“If life’s lessons could be reduced to single sentences, there would be no need for fiction.” -Scott Turow, author and lawyer (b. 12 Apr 1949)
Flickr Photos
Thought For the Day: If Life’s Lessons Could Be Reduced To Single Sentences, There Would Be No Need For Fiction
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Fiction, Lessons, Life, Need, Reduce, Scott Turow, Single Sentences, Thought For the Day
Leave a comment
Too Jung For the Good Life
Too Jung For the Good Life
by Michael Doyle
The verbal coinage of modern-age complexity
Lays predominately bound to Jung's dexterity
It's something that happens in synchronicity
Of the universe beaming out the need to be happy
But the journey of happiness, despite its fascination
Cannot be approached in any defined sense of destination
The goal is to find the state that seems like progress
That, and to avoid the position in which we deeply regress
There are said to be five pillars on which that might rest
Each of these are substantial in passing the test
In life's ultimate paradox, we can only lower unhappiness
We cannot purposefully create happiness or find true bliss
The negative and the positive are mental states respective
Of those things that makeup life's collected perspectives
Love is happiness experienced as a relationship at full stop
Ignoring this increases isolation and is what we must drop
If we are to find the happiness that keeps us well and whole
And if we are to find the secret to the more successful souls
To find this happiness is to find beauty in its cultivation
And that nature's beauty must have our greater appreciation
Aesthetic experience wholly depends on setting an artistic mood
It's the melancholy of broken artists that constantly intrudes
Reasonable living standards require living with a good purpose
To do so, we do best when what we do can provide service
Fostering resilience is the brilliance of being a human being
We live intentionally to form experiences that have meaning
If we are to live our lives with a sense of needed resplendence
We must walk the righteous paths that lead to transcendence
The closest we mortals have to approaching happiness is love
Some of us find this in following the ways taught from above
In the end, it seems to me that what we must finally contend
is that to serve God and others is, indeed, our living end
(c) April 11, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Above, Aesthetic Experience, Appreciation, Approach, Artistic Mood, Beam, Beauty, Bliss, Brilliance, Broken, Closest, Complexity, Contend, Cultivation, Define, Desintation, Dexterity, Drop, Fascination, Five Pillars, Form Experiences, Foster, Full Stop, Goal, Good Life, Good Purpose, Happy, Human Being, Ignore, In the End, INstrude, Isolation, Journey, Jung, Live Intentionally, Lives, Living End, Living Standards, Love, Meaning, Melancholy, Modern Age, Mortal, Nature's Beauty, Others, Paradox, Perspective, Poetry and Poems, Position, Progress, Provide Service, Reasonable, Regress, Relationship, Resilience, Respective, Resplendence, Rest, Righteous Paths, Secret, Serve God, Soul, State, Substantial, Synchronicity, Test, Transscendence, Universe, Verbal Coinage, Ways, Whole
Leave a comment
First Principles: It Is Error Alone Which Needs the Support of Government. Truth Can Stand By Itself. Subject Opinion To Coercion: Whom Will You Make Your Inquisitors?
“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors?” – Thomas Jefferson (1781)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Alone, Coercion, Error, First Principles, Government, Inquisitors, Itself, Make, Need, Opinino, Stand, Support, Thomas Jefferson, Truth, Whom
Leave a comment
Thought For the Day: A Cynical, Mercenary, Demagogic Press Will Produce In Time A People As Base As Itself. The Power To Mould the Future of the Republic Will Be In the Hands of the Journalists of Future Generations
“Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. The power to mould the future of the Republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations.” – Joseph Pulitzer
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Base, Cynical, Demagogic, Future, Future Generations, Hnads, Joseph Pulitzer, Journalists, Mockery, Our Republic, People, Popular Government, Power, Preserve, Press, Public Virtue, Public-Spirted, Rise or Fall, Sham, The Republic, Thought For the Day, Together
Leave a comment
Living Principled
Living Principled
by Michael Doyle
Going to the cross, we give everything
Yet, in giving our all, we lose nothing
We hold to the truth in this dark hour
Blazing the light of Jesus as our power
We must step boldly as we share the light
We live as if beacons in this world's night
All that we live and everything that we do
Are testament to the living principles we hold true
The wings of angels above cut through the fire
But not the fire that burns from the inside
Our embers burn on and seem to never tire
Let our lights shine brightly and never hide
Applying the principles of the Bible brings new life
And in so doing, brings us peace and lessens strife
The earth is the Lord's as Heaven begins to speak
From its lowest places to the highest mountain peaks
The time has come to live our deepest beliefs boldly
Standing strong and doing right as it is told to me
Living up to our debt with the humility of gratitude
With God's love as our shield worn in our attitude
We are to live as to mirror God's holy truth
Lived best as a mission from our earliest youth
Taking our steps as part of our holy worship
And being forthright in keeping the right relationship
We must be faithful in all that we say, and we do
Faithful in the little and great that are equally true
