the earth is a lucid dream

--James Barr

The song "In the End," by Rush.

OK, this is becoming one of my pet peeves.

I've been in conversations about the ecological situation, and the fate of the planet, at least since I started college 20 years ago. And I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone say something like this:

"You know, the Earth will be fine; It's humans who will be extinct."

Or "The planet will survive just fine, it's just that humans won't be around." Or something like this.

I'm sure I must have heard this 45 times or more. In fact, I think I've even said it myself. Year after year, it keeps getting repeated as if it's a clever, insightful, or accurate rejoinder.

But it's not.

Just last Saturday night I heard it said by a noted environmental thinker, Stewart Brand. Brand is the visionary who created The Whole Earth Catalog and called for a photograph of Earth from space. Brand is also a bit of a contrarian. He's not afraid to advocate a controversial idea, such as nuclear power or GMOs. But even knowing the contrarian side of Brand, I was stunned to hear him repeat the old canard about how 'the Earth will be fine..."

Here's the context:

This was a panel of ecological folks that followed a screening of an excellent new documentary, "Climate Refugees." Brand and others were discussing the immense threat that climate change poses to humanity and civilization. This is, of course, a clear and compelling point that we all need to understand. But to my mind, Brand stretched the point too far when he implied that the only threat or primary threat was to civilization. Specifically he said "Life will be fine." And later, "The planet's OK."

This was more than enough to send my pet peeve sensors into high alert.

But it doesn't matter who's recycling this golden oldie, because whether it's an environmental legend, your earnest college roommate, or an annoying co-worker, here's why it's totally wrong.

More after the jump

Here are a few quotes I liked from the book, Ignore Everybody, And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, by Hugh MacLeod:

"Ignore everybody. The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you....You don't know if your idea is any good the moment it's created. Neither does anybody else. The most you can hope for is a strong gut feeling that it is....And asking close friends never works quite as well as you hope, either. It's not that they deliberately want to be unhelpful. It's just that they don't know your world one millionth as well as you know your world, no matter how hard they try, no matter how hard you try to explain."

"Van Gogh once told his brother, 'No painting ever sells for as much as it cost the artist to make it.'"

(The following pithy statements are from cartoons that MacLeod draws on the back of business cards.)

"Stay ahead of the culture by creating the culture."

"I no longer have feelings. I had them once but then I got scared of being poor."

"the good news is they're hyper-connected. the bad news is, that's all they are."

"'I can't take this shit anymore!' he said, mistakenly."

Sister Miriam Therese MacGillis,

From "The Fate of The Earth," a talk given in 1986:

"We now know that we're alive because the earth is alive. Unlike Mars, or the moon, or Venus, or the other planets in our solar system, we're a water planet. Seventy percent of the earth's surface is salt water. That's why the earth is alive. Its a fluid planet. But in our old cosmology, we call these fluids oceans. We name them . . . Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Antarctic. They're places. They're things. They're 'it's...

You swim in them, you fish in them, you sail in them, you own them. You own home fronts on them. And if your cosmology is such that those are just places, then it's very logical to dump wastes there, including our very lethal wastes.

But now we're beginning to understand that the oceans are the actual fluids of the planet. And everything that lives has the ocean in it. The oceans are not oceans. They are one single salt water system which flows through everything on the surface of the earth that has life in it. That's why things are alive–maple trees, bananas, or you. If we took you to the chemistry lab and had you analyzed right now, regardless of your size or weight, you would be seventy percent salt water. And it's the same salt water as if flowing through the oceans. The rest of you would be the minerals that form the crust of the earth. We're the earth, with consciousness, with soul, with spirit. We're the earth in a new form. But we are the earth! And now we understand that these fluids within the oceans are in us.

Because the oceans become the clouds and the clouds become the rain and the rain becomes the corn. And we eat the corn. And we get our minerals and our salt water replaced. And we cry the ocean. We excrete the ocean. We are just beginning to realize that the oceans are alive because over this long, painstaking process toward life, they became a community of millions of varied species and organisms, all of which are a fabric and a community of life. They are totally interdependent, all essential for each other's existence and for the well- being of the whole earth so that it can function and constantly maintain the oxygen needed by everything that lives.

More after the jump

You might not know this from the media's coverage, but the Gulf of Mexico is actually connected to all the other oceans on the planet.

--Charles Horton Cooley

The Network of Spiritual Progressives is having a powerful and prophetic gathering in DC this weekend, June 11-13.

Come check me out on Saturday night, June 12, 7:30pm. I'll be performing poetry as part of the Evening Plenary with Bill McKibben and others.

INFO HERE

DC Conference: Strategies for Liberals and Progressives for the Obama Years  

Creating "The Caring Society": A Progressive Alternative to Tea Party Extremism and Corporate Domination of American Politics and Culture

History is the ultimate trip.

The history of the universe is the craziest thing ever, and human history is a mind-blowing part of that.

A group of archaeologists from UCLA and Ireland have just announced the discovery of the world's oldest leather shoe, described as "an exquisitely preserved, 5,600-year-old woman's size 7 lace-up," found "in a cave in Armenia," (LA Times, June 10).

The shoe dates from the Copper Age, the time of "the first cities, the first kings, the first axes, the first beauracrats, the first international trading system."

Inside the cave, along with the shoe, they discovered "winemaking apparatus complete with grapes and three human heads preserved in jars."

Say what?! That's raw.

History is wierd.

And raw.

And real.

History never fails to fascinate.

"The oil companies and other giant corporations have a stranglehold on American policies and behavior, and are choking off the prospects of a viable social and economic future for working people and their families....

