Quotes Along the Murdock VI:

 Quotes Along the Murdock VI

Quotes Along the Murdock I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII

Everything on this page was previously published or posted, elsewhere:

I live alone

The kids are grown

Sitting alone

Whenever I groan

It's chocolate!

Seriously.

But by "chocolate" I just mean a square off a bar in the cupboard...not gorging.

Procrastination.

I'm about to start a new project and I know how much I'll love finishing it.

I also know how difficult it COULD be, especially if things go wrong.

So how do I broach that?

1 step at a time.

First, I just set up the work area. Eventually, hours, days alter, I'll WANT to step forward. I won't have to force it. And I will start it.

Certainly, especially for a job, we don't have this luxury. You just do it, which is why sometimes we start to hate doing it.

But if you have the time, especially if it's a personal project, you don't have to force it. Work with yourself.

In my case with this project, I have to set up a work area. If I just do that and walk away (and maybe I'll be motivated by time the work area is set up and I can keep going), knowing it is there waiting for me to begin. Maybe it's as simple as just reading the directions, if there are any. That alone will motivate me. Eventually. 

It's like my writing process. I get a concept to write about. Before I begin writing it, my mind works on it in the background without my even knowing about it. Which is why at times, when I get around to writing it, it "falls out of my mind onto the page". It doesn't even feel like writing, just copying, from my mind to the page.

I have found in taking the time to set up moving forward, I enjoy my efforts even more and feeling more involved in working on whatever it is.

1 step at a time, not overthinking it, not considering all of it, as long as I have already done that consideration so I am prepared (which at times is what hampers my forward momentum).

Because when I'm more involved, more into doing it, it just all goes smoother, even if I do/when I do, run into difficulties. 

Isn't the entropy we so often fear merely the foundation of growth?

But that entropy we so often decry is merely the foundation of growth that we do not yet see, until it has happened.

So, we have Margaret Atwood vs Ayn Rand.

Decency & liberal democracy vs autocracy & fascism. 

As in America today, liberal Democrats vs conservative Republicans.

Conservatism as in war, death, protectionism, isolationism.

Liberalism as in living for change, & progress.

We are essentially flawed, organic beings. 

So whenever you put us in a group, we don't become more perfect. Although we can produce things more perfect than seems reasonable.

If we just allow ourselves to.

Chaos rules.

When citizens are confused, can read whatever they want into their through their chaos...remember that at times one just has to step back, recognize that leader's chaos, know that it’s coming from the top, then end their rule. Remove that leader.

Because it’s better to have at times a "less capable" leader, which most likely they’re not, then to have a chaotic rule over yourself.

IF we're going to continue to BE "America", then we must never allow religion to govern our government or citizenry. We must also never have unduly punitive politics or government govern our rational pursuit of science. Yet we've been far too close to that.

It appears the problem has long been that everything is designed to support government, rather than the people.

And we're taught not to see that. Yes, there is a difference.

Strange to consider time dilation effect of my sophomore year in HS to the end of WWII as such a long time before then, before I was even born. 

But now I think about it & I realize it was really only 25 years before then.

Which seems so much now like not that far, from then.

From an acquaintance:

"Me: If God exists, then said deity is non-binary by definition & therefore part of the LGBTQ+ community. Kindly note that the pronouns are they/them/their."

I'd always been told you can't constrain "God" by gender. "He's beyond that." (yeah, yeah...I know)

Donald Trump, those like him, be it a Putin or any who enable them or those like him are toxic cysts on the body politic of ANY society. Desperately & always, as soon as is ever possible, demand immediate excision to save the healthy existence of the human social organism.

When arguing with one's betters in matter intellect and education, one should see past mere pride, never precluding honesty, decency and accuracy. One should always do their very best to not appear more the fool than the "fool" they are attempting to profess against.

I have felt before, been told by male friends that women, are puzzling.

But, if a puzzle is a fun to solve problem & has a right answer, from my own personal experiences I'd have to say that women are not puzzles. Since 1 of those 2 defining elements often seems to be missing....

America's problems boil down to: Corporate Thought (or thinking...toxic capitalism) & religious evangelicalism. Both destructively invaded our religious institutions & government in feedback loops, destroying our democracy & Republic (which is an enhanced democracy).

