Today's Tendril...

It's true that only a fool dismisses (out of hand) the advice of others. It's also true that only an idiot relies on the advice of fools.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

The business of doing business means dealing with a lot of P: Politics Paranoia Pomposity Process Procedure Pontification Plans Polling Peddling Prima donnas Patter Prattle Perception Promises Panoptic pandering "Power"

 

About

Pondering "the price of doing business"—personal, professional, spiritual—produced this P.

Updated 20220724

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Don't assume that others will know or understand. Provide the contextual clarity. Of course, lawyers and law makers seem predisposed to ambiguity and interpretation — and obsessed with contextual sensitivity.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Choices

The ever present now is all about choices.

       The ones you make,
           the ones you fake,
       the ones you regret,
           the ones you forget,
       the ones that fill your waking dreams,
           the ones that fill your inner screams.

The ever present now is about this or that,
       and a set of choices keep them apart.

To make a choice is not so bad.

It's their voices in your head that will drive you mad.

Today's Tendril...

Keeping it simple is easier said than done – especially when the tree of choice has many branches.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

The Golden Ratio (ASCII Face)

 

Tendrils

There are times when the path from idea to artwork takes you down rat holes, tumbling through rabbit holes, and into black holes.

 

The artist and the scientist know too well the meaning of begat.

 

Sure, an umbrella keeps the rain off of you, but what does it matter when you choose to play in the rain?

 

Simplicity is a tadpole that becomes a frog (or a toad).

 

Simplicity is a rat hole, if you let it.

 

For artists, engineers, and scientists alike, keeping it simple is easier said than done.

 

If balance and equilibrium were states of perfection, then we'd never know the wonders of frost or the jewels of dew.

 

Complexity is a Frankenstein stitched from the fabric of simplicity.

 

Chasing the possibilities can be a lot like chasing windmills.

 

At some point you have to accept that you're stuck in the quagmire of choice, especially when you're reaching for the clouds.

 

It's amazing how this, 8^), can cause so much consternation.

 

Soul Star (Surviving the Darkness)

 

About

What started out as a simple ASCII image (complete with tagline) turned into a tree with many branches.

The seed that became the tree:



© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Advantage: When you get your opponent to worry about the race, while you keep your eye on the prize.

© Copyright 2011 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Creativity isn't about formula; it's about formulation — turning the intangible machinations of the mind into a form that can be consumed by others.

Alternate Version

Creativity isn't about formula; it's about formulation — turning the intangible machinations of a restless mind into something—anything—that can be appreciated or criticized by others.

Dedicated to my Notebook Brother.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Patience, like praying, isn't a gift. It's a discipline — and requires diligence, mindfulness, and practice.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

The "best of times" are those moments that are deliberately experienced in the evolving dynamic of the ever present now.

Alternate Version

To make the "best of times" more than mere moments relived in hindsight, longing, and reflective fondness, embrace the tendrils of the ever present now—and then extend them; turn existence into purpose.

For nothing can be remembered, until it is lived.

 

About

This TT originally published on 2010.07.24 to my now retired Tags and Tendrils Twitter account.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Just One Word

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

A Dream that is You

 

About

A true story.

Made for, and dedicated to, my wife.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Many believe that dreams are lassoed from the wild plains of reality. Isn't it better to believe that the opposite were true?

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Life Lessons: Bowling

• Follow your dot.
• The arrows don't lie.
• It's better to hit the pocket than to throw a rocket.
• Bowling with bumpers is a metaphor for having a safety net in life.
• The 7-10 split is also known as "Devil's Horns." Good versus evil extends to all aspects of reality.
• Bowling with your family is hit and miss.
• Bowling etiquette should be carried into other lanes of life.
• This is what happens when you throw a lot of strikes in a row: You forget how to throw a spare.
• Just because it looks good going down the alley doesn't mean it'll amount to much.
• Smooth and easy wins the game.
• Cosmic bowling may be confusing and disorienting, but the pins, the lanes, the balls, and the rules don't change.
• Everyone throws a strike once in a while. Enjoy the moment, but then get on with the game.
• Approach and follow-through are more important than velocity.
• Bowling a perfect game, making a 7-10 split, or executing a great trick shot is a matter of practice, persistence, and perseverance.
• Whether you prefer traditional bowling, duckpin bowling, or candlestick bowling, the objectives are the same: Stay out of the gutter, knock down as many pins as you can, and get the highest score possible.

