Author: Wesley White

Hope is forever bumping up against impossibilities. Hope trusts the current horizon is not the end of its sight. This begins to put hope into the realm of the eternal (that beyond), and, to that extent, moves us away from hope that activates action in the present. An eternal hope that crosses impossibilities also exempts it from placing a bet on an intermediate deed. Such implementation builds a small hillock from which to better view what is held as unconditional, irreducible. Acting is to be done in light of this height — presuming a will-to-act, will bring an ethical response to a particular moment.

In a chaotic setting, such as that intended by a current federal administration, there is no one grand gesture, including voting, sabotage, or coup, that will resolve an endemic hyper-individualism. In the face of matters only resolvable in a common setting, the injured are the only ones who can accountably surface and implement a reset.

Hope asks a more prosaic question: “What will I do as an act-of-mercy in the context of someone’s being pushed out-of-kilter by an individual decision or that of a larger structural/cultural blind-spot?” Greed cuts a larger than needed swath and, vampire-like, does not show up in any mirror. There is no recognition of collateral effects, only the shortest possible term of profit.

Consciously acting from a non-negotiable view that all are worthy, blind-spots are to be engaged — individually, structurally, and culturally. Trust but verify; hope but act.

wind
tickles
a chime
tinkling
one of five
related tones
one
a glissando
unable
to catch
a breath
the central
clapper
dances
returns
to rest
repeats
without
repeating
within
how blessed
one lone
tink
initiates
a breeze
needing refreshment
we pray
the chime
to stir up
a breeze
of such
magic
we fall
prey
reversing
order
to chaos
invoking
sympathy
for
post-human
biological
limits
to be
surpassed
my mere
music
no
anthropology
needed nor
asked
no
deus ex
explained

I was struck by the closing of Sen. Tim Scott’s speech at the Republican Convention. Where one would expect a liturgical refrain expecting “God” to “Bless” “America” (at least the already entitled), Tim added a line, “…and, Father, please continue blessing the United States of America.

A case can certainly be made that “Father” is merely a synonym for “God.” But it is at the center of a well-known model of the strong, autocratic leader and has political overtones.

After a speech/apology for the sitting authority-in-chief, invoking the “Father” language made it all too easy to connect with the standard Fascist trope of “Fatherland.” There is no reason to think this was accidental.

I take it this was not a slip of the tongue but a deliberate introduction of the current President as more than an officeholder eternal incarnation of the office itself. This identification is so close that the term “Father” preempts the office.

“Father,” as in “head of the family” (or nation), demands that “Father Knows Best,” without any of the irony in the TV show from days of yore. This is a political position that equates to “Leader” (as Füher or Duce) have meant in past eruptions of fascism. “Father” or “Leader” is not a “President” or presider over a process; an administer of policy. Father/Leader is a return to the Divine-Right of Kings.

Is this too paranoid a response in the midst of a disjointed moment? Is this an anticipation of giving the One Ring to one desiring, grasping creature blinded by such an external, precious power to comfort its own lack of a sense of preciousness/worth of its own?

Only time will tell whether this is a last gasp of patriarchal religion or a doubling down. Keep your ear open.

-

naturally

length width
bound area

add in height
and there is
weight of volume

from there we find mystery
wrapped in time and universes
felt in stars and constellations
string tied around and between
chalked on floors for safety

with great luck a taste of heaven
bubbles up with new sinews of courage
to offset a trust in inside tips
leading to loss for the house wins
a better bet invests in another’s house
the stronger the commons the stronger all
heavens place is firmly located right here

One moment of the Republican Convention put the election in a clearer light. It came with all the plausible deniability one would want.

Most of the way through his speech accepting the nomination, there was a strange moment on the South Lawn of the White House when the current President turned his back to the audience and took a moment to look at the White House. The transcript says this:

They want to defund the police while they have armed guards for themselves.  This November, we must turn the page forever on this failed political class.  The fact is I’m here --
[APPLAUSE]
-- what’s the name of that building?  
[APPLAUSE]
But I’ll say it differently.  The fact is we’re here, and they’re not.  
[APPLAUSE]
To me, one of the most beautiful buildings anywhere in the world, it’s not a building, it’s a home, as far as I’m concerned.  It’s not even a house; it’s a home.  It’s a wonderful place, with an incredible history.

After one more falsity and mischaracterization of the opposing party, with nary a transition, the reason for misusing the White House and other governmental places and procedures came clear — “The fact is I’m here.”  That’s all the justification seen to be needed. Presence and power are the only realities at play. You are either a winner or a loser. Winners get to do what they want; when they want. The rich get richer; the poor, poorer.

In looking at the White House, there was no need to speak the overt issue of this election —White Supremacy. People said to themselves, “It’s the White House; O, the White House.”

Doubling down on the power of presence, “The fact is we’re here, and they’re not.” At least one of those not here is the previous President, a “Black” man. The message is that the House has been restored to its original owner, if not the original builders.

To indicate the rightness of this, we are led to see that a man is king of his castle, his home. This “White” House is more than just a symbol; it is an emotional center worth defending with all available arms. This “home” locates any future threat of leaving it will be met with the greatest resistance.

