Christmas Thoughts, From Rumi and Me

Christ is the population of the world

and every object as well.  There is no room

for hypocrisy.  Why use bitter soup for healing

when sweet water is everywhere?

(Rumi)

and from me:

As Christmas ends,

here on the other side of 12 21 12,

make change in the world, dear friends,

by being the Jesus in yourselves. . . 

wishing you a blessed holiday,

every single day.

And again, from Rumi:

Lovers think they're looking for each other,

but there's only one search: wandering 

this world is wandering that, both inside one

transparent sky.  In here

there is no dogma and no heresy.

The miracle of Jesus is himself, not what he said or did

about the future.  Forget the future.

I'd worship someone who could do that.

On the way you may want to look back, or not,

but if you can say There's nothing ahead,

there will be nothing there.

Stretch your arms and take hold the cloth of your clothes

with both hands.  The cure for pain is in the pain.

Good and bad are mixed.  If you don't have both,

you don't belong with us.

When one of us gets lost, is not here, he must be inside us.

There's no place like that anywhere in the world.

(Rumi - both translated by Coleman Barks)

(both photos taken at Cheestnut Ridge Park, 

in Orchard Park, New York)

Today Is Your Happy Ever After

( from: mapmaker )

As we all know,

tomorrow is 12 21 2012.

Not a perfect palindrome, but nigh close to one.

And it is, according to interpretations of

ancient Mayan reports,

the End of the World.

I read somewhere, in fact, that 11:00 am is a time

to be wary of.

Now, I'm not certain if that accounts for

New Zealand Time,

Eastern Standard Time,

Lunar Standard Time,

Central Time,

Greenwich Mean Time,

or 

what to do about the 

International Dateline.

But either way, be on your best behavior,

because no one truly knows the hour,

but we do have the date,

and that's tomorrow.

Now, I don't mean to be flippant about this matter.

At a certain point in my blogging career,

I was pretty focused on getting folks to straighten up their acts.

Indeed, I wrote a rather naive entry about 11/11/11,

proposing that everyone should be on their best behavior from then until now,

and maybe, just maybe,

if this truly to be the judgement hour,

the Lord On High would forgive us for our transgressions,

if we were to correct them for a year.

But, judging by the events of the last year, 

no one paid attention.

Indeed, it sometimes appears

that evil has compounded,

reaching heights never imagined before.

I need

not give examples, just

fill in a few for yourself.  There are plenty.

( wikipedia )

Will the world end, though?

Come back on Saturday,

by then we'll know.

In the meantime, remember:

if the end is nigh,

today is the day to say

your goodbyes,

to say your "I'm sorry"s

to tell mom you love her so,

to sit in silence

and listen to snow~

I suspect we won't get off so easy,

we won't disappear in a big bang.

We'll do it to ourselves.

We'll destroy our planet,

we'll kill our children,

we'll refuse to compromise,

we'll perpetuate wars on

unsolvable problems,

we'll go on and on and on,

until someday, slowly, we'll realized 

we're dying,

and no one's coming to save us,

or command us,

or damn us.

Our cruelest judge,

when that time comes,

will be ourselves,

each solitary, self-hating self:

as we look in the mirror of our past deeds,

we'll see,

the evil has existed in you and me.

So, too, does the good.

The attitude I've taken,

and the reason I haven't written here for awhile

(that plus my terrible busy-ness!),

is because I believe

Today

is My Happy Ever After.

Every morning,

I wake up

is the day I've lived all my life to live.

And yes,

I've lived them,

one by one.

You, too.

As you prepare for Apocalypse,

live today as it is

your only day,

your happy ever after,

and every person you encounter

is here for your joy.

And then it won't matter

what happens tomorrow.

Because tomorrow will be

just another day

like today.

True Communion

( from: Food52 )

There are words we pass

To pass the time

And words of civility,

And words, like coins,

That fill that rhyme,

And too many of acrimony.

These words we spend

Without a thought,

Disregarding the ceremony

That occurs each time

We pass a word,

Like bread,

From mouth to mouth.

There is a wordspring,

Deep inside, where

Language lingers,

Brooding,

Aching to bond the hearts and minds

Of each sad, solitary human.

So we must treat the sharing of words,

As it should be, as

Communion,

Because in sharing words,

Like bread,

We find immortal union.

(From: Chopra )

Towards a New Kind of Diva: Goldie Blox

You rock, girl:

Looking for America . . . .

