THE EXAMINED LIFE - INTEGRITY

                           La plus grand chose du monde c’est de savoir être à soi.

“Neither position in the world, the privilege of blood nor talent makes for the nobility of man, but solely the degree to which he strives to preserve his personality and to live his own life.”

Zweig - Montaigne

THERE CAME BOTH ICE AND SNOW -

ICE PATTERNS

FEAST OF CHRISTMAS - BIRTH OF CHRIST

Puer natus est nobis, et filius datus est nobis: cuius imperium super humerum eius: et vocabitur nomen eius, magni consilii Angelus		A child is born to us, and a Son is given to us: Whose government is upon His shoulder: and His Name shall be called, the Angel of Great Counsel.
Cantate Domino canticum novum: quia mirabilia fecit.		Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: because Hehath done wonderful things.
Puer natus est nobis, et filius datus est nobis: cuius imperium super humerum eius: et vocabitur nomen eius, magni consilii Angelus		A child is born to us, and a Son is given to us: Whose government is upon His shoulder: and His Name shall be called, the Angel of Great Counsel.
Notum fecit Dominus salutare suum: in conspectu gentium revelavit iustitiam suam.		The Lord has made known his salvation; to all nations he has revealed his justice.
Puer natus est nobis, et filius datus est nobis: cuius imperium super humerum eius: et vocabitur nomen eius, magni consilii Angelus		A child is born to us, and a Son is given to us: Whose government is upon His shoulder: and His Name shall be called, the Angel of Great Counsel.

FALLEN GLORY

ALONG THE CHARLES-CAMBRIDGE

The years to come seemed waste of breath,

A waste of breath the years behind

In balance with this life, this death

ON TIME AND AGE - MARVELL

“Like the vain curlings of the watery maze,
Which in smooth streams a sinking weight does raise,
So Man, declining always, disappears
In the weak circles of increasing years;
And his short tumults of themselves compose,
While flowing Time above his head does close.”
― Andrew Marvell

MOURNING - REGRET - RENEWAL

Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night, Brother to Death, in silent darkness born, Relieve my languish and restore the light; With dark forgetting of my care return. And let the day be time enough to mourn The shipwreck of my ill adventured youth: Let waking eyes suffice to wail their scorn Without the torment of the night's untruth.

Samuel Daniel

ISAIAH - A PROPHECY CONTRA TRUMP - A PROMISE OF A NEW JERUSALEM

The spirit of the Lord is upon me
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the humble,
to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim li8berty to captives
and release to those in prison;
to proclaim a year o9f the LORD'S favour
and a day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn,
to give them garlands instead of ashes,
oil of gladness instead of mourners tears,
a garment of splendor for the heave heart.
They shall be called Trees of Righteousness,
planted by the Lord for His glory.
Ancient ruins shall be rebuilt
and sites long desolate restored;
they shall repair the ruined cities
and restore what has long lain desolate.

................................................................

For I the Lord love justice
and hate robbery and wrong-doing;
I will grant them a sure reward...

Reading for third Sunday of Advent...

FIRST SNOW DECEMBER 9th

To the Court Yard Post Storm

The road looking West

Court Yard at Start of Snow

Walk Home

POLITICAL HALL OF INFAMY

Donald Trump - In the words of his Secretary of State - "A fucking moron".

Charles Grassley - An 83 year old Fart who can't put two rational thoughts together but spots a lot of garbage and encourages class warfare.

Tom Cotton - A smug, clueless and brainless asshole - who believes "Water Boarding " is not torture and wants to head the CIA.

Jefferson Sessions - A southern good ol' boy from Alabama who was and is a racist, bigot, liar and enemy of the law and people. The best friend of the corrupt police.

Jarred Kushner -  An uppity New Jersey sycophant,  two faced, self aggrandizing. Even his fellow final Club members at Harvard had no use for him but for his money.

Ted Cruz - Senator, of sorts, He hails form Texas and went to Princeton. That about says it all.
Oh, he is fond of himself.

Mitch McConnell - Man without principles or a chin. Sold his integrity to Trump the garbage fire.

Benjamin Netanyahu - A corrupt, lying, self-serving fool who leads a nation dedicated to apartheid.

