OFF WITH THAT CROWN!

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OFF WITH THAT CROWN!

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When I come across a real Red Queen

She is screaming "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!"

I know the futility of logic and reason

She will furiously rip them to shreds

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Because what a tyrant finds pleasing

Is all the underlings cowering in fear

So they give in to the outrageous demands

Of one who really doesn't care

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She wants to rule with an iron fist

Yet be loved in all the lands

While she plays her pointless ego games

People suffering at her hands

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Bullying and threatening anyone who

Questions her methods and means

She believes in her  godlike power

As the privilege of Queens

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Her henchmen are a flimsy bunch

She changes the rules in her favor

But once we all see the toxicity there

Nothing will come to save her

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Stand up to the Red Queen's tricks

It is all smoke and mirrors

Throw the cards up in the air

We will not live in terror

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FAIRYTALE SCHOOL

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FAIRYTALE SCHOOL

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I am the Little Engine That Could

The Little Pig with the house of bricks

Chicken Little finally reassured

A Red Riding Hood that sees past the wolf's tricks

I was the Ugly Duckling that grew

Into rather a competent swan

I learned about life from fairy tales

They never steered me wrong

These days I don't lose my mittens

I row row row gently down the stream

Walking with Alice hand in hand

The Wonderland of the Fairytale dream

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COMPART-MENTAL-EYES

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COMPART-MENTAL-EYES

We learn early on to compartmentalize

Because the same person that yells at you for a messy room

Might also make your favorite chocolate chip pancakes

The teacher who makes history fun and interesting

Might leave a hoarder home filled almost to the ceiling

Working her way through trails in the hoard

The bus driver with a perfect driving record

Might have said some very hurtful things to her disabled husband

Right before she revved up her bus

The dentist might cheat on his taxes, the check-out lady

So cheerful and upbeat

Might have been driving drunk last weekend

My mulch might have been delivered by a man who spent

Seventeen years in prison for homicide

We can only look at other people's outsides

Sometimes we learn a lot more, but what does that mean?

We need buses, mulch, education, tooth care

So we must compartmentalize

If I find out a favorite author is a scoundrel

Will I stop reading those books? Maybe.

But compart-mental-eyes

Are an absolute necessity, otherwise

We would have nobody and nothing 

Nor could we function in the world at all

We must accept the world as it is

While working to make it better every single day.

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YES INDEEDY DO

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YES INDEEDY DO

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I have already done my good deed for the day

And it's not even seven A.M.

That gives me plenty of time

To do my good deed again

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OATMEAL DAY

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OATMEAL DAY

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Friday is oatmeal day

It always comes as a little surprise

To see it is Friday again

To realize how time flies.

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COOPERATION

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COOPERATION

We can't beat Father Time or trick Mother Nature

They are indomitable opponents

We are better off having them as allies

Working in harmony with them

The more agreeably we cooperate the better

Nature has given us a certain body, a mind

Not found in any other creature

For example we have an urgent sense of time

That other creatures don't have

Although they do follow the seasons and rhythms of time

This minute by minute awareness of life ticking by

Can be only a human asset or liability

Like finding a blackberry bush covered in sweet ripe berries

We can stop and enjoy the berries,

Let the juice run down our chins, stain our hands purple

Metabolize the antioxidants and vitamins

Or we can walk away from the berries in a snit 

Lamenting that berry season is too short

Today is filled with sweet, delicious minutes for us to enjoy

Courtesy of Mother Nature and Father Time

They are our realities, our path, our matrix

Our very being which must adapt with change to thrive

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ACCUMULATED WEALTH

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ACCUMULATED WEALTH

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When we read books or listen to lectures

We can be exposed to new ideas

Which might generate new thoughts

Our thoughts are our identity

We try new thoughts on for size

If they fit we will keep them

Hang them in our interesting thoughts closet

To put on whenever we choose

Because we own that concept now

We can lift our thinking caps to tinker under the hood

We just need the right tools.

