Focus on the Media & Congress: Tell Them We Are Here.

We have a dangerous President. Enough people feel and think that. So, like it or not, individuals must be more engaged in our country's business than ever before. We have to speak up with patience, compassion for others and with persistence; in our communities, in protest demonstrations.

But, most important, it is the media and the Congress who can bring attention to the issues and limits to his actions.  Our time and energy should be focused on them, engaging with them, learning from them, learning about them and persistently trying to influence them. They can and should make a difference.

Our time and energy should not be diluted into endless rumination about how awful it might be, with a President who boasts and lies with breathtaking abandon, who enables thoughtless anger like the hateful choruses of "lock her up", even at his own inauguration. Enough of commenting on his excesses.  It is time for acting to change things.  Not him, he is hopeless, but his agenda.

The media should counter his claims that they are biased, speak up even more with evidence based journalism. We should read and watch them, not just our favorite outlets, comment on them, to the media themselves and to others in our community.  We should let them know we are here, insist that they be informative and unbiased, whoever are their corporate sponsors.

The congress must have enough people of sound and open mind to reconsider who they have as their President. We should be calling them, trying to get them to limit the power he has. They should know for certain that we are watching, expect them to do the right things on climate change, voting rights, women's rights, any issues we care about. They need to know we are here.

The Demagogue in the White House

Demagogue: a popular leader, a leader of a mob, or rabble-rouser, in a democracy who gains popularity by exploiting prejudice and ignorance among people, whipping up the passions of the crowd.

This message is especially for people who hold different views than mine about the election of Donald Trump. It is an expression of deep concern that he is a bad choice. I am not a sore loser. Other people became the president that I did not vote for, and I welcomed them with the hope that they would do well by our country. This is not the case with Donald Trump. In fact, he is every day more clearly showing that he is unhinged and will be a problem for the well being of this country, possibly the world. Anyone who thinks that my deep concern is about being a sore loser is not willing to really look at him.  By ignoring him, they become part of the problem.

I have been around senior leaders, CEOs all of my professional life. I do know what good looks like. He's clearly not even close to being fit for the office.

·      He is far too self centered, has no interest in the country or in anybody but himself.

·      He doesn’t learn anything new, even though he very much needs to.

·      He sneers at people who disagree with him, does not debate with them.

·      He has little or no integrity; creates fake news and then accuses others of doing so. He lies or    covers up his many conflicting interests, including especially his interest in Russia.

·      He is too secretive. We see no tax returns we see no blind trust that would protect the office of the presidency from conflicts of interest and self dealing.

·      He doesn’t know how to create and lead effective teams, selects people for his cabinet who are grossly unqualified. Think of Ben Carson, Mike Flynn, Rick Perry. These are people who clearly do not know how to lead (or really care about) what they have suddenly inherited.

Some have told me to wait and see if Trump changes, if he grows up into the office. We now clearly know that he won't. His recent ranting about Nazi like behavior in the intelligence community, disavowal of the need to put his assets in a blind trust, are just two of the clear indicators that he is not going to change. What you’ve seen is what you will get, once he is in office. And he is not going to change; he is immature, ego-centric, petty-angry at slights at a level that indicates he is unhinged. And that makes him a danger, nothing less.

It is time to stop belittling anyone who opposes him. Instead, it is time for all of us to take action, but that begs the question what action will be effective. Individuals will need to express their concerns, call (don’t write to people in Congress). The media and Congress should be taking the lead. The media need to not back down no matter what is said about them. 

Congress is perhaps an even more important vehicle for change. As I said above: We see no tax returns, we see no blind trust that would protect the office of the presidency from conflicts of interest and self dealing. How can congress let that happen?  The people in the Senate no less those in the house need to stand up and be counted as caring more about country than their party. It is OK to take a fresh look at Obama Care. It is OK to take a fresh look at how to address immigration, climate change, or build our infrastructure. It is not OK to allow a demagogue to run our country who has no coherent views on any of these matters.

This is clearly not as bad a situation as it was in Berlin in 1933 when another demagogue and the Nazis took over. There are no people who are wearing brown shirts but there are evidently people (see internet trolls) who have in mind great malice towards Others who disagree or who are Mexican or Muslim.  People back in 1933, including Jewish Germans, somehow hoped that they should wait-and-see, maybe things will get better. But it is worth noting that people today are denying the data that sits right in front of them.

