Don Warrick – Ersatz Inventor, Wordsmythe of the Trifling Blog
This, my children is the 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II. Sometimes, I fail to remember that there is not a physical object in the material world that you cant find a picture of on the net. For some reason, I was thinking about this very car this morning and a few keystrokes later …
Only 444 of these Detroit sculptures were made the year I was born. What a gorgeous piece of steel. Wow.
There are a few visual cues that always return the same response from me. For instance when ever I see anything on aged brown parchment, with backwards writing and some cryptic invention or mechanism of war; the salivary glands are activated. I call my theory the modified unification theory of reincarnation. It states briefly that Leonardo of Vinci, rather than being reincarnated as a whole human being, has been re-incarnated in teeny tiny bits. The few cells of Leonardo that are currently taking up residence in my DNA are activated whenever they see a Leonardo-esque image. And yes, I did recently come across such an image…the reason for the rant.
Some of my loyal readers (currently my son, and perhaps a few unsuspecting passersby) have a wife. I can only hope that they serve the same practical purpose mine does. She is my compass. Let me explain…
Earlier this AM I copied a feed to my facebook that was a commentary on the state of Bailouts. I commented on the feed: “This just in: Clam squeezers (the industry of people that professionally squeeze the juice out of clams to make Clamato juice) are seeking a government bailout. More on this subject at the Trifling Blog: www.donwarrick.com”
Then the ranting began….Oh it felt good. I was filled with self righteous indignation and you could even hear the tempo and dynamic of my typing increase as I became more and more incensed, more and more puffed up, more and more filled with the sound of my own cybervoce”
Then, I felt a loving hand on my shoulder. It was my dear wife Miss Chicapee. She said in a very calm voice “Dear, are you sure you want to publish that? You see, I had just explained to her yesterday that everyone who was new, cool and hip had a personal blog as an adjunct to their corporate presence. I explained how tons of people on LinkedIn would have access to my editorializing.
She was simply looking over my shoulder, and looking out for my best interest at the same time.
Of course I bristled. I foamed. I rose from my chair in a huff telling her that of course she was right. Me and my wounded ego sprang out the front door and stood shivering on the front porch.
Several hours later, having composed myself; I realize that once again I have been caught up in the morality tale that is my life. The lesson? There is a point of radically diminishing returns with self righteous anger.
In short, if you are really really pissed about something that is way way way beyond your control; venting your spleen in your brand new blog might not be all that productive to your livelihood.
Today, I am grateful for my compass.
The Management
“Haggard has complained to some of his old friends, including me, that if he had been a CEO instead of the senior pastor of a church, he would have been back at work in one month. New Life Church needed to protect itself and had to shun one of its own in order not to expose itself to financial ruin in the form of fleeing members.
Posted Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009, at 3:40 PM ET
From a posting in today’s Slate.
http://www.slate.com/id/2209983/?from=rss
All I can say, is that the first time the Great Church became interested in protecting its assets as a result of sexual impropriety; it invented the institution of celibacy for priests.
Makes one wonder what the solution will be now? But then again….not so much.
Amuse and enjoy.
Just words, and words are signposts. They point toward concepts. This is where it all gets very sticky because each of us interprets the direction these signposts are pointing differently. At very least this is amusing behavior, at very most it is at the heart of the disquiet and dissatisfaction of a planet overrun with large brained bipeds.
So, let me see if I cant shake out the dust of the rug on the front porch of our lives by providing some clarity to the actual, deepest meaning of a couple words.
First, “Amuse”…
You might be thinking this is a word that is used when looking at the monkeys in the cage at your local zoo. “Oh, how cute they are! Look honey, how amusing! That one is hurling his own poo!” Now that’s comedy.
From French amuser (“‘to make stay, to detain, to amuse’”) < Old French à (from Latin ad) + muser. See muse, verb.
bla bla bla, and we all know about the Greek Muses etc. To this I say bullshit. All wrong. No banana. I rather like to think of being amused as a simple scale. Like the scales of justice, only in this case it is the sacred balance. My understanding of the delicate balance of our consciousness and the duality inherent in being a human being. There are two halves if you will. One half truly believes that we exist. That we are vital, unique, individual iterations. We are our own man as twer. The other half is the God half. Small G, or big G – youchoose.com
To be amused is to have your scale weighing heavily to the god (small G, or big G, youchoose.com) side of the scale. If something amuses you, it means that it has forced the scale to G side.
There. Glad I could put that to bed for us all. Now, on to “Enjoy”
This one is simpler. It could and probably should be spelled In-joy. I mean really, have you ever outjoyed the hell out of something? No. It is a word that describes an inner state. What I submit, is that if we were much more cognoscente of what we outjoyed, the world would be a better place. Rush Limbaugh would not exist. Neither would greed, corruption or conservative republican ideology.
So go forth and be A-mused. Then, take it one step further…Out-joy the hell out of your day.
The Management
| Noun | 1. | trifling – the deliberate act of delaying and playing instead of working |
| Adj. | 1. | trifling – not worth considering; “he considered the prize too paltry for the lives it must cost”; “piffling efforts”; “a trifling matter”
worthless – lacking in usefulness or value; “a worthless idler”
|
I’ve created an artificial external world of living things and events in my email. Its like I have a social life, a real life. But it’s not. It’s the ad from Borders that tells me to get a Latte and a book, or the ad from the online college. Their rhythm is predictable. Like live things. I always know after a hard day battling with reality that they will be there in my inbox waiting for me to delete them. But in doing so, I acknowlegd their aliveness.
1/15/09
My Space…..MyFace….MyRace……MyPlace
I finally get it. (Why does this most often happen in the shower?) Mashup. This is what the world is coming to. I want to be able to take what ever is in front of me, rearrange it and redistribute it. I don’t want to worry about plagerism, or identity theft. I don’t want to consider intelletual property law or the latest article on which high tech company is suing which other high tech company for copyright infringement, or coffee flavor infringement, or WTF ever.
File this under “Things that my buddy DonWarrick finds interesting and/or amusing. See previous post.