Some of the discussion in my essay from yesterday caused me to think a little more deeply about why I blog. I must admit that those reasons have changed and developed over time. But I’d like to talk a bit about my thoughts today, knowing they might change later.

Probably like most of us, my reasons for blogging are tied to the way I think and the kind of person I am. One thing that’s been true of me all my life is that I like to dig deep and ask tough questions about the big picture. That’s why Nightprowlkitty has dubbed me “Pandora.” Yeah, I’m always trying to open the box and see what’s inside.

Another way of looking at that is a story I’ve heard so long that I have forgotten its origins. If someone knows, please tell me in the comments. Anyway, the story is about two people who notice there are dead bodies flowing down a river. They furiously work to rescue the bodies until one notices the other is leaving. When asked why, the person responds that they are going upstream to see what’s causing all this. I’ve always been one that wants to head “upstream.” In my professional life, I work to support those who spend their days trying to “rescue the bodies.” But I also spend a fair amount of time trying to understand the root causes. I think both actions are needed. Its just that I’m better suited for the later.  

I have often thought that most political disagreements break down along the lines of two slogans:

If you’re conservative you believe that everyone lifts themselves up by their own bootstraps.

If you’re liberal you believe that a rising tide lifts all boats.

We who are liberal tend to look at our collective responsibility to one another and cannot separate our sorrows, successes, failures and joys from those of others. I’d like to take a deeper look at this notion, something that was prompted by an essay written by Edger this week titled This Is Me in which he quoted Alan Watts:

This feeling of being lonely and very temporary visitors in the universe is in flat contradiction to everything known about man (and all other living organisms) in the sciences. We do not “come into” this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean “waves,” the universe “peoples.” Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. This fact is rarely, if ever, experienced by most individuals. Even those who know it to be true in theory do not sense or feel it, but continue to be aware of themselves as isolated “egos” inside bags of skin.

Loaves and Fishes

By David Whyte

This is not

The age of information.

This is not

the age of information.

Forget the news,

and the radio

and the blurred screen.

This is the time

of loaves

and fishes.

People are hungry,

and one good word is bread

for a thousand.

We often talk about a possible future of gestapo-like tactics coming to our shores if things don’t change – and quickly. I share those fears and feel the mounting fascism that fuels them.

But today I’m thinking about places in the US where this fear has already come true. I hope everyone is aware of places like T. Don Hutto: America’s Family Prison in Texas and the increasing number of privatized prisons being used to house thousands of detained immigrants.

And then, there’s the fact that, according to Children’s Defense Fund, black boys have a one in three lifetime risk of going to jail, and Latino boys a one in six lifetime risk of the same fate. Of course, for many of these young ones, getting to jail would be better than becoming a victim of the violence they live with every day on the streets. As Bob Herbert pointed out last year, 34 children were killed on the streets of Chicago in less than a year.

Many of you might have already seen the video by Annie Leonard titled The Story of Stuff. If not, I highly recommend it (you can watch the whole thing at the link). She walks us through the extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal of stuff and what its doing to our world in a way that is both informative and engaging. But I’d like to focus on the stage of consumption.

The quote from Victor Lebow really grabbed me:

Our enormously productive economy…demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and using of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption…we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.

I remember years ago hearing a quote that really struck a chord with me:

If you want things to stay the same, you’re going to have to be ready to change.

I don’t remember where the quote came from or who said it, but I think there’s alot of truth to it – especially in this fast-paced world.

As all our presidential candidates are vying for who can more effectively promise change, I am thinking today about it’s inevitability.

A Dream of Trees by Mary Oliver

There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees,

A quiet house, some green and modest acres

A little way from every troubing town,

A little way from factories, schools, laments.

I would have time, I thought, and time to spare,

With only streams and birds for company,

To build out of my life a few wild stanzas.

And then it came to me, that so was death,

A little way away from everywhere.

There is a thing in me still dreams of trees.

But let it go. Homesick for moderation,

Half the world’s artists shrink or fall away.

If any find solution, let him tell it.

Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation

Where, as the times implore our true involvement,

The blades of every crisis point the way.

I would it were not so, but so it is.

Who ever made music of a mild day?

Our local public libraries in this city are on the verge of hiring armed police officers and its not because they want them to have more reading time. These folks are scared of the young people who recently began spending more time in the libraries, primarily to get access to the internet. Our staff have been talking with folks at the libraries about alternatives to this plan, and I’m happy to tell you that the leadership is interested in hearing more.

We provided a training to some of the staff in the library across the street from us and it was well received. They report to us that after resorting to calling the cops at least once a week due to unruly behavior of kids in their library, since the training this summer, they have not called them once. They also told a wonderful story of just one of the changes they made. After the training they realized that many of the problems with young people began while they were waiting in line to get on a computer. With this information, they decided to place Sudoko puzzle books and a checkers set where kids were waiting in order to give them something to do. And, whala…problem solved.

Now maybe that’s just an interesting story in and of itself, but I think its also a metaphor about how we are making all the wrong choices in our fearful attempts to establish security in this world. Whether its a “lock ’em up” mentality to solve all social ills, a “build a wall” mentality in our immigration policy, or a “shoot ’em up” mentality in response to perceived international threats, we seem to keep playing the same old song, regardless of how ruinous the results.

For me January is a time of reflection. Not because of New Years, since I’m not one for resolutions, especially those requiring will power – something I don’t put much stock in. There are other reasons for this state I’m in today.

Imagine you’re 7 years old and from the time of your earliest memories you’ve heard that you were born sinful. And that unless you accept Jesus as your personal savior (whatever that means to a 7 year old??) you will go to hell for eternity.

Now, imagine that 7 year old being told what is sinful and seeing it in your own life (you’ve been known to lie and have violent thoughts about that asshole at school that keeps putting you down) – and hearing that those sins make God angry. You go to bed at night hoping that you don’t die before you’ve had time to confess your sins because you’re scared to death of what God will do to you.

And imagine that you’ve been told from your earliest memories that one day there will be a rapture when all the good Christians will all of the sudden disappear up to heaven. You’re supposed to look forward to this, but it scares the bejeezus out of you. So you think there’s something wrong with you. And when you come home from school and no ones there – your first thought is to wonder if the rapture happened and you got left.  

I know that Docudharma is a blog focused on national and international affairs. But one of the things I love about this place is that we talk about all kinds of things. Tonight I need to make one of the toughest decisions I’ll have to in a while. So I’m wondering if any of you good dharmaniacs might have some words of wisdom for me.

My springer spaniel Libby is 18 years old and is on her last leg. Here’s my favorite picture of her that was taken not long after I adopted her.