JAN 9, 15 .. GOD .. SPIRITUALITY .. CARDBOARD ..

RUN GULLIBLE !

“With that gauntlet thrown-down-before me HOW ON EARTH can I run Captain!” /signed/ GULLIBLE wandering around on a boat somewhere in India ..

GULLIBLE .. What I am going to write here has pushed my own reality out to the limit of credibility. IF I MYSELF wonder if what I am going to write makes any sense .. How can I expect you to come down from orbit and join in here? Come down from orbit? .. This could blow you out of your orbit with frustration!

As in : “OH Captain! You’ve gone over the edge Captain! Oh My _______ Captain what a load of _______ ! You’ve lost your mind Captain! ABSOLUTE UTTER NONSENSE! ” .. “Do you really believe what you are about to confound us with Captain?”

You are 100% correct GULLIBLE. No argument. You are now IN India. I sure hope that what I found in INDIA in the Spring of 1991 doesn’t infect you Gullible. One of my three great and profound spiritual awakenings from my first trip to India happened to me in the Spring of 1991 at the National Hotel in Pune south of Bombay India. I was traveling hither-and-yon from one Ashram (Jaipur) to another Ashram (Pune) to yet another Ashram (Ganishpuri) and YES OH YES to still another Ashram (Sai Baba in Puttaparthi) .. In search of the Spiritual Truth of Life and of the Universe through Meditation. The enlightenment that was rained down upon me has empowered me to write this Post.

Ah Captain ?.. Can we have just one photo to break this text up Captain?

Since you are still with me .. Sure .. Here is one photo for you photo-starved readers!

What? The photo isn’t enough? Now you want an explanation?

The photo above is a photo of part of my bed at 23 Mercer Street in the Sheung Wan (Shen Wan) District of Hong Kong on Hong Kong Island proper. The pillows you understand .. I rest my back upon them as I write .. The piece of board I rescued from a Dumpster and it makes an excellent surface for me to write upon. The black box with a hose coming from it is my C.P.A.P. breathing machine for my Sleep Apnea.

Yes but!  What on earth are those two THINGS hanging down from the shelf above your bed Captain?

The round black thing is an exotic JBL Speaker so that I can play my music on my iPod Shuffle (the little square green and white gadget hanging down from the JBL Speaker). Another photo? 

LOOK GULLIBLE ! IF you were listening endlessly to Enya and Acoustic Ocean and THE PHANTOM and you were about to attend your second showing of THE PHANTOM this Sunday with a third showing next Tuesday ..  YOU TOO might be losing it.

GULLIBLE will you consider this Spiritual Truth? Who among us knows Jack Squat about anything in the Spiritual World? The fact is that the more we study and the more we learn and the more we expand our minds THE MORE WE TRULY REALIZE HOW LITTLE WE KNOW!

Below is one of Meister Eckhart’s many truths:

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.

You can GOOGLE Meister Eckhart .. He lived back in the late 1200s into the early 1300s.

Ready? Set? GO!

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

As I was walking back to 23 Mercer Street I SAW IT ! “Oh Lord God of Abraham Creator of Heaven and Earth I want .. and I MUST have .. THAT!” .. “I will ask that man standing by IT IF I can have IT!” .. “Ah Sir .. I am wondering if THAT belongs to you and IF SO .. May I please have that?” .. He seemed to be either a merchant or workman and was across the street and down a few doors from 23 Mercer Street. Because I may be seeing him daily I wanted to be polite and NOT just take what was not mine and walk away with it.

He couldn’t speak English and looked at me with a dumb founded look and didn’t have a clue what I was saying. So I gestured and using some body language I pleaded my case with him and I ‘acted-as-if’ I was just taking IT and walked away with IT. He still didn’t have a clue and as I walked slowly away from him and headed up the street I kept looking back at him keeping eye contact with him and I smiled and waived my THANKS to him. Holding IT tightly. He noded and smiled and so I FELT it was O.K. to take my prize.

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. Meister Eckhart .. And I said .. “Thank You Oh God of Abraham.”

Oh My will you all just look at my TREASURE ! CARDBOARD !

Not all of it was useful .. In fact most of it was just trash so I had to ‘harvest’ out the best AND it took some doing but it was well worth it.

Below is my little ‘haul’ .. Just what I so wanted and needed .. Some CARDBOARD to work with!

“Oh my God Captain .. You warned me .. BUT I had absolutely NO IDEA you were going to flip-out over some lousy cardboard trash!” /signed/ .. GULLIBLE wandering around on a boat somewhere in India .. IF this is what you caught back in the Spring of 1991 in India Captain .. I WANT NO PART OF IT!

Gullible .. My problem is space. I am in a very small studio apartment (200 square feet give-or-take) and I need to create some shelf space for myself. I have a very restrictive lease that forbids even one single nail being pounded into anything anyplace in the apartment. Below is one of my two existing shelves .. So I decided to make another shelf from cardboard. THAT .. my need for cardboard .. is what led me to getting some.

“Oh M’ God I get it! I have been in your cabin in Manley Hot Springs Alaska and I have SEEN FOR MYSELF that your answer to life’s problems is to install shelves and more ever more shelves! I get it now!” /signed/ .. GULLIBLE wandering around on a boat somewhere in India ..

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. Meister Eckhart.

And I said to God .. “OH God of Abraham .. THANK YOU SO MUCH for the blessing of some humble cardboard trash.” 

So out and off went Gimme-Some Roy to the land that knows no time .. Down a trail no man could conquer to a cliff no man could climb .. Shel Silverstein .. The Search For The Perfect High .. It is quite the writing.

And next day I was walking down Burd Street heading to 23 Mercer Street and .. OH MY .. Will you look at THAT ..

