Pair o’ dig ’em

The Battle Of Evermore

Queen of Light took her bow, And then she turned to go,

The Prince of Peace embraced the gloom, And walked the night alone.

Oh, dance in the dark of night, Sing to the morning light.

The dark Lord rides in force tonight, And time will tell us all.

Oh, throw down your plow and hoe, Rest not to lock your homes.

Side by side we wait the might of the darkest of them all.

I hear the horses’ thunder down in the valley blow,

I’m waiting for the angels of Avalon, waiting for the eastern glow.

The apples of the valley hold, The seeds of happiness,

The ground is rich from tender care, Repay, do not forget, no, no.

Dance in the dark of night, sing to the morning light.

The apples turn to brown and black, The tyrant’s face is red.

Oh war is the common cry, Pick up your swords and fly.

The sky is filled with good and bad that mortals never know.

Oh, well, the night is long the beads of time pass slow,

Tired eyes on the sunrise, waiting for the eastern glow.

The pain of war cannot exceed the woe of aftermath,

The drums will shake the castle wall, the ring wraiths ride in black, Ride on.

Sing as you raise your bow, shoot straighter than before.

No comfort has the fire at night that lights the face so cold.

Oh dance in the dark of night, Sing to the morning light.

The magic runes are writ in gold to bring the balance back. Bring it back.

At last the sun is shining, The clouds of blue roll by,

With flames from the dragon of darkness, the sunlight blinds his eyes.

azlyrics

Since we began gathering here at docudharma there has been a shift. A pair o’ dig ’em shift.

It’s not only in ourselves, but also in our nation.

I think the nation is awakening. At. Last.  (’bout time guys!)

They came to sit & dangle their feet off the edge of the world & after awhile they forgot everything but the good & true things they would do someday.

Much more interesting to me is the group think that is going on here. I believe it was kj who coined “Call&Response Essaying.” So very apt.

Many have written essays      

All are talking  around the same ideas and ideals… each shining their spotlight on a different facet of the same gem.

Very soon we’ll have the whole thing uncovered, all the facets sparkling…

and the idea will spring forth and take people/the nation by surprise.

It’s long past time to end the bitching & moaning, listing our grievances, wringing our hands, tut-tut they’re being so mean…

It is time to rise up and defeat the Dark Lords.

Its time to stand up to the yellowbellied stinking cankerous sons of bastids and call them on their unmuzzled, swag-bellied, greedy lies. We have got to STOP the scurvy, cheating, barnacle-brained corporations & the churlish, fen-sucked, hasty-witted uber-rich from destroying not only our nation, but our planet. Would that they be put in a cauldron of lead and usurer’s grease, amongst a whole million of cutpurses, and there boil like a gammon of bacon.

But enough of name calling. Although fun it is unproductive… and that is what we need… Action!

In those days,

we finally chose

to walk like giants

& hold the world in arms grown strong with love

& there may be many things we forget

in the days to come,

but this will not be one of them.

So… where to begin? The problems are varied and many… permeating every bit of our society…

The hardest bit is already happening… the pendulum change… the pair o’ dig ’em shift

The next hardest bit is to figure out a goal. From what I’m reading, that’s also happening. We all want pretty much the same things: to stop the violins & whirled peas!

OK. So how do we achieve that?

From what I’m seeing, reading, hearing…the real problems started after the WW’s… corporations that had geared up as machines of war now were out of work~ and Profits so they took the same chemicals they were killing the enemy with & sold them to farmers… to kill bugs!!

WhatintheHELL were they thinking?? THAt’s a bright idea…let’s poison the water & soil!!

the corporations of the world have tried to isolate us, divide us into groups that can be pitted against each other… but we’re stronger than that… & Irish Fighting Spirit is in all of us~ to band together against a common enemy. Like Sauron, they are cutting the trees, poisoning the land…all for profit for themselves.

It’s long past time to take away the corporations ‘rights’~ because that’s just plain wrong. Humans have rights…NOT corporations.

So, right about now you’re saying, Yeah. And?

Well~ it’s our time now, we CAN change the world…

We’ve had leader after leader, prophet after prophet tell us…..

~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~ ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~ ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~ ~♥~

                                               be excellent to each other

~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~ ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~ ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~  ~♥~

The very first step to doing this is to get your mind right. The only way to do that is to divest yourself of every label you are carrying in your lexicon. We’ve got to break down these barriers they are building. That is our battle to fight. Our War on Terrifying!  We must get to greatest common denominator. We Are All Humans

I believe once we realize we’re all humans, all in this together, the rest will be easy-peasey.

Because it is our nature, as carbon based life forms to make connections. To not be isolated.

And it’s just that easy… reach out to someone, smile, do something nice~ just because…

If you see a lack, try to fill it…

If you see a chasm, try to bridge it….

There is no magic wand. It won’t happen overnight. And just as Frodo could never have made it without the help of the Fellowship, I can not do this alone. Everyone is necessary to make the change

We all need to do our little bits… all working towards the same goal. Like different instruments coming together to produce a symphony… different brushstrokes creating a masterpiece…

Grab your gaze out of the gutter and look up to the stardust from whence you came and believe in yourself again.

You can change things. You know it’s true. Stop smoking. Get fit. Care more for those around you and let them know it.

Blog more. Sing louder. We are not proud, or tired. And we’ll show you the next time it comes around on the guitar.

With feeling.

I can’t tell you exactly what you should do. It’s in your heart, you know where you are needed, where your talents lie. You know the what to do and the real reason you need to do it.

