Afterlife

In a recent interview, former President Jimmy Carter was asked if he believed in an afterlife. He said he did, but he didn’t know what it would look like.

Human history, through individuals and cultures, has imagined the afterlife in myriad ways as a sign of hope and reward. Common is the idea that the atoms and molecules of the burnt or decomposed self would be reconstituted in heaven to be reunited with reconstituted loved ones.

That’s not my vision. I imagine that my atoms and molecules will be dispersed over time and combined again and again with the atoms and molecules of others—maybe connecting as we never did in life. My atoms and molecules would be as eternal as the universe and as un-mine as I was un-mine in my humanity. I could become part of some new form of life, or a cloud, or something that extracts toxins from the earth, or a reconstituted other I failed to love in life.

How beautiful to imagine being part of the constant recycling and reconfiguring of our universe.

Leonardo

I’m currently reading Walter Issacson’s biography of Leonardo. What is clear to me is that to categorize Leonardo as an artist is really to diminish his creative genius and to pass over the major discoveries in nature, science, engineering and city planning that he made. His was a restless and probing mind and eye that was relentless in taking on the world.

Also in calling him “artist” we drag in the contemporary stereotypical notions of the artist, which often tend to portray the artist as quirky, on the edge, and whose works are generally irrelevant or unintelligible to most.

But I think that if we see contemporary artists through a Leonardo lens, we would see them as intelligent eyes, as driven and curious about the world around them, as problem solvers, as social scientists, as environmentalists and more. We would listen to them as well as just look for the objects they produce. We would see more of them on panels, at conferences and on talk shows.

Artists think of themselves in this expanded way. Society just has to get aboard.

Is not

Power is not leadership.

Spin is not truth.

Sycophancy is not admiration.

Marketing is not honesty.

Wealth is not character.

Celebrity is not heroic.

Eloquence is not genuineness.

Narcissism is not self-love.

Empty gestures are not values.

Bluster is not action.

Manipulation is not love.

Empty praise is not compassion.

Ego is not humility.

Let us

Let us worship at the altar of consumption.

Let us put our offerings in the basket of Amazon.

Let us pray to the corporate gods for hefty discounts.

Let us practice the rituals of convenience and leisure.

Let us rest on the 7th day and enjoy the earth carved up on our plates.

Let us hope we are not washed away in the flood of garbage we have made.

Let us be blessed by the power of having.

National Bring Your Litigation to Work Day

Today is NATNIONAL BRING YOUR LITIGATION TO WORK DAY.

Sexually harassed? Unfairly passed over for a promotion? Discriminated against because of sexual orientation? Unequal pay based on gender? Unsafe work environment? Unfair family leave policies?

Whatever your issue, bring your litigation to work and slap it down on the boss’s desk. Make those bastard’s pay. TODAY.

National Bring Your Drama to Work Day

Today is NATIONAL BRING YOUR DRAMA TO WORK DAY.

Face it. We all love to gossip. To let others know how we have been screwed by life. To share our misery and misfortune with one another. To talk about all our medical woes. To vent.

We do this bit by bit at work, but today is recognized as the day to let it all out. And maybe get a little work done, too. So pour a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy.

Education

A number of years ago, when my son was in public school, I canvassed our neighborhood to ask for support of the school levy—maybe costing my neighbors a $100 or two. One neighbor responded that he wouldn’t support the levy because he was sending his children to Catholic school. He did not know that half of my regular contributions to the parish—about $3000—were supporting his children in school.

The recent strikes of teachers in a number states force us to move from “my children’s education” to the education of all of our children. Most school levies are still probably at the level of a couple of hundred dollars for most of us. If we look around our houses or look at our credit card receipts, I’ll bet there are a couple of hundred dollars of stuff we can do without.

If there’s one thing that can reduce crime, improve the economy and strengthen the country, it’s a quality education for every child. Every system has its flaws. A poorly funded educational system is flawed from the start.

Stuff

We must have stuff. Stuff to make us comfortable. Stuff for convenience. Stuff to love. Stuff to make us feel good about ourselves. Stuff that’s better than other people’s stuff. Stuff for recreation. Stuff to remember stuff. Stuff. Stuff. Stuff.

