This man loves to explain.
He’ll explain ‘til he’s blue –
or you. Making things plain
is his game. Workings, history –
no mystery will stand.
The man’s obsessed.
He’ll say what he can understand,
ignore the rest.
If you suggest
a topic where he’s unprepared,
he’ll change it,
not inclined to share,
nor to wonder at what’s strange.
Facts stick in his head like glue –
all else runs through.
He needs
the skins and seeds –
has no use
for the juice.
He never gives up cramming for the test
and wondering why the girls are not impressed.
Tag Archives: resistance
You Believe that Nothing You Do Matters
You believe that nothing you do matters.
Everything you do matters.
You think destruction is certain.
Nothing is certain.
Apocalypse
rides on a butterfly’s wing.
You know how to be a hero.
You have seen enough movies.
You are waiting for the moment to act.
What you own is already crumbling.
Nothing will endure but your spirit.
It is enough.
There’s something you might do someday
to be an agent of magic.
There is something in your heart
you are guarding like a precious fire.
Magic is not an illusion.
History has not stopped happening.
Most of what you have been told is a lie.
When it’s late at night, and you are full of despair
like a well full of poisoned water
you know that you have been lied to.
You know that we are at war
and our side’s been losing.
You know that the peace and plenty
around you are a lie
built on the misery of others.
We have traded away things of great value
for a pile of glittering toys.
But this is no time for despair.
We are just now beginning
to learn how to think as a species.
And love has not forsaken us.
Love is not dead, not damaged,
not irrelevant, not out of the question,
not defeated or lost or in the hands of the enemy
but alive within us
like the cells of our bodies
around us like our families and friends.
In this war, loving must guide us.
There’s a way for the heart to follow.
No one can tell you the special thing
you alone must do.
You wait for a hero.
It is yourself you wait for.
When you wake up
you will get to work.
Common Cause with China
Making cheap stuff for Americans has helped China’s working class in some ways. In others, it has hurt them. Working in a factory making plastic gimcracks can be terrible for a person’s health, and terrible for the environment.
Why should we buy that cheap junk, anyway? Plastic stuff that ends up as poisonous smoke, or tiny particles that animals eat instead of food, or shards that will fill the sea and cover the earth for thousands of years. Nevertheless people mine for the materials, labor to make stuff out of them, ship it, shop for it, put it somewhere, forget it, and finally throw it away.
Stuff Americans always knew people suffered for so we could buy it cheap. Stuff to brighten our shabby lives. We’ve known all along that poor people have worked long days to bring us our changing fashions and collections of trinkets.
China’s booming economy has supported a growing middle class, which in turn encourages people to get more education and invent new enterprises. They now have many more options than making cheap plastic stuff for compulsive American consumers. They’re leading the way in sustainable energy technologies, for example, since Trump has hobbled that industry in the US in favor of fossil fuel development.
It’s better for all of us that we stop making, shipping, selling, and buying plastic things destined for landfill. Right now, in many workplaces, people are making personal protective equipment instead of plastic crap. Once the worst of the corona crisis has passed, maybe we can shift production again.
The long-term interests of Chinese people, Americans, and everybody else on the planet will be best served if we never go back to the plastic cycle. We need to make solar panels and windmills, trains instead of cars, pack seeds and plants instead of toys and knickknacks.
No matter how our governments fuss and struggle for dominance, let’s remember that Chinese people are just like Americans and everyone else. We all want to live, and our children to live, and our grandchildren. Building a new world where this can happen is our common cause.
War Against What?
People are worn out. Every day is another battle.
Let’s be clear who the enemy is.
The real enemy might not be the virus, but the culture of people at the top who could have slowed it and saved the lives of hundreds of thousands, maybe millions. The enemy is bully culture, which put them in charge.
Bully culture is taking what you want, and the hell with everyone else.
Bully culture is hurting others on purpose, because you can.
Bullies rule us by fear. They pick on us one by one, and turn us against each other.
The only way to fight these evil bastards is together.
