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A MATTER OF CONFIDENCE
It’s all a matter of confidence -
investor confidence, consumer confidence, voter confidence.
In the great confidence game of life,
reality is the set of illusions that garners the most confidence.
Management, government, contentment all depend upon it.
Without confidence there would be
no money, no order, no happiness,
and earthlings would be clinging to the surface of the spinning sphere,
trying to avoid flying off into space,
having discovered that gravity, too,
is only a matter of confidence.
(Mike Cohen – Feb 2009)
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PLACEBOS
We overdose on placebos,
the dope of hope.
Re-cite the slogans, our mantras;
be-lieve in rhetoric, our reality;
pre-tend to live.
Falling is just like floating,
so long as you ignore the landing,
and when you’ve swallowed all those placebos,
landing is the furthest thing from your mind.
And the easiest thing in this world is to fall and float
on the dope of hope,
and pre-tend to live and die
on an overdose of placebos.
(Mike Cohen – June 2008)
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For all we know, it may just be ”the thought that counts”…
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JUST THINK!
It is written, or at least it is said,
that if you sin in your heart,
that is to say, if you sin in your mind
(your heart being too busy pumping the blood about to indulge in such diversions as sin),
that thinking about doing something bad is as sinful as doing it.
But if we are to feel as guilty for our evil thoughts
as we are for our evil deeds,
why then should we not get full credit
for thinking about doing good deeds?
Haven’t we all done wonderful things in our hearts,
that is to say, in our minds?
Why, just yesterday in the morning I thought about solving world hunger.
In the afternoon I thought about curing cancer.
In the evening I thought about calling a friend.
All these things would have been good to do.
And I did essentially do them all, yesterday in my heart,
that is to say, in my mind.
As you can see, yesterday I had such thoughts that would make any man proud.
And I haven’t even told you yet about the sins!
(Mike Cohen – July 2008)
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When the thought counts you cannot necessarily count on the thought to be available. The mind is not a reliable repository.
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SOMETIMES YOU FORGET
Sometimes you forget, you know?
You know… but sometimes you forget.
And not just some things. Everything.
You know… but sometimes you forget.
Sometimes you forget who you are talking to.
You know there are certain things
you should never say in certain company,
but you say them anyway
because sometimes you forget.
You know… but sometimes you forget.
Sometimes you forget where you are,
that you’re not in Kansas,
that you are on the third planet from the sun.
You know… but sometimes you forget
that you’re not in the center of the country
or at the center of the universe.
You know… but sometimes you forget.
Sometimes you forget who you are and how you’ve become.
You know there are certain tactics, antics, and acrobatics
that you simply can’t perform anymore
(and maybe never could).
But in that momentary flash of profound forgetfulness
you make the attempt
and fail miserably,
perhaps even disastrously,
at something you know you should never have tried.
You know… but sometimes you forget.
