Brilliant Minds

In my dedicated, very personal and
endless pursuit of excellence in dramatic
timing and focus on elevating my cerebral
functioning I will likely never take the daily 
page of strip comics for granted as mere
humour. It adds content and context to life 
with unerring accuracy in keen observations
perceptions and conclusions. Vital functions 
enabling we connoisseurs to endure daily 
exposure to the tedious nature of human 
nature. For irony and dry acerbic wit outlining 
circumstances and circumlocution in the 
absurdity of existence we know as life which
in reality is an ongoing struggle to retain one's
grasp on sanity at the everlasting exposure to
humanity's rites and rituals expressing an 
incapacity to govern emotions and repress 
base instincts in favour of sadly succumbing 
to envy, rage and hatred of any and all who 
manage moderation as the key to stability 
success and humour there is nothing quite 
like seeing this all encapsulated in a single 
cartoon beyond clever in its clearly droll
diagnosis of what ails us all in perpetuity.

Obligated No Less

A private,  unlisted number may be
the solution for some unwanted calls
but not this one, a burden of obligation
that is inescapable. But this is not a
crank call, though the caller might
possibly be cranky. The phone rings and
uncanny intuition informs you both
simultaneously and you each whisper
'your turn' as though the caller could
hear the plea though not yet connected.
Sometimes it works and you take the
call and sometimes one of you just 
happens to be too busy to pitch, and
the other is left with the call and though
some guilt is attached the other feels
relief washing over them. You know how
it is, an old friend, bereft and lonely and
compassion urges that you relieve that
quavering sense of alone-ness however 
briefly with a cheerful conversation 
mustered against your misery. Or it 
could be a relative who calls incessantly 
to air any number of familial complaints 
dire accusations and predictions while
drumming your brain into insensibility. 
But you respond, don't you because charity 
insists that you do and of course as a 
civilized grace and a blessing you do.

Staking Claims

Can we really so cling to the notion of
species superiority in the emotional realm
when it is more than abundantly clear on
the evidence before us that other animals
besides ourselves who admittedly will
never build skyscrapers or ships to sail
the seas or planes to coast the skies but
who inhabit cities alongside us, swim in
the sea and fly the skies also share the full
spectrum of emotions we claim as our own.
Their own level of existential intelligence
corresponds to ours as they sense the
dangers that humans pose to the territory
both covet and consider their birthright.
Animals whether furred, feathered or finned
may choose to help one another but they
are also capable of conveying to humanity
the plight they face in sharing the earth that
hosts us. Humankind exploits and excels
in manipulating the landscape all are
dependent upon, the end results violating
our own and our animal co-dependents'
time on the planet. Our habitat is theirs as
well. We are the stewards and the abusers
and they the wronged whose plaints we are
deaf to. By neglecting our responsibility to
conserve and respect we betray our own
future, victimizing all animal existence.

Whose Rights Trampled?

If Western law does not bequeath us the
wisdom of justices who daily gift us with
countless bon mots that go a long way to
improving on 'the law is an ass', it is
because there are times when it behooves
justice to demonstrate its bona fides as a
vapid, addlepated devotee of demonstrating
the fine points of just how many angels can
curtsy on the head of a pin without one
jostling the other off its precarious balance.
As in for example two convicted Muslim
jihadists given life sentences for their
devotion to slaughter as evidenced by
interrupted plans to bomb trains carrying
passengers between the U.S. and Canada.
Having leave under this system of blind
justice to appeal their sentence the Appeals
Court rules their rights were abridged when
the presiding judge exercised the effrontery
to order the jury makeup when one of those
charged had clearly stated  his preference
otherwise; his argument winning the day
even if had their plot succeeded many 
might have perished, even while the plotters
sneered in court that Western justice held
no sway with them, only Sharia law which
had prepared them for divine martyrdom.