“White” is the shine of a city on a hill. “House” and “Home”, property and identity, invest the city with energy to defend it even if such a defense will ruin the whole system’s general welfare. Rape of economic resources will parallel the rape of environmental resources of the last 300 years but at a much more rapid pace.

This aside put the whole election in perspective for me. There was no need to say “White Supremacy” aloud. It has been made clear that it is firmly set in people’s minds. Now it is doubly important to say aloud what has become the water we swim in, to articulate what is at stake. Democratic processes and traditions are always waxing and waning. Some are helpful (slow progress can glacially change, helpful to the extent change occurs), and some are not (majority wins, is not helpful). This, however, goes beyond political processes. In play is the willingness to express in every way possible, inhumanity, the supremacy of some — toward any other person, and the crucial context of other-than-human.

Others are one of the best self-diagnostic tools we know. Our first response and subsequent acts reveal ourselves to be primarily built of knee-jerks, both those hard-wired and those carefully and repeatedly taught by those around us. We also have the possibility of intentionally following the star of self-definition and generosity-to-a-fault. Sadist and saint may be the poles of what is revealed in any encounter with another—be they animal, vegetable, or mineral, and the various values we assign to any or all of such categories. [Note the difference between indicating said animal, vegetable, or mineral is a “they” or an “it.” This is likely to be one of the variables in your research.]

A week’s worth of charting our recognized encounters with others will give a beginning baseline. When we repeat the charting process 6-months later, we will be able to tell if our responses have shifted in one direction or another. Increasing welcome of an other and paranoia about them are two common variants.

Adding two additional charts will help clarify the limit of our consciousness—1) how a trusted other observes your interactions with others and, 2) their noting anything else that has drifted on by our recognition.

Also, a refrigerator chart, a place to note:

1) a recognized other,
2) our first inclination, and
3) any shift in that expectation.

The other may be a well-established adversary, a newly encountered other, or an old friend (remember your growing into friends—did you have a common enemy or a found place of commonality.

This charting process will help sharpen your opposition as well as your appreciation of the limits and gifts of some other. Allowing an other to be other will bring more opportunities to engage in John Lewis’, “good trouble” and ease a troubled mind into restorative rest. 

A window is
for looking through

silica and isinglass
give light not form

floated glass
shows many details

it can even keep
harmful rays at bay

the dirtier the window
the happier Windex® is

smog and pollution
raise their bottom line

clearer windows
are a capitalist plot

capitalizing
on R-values

to change windows
more frequently than needed

now we better see
our window on life

in looking through
we gaze upon

“Who was that masked catalyst?” This variant on the closing scene of Lone Ranger episodes holds a favorite mystery — the presence and effect of a catalyst.

Not being a chemist presents some difficulties in proceeding. I’m sure that my lay perspective mischaracterizes important considerations and is quite romanticized regarding the arrival, work, and parting of a transformative element.

There are dangers too great to number when taking a physical process and applying it to personal and social relationships. Foremost among them is a difficulty in imagining that the forces at work in beginning and stabilizing a change in relational or social status would remain unchanged.

While we can see the effect of money on changing the perceived status of an individual or group, we can posit that money continues to be money. Stories and studies suggest that outward changes in opportunities or their lack do not cover us, but reveal, whatever basic value system was held before money entered the scene.

The largest effect on persons or groups are perceived as individualized. History books generally go for large characters who have huge success or failure as they jump from war to war. The characteristics of such characters are etched in stone. Their nicknames are indicative of unchangeability.

These flashpoints of capital and leaders are too obvious in their presence to be catalysts for change. They are more a sign-of-a-change than the facilitator of such. Of more interest are the quiet, muffled, hinting folks who trust a different mechanism than straight-forward interference with on-going processes of change. A prophet or saint might be thought of as a living catalyst. Even then, the reports of their lives run well past what can be known, and hagiography enters on elephant feet.

Given their nature, the catalysts in my life may never be identified. Whoever they were—thanks.

winter kite flying
lifts spirits
as high as spring

differently colored skies
and clouds
background how it flies

a crucial difference
is wind
on the homeward trace

one a blizzard
another breeze
both with their hazard

pent up release
persistent defiance
We live between these

Everything dies, after all. 

Our interaction with this reality tends to wax and wane. The further we are from reality, the more we have invested in the denial or necessity of death. Narcissistically, it is only for others, and we can easily help them on their way. Depressively, it is the most significant possibility we can recognize through dark and blindered glasses.

In a somewhat reasonable time of awareness, we are capable of noting times and seasons of death. Mourning the loss of our own experience or the presence of another takes on the sense of a marker we can come to not only appreciate but celebrate. Noting a limit heightens the importance of relaxing into its arms. Such restrictions focus us on making the most of the opportunity at hand, bringing all we can to bear on behalf of those who may yet arrive if there are still seven generations to come—this is never guaranteed and always a statement of faith.

In the best of times and the worst of times, we are most enlivened when death is at our advisory table to lend its perspective. While it neither deserves the first or last word, it makes the conversation the richer and the decision cleaner and brighter.