Perhaps it is that we've been lied to so much and so often that when a genuine word slips past one's lips we analyze it for the lie as apposed to for the message. Where you heard "I'm fighting for health care, spend spend spend, stay the course, I want bipartisanship," I heard "get off your lazy apethic asses, TELL these fools to stop fucking around with your money, with your health, with your nation - all for their fucking votes and their fucking power trips - FORCE them to do right by you, and TAKE what you want from these assholes who have been STEALING from you for the past however many decades. Because I can say whatever I want to have done, but I can only lead you there - I cannot walk for you." Perhaps some of you should revisit the State of the Union Address, now..
Instead, we Stand Still, looking to this one man to solve all of our problems. Then look at him cynically when he expresses his desires for something to be done. We give him that "nigga please" look when he calls to us to move. We blame him or government for our Very Own Feet not moving. Well hell, as I see it, you can not help people who do not want to help themselves. Yes government is flawed. Yes congress is a bunch of men and women catering to their self interests before the American people. But if the nation's willing to accept that as "the way things go", even when your Leader is telling you - screaming to you - "You know, it doesn't have to be this way.. You yourselves have the power to change this," then those people are not the ones to blame. We are. We are failing ourselves by looking to anyone other than our very selves to find our promise.
We as a people have lost sight of what a leader is actually supposed to do. A true leader doesn't carry the entire world on his shoulders to move it by him/herself. That leader merely gives the world a direction - the world itself needs to move its feet to find progress. A true leader doesn't allow us to always cater to what is easiest. He shows us that beyond any struggle their's a brighter day that we're fighting for. A true leader doesn't accept what we 300 million people cannot do - a true leader knows in his very heart and soul that there is no single solitary thing in this world or all of existence that we cannot do. Impossible is naught. A true leader imparts such belief to his masses.
I have faith in our President. I have much less in our nation.. If we falter, it is not because he failed us.. It is because we fail ourselves. As a people we are ignorant sheep. And those who have any knowledge twist it to their own gain, as to control their own subset of sheep. As a leader he only asks that we move forward. He can not promise change that we the people are unwilling to adapt to. He can not move a mountain that we hold in place. He can not make us better than we ourselves see a reason to be. For those of you who cannot remember after only a year why you voted for him - for those who can't think of a single reason as to why beyond him being black or "a different face" or "not McCain" - that is why: because he promised without words to be a great leader. Not to wipe your asses. Not to drag you kicking and screaming into greatness. But to show you a door, and tell you what greatness is beyond it if only we thought to walk through it, instead of just scratching and clawing at the same wall.
With all the love I have for all of the world I must tell you all - wake the fuck up and listen. Grow the fuck up and think. Open your fucking eyes and see. He's already proved to you that we're all capable of change - he's our President. Now that we see it's possible - what in the world is stopping us? Better still...
What in the world Can stop us?
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Fearful Of Seeing Self In Judgment
..And so, again, it begins.
One can easily imagine that he who judges knows too well his own face in mirrors.
However, it seems quite the contrary - the judge appears to be more aware of
the mirror, and that surface's property than the validity and actuality of what it reflects
More inclined to disregard the depth of whom he opines
as though the face of his subject grow more tangible if so simplified and so flattened; heartless.
The mimetic lifeless visage merely a montage of faults, nicks and scars..
Not the truest grooves he inwardly sees in self, not the mountainous terrain he traverses within...
Nor the well of reflection that lies Behind his eyes.. Nor the fathomless pain beneath his skin.
The cold touch of the mirror's glass only affirms his stance, and in turn by happenstance
he who stares back to see no such humanity in the eyes that judge him
too only finds validity in his impression of soulless reflective glass..
...And so, again, it begins.
One can easily imagine that he who judges knows too well his own face in mirrors.
However, it seems quite the contrary - the judge appears to be more aware of
the mirror, and that surface's property than the validity and actuality of what it reflects
More inclined to disregard the depth of whom he opines
as though the face of his subject grow more tangible if so simplified and so flattened; heartless.
