Who are you, and how did you become that?
Arrive from outside the orbit of dreams,
And take these uncertain steps, ask
For directions from trees that lean
Into the wind, guided by all failings. Then,
And only then, answer our question.

It would seem we all have these habits,
And deny them at every turn, We awake
Each day and face ourselves with dread:
What if we are discovered, called out
By the world we try to fool with our lies?
The answer is not so simple now, is it?

How can you know who you are if you cannot say
How you are formed? Nature, nurture,
Its too simple an explanation,
It fails to take into account the rain of fear
We walk through each day. Why do you insist
There is a central truth?

You pretend that your religion will
Infallibly guide you, and then demand
It do the same for us. Oh please
Leave us behind, free from your certainty,
And from the fear your faith excretes.

Once you had faith in the grass and the air,
And the water that cooled your young body
In summer’s sweet embrace. Now the wind
Is fouled by greed, and faith a false cover.
How can you believe when you have to keep saying
You believe? You would drag us into the same pit.

Leave us with our doubt, rise up to heaven,
Be free of the world. It no longer wants you
And your religions. Go where your god calls you,
While the rest of us spend eternity trying
To put this place right, to dream a world into being,
Without the weight of your fear.

5/7/05 - NB

I have to wonder sometimes whether any of us still have the time or energy for other things than dealing with survival, with the fear leaders all over the world seem to be leading us into. Everyone seems to feel, to varying degrees, as though it were all on the verge of collapse, the whole Western Civilization thing, I mean. Which of course the fundamentalists, of all stripes, really dream for. It is the war they have been dreaming of for milleniums, this idea of imolation in the service of rapture, to go to their "just reward" and take the rest of us to hell. What, you think that is hyperbole? These monsters really do believe that they are destined to bring about the "last days," though I can't say I haven't wished it were at least their last days.

But lets take at least a little time to look at something else for a change, at what might be possible for us to all do in this life, instead of being so anxious for the next one. If we are to do any justice to the lives we've been gifted, what is wrong with doing it right here, right now? Consider art, consider kindness, consider compassion. Hell, consider consideration.

When was the last time you said "thank you" to someone for a little kindness? Nothing big, maybe they held a door for you, maybe they said thank you for something you did. It doesn't matter. What matters is, did you pass the gift onward? Otherwise, it just flops around like a fish out of water, and you have to admit, that's not such a pretty sight, is it?

If you are reading this right now, then let me say "Thank You" for staying with me thus far. And, thank you for being willing to temporarily practice hopefullness instead of fearfullness. Yes, I know, its not easy, I don't pretend it is. I have known much fear in my life, and still do from time to time. So I don't talk this way like I'm some kind of guru or teacher, but as a freind. Its hard in this life, but thats usually because, in some way, we are each alone. It only gets easier when we allow others into our hearts. We cannot really do this thing alone, nor were we ever meant to.

The cure for fundamentalism is to stop fearing the future. It is the fear of the future that drives people to fall back into orthodoxy, to give their free will over to a formula, a deep and nearly impermeable mind trap. If we can just follow the formula, all will be well. One only has to look at the current religious wars around the globe, including right here in the good-old-USA, to see examples. Some of the worst, in fact.

But lets face it - the past cannot save us, the formulas - Islamic, Christian, Judaic, Hindu, whatever - cannot prevent the future from arriving, just as it does every day. Running away from the future just makes its arrival that much more difficult to deal with. Sure, its not predictable, and sure, it can often be messy and scary. But the past, well, its just past, and that is so, well, tedious, and boring, and frankly, it didn't really work the first time, now, did it?

So look beyond the fear that the fundamentalists would have you succumb to, look beyond the veil of lies and deciet being practiced by the so-called leaders. They've sold their souls for thirty pieces of greed. Why should you?

Now, how do you REALLY feel about a little blow job over pizza and a cigar? Doesn't seem like such a bad choice after all, does it? See the source of this great button at http://www.whatididinthewar.com/bush.html

Well, I for one have become increasingly puzzled by those remaining few who insist the Prez is doing a fine job indeed. I mean, how many debacles does it take before you screw in your lightbulbs? Or do you just prefer to sit in the dark?

I mean, the friggin list is GINORMOUS now. Katrina, WMDs, the Plame affair, domestic wiretaps, port insecurity, a deficit that just screams "We are yours, China," utter failures in Irag, Afganistan, total ignorance in Somalia, Big Pharm getting free keys to our very veins, on and on and on. What does it TAKE for you people to wake up???!!!

Here's a challenge - name just one thing this Bozito has done that has actually WORKED for the American People (and saying he has done something for corporations doesn't count, 'cuz that would take up more space than the entire Library of Congress) and that was supported by a MAJORITY of the entire country (not just the red staters, eh?) If you can actually do that, I will concede that Bill O'Really looks more like James Bond than Prince Charles looks like Daffy Duck.

Is it a deal?

Bucky Fuller is The Guy!

OK, folks, it really is beginning to look like we are all headed for a world of HURT, and in the VERY near future. And we ain't got no Rocky J. Squirrel to bail us outta trouble, not this time. But there is this one guy, see, and sure, he's dead right now, but he left us all some serious tools that might be able to help us get through the coming shitstorm a bit better. 'Cuz godless knows, we gonna need every one of the Smartest Folks in the Room, and then some, if we want to get out of this thing with the basic species intact.

