Chapter 150 - The Stillness Before Time (Compendium)


CL

The promise of so much more
Takes another belly-flopping leap
Into murky, ludicrous dudsville.

* * * *
Just play the role.

* * * *
No matter how it’s transcribed,
It is still a mystery.

* * * *
Once you really begin to know your Self,
You finally begin to understand
Why a lot of things are the way they are.

* * * *
Shhh, they cannot see you.

* * * *
Neither hot nor cold, warm nor tepid,
Nor any temperature at all.

* * * *
It touches you as no other.

* * * *
A sleeper.

* * * *
Bitter like bad beer or coffee,
Harsh like cold steel, soft like a kitten’s fur,
How it fools you in so many ways.

* * * *
Doing the Johnny Appleseed.

* * * *
How pleasant to walk about unseen,
Unnoticed, unknown, unattached.

* * * *
Slow down, boy.
Just because your soul is immortal
Doesn’t mean your physical form is.
Most older folks probably wistfully wish
They’d taken it a bit easier at some point,
Perhaps many.

* * * *
It isn’t about nice or sweet or good,
Nor is it about not-so-nice-not-so-sweet-not-so-good.
It is about what it is.

* * * *
Broken, not busted.

* * * *
You know it as well as I do.

* * * *
If you insist on having meaning and purpose,
Let it be whatever the moment calls from you.

* * * *
Judgment is a sure sign of a busy mind.

* * * *
A mind open to all possibilities
Is something to witness,
A clarity unmatched by any other.

* * * *
That’s all I’ve got to say on that,
For now.

* * * *
When are all you good Christians
Going to figure out Jesus ain’t coming back?
2000 years and counting…

* * * *
Once you know how things work,
The puzzle comes together.

* * * *
Wars are rarely won the first day.

* * * *
Listening is one of the oft-neglected arts.

* * * *
What is imagination in neutral?

* * * *
Practice what you preach.

* * * *
An eclipse
Is really just one piece of dust
Floating between two others.

* * * *
Revolutions are won through great perseverance.

* * * *
What better time to do anything
Than when the mood strikes.

* * * *
Martyrdom is a good way to get free press.

* * * *
If you miss the process,
You’ve missed everything.

* * * *
Minding you own business
Would sure simplify things.

* * * *
Don’t want soda pop no more.
Water’s good enough.

* * * *
The identity to which you cling
Is about as secure as a balloon
Waving before a pin on a windy day.

* * * *
Waiting for the rest of your life.

* * * *
You’re in gravity’s clutches now, baby.

* * * *
Better to abort or adopt
Than to bring an unwanted child
Into this world already hellish enough.

* * * *
Tinkering with the human play, you are, you are.

* * * *
What a time machine you are.

* * * *
Were you born to die
For some flag, cross or corporate logo?

* * * *
Nothing stays the same.
Don’t get stuck.
Find your gumption
And stay with the dynamic,
Unfolding present.

* * * *
As much as you think you know,
It really isn’t squat.

* * * *
The player in the play is the play in the player.

* * * *
Uncarved block,
Still pond,
Blank tablet,
Unsharpened sword,
Beginningless beginnings
And unending ends.

* * * *
Too many children ruling the roost.

* * * *
No matter how haughty your breeding,
You are ultimately no different
Than the most disgusting slime ever born.

* * * *
Toke on the thought for awhile.

* * * *
Another of life’s little adventures.

* * * *
So nonchalant.

* * * *
Why keep remembering this imagined identity?
A rather curious preoccupation, really.

* * * *
So much insanity.
The only question, really, is how will it end?

* * * *
Statistically speaking,
The tail generally follows the head.

* * * *
Don’t give up the ship,
But don’t expect it not to sink, either.

* * * *
A fool and his money are swiftly,
Oh so swiftly parted.

* * * *
The future is out your hands.

* * * *
Say little.
Actions speak
Much more loudly.

* * * *
Consciousness creates time
That it might continue imagining itself real.

* * * *
So many forces
Shape, mold and prune each of us
Into what we pretend to be.

* * * *
Sometimes you pass something
Thousands of times,
And never see it.

* * * *
The pope is just another old man
In a long line of old men
Who have always made poor choices
When it comes to tailors.

* * * *
How incredible it must have been
Before all the wire and asphalt.

* * * *
Imagine every mask.

* * * *
Tradition is a great scam.

* * * *
If there is a god, it would make sense
That he’s an absentee landlord.
We must be an incredible disappointment.

* * * *
With detachment comes an ironic mirth.

* * * *
Suffer well.

* * * *
Anger is denial of what’s really happening.
What’s the point in getting irritated by stupidity?

* * * *
Real by design only.

* * * *
A certain number wake up,
And the rest slumber on.

* * * *
I owe you as much and you owe me,
Which is squat.

* * * *
You may not be able to take it with you,
But it can be stacked around the grave.

* * * *
What good is wealth if used for foolish ends?

* * * *
Only people without a life would bother.

* * * *
Why wait for heaven
When you can have your cake and eat it, too?

* * * *
So much of it is about one habit or another.

* * * *
Nothing turns to moments
To seconds to minutes to hours
To days and nights to weeks to months
To seasons to years to decades to lifetimes
To nothing again.

* * * *
Set your own mark.

* * * *
More than likely will soon be forgotten
As most things are.

* * * *
Parents generally seem to want
For their children to be like them.
It confirms their existence.

* * * *
Worry less about when you’re going to die,
And pay attention to the life you have left.

* * * *
To do nothing is the greatest good.

* * * *
No weakness allowed.

* * * *
We imagine so many layers of value.

* * * *
Our only garden ruined.

* * * *
Sit back, watch, and you will see
Your Self across the board.

* * * *
Wax wings only melt
If you fly higher than your capacity.
No use being a moth to flame.

* * * *
Infinite patience?
You must be looking for some other guy.

* * * *
Face it, we’re all crackers.

* * * *
Identity and personality are just protective layers
Of a neural unit trying to survive its own imagination.

* * * *
If it can’t be put simply,
It may not be worth saying.

* * * *
The parody plays on.

* * * *
What we agree upon is the marker of right and wrong.

* * * *
Interesting to watch,
But not something
You need to do.

* * * *
Detach from your fate.

* * * *
A seed crystal to precipitate a future chemistry.

* * * *
Every action defines a course.

* * * *
So you think you’re normal, too?

* * * *
Yesterday and tomorrow are just concepts.

* * * *
Maybe yes, maybe no.
Maybe, maybe, maybe all depend
On one capricious judgment or another.

* * * *
Worship nothing.

* * * *
You are, you are.

* * * *
About face,
Forward,
March.

* * * *
Scapegoat consciousness.

* * * *
War is just terrorism on a larger scale.
It is not the size of the club, but the state of mind.

* * * *
A project ever-incomplete.
Too much to do, and little inclination
Or incentive to see it through.

* * * *
Any unified theory will always just be a theory.

* * * *
Forever alone.

* * * *
Passion shapes the mind in so many ways.

* * * *
Another nice idea.

* * * *
Sometimes caring so much wears you out.

* * * *
Another oopsy that really doesn’t matter.

* * * *
What is any given fairytale but a story
With morals of one sort or another.

* * * *
One group’s decision is another’s conspiracy.
One man’s terrorism is another’s war.

* * * *
What mother ever really knows her son?

* * * *
Once you step outside any given mythos,
You are judged insane by all who remain in the cave.
But realize also that you may just be in one of many larger caves
You have yet to discern.


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The Stillness Before Time (Compendium)
© Michael J. Holshouser 2009
World Rights Reserved