BITE ME!

So I just got home from my bi-annual dental cleaning, and feeling kind of giddy.  No, I didn't receive any gas or vicodin or drink heavily before I went there.  Paula, my hygienist, is just the BEST.   She told me today something that no dental professional has ever said to me in my entire life, and this is really saying something, she said 'you are my poster child for cleanings.'  In other words, I'm the patient who is so good and uncomplaining and compliant in the chair, she actually enjoys her work.  Stunning comment for me, a patient who breaks out in a cold sweat just entering the building, and who famously bit Dr. Snow the last time he worked on me, hard, even though I was unaware I even did it, it was just an involuntary instinct.  The sound of that drill transforms me into the 8 year old child I once was, when an evil dentist insisted on drilling my huge cavity-pocked molar without anesthesia, and my mom helped them hold me down.  With Paula's flawless technique and calming demeanor, I really don't mind the cleanings at all anymore, in fact one time she did a deep cleaning where she scraped way down under the gums, and I didn't flinch.  So I think sometimes ordinary people "just doing their jobs" can make a big difference in someone's life.  I appreciate you, Paula, but to Dr. Snow I can only say - barbiturates, bite block, headphones blaring Radiohead, let's just do whatever it takes, because 50 years is apparently not long enough to outgrow certain horrors.  I don't wanna leave a trail of blood from Emerald Hills.

Attraction and aversion are two feelings that keep people within the bondage of ignorant repetitive behavior. Those who seek only what pleases them and try to avoid what displeases them are acting in this way because they do not realize the nature of the world.

For those who know the nature of the world, lack of complete satisfaction or fulfillment in things of the world is in itself advice to cultivate detachment. If people do not crave to be pleased, they will not be displeased. What causes mental suffering is not the environment itself but the mind itself.

--Muso Kosushi (1275-1351)

To study the Way is to study the self.  To study the self is to forget the self.  To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.

Dogen Zengi (1200-1253)

DANGEROUS IDEAS

We were having a discussion about ideologies recently, on someone else’s page – and it got me thinking. I am a total individualist, do not subscribe to anybody’s ideology of politics or religion, I don’t belong to any group of any kind, and I reserve the right to change my views and actions as the world unfolds around me. The good thing about thinking as a group is – sometimes like-minded people can get things done in the world (good or evil). The worst thing is being so rigid in your beliefs that you have zero ability to compromise, even in the smallest details, be open to learning new things, or listen to others’ opinions. Which is more dangerous to society?

JUST SHOOT ME

Today’s Miami shooting report: Police officer shoots man dead after suspect bites his finger; 2 dead after a shootout on I-95; police gun down 3 teenage robbery suspects. But fact is - unless police are involved, or more than 2-3 people are killed, shootings are so ubiquitous - they rarely make the news. It’s not about Miami’s murder rate (we don’t even make the top 20, nationwide); but just the sheer number of shootings, surely somewhat due to Florida’s incredibly slack-ass gun laws. In the past four years, there were 647 shootings just in Miami’s inner city, average of 3 per week. I’m not sure anyone would notice a terror attack in Overtown unless these towel-heads really step it up. Before you hit Miami, mo-fos, listen up, we ain’t shook: WE SHOOT BACK!!!

THE 'BRO'

If women can flaunt their breasts, squeezing them together, pushing them right up into everyone's face, until they're almost popping out of their tank tops, revealing everything right up to the edge of a nipple - why is it wrong for men to display their junk?  I think I’ll invent a new style of pants where men show off their balls with push-up underwire “bros”.  The testicles will peek out through a hole in the pants, so you almost see the penis, but not quite (quite the delicious tease, right?).  I think this new under-garment, which I’ll call “wonder-wear” will be super appropriate not only for the club scene, but also worn with a nice suit.  Oh, and women will be chastised for staring at them, or regarding the guy rocking this look as a "membo".

CHILLAX!
Anybody ever tell you to “calm down”? If so, I think it’s 99% likely that you are a female. Why? Because girls and women are always criticized (by both sexes, it must be pointed out) for talking straight, telling it like is, or even becoming angry. And I say, sometimes non-violent anger can be liberating. Telling someone what you really think, if done diplomatically and professionally, shouldn’t provoke the response, “just calm down”. Men, on the other hand, are encouraged to be up front, and to get pissed off about things. Some people even respect a guy who takes a punch at someone he disagrees with. As long as it’s another guy. I’m not advocating for fist fights, I just don’t understand why if a guy punches a woman, 100% of people think he’s a cad. Women, after all, can’t defend ourselves, in a verbal or physical fight. Well, at least shouldn’t, because if we do, we will be ordered to “calm down”. Or as in Trump’s case, wonder out loud whether the woman is menstruating or not. Surely, it couldn’t just be someone doing her job or defending a personal opinion. What do most women do to avoid the “bitch label”? Come on, you’ve seen it. They internalize, painfully, to the point of letting the stress make them ill. They take out their frustrations in other ways, sometimes destructive ones, instead of engaging an offensive person directly. They lamely apologize (“I’m sorry, but I disagree.”). It’s all based on one thing: Fear. Fear of blowing a relationship, of losing a job, whatever. But most significantly – it’s a fear of not being liked. I say – BITCHES UNITE! Listen to your internal council telling you what’s right, and act on it. If you “lose” someone or something, the extreme upside is an end to fear. Call that person in your life right now who recently told you to “calm down” – and calmly tell them to fuck off.