I am talking about the Buckaroo, the Buckmeister, the Big Bucky, Buckminster Fuller, of course. In that galactic dome of his (no, no, his MIND, silly) he brought forth the most amazing thinking about the future of us little carbon life forms and the sphere upon which we spin, infinite-like but probably not that long. This guy had brains ON his brains, and has spawned an ever-growing army of like-minded (well, maybe not QUITE as smart as he was) human units whoare as incurably optimistic as Bucky Bless His Heart was. And godless knows, we could use with a bit-o-optimismo about now, dontcha think?

To learn more about the Bucky Ball-O-Fun, visit the web site a http://www.bfi.org/. Youse won't be sorry, see?
I think from now on I'm gonna call this the Blog-O-Desic. Oh, yeah!!!

>

The latest sad news from Iraq regarding sectaran violence just reinforced my contension that religion is bad for all our collective health. I don't mean spiritual practices per se, but organized dogmatism, fanatical adherance to an ideology where no room exists for anyone not a "true believer." Where did this idea that "we must kill all those who have not come to see things our way" come from? Again, I am not just speaking of Muslims here, but Christians and Jews, Hindus and animists, as well.

If god is infinite, how can anyone justify putting god in a definable "box?" And if that same god is eternal, how can mere humans, of whatever stripe, purport to know when, whether, and if god is planning on "pulling the switch?"

I like to think that spirit is truly infinite, and therefore cannot be ensnared and trapped by dogma, of any flavor. If god made all that is, then all that is, is good, right? Who are any one of us to tell any other of us what to believe, and how to express that belief?

Unfortunately, it appears a civil war in Iraq, which may well spread to Iran and Syria, and even Pakistan, is increasingly inevitable. India and China will act to protect their borders. Israel will act to protect itself. Internal stresses in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Jordan and other middle Eastern states will boil over. And thanks to El Bozito Presidente', our kids are in the eye of the storm.

Maybe the Christian extremists in this country will get their Armageddon sooner than they hoped. Trouble is, it won't quite match their longed-for prophecies. It will come before the Temple is rebuilt, and therefore will not fullfill the "way it is written" (meaning - the way we want to read it.) And that will really blow it with the Big Hairy Thunderer, now, won't it? Nothing worse than pissin' off the Big Guy by failing to follow the script.

I wouldn't mind it so much if we could just be sure that all the fanatics from all over the world, whatever their religious persuasion, could all be there in the front row when the thing blows. Then maybe the rest of us could have a little peace and quiet. Yeah. Peace. Might be an interesting alternative. We should try it, at least once. Who knows.....?

Really kind of speaks for itself, doesn't it?

Israel, Palestine

There are, I think
Two possibilities:

I am good, and you are bad;

Or,

You are good, and I am bad.

This is what we call, history.

If I am good, it is my history
That will be your grave.

If you are good,
My name will not be remembered.

What if the floods know whose history is true?

Or the Earth, quaking in anger, were the final judge?

The old man said “Watch out for the thorns,
As you taste the sweetness inside”.

Why is it so hard to heed such wisdom?

Not good, not bad,

Only endless sorrow.

1/10/05

Notty Bumbo

I wonder what it is that we really lose as we decend into an increasingly polarized world. With the primary divider being religion, how is this different than what we often refer to as the Dark Ages, where religion was the dominant fascist paradigm. Through crusades, inquisitions, pogroms, and sectarian warfare, both the so-called West, and the Muslim world, were set back for centuries. While the Islamic world often seems still mired in the 9th and 10th centuries, so too does the West appear to be moving backwards, in rapid retreat from the Enlightenment.

I cannot help but wonder at the increasingly obvious fear of the future exemplified by all three monotheisms in the present day. There is a call to retreat, to repudiate all of the advances of a once-great civilization. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the USA. The calls to condemn Islamic Fundamentalism increasingly issue from the mouths and pens of Fundamentalist Christianity and Fundamentalist Judaism. And both of these camps have enough sins on their own heads to render their pronouncements both absurd and, increasingly, worrisome. When an Ayattolah in Iran justifies the use of nuclear weapons "in the defense of Islam,", which is NOT what is obstensibly under attack, amid similarly irresponsible calls from American Fundamentalists that maybe assassination is not such a bad idea, I'd say we all need to be very worried indeed. In fact, I think it speaks to the very heart of the contention of our Founders that the separation of Church and State are of paramount importance.

Most of us are able to get along with people different than ourselves just fine, and do so on a daily basis. Some of us, in fact, prefer diversity over mono-culture.But, and this is an ever-growing "but," there are far too many who are easily manipulated by power and vengence-oriented individuals, through increasingly sophisticated uses of the media. We look at examples like R'wanda, and say "it can't happen here." But that is NOT true - it most certainly can, and has happened here. While on a smaller scale, the sporadic urban riots that have taken place in the USA over the past 40-50 years make it all too clear what we are capable of. Add into the mix a demigog like McCarthy, throw in a paranoid and heavily-armed police force strongly beholden to an isolated Executive branch controlled by a group of religious extremists, and an Islamic state like Iran, oops, a Christian Fundamentalist oligarcich state like the USA is not unthinkable.

Constant Vigilance, people, constant vigilance.