Mr.Piffka's Quotes - Part Deux

Love that one, Piffka, and Prince Gautam, "better to have loved and lost?..."

Incidentally, should you not like me putting additional quotes or stuff, let me know.

My Papa's Waltz
by Theodore Roethke

The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.

Letty, I love it when people add to this thread and I adore Theodore Roetthke. Today, I'm supposed to be going to the gardens at the Bloedel Reserve where he drowned while drinking, so that line about the whiskey breath rings true. I don't think I'll be going though. I just found out I have a make-up mosaic class at 6pm this evening and would be racing from the north end of Puget Sound to the south. Am I willing to do that? Hmmm.

Guatam, do you need a hug? If I were in London, I'd drink some cognac with you and I'd bring Mr.P so you both could drink whiskey... maybe Laphroig? (((((Guatam))))))

If you want to know the reason for those quotes, they were chosen by Mr.P in response to feelings about his uncle who passed away two days ago. We knew he was gravely ill as we'd visited on Sunday. He got the call yesterday & found out the actual moment of death. Very sad for the family... very sad how quickly (like a regatta boat) this life slips away.

Enjoy every moment... that's what I think. Slough off the stuff that makes you sad or mad; get to know your passions and stick with them. For you, Guatam, I like to imagine hearing you singing your ragas.

"For that's what a woman, a mother wants - to teach her children to take an interest in life. She knows it's safer for them to be interested in other people's happiness than to believe in their own."

- Marguerite Duras (1914-1996)

This is a page from Reservation Blues, by Sherman Alexie. I just finished reading it and am still stunned at its power and insight.


Father Arnold turned to the Whitmans.

What's in those black boxes?

Faith.

Show me.

The Whitmans opened the boxes. Father Arnold expected to see jewels, locks of hair, talismans, but discovered nothing.

They're empty.

Of course.

What do you mean?

We told the Indians the boxes contained smallpox, and if we opened them, the disease would kill them.

Why would you do something like that?

It's the only way to get them to listen. And you saw how well it works. They listened to you.

But it's wrong. We should teach through love.

Don't be such a child. Religion is about fear. Fear is just another word for faith, for God.

Father Arnold looked at the empty black boxes. In his dream, he stared at them for days, until the boxes closed tight.

Wait, Father Arnold said and noticed the Whimans were gone, replaced by two Indian women who held the boxes.

These are for you, the Indian women said.

What's in them?

We don't know.

Hmmm. I really like Sherman Alexie. Good one, Diane!

Here's a "Classic Quote of the Day" from Mr.P:

"There's no telling how many wars it will take to secure freedom in the homeland."

- George W. Bush (1946- )


(Ed. note: I've got a great idea how to "surge" Iraq: Junior, Cheney, Rummy, Rice, Rove, Wolfowitz and the rest of the White House crew, together with all 535 members of Congress and all their children, go down to the armory and draw weapons, go down to Andrews and get on some C-17's and head on over to Baghdad, and achieve victory. Take some FOX News people as your imbedded reporters. Stay there until the job is done. Be sure and let us know how that works out for you....we'll be behind you all the way. Maybe your mothers will send you some body armor.)

"We must not confuse terrorism with resistance, as the West confuses resistance with terrorism."

- Samir Kassir (1960-2005), Being Arab

Hey, Pif. The Samir Kassir is one to really think about. (where did Diane go?)

I really like these:

Kahlil Gibran:
Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.


If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.

Indeed, Piffka.

Was Nelson Mandela a resistance fighter or a terrorist?

It depends on which side of the fence you're on, doesn't it?

"...given the US record of military intervention, it is strongly desired that the United States never carries out another one."

- Anatol Lieven (1960- ), Failing States and US Strategy, Stanley Foundation Policy Analysis Brief


Hi Olga... smiling at ya... I think of him as a reasonable man. He was never involved in attrocities. His work was essentially non-violent and educational. That he broke repressive laws and conspired against a repressive government doesn't make him a terrorist.

I want everyone to use law & the courts. The USA would have been much smarter to have done that following 9/11. I couldn't believe it when we decided to invade Afghanistan.

Don't you think the line between terrorists & freedom fighters is crossed at attrocities? What's so hard to understand about rights for all and honorable actions?

