Competence & Incompetence 09.05.10
We annoy the incompetent
When we execute with competence.

Cruelty & Selfishness 09.40.10
All of us are cruel
In our tacit selfishness.

Pioneers & Effete 09.03.10
The pioneers first spill their blood
Then the effete wash it away.

Terrorism & Torture 09.02.10
Torture
Is the signature of primitive oppressors
Terrorism,
The signature of angry underdogs
Cruelty,
The signature of human conflicts.

Age & Speed 09.01.10
Age
Cannot be hidden;
Observe the speeds
Of motion and emotion
And then look at the hands.

Beauty & Desire 08.31.10
Beauty is desire;
We only find beauty
In what excites us.

Form & Substance 08.30.10
Youth upholds form
And age, substance.

Ineptness & Noise 08.29.10
We cover up our ineptness with noise;
The greater the gift, the softer the voice.

Wilderness & Habitat 08.28.10
Animals in captivity,
A zoo
Humans in captivity,
A prison
Animals in wilderness,
A habitat
Humans in habitat,
A wilderness.

Worship & Cosmos 08.27.10
Worship
Washes off hubris
And reveals our worth;
A minuscule, ephemeral species
In an infinite, timeless, unfathomable cosmos.

Peaks & Tumbles 08.26.10
Keep the peak within sight
But not within reach
Be the best you can be
But not the best there is
Everything that peaks tumbles.

Evidence & Decisions 08.25.10
Our unwillingness
To critically examine the evidence
Is responsible for most of our bad decisions.

Money & Life 08.24.10
Money that enriches life’s quality
Is well spent
Money that reduces joy and peace
Is preposterous
Money that merely increases power
Is the most dangerous.

Human & Divine 08.23.10
To spot a good reason to celebrate
Is human;
To create an excuse to celebrate
Is divine.

Biographies & Halos 08.22.10
Biographies
Remove the halos
From around famous faces.

Wisdom & Groups 08.21.10
Wisdom is an attribute only of individuals, never of groups
And there has never been a wise group under the sun;
In fact, wisdom declines as group numbers rise
And since our entire world is ruled by groups
Wisdom has never been our guiding star.   

Time & Life 08.20.10
Those who don’t waste time
Live many lives.

Hints & Words 08.19.10
Hints are more potent than words
The less said, the more is implied.

Words & Knowledge 08.18.10
Listeners learn as talkers make noise
The wise think as talkers make noise;
Knowledge is inversely proportional
To the number of words used
To express an idea.

Friends & Abdication 08.17.10
When friends abdicate
And you don’t know why
It’s mental misappropriation;
Don’t waste time to find out why
You’ll never find out and if you do
It won’t make sense to you.

Music & Noise 08.16.10
Just like loud music turns into noise
Likewise soft speech turns into music.

Conscience & Humanity 08.15.10
Those who tranquilize their consciences
In order to justify the injustices committed
By country, creed, ideology, family, or loved ones
Even though they do represent the majority of humanity
As a majority, they aslo do commit double treason;
They not only betray all their fellow humans
They also betray the soul of their Maker.

Advertisements & Truth 08.14.10
In all advertisements
Is a waft of seduction
A teaspoon of cunning
A veil of misrepresentation
And a breath of treachery.

Life & Inanimate 08.13.10
Only death endures;
Compared to the inanimate
Life is frail and ephemeral
Much like a meteor
It burns bright a while
Then quick reverts to dust.

Greatness & Joy 08.12.10
The concept of greatness
Comes from humanity’s paranoia;
There is nothing great upon this planet
Except the joy that one creates with love.

Truth & Numbers 08.11.10
Truth has little to do with numbers;
Humanity still believes that
We are the universe.

Hunger & Starvation 08.10.10
The difference between
Hunger and starvation
Is the difference between
Hunters and killers;
Those hungry for love, hunt
But those starved for it, kill.

Life & Meaning 08.09.10
Humanity’s search for the meaning of life
Is embellished with so much mythology
And pursued with so much seriousness
As though life has forever been
In desperate need of meaning.

Power & Wisdom 08.08.10
No power remains wise;
Hubris rises with power
And supplants wisdom.

Terrorism & Counter Terrorism 08.07.10
Terrorism
The ideology of anger
Is the primitive reaction
To inequality and injustice;
Counter terrorism, on the other hand
Is the enlightenment that blossoms & blooms
Out of heightened justice and diminished contrast.

