Category Archives: Life

Maybe I will count my blessings now.

25 Wednesday Dec 2013

Posted by in Faith, Family, Life

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Maybe I will count my Blessings now. They are the Crowd among which my grumblings hide.

The Christ that is Christmas; the Family that has made me and the Family that is of me; the Country that is the ready bounty of liberty; the Dignity that is the labors of my mind and hand; the People who have sacrificed for mine and me; the Wise who instruct me; and the Enterprise that sustains me. Blessings. Counted.

The Memories that I keep. Counted, as acquired. Blessings.

My senses. Blessings, such as they are. Counted.

Home: The pantry, the well, the walls, the warmth, the comfort, the wire, the dog, my socks, my hats, the love, and the longing to be here when I am not. Counted. Here. Blessings.

Thanksgiving at Christmas. This morning. Today. Blessings. Counted. Counting…

~tdv

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Image found at http://www.thoughtsfromaconservativemom.com/2012/12/a-world-in-need-of-a-savior/

I Give Up

03 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by in Life, Random

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I give up. Most everybody has given in, fore they chanced the giving up. Why do you think zombies are so popular? Rectangles, shimmering rectangles, you know what for, they say. Reality TV takes the place of reality in me.

Have you ever been around somebody who does something wrong in your mind, dishonest, or recommends you do likewise, where you have the strength to keep your principles and say no, but are too weak to criticize them? Just let it go? Guilt follows? Yeah, me neither.

Can’t stand people who make decisions for me, unless I ask them to. Yet then, if they make decisions for me of the sort that I didn’t ask them to make, they are worse. It is your call, but only it. Understand? Elsewise, leave me be. Understand?

If someone gave me a dollar, first I gave them my time. If someone gives me their time, and he does not take my dollar, he is likely a friend, unless the time he gave me was spent wasting my time. People who demand dollars without the exchange of time, are thieves, unless they have been wronged, then they are seeking justice; but as they define justice as other than justice, and blame the blameless, they are still thieves.

I give up. Right ain’t right. All the good folks keep their tongue, while the lowlifes never shut up their public cackling. All you ever see. Rectangles, shimmering, through cracks. Fun at times, even instructive, but please God, put them on a timer.

Waaaah. Keep crying. Works for babes, and the last time it worked for me, I was a babe, and since, I just got uglier. Actually, since I’ve no recall of it, and judging by my current features alone, it is a good bet that I was an ugly babe, and all my crying got me then was a kick. I will ask Mom. Kick me.

Still here, but not so much… here.

20 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by in Blog Notes, Life

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Just wanted to drop a note to those of you who happen by from time to time, or at least to you who used to.

I am still here, but not so much here, which is to say that I breathe, and that I live, and that as a consequence of the latter in recent months, I’ve not had the energies to do much else than live… and work… which is a good thing, of course.

I’ve many ideas for articles, many started and in various stages of completion. As soon as the flood waters of life recede a bit, I will eagerly take to my pen again.

You might also catch the fleeting tweet if you are inclined so. Thanks again for the visits.

~tdv

 

Rock-n-Roll for the American Soul – Madison Rising

27 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by in America, Life

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Okay, maybe it’s just Rock, but without the -n-Roll, I wouldn’t have the title, now would I? Besides, my lack of currentness ought to excuse whatever inaccuracy in this regard.

I came across the American patriot band Madison Rising (hat tip: jonolan), and refreshed, decided to share them with you here, and encourage you to likewise share. Even as you might be disinclined to the particular harmonic energies, surely there are some, let’s say “less ripened”, among you who would find their appreciation for it.

Rock American.

From their site:

Madison Rising brings great rock music back to the forefront of popular culture. With songs ranging from the guitar heavy opening track “Right To Bear,” to the hauntingly epic sounds of “Honk If You Want Peace,” to the beautiful violins of “Hallowed Ground,” it is clear that this band is on a mission to not only make great music, but also send a message that American culture is alive and well.

Enjoy… and Please Share:

Happy Eighteenth, Kid!

08 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in Family, Life

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I think this is where I’m supposed to offer up that sagely advice that will carry you through life with happiness and peace and security and dignity. But I’m pretty sure I’ve already done that a time or four.

Besides, it’s not like my wisdom and experience and knowledge and intelligence is expected to go missing when you are eighteen-and-a-day, you know. I mean, you are not going into exile… (are you?)

So rather I’ll use the opportunity of this milestone to say one thing:

Thank You.

