Category Archives: Musings

Poems

Some Absurdities are Too Much to Accept

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Just Enjoy The Movie

As absurd, as sounds of lasers in space.
As ridiculous, as glass bubble deep sea craft.
And the car that defies gravity jumping a bridge.
If you don’t point it out
everyone can enjoy the movie,
undisturbed by such absurdities

If you don’t point out that patriots
don’t try to stop free and fair elections.
Or that those who love law and order
don’t riot against police protecting democracy.
If you don’t point out that white supremacy
implies inequality and all lives don’t matter,
Then everyone can just enjoy the movie.

Blog, Poems

As We Break…

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In a blink of an eye,  Kabul has fallen… failed decisions by our President and no clear plan.   Yes, it matters not which president we had because 70% of Americans wanted us out.   A tragedy for so many caused by our elected officials becoming populists instead of pragmatist, followers of their base instead of leaders.  Modern American politics is broken by parties that care more about their own power and position than people or principle.  Yesterday I was depressed, today I’m mad.  But the world will go on.

As We Break

We’ve outgrown our clothes,
big and muscle bound,
tied together by a coat we wear.
This overcoat of populism
a coat ignorant of history.
Threadbare stretched across
broad backs no longer working.

We are big, but weak.
Taken down by “leaders”
who become followers
for the sake of power.
In the process they became powerless
and we leaderless.
Weakening us
as we forsake history.
And the flexibility of pragmatism
is a distant memory
given over to brittleness of populism.

And we break.

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Abandonment

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I get it… we cannot change a country that has been steeped in tribal and religious warfare for centuries.  We cannot save everyone.  But we committed to a democratic and safe Afghanistan, and we had achieve a modicum of success.   Women were able to get an education, run a business, and express themselves as never before under Taliban rule.  ISIS and Al Qaeda training camps were destroyed and they were scattered.   We were no longer losing young men and women to violence.  With our help, Afghan security forces were keeping the peace in free parts of the country.   A people were given room to breathe, room to  grow, to expect something more and better from life.  Call it hope if you will, but it was something.  Our mission to destroy Al Qaeda for their attack on us, was largely successful… but we did more. We took away the haven of Afghanistan, and we gave hope to a population that wanted a way out of the 13th century.    Yes it cost us something, be we gained something more, Security, and reputation.
Now we are abandoning those that put their faith in us, those that said yes, to the question of building a better world.  Yes, to the rights of women.  Yes to the value of democracy.   They will be destroyed in a Taliban Afghanistan.
Many argue, we cannot stay forever… yet we have bases still in Germany, we have bases in South Korea… we have stayed before, why not here?   We should always give time for peace… time is inexpensive compared to war.

I know my view is not popular.  Most Americans don’t care about the Afghani’s … it was a populist that said we are pulling out, now a democrat president has carried it forward.  Pulling out… no it is abandonment and retreat to where we think we cannot be impacted.   Pulling out is what you do when the mission is complete. There will  be consequences to our security, to our safety, to our reputation.  Who should believe us in the future?

Watch the news, this is what losing looks like.

Additional words:

Joe Biden said “endless war is not supportable“…my thoughts is that for 5000 troops in country… “endless peace was possible” 

 

Blog

At the Close of the Olympics…

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The Olympics come to a close today, and as they do I have some thoughts that come to mind, about the resiliency of humanity.  About how we as a species are facing crisis of disease and yet our games and our athletes matter and take center stage like never before.  Billions were spent to play only to a TV audience.  But it was sensible, it was as safe as possible and it wasn’t about power and dignitaries.

Through the games we can come to understand something more.  Something about ourselves, something about athletes as humans, with mental health challenges, with physical challenges, with personal stories that include overcoming crippling injuries, and crippling anxieties.  We saw the families at home and in watch parties cheering and crying in joy for they know so well the sacrifices made.

We know now that these are special human beings, not superhuman, they are us in all our forms and with all our problems, winning, losing, it doesn’t matter, it matters that they are playing the game, presenting us with an insight into who we are as humans, and who we are capable of being.

I saw many sports, I suspect many of us never watch until the Olympics… track and field, gymnastics, swimming, the beauty of synchronized swimming, and diving, the back breaking rowing, the lightning fast table-tennis, and the top athletes of basketball, soccer, and so many sports compacted into a couple of weeks… and yet as they and we celebrate… many of the athletes next week will go back to training and preparing for the next World Championships and the next Olympics, for themselves, their country, for us and for humanity.

Poems

Journeys…

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Journeys

Some are long, some are short
Some are easy, some are hard
Some walk in apparent straight line
Some manage through twists and turns
Some are made with joy and singing
Some are made with pain and sighing
Some make the best of everything
Some see the worst in nothing
But all have the same end-destination.

 

Poems

Threat of Rain…

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Threat of Rain

We speak of the threat of rain
as if its intent was to cause pain.
We should be rather faithfully inclined
to the promise of gentle rain un-maligned.
As we would, if we understood and knew
as the deer does run and flowers grew.
That this is life, a life of hope and surprise
where rain and sun, and wind we surmise
are seconds in our lead stories, so grand.
But instead, we are seconds to a life-giving land.

 

Poems

Our Reflection

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Our Reflection

Lost in the chaos of our own making,
avoiding reflections in the mirrors
of our soul, an unholy undertaking.

Resilient we pride ourselves to be,
despite the climate we made,
before the judgement of the Sea.

Of all the science we hold dear,
It cannot stop the death
always coming, always near.

We are blessed with a life raft
of miracles we can employ,
but ignore because we are daft.

Daft from the moment we hear
the deniers of science,
power-seekers, purveyors of fear.

A life made easy by avoiding mirrors,
showing us our true Dorian Gray,
humanities’ distortion, and all those tears.

Poems

Reading Old Poets

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Reading Old Poets

Before the words are spoken,
before a wheel has broken,
beyond the horizon of time
and in the far reaches of a mind
the story has been constructed and told
then reconstructed, so it never gets old
for the imprint of love on life is known
beyond anything the heaven’s have shown
to be the unchanged fortunes of a poet’s fate
no matter long-ago written or just-of-late
it becomes who we are and what we will read
beyond the horizon of a life we will lead

Poems

The Optimist’s Shadow

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The Optimist’s Shadow

Eighty percent chance of rain,
but it might not.
Seventy percent chance of pain,
but it might not.
Sixty percent chance of division,
but it cannot.
Fifty percent chance of revision,
but it will not.
Forty percent chance of caring
but does it matter.
Thirty percent chance of waring,
and this will matter.
Twenty percent chance of sunshine,
and this will make it clearer;
the optimist’s shadow is hard to find,
and a winter of discontent is ever nearer.