The mimetic lifeless visage merely a montage of faults, nicks and scars..
Not the truest grooves he inwardly sees in self, not the mountainous terrain he traverses within...
Nor the well of reflection that lies Behind his eyes.. Nor the fathomless pain beneath his skin.
The cold touch of the mirror's glass only affirms his stance, and in turn by happenstance
he who stares back to see no such humanity in the eyes that judge him
too only finds validity in his impression of soulless reflective glass..
...And so, again, it begins.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Capricorn Horoscope for week of January 21, 2010
Capricorn Horoscope for week of January 21, 2010
Take what you really need, Capricorn, but don't take what you just sort of want. That's my advice to you. Haggle with life, yes, but insist only on the specific essentials and forgo irrelevant goodies. A similar principle applies as you seek the information you crave: Formulate precise questions that will win you the exact revelations that are necessary to help your cause and that won't fill your beautiful head up with useless data.
- Horoscope courtesy of Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology
Saturday, January 16, 2010
I Had A Dream -- And Now Share A Vision
Nearly 3 score years ago I shared a dream, that like a wave swept over the hearts of these lands.. A wave of goodwill towards all men, be it my black brother or Persian sister. A wave of insight, that we all were created equal, in an image beyond the divisive lines the color of our skins or the nature of our beliefs help us draw in the sand. A wave of Truth, that whispered so softly that we are one, and 'we together', the people, make this beautiful nation what it is, and that 'we apart' would only see this fragile majesty crumble beneath our feet. And as a wave, we all saw fit to draw together and wash away the segregation and disparities and inequalities and hateful thinking that had blighted our lands for so very long.
3 score years later our painstaking labors have since bore fruit. Our black children share this fruit with their white brothren. Our brown-skinned niece cares for the vitality and promise of these branches baring this fruit with no less vigor than her homosexual nephew. Our loved ones of all creed fight overseas to protect this tree from those who threaten the beauty of its promise. And a black man leads in maintaining that promise, tending to the health of its roots to ensure his daughters and your sons fruit to share amongst them for generations beyond us. The Dream has been realized.
Alas, upon opening our eyes the harsh light of reality casts some really dark shadows.. The hatred that I dreamed would dissipate with the power of love has not subsided. The racism we saw once brash and direct has since been scattered.. but now crashes upon the spirit from all angles. Many a white man have grown in their thinking and have stopped murdering our black brothers and raping our black sisters, but in turn we have since allowed money, power, and greed to enslave us, and we commit such atrocities to ourselves. We are now "free at last" to seek our heritage and honor our culture and history, but instead of coming back with a fuller sense of self we return to the present with past hatred and greater despair. And our children, who have more access to the bounties of this world than we could have ever possibly imagined, believe more in a televised stereotype than they ever possibly could themselves. I am ashamed; for this tree that my dream grew, is full to bursting with rotten fruit.
What I see now was my failing is that in a dream, one need not understand a great many things.. and you need understanding in this real, harsh world. Understanding unites us and warms us. Understanding illuminates our way through impenetrable darkness; not just for some, but for all to that revered mountaintop.. And without it darkness is fed.. Cold is amplified.. Uncertainty is born, that grows into fear, that then, too, evolves into hate. For two men to disagree is the result of two working minds and having two separate perspectives, but to understand why one disagrees provides him the path to common ground with whom he quarrels.
I had dreamed a dream of prosperity and good will.. I see now with realistic eyes a beautiful view over the horizon of what can be, if we learn to understand our brothers and sisters. Find the courage and wisdom in your hearts and minds to make your enemy your friend, by seeking the root of his problems, so that he too might come to bare sweet fruit. For you may not agree with his choices, but do you too not hunger for bread? I may not believe as he believes, but if his faith make him a better person for the world, am I better to fault him? You may not share the same shoes nor walk the same path as your brothers and sisters half the world away, but do we not all share the same world, and sky, and breath? I have a vision that one day what had once divided us will exist to unite us.. What had once been hatred will evolve into mutual respect and understanding.. What had once been darkness, will then be light... For no matter your creed, your region, your belief, gender, sexuality, or experience; we all seek such light to guide our way into eternal prosperity...
