Meditating on Meditation.

Thinking about meditation this morning.

Meditating on meditation. I am for it. Finding the calm center in the vast storm of our existence is sort of a revelation. A simple, little thing that has major ramifications. Sort of like the flap of a butterfly's wing that turns into a hurricane.

What to say?

If you sink deep enough you realize you are more than your thoughts, more than your feelings, there is a realm inside you where thoughts and feelings are just passing clouds, not as substantial as they sometimes seem. You can still your inner voice. There is a realm below or beyond your inner voice. There is a realm of silence.

You can inhabit that silence, and it can overwhelm you. In the stillness you find a stillness. In the silence you find a silence. In the deep calm you find a profound calmness. You don't have to claim any of it. You can let all these things just pass over and thru you.

There is a point where all the human needing, wanting, grasping seem like little traps that we set for ourselves. We can sidestep the traps. No need to cling. No need to linger. No need to bind ourselves. There is an easiness of letting go. A calm, silent, awareness. It is one of the pathways to healing.

Music as Religion - Trane!

We watched "Chasing Trane" last night; enlightening, inspiring, beautiful. A knockout film about one of the truly great artists, and one the most inspiring, insightful and soulful human beings that ever walked the planet. Music as Religion. Coltrane shows us that music is one of the most powerful, direct and phenomenal pathways to the Divine.

"My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being...When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups... I want to speak to their souls." - John Coltrane

Message in the Music!

I spent a few days staying at a friend's house. I was watching over his little pack of dogs. I was the lead dog for a few days. It just so happens my friend is a musician too, and as he tells it, (just like me), "Music is my religion." He owns an amazing collection of long-playing phonograph records and little shiny compact discs. So I loaded up the music player and luxuriated in listening to albums I don't happen own myself. I played the records over and over. I lived and breathed these sounds, these songs, these albums, consumed them like high sacraments.

There seemed to be a some grand theme contained in the titles and the music of the records I listened to... I just grabbed these randomly without any forethought... but something tells me the music was speaking to me, sending me a powerful, healing message.

"There's a Riot Going On" (Sly and the Family Stone), "Stage Fright" (The Band), "Helplessness Blues" (the Fleet Foxes), "Oh Mercy" (Bob Dylan), "Smile" (Brian Wilson).

Yes, dare I say it, quirky & inspiring, masterpiece records all... plus the grand theme, the implied, unspoken message contained in the grooves and the titles...

Thru the riot, thru the fright, thru the helplessness, you must show a bit of mercy, smile... and... endure...

The Obvious Liars!

I hate seeing the Obvious Liars seemingly on the ascendant. I think it's an illusion, a blip on the pop cultural radar, and it won't last, but I also worry that much of our media-obsessed citizenry can be fooled, at least for awhile, and in those moments of confusion, there is an opportunity for the Obvious Liars to fuck things up worse for the rest us.

We don't need to fuck things up worse. We have too much work to do. And we are wasting time.

The Zen Masters tell us: "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few." Yeah. We need a few less experts, and more beginners. I for one am comfortable in thinking I don't really know what I thought I knew. No worries about trying to see clearly, with new eyes.

I do know we need to stop listening to the Obvious Liars. They are a dead-end, leading us into the abyss. They make lots of noise, sound and fury, signifying nothing. We need to move on from nothing and into a new positive, truth-telling, life-affirming something.

Democracy Dies in Darkness - Release the Full Mueller Report!

Yes. I do think we are being lied to, (see two previous posts), I don't think the "Barr Memo" is a decent stand-in for the full "Mueller Report." I do not believe our President when he tells us, based on a quick, sketchy summary, concocted by his hand-picked Attorney General that he has been "totally exonerated." We are being lied to, it's an educated guess, but it's also an overwhelming feeling, one that I am not happy about. We know nothing. We don't even have any idea how many pages make up the full Mueller Report.

Will we ever know the truth?