It's painful to me,

how long I go without writing here.

I didn't even get in a post-election entry.

But every day my mind and spirit aches for the time

to sit and write,

even the simplest line,

a bad attempt at poetry.

Of course, I'm happy of the outcome,

but like some aging troubadours,

I wonder if we can still do it,

still fulfill the dream. . . 

. . . and so we dream. . . 

dream on . . . 

Vote

It appears that FOX News

has decided to do political analysis of muppets.

It appears they've decided

to pick on someone their own size:

Unfortunately, the effect of this piece of brilliant analysis

may actually just prove them to be precisely what they

are setting out to discredit:

puppets

So now

I send my feeble electronic voice out

across these great United States

and ask you to vote your conscience,

vote with honesty

and the same idealism that so many people used four years ago.

Why I Voted the Socialist Ticket

BY VACHEL LINDSAY

I am unjust, but I can strive for justice.

My life’s unkind, but I can vote for kindness.

I, the unloving, say life should be lovely.

I, that am blind, cry out against my blindness.

Man is a curious brute—he pets his fancies—

Fighting mankind, to win sweet luxury.

So he will be, though law be clear as crystal,

Tho’ all men plan to live in harmony.

Come, let us vote against our human nature,

Crying to God in all the polling places

To heal our everlasting sinfulness

And make us sages with transfigured faces.

. . . after a brief silence: winter, again

Winter again, this year will it be

rugged, demandingly, indeed

it approaches, insisting

attention, and yet we don't heed

the oncoming force that

belittles elections, not to mention T.V.

                                                   Be

ready to be awed in the true sense of the word. Vocabulary

can't encompass

the winter we're about to see.

(I do hope all my blogging friends

are fine.  I've had a terribly busy

semester ~ ~ nice to just

be moving my fingers across the keys!)

Why The Republicans Gave Obama The Election in 2008.

Do you remember 2008

in the U.S.A.?

(from reuters )

I do.

I remember thinking in 2008:

this economy is going to get worse before it gets better.

( from palinnation )

I also remember thinking the Republican Party made a huge strategical error:

They actually thought the American public still wanted a ticket that was at least

half good ol' boy. And half "we need a war hero

to get us out of this mess."

And they were wrong.

America wanted someone different, and

they wanted someone who could speak in a coherent sentence,

( from wikipedia )

someone who could impress middle-America

and the east and west coast as well.

Who would have believed he could be black on top of it?

I wish I could remember when I realized that the Republicans

were going to give Obama the election.

There was some kind of giddy goofy exchange

that I heard between McCain and Palin,

and I thought:

these two aren't serious about this race.

There was also a meeting,

I think it happened in late October 2008,

a precedent setting meeting,

when Obama met with 

all the living presidents,

and I thought to myself:

I would love to be a fly on that wall.

I imagined the conversation went like this:

ALL THE LIVING PRESIDENTS:  "Barack, we're fucked.  America is in

the worst financial shape she's ever been in, most of the world hates us

and doesn't trust us, we're in a really crappy war,

and there's a really good chance that

it will get worse before it gets better.

Want to be the first Black American president?"

OBAMA: (still with the audacity to hope): "yes! I think I can do that!"

And the Republicans,

who have the calculating shrewdness of the very best psychopath,

said, "We think you're the best man for the job.

 The hope you bring

will make America feel good,

and the rest of the world like us

a little

again."

(By the way, that is an imagined dialogue.

Please don't quote me as accurate

;however,

sometimes I think that's precisely what happened:

Barack Obama was offered a place in history.)

 ( from language log )

What the Republicans also knew,

and probably anyone with half a brain also knew

was that, over the four years between

2008 and 2012

 the economy would continue to tank,

the war would get bloodier,

the terrorists would terrorize more,

and

America would forget,

oh so quickly forget

how bad we were before

Barack Obama became our 44th president.

And yes, under this young new black president,

international opinion began to turn,

as the rest of the world hoped, too, that America

was back on course to living in the world with them.

And yes, even as the Obama Administration made attempts,

with no help from the Republicans in Congress,

to change America's course,

the economy tanked more,

as anything in freefall is prone to do,

and terror became homegrown.

In fact, the Conservative spin industry in 2008 knew 

that

by 2010, Americans would be wondering

why things hadn't turned around,

and by 2011, if the Republicans packaged their product well enough

they could tap into middle-America's 

repressed racism

while also squelching

any real reforms

that this upstart young black man

who was given a historical opportunity to be president

tried to initiate.

