Being Abandoned by the Left and Abandoning the Left and Why the Left hates C. G. Jung?⏪📕⏩

Great chat between Angie Speaks and Gordon White on his Rune Soup podcast in the You Tube above, I think.

I used to say when it came to politics that I would consider myself just left of center, like in the Suzanne Vega song, also above.

But now if someone asks, I say mind your own f#cking business ... or that I'm a Centerist:-)

Not that I knew until writing up this post that -

"Vega's song "Left of Center" [was] co-written with Steve Addabbo for the 1986 John Hughes film Pretty in Pink [and] reached No. 32 on the UK Singles Chart in 1986."

Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles?

I'm what you would call a swinging voter, who votes for the Left when I feel things are heading too Right, and vote for the Right when I feel things are heading too Left.

And try not to fall for either side's BS:-)

On the Path?

"Vega practices Nichiren Buddhism and is a member of the American branch of the worldwide Buddhist association Soka Gakkai International." according to her Wikipedia page.

"Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is an international Nichiren Buddhist organisation founded in 1975 by Daisaku Ikeda, as an umbrella organization of Soka Gakkai, which claims approximately 12 million adherents in 192 countries and territories as of 2017, more than 1.5 million of whom resided outside of Japan as of 2012.

It characterizes itself as a support network for practitioners of Nichiren Buddhism and a global Buddhist movement for "peace, education, and cultural exchange.""

Daisaku Ikeda?

And while I'm not a Buddhist I am very sympathetic to their teachings, especially The Middle Way -

"Monks, these two extremes ought not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the household life. There is an addiction to indulgence of sense-pleasures, which is low, coarse, the way of ordinary people, unworthy, and unprofitable; and there is an addiction to self-mortification, which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable.

Avoiding both these extremes, the Perfect One has realized the Middle Path; it gives vision, gives knowledge, and leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment and to Nibbana. 

And what is that Middle Path realized by the Tathagata...? 

It is the Noble Eightfold Path, and nothing else, namely: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.":-)

Unlike the bloke in the above video, I believe the ride is much more fixed, like buying a ticket on a roller-coaster.

You might be under the illusion that the ego gets to steer the ride through life ... and maybe that is a good way to get yourself through the ride, by telling yourself that ... but bigger forces are at work when you agree to hop on that ride, I think.

And I'm not talking that old God vs the devil BS, either, but hey, turn the ride into a haunted house sideshow in your mind if you want too, I guess.

A thought just occurred to me that Angie is short for Angel, 

is it not?-)

And I was amused to see 101 likes on Gordo's You Tube until I liked it and made that number 102:-)

I Can See Clearly Now That Life is a Journey, Not a Destination?

""Tom's Diner", which was originally released as an a cappella recording on Vega's second studio album, Solitude Standing (1987), was remixed in 1990 as a dance track by English electronic duo DNA with Vega as featured artist, and it became a Top 10 hit in over five countries. 

The original a cappella recording of the song was used as a test during the creation of the MP3 format.

The role of her song in the development of the MP3 compression prompted Vega to be given the title of "The Mother of the MP3"."

Funny thing is I hadn't heard of Suzanne Vega's song 'Caramel' until writing up this post and yesterday I had bought some caramel donuts at the supermarket, because they were on special and I rarely eat caramel falvoured anything.

The Doritos were on special yesterday, as well;-)

""Caramel" is a song by American singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega, which was released in 1996 as the lead single from her fifth studio album Nine Objects of Desire and featured in the American romantic comedy film The Truth About Cats & Dogs."

The Joker Ignores His Wake Up Call (11:11)?