Muse in the Morning

It’s a great song.   But times have changed…

State of the Onion XXII

America the Ugly Purple Mountains Gold in Them Thar Hills Purple mountains or any color once majestic now leveled rock crushed for oil or hollowed out emptied of coal except where it burns or blown apart in the search for fancy stones America Amerika The weapon that destroys the mass is fueled by the lives of men too poor badly educated and so ill-treated lubricated by the greased palms of partisan self-interest and naked incivility of so-called servants and dangerously driven by the avarice of men too rich –Robyn Elaine Serven –March 24, 2006

Muse in the Morning

It’s a great song.   But times have changed…

State of the Onion XXI

Muse in the Morning

It’s a great song.   But times have changed…

State of the Onion XX

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XIX

Art Link Landscape of the Mind The Candy-colored Clown In my dreams the eagle transforms into the dove of peace every soul is sparked by precious pieces of Martin and Coretta their essence permeates the landscape of my mind fairness prevails people are kind nice caring helpful human warmth flows toward everyone through everything replenishing the fabric of this mortal coil There’s always fair weather where justice reigns the justice that Martin saw from the mountain top Then I awake let out a gasp and cry out in despair –Robyn Elaine Serven –February 17, 2006

I could not stop before publishing this one.  Some of you have made your disdain for me quite plain.  If you were trying to harm me with your words, you accomplished your goal.

pf8 thinks I can still be an effective communicator even after the damage that some of you did to whatever respect and credibility I may have earned.  I’m extremely doubtful.

Consider this an attempt to help foster unity and aid the healing.  At least that is my intention.

Be excellent to one another, for their sake.

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XVIII

Speaking of ethics and morals…we were doing that, yes?…here’s a poem that was written in a most serious mood about an interaction I had with someone who believed that the Bible was the source of all goodness in the world.  But I suppose it doesn’t have to be that precisely directed.  The graphic is my effort at a stylized yin/yang.

Art Link Not Quite Balanced Stories to Tell We both believe a story (and so do they and these and those…) We both have a book It’s just that you believe that everyone should worship your book word for word without context while my book teaches me that I must create my own story based on my principles my ethical nature my moral judgment my basic goodness as a human being and laugh at the thought that one person would seek to force their thoughts or beliefs on another I’ve read your book You fear mine And you claim that your belief is stronger? You jest I chuckle at your joke Really You slay me –Robyn Elaine Serven –March 23, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.

The other day I ventured into an essay.  God forbid that I read an essay here.

Dude, I read almost all of the essays here.  Telling me I should just not read them I think misses the point of the whole exercise.

And I observed something written by someone trying to write about identity politics, someone with whom I have had extreme disagreements about the exact same subject in the past.  I might have actually read the whole thing through at once, but I got trapped pretty close to the beginning because, like he has a habit of doing, the author assumed a power-over position.  So I stopped before finishing to address it.  

He didn’t intend to do so.  At least I’ll give him that benefit of the doubt.  The power-over position is so natural to some folks that they assume it without a thought most of the time.  In what I thought was a crude attempt at humor, he decided that the alternative to use to the set of men and women, out of all the words available to him, was “hermaphrodites.”

I made a cultural faux pas at that point.  I assumed a position of equality in order to point out that he was invoking his power and presumed to try to educate him about his choice of words.  He spent the rest of our discussion trying to deny me that position of equality, to reassert his manhood and restore order in the universe.

Mind you, this is only my view, from the position as a member of a traditionally powerless group.

Apparently when I was born, I was entered into this huge game, the Game.  I never chose to play it.  Apparently I can’t opt out.

Once upon a time, some women bought some prints of my graphics.  I sold them at a Women’s Project Retreat, I think for $10 a piece or so.  Mostly I had a “booth” to let my artwork display to the community I wished to be a part of a little more about who I am.

Occasionally when I have shown them in the world of solids, someone has asked how much I would sell a print of one of my graphic/poem combinations for.  I’ve asked back, “What do you think it is worth?”  Truthfully I haven’t got a clue.  I’ve always ended up not making a sale.  I have given some as gifts to people who have meant something in my life, on occasions where it seemed appropriate.  But truthfully I have no knowledge of their value.

Nor do I want that knowledge.  Isn’t that a hell of a thing.  I have absolutely no interest in money.  I don’t want to play the Game.  But I’m not allowed to opt out.  Helluva thing.  And people talk about losing freedom?

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XVII

One step at a time.  One person at a time.  That’s how the world changes.  And for some of us the changes are monumental.

Art Link Seeking Enlightenment Steps One step at a time sometimes forward sometimes up Forward as I move through my life even if some wish to pull me back Perhaps they sense the peril of the new Upward is harder as I lift the burden of proceeding to another level up the staircase of human evolution beyond the mundane They do not like it that I have taken this step or even that I have shown them that this place exists Their screams of pain anger and terror will not – can not bring me back This place once conceived cannot be erased and cannot be denied Ideas cannot be unthought –Robyn Elaine Serven –February 7, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XVI

In the end, it is really all about the ways we can be divided and the people who benefit when that happens, rather than the ways we can celebrate or similarities together, in spite of our differences.  And celebrate those differences as well.

Art Link Inside Slices Each time a class of people is defined humanity is divided hewed like an old log Just like that log destruction occurs at the point where the axe strikes But the damage done to the people in the path of the cut is much more serious than the harm done to some old wood Race cuts like a saber through individuals of mixed ancestry Can you feel their pain? How feels the slice of the katana of ethnicity to someone whose grandparents hail from four different cultures? Blood spurts from the laceration of the gender scimitar through those not exactly men or women I live on the edge of that blade –Robyn Elaine Serven –March 30, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XV

Developing a message is one thing.  Getting other people to the place where they can understand it is something else.

Art Link Wallpaper Flames The fire that may burn in the belly or on the tongue slowly smoulders in the mind over the kindling of traditional thought Progress begins when I flambé the tissue of my brain over the white hot flame of new perspective –Robyn Elaine Serven –February 8, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.