Saturday, August 26, 2017

obscenely slouching forward -- a lament

The president of the United States has pardoned a man who defied a court order to cease harassing, detaining, and jailing people of foreign descent without due cause and sufficient suspicion.
He had been convicted of this crime, and was to be sentenced in early October.

The person on the porch said, “Because he is such a buffoonish character, the temptation is to laugh at his follies and make fun of him. But he is a dangerous and insidious individual who is on course to subvert and sabotage not only the values of the country but the very existence of the United States.”

The man who said this was on his way out of the country to “attend to family matters.”

It becomes harder and harder to not see this behavior of the president as TV Reality Show nonsense and see it, rather, as the worst attack against the United States yet. The suspicion is that bombs will explode, bullets will fly, citizens will be imprisoned, rights, freedoms, and protections will be suspended in short order.

Ironically, militias that once protested their fear that government would usurp civilian rights are now cheering the government’s potential usurpation of rights because “their” man is leading the coup d’etat.

Congress is also bewildered. Their party owns the three branches of government and has the power to do anything -- except that their president has his own agenda which ignores them and foments division and denigration on them.

What nobody seems to admit is that we are at a critical juncture with a rogue dangerous egoistic demagogue whose unpredictability and grandiosity plants conflict and discord in minds and hearts of both citizenry and international community.

Religious apocalyptic believers feel this is the beginning of the end.

Nihilist racists and mordant right wing groups sense the final battle.

Anarchists do too.

As do Republicans and Democrats.

Even Boy Scouts in America cheer the lewd opportunistic exhortations of the leering leader selling wealth and sex cookies to them.

Curiously, no one, really, no one seems to care. Not care in the sense of having the slightest idea how to counter such inevitable bullying and lording over.

Everyone seems to feel its time. Time for democracy’s demise. Time for unbridled and unprincipled power to ascend a new and higher throne than mere presidency. A new ledger-ship of ruling family.

The confusion and consternation of thoughtful people, media types, and non-boy scouts are only outliers to the lemming culture racing to the president’s towering and ludicrous dystopia.

“How Great Thou Art” is a redirected hymn the mute and vociferous alike offer to the bland and banal triumphant trumpeting smirking man on center stage orchestrating something unseen before yet obscenely slouching forward.

Friday, August 25, 2017

feeling is fact; emotion is interpretation of feeling

Cup

of

coffee

after

prison

conversation


No politics


Shared

reasoning and

mutually

compassionate

presence

give me three reasons to continue practicing meditation, prayer, contemplation

This

One

Reality

Thursday, August 24, 2017

to dance

Sometimes the only thing to do is dance to the tune that is playing. Otherwise, we sit out the whole evening.
“The driver asked me if I would mind another brief detour, this time to a tombstone salesroom across the street from the cemetery. 
I wasn't a Bokononist then, so I agreed with some peevishness. As a Bokononist, of course, I would have agreed gaily to go anywhere anyone suggested. As Bokonon says: 'Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.” 
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr.Cat's Cradle
We can sit out a few tunes, wait for one we like, then begin to move in a way with which we feel mostly akin.

Throughout, the invitation is mostly always there.

Even in our reluctance.

We are invited.

To dance.

as things change, God is in the news

as things

change

God is

in the news



no
where

else

not a

sound



the cries

screams and
tears

the fear God
feels

is



where and
how

wisdom
stirs

deep within

wide stare

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

an old query

If you

could

just hear

yourself

right

now

do you hear what I hear

In Arizona 

There's not

Enough to

Soothe 

Troubled

Minds

When troubled

Minds

Speak and

Speak

Of themselves

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

you want to know why

Not
Ev

En go
D

Kn
Ows

wh
y

Monday, August 21, 2017

staying close

Not
Hing

The Chinese
Poet

Looks at
Empty

Page
Eclipsing

What might
Be

Written
There

And nods
Off

With no
Pen

Cil

Near
By

Or, as an
Other poet

Said: "would
Dying

Be here
Never go

Any
Where

You can't
Live."

Sunday, August 20, 2017

no reference outside oneself

At Sunday Evening Practice we read from Albert Einstein's Ideas and Opinions.

 It was 1931.

After ten minutes in silence eating bread and soup the dog was appreciated for staring at the pointing finger instead of that at which it pointed.

What's the point, you ask?

Like all the evening's practice, there is no point.

There is only the pointer.

Everything just as it is.