Occasionally I get a real chuckle out of queries people made to a search engine and ended up finding my website. They can be a really funny look into the words and phrases that I have used over the course of time. But mostly they make me wonder about the person on the other end of the quest. Why were they searching for that particular thing? What did they think when they found my site instead? Did they find what they were looking for, either on my site or at another?
This was the search capture from my site from just one day. (My favorite is the one in bold.)
kama sutra position
ten peeves that dogs have about humans
walking around naked
accident
you owe me nothing german rock wilder dogs
spring haus animal
the value of material possessions
der sturmer
how we value possessions
does wilder need have intrinsic value?
intrinsic entertainment
fearful people are more dependent gerbner
fill my hole
A man recently set out to list “12 Books that Changed the World.” Here is his list:
Principia Mathematica (1687) by Isaac Newton
Married Love (1918) by Marie Stopes
Magna Carta (1215) by members of the English ruling classes
Book of Rules of Association Football (1863) by a group of former English public-school men
On the Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin
On the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1789) by William Wilberforce in Parliament, immediately printed in several versions
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) by Mary Wollstonecraft
Experimental Researches in Electricity (three volumes, 1839, 1844, 1855) by Michael Faraday
Patent Specification for Arkwright?s Spinning Machine (1769) by Richard Arkwright
The King James Bible (1611) by William Tyndale and 54 scholars appointed by the king
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) by Adam Smith
The First Folio (1623) by William Shakespeare
Although we hate to admit it, everyone has their price. When I used to sell cars, the guys liked to talk about money a lot, its part of the sales mentality, anything for a buck. Anyway, we would come up with scenarios and prices and see who would do what for what amount. When you start getting to truly ridiculous amounts of money it is hard to find what some one would NOT do. There are MANY things that one would do for, say, one billion dollars?real cash money?one Billion dollars. What was interesting to me was how many (of this small sampling of a certain type of male, i.e. mostly young hustler type) guys would give another guy a blow-job for ten thousand dollars in a private setting, but would not do the same thing at, say, half-time on the fifty-yard line at the Super Bowl for a million dollars. Variables make a difference. And how many women are willing to show their breasts for plastic beads at Mardi Gras, who might otherwise not show them on the street to a stranger for ten or twenty dollars? For that matter, how many things do we do for free all the time that we would NEVER do for ten or twenty bucks, or even a hundred?
So, where am I going with all of this? Well, as I said before, I am working on down-sizing much of my life/material possessions. Some of the things that have for years been a mainstay possession were my books. I’ve lugged them around for centuries it seems. I’ve clung to boxes and boxes of literature, art, history, fiction, science, philosophy, veritable crates of Babel. I finally figured that between the internet and public libraries I could definitely and finally lighten my load in this area. Overall, it was a pretty painless decision as I looked through the stacks and chose the few keepers and which ones could be liberated.
The pain that followed was one I never saw coming. After lugging seven full boxes of books into Half Price Books I walked out with 24 dollars. Like silver coins, I felt dirty and corrupt with them in my pocket. Something about the entire exchange felt cheap, tawdry, demeaning. I reflected with great sadness on my lost friends, companions from my youth and through the course of much of my life. It is amazing how much character and weight they held in my thoughts and memories?and to have sold them for paltry change was almost more than I could bear.
Don?t misunderstand me, I am happy to have the books find a new home, but there are just some things that I would rather do for free.
Book donations for this program are accepted locally at:
Dallas Buddhist Association, Inc.
515 Apollo Road
Richardson, TX 75081
Tel: (972) 234-4401
It seems this weekend has been a time of passing. Two friends lost beloved animal companions recently, and my heart goes out to them.
My dear friend passed, from a year-long battle with cancer. She was 41.
Those are the bare and basic facts; the simple statement that comes to mind. But the emotions and feelings, the memories are so much more. L.E. was a compassionate and fun-loving soul-force. You couldn’t be in her presence for more than a moment before you would feel her energy for healing, comfort and connection, as well as her adventurous and joyful outlook. She was a most gracious hostess, vivacious dancer, deep spirited seeker of wisdom/soul/truth and a cherished friend. I will always be able to recall her deep throaty voice and inimitable laughter.
I have been honored and blessed to call her among my friends. You are in my heart, Barbie-girl!
Of course we shed tears for the loss of life and vibrancy that the extinguishing of another’s world flame signifies. But as I remember the many deaths that occurred over the course of my lifetime and I have to say that I feel them more intensely as I get older. I remember feeling sad in my youth at the passing of friends and family members. But I also remember getting more caught up in the emotions of the people around me, and not really feeling them so deeply myself. Whereas, now, I find myself profoundly touched, almost overwhelmed by the loss of life that I encounter. Some may say that happens as we age because in the deaths of others we see our own mortality. Perhaps.
But there is a difference between the fear of death, and the fear of not living fully.
