They Found the Missing Link!

They found the missing link! Twenty years ago! In Germany! And kept it under wraps for eighteen years (now it can vote).

Obama's ASU Speech

I've been waiting for this kind of message from a president of the United States like a sea turtle in the desert dreams of swimming freely in deep water, knowing she is neither tortoise nor shill.

Bonjour!

This is a true mood enhancer. It is a classic from the 20th century. Not made by me:

Values Redefined Appropriately

When humans put money first, the world goes to hell.

Tact

Overheard: "Lately it's getting so I can't even admit to people I'm conservative without being judged!"

Unspoken: "Ha ha ha ha! You ran the country into the ground! You need to be judged - and put to pasture!"

Said: "Oh..."

To Leave a Story: The Deep Human Need

"Hidden Auschwitz Message Hailed as Rare Find"

"Dated Sept. 20, 1944, the note bears the names, camp numbers and hometowns of the seven prisoners — six Roman Catholics from Poland and one Jewish inmate from France. It says that all were between the ages of 18 and 20 and assigned to build an anti-aircraft bunker for camp commanders."

Estate of Real

See? I tol'ja banks were hoarding repossessed properties to keep prices artificially inflated! Tol'ja tol'ja told you! See, now the story's even in the LA Times.

That's it: I want my bailout money back - with interest! ...28% compounded daily - with late fees!

Gluts of houses rotting in the noon day sun, weeds four feet high, the stench of abandoned filth soaking into the floorboards, sour funk swimming pools teeming with mosquito larvae be damned!

How many bids can you get? SOLD to the man (or woman) in the - wait, I can't see the buyer at all; s/he's up in his skyscraper, or the beach house, or the cabin estate! There is merely a bid and another and another - the spiral is upward and out of control. And the cost of the thing still a bargain to the wealthy, trickles down to a landlord's paradise. Ah, real estate is still a good investment... we can rest assured.

Hey Font Face!

Ever wonder if there's a story behind the Comic Sans font?

Everything has a story. There is nothing without a story. And you can quote me!

Yaro Lale!

(Yah-ro Lah-lay) A new religious cult, perhaps, to help people face these tough economic times?

Guest Item: Flutter: the New Twitter

Turns out Twitter is too complex, uses too many characters, so now there's Flutter! I like this video so I have linked to it here. I do not know the people who made this video. Bt thy r clvr. wtch!

Reflections on Easter: Eggs

Why is it that eggs don't taste just like chicken?

A Cat in the Ceiling

A friend is looking to buy a house. I went with her and the real estate agent to see a few today. In one, which had been foreclosed upon while the residents were remodeling, there was a hole in the bathroom ceiling over the tub. I thought I saw insulation sticking out of the gap but the sunlight through the window showed it to be a cat's paw. On entering the house I'd noticed it smelled like cat urine and mice, but now I assessed the strength of the scent to be simply dead cat.

I called, "Here kitty kitty...?" but the paw didn't flinch. I thought to reach up and touch it but the thought of the feel of it, dusty and still, stopped me. The agent and my friend had left the room by now. I decided to choose to think of it as a long petrified cat corpse and moved on. The agent would tell the selling agent and procedures would take place.

We visited the back bedroom where the ceiling was falling in, spotted black with mold, and the back yard where an addition to the house had been started and now the skeleton of it, soaked by rain and dried in the sun, had begun to split, splinter and peel.

As we left the house I stopped by the bathroom again to see if the cat was still there.

The kitty was gone. Long live the cat!

Here we had an abandoned house, an abandoned dream, plans for the remodel taped to the living room wall "do not remove" stamped legal and permitted but now expired. The people who had been living here couldn't afford to keep the house, so the bank took possession of their asset which now rots among a glut of houses facing similar fates.

But, if, when foreclosure threatened, the bank had refinanced the house based on the constraints of the current economy and let the residents keep it at the reduced (i.e., "market") price, the owners would likely have been able to make the payments and the house would be a home to more than the mice and the cat and the fungus.

Does that simply make too much sense?

Here kitty kitty...?

The Devil's Punchbowl

This is the Devil's Punchbowl. It is where three tectonic plates meet in California, on the San Andreas fault. More detail here.

Note the placement of the big ball boulder and the big sedimentary boulder. Earthquakes do neat things when considered from the vantage point of having no people around.

We went hiking there and as there was no earthquake at the time, we were not chewed up like so much taffy. It was a very good day!

Creativity Continues

Artist in a tumult
and the hopeful consolers say,
"Life goes on..."

To this sort
the interpretation is of a sentence laborious
weighty and grave.

Artist in a tumult
reassurance is this:
"Creativity continues."

As the foil wrapper from the chocolate candy
magneted to the inside of my medicine cabinet reads:
"the best ideas come
when you think you've just run out of them."

Happiness is a dog that waits at your feet
ready jump into life as you do.

Special Guest's Video: UFO Over Bermuda

UFO in Bermuda - apparently filmed by some international vacationers. Thanks to johnooo for this remarkable footage!

still don't see the attraction...

facebook seems to me
an individuated mob.

my note to AIG execs

MoveOn asked if I had a question to submit to the AIG execs. Here's my rhetorical:

How can you sleep, let alone eat, knowing how much damage you have done to the American people and the world with your greed? I have no further questions. Bonuses denied. Your assets, homes, down to the silverware, should be liquidated and the proceeds returned to the American taxpayers.

It is very clever the way they have assumed the position of having the right to give permission about anything. Where's Alcatraz when ya really need it?

Walking with a Shape Shifter

Went walking with a shape shifter
dog then lion then lamb
and then a cat, and after that
saw a diamond hologram.

Went walking with a shape shifter
impressed me to no end
then confused and then was gone
but loved by a consistent friend.

money is more expensive to the lower paid

Hospital administrator suggests cutting salaries at the top rather than laying off the lower paid employees. Wonderful indeed, but DUH!

The obvious solution to potential layoffs is for those with more financial flexibility (read: more money!) to take paycuts or yes, even forego their bonuses! It astonishes me that it took until 2009 for this idea to occur to a high level administrator. I'm glad it did, and I hope it becomes a trend. And if those who practice it are encouraged by getting their picture in the media, then how about making it a daily feature, see how long a list we can get? Have I said "duh!" yet? Tsk. DUH!

Phaze Book Commentary Deux

Real friends, true friends, friends with whom I have shared experience and time and realization and laughter and poignancy and sandwiches, keep asking me if I'm on facebook. I say, "nope."

From time to time I ask one of these real life actual genuine friends to show me what's so great about facebook. So far, nothing makes me want to be on the thing. So far, every mini-tour I've been on, "See!? It's great! You have these and this and look at this!" resonates nothing; it's the antithesis of thud and wow - white on white is all I see. But I also get a little sour tummy squirm, slight nausea when I look at the sterility of it, the vapid not much at all really of it substance-free virtuality.

This video by Julian Smith sums up my future complaints, that is, were I to join. I will wait for facebook to be over, just like I waited for the SUV's to go away.

If anyone wants to find me, I'm right here.

Insteadedness

Decisive
with confidence
he steps to the world
drops his coat
and grabs the girl;
running along the shoreline
or into the woods
or along a city street
tangled with close-out sale goods,
there is magic when they're holding hands.

