When I was young my father said to me:
“Knowledge is Power….Francis Bacon”
I understood it as “Knowledge is power, France is Bacon”.
For more than a decade I wondered over the meaning of the second part and what was the surreal linkage between the two? If I said the quote to someone, “Knowledge is power, France is Bacon” they nodded knowingly. Or someone might say, “Knowledge is power” and I’d finish the quote “France is Bacon” and they wouldn’t look at me like I’d said something very odd but thoughtfully agree. I did ask a teacher what did “Knowledge is power, France is bacon” meant and got a full 10 minute explanation of the Knowledge is power bit but nothing on “France is bacon”. When I prompted further explanation by saying “France is Bacon?” in a questioning tone I just got a “yes”. at 12 I didn’t have the confidence to press it further. I just accepted it as something I’d never understand.
It wasn’t until years later I saw it written down that the penny dropped.
“Knowledge is Power….Francis Bacon”
I understood it as “Knowledge is power, France is Bacon”.
For more than a decade I wondered over the meaning of the second part and what was the surreal linkage between the two? If I said the quote to someone, “Knowledge is power, France is Bacon” they nodded knowingly. Or someone might say, “Knowledge is power” and I’d finish the quote “France is Bacon” and they wouldn’t look at me like I’d said something very odd but thoughtfully agree. I did ask a teacher what did “Knowledge is power, France is bacon” meant and got a full 10 minute explanation of the Knowledge is power bit but nothing on “France is bacon”. When I prompted further explanation by saying “France is Bacon?” in a questioning tone I just got a “yes”. at 12 I didn’t have the confidence to press it further. I just accepted it as something I’d never understand.
It wasn’t until years later I saw it written down that the penny dropped.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Maybeshewill — Not For Want Of Trying
Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth. Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere that seems to know what to do and there’s no end to it! We know the air is unfit to breathe, our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be. We know things are bad. Worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in a house as slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller and all we say is, “Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster, and my TV, and my steel belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.” Well I’m not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad!
I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot. I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crimes in the streets. All I know is first you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, “I’m a human being, god damn it! My life has value!” So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out, and yell, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
➜ Want to know something cool, that 90% of you wont believe?
Someone mentioned PostSecret, and it reminded me of something that I generally don’t tell people, because as I said, most wont believe it.
But a long time ago, my mother and my grandmother and I were flying home from the Bahamas. Before we got on this plane, I grabbed a quick bite to eat at a…
Soft kitty, warm kitty,
Little ball of fur,
Happy kitty, sleepy kitty,
Purr purr purr.
Buy it here.
In pictures I’m always happy
I’m a really mediocre person. Almost like anyone else. I’m not too handsome but you wouldn’t call me that ugly either. I think I’m pretty funny most of the times but I can also be a really serious person. Sometimes I have these really deep thoughts where I question life and the world around me and I feel sad.
To be honest I actually feel sad a lot of the time. There are just all these sad things around. They make me wonder and when I wonder I just feel this sadness roll over me. Even when I’m with my friends and we’re laughing and having a drink. They look so happy and the whole situation feels like heaven.
Then I start to think that this won’t last forever. In a couple of hours I will go home and the moment will be gone. Or two friends of mine (who have a relationship) will start to fight and the moment will be ruined. And my friends will eventually leave me, or at least we stop seeing each other, or one of them could die or something. There are just all these possibilities which ends in me being alone and they make me sad.
But I never show my inside and I always smile and joke. I make my friends laugh and never ever tell them how I really feel. Because telling them might make them leave me sooner, because they think I’m this big whiny loser. So I don’t tell and they think I’m great and love me very much. I just feel like I’m lying to them. They really don’t even know me and that is a terrible thing. Because I really think I’m an okay person to be around.
When I’m sad I go and do other things and most of the time that means I will go and take pictures of me and my friends. It takes my mind of things and in pictures I’m always happy.
I have decided that maybe I want to write when I grow up. I just don’t know what I would write.
— The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Sisters! Brothers! Small boats of fire are falling from the sky!
