Logic of Evolution
Successful progenitors
survive to sow seed
by force or persuasion
or staying unseen
or banding together
that more may succeed
to improving conditions
enhancing the breed.
But, for successful teamwork
we must
learn to respect, honor, and trust
expect to give and take and share
accept the caring for and care.
In community varied seeds are sown.
Thus is a thriving future grown.
Now, brothers may squabble;
neighbors may scorn.
Barriers built up,
preparations for war.
Who is emboldened by
destruction and blood,
blowing civilizations
back into mud?
Are they kind people
of honor and joy?
Those who can do;
the lacking destroy.
Guns, bombs, words, cruel
contempt, angry sneers,
promoting of pain,
preying on fears,
giving us naught but
unneeded tears
and advancement of certain
unsavory careers.
We can see through the lies,
realize the prize
Here! before our eyes.
Simple. Easy. Free.
Expect, accept, embrace
the abundance
of Peace.
(c) January 20, 2009 Laurie Corzett/libramoon
Prologue
Sun and Moon embrace
as one
for brief eternity
all mystery within
Black and White
create gradation
radiate kinetic energy
We can achieve
believe, begin, begin, begin
Gardeners, planting flowers,
planting food,
planting souls in
nurturing soil
Healers
perceiving wounds
to be sewn
relieving loneliness
revealing pain
held in, denied
twisting ardent toil
Teachers
admiring their wards
finding with them
questions, keys and doors;
realizing history is only destiny
when explorations cease;
invitations from space and time
come complete
with choices
A choir of voices
from softest spark
to fervent blaze
Troops of effervescent players
Symphonies,
drums at dawn
Inspiration and instruction
carried forth through song and stage
vibrant murals painting onward age to age
Taking up the challenge of the tale
that twists, turns, meanders
providing kaleidoscopic opportunity
ever to begin again
(c) January 22, 2009 Laurie Corzett/libramoon
detached
Where were you when I was dying?
Now that I am all but (merely nearly) dead
you mock me
beg my assistance
to mitigate
the dark fall-out
of your fantasies.
Blind to my bleeding, and your own,
how can anything I say
reach you anyway?
Return your pleading to your
silent Lord.
Leave me to my resolutions.
Strangers all these years,
I feel no desire
for meeting
in your dream.
Opening Night
Empty branches yearn for
darkening breeze.
Eerie singing echoes
from the horizon.
Slower days, longer nights
made for reflection ...
And wind sings, trees dance,
stars laugh in the moonlight.
Self-regulating System
The holistic architecture of the Universe
Bubbles bright, dark, defining colour
Gradated activities -- still to
exploding, brilliantly consuming,
tasting infinite combination,
excreting stars
and their progeny.
Living clocks and compasses
dare to create language
unaware that nothing is created
nor destroyed,
but open to interpretation.
Healers, trained in discrete modules,
move pieces on the field of battle,
"acceptable loss" "collateral damage"
Language to limit liability.
Dull, sluggish bubbles
seeking wider distribution
eagerly await Armageddon.
(c) January 25, 2009 Laurie Corzett/libramoon
Childhood memories
imaginary playmates, wondrous fantasies
disappointing realities
I build my gingerbread cave
burn off bits as needed
against the cold
Deep in the woods of childhood
every tree, every lizard, toad,
bramble creating
tunneling stories, glamorous
productions, adventure, romance
Opening eyes upon petty spites,
lonely habits of duty
I look behind to shining grace
realize my place
out, far from grim, grey dawn
upon dawn
listening for enchanting pipes
of Pan to follow
past the painted sky
Gonna build our army for God
Oh the glory, Oh the rapture
millions of souls marching home
Pushing me
sad, shadow memory
I never know what to answer
Hard harsh faces
leer, jeer, beg for tears
I dare not cry
Held by my arms
fiercely protective
Stale tears drip through
the valves of my heart
caustic, bred of poison
A lonely infant cries in the night,
learning to be human
Blind old seer, wizard, holy prophet
stumbling over rocky hillocks
toward the sun
beseeches, sings, ululates
opening passage, veils, gates
free to breathe, drink, be absorbed
London Bridge is burning, burning
The towers are struck and fallen down
With time and tide a'turning
What was lost may still be found
In a world of lads and lasses
Hale and strong, brave and true
Joined in singing,
Raise our glasses
And do as we must do
Masked Lady Moon shines
into my room
speaks of fantastic adventure
Dare I question her
abundant concern?
