The Unclad Soul

And what is it that stirs your soul in these maddening days? What melts your heart? What enlivens you? What makes you want to run flat out full speed until out of breath you stop and hold your arms out to the sky? What motivates you to smile, to laugh out loud, to relish the moment with delight? What creates deep inside you, feelings of warmth, of affection, of love? Is it music? Listening to a beautiful song, being moved by the music and the lyrics? Is it reading a captivating book, following some story whether in a novel or some historical setting, that keeps you turning the page? Is it a movie, whether sitting in a theater or watching at home on live streaming TV, a movie that holds you in its spell until the credits run at the end? Is it attending a play, perhaps a musical, like Hamilton, Les Miserables, the Lion King, or some other fantastic performance that soars and enlightens and sends you home emotionally spent, or tingling inside, or singing all t...

The recent killing spree at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California, by Marine vet, Ian David Long, was a chilling reminder of the war mentality promoted by our government. Long walked into the bar and murdered 12 people, mostly young patrons, before taking his own life. He posted on his Facebook page before going to the bar, “Yeah…I’m insane, but the only thing you people do after these shootings is ‘hopes and prayers’ or ‘keep you in my thoughts’…every time…and wonder why these keep happening.” Wonder if anyone in the government will hear that? Wonder if all the NRA supports got the message? Ironically, the mother of one of the young people murdered at the bar told reporters she didn’t want anyone’s prayers, what she wanted was gun regulation. Wonder if anyone in the government will pay any attention to that? Ian David Long was not insane, but he certainly was profoundly disturbed. He returned from military conflict lost in a fog of unresolved rage and the damaging ps...

This is one of my favorite poems by writer Jorge Luis Borges: “Writings of light assault the darkness, more prodigious than meteors. The tall unknowable city takes over the countryside. Sure of my life and death, I observe the ambitious and would like to understand them. Their day is greedy as a lariat in the air. Their night is a rest from the rage within steel, quick to attack. They speak of humanity. My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of that same poverty. They speak of homeland. My homeland is the rhythm of a guitar, a few portraits, an old sword, the willow grove's visible prayer as evening falls. Time is living me. More silent than my shadow, I pass through the loftily covetous multitude. They are indispensable, singular, worthy of tomorrow. My name is someone and anyone. I walk slowly, like one who comes from so far away he doesn't expect to arrive.”  There is so much yearning in these words. Such honest beauty. Borges expresses hope ...

"I stood willingly and gladly in the characters of everything - other people, trees, clouds. And this is what I learned, that the world's otherness is antidote to confusion - that standing within this otherness - the beauty and the mystery of the world, out in the fields or deep inside books - can re-dignify the worst-stung heart." ~ Mary Oliver, Poet/Essayist

I didn’t listen to any news last night. I was on Netflix enjoying a reprieve from the daily chaos. It was this morning that I saw on the news the horror that took place in France last night. What has happened to the human race? I think of Emerson’s sad line, “Man is a god in ruins.” The political pundits are already stirring the pot, pumping politicians for outrageous comments. The politicians are well into their war talk threatening more violence for violence. The security experts are calling for even more surveillance, defense measures, and limitations on the movements of people. But no one seems to be talking about the root of the problem. We can build up defenses and create all kinds of temporary and permanent protections, and those are certainly needed. But what are we going to do about the ideology behind those who have lost any sense of human value? What do we do with dispossessed, angry, psychologically and physically damaged people who don’t care about anyone or a...

I am struggling more and more every day to understand the Syrian humanitarian crisis. I sympathize with those fleeing trying to save themselves and their families from the horrors happening every hour in Syria, horrors that have gone on far too long. It doesn’t matter to me whether they are refugees or migrants, they are escaping for their lives and any hope of a future, and they deserve a safe place to live. Have you seen Syria? Who can live there now? It is a place of utter devastation and ruin. Why aren’t the Arab nations, including Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates doing more to help these people? Why aren’t we? So far, according to NPR radio, we have taken in 1,500 refugees. That’s deplorable. I know we have given money and arms and the Syrian catastrophe is a complex situation but surely we can do better to help these desperate people. European nations have so far, except for Germany, been stubbornly indifferent to the mass of refugees risking their lives to g...

President Obama’s decision to respond to the horror and conflict in Syria makes me think of that line in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” where one of the characters says, “This is as strange a maze as ever men trod.” How do you watch children and women and people of all ages being gassed to death, writhing in convulsions and gasping for air, and not want to immediately do something about it? And yet, how will throwing a few bombs at Assad’s air force do anything to change the dynamic or stop the carnage? I believe President Obama is a man who truly wrestles with all of this. He obviously is counting the political costs, but I do believe he is a man with a conscience. I think he wants to do the right thing, but I’m not sure he knows what is right in this instance. His “red line” comment was careless and not well thought through. It put him in a spot where he is forced now to back it up in some way. But let’s not pretend the Congress and especially all of the Republican/Tea ...

“The blizzard of the world Has crossed the threshold And it has overturned The order of the soul.” ~ Leonard Cohen, Canadian Poet/Novelist I am bewildered by the discord in our world but mostly the kind that exists in our own country. There is a whirling raging sickness within us, a deep and troubling emotional and spiritual dysfunction that separates us from any real unity as a nation.  It is a blizzard of some kind, some terrible inner storm within so many of us, that, as Cohen so aptly puts it, has overturned the order  of the soul.  The soul of America.  And the souls of many of us who say we love our country but never seem to show it. I have trouble understanding all of the hate and just viciousness towards President Obama.  It’s not just political differences.  It’s not mostly about his policies.  It’s much deeper than that.  People keep saying it’s not about race; but that is a huge component of it.  It real...

There is a noisy chaos that surrounds most of us these days.  It batters us into gutless submission and slavery to thoughts and deeds that do not reflect our human genius and do not require our unique gifts, our innate potential for goodness, or the resources of our souls.  Instead it touches something grim within us, something sinister and hostile. We have lost our common dignity.  We no longer know the power of silence and restraint.  We live our lives without an inner volume control.  We live in loud, rude behavior, disregarding the space, the presence and the specialness of others. I am so weary of the meanness of our politics, of the belittling of the Office of the President, of the selfish arrogance of our politicians.  I am tired of their ineptness, their frivolous disregard for their work.  I deplore how smug they have become, how isolated they are from the real problems and the real people of our nation. I am appalled by the shal...

We live in a divided and divisive country. In spite of the many advances that minorities have gained in America, racism is still a vicious and unyielding presence among us. Our political system wobbles feebly almost uselessly from the influences of corruption, bullheadedness, favoritism, malaise, haughtiness and indifference. Churches and the religious community once such a force for good and spiritual guidance are now often caught up in partisan political campaigning, serving politicians and clearly ignoring Jesus, not to mention the dispossessed, the sick, the young and the old, the hurting, the addicted, and the lonely. All across the country there hovers in the air a spirit of nastiness, wrangling, antagonism, and bitter discord and discourse. The story is told of a father and son sitting outside their house one summer evening talking and sipping iced tea. The night sky was a bit hazy but brilliant with stars and the son suddenly commented how beautiful the moons were abo...