Dedicated to Monk.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Too often, faith is treated like the interior of a home — decorated to suit one's taste and filled with bric-a-brac and knick-knacks.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Said an Angel...

Said an angel in a dream–

Let one demon through the door,
     soon will follow many more.

Let temptation plead its case,
     and you'll not win the sinner's race.

When I woke,
    I looked and screamed,
        'cause in my bed
        the Devil said,
          "You, my friend, are what you dreamed."

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

This text composition is a work of fiction. Names, places, institutions, events, incidents, characters, persons, locations, and/or organizations either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Full Creative Writing Disclaimer.

At the Crossing of I

 

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

The "straight and narrow" doesn't have crooked lines, though it does have many circles.

 

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Sometimes our beliefs must be stepped on before we stop treating them like doormats.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

A moral girdle is easily removed, thus revealing the sausage of the soul.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Pressure is irrelevant when capacity, capability, and determination are present.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Just for Fun 1

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

This composition is a work of fiction. Names, places, institutions, events, incidents, characters, persons, locations, and/or organizations either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Full Creative Writing Disclaimer.

Swallowed Me Whole

Somehow, in a way that I can't explain, the night snuck up on me – and swallowed me whole...

I found myself knee-deep in whispering grass
and at the center of a firefly vortex.

Distant drums thumped
   and punched
      and pounded
         a slow,
         steady,
         hypnotic
         rhythm.

A crow cawed.

The Snark clapped.

God smiled.

And the moment rolled on
   and on
     and on,
like an amber marble
      across a frozen lake.

Until finally,
   in a way that I still can't explain,
the morning snuck up on me
      – and swallowed me whole...

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

This text composition is a work of fiction. Names, places, institutions, events, incidents, characters, persons, locations, and/or organizations either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Full Creative Writing Disclaimer.

Epiphany

Through the eyes and the ooze of an apparition.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

There are no secrets to success. Anyone that claims to have them is trying to take advantage of you—for money, for power, or for sport.

Alternate Version

There are no secrets to success. Success comes from patience, persistence, and perseverance.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Skaitella

Sky whales and cloud logs vying for visual dominance in a vast sea of Rayleigh blue.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

In battle, there is no such thing as "blind fury." There is only fury or restraint. Anything else is a lie, an illusion, an omission, or subversion.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Ambition

      If only the wind and the sky would cede their powers to me, thought the red ant, fantasizing atop the highest tree in the city, then I'd rule the world—with fists of iron.

      As the ant slipped deeper and deeper into a trance of megalomania, a sparrow dropped out of the sun and ate the ambitious ant.

      The End

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

This text composition is a work of fiction. Names, places, institutions, events, incidents, characters, persons, locations, and/or organizations either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Full Creative Writing Disclaimer.

Today's Tendril...

Impatience, as much as defiance, is the mother of independence.

Dedicated to, and inspired by, Monk.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Sky-blue is most vivid when seen through the eyes of creativity.

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Simple Words

     "Once upon a time," that's how it all began. Those four simple words, first spoken to me as a child, made new worlds magically available—wholly real—and sparked a deep passion for stories.

    And what is a story, after all, but an escape hatch to a greener pasture, even when that pasture is visited at midnight (alone), beneath a Hunter's Moon, as the tendrils of a rolling blue fog coil their way into a starless sky, while a wolf bays from somewhere nearby, and a weathered scarecrow emerges from the fog, impassive and silent, and beckons you to come closer, with his unusually long straw hand.

    And you do...

© Copyright 2010 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

This text composition is a work of fiction. Names, places, institutions, events, incidents, characters, persons, locations, and/or organizations either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Full Creative Writing Disclaimer.