Grits and Sweat IV – A Series of Baroque Philosophical Documents Based Upon Objective Observations

“Hello darkness, MY old friend… ” –Paul Simon in his 1991 concert in New York Central Park without Arthur Garfunkel

Well, without any of the guys to help me write this I feel like the poet without his one-man band or any of the band for that matter, but, if that’s the way it has to be, that’s the way it has to be. Like Paul Simon standing alone before thousands of people in Central Park in New York singing his hits… Well, I am now being fully-integrated honesty all alone for myself, firstly and to create a value for everyone else secondly, and to benefit all including myself, thirdly. What else is new? Nothing. Like there are no pedagogical infinities. So, again I repeat Paul Simon’s words as he said them in that concert: “Hello darkness, MY old friend.” Yes, I’ve come to be with nonmysticism again. As the words of the profits are written on the subway walls and tenament halls? Like the sounds of silent honesty breaking through. So, as I write this, I think of how every human being for a long, long time has been bamboozled in the most genuine ways and senses. When one awakens, get scared, others will too. That is a bridge of hot coals to walk on ain’t it.

So, spit in the wind, will you. Grits And Sweat is going to a whole old level, as opposed to new: More Honesty, no thrilling language here, just “old fashioned honesty and reality”, practical stuff that works. Not pragmatic, but practical. That’s what makes this a whole old level. Like gravity can be beat as a law, like nature can be beat as a force, genuinely (they cannot). Indeed, if it works, it works, and it shouldn’t be fixed if it is not broken. But if it is broken on purpose, then what? Make excuses, right? Yes.

Let’s have a war.

And when we have a war, who does it satisfy? Those who want to make problems, and want problems, from street gangs being serious in gunfight war to capitol of country gangs playing war with bombs and napalm from air conditioned “war rooms” moving thousands of “little people” troops like chess men. Well, I’m here to say that there is a slightly better way to live than that at worst. I don’t know, sanely and peacefully like little “babbitt” working class citizens at least? “Old Harry Truman sold cheap suits and dropped an atom bomb, Dr. Strangelove don’t make love, make war!!!!” Whatever floats that boat and “to survive, I made a raft out of dead monkeys… ” -Adam Sandler in a 1992 Saturday Night Live skit. “To survive, I professionally kill people.” -Most cigarette commercials when showing “in-boardroom action”. If only everything were that honest. But honesty is good for a yawn, dishonesty is funnnnnn!!!! Isn’t it oh, great and fair and balanced news-media, from local stations up to the national. Let’s all look important and sexy, and not really be those things. Or as the line in that movie “Boogie Nights” went, ‘let’s make better movies!’

So, I’ll say it here, news media men are cardboard cutouts, and news media women are want-to-be porn stars. Now that we got that out of the way, we can talk about diarrhea… Okay, Johnny Carson get hit with the banana cream pies now… And pause for a station break and identification. (Remember I am doing this full document in real time, noting pauses and all, so keep reading it gets better.)

If there’s something you need that you just don’t have, just raise your hand as the great Stax artist Eddie Floyd once said, ruffles on the shirt and all. So, here I am, fairly standing in line, and doing my thing with grits and sweat. Waiting my turn like all politicians who get elected do not, and every other freeloader who gets cuts and complains unjustly does not. So, let me tell you this, I will tell it like it is, or “ah’ mo’ tell it like it eisssss… ” So, when I became fully-integrated honesty, I became fully-integrated honesty for the full duration and the fair market value reality and fully-integrated honesty of it all.

Everything and nothing else. All at once. This is where I am genuinely going with grits, sweat and all that. Even if it is “negative posterity”as both Cheryl Richardson (of Oprah “life-coach” fame) and Bob Woodward (of Watergate and John Belushi “Wired” fame) would put it with their jaded world viewpoints of this anti-civilization being “something legitimate, fair, balanced and honest.” or the infamous phrase used by them all when the shit hits the fan and they get caught in it: “We don’t see what’s wrong.” The security guard who actually uncovered Watergate should have gotten the fame instead of destructively hiddenly sneaky Woodward and Bernstein, and you-know-who is just one of Oprah’s toadies and not a legitimate authority on anything. Hey why not have a little fun doing my writing job at the establishment’s expense, after all they have an unlimited account that is overdrawn. And if I get a fate worse than Lenny Bruce so be it. I’m going to end this paragraph with a 1980s term that makes not a shred of sense: “Kajagoogoo”.

