Imagine a world where...

Imagine a world...

...where 13 year olds have no buying power

...where puberty comes at the same time the brain reaches maturity (25 years old)

...where people have the same passion for education as they do for football

...where the arts section of the newspaper is as big as the sports section

...where no one cares about Kim Kardashian's ass or Justin Bieber's masturbation videos.

A child

There is no greater improbability in the world than the birth of a child, and there is no greater possibility in the world than the birth of a child.

Plucking eternity

If your intellect is curious, honed and attentive, there will be a sudden awareness of oneness, unity in the world. You will have plucked a bit of eternity.

If your empathetic self is open and alert, you will realize that the suffering of one is the suffering of all. You will have plucked a bit of eternity.

If you are relentlessly creative, your sight will become deep insight. You will have plucked a bit of eternity.

If your brain is highjacked by its own chemistry, reality will give way to a world transfigured. You will have plucked a bit of eternity.

Eternity is not somewhere else. It's here. It only needs to be accessed.

Can I still be called human?

I skimmed off millions of taxpayers dollars, then kissed my constituents' babies.

I brainwashed a young girl over several years, then helped her blow herself and others up.

I molested several young boys, then heard confessions.

I beat my wife, then joined the guys at the bar for a few beers.

I ruined the financial lives of hundreds of people, then took a long vacation in Mallorca.

I drugged and raped a college coed, then went to my English class.

I killed a cop in cold blood, then shot up with heroin.

I molested my young daughter, then went to work and told a few jokes.

I took billions from the poor, then retired to a villa in Europe.

I recruited a child soldier and taught him to kill, then sat down for a cup of tea.

I made many millions for my company, paying poor foreign workers pennies a day, then sat down to a gourmet dinner with wine.

I beheaded a man, then smiled with satisfaction.

Can I still be called human?

The Pilgrims

The Pilgrims suffered isolation, persecution, financial difficulties, dislocation, a brutal ocean voyage, hunger and deprivation, disease and death, terrible weather, inadequate shelter and Indian attacks, all driven by faith in God as they saw Him.

Daesh fighters live in dark caves, eat meagerly, blow themselves and others up, behead infidels, kill mercilessly, defy civilized conventions, all driven by faith in God as they see Him.

How can God enter the minds of men so differently? How can men hear the words of God so differently?

The trajectory of contemporary art

If we look at the past several decades of contemporary art attempting to find a trajectory of its future, it appears less of a clear path and more of an explosion sending fragments in all directions. What is the cultural purpose for all of these artists? What are their intentions? Who is the audience? How do the artists become known? Do we need them? Why are they so often out of our field of vision?

I don't know the answers to these questions. I don't even know if these are the right questions. I do know that popular entertainment artists are always given awards, even the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Creative artists are usually off the radar. There are always calls for more scientists, more mathematicians, more engineers, more accountants. Never are there calls for more artists. This is certainly one area where the trajectory needs to be changed.

Children at play

Children play to discover themselves and the world and figure out  how to engage the realities around them. Their ability to experience healthy play mediated by healthy adults is key to their ability to become healthy adults acting on and in the world.

But too many children today are robbed of this opportunity. Play is replaced by physical and verbal abuse, by serving as child soldiers, by sheer poverty, by war and and religious fundamentalism, by long work hours, by brainwashing, by child marriage and more.

Even in affluent America, simple toys that allow children to imagine and create as individuals are replaced by plastic bling toys that are tied to movies, characters and Happy Meals. Toys become marketing ploys. Play plays second fiddle to competition.

To make sense of the adult world today, one has only to start at the beginning.