October 19, 2000. There is a big house in which lives a large number of people of different types and various interests, but observation reveals them divided primarily into two groups; those who like to be outside, and those who prefer to be indoors. Even when inside, those who prefer the outdoors are at windows looking outside and day dreaming of same, while those who like the indoors, even when outside manage somehow to still be inside.
 A man wanting to breathe uncontaminated air & clear out his attic has got to understand for himself what this house & its in-&-out people are all about.
 

I am writing you today from Ffidrac, Wales, whose motto is: "Think about what everyone else thinks about and you will surely --  Stand On The Shoulders Of Midgets!"
The city has a busy harbor which handles both surface ships and submarines.  People who track traffic see more surface vessels arrive than the sub surface ones, but they err.
The people who notice these things all live themselves in surface ships.
 
 

I am writing you today from Zadde, Greenland, whose population is split between those who claim that maps show their country smaller than it really is, and those who say it’s pictured larger than its actual size.

All packs & flocks follow a leader.
 Packs & flocks composed of non thinking creatures
 are going no where special.
    Herds of creatures with thoughts in their brains
     think that they are headed some place special,
     and further believe that one of them must lead the
     way.
        Routine members of these herds do not take
        full advantage of their ability to think.
 
 
 

I am writing you today from Sincerity, Arizona.  A place where everyone is --  Deeply Concerned!
  No one knows about what –
  but they are nonetheless  --  Deeply Concerned!
 

There was once a planet whose population was divided between beings you could see and those you could not.   But if you visited there it was the invisible ones you thought you saw and the visible ones you did not see.
A son asked his father: "Why does everything seem to come in pairs?"
and the elder responded:
"Okay --  which one of you said that?"
 
 
 

I am writing you today from Stareaway, Minnesota, where everyone is sincere.  They can’t help it, (and you can figure out why.)
A daughter asked her mother: "Who have the most to be concerned about: people in the basement, or in the penthouse?"
and the older one replied:
"Harbor-watchers see many more visible ships
sail in
than seem later to sail away."
 

On one island all the creatures were painted red,
except for a few who were red, but who also had a band of yellow around their head.
  Both groups reacted to physical stimuli,
  but the yellow banded ones would also periodically
  fall victim to spirit attacks.

On one island all the creatures were painted red,
Except for a few who were red, but who also had a
band of yellow around their head.
   Both groups reacted to stimuli,
    but the yellow banded ones alone would go
    seek out same
    when none was instantly extant.
 
 
 

I am writing you today from, Getouttahere, Alaska, where the people are so cold most of the time that they sadly, do not have the capacity to be either sincere, or concerned.  (And you may note that because of this their fair town is missing from all so-called, "Regulation" maps.
    [Oh yeah; a few of the inhabitants are both so cold and so unbothered by this exclusion that they individually are no longer personally "regulated."])
   See --  now that’s what’s possible when you
    come out of the basement,
    get out on the beach,
    look back at the penthouse, and
    suddenly realize that most of what you see
    in tall ships is simply what you think you see.
 
 

I am writing you today from Straighttalk, Lousiana, where they recently passed an ordinance forbidding the use of metaphorical language.  The mayor says that if it is as successful as he foresees that he will next introduce a bill outlawing allegorical thinking.

   An accordion player in a bar told me he was looking to move to some place that had no hopes in
ghosts of any kind,
be their names said aloud,
or just whispered to oneself under the covers.
There was once a man who wanted more than anything in life to go to X-ville,
but to get there he saw that you must first past through Y-city.
So for years he struggled to make it to Y-city.

Cartography Update For Those Not In A Total Stupor:
Something is wrong with any map that says you must first go through point C to get to point D.

…..Oh, all right.  The Real Update:
If a map tells you that
then something is wrong with the thoughts in your head that are telling you that that is what the map says.
   And a son asked his father: "When it really –
   --  Gets-down-to-it! --
   just what can you depend on?"
   "Certainly nothing capable of asking such
   a question with the expectation that
   it has an answer." he replied.
    …(Later that day, the elder recommended that the
    boy go down to the harbor and observe the
    comings-&-goings of the ships,
    while remembering that he was not seeing
    the half of it.)

Those trying to awaken through the study of a
     wake-up-system
     always have something to look at.

     Public Notice:  There is of yet no reliable proof
      that waking up does not cause blindness.
 
 
 

I am writing you today from Fauxfind, Pennsylvania, where are minted the many collector coins so treasured by so many who treasure such treasures.  This place is not to be confused with its Sister City found on the reverse setting of your computer screen where is produced the coin of the realm for the few  --  which on one side is stamped the word, "Struggle", and on the other, "No Struggle."
To the knowing, it alone has value.

While at the beach, one man began watching the waves come in, and
the waves go out.
He become so engrossed in his watching
that his brother finally asked him if what he
was seeing was actually a metaphor for
something, and the man replied:
"No, it is just the waves coming in, and
the waves going out."
 

    A reader just e-mailed me and says:
"As I have perused your words today I suddenly asked myself: ‘Am I just reading his words --  or --
am I  also reading something into them?’"
The trickiness in trying to "wake up" when you personally don’t have a dog’s clue as to what it actually is  --   is
That if you don’t "read something" into everything you normally read & hear,
you will not get anything useful from anything you ever read or hear  --   but,
(and here’s the trickiest of the tricky part), but,
if you do not eventually develop the taste-for,
and ability-to
see, hear, smell & touch
only what you actually,
see, hear, smell & touch
you continue to live a life one-step removed from
what is really going on.

Submarine commanders with basement apartments
see life from one angle,
while Captain Peachfuzz up in the penthouse
with his toy steering wheel
suction-cupped to the wall,
connected to naught,
       sees things from a different perspective.

No matter where you live,
no matter your primary mode of navigation through life,
Cpt. CrazyCrunch is upstairs with his phoney wheel that controls nothing
giving out with his blusterous commands & specious directions,
for within you -- safe harbor has he found.

   To awaken is to see him for what he is,
and to take him no more seriously than,
(in private, behind your back),
he takes himself.
 
 
 
 
 

I am writing to you today from a place where
A son asked his father:
"Is life laughing at me behind my back for me being so
ordinary?"
he patted the lad comfortingly on de head, and said:
"There, there --  life doesn’t even HAVE a back."
"But, but, what I said was…" the boy started to say –
then as he hesitated   --  he damn near woke up!
                                             
                                                               jan
 

 In one country their air force & navy often get in conflict ---
-- their OWN air force & navy, mind you.
The name of the place is -- Idiocivokia
…..(just be thankful that you don’t live there!, huh?!)
.
 
 
 
 
 
 

  Oh yeah, another thing:
No one in the navy will do interviews, only pilots will.
Someone nicknamed them : Doolittle’s Dunderheads.

  Sleepers will agree to be interrogated even before being captured --
--- nay, they will insist on it.
Only one going down in flames regardless -- answers questions.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

When you are nothing, you have nothing to lose.
When you understand that you have nothing you can lose --
-- then you win.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A man who actually lived his life
can’t write his biography.
  It’s not possible.

And here is a tip:
If you want to keep dreaming -- keep telling yours.

                                                      j
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A final ; Time Saver Tip:
The less you have to do
the more efficient you need be.

…(This is of particular significance to those who are
beginning to realize what "waking up" is really about.)