December 31

Die Sprache…ist wirklich eine kleine Welt in Zeichen und Tönen. Wie der Mensch sie beherrscht, so möchte er gern die große Welt beherrschen, und sich frei darin ausdrücken können. Und eben in dieser Freude, das, was außer der Welt ist, in ihr zu offenbaren, das tun zu können, was eigentlich der ursprüngliche Trieb unsers Daseins ist, liegt der Ursprung der Poesie.

                                                                  --Novalis, Heinrich von Ofterdingen

Christmas Eve

Here is the poem that I was planning to post last Christmas:

December 24th

Across the street, at the tortilla factory,

throughout the morning people leave

with sacks of tamales and nixtamal.

This is the parade of December 24th,

and announces the day with steps

to the seashore of the litany, to chile grinding.

On this day, in another time,

the inns were already filling up,

like hotels and holiday beach resorts.

(This year Christmas falls on a weekend.)

All day, hands will be preparing tamales,

like foot travelers preparing their meal around a fire,

one day away from the world’s destination.

La Virgen de Guadalupe

Mirror and rose,

dark mother and maiden,

stairway and pinnacle,

pray for us.

Your radiance remains

forever before us.

You open the door

to the garden of delight.

Nelly Sachs

Today is the birthday of Nelly Sachs, who brought beauty and transcendence out of unspeakable pain.  All of the wounds she received: her experience of the Holocaust and the terrible mark it left on her, an obsessive fear and anguish that nearly cost her her mind; and the years of solitude and incomprehension that she lived through, along with the continuing loss of friends and loved ones to tragedy—in the end, all of it could only elevate the ultimate meaning and triumph of her art.  In her poetry there is so much indistinctness and depth that her words sometimes seem like the surface of a shadowy well—that both hides, and hints at, a whole cosmos of relations and revelations.  I can think of no other poet who has such laser precision, such rightness in language; she never hits a false note, never loses control.

     Great poet of the tragic century, your voice is absolutely inimitable, but its message is universal, and I am gratefully sealed with its radiance.

Alles beginnt mit der Sehnsucht,

immer ist im Herzen Raum für mehr,

für Schöneres, für Größeres.

—Nelly Sachs

29th Anniversary of the Murder of Anti-Nuclear Activist Norman Mayer

The Ballad of Norman Mayer

Now listen my friends and I’ll tell you a tale

Of a man they called Mayer and one I’ll call friend.

He dared to cry “Life” in the City of Death:

It was there that he met with an untimely end.

Oh, oh, the City of Death,

They build bombs to kill millions but buildings they’ll save,

If you mean to kill millions you’ll be president,

If you’re sane you’re a terrorist down to your grave.

They called him a terrorist, John Brown the same,

All because they stood up and wouldn’t back down.

“Slaves made us rich and the Bomb keeps us safe,”

But they used as a curse the names Mayer and Brown.

Oh, oh, the City of Death,

They have bombs to kill millions but buildings they’ll save.

Police at your door and more endless war,

If you’re sane you’re a terrorist down to your grave.

To Love Is to Step Outside of Fear

To love is to step outside of fear.  So often, fear of “the other” holds us back, fear of being “on the hook” if we open ourselves to others, fear of all of the harsh demands of love: the obligation to care, to forgive, to hope, to believe.  We’re all so afraid of each other!  Fear is death to love.  To meet the obligations of family, community, and society with love is the only way forward.  What we need is a radical carrying of each other’s burdens; relationships based on mutual respect; openness, self-sacrifice, a true sobornost, to use the beautiful Russian Orthodox expression.  Someone has recently contacted me privately and told me respectfully that he finds certain things I have written here “inappropriate.”  He went on to say that he feared that my “weird” opinions might “influence” him, since he had great appreciation for, and agreement with, many of the things I have said.  He also made it clear that he would prefer I answer him “publicly.”

     This is the only answer I can give.  I got mixed up in this whole blogging thing when a trusted writing colleague suggested that I create a place where editors and others could find links to my work.  It was not something I was totally comfortable with, but I certainly enjoyed reading the musings of a few other bloggers and didn’t see much harm in it.  It became a place to express certain feelings, ideas, memories, opinions, and a place to honor people and dates important to me.  Anyone who knows me will not be surprised that there is controversial material here, but it is offered with the best of intentions.  I do not pretend to be a teacher, or an authority of any kind.  Again, those who know me can assure you how absurd a role that would be for me, how completely unsuited I am for it by temperament, lack of education, shyness, etc.  What I have written here is given freely, but no one is under the obligation to accept it.  This is not the type of venue that is conducive to dialogue (deep dialogue, although I do appreciate the occasional comment), and perhaps that is part of the problem.  But even if this is not a forum for adequate dialogue, don’t be afraid of or upset by my words.  I’m really quite harmless, and more than willing to accept that not everything I say deserves equal weight.  Even when dialogue of words is lacking, there can be a cor ad cor loquitur, a dialogue of hearts.   In the end, I truly believe that there is always more that unites than divides us; more in all of us to love than to fear.  

