Mr.Piffka's Quotes

"What millions died - that Caesar might be great!"

Thomas Campbell (1777-1844)

"Moral conservatives launched their backlash against the wide-ranging policies of the Social Gospel decades: abortion, gay rights, affirmative action, and poverty were now spun back into sins. The poor became a lazy underclass again. A new generation of moralists blamed bad behavior for every manner of social problem: crime, alcoholism, drug abuse, bastards, rude kids, pornography, and a menacing underclass. Today, a full generation after the sixties, those certainly look like individual sins. Sex? Drink? Drugs? Stop whining about underpriviledge and just say no! It takes a great imaginative leap to even remember the vibrant Social Gospel: We all share moral fates. We are our neighbors' keepers. We are responsible for the whole community. For further details, as FDR used to tell the preachers, go back to the Sermon on the Mount."

- James A. Morone, Hellfire Nation

a reply to that guy...
There is some truth...a lot of truth...in any assertion.

But the idea that one man is the keeper of another is not in the sermon on the mount and it is not in the bible either, that was Cain asking God if he WAS his brother's keeper..... God didn't answer him, but apparently the problem was not in Cain's failure to "keep" his brother, but his decision to SLAY HIM when no one was looking...

It's animals in the zoo that need keepers...or very immature people...I really RESENT anyone's efforts to "keep" me, but I know they mean well..."they know not what they do", that phrase IS in the bible, twice...

So I won't return the insult to them...

What I need...what people REALLY need...and this would make all other needs...shortfalls...relatively insignificant...is Appreciation.

People need to be valued for who they are.

Not who they ought to be, which is the only kind of "appreciation" Society has to offer....

Our obligation to our brother in the bible is "love worketh no ill to his neighbor."

The "social gospel" was all about working ill to some in order to benefit others, robbing peter to pay paul and all of it done coercively...

Which is all right...people in groups cannot act in a pure manner, the thesis of Mr. Neibuhr's book Moral Man and Immoral Society...

But "society"..."caesar"...always claims moral virtue as the reason for all they do...and I suppose the purpose is to maximize Life...a pretty strong reason for bullying people...

As far as being our brother's keepers...well lots of brothers can't keep themselves too well...and it's depressing, looking at the rotting corpses, so we butt in so's not to have to be so depressed...

But it's a herculean task taking care of another Being who has his own inner agenda...or lack thereof...

I believe it is Paul who says elsewhere, he that sees his brother in need and is not moved to give him whatever aid he can, how dwelleth the love of God in him...

But needs...again the greatest need everyone has is to be confirmed that they ought to have existed...that they are not some mistake...

Sometimes efforts to "help" send just the opposite message.

*is having a hard time getting into the A2K swing of things*

And I know it was just a quote and not necessarily anyone's doctrinal statement...just happens to touch a sore spot in me...

"It is a mathematical fact that the casting of this pebble from my hand alters the centre of gravity of the universe."

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), Sartor Resartus

Re: a reply to that guy...


Ahhh. Mr.P's quotes have caused rifts within his own family, so a bit of a sore spot here isn't worrying, shunammite. There's always another day.





Do you mean yourself? A2k ebbs & flows. If you need help with anything, just ask.

booyah
You are very grown-up, Mr. Piffka!!! And I am very glad to make your acquaintance!

*practices what she just preached, heaping appreciation on Mr. Piffka*

*wonders, would she be equally appreciative if he had not been so Mature?*

Yes..because I like a good fight just as much as a good hug, lolol...

Really a wonderful thread...keep 'em coming...

It's like perfume, highly concentrated wisdom that those of us who are flying way too fast can take in quickly and digest as we get the time...

I have very large chips on both shoulders (hey at least I'm BALANCED, lol) and it makes interpersonal relationships tough...

But the desire to truly bond with people...is even greater than the desire for food and sex and safety...at least that is how it is for me...

Not that I'm against food and sex and safety...in reverse order of priority, for me, lol...

William Blake: "The difference between a bad Artist & a Good One Is: the Bad Artist Seems to Copy a Great deal. The Good one Really Does Copy a Great deal." [The unconventional capitalization is Blake's.]

do you have to write something here?
Well....none of these are the one I was looking for, it will be coming up...but they are all too good not to share..

I want the one about the value of finding a friend by her...it's pretty famous...

I see that here you post lots of thoughtful thoughts that are not so well known...a wonderful thing...Ms. Nin is quoted a lot, but I felt strengthened by these...and so here they are, familiar or no...

