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We recently re-read Samuel Beckett’s singularly exotic play, “Waiting for Godot,” and were induced to see meaning not quite perceived by us when we read the play many years ago, in college.

As is known by the literati, Beckett was a “minimalist.” Accordingly, reading and appreciating his esoteric works requires sensitive insight and subtle perception. In “Godot,” two tramps exclusively occupy the stage during the entire play in their unfulfilled expectation of the arrival of a personage named “Godot.” Of course, “Godot” never makes an appearance, and the classic play requires considerable afterthought and analysis. We can recall some remarks of contemporaries, who were disappointed and puzzled by the lack of dramatic action in the plot (its minimalism) and seriously questioned the basis for the play’s recognized worth

When we first read and then saw the play, we ourselves were stricken by its total passivity and frustrated at the complete lack of action; Godot never makes the scene, and we are left with the somewhat comic, mundane remarks of the two protagonist-tramps. We concluded, at the time, that Beckett, in his singular minimalist outlook on life, was communicating the thought that Man waits futilely to discover some nonexistent meaning to his life.

Notably, after many decades of contemplative living, in the re-reading of the play, we were able to attain a more useful and instructive esoteric interpretation.

“Life,” per se, as a personal dynamic has no independent meaning; the meaningfulness in life is the character that the living person gives it; waiting for purpose and significance is indeed, empirically futile, without personally seeking and discovering its existence. The unique franchise of life is the freedom of the living to grow in understanding and live in meaningful significance.

Our nuanced message from Samuel Beckett is the existential need to see the precious grant of life as a franchise to the purposeful attainment of fulfillment; the latter, a product of individual efforts towards advancement and the attained arrival of (Godot), viz., mature understanding, and human fulfillment.

-p.

Two calendar events are thematically responsible for the present revelation of our recent perseverations. One is the soon-to-arrive advent of Spring, defined astronomically as the time of the calendar year when the Sun aligns with Earth’s Equator, and, of equal impact, the season plinyblog’s annual Spring poem is published.

Added to the recitation of such notably relevant declarations is the empirical fact that we are on the cusp of our ninth decade, and have, for better or worse, acquired some nuanced personal insight into life’s eternal progressive mutation from the zenith of physicality and sapience to the challenges of old age. We, admittedly, have looked to our personal life as instructive, and in certain cases, a singular experience.

It requires no more than common experience to note the fact that one’s physical prowess and bodily efficiency gradually decline with the passing of the years. In too many cases, cognitive proficiency is an additional costly concomitant of aging. The decline in mobility and physical capability is life-changing, not only for the aging individual but for those in his life whose assistance is called upon. We, like others, succumbed to feelings of loss of esteem and agency by reason of such disablement, but gradually succeeded in the practical need for adjustment; the most rational and supportive amelioration was the fortuitous continuation of life, the absence of significant ill health, and most notably, the fortuitous continuation of our rational propensities. There are no words in the lexicon adequate or sufficient to express our joy at such remarkable natural providence.

To the extent that it may be of some utility and interest, we have, from time to time, related our thoughts and experience to the subjects of the acquisition of mature perception, rational understanding of the self, and the world, and the suggested route to “fulfillment” by a lifetime of engagement in reading and the arts and the advancement of personal education. For those senior citizens, similarly blessed by nature with healthy cognition, this is the ultimate route to a meaningful existence and the fulfillment of life.

In the final analysis, Man’s self-awareness, cognition, and ubiquitous understanding constitute his vital self-awareness and tangible life experience. We have accepted, with resignation, our decline in physical abilities, but have come, more than ever, to cherish our cognitive capabilities and mature judgment; matters, ultimately more existential, as it turns out, than ubiquitously functional mobility.

=p.

The delusional actions and statements of our bizarre President continue in their clinically based absurdity to cause other rational people and us a tsunami of consternation and an abject fear relative to the further metastasis of the once-vaunted American polity and way of life.

Rather than reprise and agonize over the perverse and toxic dynamics of Donald Trump’s performance as President of the United States, a subject, it is submitted, which has relevantly occupied many previous writings, we have undertaken to comment on the most recent and flagrant example of his delusional incapacity and one which presents a titanic problem, not only for the directly contending parties, but for the existential commerce of other nations,

The calamitously affected venue is the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway controlled by Iran and through which a considerable amount of international trade (especially oil) is shipped; accordingly, it portends far more negative outcomes. than his illegal bombing of Venezuela, Syria, Nigeria, and Yemen. A great many impacted Countries have, together with the United States, in consequence, suffered from shortages and exorbitant consumer prices due to the thoughtless arrogance of Trump’s delusional hubris.