This situation has our country in a perilous position. It is the first time in my long life that I truly have become worried about who will be president. And I have seen a lot of presidents who I clearly thought were not the best choice.  Tough luck, but that's a democracy. Donald Trump is not only not the best choice, he is a very bad and dangerous choice. And it is time for all of us, but especially the media and Congress who have the most leverage to speak their mind and put limits on him. 

Improv poems

Our family created some improv poems on Christmas eve.  A "prompt" was suggested, and we had 5 minutes to come up with something. Turned out to be better than caroling. Here a few of the pieces that emerged for me.  The prompt/titles are in bold.

                                           The first wish you can remember

 I was a little boy and I wanted to be my mother’s hero.

A spring day. 

She’s standing on the porch

in front of our apartment house

with her spring coat on. 

There she was in her coat

with her hair up

looking out at the apartment courtyard.

I saw her there

when I came out of our apartment. 

I had put on the belt with my cap pistol

in the holster strapped to my leg

and drew out the pistol. 

Then I walked out onto the porch

and put my arm around the bottom of her dress. 

I couldn’t reach higher.

I was there to make sure she was safe. 

She felt me and looked down at me and smiled.

 Reflect

Once upon, once upon a mirror I look into

but cannot get beyond.

I see just my front

I cannot get behind no matter what I do. 

I want to stop this world

to crash the surface of the mirror. 

My thoughts can’t get around the surface. 

I am trapped in not seeing beyond, around, inside. 

Its just the apparent

the surfaces of things. 

I’m just a reflection of what I see

never more.

There is meaning there beyond this surface

but I am trapped with me

as I see me now

and fool myself into contentment

I try to not find mirrors

because what will be there

is only what is easy to see

what I have agreed to go on with.

Power play

Who plays with power? 

No one admits they do

but don’t we all love it

wouldn’t we all love to do it nakedly

not be sly about it

just have our way and have everyone love it.

Do it because I said so

and nobody feels bad about it; they say

Wow.  Yeah. You the man

so glad you had that better idea.

Feels so good to have you do that.

Takes less time than thinking it through myself. 

And it don’t matter if it’s a sandbox game or a country. 

You got the power

and everyone loves you for it. 

What could be better than that

except maybe to lie down in the summer shade

with a little bowl of cool watermelon balls and a tall glass of ice water.

Come all ye faithful

What if all the faithful came

not like in being here

but like in having an orgasm, at the same time?

They’d be in the temple or the church or mosque

and all of them

would suddenly be seized with the desire to blast off. 

Rub a dub dub all the faithful in a tub. 

Not prayin, but playin

with their privates

and as they got closer to the magic moment

they’d all be getting there at the same time,

they’d start breathin as one

and getting more deep breathin

and then they all’d let er rip

all at the same time. 

They wouldn’t wipe it up afterwards

no shame

just a hearty amen and a good ol smile.

And there would be peace.

Instead of politics or a new year's resolution

The piece below is to be published in the upcoming edition of US 1 Worksheets.  Its a good poetry journal that has poems which are not hard to figure out.  It comes out once a year.  Look it up, maybe you'll want to subscribe.  My best wishes (fingers crossed) for a new year with some more compassion and joy in it.

Ed

The Troubadour                           

I watch you strumming down my street

inside my leafy suburb.

You are not from here

a grizzled troubadour

ponytail, scrubby, rutted skin

signs of life lived poorly elsewhere.

You sing about your journey

even as I pass you on my street.

Underneath my notice

comes in the leisure of your drawl

Lend a hand my friend…

Help me to my next horizon …

I keep heading for a next appointment

wonder where you’re going.

Next morning there’s your music

languid looping through my leafy suburb head

worming deep inside

I feel the soft and sing song way

you stroll and plead

like someone born to be seductive.

Some facts and a point of view about our President Elect

I read a Trump protester’s sign that said “We are better than this”.  We should be and can be but we are not better than this. We and our system got him elected, the media, the people that are attracted to a strongman, the missteps of Hillary which were in the public eye so long, the sexism and racism that are really the unfinished business of America, the anachronism of the Electoral College.

 I was reminded of a meditation on equanimity. I’m aware that as I say these words, many will go away, thinking this is some pointy head sharing his airy fairy bullshit.  But, back to that meditation: “Things are just as they are.  Things are impermanent.  Joy and sorrow arise and pass away.”  Maybe it’s a Buddhist version of “This too shall pass”. But the important thing is the first statement:  Things are just as they are.

For example:

Fact: Donald Trump is now our President Elect. Fact: he lied, slandered and bullied all along the way to get there.  Fact:  Lots of people liked his message. Many candidates before him have done these things, but he did only these things; he was mean, and lots of people liked it. And too many people who didn’t see the peril in his emergence didn’t vote.  One more state in the blue column and he would be giving the concession speech.

In running, and especially in winning, he gives permission to racist, sexist, angry voices who want minorities and women to go back to their former places, who want to believe that Obama (an African American) is ruining America and who long for simple solutions to complex problems like getting steady jobs, pay inequality, immigration and climate change.

He also is promising to allow greed to once again have a voice in the leadership (if you can call it that); voices of people like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and the legislation they want to enact like tax cuts for the wealthy, tossing out all of Obamacare, Dodd-Frank and reopening coal fired plants, maybe even tossing out millions of Mexicans who are IMMIGRANTS, like most of us or our ancestors were.

Mind you, I am not going to be personally the loser in this new world, not in a material way, at least in the short term. In fact, between tax cuts and investment returns, it may be better for me and my family than what is going on now.  That’s what most economists are saying. But, I don’t need a tax cut, and if I get one, I wont spend more than I’m spending now.  Trickle down, doesn’t work. That’s another fact.

There could be lots more facts, but I’ll end with one more. Washington, as its operating, does not work.  Too many people who don’t know how to govern are too easily re-elected to gerrymandered districts. The result is gridlock. So, many folks feel like their government doesn’t care about them and they want to change things. I don’t blame them. I agree. I just wish they wanted a better, more qualified person to promote those changes. It’s too bad Mike Bloomberg didn’t run, or any conservative with a real set of good ideas about what to change and how to get it done. But, as they say “Things are the way they are”.  And I’m going to figure out a way to peacefully but relentlessly, make them impermanent. 

About Passion in Politics

Like many people lately, I’ve been watching a lot of TV, reading a lot and thinking a lot about the upcoming election. There are so many voices already making public their opinions about the candidates, their spouses (Bill and Melania), the state of the country, the current president (and his wife), rigged elections, the state of our democracy, the bias of the media. No sense joining in the tide with my own opinions. 

But there is one thing, maybe not so exciting, in these shrill times, but critical to our well being.  There always has to be feeling and fact in politics.  It’s hard not to be passionate about things that matter; and its not useful to leave passions out.  But there has to be some balance, and we seem out of balance.  If it’s just passion, then, what Roger Cohen of the Times said, is worth a lot of our attention.  I quote him:

“Rage is also a form of dishonesty because it precludes the reflection that leads to truth.”

So, I ask, what is the truth, the whole case, all the relevant data to support the rage based claims I have read or heard. These are all important claims; if they can be tested by facts, we should act on them or dump them.  But facts matter.

“Obama has ruined the country”

“Hillary’s heart is filled with hate”

“We need to build the wall”

“The election is rigged”

I could go on, but you get the point.  Prove it or drop it.  If you insist on it, keep it to yourself. I'd welcome other claims that have been made which you think and feel should have more facts offered.

Another Favorite Work of Art

An illuminated manuscript, a picture of a thinker from the 9th century.  From the Morgan Library in New York.  Wish there were more thinkers today...

View fullsize

Three things I learned about choosing a president

Fit for the job counts the most.

In 1980 I voted for Ronal Reagan. I thought Jimmy Carter a good person but too much of a loner or a micromanager to connect well with Congress or fully utilize the wisdom of his cabinet.  I did not like all that Reagan did, but he knew how to get things done, and in balance got some good things done and along the way fully utilized his cabinet and connected to congress, at least in his first term. Hillary Clinton is not as likable or trustworthy as people want her to be, but she IS experienced in foreign affairs, how congress works and does take advice from others.  Donald Trump is also hardly likable or clearly not trustworthy, but he is oblivious to foreign affairs, how congress works and does not take advice from others. On top of that he is thin skinned and impulsive, hardly what i want in someone who has the nuclear codes. 

