mindful chatter

I think problems often arise in relationships over a commonly held (if sometimes unconscious) equation of "love" with "obligation." The obligation is more about a desire for security. I think what we hold as the ideal of "love" has to do with being totally blown away by this being's existence, so that it is a primary value and honor to you to have them in your life.



I have no idea why we would want to embrace a philosophy of "life is suffering." It is untrue. Suffering is not a condition of living, but an interpretation. All life is moving, learning, adapting, metamorphosing, interchanging with environment.



I was brought to mind about the intense thrust of energy that was the late '60s when everyone seemed so actively involved in creating new ways of understanding our shared experience. We felt the older generation was mired in traditions. Scientific traditions and the "realism" of the "modern" world had reduced the mysteries to material cause and effect. Somehow we got a spark of something else, and a desire to pursue alternative visions.

Yet the conservative material world insisted that anything beyond their careful straight and narrow was just fringe. Many were co-opted by material realities. Others found compromise between science as stolid knowledge and crazy new ideas that just might have validity. Thus "normal" folks now accept ideas about multi-dimensional universes and cause/effect paradigm shifts.

Thus, I am perceiving that old cyclic expansion/consolidation wave



These days, when we are learning more and more about nonobvious interconnections, mind/body/spirit whole systems, vast ripple effects of the cosmos, etc., how can we not understand that "science" and "spiritual truth" are not inextricably entwined?



There was a neuroscience of education docu-show on PBS tonight which revealed quite fascinating results from studies showing that kids-teens-adults, contrary to popularized belief, can and do learn, grow new brain cells, all through life. Many get teased/bullied or tease/bully because of "learning disabilities" which target them as different in a less-than sense. One kid on the show talked of being tempted to join a gang and enter a violent lifestyle because he could not learn in school and got treated badly by the other kids there. Violence begetting violence. When will our collective brain cells grow enough to learn? They spoke of (and showed real kids in the classroom) new discoveries that show quite simple techniques (no drugs or stigma of "disability") that can help kids whose minds are to some extent disorganized or slower on the uptake in certain regards catch up to their peers in learning. I have also seen evidence (I read a lot on neuroscience, especially in regard to healing through dance) that cognitive-behavioral kinds of therapies work better than drugs or traditional psychotherapies for kids with mood disorders. You take the kid for who he is, and teach him how to more effectively interact with his environment. It's not about punishment or blame or labeling. It's about teaching the kid what he didn't naturally pick up on his own.



I say, if exhausted, take the time to really feel it all the way down, all the way through. R e l a x, drift, let your self float on an eternal breeze. Find the music that resonates with this moment for you, and dance, at whatever level your body feels it. Let go. Swirl into the music, entranced. Repeat as desired.



oh my goddess, what sweetness
my breath trembles
my heart recognizes
these words



We move along a path, but it is not clear, straight, narrow, nor linear. We believe, or we work through ideas, ways of connecting and disconnecting, moving through the steps and scenery. We believe we know something about how things are, and we want something different. We develop plans and goals and measurements. As long as we are not attached, not too invested in our beliefs to change, it is all just another class, another experiment.



Far from a character defect, anger when used correctly (which we rarely do because we are trained against it) is a powerful emotional purgative and precursor of useful action.



what are the "effects of poverty"? Just not having money is not really an adverse effect. It's not having the support, the safe haven home and community, parents away working most of the time and too tired to even really be there when they are physically. It's food that keeps you hungry even when you do get to eat. It's impure water and air, pollutants that get passed off to the poorer neighborhoods. It's assaults of all kinds from those around who have pretty much given up on life and just fall into violence until it kills them. I'd say there are pretty bad effects of the unhappy lives around them for kids in a variety of economic situations.



Words
refined tools in
clumsy hands
cannot grasp such subtle
consistencies
Existence in a word
is but a play, a farce,
a comedic troop
signifying their wares
Reality -- this word we
freely swear
in imagined duress
or attempts at superior
demean is but a remnant
from a dream
when words came soaked
in conscious context
we do not seem to have
the wits to hold



I was envisioning (so shoot me, I'm an idealist) community healthcare facilities, community healthcare professionals (maybe even community healthcare colleges). Those who could easily afford it would be encouraged to pay for sustaining subscriptions. Those who had nothing would get free subscriptions, or would get government subsidies such as Medicaid, but with much less cost. Those of moderate means would pay less than they do now for "insurance" yet get much better care without all the denials. Healthcare professionals could spend their time giving care, not dealing with insurance companies or billings. Just a little common sense, enlightened self-interest and calm deliberation could do it.

What if we boycotted unsatisfactory "health" insurance? What if instead of paying these corporations, we had direct subscriptions to healthcare facilities and providers? What if people within communities got together with local healthcare providers and developed systems in the best interests of all groups involved?

We need to take back our health; take back our bodies; take back our minds; take back responsibility to make sure the marketplace provides what we need at a cost we can afford -- or find a different market, place, and paradigm

It just stands to reason. We don't want sick folks cluttering up our workplaces, markets, schools, good neighborhoods. The sicker you are, the more you cost, until you can't pay anymore, get hopelessly in debt, become a drag rather than a driver of the system, get by on "social" programs and stop yer bitchin'.

