The End of Camelot

"What binds us together across our differences in religion or politics or economic theory is that when each one of us is cut, our blood flows red.  Mine does and yours does too.  Those who would try to appropriate God or family or country for their own narrow ends, who believe that religious faith is the property of one particular ideology, forget the width of God's embrace, the healing power of a family's arms, and the generosity of this country's vision.  God, family, and nation belong to us all.
And they belong to us because of all that we share as human beings - the wonder that we experience when we look at the night sky; the gratitude that we know when we feel the heat of the sun; the sense of humor in the face of the unbearable and the persistence of suffering.  And one more thing: the capacity to reach across our differences to offer a hand of healing....
I wish that life were simpler.  I wish that loved ones didn't have to die young.  I wish that tragedy never haunted a single soul.  But to wish all this is to ask for an end to our humanity.  God, family, and country sustains us all.
Legend has it that in the ancient world, a poetry contest was held each year.  The third-place winner received a rose made out of silver.  The second-place winner received a rose made out of gold.  But the first place winner received a real rose, a beautiful living rose that soon wilted, dried up, and died.  I ask you, is there a single one among us who would not choose the living rose?"
--from Edward M. Kennedy's "True Compass"

Regardless of what you may think or feel about the very public lives of the Kennedy family, some of its very private members bestowed these United States of America with some of our greatest legacies - the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Special Olympics, the Peace Corps, and the push to get the first person on the moon.  As politicians and philanthropists, the Kennedy family was, and still is, renown for launching successful campaigns against organized crime and school segregation, while working tirelessly on behalf of America's dispossesed and its powerless.

Born into a life of luxurious comfort and high class, the nine Kennedy siblings were raised on the ideal that looking out for one's neighbors was not just good public policy, it was a human necessity.  Consistently reminded to not flaunt their wealth, the Kennedy kids were continually brought back down to planet Earth whenever the patriarch of their family, Joseph, felt that one of his four boys or five girls was getting a little too big for his or her britches.  Although rich and relatively famous, the Kennedy family, who were a tight knit group of Irish Americans, also had first-hand experience with the ugly face of persecution and intolerance.  As an Irish Catholic, Jack Kennedy never quite fit in at Harvard.  His ascendancy as the 35th President of the United States broke through one glass ceiling - as he was the first Roman Catholic ever elected.

Contrary to what the media would have you believe, the Kennedy family was not simply beloved for its iconic fashion statements, attractive genes, and deep pockets.  We loved the Kennedys because, for almost a century, this very American, royal family fought hard to: protect the rights of the average, American worker; provide a better education to all American school children; and seek health care coverage for every single citizen in this nation.  The Kennedy's were true patriots who believed in this country's initial, founding principles of democracy - in honoring the minority and its voice; in looking out for its blue collared employees; in providing a hand up to those in need; and in remembering that the greatest sacrifice we can make is ourselves for one another.

As Camelot comes to a close with the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, I wonder:
"Who, in this era to come, will rise up and speak for the disenfranchised, for the poor, for the trees, for this planet, and for us?"  For, we are now entering an epoch in which it is no longer our civil rights that are at stake.  It is now our humanity that is in grave danger.
"Will you?"

A beginning...

It all begins with one little book, - the Bible.
Okay, no. I am just kidding. But it does begin with a story.
It's the tale of a gorilla desperately seeking pupil, -
an avid student to share the biggest myth of all with.
"Guess what?" the giant ape asks, as she sits in a pretzel-like posture behind thick, metal bars.
"On planet earth, and in the course of evolution, human beings caused no more of a stir that that of a jelly fish."
"That's right," her honey brown eyes sparkle,
"you aren't special."
"And, not only are you not special, but your way is not the way.
There is no one right way."
"Did you hear that?"
"THERE IS NO ONE RIGHT WAY."
The grown adult sits there, on the other side of the enclosed cell, perplexed and with a crease in his forehead.
With four fingertips, he scratches his head.

So, what happens when the notion you were raised on, when the narrative you've heard since birth, is proven to be exactly that, - a story? A simple tale? A fabrication to maintain reality as you and I both know it?
What happens when you begin questioning every aspect of that story? When you know, deep down inside your guts, when your cells tell you, that something isn't right. When your body fights, tooth and nail, against performing the same repetitive sequences, day in and day out. Yet the story remains, unchanged.

