Learning

Empty calories are appropriate for couch-surfing entertainment. They acknowledge an emptiness, not unlike the oblivion of a black hole swallowing anything and everything before it.

Here’s another constant, E2 = S (Empty times Empty equals Sadness). There is nothing already present and nothing on the horizon, much less near to hand. Such sadness is precursor to oblivion seen more clearly in alcohol’s long and universal appeal to numb.

When not used as the only way to ease the pulling of an infected tooth, alcohol and its substitution by other drugs is a sign of needed change, or The Nothing will get you.

Today’s Sunday Service I attended brought a reminder of a book worth regularly revisiting—The Once and Future King by T.H. White.

The sadness of emptiness becomes the addiction leading to oblivion. It can also be seen in the politics of Fascism and its kissing cousin of claiming we can’t know what true—the shame of not claiming to know what we do know.

Merlin (the Magician) confides in Wart (young future king Arthur) that there is a remedy for sadness (emptiness)—learning beyond tests.

Unlike a black hole, learning grounds us by furthering an integration of previously unconnected fragments of life and having something more than economic value to share with others.

Learning brings the honor of knowing more than one’s place in the current economy (familial and social). Learning is the measure of a maturity that trusts both mistakes and emptiness are not the last word. Learning brings an ability to see what an abundance is already available.

If we learn to distrust all facts but our emotions (both hope and fear), we become a black-hole seed planted in the midst of family and culture. Eventually, one is joined to another, and all turns to a whimper.

Listen in to Merlin that you might grow into responsibility.

“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”

Growing Up

the world’s record
largest little boy
grew so tall
by not growing up

everything focused
inward inward
one big inhale
one bag of wind

all nutrition
sucked from the air
only the -isms left
to spill and spew

such style
hair to nest in
but none dared
nestle close

desire ran hot
so much to win
fueled by fire
of firing

only knowing
how to use up
kept him
from growing up

Victims

solidarity with victims
requires
work for their justice
against
exploitative practices

religious and political
leaders
choose present perks
against
prophetic calls

national abuse
trickles
to family abuse
against
one another

no one solution
appears
from the outside
resolving
exceptionalism

exploitative
against
work toward justice
requires
solidarity with victims

Appreciate Difference

A universe centered on agrievement and blame is similar to understanding home as a whirlpool. The strategies include having one basic target that is grabbed onto. Eventually, having to dance with the one that brought you means the blamer and the target of blame go down together.

The best that can be done if you are targeted is to claim your space. You may well go down the drain of history earlier than later, but there will be no mistake about what your intentions are. The distance between yourself and your blamer will come to be seen. What they need to be an integral identity will become differentiated.

A second strategy of blame is to jump from blamee to blamee. For a moment it may seem that one who blames is able to work back up the whirlpool by jumping from one excuse to another. This approach always seems to run into the same difficulty—a mistimed jump or refocusing of blame. It is exceedingly difficult to avoid the “crying wolf” syndrome. Blame fatigue happens. Similarly, a blamer may find the surface of a potential blamee too slippery or well-defended to have the blame stick, and so it is reflected back (I’m rubber, you’re glue; your words bounce off me and stick to you). Boomerang Blame is the worst possible outcome for a blamer.

Those who appreciate growth through difference are less likely to blame first and then a second or seventh time. Those caught in looking for the world to conform to a need to be confirmed in every instance find blame to be a reliable way to skate through life on its surface. It can be anticipated and expected that blame is prepared even before deployed a first time.

The difference between George Washington and Donald Trump is galaxy-wide—that between “I cannot tell a lie” and “I cannot help but lie.”

Thesaurus

it is time
to return
the thesaurus
to the shelf

for too long
it’s been open
to the entry
for trump

we’ve found ways
around using
that expression
for one-upping

a card game
is entertainment
not governance
gambling life away

when everything’s wild
usual measures
and Calvin Ball
fall apart

following suit
is required
before trumping
limits enhance play

Dull Effectiveness

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!

After binging mean bullying for its own sake, there is a question of how to stop what has already become expected behavior. In general, it only takes 21 days to institute a new habit. Unfortunately, some habits are never able to be shaken, only moderately controlled. Ending a four-year habit leaves an anxious silence and wondering if too many Pandoran beasties were let out and now need to be cleaned out. No matter what the actual number is, it takes more time away from instituting renewed virtues.

The old Alka-Seltzer® ad that began this jotting is but a temporary fix. Undoubtedly more doses will be needed as a further investigation of the depth of the hole that has been dug reveals how difficult it is to fill it and make it stable enough to be a foundation to what it will be asked to bear.

Those who have used harder drugs along the way may need to factor treatment for that along with strengthening the structures of community. At question is what will hold us together in the presence of residual resistance and lack of agreement on whether internal strength (general welfare) or external strength (common defense) is the priority.

Freedom and independence are over-used code words for authority and military. Yet, they remain powerful. Those for whom they hold a central place can best assist the present moment by helping to find a new Frame for them that will allow more people to have these as personal options as well as lead more resources toward Partnership and Share Dependence.

We have run into the downside of governance by meme. Being sure the engine has enough lubrication is of more importance than the cutest affirmation or cuttingest put-down securely attached to the bumper.

Here’s to dull effectiveness in weaving a new way to approach an old vision of agreed-upon purpose, if not way to move toward it.

Stand Together

A quote from Eugene Debs: “When we are in partnership and have stopped clutching at each other’s throats; when we’ve stopped enslaving each other, we will stand together, hands clasped, and be friends.”

This assessment is taken from the perspective of viewing culture through the lens of an economy, political power, and labor coming out on the short end of those sticks. Two behaviors need to be stopped — throat clutching and enslavement. Both of these are endemic to the processes of an economy and a political process.

The desired outcome is that of friendship, which is not controlled by structures but is simply personal.

Mixing a structural analysis with a personal result poses difficulties. This can be seen as we continue to work our way through an election result that is too narrow. It will keep the feeling of suffocation and loss of control of both parties at a high level. [Is it time for a communal viewing of Mel Book’s movie, High Anxiety?]

We continue to place great emphasis on our happiness being keyed to external forces. As long as such is the case, the biggies of entitlement and desire will run through the limitation of scarcity with resultant attempts to put one’s self in the position of storing up resources and control of others through the twins — economics and politics.

Our usual approach is to ride them until they drop. At which point, we pick up any just slightly cracked eggs, put them in a shiny new basket, and proceed to repeat the dynamic with a different group of people initially on top but gravitating toward the same types of leaders as before.

What seems to be missing is any personal work that needs doing regardless of the stock market or election results. This is not a solution, but provides a source of energy to not only analyze our macro-setting but take revolutionary actions that refocus economics and politics on what has been called our “general welfare”. Just because the details of a common good continue to be hijacked by false securities doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a salutary part to play in cultural structures that can enhance, while not guaranteeing, personal well-being.

Continuity

So quick to judge
so persistent our prejudice
so slow is mercy

I’ve already made up
my mind and answers
it must cohere

yes I know
you’ve done so
even more

since I’m more open
what can you put up
to show we can talk

hmmm
I wish that were
good enough

it appears we are fated
to have this wedge
universalized

maybe my great-grandchildren
will get yours
to see your error

so there
until then
bye

7th Generation

This is written before beginning any contact with election-day reporting. A first acknowledgment is that decisions/actions (conscious or not) are happening as I write that will affect me and all. That is the way time and space work. Light has its waves and particles; I am faced with an expected linear sequence of personal and political situations asking for a next response and unexpected jumps in new opportunities. This pairing of fate and creativity are continually interacting.

Another on-going interaction is between the various systems that are the water in which I swim and myself as a rock eroded/shaped by those systems and as a resistance to the flow (slowing them, displacing their center). Whatever the system or election outcome, I still have myself to deal with.

Will I read too much into the election results? Undoubtedly, that’s what I’ve always done. It has taken me a while to listen to others as well as to try on various opportunities the system and election bring.

Usually, within a month, I can begin to articulate what I see has happened and identify one place I can apply my gifts to enhance or retard the latest shift in direction.

In the midst of rising and fading expectations of how things are matching up with my desires, there is the important question of a vision for some 7 generations down the line (175 years hence).

Considering this current time to be a 7th generation—What was going on in 1845 that is still lingering, hasn’t yet been resolved, broke in to initiate a significant difference between then and now?

Well,

  • 1845 established the date for yesterday’s election (in 1845 it was a November 4 election).
  • Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning met for the first time (new love is still happening).
  • Florida and Texas were admitted as states (how did they affect things this time?).
  • A fire devastated Pittsburgh (was there looting this time?).
  • Scientific American began publication (what is the state of science in the culture today?).
  • In Germany, Friedrich Engels published, The Condition of the Working Class in England (and the state of the working class today? are we closer to a revolution?).
  • The precursor of the Band-Aid® was patented in France (what everyday aid is born this year?).
  • The first Black law firm in the United States was opened (16 years before the Civil War).
  • Henry David Thoreau moved to his shack by Walden Pond (what reflection are you doing?).
  • Among the many achievements of Michael Faraday, in 1845, he wrote, “I have at last succeeded in illuminating a magnetic curve or line of force and in magnetising a ray of light” (will we continue learning or return to a darker age?).
  • A potato blight in Ireland begins the Great Famine and its resulting migration (and today’s refugees?).
  • John Franklin’s expedition toward a Northwest Passage disappears (“Great” can only be ahead, and it is risky?).
  • The first screw-propelled iron steamship crosses the Atlantic Ocean (did it have redundant backups or crossed-fingers?).
  • Johnny Appleseed died (will the frequency of Covid-19 deaths finally be address with more than denial?).
  • A fine 1845 Liberty Head large penny is now worth about $30 (what will today’s penny be worth?)

I’m not expecting much to be clarified by the time this is posted. One immediate question I have is how widespread any violence is and how it is dealt with. The rest can be sorted, but deaths and maimings are all too final.

Election Elements

socks and underwear
items most sought
by houseless migrants
homeless in their own
hometown

food and soma
keep bodies going
past previous markers
of meaningful activity
purpose

education and decision-making
elements of elections
bind us in a sequence
evolving communal health
grok