November 25

What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is growing short, and from now on, those who have spouses should live as though they had none;

and those who mourn as though they were not mourning; those who enjoy life as though they did not enjoy it; those who have property as though they had no possessions;

and those who are involved with the world as though they were not engrossed in it; because this world as we know it is passing away.       

                                                                                                                        1 Cor. 7:29-31

Corita Kent (Nov. 20, 1918 – Sept. 18, 1986)

The art of Corita Kent was such a wonderful part of my childhood and youth; it was a gift to us all.  She was a true visionary, and everything about her was honest and fearless: her colors, her writings, her simple, aphoristic wisdom, and her subtle inversion of commercial advertising to create messages of peace and hope.  She is one of those emblematic figures of the sixties and seventies who still speaks to us, and whose message of peace and justice, faith and love, hope and joy, are as relevant as ever. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8WyOmA4Q3k&feature=related (Aaron Rose and friends on Corita)

Stop SOPA

HR 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and its Senate counterpart, Protect IP Act, represent the biggest threat to free speech in America since the Patriot Act.  This blacklist legislation has been created with the help of corporate media giants and gives the government and private interests unprecedented control over the internet.  This would apply not only to content originating in the US, but extend the US government's censorship powers worldwide.  It would force service providers to act as "thought police" responsible for monitoring and removing content under a broad and confusing definition of copyright infringement that includes many forms of expression currently considered fair use, including the dissemination of information from news sources.  The deliberate lack of clarity in its wording, and the broad scope of this legislation, opens the door to its employment as a means of censoring unpopular opinions, creative expression, and the free exchange of ideas.  Contact your representative today and let them know that you oppose this further deterioration of our constitutional rights.

El Paso Occupiers Arrested

Six El Paso occupiers were arrested last night.  We need donations for bail immediately.  Please donate at www.wepay.com/donate/37956

Police Citation for Exercising Constitutional Right to Peaceably Assemble

Occupy El Paso, Day 27

After being double-crossed by the city of El Paso over moving our occupation to another park, and with the loss of a number of our occupiers who are leaving town for personal reasons or to occupy elsewhere, (I had to temporarily stop occupying due to a medical emergency with one of our kids), it looks like our physical occupation here is going on temporary hiatus.  We are still trying to decide our next step, and hopefully the general assemblies, protest actions, teach-ins, and other activities will continue in the meantime.  This crisis could not have come at a worse time for me, personally, but I am still up for a continuing occupation here.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (12 November 1648 – 17 April 1695)

Today is the birthday of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a founder of Mexican literature.  Although Sor (Sister) Juana was born and lived in Mexico during the Spanish empire, there is a distinct “Mexican” style to her writings.  She even learned Nahuatl, and there is writing in that language attributed to her.  She was certainly the first important Castilian poet of the land that would become the nation of Mexico, and her written discourses with scholars of many disciplines make it clear that she was one of the great intellectual minds of her time.  Her admirers called her the “Décima Musa” (the Tenth Muse).  Today, she is perhaps best known for her defense of women’s right to education.  Many of her modern admirers have a very hard time accepting the fact that after ecclesiastical authorities made it clear to her that they believed her intellectual activities were not proper for a nun, she “repented” and gave up her studies and her writing.  Instead of seeing this decision as an act of humility and love, many modern scholars have created all kinds of “pathological” explanations.  It’s important to remember that she never “recanted” her earlier work, but simply agreed that her role should be devotional and charitable.  Her work, along with that of her friend Carlos Sigüenza y Góngora, helped lay the foundation for a vibrant intellectual and literary life in Mexico.

     "Si Aristóteles hubiera guisado, mucho más hubiera escrito."

                                                 --Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

George MacDonald

“All a man has to do, is to better what he can.  And if he will settle it with himself that even renown and success are in themselves of no great value, and be content to be defeated, if so that the fault is not his, and so go to his work with a cool brain and a strong will, he will get it done; and fare none the worse in the end, that he was not burdened with provision and precaution.”

     “But he will not always come off well,” I ventured to say. 

     “Perhaps not,” rejoined the knight, “in the individual act; but the result of his lifetime will content him.”

                                                                --George MacDonald, Phantastes

Dorothy Day, November 8, 1897 – November 29, 1980

I found myself, a barren woman, the joyful mother of children.  It is not easy always to be joyful, to keep in mind the duty of delight. 

     The most significant thing about The Catholic Worker is poverty, some say.

     The most significant thing is community, others say.  We are not alone anymore.

     But the final word is love.  At times it has been, in the words of Father Zossima, a harsh and dreadful thing, and our very faith in love has been tried through fire.

     We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other.  We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore.  Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship.

                                                                        --Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness

Occupy El Paso, Day 22

As some of us who are involved with Occupy El Paso face the possibility of eviction and arrest by the city in the near future, I offer these words of Martin Luther King, Jr. to help those who have, with all good will, questioned our resolve to stand with non-violent resistance in our defense of the right to protest (with my own redactions in brackets):

 We ha(ve) no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community.

Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community {the one percent} which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to so dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men {and women} rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood {and from the dark depths of greed, indifference and injustice to the majestic heights of understanding and personhood}.

The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.

                                                              --Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail


Latest developments:
It now appears that the city is willing to grant a new permit that will let us legally continue our downtown occupation.  This is a welcome development which will hopefully allow us to continue to expend our energy on other forms of protest while continuing the occupation.

Occupy El Paso, Day 18

It was very cold last night.  But we had a great march during the late afternoon in solidarity with Occupy Oakland.  We marched from the Placita to UTEP and made a lot of noise.  There is a wonderful sense of camaraderie among the actual occupiers, despite food shortages, losing our big tent to the wind (where I was staying), and having to rearrange our camp to accommodate the city’s plan to begin decorating the big tree in the Plaza for Christmas.  A major event is planned for National Bank Transfer Day, November 5.  If you haven’t already done so, move your bank account to a credit union.  You’ll be glad you did.

Occupy El Paso, Day 7

We're still occupying, and there are lots of great on-going protests, meet-ups, rallies, group discussions, general assemblies, and working groups.  The outreach to other organizations and events continues as well.  Here is a photo that someone took of an Occupy El Paso march (with protesters on both sides of the street) through downtown El Paso yesterday afternoon.  (And the photo features you-know-who.)

Occupy El Paso, Day 3

Things are really coming together, with a big group of occupiers in the Placita and an even bigger group of supporters.  Those of us who have been staying the night are beginning to feel some sleep deprivation, but hopefully as time goes on we’ll get more disciplined (or not) about staying up talking all night.  Also, the cold has been pretty uncomfortable, but there have been plenty of donations of blankets and everything else we need.  The donations have been amazing!  Word is getting out, and labor, environmental groups, and artists have been making contact about participating.  We’re students, workers, the unemployed, musicians, veterans, teachers, artists, and retirees.  And our message about taking back our country and the world from the billionaires and greedy corporations is being heard. ¡No nos moveran!

Global Day of Action

These are heady days in which we are living.  People are joining together in the struggle against corporate greed and economic inequality.  We are fed up the way that our fellow human beings around the world have been robbed of a chance for a decent life and meaningful work, for health care and security, all to satisfy the desire of a tiny group of people with an insatiable appetite for limitless power and wealth.  Their greed has corrupted our political process and robbed us of democracy.  People are standing fast, with bravery and nonviolence, against brutal repression; and most importantly, there has been a rediscovery, or at least a reimagining in the social realm, of the values of solidarity, trust, and mutual responsibility for one another.  This struggle is being led by the young, who are filled with idealism and a love of freedom.  Yesterday, at an Occupy El Paso event that was part of the Global Day of Action (the official “occupation” starts here Monday), there was the sharing of food (thanks to Food Not Bombs), stories, dreams, and a witnessing to our hopes for a better future.       

Santa Teresa de Jesús

Nada te turbe;
nada te espante;
todo se pasa;
Dios no se muda,
la paciencia
todo lo alcanza.
Quien a Dios tiene,
nada le falta.
Solo Dios basta.

Let nothing disturb you;
let nothing frighten you;
everything passes;
God never changes,
Patience
obtains everything.
One who has God
lacks nothing,
God alone suffices.

