Mary was feeling very bad tempered.Wearing her good brown coat without its fake fur collar she had ventured into Waterbones Bookshop.Putting her crutch against the wall she sat down on a small metal folding chair for a few minutes., pondering whether to buy a book for £20 or to go into Boots and buy some foundation cream and pink nail varnish
Suddenly a young woman approached and said in a strangely peremptory manner
If you want to sit down, you will have to go upstairsâl
I can’t get up the stairs Mary told her truthfully.You have no lift
Well, you are next to the Crime Section, it is very popular
There’s nobody here right now.So if people come I shall have left
No,get up cried the assistant
As the woman seemed unable to leave her alone, Mary left the shop.She decided to use Amazon.
So much for protecting her High Street!
As she approached her home. a neighbour came by and said a very offensive few sentences.Maybe she had an aversion to women
In the evening Mary received a text
I realise I offended you.I was in a hurry.Apologies.
After a few days Mary replied
I am sorry I could not stay to allow you to insult me further.I am in severe pain when standing still.If you wish to verbally attack me or insult me please invite me to your house and let me sit down .Then you can ring 999 and ask for Dave.
Later on Dave the transexual,transvestite and transforming paramedic ran in with a chocolate cake in his hand.He wore his denim dress with a yellow pinny decorated with embroidered ladybirds and some pink velvet shoes he had just got in the Market
Would you like me to make you a cup of tea,Mary? Where’s Annie? Dave said anxiously
Annie is down in Brighton for the weekend.She wants to see the sea,Mary lied
What’s wrong with Sheringham? Dave asked thoughtlessly?
She liked the shops in the Brighton.She likes to wander aimlessly about the lanes bumping into men now and then,Mary cried ironically
She could be arrested and imprisoned,Dave said untherapeutilcally
The men don’t seem to mind! Mary muttered loudly with envy on her voicel
You look pale,Mary,Dave whispered into her ear.Are you ok?
No , she murmured.Why are people so cruel to me?
Why not hit one with your stick, he suggested brilliantly
I am a pacifist and anyway they might hit me, back she thought out loud
How about :The gentle art of verbal self defence? I saw you read it/
I’d rather kick them, she answered pointedly
Now I have an idea,said Dave.I’ll put a suit on and accompany you out to the town
I can’t believe I need a “man” to protect me, she said in a low voice
But I am not a “man”, he cried desperately
Are you ” other” she queried
I am all and nothing, he said in a puzzled tone.
Are you God? she said in a sudden panic
Not yet, he cried.It’s Emile who is to be the New Messiah
No, mewed Emile.I am still not fully converted to Judaism.It is complex.
Well, get a move on.We can’t keep living the way we are,Mary sighed
Would you like to walk on water in this weather, the cat answered . Many are called and a few are frozen, he continued philosophically.
It would make a change, from the Gaza protests, Dave cried
I wish the PM would try it,Mary giggled fervently.Would her leopard skin shoes get wet?
We will never know.She’s into ankle boots now.
Next it will be knee high boots
Heil Theresa…..
Heil Boris
Who’d have Brexited that?
Send us peace in our rhymes,Lord

