Open Thread - Friday, May 19, 2017 - Groove Edition

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“If you don't like what you're doing, you can always pick up your needle and move to another groove.”
~ Timothy Leary ~

I have noticed a flicker of optimism. The travails of 45 seem to have lifted people's spirit. Or perhaps, I am just finding my groove. I hope, I have accelerated into the upward turn. I have been feeling more feisty and strident. I changed my avatar, because I no longer fret about workplace reprisal. Plus, I don't give two funks, so keep scrolling, there's more,

I have a sensitive bullshit detector. There are certain people that make the alarm go off.

Forty-five, sets off the alarm, but Paul, party before country, Ryan really gets my dander up.

I enjoy the smug, smarmy and egotistical stumbles and bumbles. I know I shouldn't revel in others misfortune. Ah, but this is not misfortune!

So, Paul Rayn, I am laughing at you! Because:

Let's ride the wave and enjoy watching the weasels squirm.

And not let the state of the world give us the blues!

And enjoy ourselves by easing into the weekend.

The thread is OPEN!

Have a great weekend!

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NCTim's picture

@lotlizard You are on top of the news! Perhaps you could pinch hit for me, when I go wandering. Hey, you're a lizard, do you know The Iguanas?

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

lotlizard's picture

@NCTim both called The Iguanas. I couldn’t see the video, apparently it’s not approved for viewing in Germany.

When would you be needing someone to cover OT posting?

P.S. Glad to hear your spirits are higher and starting to do that soaring thing again.

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NCTim's picture

@lotlizard @lotlizard

When would you be needing someone to cover OT posting?

I am contemplating an extended motorcycle trip, probably early autumn. I have pretty much decided not to carry along a computer or worry about finding wi-fi.

The video was the New Orleans Iguanas. I figured lizards all know each other. Wink

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

lotlizard's picture

@NCTim @NCTim All musicians are kind of magic, yes? Me, I’m more or less a no-maj* myself.

* or “muggle” in British Commonwealth countries

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NCTim's picture

@lotlizard I have skinks under my siding. The snakes consider them a tasty meal. Yesterday morning, I was sitting on the back porch drinking coffee and a four footer came crawling by.

Don't stand still, if you see me running down the road.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

riverlover's picture

@NCTim Don't know how enormo skinks would fit under siding. Had me going for a sec.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

mimi's picture

@lotlizard @lotlizard
(added a paragraph from the link below I found somewhat important)
[video:https://youtu.be/A8s4DJmVAc4]
I am 'racist' now:
Reminded me of what some Africans call themselves and are masters off in participating, the transmitters of radio-trottoir talk on the market places ...

In most cases, such as in Zaïre, Congo, and Gabon, the press is owned or controlled by the state, and everything that is published for people's consumption is selected and censored by one party rule machine. [7] Because dominant/official political and social discourse is monopolized within the constitutional framework of the party, press organs such as Salongo and Elima in Kinshasa, L'Union in Libreville, were not allowed to contradict or to challenge the official news reports or the state system. Therefore, those who are not involved in the party turn toward rumor, or more specifically, radio-trottoir.

My interest in this phenomenon is in the way radio-trottoir signifies the ideas and the feelings of the people as it resists official discourse and conventional mass media. I view radio-trottoir as a text of class struggle against political and economic oppression. As a mode of representation, it is a private transcript jettisoned to public space in direct opposition to official reporting. As I hope to show, artists in general, and playwrights especially, recuperate the machine of radio-trottoir and use it to voice their criticisms and attacks on the powerholders. What is the credibility of radio-trottoir in a country such as Zaïre? To what extent do art and performance contribute to canonizing radio-trottoir as the voice of the oppressed for social and political action (at least in discourse)? What about the threats of censorship? And how do artists bypass them? These are the cultural/critical issues that make rumor and radio-trottoir significant.
Smile

lotlizard, I love green Iguanas.

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lotlizard's picture

@mimi  
Lies die Lügenpresse durch und glaube. Oder vielleicht besser nicht?
Emphasis on “Lies” Smile

Anis Amri, a Tunisian whose asylum request had been denied, is the man who drove the truck into a crowd at the Berlin Christmas market. In the following interview with Green party expert for security Christian Ströbele, the possibility is raised that Amri’s surprising freedom of movement despite being wanted for a whole list of crimes might have been due to his status as some kind of U.S. intelligence asset.

https://www.taz.de/Christian-Stroebele-zum-Fall-Amri/!5407898/

The next article addresses the possibility that vote-count irregularities in the state of North Rhine–Westphalia’s recent election cheated the right-wing populist party AfD out of a significant number of votes legitimately cast for it.

https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Sind-der-AfD-Stimmen-bei-der-NRW-Landta...

More than 10 percent of the Erststimmen (a vote directly for a candidate), but 0.0 percent of the Zweitstimmen (a second, separate vote for a party; total determines the proportion of seats that party gets in parliament)? One doesn’t have to like the AfD to see that something’s very fishy there.