Euphemism & Truth 08.06.10
Euphemisms serve those
Who do not dare speak the truth
And also those who do not dare hear it;
The brave ones, those who do not euphemize
Are sacrificed in the name of truth on the altar of history.

Food & Play 08.05.10
Wherever there is food, there is play
And wherever there is play, there is food
For the two are united by nurture and pleasure.

Cycles & Beings 08.04.10
We are cyclical beings
Like life, we cycle
In and out of our seasons
Our moods and impressions
Friendships and loves
Passions and desires
Interests and Activities
Cycle in and cycle out
In their own sweet times.

Life & The Inanimate 08.03.10
Life is a time out from the inanimate
Inanimate is the reality of the cosmos.

Popular & Creativity 08.02.10
Catering to the popular
Stifles creativity.

Mood & Self 08.01.10
Good moods are easy when all is well
And hard when ‘currents turn awry’;
We find out who we really are
When things are bad.

Abused and Abuser 07.31.10
When the abused
Become abusers
They become
Especially creative
In wielding cruelty.

Reflection & Self 07.30.10
As long as I do not look
At my reflection
I know who I am;
But when I look to see
How do I look
I lose myself.

Burden & Pleasure 07.29.10
Those who are not
Capable of pleasure
Are a burden.

More & Less 07.28.10
The well endowed
Should be held to higher standards;
The less endowed
Should be tolerated with deeper compassion.

Pioneers & Spirits 07.27.10
Pioneership
The spiritedness that builds nations
Suffocates in the effeteness of security;
To resuscitate pioneership
A nation needs emigrants
Legal, illegal, young, old
From all places and races
Who will bring with them
Their indomitable spirits.

Nations & Futures 07.26.10
Nations that think
That they can protect
Their futures with guns
Are adolescent sophomores
With too much muscle
And too little wisdom.

Preaching & Nature 07.25.10
It is puerile to think
That any amount of preaching
Can influence a person’s nature;
We can only receive
What we are inclined to receive.

Humility & Hubris 07.24.10
To call somebody stupid
Or to mistreat the less intelligent
Is the pernicious hubris
That poisons life;
Intelligence is given, not earned
And those who have received more
Should guard against the slippery slope
Which tumbles us from humility down into hubris.

Praise & Gifts 07.23.10
Sincere praise
For good minds and hearts
Ignores the fact that our hearts and minds
Are but the generous gifts of our Maker
And are not personal achievements.

Repetition & Anxiety 07.22.10
If one asks you
The same question
Over and over and over
Or if one repeats himself
Without sensing his repetition
And if your answer is heard
But never acknowledged
You can then diagnose
Severe anxiety.

Submissive & Shy 07.22.10
The Submissive get along with everyone
And the Shy conjure everyone’s compassion
For they both vouchsafe to everyone they meet
Everyone they know and everyone who loves them
A false but gratifying sense of dominance.

Good-Byes & Hellos 07.21.10
Were it not for those lengthy good-byes
We would have more time for hellos.

Struggle & Health 07.20.10
Nature is unforgiving
And exacts struggle for fitness and health;
Reward creatures with more food for less activity
And they’ll become unfit and fat.

Nature & Borders 07.19.10
Nature has no borders;
Divisions are figments
Of the human mind.

Quality & Majority 07.18.10
Quality decays
Awaiting majority approval.

Self Worth & Sabotage 07.17.10
Self worth engendered by others
May be sabotaged by others;
But the self worth that springs from within
Is immune to sabotage and praise.

Evidence & Dogma 07.16.10
Science offends humanity
When it challenges beliefs
And undermines dogmas;
The burden of evidence
Is too heavy to bear.

Voting & Evidence 07.15.10
Voting is emotional
Not evidence based
And the winners are those
Who best manipulate emotions.

Dictatorship & Cosmos 07.14.10
Democracy is dictatorship of governments
Capitalism, dictatorship of capitals
Socialism, dictatorship of ideologies
Society, dictatorship of traditions
Religion, dictatorship of beliefs
Power, dictatorship of the military
Desire, dictatorship of instincts
Emotions, dictatorships of passions
Thoughts, dictatorships of memories
Reason, dictatorship of the mind
Behavior, dictatorship of the mores
Life, dictatorship of our programming
Our programming, dictatorship of the planet
Our planet, dictatorship of the cosmos.

