“We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.” – C.S. Lewis
Flickr Photos
Thought of the Day: We Laugh At Honor and Are Shocked To Find Traitors In our Midst
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged C.S. Lewis, Castrate, Chest, Enterprrise, Fruitful, Function, Geldings, Honor, Organ, Thought For the Day, Traitor, Virtue
Leave a comment
First Principles: The Ultimate Authority Rests With the People Alone
“The ultimate authority … resides in the people alone. … The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any…” – James Madison (1788)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Ambition, Armed, Authority, Barrier, First Principles, James Madison, The People, Ultimate
Leave a comment
Thought For the Day: Let Kindness, Beauty and Truth Light Your Way Giving Courage to Face Life Cheerfully
“The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth.” – Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (14 Mar 1879-1955)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Albert Einstein, Beauty, Courage, Ideal, Kindness, Life, Light, Thought For the Day, Time, Truth, Way
Leave a comment
Two Shakes
The warning was felt lingering in the air…
Two Shakes by Michael Romani Two shakes Rattle snakes Warning's in the air Tick tock Says the clock And soon the time's not there Mirrored wall Cracked in awe Pride takes its fall An invitation To consultation Borne in irritation It's an imposition Broken in inquisition To peer deep inside Phobias of interest Joined in their congress Taken for this ride An unhappiness Bred from its emptiness That overwhelms denial Things spoken out of school Reveals the fool Another victim of style (c) March 13, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Clock, Congress, Crack, Deep, Denial, Empty, Fool, Imposition, Inquisition, Invitation, Irritation, Mirror, Phobia, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Pride, Rattlesnake, Ride, School, Shake, Spoke, Style, Tick, Time, Unhappy, Victim, Warning
Leave a comment
Echo Chambers of Disbelief
Beware the monsters under our beds.. but worse still are the monsters just behind the veneer we casually wear….
Echo Chambers of Disbelief by Michael Romani In a thousand seedy places There are monsters behind faces Playing cleverly as saying nothing While pretending to be all things Too many monsters playing pretend Stretching out their hands as if friends All wishing to give death its defeat Dealing out illusory dreams on the street Echo chambers of disbelief Do their best to stave off grief The worse send of irony spreads like cancer Choking out the life dreams of the dancers Caught up in the strains of commotion Afraid to commit to true emotion Certain they might find their depth shallow Something they don't dare to know Life it seems, creates its own disaster Chasing here and there, seeking what we're after Each of us creates the façade of grace Each of us a stillborn dreamer behind our face (c) March 13, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged After, Cancer, Chamber, Chase, Choke, Clever, Commotion, Dancer, Death, Depth, Disaster, Disbelief, Dream, Dreamer, Echo, Emotion, Facade, Face, Friend, Grace, Grief, Illusion, Irony, Know, Life Dream, Monster, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Pretend, Seedy Place, Shallow, Stillborn
Leave a comment
Thought For the Day:
“Love never claims, it ever gives.” – Mohandas K Ghandi
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Claims, Destruction, Give, Hate, Life, Love, Mahatma Gandhi, Resent, Revenge, Suffer, Thought For the Day
Leave a comment
First Principles: Diffusion of Virtue and Knowledge Is Our Security From Ever Being Enslaved
“If Virtue & Knowledge are diffused among the People, they will never be enslav’d. This will be their great Security.” – Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, February 12, 1779
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Diffuse, First Principles, Knowledge, Samuel Adams, Security, Slave, The People, Virtue
Leave a comment
Window Shopping
Life – it’s a flash, a bit of dash, and then maybe it’s over before we even know it’s begun…
Window Shopping by Michael Romani It's strange all those little things That make up our memory All the flashes and dashes our lives bring Too busy to know we're living history Window shopping down the city street Where strangers are friends we've yet to meet A song of life that moves on and on That is, until that life is too soon gone Just as suddenly, driving a country lane Top of the convertible down despite the rain Samhain has become All Hallow's Eve With all the Highland charms we don't want to leave Widespread branches in our family's tree Require the will to build into our legacy I dream of you when we're apart I say 'apart' but you're always in my heart We are different and yet the same I suppose that's the happiness of life's game Dusty ruins are the stuff of excavations But also offer perspective for our expectations (c) March 12, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged All Hallow's Eve, Apart, Branch, Charm, City Street, Country Lane, Dash, Different, Dream, Dust, Excavation, Expectation, Family Tree, Flash, Friends, Game, Happy, Heart, Highland, Legacy, Life, Living History, Meet, Memory, Perspective, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Rain, Ruin, Same, Samhain, Shop, Song of Life, Strangers, Will, Window, You
Leave a comment
Things I’m Learning From You
Dedicated to all those I like and love however imperfectly…
Things I'm Learning From You by Michael Romani I've long sought my authenticity Pursuing it with great integrity Only to find that in the much I believed I was too often soul deceived On my road to sweet Calvary I left a checkered past as my history Filled with hurt, indecision and pain Telling myself it was all the more to gain I was offered answers that no one knew And then I was no different to you I was offering answers I didn't know Mostly unaware of just how deeply it would show But, I did this with great sincerity Always seeking ever deeper clarity Never realizing the best that I'd ever give Was in teaching you how to forgive You called me Monkey just to make me laugh At first it felt just like some kind of gaffe But as my smile grew, I fell deeper into you And from there, our love grew as it grew Your words of love touched me deep I found myself promising that which I'd keep You always so very close to me Let sleepless nights become our legacy Playing twenty questions of intimacy Until the crack of dawn's incendiary Waking there in the clear of the morning sun's eyes Every moment cherished as it's own surprise Pajama parties inside played in minds Memories we'll never leave behind And so now two begin to grow into one Or, at least so it seems we've begun (c) March 12, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Answer, Authenticity, Begun, Beileve, Calvary, Checkered Past, Cherish, Clarity, Close, Deceived, Fell, Forgive, Gaffe, Gain, Grew, History, Hurt, Ignorance, Imperfect, Indecision, Integrity, Intimacy, Knew, Laugh, Learn, Love, Memory, Mind, Monkey, Morning, Night, One, Pain, Pajama Party, Perfection, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Promise, Sincere, Sleepless, Smile, Soul, Sun, Surprise, Twenty Questions, Two, Words, You
Leave a comment
First Principles: It Is For the President Alone To Decide To Act Or Not Act Consistent Within the Bounds of the Constitution
“If, for instance, the president is required to do any act, he is not only authorized, but required, to decide for himself, whether, consistently with his constitutional duties, he can do the act.” – Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833