This was a theory I developed

a little less than four years ago, 

but I was reminded of it,  tonight as I watched the debates.

Who won?  Of course, 

as a person looking for substance,

I'd say President Obama won.

However, I'm not sure everyone will see that.

Nor will they see what I see when I look at Romney.

I look at Mitt Romney and I see a masked man,

and the Republican machine,

the same machine that has blocked attempts

and bipartisanship during the Obama Administration,

has been working hard to build up his mask --

( from independent agenda )

Mitt Romney is

a man who has been documented over and over

again to be a liar, with a bad temper.

He had no substance tonight;

if anything, he just repeated Obama's points.

But I give Romney credit:

he's a smooth schmoozer

when he's not being a bully.

Notice, too, he only talks about

the last four years.

He's relying,

or rather, the Republican-machine is relying

on America's amnesia.

As I say above, they are also relying, I'm afraid,

on White Middle America's

repressed racism.

It's been allowed to build up over the past four years,

and now the Republicans are tapping it,

while promoting a short public memory.

I am writing this entry because

I really feel this election is urgent.

Ultimately,

Mitt Romney,

like Barack Obama,

is a puppet for the larger

parties and interests behind them,

but unfortunately, 

they are puppets with international power.

We know what happened the last time

America voted a puppet into power

who didn't have a strong sense of 

America's place in the world:

(from whatreallyhappened )

We really need to look past

the spin

and ask ourselves:

who do we really want

in the position of president

of this nation?

Never forget.

Anything.

We need to keep our minds

and memories

crystal clear,

and try to maintain,

despite the apparent odds,

the audacity to hope.

Come In From The Rain, by Carole Bayer Sager & Melissa Manchester

I've had this song going through my head all week.

Don't know why, but it just won't leave my head.

I first heard it sung by Melissa Manchester,

than Carole Bayer Sager, who wrote it. 

The Shirley Bassey version is pretty good,

but in the end, I love the Jane Oliver version 

I think that after doing this posting, I'll have it out of my head.

But it is a good song.  If you want to listen to only one all the way through,

I'd say listen to Melissa Manchester

or Jane Olivor

But you may have another favorite.

You choose:

As We Approach The U. S. Elections, Some Words To Remember:

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

(Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural Speech, 1932

Tweet Tweet Tweet

from: allaboutbirds

I really hate the idea that

we judge the pulse of a country

by the way it tweets.

In a recent Atlantic Monthly article about the need for reform

in writing instruction in high schools in this country,

one claim that was made is that

young people in America

don't know their own language well enough

to articulate complex ideas.

As someone who teaches and reads a lot of writing

by young people entering college

I would agree with that.

Fundamentally,

if an individual's language facility is challenged,

so too is the quality and subtlety of

their thinking ability,

and of the ideas that they can convey.

And this is the problem with tweeting.

Nothing deeply thoughtful or complex can be communicated

in 140 characters and a few hash symbols.

So I was just amazed when

the first post-debate story I heard

was based solely on the Tweets

that occurred during and after

the debate.

from: muppetwikia

Tweet Tweet Tweet ~ ~ ~

My response to the political analysts who scurry to Twitter

after

the debate to determine what America is thinking is this:

it's tweet for twat:

The real issues are very very complex,

and no one who is working within

a limited language framework

can even begin to articulate

the true nature of the issues.

And here are some points that I'd love to hear one of the 

candidates (preferably the one I support) talk about:

from: motor trend

1.  The price of gasoline in the U.S.A. today will never go back

to $2.00 a gallon.  Just say it. And at $4.00 a gallon we are still paying

substantially less that the rest of the world, which buys its fuel

by the liter,  pays to fuel

their fuel-efficient vehicles.

What we need is a reality check: and it's one in which

America is educated, without prejudice, to the very real

fact that it's past time to get rid of those fuel-guzzling vehicles,

and to seriously invest in alternative energy research and programs.

(I also tend to believe that the war in Iraq,

which we all know by now was a war over oil.

That was a political war, fought by wealthy oil people against other
wealthy oil people, and our side lost.

truly lost, and part of what was lost was America's

select standing among the oil producing nations,

and that's why we're going to continue to see the prices go up at the pumps.

And it's not going to stop.)