Third party candidates create risks of unintended and bad consequences 

In 2000 many people voted for Ralph Nader as a statement of their desire to shake things up in Washington. As a result we got George W. Bush, who was not prepared to be president instead of Al Gore. Bush did not lead as much as he was led by others and by his own adolescent impulses (e.g. to be the "decider"). As a result, in his presidency we also got the biggest financial crisis since the great depression, with untold hardships for millions and the biggest foreign policy disaster in our history, with too many lives lost or injured by Americans and Iraqis and a chaos widening in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen.  President Gore would not have been without his challenges, but they would not have been at this scale. He had been a Vice President and  a Senator. George W. Bush and Ralph Nader were not. Making statements about my beliefs, like in the Green or Libertarian parties today, should come second to being a responsible citizen; not allowing the wrong person to get into the oval office.

The President does not act alone

Congress counts. The charge has been that Hilary Clinton would bring about more of the same. President Obama did not get much done. We need change and Donald Trump would change things. But, and this is a big But, any president can only do so much. Congress for the last eight years has been devoted more to getting rid of the President than to governing the whole country.   Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate, declared that his top priority was "making Obama a one term president".  What happened to his role in seeking better legislation through compromise? There have been areas where the majority of Americans have wanted compromise and did not get it: on infrastructure spending, sensible gun laws, to name two big things that would create lots of jobs and a lot more safety in our streets. But, Citizens United, gerrymandered districts and voter suppression laws have made sure that moneyed interests get their chosen people into congress and once there, those people find it easy to stay.  All they have to do is pay back the people who bought them. They don't give a damn about governing, they just want to stay in office. 

Meditation

Lots more people are hearing about meditation. Its come into the mainstream. Many who haven't tried it, if they think of it's possible benefits, think about reducing the stress of a busy life, or reducing anxiety about the future.  Others think, about it in ways that politely dismiss it - it's okay but not for me, i don't need it. As one person, an artist, no less, said to me - "oh, you mean crystal gazing?" "My painting is really a meditation." A big rationale for not trying it out is that, as several people have said "I just can't sit still that long."

But, some do cross the bridge, try it out.  I have and it is hard to sit still, but useful to look at what i do when i'm trying.  The poem below i wrote to try and replicate the experience of those first few months. 

Meditation Virgin

Medication’s solid

chunks of it to swallow

follow through my mouth down into my belly

its tendrils radiate

warm my sense of grace or gratitude or plain relief

a short cut to a glad-that’s-over.

Meditation’s not so tangible

a subtle alien

invited into the incessant streaming

plugged into my heartbeats.

No pill to pop.

No tendrils radiate.

Just sit and float inside my skin

close my eyes, be still.

Feel my breathing in and out my nose

while I watch it, count to ten

and then again and then again

for heaven’s sake…

I’m urged keep at it and deeper you will go

without knowing what that deeper is

Just keep at it.

Try to not get lost in thought

come back gently when you do.

So I do, because I do

until a first time when I sense a subtle shift

a soft implosion

my heartbeat slows

my body sinks

I try to hold that feeling.

It floats away like smoke

sidelined by an update of regrets or fears.

Faith is hard.

I’m used to payoffs.

So many times I sit inside my skin

and none shows up

until there came that noiseless moment

I was walking with the moon

passing overhead without a comment

and I just let it in

kept walking, following the moon 

and the body turned into that noiseless moment

the moon and I and nowhere else

and there was peace

while I kept walking.

Listening

The times do not encourage this part of ourselves.  Really listening so that others know we are letting them in is so hard when we are busy being fearful or angry or disappointed. We let our fears and anger and disappointments get in the way of something that can have lasting value, without compromising our own ideas.  We trade off making a useful impact on others for being righteously indignant, snarky.