And we need to walk hand-in-hand if we ever hope to reach the promise land!
Happy MLK Day :)
3 score years later our painstaking labors have since bore fruit. Our black children share this fruit with their white brothren. Our brown-skinned niece cares for the vitality and promise of these branches baring this fruit with no less vigor than her homosexual nephew. Our loved ones of all creed fight overseas to protect this tree from those who threaten the beauty of its promise. And a black man leads in maintaining that promise, tending to the health of its roots to ensure his daughters and your sons fruit to share amongst them for generations beyond us. The Dream has been realized.
Alas, upon opening our eyes the harsh light of reality casts some really dark shadows.. The hatred that I dreamed would dissipate with the power of love has not subsided. The racism we saw once brash and direct has since been scattered.. but now crashes upon the spirit from all angles. Many a white man have grown in their thinking and have stopped murdering our black brothers and raping our black sisters, but in turn we have since allowed money, power, and greed to enslave us, and we commit such atrocities to ourselves. We are now "free at last" to seek our heritage and honor our culture and history, but instead of coming back with a fuller sense of self we return to the present with past hatred and greater despair. And our children, who have more access to the bounties of this world than we could have ever possibly imagined, believe more in a televised stereotype than they ever possibly could themselves. I am ashamed; for this tree that my dream grew, is full to bursting with rotten fruit.
What I see now was my failing is that in a dream, one need not understand a great many things.. and you need understanding in this real, harsh world. Understanding unites us and warms us. Understanding illuminates our way through impenetrable darkness; not just for some, but for all to that revered mountaintop.. And without it darkness is fed.. Cold is amplified.. Uncertainty is born, that grows into fear, that then, too, evolves into hate. For two men to disagree is the result of two working minds and having two separate perspectives, but to understand why one disagrees provides him the path to common ground with whom he quarrels.
I had dreamed a dream of prosperity and good will.. I see now with realistic eyes a beautiful view over the horizon of what can be, if we learn to understand our brothers and sisters. Find the courage and wisdom in your hearts and minds to make your enemy your friend, by seeking the root of his problems, so that he too might come to bare sweet fruit. For you may not agree with his choices, but do you too not hunger for bread? I may not believe as he believes, but if his faith make him a better person for the world, am I better to fault him? You may not share the same shoes nor walk the same path as your brothers and sisters half the world away, but do we not all share the same world, and sky, and breath? I have a vision that one day what had once divided us will exist to unite us.. What had once been hatred will evolve into mutual respect and understanding.. What had once been darkness, will then be light... For no matter your creed, your region, your belief, gender, sexuality, or experience; we all seek such light to guide our way into eternal prosperity...
And we need to walk hand-in-hand if we ever hope to reach the promise land!
Happy MLK Day :)
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
"The Wise Deduce, The Foolish Simplify" (Part 1)
I truly want for you all to see me. Feel me. Know me.
Alas, language already does too much to hinder thought and expression. What I write here is but the compressed, black and white representation of just one portion of a constantly evolving and rotating image in my head. To say that I cannot relay to you my vision is false - it will just take a supreme effort that until now I've never attempted to prove myself capable of.
We as a species feel a need to find distinction between things. Water and rock. Black and white. Christian and Buddhist... I certainly understand the inclination, and the more logical and scientific aspects of self recognize this practice as necessary. Indeed there are differences in the materials around us, as are there different species, elements, energies.. My mind is not your's, nor is your's mine.. Of course I understand this..