The insurance industry has big gun lobbyists, big money interests that speak loudly to lawmakers. Not just health insurers. I was recently in a conversation about auto insurance in which I was struck when someone said that if you don't have enough coverage or personal assets and injure or are injured in an accident, there would be no payment for medical bills over the insured's coverage. Thus, auto insurers benefit from responsible drivers (or those who don't want personal liability) getting the more expensive coverage. Yet, for all those employers complaining about paying for their employees' health insurance (and those maligned because they don't provide employees health insurance), for all the people spreading diseases because they can't afford medical treatment, for all those people getting so sick that their treatment costs when unavoidable are much higher than necessary thus increasing the spread out cost to us all, for all those much lauded anchor of our economy small businesses who again lose so much potential business because people are bankrupt or just broke and hopeless due to medical bills they cannot possibly pay, for all those with pre-existing medical conditions who can't get insurance at any kind of reasonable price because they actually need the services, for all those seriously ill or with close family members seriously ill who have to stress out over healthcare costs when they need to be concentrating on wellness, and so on, and so on, and so on ... can't we figure out a way to do the right thing for all of us?

It's not a matter of whether smoking, or any potentially dangerous activity, is a great idea. The point is, we don't (I don't) want anyone telling me how to live, even to make me healthier. That's my own business. On the other hand, there are a great many things that are public: air, water, ground, food supply, medications, all those things we either share or buy. I want regulations to keep my resources what they are meant to be, or at least to tell me clearly when they are not. This is not about paying for healthcare.

And it is the paying for healthcare that is the issue, here. There are a great many other possible issues about healthcare, service providers, availability, greater inclusion of modalities, and so on. The points you make here about payment for healthcare are quite valid. There is no free healthcare, unless you are caring for yourself (which we each ought to be, not because the government says we have to). When we have healthcare insurance, the point as far as the insurance company is concerned is their profit -- not our health.

doesn't it strike you as a bit weird that we have to fight over status in terms of institutions like marriage or employment to get such "benefits" as health insurance?





I suppose it is important that we have this debate, that the hidden misconceptions or even pure hatefulness get aired. It is sickening on so many levels. That we reduce our horror that our country would condone this whole program of interrogation based on what one might hope were medieval mindsets and techniques to a debate over "is waterboarding ("controlled" drowning) torture," is to me fearful/dreadful.



some people want to worship Barack Obama. They make excuses for his policies that appear to be different from what we expected from him. I understand. We want to believe. We want to be made safe from above. Yet, Obama is just another man, another politician, another world leader. We can admire what he does when he does what we find admirable. We can support his positions when they are also ours. We can accept what is available from government, do what we can to make it better, and live our lives responsible for our own needs and desires.

-- something akin to a parable





Gitmo MUST be closed! Oh, and our prisons are mostly crowded up with nonviolent drug offenders. Certainly we could find better ways to deal with our drug issues.





They say history is written by the victors
They say we must heed history or repeat it
I have visions of spiraling archetypes
Great warriors, great inventions, simple
living in ecology's eternal change



We seem to like the fighting just fine. It's the day-to-day keeping freedom as a value we prize and work to protect that needs some serious advocacy.

It is a difficult path between rights. We don't want people incarcerated simply for possibly threatening behavior which may never result in harm. We don't want to allow people to go around making threats which may result in harm without restraint. Possibly there ought to be a different kind of mediation system, different from a criminal justice system, for airing of grievances and giving oversight that could keep hostilities from getting out of hand.

The United States was founded as a liberal nation, a great experiment to put into practical use the Enlightenment ideas of the nobility and sovereignty of man. The Bill of Rights were specifically about limiting the scope of government's rule over the individual. Democracy is about rule by the will of the people, but not necessarily strict majority rule. The point is that all of the people be represented and none have our freedoms expediently dismissed.





I have found (if I can make myself) that turning on some evocative music and letting go into dancing will take me to another place where creative ideas flow.





It is quite sad, tragic, that many older people would want to die out of probably a combination of pain, loneliness, feeling useless or at least that they have too little left to give. It is sad and tragic that people have to endure excruciating pain knowing that they will soon, but not soon enough, be dead. It is even more sad and tragic when people endure long horrid years of suffering. We know there are ways to ease pain that often are not effectively administered or sometimes considered.

I believe the choice to end one's own death is a right. As for assisting, perhaps that needs to be clarified. I can certainly see providing lethal poison where the person desiring to kill themselves can reach it. If someone is truly braindead, well, they're dead. It becomes necessary for the living to make appropriate arrangements for the remains. Meanwhile, we do need to arrange for others to know at what point we have decided we no longer want medical care if and when that becomes an issue.





A world of words can be a refuge
holding back, through, outcast deluge
emotional wreckage of incredulous (to the merely weird or mostly indulged)
not because you're of a color or gender or lowered expectation rendered
by those who make the castes
We who watch the normal daily carnage, set back aghast
Deciding not to whimper, but to take up arms, to attack
against the slings and arrows and outright lies by those who
despise based only on their twisted malformation of the facts
When we arise, armed words in hand to demand our inauguration,
our command of all the nation
When we arise, casting off our shackles of dismay
That will be the day
foretold in fables, the turning of the tables,
the day of reckoning
Tell me you will sing
as loudly as I





he bows

flourishing with sudden shyness

unpenned emotion





In my opinion, people get so fired up about governmental interference with their firearms because they see the 2nd Amendment as their guarantee of being able to rise up against unjust governmental authorities. If they were only interested in hunting/protecting their families and themselves from criminals with guns/collecting/sport shooting and such, their would be no need for this fierce opposition to what we may see as reasonable restrictions. Personally, I have always advocated the kinds of restrictions be placed on gun use as are placed on the operating of those dangerous automobiles we so love in terms of licensing following testing. It only seems reasonable to me that someone acquiring an obvious dangerous weapon first show that they know how to operate and maintain it responsibly.

For those who do resist registration for reasons of protection against renegade government, Randy Weaver and David Koresh had plenty of weapons. It could never be enough to fight off the full power of the US. We will have to come up with more effective means to prevent/overthrow government tyranny than armed combat.