Instead, despite the pull of indignation, we can and should ask why people think and feel the way they do, let them know we are really listening, NOT just waiting our turn to be opinionated.  We can and should send a clear signal that we may not agree with them, but we ARE really letting in what they have to say and why they are saying it.

A very seasoned negotiator once told me that the best way to get people to be open to your ideas is to offer them the experience of really acknowledging their ideas. I find it hard to do, but like a lot of other hard goals, it's worth pursuing.

Girl With A Pearl Earring

In the midst of all the tumult, time spent in meditation helped.  Also, a journey through photos of masterpieces helped.  The paintings evoked wonder and a sense of appreciating what we are like when our better angels prevail. Here's one by Johannes Vermeer. I looked at it without moving for just five minutes and came away feeling different, better.  Try it.

Reflections after Louisiana, Minnesota and Dallas Summer 2016

I’m drawn into the voices that share their passionate grief and anger for the many innocent black people who have been killed by police sworn to protect them. Its really nothing new, but it is more visible even if it is less prominent than in the past.  It still is awful and needs to be erased from our public life. And now I’m moved by the anger and sadness of many voices about the killing of police officers who were indeed trying to protect innocent lives.

But I worry deeply that passion is not enough, and that it carries us in the wrong direction. I worry deeply that the passions of these many voices reaches other like minded voices who feel sad or mad but do little more than resonate/agree.  I worry deeply that we are divided into hostile camps that do not trust others outside their camps to listen. I worry deeply that within our own camps we don’t even trust each other, because we fear to disagree with each other to tone down the arguments, provide nuance, try to seek solutions.

To be more specific, there is racism here, in the police and in our society at large. There is also unwarranted poverty and insecurity. Protest illuminates it, gives us a discussable topic. But we need to trust each other enough to discuss it long enough to seek and find solutions. People who say such things are criticized, even though they may be right. Our president is criticized because he is supposed to bee too remote, dispassionate,  not tough enough on people who do wrong. His is a moderate voice in a time of immoderate voices. It is hard to look for the wisdom in his measured voice, debate with him when it is so much easier to give way to anger and critique.

We need to see that we've become addicted to anger and mistrust. They are easier and become self fulfilling prophesies.  We feel unsafe around others. So, we buy more guns because we can. We tweet more times to those who agree with us and each other. We build gated communities.

I think the only way out of this morass, the killings, the polarized climate, is to put trust and caring first. Their absence is lethal. If we don’t, there is no way out. Hillary, who I don't trust enough, nonetheless said it right when she said we need to listen to each other first. If we don't put that first, there is little to be done except for one group to dominate and exclude the other. So, the willingness to trust is central to our democratic ideals.

We won’t listen to others if we don’t trust them to hear us or care about us. By the same token, others wont listen to us unless they feel we trust them enough, empathize with their humanity, care about their well being.  So, the keystone is to figure out how to turn around the lack of trust and caring. It will not be done quickly, but if we all declare that as a sense of common purpose, optimism can begin to grow again. Some ideas:

1. First and foremost, we need to see that things are going very badly and getting worse, for us all. We have inequality, polarization, rotting infrastructure, unemployed millions, and our incivility towards one another is making it worse, not better. If we don’t stop the fighting, where no one will win, we will all suffer and continue to suffer.

2. People in our government must admit that the lack of trust they have in each other and the people have for them is a central issue which they inflame with their bickering and thoughtless agendas. In congress trust of the people is at an all time low and it's killing the country.

3. For democrats, beginning with Hillary, admit again, loudly, that she has eroded peoples' trust in her but do something visible about it. Take counsel from wiser heads, not just Bill. Say you regret past errors like your emails and say authentically that you are sorry for so often acting like a weasel. Stop cutting corners as you did with the emails, the Clinton Foundation. No end justifies untrustworthy means in these times. 

4. For republicans and democrats, too many of whom are solely interested in staying in office, not governing: Throw out the NRA, if only to say that you're independent enough. Throw out Citizens United and Gerrymandered districts so that money and self interest doesn't rule who gets into office. Invest in better education so that people are better prepared for the future; invest in mitigating climate change so there will be a future, invest in infrastructure, the roads, bridges, railroads, airports we need and which will provide so many needed jobs. The key is NOT smaller government, it is wiser government.

