When

When fear is a daily companion

When sex is more important than love

When the young know everything

When art is trivial

When life has no melody

When a few have too much

When truth is disposable

When celebrity is the

When celebrity is the measure

When suicide regularly comes up in a chat

When grass is food

When how you dress is who you are

When you live without being alive

When religion denies humanity

When children fall to the bottom of the list

When gratuitous violence is entertainment

When freedom requires no responsibility

Death

Don’t be afraid of death.

Be afraid of never having lived.

Stare into the face of death,

Death that is the gift to every living thing.

Forget the coffin with fancy brass handles.

A simple box works just as well.

The living are the ones who need the flowers.

Testimonies are of no value to the dead

If they were never heard in life.

So don’t look over your shoulder fearing death

When life is straight ahead.

More from POTUS

More POTUS remedies for the dreaded coronavirus:

1. Eat one pound of hot chilis dipped in Clorox.

2. Turn your electric blanket up to the high setting, put a Tide pod under each armpit and sleep for 10 hours.

3. Strip naked, turn on your electric hair dryer to high and sit on it. Take 500 deep breaths over a pan of hot Lysol.

POTUS suggests

Breaking news: POTUS makes new suggestions for COVID cures which are tried by brave Americans.

Florida man who buried himself in sand for 6 hours on a 90 degree day now cured of COVID.

New Jersey man who placed hydrochloroquine tablets under his armpits for 24 hours now cured of COVID.

California man who spent a week under the ultraviolet grow lights in his basement marijuana farm is now cured of COVID.

Junior Achievement

When I taught 3^rd and 4^th grade Junior Achievement, the program included a discussion of the difference between needs and wants. Here’s an interesting exercise based on that idea.

Mentally go through all your possessions, placing an N for need or a W for want on all of them. What is the breakdown between down the N’s and the W’s? For how many was it hard to decide? What conclusions do you draw?

We are a society that can quickly deliver the wants but is slow to deliver the needs—in housing, in economic equality, in good jobs, for example. Media and marketing convince us that our wants are our needs (have what celebrities have, you deserve it, it needs to be bigger and better, you can’t be the best you without it).

Maybe corona can call us to strike a proper balance between wants and needs, for ourselves and our country.

Corona economy

Money in the times of COVID

The government is now giving out large amounts of money it doesn’t have. Out of necessity we are going deeper into debt as a country. Who are we borrowing this money from, and how did these sources get all this money to loan to us?

What is it about Americans and the American economy that have so many living on the financial edge? How can wages be so inequitable when so many are so rich? What is inherent in our economic and government structures that allows so much money to be stashed away by the obscenely rich?

Why do wealth, privilege and lobbying persist in protecting the rich? Why do the wealthy even want so much money? Why are the poor and middle class relatively more charitably generous that the wealthy?

Why is there so much coverage during COVID of the charitable actions of celebrities and not of the same kind of actions by ordinary people? How did large banks manage to get their wealthy clients to the top of the corona loan list without even applying for them?

These questions and many more are crucial to address, and COVID has shown light on the systemic economic inequalities in American financial and government institutions. The economy is now a disaster and can’t be rebuilt by the same old methods. This is a chance to make changes that will bring fairness and economic security to more.

David Brooks argues in the New York Times that it is not the 99% vs. 1% but rather the 20% (college educated, financially secure, children in good schools) vs. the 80% (high school education, access only to poor schools, living on the financial edge).

In this time of many making sacrifices of all kinds for others and many finding new ways to solve corona-created problems, we can only hope that this spirit drives big changes.

Spectacle

Media and marketing have transformed experiences into spectacles.

Fashion runway shows

Proms

Concerts

Facial makeup

Hair styles

Promotional campaigns

TV commercials

Awards shows

Athletic shoes

Underwear

We have come to believe that our worth is measured by the degree to which we can project ourselves as spectacular.

Hopefully, with the stay-at-home experiences of COVID we can discover that our true worth is what comes from within us.

Expectations

When I make a piece of art I expect it to:

(1)   sustain a thoughtful conversation with viewers

(2)   propose questions

(3)   affirm that there is more to be discovered 

(4)   keep me honest

Art can...

Though you can’t touch the art, the art can touch you.

Though you may not be able to understand the art, the art can understand you.

Though you may not be able to possess the art, the art can possess you.

Though you won’t be able to change the art, the art can change you.

No job

No job. Family to feed. No savings. Unsure of health care. Shelter precarious. Struggling to find food.

