¡!¡!¡ 2024 ¡!¡!¡

Happy New Year Judit and everyone!

It's the one day that we can pretend things are going to get better. Before reality sets in again.

Peace to all.

Yes, Mark I'm with you. I love optimism when I can find it, however short-lived.

Happy New Year to Judit, Mark and everyone. Hope it's all good for folks. And I hope our love and strength is strong enough to handle all the shit we know is coming down the pike. 

Did anyone see John Mayer on CNN last night? Loved his dead pan humor - what a riot. And at about the 6:30 mark, some mention of a Dead & Co. reunion. Spoiler alert -  "Have hope."  

Anderson loses it seeing the cats asses in John's face. 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anderson-cooper-laughing-john-mayer-cat-b...

Happy 2024 Zoners!  
Grateful for you.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at live music in the coming months. 

all the things

it's a CATBAR!

https://people.com/anderson-cooper-laughing-fit-john-mayer-joins-new-yea...

This is the year
It all comes together
Or all falls apart

Probably not

But it will still feel 
Like it always does
Like it always does

>>>Remember, I describe myself as a cynical optimist. It works getting from day to day.

me too, and yes, it does.

I hope everyone has more moments of joy and peace in their daily lives this year than last.  Love to all.

Nothin's Gonna Be Alright

By Mose Allison

If life is drivin' you to drink
You sittin' 'round wondr'in' just what to think
Well, I got some consolation. I'll give it to you, if I might
You know I don't worry 'bout a thing, cause I know nothin's gonna be alright

You know this world is just a one big trouble spot
Cause some have plenty and some have not
You know I used to be troubled, but I finally saw the light
Now I don't worry 'bout a thing, cause I know nothin's gonna be alright

Don't waste your time tryin' to be a go getter
Things'll get worse before they get any better
You know there's always somebody playing with dynamite
Now I don't worry 'bout a thing, cause I know nothin's gonna be alright

Don't confuse my point of view with cynicism. The real cynics are the ones who tell you everything is going to be alright."

-- George 

Love this 2D family!  Happy 2024 to all.....

Hoppy New Beer!!!

When Einstein gave lectures at U.S. universities, the recurring question that students asked him most was:

- Do you believe in God?

And he always answered:

- I believe in the God of Spinoza.

Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy, along with Descartes.

(Spinoza) : God would say:

Stop praying.

What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. I want you to sing, have fun and enjoy everything I've made for you.

Stop going into those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and saying they are my house. My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. That's where I live and there I express my love for you.

Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing. Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. So don't blame me for everything they made you believe.

Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. If you can't read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your son's eyes... ➤ you will find me in no book!

Stop asking me "will you tell me how to do my job?" Stop being so scared of me. I do not judge you or criticize you, nor get angry, or bothered. I am pure love.

Stop asking for forgiveness, there's nothing to forgive. If I made you... I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies... free will. How can I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? How can I punish you for being the way you are, if I'm the one who made you? Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity? What kind of god would do that?

Respect your peers and don't do what you don't want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life, that alertness is your guide.

My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step on the way, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing here and now and it is all you need.

I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues, no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.

You are absolutely free to create in your life. Heaven or hell.

I can't tell you if there's anything after this life but I can give you a tip. Live as if there is not. As if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist.

So, if there's nothing after, then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is, rest assured that I won't ask if you behaved right or wrong, I'll ask. Did you like it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?...

Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. I don't want you to believe in me, I want you to believe in you. I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved, when you tuck in your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea.

Stop praising me, what kind of egomaniac God do you think I am?

I'm bored being praised. I'm tired of being thanked. Feeling grateful? Prove it by taking care of yourself, your health, your relationships, the world. Express your joy! That's the way to praise me.

Stop complicating things and repeating as a parakeet what you've been taught about me.

What do you need more miracles for? So many explanations?

The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, that this world is full of wonders.

- Spinoza

^Thanks, Noodler!!!!  How beautiful and direct to the point without  hatefulness for any of the beliefs of organized doctrines of fear-mongering, behavior control for he masses handed down from powerful, egotistical, twisted, sick male chimpanzees from so long ago.  Those words would fit onto one page. Makes me wonder what life would be like here if that was all of humankind's  one page bible.

Einstein might have believed in the god of Spinoza, but what I'm finding is that the above writing that's credited to Spinoza, while interesting and validating in ways, was not written by Spinoza, and doesn't seem to reflect his thinking very well either.

In 1929, Boston's Cardinal O'Connell branded Einstein's theory of relativity as "befogged speculation producing universal doubt about God and His Creation," and as implying "the ghastly apparition of atheism." In alarm, New York's Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein asked Einstein by telegram: "Do you believe in God? Stop. Answer paid 50 words." In his response, for which Einstein needed but twenty-five (German) words, he stated his beliefs succinctly: "I believe in Spinoza's God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind."

https://history.aip.org/exhibits/einstein/essay-einsteins-third-paradise...

What Noodler posted sure seems concerned with the fate and doings of [hu]mankind. In other words, it's just a kinder, gentler version of the personified Christian god.

Thanks for posting this. Whether Spinoza wrote that or not, I agree with it. Humans would definitely be better off if it was our 1 page bible.