…to this day, we violate.
And putting it into Manifest Perspective, we have Woody Harrelson…
Obama’s Violence of Choice
President Obama declared his reaction to the Zimmerman verdict today, quoted in CNN, as saying:
“The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy. Not just for his family, or for any one community, but for America. I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher. But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken. I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son. And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities. We should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis. We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this. As citizens, that’s a job for all of us. That’s the way to honor Trayvon Martin.”
We are, in fact, a nation, not of laws, but of people who create laws, flawed and otherwise, laws based on the value of the people, the value of life itself. Ideally, our laws protect value and restore a measure of justice. We can stand with the parents who are asking for calm reflection, noting that such reflection requires a proclivity for truth and an awareness of the lessons love would teach us in these confusing times.
We can, on this day, note that in the state of Florida one man, not African-American, has walked away free of the charges against him, charges in agreement with value, with life. He walks free ‘though he killed another. And while he walks in freedom, another is enslaved, imprisoned by a system, for the “crime” of firing a warning shot, a shot that did not kill or harm another life. Marissa Alexander shot down by the violence of choice, by the flaws in a system so surreally corrupt, we cannot know what we stand for any longer, as a nation, if we look to the “nation of laws, and a jury.”
Much like the indiscriminate work of drones honing in on the allegedly guilty in lands far from our own soil, Obama’s violence of choice rings a discordant vibe in our world as he asks us to choose calm, to honor Trayvon Martin, “to stem the tide of gun violence.” The exacting accuracy of our guns do not serve a President who would rather sit and push the button every week, sending innocent children to their deaths as he rests in the executive shelter of “collateral damage,” children and innocents banished from life itself by a nation not consulting her own people or the laws of their own making.
And so we see what Obama means by calm reflection. He asks that we not reflect too passionately on the value of life itself, that instead we remember we are a nation of laws which we dare not break, especially if we are African-American. We should, indeed, “ask ourselves how we can prevent tragedies like this,” as we sit complicit in our silence while he sends hundreds to their death, well beyond our borders…
without regard for the value of life,
without regard for justice,
without including the people of the U.S. in these choices we have seemingly no choice but to accept.
Good people of the United States, Obama’s violence of choice is drone-warfare, not gun-violence. He asks we partake in a violence of twisted logic, choosing one form of brutalization over another. See, we must lay down our arms, our awareness of truth and surrender our minds to his greater, elitist view of what is truly valuable. We are, after all, a nation of laws, not humans bleeding the same color, not humans on a planet roiling in the aftermath of a bully-nation’s actions. We are at the mercy of Obama’s violence of choice, but thankfully, thus far, apparently not on the receiving end.
So, let us calmly reflect with passion on our value, on the value of every person on this planet we inhabit. Let us reflect on the duplicity of the powers that be and ask ourselves how we can prevent the further rape of justice, and the intimidation our system exacts with rapid-fire insistence in these trying times.
How can we embody a fierce and fearless love, a love refusing the obfuscation of value in the name of law itself?
Spread the Love!
Shakespeare In Blue
How putting on a mask to reveal another’s story pulls off the actor’s masks, peels the layers and starts a healing process…
—
Spread the Love!
Beyond the Brainwashing…
Waking Up on the 4th of July
Sitting down to coffee and a glance at my friends near and far online, I see so many posts about our grand nation, the heritage, our freedom. My face contorts into a scowl, disgusted. Then my angel side kicks in, smacking me for my intensity, “Come now, child. There’s a greater Divine force at work here and people mean well.” But I find the inner roar much louder, smacking back at what I sense as a spiritual tide of people begging for angels to whisk us all up into great clouds of denial and “om om” bliss-ninny nonsense anesthetizing us against truth and hard work, the kind requiring sweat and brains and risk-taking. That tide washes us all in a sleep surreal as we consume our store-bought comfort at a discount price, clueless of what it takes to make a nation great.
