Now I Understand....Desert Solitaire. Hmm.... Mar 11, 2009 11:18 pm Mood: contemplative, 327 Views Desert Solitaire Nietzsche: “Gaze not too long into the abyss, lest the abyss gaze into thee”--(1992a, 210) **************************************************************** Don Scheese claims that “Desert Solitaire represents the correspondence of man and environment, a kind of literary environmental determinism” (1996, 110). I argue that the book does not represent correspondence but is marked by a concurrent feeling of physicality and distinction. There is nothing deterministic about Abbey’s text; on the contrary, it is a celebration of the openness of signification. Scheese’s interpretation is biased by his romantic (he sees romanticism as exclusively re-contextualizing)preconceptions about nature, as when he describes... “Abbey’s passionate desire for sanctuary from civilization […] in which time and the forces of history float by, leaving him undisturbed during an idyllic retreat” (1996, 110). Abbey’s retreat is heterotopian, not idyllic, and his writing is marked by distinction, not by “the quest for oneness with the nonhuman world” (Scheese 1996, 111). Abbey’s notion of distinction also influences his aesthetic sense; therefore he often mentions “the abyss”—literally the abyss of canyons but metaphorically the abyss that distinguishes humanity. The main element of the abyss is the presence of death, as when Abbey speculates how the missed tourist may have disappeared: “It is not impossible that our man […] eased himself over, deliberately, in broad daylight,drawn into the void by the beauty and power of his own terror” (1992a, 210). Abbey then quotes Nietzsche: “Gaze not too long into the abyss, lest the abyss gaze into thee” (1992a,210) —which refers not to reconciliation with nature but to the second step of distinction,rebellion against death. The abyss, not correspondence, is the central metaphor in Desert Solitaire. A scene that parallels Abbey’s ambivalence towards merging with nature is found in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. When Edna goes swimming in the ocean for the first time, she experiences both freedom and a premonition of her later death: She turned her face seaward to gather in an impression of space and solitude, which the vast expanse of water, meeting and melting with the moonlit sky, conveyed to her excited fancy. As she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself. […] But to her unaccustomed vision the stretch of water behind her assumed the aspect of a barrier which her unaided strength would never be able to overcome. A quick vision of death smote her soul, and for a second of time appalled and enfeebled her senses. (1993, 46-47) Swimming in the ocean both heightens the sense of self and the sense of distinction and threatens its undoing through merging which results in death. It is the closeness of existential nature, symbolized through the “moonlit sky,” not the merging with it that allows freedom; coming too close does not provide freedom but “enfeebled her senses.” In his description of Delicate Arch Abbey reminds the reader that there is an external world, and that the desert (like Chopin’s ocean) is a space where its physicality can be experienced: “Delicate Arch has the curious ability to remind us—like rock and sunlight and wind and wilderness—that out there is a different world, older and greater and deeper by far than ours, a world which surrounds us and sustains the little world of men as sea and sky surround and sustain a ship” (1992a, 37, emphasis Abbey’s). The experience of external reality does not take the form of correspondence, rather it unsettles established notions of reality: “If Delicate Arch has any significance it lies […] in the power of the odd and unexpected to startle the senses and surprise the mind out of their ruts of habit, to compel us into a reawakened awareness of the wonderful—that which is full of wonder” (1992a, 36-37). 0 Comments

Scratching My Head Here at SOME Peeps... LOL.... Pretentious! Perposterous! Mar 11, 2009 10:32 pm Mood: amused, 350 Views Although they live in 'debtor's prison', there are SOME peeps... (You ~KNOW~ who you are...) ...among us ... who make PRETENTIOUS REFERENCES to their distinguished background... ...and 'snub' other 'inmates' ...as if they are social inferiors. Question is: If you harbor in yourself one known unique quality that is superior to others how can you be inferior? Answer is: SOME can't make that distinction. Rant here...as case in point. NoniJuice4 1 comment