Stan the aged yet sexy senior citizen was outside polishing the brass doorstep till it gleamed in the early sunshine leaking from a blue and orange sky.
“My goodness,these microfibre cloths are wonderful” he thought intrigued.Mary was out taking a load of clothes to the Oxfam Shop.Suddenly he heard a loud cry.,then he felt a pair of hands fondling the top of his bald head and tugging on his beard.
“Eeh,no rest for the wicked,even at 81,” he screamed.He staggered to his feet and rubbed his nose with his knees.
“Just give me a hand” ,he said,”I’ll have to stretch my hamstrings.They tighten up so.”
“I’ll stretch them for you!” Annie whispered naughtily.Stan leant forward to touch his toes and she could not resist the temptation to give his bottom a hearty slap.
“For God’s sake,Annie” he shouted faintly.”Someone might see that.”
“Don’t worry,there’s no-one around at this time of the day” she tittered in her usual female manner..
“Oh,yes there is!”
It was Dave,the paramedic.He had been lying behind the wheelie bins,all three of them standing plaintively and unwanted in the tiny front garden.
“I’m an MI5 spy,and I’ve been reading your blog,Mr Brown.”We need you to answer a question”
“I’m not called Brown”,said Stan nerdishly.
“Refuses to accept reality,”Dave wrote in his little notepad with some blood he had taken from himself earlier,
“Jesus Christ!”, said Stan.”Now,now” said Dave,”that’s not your name.
“No my name is Tan,not Brown,you’ve been reading the wrong blog!” “Stan Tan!”
Dave appeared crestfallen,”Any chairs need mending today?”
“My what beautiful ears you have,sweetheart,” he said to Annie,
“They look like sea shells by the Dead Sea”
“Your eyes are like shallow pools in Lake Windermere during a summer thunderstorm.”Annie replied womanfully,sarcasm being alien to her nature.
“Are you still a transvestite?” she followed on incoherently yet logically.
“No,I had a mystical experience and now I’m a Zen Buddhist”
“How did that happen?” demanded Stan querulously.And can’t you be both?
“Well,I was knitting myself a Shetland lace sweater in pale blue mohair,and I suddenly had the feeling that everything was interwoven.
Going forward or backwards,sideways or straight ahead,it is all part of the warp and weft of life.
“mistakes don’t matter” he continued emotionally.
“Oh,yes,they do,”Annie said pouting her full lips,cherry pink by courtesy of L’oreal of Paris and New York,lip balm by Yves St Laurent,peach foundation by Lancome also of Paris,toning smokey grey mascara by Max Factor,handbag Annie’s own,deep burgundy 70 denier tights by M&S,Grey pointed ballet slippers by Bally of Switzerland.[also available in black,red and teal].Raspberry lingerie by ,strangely,M&S.
“As I was saying..,”
Dave dived back behind the wheelie bin.
Stan polished the brass and Annie disappeared in a patch of woodbine..
It was Mary’s famous and loud vocal imitation of a bicycle bell that had alerted them to her imminent return from the Oxfam shop.
“Don’t they make bike bells any more?” Dave boringly wondered as he carried on reading the new life of Emily Dickinson “A loaded gun.” He thought it was an army training manual,but,hey,mistakes don’t matter!Or do they?Read the next instalment yesterday at your local newsagent or here free of interest,hope or love.Any additions welcome.
All donations to Oxfam.

F

Hello Mary what are you doing today?

•  it was Annie, Stan’s  mistress when he was alive. Quite what her status was now is hard to imagine. However she remained on friendly terms with Mary and indeed  had helped Mary a good deal while she was grieving,mainly by being present in an understanding manner  not to mention making frequent cups of tea

 I’m going to see the Pope in Rome Mary cried out

 Are you being sarcastic, ironic, or have you gone mad? Annie  replied

Well I was trying to be sarcastic but I am not very good at it yet but I hope to improve as time goes by because research shows being sarcastic improveyour creativity

But can you be sure which part of your life will become more creative Annie ask her thoughtfully

 For example you might become more creative in the way you trying to attract men

 Well that would not be difficult said Mary as I do nothing to try to attract  them at the moment and on the other hand it could be rather time-consuming

 Would it improve my ability to write in a creative manner or to be more creative in what I cook

 I have no idea Annie  told her. the only problem is is that if you practice on me it might affect our friendship

 You are far too  childish Mary told her. Is that sarcastic?

 Tell me, the ex mistress of your ancient husband

 What do you mean ancient he was only 23”

 23 what? said Annie?
Are we being sarcastic?

  Well if we can’t  know the answer then we are not being sarcastic because I am sure we would realise if we were

 I am glad you  can express yourself in such a brief manner

 What have briefs got to do with it?

 I just found a bag full of dry ones and I have been Folding them  and  putting them into the draw.er

 Do you mean knickers?

 Yes I do but I couldn’t remember the name

 You’re pulling my leg

 No I’m not I’m nowhere near your leg

 Don’t tell me that you are not familiar with the expression meaning that you are joking

 Why do you assume I am not familiar with anything?