I a masked gypsy
painted in gloom,
a taste for wry humour,
impossible promises,
resplendent terrain.
A woman insane,
taken in by the Moon
fair sister, sparkling cold
so far
I have no home
but that clear, quiet salvation
hiding like Moonlight
unmasked in my mind
Rituals for Worshipping Beauty
Life's a Mad Dog in Heat; But At Least There's Art
I want a poem, painting, song
to be authentic
heart to heart,
mind to mind
Not to tell me something about you;
to show me more of me.
A Woman Disappointed and Disillusioned, Courageously Facing a Seemingly Empty Life
Dressed in sadness
Depressed to madness
Mad to believe in passion,
which never lasts beyond the hour.
Shrieking to bequeath the
power to stand, to breathe.
Time appears, macabre hag
preening her wares.
"See how it was, how it could be.
Drag and drop your face, your fate
onto a printed page. Can you see
new meaning? New lamps for old."
She cackles, like
a metronome.
New maps for a new age.
That charming village erstwhile
known as Hell
has realigned into Helvetica.
All that pain and sorrow
tomorrow's poetry.
Re-birth
Making love with Beauty
Engorged in her
orgasmic depths
bursting with vision
splurging words of
potent musky imagery
Worshipping Beauty
loving her every countenance,
her every secret ecstasy
Pleasuring me
in our co-creation
(c) February 9, 2009 hours before lunar eclipse
Bitter Dregs
You don't get it.
You don't want to.
It would be too much to bear
if you let yourself.
Briefly unconscious, awakened to
hard concrete ground surrounded
by heels and toes, amazing
they don't crush me, but no,
like lockstep they walk around
though occasionally a(n unmeaning?)
shove -- I'm not a someone,
just a minor obstacle
unnoted in their day.
No worries.
Not like shoved down under
hard muscle and bone
stinking of beer and rage
or waking from brief unconsciousness
to broken pain, bleeding
tears, torn, bruised, a
colorful toy
made for pleasure.
Then there are the voices, echoes
Harpies and Sirens, Furies
and sad old women, fingers
shaking in disapprobation.
The voices tell me I am beautiful,
in the way that ugly things are.
So bad, so pitiful, it gives me
status among the neverweres,
struggling shadows, whispering
curses demurely lest anyone
notice and throw them further
down.
Never easy, confessing to degradation.
The sin adheres. No one wants to know.
(c) February 16, 2009 Laurie Corzett/libramoon
Post-trauma
A child of my own
rape, it shaped me, made me
less and more
Memories stored, to
when I can't go on implore:
"You'll feel better
when you're gone."
Ice-breaking
Get people talking,
Minds moving,
Interchanges and connections
Excitement
Generation of synergy
Diversity flowing uniting
in colorful array
Creating another day
Unlike the past
Finding magical phrases together
to break the isolating spell
our silence cast
Immolation
Red Dragon glorious
Rising to flame
Cleansed of tumbling towers,
poisonous pits,
no refuge
Caustic breath invigorates
Hard smoke billows out challenge
Burning gloriously
ember threads
seer's memory
Life Science
It's all experimental
Line, word, rhythm
Placing of feet
Meeting of eyes
Under my mind
in a quiet place
of enchantment
vast wealth of images appear
Plucking sea anemones and urchins
tasting the poison, the pain
the deep understanding that passeth
all knowledge
If we were not meant to learn
why would mistakes come so easy,
leave so hard?
Yet, where is the lesson that finds me
within your eyes?
Metaeconomics
Trading craziness for madness
Giving praise in my time of Gladness
Opening my soul to be ruled
But if in the eye of my self-made storm
I build a shelter safe and warm
You've but the power of a fool
believing wealth is gold
(c) February 2009 Laurie Corzett/libramoon
Empire
Standing askew as the inexorable boot commands
squeezing out gems, polished and pure.
Paid in bread and circuses.
Bathed in raw entitlement
dreaming of ravaging, raping at will
drinking bright blood doped with
ecstatic thrill
casting lot that promised reward
be assured.
Cold, this world.
Shadow sans Sun.
Listless lapping at sparkling carbonation.
Sinking below matter and form
into terror stories;
taking warmth from smoldering coals.
As tomorrow continues today
your dissolving heart
dispersing pearls of wisdom.
Come, say I!
Enjoy the desert night blooms --
rare, exquisite, alive.
Quiet, the primeval cold,
parched, freeze-dried.
No purposeful future
divined.
Old, alien
unmarked steps upon the Earth.
The stories I spin ...
no meaning
no warmth.
I walk primeval, exquisite landscape
dry, old, eternal
to enjoy the blooming.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
stuff of dreams
I am (obviously) a creature of the night, and alone is where I live and breathe. I think as a constant companion and entertainment. I like to think big picture, unending sky, opening universe. I see us all (not just the humans, not just the living, not just the earthlings, not just this solar system, galaxy, dimension) as if individual cells together, each by our own natural being, comprising the Universe of All, which expands eternally, changing, interactions chemical and metaphysical. What more could we possibly need? Why limit God to a caricature of man?
There seems to be an attitude of entitlement, shades of Protestant predestination, that we who have are the holy. If you don't have, it is proof of your undeservingness. There also seems to be a myth ongoing that jobs, means to livelihood, are given beneficently to uplift the undeserving. We all know that good capitalists give nothing away, in fact do their best to get the most value for the least cost. We know the very basis of capitalism is he with the capital gets to make wealth from the work of the laborer. Still, the laborer without gainful employment is a leech, while the hoarder of wealth is the hero to be emulated. I do hope the paradigm is shifting toward greater sanity.
I never did understand the whole socialism as a gift of Satan attitude. It's just an economic theory, like, say, capitalism. In real practice we get kind of a hodge-podge of historically evolving methods to make sense of chaos.
I seem to remember that in the booming fifties highest tax rates were in the 90% range, savings banks regularly offered 5% interest on small savings, corporations pulled their weight and were expected to adhere to regulations, and we actually manufactured most of what we used. Was this an alternate universe memory?
it seems to me that the higher tax rates would encourage greater creativity and allow for new entrepreneurs better access to the game. If businesses get too big and want to move to other pastures, then we can fill the vacuum with better, smaller businesses. It's not the "punitive" tax rates but sheer greedy cowardice that keeps money from flowing to keep the body economic in good health.
Do we have similar definitions of "atheist" which I understand as a belief in the nonexistence of godlike entities? There is no need for a conscious creator who meddles in every aspect of that creation like a hovering parent. That idea is comforting, I suppose, for those who wish to bask in a false sense of childhood. There is The Universe, All that Is, which includes all of us and everything we are/do/feel/believe, along with everyone and everything else. What more do we need?
I think language makes something very simple seem complex. It is not that nature or the Universe is "god" -- an independent conscious being. It is that All is interconnected and creates an overall spiritual reality, like cells making up a body, each being its own individual cell-system, and altogether organized as a multi-celled system.
Actually poverty, illness, death, these are all accepting the rules of "God" -- All of Life, The Universe, Everything is what is meant by "God" and all of these experiences, no matter how we label them or feel about them, are part of being human, which is our part of "god".
White is purity
cold somber reason
and floating dreams
Winter's the season
turning inward,
reflecting light
sunbeams in drifting snow
casting shadows of
warm decay
that we may
find those treasures hidden
in the fall.
It seems to me, from my limited life experience, that we all face
serious threats, traumas, overwhelming situations, as just part of
the normal stream of life. Creativity seems to be a way of seeing
the glass as not full or empty, but awaiting fullness, taking
sustenance from the drinking, finding another source of fluid to
refill.