Americans have long known how the world’s many poor live. Now they are experiencing it for themselves.

Unlike the life struggles of the undeveloped world, America expects to get what it wants when it wants it.

America sees the life it has gotten used become uncertain, leadership and resilience get tested.

We can’t return to business-as-usual wealth disparities after coronavirus.

On Joseph Cornell

I admire Joseph Cornell, so I wrote this.

On Joseph Cornell

Constellations mapped in star-fish,

Spheres explaining.

Spirals from the edge of sky

Conclude, obscured.

Things in proximity

Edge past the names of things.

Obsessive in the coming,

The vision won’t speak life, but dreams

Copulating.

Then structure (intimate) cohere,

And symmetry is replicated.

Niches of happened things,

Stacked perimeters,

Bird, shell, arm of tree

Reflect on where the idea of it lives.

Item-icon tooled

In flecks of story not his own.

Love

Dammit, love is confounding.

It starts as romance, but then it won’t stay still.

Sometimes love collides with love in the messiest ways.

Love can sometimes dispose of sex completely.

When you want love to be just love, it wants to be duty or loyalty or faith.

Love can commandeer any part of your body.

Tests of love are always unannounced.

Love can sometimes seem like poison.

Absent love, there is only emptiness.

Love can attack anything, and do it relentlessly.

Love never has to explain itself.

If love is love, it always demands courage.

Genuine love is an infection with no known cure.

Dammit, love is confounding.

Left and right

Today Jesus Christ would undoubtedly be on the far left—in his politics and his message and his actions. So it seems strange to me that so many Christians have chosen to be on the far right.

Yearning

Scientists and social scientists have long tried to identify the qualities that make us human. Some proposed tool making, only to find that crows make tools. Some proposed language, only to find that dolphins have language.

I propose that yearning is what makes us human. We yearn for something beyond ourselves. These yearnings are inexplicable and drive us to search with passion for something that gives us peace—in art, in spiritual life, in love, in deep compassion and even in a state beyond death. Resolution can often seem out of reach.

It may be that all of these destinations for yearning are really the same. Without a deep yearning, life can’t be fully human.

Contagious

If we are lucky when all this is over, honesty, courage and compassion will continue to be as contagious as the coronavirus.

Spring

Spring

I am smarter than dandelions,

But they are more persistent.

The birds are snuggling in nests,

Nests I could never build with my teeth.

The grass is a fresh green,

Green that doesn’t exist in any paint box.

Leaves are emerging by the millions,

And I couldn’t make even one.

What was cold and buried is now alive.

The same is happening to me.

The bulb the squirrel reburied

Becomes a surprise daffodil.

The edges of summer dying are ahead.

But I don’t think about that now.

Sweet gum tree

In my backyard I have a handsome old sweet gum tree. Every season it drops what seems like millions of seed balls. Annoying as they can be, I dutifully rake them up and bag them without much complaining.

I have a friend who had a sweet gum tree also. The seed balls were a time-consuming mess. Everything about the tree boiled down to that. So he cut the tree down.

He didn’t see its shade in the summer and its color in the fall. He didn’t see how complex and beautiful the seed balls were in pattern and spherical structure. He didn’t think about how long it took nature to solve this botanical problem so elegantly.

And here for me is the twisted parable. Nature is not the drama of evolution. Nature is not the interconnected family we belong to. Nature is ornament. Nature is to be bent to our will. We don’t belong to nature. Nature belongs to us.

Rituals in corona times

It is sometimes easy in the contemporary world for Christians to forget the meaning of their deepest rituals. In these corona times, when we can’t practice them and we miss them, maybe this is the perfect opportunity to think about why these rituals are significant.

In reality, the rituals are not the thing. They are carefully and richly elaborated reminders of the thing. The thing, now, is the efforts of the medical, health care, EMTs and public servants risking their lives every day in these corona times.

Christian rituals are a powerful reminder that crucifixions and resurrections happen every day.

Have a holy season.

Mess

I am one of God’s creatures,

Too.

Part of one big and glorious

Mess

Of probability, biology and molecules

Dancing.

None of us means any

Harm.

Except maybe the hapless

Human.

We are all together in

This

To survive, make more like

Us,

Get on with the drama we didn’t

Start.

Just a piece of the big picture

Seen

Only from the throne beyond black

Holes.

What kind of culture?

Celebrity takes from the world and expects to be paid well. What it gives back is a commodity. When it is generous, it is generous out of its excess. It is more concerned with image than being authentic.

