Large Fierce Mammal

Driftwood by Adam Oehlers (2017) — Brought to my attention by the Esteemed Master At Arms James Albert Keating

If I were to sum up application of my billable skills in one easy to digest term, it would be “professional troubleshooter”. In general, this means Mrs. LFM and I solve the problems of other people for a living.

What typically motivates someone to pick up their phone and dial us, or equally as common send an email, is loss of stability in the realms of safety and security that may be demonstrably real or simply perceived to the degree where it’s become the same thing for them.

As I write to you on this first calendar day of the year 2021, you will not be surprised to learn that the twelve months just expired were the busiest in the 40 years since I first exposed my ass shingle to the brisk and inconsiderate winds of fate, and I am pleased to report that even that percentage of our clientele who learned to their chagrin that they, or those acting under their guidance, were the common thread in all their misfortunes, paid our fee absent encouragement. This, even if in their heart of hearts they never wanted to lay eyes on us again.

The situations we are called to consult on inevitably affect people, but with amazing regularity come in two flavours:

1. They have a technical; i. e., scientifically identifiable source and path to correction or implementation; that may not have found its origins or perpetuation in human involvement; OR
2. Every aspect of the problem has grown out of, and been perpetuated by, people.

With this in mind, I will leave you today with a little pro bono advice:

1. Beware and eschew misleading vividness.
2. Don’t let your apophenia run away with you.
3. Accept no unfiltered eyewitness testimony, especially when it comes from officialdom, and most particularly when the official is you.
4. When you discover a bomb, don’t assume it’s the only one in the place.
5. When someone suddenly demands your attention and wants you to “look over there”, “there” is not where you should look.

For those of you who survive the next few weeks, I will be elaborating on each of those points, and in whatever order I see fit. As you will come to understand, even if not particularly like, every moment of this year, and that you may ever come to have in or beyond any mark on a calendar, will quite literally be what you make of it.

And as to the stern admonishment that is the title of this particular brain dropping, viewing a new year as a chance for a fresh start is low resolution thinking indeed when, in fact, every moment is — including this one.

Happy New Year.

On this date last year I treated you to a Christmas ghost story, The Shepherd,  written by Frederick Forsyth as a Christmas gift for his wife, Carrie.

“‘The Shepherd’ is set on the Christmas Eve of 1957, at which time I would have been eight months plus a day upon the Earth, snug as a bug in a rug far away from the fictional runway in Germany from which our 20 year old hero is about to launch his de Havilland Vampire into the night on a routine flight to spend the holidays with family in England. Along the way, Murphy’s Law, unfortunate weather, serendipity, and the timely assistance of a de Havilland Mosquito converge.” ~ A Long Winter’s Night — 2019 Edition Day 5: The Shepherd

This year I’m going to continue the tradition with another offering of Human travail in the face of every portent doom can provide. Tonight I offer Christmas at Sea written by Robert Louise Stevenson, and as presented by the YouTube channel Way of the World. (more…)

“Hands up!” (1912) by Will Crawford. Original from Library of Congress.

My message for this Christmas Eve comes from the perspective of my 17 years as a police and fire dispatcher, taking the reports and facilitating the arrests of belligerent half wits who can’t stand the sight of each other at any other time, but who annually, and if temporarily experiencing the convenience of being out of jail, feel the compulsion to assemble in a volatile mixture of sibling hatred, testosterone, alcohol, recreational pharmaceuticals, hot chip fat forgotten on the stove, candles, and one or two of their dysfunctional geriatric parents, because somehow, this time the magic of Christmas will make it all different.

The Gift of Choice

By LFM

Each Christmas Eve throughout the land
Goode Santa comes with bag in hand,
Inside it gifts rewarding good,
And all that’s sweet in childhood.

And also there, though seldom seen’s,
His penalty for being mean.
A darkling lump of anthracite
For those imbued with bile and spite.

Yet each year on his next return,
Olde Santa finds some never learn,
And so for those he changes gears —
A binding choice for future years.

So hearken to the coal’s demand
Or meet what fills his other hand.
Learn bugger all from coal in stocking,
And hear his big revolver cocking.

Choose what’s in the bag or gun,
Two choices and no other one.
Don’t try to claim it isn’t fair,
Your time is up, he doesn’t care.

Tearful lies that sound sincere
May work in court but never here.
Try to waft that bullshit smell
And Santa blows your soul to Hell.

V2 rocket damage in southwest England. Source: Getty Images

On our last Long Winter’s Night I spoke of the role “position” can play in meeting the onset of hardship, and staying functional as its challenges unfold. Today we’ll expand on that and look at a 20th century historical comparison. One of two we’ll be talking about this season.

