Aphorisms and Puns

Originals and Favorites

I've always appreciated wit, especially really cunning linguisitics. I've occasionally had a few flashes of the tongue ...

Embarassment

It's hard to be embarassed when you're already bare-assed.

Under their clothes, people are always already naked. Loss of face is natural and necessary for humor and levity. Only levity counters gravity, which along with ego, is the root of all suffering.

Familiarity

Familiarity breeds consent.

This phrase was derived from the older aphorism "familiarity breeds contempt". It occurred to me during my days as a budding linguist in high school. As the years have past, I've discovered more and more that, in fact, true familiarity more often breeds consent (aka tolerance, permission, consensus, etc.) than contempt. As we become more familiar with the wants, needs and values of others, we can better empathize with them, appreciate their viewpoints, opinions, and motivations.

Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace
Compassionate Communication

The Principle of the Conservation of Complexity in Software

Essential complexity cannot be eliminated from software, only moved or distributed about, and perhaps hidden.

The hard and evil parts of software always remain somewhere. Sometimes it's best to concentrate all the evil in one place.

"Be careful with that, ... it's concentrated Evil."

-- God at the end of Time Bandits
(played by Sir Ralph Richardson)

The Work Week

During the early 1980's, early in my software development career, I worked with an Asian man who was then a recent immigrant. He was well spoken in English, but he still had some occasional difficulty understanding American idioms and hence some of our jokes. I explained to him our work week concept of TGIF (Thank God It's Friday) and then made up the following acronym for celebrating Thursday.

So Happy It's Thursday (SHIT)

Much to my surprise, several years later, I heard a disc jockey mention this acronym on the radio. I was reminded again and amazed at the power of jokes as the carriers of memes.

To my great amusement, during 2003 one of my coworkers shared with me the Australian equivalent of TGIF.

Piss Off Early Tomorrow's Saturday (POETS)

Enlightenment

The questing mind only ever seeks what the resting heart has always already found.

This observation summarizes some insights gained from study of the Wisdom Teaching of Ruchira Avatar Adi Da Samraj, including some expressed in the Prologue to The Liberator (Eleutherios).

"Mindless embodiment.
Consciousness without inwardness.
Thus It becomes Obvious."

And also,

"First transcend the mind, not the body.
Inwardness is flight from Life and Love.
Only the body is Full of Consciousness."