Heroism gives back to the world. It gives out of duty. It is generous and courageous to a fault. Its very nature makes it authentic.

Celebrity needs us. We need heroism. We need to become a hero culture instead of a celebrity culture.

Tough times?

Tough times?

Don’t whine.

You started as an extremely unlikely event.

You were given enough to make a life.

Misfortune may cause difficulty.

But it’s a good teacher.

Think of others.

Do your best.

Don’t whine.

Dear Dr. Advice

Dear Dr. Advice,

Is it true that Melania has self-quarantined in her wardrobe closet and refuses to come out until Donald wears a mask?

Clothes Make the Woman

Dear Clothes Make the Woman,

Yes, first, Melania is busy selecting her gown for the post-corona ball. Second, Donald has told 

her that he only wears a mask when he has sex with a Playboy bunny.

Dear Dr. Advice,

Thanks so much for your wonderful advice. I decided to wear the red thong. I got the best care possible from an all male staff. I have also gotten 5 date offers from male doctors and nurses since I was discharged. You’re great.

Wrong with a Thong

Dear Wrong with a Thong,

This is good news. Not only are you better, but you are popular, too. I would just make sure these male suitors show you valid tests results showing they are COVID free. While you’re at it, check their VD tests, too.

Dear Dr. Advice,

A man came to my door wanting to sell me a packet of N85 masks, which he said had been suffused with hydroxyoxychloroquininoxalene. I told him to come back tomorrow. What do you think?

Corona Duped?

Dear Corona Duped?

No. No. No. No. When he comes tomorrow, open the door then slam it in his face. Then open the door again and slam it in his face. If you do this 3 times, according to a Druid curse, he will never return.

Extraordinaries

Right now I am not paying any attention to the celebrities with their corona dramas, their agents, their reputation managers and their media advisors. They want to stay in the spotlight to come out of corona still on people’s minds.

My attention is on what I call the ordinary extraordinaries. These are the folks who live seemingly ordinary lives, but when called upon are capable of extraordinary things. They are the ones who are showing courage, generosity and compassion in the dangerous situations they are called to.

Their stories won’t get told like those of privileged entertainers or athletes, but they are on my mind. If you see or know one of these ordinary extraordinaries, thank them…from 6 feet away.

A leaf

A leaf on a tree explains the living universe.

1. Pick a leaf on a tree and look at it carefully. One side is the mirror image of the other. SYMMETRY

2. Look at the intricate veining on the leaf. PATTERN

3. Observe how every leaf is the same as every other leaf and yet different in small ways. UNITY IN DIVERSITY

4. The leaf is the product of what the tree finds in the earth and in the sky. CONNECTEDNESS.

5. The dying leaf feeds the growing tree. The tree is home to many species. The leaves breathe out what we breathe in and we reciprocate. INTERDEPENDENCE.

There it is.

Homo sapiens

As homo sapiens, we are just “human nature,” a small part of big nature. We are smart, clever and industrious problem solvers. We are immensely curious and imaginative creatures at our best, which often leads us to be driven by arrogance.

An earthquake, a tsunami, an asteroid smashing into the earth and a spreading virus are all examples of just another day at the office for big nature. COVID-19 doesn’t have anything particular against us. It’s doing what a virus has evolved to do. We are just one organism battling another organism for survival. There are lots of these battles going on right now. We may currently be too distracted to notice.

We are fighting, dying, learning and adapting. This is the everyday drama of big nature.

Dear Dr. Advice

Dear Dr. Advice,

I think I have the corona virus. My mother told me that I should wear clean underwear if I might go to the hospital. The problem is I only wear thongs--red or black. Can I just go ahead and wear a thong?

Wrong with a Thong

Dear Wrong with a Thong,

Yes. Yes. Yes. Wear it. Red makes a fiery impression, and black is more classic. You choose the statement you want to make. And the fact is, the corona care providers deserve any little treat they can get.

Dear Dr. Advice,

While I have been the best ever at handling the worst thing that has ever happened to America, I am not getting the praise I need to keep me from breaking down in front of my wife. She will not let me cry on any of her designer outfits. I am desperate since it is very hard for me to pretend to be nice. Who can I turn to for help?

Donald Trump, Best Ever US President So Far

Dear Donald Trump, Best Ever US President So Far,

Some names that come to mind are: Franklin Graham, Dr. Phil, a support group made up of all the anchors of Fox News, a séance to get advice from Rush Limbaugh, Melania’s hairdresser. I’ll keep thinking and get back to you.

