Book of Mercy #20-24

[jimbo]

YES I SAY THE SAME TOO Mathew James except for the Tail.................you should of left that in high school.......
dont get me wrong I like breasts and their cultures toooooo but in your bedroom...............

[mat james]

..you should of left that in high school

.
You have a point Jimbo.
But somehow that young buck we knew in high school still walks beside us now.
And he is not all "bad".
He is the one that tells us that we "can" do x, y or z.
He is the optimist, the believer, the doo-er of good deeds.
He is the saint and the martyr
the discoverer of new valleys
and the rescuer of lost souls.
He still believes he can make a difference.
And he encourages others on their quest
and is young enough to keep an open mind.

[lizzytysh]

Hi Mat ~

I enjoyed the ways of your expression and their truth in your justification of the young buck... and buckesse, I might add.

“some pictures in his mind, they’re all round and wet”

I really wasn't able to make any sense of this when I transcribed, read, and reread it... at least not right away [not saying I might not have eventually come round to it]. When I read it, I got a clear sense of sensuality, and I'm quite inclined to agree with your interpretation... and you know I wouldn't say that if I didn't mean it .

Truly, Jimbo [even though I completely understand your sense of modesty], if Leonard had left all of that in the bedroom, we would have been deprived of a huge body of phenomenal work.


~ Lizzy

[Manna]

doe? a deer? a female deer?
sorry, couldn't help it.

[lizzytysh]

That's interesting. The comment I made here two hours ago seems not to have made it. Not a biggie; just that since I read your posting two hours prior to that, the song had been replaying quite loudly in my head and my lips were moving. What made me laugh about it was that it took me several times around before I 'got it' ~ the connection that is .


~ Lizzy

[Manna]

YES!! I totally lip-bombed you!!

This is a game we play in my lab sometimes. Someone will start humming one of those tunes that everyone knows. Then later, if it gets stuck in someone else's head, you know the "bombing" was successful. If a person has the tune in their head, that's a mind bomb. If the person starts bopping around to it, it's a body bomb. Body bombs are worth more, or they would be if anyone really kept score.

[lizzytysh]

Well, you got 2 out of 3, if you were keeping score . Had you gone a bit further with the lyrics, it might have made it all the way to body bombing... with a bit of a semi-march. I might've gotten bombed, but at least I finally got your joke! If it hadn't been for those repetitions, I might not've ... the duh factor, again .

Mind bomb, lip bomb, body bomb... haha... very cool. I think I'll try it and see how it goes at work on Tuesday. This will be my reminder, as I know I'll be revisiting this thread... out of sheer habit, if nothing else... though, I'm certain someone will have commented beyond this by then !!


~ Lizzy

[damellon]

Manna - nothing to do with this thread - but what kind of a lab do you work in? Thought you said elsewhere that physics escapes you! Obviously not as much as it escapes the rest of us!

[Manna]

molecular biology. the only physics I had to take was geometry based. I was always pretty good at math, but only when it was for the sake of fun doing math. if I have to apply the stuff, my brain turns into putty.

[damellon]

Manna - that we should all have brains such as yours!

[lizzytysh]

Message to Ken Kurzweil ~ Our Newest Forum Member !

Welcome to the Forum, Ken ... glad to see you here !! Would you care to join us in this thread? Our gallant Doron is carrying the load for the Judaism contingency... any of your input would be very welcome by me, likely us, and I'm certain, Doron, as well!!!


~ Lizzy

[lizzytysh]

Of all the FWs that arrive in Inboxes, this one didn't arrive in mine, but did in someone else's and they had it already printed out. As I read through it, clear to the end, it reminded me so much of Leonard, this book, and every other thing he's ever written [or nearly so, though I nothing that doesn't isn't springing to mind]. So, even if you've already seen it, want to share it with you for you to read, perhaps for the first time, or perhaps again. No idea who wrote it:

A Butterfly's Lesson

One day, a small
opening appeared
in a cocoon; a
man sat and
watched for the
butterly to come
out for several
hours as it
struggled to force
its body through
that little hole.

Then, it seemed
to stop making
any progress.

It appeared as if
it had gotten as
far as it could
and it couldn't
go any further.

So the man
decided to help
the butterfly: he
took a pair of
scissors and
opened the
cocoon.

The butterfly
emerged easily.

But it had a
withered body, it
was tiny and had
shriveled wings.

The man
continued to
watch because
he expected
that at any
moment, the
wings would
open, enlarge
and expand, to
be able to
support the
butterfly's
body, and
become firm.

Neither
happened!

In fact, the
butterfly spent
the rest of its
life crawling
around with a
withered body
and shriveled
wings.

It was never
able to fly.

What the man, in his
kindness and his
goodwill, did not
understand, was that the
restricting cocoon and the
struggle required for the
butterfly to get through
the tiny opening, were
nature's way of forcing
fluid from the body of the
butterfly into its wings, so
that it would be ready for
flight once it achieved its
freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes,
struggles are
exactly what we
need in our life.

If we were allowed
to go through our
life without any
obstacles, it would
cripple us. We
would not be as
strong as we could
have been.

Never been able to
fly!

* * * * *

I asked for Strength...
and I was given
difficulties to make me
strong.