The Martyr

It is after all a sensitive issue taking 
considerable thought how it should be 
approached given the very delicate 
sensibilities of the man her son the 
genius whom she regards from her 
humble height of advanced years with 
the kind of tact that he clearly has not 
considered in his relations with his mother. 
A simple enough question begging for 
a response but how to phrase it that 
offense not be taken? To ask why it is 
he regards her with such disregard. Is
it her failing sight and hearing that
convinces him her brain has faltered
as well? Should she attempt irony
since that is often his metier and ask
why it is he seems to regard her as
someone as distasteful as a creature
slinking out of the slime of a dark
lagoon? No, he would not see the
humour in that kind of directness and
perhaps after all it should be a matter 
not to be addressed at all. After all there 
is nothing particularly new about this
attitude reserved particularly for her.
And her intention is not to upset the
boy now 60 years of age so that he will
react by subconsciously disciplining
her refusing to eat the meal she has
so lovingly prepared. She shrugs in
acknowledgement of her decision
leading her to agree; she is after all
someone whose wit and intelligence
has in fact been betrayed by nature.

Her Conceits

She has no use for mirrors and
studiously avoids them believing
that how she thinks she presents in
the full assurance of her maturation
is how she appears to others and
this confidence suits her well. She
values the maturity that has bestowed
the wisdom of years upon her and
hesitates not at all imparting what
she knows to be so to those who
look upon her as their intellectual
chaplain most generously. Even so
she continues to regard herself as
she once was setting aside the girth
of her mature years to settle with little
ease on the floor alongside the girls
considering herself young and lithe
and in the prime of her life despite
that most of those years have fled.

Poaching Protected Wildlife

What is the moral of this story? Has it one? 
To inform that science is fully capable of 
restoring that which human folly has destroyed? 
And while the plan at some future date using 
newly formulated experimentation to successfully 
match eggs and sperm frozen post extraction 
from beasts now accorded the extinction label
resulting from hubris and disconcerting casual
unconcern of an entitled culture ravaging all 
manner of animal species both rare and common
to satisfy the collective whim of people entranced 
with their ability to transform skin and bones 
into dainty dishes to grace the table of a gourmet 
population or use in medication or potions much 
less the raw material prized for matchless qualities
in producing art objects of great acclaim research 
only hopes to replicate nature's matchless genius 
while rapacious superiority and the conceit of 
humans will guarantee that the extinct once 
resurrected will yet again be regarded as nature's
gift to humankind in its ravening appetite to 
destroy and reap the rewards using the platform 
nature provides to ravish vulnerable creatures 
all presumably at the disposal of humankind.

Vectors of Deadly Hatred

The corrosive venom of hatred bred
nourished and treasured by Islamists 
has few equal in the annals of human 
history utterly bereft of any vestige of 
human communion in its total corruption 
of the human spirit. Which entities other 
than Nazi fascism useful as a template 
in its bid for total annihilation of a people 
and enshrined as an example of conquest
to be emulated and expanded upon through 
the embellishment of even more horrific 
atrocities meant to rivet attention on the 
depths of sadistic psychopathy as a mass 
movement meant to inspire terror in the 
hearts of the targets would dare challenge 
those such as Hamas and Hezbollah for 
the title of champions of satanic frenzy
illuminating the acid-etching of minds 
in a fury of death-deliverance to those 
whose very presence is a living testament 
to humankind's spirit of hope, endurance
surviving the horrors of the Holocaust 
only to face the intention of yet another 
dark force exemplifying human depravity 
executing their version of yet another 
desolate blood-drenched final solution.

