Colors, Patterns and Junk Cover the World

Sherwin Williams Paint covers the world.  Their logo was a can of paint tipped and spilling paint over planet earth. 

I passed one of their manufacturing plants south of the City of Chicago every time my family drove me  into the City to my pediatrician, my allergist and my orthodontist.  Passed it way too many times!  And it always smelled bad.  Steam rising from the chimneys, odor wafting about….yuk!  I learned to hold my breath for a very long time…improved my lungs and my asthma disappeared.

Anyway, the notion of something covering the earth was an intriguing brand.  I liked it: atmosphere, carbon emissions, clouds, cosmic rays, the internet, prejudice, the Olympic Games, the World Cup finals, OJ’s trial, nuclear proliferation…to name a favorite few.

These images make it perfectly clear that the world is really covered with mint candy boxes, with packages of M&Ms, with yards and yards of Chinese silk, with wave patterns in the great oceans and with scrapped Olympus point and shoots.

What’s your world covered with?  Inquiring and curious minds want to know.

The Vice of Choice -- Add Vice

Soften the blow.  Dull the pain.  Check out of the space-time continuum.  Worship regret.  Bow to limits.  Quiet the noise.  Slow the speed.  Attack yourself.  Turn a blind eye.  Reorient reality.  Revise history.  Fail and fall.

Vice chasing is depressing, to say the least.

And yet, our vices are religious choices.  Whatever separates us from the inevitable conclusion is a rite or a ritual, a sacrament or a ceremony.

Vice bitten and we will miss everything else.

So, do something to help another, something life affirming.  Teach a positive lesson to someone else.  Help someone heal.  Lift someone who has stumbled.  Visit someone suffering the sadness of loss.  Feed someone.  Sing to someone.  Smile at someone.  Love someone other than yourself.  Go make a photograph of raindrops, for example.

Viva La Revolucion!

If government fails…begin a revolution.  If religion fails…reform.  If the status quo is reprehensible…revolt.  If you don’t get your way…throw a tantrum.  If you are stuck in place…evolve.  If you are being taken for granted…tell them to shove it.  If you are headed down a sinkhole…pull the plug.  If you know the truth…turn away from the false prophets.  If you are a slave, an idol worshipper or a dumb-ass…resist.  If you are afraid of the dark…resurrect the light.

Onwards, comrades.  After me!

The Mask

Which mask shall I wear today?  The creative one…the sensitive one…the overdue bill collector one…the funny one…the one old folks remember… the one my grand children expect…the one that is professional…the silly one…the sorrowful one…the mask of the inspirer, or the manipulator…the busy one or the lazy one?

Or perhaps I will try the romantic one or the politically corrected and concerned one or even the one that denotes presidential aspirations.  I like that athletic look.  I think the professorial look is appropriate.  And the starving artist look is way too familiar.

A mask is learned behavior, sometimes absolutely sincere; the outside matches the inside…that’s the authentic look.  And sometimes we wear a mask to play “let’s pretend.”  That’s so not you.

A mask often reruns time or creates parallel time and fools us into thinking that live-forever is possible.  That’s when we wear the mask inside out.

The Festival of Purim approaches…what a great time for a masquerade!

Oh Lord, Send Me a Sign!

If you are hard wired to deal with existential issues, finitude, well being, morality, purpose, etc., then you will notice that signs of the sacred are everywhere you look.

Trust me...Believe me...I know what's best for you

Talking Heads

Talking heads disembodied from reason, feeling and sound judgment.  Speakers of opinion, talking-pointed and self-serving.  Fabricating what we really want, making it up as whim directs, pursuing wind.

Talking heads triumphant.  ‘Cause we leave the thinking up to them.

A Blessing for Haiti

Bless the planet’s shake.  Bless the earth’s quake.

Bless the sadness, sorrow and suffering.  Bless the fears and frustrations.  Bless the missing.  Bless the rescued.  Bless the rescuers.

Bless the temporary triage units and field hospitals. Bless the doctors without borders and the Israeli physicians practicing anonymous medicine.  Bless the supply lines and the security forces.

Bless the supply lines

And bless the helpers

Bless all that is broken.  Bless lives that have shattered.  Bless all the fractured bones and rubbled homes.  Bless the grieving and the mourning. Bless the empty places where loved ones used to be.  Bless what can never be replaced – ever.

Bless the begin again. 

Happy Meals for one and all

Bless will and determination.  Bless faith and fortitude.  Bless the helpers and bless the recipients. 

And, screw Rush Limbaugh and the Rev. Pat Robertson!

Remember Haiti?

Haiti is

A Tsunami of Suffering

Sodom and Gomorrah, all over again

'cause the folk worshipped the

Tropical Isle of troubles, turmoil and tribulation.  Island of emancipation and emasculation.  Island where the devils play.  Where the Voodoos bay.  Where religion is a song defying death.  Where tectonic plates undermined the earth’s thin crust.  Where the buildings collapsed.  Where 100,000 people died in the crush.  Where the streets are clogged with cadavers.  Where life-sustaining supplies are in high demand and in short supply.  Where one sins for bread.  Where NGO’s compete. 

Did you notice the hole in the universe left by so many dead, so many souls snuffed out?  Did you notice?  Feel anything?  Avert your eyes during the nightly news?

Did you contribute?  Send help?  Light lights?  Burn bridges?

Did you curse the satans?  Were you angry at the Haitians for interrupting the news cycle and for postponing accounts of our right wing’s stalling opposition to the Healthcare Bill?

Did you stand idly by?  There is a new law against that here in California.  It's Mosaic Law!

Omama

This is Momma Kitty.  She is a well-seasoned senior citizen that can leap tall buildings in a single bound.  She speaks her mind at mealtime, when she wants to explore the great outdoors and loudly announces for everyone to hear when she has had enough of the elements: wet, cold and spider webs.

She prowls the premises for warm resting places: the Apple Air Port, the morning sun and she likes stretching out on the top of the VCR or TV cable box.  Lap diving is her specialty.  And yet, she has manners.

The little creatures have a large presence.  They have big personalities.  You know there is a soul behind their eyes.  In addition to their instincts and learned patterns of behavior, they have a playful spirit of adventure about them...always ready to chase something invisible to the human eye. 

I know Momma Kitty is thoughtful…I just don’t know what she is deliberating.

Ess Mein Kin

Food is medicine.  Food is a meditation and a blessing.  It is a spiritual experience.  Food is a righteous gift.  Food sustains, nourishes and satisfies.  Food comforts and reminds.  Food is business.  Food is a peace offering.  Food is a prelude.  Food is an art form.  Food is a symbol of generosity.  It activates the senses.  Food triggers the emotions and increases awareness.  Food is bodybuilding.

That’s why food is KOSHER!

(This post was written with the help of Chef Yoni Levy, my son.  Images were made at Draeger’s Market in Los Altos, California.  B’tay Avon, enjoy your meal.)