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
Anais Nin

We are like sculptors, constantly carving out of others the image we long for, need, love or desire, often against reality, against their benefit, and always, in the end, a disappointment, because it does not fit them.
Anais Nin

We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are.
Anais Nin

When you make a world tolerable for yourself, you make a world tolerable for others.
Anais Nin

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.
Anais Nin, "Winter of Artifice"

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
Anais Nin, The Diary of Anais Nin, volume 3, 1939-1944

Anxiety is love's greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.
Anais Nin, The Diary of Anais Nin, volume 4, 1944-1947

do I have to write something here?
Ok I'm sorry no more quotes today after these but they are just so wonderful, I'm going to have to buy that lady's book. The boldface one is the one I was originally looking for, peddling my little agenda, lol, but the others are just wonderful, too:

Each contact with a human being is so rare, so precious, one should preserve it.
Anais Nin

Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
Anais Nin

Good things happen to those who hustle.
Anais Nin

He does not need opium. He has the gift of reverie.
Anais Nin

How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.
Anais Nin

I know why familles were created, with all their imperfections. They humanize you. They are made to make you forget yourself occasionally, so that the beautiful balance of life is not destroyed.
Anais Nin

I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing.
Anais Nin

Since you've made my acquaintance, Shuny (may I call you Shuny?), then you should know there really is a Mr. Piffka. He sends out these quotes every day via an email list. He doesn't belong to a2k EVEN THOUGH he was the one who got me started on internet forums with the New York Times Abuzz, back in 2001. He is the original pfkflyer on that now defunct forum. I started posting there, as well, using his name because I didn't know I could make my own, which caused some confusion.

In fact, Piffka is a friend's rendition of how to pronounce pfk. Mr.P is too busy watching the government and fretting and making dire notes about the number of justices, etc. to play on a forum anymore. (That's OK, he is a grumpy curmudgeon and has an awful tendency to correct people's spelling.)

And because a picture is worth several hundred words (so what are two pictures, then?) here are a couple of photographs.

(Neither of which is particularly stunning... but there you go. We are more likely to mug for the camera than anything.)




As for Anais Nin... I had the great good fortune to hear her talk in 1972. Unfortunately, I was stoned and can't remember any of it ... but I do remember she was dressed in layers and layers of black, including a huge hat, and had some of the reddest lipstick I've ever seen.

Do I have to put something here...
You are lovely both of you, both brimming with LIFE...

I spent the weekend with Death...and I guess we need it, but LIFE...is my preference by far...

I've got a pic on my website but for some reason have not been able to upload other family pics there, will eventually figure it out.

Edit [Moderator]: Link removed

I don't recommend reading my stuff, I'm a religious fanatic, the only member of my sect, and we are virulent too...

The "royal we" I guess...
I would have been stoned in 1972 also, lol, the year I graduated college...and too dumb to appreciate Ms. Nin back then...but man do I love her now...

*kisses Anais Nin*

That's what I like about the net, you get to be "god", just put whatever you want to exist between asterisks and voila, I'm Omnipotent, LOLOL...

Anais Nin was speaking at my sister's graduation ceremony, as it happens.

I'm sorry to hear that you were with Death this weekend. You mean someone close to you has died? My condolences.

I've looked at your website (that is a lovely photograph of you) and now I understand the reference to shunammite. At first I thought it had something to do with shunning.

As for a religious fanatic... sorry to hear that. I am a lapsed Catholic Neo-Pagan Daoist. Finally found my niche and it is comfy. I highly recommend a little Dao De Jing if you are searching.

Thanks, Panzade. Nothing is new and copying is the most sincere form of flattery... still.

I've become more & more appreciative of Blake. I wish that he'd had the resources to paint more in oil.

do I have to put something here
No it wasn't a funeral, it was all in my head, a convention for a sorority I belong to, 50th one and a retrospective and I have a birthday coming up and tons of fears in my life that I just can't let go of, family problems etc...

A good friend is dying. I guess I've just got mortality on the brain. Driving in Atlanta traffic keeps it in the forefront of the mind, lol...

No I'm not looking for anything...except Life...in all its variants, I squeeze it for joy everytime I find it...kind of like Lenny in Of Mice and Men, lol...

Scroll to the bottom of the page, nice pics of some of my heroes...

Lots of good conversations also though at the convention...it's never all about death...but also lots of "oppression" people nagging you to do things...

A quote, I'll have to find it at home, one of my very favorites from Three Strangers by Thomas Hardy, a short story...

The idea of it is there is this gathering in a pub or something and all the people there are just glad to be together and no one has any agenda to alter anyone else and yet somehow they really are connecting and being glad about it...

Probably impossible but it sure is a nice vision.

A nice idea... no agenda to alter anyone else, yet willing to connect as beings. If only there were more get-togethers like that. Have you been reading the a2k gatherings in Europe and in NY? I think those may be like that.

