All we can do is just share
A collective agreed to realty
In the time space continum
Made out of imaginations
Of processing information
Taken in through the senses
So that the / our world we know
Makes sense individually
Like a synthesized Matrix
Not run by a malignant force
That wants to control us
Rather a playground of energy
That we are all a part of, while
Figuring out how to play in it
On the spaceship called earth
Which is just really play ground
“Just an observation,
Maybe I need
Different glasses.”
– Angelo Devlin
All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten
by Robert Fulghum
Most of what I really need
To know about how to live
And what to do and how to be
I learned in kindergarten.
Wisdom was not at the top
Of the graduate school mountain,
But there in the sandpile at Sunday school.
These are the things I learned:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life –
Learn some and think some
And draw and paint and sing and dance
And play and work everyday some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world,
Watch out for traffic,
Hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.
We don’t know
What we don’t know
But that pales in comparison
To what we have
Opinions on and about
Stuff that we think we know
Yet, even if it differs*
From our precious opinion**
We will never admit that it’s wrong
That is opining
Not really knowing
*
Facts
Proof
Testing
Science
Analysis
Verification
Corroboration
**
Belief
Rumor
Heresay
Innuendo
Distraction
Indoctrination
Mass hypnosis
Yet
Hearing is at loss
For what I perceive
That I think I hear
Turns out not to be
The speakers intent
Rather filtered through
A small fleshy canal
Hammered immediately
On to an anvil before it
Stirs up memories held
In gray spongy software
From a lifetime of
Repeated indoctrinations
Mixed in with content
Tone and delivery
Timing, circumstance
And a whole range of
Surface and buried
Feelings and experiences
No wonder I am unable
To hear anything
It is so noisy in hear
“Just an observation,
Maybe I need
Different glasses.”
– Angelo Devlin
I loathe who I am
My wife loves me
But
I loathe who I am
My non-biological children
Love me
But
I loathe who I am
My grandchildren love me
But
I loathe who I am
My sister loves me
But
I loathe who I am
My coworkers
Appreciate me
Am quick to give a hand
But
I loathe who I am
The gov’t
Appreciates me
(Ie. Taxes)
But
I loathe who I am
The Law
Appreciates me
Because
I cause them no work
Still
I loathe me
Because
I loathe who I am
So wherein does
The problem
Lie?
Written with the help of
Beer, Brandy and Bourbon
Upon sober reflection
Nothing has changed
Except…..now I’m sober
…….. shit.
“Whiskey Sunrise”
//
I’m lost and I’m lonesome
When I look in the mirror
I don’t like the man that I see
And the more that I look,
The more it gets clearer
Pride made a fool out of me
So I drink all night
But the hurtin’ won’t stop
And every shot I take
Just turns into teardrops
And I lay down to sleep
And I pray I don’t open my eyes
To a whiskey sunrise
The cold wind blows and
The leaves start to scatter
And the rain will be comin’ on soon
And everything’s wrong and
Nothing don’t matter
And a black cloud is crossin’ the moon
So I drink all night
But the hurtin’ won’t stop
And every shot I take
Just turns into teardrops
And I lay down to sleep
And I pray I don’t open my eyes
To a whiskey sunrise”
– Chris Stapleton
It has been quite a while since I wrote this and have not nearly drank that much since.
After all, the shadows cast by shadows are very dark, from a whiskey sunrise.
“Don’t Let Me Get Me”
“Everyday I fight a war against the mirror
I can’t take the person starin’ back at me
I’m a hazard to myself
Don’t let me get me
I’m my own worst enemy
Its bad when you annoy yourself
So irritating
Don’t wanna be my friend no more”
– Pink
Still, would rather be me, than anyone else.
Perhaps that is a start.
“Just an observation,
Maybe I need
Different glasses.”
Or glasses not
Filled with alcohol
– Angelo Devlin
At the Dashboard Diner
A little warm meal surprise
Playing Hot Pocket roulette
It is almost noon will it be
Breakfast ham, egg and cheese
Lunch ham and cheese or
Dinner pepperoni pizza
Defroster is on high
Myself and my meal
Are getting cooked
Spin Thdbdbdbdbdb
Come on lunch
HF it is hot in here
Click .click….click……click
Pulling the wrapper sl.o…w….l…….y
Oh boy, pepperoni pizza.
