That shrimp plant so determined to be seen poking through the ginger and the fig like a four year old waving skinny arms and red cheeks to those towering above That shrimp plant grown from cuttings of a friend who no longer lives in this country from a house that has since burned down That shrimp plant breaks at its knobby knees and elbows when the wind blows too hard drops to the ground and grows again Universe today I pray... Read more
The other day I got a subscription offer from a magazine called Free Inquiry, a publication of the Council for Secular Humanism. I’d been thinking about ordering the magazine. Well, here was my chance: a “special introductory offer for blasphemers only.” Got to love the marketing department. That’s no magazine for me. Though I am “godless”–in the sense that I doubt the existence of anything that human beings would wish to call “god” and I don’t think a religion is... Read more
This time of year, as we approach Halloween, The Day of the Dead, and All Saints’ Day, I am often thinking of death. Granted, I am always a little bit morbid—my astrologer sister would say it’s because I’m a Scorpio. (I regret that I was too old to go Goth in my teen years, because I suspect I might have enjoyed that.) But right now, death is often lurking just under my mind’s surface. My garden is one of the... Read more
Last month I had the joy of participating in the first Life on Fire un-conference (https://www.facebook.com/LifeOnFireTribe). I was drawn to the gathering by the questions being asked, as well as by the beloveds who were convening us. • Do you want to transform the world into the beloved community? • Do you want to live a committed life that takes you to third places, abandoned places, and secular places? • Do you believe in radical integrity? • Do you want... Read more
A. Thucydides–that Greek telling his story, human doings with nary a nod to the gods–said the powerful extort what they can; the weak pay what they must. True enough to make a bon mot. The powerful take, the weak give. Person to person; city to state; and the empires the worse for it. B. Nothing golden in that rule. More murder and steel, more grab and run. More of that little story, David... Read more
Beloveds, I believe that we are all in this together – and together, we can shift a culture that is dehumanizing us all – A culture that prioritizes paper with imaginary value over oxygen, clean water, livable communities, A culture that tells some of us we are better than others, tells some of us we are inferior, A dominant culture that sacrifices the many for the few and lays the blame for the destruction squarely upon those who are being destroyed…... Read more
I can’t sleep. Again. Tonight I’m thinking about how, in the city where I live, the police shot and killed a 34-year-old unarmed woman today, with her 1-year-old in the back seat of her 2-door sedan. I’m thinking about how I’ve driven those very streets, gotten stuck in tourist traffic on those avenues, turned around with frustration and exasperation at those barricades. I don’t know what will be revealed in the days ahead about this particular person and what she... Read more
Let’s say you find yourself living in, oh, let’s say the United States. It’s a country where something on the order of seventy-five percent of the population claims to be Christian. Let’s say you don’t believe in any other religion, either: you aren’t Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Baha’i, or any other of the myriad religions brought to the US by immigration or popular books. Perhaps you were even raised Christian. What do you do? How do you get through the... Read more
The government has come screeching to a halt because Speaker Boehner, under pressure from the Tea Party Republicans, will not allow the House to simply vote up or down on a continuing resolution to fund the government. (Since having an actual budget has bizarrely gone the way of the politically impossible.) Unless the Democrats agree to undo the Affordable Care Act, which has passed the House and Senate, and been affirmed as constitutional by the Supreme Court, not to mention... Read more
First, gather friends and family. Together, build a structure with at least three sides. Roof it with bamboo or cornstalks, anything you can cut from the ground. Remember to leave spaces where the stars can shine through. Dwell in this place for a week. “Dwelling” includes eating, talking, singing, napping, reading, relaxing, entertaining, all that is our life. Lounge here, dine here, enjoying the fruits of the harvest. Invite friends and strangers in to dine with you. If it isn’t... Read more
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