 I am giving you the benefit of the  doubt

 Doubt is a very dangerous State of Mind

 Shall I wear the pink knickers or the blue ones I spend  all morning trying to decide so it is best not to doubt anything but to believe that what you do must be correct and everybody else is wrong

 That’s alright as long as you’re not stealing people’s husbands

 If they can be stolen so easily  what does that tell us about the state of the marriage?
nothing nothing at all, men are so easily beguiled that is in the best of marriages they’re not be enough to keep them faithful  for ever

 Don’t be so horrible
I was trying to be sarcastic
Should it not come naturally  like  loving

 What kind of  loving do you mean?If you mean physical loving it doesn’t always come naturally to  human beings’many couples go for help in having a baby and the doctor discovers but they didn’t realise what sex was

 They thought by sleeping in the same bed the wife will get pregnant

 It seems very hard to believe but compared to thinking about Donald Trump

 and his lies it is nothing
Shall I put the kettle on  said Mary

 That is sarcastic Annie said  because you know that I always put it on when I am here
it is more like dropping hints  Mary cried
All these things are very hard for scientists. you don’t solve mathematical problems by dropping a hint nor does anyone drop hints  to you whereas  in interpersonal relationships it is very important to be able to drop hintd and to be able to take hints when they’re dropped in front of you
Mathematics and physics much easier than everyday life because they contain no sarcasm no irony and no hints whatsoever
I wonder if Wittgenstein would agree with you>

 as he is dead we cannot know

 I was just being sarcastic that’s all!

 It seems like that Mary and Annie are going to have to spend much longer  practicing sarcasm before they were able to go outside and be sarcastic to neighbours or Friends

 well Emile’s view is that he will not accept sarcasm from anybody

 he will bite the hand that feeds and in necessary

 because he knows that Mary will forgive him when he apologizes

 

On the other hand it will be easier if  he didn’t bite  anyone As God might be angry  with Emile  for being trying animal to live with

Hello Mary what are you doing today?

•  it was Annie, Stan’s  mistress when he was alive. Quite what her status was now is hard to imagine. However she remained on friendly terms with Mary and indeed  had helped Mary a good deal while she was grieving,mainly by being present in an understanding manner  not to mention making frequent cup see if resumes of tea and putting out the washin

 I’m going to see the Pope in Rome Mary cried out

 Are you being sarcastic, ironic, or have you gone ma? Annie  replied

Well I was trying to be sarcastic but I am not very good at it yet but I hope to improve as time goes by because research shows being sarcastic improveyour creativity

But can you be sure which part of your live will become more creative Annie ask her thoughtfully

 For example you might become more creative in the way you trying to sttact 

 Well that would not be difficult said Mary as I do nothing to try to attract  them at the moment and on the other hand it could be rather time-consuming

 Would it improve my ability to write in a creative manner or to be more creative in what I cook

 I have no idea Annie  told her. the only problem is is that if you practice on me it might affect our friendship

 You are far too  childish Mary told her. Is that sarcastic?

 Tell me, the ex mistress of your ancient husband

 What do you mean ancient he was only 23”

 23 what? said Annie?
Are we being sarcastic?

  Well if we can’t  know the answer then we are not being sarcastic because I am sure we would realise if we were

 I am glad you  can express yourself in such a brief manner

 What are briefs got to do with it?

 I just found a bag full of dry ones and I have been Folding them  and  putting them into the draw.er

 Do you mean knickers?

 Yes I do but I couldn’t remember the name

 You’re pulling my leg

 No I’m not I’m nowhere near your leg

 Don’t tell me that you are not familiar with the expression meaning that you are joking

 Why do you assume I am not familiar with anything?

