Anything

[Sela]

Hi there Moira:

Sorry you've been sick.  Glad you're feeling better.

Yes...those were pretty funny, I thought.  Gave me a good laugh too, just when I needed it.  My friend sends me this stuff.  I have no idea where she comes up with it but she seems to find some of the silliest stuff going!  I thank her profusely for it!  Some days it really makes my day too!!  And I send anything along that I happen to find that fits the bill.

Happy Valentine's Day to All!!  I'm celebrating good feelings.  Hope your day is is lovely!! (((all)))

Here's a rather different poem:

Valentine's Day
by Monty Ashley

Once a priest named Valentine
was beheaded in AD two-six-nine.
At least, according to this book of mine,
Which adds that there were two other Valentines.

I don't know much about the other two,
but I assume that they were martyrs, too.
All three were eventually canonized
for being holy in the church's eyes.

In the sixteenth century, Saint Francis de Sales
Saw a ritual in which young pagan males
Would get random cards with the names of girls,
whom they would then woo (in some parts of the world).

Francis made cards with the names of the saints,
In the hope that the Pagans would be what they ain't.
It utterly failed, but oh well, at least
He linked Lupercalia with an innocent priest.

Then Al Capone's men in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine
Gunned down their rivals in a line.
Sadly for me, there were not nine,
but seven. Which I can't make rhyme.

This holiday thus has different meanings
felt by people according to their leanings.
To some, its a day for flowers and candy;
To others, a reason to get blitzed on brandy.

The heart was chosen for about the same reason
As roses, to show the intent of the season.
See, it's said that they look like parts of the body,
which I won't describe except to say that they're naughty.

Champagne and chocolate are frequently seen
as being "romantic" whatever that means.
As symbols for something that's vaguely defined,
They still stand for something ineffably fine.

So, keeping all off these things in mind,
The sex, the deaths, the flowers, the wine,
The devotion of priests, and the passage of time,
Will you be my Valentine?



Kind of .....a history lesson eh?
  Sela

[Healing&Hopeful]

Happy Valentines... I've just read this after I posted my message.  In the words of Homer Simpson.... DOH!

Take care

H&H xx

[Sela]

No worries H&H!

Thanks for the good wishes.

Hope your day was lovely!

  Sela

[Sela]

"Too much indulgence has ruined thousands of children,
  too much love, not one."

             Fanny Fern, columnist

[Sela]

Trolls crave attention, and they care not whether it is positive or negative. They see the Internet as a mirror into which they can gaze in narcissistic rapture.

From:  http://members.aol.com/intwg/trolls.htm

[Hopalong]

Sela,
That was an eye-opening link about trolls, really helpful.

thanks,
Hops

[Portia]

Oh Sela, another darn trigger!

The word ‘troll’.

I get all unnecessary about that word. The ideas behind it might be okay (might be) but the history of the word and it’s applications…..the thing is, we need trolls like we need enemies…to hate, to look down on, to scapegoat, to dump our stuff on….

It’s the word that triggers me! Because I was once called a troll? I wonder (yes I was called a troll once). Interesting. But oh so ….. thought-provoking and not easy or quick to think about and you know what? Sometimes my head hurts from thinking so I’m not gonna go there right now. I’ll let it sit at the back of my head for a while and see if anything emerges….(what an image haha!). Yikes. 

PS I like the FF quote. Very appropriate here I think too re how Ns can be made ........or so I've been led to believe in something I read somewhere once...

PPS. Sela I find this is interesting stuff and I got way-laid on this page http://members.aol.com/intwg/flamewars.htm#INTR particularly in reading about ‘anti-process’ and ‘abstraction’ which helped me and I can say I’ve done a lot of ‘instaclicks’. And the bit on flamebait got me annoyed...

[Sela]

Hiya Hop and P:

Ya.  I was called a troll once too.  I don't like the "label" either, to be honest.  I'm not in love with labels.  I wish the troll label could be changed to something with less baggage.....less history......less nastiness....like a cute little icon, or a special key on the keyboard.....sort of neutral in affect....like..... .  I did find the information informative though, according to the cyber definition of stuff.  Like you said Hop,

eye-opening

to hate, to look down on, to scapegoat, to dump our stuff on….

Me too.  I don't like that part of it at all.

I read some more on the links too.  Lot's there to ingest.  I saw stuff I've done that unzipped a few files in my head.   I'm trying to learn.  Glad some of it helped you both.  It helped me too.

I love this one:

"I came here for a good argument."
"No you didn't, you came here for an argument."
— Monty Python

  Sela

[Hopalong]

Portia and Sela,
If you two are trolls I wanna go live under a bridge with you!
I recognize pieces of myself in there too...sometimes spurts of aggression (who's that? my evil twin? Naaah...not sweeeeet meeeeee....). But anyway heavens no I don't see you there.

I think it's more about an out-of-controlness and a desperation that makes some people really truly unable to communicate, so they get taken over by an inner terrier. I personally love terriers.

And P, this phrase made my little writerhead SO happy, thank you!   

I get all unnecessary about that word.

What a wonderful, wonderful expression. I hope to trot it out the rest of the week.

Got to go proofread a horrible boring long thing...that's why I haven't been posting much, but as Ahnuld said, I'll be BEK...

Hugs,
Hops

[Sela]

Thankyou (((Hop))).

