Humility Or Humbug 2011
29 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in circling round vanities, a sense of the ridiculous, circling round reality, 2011, 2012 Tags: corruption, disrespect, downfall, everywhere
It’s a rainy, thund’ry day here in Härryda, Sweden (where Kent and I live in the country). The telephone is out. Somebody’s or somebodies have stolen the copper cables that have been hanging temptingly for months now (we live in a sad, corrupted conscience-free world). So here I was, doing the dishes, energized by coffee and wondering about the difference between humility and insecurity, they looking very much like each other.
Humility Or Humbug
It was a humdrum day.
Nothing on my mind,
I looked up humble
Where I found humdingers:
Humus
Humorous
For fingers.
Not a humph of sound,
For, humanized I pondered on
The difference ’tween
Low self-esteem
And lack of self-importance:
One, humility,
The other, well, -
Just plain old insecurities.
It is a fine line, hard to recognize.
The insecure seem often humble
And the humble insecure.
Good to analyze,
Who is the one to tell?
Then we come to arrogance.
Humility Or Humbug 7.5.2011
A Sense Of The Ridiculous; Circling Round Vanities; Circling Round Reality;
Arlene Corwin
-
No, the grass is never greener. Stay home and enjoy your Detroit could-be paradise. Help it along.
By the way, I worked in a wonderful jazz club in the 50′s! I don’t remember the name, but Detroit was the place then.
- Comment by Sue Shoemaker on Tuesday
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In your intro, Arlene, you mention someone stealing copper cables. Being from MI … we have heard so much about the destruction of old homes and other properties due to the theft of copper lines in Detroit. It’s interesting to hear that this is not just a Detroit or even just a USA phenomena. Sometimes it is easy to think that the ‘grass is greener’ in other places in the world.
- Comment by ARLENE CORWIN on Monday
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Pardon if this comes into your mail more than once.
Out this week -
Vaguely About Music
Arlene Corwin
The seventh in a series circling around some aspect of life: time, woman, the creative process, mysticism, vanity, our times and culture,Vaguely About Music deals with aspects of jazz, performance, criticism, celebration, mourning – all to do with music, the players, the performance.
Available on
Amazon.com, Xlibris.com, Barnes& Noble.
Also available as ebook
- Comment by ARLENE CORWIN on July 7, 2011 at 10:31
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I forgot to mention, – as a starting point I was fooling around with the hum’s. So in the seriousness of the message is the fooling around-ness too. Even in the most serious matters there must be and is fun – and (conversely) and perhaps even more important, even in the fun and under the fun lies always the serious. Contiguous walls. (see next blog).
Fondly,
Arlene, Sweden
- Comment by Marian Van Eyk McCain on July 6, 2011 at 20:48
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“…within the nowness of seconds, if you live in them, there is wisdom, and in that wisdom, security.” That’s a really profound statement, Arlene. I like it. And as Sue so rightly says, control is a total illusion.
Yes, that’s the beauty of poems. They are like Rorschach blots in the way they trigger associations, impressions, ideas, insights…
- Comment by Sue Shoemaker on July 6, 2011 at 19:01
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Not sure where I first heard the phrase … THE ILLUSION OF CONTROL … but it seems to relate to the discussion here. When speaking of “security” and/or ”change” … as much as we would like to think that we have “control” over these things … the fact of the matter is that the idea of CONTROL is just an ILLUSION.
- Comment by ARLENE CORWIN on July 6, 2011 at 18:47
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As the I Ching or Book of Changes says, there is nothing else but change. So, of course, all things being dynamic, there can’t be security (as we usually use the word) absolute. But within the nowness of seconds, if you live in them, there is wisdom, and in that wisdom, security.
And no, it isn’t what I meant in the poem, but your (Betty) and Marian’s response show what delicious things can come from a little poem.
Fondly,
Arlene
- Comment by Marian Van Eyk McCain on July 6, 2011 at 8:51
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That is SO true, Betty. And I guess that’s why Voltaire called life “a daring adventure.” Facing that, square on, is what ‘radical aliveness’ is all about.
- Comment by Betty Taylor on July 5, 2011 at 23:24
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There is no such thing as “security” in this life and it’s pursuit is a fruitless dead-end.
Think of all the empires built upon our fears and our pursuit of security–insurance businesses, financial markets, hospitals and health care businesses, nursing homes–the list goes on and on. We invest precious dollars in a futile attempt to ensure our safety. Life is not safe. Investing in these things out of fear becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. We end up creating the end we fear.
I know this may not be the road you were going down, but this is what your post stimulated in me.
Thanks,
Betty
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Created by Marian Van Eyk McCain Aug 12, 2009 at 1:25pm. Last updated by Marian Van Eyk McCain Nov 29, 2010.
