63

Act without doing;
work without effort.
Think of the small as large
and the few as many.
Confront the difficult
while it is still easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts.

The Master never reaches for the great;
thus she achieves greatness.
When she runs into a difficulty,
she stops and gives herself to it.
She doesn’t cling to her own comfort;
thus problems are no problem for her.

Tao Te Ching by Lao-tsu, trans. by Stephen Mitchell

Today I considered finding some words of response to the show-funeral that resulted from Charlie Kirk’s assassination. But a few minutes after arriving at Starbucks I happened to view the sunrise. It was magnificent beyond words. I changed my mind and no longer considered devoting time to the event of yesterday in Colorado. I will have to write more about fascism later, but not now.

The quoted lines describe a disposition, a style, an approach of noncoercive action, wúwéi (無為). Lao-tsu advises: address the ordinariness of life with concentration, – and bring your best effort. Example. How difficult is it to efficiently dress oneself after waking, – achieving a look and feel of comportment, of expression that can only be you? Well, it’s not difficult! But how important to get this Tuesday off “on the right foot”? The importance cannot be stressed enough! Learn never to underestimate the mundane.

Details, details, – the entirety of a matter is nothing other than a composition of details! Every detail matters, and deserves complete attention. Each detail being small can be nudged in a productive direction. Then, at the end of the day, each task, the whole series, one after the other, all together amount to a final result that surpasses what you expected.

---

Back to the sunrise. Claude Monet would have delighted in the show of daybreak over the pond just behind Starbucks. The Iphone captured the image in the header.

---

I am compelled to conclude with this glam rock anthem. Every Rose Has It’s Thorn became a signature hit for Poison. The lyric comes from Bret Michael’s lived experience. And you will notice the prototypical Taoist polarity of yin and yang in the lyric.

Every Rose Has Its Thorn

We both lie silently still in the dead of the night
Although we both lie close together
We feel miles apart inside
Was it something I said or something I did?
Did my words not come out right?
Though I tried not to hurt you
Though I tried
But I guess that’s why they say:

Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn
Yeah it does

I listen to our favorite song playing on the radio
Hear the DJ say, “love’s a game of easy come and easy go”
But I wonder, does he know?
Has he ever felt like this?
And I know that you’d be here right now
If I could have let you know somehow, I guess

Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn

Though, it’s been a while now
I can still feel so much pain
Like a knife that cuts you the wound heals
But the scar, that scar remains

I know I could have saved a love that night
If I’d known what to say
Instead of making love, we both made our separate ways
And now, I hear you found somebody new
And that I never meant that much to you
To hear that tears me up inside
And to see you cuts me like a knife, I guess

Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn