The title says it all. I have grown older, and I have realized the degree of my foolishness in much of life. Now, this old fool muses about the past and present, and how to have an impact in the world around him. *NOTE: Review the creative commons license on the site before sharing/linking.
Spreadsheets can only lie with as much ease as bat droppings...no more, no less,
From: http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-05-22/
And of course, the easy buck with no fear of consequences because as long as you go big enough, you can count on being bailed out...rather than being allowed to fail as you deserve.
From: http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-05-14/
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The Old Fool
“If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” -George Orwell.
And the second one, a more cheerful review of charitable donations in this country...now if we were only free to do more of the donating ourselves, rather than have the government decide we MUST donate. Look at some of the G8 wealthy countries listed with a much lower per capita giving rate...but then again, their governments already often bleed them dry to social programs...
Um...wow. Is wow a sufficiently strong word? Well, probably not...but this is something I intend to keep my eye on. Wow. The technological, ecological, and global-politik implications are...dumbfounding.
As we begin a new year, I find it fitting to remember how thankful I am to even be here, to be alive, to be pursuing my calling, to enjoy family, to relish the joy of uplifting friendships, and to have the humbling knowledge of just how very much yet underservingly I am blessed.
Over the years I have worked hard at ensuring my place amongst the least deserving, fought hard for that title, even; and yet, my plans end up not my own. I have a family I love, cherish, and am blessed by and with a thousandfold thousands more times than most people deserve. The unabashed joy in countless faces shouting warm greetings just because of their joy in seeing you is a gift that never grows old, never breaks, never fades away...it is a gift that will remain regardless of how the times get. I have had a long list of friends who have brought more joy, maturity, peace, and pleasure into my life than I could ever claim to be worth.
I have examples in my life...people to look up to, people who have taken the time out of their pursuits to mentor and impart wisdom...who have left me speechless with wonder when I compare myself to them. Refer to the 'my father' and 'my mother' notes for one. I had the distinct joy of sitting down with a WWII vet this last week that I have known for 20 years, and whom I did some work with 15 years ago, and finally hear some of his life story and what drives him. A man, that at 85, believes he still has too much to do in thankfulness for how much he has been blessed. I have grandparents that have been examples of service and dedication for over 50 years now, and two sets of grandparents whose very lives are testimonies to how the right decisions, the right dedication, the right love and commitment, can reverberate through generations and hundreds if not thousands of people long after their own work is done.
As the old Fool moves into a new year, decade, challenges, and pursuits, he is left with naught but two prayers: Help him remember to take comfort in the fact that he is the Potter's very own clay, and help him to strive to be someday have been even slightly worth the blessings he has been deluged with from the day of his birth.
A happy new year to all, but may we always be able to find the joy in the memories of ones now only history and memories.
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The Old Fool
“If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” -George Orwell.
"Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don't need it and hell where they already have it." -Ronald Reagan
'Here's my strategy on the Cold War:
We win, they lose.'
- Ronald Reagan
'The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'-Ronald Reagan
'The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.'
-Ronald Reagan
'Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.'- Ronald Reagan
'I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress.' -Ronald Reagan
'The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.'- Ronald Reagan
'Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.'- Ronald Reagan
'The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program.' - Ronald Reagan
'It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.'- Ronald Reagan
'Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it'
- Ronald Reagan
'Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed, there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book.'- Ronald Reagan
'No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is as formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.'- Ronald Reagan
-- The Old Fool
“If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” -George Orwell.
The Old Fool’s instruments have been silent these past weeks now. Once in danger of an early grave in the rubbish heap from overuse, they feel the cold grip of forgotten obsolescence creeping into their very cores.
He has never been this quiet before, has he? And even in troubled times, he always found comfort and solace in the work we help him accomplish. These days it seems it’s merely voices in a distance we hear; always different, always new ones, but with one homogenizing characteristic – the sadness, despair, and grief in the voices.
Could it be our beloved master has passed on, and we can hear naught but his mourners these days? Surely not…but then again, we have not heard his voice, his booming laughter, his commanding presence these past days. Sad strangers and murmurs have been our only company of late…could our work be finished now forever, what of…
The subtle click of the opening door is enough to silence the current idle talk, although repartee it was not. The door has been a constant barrier to the knowledge of what has actually occurred, and an expectant hush falls over the old fellowship. A soft lamp is reawakened, casting its warmth about, dispelling the dark cold that had roosted in the quiescent room.
