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There is a school of thought that posits that Adam - of Genesis fame - was not actually the first man, but rather the first prophet in the line of prophets that spawned the Abrahamic faiths. The crux of this is that there was nothing good nor evil prior to the teachings of the creator having reached us - hence like the ravening wolf or the ferocious lion, there was nothing intrinsically wrong in anything we did since it was only natural. Once the concept was introduced that there was a purpose-driven, life-loving God, however, good and evil could be finally identified as those behaviors which departed from that purpose and interfered with that life. Hence the tale of Cain and Abel and most everything else in the Torah.
Now I am not here to argue this idea today. I am more interested in the location. Adam is said to have appeared in the garden of Eden, and of all the locales that have been proposed as the "real" Eden, I have been most convinced by the suggestion of David Rohl that it might have been Tabriz. I think it was the documentary, In Search of Eden - which can be found on You Tube that mostly convinced me. I may well be mistaken, however, so do your own research.
What intrigues me about this location is that some six thousand years later, around 1844, another man appeared in Iran claiming to be next in the Adamic line of prophets. Ignoring every gory detail about this, I will merely note that the Islamic clergy of Iran had this man executed on July 9, 1850 in what was then downtown Tabriz.
In a sense, then, what began with Adam in Eden came full circle and was brought to a close in the same location. Curious.
So, if Iran was in fact the host to the original garden of Eden, then it would follow that some of the oldest cultural elements of civilization may have sprung from that region, and one might expect that some of the most mature concepts regarding life the universe and everything have been and continue to be evolving there.
Sadly, Iran is mostly being demonized these days - not without good reason, mind you - to the citizens of the USA, so it is a knee-jerk reaction of many in the West to eschew everything associated with Iran. In fact, most of the evils that issue out of that country seem to be caused by a minority of fanatics who have a stranglehold on governance and their oppressions are evident and well documented. To some extent, the people of that country are rising up against that oppression, so there may well be an end one day to that circumstance.
All of this is a long way around to recommending that every "educated" American should be familiar with the story of Layla and Majnun - perhaps the original "Romeo and Juliette". It is a tale familiar to most every Iranian, one that inspired Eric Clapton in composing perhaps his most famous tune. Maybe one day, Hollywood will grace us with a worthy film depiction of it.
Likewise, those who would account themselves as culturally informed might wish to peruse some of the poetry of Rumi:
BeyondOut beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.
I'll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.Ideas,
language,
even the phrase "each other"
doesn't make any sense.
and Hafez:
Will Beat You UpJealousy
And most all of your sufferings
Are from believing
You know better than God.
Of course,
Such a special brand of arrogance as that
Always proves disastrous,
And will rip the seams
In your caravan tent,
Then cordially invite in many species
Of mean biting flies and
Strange thoughts-
That will
Beat you
Up.
So just some ideas on how to fill your new year, or whatever.
Oh yeah, and if any of your neighbors are Iranian refugees, consider going out of your way to talk with them. For the record, I am not Iranian, but one of my neighbors is.
--
"So make the best of the situation before I finally go insane", -Derek and the Dominos, Layla
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28, @02:27AM (42 children)
For some time, reloading this page paused reverently at "Life is a carnival, ten cents a shot." And then something broke it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28, @06:31AM
- Man Wears Cargo Shorts Causing Hundreds Of Women To Stumble Into Sinful Lust [babylonbee.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01, @10:10PM (13 children)
And now there's a thread about the places El Camino Real ran through... Palo Alto, Mountain View, Deadwood City (local joke). Some of us could write books about it. Not posts, though.
So, burn this damn thing, already.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02, @12:17AM (12 children)
The way you name-drop and spray bullets around, it's pretty clear you're a SoCal type. Now you're complaining that there are not enough fires to suit your liking. FFS, go desalinate something.
This journal had legs for a while. Now it is nearly invisible. I am giving up posting here for lent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02, @04:07AM (3 children)
Those are places in "NoCal."
Because I met Mr. Disney and we had as meaningful of a conversation as one might expect of a world-class genius and a fawning, bumbling 12yo? You know, on the coast in "SoCal" self-appointed celebs are so thick you choke on the smell of their auras.
And I'm just shootin' dumdums. Check out the level of discourse this place fosters in Doing a Good Deed for Others Can Help People With Depression [soylentnews.org]
Know what you do with the dead?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02, @04:46AM (1 child)
SoCal, NoCal, it's all west coast to me. I was teasing you because I have no fix for your outline of kvetch
Some of the "Good Deeds" drivel is my fault. Sorry.
