spleen

Man, I thought they NEVER leave.

So, it's finally over. Streamers, confetti, a panoply of speech-like phenomena, and at last we can return to regular programming. Presumably, Sarah Palin will return to Alaska, for which we're all grateful (unless we happen to be in Alaska). John McCain will go on to do pretty much whatever he'd like - if history is any indicator, he might show up in Pepsi ads opposite Britney Spears. Springsteen will still be the Boss, and George W. Bush will likely still be the boss of something. Throngs of reporters will return to their overrun homes, hack away the kudzu, drive out the mice, pay the phone bill, and generally be grateful to never hear the word "maverick" again.

And what about the remarkable story of Barack Obama? I'm not sure what to say. There's no clever quip that can possibly sum up the significance of what has happened. I have lived to see a black president, and more importantly, I have lived to see so many people support a black president. This is a country on the verge of economic ruins, ragged with war, but it's a free country. It's a free country again, with one less dream deferred. Our union has become more perfect today.

Posted in politics | No Comments »

This is just to say

I love my life. It's so warm, and so sweet.

Blessings on those who've forgotten me. To forget me is to move beyond me, and there is so, so much beyond me. I can't wait to see it.

Posted in personal, prayer | No Comments »

and so

Maybe the Quakers are right, and deep inside each of us is an ineffable light that burns without moving, like a pilot light. What we know about the universe might be described as a combination of what our senses tell us, what our minds deduce, and what some deeper part of us discovers through various mysterious processes, intuition, divination, entanglement with some nonprovable but very definite aspect of reality. But even that deeper part isn't exactly the light - it's more like a nebulous self that floats inside the body, that wears the body like a costume.  Maybe the light is the combination of all these things, and maybe it's something else entirely - some fixed connection to the harmony of things. When I think of it, I envision it as a teardrop-shaped thing, pale gold, living inside a little cave in my body. I sense it as my true and complete self, almost entirely hidden from the world because it's so fragile and childlike. It's so immersed in wonder that it almost feels naive - it trusts everything, marvels at everything, and has no inherent knowledge of evil. I love it, I want it like air, and I feel sorry for myself that I can only experience it in little glimpses and find it so hard to share it with others.

But I've been so lucky in this life. When was the last time you lay in bed with someone you really loved, and felt that little cave in you open like a hand? When was the last time you lay there and felt that light in another?

Posted in personal, prayer | No Comments »

doll-drums

And so, the ho-hum. It's rainy and hot here, and the air is the consistency of hot butter. I'm in the ether constantly, working, chatting, learning, adrift.

Today's work was the drafting of affidavits, mucking through meetings, some lovely programming (objected-oriented polymorphism to handle data sets in different ways), and Saint Nectaire. Saint Nectare is a French cheese that has been made since the eighteenth century, and was the favorite of Louis the such-and-such. Because the packaging says it contains hints of mushrooms and hazelnuts, I taste hints of mushrooms and hazelnuts. I'm an American, after all, and advertising means a great deal to me.

Poems forthcoming, as always. Life and work forever forthcoming, a great wave, something as endless as the building of a Russian cathedral.

Oh, and this: I have not changed in that I continue unendingly towards what I love. But I have changed in that what I love no longer promises to destroy me.

Posted in personal | No Comments »

and this

There were times when you believed no one could love you, and then they did. You believed no one could understand your rich internal universe, and then someone did. And times when you believed no one hurt you more, then someone came along.

Imagine what will happen tomorrow. So much wonder and hurt has been set aside for you that you can't possibly explore it all in this life. It waits for you. Would you give up wonder to never be hurt again? Would you give up hurt to never wonder again? Would you live, in spite of what that means?

Posted in personal | No Comments »