“Kind Sir?” I said to him .. “May I please have THAT?” .. as with the man above .. this man too was a kind Chinese elderly gentleman .. down on his knees shelling probably ten dozen eggs .. He sort of absent mindedly nodded and smiled and OFF I WENT with (I thought) THE MOTHER LODE!

Oh you beautiful egg carton box .. You may just turn out to be an END TABLE to sit at the end of my small desk.

And I giggled to myself and I said .. “Oh God of Abraham .. My Creator .. THANK YOU so much for more .. even better .. cardboard.”

So out and off went Gimme-Some Roy to the land that knows no time .. Down a trail no man could conquer to a cliff no man could climb .. Shel Silverstein .. The Search For The Perfect High ..

“I came in here to my local Wellcome (yes oh yes it IS spelled with two letters ‘l’) Market to buy bottled water. I am going to buy two and just take the case as-if I need it to carry my two .. 5 litre .. jugs of water.”

Good .. very good clean and smooth cardboard .. fine quality and strong and sturdy to hold the weight of four 5 litre jugs of water.

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. Meister Eckhart.

And I giggled to myself and again I said .. “Oh God of Abraham .. My Creator .. THANK YOU so much for still more .. even better .. cardboard.”

Same chit-chat .. different Chinese gentleman .. different place .. same result .. more still even better cardboard .. this THE BEST SO FAR .. brand new clean and super thick and strong .. it was like it had never ever been used!

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. Meister Eckhart.

And I giggled again to myself and I said .. “Oh God of Abraham .. My Creator .. THANK YOU so much for more .. even better .. cardboard.”

And in the very heart of the major downtown Central Business District of Hong Kong .. walking home from a morning meeting at St. Joseph’s Church .. on QUEENS ROAD CENTRAL .. between Ice House Street and Wyndham Street .. I think that I truly hit THE MOTHER LODE ! 

SEVEN gigantic sheets of seemingly never used perfectly flat cardboard .. Sitting there .. as IF just waiting for me to come along .. beside a street vendor’s newspaper stand .. And I said .. and HE said in perfect English .. “Sure .. Take it all IF you so choose!” ..

I can NOT believe for one single instant that the Spiritual Universe is thinking to itself ..

“Cap sure is pleased with his cardboard. Giving THANKS for receiving throw-away trash. Maybe we will up-the-ante for him and give him some even better cardboard.”

Hum-m-m .. “HIT HIM AGAIN DEALER!” with more and with better cardboard .. and .. Hum-m-m .. “HIT HIM AGAIN DEALER!”

I do not know. I just find the above series of events to be .. FASCINATING !

As Buffalo Springfield said .. in their hit song .. and the title of my writings for years .. For What It’s Worth ..

Something IS happening here .. What it is ain’t exactly clear! ..

SO ?  SO WHO’S TO SAY ?

The fact is I was truly happy with .. and grateful to get .. the trashed Coca Cola carton. Then in the next several cardboard encounters I got progressively better and better cardboard and I kept saying thanks over and over again. Did some unknown force in the universe keep giving me the improved cardboard? Impossible! BUT who knows? The Shadow maybe?

The first shelf that I made from the Coca Cola carton .. had to be spliced together since the cardboard was not large enough to make a single one-piece shelf. You can see if you look closely that I added a section of cardboard in the center underneath the top two shelf pieces to secure them into a single shelf. Go down two photos below for a view of the bottom side of this first shelf and you can clearly see this support piece between the two shelf pieces.

Because the seven sheets that I call my MOTHER LODE of cardboard that I got on Queens Road Central are so large .. I could make the a second shelf a one piece shelf .. I found some trash (literally) wood in a street dumpster and I used this wood to really secure the top shelf to its vertical support pieces.

Below you can see how I attached the two pieces of the lower shelf together. Both underneath and to make the unit more rigid a corner support on the right and behind the center vertical support.

The proof is in the pudding .. not in the recipe. These two cardboard shelves are really becoming a joy for me to organize my bobbseys.

Below are some more uses for the cardboard ..

My C.P.A.P. Sleep Apnea breathing machine basically lives up on the shelf above my bed .. for one thing it needs a hard surface to rest upon because it generates heat and needs air circulation below it.

I laminated some cardboard together to give it a firm resting place upon which to put it allowing me to place the C.P.A.P. down on the bed beside me. Sometimes this position for the C.P.A.P. is better.

You will never guess what I am doing below. You can see under the 5 litre bottle of distilled water I have a stack of cardboard squares being glued together to make two individual smaller stacks of cardboard.

Below are the two smaller stacks of cardboard squares. AND? .. What on this good earth do I intend to do with these two laminated-together stacks of cardboard squares? When I am down on the floor of my apartment to get under my bed at things stored under the bed or when I am on the floor cutting cardboard pieces .. I rest my elderly sometimes aching KNEES upon one or two (if necessary) of the cardboard squares.  They provide a nice giving comfortable cushion for my knees.

AND ? .. A photo or two truly are worth a thousand words. When you make Instant Noodles you lift the lid of the noodle container up and pour boiling water over the noodles. Then you smooth the lid back down as the noodles steep and cook. The problem is sometimes (usually) the lid does not stay down. So I place over the lid a used inverted noodle cup and to hold that in place a jar full of water. So the jar of water has a firm footing and will not tip over and spill the noodles .. I use a cardboard square as you see below.

I do NOT steep the noodles on the bed as you see below. I could do so if I wanted to by using one of the C.P.A.P. cardboard pieces shown five photos above.

If it was not for the cardboard square (several pieces laminated together) the water would be extremely tippy and unstable!

As my favorite poet Robert W. Service wrote .. I’m not so wise as those lawyer guys but strictly between us two ..

That’s my story and I am sticking with it. THANKS GULLIBLE .. I could not have put this together without you.

Smiles .. Cap .. 

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