Freedom & Illusion 07.13.10
Freedom is an illusion;
Not even our imaginations
Are totally free.
We are the progeny
Of our programming
The output
Of our nurturing
Contained in body and mind
In soul and imagination
Within our places in history.

Legal & Ethical 07.12.10
What is legal is not always ethical
And what is ethical, not always legal
And having the right to do something
Does not sanction its ethicality or wisdom.

Noise & Quietude 07.11.10
If you want noise
Turn on the TV or radio;
If you want quietude
Turn on your mind.

Self & Information 07.10.10
Those who always talk about themselves
Actually think they’re being generous
By sharing vital information.

Innocence & Reality 07.09.10
How innocently we pass through life
And how shocked we seem to be
When checked by reality.

Optimism & Pessimism 07.08.10
Optimism
Is just as bad
As pessimism.

Useful & In Need 07.07.10
Those who are useful
Are pray to those in need.      

Evidence & Human Behavior 07.06.10
Evidence
Seldom influences
Or else takes a long time
To influence human behavior.

Smiling & Death 07.05.10
We cheat death
When in our sleep
We die smiling.

Speaking & Listening 07.04.10
The pressure to speak one’s mind,
To empty one’s overflowing heart
In spite of the listener's disinterest,
Is the need to vent, share, imprint;
It also is the listener’s chance to hark
The excogitations of a soul in distress
And a chance to ease a spirit’s anguish
Through the generous act of listening.

Noise & Substance 07.03.10
Observe how the noisy lack substance
And how the substantial lack noise.

Self-Entertainment & Freedom 07.02.10
It’s only through one’s abilities
At self-entertainment and enjoyment
That one gains freedom from loneliness
And independence from burdensome society.

Performance & Truth 07.01.10
If you perform
For those who like you
You’ll get applause
But you’ll never know
What they really think;
But if you perform
For those who don’t like you
And you get applause
You will know what they think.
Only those who don’t like you
Will tell you the truth.

Urine & Sex 06.30.10
Ask an old man with a big prostate
To choose between being able to
Urinate well or have good sex.
Then ask a young man
With a normal prostate
The very same question.
After a short pause from the old man
And a long pause from the young man
They will both choose the very same thing.

Aging & Loss 06.29.09
Aging gracefully
Is the living art
Of ignoring loss.

Democracy & Dictatorship 06.28.10
In a democracy, the only ones
Unable to speak their minds
Are the politicians.
In a dictatorship, the only one
Able to speak his mind
Is the dictator.

Problems & Solutions 06.27.10
I never trust simple solutions for complex problems
Complex problems demand equally complex solutions
And expose thousands of simple solutions that don’t work;
When there are thousands of treatments
It means there is no treatment
And when there are thousands of solutions
It means there is no solution.

Making & Finding 06.26.10
I would rather
Make beauty
Than find it;
What I find fades
What I make lasts.

Mind & Entertainment 06.25.10
To the unlocked mind
The mind free to think and learn
Unmindful of all that it was ever taught
Daring to see things for what they really are
Then weighing them on the universal scale of joy—
To this self-taught, independent, satirical mind
The best entertainment comes from thinking
Comes from within.

Readers & Authors 06.24.10
Readers, beware of book praise
No author publishes negative comments
Or tries to solicit them from readers or editors;
Authors, like dictators, surround themselves with praise.

Age & Spouses 06.23.10
There will come a time
When those of us who reach old age
Will become undesirable sexually
Unappealing physically
And uninteresting socially;
This is when we most appreciate our spouses
For whom we remain ever attractive.

Truths & History 06.22.10
It is futile to campaign
Against truths that expose aggression
Or injustice, or are otherwise inconvenient;
Sooner or later, they will prevail
And those who had tried to bury them
Will be ridiculed by history.

Death & Security 06.21.10
Most of those who will die fat and rich
Will have squandered most of their lives
Struggling for financial security.

Men & Women 06.20.10
Men and women
Would have little to do
With each other
Were it not for sex.

Procreation & Selection 06.19.10
Though we are programmed to procreate
We’re not programmed to be selective
Of the ones with whom we copulate;
This minor genetic miscalibration
Is responsible for most marital misery.

Evidence & Belief 06.18.10
The less the evidence
The stronger the belief.

Dogs & Suicide 06.17.10
We need to learn
How to love from dogs;
Dog lovers do not
Commit suicide.

