Tuesday, November 19, 2024
OPINION ESSAY - NEWNESS
Early in the beginning hours of a new day, a Monday, the start of OUR working week, it's NOT strange to muse a bit about "newness".
Newness can be good, I guess.What I'm thinking, is that, in today's world we ARE flooded, "inundated" by such a constant and overwhelming stream of "new" information, we sometimes forget what is "new" to us, may have been around for a long time. May already be known to many other people in fact.
Doesn't necessarily lessen the importance of the lesson (Catch that wordplay?).
The fact that we have learned a fact, or been inspired to give thought to a thought, has an importance of its own beyond the value of the information itself.
Years ago, I first read this statement by Francis Bacon (1561-1626) "Reading maketh a full man; conference [discussion or debate] a ready man; and writing an exact man."
The point being, I guess, that, just as with physical fitness, mental exercise is of value in keeping a healthy mind.
The body doesn't care how old the barbells are that it lifts, and responds to.
Lifting, moving, and examining the thoughts of others, can help make OUR minds stronger and better prepared to live in this often contradictory world.
Exercising, even with old thoughts, might just give us new strengths.
Labels: donovan baldwin, essay, opinion, thinking, thoughts
Saturday, November 16, 2024
TRUE STORY - HIS WIFE'S FIRST THANKSGIVING DINNER
Since Thanksgiving is approaching, I remembered something from my past:When I was stationed at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, in 1983, for Polish, my friend, John Jenkins, a fellow army sergeant told me about his Thanksgiving experience.
His mother and father were visiting him and his new wife, whom they had never really met. She was hoping to impress them with a full-scale Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey....which she had never cooked before.
In fact, her cooking skills were next to nil.
Thanksgiving morning, she prepared the bird, turned on the oven, and put the bird in. She had carefully read the directions and expected it to be ready for dinner.
Come dinner time the bird had not even begun to brown.
Everybody snacked their way along, checking the bird from time to time. Despite the obvious fact that the oven was on, the bird did not seem to be cooking.
Finally, the young wife gave in and asked her mother-in-law for help.
After checking everything John's mom figured out the problem. The oven was set just barely above "Warm".
When John's wife was told how high the temperature should have been, she told them that she had been following the directions, which said the temperature should be about 160 degrees, and, since their oven didn't even go that low she had just set it asl low as she could.
Not sure who got to explain to the new cook that that was supposed to be the INTERNAL temperature, but, that you needed a much hotter oven to accomplish that.
I'm sure nobody's ever had a similar experience, hmmmmm?
Oh well. Everybody's got to learn sometime.
Labels: dinner, donovan baldwin, Thanksgiving
Thursday, November 14, 2024
MORE THAN A SHADOW, AND OTHER POEMS BY DONOVAN BALDWIN, AUGUST 12, 2024
more than a shadow
you are creature of magic
dancing in my dreams
skirt flares about you
naked legs so happily
molten in moonlight
excited cheeks flushed
your gaily panting bosom
promises on your skin
-----
daughter of no king
nor elfin sprite of legend
my mystic woman
-----
words about her wrists
naked to his sentences
lashed by poetry
-----
proudly she displays
secrets no one else may see
shameless in her love
-----
no maidens thank you
old poet warmed by matron muse
finds the sweetest words
-----
she turned me away
because she was too perfect
all i ever desired
-----
have you spotted it
what i wrote for you today
a smile on my lips
-----
she's got a secret
sweet gentle teddy bear
ferocious in bed
-----
came into my life
making me reveal myself
then she disappeared
-----
birth until today
no one's ever wanted me
words perhaps not me
-----
sometimes remembers
all the times that he was spurned
the one time he wasn't
-----
of all the women
only one ever loved me
one i left behind
-----
of beasts of the earth
useless sort of animal
this poet creature
-----
best done in private
this form of masturbation
writing of poems
-----
erotic poet
an amateur botanist
exploring orchids
-----
private festival of oral arts
delicious confections whipped up
sweet berries and dripping cream
-----
untroubled angel
in my arms as sin begins
sweet demonic grin
-----
first in our family
so odd he's a poet
try to ignore him
-----
intense the image
rainbow flaming black and white
stripped of its colors
-----
my one true lover
the woman who reads my words
knows that they're for her
-----
she seems innocent
and perhaps in ways she is
also sensual
both personas stunning
visible in poetry
which betrays her soul
fires that burned within
needs and wants they failed to grasp
love that caused her pain
-----
i'll not bother you
until you've invited me
back into your arms
-----
sweatshirt and flannel
believe me YOU are sexy
it's not the clothes dear
-----
boots and mini skirt
and that sassy walk of hers
smile over her shoulder
-----
A soldier, a poet, an adventurer, yet how boyish he seemed in sleep. She looked at him and rolled up in her blanket, the saddle for her pillow. As she drifted off to sleep, he woke, looked at her... a soldier, a poet, and adventurer... how angelic she looked in the moonlight... the memory of their lovemaking flooded his mind and body... and he loved with a love he could never speak.
