Why Are We?

Why are we celebrating instead of worrying incessantly
When we reach sixty-five, and are, from our jobs, free?
We then live off the taxes paid by our children's generation;
This isn't what was envisioned as "Social Security" in our nation.

Not one of us wants to see the widowed, orphaned or disabled
Have to beg for a place at our society's abundant table.
We set up a tax-funded programs as a safety net for them,
Not a way out of work for differently-abled women and men.

What horrible abuses of our generosity and naivety
That generation after generation, on our payroll, stay.
These are people who have provided not even a fraction
Of what they will collect from the lobbyist's actions.

If there was a way I could end my life with dignity
So that my grandchildren would be, from my debt, free,
I would gladly give any years I have left to them,
Hoping they will do a better job than my generation.

I am so tired of blowing the horn of consequences
To those who make societal control pretenses.
I now hide behind my home's walls and make pleas
That we will, one day, magical thinking cease.

Each of our actions, including our own speech,
Has long-lasting consequences, perhaps to teach?
It matters not whether we are sober or inebriated,
Our behaviors are that by which our values are rated.

How can we continue to collect on others' sacrifice,
Though we have ample resources, to our needs suffice?
The fallacy of the unregulated stock market is plain to me:
Bankruptcy of the vulnerable, so the rich continue to be.

Don't get me wrong, I am considered part of the rich;
My access to perverse power has long made me itch.
I have given away much of our jointly held resources;
My desire for justice has led to lively discourses.

A whistle blower must have the contacts to infiltrate,
To have the information and terms with which to relate.
I am sickened by what I have gathered from non-profits;
There are many on whom the shoe of corruption fits.

All who want justice in our deeply divided nation
Must unite against our church/state ideation.
A corporation that, by definition, is a sovereign  entity
Shouldn't have privileges from which citizens are free.

I am so tired of the visions and platforms of politicians
Pretending they care about our spiritual convictions.
Only the individual person, not a corporation, has a soul;
Democracy, as its purpose, seeks to include the whole.

I'm not sure that, under a republic, our nation should stay;
I believe that this system has seen its best days.
Because we exempt "our" representatives from our laws,
Our consequences, as citizens, give them little pause.

We go along to get along, believing we have no power,
But rational voices on the internet can grow by the hour.
I'd like to see more about what others truly believe,
Not religious and political messages, by others conceived.

How do we apply our beliefs to our own families?
How do we benefit from caring communities?
What benefits do we each derive from paying tax?
What are we willing, as humans, to give back?

Our country and religions build in protections
We continue to want to age past all projections.
Who is willing to give up some of their own life
To secure, for the next generation, less strife.?

Forgiveness and Forgetfulness

Starting over can be a most wonderful thing,
But there is always some loss that this brings.
Some have started over way too many times;
In long-term relationships there are many crimes.

It may be time now to go on without many
Of those with whom, resolution, there can't be any.
Having been told too many times to forgive,
Without any changes in the way others live.

Forgiveness is accomplished rather easily;
Reconciling relationships remains the mystery.
Sometimes those you struggled with all your life
Will continue to, in your soul, create much strife.

It is sad in many cases, no matter how hard you both try,
You can only forgive each other and then say good-bye.
Relationships are based on equal vulnerability;
Without this, reconciliation will never be.

Somehow, we seem to have lost belief in The Great;

Scripture shows that this seals a generation’s fate.

We do not have to all call Greatness by the same name,

As long as we all, by our actions, True Greatness claim.

Greatness isn’t measured by earthly riches or power;

It is measured by our every action during every hour.

Too many turn to arrogance and hubris for respect

Because, we as a civilization, continue to virtue reject.

When will we wake up and realize that all history

Is written also to warn us of what we don’t want to be?

When we are faced with that about which we are unsure,

All but what our ancestors did seems to become a blur.

We seem not to trace very far to see what happened then,

And continue to repeat the mistakes of our past humans.

Can we stop for a moment and stop following blindly

People who dictate to us rules from which they are free?

Religious history seems to have begun with a belief in

Incredible mystery and the power in all of creation.

Somewhere along the line, some said they understood;

This hasn’t yet led humankind into doing good.

Let each search for our own visions of balance and harmony,

Rather than competing about whether “God” is he or she.

And let us look for leaders in our sisters and brothers

Who lead with respect for, and interest in, all others.

Sadness and The Spirit

It is a sad fact of relationships that what gives one peace gives another pain;
This sometimes means that we cannot share goals and our lives again.
It does not necessarily mean that either of us did anything wrong;
It may simply mean that our Spirits dance and sing to different songs.

Areas in which one feels comfortable, another simply cannot dwell.
Stories that one doesn't want to hear, another feels compelled to tell.
Things that one savors may seem too foreign to fit another comfortably,
And events in one's life that another person cannot bear to see.

Although our souls will always and each contain something of each other
It takes comfort with each other's boundaries to feel as sisters and brothers
As long as we are locked into a mindset that won't consider change,
We will always consider each others ways foreign, wrong, or strange.

Close observation of the way people behave in business and family
Seems to be the very best way to know their true boundaries.
When we are in groups of our own kind, we all pretend to be the same,
But operating in the world of others, we show the values that we claim.

Sometimes we celebrate that people we love are happy together,
Even though we may grieve because we're not birds of a feather.
If the way a dear friend lives is a source of spiritual distress,
The discomfort both friends feel cannot always be redressed.

