​Making sense of the news
 
As I recall from reading about the humorist Will Rogers he would often comment on the daily news although he later became part of the very establishment at which he poked fun.   He had a long run/career as a syndicated newspaper columnist.  I can well imagine what fun he might have today helping us laugh more at ourselves.  Just consider, for example:
 
·      U. K. votes to renew nuclear-weapons program.
·      Iran Nuclear deal makes world safer.
·      Christians laud party platform which opposes same sex parenting and marriage, bathroom choice, and abortion.
·      Boys cool to Hasbro’s Toys.
·      Gun sales up since shooting of police.
·      Bring real guns and not toy guns to convention in Cleveland.
·      Mrs. Trump repeats Mrs. Obama’s speech.
 
So, the logic is that if I have bigger, more destructive weapons others will be frightened and not pose a threat even though we have to insist that countries such as North Korea and Iran should not be developing nuclear weapons.  If others do not have nuclear weapons the world is safer and if we do the world is safer.   Okay. Got it.
 
In a world with random acts of mass violence as well as more organized wars we are worried about what genitals the parents have.   Who knew that parents did their job with their genitals?  One shutters to think how that works with house cleaning, cooking, going out to work (All parents must be prostitutes?), or singing a lullaby.
 
The best way to improve the economy is to train people to be highly paid bathroom checkers.  It will take a lot of skills to cross check genitals and birth certificates. Perhaps an even better job skill would be forging of birth certificates. Since one of the most common responses to sexual preference on dating sites is now fluid perhaps one could advocate to have this put on birth certificates.  What is the gender of your baby?  Fluid.  No, wait.  That might be offensive to those who are transgender - as if we are being disrespectful of their need to claim their true gender.
 
Then there is abortion.  It warms my heart to know that politicians and not doctors are going to help women make such important decisions. I can see Mr. Trump now rounding up women and their doctors. We know that anyone who would get a post-rape abortion sets a dangerous precedent. Who knows what she might do? She might join the military.
 
 
What about this business of the slump in the sales of boys toys?  Obviously this is a serious indication of why we need a president who can make the United States (Oh, excuse me, America) great again) We need boys to be boys and girls to be girls.  The next thing we know boys will be wearing pink and sharing in house work thus making women obsolete.  Then boys will want to be girls and then we will need more bathroom checkers and then … How do we know that a toy is male or female? Everyone knows that gendered toys – “Hello I am a male toy!” – ensure that big boys want bigger boy’s toys such as nuclear weapons.  Oh dear!  Is Mrs. May a Mr. May?   Hamm….
 
More gun violence is obviously good for gun sales which is good for the economy which is good health care which is good for the sale of little and big boy’s toys.  Violence is good for the economy which is good for gun sales which is good for making American strong again!   It all makes perfect sense!  After all, how much can one charge for a toy gun. It makes sense to outlaw them.  They are bad for the economy.
 
Well, quality is quality.  Mrs. Trump can hardly be held responsible for Mrs. Obama copying or channeling Mrs. Trump’s speech and then talking as if Mrs. Trump copied hers. Those democrats will start any rumor that will malign those who are obviously superior. 
 
It is good that we had this time to review the daily news. What is that you say?  Stephen Colbert has been channeling me again!  He is dressed as Stanley Tucci’s Hunger Game character when he rushed the stage at the Quicken Loans Arena.  Certainly I did not have to dress to get a laugh. Really!     By the way, why is the Republican convention at a loans arena?   What is a loans arena anyway?  Not just a loans arena but a quick one. 
 
It is important that we know that, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the news does make sense.  Tune in same time tomorrow or email me anytime you, the reader, gets confused.
 
Written July 19, 2016

​Going public
 
Today, July 18, 2016, is the first day of the Republican convention in the United States.  Just in case someone has been completely cut off from all communication for the past couple of years, this is a year in which the United States populace will elect a new president. (I am choosing to ignore the discussion about the relative roles of the electoral college and that of the individual voters.)   Although one can hope that the trading of accusations and sharply worded barbs will now stop so that the candidates can focus on  proposing practical solutions to some very weighty issues, it is unlikely that that will happen.  I am personally in awe of anyone who can “stand the heat;” who has the courage, the ego strength or the thick skin necessary to not spend all their time and energy reacting to or defending against the criticism.    Obviously, none of the candidates can consistently resist the urge to react, but  I still admire the fact that they continue to put themselves in this position.
 
Anyone who goes public with their opinions, beliefs, or ideas leaves themselves open to criticism. This is true for anyone who shares their writing, art, music, dance or other means of revealing their opinions or emotions. Even I, with a limited readership, receive a fair number of suggestions or critiques which require me to use all my personal meditative and other spiritual resources.  It is no small task to just listen and not get defensive.
 
I was thinking about this issue this morning while listening to an August 2006 Ted Talk by the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales.   In 2006, Wikipedia had one employee, a board, many volunteers and a vision.  Mr. Wales states that the “goal, the core aim of the Wikimedia Foundation, is to get a free encyclopedia to every single person on the planet.”    For all intent and purposes a lot of progress has been made in achieving that goal.  On the other hand, if one now, in 2016, googles critiques of Wikipedia one finds there are those who are questioning whether the current process of recruiting volunteers, editing and making decisions about both what to include and what to delete is done from a biased viewpoint and is bogged down by the bureaucracy of the organization.   In order to achieve their original goal they have to attract a very large, diverse group of volunteers to draft articles, to edit and to follow the procedures for ongoing review of the accuracy and relevancy of the information. The apparent fact is that their volunteers are mostly male which skews the nature of the new content.    An article in  technologicalreview.com  summarizes some of the concerns about the limitations of the current structure of the organization.”
 
“Yet it (the foundation) may be unable to get much closer to its lofty goal of compiling all human knowledge. Wikipedia’s community built a system and resource unique in the history of civilization. It proved a worthy, perhaps fatal, match for conventional ways of building encyclopedias. But that community also constructed barriers that deter the newcomers needed to finish the job. Perhaps it was too much to expect that a crowd of Internet strangers would truly democratize knowledge. Today’s Wikipedia, even with its middling quality and poor representation of the world’s diversity, could be the best encyclopedia we will get.”
 
Perhaps, however, another version or another structure will replace the current one.
 