It's not just a cozy relationship [between oil companies and the federal government]. It's an unholy alliance. And that alliance includes not just the oil companies but the entire spectrum of giant corporations that have used vast wealth to turn democratically elected officials into handmaidens, thus undermining not just the day-to-day interests of the people but the very essence of democracy itself.

More after the jump

"The historical mission of our times is to reinvent the human--at the species level, with critical reflection, within the community of life-systems, in a time-developmental context, by means of story and shared dream experience."

--Thomas Berry, who passed one year ago today.

Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" voted #1 song by (who else?) Rolling Stone.

 Here's an article about the Top 5 songs on the list of 500

 And the entry on Dylan (from CBS.com):

No. 1: "Like a Rolling Stone," by Bob Dylan 

"I wrote it. I didn't fail. It was straight," Bob Dylan said of his greatest song shortly after he recorded it in June 1965. There is no better description of "Like a Rolling Stone" - of its revolutionary design and execution - or of the young man, just turned 24, who created it. 

Al Kooper, who played organ on the session, remembers today, "There was no sheet music, it was totally by ear. And it was totally disorganized, totally punk. It just happened." 

The most stunning thing about "Like a Rolling Stone" is how unprecedented it was: the impressionist voltage of Dylan's language, the intensely personal accusation in his voice, the apocalyptic charge of Kooper's garage-gospel organ and Mike Bloomfield's stiletto-sharp spirals of Telecaster guitar, the defiant six-minute length of the June 16th master take. No other pop song has thoroughly challenged and transformed the commercial laws and artistic conventions of its time, for all time. 

More after the jump

"It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality."

--Martin Luther King Jr. (Dec. 24, 1967)

Great art doesn't need a lot of fancy equipment. Just heart, and soul, and skill.

Click here for the song.

Obama: (paraphrase) This is what I wake up to and what I go to bed thinking about.

I think everypody understands that when we foul the environment, that has concrete implications for us and for future generations.

Obama then told a story of his daughter, Malia, asking, "have you plugged the hole yet, daddy?"

Obama: "I grew up in Hawaii where the ocean is sacred"

"How are we caring for this incredible bounty that we have?"

"When big crises happen, it forces us to do some soul-searching."

Obama then said we all have to be part of this soul-searching process, but in the meantime, it's his job to get it fixed.

"I take responsibility."

"It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down."

10:37 am (PDT): Watching Obama's press conference. God bless Helen Thomas.

--Tim Wise, on white privilege in the Tea Party

Excerpt:

"Recently I saw American poet Drew Dellinger speak in Guelph. His poetry combines cosmology and ecology in a way that forces us to wake up to the environmental destruction we have created. His work is influenced by writers like Berry. The story of the universe, Dellinger tells, has been understood in a physical, scientific approach with little relevance placed on any sacred meaning to the wondrous magnificence of the universe unfolding. Our story, he says, is one of human supremacy that separates us from each other and the other species on the planet. This story has allowed us to dominate and control nature because we see this as our human right that deems us superior. It is these beliefs that have created the current ecological crisis."

--THOMAS BERRY   (The Dream of the Earth, p. 2)

"A mind persuaded that is lives among things that, like words, are essentially significant, and that what they signify is the magic attraction, called love, which draws all things after it, is a mind poetic in its intuition, even if its language be prose. The science and philosophy of Dante did not have to be put into verse in order to become poetry: they were poetry fundamentally and in their essence."

--George Santayana, Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, Goethe   (1910)

Here's a blog entry from Laura-May Culver: (Original post here.)
 

Drew Dellinger Thanks Canada During his Planetize the Movement Canada Tour, March 2010

During his ‘13 gigs in 7 days’ Canada Tour, Drew Dellinger enthusiastically thanked Canada and Canadians for their historical and present day role in the Justice Movement.

At the Orillia, Ontario event, Drew passionately read the beginning of  Martin Luther King Jr.’s first CBC Massey lecture from the posthumous book collection The Trumpet of Conscience.

Drew proceeded to weave this into a personal address to Canada:

“I want to join with Dr. King in thanking Canada for being a beacon of freedom and justice at a time when the United States was living under a regime of systemic racial tyranny. And so, it is a part of that progressive justice tradition that I think Canada has exemplified; in some ways much more than the United States.

And so I want to thank you for that. And I believe Canada has a significant role to play as we build a planetary community, to put justice at the center; and it is based on ecological sustainability. So, Canada has a role to play. We all have a role to play. So, let’s Planetize the Movement".

Deep Ecologist Joanna Macy refers to Drew Dellinger as ‘a national treasure…’ and after a unique 7 day-13 event- Canadian PTM immersion, I can confidently state that Drew Dellinger is a North American treasure as well.

Check out the powerful and important works of Drew Dellinger, including his poetry book 'love letter to the milky way' at www.drewdellinger.org and www.planetizethemovement.org

--Laura-May

www.theredtelephonebooth.com

Along with the scientific and technological revolution, we have also witnessed a world-wide freedom revolution over the last few decades….In one sense the civil rights movement in the United States is a special American phenomenon which must be understood in the light of American history and dealt with in terms of the American situation. But on another and more important level, what is happening in the United States today is a significant part of world development.

We live in a day, said the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, “when civilization is shifting its basic outlook; a major turning point in history where the presuppositions on which society is structured are being analyzed, sharply challenged, and profoundly changed.” What we are seeing now is a freedom explosion, the realization of “an idea whose time has come,” to use Victor Hugo’s phrase. The deep rumbling of discontent that we hear today is the thunder of disinherited masses….All over the world like a fever, freedom is spreading in the widest liberation movement in history. The great masses of people are determined to end the exploitation of their races and lands. They are awake and moving toward their goal like a tidal wave….For several centuries the direction of history flowed from the nations and societies of Western Europe out into the rest of the world in “conquests” of various sorts. That period, the era of colonialism, is at an end. East is moving West. The earth is being redistributed. Yes, we are “shifting our basic outlooks.”

--Martin Luther King Jr.

"Chapter V: Where Are We Going," pp.169-70, from Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community, (1967)

"That should be the world's national anthem, the world's global anthem."

 --Rachel Kohn, ABC Radio National, Australia,

After hearing John Seed recite "Word to the Mother," by Drew Dellinger.
(April 18, 2010)

On Saturday I met Cynthia and Angela in the parking lot of Bed, Bath & Beyond, so I coud give them 15 copies of my poetry book, love letter to the milky way, to take inside San Quentin State Prison.

Angela has been facilitating workshops at San Quentin for a while, and her work is amazing. Cynthia is a super-rad visionary activist from Borneo who occaisionally visits the workshop.

Cynthia shared some of my poems with the guys, and afterwards one of them asked for the book. As she was contemplating leaving her personally signed copy, a couple of the other gentlemen said they wanted one too. So she said she would bring some when she returned.

I'm glad to have the books inside. I hope the power of poetry can serve as an amulet of peace and creativity, even inside the California State Prison system, which has so often served as a contemporary expression of white supremacy and classist oppression as it shape-shifts through history.

Click here for info on the Ella Baker Center's Books Not Bars campaign.

Have you heard about the Nevada candidate for US Senate, Sue Lowden, who has proposed that we emulate our grandparents and pay for healthcare by bartering livestock?

(For background, cluck here.)

This 'chicken for a CAT scan' nonsense reminds me of the poignant scene in "To Kill a Mockingbird," when Mr. Cunningham sheepishly repays Atticus Finch's legal fees with a sack of hickory nuts. (Some internet satirist should dig up that clip.)

It's not that bartering is, in itself, ridiculous. In fact, I'm all for local, alternative economies. But the idea that this is a solution for the catastrophic rise in health care costs, or a viable option for patients in desperate need, is laughable. It shows how disconnected the Republicans are from reality.

How would this play out in real life? Can I trade you this celery for some chemotherapy? A turnip in exchange for treating my tumor? It sounds like an SNL skit.

The proposal is unserious, stupid and callous.

It's like when Sen. Tom Coburn responded to a woman in financial and medical crisis by saying neighbors should help one another. A noble sentiment, but when was the last time you knocked on a neighbor's door and asked, "Can I borrow $168,000 for a lung transplant?"

"To look at the worldview that has brought us to the current planetary moment, we have to look at racism, systemic racism, as well as misogyny and patriarchy, classism, militarism. But I think we really have to take a long, hard look at systemic racism in order to understand the worldview that we're in right now, and the transformations that are happening. So I think that looking at a wider range of voices and looking at the history of genocide and oppression and slavery and segregation and the struggles of resistance against that, to build liberty, compassion and justice, is integral to the work of [the] Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness department...."

--Drew Dellinger,

Oct. 26, 2009 - presentation with Richard Tarnas on "Martin Luther King Jr.: Life and Transits." Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA.

P.S....See Brad Friedman's coverage of the ACORN media fail at The Brad Blog.

Click here to listen.

--James Wells

Here's the link to James' blog

 "We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat."

     --General Stanley A. McChrystal, senior American and NATO commander in Afganistan

The Greek Poets: Homer to the Present, Constantine, et al, eds. (Norton, 2010)

excerpt:

When I heard you were dead, Heraclitus,
tears came, and I remembered how often
you and I had talked the sun to bed.
Long ago you turned to ashes, my Halicarnassian friend,
but your poems, your Nightingales, still live.
Hades clutches all things yet can't touch these.

--Callimachus
(third century BCE;
translated by Edmund Keeley)

I think it is true, as someone said recently, that as brilliant as Obama is as a communicator, the administration has too often lost control of the narrative in this first year, or ceded control of the narrative to others.

It's been distressing to see the most lunatic narratives gaining power in these fearful and anxious and economically desparate times. And to see the right wing's rabid sway over the corporate mainstream media. Right-wing fearmongers have had far too much control of the narrative, from health care, to climate change, to Van Jones, to ACORN, and on down the line. All to the detriment of our discourse and democracy.

The concluding paragraph to this piece by Robert Reich illustrates the president's struggle to sculpt the story:

"But our President is not comfortable wielding blame. He will not give the public the larger narrative of private-sector greed, its nefarious effect on the American public at this dangerous juncture, and the private sector's corruption of the democratic process. He has so far eschewed any major plan to get corporate and Wall Street money out of politics. He can be indignant- as when he lashed out at the "fat cats" on Wall Street - but his indignance is fleeting, and it is no match for the faux indignance of the right that blames government for all that ails us."

--Robert Reich

Obama, following his often noble, sometimes futile, instinct toward reconcilliation, has thus far failed to craft a compelling narrative with the emotional, rhetorical and spiritual power that animated the campaign and electrified the world.

The success of his policies and his presidency, as well as the hopes of so many struggling people, depend on Obama's ability to wield the power story and activate a narrative that will motivate the nation.

Van gave some great remarks in acceptance that were humorous, inspiring and compassionate.

In conclusion, he addressed some words to Glenn Beck, saying something like:

'To Mr. Glenn Beck. I see you. I love you, brother, and there's nothing you can do about it . I love you, and there's nothing you can do about it. Let's be one country. Let's get the job done.'

Interestingly enough, just last night someone left a comment on this website that said:

"GET REAL YOU LIBERAL MORON ,VAN JONES SUCKS SO DO YOU"

Not exactly an edifying contribution to our national discussion, and somehow pathetic in its use of ALL CAPS, as if that makes a lie into a truth.

It was nice to be reminded by Van tonight that we can always choose to love, no matter what. May we continue to embody love and compassion for everyone. Our enemies are not each other, but rather our own hatred, fear, and delusion.

'Let's be one country' indeed.

Darwin's Sacred Cause

How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Human Evolution

excerpt:

"The real problem is that no one understands Darwin's core project, the nucleus of his most inflammatory research. No one has appreciated the source of that moral fire that fuelled his strange, out-of-character obsession with human origins. Understand that and Darwin can be radically reassessed.

In sounding the depths of Darwin's anti-slavery we have exploited a wealth of unpublished family letters and a massive amount of manuscript material....This, then, is the untold story of how Darwin's abhorrence of slavery led to our modern understanding of evolution."

--Adrian Desmond and James Moore,
Darwin's Sacred Cause  (HMH Books, 2009)

When you climb
out of a black well
you are not the same

you come to
in the blue air
with a long sore scar
circling your chest
like the shoreline
of a deep new sea

your hands are webbed
inviting you
to trust yourself
in water stranger
and wilder
than you've ever known

your heart has a kick
your eyes have
a different bite
you have emerged
from some dark wonder
you can't explain

you are not the same


--Dorothy Porter

(From The Bee Hut, Black Inc. 2009.)

the earth is a living thing

is a black shambling bear
ruffling its wild back and tossing
mountains into the sea

is a black hawk circling
the burying ground circling the bones
picked clean and discarded

is a fish black blind in the belly of water
is a diamond blind in the black belly of coal

is a black and living thing
is a favorite child
of the universe
feel her rolling her hand
in its kinky hair
feel her brushing it clean

--Lucille Clifton

--Bob Dylan, "Chimes of Freedom"

If we could speed up time we’d see that the universe is an insane flashing blossom; a fireworks burst of light-stars-galaxies-planets-oceans-life-awareness, in the blink of an eye, like a deity winking.

The Skin I’m In

My skin is brown with traces of crimson

given to me by my father who is mahogany

a beautiful smooth dark espresso kind of brown

…with hints of red

My father also has a deep rich commanding voice

that would let you know in the instant that you heard it

whether you were going to get a

         ride in the swing that he made with his hands

         or the direction in which to move to pick a switch

from the peach tree out back

My body is tall and ample

given to me by my father who is a pillar of strength

towering over most everyone in the crowd,

so that if I got lost all I had to do was…look up

My daddy…

intense and intimidating to those who cross him,

…like the man who tried to call him Billy...

‘cause see, by no means is my father Billy or Willie

that signified being a boy to him and my father…is a man

so his name, is just Bill.

Now it’s one thing to take after my father but entirely another

to look like my father when all I wanted to be

was one of those cute perky kind of girls that all the guys want to date in high school

or when I say hello have the other person on the phone line say

“oh excuse me sir, I was looking for Danielle”

…when all I wanted was to sound like syrup dripping out of the bottle

on an easy Sunday morning

… sweet.

More after the jump

--Drew

It's not always easy to find a simple definition of cosmology that covers it fully, so when I present, I generally throw out a flurry along these lines (and some of these definitions are influenced by the ones used by Brian Swimme and Miriam MacGillis over the years):

Most simply, "cosmology" is the study of the cosmos. (Or the study of the universe.)

In terms of modern science, "cosmology" is the study of the origin and development of the universe as a whole ("in its totality" also works, and avoids any confusion that could arise from the fact that "whole" and "hole" are homonyms.)

Swimme would add this: "Cosmology" is the study of the origin and development of the universe in its totality, and the role of the human in the universe. Science would tend to ignore that last part about "the role of the human in the universe." To a 'new cosmologist' like Swimme, that dimension is crucial.

But the scientific study of the origin and development of the universe (the "Big Bang" theory; the study of the galaxies, and the large-scale structure of the cosmos; astronomy and astrophysics) is only half of a full definition of "cosmology."

"Cosmology" is also a worldview or 'cultural story.' (A paradigm or "cosmo-vision")

To capture this sense, I say, "cosmology" is the story that a culture tells itself about how the world came to be, and how we fit into it.

So I think that a complete definition of "cosmology" (even a simple one) should include these two major aspects: the 'scientific' and the 'cultural'. "Cosmology" is both 'scientific study' and 'cultural story.'

So to reiterate,

"Cosmology" is the study of the origin and development of the universe as a whole, and the role of the human in the universe. It is also the story that a culture tells itself about how the world came to be, and how we fit into it.

(One last wrinkle is that the mainstream definition of "cosmology" and particularly "cosmologist" leans toward the 'scientific study' part, so almost any time you hear the word "cosmologist," it would be in reference to a physicist, astronomer, astrophysicist, scientist, etc. The 'cultural story' aspect of "cosmology" is less understood, though that is changing.)

Hope this is helpful,

Drew

Here's a link to a short video featuring Drew's poetry, put together by the Re:vision Project.

To watch, click here

In the dark of the moon, in flying snow, in the dead of winter,
war spreading, families dying, the world in danger,
I walk the rocky hillside, sowing clover. 

--Wendell Berry

   --Muntader al-Zaidi, Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush as an act of protest

Van Jones resigned last night.

My heart is heavy today.

Van is a personal friend and one of the most inspiring and effective visionaries of our time.

I am almost speechless about the right-wing racist attack machine. It's jaw-dropping to see the venomous comments from hate-filled know-nothings all over the web, spreading lies and distortions, calling Van a "racist" and "avowed communist."

(Most of this "communist" nonsense comes from one paragraph in a highly problematic profile of Van from the East Bay Express a couple years ago, the point of which was how Van has moved far beyond his youthful radicalism, and embraced market-based solutions to ecological and social problems.)

I am disgusted, saddened and worried about our country.

The hypocrisy of the Republicans, the right and the media is overwhelming. Do I even have to mention how many right-wing office-holders have said things 10x worse than Van's statements? Everything Van said was accurate, if occasionally provocative to a mainstream culture unaccustomed to critical thinking.

Van Jones is a hero, working for the well-being of all people. It is unimaginable to see him slandered as a "racist" by people who have no idea what they're talking about.

I am proud to stand with Van and to call him a friend.

My heart is very heavy today.
 

The right-wing is lying about Van Jones, and Glenn Beck is their Liar-in-Chief.

This is just the latest in a long series of attemtps to cynically swiftboat our discourse and our democracy. The untrustworthy folks who won't hesitate to smear the service of veterans like Max Cleland and John Kerry, who claim that health insurance reform is a plot to kill grandma, and Obama is a foreigner with a fake birth certificate, are now spreading ridiculous lies about the White House advisor for Green Jobs, Van Jones.

Somebody should tell these clowns that their neo-McCarthy red-scare antics are wearing thin. The American people want ideas and vision, not lies, hysteria, and racist fear-mongering.

I've known Van Jones personally for the last ten years, and ideas and vision are what he's all about. Van is quite simply a hero, committed to the well-being of all people.

To anyone who knows Van, and his work as a compassionate, visionary bridge-builder and leader, it would seem incredible that the Republican slime-slingers would attempt to slander him as a racist, communist, socialist, or whatever nonsense they're spewing...but arrogant disregard for truth has become the Republicans' only strategy. Why sweat facts when you're committed to spreading fear, and attempting to play the American people for suckers and fools?

In the last few days, right-wing dittoheads have been flooding websites with comments describing Van Jones as a "racist," and "avowed communist." These charges are simply false. The people passing along these lies don't know Van and don't know what they're talking about.

It is laughable to see these ludicrous claims that my friend of ten years "hates white people."

(Apparently, noticing or mentioning the history of racism is all it takes to be accused of hating white people.)

We progressives must stand strong when our allies and leaders are maliciously maligned. The unscrupulous mendacity of the right wing must be challenged and refuted.

Van Jones is working to create jobs for Americans of every race and background. He is a loving father, and a person of immense integrity. I am honored to stand with Van Jones in his work to build a green economy, and deeply grateful to call Van Jones my friend.

Humility is the right attitude of the finite to the Infinite, the conditioned to the Unconditioned, the part to the Whole. Humility is our awareness of our dependence on something greater than ourselves, and our interdependence with our fellow human beings and all of life."

  --Kabir Helminski, The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation

But democracy has always been a dream that pulls us forward.

A country where people bring guns to town-hall meetings has given up on democracy.

When threats and intimidation are allowed, democracy founders.

Every year I watch American politics, I see something unbelievable, whether it's warrantless wiretaps, or torture, or political firings of US attorneys, or...etc...

But I find myself agreeing with Chris Matthews when he says we've never seen anything quite like this in our modern politics, though, I would add, the confluence of guns and politics is a large part of our history of white racism.

I think this current moment teaches us something about the depth of white racism. If this display of guns around presidential speeches has never happened before, how does that relate to the fact that we have also never had an African American president before? This attempt at intimidation also teaches us about right-wing "politics" and the Authoritarian Conservative stream in our culture (to use John Dean's term).

I dream that one day love, democracy and nonviolence will thrive in our hearts and relations. The shattering history of political murder in the US gives us all the more reason to embrace compassion and reconciliation. Our future depends on it.

About forty years ago, on April 7, 1968, Nina Simone gave a concert just three nights after the assassination of Martin Luther King. Simone sang a song written by her bass player in the wake of King's murder called, "Why (The King of Love is Dead)". Stopping in the middle the song, Simone addressed the audience and spoke of her heartache and despair. "Do you realize how many we have lost? Then it really gets down to reality, doesn't it? Not a performance. Not microphones and all that crap. But really something else." With her mournful voice breaking into sobs, Simone added, "We can't afford anymore losses. Oh no. Oh my God. They're shooting us down one by one." At the end of her impromptu speech, just before starting to sing again, Simone repeated, "We can't afford any more losses."

Less than two months later, Bobby Kennedy was killed.

The assassinations of 1968 broke the nation's heart, stole our hope, and shattered our soul. Our country has not yet recovered. Nor have we recovered from the killing of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

In the shadow of this palpable history, bringing a gun to an event with our current president is especially vile and callous. It is anti-democratic. The assassin's bullet pierces every heart, attacking the very dream of democracy. The shadow of the gun casts a pall over all of us.

Some have predicted potential calamities in the upcoming years between 2010 and 2012. I pray that political violence is not among the challenges ahead.

Freedom from threats of violence is our right. Let us claim it, and safeguard our elected leaders, our democracy and our future.

We can't afford any more losses.

Below is an excerpt from Drew's poem, "hieroglyphic stairway," that was translated into French and posted on the web.

Qu’as-tu fait, quand tu as su ?

Une méditation  de Drew Dellinger, nommé Poète lauréat de la Nouvelle Cosmologie.

Il est 3h23 ce matin

et je suis éveillé

parce que mes arrière-arrière-petits-enfants

ne me laisseront pas dormir

mes arrière-arrière-petits-enfants

me demandent dans mes rêves

qu’as-tu fait quand on pillait la planète ?

qu’as-tu fait quand on détruisait la Terre ?

Tu as sûrement fait quelque chose

quand les saisons ont commencé à disparaître ?

quand les mammifères, les reptiles, les oiseaux se sont tous mis à mourir  ?

La voix de ta protestation a-t-elle empli les rues

quand on nous a volé la démocratie ?

Qu’as-tu fait,

quand tu as su ?

Catégories: Foi et vision cosmologique | 20/05/2009

Herbert writes:

     "The President of the United States has suggested that we use this flare-up as a 'teachable moment,' but so far exactly the wrong lessons are being drawn from it -- especially for black people. The message that has gone out to the public is that powerful African-American leaders like Mr. Gates and President Obama will be very publicly slapped down for speaking up and speaking out about police misbehavior, and that the proper response if you think you are being unfairly targeted by the police because of your race is to chill.

     I have nothing but contempt for that message."

More after the jump

Click on this link to see Drew's poem, "love letter to the milky way," translated into Spanish.

http://comunidadplanetaria.blogspot.com/2007/12/carta-de-amor-la-va-lctea.html

(Thanks to Ernesto Martinez Morales of Valencia, Spain, for his translation.)

This is one reason I love books.

I've always been a proponent of what I call "random research," because this is where serendipity and synchronicity can flourish and creativity is given space to leap. If you surround yourself with fantastic books, each one is like a beehive with 80,000 ideas buzzing inside. Open it, and any one might sting you.

I Walk Out Into the Country at Night

The moon is so high it is
Almost in the Great Bear.
I walk out of the city
Along the road to the West.
The damp wind ruffles my coat.
Dewy grass soaks my sandals.
Fishermen are singing
On the distant river.
Fox fires dance on the ruined tombs.
A chill rises and fills
Me with melancholy. I
Try to think of words that will
Capture the uncanny solitude.
I come home late. The night
Is half spent. I stand for a
Long while in the doorway.
My young son is still up, reading.
Suddenly he bursts out laughing,
And all the sadness of the
Twilight of my life is gone.

--Lu Yu

(From One Hundred Poems From the Chinese, Trans., Kenneth Rexroth. New Directions, 1971.)

More after the jump

A shattered stone statue
Some old copper coins
Strange ornaments of blackened silver
Several broken bronze vessels
Were unearthed
In a desert
And people say that centuries ago
Here where there is only a desert
A city was once settled
And a thought strikes me:
Even today, at a party
A gathering
When I come face to face with you
For one second
Just for one moment
The warmth of your body
The fleeting chance of meeting our eyes
The shine of your red bindiya
The rustle of your clothes
The fragrance of your hair
And sometimes, unintentionally
A tiny flower of touch
And then again, that unending desert
That desert where once
A city had flourished.

(From Anthems of Resistance: A Celebration of Progressive Urdu Poetry, by Ali Husain Mir & Raza Mir. IndiaInk, 2006.)

For the new issue of Tikkun magazine, the editors "asked writers representing the breadth of the spiritual progressive movement to write memos to our new president...Together, these memos reflect the hopes and aspirations of what might be called the Religious and Spiritual Left in the U.S. at the beginning of 2009."

You can read Drew's "Memo to Obama" on p. 47.

(That's one of the interesting things about music: even the greatest songs, played too much, can, at best, lose appeal, and, at worse, drive you nuts.)

But a few weeks ago PBS showed a special about John Denver. (This was during their pledge week, when they pull out all the old music to tug on the heart- and purse-strings of their Boomer donor demographic.) Suddenly childhood memories were washing over me in his melodies--from the early 70s when I was 3 or 4, through to the end of the decade.

And I had to appreciate again that John Denver kind of kicks ass. There is definitely a reason he was so insanely popular.

More after the jump

"If we are to have peace on earth…we must develop a world perspective."
    --Martin Luther King Jr., December 24, 1967

"Oh, my God! Look at that picture over there! Here's the earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!"
    --Commander Frank Borman, Apollo 8, December 24, 1968


Forty years ago, on Christmas Eve 1968, an astronaut orbiting the moon took a photograph that changed the world. As we near the end of the 40th anniversary of one of the most heart-breaking years in our history, it is worth remembering that the year of trauma ended in triumph.

As '68 dawned, the Tet offensive dispelled illusions of easy victory in Vietnam. Later that spring, in the early evening of April 4, one of the world's most visible and visionary activists for justice was shot down in Memphis, triggering waves of outrage and sadness, as more than 100 cities burst into flames of despair and rebellion. Two months later, Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed in Los Angeles.

Throughout '68, student protests and general uprisings broke out in Europe, the Americas, and elsewhere. In Mexico City, the Summer Olympics set the stage for the raised-fist defiance of John Carlos and Tommie Smith. In August, police and demonstrators clashed violently at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

This was the troubled world that the crew of Apollo 8 left behind in December, as they became the first humans to journey around the moon. Just as it seemed the world was falling apart, the astronauts on Apollo 8 took a photograph that would bring us all together, and forever change our image of the planet and ourselves.

More after the jump

--Eileen Appelbaum, TruthOut, Dec. 14, 2008

November 4, 2008, was one of those triumphs.

I felt giddy when my dad called early in the evening and said, "It's over. Obama won Ohio." Though the networks wouldn't call it for another hour, I went to the fridge and popped a bottle of champagne. Channel-surfing the live TV coverage with my son, we were watching Jon Stewart's show when he told Stephen Colbert and a delirious crowd the official news: Obama would be the 44th president. Involuntarily, my chin buckled a bit, my chest quaked, and I did something like a half-sob. On TV, the usually ever-ironic Colbert was wiping his eyes.

The tears around the world were not only mirrors of the past, but also libations for the future, dedicated to the proposition that we can heal and transcend the brutal shadows of history, see the full picture of the present, and manifest a transformative tomorrow.

The election of President Obama represents a stunning moment in the history of systemic racism in this nation--a profound moment in the spiritual journey of the country, and an amazing moment in the history of the world.

But as Obama said on election night, "This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change." Looking at the past, we see that history is made by mass movements, more so than by a single person--even a prophet or a president. To reverse catastrophic climate change and runaway global warming, we need a movement. To dismantle institutional oppression, we need a movement. To save the Earth's biosphere--the sacred, fragile and disappearing web of living species--we need a movement. To end poverty, and the unnecessary, unconscionable suffering it causes, we need a movement. To transform our country from an empire into an ally, we need a movement.

We desperately need to start a new story. 

More after the jump

More after the jump

Then, for no reason other than meteorological happenstance, the tide turns dramatically "one foggy Christmas Eve," when suddenly Rudolph can be useful to Santa and Blitzen and the rest of the 'foggy-weather friends.' It would be perfectly reasonable for Rudolph to tell them to kiss his red ass...but I commend him for taking the high road of reconciliation.

Christmas Song Grade: B-  Engaging story; catchy tune; terrible lesson.

On the other hand, I love "The Little Drummer Boy."

First of all, you can't beat the hook: the killer snare drum line echoed vocally with the "pa rum pum pum pums. " Second, the story is awesome, if legendary. (I hear the Little Drummer Boy cried when the Jesus Seminar voted that his existence was unsupported by scholarly evidence :)

More after the jump

Thomas Berry at the Temple of Minerva, Assisi, Italy, 1991   (Photo: Drew Dellinger)

The Center for Ecozoic Studies has published a special issue of their journal, "The Ecozoic,"  focused on Thomas Berry, the influential environmental writer and thinker. Over 150 of Berry's friends, students, and appreciators contributed reflections on Thomas and his work, including noted activist Joanna Macy and Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai.

I was grateful to be able to contribute the following piece, "Travels with Thomas Berry," in honor of Father Thomas and his immensely significant work and profound cosmological vision.

--Drew

Travels with Thomas Berry

By Drew Dellinger

Thomas Berry can shift your worldview with a single sentence.

For example, imagine that one minute you are just a simple person, thinking simple thoughts, and then the next minute you hear Tom Berry say: "The universe--throughout its vast extent in space, and its long sequence of transformations in time--is a single, multiform, celebratory event." And furthermore, Berry says, you, as a human, "are that being in whom the universe reflects on and celebrates itself."

(Say what? The universe is a celebration . . . and I am the universe thinking about itself?)

More after the jump

In 2003 Powell testified at the U.N. as the character witness for George Bush's War-Based-on-Lies. In 2008 Powell appeared on "Meet The Press" and lacerated McCain like a skilled courtroom lawyer.

Obama was launched as an anti-war candidate, whereas McCain has championed the invasion of Iraq.

Is it possible that General Powell's conscience is haunted by the thought of several hundred thousand murdered Iraqis?

"McPain."

The energy was amazing in Denver's Mile High Stadium as I packed in with my dad, my brother, and some 80,000 others for Barack Obama's acceptance speech on the final night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

*************

I guess the DNC is becoming something of a family tradition.

In 2000 I spent four days at the DNC in Los Angeles, demonstrating outside the convention; marching in the streets and protesting the corporate, militarist complicity of the Democratic Party. On the last night, I went inside the convention with my dad and listened to Vice President Gore's acceptance speech. Within minutes I had gone from the streets to the suites--from protesting behind a fence, to eating shrimp in a skybox with Gore's Chief of Staff, and the family of the keynote speaker, Harold Ford, Jr.

Candidate Gore was at the peak of his populism and gave a passionate speech in which he vowed that, as president, he would work for the people, not the powerful.

The next morning I drove from L.A. to the Bay Area, winding my way up the California coast on Hwy. 1 along the blue-green Pacific. (This was the day that I moved to Oakland: a sunny Friday in mid-August of 2000. Three months before Florida and the stealing of the election. A year before September 11.)

More after the jump

WTO Protests, Seattle, WA, December 1, 1999    (Photo: Holly Roach)

Below is a open letter from my dear friend, Holly Roach, along with a press release, describing a historic victory for free speech and the right to protest.

I was honored to stand with some 50,000 protestors for global justice in the streets of Seattle in 1999.

I felt sanctified going to jail alongside 600 courageous activists, undettered by the casual brutality of the state. Occasionally during the days in jail, while being transferred in handcuffs, chains and shackles, I would turn to one of the cops, and say, "We are being held illegally and unconstitutionally." The cops of course responded with a snicker, a smirk, or stony silence, but 9 years later a jury agreed.

The case of 175 protestors arrested at Westlake Park in downtown Seattle finally made it to court, and the jury found that the police and the city had violated the Constitution. The jury awarded us $1 million dollars.

Much more important than the money, is the message this verdict should send. Governmental and police officials must be accountable, and cannot be allowed to trample the Constitution and the rights (and bodies) of those working for peace, justice, democracy and the earth.

I felt lucky to be a Westlake Class member, and I was thrilled to channel every cent of my share of the settlement back into the global justice struggle, to support those working on the front lines of the movement, in the hearts of our communities.

Please consider supporting this vital work for global justice by contributing a matching donation to the MONEY to MOVEMENTS project.

--Drew

More after the jump

Tom Berry -- Greensboro, North Carolina    (Photo: Drew Dellinger)

This weekend, the Sophia Center in Oakland, CA, hosted a wonderful conference called "Thomas Berry and the New Cosmology," honoring and exploring the work of Father Thomas.

Brian Swimme opened the gathering with a great talk, chronicling his personal journey with Tom and elucidating the remarkable experience of being in the presence of a sage. One of the signs of a sage, said Brian, is that, in their company, you recognize who you are. They awaken in you a fuller, deeper sense of self.

Swimme told a story of eating at Thomas' favorite spot, the Broadway Diner in the Bronx. As the waitress refilled their coffee cups and walked away, Thomas said to Brian, 'There's no way you can repay her for that act. That isn't a monetary transaction. That's an infinite act of kindness. She has just poured her life into our lives.' Like Dante, perceiving the Divine in the person of Beatrice, Thomas Berry had the ability to see the infinity in an ordinary instant.

More after the jump

Does anybody think that Bobby Jindal is ready to be President of the United States? Or the Gov. of Alaska, who Bill Kristol suggested for VP?

This is of course exponentially more important for McCain, who is so old he turned George Burns on to cigars.

Sit-In at the Chevron Refinery, Richmond, CA, 5th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq, March 2008    (Photo: Jessica Tully) 

Yesterday, as we approach the 5th anniversary of this damned war, I went to a powerful rally at the Chevron refinery in Richmond, CA, where the war profiteers are choking the community with their pollution. Though we blocked the entire highway at Chevron's gates, the cops decided to wait it out. First there was a march, from the rally in the park at Point Richmond to the poisonous Chevron refinery. There was a marching band, the Brass Liberation Orchestra, as well as a flatbed truck with music and MCs. Then the sit-in in front of Chevron, blocking the entire highway.

Earlier the cops had closed all of the off-ramps from Highway 80, which was a major deal, and while it's great that this important demonstration was able to disrupt the flow of traffic-as-usual, the cop's preemptive blockade of all the highway exits leading to Richmond kept away many folks who wanted to come protest. With some orange rubber cones and police cruisers, the State, once again, blocked citizens from exercising their constitutional rights. I was turned back twice by traffic cops steering all cars away from the rally and march area. To make it to the protest I had to sneak past the police checkpoint by driving through a hotel parking lot. Then, having missed the rally, I caught up to the march.

Some folks, about 24, were arrested at the very end, after we ignored the barricades and entered Chevron property. Dr. C., an Environmental Justice organizer from Richmond, listed Chevron's crimes against the community, and my friend D., who always has a great way of framing things, said, 'We're going past the barricades to ARREST CHEVRON, so if you see any CEOs in there you can put them under citizen's arrest.' The cops freaked when we simply moved their iron gates. (I love disobedience to illegitimate authority!) Then we clustered together again in a sit-in; this time inside Chevron's property. The arrests happened later, but I had left by then. It was a beautiful day in the streets.

There are huge marches this week in SF and around.

(Thanks to Jessica Tully for these photos of the protest.)

--Abraham Lincoln

Though past the peak of his popularity he was at the height of his prophetic powers. Increasingly embattled, his influence waning, with the climactic victories of the civil rights movement behind him, King first announced in the City of Angels the opposition to war that marked his spiritual growth in the last years of his life. His concern anticipated that of many Americans about the current war.

More after the jump

Mel Gibson lost his cool on tequila and exposed his extreme anti-semitism to the cops, and the world.

Three drunken fratboys from the University of South Carolina, thinking they were talking to a Kazakh reporter named Borat, revealed again the banality of hatred, proudly declaring their contempt for women, admiration for slavery, and the 'powerlessness' they feel compared to "minorities."

Now Michael Richards melts down, hurling racist threats from the stage. Surely some revelation is at hand....Ghosts of the land, specters of slavemasters.

The ghost of white supremacy is woven into the machine of the current system, from the drowning of New Orleans to the war on Iraq.

What are those of us who are white prepared to do to dismantle systemic racism? What are we prepared to see, recognize, observe, hear, say, read, learn, ask, challenge, interrupt, and give up? What work are we prepared to do? What movements are we prepared to support? What actions must we take to transform our racist past into real possibility?

But last night was a different story as Bobby put on an enchanting show and was clearly energized to be in San Francisco. There wasn't a bad song all evening, but the core of the show was an amazing string of "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," "Desolation Row," "Tangled Up in Blue," "Highway 61 Revisited," and a nice song from the new album, "When the Deal Goes Down."

After ending with a few more tunes, Dylan came back for a great encore of "Thunder on the Mountain," "Like a Rolling Stone," and "All Along the Watchtower."

Dylan truly seemed like an amplified prophet at times throughout the performance, and again as he ended the show by reprising the lyrics, "Businessmen they drink my wine, ploughmen dig my earth/None of them along the line know what any of it is..." and he hovered on the word "worth," as if encapsulating a searing indictment. End of show; rousing ovation. Dylan and his impressive band gathered at center stage, and the enigmatic poet laureate of rock stared at the crowd like an intense sagacious owl, then disappeared.

Sometimes all it takes is an example…

Of course, waiting at a crosswalk is not a big deal, and traffic signals--for the most part--serve the common good, but the problem is, we're raised to be overly compliant in general, and too often we learn to respect authority no matter what. We're afraid to step out of line, even if it is a big deal, so we don't speak up when our government lies, or drops bombs on civilians.

But what if we could begin to inspire each other to defy the criminals who claim to be our rulers?

When that first person dares to step out into the intersection and cross the street, there's no telling how many might follow.

I should probably introduce myself briefly. My name is Drew Dellinger. I'm a poet, teacher, activist, and father. I'm originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, (Go Tarheels!) and now I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Currently I'm busy finishing a PhD in Philosophy and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). For the last fifteen years or so I have been deeply interested in ecology, social justice, cosmology, art, and activism. Over the years, I've been blessed to learn from, and work with, many amazing and inspiring activists, organizers, authors, scholars, and visionaries.

That's enough about me for now…I'd love to hear what's on your mind. Send me an email, or post a comment to this web log.

Thanks again for checking out the site, and feel free to bookmark it and check back in as it evolves…

Blessings and solidarity,

Drew