LET OUR EXTREME BE TO LOVE

This Heart Does Not Hate

Yesterday, in Pakistan 132 school children and 9 staff members were slaughtered by Taliban gunman.  The crime is so heinous that Taliban militants in Afghanistan have decried the murders as un-Islamic. The problem is that these same militants who harbor similar hatreds, who believe that such animosity is a provision of their Islamic faith, have the blood of the innocents on their hands.  It makes little difference that most Islamic extremists would refrain from killing children-- when vitriol is a part or proof of religious orthodoxy or dedication, there will always be the danger of these kinds of unconscionable acts.  The truth is that these same militants would never make such a claim that murder was "un-Islamic" if the innocents were adults.  Age would somehow turn victims into culprits deserving of slaughter.  There is simply no way in which hatred may be contained even if the boundaries are doctrinal  Hatred by nature recognizes no limits. 

This is exactly what is wrong with some of the evangelical and fundamentalist Christians in the United States.  While they are not angry enough to begin the slaughter of individuals whom they have indelibly linked with behavior they call sin, the fervency of condemnation is the flint that ignites the same kind of violence.  I remember growing up in a church that reminded me to love the sinner but to hate the sin, that in so doing I was modeling my actions on Christ's.  I have since found this to be an impossible task-- when one hates, there are no limits.  Yes, Jesus could do it, but we cannot.  Our hatred of the sin will never allow us not to hate the sinner.  So when left with a choice of either hating or loving, there need be no dilemma-- just love.  

What happens when you don't choose "love"? You find ridiculous and repulsive arguments such as the latest in which certain evangelicals are making the claim that sometimes torture is necessary.  I must have missed that portion of the Gospels in which Christ commanded his disciples, "Love your enemies, unless you must torture them."  

The fact is that the seeds of hatred-provoked violence may often be found in a perfectly understandable anger.  For example, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, many Americans were angry.  Who would blame us?  Innocents were slaughtered.  But that justifiable anger soon became rationalized, legitimized, and justified violence in the form of torture.  

From a moral standpoint, it is rare that the means have no impact on the ends.  It is the safer moral code to worry about the means all along the way so that in the end we might be found as noble as humanly possible. Remember, too, that there was a time when some good Christian Americans believed that helping a freed slave was an unrighteous act.  

Even if God has appeared to you and told you, for example, that homosexuality is immoral, let him worry about the judging part.  It could very well be that it was not actually God who spoke to you.  Then you find yourself later having to apologize (or justify) having erroneously perpetrated hatred and violence against a group of people.  So you florists and bakers who are refusing to sell your products for use in same sex weddings-- how is your refusal furthering the kingdom of God?  If one has to demonstrate one's faith in overt acts of hatred, then one should seriously reassess the profitability of that creed.  I have a hunch that when the baker is standing before the Lord on judgment day, he is not going to get the GO DIRECTLY TO HELL card for doing business with same sex couples; in fact, his refusal to serve them may actually qualify as a goatish act as defined by Christ himself at Matthew 25:31-46.  

So how about we start during this season to do something different.  Even if we cannot bring ourselves to love each other, how about taking St. Paul's advice at Philippians 4:8

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, 

whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, 

whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 

whatsoever things are of good report; 

if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, 

think on these things.

Maybe we can fill up so much on the good thoughts, that we won't have room for anything else. 

In the meantime, we need to pray to God on behalf of the families of these dear children killed in Pakistan.  Pray for healing, pray for peace-- on our knees, in our hearts, in the way we treat each other.  

WE THE PEOPLE

Things have come to light recently that should make white people ashamed.  Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams were all unarmed African Americans killed by white police officers.  And these are but the most recent.  The ones the press has publicized.  It is becoming increasingly clear that white law enforcement personnel take it for granted that as long as they can claim that an African American displayed even a semblance or shred of misbehavior, their own violent actions will be justified.  To whom?  Their superiors?  The criminal justice system?  The courts?  Unfortunately the "whom" is the white population of the United States.  We are providing tacit and implicit support for these bad cops by our own failure to act against racism.  If we did not think African Americans are dispensable or expendable, these cops would be far less likely to kill.  They would actually fear reprisals.

