SIDE STREET

from November 1, 2023 Blog
The Willing Isolationist
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Those who know don’t talk.
Those who talk don’t know.
Close your mouth,
block off your senses,
blunt your sharpness,
untie your knots,
soften your glare,
settle your dust.
This is the primal identity.
Be like the Tao.
It can’t be approached or withdrawn from, benefited or harmed,
honored or brought into disgrace.
It gives itself up continually.
That is why it endures.
- famous quote by Lao Tzu,
from the Tao Te Ching verse 56
from November 1, 2023 Blog
The Willing Isolationist
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"The Hermit" by Alan Parton
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I have barred the doors.
Of the place where I bide,
I am old and afraid
Of the world outside.
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How the poor souls cry
In the cold and the rain,
I have blocked my ears,
They shall call me in vain.
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If I peer through the cracks
Hardly daring draw breath,
They are waiting there still
Patient as death.
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The maimed and the sick
The tortured of soul,
Arms outstretched as if
​
I could help them be whole.
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No shaft of the sun
My hiding shall find,
Get them outside
I am deaf, I am blind.
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Who will drive them away,
Who will ease me my dread,
Who will shout to the fools
"He is dead! he is dead!"?
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Sometimes they knock
At the place where I hide,
I am old and afraid
Of the world outside.
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Do they think, do they dream
I will open the door?"
Let the world in
And know peace no more.
From October 1, 2023 Blog
Fools Are Everywhere!
"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
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This proverb means if someone takes advantage of me twice, I only have myself to blame. Once someone has shown themselves untrustworthy, you should not be surprised when they betray you again.