tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020960402708303830.post9117350003169014945..comments2024-03-28T14:53:38.827-04:00Comments on BLCKDGRD: Some of You Future Motherfuckers Oughta Be Ashamed About the State of Your Ply CountUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020960402708303830.post-316590034059939902020-12-07T11:20:19.203-05:002020-12-07T11:20:19.203-05:00speaking of saving one's soul, as dostoyevski ...speaking of saving one's soul, as dostoyevski does -<br /><br />The Serenity Prayer is the common name for an originally untitled prayer by the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. The prayer has been adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step programs. The best known form asks for serenity, courage, and wisdom; the extended version is -<br /><br />God, grant us the...<br />Serenity to accept things we cannot change,<br />Courage to change the things we can, and the<br />Wisdom to know the difference<br />Patience for the things that take time<br />Appreciation for all that we have, and<br />Tolerance for those with different struggles<br />Freedom to live beyond the limitations of our past ways, the<br />Ability to feel your love for us and our love for each other and the<br />Strength to get up and try again even when we feel it is hopeless.mistah charley, ph.d.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06303695341246058680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020960402708303830.post-29267272339708827352020-12-07T08:52:08.455-05:002020-12-07T08:52:08.455-05:00i looked up the 'toilet paper' epigraph fr...i looked up the 'toilet paper' epigraph from wicker's poem - it was published in march of this year, and the author was michael ruane - although not the poker player by that name<br /><br />i looked up other poems by wicker - some deal explicitly with race and religion and violence in a contemporary american context<br /><br />then, through a series of semirandom events, i was reading about race and religion and violence in a middle eastern context a thousand years ago - peripatetic asian american writer linh dinh is now in lebanon and quoting accounts of the crusades - strong stuff<br /><br />https://www.unz.com/ldinh/next-month-in-jerusalem/<br /><br />[should i explicitly state here that when i suggest something is interesting to read, i am NOT saying 'you should not only read this, if it interests you, but agree with it completely'?<br /><br />thirty years ago i got a book from liberty university's library by interlibrary loan, and it was stamped with a version of that disclaimer - later, one of my nieces graduated from that university - while falwell sr. was still in charge]<br /><br />returning to wicker's poem here - not the first lines, but the last - <i>Suddenly, everyone wants to leave & love & live like they’ve been paying attention </i> - i was reminded of this when i read in linh dinh's piece something from dostoyevsky<br /><br /><b>“The painter Kramskoy has a remarkable painting entitled The Contemplator: it depicts a forest in winter, and in the forest, standing all by himself on the road, in deepest solitude, a stray little peasant in a ragged caftan and bast shoes; he stands as if he were lost in thought, but he is not thinking, he is "contemplating" something. If you nudged him, he would give a start and look at you as if he had just woken up, but without understanding anything. It's true that he would come to himself at once, and yet, if he were asked what he had been thinking about while standing there, he would most likely not remember, but would most likely keep hidden away in himself the impression he had been under while contemplating. These impressions are dear to him, and he is most likely storing them up imperceptibly and even without realizing it--why and what for, he does not know either; perhaps suddenly, having stored up his impressions over many years, he will drop everything and wander off to Jerusalem to save his soul, or perhaps he will suddenly burn down his native village, or perhaps he will do both. </b><br /><br />with regard to <i>bast shoes</i>, wikipedia tells us<br /><br /><i>Bast shoes are shoes made primarily from bast — fiber taken from the bark of trees such as linden. They are a kind of basket, woven and fitted to the shape of a foot. Bast shoes are an obsolete traditional footwear of the forest areas of Northern Europe, formerly worn by poorer members of the Finnic peoples, Balts, Russians and Belarussians. They were easy to manufacture, but not durable. Similar shoes have also been made of strings of birchbark in more northern areas where bast is not readily available.<br /><br />Bast shoes have been worn since prehistoric times. Wooden foot-shaped blocks (lasts) for shaping them have been found in neolithic excavations, e.g. 4900 years old. Bast shoes were still worn in the Russian countryside at the beginning of the twentieth century. Today bast shoes are sold as souvenirs and sometimes worn by ethnographic music or dance troupes as part of their costume.<br />In Russian, they are called lapti (лапти, sing. лапоть, lapot); this word is used as a derogatory term for cheap and short-lived footwear and, in the form lapotnik (лапотник), also for an uneducated person, notionally one who is too poor to afford good shoes and wears bast shoes instead.</i><br /><br />mistah charley, ph.d.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06303695341246058680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020960402708303830.post-71266855103259444092020-12-05T10:43:21.623-05:002020-12-05T10:43:21.623-05:00home owner associations
i am part of one and have...<b>home owner associations</b><br /><br />i am part of one and have been from time to time advised to conform my property's appearance to community standards - i grumble some but i comply <br /><br />i would be willing to enter another hoa in future - such associations are part of the legal landscape in my ancestral province, i have just learned, which is where i would prefer to move if the opportunity presents itself<br /><br /><b>toilet paper</b><br /><br />during a recent trip to costco the only toilet paper available to purchase was made from bamboo - but not the kind that pandas eat, it was asserted on the package - imported from one of the u.s.'s top three trading partners<br /><br /><b>prophets</b><br /><br />i was disappointed in ian welsh's blog on this topic - thanks for linking to duncan mitchel's reply<br /><br />mistah charley, ph.d.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06303695341246058680noreply@blogger.com