Recently I began reading some of the works of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who lived in Vietnam during the ‘60’s and witnessed the atrocities that occurred. He is a strong proponent of peace, empathy and compassionate listening. I would like to share with you, in this holiday season, a poem he wrote in 1965. He is a welcome voice in the swirl of noise about fear, terror, hatred and bigotry.
May we all find the spirit of compassion and love that he advocates.
Promise me,
promise me this day,
promise me now,
while the sun is overhead
exactly at the zenith,
promise me:
Even as they
strike you down
with a mountain of hatred & violence;
even as they step on you & crush you
like a worm,
even as they dismember & disembowel you,
remember, brother,
remember:
man is not our enemy.
The only thing worthy of you is compassion -
invincible, limitless, unconditional.
Hatred will never let you face
the beast in man.
One day, when you face this beast alone,
with your courage intact, your eyes kind,
untroubled
(even as no one sees them),
out of your smile
will bloom a flower.
And those who love you
will behold you
across ten thousand worlds of birth & dying.
Alone again,
I will go on with bent head,
knowing that love has become eternal.
On the long, rough road,
the sun & the moon
will continue to shine.
Recently I began reading some of the works of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who lived in Vietnam during the ‘60’s and witnessed the atrocities that occurred. He is a strong proponent of peace, empathy and compassionate listening. I would like to share with you, in this holiday season, a poem he wrote in 1965. He is a welcome voice in the swirl of noise about fear, terror, hatred and bigotry.
May we all find the spirit of compassion and love that he advocates.
Promise me,
promise me this day,
promise me now,
while the sun is overhead
exactly at the zenith,
promise me:
Even as they
strike you down
with a mountain of hatred & violence;
even as they step on you & crush you
like a worm,
even as they dismember & disembowel you,
remember, brother,
remember:
man is not our enemy.
The only thing worthy of you is compassion -
invincible, limitless, unconditional.
Hatred will never let you face
the beast in man.
One day, when you face this beast alone,
with your courage intact, your eyes kind,
untroubled
(even as no one sees them),
out of your smile
will bloom a flower.
And those who love you
will behold you
across ten thousand worlds of birth & dying.
Alone again,
I will go on with bent head,
knowing that love has become eternal.
On the long, rough road,
the sun & the moon
will continue to shine.
Today I had a bit of an ‘in my own head’ kinda day. I didn’t really feel like chittin or chattin or shootin the shit with anyone. I guess some days you just feel like that.
I tried to make the best of it. It was a good day to just put on my headphones and spend some extra time at the gym.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS A RAMBLE. I CAN’T BEGIN TO TAKE THE TIME ALL THESE THOUGHTS DESERVE TO MAKE THEM MORE COHERENT. I JUST NEED TO GET THEM OFF MY CHEST.
OK. I am a literature grad, a philosophizer, a ‘liberal art-er’. I spent countless years dissecting, deconstructing and analyzing words, plots, stories and language in general. I’m not a scientist, lawyer, nor a politician. I am not an expert in a countless variety of disciplines (including the ones I studied) however, I do understand many of the basic concepts in all of these. Perhaps that is the basis for why I find the current Bush administration horrifying (with equal disdain for much of the major media outlets).
I have heard much recently about the “Secret Spying”. Secret Spying? Isn’t ALL spying secret. “Secret” isn’t the problem here folks. What if they called it what it was, “Illegal Spying”, wouldn’t that be more accurate. Would we react differently? Perhaps the administration would prefer to go further, say, lets call it “Freedom Listening” or “Baby Monitoring” that would give it a nice fatherly protective feeling.
In Orwell’s 1984 there is a concept called “Newspeak’. The whole aim of Newspeak was to narrow the range of thought. It was intended in Orwell’s fiction that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and the Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought - that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc - should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words.
Language is one of the most powerful and potentially dangerous systems of human interaction. When I was in middle school I remember we studied George Orwell and it was at this time I was first introduced to the word “propaganda.” We studied Soviet and Nazi propaganda. We discussed how the control of the media could be used as an insidious weapon against the greater good and will of the masses. As naïve children we thought OUR government was above all that. I admit, this administration is not alone in this abuse. But I feel wholeheartedly that I am witnessing the abuse of language on an enormous scale and with DISASTEROUS effect. So much time is spent ‘spinning’ and running PR campaigns to justify torture, rendition, illegal detentions and on. “Mission Accomplished” “Plan for Victory” “War on Terror” I’m tired of the continuous and sickening slogan campaigns. Hell, even Rumsfield was trying to figure out a new word for ‘insurgents’ and Bush has made arrogant declarations that this administration will continue to wage war, torture, and spy as it sees fit. It is all so blatant. When are we going to wake up?
THIS IS NOT MY AMERICA. THIS IS NOT THE AMERICA I WAS PROMISED. I AM ASHAMED OF THIS AMERICA.
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. There’s no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It’s merely a question of self-discipline, reality-control. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect. Newspeak is Ingsoc and Ingsoc is Newspeak.