How to Save a Life -- The Fray, 2005 Mar 6, 2009 10:01 am 392 Views Step one you say we need to talk He walks you say sit down it's just a talk He smiles politely back at you You stare politely right on through Some sort of window to your right As he goes left and you stay right Between the lines of fear and blame You begin to wonder why you came CHORUS: Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life Let him know that you know best Cause after all you do know best Try to slip past his defense Without granting innocence Lay down a list of what is wrong The things you've told him all along And pray to God he hears you And pray to God he hears you CHORUS: Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life As he begins to raise his voice You lower yours and grant him one last choice Drive until you lose the road Or break with the ones you've followed He will do one of two things He will admit to everything Or he'll say he's just not the same And you'll begin to wonder why you came CHORUS: Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life CHORUS: Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life How to save a life How to save a life CHORUS: Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life CHORUS: Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life How to save a life IN HONOR OF AN AWESOME (YET STUBBORNLY INDEPENDENT) ELDERLY FRIEND AND FATHER, CHARLES EDWARD H. JANUARY 12, 1938- MARCH 06, 2009 1 comment

CARPE DIEM.... Mar 6, 2009 8:13 am Mood: contemplative, 539 Views Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi Leuconoe, don't ask , it's a sin to know . finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios what end the gods will give me or you. Don't play with Babylonian temptaris numeros. ut melius, quidquid erit, pati. fortune-telling either. It is better to endure whatever will be. seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam, Whether Jupiter has allotted to you many more winters or this final one quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare which even now wears out the Tyrrhenian sea on the rocks placed opposite Tyrrhenum: sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi - be smart, drink your wine. Scale back your long hopes spem longam reseces. dum loquimur, fugerit invida to a short period. While we speak, envious time will have {already} fled aetas: carpe diem quam minimum credula postero. Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future. --Odes 1.11 1 comment

Dance with the Devil: A Lyrical Analysis on the Epitome of Fake Thugs Feb 21, 2009 12:52 pm Mood: impressed, 521 Views "The devil, who's business is to pervert truth, mimics the exact circumstances of the Divine Sacraments. He baptizes his believers and promises forgiveness of sins.. he celebrates the oblation of bread, and brings in, a symbol of resurrection. Let us therefore acknowledge the craftiness of the devil, who copied certain things of those that be divine". --Tertullian Checking out MySpace, and after having listened to this song, I was at first appaulded...then...IMPRESSED! Talented Rap, that Immortal Technique. He needs to drop some love here in Los Angeles Ssssoooonnnn! Word. ***************************************************************** Lyrics: Dance with the Devil Immortal Technique Revolutionary Vol. I Hip Hop / Rap (Verse 1) I once knew a nigga whose real name was William his primary concern, was making a million being the illest hustler, that the world ever seen he used to fuck movie stars and sniff coke in his dreams a corrupted young mind, at the age of thirteen nigga never had a father and his mom was a fiend she put the pipe down, but for every year she was sober her sons heart simultaneously grew colder he started hanging out selling bags in the projects checking the young chicks, looking for hit and run prospects he was fascinated by material objects but he understood money never bought respect he build a reputation cause he could hustle and steal but got locked once it didn't hesitate to squeal so criminals he chilled with didn't think he was real you see me and niggaz like this have never been equal I don't project my insecurities at other people he feeded for props like addicts with pipes and needles so he felt he had to prove to everyone he was evil a feeble-minded young man with infinite potential the product of a ghetto-breed capitalistic mental coincidentally dropped out of school to sell weed dancing with the devil, smoked until his eyes would bleed but he was sick of selling trees and gave in to his greed (Hook) Everyone trying to be trife never face the consequences you probably only did a month for minor offenses ask a nigga doing life if he had another chance but then again there's always the wicked at new and advanced dance forever with the devil on a cold cell block but that's what happens when you rape, murder and sell rock devils used to be gods, angels that fell from the top there's no diversity because we're burning in the melting pot (Verse 2) So Billy started robbing niggaz, anything he could do he'd get his respect back, in the eyes of his crew starting fights over little sh*t, up on the block stepped up to selling mothers and brothers the crack rock working overtime for making money for the crack spot hit the jackpot and wanted to move up to cocaine for filling the Scarface fantasy stuck in his brain tired of the block niggaz treating him the same he wanted to be major like the cut throats and the thugs but when he tried to step to 'em, niggaz showed him no love they told him any motherfucking coward can sell drugs