Let's stop the excuses and the cheap rationalizations such as:  "Not all white cops are bad" or "If you don't want harassed by the cops, don't break the law."  Of course, there are many good police officers; and of course, one is at a greater disadvantage when engaged in wrongful activity.  The fact is, however, that statements like these consciously or subconsciously are cosmetics we use to cover up racism.  Instead of the reflex to evade, why not try these possibilities.  Instead of running to the defense of good cops, admit that there are some very, very bad individuals who are wearing uniforms and carrying loaded guns.  This may frighten you.  Or instead of laying the blame on the victims, say that people who steal little cigars, people who sell loose cigarettes, people who are cornered in their cars, and children who are playing with toys are being murdered by police.  Unless you are completely devoid of reason, you must conclude that the killings are at the very least unjustified.

And stop saying things like, "Here they go again playing the race card." When you make this statement, you may think that you are expressing your deep desire to treat all people fairly without consideration of any group identifiers: race, social class, religion, etc. And some of you truly believe you are being color blind. What you are really saying is that as a member of the enfranchised race you do not want to consider the possibility that your words, your actions, your beliefs are nothing less than toxic to others.  Without your so-called "race card" you may continue to live as you always have, being molded by and never taking the initiative to mold your culture. Perhaps you grab onto bits from your biased grasp of history to the tune of "Well, look how far we've come." It is noteworthy that only when justifying your own culture do you use the first person plural pronoun. You want everything to be alright without discomfort to you. You claim that you never lynched anyone to prove yourself innocent of racism.   You are simply trying to get through your life doing as little as possible. The fact is that everything you do not do, white America, is an endorsement of racism.  Every time you do nothing you are playing the race card.  You were not slave owners but you are their beneficiaries.  That smug looks that you wear everyday, that unappealing look of entitlement comes to you through white supremacy, at the expense of the countless black men, women and children who were broken, abused, tortured, and killed from the day they were uprooted from their homeland.  Doing nothing doesn't work. Your very existence makes you complicit in the evil 

Let's not insulate ourselves from the harsh realities.  
Racism cannot simply go away.  Whites created it, and whites must be the ones to eradicate it.  

Using the parable of the Good Samaritan, Martin Luther King, Jr.  gave us a great test to determine whether, in fact, we are the Christians many of us claim to be.
When we see a person being treated unjustly or anyone who is suffering, what question do we ask ourselves:


"What will happen to me if I help this person?" or "What will happen to this person if I do not help him?"
The first question is asked by those like the priest and the lawyer who care only about their own comfort.  
The second question is asked by the Good Samaritan who restores the injured man to health.

Let us all ask the second question.  

God hath shown thee, O man, what is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8)

Republicans are Wrong (and they know it); It's the President's Right

Mr. House & Mr. Senate:
The New Generation of Republican Leaders

President's Obama's decision to prevent the deportation of close to fifty percent of illegal immigrants living in the United States is an act of executive authority that has been utilized for fixing immigration problems by Herbert Hoover, Dwight David Eisenhower, Ronald Reason, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.  The scope or intentions may be different:  that is what you will mostly find when reading a conservative spin on precedents for the use of such authority.  Except the intent is not an issue.  The President's intention does not disqualify the act itself of a President using his authority to solve what he perceives to be a deficiency in immigration statues when Congress has not passed legislation to deal with the perceived problem. If past Republican presidents have exercised executive authority on immigration, then the Republican voices denouncing the President are unfounded for good reason:  these Republicans could care less about history; they are continuing their attempts to destroy our President's reputation.  They will not stop until they have destroyed him.  And they are the ones who are condemning the President for undermining the Presidency.  What are they doing in their personal vendetta against this man but undermining the Presidency.  Of course they do not think so because he is not their President.  They do not need to follow him, respect him, or respect the 2012 election.  Never has a President in recent years been so vilified.  What are the chances that these Republican dogs, having smelled blood in the midterm elections, will stop their predatory ways.  Let's listen to what Antonio says in the Merchant of Venice to the chances that Shylock will act sensibly let alone mercifully:

You may as well go stand upon the beach
And bid the main flood bate his usual height;
You may as well use question with the wolf
Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb;
You may as well forbid the mountain pines
To wag their high tops and to make no noise,
When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven;
You may as well do anything most hard,
As seek to soften that--than which what's harder? 

(Act IV. Scene 1)

As the Republicans continue this assault in lieu doing real legislative work or finding reasonable political strategies, they will weaken the very Constitution they have sworn to protect.  And let their be no mistake, this too will backfire.  The dog will have his day.  They will reap the bitterness they have sown.  They will not win the Presidential election in 2016, and they will lose the Senate majority they have temporarily gained.  This is not wishful thinking, it is a prognostication based on the final results of all human greed and cruelty.  

To Wait and To Serve

Perhaps I am in the minority (at least among the more liberally minded), but I am astounded at Kaci Hickox’s response to her mandatory quarantine upon returning from Sierra Leone where she worked as an epidemiologist treating Ebola victims.  And don’t for a minute think that I am happy about being on the same side of an issue as Chris Christie.  I hate it.  But it is Ms. Hickox’s fault.  Here is some of what she had to say;


Commenting on New Jersey’s mandatory 21 quarantine, she states that this is a “knee jerk reaction by politicians” which is “preposterous.”  She adds that “this [quarantine policy] is an extreme that is really unacceptable” and she feels that her “basic human rights have been violated.”  “To put me thorough this emotional and physical stress is completely unacceptable,” she complains.  And then goes so far as to state, “To put me in prison is just inhumane.”  In addition to being quarantined, she was not permitted access to her luggage, had to wear paper scrubs, and had no shower, flush toilet, or television.  


Was it an admirable thing she did by serving the sick in Sierra Leone?  Most certainly.  She demonstrated a concern both to save those who were sick and to help keep those who were healthy from becoming infected. 


How then is it that she cannot demonstrate the same level of concern for her own fellow citizens, for this 21 day quarantine may be as significant an action as actively serving in Sierra Leone?  


She has been tested, and the results are negative.  Still, there have been false negatives.  The test themselves cannot claim 100 percent accuracy.  If she were allowed to interact with others and then developed symptoms of the virus within this three week period, she would have potentially infected who knows how many individuals who may then have infected who know how many more.


Now if she were being sent to Guantanamo Bay for an indefinite period of time with inadequate essentials and without any contact with the outside world, I would agree that she is being treating inhumanely and that her basic human rights were being violated.  


She is in a hospital for three weeks.  Is that cruel and unusual?  Certainly not. I think those who are worrying about her so-called torture should remember four things

1. Health care workers treating Ebola patients are the most susceptible to the virus
2. According to the World Health Organization the incubation period (from infection to the onset of symptoms) is between 2 and 21 days.  In other words, an apparently healthy and strong Ms. Hickox may in fact be infected. 
3. The tests for Ebola detection may be 99 percent accurate, but not 100 percent.  In other words, Ms. Hickox may have received false negative test results.
4. Sometimes the needs of others outweigh the needs of one person.  

The litmus test must be whether from a disinterested and objective point of view, Ms. Hickox is being denied her human rights.
  

Being in isolation (with use of computer and cell phone and regular take-out food) for three weeks until the incubation period is over is a very small price to pay for performing the duty she owes her own country men and women. 


If a mandatory 21 day quarantine dissuades any health care professional from joining Doctors Without Borders to help the people of Sierra Leone and certain countries in Western Africa, that person was never serious about helping to begin with. Any reasonable person who has witnessed this disease first hand would tacitly accept the 21 day precautionary measure.  

I am sure that most of those who serve as heroes in fighting this virus throughout the world are not as petty as Ms. Hickox.  The majority of them are heroes in the profoundest sense of the world:  we will never know their names, for their goal was never notoriety. 

John Milton, one of the ten best poets of all times, understood that doing one’s duty comes in many forms when he wrote a poem about his own blindness.  He concludes: "They also serve who only stand and wait.”

Stand and wait for three short weeks Ms. Hickox, and you will have served us well.  

Platon's Salon

I was watching a web cast of the famous multi-millionaire photographer Platon giving an inspirational speech before the 2013 Wired Business Conference.  He was there not just to showcase his portraits but to talk about the power of the people through technology.  A question immediately rose in my mind:  Does being a great photographer naturally equate with being a great motivational speaker?  When did this happen?  From whence did Platon garner his auctoritas?  What makes Platon substantially different from the best Playboy or Penthouse photographer?  The answer is clear, and Platon enforces this through the portraits that he presents:  he has been in the presence of great men and women.  But at what cost?

Consider the following anecdote. He chuckles when he relates his meeting with Putin when he somehow found himself in an embrace with one of the worst abusers of human rights in the world.  For the record, Amnesty International notes that at least 5100 protesters and activists under Putin's leadership.  Platon might even be interested in checking out their Putin Human Rights Violations timeline (http://www.amnestyusa.org/russia).  The fact that he was so instantaneously chummy enough with Putin to talk about the Beatles helps to underscore how far an unctuous salesman will go to make a sale.  And then to tell his audience with the face of Putin behind him:  this is the "face of the KGB." I am confident that he said no such thing while schmoozing with the autocrat.

He mentions the photographing of former President George W. Bush as being one of the most "traumatic" experiences of his life.  Really?  Because W. did not enter the room with Putinesque affability?  He then continues to click up photographs of a variety of leaders from Clinton to Zuckerberg every now and then reminding us that he is one of us, the people.  Through his art he seeks to reveal the "truth of who's in power" because "we the people want to know."
The truth is that beyond the anecdotes associated with each portrait, there was little substance in this inspirational presentation.  The "truth of who's in power" was a pretty pedestrian series of visuals so that we could put a face to a name.  Beyond that what truth does he provide?  The truth that he is a popular in-demand photographer who, in spite of reputation, still feels the need to fawn over criminals, to coddle their egos.  At best he is mildly funny, but unlike a comedian who allows us to see our traditions and idiosyncrasies through wit and humor, Platon's ultimate goal is to remind us that he was in the presence of greatness and that he was so unafraid that he can even joke about his subjects.

My son's Augustine school is paying "God knows what" to host Platon as part of a Distinguished Speakers Series with the tenuous connection that the school's theme is creation and Platon creates.  Well, so does everyone.  The optimists in the audience will at least be able to say that they were only one person removed from some of the most famous and infamous people in the world.  Individuals whom they will never meet primarily because they as we are the people while Platon is not.
Some of my best professors in college told stories, some from personal experience, most about historical personages.  And we together created the portraits in our imaginations.

Perhaps I would have more respect for this peddler if he were to present a blank screen with the words, "This is the portrait of Putin that I refused to take."

Humble Pie and Sour Grapes

Okay.  This is the third week since being laid off.  It is time to talk about two foods I have been living on since my termination:  sour grapes and humble pie.  

Humble pie comes first.  In fact, you get one or two big spoonfuls of this simultaneously with your pink slip.  More of that later.  The only thing I will say here is that humble pie is way more filing than cheese cake.  When you leave the office you can barely make it to your car.  You feel as though you’ve gain an instant ten pounds.  

I ate so many sour grapes within the first week of my unemployment that I spent the entire next day with stomach pains.  The day after that, however, I was back to snacking, popping them into my mouth like popcorn.  This even when the grapes were so sour that my eyes were watering and my tongue was paralyzed.  

I must digress for a moment because there is at least one person out there― rather intelligent and very self-satisfied― who will say, “Why don’t you just make lemonade?”  If you can go right from lemon to lemonade, then you are in the company of people like Mother Theresa and Pope John Paul.  You are already polishing up that saint head-gear that you will be wearing after you die.  Me?  I can’t even find the lemons these  people talk about.  I did spend an entire day searching.  They are small yellow things right?

     Let’s face it, blaming every person in all three times zones (paste, present, and future) is not healthy.  There is, however, an immediate surge in adrenaline.  I think this may even be necessary to get some of us through the first day or two of a terrible situation.  I also think that among the countless sour grapes I have eaten, some of them represent valid points.  Sour grapes are not sour because they are necessarily untruths.  The are sour because of the ramifications for one’s psyche.  Let us say that the boss is an asshole.  I mean that if you connected him to the assholometer, that indicator would be up near the 100 percent level.  And then you go analyzing him and find 20 specific examples of his assholism.  These may well be true.  But they are still sour grapes and may be just as debilitating as blaming God or President Obama for your job loss.  I know it is not easy― I can take three truths and turn them into 50 sour grapes.  I can also find sour grapes in the least likely places― a teacher I had in middle school, the Koch Brothers, Apple Computers, etc. 

The problem with using measurements is that you can never be satisfied.  You readily exchange the Assholometer for the “Not Worth Being Alive” or, my favorite, the Hellometer (I like the Dante’s version, the Inferno Scale).  Now the Asshole becomes so bad that I would stick him down with Brutus and Judas in the lowest level of hell.  

     Sour grapes is a defense mechanism.  But defense mechanisms rather quickly become offensive, in both senses of the word.  One does not want to remain passive when one is fired, because being fired is a life-altering assault against which you have little if any power.  Sour grapes put us on the attack.  I like to season my sour grapes with a dozen or so curse words I can then use in limitless combinations― a good curse word can wreck the most sacred or the most neutral noun to which it is attached.  It gets ugly quickly.  

     It was only in the third week that I went for the pie.  Humble pie is a lot like limburger cheese― an acquired taste.  There is nothing tempting about it.   When you have been living on sour grapes for two weeks, however,and there is nothing else to eat, it is better than nothing (barely). The problem with humble pie is getting it down in the first place.  Sour grapes have the same appeal that sour patch candies do― there is a market for them.  The minute humble pie hits the tongue, the body responds with the gag reflex.  I am actually surprised Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Foods has not featured humble pie among some of his other favorites: squirrel brains, cow urine, spleen sandwiches, raw fish eyeballs, and maggot-filled cheese.  But it is so hard to eat much humble pie because we are not wired that way― we are conditioned for advancement.  

     A little bit of humble pie, however, may be just what the doctor ordered.  You

quickly discover such realities as:  the business did not fall apart without you; you are replaceable; you are capable of really fucking up big time; the life you thought you were leading was really controlled by someone who can take your livelihood away; you are now one of those whom you may have always stereotyped as having intrinsic flaws; the qualities that you liked most about yourself were the very one’s your employer transformed into faults and then fired you for them.  Humble pie definitely takes you down a peg or two.  It’s like you are playing parcheesi, and you are one roll away from getting into the home safety zone, when a competitor lands on you so that you have to start all lever again.  The feeling of loss is what fills you up.  Standing up is hard enough, let alone brushing yourself off.  

So what can you as a Christian do? 

1.  Know who you are!!!  

Remind yourself of your role model:  Jesus Christ.  On Palm Sunday he was hailed as the Messiah, King of Israel, worthy of David’s throne.  Five days later he was arrested.  On the sixth day he was met with shouts of “Crucify him!!”  Now if this happened to the Son of God in six days, are you surprised that it happened to you after one year or twenty years of work.  Even if you were the greatest employee in the history of your company, you are not Jesus Christ.  So remember what Jesus asserted when he was at his weakest, when others were telling him who he was or how much power they had over him.  Before the kangaroo court when asked if he were the Son of God, he responded:  “I am:  and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the Power, and coming in the clouds" (Mark 14:62).  And later when Pilate threatened Jesus with his own power, Jesus answered, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above” (John 19:11a).  Jesus KNEW who he was.  You need to know who you are, and you are NOT what your boss says about you.  You are not what the subsequent gossip mill claims you to be.  

You are blessed.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved . 7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 

(Ephesians 1:3-7)

And you are loved:

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

2.  Know that God is in direct control of your individual life!

He is the only power that can produce greater good from evil.  Some of you know that you may not actually be doing what you ant to be doing.  Maybe this is a way, albeit not an easy one, to get you out of a rut and into something you enjoy.  I am not saying that God created the bad situation.  I am saying that God has the power to convert this bad situation into something good for you.  

The financial problems may be enormous.  Do not think big.  Consider what you and your family need to survive.  Work at surviving.  DO this while you are studying for another career, or searching for a better job.  And do not take something just for the money.  That is a recipe for making a bad situation worse.  At this point you need to be sitting on a mountain in Galilee listening to Jesus’ words of comfort:  

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:  And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 
(Matthew 6:28-33)

3.  Know that God Listens to and Answers Prayers!

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you (

Saint Augustine characterizes this kind of constant prayer (always, asking, always seeking, and always knocking) not so much as a way to get what you want, but as the best way to establish a real parent-child relationship with God, when he writes:  

Diu desiderata, dulcius obtinentur: cito autem data, vilescunt. Pete, quaere, insta. Petendo et quaerendo crescis, ut capias. Servat tibi Deus, quod non vult cito dare; ut et tu discas magna magne desiderare. Inde oportet semper orare, et non deficere 10.    Augustine Sermo 61

Those things long desired will be sweeter when you receive them; things given quickly will grow cheap.  Seek, ask, and don;t give up.  By seeking and by asking you will grow so that you may receive.  God is protecting you―he does not wish to give you things quickly so that you may greatly desire great things.  That is why is it good to prayer and not to cease praying.  

Private Poems on Someone Else's Laptop

John 3:16

Uncle Don is dead and gone 

does anyone remember

When he wore a hat 

and tall loose pants

Held up with two elastic blue 

Or polka dot suspenders?