Then we pack up all our stuff and move it around. We pack it up and move it to the attic or store it to make room for more stuff. 

Then we retire and ask ourselves, “Where did all this stuff come from?” “Why in the hell did we need all this stuff?” “How are we going to get rid of all this stuff?” The kids won’t want it because they are on the way to collecting their stuff.

Yard sales and estate sales and Ebay. More chances for people with stuff to get more stuff. More people wanting what you didn’t want. Stuff.

Explain this to me

Explain this to me:
If you write a book which hardly anyone has read, you are invited on a talk show. The host holds up the book and they yak about it.
But if you’re an artist (of which there are plenty talented and powerful ones), and you are making visual art, which easily suits TV as a visual medium, you are almost never invited.

Explain this to me:
If you create a piece of art--which is made to be seen--and which is so powerful that it becomes valuable, then it becomes a commodity and gets locked up in a storage space rarely to be seen.

Explain this to me:
If you peruse the major art magazines, you realize that words take up much more space than images, and that words are often more about the writer than the art.

Watch child you love

Sit back and watch the children you love. In a day, how many images do they see?
How many words do they hear? How many screens talk to them? How many experiences do they have? How many tactile experiences of loving? How many affirmations of who they are? How much pours into them in just a day?

In just a day, of all this, what sticks? What becomes a memory? What has real meaning? What helps form who they will become?

All of this accumulates and builds and forms. It gets jostled, becomes fuzzy, gets digested or not. Dots get connected. Things get fractured in tears and anger. Some get put back together.

This is life. This is the child growing. This is the mystery that a life is never resolved. Sit back and watch the children you love.

My awards show

How many award shows do entertainers need to feel good about themselves?

Well, I need one myself. So I will select myself as host, and prepare many funny jokes and clever comments so I will have to ask myself to host again next year. I will prepare a lovely gift bag to give to myself for participating. I will announce that in the category of Best Visual Artist, I have won. Of course, I will have prepared a brief, beautiful acceptance speech in which I will thank my parents and myself. There won’t be a dry eye in the house. I will surprise myself by being called to the stage again to accept the Humanitarian and Lifetime Achievement Award. Another lovely and beautifully delivered speech.

I will get great coverage for how funny and gracious I was, how well I directed the show and how fashionable I looked in my tuxedo, which sparkled in the light. At the end of an exhausting evening, I will feel really affirmed and good about myself. I will be scintillating at the afterparty.

Soft power

Every day we see how individuals from tyrants to politicians to moguls to thugs use hard power, the power that poisons. But each of us has the ability to wield soft power if we choose to use it:
Charm power
Love power
Smile power
Compassion power
Laughter power
Intellectual power
Creative power
Integrity power
Honesty power

Orange suit

I’d like to put on that orange suit, the one that makes me look like a Dreamsicle, and parade around downtown. But I haven’t found the right shoes yet. But I will.  I’ll walk with a haughty stride, and people will notice me. Or maybe they will be too busy rushing to their next meeting. Maybe it will be a slow newsday, and a reporter will want to interview me for no other reason than that I am wearing the only orange suit as far as the eye can see.

I think there is something refreshing about an orange suit. Even a lime green one.

Men don’t get the experience of the color rush in the way women can. I think the world would be a better, saner and lovelier place if businessmen, politicians and world leaders would negotiate with one another in orange and lime green

Wisdom

Every college course has as its task the dispensing of knowledge.

Every college liberal arts course should have as its task also, either directly or indirectly, the dispensing of wisdom.

State of the Union

State of the Union

Funny jokes by late night hosts about Trump have become stale. They play to the converted. They are sometimes as crude as the President. They give the audience a chance at condescension.

The rats are deserting the Presidential ship or are forced to walk the plank. The reward for giving up their integrity. The President is wrapped comfortably in his narcissistic cocoon.

His staunch followers, rich and poor, refuse to see how his policies, the policies they voted for, are eroding the health and stability of the country. They are giving Trump a hand as he chucks honesty and moral behavior out the window.

