Friday Foolishness – Reflective Edition

Today’s Music: Blondie Love At The Pier

I can feel it. Can you feel it? Friday at last! And what a week was the week that was. Here’s some of what I saw…
Bill (Practicing Resurrection) wrote a great thought provoking piece on good and evil, that I’ve been pondering since I read. Tikk Tok told me an important story I haven’t seen at all in the news.
And on a lighter note, Maddie Cochere has returned to the sphere!!! (With a great post on writing too.)
Hope you find as much in their posts as I find in all of yours every week.

But despite all the sublime wisdom out there, sometimes there still needs to be foolishness. And that was best expressed with last weeks question, What should the fools politicos do for work.
Wow, did your answers make great campaign platforms! Here’s what you said. (As always, my comments are blather senselessly in italics.)

2 year olds with temper tantrums (that’s the way they are acting) Benzeknees
(But 2 year olds will grow up and learn.)
They don’t work without a shutdown, so nothing will change for them. – Revis
(Couldn’t they have just called in sick instead?)
they’d be carpenters asking which is better: to cut off your legs at the ankles, knees, or thighs. Oh wait… xxliveclay!
(There’s a Jesus joke in there. Appropriate, considering how close politics and religion seem to be…)
Zombies… A typical day at the office then? 🙂 Andro
(I don’t think politicians would know what to do with brains…)
Lemmings… That’s one way of getting rid of them 🙂 Andro
(Don’t think they’d be able to agree on a cliff to jump off…)
Toilet Cleaners, well it beats talking a load of sh… Andro
(“Cleaning up messes” is not what they’re known for.)
Stand-In-Chimps 🙂 Andro
(Are they intelligent enough for that?)
Magician’s Assistants (It might be fun seeing them cut in half or disappear)
(They already made all the money disappear…)
All of the above! (Stacy)
(Politicians seem to do best on the bottom.)
brickhouse says, All of the above plus cleaning my toilet.
(Gov’t is shutdown and now you want to put Mr. Clean out of work too?!?)
Asphalt pavement. Elyse 54.5
(Giving new meaning to “Dip In Road”.)
Ohio truckers who collect crap from chicken farms. That’s what WE smell from DC!
(You obviously haven’t been letting them lead you down the primrose path…)
appendixes – they already know how to be useless. thematticuskingdom
(I always thought they were more like that thing hanging in the back of your throat.)
tonsils, for the same reason. thematticuskingdom
(Whew, I was worried you were going to stick it to vestigial tails.)
Corn Dog Assemblers because they are so good at sticking it to us Linda Vernon
(They could sell them at the circus. After their shifts in the Freak booths…)
the bags that hang behind horses during parades. thematticuskingdom
(I thought those were Baton Twirlers?)
zombie character actors – they already play the part. thematticuskingdom
(No, zombies eat brains. Politicians discard them.)
janitors – to clean up their own shit. thematticuskingdom
(But they’re so much better at flinging it around.)
Going door-to-door to collect for UNICEF and keeping the money. (UndercoverL)
(When the gov’t reopens, they’ll have a committee study that idea.)
Making a calendar of photos of their dick pics. (UndercoverL)
(Nono, those are called Head Shots.)
Miley Cyrus’ back-up twerkers!- Le Scarp
(YES! I can’t be the only one who wants to see Boehner and Reid in glittery gold lamé onesies!)
(Can I?)
(Guys?)
(GUYS?!?)
TP! (words&otherthings)
(How many sheets does it take to wipe out a country)
Who Cares? I am from Canada SnB
(Well, that’s not very polite – which means WE HAVE A WINNER!!!)
Bloviating idiots for hire – Republicans are 2 for 1! Rutabaga
(HEY! What’s that suppo- Oh…thought you said Blog-iating…)
Personal care attendants at hospitals and care units Kayjai
(They prefer the term Bedpan Manipulation Specialist.)

Congratulations to SnB for this week’s winning answer! And from the offered choices, the most popular was Hookers. (They’ve been whoring themselves since their first campaigns). So congratulations to all of you who are familiar with that kind of thing!

This week, it’s about what you could have done…what you might have done…what you shouldn’t have done…[insert philosophical musing here]. So dig deep, and answer as appropriate. But do it before by Wednesday, 16 October, 2359 EDT, because that’s when this one ends. (And if you leave an “Other” answer, leave a way to identify you, and I’ll link back to you next week.)

As Halloween approaches, I hope you find this Trading Candy guide useful (and if anyone knows whose blog I saw this on, I’d appreciate letting me know so I can credit them with the find.)

And lastly, this is a promo for the remake of Carrie, and it’s kind of funny. Enjoy.

That about wraps it up, until we meet again. Have a great weekend!

Faith and Fear…And Adventure. Part 1

Today’s Music: Blind Faith – Can’t Find My Way Home

What do you see at the edge?

There’s a moment, right at the very beginning, where anything is possible. -high and low, win and lose, yes and no.
On any adventure, that time is fascinating to me.
It’s a metaphysical moment where, for me, time stretches. My whole life doesn’t flash before my eyes. The moment isn’t long, but it is deep, and it’s there that I gain a better understanding of who I am. And it’s where I simultaneously find my fears and my faith in myself. I also see how those things have changed.

Here’s an early example –
– A young Guapo standing at the edge of the high diving board. He looks over, takes a deep breath. Another boy is already starting up the ladder for his turn. He looks back over the edge and steels himself. He ignores his burning red face and climbs back down the ladder.
– An older Guap (late teens?) stands at the edge of a different diving board. It’s high, but the water is deep, he tells himself. Don’t panic and you’ll be fine, he tells himself.
He looks out over that edge, remembers how younger him wished he’d stepped off that board all those years ago. He sees his younger self at that moment, remembers the exhilaration of being up so high, the danger of that narrow plank with so much empty space below it, and the terror of what could go wrong outweighing the thrill of what could go right.
He looks at the present again, every detail burning into his memory. He squeezes his eyes as tight as possible. He feels his face turn red.
And he turns and

Steps…

Off…

The…

Edge…

He goes off the high diving board another 8 times that day. Most of them with his eyes open. All of them with a big grin on his face.

I know I can.

So what changed?
Plenty of people dive from the high board/jump from the plane/hang from the cliff/(you get the idea).
Some of them have hurt themselves, some have even died. But as with a great many things, the vast majority have been careful, taken precautions and lived to do it again and again.

And the thought of being red faced and angry that I didn’t try something makes me feel worse than any of the damage I’ve accumulated thanks to gravity over the years.

So stop thinking that jumping will lead to crashing. Go on, have a little faith.