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CLOUD TALK

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CLOUD TALK

A cloud might weigh a million tons

That doesn't worry me at all

They float serenely overhead

If ever one should fall

It becomes beautiful swirling fog

To cloak the land in mystery

Never has a falling cloud 

Done harm in human history

The peaceful clouds morph into shapes

Different every day

I love to look at their whimsical show

They have so much to say

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MOVING

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MOVING

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The first day of Fall, and what did I see?

A maple leaf waving wildly at me

There wasn't a breeze, other leaves were still

The weather quite mild, not even a chill

I waved back at the leaf, her message loud and clear

"I'll be heading out soon. See you next year."

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UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

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UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

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George Washington, the Father of our country

Freed his slaves in his will

When the loss of work income and wealth in slaves

Could not impact him

He had no biological children

He appeared to protect his wife Martha

From this loss also

By specifying the slaves only be freed

Upon Martha's death

He died, his conscience soothed by the thought

He had protected his wealth and

Maintained the status quo for his wife

But ultimately did the right thing and gave the slaves 

Their freedom 

(Upon Martha's demise)

But what he really did was give slaves

Desperate for freedom

The desire for Martha's immediate death

Put that thought in the forefront of the slave's minds

And put the mortal fear in Martha that the slaves now had

A very powerful motive to kill her

A year later she signed manumission papers

For all George's slaves

So she could sleep at night

In her nightgown and bedcap

Without thinking every creaking floorboard

Was someone coming to slit her throat

Did she think about what he did

The terrifying situation he put her in

As his final act in this world?

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EXTREMES

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EXTREMES

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Is freezing yourself the cure for becoming overheated?

Of course not

The cure for being overheated is to cool down until you are

A normal temperature

The remedy for one extreme is not to swing over to the opposite extreme

It is to find the center, balance, equilibrium, normality

This seems so obvious but it is not how the human mind works

Our minds react dramatically, 

A child's tantrum, road rage, political disagreements, domestic violence

I don't know why unless we are ruled by ego driven immaturity

If we are ever going to have a chance at a sane peaceful world

We must find a way to stop the Pendulum of Petulance

Swinging violently one way, then the other

Turning into a wrecking ball that destroys everything 

But fixes nothing

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FALSE IDOL

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FALSE IDOL . . Can you keep a secret from yourself?

Can you know and not know at the same time?

Do you expend your energies on doublethink

To keep a gilded falsehood on your shrine?

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PASSAGE

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PASSAGE

Row row row your boat

Gently down the stream

Until the stream becomes white water

A nightmare replaces the dream

Our little boats get tossed about

Spun around this way and that

Jettisoning things out of the boat

We can't even steer through that

We just have to hang on the best we can

Our knuckles white with fear

Until the majestic Stream of Life

Carries us to where, once again, it is clear

Sometimes just staying in the storm tossed boat

Is the best that we can do

Wait until the waters are calm

And the jagged rocks are though

Then we straighten our garments and get comfortable

While our little boat drifts on

Until we've left the danger behind

The darkening threat is gone

Row row row your boat

Gently down the stream

Merrily merrily merrily merrily

Life is but a dream

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TIMELESS

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TIMELESS

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We don't sit by the Old Mill Stream

Or call ourselves "Yankee Doodle Dandy"

We don't read by candle light

And indoor plumbing sure is handy

While time has changed our dress and mores

Shaped by time and tide

Still we yearn for the basic things

Cause we're still the same inside

We might live in a new improved world

Where technology blends with the mind

But we will never bypass the simple need

To live in safety, to be kind

Kindness can wear a hoopskirt

Or a spacesuit up on Mars

Kindness travels wonderfully

From a cave in France to the stars

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TINFOIL HAT

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TINFOIL HAT

For every handwriting expert you can find to say a signature is authentic

There is an equally credentialed expert to say it is forged

For every nutrition guru you can find who recommends fasting

There is an equally enthusiastic guru recommending six small meals a day

How can anyone know who to rely on?

I look at the rest of their field of study.

Do they think the Earth is flat? Do they point at wi-fi as the cause of diseases?

Are they promoting a product to protect your thought field from telepathic rays?

