Heart on a tether - Lonely Road

One of the reasons that Mark Heard's songs are so dear to me is that they continue to be a wellspring of meditation, challenge, and inspiration. Here's one of the best examples I can think of:

A Broken Man - Mark Heard
listen

1.Sun come up like a yellow bus
Tracking over the oceans of dust
One day's miracle is another day's rut
But day keeps breaking like it always does

I'm not a loner, no sack-cloth and ashes
Just a heart on a tether with a vagabond min
But this will be a broken man
Come shivering out of his wintertime [Chorus]

[Chorus]
I'm a broken man, a broken man
Outcast on the outskirts of the promised land
A broken man
A broken man
A broken man

2. I have faltered in my strength
I have wanted to do everything right
I swallow hard while the second hand blinks
Shut the back door to keep out the night

Is it just a game? Is this a maze
To lead me right back where I started from?
This will be a broken man
Come shattered from this marathon [Chorus]

3.Maybe I fear the crush of guilt
I can't take that kind of weight
Maybe I'm afraid when the thunder breaks
Scared of losing the things I love so much

I pretend I ain't scared
I ain't frightened by no third degree
But this will be a broken man
Come begging for your charity [Chorus]

listen
(yes that is a hammered dulcimer that you hear once in a while)

More Happy Feet

What would it have been like walking to the store with one of these people when they were only 3 years old? Each trip an adventure...that took forever. (Notice they don't go very far, but they make a lot of noise.)

Goggle Man

Mark will love me for posting this picture. He will hate this later on - oh, around his wedding day.

He's got his goggles on. And he remembered his sword and shield. He forgot his cape - and, well, most everything else.

Was I like this when I was 3?

Sasquatch Sighting

... this one comes in Mild. Thank goodness for that.

We found this monkey in Zumbrota, MN.


hat tip-Johanna. (now I gotta find myself a hat!)

Would you trust this man...with your money?

Way back in 2009 - the year after the stock market collapse - the stock markets had a remarkable recovery year. They were up (according to one index, S&P) over 25%. The person pictured on the right is a fund manager. He solicits funds from people who trust him to manage their money. The idea is that he manages the money so well that the investors get a greater return for having hired him as the manager - greater than just an average selection of stocks. Regrettably, his return for the year was -12.29%. So far in 2010, his fund's returns are in the negative teens % (my sources don't agree). The expenses that an investor pays for hiring him are a paltry 1.50%.

Why pay some else to lose money for you when it could be so much more fun to lose it yourself?

His fund's symbol is PRGRX.

He sure does have a winning smile, though.

More on poor performers of 2009.

Living the High Life or (Borrowing from the kids)

According to this Bloomberg article, Greek pensioners (retired government workers) receive about 96% of the salary they did when they were working.

Nice if you can get it. Something seems terribly out-of-wack with that setup.

No doubt it is legal. One can legalize theft and call it "right", but laws don't make things right or wrong. Piling up debt and obligations for others to pay only makes sense to me in a very few instances (like infrastructure projects). But what consequence is there (other than the scorn from those left holding the bill)?

Maybe the volume should be turned up on the scorn.

Clear - like Clarity

(Warning: Politics)

Dennis Prager is a radio talker out of L.A. He is a thinker, and he thinks about all sorts of things. I especially like that he takes an hour a week (every week) to talk about the subject of Happiness. (Just typing that makes me smile.) He also has an Ultimate Issues hour and a Male/Female hour. While I don't get to listen as much as I've been able to in the past (I'm more employed now), I still get a chance now and then to glean from his insightful talks.

Here's part of a speech he gave in Denver.

Hooligans

It used to be that soccer brought out the worst in people who loved their sports teams. It's not the only sport, however, that brings this out.

The recent victory in basketball of the LA Lakers saw wild celebrations like the one in the video.

While I simply don't understand the celebratory nature of the festivities depicted I do understand that people could get hurt and in serious trouble for doing what they did. Shooting off machine guns into the air is another kind of celebration in another part of the world I don't understand. What goes up, must also come down - and countless people have been 'shot' (what goes up must also come down) by the same bullets used to express joy at a victory or an enemy's downfall.

Why do people do this? What does it tell us about ourselves?