I am reminded of a line in in Lorraine Hansberry’s famous play Raisin in the Sun. Asagai, at one point in the play, says:
 
“I will go home and much of what I will have to say will seem strange to the people of my village... But I will teach and work and things will happen, slowly and swiftly. At times it will seem that nothing changes at all... and then again... the sudden dramatic events which make history leap into the future. And then quiet again. Retrogression even. Guns, murder, revolution. And I even will have moments when I wonder if the quiet was not better than all that death and hatred. But I will look about my village at the illiteracy and disease and ignorance and will not wonder long. And perhaps... perhaps I will be a great man... I mean perhaps I will hold on to the substance of truth and find my way always with the right course... and perhaps for it I will be butchered in my bed some night by the servants of empire...
 
...perhaps the things I believe now for my country will be wrong and outmoded, and I will not understand and do terrible things to have things my way or merely to keep my power. Don't you see that there will be young men and women, not British soldiers then, but my own black countrymen... to step out of the shadows some evening and slit my then useless throat? Don't you see they have always been there... that they always will be. And that such a thing as my own death will be an advance? They who might kill me even... actually replenish me!”
 
Whether our death is a physical or metaphorical one, the end will come for all of us and for all our ideas.  We will need a new vision or perhaps just a new version of the vision.  The old will loudly or quietly die and a new one will take over. Perhaps it will do so haltingly.  Perhaps there will be intervening attempts which will be ineffective or even destructive. 
 
I am certainly not suggesting that the current negative barbs and accusations are helpful or good any more than I think that physical killing is good.  I am suggesting that in order for progress to occur we both have to be willing to put ourselves and our ideas out there to be endlessly, at times,  publicly critiqued. If we have had the courage to take that risk we also need to have the courage to listen and not react; to offer positive alternatives which will need tweaked or even discarded. 
 
A scientist makes his or her living mostly by failing well. A medical scientist searching for a cure for cancer might spend his or her professional life finding out what does not work. Perhaps we learn from the scientist how to bravely experiment and  be okay with failure.
 
There are pieces of helpful truth in what each of the presidential candidates say. There are obviously many in the United States and elsewhere who feel as if their needs and rights are not being addressed.  If we simply dismiss them we will have learned nothing and will only confirm what they already believe. 
 
If we want to be a positive force for change we have to be willing to risk sharing our ideas  and be critiqued. If we are just going to react defensively then we are going to be part of the problem and not part of the solution.  It may take a lot of practice to grow thick skin which protects us, but which does not keep us from listening and learning.
 
 
Written July 18, 2016
 

​We stand for our God
 
I was watching and listening to the news this Sunday morning, July 17, 2016.  A reporter was interviewing some of the supporters of the United States presidential candidate whose party is meeting in a certain Ohio city this week.   One of the women, when discussing her views and why she supported this particular candidate, said, “We stand for God.”   Immediately I thought, “Oh dear.  Another person who has direct access to him, her or it.”   I am always more than a bit suspicious of those who purport to have access to THE GOD as opposed to one of the many gods or sources of eternal truth and wisdom.  I am also just a bit envious that I have not been one of those who has been chosen to be the earthly spokesperson for THE God.   Even though my background is in the Christian religion and I was even ordained as a teaching elder (otherwise known as minister) in the Presbyterian Church, I always knew that one day I would be outed as a fake Christian.  While I was particularly fond of the teachings of Christ, as I understood them, I questioned all that business about the strict requirements for being included in those who would be called on the judgment day. In fact I decided while writing my profession of faith to present to the elders who would decide if my faith and education qualified for this role of teaching elder that it was okay to focus on the easy going, unconditionally loving (except when he got a little frustrated  and had a snit) teacher who folks I admired such as Martin Luther King seemed to use as a mentor. My concept of this teacher did not include the characteristics  of exclusivity, jealousness, or judgment that seemed so obvious to many.  Yet, I know that my overly simplistic understanding put me more in the camp of the God which Mark Twain  chatted about in Letters From The Earth than it did of those “real or true Christians” with whom I had grown up and who I would encounter in the senior elders of the true church of the true God.
 
As a gay  man who had yet to come out to himself much less to anyone else, I had already flunked the test.  It would be many years before a majority of the voting elders of the Presbyterian Church would decide to include we non-100 % heterosexual sexually active members fully into the fold of even the teaching elders of the church.
 
The Southern Baptist Christian God with whom I grew up was dogmatic, all knowing about very specific issues of behavior, forgiving only if one was ashamedly repentant and self-righteously excluded the sinners unless the sinners repented and accepted “The Lord Jesus as their personal savior.”  God was a very distinct personage who, although part of the Holy Trinity, was one and three, and did not share HIS throne with other Gods.  There was certainly not room for the many, often fun living and adventuresome Gods of the ancient Greeks or the sacred spirit guides whose wisdom and loving guidance was available.   Neither was HE available to the those more adherent to the Old Testament even though Jesus had been born to parents coming out of that tradition.
 
Obviously, Christians were not and are not the only ones who are convinced the God of their understanding has the one and only true word which does not allow room for the what they may term “infidels, unrepentant sinners, or the evil ones” who believe differently and, heaven help us, behave differently.  Many other individuals are convinced that their particular God is the one true god.  One can only imagine the Mark Twain dinner party which hosts all these various, jealous beings who are convinced that their myopic vision can exclude the imposters sitting next to them.
 
Truth be told I not so secretly envy those who are so sure that they have the correct email address of the one and only universal truth teller. I have often thought that it must be very comforting to live in such certainly that one merely has to memorize and obey the rules while condemning  or, at the very least, pitying those who are destined to be left behind in ignorant shame, renting their garments so that they will catch the fire of the eternal damnation easier.
 
Obviously, since I am not one of the chosen to carry the mantle of truth, I will wander in the darkness of my verbosity hoping against hope that age will bring the wisdom of the one true God.
 
In fact, now that I think about it, that is probably why I did not get a personal email inviting me to the party in that Ohio city this week.  Oh well!
 
 
Written July 17, 2016

Psychological, physical, mental, soul or?
 
 
Even though my graduate degree is in clinical psychology and  I work as a licensed counselor and a certified addiction counselor, I have long been mystified by the distinction between psychological and physical.   I think that many of us use the words emotional, mental and psychological as interchangeable. 
 
The word psychological is derived from the Greek word psukhē  - 'breath, soul, mind'. (oxforddictionary.com).    Even the American Psychiatric association whose members have a degree in medicine use the term mental health to distinguish it from physical health although the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder – Edition V  addresses the some of the physical components are aspects of “mental illness.”  In this fifth edition of the DSM mental disorder is defined:
 
"A mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental functioning. Mental disorders are usually associated with significant distress in social, occupational, or other important activities. An expectable or culturally approved response to a common stressor or loss, such as the death of a loved one, is not a mental disorder. Socially deviant behavior (e.g., political, religious, or sexual) and conflicts that are primarily between the individual and society are not mental disorders unless the deviance or conflict results from a dysfunction in the individual, as described above."
 
Goodness, when I read this, although I have some an idea of what they are attempting to say, it is even more confusing. What do I know or believe?:
 
·      I know that food, environment, chemicals, movement, weather and a great many other factors affect how one’s brain functions.
·      I know that the human body is an interactional system.
·      I know that the interactions of we humans with what we experience as that which is outside of us is interactional.
·      I know that different sections of the brain are active (light up) or are inactive (do not light up).  Whether or not they are active is reflective of how that part of the brain is functioning.
·      Many neurons affect each section of the brain.
·      An emotional response is a physical response in the brain. Many factors affect whether or how that part of the brain is responding.  We now know, for example, some of the role of various chemical and chemical balances in the brain on how we function “emotionally.”
·      When I have an emotion such as a fear if other parts of my brain are working I can either feed or counter that emotional message.  If one has an anxiety disorder, for example, one may become very fearful in certain places or situations.  One’s brain may sound an alert that one is in danger.  That may or may not be true.  With an anxiety disorder often it may not be true.  If one part of my brain is anxious and another part of my brain “talks back” to the fearful message and says, “Yes, you are in danger” then one is feeding the fear.  If, in fact, one is standing in the middle of a busy highway that is an accurate message. If, however, one is at the local grocery store, or passing through a tunnel one is not in danger.  If one feeds the fear one will become even more fearful and be more likely to have an increased fear response next time one is in the grocery store or passing through the tunnel.  Both the original “feeling” of fear/anxiety and the resulting conversation in one’s head is  a physical phenomenon.  It is true that it is “taking place in one’s head” but it is not true that it is “all in one’s head” in the sense that one has imagined it.
 
Acceptance of these truths has allowed scientists and practitioners such as neuroscientists to experiment with treating such diseases as Parkinson’s, depression and Alzheimer’s.   Dr. Andrew Lozano in a Ted Talk of April 2013 entitled, Parkinson’s, depression and the switch that might turn them off discusses some of the exciting work which is now being done.  He reviews a bit of surgical history:
 
“So as I said, neurosurgery comes from a long tradition. It's been around for about 7,000 years. In Mesoamerica, there used to be neurosurgery, and there were these neurosurgeons that used to treat patients. And they were trying to -- they knew that the brain was involved in neurological and psychiatric disease. They didn't know exactly what they were doing. Not much has changed, by the way. (Laughter) But they thought that, if you had a neurologic or psychiatric disease, it must be because you are possessed by an evil spirit. So if you are possessed by an evil spirit causing neurologic or psychiatric problems, then the way to treat this is, of course, to make a hole in your skull and let the evil spirit escape.”
 
He then says:
 
“Now, in the course of time, we've come to realize that different parts of the brain do different things. So there are areas of the brain that are dedicated to controlling your movement or your vision or your memory or your appetite, and so on. And when things work well, then the nervous system works well, and everything functions. But once in a while, things don't go so well, and there's trouble in these circuits, and there are some rogue neurons that are misfiring and causing trouble, or sometimes they're underactive and they're not quite working as they should…
 
Now, the manifestation of this depends on where in the brain these neurons are. So when these neurons are in the motor circuit, you get dysfunction in the movement system, and you get things like Parkinson's disease. When the malfunction is in a circuit that regulates your mood, you get things like depression, and when it is in a circuit that controls your memory and cognitive function, then you get things like Alzheimer's disease…”
 
Now comes the exciting part. He reports:
 
“Now the first example I'm going to show you is a patient with Parkinson's disease, and this lady has Parkinson's disease, and she has these electrodes in her brain, and I'm going to show you what she's like when the electrodes are turned off and she has her Parkinson's symptoms, and then we're going to turn it on. So this looks something like this The electrodes are turned off now, and you can see that she has tremor. (Video) Man: Okay. Woman: I can't. Man: Can you try to touch my finger? (Video) Man: That's a little better. Woman: That side is better. We're now going to turn it on. It's on. Just turned it on. And this works like that, instantly. And the difference between shaking in this way and not -- (Applause) The difference between shaking in this way and not is related to the misbehavior of 25,000 neurons in her subthalamic nucleus. So we now know how to find these troublemakers and tell them, "Gentlemen, that's enough. We want you to stop doing that." And we do that with electricity. So we use electricity to dictate how they fire, and we try to block their misbehavior using electricity. So in this case, we are suppressing the activity of abnormal neurons.”
 
He then goes on to talk about using this same technique with a boy who completely disabled with the condition of dystonia.  The boy is now able to function well and independently . There is every reason to believe that soon this sort of technique will be able to be used to alter and/or stop the progression of such diseases as Alzheimer’s.    Not only will future treatment of many illnesses be accomplished by neurosurgeons implanting electrodes in various parts of the brain, we will continue to make strides in discovering how other factors affect how or if various parts of the brain function.
 
Cognitive psychology may still have a role to play.  We know that habits are stored in the basal ganglia part of the brain which and not where memory is stored.   We now know more practice and the reinforcement of the messages associated with habits affect the strength of habits.  Self-talk which is a physiological process can strengthen or weaken habits as can the decision to practice or not practice certain habits.
 
I have no idea of what language we might more effectively use to  talk about the factors which affect how we feel, think, and behave.  I do know that language is very powerful and telling somehow who is experiencing anxiety, depression, autism, irrational behavior to just stop it is not effective.  Punishing people for thought processes which are harmful to themselves or others also is not effective long term.  Instilling fear long term is also not effective. Many medications have very harmful side effects and simply do not work for a significant number of people.  Learning more about how the brain functions and how we can treat or manipulate part of the brain holds out great promise.
 
It is, to say the least, ironic that at a time when it may seem as if us humans are more divided than ever and more determined to use violence to harm and kill each other, humans are also doing exciting work to help us heal and function better. Hats off to all of those such as Dr. Lozano, his colleagues, and those other “head doctors” who have a great respect for the human brain and can explore our relationship with it.
 
Written July 16, 2016

​Embracing our pain
 
This morning I downloaded and listened to a rebroadcast of a June 4, 2009 On Being program in which Krista Tippett talked with Thich Nhat Hahn, the Vietnamese poet, Zen monk and peacemaker and Cheri Maples, who “served in the criminal justice system for 25 years, including as an Assistant Attorney General in the Wisconsin Department of Justice, and as a police officer with the City of Madison Police Department. She is a licensed attorney, a clinical social worker, and co-founder of the Center for Mindfulness and Justice in Madison, Wisconsin. She was ordained as a dharma teacher by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2008” and Larry Ward, “co-director of the Lotus Institute in Encinitas, California and an ordained Baptist minister.”
 
The timing of this rebroadcast seemed particularly prophetic given the killing of 80 or more people in Nice, France last evening by a person who apparently was thinking that he was doing the work of the God of his understanding.   At a time when it is easy to speak in terms of innocent and terrorist; bad and good; right and wrong, Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us that responding to violence with more violence will just keep the cycle of violence going.  Both Cheri Maples and Larry Ward give examples of how mindfulness love changed how they approached situations with others.
 
Thich Nhat Hanh in his poem Warmth says:
 
"I hold my face between my hands. No, I am not crying. I hold my face between my hands to keep my loneliness warm, two hands protecting, two hands nourishing, two hands to prevent my soul from leaving me in anger."
 
I can only imagine the anger, grief, and abject loneliness which the family members of those killed and seriously injured in Nice, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, other places/countries, and on the streets of many of the cities in the United States and the rest of the world.   Certainly we could not fault nor would one want to fault those family members for the myriad of emotions they are experiencing.  Most of us may know violence and loss from personal experience.   Whether it is the pain of the violence of the bully, the virtual or physical slap of a loved one, the news of a loved one killed in war, the death of a loved one – a child even – from an encounter with the police or a drug overdose, it is human to want to blame someone.  It is also human to feel all alone no matter how many attempt to comfort us at such times.
 
Often we may as individuals or as a nation be tempted, as Thick Nhat Hanh says, to allow our soul to leave us in anger.  Wait!  Is he suggesting that when we strike out in righteous anger our soul leaves us?  Surely we have a right to our righteous anger.  We have been wronged by someone, some group or some force. 
 
Cheri Maples tells a story about responding as a police office to a domestic violence call. She says:
 
“But probably the first example of that was when I was on a domestic violence call, and it was one of these calls where I would have just arrested the guy. I would have just, 'Hey, enough enough,' you know? This was a scenario where breaking up is hard to do, and there was a little girl, and they were exchanging custody. And he was kind of holding the little girl hostage, not wanting to give her back to Mom. And there had been no violence that had taken place, but both Mom and the little girl were very scared and intimidated. And ordinarily I would have said, 'That's it,' slapped the handcuffs on him, taken him to jail. But something stopped me, and it was I had just come out of this retreat. And I got the little girl, got him to give me the little girl, took care of her, got her and her mom set, told them just to leave, went back. And I just talked to this guy from my heart, and within five minutes, I mean, I've got this big gun belt on. I'm about 5'3", right? And this guy's like 6'6". And he's bawling, you know. And I'm holding this guy with this big gun belt on and everything. And he was just in incredible pain, and that's what I started realizing we deal with is misplaced anger, because people are in incredible pain.”
 
Thich Nhat Hanh in his poem Warmth says:
 
"I hold my face between my hands. No, I am not crying. I hold my face between my hands to keep my loneliness warm, two hands protecting, two hands nourishing, two hands to prevent my soul from leaving me in anger."
 
Many years ago when I was in a lot of emotional pain I knew I had to do something other than just retreat and focus on the pain.  I wrote the draft of book on dealing with anger and domestic violence.  I submitted it to one publisher, was rejected and then put it on the bookshelf. Yesterday I saw it while sorting through my books.   I had kept it, but for whatever reason, did not rewrite it or submit it to other publishers.  The writing of it served the purpose of staying in touch with my pain while not allowing it to take over my life or for it to morph into anger which might have struck out to create more pain.   I did not have the eloquent words of Thich Nhat Hanh but I did instinctively know or trust that I needed the comfort of touching my pain and turning it into something positive. 
 
Thich Nhat Hanh again reminds us:
 
“It's like growing lotus flowers. You cannot grow lotus flowers on marble. You have to grow them on the mud. Without mud, you cannot have a lotus flower. Without suffering, you have no ways in order to learn how to be understanding and compassionate. That's why my definition of the kingdom of God is not a place where suffering is not, where there is no suffering …”
 
Clichés often do not seem very helpful and yet the reason they are so often repeated is because they contain a measure of truth.  To say to someone, the equivalent of “you have no ways in order to learn how to be understanding and compassionate” does not feel very helpful when one is in the middle of the pain.  Yet, as I look back over my life I am acutely aware of the fact that each moment in my life is intricately dependent on all the previous moments.  In some very miraculous way each of the moments in my life was necessary to bring me to the present moment. If I could and did change one moment, I would change all the moments which followed. I am not saying that I think that violence is good or that we need the violence in the way that the lotus flower needs the mud.  If we did not have the lotus flowers, we might have some other expression of beauty.  Yet, if the mud arrives we can have the possibility of the lotus flower.
 
I invite you to listen once again to Thich Nhat Hanh:
 
“Yes. And suffering and happiness, they are both organic, like a flower and garbage. If the flower is on her way to become a piece of garbage, the garbage can be on her way to becoming a flower.
 
That is why you are not afraid of garbage. I think we have suffered a lot during the 20th century. We have created a lot of garbage. There was a lot of violence and hatred and separation. And we have not handled — we don't know how to handle the garbage that we have created. And then we would have a sense to create a new century for peace. That is why now is very important for us to learn how to transform the garbage we have created into flowers.”
 
I remind the reader that he said this in the interview with Krista Tippett in 2009.  It seems we still have not learned how to handle the garbage, but have, in many respects, continued to create more garbage.  Yet, there are wonderful flowers in the midst of midst of garbage.
 
I recall being in Estonia when it was still under control of the Soviet Union. There was no material for painting rebuilding and often not even food.  Yet, as I was walking around the city I would see sculptures build out of discarded munition parts. I also found that the one commodity which was frequently available for very little money was fresh cut flowers.  In fact, I found this in many poor countries.   Natural and created works of art were always available.    Whether it was the beautifully carved and decorated fish hooks, canes and other necessities many Native Americans created or the quilts many women created to keep family members warm, the need for beauty in the midst of suffering was understood and respected as a necessity. 
 
In his book, Tribe, Sebastian Junger discussed the richness of closeness and shared goals which often happen during a natural or person-made disaster.  Often we are at our best when we are forced to focus on immediate survival needs and do not have the time or energy to rank order and mistreat each other – to survive by climbing on the back of each other.
 
In the midst of changes in Britain, the predictions of disaster with regard to the presidential elections in the United States and the ongoing violence such as what happened in Nice yesterday. we have the opportunity to hold our faces in our hands and to hold the face of each other in our tender, strong, compassionate hands.  We have the opportunity of saying, “No, we will not give more of our soul to hatred and violence. Neither will we lay down and give up. We will rise from the rubble.  We will do what perhaps is most disconcerting and frightening.  We will love ourselves, each other and those whose lonely pain could otherwise lead them to a God who requires violent sacrifices.   We will show the way to “transform the garbage we have created into flowers.”
 