Steve Bannon - Failed collapsed Catholic with a warped view of history (Didn't learn that from the Jesuits), bigot, ego maniac, EVIL in ever possible way.

WHY HAVE AMERICANS LET THEIR CONTRY BE TAKEN HOSTAGE BY SUCH PERVERTS AND ASSHOLES

SCENES ALONG THE CHARLES RIVER WHILST WALKING

Stand of Birches

River with Clouds

Spring

Autumn Colours

Mute Swans on the river

Sunset Across River

MIRRORED BRIDGE

Flowers II seen along the river

                                                         MORNING REFLECTIONS                                                                          

Turtle Digging Nest for Eggs on Rover Bank

Sunset II - Harvard House in Background

LIKEABLE THINGS - THINGS I'VE LOST - THINGS I'VE GIVEN UP

THINGS I LIKE AND ENJOY

A good strong cup of black coffee.


A good claret - (Grave or Medoc).


A good classic mystery novel.


A succulent joint of pork.


A good chamber concert (e.g. Wigmore Hall).


A comfortable bed and pillow.


Stimulating conversation.


Walking along the Charles.


a good wank.


A5 size paper books to write in.


Old Carter fountain pens.


The physical act of writing - pen on paper.


Thanksgiving Lunch with friends

THINGS I'VE LOST

My innocence.

My virginity.

My optimism.


Sight in my right eye.

My faith in people.


My retracting ballpoint pen.


Several People I've Loved.


My cat Ashley at an absurdly young age.


Several favourite fountain pens.

THINGS I'VE GIVEN UP

My Harvard Club of New York Membership.


My membership in COV.


Smoking cigarettes (several years ago now).

THINGS I REALLY DISLIKE

DISLIKES

Books printed on bumf paper.


Books printed so gray you'd think the press ran out of ink.


Thin intuitional bumf paper so flimsy your hand goes thru it when you wipe yourself.


Tined Veg. Especially Green Beans.


Trousers with pleats.


Beets - In any form.


Sugar in my tea.


Republicans - In any shape or form.


Facebook.


Head Cold and sore throat.


Moths.


Light blue ink.


Cheep paper that makes ink feather and bleed.


The Louisiana Purchase.


The Wall Street Journal.


Fox News (Not that I ever watch it).


Cooked spinach.


Too much ice in my drink.


Rectal exams!


Giulia's Restaurant Cambridge (In same category as rectal exams).


The plastic seals on the btls. of water in the bedrooms of the Oxford-Cambridge Club.

POLITICAL DEFINITIONS I

DEFINITION OF A BONE-SPUR BOZO REPUBLICAN

A White Male who is a:

BIGOT

RACIST

IGNORENT

MISSOGNIST

MORON

PRIME EXAMPLES:

Jeff Sessions

Steve Miller

John Kelley

Steve Bannon

Ted Cruz

Paul Ryan - self styled policy wonk! Sadly as thick as two short planks.

John Cronyn

Roy Moore

Neil Gosuch

Tillerson - A fucking Moron!

OR PATHETIC WOMAN - WITH NO SELF RESPECT OR CONCRN FOR TRUTH

Sarah Suck-a-b Sanders


Ivanka Trump


Kelly Ann Conway


Ivanka - self aggrandizing phony




THE PARTY SYMBOL SHOULD NOT BE AN ELEPHANT                                              BUT A PIG

MEMORY - Cambridge and Caius - Youth and Pleasure

"HE COULD NEVER FORGIVE THE REST OF THE WORLD OUTSIDE OF CAMBRIDGE FOR NOT BEING CAMBRIDGE"

THE NEW WISDOM

        THE NEW WISDOM OF REPUBLICANS AND POTUS



Be against abortion and pro-life but deny access to proper contraception.


Be pro-life but insist your mistress aborts your unwanted baby.


Deny the conclusions of rigorous and valid science but use junk science (Fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks! -FALSE) to support the policy decision to ban abortions at 20 weeks gestation.


Abrogate a treaty that binds your adversary not to pursue nuclear weapons because you think it a bad deal against all sage advice and let them continue to develop a weapon. 


Attack members of your own party when you need their assistance to achieve your agenda.


Do whatever the Israelis tell you for it must be the truth. 


Predict the demise of expanded health cove by actively undermining it.

