*image by Ben Harubin

 

 

Hogs in slop -- slop inside the hogs.
(There just ain't no gettin' around it.)

Title of a course never taught in any seminary, or anywhere else:
"How To Pursue A Professional Religious Career And Still Enjoy A Short Life
-- Take Your Job Seriously."

Trolls by themselves are enough to drive everyone to distraction,
but put them astride griffins and you double the excitement.

Known, and always available, are the means to satisfy all physical hungers,
but not so the intangible ones.
The only way to satisfy the hungers of the mind is to see them for what they are.
(And of course be able to remember it whenever the hungers pop back up.)

"Well, hey," someone complains, "you didn't warn me that it would be a trick success,
that the accomplishment required continued attention."
"Hey!" he still bitches, "no fair!"

A man asked a soothsayer, "What is the difference in a septic tank with a leak
and one that's filled to overflowing?"
To which the alleged wise one replied by himself asking, "What is the distinction
between a man with much knowledge who develops amnesia and a man with much
knowledge who one day realizes the nature of knowledge?"
And the man pondered this for a bit, then asked, "Is this a trick question?"
"I don't know," replied the soothsayer. "I don't know, do you?"
And suddenly the man couldn't remember whether he did nor not, and instantly after
that realized that it made no difference, then understanding that all questions about the
"differences" in things are meaningless.

(I say it's a good thing that soothsayers don't charge by the pound.)

Why do we struggle with ourselves? If we are not presently already that which is in
control of ourselves, then what is?
What new and unusual power over ourselves is it we seek to wield?
And in what unknown region within us do we expect to find this force?

Fish swim, birds fly, worms dig, men men -- what more is it that we expect?
Was not thinking integral to men menning, there would not be a sensation of
there possibly being more; no non-physical restlessness, no endless anticipation.

Thus comes around the original question again: why do we struggle with ourselves,
for what purpose, to what end, when that which is the instigator or the combat
is also the sole supplier of all combatants and whose only possible "victory"
would be in surrender to itself.