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mimi's picture

@lotlizard
but sometimes the fish comes with a tasty gravy and then I remember what my mother said, ie nobody has gotten sick by some words, that you better just think about, and not talk about.

Of course, I couldn't tell my mom, how satisfying it is to think of all that juicy stuff. Yummy...

I am a believer, lotlizard, just in what that's not clear. My brother believes in prayer and the "Mutter Gottes". So, I tried that, and wait for a sign. I am confident will "see" something, one day, just wait.

Smile

Thanks for the links, lotlizard. I like links, especially 'die linken" links.

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lotlizard's picture

@mimi But who are “people on the left” nowadays, really?

Which left-ish things do you mean? Is it links to “taz.de | die Tageszeitung” that you like? What else?

The newspapers Neues Deutschland, Unsere Zeit, Junge Welt, and Jungle World are “left,” but I would virtually never link to them because I have no reason to trust them . . .

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mimi's picture

@lotlizard
rewrite it.
I only know that "links ist wo der Daumen rechts ist". Neues Deutschland ist links? Seit wann?
Wink
Read too much twitter today and I am tired now.
Sorry for that. Can't keep it up. Need a break.

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lotlizard's picture

@mimi
http://infogalactic.com/info/Neues_Deutschland

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mimi's picture

@lotlizard
that didn't escape my mind. It wouldn't have occurred to me to call this paper a publication that is oriented towards the left in our times. I have left Germany before the reunification and I know the Neues Deutschland just as the official propaganda paper of the SED in the former GDR. I never have followed what that paper became after reunification. I didn't live in Germany and that was all not on my radar from across the pond. I can't express myself clearer.

Look at that: With "comrades" like these, I rather use the "Neues Deutschland" to wrap up my left-over smelly fishes to throw into the garbage.

Ex-Neonazi-Chef war tatsächlich V-Mann.

Blood and Honour I really don't need further truth digging into "righties" and "lefties", when the "truthies" fuck up.

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lotlizard's picture

@mimi
Anyway, I think we agree that “Left” and “Right” and the rest of the labels don’t mean much anymore.

As soon as one gets beyond the people and things one knows from having experienced them first-hand, nothing is what it appears to be — the Deep State with its hi-tech super-Stasi now bestrides the world and, when it comes to deceptive façades, has more layers than an onion. Or vol-au-vent, even.

So, the head neo-Nazi turns out to have been an undercover government agent all along?
Thanks for making me aware of that story, I hadn’t seen it.

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mimi's picture

@lotlizard
and I have to work on my "default" labeling reactions a bit. I hope I make some progress.

Have a very, very good weekend and enjoy the sun.
[video:https://youtu.be/bgiQD56eWDk]

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mimi's picture

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Raggedy Ann's picture

I wrote down your quote, last week, about inner peace. It's been on my mind ever since. Thanks for inadvertently helping me with that. Too often, I let outside influences dictate the amount of inner peace I am able to realize. This is helping me change that dynamic.

Feeling feisty is good. Means you feel your life. Changing your avatar gave me thoughts about changing mine, too. I'll consider it a bit more.

Have a beautiful Friday, folks, and a lovely weekend! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

NCTim's picture

@Raggedy Ann I have been working on being in charge of me, and my new career as a sage.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Raggedy Ann's picture

@NCTim
your sageness! Smile

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

NCTim's picture

@Raggedy Ann @Raggedy Ann

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

gulfgal98's picture

@NCTim you have always been a sage for many of us.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

NCTim's picture

@gulfgal98

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

@NCTim a sagebrush?
(ducks)
Okay, admittedly I'm jealous. Sixty years old here and still haven't hit puberty. Takes me three days to get 5 o'clock shadow and a week for an overnight growth. Hell, I was a senior in high school before getting eyebrows. I looked like a Little Orphan Annie comic character.

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There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

NCTim's picture

@ghotiphaze I didn't shave every day until my 30s. While care giving, I just stopped shaving and getting haircuts. Every couple months, I buzz the beard and shave the sides, where the beard is sparse. I am hoping the freak flag helps me be an enigma.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

enhydra lutris's picture

@NCTim

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

NCTim's picture

@enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris Nobody connected the dots.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

peace

Edit: P.S. Turn it up.

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gulfgal98's picture

@eyo What a gifted singer he was. Great sadness. Sad

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

lotlizard's picture

Any one of the things highlighted in this video would be far more worthy of protest marches than the weak-sauce bill of particulars the McResistance has raised against Trump.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w2gC5VP4YI]

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NCTim's picture

@HenryAWallace Whether the feistiness is a symptom of anger or upturn. It feels normal, since I was always a little feisty.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

@NCTim

But, maybe that's only me and maybe that's not a good way to be. I don't know. I've never quite gotten the hang of the basics. You seem to have a good handle on living your life, so maybe go with your gut.

