Category: Community

Muse in the Morning

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

State of the Onion XXV

America the Ugly Brotherhood Skin Tones They lack a sense of brotherhood toward so many kinds of people for union members for whom it has special meaning for immigrants of any kind legality be damned for those whose roots weren’t cultivated in the appropriate loam kinship even denied with their own children if they happen to be queer no empathy felt for those whose skin tones haven’t been created recently enough by lounging in the sun nor sympathy for people whose cupboards are too bare from one day to the next If you don’t believe what they believe then to hell with you America Amerika There is no crown for there is too little good to place one upon –Robyn Elaine Serven –April 14, 2006 America, America After o so many years America America For you we weep our tears –Robyn Elaine Serven

Muse in the Morning

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

State of the Onion XXIV

UPDATE #3:  I was able to connect with tes tonight and wire him the money.  I didn’t get to speak with him very long but I know he’s feeling a whole lot better tonight.  Thank you everyone!   Final total for the Dharmathon was $1050 but with the PayPal and Western Union fees I ended up sending $950. Which is awesome!

As some of you know, a beloved member of this blog, theevolutionarysieve (tes), is in trouble.   We hadn’t heard from him in a few months and then he showed up here a few days ago.  If you saw this – you know he’s not in a good place.  

Last we knew he was moving to the mountains to escape the city and begin preparing for the collapse of society.   These were his parting words:

On the road again……..

by: theevolutionarysieve

Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 11:39:42 PDT

I want to thank all of you.  You are really wonderful folks.  I will always consider this a place where I am welcome and where folks patiently try to understand my slightly deranged mind.  I have been going through a bit of change recently and have not been here much, and then only in a fragemented way.  My partner and I are in the middle of preparing to leave the bay area.  We are moving up into the sierra’s.  Near Mammoth Lakes.  I have had a some what precarious existence my whole life.  I am in a period of it now.  I will stop in from time to time. When we have landed and I have set up our satelite dish I will be able to be present again.  For the next four or five days I will check in, then I will be traveling to the high country.  Blessings on you all.  Keep me in your hearts.  As you will be in mine.  Believe in the power of networks of cooperation bonds.  Believe in the good heart.  Thanks for being kind to this old crank.

At this point, I don’t know any more of the story than what he has posted here the past few days.  Along the way to moving down there they had car trouble and borrowed and spent the last of their money getting their vehicles fixed.    They have been camping on National Forest land while he’s working to get money for a place to live.  Obnoxious vacationers from LA and SD have invaded their peaceful woods with their campers and ATVs.  The forest rangers have chased tes and his girlfriend off the land at gunpoint.  They were forced to move to a motel.  It sounds like there is no money left to stay there either.  

Precarious existence indeed.  No time to prepare for collapse.  It is happening to him now.      

Muse in the Morning

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

State of the Onion XXIII

America the Ugly Fruited Plains Food? At the edge of forests healthy for everything but animals or trees lie the fruited plains blistered with toxins alchemically nurtured in a liquid roughly water strange brew what’s inside of you America Amerika Groves of blemished trees bearing produce invisibly bruised dripping venomous juices like Snow White’s apple We are fashioned into laboratory mice to ascertain how much poison we can consume and remain vaguely human while we are forced to pay exorbitant fees for what passes as our health –Robyn Elaine Serven –March 29, 2006

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.

Thich Nhat Hanh writes in Being Peace (1987):

The fourth practice is Covering Mud with Straw.  You know when you walk in the countryside after a rain, it is very muddy.  If you have straw to spread over the mud, you can walk safely.  One respected senior monk is appointed to represent each side of the conflict.  These two monks then address the assembly, trying to say something to de-escalate the feeling in the concerned people.  In a Buddhist sangha, people respect the high monks.  We call them ancestral teachers.  They don’t have to say very much; whatever they say is taken very seriously by the rest of the community.  One says something concerning this monk, and what he says will cause the other monk to understand better and de-escalate his feeling, his anger or his resistance.  Then the other high monk says something to protect the other monk, saying it in a way that the first monk feels better.  By doing so, they dissipate the hard feelings in the hearts of the two monks and help them to accept the verdict proposed by the community.  Putting straw on mud– the mud is the dispute, and the straw is the loving kindness of the Dharma

I want to put straw on the mud.  I am not a senior monk.  I am just another person asking us to stop the fighting, to pause, unconditionally to cease the hostilities.  Maybe if we just stopped and breathed, we could find refuge.

I am inhaling all of the darkness and misunderstanding and hurt feelings and anger and sadness of the past few days, and I am exhaling peace and relaxation.  I am inhaling the disputes and arguments, and I am exhaling peace and happiness. This practice is called Tonglen.

Pema Chodron has written about tonglen:

This is the core of the practice: breathing in other’s pain so they can be well and have more space to relax and open, and breathing out, sending them relaxation or whatever you feel would bring them relief and happiness.

Enough talking.  Enough explaining.  Enough thinking.  Enough.  Let’s try breathing.  Let’s try stopping and breathing.  Let’s just stop.

Thich Nhat Hanh writes:

In the peace movement there is a lot of anger, frustration and misunderstanding.  The peace movement can write very good protest letters, but they are not yet able to write a love letter.

He could be talking about blogs.  He could be talking about us.  May we be excellent to each other.  May we all be safe.  May we all be well.  May we all be peace.

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.

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.