SILENCE

SILENCE IS THE DOOR TO CONTEMPLATION

              STUDY IS THE ROAD UNDESTANDING

  CONTEMPLATION IS THE WAY TO CONTENTMENT

PERFECTION AND PERFECTABILITY

The Cam in Autumn Mist

My Musing on Perfection -

I rowed for my college (Caius) whilst up at Cambridge.  That experience made concrete for me what I learned of perfection in my earliest days -

I found by experience and many hours on the river that the boat could always "go better". It could be made to sit better providing a stable rowing platform. We in the boat could be longer in the water, not dig too deep and not bum rush.

But whilst the boat could always be made to go better it could never be perfect.

And that is what rowing at Caius taught me of life.

We as persons and a people are perfectible but we are never perfect. And so for all we do - we can perfect it but it will never be perfect.

ART MODERNE - PENSYLVANIA ACADEMA OF FINE ART

TREES TREES TREES

CAMBRIDGE TREES

Weeping Willow Huron St

Fir - Ash St

Elm Ash St

Ancient Oak - Longfellow Park

A BETTER TIME FOR AMERICA

                                          A BETTER TIME A BETTER POTUS

WITH TRUMP'S ACTIONS TODAY _ AMERICA IS THE LOSER

LABOR DAY 4-9-17

                   LET'S CELEBRATE THE DIGNITY OF LABOR _ ALL PEOPLE
                                       Not Just Today But EVERYDAY:

BLACK - WHITE - BROWN - NATIVES _ NEW COMERS - IMIGRANTS WHO BUILT THIS COUNTRY AND THE "DREAMERS" BECAUSE AS AMERICANS WE ARE ALL DREAMERS

REPUDATE THOSE WHO SEEK TO DIVIDE US

TRUMP - SESSIONS - MILLER - RYAN 

REPUBLICANS

FRAGMENTS FROM "STAMBOUL TRAIN"

SENTENCES THAT FACINATED ME -

"If I could sleep, he thought with longing, I could remember more clearly I could remember more clearly all the things that have to be remembered."

"She felt tender towards him, as though he had given her new hope of a life which was not a continuous struggle for one's own hand; perhaps the world she thought, was not so hard."

"She thought for the first time, with happiness: perhaps I have a life in people's minds when I am not there to be seen or talked to."

"I don't think about you, I've got other things to think about."

"When I love, she thought, I do not think of what I owe."

"He said defiantly, 'I don't think about you. I've got other things to think about."

"Faithfulness was not the same as remembrance; one could forget and be faithful and one could remember and be faithless."

"There was nothing in the pockets but a box of mat5ches and a packet of Gold Flake."

"...that the man who, after firing his last shot, was bayoneted outside the sorting-room had been left-handed and a lover of Delius's music, the melancholy idealistic music of a man without a faith in anything but death."

MUSING

“Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence; tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence.”

George Santayana

TRUMP

THE HORRORS OF TRUMP

MISOGNY

RACISM

BIGOTRY

ANTSEMITISM

EQUIVACATION

FABRICATION

DELUSION

MORAL BANKRUPTCY 

AND YET REPUBLICANS WILL NOT DENY HIM OR ABANDON HIS HATE

QUI TACET CONSENTIRE VIDETUR

He who is silent gives consent!

GLEANINGS - LYTTON STRACHEY

GLEANINGS FROM LYTTON STRATCHEY

“As I passed up Lord Street on my bicycle I saw that one of the Book Shops had a ‘selling off’ going on and ‘Removal of premises’ etc. I eagerly rushed to see if there was anything decent, though I had not over much ‘cash’ to spare. I saw nothing of interest but a Byron – in fact two Byrons: one large, and probably, I surmised, complete; t’other small, and probably, I concluded extracted. I went in boldly; my surmise was correct. The large one was pub. By Murray 1837 and was called at any rate complete. The small one was a ratlike edition of extracts – foul! I can’t conceive; that is to say to buy an extract and nothing more. I refused the 1/4d and took (rather extravently) the 2/6d.  (Diary 1898)

