December 16 – Random Thoughts
Select A Size: For years, decades, for as long as they existed, paper towels came in one size. Tearing the perforated square to wipe whatever it is that required wiping required little or no calculating on your part. Presumably, the company that invented paper towels, Scott, I believe it was; presumably they did the appropriate design research and consumer testing and came up with the optimal size for a paper towel square. The result was a paper towel size that remained the standard for decades. It was functional, popular with consumers and required, as I said before, very little calculating on the part of the user. This all changed with the newly introduced concept of “select a size”. At first, like many consumers I was duped into believing this was a much need improvement over the previous standardized system. I thought, now I can choose precisely the right size paper towel for the job at hand. What I have since discovered, is that choosing a paper towel now required a judgment call, a micro engineering calculation that often has to be done sometimes under semi-stressful conditions…the cleaning up of some unforeseen spillage or accidental mess making that requires a rapid response. So now I find myself having to make a judgment call about paper towels and evaluating it afterwards. Did I take too much? Could I have done more with less? Could I have done a better job with a bigger piece? These are all questions that never came up in the decades of standardized paper towel usage. So the point here, our lives are complicated enough, we are called upon to make so many decisions every single day, some with profound consequences, why add one more level of thought to the selection of the size of the paper towel you choose. I can’t think of a good reason…
Guns and Babies: I don’t understand how you can be pro-life and anti-gun control. Guns kill about 30,000 Americans every year and injure about another 75,000. If you are pro-life does it not stand to reason that you would want to preserve the lives of people who get shot by unregulated guns also?
Paying attention: Do you think it’s possible that some people multi-task because they suffer from attention deficit disorder?
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Reflections, Observations and Resonant Experiences From the frontlines of the war on sanity
Welcome to my blog
This blog is work in progress. The idea is for this space to become a forum for observations and insight that might perhaps stimulate thought, encourage an exchange of ideas and occasionally entertain and amuse. I hope you enjoy and can find time to witness and contribute to the evolution of the ideas contained in this space.
Quotes:
"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it."
Albert Einstein
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak: courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Sir Winston Churchill
"I Believe in all that has never yet been spoken. I want to free what waits within me so that what no one has dared to wish for, may for once spring clear without my contriving. If this is arrogance, God, forgive me, but this is what I need to say. May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way is is with children.
Then in these welling and ebbing currents, these deepening tides moving out, returning, I will sing you as no one ever has, streaming through widening channels into the open sea."
Rainer Maria Rilke
"It ought to be easy ought to be simple enough. Man meets woman and they fall in love, But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough, And you've got to learn to live with what you cant rise above, if you want to ride on down in through this tunnel of love..."
Bruce Springsteen
"After the sleepless nights and restless days, after wounds have been opened and tears have been shed, after the soul is laid bare and the heart bleeds for wanting, after words falter and meaning is denied, after the promise of bliss is forsaken and the seeds of doubt bear fruit, after darkness fills the emptiness and emptiness is all that remains....
After all this, in the echo of all that came before….their can still be hope."
L. Rivera
Albert Einstein
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak: courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Sir Winston Churchill
"I Believe in all that has never yet been spoken. I want to free what waits within me so that what no one has dared to wish for, may for once spring clear without my contriving. If this is arrogance, God, forgive me, but this is what I need to say. May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way is is with children.
Then in these welling and ebbing currents, these deepening tides moving out, returning, I will sing you as no one ever has, streaming through widening channels into the open sea."
Rainer Maria Rilke
"It ought to be easy ought to be simple enough. Man meets woman and they fall in love, But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough, And you've got to learn to live with what you cant rise above, if you want to ride on down in through this tunnel of love..."
Bruce Springsteen
"After the sleepless nights and restless days, after wounds have been opened and tears have been shed, after the soul is laid bare and the heart bleeds for wanting, after words falter and meaning is denied, after the promise of bliss is forsaken and the seeds of doubt bear fruit, after darkness fills the emptiness and emptiness is all that remains....
After all this, in the echo of all that came before….their can still be hope."
L. Rivera
Amalfi Sunset
Creative Write
Life In Rain
It’s raining outside. Pouring. Inside the fireplace is lit, silhouettes move across the walls responding to unseen forces, dancing to a music of their own. It smells of hickory and cinnamon. Echoes of laughter, music and children’s voices warm the room. The wind blows patterns of raindrops onto the window, bending the light so that the trees and buildings outside move in and out of focus. By the door is a size two sneaker. Only one, its companion resting in some other location, its owner also resting in some other location, lost in dreams of her own. Throughout the house shadows meet light forming images on an invisible canvas that celebrate the ordinary miracles that bless its inhabitants. It is quiet in this place now and the rain shows no sign of letting up. A knock on the door, faint at first, then once more, this time more insistent. The door opens. Wind, rain cross the threshold, no one enters… Yet somehow a presence lingers…A shadow, a thought, a feeling that fills the empty spaces. Perhaps it’s merely an illusion, a trick of the light caused by the wind and falling rain. No. It’s proximity is undeniable now. A presence that touches the soul. Inside a man stands alone; he is startled, moved by a power he cannot yet define. Inside him something stirs. He rises from the stillness of his own thoughts, blood rushing through him, driven by the rhythm of a heart that has been awakened from a slumber long in the making and slow in the undoing. Excitement, fear, anticipation, build to a crescendo, manifested in an inner symphony that no one hears. Again, a knock, louder, urgent, unrelenting…. Again the door is forced open. In the darkness a figure moves in and out of shadows. Rain obscuring the view, the observer appears uncertain, unsure of what he sees…. He stands at the portal trying to envision what might await there. He looks out upon the tempest that is passing and sees only fading images that depart before he can grasp what lies before him. His heart fills with desire, yet he remains silent, for the image recedes before its semblance can be made whole. The presence withdraws before its form can be fully defined, her essence vanishing before it can be fully embraced. The rain is relentless.
