Great-grandmother Died

Great-grandmother Died

She was life instinctively clung to,

Because death

And the certain innocence of new seed

Demanded it.

The doctor certified the end of life—

The steady, regular functioning

Of the body’s soft machinery

Stopped.

That’s all he meant.

Quietly on display

Seeming not to smell the gladiolas

Or even mind the puffs of laughter from back corners,

She thought about how final it is

To release the soul.

For our part we managed

Spilling the required tears.

Six hands on the cold steel bar.

Roots of sexual behavior

Every day the news presents us with another example of male sexual impropriety—a CEO, a college student, an entertainer, a priest, a political figure, and ordinary guy. We’ve become all too familiar with these kinds of accusations, and we know they have to be dealt with consistently, fairly and firmly.

But little attention is given to the causes of such unacceptable behavior by men. I think that’s because the reasons are so complex: biology, libido, misguided notions of manhood, peer pressure, media, marketing, mental health issues, poverty, bad parenting, childhood sexual abuse, alcohol, substance abuse, adolescent experimentation, pornography, violent tendencies, social mores, permissiveness, lack of good sex education, moral weakness, power, perversion, privilege. There’s probably more, and in many cases sexual misbehavior is a consequence of a cluster of these elements.

Sexual impropriety is a problem that needs to be addressed with sustained and serious effort, but it has to be tackled in a way that takes into account all its roots. No easy task, but a task men must take on vigorously.

Words

The Oxford Dictionary of the English Language identifies new words each year to enter the dictionary. Why don’t we get rid of some underused words as well.  For 2018, I recommend “integrity” and “truth.”

I had a high school English teacher who refused to let us use what she called “Hollywood adjectives.” Aren’t we sick of the attention-grabbing use of words like:

crisis, stunning, fabulous, life-saving, spectacular, once-in-a-life time, incredible, riveting, sensational, phenomenal and thrilling?

When words get used to lie and manipulate, should we call that “fake language”?

The Academy Awards

The Academy Awards. My favorite whipping boy. Red carpet posturing and mindless chit-chat, more vanity per square inch than anywhere in the world, more up-and-down ovations than the State of the Union address, extravagant staging, gushing thank you’s, cast-of-thousands acceptance speeches, expensive coiffeur out the kazoo, floridly scripted presentations, a sprinkling of audience grabbing politics and spectacle all out of proportion.

You like?

Sublime

What do you think about this statement?

An artwork is an artwork when it evokes the siblime.

Sex thoughts

1.

Sex is evolution’s solution to the preservation of out species.

Love is culture’s solution to the preservation of our humanity.

They are not the same thing, but the way we act on them in our lives has a profound effect on the social order.

2.

If prostitution is the oldest profession, then men are the oldest and most avid customers of the oldest profession.

3.

Sex is not just sex. It is pleasure, power, dominance, love, criminal behavior, perversion, intimacy, propagation, manhood, womanhood, entertainment, lust, rape, violence, obsession, communication, a panacea for loneliness, a human need and who knows what else.