Those who would dominate came up with "sins" so onerous, so routine, that none could escape their own natural "badness." Thus it becomes easy to scapegoat, keep the rabble in line, promote hatred and divisiveness, and proclaim the Divine Right to Destined Virtue and Reward for themselves.
The attitude toward childhood in this culture is based on fantasy. I was not "abused" in the sense that we tend to think of, yet I was "spanked" and made to feel lowly, useless, without recourse. Children are not pets or a second chance or blessings to be discouraged from sin by not sparing the rod. Children are actual human beings, living actual lives, not just readying for the future. We, written large, show disrespect, do not honor, think it great fun or worthy of a high five to denigrate each other. This is the lesson of childhood.
The paradigm shift we need is an understanding of education not as an institution, a degree, or sitting in a classroom but our lifelong processes of learning how to be, do, create, critique, acquire/improve skills. Meanwhile, and I am hoping part of this crisis/opportunity of worldwide economics will eventually help point this out, the marketplace should be sensitive to the actual abilities of those selling services, quality of goods sold, rather than some hype-related fluffier.
everyone has their eye and flapping lips all over how this guy Obama is falling behind here, too far there, not the messiah we paid for, et al. As I recall, we basically ignored W. until after 9/11. Obviously that was not the right course. However, this President has been in office for like a few days, and he is already going gangbusters in getting as much done as he can in the face of blowhard obstructionists, second-guessers and the slow grind of bureaucracy. I say, let's give him a break and some time to see what he can do; meanwhile I think we have plenty of yes we canning of our own to work on.
She loved the world of screaming suns and malignant moons. It carried her emptiness into blazing symphonies that only she would dance within. In quiet dreams it pleased her to believe she sought another. None would appear with the grace to dance just so, to harmonize her music.
It's all quite muddled. Science, though often used as a system of beliefs or basic core from which such beliefs grow, is meant to be a systematic method for discerning what things are how things work what is this world in which we find ourselves. Religion, though purporting to be about spiritual truth is meant to be about holding groups together through a common culture and shared beliefs. Philosophy is about applying science to higher truths to learn The Truth, but is generally given less credence than "science" or "religion".
let me ask if this is just weird me or the norm: do you experience that extra sense that's a combination of all of them plus some others, that almost palpable below threshold reverberating, kind of like a molecular net between everything that keeps it a whole experience?
The President is not a god or magician. He is a politician who has been elected to do a job. When our government is running according to the old separation of powers model, he has very little real power over domestic concerns. The greatest power he has is that oratory and leadership ability to mobilize the people to do the work we need to do for our mutual benefit. If the private sector were doing the job of creating wealth that we seem to think is theirs, we would not be having this discussion at all. Blaming Obama for a situation that built up over years before he even ran for office is not solving or improving anything. Bringing up the oh so spooky boogieman of "socialism" the spectre from Satan to overtake and destroy mankind just shows ignorance of the difference between theory and real world compromises.
Why didn't Congress, instead of creating this bailout monster, require those who held the "toxic" "assets" to sell the mortgages and car loans to local financial institutions with a vested interest in renegotiating or otherwise selling or renting these homes or other actual assets, unpacking the whole "toxic" mess? A lot less money would have enabled a reasonable guarantee to make acquiring these assets more attractive to the local lenders and to offset tax deductions from the investors' losses on selling the toxins low.
Do you remember about Thomas Aquinas and the whole Christian scientific/philosophic inquiry tradition? How about the Gnostics? The very hemmed-in sectarian kind of Christian philosophy we seem to be best acquainted with is not the true Christianity, but a version sanitized for easy marketing: Christian Capitalism, or is it capitalist christianity?
The "fiscal conservative" Republican anti-government strategies have been well voiced and explained by those adhering to those concepts. It is not meant to be a trick. Unfortunately, they have it all mixed up. Cutting taxes to the wealthy to cut back on government spending is pure foolishness. The spending still happens. We get more debt. Republicans get to go all ballistic about poor fiscal planning . Then it comes up that it was their own unintended consequences coming home to roost.