My Wife’s Union Endorses Occupy Wall Street

The Executive Board of the Communications Workers of America (who represent Texas state workers through the Texas State Employees Union/CWA Local 6186) has voted to endorse the Occupy Wall Street movement.  They are one of a growing number of unions that have given their endorsement, including the United Steelworkers of America, The United Federation of Teachers, Transport Workers Union Local 100, and many others.

St. Francis of Assisi

Dear Francesco di Bernardone, I have loved you since I was a child.  It is said that your love of God was a flame that consumed you.  It is no surprise that a love as great as yours extended not only to your fellow human beings, but to the birds and fish and the wolf of Gubbio, to Brother Sun and Sister Moon, to water and fire and the humble soil.

     Help us to love Lady Poverty as you did, and the spirit of peace, so that we might also follow Christ in a spirit of humility and reconciliation and bring His love to the whole world. 

Gandhi Jayanti

Today India and the world celebrate your great soul, Gandhiji.  We are reminded that armed only with the truth and the humble spinning wheel, you freed a nation.  Today, we are also reminded that we must be willing to die for our beliefs, but never to kill for them.  We must fight violence and injustice, but begin with the violence and injustice within ourselves.  We are reminded that simplicity brings abundance, but greed brings only poverty; and that non-violence is always invincible.  Gandhi-ji ki jai!   

October

Thinning out the mugwort surrounding a small apple tree, I noticed that the tall fans of tiny flower buds smelled a little like raw latex.  Typically, the mugwort has a sweet, slightly woody scent that I am very fond of.  It usually doesn’t flower here, so this strange smell seems to be the result of the plants getting ready to bloom.  For some reason, the freeze last winter caused them to come back with a vengeance in the spring.  From being small perennials that would come up through the rocks surrounding the sturdy dwarf apple, they have become a hedge.  I think I could thatch a roof with them (which would actually be kind of cool).  The continuing hot weather has certainly not discouraged them!   

Take a Stand

On Wall Street, non-violent protest and the American police state.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx19waGfSiM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M186KXT3jE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moD2JnGTToA

Euripides

Some scholars say that Euripides was born on this day in 480 BC.  I have always loved Euripides’ work, preferring him over Aeschylus and even the great Sophocles.  There is so much psychological power and insight in his later work, especially Βάκχαι--a terrible story of religious belief that has been perverted, shifting from love into vengeance.  Pentheus is not only destroyed, but also disgraced and dishonored by Dionysus, reminding one of Sue at the end of Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, who believes she can only appease God’s anger by degrading and defiling herself.  Hardy’s cynicism and utilitarianism prevented him from seeing the deeper social and psychological issues raised by Sue’s tragedy, but in Euripides’ work there is both tragedy and deep insight.  There are actually few modern writers who have been able to match Euripides’ ability to explore in a meaningful way the sliding of religious experience into madness: Dostoyevsky and Graham Greene are two that I can think of--both men of deep and authentic (although extremely idiosyncratic) faith.  Actually, one can find this theme in Flannery O’Connor’s work as well, especially in the disturbing Wise Blood.
     Well, I have traveled a long way in a very short time from dear Euripides!  So, to get back to the birthday boy, I think of him and honor his work today, whether it is his actual birthday or not, and am grateful for his insights on the nature of humility, suffering, religion, and tragedy.

Στους καλούς υπάρχει κάθε είδος σοφίας.  (In every good there exists wisdom.)
                                                                        --Euripides
                                                                                             

     

Go Down, You Murderers

Go down, you murderers, go down

             --Ewan McColl, “The Ballad of Tim Evans”

The execution of Troy Davis is just one more sick example of the complete moral bankruptcy of the United States, a lesson not lost on the rest of the world.  The culture of death that would allow a man whose guilt is genuinely in doubt, who has been a victim of a dysfunctional “system” from the start, to be executed, is a scandal impossible to hide.  Hopefully, the fact that the death penalty is treated in this country like it’s all just a big game will bring about its final demise.  Perhaps the murder of Troy Davis, tragic beyond words, will at least help to end this monstrous affront to the sanctity of life.  Just as the execution of Timothy Evans, another innocent man, helped turn the tide of public opinion against the death penalty in the UK, perhaps the execution of Troy Davis will awaken people here to the unjust and incompetent way this legalized murder is meted out.  If that is the case, at least we can say he did not die totally in vain.

