Like An Anchor

I was only a tot when the boat left shore

Probably no more than four

In the beginning the storms were fun

For when they passed, serene idle, and sun

Later the turbulence carried meaning and depth

Though there were unbridled joys, I too often wept

In that boat, in the sea, I thought I would become a man, become me

But the more I questioned, the less I knew, even though I was free

Youth is cursed, it’s not moored, constant falling

Scanning the ever changing water for a fixed calling

Flux, in flux, this body, this boat, this thinking

Up and down up and down, could be traded for one motion, sinking

Make it up if I must, attach I will, in one place, roots I need, for sure

This yearning is still, motionless, like an anchor

NPR Comments

Dear readers, it is time for a new segment. Please welcome NPR Comments to the blog.

Hi NPR Comments!

First the comment:

Scientists haven't answered that question...yet. However, they are hot on the trail. Science has chased your god into a primordial tide pool in some ancient landscape three billion years or more ago, Where will your argument...and your deity...go after science finally answers that question? Science is moving forward at an ever increasing rate while your myths haven't changed a bit in thousands of years. If you don't do something with your cult soon, it will be crushed by the steamroller of facts and evidence...and the sooner the better

Second the story headline:

Pope Francis Will Make Mother Teresa A Saint

Haiku Blue

Haikus…for you

The branch can hold you
reach, extend, clutch, and grab it
are you not support…

The wave can thrill you
the wave can spill you, scathe you
will you ride the wave

You cogitate lots
lots aren’t as cogent as should
quality counts more

Belief matters, truth
does not, in the least, matter
believe in the truth

Fidelity, poor
investments in you, and me
return, gain, questioned

The mooring is lose
the mooring was in the storm
we, you, me, the storm

Doubts, doubting, in doubt
are you certain, without doubt
learn more you cannot

Darkness won, less light
substitute, feign if you must
for truth matters not

Break the cycle, NOW!
you, stop being you, break it
snap it over you

In our midst, fog, smoke
confusing, choking, circling
among, within, fog

Broken, beleaguered
split, tattered, shattered, I quit
won you have, lost I

Someone help, me, please
though mute am I, call to you
hear me, help me, me

An inane life, lived
meaningless, halved, bare, pure, sought
your essence, lived, LIVED!

Myths runs deep, rites too
nihilism = opponent
different ≠ better

3:49, time
measured, split, counted, alas
more more, I. want. More.

In this umwelt, you
reside, die, fight, rise, birth, man
because you can, will…

Forget, forgotten
physiology damaged
soul of you, local

Human, all too Hume…
David, ought from is, cannot get
morality, dead

Depressing I know
these haikus, a side, they show
honest to a fault

Stewards of Baseball

Mike Greenberg of espn’s mike and mike wants to admit Pete Rose into the major league baseball hall of fame, “warts and all.” 

One of the warts is betting on major league baseball, which is verboten and to which Rose denied for a long time. Add to that the fact that Rose bet on his own team while he was manager of that team. Add to that the fact that Rose bet on his team to lose while he was manager of that team.

Enthusiasts love the statistics of baseball and how statistics have become the living history of baseball. People don’t watch old baseball games, they monitor stats and records. 

With that in mind:

The stewards of baseball have to have an eye on the future of baseball not just the revered past of baseball and the stewards know the risk of the hall of fame becoming meaningless because Pete Rose bet on his own team to lose. The stats which are so revered in baseball become meaningless when the game is doctored for gambling purposes; like overusing your bullpen, pinch hitting at inopportune times, stealing at inopportune times, which Pete Rose most assuredly did do, to better ensure his team’s chance of losing, and his personal chance of winning. When Pete Rose bets on his team to lose he not only impacted his team’s stats but the other team and its players as well.

There is no hall of fame for the WWE and there aren’t box scores in the morning newspaper because we all know the stats aren’t meaningful or representative of true competition. Letting Pete Rose into the hall of fame runs the risk of rendering meaningless, true competition.

Measuring, statistics, and records are de facto meaningless if a competitor is trying to lose.

Pete Rose was trying to lose.

Mike Greenberg should know that if Pete Rose is allowed into the Hall of Fame, baseball will lose.

A Predictable Life

Some abbreviated passages from Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined:

Today the Enlightenment is mentioned with a sneer. “Critical theorists” on the left blame it for the disasters of the 20^th century; theoconservatives in the Vatican and the American intellectual right long to replace its tolerant secularism with the alleged moral clarity of medieval Catholicism. …This colossal amnesia and ingratitude is possible because of the natural whitewashing of history that we saw in chapter 1, in which the reality behind the atrocities of yesteryear is consigned to the memory hole and is remembered only in bland idioms and icons. If the opening of this chapter has been graphic (the history of torture), it is only to remind you of the realities of the era that the Enlightenment put to an end.

Human sacrifice died out…one possibility is that the combination of  a literate elite, the rudiments of historical scholarship, and contacts with neighboring societies gives people the means to figure out that the bloodthirsty-god hypothesis is incorrect. …Another possibility is that a more affluent and predictable life erodes people’s fatalism and elevates their valuation of other people’s lives.

Ah, the importance of accurate history…which might help those “christians” railing against islam as the sole proprietor of terror with their amnesia.

A predictable life, perhaps one where you know where your next meal is coming from and know that you won't be killed from a traffic stop, erodes fatalism and encourages sympathy and ergo, the decline of violence. 

What kind of history are you remembering?

What kinds of policies are you supporting?

The Royal You

We asked, the Royal You answered

NBC 'Today' weatherman Willard Scott is retiring after decades on TV.

How are you coping?

Not giving one solitary fuck about the weather.-Herm Pascal, Fortitude Coach

Poster of Al Roker. -Mark Searles, Weather Vane

Hydrating. With scotch. -Luke Bobafett, Cup Raiser