Author: Wesley White

Throughout the Midwest came warning about essential driving. A major snowstorm covering several states at a time was predictable and did arrive. It turned out the expectation of multi-vehicle accidents arrived on schedule and resulted in hours and hours of delay.

It turns out that essential travel is quite mutable. My desire to move on is essential, and your desire is not.

The question of a day’s delay seems not to have a place to land. A desire, not always recognizable, has come to mean it must be fulfilled. Passion has become the contemporary arbiter of “freedom.” A delay or denial of a desire is tantamount to a reason to break solidarity with one another and claim a privileged position or power.

Along with a right to travel in a windy whiteout comes easy access to plausible deniability and a first strike of blame. If we had been alone on the road, there wouldn’t have been a pile-up demanding evasive action and becoming stuck in a ditch.

Since we do not have the power to claim independence when roads are obviously constructed communally, it can only be said that we are a particularly myopic people.

In the tenor of the day – it must be that we were conspired against. Otherwise, we wouldn’t now be sitting here awaiting a long-overdue tow truck to get us on our way and into a next, surprise!, delay.

“Snow falls and builds up around the righteous and the unrighteous” – there is no special dispensation. May it sometime come to this: A recognition of no-exemption from the consequences of entitlement is a warning bell leading to a rethinking of desire’s limits.

a vaccine
acknowledges
the need
for some amount
of sickness
to enter in

any entrance
is recognized
as a known point
of risk
requiring
judgment

evaluation
sets communal danger
against individual peril
asking
concern for others
be real

no room
is available
to eternalize
one response
as the only
option

a weighted choice
still favors
a common sense
the more secure
my context
the better for me

strangely
the old adage
of keeping enemies
closer
remains
truer

Freedom is brought down by freedom.

One of the failures of translating the Bible into English is the inability to easily or smoothly indicate a difference between a plural “you” and a singular “you”.

This parallels a distinction between communal “freedom” and individual “freedom”.

A declaration or constitution of a regional freedom from a colonial power does offer some increase of opportunity for individual freedom. In such a case, personal freedom or liberty is subsumed under the communal. A liberty to subvert the freedom of the larger community/nation is still labeled as treason.

Over time the United States has belied its claim to a unity that keeps it engaged with and free from the sway of other nations. It remains independent from other nations but reliant upon a unified citizenry (not unified in priorities but in process and common sources of evaluation, e.g., a majority of votes wins an election). 

Little-by-little, the issue of freedom has devolved from a nation’s common vision to that of individual desires or individual state biases. It is now “my” freedom that takes precedence over “our” freedom.

This gradual shift eventually caused an internal discord that hollows out a sense of general welfare or common good and leaves no coherent substance for a defense of the freedom of the plurality.

Of course, plural freedom can be oppressive. Still, when denied as irrelevant in the face of individual liberty, such as claiming “religious” freedom to avoid a communal norm, we lose an important point of balance and topple inward and downward.

fearing others
before they are present
is taught sideways
before any encounter

parental authority
does assist survival
even as it constrains
a new thought

every innovation
is a new person
entering the group
and suspect

old habits
do not go quietly
daytime or dark
and rail as they go

every coping skill
eventually falls
becoming fight
or innovate

I was fortunate enough to attend a Zoom version of the Lyons Lecture series of First United Methodist Church in Madison, Wisconsin. David Galston, Executive Director of the Westar Institute (Jesus Seminar and more), included material about parables.

It is always good to be reminded that parables do not have a single or eternal meaning but come out of nowhere and leave unresolved, except how we complete them in our lives.

I posed a question, “What parable would people in the United States of America do well to attend to over the next four years?”

David pointed to Thomas 97:

Jesus said,
The [Father’s] imperial rule is like a woman who was carrying a [jar] full of meal. While she was walking along [a] distant road, the handle of the jar broke and the meal spilled behind her [along] the road. She didn’t know it; she hadn’t noticed a problem. When she reacher her house, she put the jar down and discovered that it was empty.

His reflection indicated that this would be applicable in Western cultures, generally. The U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand all have tragedies in their relationship with Indigenous people, and all capitalist-based countries have disasters caused by their economic model. These and other results of their preferences for their elites are as tragic as the loss of the woman’s meal that was sustenance for her and hers. Such life-threatening situations have no miraculous ending that can be expected (unlike the old story of Elijah and the Widow). They are tragedies, pure and simple. He also included the climate and xenophobia in the tragedies that must be faced and recovered from. Essentially, we are called to do the hard work of improvising our way through our tragedies without any expectation of a miracle escape.

I commend this parable to you for periodic reflection over these next years as the hidden costs of past failures finally, belatedly, tragically surface.

When questions arise, they are to be taken with seriousness enough to be called hypotheses. The instability that a question implies looks for resolution through testing.

In science, there is little more valuable than a next good question. Here, it is an indicator that a previous question bumped against the limit of its testability. We may not have the technical means to resolve the matter, and it must be held as a question until it can be addressed.