Ignoble Discretion

Yes, it's entirely sensible to shield yourself
from public view at the present time, don't
worry about that. And on the positive side
of the ledger it's quite noble to remain
faithful to your friends. On the other hand
and there's always an 'other hand' isn't there?
one becomes known by the company one
seeks out and retains, so the scales are
weighted somewhat lopsidedly, you see.
Not everyone has the name association
that you do, and the situation is most
dreadfully unfortunate, but of course news
of that nature holds great public interest.
Now that's something to be worried about.
On the other hand, your mother will not
abandon you and royal prerogative has her
back just as she has yours. On balance and
in future don't you think you could exercise
a little more judgement in choosing both
your friends and your method of very
personal, some would emphasize, intimate
entertainment in the interests of presenting
as a decent human being? At the present time
given your proclivities and acquaintances
this is an assumption that has been tarnished.

Lauding Himself

Actually as a testimonial describing
the man as kind, helpful, a loving
person, it seemed quite impressive.
Here is a man of virtue originally 
from a war-torn nation where conflict
never ends, arrived as a refugee at 
age ten with his parents, soon unable 
to cope becoming a ward of the state 
and eventually convicted of a long slate 
of crimes, mired in drug use and street 
life. Without citizenship preparations 
were underway to rid the state of his
violent presence, authorities having
identified him as a threat to the public
a repeat offender, a violent threatening 
man, extradition in the offing. Pleading 
clemency claiming his life in danger 
if returned from whence he came, a 
strange society, a language unfamiliar
no friends, no family there where
broadly speaking criminality and
turbulent behaviour echoes his own
the character reference might have
been taken seriously had it emerged
from the mind and mouth of someone
other than the very man himself.

Sow The Wind

Did you not know? Free choice and poor 
life choices equal consequences and
eventually responsibility catches up with
what seemed at the time so utterly desirable
it was worth abandoning all else to achieve
that end you now face. Those whom you
chose and who recruited you no longer
have use of you. Those who lost you have
no wish to become re-acquainted with
what you have become. This is the
whirlwind consequence of the attraction
of sanctimonious hypocrisy dressed in
the lethal violence of rejection when 
civil society no longer held any attraction
but joining the terrorist jihadi new world
of global conquest so handily filled the
gap and promised you would no longer
feel bored with life. Commitment to
fostering atrocities on those considered
enemies, shocking the global community
with the ferocity of the hate, the ingenuity
in giving medieval forms of torture that
twist into the present proving the primitive
that resides in humankind did the world no
favours, now resign yourself to the deserved
condemnation fate has in store as payback
for the depth of your malicious iniquity.

Not To Worry

No, really. As the sages were so fond of
saying, this too shall pass. Be realistic
after all. Why concern yourself over
matters you are obviously unable to deal
with? What will be most certainly will
come to pass, in all probability before it
passes. Yes, it could be catastrophic but
look at it this way, it would also be quite
immediate and you will never know. So
simply get on with your life. True, between
them the two nuclear powers have enough
weapons to destroy all life and the planet
itself handily, with the use of merely a
small proportion of their weapons. Consider
this, the cold war saw them each considering
the consequences. Of course there is also
the matter of two neighbours on the Indian
subcontinent nuclear-armed and viciously
unfriendly to one another. Oh and not to
overlook that a juvenile popinjay in very
bad company has his own considerable
number of emerging destructive toys he
enjoys playing with. Yes, and one of the
regimes supporting his courts death for the
masses to entice a hidden cleric long dead
to reappear so that the sentence of mass 
death can overtake unbelievers. Relax, take
a deep breath and shake your memory to
recall that though triggers abound for the
above-noted nature may herself take matters
into her own hands, preferring to take back 
her gift to humanity in a rage of fury at its
casual and offhanded spoliation, thank you.

Love, Unqualified

It is no mystery that primally humankind
was meant to find another who would
complement our existence giving it a
deeper meaning existentially than were
we to isolate ourselves from that ineffable
emotion we call love. We are meant to
love and to be loved in return. That so 
few of us succeed in living a binary 
enhanced life in the perpetuity of our
years speaks largely to the mystery of
the human soul, its inability to know
itself as intimately as it might linked
to our perceiving of others' needs as
secondary to our own, unable to set
aside the overweening ego, viewing
others through the lens of suspicion
unwilling to concede our immediate
desires to the greater value of reaching
toward a symbiotic accord in favour of
conciliation to achieve a deeper and
more lasting interdependence of vital 
respect and trust speaks to our failure 
in emotional maturity and a future of
dismal disappointment where to lay
blame elsewhere than with ourselves
lays the groundwork for bitterness in
a life unfulfilled in utter desolation.