I guess next time I dump a box of highly preserved frozen doughy concoctions filled with alleged meat, artificial cheese and make believe eggs into the freezer to save room. I will scribble with a permanent marker what it is going to be, so am not playing with my food.
“I’ve never eaten a Hot Pocket and then afterwards been, ‘I’m glad I ate that.’
I’m always like, ‘I’m gonna die. I paid for that? Did I eat it or rub it on my face?
My back hurts!'”
– Jim Gaffigan
(I’m going to hell, for this one)
Is a lot like masterbating
Or winning the lottery
One can conjure up the
Most fantastical images
Of their desired outcome
A world of peace and love
A mind blowing orgasm or
A new house, car and travel
Until one puts their hands
On what it will take to
Accomplish those desires
They’ll come up empty handed
Might as well close this out with Doug
Dated but relevant
“Does anyone get upset that George Bush keeps quoting the Bible in all his f****** speeches?
Does that get on anyone’s last nerve?
Does it ever occur to them him, it’s all those stupid f****** religions that start all this s*** in the first place?
National Day of Prayer, F*** you. You think you’re doing something….. you’re not. You can sit at home and cry jinx and keep your fingers crossed too. It does as much good.
You want to pray, pray all day. Pray on your own time. You wanna help? Grab a shovel, and start digging there pinwheel, because it looks like your god, takes Tuesdays (September 11, 2001) off.”
– Doug Stanhope
No more abortions
Just one caveat though……..
IF…..IF….The intended intention
Is intent on saving a fetus
It must include every stage
Prenatal postnatal in utero or
Out of the womb, preschool
Postgraduate and………
Before the grave.
“We’re pro-life.” It’s like, well what does that make me? You know what I mean? You’re so pro-life! You’re so pro-life, do me a fucking favor. Don’t block med clinics, okay? Lock arms, and block cemeteries. Let’s see how fucking committed you are to this premise.
“She can’t come in.”
“She’s ninety-six, she was hit by a bus!” “There’s options!”
“What, do we got to have her stuffed? What are you talking about, she’s dead!”
“We’re pro-life, get her out of that casket! Get her out! She’s not going, we’re pro-life people. There’ll be no death on this planet.”
– Bill Hicks
It is sad, when a hyperbolic example has to be used to make a point, when simple logic and reason would work. Her body, her choice.
Thank Bill, now back to my rant.
(One doesn’t spend most of their life, thinking they ought to have been aborted, without manifesting counter-arguments)
To my best perceived understanding the after six weeks time-line is that when a collection of dividing cells develops a cardiac pulse, (not a heart beat, duh), but a cardiac pulse, is when the law kicks in to save that pulse.
Side note, on an excessively long post. If the goal is to preserve life, euphemistic language that takes the life out of life, must be reconsidered. Sounds like a sporty electric car. The all new important Cardiac Pulse.
That is when the consistency *”should” start. Immediately eliminating the death penalty and dismantling the military industrial complex. Both in which government funded hypocrisy is at its finest.
*Shoulds’ come only from leftover thinking. If we are truly in this moment (the only one there really is), we don’t should on ourselves.
It’s a great freedom.
Kelly Corbet
The loose loophole that takes a circuitous route around the Constitution, (oopsie) is that.
The new law bans all abortions—including in cases of rape or incest—after six weeks, a period in which many women aren’t even aware that they’re pregnant. It also circumvents many legal challenges by allowing abortion providers and anyone who aids someone seeking an abortion to be sued by private citizens, who can potentially be rewarded with $10,000 plus legal fees.
Fine
Sticking with the consistency platform anyone in the military or in the death row department of a state “correctional” facility (we’ll get to gun owners later) can also be sued. Their job is also to perform post natal out of the womb abortions. At……the taxpayers expense. Oopsie.
Think of how much money could be converted towards the availability of health care, child care and education if the collective didn’t spend 25% of their income on state sponsored killing machines. Damn, we could probably feed everyone too.
Consider how many parents and recruiters could be sued for convincing teenagers into going into a field solely intent on performing abortions. Or in support of performing those abortions. Usually of unwilling unaware participants with resources under their feet.
Those abortions will be banned too. Then an already morally bankrupt system could be completely bankrupted enough to start over, realize our individual and collective divinity.
Start fresh and learn how to take care of all the earth inhabitants as we are all in this together.
Speaking of Texas here’s a prevailing attitude.