But what if there's more? What lies between and under the separation of things.. What is it that connects all things? What makes one thing the balancing force of another? A friend of mine and I recently got into a highman's conversation about the nature of things. Religion, human purpose, existence.. I believe it was during this conversation where I had first imagined and tried to express the idea that I hope will evolve into my philosophy and my Way, via this merging of thoughts/ideas:
-The one thing we seem to realize as absolutely True is mathematics. Science can be wrong/lacking due to human err, religion most certainly is as well, people almost always are.. But if you formulate an equation validly, then you will always find some true value..
-There is no such thing as random. There never has been. Surely you are aware of this? Every thought that you've ever had, for reasons you may or may not fully understand, stem from some other thought or idea or stimulus. Everything you do or have done has been in response to something you experience.. Even the natural world beyond consciousness. Snow doesn't randomly fall, it does not randomly rain. Although perhaps sudden, there are no random earthquakes or hurricanes or tsunamis. Every single last thing that ever has or will happen - on the most infinitesimal or grandiose scale - is the product of some particle bouncing off of some other particle that for certain bounced off yet another. Had we the computational power or capacity to calculate any infinite number of variables leading to any event (again, small or large), we would then find the end result of any and every thing, period - past, present, or future.
-There's So Much More to the world in which we live.. To consciousness.. To life. You know, from since childhood, I've had foretelling dreams and random dejavu dreams.. I am not the only person who finds them self more aware of the world around and beyond them in their sleep. I've had dreams foretell both amazing and awful circumstances to come, and to be aware of.. For as long as I can remember I'd have dreams months before an event (usually/seemingly of absolutely no real significance) transpires, and when it eventually unfolds, I'll remember the dream, the thoughts I had during the dream (I am usually rather aware of when I am having a 'dejavu dream'), etc.. Because there is really so little known about how the mind works, these occurrences, however common or rare, are ignored or hardly noted. But just think about this: in one's sleep, when the mind is no longer occupied with the physical realm of your existence, and time is no more essential an illusion than anything else one may dare to dream - that person has at least once in their lives proven themselves capable of seeing through their own eyes at a future time and place... The only thing more amazing to me than that is the fact that we all do so much to diminish the value of such an amazing phenomenon.. To that end I give credence to the actuality of a mystical realm...
Now think about these things. The things we do and do not know, what we do and do not understand, and how thusly they are simplified and compartmentalized... Someone, please explain to me why the world need be so presented to me in black and white? Why do things need to be simplified to me as "either this or that", when some things (most things) seem so ill-suited to such categorization? There is Always a gray area, and within such space lie all the potential for a better understanding of things.. A better opportunity to overlap different ideas to provide fuller albeit more complex explanations for phenomena.. I speak of a Unity of things.. Where some myriad of concepts and structures can mesh to provide actual Truths. Surely, gray leaves such need for definition - and perhaps that may still be found.. But to simplify for sake of lesser but easier understanding is a fool's game to me.. I hate the idea that my having been born in this age leaves me forever subject to this failing of human nature.
It seems to me the case that all things, ideas, concepts - are connected in some primal sense or another.. For the scientist who decries the falsehood of religion and an unquantifiable "mystical realm".. To the creationist whom finds his only truth in the (simplified) words from his/her Revered Book. To the mystic who seems bent on ignoring any and everything but the interpretation of their numerology and astrology... Are you not all blind to the full and Real potential of finding truth and enlightenment? And to what end? To believe in something is not wrong - to falter to intolerance and the inability to adapt and evolve is.
Alas, language already does too much to hinder thought and expression. What I write here is but the compressed, black and white representation of just one portion of a constantly evolving and rotating image in my head. To say that I cannot relay to you my vision is false - it will just take a supreme effort that until now I've never attempted to prove myself capable of.
We as a species feel a need to find distinction between things. Water and rock. Black and white. Christian and Buddhist... I certainly understand the inclination, and the more logical and scientific aspects of self recognize this practice as necessary. Indeed there are differences in the materials around us, as are there different species, elements, energies.. My mind is not your's, nor is your's mine.. Of course I understand this..
