skypixie0's Open Salon Blog

We Knew A Thing Or Two In them Days!

Thu, 31 May 2012 12:05:09 -0400

MYTHICAL KINGS & IGUANAS

Dory Previn

This is a beautiful allegorical poem set to music by a fantastic, though little known, artist, Dory Previn. It was a favourite in coffee houses back in "the day."

Don't let the "allegorical" throw you. The "Mythical Kings and the Iguanas" referred to are what we would call "the 1% and the 99%".

Enjoy this for its content or just for Dory's lovely voice, either way it'll enrich your day.

And one more.....

TAP, TAP.

Wed, 30 May 2012 00:05:50 -0400

TAP, TAP

Seated before the glowing screen

The old man moves only his fingers

Tap, tap.

The taps become words

The old man delights in the power of his fingers

Tap, tap.

The power, the beauty of the words

Far exceeds his expectations

Tap, tap.

His blood, slowed by age,

Runs faster as he moves his fingers

Tap, tap.

A life spills out, onto the screen

His life, a tale of his heartbreaks and joys

Tap, tap.

It is so good to write of this

His legacy to the world that has gone on and passed him by

Tap, tap.

Tap, tap…

VOTING: A right - Not an obligation

Mon, 28 May 2012 09:05:32 -0400

40% of Us Can’t be Totally Wrong!

If you are one of that 40% or so who doesn’t vote, as I am, it probably pleases you no end, as it does me, that the “pundits” are so completely unable to understand why we didn’t vote that they have been reduced to name calling.

Every time I hear one of those poor benighted dorks call me (us) slackers, lazy oafs, unappreciative of those “who died for our democracy to exist”, and all the rest of that horse-pucky, I want to grab him by the “you-know-whats” and squeeze hard until I get his undivided attention!

And how about that lame, old attempt at making us feel embarrassed for not voting, “If you didn’t vote - you’ve got no right to complain”.

Well for those of you who are so slavishly obedient; so doltishly unintelligent, as to try to insult good, honest, decent people whose only ‘crime’ was in not taking part in a farce, engineered by politicians, designed to give one political party an advantage over the others, let me smack you right back in yer stupid faces.

“If you did vote - YOU have no right to complain”!!

You are part of that farce. A willing part, no less. You put every one of those two-faced, lying, egotistical, slurping-at-the-trough, sons-of-guns in there to have a go at emptying our pockets to the point where soon we’ll, none of us, be able to feed, clothe, and provide shelter for our families. You get down there and wallowed right in the muck of deceit, chicanery, and out-and-out lies, spewed by the ton by those arrogant, would-be Masters-of-us-all. You help them to get into positions where they will continue to fill the pockets of themselves and their favoured few with OUR hard-earned money!

And you think YOU have a right to sling mud at US?!! You think you can tell us that WE have no right to complain. To imply that we are not good citizens because we can not, in good conscience, endorse, by our presence and participation, the nonsensical, humiliating, debasing and totally unnecessary rigmarole of VERY expensive “elections-to-gratify-egos!” Which basically change nothing; as anyone with an I.Q. of at least two digits could, and probably did, tell you.

I’ll tell you who has absolutely no right to complain, butthead. It’s YOU. You and all those other mutts who join right in and chose one of a bad lot to throw your vote to. Did you ever, for one moment, stop and THINK about what you were doing? Even once? NO you did not. You got all revved up on ‘patriotic-duty-to-vote’ and off you went like a good little automaton. You disgust me! I want to toss my cookies every time I hear one of you mealy-mouth brown-nosers babble your despicable nonsense.

Many fine, upstanding, honourable, thoughtful citizens of this country stay out of it. They recognize it for the mockery of democracy that it is and chose not to participate in it. They choose to make it clear, to the politicians and their Political Parties, that the old adage, part of which says, “You can’t fool all of the people all of the time”, has a great deal of truth in it. They also indicate that they are no longer fooled by the admonition to “work for change from the inside”. Far too many good men and women have broken their heads on that particular rock. And their bank accounts. And, saddest of all, their good, decent hearts.

The rot within is all pervasive and the clearest sign that this is so is the fact that the ballot does not have a place on it for the voting citizen to express his dissatisfaction with all parties and/or candidates. There is no N.O.T.A. (None Of The Above) place for him to put his ‘X’. Politicians are, quite understandably, disturbed at this idea. Their egos would suffer terribly if the electorate expressed its opinion of them in this manner.

