{"id":16314,"date":"2015-01-23T10:13:08","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T15:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=16314"},"modified":"2015-01-23T10:14:23","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T15:14:23","slug":"enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Enough"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

[Image: illustration by George Herriman, for Don Marquis’s <\/em>archy and mehitabel. And let’s change things up this week by starting with a song, because wotthehell archy wotthehell… Click Play button to begin <\/em>The Only Joy In Town. While audio is playing, volume control appears at left — a row of little vertical bars. This clip is 5:13 long.]<\/a>
\n(Lyrics here<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

[audio:theonlyjoyintown_jonimitchell.mp3|titles=’The Only Joy In Town’|artists=Joni Mitchell]<\/div>\n

From whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

I had thought joy to be rather synonymous with happiness, but it seems now to be far less vulnerable than happiness. Joy seems to be a part of an unconditional wish to live, not holding back because life may not meet our preferences and expectations. Joy seems to be a function of the willingness to accept the whole, and to show up to meet with whatever is there. It has a kind of invincibility that attachment to any particular outcome would deny us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Rachel Naomi Remen [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

working it out<\/strong>
\n(excerpt)<\/em><\/p>\n

once in a dream I saw a snake swallowing its own
\ntail, it swallowed and swallowed until
\nit got halfway round, and there it stopped and
\nthere it stayed, it was stuffed with its own
\nself. some fix, that.
\nwe only have ourselves to go on, and it’s
\nenough<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Charles Bukowski [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

why mehitabel jumped<\/strong><\/p>\n

well boss i saw
\nmehitabel the cat the other day
\nand she was looking a little
\nthin and haggard
\nwith a limp in
\nthe hind leg on the starboard
\nside old feline animal i said
\nhow is tricks still in the
\nring archy she said and still a
\nlady in spite of h dash double l
\nalways jolly archy she said in
\nspite of hard luck
\ntoujors gai is the word
\narchy toujours gai how did you
\nget the game leg mehitabel i asked her
\nalas she said it is due
\nto the treachery of
\none of these social swells who
\nis sure one bad actor he was a
\nfussed up cat with a
\nbell around his neck on a
\nribbon and the look about him of
\na person that is currycombed and
\nmanicured from teeth to
\ntail every day i met him
\ndown by the east river
\nfront when i was scouting
\nabout for a little piece of fish since
\nthe high cost of living has
\nbecome so self conscious archy
\nit would surprise you
\nhow close they
\nwatch their fish nowadays
\nbut what the h dash double l archy
\nit is the cheerful heart that
\nwins i am never cast down for long
\nkid says this gilded
\nfeline to me you look hungry i
\nam all of that i says to him i
\nhave a vacuum in my midst
\nthat is bigger than i am i
\ncould eat the fish that ate
\njonah kid he says you have
\nseen better days i can
\ntell that from looking at you thanks
\ni said what you say is at
\nleast half true i have never
\nseen any worse ones and so
\narchy one word led to
\nanother until that sleek villain
\npractically abducted me
\nand i went with him
\non board a houseboat of which
\nhe was the pampered mascot
\nsuch evidence of pomp and wealth archy
\nwere there that you would not
\nbelieve them if i told of them to
\nyou poor cockroach that you
\nare but these things were nothing to me
\nfor i am a reincarnation of cleopatra
\nas i told you long ago you mean
\nher soul transmigrated to a cat s
\nbody i said it is
\nall one archy said she have it your own
\nway reincarnation or transmigration
\nis the same to me the point is
\ni used to be a queen in
\negypt and will likely be one again
\nthis place was furnished swell percy i
\nsaid the furniture is
\nfine and i could eat some of it if
\ni was a saw mill but
\nwhere is the honest to g dash d food
\nthe eats percy what i crave is
\nsome cuisine for my stomach let us
\ntrifle with an open ice box
\nfor a space if one can be
\npersuaded to divulge the scheme of its
\ninterior decoration follow me
\nsaid this percy thing and led
\nme to a cabin in which stood a table upon
\nwhich stood viands i
\nhave heard of tables groaning archy
\nbut this one did not it
\nwas too satisfied it purred with
\ncontentment in an instant i had eaten a
\ncold salmon who seemed to be
\ntoastmaster of the occasion and a
\nwhole scuttleful of chef dovers what
\nyou mean is hors douvres mehitabel i
\ntold her what i mean is grub said she
\nwhen in walked a person whom
\ni should judge to be either a butler
\nor the admiral of that fleet or maybe
\nboth this percy creature who had led me
\nto it was on the table eating with me
\nwhat do you think he did what
\nwould any gentleman friend with a
\nspark of chivalry do what but stand by
\na lady this percy does nothing of the
\nkind archy he immediately attacks me do
\nyou get me archy he acts as if i
\nwas a stray cat he did not
\nknow and he was protecting his
\nloving masters food from my onslaughts
\ni do not doubt he got praise and had
\nanother blue ribbon for his heroism as
\nfor me i got the boot and as i went
\noverboard they hit me on the limb with
\na bottle or an anchor or something
\nnautical and hard that archy is why i
\nlimp but toujours gai archy what
\nthe h dash double l i am always
\nmerry and always ladylike mine archy has
\nbeen a romantic life and i will
\ntell you some more of my adventures
\nere long well au revoir i suppose i
\nwill have to go and start a pogrom
\nagainst some poor innocent little
\nmouse just the same i think
\nthat mehitabel s unsheltered life sometimes
\nmakes her a little sad
\narchy<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Don Marquis [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: illustration by George Herriman, for Don Marquis’s archy and mehitabel. And let’s change things up this week by starting with a song, because wotthehell archy wotthehell… Click Play button to begin The Only Joy In Town. While audio is playing, volume control appears at left — a row of little vertical bars. This clip […]<\/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":[247,1393,74,250,5,50,36,251,713],"tags":[1897,3799,3956,3957],"class_list":{"0":"post-16314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-music","9":"category-art","10":"category-06_writing","11":"category-language-writing_cat","12":"category-reading","13":"category-poetry-writing_cat","14":"category-humor-writing_cat","15":"tag-joni-mitchell","16":"tag-don-marquis","17":"tag-rachel-naomi-remen","18":"tag-charles-bukowski","19":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6kZSG-enough","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16314","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=16314"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16325,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16314\/revisions\/16325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}