Inside the man retreats to the comfort of shadows and light, of fire and warmth, of memories of laughter and a music that only he can hear. He retreats to the world of small wonders embodied in the image of a singular size two sneaker. Still, he remains haunted by the lingering presence that awakened him from a deep and dreamless sleep…Was it a ghost? A memory of some distant past? A vision of some future yet lived?
He retreats to the comfort of shadows and light, of fire and warmth, of memories of laughter and a music that only he can hear. He retreats to the world of small wonders embodied in the image of a singular size two sneaker. It’s raining outside. Perhaps; perhaps it was just the rain.
It’s raining outside. Pouring. Inside the fireplace is lit, silhouettes move across the walls responding to unseen forces, dancing to a music of their own. It smells of hickory and cinnamon. Echoes of laughter, music and children’s voices warm the room. The wind blows patterns of raindrops onto the window, bending the light so that the trees and buildings outside move in and out of focus. By the door is a size two sneaker. Only one, its companion resting in some other location, its owner also resting in some other location, lost in dreams of her own. Throughout the house shadows meet light forming images on an invisible canvas that celebrate the ordinary miracles that bless its inhabitants. It is quiet in this place now and the rain shows no sign of letting up. A knock on the door, faint at first, then once more, this time more insistent. The door opens. Wind, rain cross the threshold, no one enters… Yet somehow a presence lingers…A shadow, a thought, a feeling that fills the empty spaces. Perhaps it’s merely an illusion, a trick of the light caused by the wind and falling rain. No. It’s proximity is undeniable now. A presence that touches the soul. Inside a man stands alone; he is startled, moved by a power he cannot yet define. Inside him something stirs. He rises from the stillness of his own thoughts, blood rushing through him, driven by the rhythm of a heart that has been awakened from a slumber long in the making and slow in the undoing. Excitement, fear, anticipation, build to a crescendo, manifested in an inner symphony that no one hears. Again, a knock, louder, urgent, unrelenting…. Again the door is forced open. In the darkness a figure moves in and out of shadows. Rain obscuring the view, the observer appears uncertain, unsure of what he sees…. He stands at the portal trying to envision what might await there. He looks out upon the tempest that is passing and sees only fading images that depart before he can grasp what lies before him. His heart fills with desire, yet he remains silent, for the image recedes before its semblance can be made whole. The presence withdraws before its form can be fully defined, her essence vanishing before it can be fully embraced. The rain is relentless.
Inside the man retreats to the comfort of shadows and light, of fire and warmth, of memories of laughter and a music that only he can hear. He retreats to the world of small wonders embodied in the image of a singular size two sneaker. Still, he remains haunted by the lingering presence that awakened him from a deep and dreamless sleep…Was it a ghost? A memory of some distant past? A vision of some future yet lived?
He retreats to the comfort of shadows and light, of fire and warmth, of memories of laughter and a music that only he can hear. He retreats to the world of small wonders embodied in the image of a singular size two sneaker. It’s raining outside. Perhaps; perhaps it was just the rain.
2 comments:
I find it interesting that you can find such a great number of words for a comment on Select a Size role of paper and so few words on guns and babies.
Select a Size addresses the issue of waste. No thought required. Little spill use less paper...save trees....simple. Don't think just buy the roll that offers a choice....simple! When you make a mess....use as little or as much as you want.....If you don't want to think about how much you need, just rip off some paper and clean your mess. For those of us wanting to use less, I appreciate the ability to tear off a smaller piece with little effort.
As for Guns and Babies-It is an extremely difficult decision for me to be FOR-choice on just about everything EXCEPT guns. I believe in Choice but when it comes to guns, I believe it should be NO GUNS...NO CHOICE !
I just heard on the news that they were voting to allow college students to carry guns. The motivation: criminal beware!!! Now that truly is absurd!! The aggressive criminal now has new motivation - he may be able to get a "new" gun from his frightened victim. Even the students being interviewed said that they would feel less secure knowing that their fellow students may be carrying guns. What if someone misunderstands what I am communicating and get very upset was the comment of one of the students. More guns....yeah...that's what we need !! GEEZ OF PETE PEOPLE...STOP AND THINK....PLEASE
ADD is the inability to block distractions. This makes one more prone to moving from task to task, without completing any of them. Multi tasking requires VERY focused attention on each of the tasks being done simultaneously. The proficient multi tasker can finish all the tasks at hand. The ADD person may or may not finish any of them efficiently...they're too distracted by um chickens, the conversation next door, the dropped plate, the music, the
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