Letty -- Kahlil Gibran wrote well, didn't he?

Well, then it gets a bit messy, Piffka.
I mean, say someone invades your country for no good reason, right? That's an atrocity, I reckon. But then your fellow country men proceed to exploit the situation by performing atrocious acts against each other. That's atrocity, too. I have difficulty finding any good guys in some of these situations! I just feel extremely sorry for the innocent victims.

Well, Olga, as William Tecumseh Sherman observed, "War is Hell." That succinctly sums it up, I think.

Found this particular poem by William Stafford, which to me represents the "rites of passage."

Fifteen by William Stafford

South of the bridge on Seventeenth
I found back of the willows one summer
day a motorcycle with engine running
as it lay on its side, ticking over
slowly in the high grass. I was fifteen.

I admired all that pulsing gleam, the
shiny flanks, the demure headlights
fringed where it lay; I led it gently
to the road, and stood with that
companion, ready and friendly. I was fifteen.

We could find the end of a road, meet
the sky on out Seventeenth. I thought about
hills, and patting the handle got back a
confident opinion. On the bridge we indulged
a forward feeling, a tremble. I was fifteen.

Thinking, back further in the grass I found
the owner, just coming to, where he had flipped
over the rail. He had blood on his hand, was pale --
I helped him walk to his machine. He ran his hand
over it, called me good man, roared away.

I stood there, fifteen.

Hi Letty... I see you found that poem. Good!

Here's today's quote -- after enjoying the film "Very Annie Mary."

"It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful."

- Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)


Olga, What I meant was, no one ever accused Mandela of what I would call atrocities like cutting off someone's head, filming it and providing the DVD to world news. Other freedom fighters who fell into the Piffka definition of terrorism are Che Guevara who lost his honor when he turned to extreme & violent guerilla tactics and Shining Path who lost any respect they might have had when they switched from protecting villagers to rampant brutality -- stringing up the common folk, slitting their throats, etc.

My comment about honor and human rights was a paraphase of what Mandela said: For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

Martin Luther King Day -- I have a dream.........
"It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me. But it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important."

- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

Three days of quotes.......
"Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence."
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918- )



"War: first, one hopes to win...in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost."
- Karl Kraus (1874-1936)


"The only security for the American people today, or for any people, is to be found through the control of force rather than the use of force." - Norman Cousins (1915-1990)

"When you want to hurry something, that means you no longer care about it and want to get on to other things."

- Robert Pirsig (1928- )

Ah, Piffka, I love the quote, "It's cruel, you know, that music can be so beautiful." What a marvelous oxymoron.

Letty, that's one of my favorites, too. This one (Sunday's)... not so much.


"There is no heresy or no philosophy which is so abhorrent to the church as a human being."

- James Joyce (1882-1941)



Here's what Mr.P sent on Saturday:

"Fundamentally the marksman aims at himself."

- Eugen Herrigel (1884-1955), Zen in the Art of Archery

Two Quotes, Two Views
Two Quotes, Two Views

"History is one war after another with a bunch of murders and natural disasters in between."

- Sarah Vowell (1969- ), Assassination Vacation (p. 208)


"Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river."

- Will (1885-1981) and Ariel (1898-1981) Durant

Wow, Piffka. I love Will Durant. I need to check him out again.

This man reminds me of Bert:

Absurdity, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Acquaintance, n.: A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Admiration, n.: Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Barometer, n.: An ingenious instrument which indicates what kind of weather we are having.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Hi Letty -- I just realized that something I thought I posted never came up. I must have left a2k too quickly after submitting it. That Ambrose Bierce is a fella... his definition of admiration is humbling. I was always a little offended at this quote of his:

Egotism, n: Doing the New York Times crossword puzzle with a pen.

Because I always use a pen and not for egotism, but because it is so much easier to read. (I also write lightly & can change nearly every letter into any other, more than once.)

Here's todays... Mr. P has been sending images and I don't feel like going to the effort of copying to a website etc. This is a good one, I think:


"We owed them our loyalty, as Americans, and we gave it. But they owed us - sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for our welfare, a guarantee that the threat to our country was equal to the price we might be called upon to pay in defending it."

- James Webb (1946- ) -- replying to the recent State of the Union address.


I'd have emphasized this, instead: