Wendell Berry

Here are two poems by man named Wendell Berry. He is probably my all time favorite poet. He has also written in other forms, mostly novels and essays, but I think it safe to say he is best loved as a poet. At least by me. These poems were originally published in 1968 in a collection called "Openings". He is still alive and publishing today, but his primary occupation has always been farming. He continues to live and work in his native Kentucky and is 74 years old. I was fortunate enough to hear him in person once when I was in college, way back in the 80's.

The Want of Peace

All goes back to the earth,
and so I do not desire
pride of excess or power,
but the contentments made
by men who have had little:
the fisherman’s silence
receiving the river’s grace,
the gardener’s musing on rows.
I lack the peace of simple things.
I am never wholly in place.
I find no peace or grace.
We sell the world to buy fire,
our way lighted by burning men,
and that has bent my mind
and made me think of darkness
and wish for the dumb life of roots.


The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Obama and Abortion

Tomorrow hundreds of protesters will be at to Notre Dame University to protest President Obama's being invited to give the commencement address, and also for his being given an honorary degree. The reason is, of course, is that Obama is pro-choice and Notre Dame, as a Catholic institution, is supposed to be against such things. But the University is, thankfully, too smart to get sucked into that little quagmire. Obama is going to do his thing. The protesters are going to do theirs.

Now I could go in a lot of directions with this one people. But I will choose one so as to keep this post short (in keeping with my goal to not turn off those folks who don't like to look at anything longer than 4 or 5 paragraphs).

My point is this: why has abortion become the defacto moral litmus test for Catholics and other like minded religious folk? Why not, say, capital punishment, or maybe ...uh...war. These are also against "Church teaching". I can't tell you how many so called "pro-life" people I have have talked to who are ready to "flip the switch" themselves when it comes to killing the "bad adults". I guess it is really not just about Church teaching after all. And how about poverty? Why are all these so called religious folks not getting all outraged at the great gulf between the rich and poor in this country. Jesus seemed to talk about this issue a lot, as I recall. Sure, abortion on demand was not really an issue is his time, but what if it was? Would he be standing on line at an abortion clinic? I think not. He would certainly have been against abortion, as it is an act of violence. But I believe he would have taught that there are greater acts of violence as well. If he were around today I think abortion would probably be about #6 on his to do list. Maybe lower.

But to get back to my question: Why is abortion the big hot button issue? Let me suggest one possible reason: It's easy. I mean lets face it, it's pretty damn easy to be against abortion. You don't really have to do anything other than be indignant. If you are really motivated you can write your congressperson or go stand outside a graduation ceremony at Notre Dame. But for the most part all you really need to do to prove your morality is to be outraged. And you can do that in the comfort of your own home, after supper while waiting for your favorite tv show to come on.

I do not mean to impugn the good faith of people who feel really drawn to the pro-life cause as a moral imperative for themselves. To each his (or her) own. I can respect that. There are very good people for whom this is an important issue. But lets face facts: if you were to choose poverty (which is responsible for a lot more death), a much bigger task would be on your hands. After exploring it, you might have to look at the way you yourself live. You might have to make some lifestyle changes, you might need increase your giving, volunteer at a soup kitchen, even change your job. You might have to really work.

Whose got time for that?

Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger turns 90 tomorrow. There is going to be a big celebration at Madison Square Garden. Performers include Bruce Springsteen, Wilco, Billy Bragg and many more. I wish I could have gotten it together to go. Pete is certainly a kindred spirit as far as this writer is concerned. I saw him once in 2003 at a small congegational church is Greenwich NY and talked with him briefly. I remember asking him who he was reading lately and he mentioned Barbara Kingsolver and Arundhati Roy. He definitely had what I want to call an "earthy, spiritual vibe". I don't know that he professes any religious belief and I could care less actually. Many of the best people I know are non-religious.

I was listening to public radio earlier today and there was a call in portion where folks could share their "Pete stories". There was one that really grabbed me. A few years back someone was going to see Pete at some smallish music hall. He wanted to get there early to ensure a decent seat. As he was in line waiting for the door to open he looked over his sholulder. There was Pete Seeger standing in line behind him. Pete Seeger was waiting in line to get into his own show! This typifies what many know to be the man. Humble, unpretentious, and radically egalitarian. He believes he is no better than anyone else and that he should get no special treatment. I have heard that this even goes as far as Pete insisting that his name appears on posters and tickets in the same size as all others on the bill, even if they are virtually unknown.