Springs

For a while now, I have wanted to write something about desert springs (actually, I already have—in my story, “The Turned Into’s,” there is a description of a spring.)  I am thinking specifically of places like Rattlesnake Springs near Carlsbad Caverns, or Manzanita Springs in Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  These are true oases in the desert, places that attract great numbers of trees and birds and fish and reeds that you would never expect to find in an arid region.  Their beauty seems almost magical.  Of course, before the advent of modern “civilization,” they were also sources of survival for human beings (not to mention their animals).  It is not surprising that they took on a sacred character, earning the maxim “numen inest.”  For one who seeks water in the desert, the spring is a paradise. 

     Many peoples and religions honor the spring, especially those born in the deserts of the world.  For Native Peoples of the Americas, many springs are considered sacred, from karst springs like the so-called Montezuma well in Arizona and the sacred well at Chichen Itza, to the sacred hot springs near Jemez Pueblo or those in Tonopah, Arizona, to the Serra Springs and those on Mt. Shasta in California that were also used as drinking water sources.  Of course, there are thousands of other sacred springs throughout the Americas, but one needs only to look at how disrespectfully those that I have mentioned have been treated to understand why the locations of most are kept hidden.

     In the scriptures of the Judeo-Christian tradition, one also finds a reverence for springs.  Throughout the Bible there are references to springs: as places of refuge and renewal (Is 49:10), as signs of God’s presence and providence (Zec 14:8), (Jer 31:9), (Jn 4:13-14), (Rev 21:6), and of course those famous lines from the Psalms: He is like a tree that is planted beside the flowing waters, that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves never fade (Ps 1), and, Near restful waters he leads me, to revive my drooping spirit. (Ps 23) (tr. The Jerusalem Bible)

     In the Qur’ān there are a number of references to springs, none more beautiful than verse 54:12, وَفَجَّرْنَا الْأَرْضَ عُيُونًا فَالْتَقَى الْمَاءُ عَلَىٰ أَمْرٍ قَدْ قُدِرَ, with the spring given as a symbol of Allah’s providence to His servant, or verse 55:66, where the two springs are promised to His faithful.

    Many pre-Christian European religions saw springs as sacred, abodes of gods or spirits.  Nearly all religions have ritual bathing practices, that, in the desert, would undoubtedly be practiced using spring water under most circumstances.  Water flowing wholesome and clean from the bosom of the earth is the embodiment of purification.

     For me, the sight of a desert spring is always refreshing and renewing.  I feel joy and fullness well up inside of me, and a deep love and reverence for the water and all living creatures that depend on it.  It is important to respect these places, and remember that they are part of a living ecosystem.  They need to be valued and protected as well as enjoyed.      

Feast of the Holy Cross

The tree of life flourished in the midst of the holy city of Jerusalem,

and its leaves had the power to save all the nations, alleluia.

                                  --antiphon from the Liturgy of the Hours, Sept. 14

A Nation of Thieves and Beggars

In days past, people would praise a great ruler by saying, “In his (or her) time, people prospered, everyone was taken care of, so much so that there were no thieves or beggars.”  Today, in America, we see the exact opposite of that ideal: almost everyone has become either a thief or a beggar.  How can we go on like this?

     The ruling class of this country are like the people of Bulika in George MacDonald’s Lilith, “Yet they boast and believe themselves a prosperous, and certainly are a self-satisfied people—good at bargaining and buying, good at selling and cheating; holding well together for a common interest, and utterly treacherous where interests clash…despising everyone they get the better of; never doubting themselves the most honorable of nations, and each man counting himself better than any other.  The depth of their worthlessness and the height of their vainglory no one can understand who has not been there to see, who has not learned to know the miserable misgoverned and self-deceived creatures.”  

The Poet as Conscience of Our Time

Au poète indivis d'attester parmi nous la double vocation de l'homme. Et c'est hausser devant l'esprit un miroir plus sensible à ses chances spirituelles. C'est évoquer dans le siècle même une condition humaine plus digne de l'homme originel. C'est associer enfin plus largement l'âme collective à la circulation de l'énergie spirituelle dans le monde ... Face à l'énergie nucléaire, la lampe d'argile du poète suffira-t-elle à son propos ? Oui, si d'argile se souvient l'homme.

Et c'est assez, pour le poète, d'être la mauvaise conscience de son temps. 
                                     

                                                                               --Saint-John Perse, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

41st Anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium

¡No olvidemos!