Torchwood is a very slick, risqué, funny in that British offhand way like Dr. Who from whence it sprang, scifi series on BBC America (and presumably BBC Britain). Kind of a CSI meets The Avengers meets a rift in the time-space continuum, in Cardiff.





I can see a story
of a world under the sea
of a woman under illusion
that she is living this modernity
we call civilization
busy make a buck and buy
keep churning, never looking backward
to the natural magic that
continually creates us





Man is a happiness seeking animal. Woman has to clean up the mess.





I can't take aspirin without nasty side-effects. None of the otc pain medications do anything for pain for me, but leave me how-do-i-describe groggy/cloudy/molasses-like in brain/body instructions/unable to actually function

It is well known that drugs affect different people differently.





Judges show blatant bias continually. They are the judge. They rule in their courtroom. That's why we have the appellate system, the Supreme Court, and reporters, students, community leaders and others often complaining.





Religion is not fundamentally about spirituality. It is a social construct to keep members of a tribe in line with tribal interests.





I think what people forget in their rush to be holier than the norm is that "enlightenment" is not the goal, merely a signpost. The goal is to feel whole and at home in one's life.





I think it comes down to checking out the individual ideologue's conscience: do you believe in the right to life, or the right to murder? Yeah, yeah, innocent fetus vs. big, bad horribly conflicted mom making an agonized decision based on quite serious considerations and the underpaid, over-worked, highly harassed medical professionals who earnestly work to do their best for their patients -- so you get to deliver "justice" as homicide because you are on the side of the angels rather than the side of God's gift of human reason? See, it's not the Christians, but those who use scripture to worship Satan that held the soul of this murderer.

Yes, they are terrorist extremists. No, they are not Christians in the sense (and what other sense could there be) of following the words and example of the Christ. I know we've all heard that old saw about Satan quoting scripture to His own end. There really are Satanists among us, exacting blood sacrifice and scapegoating whoever they perceive as unholy.

In a perfect world the rights of mother and child would be balanced, each respected, valued and cherished by society which requires them for its very existence.

It is important for the debate to be in the open where we can all see regress, progress, festering wounds before they become lethal. Don't whisper. On the other hand, what we need no more of (been there, done that, have plenty thank you) is angry diatribe, hatefilled warmongering, blasting emotions into situations that are already fraught and frightening thank you.

I understand the frustration and anxiety that leads to a desire to go to extremes in the interest of sincere convictions. As a protestor against the Vietnam War in my teens, I strongly sympathized with the violent rhetoric of the Weather Underground in defense of innocents being outrageously murdered. Note: I never killed nor promoted the murder of anyone.





The cure for bad speech is more speech. We need to stay alert and take evil-speakers, death-mongerers to task with facts.

First they undermined the media, but as we weren't media we did nothing.





People bully because they think they can get away with it. You tell 'em; out 'em; keep them from scurrying back into their hideyholes under the sink (or is that stink).





It's amazing to me that people who are not even aware of the meaning of the words they throw about as epithets have the audacity to accuse those they erroneously call "liberals" of not thinking for themselves.

You see, those who wrap themselves in a flag banner and insist we must follow their revealed code to love America actually are the ones who hate our freedom. It is great to them that people fight and die, as long as we're on top; but they would (and sometimes do) be even happier to kill those of us who actually live a belief in liberty. They hate "liberals" who love our country's ideals and work to keep them, because they are "conservatives" who must obey and be obeyed.





Some believe in happiness. Some believe in murder. Some believe in a holy redeemer who does your murders for you. Yet, we are each happy or not every day, unless, of course, we so sincerely believe we are happy (or not) that nothing else can get in the way, including other beliefs.





you do not realize that "true desire" is true to the individual's deepest self -- not those intermediary "selves" that mistake their desires for the desires they feel are expected. Or, if you postulate a true desire that is not apt to the natural talents of the individual, then, if that desire is true and abiding, the individual certainly can move their lives in the direction to find what is needed to attain that desire.





Believing in oneself is more about knowing oneself, becoming well-acquainted in a deep loving relationship, therefore knowing what is truly meaningful to oneself. Once we know, love and understand our true desires, we can do that which we then set our minds upon, because what we set our minds upon is what we can best do.





Maybe we could usefully speak of "Ego" and "ego." The fully functioning human organism makes use of the Ego, the "I" in internal conversation, the "me" we relate to when acted upon, the "individual person" living out personal life that includes inner and outer relationships. The "ego" would designate that psychological sham syndrome people develop when their Egos are maligned to the point that they don't really relate to anyone.

Perhaps this "spontaneous enlightenment" is what Maslow called peak experience, aha moments when the veil of ignorance is lifted. Imho, not to be bragged about, but enjoyed and learned from.

it's not just "Christians" who are arrogant usurpers of divinity. In fact, the real followers of the teachings of the Christ are generally wonderfully fine folk. I tend to see those "evil" Christians as Satanists, using scripture to worship the evicted angel who was punished for the great sin of hubris.



Dance! The best stress-buster is physical activity; the best physical activity is the most enjoyable. Also, the attendant music is great for getting you back in tune.





I've heard every time a door closes, a window opens so you can jump out. Probably, though, there are a great many doors, open, closed, locked, easily permeable, invisible, temporary. The point is not the door, but where you are going. Which doors matter to you?





You can so easily believe without knowledge at all. You certainly can think with no knowledge at all. But, thinking is what we do when we are examining what we perceive. Believing is what we do when we have already accepted, with or without evidence. Knowledge is in the same house as thinking, not believing.





Astrology is a study ever so much more complex sun signs. It is also not a belief. It is a philosophical practice, a way of describing and analyzing, a theoretical tool.





