Lo Philosophises, Sermonizes and Handily Bores You to Death.

Have you heard the one about the wise man who was asked by a Follower, "Master, what should I do while  I am working toward enlightenment ?"

The Master replied, "Carry water, chop wood."


The Follower then asked, "and what shall  I do when I finally attain I attain enlightenment?"


The Master smiled and replied, "Carry water, chop wood."


(not sure if I have it quite right but it goes something like that   If the next bit of blathering seems like an unrelated digression.........don't sell me short.)


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The following thoughts were written to my beloved cousin, Rob (of the New York cousins, Rob and Jess......Aunt Jenny's grandson ) after a wonderful visit and dinner with him earlier this week..  We had discussed, among many things, the recent sad end of one of his cousins whom I did not know.   Having given the appearance of an evolved soul thru his lifetime, when confronting death he went to pieces and could not bravely or peacefully let go of life, causing himself and his loved ones considerable anguish by needlessly prolonging the endtime.


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Rob, dear..........I was thinking about things while I waited to fall asleep tonite.... the sad tale of M's tragic and painful  end.......  and I realized that I forgot to send you off with my favorite nugget about, among other things, avoiding ending up clinging frantically by one's fingernails to the door jamb when one should be floating off peacefully to wherever. 


One of my greatest  life lessons I got from a brilliant writer and thinker named Eckhart Tolle.  My favorite of his books is called "The New Earth"... Awakening to Your Life's Purpose".  He got through to me finally about something I had never quite grasped before.  I will have to paraphrase his words, but basically it goes like this: 


The Ego is the villain of the piece.  The Ego does not represent the essential You. It is the ugly and unholy part of you .  It is the barrier to any kind of peace or growth or enlightenment and the enemy of your soul (or essence or whatycallit)  It is totally unessential to your real being and a real barrier to your well-being.    It is the part of you that cannot accept  the possibility of "not existing in that body anymore"  and puts up a ghastly struggle when faced with the idea of your vital spark moving out of your body and on to ....something else.  


Not only can you survive life without your Ego, but you can hardly have a moment's peace while it is in control.  Somehow, when I read his ideas on this and finally "got it" I found it was quite possible to actually dump the ego and still go on, and it has been so much  better for me since.  Of course bits still pop up now and then, but I really think I have finally learned that crucial lesson and am hugely grateful to Tolle for putting that bit of truth into a form that I could finally grasp......a big Eureka moment for me.  Don't know if it will ring clearly for you, but I hope so.  If you haven't read him, do try to read the first part of the book at least.


By the way......the Ego that I speak of is the You who might at some point want to shout angrily at someone, "Do you know who I AM????"  It is the part with all the Labels, none of which actually define you at all, the part which cares more what others think of you than anything else and is constantly warning you about that with everything you do or want to attempt to do.  You might think that if you discard this part of yourself you would be throwing your Self away, but that is not what happens.  It simply shuts up that megalomaniac's paralyzing, nattering voice in your head and allows your real Self to relax, kick back and  have room to breathe  (a sigh of relief).  If you can evict or minimize the Ego things are so much easier afterwards.


Please forgive me for such pompous pontificating.....don't mean to sermonize but I feel this is SO important.  I found it a difficult concept to grasp  (tried to learn this lesson a gazillion times thru my life and failed) so I thought perhaps my musings on the subject might be helpful to you or  someone else out there who might cringe occasionally at that wretched voice that intones, "What will people think?".   


The answer to that is, "Fuck 'em!  Just keep carrying water and chopping wood.

I Dare You to Yell at Me or Isn't This Excuse the Greatest?

Yeh, yeh, I know......I appear to have abandoned all you lovely people for my own fatuous,selfish pursuits.

Bad Lois!   No, no, not true.

Now, what will you say when I tell you that I, feeling that I had absolutely nothing of interest to communicate, decided to spend all my blogging time reading and leaving praiseful comments on blogs I loved, admired, envied and even a few that I disagreed nicely with.  Knowing the joy and bliss of receiving comments, I decided that, as long as I was not inspired enough to amuse you one way, I would just sneak around and tickle your feet.

If I didn't get around to everyone, don't despair.  I'll be there when you least expect me, and perhaps, hopefully, when you need me most.

And, one of these days, I WILL blog again.

You Must See This

 I am still reeling from a video a friend sent me this morning, I think it is the most amazing and blooming wonderful thing I have ever seen.

One part of my mind keeps telling me it must be a brilliant magic trick but I have watched it over and over and cannot figure out how it could have  been done....  unless the conjurer is God.

Not only is the execution amazing, but the quality of line is exquisite and the overall  result is breathtaking and awe inspiring, the intellectual process astounding and...... I don't know what else.

Knowing me, you know I believe totally in the godliness of every creature and living thing on the planet (including rocks....don't you dare laugh) but if this is real there is no longer any doubt that we do not own the world..


If you can expose this as a trick please let me know your arguments.  Perhaps I am too gullible.

Watch and  decide for yourself and be prepared  to be thrilled to your core.

http://fun.mivzakon.co.il/video/General/2344/2344.html

P.S. to the New Bedford Story

I was so gratified at your response to my blog about New Bedford and my Uncle Harry Bloomingdale, and tickled pink that you all loved the house as much as I did.

There is a link to the story that was written about his Department Store and his many achievements and am including that below for those of you who like history, especially when there is a string connecting it to someone you know.  Elyssa of "Fancy Pantalons" and the one you can than for all this great research
sent help in her comment as follows:. 

fancy pantalons said...

Hi all, Try this link: http://bit.ly/e6tL7F and scroll down to the "Harry Bloomingdale" section. Fascinating stuff!

A_History_of_New_Bedford.docx 

A Gift From Out of the Past

  

There have been a myriad of wonderful surprises and delights that have come to me from this blog and  it seems they just keep coming.

I recently had an email from a wonderful woman named Elyssa of the blog "Fancy Pantalons", a follower who had some kind things to say about my blogging, and she happened to mention New Bedford, Mass.  I got all excited because one of my Uncles whom I have blogged about, my Uncle Harry, lived for many years in New Bedford and I had wonderful memories of the grand old Victorian house there.  I mentioned the address to Elyssa and told her about him and, wonder of wonders, the next day she sent me a photo of the house (she had driven by and found that it was still there) and an article she had located telling all about my Uncle and his achievements.

 I haven't been able to upload the article but I have managed to get the photo pulled up and, behold, here it is.  I can't quite say "in all it's glory" because the house is a bit faded, but still gorgeous, I think.
(Oh, what I could do with it if I were only 20 years younger.)

 I sent the photo to two of my young cousins and they were both tickled to see it again too. They had both been there with their parents when they were young and had fond memories.

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Comment from cousin
Rob Kapnek

Lo-

Amazing!!!

I remember many trips there, visiting

Harry, Essie and Flora, throughout

my childhood.

The house was like a living museum

to me, replete with antiques, pianos, brass

beds, silver and objects, all

of which seemed hundreds of years

old, at the time.

Essie was permanently hunched in

two, from carrying Harry up and down

the stairs, on her back.

When she was nearly 100, she was still

climbing the apple tree in the back yard to make us a pie, when we visited.

I think he was the founder of the Kiwanis Club and was always visited and lauded for his philanthropy. 

Flora was their adopted daughter and lived at home with Essie to care for Harry, wheelchair bound for more

than 60 years. 

Dad and Lew loved them and they all were really devoted to each other.

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Comment from cousin Bruce Morton

Thanks for sending this. As I recall, my Dad took the family up to Cape Cod for a vacation when I was a senior in college and my brother Ken was a freshman, and we stopped in New Bedford en route to see my 2 cousins at the house in New Bedford. They were both female, around 88 and 93 years old as I recall. When we arrived, one of them was up on a tall ladder replacing a light bulb, and the other one was doing house repairs. I was stunned at their vibrancy for their age.  We got a tour of the house, which was full of original woodworking art.

Great, fascinating..............

Thanks.

Love,

     Bruce
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I am incredibly grateful to Elyssa for her research and zeal in bringing back these wonderful memories.
The wonders of blogging will never cease to amaze and thrill me.
e.

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Sat, Mar 26, 2011 12:48 pm

A_History_of_New_Bedford.docx   

The Aftermath and the Epiphany

The blissful state of being warm and the delightful prospect of being able to get clean have  induced me to wax poetic......

           
               There are interesting side effects to not having any heat or hot water
               And the main one is probably that you don't get to bathe as often as you orter.
               But if anyone dares to hint that I am odoriferous or, shall we say, smelly
               I will, promptly and  forthwith, kick them in the belly.



Just want to report that I now have not only heat but blessed hot water and I am not only still calm but hellishly grateful.

And, strangely enough, rather than being filled with blind rage at the MF Plumber who, for whatever evil or stupid  reason, misdiagnosed my heating system as being deadly with carbon monoxide gas, I am content and pleased with having made plans to deal with my 22 year old unit before it crashed on me at a less opportune moment.  This is not Pollyanna speaking either.........it is, I  believe, the newly enlightened Lo.  I have been working for years toward being able to cope with disasters without exploding with emotions all over the near environs  and ending up a spent but still vengeful victim.

The fact is, that I could easily have cancelled my order for the new system once I discovered  that this old one was NOT leaking deadly gas fumes into my living quarters and could have spent days  and much precious energy venting my rage on unscrupulous people and shady business practices, but, upon thoughtful rumination, I realized that I could not expect this 22 year old wonder to continue functioning indefinitely without problems....it's days were certainly numbered.  I had already endured the discomfort of  being without.  I had already transferred the funds into my checking account.  I was already mentally prepared for the thing to be done, so why put it off for some less convenient time when the price will no doubt be even more exorbitant .  Just do it and forget about heating and cooling problems forever. .........and that is what I am doing. And it feels good.

Now, excuse me everybody while I go in and take a long hot shower.  Ahhhhhhhh! Ummmmmmm!


P.S   I want to make it perfectly clear that I am NOT getting my new heating system from the MF Plumber creep who triggered this whole epic, but from the same folks who installed my current system 22 years ago.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

Just a quick update for those darlings out there who have been worrying about me being without heat and without hot water.    Got the heat back!

Naturally, it is a long story and I am not ready to tell it  yet, but, suffice it to say,......(what a stupid, meaningless, tortured  phrase that is.....I apologize for using it).....as I was saying, what I have done is gotten a carbon monoxide monitor and turned the heating system back on.  I did this yesterday around midafternoon.  The heat is blissful and the monitor has stayed strangely silent.  Hmmmmm.

Now, I am beginning to wonder if that MF Plumber who told me about the crack in my heater and the carbon monoxide was just pulling a big con on me.........I am taking a while to think about that.....I am still fairly calm but I am afraid that if I relax for just a moment I will have to rush out and murder that MF Plumber......

Meanwhile I am both calm and WARM.