Today's first reading:
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill,
and yet to another who has not labored over it,
he must leave property.
This also is vanity and a great misfortune.
For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart
with which he has labored under the sun?
All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation;
even at night his mind is not at rest.
This also is vanity.
You know I thought a lot about vanity while I was sitting there in church. How vain we all are and all the crazy things we are vain about. Our intelligence. Our talent. Our looks. Our probity. Our integrity. Our position in life. Our blog?
I think one of the main components of the big blow up at TOP is vanity. The Evil Blogger Lady is the epitome of vanity. She thought her pearls of wisdom were so great that everyone should bow down to her and worship every peep. Her commenters added nothing. Just background noise and an embarrassment to her when they did not voice the politically correct line. They were bigots. Not decent. Not worthy of her attention or of being on her platform. They would not even pay for the privilege of her thoughts. What fools.
On the other hand many of the commenters were pretty vain. They thought that many if not most came to the site for the comments. The caustic interplay and insights are what made that site. I confess I myself was pretty vain in this regard. So I went over there and picked a fight with them. And now I pick a fight with Leisure Suit Larry at every opportunity. I hate to see his bullshit go unchallenged so I go in guns blazing like Lucas McCain. And for what? Vanity.
Muhammad Ali used to say "It is hard to be humble when you are as great as I am."
It's true it is hard to be humble. To remember that we have a short time on this earth and our time is better spent than in petty disputes with petty people. I search for humility and I always fall short. The wife tells me that I always think I know how to do somebodies job better than them and that I think I know it all. I don't know it all. But I know a lot of shit. And I can tell when I am being bullshitted.
When we talk about stuff I don't know about I keep my mouth shut. If you are talking about repairing and building something I would listen to what Sixty Grit or AllenS had to say and keep my mouth shut because I don't have a clue. It's easy to be humble when don't know anything about the subject.
I have to strive to be humble and let go of my vanity. I get in trouble a lot because I fight other peoples battles. I am pretty self-sufficient and I am not worried about much but when other people get smacked around I have to jump in. I doubt that I am going to stop doing that but I can be a little better at being humble. Let go of my vanity.
The only vanity I want to have to think about it that hot chick that Prince used to bang.
33 comments:
Well said. I am guilty of vanity too (we all are).
And yeah, when it comes to fixing stuff, I listen to Sixty and Allen S.
You're so vain
you prob'ly think this blog is about you
--from "The Song of Althouse"
"Somebodies" should be "somebody's".
I had a vanity, now I have a chiffarobe. Whole country's gonna be put on a payin' basis.
And if you need a tree cut down in Brooklyn, let me know. I'll drop that sucker like a bag of dirt. Or dirt bag. You know who I am talkin' about, too. That fellow whom we can't miss because he won't go away.
Vanity is an ugly cousin to pride, one of the seven deadly sins. So, to varying degrees we all have some vanity as we do the other 6 deadly sins. I'll be guilty of gluttony in a few hours when I make a tomato salad w/ home grown tomatoes and basil. Sop up the vinegar and olive oil w/ some crusty peasant Eyetalian bread w/ a medium rare porterhouse off the grill.
Sixty, the first time I ever heard the term chiffarobe was in To Kill a Mockingbird.
I was bustin' one up. No, wait, that wasn't me.
It was a term I heard growing up.
I liked the way it was used in "O Brother Where Art Thou?"
Chiffarobe, roll top desk - whatever, it's all good.
What does all this vanity talk have to do with the picture of the delectable piece? Does Ecclesiastes write about the guys who bust their hump and cork-off from a premature heart attack all in order to afford the delectable piece mistress? No further questions at this moment.
Man at his best state is altogether vanity.
Ricpic--
Because that's Vanity, born Denise Matthews, and lead singer of Vanity 6, who had the early '80s hit song "Nasty Girl".
She was hooked on crack (not emcee), destroyed her kidneys (she's on dialysis now, I believe) and converted to Christianity in the early '90s after living the hardest of hard rock lives in the '80s.
And, no, I don't know why I know all of this.
Woman, thy name is Vanity.
peritoneal dialysis.
she exchanges fluids something like 5 times a day.
What a mess.
Leisure Suit Larry is getting his ass handed to him by Shouting Thomas and I would love to jump in.
But I am trying to restrain myself.
I typed up the same comment three times and erased it.
Oh for pete's sake. I am sick to death of him. What a persistent and stupid man his is.
Can we stop talking about LSL the walking anus?
Vanity is one of the false gods of post-modern society. It is instilled in our brains by much of what we see, hear and read. Hard to get rid of, but worthy of the life-long effort.
17th and 18th Century French philosophers and thinkers wrote some of the best aphorisms and maxims about human vanity ever. I mean guys like la Rochefoucauld. I have a collection of them in a little book of distilled French wit and wisdom linked link, available through Lem's Magic Portal.
Well Ruth Anne I am struggling and trying to do that.
The problem is that if I stop mocking I lose some of my best bits. Inspector Lestarde. Tales of Amy's Garden. Now the Rifleman.
It just sucks.
DBQ jumped in and pummeled him as well.