Hell is creation of the horrors only humans can devise





I had an idea awhile back, not yet gotten beyond that stage, to put together and send out by email an "art for the day" or possibly week, or whatever seemed most desirable, of work by different artists who would subscribe to be part of the service for people who subscribe to get the mailings.





words are not bad

they are tools which get used by people





people don't seem to understand that it is not "New Age nonsense" -- there is a very real body/mind intertwining. Behaviors which we tend to think of as mind based are correlated directly with physical changes in the body. Forces physically affecting the body are interpreted and acted upon by the mind. It is not either/or or even cause/effect but both together every step of the way.





It occurred to me (while watching one of those ubiquitous pharmaceutical ads on tv) that we are living in this time of ironic dichotomy where big business sells us whatever the market will possibly bear of dangerous, addictive, psychoactive substances under the auspices of treating disease while vast numbers of the underclass get vilified, potential lives for themselves and their families destroyed, for self-medicating with (often less dangerous) substances.





A crisis of ineffable beauty
resolved into a painted sky
Cloud Wolf grins





It is unfortunate for many families that their time together is severely limited by responsibilities. For those parents who have to work many hours away from their children to provide material necessities, though you regret the time away, there are opportunities. The important part of parenting is to be there internally for the child in that they know you adore, respect and value them. When you are with them, LISTEN, reflect, show them who you are and who they are to you.





I have found George Soros to be quite intelligent, a creative and practical analyst, and well worth listening to.





I know that it is done, finding perfect peace and contentment. It is a truly wonderful feeling, relaxing all tension, making the ride completely smooth, for a time, for a period of rest and re-creation. I don't think it is a desirable state to stay in though, except at the place of eternal rest.





it's a lot easier to have liberty when you are alive.





Marijuana is not addictive, except in the way that any habit can be. Bi-polar Mood Disorder can be better dealt with through cognitive-behavioral type therapies than medication. It's a matter of reframing your energy fluctuations in a way that becomes useful rather than limiting. Blaming can be a way to avoid useful action toward finding better solutions.





We are all changing all the time. We look to the crowd to find the security of the same. Mirrors merely show us what we expect to see. Look, inside, all around, throughout eternity. Feel the change. Dance it into the change you want to be.





Fabulous eccentricities
Folies a deux in extended metaphor
Rolling through grecian fields of "nevermore"
daintily to dine on word salad
and broken dreams





I think the point is that all kids are special. We have to give them the opportunity to find and sing out with their voices.





Oh Holy DSM
Read for me my fate
I am not as your God of normalcy
would approve
for my symptoms are foretold
within your pages
so diseased I must be
There is no other way to see me
like, perhaps, a complicated being
working my way through the intricacies

memories are made of this

Your Stories

Plot keeps us moving
conflicts, obstacles
from here to there
Showing our qualities,
our characteristic strategies
how those change
dramatically, comedically,
through relationship or revelation
or how we resolutely refuse
to change despite ardent
catalysts.
Sitting in your kitchen
drinking wine and sharing plotlines
leading to the lives we share
here and now
I feel the joys, the moments of doubt,
the tragedies and resilient reclamations
Your brilliant smile, contagious laugh,
ebullient embrace carry me through
enduring sorrows.
A fallen bird nurtured,
a flower coaxed to glory,
a simple girlhood story spanning wars,
historic empathies. Cuttings
cultured from long ago continue chains
of living, plotlines leading me
to you
our brief exchange
strands of dna
carry us forward into more complex
adventure.

June 17, 2009 Laurie Corzett/libramoon

for Peggy Chestnutt ~ may your spirit dance in eternal bliss

morality play

All God's Children

"Great day, my brethren! We are ready to execute our plan, and some Baby Killers. (laughs) For those of you who were not at our last meeting, Joe here -- come on up here with me, Joe -- has assembled this sweet little high octane explosive device with a timered detonator from the plans we found on the internet.

Sister Mary has agreed to hide the device in a fake baby bump and take it to the clinic. We have figured out the time when it will be most busy, so she can easily avoid detection. She'll just secure the thing where it won't be noticed in the restroom, and set the detonator to give her plenty of time to get back here.

Then, we all will just be having our regular meeting when we hear the news.

Yeah, Chris, you have a question? I know you've not been here in awhile."

"Hey, Luc. So, let me get this straight. You want to blow up this clinic at peak time when there'll be all those pregnant women at risk? You know this clinic serves all kinds of healthcare for these women who can't afford to get prenatal care anywhere else close enough for them to get to. Even those women coming for abortions might be persuaded against that course with more gentle tactics, at least some of them. How does it make sense for our cause to threaten all these pregnant women and their children?"

"It's for a higher purpose, Chris. Can't get the Lord's work done just jawing and making noise outside that evil den of murder. We have to let those Godless Baby Killers know the wrath of the Almighty."

"Luc, you're going way too far, here. Listen people, you don't need to do this."

"You chicken, Chris? Don't have the guts to fight for what is right, to save the innocent?"

"What I am saying, Luc, is this violence you instigate is no way to follow our Lord's Commandment: 'Thou shalt not kill.'"

"Yeah, kid, you never did have what it takes. That's why I'm the Lord's special right-hand Angel; and you are only the sniveling human son."