I am a denial of the existence of that which bends the mind and sours the body, laying down the tracks of nature through the reeds of the melody of the Universe, until finally sitting down at the end, listening to the weeping sobs of the baby before it cries itself to sleep at the beginning of that which is just after, its end.(April 5, 2010)

When news stopped being a loss leader and turned to being for profit...when the 24 hour news cycle came to be through 24 hour news networks, which then needed to maintain the fuel to generate profits, to sustain the news cycle and the networks, the beginning of the end began. When those with no morals or ethics, only business and profit in mind, ran those entities, such as Rupert Murdoch and family, the demise of democracy and division of countries was supported, exacerbated and enhanced...all for toxic capitalism, all for profit, all for greed. 

I think I just finally understood. My psychology advisor, professor Dr. Rees used to say
"change is always good." I questioned him on that. But he stood by it. I think he said change is necessary, or something like that. But it just occurred to me without change there's no time. Time is change. If everything stays the same, time doesn't exist. Most people's original thought on that is, "bad things are also change." Which is true. But if change is time, then the bad things are a mere subset of all change. And if you can't have change without the bad, then change is always good. Because it certainly isn't always bad. Therefore change is always good. We just don't like some of the changes. Some of the bad can also be good, outside of ourselves, in the micro as well as the macro. 

Fear, like ignorance, is noble and quite natural. Unless one allows it to run rampant over oneself. Or worse, over one's nation. As certain political entities are so wont to do, so easily & so very often. It is anathema both to democracy AND to common decency.

Just watching a network censoring it's films.

I'd just like to reiterate my belief since childhood, if you want to play a film on your network, it should play as it was released, or don't play it. 

Adulterating art is just not acceptable.

"Covering nude statues" is moronic.

"Whenever you allow the despicable, the ignorant, the ill-mannered to speak long enough, they'll be clearly seen for exactly who they are & show exactly what they truly believe in."

I seem to have a lot of very tall people outside the front of my house spitting on my window and they won't stop. I'm afraid to go look at them.

But I think they're invisible, anyway…

Russia, more so China, North Korea, anti democracy countries & dictators wish to destabilize western & American democracies. We must share, echo that effort back to them. It's obvious who should win this war of culture & government...whoever gives most credence to Human Rights.

There's something seriously wrong with that part of humanity that thinks death is better than life and cannot work out their issues.

Listening to liars makes you ever dumber. Believing in liars makes you stupid and kills people, if not just brain cells.

We cannot exist without our buffers to reality, for to lower them is to die a horrifying truth. Yet to raise them again should we survive, is to suffer our most painful loss of innocence.

For "Skynet" to come into being, in order for it to be able to go nuts and take over or take down humanity, would first require humanity to program it using a theistic paradigm of thinking. Don't do that. As for politics, that's a conscious decision.

Each doing their own smallness, becomes a global largeness.

I always wondered what it would be like if the nation's top political humorist (makes me think of Sam Clemens... not comparing), like Jon Stewart, were #POTUS.

#Ukraine's once top political humorist now Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy...& now we know. (still not comparing...)

I can't tell you how against war I am.

But, we're experiencing what Neville Chamberlain did leading up to WWII.

Peace, or stop a dictator?

We should avoid war...until it's unavoidable. 

Which is, when exactly?

And when is it too late to have acted?

Yes, history hurts. (3/1/22)

Think of your childhood not as something to have experienced or survived, that one has to live "through". But as one's child, good AND bad, nurtured, loved AND revered, but always remembered and cherished, 

Most citizens of this country are not well attenuated to adapt to this current emerging society. There are 2 choices. Adapt. OR, fight back. Put down the current seditionists & force them out of power. It's not hard. You ARE the majority. It just takes stopping... inaction.

Internet is a business. Sadly.

We fought that in the 80s'/90s, to keep capitalism off it.

We weren't wrong. Just not fully aware.

It's been good in many ways.

BUT, we needed to retain the For The People aspect of free info & databases, etc., to grow & enhance the Human Condition.

We assumed a collegiate orientation would grow and be fostered, not retarded and stifled all for wont of profit and power.

It didn't have to be this way. It still doesn't

People today are fed tiny bits of predigested info. Which is why so many can't seem to accurately comprehend what's going on today.

Which is why, when they do meet someone who has accurate info, who takes time to use solid news sources & knows how to vet their info on more accurate sources, too many disregard them, assume them as incorrect/confused as they.

How can we ever grasp our world today if so many constantly base opinions on shifting, sands of our toxic, opinionated, polarized & politicized, 24 hour news media "realities"? Plural.

You needn't fear them. They're too stupid to be dangerous. As long as you do not give them a leader bent only on power and, self praise. 

Or allow them a way to communicate within their information bubble, locking reality out and force multiplying their ignorance.

