ON OCTOBER 21, 2016, THE TEA ROOM WILL CELEBRATE (OR NOT) FOUR LONG, HARD YEARS "BEFORE THE MAST"....WRITING THIS BLOG.
EGADS!
TIME FLIES WHEN YOU'RE HAVING FUN, RIGHT?
I'VE MANAGED TO TICK PEOPLE OFF IN OVER 70 COUNTRIES, FROM EVERY WALK OF LIFE, ALL GENDERS AND TRANSGENDERS, ALL RACES, ALL CULTURES, PEOPLE DEVOTED TO EACH OF THE TWO MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES AND WHO CLAIM AFFILIATION WITH JUST ABOUT EVERY MAJOR RELIGION ON PLANET EARTH.
POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS AND THROWING CAUTION TO THE WIND PAYS....BUT, LOOK, THE TEA ROOM IS STILL AD-FREE, SO IT DOESN'T PAY "SQUAT", ACTUALLY.
I AM TEMPTED TO SAY, "MY WORK HERE IS DONE", BUT, NO, NOPE, I'M PRESSING ONWARD.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
AS I'VE MENTIONED BEFORE, AFTER 6 MONTHS OF "RESETS", DELAYS, UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES AND COMPLICATIONS THAT WOULD "MAKE A PREACHER CUSS", AS THE OLD FOLKS USED TO SAY, MY QUITE MAJOR SURGERY IS SCHEDULED FOR THE END OF THIS MONTH.
YOUR ONLY HOPE IS THAT I DON'T SURVIVE IT.
(heh heh heh)
I EXPECT THIS WILL BE MY 4th TIME TO BEAT CANCER, MY 3rd BY CUTTING SOMETHING OUT THAT IS NOT NECESSARY TO LIFE.
WE DO WHAT WE MUST...OFTEN WITH "EXTREME PREJUDICE".
I'VE NOT SATED MYSELF JUST YET OF THE BEAUTY OF THIS WORLD, OR OF ITS SOUNDS, SCENTS, TASTES OR HOW IT FEELS TO WANDER IN THE WOODS ON A SPRING OR AUTUMN DAY AND JUST BE IN AWE OF.... EVERYTHING.
I WANT MORE, PLEASE!
I NEVER IMAGINED WHILE WRITING MY VERY FIRST POST, WHICH APPEARS BELOW, THAT I'D STILL BE BANGING AWAY, HUNT-AND-PECK, FOUR YEARS LATER.
WHEN I WAS FINISHING UP THAT LAST TERRIBLE YEAR OF MY "HIGHER EDUCATION" (YES, DINOSAURS STILL ROAMED THE EARTH BACK THEN) AND HAD TO GO THROUGH "PSYCHOANALYSIS" BEFORE I COULD BE "LICENSED TO PRACTICE" (THINK ABOUT THAT PHRASE...THAT WORD "PRACTICE"....SCARY, YES?) THE MAN SAID I WAS 'SANE'.
HE SWORE I WAS.
I HOPE THEY FIRED HIM AFTER I LEFT.
A SANE PERSON WOULD NOT DO WHAT I'VE DONE HERE IN THE TEA ROOM....WOULD THEY?
WELL, IT'S BEEN 'REAL' AND IT'S BEEN....UMMMM...FUN, AND IT'S EVEN BEEN 'REAL FUN' A TIME OR THREE, BUT MAYBE THAT WAS JUST THE DRUGS I HAD IN THE HOSPITAL PRIOR TO THOSE FEW TIMES?
PAIN MEDS CAN BE NICE...ON THOSE RARE OCCASIONS .
SO, HERE WE ARE, YOU WHO WERE BRAVE ENOUGH OR WHATEVER ENOUGH TO READ THIS, FOUR YEARS DOWN THE LINE, AND I, WHO STILL DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT I'M DOING HERE, OR HOW TO DO IT.
I ONLY LEARNED LAST WEEK HOW TO FORMAT A PAGE.
IT'S BEEN ROUGH, THOSE FOUR YEARS, FOR ALL OF US, SOMETIMES, YES?
BUT WHOEVER SAID, "THAT WHICH DOES NOT KILL US MAKES US STRONGER", YEAH, OLD NIETZSCHE, WHAT SAY WE GO DIG THAT OLD BUZZARD UP AND DO ILLEGAL THINGS TO HIS POWDERY BONES?
