*image by Ben Harubin

 

The first fruition of the human intellect occurs when a learned, curious,
reflective, and analytical man stands before his library of books,
illustrative of all mortal knowledge, and is struck by the simple fact that "it's all made up."
(Which is why a certain ridiculous aroma seems to accompany all areas of serious,
academic, and artistic criticism...and the more serious it is, the more ridiculous.)

And!
(speaking of such matters, I's hoping you wouldn't bring up, but I'm sure you will)
it's one thing to go off in search of mystical cities,
fighting imaginary dragons along the way,
but a step higher up the idiocy ladder
to find fault with others likewise involved,
but who pursue a course unlike your own.

A long-time traveler tarried by a roadside as he pondered,
"Have we possibly invented not only the destination of Istanbul
but also these feet here beneath us that we dream will carry us there?"
One thing you can count on is that the mind does not want to be shaken
And told to change buses in midstream...
it doesn't want to be aroused at all from its nap.

A would-be mystic asked a bona fide version,
"If those such as me can't seem to get to that extraordinary place we wanted to go to,
is it good then to imagine that we have?"
To which the wise one replied, "Hey, why not? -- it works for everyone else concerning ordinary affairs."

One of the nifty surprises awaiting a man somewhere along his private, unplotted journey is that,
with sufficient recognition of where its actually headed comes the incapacity to any longer be encouraged.

A lad whined to his father, "My tongue still hurts from drinking that too-hot tea yesterday."
And his old man responded, "Well, I didn't tell you to keep drinking it."
"Yeah," said the kid, "but you didn't make me stop."
And as his father stood there, dumfounded at the remark, life suddenly took voice and said to him,
"Now you know how I feel a lot of the time."

There was once a train whose locomotive was assumed to know where it was going,
and the first car after that simply and blindly followed it,
as did the second car following the first car, and the third, the fourth, and so on after that.
And what (you may ask) is interesting enough about that to make it worth mentioning?
Well...both nothing and something, all according to whether you really want to go anywhere,
or just around in circles...like everyone else.