Wrong

 We’re getting it wrong.

We have a bad habit of thinking in terms of dichotomies: black / white, win / lose, this / that. The dilemma is that none of the big problems we face is simplistic enough to be resolved with this kind of thinking. We look for comprise as a solution, but even there, compromise smacks of giving in or getting the best deal. We need to recognize that opposites are not enemies but markers in the process of seeking balance. Balance is a dynamic process which requires cooperation to maintain. Seeking balance is a shared activity, not a tug of war.

We divide people based on class, race, wealth and status. All of these lead to false stereotypes. What would happen if we made classifications based on values like decency, responsibility, compassion, loyalty? Classifications based on values, which reflect our character.

Good idea

 A good idea takes up no space, but will fill the world.

Beliefs

 Psychologists tell us that it's not an easy thing to give up our beliefs. Fear and ego get in the way. The beliefs I had growing up Catholic in the South, beliefs about race, religion, mental illness, homosexuality, gender roles and more had to change. I relied on education, critical thinking, an open mind, meeting new people and immersion in art. All of these involved effort.

This is why it distresses me to see so many Americans cling to beliefs that are destructive, obviously false and depend on blind faith in demagogues. If we are not vigilant, we become a nation of laws that are not tolerable because they do not come out of our considered and shared values.

Supreme haikus

 Clarence Thomas writes

Words dismembering our rights

Targets in his sights

Two justices lie

And precedents they deny

Integrity dies

Every child

 Every child is born into the world with a unique and personal packet of DNA. Some children step immediately into a pair of cement shoes. Some have wings. Some have the proverbial silver spoon. Yet we act as if they should all be able to compete equitably in the same race. Me, I’m looking for the one who starts with cement shoes but winds up with wings.

Supremes

 The current super majority in the Supreme Court points to the significance of the historical context of an issue under consideration. So in a perverse way they support concealed laws by completely ignoring the militia clause of the Second Amendment. They don’t consider what “militia” means or intends. They don’t consider the historical purpose of this term. They don’t consider the intended use of the weapons. They don’t consider the difference between a rifle used for multi-purposes and a military weapon used to kill.

They don’t consider the phrase in the preamble of the Constitution: insure domestic Tranquility. This is not a Supreme Court of wise and thoughtful jurists who honestly attend to the Constitution, but a Court with a majority of ideologues with an agenda.

If there is any instrument of American government that should be a model of integrity, it’s the Supreme Court. Yet now we have a court that pushes beyond the given case to break an established right. Two justices were outright lying and deceptive in their discussions preceding their appointment. And Clarence Thomas, in his recent arguments, has turned the Court into an activist, political body. One more disastrous consequence of the Trump presidency.

It’s clear that the current Supreme Court interprets the Constitution as a bunch of ideologues, not as a group of wise jurists.

Abortion

 Abortion is an issue that will never have an absolute resolution. In the past few days, I have listened attentively to arguments on both sides of the issue and consistently fall on the side of accessible, safe abortions with fair and reasonable time limits. It’s hard to imagine any woman happily desiring an abortion, and it’s hard to imagine any woman wanting the state to take over control of her choice.

What seems ingenuous to me is a political will that purports to protect the life of the unborn, but after birth fails to have the same will to attend to the hungry child, the abused child, the homeless child, the sexually manipulated child or the child victimized by discrimination.

Also concerning are the extreme punitive aspects of the laws limiting abortion and the failure of the laws to put stringent requirements on the father of the unborn child.

Finally, the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution says this: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. For 50 years abortion rights were guaranteed to women and are suddenly taken away by the Supreme Court.

Truth

 The truth eventually pulls everything along with it.

Damn

 God damn to hell all those human beings who live their lives by the seven deadly sins.

God damn to hell all those human beings who poison the world with their power.

God damn to hell all those human beings who choose not to love.

God damn to hell all those human beings who cannot see the needs of others.

God damn to hell all those human beings who don’t behave like human beings.

0.005%

 I don’t know about you, but suddenly my Instagram account is populated with all these young men doing calisthenics with bodies that have 0.005% body fat. Personally, I’d rather have young men posting things that demonstrate they have brains with 0.005% ignorance.

Jan. 6

 I’ve been watching the Jan. 6 Committee hearings. They take a different kind of attention than we give to mindless entertainment and sports viewing. There are no pretty faces and fit bodies, no celebrities. These hearings are populated with authentic heroes who’ve made tough choices, choices with real personal consequences, to maintain their integrity and affirm their willingness to do what is necessary to protect our democracy.

We see clearly with Vladimir Putin how one man can brutally disrupt the lives of individuals across the globe. We are now seeing how one man, Donald Trump, has also caused the disruption of many lives as well and has egotistically and wantonly threatened democracy in America.

Spiderman, Superman, Aquaman and Top Gun will quickly push aside the names of these Jan. 6 heroes. That, in itself, is a sad statement about America.

