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Friday, April 15, 2016

M IS FOR ... NOT MOTHER!

"The impression forces itself upon one that men measure by false standards, that everyone seeks power, success, riches for himself, and admires others who attain them, while undervaluing the truly precious things in life."
 - Sigmund Freud

Freud was back to white hair and beard again.  My eyes were in danger of getting whip-lash.

He sighed as if almost afraid of asking, "It is time to free associate the letter M ...."

Mark Twain cried, 
"Please don't say 'Mother!'  

The last time this Saw-Brains talked to me of 'Mother,' I almost washed out my ears with boiling pitch!"

Twain lit his cigar.  
"My own mother had a great deal of trouble with me ... but I think she enjoyed it.  

Why, I remember her telling a neighbor who was fearful for me to swim in the lake, 'A boy destined to hang has no need to fear the water'."

Freud groaned, "I have no desire to hear you free associate the letter M, Twain!"

To spare both Mark and Freud, I said, "I was going to say 'Money.'  It is Tax Day after all."

Mark grimaced, 

"By popular custom at this time of year, millions of United States citizens pause only long enough from biting pencil stubs and fingernails to curse this day."

Freud shrugged, "Money is but emotional currency."

Mark gruffed, "Tell that to the pilgrim that can't pay the rent ... or his taxes."

He ground out his cigar.  
"I shall never use profanity except in discussing house rent and taxes. 

Indeed, upon second thought, I will not even use it then, for it is unchristian, inelegant, and degrading--

though to speak truly I do not see how house rent and taxes are going to be discussed worth a cent without it."

Feud nodded,
"The lack of money surely aggravates the flaws of society. Who knows what enough money might make of a man?"

I quoted Ophelia from Hamlet. '"We know what we are but not what we may be.'"

 Mark groused, 
"Roland, sometimes you make my brain hurt."

I quoted Emily Dickinson, "The brain is wider than the sky."

Freud studied me. 
"We are so made, that we can only derive intense enjoyment from a contrast and only very little from a state of things."

Mark Twain said, "Suddenly, I am very afraid.  I think I understood that." 

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23 comments:

  1. "A boy destined to be hanged..." That's a really, really excellent line!!!

    #AtoZchallenge
    Meet My Imaginary Friends

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    1. Thanks, Kathleen. That was an actual quote from Mark Twain -- he really did have a rocky relationship with his mother which I show in the first chapter of DEATH IN THE HOUSE OF LIFE. :-)

      I was beginning to think no one liked me anymore. :-( Thanks for the comment to let me know I was not playing to an empty house!

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  2. Emily had it right. Perhaps she was a Buddhist in disguise. The quote from Freud at the top of the page is so true. (Did he actually get something right?) :D

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    1. Scary that Freud finally got something right, huh? :-)

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  3. This time I don't agree with Freud that we can only derive intense enjoyment from a contrast... :)

    Susan A Eames from
    Travel, Fiction and Photos

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    1. Things that go on for too long even if positive can become old hat to so many I guess. :-)

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  4. And you've nailed the biggest problem with intellectual exchange. At some point you do begin to understand or you think you do, and I'm not sure which is the more dangerous.

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    1. Thinking you understand can become the biggest obstacle to knowing more, right?

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  5. Fascinating read. Thanks for sharing.

    https://ficklemillennial.wordpress.com

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    1. I tried to make my posts stimulating and fun. Thanks for appreciating this one!

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  6. I was immediately drawn into your story. Great work. Made me smile!

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    1. Your comment made ME smile, too. Mark Twain took all the credit of course! :-)

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  7. Rent and Taxes, two necessaries that wealthy people tend to avoid - as in all the sheltering of wealth in offshore accounts that has recently been leaked. The wealthy should not have this option, and the companies pushing clients to avoid taxes should be fined. Greed rears its ugly head in many places.

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    1. The wealthy eventually view the poor as inferior sadly. :-(

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  8. Your posts disappeared from my blog roll, remedied. I did not know you were doing the A to Z. Tax day maybe, but I do mine in Jan/Feb don't want the thieves to get to it first. LOL

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    1. Yolanda, I disappeared from your blog roll? Obviously the work of cyber-poltergeists!

      Yes, I don't want the government to have more of my money longer than I can arrange!

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  9. Roland, it is 1013 pm my time and I've tried all day to comment here. There are a few blogs that I can no longer get a comment box easily. I'm trying to find out why, but in the meantime I wanted you to know that I am not ignoring you. 😊 I love Twain but I should, right being from MO? And he's saucey like my dad, who kind of looks like him. P.s. I gave up on my Mac and finally picked up the IPAD and I found a comment box.

    Signed, Distress from Missouri.

    What would Mark Twain say about my Tech problems?

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    1. I am flattered that you worked so hard to comment. That means a lot to me.

      In a letter to J. H. Twichell, 3/14/1905, Mark Twain wrote:

      "The materialities were not invented in the interest of righteousness!"

      Sometimes the regress of progress (as in the latest of cyber inventions) make me want to swear like Twain!

      The ghost of Mark Twain approves of your father's sauciness.

      I am glad I decided to check my blog before I turned in. :-)

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  10. Sorry that I rambled, but that is how I roll.

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  11. Love these conversations, Roland. And because it's tax time I thought of Einstein who once tried to do his own taxes but gave up because "This doesn't take a mathematician, it takes a philosopher."

    But then you probably already knew this quote.

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    1. Actually, I didn't! Thank you so much for giving it to me. :-) Yes, tax time is not my favorite time of year!!! :-)

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  12. Hi Roland - taxes the bane of our lives ... you've got some great comments here .. love Emily Dickinson's quote ... Mothers understand us - probably because they are us and reach back into our history ... some develop and take advantage of their life pushing on always ... cheers Hilary

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    1. Yes, I am a big Emily Dickinson fan. :-) And good mothers shape us into the kind of souls the world needs, right?

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