Saturday, September 29, 2018

four points of view

Sitting with one who’s died on Saturday night.

There are no others, only the Other Itself.

Whatever he’s done, he’s done with it now.

Where goes anyone going when they are gone?

Friday, September 28, 2018

sudden change

amid cold words

flake falls to ground

not melting

investigate, for everyone’s health

The US Senate website reads (7am)

WEBSITE TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE DUE TO MAINTENANCE.

Normal service will return soon.


My message to Senator Collins went into nowhere.

I asked her to vote no until further FBI investigation clarifies issues so vital to both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh.

Good Lord, it’s the Supreme Court and the US Senate!

Allegations need professional investigation. Loud denunciations are not evidence.

Thursday, September 27, 2018

the hearing

the hearing is over.

what did you hear?

white men yelling to shut up

with rage and putdown

women, quietly listening

remembering in the open

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

a delight

Reading The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to a man with difficulty stringing words together into coherent sentences. We both agree the book is a delight. His wife brings in flowers. Light leaves earlier by the week. 

ethical analysis in a snapshot

R: "Why do things have to be so hard?"
F: "It's never going to get easier. We just have to get better."
(Dialogue at end of police drama episode)

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

I have nothing I want you to see.

A woman I know is hesitant to turn on her computer. She worries about surveillance, hacking, and the copying of files she deems personal and important.

Perhaps we have passed the threshhold that wonders if such universal surveillance is possible. More likely, it is rampant, concern is justified.

A film is afoot (whose title I will not identify here) that speaks of this issue.
The mind-fuckery continues up until the film's closing moments, when Seyfried's hacker confronts Owen's cop on the waterfront. Sal has clearly changed, and his understanding of how his information-gathering system works has been completely upended, leading to the type of larger philosophical crisis that often faces the protagonists of Niccol's films. How do you continue to live when your sense of reality has been so warped by technology? 
For Seyfried's character -- and perhaps for Niccol himself -- the answers begin with rethinking our conception of privacy. "It's not that I have something to hide," she tells Sal before walking away at the end of the film. "I have nothing I want you to see." It's a familiar line of criticism that's been articulated by activists, politicians, and writers regarding a wide range of cyber-security scandals from Edward Snowden to Cambridge Analytica. "That's the punch in the gut at the end of the film, hopefully," says Niccol. "That's the false choice we're always given: If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear."
(--from, THE DIRECTOR OF NETFLIX'S 'ANON' EXPLAINS THE BRAIN-SCRAMBLING ENDING, By Published On 05/04/20 18  https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/anon-netflix-ending-explained-andrew-niccol-interview# 
So much depends on the word "nothing."

We need to see nothing.

The nothing beyond something. 

leave it there

In the dream I am in a library jotting notes from book . I tell the Dude, when he asks me about moose hunting (I think) that I will be returning to Amherst. He goes out door, I get up from chair to say something to him, but he is out on the sidewalk blended invisible among the crowd.
Inside, I see Diane K and we talk about scissors, how they are placed and exchanged outside door by at least three people.
Then, back at her house after returnng three books to shelf at library closing time. It is a quiet place. In other room it seems Myles is typing on small portable typewriter, which, when I approach, appears to be a folding portfolio of electronic communications equipment. (Is it M or is it David who flies from Spain today?)
I notice another man is on the porch, where, I realize, is where I stayed thirty five years ago when attending Berlin Alexanderplatz at 10 Exchange. D tells me his name is Nick. A tv is on with football game. I help move chairs from sliding door to porch as we speak. I realize I am grateful for her kindness. The place is quiet, spacious, neat, and I am a guest. I wake.

...   ...   ...

The past is not the past.
Leave it there.
Where?
Here!

Monday, September 24, 2018

a culture of rape

The allegations pile up

Did he, or didn’t he

This time of power

Straining to stay plugged in

changing world

Yes

Cool air

September daybreak

I am

still

here

to aware

what is

presenting

Itself

...   ...   ..

This, from Buddhism and Japanese Aesthetics, by Bradley Park:
In terms of religious practice, Shintō aims at the cultivation of heightened openness. In other words, one strives to capture “the mood of things” (mono no kokoro) or feel the tangible world, thereby realizing a profound sympathetic resonance with one’s environment. To be affectively and cognitively attuned to the things around us is the most intimate form of knowledge — that is, to know the heart-mind (kokoro) of a thing (mono). 
Thus, mono no ke and mono no kokoro provide the background against which mono no aware emerges as an aesthetic notion. Mono no aware, then, represents a refined sensibility indicating a sincere heart capable of resonating with the vital energy of things in a constantly changing world.                                    
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/weai/exeas/resources/pdf/buddhism-japanese-aesthetics.pdf
Still, here.

Sunday, September 23, 2018

prelude

Do not

Talk to me