SURE, IT MAY SEEM LIKE WE GET STRONGER IN TIMES OF GREAT ADVERSITY, BUT WHO WANTS STRENGTH WHEN PEACE AND HAPPINESS ARE OUT THERE, WHISTLING DOWN SOME COOL, BEAUTIFUL, HIGH MOUNTAIN TRAIL?
I'D RATHER RUN AND CATCH UP TO PEACE AND HAPPINESS.
I HOPE, I SINCERELY PRAY THAT THINGS GET BETTER FOR ALL OF US.
WELL, MAYBE NOT FOR POLITICIANS...OR A FEW OTHER OF THE CRIMINALLY-MINDED I CAN THINK OF...
NO, SERIOUSLY, IT'D BE NICE IF EVEN ALL THOSE "BAD EGGS" COULD "SEE THE LIGHT" STRAIGHTEN UP AND DO THE RIGHT THING, WOULDN'T IT?
I'LL GO THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A BIT....
MEANWHILE, HERE'S THAT FIRST POST I SAT AND TYPED FOUR YEARS AGO, AT ANOTHER DESK, AT ANOTHER COMPUTER, LIVING ATOP A MOUNTAIN IN THE BLUE RIDGE CHAIN IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA, NOT THIS "FLATLANDER" OXBOW LAKE....FOUR YEARS AGO.
THANK YOU ALL FOR READING.
THANK YOU ALL WHO HAVE ENCOURAGED ME AND SHORED ME UP WHEN I LOST VERY PRECIOUS LOVED ONES, WHEN THINGS HAPPENED THAT MADE ME JUST WANT TO DROP OFF THE EARTH AND WASH MY HANDS OF THIS MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD.
I DEEPLY APPRECIATE EACH OF YOU...EVEN THE ONES WHO SIMPLY PISS ME OFF.
KEEPS MY ADRENALINE PUMPING.
SHOULD THESE WORTHLESS POSTS CEASE AT THE END OF OCTOBER, THESE RAMBLINGS OF AN AGED MIND, JUST REMEMBER....
QUESTION EVERYTHING!
LEARN, SO YOU DO NOT PERISH FROM LACK OF KNOWLEDGE.
AND, NO MATTER WHAT, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP!
ALL THE BEST, PEOPLE OF EARTH.
BE WELL...MAY BLESSINGS FALL LIKE A SUMMER'S RAIN FOR YOU AND YOURS.
THE HEMLOCK TEA ROOM
OCTOBER 21, 2012
OCTOBER 21, 2012
MENU
~ POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS......always free at 'THTR'.
Guaranteed to offend SOMEONE with every bite!
Large family size only. Share some with those you love.
~ NON-PARTISANSHIP ....... costly, but well worth the expense!
If you've never experienced non-partisanship, you're in for a treat!
We pour out wrath on both major 'parties' and all the rest equally...what a blend!
~ INDEPENDENT THINKING....it's NOT illegal, yet.
WARNING: CAN BE ADDICTIVE!
Best experienced FRESH...brewed hourly, free refills!
~ BRUTAL HONESTY...we triple-guarantee this product!
It may hurt, but it's a good hurt! Not for the uncultured palate!
Not served in soft cones. Whiners should avoid this menu item.
~ FACTS....similar to Brutal Honesty, but this item is all about research.
We 'comb the globe' to bring you a new concept item...factual information, slanted in no
direction, brought to you by NO paid sponsors! We exclude NO targets, may our aim be true!
You may not like the "flavor" of Facts, but it's GOOD for us!
This menu item is missing from most tea rooms, diners and juice bars
because it's preparation is very time-consuming.
We can offer it because just about all we have is time!
Ownership recommends you start small and work your way up to the 'Facts Mega-Meal'.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Founded in honor of Socrates, the "gadfly of Athens", who was offered, and drank, a hemlock tea that ended his life.
His truths were apparently just too hard to swallow.
Unlike Socrates, I am not "sent by God", nor do I hear voices, but I am what I am, and at more than 65 years, I am considerably locked-in to this mindset/world view, though changes have often occurred in my life and I am open to input.