The Chicano Moratorium was organized to protest the war in Vietnam, as well as oppression and discrimination at home. On August 29, 1970, the Chicano Moratorium culminated with a mass demonstration in Los Angeles, California.  When police attacked the demonstrators, four persons (including award-winning journalist Ruben Salazar) were killed, and hundreds injured.  The spirit of the Chicano Moratorium reminds us that the struggle continues and that minorities and the poor continue to bear the burden of imprisonment, homelessness, unemployment, and all of the other negative effects of the economic crisis; while continuing to die in disproportionate numbers in senseless foreign wars. 

Dom Helder Câmara

Dom Helder Câmara

(Feb. 7, 1909 - Aug. 27, 1999
A VOZ DOS QUE NAO TEM VOZ

More than two thirds of humanity are slaves to hunger, sickness, forced labor, despair.   The other third is in slavery to selfishness and fear...

Let us open our eyes.  Let us begin at once to fight our selfishness and come out of ourselves, to dedicate ourselves once and for all, whatever the sacrifices, to the non-violent struggle for a juster and more human world.

                                                              --Dom Helder Câmara, Le desert est fertile, tr. Dinah Livingstone

                                                           

Pastoral

The garden in late summer: a pair of hummingbirds, one red and one green, chase each other above the trumpet vines heavy with flowers and green seed pods.  Meanwhile, sparrows, finches, and doves pick at the drying seed heads of the sunflowers that grew tall and sturdy in the brutal heat.  The lantanas have recovered from the freeze last winter and are in full bloom.  Blue storm clouds rise in the distance; hopefully, they are a promise of desperately-needed rain.  The spearmint and the bee balm haven’t flowered yet, but the catmint is covered with spikes of purple-blue flowers.  In the midst of an America gone insane, a moment of respite from the struggle to survive what are hopefully the last days of capitalism.

Gardens

How I have come to love gardens!  While looking at a series of paintings of the Muskauer Park/Park Muzakowski by Lucy Barkley de Tolly, I knew I had seen that landscape of trees and water before. Then it came to me--the breakfast picnic in the seventh chapter of Heinrich von Ofterdingen. 

Who Are the Real Freeloaders?

Did you get a tax refund last year?  Let’s see who did:

Valero Energy, the 25^th largest company in America, with $68 billion in sales last year, received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS.

Boeing got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year.

Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year, after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.

General Electric made $26 billion in profits over the last five years and not only paid no federal income tax, it got a $4.1 billion refund.

Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009 and paid no federal income taxes.  It did receive a $156 million rebate from the IRS.

(SOURCE: “Who Pays Taxes? Not Americas Richest Companies,” CWA News, Summer 2011, from a list compiled by Senator Bernie Sanders [I-VT])

Ibn Arabi

Abū 'Abdillāh Muḥammad ibn 'Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn `Arabī  (July 28, 1165-Nov. 10, 1240)

I follow the religion of love: whatever path love's camels take,

 

that is my religion and my faith

         --Ibn Arabi (anonymous translation)

                                                                          

The Petroglyph and the Symphony

A bighorn sheep stares at me.  I cannot tell from its profoundly inscrutable eye if it is alive or dead.  Three arrows stick out from its body.  The one that protrudes from its chest, where the heart would be, has probably inflicted the fatal wound.  It stands on a hill surrounded by snow-capped blue mountains that encircle it like a sacred hoop.  This is the center, the place of unity and wholeness, the intersection of the six holy directions.  The bighorn sheep was pecked on a basalt boulder by a Jornada Mogollon artist between six and nine hundred years ago.  The drawing was made by scratching through the patina of desert varnish that coats the boulder to expose the lighter-colored rock below.  Desert varnish, a sooty coating that covers nearly all of the rocks on this hill, is of organic origin.  Billions of bacteria living on the surface of the rock have left behind a coating of manganese and iron oxides.

     The bighorn sheep resides at the Three Rivers petroglyph site in southern New Mexico.  He shares a hill of intrusive igneous rock and hardy chaparral with at least 21,000 other petroglyphs carved by people living in a nearby village.  The Jornada Mogollon lived in pit-houses clustered as small settlements throughout the arid landscape of southern New Mexico.  They built their homes partially underground, which made them cool in the summer and easily heated in the winter.  They were also inveterate artists.  Their petroglyphs and pictographs are found at sites throughout their homeland, often in astonishing numbers and using a wide array of colors or etching techniques.

     As I contemplate the artistic talents of the person who created the bighorn sheep, this person who, through his or her work, allowed me to see the dead or dying animal centuries after its death, the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, so familiar from the films and even commercials that have used it as background music, comes to mind.  In this carving there is so much: the eternal struggle between life and death, the complex and contradictory relationship between nature and humanity, and the mystery, captured with almost unbearable power in that enigmatic, staring eye, of the animal mind, which—most frightfully—is also our mind.  All the terror and wonder of our naked human nature is revealed, as it is in Beethoven’s music.