Sagittarius Full Moon

The many faces of the Moon
reflecting starlight in her many moods
Entrance the sky
My mortal eyes want to believe
adventures of myth and mind
Tell me, hoary elders,
rejuvenated for your fling
in sacred moonlight
Dancing from your castles
to mystic mountain
legendary glades
Tell me why I should believe
in magic, in codes and
spells and sacrifice
Is the wisdom of the wise
so constrained?
My species may be blind to
true eternity
but we mutate,
find and define
new ways to see
Belief is far too limiting
for me
Dear Sister Moon, separate entity
from birth, entwined
still with Mother Earth
Patterns re-cycling reveal
what we regard to be real
is but reflection
Face to face to face, fluid
to change

June 7, 2009 Laurie Corzett/libramoon
Full Sagittarian Moon

staying power - thots from Taurus 2009

Love is an infinitely gentle, infinitely suffering thing.



The Founding Documents matter because they are about people getting together and creating a social structure for common benefit, respectful of individual rights. If we consider ourselves citizens, it is our sacred duty to honor those principles, in every way, every day.

First they distorted our history; but we did not feel ourselves to be part of history, so we did nothing.



a thousand tales
dancing upon angel pins
capturing pirates on the wild seas
capturing true love, or lust unbridled
riding wildly past inconsolation
tails burning with the sun



Ancient coded lights
written into generations
flashing between centuries
Warning Warning
manifestations ahead



eyes magnetize
pulling hearts to the stars



Moving through the mirror
into a land of mind that is mine
bending to drink from
your easily accessible mountain stream
We visualize reflections



Forest Green

See through the retina ancient prototypes
the vast vegetation, soothing to the
neural touch
Casting about, hoping for connection
to something sacred, something real
We are born to the forest,
nurtured in nativity
Green, deep healing green



fullmoonlit forest quickens, moves
hungering
for ancient disease, so pure, so swift
hungering
for howling ancestors
fleet beyond the periphery
capturing in the ephemeral world well
sweet dripping ecstasy
drink



leave a light on
because there's nobody home
liver dissolved from
loan sharked dreams
and nights too long to matter
when writing again and again
I feel sharp pain, internal bleeding
the years have neither stemmed
nor held



I have noticed that when criticizing others often (especially authoritarian types) accuse the other of the very faults they themselves most obviously (though perhaps unconsciously) express. It can be quite hilarious (if one excepts the tragedy) to watch angry partisans metaphorically (or sometimes actually) foaming at the mouth over how their opponent dares to be so evil as to do exactly what that accuser is known for.



No doubt the Universe is unfolding gloriously
It is we, humanity, who get it all wrong
Caught up in our grand designs
My soul's salvation finds itself idealed
morally as green libertarian
philosophically pantheistic
I worship, share holy alliance
in the polytheistic tradition,
the yin/yang of Beauty/creativity
in all Her guises.


I see you here
in the between lands
jesting in mock play
taking a solitary siesta
mooning after some northern star
I too partake in these follies


socialism is not heaven. Socialism is an economic theory by which each member of the society does the work they are suited for and everybody gets a piece of the pie. Heaven is a concept of a state of divine bliss in which work is optional, pie is optional, just whatever flows.

I am fully enlightened periodically. An amazingly wonderful feeling, a whoosh of pure energy that I feel could take me anywhere. Yet, here I am, Earth creature, human self-organizing system, in a world of buzzing airwaves, interlocuting energies, tasks and recreations, time and space coordinates, the whole marvelous ongoing invention. To actually engage and understand and work with these energies, I can kiss enlightenment on my way out the door, knowing I will return.


Why need there be A Creator? Why not creative process, verb rather than noun. The universe is eternal being, expanding through experiments in form.
The words are clear (for all of you who claim to believe in holy scriptures). God is not an angry old man in the sky. God is a denotation for a concept of ALL.
There is oneness made up of everyness. All those attributes we ascribe to God belong to us each, thus each of us resonates with the God we believe in.


It seems to me that we could (and do) each have our own definitions of such states as "enlightenment" or "effort." It is not necessary that we agree or each apply the same process to the same result. Just because we are making an effort (consciously working toward a result) does not mean we are not playing, opening to revelation, realizing simply a different level of reality. Just because we are swimming or floating or resting or hunting does not mean we are not able to interact playfully and mindfully with the water.



I am totally against the death penalty unless:

1) there is absolutely no doubt of any sort that the crimes of multiple murders committed heinously have been done by the person to be executed

2) the manner of execution is putting that person unarmed and undefended in a room full of the loved ones of the murdered who have no weapons but their natural ones

Otherwise, it's all hype.


I totally do not believe in a government having the power to kill. This is not because I don't believe in killing. It is because I don't believe that power should be given over to a committee or governing body. Life is very personal.



In some sense, torture is a misuse of a position of power. In common parlance it seems to be about inflicting lasting injury or at least incredibly overwhelming pain. We might get closer to the truth of what is going on with "torture" by examining the utilitarian purpose behind the "Golden Rule." We don't want to do unto others what they will then have rationale for doing unto us.



so this is how your garden grows
sweet, pungent, curling leaves,
deceptively flirtatious roots
a dram of rain, a fire of shooting stars
a garden of many colors
from which to pick succulence






Cultures are like that. They move through phases.
People are gossips and thieves
more willing to merrily fling barbs of derision
than make a real decision
Yet at times we amaze us,
disenage from the racing hype
recall how to be



In the 50s under Republican President Eisenhower, the highest tax rate was in the 90 + percent range. Nobody didn't work and earn whatever they could because of the high taxes. The economy was going gangbusters. A family could live quite well on one middle-class income, own a nice home, pay their reasonable medical bills (with catestrophic insurance only for the really expensive procedures), pay for college without oppressive loans to repay, have the kinds of governmental services such as police, schools, libraries, roads, etc. It has in fact been postulated that people thus taxed would work even more to make up for what the government was taking -- not that they would be happy about it, but we can all find something to complain about.