If we all did what we could to correct the ills done in this country, by helping each other instead of buying into the system… if we all deferred our taxes, filed for extensions~ over and over and over…

If we bypass the system entirely where we can…. by becoming the change

There is a need for medical & mental health care for our Veterans returning from Georgie’s War… if you are a doctor or healthcare proffessional~ how about gathering your colleagues and starting a Doctors-WithIn-Borders in your area of the world to help those who have sacrificed the most.

There is a need for building supplies, etc in NOLA…still!

Can you buy a gift card each payday & send it?

Maybe there is NO extra at your house… can you write a letter?

There are hungry people in every city… can vacant lots be found & put to use growing vegetables?

Do you have time to talk to your local schools, starting gardens there~ to teach children sustainable gardening & provide food for the hungry (most crops come ready in summer, school is out)… Can the extras each day from the schools be gotten to the homeless?

And we can fight back against the greedy corporations by not buying. Yes I know, we can’t just stop… but we can stop buying so much…

We can choose to live with the planet instead of on it.

We can write to companies and tell them we are no longer buying their product~ we only buy from those who care about the future, incorporate recycling into their product packaging. We can only buy drinks in aluminium or glass & not buy water at all..

We can refuse to buy new clothes anything (well~ food is cool! Don’t want anyone eating recycled food)… only buy at thrift stores, recycle centers, ebay, yardsales… and when you have finished with something~ sell it, give it to someone you know needs it~ or find someone who does thru Freecycle or donate it to your local thrift store or a recycle centre like Goodwill. If enough of us do this places like Emmett’s Fix-it Shoppe & Rosie’s Redux will be back in buisness!

We can pack our own lunch… not buy fast-food laden with grease & whoknowswhatelse.

Not only is it cheaper, it’s better for you!

We can carpool, yeah it’s not very convenient & it requires scheduling but it’s Sooo much better than giving oil barons huge bonuses, doncha think?

We can refuse to buy aerosol sprays… get pump spray if you must spray…

We can choose USPS because their trucks run the same route every day regardless… the gas is being used anyway~ take advantage of one government program that (so far) works!

And as you encounter others in your day to day life try to show them a better way… find those teaching moments  as Knucklehead does…

I walked into a Malibu restaurant one evening 15 years ago with my daughter.

I noticed, in a booth midway down the length of the place, two couples, one facing my entering & the other with their backs to me. I overheard the man facing me in the booth remark, “Hey, check out Charlie Manson”. The other couple turned around & looked towards me, but reacted to their booth-mate`s statement with not enough hypocrisy & knew I had seen them staring, when they pretended to be looking for a waiter. I ordered my favorite food & let my daughter take her time perusing the menu, like a big girl. Our vegetable salads were brought & I kept looking puzzled, whenever the waiter was near. I finally pretended to be curious enough, & called him over. I asked him if he knew the two couples at the booth, or, if he at least knew their names. When he said, “No”, I asked him to please go over to them, & explain that I thought they looked familiar to me, & to ask them if they were possibly, the Tates & the LaBiancas. Diligently, he went over & innocently explained about how they had seemed familiar to me, & if in fact, they were the Tates & the LaBiancas. They had been in ‘after dinner’ mode, but that quickly changed into, ‘let`s get the hell out of here’ mode. The man who had brought up Charlie Manson, quickly came over to our booth & apologized profusely & that he was so sorry he had said what he had. I explained that it was quite unfair to characterize me as a leader of killers while I was peacefully enjoying a meal with my daughter. I also told him that the lesson I wanted him to learn was because of the fear ingrained in him, by the ignorance of his tutors, he might one day, miss recognizing a great person, one, maybe maligned, because of deformities, or race or any other perceived affliction. I apologized for being so cruel to him & his group, but that if I had not, he would never have learned a lesson, from someone so habituated to his kind of remarks. I asked him to please reconsider judging the next person that might be different & even better, to acknowledge that person with a smile, like I was doing now. All this time the waiter, was keeping busy close by, hanging on every word I said. The man shook hands with me, apologized again, & left. As I was taking care of the tab, the waiter came up & explained that he only understood what I had asked him to do, when they reacted. He told me, “That was too cold, man, too, too cold. What was so cool was how you talked to him, good on you.” The man, opened a coffee shop at the other end of Malibu a month later & we became good friends.

OR~

The other day I caught my son

‘teaching’ manners as he held the door: “It’s polite to say Thank You when someone holds the door for you.” He stated just a wee bit louder than necessary to the 6-8 people who had taken advantage of the open door, with  no word of acknowledgement. There was no rudeness in his voice, just a simple statement of fact. I had to laugh. He showed me just how simple it can be.

The reason these worked is because in both cases the teaching moment was snatched up and every iota of opportunity was squosen from it. These people saw something amiss & took steps to call it out for what it was and use the the opportunity to show a better way. To teach. To be the adult. To Parent.]  And that’s exactly what we have to do… lead the way.

Parenting is the process of raising and educating a child from birth until adulthood. It has recently become a very popular topic due to the necessity of clarifying the process of upbringing a child at home by parents as the opposite to the formal education of a child at school. A teacher student relationship is different from the parent-child relationship. Therefore a parent’s methods of educating a child must be different from a teacher’s. At school teachers give a child general literacy and scientific knowledge; at home parents give a child general wisdom of life as parents themselves understand it.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

— Nelson Mandela’s inaugural speech, 1994

Some may say I’m asking for Utopia. Well why not?

If I’m wishing, I may as well be wishing BIG!

Hanta Yo