RANDOM MUSINGS IV
by Sol Palha

May 26, 2006

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs-jolted by every pebble in the road.
Henry Ward Beecher 1813-1887, American Preacher, Orator, Writer

There is so much negativity going around war, huge budget deficits, inflation, the pundits talking about an equity and commodity meltdown and a housing market waiting to collapse etc. Hence we decided that now would be a nice to come out with some random musings that at the very least will produce a chuckle if not some laughter from our readers.

Remove the thought and there is no thinker, the thought makes the thinker. 

Why is it that we say I am going to do this from the bottom of my heart, why not from the top of our hearts? Could it be that we really don’t want to give it all we have got so we do it from the bottom?

For a man to be perfect there are two qualities that he should develop equally compassion and wisdom. Compassion represents love, charity, kindness, tolerance, etc (qualities of the Heart). Wisdom: intellectual qualities of the mind (logic, rationality, etc). Both these qualities need to be developed; developing one of the other produces problems or a false sense of knowledge or self-satisfaction. Developing emotionally only one may end becoming a good hearted fool and doing the same intellectually may turn one into a hard hearted intellect without feeling for others. To be perfect one has to develop both equally.

Notice that we use the expression circle of friends instead of saying line of friends. What does a circle represent if you are in the centre? Closure it seals you from the outside world. So when we have a circle of friends we are basically stating that we are sealing our selves from anything new. We can apply this to the markets and the advisors we chose to follow. We keep in touch with people that have similar beliefs to our own and then to make it worse we pay advisors who will tell us want we want to hear. If they happen to deviate we are abruptly get angry and think of getting rid of them.

Why is it that when we feel ashamed or feel small we look down? Yes the point of the game is to avoid eye contact because you feel small, but then why not look up and past those that are trying to make you feel small.

When we are ready to settle and get married we use the expression settle down, why would anyone want to settle down, what happened to settling up. Should you not be better off if you are joining forces with someone else.

Work for the benefit of the group, be a team player all this nonsense is pumped into our heads when we are young. Let’s examine something if you are always looking out for the good of the group and have never looked out for your self-interests. How will you ever know what’s good for the group if you have no idea of what is good for you. Should we not start with self-interest and then once we know what’s good for us, perhaps then we can start looking at working for the interests of the groups. The way the current system is set up it’s bound to fail because those that are supposed to look out for our interests actually have no idea of what their own interests are. Net result is pure disaster and if you look around do you really see any real team work.

Let’s examine certain words and phrases

Relationship

The key word here is ship and as we all know a ship can have only one captain otherwise it’s doomed to sink sooner or later. The same applies for any given relationship; two individuals trying to share power usually produces chaos and that’s why most relationships (marriages) usually end up on the rocks.

I think I know

Many times someone will use this sequence of words in a sentence trying to indicate that they have some fair knowledge on a certain subject. First of all it’s an oxymoron you cannot think about something and know about it at the same time.

If you know then you do not need to think and if you are thinking about it then you cannot really know, in others you are still not 100% sure about it.

So perhaps what someone is trying to say when he or she use this phrase is that I am just as lost as you are and have no clue as to what the hell I am supposed to be doing or saying. 

United we stated and divided we fall

Not if you break away in advance and let all the losers fall down by themselves. That’s what mass psychology is about spotting the weak links and moving away just before those links snap or on the flip side spotting the weak links and taking a position before they suddenly strengthen

A stitch in time could save nine

Well true provided it was put in the right place otherwise it could result in 20.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

Provided you have not mistaken poison for the cure, then the concept of cure is out the window and all that comes to mind is funeral arrangements. 

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

Well that depends on whether it’s alive or dead.

A penny saved is a penny earned 

Not when you take inflation into consideration

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

Henry L. Mencken