As the commentators are finally admitting, it is not Social Security but Medicare that is the big financial drain. This is because of the seriously messed up way we handle medical care in this country.
I think a big part of the problem is that people are not encouraged to know more about how our bodies work, what kinds of symptoms are worthy of serious concern, how to be aware of our own daily health and issues such as stress. We are encouraged to be a dependent people seeking the word of authority.
The qualities of sam-e to ameliorate joint pain and depression led me to think about the theory of depression as a reaction to chronic pain, physical/emotional/metaphysical. It's not an illness, but a symptom, like fever, a consequence of the organism's defense system.
I recently heard that California is considering legalizing and taxation of marijuana to get them out of their financial mess. Perhaps this is the time, when people are more concerned about real problems than the spectre of legal pot.
healing balm of Spring
washing winter sorrows
in hope of warm tomorrows
the flowering they bring
nature's gift of calm acceptance
vibrant interlocution
thoughtful breath
take in, release
It's not that mental illness is a myth. It's that it is not necessarily an illness. Obviously what we eat affects us in ways we have not yet studied. Every aspect of our environment affects us in ways we have not yet studied. As far as I can tell much of what is called "mental illness" is really about distortions of learning how to relate in the social world. Observable brain effects which are associated with "mental illness" are the physical manifestations in the mind/brain system. We don't know whether these observable effects are causing the behaviors, or if the behaviors manifest physically thus causing the brain effects. This gets further confused when there are chemical interventions (psychiatric drugs) with their own effects. Quite possibly the stress reactions from living over time in perceived hostile environments do manifest as changes in the brain and in behaviors. As best as I can tell there is no magic bullet cure for the dis-eases manifest in terms of chemistry or surgery. The most effective treatment seems to be about encouraging the healing and resilience of the "patient" through compassionate interaction, and finding activities/beliefs/goals that offer more purposeful and healthful ways of being.
We seem to shy away from the realities of suffering, to
mask or cure or carry forward with a stiff upper lip. Of course we
want the benefits of medical science to ease suffering, cure disease
and heal wounds. That ought not take from the dignity and important
lessons found through painful circumstance. Perhaps we would do
better with honest rituals to honor and celebrate these aspects of
our lives, while doing our best to rationally and compassionately
work toward health.
Why should anyone dictate what others may ingest? Oh, you are paying for their healthcare costs? So you can watch them (say on videocam) and dictate their every move? And what about you? What about that woman you convinced to have sex without protection? What about those over the counter pills you can't do without? What about the side effects from your sleep aids or pms controllers or ed eradicators or anti-depressants that turn you into a homicidal zombie or require pill to cure the side effects of pill to cure the side effects of pill to cure the side effects of?
From my observations, liberals attempt to take in everyone by expanding their tolerance for differences while conservatives attempt to take in everyone by exhorting sameness in attitudes and beliefs. Thus, when a conservative seems to be accusing their opponent of x ("You Idiot!") they are venting the frustration they feel for your obvious wrongheadedness. The issue you are debating, of course, has only one true attitude and belief to adhere to, which would be theirs.
Those haranguing against stem cell research, you have the wrong cause. The people who manufactured embryos for artificial impregnation are the ones who altered "God's plan." Those who are using these discarded embryos (tossed out by their parents) to find cures for children who are alive, loved, and part of a social fabric is in essence a way to make lemonade out of lemons, just what a good parent/God would want. Do you find it evil when parents donate the organs of their dead children that other children might live?
In my experience meth producers and sellers are in business to sell a product. Don't buy if you don't like. Protect your children and families by having real honest conversations, not just about meth. Get the facts and spread them. I have seen young adults lose their teeth, ruin their skin, have their hair turn white and thin, not to mention the paranoia, general jumpiness, and opening to whatever illness is around due to general malaise. It is not a worthwhile habit. Meditation works ever so much better, along with enjoyable exercise, to boost energy and metabolism.
It's not that some meds can't help. It's that there are methods that do not have the nasty side-effects of most meds, don't have the expense, can be usefully used without a prescription or medical interference. Taking meds is a crap shoot, and then when you find something that "works" often it stops working or has unbearable effects. I come more and more to the view that what we label mental illness is often not an illness, but a problem in social interaction or communication or conceptual understanding, better addressed by education than drugs.