It may also indicate a question was tested and was resolved negatively – the question was based on an incorrect premise or the data shows it to have been disproved.

It is always anticipated that a question will find a positive outcome. When it is confirmed, a new question now needs to be anticipated so we can continue to move one step closer to what might stand behind the idea of “reality”.

If a question is to be useful, it requires a faithful execution of a process to find out and abide by the result to move beyond a wishful thought or build upon a new tool (resolved question).

If the same question keeps arising in the face of a negative outcome, it can be asked if the question is being asked for some reason other than a resolution. One example of a pernicious question (a question weed) comes in politics where a question has been shown not to be true but is still insisted to be held open (the outcome of an election, the counting of votes). In such a case, the question reveals a willful desire of every two-year-old attempting to control their world through a big “No!” Or the confusion of adolescent yearning for an affirmation of one utopia or another, raising it to life-or-death stakes.

When a question comes back with a “No!” The question needs refinement into a better question or accepted until it can be resolved – using the same data, or cynic skepticism is not useful.

The question of the outcome of the 2020 presidential election has moved from one of being asked in order to be resolved into a blunt instrument meant to short-circuit an undesired result. A mistaken idea has been repeated, and we again have to learn a religious axiom that unrequited desire leads to suffering.

As long as people base their search for “happiness” on a result fitting what they think is their short-term best interest and ignoring negative constraints, they will spin their wheels in blown sand until they are stuck enough to either abandon their vehicle or call for assistance. This seems to be where we are with a political use of questions while denying scientific and religious appreciation of questions that come up short and can lead to a better question, being honest about living well in the face of disappointment.

If a question is still asked without a willingness to take its result and build a better question, it will soon be seen as a Big Lie or the titillation of a side-show barker selling fantasy to the next-born sucker.

If we can learn the value of a disproved questions, the 2020 election will have provided a great service. If not, we are in for a rough ride through multiple coups, revolution, and the use of violence to settle a question. This will be a return to the harmful idea of “might makes right”.

For the moment, there needs to be a small grin from a recognition that the “people for freedom from reality” are using “big brother” techniques to control others, even a majority of others. Here, freedom is a false flag that covers a multitude of flies masquerading as a “dear leader”. Such lordship always devolves.

One of the process realities are connections between what lies on either side of a boundary when they are a significant part of defining one another. A Day of Inauguration cannot begin unless there is an equivalent Day of Extinguishment. Without their being paired, all manner of fantasies that all-will-be-well will creep in to cause later anguish.

The president of carnage needs recognition, not for his sake, but for the work of the president of unity and empathy. This lack of clarity has already been at work with those nominated to cabinet positions. The purveyors of carnage are still standing as obstacles.

Carnage was the promise of D. T. (Other D.T.s have been caused in so many by one main actor). So it was proclaimed in his first speech on the Capitol steps. A surfeit of lies carefully constructed brought that carnage to fruition. It was evident in the widening of an economic gap between citizens [a micron-size slice of the citizenry benefited at the direct expense of the overwhelming and growing number of poor]. It was evident in police brutality [undeclared local martial law]. It was evident in incompetence to deal with a real physical reality of contagion [more citizens dying in one year than in two World Wars]. It was evident through an initial participation in the voting game and subsequent abandonment of its basic rule of counting [choice was treated as no-choice, revealing the petty dictator as a naked emperor].

Unless this is detailed, those involved acknowledge their deeds, and a gracious reconciliation (see South Africa and Nicaragua experience after throwing off oppressive governments) is implemented, moving forward is greatly impeded. This is no flash in the pan hoopla of one day. This is years of work to free the future from the grip of an ugly past.

Note that there is always the possibility of such a major crisis of wealth disparity, institutional racism, pandemic, and insurrection contains good seeds that might be given an opportunity to grow. Unfortunately, a lack of recognition of the enthrallment we have had with inherently flawed individuals with their vision narrowed to only themselves will continue to haunt.

That haunting may have some hearking back to an old story about seeds. Haunted seeds find themselves bouncing off hardened surfaces and hearts and picked off, one by one [opportunistic feeders on easy money]. Haunted seeds find themselves in shallow soil with no room for roots because all the resources have been siphoned off [excessive military funding and insufficient taxation base because of breaks given the rich and corporations]. Haunted seeds find themselves waking up to find the weeds have grown faster and block their opening to blossom [crony capitalism and corporate lobbyists have gotten to the resources before them].

For seeds to flourish, many intersections have to come together. It may be that the plethora of crises will provide that intersection where something else has to be birthed. If so, the promise is that the investment needed will be repaid thirty, sixty, and one hundred times more.

The choices come down to Truth and Reconciliation or A Newer Deal. Both can be blocked. Vigilance and Action are the only antidotes to Carnage.

