Spring 2009
Week of June 21, 2009
In honor of God
Overthrow theocracy,
Allah bless Iran.
The Iranian political system which puts the ultimate decision making in the unelected hands of religious clerics makes a mockery of democracy. The clerics, with their total control over social rules and behaviors, especially of women, make a mockery of Islam. The regime of Ahmadinejad and Khamenei have targeted the opposition that supported Moussavi. The hope for Iran’s future is in the hands of the thousands of courageous protesters who took to the streets and rooftops. The international community needs to continue to focus its concern and cameras on what is happening in Iran. The opposition will not go away, but they might be taken. Allah bless Iran!
Week of June 14, 2009
Goodbye godfather
Glad that you had a good death
Sorry about the life.
It is not good to speak ill of the dead.
Week of June 7, 2009
Son tries to save me
From my own stupidity,
Not a smart move.
I occasionally embarass my son. This is a common father-son experience, especially when your son is in high school. It may also be related to the fact that my son has an image of me that doesn’t match my reality.
My son is precise. He has the mind of a young scientist. He is an A student. He knows his facts. I am anything but. He has a fierce love for me and I am sure I serve as a role model for him, but the basic differences in our natures causes him conflict. My lack of respect for exactness is something that frustrates him. The same thing that endears me to my wife and good friends sends shock waves through the very fiber of my son’s life. Hero and bufoon are hard images to reconcile. I hope that he may be able to delight in my shortcomings one day as much I delight in his.
Week of May 31, 2009
Summer vacation
My inner adult rejoices
So much time to learn.
The time I get off in the summer is an additional semester to learn and regenerate myself. I may be off from school, but not from learning.
Memorial Day, 2009
Don’t ask, don’t tell
Freedom and decency silenced
Courage undercover.
The appalling silence of all the good people has quieted the Obama administration. How easy and eloquent it would be for the President to simply state that gay and lesbian soldiers cannot be denied equal rights and dignity. Long ago General Washington allowed blacks to fight for the cause of independence. Lincoln allowed blacks to fight against those who would enslave them during in the Civil War. Truman set forth the changes in policies which allowed for the racial integration of the military. The time has come, once again, to let the military lead the way towards a must just and equal society. President Obama ~ right the wrong that has been done to all gay and lesbian soldiers who wave defended our country. Move us forward to victory on the civil rights battlefield.
Week of May 17, 2009
Iraq, the old wrong war
Afghanistan, the new wrong war
Pakistan, the next wrong war.
I like Obama, but I disagree with his foreign policy decision to shift the war from Iraq to Afganhistan. Supporting Afghanistan’s government is akin to supporting shariah. Our soldiers are risking their lives in order to uphold a government that has legalized mysogyny. In the attempt to get to the terrorist, the U.S. is providing cover for them. In its most extreme forms, Islamic shariah law is religious terrorism.
Week of May 10, 2009
Stanky legging at the prom
All colors and kinds on the floor
Master D.J. M.L.K.
It was a prom for the ages. Multi-racial couples, some multi-racial, dotted the dance floor as they grinded out the message that everyone is welcome. Even the gay student alliance was well represented under the lights. The stress on the economy impacted the amount of material available to cover the upper portion of many of the dresses worn by the young women. The number of hats served as a hopeful sign for the resurgence of the haberdashery industry. Our extra son’s date looked like an African-American Audrey Hepburn, stunningly strapless in sequined modesty. The dance was a dream no longer deferred with the rapping beat of hip hop hope for the future.
Week of May 3, 2009
Four wombs, one mother
With love deeper than the laundry
Sort clothes, carry groceries.
A mother is more than a female biological parent. That’s the minimum. What makes a mother real is the unconditional love and care she provides children. I am in awe of the mothering capacity of my beloved spouse. Her love is washed, folded, heated up, driven to, checked over, proof read, and prepared on the stove. Lucky boys.
Week of April 24, 2009
A little pig with wings
Flew out the ventana
Across the border came influenza.
My friend Joe has always said, “Not if, but when.” It is amazing to note that until the outbreak in Mexico of the swine flu, most people have had no knowledge of the Spanish Influenza of 1918. Middle school history books barely mention it. Its as if we were visited by aliens who consumed tens of millions of people and no one remembers. Our national memory selected to forget the terror that struck in the fall of 1918. We deleted the most horrific experience of our nation’s short lived history and brought on the flappers and the charleston.