History is rife with massive social upheavals of both man-made and Natural cause, and outcomes having far more to do with the the coping mechanisms brought to bear by the common man than the commandments of any sovereign or elected official. While it is said that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, one of those coping mechanisms I refer to is a determining factor in making that happen. You see, coping continues through and beyond the upheaval until the return of something resembling stability permits acceptance of the new reality, and the tentative daring of hope for its improvement. Among those who shared the experience, little needs to be said, if it even can be said, and subsequent generations may thereby become progressively more detached from its grim realities in the spirit of being spared it. (more…)

Source: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.896051!/image/youarehere.jpg

Position (Oxford Languages)
verb
gerund or present participle: positioning

• put or arrange (someone or something) in a particular place or way.
• promote (a product, service, or business) within a particular sector of a market, or as the fulfillment of that sector’s specific requirements.
• portray or regard (someone) as a particular type of person.

You may have noticed, and quite possibly been reminded recently, that life is not always smooth sailing. If you are the sort to pay attention to such things you’ll have also noticed this — (more…)

Yes I know we’re missing a few marbles, but you get the drift.

Welcome back thou Goode and Weary Traveller, and well met at our Homely Hearth as we’ve only just thrown on another fine log just for you!

Here in Nova Scotia, the Winter Solstice of 2020 stole in on rain sodden moccasins at 06:02 Atlantic Standard Time this morning, marking the official “first day of winter” with the season’s longest period of darkness at the celestial end of a dark year indeed.

On this day three years ago I wrote:

“Winter in Nova Scotia will arrive at twenty-eight minutes past noon Atlantic Standard Time today when the Solstice heralds the start of the long, slow plod to Spring. For those of us of whatever species who haven’t already migrated or gone into hibernation, this is a time of uncertainty tempered with incipient joy.

“The Black Bear sow impregnated in June will give birth in her den in January, and nurse her offspring in her warmth as the very dead of Winter holds sway outside.

“The pregnant White-Tailed Deer doe who survives the Winter will carry her fawn through the snows to late May or early June.

“As to Human kind, Winter will bring challenges at the end of which the result will lie on a spectrum ranging from the greatest of joys to the gravest of sorrows, and in this it stands as no different from any other aspect of life but for bearing a greater degree of urgency and inexorable deadliness in the face of any vulnerability.

“And so it goes.” ~ A Long Winter’s Night — 2017 Edition: Day 1

Looking back on my comments at the start of previous seasons in the history of this series discloses an interesting yet unsurprising pattern, that being the sky seems to be perpetually falling on someone, somewhere, for some reason. So now, what might appear to distinguish this Long Winter’s Night from all the rest is that this time it’s falling on everyone, everywhere, for the same reason. (more…)

Mind ye now the river’s flowing,
Sift ye out what’s wished from knowing,
Master thee thy come and going,
Trim thy sails, the wind is blowing.

So here’s the lesson you must learn,
To prep thy vessel, stem to stern.
You choose alone what bridges burn,
Then steer her hence, there’s no return.

~ Commitment ~

The swearing of oaths has become so entangled with the affairs of men as to be valueless, afloat as they are in a morass of end user agreements, credit card and loan applications, and court proceedings where swearing to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth is just noise, even to officers of the court and law enforcement.

I have written much over the years about Truth, Honour, Loyalty, and Commitment, and what it means when I use a word with its first letter capitalized. If you come here regularly you will know this, but for those who don’t but should, here are a couple of samples that should help clear up any confusion before we go forward.

First,

“For the children of Nature, once you’ve been given Life, the race is on to keep that upper case “L” in front of it before time runs out ….” ~ Of Cycles and Rhythms

And,

“A Gentleman is not a saint, nor should he aspire to be, and for those among you who would like to believe such an animal no longer exists, if it ever did, please note the upper case “G”. It’s significant, although less so I suppose for those who can be counted among the mean and miserable maggotry that infests the Earth.” ~ An Intervention

Put quite simply then as some last ditch guidance for those who still find the matter clouded in mystery, “… I only capitalize the name of a thing when the reference is to the thing in its entirety ….”, much in the way First Nations peoples use the word “Medicine“:

“In its truest form, the term “medicine” far transcends the very limiting definition of common usage. As employed by the Mi’kmaq, it refers to all the physical and spiritual properties inherent in a thing ….” ~ Medicine Man

Now that we’re all on the same page, let us move on further down it together. (more…)

“It is a pity that there are no big creatures to prey on humanity. If there were enough dragons and rocs, perhaps mankind would turn its might against them. Unfortunately man is preyed upon by microbes, which are too small to be appreciated.” ~ T.H. White, The Book of Merlyn: The Unpublished Conclusion to The Once & Future King

A lovely Dark Sentiment to close out this eleventh season, n’est-ce pas? It remains to be seen if mankind can muster any real combined force of arms in the face of this year’s plague of microscopic dragons and rocs. Yea or nay, and looking on the bright side, most of us are here because in the face of such past joys as 536 AD and the Black Death, our ancestors ended up only mostly dead, which is of course the same as slightly alive. (more…)

“These are fraught times strewn with fears; both the named and nameless. This is nothing new. As in other times past when the barbarians weren’t merely at the gates but dwelt among us, the thinness of the veneer called civilization offers little contest to genesis of a mindless rabble bent on the taking of advantage and the settling of scores, real and imagined.

