mindless ramblings

Yeah this thread turned into me telling terrible stories. (I've been reading some dark books.) But I got it out of my system. I'm working on some less f'd up ones.

I like telling my kids stories so I was just trying more adult ones out in this little corner of TW.

 

I'm enjoying the story line commercials op. Keep em coming

 

I stop and stretch my arm, hand raised, in the middle of a crowded sidewalk.

“Yes” I hear from behind me a few minutes later.

I take my hand down and turn to see an elderly woman staring intently.

“What?” I ask

“You had your hand raised.”

“Yeah but why did you stop?”

“Habit I suppose.” Her face softens

“What do you mean?”

Her eyes glaze as she says “I was a school teacher for many many years. In the desert of Northern Sudan”

Her features sharpen again, “Why did you have your hand raised?”

“No reason. Why Sudan?”

“Why so many questions?”

“You asked the first one.”

“Ah, I suppose I did. Why Sudan. Good question.”

She walks to a nearby bench and sits down. I follow and remain standing.

“I went to teach in Sudan because my church asked me to and maybe to follow someone there.”

“Did you go there to teach?”

“No no it was a missionary trip, and only supposed to last a couple of weeks. This was before the civil war; the first one, not the recent one. I had never traveled before, you see, and our church put together a trip to fix a well and evangelize. My brother was the first to sign on. He is the once who convinced me I should go. He told me he would raise the money for both of us, which at the time seemed exorbitant. He did it though and off we went.”

“Did your brother teach also?”

“No, he was thrown in jail shortly after we got there. The military police found cocaine in his luggage, which they put there. The men were looking for a bribe but we had nothing to offer. So they put him in jail.”

“That’s terrible, no one else offered to help??”

“We did get the money for the bribe after about a week, but by then my poor brother had killed a guard. It wasn’t his fault though. He couldn’t follow instructions because he didn’t understand the language. So a guard took to hitting him. My brother couldn’t take it anymore and push the guard away. In a stroke of bad luck the guard stumbled and fell down some stairs and broke his neck.”

“!”

“Yes, so I spend the next 14 years working and living at a private catholic school and trying to free my brother.”

“Did you get him out?”

“No; he died in a prison riot. Unfortunately the Civil War didn’t stop at the prison walls. It was a dicey time to be in that country.”

“Wow, I had no idea”

“Most don’t”

She gets up stares at me for a few seconds and walks away.

Narrator voice over:

"The all new 2017 Toyota. Not as fucked up as these stories."

Theme plays:

“I love what you do for me, Toyota.”

 

Pythagoras

[Greek]—Don’t stir fire with sword.
[Greek]—Reverence, first of all, the immortal gods, as prescribed by law.
Above all things reverence thyself.
Choose always the way that seems the best, however rough it may be. Custom will render it easy and agreeable.
He that knoweth not that which he ought to know, is a brute beast among men; he that knoweth no more than he hath need of, is a man among brute beasts; and he that knoweth all that may be known, is a god amongst men.
If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, heat; if height, depth; if solid, fluid; if hard, soft; if rough, smooth; if calm, tempest; if prosperity, adversity; if life, death.
In this theatre of man’s life, it is reserved only for God and angels to look on.
It is cowardly to quit the post the gods elect for us before they permit us.
No man is free who cannot command himself.
No man is so old but thinks he may live another day.
No man is to be deemed free who has not perfect self-command.
Silence is better than unmeaning words.
Strength of mind rests in sobriety, for this keeps the reason unclouded by passion.
We ought not to quit our post without the permission of Him who commands; the post of man is life.
When the wind (civic tumult) arises, worship the echo (retire into the country).