Bloom

 Two grandmothers sit frozen in a room

Higher than an ancient tree

The angry missile rubbled the building’s wall 

And tore the handmade tablecloth

Still the flowers bloom

Bodies tangled in mass graves

Who could remember where 

Their loved ones lay dead

And so all the ground turned sacred

Still the flowers bloom

The baker, the truck driver

The adolescent son and daughter

All are soldiers now

Minds soaked in the call to war

Still the flowers bloom

Cities made unlivable

Dank basements become homes

Waiting to become tombs

Where hope and life might die

Still the flowers bloom

Citizens change into refugees

Frightened children, elders without hope

And fighters who never dreamed 

Of the brutality that would come

Still the flowers bloom

We watch this awful story unfold

We cry, converse, open our wallets

And go about the daily tasks and pleasures

They struggle to remember

Still the flowers bloom

Is this a surprise on the human planet

The disregard for flesh and breath

Dictated by one deranged mind

That didn’t account for such courage

Still the flowers bloom 

Self

 People will tell you to be yourself. The problem is if you take this advice too soon in life, you will be stuck living in your outer layers. Rather, I’d say to keep exploring who you are. Keep learning. Keep traveling. Keep reading. Keep trying new things. Keep meeting interesting people.

Eventually the outer layers of self will peel away, and your core self will appear, and you will realize that it was always there. That’s empowering.

Brutality

 The brutality, injustice and inequity in the world can be crushing. But we must:

1. recognize that we are complicit in the existence of sweatshops, the excess waste, the pollution of the air, the destruction of rain forests and widespread poverty.

2. recognize that we always have control over of choices we make. 

Hard

 It’s damned hard to be concerned about Ukraine and gun violence when you have to worry about getting help for your cat’s stress or for getting that stubborn bit of body fat cool sculpted off. And then there’s the task of daily moisturizing and remembering to schedule your appointment for eyelid rejuvenation. Sometimes it’s just hard to be an American.

Heard

 In order to be heard and remembered, your personal expression requires a language that is capable of discipline, intuition, clarity and nuance—whether it’s words, music or images. Screaming just doesn’t work for the long term.

And of course you need to have something to say that has meaning for others.

Backpack

 It’s time. Take off your backpack and empty it. Empty all the compartments. Take out all the stones you’ve been storing there. And the things that don’t fit anymore. Clean it out. Then put in the notebook and the tools that you will use to tell your story. Put in the device that will measure you from now on. Zip your backpack up, put it on, and go for a little adventure.

Voting in America

 

art

 Works of art are on walls, in parks, in museums and on screens to do a job. The job is to infect you, to embed themselves in your brain’s visual catalog. In this way they take up residence there at all times, ready and accessible when you need them. They come to belong to you, which is as it should be.

art school

 Institutions of higher learning have become sports and career factories—business management, computer engineering, MBAs, research, etc. But not institutions for the education of human beings.

People disparage and dismiss art school. But art school educates the curious eye, the making hand and the creative mind. Woodshop, welding, drawing, painting, design skills are all driven by the development of creative thinking. Nude figure drawing confronts the self laid bare, appreciating the beauty and complexity of the human form. The student population of the studio is diverse, a place where ideas are freely expressed and critiqued—a safe place to grow as a human being.

Academic courses in art school work in tandem with studio courses. More than that, academic courses allow for discovery and understanding through the visual language, giving it a deserved legitimacy not accorded in colleges and universities.

What more could anyone ask of an education?

Unfold

 Unfold yourself. Staying folded is staying compact, flattened, hidden, contained. Unfolding yourself is discovering new planes, new dimensions, new shapes, new ways to reconfigure yourself.

Dreams

 We tell people to follow their dreams. But to me, dreams can be vaporous and elusive goals. Not reaching them becomes a failure.

What has worked for me is to listen for an authentic, reliable and persistent yearning. Such a yearning is a guide that takes you on a journey of surprises and revelations--intellectual, emotional or spiritual.

Uvalde Haikus

 Uvalde Haikus

The blood of a friend

Gives her the solemn task

Of telling the story

Words that should bring tears

Are met with icy logic

No solutions here

The dead are children

No longer to be wept for

Soon statistics, bang

Buried in the earth

And in the hearts of loved ones

What weight piles on them

Second Amendment

Assault weapons in our hands

Oops, some dead children

The little bodies

Now unrecognizable

How do parents heal

Human

 What does it mean when we use the word “human”? When we call ourselves “human,” does that include everything on the spectrum from the most despicable to the most awesome things that we have proven capable of? If that’s the case, what can be crimes against humanity? 

So what is humanity?  

Can we reserve “human” for those of us who make the effort to be the best people we can? Then what does it mean to be human in the fullest possible way?

Obsession

 Lately I’ve been thinking about obsession? Does everyone have an obsession? Is obsession an innate aspect of the brain? Where does a particular obsession come from? How does it implant itself? How can an obsession destroy a person? Is obsession necessary to drive the courage, curiosity and commitment for discovery?