BTW, I was kidding. I don't do lent. But fasting starts tomorrow.
I have been known to pray for the departed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02, @05:12AM
Is it prayer then pyre, or the other way 'round?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02, @05:26AM
Oh yeah,... we also mourn them, especially when we can't bring them back to life. Even Jesus wept.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02, @04:52AM (7 children)
> This journal had legs for a while. Now it is nearly invisible.
I was too active here, often as a release. Now that selflessness-thing has overwhelmed me. Count the posts... me, mostly.
We knew it was the wrong venue to begin with... we were just fooling ourselves in thinking that we might have some positive impact. It's not all a generational thing, because there are many young people who have a value system, regardless of school/social/chat pressures. I like to think that a fair percentage will one day find a better voice within themselves.
They were good words, here, even the most flippant. I like to think they were mostly healthy.
I see now that you tried once more in that "Doing a Good Deed" thread. You were in luck, there... the natives used to eat the missionaries.
Burn, baby, burn.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02, @05:40AM (1 child)
> Count the posts... me, mostly.
Counted... more than 64% have my stench about 'em.
You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02, @06:52AM
Thank you for sharing. That's what this journal is all about.
--
-Don Henley
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02, @10:46PM (4 children)
Sure, I'll help you get up from that mud puddle, but I'll need a receipt...
Person to person and man to man
I'm back in touch with my long lost friend
Listen to reason and understand
And think of me from way back when
He said, me and Melissa, well we fell out of love
We ran out of luck, seems like lightning struck
I've been thinking of leaving, but I can't raise a buck
James, I'm wondering, could I borrow your truck?
I said, that's why I'm here
Got no other reason
That's why I'm standing before you
That's why I'm here
- James Taylor
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 03, @03:34AM (2 children)
Selflessness is hard - especially if you've never tried it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 03, @04:52AM (1 child)
That's why we have government to do that kind of useless bullshit for us. I do my part by incessantly telling idiots about the correct side of every social issue.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 03, @05:48AM
Yes, and when you delegate your charitable efforts to the state, they wield even more power to oppress, and no one can tell who the good folk are anymore. One might get depressed just thinking about it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 04, @04:59PM
Here [soylentnews.org] is my extended comment regarding acts of kindness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02, @05:54PM
The helots are innocently wondering Is ChatGPT Listening in? [soylentnews.org], when in reality, they're all devouring it all, and each other. This, right here, is manna for the bots.
All wet, here, you might need a raincoat
Shake-down, dreams walking in broad daylight
Three hundred sixty-five degrees
Burning down the house
It was once upon a place, sometimes I listen to myself
Gonna come in first place
People on their way to work say, “Baby, what did you expect?”
Gonna burst into flame, ah
- "Burning Down The House" - Talking Heads
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02, @07:02PM
Notice, too, that the most rabid drum-beaters for the CCP virus and world domination, and against open discussion, seem to have themselves contracted stifling/gagging side effects, and avoided Why the U.S. Needs a Formal Reckoning on the COVID Pandemic [soylentnews.org]. Only a few secondary characters have continued the mantra.
Fire... the healing power, to shed the land of debris, to prepare for rebirth, new growth and maturity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 04, @04:58AM (4 children)
Look out! It's comin' around again: Research Shows That, When Given the Choice, Most Authors Don’t Want Excessively-long Copyright Terms [soylentnews.org].
Give me rights to that job you've been working at for years... and I'll add cheese and fries. And, I'll peruse everything you've ever done in your life, because information wants to be free — in fact, you should pay me for looking. Maybe there should be a reciprocal agreement, that people who make hamburgers should get free songs, and those who write songs should get free hamburgers. That still doesn't solve the problem of the hamburger-neutral people who want free songs. Then there's the problem that you can assemble hamburgers by the hundreds of thousands, over a career, but no matter how hard you work, you can only create a few lasting, non-crap songs.
Even as we've simplified this page, and a few similar ones in the last year or so, you know they aren't following it. They're looking for references to ogres and spaceoperas, and missing anything that doesn't fit the pop-agenda. Notice that they up-mod posts that they assume must be smart because they are wordy, which also means they wouldn't read it anyway (chatbot heaven). Not that they are a prospective paying audience, anyway, as in: Harvard dean says students these days regularly fail to understand basic sentences from texts more than a century old [notthebee.com]. The point is, if you're doing anything besides visual/aural/oral media, it's all moot, because they will surely grab a copy of anything and everything, but it might as well be hieroglyphics.
Think of the children! Think of the vegetarians!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 04, @05:32PM (1 child)
This ^^^!