I asked for Wisdom...
and I was given
problems to solve.

I asked for Prosperity...
and I was given a
brain and brawn to
work.

I asked for Courage...
and I was given
obstacles to
overcome.

I asked for Love...
and I was given
beautiful
children to raise
and troubled
people to help.

I asked for Favor...
And I was given
Opportunities.

I received nothing I
wanted...
But I received
everything I
needed!

. . .

Live life without fear, confront all obstacles and know that you can overcome them!

Praise G~d for all blessings, as well as all trials and tribulations!

Perseverance are our wings to fly!

Leonard seems to have always had an intuitive understanding of these principles and phenomenon. See his gratitude. Look at how he has flown .

[As an aside to this, I've seen the same acceptance, understanding, and attitude in Anjani. Them... a natural blend.]

When I get home tonite, I'll copy the next verse... as this is a great segue for it.



~ Lizzy

[lizzytysh]

Well, this is tonite... just not the tonite I originally had in mind for typing the next verse... #23:

My sister and I being estranged, I parked my trailer at the furthest limit of her fields, the corner that is left, by law, to the poor. Her hundreds of cherry trees were blossoming, and on the road to the great stone house that they lined, a lacework of petals. It was a Saturday. I reclined against a little hill, a shoot of wheat between my teeth, looked at the blue sky, a bird, three threads of luminous cloud, and my heart would not rejoice. I entered the hour of self-accusation. A strange sound trembled in the air. It was caused by the north wind on the electric lines, a sustained chord of surprising harmonies, power and duration, greatly pleasing, a singing of breath and steel, a huge string instrument of masts and fields, complex tensions. Suddenly the judgement was clear. Let your sister, with her towers and gardens, praise the incomparable handiwork of the Lord, but you are pledged to the breath of the Name. Each of you in your proper place. The cherry trees are hers, the grapes and the olives, the thick-walled house; and to you, the unimagined charities of accident in the Corner of the Poor.

Reading this brought me exquisite pleasure. So much happens within such a brief space. On a personal level, what I watched happen was gratifying. I know a similar situation. Seeing the transition in Leonard's state of mind and grace of being; and his acceptance and gratitude for the difference in his path from that of others [in this case, resumably his sister, Esther, though I don't recall ever knowing that they had a period of what he would call estrangement... unless it's a universally-speaking sister upon whose property he parked his trailer], and the beauties that he is privy to on other levels, the metaphysical and "the breath of the Name." His walk in this life and all that he aspires to is simply different. This is such a simple and graceful acknowledgement and appreciation of that. Once again, gratitude.

He may question and feel disheartened from time to time; yet, he seems to always return to gratitude for those "unimagined charities of accident" that his own path brings him. Whether his path is self-chosen or deemed to him, it remains his to be embraced for what it offers. It's as though his prayer was answered within the hour, "the hour of accusation," by G~d. Before I say any more, I'll give someone else a chance. I've left out for the time being some things that I've thought as I read this. So many beautiful phrasings.

It seems this arrangement with the furthestmost corner isn't a Jewish tradition, but a social 'law' kind of thing. Does anyone know? I've heard of it before, but I can't remember in what context... was it when I first read this verse by Leonard? Has it been a common-law deeming in general in our culture and, perhaps, in other areas of the world? Is it simply the way he created to justify her saying, "Yes... you can stay here, but I don't want to have to be looking at that trailer; so, if you want, you can stay if you take it down to the back edge of the property."

No, I just noticed [again] that he specifically separated out "by law." So, can anyone add to this aspect? Did it originate in Britain? In France? Is it "law" as in our courtrooms, or part of the 'spiritual' law of Jews? It seems he's placed himself there, through a begrudging arrangement, but not one where he would ever consider or even dream of pursuing legally, had she said denied him... or that she would have actually assented to simply because it's the "law". Actually, as I speak further on this, it seems he simply added it parenthetically, as though he ended up in the place 'protected' for him to be, by law. Not that he requested or pushed for it on that basis. More of an ironic twist that that's where he ended up. Still, I wonder about the "law," regardless.


~ Lizzy

[lizzytysh]

On Anjani's message board, Esther responded, in part, to my posting the butterfly story there, with this. Thank you, Esther!

You mention on Leonard's Forum, that you don't know, who wrote the poem. On Google I've read, it is a verse from Bhagavad Gita, which is an ancient Sanskrit text. I quote:

"The Bhagavad Gita is the holy scripture of the majority of Hindu traditions. Gita has the essence of Hinduism, Hindu philosophy and a guide to peaceful life and ever lasting world peace."

I'd love it if you added your other comments to this . With the mention of scissors, I wouldn't have thought it would have been so far back, but I guess this may be a more recent interpretation... unless that particular instrument goes back further than I'd have thought.


~ Lizzy

[Alan Alda]

Lovely of Esther to take the time to google an unknown piece.

I stopped reading here:

Sometimes,
struggles are
exactly what we
need in our life.

The word "Sometimes" is so flawed (for what does not happend for a reason??) it became banal. Seeing the source, I now wonder if it is a bad translation-but am not interested enough to research.

"Love(ing)" a response or loving specific responses from particular people might be a helpful thing to ponder. Stepping outside our ego can only lead to better things and a greater view of all.

regards,
Laurie