Passing the 'But' buck.

I feel sorry for 'But' often misused, a parachute for the hypocrites.
"I don't agree with Terrorists but…….."
"I'm not a racist but…….."
'But' is the buck of excuses being passed.
Poor But, but still, but otherwise is ok.

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The Caliphate, the Caliphate,
a disneyland of blood and hate.

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'Ex Pats' - Transgender Irish?

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If god exists he/she is sleeping on the job.

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The world definitely needs a pause button, let's take 5 and chill out, we've started taking ourselves too serious.

Passing The Time.

I went to a funeral yesterday, my neighbors mother , I'd never met her or even seen her but as a mark of solidarity in grief and support for my neighbor ,I went.
A funeral is always a moment to reflect, it made me think of my own funeral whenever that will take place, I wonder how many people will be there, how many will have fond memories and how many will be there out of sympathy for the family? Not that it will influence me, I'll be dead.
Death, the only thing that money,influence and importance cannot change- we all die, some of us can delay it, but in the end it happens to all of us, as someone once put it 'Death is the great equalizer'.

So if it is going to happen to us all it's pointless dwelling on it, it'll be there fast enough, when? we don't know, so let's just carry on with life and try as hard as we can to enjoy these precious moments before death, life.

We don't ask to be born, but it happens, then we are who we are, where we are, we are given an allotted place and an allotted time, neither of which are within our power. We are created ,if we are lucky, we are given support and an education and then we have to pass the time until our own death.
That 'passing the time' is what real life is about, I'm one of the lucky ones, I was created in a wealthy part of the world, I have more freedoms than most others on this planet could only dream of. So here we are, and we have to pass the time we have been given. We work, we play, we entertain, we love, we hate, we take our turn to create, we get older (if we're lucky) and we 'get on', each in our own way.

The end comes, how that feels ? we don't really know,the dead have a secret and they don't share it with the living so we don't really know what 'the end' feels like, all we can hope is that when it comes it's quick and painless.
Meanwhile we live, we are the living, we should not waste time, it's all we really have. So thanks for reading this, it probably took you about 3-4 minutes, time you will never get back, hopefully you don't regret your decision, after all it's your time and you do with it what you will.

Quiet Time.

Seeing as I’m on stage a few times per week it may sound strange that I would consider myself an introvert, and yet that is how I would describe myself.

I have never felt at ease in a group, even when I played football I never felt ‘part’ of the team. In a group of people I have always felt as if I was on the outside looking in never knowing how to act or what to say, and usually over compensating and being a complete idiot or bore. 

Now I have resigned myself to my ‘introvert me’ and I must say it feels good. This doesn’t mean I’m a ‘loner’ or not up for meeting or working with others, it just means that I enjoy wholeheartedly the time I spend on my own and don’t feel bad about it. I try to avoid situations where I’ll we with large groups of people (except at football matches, but there is no ‘small talk’ in a buzzing stadium).

There will always be (of course) the feeling of not fitting in, seeing as we live in a more and more extrovert society, where everybody is judged on their ability to work as a team, to be a ‘people person’ and to be very outgoing and outspoken. 

Being an introvert I get loads of ‘me time’ also known to me as ‘quiet time’ , time on my own where I get to think things through, contemplate my ideas, read, write, work in the garden or just laying around daydreaming. I still post stuff on the so called ‘social network sites’ because as a performer I guess that is what is expected of me, but I don’t let it take control.

I often wonder how people formulate ideas and find rest and peace in their minds in this world where we are always switched on, on line, connected and hardly ever alone with our thoughts. It seems to me that more and more opinions are formed with less and less information. In the quest to be the first on-line with a critical voice or a funny comment on any news item we often just go by the headlines and forget to read the details.

Is this the spark that lights the ‘burn-outs‘ ? The physical and mental exhaustion that comes with always being switched on, even when we are relaxing we are constantly letting everybody know through our on-line postings and tweets that we are relaxing and taking it easy, even if that does mean getting nervous because there is no internet or wi-fi connection where we are ‘relaxing’. The internet has not so much become an addiction but more a dictator, it’s as if we fear what might happen if we stop posting photos, experiences, opinions or the way we feel. In that way internet and social media have become the ‘big brother’ television screens at everyones home in the book and film 1984 (G.Orwell) . 

Anyway, being an introvert I’ll be spared the burn-outs, and the urge to always be on-line, which doesn’t mean I won’t use the internet of course I will ,but I will use it as just one more entertainment source and a way to promote whatever it is I’m doing on the stand-up scene. 

Further I’ll be enjoying my own company without guilt, the ‘quiet time’ .