Creating Pathways : Lucrocrates

In a phrase adapted from the Book of Ecclesiastes, the author complains frequently in the book about the monotony of life. The entire passage reads, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” 

My dear father often quipped a variation of this cliched old adage.  It's a simple truth...but how was I to know?  It is impossible to be born with wisdom.  And I think impossible as well to acquire it through clever quotations no matter how simple or obvious. Whatever your mind's limits,  you must endure the test of time.

I read somewhere,  that the "oxymoron"...when understood...can create new pathways in the brain. Juxtaposing and criss-crossing the patterns etched by emotion  ,time,    or recurrent themes.   Creating connections that might never otherwise exist,  or might otherwise be obscured....  forever buried under calloused layers of gray  matter..

"There is nothing new under the sun"  ..This saying seems to  hold more and more obvious  truth as time goes on!  Especially,  when I query something unknown  to me on this blessit internet....and find hundreds of results to fill the void.

With a self-mocking and self-effacing attempt to confront those meandering but individual creations of thought regarded as mine alone,   I began to realize that they were nothing new.  Perhaps borrowed.  Probably stolen!  

And so,  in sarcastic honor to these Socratic philosophies....I have given these notes an author :  Lucrocrates

Here are some oxymoronic type quotes by Lucrocrates,   that I doubt are my own:

"You said it without saying it!"

"Don't give up before you begin!"

"The surest way to keep from being approached, is to become unapproachable"

"The reason most people don't say  "I'm sorry"...is because they are not!"

"The best way to keep a customer from complaining:  Don't give them anything to complain about!"

"If a woman lies for no reason.....there's a reason!"
(stolen from " if a man gives a woman flowers for no reason...there's a reason!")

" Sometimes it is important to take note of the things that have become too familiar to be recognized."

"Repeated lies become facts of fiction.."

"  In futility or retribution...don't become what you hate! "

" My inferiority complex is what makes me superior to everyone else!  "

" In order to be free in this society...you must become a slave to it!"

"  I don't know...and I'm not afraid to admit it!"

"The surest way to get rid of a problem...is to pretend one doesn't exist!"

" Just because it is the 'pot calling the kettle black'...doesn't mean the pot is wrong!  "

" It all seemed so clear until I got all the facts..."
   (Donald Trump on Ted Cruz:  "I liked him (Ted Cruz) before I got to know him..."

" God's gift in old age is my failing eyesight. Every time I see myself in  the mirror.... I get better looking!"

"Knowledge is power....especially when no-one else has it!  "



Thanks Lucrocrates.....for your witless wisdom!  ;)

One Night Stand ( Elrok's One Man Strike Against Coca-cola)

No,  not this kind of one night stand...

This is about sugary  sweetness!  About  lips lusciously  locked to a bottle and sucking down sugarry-sweet Coca-Cola.... legally laced with a clever cocaine substitute.  CAFFEINE!   

The parents and faculty at our local school scoffed at the idea of allowing Coke vending machines on to the campus there.  Expressing love and care for their dear children,  they would not allow such an addictive and unhealthy drink to be so easily dispensed.  It would lead  to more childhood obesity,  diabetes, addiction  and poor nutrition as their unwitting naive little munchkins sucked it down as a quick-fix for that much needed adolescent caloric intake. Coca - COLA...go home!.  We will not have you here!

But then, the compassionate minded Coca-cola company offered something to the school that was sorely needed.  Needed  more than a healthy child.  Something bolder and brighter than your child's future.
                                                   
                                                A new scoreboard!

That's right. The old scoreboard on the football field was becoming dilapidated and impossible to repair.  The cost of a new one an unbearable burden!  Enter Coca Cola.  "We will get you that new scoreboard!"  ( graced with our logo of course)  Gesture enough to soften the local school board so that they allowed coke machines in all of the schools in the county.

Not one to succumb to such overbearing influences of a gigantic corporation....I stopped drinking Coke that day.  Nope.  No more!   I will not be run over by these legal pushers and they will have my business no more!

The next day...hoping to encourage some sort of 1960's -ish boycott against this giant.,...I emphatically denied my own brother's offer for an ice cold Coca-cola on a sweltering hot and sunshiney Florida day.  "No way!"  I told'im.   "Did you see what they did to get Coke in  the schools?  It was so obvious!  Devious bastards!   I'm never drinking Coke again!"   To which he mockingly replied "Ha!   Luke's one-man strike against Coca-cola!"

I paused for a moment....in a bit of angered disgust at the flippant nature of his comment.  Until I realized it profound.   Then, I slammed that Coca-Cola, squeezing the can as I chugged  it down in five foaming feverish and  addictive swallows .  My 'one night stand'  against the filthy conglomerate had ended.

And with it, an ideal.  That we , as a society, ...were still capable of making such a stand.  That  monetary value could never replace moral value and ethic. That the power to control large corporations, governments, and greedy tsar-ish bullies still remained in our collective souls. But we have sold it for an almighty dollar.

Gone is the boycott!  And with it,  unionized labor and the local fund drive. The community's  soul-driven power in these rituals seemingly arcane.  Our  voice handed over to  'governments', ....along with our ethics and  our  conscience.  Our right...and our will and ability to make a stand based on  our own collective morality,  willingly relinquished....