But, what does make sense in life is this: honesty, rationality, reality, reason, the good, the great, the best, and finally the real. So, reality is good for a laugh for most. But for me it is what is, that’s it. And I live by it like “a little Babbitt” as some value destroyers put it. But I do not see it that way, no. All things that are desirable stem from a core of reason and reality in accord with one’s own individual rationality. Which means all genuine personal value stems from one’s own individual rationality. I’m not preaching here, I’m just laying it all down bare-bones honest how it is in life, existence and everything for everyone from value destroyers all the way up to value producers and value creators. No one can hide from reality. Not even “the bad guys who are above it all”. Shifting the load does not make it go away.

Reality is what it all comes down to. Winning is living by reality, losing is not living by it. That’s it. So like I said, shifting the burden does not make it go away. Playing bureaucratic games does not excuse you from work (do you hear me value destroyers from sneak thieves to politicians? Indeed, I know you do.) A winner equals a value creating winner, and a loser equals value destroyer. If it wasn’t that simple, A would not go to B, and so on.

So, to my way of thinking, there is no other way to be than to be “a ridiculous little Babbitt” man that lives by the objective rules, yet has his own honest, genuinely individual non-conformist character. Honesty and reality are values that genuinely cannot be betrayed without consequences. “Save your neck, save your brother, it looks like it will be one or the other… ” -Richard Manuel, lead singer of The Band in that song “The Shape I’m In”; what can I say, that is how it is in all reality, that simple, that “cold”, that concise. Shifting the load does not make it go away. Irrationality is ultimately and genuinely never rewarded. When I became fully-integrated honesty, I realized this genuinely, implicitly and really honestly. And as you know, I call it as I genuinely see it, know it and all.

Lazy evasion is the ultimate way of saying you’re sorry, and it’s not even a good apology. A good apology is to make genuine amends no matter how long and genuine it takes (do you hear me Mom.); love is the strength to make those amends, no matter what, self-love is never to evade even the most uncomfortable reality, let alone the comfortable. So, I quote Frank himself and my Dad to me, “you are either a winner or a loser, there is no other choice for a man. A woman has a myriad of character choices, but a man only has those two… Winner or loser.” I agree with them, I give all of my male friends that advice myself and live by that logic. The only real choice in life anyone has is to be moral or immoral, honest or dishonest, realistic or unrealistic. They can cry the tears of rage or suck it up and take genuinely rational action to rectify their horrors and make them heaven.

So, my thought process is quite simple, I am a winner. It is the losers like Ted Kacsynski, Charles Manson, John Emil List and Ted Bundy that have complex and interesting thought processes that whole books are written about and all of that. My thought process is simple, I am a simple winner like my Father, and friend Frank W. and anyone who tells you anything else about me, is a dirty rotten liar. And you already know, I am a simple “little Babbitt” who is not hard to figure out at all. “Everyone loves to win, but who loves to train?” -I quote Mark Spitz again. Worthy quote, unworthy goal, winning a bunch of gold medals instead of genuine long-range business greatness like a Andrew Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, Charles F. Haanel, John D. Rockefeller, J. Paul Getty, Jay Gould, E.I. DuPont, Milken, Helmsley, even Donald Trump or Robert Kiyosaki. I am now going for the throat in Grits And Sweat IV! What can I say? Honesty is as honesty does? Yes. As Professor Wing Fu Fing says in his infamous book headed in title by a certain expletive, but I will tone it down: “Yes!” So, I am writing in the tradition of George Bernard Shaw, Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens, the solo music of Garth Hudson without The Band, Robbie Robertson and Edward Rabelais` in this case. But what is said here, needs to be said everywhere, like Otis Redding said “I’ve been loving you too long (to stop now)” is a song everyone needs to hear; at The Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. This isn’t just light reading, this is fully-integrated honesty coming straight from the mind of fully-integrated honesty. That’s it, no fillers or games. Swing low, sweet chariot!