= = = = = = =

To shift gears, as this is written the list of pardons is not yet available. Of major concern for the chaos D.T. sows wherever he goes is a mass pardon of all those imprisoned for minor drug offenses. I believe they deserve to be released, but to do so at midnight means there would be no way of supporting them in a transition back to everyday life, come morning light. A lack of resources would be expected to have an enormous recidivism rate. A moment of euphoria would be followed by questions of how to survive with no resources for housing, food, work, and an increased drain on community resources to assist folks in such an abrupt change.

You may have listened in on a renewal of energy to participate in the trials of our day. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a trigger point for that participation.

I suspect that a more regular exposure than a once-a-year event would help in keeping your energy high.

Here are three listenings I did today and can recommend that you parcel out through your next week.

Number 1 — Amanda Goodenough — Minute 29
Number 2 — William Barber, II — Minute 51
https://www.facebook.com/ViterboUniversity/videos/1481052408767500/

Number 3 — Michele Alexander — Minute 21
https://pbswisconsin.org/watch/pbs-wisconsin-originals/mlk-2021-tribute-together-as-one-hnytcy/

Yesterday, someone remembered I had done a presentation with lines they found helpful. It wasn’t quite enough of a clue for me to remember which it was as I use lines to assist me in clarifying an issue. If it can work on a 2-D plane, it likely has its applicability in 3-D space and 4-D time.

As the day wore on, I found myself thinking more about Polarities. “Polarities are ongoing, chronic issues that are unavoidable and unsolvable.” The classic example is breathing. An inhale is good for it brings oxygen needed for life. A held breath can only last so long before the oxygen is used and replaced by carbon dioxide. To remain oxygen-deprived is not good. Trying to inhale more doesn’t work. Problem. An exhale is in order. This does resolve the carbon dioxide problem but does not address the need for additional oxygen. We are still oxygen-deprived. Another inhale is in order. What is needed is managing a cycle of Good (inhale), Problem (oxygen-deprived), Good (exhale), Problem (oxygen-deprived), Good (inhale), etc.

Both inhales and exhales are good. Neither works if we are going to turn this into a binary choice, a zero-sum choice. Management is not an issue of good vs. bad, but between two goods and the consequence of only attending to one good. Today’s insistent insurgent demands there be only one answer, and it must be theirs. This is an invitation to disaster, no matter how long they hold their breath as a coercive demand to get-their-way.

Pushing beyond the immediate situation, it is possible to go back to a beginning error in a creation story that has a “creator” lonely for a partner and arranging for a dusty one. The reported first task for each one is that of dominion. If an all-good creator is set over against an all-bad creature we are immediately into a binary, zero-sum game in which there is no winning in the short-run without losing in the long-run.

A better image is that of a partnership between those with a working relationship. With a partner we can manage the bumps along the way, working them out. If it is one with power over the other, dominion will always break the “tie that binds”.

So how to place some lines that can shift an old story to a new story? How might one represent a shift from dominion to management? Would it have some connection to the old tension between selfish freedom and servant responsibility, where each has their place but we keep forgetting their relationship? To choose insurgent freedom (state’s rights, Mammon’s barns) is to be in tension with a needed revival of constitutional general welfare/common good.

It will be good to return to a management style rather than “my way or the highway” demand. Even so, if the management does not attend to the addition of new elements, it is unlikely that a long-term readjustment away from money-as-the-measure-of-all-things-good will last long. It will just be a bait-and-switch back to old power struggles.

I look forward to new power struggles over management, not dominion.

Mark 13:5
Jesus said, “Watch out that no one deceives you.

The first non-apocalyptic response is a warning that going down the line of being warned about a final line that, if crossed, will, at long last, trip me up, do me in, is a losing question.

Simply approaching such a line from decades away is no different than if we were already strides past a point of no-return.

Our predilection is to play out every pyramid scheme we have ever met. Putting more and more resources into a dwindling base is never a viable solution.

It is almost that we like being fooled. Scary movies or the latest political huckster both play off our thrill of living on the edge of disaster.

To hear a warning not to be deceived is to build a barrier against anything other than deception. E.E. Cummings put it well in his play, Santa Claus: A Morality:

Who can tell truth from falsehood any more?
I say it, and you feel it in your hearts:
no man or woman on this big small earth.
How should our sages miss the mark of life,
and our most skillful players lose the game?
your hearts will tell you, as my heart has told me:
because all know, and no one understands.

The disciples want to know about some mythologic tomorrow without understanding that tomorrow is very much an outgrowth of today. At stake is not avoiding suffering and death but having a resurrection in the present through changed hearts that trust good news to be truer than the most attractive and believable lie.

= = = = = = =

there will be many opportunities
to become deceived
this sign or that
will be touted
as a last coffin nail
for one argument or
another

the difficult work
is to not limit
experiences
where deception is attempted
your task is to learn
a gentle
single-eyedness

deception flows
from self-deception
unto a world view
misgrounded
in univalent signs
voiding
creative ambiguity