Pro-Choice

It is easy to make poor choices when we are able to distance ourselves from their consequences or  feel we are completely impervious to them at all.
But I will tell you this, there are always consequences for them. They usually manifest longer than we thought and in ways we could not possibly have imagined at the time.
Most often we are not the only ones who bear the cost of them.

Ask a Smoker

Ask any smoker why they smoke and I'll guarantee you the answer will never be, " because everything is fucking awesome."

Black Tea Matters

I'm sorry.
Allow me to clarify.
I am NOT condoning or condemning the Tea Party or the riots.
Between the two neither is "right" but both are understandable to me.

The Boston Tea party was a carefully organized protest with a select number of chosen participants & with a clear singular objective, in which white people disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and destroyed a shitload of tea.
That no deaths occurred in that process is situationally incidental.

BLM riots have reprehensible collateral damage, the blame falling under mob mentality as I can see.
They have one singular motivating agenda, but the problems are vast in nature and deeply rooted in culture.
They are meant to address globally what peaceful protest has not accomplished individually.
I have not, will not, condone or condemn either, but I understand them both.
And let's be real at the time the tea party was pretty fucking radical.

Allow me to add that:
[1] The tea party addressed financial and political issues.
[2] The riots are primarily addressing the cultural and moral issues that have begotten the political issues
[3] Both address ethical issues.
[4] The Tea Party folks were a long way off from their ruling government & none of them were ever caught. But let's be real, if they had real balls they wouldn't have tried to give the Mohawk's the blame. But you know, Red privilege and all, they probably had it coming.

The Tea Party's object
Again...
https://thsppl.com/its-not-about-race-fb140bac8f1#.elq6o1dfr

PPP

Play Ping Pong... if you've got the balls for it.

Beer John Letter

Dear Alcohol,

Please don't misunderstand me.
I do still love you very much.
You intoxicate me.

It seems the feeling isn't mutual however and I can really only count on you to be with me when I have money.

That hurts...

I'm not breaking up with you though.
I'll be back next payday.

Sincerely,
db

Huffing and Puffing

I am locked out
You are locked in
And between us only walls

People and Places

There is always the next thing
Avoiding the certain next thing
Only ensures the uncertain next thing
But there is always the next thing
Until there is only the last thing
Until there is at last nothing

Jealous Again

Jealous of cats
Jealous of phones
Jealous of kids
Jealous of dogs
Jealous of Facebook
Jealous of movies
Jealous of shows
Jealous of bands

You Say Tomato

Although almost no one notices it, it is far more likely, and far more common, for a man to die slowly over the course of his life from the sufferings of a million pin pricks, than being allowed to die in a single moment by the blow of a sword.

Onlookers will marvel and admire the man who dies dramatically in a single moment and yet scratch their heads trying to comprehend a man's mundane lifetime of endurance while they continue to stick even more pins into him.

Between what is right and what is wrong in my life, what is wrong is probably very minor comparably, and in the grand scheme, inconsequential without a doubt...

But still, I'll be damned if those little pin pricks don't hurt like hell. They take their toll those tiny drops of blood.

Two Rights Don't Make a Wrong

I have said it before and I will say it again. Everyone thinks they are right. That much is expected, but it is unimportant and unnecessary most of the time, to persuade anyone else of that. Let your own certainty be enough to satisfy your pride. If you are compelled to do so simply present your case and move on. You do not need to, and could not possibly right all the wrongs of this world.
Better yet, if your ego allows, remain silent and listen without concern for response. You may discover a perspective you couldn't possibly have even considered.
We are limited by our own experience, but we certainly don't have to be. Just as two wrongs don't make a right, two rights don't always make a wrong.
I have found that some of the most crucial pieces of advice in the Bible require us to simply be still and silent so that God may work. He does not require our assistance, though He may allow it. Shift your focus and you will see that you are more likely to see His work by looking internally than externally.
Men may convince the mind, but it is God that convicts the heart.
Just a thought...