any bitch nigga with a gun, can bust slugs any nigga with a red shirt can front like a blood even Puffy smoked the motherf*cker up in a club but only a real thug can stab someone till they die standing in front of them, starring straight into their eyes Billy realized that these men were well guarded and they wanted to test him, before business started suggested raping a b*tch to prove he was cold hearted so now he had a choice between going back to his life or making money with made men, up in the cife his dreams about cars and ice, made him agree a hardcore nigga is all he ever wanted to be and so he met them Friday night at a quarter to three (Hook) Everyone trying to be trife never face the consequences you probably only did a month for minor offenses ask a nigga doing life if he had another chance but then again there's always the wicked at new and advanced dance forever with the devil on a cold cell block but that's what happens when you rape, murder and sell rock devils used to be gods, angels that fell from the top there's no diversity because we're burning in the melting pot 4 Comments

The CALM That is Today. Feb 8, 2009 7:00 pm Mood: calmly abiding, 586 Views I can say for now that I usually hold a very laid-back attitude toward life. But on today, I seemed to have ~ZOOMED~ into crisis mode and morph out of my unique sense of complacency. One of my relatives seems to have an emergency; yet, I couldn't seem to be able to be my usual "rock of strength" for him. I couldn't believe that I literally told him to "Take a number." I guess this is to say that I need time for ME. Time to be a bit selfish even, and take the time to simply smell the roses. I deserve as much.... Life, thus, as I know it, is full of renewed zest. Motto thereof: "To thine own self be true". (Still keeping in mind, though, that I am a bit more ....emotionally volatile than usual. Hmmm...) Hopefully, Valentine's Day will find me well...lol...and in receipt of that 'special gift' from the one who bear with me in loving respect, despite my imperfections. "Calm" was ultimately the watchword in my emotional life today. Nothing could have shattered the feeling of calm that enveloped me today. Today's climate was one of harmony and confidence, exquisitely suited to working in a team. Today... I stood... tall and contented...on mountaintops. Today... the climate was one of harmony and confidence, exquisitely suited to working for me to provide creativity, know-how and skill. For my spectacular specimen of a spouse, there seemed a loving, romantic, dreamy feeling on today that I let myself go in taking advantage of... indulging completely. I've a special someone in my life of whom I respect and appreciate fully, and this was the perfect day to share these feelings with him this morning. ...seriously planning a romantic candlelight dinner at home tonight, just the two of us...no kids involved. No pressure... on my part to cook any elaborate meal -- I'll just pick up some take out and serve it up on the good china, fine crystal stemware, and ...a bottle of choice bubbly to boot! With that in mind, I tend to keep my focus on the two of US... as one. 0 Comments

The Secret of Life: Shut up and shovel the f*ckin gravel! Jan 18, 2009 10:32 am Mood: content, 744 Views For old times sake...Zenpriest...at it again.... ...and I... L-O-V-E WHT HE'S DOING HERE! Enjoy...AND LEARN, NoniJuice4 ***************************************************************** The entire secret of life, of power, of everything, was taught to me when I was a teenager, by a man, a farmer. And he taught it to me in the way that is so typical of men: three sentences, no more. I contend that the real conflict today is not male versus female, but urban versus agrarian values. When people forget where their food and fiber comes from, when they forget the natural processes and timetables that produce them, when they start looking for someone else to "hand over" what they want and stop taking the responsibility for producing it themselves, when they replace hard work with belligerence and aggression, they lock themselves into downward spirals of helplessness, powerlessness, and anger. I taught this same lesson to a woman "friend" of mine. It took me two years. During the entire time she was doing her best to manipulate and harass me into a "romantic" relationship that I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in allowing to happen. It took many screaming matches and finally the threat to throw her out of my life for her to "get it", but she finally "got it" and today she credits me with saving her life, her soul, and her sanity, and has become a friend. The farmer's name was Griff. I was a "townie" (population 300) and made good money for a teenager as a "hired hand". One day when I showed up for work he said, "We're going to pick up a new truck." We got in his car and the entire 40 minute ride to the dealer passed without either of us saying a word: One of those easy comfortable silences that men often use to communicate more than words ever can. We picked up a new 4-wheel