I suppose this President and his henchmen will do all they can to make sure that we don't ever get a chance to see the full Mueller report. This is something I just did not foresee. I didn't realize it was even possible. All this time tracking with the Mueller investigation from afar, expecting that when it was done we'd finally get the facts. Everything would be laid bare. I was working on an old model, I recall my days as a wee lad, watching the Watergate scandal unfold. I still kind of believed that our systems of laws, our political system could work. I guess not. It's a bit scary, leaves me uncertain, unhappy, queasy stomach, a most confused citizen.

I mean, actually it's worse than that, I have a sinking feeling that the country I thought I lived in all these years is not the country that I am living in. I mean, I know that's a strange thing to say, my country is often failing, people never cease to disappoint, every day there's an outrage, an insult, a crime, an instance of injustice, bad guys thriving, good folks suffering.

Still, it's strange to watch my fellow Americans, pundits and journalists all just nodding their heads, going along with this odd charade. This is just another chapter in the great hustle that is this Presidency. We are all being lied to, bush-whacked, fleeced, robbed, robbed of our crazy-ass ideas that this was a special place, one of the few countries where we could face the music, reconcile our flaws, work on trying to make a more perfect union, knowing that there is no perfection, and we are always pulling apart, always short of our ideals.

There are bad actors amongst us. Our political adversaries. They just don't care. They wield their power. They are audacious, rapacious, they don't play by the rules. They play dirty. It's an unfair game, a stacked deck. They have no shame, they are hypocrites, they are arrogant, they do whatever they think they can get away with. They have no respect for us. They do not fear us. They see us clinging to certain ideals and they see it as weakness. We are losing. We just aren't as ruthless. We are losing everything we hold precious. I still hold a slight spark of hope deep inside me, but it's a hope beyond hope. I shudder at the thought that maybe even hope itself is just another weakness that can, and most surely will be, exploited in this dark, forbidding, sadly-sinking empire...

Something Does Not Add Up...

"Something's happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear..."

I'm still in a state of confusion. Something does not add up. There seems to be some elaborate kabuki dance intended to confuse us. I think we are being lied to by powerful people to protect powerful people. Not sure. Either there is more to the story coming soon, or folks are trying to deep-six the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and we are watching it happen in real time. Disorienting! I am not a conspiracy-minded person, but the story I thought I was following has taken a really weird, unexpected and fishy turn. Wonder. I wonder what happens next? Will we get to the truth, or are we stuck in a vortex of lies and coverups?

A Riot in My Head...

All the news this morning leaves me speechless.

I just have no idea what to think. I have no opinion. No hint of what to think. I am confused. I feel stupid. I think someone is lying to me, I have this distinct feeling that the truth is being buried out in the backyard.

I think there is more to the story, and it will emerge, but who knows?!

Something is going down. Something I just don't understand. I think folks are lying, lying to all of us. Maybe best to just wait, tune out the noise, or put some glorious noise on the stereo and chill with a good cup of java.

Yes, good idea... this morning it's Sly and the Family Stone's "There's a Riot Going On," (1970-1971), truly one of the greatest albums in the history of albums. It's a riot, a party, an over-stuffed musical cornucopia of super-funky and musical sound. There is a riot going down in my fricking head... a riot of confusion... but it sounds so damn good, so damn funky, there's even a bit of yodeling, yes, I kid you not, yodeling...  it's a masterwork, a glorious, seriously beautiful, riotous noise!

Experience the Experience.

We all probably know this, but maybe the things we all know are the things we should notice and acknowledge. The obvious.

So, sleeping, madly, sweetly and deeply, this sentence comes to me: "Don't judge the moment, just experience it."

This seems like revelation. Like something really important. Maybe I knew this, but didn't really know it? Can I live it? Be it? Totally subsume it into my moment by moment existence? Can I experience the things of the world, the moments of my life and save my judgements for later?

I mean, maybe that's actually how it really does happen. Smart people tell us we experience something, then we decide to judge the experience, we think the judgement is it, the ultimate thing, and forget to absorb the experience, maybe it's an impossible task, to experience the world with no filters, but it's really the experience which transcends, is bigger, more profound than any judgement or later reflection we can attach to it.

Right. It's a little thing. A small thing. Maybe everything. Experience the experience.

A Liberation!