Starting Point
Welcome to Elderwomanspace. This is YOUR network. If you are new here and/or are not already familiar with the way social networks operate,click here to read my note ‘Getting Started’. If you plan on inviting others into the network, be sure and click hereto read the ‘Invitations’ note first. There…Continue
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A Friend 2011/12
15 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2011, 2012, birth death & in between II, special people special occasions
A Friend
Died yesterday.
Peacefully.
Away from
Dopamine-less,
Speechless shaking.
Waking
To the feel of light,
Serenity,
And energy.
Unoriginal, banal:
This thing of death;
Too soon.
We mourn
An Eie gone but clothed
In strength again.
Eie rhymes with play-a.
A Friend 12.22.2011/12
Birth, Death & In Between II; Special People, Special Occasions;
Arlene Corwin
In One Of Those Moods 2011
14 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2011, the processes II
In One Of Those Moods
In one of those moods,
Understanding soothes the brain,
Everything has purpose:
Strangers, meetings, conversations
All by chance;
Enlightening,
Enhancing,
Dancing to the tune
Of experience.
In One Of Those Moods 9.13.2011
The Processes; Creative, Thinking, Meditative II:
Arlene Corwin
Influence 2011
02 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2011, circling round reality, our times our culture
Influence
Influence: Do you? Do I?
Have you? Have I?
All the editorialization
Of the agencies of ads –
Creating fads and trads?
Nothing that will last forever,
Influence an hour long.
I could be wrong.
It is a riddle,
My small circle with its ripples,
(Small, perennial and famous nipples
On the breasts of time)
Lasts, creating archetype and stories
That sustain the hymn;
An old, old testament holds sway
Over a future day
More than an hour long.
Influence 9.24.2007revised 12.18.2009/revised10.10.2011
Our Times, Our Culture; Circling Round Reality;
Arlene Corwin
Predictions 2011
02 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2011, our times our culture
Predictions 12.6.2011
There was a time when prophets numbered just a few. Now, when almost everybody knows what’s happening in one way or another and if they can put two and two together, they can come up with prophetic predictions.
They see the starts and ends. They see the trends. We push buttons and we know.
And still we cannot stop a thing.
Saying Yes To The Day 2011
02 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2011, to the child mystic II
Saying Yes To The Day
New lease on life
By saying yes
To impulse handed over:
Original, creative nows;
The old, the usual
A something new.
Each moment twinkling
With learning and sensation.
You never know.
Saying Yes To The Day 11.15.2011
To The Child Mystic II;
Arlene Corwin
Nail Filing 2011
02 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2011, birth death & in between II, circling round time II, our times our culture
Nail Filing
Sitting there watching,
(Lifeline gone slack)
Romance-drama crap,
Moment ephemeral,
Not coming back.
A snail in a jail,
She files a nail,
Not batting an eye/I
To the moment she’s got:
Stupid, eh, what!
Letting time float,
The kernel of moment,
A colorless journal of treasure or rot.
Nail Filing 6.6.2004 /2000/03 version #1#2 re-written12.23.2011
Birth, Death & In Between II; Circling Round Time II;
Our Times, Our Culture;
Arlene Corwin
Formerely called Passing Moment
And It Really Doesn’t Matter 2011
02 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2011, circling round time II
And It Really Doesn’t Matter
Reaching a new year
With no defining line
Between
The numbers and events.
Events which reel,
As numbers roll;
And nature rallies,
Changing shape.
Shifts and flux,
Transitions, links;
Only names and forms
On one long graph
To measure ups and downs
Statistics’ lows and highs,
Deaths and lives.
This, no new year,
Just symbol in a number
Where we’ll make our new year’s promises
And give our new year’s greetings.
Where we’ll throw or go to parties
With our aging parts
And play our parts;
Where line is fuzzy, fizzling out
And really doesn’t matter.
It Doesn’t Seem To Matter Anymore 12.30.2011
Circling Round Time II;
Arlene Corwin
Getting It Out Of My System 2011
02 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
Getting it Out Of My System
How can she hope to get a man,
Keep a man? She talks too much.
Opinions, views, pretended or
Half-knowledge
About all – and more…
She will attract the mild, unsure
Or boorish, dumb,
With whom she’ll have no words in common.
Which [relationship] can last awhile,
But she,
Who has to have control,
Step in, decide
Know what is right
in every situation -
She, who needs to dominate
Without the insight that she needs
All in the name of,
“All I want to do is help”
Will always lose her man
And never un-
derstand
The reasons why.
‘I was speaking’…
‘Listen here’…
Confrontational each visit –
Makes me nuts: distressed and down
Long hours after:
But that’s my freely chosen option.
Getting It Out Of My System 12.26.2011
Love Relationships;
Arlene Corwin