That is one part of the puzzle. So many people are starting to get the picture that he is getting it from all sides.
Self awareness seems to be lacking in that household.
Whoops.
Joe Schmoe made my comment for me.
See it was just vanity for me to think I had to do it. Somebody else will jump in and pummel that douchenozzle.
Troop,
I enjoy your best bits. I just don't like going over to TOOP to watch some dirty redbird crapping all over the place. He's a stupid and persistent asshole.
On another topic, I once mused on Twitter that we should have several pieces of furniture named after the deadly sins. I thought, for instance, that the La-Z-boy could be called the 'Sloth.' And the refrigerator could be called the 'Gluttony.'
Then XWL did a whole post about it. Let's see if I can find it..
Ah. Here it is. Couldn't find it at first because I erroneously attributed it to Chicken Little.
That exchange between LSL and ST is seriously good reading. I stopped part way through to get a fresh cocktail.
ST nails it.
That's the thing.
Somebody will step up to smack that bitch around.
RuthAnne - you need to sell your re-naming or the chair and fridge to Weight Watchers or some such enterprise.
We each have a different approach. We have different grievances. But we do agree that being lectured about bad faith and having had comments deleted capriciously has left us not in a mood to tolerate that fool.
Well, by we, I mean me. But I will do my part.
What the heck ever happened to XWL?
Dizzy Dean said it ain't bragging if you can do it. So, if you're really as great as you think you are, is it vain to think well of yourself?
Asking for a friend.
rc--
The vanity is that you think it matters.
"The vanity is that you think it matters"
I'll pass that on to my friend. He is so vain.
THEN I saw in my dream, that when they were got out of the wilderness, they presently saw a town before them, and the name of that town is Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept, called Vanity Fair. It is kept all the year long.… At this fair are all such merchandise sold as houses, lands, trades, places, honors, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures; and delights of all sorts, such as harlots, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, precious stones, and what not. 1
And moreover, at this fair there are at all times to be seen jugglings, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves and rogues, and that of every kind. 2
Here are to be seen, too, and that for nothing, thefts, murders, adulteries, false-swearers, and that of a blood-red color.
After the lost continent of Atlantis sank, it could no longer use chariots to get around, and its newly submerged inhabitants were casting about for a way to get around.
An Atlantean wizard named Stan was working on a magic spell to solve the problem, by making sea horses giant, but he was having trouble getting the spell to work. So he called in his best pal, Warlock Ollie to help him out.
Wizard Stan and Warlock Ollie worked day and night on this spell, until finally they had a big breakthrough. Excited, they gathered the Atlanteans in the city square to demonstrate their spell in front of the people, who it must be said were rather depressed and soggy after their recent adventure.
As the crowd watched, Wizard Stan and Warlock Ollie performed their flourishes, waved their magic wands and gurgled incantations.
At first it seemed like nothing would happen, but before the crowd could grow restless, there was a blinding flash of light. Before their eyes, Stan and Ollie began to transmogrify, merging slowly, horrifically into a blobbish lump of blubber.
But when the silt had settled and their eyes had adjusted, the people rejoiced, for Stan and Ollie had become a sea cow, wide and sturdy enough to pull their carts and chariots.
And, as they said forever more:
Stan and his best mate are altogether manatee!
(Sorry)
Blake,
That's another nice mess you've gotten us into.
And did you see what the Atlantis Eyewitness news reporter was heard saying?
"Oh, the huge manatee!"
Ruth Anne,
Indeed!
It reminds me of the story of Sam Clam and Ollie Oyster, who were also good friends. Musicians in life, they died in a horrible plane crash, and while Ollie Oyster was good and went to Heaven, Sam Clam was bad, and went to Hell.
Ollie played harp in the celestial band and was, of course, happy, but he got to thinking of his old pal Sam, and decided to go see him one day.
Now, the rules about visiting Hell are quite strict, and he knew he had to be back by the stroke of midnight, lest he be trapped in the underworld.
Down, down, down into the fiery pits ventured Ollie, stout of heart but fearful of what he might find.
He discovered that Sam's punishment for his sins was to be forced to run a discotheque for eternity. He located the joint and found a distraught Ollie in a sea of polyester-clad demons and demonesses.
But soon, Ollie and Sam were jamming like the old days, with Ollie plucking the harp and Sam making the best of his accordion and bagpipes (the only instruments allowed in Hell). They were having such a good time, Ollie lost track of the time until he heard the first gong of the Celestial Clock striking midnight.
He grabbed Sam in a fast hug, explaining he had to go bong! then toward the stairs he ran bong!.
Up he flew! bong, up! up! as fast as his little wings bong would carry him. Bong!
But Heaven bong is a long way up bong and it looked like he wasn't going to make it. When he finally bong spied the Pearly Gates, St. Peter was closing them bong!
Bong!He lept through the air toward the gates!
Bong! He slide through, sideways, narrowly making it as bong! St. Peter closed the gates behind him.
Gasping, panting, with a bemused St. Peter smiling down at him, Sam clutched at his side and looked suddenly stricken.
"What is it?!" St. Peter cried in alarm.
Ollie wailed, "I left my harp in Sam Clam's disco!"
(Sorry x2)
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