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(Xanga is screwing me over again by not allowing me to insert a picture)

The tragedy in CT has made a lot of people ask the question of “Why” to not only other people but also to some god.  this made me remember a poem I wrote several years ago to a friend, Melissa, on the death of her friend for many years, Joe.  Not everything applies, but enough does.

David

 

TO MELISSA ON THE DEATH OF JOE

 

Joe, a man I did not know.

But I wish to God I did.

That is, if my God

Were in the habit of granting wishes.

 

But He is not.

Otherwise Joe would not have died.

For no one would have wished him dead,

And everyone would have wished him to live.

 

But maybe my God, instead of granting wishes

Is involved in more serious matters like “justice”.

But what justice is there in the senseless death

Of such a unanimously acclaimed “good man” like Joe?

 

Maybe my God, instead of “justice” and “wish fulfillment”

Is involved in working out His “Big Plan”.

And I’m supposed to learn the “reason”

Why the good suffer as do their loved ones.

 

But the more I try to reason these things out,

The more I recognize the prevalence of unreasonableness.

And if God’s reasonableness is that different than mine,

Then events don’t occur because of (God’s) reasons,

But rather in spite of them.

 

The fact that some good can come out of anything bad

Does not mean that that good was the reason for the bad.

 

When encountered by the reality of severe misfortune,

I should not blame a non-wish fulfilling God,

Nor should I fault a non-justice serving God,

Nor question a God whose reasons are undecipherable.

 

I should rather realize that if there is any God,

He does not exist to accept my challenges

But to help me – through other people.

 

To help me pursue my own wishes and dreams,

And to help me treat others with love and justice,

And to help me to find just enough reason in life

To keep me in balance between enjoyment and responsibility.

 

With that help, I can encounter misfortune and

Rather than demanding to find the good that caused the bad,

I am empowered to make something good out of the bad.

No guilt.  No blame.  No insanity.

 

And so Melissa, this is my wish for you:

Do not seek for answers from a god,

Seek help from others around you to help you now.

And may you have no guilt, no blame, and no insanity.

 

David Kimball

Let Us Learn From That First Thanksgiving

Let us learn from that first Thanksgiving

            The concept of acceptance.

For it was the Indians who graciously accepted

            The foreigners without proper visas.

For they realized that acceptance was moral

            Whether it was legal or not.

 

Let us learn from that first Thanksgiving

            The concept of tolerance.

For it was a holiday of mixed religions

            Both Christian and Indian.

For a celebration among different people

            Is a celebration of humanity, not theology.

 

Let us learn from that first Thanksgiving

            The concept of learning from other cultures.

For without learning how to harvest,

            The English non-farmers would have perished.

So also, if we do not learn to learn from other cultures

            We too will perish.

 

Let us learn from that first Thanksgiving

            The concept of a proper paradigm.

For this first harvest was a product of teamwork

            Where both sides learned, lived, and enjoyed.

So too we need to live through collaboration and cooperation

            Rather than fight through competition and control.

 

David Kimball

Aka curiousdwk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning Light

 

Peer out of the night and into the light

A new day is dawning.

See the clouds with reddish light,

How they charm our weary senses

With an awe-inspiring sight.

In the beauty, performing their duty,

Of showing us all – that all is right.

 

See them sailing, sailing, sailing,

Floating colors of majesty unveiling.

Through the stone-cold pre-dawn air

With a promise they declare

That beyond this vision’s dimensions

Dreams of hope are given extensions

Through a universal slumber,

Deep and sweet past all compare.

 

See the colorific clouds in flight,

See the silver lin-ed clouds of light.

See the stars bow out in worship

As they wait for the next night.

Hail the morning orb so bright!

 

This dawn-awakening, new-day breaking,

Lifts us up with heavenward sight.

And our thoughts with hope a-glimmering

Building dreams with love a-shimmering,

By the filtering and the mirroring

Of the unapproachable Light.

 

 

Curiousdwk

 

 

 

The Sunflower’s Motion

 At dawn, when the yellow orb first appears

The sunflower’s face eagerly awakens

And traces the trajectory of that sun

As it rises and ascends to its zenith.

Where at noon, that seeded yellow face

Stretches and shines its golden reflection

Back to the originating source of light.

And then it follows that chariot of fire

Down, down, to the Westerly horizon

And then more as it droops its dark face

Peering down to the leafy lawn

Where its petals will lie strewn

In all too short a time.

 

David Kimball

 

LIFE NEEDS MORE SINGING

The woman, bearing down on her birth canal

Is far from singing – she is crying.

Crying out in pain and looking for the release

That only birth (or death) can give her.

And the birth-born is not singing – she is crying.

Crying out for the loss of her mother’s warm, wet womb. 

 

Life needs more singing.

 

The hop-scotching girl of seven has learned to sing

Before her songs are drowned out by cries from scraped knees.

And the unearthly love of an adolescent girl

Causes her to sing one day and then sob the next day.

 

The college girl sits in the park with her roommate

They sing in the fading light and in their faded denims.

Swearing in blood they will always sing together.

Not realizing that they will go their separate ways

And there will be no more “togethers” for singing.

 

The young woman goes to a bar and hears the drunken songs

And wonders why she doesn’t hear singing on Main   Street.

The only singing she hears there is the singing of geese flying

And their Song of the South pilgrimage as they escape the cold.

 

She hears the singing at her wedding, and the crying of her mother

But does not find herself singing in her house – she only listens to the radio.

She sings in harmony while in church on Sunday mornings,

But forgets how to sing melodies during the week.

 

She visits her mother in the nursing home and hears the moans and groans

But doesn’t hear the singing of those who have the most to sing about.

And at her mother’s grave site, she wonders if people there died

Because their hearts stopped beating or because their hearts stopped singing.

 

Life needs more singing.

 

Curiousdwk

 

 

When you discover how everything finally turns out, you will lift your head and laugh at the sky.

“The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives.  The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.”  (G. K. Chesterton)

 

 

 

 

 

Thos who Follow Romney

I am not attacking Romney as much as I’m attacking the dunces who follow Romney thinking he’s a leader.  This is cognitive disonance at its peak.  They are against Obama so they think Romney must be good – against all critical analysis.  I am not a Democrat but rather a Global Citizen so I am neither Democrat or Republican.  Which means that I don’t have to take a party stand – and I don’t.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t be against a Party pick.  But even more than being against Romney, I can’t believe his followers.  Read this letter from the former Governor of Michigan – a State which should be close to Romney’s heart.  After reading this letter, ask yourself how anyone can think that Romney would be a good leader.

Letter from Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm (Former Governor ofMichigan)

Dear Mitt Romney:

There are politics, there are lies, and then there’s you. You take it to a whole ‘nother level.

OK, I admit that I have a particular animus toward you, as a guy that knifed us in the back when Michiganwas on its knees, but you simply cannot be our president. It cannot happen.

As you know, Mitt, I was governor of Michigan during that horrible time, when the financial industry was melting down and the auto industry was in free fall. And you were running for president. You saw the polls about the unpopularity of bailouts and you lumped the auto industry in with the bank industry — the auto industry, where your father and so many of your family members had worked.

You raised your finger into the air, saw which way the wind was blowing, and followed it. Way to lead, Mitt.

You weren’t looking into the eyes of autoworkers getting laid off as factory after factory closed.

In the six month period surrounding the president’s inauguration, more than 1,018 Michigan companies had announced mass layoffs in response to the crash.  Our unemployment office was receiving more than 800,000 calls per day from people desperate for help. The auto industry was heading over the cliff, we were begging for help, and you were coolly standing behind us giving your home state a shove over the ledge.  And now you have the nerve to claim credit for the auto industry’s rebound?

It’s a joke, right?

Steve Rattner, who headed the president’s auto task force said it succinctly today when he said, “Mitt Romney is nuts.” If only that’s all it was.

So Mitt, here’s my request: Just stop it. Stop denying that you were pandering to a national audience when you wrote that Detroit should “go bankrupt” and then stop taking credit for the success of the Obama administration’s intervention to save the auto industry and more than a million jobs that went with it.

The Obama team wasn’t taking advice from you. So just. Stop. Talking. Just stop.

And to you, reading this in The Huffington Post — let’s be honest, most Democrats aren’t going to vote for Mitt Romney anyway. This latest example of his deception and distortion is just that, the latest example.

But to the Republicans and Independents who are reading this: Could you honestly see George H.W. Bush, or John McCain or Bob Dole, or even George W. Bush, demeaning the intelligence of the American people like this? Acting in a way so devoid of integrity?

It’s ironic that on a day in which we focus on the auto industry, we’re debating the merits of a guy who exhibits all the clichés we unfairly assign to used car salesmen.

Americais not a business. It’s not about ROI.  It’s not a trophy to mount on your wall.

Americais an idea. And it’s the solemn responsibility of each “temporary” president to protect and nurture that noblest of all ideas — with integrity.

