Edge of the abyss.
Fall in? Fall out? Fall Over?
I know where I am!

A physicist is pulled over for speeding.

“Do you know how fast you were going?” says the cop.

“No,” says the physicist, “but I know where I am.”

A good example of why there is a lack of science humor despite the success of the Big Bang Theory TV show.

An interesting show that ran out of wit in season 2 and added girlfriends and 2 and a half men punch lines.

I am not sure how long could the show could have lasted on just jokes about physics but I digress.

I took the trash out last night and looked up at the moon.

Sky was clear for the first time in a long time.

Moon was a brilliant Waxing Crescent with Venus shining, BLAZING in the sky close by.

I went inside and to get my grand daughter and carried her out in her bare feet to see the show.

I miss Orion down here in the south.

As a kid in Michigan, going out sledding on cold nights in January, Orion filled the sky.

Looking at stars I get nervous that I am standing on the surface of this planet and there is nothing between my head and the moon.

Nothing between my head and Venus.

Nothing between my head and the starts.

The moon is about 238,855 miles away.

Venus is 162 million miles away.

Stars I don’t want to think about.

Thinking this way makes me feel … small.

I remember that film we all watched back along the way somewhere.

So pleases to learn that THAT film is available.

Why am I not surprised that it was created by the Film Board of Canada.

If you haven’t seen it, from a kid rowing in a park a camera zooms away deep into space.

Then the camera stops zooming out and zooms back in and disappears into the cells and atoms of the kid.

It is available on YouTube.

The concept is also made plain in Horton Hear’s a Who by Doc Suess.

You remember, “BOIL THAT DUST SPECK!”

Watching Cosmic Zoom, looking at the moon, who is to say Suess isn’t right?

How does all this fit?

I am reminded of Uncle Albert Einstein’s, “My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality.”

How much of what Uncle Albert ever said was what Uncle Albert really thought.

Is something valuable because of who said it?

Or is the value in the thought expressed?

Humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit.

The little we can comprehend.

Little is the word.

Standing on the surface of this planet.

Out under the moon and planets.

I know where I am.

one haiku a day
three hundred sixty five days
keeps doctor away

WordPress says I have made 365 posts to my blog, No Haiku for You.

When this started, I had no idea I would keep at for a year.

I had no idea how much I would come to enjoy it.

Even look forward to it.

It is how I start my day.

It is how I go through my day.

Ask my wife how many times I hear a phrase or comment and say ‘There is a haiku there.”

I carry a notebook to write these thoughts down.

As I read, I take note of words, combinations of words, use of language and the odd old quote.

Words that show that, “Words of the world are the life of the world,” as I quoted Brendan Gill on Wallace Stevens.

I reproduce, rewrite, repurpose those words and thoughts in 17 syllables.

Are they real Haiku?

Do they follow the rules of Haiku?

Can the rules of Haiku be adhered to using the English Language?

Well, you have me there.

I don’t know.

Seems like I was taught somewhere back in grade school that a haiku was a 5 – 7 – 5 syllable expression of thoughts and that is good enough for me.

If someone reads or comments on my thoughts so much the better.

It has been therapeutic for me regardless.

My psychiatrist.

My confessional.

My outlet.

So there you are.

injured innocence
element of genuine
incomprehension

What?

Who?

Me?

When was compassion removed from this world?

In the Holiday classic, a Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown expresses his feelings over the list of requested items in his little sister’s letter to Santa.

In response, Sally Brown, the little sister, exclaims with injured innocence and an element of genuine incomprehension, “All I want is what I … I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.”

Left unsaid is, “What’s wrong with that?”

Watching the news.

Reading the papers.

Surfing online and seeing intolerance.

Not on your life.

Don’t tread on me!

So many stories and viewpoints are easier to understand when I realize the people in the stories and with the viewpoints are stating their opinions with injured innocence and an element of genuine incomprehension.

Their look, their words, even their posture, says that all they want is their fair share.

What’s wrong with that?

All they may want is their fair share.

But something tells me.

Maybe it’s something I hope.

Maybe it’s something I fear for them.

Maybe it’s something I fear for myself.

I am in that boat with all the people I read about.

And I fear, that they, and I, will get what is coming to us.