August 31st report from the field: 

Here I am today on my birthday ... in the heart of New Jersey.

You might want to know, I used to live in Arizona. There, there's a Taco stand on just about every corner. Here, in "Joyzee" that would be ... a Pizza Parlor on every corner.

On my birthday I chose to treat myself to Pizza. Make that a righteous, oily cheesy New Jersey style Pepperoni Pizza. 

At one of our go-to's Ritacco's in Nutley, New Jersey.

I don't think it gets any more Italian in New Jersey than that great Pizzeria.

But, this is not a restaurant review. The food's great. Alright? Check out the "Monster" 20" pie. 

So, here it is:

Seems a friend of mine has recently come out. [Got you! Not what you thought I was talking about, was it?] Come out ... on the question of how to eat a slice of Pizza. 

Seems the gentleman insists that any proper human being eats one's slice with the kind of respect and dignity only two hands can confer. 

His wife, I believe, is of the fold-your-slice persuasion. I do hope they can work their differences out. Time is the great healer. And, as I myself have learned, one learns to adjust to the lady's way of thinking.

Me? I have to say, even with the prospect of my friend's disapproval lurking in the forefront of my consciousness, I am of the fold-it type. Hey, it's a Pizza! I can get it about two hands if it's a Blini Beluga Canapé. But, to me, as wonderful as it is, Pizza is a casual eating experience. My friend will argue that it being casual is no excuse for lowering your standards.

De Gustibus non est disputandem. That should settle it. That phrase is, after all, from the Italians. Classical as it may be. Here in New Jersey the Italians have the Pizza eating rules down.

Witness the bro's reactions to my eating with two hands. Lucky to have gotten out of there in one piece. And, I don't mean piece of Pizza. Which, by the way, we took three pieces home for later.

  

(That is NOT my tongue! So ... no comments!)

Paramahansa Yogananda on Healing

A genuine smile distributes the cosmic current, prana, to every body cell. The happy man is less subject to disease, for happiness actually attracts into the body a greater supply of the universal life energy.

Disease is generally considered a result of external material causes. Few people realize that it comes through the inaction of the Life Force within. Medicine, massage and electricity merely help to stimulate the cells in such a way that the Life Energy is induced to return and resume its work of maintenance and repair.

All methods of healing are really indirect ways of rousing the life energy, which is the true and direct healer of all diseases.

Absolute, unquestioning faith in God is the greatest method of instantaneous healing.

To know God is the most important way to heal all disease--physical, mental, spiritual. As darkness cannot remain where light is, so also the darkness of disease is driven away by the light of God's perfect presence when it enters the body.

When modern science will discover how to go deep into the subtle electromagnetic constitution of man, it will be able to correct almost any medical condition in ways that would seem almost miraculous today. In the future, healing will be effected more and more by use of various types of light rays. Light is what we are made of—not gross physical light, but the finer spiritualized light of prana, intelligent life energy. That light is the real essence of everything. This earth is not "earth" as you see it; it is light. But you cannot perceive that until you know the underlying astral world.

There are three kinds of sickness: physical, mental, and spiritual. Physical sickness is due to different forms of toxic conditions, infectious diseases, and accidents. Mental sickness is caused by fear, worry, anger, and similar emotional inharmonies. Soul sickness is due to man's ignorance of his true relationship with God.

Ignorance is the supreme disease. When one banishes ignorance he has also banished the causes of all physical, mental, and spiritual disease.

Never allow your mind to entertain thoughts of illness or limitation; you will see your body change for the better. Remember that mind is the power that is creating this body and if the mind is weak, the body becomes weak. Don't grieve or worry about anything. (s)

Obedience to God's physical laws is the method for avoiding bodily ills.

Do not overeat. Most persons die as a result of greediness and of ignorance of right dietary habits. Obey God's laws of hygiene. The hygiene of keeping the mind pure is superior to physical hygiene. ...

Prevent hardening of the arteries by proper diet.

Save the heart from overwork; fear and anger overtax it. Give rest to the heart by the Self-Realization method, and cultivate a peaceful attitude of mind.

What Am I ... Chopped Liver?

Toward a further discrimination between things ...

In some sense many (most? ... all?) facts are just opinions. Ones we all agree upon. No necessity to it. Just a consensus. Just not to take what the majority of people hold to be true as a fact. May be. But, not because the majority agrees. 

Like when Larry Wilmore on his last episode of The Nightly Show answered the question about why the image of the world map featured as a backdrop on the show was upside down. He explained that the world map that we usually see is an opinion. And, his treatment, just to give notice that there happen to be other opinions.

So next time you put something or someone down using that "It's just YOUR opinion" gambit take a little time to back up and see the opinion that you are sitting with for you to justify saying that.

 

To all you well-intentioned do-gooders and positive change and difference makers ...

Please. By all means. Do whatever it is you're going to do. What will be will be. Including your efforts to change it. 

But, you might want to consider just who is doing what to whom ... and for whom. 

It seems the God's acceptance is so all encompassing the it includes the limits of acceptance his creatures place upon his creation. Not without consequence though. 

