Albert's Ramblings

Having been disabled my entire life, I’m intrigued by the behavior of some of the peeps in my real. They have difficulty deciding how to deal with someone like me in their lives, and usually resort to one of two extremes. Before I begin, I should mention that this is just my observation of human behavior, and not an attempt to stereotype segments of humanity. I cherish the people in my life who find their own way, and aren’t victim to either extreme’s siren song.

The first extreme I would call “The Fool”.  For these folks, I am defined by my various disabilities. They will tell me, in no nonsense terms, how helpless I am, unable to understand anything. They inform me that without their “valuable” help & insight, I wouldn’t be able to figure anything out. That I would never reach the “right” decision concerning any issue. I bear these folks no enmity. Their viewpoint is defined in part by cultural values that have existed since before Julius Caesar had the “falling sickness”.

I tend to have greater disdain for the other extreme, which I’ve named “Superman”. To these folks, I am an incarnation of the “man of steel”. Cause I’ve dealt with multiple health problems, horrific chronic pain, etc for this long, I must always be capable of doing so. My presence in their lives is contingent upon my being “perfect”. Not complaining, supportive of their needs, as if no problem could possibly stop me. Always available, night & day, like the QuikiMart of Simpson’s fame.

In reality, neither of these extremes is close to the truth. I’m neither Dostoevsky’s Prince Myshkin or pop culture’s Man of Steel. I’m just flesh & blood like everyone else. I have my faults & my strengths. My ability to display either group of traits varies over time, and is not constant. As Rudyard Kipling describes in “Hymn Of Breaking Strain”, I’m just as capable of being broken as any other human.

With Love, Caring & Peace, Albert

Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life – Bertolt Brecht, The Mother

With Love, Caring & Peace, Albert

“Don’t try to use what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist;
use it to be a better whatever-you-already-are.” – His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

With Love, Caring & Peace, Albert

Hymn of Breaking Strain by Rudyard Kipling

The careful text-books measure
(Let all who build beware!)
The load, the shock, the pressure
Material can bear.
So, when the buckled girder
Lets down the grinding span,
‘The blame of loss, or murder,
Is laid upon the man.
Not on the Stuff – the Man!

But in our daily dealing
With stone and steel, we find
The Gods have no such feeling
Of justice toward mankind.
To no set gauge they make us-
For no laid course prepare-
And presently o’ertake us
With loads we cannot bear:
Too merciless to bear.

The prudent text-books give it
In tables at the end
‘The stress that shears a rivet
Or makes a tie-bar bend-
‘What traffic wrecks macadam-
What concrete should endure-
but we, poor Sons of Adam
Have no such literature,
To warn us or make sure!

We hold all Earth to plunder -
All Time and Space as well-
Too wonder-stale to wonder
At each new miracle;
Till, in the mid-illusion
Of Godhead ‘neath our hand,
Falls multiple confusion
On all we did or planned-
The mighty works we planned.

We only of Creation
(0h, luckier bridge and rail)
Abide the twin damnation-
To fail and know we fail.
Yet we – by which sole token
We know we once were Gods-
Take shame in being broken
However great the odds-
The burden of the Odds.

Oh, veiled and secret Power
Whose paths we seek in vain,
Be with us in our hour
Of overthrow and pain;
That we – by which sure token
We know Thy ways are true -
In spite of being broken,
Because of being broken
May rise and build anew
Stand up and build anew.

With Love, Caring & Peace, Albert

Among my multiple disabilities is a spinal chord injury that transformed me into a chronic pain patient. That intense, constant pain has the ability to cause serious depression. Because of that, I’ve met folks from around the world who also suffer depression for a variety of reasons. Just like I suffer depression from a variety of causes.

I realize how hard it can be to talk about depression, let alone to ask for help with it. For those folks I know around the world who may not be able to ask, I am providing some information out of love & concern.

I am doing this now because someone I am friends with, and used to see daily on a messenger-based service, has disappeared. I am praying they are okay, and perhaps just unable to come online at this point in their life. Should you be in need of immediate help, please try one of the following resources :

In the US call 1-800-784-2433, 1-800-273-8255 or 911

In the US call 1-800-799-4889 if you are hearing impaired

In the UK call 08457 90 90 90

In Ireland call 1850 60 90 90

In Australia call Lifeline on 13 11 14 (local call)

In Australia call Kids Help Line on 1800 55 1800 (toll-free)

In other parts of the world, please try http://www.befrienders.org/

With Love, Caring & Peace, Albert

Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light
Paradise Lost, Book II, by John Milton

With Love, Caring & Peace, Albert

In light of my post on musing day about human husbandry, I have chosen something special for this philosophy day. I’ve selected a quote from “The Art Of War” by Sun Tzu : If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.

With Love, Caring & Peace, Albert

Superman (It’s Not Easy) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRz4FY0ZcwI

With Love, Caring & Peace, Albert

Human Husbandry – A Primer : Chapter 1 Dealing With The Wankers

My father told me to “kill ‘em with kindness son, that’s how to win”.  My Christian friends told me that “Jesus said to turn the other cheek”.  According to my Trekkie friends, a Klingon proverb says that “Revenge is a dish that is best served cold”. I believe i’ve found a fourth option for dealing with the right nasty wankers of the world.

Today’s word is ignorance. According to the dictionary, that’s a lack of knowledge, education, or awareness. I’ll take door number 3, awareness. Sometimes, the best way to deal with the shytes in the mist is to simply refuse to be aware of them. Sure, I’m as human as the next person. On occasion, felonious thoughts come to mind regarding some of the right nasty wankers in my life. The sad truth is that those thoughts only empower the wankers in question. And action of any kind directed toward them is merely like buying them an Energizer Bunny© to empower them.

When we ignore these human miscreants, we disempower them – we make them weak, ineffectual, and unimportant. And that, my friends, can be just as satisfying as having them hung from the yardarm of a square-rigged ship. They will eventually “blow”, with their tail between their legs. To paraphrase the character of Colonel Kilgore in the movie Apocalypse Now, it smells like victory.

With Love, Caring & Peace, Albert

Hymn To Physical Pain by Rudyard Kipling

Dread Mother of Forgetfulness
Who, when Thy reign begins,
Wipest away the Soul’s distress,
And memory of her sins.

The trusty Worm that dieth not
The steadfast Fire also,
By Thy contrivance are forgot
In a completer woe.

Thine are the lidless eyes of night
That stare upon our tears,
Through certain hours which in our sight
Exceed a thousand years:

Thine is the thickness of the Dark
That presses in our pain,
As Thine the Dawn that bids us mark
Life’s grinning face again.

Thine is the weariness outworn
No promise shall relieve,
That says at eve, “Would God ’twere morn”
At morn, “Would God ’twere eve!”

And when Thy tender mercies cease
And life unvexed is due,
Instant upon the false release
The Worm and Fire renew.

Wherefore we praise Thee in the deep,
And on our beds we pray
For Thy return that Thou may’st keep
The Pains of Hell at bay!

With Love, Caring & Peace, Albert

“There are moments when, even to the sober eye of Reason, the world of our sad Humanity may assume the semblance of a Hell… Alas! the grim legion of sepulchral terrors cannot be regarded as altogether fanciful… they must sleep, or they will devour us–they must be suffered to slumber, or we perish.”  Edgar Allen Poe, “The Premature Burial”

With Love, Caring & Peace, Albert

Veni, vidi, sed ut eram totus – anon

With Love, Caring & Peace, Albert