Some things stay with you. When I was a kid there were bottomless wells all over the place. Well, that's what they told me. Every old well that we would come across in Jemison, I would ask, "Aunt Noot, is that one bottomless?"
"No, not that one, honey," she would always assure me.
I'm not sure that I ever actually saw one and I'm not sure what fascinated me, no, terrified me about the idea. Seems obvious now that you can drown in six inches of water as easily as a bottomless well. Now, yeah.
It took a long time to realize that ghosts aren't scary and that monsters are just men and women who were never loved. The only thing to fear is loss and it's always right around the corner.
Let me get this straight- two groups of people, mostly men, tell all of us which two candidates we can choose between to be our president. One of those two will go to war in our name. Checks and balances? That president will appoint an attorney general to head up a justice department to see that our laws are upheld. He or she will be subject to a supreme court with members appointed by that president as the old ones die off.
Of course we have a legislative branch whose role, as they see it, is to prevent any progress by the other side while jockeying to assure their own re-election beginning day one in D.C.
Have you ever seen the statistics for the assumed rate of psychopathy within the D.C. population?
This group of people sell and trade away our natural resources. They divide us from each other for their own gain. They give away our quality of life and our well being to petroleum companies, pharmaceutical corporations and the insurance industry. They sell arms to anyone with the cash who isn't considered our enemy at the moment with no apparent regard for where those weapons wind up.
In a sick, parasitic relationship lobbyists walk a wide line to further enrich these bad guys so that they can make money partying and supplying sex and drugs and money instead of working real jobs. Their real power comes from promising roles like theirs to the senators and congressmen and their staff members when they leave office.
Over the last few decades an alternative, fair and balanced, media has been created. A legitimate, free press has been labeled elite and mocked. To defend their reputations the credible press has decided to give equal time and attention to both side of any race, any issue. If Jesus gives a speech, Pilate gets equal air time.
Well, here we are. Yeah, yeah, I know. We've had rascals before. Andy Jackson didn't have nuclear weapons. Ask the Native Americans, the real Americans, how that one worked out.
History seems like something in the rearview mirror. Somehow I've missed what's right in front of me. Heroes and villains walk with us now. Oh, I hear the ones telling us that it's all gonna be alright. I hope they're right. I don't believe they are. I feel like a spoiled brat who was moved to first class because he was bothering every other passenger has demanded to fly the plane and now he's headed into the cockpit. Buckle up.
In fact, most stuff doesn't ever happen. Chemistry, trigonometry, physics- those are just languages for educated folks to communicate with each other about the stuff that does happen. The arrogance of human beings, thinking that they have a clue, is amusing.
The smallest particle is love. The most powerful force is love.
If you want to know something, ask an artist. Ask Butch Hancock.
The genes that carry peace and love and compassion are always recessive. Seems odd to me that a reproductive process that depends on "romance" does its best to get rid of it. I've preached this line since I was sixteen years old.
The tribes who grew grains were pushed to the edge of the continents way before the white man bumbled ashore. Lots of them starved and froze to death in Patagonia. Conscientious objectors in Nazi Germany were sent to concentration camps and often killed.
The world won't be free of war until all of the soldiers sit down. Those men who start wars don't fight wars. They send your children. They call it patriotism. They depend on aggressive, dominant genes.
Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.
Cue up the sad ones please. The naked girl, prettiest girl on earth I should add, talked me into that shiny apple and then tried to blame the snake. Mortality. What a concept. Nobody can help much with loss because nobody understands it. Makes it hard to be any kind of believer, doesn't it?
Buck up. Times are tough. They say that all the time.