Freedom & Counter-thoughts 06.16.10
A free human being
Protects the freedoms of others
Especially their freedoms of expression
And especially when expressing counter-thoughts.
A human, a group, a nation, an ideology, or a religion
That does not protect the freedoms of counter-thoughts
Is enslaved by suffocating censorships and myopic dogmas.

Excused & Culpable 06.15.10
Note how we make excuses
For those wrongdoers whom we like
But hold as culpable those whom we dislike.

Public Toilets & Us 06.14.10
Do you have any idea
What the public toilets call us?
They refer to us as the dirty animals.

Pre-Owned & Pre-Mrried 06.13.10
We need to learn from the car dealers
Who call their used cars, pre-owned
And call the divorced, pre-married
A much kinder euphemism.

Fragmentation & Unity 06.12.10
Unity is ephemeral;
It is forged under threat
And fragments with security.
Fragmentation is natural;
It subdivides with security
Unto the edges of loneliness.

Death & Generosity 06.11.10
Dying is a generous act;
It’s giving up your only seat
For someone you don’t even know.

Enlightenment & Education 06.10.10
Enlightenment
Cannot be taught;
It can only be acquired
Through personal endeavor.
You won’t learn it
In schools or travels
Or in readings or arts
Or in places of worship.
Enlightenment is not education;
It’s an epiphany that only comes
To those fearlessly independent souls
Who burnish their free-willed minds
With painfully discovered truths
Unmindful of nation or religion
Or of group or family.

Shame & Nature 06.09.10
Those who preach
Unnatural behavior
Attract audiences
Who are ashamed
Of their natures.

Beyond Dogma & Life 06.08.10
The select few
Who dare think beyond dogma
Are the same few
Who dare live beyond life.

Laughs & Frowns 06.07.10
I trust those who laugh
More than those who smile
And those who frown
More than those who cry.

People & Us 06.06.10
I’ve never met People
That everyone talks about;
People who like this
Or People who do that
Or People who don’t understand
Or People who feel, or talk, or act…
Oh, you do, of course, know what I mean,..
Everyone I know or have ever known
Excludes one’s self and one’s audience
When they discourse about People;
Who are these People and where are they?
These common People that everyone talks about.

Mediocrity & Self 06.05.10
Mediocrity is universal;
Every one of us
Is a mediocre
Or has been one
At certain times
Or in certain situations;
Tolerating mediocrity
Is tolerating one’s self.

Statesmen & Politicians 05.04.10
Democracy
Deselects statesmen
Who dare displease
In favor of politicians
Who aim to please.

Approval & Truth 06.03.10
One should not seek approval
Before embarking on one’s own journey
Nor should one expect approval
When declaring one’s own truths;
Those who require approval
Spend a lot of life acquiring it
And achieve little because of it.

Shame & Nature 05.02.10
There is no shame in nature;
Indeed, shame is an exclusively human invention
Brewed in awareness, flavored with conceit, and laced with envy.

Humanity & Remembrance 06.01.10
It’s difficult to be proud of humanity
Because of how it has treated humanity
And because most of its grand achievements
Are rooted in aggression or tainted with cruelty;
When it ends, and if anyone is left that could recall
It will be remembered not for its science but for its art
That ever gentle dimension of its ferocious history
Where beauty was truth and truth was beauty.

Military & Demographic Powers 05.31.10
When, after a long while
Military powers prove ineffective
Demographic powers will then become
The grand conductors of human history.

Thoughts & Conflicts 05.29.10
“How dare you think so differently?
You either think like I or we do
Or else you are a traitor…”
Herein lie all the origins
Of human conflicts.

Dissonance & Peace 05.28.10
Stay away from those who are easily upset;
They will contaminate your tranquil soul
With their deep disharmony
Yet will not let you inseminate
Their restlessness with your peace.

Hurt Feelings & Distance 05.27.10
Those who consistently manage
To hurt each other’s feelings
Need to stay apart.

Griefs & Surprises 05.26.10
Accepting reality
Tempers griefs;
Preparing for reality
Tempers surprises.

Love & Fear 05.25.10
Love and fear contend for the human mind;
When fear overwhelms, the mind becomes loveless
But when love overpowers, the mind is rendered fearless.

Hubris & Humility 05.24.10
A humble human
When shown his errors
Learns and grows;
While the one
Afflicted with hubris
Is blind to his errors
Nor learns, nor grows.

Homo sapiens & Homo distructivus 05.23.10
After Experiment Planet Earth
The universe has renamed Homo sapiens
Renamed them as Homo destructivus
And isolated them in space
So as not to contaminate
The rest of the universe
With their deadly seeds.

