DocuDharma – Page 3785 – Blogging the Future

Jan 01 2008

I’ve Got My Dance Card

By pfiore8 in Personal, Philosophy

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

The thing I’m continually learning is so simple: I define my life. I stand up or down. I say yes or no. I fight, go along, or give up. It comes down to just me.

The way I see it, this blip in time is mine. But not for much longer, as I can imagine a time when humans, as we are now, probably won’t exist. The upside is that I’m sure some other type of earthling will evolve. Will they love van Gogh and Bach though? I don’t know.

I like to think these new earthlings will be as awestruck by star dust and sunlight as I… that they will try to figure out a way to describe the thud and splat of raindrops and the whisper of wind through tall grass… that they’ll fall in love and have their own dance. I’ve stopped being sad that it won’t be mine in a million years from now.

However. That’s then. This is now and I’ve got my dance card. I can’t help it if George Bush is on it. But fuck him.

So here’s my dance then. I am ready to trip-the-lights of unconventional wisdom and become part of a force to convince people to confront the consequences of their actions.

Unleash a way of seeing the world as it relates to where those stands and those choices have taken one of us… and then all of us.

I’ll let right and wrong fall, in pieces, to the ground, shelve my sadness, and unleash my anger. I’m pissssssed off, actually. But that’s a good thing; it keeps me from becoming complacent. It also helps me to be a bit audacious… because I really feel and believe and think that if we made this reality then we can fucking change it.

People can be convinced or motivated by greed and fear to act against their own self interest? Then we can find a way to retrofit what motivates us. It’s already happening among us here. We are scaling our self-interest to include the perspective of an entire planet. We’re crying over polar bears and the destruction of human life in Iraq as we fight to protect our freedoms.

We’ve already changed. The thing of it is, we’ve been changing since the very first day we arrived on Planet Earth.

Heh. I will dance those theocratic take-over types off the stage because I totally completely utterly disagree with their strategy for living in this world. So I’m fighting them. The same for the military industrial complex and all the economic geniuses who’ve so stupendously gotten it wrong. Wrong in a big fucking way as, it turns out, consumerism ends up being the precursor to cancer. It is destructive, not constructive.

I don’t know if our side will end up shaping the world to come. But I’m determined to enjoy this adventure, this journey. While maddening and insane, it is also thrilling to be involved in the momentum we’re creating and the big ideas that get thrown around here. For example, did you know that when you sit in your chair, your ass doesn’t really ever touch the surface of that chair? That there’s some kind of electro-magnetic or static or magical sub atomic or molecular layer that is forever between you and that chair. At least that’s what Jay Elias said. Um… er, well, I think, that’s kind of what he said. But what’s really great about your ass never touching your seat is that it gives you the chance, if you want to take it, to think differently about the world and how it works. And you get to read the poetic musing of all these physics-types and well, it’s kind of sexy.

As I leave to go to join my family to end this year and begin another, I resolve to invoke love in facing the daunting and horrible conditions in which we seem to be drowning. I resolve to invoke the power in believing that we will figure our way out of this mess.

Yes. We will stop trying to win and will simply start to prevail. I’ve been asleep really. Until these last seven years. Now I’m awake and exhilarated to be here with all of you.

Happy New Year …

Jan 01 2008

Prospero Año Nuevo!

By davidseth

cross posted at The Dream Antilles

The caracol (a snail) is a Zapatista symbol for free government entities (juntas). It’s a link between the present and the Mayan past. And it’s a reminder of a time when the world moved much more slowly. When there was time for thinking and time for thoughts. When there was less rushing. When there was deliberation.

And so the caracol is my wish to you for 2008. May all of your minutes have 60 seconds. May there be time to reflect. May there be time to step off the treadmill. May there be a pause. May there be time for you. And may time gift you with abundant delight, joy, happiness, satisfaction, peace, comfort, safety and health.

Y prospero año nuevo!

Chiapas, mexico, new year, Zapatistas
8 comments

Jan 01 2008

NYT gets it right: Looking at America

By stormchaser

The New York Times published an editorial today entitled Looking at America that says very clearly what is at stake with the next election and how far we have to go to get back to the America we once knew:

There are too many moments these days when we cannot recognize our country. Sunday was one of them, as we read the account in The Times of how men in some of the most trusted posts in the nation plotted to cover up the torture of prisoners by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators by destroying videotapes of their sickening behavior. It was impossible to see the founding principles of the greatest democracy in the contempt these men and their bosses showed for the Constitution, the rule of law and human decency.

–snip

The country and much of the world was rightly and profoundly frightened by the single-minded hatred and ingenuity displayed by this new enemy. But there is no excuse for how President Bush and his advisers panicked – how they forgot that it is their responsibility to protect American lives and American ideals, that there really is no safety for Americans or their country when those ideals are sacrificed.

The editorial is the question many people in Europe are asking as they consider whether the “American Century” is over because of the mistakes of George W. Bush and company. Whether they will have to look to the EU as the new world leader or whether Putin has positioned Russia to take that role, as concerning as that idea may be.

Whether those in America realise the precarious nature of their world position and their own position at home is yet to be seen and will require much reflection by the American people themselves. But, as the NYT editorial says so well and considering all that’s at stake, it may have become a prerequisite to good citizenship.

More below the jump…

I had a student in September, 2000, who was, though profoundly accomplished at mathematical models, obtuse to the point of irresponsibility when it came to politics. This fellow informed me that he intended to vote for George W. Bush because his parents had always voted Republican. When I raised the concern that the American presidency carried too much power and responsibility to be awarded to just anyone, let alone a C student who dodged his responsibilities and relied upon his father (until he needed his advice, and then he choose to listen to “God” instead, but that came later), my student looked at me as the neophyte.

“What did it matter?” he responded, “it’s not like my vote will make a difference.”

In mid-2004, I ran into the same student at a conference. I asked if he regretted his vote. He did not look me in the eye when he said again that he didn’t think his vote had made a difference.

I’ve been tempted to track down that former student since and ask if he is still under that illusion.

Here’s one more snip from the editorial:

We can only hope that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably. Then when we look in the mirror as a nation, we will see, once again, the reflection of the United States of America.

Here’s hoping…

Jan 01 2008