-----
ready for adventures
my body can longer handle
but i don't give a damn...
let's do it, baby
-----
i pretend you care
vut no one has ever before
why on earth would you
Labels: donovan baldwin, erotic, love, poems, poetry, romance
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
OPINION - WISDOM
Labels: 7th Standard Road, donovan baldwin, Jason Bourne, opinion piece, Robert Heinlein, wisdom
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
OPINION - THOUGHTS, PERCEPTIONS, AND INSIGHTS
Interesting where thoughts, perceptions and insights, come from, and, how altering one can change an entire outlook.
Despite years of studying human nature, trying to be mature and reasonable things, and learning several methods of "letting go", including meditation (which I first began practicing in high school), I used to take a lot of things personally.Somebody would say or do something, not even directed at me, or arising out of my actions, and I would feel personally involved... in a bad way. Even just "events" pushed personal buttons.
This created a lot of unnecessary frustration, anger, and just plain unsettled feelings within me.
One day, while driving a big truck through the mountains, coming from Oregon into California, I became upset with another driver. I would pass him, and, a while later, he would pass me, then, after a while, he would lose speed, and I would have to pass him again.
I became more and more angry, at him, a total stranger, because of his inconsistency, which was causing me to have to keep passing him whenever I could.
Since there was a lot of traffic around us, and this stretch of road was tricky, this was more work for me.
Suddenly, for some reason, in my growing anger and frustration, it dawned on me.
My trailer was nearly empty, though my truck's speed was governed so that I could not go at a high speed under the best conditions.
He had a bigger, stronger truck, but, apparently, I realized, was probably heavily loaded. So, going uphill, I was able to catch and pass him. On the downhills and flatter stretches, he was able to speed up and pass me.
I was actually the one in HIS way.
Still, we were each doing our personal best, just trying to move our loads forward, operating with the equipment we had to work with.
Nothing personal is involved.
Big change in my outlook after that, not just there and then, but, I've tried to carry that lesson through as I lived my life since then... sometimes, we're just doing our best, with the equipment we have to work with.
Labels: donovan baldwin, essay, insights, opinion, perceptions, thoughts
Monday, November 11, 2024
OPINION - FINDING OUR OWN BEAUTY AND WISDOM
Sometimes we read something, hear something, and think, "How wise that is!" Yet, it's been my experience that often the wisdom is not IN the statement that we heard or read, but, in our acceptance, recognition, or evaluation of it.
Often, we are finding the wisdom in ourselves that, perhaps, we couldn't see, or did not have the words or images for.
When we look at art, no matter how skilled the artist, or lovely, or compelling, the scene or subject, it's our own reaction, our acceptance, recognition, response, that makes it "beautiful", or "perceptive" or "avant garde" in our eyes and mind. The wisdom is often within us. The beauty is within us.
Oh, sometimes we need a little help finding it, seeing it, or maybe are missing a few pieces, but, that's why we read, walk in the woods, hum along to music, speak with others... or sit and watch the world, and wonder about it... finding our own beauty and wisdom.
Labels: art, beauty, donovan baldwin, opinion, wisdom
Sunday, November 10, 2024
OPINION - MINEFIELDS
Once again, looking back over the 79+ years of my life, I come to a conclusion... of sorts... almost. Right?
Wrong?
I can only say that it makes sense to me. Maybe not to you.
Just, as I like to say, thinking out loud.
I hear a lot today that one topic or another is a "minefield"... meaning, anywhere you wander in it, you are risking something, or somebody, exploding in your face... injuring, if not your body, then your mind, your beliefs, your equanimity, your relationships... your view of yourself and the world.
I personally believe a lot of the "explosions" come from the ability of anybody to put any thought up on the internet... or take exception to someone else's thought or opinion, but, not all. Some have been happening all along,
I don't believe these "minefields" are new. In fact, looking back over my life, and the history I've lived through, life itself is a minefield.
There is always the chance to take the "wrong" step, to move in a "dangerous" direction. The actual chance of "explosion" depends to some extent on a person's volume of activity in living.
There's sayings I've seen from various sources that essentially say that if you haven't made a mistake, or made someone angry, or caused someone to think, you haven't done anything.
A certain amount of truth there, I believe.
Hope that opinion doesn't blow up in my face.
Labels: current events, donovan baldwin, essay, opinion