Pleaser & Pleased 05.21.10
Trying to please
Teaches bad habits
To both, the pleaser
And the pleased.

Wisdom & Peace 05.20.10
I miss my passions
But I love my wisdom;
And I miss my struggles
But I love my peace.

Effeteness & Nations 05.19.10
Nothing destroys a nation
Quicker than accrued effeteness
That pernicious malady of soft entitlements
Against which not even nuclear powers
Can ever stand a chance.

Capitalism & Socialism 05.18.10
Capitalism
Is ruthless to the poor
But discourages poverty;
Socialism
Is ruthless to the poor
And encourages poverty.

Good & Bad Traits 05.17.10
When you say you love me
You are, indeed, saying that
You also love my bad traits;
It takes no effort whatsoever
To only love my good traits.

Democracy & Dictatorship 05.16.10
Democracy encourages
The good to do their best
And the bad to do their worst;
Whereas dictatorships
Stifle the good and
Empower the bad.

Imagination & Dogma 05.15.10
We spend most of our lives
In the company of our imaginations
Which fly high with enlightenment
And are kept captive by dogma.

Youth & Age 05.14.10
An old person
Knows what youth is
Whereas a young person
Cannot know what old age is.

Passions & Death 05.13.10
Too bad
Our passions die
Before we do.

Historic Forces & Historic Men 05.12.10
Historic forces make historic men
Create nations, move the world;
It is anachronistic to say that
Men and nations move history
Rather than they are moved by it.

Lazy & Efficient 05.11.10
If you gather into one work force
The energetic and the lackadaisical
The lazy will find a way to work less hard
Leaving the efficient to do most of the work.

Humans & Identity 05.10.10
My conscious
Would castigate me if I were to wear
A national, religious, political, or other identity;
I am a representative of the only extant genus Homo
Of the bipedal Hominidae primates of the great ape family
A member of the Kingdom, Animalia, of the Class, Mammalia
Of the 200,000 year old African dynesty, Homo sapiens
An ephemeral human spirit—a citizen of the world.

Life & Fear Of Death 05.09.10
Whosoever lives a life
That prepares him for death
Lives with less fear and more joy
Than one who fears death enough
To beg for life at any cost and
To live shrouded by myth.       

History & Human Nature 05.08.10
History repeats itself
Only because
Human nature
Is immutable.

Poverty & Causes 05.07.10
Poverty is mostly
Environmental
Or mental
Or both.

Attitude & Situation 05.06.10
It's far easier
To change one’s attitude
Than one’s situation.

Beliefs & Powers 05.05.10
Show me a power that did not succumb
A force that did not become disempowered
An ideology that survived history’s bloody blade
Or a belief that did not fragment and become abused.

Power & Conscience 05.04.10
There is no power with a conscience;
Powers aim to grow, self protect
And they suffer from hubris-
Whereas a conscience aims at justice
Protects others at self expense
And grows with humility.

Life & Danger 05.03.10
Life is dangerous
Only death is safe;
Everyone alive
Lives dangerously.

Injustice & Coping 05.02.10
One copes
With injustice
In four stages:
First comes anger
Then retribution ideas
Then realization of futility
Then the magnanimity of spirit
Summons forgiveness with a smile;
And that’s how the meek inherit the earth.

Life & Death 05.01.10
All that one desires
After a long, beautiful life
Is a short, wonderful death.

Wisdom & Recognition 04.30.10
Wisdom begins with recognition
With the recognition of the irrational
First in ourselves and then in everyone else.

Choices & Consequences 04.29.10
Whenever we refuse to choose
We are neither alive nor dead
But, like a Sunday afternoon,
Somewhere in between.

Herd Mentality & Critical Thinking 04.28.10
Human herds
Can be led anywhere
As long as critical thinking
Remains suppressed or underdeveloped.

Money & Love 04.27.10
Ask a dying man
What would he
Rather have
Money or Love;
Then ask an old man
And then a young man
The very same question;
With age we always transition
From materialism to the spiritualism.

History & Memory 04.26.10
In the infinite shelves of the brain
Resides the human library
We call the mind.
Culture, nature, nurture, coincidence
Where we grew up and how we grew up
What times we grew up in and our experiences-
(Religious, political, national, historical, mythological, personal
Our individual pre-wireings, and life's continuous programmings)
They all stack books in our brain shelves that can never be removed
Books that become our human library, our collective memory, and our identity.

