Do good things come to those who wait?
Or do they waste their days
And months and years in wishing
For the slightest of displays
That what they hope for might come true?
It’s hard to make a rule —
That one could then encapsulate
To teach at home or school.
But this — this one idea I have
And you helped me to birth it —
I waited all my life for you
And wow
It sure
Was worth it
Inspired by this prompt.
(“This One Idea” – 11-16-2014)
That David Hume, he wrote a book, So I thought I would take a look: Then all my time it did consume - He wrote a book, that David Hume To write his tome, he had no cause, For skeptical of cause he was: No he, no self, was there at home, He had no cause to write this tome Why read or write, if naught exists? Yet on and on, the book persists: A skeptic lacking one insight -- If naught exists, why read or write?
Imagine the greatest thing there is
To be great, it should “be”
If it’s not there, it’s not so great
And that’s ontology
If anything at all is here
There’s “greatest”, sure enough
So Anselm’s right and Kant is wrong
With his Critiques of Stuff
Descartes believed it, Hegel too
Spinoza thought it clear
The greatest thing there is, must be
Or so, it would appear
We spend our days in scurrying
We’ve people still to meet, and much to prove:
And yet, for all our worrying,
To get where we all go, we needn’t move
in no other walk of life
do people take
the average, mediocre things
that others do
and call them
‘best practices’
there is little emotional difference
between what feels urgent
and what actually is important
there is a big difference
in reality, though:
the first class of things
drives us crazy, and
the second class
makes everything worthwhile
working can teach us
just how much effort
we can expend
and still not have
actually done anything
in my lifetime,
i’ve worked for small employers,
large employers,
and the national government:
so, at various times,
i’ve heard every segment
of the economy
blamed
and believed it
“find out what you love to do,
and figure out how
to get paid for it,”
is still pretty good career advice
or would be
if not for the fact
that what many people love to do
is be cruel to others
that being said,
the most truly successful people
in business
are those who love what they do
more than
any money they get from it
when you have to actually fix problems,
rather than just comment on them,
the whole world changes
in my thirty-fourth year
of predicting things for a living,
the hardest thing left to predict
is how much longer i can do this
when people compare paychecks
they have no interest in comparisons
with people who make less than they do
even though people
who make less than they do
are frequently
the majority of the world
there is almost no overlap
in understanding
between people who always
want something for nothing,
and those who
never do
but you find both types of people
anywhere you go
people hurry
off to work
every day;
often because
they wait as long as possible
before going
They will come for us
From outside
Just call them Xenos
But they won’t get here
Never more
Than halfway at best
I don’t know what you wanted, but
I know it wasn’t me;
We’ve separated now, and you
Are doing swimmingly
I’ve heard you’re out with someone else,
And I guess that is fine:
For after all, I cannot lose
What wasn’t really
Mine
Dear Crito, now, suggests that I should go.
I cannot do this, for it would be wrong;
And though I know the ship arrives ere long,
I’ll stay and live the only life I know.
The life I’ve lived since I was in my youth;
To hold my head up high, and daily walk,
To never from my duty run or balk,
And live that I might only seek the truth
Instead of chasing happiness,
We should all seek to flourish;
Rather than seeking pleasure, we
Our body/soul should nourish
For running after danger is
A way of tempting fate;
A thing we only find out, often
When it’s
Far too
Late
= = = = = | = = = = =
“The self-indulgent man craves for all pleasant things, or those that are most pleasant, and is led by his appetite to choose these at the cost of everything else…” – Aristotle, “Nicomachean Ethics”