How cool is that? How refreshing!

It seems so much of our society is geared toward self-promotion. Everyone is quite concerned with insuring that they get their "credit, where credit is due". I am often the worst offender, I must admit.

Thank God for guys like Pete Seeger, someone of great achievement who does not feel the need to be constantly reminding everyone of the fact.

He was very reluctant, by the way, to take part in the big party tomorrow at MSG. There is a cool story behind why he agreed to let it go forward, but I'll let you dig that one up yourself.

This reminds me of another guy of great achievement who likes to keep it simple. The Dalai Lama. This coming Wednesday, on May 6th, I am going the see him at the Palace Theatre in nearby Albany NY. Here is a man who is the head of very complex, ritualized, world religion. But for all of this, here is how he breaks it down:

"There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophy. Your own mind, your own heart is the temple. The philosophy is kindness".

Basic. Simple. One might even say quite "Seeger-like". Can you dig?

Now, if you got a few minutes, tell me what you believe. What is your "religion"? (or "philosophy" if you prefer that word).

As Frasier Crane would say....I'm listening.

Hard Bop

I had a most unexpected experience recently. It was a couple weeks back, April 3rd to be exact. That was the night I saw the Terence Blanchard quintet play live here in town at Skidmore College. I have certainly appreciated jazz in the past. I have a few cd's. I enjoyed the Ken Burn's "Jazz" documentary a few years back. But in truth I really never reached for my jazz cd's when I wanted to really, well... get "jazzed". I am more of a rock and roll kind of guy. But for some reason, about half way into the Blanchard show I had an epiphany. I suddenly "got it". I realized the awesome power of jazz.

Maybe it was because I was sitting in the very first row and had a trumpet going off about 4 or 5 feet in front my face.

But I think it's more than that. There is something about seeing a top flight jazz combo live that is unlike anything else. Something primal. It's hard to find the words. It's like something hit me in my spine. Like fireworks. I know it sounds weird.

I am sure this would not have happened if I was sitting at home listening to a cd. I think it must be a"live" thing. But then again I have seen live jazz before and it never hit me like this did. It has even had some kind of lasting effect. I seem to hearing in different way. To test this I pulled out some of those aforementioned cd's and they sound different to me. They sound fresh. Vital even.

I have also done some exploring into genres and I have discovered that the recordings that really grab me are in a style that's called "Hard Bop". This is a category in which Blanchard is often placed. Coincidentally (or not) the seminal early combo in this movement, Clifford Brown and Max Roach, also occupy a place on my shelf with their 1956 offering "Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street". It's also probably not another coincidence that the one other jazz show I really remembering digging was the 1992 Bright Moments Jazz festival at UMass Amherst featuring....Max Roach. The late great Max Roach.

Another happy effect of this growth spurt of mine is that I now will also be of help to our flagging economy as I have to beef up my paltry Jazz collection!

Next album in my sights: "Mingus Ah Um" by Charles Mingus

Teach your children well

Yesterday brought the awful and disgusting news of yet another deadly shooting rampage. This time 13 or 14 people lost their lives in an "immigrant services" center in Binghampton NY. I could go on about how easy access to firearms in this country makes such tradegies more common here than in other parts of the world. Or I could talk about how many media outlets turn events like these in to "entertainment" for the purposes of making money. But my thoughts turn to something else today. Why is it exactly that some people "snap" and go off like this? A lot of experts have a lot of theories about it. I am sure you have heard many of them.

Well I'm no expert, but here is my take.

To reduce it to it's simplest terms we, as a nation, need to do a much much better job in basic freakin education! In our school's we teach math, english, science etc.. and these are mandatory for all students. Why don't we also start teaching kids, from the earliest grades, about how to live life? We should have required classes with names like... "Coping Skills 101", "Alternatives to violence", "How to handle dissapointment", and "valuing differences" etc...

Some people might argue "that's the parents job!" or something like that. Well...why can it be societies job too? What is wrong with teaching people how to understand the causes of their rage, their anger, their hopelessness and then giving them tools to deal with these problems effectively?

