Thought For the Day: Everything You’ve Learned In School As “Obvious” Becomes Less and Less Obvious As You Begin To Study the Universe

“Everything you’ve learned in school as “obvious” becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There’s not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines.” -R. Buckminster Fuller, engineer, designer, and architect (12 Jul 1895-1983)

Posted in Thought For the Day | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

First Principles: Let Us Recollect That Peace or War Will Not Always Be Left To Our Option

“Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 34, 1788

Posted in First Principles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Thought For the Day: The Limits of Tyrants Are Prescribed By the Endurance of Those Whom They Suppress

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they have resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they suppress.” – Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

Posted in Thought For the Day | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

First Principles: If Congress Can Do Whatever In Their Discretion Can Be Done By Money, …the Government Is No Longer A Limited One…But An Indefinite One

“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.” – James Madison (1792)

Posted in First Principles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Everything Made Easier

Love Valley Spring - Paradise Canyon
Everything Made Easier
by Michael Doyle

Everything is made easier with a breath
And the touch of your hand
I look into your soul and find the depth
That has always helped me to understand

It's there in our strength of connection
Seeing from your perspective forms the bond
You've always given me your true affection
And my heart beats quicker as I respond

Your eyes are your beautiful soul's revealing
I always want you to be by my side
I find myself happily immersed in this feeling
As our love approaches one another, arms open wide

Selflessly, we've come to agree and to forgive
Neither of us needing to be right
Letting go of history to truly love
We love again, renewed with every sight

(c) July 13, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Solace Dreams  - A Fond Farewell

Posted in Poetry and Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

First Principles: Enlightened Statesmen Will Not Always Be At the Helm

“Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.” – James Madison (1787)

Posted in First Principles | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Thought For the Day: The Man Dies In All Who Keep Silent In the Face of Tyranny

“The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.” -Wole Soyinka, playwright, poet, Nobel laureate (b. 13 Jul 1934)

Posted in Thought For the Day | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mess Over Neatness

A Quiet's Contemplation
Mess Over Neatness
by Michael Doyle

Shall we live as Lucy or Linus
As a spreadsheet of plus and minus
Minimalism can be said to be neat
But life as messy has this beat

It is a deep-seated emotional need
That a life well-lived is one freed
From all the hassles of constraint
That neat-freaks pass along as restraint

The possessions that we keep say we were here
However clumsily these might actually appear
Strewn about and laying around, they hold our personality
Only the clutter remains of us eventually

The unused paperweight can hold our sentimentality
Depending on how long it's been in the family
Our mementos are flung into the corners of our rooms
Like life's tapestry woven on invisible looms

It's not a thrift store but a store room of the lost
That comes to us as presence of memory's faded cost
These bring the paraphernalia  of all of our yesterdays
Into the future of what we find we cannot castaway

The possessions that we keep, say we were here
However clumsily these might actually appear
Strewn about and laying around, they hold our personality
Only the clutter remains of us eventually

Each of the objects that hold on as permanents
Have an unofficial reason and feeling like remnants
Reminders of past lives lived as we muddle through
The midlife passages that make us start anew

Braving the piles of all the sordid items collected
Can bring an afternoon of memories recollected
Cramming our spaces with the tokens never really be wrong
All of these traces we keep are where these belong

That possessions that we keep, say we were here
However clumsily these might actually appear
Strewn about and laying around, they hold our personality
Only the clutter remains of us eventually

(c) July 12, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Walls of Freedom - Message of Love

Posted in Poetry and Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

First Principles: I Love the Man That Can Smile In Trouble, That Can Gather Strength From Distress, and Grow Brave By Reflection

“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” – Thomas Paine, The Crisis, No 1, 1776

Posted in First Principles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment