Manifesto

I am only one
But I am one
I cannot do everything
But I can do something.
What I can do,
I ought to do.
What I ought to do
I will do,
By the grace of God.

        Dominican Prayer Book

Poem: O Tempo que Foge (The Time That Runs Away)

I counted my years and realized that I have less time to live by, than I have lived so far. I feel like a child who won a pack of candies: at first, he ate them with pleasure but when he realized that there was little left, he began to taste them intensely.

I have no time for endless meetings where the statutes, rules, procedures and internal regulations are discussed, knowing that nothing will be done.

I no longer have the patience to stand absurd people who, despite their chronological age, have not grown up. My time is too short: I want the essence; my spirit is in a hurry. I do not have much candy in the package anymore.

I want to live next to humans, very realistic people who know how to laugh at their mistakes and who are not inflated by their own triumphs and who take responsibility for their actions. In this way, human dignity is defended and we live in truth and honesty. It is the essentials that make life useful.

I want to surround myself with people who know how to touch the hearts of those whom hard strokes of life have learned to grow with sweet touches of the soul.

Yes, I’m in a hurry. I’m in a hurry to live with the intensity that only maturity can give. I do not intend to waste any of the remaining desserts. I am sure they will be exquisite, much more than those eaten so far.

My goal is to reach the end satisfied and at peace with my loved ones and my conscience. We have two lives and the second begins when you realize you only have one.

Ricardo Gondim Rodrigues 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: I Need Trees

I need their birds
and dampened bark.
I need their loud swift
jingling and I need
their rare composure
over this moving
raucous house. I need
every angle triangulated,
every lean and turn
fully integrated.
My stilted speech
wavers hallelujahs
among their branches.

                Edward Nudelman    

The last Friday in April is National Arbor Day

Get cooking

Many of my thoughts will be only half-baked.
    Their batter may not be even quite mixed.
        Finish baking them your own way—
            or cook up something else.

                    Zena Hitz, Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cause in the matter

I can teach a man to sail, but I can never teach him why.

            Timothy E. Thatcher, The American Scholar magazine

A curious fact

Throughout the whole history of science, most of the really great discoveries which had ultimately proved to be beneficial to mankind had been made by men and women who were driven not by the desire to be useful but merely the desire to satisfy their curiosity.

            Abraham Flexner, The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge 

 

 

 

 

 

True strength

Being best connected is better than being strongest.

Brian Hare & Vanessa Woods
    Survival of the Friendliest, Scientific American, August 2020

 

 

 

 

 

Native wisdom

I read somewhere of a shepherd who, when asked why he made, from within fairy rings, ritual observances to the moon to protect his flocks, replied: "I'd be a damn' fool if I didn't!' 

These poems, with all their crudities, doubts, and confusions, are written for the love of Man and in praise of God, and I'd be a damn' fool if they weren't. 

    Dylan Thomas, Note in the front of 1952 edition of The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas

 

 

 

 

Poem: In the Library

for Octavio

There's a book called
"A Dictionary of Angels."
No one has opened it in fifty years,
I know, because when I did,
The covers creaked, the pages
Crumbled. There I discovered

The angels were once as plentiful
As species of flies.
The sky at dusk
Used to be thick with them.
You had to wave both arms
Just to keep them away.

Now the sun is shining
Through the tall windows.
The library is a quiet place.
Angels and gods huddled
In dark unopened books.
The great secret lies
On some shelf Miss Jones
Passes every day on her rounds.

She's very tall, so she keeps
Her head tipped as if listening.
The books are whispering.
I hear nothing, but she does.

                 Charles Simic 

April 23-29 is National Library Week in the US
 

 

 

 

 

 

Freedom

A huge amount of freedom comes when you take nothing personally.

                        Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nomenclature

I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is;
    I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments
        that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.

                    Rebecca West, Mr. Chesterton in Hysterics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please pay attention

Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. There the authorities have etched the image of a black housefly into each urinal. It seems that men usually do not pay much attention to where they aim, which can create a bit of a mess, but if they see a target, attention and therefore accuracy are much increased.

     Richard H. Thaler, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

 

 

 

 

 

Brain works

The human brain starts working the moment you are born
and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.

                            George Jessel 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knowledge

It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble.
It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.

        Richard H. Thaler, Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics

 

 

 

 

Ready or not

The more I examine the universe
    and the details of its architecture,
        the more evidence I find
            that the universe in some sense
                must have known we were coming.

                Francis S. Collins, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How To Sing The Blues

(Attributed to Memphis Earlene Gray with help from Uncle Plunky)

1. Most blues begin "woke up this morning."

2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line. I got a good woman - with the meanest dog in town.

3. Blues are simple. After you have the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes. Sort of. Got a good woman with the meanest dog in town. He got teeth like Margaret Thatcher and he weighs about 500 pounds.

4. The blues are not about limitless choice.

5. Blues cars are Chevies and Cadillacs. Other acceptable blues transportation is Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Walkin' plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.

6. Teenagers can't sing the blues. Adults sing the blues. Blues adulthood means old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.

7. You can have the blues in New York City, but not in Brooklyn or Queens. Hard times in Vermont or North Dakota are just a depression. Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still the best places to have the blues.

8. The following colors do not belong in the blues:
         a. violet
        b. beige
        c. mauve

9. You can't have the blues in an office or a shopping mall; the lighting is wrong.

10. Good places for the Blues:
        a. the highway
        b. the jailhouse
        c. the empty bed
    Bad places:
        a. Ashrams
        b. Gallery openings
        c. weekend in the Hamptons

11. No one will believe it's the blues if you wear a suit, unless you happen to be an old black man.

12. Do you have the right to sing the blues?
      Yes, if:
        a. your first name is a southern state-like Georgia
        b. you're blind
        c. you shot a man in Memphis.
        d. you can't be satisfied.
     No, if:
        a. you were once blind but now can see.
        b. you're deaf
        c. you have a trust fund. 

13. Neither Julio Iglesias nor Barbra Streisand can sing the blues.

14. If you ask for water and baby gives you gasoline, it's the blues. Other blues beverages are:
        a. wine
        b. Irish whiskey
        c. muddy water
     Blues beverages are not:
        a. Any mixed drink
        b. Any wine kosher for Passover
        c. Yoo Hoo (all flavors)

15. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is a blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse, or being denied treatment in an emergency room. It is not a blues death if you die during a liposuction treatment.

16. Some Blues names for Women
        a. Sadie
        b. Big Mama
        c. Bessie

17A. Some Blues Names for Men
        a. Joe
        b. Willie
        c. Little Willie
        d. Lightning
Persons with names like Sierra or Sequoia will not be permitted to sing the blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

17B. Other Blues Names (Starter Kit) Mix and Match
        a. Name of Physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Asthmatic)
        b. First name (see above) or name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi)
        c. Last Name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)

 

 

 

 

Courage

We must never forget that today's legendary achievements -
awesome as they may seem -
were yesterday's risky adventures.
Courage is not the capacity never to be afraid;
as Karl Barth reminds us,
"Courage is fear that has said its prayers."

                John Claypool, The light within you

 

 

 

 

 

Communism vs. capitalism

In communism, man exploits man.
    But with capitalism, it’s the other way around.

                   Mark Russell

 

 

 

 

 

What happened and the story about what happened

More fundamentally, I'm interested in memory
because it's a filter through which we see our lives,
and because it's foggy and obscure,
the opportunities for self-deception are there.
In the end, as a writer,
I'm more interested in what people tell themselves happened
rather than what actually happened.

                Kazuo Ishiguro, CNN interview 

 

 

 

 

Getting your story straight

The story of your life is not your life.
        It is your story.

                John Barth, The End of the Road

 

 

 

 

 

 

A wonderful fact

A wonderful fact to reflect upon,
    that every human creature is constituted to be
        that profound secret and mystery to every other.

                Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perfect friendship

Since the goal of the vir­tu­ous way of life
is the very thing we have been seek­ing,
it is time for you, noble friend,
to be known by God and to become his friend.

This is true per­fec­tion:
not to avoid a wicked life because like slaves we servile­ly fear pun­ish­ment,
nor to do good because we hope for rewards,
as if cash­ing in on the vir­tu­ous life by some busi­ness-like arrange­ment.
On the con­trary, dis­re­gard­ing all those things
for which we hope and which have been reserved by promise,
we regard falling from God’s friend­ship as the only thing dread­ful
and we con­sid­er becom­ing God’s friend the only thing wor­thy of hon­or and desire.
This, as I have said, is the per­fec­tion of life.

                        St. Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: An Open Letter to the Christian Right From a Follower of Christ

May God forgive what you’ve done to Jesus.
You’ve taken the hand he taught you to reach out with,
turned it into a fist, and use it to feed your children intolerance.

You’re lost souls standing by the only road they know,
putting up signs that read “Only Way.”
Name-dropping Jesus like you’re praying hard
to get into the after-party. But once inside
you’d be the first to slam the door on the rest,
singing “Praise the Lord and Pass the Limited Access!”
Your songs describe a Prince of Peace on the attack--

I want my Jesus back.

I’m sick in my soul with all you Onward Soldiers
carrying Jesus around in a cross-draw holster,
unaware of all the damage that you do:
when most people think of Christians, they picture you
arming a religion Jesus never would have blessed.
putting words in Jesus’ mouth that would never pass his lips.
Blind to the world, eyes fixed on the day Jesus returns.
What makes you think he left?
Maybe he’ll walk into your church today, dressed like a health inspector
asking, “What garbage are you serving in my Father’s House?
Your hands are red, and you’ve got weapons in your mouth?”

You use the Cross to rally anti-immigrant laws, until
all but one finger on Liberty’s right hand’s been sawn off, so
all foreigners see is an iron lady saying “Fuck You” with a torch.
But when did Jesus say close the doors?
or ‘Blessed are the locked-down borders’?
What he said was "In my Name, do charitable acts."

Give me my Jesus back.

Stop claiming the Sermon Mount as sniper vantage
for the weapons you keep in your mouth.
Stop whoring for dollars like God’s overdrawn his bank account.
Stop spreading a gospel of bondage and sin.
You’re not listening, so here’s an example:
whether you argue abortion’s not a right but murder?
It doesn’t matter. Either way, Jesus still loves her.
It’s time to stop judging and start looking for real results.
If you hate abortion that much, open free daycares or shut up.

And Jesus doesn’t hate gays, never did. That’s St. Paul and Leviticus,
and they were simply wrong because "Hate" isn’t what a Loving God does.
The only thing Jesus cares about gay marriage is that they're happy.
In a world of war and starvation, Jerry Falwell takes on the Teletubbies?
Those weapons in your mouth make your every word perverse.
Fred Phelps and your Westboro Baptist Church?
I could do a whole poem on you. But you’re not worth it.

I'm calling out the Patriarchs of Christian America: get right
with Jesus: Stop hating other religions, try a slice of humble, see the light
as it falls across a world where’s there’s so much real suffering endured
Instead of bibles, try giving away food to the hungry and poor
Your false Jesus is a Warlord, fraudulently caucasian.
I'm taking my Jesus back. Keep your pale imitation.

You’ve taken the hand
Jesus taught you to reach out with, and balled it into a fist.
Your sin is thinking there could be anything Holy in this.

                    Ryk McIntyre 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The message of Good Friday

I love you and I forgive you.
I am like you and you are like me.
I love all people.
I love the world.
I love creating.
Everything in our life should be based on love.

            Ray Bradbury, 2010 CNN interview

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strangers in a strange land

 

            Art by Jens Brasch, based on passages in the Book of Exodus