Spring is in the air here. 

Still cold. Brisk. But yesterday was all blue sky and sunshine. The lake was alive, wave after wave crashing into the shore. It was ordinary, the same lake, see it every day, but at the same time it was gorgeous, breath-taking.

I bought a classic old road bicycle yesterday. Everything works, brakes, gears, has a cool rack on the back. Riding along the lakefront felt like a liberation. Total freedom. Waves crashing, sunshine bathing everything.

A good day to be alive.

"Soul beats Money every time."

"It's all about the Benjamins." 

It's a line from a Puff Daddy song. That line got one of our freshman congresswoman in hot water. Of course, she's right, in our version of civilization, our over-stuffed empire, driven by the voracious beast known as capitalism, it's always about the Benjamins. But in the context of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict its a highly contentious statement. Anything even tangential to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is pretty much politically toxic. Is that line "an anti-semitic trope?"

It depends. Who is using the line? Puff Daddy? Your Mother? A Muslim Woman in a head-scarf? Jesus? Does that change the meaning of the line?

I would say it's a essentially just a super-cynical statement, right? A line that mirrors and reaffirms the religion of free market capitalism. Cynical, derived from the Cynics and the philosophy of cynicism:  "a Greek philosophy of the 4th century B.C. advocating the doctrines that virtue is the only good, that the essence of virtue is self-control and individual freedom, and that surrender to any external influence is beneath the dignity of man."

"It's all about the Virtue, Man..." I mean, all those thriving, seething, needing, wanting capitalists will  surrender it all, virtue, dignity, soul for the Benjamins. As they say, "Everyone has their price."

Ah. So maybe not a just an anti-semitic trope, a much more all-inclusive and damning idea. "It's all about the Benjamins" pretty much describes the economic engine of all modern man's empires. As soon as money was invented, ("The invention of money took place before the beginning of written history"),  human beings totally lost their shit. Yes, no doubt, gladly, willingly, "beneath the dignity of man."

From the King James Bible: "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." Yes, so if, as they say, "capitalism won," the selling of souls, virtue and dignity is a fait-accompli. We did it on the cheap.

There are exceptions, but, those exceptions pretty much prove the rule, who didn't/doesn't live by the Benjamins? Think of the indigenous people who inhabited America before the White Hordes invaded. Chief Joseph told us you can't own the land, you can't own the sky. That we all answer to higher powers. Well, we stole the land, sold it off, and moved Chief Joseph and his people aside, in the blink of a greedy eye. Also think of the Amish. Those grim folks kind of work outside the paradigm of celebrity-mad, money-crazed, pop culture.

So. No. I don't think it's an anti-semitic trope, or at least, not only an anti-semitic trope, and I wasn't offended when our new congresswoman used the line. It's the human story. Right?! Now, of course, some of us aren't only, or mainly, motivated by money. We value other things like Life, Love, Art, Poetry, Music, Soul. But we get tarred with the same slimy brush. "Everyone's a whore!" Anyone working outside the boundaries of the $$ is suspect. We are the "bad machines," who are working for other meager rewards.

Still, I would like to turn Jim Morrison on his head  and assert that "Soul beats Money every time." But of course we can't buy bread or pay the rent with Soul. We need those Benjamins, dude. Brother, can you spare a dime?! So, I mean, there's that. It's a tangled, sticky web. And we are caught right smack dab in the middle of it.

So yes, it's all about the Benjamins, except when it's not. And we get to choose when it is, and when it isn't, we get to choose what we value and when. We don't have to choose to value what everyone else chooses. Some of us can essentially "do the right thing." But of course, it's gonna cost us. You always have to ask, what's it gonna cost?! And who is gonna believe you when you say you "don't do it for the money, Man, I do it for the love?" How many Benjamins to buy your love?

Then again, laying on our death-bed, running thru last thoughts, how many of us will be thinking to ourselves: "Boy, I wish I worked harder, spent more time working, saving more money, yes, wow, wish I had more money, wouldn't that be great?" Soul!

The Harder Streets...

I found myself in a very sketchy part of town. Maybe one of the sketchiest in the City. It's not far from where I live, but this "hard street" neighborhood couldn't be more different from the one I live in. Worlds away. I was looking to buy a bicycle. I ventured into the neighborhood, trying my best to be invisible. Hard streets. The kind of streets where anything can happen. And where anything does happen frequently. Gangs. Drug deals. Drug deals gone wrong. Drive-bys. Stray bullets. Dead people. This is a very poor, African American neighborhood.

Everything seemed shabby, broken, falling apart, slapped together. The buildings and the pavement pockmarked, old, beat, lots of rubble and cheap trash strewn about. Everything bleak and going to seed. Disorder. Entropy. No money, no neighborhood development funds here. Poor. A really, really poor, hard, raw neighborhood.  I felt on edge. Alert. Expectant. A blank queasiness in the pit of my stomach.

I was standing on the sidewalk with another white guy. Two uncomfortable white guys looking very much out of place. We were waiting for someone to come to the shop door, to let us in to check out bicycles. Minutes ticked by. No one showed up. Very Samuel Beckett-like. Standing around. Waiting. No Godot. Wild goose chase. A futile trip. It really did seem like we intentionally put ourselves in harm's way for no good reason.

Random. Stupid. Wrong place. Wrong time. What could happen?

A few minutes passed, seemed like forever, we both decided it was time to high-tail it out of the area. We took our uneasiness with us. Headed back to our more comfortable urban neighborhoods. Yes, the hard streets. People live there. People spend their whole lives there. They call it home. Do the best they can.

The bleakness, the futility, the weird, disorienting uneasiness, hung over me like a dark cloud. It only slowly dissipated once I arrived back at my place. Safe and sound. Relatively. Still, a bit of a hangover from the harder streets.

Secrets for Better Living

I, for one, am on the "rebound."

What are my secrets for better living?

Music (fill your life with music of all kinds, I mean maybe minimize the black death metal, but otherwise try lots of different music, music deepens us, feeds our souls)
Love (fill your life with things and with people you love)
Reading (hopefully you know how to read, if you do, read books, all kind of books - fiction, non-fiction, history, biographies, comic novels, how-to books, cooking books, pop culture books, whatever, lots and lots and lots of books)
Flow Activities (lose yourself in activities that totally captivate you, I mean, non-violent, non-confrontational activities; although, pushing your body to do things it doesn't normally do are often excellent flow activities, give yourself up to something, drop your ego, do the work)
Eat Well (be choosy, eat lots of different kinds of food, but be discerning, smart, picky, stick with lots of vegetables, and organic foods of all kinds, no fast food, no package foods)
Sleep Well (hopefully you have a comfortable bed and some fluffy pillows, use them, sink in, refresh, dream)
Meditate (I discovered meditation in my twenties, but it wasn't til later that I really took to meditating nearly every day, I wish I would have learned to meditate when I was a child, it's important, essential, find your calm center, go there often)
Vote (Yes, vote. It's seem stupid, right? One measly little vote. How can it make a difference? But you know what? It's not that voting will necessary mean a better country, but it will mean a better you! Hat Tip: Teju Cole)
Cultivate Your Being (Indulge yourself, cultivate empathy, compassion, a sense of wonder, wonder often, about everything, live in wonder always, it's an amazing world, a glorious universe, give yourself up to a constant state of wonder, yes, really)

Work on Your Self.

The Wise Ones tell us, "work on yourself."
Right. Some lessons don't really stick,
until you smack up against the brick wall,
over, and over and over.

So right. We want to "fix the world,"
but that is an impossible task, so it dawns,
all we really can do is try to "fix ourselves."

Do the work.

Find what you love to do,
and do that the best you can,
as much as you can.

Be humble.
Laugh often.
Cultivate Grace.
Listen.
Watch.
Meditate.

Work
on
your
self.

Feast of Bleakness

Yesterday a few of us engaged in a gruesomely bleak conversation: The Terrible Realities of our Present Predicament - Death of the Environment, Racism, Misogyny, Power Politics, Moral & Ethical Blind Spots. We ran down all the outrages, all the Blatant Stupidities of the Human Species.

Quite the Feast of Bleakness.

We couldn't actually agree on the basic cause of our nastiness, and really there probably isn't just ONE CAUSE, but a number of interlocking problems, with the main culprits being the love of money over humanity, the Free Market Myth, the Idiocy of White Supremacy, the Patriarchy, Ignorance, Greediness, Slavery, Fear of the Other, Fear of Death, Colonialism, a long and gruesome History of Genocide and Domination across the Globe.

Holy Shite. It's a wonder any of us can get up this morning, and find the strength to tie our shoes and face the day. Yeah, it was that bleak. Folks, I am here to tell you, we need a Miracle!

I thought of Anthony Burgess and his novel, "A Clockwork Orange." We need a Better Human Being, I mean the whole Species is up for a renewal, a re-tread, a re-think. That is supposedly the human experiment. But is Evolution one grand circle or some kind of crooked path forward?

Do the Stupid Ones die out? Or do they Thrive and Conquer?

What if we could invent a Pill that makes us Love one Another? You know, like Ecstasy, but lasts a lifetime? What if you could put on special glasses and no longer see "races," you know, everyone would just look like another human being? What if, we could forget the brutal, deadly past of our species and start over, clean? You know, everyone valued and celebrated, and loved?

I mean, WHAT IF?! I do cling to some crazy notion of Hope. Not sure why, it's just in me somewhere. I recall that phrase, and I do keep it in my back pocket for use in times of dire need:
"A CHANGE OF CONSCIOUSNESS CAN HAPPEN IN AN INSTANT!" I do, improbably, and fiercely Believe.

Making it Fall Apart

Even as I'm making it, it's falling apart. Coming together & splitting. We fill the day, the day fades away. The folks I meet are those same folks who will depart. We open ourselves to the moment, and the moment fills us up and empties us out. Simultaneously. Some things happen instantaneously, some have a longer time-span. It's all the same process.

A Symphony of Death.

First thing yesterday:

news of death
from a land far away
came across
on the radio-waves

death in a mosque
resonates with a
personal death here,
closer to home.

every death resonates
with another.

a symphony of death.

the day was in tune:
raw
cold
bleak
gloomy

a total slog.


the day seemed like
just another mourner
standing at the grave.

yes. it was that kind of day.

How do we all go so horribly wrong?

Thoughts in the wake 

of another horrific attack...

An assault on one of us

is an assault on all of us.

We are all descended from

the same "River of Genes."

(The piece of Eve’s DNA that has been traced comes from something called the mitochondria – it’s in all human cells. 

There is DNA inside the mitochondria, and it’s this DNA that has been traced back all the way to Eve - some 150-200,000 years ago, and is of African origin (sub-Sahara), probably from Ethiopia or Kenya.)

When the more optimistic among us tell us we are all "brothers & sisters," they are essentially correct. At the furthest extremes we are very, very, very distant cousins.

As Carl Sagan once pointed out

we are also all "star stuff."

“...all matter and its interactions are explained by the standard model of particle physics, and those standard model particles make up the elements. We know that, as far as we can tell, all those particles originated at the center of the bang or bounce and consequently transformed via nucleosynthesis (nuclear fusion and fission in stars). We know this is how all the elements are made (from hydrogen and helium, to more complex elements fused in later stellar explosions).

We should all be emphasizing

the similarities of all human beings.

Most "differences" are cosmetic,

and experiential.

How do we all go so horribly wrong?

The Universe is a glorious place.

Human Beings can be so, so shabby,
and disappointing...
"the horror..."

What Kind of Day Today?

What kind of day today?

Are we quietly cringing in the corner of the kitchen, hoping the whole she-bang doesn't come crashing down on our little befuddled head?

Or...

Are we standing tall, walking the streets with a smile and a swagger? Looking for the next cool thing. Wondering what's for lunch?

I just don't know...

A Species of Eternity...

