February 15, 2003                                                                  © 2003: JAN COX
 
 
 

Sport News.
Having the home-field-advantage is not much help if you are playing against yourself.
Just because the collective cannot understand a particular matter
is no proof that it is beyond the grasp of the individual thinker.
Among ordinary men  --  talk is mostly about itself,
(okay, the varsity version): if you are playing-yourself, and you know what you're doing,
the home field advantage is all the advantage you need.
The city so depends on time and demands such punctuality
that men are even required to die on time.
The collectivism of the herd produces a natural narcotic in the brains of
individual cows    --     it’s free    --    but it costs.
In city life, the older one gets,
the more are one’s claims-to-fame confined to one’s failures,
(tip: don’t get old in a city frame of mind).
Critics must circle the city like vultures
while the independent thinker soars free like an eagle, the whole universe.
If, in an individual sense  --  you-know-what-you-are-doing,
it does not matter very much anymore what you are actually doing.
On a tree just at the entrance to one city were carved these words:
“Humor, the hunter  --   man, the game.”
The ordinary living see nothing funny about death –
the rebel sees no point to living ordinarily.
Charts, graphs and statistics were created for the collective –
no reliable tracking is available on individuals.
“The beauty of habit,” explains one man, “Is that it is self-explanatory.”
(He later revised it): “The real beauty of habit is that its beauty IS its self-explanation;
few things in city life can make such a claim.”
Corollary: cows are disinclined to the new for the reason that it must BE explained.
And one man says: “I have been more than fair:
I have given the dictionary trade over two hundred years to come up with
the words I require, and the rest of humanity more than five thousand for ideas,
but by god --  time is running out.”
Health Help: what in the herd are called, personal-problems
are ills exclusive to those IN the herd,
(and to tell it all): are caused by being in the herd.
A father said to a son: "Within the collective is much acknowledged competition –
also much unrecognized cooperation  --
which is why, from the independent individual’s view,
things are always better than as perceived by the herd."
And a reader writes to say that he believes these daily writings are nothing less than
a gigantic, intellectual-conspiracy  --
one of such magnitude that even his letter of accusation may be a hoax.
Stuff You Never Lernt Down On The Farm:
the more city facts you know  --  the bigger smart-ass you can be;
the less city facts you know  --   the more smart-asses you have to whup.
In peace time, warriors ask the king for his picture --
when warfare begins, instead of attending, the king sends them one.
Those deficient in natural mental provisions love to tell where they were educated;
a man with real intelligence can’t    --    since he wasn’t.
If the problem with civilization is its lack of passion,
then the quarrel with cows is their affection for the herd,
(okay, farmer’s translation): ...is myopia’s satisfaction with its sight, (or, as says one man:
“I wouldn’t so much mind being as dumb as I am --  if I just weren’t so aware of it").
The neat ski feature of city life is: you can go down hill anytime and anywhere you want to (and of course, those of you already lounging peaceably by the fireplace can omit the word, “ski” from the preceding).
One rebel group says: "If you do not think about death, you will never die,"
(their private version is): "If you do not think about death,
you will not know that you will die," (not dissimilar to their perspective of being dumb).
Just because an ordinary man doesn’t know what he is doing
will not hamper him in doing what he ordinarily does.
And a father advised a son concerning the judicious use of one’s innate talents:
“You should be quite liberal in your whining  --  just on the off chance that
by so doing you may eventually deplete yourself of it,” (a trick-advisement for
a lad with the certain potential  -- in that only incognizant volcanoes can bear indefinitely
to hear themselves heave).
The more civilized the herd  --  the more time it has to kill.
“My boy, if at odd moments you have a sudden, brief feeling that
someone else is living your life, you are either:  going crazy, or starting to catch on.”
Although generally unknown: every language has one word which has no synonym,
(graduate version): ...has one idea for which there is no metaphor.
Believing something to be true and saying that you do, are two different things  --  neither of which worth thinking about.
Another convenience to being part of the collective is that it will always provide you with what will pass there for being your own, individual-style.
One man can only have fun when he is present,
(which certainly simplifies an otherwise unwieldy area of common concern).
Being late is the privilege of a dead man;
being dense and partisan, likewise (though here, you can still be breathing).
In his war on the less developed areas of his brain,
one insurgent has begun using chemical weapons:
privately developed neurotransmitters,
(and speaking of warfare): to the rebel, ideas coming from mankind’s collective mind
are the true weapons-of-mass-distraction (okay, destruction, for you political sticklers).
To an independent mind, only new ideas are interesting ideas;
most minds are not wired to enjoy new ideas  --  herd life does not require them  --
it has something much more reliable: habit.
And as he has progressed along the long road of intellectual expansion,
one man says he finds his brain’s well established views to be
less & less compatible with his shoe size,
“And,” exclaims one street-beat philosopher, “In the eternal battle between
conflicting human opinions over what IS the truth --
there are no winners and losers    --    just losers,”
and another reader writes to say that although he thinks the Daily News is not fair --
--  at least it is hard.
One chap says that he has, “A lot to tell himself”  --   but can’t get himself to listen.
Mankind’s collective mind thinks for the herd  --  only the certain man, for himself:
and once the rebel gets his new house in order  --  he doesn’t let anyone else in;
a true warrior accepts no prisoners --  even if they hand themselves over;
a man with a cow is twice dead; a man alone with himself  --   finally alive.
 
 

And another reader writes: “Perhaps it is just me: but some days it seems like all the news stories run together  --
--  not unlike (I might add)  --   my own thinking.                                                                                         (Grim!)”