So, the essence of what I am saying is, honesty is something everyone needs to hear, be, do and have, and all of that. All else is just useless. Two weeks after that last paragraph and I am continuing as if I never stopped, sometimes I don’t believe myself. But that is just me, unbelievable, yet the real deal… So, what I am saying with that sentence, “so, the essence of what I am saying is… ” is that the facts are the facts no matter how “spun” by man, woman or people. The facts exist objectively despite whatever we all want to believe although belief with the proper actions can change facts. But I do mean the proper actions, of course. When I think of honesty, I think of the facts I just mentioned that do not change because of mystical whim without rational, realistic action. Prayer and fear ain’t gonna stop hurricane Ike, Katrina or whatever may come. The real purpose of prayer for that matter is discipline, self-discipline. And the real purpose of belief is to unite one with reality, not separate one from it. I’m not just talking out of the side of my goddamn head, I am talking from experience and understanding. Most people use the mind in the wrong ways, period. Learning the right ways takes time, honesty and patience, I know, I am there. I’ve been where the average person is, yet I have the courage to work and strive to above where the average person is. That’s how I wrote fully-integrated honesty, new techniques applied through fully integrated honesty and et cetera. Sure, it may be “ridiculous” and “babbitty” to be that honest, but ultimately, who are the real winners. People like me, or was William Danko bluffing when he wrote The Millionaire next door with his buddy? Well, read that book and answer that question for yourself. But, my point is, real progress comes through patience and hard work, there are no shortcuts no matter what the cheaters want you to believe with their Potemkin images and “cunning” “bull pucky” mind games. Like I said before, “bull pucky” is a variation Dr. Frederick S. “Fritz” Perls official clinical term, not a panaceaic expletive that comes out of a bovinus gluteus maximus (a cow’s behind). But back to the point, you can look sexy, act sexy, but if it is not real, the game beats you, you don’t beat the game. Or as my Mom used to say to me when I was a kid: “Save the bones for Henry Jones, but, he don’t eat no meat.”

So, I may be “evil” and “twisted” in my resolute, absolute value orientedness and honesty, so what. People who live normally are more twisted, evil, game playing and cynical than I’ll ever be. What was Theodore Robert “Ted” Bundy perceived as before he was revealed as a monster, or for that matter, the BTK killer, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols or this guy: John Emil List, horn-rimmed glasses and all, they are the ultimate genuine products of normality, and the genuinely darkly evil nature of genuine normality in this “sane” civilization; everyone normal wants that sort of attention those type of guys got, to be “bad” and “good at it”, normal people may as well get one of those Charles Starkweather “Born To Lose” tattoos for the most part because they don’t end up with greatness or even happiness, they end up the same way, dumped into the grave no matter what without a choice in the matter with or without that type of fame. Now, I may take a “sick” view of the normal psyche, but, as I remember Hitler saying in Mein Kampf: “unconscious innocence can be twisted, however, conscious innocence is dangerous.” When you analyze my statements, you understand the full tragedy of what I mean. Sure, I may be “evil and twisted” in my analysis, but what is more evil is just to shrug, be normal and just “sheep it away” in sleep until negatively awakened.

Now on to something more cheerful, like my abnormal, honest psyche, that lives! What is to be consciously good other than the opposite of what I just mentioned. The best thing for a civilization is a consciously productive living psyche. And I’ll give you good news, existence is filled with types like myself or a bunch of genuinely normal “linearly productive” idiots, otherwise existence could not exist with one iota of productiveness.

I remembered when I found out that I am the universal Master fully-integrated honesty, it was after I left Frank W. in that hilltop camp near Santa Barbara and a few days before I ended up in a hospital in that very same city. Claude M. Bristol and Charles F. Haanel experienced an unforgettable “light”, but I experienced the full weight of the past, present, and future in one moment of realization, and I knew I could never turn back, it was similar to that light, yet different. Yet, I felt I could endure anything and come out all right, even the worst of torture, and I know, I’ve been through that in the past twenty years, but I felt all right about it, although like any human being, I’ve experienced some ill feelings and stuff, I pretty much felt alright about it. And as for suicide or anything like that, it’s actually never really crossed my mind, sure, there were times I needed support, but that was about it. But as for taking the action of suicide, at even my “craziest”, it wasn’t going to happen. Like an eagle of distinction, honest action has genuinely permanently marked all of my actions since before birth, during birth, and every year I have been alive. I could not exist any other way.

I got that Eagle of Distinction line from The Band’s Cahoots’ album, the song “Where Do We Go From Here”. I wanted to give credit where credit is and was due, you know. Anyhow, I really could not exist any other way than that. Honestly and forthrightly, I did not say “perfect”, but honestly and forthrightly. Because I am a civilized immortal souled human being before I am anything else. When I became fully-integrated honesty, I became the ultimate development of what I just mentioned in the last sentence. Not perfect, but a civilized and honest human being doing his best. Sure, there’s always more to be, but you (or I) always start from there. That is the point. Before I write anymore for a little while, digest those last few lines, those will give you a good clue on the real nature of life and everything.