Outtake from "The Unwritten Part II"

Logic and the rantings of a new species who can suddenly think, self recognize and postulate the unseen, doesn't carry much weight... except in daily living exercises like handling water, fire, eating, etc. Religion. You're welcome?

Give me FIVE staff of the king, rather than the King's Advisor, and that will be what finally in the end, brings him down.

Basing "Free Speech' on not causing others emotional stress, is the beginning of autocracy.

We should therefore not be surprised today by either the de-evolution of the Republican Party, or by a cult of illiberal "Donald Trump" types.

"No. I don't have a clue what I'm doing. But I've been very successful at it."

Religion was useful & functional when we were Ignorant as a species.

Stupid once they got utilized for power.

Destructive once science appeared.

And yeah, destructive even before that.

Sooner of later, rightly or wrongly, whatever is currently judged to be the foundation of a society will find itself under fire.

Even to their own destruction.

It's upon the actual foundation's structure & strength of that society whether or not it will survive. 

America... has long has a priority problem. 

We have trouble when we try to set them.

Then we have trouble whenever we try to execute them. 

The ability of stupidity, ignorance & greed to force multiply is restricted only by precursors such as education, Honesty, Decency & a respectful degree of goodwill toward others.

We live in a time with leaders

who thrive on moral ambiguities,

who revel in, praise and profess their

intellectual insolvencies.

The "wisdom" of #Trump-istas, if any,

lie within those silences.

Though few & far between.

For there have been none

within their tumult & pandemonium.

Appropriate reactivity to reality is a definition of intelligence. Trouble being, "appropriate" to some, is to seize the moment with no regard to any or all others, for personal benefit, making one a partial human being

There's a vast gap between the Right calling the compassionate Left, "snowflakes" & the Left referring to the Rights' beliefs & dedications to things exemplifying true weaknesses (Racism, Trump, Fear of Science, etc.) in not having the Strength to BE Empathetic & Compassionate.

Water is just thick air. Which, when made fluid, supercools.
But with the addition of a single element, Hydrogen, no longer requires sub-freezing temperatures. Tempering it to far more gentle and accessible temperatures.

A "mold" on our thoughts, is Wisdom.

The difference there being, is this "mold", penicillin?

Or, black mold?

There need to be all types in the fight for humanity against so many accepted and toxic ways of living and believing.

Statistics can be abused because few understand them, but especially easily abused by the inexpert.

The Happiness we get often isn't what we may expect, or want. But it IS what we get. If we can just recognize it, accept it and then, let it happen.

To live life in a binary fashion, to live every moment conservatively is to live an emergent existence, as if in constant emergency, a shallow stereotype, a generalization of reality. To progress is to exist. Not to progress is to become retrograde, moving ever backward. Status quo requires, DEMANDS... forward movement. Stillness moves one backward in an ever-progressing reality.

Regarding utilizing our National Park's natural resources...they ARE National Parks BECAUSE we KNEW ...one day, we would use that argument. Yet, we decided with our "better Angels" to put them aside, regardless. To protect them AND ourselves, from...ourselves.

If we are indeed all someone's monster, just try to be the smallest monster to the least number of people possible. Of course, it's context-sensitive, as there may undoubtedly be times you want to be the biggest monster possible. Just try not to make it, always. 

A "rabbit hole" has many dens.

We have splintered into a culture of the informed and, the disinformed who are dying and causing others illness. It will be amazing from a historical view, decades down the road from today.

People will be utterly shocked at how so obvious a reality can be denigrated and turned to political purposes of some of the worst our country had to offer. 

It's not that extremists have little dicks. It's that they devoutly believe they don't.

"Knowing" you are right is easy. Being right, that is hard.

I keep mixing up NDR and DNR. I fear that may one day not work out so well for me, somehow. 

The thing about writing, film production, artist pursuits in general is to allow the process to play out.
We all get frustrated and anxious to see the project completed. But the producers who actually produce allow for the time and practice the patience required to droll on until the actual end, and not a premature or artificial end, arrives.
We all make the mistake, feel the pressure, so often self imposed, that pushes us to end things more quickly.
Some never can finish after beginning. Some cannot even begin.
But, begin.
Start your project.
Then simply allow the time to pass.
Simply, is a misnomer, to be sure. But it really is simple. It just doesn't feel like it in real time.
Still, those who begin, have a better chance of reaching the end.
Those who will not give up until the end is achieved, are the ones who have something to show for starting.
Those who allow the time necessary are usually the ones with the better project, the more interesting art and, the more satisfying work. Works, and a satisfaction that will last them the rest of their lives. And the rest of us, an appreciation lasting far beyond our own.