“In my article titled The Best of Yourself, published here as part of the 2016 edition of my annual A Long Winter’s Night series, I quoted my Esteemed Friend Master At Arms James Keating:

‘Think of your death now. It is at arm’s length. It may tap you any moment, so really you have no time for crappy thoughts and moods. None of us have time for that. The only thing that counts is action, acting instead of talking.

‘Our death is waiting and this very act we’re performing now may well be our last battle on earth. I call it a battle because it is a struggle. Most people move from act to act without any struggle or thought. A hunter, on the contrary, assesses every act; and since he has an intimate knowledge of his death, he proceeds judiciously, as if every act were his last battle. Only a fool would fail to notice the advantage a hunter has over his fellow men. A hunter gives his last battle its due respect. It’s only natural that his last act on earth should be the best of himself ….’ ~ Master At Arms James A. Keating, Hermitage – The Power of Solitude

“The Hunter Jim refers to is a being far transcending the cruelly murderous engine of mayhem that haunts the imaginings of the Disconnected, and of whom I concluded:

‘You don’t get to pick when the fat lady sings, and so as with Jim’s hunter who, ‘… gives his last battle its due respect,’ start treating your every act as your last, so it can Truly be said of you that your last act on earth was the best of yourself.'”

A year or so ago, Jim and I were deep into one of our far too infrequent telephone conversations when the topic of immortality came up. Not surprisingly we both agreed that fearing and hiding from Death is a doomed enterprise in quest of a poor excuse for immortality. Those who would Truly Live do so in full understanding that the fat lady sings for everyone, and as is said, a ship is safe in port but that’s not what ships are for.

Jim and I , and you Goode Reader if you’ve been paying attention, have had people in our lives, now long gone, but who you can feel watching intently every time you are called upon to do something they taught you, and who you would not dishonour by doing any less than exceeding their expectations. In this way is immortality achieved.

Immortality

By LFM

Life is not for living in the future nor the past,
For they are but parentheses containing all thou hast.
However far apart they lie will matter not a jot —
That tiny moment in between called “NOW” is all you’ve got.

Don’t build your life from might have beens nor forecasts dark and bleak,
The past is not for hiding from, the future not the meek,
The NOW is all you have and only YOU can set the bar,
So last your Life’s light shines upon’s the best of all you are.

I intend to live forever lads, or die in the attempt,
And saying that I make no claim my Life is Death exempt.
The NOW’s to seize to bursting with all reasons to rejoice
In Sons who read these words of mine and hear them in my voice.

Welcome back Goode Reader! Having made it thus far in this season of Dark Sentiments, it will come as no surprise to you that the poems I’ve strewn here in the course of the past two days, The Evil That Men Do and Then, are closely related.

The darkness encroaches, many a long Winter’s night lies before us that some won’t see the end of; and he is a meagre creature indeed who trusts outcomes to those forked tongues that wag in lofty halls. If you resemble that remark, here is a little Truth for you — it has always been, and forever will be, thus.

“In 1866, a book was published titled Readings for Young Men, Merchants, and Men of Business. Fortunately for the world, this tome has been unearthed and scanned by Google bringing it back just in time to prove my point.

“This is a world of excuses where everybody needs to have one foot over the safety line and nobody can imagine any reason for ever working without a net. Achievers are looked on not so much as people to be celebrated as they are held in suspicion of rudely flaunting their gifts just to make the less motivated or adept feel bad about themselves. People aren’t responsible for what happens in their lives because it’s always someone else’s fault, and a person’s actions, no matter how vile and base, are reduced to unfortunate manifestations of some ‘syndrome’ or ‘disorder’. The evil that men do has been supplanted by the sicknesses men have, and the unfortunate outcomes of bad choices cannot be spoken aloud lest one be adjudged a blamer of ‘victims’.

“So now, back from the void, comes this, on the subject of ‘ENERGETIC MEN’:

‘We love upright, energetic men. Pull them this way, and then that way, and the other, and they only bend, but never break. Trip them down, and in a trice they are on their feet. Bury them in the mud, and in an hour they will be out and bright. They are not ever yawning away existence, or walking about the world as if they had come into it with only half their soul; you cannot keep them down; you cannot destroy them. But for these the world would soon degenerate. They are the salt of the earth. Who but they start any noble project? They build our cities and rear our manufactories; they whiten the ocean with their sails, and they blacken the heavens with the smoke of their steam-vessels and furnace fires; they draw treasures from the mine; they plow the earth. Blessings on them! Look to them, young men, and take courage; imitate their example; catch the spirit of their energy and enterprise, and you will deserve, and no doubt command, success.’

Bring this forward out of the day when men were thought to be doing most of the moving and shaking, look at the references to blackening the heavens and mining the earth as being what they actually represent; metaphors for the actions of people who will commit themselves passionately to a worthy enterprise, even in the face of ridicule, injury, death, financial ruin, or even, Gods forbid, getting dirty. ~ What You Don’t Know …“

(more…)