Time

 Time is long past for the frivolous life.

Time is long past for the irresponsible life.

Time is long past for the life of excess.

Time is long past for the lazy life.

Time is long past for the privileged life.

Time is long past for the material life.

Time is long past for the wasteful life.

Time is long past for the numb life.

WWJD

 A number of years ago it was fashionable to wear WWJD bracelets. Before too long they all but disappeared. I think it was not only difficult to figure out what Jesus would do, but also then do it.

It occurred to me that a different approach might be worth a try.

Why not ask: Who are the lepers? Who are the Herods? Who are the Pilates? Where are the crowds who listened? Who are the disciples? Who has been raised from the dead?

Integrity haikus

 Integrity haikus

Integrity shines

More brightly than gold or gems

Or any treasure

Integrity is

Work that never will relent

Building character

A badge or trophy

Is not the prize, it’s the strength

Quietly inside

Integrity seen

Shows us all a human path

To a human life

It’s not the muscles

That make a man a hero

It’s integrity

Normal

 “Normal” is a mental health condition that must be avoided at all costs. Normal is abnormal. As humans we must embrace the absurdities, quirks, irrationalities and strangeness that we all demonstrate in our own individual ways. This is what makes us the unique persons we are. The only caveat is that in the expression of our strangeness we do no harm.

Gun haikus

 Consciences are gone

Lawmakers in the pockets

Of the NRA

Second Amendment

Cowboys pack assault weapons

Thanks, Republicans

Bang bang bang bang bang

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang

What target is next

My assault weapon says

No matter who you might be

I can hate you dead

Abused or bullied

Ignore me or make me small

My gun speaks for me

No inconvenience

For gun lovers is the rule

Gunmakers go free

 Check out these Black Friday bargains.

Joe Burrow bling necklace with a Nike swoosh, the Bengals logo and a picture of Joe. $19.95

Joe Burrow bobble head and bobble arm. Watch him throw. $22.95

Joe Burrow earmuffs. Joe on one ear, Bengals logo on the other. $15.95

Joe Burrow tuxedo, comes in hibiscus and bird of paradise designs. $355.95

Joe Burrow toothbrushes, set of 6, black and orange bristles. $12.95

Joe Burrow Bengals brew, 12 cans. $16.95

Joe Burrow autobiography, I’m More Than Just Cute $19.95

Joe Burrow, 4 ticket Super Bowl weekend. $32,000

Joe Burrow doorknob covers. Have Joe on all your knobs, set of 6 $11.95

Joe Burrow elf-on-a-shelf. Christmas magic $9.95

Have a Burrow-ful Christmas!

Sad haikus

 Sad Haikus

Your middle-class life

Is my dream of ample wealth

As I crouch in mud

My new pants and shirt

Are your last year’s fashion togs

I’ve no time for style

Bags of grain you send

Feed our families for a day

A one item menu

You, soft cushions, drapes

Lamps, knick-knacks, books, a carpet

Me, a cooking pot

Bullets kill a child

In your city miles away

Bombs kill my neighbors

Your beloved pets

Eat delivered premier treats

My little child starve

Hate

 The Colorado club patron said that it was a place where LGPTQ people could be themselves. Why shouldn’t they be able to be themselves anywhere in the world?

Why hate Jews? Why?

Are there some people who just need to hate?

Love is a panacea, but it has to be relentless.

Notes on Nature

 Notes on Nature #15

What’s alive in nature is not the only source of beauty. Think about bubbles, parabolas, fossils, volcanos and tsunamis. Bubbles become domes. Parabolas become bridges. Fossils teach us. Volcanos and tsunamis give us humility. We may see these things but not see how our civilization bubbles up from them. After all, what did our human ancestors mine from nature?

Notes on Nature #16,

In the lives of our human ancestors, nature was a deity, sacred and terrifying. Humans lived in and from nature. Trying to understand nature was a reverent act made visible in significant rituals. Humans found in nature a place to store their spiritual yearnings. Over time religion and science made nature a human playground. For most, religion and science found no place for human spirituality inside nature. We saw nature as slave to our materialistic imperatives. We hardly noticed our spiritual yearnings became homeless. So now our reverence for nature has slowly been suffocated.

Notes on Nature

 Notes on Nature #13

I’m picnicking on the grass. A lovely glass of wine. Below is a complex world of life, death, renewal, a world of little and essential critters. I’m floating on a raft on the ocean. Below is a world of critters that breathe differently than I do, that swim better than I do, that dance better than I do. Below is a mystery.

Notes on Nature #14

You are in nature, but nature is in you. You share the biology of the creatures that you kill and eat. You fly in the same sky as the birds. You can swim with the dolphins. You and the stars are made of the Periodic Table.

Everything is connected to everything. But harmony is not always guaranteed.

Notes on Nature

 Notes on Nature #11

We each have a mother, but we each have a Mother. It took billions of years for nature to give birth to you. And it took 200,000 sperm to get the you-sperm to its destination. So you’re just either a damn lucky individual, or you were meant to mean something. Nature did her part, so its your job to do yours.

Notes on Nature #12

You’re swimming in the ocean. You’re digging in the garden. You’re climbing a tree. You’re basking in the sun. You’re holding a newborn. You’re having sex. You’re rolling down a grassy slope. You’re listening to a bird song. You’re sitting by a campfire. You’ve reached the top of a mountain. You’ve seen the footprints of a dinosaur. You spent a night under the stars. You finally understand the Theory of Relativity. You stood firm against a hurricane. Did you know you were embracing the universe unfolding?

Notes on Nature

 Notes on Nature #9

I remember the killer bees from Africa. But I like honeybees. They picked the hexagon, the perfect form to stack and to fill with honey. They know how to communicate, and they have a society that gets the job done. And long ago they had the wisdom to put a female in charge.

Notes on Nature #10

Take your basic skeleton. Tweak it over time. You get wolves, elephants, ferrets, cats, you, your grandmother. The individual bones-- strong, light and elegantly shaped--fit together beautifully and efficiently. “Bony” should be a complement. Bones tell stories, both personal and universal. They lay quietly in their graves, waiting to be of help.

Notes on Nature

 Notes on Nature #7

Rivers try their best to be persistent and reliable. They are muscles of erosion and friends of thirsty land.

They are branches and veins and snakes. My blood is a river. Yours, too. We care about conversations between the sky and the river, between the river and the land. We miss rivers when they disappear and glory in their anatomy.

Notes on Nature #8

Humans can be dumb as a rock, but rocks tell stories. Rocks are books, diaries, calendars and just plain nice to look at. When you tell them to stay, they stay. When you ask them to go with you, even to be chipped and hammered, they go quietly. Rocks are dutifully homes, paper weights, garden inhabitants, murder weapons and seem to be plentiful in the universe. And, like humans, some are prettier than others.