We should be screaming in the streets right now. The loss, the bleeding out, the carnage posing “security” and the untouchable corruption in our government would send our forefathers into a valid rampage.
I’ve found it difficult to speak of it, pondering the “heritage” of a nation whose highlights include stamping out indigenous peoples and enslaving others in order to eventually form a more perfect union. Our great heritage? A perfect union?
But William Rivers Pitt brings me back to a truth worth grasping regardless of it all:
“The idea behind and beneath ‘We the People’ is worth fighting for. The idea that made the ability to speak your mind the law of the land, the idea that says you are an integral, absolutely necessary part of this nation despite your race or sex or religion, the idea that royalty (whether it be derived from lineage or wealth) shall not rule here, are all ideas not to be abandoned, no matter how difficult it is to keep that faith in the face of all the gruesome offenses committed against your will.” (Related Link Here)
We’ve lost a grip on the Voting Rights Act as we progress in other areas and slip even further behind while Texas rallies a revolution against the womb … in the name of life and a kid is imprisoned with a $500,000 bond set. Why? A Facebook post wherein he unwittingly joked in poor taste. It put some folks in an uproar. So, he’s in jail for making people uncomfortable with his words – they were truly unfortunate, the words of a teen. But to imprison someone for his words? We call that tyranny. And that’s just Texas. I live in North. Carolina. where local governments emulate the worst of our “heritage” and smile as they set off the fireworks, wave their patriotic ideals and their flags with sick notions of “freedom” passing legislature to oppress.
With a mixture of rage and disgust, I have greeted this day, wavering somewhat in my conviction of what is salvageable of our nation. But the truth need not be clouded by the noxious fumes of the sleeping masses. As a child, I believed in the U.S. and for all the best reasons. I just didn’t realize it. The idea of “We the People” was the rallying inspirational force for me then and it need not die, regardless of how sullied our heritage or how human our sleep. But it is past time we awaken, hone our critical thinking and recognize the need to keep the eyes wide open and the heart ready to speak truth to power gone grossly off course.
Spread the Love!
Opposites Revealed
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” Elie Wiesel
Spread the Love!
The Meaning of Life…
Worth the less than 5 minute time investment to hear…
Spread the Love!
Bounty Hunt
We live in a world filled with seeming contradictions of purpose, of love, of artistry. And if we don’t experience enough of the stuff of victory, of affection, of vision-brewing-love, we adopt a stance of defensiveness, braced against loss.
(Can anyone tread water while bracing body against loss in liquid yum?
Or won’t we sink like the stone we become?
Lungs filling up with this overwhelm of something meant to nourish,
killing all the love-air.)
In a world like this one, we must develop the practice of bounty-hunting, the best kind…the kind of bounty overflowing stories of love in spite of loss, hope in the face of challenge, meaning beyond accolades and set rewards for fleeting achievements. And the only bounty on our heads a priceless opportunity for creative legacies of soul with no criminal bag and tag roundy round in the prison system created by fear.
(Here we float, breathing in life, not braced but poised with a graceful acceptance.
Water flowing all around, air filling lungs, heart singing earth songs…
sun shining across faces surrendered to the flow life and love can be.)
I’ve started a collection of true stories, good news and soulful happenings for my kids to read. It’s how we augment the news that bombards us whether we like it or not. It’s how I keep my two sons afloat in middle school purgatory. And my eldest reminded of her power. There is love pouring out daily, into fields of receptivity and hope, beyond our little home, beyond our own experiences, inspiring new expressions of love-in-action.
And adding to the collection of inspiring truth is this gem from Rebelle Society, an online community of writing creativity and soufulness supreme, who I’m excited will be including my own heartflow soon…
“Every sound in every syllable of the name the universe calls itself is love. It is radiating out of the blackness of space, it is what keeps the star at the heart of the earth burning, and it is the only damn thing that gets me out of bed in the morning. Trees are love. Skyscrapers, desert mesas, corn growing alongside the road: love. Also, the moon, a baby’s hand, chocolate, rain boots, and the keyboard I am using to write this. A thousand blessings are raining down on you all the time.” Sarah Twichell, from a rich Rebelle Society post for today.