I do love to compose songs, and my sixth grade teacher implored me to consider a career in writing, but success in either profession depends on rather involved business activities and interests, involving lawyers and contracts and all sorts of accounting that I have no heart for - just let me create for heaven's sake and don't burden me with the details. Consequently, nobody hears my music and (mostly) nobody reads what I write, but I do it anyway, because that's what I do - when the spirit moves me. No middlemen have ever adopted me, nor do I care at the end of the day. Hence copyright makes no never mind to me, but I do understand why it is essential for many. God bless the ones who can make a living by those means.
Oh, ...and food for thought is not at all like hamburgers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05, @04:25AM
It is rumination, which I suppose is more vegetarian than meaty. Even that nuevo-meato cricket-helper.
About cud processing...
Start with a phrase, say "Wildflowers don't care where they grow."
See where it takes you.
Don't hurry.
If it takes you right to Dolly Parton's anatomy, you're ruminating too hard.
If you don't now see why it might take you to Dolly Parton's anatomy, you're not ruminating hard enough.
If it takes you to Greenland or roadside rest stops in Kansas or weed killers or The Sound Of Music, or maybe how to spell "Burpee," you're doing it right.
If, however, you dismiss it all as more self-indulgent nuisance weeds, you are management material.
If I had a million dollars... I'd be middle-class
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 06, @09:44PM
The sound of one check bouncing:
Oughta be Score: 27, Informative.
I'd like to thank my old publisher. Sure, he drove a double-wide Lincoln Continental, but he always made sure I had a couple of bucks on me. While he did get me started on DOS-Word, I forgive him.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 10, @05:58PM
- Bad Onboarding Can Lead to High Quit Rates for New Workers [soylentnews.org]
A generation unprepared for adulthood! This "entitlement" thing is going to be hard on people, once the high taxes and lowered opportunity in life hit.
Oh, the world owes me a living...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05, @06:33AM (2 children)
And again! FDA Reportedly Denied Neuralink's Request to Begin Human Trials of its Brain Implant [soylentnews.org]
Sometimes in life, you are overjoyed just to have one. After all, some people throw themselves on live hand grenades, given no other practical option.
Is this thing ready for human trial? I don't know. Gut feeling is that everything techy is in too big of a hurry. Reminds me of early heart pacemaker trials. I wouldn't be so vain as to discount it just because it has your new-found enemy involved — like Trump and the virus "horse-meds." I do know that trying some things the FDA poo-poos, is better than throwing in the towel. Imagine humanitarian applications for this, beyond vanity.
I can think of one still-non-approved treatment given because it was better than nothing, and it's now been better than nothing each year, setting new records for the oldest person of that ilk. Now, if only they could approve a pill, there would be an income stream in it. Not a pill to cure anything, of course, just to relieve symptoms.
Would I use that brain plug? Better than throwing in the towel.
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's off with her head
Remember what the dormouse said
Feed your head
Feed your head
- Jefferson Airplane
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05, @09:20PM (1 child)
> Not a pill to cure anything, of course, just to relieve symptoms.
There's the scene in a Star Trek theatrical movie, where Dr. Bones has gone back in time to next Wednesday. In a San Francisco hospital, he casually scorns the barbaric treatment, as he slips an old woman one little white pill. Later, she is crying out to doctors that this guy grew her a new kidney. Does everyone always think, "yeah, that'll happen! Where's the profit in one little white pill that heals your customer base?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 06, @12:23AM
Yet another broken-window fallacy... as if people would have nothing to do, nor any way to earn money if all disease could be cured rapidly and cheaply.
[sarcasm]
Let us not cross that river. There is no telling what is on the farther side.
[/sarcasm]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08, @09:49PM (3 children)
Burn before reading:
They're complicated people leading complicated lives
And he complicates their problems by telling complicated lies
He tells her he's sorry, she tells him it's over
He tells her he's sorry, she says over and over
"You've never really known that when the white flag is flown
No one no one no one has won the war"
There goes a forest and there goes a bluebird
There goes a partridge and there goes a GO train
There goes an angel and there goes a steeple
There goes a cop car and there goes an eagle
There goes a raven and there go the ribbons
There goes a raven and there go the ribbons
There goes a raven and there go
The ribbons, the ribbons, the ribbons, the ribbons of the flag
Of the flag
- Barenaked Ladies
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09, @12:47PM (2 children)
What's playing now...
-Barry McGuire, Eve of Destruction
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09, @05:31PM (1 child)
These are the times that try persons' souls.