The present news coverage will about the spread of H1N1 will slowly subside. The news media will offer the front page to something more dramatic than a quick spreading virus which only kills a small percentage of its hosts. By summer it will be another story of the little virus that tried to become a pandemic. The swine flu of 09 will be relegated space on the shelf with the bird flu and SARS. The only problem is history. In 1918 the influenza started in the spring and spread around the world, causing lots of illness, but with somewhat mild consequences. When it returned in the fall it was a monster, killing millions in it’s wake. Many of the victims were young and healthy people in the prime of their lives. Besides the growing body count, civil society broke down out of fear.
We are in a much more technologically advanced state to handle what may or may not happen this fall. We have knowledge and medicines that did not exist back then. We also have jumbo jets and a mobile population that didn’t exist either. Regardless of what happens, we need to start planning for what might. It may not happen this fall, but as Joe says, “Not if, but when.”
Week of April 19, 2009
Columbine rises
Out of mulch and memory
Dares to bloom again.
Although Easter is over, resurrection continues to occur. Watching the news footage about the survivors of the Columbine killings, the Oklahoma bombing, and the war in Iraq is heart rending, but also inspirational. How do you continue living when those you have loved so deeply have died? I took my mother to a funeral of a friend and there was a group of survivors at the luncheon. Among the women at the table they had lost husbands, daughters, sons, and friends. Each one had their story of pain and sorrow. Despite their great losses, they continue on. These women showed up to help another one of their friends cope and feel comfort. The size of their gatherings dwindle every year. Soon there will be just two or three gathered, but that is enough to bring the love of God into the world.
Easter, 2009
Perennial salvation
Tridium of trilliums
Jonquils of Jesus.
Life rises. Resurrection happens all around us, each and everyday. In the life of a recovering alcoholic, in reconciled relationships, when someone turns from anger and despair, when we face the truth and move on. Easter is more than a day or a season, it is a way of life.
Good Friday, 2009
T G I G F
The long wait is over
Love reigns supreme.
The fear and avoidance of death paralyzes us. In the end, we all must die. It is part of the package deal, the other part being getting to live. The Christian call to “die to oneself” is not just about surrendering one’s desire, it is about surrendering one’s life, metaphorically as well as physically. Good Friday is the story of Jesus choosing to die so that others could fully live. What seems to be just another act of brutality and injustice is transformed into a sacrament of love and sacrifice. How do we get to the point in our own lives to live free from the fear of death? How do we see beyond the veil of one lifetime and view eternal life as something to exist in now?
Fourth Week of Lent, 2009
70 X 7
= liberation
From judgment.
Some haikus are more difficult to compose than others. Some human behaviors are more difficult, too. For the longest time I thought of forgiveness as something we do, as in “I forgive you.” I no longer conceive of it that way. Forgiveness is a state of being we are invited to enter into. Forgiveness is not something to bestow upon someone. Rather it is something that preexists. It is something you enter into with someone. Forgiveness is like the sunlight that envelopes us in the day. It is akin to the light of the moon that illuminates the darkness. It is the reign falling from the heavens. Forgiveness is a great gift that roams the world like the wind. Seventy times seven isn’t meant to be an enormous number after which we run out of chances. It is meant to signify the eternal opportunity for redemption.
Fifth Week of Lent
One word law
Written on my heart
No ammendments.
As much as I consider myself an open minded liberal leaning leftist radical type , I am also a fundamentalist. My faith can be reduced to one word, love. Organized religions too often create a “cloud of knowing” consisting of theology, dogma, catechism, and a thousand rules and regulations that keep the believer occupied with everything but love. Love is a covenant with creation. Whether it is the challenge to love one person, total strangers, or sworn enemies, it is all the same. Love is not about “who” because it is about everyone. Rather, it is about “you”, and in my case, “me”. Are we willing to be its vessel, its presence, its body? Are we willing to make it our modus operandi, our way of being? Love is a strict, uncompromising discipline. It is the key to making things right in the world and the means by which we can have life to the fullest.