The Garden Klatch

Ask any devoted gardener, the life
of a cherished garden is like that of a
socialite, celebrated for its beauty
rich with an abundance of greenery
and all the colours of a particularly
exuberant rainbow, blessed with divine
scents and an architecture of surpassing 
natural design. Admirers of celebrity
acknowledge the status of gardens as
symbols of nature's supreme mastery
over all that she has created echoed
in every garden that care and love has
cossetted and beseeched to be on its
best behaviour and report the presence
of unwanted guests that mar the bloom
of roses and spread pestilence on tender
shoots. Welcoming instead with the
open arms of admiration the winged
perpetual-motion creature that is a
hummingbird as it flits swiftly from
the open throat of one flower to the
next alongside bees and butterflies and
fragile-winged Dragonflies perching
delicately on flowerbuds, a lively
gathering of the garden's essential 
companions basking in its embrace.

Welcome to My Kitchen

Who might have imagined, not I
unschooled as I am that I would one
day become an accomplished chemist
with a working laboratory of my own
capable of twinning organic matter
mixing and theorizing to an exquisite
degree as a choreography of ongoing
experiments succeeded to such a
degree that it became apparent one has
no real need of an academic degree to
achieve such goals as one sets for
oneself. Each one a challenge. Each
one calling on inner resourcefulness
and familiarity with the raw materials
to design an experiment in the creation
of something different and appealing.
Yes, it must be appealing. Take a seat.
Relax. Yes, there is a divine aroma and
we can share it. Here, I've just brought
this out of the oven, an old-fashioned
bread. Would you like a slice with
your coffee and we can discuss together
the arcane arts and science of baking?

The Fabled Moon

Last night a vision of rotund
light shimmered and danced before
my eyes out of the dark velvet of
the late-night sky as the moon took
center stage and though stars like
courtiers surrounding a queen
curtsied and bowed their presence
it was she that glowed and glimmered
a presence of undiluted grace and
beauty. Ah, I thought, a full moon
but I was wrong. That event is this
very evening and I wonder about 
lifting tides influenced by that lunar
presence, and thought as well of
the ancient belief in that mysterious
orb's influence on those who inhabit
the planet about which it revolves
concluding it may just be possible
that lunatics may be impelled by
her persuasive draw to gather in
numbers on the dark streets of cities
below to bow and curtsy to the
rhythm of her ineffable dominion.

That Hallowed Institution

A library is a cathedral whose contents
are sacred to those whose lives evolve
around the wisdom to be found in so
many narratives adroitly expressed by
those for whom language is their religion.
Each book contained in that hallowed
institution inspired by thoughtfulness
and the intention of the writer to impart
views of another world, the interior of the
mind, the exterior of the evolving world
and in the aggregate the contents of that
special place is as the universe each of
its offerings steadily expanding the
reader's cerebral functioning in the
passion of discovery, a continuous
excitation of deep devotion whose every
absorption of one revelation following
on another deposits priceless knowledge
to be carefully filed upon the book
shelves of the reader's omnivorous mind.

Lost In Loneliness

How emotionally fragile we are despite or
perhaps because of our formidably-designed 
brains that continually assess, seek, explore
the outer world tucking within all that matters 
when all that truly matters is our wish to 
never be alone, to find that perfect being
to complement our incomplete lives and bring
true meaning to all we see, hear and feel. 
We have not been designed by nature to be 
solitary creatures and it pains us when a 
future yawns like an threatening vacuum and 
desolate of expectation that by chance 
and good fortune our lives will mature 
offering peace of mind and the exaltation 
of a shared love that seems in the final analysis 
so elusive. Fortunate are those who will 
never know what it is to view the abyss of 
aloneness, never succumb to the despair 
of an incomplete life, unfinished and raw
where existence becomes a sad reflection 
of yearning, puzzling over what has been 
missed, that intense feeling of abandonment 
mere words cannot convey, sorrowing souls.

Dragonflight

Gossamer-light, the creature with the
fearsome name flutters in graceful
arabesques through the air briefly
touching a leaf, swerving and flying
off again, its restless energy 
impelling this delicate iridescent
insect borne on the breeze yet
fully capable of veering off and
finding its own way, its transparent
wings lifting and swirling the 
dragonfly in one direction
then the other as if it cannot quite
decide where it wishes to go
itself dazzled by choices yet
anxious to explore and satiate its
curiosity until its energy is sapped.
And then the exquisite gold of its
body no longer lofted seeks rest
allowing it to bask in the warmth of
the sun as it considers other options.

The Library of My Mind

They crowd my mind. Those varied ideas
the words, the expressions, conclusions
narratives contained in the countless
pages I've read of history, science
technology, memoirs, biographies of
those whose exploits, explorations and
experiences hold such immense fascination
filling my head like a babel of competing
and contrasting voices lifting the tower
of my comprehension. Where do those
words go, where the sentences, the
paragraphs, the pages, the books one
after another that my omnivorous mind
devours? Impression, decisions, so many
declarations and discoveries that my
consciousness shuffles, categorizes
enumerates and validates, placed in
volumes of files secreted within my
inner self. They will surface on occasion
as reminders and occasionally rejoinders
as they become an integral part of my
collective cerebral functioning as I
become the part of so many summations
endowed with the life-cycle of human
endeavours, that mysterious process we
call existence, exalted by consciousness. 

Impresario Extraordinaire

Suppose nature has some of the 
qualities of temperament we ascribe
to the vast varieties that humans have
and she was fed up with our interminable
complaints about her weather designs
never satisfied when it's hot and sunny
or sufficiently complacent with high
humidity and incessant rainfalls, sigh
that it's too windy and we're fed up
with it all, preferring a bit of moderation.
Like any sometimes-good-natured
despot she set out to confuse us and
succeeded admirably. When we planned
for an afternoon stroll through the forest
the sun sat high in the sky with not a
sign of any competition detected on
the near horizon, just that bright orb
sailing through the azure ocean above
that clamps its lid on our landscape. Yet
halfway through our hike came the
sonorous, deep-throated warning of a
storm in the offing. The ambient warmth
turned to cold as a harsh wind blew and
the sky invited dark clouds to obscure
that brilliant disk. Another and another
roll of thunder closer bringing thick wet
rain to anoint our heads. But this is a 
forest in summer with a robust green 
canopy and it kept us dry as we saw
every bit of vegetation drenched but
not ourselves and then the sun found a
gap in the clouds, illuminating the dense
curtains of rain and the game commenced
with both sun and rain competing for
dominance, a theatrical performance
worthy of the best that nature designs.

 

The Power of Persuasion

In nature's great experiment with
humanity she has invested in the subjects
two opposing gifts to satisfy her curiosity
whether the creatures will manage to
make use of both while advancing
themselves toward a social age of
maturity. Emotions carry with them the
substance of fulfillment and alternately
great harm, while rational thought struggles 
with the more urgent of the emotions 
linked to expressing the virulent and the 
damning. From archaic times to the present 
the predictability of the strong oppressing
the weak has been a constant. Leading
to a casual sympathy among those who
are neither oppressors or oppressed for 
the underdog. In a reversal of reason it has 
become advantageous to those indulging 
in psychosocial gaming intent on role-
changing while upsetting social covenants 
to proclaim themselves to be helpless victims 
at the hands of nefarious schemers whom 
they slander while themselves exacting 
violence upon them. Their dire status
of victimhood accepted, all is forgiven.

