LIFE IN INTERESTING TIMES

when the world is not easy to read

and the news is alarming

and when you think you can respond

but there is another post

even more disturbing

what can you do?

after glancing at the plants

in your garden

remember

even a flower takes more than one day

to bloom

not apologizing for all the sad things

she opens up delicately

colours deep purple

pink or orange

each petal so thin yet bright

does not threaten

other plants or compare

her strength her size or colour

with other petals

she just opens up

like a goddess

and we love her

don't we? 

How Can We Heal The Broken?

 

We live in a troubled world. It's not kindness that is rewarded in our society, it's winning.

Starting at the beginning of patriarchy where men were trained to kill in war, it became a trend to value men who didn't think or feel much. They are trained to dismiss feelings like warnings that you might have an accident if you drink and drive. Never mind all the arguments, the laws, the training, the rewards. Movies, books and TV programs revolve around action, conflict and resolution within an hour or less.

I remember desperately trying to please relatives, teachers, adults and friends. At first I thought this could be achieved by being kind, listening, caring. Then I tried getting high marks at school. Throughout my life I tried to be nice, worthy of friends, liked. 

Eventually I could see how this society worked. It didn't value good or nice. It valued winning, being special, fast, rich or beautiful. Now in my 70's I still find it difficult to watch self centred people do cruel things and get applause for that. But then I'm a woman and was raised to be a nurturer while men are raised to dismiss their feelings and strive to win ... whatever, a race, a war.  Thoughts about kindness making us thoughtful about what happens to all in our world, is not only overwhelming, for men, its a waste of their time, unless they are sensitive.

Concern for others has to be allowed for men to show their feelings. So a driver, a repeat offender, has drinks with his pals before getting in his car to drive home. There are few classes or encouragement for men to examine or question their feelings. Now, we, society express disdain for men who kill others by being drunk and driving. I can hear his friends trying to comfort him as he feels terrible for killing someone in an accident but valued for killing thousands on a battle field.

In war men are trained to kill the enemy but life is not easy. It's not as though it's a chess game. Or any other than the millions of games where there needs to be a winner among the losers. In this "civilized" society we are raised to believe our worth depends on physical strength, colour of skin, size, intelligence and gender.

A man who develops empathy is at risk for being dismissed as effeminate. America is very good at winning contests, wealth, wars and the status of "the greatest" in the world.

We enter the foggy world of human attitudes, humans who have been trained to hate some and applaud others depending on how useful they are in holding up the values of their society. A popular or successful man loses a few points in the world of inarticulate worth according to the popularity game.

Not many white men will worry about the family of those broken bones and will not feel the pain. Feelings of guilt will only hurt those who have a conscience, a moral compass. Hitler was never loved by his father and mothers are merely women. 

We are trapped in capitalist misogyny where you cannot win without hurting others. Yet winning doesn't give you comfort forever. Also we cannot afford the emotions to save our world. 

AND IN THE END WE’LL KNOW

Betrayed but never trumped 

there was never the test all could reply to 

we worked

we sang

we shouted

wrote letters to the editor

we voted

but

nothing worked

the guilty never

apologised

they got their staff

to express

what they themselves

could not admit

snickering in the game room

priding themselves

on winning the game

whatever and whenever

they are not the rich

not the privileged

not the prized

or prettiest

not the ones who spoke

on stages

in white shirts

not the factory owners

the doctors or the winners

at soccer or hockey

or chocolate factory owners

not even Scrooge

not those we wrote about

in great adventures

putting their lives at risk

trying to control the monster

not the handsome movie star

the tap dancer

or composer of symphonies

these are not to blame

entirely

they are the ones

who wrote the patriarchy

and blamed the witches

those who built muscle

on misogyny

who claimed every voice

a lie if it didn’t praise

the war against the mystery

of life.

From Religion to Compassion

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ7IAhLLw28

Misogyny And Mental Health

 

Would it be trite to say hate is the seed for violence?

Who do you hate?

Men? Women? Children? Animals?

Does the colour of your flesh

dictate your mental health?

Did you spend ten years

in a classroom

with your arm raised

until it ached

because your teacher refused to acknowledge you?

Was that teacher a woman?

Did your tight lipped teacher

sound authoritarian?

Were the male teachers relaxed

made jokes

loved getting laughs

as though he needed you

to like him?

Were your feelings

generally the same throughout

your school life?

Was your mother loving

was your father too busy to bother

with you

or

did you learn that a woman's voice

was simply a temporary

thing to endure?

soon you would go to college

where all the teachers were male

who dismissed the ideas

of female students?

Did you pick up the deep tones

of prime ministers

their short rebuffs

the attitude of ridicule?

Did the dulset tones of authority

make you feel

as though you were rising up

to the adult world?

Was there a time in your life

where it seemed

masculine was natural

and feminine temporary?

Or did you just seek the truth?

The Big Beautiful Mind

Asks how can we fix the traumas that headline every morning. We live in a world where bad news is posted more than good.  It's like guns. We pay attention to violence and the threat of violence. America has claimed the bully pulpit of the world.  It's greatness depends on how many people it can hurt, how much control it has over the survival of humanity.

Who is 'humanity?'

The habits and needs of one species which also includes its needs for food, air, and water.

In patriarchy it seems to stop there as we are told we are isolated units competing for earth's resources. In "Uhmurika" these are what we compete for and the ones who have easy access to these needs have money and guns.

Normal folk have what they need. At least that's how the myth works. Those who have money have worked for it. Those who don't are lazy.

THAT'S A LIE. THOSE WHO DON'T HAVE MONEY ARE EXPECTED TO WORK FOR A PITTANCE, SLEEP IN DOORWAYS, BEG FOR CHANGE.

But wherever they go the public calls for their removal. It doesn't look good for the country to see a mob of homeless souls. It doesn't look for society to see people going hungry. It causes problems like 'what sort of civilization allows for some to earn billions while the majority don't have a home. What kind of special is the billionaire class? Look it up. Check statistics. Sign up for Democracy Now!

Are you still with me? Or did you have to have breakfast first?

I am preaching and its not the best way to reach others.

Begin Again

Each day I wake and worry about where our species are heading.

My days are filled with listening to podcasts, radio shows, articles on the human condition. In the background is the sound of the dryer pushing clothes around and around. Sometimes I hear  birds chirping or arguing with one another. 

But all we have is our ability to judge and as long as we can admit we do not have the key to truth we have the responsibility to work from what appears to be true after we have read and thought about what's happening.

The notion that we cannot know anything is worse for our health than the notion we know everything. We plod along questioning and thinking, comparing headlines with news reports. We have the ability to judge when someone has distorted the truth for their own benefit, but it is just a judgement.

Some of us are better than others but we are not holders of the only truth. Who benefits? We all do.

Every age has its dangers. People like Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated their lives to the greater good even while they are imperfect. Finding truth is the task we all have to do.