Evolution, Conscious Divinity sending out bolts of energy and matter and saying: "Let there be life!" Whatever. Just blind moths in the darkness burning for the light.
There seems to be an attitude of entitlement, shades of Protestant predestination, that we who have are the holy. If you don't have, it is proof of your undeservingness. There also seems to be a myth ongoing that jobs, means to livelihood, are given beneficently to uplift the undeserving. We all know that good capitalists give nothing away, in fact do their best to get the most value for the least cost. We know the very basis of capitalism is he with the capital gets to make wealth from the work of the laborer. Still, the laborer without gainful employment is a leech, while the hoarder of wealth is the hero to be emulated. I do hope the paradigm is shifting toward greater sanity.
I never did understand the whole socialism as a gift of Satan attitude. It's just an economic theory, like, say, capitalism. In real practice we get kind of a hodge-podge of historically evolving methods to make sense of chaos.
I seem to remember that in the booming fifties highest tax rates were in the 90% range, savings banks regularly offered 5% interest on small savings, corporations pulled their weight and were expected to adhere to regulations, and we actually manufactured most of what we used. Was this an alternate universe memory?
it seems to me that the higher tax rates would encourage greater creativity and allow for new entrepreneurs better access to the game. If businesses get too big and want to move to other pastures, then we can fill the vacuum with better, smaller businesses. It's not the "punitive" tax rates but sheer greedy cowardice that keeps money from flowing to keep the body economic in good health.
Do we have similar definitions of "atheist" which I understand as a belief in the nonexistence of godlike entities? There is no need for a conscious creator who meddles in every aspect of that creation like a hovering parent. That idea is comforting, I suppose, for those who wish to bask in a false sense of childhood. There is The Universe, All that Is, which includes all of us and everything we are/do/feel/believe, along with everyone and everything else. What more do we need?
I think language makes something very simple seem complex. It is not that nature or the Universe is "god" -- an independent conscious being. It is that All is interconnected and creates an overall spiritual reality, like cells making up a body, each being its own individual cell-system, and altogether organized as a multi-celled system.
Actually poverty, illness, death, these are all accepting the rules of "God" -- All of Life, The Universe, Everything is what is meant by "God" and all of these experiences, no matter how we label them or feel about them, are part of being human, which is our part of "god".
White is purity
cold somber reason
and floating dreams
Winter's the season
turning inward,
reflecting light
sunbeams in drifting snow
casting shadows of
warm decay
that we may
find those treasures hidden
in the fall.
It seems to me, from my limited life experience, that we all face
serious threats, traumas, overwhelming situations, as just part of
the normal stream of life. Creativity seems to be a way of seeing
the glass as not full or empty, but awaiting fullness, taking
sustenance from the drinking, finding another source of fluid to
refill.
Those who would dominate came up with "sins" so onerous, so routine, that none could escape their own natural "badness." Thus it becomes easy to scapegoat, keep the rabble in line, promote hatred and divisiveness, and proclaim the Divine Right to Destined Virtue and Reward for themselves.
The attitude toward childhood in this culture is based on fantasy. I was not "abused" in the sense that we tend to think of, yet I was "spanked" and made to feel lowly, useless, without recourse. Children are not pets or a second chance or blessings to be discouraged from sin by not sparing the rod. Children are actual human beings, living actual lives, not just readying for the future. We, written large, show disrespect, do not honor, think it great fun or worthy of a high five to denigrate each other. This is the lesson of childhood.
The paradigm shift we need is an understanding of education not as an institution, a degree, or sitting in a classroom but our lifelong processes of learning how to be, do, create, critique, acquire/improve skills. Meanwhile, and I am hoping part of this crisis/opportunity of worldwide economics will eventually help point this out, the marketplace should be sensitive to the actual abilities of those selling services, quality of goods sold, rather than some hype-related fluffier.
everyone has their eye and flapping lips all over how this guy Obama is falling behind here, too far there, not the messiah we paid for, et al. As I recall, we basically ignored W. until after 9/11. Obviously that was not the right course. However, this President has been in office for like a few days, and he is already going gangbusters in getting as much done as he can in the face of blowhard obstructionists, second-guessers and the slow grind of bureaucracy. I say, let's give him a break and some time to see what he can do; meanwhile I think we have plenty of yes we canning of our own to work on.