Together they have wit and charm
and a penchant for outsmarting harm.
But as easy as causing this wonderous scheme
is to leave it to the air, an evaporated dream.

To be brave, remember: however life works out
the biggest killer of them all
is a heart invested
in engaging doubt!

Flower Power

Here is some beautiful time lapse video of flowers blooming. Touched by Strangers. This has got to be good for the neurotransmitters. Om. I just found it. I don't know the people who made it. (Notice it is also viewable in HD).

What the Karmic Role of the Noise?

The occasional murmur
made in a small room
is muffled and softened
by a carpet of Berber.
But the thuds of the bass
and its slam drum companion
persistent unrepentant
negotiated for modicum of volume and vibration
but as yet, not really.
Condition: unchanged
but for her day and nightly chance to answer
my earnest plea for politenment.

What, amid her cacophony of narcissism,
can I listen for within the din?
What might I hear from the soft quiet of my soul
that might identify itself as my enlightenment?

What can I hear beyond the staccato in four/four
persistently pounding through the entirety of my floor/floor
resoundingly backbeating up my skeleton,
that will be the key to unlock the stalemate
which is her desire for freedom of expression
pitted against my need for freedom from compression?

Oh, There's Still Lots of Money!

"This year, advertisers are paying $100,000 a second to get their [Superbowl] commercials in front of your eyeballs." KDKA /CBS, Pittsburgh.

If advertisers can afford to spend this much for commercials, how can there be budget shortfalls forcing teacher lay-offs?

Oh, yeah, I forgot: it's every man for himself. Bloody Liberals and their "share the wealth" mentality, trying to educate people. Tsk! Pff!

Socialism: Definitions

Liberal definition of Socialism: "We want to share the wealth so that all people's basic needs are met."

Conservative definition of Socialism: "The poor people are gonna steal all their money back!!!"

She Who Makes Too Much Racket

She's no Aunt Bea! May she move away and soon!

This Nice Tree

We look at a few different trees and the daydreams amid their leaves:



Here it is on YouTube with the better aspect ratio.

But for Plastic Bags

Too much waste and
too much garbage and
too many chemicals
and too much smoke.

Too much coal and
too much petroleum and
too many tons of it
and too much heat.

We try to stop the damage and
we try to make amends quick and
we try to reconsider
and not waste want.

And to bring it home to dinner now
We're using totes for groceries but
to take take out all the garbage I
never have any plastic bags!

Before in the time of my childhood
and my mother's and my grandma's
and the people throughout history
threw their garbage in the slew;

But now I tidy mine in plastic if
to keep the vermin out and also
keep the city cleaner and
improve the trash-man's route.

And what about the city codes and
what about the smell?
Do I buy plastic bags in boxes now and
tote them home as well?

Phase Book

So far I have over a dozen friends on Facebook, but I still don't have a Facebook page. My friends have launched a campaign, it seems, to get me to join. I am getting emails a plenty telling me I have been added as a friend by some very lovely people who indeed, are my friends!

They're charmingly persuasive in their persistence. Months ago I said I didn't want to join because the founder is a neo-conservative. I can only find the one article from the Guardian that tells about this, but I still have the creeping feeling Facebook is insidious.

Mark my words.

Money and the State of California: Consider Nero

Okay, somebody with accounting skill, I have an assignment for you:

1) Please research the salaries of executives and administrators employed by the state of California.

2) Determine the number of salaries over $100,000 a year (do not include benefits, only taxable gross pay).

3) Determine the number of salaries over $250,000 a year (following the same criteria as in item 2 above).

4) Hypothetically "take" $10,000 a year from the employees in item 2 and $20,000 a year from the employees in item 3.

5) Add up the dollar amounts from the "take". Multiply by 3 (as in "we could institute these cuts over a three year period.")

6) Acquire the number amount of the budget deficit faced by the state of California.

7) Compare the sum of the "take" with the deficit.

8) If the sum of the "take" is greater than the deficit, open a savings account for the state, change the hypothetical "take" to a real one, and sock the surplus money away for a rainy day.

9) If the sum of the "take" is less than the deficit, slash $30,000 a year from salaries above $250,000 a year and keep cutting by five-thousands toward $100,000 until the problem is solved.

10) Restructure state spending policies so that expense budgets do not depend on the previous year's spending; state departments should not be forced to spend money unnecessarily just so they can receive the same amount of funding in the following year.

Cutting state services, education and health care should never be considered as options. If Rome is burning, first: take away Nero's fiddle. Next: fight the fire with the biggest hoses.

My Bailout, Please: Magic Monday

The latest word on bailouts is that the porn industry is asking for one, too, to the tune of several billion. This is perfect. This is the reducto ad absurdum we've been waiting for. The oldest profession has something to teach us about business.

I must qualify here: I'm no fan of pornography, but I have to step back and admit a bit of appreciation for the positive aspects of the industry's knack for changing the world it inhabits, starting at the fringes. Take the Polaroid camera, for instance. Photos with no negatives meant all those guys who wanted to take naughty pictures on the sly - could! So the invention, being a hit with them, made it into the mainstream. And of course there is the groundswell of curiosity the industry evoked with regard to this lovely internet we have now.

But porno is without substance; it's all thrill with no sense of responsibility - compare it to economics and it is the heart of spending with no real money to back up the purchases.

Without a bailout, I don't believe the industry will go under, though doubtless it will go down. As with any industry, pornography has tangentials. While no one will truly suffer for the lack of titillating images, people do suffer when they lose their jobs - writers, graphic designers, photographers, models, prostitutes, printers, publishers, clerks, accountants, restaurants, grocery and drug stores in the area of the business offices and studios, FedEx, Ross Dress for Less - as the industry falters, everyone is touched. Every type of employee who would be effected by the dissolution of the big three US automakers would be equally disturbed by the dissemination of the porn industry.

But that's the thing: nobody can afford the economy falling apart. You can't. I can't. Everybody needs a bailout, but it seems only big industries are being considered. If Wall Street and US automakers are off the hook for their debts, then why do I still have to pay off my credit cards?

I say we rescue everybody! Let's just go all the way! Here's my plan:

Say, this coming Monday, within the space of an hour, all bets are off. Each individual citizen of the US who earns under $250,000 a year - poof! - credit card and student loan debts are gone. This magical event would come unannounced and would last just enough time to zero out all the accounts. Don't imagine it would take that long - it wouldn't. And don't buy it when the creditors say they'll need weeks to carry out the mission, that's just a trick to cahoot with the lawyers for workarounds. One hour: balances zero. One button. All debts go to zero.

Then, say, Tuesday, everyone who had credit zeroed out gets a free credit card with a 20% APR right there in the mail. No application, no fee, innocuous and plastic. This leads us into Fresh New Wednesday. After recovering from this stunning good fortune, most people will follow this train of thought: "I pay $300 a month on my card. I have a zero balance credit card. I can go buy a six hundred dollar thing!" They'll head out shopping and run those cards right back up. Goods and services will spike, the economy will boom, commerce will sing, interest money will flood the banks, everyone will get to play the money game again.

Within a few months, most people will be where they were the Sunday before Magic Monday, (reference the result of the business of the oldest profession) but the true lesson underscored by the proffers of the oldest profession is that unless you're smart enough to quit while you're ahead, cheap and easy can cost you.

Happy New Year

It is not 2008 as of midnight last night.
It is 2009.
A clock click, swift shift adjusting January brings
The year of the human in better accord with its world,
as we all promised
and swore, even!

Happy New Year!

Monty Python!

Monty Python has a YouTube channel now!
(Thanks for telling me about it, Spencer!)

Happy Holidays in Four

Little child has the pots, pans and tupperware
splayed on the kitchen floor
mixing spoon in hand
a rubber scraper to hit the high hat pan lid
balanced on a frying pan
it's louder that way
and the cupboard has more and more to bring out
and my mother is patient
'cause the older kids are all at school.
Ah, to be four!
And the magical secret,
to such comfort and joy,
is to keep playing
evermore!

More:
John & Yoko's Happy Christmas

The Little Drummer Boy

Peace through music: Here's my friend Christine Stevens on Sacramento & Co. She talks about her two trips to Iraq (2008, 2007) to help build peace through music via drum circles. When we play music together, we drop alienation. More from Christine at UpBeat Drum Circles.

And remember: If you don't have a drum handy, a Sparkletts bottle turned upside down will do the trick. That's a little secret I learned from Leon Mobley. And my favorite piece of his wisdom which applies to music (and everything else): "You have to think about it - and - don't think about it; you have to listen - and - don't listen. You have to feeeel it."

Happy Holidays!
jeanosullivan

The Great Cavity of the Trunk Proper

First, I hear him normally, with ears and brain.
But, after the weather and the time of day,
semantics shift, syntax opens
to resonate all through the great cavity of the trunk proper
beyond conversing - it sustains and carries me.

Gorilla Juggles Healthy Snacks

Chimp: Knock knock!

Gorilla: Who's there?

Chimp: Banana!

Gorilla: Banana who?

Chimp: Sometimes a banana is just a banana!

Gorilla: Ha ha ha ha! You're my favorite nut!

Bringing it Home

This looks better viewed directly on the youtube page because it's wide aspect ratio there and off center here.

God Willing

Seems to be the ultimate irony when religion gets in the way of spirituality. The idea of fighting over god is nothing new to point up, but - are we going to knock it off anytime soon?

Singing

Brian Eno talks about how and why singing is good for us. This is on NPR's essay series, "This I Believe". I prefer reading it because you don't have to wade past the commercial or the pretentious NPR stylings. (I like the heart of NPR, and am grateful for it, but the stylings - they've become caricatures of themselves).

Election Night in Harlem

Special guest blog: I've embedded Illdoctrine's experience of Election night. This will make you feel all good!

Dog

The dog sat
because
it made sense
to do so.

The dog chewed because
it made sense to do
so.

The dog seeks sense.

Make sense to the dog.

Notes for Editorial Types: Lorem Ipsum

Lorem ipsum napsum bigger troller mary subsidiary. Blogus fell the waituk baelemy sojuro stoap mot voerbo. Isn't it amazing how easy it is to make up words that seem to have meaning and seem to fit the language but which are combinations of sounds and letters that to date do not have actual homes in the English language? Well, I think boe. Makre sopidicur bfo mo lorum ipsom, n'est pas?

Obama Headlines from Around the World

A friend sent me this:

Obama Grabs Headlines.
(The ad at the masthead is just an ad).

The content takes a long time to load because it's a blanket of international newspapers' front pages featuring the Obama win. You can click each image to see the big picture.

I think the rest of the world is really happy we're going to stop being such @$$h01#$ now.

Progress

Relief!

We did it!

We have our work cut out for us. That's okay! It's a lot better than living in denial, which totally sucked!

And now a three video essay:

Election Night from the Obama Campaign

The Beatles: Revolution

Love and Happiness, Al Green

Voting Day

I was up before the sun. This is rare unless an airplane is involved. I voted with inka-dot by seven fifteen. I've never seen so many at our neighborhood polling place. I got to work early enough to listen to an entire song in my car and visualize the happy Obama victory, the respectful mccain concession. I work at a university. I walked onto campus and there was a marching band practicing, drums tight and loud. Marie Callendars' people were there giving apple pie to people who had their "I voted" sticker on. I shared my pie with my friend.

Who's the Decider Now?

(Decider tee available from Ze Frank).

Vote.

It matters.

Photography by Javier Anguiano.

Flood Victims in Dire Straits: Bush/McCain Eating Cake

As you vote

Please keep in mind the end of August, 2005

When Katrina thundered in and the levies broke

Where George Bush was

Remember again

Where George Bush was - through the hurricane rain.
Arizona: Birthday party: Pal: John McCain!

They ate cake, celebrated, right there on the tarmac

but did not eat it all (to save room for the yummy party snacks!)

Jubilant and festive as slurry was solidifying to muddy,

As you vote, be mindful:

The character of a man is reflected in his buddy.

"...people kill people"

Whew! It's a good thing guns don't kill people!

HandyMan

A Lover's lament half certain loss was best:

Gus and Mary

It's my favorite guitar player/singer/songwriter again: Benjamin Impey.

Michael Tobias

In the early 1980's, when I was part time aerobics instructor working on a bachelor's in English, a genius breezed through the university to teach creative writing and I happened to take the class because it was at 2:30 T, TH.

He didn't stay more than a semester because he was not destined to stand still that long. He was patient but didn't have time for the insincere, which made me about 10% smarter in his presence. He encouraged me to write and work with writers, which I wound up doing by the end of the semester. He told me to write a sitcom pilot so I did. He suggested I write a radio piece a la NPR, so I did - and this was just a junior level class. He had several projects in development at the time, each with a bent toward motivating humanity into interacting with the world (that includes nature) through non-violence and actual use of our intelligence and conscience.

Michael Tobias was and still is one of my favorite people ever.

Over the years he'd contact me from time to time and I would attend screenings, educational events. The last time I saw him was about ten years ago at a reading he did in Santa Monica for Rage and Reason, a thriller to awaken our empathy for the animals we use as products - and an admonishment that we should knock it off.

He was the Voice of the Planet far before it would become trendy to think about environmentalism. He warned about global warming, over population, and exploitation.

He climbed arctic ice cliffs, wrote a novel about the worlds of Vermeer before The Girl with a Pearl Earring appeared in a book, and introduced me to an artist who said the child who paints the sky pink is actually onto something.

When I worked as a story editor in film in the second half of the 80's (a career path he led me to) producers all over town were going through a phase of trying to come up with the environmental thriller people would actually go see. Hollywood wanted to sound the alarm for the polar ice caps melting - but the priority was to bring in big Box Office.

Production meeting notes:

Producer: "Global warming huh... when will disaster strike?"

Story editor: "Well, it won't actually 'strike', but around 1999 we should start seeing enough evidence to get people to believe the problem is real."

P: "Hmm... kinda slow moving, isn't it?"

SE: "It'll be bad - but yeah, the crisis will be more of a drawn out anguish."

P: "Any chance this thing could happen all at once - stoppable by only one man?"