As things stand at present, all we can do is “vote with our feet”. Stay away. Make it clear to the politicos and their hounds that they don’t have what it takes to represent this very large portion of the population. We do it in the only way allowed to us. (Allowed for now, anyway.) I expect the pols to soon close off that means of ‘communication’. Any day now they’ll pass a law forcing us to feed their egos with our “free” votes!!

TEACH YOUR KIDS TO LIE.....!

Sat, 26 May 2012 10:05:11 -0400

TEACH YOUR KIDS TO LIE

Our teacher asked what my favorite animal was, and I said, "Fried chicken."

She said I wasn't funny, but she couldn't have been right, because everyone else laughed.

My parents told me to always tell the truth. I did. Fried chicken is my favorite animal.

I told my dad what happened, and he said my teacher was probably a member of PETA. He said they love animals very much.

I do, too. Especially chicken, pork and beef. Anyway, my teacher sent me to the principal's office. I told him what happened and he laughed too. Then he told me not to do it again.

The next day in class my teacher asked me what my favorite live animal was.

I told her it was chicken. She asked me why so I told her it was because you could make them into fried chicken. She sent me back to the principal's office. He laughed and told me not to do it again.

I don't understand. My parents taught me to be honest, but my teacher doesn't like it when I am.

Today my teacher asked me to tell her what famous person I admired most.

I told her, "Colonel Sanders."

Guess where I am now?

------------------------------

To most of us this is just a funny story……. Or is it?

It actually emphasizes something that has become a dominant part of our culture – lying. We seem to consider that telling the truth is either an option which we can choose as we please or as some kind of strange anachronistic concept that only a fool would pay any attention to.

We see this in everyday interactions between people everywhere. Ask a clerk in a store if some item you’re interested in will do what you want it to do. You will be given assurances that it will. It doesn’t matter if it will or not, you will be assured that it will. That clerk sees his/her job as one of getting you to buy something. Whether or not it will really suit your purposes is not if any interest to that clerk at all.

Worse yet, that clerk’s boss considers it the clerk’s job to “sell, sell, sell,” no matter what!

Now this might not be of earth-shattering importance when the item involved is only a few bucks, but it becomes much more serious with big-ticket items such as vehicles or houses. But the lies continue here too. It seems that we have so completely accepted this situation that we expect to be lied to and when it happens we just take it with a grain of salt and a calm, “well, what can you expect?”

The ultimate liars are those in the political arena. These folks have gone nuts on us. They’ve reached the point where one can almost say with absolute certainty that any time they open their mouths, they’re lying! It might not surprise anyone that they would do so but it surprises the hell out of me that we tolerate this.

These are the people whom we MUST trust to run the nation in a manner that will be of benefit to us all; they are the people to whom we give the reins of control and power. They can do us, as individuals and as a society, enormous harm – or good – by their exercise of that power.

Much as I can sympathise with those of one political persuasion or the other for supporting “their man”, I cannot understand why they are not terribly embarrassed by the lies told by that candidate. Yet the only lies most folks will acknowledge are those told by “the other guys.” Somehow the lies told by their own party or candidate are ignored.

When I’ve asked some people why they do this the usual response I get is, “Well, them other guys tell worse lies than my guy does.” WTF is that?!! Does our truthfulness now depend upon whether or not someone else tells lies? When did this happen? How?

I have reached the point where I am sick and tired of these lies. I want back the people and the country that I knew; the one where personal honour and rectitude were of some importance in people’s lives. The one where our leaders were held to a certain standard and a blatant liar was not seen as fit to hold office.

We are in such a bad situation right now that we cannot afford to let ourselves be told nothing but lies. Our nations and our societies are in serious danger of coming apart at the seams. We NEED to be told the truth by those to whom we give the power to manage our countries. We will not get through the hard times ahead if we cannot depend upon our leaders for truthfulness. The same old bullshit just isn’t going to cut it.

A Poem For Scanner

Tue, 22 May 2012 09:05:12 -0400

There is,

Almost unknown to us,

A sense of balance

About life.

The abuse we give our bodies

In our younger days,

Through alcohol and drugs,

Lies in wait.

Now, in our later years,

It gleefully raises its ugly head

And, snarling meanly,

It bites us back.

Our two choices,

Endure or die,

Almost merge into one

As we pay now for earlier sins.

We despair as we realize that

We have no way out of this corner

And all options have disappeared

Into a fog of pain.

Yet, in moments or hours,

Days or weeks,

The sun shines again for us

However briefly.

And Life itself

Presents us with some reward;

The glory of a story published or

A poem that touches the soul of others.

And that brief beauty

Is our invitation to continue.

It is not enough;

Yet, it is.....