“Texas has become ground zero for capital punishment. Between 1976 (when the Supreme Court lifted its prohibition on the death penalty) and 1998 Texas executed 167 people. Next in rank was Virginia which executed 60 during the same period.”
– deathpenaltyinfo.org
“The biggest difference between Texas and California. In Texas we have the death penalty……….and WE use IT !!!!!!!!
That’s right if you come to Texas and kill someone, we will kill you back. That’s our policy.
//
We’re trying to pass a bill right now through the Texas legislator that will speed up the process of execution in heinous crimes. Where there’s more then three credible eye witnesses.
If more than three people saw you do what you did, you don’t sit on death row for fifteen years Jack, you go straight to the front of the line.
Other states are trying to abolish the death penalty……my state is putting in an express lane.”
– Ron White
So much, for it being “illegal” to perform abortions. Hmmmm.
Problem solved from a different direction.
Take that fuzzy ultrasound photo
To a group of hegemonic bankers
Point out a dark spot, then tell them it is
A valuable resource under the fetus’s feet
Not only will you get an abortion
They will get it done at the taxpayers expense
Plus you will get overwhelming support
If the name was going to be Terry
(Terry being a sly abbreviation for terrorist)
Hell, people you don’t even know will be
Waving flags and drinking beer.
Too bad there isn’t room for all this excessive sarcasm to go on a t-shirt, they’d be selling like Texas coathangers.
Fundamentalism breeds fundamentalists
Which in turn cross breed to get
Fundless mentals who want society
To pay for and fix what does not fit
In their compartmentalized minds
Regurgitating and reinforcing archetypes
That neither help or evolve humanity just
Ignorant entitlements clogging the courts
Whereas if they actually did something or
Helped someone a difference could be made
“Nevermind, that might be something Jesus would do” – George Carlin
Beyond the basic emotional pocketbook hypocrisy, I do not understand what the big deal is. According to Helen Wambach in her book ‘Life Before Life” the ‘Soul” doesn’t enter the body until it wants too, right up until right before “birth”.
(I’m paraphrasing, it has been a while since I read it.)
Think of it as a car on a lot at a dealership, except you “buy” that “vehicle” for life.
Maybe a soul checks it out, kicks the tires, and realizes, based on the manufacturer and the parts used, it is going to be a lemon.
The “car” is still there for someone else to buy, but it is still only a vehicle for an earthly realm inhabitant to get around in.
“Just an observation,
Maybe I need
Different glasses.”
.
– Angelo Devlin
That was a long one, thanks for reading.
Might be the better tactic
Just a theory
I am not hiring nor
Do I need to be hired
However if I was….
The sign that would
Catch my eyes
Would read
NOT HIRING
Everyone working here at (fill in)
Is generously compensated
Has great health insurance
Flexible work hours
On-site day care
Compassionate management
Should you like to apply
To the short list of
Qualified applicants
Waiting to be hired
We optimistically encourage it
In the unlikely event that
Someone retires early or
The more likelihood of
Advancing internally due to
Compensated college education
Enhanced vocational training
Then apply today at (fill in)
Otherwise the ones up now
Wreak of dire desperation
HIRING HIRING HIRING
1-800-PLZ-WORK
Do you have a pulse
A body temp of 98.6
A vague ambition
To get out of bed
Willing to fill a void
Both yours and ours
Then join us (PLEASE)
We will practically
Do your work for you
Let you get away with
Treating customers poorly
No training necessary
For you might leave
Throwing out the big
Dollar per hour “hook”
As if trolling for fish
Will reel in a good fish
Using the same lure
Everyone else is using
“I’m not complaining. It’s a great job but. …..I could have done a lot worse. I go back to Massachusetts, I see a lot of the guys I grew up with and it’s sad……
Say, what have you been doing the last 10 years?
They go. Things are great, I’m making $16.00 bucks an hour. That’s all they have to say. First words out of their mouth is their hourly wage. How much is it worth to them to have their lives suck. $16.00 an hour.
How’s Dave? Oh, not so good, he’s only making $9.00 an hour, he was making $13, but he got laid off, but they brought him back, but he’s dating a chick who’s getting $14.00 an hour plus benny’s……”
– Doug Stanhope
“Something To Take The Edge Off”
I get benny’s. I get paid to sit on my butt in a climate controlled cab, listen to the radio, audio books, my I-pod, or nothing at all and think of this up to write down.
