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The Boggling of the Mind by Dorien Grey 3/30/2015 2:49:34 AM
boggle (verb): to be astonished or overwhelmed when trying to imagine something
My mind is so easily boggled. It only takes one thought, popping in from God-knows where for absolutely no determinable reason, to set me off. I had decided—tryi... more
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"He Had a Hat!" by Dorien Grey 3/26/2015 2:55:39 AM
Coca Cola, Colonel Sanders' "seventeen herbs and spices," and my Aunt Thyra's angel food cake all share one thing in common: no one else in the world knows its secret or can exactly duplicate it. The same is true with humor: each of us has our own re... more
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Marshmallow Man by Dorien Grey 3/23/2015 3:38:32 AM
The sleeve is not the best place to wear one's heart, yet many of us do. But one of the problems of leaving the heart so exposed is that it is difficult to shield it from almost any assault on the emotions. There are men of iron, and men of steel. Be... more
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Chance, Coincidence, and Incredible Odds by Dorien Grey 3/19/2015 3:09:26 AM
Life is a cosmic pinball machine; our past—our very existence—is the result of an infinite number of random coincidences and convergences of unrelated circumstances producing results with odds far greater than any lottery. Our every single action alt... more
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Our Bloodiest War by David A. Schwinghammer 3/17/2015 7:31:14 AM
Poor whites (rednecks) fought the Civil War for the South. Millions died or were wounded. And now they're doing it again, politically.... more
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Spam and "Jabberwocky" by Dorien Grey 3/16/2015 2:54:33 AM
It occurred to me, as I was flushing the latest crammed-full spam bucket from my computer, that spam is the absolute antithesis to Lewis Carroll's wonderful poem, Jabberwocky. Both are largely gibberish, but whereas Jabberwocky leaves one with a sens... more
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Except After "C" by Dorien Grey 3/12/2015 2:55:15 AM
Ah, the joys of English and its rock-bound rules!... more
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"That Which I Should Have Done..." by Dorien Grey 3/9/2015 3:04:31 AM
I have always been fascinated with Ivan Albrecht’s painting, “That Which I Should Have Done, I Did Not Do”—also known as “The Door,” in Chicago’s Art Institute. For some reason I relate strongly to the title.
It's often far easier to acknowl... more
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"They," "Them," and Me by Dorien Grey 3/5/2015 3:47:55 AM
I've spent an inordinate amount of time, over the course of my life, pondering the riddle of how I can be a part of humanity and yet so often feel totally apart from it. I've come to the conclusion that I view my relation to other people...and specif... more
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The Fine Line by Dorien Grey 3/2/2015 4:10:33 AM
Odd how one picks up small bits and pieces of poetry, songs, sayings, etc. from God knows where and carries them throughout life.
One of my favorites, probably from my grade school days when I was becoming aware of profundities (and yes, "pr... more
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"This, too...." by Dorien Grey 2/26/2015 3:55:50 AM
One of the wonders of being human is that while we, among all living creatures on earth, are aware of the concepts of future and past, stretching out endlessly before and behind us, we must walk between the two on the infinitely thin tightrope of "no... more
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Idiots by Dorien Grey 2/23/2015 4:03:53 AM
We are an increasingly dumbed-down culture, and it is no mistake.... more
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Weather or Not by Dorien Grey 2/19/2015 4:42:35 AM
Remember that old kids' rhyme, "Whether it's cold or whether it's hot, we will have weather, whether or not"? It was one of my first encounters with wordplay, and I've always remembered it.
I love weather's unpredictability and delight in th... more
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Envy by Dorien Grey 2/16/2015 4:41:21 AM
envy (noun): a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck
jealous (adjective): feeling or showing envy of someone or their achievements and advantages
Envy, like its not-qu... more
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Grand Delusions by Dorien Grey 2/9/2015 4:04:18 AM
Being human comes with enough problems—many of our own making—without allowing hubris to extend the range of those problems to include assumed/implied responsibility for things over which we have absolutely not the remotest influence or control. This... more
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Waste Not, Want Not by Dorien Grey 2/5/2015 3:41:28 AM
Ours is a shamefully wasteful society. Why?... more
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"Pretty" by Dorien Grey 1/29/2015 3:47:43 AM
I know, I know…our attraction to physically pretty people is somehow encoded in our DNA as an imperative. Survival of the fittest and all that. But our humanity should raise us above our genes, and it far too seldom does.
One of the least fo... more
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Observing by Dorien Grey 1/26/2015 3:43:28 AM
We're all so busy living our lives that we seldom take the time to step back and really look at things. Not the big stuff upon which our existence depends, but on those millions and millions of trivialities that surround us every minute and yet go i... more
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Lip Service by Dorien Grey 1/22/2015 3:59:22 AM
We are a lip-service people. Both as individuals and as a society, we solemnly proclaim belief in and adherence to one thing while doing the exact opposite. There is, far too often, only the most flimsy connection between our words and our actions. G... more
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Seriously? by Dorien Grey 1/19/2015 3:36:55 AM
Margaret Hamilton, as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz hit it on the head: “What a world! What a world!”
I have spent more than 3/4 of a century bumbling through life avoiding reality whenever possible, thinking I was unique ... more
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