I quess, sadly, the answer is probably that this would take too much work. In the final analysis it's much easier to just label people "monsters" and wash our hands of the whole business.

Or maybe not. Maybe we could just start with ourselves, look at the hatred and disfigurement in our own lives, get a grip on things, and then maybe share with someone who is struggling about how we began to let that negative baggage go....

Maybe then the idea could spread. And (dreaming big) before you know it one day little Johnny comes home from school with his report card and he's got an "A" in "Practicing Kindness".

Yeah, that's sounds better.

Scientists, Jesus, and freaks.

Yesterday I was in a doctors office and I noticed the February 2009 issue of Smithsonian magazine. Abe Lincoln and Charles Darwin were on the cover; this year being the 200 anniversary of the birth of both men, who were actually born on the same day. I had quite a wait and got through two fairly long articles. The article on Darwin got me thinking about the whole Science vs. Religion thing, particularly as it has played out over the subject of Darwin's so called "Theory of Evolution".

Many people think this is a simple "science in one corner, religion in the other" type of debate. While this is how it plays out in many circles there are notable exceptions. One of the most fascinating and instructive is the case of Teilhard De Chardin. He was a Roman Catholic priest who wrote convincingly in the first half of the 20th century on the subject of the compatabilty of Evolution with his Christian faith. He was both a scientist (Geologist and Paleontologist) and a member of a religious order (The Jesuits). In nutshell, Teilhard believed that Evolution was the one theory to which all others must bow. Science had taught him this fact. And it was indeed a fact, with a capital F, and thus could not be ignored. (note: the Smithsonian article, while not mentioning Teilhard, or even the subject of religion, did point out that although there were "gaps" in Darwin's theory, which Darwin himself readily acknowledged, that all science since, and I mean ALL science since, has only proven Darwin's initial theory utterly correct).

So then, how does a priest, whose "traditional" religious inheritance is obviously challenged by this Theory of Evolution, deal with what appears to be (on the surface at least) two incompatable world views? Well here, in a slightly oversimplified form, is how Teilhard answered this question. In the physical world, before a species "evolves" there are what Teilhard called "progenitors" or "sports". These are freaks of nature so to speak who have jumped out ahead of the pack and evolved before the rest of the species. He believed that there was also, humanly speaking, an evolutionary component on the spirtiual plane. Christ was an example of this type of"progenitor". He was a human who had made this leap ahead of the existing consciousness. He was a freak. So far ahead in fact that people came to use words like "Divine" when describing him. The Buddha would be an obvious second example of this type of individual. Think about this for minute...okay now take another minute...

Pretty good news I'd say.

Now go and look yourself in the mirror and say "Hello you cute little future Buddha" or something like that.

Coffinman

I don't know if you happened to see or read about this years Academy Awards ceremomy. If you did you might not remember what picture won for Best Foreign film. If this is the case then you need to know about it.

The film is called "Departures" and it is about a failed Japanese businessman and sometime writer who, through unexpected circumstances, finds himself working as a mortician. Although I have not seen the movie yet, I have a connection to it as I have read the book on which it was based. The book is called "Coffinman" and it was written by Shimon Aoki. I read the book a few years back when it was an assigned reading of the Northampton Shin Buddhist Sangha, led by Taitetsu Unno, who also wrote the introduction to the book.

The book is a fascinating study of life and death as seen through a Japanese Buddhist lens. Toward the beginning of the book there is line which stood out. Early in his new career the author has been called to retrieve a body that has been uattended for some time. As he approaches he sees that it is infested with maggots. After initially being repulsed, he has a sort of spiritual awakening and he then confesses: "Maggots are life, too. When I thought that, I could see the maggots shining".

Wow. I have seen maggots too. My thoughts were not about their nature as shining lifeforms. But I guess that's the whole point. Pretty and ugly are our own judgements. Life itself doesn't seem to care about it. Life is unstoppable. Our end is another beginning. Even if only for maggots.

Now I must say I believe we have a much finer ultimate destination than being food for insects. But I also like the idea of someday being myself "food for life". I mean haven't I relied on "life" for my food all these years? Why shouldn't I give back a little?

So sharpen your teeth maggots! I hope to see you for lunch in about 50 years.




And I can't wait to see this film!