Why Not

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.

It seems I've made it
One more day
I didn't die
Or walk away

If you don't strive to be the best you, you can be, you run the very real risk of becoming the worst you, you can be.
d(-_-)b

It's not about winning and losing, it's about choices and choosing. d(-_-)b

If I agree that you can shoot me in the face does that make it okay to shoot me?

The Road to Hell

Well intentioned people aren't always helpful.
Helpful people aren't always well intentioned. 
Buyer beware.

Hardly Ever Herd

Honesty and truthfulness are not at all the same. 
In fact one can be both honest and truthful and still be deceitful. 
Just something to remember...

Idiotique

The great irony of depression/ deep pain is that those times that you would probably benefit most from talking to someone are also the times you feel least like talking to anyone.
It's cyclical, a downward spiral.
Reaching out means mailing yourself vulnerable on a level that is easily violated by anyone lacking empathy even with the best of intentions.
Alone in a crowd, you look for people, who might be looking back. Any sort of hint or clue,  anyone who might understand, but how would you ever know if you found them since neither of you would say a word without that certainty.
Confiding in strangers may help for a time, and I have found that there can be a great comfort and bond with those who may share a mutual affliction, but there is far less often resolution.
So there you are stranded on a beautiful tropical island with plenty of sunshine and fish abounding. Paradise to anyone else, but you are the albino allergic to fish.
You don't need sunshine, you need shelter.
You need someone who's already been where you're at, come out the other side, to help you find your way.
That's not easy.
Find someone who can be silent and still without judgement or the need to fix you. Find someone who will listen, and that is the first step in finding someone to whom you should probably listen.

W by SW

Where there's a swill there's a sway.

Gandhi Thinks You're an Asshole

Whenever I see Christians post that quote from Gandhi "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians..." I wonder if what  they're saying is (a) If Gandhi calls you an A-hole that's awesome & you should post that publicly! or (b) I'm pretty sure the quote would have been much different if Gandhi had just met me first. Either way it baffles me. BTW the quote actually qoes on to say this: "...Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it's not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time."

Doctor Frankenstein's Monster

The kids started school the Monday following the crash.

That first morning, unintentionally, I made one of Maddy's schoolmates (Race) cry on the playground before school.

When came up to say hi to me, with unbound enthusiasm, he too one look at my face and immediately buried his face in his mom's belly and started crying.

I've never thought of myself as good looking, but that was an all time low.

Making children cry at the mere sight of me. :(

Originally published 8/15/11

What if instead of seeing many kinds of people, from many points of origin & different from ourselves, we saw only one kind of person, from only one point of origin, kindred spirits, each of us in and responding to many different situations...

5 Words: I'm Glad I Met You

Life takes a lot more effort for some of us. Someone's best may bear a striking resemblance to your worst, and for some people it takes everything within them just to keep going.
It's easy to forget that, but you never really know what's happening deep beneath the surface and the depth of impact that a couple of words, or a simple gesture will make in the life of someone else.
So consider this: At any given time, when you have stopped realizing that anyone else sees and hears you, they do, and in that momemt you may be the tipping point for someone in realizing their fullest potential... and that's not always good.
Love
It should be the one agenda that trumps every other, sometimes that includes logic.
Logical is about the last thing Jesus was to the people that met him and I can find no logic in the work of the cross, simply grace. Love cannot be our motive if it's not our method as well.
Do everyone a favor then, if you can't be kind, at least be constructive,  and if you can't manage that much then try to silently pass unnoticed.
Be good to yourselves,  be good to each other.
d(-_-)b

People, Places, Things

Once upon a time in a far away land there were things that could be fixed and they were worth fixing. And so that's what people did, to their stuff and to their relationships.
Knowing that what is treated like garbage eventually becomes garbage, they took great care in how they treated both and every thing and every body lived happily ever after.
The End

Why People Hate Salesmen

Going into business to provide a good or service may yield money.
Going into sales is only about the money.