Sound moves between us
moving the air we breathe, between us
moving our hearts to bleed, between us
sound moving in, combining breathing, beating,
living music



As someone who has spent my life on the other side of that bright line of "the way things are," its not so much arrogance as people acting as if their beliefs are more important than me, the actual person they are addressing. My understanding is the Jesus preached love, of everyone, not just his friends. If you want to turn me on to your cool buddy Jesus who can bring me into the Kingdom of Heaven (if that were somewhere I would like to go), no need to hit me over the head and drag me. Have a conversation (implying we both get to speak). Tell me: I just want you to have the opportunity to know the kind of wonderful experiences I have. I just want to tell you these stories, parables, because I learned so much from hearing them.

When someone comes off as all "holier than thou" "arrogant" or otherwise demanding I believe as they do, all I hear is hubris.


Of course the efforts of a believer of a proselytizing religion is justified, in fact compelled, in speaking the truth they believe needs to be shared. In the same way, artists naturally feel compelled to share truths that others may not believe. My "first commandment" is the First Amendment of the US Constitution.


Expressing my belief in the First Amendment, which goes beyond the legal to the philosophical (I said it was my belief), does not imply advocacy of bigotry of violent behavior. That is not speech. Yes, hate speech is speech and bigotry and arguably violent. My solution (and Justice Brandeis') is not to deny free speech (again not just by law) but, yes, believers or nonbelievers or any one with something to say or say back -- my believe is "go for it!"

Funny thing here, if we don't want to listen, we don't. Happens all the time. And I do agree we need areas of privacy where free speech doesn't matter because speech in that sense is a matter for public fora. But I have been so much more severely wounded by guys on the street who feel they have the right as men to make lewd and hurtful comments about my body than any so-called religious hate speech. My response to them, middle finger salute.


I too am hoping to "save" some who let their lives be eaten up in stupid guilts and blamings having to do with misunderstood philosophies.


I certainly don't care whether anyone actually exist(ed)s. We are each our own field of reality. I tend to believe that Jesus was a true figure of history, not just a fairytale. I tend to believe that of several generally acknowledged as mythological folks as well, so don't go by me. I believe the historical Jesus was a "holy man," a prophet, a teller of parables that helped people to understand their lives. You may believe he was a direct manifestation of God. I believe we all are.



Of course, she can never be the same
But this crossroad is not the end of the game
Another road to find written her true name
Leads from a land in which there is no blame



The real purveyors of terror are the ones we encounter everyday -- people who are wound so tight that when they snap they not only want to fight back against perceived slings and arrows through suicide, but need to take out as many others as they can as well. As you point out, this is the "war" that might get us to a less violent place, but not if we keep up the "war" metaphor.



warm, sweet, reverie
wafting through layered breeze
the scents and sounds, oh!
the time-woven visions
friendships formed over
celebrations of life



Wooden ships sail ancient sea
Life within the circle, free
Easy trades, winds selling seeds
Back to the gardens of sweet, sweet
earth, air, sun, and water
I wander now in days of potent storm
Telling the tale my lover has told me
Deep in mystical incantation
of a possible age in birth
Love song 'tween man
and Earth



Curdling words swirling like cloud balloons
Crack swift deep clubbing upon assaulted breasts
Ne'er halt! Never give in. Never die.
There are always wayward stars
seeking hitchhikers



The point is to relax AND do the work. A new utopian world will not magically appear for us to gratefully grovel in gratitude at. What does evolve will come out of the magic of step by step creation moving spirits, minds, and pratical work along the appropriate vectors.


We experience all kinds of feeling states for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes just for an instant, others may last for days or longer. The way our brains are set up to work, we look for pattern recognitions. We want explanations and definitions and diagnoses. Then we put those feelngs in their place and think somehow we know something more.

Maybe have dialogs with these feelings, ideas, as if friends presenting you with their understandings that you don't yet understand.

Maybe meditate upon the train of thought as it moves through you.

Maybe put on music that feels good and move with it, let the images, ideas, memories dance with you.

Stay away from boxing in what you feel; feel it. Thoughts and feelings do not require actions.


The paradox, if we want to label it as such, is that while we spend our whole lives living in the real universe, we are all quite incapable of perceiving that universe as it actually exists. All we can do is take what we do perceive and make the best of it.



It is certainly much safer, and generally more effective, than the psychiatric pharmaceuticals usually prescribed. I would suggest, though, the mj being an intensifier/hypnotic it would best be used with say meditative techniques, while listening to appropriate music (soothing or upbeat) or interacting with whatever art medium one has found effective, or other activities that promote mood balance.



It is so cruel, having to endure pain that no one wants to understand and being stigmatized for it. I think of this every time I hear about the medical marijuana debate. No matter what you may think about recreational drug use, please don't take it out on those who are already suffering so greatly and hoping desperately for relief.



Regardless of specific circumstances, people shattered by trauma deserve whatever help they need to reframe their reference-point, their worldview, such that the shattering experience can be encompassed meaningfully. It is to everyone's benefit that we learn to understand and respond to traumatic experiences thus that they can be absorbed into a growing effective life. This is not a world in which we can prevent pain. It is a world in which we can create effective responses to mitigate damage.



I love sad music, sad movies I can cry through and feel a real release in a fantasy.
It's the people, the horrible, cruel, can't even see me dying here cause they're too busy having a joke on that dying useless crone. Oh, you know what I mean. So I do use it, turn it into an artistic rendering. I move myself into a different frame in which I only see them peripherally while front and center I see my beautiful, even sad, visions. That denial of "reality" is not insanity. It is finding a way to be sane.



