Category Archives: Inspirations

The Cats Who Went To Law

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Mr. Justice Monkey

Two cats, having stolen some cheese, could not agree about dividing their prize. In order, therefore, to settle the dispute, they went to court, to try the case before Mr. Justice Monkey.

His honor readily consented to hear the cause, and producing a balance, put a part of the cheese into each scale.

“Let me see,” said he; “ay, this lump outweighs the other,” and immediately bit off a large piece in order, he observed, to make them equal. The opposite scale was now become the heaviest, which afforded our judge another reason for a second mouthful.

“Hold, hold,” said the two cats, who began to be alarmed for the event,”give us our shares, and we are satisfied,” returned the monkey, “justice is not; a case of this intricate nature is by no means so soon determined.”

Upon which he continued to nibble first one piece, and then the other, till the poor cats, seeing their cheese gradually diminishing, entreated him to give himself no further trouble, but deliver to them what remained.

“Not so fast, not so fast, I beseech you, friends,” replied the monkey; “we owe justice to ourselves as well as to you: what remains is due to me in right of my office:” upon which he crammed the whole into his mouth, and with great gravity dismissed the court.The scales of the law are seldom poised, till little or nothing remains in either.

Lesson Eigthteenth from The Young Reader

The Cats that went to Law

Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You

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“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”

This quote scrolled past me today, somewhere in my travels. I liked it and snagged it. Now I forget who said it. Bill Cosby?

Sometimes inspirational quotes are thought of as hokey. I think they are helpful. Besides, it’s okay to be hokey. Why not? Fear literally is the mind killer. It can also be a mind virus that is spread around to others. What I observe is that the media and various authorities in our lives attempt to keep us in a constant state of anxiety and fear. Why? Sometimes it is a bad habit and not deliberate. There is quite a lot of subtle peer approval awarded for negativity and cynicism. We become trained to police each other in this manner.

Sometimes though, it is part of a design to keep us in a state of mind that is dis-empowered, more easily controlled, and perhaps more accepting of injustices and absurdities. One certainly can not be audacious if the mind is kept focused on fear and failure. As always, I am speaking to myself as much as to anyone else when I write up this kind of thing. Expel the “bad fairies” from your mind.

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Andrew Wyeth

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Andrew Wyeth was accused by his many critics of depicting a false world, a world that on the surface may appear to be realistic (he was viewed as a realist) but was actually false and not at all representative of the world he lived in. Wyeth depicted a selective, nostalgic view of a quieter, simpler America, akin to the themes of Norman Rockwell or Edward Hopper.

I’d have no problem with that even if I thought it were true. That could very well be the way he viewed his life and the critics just don’t get it. Then again, I have never been known to agree with the critics or modernist views on art. I’ve been experimenting with egg tempera so I had just started looking at Wyeth’s work again in December. I love this photograph. He looks like such a character.

“Wyeth remained a polarizing figure even as the traditional 20th-century distinction between abstraction and avant-gardism on the one hand and realism and conservatism on the other came to seem woefully inadequate and false.”

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/16/america/wyeth.3-409455.php

EDIT: Lord Whimsy’s wonderful post about Wyeth.

Obit on the “false world” theme pointed out by C.P. McDill Ricardo Montalban was most remembered for his role in Fantasy Island, wherein his character created virtual worlds for paying customers to act out their fantasies. Patrick McGoohan was the creator of a British Sci-Fi television series about a man who is transported to a fake village where nothing is as it appears.