When I became fully-integrated honesty, I more than realized this fully in every way. When I became fully-integrated honesty, I realized that it is not all about perfection, it is just about being genuine in every way. That’s it. Fathom that concept. Genuineness to the full at all times. That’s what it means in the book “Poker” by “play the hand properly no matter what, win or lose.” “Play for the maximum-win, not the immediate win.” Patience and honesty, not “perfection” is real winning in every genuine way. Even as James Allen says, “Peace, be still!” Yes, be still and peaceful and patient and notice what genuinely works. Real effectiveness takes development and honesty. That is the Grits And Sweat of it all, the real Grits And Sweat of it all, and nothing but the Grits And Sweat of it all. Moreover, the sort of winning I am talking about is everything. On the other hand, the opposite of the type of winning I am talking about is nothing. Genuine loss is doing things genuinely improperly. That’s it. So, there are only two choices for all real men, winner or loser, no in-between. If it works, it works; if it don’t work, it don’t work. Indeed, things can be and are honestly judged by results. Perfection is just a yardstick, reality is the meaning of is. Productive honesty is the answer to the ultimate question that is the solution to the ultimate problem. What must happen is that things must get done. And note, “actual” perfection isn’t in the equation, only good or great desirable results. Read into it what you, but this is where I stop for now. (Remember I am doing this full document in real time, noting pauses and all, so keep reading it gets better.)

Ultimate efficiency comes from ultimate honesty about the facts, and I do mean all of the facts. If that weren’t real life, then evasion of the truth would be a good thing even in the halls of evasively pathetic government and guilt-ridden religion. Good sense is not “crying wolf”. So, what is good sense? It is facing the facts and dealing with them right no matter what. So, the “bad guys” are that type of fully-integrated honesty, “aren’t they”, no, we’re the ultimate genuine good guys. Real business is handling things honestly and forthrightly at all times, and in all ways possible. Not I did not say “perfectly”, but “possible”. Like a flight plan, 99% of the time on a flight plan, you are off-course and have to adjust to stay in line with the target you are flying towards if you are a pilot; that is a semi-quote and interpretation of Brian Tracy’s message, yes, he’s one of “us”.

So, thinking, observation and rational action is “par for the course to make the target.” That’s it, sure it branches into more applications, but, that is the core of thinking, observation and rational action, it gives honest direction, everything more, nothing less. So, in this sense, perfection just becomes the ultimate measuring yardstick and reality is like a flight-plan.

When I became fully-integrated honesty, I realized this fact, moreover, I realized that life is “The God Concept” embodied and the “flight plan” embodied even for “The God Concept”, 99% imperfect, and it is that one percent added that makes it a perfect 100%, do you get my point to that analogy? So, those who genuinely do not know, say that “there is nothing to it all.”; those who do know, know there is something to this thing called life and existence, and that infinite variations until you hit the mark, mean just that infinite variations until you hit the mark.

But each mark hit is not a vacuum, so I paraphrase Miguel Cervantes: The road is better than the inn, as the shot is better than the target hit. Or the action while you are doing it is better than the result because there is no real end to the action. Do you get what I am getting at? I know you are.

Now, it is time for the real miracles and miracles period. The end is never the end. And the beginning is always the beginning, especially when considering existence as a whole, existence is never whole until time “ends”, and as we know, time never ever ends. So, the closest thing to wholeness is death. But the thing furthest from wholeness is the process of life. So, the point is that each answer leads to an ever greater answer and there is no such thing as “wholeness”, just more to do and better. It never ends. Sure Grits And Sweat IV will end sometime, but the genuine life process never does, as I learned from Drs. Milton Erickson’s, Richard Bandler’s and John Grinder’s work in neuro-linguistic programming and Ericksonian Hypnosis and all of that only partly, and studying logic and chaos theories deeply for the other part. It is what it is and infinitely more, not “no more”.

So, when I think of genuine logic, I think and know of actions rationally producing emotions in every way. When I became fully-integrated honesty, I realized that actions should rationally produce emotions and not the other way around. So, this little ending tidbit ends Grits And Sweat IV, now onto Grits And Sweat V after these messages… (This has been Grits And Sweat IV, Grits And Sweat V (five) coming up after this serving.)