     Beethoven wrote music because that was his trade.  He wrote for his contemporaries, and, ultimately, for himself.  Perhaps he dreamed that his music would still be able to touch people centuries after his death, but he had no assurance of immortality.  That was humanity’s gift to him.  In his time, Beethoven had his critics, but he knew the worth of his music.  He experienced the joy of success, of adulation and love for his work.  Irascible fellow that he was, he often complained that these things mattered little to him.  And yet, he would undoubtedly have felt most gratified, in all of his solitary brilliance, had he known with certainty the extent to which his work would be treasured and revered by future generations; had he possessed the knowledge that his work would be rediscovered and re-imagined with devotion by subsequent hosts of musicians and music lovers for centuries to come.

     My thoughts return to the artist who created the bighorn sheep.  I am aware of the fact that there are people who actually know what his motivations were in carving this work.  His or her descendants have kept alive the secrets of this place, those members of certain modern Pueblo clans who can claim an unbroken lineage with the blood of the Jornada Mogollon, and with their culture.  But those secrets are not for me.  I do not seek to desecrate that which should remain hidden.  Those mysteries belong to the realm of the sacred.  But I can’t help speculating about the artist, because his work—as art—moves me so powerfully.  Priest, historian, or whatever else he was, he was also, intentionally or not, an artist.  He or she created these works for his or her own people.  I do not ask why.  I do, however, wonder if this unknown artist could ever have imagined that hundreds of years hence, a man not of his own people or time, not of own his race or worldview, would be so moved by this expression of a universal human vision, of the universe itself.  For me, his work has withstood the corrosive properties of both time and nature, to be rediscovered in an age unimaginable to him, like the mysterious and profound and purifying light from a long-departed star.      

Día de Las Casas

Fray Bartolomé de las Casas

Defensor de los Indios
(c. 1484--18 July 1566)

Pocas vidas da el hombre como la tuya, pocas

sombras hay un árbol como tu sombra, en ella

todas las ascuas vivas del continente acuden...

              --Pablo Neruda “Fray Bartolomé de las Casas” 

St. Benedict

"Abnegare semetipsum sibi ut sequatur Christum."
                                  --Rule of St. Benedict 4:10

Benedict, who can express in words your contribution to humanity?  You have left us with a guide to the cross and resurrection, a school of the spirit, a continuing golden age.  Those who faithfully follow your rule have chosen the better part.  Art, architecture, science, philosophy, music, and so much more flourished as a side result of your simple ora et labora.  Perhaps the West would have by now torn itself to pieces were it not for the flame that your children have kept alive.

The Dreamtime

When one lives long enough, and in the same general place, the dreaming time becomes real.  A Ngalyod (Rainbow Snake) planted red water lilies in a billabong; they grow there to this day.  In fact, the Ngalyod still dwells at the bottom of the billabong, and his presence keeps the lilies red.  Another Snake seduced four sisters at their campsite.  The sisters still dwell in that spot, as trees.

     So, too, for me, the landscape of the neighborhood overflows with places that can only be fully experienced anagogically, as shrines and sanctums where spirits dwell.  The circle of grass where we sat, and Libby took my hand, still holds her form.  There is a gully where my children danced; the pressure of their feet making contact with the earth causes the gully to deepen each summer.  And I, myself, the boy who studied fossils in the rock of a wall, now dwell in that stone, young among the tiny Paul Klee spirals, cones, and wheels of the Ordovician Period.   

Birthday of Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse hat dem Geiste gedient, indem er als Erzähler, der er ist, vom Widerspruch zwischen Geist und Leben und vom Streit des Geistes gegen sich selber erzählte. Eben dadurch hat er den hindernisreichen Weg wahrnehmbarer gemacht, der zu einer neuen Ganzheit und Einheit führen kann. Als der Mensch aber, der er ist, als der homo humanus, der er ist, hat er den gleichen Dienst gedient, indem er stets, wo es galt, für die Ganzheit und Einigkeit des Menschenwesens eintrat.
     Nicht die Morgenlandfahrer und Glasperlenspieler allein grüßen dich heute in aller Welt, Hermann Hesse. Die Diener des Geistes in aller Welt rufen dir mitsammen einen großen Gruß der Liebe zu. Überall, wo man dem Geist dient, wirst du geliebt.

