You Drift Away

"Small spills of rain had started, cold on his arm. Downstream recurving shore currents chased in deckle light wave upon wave like silver spawn. To fall through darkness. Struggle in those opaque and fecal depths, which way is up. Till the lungs suck brown sewage and funny lights go down final corridors of the brain, small watchmen to see that all is quiet for the advent of eternal night."

--Cormac McCarthy from "Sutree"

"I hope that I never become rich and fat, if the chief result is to make one talk as fat rich men have always talked."

--Edward Abbey

"We are manifestations of a greater entity, energizing in various temporal locations."
--Xtina

Such Things

"...as the grasp of a child's hand in your own, the flavor of an apple, the embrace of a friend or a lover, the silk of a girl's thigh, the sunlight on rock and leaves, the feel of music, the bark of a tree, the abrasion of granite and sand, the plunge of clear water into a pool, the face of the wind--what else is there? What else do we need?"

--Edward Abbey

"You know who said that?...Socrates."

The greatest pick-up line ever.

So I'm told.

The Known Intolerant World

Here's an excerpt from an incredible book about our glorious past (the one that included denying certain human beings inalienable rights...like freedom).

"A few woman had cried, remembering the way Henry smiled or how he would join them in singing or thinking that the death of anyone, good or bad, master or not, cut down one more tree in the life forest that shielded them from their own death; but most said or did nothing. Their world had changed but they could not yet understand how. A black man had owned them, a strange thing for many in that world, and now that he was dead, maybe a white man would buy them, which was not as strange. No matter what, though, the sun would come up on them tomorrow, followed by the moon, and dogs would chase their own tails and the sky would remain just out of reach."
--Edward P. Jones from his novel THE KNOWN WORLD

We need to create a world where the sky is within reach for every human being, not just the privileged few. As long as we have a system that doesn't nourish the burning desire of hope in each and every individual, then that system is failing and must change. There is a history of intolerance that exists within our collective hearts and the more we fight against the advancement of human rights, the more we reveal our previous indignity.

Have we learned nothing from the mistakes of our ancestors?

Intelligent Design

Rumsfeld, explaining the “threats” and why they are invisible and unidentifiable said: “There are things that we know. And then there are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know that we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know . . . That is, the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence . . . Simply because you do not have evidence that something exists does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn’t exist.”

It makes complete sense to me now. How can we possibly question these geniuses? Check out the link.

THE FLOWER THAT SMILES TODAY

The flower that smiles today
Tomorrow dies;
All that we wish to stay
Tempts and then flies;
What is the world’s delight?
Lightning that mocks the night,
Brief even as bright.

Virtue, how frail it is!
Friendship, how rare!
Love, how it sells poor bliss
For proud despair!
But these, so soon they fall,
Survive their joy and all
Which ours we call.

Whilst skies are blue and bright,
Whilst flowers are gay,
Whilst eyes that change ere night
Make glad the day;
Whilst yet the calm hours creep,
Dream thou—and from thy sleep
Then wake to weep.


--Percy Bysshe Shelley

Here's the top news item today on the Guardian Unlimited.

And a correlating history lesson from The Nation.

"Despite the refusal of the Shah to rule out the possibility of Iran's developing nuclear weapons, the Ford Administration in 1975 approved the sale of up to eight nuclear reactors with fuel to Iran and, in 1976, approved the sale of lasers believed to be capable of enriching uranium. The Washington Post reported that an initially hesitant President Ford was assured by his advisors that Iran was only interested in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Ford's Defense Secretary was Donald Rumsfield, his Chief of Staff was Dick Cheney and his man in charge of nonproliferation efforts at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency was Paul Wolfowitz."

Look, it's the smoking-gun-holding-apes that run our country!

We found this on the wall of a cafe one day before Lucas turned six months old.

"If we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children; and if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won't have to struggle, we won't have to pass fruitless idle resolutions, but we shall go from love to love and peace to peace until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which consciously or unconsciously the whole world is hungering."
--Mohandas Gandhi 11/19/31

Happy Birthday Lucas!

"Rise like LIONS after slumber
In unvanquishable number-
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many-they are few."

--Percy Blythe Shelley

We have no right to ask, when our sorrow comes, "Why did this happen to me?" unless we ask the same question for every moment of happiness that comes our way.

-Source unknown

"From their point of view, missile "defense" is the perfect weapon system: it is unnecessary; it doesn't have to work as defense; it generates hundreds of billions of dollars in direct revenue; and the cherry on top of the sundae is that since it invites retaliation by China and Russia, it delivers a new, built-in global arms race, a vast new opportunity to arm all sides of all new global conflicts for the next half century. It is the Mother of All Self Licking Ice Cream Cones."

