I am my own container

I knew someone who when shopping for an analyst or a psychiatrist always asked in the first interview if the container would be safe.  By that was meant is the office space safe, is the psychoanalytical process safe and would this person’s fragile psychic space ever be violated?  It turned out that there is no safe.  The process of self-discovery is fraught with realities revealed.  And if you are not in it for the truth, so often difficult to bear, why bother.  The container is always porous and like the cells of our bodies, materials and gases are exchanged through delicate two-way membranes. 

I knew someone (the same someone) who went through 7 analysists in two years…confronting or refusing to confront personal demons makes one feel unsafe.

And yet, we are all containers.  We hold memories and emotions, knowings and knowledge, experiences and hoped for conclusions, potential and purpose.

We may feel underwhelmed or overwhelmed, in control or out of control, loving or in a panic, secure or aggressive.

It all depends on what’s in the container! 

Way Too Much TV Viewing.

I am a re-run of Law and Order.  I am a USA Olympic Curling loss.  I am a Burn Notice.  I am Rachel Maddow.  I am Republican obstinacy.  I am President Obama’s teleprompter.  I am a Warrior’s pick and roll and a three point shot and Stephan Curry's triple-double.  I am a public option.  I am in the Situation Room.  I am Cactus Ball.  I am a disqualified South Korean speed skater.  I am Dogs 101.  I am Judge Judy’s Bailiff.  I have been Overhauled!

Too much TV.  So much so that I am now a high def, flat paneled, larger than life TV. 

You with the stars in your eyes

Star bright: exploding, imploding, emitting, swallowing, light and dark, heating and cooling, approaching and receding, leaving its mark in time and space, rotating, gravitating, incandescing, illuminating, chain reacting, nurturing, scalding, appearing and disappearing, steady and wavering, astrology projecting, beacon, promise of a tomorrow…star power.

Dried and Gone - And Beautiful Always

Who said that only the fresh and vibrant are worthy of a second look?  Who said that only a partially opened bud contains the promise of flower, fruit and seed?  Whoever said that was dried wrong!

Life is never a part of life, the part you might choose to the exclusion of the whole.  It is all of life, all there was, is and will be.  Good thing the ancient Hebrews called their god: all there was, is and will be.  They had the insight.  They knew…they knew that the old ones were to be revered, honored and remembered.  If there was beauty there early on, there was beauty there all along.   

Industrial Light and Magic

The man-made wonders of the ancient world shared values in common.  The first was hubris: mine is bigger, better and longer.  Great walls, pyramids, colossal statues, gigantic marble Temples and the like share a place on the list.  And they all have another element in common.  All were designed with harmonious proportions in mind.  Good design pleased the aesthetic faculty and filled up the sphere of beauty (Tiferet).

So if a girder is nicely drawn against an interesting sky, a rusted crane, a dilapidated port authority warehouse; either the engineer had an artistic eye or I do (rampant hubris at its best).

So how much the more so if each of us plans out not the surprising and serendipitous events of life, but our reactions to those events with a great deal of design.  Living with ethical values, with moral qualities, and with good character choices, creates a life that is aesthetically pleasing and worthy of interest…to the engineer and to the artist.

The Book of Numbers

The 2010 Olympic Games are all about numbers: athletes, sponsors, times, games won, points scored, degrees of difficulty, kilometers to the next event, speed and medals earned.

Scientists just reproved Einstein’s Theory of Relativity conclusively, again.  They needed some fancy equations and logarithms to do the job. 

Guards Ellis and Curry scored a total of 58 points last night to beat the team from Atlanta by 4 points.

This is the 22nd day of February, 10:40 in the morning.

When you consult the Torah, the Book of Numbers (the 4^th Book of 5), you will find the liturgical formula the priests of ancient Israel used to bless the people (May the Lord bless and keep you).  The blessing establishes a relationship between Israel and their God; the priests merely make the connection and pass the love along.

