nonpareils

did you hear aretha sing at the inaugural? ;) did you see her ribbons?

mr bobby kennedy said this when king died:

"this is a time of shame and sorrow. it is not a day for politics. i have saved this one opportunity to speak briefly to you about this mindless menace of violence in america which again stains our land and every one of our lives. it is not the concern of any one race. these victims of the violence. they are human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. no one – no matter where he lives or what he does – can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. and yet it goes on and on. why? what has violence ever accomplished? what has it ever created?

no martyr’s cause has ever been stilled by his assassin’s bullet. no wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. a sniper is only a coward, not a hero. whenever any[one]’s life is taken by another unnecessarily – whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence – whenever we tear at the fabric of life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.

abraham lincoln said:

"among free men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet;
and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs.”

yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores both our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. we calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far off lands. we glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. we make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire any weapon or ammunition they desire.

too often we honor swagger and bluster and the wielders of force.
we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others.
some americans who preach nonviolence abroad fail to practice it here at home.
some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.
some look for scapegoats, others for conspiracies, but this much is clear:
violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation,
and only a cleaning of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soil, from our soul.

there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. this is the violence of institutions. indifference and inaction and slow decay. this is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. this is a slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

this is the breaking of a man’s spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. and this too afflicts us all. i have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. for a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done. when you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of color or belief or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies – to be met not with cooperation but with conquest, to be subjugated and mastered.

we learn, at the last, to look at our bothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community, men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. we learn to share only a common fear – only a common desire to retreat from each other – only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. for all this there are no final answers.

yet we know what we must do. it is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. the question is now what programs we should seek to enact. the question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of human purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence. we must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of all. we must admit in ourselves that our own children’s future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. we must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. of course we cannot vanish it with a program, nor with a resolution. but we can perhaps remember – even if only for a time – that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short movement of life, that they seek – as we do – nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.
surely this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. surely we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our hearts brothers and countrymen once again."

aeschylus:

"even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of god."

ok, someone said to me that quoting the mary poem yesterday was morbid. please! we're immortal! ;)

one day we fall fall down forever

i know, ive quoted that before. it's just such a great line. (patti griffith, you know)

well its january again somehow, almost not, so figured i better get something said about january while i still could and it being officially january. i notice this year i know a slew of people with january/february birthdays-- that means a lot of aquarians. i can tell you, ive never had a slew of aquarian friends before, just the few handful of the most important folks in my life. if you dont know about aquarians, go figure it out, you should, along with the rest of that wheel. but aquarians are a special breed and thats just that. january? dunno, its the new year, its generally cold no matter where you are, its a beginning time, or anyway winter. i suppose its groovy.

what do i recall about january: it always precedes or follows a more significant time, like the holiday, or juliet's birthday, or just getting back from bodensee and starting classes again. i remember a new year's eve (technically, we're talking december, tho, right?) outside lake constance in the mountains sitting in a pool of hot springs watching the full moon rise and the steam with it. see what i mean? january is parenthetical, always just before or after something significant.

anywho, the record is coming along, artwork y'know, and making of copies. warner brothers said i had to do it all myself ;) blah blah blah, i dont know, who wants to hear about that? the minutia of what it takes to see something through from inception to you have it in your freakin hand? i mean, besides me? its pretty remarkable stuff actually, the storyline that happens in getting there. that shit would make some rock hard movies, lemme tell ya. course, that takes doing too. but the thing is, - nevermind.

let's see, what flowers in january? hellebores, one of my absolute favorites. some winter cherries and honeysuckle (oddly), but also depending on the zone you live in, paeonies, jasmine, quince, roses, camellias, etc. i have visited some of the most outrageously beautiful gardens, sissinghurst, the david austin nursuries up in northern england, a private botanical garden in portland oregon that had maybe the best beds and paths of any ive ever seen. not that you asked.

eventually, it all gets done. one day we all fall down forever. see?

broken strings

here

new day

for healing, for change and for united community, it's a great, great day, for "the risk-takers, the do-ers, the makers of things", by "joining imagination with common purpose, courage with action" when "only hope and virtue can survive". "repairing the things in need of repair." say amen, say amen, say amen.

works for me ;)