So many thoughts:
I can’t keep up, and even if I could I’m not so sure that clinging to them all will serve the long term view.
Of course they come.
The monkey mind will have its day or night; and you will learn the ritual despite everything in your being screaming out, “Don’t be a joiner! It’s a club! Used for beating somebody!”
And then I think we’ll just see about that.
But you don’t really want to “kill” thought. It’s not nihilistic at all. There’s no end because there’s no beginning. No stop because there’s nothing to start.
So at the risk of coining a well-hurled phrase (LOL), if we stop taking care of “business”, i.e., busy-ness, is what remains simply our is-y ness? Our your my their his her “izness”?
Why on earth would you think so?
Just asking for a friend. Don’t worry he’s imaginary. He’s running an underground lab-lair breeding open minded liberal compassionate people.
He’s got a theory, you know. Here it is:
Nisargadatta Maharaj said life is a river. A wide river with a decent current.
Of course it has two banks. One side is Pleasure. The other side is Pain.
(he also suggested that desire is the memory of pleasure and fear is the memory of pain a quite intriguingly lovely idea but perhaps off topic here LOL)
If you go with the current you may taste a little of each side while maintaining an equilibrium in the energetic forward movement of life.
All seems well. You’re healthy and happy. Any friends you meet along the way are in the streambed (to get a little Celtic lol) with you and you inspire each other. Inspire, love, create, work, teach, learn, sing, dance, hop, paint, build, heal, help, protect, serve, defend, improve, and all that too, in its time and place which if you’re really on top of it is always here and now isn’t it?
You wonder sometimes when you start writing these things just exactly where you think it’s gonna go. I mean there’s an idea: a kernel of a thought triggered by a passing statement, something you read or heard in a conversation on TV, in person, in your ear or just in your head. And that idea either does or doesn’t gain momentum. It’s like that biblical parable isn’t it? Ideas are like seeds thrown out to sprout. Believe or not some folks used to grow food that way. I’ve seen it. Hell, I’ve done it. Point is: some of the soil they land on is better for those seed than others. The danger comes when you start thinking about the benefits to one particular kind of seed versus another. And consider this: different seeds actually require different kinds of soil. Some thrive in rocky, crowded, or difficult environments. The harshest conditions can produce the finest olives, grapes, living things, physical wonders, fascinating overflowing and seemingly limitless humanity.
Which raises the question, doesn’t it?
Is there a limit to humanity?
Should there be?
Now of course I feel a little like Arlo Guthrie because I didn’t come all this way just to talk about all that.
We’re gathered here because I wanted to talk about this:
I’d like to consider revising the definition of “sane”.
And using it more clinically to prevent people from harming themselves or others in service to themselves. I think you may know where I’m coming from on this one. If not, well, it’s been nice knowing you. Enjoy the ride. Don’t say you haven’t been warned. LOL. You know, there is a certain amount of vanity in rambling on like this with no determinate end point purpose direction velocity or any of that techie talk.
Any who doesn’t have
Empathy
Should be discouraged of course in the kindest way possible (isn’t that just the way to describe the bulk of human history in a nutshell) to refrain from participating and/or responsibility for in any of the following:
Children, animals, nature, safety, health, law, government, religion
Other occupations? YMMV.
The REAL question is who decides how much empathy is enough? Will there be, as Jello Biafra predicted, a squad of “suede denim secret police”?
Is that what we’re afraid AI really is?
Are we right?
26 Sep 2026
© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.
