Apes or Angels

I’m wondering with all the bad and the good occurring on this old planet if humankind is just above the apes or just below the angels?

It is an interesting contemplation provided I spend some time in meditation. Meditation, for me, is a process where I listen to Spirit rather than prayer where I talk to Spirit to solicit some favor or courtesy.

My tendency is to go with “just below the angels” because I believe we are inherently good even though we all too often make terrible choices that label us cruel, unkind or inconsiderate sots.

Even though we’ve got serious troubles in the Ukraine, mudslides in Washington State, earthquakes in California and an ongoing mystery over Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, we still have the beauty of life if we choose to see it.

It’s the simple things that we notice and appreciate that bring us closer to the angels. Most of us had a tough winter no matter where we live. Some had drought, some had floods, and some had heavy snows and frigid temperatures. I don’t know about the drought and floods, because I don’t live there. But here in the Northeast the snow and below zero temperatures were helpful in killing destructive beetles that are killing our trees and deer tics that cause Lyme disease.

I love the lengthening soft golden light of a spring sunset and the music of our feathered friends. I love to watch the stirrings of nature as she comes alive with the sap flowing for Maple Syrup. I love the see the purple tops of crocus poking through the melting frost. And I love to watch the mating chase of squirrels through the high budding branches of Oaks and Maples.

Most of all I love the awareness of choice that allows each of us to choose how we see life and things. Meditation is a great leveler. It knocks the top off of inflated ego and fills the valleys of depression.

  

Poetry Month is almost here.

I guess you would call this a promo, or a tease or a heads-up, but April is National Poetry Month. Poetry is my avocation, better yet my passion.

In the forward of one of my book of poetry I wrote:

You might rightfully ask what inspires a broadcast journalist to dwell in a poetic world. The quick answer is a balance to the daily tragedy of life. The long answer involves acknowledging the heart, spirit, and nature and the peace that comes from that awareness.

Each broadcast day contains many of the sorrowful and tragic stories of life. Emphasis is placed on information that separates our unique, yet interconnected, human nature into undesirable parts. We labeled them as hate, prejudice, violence, intolerance, and greed.

Poetry, whether its rap or metered verse, quatrains or sonnets, laughs and cries, clarifies and condemns and brings the intellectual and emotional senses into a radiating body of meaningful words.

Poetry holds, sometimes forever, an emotion long past, a desire forgotten, a wish remembered or a splendor that’s vanished in the illusion of time.

It is also a minute connection to the elegance of verbal choice, to the beauty of form and to the emotion of words put fitly together on the palate of the mind.

Poetry is both raw and sophisticated art available to the reader and listener as a subjective creation similar to the appreciation found in images created in oil or marble.

To me, poetry is love at the purest verbal level.

Many of my blog posts during the month of April will be poetry. I invite you to join me in the experience and to comment if you choose.

Why?

Why are generals who usurp the democratic process by instigating a coup have the audacity to shed their uniform and claim to run for the presidency. Egypt. Does Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi think the world does not know his duplicity? Such arrogance.

Why do the big banks, like Bank of America and others before it, pay billions and billions of dollars to settle Mortgage Securities suits? Why just fines for the companies? Where are the names for prosecution?

Why is the TSA expanding itself once again? This time by asking for armed guards at airport checkpoints. Seems to me we should be diminishing the TSA not expanding it.

Why are we still executing people in 2014? Oh, it’s Mississippi! Now I know. I thought at first it was Texas. Egypt does it to get rid of the opposition. At least an Oklahoma judge declared executions unconstitutional.

Why is Mike Huckabee hinting of a 2016 presidential bid? Someone tell him his time is over.

Why are we still supporting Pakistan? We send billions in aid (bribes) and much of it goes to their CIA equivalent and a lot gets to the Taliban.

Why is Russia’s troop buildup continuing in the Ukraine? Putin said he had no interest beyond Crimea. I love the Putin style of democracy. There was no place to vote no on the Crimean ballot to join Russia.

Why is not the world worried about the radiation contamination from Japan's Fukushima Diachi Nuclear Plant?

Why do I even think about these things?

Egypt's Executions

Global Voices is right. Their cartoon tells it all.

The title is: Egypt Sentences 529 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death.

This is not justice. It is barbarism at its worst. Genecide certainly and wrong in all cultures, religions and civilized nations. The sentence is nothing other than political retaliation no matter how the Egyptian authorities try to color it. Shame, shame, shame on Egypt.

Lotos Lunch

Not all days are like this, but I’m sure glad they come around every so often.

I had lunch with a collection of very thoughtful and interesting people. One was a teaching physician at a local medical school. She was charming and forthcoming about how it was for a woman to be in medical school in the early 1950’s.

Also joining the discussion was a clinical psychologist who works with performers who have stage fright.

Around the table was a sculptor/poet, a former investment banker who now studies watercolor painting, a teacher in higher education administration, a professor in sustainable living for the planet and a former publicist in the high tech field.

We each shared our background and our current passions. Oh, if only all of us could do this on a daily basis what a change we would see in the world condition.

Thank you Lotos Club, you are a catalyst that engenders wonder and fosters hope in the appreciation of the arts and individual talents. Thank you SD for the introduction, AR for the idea and EM for facilitating.

How Come?

I have a series of “how comes” in todays post.

How come we listen when GM tries to assuage customers about the current recall on social media? People died!

Guinea says 59 people have died in an Ebola outbreak…why are we not worried?

With so many countries controlling numerous spy satellites how come we don’t just throw up our hands and say nothing is private? If they can spot wreckage in the Indian Oceans, what else can they spot?

How come NASA is asking citizens for innovative ideas on capturing asteroids? Good grief! Are not they the experts?

How come the average gallon of gas price just rose five-cents a gallon in one week?

How come Democrats don’t vote in off-year elections? Or is that not true?

How come some countries still have polio?

How come Governor Romney criticizes President Obama on dealing with Russia. Didn’t Romney lose? Isn't Romney the one with no foreign experience?

How come we send billions to Pakistan each year and they hate America?

How come millions of American children go hungry each day?

How come the calendar says spring and a snow storm is expected in the Northeast?

How come there is still controversy over climate change?

How come there are so many “how come’s” every day.