Imagination & Reality 04.25.10
Imagination was born out of awareness
Out of our awareness of reality
For living entirely in reality
Is incompatible with joy.
We all live two lives,
The thorny life of reality
Where jagged facts bleed us
And the secret life of imagination
Where dwell our spiritual implements of joy
Our hopes, dreams, myths, delusions, and faiths.

Medicine & Quality 04.24.10
In America
The calling that was medicine
Is dying...
Technology and human nature
Have poisoned it...
We test before we think
We think to justify procedures
We take care of diseases
But neglect the humans who have them...
In America
Medicine has become a high-tech industry
With poor-human qualities and harsh insurance dictatorships
Expensive, aggressive, inefficient, unavailable
Unaffordable, fragmented, and dangerous.

Denial & Planet Earth 04.23.10
If we were not in total denial
We would be working together
In order to save this living planet
From imminent demise.

Life & Batteries 04.22.10
Life is a charged battery
If it does not die of damage
It will slowly run out of charge.

Entertainment & Passivity 04.21.10
Unless we learn to entertain ourselves
By actively pursuing what we passionately love
Most of the entertainments we partake of
Will render us intellectually passive.

Tiring & Retiring 04.20.10
Besides food, sleep, and passions
Whatever else we do, day after day
Becomes ultimately tiring
And invites retiring.

Literature & Life 04.19.10
Blessed are the writers and readers
For they shall live many lives.

Time & Abundance 04.18.10
To those who do not waste it
Time comes abundantly.

 Life & Universe 04.17.10
This experiment called life
Upon this planet called earth
One day will convince the universe
That life is self-destructive.

Entitlement & Disillusionment 04.16.10
Entitlement is a sad disease
It causes the entitled to think
That you deserve more...
That they owe it to us...
That I deserve better...
It is best to believe
That one deserves nothing
So that when good things come
One is pleasantly surprised
But when bad things hit
One does not suffer
The pangs of disillusionment.

Right & Wrong 04.15.10
In human conflict
All sides believe
That they are right.
We only find out
Who was wrong
From the winner.

Prophets & Earth 04.14.10
All the prophets
Have died in vain;
Look what a shameful
Earth we live in.

Advertising & Stealth 04.13.10
Advertising is
A misrepresentation by stealth
It bypasses the conscience of its mongers
And the intellects of its receivers.

Money & Time 04.12.10
The savers are three:
Those who pay money to save time
Those who pay time to save money
And those who save both time and money.
The squanderers are three:
Those who squander money
Those who squander time
And those who squander both money and time.

Identities & Self 04.11.10
We all possess numerous and diverse identities:
Some identities are defined by how others see us
Some others are defined by all the life roles we play
Some, by our personal dreams and aspirations
Some, by our beliefs, biases, and myths
Some, by how and where we grow up
Some, by our appearances and ages
Some, by our possessions or wealth
Some, by our intellectual or artistic outputs
But only one identity is defined by our memories of youth
By the images we cling to so that we can always
View ourselves as young in spite of our age.

Orbits and Freedom 04.10.10
We all think in orbits
Highs, lows, and in-betweens
One orbit at a time.
We all exit our orbits
Up or down, but only awhile
And then go back to our bases.
High orbiters are free
They think outside beliefs
And they are chastised by society.
Low orbiters are shackled
They think from within beliefs
And they are the mentors of society.
The in-between orbiters
Are the common chameleons
Who choose the colors of their orbits
To match the colors of their situations.

Life & Stars 04.09.10
Our miniscule, un-cosmic lives
And heightened awareness
Render us impatient
And deny us peace.
With our myopic minds
We hoard, headless of time
We quarrel, headless of reason
And we die, always surprised.
If we could live like stars
We would not petty
Our burning lives
With ephemera.

Generosity & Poverty 04.08.10
No one has ever been
Impoverished by generosity;
The more one gives
The more one receives
And the wealthier one feels.

Nations & Aging 04.07.10
Nations possess human anatomy
But instead of bodily organs
They have institutions
And instead of brains
They have governments.

 Aging affects nations
Like it affects humans
Their organs begin to fail
Their brains become feeble
They become fat and disabled
Then they succumb to dementia.

Oppression & Injustice 04.06.10
There is no just oppression or oppressor
The mere need for oppression
Is certain proof of injustice.

