Righteous Dickens?

In AZ museum

     I have two things to recommend.  First the HBO(?) series “Righteous Gemstones,” now completed so you can binge watch the whole five year story arc.  It presents a hilarious arch satire of modern religion.  Some people don’t like it, of course, not because they are offended or religious, others who are religious and offended.  I can hear in my head my deceased friend, NS, saying, “Heck with’em if they can’t take a joke.”

   Secondly, an aging movie, “The Man Who Invented Christmas,” is moving and seasonal these days.  It shows Charles Dickens’ struggle to write “A Christmas Carol.”  I have always loved Dickens and this special story of redemption. 

     Yesterday at the bookstore I bought a new facsimile copy in order, I expect, to read at the spiritualist church class meeting tonight, at least, that is, “Stave One, Marley’s Ghost.”  Christmas ghosts seem more than a bit appropriate to me for my spiritualist friends.  Hope they agree, or we will just have to fall into a walking meditation!

     This is irrelevant, but it just occurred to me: Dickens is slang for the devil, i’nit?

DJ or SC? Bless the givers

DJ consistently makes bird seed cakes

   No wonder we love our brother so dearly.  This is just one example of how he cares for his “tribe,” which includes birds, squirrels, and deer.  I was complaining about the nasty cold and dark of this time during our weekly phone conversation a few days ago.  

   “I really wonder how deer and birds and wild critters survive winter.  I look for their possible hidey-holes on our neighborhood walks, but I don’t see much.” 

    “They tuck into trees or bushes, then they come out to eat when they are hungry.” 

    “But it’s SO cold.”  

    “That’s why we feed them.”

  

     Good quality food, stuff they like… peanut butter, raspberries.  I’ve watched.   Is he a Santa?

Dreadnought. And Love

  

M and R

   Such a great word…dreadnought, succinctly loaded either with the best advice, or descriptive of unwavering character. Could it more accurately apply to personality or essence?  That bears pondering, especially about its source. Dreadnought need not contain implications of hard heartedness or self-centeredness, though some folk might assume that.  No more descriptors about it from me, though they flit like joyful raptors through my brain.  You can play with them if you wish, but, take care:  you may, like me, end this word/idea game by admitting,  “I fancy being a dreadnought,” or perhaps just to be perceived as one.  (Now, if this isn’t personality dabbling in imagination, I’ ve never observed myself before!)

   Meant to talk about the loving nature of dogs (and other two brained beings) with this pic of my dear friend playing with my dear dog.  Gurdjieff said something to the effect of, love a dog and you learn to love.  In this cold weather, Red and I have taken trips to the big box stores and mall six times in two weeks, for exercise and certainly to their profit…cha-Ching!  I usually avoid such shopping which was once upon a time a major form of entertainment.  It got boring, somehow, as well as expensive…even wasteful?  So what’s love got to do with it, Tina?

    First, my willingness to take my little bowwow there often shows me I love. Ugly little secret, I have doubted my ability to love many times in my 78 years.  But I have no doubt that I love this dog, so when I feel or tell people I love them, I know I mean it.

   Second, scores of people have greeted and petted Red (and me as his person) in these trips.  He gives them a moment to feel and show love.  Does he love it?  Mostly, but I think he gets tired. Yet GIG would agree: dogs keep on giving.  

Talked out

 

Light in the park.

                           So my brain feels empty.  Isn’t that amazing.  Ever happen to you?

Eric’s Christmas Tree.  Told him send the pic, only one I’m likely to “have” this year.

Plant in spring, harvest…

 

My son said, “We plant Max seeds in spring, then they bloom in September. 

      Phone calls with discontented people can drag you (me) from neutral or happy to heavy in half an hour or less.  Wash rinse repeat…their complaints remain the same.  No way to convince suffering people to lay down their misery.  Now how do I lay it down? 

   Start with body sensing and self observation, then ask myself EJ’s questions from the “Tales?”

  What could be "unbecoming" in "satisfying" "this impulse ... now called 'pleasure'"?   How can you recognize this in yourself, and how in others?  In which sense can this judgement "unbecoming" be made with "impartiality"?

   Then respond: I suspect my ego takes pleasure in playing “Lady Bountiful” with financial aids that I offer and that I stir the pot by listening to the dissatisfaction of one party’s views of cheating by the other. Also by trying to fix psychological roots beyond my ken, maybe with a threat:  So King Solomon says cut the baby in half, nobody will get anything.  Also, am I not taking sly pleasure in that unintended role of judge who writes THE narrative in my mind for the present and future events of this relationship?  After all, I have raised the issue twice after it was initiated by the “plaintiff.”  But now I am ready to say no more about it  to anyone, including myself.  That seems impartial, if I manage to do it without feelings of dread.  

    Money truly is the root of evil.  And pending death does not slow that down. 

    Beelzebub does famously advise on the last page of his Tales to his grandson:

“The sole means now for the saving of the beings of the planet Earth would be to implant again into their presences a new organ, an organ like Kundabuffer, but this time of such properties that every one of these unfortunates during the process of existence should constantly sense and be cognizant of the inevitability of his own death as well as of the death of everyone upon whom his eyes or attention rests. “Only such a sensation and such a cognizance can now destroy the egoism completely crystallized in them that has swallowed up the whole of their Essence and also that tendency to hate others which flows from it—the tendency, namely, which engenders all those mutual relationships existing there, which serve as the chief cause of all their abnormalities unbecoming to three-brained beings and maleficent for them themselves and for the whole of the Universe.”

Time to serve supper, gotta run

 

   I keep going back-and-forth on the lights opinion:  They did not look so spectacular to me yesterday as they have in past years. Still can’t help loving them  Though Red obviously likes the snow better. 

    OSU lost the big game and Conference championship to Indiana last night in a late game, which was exciting enough to keep me up till 11 PM. Of course I’m sorry our home team lost, but can’t say I’m sorry Indiana won… What does that tell you?  I do like the Hoosier quarterback, and will look forward to watching his career in the future.  

   Ta ta for now. I’m hungry and the soup smells done.  

I take it back: GREAT city lights, WBK

 Not exactly wonderful, but jolly enough in person. And proves my point today.

   Which is that I often speak with unwarranted authority from presumption.  My judgment of our town Christmas lights is the example.  Yesterday’s comments were based on daytime, unlit viewing.  I saw them after (frigid) dark last night and will say now, “Best Ever!”  The colored strands were apparently moved to the park and also to augment some side streets in very effective contrasting concentrations of green, blue, red.  Well done, city maintenance workers!

    Perhaps relatedly, I’m seeing fewer individual neighborhood displays so far, including in my own house.  If I neglected to say it before, lights are my favorite Christmas tradition.