I am sorry that your pain was "all in your head" -- that might be the worst kind since it is self-inflicted.

We're here until we die, I think, so make the most of every hour... every minute...the years will take care of themselves.

It is my sister's birthday today... I have to call and sing to her. She's going to laugh.

ok
Pain in the head is self inflicted?

I suppose you could say that...if we are our own creators....and I suppose we have a part in the project...

Gotta weighty quote to add substantiation to your assertion or should I just agree because you have a cute pic?

I think therefore I am...I think differently and I am differently...

A hypocrite can think whatever he likes...but a Being...has to be what he is...he can change, but not just at will, at least that's how it is with me...

I mean, like I can't just "choose not to be upset" or something...it's a struggle...to get from where I am. to where I want to be...

I am that I am, Popeye...and God...same "sig", lolol...

Pain in the head self-inflicted? When you said it was "all in your head" -- I took that to mean your suffering was self-inflicted. It is all relative and we all die. You have to get beyond that first. I like to think that anyone can rise above it all and find happiness (perhaps even in the midst of a well-thought-out tantrum.), but I am ever an optimist in a pessimistic, temporal world.


As for a good quote -- here's today's chapter from the Dao, compliments of Daoism Depot. Maybe it will help. I'm waiting for my phone to charge so I can call my sister. <thunks head>

14
We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it 'the
Equable.' We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it 'the
Inaudible.' We try to grasp it, and do not get hold of it, and we
name it 'the Subtle.' With these three qualities, it cannot be made
the subject of description; and hence we blend them together and
obtain The One.

Its upper part is not bright, and its lower part is not obscure.
Ceaseless in its action, it yet cannot be named, and then it again
returns and becomes nothing. This is called the Form of the Formless,
and the Semblance of the Invisible; this is called the Fleeting and
Indeterminable.

We meet it and do not see its Front; we follow it, and do not see
its Back. When we can lay hold of the Tao of old to direct the things
of the present day, and are able to know it as it was of old in the
beginning, this is called (unwinding) the clue of Tao.

Also translated as:

14
They call it elusive, and say
That one looks
But it never appears.
They say that indeed it is rare,
Since one listens,
But never a sound.
Subtle, they call it, and say
That one grasps it
But never gets hold.
These three complaints amount
To only one, which is
Beyond all resolution.

At rising, it does not illumine;
At setting, no darkness ensues;
It stretches far back
To that nameless estate
Which existed before the creation.

Describe it as form yet unformed;
As shape that is still without shape;
Or say it is vagueness confused:
One meets it and it has no front;
One follows and there is no rear.

If you hold ever fast
To that most ancient Way,
You may govern today.
Call truly that knowledge
Of primal beginnings
The clue to the Way.

hard to let someone else have the last word damn me...
I forgot about that no links rule, sorry about that...really never saw that rule at any other site.

Actually that Dao stuff is the same as "Christ"...

His name is "Wonderful", the idea there is unknowable...hidden, secret...

And the "bread of heaven" he claimed to be, "manna", "what is it"...

Well....there may come a time when I stop trying to understand anything...but I'm not there yet...

I really think the "wheels of fire" alluded to in the bible...and a couple of rock songs...are really human minds. Golgotha is a skull and the sacrifice is really a burnt offering...

The fire on top of a pillar, like a candle stick...upright men with minds on fire...that is a human being at his finest to me... The fire is two opposing ideas, neither will cry uncle, and the human mind is never peaceful with cognitive dissonance.

I think people can claim they don't care and are not struggling..but I don't believe them.

There is a writer, Lin Yutang, who started out Presbyterian, became Taoist, and then back to Christian, but there was plenty of taoism in his final perspective.

I believe he is the one who translated a lot of taoist writings into English...

Have to find a good quote from him. The only thing I really know well by him is Moment in Peking, a wonderful book of a family in China over several generations and during a time of tremendous social upheaval.

"Moment" is a pun, as in both very significant and also very fleeting.

Here's a good bible verse few know:

"Let no man despise thee.."

Rom 14 I think, have to check. Maybe I should just start an interesting bible quote thread. I know all the verses no one else does.

He that despises despises not man but God, I Thess 4:8.

here's one.
Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks.

~~Lin Yutang

That's a good one... the DDJ says:

56
Those who know do not talk
And talkers do not know.

Stop your senses,
Close the doors;
Let sharp things be blunted,
Tangles resolved,
The light tempered
And turmoil subdued;
For this is mystic unity
In which the Wise Man is moved
Neither by affection
Nor yet by estrangement
Or profit or loss
Or honor or shame.

Accordingly, by all the world,
He is held highest.