This man, Mitt Romney, has shown — not through his experience, but through his actions and words — that he is
unqualified to carry out that responsibility.

 

THE COMPLACENT

The complacent make me angry as hell.

Their unconcern riles up the heat of my soul

Until my mouth erupts like Vesuvius.

Their shuffling along, in long, endless columns

Kick up the dust from their feet

Obscuring the bright, bright stars above.

 

The complacent gather mass through the years

Until the are impenetrable

As I vainly try to move across their line.

 

They, lest they progress, are marching sideways

Keeping me from moving ahead.

 

They don’t understand why I am the one

Who is always trying to “kick against the pricks”.

They entreat me to join with them in their

Lateral, arabesque shuffles to nowhere.

 

But as my mind roils and boils

And seethes in vivid frustrations,

I recognize my inner sentiments

As being full of vitriolic envy

More than righteous indignation.

 

The complacent have learned a secret

That I have longed for for years.

They are the ones who are at peace

While I foment and foam at the mouth.

 

I find that I can know no peace

While confronted with the complacents. 

 

Curiousdwk

The Words of Feelings

 Sweetheart, words flood my mouth

And tumble out as white water rapids,

Uncontrollable, multi-directional, and wild.

My words have no meaning except

As they receive meaning through you.

You bless them, you honor them,

And I am blessed and honored by you.

My words rush to their true source

And are made pacific by your grace.

You take these droplets,

And weave them as cocoons of silk.

As they become beautifully metamorphosed

Into multi-colored satiny raiments

Suitable for the vestments of naked gods.

 

Feelings are viewed through the prism of words

And this spectrum then becomes songs,

Albeit, A playground cacophony

Of multi-timbre sounds.

Again, in your presence, these become

Odes to the joys of each color of the rainbow. 

Magnificats paying homage to virtues

Revealed in your struggles for life.

Disguising your hardships by your zest.

 

These songs shall be captured in a book

With each page being a shining lamp

To reveal the enlightenment one woman

Can promote in the mind of one man.

This sacred hymnal shall be placed

Next to our love-making bed

Which will sing through its springs

And celebrate the songs of O.

Purple passions and ruby reds

Shall shower us from head to foot

As we bathe in the harmony of each other.

Our opus of crescendos and decrescendos

Will symphonize as we synthesize

Our dialectical shared experiences.

 

All this shall be

A paean to thee.

 

Curiousdwk

 

Any rational thinking person will wonder why so many people are voting for Santorum.  The reason is that many people are not interested in voting rationally either because they are unable to grasp the issues rationally and analyze them, or because they just don’t want to.  Just yesterday I heard on voter being interviewed saying she thought Obama was a Muslim, and a man saying that Obama wasn’t qualified to be President because both of his parents were not born in theUnited States.  How do we deal with these idiots who are voting? 

 Instead, these people are voting according to “morals”. And “values”.  Most people have not thought about stating their own personal values, so most people just take the values and morals that are presented to them from a church.  But what about free-thinkers?  (I’m defining a free thinker here as one who is not a slave to a church’s teachings.)  They chafe at the accusations made by many religious zealots that if they don’t get their values from a church or a historical book, that they must not have any values.  So what does a free-thinker do?

A free-thinker should come up with his own values statement.  They should come up with an elevator speech that will state their values in 30 seconds or less.  Then they are prepared to meet the religionists on their own turf.  And win when the religionists claim that it is a battle to be fought.  And they are prepared to discuss politics with people who cannot discuss rationally.  Do you, as a free thinker, have a set of values you can give at a moment’s notice?

I am not saying all free thinkers should take mine, but I would like to share mine with you.  I believe, as a free thinker, that I have the ability and the responsibility to do all that I can to develop as much as I can for all that it means to be human both in myself and others.  That’s it.  I will pit these values against any values that any church wants to throw at me.  (Then the fun begins in defining what it means to be human.)

And with this, I can measure Obama against Santorum, or Newt, or Romney and I now have a reason I can share of why Obama is superior without resorting to the rational reasons.  A big problem I see is that free thinkers and progressives are not rising to the occasion of discussing politics via values and morals but only rationally. 

Santorum’s immoral values are getting media attention each and every day.  Yet Obama’s values are not even being heard.  For those who will vote strictly by values, and not by reason, Santorum and the other moralistic pretenders will get their vote.  We need to be able and we need to be prepared to discuss the alternatives to these charlatans on a level of values and morals.  All it takes is a little reflection and a little preparation.  From all of us free thinkers.