SE: "No, it's a kinda thing we all have to prevent, and if we succeed, we can never be sure it woulda happened."

By now there are lots of films on the subject - no perfect thriller better than reality so documentary is doing the job. But what changed? More people got interested. But look how long it took the message to get across, and what diligence it took to educate and enlighten - and how much certainty of purpose it takes to rise group intelligence by oh, say about 10%.

When I think of what is possible for a life well lived, what it would mean to participate with everything I have to offer or sum up from within, I routinely think of a few people: Steve Martin (I'm not that clever), Mother Theresa (too itchy) and Michael Tobias. What is the difference that drives people like these? For one, they don't seem interested in wasting time. Secondly, I don't think they see a reason to.

"Sober and Exciting, Steady and Mature"

The LA Times endorses Barack Obama for president of the US. "This is big," said my mother, "you know that paper is traditionally republican!"

Peace as a Practical Objective

Looking at war from the perspective of the Conscientious Objector presents an odd juxtaposition of brutality and compassion. It's one thing to know in advance that one is not cut out for war, and another to realize this after participating. Conscientious Objection cannot coexist, at least not for long, with the self protecting dynamics a soldier needs to continue doing his or her job.

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2008/soldiersofconscience/

Soldiers of Conscience was approved by the US Army and is not one sided. It offers a grim look at how war makes us treat other human beings, acknowledges that the team of soldiers relies on disciplined agreement with each mision, and yet has a refreshing optimism about the possibilities for humanity if we refuse to use war as a problem solving tactic. The filmmakers, Gary Weimberg and Catherine Ryan, cite studies that show it is not dominant in our nature to kill each other. Have a look.

Note to those who say sometimes war is the only option: we must start early to prevent war. How about we start now preventing the next possible one?

We will keep stumbling and or running headlong into wars until enough of us stop. Learning not to resort to war, as a species, not just as Americans, is a long term training, but when better to begin?

A friend once said to me that as long as we have hostile people perpetrating aggression we will have war. I said when compassion among us becomes big enough that no one feels the need to act aggressively, we will have peace. I didn't make this up. Some of Earth's greatest heroes have been trying to get this through to us since forever. Here's the irony: it seems we need to be hit over the head with it. We have to be smarter.

One of the subjects in the film said people think the point of view of the Conscientious Objector is naive. He said, yes, maybe it is. But why is that bad? People were also called naive who said maybe someday humans could set foot on the moon.

I Like Blue!

Do you?

Here Come those Santa Ana Winds Again

FDR's Fireside Chats

Sarah Vowell was on The Daily Show the other night, and said she gets comfort listening to FDR's Fireside Chats. I tried it. He provides some good reasonable thinking in a crisis.

Bush says we can get through this financial crisis. Ulp! Now I'm more scared. Okay, let's revisit the concept of "The New Deal" too...

Don't panic.

Project Ten to the Hundredth

http://www.project10tothe100.com/ I like this idea.

Google says: "How it works:
Project 10100 (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th") is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. Here's how to join in."

Deadline for submissions is October 20 so we have to kinda hurry. I have not hatched an idea yet.

Greed Reaches New Depths

AIG Execs spend bundles (tune: $400,000+) at a fancy So Cal resort AFTER the bailout.

I'll say it again: we need to liquidate all assets of these plunderers and put it toward the debt on the bailout. I'm talking about everything from mansions to silverware. They can start fresh with a fifty dollar Target gift card and a newspaper for the classifieds. I used to say give 'em first and last month's rent on a cheap 2 bedroom apartment, but they just blew that offer.

I'm serious. Why are we letting them keep their stuff?

Now there IS a "Think" Button!

Gmail now offers help to impulsive emotional emailers: Mail Goggles.

Engage it, and you will be asked to solve a few math problems before you can send that brilliant, heart pounding email.

Google says, "By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you're most likely to need it."

At last the invention my friend thought of years ago has come into play!

Wall Street Wealthy: A Public Service Announcement



Imagine

Imagine
how good
the world
could be
starting:
now.

Imagine.


This link included in case added emphasis is required.

Today: Comic Relief

We take a break from the political routine today for a little comic relief. See especially: The Front Fell Off.

A special thanks to Mr. Thomas for bringing this to our attention.

One Woman, She Felt Smart...

Couric, Palin and Kissinger

See Couric's interview with Palin, followed by confirmation of Palin's ignorance by ol' Henry Kissinger himself.  

I wrote recently that I would stop complaining and start writing about the positive vision for the future with Barack as president, but the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

ojeano's bailout plan (OBP)

Here's my bailout plan: Make it so that a declaration of bankruptcy automatically siezes all assets of the claimants so they have to start over. Be nice and give 'em enough for first and last on an apartment. Disburse the rest of the funds from their assets evenly to the taxpayers - even on the top, depths to fill in the dents as necessary - lowest income gets most. The moguls can go find regular jobs and live a month to month lifestyle like most of the rest of us. A person can get a decent two bedroom apartment in a town like Reseda for about 1600 a month while learning the value of a dollar. It'll be tight, but they can eat corn and beans for the second half of each month. It's a complete protein!

Letterman: "Something's starting to smell..."

This is ten minutes long, but if you haven't seen it, please do. McCain was supposed to be on Letterman last night but called at the last minute citing a need to rush to Washington to deal with the economic crisis. Then Keith Olberman finds him over in CBS taping with Katie Couric.

Location, Location, Vocation

About the economy: Expert texpert choking smokers didn't see it, but I saw it. Five years ago, and more and less than, some very smart people were telling me it was a good time to buy a house and that I could get a loan.

One offer at a "meet the lenders community meeting" was to take my retirement money out of my pension fund and make it into a downpayment on a house. I said to the lender, "but what if something bad happens and I lose the house. Then I wouldn't have any retirement money..."

And the man reached out his arms as if to hug from a distance and said, "that could never happen! How could that happen? You're going to keep working to pay rent! Buy a house!"

"But what if there's something like another great depression?" The room fell quiet.

"This is Southern California. It won't happen. Home values are only going up." The buzz returned.

This didn't seem right. Friends with friends in real estate swore I could reduce income tax withholding from my paycheck by claiming to have a bunch of kids (I don't...) and then I would have a few hundred extra bucks a month to make payments on a loan for a little condo with a potted tree and cinderblock hardscaping. When the tax came due at the end of the year I could just, "write it off because you own a house!"

I would likely have fallen for it, but I earned just a little too little to convince myself I could pull this off. I couldn't afford to stretch beyond my rent and I didn't want the IRS knocking on my door and asking to meet my many children. So I waited.

Math isn't my strongest subject. But it just makes sense to me that you don't spend money you don't (and the key is: won't!) have, at least not on something as significant as a home. You can nickel and dime yourself up some credit card debt, but a HOUSE!? How can two bedroom house within 200 yards of two major freeways in Los Angeles be worth nearly a million dollars? Oh, wait: it's not.

I saw the crash coming. I'd started telling people in '05 I was going to wait a few years for house prices to come down - when all those people taking interest only loans started having their balloon payments come due, I'd swoop in!

What I hadn't figured on was the stories behind the doors of those houses. Driving through the valley I see at least two untended houses on every block conjuring images of Flint Michigan in the Michael Moore movie, but LA's not as green. I don't know where these people have gone - there are a lot of apartments for rent around town, too. I have felt a frequent sense over the past eight years as we've leveraged ourselves out further and further over the brink, of my parents' and grandparents' stories about the depression.

I hear my childhood lessons and when I leave a redundant light on, I hear the voice of my dad bellowing to us kids to turn off the lights when we'd leave a room, "What, do you think I own the electric company?!"

In other news:

Today we have a guest again, and a new addition to my links in the right column. Here is Jay Smooth's blog, Ill Doctrine. What HE said. See Economics and Annoying Smart Guys.

Railing Against the Rightward Careen

I have been writing a lot about politics lately, for obvious reasons, and specifically railing against the rightward careen.  Recently I told a lot of my friends to read "The Outstupiding of America" (below) and haven't gotten much response.  John from Wales had a really good response and it's posted.  I like the perspective John provides from outside the US, and the fact that he stopped by and spent enough time to say something.  He provides a healthy reminder that other countries are hoping we step up to our responsibilities as world leaders, too. 

As for my friends who haven't responded, they're all kind souls, so either they haven't read it yet or they don't like it and are being polite.  Tonight while watching The Daily Show, Jon Stewart and Bill Clinton were talking about how the left tends to demonize the right for being narrow minded.  The right apparently just gets panicky about new ideas, I can't remember the particulars of the assessment; I was too busy thinking about whether I was demonizing the right or just being reasonably critical.

But I'm going to follow my own advice now, and rather than spending energy hatin', I'm going to put energy into imagining and talking about how great things can be and how many choices we have right now, right this very day, to make the world better so the demons fly away on shriveled wings, back to their lairs.  Oops.  I slipped.

Best wishes!

ojeano

Photo above courtesy mamasplace.net I've never shopped there, but they label gargoyles well.

The Outstupiding of America

Keep this in mind: if the republicans can't outsmart the democrats, remember: they can outstupid us.

Outstupiding is the threat. Stealing the theme of "change" from the Obama campaign, was cagey - technically clever, but *there is a fine line between clever and stupid. The republicans crossed the line into outright stupidity by bringing in the ridiculous Palin.

But this reducto ad absurdum is why their little ploy just could work: it is so stupid it is unfathomably stupid. Suddenly we're spending tremendous time and energy trying to make sense of it.

I do believe we're in some form of shock. And we'd better snap out of it.

In the short run, it is easier for humans not to think. Blithely pretending things will magically get better on their own seems to require less effort. But it's similar to taking out a loan to buy an unaffordable house with the hope of paying it off with future riches. The short run isn't long enough to reach that future, and you lose the house. Look down the timeline over the past eight years. We have allowed this state of affairs.

Now, I didn’t do it. And you certainly didn’t do it. But we did it. It's like the Man in Black said, "a person is smart. People are stupid," and the republicans know it!

We know adhering to the principles of the conservative platform is a grandiose mistake (as in: McCain has supported Bush in over 90% of his decisions and only disassociated from him in recent months). But what about the people who are buying into the stupidity?

The way to keep the republicans from outstupiding us isn't to put our energies into discovering a way to do something more stupid than they (an irony beyond humor - to do so would require brilliance and waste time). We need to take the game back.

The US presidential election in 2008 marks a monumental opportunity for the growth and development for our culture. We're entrenched in an unjustified war in Iraq and have been throwing bombs on Pakistan. At the heart of our troubles is the fact that we're being still very much driven by the same motivations that justified slavery and the genocide against Native Americans, not to mention our covert hostilities in Central America in the 80's.

Greed kills. Now that our economy is in full tailspin, we’ve got to pull upwards with as much drive as we can muster. The motivation has to come from within us, and from each other.

This election is about what is possible if we rise to the best and smartest within ourselves - each one of us: what if we paced ourselves for the long run? What if we banked on our intelligence instead of our willingness to let someone else do the thinking for us? What if we admitted that a society is not a business?

Here's how we can twist the irony of outstupidity back into the realm of the sensible: education. Help people think. We have to appeal to what is best and smartest in us and bring hope into play again.

We own this one. Ask anybody if they would like to be smarter. It's a rhetorical question. How would we behave globally, make decisions at home if we were even 5% smarter. We can be just a little smarter today than yesterday - tomorrow, even smarter – and smarter still beyond.

They can only outstupid us if we play stupid.

*David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tuffnel in This is Spinal Tap. They said, "...fine line between stupid and clever," but context and poet's licence required I flip it.

Good in Humans

Music is the best of us.

There are many other wonderful things, but music has all of them.

"Chill Out"

Ze Frank made this. It will put you in a good mood. It will enhance your neural pathways.

Like Dogs in a Parked Car in the Sun

This is a photo of two LAPD cops talking to a woman. The white SUV with the open hatch is hers, and in it, two Golden Retrievers in crates. The police officers are there because another woman, outside the frame, called them. She called them because she had been waiting beside the vehicle for, she said, 45 minutes. The SUV was closed up except for the hatch window. It was about 90 degrees today, and the car was parked in the sun.

I came upon the scene just after parking my car about five minutes before this moment. I saw the concerned woman, somewhat frantic and overheated herself, on her cellphone, talking with animal control. She asked me for water for the dogs and told me what she'd witnessed. I placed the back of my hand before of one of the dogs noses to say hello. He looked like he could use a drink. I went into Jamba Juice to get some water. When I came back with it, the owner had returned to the SUV and was calmly telling the concerned woman, "the dogs are fine." By now the concerned woman was angry and ranting slightly. I said to the owner, "you can't leave your dogs in the sun in Southern California. It's too hot."

"They're fine..." she said. She was polite, calm, cool, even. The concerned woman saw the police car coming through the parking lot, "well the police are here!" The dog owner moved efficiently to put away the things she'd bought, all the while asserting that the dogs were, "fine, they're just fine." I repeated my assertion. Then the police pulled up. I faded off to avoid becoming the focal point, giving the water to the plants.

I've been on the politics lately, in case you haven't noticed. And this woman reminded me so much of John McCain. I believed she believed she was treating her dogs well. I believe she believed they were fine. But they were too hot. They were thirsty, yet patient. It was over 100 degrees in that car to be sure. They appeared to be stressed, but not surprised. She did not see a problem.

There was one.

Fundamentals of the Economy Are Strong... NOT!!!

I sent this to USA Today, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post via barackobama.com

How dare John McCain declare on Black Monday - albeit with a telling stammer - that the fundamentals of the US economy are strong?

Even as the most conservative of financial institutions are closing up shop, McCain makes this claim like he means it. Maybe he doesn’t realize those are actual people walking out the doors, with lives and responsibilities, and roles in the economy (like buying groceries, for example). Yes, Senator McCain, those are Americans walking out the door of Merill Lynch. They’re carrying boxes with stuff like pictures of their families and friends - the people they live for and who live for them. Those are people who have probably felt pretty secure being employed at the most stable financial institutions this country has ever known.