I don't know if this is a more modern trend or exactly how it has happened, but we seem to want to diagnose, treat, make everyone definitively diseased and hooked on pharmaceuticals rather than take each person as they have become over their trauma informed lives and make human connections. I read somewhere that bureaucracy, which is cursed as inefficient and dehumanizing, was invented just for those qualities. The point of bureaucracy is to put a buffer of regulations between people. It seems to me that money is similarly used. People talk about wanting more intimate relationships, more real experiences with each other; but in the day-to-day we put others into boxes and dismiss them.



With a word, the stranger gives a hand
An image stronger than the sound
Water falls upon the land
A smile peeks out from a frown
An eclipse returns dark to noon
As men's minds walk upon the Moon



Caressing sky and weeping winds
Releasing form into substance



How's this for a strange, new plan: be honest with our kids. Tell them about the pros and cons of sex. If you personally don't have any pros or any cons, let them read or watch the stories of people whose lives were ruined by careless actions and open the floor to questions and answers. Not saying this will end teen pregnancies; but it will tend more toward kids knowing the meaning of "informed consent." Also, inform them of the pros and cons of the various forms of birth control. The point, though, is not just medication but context.



first they annihilated the dignity of the children; but we were not children, so we did nothing.



I tend to think the country is more divided between those looking for solutions and those looking to assign blame.







you did not produce and earn money. You produced whatever work product is in you to produce and earned trade value. The monetary system, the social system through which we exchange goods and services, can only exist if people have thought up and executed a plan for how that is to be.



There are those who claim that property is theft. The bounty of the Earth, the natural resources we all use, belong to all of us and none of us. It is there. We can use it. However, we do not own it. If we take these resources for ourselves, we are stealing them. If we make something from those resources (or from materials made from them, and so forth), we righteously own that value created from our labor, but the world still owns its resources put into that product.

In our modern USA we have a system of trading through the intermediary medium of money. This money is problematically created by a nongovernmental agency and sold at a profit, thus being based not on anything solid, just debt. However, the value of the money is set according to agreed upon rules and backed by [what is that wording? Something like] the full faith and credit of the United States. Thus, the money is not ours. Not only is it a fictional representation, I mean fictional representations such as intellectual property can be ours, but it is a collective fictional resource backed by governmental authority. This is not to say we ought to be taxed indiscriminately. There are checks and balances both in terms of economics and politics.



You've been imbibing my dreams
Be so careful, they are poison
yet lovely



An osphresiophilian pandemic is Spring
Back to the woods, fields and planting
Kicking up heels, enjoying the fling
Far from the wordsmiths' panicky ranting
Scents make more sense than journalists' frenzy
But if you're concerned, yes, I recommend "C



There are remnants of winters
layered ice memories
melting in the hellstorm of regret
cold, miserable, wet
Until we recall
hear that primal reverie
touch the bright, warm center
from which we may ever spring



some call it pain
some call it ripping through the veil
some call it burning scars into life
that the fire be respected
some call it a call to compassion
some call it a test of will
some call it simple cause/effect self-monitoring
a warning, a call for curative care
some call it raw sensation
to be interpreted
by me for me
by you for you



More than likely, not. If you consider primitive hunter-gatherer groups where alpha males mate with alpha females and leave the rest to their own ways;
if you consider many cultures in which homosexuality was considered a sign of higher cultural awareness;
if you consider a general norm in which there are sex acts for pleasure, sex acts for political reasons, sex acts for procreation, and sex out of curiosity or boredom;
denigration of homosexuality is just another one of those prejudices that has to be carefully taught.



Perhaps a poem of love,
thick words upon parchment
to hold to your heart,
as it dampens through the years
from dripping tears
might seem a heaven sent reminder
We who love without rhyme or
rhythmic scheme to slow our tune
if we are truly in the spire of love
create in shining halls of memory
poetry that never dies



I can smell the salty sands of yesteryear
taste the copper, taste the sparkling tears
feel the lift of tinkling laughter
fill the evening breeze of memories



Gasping pure air between
precipice and space
wrapped in precious poisonous pleasure



Flowers of the May Queen
bright expectant buds
waving euphoria scented
magnetizing
Earth's celebration
of life



Gambling, drugs, shopping manically, all these "addictions" are neither the addiction nor the disease, but simple symptoms of inner needs unfulfilled, thought unfulfillable.



gushing bloody inspiration through fangs sharp and wise
temptuous, tempestuous, oh tempt me pure and thorough
my wet, red life pumping into ecstatic relief



I slept and the dream was real, I swear it
not a figment of fractal life, nor sweet reverie never to be revealed
It was not the sleep of the dead, nor damned, nor opium induced
It was the sleep of lovers entwined after spending into love
totality of desire



hidden as a jungle creature
learning the thrilling sensations of nature
the strong scent of the predator
the sweet scent of life



strong words
loving sentiment
for love is not sweet and light
but bitter, strong, energizing
catalyzing heart into art



hidden in the darkest mystery
common wisdom, basic sensation
if river, then water and earth
mud, clay, pottery, etched tablets
television, robotics, space travel
along the riverbed




I am shaken; I am touched in that eternity
if beauty demands sacrifice
sacrifice demands such beauty


Poetry speaks
the language
between words



It's the spaces inbetween
dark and light
end and beginning
edge and sky
where flight and float combine



like a meditative prayer to beauty's sacred well
drinking deeply with subtlety of sensation
expanding metaphoric cells with
water of life and contemplation
reaching for more



My bias is toward transparency, the healing power of sunshine, open speech and debate. I understand these pictures can be used as propaganda. Pretty much anything can. The innoculation for that would be to release them along with strong statements about how horribly we all feel that this was done and we are releasing these photos as part of the overall campaign to be very sure such things never happen again under the auspices of the US. This administration also might like to (perhaps they already are) look into what kinds of reparations can be made.



