tao1776

suc·cess Pronunciation: s&k-'sesFunction: nounEtymology: Latin successus, from succedere1 obsolete : OUTCOME , RESULT 2 a : degree or measure of succeeding b : favorable or desired outcome; also : the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence3 : one that succeeds I sometimes wish that I could have had some measure of success. A crown that I could hold high. See what I have done? See what I have accomplished? Instead, I am, and have been, only doing my best; and it all falls short. I could be a better friend, a better father, a better husband, a better this or that. I am suited to taoism. A hermit in the hills. I sometimes wish that I could escape away into obscurity. Become invisible to all that I have known and to all that have known me. Isn't it interesting to note that I have made little to no mark upon the world? Isn't it interesting that one would aspire towards wanting to? When I am dead and gone, within a few years none will remember me. If I died and thousands ...

Bathed in the sound of springtime peepers, he thought of the simplicity of love and the complication of life. O' that things could be made simple. Breathing in the heat of a mid-summer night and gazing at the moon and stars, he thought of the embrace, the entanglement, the spent energy of lovers. O' that things could be made that simple. The wind and colors, the cleanliness of autumn air, he thought of the passage of time and yearned for that exchange of Yin for Yang, Yang for Yin; his heart beat faster. O' that things could be made that simple. The winter snow, the absense of an open fire, no sustanance, an empty hearth. He is slowly dying. O' that things could be made that simple.

We have custody of the Meatstick (on the left) every other weekend. Watching her personality grow as it only can with a 2 1/2 yr old, is fun. Compound that with the Dingo, (on the right, duh!) and the fun is more than doubled. The Dingo is my oldest daughter's girl and is 1 1/2. The Dingo is the one that hit 911 in a very random order and had the police at my door. One of the greatest truisms ever uttered is, "Having Grandchildren is so much fun. You get to love and spoil them and then send them home when you're done".

I am so god damned depressed, the wick is trimmed; the light fades... Tacet, Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito. Namaste....

Life is simple when we deal with absolutes. Our religion is well packaged. Our role within society is understood. Everyone and everything in its place. No grey areas to contend with. During WWII, the enemy was clearly defined. The horrors of war were quickly forgotton as the American dream took the total focus of the returning veterans. Working full time jobs, sometimes two and three jobs at a time, buying a house, having kids. Things slowly began to change after the US entered Korea. Militarily and politically, grey areas began to surface. Communism was faceless. The cold war difficult to define. With the assassination of an American President in 1963 and the commitment to hold back the communists from entering South Vietnam, our resolve weakened and everything was questioned. Religion, our political leaders, our involvment in southeast Asia, our individual roles as whites, blacks, labor, corporations, environment.... While the modern conservative movement might blame this seemingly c...

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended. Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war . . . and in the degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." James Madison, April 20, 1795

http://www.vetsforjustice.com/

http://www.bushflash.com/vets.html

coming home betrayed _________ As for Jeremy Feldbusch, blinded in the war, his hometown of Blairsville, an old coal mining town of 3,600, held a parade for him, and the mayor honored him. I thought of the blinded, armless, legless soldier in Dalton Trumbo's novel Johnny Got His Gun, who, lying on his hospital cot, unable to speak or hear, remembers when his hometown gave him a send-off, with speeches about fighting for liberty and democracy. He finally learns how to communicate, by tapping Morse Code letters with his head, and asks the authorities to take him to schoolrooms everywhere, to show the children what war is like. But they do not respond. "In one terrible moment he saw the whole thing," Trumbo writes. "They wanted only to forget him." In a sense, the novel was asking, and now the returned veterans are asking, that we don't forget......from http://www.duckdaotsu.org/ My father, a WWII POW, had a deep seated resentment for portions of the military a...

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I took a walk through the woods nearby. Although littered, marked and scarred, beauty presented to my trained eye.

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Gnawing, gnawing, gnawing, at the perception of myself. If I do this; I will improve. If I do this; I will be somebody. I have to achieve, believe, concieve of a me that is better than the man I am. .....Does the crow live in this way? .....Does the fish look to grow legs? Nay, but they are not human, you say. It is we who have the burden, the need to improve, to grow, to attain. But I say, that is a misrepresentation pointed at by the prophets and sages, and too often the pointing finger has been mistaken for the moon, the river, once crossed, has us leaving the canoe on the bank. How often is the river crossed and the canoe blinds our view because we unwittingly refuse to drop it. Be still. Watch. Judge not. Practice. Be still. Watch. Judge not. Practice.

Doctrines, scriptures, sutras, essays, are not to be regarded as systems to be followed. They merely contribute to understanding. They should be for us a source of stimulation, and nothing more... Adopted, rather than used as a stimulus, they are a hindrance. True Enlightenment, as experienced by the Buddha and transmitted through the patriarchs, is independent of verbal explanations, including the record of the Buddha's teachings (i.e., scriptures) and later doctrinal elaborations.

Apples in the night, exchanging glances