A wee draft of hemlock tea can be cathartic, or so I like to imagine.
Most minds need a mild purgative from time to time to loosen the buildup from "group-think", from mainstream 'media', which is merely an extension of those who own them and who want you to think as they do.
PLEASE, STOP THAT!
Question everything, spend time looking about for answers on your own. You'll be amazed at what one can find when one but boldly seeks.
Management is NOT responsible for ANY side-effects whatsoever from visiting this poor page.
That is your only warning.
Read here at your own risk, or don't.
Thank you, but I don't care what is "politically correct", or what is " proper internet etiquette"!
This is MY blog, all MINE, so please keep that in mind each visit.
It will be updated when 'the spirit moves me', with whatever is 'on my mind' at the time, & I JUST MAY USE ALL CAPS, because I CAN, you see.
That "all caps means shouting" be hanged!
Spotless organization by means of set rules is highly overrated and a source of irritation to a free spirit.
I shall not be abiding by many "rules".
For my first entry, I would like to offer up a small appetizer from The Dialogues of Plato.
It may explain for you why Socrates was such an offense to Athens' governing body that he was sentenced to death.
The main reason, in my opinion, is that he stung them too much with TRUTH.
He made them look at their failings, their lies, their inhumanity and at their excuses for all that.
Modern society seems like Athens in Socrates' time to me.
Too many like excuses, like to believe things that just do not stand up under the stringent tests for fallacies.
We have become slaves to this party or that, slaves to the "Big Brother/1984" mentality.
We have grown afraid of TRUTH and LOGIC, always afraid, goaded into FEAR and fed more fear on a daily basis.
But, here, let Plato tell you what Socrates might have said:
"'And now, Athenians, I am not going to argue for my own sake, as you may think, but for yours, that you may not sin against the God by condemning me, who am his gift to you. For if you kill me you will not easily find a successor to me, who, if I may use such a ludicrous figure of speech, am a sort of gadfly, given to the state by God; and the state is a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and requires to be stirred into life.
I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you.
You will not easily find another like me, and therefore I would advise you to spare me.
I dare say that you may feel out of temper (like a person who is suddenly awakened from sleep), and you think that you might easily strike me dead as Anytus advises, and then you would sleep on for the remainder of your lives, unless God in his care of you sent you another gadfly.
When I say that I am given to you by God, the proof of my mission is this:—if I had been like other men, I should not have neglected all my own concerns or patiently seen the neglect of them during all these years, and have been doing yours, coming to you individually like a father or elder brother, exhorting you to regard virtue; such conduct, I say, would be unlike human nature.
If I had gained anything, or if my exhortations had been paid, there would have been some sense in my doing so; but now, as you will perceive, not even the impudence of my accusers dares to say that I have ever exacted or sought pay of any one; of that they have no witness.
And I have a sufficient witness to the truth of what I say—my poverty.
Someone may wonder why I go about in private giving advice and busying myself with the concerns of others, but do not venture to come forward in public and advise the state.
I will tell you why.
You have heard me speak at sundry times and in divers places of an oracle or sign which comes to me, and is the divinity which Meletus ridicules in the indictment.
This sign, which is a kind of voice, first began to come to me when I was a child; it always forbids but never commands me to do anything which I am going to do.
This is what deters me from being a politician.
And rightly, as I think.
For I am certain, O men of Athens, that if I had engaged in politics, I should have perished long ago, and done no good either to you or to myself.
And do not be offended at my telling you the truth: for the truth is, that no man who goes to war with you or any other multitude, honestly striving against the many lawless and unrighteous deeds which are done in a state, will save his life; he who will fight for the right, if he would live even for a brief space, must have a private station and not a public one.
But I shall be asked, Why do people delight in continually conversing with you?
I have told you already, Athenians, the whole truth about this matter: they like to hear the cross-examination of the pretenders to wisdom; there is amusement in it.
Now this duty of cross-examining other men has been imposed upon me by God; and has been signified to me by oracles, visions, and in every way in which the will of divine power was ever intimated to any one.
This is true, O Athenians; or, if not true, would be soon refuted. If I am or have been corrupting the youth, those of them who are now grown up and have become sensible that I gave them bad advice in the days of their youth should come forward as accusers, and take their revenge; or if they do not like to come themselves, some of their relatives, fathers, brothers, or other kinsmen, should say what evil their families have suffered at my hands. Now is their time.'"