Writers & Audiences 04.05.10
A writer writes from within
Writes about the truths within his soul;
But, when instead, he writes for audiences
He taints his truths in order to please.

The Best & The Best 04.04.10
To be the best is ephemeral
Some one always out-bests the best
But to be the best one can be
Could never be bested.

Beauty & Marriage 04.03.10
Nothing can destroy
A beautiful human being
Like a bad marriage.

Readiness & Adversity 04.02.10
If we plan for adversity
If we prepare for injustice
If we get ready for being hurt
Life would not catch us by surprise.

Thoughts & Knowledge 04.01.10
Wonder about your own thoughts;
Wondering about the thoughts of others
Is a futile attempt at knowing the un-knowable.

Wisdom & Folly 03.31.10
Wisdom only comes to the wise
And folly comes mainly to fools;
Wisdom cannot be taught
Nor can folly be averted.

Intelligence & What's On The Mind 03.30.10
Intelligence is not in short supply;
The source of worry is not our minds
But what’s on our minds;
For it’s the contents of our minds
That make us what we are.

Self-Worth & Applause 03.29.10
Pity that our self-worth
Has to come from without,
From the applause of audiences;
The most worthy have always been
Those whose worth comes from within.

War & Environment 03.28.10
Before earth explodes
And shatters us all to shreds
We should erase our borders
Replace our armies with global police
And use our war moneys to make war
On the violators of the environment.

Truth & Courage 03.27.10
Those who dare speak the truth
Offend so many
That now hardly any
Dare speak it.

Awareness & Life 03.26.10
Awareness is
The curse of humanity
The mother of myths
The maker of religions
And the harbinger of fears;
Were we like animals, unaware…
We would fill our minutes with little joys
Ignore precarious life and brutal mortality
And live for living without ever asking questions.

Ownership & Significance 03.25.10
How quickly we believe
That everything we own
And wherever we are reared
And whatever countries we inhabit
Belong to transient, little us;
We forget that everything’s on loan
That nothing in this unimaginable universe
Can ever belong to anyone
And that nothing on our insignificant planet
Can ever attain great cosmic significance.

Teaching & Fear 03.24.10
Teaching fear is ruthless
Teaching hell is heinous
Teaching fear of God is sinful
Teaching fear of Death is cruel
Teaching love of God and peace of Death
As the natural extensions of life into the future
Is the best means to live in harmony with nature.

Motion & Life 03.23.10
Move without reason
Be active out of season
Ask not for an excuse to fly
All you need to know is that time is flowing fast
And you either flap your wings or die.

Hunger & Satiation 03.22.10
Hunger empowers our drives
Until it is satiated.

Freedom & Price 03.21.10
Freedom is never free
Its price is high
And grows even higher
The longer it lasts.

Youth & Knowing 03.20.10
When we interact with the youth
We know that they will change their minds with time
And they believe that we cannot possibly know what we know.

Words & Substance 03.19.10
The more the words the less the substance;
Verbosity dilutes the essence.

Eagerness & Effort 03.18.10
Effort is reward dependent
And eagerness, expectation dependent;
Those who expand great efforts are the well rewarded
And those who evince great eagerness have great expectations.

Mishaps & Thrills 03.17.10
Make room everyday
For mistakes and mishaps;
If they happen, you’ll be prepared
If they do not, you will be thrilled.

Loyalty & Blindness 03.16.10
Loyalty is often blind;
Those loyal to a cause
Don’t often change their minds
Even when the evidence
Is all against them.

Life & Earth 03.15.10
If we were given the choices
To remain in earth, unborn
Or to be born and live for a while
We would all choose life.
Those who choose life
Have nothing to lose
Because after a while
They all will go back home.
Those who chose earth
Have everything to loose
Because they may never get another chance
To learn what life is all about.

Pretense & Popularity 03.14.10
To be well liked
One must be what others want
And value their opinions
Above one’s own
Making it impossible
To be true to one’s self.
Social pretense is universal
Especially among popular people.

Most & Least 03.13.10
We’re most vulnerable when in need
Most virtuous when satiated
Most venal when the price is right
Least rational when emotional
Most rational when detached
Irrational when it comes to our own beliefs
Least aware of our own imperfections
Most critical of the imperfections of others
Most delusional with death and immortality
Bravest with words
Violent in anger
Most desperate for love.

Love & Wrong 03.12.10
Love is never an excuse
For doing the wrong thing.