 I am giving you the benefit of the  doubt

 Doubt is a very dangerous State of Mind

 Shall I wear the pink knickers or the blue ones I spend  all morning trying to decide so it is best not to doubt anything but to believe that what you do must be correct and everybody else is wrong

 That’s alright as long as you’re not stealing people’s husbands

 If they can be stolen so easily  what does that tell us about the size of the marriage?
nothing nothing at all, men are so easily beguiled that is in the best of marriages they’re not be enough to keep them faithful  for ever

 Don’t be so horrible
I was trying to be sarcastic
Should it not come naturally  like  loving

 What kind of  loving do you mean?If you mean physical loving it doesn’t always come naturally to  human beings’many couples go for help in having a baby and the doctor discovers but they didn’t realise what sex was

 They thought by sleeping in the same bed the wife will get pregnant

 It seems very hard to believe but compared to thinking about Donald Trump

 and his lies it is nothing
Shall I put the kettle on  said Mary

 That is sarcastic Annie said  because you know that I always put it on when I am here
it is more like dropping hints  Mary cried
All these things are very hard for scientists. you don’t solve mathematical problems by dropping a hint nor does anyone drop hints  to you whereas  in interpersonal relationships it is very important to be able to drop hintd and to be able to take hints when they’re dropped in front of you
Mathematics and physics much easier than everyday life because they contain no sarcasm no irony and no hints whatsoever
I wonder if Wittgenstein would agree with you>

 as he is dead we cannot know

 I was just being sarcastic that’s all!

 It seems like that Mary and Annie are going to have to spend much longer  practicing sarcasm before they were able to go outside and be sarcastic to neighbours or Friends

 well Emile’s view is that he will not accept sarcasm from anybody

 he will bite the hand that feeds and in necessary

 because he knows that Mary will forgive him when he apologizes

 O

On the other hand it will be easier if  he didn’t bite  anyone As God might be angry  with Emile  for being trying animal to live with

Many people believe that creative writing can help you when you are suffering from grief anxiety and other problems of life

I have found the following. That painful emotions create an energy within us which is often painful to tolerate. But your can use this energy to do something such as writing a poem.

00 from what I have read and what I have experienced the best kind of poetry to write is of a formal type. I was very hesitant about writing a sonnet but like everybody else I found that the more you do it it the more comfortable you get with it and it begins to seem easier to do do that at the beginning. After my husband died I studied and wrote villanelles So many that I wondered if I was the person on earth who had written more than anybody else. They are are pleasingly beautiful and musical so

The best-known villanelle in our culture is by Dylan Thomas. It is

Do not go gentle into that good night

Look it up and read it. I don’t agree with his sentiments but I think it’s a brilliant poem. I’d like to know what you think about it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_capability

,Dthe same way that chameleons are ‘negative’ for colour, Keatsian poets are negative for self and identity:^[10] they change their identity with each subject they inhabit.^[11] This is a kind of personal Tao, and like the cosmic Tao, negative capability can be difficult to grasp because it is not a name for a thing but rather a way of feeling or of knowing. This intuitive knowing of the inner life of, for example, a nightingale or a Grecian urn, cannot be grasped as a concept; as with Tao, it is known through actual living experience of one’s everyday changeable being. This capability depends on being negative to what Keats called ‘consequitive reasoning’.

considering how ethics should not use mathematics. In his influential book Reasons and Persons (1984), the philosopher Derek Parfit considers several misguided principles of moral mathematics. One is share-of-the-total, where the goodness or badness of one’s act is determined by one’s share in causing good or evil. According to this view, joining four other people in saving 100 trapped miners is better than going elsewhere and saving 10 similarly trapped miners – even if the 100 miners might be saved by the four people alone. This is because one person’s share of the total goodness would be to save 20 people (100/5), twice that of saving 10 people. But this allows 10 people to die needlessly. The share-of-the-total principle ignores that joining the four people in saving 100 miners does not causally contribute to saving them, while going elsewhere to save 10 miners does.

Another misguided principle is ignoring small chances

https://aeon.co/essays/how-to-solve-moral-problems-with-formal-logic-and-probability

Charles Darwin wrote in The Descent of Man (1871): ‘Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than knowledge.”

Lay down beside me let me hold you close

Take my hands and let us now embrace

Go to sleep in peace, I’ll hold you tight.