This isn't the corner bicycle shop getting eaten up by Walmart (though the start of the trouble traces back to this "big business first" practice), this is Lehman Brothers being bought out by a British bank, this is us getting financing from China so we can throw more money into an unjustified war - and still McCain has the audacity to claim that the fundamentals of the economy are strong?

The man's in some serious denial. Because of his position in history, he is even more dangerous than George W. Bush, as the damage has been done and we cannot afford further commitment to this degradation.

We need to elect Barack Obama as president of the US in 2008. We had become comfortably numb, but we're not so comfortable now, are we? We've got to wake up now! We owe it to the very concept of democracy and all we have worked for to face the fact that we are losing, through ruptures in the structure of our economy, not only all our "stuff" but all our hope! Wake up everybody: Throw the bums OUT!

Barack has a plan and shares it each time he speaks. McCain says he has a plan and then just echoes slogans and distracts us with the screeching sensationalism of the ridiculous Sarah Palin. Barack has solutions that will help rebuild the middle class which is the heart of us (as in "We" the people). Barack will start by passing a middle class tax cut while enforcing a crackdown on predatory lenders. He'll get us out of Iraq and help us start helping ourselves again - not at the cost of greater debt, but by creating jobs and appealing to our sense of community strength – he speaks to us at the level of our humanitarianism, rather than the republican choice: a rigorous gluttony that - it turns out - has simply been cannibalism.

Seventy-six Trombones

My latest collaborative project: Seventy-six Trombones.

The soul of the parade: one man's domain, one woman singing.

About the Symbolism of Palinesque Choices

See also "Obama and the Palin Effect" by Deepak Chopra.

I Would Rather be Thinking About THIS ONE

This is much, much better. All this chat about the Alaskan has made me melancholy for Michael.

"Insidious and Cynical"

I defer to the Huffington Post and Eve Ensler today.

Palin, boiled down to the personality trait she has worked hardest to refine, is simply this: Vicious.

Is that what the world needs now?

Making it Easy for S. W.

http://www.barackobama.com/tv/ Here you go!

Community Organizers Unite!

And the numb little old man derided, "Community Organizer... Wha?"

And the attitude reminds me of this!

But more to the point, Ze Frank finds "Haters' Ball," a nice gem by ill doctrine. Now you can, too!

Another Reason (Among Many More Global)

My downstairs neighbor is a nice quiet woman whose TV I never have heard before.

But tonight, cutting through her ceiling,
my floor, and carpet with padding
shrill and whiny, insistent and hounding
the shriek is slicing, shattering, pounding, demanding.

Is she having a nervous breakdown?

Words muffled, it seers
faster than the speed of sound
down each ear canal
shattering cilia with a coldness
that makes the tiny hairs
fall dead and gone
like so many icebergs of late from the polar ice caps.

It is not her. It is her television. But what?

Striving to hold their own:
my eardrums, defended only with weensy hammer,
and cochlea coiled as if to spring.
Plugging ears with fingers
does nothing against the tide of it;
the waves course through my very bones!

The timbre, the resonance, the clip
the sound - vaguely familiar...
...yes new... just in the past week.

This is not the kind sweet girl
who greets me in the carport
or by the garbage bin.

Nay, this is the night of the RNC
and this shrill shill
is that odd little governor called Palin.

(Who also enjoys the gratuitous killing of animals).

Hats On; Hats Off

Many a true thing is said when one has no critical thinking skills or the ability to self edit:

From the republican convention, and in reference to Hurricane Gustav and his possible effect on New Orleans: "This is a time when we take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats," said Cindy McCain.

There it is. Just as I suspected. It's not about their heads, it's about their hats.

And My Time was Running Wild a Million Dead End Streets

What is this feeling inside my chest

expanding to make my fingers throw sparks

creating impulses that I might craft something good from my hands, ideals, intellect?

What is this awakening making colors brighter, shapes more defined sounds clearer and my dinner taste better than ever?

Oh - I remember this...

It's HOPE!

Fruit Flies Like a Banana

A New Video, "Time is Simply Nature."

There is a footnote in the end credits of my little film which bears explanation: The Time Lady is gone. In Los Angeles, all my life, until last year, anyone could call 853-1212 (or any four suffix numbers!) and she would report the time, in ten second increments of exactly perfect speech pacing.

I called her often. I owe much of my steady rhythm to her reliability.

When I was a little kid, I would call her and say thank you. The friendship had been going on all summer when one quiet day my mom must've overheard my, "thank you!" coming every ten seconds. She found me pony-tailed and chatty on the living room phone.

"Who are you talking to?"

"The Time Lady!"

"What do you mean?"

"It's the Time Lady. Everybody calls but no one ever says thank you. I say thank you, she tells me again!"

"Honey, she can't hear you."

"But she's talking to me. (...Thank you!)"

"She's not really there - it's a recording."

"A wha- - -!????"

I was a little sad about it, but I knew that beyond the microphone and reel to reel tape somewhere in a room - even if only on one day and not every single - a nice lady with a warm helpful voice had cared enough to take the time to tell us all the time, twenty four hours a day, every ten seconds.

In 2007 they let her go. I guess everyone gets the time from cellphones and computers now.

"At the tone the time will be twelve, twenty two. And ten seconds..."

...Weep.

Ultimate Sunscreen!

Dear Leonardo DiCaprio:

The Eleventh Hour was a tremendous socioecological service, but given that I was not in complete denial about global gluttony, it hit me over the head too hard. Now I'm all discouraged. Please make a sequel full of more solutions and action steps.

Thank you, Sincerely.

PS: I really liked the one about the building with windows that open - in San Francisco. And the train with the smokeless stack!

Friendly Manor: All About the Friendly Manner

New links have been added to the right hand column of this page. Among them: my youtube page and another fascinating source, FriendlyManorFilms. This archive of rare artistry was, according to FMF, "...found in Canoga Park, under a bed, in a gunnysack with a bag of Chips Ahoy cookies."

Among the troupe of actors in these works is an actress of unparallelllellled distinction. There's another actress in one of the two part films but I don't mean her, and there is another actress in one of the other films but I don't mean her, either: I mean: The Girl. She had talent, verve, vigor, could take a punch, and had quite the left hook!

We are grateful to the scrupulous scavenging that brought these films to projection and digitization. We are fans, indeed, of FriendlyManorFilms.

In other news: we regret the temporary downfall of jeanosullivan.com and anticipate its resurgence soon with a new host. Thanks go to Elizabeth for notifying us of our dormancy! Checking our own domains: now there's a time narcissism could have come in handy!

Relax, Beethoven; Ben's Got Your Back

Moonlight Sonata by Daylight my latest film, my favorite guitarist.

Sometimes a Warrior...

...is just a warrior.

Most of All, Trust Each Other

“So history reminds us that walls can be torn down. But the task is never easy. True partnership and true progress requires constant work and sustained sacrifice. They require sharing the burdens of development and diplomacy; of *progress and peace. They require allies who will listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other.”

- Barack Obama, July 24, 2008

"Trust takes and makes courage.”

- Me, lots of times over a long period.

The Better Part of the US:

We have blundered miserably over the past eight years (and other blocks of time, but I gotta keep focused here).