It is in faithfulness that we win this earnest game
Serving the Lord God becomes our only claim to fame
We are called to be leaders in guiding the appetite
Of those around us, as is taught by God through His light
We should lead others, also, to do all those right things
And have the courage to stand bold in all and everything
We should be like the morsels that are mixed in
To bring goodness to life and reduce worldly sin
We do this by being the inspiration for others to see
And standing firm in our living and blessed theology
We must boldly stand out like this in this modern Babylon
Living for God in every step taken as our lives go on
And in so living, we must live within our God's holiest ways
This how we must live throughout our remaining days
And to the ways of evil, we must never betray God or bow
Into living in culture's window for the world somehow
The Lion of Judah living in us through every single breath
We were and are born to shine out light until our deaths
We are thankful in knowing our salvation, and we will walk bold
Doing these needed things in God's embrace as we have been told
We must live like modern day Daniels walking into the fire
Let us live the lives that will serve to boldly inspire
(c) April 10, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Attitude, Belief, Bible, Bold, Burn, Christianity, Cross, Embers, Faith, Fire, God, Gratitude, Haen, Humility, Jesus, Light, Living, Living Principles, New Life, Night, Peace, Poetry and Poems, Principled, Truth, Wings of Angels
Leave a comment
First Principles: The Longer I Live, the More Convincing Proofs I See of This Truth, That God Governs In the Affairs of Men
“The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this Truth, that God governs in the Affairs of Men. And if a Sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid?” – Benjamin Franklin (1787)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Affairs, Aid, Benjamin Franklin, Empire, First Principles, God, Governs, Ground, Live, Longer, Men, Notice, Probable, Proof, Rise, Sparrow, Truth
Leave a comment
Thought For the Day: I Love You Without Knowing How, Or When, Or From Where. I Love You Simply, Without Problems Or Pride
“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.” – Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged 100 Love Sonnets, How, I, Know, Love, Pablo Neruda, Pride, Simply, Thought For the Day, Where, Without Problems, You
Leave a comment
Totality and Doom
Totality and Doom
by Michael Doyle
Yesterday, the moon blotted out the sun
In the same way, it has frequently done
The people traveled from miles around
Hoping they would see something to astound
Their weary minds at least for a little while
Some came to be scared but most came to smile
Magical and familiar the sun shines most days
We gaze up at the sun and are comforted in ways
That seems to tap us on the shoulder like friends
As we watch it travel the skies to the earth's ends
Together, we sing songs that comfort the soul and spirit
If you listen closely, you are comforted to hear it
One thing that was odd about yesterday was the fear
A significant number were waiting for signs to appear
I was startled to hear it come from a pair of close lips
In the end, I was happy to say so much for the apocalypse
Doomsayers were certain the end was again nigh
Because of the totality of darkness in the sky
There was chaos in some corners of our internet
Speaking of troubles and blood moons we'd regret
Years of religious and cultural prophecies gone wrong
Should have taught us our faith needs to be proven strong
We should know that such predictions seldom come true
Even when that Devil's Comet manages to come into view
Apocalyptic thinkers find warnings like Gloucester in Lear
While conspiracies bloom and panic grows itself into fear
Dandelions of conspiracy are everywhere whatever you do
Resilient whispers refuse to die, though they're seldom true
Here we are waiting and watching the path of totality
Thinking on the bits and pieces that make up our reality
I hear the vibe from the crowd, and I think it's clever
It's the days like that will change our lives forever
(c) April 9, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Apocalypse, Appear, Astound, Bits and Pieces, Blood Moon, Bloom, Blot, Certain, Change, Chaos, Clever, Close Lips, Comfort, Conspiracies, Corner, Crowd, Cultural, Dandeliions, Darkness, Days, Devil's Comet, Die, Doom, Doomsayer, End, Faith, Familiar, Fear, Forever, Happy, Internet, Lear, Lives, Magical, Miles, Moon, Odd, Panic, Path of Totality, Poetry and Poems, Prediction, Prophecies, Reality, Regret, Religious, Resilient, Signficant, Signs, Sky, Smile, So Much for, Speak, Startled, Strong, Sun, Taught, Thinker, Totality, Travel, Trouble, Vibe, View, Wait, Watch, Weary Minds, Whisper, Wrong, Years, Yesterday
Leave a comment
First Principles: From the Practice of the Purest Virtue, You May Be Assured You Will Derive the Most Sublime Comforts In Every Moment of Life, and In the Moment of Death
“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.” ― Thomas Jefferson
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Assure, Comfort, Death, Derive, First Principles, Life, Moment, Practic, Pure, Sublime, Thomas Jefferson, Virtue
Leave a comment
Thought For the Day: Everything Considered, Work Is Less Boring Than Amusing Oneself
“Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself. “– Charles Baudelaire, poet, critic, and translator (9 Apr 1821-1867)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Amuse, Boring, Charles Baudelaire, Consider, Evertything, Self, Thought For the Day, Work
Leave a comment
ALOHA PROMISES FOREVER 