I would like to comfort you this night

Yet the boatman comes before the dawn

I’d like to hold you near me keep you warm

Once my little sister, now we’re old .

Old we are and never will be cold

Sharp tears do strike my face and fall to earth

The same that mother felt when giving birth.

She gave up and died without a cause

Complaining of her lot without a pause

I had no patience could not hear her speak ..

I could not tolerate the news so bleak.

Forgive me sister, I am here with you.

Surrendering to the pain of knowledge new.

On your voyage you will be alone

But you will be at peace we’re past the storms

The Lord will give the Lord may take away.

Tender are your family today

Negative capability

Dhttps://aeon.co/essays/deny-and-become-the-radical-ethos-of-negative-capability

i

Forget memory. Kill desire. Open up in the moment to unleash creativity, intuition, and even political transformation

by Paul Tritschler + BIO

Pablo Picasso was in his late 20s when he learned to paint like the Old Masters, but it took 30 years more to learn to paint like a child. His journey towards childlikeness, which he said he achieved through a process of self-forgetfulness, was fruitful but arduous, a lifelong fight against social influences. Finding a purer, more instinctual vision of the world required getting to know himself outside the boundaries of his social group. The task of finding a truly original voice while bound to a group is analogous to looking for your keys under a streetlight because it is too dark to search for them where they were lost. In both instances, we might improve the search by not looking: lost things often materialise when we shut them from our mind. In fact, we are not closing our mind but opening it, waiting for the unconscious, that great unknown, to solve the riddle. And quite often it does.

The unconscious can perform astonishing feats of memory, but it can also play a remarkable role in creativity: sudden insights, solutions and life-enhancing ideas sometimes surface unbidden when the mind is adrift in unconscious reverie. If such chance awakenings are possible, how can you replicate those conditions to become more the author, and less the reporter, of your own meaningful life story? To find that elusive voice, we’ve got to search in the ‘now’, in the moment of true, lived experience that fleetingly exists between past and future. It is within that space that we must seek the locus of personal transformation and change.

But being in the moment, developing an awareness of ‘now’, means gaining control over our thoughts and the unconscious patterning of memory so that they don’t intrude. If we can’t wrestle control over things, then something has gone awry in the master-servant relationship – there is truth in the old aphorism: ‘The mind is an excellent servant but a terrible master.’ To overcome this complex bind, we must identify how the mind constrains us, and then we must break free. Among the traps of the mind, there is preoccupation with the past (including attachment to intrusive memories) and preoccupation with the future (including continual desire). By definition, these lures are incompatible with being in the moment. We must offload this excess baggage to glimpse what we are and what we might become.

There might be none who has given voice to the process more eloquently than the mid-20th-century British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion. It was Bion who said that one discovers truth, the ingredient essential to psychic growth, on the cusp of knowing and not knowing. On the cerebral map, not knowing is located somewhere at the edge of the world, and Bion demands that we stretch ourselves to the precipice and face it unflinchingly.

Bion’s approach can seem paradoxical because it restricts memory and desire while operating within the bounds of psychoanalysis, a profession that rests on the twin pillars of memory and desire. Yet the approach has been embraced by philosophers and self-seers for thousands of years. The practice has its beginnings with Plato, who contemplated the divine as something that was at once knowable and unknowable: knowable by way of all-pervasive beauty and perfection in the Universe, and unknowable by way of rational intellect. The thread of the idea was carried into history by the Christian mystical text The Cloud of Unknowing. This 14th-century work asks us to immerse our thoughts and desires under a cloud of forgetting, to surrender our ego to find some measure of reality. The Cloud’s intensely meditative and contemplative approach focuses on a single object or monosyllabic word – ‘God’ or ‘love’. 

https://www.inc.com/kevin-daum/17-reasons-people-aren-t-listening-to-you.html

Possibly you are only talking about yourself, you interrupt, and you whine

Oddsbodkins friend. Cripes you might be a narcissist. Damn it all . You are going to hell in a handbasket. Have you got a smoke alarm? Get ready, the end is nigh.