drive ¾ ton pickup and headed back to the farm. When we got back, he pointed to a large gravel pile by the barn and told me to fill the truck bed with gravel and go fill in a hole in the entrance to one of his fields. I said, "But that gravel will ruin the paint on the bed of this brand new truck." He looked at me silently for about a minute, his expression eloquently saying that I was the worst idiot he'd ever been burdened with having to tolerate in his life. Without saying another word he picked up the shovel and, with a swing that would be the envy of every major league baseball hitter, he swung it around and smacked the side of the truck sending paint chips flying in ever direction and leaving a huge dent. He looked at me again with that same "I can't believe you are such an idiot" look and said: "City boy this is a ~FARM~ truck. I didn't buy it to look pretty, I bought it to DO WORK, same reason I'm payin' you. Now it ain't new no more, so shut up and shovel the f*ckin' gravel." Then he turned around and walked off, leaving me to feel foolish and gain wisdom. Of course it took the entire context and circumstances for me to understand the full significance of the lesson: not with my head but with my spirit. In the same way, cultures world wide and throughout history have used ritual space to teach the great lessons to the young. Complexity and too many words destroy the lesson, because the very heart and soul of the lesson is that words accomplish nothing. Words do not put in crops. Words do not harvest them or get them to market or prepare them or put them on our plates. No one eats unless someone shuts up and shovels the f*ckin' gravel. The entire secret of male power is that men do, men have, shut up and shoveled the f*ckin' gravel. Men shoveled the gravel that built all the hydroelectric dams which provide the electric power which everyone today takes for granted; some of that "Patriarchal technology" that some women are so fond of sneering at. Men put their sweat and, about 50 of them, their very bodies into Hoover dam. Then they "handed over" the result to women to make their lives more comfortable. The millions of tons of gravel which went in to building the transcontinental railway were shoveled by men. And hundreds of their bodies went into it as well. Women and men living today would have none of the conveniences which make their lives so comfortable if millions of men had not shut up and shoveled the f*ckin' gravel. All the lawsuits and affirmative action programs in the world could not have built them. Those men did not wait for someone to "hand over" those dams or that railroad to them, they shut up and shoveled the f*ckin' gravel and built them. Hoover dam is "male dominated", the transcontinental railroad is "male dominated" because men put their time, their work, their sweat, and their very bodies into building them. Everything that we see in the world today, from business to the military, that is "male dominated" is so because men died to build it. That is both men's power and their powerlessness: They shut up and shoveled the f*ckin' gravel. 0 Comments

Phenomenal Barack: Final Fulfilment of Martin Luther King’s Dream Nov 4, 2008 10:33 am Mood: contemplative, 1759 Views Obama Photo: Sun News Publishing Tuesday, November 4, 2008 Glory be to God that Senator Barack Obama has done both African-Americans and the black people the world-over proud by his showing in this year’s presidential primaries and the apex poll proper, the first member of the race to reach that height in the two-hundred-and nineteen years the contest has been on in the United States. For his unique achievements he deserves to be praised by all Africans all over the world for bringing the greatest honour to our race through his brilliance, charisma and oratory. His is a gargantuan accomplishment for a man who became a senator only three years ago and was not known by most Americans and the people of the world until January this year when he won the primaries in the state of lowa, where the exercise kicked-off and led all the way to the last one in June. To end the hopes and dreams of Senator (Mrs) Hillary Clinton, wife of the immediate past President Bill Clinton (1993 – 2001) who wanted to be the first woman president of the U.S. and the first former First Lady to rule America. But as much as Obama made it to the presidential election because of his exceptional capabilities this would not have been possible without the efforts and sacrifices of some brave African-American leaders in the last fifty-five years or so. Some of who lost their lives to assassins in their committed struggle to end racial discrimination and segregation and secure voting rights and the right to contest election for black people. So while we celebrate Obama for bringing great honour and glory to our race, it is also an occasion to remember the heroes and heroines of the struggle who have gone and the few of them still alive. Like Dr. Andrew Young, the first African-American U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Reverend Jesse