Picture Post Interlude

The Goddess Approaches

Looking down from her lotus blossom perched high in the heavens, the Goddess Lakshmi witnessed the daily trials and tribulations suffered by mankind. In her four hands, she held the secrets of the four ends of man: dharma/righteousness, kama/desires, artha/wealth, and moksha/escape from the wheel of reincarnation.

She saw her loyal followers struggle to make ends meet, she saw their dearest dreams shattered under the yoke of reality, and she saw their faith weaken with each new disappointment, and she grew sad.

But tonight was different. Tonight was, finally, the first full moon after the festival of Durga Puja, the one night a year she could descend from above and walk amongst her faithful.

The Goddess of Luck and Wealth used this night to reward those individuals who had shown faith and perseverance, those who worshipped her daily, no matter their circumstances. The goddess looked forward to dispensing her blessings. Why else would she exist if it were not to bring succor to others?

As Lakshmi prepared to descend amongst the mortals, she looked about her one final time. So much sadness in the world this year. War, death, famine. She sighed as she realized even her blessings could not defeat all of the ills of mankind.

But perhaps she could ease away some of the pain.

The Goddess descended, golden light spilling from her hands, beating back the darkness for another year.

Written by Dr Mandragora

The Well of Souls

Those true eyes

Too pure and too honest in aught to disguise

The sweet soul shining through them

Owen Meredith

Borrowed without asking first from Lisa at TSS's photostream at Flickr

Smoking to a Better You

Ah, the love of the great outdoors.

There really is nothing better than feeling the sunshine on your face, hearing the sounds of cicadas in the trees, and seeing the birds in the sky.

Nothing better, that is, except smelling the fresh air mixed in with burning tar and the taste of nicotine.

Mmmmm....

Aphrodite Revisited

According to The Hesiod, Aphrodite's birth was the result of Kronos' overthrowing and killing of his father, Ouranos. Once Kronos killed his father, he chopped off Ouranos' genitals and threw them into the ocean. Aphrodite was born and emerged already grown from the foam that surrounded the floating pieces.

What would have happened, though, if the goddess of love had been born, rather, the god of love? After all, wouldn't there have a been a 50/50 chance that the resulting offspring would be male?

And what would that have looked like? Seeing a fully formed god of love emerge glistening and wet from the ocean, newly awakened to both sense and experience, running his hands through his hair, embodying physical perfection in a male.

Faith, Hope, and Charity

Remember now, abideth [in] these three. Faith, Hope, and Charity. Faith is your attitude towards Me. Charity your attitude towards your fellow man but, as necessity, is Hope, which is confidence in yourself to succeed.

The Word of God

Excerpt from God Calling

Edited by A.J. Russell

God encourages us to build up our faith. He wants us to know that He is with us, and that He is willing to clear a path for us to walk in His Glory, provided that we believe in His power and love.

He also expects us to show love and compassion for our fellow man, and by this He means all of our neighbors, not just family. How much of an effort does it take to love those who already love you back?

But a third piece to his expectations is that we believe in ourselves, we believe that He is listening and answering our prayers. If you go around praying, but not really believing that you will be granted his Grace, then that is prayer without faith. Prayer without Hope. So then, what kind of prayer is that?

Have Faith in God, Faith in yourself, and Hope for His grace to be visited upon you and those you love.

Dr Mandragora

Philosiphizer

The Art of Pierre et Gilles

To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once those barriers are broken, it will enter the realm of childhood visions and dreams.

Banksy

Water Water Everywhere...

...and lots of drops to drink.

I absolutely love the rain. I love the way the air smells before it arrives. I love the sound the falling water makes as it hits shallow puddles. I especially love the way tiny droplets of water hang around afterwards, reflecting and refracting sunlight.

The pictures here show the beauty of water drops and the world they refract.

Have you paused to look within their lenses?

Borrowed without asking from stevewall's photostream at Flickr

Who........Are.........You?

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar looking for his hookah

Click the pic to see it in hi-rez

Borrowed without asking first from lecate's Photostream at Flickr

Terrible, Terrible News

Wow.

I was just flipping through the channels and saw that Michael Jackson, the King of Pop himself, has died at the age of 50.

As of right now, details of his death are very sketchy, but it appears he was discovered collapsed at his home not breathing and unresponsive by his housekeeper. How terrible.

I happen to like Michael's earlier music, especially the stuff from his Thriller album. And he was certainly the master of videos back when MTV and VH1 still ran music videos.

I find it very unfortunate that at times like these, people come out of the woodwork to use this news to further their own presence on tv. I saw Al Sharpton speechify-ing in front of the Apollo Theatre about Michael Jackson, his career, and his life. What? You are suddenly his best friend, Al? Who called upon you to speak to the media on Michael's or the family's behalf? No one, Sharpton, so sit down.

Poor Michael. Even in death, he's surrounded by the media-whores.

My prayers are with his family.

We'll Always Have Perez

Okay, just one question.

What the hell is wrong with Perez Hilton?

I used to follow his blog about a year and a half ago because I like keeping up with (some) celebrities. But only after a few weeks in, I began to notice a disturbing trend. It was clear to me that Perez hates women.

He never had anything positive to say about any woman unless they were lesbian or ugly. Attractive or powerful or popular female celebrities all got the smash treatment from seemingly misogynist Perez.

Now, any young male celebrity in the news, and Perez was all gushy for them, singing their praises, and telling the world how utterly fabulous they were. I mean really, Perez, The Jonas Brothers? Please.

The latest successful woman to be bashed? Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas. He called her ugly. What? As if Perez could possibly be any judge of female beauty. If we want an opinion on Chase Crawford's ass, we'll call you, Hilton. Leave the comments about women to the men.

But then, he goes a step further in his ridiculousness and makes homosexual slurs to will.i.am and his manager. Not taking too well to that, will.i.am's manager decides to punch Perez in the face. Luckily, I might add, since Perez' looks are not his moneymaker.

I think there is a lesson to be learned here. The pot shouldn't call the kettle black. And if the pot does, he darn well better have a good HMO.

In the Beginning

Seeing as how I enjoy peeking into the lives and thoughts of so many bloggers, and seeing as how I have an extraordinary amount of time on my hands while I wait for some issues to be resolved, I have decided to start a blog of my own.

It will not relate the day to day events that I experience since, being without a job and rarely leaving home, there aren't any to relate. So instead, I shall endeavor to give my own peculiar and skewed perceptions of events, people, and follies of the world.

This is more of an attempt to amuse myself than anything else. If it brings humor to others, so much the better. But really, you would be better off looking in to some of the blogs I have posted on the right.

Right around there.------>

Surely you see them.

Ah, I knew you'd find them.