An unheard gasp shocked around the room and reverberated in the undisturbed air as the collected instruments, the Fool’s constant companions, finally witnessed the invader to the formally dormant space – the Fool slowly settling into his familiar place.
Absently, his fingers flit and caress from one instrument to the other, the familiarity of years giving the task a surprising intimacy, “I have missed…” The words spoken so softly and ended in the thoughts of the fool would have been lost in the silence of a graveside service…but to the gathered audience they strike the sweet timber of life in what had been a dead space for far too long.
The searching hand settles on the most familiar instrument of all…whose employ had written more ideas into existence and commanded more things be done with a flourish of the Fool’s name upon an unassuming line than some could accomplish in several lifetimes. Their mate pressed back into service, the reserve units eagerly await their own call up for today’s duty.Yet, one by one they are bypassed by the unoccupied hand of their master until it settles on the small stack of unofficial stationary. These scraps of dried pulp, usually relegated to the mediocrity of a scrawled note pinned to an official document or creation, suddenly called to the front for first-wave duty.
Before the confusion sets, the deflowering words upon the pristine space clarifies the Fool’s intentions on this day…
Dear Potter,
Not again! So much silence, so much disuse…and for this we are called to duty again? Shall we never perform a service of value again?
Dear Potter,
What self-serving nonsense will it be this time? Wet dirt? Mudpies? Children’s crafts? Better to have been left alone than returned to this…
But this time, there is no hesitation in the Old Fool’s advance from the beachhead of these formerly hated words. Slowly, at times unsteadily, but always determined, the words march onto the page. The Fool keeps up the assault, unrelenting, unyielding; the grief ever more apparent from the old and darkening eyes that once held such spark. Eyes whose appearance now silenced the protests, as the Fool’s words march on.
Dear Potter,
I have been a fool. I have embodied hubris. I sought your succor, pleaded for strength, sought the purpose you set forth. My beloved Potter, these weeks you have had more faith in me than I and my life should have ever engendered.
What shall I say to all those you’ve brought to my door these past few weeks? Those whose pain, sorrow, loss, confusion, despair, emptiness and ache has daily shamed me for every moment’s self-pity my own diminutive woes begat? Mistaking my shame, my unfound wisdom – my silence – for a good ear, their hears they’ve laid bare.
Sweet Potter, I have not the words, the wisdom, or the ability to quaff even one of these overflowing cups of suffering you’ve laid at my door. I have no consolation to offer but lie that is the silence they mistake for wise listening. I lack the refuge of separation, impersonal distance, for they are all my beloveds, those I love and know, their grief my own as mine has often been theirs. I alone am unequal to the task.
Loving Potter, this Fool is left with naught but to arrogate, supplicate, plead for your guidance…your wisdom…your aid. Will You see fit to give me the words, the wisdom I do not have, to show them Your succor? Will you give them the wisdom to find their answers on their own, and simply leave me the strength to listen?
Dear Potter, I asked you to show me that I was your clay, now I redouble the entreaty and beg to be molded…I lay my own self bare…help me light the way to the comfort they need. If you would take my wealth, my joy, my life in payment, I would gladly surrender it all. Their anguish echoes in my heart…I cry out to you, show me how to one day echo with their joy!
Your unworthy, foolish clay,
The instrument finishes the final stroke on that once proud name, and joins its brothers in silence as they gaze upon their once proud master. The concept, once so easily dismissed by the gathered fellowship, now reaching clarity. Not a child’s toy. Not a mudpie. Not dirt and dirty water. Clay. Not just clay…the Potter’s Clay. His clay.
And if the Potter’s clay commands us, drives us, applies us…what are we after all?
The Old Fool rises and with a slow breath steels himself to welcome the next visitor, he returns the room to its erstwhile darkness. As the door, once a prison gate, now the access to a refuge, closes again, the Fool utters just two more words, a self-reminder on the way to his new task, ”His clay”…
And with the final click of the door, an unheard chorus quietly fills an undisturbed room,
Us too, sweet Fool, us too.
----------------
Cry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX_xz5RYkXo
King Nothing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ9y4jzwXaA
Hero of the Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPB3c6E7p44
The Unforgiven: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhryYbyTZ2M
--
The Old Fool
“If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” -George Orwell.
A wandering old fool. See the blog's title and description.
George Orwell: “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
"But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."
"Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it."
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
Albert Einstein: “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”
"Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character."
Ayn Rand: "Government "help" to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off."
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