I like to alternate between sounds in the foreground and background sounds. Running water is just lovely, but ocean waves breaking are superb. The laughing sounds of people at play reminds me that life is still very good and valuable. I listen to recorded music for my work as a keyboard player, both intently to learn musical progressions and peripherally to catch the soul of a song. I wish there were lions roaring in the dark, and do not wish to forget frogs croaking all night long.
It used to be a secret. Now the intelligence agencies and legislators of our times are going to eat like princes. Rice cooked in milk until it is soft and melts in the mouth, spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and coconut, may look like rice pudding until you add cocoa. Light or dark brown, sweetened with sugar and/or raisins, this edible is also a favorite of some of my closest friends. I make this for me, and paradise would be having it made “like mommy used to make it”. Bring your 5 hour version of rice porridge.
Mercenaries and the pampered class would like to be known as adventurers but one would think that after two deadly wars and dozens of deadly conflicts that humanity would have found a formula for security. Not the case. Most people are plotting their next investment in capital projects.
The mercenary and merchant complex
Every single bloc of nations prefers to pour billions of dollars into lucrative ventures than to secure a foundation for societies to cooperate and thrive. Is it because people think that there must always be us and them in every aspect of life? If collective security was a priority among the well armed nations Russia would not be levelling Ukrainian towns and villages today, sixteen months after Russia declared its special military operation.
National choices
I seek to become free having to hear from MxGA mercenaries. Any nation that once was great deserves a place at the bottom of the barrel and a throne at the landfill. Great again? What a total load of manure! Did Greece or Rome or Babylon or Persia ever rise again? Who is going to Jerusalem to be awed by the wisdom of any of Israel’s sages or political stars? Not a soul. Most adventures end up with somebody being cheated, oppressed, discriminated against, and exploited. It is not walls that give people security, but arms outstretched with assistance and cooperation.
What strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life?
I love a rocking chair, with my guitar, personal computer, and keyboard 🎹 nearby. My comfort picture has ears perked for the voices of housemates talking, laughing, and calling, for help or just engaging.
With the sounds of life from the street and the forest I can only dream of more comfortable days.
The meek inherit the earth again, eat, drink and enjoy
A lot of future scenarios are purely pie in the sky, and the show we have endured of empires and mega commerce will come to an abrupt end. No light, no business, literally. When the power systems of our times – the solar, the fossil fuel, the nuclear, become ineffective, the meek will truly inherit the earth. No one will be waiting for courts to rule on access to nourishment and recreation. Big business will flicker and dangle on the cliffs of silence. Angels, who neither marry nor procreate are said to personify human destiny, so it is not a stretch to have expectations about humans being like birds and the lillies of the field, astonishingly adorned with individual splendour. Governments, both large and small, will have no levers to pull, no bottom line, no profit margin, and no corrupt law enforcement. Do not ask me when. Maybe after the next great earthquake? Maybe after the waves cover the machinery of the generals and the mighty? Maybe after the sun scorched the delicate instruments of oppression? Maybe the meek will, without shame, inherit the earth “… in the time of evil, and in the days of famine they will have abundance.” (Psalms 37:19, NASB)
But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.
The resources of information and entertainment are being marshalled for a campaign of deception. Security, justice, and the common good are already being manipulated and diverted from the known courses. For example, civilization used to be measured by literacy, namely, writing and documentation, as compared to oral traditions. Today literacy is disappearing as cheap political and religious slogans multiply and dominate the market place, helped along by algorithms designed to sustain the supposed priorities.
Irresistible deception
Stop following the crowd blindly! Check the sources of information. Believe what your ears hear and your eyes see. The truth is more likely to be in the sights and sounds than in the spin. Deception is too easy these days, and even manifest falsehoods become treasured truths once they are repeated regularly and by trusted public officials. Be very worried, but arm yourself with unchanging truth and facts.
I like to give my students opportunities to discover, tasks they can complete with pride in their accomplishments, dazzle them with the beauty of applied knowledge, and help them find their wings.
A great teacher sizes up every student, anticipates the range of questions that can arise, and is willing to say “Let me get back to you on that”. Great teachers pave the way for success, by exposure and testing. A great teacher beams with pride when students learn and explodes with gold medal thanksgiving when students learn to use the knowledge imparted.
I suppose the ultimately great teacher is the one who finds genuine joy in being eclipsed by a student.
Life is Fun, But Not a Joke 