As a group, when not acting as a mob (losing homes, pensions, taking responsibility for our support of an illegal war (not to mention sanctioning torture!) and, of course, having to forgo groceries for gasoline can be humbling experiences), we are capable of acting on principles and drives that run deeper than the desire for instant gratification. Nationally, repeatedly we show evidence of an ability to correct ourselves.

Thank good sense we're stepping up now and that democracy is an open minded patient.

Here is some refreshingly good thinking. Listen to and see Barack Obama's 07/24 speech in Berlin (about 25 minutes).

(Also, read about the dynamic behind our cultural self sabotage and recovery as it mirrors the struggle of the singular soul in this social psychology book written in the 1980's, "When Society Becomes an Addict" by Anne Wilson Schaef - oh my goodness, I just referenced the unhealthy dynamic Schaef identified during the Reagan years, I thought I was gonna keep focused here. Tsk).

*He spoke, "peace and progress" though he wrote, "progress and peace."

For the Future Librarian

Your faith in saving
a fading cartoon picture
of a purple dinosaur
that definitely was not Barney
and your enduring hope for good as it was
disappearing into a whiter shade of pale blue
ink lightening to pencil grey
magically corresponds
(or corresponds magicality)
to the conclusion of a shared nightmare
from which we awake
with no alarm
eyes opening to a better day
and another
and the birds singing.

It's Ringo's Birthday Today

Happy Birthday, Ringo!

Friends, visit: http://www.ringostarr.com/

Peace & Love!
Jeano

People in High Places

Orale! <--- (that's a link!)

Papa Gene's Blues: Monkees

Need a little cheering up? Here's a good one!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jEh38KiLxAg

I have no more than I did before
but now I've got all that I need...

Thank You, George Carlin

George Carlin's perspectives started working their way into my psyche as soon as I first saw him on Carson when I was a kid. He made sense just where I needed it. His humor brought a distinct enjoyability to life that still motivates. He divined the springs of our thinking and the causes of our sense, nonsense and, most important, anti-sense.

When I was twenty, I was a writer for a weekly radio show produced by Drake-Chenault, the fathers of syndicated radio. The head writer knew how I felt about George Carlin so she sent me to interview him when "A Place for My Stuff" was released. I was studied at acting calm, cool, collected, LA, but experiencing the escalation of excitement of being in the room with the man who had legitimized the tiniest crevaces of wonder in my mind completing synapses I never knew had fired - it made me grasp at my thoughts, sometimes missing - for fear of appearing to be in the awe I was in up to my chin.

I had to pause the tape recorder half way through when my pretending calm had driven me all the way to distraction.

I admitted nervousness.

"It's okay, be cool," he said. I shook it off some, gave an apology, "not needed," he said, so a laugh, and I pressed record again to ask about concerts, albums, projects and processes, with a little talk about his recently going public about the coke problem, but without dwelling on it. "It's not news anymore," he said, "I'd rather talk about the new stuff."

George Carlin talked to me like a friend, he and I and our glasses of water in that PR company's office in Beverly Hills that day. At the end of our appointment he let me bring the interview to a close. He got up and walked me to the doorway. I thanked him again for the interview and he held the moment a bit longer and told me syndicated radio had been an early enemy. "They put local radio comics like us out of business."

"They did?" I said.

"Replaced us with automation. Some guy goes in pushes a button - no more small town DJ's. I used to wear a t-shirt in those days, it said," (he spoke the font and moved his hand across his chest to show where the words went), "'F*** BILL DRAKE."

"I never thought about that part..." I said.

And George Carlin said, "Well, now ya know!"

He had met the unwitting envoy of his old nemesis with absolute kindness. The hyperawareness of his persona that had me awestruck fell away, and in that moment I saw him for who he was - same as portrayed on stage and screen - simply a good guy (and clever genius).

"Do you still have the shirt?"

"I'm sure it's somewhere..." he said.

The Sign that Tends to be a Sign

See this sign here, the one with the two left arrows showing? See how part of the sign is covered by the tree's lush, healthy branches? I know what is hidden, and I like its symbolism.

This particular obstruction doesn't present a traffic hazard because the signal is long, the street ends in a T and it's obvious what drivers' choices are even without a sign.

It's not about the traffic in this story, it's about the sign. This sign is prophetic; it spoke to me this night, just as it spoke to me once before:

Near the end of 2000, when the US presidential election results were still uncertain and conversations about the outcome hung on chads, I came to a stop at this same intersection. It was dusky night and the glow of my turn signal reflected in rhythm on the sign, drawing my attention into a safe-driver's minor mesmerization. Two arrows showed pointing left, and, hidden in today's picture, one curved to the right. It was winter and the trees had no leaves (it has been a long eight years, maybe the trees were just sprouts back then).

I wondered if the sign could be telling me whether Gore or the other guy would become president. The sign seemed to say, "The left has more votes!" and alternately, "The right is clear and present."

Eight years later, I am pleased to see the right is out of the picture.

Common Superstitions Explained

Today is Friday the 13th, and so I'll reflect on superstitions. Much of our misunderstanding as humans boils down to semantics. Unless we think for ourselves we will fall for superficial reasoning. I contend that some of our most prized superstitions have sensible origins.

For example: it might be bad luck to walk under a ladder if someone up atop it dropped something!

"Aye, Jimmy's restin' well now, but he had a bad piece o'luck today..."

"What happened?"

"Bucket o' paint poured straight down onto his head, it did..."

"How!? Why!?"

"Well he was walkin' under a ladder where the man was paintin' the eaves."

"Tsk, and a bucket o' paint poured down on his head. That's some bad luck, in'it!"

The next day, another telling:

"Jimmy was walkin' under a ladder and somebody dropped a bucket of paint on his head!"

"That's terrible!"

"That's bad luck, it is!"

Repeated as overheard at the general store:

"Mrs. O'Flaherty says it's bad luck to walk under a ladder!"

"Well, I won't be doin' that then, anytime soon!"

Here are a few more, with less illustration, but the same principles apply:

Breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck.

Think about it: when mirrors were a new invention, if you lived far away from where they were made, it would be a safe guess that it would take about seven years to replace one. So that's seven years walking around ugly. Not a good piece of luck.

It's bad luck if a black cat crosses your path.

Picture ye olde coach cabbie at dusk, driving the ugly queen (her mirror broke six and a half years before) to the royal ball. Suddenly he sees something small and dark in the road ahead! He veers abruptly! The queen, in her corset and rigid of middle, is thrown sideways in the coach, her crown falling askew! The next day the cabbie is beheaded. What was that dark figure that crossed his path - and why didn't he see it sooner?! It was small. It darted into the path. It was dark against the falling night's shadows. It was: a black cat!

Opening an umbrella in the house is bad luck.

Close quarters. Slim object expands suddenly, its dimension becoming perpendicular to its immediately prior state! It could hit something valuable (like a vase or an eye).

Step on a crack, break your mother's back.

That’s just a vicious little rhyme.

Why would a rabbit's foot bring good luck?

Possession of the foot of a rabbit suggests an ability to kill one. Assuming a person lived in an area where there were no plants to eat, perhaps the foot would evidence prevention of starvation.

