Day: June 23, 2019

Putting it off

They urge us to eat well and exercise
So swallow mini aspirins every night
Since we have the choice to live or die

Money is quite handy  for good life
I might win the lottery at first try
They urge us to eat well and exercise

But poverty though relative ignites
The pain of  being seen as people slight
Do we have the choice to live or die?

What is illness has to be defined
What sugar level is the danger point?
They urge us to eat well and exercise

We swallow drugs and meditate online
We do  our work, ignore our painful joints
Should  we have the choice  on when we die?

With the holy oils shall we annoint
The living and the dead   whom love has caught
They urge us to eat well and exercise
Does even God  have mercy when we die?

Trial and horror

In the land of grief and tears I float
I can’t swim so will you send a boat?

My sorrow is as deep as love is high
I’ll crawl out when the sun has made my dry

I  heard her singing “Help me through the night”
I bought some  ear plugs , it was  that or flight

Leonard Cohen helped   me  in my woe
Then he died, it’s just my luck,I know

Imagination and good sight   are key
To perceiving well   the bleeding heart of me

I can’t be British,I am very warm
I cry with babies and with all who’re scorned

I’m just a foreigner  from Blackburn Lancs
We’re almost civilised, we have a Bank

The English people seem so very cold
They say, hello, please cross my palm with gold

I wept into my pillow in the night
The cat has emigrated,  it’s pure spite

I cried when I got washed and  then I dried
Saving water,I’m  preoccupied

The kitchen is  much  quieter  than a grave
My husband does the cooking, he’s my slave

I never ate a meal  all by myself
I’m in a restaurant ,  but there’s no-one  else

I went inside McDonalds for a test
Don’t go there if you wear woollen vests

I think I feel  my salty tears will flow again
I’ll find my hanky, breathe and eat my pen

I’m never going sad or mad again
The clock hands  move but where  is my old man?

 

 

Competitive grief

 

Is that a game we play in public?

I’ve lost six friends this year

You lost only a cat,

She lost her husband.

Somethings we’d never share anyway

I lost my pride,my job and my eyesight

You’d  never know but for the white stick

And my coat is five  years old.. or maybe ten

She got married  just a year after her husband

fell off the roof  onto the concrete yard

So what’s her claim to mourning?

It was just another topic to write about.

She made money.

Think of that.

Surely, in the USA , nobody would object to it

We know how important numbers and measurements are

In this society

We ourselves  are numbers to the government

So much easier to deal with.

But how can grief be measured?

Good actors can play the part

Others are more circumspect or shy.

In this society we forget

Not everything can be measured except metaphorically…….

Like,I’ve got your measure.

Competitive mourning,,,

Why not have a Game?

Why not have it in the Olympics?

Why not have it on TV  nightly.

Why not get the Queen to give us  medals?

Just  passing a remark,as it were.

No offence intended.

But it was taken like a dagger to the throat,

Then they blame you for having  such thin, thin skin

The Sermon off the Mount

8342227_f520 (1)https://fourminutebooks.com/the-courage-to-be-disliked-summary/

Extract

Lesson 3: A competitive mindset destroys your mental health.

In one of my most popular posts, I wrote:

Mark Twain remarked that “comparison is the death of joy.” But, and this is worse, it’s also the birth of misery.

This is something Adler would agree with. He saw competitive societies as detrimental to our mental health and well-being. Today, this is a prominent topic in debates around Western vs. Eastern culture. Countries like Japan and China also have competition, but are, overall, more focused on cooperation, whereas nations like the US and Germany really focus on individual winner types.

The problem is that if you believe in order to be happy, you need to come out on top of some game, like earning money, getting likes, or having friends, you’ll be sad and stressed either way. The losers feel bad for losing, the winners constantly worry about their success.

Adler sought something much more productive to be the purpose of psychology: to help humans be courageous. Once you let go of a narrow, competitive mindset and embrace abundance, you’ll never feel like anyone is holding you back. After all, there’s enough to go around for everyone and as long as you work on yourself, you can achieve anything you want!