 
Written July 15, 2016

​And then there is love
This morning I was thinking about the word love.  It is a word that some of us use very sparingly while others of us seem to use it so liberally that it ceases to communicate anything important.  It is a word from which I demand a lot.  I demand that it carry the weight of multiple relationships –relationship with food, a lover, a friend, a pet, a flower, or even a process.  For example, I recently ate a fresh Georgia peach.  I LOVED the sweet, juicy taste and the slightly silky feel of the lightly fibrous, fruity membranes which explored and played with my tongue and roof of my mouth while the fresh, faintly aphrodisiac scent triggered memories of sensuous nights and amorous mornings –fantasies of my first grade teacher Mrs. Williams, Beverly Scott, Evelyn William, Joey Kaiser or a host of others.  I was sure each successive one would be the one to keep my heart in a constant flutter and perfectly synchronized with the fluttering of the wings of the magical and enchanting Monarch butterfly.
 
I have often written about love. I reviewed some of the titles of pieces I have written about love.  They include:
     Love is messy
     My extended family
     Love your enemies
     Love stories -
     A responsible friend, neighbor, citizen
     Empathy without being a Pollyanna
     A series on the various aspects or possibilities of empathy
 
I have also written indirectly about love while writing about various mentors.  Then, of course, there is my love for the computer and the various programs which have released me from the time consuming and messy job of creating and correcting a work of written art! I was happy to say goodbye to the eraser, correction fluid, correction tape and those other techniques of making sure that typing mistakes were blatantly obvious to even the most unsophisticated reader.   Let me count the way I love my computer who so graciously allows me to insert a forgotten letter, word, phrase or even paragraph; which allows my eloquence to emerge as my fingers fly over the keys.   Ah….  What word, other than love can describe the magic of being able to romance, elucidate, educate, amuse, bore and sometime suffocate friends and foes equally in the ocean of words which fly on the wings of love, anger, hate, judgment, acceptance and even indifference.
 
This love affair with “THE WORD” began when I discovered that I could make sounds: “ah! Da! Doot! Et!   Later I would discover the sounds which I could copy and with which I could make demands and later combine with my smiling, baby blues to cajole and some would say manipulate.
 
My relationship with people would come and go but my relationship with the sensations of words playing with the shape and feel of my mouth could only be rivaled by that of my relationship with other “objects” such as that Georgia peach.  It is not surprising that peach should come to be a metaphor for all other loves.  “Ah, my sweet Macbook Air, you are a peach of a helpmate in sharing the succulent words which bind my soul to that of the reader.
 
Written July 14, 2016
 
Words  530

​Attachments  to being right
 
Attachment is often used as a spiritual term to imply determination to hang to a relationship with an idea, a person, a thing or a process.   If one looks up the word in dictionary.com one finds:
 
Noun
1.    An act of attaching or the state of being attached.
2.   A feeling that binds one to a person, thing, cause, idea or the like; devotion; regard.
3.   Psychology
a.   An emotional bond between an infant or toddler and a primary care taker.
b.   An enduring emotional bond that develops between one adult and another in an intimate relationship.
 
4.   Something that attaches; a fastening or tie.
5.   An additional or supplementary device; attachments for electric drill.
6.   Law. Seizure of property or person by legal authority, especially seizure of a defendant’s property to prevent it dissipation before trial or to acquire jurisdiction over it.
7.   Something attached, as a document added to a letter.
 
Although I frequently use the term as defined in 4-7, my primary interest in the concept is in its use to describe a state of being convinced that one cannot live or cannot have a good life without a particular person, idea, job or possession.   Often a person who might employ me as a counselor is struggling with letting go of a particular person, a career/job, an addictive substance, possession or ideal.   One might find that the person with whom they planned to spend the rest of their life journey has suddenly died, fallen out of love with them or for some other reason, i. e.  disability, religious calling, is not available.  The person may not be able to imagine a happy or even a meaningful life without this person.  Sometimes the attachment is to a belief that they cannot or should not enjoy or have a meaningful life after their child dies.  Another common attachment which I encounter is that to an idea such as to a particular God or a belief that the God of their understanding requires that they impose certain behavioral rules on others.  They may even believe that the God of their understanding considers one who disagrees with their belief an infidel whom they must then kill to please that God or higher being.  
 
In the United States many are attached to the belief that the safety of oneself, one’s family or even one’s beliefs about what it means to be citizen of this nation is dependent on one’s ability to  possess, carry and use various weapons designed to kill those they perceive as a threat.  
 
The demonstration about the perception or belief that racism plays a role in the shootings and killings by police highlighted many attachments.  The results of these attachments  included:
·      Micah Johnson killing five police officer and seriously wounding seven others.
·      Up to 20 to 30 protesters legally bringing AR-15s and other military-style rifles slung over their shoulders to the protest demonstration making it difficult to know who was presenting a danger to others (reported in Tampa Bay Times by Sue Carlton I article entitled Putting more guns on street isn’t the fix, July 13, 2016, p 1B).
It can be assumed that there were others with concealed or open carry permits legally carrying guns.
·      Police officers trained to use lethal weapons although to be fair Dallas Police Department members have been trained to focus on negotiating a resolution if at all possible.
·      Possession by police of military-style robot which could be armed with bomb and sent into situation to kill.
·      Use of the death penalty.
·      Belief that racism plays a role in the use of lethal force by police officer throughout the United States although there are a number of studies which do not support this claim. (One can google a 2015 Justice Department report, An Empirical  Analysis of Racial Differences in Police Use  of Force by Harvard economics professor Roland G. Fryer Jr. analyzing more than 1,000 officer-involved shooting across the country and other study results.)
·      Experience of black individuals of all social, academic and economic backgrounds indicating that they get stopped more often than their white counterparts by the police
·      Enduring belief by some that some races are superior to others.
·      Statistics of rate of incarceration of blacks in United States versus rates for Caucasians although there is higher rate of incarceration in United States than in other so called developed nations.  (Approximately 12–13% of the American population is African-American, but they make up 35% of jail inmates, and 37% of prison inmates of the 2.2 million male inmates as of 2014 (U.S. Department of Justice, 2014).)
 