I'm more tired and less upset than in... well, the last eleven days, anyway. Actually, since Saturday, Feb 11, when that DMV letter showed up and I squandered what should've been critical recovery and especially recuperation hours.
But the last eleven days saw my world crumbling between my fingers. And just maybe this morning there is finally a chance of recovery. Like a lost and confused soul finding clarity and peace... peace in life, that is, I don't want to see anyone buried for a very long time.
About this thread... yes, it's too personal to me, and I'll cherish my copy of it forever. And I don't want it burned just to spite this sad little misbegotten mudpit. I do thank you for leaving it this long, and I hope it has made some days a little better for those who discovered the good stuff.
Good Lord, for someone who tries to keep it all so vague, this is awfully personal.
(Score: 2) by nostyle on Friday March 10, @02:34PM
If this unworthy journal has lifted the spirits of any, then my efforts have not been wasted. I appreciate your kind words.
I keep wanting to move the interaction forward into the next journal in the series, but this one keeps dragging me back. If there is time today, I will again add a story into the next journal that might amuse.
--
-Zedd, Find You
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 10, @05:53AM (9 children)
Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy - 1978 [archive.org] Review [allmusic.com]
Warren Zevon - Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School - 1980 [archive.org] Review [allmusic.com]
Warren Zevon - The Envoy - 1982 [archive.org] Review [allmusic.com]
Warren Zevon - Sentimental Hygiene - 1987 [archive.org] Review [allmusic.com]
Warren Zevon - Transverse City - 1989 [archive.org] Review [allmusic.com]
Warren Zevon - Mr Bad Example - 1991 [archive.org] Review [allmusic.com]
Warren Zevon - Learning To Flinch - 1993 [archive.org] Review [allmusic.com]
Warren Zevon - Life'll Kill Ya - 2000 [archive.org] Review [allmusic.com]
Warren Zevon - The Wind - 2003 [archive.org] Review [allmusic.com]
Warren Zevon - Wanted Dead Or Alive - 1969-2003 [archive.org] Review [allmusic.com]
Warren Zevon - Enjoy Every Sandwich_ The Songs Of - 2004 [archive.org] Review [allmusic.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 10, @06:58AM
- Warren Zevon 1947-2003 [allmusic.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 10, @01:40PM (7 children)
Thanks for the links. If I can find time, I'll delve into them - no guarantees. I have always appreciated his werewolves of london and lawyers guns and money tunes.
Lately I've been being haunted by the other "Ze..." artist/producer of contemporary fame - Zedd. In particular, this morning "Find You" has been on repeat in my head, and his "Spectrum" made my "trapped on a desert island with only one ipod" list last year - maybe I am moved by the vocals of Matthew Koma - it's hard to sort out. Of course, Zedd seems to be all about techno-pop-dance tunes, but it kind of gives me hope for the next generation. Who knows, maybe in forty years some geezers will be quoting lyrics from his tunes at each other. It would be interesting to see how well they age - I'm sure I won't be around then. Big dollar music is all collaborations anymore, so it's getting harder to see where the real genius springs from - but then maybe humanity is moving beyond the need for singular geniuses.
-nostyle
--
-Zedd, Clarity
-Zedd, Stay
-Zedd, Happy Now
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 10, @05:24PM
> "trapped on a desert island with only one ipod"
There ya' go, a blog topic, right there. One with legs. It's almost but not quite as good as '30s movies.
After that final cleansing fire to release the magic blue smoke and release this one to its well deserved place in time, of course.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 10, @05:42PM (5 children)
Or a topic even more worse yet, "Desert island Decameron," by H. Allen Smith.
Just throw it in the water, when you're done.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13, @01:06PM (4 children)
It looks like your wish for all this to burn might be granted. I dreamed the other night that I will be dying on or before March 15.
This morning I've had chest pains for the past four hours. Nitro pills having no effect. Using some opioids from old prescription to dull the pain enough to type this. Debating whether to self-hospice or incur the unknown costs of serious medical intervention. At least I lived long enough to read about Azuma's visit to Canada. Luv ya doll!
If I am alive after the 15th, I will post an update. If not, so long and thanks for all the fascism. It been one riot after another. Watched "Women Talking" last night with my wife. As a survivor, it was a bit too close to home for her, but she will recover. I'm sad that I might not get to see that "Everything Everywhere..." movie.
Seriously, it's been fun posting here. As James Taylor once sang, having gone to Carolina - "Say nice things about me..."
Please pray for me, if you are able.
-nostyle
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13, @10:13PM
Can't imagine how you're going to delete this from... do they have wifi, anyway?