Over a baker's dozen rationales endure for Friday the 13th being bad luck. Theories date back to, and include, the Last Supper, punitive dictators, revolutions and even a the idea that the number 13 itself is simply bad to the bone. When the 13th falls on a Friday (a particularly distracting day of the week emotionally) why, anything could happen! Aye, 'tis a bad piece o' luck to have a common belief amassed in justifications so plentiful that every attempt to pin it down leads to another reason to feel unlucky.

* * *
"I'm lookin' over a three leafed clover
That I overlooked bethree!"
- B. Bunny

An Army of Buddhas

Context

Without context,

arbitrariness

steals the mind and hides it

in an existentialist void.

Who could be an optimist

or passionate about anything from there?

"These Fifteen... [crash!] ...Ten Commandments..."

Mel Brooks had it right beyond the laugh. When Moses came down from the mountain to announce the Commandments to the children of God, I suspect he did drop a third big stone tablet.

A Third Tablet Theory could explain a few things about why the Ten Commandments are so easily disregarded. Maybe the Third Tablet was all footnotes: "*VII: ...unless thou canst get a quorum to agree that it's okay to kill!" But since Biblical researchers do not seem fixed on asterisks, I wager that if a Third Tablet ever could have existed, it would more likely have had statements the other ten were contingent upon.

We seem to mean well, but we are obviously missing some crucial information.

Let's have a look at killing - go right to the heart of good versus evil. We, the people, whether with our progeny or our money, kill. Whether the source of our humanitarian beliefs is religious or not, as a group we feel good about cherishing human life, and we agree that war brings anguish. But we live as if special permission existed in cases where we agree as a mob that taking the lives of others is not murderous if committed as acts of war.

Judeo-Christianity doesn't have the market cornered when it comes to claiming to value the preservation of human life and then dismissing it. Fighting for peace is rampant throughout the religious and secular worlds, but the idea of maybe just five more commandments - or some kind of explanatory note - tickles a nerve. What if we actually could have received crucial information - direct from the All Knowing - that fell crashing to the ground? I like the idea that we might piece together our integrity and become what we espouse ourselves to be.

We need to use our heads and keep them connected to our hearts. Ultimately we lack faith in our own intelligence (or, faith in God's creation). We claim we have no choice, sometimes, regrettably, sadly (bowing our heads), but to kill. We pretend God likes the good ol' boy buddy system, and that rules can be broken if it means our team wins. We justify killing by declaring the other team to be evil.

We get support for our team by insisting the other team doesn't value human life. We become what we feign to loathe, but we swear it is temporary. Have a look at the history of the world parts 2 and beyond as performed in the theater of real life: our readiness for war is by no means temporary.

We perform great acts of obtuse irony by praying for the killing to cease but we allow war as an acceptable default. We teach our children to be good. Yet, a portion of every generation on Earth goes to war. To win, let alone survive, soldiers are forced to commit to actions which, by necessity, break their spirits. Those who live through the experience return home. But their attempt to find a comfortable place within themselves and their society is pinched and pained as they try to fit back into a pretence.

Accepting the premise of a supreme being laying down ten rules for good behavior, dictated as keys to living a life as close to God as possible, and seeing how easily we fall short of following even the simplest of them (don't take other people's stuff without permission, don't fool around behind the back of the person who trusts you...) maybe there really is some missing information somewhere. Maybe we really are just a few crucial statements short of what we need to know to truly be good beings!

Back to Mel Brooks: The deeper humor of the joke is the idea that even Moses could deny his blunder for the sake of putting on a good show; and that's at the root of our fallibility. Whether in the tiniest part of a moment of truth or encompassing the overriding greed of a big plan, somehow Cowardice in the role of Hubris creates the illusion that bearing false witness is relative.

Maybe we like to claim that we are simply children of God so we can be excused for not understanding how the rules really go. But look around: we seem to be trying. We seem to need help. Think of the people you love, like or simply admire. We're driven by some truly kind principles and desires. We really do try. So, what's missing from the instructions?

Here are a few possibilities: Perhaps a Third Tablet might tell us to learn to anticipate the outcomes of our actions (and inactions); grasp the deeper meaning of empathy; develop conscience as integral to our being; and take responsibility for ourselves.

Inside or outside of religious beliefs it does seem plausible that we could use principles like that to help us live up to the standards we claim are our highest. We could even become supremely good and successful as a species. Such optimism could even boost us up onto the wall to see into the Garden of Eden.

Ants that Bite, Ants that Don't

We walked to school when I was a kid; Mom said goodbye at the front door and the bunch of us could make it safely the several blocks to school to be met by the crossing guard every schoolday. As we closed the gate, my mom would always call after us, "Don't let anybody look at you crosseyed!" We knew what that meant even though we didn't know what it meant.

There were usually the four us us and the three of Todd's family, but by the time Todd and I got into fourth grade sometimes the grouping was different - changing schools for the older kids, altered start schedules on special days, I'm not sure, but occasionally the two of us were left to get each other to school - or maybe we lagged behind doddling too often and the bigger kids assumed we were following. Nothing bad happens in this story, you can relax.

This cool early fall morning, it was just Todd and me. We'd come to the vacant lot with the tall dry yellow grass. It was a good place to find examples of the ants we'd been talking about earlier while sailing big ficus leaves, with red berries in them, down the gutter water, singing the Gilligan's Island theme and making up stories about the Skipper fighting with Gilligan and the Professor solving problems. (Todd's Mr. Howell was superb.)

Red ants bite, black ants don't bite. No, all ants bite. No, only red ants do. Why would their biting be determined by color? Here was the vacant lot. It didn't take Todd long to find a nice crack in the soil with red ants, big red ants, industrializing their way in and out of the crack.

He squatted down and let one crawl onto his hand though I kept telling him he didn't need to prove red ants bit so much as prove black ones didn't. But we were ten and the ants available were the big red ones. The ant explored his palm and he turned his hand as the ant went over his fingers. Todd was no dummy, he had just fallen under the spell of, "Maybe all ants don't bite and maybe I've misjudged these big red ones..." Todd turned his palm up again as the ant found the thin fold between index finger and thumb.

THEY BITE!

We shook it off and I apologized as if I'd bitten him. We walked on. He winced that it didn't hurt. We put our attention on the route to school.

The crossing guard was gone.

She had taught us well, and we crossed the boulevard practicing "Safety First!" like champs.

We went through the gate onto the schoolyard.

No one was there.

No children on the playground running, no rhyming at the drinking fountain and spitting - jumping-back dodging water spew from the rougher kids, no jumping rope, no kids on the bench at the side of the building sneaking into their brown bag lunches. Quiet school. No girls brushing each other's hair. Empty school.

Todd and I, with a feeling of sudden Saturday tried to wrap our minds around this vacant schoolyard. Where the - ? Could we be late? We'd only stopped a couple of minutes. Could we be late? We hadn't played around that long.

Maybe we were late.

We had classrooms across the hall from each other in the new building. We went up the stairs and into the classrooms, ducking our heads in a little goodbye as we opened our classroom doors. I went to my desk and sat down. The the teacher didn't point me out or make a fuss, she just let me start working with the other children and gave me a little smile of admonishment and welcome in perfect balance. I doodled ants that day - a big red ant and little black ant.