gloat gloat gloat

O the envey! One PW beats 3 no names.

Deep from within the drives of an old server I found this about Anvils

Relative to a human being, an anvil is highly durable - a single anvil may go through many stewards with proper care. One develops an affinity with ones anvil, ones partner in creation, and so one comes to identify oneself with the anvil upon which one gazes during creative endeavors. To own an anvil, and to invest ones anvil with oneself through work, gives one the "feel" of immortality.

The anvil as permanent object and partner in creation takes on almost Godlike qualities in the deep reaches of the psyche - it is durable, faithful, is able to absorb our frustrations without changing, is immovable, and it communicates with us directly without the intervention of a human voice.

An anvil speaks of the lost moments of ones childhood - a time when everyone knew what an anvil looked like, when a cartoon could show a falling anvil landing on a character, and no child would say "What was that?" Anvils were present at the founding of our nation, and yet predate it. An anvil we possess might have been used by an ancestor, who themselves gazed upon the anvil and wondered what of their progeny might share a relationship with it in the future.

An anvil is therefore a symbol of permanence, of a continuity of relationship between and across generations of its owners of the same blood. Anvils are the tangible metaphor for the invisible anchors that moor our families and our civilization against chaos. One may not believe in ones friends or immediate family, or the President, or whomever, but there is no denying the rooted permanence of a 300-lb. anvil. It's there pal, no doubt about it.

Possession of and use of an anvil is the exercise of power - the power of creation, and the sheer vital, physical power of muscle-against-wood propelling steel-against- steel. The power to possess and anvil is the power to direct the path of industry and creativity, to bring forth beautiful objects to command the awe and respect of the aesthete, and weapons to command obedience from those who would otherwise try to take ones anvil.

Finally, the anvil is the model, the archetype, the spiritual symbol of virtue: all-weathering with faithfulness, accepting every blow without complaint or attempt to dodge, answering the strike with the consistent and beautiful ring of truth and integrity. The anvil may be beaten, melted, cut, and otherwise defaced, but with the last molecular connection of its being it maintains its anvilness to the last - an example to us all.

One buys every anvil one sees for four reasons: To assimilate through association the virtues, power, and character of each of ones anvils; to inherit the creative powers of all those with whom the anvil formerly shared relationship; to build a mountain of anvils upon which one may place oneself, in order to shout to the world " I have many anvils!" and finally, to deprive ones competing suitors for all those anvils of the powers inherent in their possession.

The draw to collecting many anvils is the desire to accomplish all of the above, coupled with the subliminal reaction to the knowledge that even anvils are impermanent, That they rust, are stolen, and that, for all their other virtues, they pass from one hand to the other without allegiance, sentiment, or loyalty - gotta have some spares.

The above-described and pervasive impulse to collect good anvils is why I seem not to have any anvils at all: by the time I realized their value (only recently), I find that someone else is hoarding them.

Hugh

Anvils are also good for making railroad coffee.

Put the anvil in the pot. When it floats, the coffee is ready.

"Hugh Prescott" wrote in news:412ac342 snipped-for-privacy@newsfeed.slurp.net:

So.... ya gonna make a lamp outta it, or actually *use* it??? Ken.