The best way to fight terror is to stay calm.
We can get our heads together, online better than in person. We can work together. We can get ourselves organized to build a new culture.
We are many. We can. If we will.
Love is Revolution
Love is not dead, not defeated, not damaged, not out of reach. Love has not been bought, sold, or stolen. Love is not a wholly-owned subsidiary of any corporation. The kingdom of loving is within you. Love is not something you fall into. Love is something you make and keep on making. Love is an act of will. Love is a way of life. Love is the opposite of greed. Love is not blind; lust is blind. Love sees truly. Love is the only path to our survival. Love is revolution.
Revolution cannot be violent. Revolution is change. Violence is just more of the same damn thing. There is no use fighting to save the world with violence. The rulers of this world have more weapons and fewer scruples than anyone else. Violence is their game. We cannot win that game. We must stop playing it. To survive, we must play a new game. We have been convinced that we are powerless. That is a lie. Our strength exists in one another. Love is real change. Love is revolution.
The world is changing. Learn to travel light. When catastrophe strikes, none of your stuff will help you. The things you own will mean nothing any more. The people you know will mean everything. Be ready for the change. Pay attention to your friends and your community. Help where you can. We will survive by taking care of one another. You have been told that you have no power; but you have the power to do right by other people. Selfishness is suicide. Love is revolution.
When the old world ends, the new world begins. In the old world, money was power. In the new world, spirit is power. You choose to make the world better or worse with every act. This is your power. Race, nationality, class, gender, physical appearance – these matter in the old world, not in the new. The most important things in the new world are the quality of your awareness and the strength of your relationships. The old world ran on greed. The new world runs on human connection. Love is revolution.
The Dark Years
My mind was going a mile a minute
but I didn’t say a word
Everything that I was thinking about
started seeming so absurd
Every day I was filled with outrage
till it almost made me cry
Didn’t seem I could do much about it
but to watch it all go by
None of my friends are sleeping well
The pills don’t work any more
It feels like we’ve drifted out to sea
and we can’t get back to shore
Where are the superheroes
who will come to save the day
Nothing we do is working
and it does no good to pray
The dark years are upon us
The dark years are upon us
The dark years are upon us
Hold on
I went to some demonstrations
and I saved them on my phone
We felt so strong together
then we all went home alone
I want that beautiful feeling
when the people speak as one
telling the dreadful powers
that we see what they have done
The dark years are upon us (etc)
We can shout online, we can make some noise
but the ones in power won’t hear
They will threaten our lives and freedom
They will punish us with fear
But we never will let them stop us
from trying to make things right
We are magical, we are many,
and we know we are the light
We are magical, we are many,
and we’ve just begun to fight
We are magical, we are many
We are all of us the light
Though the dark years are upon us
Hold on
The Trouble with Skittles
Remember when Donald Trump Jr. compared Syrian refugees to Skittles? He asked if you would eat a handful of the candies if you knew a few among them would kill you. He considered this a good reason for the US to refuse to admit any of those desperate people.
I thought that was disgusting. Then I saw some Skittles commercials. Looks like disgusting is just how they play the game.
In one ad, a boy seems to have broken out in zits; only the pimples are Skittles. A girl demonstrates her affection by picking Skittles off his face and eating them. She in turn breaks out in Skittles, smiling fondly.
In another ad, a dread-locked Black man in a Rasta cap milks a giraffe, which is nibbling on a rainbow. The “milk” streams down between his legs, turning into Skittles. You see him from the back. It looks like he’s pissing. Meanwhile, he laughs a big deep phony laugh, like this is the most fun thing ever.
I can’t even list the ways I find this offensive. But whoever designed these ads made them disgusting on purpose. After all, they want us to buy a product that is nearly all sugar. It rots our teeth, makes us fat, and increases our risk of diabetes. The whole enterprise is disgusting.
I wish the US would welcome people who are fleeing war, poverty, or gang violence. We could absorb them into the body politic with few if any bad side effects. In other words, in every possible way, they are not like Skittles.
Alice T4 