5. For all of us; throw out Donald Trump; repudiate what he stands for and the anger that fuels his rise to prominence.  What ever the merits of some of his thinking, character and experience are crucial matters in a President.  Hillary Clinton has made herself less trustworthy than she should be. She can and should correct it. Donald Trump cannot correct his gaps as a leader, because they are too big and he doesn’t admit that he has any gaps. He can be trusted to do what he thinks is right and to be open about it.  But what he thinks is right is ill informed, fueled by a terribly inexperienced man who never thinks beyond his own self interest.  He is selfish, naïve about his inexperience and too thin skinned and volatile to be our president. 

A new favorite poem

Pray for Peace: By Ellen Bass

Pray to whomever you kneel down to:
Jesus nailed to his wooden or plastic cross,
his suffering face bent to kiss you,
Buddha still under the bo tree in scorching heat,
Adonai, Allah. Raise your arms to Mary
that she may lay her palm on our brows,
to Shekhina, Queen of Heaven and Earth,
to Inanna in her stripped descent.
Then pray to the bus driver who takes you to work.
On the bus, pray for everyone riding that bus,
for everyone riding buses all over the world.
Drop some silver and pray.
Waiting in line for the movies, for the ATM,
for your latte and croissant, offer your plea.
Make your eating and drinking a supplication.
Make your slicing of carrots a holy act,
each translucent layer of the onion, a deeper prayer.
To Hawk or Wolf, or the Great Whale, pray.
Bow down to terriers and shepherds and Siamese cats.
Fields of artichokes and elegant strawberries.
Make the brushing of your hair
a prayer, every strand its own voice,
singing in the choir on your head.
As you wash your face, the water slipping
through your fingers, a prayer: Water,
softest thing on earth, gentleness
that wears away rock.
Making love, of course, is already prayer.
Skin, and open mouths worshipping that skin,
the fragile cases we are poured into.
If you’re hungry, pray. If you’re tired.
Pray to Gandhi and Dorothy Day.
Shakespeare. Sappho. Sojourner Truth.
When you walk to your car, to the mailbox,
to the video store, let each step
be a prayer that we all keep our legs,
that we do not blow off anyone else’s legs.
Or crush their skulls.
And if you are riding on a bicycle
or a skateboard, in a wheelchair, each revolution
of the wheels a prayer as the earth revolves:
less harm, less harm, less harm.
And as you work, typing with a new manicure,
a tiny palm tree painted on one pearlescent nail
or delivering soda or drawing good blood
into rubber-capped vials, writing on a blackboard
with yellow chalk, twirling pizzas–
With each breath in, take in the faith of those
who have believed when belief seemed foolish,
who persevered. With each breath out, cherish.
Pull weeds for peace, turn over in your sleep for peace,
feed the birds, each shiny seed
that spills onto the earth, another second of peace.
Wash your dishes, call your mother, drink wine.
Shovel leaves or snow or trash from your sidewalk.
Make a path. Fold a photo of a dead child
around your VISA card. Scoop your holy water
from the gutter. Gnaw your crust.
Mumble along like a crazy person, stumbling
your prayer through the streets.

If the Buddha had a blog

The Happy Buddha’s Blog          

“I’m like so into Buddhism; it’s my only religion.” Anonymous follower

It’s nice having a whole religion named after you

but you’d think someone would ask What’s he really like?

If he lived a life of contemplation and deprivation

how come he’s fat in some pictures?

Of course I look content, after all Nirvana is Nirvana.

But I know what you’re thinking

why not take the middle way

not let myself get overweight?

You know what it’s about?

People come to me

give me love offerings, lots of them. 

I get flowers, berries, fruits and nuts

veggies raw and cooked

bread and cakes

oh those cakes, every day.

Who am I to say no?

People bring a cake

you don’t say No. That’s not my favorite cake. 

You eat it.

So I spent years meditating and teaching

and eating. 

I made it to Nirvana.

I’m here now, very present

so there’s a lot of me here and now 

but people don’t ask about the whole me. 

They see the grin, they want to get here too.

If they’d ask about my weight I could explain

I’d feel like they knew the real me.

I guess I have to let it go.