She loved the world of screaming suns and malignant moons. It carried her emptiness into blazing symphonies that only she would dance within. In quiet dreams it pleased her to believe she sought another. None would appear with the grace to dance just so, to harmonize her music.
It's all quite muddled. Science, though often used as a system of beliefs or basic core from which such beliefs grow, is meant to be a systematic method for discerning what things are how things work what is this world in which we find ourselves. Religion, though purporting to be about spiritual truth is meant to be about holding groups together through a common culture and shared beliefs. Philosophy is about applying science to higher truths to learn The Truth, but is generally given less credence than "science" or "religion".
let me ask if this is just weird me or the norm: do you experience that extra sense that's a combination of all of them plus some others, that almost palpable below threshold reverberating, kind of like a molecular net between everything that keeps it a whole experience?
The President is not a god or magician. He is a politician who has been elected to do a job. When our government is running according to the old separation of powers model, he has very little real power over domestic concerns. The greatest power he has is that oratory and leadership ability to mobilize the people to do the work we need to do for our mutual benefit. If the private sector were doing the job of creating wealth that we seem to think is theirs, we would not be having this discussion at all. Blaming Obama for a situation that built up over years before he even ran for office is not solving or improving anything. Bringing up the oh so spooky boogieman of "socialism" the spectre from Satan to overtake and destroy mankind just shows ignorance of the difference between theory and real world compromises.
Why didn't Congress, instead of creating this bailout monster, require those who held the "toxic" "assets" to sell the mortgages and car loans to local financial institutions with a vested interest in renegotiating or otherwise selling or renting these homes or other actual assets, unpacking the whole "toxic" mess? A lot less money would have enabled a reasonable guarantee to make acquiring these assets more attractive to the local lenders and to offset tax deductions from the investors' losses on selling the toxins low.
Do you remember about Thomas Aquinas and the whole Christian scientific/philosophic inquiry tradition? How about the Gnostics? The very hemmed-in sectarian kind of Christian philosophy we seem to be best acquainted with is not the true Christianity, but a version sanitized for easy marketing: Christian Capitalism, or is it capitalist christianity?
The "fiscal conservative" Republican anti-government strategies have been well voiced and explained by those adhering to those concepts. It is not meant to be a trick. Unfortunately, they have it all mixed up. Cutting taxes to the wealthy to cut back on government spending is pure foolishness. The spending still happens. We get more debt. Republicans get to go all ballistic about poor fiscal planning . Then it comes up that it was their own unintended consequences coming home to roost.
As the commentators are finally admitting, it is not Social Security but Medicare that is the big financial drain. This is because of the seriously messed up way we handle medical care in this country.
I think a big part of the problem is that people are not encouraged to know more about how our bodies work, what kinds of symptoms are worthy of serious concern, how to be aware of our own daily health and issues such as stress. We are encouraged to be a dependent people seeking the word of authority.
The qualities of sam-e to ameliorate joint pain and depression led me to think about the theory of depression as a reaction to chronic pain, physical/emotional/metaphysical. It's not an illness, but a symptom, like fever, a consequence of the organism's defense system.