Eventually all militaristic societies have crumbled due to the hands of greed. The United States continues to follow this trend. The true failing of the United States in the past century and so far in this one will be found in the foolish amount of money spent on weapons. In the future our society will be studied thoughtfully with constant reminders of a path which you should not take.

Where have I lost myself?

It's been ages. Since I can't write, I will quote.

But let it be known, loud and clear. There is no such thing as revenge. The word and deed exist and the idea of sweet retribution is appealing but never satisfying when actually carried out. Avenging angels/ devils/ infidels/ insurgents are never satisfied. They are always left wanting, or bitter, disappointed. Our egos are bigger than our stomachs, which can only consume so much blood and bile before it is regurgitated onto ourselves.
--Margaret Cho

"Radical change cannot be negotiated by governments; it can only be enforced by people. "

This speech points the anti-war, anti-empire, anti-poverty, anti-human rights agenda in the direction that it desperately needs to be pointed toward.

"Our resistance has to begin with a refusal to accept the legitimacy of the US occupation of Iraq. It means acting to make it materially impossible for Empire to achieve its aims. It means soldiers should refuse to fight, reservists should refuse to serve, workers should refuse to load ships and aircraft with weapons."

We have to stop expecting something out there to solve all of our problems for us. The world is in the situation that it is in because we have allowed it to become that way. We have to change it. That means we refuse to support the neoliberal agenda that is destroying so many people's lives. It won't be long before even us Amerikans are those people. Our tentative hold on stability is slowly dissolving. We must get out of debt! We must stop driving our dirty cars! We must only support agendas that focus on the sustainability of this planet that we live on! We must have a victory over violence right now, in our own lives!

"The Project for the New American Century seeks to perpetuate inequity and establish American hegemony at any price, even if it's apocalyptic. The World Social Forum demands justice and survival."


"For these reasons, we must consider ourselves at war."

The weapons exist to fight this war. They are our hearts and minds. They are our undefeatable spirit. They are our words and the actions we take in our everyday lives. They are compassion and courage and wisdom. They are our very lives.

Lately I've been reading "The River Below" by Francois Cheng. It is wonderful to learn some history and culture about China from such an amazing storyteller. Today I found a passage that relates to interdependence.

"man may be an animal with an eternal thirst, but nature has the water to satisfy his desire. It would seem that creation does not create any desires it cannot satisfy. In other words, man is thirsty because water exists. Man is of course at liberty to desire but can desire no more than what reality has to offer, hidden deep inside itself. Even when he goes so far as to desire the infinite, it is because the infinite is already there, provided for him."

Just a Thought

“The most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing to help others?’ Do not say you will do it someday. Now is the time. Do not say that someone will do it. You are the one.”
--Martin Luther King

I was reading a progressive critique on the success of Rush Limbaugh. One of the main ingredients in his success is his ability to keep things simple. He addresses the events of the world from a simplistic singular point of view. This view put simply is that everyone should listen to him because he has the perfect opinion on everything. He never bothers with an opposing viewpoint or even attempts to create any sort of dialogue on his show whatsoever. That would only complicate matters. The reason this is the key to his success boils down to the fact that people do not want to contemplate their own existence, so they let others do it for them. Others who sound like they know what they are talking about.

Now, those of us who choose to reflect on the impact we have on our own lives, as well as the lives of others, understand that a fulfilling and happy existence can never be handed to us by someone else. Especially not from those who preach from the gospel of hate. But how do we convey this idea to the world in simple terms so that eyes that are clamped shut may begin to open? According to this author many have struggled and failed to give a simplistic opposing viewpoint in an attempt to awake the masses from their conservative coma.

I believe Martin Luther King kept it simple and he was right. History shines brightly on this great man who fought violence with compassion and awoke a nation from its hateful slumber, if at least for a moment. “What are you doing for others?” A simple thought that is more powerful than any smartbomb ever was. The reason this question remains persistent and urgent to this day really boils down to the simple fact of interdependence. Whoa! That sounds complicated but bear with me. In a nutshell it means that the world around us affects our lives. We can’t escape it. If someone in your immediate environment is unhappy, like a father or your spouse, then you are unhappy. This rule always plays out. If someone gives you a giant hug that is filled with joy, then that joy enters your heart and brightens your day. The same goes for our communities, the country we live in as well as the entire world. Those who think that this interdependence doesn’t exists need only to search the products in their home and undoubtedly will find something that was made in China.