You might want to first dismantle the false structures within yourself out of which you project a world of confusion, fear, hate, and violence. Then you can see things as they are, and, then act with a pure heart. My point is that until you clean the lens of your own perception how will you know that what you are so ardently trying to fix or bring into being is not further mucking things up owing to the unconscious patterns of mind and body which operate under your own awareness. Blind leading the blind, is a good way to put it.

As Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj has so succinctly said concerning being of help: "First get yourself out of need for help. To help others, one must be beyond the need of help. Devotion to your goal makes you live a clean and orderly life, given to search for truth and to helping people, and realization makes noble virtue easy and spontaneous, by removing for good the obstacles in the shape of desires and fears and wrong ideas."

Carl Jung, on the same subject: “A man who is unconscious of himself acts in a blind, instinctive way and is in addition fooled by all the illusions that arise when he sees everything that he is not conscious of in himself coming to meet him from outside as projections upon his neighbour.”

On Human Evolution

Never mind how hard it is to read, it may be even more difficult to grock the implications of this simple message for your health, performance, and creativity.

Getting your body is such balance takes doing. It's easy, really. Professionally I offer personalized assistance. But, only if you want.

Also, it's a life lesson. Be sure the kids are clued in.

NSFW ...

What's the Deal with BIG BUTTS?

If you are at all prudish, please get over it. Then read on ...

The deal with a big butt is twofold. No pun intended. 

First, there's the obvious attention grabbing aspect of the mere appearance. Some, in my opinion, have taken the aesthetic to entirely over the top, ridiculous levels. But, why would I quibble with God, what Who made them anyway?

In the case of the lovely Amber Rose, as you can see below, that thing need steps.

The second, more practical aspect, as any regular dude will tell you is ... in the sack. If she got a bony ass, you be needing a pillow to make the geometry work; in the classic position, that is. That big butt provides the necessary lift for making the all important connection of the nasties. Pretty much all you need to know on that subject.

Really!

THE ANTHORA CUP

THE ANTHORA CUP

Coffee just taste better in that cup!

From: I'M STILL SO NYC / Facebook

"This is a New York City coffee cup. It is called the anthora cup.This has been a classic since the early 1960s. It was designed in 1963 by Leslie buck to appeal to more Greek owned coffee businesses. On one side it has the greek amphora and on the other side the " we are happy to serve you" inscription. Many other companies have since copied it's designed and it has even reached 500 million in sales. Making it perhaps the most successful cup in the world.....

"It also has been featured in many movies and TV shows. SVU, Law and order, castle, white collar, men in black even the daredevil series. Talk about a famous cup huh??? Lol."

@MEN — @WOMEN

There's probably more written about the relationship between the sexes than any other topic. And, the differences. Sounds right, huh? Who knows. Maybe. It hunts. Let that not stop me from Wrambling a bit about it anyway.

It seems there is a difference in fact between men and women. Did you notice that too? Kind of like the question, how do you tell a male chromosome from a female chromosome? Answer: you pull down their genes. Of course, nowadays, who knows what's going on down there.

[See what I did just then. That's me "wrambling". It's a thing, you know. Stylistically. Not too many practitioners of the trade. Thanks Gott im Himmel! Right?]

Well there's the men. We're the romantics. We develop a picture of an idealized woman in fantasy along the way as we grow up. In fantasy. No doubt, a good bit of mom gets in the mix. Maybe some impressions from other social environs; the family, the media, that MILF next door. When we actually do meet the one who we imagine matches our fantasy, we — as it is referred to —fall in love. Perforce. Karmic necessity. 

But then, as the passage of time will do, we discover the small and large ways the actuality of her doesn't match that fantasy we projected upon the lovely lass. If you are a movie star, naturally you get a divorce. If you are a good Catholic, you slog on. If you are a Yogi, well then you can use the dissonance between the fantasy and reality as a blessing to transcend the whole business of looking for happiness in the wrong place in the first place. You do know by now that there is no happiness in the world, as such. You can indeed be happy in the world, but not because of anything in the world. It's simply our birthright. No need to go and pursue. Despite that phrase the Founders coined. 

The women. They are practical. They too have an idealized man in fantasy. Probably a lot like dear old dad. The difference with women is that they see how that poor schlub who keeps coming around actually does fail to measure up. So, they settle. Every so often Mr. Right shows up. But, just like it is for men, the reality sets in pretty fast.

If you are a man in a relationship with a woman, you better believe that somewhere in that mysterious psyche there's that White Knight in the proverbial shining armor in there, in her "special place" in her heart. Again, if you are a movie star, you split as soon as something better comes along. Maybe not the Fantasy 10 Powerball guy, but better. That'll do. If you are a Yogini, you use that inner dissonance to transcend the whole enterprise of looking for happiness where it ain't. Like I previously said. Do I have to repeat myself? 

The interesting surprise is that when you truly accept the way things are, and the way you have it, and all the other permutations on that idea, you discover that the one you're with is in fact ... The One.