The ant has made himself illustrious

Through constant industry industrious

So what?

Would you be calm and placid

If you were full of formic acid?
			
			~ Ogden Nash		

Another Elton John number. Just coincidence, I haven't been listening to the guy overmuch or anything. Was ruminating on fame and success and how it changes some people (though fortunately, not all!) and the song just came to mind!

Goodbye Norma Jean
Though I never knew you at all
You had the grace to hold yourself
While those around you crawled
They crawled out of the woodwork
And they whispered into your brain
They set you on the treadmill
And they made you change your name

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in
And I would have liked to have known you
But I was just a kid
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend never did

Loneliness was tough
The toughest role you ever played
Hollywood created a superstar
And pain was the price you paid
Even when you died
Oh the press still hounded you
All the papers had to say
Was that Marilyn was found in the nude

Goodbye Norma Jean
From the young man in the 22nd row
Who sees you as something as more than sexual
More than just our Marilyn Monroe

 -          Elton John

When you're a success, most everyone's willing to be your friend. If you really want to know who your true friends are, fail!

~ lakesidey

Caught a nice sunset today (alas, no camera handy!); the sun, artfully hidden behind a bank of low clouds, was dripping molten rays to the horizon below. Later in the evening, there was also a full moon, or near as makes no difference. Awakened some memories :o(

Am reading P G Wodehouse and Ogden Nash currently (thanks CV for the Nash!) Bliss!

                    That reminds me...

Just imagine yourself seated on a shadowy terrace,
And beside you is a girl who stirs you more strangely than a heiress.
It is a summer evening at its most superb,
And the moonlight reminds you that To Love is an active verb,
And the stars are twinkling like anything,
And a distant orchestra is playing some sentimental old Vienna thing,
And your hand clasps hers, which rests there without shrinking,
And after a silence fraught with romance you ask her what she is thinking,
And she starts and returns from the moon-washed distances to the shadowy veranda,
And says, Oh, I was wondering how many bamboo shoots a day it takes to feed a baby Giant Panda.

Or you stand with her on a hilltop and gaze on a winter sunset
And everything is as starkly beautiful as a page from Sigrid Undset,
And your arm goes round her waist and you make an avowal which for masterfully marshaled emotional content might have been a page of Ouida's or Thackeray's,
And after a silence fraught with romance she says, I forgot to order the limes for the Daiquiris.

Or in twilight drawing room you have just asked the most momentous of questions,
And after a silence fraught with romance she says, I think this little table would look better where that little table is, but then where would that little table go, have you any suggestions?

And that's the way they go round hitting below our belts;

It isn't that nothing is sacred to them, it's just that at the Sacred Moment they are always thinking of something else.

                                         ~ Ogden Nash

~lakesidey

From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun
There's more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round

It's the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life

		- Elton John 

Love is just a figment of the imagination.

Like unicorns, and fairies, and tax returns.

And eternal friendship? Surely you jest!

People come and people go, and

One makes new friends all the time,

The old must make way for the new -

Such is the nature of life.
 

In days, or maybe months (they say,

These people who do not believe in love)

You'll forget, and the wounds will heal

And life, as always, will go on

And then, of course (they kindly add

Seeing that this does not convince me)

When one bids a friend goodbye, there is always

The joy of a future meeting to anticipate.

All this may be true, but if so -

Why does my coffee taste of ashes today?

Why does my breath catch in my throat

And the sun seem lifeless and gray?