He socked his boys and locked

them up in the pantry for hours

Aunt Fran would hide

And make mincemeat pie

Rolling dough and lying low

Dusted with gold metal flour

One Sunday at the Pentecostal 

church he found the Lord

He nearly swooned

In the spirit filled room

But he stayed awake long enough to take

His heavenly reward

He began to wear a wooden cross

And a PTL lapel pin

And he whacked his kids 

Like he always did 

for the lord above says out of love

That's the best way to repel sin

I began to think and dwell for hours

On how sins can be erased

How the first shall be last

And  the slow shall be fast

And what is the same by another name

Is God's amazing grace

Elegies From the Dead

Shovel o’er me all that soil, dump in 
Rotting petals stripped of pleasant odors 
Corrupting the rest of what’s corrupt 
This is not a tulip bulb, not a cup of
wildflower seeds nor a pumpkin patch
Do you think I’ll naturally just hatch
with the first warm wind of March
Do you really fear the early frost?
Do I even hear those lazy lilacs start
to dare one another to wriggle out
Do I hear those whispers. Most
Garrulous incidental crop of quips
Dare me to speak?  My lips
the ones that lovers, she or Paula, kissed, 
are fraying like the covers of
olden pew Bibles. From kitchens drift
aromas— bacon fat or roast beef stew
or noodles oozing cheese.  You miss
how moldy velvet lining tastes
collapsing into this elapsing face
Are you thinking some hasty thought?
Did anyone remember how deeply I
pondered, how the weight of an issue
stuck like moist snow on the feeble 
branches in my brain.  How can such
plebeian notions be worth so much
more than those?  Have I gallantly tramped
an overall inch from the damp to the dry? 
How far does a reckless boy think he
has moved.  Mountains and oceans and free-
ways with calico cats and canvas campers
Where do they go, the group that dumped 
me?  Those who crumpled tissues, stone-
choked in their throats.  So they won’t return?  
Have I become so erased, so adjourned
Even you can’t cheer me up, won’t even try?


His Senses Sense Creation

Matted left leaf color of masan's egg
Three streaks of butter blonde
Glued by the dew to St. Teri's toe
Lizards in the mortar maze
Like the steel orb knobbed
Round the holes in a game
You saw our King?
Wide-set eyes creamy nape
Open collar, slim-fit  pants
And that convergent bend
Wedged under the cheeks
The switchblade gnawk of the tongue
From the roof when the words
Exude and the unsealed lips
The third swallow after the
Foods ooze over the gullet
The barren nose that sniffs
And springs and clamps
A stinky clue or two left lying in a laptop
The swallow twits and the bat creaks
The Gourmand plucks the last
Off with a satisfied huff
The cypress tree is one or two leaves away
From the panes from the august
Chamber of King Widget

Apologia cum Concilio

Francis Fairfax is not a scam
Would a scam do this?
Serve time on school boards
Give bones to unwanted dogs
He forecloses or purchases low income homes
An attorney serving this neighborhood for years
Frank Fairfax knows a scam and wants to protect you
From unscrupulous makers of fake clubs
Spoiling your Sunday morning swing
Taking its toll on your handicap
Frank Fairfax won't stand for that
Know your dealer and the feel of real clubs
Be forearmed and ready in advance
And keep yourself in the swing

Non Haberes

Sealed envelope
Waiting
Vagabonds sip and talk
Sinatra and local produce
There is a handoff
Nothing else but
This will tell you all you need to know
A red haired woman wrapped in polka dots
Chirps venti latte soy one shot of espresso
Two comes a mouth tied up in a mustache
The sharp ice edges are barely worn in the coffee
He's gone
Could this finally be the end
Slurps of tepid cocoa
And a hissing from a barista in the
Direction of headphones and laptop
Grande skinny caramel frapp
Near the shadows of the restroom
Come pudgy quips about the sweetener
My cup, my cup


Invocation

Stained saints and earnest cracks
Simple formats and holy water
Songs from the frayed Hymnbook stacks
Preaching in the cedar larder
The Study Room swoons with inky markers
Archway books and musty magazines
a broken carousel and several barkers
plywood blocks bright blues and greens
On Sunday, Wendy was confused
"Gloria patri is a parish member!"
and Little Ed made paper cubes
from the leftover papers in the pews
folded shaped and pressed and blown
Around the middle of December

Says Who?

Interesting and disturbing conversation overheard between two seasoned educators.  The gist was something like, "You know not everyone is college material.  Some kids just shouldn't be going to college."  Is that shocking?  Obviously I didn't think it warranted me to  interrupt with an objection.  I didn't want to cause a stir.  Or maybe I didn't want to get on the "bad list" which I am convinced exists in every private school.  Or maybe I am simply a coward.  Well, now and then, even a coward's conscience gets pricked.  And I feel it necessary to apologize to every single high school graduate who will not be entering college this summer.  All it would have taken was a polite, "There's another way of looking at this.  Personally, I think every student should have the means to attend college, and teachers should at least have that desire for all their graduates."  Instead nothing.  I also know that when roused, I find it very difficult to respond reasonably.  Reason always seems to arrive too late.  So instead of risking one or two curse words or unattractive
combinations of the same, I chose to reflect later.

