{"id":1253,"date":"2008-10-10T06:39:59","date_gmt":"2008-10-10T10:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=1253"},"modified":"2018-10-20T10:30:07","modified_gmt":"2018-10-20T14:30:07","slug":"transparent-and-not-quite-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/transparent-and-not-quite-so\/","title":{"rendered":"Transparent, and Not Quite So"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Per usual, the Friday selection<\/a> from whiskey river:<\/p>\n

We suffer not from our vices and our weaknesses, but from our illusions. We are haunted, not by reality, but by those images we have put in place of reality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(by Daniel J. Boorstin<\/a>)<\/p>\n

…and a bonus<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(by Eric Hoffer<\/a>)<\/p>\n

…and — not from whiskey river — this:<\/p>\n

Introduction To Poetry<\/strong><\/p>\n

I ask them to take a poem
\nand hold it up to the light
\nlike a color slide<\/p>\n

or press an ear against its hive.<\/p>\n

I say drop a mouse into a poem
\nand watch him probe his way out,<\/p>\n

or walk inside the poem’s room
\nand feel the walls for a light switch.<\/p>\n

I want them to waterski
\nacross the surface of a poem
\nwaving at the author’s name on the shore.<\/p>\n

But all they want to do
\nis tie the poem to a chair with rope
\nand torture a confession out of it.<\/p>\n

They begin beating it with a hose
\nto find out what it really means.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(by Billy Collins<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Finally, the deep-blue version (lyrics follow):<\/p>\n\n

You Don’t Know Me<\/strong><\/p>\n

You give your hand to me
\nThen you say hello
\nI can hardly speak
\nMy heart is beating so
\nAnd anyone can tell
\nYou think you know me well
\nBut you don’t know me<\/p>\n

No, you don’t know the one
\nWho dreams of you at night
\nAnd longs to kiss your lips
\nAnd longs to hold you tight
\nOh I’m just a friend
\nThat’s all I’ve ever been
\n’cause you don’t know me<\/p>\n

I never knew
\nThe art of making love
\nThough my heart aches
\nWith love for you
\nAfraid and shy
\nI’ve let my chance to go by
\nThe chance that you might
\nLove me, too<\/p>\n

You give your hand to me
\nAnd then you say good-bye
\nI watch you walk away
\nBeside the lucky guy
\nYou’ll never never know
\nThe one who loves you so
\nWell, you don’t know me<\/p>\n

[break]<\/em><\/p>\n

You give your hand to me, baby
\nThen you say good-bye
\nI watch you walk away
\nBeside the lucky guy
\nNo, no, you’ll never ever know
\nThe one who loves you so
\nWell, you don’t know me<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(by Cindy Walker and Eddy Arnold, performed by B.B. King and Diane Schuur)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Per usual, the Friday selection from whiskey river: We suffer not from our vices and our weaknesses, but from our illusions. We are haunted, not by reality, but by those images we have put in place of reality. (by Daniel J. Boorstin) …and a bonus: Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,74,36],"tags":[564,565,566,567,568,569,570],"class_list":{"0":"post-1253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-music","8":"category-reading","9":"tag-daniel-j-boorstin","10":"tag-eric-hoffer","11":"tag-bb-king","12":"tag-diane-schuur","13":"tag-you-dont-know-me","14":"tag-surfaces","15":"tag-transparency","16":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-kd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1253"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1263,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions\/1263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}