Indivisible

For I am as nothing without your
presence. I am the celestial white 
dwarf to your red giant in our sublime
binary symbiosis. My existence meant 
to complement yours. Your smile is
the sun that warms my heart. Your
arms surround me in everlasting
comfort. Your concerns mine. At
night together our chests rise in a
unison of breath, our bodies joined
in sleep. The unnumbered days fill
our hours and minutes and seconds
in a synchronized expression of our
love. The years have passed and we
hardly know where and when. I see
in you now the boy I once knew
become the man without whose
presence my life would have no
meaning. Your every touch soothes
my spirit. My soul reaches endlessly
to embrace yours. We have been
companions and lovers all the years
of our lives for life began when our
beings collided in a storm of passion
recognizing one the other as though
previous lifetimes had briefly separated
us while predestination reunited us.

The Golden Rule

Gold, it seems, from antiquity to the 
present has always been recognized for 
its precious, special properties and as such 
highly prized; for its mesmerizing gleam
its malleability, its beauty and relative rarity 
as a metal to be used well but sparingly. 
Little wonder its properties were used to 
describe moderation and civility as a yardstick 
by which human behaviour should aspire to 
become better than their raw emotions permit 
them to. Aristotle spoke of the Golden Mean 
to encourage moderation in all the ways
that humanity walks through life. Such a 
statement was said to be used by Jesus of 
Nazareth when he urged his followers to 
"do unto others as you would have them do 
unto  you", and even then the sentiment 
was not new, only insufficiently practised. 
Humankind is a stubborn beast, quick to 
offend, slow to amend. To the present day 
political and religious factions assert blame 
one on the other for violence inflicted when 
in fact it is no one faction nor ideology but 
the fervent ideological verse and chapter
identifying 'the enemy', sowing anger and 
the vengeance of those incited to claim 
victimhood leading to virulent hatred 
screening and augmenting the indomitable 
aspirational conquest of the righteous over 
the sinful values their enemies hold, the 
better to murder and enslave to maintain 
through terrorism sought-after supremacy.

 

And It Rained

The supreme artist, the only one
whose sublime artistry has no peer
but whose endless repertoire of natural
settings sets the febrile imagination of
mere mortals aflame while spurring the
talents of endless emulators to follow
her brushstrokes of genius has mixed
the darkest colours on her palette
after considering her boundless options
and swept broad glowering strokes
of dark grey and black across the sky
so recently blue and shimmering with
incandescent flames from the naked
sun to produce what some construe as
an imminent threat and others gladly
celebrate as salvation from her oven's
over-heated atmosphere bringing
relief to vegetation curling in dry
despair and a sound-and-light show
to the residents of a city looking on
with awe as their world suddenly turned
dark as night and lightning rent the
ragged clouds tearing asunder their
fastness, releasing their watery burden.

A Killing Kindness

The goal is laudable, to achieve energy
sufficiency with clean, inexpensive
sources so emerging economies we once
called Third World, can enjoy all the
benefits of advanced societies in this
the 21st Century. Lest we forget the
purpose not only to advantage their way
of life but to ensure a smaller energy
footprint on a planet groaning under
civilization's demands and an atmosphere
clearly threatening doom should we fail.
Africa's energy now sourced by solar
panels and solar lamps, cars, computers
and printers for all! Ah, and spent 
lead-acid and lithium batteries to be
dealt with; the classic issue of e-waste
where impoverished people recycle
but not quite as advised, smashing lead
batteries to drain the acid into rivers
and the ground, unleashing the spectre
of deadly contamination in rivers and
groundwater, irrigating fields, bathing
and washing clothing, drinking the water
compounded by a shortage of cancer
specialists on this very dark continent.