One of the pleasures of reading authors who are  also avid readers and thinkers, you enter a continuum of thought and influence. So, for instance, you read a book by Teju Cole, who reads a book by John Berger, who reads a book by Baruch Spinoza. And you come across an illuminating & mysterious sentence such as this one:

"Although we do not remember that we existed before the body, we sense nevertheless that our mind in so far as it involves the essence of the body under a species of eternity is eternal and its existence cannot be defined by time or explained by duration." - B. Spinoza

Glimmering Shards...

Photo by Saul Leiter

Reading Teju Cole's  book of essays, "Known and Strange Things," now...

Glimmering shards of of light!

I found this in the essay about the "street" photographer Saul Leiter:

"There are things that are out in the open and then there are the things that are hidden, and life has more to do, the real world has more to do with what is hidden, maybe. You think?" - S. Leiter

And this is from an interview with Cole:

"As for faith: I don't believe in the Christian god, or the Muslim one, or the Jewish one. I'm sentimentally attached to some of the Yoruba and Greek gods - the stories are too good, too insightful, for a wholesale rejection - though I don't ask them for favors. What do I believe in? Imagination, gardens, science, poetry, love, and a variety of nonviolent consolations. I suspect that in the aggregate all this isn't enough, but it's where I am for now." - Teju Cole

"None of this is Happening."

This is from Neil Gaiman's "American Gods," I think it pretty much applies to everything. Right? Life and everything in it is just one grand metaphor, things signifying other things. You know, our lives are mysterious, encoded symbols pointing to other things...

"None of this can actually be happening. If it makes you more comfortable, you could simply think of it as a metaphor. Religions are, by definition metaphors, after all: God is a dream, a hope, a woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms, a watchmaker who left his prize chronometer in the desert, someone who loves you -- even, perhaps, against all evidence, a celestial being whose only interest is to make sure your football team, army, business, or marriage thrives, prospers, and triumphs over all opposition. Religions are places to stand and look and act, vantage points from which to view the world. So none of this is happening." - N. Gaiman

Let it Roll.

Entropy.

Order
to
disorder.

This is
the
grand theme.

Maybe
best to
go with the
flow.

Don't fight it.
Don't resist.

Let it roll out.

Not in this World, Buddy...

If you are waiting for
every last evil-doer
to face the music
you will be waiting
a long time.

Not in this world, buddy.

That's part of the thing.

We watch really terrible
people, do terrible things,
and thrive.

They wear nice clothes
drive cool cars
earn lots of $$$
and lord it over
the common folk.

There are those who
walk over other people.
There are those who
are walked upon.

If you are one of those
who are walked upon,
maybe, remember,
it's not personal.

You just happen
to be in the way.

Move aside
let that evil-doer
do their thing.

That's not your
thing. Try
to carry on,
live
a better
life.

Those evil-doers
have to be them.
You don't.

That's your
best revenge.

Really.

Life a Series of Calamities!

One way to look at life
maybe
not the most edifying

life...

a series of mishaps
screw-ups
missed connections
dead-ends
broken promises
pipe-dreams
stubbed toes
brick walls
failures

one calamity
after another

little calamities
major calamities

it is surprising
when things
go right

the trick
the test
the reality

how do you deal
with so many
dry holes
without
losing your mind?

one way
just move on
always
move onward

drop the baggage
step lightly
focus on the moment
always the moment
this moment
then the next one
after that

Premonitions & Precognition!

I don't know...

I have been thinking
about premonitions &
precognition lately.

I mean, it's funny.
Don't we all have
premonitions
all the time?

"a feeling that something,

esp. something unpleasant, 

is going to happen"

That pretty much happens

to me every day.

How about you?

And when I have those feelings

I am always rewarded

because something unpleasant

is always happening.

What about precognition?

"knowledge of a future event,

especially when this comes from 

a direct message to the mind, 

such as in a dream,

rather than by reason"

Yep. I have often
"received"
knowledge of events
thru dreams
and "direct messages."

Haven't you?

It's kind of like tuning into

a Pirate Radio Station.

A strange frequency from

another time & place.

I don't think I am unique.

And the "knowledge" isn't

all that helpful. Not all that
useful.

You see 

something coming,

you know something 

is happening

the knowledge 

overcomes you
you are clued in
in advance.