Even in Nirvana I still have work to do.

That Dharma Path

full of surprises.

The Trumpeter Swan

Donald Trump will be running to be president. He is a reflection of how both parties, but especially the Republicans have "played" the people, not represented them. They have neglected people so that jobs have been lost, income has stagnated, roads, schools, bridges have been neglected, college is still unaffordable.  Instead congress has catered to rich people and companies, whose interests are expressed in big donations that clearly buy them undue influence. There really is no conservative party or liberal party any more. There are just beggars for donations. That's why approval ratings for congress are so low and there is so much willingness to vote angry, i.e. choose Trump as a candidate.  

He is clearly an ignorant, spiteful fool who should not be entrusted with the country's future or security.  But, again, he is what comes of congress' neglect and vanity. I truly hope that come election time, people do not vote their anger; but rather vote for the person who could do the least harm (a very modest goal indeed).  The worst news perhaps is that even if a relatively more capable, less crazy person becomes president, there still will be congress and a supreme court that protects their mania for money through decisions like Citizens United. My greater hope is that we will throw out many of those bums and get a better supreme court with a decent, competent president.

The Campaign for the Presidency - Common Sense and a Sense of Humor

How easily we are losing perspective, getting into fights about he or she is isn't qualified; how terror lurks; how the system is rigged against "us".  All could be true, but maybe not.  How do you keep an even keel, look into the useful stuff behind the shouting?

The key, it seems to me, is to slake the thirst by honoring the screamers and then be guided by a sense of humor. Know the truth and it shall make you laugh; not make you passive and indifferent, but wiser.  Clive James makes the point better than i.

"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds.  A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.  Those who lack humor are without judgment and to be trusted with nothing.”

Clive James

April

We're at the beginning of April, 2016.  Its "almost" time; almost starting to get warm, almost time to nominate new people for president, but winter may not be over. There's a cold spell forecast for tonight in the New York area, and the electoral process may wind up with a freeze on new and better ideas about our inequalities, our diversity, our climate. 

So, I wrote a piece called April.  

April

Central park in almost bloom

trees winter naked start to dress for summer.

Clouds of red and dark green husks

pop from skinny branch tips stretched and filigreed.

No trace of them last week.

Winter mocked us.

Now red and dark green clouds show off their defiance.

Yes, there will be spring

maybe tomorrow when the trees explode

yellow wisps of leaves unfold

breathe like pupae in the new warmth

and we come out to watch, stretch and yearn

to drop our winter layers

like the red and dark green husks.

But we are wary, not defiant

to expose our skins and hopes

into the springtime air

and to each other.

We should go out, burst out

smell the other people

curious like puppies

beneath the sky.

But now the sky’s depleted

a tattered garment worn so thin

a sieve for radiation

from a vast, indifferent cosmos.

We need to cover up, put on sunblock

if we go outside, breathe in deep

the new warm moistness.

We do go out

sniff around our rediscovered peers

maybe even touch a few

but now behind the touches

we are wary ever more

caught up and exposed

a naked, crowded world

moves so fast

we miss the past

when March and April only meant

there would be May and June and summer.

Becoming 75

It helps to have a sense of humor (if you can still do things like remember and count).  Here'a a piece i wrote about the value of that sense of humor.

Inside Jokes                                                

My friend Alan asks me

did you hear the one about?...

I’m always on the lookout

for little pleasures,

trust his offer,

suspend my need to doubt,

hope for a surprise,

allow his story in about

            Three people in a lifeboat, or

            Two Jews walk into a bar, or

            How fat was she…,

then his punch line hits,

a sudden twist,

I have been fooled.

The light pops inside my ear

careens down to my belly.

My breath jumps out.

I’m unaware of time or anything,

just my laugh,

like having sex

but friendlier, less messy.

Lucky us

We have some good friends that share a house they vacation in.  It's in a small town, Akumal, on the Maya Coast, about 70 miles south of Cancun and out of the way of lots of the noise of a busy resort. This is not meant to popularize Akumal further, but just to share how lucky I feel having access to this kind of place. The top pic is their house. The next one is back yard. The bottom one is a local beach in Tulum.

The future of self driving cars

Once we have self driving cars, can this be far behind?