Dating at 50.

OK, wait a minute.
I am supposed to do what?
wait a minute.
OK.
That can't be right.
I don't want to do that.
that's ridiculous.
No way.
o' fuck.

New Moon

The crone rises
and sets unseen.
I rise and set
unseen.
Perhaps as the moon
fills
so will I.

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media: "Eugene McCarthy said, 'Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it's important.'"

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media:

"Poem: 'Trees'

by W. S. Merwin from The Compass Flower. Macmillian Publishing Company. Reprinted with permission.

Trees

I am looking at trees
they may be one of the things I will miss
most from the earth
though many of the ones I have seen
already I cannot remember
and though I seldom embrace the ones I see
and have never been able to speak
with one
I listen to them tenderly
their names have never touched them
they have stood round my sleep
and when it was forbidden to climb them
they have carried me in their branches"

A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media: "The Republican Revolution has gone the way of all flesh. It took over Congress and the White House, horns blew, church bells rang, sailors kissed each other, and what happened? The Republicans led us into a reckless foreign war and steered the economy toward receivership and wielded power as if there were no rules. Democrats are accused of having no new ideas, but Republicans are making some of the old ideas look awfully good, such as constitutional checks and balances, fiscal responsibility, and the notion of realism in foreign affairs and taking actions that serve the national interest. What one might call 'conservatism.' "

Ides of March - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi!"

Kill Your Television--The Zen of Television: "For an avid television viewer, their period of zen is sitting in front of the TV screen for hours. This is their life. The buddha says: 'Learn to let go. That is the key to happiness.' Letting go means ridding oneself from desire and want. The television shows all the things we don't have and tries to light the fire of consumerism. The TV says, 'Buy a new car,' 'Buy microwave french fries,' 'Buy Pepsi,' and 'Buy Coca-Cola.' The Zen of Television does not want to let go. It wants you to hold tight . . . to keep watching . . . and to desire the things you don't have. The buddha says: 'Joy comes not through possession or ownership, but through a wise and loving heart.' "

A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media: "But torture is something else. When Americans start pulling people's fingernails out with pliers and poking lighted cigarettes into their palms, then we need to come back to basic values. Most people agree with this, and in a democracy that puts the torturers in a delicate position. They must make sure to destroy their e-mails and have subordinates who will take the fall. Because it is impossible to keep torture secret. It goes against the American grain and it eats at the conscience of even the most disciplined, and in the end the truth will come out. It is coming out now. "

Amen !

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media: "Ulysses S. Grant said, 'The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can and as often as you can, and keep moving on.'"

"In creating goals, you create your future by outlining your destiny. When you choose your goals using your head and heart, you take the first step in manifesting what you want. You grant your own wishes every time you achieve another goal."

Sagittarius November 22 - December 21

You’ll run out of your secret ingredient of love halfway through baking a batch of lemon squares this week. Thankfully, you’ll have enough hate and jealousy on hand for an infinite number of desserts

"Poem: 'Manners' by Howard Nemerov from Trying Conclusions.

Manners

Prig offered Pig the first chance at dessert,
So Pig reached out and speared the bigger part.

'Now that,' cried Prig, 'is extremely rude of you!'
Pig, with his mouth full, said, 'Wha, wha' wou' 'ou do?'

'I would have taken the littler bit,' said Prig.
'Stop kvetching, then, it's what you've got,' said Pig.

So virtue is its own reward, you see.
And that is all it's ever going to be."

Monty Python: The Philosopher's Drinking Song


"Immanuel Kant was a real piss-ant who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table. ..

David Hume could out-consume Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine who was just as sloshed as Schlegel.
There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach 'ya 'bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed.
John Stuart Mill, of his own free will, after half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could stick it away, half a crate of whiskey every day!
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle,
And Hobbes was fond of his Dram.
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart:
'I drink, therefore I am.'
Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed. "

"A storm is coming, Frank says / A storm that will swallow the children / And I will deliver them from the kingdom of pain / I will deliver the children back to their doorsteps / And send the monsters back to the underground / I'll send them back to a place where no-one else can see them / Except for me / Because I am Donnie Darko. "

"The great irony of the heating and cooling industry is that those same visionaries who helped give us duct tape were shortsighted about their widespread use of cancer-causing asbestos. Had they known then what they know now, they could have used special fire-retardant duct tape in its place. We live, we learn, and duct tape helps hold the lessons of life together."

"Heisenberg gets pulled over by the police:

Police Officer: 'Do you know how fast you were going?'

Heisenberg: 'No, but I know exactly were I am!'"

Kahlil Gibran on Love:
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, 'God is in my heart,' but rather, 'I am in the heart of God.'
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil

Valentine's Day Poetry - Love isn't always pretty. By Robert Pinsky:
"N.V.N.

There is a sacred, secret line in loving
which attraction and even passion cannot cross,
even if lips draw near in awful silence
and love tears at the heart.
Friendship is weak and useless here,
and years of happiness, exalted and full of fire,
because the soul is free and does not know
the slow luxuries of sensual life.
Those who try to come near it are insane
and those who reach it are shaken by grief,
So now you know exactly why
my heart beats no faster under your hand."

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media:

"You've traveled this far on the back of every mistake,
ridden in dark-eyed and morose but calm as a house
after the TV set has been pitched out the upstairs
window. Harmless as a broken ax. Emptied
of expectation. Relax. Don't bother remembering
any of it. Let's stop here, under the lit sign
on the corner, and watch all the people walk by."