So who is it that weeds out the "not college material" from among us?  I am glad that it wasn't my own counselor who after a feint in the direction of my transcript and no doubt taking greater account of my rather playful demeanor (I am being kind to myself) during my high school years declared me not only to be unworthy of any one of the seemingly endless list  of scholarships that was being printed out as I sat there (and continued to do so after our three minute meeting) but to be an unlikely candidate for higher education at all.  He may have mentioned something about trade schools, but I had already checked out if I had ever checked in.  With the exception of good friends and one or two teachers, I had not invested much in learning during my high school years.   I really don't think many of us could have been unanimously declared "college material".  I think the blame for that must be spread around, but that does not really concern me here.
 
I was fortunate to be accepted at the one college to which I applied, Duquesne University.  I don't think I realized how fortunate I was.  Looking back, there really was no good reason for me to be accepted.  My transcript including SAT scores was far from stellar.  What happened to me at that school, however, was so significant that it is very easy for me to succumb to adjectives such as inexplicable, astounding, miraculous, maybe even magical.   Those adjectives would suffice were it not that every single class I took, all I learned in them and remembered, all I learned in them and have since forgotten, and every good grade I earned was ultimately derived from individual professors.  I am not sure how many of these professors loved students (I think most did).  I do know that the majority at best loved what they were teaching and at worst knew what they were teaching.  Every single class was a lecture, and every single class was another slice of something for which I became gluttonous.  It was there I learned that I was designed to be a learner, that this was really a part of becoming human.  I knew I wasn't special.  I knew that from high school.  But damn it if I didn't feel special.

There are voices today in education that charge a hefty sum to come and speak to an audience of students and their parents and to give them anecdotes and aphorisms which, like a Big Mac, are very tasty, and earn instantaneous applause.  For example, that if our public education system in America were a business, it would have been in bankruptcy long ago.  But Big Macs for all their taste and calories offer little nutrition.  How should education be likened to a business.  Are students the products?  Is profit based on the number of students who go on to college?  Who make a certain amount of money?  If a product is defective should it be destroyed?  It seems to me that when we serve humanity, we must accept results that reflect the differences among human beings.  Of course anyone who has even skimmed through Plato knows how analogies can be used to explain anything.  So I may be silly, but I am worried about the thinking behind this one.  I am afraid that it will be easier to encourage whole populations of students into a non-college itinerary than to worry about the calisthenics counselors might have to do to help them matriculate somewhere.

Another aphorism is that no student believes that he or she will graduate from college with a ticket to a good paying job.   For this one, I am going to refuse to argue that we should think about changing the economic structure of our country rather than to endeavor to withhold advanced education from certain unworthy students.  Suffice it to say that the U.S. economy was strongest when the labor force was a college-educated one.  I am going to take a different direction, primarily because as much as education makes better workers, education means so much more.  Education, particularly a classical education in the liberal arts, has a humanizing effect on human beings.  Feeling that privilege of being human actually means more to feeling a purpose and joy in living than almost anything else expect for faith, religion, or spirituality.  If a teenager from a less than adequate public school system will not gain a high paying job after earning a B.A. or B.S., that does not give anyone the right to deny that teenager from the greater and possibly less measurable rewards of learning.  Who do we think we are?

Maybe someone in that zenith called the really rich fears educational fairness more than economic equality.  After all, who knows what will happen when an economically distressed population has the confidence to think and to learn and to speak out.  What if, God forbid, a college graduate working at a McDonald's considers it nonsense that a CEO is getting 10 million dollars a year more than her because the CEO is just that much smarter.  No one who benefits from an inequitable system wants people to start thinking.

So I will continue to maintain that all students should have higher education as a dream, and that every educator should have as his or her goal to help a student fulfill that dream.  And what may be a very bad business practice, may, as a finale, recreate this country into something more like the democracy it can be.