I recently heard that California is considering legalizing and taxation of marijuana to get them out of their financial mess. Perhaps this is the time, when people are more concerned about real problems than the spectre of legal pot.
healing balm of Spring
washing winter sorrows
in hope of warm tomorrows
the flowering they bring
nature's gift of calm acceptance
vibrant interlocution
thoughtful breath
take in, release
It's not that mental illness is a myth. It's that it is not necessarily an illness. Obviously what we eat affects us in ways we have not yet studied. Every aspect of our environment affects us in ways we have not yet studied. As far as I can tell much of what is called "mental illness" is really about distortions of learning how to relate in the social world. Observable brain effects which are associated with "mental illness" are the physical manifestations in the mind/brain system. We don't know whether these observable effects are causing the behaviors, or if the behaviors manifest physically thus causing the brain effects. This gets further confused when there are chemical interventions (psychiatric drugs) with their own effects. Quite possibly the stress reactions from living over time in perceived hostile environments do manifest as changes in the brain and in behaviors. As best as I can tell there is no magic bullet cure for the dis-eases manifest in terms of chemistry or surgery. The most effective treatment seems to be about encouraging the healing and resilience of the "patient" through compassionate interaction, and finding activities/beliefs/goals that offer more purposeful and healthful ways of being.
We seem to shy away from the realities of suffering, to
mask or cure or carry forward with a stiff upper lip. Of course we
want the benefits of medical science to ease suffering, cure disease
and heal wounds. That ought not take from the dignity and important
lessons found through painful circumstance. Perhaps we would do
better with honest rituals to honor and celebrate these aspects of
our lives, while doing our best to rationally and compassionately
work toward health.
Why should anyone dictate what others may ingest? Oh, you are paying for their healthcare costs? So you can watch them (say on videocam) and dictate their every move? And what about you? What about that woman you convinced to have sex without protection? What about those over the counter pills you can't do without? What about the side effects from your sleep aids or pms controllers or ed eradicators or anti-depressants that turn you into a homicidal zombie or require pill to cure the side effects of pill to cure the side effects of pill to cure the side effects of?
From my observations, liberals attempt to take in everyone by expanding their tolerance for differences while conservatives attempt to take in everyone by exhorting sameness in attitudes and beliefs. Thus, when a conservative seems to be accusing their opponent of x ("You Idiot!") they are venting the frustration they feel for your obvious wrongheadedness. The issue you are debating, of course, has only one true attitude and belief to adhere to, which would be theirs.
Those haranguing against stem cell research, you have the wrong cause. The people who manufactured embryos for artificial impregnation are the ones who altered "God's plan." Those who are using these discarded embryos (tossed out by their parents) to find cures for children who are alive, loved, and part of a social fabric is in essence a way to make lemonade out of lemons, just what a good parent/God would want. Do you find it evil when parents donate the organs of their dead children that other children might live?
In my experience meth producers and sellers are in business to sell a product. Don't buy if you don't like. Protect your children and families by having real honest conversations, not just about meth. Get the facts and spread them. I have seen young adults lose their teeth, ruin their skin, have their hair turn white and thin, not to mention the paranoia, general jumpiness, and opening to whatever illness is around due to general malaise. It is not a worthwhile habit. Meditation works ever so much better, along with enjoyable exercise, to boost energy and metabolism.
It's not that some meds can't help. It's that there are methods that do not have the nasty side-effects of most meds, don't have the expense, can be usefully used without a prescription or medical interference. Taking meds is a crap shoot, and then when you find something that "works" often it stops working or has unbearable effects. I come more and more to the view that what we label mental illness is often not an illness, but a problem in social interaction or communication or conceptual understanding, better addressed by education than drugs.
Evolution, Conscious Divinity sending out bolts of energy and matter and saying: "Let there be life!" Whatever. Just blind moths in the darkness burning for the light.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Emerging Visions #14 Scrying Phantom Seas has emerged
Welcome the Emergence of "Scrying Phantom Seas" Emerging Visions visionary art ezine #14
http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com
Listen to the heart of bliss.
On open sand, feel
breeze, vibrance
under oceanic starlight.
Breathing eternity, open
inward to see intricately
expanding visions -- poetry:
thought in magical splendor.
All art is magical; all magic is art.
Yet they are not the same, and part
of a grander landscape, embracing
sky and sea.
http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com
Listen to the heart of bliss.
On open sand, feel
breeze, vibrance
under oceanic starlight.
Breathing eternity, open
inward to see intricately
expanding visions -- poetry:
thought in magical splendor.
All art is magical; all magic is art.
Yet they are not the same, and part
of a grander landscape, embracing
sky and sea.
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