and many happy returns
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Thursday, November 20, 2014
ACROSS THE FROSTED FIELDS WE FLED
INTO THE STRAINS OF
[an] IMPENDING
WINTER SOLSTICE
clothed in crinoline...in smoky burgandy...I heard cathedral bells...as I walked on...
we walked on frosted fields...I held your hand...
Friday, October 24, 2014
MAKING IT UP AS THEY GO ALONG? NAH!
C aution,
D istance,
C ommon Sense...
Yet, are they...
"MAKING
IT UP
AS
THEY GO ALONG"?
"WITH MID-COURSE CORRECTIONS ? "
***********
Oh! CDC, please don't ever
do that !!!
( as one commentator suggested)
L.P.-G., M.D.
Still, my utmost kudos to Doctors Without
Borders:
“I don't want to live in the kind of world where we don't
look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anybody
who needs a helping hand. I can't change the way anybody else thinks, or what
they choose to do, but I can do my bit.”
― Charles de Lint
Monday, October 13, 2014
AUTUMN AS EARTH'S SORROWING SPRING
[G.M. Hopkins'] MARGARET'S
AUTUMN REPRISAL
"Margaret,
are you grieving...over goldengrove unleaving?"
Margaret,
"child,
of
cadenced grieving":
Blame
not, Autumn,
for
un-leaving;
Fall
stands master,
toiled
and treasured;
Limber
winds breed
seasons...measured.
Balm of saints
and
scripted sorrows;
Tempered
fate spurs
Warm
tomorrows.
What,
then, if thy
veil
descendeth ?
Reaping
ghosts whose
pasts
have endeth ?
Seeds
of scorn
In
search of mending,
Worn
of tinctured
Trials,
unending...
Soul
of Autumn !
Sun-drenched
crimson!
Baring
truths,
For winter,
winsome:
Such
are lessons learned
by four-score;
(Still,
it's Margaret whom
you
mourn for...).
above
poem written by: L.P.-Grenn
Though,
here's what forever inspires me...
Spring and Fall
to a young child
Márgarét, áre you grÃeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wÃll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow’s sprÃngs áre [all]the same.
Nor mouth had; no, nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost [had] guessed:
It Ãs the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret [who] you mourn for.
Thursday, August 14, 2014
IT IS SURE TO ASK ONE DAY: "MAY I HAVE THIS DANCE?"
DOPAMINE'S DEADLY DANCE OF DESTRUCTION:
SLOW, STEADY, SINUOUS,
SURREPTITIOUS...
sur·rep·ti·tious
adjective
1 1. kept secret,
especially because it would not be approved of.
DARE WE LOOK AT REALITY?
No one would have ever characterized the late Robin Williams as an
ascetic. Quite the contrary, he was the essence of exuberance and manic
enthusiasm, manifested as "boundless energy", among other things. Yet,
it is very clear that his comic gifts were bestowed 'by the powers that be' as
a mystifying double-edged sword. For whatever reason, his ability to make
others laugh also came with the capacity to feel other people's pain...perhaps
too much so. Now if the human brain were simple enough for us to actually understand
it, we'd be so simple [that] we couldn't. What a conundrum! The dopamine tide that
also governs both depression and addiction appears to render some kind folks, those
with intrinsic hearts of gold, into tortured souls. Then there's the little
understood phenomenon of ADHD and severe OCD not naturally cancelling each
other out [when one inherits both] but occasionally culminating into a situation
of uncontrollable verbiage and gestures.
I truly admire the wisdom
of psychiatrists and psychologists pursuant to their clarification of brain
chemistry, especially in the wake of Williams' sudden parting. The
neurotransmitter dopamine is increasingly cited as much more than a bit player
in the genesis of addiction. Perhaps this is knowledge that might be imparted as
early on in grade school as is feasibly acceptable. After all, a deep
acceptance of our natural conditions only makes sense. Knowledge, as the saying
goes, is power.
Dopamine,
at its finest, gives us a sense of significance and wholeness. However, too
much [of this mood enhancer] and an individual may segue into agitation,
restlessness, and full blown hyper-mania. On the other hand, with too little of
this key neurotransmitter, the unlucky recipient will experience feelings of
depression/misery, inertia, and all sorts of cravings; the latter are an
evolutionary brain response to stave the inner emptiness that threatens to behave much as a bell jar (think Sylvia
Plath). It's just that evolution can't do much to prevent so-called
'mis-firings'.
The
cells that produce dopamine occur along three distinct "riverbeds" of
the brain. That said, they are prone to periodic flashfloods, if you will, that
may result in behavior considered [by many] to be at the outer margins of the proverbial
bell curve.
While few of us ever
experience the extreme behavioral symptoms that led Robin Williams to end his
life, it's fair to say that anomalous behavior is difficult to explain. It does
appear that our subconscious thoughts are stronger than we might suppose;
furthermore, our actions may also be influenced by chemically mediated synapses
that transpired only milliseconds before by our completely UNCONSCIOUS
emotional system. In other words, we are truly at the mercy of our unconscious
triggers.
Nature
may still be trying to perfect the inner workings of our evolutionary brain; in
the past, a very trigger-happy limbic system was a key to survival. Now,
the traffic between the cerebral cortex and the limbic system may need to be
adjusted, as a key to our survival in a totally different sense.
We,
as humans, sometimes have a tendency to describe 'being well' entirely in terms
of NOT being 'unwell'. This is partly due to the fact that our emotional
roots are, for the most part, fully unconscious.
Embracing the limitless self is, generally-speaking, a noble
goal; unfortunately, some do it through the use of mood- or mind-altering drugs
or simple alcohol. Even more regrettably, the sense of freedom that alcohol or
mind-altering drugs may impart is only temporary. Hence, one who abuses such
folly is not free at all; they're actually trapped in a vicious cycle.
Still, an increase in our
awareness fosters the ability to change the nature of our unconscious pattern
of behavior.
Remember,
if you should ever fall, look for a great set of wings; moreover, you simply can't
be in continual retreat from this earthly world. And he who has the beauty of a
beloved friend can never forget it: especially when the sophistry of dopamine's
ebb threatens to catapult one into the rabbit-hole of menacing solipsism!
MAHALO
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