When asked by the media when this unendurable situation would end, Trump, in his inimitable delusion, answered: “When I feel it in my bones, then I will end it.” Any country-bred lad who has foolishly stirred up a hornet’s nest will tell you that it is the hornets who get to decide when the attack is over!

=p.

We’ve been told the ancient bard,
Could hear the “music of the spheres.”
We have since seen harmony on high,
Tho astral strains are never heard.
We do hear the music of “our” sphere,
Where virtuosos perform in nature’s realm.
One has but to will to hear.

The splash of raindrops on trembling leaves,
And whistled wind-song thru dark reeds,
The high-pitched scratch of cricket limbs,
The basso profundo of bullfrog croaks,
And redundant “coo” of mourning doves,

The baby summoning her mom,
The wolf intoning his baritone aria,
The countless chirps of little birds,
The gleeful chatter of sportive chipmunks,
The staccato sound of barking dogs,
The brassy honks of flyover geese,
The lake’s soft slosh on muddy banks.

One can, in truth, faintly hear,
If he listens, most meditatively,
The upward thrust of perennial plants,
The final melt of tardy snow,
Spring, is that really you?
Have you just returned?
Welcome, do come in, Spring, my love.
Bienvenue!

-p.

Leonard N, Shapiro, 12/13/25, Kingston, N.Y.

After several years of reluctant denial, our persistent ethos regarding accuracy obliges us to radically alter our prior working theory that the Trump Administration is adequately desc incompetent and corrupt; we have arrived at the more specific and clinical decision that it empirically exceeds the pale of clinical sanity. The descriptive observation that “the inmates are running the asylum” appears to be frighteningly apt.

The fun-house mirror of quotidian distortion of objective reality has become the mundane reality of a polity, managed by a leader whose descriptive behavior may be more accurately noted by future students of American History in the DSM, rather than in the historical record.

The American public should have taken Donald Trump’s persistent support of “alternative facts” more seriously, if not characterologically clinical. There is no more existentially vital feature of a human being (let alone the President of the United States) than the clear and accurate perception of reality. The populist underbelly of the Nation reveled in Trump’s dissociative approach to empirical reality, no doubt misperceiving it as representative of a rebellion against the establishment, the cause of their many grievances with the quality of their limited and reductive lives.

For the moment, to put aside his anomalous selection of a menagerie of bizarre cabinet ministers, Trump’s record of behavior, in addition to his irrationally chosen policies, is indicative, not of the pursuit of a desired policy, but rather the lashing out of an assertive, reality-testing adolescent personality searching for an idealized love and esteem from a universal panel of representative and determinative human judiciary. His persona and actions, notwithstanding such existential need, foreclose him from admiration; indeed, from empirical normalcy.

We have painfully referenced many of Trump’s outrageously bizarre, counter-societal actions in past writings, but, in the interest of thematic context, will reprise some of Trump’s abnormalities by contrasting him with past American Presidents and allow the readers to draw their own conclusion concerning the mental and characterological fitness of our orange-hair dyed “Mad Hatter” Head of State.

Would Alexander Hamilton eternally wear a baseball cap? Would Woodrow Wilson sell golden sneakers from the Oval Office? Would FDR refer to the young Americans who lost their lives in WW2 as “suckers” and “losers”? Would Jimmy Carter frequent the sex establishment of Jeffrey Epstein? Would Abraham Lincoln unilaterally decide to demolish the East Wing of the United States White House? Would Lyndon Johnson decide, unilaterally, to bomb foreign countries without Congressional approval? Would Abraham Lincoln befriend the leaders of America’s White, Christian militias? Would either of the Bush Presidents withdraw medical and food relief to the needy? Would Teddy Roosevelt denounce the Nation’s programs of natural conservation? Would Woodrow Wilson, with the aid of a chainsaw-wielding, billionaire idiot savant, eliminate the utilitarian Federal Civil Service? Would Barack Obama impose tariffs on America’s trading partners, in some ignorant illusion that he will thereby improve the Nation’s economy?