Relationships & Need 03.11.10
Relationships start when we begin to need or to like each other
They prosper as long as we continue to need or like each other
They begin to die when we no longer need or like each other
And love, the innocent bystander
Glorifies our affections
As long as they last.

Intelligence & Leisure 03.10.10
Television has deprived humanity
Of the intelligent use of leisure.

Small Things & Joy 03.09.10
It’s vital to celebrate something, no matter how small, everyday;
Small things can bring great joys to life.

Elegance & Comfort 03.08.10
There’s a tug of war between elegance and comfort
The younger favor elegance and the older, comfort.

Thinking & Levels 03.07.10
One-level thinking is done by all animals
Two-level thinking is done by most humans
Multi-level thinking is only done by a few thinkers.

Greatness & Insanity 03.06.10
It is unwise to inflate one’s own self worth
The delusion of greatness is intoxicating
And drives one into hubristic insanity.

Morality & Dogma 03.05.10
Teaching morality
Entails un-teaching dogma
And teaching ethics instead
So as to empower our conscience
To make all of our moral decisions.

Surmise & Conclude 03.04.10
It’s best to surmise rather than conclude
Surmising entails flexibility whereas
Concluding reeks of finality.

Trust & Nature 03.03.10
Homo sapiens cannot be trusted;
They all betray Mother Nature.

Power & Endurence 03.02.10
If we know with our foresights that certain things are inevitable
We are fools to fight them for the moment’s heroic sake;
If we could see only a few hundred years ahead
We would lose our ugliness and grow meeker
With the realization that no power endures.
Shortsightedness is the plight of humanity.

Tolerence & Mediocrity 03.01.10
A noble soul tolerates mediocrity
And expects less form it.

Worship & Support 02.28.10
Most worship is a form of social support
Only the few worship alone.

Effeteness & Struggle 02.27.10
Effeteness is the spoiled child of affluence
And struggle, the mother of fortitude.

Sophistication & Enlightenment 02.26.10
Those who flaunt sophistication
Lack enlightenment.

Generalization & Prejudice 02.25.10
Resist the urge to generalize
And you’ll avoid prejudice.

Surprises & Life 02.24.10
Surprises arise whenever we assume
That people are rational and life is orderly.

Life & Nature 02.23.10
Life, the greatest attribute of nature
Is too precarious to survive long
In this explosive universe.

Media & Masses 02.22.10
The media inflate and audiences capitulate;
The art of using too many words to say little
Appeals to the mass mind more than terseness.

Passions & Wisdom 02.21.10
Boundless passions belong to youth
Old age must exchange passion for wisdom
Or else it would languish in lethargic indifference.

Death & Awareness 02.20.10
Let me die aware
Aware of my transitioning
Aware of the last trickles of life dripping
Dying ought to be the beautiful crown on my head
That I shall wear for the grand finale of my life’s performance.

Death & Renaissance 02.19.10
Were it not for death
The planet would have been ruined;
Death cleans and renaissance refreshes.

Inconvenience & Truth 02.18.10
Inconvenient evidence is invariably contested
And inconvenient truths, invariably denied.

Reason and Delusions 02.17.10
Reason does not stand a chance
As long as humanity remains delusional;
Collectively, most of our beliefs are fictional
And most of our ideas are unverifiable by evidence.

Atrocities & Names 02.16.10
Situations change their names and faces with times and places.
What was palatable during war should become unconscionable
during peace.  What was sanctioned in the past—such as
inquisitions, colonialism, occupations, evictions, slavery, and
creating refugees plus violating their human rights—should become
horrifying to the enlightenment of today.  Yet all such atrocities
continue unabated, albeit under different names.  What really
matters is not what we do but by what name we call it. 
What’s in a name?  Everything...

Value & Loss 02.15.10
We eulogize far more after death than during life
The word eulogy has acquired a macabre sense because
What makes us keenly aware of value is loss. 

Incompetence & Excellence 02.14.10
In human affairs, incompetence is easy while excellence is hard. 
Human nature, like water, flows naturally downstream
And can only flow upstream with effort. 
Choosing the easy way out is a slippery slope, which in the long run sets us up to fail.

Ethics & Nations 02.13.10
There has never been an ethical nation under the sun
And there never will be as long as human nature
The most dangerous force upon this planet
Continues to prevail over ethics.

Art & Artist 02.12.10
Art, the child of the artist, lives on
While the artist becomes a name.

Humanity & Euphemisms 02.11.10
Our language is loaded with euphemis