Alexander Pushkin Said. . .

"Better the illusions that exalt us, than ten thousand truths."
-Alexander Pushkin

Bruce Springsteen,Youngstown,(Live- in Youngstown)

The Sunday Morning Muse, October 19, 2008

Oh....the stress of it all this week. Stock market ups and downs... a big hit in my 401k, more mudslinging with terrorist innuendos from the right wingers.... and now...THE FIRST FROST.

I had to scrape the car windows this morning.... in my heavy wool shirt and gloves...and I thought: "This is it. I'll be doing this till next April." Major Bummer.

It's a crisp autumn day as I write, but the sun is shining and the trees are still quite beautiful. Their fading glory always make me a little sad thinking of what is ahead. The early darkness, the cold... the feeling that you have to drag yourself out of bed in the morning, and put on layers of clothes. Then, when darkness hits at 5 PM it's hard to fight the comfort of the couch and blanket to go out in the evenings at all. It's hibernation.

As I take a sip of my friend's homemade apple cider, I wish that fall could stay awhile longer. I even bought more candy corn today, but I passed on the last of the "mums" for 5 bucks in front of the store. Too late for that. Then it occurs to me, I've been "wishing away" the days till the election is over, so maybe I'm sending mixed messages. I want the Nov. election done and over with.... yet I want more time in the garden.

Halloween candy on one side of Walmart... Xmas trees on the other. Really rushing things now.

And I'm still just putting away summer shorts.

Synchronicity

Yesterday I was listening to a CD a friend had bought me and I decided to go ahead and email that person since I hadn't spoken with him for a few weeks. I composed a short note and the strangest thing happened. I hit the send button, and my incoming email message popped up at the same time. It was him sending ME an email. I thought it was quite a coinsedence.... to send an email at that exact moment... on that day... during that week to each other.


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A small example of Synchronicity. A word coined by Carl Jung.
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I looked up some examples, and thought I'd like to share them.


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Wikipedia

The French writer Émile Deschamps claims in his memoirs that in 1805, he was treated to some plum pudding by a stranger named Monsieur de Fortgibu. Ten years later, the writer encountered plum pudding on the menu of a Paris restaurant and wanted to order some, but the waiter told him that the last dish had already been served to another customer, who turned out to be de Fortgibu. Many years later, in 1832, Émile Deschamps was at a diner and was once again offered plum pudding. He recalled the earlier incident and told his friends that only de Dortgibu was missing to make the setting complete—and in the same instant, the now senile de Fontgibu entered the room.

I also liked this example:

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During the production of The Wizard of Oz, a coat bought from a second-hand store for the costume of Professor Marvel was later found to have belonged to L.
Frank Baum, author of the children's book upon which the film is based.

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Speaking of the Wizard of Oz there is also that example of playing Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album while you are watching the movie. I can remember in the early 1990's when radio stations actually held parties for people who gathered together to experience the so called "Dark Side of the Rainbow" effect.

Wikipedia

Fans have compiled more than one hundred moments of perceived interplay between the film and album, including further links that occur if the album is repeated through the entire film. This synergy effect has been described as an example of synchronicity, defined by the psychologist Carl Jung as a phenomenon in which coincidental events "seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality."

Penguin VS Batman

Uncanny.

Debate Prep

John Cleese on Sarah Palin

A Word About Partisan Politics. . .

I'm amusing myself watching old episodes of my favorite show of all time, The West Wing. I loved the debate between Bartlett and his opponent, the Gov. of Florida.

The Sunday Morning Muse, October 12, 2008

So... the third quarter statement arrived in the mailbox yesterday. Thousands of dollars....gone.

My elderly mom asked, "Where did the money go?"

It's a good question. But where do you start? A simple explanation doesn't exist. Just like that "money" we think we have in stocks, in mutual funds, etc. It really doesn't exist at all. As I read it, stock values are really the "best guess" of what someone thinks the stock is worth.

I did a search and this article explains on an elementary level anyway, what I'm trying to say.

But rest assured, the money IS gone.

Fortunately we were never ones who ran up credit. My parents taught me to live within my means, and I've done that. Saved first, then spent. And now it's up to us.... the people on the bottom to bail out the folks at the top who didn't take that tried and true advice.

It sucks.