The existential danger in Donald Trump’s actions is not simply his ignorant and reductionist lack of understanding, but the underlying lack of discernment, caused by an empirically proven mental incapacity; this is far from the acceptable persona of the Chief Executive of the most powerful nation on the planetm empirical avatar of democratic polity, and precariously, the singular possessor of the nuclear code.

We have eternally recommended the careful vetting of all Presidential candidates, failing which, the timely implementation of the Constitutional provisions for the removal of a disabled Chief Executive.

-p.

At this time of year, thoughts gravitate to the imminence of the verdant, mild-weathered Spring season, the crocuses, tulips, and daffodils, the arboreal primavera, cavorting chipmunks, and the noisy return of migrant birds. There is clean-up to do of the grounds, flower beds, and barbecue cookers, usually performed in the pleasant ambiance of engaging recorded music.

This year, sadly, the vernal celebration will, for the mainstream American citizen, be overshadowed and notably dampened by the dystopic management of the American Nation, domestically and internationally, to the degree that it has become, temporally unprecedented and unrecognizable. This spring, the crocuses and daffodils will effectively emerge in an alien and unfamiliar venue.

As of this writing, the protective and salutary provisions of the Founder’s Constitution, the guidance of the Nation’s Statutory Law, and the actions of the polity, per se, are deemed inconsequential as compared with the malign efforts to please an egocentric, monomaniac-qua dictator; whose sole preoccupation is to benefit himself, monetarily and egoistically, to the extreme peril of the fearfully transmogrified, dystopian citizenry.

The bunny rabbits, crocuses, and daffodils will have no awareness of the change of persona of our body politic. Still, the individual American citizen will be consigned to endure the chronic sequelae of a winter cold, a corrupt, unapathetic, self-serving dictatorship; the latter an unparalleled, dissonant disease of the Nation’s enlightened body politic. The salient question concerns the cause for such a transmogrification of a Nation, historically the avatar of enlightened rule, and the liberty of its citizens. descended to such an unprecedented political Armageddon?

The answer, while empirically philosophical and diverse in its ubiquitous toxicity, may be succinctly and accurately described as the proximate result of the populist election of an incompetent and egocentric President, whose selection of bizarre Cabinet ministers was based upon the singular requirement of fealty. The immolation of the traditional American way of life, and its signature freedoms and humanistic policies, were empirically predictable.

No enemy “Fifth Columnist,” or subversive organization could have accomplished the extent of injury and divided or disparaged our Nation and its historic institutions as successfully as our Presidential orange hazmat together with the worshipful cooperation of his personally selected, pernicious Cabinet menagerie.

To the delight of the Nation’s enemies, Trump and his baseball-hatted MAGA sycophants, effected what no “Tokyo Rose” or Herrmann Goebbels could conceivably accomplish by their enemy propaganda It is hoped that a wiser and better- informed voter will see to the restoration of the traditionally good health of America’s body politic, so that a citizen can once more evince an untroubled love of Spring daffodils and playful chipmunks.

-p.

It is truly remarkable that the entire organization of plinyblog.com, the managers and editors, the technical and creative staff, the legal department, and the public relations office, unanimously agreed that the venerated classic philosopher, Socrates, was the actual inventor of the (human) GPS. Socrates famously stated, “Know thyself,” and all those who ascribed (and still ascribe) to such sage advice have uniformly found their way.

It has been our perception that people who have maturely and adequately developed a stable, referentially available self-image live more fulfilling lives than those hapless individuals who inhale and exhale without reflection on their personal identity or self- generated perceptions of their human and circumstantial environments. It is that waste of potential that enables inefficient or inappropriate action and renders them vulnerable to influencers and demagogues. It is our considered opinion that such vulnerability was the prime impactful element of the election and re-election of the worst Presidential Administration in its history.

It might be contextually appropriate, at this point in this brief writing, to hazard our views on the development of a mature and consistent stable self-image, one that is founded upon individually chosen principles, invulnerable to contrary influences.

Since every human being is born with a “tabula rasa” (a clean slate) ( John Locke), his knowledge of himself, like all his knowledge, is learned or acquired through his personal experience. As we perceive it, one’s self-image or personal identity is cumulatively acquired through interaction with other members of one’s society. The perceived nature of the response of others to the individual is elemental to the establishment of his personal nuance, conceivably colored by protective or defining self-indulgence. In any event, the empirical process of the development of a stable self-image is the personal guide, or “GPS,” to the nature of the response (save any other empirically impactful considerations).

