Thought for the day

Practice being human.

Minefield

Minefield

Love is a minefield

That every human being must traverse.

We can rush headlong,

Hoping for improbable luck.

We can step gingerly,

Believing naively that caution brings success.

We can carry a mine detector,

Focusing on possible disaster

And losing sight of the goal that love is.

We can lock ourselves in the minesweeper,

Protected from the splattering emotions,

Scooping up piles of debris

And burying love beneath.

From start to finish

There is no safe passage.

We plant the mines ourselves,

Forgetting where they were.

And if we lose an arm, a leg, an eye,

The body intact is not really

What love needs anyway.

Thought for the day

Mediocrity loves the comfort and safety of mediocrity. Mediocrity avoids risk and fears change. Even dressed up to the hilt and paraded out with great spectacle, mediocrity is still mediocrity.

Refill

Refill

I refill your coffee cup each morning.

Is that enough?

I get in bed first and warm the sheets

In cold winter.

Could I do more?

The trimmed lawn, the kids after school,

The toilet filled with shit, perfect toast.

Enough?

But that’s not the kind of work love requires.

Intimacy, personal space, emotional distance

Are just the names for the puzzle

You and I drudge out every day.

Sometimes you and I are you and I

And sometimes us.

Sometimes a touch is enough

To bridge the crevice.

Sometimes an earthquake is what we needed

To come together.

And still the love dream shape shifts

Into fuzzy resolutions.

There is no end,

At least none we can see.

The answer is in the mystery of each moment.

Thought for the day

If the money train stops by your house, remember...

You'll pay your fare at the end of the line.

Thought for the day

Unmask at least once a day. The naked truth is not so bad.

Klutz

Klutz

I stumbled into love,

Knocking over your pedestal.

You fell into my arms,

Me holding tight, you squirming.

“But I love you,” I said.

“Let me go,” you said.

"Damn you,” I said.

“Put me back on my pedestal,” you said.

“So what is love, anyway?” I said.

“I like the view from here,” you said.

“But say it, what is love?”

“The view of me is better from up here,”

You said

Thought for the day

Absurdity has a spiritual dimension.

Thought for the day

Angels usually whisper.

Love in the Age of Drones

To be with you every moment

Is love, impossible,

But possible all the same.

Hovering above the roof,

I see you plant the pansies,

One by one, resting in between,

Letting the sun hit your face.

My eyes watch through the window

As you comb your hair

Differently from when I am next to you.

My tiny eyes flit around you

As you sweep, me wishing

I could surprise you with a kiss

On the nape of your neck.

I never doubt your fidelity

As I watch the sweetest little gestures

That keep you, unknowing,

Every moment near me.

And me in love, hovering.

Thought for the day

To the universe, you are just a miniscule piece of dust.

Your job? Prove the universe wrong.

Thought for the day

The annual budget for the National Endowment for the Arts is $146,000,000.

The annual cost to run athletic programs at Ohio State University is $126,000,000.

Thought for the day

Search for what's good in the world, and you'll find the best in yourself.

Thought for the day

BEWARE: It's all too easy to drown in a sea of mediocrity.

Thought for the day

Don't worry about being a doctor, lawyer, artist, policeman, engineer, accountant, truck driver or whatever. Worry about being a decent, interesting human being.

Thought for the day

Falling in love is chemistry. Staying in love is work.

Thought for the day

Make sure your ego dies before you do.

In God We Trust

This tried ant true slogan has served American for many years.  But now that God is suspect, we must find a new slogan. These are the new candidates. What's your favorite?

Consume or Die

Freedom without Responsibility

Too Busy for Integrity

In Convenience We Trust

What? Me Pay Taxes?

Government of the Buck, by the Buck and for the Buck

Ignorance Fuels the Economy

Me then You

There Is No Us in USA

Compassion Is for the Poor

Let Them Eat Snacks

Meaning

What are science, history, mythology, literature, art, music, dance, psychology, etc. but stories to give life meaning? No one has the right to sabotage another's path to meaning in life. And everyone has the call to help another on his/her chosen path.

Life intrinsically has meaning only in its relationships,. Thus everyone has the responsibility to bring meaning to the web of life. To destroy the honest search of another is to destroy one's own humanity.

Still trying to figure it out: What is art?

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. Today I was weeding a flowerbed and this occurred to me.

Many people can make images, especially with the availability of sophisticated technology and the support of social media.Thus, much gets called art.

But the measure of art is not so much in the image as in its maker. Art comes as a consequence of sustained commitment, personal vision, an ego under control, humility, generosity toward the viewer, courage, engagement with the world and a willingness to work hard.

Then it occurred to me that, with a little tweaking, this could be definition of true love.

Me for You

Me for You

Hold me

As if we were now you,

Completed.

Trust me

As if I were the mirror

In which you saw yourself

As the you you dreamed.

Believe in me

As if I could fill any gap

To make you finally whole.

Ask me anything

As if the question were answered

Before it left your lips.

Say yes to us

As if we were and could never be

Any less than that. 

Love Poem

Love Poem

I am me for you

Or maybe I am a best friend

Perhaps the mirror to see yourself,

Beloved and new

Or even me, the one

Whose perfume intimates eternity

Still, I could be bedrock

Or something softer, like flesh

To enter you

But only to complete

The both of us, ensuring

That the locking frees us both

To be ourselves for each other.

So I’ve just said, as best I can,

I love you.

Answer Me

Answer Me

Married in the church,

We needed the flowers, the Blessed Virgin Mary

And the dove descending.

The dogma that came as part of the package

We mostly ignored.

Although we got a lesson on love

That would come to haunt us.

A romantically adolescent worldview

Passed quickly when the children came.

They were convenient vessels

To pour our love into.

It was good for them

And we never noticed

How little was left for us.

We didn’t see it until they both left.

We’d made small fumbles at love,

Many of them.

But this one could be terrible.

Words flung themselves at us:

Forever, respect, freedom to be oneself,

Till death do us part.

Doesn’t love expect to be tested?

Isn’t that how it shows its true self?

Aren’t we each other’s measure?

Isn’t love what makes us mean something?

Don’t walk away. Answer me.

The butterfly effect

If you can fully and honestly accept another for who they are,

Then you consequently must accept yourself for you are.

If you do this, you realize that the world is what it is.

But then the trite, “It is what it is,” becomes just bullshit.

The world is what we make it.

Your active engagement with the other has consequences.

One of those consequences is that this engagement and its choices

make you who you are.

As a result, you are always becoming who you are

While the world, in tandem, is becoming what it is.

This is the awareness that your choices, no matter how small,

Can cause a butterfly effect that changes the world.