And that is exactly why numbers are important: they describe relationships, enable them and make them possible.  Calculations determine time, distances in space and the degrees of temperature.  The perfect equation creates peace, well being and harmony.  Eighty to Ninety is a B; Ninety to One Hundred is an A.  Send back your US Census form!

Numbers, in every direction under the sun…connecting us one to the other.

South Carolina and Texas Secede from the Union! Is Alaska Next?

The radical non-policies of the political right painted two miscreant states into the proverbial corner in recent days.

South Carolina and Texas placed propositions before the voters:  We hereby intend to secede from the Union.  The Propositions designated as the 1776T Amendment passed overwhelmingly.  

Due to a surprising turn of events, celebrations were held in Washington, D.C., as the rebellious states were wished a hardy bon voyage.  The Federal Government breathed a sigh of relief acknowledging that pork barrel funds would now be shifted to states with greater metropolitan areas and with larger Jewish populations.

Federal Border Guards were reassigned to protect the boundaries of states bordering Texas. 

 

Residents of Texas will now be required to obtain a VISA when visiting the semi-United States and will require a Green Card if residents wish to move out of the former state.  Authorities believe that Spanish will replace English in the new territory to be named Espanduras.

Unnamed sources believe that South Carolina will become a haven for corporations who once sought off shore tax shelters.  Also, Merchant Marine vessels will now be registered in that ocean front property. 

 

The soil and climate in South Carolina, once the key elements in the production of cotton and peanuts, are perfect for the cultivation of Marijuana.  The territory’s new motto is, “When the Glaciers Melt, Come Home to the High Ground.”

Experts worry that Alaska may be the next to leave this Union preferring to be annexed to Russia, a country willing to pay top Ruble for crude oil.  In addition, due to the resurgence of animal fur in the high fashion market place, the Russians see Alaska as a vast breeding ground.  Russians are wearing beaver hats again and like parkas made from polar bear pelts.

So Happy, It's Purim!

Is God Religious?

No, god will never die!

No, god needs no salvation!

No, god may negotiate outcomes but never prays for hoped for conclusions!

No, god is the arbiter and the architect of ethics and morality!

No, god needs no rites and rituals to remember, to relive or to sanctify self!

No, god needs no other gods or dependencies!

No, god is already where god is supposed to be for eternity!

No, god is not Jewish, Christian, a Moslem, Buddhist or a Jain!

No, god doesn’t roll the dice!

The Art of Writing

It originates in the heart, soul and mind.  It’s genesis is in the imagination, the world of experience and in the will to create.  It flows from top down seeking an outlet for the expression of an idea through the shoulders, arms, wrists and fingers.  It flows from the ken of humanity (some of it is even attributed to god and/or to the prophets) to a #2 sharpened pencil, or to a calligrapher’s pen, or to a hammered chisel, or to a brush dipped into ink or pigment or to the click and send of a digital keyboard.

It expresses heartfelt gratitude, soul filled love and a mind turning mere thought into wisdom.  It observes the matters of existence in a new light.  It wrestles with the course of human events and makes sense out of them.  It derives its energy from the passion and from the intent to make clear and resonant our every encounter and relationship.

It is writing.

It's all about what you do with Black and White

The embers of your fire cooled.  Charcoal darkened your fingertips.  You rubbed it off in the sand.  You made a line, then another.  The markings made a shape and then you turned those figures into the animals you hunted.  You found berries and colored clays and natural dyes and you colored in the shapes of the hunters and the hunted.  You decorated the walls of your shelter, your sacred cave.  And, your drawings are still there…in France, for example.

You painted lines on your body, on your ritual garb and on your weapons.  Your written language originated from pictures.  You decorated your tombs with picto-words.  In some instances, you drew lines that had irreconcilable consequences.

That’s how you began.  You have matured and your artistic sensibilities and skills have evolved.

It all began with a line drawn in the sand.