A Certain Sense of Disquiet

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are playing on the coffee shop music stream.  The song is okay.  It is sort of a bland aural wallpaper; the bland tune mixes with the cacophony of colors this caffeine dispensary uses to try and convey a sense of hipness.  The next result is that the place has a certain familiarity and a certain manufactured warmth to it.  The writing space could be worse.

My coffee is cold and I really don’t have long to write.  I write today in a climate of fear.  I am watching events unfold that leave me with a sense that things are going to turn a great deal more troubling here much quicker than I anticipated.  Did people in Great Britain have this sense of dread in the days that led up to the Nazi’s invasion of Poland in 1939?

Why do I feel ill at ease? Well, I have watched the new administration try and de-legitimize the press on factual reporting on incidents that are inconsequential.  What are they going to do with the big stuff? No, I don’t think I am paranoid. 

I am one of the people in this country that has a more expansive knowledge of the Constitution than most.  I took many courses on the topic both at university and in law school.  If the attacks on the press stick, then we are left with a monolith of a government with no checks and balances. We are left with an inexperienced politician leading us into turbulent times. The man at the helm is not known for nuanced behavior.

I can’t put my head into the sand, I just can’t.  How I will make my voice known is an open question.  I simply know that I feel called to action. I truly believe that what happens next will make the 1960s look like a picnic.

On the Difference Between Meeting People and Becoming a Friend

I have met so many people in so many different ways.

 

Over the years I have tried to find a commonality in how I became acquainted with people and ultimately how I became close friends with some of them.

 

Just doing my work I met a great number of people.  But most of them have problems.  And with one or two exceptions we don’t become friends. In my job over the past 16 ½ years I have held estimating low over 21,000 hearings.  Cutting out repeat customers, that number means I have met about 75 new people every working week for the last decade and a half.   I spend a minimum of 20 minutes with each of these people.  

 

Being on a school board introduced me to many more. Being a private practice attorney for 14 years introduced me to a whole different community. Being a denizen of downtown Detroit in the late 1970s and early 1980s I met a whole bunch more.  

 

So many different people and so many different stories, but the friends I have come from places where I spent some real time.  You need time to grow a friendship. 

There was a big blocky elementary school.  There was a rectangular high school with a courtyard, man you could really run through those halls.  There was a Universe disguised as a college on a tract of frozen tundra with so many very different people. There was a dorm named after an Irish lady. There was a Jesuit law school with intense and well intense people and then there were so many other places.  It is funny the things that connect us, that keep us tied as friends.

 

I have met thousands of peoples but friends that number is a good deal smaller.

The Reason for my Recent Posts

During the time the Presidential election was pending I wrote a number of things.  Most had some component of persuasive writing.  During that period my blog posting dropped off.  The absence of content troubles me.  I want to be writing every single day. 

 

What I have decided to do is post some of what went up on Facebook.  I will try and keep it chronological.  Excuse for the duplication but there are only so many hours in the day.

What I Thought at Christmas

 

The days of this year are waning and I am drawn to reflection. Now halfway through my 60th year on this earth, I again am surprised by the behaviors of my fellow humans. We the people, the majority of those voting in heavily laden electoral vote states, are apparently fed up with the status quo. I get that, I mean I really get that. Our country is in gridlock. Our pattern of politics has been perverted by money in oh so many ways and warped until it is unrecognizable. Change is needed. I am not sure if the people who will now govern will bring the change so many hopefor, only time will tell.

 

What I have not understood is the vitriol, the inherent meanness and the small mindedness, in my opinion, of those who prevailed. I lay a great deal of the blame for this on the President-elect, but he does not stand alone in creating this sorry state. Sadly, the core concepts that prevailed in the election are part of a battle that has raged on since time in memoriam. The difference between the individual and a might makes right mindset and the alternative view that the social contract should cover virtually all situations. As to the validity of either stance I note that my friend Nate said to me many times, what you see is dependent on where you are standing. There is more than a little truth in that kernel.

 

While I am in the minority at this juncture I am still a believer in equality, egalitarianism and social justice. I am also a believer in a Constitution that evolves just as life in our country has evolved. I believe that compassion is an imperative. I believe respect is mandatory. Ultimately I do not believe truth can be manufactured, it exists and should not be buried.