+

I walked entranced; that feeling of a sudden explanation came upon me – a sudden easy mysterious mysterious explanation of all the long difficult mysterious embroilments of the world. ‘Est-ce que j’ai trouvé le grand Peut-être”?’ I thought ‘Am I I luckier even than Rabelais? -... And I sat down, absolutely comfortable, with a little bank of earth under the hedge for4 my back to lean against, and the charming English prospect before my eyes. I thought of my friends, and my extraordinary happiness. I thought of Death, of Keats and the Ode to the Nightingale, of ‘easeful Death’ – ‘half in love with easeful death’ – and I was convinced, … that if De3ath would onoy come to one in a mood of serene happiness, he would be very welcome. I thought of suddenly dying, painlessly, where I lay. (Diary – Monday June 26^th 1916)

Otherwise a book that I’ve long wanted to have – ‘Ėloges de Madame Geoffrin”, which I discovered in a second-hand bookshop here two days ago – has been entertaining me. (A Fortnight in France – Sept 11^th 1931)

To-day at any rate shall be devoted to absolute drifting – looking at old books and pictures – errand boys and aged whores- gardens and street- corners. (A Fortnight in France – Sept. 15. 1931)

FROM

LETTERS: VIRGINIA WOOLF AND LYTTON STRACHEY

“…and the naked boys run like snipe along the beach, balancing their buttocks in the pellucid air.”

“Why is everything that is satisfactory  in this life impregnated with unsatisfactoriness?”

“The French seem to me a melancholy race – is it because they have no imagination, so that they have no outlets when thy find themselves (as all intelligent people must) vis-à-vis with the horrors of the world? There’s a sort of dry desperation about some of them which I don’t believe exists with the English – even with Swift.”

OF DOSTOIEVSKY-

“Such an anaesthetic view of life.”

“If I could my way, I should go out to dinner every night, and then to a party or an opera, and then I should have a champagne supper, and then I should go to bed in some wonderful person’s arms.”

“Just about this moment, you’re settling down over the fire, having returned from a brisk walk among the Scotch firs in a Scotch mist, and saying (something I can’t spell – it’s French) to the effect that life holds nothing copulation, after which you groan from the profundities of the stomach…”

“My state has long been quite deplorable. I put it down to the Winter-the agony of thick underclothes, etc. etc.; but of course it may be sheer deliquescence of the brain.”

MOTS et EXPRESSIONS

                MOTS ET EXPRESSIONS QUE J'AIME

                                                Rongée   Nous verrons

                                            Délabré   assoupissement   general

                                                   écrasé   deliquescence

                                                        Je suis vaincue  

                                                   J'ai perdu mon mari

                                              Retroussé       Déclassé

IN YOUTH IS PLEASURE - And ANXIETY

IN YOUTH IS PLEASURE

I was reflecting today about some of the pleasures one had as a youth in those distant pre-adolescent days about ages 9-12. When one was ill then it was exquisite pleasure not to have to go to school but be enforced by mum to spend the day in bed. One could read comic books, other silly or frivolous books and eat bisquets etc. whilst in bed and not be chided by one’s nanny for getting crumbs in the bed.

How different being ill as an adult is. There is simply not the same innocent pleasure. We are loath to be absent from work, being idle in bed or idle at all has lost it attractions – bisquets or not. We are wont to read not frivolous things but serious work papers. As an adult, the illnesses we experience are often more serious and distressful compared to those of childhood – measles and chicken pox notwithstanding.

So I mused about a lost age – a lost innocence. 

                                                                 YOUTHFUL ANXIETY

Which is not to say that youth was without anxiety. As delightful as summer days were playing in the garden, going to the park and wading in the brook there were also dangers.  There were bees and wasps - a constant threat to be avoided at all cost.

But some of the worst anxiety was engendered by what we called "Sewing Needles"! A flying insect - a dragonfly -  to be avoided at all cost.

But in recalling this my musing made clear that the anxiety of youth were as nothing compared as to what would follow as we matured.

But one near adult anxiety was engendered by the ubiquitous "WET DREAM".

At the onset of puberty this phenomenon could lead to a good deal of anxiety.

How was one to explain to nanny or mum the odd stain on the sheets! All the pleasure (if any) of the wet dream was dissipated in this rush of anxiety.

But of course this led to a more conscious pleasure - and as it was "In Youth is Pleasure" sometimes self educed!