John 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
This article from today’s New York Times tickles me without end. Do not judge me for delighting in information that involves a particularly sinister and sordid discovery. This is a gruesome crime that even I was thrilled to commit in my youth. Fact is, I would gladly take the time to think up new tortures even today.
It appears that Barbie™ has the fine distinction of being one of the most defiled and abhorred toys in the box. According to the study, “Violence and torture against Barbie were repeatedly reported across age, school and gender. No other toy or brand name provoked such a negative response.”
That doesn’t surprise me a bit. I fondly recall the anthills, bicycle drags, GI Joe torture/rescue scenarios, ‘plastic surgery’ episodes and various other evil experiments the Barbie’s of my old neighborhood endured. Even later in life, I enjoyed making the occasional odd/dark/art-house video using an old Barbie hair-styling head. There was even one Halloween dorm room where a multitude of sick and twisted Barbie parts hung from the ceiling via fishing line. And I confess that it was only a summer ago when I attended a birthday celebration of mock Barbie admiration, where photos of lesbian Barbie ‘atrocities’ where photographed for our base and puerile pleasure. Heck, an adult male friend of mine currently has a twisted, partially dismembered torso proudly displayed on his TV right now.
I know the researchers hypothesize a variety of answers as to why this sad circumstance takes place. I hope they don’t immediately rule out the obvious; because it’s so much fun!
Went to see the new Aeon Flux movie this afternoon. It seems to me that nothing in the modern world has done more to advance the number of roles for women in Hollywood than the (video) gaming industry. Take the young male proclivity for violence, add the desire to watch nearly naked women, throw in advanced graphics and finally transform all of that onto the big screen (due to the major advances in special effects) and suddenly we have a whole new (prolific) genre of women as the superhero/uberbitch/femme fatale.
Are these women a man’s worst nightmare, or finally his dream come true?
I’m getting slaughtered again lately by all that repulsive spam crap that is so prevalent in the space of cyber. It is amazing how the simplest of things can just make me furious!!! I mean, really it is such a lame useless waste of time to constantly be figuring out how to vandalize other people’s space. I had a fix in place that seemed to work for a couple of years now…. but finally they have found their way back in.
Well, I have been thinking about a site redesign lately. Perhaps new blog technology and finally rent my own space instead of piggy backing on my buddies space. I don’t anticipate a name change, but maybe what I’m getting for Christmas this year is a new blog.
Tomorrow is the last day of our charitable campaign. Once again we are working to raise money for the Texas Hearing and Service Dogs. Since I am in charge of the campaign, I can tell you now that we have already reached our goal and will be able to adopt another service dog.
Being part of a campaign that touches so many hearts and changes lives for the better is the best gift I could hope for this holiday.
Working in an office environment is NOT always easy. I mean I’ve spent the last several years on construction-type jobs, car lots and in bars where all manner of lewd innuendo and sexual banter rule the day. I’m well versed in the quick come back, the sassy repartee and the over-the-top vulgarism. But it is not always easy to adhere to nice corporate pleasantries? Especially when your co-workers toss you a ‘beach ball’.
Like today, I had to sit in my office with a straight face and zipped lip after one of my co-workers discussed her restrained silence during our last meeting.
Let’s just put it this way, you don’t walk into a lesbian’s office and tell her in all seriousness that you’ve just been “sitting on your tongue for the last two hours.”
For about a decade now ‘rangutan and I have been members of a VERY exclusive dining club. Its members are all very culinarily epicurious. They delight in the simplest of taste splendors as well as some of the most spectacularly divine dishes. The membership is very limited because all of the associates would not be members of any organization that would have them. Therefore, this club is traditionally restricted to two members.
It works like this; we take turns inviting one another out to dinner. It is the invitors pleasure to choose the establishment and the invitees pleasure to dine for free. So one month I pick the restaurant and I pick up the tab and ‘rangutan only has to show up. However, the next month it is his turn to pick and pay, while I feast gratis. Sounds simple enough, eh? The bonus fact is that we are challenged to NEVER pick the same place twice. Fortunately for us, Dallas is a superb dining city, with an incredible turn over rate in the restaurant industry. We could conceivably do this for the rest of our natural lives and the lives of all of our offspring (which…now that I mention it, is roughly the same amount of time for us and them…but I digress).
This agreement is not ‘tit’ for ‘tat’ (keep your dirty comments to yourselves). It could mean the Mansion one month and Club Schmidt the next (because honestly, they both have different excellences to offer, and we can appreciate both).
Anyway, we had a wonderful meal tonight that included outstanding cold sake, a nicely complimentary chardonnay, delicate foie gras, tempura soft shell crab, grilled lamb chops, phenomenal shitake mushrooms, tender buffalo steak and sushi. I know, it all sounds like a bit much…and trust me….it was. But somehow one has to revel in the gratitude of knowing that you just left the table after having an experience that would have made even the greatest of the Kings of England drool.
Sure, money and power are nice, but food and friendship are immeasurable.