Ship of Fools

We're setting sail to the place on the map
from which no one has ever returned.
Drawn by the promise of the joker and the fool,
By the light of the crosses that burned.
Drawn by the promise of the women and the lace
and the gold and the cotton and pearls.
It's the place where they keep all the darkness you need.
You sail away from the light of the world on this trip.

You will pay tomorrow

Avarice and greed are gonna drive you over the endless sea.
They will leave you drifting in the shallows
or drowning in the oceans of history.
Traveling the world, you're in search of no good.
But I'm sure you'll build your Sodom like you knew you would.
Using all the good people for your galley slaves
as your little boat struggles through the warning waves.
But you don't pay...

You will pay tomorrow

Save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools

-- Karl Wallinger (World Party) 1986

Predictable

Go to my office, sit at my desk

Predictably just like all of the rest

I sit and I dream about far away places

Away from the people with frowns on their faces

All of my life is monotony

I'd go out for a walk, but I know it would be... predictable

Sure as the nose on my face

Same for the whole human race

Once we had so many options

Once we had dignity and grace

Now we have got nothing but our own time to waste

-- Ray Davies (The Kinks) 1981

Working Class Hero

As soon as you're born, they make you feel small
By giving you no time, instead of it all
'Til the pain is so big you feel nothing at all

They hurt you at home, and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever, and they despise a fool
'Til you're so f*cking crazy you can't follow their rules

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty-odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function, you're so full of fear

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still f*cking peasants as far as I can see

There's room at the top, they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill

A working class hero is something to be

-- John Lennon (1970)

The Garden

The arrow flies when you dream

The hours tick away, the cells tick away
The Watchmaker keeps to his schemes
The hours tick away....

 

The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect
So hard to earn, so easily burned
In the fullness of time, a garden to nurture and protect

 

In the rise and the set of the sun
'Til the stars go spinning 'round the night
It is what it is

And forever, each moment a memory in flight

 

-- Neil Peart (Rush) 2012

Time

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day, 

Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town,
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Tired of lying in the sunshine,
Staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long,
And there is time to kill today.

And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run,
You missed the starting gun.

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines.
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say.

-- Pink Floyd (1973)

Time

Time speaks with golden words
When there's nothing to be heard
Hides behind the stars
Silver in the night
Lies in the coming light

Time living with today
In a lonely way
She whispers never a surprise
She won't tell you why

Time speaks her golden tongue
And when everything is done
She lies to no one

-- Screaming Trees (1990)

All Things Must Pass

Now the darkness only stays at nighttime
In the morning, it will fade away
Daylight is good at arriving at the right time
It's not always going to be this gray

All things must pass
All things must pass away

-- George Harrison (1970)

The King is Half Undressed

Blue Autumns
Sunshine Kisses
Hearts and Flowers
Broken Wishes

-- Roger Manning / Andy Sturmer (Jellyfish) 1990

abortion politics

During my time in Congress, I regularly introduced legislation forbidding organizations that perform abortions from receiving federal funding. The US Government should not force taxpayers to subsidize an activity they believe is murder....

The federal government has no constitutional authority to permit, fund, or even outlaw abortion. Therefore, efforts to make abortion a federal crime are just as unconstitutional as efforts to prohibit states from outlawing abortion. A Congress that truly cared about the Constitution would end all federal funding for abortion and pass legislation restricting federal jurisdiction over abortion, thus returning the issue to the states....

One factor hindering the anti-abortion movement's ability to change people’s minds is that too many abortion opponents also support a militaristic foreign policy. These pro-lifers undercut their moral credibility as advocates for unborn American lives when they display a callous indifference to the lives of Iraqi, Iranian, and Afghan children....

[A]ll those who wish to create a society of liberty, peace, and prosperity should join me in advocating for a consistent ethic of life and liberty that respects the rights of all persons, born and unborn.

-- Dr. Ron Paul (from his website) Aug. 2, 2015

your life is a lie

Here's the deal -- open your eyes -- your life is a lie
Don't say a word.  I'll tell you why you're living a lie
Your life is a lie, but you deny you ever lied
Wondering why.  Barely alive
Count your friends on your hands.
Now look again -- they're not your friends
Hold your breath. Everyone left.  No surprise.  Living a lie....

Nobody wins.  Try not to cry.  You'll survive on your own

Lessons in life:  your life is a lie
Now there's no time wondering why
Where in the world is that girl who knows it's alright to live a life waiting to die?
Not knowing that your life is a lie
Wondering why nobody writes
Hollow inside.  Bitter delight.  Fire and ice.
Your life is a lie

-- MGMT (2013)

why planning fails

Why do these plans fail? The simple answer is because that’s not the way the world works.  Life on Earth is not so rational that it lends itself to simpleminded, heavy-handed intervention of the naïve social engineer. Bridges are designed. So are houses. And particle accelerators. Economies are not. Neither are real languages. Customs. Markets. Love. Marriages. Children. Or any of the other really important things in life.

-- Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning (March 6, 2013)

palo alto

In a city of the future, it is difficult to concentrate
Meet the boss, meet the wife
Everybody's happy, everyone is made for life.

In a city of the future, it is difficult to find a space
I'm too busy to see you; you're too busy to wait

But I'm okay, how are you?
Thanks for asking, thanks for asking
I'm okay, how are you? I hope you're okay too.

Every one of those days when the sky is California blue
With a beautiful bombshell, I throw myself into my work
I'm too lazy, I've been kidding myself for so long

But I’m okay, how are you?
Thanks for asking, thanks for asking
I’m okay, how are you? I hope you’re okay too.

-- Thom Yorke (Radiohead) 1998

words from a big wave surfer

Anything I do, I want to be good at. I honestly don't get that stoked beating people or being better than people. Contests are fun sometimes, but I don't have that crazy drive. So I like to challenge myself and get past any mental barriers that I have.... I expect a lot out of myself, and the fact that I ... live this amazing lifestyle, I better be pretty damn good at it and try and do some stuff.... If you're not, what the hell else are you doing with your life? You'd better have some passion for things or hold yourself to high standards or you're just getting by. I don't want to just get by.

It's just the challenge of being new at something and actually picking it up quickly and trying to be really good at it, you know? There's a difference between cannon fodder and actually getting a job done. I like applying and challenging myself. And I'm out actually doing something. I mean, I can challenge myself to beat some fucking video game, but what do you get out of that? What are you going to tell the grandkids one day? "I beat level 10 of WitchCraft." Or whatever the fuck it is. At least these are real experiences.

[T]he only guarantee you have in life is that you're going to die. So why can't you accept that that's going to happen and live your life now? Live like every day's your last instead of acting like [you] will be around forever. People get locked into this routine like they will have another opportunity another day. Ever since I was a little kid, I've been aware that I could be gone tomorrow, so I'm taking advantage of it while I can and trying to get some things done.... Everybody wants to pick [how they'll die], but it's not up to me, it's up to God. But I'm not trying to die; I'm trying to live.... I'm a firm believer that God's got my date written down and that's when I'm going. All I can do is make the most of what He's given me until then.... You don't know when you're going to go; you have to make sure that all of your friends and family know you love them... 'cause you might not see somebody again, or you might not be around.

[C]ut the bullshit and be yourself and start living life. Get to the point. Stop beating around the damn bush and get to the point on things.... Stop worrying about what people think of you. Cut loose. Get things done. I just hate seeing fear. Like, everybody has fear, I have fear of all kinds of stuff, I guess, but it's just insidious. It doesn't get you anywhere.... It's just all the crap we learn, like not to trust people, that make us all scared. You get a little older, have some experiences; and... you get all that scar tissue from the world you grow up in and people you're around, bad experiences and good experiences, and we get scared. We need to get back to the human we're created as....

I'm not curing cancer here; I'm paid to surf. I could be doing more noble pursuits than I am now. But hopefully what I do helps inspire somebody to actually live, and get out of their routine, and do what they're put on earth to do.

-- Mark Healey (Surfing magazine) April 2011.

a voyage to wisdom

"We do not receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us, which no one can spare us. For our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world. The lives that you admire and the attitudes that seem noble to you have not been shaped by a pater familias or a schoolmaster; they have sprung from very different beginnings, having been influenced by evil or commonplace that prevailed round them. They represent a struggle and a victory."
-- Marcel Proust (1871-1922)

life decisions

"There are only three important decisions you need to make in your life. What to do. Whom you do it with. And where you do it. Everything else takes care of itself."
-- Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning (2010)

stranger

What is veiled now soon will be shown.
Come walk with me through the unknown.
-- Jeanette Sears (Jefferson Starship) 1981

anthem

Know your place in life is where you want to be
Don't let them tell you that you owe it all to me
Keep on looking forward -- no use in looking 'round
Hold your head above the ground, and they won't bring you down

Anthem of the heart and anthem of the mind
A funeral dirge for eyes gone blind
We marvel after those who sought
New wonders in the world they wrought

Live for yourself -- there's no one else more worth living for
Begging hands and bleeding hearts will only cry out for more

Well, I know they've always told you selfishness was wrong
Yet it was for me, not you, I came to write this song

-- Neal Peart (Rush) 1975

life is strange

Time is so strange, and life is twice as strange. The cogs miss, the wheels turn, and lives interlace too early or too late.
-- Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine (1957)