I have it on good authority that....

....Facebook doesn't have a 'dislike' button. And, apparently, you can't select various people from your sphere of acquaintanceship and invite them to become your enemies. It is simply not set up as a platform for argument.  Most postings involve people offering each other support of some kind. 

 

 

Even in what we used to call the 'real world', conflict is often avoided.  There are times when you may have to express a view very strongly, but before doing so try being bland and polite. It may just do the trick.

Don't waste your valuable time with people that are not adding to your growth. Your destiny is too important.

Our heroes and heroines....

..... can rarely do wrong in our eyes. Once we have elevated them in our estimation, we become deeply reluctant to demote a demi-god. Sometimes, we can be similarly romantic about other things in our lives; friends, companions, family members. If we respect them ever, we respect them forever.

 

 

 

 

Yet we are all human. None of us is impeccable or infallible.

I have it on good....

.....authority - well, good(ish) - that there are internationally acclaimed psychics who can reliably tell you whether you are thinking of a square, a circle, a cross or a triangle. Even if their success rate is not a hundred per cent, they defy the laws of chance if they are accurate sixty per cent of the time.

 

 

Still though, such an ability does not guarantee an infallible understanding of everything that someone else happens to be thinking. You can't expect anyone to be a mind reader.

We praise candour and....

....admire honesty, but just imagine what life would be like if everyone said what they thought. We often fall out with one another quickly and easily enough, even when we know only a tiny fraction of what's going on in someone else's mind. If we could hear the whole unexpurgated version of their opinion and they could hear ours, how could we ever exist again?

 

 

If some truths may very well need to be told; not all truths have to be aired. A little discretion may well take you a long way.

Some dead odd people....

...have an ability to win popularity contests. You want proof? Just take a look at the celebrities in the magazines. Whatever charm most of these folk possess, it is clearly, largely superficial. If they were to be, somehow, shorn of their special status, they might not do so fine and dandy in ordinary society. Meanwhile, wonderful folk with generous hearts, true talents and wise minds, are undiscovered and unacknowledged. What matters is not how good something looks, but how good something truly is.

 

 

Don't let appearances deceive you. What matters is not how attractive an idea or arrangement is... but how good it is!

 

 

 

 

We are not the playwright, we are not the producer, we are not even the audience. We are on the stage.

Politicians pursue policies....

....or so I'm led to believe.  I thought they pursued their own agendas.  Anyway, I digress.  While the politicians do what politicians do, scientists follow formulae.  We all have views that seemingly help us to make sense of a crazy world. We develop techniques for coping with the silliness of it all and sometimes, these become ridiculously complicated. We end up baffling ourselves with long explanations and growing almost superstitious about the best way to keep chaos at bay. And then we wrestle with a pile of ifs and buts and maybes.

 

 

Sometimes we benefit more by not thinking about them and keeping things simple.

A little over 80 years ago....

....the German parliament was set on fire. History shows that this was when Hitler had just become Chancellor and he used this as a justification for claiming many authoritarian powers. Some historians have subsequently suggested that the Nazis themselves started the fire to achieve this result. It is yet another example of a story of which we may never know the truth.

 

 

 

No matter what has happens in life, and no matter who seems to gain whatever, you should be suspicious of any suspicion that you cannot substantiate.

 

 

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.    (Lao Tzu)