If you want to believe British royalty are actually Reptilians go right ahead

But I am not buying special glasses that reveal who is a reptile

In fact I am not buying anything at all that doesn't make sense to me

Common sense is the Gatekeeper

But there are no bouncers in Opinionland

You must police the area yourself.

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DEMON GRUDGE

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DEMON GRUDGE

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He got up in the morning

So did his Grudge

It was prickly and heavy

But it just wouldn't budge!

It stayed with him all day

He took it to bed

That miserable Grudge 

That lived in his head

His Grudge was annoying

It ate up his time

Diverted attention

Without reason or rhyme

A Grudge becomes wearisome

Day after day

Like a loop of bad film

On endless replay

The cumbersome Grudge 

Makes it hard to move on

Oh the blessed relief!

When the Grudge is put down

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ESWATINI (FORMERLY SWAZILAND)

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ESWATINI (FORMERLY SWAZILAND)

I have a blue shirt I wear because I feel sorry for it

The stitching is amateurish, the front doesn't lay flat

The buttons are unevenly placed

When it arrived in the mail I was surprised by the poor quality

I looked to see where it was made

It was made in Swaziland (now Eswatini)

I had no idea where that was, somewhere in Africa was my guess

I looked up this place that is 7,500 miles from my door

It is a million light years away culturally

They don't wear blue camp shirts in Esawtini

They wear an emahiya - two pieces of fabric

One is wrapped as a skirt, the other is draped over the shoulders

The country has high poverty rates so clothing manufacturing is a step

A small step, only 2% of the economy

A childhood in Eswatini is rich in community and traditions

But not material wealth

More than one third of the population is under the age of 15

I was building a mental picture for myself of where this shirt came frm

A popular women's name is Nonobeko, which means "One who is dignified"

I can picture Nonobeko, radiant in the way many Africans are radiant

Leaving the sugar cane fields of Mhlume to work in a textile factory

The confusing training, the constant roar of industrial sewing machines

The pressure to produce a finished product, obligations to her family

All carried in her heart, as all young people carry hope in their hearts

Nonobeko can not imagine me, but I can picture her

Envision her journey from village to factory

Reaching for an unknown future, the same unknown future

That we all face

I wear my wonky shirt with pride, 

A testimony to all the brave young people starting out

Headed for a future that will be, by necessity

Very different from our past

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KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON

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KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON

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I thought I heard a fleet of alien spaceships

Filling the early morning sky with a roar

Hovering overhead and stopping

I could imagine their strange shimmering presence

Shapes that changed like a mirage 

Perfectly still, defying the laws of physics I am familiar with

Once I was dressed I stepped outside, looking up

At the clear and silent morning sky

Pale blue, normal and promising nice weather

Perhaps I heard fighter jets flying in formation

From an Air Force base nearby

They train to defend the country from alien invasion

But there is no need for defense from

The spaceships in my mind

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YOU ARE HERE

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YOU ARE HERE

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I need tethers, guidelines, anchors, routines, patterns

Otherwise I just drift off somewhere

I use cues, sequences and prompts 

To know when to do things

My inner landscape needs a map, a lighthouse

Safe havens and touchstones along my path 

With my bag of tricks over my shoulder I walk my path

Because the path is the one thing I can not lose.

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SWEET KNOWLEDGE

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SWEET KNOWLEDGE

There may not be a perfect solution 

To sweep all our troubles away

There always seems to be some issue

We can't let it ruin our day

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In this day there are many good moments

Many helpful things we can choose

We don't need to throw out the whole apple

Just because it might have a bruise

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UNREASON

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UNREASON

I don't think everything happens for a reason

But I do think everything has a cause

Except the very fact of existence

Everything follows laws

When something awful happens

Filling my mind with doubt

I don't think this has some divine purpose

I just have faith that somehow this will work out

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IN THE RING OF LIFE

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IN THE RING OF LIFE

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We don't know unless we give it a try

Take a second shot at it

Or if the third time's the charm

We don't want to squander our efforts on futlity

We also don't want to throw in the towel and give up

Right before we were going to succeed

Reasonably planned efforts coupled with frustration management

Seems to be the most prudent sustainable choice

Until victory is declared

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