The Unclad Soul

“You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting— over and over announcing your place in the family of things.” ~ Mary Oliver, Pulitzer Prize winning Poet

I have written about this before but it has to be said again. The murderous brutality showered upon the Palestinians by the Israeli military and Israel’s political leaders is a travesty beyond, in my opinion, any justification. Where are the voices for peace between Arabs and Jews? Where are world leaders saying enough of this bloodbath between Israel and Palestine? Where is there even a single recognizable person of influence willing to ask why Israel continues to destroy Gaza, building by building taking with them the lives of children and people simply wanting to have a normal life? Where are those voices? There are none. I understand all of the arguments against Hamas and its group of violent extremists. But there is nothing fair about the imbalance of power between Israel and Palestine. And why the world is not opposing this I cannot understand. Journalist and author Joshua Frank has made the obvious point that the continuous push of Israel to ultimately remove Palest...

“Beauty surrounds us.” ~ Rumi, Persian Poet