Tweet Tweet Tweet

from: worldengroup

2.  Barack Obama is right: some jobs will never come back

to America.  Indeed, the entire history of America can be looked 

at as a history of cheating the cheapest work force that can be found --

for awhile, we imported slaves to do the work,

and when that turned out to be problematic,

we began importing immigrants - Italians, Poles, Irish -

who thought that the opportunity to climb down a mine-hole for play-money

that could only be used in the company town

was a ticket to their freedom.  When that work force wised up,

the jobs were sent to Mexico, China, Indonesia,

anywhere where the work force didn't demand much.

And as long as a profit-driven corporate based mentality

makes all of the decisions about jobs in this country, indeed

in this world, that will continue to be the mentality.

If the Mars expedition discovered a race of red midgets

who were willing to build iPads and tennis shoes for small change,

you'd better believe corporate America would suddenly feel that

investment in the space program

was a profitable venture.

Tweet Tweet Tweet

from: adorablay

3.  And when folks talk about the deficit and the bad economy,

why don't they acknowledge that the horrible recession we've been experiencing,

so horrible I dare call it a near depression,

has not been local?  This is an economic decline that has been felt

all over the world.  This kind of economic decline cannot be bandaged over

with a few tax cuts and empty talk about bringing jobs back to the USA.

This kind of economic decline requires substantial repair

and reform, not to mention careful diplomatic long term planning,

and it requires sacrifices on everybody's part. 

It is not a situation that could or can be remedied

in four years.

When George W. Bush left office,

he truly left the economy in free-fall,

and anyone who was paying attention at that time would have recognized

that the economy would fall for a few more years before it 

bottomed out.  So yes, the national deficit grew under Obama.

It would have grown under McCain, too, had he become president.

It would have grown under you or me or anyone had we stepped into that office

in 2008.  Because that was the course that the national and world economy was on.

Which is why I think the Republicans gave Obama the last election.

They knew that who ever held the job after Bush

would ultimately get blamed for the mess the U.S.A. had become,

so they backed down, and gave the election to 

the first black president of the U.S.A.

Why won't anyone say any of that?

Easy:

you can't say it in a tweet,

nor can you say it

in two minutes.

Still we just keep tweeting,

filling the air with empty chirps

about nothing in particular,

while the true problem we are facing

remain unresolved.

Phone Home with E.T.

You can't change the world,

but you can change yourself.

This man is brilliant.

Meditate with me:

Watching The Debates: Vote for Fil I. Buster

I'm getting frustrated,

and the first debate is still on.

Why, oh why,

has Barack Obama not mentioned this:

Romney keeps making himself sound like

he would be nothing but bipartisan.

( from thebigpicture )

But we know that's not true.

We know

that any democrat in Congress

in a Romney presidency

would be silenced.

Oh, that face,

( from USAToday )

that face:

I trust it as much as I would trust

Iago.

An ode to the upcoming debates

( blog.nj )

There is nothing either good or bad,

but thinking makes it so. . . 

(Hamlet  II:ii)

Words are thoughts;

thought-words, things

that build apparitions

of what might be.

Thought-words can create

possibility or

they can destroy

reality.

Hold your thoughts,

and mold them well

before you deliver them

into the air.  Those

castles built

might build despair

unnecessarily.

So may it be.

( boston.com )

coda:

Talk to me --

and not of me.

Truth is best found

in the space

of silent greetings,

and cordial meetings.

walking to the eternal flame: Western New York, late September

It's been a way too busy time for me lately,

and I had to do something magical,

like take a walk

in nature.

My partner found the perfect place to take me,

a place that borders on the magical:

we walked to see an

eternal flame.

And here is what we saw along the way:

Unfortunately,

the sound on my camera

is broken,

from having dropped it into similar brooks

one time too many:

. . . Now, at this point, you may think:

What's the big deal?

This is just a walk in the woods.

And that was what I thought too,

until I saw this:

(I'm sorry to say I can't get Blogger to accept
the film I made myself, though
I have now processed it in a number of ways.
Good ol' Blogger.
So I'm borrowing this film from YouTube.
At least this one has sound!)

If it appears to you that this flame is burning behind water,

well,

you're absolutely correct.  

This is a natural methane leak

right inside a water fall,

and the result is,

well,

quite elemental.

Here it is, in winter,

with more water:

Well, that truly made my weekend perfect.

I walked away looking

for elves and fairies,

while approaching children squealed in anticipation

of the magic

just up beyond the bend.

May you all have a magical week.

(except for the YouTube video, all photos and film by me.)