Dear Dr. Advice,

Has the White House issued any guidelines for having sex during the COVID pandemic?

Desperate

Dear Desperate,

Recent laboratory studies have shown that corona droplets can be ejected more than 300 ft. during a good orgasm. So the White House advises keeping your mouth shut and wearing a mask and latex gloves during sex. It should be noted that the President himself has said he will not do this. Good luck and stay safe.

Corona news update

Corona Virus News Update;

All of the celebrities in the latest edition of National Enquirer and People magazine have tested positive for COVID-19. Doctors are stumped.

It was announced today that Melania is in a coma due to the corona virus. It took a week to come to this diagnosis since she usually looks that way.

Vice President Pence admitted today his wife warned him that if she got COVID, he would have to get it too.  She would not trust him to be roaming free in DC while she was in quarantine.

Ivanka Trump will soon launch a line of high-end designer N95 masks. They will be made in China, tariff free and, because of the crisis, sell for under $1000 each.

Dear Dr. Advice

Dear Dr. Advice,

I like to knit…obsessively. During this COVID lock down, I have covered half the house in knitting, including my husband and two children. How can I mediate my obsessive knitting?

Knit Nut

Dear Knit Nut,

Knit some faux-PPE wear for the President, Vice-President and his cabinet and send it to them to wear during the White House briefings. Also a lovely hot pink one for Mitch McConnell would be nice.

Dear Dr. Advice,

My husband is off from work because of COVID-19. He refuses to bathe, but he still wants to have sex. How should I handle this situation?

Sex Stinks

Dear Sex Stinks,

Your husband is not a considerate man. My suggestion is to give him a good dousing with Febreeze and stick a scented candle up his ass. Let me know how this goes.

Dear Dr. Advice,

During this lock down on my street, families have put together concerts, dance parties and parades. As a visual artist, I was thinking about making small paintings of sunsets over barns for neighbors to cheer them up. What do you think of this idea?

Frustrated Artist

Dear Frustrated Artist,

Certainly your heart is in the right place. But in place of a sunset over a barn, may I suggest a painting of Jesus stomping the hell out of a corona virus?

Dear Dr.Advice

Dear Dr. Advice,

When I go grocery shopping, I just wear a plain mask. But I see so many people who are in creative COVID fashion wear? Am I out of touch, and should I put more effort into my COVID dress?

No COVID Flair

Dear No COVID Flair,

Dress very normally, but use your phone to take pictures of COVID fashionistas. When you get a nice collection, send them to VOGUE and wait for the check. Let the fashionistas be your road to riches.

Dear Dr. Advice,

I am a figurative artist, and I have just completed a series of nudes wearing N95 masks. I feel this is very topical and that I am on to something. How do you think I should proceed?

Confused about Nudes

Dear Confused about Nudes,

My first question is, are the masks on the faces of the nudes or the genitals of the nudes?

Dear Dr. Advice,

I have attached 4 yardsticks to my waist at 90 degree angles to one another in order to assure the required 6 ft. distance between me and others. This has made it very difficult to proposition women, especially in a time when all bars are closed. Any suggestions on how to meet my manly needs and stay safe at the same time.

Desperate at 6 Ft.

Dear Desperate at 6 Ft.,

For you to get humped, I’m stumped.

Dear Dr. Advice

Dear Dr. Advice,

My fiancé and I are planning our wedding for May. He and I have a guest list of 100. Should we go ahead with the wedding?

May Bride(?)

Dear May Bride(?),

My suggestion is to do 10 consecutive weddings with 10 guests each. Your fiancé will have to say “I do” ten times, which will be a real test of commitment.

Dear Dr. Advice,

My roommate has a poster on his wall of Mitch McConnell in a bathing suit. I have threatened to put up a poster of Chuck Schumer in a Speedo. Should I do it?

Pin Ups

Dear Pin Ups,

If you two can sort this one out, I’ll nominate you for a Nobel Peace Prize. Meanwhile, please don’t invite me over.

Dear Dr. Advice,

My wife and I will have our first baby soon. She wants to name it Corona and I want to name it Covid. What do you think?

Name Dilemma

Dear Name Dilemma,

I think that if you are lucky, COVID-19 will put you out of your misery.

Dear Dr. Advice,

I have been watching the White House briefings on COVID-19. I don’t know whom to believe when the President says something different from Dr. Fauci. The President is so much taller. How can I decide whom to trust?

Thinking Big

Dear Thinking Big,

Try this. Close your eyes during the briefings. Listen carefully using your actual brain. Then decide whom to believe.