there's got to be something

trunkcicles, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Life is not easy for any of us, but what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted in something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.

-- Marie Curie

constraints

hung up, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Whether we like it or not, each of us is constrained by limits on what we can do and feel. To ignore these limits leads to denial and eventually to failure. To achieve excellence, we must first understand the reality of the everyday, with all its demands and potential frustrations.

-- Mihály Csíkszentmihályi

do you know jack?

orange you fond of pink?, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words - "mank" and "ind". What do these words mean? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.

-- Jack Handey

betwix and between

the familiar unfamiliar, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Between two worlds life hovers like a star, twixt night and morn, upon the horizon's verge.

-- Lord Byron

we can go on

midday meal, originally uploaded by McBeth.

However confused the scene of our life appears, however torn we may be who now do face that scene, it can be faced, and we can go on to be whole.

-- Muriel Rukeyser

balemtimes

giving it up

s'just another word, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.

-- Julia Cameron

three

three poles walk into a bar, originally uploaded by McBeth.

They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.

--Tom Bodett

getting naked, revisited

Was it only two years ago when I first revealed my Deepest Parts? Oh, how the time flies!

I'm not exactly prepared to tell the story of my appreciation for Isthmus Eye Care and, in direct oppositional proportion, my deep deep loathing for Medicare/Medicaid's health, dental and optical care coverage.

With the exception of the cost of the basic exam, I used my income tax refund (+) to pay for the (uncovered) Optoscans, to purchase (uncovered) eyeglass frames that weren't in the pathetic little wallet of ugly Medicare/Medicaid sanctioned frames, and to pay for my (also uncovered) first-time-ever bifocals that the doctor said I would most benefit from wearing.

Not medically necessary my ass, Medicaid.


Ah, and in the interest of full disclosure, I want to mention that I have lightened these two images a smidge. The originals were just too dark to be able to see much. Top image is of my left eye; bottom image is of my right eye.

you don't believe me?

crackerjacks, originally uploaded by McBeth.

"Being a practiced liar doesn't mean you have a powerful imagination. Many good liars have no imagination at all; it's that which give their lies such wide-eyed conviction."

-- Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

growing

how avalanches are born, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Mighty things from small beginnings grow.

-- John Dryden

drowning

canoe melt, originally uploaded by McBeth.

You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.

-- Edwin Lewis Cole

holding hands

highwire act, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Success in life comes not from holding a good hand, but in playing a poor hand well.

-- Dennis Waitley

tithe

velvia palpatine, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Moreover, we will bring to the storerooms of the house of our God, to the priests, the first of our ground meal, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees and of our new wine and oil. And we will bring a tithe of our crops to the Levites, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all the towns where we work.

-- Nehemiah 10:37 Bible, NIV

coming back down

snowy isthmus, originally uploaded by McBeth.

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule to never criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

-- Winston Churchill

sustenance

ginger ale, originally uploaded by McBeth.

“The cliché that women, more consistently than men, turn inward for sustenance seems to mean, in practice, that women have richly defined the ways in which imagination creates possibility; possibility that society denies.

-- Patricia Meyer Spacks

travel

wait 20 minutes, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

thirst

blue swoon, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger as reason. I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.

-- Anais Nin

stand up

egghead, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Imagine the Creator as a stand up comedian - and at once the world becomes explicable.

-- Henry Louis Mencken

two things

question: what do squirrels make when they play in the snow?, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own.

-- Adam Lindsay Gordon,
from Fytte VIII
Finis Exoptatus
[A Metaphysical Song]