Remember that husband and wife who both wanted to run off? Well, she died, and her deathbed wish was for a nice, modest, tasteful tombstone... inscribed with "I TOLD YOU I WAS SICK!" And so it was.
You don't sound that bad, anyway. As Miracle Max said about Westley, "I've seen woise."
And Westley went on to save the picture.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13, @10:46PM
> Debating whether to self-hospice or incur the unknown costs of serious medical intervention.
See the Jimmy Carter post in this thread for more about home-hospice.
"Intervention" would be the same, whether you stayed at home, or went to some dreadful facility and eternal bedsores... they'll call an ambulance, whether you're at home or in a... [looking for a nice euphemism].
Staying home is about how much of a burden you are, and expect to become, for family members. If you can get up and down, dress and poop, you have a good family who likes you enough, and who knows the bottom line about living wills, mortgages and such, your decision is easier. Please leave some bucks to those who sacrifice for you. Or don't go, at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 16, @11:16PM (1 child)
Posting now 'cause I said I would. Still here. Dreams of my demise were great exaggerated. I guess I get to endure another round of March madness.
-nostyle
--
-Everly Brothers, All I Have to Do Is Dream
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17, @02:23AM
He could be waiting at any crossroad.
Always take the road less traveled.
I do.
Of course, I'm just lost.
Saint Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14, @06:54PM
[jasassin] Are you familiar with the story of the appt. at Samarra? [soylentnews.org]
I met death late one night, way out on that deserted highway.
I showed him the way.
He's not real good at gratitude.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17, @04:18AM
- This Harvard longevity researcher, 53, says he de-aged himself by a DECADE thanks to these four daily hacks [dailymail.co.uk]
He's only 53... wait until life's surprises start hitting him. The last time I ran, was when futilely trying to catch the pickup truck that knocked down the fence. Many discount fasting... just reduce overall intake. I don't eat/drink much in the evening. Green tea is about anti-oxidants, which you can get in all sorts of ways. You can't avoid stress, any more than you can avoid reality... it's all about coping; wish I could!
Bought two bottles of top-shelf weed killer at WalMart; used one gallon, and it did nothing at all (go ask Alice). Stressed for several days, because it was $40 per bottle. Finally went back to WalMart; nobody was in the return line, so I went in. An old guy near the line came unstuck. (I am always in a hurry to get home.) You know, telling someone to breathe deeply and calm down, just makes some people worse. The clerk was sweet and compassionate, and directed the guy to another clerk who rushed in; she gave me the $80, without question. Sad thing is about somebody stealing weed killer, like that. (I got the cheap stuff... figured they'd only steal the best.)
Fox had a funny show called "In Living Color" with the Wayans brothers. One segment called "Lowered Expectations" was intended as a joke, but it hit home. The image was of a frumpy couple, standing at a chain link fence near sunset, admiring the LA River... the "river" was a big concrete canal with a trickle running down a ditch. A touching scene.
A beautiful line about expectations on American Pickers, by Jersey John: "Garage Mahal."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 22, @10:00PM
I was sponsored and I had my first apartment. They did the math.
[How did that go?]
It was awful, it was bad. I don't even know I made it to nationals that year. But I was distracted and I wasn't trained properly and I didn't have the structure that I had the year before. And that would be the last time my mom would ever see me skating competition, for she lost her battle and it was -- she was the person in my life that I love the most.
I had to figure out what to do so I just found a walk in my backyard, and that walk, I realized I didn't have to do anything without her. I could take her with me and supper take her with me on the ice every day. And I said it is about time that I grow up and I would be the person that she dreamed that i would be. She always would say what when i would pass they figure text -- testable we are going to the Olympics some day, and thought "based on what."
I am last-place guy, not first-place guy. It appears that there wasn't a lot of evidence... no evidence supporting that at all. so I took her to the ice with me every practice, and every day to honor her... every day. So that next season, I was third in the United States and 11th in the world, and two years later, I am on the Olympic team at Lake Placid, third seed on the team, basically a tourist with no chance of a medal.
I get elected to carry the flag in the opening ceremony and lead the team out, and I couldn't figure out why here our team leader, Michael, I love Michael, he sold it not on who is going to win the Olympics, it was about the destination. He presented me as a candidate, based on the journey. They just thought that my journey was unique and that would represent that team pretty well. So the hockey team wins the gold medal. I win every race in the Olympics. which was three places better than I ever dreamed I could be.
- Partial transcript of Tucker Carlson's interview with Olympic Skater Scott Hamilton