Greetings one and All; well, it doesn’t feature Snoop Dog, drunken co-eds or wild shouts of incomprehensible upchuck but, calling it a Late Spring Break frees me of the need to continue looking for another title to this thing.
I’m going away this weekend to a remote section of The Black Forest. I go every year. It’s a solstice celebration. I’ve my own feelings about holding these things late and at the waning of the moon but I’m not in charge and that is an important thing to remember.
There’s a large drumming circle and a huge bonfire and a number of people paint themselves white with trim and shake rattles and chase one another about in good fun. People smoke marijuana and drink wine, beer (juice in my case) and settle into little human cloisters where they share their year’s experiences as they revisit old friendships. These events have been taking place here for over twenty years now. I didn’t want to go and had pretty much settled on that but my companion has prevailed on me. She says it is important that I go and so I will. Maybe it is. I can’t remember that it ever has been.
I’m under a bit of time pressure to get all of my albums together and available for sale at one location ahead of my interview with Meria Heller but I suspect I’m making too much of that anyway; not the interview, but my need to have everything in place. If I don’t show up for a meeting five minutes early I always think I’m late. Then there’s that other part of me that assumes nothing happens until I get there (Grin).
So why am I telling you these things? Actually it is by way of explanation and apology for not doing my usual thing here. It wouldn’t be right to just dash something off when I’m mobilizing on another front. And there is another reason and I want to state that too.
The next time I put something here it is going to be a bit different than the usual fare. It involves some socio-political commentary and an exhortation to action, or in-action, if you prefer. I don’t usually do this sort of thing and when I do I confine it to my other blog where the unrefined personality is allowed its dog run to gambol about and mark its territory while it, hopefully, grows up in the process
But I have a very important point to make. It is important to me anyway. It’s been growing in my mind and I want to get it said. I promise to let it go again for awhile afterwards.
Some of you may know that I am a big fan of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. For myself, I am not the sort of aspirant to go the way of the Arhats. I am more Bodhisattva prone. I do believe our greatest work is upon ourselves and we don’t even accomplish that; it is accomplished upon us. However, I believe we owe something to the world in which we live. It is our duty to tell people if we know that the bridge ahead is out. It is our duty to warn others if we see storm clouds upon the horizon. A good sailor keeps a weather eye out. A good sailor also is always mindful of conditions that may potentially contribute to a problem. Sometimes a good sailor stays in port. A good sailor, no matter how seasoned, never assumes his mastery of the sea.
So, I have something I want to say and I will simultaneously publish it here and at several locations. It is my hope that it will combine with other brush fires and sweep the country. I’ve no great expectation of that, nor do I assume that I carry the weight or importance to assure it. But it is my hope that it will help.
In an ironic twist I am going to post this at both blogs now and it will be a tad incongruous, for the moment, over at Smoking Mirrors. Then, when I post the essay of which I speak on Monday it will be a tad incongruous here. As you can see, it all balances out. In fact, were I not to do this, were I never here at all, I suspect it would all balance out anyway.
What I will have to say is in the spirit of those names I have mentioned above. I hope to speak to the sleeping portion of that spirit which is in all of us. I hope I may rouse it in others and in myself. We are at a time in our history here where it is possible to have an impact that might later be denied to us. It is always possible to “head them of at the pass.” up until they have headed into the pass.
I believe if what I am to say is re-said through other minds in their own particular way; if it is said in every forum and on every street corner, it could reshape some of the confusion and needless suffering that goes on at this time. I cannot know whether it will be successful or not. A bookie would have to give me very long odds. As much as it does matter if it succeeds it also matters that it is said regardless of its final impact on the wider world. If it remains as an idea in one person and if it later evolves into a refined expression for positive change then it will have been successful.
I may lack the articulation necessary to fire up the crowd. I may run short of logistics and the technical aspects necessary for success. Certainly I lack the readership and the cachet to make the world hear me when I cry. No one should let their distance from the spotlight intimidate their heart from the righteous need to cry out. I believe that all that is decent and good in me requires that I present this idea that has been fulminating in my mind. It is my hope that others with a greater grasp of the science might lend their talents to its final exposition. We are at a crossroads now. Humanity might be spared much if it will only listen and it will only listen if the power is there to make them hear. Even then, humanity has been known, in part, not to listen when it should. I am reliant on that power in any case.
I ask in advance that you forgive my shortcomings in manner and ability. I can only say it as best as I know how. It is to you to decipher my meaning and intent. Understand that whatever it may be that I am going to say is only an idea and a rough draft at that. I know in principle that it is workable. I know it can be done and I know it will give you back some power and will assuage present feelings of helplessness and the bottled rage that often attends it.
I would ask those of you who have helped me in the past to do what you have done before. Some of you have gotten me linked on What Really Happened and other places. I would ask you to email the essay out to interested parties and I would ask that you think about ways that might improve what I am suggesting. This is the sort of thing that can be accomplished in your mind as surely as it can be accomplished in any action you may take. There is no suggestion of imperiling yourself nor will it be required. This is a way of going about something that, if enough of us join in, can alter our world for the better. It would have to involve organizations like moveon.org, the NAACP, Greenpeace and all organizations whose main interest is the greatest good for the greatest number of people. In that respect, if you like what I say, I want to ask you to please send the essay on to any group you can think of that might help. This isn’t an idea that I hold a copyright on nor should any credit come my way for mentioning it. Anyone can take this idea and elaborate on it. Steal it, call it your own, refine it, improve it; just get it done.
Although I don’t like the adage there is definitely “more than one way to skin a cat.” And I think that is what we need to focus on. We need to see where our power actually is and how we can awaken it in an individual; a community, a global and a cosmic sense.
We can change ourselves and we can change the world. In wanting to do so we must open our eyes to the unique approach that may have escaped us in the discomfort of our frustrations. We really are all in this together and therein lies our greatest strength. I won’t be suggesting anything new. But I do guarantee this, if it catches on it will directly impact upon circumstance to the benefit of many. It will bring that sense of freshness that follows a cleansing rain and it will make us feel good about ourselves and our world.
Well, I’m off now and you’ve got something to think about. I’ll put my piece up on Monday, God willing.
'The Mocking of Karla Faye Tucker' is track no. 3 of 10 on Visible's 2002 album
'911 was an Inside Job'
About this song (pops up)
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