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joe shikspack's picture

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NCTim's picture

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

mimi's picture

@NCTim
I stop my donations. Immediately. JtC better betters himself.
Acute

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NCTim's picture

@mimi

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

mimi's picture

@NCTim
[video:/youtu.be/k6aOiIwza3Y]
Yes 3

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lotlizard's picture

@mimi
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Um2gDNiqHQ]

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@NCTim
Shake it, baby!

"I'm boycotting disco music"
--JtC

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mimi's picture

@JtC
that sounds like 'them'
[video:https://youtu.be/uDjsbwbYapE]

"I boycott Schuhplattler"

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NCTim's picture

@JtC

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

NCTim's picture

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

gulfgal98's picture

from a one week vacation in the Netherlands. It was a cycling (as in bicycles) tour group. The Europeans in the group kept asking the Americans "what the fuck?" in reference to Donald Trump being elected President. One Norwegian taught my friend's husband how to say "what the fuck" in Norwegian. Anyway, it was a good microcosm of what the Europeans think about us.

Tim, I believe your feistiness is a good sign. You are interested in going and doing stuff which is an excellent sign. Go forth and enjoy life to the fullest! Smile

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

NCTim's picture

@gulfgal98

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

NCTim's picture

@gulfgal98 Coffee, yogurt and Internet for the day first.

Sounds uphill carrying something ->

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

riverlover's picture

I just got back from my third Dr appointment this week. That sh*t has to end. Sutures out of head, clavicle (broken) still aligned and today, get a compression stocking for my foot displacement to squeeze out the swelling. Hmmm. Still feeling post-concussion. AND, I turn into a vegetarian today. That is a scary leap. Actually, last night had an oat dish.

Yesterday, driving to a Dr appointment, through Cornell farmland, there was a pickup off-road and next to it was a tom turkey doing full display. Little vignettes like that can make my day. I am easy. Today, my May Apples are blooming.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

NCTim's picture

@riverlover

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Probably making a short story long.
Last night a storm came through. Heavy rains and high winds. During this I saw something I've never seen before.
I was looking out the window at the trees rustling in the wind. Between me and the top of the tree a circle of light appeared and immediately disappeared with a loud bang. No lightening bolt, no rumble of thunder, just a quick flash and a loud bang.
Hopefully someone out there with knowledge in meteorology or physics can explain what it was. My guesses are ball lightning or someone had a left over mortar shell from the 4th and decided to launch it during a rain rate of an inch per hour and thirty mile an hour winds gusting. The mortar shell is exactly it looked like, without the delay between flash and bang.
Any guesses/experience?

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There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

@ghotiphaze Yes, that sounds like ball lightning. I've seen it myself a couple of times, once right out my window in Ann Arbor, bouncing around inside the canopy of tree branches. Haven't seen one pop yet...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning

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@QMS the rest of the house thought a transformer blew until I told them.

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There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

MarilynW's picture

Walking downtown in the middle of the day I saw something cross the busy sidewalk ahead of me, thinking, "that's not a leaf, it's in a straight line." Closer I found a tiny grey mouse, It was probably stealing the bird food under the tree, then saw dozens of people coming down the sidewalk and panicked. It was going back and forth in the crevice outside a building and trying to jump to the ledge and failing. I heard people saying "yech" and "ugh". But I guided it along the crevice with my bag until it came to the corner, took a left turn and scampered into a yard. It's probably going to soon get caught in one of the many mouse traps around. Later I felt silly rescuing a rodent that 99.9% of the people hate but in the moment it was just a small creature in trouble.

Hey Tim, thanks.

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To thine own self be true.

lotlizard's picture

@MarilynW Their grey coats are a perfect match for the grey of the trackbed gravel. Natural enemies are held off by the onrushing trains and deafening noise level in the tunnels. Scavengeable food is abundant in trash bins and from litter. The boldest seem as used to venturing forth in plain sight of crowds of humans as to seeking concealment and quiet.

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lotlizard's picture

@MarilynW

Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murd’ring pattle!

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion,
Has broken nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An’ fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
’S a sma’ request;
I’ll get a blessin wi’ the lave,
An’ never miss’t!

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
It’s silly wa’s the win’s are strewin!
An’ naething, now, to big a new ane,
O’ foggage green!
An’ bleak December’s winds ensuin,
Baith snell an’ keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ waste,
An’ weary winter comin fast,
An’ cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell —
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro’ thy cell.

That wee bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble,
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou’s turn’d out, for a’ thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter’s sleety dribble,
An’ cranreuch cauld!

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ’men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

Still thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me
The present only toucheth thee:
But, Och! I backward cast my e’e.
On prospects drear!
An’ forward, tho’ I canna see,
I guess an’ fear!

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MarilynW's picture

@lotlizard
and thanks for the poem.

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To thine own self be true.

NCTim's picture

@MarilynW

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

MarilynW's picture

@NCTim

That's a different story.

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To thine own self be true.