Brain

 

NASA

 NASA has just hurled a small spacecraft at a sizeable asteroid to see if its course could be altered, even just a bit, to save the earth. Why not think of yourself as a small asteroid hurled at the world to try to alter its course, even just a bit, to make it a better place.

God speaks

 GOD SPEAKS

“You bigots need to remember that my son was brown and Jewish.”

“I meant the 10 Commandments.”

“When I said, ‘Love thy neighbor,’ I didn’t just mean the guy next door.”

“If you call yourself my children, then quit acting like such spoiled and selfish asses.”

Bengals won

 

Violence

 

Mediocrity

 We live by the numbers—polls, surveys, number of hits, popularity contests, social media followers and more. These numbers create celebrity, drive sales and assign status. The problem is they also reinforce mediocrity. In a democratic society the majority should rule. But this should not be at the expense of excellence.

Excellence in the performance of one’s work is everywhere—from the plumber to the judge to the artist. We don’t do enough in our culture to search out and affirm excellence while we are drowning in mediocrity.

LGBTQ+

 

Fun

 

Decent

 I believe that a few people are saints, and that the truly evil are few. In between, most people are decent people —stumbling, getting up, trying to do their best, searching for genuine leaders. The decent people keep the world running, but they don’t run world. Why is it that the decent people can’t make a decent world?

connected

 

Love

 There are many stories of people trying to make love work. Not as many stories of making love succeed. The romance part is easy. It’s full of rainbows. But the love part is different. It’s full of bumps and challenges. The learning curve is can be steep. And love never stops testing you. The deep human connections that characterize authentic love are not daily occurrences. But the dependability and the sustaining intimacy of the lover are worth everything.

Safety net

 

Next time

 Next time you say, "I love you," instead say "I love you and this is how I'll show it."

Lovers

 The great lovers understand the true nature of evil.

Art womb

 The community of visual art is a womb of sorts. Inside, it’s comfortable. We believe in what we are about, what we do, what our challenges are and why what we do is meaningful and valuable. We get support and recognition. But suppose we leave the womb.

Policemen and firemen risk their lives to serve the community. How do artists serve the community? Doctors and teachers live by recognizable professional codes? What are the professional codes of artists? What athletes is do newsworthy. What do artists do that’s newsworthy? Legislators and CEOs move society. Do artists move society? There are all kinds of celebrities. How many artists are celebrities?

These are fair and important questions that the larger community generally isn’t concerned with and couldn’t answer. So it becomes the task of artists to be out in the community with answers that convince.

Haikus

 Truth lives, but comes hard

And slips away like first love

Held close in the heart

Integrity won’t 

Earn its keep, always hungry

It devours the sheep

Out the womb we come

Naked but for dignity

Don’t undress ever

Compassion isn’t soft

It’s love storming through the pain

That finds all of us

Freedom’s not a gift

It comes with consequences

And courage to act

Workers

 Wealth accumulates on the backs of workers, workers who are at the same time both necessary and expendable—slaves, serfs, indentured servants, immigrants, migrant workers, sweatshop workers, child labor, fast food workers. The wealth accumulated is beyond any reasonable need and allows the wealthy to turn themselves from oppressors into admired philanthropists. 

As a culture, we dismiss workers just as the wealthy do, though they serve all of us. They’re in the fields, on the roofs, in the factories, serving fast food. You may have been one of them at one time. You may one of them now.

In bed

 How many nights, us, in bed

Affirming the far away vows we made

Embracing one another, naked 

Or sometimes back-to-back and distant

The days’ problems spill into bed

And we talk late into a sleepless night

Or try to sex our way through them

Sometimes alone in bed

The other in New Orleans or the couch

The children were our guests 

Until they fell asleep on the pillows

Or when they sat on bed’s edge at midnight

Crying in teen drama, hurting

In the bed we know that love 

Loyalty, patience and respect

Lay there with us every night

The dream we share, one night

To fall into our final sleep together 

Snuggling into death 

 

Moral

 I grew up Catholic. It took me some time to grow out of the rigid and dogmatic teachings that limited my spiritual and emotional growth. When I finally discovered what worked best for me within Catholicism, I was left with a strong appreciation of imagery and ritual that entered my art and with a valuable moral compass to navigate the world.

When I see the world now from the perspective as elder, I am concerned that young people are not working their way through a moral framework to build one that will guide their lives. They don’t understand the value of discipline that comes from commitment and suffering. Young people are faced with many challenges that they have not been morally or psychologically prepared for. They are stressed. They are anxious, depressed, sometime suicidal.

A moral compass is not easy to develop or to live by. But in the end, it’s hard to live a meaningful life without one. And this is what we owe young people, who must live in the world we’ve created for them.

Absurdity

 Today’s tidbits of absurdity

Serena Williams, premier athlete, appears on the U.S. Open courts with diamonds in her hair, and diamonds sewn into her designer outfit and shoes.

Schools are facing all kinds of problems but none worse than the supply chain backups delaying the delivery of the $300-$1000 each high school football helmets.

Hamilton County struggles to fund programs to help the hungry and homeless, but we can be proud of the new Bengals indoor practice facility.

Connected

 Could it be any more clear that we live in a world of connectedness to one another. Climate change, communications, economy, entertainment, travel, immigration and more. And yet, even in our own country, we can’t see this connectedness. We are divided at every turn. We expect government to meet our specific needs without realizing the sacrifices that may result for others. We listen for what we want to hear, not considering what might be best for a healthy society. There are too many messages for us to live in a “me” world.