Category Archives: READING MATTER

Books I read & recommend

...and other stuff, ART, FREE ADVICE, INSIDE THE BOOK, READING MATTER, SHERLOCK HOLMES, SHERLOCK HOLMES: MY LIFE

THE AGE OF REASON

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“I read the most excellent treatise and critique of that superstitious body of mythology written by the American revolutionary, Thomas Paine. Although Mr. Paine is not a popular fellow in Britain, having fathered the uprising against King George which resulted in the loss of the greatest possession ever claimed by the throne of England, he is nonetheless a man of preeminent intellect and prodigious reasoning ability.

His book, The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and *Fabulous Theology, to my own system of logical assessment and evaluation represents the most thorough, factual and incontrovertible dissection of the Bible, which unfortunately serves our civilization as a guideline for survival.  After having read his preeminent work of logical vivisection upon the content of the Bible, and by abstraction, a commentary upon the paradigm of Western Civilization, it is no longer a mystery to me that humanity has endured so great an extent of war, misery, chaos, greed, destruction and mayhem inflicted by Western imperialism upon the Earth at the behest of, and with regal and religious blessings.

As for my personal observation and conviction concerning the matter of religion, I concur with the statement most ably stated by  Thomas Paine himself:

“I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy.  I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.  I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.”  

(Definition of the word “fabulous” — adjective:  based on or told of in traditional stories; lacking factual basis or historical validity)

— An excerpt from SHERLOCK HOLMES: MY LIFE, by Lawrence R. Spencer

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...and other stuff, ART, FREE ADVICE, LIVES, PICTURE POEMS, POETIC NONSENSE, READING MATTER, UNIVERSES

MY MUSE

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MY MUSE

The Muses (Ancient Greek: Μοῦσαι, moũsai: perhaps from the o-grade of the Proto-Indo-European root *men- “think”) in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses of the inspiration of literature, science and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths.Muse_reading_Louvre_CA2220

Greek mousa is a common noun as well as a type of goddess: it literally means “art” or “poetry”. In Pindar, to “carry a mousa” is “to excel in the arts”. The word probably derives from the Indo-European root men-, which is also the source of Greek Mnemosyne, English “mind”, “mental” and “memory” and Sanskrit “mantra”.

The Muses, therefore, were both the embodiments and sponsors of performed metrical speech: mousike (whence the English term “music”) was just “one of the arts of the Muses”. Others included Science, Geography, Mathematics, Philosophy, and especially Art, Drama, and inspiration.
( PHOTO: Ancient Greek vase showing a Muse reading a scroll, (Attic red-figure lekythos, Boeotia c. 435–425 BC)  —>
Some authors invoke Muses when writing poetry, hymns, or epic history. The invocation typically occurs at or near the beginning, and calls for help or inspiration, or simply invites the Muse to sing through the author. Some prose authors also call on the aid of Muses, who are called as the true speaker for whom an author is merely a mouthpiece.

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 38 invokes the Tenth Muse:

“How can my Muse want subject to invent,
While thou dost breathe, that pour’st into my verse
Thine own sweet argument?”

“No Muse-poet grows conscious of the Muse except by experience of a woman in whom the Goddess is to some degree resident; just as no Apollonian poet can perform his proper function unless he lives under a monarchy or a quasi-monarchy. A Muse-poet falls in love, absolutely, and his true love is for him the embodiment of the Muse… But the real, perpetually obsessed Muse-poet distinguishes between the Goddess as manifest in the supreme power, glory, wisdom, and love of woman, and the individual woman whom the Goddess may make her instrument… The Goddess abides.”(comment by the British poet Robert Graves)

...and other stuff, ART, FREE ADVICE, LIVES, PICTURE POEMS, POETIC NONSENSE, READING MATTER, UNIVERSES

FANTASY REALITY

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FANTASY REALITY

A Gentle Maiden I do See!
She does not turn to look at Me.
An Enchanting Spirit floats nearby…
She follows with Her Loving Eyes.
All My Kingdom I would trade
For a Single Glance, a Longing Gaze
from this Perfect, Precious Maid!
How can I be a Butterfly?
My Angel, I am Floating Near!
There is nothing You should fear.
Come, and Fly Away with Me!
Yet this cannot be Reality….
Alas, My Dreams are Fantasies.

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Lawrence R. Spencer. 2013.

FREE ADVICE, INSIDE THE BOOK, READING MATTER, THE OZ FACTORS

VESTED INTERESTS

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“Take special care of those Ruby Slippers. I want those most of all!“  — The Wicked Witch of the West in ‘The Wizard of Oz‘

Definition: Vested Interest  —

1/ a survival or non-survival plan or agenda which has been “clothed” to make it seem like something other than what it actually is;

2/ any person, group or entity which prevents or controls communication to serve their own purposes.     

Example: Governments control communication between the people of their country. You must get a passport to travel to another country. You must pass through a customs’ inspection in order to enter the country. You must pay taxes (money is a form of communication). You must get a license to get married or go into business.

Example: Religions prevent and control communication between people and the gods, saints and spirits. You have to pay the priest money for him to “bless” you or to “absolve” you of “sin” as a supposed representative of the god(s).

Example: A husband usually tries to prevent communication between his wife and other potential lovers.

What would happen if you could safely communicate with everything and everyone?

Political, religious and financial vested interests, typically, DO NOT want people to answer this question. The reason is simple: if you could safely communicate with anyone or anything, they would be out of business!

Such institutions very frequently determine what we are allowed to believe by feeding us their version of “the truth”. Our “belief” in their version of “the truth” is usually backed up by the threat of death, imprisonment, excommunication or bankruptcy.

All human beings have flesh bodies. Flesh bodies require food, shelter, clothing and as many other goods and creature comforts as one can buy, borrow or pillage. This seems to be a common denominator of survival. It is also a source of illogical thinking which has tended to clog the water mains of our minds with all manner of unspeakable refuse: namely, our vested interest in survival.

Survival requires stuff, and stuff costs money and money takes work. This often means that we must each pretend to “like” someone or “believe” in something–that we could actually care less about–for the sake of “earning a living”.”

— Excerpt from the book THE OZ FACTORS, written by Lawrence R. Spencer

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Oz Factors are defined as “A COMMON DENOMINATOR OF WESTERN LOGIC WHICH PREVENTS OBSERVATION, UNDERSTANDING, AND THE ATTAINMENT OF A WORKABLE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEMS OF HUMAN ORIGIN AND EXISTENCE.”