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Previous post: The Arc of Art
Then what is the answer?– Not to be deluded by dreams.
To know that great civilizations have broken down into violence,
and their tyrants come, many times before.
When open violence appears, to avoid it with honor or choose
the least ugly faction; these evils are essential.
To keep one’s own integrity, be merciful and uncorrupted
and not wish for evil; and not be duped
By dreams of universal justice or happiness. These dreams will
not be fulfilled.
To know this, and know that however ugly the parts appear
the whole remains beautiful. A severed hand
Is an ugly thing and man dissevered from the earth and stars
and his history… for contemplation or in fact…
Often appears atrociously ugly. Integrity is wholeness,
the greatest beauty is
Organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty
of the universe. Love that, not man
Apart from that, or else you will share man’s pitiful confusions,
or drown in despair when his days darken.
— Robinson Jeffers
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.
by Shel Silverstein
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I saw a great bumper sticker today… “Make America a Lifeless Volcanic Hellscape Again”
Ghislaine Maxwell just got 20 years.
Wonder if the CCTV security cameras stay on that long.
Can we please wait until my Korean War vet combat wounded father dies before his sworn enemy the Chicoms take over? I just don’t want him witnessing the entire sh*tshow and mass exterminations. Thank you!
All due respect to your military veteran father.
Last I checked, the CCP of 2022 wasn’t flooding the border with Squatemalans, wasn’t forcing your grandkids to attend Drag Queen Story Hour, wasn’t trying to take away your firearms, and wasn’t working day and night to Section 8 Basketball Americans into your neighbourhood.
Fore the eleventy-fifth time… the Chinese aren’t your buddies by a long way, but they’re not even in the Top 5 of your existential enemies.
Obsessing about the Chinese in the current year is a Cope. A massive diversionary Cope to avoid having to think or talk about things and people and Peoples much closer to home.
My father was also a Korea (and WW II) vet. Best wishes to your dad, and may he be with you for several years to come.