Warren Bluhm's Blog, page 35

merry-go-round

The war ended, and peace was at hand.

The people celebrated by making babies, a veritable boom of babies.

But the old men had other ideas

and they conjured new wars.

And one day the baby boom grew to old men

and started new wars of their own.

Who will be the first

to cry “peace”?

Nothing’s the matter

“What’s the matter?” Red asked when she made a 4 a.m. pit stop and saw me sitting in my office writing in my journal.

“Nothing’s the matter,” I said. “I just couldn’t get back to sleep.”

And it was true. Yes, I’d given up trying to go back to la-la land after 15-20 minutes of my mind bouncing around about things that needed to be done that day, preparing for a coming snowstorm, clipping dog nails, cleaning my messy office, getting back to practicing guitar, reading Discworld books, wri...

And the music is still everywhere

“I want to live,” the soul says with every fiber of its being. “I want to soar. I want to fly. I want to dance. I want to feel. I want to run, I want to sit still and drink all this in, I want to swim, I want to float quietly in the sunlight.”

When the soul says, “I want to die,” it doesn’t really. It’s folded into despair so deep until it believes peace can’t be found in this life. It knows there is soaring to be done somewhere, and maybe in the next plane of existence, the soul can danc...

Heed the quiet

Take a deep breath and listen for peace, and you will find it.

The world calls us to chaos, but if we pause to listen, there is that still small voice — hear it?

Turn from the chaos and listen.

The work of our lifetimes

OK, some days I have nothing to say because someone has already said it all better than I ever could.

I devote my efforts today to urging you to go read Bari Weiss’ brilliant call to stand up for individual rights and freedom.

“I realize the faddish thing to say these days is that we live in the worst, most broken and backward country in the world and maybe in the history of civilization. It’s utter nonsense,” she begins, and it just gets better.

Just this first of 10 principles is wort...

Freedom and the things of state

This is the final entry in my latest journal, covering mid-September to the end of January. It’s been a tumultuous fall and winter “out there.” The bolshevik revolution is in full swing, and who knows how much longer I’ll be able to write and speak my mind? At least as long as people manufacture books with blank pages, there will be sanctuary.

I try to send optimism and hope into the world, or at least a bit of sanity. Days come and go when I despair over the state of things, of course, b...

Introduction to a book not yet begun

And so, the writer writes.

On and on the writer writes, writing of hopes and fears and cliches and ideas, some so mundane he screams with boredom, some so new he laughs with glee, all of them rising unbidden from somewhere behind his eyes, slinking into his heart and streaming down his arm into the fingers of his right hand and onto a page, a page he sometimes doesn’t recognize because of the transformation that occurs as the thoughts make their journey to black and white.

“I made this...

My 3-month challenge at 6 months

This post may be shameless self-promotion.

Or perhaps this post is a best-practices memo disguised as shameless self-promotion, or vice versa.

In any case, today marks the end of six months since I challenged myself to write a blog post every day for three months, through the end of October. Something new has appeared on this website for 184 consecutive days, twice my original intention.

The purpose of the blog, like all of my writing, is to encourage, entertain and enlighten you, m...

More wisdom of Will Rogers

“The first thing a despot does is to stifle and throttle laughter. A dictator in this country would have a hard time with Rogers present.” — author Rupert Hughes, at Will Rogers’ funeral

A handful of gems from the master:

If a fellow doesn’t have a good time once in a while and get a good laugh out of the serious side of life, he doesn’t half live.

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A holding company is where you hand an accomplice the goods while a policeman searches you.

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I honestly believe there is...

Enough!

© Leremy | Dreamstime.com

Enough!

Enough shouting in anger and indignation and oh so outrage. Enough, sez I.

Enough woe is me I wish life were easier.

Enough crying how dark it is out there.

Enough, enough, enough.

Yep, we’ve all heard enough angry partisans to last us a lifetime. I’ve heard enough indignant mutterings to know you’re indignant. I’ve heard enough outrage to understand some people would rather be perpetually outraged. Enough crying in the dark to see some people ...