 

I wish all my friends on all sides of the political spectrum from libertarian to conservative to middle grounders to liberals to socialists to anarchists the best this holiday season. May your choice of celebrations from Solstice to Festivus be rewarding. I will celebrate Christmas this year for I am a person of that faith. I may not be a Lutheran for much longer but I do believe I will hold on to my Christian faith, albeit tempered with some Buddhist constructs. I will hold tight to that series of my Lord’s admonitions, Matthew 25:31-45

 

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

 

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? ’The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

 

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

 

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

 

 

Best to you, live life offering mercy, living justice and practicing compassion. Merry Christmas.

What I Thought Before the Election

There is so much talk about needing to shake things up. The implication is that by putting a person not practiced in government in charge of our very complex union, in charge of our very diverse and complex society, we will spark a change, a seismic change, in our political process and the problems that plague it. 

 

To me this argument just doesn’t make sense. I won’t talk about the issues that involve misogyny, tax chicanery and the like. However, I will note that the acts of a President governing are not like those acts of a CEO running a for profit enterprise. You have to be a statesperson. You have to keep your cool under pressure.

 

A President can’t fire Congress if they fail to meet his or her executive objectives, quotas and goals. No instead you have to work with them and there has to be give and take. One candidate is uniquely unqualified to play well with others.

 

A clip of the candidate I saw was telling. He was asked was there anything he would ask for forgiveness from God. He replied no indicating he didn’t make mistakes. If in a hypothetical he can’t find something that he needs forgiveness for because he doesn’t make mistakes how will he lead us out of gridlock with the much needed compromises that will have to happen? Strength and humility not braggadocio will be our way forward.

 

In looking at this election I find myself drawn back to the documents of the founders, The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. 

 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, thatamong these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that humankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed;”

 

(Yeah I gender neutralized a couple of phrases-get over it and I left out the part where the founders said it sucked so very much for them that they had to act and not be sheep anymore).

 

I think the key phrase above is “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes…” We are not suffering the tribulations the colonists suffered at the hands of the British. We have the right to petition, we have a judiciary and we have representational democracy. We have for the most part a system that works as it is supposed to but there are problems. You don’t destroy what has worked in the past without a pretty damn good reason.

 

Prudence dictates a vote for someone who has served as an officer of the court, as a member of the legislature and as a key member of the executive working in the Cabinet. Putting a being that lives out his life in kernel sound bites, who acts with short tempered rage and vitriol and whose vision lacks depth is like pulling a pin in a grenade that will destroy the very fabric of our democracy. If it doesn’t do that it will degrade the operations of our government in ways that will be without parallel in our history and the effects will linger for generations.

You know that bit about waiting a few minutes before you send off that text to someone has irked you off so that you can think about the consequences? In recovery programs they say play the movie to the end. What happens if you take that next step? Well before you cast a vote for a remarkably ill-tempered and ill equipped candidate for the highest executive post in the land, think about the consequences. Just because you are pissed off doesn’t mean you should vote to elect a demagogue in waiting.

Reading, the Better Pursuit

 

I don’t know about what it is like for others but as for myself I find it very hard to post on Facebook these days. Every single day some new piece of news comes out that leaves me troubled or disturbed. My gut churning response to the great part of it is wearying. Most of what bothers me is political (for sure). While I would love to comment on these stories the only end result I see is negative. Either I will piss off some of my friends or I will gin up some of my other friends. I really don’t enjoy seeing people that I know sniping at each other. Mostly I don’t enjoy the fact that we cannot since the advent of constant intrusion of media have time to reflect, to think, to actually debate and to come to a consensus. 

 

Trust me it is not because I am afraid of conflict. I HAVE BEEN A SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEE!!!! To FURTHER prove it I will say unequivocally I believe Donald Trump and the administration he empowers will be a rolling train wreck. I will also state that I believe the Russians and their stooges screwed with our election. Having said that, I am just going to let time tell us whether my beliefs at this current moment are accurate. I am not going to rant about each news tidbit that comes out. If I am wrong I know some of the folks I know will tell me about.

 

But like I said I don’t want to get into this crap, so where does that leave me? I am reading about kid’s concerts, people’s maladies, looking at music videos and reminiscing about the old days. With the things going on in the larger world these things seem kind of less important to me. Right now, I feel about as distanced as I have ever felt from any sense of real community. I love your children, I love you, I like the bands you like (mostly) but I really don’t want to talk about these things right now, not with my gut tied in knots over what is coming.