One could continue this list seemingly indefinitely.   If we are going to begin to sit down as equals with the goal of problem solving we are going to have to consider letting  go of some of our attachments.   Certainly, I can make statements or ask questions such as:
 
·      I have come to suspect that X is true.
·      I wonder how it happens that Y…
·      Something is not working if…
·      What might be the outcome if we were committed to modeling the use of  respectful, compassionate, non-lethal means of stopping those who are using violence?
·      Is it possible to teach someone to kill the “enemy”  as determined by a country and teach them that killing the enemy in other circumstances is wrong?
·      Is a mentally ill person an enemy?
·      Does killing to teach that killing is wrong a viable or rational approach?
·      Can we avoid phrases such as “law and order” and other sound bite approaches to community issues?
·      What does it mean to aggressively endorse “law and order” and a conservative approach to second amendment rights?
·      Is killing ever right or always wrong?
·      Do any scientific studies support the belief that punishment works long term as a positive change agent?
 
 
Respectful questions infer that there may be more than one respectful opinion.  (I am not thinking of questions such as, “What were you thinking you idiot?” Neither am I thinking of such comments as “Of course, you think like that. You look at every issues through rose colored glasses.”)
 
Letting go of attachments to an opinion or a belief leaves a door or possibly a small window open to hearing what others think , fear, or otherwise feel.
 
Letting go may start with the possibility of letting go of the conviction that I am “right”  and any other way to seeing, perceiving, or understanding is wrong.
 
Personally, when I am honest I have to admit that often when I even entertain the possibility that a belief to which I have super glued myself (attached myself), I may get very anxious/fearful. I may feel very strongly as if I am giving up a dear friend. I may suffer physically with symptoms of weakness/faintness, higher blood pressure or some others.  Attachments are not like preferences.  I may personally find earth tones very soothing but I am fine with a variety of hues and tones of colors. I am not attached to living with earth tones. I am attached to living without a gun in my home and, yet, I could live with someone who owned and used a hunting rifle which was kept securely locked up  when it was not being used for hunting.   I cannot imagine a situation in which I would agree to live in same home  which contained an assault type weapon.  Yet, there have been many attachments which I thought I could not let go of which now seem very unimportant to me.  Does this mean that there are no core values – no consistent me – a man of constantly changing values and opinions?   No, deciding to allow for the possibility of  letting go of attachments does become in and of itself a core value.  Believing in the sacredness of all people including those who are mentally ill and  those who are still attached to the belief in the use of violence is a core value.  Being – sometimes painfully – open to learning and growing is a core value. Those parts of me have gotten stronger or perhaps clearer with the years,  but they have been a part of the essential me for a very long time.  Having said this I still have a lot of room to learn/to grow which always means identifying letting go of attachments.
 
Written July 13, 2016
 

​All human lives matter
 
That seems to be a simple statement and, yet, over the years, humans have been disagreeing about what this statement means. This is accomplished by various means including:
 Asking when does one become a human life?  Some would argue that this is at the moment when the sperm fertilizes the egg. Some might argue it is important to talk about the potential for life to begin. Certainly, in times past when it was more difficult to carry a fetus to term and many children and mothers died in childbirth it was very important to not waste the sperm which were the thought to be limited.   Some social and political theorists have suggested that it is only at a certain stage of development than one can be considered human.   Some have suggested that the mentally challenged or others who cannot meet the prevailing standards for what is required to be a functional member of a community do not deserve the same rights or even the right to live.  Some think in terms of the body politic and not the individual. Thus, as Jay Lifton in the book The Nazi Doctors points out, doctors under the Hitler regime could think of killing certain people as no different than amputating the limb of an individual.
·      Deciding that some lives matter more than others.  If the body politic decides that some individual or group presents a threat then they can be labeled as an enemy and be jailed and/or killed.
·      Deciding that some who are convicted as having committed certain violent crimes can by legally put to death by the state.
·      Deciding that some who have committed certain “crimes” can be locked up and treated and be punished for long periods of time.
·      Deciding that some who seem to pose an immediate threat to an individual, a community or a group can be killed.  A recent example is the killing of police officers by Micah Johnson and the subsequent killing of Mr. Johnson.
 
One can also debate the meaning of the word ‘matter.’ What does it mean to matter?  Does saying that a human life matters mean that every human life deserves:
·      Enough food to just stay alive.
·      Any food whether it is health or unhealthy.
·      Clothing to protect from the elements.
·      Health care at a very basic or elementary level but not expensive procedure or the same general access to care.
·      Means of exchange such as money to purchase what seems important or necessary to an individual.
·      Protection from discrimination.
·      The freedom to dress or not dress as one chooses.
·      The freedom to engage in sexual activity as long as it is with a consenting adult (however adult is legally defined).
·      Equal protection.
·      The right to marry whom one chooses or the right of others to decide the marriage partner.
 
In our increasingly complex society the question of how we take care of and treat each other – one’s individual and collective responsibility – gets addressed in such international organizations as The United Nations or by the body politic of a particular country.  In some countries such as the United States all three branches of the government can weigh in on these issues. 
 
These issues can also be addressed using the various means of communication now available.  Some suggest that despite having means of communication that we communicate less and less.  This morning I listened to and later read the transcripts of two Ted Talks.
·      Michael Sandel –The Lost art of democratic debate (posted June 2010).
·      Jonas Gahr Store – In defense of dialogue (posted January 2012).
 
Professor Sandel reminds the listener that:
 
“Aristotle first used the term "ethics" to name a field of study developed by his predecessors Socrates and Plato. Philosophical ethics is the attempt to offer a rational response to the question of how humans should best live. Aristotle regarded ethics and politics as two related but separate fields of study, since ethics examines the good of the individual, while politics examines the good of the city-state (Greek polis).
…
Aristotle believed that ethical knowledge is not only a theoretical knowledge, but rather that a person must have "experience of the actions in life" and have been "brought up in fine habits" to become good (NE 1095a3 and b5). For a person to become virtuous, he can't simply study what virtue is, but must actually do virtuous things.”
 
Professor Sandel gives examples of Supreme Court majority and minority opinions which demonstrate how to conduct what he considers a rational or democratic discussion about issues which they agree merit such serious consideration.   One of the examples he gives is that of the question of whether a golfer who’s had a medical condition should be legally permitted to use a golf cart in professional tournaments where their use had been forbidden. 
 
“And Justice Stevens, writing for the majority, said he had read all about the history of golf, and the essential point of the game is to get a very small ball from one place into a hole in as few strokes as possible, and that walking was not essential, but incidental.”
…
“Now, there were two dissenters, one of whom was Justice Scalia. He wouldn't have granted the cart, and he had a very interesting dissent. It's interesting because he rejected the Aristotelian premise underlying the majority's opinion. He said it's not possible to determine the essential nature of a game like golf. Here's how he put it. "To say that something is essential is ordinarily to say that it is necessary to the achievement of a certain object. But since it is the very nature of a game to have no object except amusement, (Laughter) that is, what distinguishes games from productive activity, (Laughter) it is quite impossible to say that any of a game's arbitrary rules is essential."
 