Jackson, the first African-American to take part in the presidential primaries in the U.S. when he did so in 1988, both protégés of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, a Baptist Reverend gentleman who led the African struggle from 1955 until he was assassinated in the course of the crusade on April 4, 1968. Andrew Young and Jesse Jackson were some of the aides with him on that last campaign when he was shot to death. If Barack Obama is the Joshua who has led the African-Americans to the greatest political achievement, Dr. Luther King Jr. (Tuesday, January 15, 1929 – Saturday, April 4, 1968 ) was the Moses who led them through the wilderness of racial discrimination and segregation into political achievements and human dignity. And it is remarkable that Moses led the Israelites from Egypt through the desert to the banks of the Jordan River over a period of forty years. And that it is the same number of years after the death of Dr. King Jr. that it took Obama to become the first African-American flag bearer of any party during a presidential poll. And Reverend King can also be seen as the John the Baptist who prepared the way for Obama, just as the great Biblical prophet was the one the Lord chose as the forerunner for Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Dr King the great Although the equality of all Americans is envisioned in the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776 but this was not the case in reality until the 1950s and 60s as the people of minority races or people of color as they were also called – the Negroes or blacks, the Hispanics (Latin Americans), Arabs and Asians were discriminated against in many ways. It was not until ninety-nine years after the declaration of independence that the first step was taken to grant civil rights to the African-Americans when on March 1, 1875 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act which gave equal rights to the negroes in public accommodation and jury duty. But it was to be short-lived as the Supreme Court eight years later in 1883 invalidated the act. The situation remained bleak for the blacks (or niggers as they were derogatorily called) until Dr. Luther King and his team rose to the challenge in 1955 when a black seamstress Rosa Park in Montgomery, Alabama on December I refused against the segregation ordinance to give up her seat to a white man who entered a bus. Her prosecution led Dr. King and his aides to organize a peaceful protest march in the city and the boycott of buses by African-Americans. A federal court latter declared the law unconstitutional after Dr. King’s team protest marches. With other actions by King and the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) in other cities across the country, Congress on Monday, April 29, 1957 approved the civil rights bill for voting rights to the blacks. The passive resistance by King and his team continued in different parts of America culminating in the master of them all called the March on Washington D. C. on Thursday, August 29, 1963 in which over two hundred and fifty thousand people ---- blacks, whites, Asians and Arabs participated and where Dr. King delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech on the steps of Abraham Lincoln Memorial which is reproduced below for you today in full. Exactly ten months after the King-led mammoth show in Washington, Congress on Monday, June 29, 1964 passed the omnibus civil rights bill banning discrimination in voting, jobs, public accommodation and public schools and other areas. That same year Dr. King was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize to become the third American and first non—U.S. President to win it after President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and President Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Apart from Christopher Columbus, the great 15th century explorer who discovered America and whose birthday October 10 is a public holiday in the U.S. only Dr. King among private Americans has his birthday (January 15) celebrated with a public holiday since 1986. The other Americans so honored with a public holiday are George Washington (born February 22, 1732) the first U.S. president and President Abraham Lincoln (born on February 12, 1809). February 15 is set aside as a public holiday for the two of them known as Presidents’ Day or Washington –Lincoln Day. The earlier achievements of Dr. King and his aides were the election in 1966 of Edward Brooke of Massachusetts as the first African-American in the U.S senate, the election of Carl Stokes in 1967 as the first black mayor in Cleveland and Charles Evers as the first black mayor in Mississippi in 1969. Alarmed by the success of Dr. King and his aides a white man James Earl Ray, an escaped convict, assassinated him on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee when he was in the city for a rally. Ray was eventually sentenced to 99 years prison term. To Obama... Despite Happens Today, No Mattter What.... Noni 2 Comments

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