on C-SPAN with, I think his name is Jeff Jarvis, about Google. The axiom was brought up: "advertising is failure" meaning that the optimum model is you make a good product and have good customer service so people who buy your product are happy and sell it for you. If you have to advertise, or especially if you are putting too much of your budget into advertising rather than product and service, you have failed.



have to wonder about people who "lose faith" in a politician. I strongly supported Obama's candidacy not because I thought he was a god, miracle worker, or magician but because he was the best candidate for the US presidency I have ever seen. He still is. He is a fine politician, working each side to get to a place where we can all live. He has nothing to do with student loans, tax laws, or even social security payment rules. Those are already in place, and the province of the legislative, not the executive branch. That said, we do each have our own responsibility to keep our elected representatives working for us. We each need to make our voices heard, even if only among our social networks. We also each need to find the best ways to make our own individual lives work for us, because, you know, politicians are not going to do that.



One of the greatest problems with [public as it is done here] education is not lack of funding, or even lack of teachers, but a general anti-intellectual attitude that makes it more rewarding to spend one's brain on popular trivia



There is no dichotomy. That is possibly part of the crux of these misunderstandings. We do not have to feel or act or believe to be spiritual in the sense of all belonging to a greater whole. We live our individual self-created lives and still are even unawares always enmeshed in the greater ecology. This is not a material ecology, a spiritual ecology, a mental ecology, but a vast interrelationship


There are a great diversity of realms within the Universe. Some parallel, some intersect. These are not different realms. It is the way our brains/perceptive-cognitive systems are wired that makes it all look discrete. We are mind/body/spirit and a whole lot more as a self-organizing ecology



I am sick and tired of corporations not paying their taxes. If they want to be considered people, they ought to follow the laws we have to.



It is our flaws which perfect us and give us opportunities to share with flawed humans to find mutual support. Much better than any chemical agent are human (or even loving animal) agents who help us to understand that we are neither alone nor unlovable just because we have flaws. This is a lesson which strikes home because it has been so hard for me to unbend and be flawed in the presence of others. I have serious trust issues which seem to have become smoldering borders around my metaphoric heart. I keep being made aware of the professional and otherwise active healers who have come to understand that the best medicine for diseases of the psyche is love. I don't mean lust or the kind of "love" implying obligation or even the universal kind of caring we often see from the spiritually striving. I mean simple human to human kindness, understanding, openness to deep communication that allows each to feel part of more and more validated, thus more empowered.



Prayer can be a practiced as meditation or visualization or affirmation or any of those nlp type boosting of the power of the will. Prayer can be an aspect of magick. It all depends on your intention and your focus.



One does not become wise as a finishing point. One acquires wisdom all the way through, bit by bit, sometimes in torrents, but there is always more to come.



breath caught
held
harnessed
skimming seasoned seedshores
finds mindful
exhalation



healthcare isn't free. We pay for it, usually more than one way or the other. One of the points of the healthcare proposal is to make the cost of healthcare LOWER: through the competition the private insurers will have from the government plan; from economies brought about by an overall study of how best to provide healthcare; from better general health -- which means if we are all healthier, we are all less likely to spread disease and more likely to recover quickly when we do get sick -- basically from applying sane, sound principles to what has become a truly stupid system of providing a necessary service.


The more I look at it, the more obvious it seems that such services as basic healthcare don't work in the profit sector. Perhaps this is a job for nongovernment agencies.


I think for better healthcare options we would be best to encourage healthcare workers by paying on that end for anyone qualified and motivated to get the prerequisite education. On the malpractice issue, we have to be very concerned to both take care of anyone injured by malpractice and doctors who are doing their best. More could be done about transparency for prospective patients to know the doctor's record. More could be done generally in this country for taking care of those injured by any kind of "victimization," regardless of where the blame for those injuries lays.


How much sense does it make to have a "healthcare system" in which those most in need of care, often because of that very illness least able to pay, can't get insurance which has become our (incredibly stupid) way of paying for what we have caused to become too expensive for people generally to pay for themselves?


Healthcare does not need to be "socialized" to work much better. If those who spent so much energy being up in arms over theories they mostly don't even understand, perhaps they could put those energies into workable solutions to obvious societal problems. One position I have taken for decades (since I was a small child, in fact) is that we as society ought to be encouraging rather than discouraging the making of medical professionals. If we made it easy for anyone with the prerequisite abilities and interest to get medical training, we could let capitalist theory have its day. If we decide as a society, or as a subgroup, to create some kind of subscription plan (not insurance), raise additional funds through foundations, charity campaigns, whatever clever means brainstorming brings up, we could have a universal health coverage option with no governmental taint.

There are many possible systems that could be put in place to give US citizens better, affordable, nonhorrorstory healthcare. It certainly does not have to be "government-run." Though, of course, the government doesn't run the giving of the care, only the payment.




take out the stake
capturing my heart
hurl it warrior style
into the dark soul of
betrayed forsaken
shake well
shake it!
drink so intoxicating,
so pure



Our society has been accused of this anti-intellectual, shallow celebrity adoring, insulated ignorance forever. To some extent (like Charles Dickens' cogent observation in A Tale of Two Cities about the best and worst of times) it has always been true. However, individual justification of lazy ignorance by proclaiming such to be societally ubiquitous neither advances the cause of intelligent social critique nor sheds light on the obstacles. If the people refuse to be nourished by the rich understandings of the intelllect, it would seem that adding nutrients to their cake might help.




It's so cruel
all you learn in school
is mocking behavior
reciting the rule
not that life's there to savor
for the free playful fool



bloodlust
bloodlove
blood taste long after midnight
not to entice your fright
to find the one
whose blood
calls to mine