Whether one agrees with either the majority or minority opinion in this case is not the issue.  Humans have been proving that very educated, thoughtful good people can have very divergent opinions about most subjects;  that if we listen carefully to each other we often have to admit that the person or persons with whom we disagree can help us think outside of our small box. 
 
Jonas Store, the Norwegian politician and diplomat, suggested in his January, 2012 Ted Talk:
 
“Another acknowledgment we've seen during these years, recent years, is that very few of these domestic interstate, intrastate conflicts can be solved militarily. They may have to be dealt with military means, but they cannot be solved by military means. They need political solutions. And we, therefore, have a problem, because they escape traditional diplomacy. And we have among states a reluctance in dealing with them. Plus, during the last decade, we've been in the mode where dealing with groups was conceptually and politically dangerous. After 9/11, either you were with us or against us. It was black or white. And groups are very often immediately label terrorists. And who would talk to terrorists? The West, as I would see it, comes out of that decade weakened, because we didn't understand the group. So we've spent more time on focusing on why we should not talk to others than finding out how we talk to others.”
 
As we know it is now July of 2016 and it would seem that those running for political office or those making decisions for the body politic do not see the need for “dialogue” or “democratic debate.”   It seems that the skill being honed is one of defending what one already believes and/or attacking one’s opponent.  This is done using sound bites on Facebook messages, tweets, shouting matches which are touted as debates or on so called news programs which 24/7 seemingly re-broadcast these sound bites.
 
Yet, if one is paying attention, one also notices that there are those who are engaging in or inviting the engagement in dialogue. The Supreme Court of the United States continues to use the rules or at least the guidelines of Aristotelian debate.   There are some news stations which attempt to provide forums for more considered exchange of opinions and ideas.   Magazines such as the New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly in the United states are committed to allowing space enough for very detailed discussion of some very important issues.  Interviewers such as Terry Gross and many of the Ted Talk presenters carefully attempt to define or restate an issue in a way which opens up the topic for a more in depth discussion.   Many of the blogs I read go well beyond sound bites or just restating opinions.   There are groups such as the group of women in Egypt about whom I read this morning who are using Facebook to explore what it might mean to be a person in Egypt who happens to be female.
 
I do think that it is possible for us to continue to expand the arena in which we challenge ourselves to:
 
·      Suspend judgement and focus on listening.
·      Explore the possibility that there are many ways to define or state the issue or issues.
·      Consider the possibility that concepts such as knowing, justice, human, violence, culpability, and many others can be viewed from many different perspectives.
·      Consider the possibility that we are all equally human and not labels which pre-determine our worth.
·      Consider that it may be worth our time and money to teach the rules of debate or dialogue suggested by such individuals as Aristotle and those “philosophers” who continue the tradition.
 
 
Written July 12, 2016

​The village – a metaphor
 
It is Monday morning, July 11, 2016.  I began this morning, post absolutions and making coffee, with sitting down at the computer.  Opening email I read Todays Gift from Hazelden which is a daily quote which I will share with a  number of people and then, because it is Monday, I read a new blog by my good friend Dr.  Becky Johnen (http://authorbeckyjohnen.wordpress.com).   This morning her blog is entitled “Dream until your dreams comes true.”  She begins with the following quote: “It starts with a dream.  Add faith, and it becomes a belief. Add action and it becomes a part of life.  Add perseverance and it becomes a goal in sight. Add patience and time, and it ends with a dream comes true. “  Zoe Zantamata (happinessinyourlife.com). She then goes on to use, as an example, the group Aerosmith, one of her favorite bands – how their very successful story began with a dream.
 
Once I finished saying good morning via texts, emails and Facebook messenger, I was ready to head to the gym. First, I listen to some morning news commentaries while on the treadmill. This morning the news commentary continues to be largely focused on the tragic shooting of police officers in Dallas and the legacies of racism in the United States. In thirty minutes I am ready to leave the  treadmill and my daily quota of television.  I now listen to Ted Talks or some other podcast while  I finish exercising.  This morning I listened to two Ted talks. The first was by Sally Kohn which was originally posted in December of 2013, but which is especially relevant in this election cycle.   It is entitled “Let’s try emotional correctness.”  She says:
 “I am a progressive lesbian talking head on Fox News….
 I don't care if you call me a dyke. I really don't. I care about two things. One, I care that you spell it right. (Laughter) (Applause) Just quick refresher, it's D-Y-K-E. You'd totally be surprised. And second, I don't care about the word, I care about how you use it. Are you being friendly? Are you just being naive? Or do you really want to hurt me personally? Emotional correctness is the tone, the feeling, how we say what we say, the respect and compassion we show one another. And what I've realized is that political persuasion doesn't begin with ideas or facts or data. Political persuasion begins with being emotionally correct….
 So someone who says they hate immigrants, I try to imagine how scared they must be that their community is changing from what they've always known. Or someone who says they don't like teachers' unions, I bet they're really devastated to see their kid's school going into the gutter, and they're just looking for someone to blame. Our challenge is to find the compassion for others that we want them to have for us. That is emotional correctness.”
 
Dear me. This sounds a lot like that business about loving one’s enemy or perhaps even not labeling someone as one’s enemy . She also seems to be suggesting that we dig a little deeper to see if we can find some humility.  Yikes!
 
Next I choose a Ted Talk by James Geary entitled “Metaphorically Speaking” first posted in December 2009. He says:
 
“Metaphor lives a secret life all around us. We utter about six metaphors a minute. Metaphorical thinking is essential to how we understand ourselves and others, how we communicate, learn, discover and invent. But metaphor is a way of thought before it is a way with words.
 Now, to assist me in explaining this, I've enlisted the help of one of our greatest philosophers, the reigning king of the metaphorians, a man whose contributions to the field are so great that he himself has become a metaphor. I am, of course, referring to none other than Elvis Presley.
 
Now, "All Shook Up" is a great love song. It's also a great example of how whenever we deal with anything abstract -- ideas, emotions, feelings, concepts, thoughts -- we inevitably resort to metaphor. In "All Shook Up," a touch is not a touch, but a chill. Lips are not lips, but volcanoes. She is not she, but a buttercup. And love is not love, but being all shook up.
 
In this, Elvis is following Aristotle's classic definition of metaphor as the process of giving the thing a name that belongs to something else.
 
He goes on to talk about types of metaphors and analogies:
 
“Einstein described his scientific method as combinatory play. He famously used thought experiments, which are essentially elaborate analogies, to come up with some of his greatest discoveries. By bringing together what we know and what we don't know through analogy, metaphorical thinking strikes the spark that ignites discovery.”
…
 
“Take the three most famous words in all of Western philosophy: "Cogito ergo sum." That's routinely translated as, "I think, therefore I am." But there is a better translation. The Latin word "cogito" is derived from the prefix "co," meaning "together," and the verb "agitare," meaning "to shake." So, the original meaning of "cogito" is to shake together. And the proper translation of "cogito ergo sum" is "I shake things up, therefore I am." (Laughter)
 
“Metaphor shakes things up, giving us everything from Shakespeare to scientific discovery in the process. The mind is a plastic snow dome, the most beautiful, most interesting, and most itself, when, as Elvis put it, it's all shook up. And metaphor keeps the mind shaking, rattling and rolling, long after Elvis has left the building.”
 
Finally it is time to leave the gym and sit down to breakfast while reading the Tampa Bay Times and The Wall Street Journal.  In both of these newspapers I will encounter other village members who challenge me to think about a variety of issues from a variety of perspectives. One of those is David Brooks who  states in an article “The Power of altruism” (Tampa Bay Times, July 11, 2016, p 15A):
“In real life, the push of selfishness is matched by the pull of empath and altruism. ..As babies our neural connections are built by love and care. We have evolved to be really good at cooperation and empathy. We are strongly motivated to teach and help others.”
 
David Brooks?  Is this not the conservative New York Times Columnist?  Yes he is and he is saying something which merits my attention.    I must admit that I experienced a moment of cognitive dissonance which I saw his name paired with the title of the article. 
 
Earlier among the morning emails were some, such as the one from my friend Howard, challenging me to think outside of my tiny political and sociological boxes.
 
Mercy!  It is now 9:30 and  I am sitting in the middle of a village, the members of which have challenged me to think, to feel and to figuratively and literally allow myself to be a part of something much larger than me but which includes me. 
 
Yesterday someone asked me to share what I was reading . She was asking what gives me cause for hope.   I shared some of what I am reading and then then this morning I shared some other books, blog sites, Ted Talks and podcasts such as “On Being.”   Of course, there are also the books which rest in my head and which may be found on my bookshelf, in the library, or on google. There are also community  lectures.
 
Not to be forgotten are the times when I am reading a novel  or something else purely for pleasure although even here I may get a brain tickle.    Just as important are the quiet times which are known in music and art as the negative space – the space between the words or thoughts – the space which creates the bridge onto which new thoughts might wander.
 
Already this morning without engaging in anything other than brief face-to-face conversations with individuals at the gym I have encountered quite a village of people who will continue to follow me throughout my day.  Whether it is my bias about those who carry the label of conservative or television stations which begin with the name of a very benign animal – Fox – I am challenged to think – or as James Geary suggests, "I shake things up, therefore I am.”
 
 
Written July 11, 2016

​The wise ones hope
 
On this  Sunday, July 10, 2016, following the shooting of police officers in Dallas by a troubled young man who was just doing what he had been taught to do – kill those we label the enemy – there  are rays of hope; hope that this act which is so much closer to home than Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and any  of the other places the men of women of the United States join others to respond to violence with more violence – closer to home for those who are not there or not home reeling from the news that that their loved one has made the ultimate sacrifice, I turned to those who have and continue to drag me from my black box of despair.
 
·     Leonard Pitts in an article “American has gone mad before; the cure wasn’t hate” in the July 10, 2016 edition of the Tampa Bay Times, p p3 reminds me of the words of Bobby Kennedy on the night of the killing of Martin Luther King, Jr. 
      “My favorite poem,” he told them, “was Aeschylus.  And he once wrote, ‘And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop from the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.’ “
      “What we need in the United States is not division. What we need in the United States is not hatred. What we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness but is love and wisdom and compassion toward one another and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer in our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.”
 
·     Donald Pitts.  I have no idea if Leonard Pitts is related except in terms of eloquence and wisdom to my late friend Donald Pitts.  Donald Pitts was one of the early – some say one of the first - black people to graduate from law school and be licensed as an attorney in West Virginia and would tirelessly mentor and teach young people. He was also a minister and was known as Bishop Pitts. His sisters, the Pitt sisters, were well known in the Wheeling, WV for their passionate, talented, singing of the praises of the God of their understanding – singing which defied all barrier of color, race, age and religion.  Don graciously took on the role of teaching me.
·     David and Mammie, Tlingit Indian leaders, on the island of Hoonah who when we arrived on the island told us that “We will be your son’s grandparents.”  Then David told me, “And you, young man, I will teach to be a man.”
·     Nikki Giovanni the wise, passionate poet who intoned in the last part of her poem Ego Tripping (There may be a reason.)
“I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
I cannot be comprehended except by me
Permission
 
I mean…I…can fly
      like a bird in the sky”    
 
·     Maya Angelou –the last part of her poem, “Still I Rise”
 
“Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
 
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.”
 
·     Last, but certainly not least, I am reminded of the poem by Emily Dickinson, “Hope is the thing with feathers”
Hope is the thing with feathers 
That perches in the soul, 
And sings the tune without the words, 
And never stops at all, 
  
And sweetest in the gale is heard;         
And sore must be the storm 
That could abash the little bird 
That kept so many warm. 
  
I’ve heard it in the chilliest land, 
And on the strangest sea;        
Yet, never, in extremity, 
It asked a crumb of me.
 
Often, but as we can see, not always it is the women among us who brings us back to hope.  After all, who else but those who survive the painful, wonderful, traumatic, joyful experience of childbirth can go on to hope day after day that their child will live and thrive could move us to and beyond tears to a new day in which we must wrap one’s slice of the world in the warmth and beauty of a quilt while stoking the fire which will cook the healing chicken soup.
 
This is a way. We must like the chicken in Jane Mead’s poem “Passing a Truck Full of Chicken at Night on Highway Eighty” “She looked around, watch me, then strained to see over the car –stained to see what happened beyond.”   The last line of the poem is, “That is the child I want to be.”  (quoted in Tampa Bay Times, July 10, 2016 on page 6L)
 
Today our hope springs from the sure knowledge that we are more than our worst deed.  Today after having fasted and purified our bodies and are ready to reap the rewards of Ramadan; Today we are ready to accept forgiveness even as we forgive – ourselves and others; Today we are ready to give thanks to the legions of wise women and men who dare to hope.
 
 
Written July 10, 2016