Hope the boring reading stuff goes by quick.

Will be glad when you get bek.

Sela

[Sela]

Been surfing again and came upon this far out (maybe a bit) excercise that sounds simple enough and like it might be of interest to others/useful for stress reduction (always something I am hungry for information about).

From:  http://www.armonia.tantrika.net/articles.htm

"In order to experience the benefits of Qigong you are welcome to try (and hopefully adopt) the following exercise.

1. Sit straight on a firm chair while resting the palms of your hands on you knees. Spine erect and shoulders    relaxed.
2. Close your eyes and breathe 9 full breaths - inhaling to the count of three and exhaling to the count of five. (Try to adjust the rhythm of your breath so that the exercise can be done with ease).
3. Raise your hands, palms facing each other, at the level of your navel.
4. Bring your awareness to the center of your palms and visualize as if you are holding a ball of light between your hands.
5. While inhaling enlarge the distance between your palms to about 1 meter, visualizing that the ball of light enlarges in size.
6. While exhaling reduce the distance between your palms to about 40 cm while visualizing the light concentrating within the ball.
7. Please repeat those movements until you experience sensations of warmth, tingling attraction or repulsion between the palms of your hands.
8. When you decide to stop, place your palms on the area below your navel while visualizing that the light and warmth you have generated between your palms is entering into your lower abdomen.
9. After one or two minutes return your hands to your knees and breathe 3 full breaths to complete the exercise.
 
You can use this exercise as part of your daily routine once (in the morning) or twice (morning and evening). This is a very simple and effective exercise that can help reduce stress, improve sleep and calm the mind."

I'm curious about this.

  Sela

[mum]

well, this is off topic, but this IS the anything thread...

Read this in the funny pages today, and instantly thought of my exN, and his "versions" of reality.

"The key to life is to declare all right and wrong relative.  Whenever someone says you're doing something wrong, you tell them it depends on one's definition of wrong....then you change the definition to suit your needs."

Now if that's not an N talking....I don't know what is!!!  It's from "Pearls before Swine", and if you know the comic, it's a quote from Rat...who is a flaming N (and mean to boot!!!)

[Sela]

Hiya Mum:

I haven't looked in here for awhile and just noticed your post.

Boy!  Does that comic ring bells for me!  I can just picture it too!  Wait a minute!!!.....

I found it!!

http://comics.com/comics/pearls/archive/pearls-20060306.html

Hits the spot, doesn't it?

How about this one?

http://comics.com/comics/pearls/archive/pearls-20060216.html

And the thing is.......some of us believed we were exactly as they defined us:  "failures".

But not now!!  Now our eyes are opening wider and wider and soon.....we'll be free of such nonsense.

Thanks for posting Mum.

  Sela

[Sela]

Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.

This has been my life; I found it worth living.

by Bertrand Russell  (adapted)

[Sela]

Dream To Fly
-- Author Unknown


Larry Walters is among the relatively few who have actually turned their dreams into reality. His story is true, even though you may find it hard to believe.

Larry was a truck driver, but his lifelong dream was to fly. When he graduated from high school, he joined the Air Force in hopes of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, poor eyesight disqualified him. So, when he finally left the service, he had to satisfy himself with watching others fly the fighter jets that criss-crossed the skies over his backyard. As he sat there in his lawn chair, he dreamed about the magic of flying.

Then one day, Larry Walters got an idea. He went down to the local Army-Navy surplus store and bought a tank of helium and forty-five weather balloons. These were not your brightly colored party balloons, these were heave-duty spheres measuring more than four feet across when fully inflated. Back in his yard, Larry used straps to attach the balloons to his lawn chair, the kind you might have in your own back yard.

He anchored the chair to the bumper of his jeep and inflated the balloons with helium. Then he packed some sandwiches and drinks and loaded a BB gun, figuring he could pop a few of those balloons when it was time to return to earth.

His preparations complete, Larry Walters sat in his chair and cut the anchoring cord. His plan was to lazily float up a ways, and then lazily back down to terra firma. But, things didn't quite work out that way.

When Larry cut the cord, he didn't float lazily up - he shot up as if fired from a cannon! Nor did he go up a couple hundred feet. He climbed and climbed, until he finally leveled off at eleven THOUSAND feet! At that height, he could hardly risk deflating any of the balloons, lest he unbalance the load and really experience flying! So, he stayed up there, sailing around for fourteen hours, totally at a loss as to how to get down. Eventually, Larry drifted into the approach corridor for Los Angeles International Airport. A Pan Am pilot radioed the tower about passing a guy in a lawn chair at eleven thousand feet... with a gun in his lap. (Now there's a conversation I would have liked to have heard!)

LAX is right on the ocean, and you may know that at nightfall, the winds on the coast begin to change. So, as dusk fell, Larry began drifting out to sea.

At that point, the Navy dispatched a helicopter to rescue him. But, the rescue team had a hard time getting to him, because the draft from their propeller kept pushing his home-made contraption farther and farther away. Eventually they were able to hover over him and drop a rescue line with which they gradually hauled him back to earth.

As soon as Larry hit the ground, he was arrested.

But as he was being led away in handcuffs, a television reporter called out to ask, "Mr. Walters, why did you do it?"

Larry stopped, eyed the man for a moment and replied nonchalantly,

"A man can't just sit around."