With this in mind we can now look at how we make choices in our lives. Who are we thinking about when we make decisions? Are we thinking about how we affect others? Once we begin to understand that we affect the world around us with the choices that we make in the same way that the world around us affects us, then we can begin making intelligent decisions based on the benefit of all humanity. When we make choices with this thought in mind, ‘How is my choice going to affect me, the people around me and all of humanity?’ then we begin to see a definite shift in the purpose of the world.

Let’s be honest for a moment. The world seems like a pretty scary place right now. Terror has become a permanent part of our vocabulary. An unstable global economy permeates people’s lives the world over and has been put in the hands of corrupt individuals who care about little more than what color their private jet is decorated. In a time where instant conversation with those 5000 miles away has become possible we choose not to discuss our differences and fall back on the barbaric act of war to solve everything. Every day we throw away enough food to feed the entire planet, yet millions of human beings go to bed hungry. We know more about the sex life of J-lo than about how our democracy is governed. Oceans are being depleted of all life and species are dying off at an unprecedented rate. The ice caps are melting faster than...than...

Okay, breathe.

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooooooooo. Calmate.

This is the reality of our world today. It is a massive destructive force that exists and it will not go away by ignoring it. This is what you are avoiding when you nod in agreement to loud braggarts who’ve built their bully pulpits with lies. These are truths that you will never hear from Rush Limbaugh. He will never speak about them because he will never take responsibility for any of these problems. Unfortunately if we continue to do nothing we are be responsible and we will always feel the fear that these images invoke.

It is very difficult to create change in the world, but the reality is that the world must change. That change must begin with each and every individual who is alive at this moment. And we must begin now. Change never happens over night. It is a long and arduous path, but it is the path to riches beyond our imagination. We may never see the results of our efforts in this lifetime, but those who remain will witness and understand the miracle of compassion. Our children, their children and all the precious human beings that enter this world seek a magnificent future. We must give them a future of hope and joy and erase the current trend toward fear and destruction.

It all begins with a very simple thought, ‘What am I doing for others?’ When we vote, when we work, when we play, when we consume, when we speak, when we breathe - this thought must be present. It must be embedded in our lives. Otherwise nothing will ever change. The world will remain the way that Rush Limbaugh and all the other simple miserable selfish creatures have made it. That doesn’t fill my heart with joy. That doesn’t bring hope into my life. And THAT is simply unacceptable.

Just a thought for the next time the simple rhetoric of hate enters your lives.

“Taking the nation to war based on misleading rhetoric and hyped intelligence is a travesty and a tragedy. It is the most cynical of all cynical acts. It is dangerous to manipulate the truth. It is dangerous because once having lied, it is difficult to ever be believed again.”

Oh, the little demon comes back to haunt us all. It’s inside our heads whispering deceit to clear away deceit. It eats away at our insides until we are naked before ourselves. It is unmistakable and cannot be prevented because we can never find a hole deep enough or dark enough to forget. As long as we exist we will be reminded of the deceit that we bring down upon us. The lies will reverberate loudly until the echoes tear down the walls. We will succumb to the demons because we can never escape ourselves or the harmful actions imparted under the cloak of righteousness. And despite the erroneous wisdom given to us by men who bend the ear of our President hoarding his thoughts and actions (Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney), there is no glory in war. There are no great songs that praise murder and death and destruction. Our children will never look back on these days with admiration and wonder unless we change our course.

September 11, 2001 happened so that we could see the horror of war. For a moment we all understood how terrible weapons can be in the hands of deceit. When we pound the drums of war with lies and ignorance we have set our fate. These demons now push the seeds of hate into our spines locking us within their embrace. The men who lie to us are not our saviors. They are instrumental in our demise. It is time to do what is right. It is time for humanity to exclaim with a shout that it is wrong to kill each other! It is time to throw down our weapons and stand up with our hearts! It is time to use our voice to tear down the demons that we have come to adore, to shove them back down into the recesses where they belong. We will never win when we fight with hate.

This will always be the message of great leaders. Throughout history we’ve heard similar voices from Human Beings who not only spoke of the power of nonviolence but also breathed it, made it the essence of their lives. Mahatma Ghandi, Jesus of Nazareth, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Socrates, Rachel Corrie, Josei Toda, Linus Pauling, Mikhail Gorbechov, Rosa Parks, Margaret Sanger, Cesar Chavez, Siddartha Gautama, Florence Nightengale, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Woody Guthrie, Leo Tolstoy.

These people spoke with the voice of reason, humility and compassion. Their words have resounded throughout the ages. They are words of peace...not war. They are words of courage...not deception.