For enriching my life beyond measure, for making me a better man, for having the strength to continue so that we might know you, for being you, and for being my daughter, thank you. I am proud to be your Dad.

Happy Eighteenth, Kid! I love you.

Live, and be ready to live.

P.S.  Boys are still bad.

400-05745977

Art by Olga Drozd, found at Masterfile.com 

The Riddance of Phil

30 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by in Abstract, Life

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Phil began his existence in utter obscurity; warm, tiny, comfortable, unimportant oblivion was the what that he was.  Such was Phil’s parallel to our own smaller selves, till as is it with us, comes the growth and the call.

But the variance betwixt Phil and us, his latter metamorphosis being never the ordinance of nature, is the great mystery of his great expansion.  Even that he had the choice to arise, to expand and be known, or to remain in the safe confines of his beloved host surroundings, was entirely unknown.

Put aside the oddity of his path, questions remain as to the force that drove his choice to take that path.  Some speculate that a yearning to mimic his environment led Phil to his transformation.

Many as well note the strangeness that Phil’s evolution happened in reverse of our ordinary, having the call before the growth (if that really is the normal flow of things).

Phil4

Then there was the scale of Phil’s appearance on the scene, grand that it was.  His outing was imposing, even off-putting to all, except for his oddly accepting host.  Such greatness was Phil’s growth that his immediate banishment became the instant consensus response to him.

A plan was hatched, and after nudging his host that Phil’s expulsion was in her best interest, she reluctantly agreed. On the eve of his exile, she threw for him a most modest party.

It was made so on the morn, the riddance of Phil, was made so.

In his stead lies a permanent mark, and with it, as a matter of style, Phil left behind his party hat.

ObamaCare 20,000 Pages – 72% More Complex than All U.S. Law Compiled in First 124 Years!

15 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by in America, Family, Liberty, Life, Politics

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Here’s the photo that’s been circulating of the (thus far) printed 20,000 pages of ObamaCare regulations, edited to show this behemoth’s scale in reference to the 1913 “Compiled Statutes of the United States“, which totals only 5,700 pages.

One “law”, ObamaCare, so far is 72% more complex than ALL federal law amassed in our country during its first 124 years! Just think about that for a moment. Ask yourself, “How could ObamaCare possibly work?” Then, considering the massive scope of unconstitutional, unchecked, arbitrary powers in the hands of unknown elitist bureaucrats to control our lives, ask yourself “How could America possibly call herself free?”

This.Is.Tyranny

ObamaCare's 20,000 pages (and growing) compared to 5,700 pages of ALL U.S. law compiled in our first 124 years.

ObamaCare’s 20,000 pages (and growing) compared to 5,700 pages of ALL U.S. law compiled in our first 124 years.

The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessings of liberty itself. It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood: if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes, that no man who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known and less fixed.

~James Madison, Federalist No. 62, par. 16

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I tweeted this comparison and image edit here on 03.13.
Original image credit below:

Beware the Torch-Bearer

11 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by in Life, Politics, Quest

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We are only allowed to grope in the dark in reference to all that inspires our incomprehensible machine.

~Voltaire, 1764

…but no sooner than we stop our fumbling about, ever the happy better appears with a torch.

~tdv

If We Could Say Thanks

03 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by in Life

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How does one show gratitude for a profoundly selfless, life-giving choice, to a person or persons they’ve never known, and can never know?

And if we could say thanks, even, what more could we say than thanks, without imposing on someone whose character reveals no want or need for recognition?

Maybe it is, that great sacrifice is quietly rewarded as it hibernates in its beneficiary; that it waits in hearts; that it is perpetuative.

~tdv, thankful?

Don’t Be an Over-Awed Superstitious Vulgar… Judge for Yourself.

27 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by in America, Liberty, Life

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Ask me what’s honour? I’ll the truth impart:
Know, honour then, is Honesty of Heart.
[…]
Dignities and high sounding names have different effects on different beholders. The lustre of the Star and the title of My Lord, over-awe the superstitious vulgar, and forbid them to inquire into the character of the possessor: Nay more, they are, as it were, bewitched to admire in the great, the vices they would honestly condemn in themselves. This sacrifice of common sense is the certain badge which distinguishes slavery from freedom; for when men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.

Thomas Paine, 1775 [full text, citation below]

Now, prefix this to the every introduction. I’m talking to you; I’m talking to myself. What portion of ours is shackled to ignorance by notions of title, or bound to the betterness of fame, or even incarcerated by the slander of string-pullers?

~tdv, un-struck

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