<END PLATO QUOTE>
Sound familiar?
Does it remind you of today?
Those who don't agree/side with one major party or another are 'suspect', are scorned, are chided for 'fence-straddling' at best, and condemned as 'unamerican' at worst.
Verily, verily, thy government has warned that we must keep an eye on 'people like that'!
That is said so that we don't keep an eye on THEM, the "law-Makers", the "money-givers", the puppet-masters!
May I remind you that there were NO Americans before brave men fought to establish a new nation they called "America", the United States of America..
There was no flag to wave, no anthem to sing, no political party to chain oneself to.
What then were the likes of Patrick Henry?
Rebels?
Indeed they were!
And there were few of them!
Yet they built a nation, won a great battle, became a new beacon of freedom, justice, liberty for ALL.
Do you think ALL means less than everyone?
ALL includes those 'unaffiliated', those detached from the current "MATRIX" that rules our every move, and should include them!
Are we defined by political affiliation, by which candidate we support?
Hardly!
Are we accursed among men if we choose to believe that all politicians are a cancerous growth on the heart of America, a plague that has attacked our Constitution?
Not in the least!
Is it facetious to say that if a politician's mouth is moving he/she is either lying or feeding on his/her own young?
Well, the latter would be a stretch, perhaps, but we may see that sooner than we hoped to. I wouldn't be shocked to see it at all.
We've been had, America!
We've trusted our 'shepherds' and in so doing have become a nation of gullible sheep.
A nation of sheep begets leaders who are wolves!
Our apathy has imperiled this great ship of state. She sinks!
What will save her?
Well, not more of the same!
We've become one of the definitions of insanity:
"Doing the same things over and over, expecting different results. "
No, the same begets the same.
We must depart from present course and steer America away from the destructive reef of sold-out politicians and those who have consistently chiseled away at our Constitution.
We see, sometimes, what is happening, but then stick our heads back in the sand, cross our fingers, tell ourselves we can't fight city hall, and hope for better days.
BETTER DAYS ARE IMPOSSIBLE DOING THINGS AS WE ALWAYS HAVE!
And there you have it.
Welcome to my 'tea room'.
PLEASE NOTE: WHILE ALL COMMENTS ARE 'MODERATED' BY ME, NO COMMENTS WILL FAIL TO APPEAR UNLESS THEY CONTAIN 'SPAM', UNCOMMON 'FOUL LANGUAGE', OR QUESTIONABLE/OFFENSIVE VIDEO OR WEBSITE LINKS, NO LINKS TO BUSINESSES...BUT, YOU MAY FEEL FREE TO LEAVE ANYTHING YOU PLEASE, KNOWING I WILL READ ALL AND POST ALL COMMENTS THAT DON'T CONTAIN THE ABOVE.
I DO RATHER LOATHE "ANONYMOUS" COMMENTS.
A PSEUDONYM BEATS ANONYMOUS, YES?
DIFFERENCES OF OPINION ARE MOST WELCOME HERE. NEVER DOUBT THAT.
YOU WILL DOUBTLESS FIND THIS BLOG "HIGHLY OPINIONATED", BUT NEVER LET THAT STOP YOU FROM POSTING YOUR OWN VIEWS.
YOU MAY FIND CERTAIN POSTS OFFENSIVE, BUT THAT IS JUST HOW THINGS ARE IN THE REAL WORLD.
WE ARE EACH EXTREMELY UNIQUE, UNFATHOMABLY RARE, AND ALL OUR MINDS ARE THE REAL TREASURES OF THIS EARTH.
MAY WE BE ABLE TO SHARE THEM.
THOUGHTS PUT INTO WORDS ARE THE GREATEST GIFTS WE CAN GIVE TO ONE ANOTHER, SO LET US GIVE FREELY AND WITHOUT FEAR.
WE HAVE TWO CHOICES IN THIS LIFE, MY FRIENDS...
WE CAN LEARN, OR WE CAN PERISH.
MAY WE ALWAYS CHOOSE TO LEARN.
THANK YOU FOR READING HERE.
<END RE-POST OF 2012 AND GOODNIGHT>
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