“I see people going to college for 14 years, studying to be doctors and lawyers.
I see people getting up at 7:30 every morning, going to work at the drug store to sell …… Flair pens.
But the most amazing thing to me is……
I get paid for doing this….”
– Steve Martin
Here is a simple technique and you do not even have to read the book.
“Do What You Love And The Money Will Follow.”
Marsha Sinetar
Whatever it is one thinks they stand for
There is a metaphorical equivalent of
How blatantly they are so hypocritical
They would curl up in a fetal position
Whimpering for forgiveness to their own
Soul for such dichotomous doings
Instead, they defend their stance with
Bravado & volume that there is
Absolutely no comparison as if
Arrogance, tone and repetition can protect
Unrealized obvious blatant hypocrisy
The one that prompted this post
Is that of a meme floating on the web
Of a picture of the back of a t-shirt
Worn by a muscle bound dude
That reads,
Stomp My Flag / I’ll Stomp Your Ass
With a flag in between. Hmmmmm.
Sending Mixed Messages
Stomp my flag
Let’s glance at the Constitution
(d)
The flag should never be used as wearing apparel.
Oopsie
That’s easy, the fun part would be going up to him, tearing off the back collar, where the tagless tag probably reads…. Made in China
To inquire kindly why he is disguising / fooling himself as a “patriot” when clearly he is a communist sympathizer, sending his money overseas in a money / t-shirt laundering operation.
I’ll stomp your ass.
Not sure about that dude, but many people wearing similar messaged t-shirts profes to allegedly be “Christians”
(Have not read the Bible, for reasons of not being able to suspend disbelief long enough to grasp the perceived notion that it is a book of “truth”)
Am listening to it though, in short spurts, over a long period of time for what it was written for in the first place……entertainment value.
Perhaps the reference is in the “Book” of “Dichotomy”. That I have not gotten to yet.
Dichotomy 13: 9-11
9. And Jesus spake. Anyone who useth thy temple as den of thieves. 10. I will taunt not only into an unnecessary confrontation 11. I will stomp your ass. 12 blah blah blah blah blah.
Nevermind, with vague made up research there is no book of Dichotomy, must be one of those book / passages that got edited out by the king at the time of its writing who didn’t want the masses to think that the Prince of Peace spoke that way as it contradicts the other message of “Love thy neighbor” JC
“Just an observation,
Maybe I need
Different glasses.”
.
– Angelo Devlin
For A.
I was that boy.
Filled with love and *wonderment
(*a better word twice presented itself as the best descriptive word, but was lost into the ether from not being in a position to write it down. If it shows up, can and will erase the content between these parenthesis)
Smiling at nothing to be smiled at, just an essence constantly rising to the surface.
Happy as a clam at high tide just for being a clam, protected by the waters of consciousness.
Playing with any toy as if it were the greatest toy exploring what it is while learning to use hands and fingers to hold it, coordinating with eyes and ears.
Being able to be oneself with out fear knowing the guides chosen are the best guides, who actually want / get to be guides.
The mirror appeared by circumstance and timing recognizing the lost soul / self within myself. Wondering if I could ever recapture and be that “self” or was it too…..(like the “best” word) lost into the ether?
A grandson opted to plop himself between myself and his Nana, when it occurred to me, that I was once that boy.
Something inside me told me I still was / am.
Was it beaten out of me? No.
Was it molested out of me? No.
Was it systematically drained through the repetition of deception, coerced into servitude in exchange for artificial love and pseudo affection? Yes.
By people who were obligated by society to be guides who would have much rather been doing something else. Anything else.
Was it constantly registered that its only value was based on the revenue it generated trading labor for dollars. In a constant state of busyness for the sake of being busy? Yes.
Perhaps this blog is that quest to find that “self” as many posts question the existence of God. Which in turn question my own existence and relevance.
Do I need to retrain my brain or search for that heart to get to the heart of the matter?
So that I may matter to those who matter.
Or will I be like the fading light in the center of an old black and white *TV, once its energy is exhausted……disappear?
*(For you young-uns, Googling that reference will get you nowhere)
Maybe the closest technological comparison would be that of watching the battery percentage meter on whatever electronic device countdown from 3….to 2….to 1 before it is “dead”.
Only time will tell, if I can / may be that boy. Knowing a self made path is as long or as short as one makes it.
“Just an observation,
Maybe I need
Different glasses.”
.
Angelo Devlin