The mature and healthy development of a stable, personally referable self-image renders one foundationally rooted, morally, politically, and personally at the time of presenting choice Such a mature and stable response to stimuli of every stripe is enhanced by a lifetime of useful introspection, guided by an open mind, a product of the desire for advancement, by reading and the arts, as well as interaction with informed and educated individuals. The examination of the lives of others, fictional and biographical, is a useful and instructive guide to the development of individual Man’s GPS, his Socratic adherence to his appropriate place and responses to ubiquitously presenting issues.

Self-understanding (“Know Thyself”) is an existentially indispensable guide to the aspirational journey to a fulfilled life and the utilitarian GPS guide to humanistic living.

-p.

Today’s title, Latin for “Out of Many, One,” is the official motto of the United States and appears on its Great Seal and currency. It would follow, in principle, that bigotry, racial, religious, or ethnic, as it exists, is a cognitively dissonant phenomenon.

It is empirically undeniable that, other than its indigenous peoples, the American Nation is in large part, populated by immigrants and their progeny. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that the dynamics of racial, religious, and ethnic prejudice have been a significantly regrettable feature of its national history. Despite the existence of legal strictures, the universal acceptance of metaphysically moral and humanistic principles, and the dedicated efforts of many self-sacrificing historical reformers, the disease of bigotry seems to be chronic in all its toxic virulence.

It is indisputable that all “prejudice” is empirically irrational, as it is not based on reason or actual experience. “Xenophobia, in our view, is not only repugnant, as are other contextual un-American and irrational ideations, but, as a singular matter, rightfully deserves the gold medal for ultimate absurdity.

“Xenophobia” connotes the fear or hatred of all persons perceived as “outsiders,” ranging from sub- rosa internalized feelings to programs of systemic violence. As to the latter, one can call to mind, as a recent illustration, the Gestapo-style tactics of the odious masked and heavily armed militia of rogue Americans (“ICE”), wreaking misery and homicide on subjectively perceived immigrants; the latter miscreants generously funded and sanctioned by the dystopic Trump Administration.

Stated simply, “immigrants” are persons who come to this country to live permanently, in most cases to improve the lives of their families, or as refugees from autocratic misery. The defined category does not encompass qualitative or descriptive characteristic, other than their expressed intention to live in the United States, We have eternally been at a complete loss in our efforts to comprehend the basis or etiology of those who would exalt the rationally unexplainable hatred or fear of entirely unknown “others,” who, like the tradition of past immigrants, come to this Nation to work and live better lives.

Donald J. Trump, in his demagogic descriptions of immigrants coming to America as “caravans of criminals and rapists,” tactically caters to the support of the Nation’s bigoted, inadequately educated, and uninformed populist voters; the latter, conceptually desirous of exalting their marginal public status as contrastingly accepted members of a restricted population. It is conceivable that such perceived recognition of status is the perverse dynamic of their toxic xenophobia. Aggravating such ignorance and neurotic presumption is the lack of empirical recognition of their own immigrant forebears.

Trump’s “Caravans of Undesirables” include many thousands of exemplary immigrants such as Yasha Heifetz, Albert Einstein, Victor Borge, Henry Kissinger, Elie Wiesel, James Audubon, Joseph Pulitzer, Alexander Graham Bell, Levi-Strauss, Madeleine Albright, and too many societally celebrated immigrants to pragmatically list in a brief writing.

Xenophobia, like other phobias, is, inarguably, neither healthy, just, nor productive. In our view, it is the most bizarre and “Looney Tunes” variety of bigotry, in that it is an expression of hatred singularly based upon an activity, viz., a change of homeland (irrespective of the class or ethnic identity of the victim). Can a rational explanation be furnished for the hatred of persons, solely castigated for their intention to change their family’s residence? No neurotically based personal grounds are postulated for this brand of prejudice, save the victim’s intention to live in another country. It makes as much (neurotic) sense as hating all bakers, baseball players, or bus commuters. Irrationally, such a sole, ()thematic “activity of immigration” provides the foundational basis of the hatred, generally analogous to the irrationality of race and ethnic prejudice, prevalent in other cases of unwarranted bias.

Construing a self-serving “pecking order” of humanity or irrational engagement in the hatred of racial or ethnic classes of people is humanistically and morally reprehensible and un-American. Bigotry based upon the victim’s legal choice of action is also reprehensible, and as well, empirically and dystopically irrational.

-p.