remembering who we are....

we are lovers of the beautiful, yet we remain simple in our tastes,
and we cultivate the mind without being lazy.
poverty is no disgrace for us; the true disgrace is in doing nothing to avoid it.
we alone regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs,
not only as indifferent but as a useless character.
they are surely to be esteemed the bravest spirits who, 
having the clearest sense both of the pains and pleasures of life, 
do not shrink from danger.
in doing good, again, we are unlike others; 
we make our friends by helping, not receiving favors. 
we alone do good to others not upon a calculation of interest, 
but in the confidence of freedom and in a generous spirit.

                                                   ~ thucydides
                                                    460 bc - 395 bc

even as mercury goes retro mañana,
holding to the center free of a self..
o sure!
we are lovers of the beautiful; of each other ~
i will love
no longer desiring love,
or asking love,
or looking for love..
i give love..
i am love.


another side to the useless character story...

hui tzu said to chuang tzu:
i have a big tree,
the kind they call a stinktree.
the trunk is so distorted,
so full of knots,
no one can get a straight plank
out of it.  the branches are so crooked
you cannot cut them up
in any way that makes sense.

there it stands beside the road.
no carpenter will even look at it.
such is your teaching ~ big and useless.

chuang tzu replied:
have you ever watched the wildcat
crouching, watching his prey -
this way it leaps, and that way,
high and low, and at last
lands in the trap?

but have you see the yak?
great as a thundercloud
he stands in his might.
big? sure,
he can't catch mice.

so for your big tree. no use?
then plant it in a wasteland
in emptiness.
walk idly around,
rest under its shadow;
no axe or bill prepares its end.
no one will ever cut it down.

useless? you should worry!

use less.. be more!