Government employees at the highest level feel they have the green light to make decisions that make our allies cringe. Their own personal comfort must be met at any cost. Workers in their departments feel betrayed.

Republicans and Democrats are using their party ideologies to divide the voters—by class, by economics, by race, by politics. Because party loyalty comes before honest consideration of the needs of the nation, we live with a logjam in Congress.

Nation after nation is falling on their knees to praise their new dictators. People want safety and security at any price. Democracy can’t seem to solve the problems these countries face. And America is no longer able to lead by example.

Cheers for the NFL

Cheers for the NFL

I’m with the NFL cheerleaders all the way. I often don’t understand why a young woman would want this job. But that’s not my judgment to make. The NFL has dragged its feet on domestic violence criminal behavior and concussion issues related to its players, so this is just one more thing a big thuggish macho organization is being called on.

Billion dollar clubs with multi-million dollar players pay peanuts to these cheerleaders. They are placed in situations where drunkenness and groping are common, and where they are paid for appearances while clubs are making money from them. The must sign NDA’s, follow stringent rules—much more stringent than players or coaches or owners. And they must smile through all of it.

How could such a medieval system still exist? The simple abuse of power.

Sex stereotypes

Men and women both have become victims of the sexual stereotypes promoted by corporate and media/entertainment industry marketing.

Women: 16” waists, blonde hair, sparking white teeth, formidable breasts, silky shiny hair, soft creamy and ageless skin, beautiful nails, long lashes, luscious lips, uncomfortable heels, seductive clothing. These are the domain of well-paid, airbrushed models and well-lighted Hollywood scenes. They are impossible and impossibly expensive to live up to. So why invest so much into trying? Maybe I just don’t get it.

Men: muscled and ripped, aggressive/ macho, bumbling dads, horny and sexed up stars, coiffed hair, expensive shoes, always cool, perfect teeth and a two-day beard 24/7. How you look says who you are. Forget sensitivity and softness. Dress for other men. All this costs too. You don’t want to be just another slovenly doofus.

There’s little money to be made on the beauty that comes from the inside, on being comfortable in your own skin. So why do we buy into these surface and, in the end, destructive images of ourselves? Why is beauty from within so often neglected and hard to believe in?

Decent

Is it enough to just be a decent human being?

Human dignity

We are all born with the gift of human dignity, given to signify that life has purpose and meaning. Universal human dignity is an aspect of loving. Individuals can give up their dignity, but dignity cannot be taken away. Those who try to take away the dignity of others—by war, by exploitation, by greed, by prejudice, by despotism, by power—in fact only surrender their own dignity.

The news is filled with stories of humans who attempt to strip away the dignity of other humans—sex slavery, mistreatment of American Indian tribes, the poor of all situations, those wrongly accused, child victims of war, women with no power, exploited workers. The list goes on.

In our time, wealth and celebrity are admired more than dignity, and the trampling of the dignity of others seems to come at little cost.

Hold on to yours.

Jesus Ascends

Jesus Ascends

News outlets report that Jesus’ Love tour was a resounding success. There were large crowds across the globe with high security due to all who wanted to touch his garments. There were no instances of “the loaves and fishes,” but all concessions were sold at cost to attendees and all servers were paid decent and fair wages. Characteristically, Jesus chased all money changers and souvenir vendors away from the sacred stadiums.

There was no smoke and no fireworks and no big screens. Jesus spoke of love and promised no miracles. He said that the true miracle would be if people actually learned to love one another. He also said that, considering what has occurred since his last visit, he would probably have to return a lot more times to get the job done.

He was last sighted atop the largest skyscraper in Indonesia, slowly ascending into the clouds.

Recent headlines in the Jesus story

Recent headlines in the Jesus story:

EVANGELICALS REJECT JESUS, SAYING HE’S NOT WHITE ENOUGH

JESUS OFFERED SIX FIGURES TO CONSULT ON NEW VERSION OF “JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR”

JESUS STOPPED AND FRISKED AS “SUSPICIOUS LOOKING”

JESUS REJECTS STORMY DANIELS AS MARY MAGDELENE REPLACEMENT

PEPSI OFFERS TO SPONSOR SECOND COMING LOVE TOUR