 

So, where does that leave me? I guess I will be mostly quiet. I might hit the like button from time to time but I just don’t have it in me to do much more. I am going back to correspondence I think. 

 

I will note that reading seems to help. A half hour of day of a book, particularly an older book with some philosophical content helps. It could be a novel or a memoir but there really has to be some thought about the human condition in it or I will give up on it.

On Viewing President Obama Last Speech

 

Psalm 106:3 says, “Blessed are those who act justly, who always do what is right.” Gosh that is definitely not me, not by any stretch of the imagination. But most of the time I try although I mostly fail. 

 

The night before last as I watched the President speak I was struck by a general feeling that he in his eight years in office had tried to do what was right. Whether you dislike the man because of your fear of creeping socialism that is the ACA or his stance on immigration, I think it is very difficult not to admit the President acted on his beliefs. Those beliefs are not everyone’s beliefs, but I think he was trying to do justice and better the situation of the American people.

 

The part of his speech that stood out to me was his commentary on our duties as citizens. The President said the same things I have said in this space before. Being a citizen requires more than just voting. It requires action. If you want to fulfil your role as a citizen work to something done. Get a pad of paper and start petitioning. Run for office. Knock on doors and talk to people face to face about community issues. Move outside your bubble of likeminded social media friends. Being a citizen takes time, it takes energy and it takes understanding and commitment. Inform yourself and get involved. President Obama was not wrong in indicating keeping a democracy vibrant requires work.

The Cocoon

A fight erupts daily in my soul between the workaday demands of my life and my inner spirit that wants to fly away on the winds of the arts and philosophy and pure knowledge.  Each day I listen to misery upon misery so as to earn the cash money to allow the boys to go to university. My work can be so very, very draining, but so can dealing with the boys.  Still I want to read about the ancient Greeks.  Still I want to learn to write a decent poem.  Still I want to correspond with people I care about.

But there are only so many hours in the day. But there are only so many possible days left in my life.

Why is it when we feel the spark within us to break out of the cocoon of my daily requirements that it is so damn hard to work through? I find there is a tough as nails unending silk web of obligation and of duty. 

I think I will have to go back and read On Caring again. Right now I am thinking that in order to help anyone else I have to grow again.

A Simple Joy

The sort of, kind of, resolution I made for this year was to engage my mind in the acquisition of knowledge. I was to do this by returning to reading. 

When I say reading I am not talking about perusing the online posts in the various political sites I visit.  Nor do I mean whipping through the fluffy articles in the entertainment magazine I subscribe to.  By reading I mean I have decided to spend at least ½ hour a day face down in a book.

As a Christmas gift, I got a copy of Robbie Robertson’s memoir of his time in The Band called Testimony.  Robertson clearly dictated these stories to another person who then took the time to clean up what I must assume was a bit of a rambling narrative. What is most interesting is the interconnections between people over time, it reminds me of Magister Ludi (The Glass Bead Game) by Hermann Hesse.  In one section of the book the author is sitting at a table with Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol.  In another he is saying good morning to his neighbor Cary Grant. Robertson has met everyone from Howlin’ Wolf to Muddy Waters to Joni Mitchell and Martin Scorsese. 

While it is fun to find out tidbits like Yul Brynner’s son was the The Band’s tour manager at one time and the implication Robertson may have slept with Edie Sedgwick of Warhol’s factory the book is all is either technical details about recording songs or it is gossip.  As a result of feeling a little guilty about not reading something with substance I started reading Kitto’s The Greeks.

Having studied Latin in high school reading about the Greeks is right up my alley.  Last night I got through about the first twenty pages.  What was interesting to me was that the author is opinionated and facile in his use of language.  The book from what I can find online is still a good introduction to the evolution of Greece between 1100 BCE to 350 BCE or so. 

One of the things that fascinated me was Kitto’s approach to the use of Greek history, archeology and literature to validate some of the origin stories of the Greeks.  Digging on the islands in the Mediterranean Sea revealed that the Athenians with their tale of coming from a naval power matched up with the presence of a major city on one of the islands.  Minus the God’s involvement the story of the fall of Troy matches up with some of the historical evidence of a weak wall in one iteration of the city.  Many Troys sit stop each other but the fourth from the bottom matches the story told by the ancient Greeks.

Reading, it takes me places I will never go.  Reading, it gives me something to think about. Reading is simple.  Reading is easier than ever before with online books.  Reading ,why do I forget about it and then have to return to it as if I am returning to a well?