Thought For the Day: The Absence of Flaw In Beauty Is Itself A Flaw


“The absence of flaw in beauty is itself a flaw.” – Havelock Ellis, physician, writer, and social reformer (2 Feb 1859-1939)

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What Queen Frostine Taught Me

Candytopia -The Gummis Were On A Sitdown Strike
What Queen Frostine Taught Me
by Michael Doyle

Queen Frostine taught me to cherish victory
Sweetly satisfying and stacked in her mystery
At four years old, I began to learn to take my turn
Life was full of all these sorts of things to learn

I found that those things learned with a laugh
Stuck with me more than worrisome patterns of math
Yet still, I learned to count with color recognition
And I found that kids' games developed my cognition

All of this became discerned to my gratitude
While creative enjoyment taught me the attitude
That would come to serve me well through my days
I found that life's games are worth a million plays

Win or lose, I learned to play my turns honestly
Finding otherwise, no one would continue to play with me
Losing time and time again until winning, I came to define
All those things I came to claim as me and mine

Among these things was the honor of my integrity
This came hard learned, I will say with sincerity
It was in growing older that I learned to face rejection
With only a few moonshot roles building needed connections

In all the hopes that would have been, that could have been
I learned from Candyland to become gracious, lose or win
Knowing full well that whether encountering ladders or slides
I learned I'd be alright, and always come out the other side

You see, the trick is to keep going, facing ever forward
Moving with persistence, ever onward and constantly toward
With our eyes set on whatever the goals chosen might mean
And still, we remain hopeful until happening on Queen Frostine

(c) February 1, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Candytopia - Let the Game Begin

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First Principles: The Only Sure and Permanent Foundation of Virtue Is Religion. Let This Important Truth Be Engraved Upon Your Heart

“The only sure and permanent foundation of virtue is religion. Let this important truth be engraved upon your heart.” – Abigail Adams

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Thought For the Day: Power Concedes Nothing Without A Demand. It Never Did and Never Will.

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.” – Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, editor and orator (c. Feb 1817-1895)

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Thought For the Day: I Shall Live Badly If I Do Not Write, and I Shall Write Badly If I Do Not Live

“I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live.” – Francoise Sagan, playwright and novelist (1935-2004)

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First Principles: An Honest Man Can Feel No Pleasure In the Exercise of Power Over His Fellow Citizens

“An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.” – Thomas Jefferson (1813)

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We Were So Certain

Dolce Amore Beach - End of Pier Ferris Wheel At Dawn
We Were So Certain
by Michael Doyle

It's not so funny
How things rearrange
It used to be so sunny
Now everything has changed

You were my Bonnie,
And I was your Clyde
Was I only dreaming
Or along for your ride

We were so certain
Now we're simply hurting
I wanted to love you always
Now you're missing in my days

In the morning, I open my eyes
Thankful for the new sunrise
And I wonder how you are feeling
Still, it is that I am reeling

Your side of the bed is empty
Except for your haunting memory
I don't want to be your yesterday
But you're gone anyway

We were so certain
Now I'm deeply hurting
You were my last in line
Where are you Valentine?

Where there's a light
There's a way to make it right
But with no real words between
I must guess at what you mean

The devil was right there
Lost up in all the details
The pain inside is clear
It's what the silence reveals

You were my Bonnie
And I was your Clyde
Was I only dreaming
And along for your ride?

(c) January 31, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Love & Camouflage 2024 (Inferno)

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Just Beyond Possible

Prospect Beach - Circuses and Fortunetelling  For the Poor
Just Beyond Possible
by Michael Doyle

However much it seems to be implausible
The risk is taken to push beyond probable
Though sometimes this makes you culpable
At times, you must push just beyond possible

It is for the good of every profitable company
That we risk the hazards of delicate prophecy
Praying against the failures of imagination
And taking action with a boldness of articulation

When the elder statesmen of science have hesitation
Plead their certainty of impossibility into question
There is only one way to push, and that is as hard as possible
Because those things unknowable can become canonical

It would be nothing short of something awkwardly tragic
If we were to mistake technology for being short of magic
The supernatural is simply science not yet quite understood
The mysterious should be accepted for its innate good

It seems that everything is impossible until it is done
It's been that way since the earth's first turn was begun
All paths that lead to more knowledge and godly reality
Are just and pure as systems of conceivable theology

(c) January 30, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Elysium at Silken Ropes II 2022

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Thought For the Day: The Only Way of Discovering the Limits of the Possible Is To Venture A Little Way Past Them Into the Impossible

“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” – Arthur C. Clarke

At different times and places, Arthur C. Clarke restated this quote in slightly different variants at least three times. 

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First Principles: Human Kindness Has Never Weakened the Stamina Or Softened the Fiber of A Free People. A Nation Does Not Have To Be Cruel To Be Tough

“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (30 Jan 1882-1945)

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