Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
Aye, there's the rub, when it comes to Bub. By doing others dirty, he provides himself with just that opportunity to advance that penultimate end (which is himself.)
If when we can't always care for children or animals out of love and sentiment, we must, to counterbalance this weakness in our natures, be stringent on ourselves to do so out of obligation; just as we would with any job we would want seeing done well -- all the more so when one's charge is the innocent or mostly innocent. For why should they, who are most always and invariably well behaved by the standards of their own God given nature, have to be and live in the same world where these stupid things go on?
I suppose that for many they know Carole King songs, but less so Carole King herself in association with those songs. Now to be frank, a number of her compositions too verge on 70's schmaltz to my taste. Yet, this mentioned, she has so many solid and superlative ones to amply and more than compensate for this. Did you know, for instance, that among those for which she is credited she wrote "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" "Locomotion," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," "Porpoise Song," "You've Got A Friend," "I Feel the Earth Move," "So Far Away," "It's Too Late" and, of course, more; so that in preparing this post, it came as a surprise to me to learn for the first time some titles I already well knew but which I didn't yet know were hers -- of which here's another.
Say Champion.* I have a question for you. When are you going to give o'er to sound judgment and reason for a change? Look, you had your great way all these years. So how about giving these radio operators and myself fair deal and a fair shake for once. Why -- we have places to go; people to see; things to do. You just can't be wasting our time with all of this anymore. You cause far and away too much trouble as it is. Sure you do; sure you do. I'll say you do, and I know this for an actual fact.
* champion chump.
You know what I told him? I told him I would gladly give up all fame, big money, reputation, and women if 1) I could evacuate the children and animals to peace and safety, and 2) get rid of him and his friends out of my own life permanently and forever -- keep all the rest, I could care less. Because, you see, there is no point living your life compromising with that surly oaf the magician and his master the great hoodlum of (phony) heaven.
Now real heaven on the other hand, that's something else entirely. All you need of it, as any true soul knows, is a mustard seed's worth, and if you only have that much it's better than all the riches of this present world put together.
When I'm sore, numb, weary and in more pain than usual from all these years of his torturing me, he will like to mock me by quoting scripture -- "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25), he says.
But I will laugh and do him one better (by citing Matthew 25:41): "Depart from me, you who are accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." (Go mind your own business.)
In all my life listening to music, the one band that easily got more turntable time out of me than any other was the Moody Blues. If I listen to them less so now, it is for exactly this same reason. Nevertheless, it is not hard for me to remember the times of ecstasy and enjoyment I had listening to particular songs and albums, such as "Your Wildest Dreams" (and the album it was on) when that first came out; and the later somewhat unpolished but still much underrated "Sur La Mer." Another, and probably of course their most lauded and highly regarded album, is "Days of Future Past" (DOFP), with songs like "Twilight Time" and "Peak Hour." Strangely and despite this, DOFP now sounds bad on CD compared to what it sounded like on LP; even though the CD is touted it as "newly remastered" and all that. It sounded (when I last heard it) like someone screwed up the mixes; so that certain instruments and layers of the performances don't come out so well or clearly as they did on the LP. If someone said this disparity between LP and CD was a result of deliberate sabotage, these days I would believe it. (Just thought I would mention this; in case anyone encountered the same problem.)
Anyway, here's another among those many favorite MB tunes I've loved all these years; though in this instance performed solo by Justin Hayward. (As before, many of you will want to lower the YouTube volume on this video also.)
There were some conspicuously penetrating quotes in Durant from ancient Roman authors that do well my reproducing here; seeing as how they strikingly hit the mark with respect to the subject of spirit people, particularly autocratic spirit people; which are as follow:
"I grant you there are gods; but they don't care what men do, else it would do well with the good and ill with the bad -- which rarely happens."
~ Ennius (from, states Durant, Telamo, frag. in Duff, 141.)
"To so many evils religion has persuaded men." (or “Only religion can persuade man to so much evil.” Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.)
~ Lucretius
[Referring to gods in happy isolation and who live] "beyond the flaming ramparts of the world." (extra flammantia moenia mundi.)
~ Lucretius
"It was fear that first in the world made gods." (Primus in orbe deos fecit timor.)
~ Petronius (Though probably not the author of Satyricon with the same name.)
All of which beg a few pertinent questions; which I list but won't, for the moment at least, attempt to answer.
1. Are "gods" spirit people?
2. If they are spirit people, does it not seem more likely that they were once regular, flesh and blood, humans? For where else, aside from animals, do we know about such person-hood existing? If gods are not departed people, what else could they possibly be? And outside of poetry, can it make proper sense to speak of a literal person who is not a human person or animal (or vegetable)?
3. If gods are departed humans, are they a select few of that class? And if so, how are they chosen, made, or come into the status being a deity after death?
4. If gods are departed humans, does it makes sense to speak of them creating this world or nature?
5. If they are not creators of nature and what is in it, how and in what way can they be gods?
6. If they are persons, but not formerly flesh and blood humans, does that of itself make them "gods" in relation to us, or are they simply a different kind of being that is a person?
7. If there are persons who were not at one time flesh and blood persons, whom we will for convenience denote "angels," do we necessarily have a tie with them? Do they interact in what we do, and if so who are they do us? Ancestors of some sort? Strangers? Alien friends? Alien enemies?
8. In what sense are some of the departed asleep and some not asleep? Why would some be active and some not? If there are "angels" do they sleep? Does it make any difference to us whether they do or not?
When it comes to the grand scheme of things, your being an optimist or pessimist is not going prove anything or affect anything -- unless your own self. And whether the greater physical universe is beneficent, maleficent, or indifferent is, for us, objectively indeterminable. It is what it is regardless of what we think. Yet we live not in the greater scheme of things as such but only in some part, and that sole or divergent part may be all that we need to concern ourselves with. Otherwise, and when all is said and done, all one can do when it comes to the great good and the great bad is see to our own souls, and render and keep them flourishing and healthy; and this we do by having a mind that is honest, rational, and self-disciplined; and a heart that is caring, empathetic, and conscientious.
A thing has different kinds of value and or uses to it, and what an artist does is pick out what is best in that thing. He then shapes, trims, highlights, shades, complements, contrasts its various selected and significant elements; after which he places them into a framework that will hold all these different parts and aspects together so that, in the process, they are transformed into a harmonious one or whole; with the understanding that it is possible for this same process to be repeated differently with same subject or subjects; while bearing in mind that harmony itself is that tension or strength achieved by the uniting and or offsetting of opposites and or complements with each other.