Chocolate's only Semi Sweet

Shakespeare was the first to use the phrase "too much of a good thing" in literature. It is a phrase that emphasizes that excess can be harmful and that even the richest things in life should be moderated. The world's most popular examples: Money, Power, Love, Authority. The real troubles with having so much of something are that it inspires jealousy and you may not be able to handle it. Politicians are assassinated, the wealthy are manipulated, the passionate scorned, and the authoritative ignored every day since man began. In our quest for more, we pull each other down like crabs in a bucket. It isn't a bad thing to want to improve your quality of life, but when quality becomes quantity people will start to resent you, including yourself. So how does one decide what the limits are for each of us individually? The most elegant way I have heard this philosophy was by Rudyard Kipling in his poem "If." I include a portion of the work here.

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Simply put, you could have all that there is in material possessions, but have some humility because in this world all that we poses can be taken from us. Its the effect you've had on others that will determine whether you lived a worth while life, not the number of things you've accumulated. When the day is over, it won't matter who loved the most, but who loved the best.

Everyday Actors

At the start of ev'ry day,
From the first clear shining ray,
We don the costume that we show the world.

From the way we comb our hair,
To the very clothes we wear,
Care I to see just how your lashes curl?

Like some actors in a show,
Dolling up the best we know,
In hiding from a cruel and unkind time.

When you're asked to give your choice,
Act as though you have no voice,
"You surely cannot in your two cents chime."

Bust'ling back and forth to make,
Masks that all through life we take,
To hide ourselves in plain sight, as it were.

For its what we fear the most,
If while through this life we coast,
That the world tests to see our will is sure.

And when they test your mettle,
Your nitch in life you'll settle,
Perhaps you will be ready then when asked,

To discard your old disguise,
And discover just how wise,
It is to cause yourself to be unmasked.

Pygmalion Re-Formed

When I was just nineteen
A more beautiful girl I'd never seen
Than the one I had created in my mind.

She's chic and understanding,
Sensitive though not withstanding,
The fact that "playing nice" can be unkind.

Like a master artisan,
Carving as carefully as he can,
In hopes his masterpiece should come to life,

I sculpt her flowing hair,
Taking traits from here and there,
To build a mate for liberty and strife.

But through this fantasy,
I damn myself you see,
With expectation that cannot be met.

And so I must myself away,
From my dream girl for to stay,
In the real world where my feet are set.

For My Faithful Readers

It occurs to me that because my blog has few pictures (none of them of babies) and because I have no wife and kids or garden to write about, what I have to write is of no importance. Well, I wrote this blog knowing that it would not be as popular as some, but it still pains me to see that there aren't any new comments to my posts. Perhaps I need to broaden my target audience. Therefore, I will heed the suggestion of my elder sister Nancy and include some of the poetry I have written. I hope those who read this will soon check my blog again for my latest writings and spread the word.

Staring Over a Cliff

Throughout our lives we find ourselves at the edge of many metaphorical cliffs. Whether we look before we leap or not will differ from person to person and each given situation. But there are some cliffs that we come to that will cause even the most reckless person to pause, potentially life changing moments. And when the choice is yours what will you decide? To leap headfirst into the tumultuous sea of consequence or to simply walk on by knowing that you were either too afraid or too wise to jump. Unfortunately, the world has a habit of complicating even the most obvious decisions. You may hesitate on the cliff if you look below and see what seem to be happy, beautiful, people beckoning you to join their gaiety. But after jumping you realize that they and now you are all trapped in a pit to be drowned when the tide comes in. Such decisions are not to be made lightly, but take care not to remain indecisive or the edge may crumble underneath you dumping you unceremoniously into the frothy abyss. At the end of the day, your reward is how you feel about yourself. Will you say, "I looked temptation in the eye and turned away", or will you say, "I was just one sip away from being perfect?"

Aspirations

Every child, as they are growing up, is asked many times "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Answers fall over the spectrum, but the main idea of the question is to get them thinking about their future. Several weeks ago, my father asked me what I wanted to be and it has been something that stayed with me. On my morning walk I pondered the question and had a kind of revelation, an epiphany about what the question really gets one to ask oneself. "What do you think you will be doing when you have reached your full potential?" When I thought about it this way specifically, I give more credence to my past experience's, my life as a whole, and I'll honestly say, I can't answer the question. I don't know myself well enough to be able to speculate what I may become. Do any of us really know ourselves so well that the future holds no surprises for us. The answer is no. Partly because I don't believe one can know their self so that well, but mostly because the world can't help but throw a wrench in the work and in that crucial second, the world you knew is gone. An offshoot of your existence that you will never see again. And if we could, would we want to? Some say ignorance is bliss, but our own future, like it or not, is a subject our mind is naturally inclined to dwell on. In the end, this is how I decided to wrap things up: to some extent, life can be predicted. Not with crystal balls, tea leaves or the stars, but by knowing yourself. But don't have the audacity to believe that you can cheat fate of another end, because like the beating of a butterfly's wing, the smallest action in the world can influence our lives in an infinite number of ways.

The Picture Frame

When my Grandmother passed away, among the things I took for myself were two picture frames. For months I waited to find a picture that I would be proud to display around my room, but what to put in it puzzled me. It occurred to me that each individual person would have different reasons behind their choices and I don't know what kind of person I am. The first factor is what sort of picture is it that you are putting in: Whether it is a person/s, place, or thing. The next factor is "What makes this picture frame-worthy?" Does it remind you of someone, someplace, or something that you are fond of, or is it simply because it is appealing to the eye and matches the decor? Next comes the narrowing down of the available pictures to determine which one or ones will be framed. (Assuming there is a limited amount of frames and wall and ceiling space) It more or less comes down to what images mean the most to you, whether there is any correlation between pictures and other environmental factors. In this fashion, the framing of a picture of a significant other is a personal milestone, because it fills the space that could have been held by a number of other images representing your life. Inversely, the removing and or replacing of such a picture can be equally moving. To this very moment, I still have two empty picture frames, but an inclination of what to fill them with fills my day to day thoughts.