tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post365005130592364192..comments2024-02-25T09:45:48.931-05:00Comments on Lally's Alley: TOUGH TIMESLallyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310472614196384595noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-13466882417087674532007-03-09T01:31:00.000-05:002007-03-09T01:31:00.000-05:00People who question your output are one word: JEAL...People who question your output are one word: JEALOUS.. why don't they put down on paper what they want to say... They still can't. I say break on thru to the otherside. Start your own blog.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-29006122907832136632007-03-07T20:05:00.000-05:002007-03-07T20:05:00.000-05:00Just....yes....MimJust....yes....<BR/><BR/>MimAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-8992656610601782652007-03-05T20:38:00.000-05:002007-03-05T20:38:00.000-05:00Yes, Nero, how dare you fiddle!? (The person who m...Yes, Nero, how dare you fiddle!? (The person who made that comment must not be familiar with all of your blogs.) Well said, Mike. The poem “Refusing Heaven” by Jack Gilbert expresses similar thoughts quite artfully; as does Levin’s character at the end of Anna Karenina. To eschew pleasure & play in the face of war, poverty and tragedy is not only impossible – as these “negative” states of being always exist (someone’s always crying somewhere baby) – it’s detrimental to the mental health of our species. To deny our natural needs for, and naturally occurring states of, satisfaction & happiness, only leads us to prolong the unnatural states of war (murder) & misery. Men wage war when their basic needs are not being met. (I include in these basics needs both bread and feeling satisfied.) <BR/>Would the person that made the comment to you burden his or her child with a perpetual state of despair because the world is falling apart? Children demonstrate on a daily basis that all states of being are transitory. Anger, sadness, envy – all move through them quickly. They must be trained to hold grudges, to fear and to hate, to worry endlessly. <BR/>Sometimes the youngest sibling in a family escapes this training – the notion that one must pick & become expert at certain feelings at the expense or complete loss of other feelings (usually gender divided) – because they are so far down the line they are raised more by their siblings, who exist in these transitory states along with them, than by their parents. I’ve found (now that I live among them again as a parent) that most children exhibit a natural curiosity for & love of beauty – both the boys & the girls. It’s nice to be around them before it’s been beaten out of them, especially the little boys. Our culture still promotes the belief that boys must be made hard, cured like meat, with all the moisture removed, to become men, but we’re making progress. (I just learned of an excellent book on this subject called “The Courage to Raise Good Men” by Olga Silverstein & Beth Rashbaum, that contends that mothers don’t have to sever the bond with their sons to make them into men.) Those who want to put an end to war must actively work for peace; and that includes cultivating a personal peace in their hearts by enjoying life and all the pleasure afforded us as sensual beings. The extraordinary in life is supported by the ordinary – we must attend to both.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com