Month: November 2013

Trouble

~ A Pondering Mind ~ 12 Comments

Most of the trouble in this world has been caused by folk’s who can’t mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus has. — William S. Burroughs

November 22, 1963

~ A Pondering Mind ~ 6 Comments
Source: en.wikipedia.org/
Source: en.wikipedia.org/

The question “Do you remember where you was, when President John Kennedy was assassinated”? The answer is yes. I was 14 years old, a sophomore at Lawrence High School. When the seventh period was over, which the last class of the day, there was a guy standing outside on the sidewalk, telling everyone, that the president was assassinated. Just about everybody that heard the news, was in disbelief, shock, or just didn’t know what to say. I can also remember what the weather was like, sunny and not that cold for that time of November. I also remember watching Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald in the Dallas Police Station. It’s still etched in mind seeing it live on a black and white television.

Also there was the nonstop coverage of what happened on that fateful day in Dallas. Seeing Vice President Lyndon Johnson taking the oath of office. The horse with no rider, signifying the death of the president. The slow and long walk to Arlington National Cemetery, and seeing his son, John-John giving the salute, as his casket was going by.

Its a day and the next few days that followed, I will never forget the big debate of whether the National Football League should go ahead and play that weekend or cancel the games, well they went ahead played the games, and there was a lot shit the NFL had to deal with. By the way, the old American Football League cancelled their games. I believe the National Basketball League cancelled their slate of games too.

The country lost a great man that served a 1,000 days, and if none of this happened, would the country be better? I don’t think anybody can answer that.

So ……

~ A Pondering Mind ~ 21 Comments

So earlier today, A Pondering Mind was outside getting some air. This was close to noon time.
Well, out comes one of my neighbors and this was the gist of the conversation:
He: Nice day, huh!
Me: What?
Off he went on his merry way.
This happened with an overcast sky, 40F, and a damp/raw feel to the air.

Five hours later, a similar conversation took place. This time with a female.
She: Hi
Me: Hi
She: It is snowing.
Me: Huh? It’s 60F, and a light mist.
She: It feels cold.
Me: Whatever
She left a minute or two later.

Nice people, but …. Wow! Talk about living on another planet.

Socrates

~ A Pondering Mind ~ 15 Comments

Socrates

Keep this in mind the next time you are about to repeat a rumor or spread gossip.

In ancient Greece (469 – 399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom. One day an acquaintance ran up to him excitedly and said, “Socrates, do you know what I just heard about Diogenes?”

“Wait a moment,” Socrates replied, “Before you tell me I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the Triple Filter Test.”

“Triple filter?” asked the acquaintance.

“That’s right,” Socrates continued, “Before you talk to me about Diogenes let’s take a moment to filter what you’re going to say. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”

“No,” the man said, “Actually I just heard about it.”

“All right,” said Socrates, “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about Diogenes something good?”

“No, on the contrary…”

“So,” Socrates continued, “You want to tell me something about Diogenes that may be bad, even though you’re not certain it’s true?”

The man shrugged, a little embarrassed. Socrates continued, “You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter, the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about Diogenes going to be useful to me?”

“No, not really.”

“Well,” concluded Socrates, “If what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me or anyone at all?”

The man was bewildered and ashamed. This is an example of why Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem.

It also explains why Socrates never found out that Diogenes was banging his wife.

Meditation

~ A Pondering Mind ~ 2 Comments

Meditation is not about finding the self–quite the contrary: it is about finding one’s way beyond the self. Meditation is also not about ‘explaining the mind’. It is instead about clearing away clutter created by the mind. — David M. White

Thinking

~ A Pondering Mind ~ 9 Comments

I came to a point where I needed solitude and just stop the machine of ‘thinking’ and ‘enjoying’ what they call ‘living’, I just wanted to lie in the grass and look at the clouds.
— Jack Kerouac

Hot Air Balloon

~ A Pondering Mind ~ 15 Comments

From my email inbox:

So you think you’re having a bad day…


then you step outside of your house… 

and look up into the beautiful blue sky… 

…and see this!!!!! image0010009All of a sudden, that smile comes back to your face and you say to yourself

”Now that’s a big ass balloon!!!”

…and things don’t seem quite so bad! 

HAVE A GREAT REST OF THE WEEK! 

Travelers Complaints

~ A Pondering Mind ~ 14 Comments

From my email inbox:

Its true. You can’t please everyone.

 

19 Idiotic (But Real) Travel Complaints
These are actual complaints received from dissatisfied customers by Thomas
Cook Vacations (based on a Thomas Cook/ABTA survey):
1. “I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local
convenience store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or
ginger nuts.”
2. “It’s lazy of the local shopkeepers in Puerto Vallarta to close in the
afternoons.  I often needed to buy things during ‘siesta’ time — this should
be banned.”
3. “On my holiday to Goa in Indi a, I was disgusted to find that almost every
restaurant served curry.  I don’t like spicy food.”
4. “We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to
bring our own swimsuits and towels.  We assumed it would be included in the
price.”
5. “The beach was too sandy.  We had to clean everything when we returned to
our room.”
6. “We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure.  Your brochure
shows the sand as white but it was more yellow.”
7. “They should not allow topless sunbathing on the beach.  It was very
distracting for my husband who just wanted to relax.”
8. “No one told us there would be fish in the water.  The children were
scared.”
9. “Although the brochure said that there was a fully equipped kitchen,
there was no egg-slicer in the drawers.”
10. “We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as
they were all Spanish.”
11. “The roads were uneven and bumpy, so we could not read the local guide
book during the bus ride to the resort.  Because of this, we were unaware of
many things that would have made our holiday more fun.”
12. “It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England.  It took the
Americans only three hours to get home.  This seems unfair.”
13. “I compared the size of our one-bedroom suite to our friends’
three-bedroom and ours was significantly smaller.”
14. “The brochure stated: ‘No hairdressers at the resort.’  We’re trainee
hairdressers and we think they knew and made us wait longer for service.”
15. “There were too many Spanish people there.  The receptionist spoke
Spanish, the food was Spanish.  No one told us that there would be so many
foreigners.”
16. “We had to line up outside to catch the boat and there was no
air-conditioning.”
17. “It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly
guests before we travel.”
18. “I was bitten by a mosquito.  The brochure did not mention mosquitoes.”
19. “My fiancé’ and I requested twin-beds when we booked, but instead we were
placed in a room with a king bed.  We now hold you responsible and want to be
re-reimbursed for the fact that I became pregnant.  This would not have
happened if you had put us in the room that we booked.”