"At your best, don't impress anyone. At your worst, don't offend anyone." Chuang Tzu

"A marsh pheasant has to walk ten paces for a bite to eat and a hundred for a sip of water. But still it wouldn't want to be tamed and put into a cage. Even treated like a king, it could never be happy and content." Chuang Tzu

I read most of "True Grit" by Charles Portis a couple of years ago, but stopped when I got busy with a new season. I noticed the bookmark in it when I looked on one of my paperback shelves, so I pulled it out to finish during breaks from my other reading, while the snow melts.

".....the ability to deceive may to some degree argue skill or power, but the will to deceive is a sign of malice or weakness....." Descartes

Syllogism: A form of reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn from two propositions.

More truth here than appears at first glance.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” — J.R.R. Tolkien

"I spoke with one who said it was profitable for a person to act unjustly. But one who acts unjustly really does not profit or find any good." Plato

"Own nothing! Possess nothing! Buddha and Christ taught us this, and the Stoics and the Cynics. Greedy though we are, why can't we seem to grasp that simple teaching? Can't we understand that with property we destroy our soul?' Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Cynosure: A person or a thing that is the center of attention or admiration.

"IN ancient times, sages established Way in themselves first. Only then did they establish it among people. If you aren't sure about Way in yourself, you don't have time to worry about the ways of some tyrant." Confucius

"If you know what's beyond your control, if you know it follows the inevitable unfurling of things and you live at peace - that is Integrity perfected." Confucius

"But any exaggeration is a lie. When there are lies there is no trust; and when there's no trust whoever transmits the words is in peril. Hence the principle: Transmit the essence of thoughts, not the inflated language." Confucius

Reading a portion of the "Perfect Discourse" found in the Nag Hammadi scriptures.

Isaiah 5:21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. "I know that I know nothing." Socrates. "To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge." Confucius.

Isaiah 5:18 & 19 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes, to those who say, "Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so we may know it."

It is a global tragedy whenever beautiful things and innocent people are destroyed because these are our ties to God, and the goodness in humanity itself.

"The Paraphrase of Shem" from the Nag Hammadi

Mazurka: A lively Polish dance in triple time.

It was all so easy and Trump and Republicans just went and F’d it all up. We voted to lower gas prices, inflation, cost of groceries, and housing. We voted to hold people accountable for lawfare, deadly open borders, covid crimes. We voted for no more foreign wars, no more