Musing

0C/32F, fresh, golden sunrise reflecting off downtown buildings was visible from a high point on our walk, Gusta getting braver venturing out on the lagoon ice, no encounters with beasts or humans

To SA in Edmonton, happy milestone birthday . . just remember that cheese, wine and women get better with aging . . lots and lots of aging; some people are over the hill, but then they go down into the valley and up to the next hill and over the next hill, then that is the one which leads to the home for the severely aged very pretty women with the biggest hearts; unfortunately, DA got to her ahead of me (he has a history of doing that) so I can simply admire my friend

speaking of Edmonton friends, I spoke with MM yesterday; she is just back from paradise where she ran the Honolulu marathon in 4 hours, 56 minutes . . congrats!!

watching Gusta meet her first (yes, nearly 2 now - her first I have seen) cat experience yesterday; she the curious nosy playful outgoing ambassador of all things dog, she simply wanted to introduce herself, wanted to play – the reception she got was hostile, cold and repelling, though I suppose that cat wanted to have fun and play too; the cat did not have a new experience, while Gusta’s was fresh and original, mostly

sometimes I think about that old saying, not sure who said it, ‘the truth shall set you free’ which is interesting but untrue in so many cases; I think most people avoid the truth like it was a major traffic hazard – the world’s largest pothole – because of the uncertainty of going there, the uncertainty of what people might think, of what people might know about us; examples show up every day of people so pre-occupied with keeping up the masks, barriers and defences that they appear to lose sight of what the truth really was in the first place so we are left with so much that is about nothing, mostly

when I examine things that drive me, mostly, I recognize how primal they are; to be warm, fed, cared for; to have an appetite for things which pleasure the body, the mind, the ego (and its friends Id & alter-Id & things Freud and Jung understand)

some days are better than others, the ones where sufficient sleep has been had the night before are often better, mostly, but sometimes fatigue gives way to a greater level of relax-ed-ness, it helps us relax our guard, worry less about how anyone else might regard one thing or another, to simply tell it the way it is, to simply do things, say things and express things as they come to mind, mostly

how primal we all are, how simple we all are to figure out, how basic and universal our needs, mostly

we are the best animals yet invented/evolved; we try to learn so much from each other that we sometimes fail to learn from the best teachers – watching ourselves and watching other animals – the observances of behavior explaining far more books do (except of course for the one I am writing), mostly

every day in almost every way, telling something that is near the truth is so much easier to do that telling the truth – than shining light on what is real, without embellishment, condiments or grease on its wheels; the truth is not scary at all, but fear of telling it scares the excrement out of most people most of the time, mostly

the truth, or the pursuit of it, is not about truth as much as it is about confusion: truth telling (not to be confused with story telling), getting to know someone, getting them to know you too – this is huge challenge – because of assumptions that get in the way; the ‘wondering’ what someone will think, what they do think what they are thinking right now, why the are thinking it, why they will be thinking about what they are thinking about next, why they called or why they did not call, what they want, what they say they want, what the difference is, what will come next and what will come after that, mostly

after considerable scheduling challenges last week, Gusta and I finally got there . . had a great dinner and visit last evening with GT & her retriever Gracie; these two seemed to have lots to laugh about . . . so did Gusta and Gracie, mostly

Mark
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