But knowing
something in advance
doesn't necessarily
mean you can do
anything about it.

Some things just happen
when they happen.

You are left with:
"I knew it!"

Who Wrote this Script?

Crazy-ass dreams.

You wonder who
wrote the script?
Who is the Director?
What's the point?

Good people
acting bad.

Friends acting
like enemies.

Dead people
coming back
to stir things up.

Everything a jumble:
poorly-paced
shaky camera-work
scenes out of order
no resolution
nonsensical.

This little movie
wouldn't make it
in Hollywood.

Not even suitable
for NetFlix.

I imagine my
head as some
disheveled,
abandoned
movie-palace.

Out of time.

Rats in the aisles,
trash under the seats
old 35 mm film
scarred,
pock-marked,
no one in the place
but me.

Why Talk About the Weather?

Why talk about the weather?
It just is
where you are
something to
endure.

So you go out
and the wind
cuts thru your body
freezes your face
so cold it burns
feels like a steel pike
drilled into your forehead.

That's freaking cold.
Really, really cold.
Not worth talking about.

I mean,
you may wonder
why do people live here?

Not sure. Still,
thinking of Spring.
I do believe it is
coming. I mean,
probably, right?

Energized & Inspired!

It's funny
some folks
when they listen
to Stephen Morrissey
and the Smiths
words like
melancholic and miserable
come to mind.

Those aren't my words.

When I listen to the Smiths

(for instance: "Louder than Bombs"
"The Queen is Dead," "Strangeways
Here We Come" & "Meat is Murder"
loaded into the CD 
carousel on random-play)

I hear melody, rhythm,
shimmering,
beautiful,
thrilling
intelligent
Johnny Marr
guitar wizardry
and
powerful
rock & roll.

Also uncommonly
brilliant lyrics,
perfectly composed
and delivered by
Mr. Morrissey.

Gorgeous music
gorgeous words.

Whenever I listen
to the Smiths,
I can't help it,
I wonder,
can great music
make you a better
person?

More intelligent?
More empathetic?

Who knows?!

I am deeply energized,
and inspired
by their music.

Works every time.

"Spirit is Everything."

Spirit.

Some tell us it doesn't exist.
I woke up this morning
with this first thought,
"Spirit is everything."

I mean the spiritual life.
Not what you think.
A life of spirit.
Not a religion,
not a credo,
not a simple answer,
not a simple condition.

Still, spirit
is everything.

Or maybe I mean it
as a question:
Isn't spirit everything?

Even if we can't
put our finger on it,
don't really know
what it means,
can't capture it,
can't commodify it,
can't see it,
can't touch it.

We embody it,
or it embodies us.

It's a mystery.
It animates us.
It surrounds us.
It lights us up.

I think it's everything.
So much of everything,
it is invisible,
untouchable
unknowable.

What does it mean?
Who knows?
Spirit...

Where is Hope?

Where is Hope?

the next breath
a new day
a smile
a helping hand
the sun on your brow
a beautiful melody
a glimmer in the eye
a gracious laugh
one simple act of kindness
right around the corner.

Fear and anger are
contagious.

Hope and love are
contagious too.

If we are going to
pass anything on
to the next person
try to
make it something
positive.

Hope...

it's right here
this heart,
this hand,
this head,
right here.

Crisis of Belief...

Yes, taking off from Neil Gaiman's "American Gods"...

Maybe the Old Gods
don't quite have
that secret Mojo anymore.

But our New American Gods
seem disappointing,
and pretty damn
hollow.

Gods Like:

Fame
Celebrity
$
Billionaires
TV
iPhone
Media
Bullies
World Wide Web
Tech Nerds
Fossil Fuels
Tabloids
Big Pharma
Gossip
Capitalism
Self-Made Men
Oxycontin
Fentanyl

Of course there are
still a few potent,
intoxicating Gods:

Sex
Drugs (the fun ones)
R&R

They are the backbone
of the catalog,
the Holy Grail.

But those Diehard Gods
often lead us to
bleak dead-ends:

Divorce
Rehab
Coldplay

We are in a Crisis
of Belief