We get to choose our focus even when the uglies sometimes race a freak streak through our lives. We don’t have to be in denial about those tragedies that scream need for change. We don’t have to turn completely away from issues we want to be involved in, fighting for love’s best. But we can both/and our dance through this slice of life. We have the power to turn our eyes towards those things most empowering, lifting us into the truth of love’s relentless transformation right at our fingertips, and the responsibility we can embrace through an inspired work of presence.
Spread the Love!
Apocalyptic Meaning…
December 12, 2 minutes away from 12/12/12 at 12:12pm and the phrase “apocalyptic meaning” flows through my somewhat overloaded brain.
The word, “apocalypse” typically conjures images of end-of-the-world disasters. But the rudimentary meaning of the word is cloaked in images both Biblical and cinematic, far-removed from the root which is simply “uncovering” or “disclosure.”
Uncovering meaning…this is a phrase I can embrace completely, once stripped of the typical storefront meaning. Let’s uncover meaning in the coming days and uncover with our own uniqueness, our own creativity and imaginative flair the preciousness our lives have been and will always be. Find the hidden, for this is part of the whole “apocalyptic” experience.
Twelfth-century mystic, writer, and abbess, Hildegard von Bingen speaks well of this flair, the gutsy risk-taking required to hone our own vision, to uncover our own meaning without using others’ interpretations of the world as the basis of that same meaning: “We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening. To use our own voice. To see our own light.”
The past few days have required a level of standing and listening I’ve not had in months. All in one stretch. Stand. Listen. Watch my children perform. Clap. Stand, sway, sing, smile, hug, stand. Stand. Stand.
My two sons in a symphony of meaning, unique and distinct but united with those around them…
These are precious lives, unfolding in a challenging era with an awareness of the corruption of the world they reside, an awareness that threatens to encroach on their own creativity, their own ability to use their own voices, their own sight. My youngest came into this world 3 days after the carnage of 9/11. What an imprint.
My oldest has watched her mom go from embracing one religion to letting go, releasing her abruptly from the ties she had relied on. What a scramble.
And we stood together singing in the audience at a concert that was standing room only, just a few feet away from some soulful voices on stage in Chapel Hill. My daughter had an opportunity to sing on the stage but didn’t know the particular song. One of the musicians noticed. She passed on the opportunity. But he didn’t pass on making sure to approach her later.
“Believe in yourself.”
She hears this from her mom so much that it loses meaning sometimes.
But. Words from a relative stranger, who made sure not to be too much of a stranger, giving generously, extending his heart. It expanded her own.
Believe in yourself, uncover, disclose yourself to the world without fear, find the meaning hidden in the daily rote world of get up and go, do, be, sleep, rise, do it all over again. Take “apocalyptic” moments as defined by others’ interpretations and make them your own. Uncover the meaning. Allow these days to disclose your uniqueness in the way you unfold responsively as love, in love and for love.
Everything else can go take a flying leap.
(Here’s a tribute to some heartful encouragement-in-action, Ed Romanoff: http://edromanoff.com/ )
And a great way to end this post since Rachael Yamagata was the reason we were up standing late into the evening…
Spread the Love!
Going Deeper…
Brené Brown’s exploration of vulnerability leads her to explore shame’s potent influence in our lives. It’s timely for me as a mom noticing how each one of my children has unique sensitivity triggers in experiencing shame. And how different we all are along these lines. This TEDx talk is worth the time investment for the rich focus on gender-specific shame triggers. It’s a huge affirmation for those of us parents who are refusing the gender-oppressing societal influences in our facilitation of our children into whole personhood. Huge thanks to the Globally Hip Bill Sinunu for drawing my attention to this wonderful talk from Brené Brown.
J. Ruth Kelly 