, in the over-the-top female reporter who twice brought politics and her Liberals/Justin-as-saviour agenda into her remarks, into the coverage. Politicking and political or egotistical agendas have no place on this sacred day traditional dedicated to remembering veterans and their more significant sacrifices on behalf of our country.

The behavior of both CBC and Trudeau were both disrespectful and disgraceful, and the CBC lost huge objectivity and credibility with their shallow ratings choice to turn the focus away from the vets to our stupid (says hair for heir, pulls out planes from the terrorist war, and insists screening processes be speeded up to accommodate an egotistical, irrational election promise that flies in the face of common sense and here-and-now reality), clown PM.

Had the pleasure of revisiting some oldie VHS off-air recordings this evening including the 1995 Wishbone episode of Pride and Prejudice. Wishbone was a popular PBS tv series in the 1990s that aired on PBS.

The protagonist–a cute male Jack Russell terrier–would have a different encounter with a literary classic played off against a modern-day story involving his owner–the junior-high student Joe, his mother and friends Sam and Dave. Wishbone spoke in voice-overs throughout the show. In the modern context, he wisecracked, unheard by the humans. In the interwoven literary adaptation, he became a human character who conversed and interacted with the characters from a given classic.

The one I watched tonight was from 1995, a take on Pride and Prejudice with Wishbone as Darcy! He got to dance, court, and plant flowers with Elizabeth, wearing a couple of different costumes with a floppy bowtie and lace around the neck and paws. This episode, like all the others, shows the relevance of literature to daily life and concludes with a number of morals reflected in both storylines.

I think this series did a lot for reading and was equally entertaining for literate parents  already familiar with the classics covered. Some favorites include:

Pride and Prejudice
Joan of Arc
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Oliver Twist
The Hound of the Baskervilles
A Tale of Two Cities
The Count of Monte Cristo
Frankenstein
Great Expectations
The Courtship of Miles Standish
Treasure Island
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Tales of Hercules
The Odyssey
The Tempest
Faust
The Phantom of the Opera
The Red Badge of Courage
Henry IV, Part I
Tales of Robin Hood
Ivanhoe
Poe’s The Purloined Letter
Cyrano de Bergerac
Romeo and Juliet