Driving without a horn is like being a mute in an argument
So, If one observes dogs, and their attempts to verbally communicate (i.e. barking), one realizes that even with a limited set of expressions (variations on barking) they can communicate certain ideas very well. There's loud bark and growl (for expressing anger, or warning of danger), the quieter single bark for attracting attention, and the continuous excitement barking (the guests are arriving).
This seems very analogous to how people use their horns when driving in traffic. There's the long extended honk (as a form of shouting at stupid drivers), the quick short honk (for getting attention of others), and the repetitive celebratory post-sports-game honk.
Cookies!
Food for thought:
Which cookie tastes better?:
1) The cookie that's still in the cookie jar, on top of the fridge, and unattainable?
2) The cookie in your hand that is all yours, but you may have to fight others to keep
3) The cookie in the hand of another, which you must steal away from him/her.
4) The cookie on the ground, which another has discarded and you won't have to fight to get.
Prayer for the Sea Anemone
Prayer for Sea Anemone:
Protect the Sea Anemone, for she is too easily fooled
In her constant search for the right fish,
When the boy prods her with a stick, she charges
Believing she has found her fish, she pulls with all her might
When the boy leaves, there is only the anemone left
Ages pass before she can relax to search for fish again
Protect the Sea Anemone, shun the boy
Mixed Metaphors
So, this afternoon I was thinking to myself. I only really have a vague grasp of a what a mixed metaphor is. I wish I had a good concrete example so I could really wrap my brain around this concept.
A few hours later as I watched a taped episode of The Daily Show:
"The thing with Islam is, that they don't have a Pope, who would say 'Hey! That's not Kosher'. Not that he would say that..."
I feel better now.
Interrogation of the Temple Spirits
Bruised and battered I entered the temple doors.
"Why have you resisted my entrance so? Why have you tested me so?"
I cried to the keepers of the holy place.
"Because of your wisdom and your ignorance!
" Your pursuit of wisdom has brought you to this point. You began your quest for knowledge shortly before the beginning of the end. You planned to gain the knowledge to work towards preventing the failure and destruction of all that you held dear. And over the following years, you gained a great deal of knowledge. However, that knowledge came too late.
"The World has ended. The remains of the destruction are all around you. All of your kind have been destroyed, betrayed by your very own tribe. The future of all is in question, and you know nothing of this. You have been blind to the apocalypse which has occurred under your very nose. The day of judgment has come and gone and you have been completely unaware! You have sidestepped prophecy."
Images of chaos swirl all around. Great monuments of triumph are torn down, colossal fractal webs of organization are sliced to strands, and a poison seeps across the world, tainting everything. Even the mightiest of defenders are subject to its toxin. Few resist, and even those are quickly shouted down by the infected. This venom is ubiquitous, it is the venom of Fear.
"What would have had me do? Given up my quest for wisdom? Joined the warriors who fought so valiantly? What would I have accomplished? Most likely I would be lying dead with all the others, or worse been poisoned with the others and found myself fighting AGAINST what I believed in?"
The Keepers remained silent
"Now I am alone, the last of my kind. But one survivor of a lost world is better than no survivors. Though I may be the end of the line for my kind, at least I can tell our story. While we may die out in the material world, at least we shall have immortality as our wisdom is passed on. Perhaps in time I may come across another who, like me has escaped a rightly deserved doom. Either way, I have what tools I have, and now I learn to use them for purposes other than they were intended."
"That is the reason you were permitted to enter"
