Never boring
“There is one thing about the inner world, about the inner journey, that is incredibly fascinating; it is never the same. We are changing, and this landscape inside is infinite. A little bit of a turn, and you see something completely different. The word ‘boring’ does not apply to the world within; never is it boring.”
–Prem Rawat
Happy holidays!
Kira and Nava with Santa
A Short List of Odd But True Things
1. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
2. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
3. The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses. No one
in Greece has memorized all 158 verses.
4. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
5. The average secretary’s left hand does 56% of the typing.
6. A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
7. There are more chickens than people in the world.
8. Two-thirds of the world’s eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
9. The longest one-syllable word in the English language is
“screeched.”
10. On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the
Parliament Building is an American flag.
11. All of the clocks in the movie Pulp Fiction are stuck on 4:20.
12. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange,
silver or purple.
13 “Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt.”
14. All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial
on the back of the $5.00 bill
15. Almonds are members of the peach family.
16. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room during a dance.
17. Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
18. There are only four words in the English language which end in
“-dous”: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
19. Los Angeles’s full name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la
Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula.” And can be abbreviated to
3.63% of its size, “LA”
20. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
21. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than it’s brain.
22. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
23. In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time
displayed on a watch is 10:10.
24. Al Capone’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
25. The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross.
26. When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at
home, the stadium becomes the state’s third largest city.
27. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named
after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s
“It’s A Wonderful Life”
28. A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
29. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
30. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
31. On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper
left-hand corner of the “1″ encased in the “shield” and a spider
hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.
32. It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
33. The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
34. In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
35. The name for Oz in the “Wizard of Oz” was thought up when
the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw
A-N, and O-Z, hence “Oz.”
36. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by
a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
37. John Lennon’s first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.
38. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
Look At a City
I wrote this poem while I was asleep. (No kidding)
Look at a city
with all its
human complexity.
Then look at
snowflakes falling,
all so
intricate.
Now watch
the city melt
in the warmth
of your hand.
Clear Vision
“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” —-Carl Jung
How Can Your Hand, So Little
How did you get the stars
which
yesterday hung-up
in a loose night sky,
reclusive, remote, removed,
today
to join
in constellations?
How did you get the humid wind
that last night
carried only mosquitoes
to leave its rain outdoors
and breeze its way
past curtains and cradle
just to butterfly
your skin with kisses?
How can your body,
so tiny,
fill up
so much of our house?
And with muscles too weak
to hold up your own head
make an ocean-liner wake
I will follow
the rest of my life?
How can your hand,
so little,
hold
so much
of me?
(written 9/10/97, for my daughter, Kaia)
Time Carnivorous
Time carnivorous never ceases licking lips,
Biting away at me
it rips
me off
bit by bit,
thought by thought,
in chore and bore.
Tomorrow slithers by,
drooling over today’s mistakes,
gorging on yesterday’s ideals.
Feeding in frenzy
sucking sweet seconds
milking my marrow.
If I don’t watch it,
it’ll gut me.
If I do,
it’ll drain me.
Now
I’m telling time:
“Go swallow your own tail
and get off mine!”
Once and for all,
As far as time goes,
one thing
(alone)
I know:
when it comes to my heart,
the clock stops here.
My dad, age 16
Paul Roman, aka Paul Rosenfeld
Willa wagging
Willa, our kitty!
Hang on
“There is something that keeps happening in my good days and in my bad days. All the things that I call good or bad are irrelevant to the fact that something else is going on. The coming and going of this breath is automatic, and due to this magnificent thing, I am alive. All the complicated will one day go away. So will you. The challenge seems to be to find the simple and hang onto it for dear life while you are alive.” —Prem Rawat