I have obsessions. Do you?

Romance

 I can take romance. It’s a feel-good thing with pretty people talking mush, lots of kissing and sex. Of course, a happy ending.

It’s love I’m wary of. It gets me in deeper than I want. It asks too much of me. It asks me to be more human than I sometimes want to be.

In the end, though, I must choose love. After all, what else is there?

Republiguns

 Republiguns

It’s clear that anyone who follows Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Marjorie Taylor-Green and Jim Jordon has to be crazy and a danger to society. A good reason to confiscate their weapons?

The Constitution came out of a time of war, revolution and a struggling new government. Even then the framers did not phrase the Second Amendment to give unrestricted gun rights to everyone. The militia clause is there for a reason, which most ignore, even the Supreme Court.

Staunch Second Amenders will say they must have guns to stop any overthrow of the government. Yet January 6 shows that they are the ones most likely to try to overthrow the government.

5 Republican haikus

 5 Republican haikus

Jordan and Jesus

My assault rifle near me

Constitution safe

I’ve got all I need

My dick, my balls and my gun

So I’m a firm no

Bang bang, not my fault

Dollars in my fat war chest

Supreme Court on board

Fear of too few guns

We fear our lives in danger

Walmart’s open now

Second Amendment

Holier than any God

Always gets the votes

Authentic news

 We must remind ourselves that the news is not authentic life. The news is mediated by the sponsors, the corporate owners, the anchors (and their chit chat and fashion statements), the reporters who stand in front of the very news they report and give the actual participants a sentence and then have to interpret that for us, and then trim it down to sound and video bites and then add commentary. The news is news, weather and sports, crime and punishment, and hardly a minute for the arts. The news is not authentic life.

You are authentic life whether anyone notices or not. The real news is your dreams, your decisions, your generosity, your compassion, your relationships, your values, your impact on the world. 

Genius

 A genius, an exceptional mind, explodes on the world setting it afire, burning away the old growth. But it’s the lesser beings who clean up the mess, explain what happened and rebuild the culture. Though geniuses move the world forward, they are anomalies and not always essential. It’s the lesser beings who anchor and sustain.

Assault

 Let’s be fucking done with this. Let’s put a security guard with an assault weapon 24/7 at the entrance to every door of every building in America. Let’s make sure every homeowner has an assault weapon—at least one. Let’s make sure every child has a bullet proof vest to wear at school and in their neighborhoods. Let’s rewrite the Second Amendment to make sure it guarantees life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

This way no Republican will ever have to suffer or squirm. Every Republican will be able to sleep soundly.

Movies

 The movies finally helped me understand why I haven’t reached my full realization in life. I have not been properly lighted, and I don’t have a soundtrack enhancing my every move. An intimacy coach would help, too.

Pity the country

 Pity the country where…

Power replaces service

Spin and sound bites replace truth

Reputation managers replace integrity

Money replaces competence

Voting is an inconvenience

Polls drive decision making

A pretty face ups your poll numbers

Art

 Pay attention to the art that tells you what you need, not the art that tells you what you want.

Gun Boutique

 We know that when new gun legislation is pending, sales of guns skyrocket. But American entrepreneurship is also stepping up to the plate.

The Shoot ‘em up Gun Boutique carries a range of handguns in beautiful pastel colors. Guns can be engraved with your favorite sentiments. There are guns with pearl handles, mink handles and alligator handles. A range of t-shirts and other specialty items are available.

Madam Bonnie’s Gun Bordello has locations all throughout the Southwest. Ted Cruz is known to be a regular visitor. Guests can select from a number of Western wear outfits and guns. The ladies assist with target practice until the guest reaches orgasm.

Cecil’s Concealed Carry Clothing Company is offering a complete line of clothing in the latest styles and colors, all with concealed carry pockets. You can select from pants, shirts, vests and coats for men and women. Pockets are designed for quick and easy weapon retrieval.

For a limited time only, Walmart is offering a free AR-15 with the purchase of an AR-15 and 1000 rounds of ammunition. Just bring in the store coupon and use your Walmart credit card.

Judy’s Jewels has opened a new department of ammo jewelry. There are chains, necklaces, bracelets and rings, all with a range of bullet options. All jewelry is handmade in Texas. Some is only decorative, but all styles can function as sources of live ammunition.

Fuctionary

 A new set of terms from my fuctionary have been selected for inclusion in Oxford Dictionary of the Filthy English Language for 2022.

Fucktorium: a place to hold orgies

Fuckinalia: an orgy

Fuck rocket: a fabulous quickie

Fucktaceous: really good

Fucklorious: Your dreams come true

Antidisfuckmentarianism: The longest fuck word in the English language

Fuckovid-19: A virus transmitted by sex

Fucktorious: Sexcessful

Dysfucktional: Not able to reach orgasm