"I get up, the sun rises. I go to work, the sun sets. I go to bed,the pattern continues. And I do it again tomorrow because I have to pay for the shelter over my head, and for the food in my belly." The primacy of money and materials has become godly. Force ensues, and a people succumb to believing that there is only one right way.

Ask yourself, "is this the right way?"
Close your eyes. Take a few breaths. In through the nose, out through the nose. In through the nose, - feel your belly rise and your chest expand. Out through your nose, - feel your ribcage drop and your belly contract. Sense how your weight is sitting over your pelvis and how your shoulders are hanging above your ribcage. Feel what your body tells you.

"What does your body tell you?"


"Welcome home."


You have landed.


Now, let me introduce to my friend, - embodiment.

21st Century Human

i climb a mountain,
and meet a blind man, together
we sing refrains,
favored cat stevens tunes
while our bodies feast
on clear san diego skies
and our moonshadows dance
out and over
an azure pacific.

i miss the warm presence
of a certain bald monk
who would read to me
the centuries old prose
of rumi
while we laid under
arcturus
on dirt dusted driveways
in recently washed workclothes.

i dig in soil in my mama's dress,
my hands,
reverberate
on the land, together
our pulse becomes
one. slowly,
a yard that is not my own
becomes.

i dive in backwards
and upside down
i wash with strawberries
and chocolate syrup
i hold conversations
in sound and words
in music and meaning
in dance and action.

i love a man whose tongue
is not my own
whose words can cut
like a seven-inch blade
and whose behavior can sting
like a good gin and tonic
i acknowledge that he is my/shadow
my counterbalance,
the darkness
i had been running from.

i crave connection
i seek humility
i desire nothing
more
than to reach out
and touch.

i feel desperately
alone
confined
trapped within
skin and bone
muscle and memory
nostalgia and fear.

still, it is the adventure
that keeps me
moving forward
walking new paths
pursuing electric connections
exploring fruitful ideas
and excavating
deep seeded emotions.

9-5
monday-friday
24/7
365
65 years of this
then what?

death
is written in these numbers
and figures which figure
nothing
into my well being
into my depth
of spirit.

success is living
life as adventure
journies taken
relationships pursued
and the pageantry of drama
spelled out explicitly.

life as adventure
is more than just a tenet
it is more than just some ten cent philosophy
that one can pick up
down at the local barber shop.

life as adventure
is not found in the hum drum
of the unconscious
it is not discovered
at the bottom of a beer bottle
in a broken down old bar stool.
life as adventure
is lived
in the rawness of your humanity.

i have stripped myself bare
right down to a bald noggin
with a disregard for panty wearing
and a preference to bleed
without a barrier without
some stupid piece of cotton
stopping me up like a dike.
i have laid down
on some god's marital bed
without a band
and with the only wish to steal
a mere pittance
from the riff raff's jean pockets
in the morning.

i have been caught
transporting hashish
across a foreign border.
i have spent upwards of 36 hours
in an american jail
listening to the tale
of a woman who smuggled crystal meth
via her vagina.

i have bedded down in the shadows between
a boardwalk and a beach
in the darkened corners
of a city at night
and behind sandy rocks
on an elementary school's property.

i have made friends with street urchins,
beautiful, young men who would sell
even their own bodies
just to earn a few disappearing dollars
together, we would throw a beloved toy,
a frisbee disc, around the gardens of a harare park.

i have come to understand
that there are not any actions
that are either above
or below
for my uncle's fate
of calling the streets of los angeles home
for the past twenty years
could just as easily be my own.
i have learned that there is nothing
that separates heaven and hell
from earth.

for i am mammal, flesh and blood
cut from the very same cloth
as my other earthly neighbors
i am homo sapiens
descendant of homo-habilus
wielding tools of milenia past and creating
nothing new under the sun
for i am the son, i am atom,
child of that revolving star
of brilliance and great magnitude
found at the center of our solar system
and i am the father, my seed will beget
more suns, to continue along this great march
of time, for i am also spirit.

i am 21st century human
i live in the future
i have lived before
and i am of the living now.


"and if i ever lose my land,
lose my plow and lose my hand
said if i ever lose my land,
oh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh
i won't have to work no more.
and if i ever lose my legs,
oh i won't moan and i won't beg
said if i ever lose my legs
oh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh
i won't have to walk no more.
and if i ever lose my eyes,
if the colors all run dry,
said if i ever lose my eyes
oh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh
i won't have to cry no more." --cat stevens