Hermann Hesse has served the human spirit through the fact that he, as a storyteller, has spoken of the contradiction between spirit and life, and of the conflict of the spirit against itself.  In this way he has shed light on the obstacle-laden journey that can lead to a new wholeness and unity.  Being the human that he is, being the homo humanus that he is, he has also served by reminding us of the need to honestly and fully reconcile the contradictions of our human nature.  It is not only the The League of Journeyers to the East and Glass Bead Players who greet you throughout the entire world today, Hermann Hesse.  All of the world’s servants of the spirit together acclaim a grand greeting of love.  Everywhere, where one serves the spirit, you are loved.
                                                         --Martin Buber, Neue deutsche Hefte, August 1957
               
     

It’s Not Just Here…

As they bail out the bankers and billionaires at the expense of the unemployed and ordinary workers, governments across the eurozone turn on their own people who are demanding democracy and an end to corruption.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbeKExcOMzo&feature=related

Iceland Tries Something Novel in Today's World—Democracy

The Constitutional Commission has set up a Facebook page where Iceland's citizens can give their direct input on the nation's constitutional reform.  Their meetings are also open to the public.

http://www.facebook.com/Stjornlagarad

A Modest Proposal

The best way that we as a planet can address the growing scarcity of fossil fuels (and progressively more environmentally destructive methods used to extract them) is conservation.  A modest proposal: take the approximately $4 billion a year that the government gives to oil companies in subsidies and tax breaks (NYT Jan. 31, 2011) and use those funds to create a weatherization program.  Make the funds available as grants (not loans, not subsidies) to people making under, let’s say, $50,000 per year, for weatherization of their primary homes or apartments; first come, first served.  This will create jobs, encourage people to invest in their homes and neighborhoods, and lower our national energy consumption.  Or, we can continue to pad the profits of oil companies.  

Arleen Augér

I know that you are singing with the angels, that you are with Mozart and Bach and Bernstein and all of the other immortals, but your voice still shows us radiance and splendor.  Thank you for your inspiration.

September 13, 1939 – June 10, 1993

                                                                               

Fulget amica dies,

jam fugere et nubile et procellæ:

exorta est justis inexspectata quies.

            --W. A. Mozart Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165 (158a)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_1_feNFX0Q&feature=related   

Journal d’un curé de campagne

Whenever I return to Georges Bernano’s Journal d’un curé de campagne, I again realize why a novel might actually matter.  Bernanos integrity as a writer is almost blinding.  This is nowhere more evident than in the Journal d’un curé de campagne, although Les grands cimetieres sous la lune is also a great work not only of integrity but of unsurpassed moral courage.  To return to the lowly cure’s diary, however, I recall that first time I read it I was completely captivated for an entire summer.  The more I live, the more I see the truth on which it is founded.  It is a book which reminds us that always, even in our darkest moments, “Tout est grâce.”   Bernanos doesn’t spare us from the darkness that ravages the hearts of so many in an ordinary village, a place like any other in this world—hearts devastated by bitterness, tragedy, wrongdoing, and disappointment—but he helps us to see that holiness is found precisely in the ability of one to bring healing and love to those like Mme la comtesse, Mlle Chantal, little Séraphita, and the soldier of fortune, M. Olivier, people who seem beyond “saving”; beyond, or perhaps not even deserving of, redemption.  In the end, grace triumphs despite our limitations, it even triumphs over the fear of death and the even greater fear of life—the fear of trusting in life, come what may.  Grace can overcome anything, even an obstacle like that.  This book is not widely read in English, I presume, but it is a book that people of all faiths and even of no faith would find deeply moving.

The World

Nous ne connaissons réellement rien de ce monde, nous ne sommes pas au monde. 
                                            --Georges Bernanos, Journal d’un curé de campagne 

In Praise of Herbs 2

You herbs, born at the birth of time
more ancient than the gods themselves.
O plants, with this hymn I sing to you
our mothers and our gods.

       --Rig Veda 10.97 (anonymous translation)

I Am Always About in the Quad

A memory returned today, after many, many years: my father quoting to me, when I was a child, Ronald Knox’s limerick based on Berkeley’s famous tree in the university quadrangle.

There was a young man who said "God

Must find it exceedingly odd

To think that the tree

Should continue to be

When there's no one about in the quad."

"Dear Sir: Your astonishment's odd;

I am always about in the quad.

And that's why the tree

Will continue to be

Since observed by, Yours faithfully, God."