From FB:
“Surreptitiously tucked in the corner listening to my cassette of ‘Jar of Flies’ towards the end of AIT right before Airborne School.”
Fort Benning, Georgia (1994)
“Blood Meridian: Or The Evening Redness In The West”
“The truth about the world, he said, is that anything is possible. Had you not seen it all from birth and thereby bled it of its strangeness it would appear to you for what it is, a hat trick in a medicine show, a fevered dream, a trance bepopulate with chimeras having neither analogue nor precedent, an itinerant carnival, a migratory tentshow whose ultimate destination after many a pitch in many a mudded field is unspeakable and calamitous beyond reckoning…”
Walpurgisnacht
From FB:
“The eve of May Day, April 30th, is a time when witches were believed to fly abroad. In Germany it is known as Walpurgisnacht after the pagan fertility goddess Walpurga.A goddess of beauty, warmth, fertility, the renewal of life, and grain, Walpurga was once the focus of rituals intended to defeat the forces of Winter and permit the emergence of Summer. For nine days before May Day, the Wild Hunt (traditionally most active in cold weather) pursues Walpurga. She is their quarry. If they can capture her, they can prolong Winter, prevent Summer, and keep riding all night.May Eve is Walpurga’s night. If she can survive this night, then Summer’s arrival is ensured. Meanwhile, the Wild Hunters intensify their pursuit in one last-ditch attempt to maintain their power.Under Christian influence, Walpurga’s Night transformed into a time to banish forces of Paganism. Eventually, it was remade as a holiday honoring a saint (the English nun Saint Walpurgis, abbess of Heidenheim in the 8th Century).In Germany, witches are said to gather this evening on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains. There they carouse with the Devil until midnight when the Queen of May appears to oust the Hag of Winter. In Ireland and Scotland, bonfires were lit on this night and cattle driven between the flames to protect them from witchcraft and other undesirable influences. From Bram Stoker’s short story, “Dracula’s Guest,” an Englishman (whose name is never mentioned) is on a visit to Munich before leaving for Transylvania. It is Walpurgis Night, and in spite of the hotelier’s warning not to be late coming back, the young man later leaves his carriage and wanders toward the direction of an abandoned “unholy” village. As the carriage departs with the frightened and superstitious driver, a tall and thin stranger scares the horses at the crest of a hill.Today is also the birthday of Willie Nelson (87) and was the day in 1900 when Casey Jones, an engineer with the Illinois Central railroad, died in a famous train crash in Vaughan, Mississippi after having forfeited his chance to jump in order to stay at the controls.”
Port Of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago (2009)
From FB:
“I kept seeing memories of this trip popping up and realized I’d removed a lot of the pics when I got chastised by a former boss for showing me having too much fun at the government’s expense. My good work colleague buddy took this photo on a cruise ship being used as a temporary hotel for all the guests and dignitaries of the diplomatic conclave in Port of Spain. This was the first night after the Big Man and his lower level functionaries had arrived. For all intents and purposes our job was over at this point until they left several days later. Hence the booze…”
I like this picture.
The Magnificent
A bunch of years ago, I paid some Indonesian graphic designer five bucks to design my personal logo.
Color Your Thoughts
“[The Roman Emperor and Stoic Philosopher] Marcus [Aurelius] was like us. He wasn’t naturally extraordinary. He wasn’t born to greatness. His destiny was not pre-ordained. So how did it happen? How are we here today—what would have been his 1900th birthday—still talking about him?
We’ve talked before about the dream Marcus had. The one where his shoulders were made of ivory, signalling to him that he could do it, that he could be king.
But what’s important for us to remember—at least those of us who have never experienced such lofty portentous dreams—is what happened after. Marcus didn’t wake up with a bottomless reservoir of confidence all of the sudden. It was not as if a switch had been permanently flipped. Over and over in Meditations, we see Marcus writing messages of reassurance to himself:
Not to assume it’s impossible because you find it hard. But to recognize that if it’s humanly possible, you can do it too.
You can do it, if you simply recognize: that they’re human too.
Yes, you can—if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life…you can manage this.
Marcus talked about how our life takes on the color of our thoughts. If you hold a perpetually negative outlook, soon enough everything you encounter will seem negative. And in those moments when you don’t think you can do something, it’s very likely you won’t be able to do it.
The same thing holds true for a positive outlook, however. Color your mind with the right thoughts, color them with what’s possible, and then whatever you’re trying to do—whether it’s trying to start a company or salvage a relationship or lose twenty pounds or quit drinking or make partner at your law firm—you’ll be able to manage it.
That is not to say that things won’t be hard, regardless of your outlook. But you have stronger shoulders than you know. People less talented, less determined, less privileged than you have succeeded at similar things. With a positive outlook—of course you can do this. You just need to focus. You need to grit your teeth and get to work.”
– The Daily Stoic
Song Of Ajax 