Tag: violence

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Charleston, West Virginia Writings

Adult Halloween is for Weenies

I cannot get behind Halloween as a holiday for adults. Barf! How weenie!

Maybe it is due to psychological problems on my part, but I have no urge to get dressed up as a pumpkin or go trick-or-treating.

If we must have adult holidays (especially during the Scorpio season) couldn’t we at least choose something with a little teeth?

Here are a few ideas for adult Halloween traditions that would be far superior to a regressive fantasy dress-up day…

1. A day when men challenge their enemies to a duel. Not a fight to the death, just a good old-fashioned fist fight where the loser gets beaten to a pulp.

2. A day when everyone publishes their darkest secrets anonymously in the newspaper.

3. A day when people send love letters (anonymous or not) to anyone they currently or have ever had feelings for.

4. A day when people spend the night in forests, cemeteries, or -for extra credit- buried alive beneath the earth. (With a straw to enable breathing, of course. )

5. A day of truth & dare, where you ask people personal questions and if they don’t want to answer you select a reasonable dare for them to perform.

6. A day where everyone spends the daylight hours huddled in the basement in total silence.

7. A day when men compete to eat the most disgusting things imaginable.

8. A day when everyone spends 1% of their yearly income on gifts for a surprise recipient outside their family.

10. A day when men walk naked door to door at sunset, confessing their secrets & receiving a hard slap from women in return. (This is obviously the best idea of all.)

11. A day when men gather to take nude photo shoots with their male family members which are then published in the paper.

The possibilities are endless of course, but the point is this- We are adults! We no longer have to get our thrills by retreating to the pathetic amusements of youth!

Why not instead have holidays which challenge us and push us to step beyond the normal patterns of life? The time for pretending to be something has passed. Now is the time for actually becoming it.

Categories
Blue, Black, Silver, Water, Moons, Death & Ghosts Charleston, West Virginia Music & Songs Sky Blue, Ether, Flags, and Fairies

I am a cloud.

Truly, I am a cloud & you can’t hurt me. I hope.

Right and wrong
Is not the things I know about.
A song- but I could calm the waters on a cold, gray day
You will know my name.

I am a cloud; you can’t hurt me!
Strike against me with your strongest hand
Blow you like a boy across the waters
Smash you like a board back to the land.

Filling up the sails of the sailors
You’ll never know where I lie
Cut me, it won’t make you any braver
Falling out of favor with the sky.

Right and wrong
Is not the things I know about.
A song- but I could still the waters on a cold, gray day
You will know my name.

I am a cloud; you can’t hurt me!
Fall upon me with your heavy hand
Run away and yet I seem to follow
Clinging to your whiskers like the sand.

Creeping like a fog above the waters
You’ll never know where I lie
Curling round your shoulders like a vapor
Sucking from your lungs another sigh.

Forty stars against the light of day
Forty stars that draw away, away, away.

Right and wrong
Are not the things I care about.
A song- but I could cool the waters on a cold, gray day
You will call my name.

I am a cloud.Download
A picture of heaven, where there are 2 soldiers for every rabbit.

Categories
Astrology Charleston, West Virginia Red, Soldiers, & Fire

Idealism & Compassion Lead to Violence

“Idealism leads to disdain for the present. A man destroys his world in hopes of gaining a better one.”  – Confucius*

In astrology, all events move through semi-predictable stages just as the planets move through the signs of the zodiac.

Compassion & idealism, though frequently touted as the antidote to violence are- astrologically speaking- the very things which give rise to it. A quick glance through history will confirm that sickening violence is usually preceded by a mass outbreak of idealism. But why?

Some points to consider:

  1. Idealism can lead to disenchantment with the way things are, making the present seem to have no value.
  2. Idealism can lead to disdain for the people around you, magnifying their flaws and making them seem to have no value.
  3. Idealism can blind you to the reality that things could be much worse.
  4. Idealism gives wings to your imagination, making you hope and believe in things that cannot be- at least not in the here and now.
  5. Compassion- which I define as love that has been spread out impersonally over large groups of humans- can have a dehumanizing effect, causing the value of an individual to shrink to insignificance next to the good of all.
  6. Idealism and compassion are linked to our higher self, but disconnected from our animal nature. Therefore, in high doses, they lead to abstraction and derealization. This disconnect from physical reality also leads to impractical thinking.

So the net result of extreme idealism is extreme dissatisfaction with the present coupled with a feeling that life could easily be much better. The people you encounter are fallen and insignificant. The people you desire to save are faceless and infinite. Who would not risk the maggot filled sandwich of the present for the banquet of the future? Who would not pull the fingernails off one bigot to guide a flock of lambs into heaven?

Violence becomes justified and impersonal. The idealistic man is primed for destruction. But will he have the energy to destroy? And what led him to become an idealist in the first place?

That is what we will consider next.

 

 

 

* Not really said by Confucius (as far as I know). But he might agree with the sentiment, since he was all about treating your current situation with dignity rather than yearning for a better one.