But what if there's more? What lies between and under the separation of things.. What is it that connects all things? What makes one thing the balancing force of another? A friend of mine and I recently got into a highman's conversation about the nature of things. Religion, human purpose, existence.. I believe it was during this conversation where I had first imagined and tried to express the idea that I hope will evolve into my philosophy and my Way, via this merging of thoughts/ideas:
-The one thing we seem to realize as absolutely True is mathematics. Science can be wrong/lacking due to human err, religion most certainly is as well, people almost always are.. But if you formulate an equation validly, then you will always find some true value..
-There is no such thing as random. There never has been. Surely you are aware of this? Every thought that you've ever had, for reasons you may or may not fully understand, stem from some other thought or idea or stimulus. Everything you do or have done has been in response to something you experience.. Even the natural world beyond consciousness. Snow doesn't randomly fall, it does not randomly rain. Although perhaps sudden, there are no random earthquakes or hurricanes or tsunamis. Every single last thing that ever has or will happen - on the most infinitesimal or grandiose scale - is the product of some particle bouncing off of some other particle that for certain bounced off yet another. Had we the computational power or capacity to calculate any infinite number of variables leading to any event (again, small or large), we would then find the end result of any and every thing, period - past, present, or future.
-There's So Much More to the world in which we live.. To consciousness.. To life. You know, from since childhood, I've had foretelling dreams and random dejavu dreams.. I am not the only person who finds them self more aware of the world around and beyond them in their sleep. I've had dreams foretell both amazing and awful circumstances to come, and to be aware of.. For as long as I can remember I'd have dreams months before an event (usually/seemingly of absolutely no real significance) transpires, and when it eventually unfolds, I'll remember the dream, the thoughts I had during the dream (I am usually rather aware of when I am having a 'dejavu dream'), etc.. Because there is really so little known about how the mind works, these occurrences, however common or rare, are ignored or hardly noted. But just think about this: in one's sleep, when the mind is no longer occupied with the physical realm of your existence, and time is no more essential an illusion than anything else one may dare to dream - that person has at least once in their lives proven themselves capable of seeing through their own eyes at a future time and place... The only thing more amazing to me than that is the fact that we all do so much to diminish the value of such an amazing phenomenon.. To that end I give credence to the actuality of a mystical realm...
Now think about these things. The things we do and do not know, what we do and do not understand, and how thusly they are simplified and compartmentalized... Someone, please explain to me why the world need be so presented to me in black and white? Why do things need to be simplified to me as "either this or that", when some things (most things) seem so ill-suited to such categorization? There is Always a gray area, and within such space lie all the potential for a better understanding of things.. A better opportunity to overlap different ideas to provide fuller albeit more complex explanations for phenomena.. I speak of a Unity of things.. Where some myriad of concepts and structures can mesh to provide actual Truths. Surely, gray leaves such need for definition - and perhaps that may still be found.. But to simplify for sake of lesser but easier understanding is a fool's game to me.. I hate the idea that my having been born in this age leaves me forever subject to this failing of human nature.
It seems to me the case that all things, ideas, concepts - are connected in some primal sense or another.. For the scientist who decries the falsehood of religion and an unquantifiable "mystical realm".. To the creationist whom finds his only truth in the (simplified) words from his/her Revered Book. To the mystic who seems bent on ignoring any and everything but the interpretation of their numerology and astrology... Are you not all blind to the full and Real potential of finding truth and enlightenment? And to what end? To believe in something is not wrong - to falter to intolerance and the inability to adapt and evolve is.
Capricorn Horoscope for week of January 7, 2010
Capricorn Horoscope for week of January 7, 2010
"You are what you love, not what loves you," says the character Charlie Kaufman in the film, Adaptation. (Kaufman is played by Nicolas Cage, who has three planets in Capricorn.) I urge you to work hard to make that perspective your own, Capricorn. Ideally, it will become a permanent addition to your philosophy of life. But please at least try to install it as your primary words to live by for the next three weeks. To do so will smooth out a distortion in your energy field, making it easier for people to love you.
- Horoscope courtesy of Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology
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