We are never at  the very same place on the same spiritual path.
Sometimes it may be one's time to cry when another needs to laugh.
We cannot grab others around their necks and make them see with us,
But the power of love can give us peace, if in the process, we will trust.

Competition or Community?

Where we went wrong in our religions is allowing them to become corporations;
This seems to be the problems we're also having with business in our nations
Religions are about community, cooperation, and  personal responsibility,
Values from which all corporations and their protected heads are free.

In times of severe crisis Americans are still neighbors helping neighbors;
In communities we believing in the fairness and balance of returning favors.
Other countries believe that there are some who deserve to be kings,
But this is not the freedom song with which American democracy rings.

Community brings up leaders with vision and exemplary actions,
Not simply those with connections, wealth, and physical attraction.
Community realizes that long range good for one must be good for all;
Exempting some from rules and consequences causes communities to fall.

We have come to a place in our lives, religions, and our nations
Where we long to be our own informed and equal representation.
This is the only way we won't continue to be dragged under
By those who are allowed our power, trust, and resources to plunder.

Let's go back to community, churches, schools, and small businesses
To form unions of individuals, this is what our early ancestors did.
We have to stop hiding behind large groups that turn to mob think
And take seriously "the chain is only as strong as its weakest link."

We can help to alert others if someone is about to hurt the whole,
Not as a way to harm, but as a way save all our souls.
But this can only be done if we're willing to treat all others
As potential community members, neighbors, sisters, and brothers.

We cannot fire errant family members or non-productive citizens,
But if they take from others, their freedoms and rights should end.
We must stop following false family, community, and church leaders;
This way is that from which the many civil rights movements freed us.

Do we want to belong to corporations with no individual responsibility,
Or do we want to belong to community where we may not always agree?
Where we are committed to the well being of ourselves and each other?
I believe Americans have the framework for communities like no other.

What Does Love Look Like?

We talk a great deal about giving up one's life for love.
We often believe that this means dying for another.
Every time we give a bit of ourselves to another,
When done with joy, it requires sacrifice of ourselves.
It is a great deal easier to assume that we would die once
Than it is to be vulnerable to a little daily death to self.
When we open to another, we exchange parts of ourselves;
This dwelling in each other is the real Holy Spirit of humanity.

As you go through your day, where do you see love?
Not hear it, but really see it, and have it warm your soul?
When my husband looks at me with his mischievous grin,
The twinkle in his eyes says "I love you" to my very marrow.
A friend spends time in email discussion, only between us;
This says we are vulnerable to each other; that's love.
Turning to each other and speaking into each others hearts,
With all outside distractions put aside; that look is love.

A husband's gift of a rock from his walk on the beach
Because his wife likes rocks to bound her garden.
When a granddaughter sits next to her granny at a movie.
When a granddaughter falls asleep in her granny's lap.
When a wife sits silently at her sick husband's bedside,
And a father gets up in the night with his crying child.
A husband slows his stride to take the hand of his wife.
A dad and son under a blanket with dad's morning coffee.

Mom and daughter laying side-by-side in the summer sun.
Pet owners stooping to pick up the poop of their pups.
A husband adjusting the hot tub temperature for his wife.
Spouses doing each others' dirty laundry, even underwear.
A daughter respectfully advising her mom on her wardrobe.
Parents changing babies' dirty diapers, no matter how smelly.
Sons and daughters doing the same for infirm parents.
A husband digging a beloved deceased dog's grave.

When a grandson agrees to have lunch with you
And doesn't ask for money or text at any time.
A child comes to simply sit with an old parent.
Scooping a cat's litter; putting out food and water.
Donating platelets, blood, or bone marrow.
Cooking a favorite food for someone else.
Encouraging another's honest efforts.
Being available to simply soothe and be.

Heroism, Heirs, and Humanity

I honestly believe it is an act of heroism to decide when and how we should leave;
If we're no longer able to contribute, our families, at our deaths, shouldn't grieve.
Medical science has exceeded our ability to make compassionate choices;
We must, based on our own family and personal values, assert our own voices.

My husband wants to live as long as his incredible brain remains;
I have long asserted my right to not believe just the same.
I, without physical strength, don't feel I've much to give;
He, while he thinks, not articulates, feels he has reason to live.

There are many who may fight to keep my weary body alive;
He, without my help will not long, according to him, survive.
Where are the boundaries for the life we owe to others;
When can we give up our roles as earth fathers and mothers?

I used to think I made a difference staying upon this earth;
This was probably necessary to those I had given birth.
But I cannot, for the life of me, begin to comprehend
Reluctance of those with no goals to have their lives end.

This generation has the internet to get all useful information;
This leaves all those with experience no honored life's station.
What good is history for those who are into adventure?
They can't seem to see that their history is their value's center.

I don't need to understand or pretend to comprehend
The things that will happen at this world's end.
I believe we are all commanded, no matter our birth,
To create a peaceful, heavenly existence right here on earth.

I know that this is not the popular rulers' opinion;
This would take away the supremacy of their dominion.
If we all agree to get along for the future of all children,
There may be no more reason for war or for abortion.

Separate groups encourage unbridled procreation
For the increased powers of their own independent nations.
When will they stop fearing and begin to try to understand
All are in the "image of 'God' ", as long as they are human?

We give up our humanity when we turn away from The Spirit.
The "voice" begins very small, so that only we can "hear" it.
Every minute of every day, It is tap, tap, tapping on our souls
Asking us to "feed" It, so our humanity will remain whole.

It is so sad in life that anyone with a ready smile
Is thought to be a fool, with the reasoning of a child.
That secret smile that lives behind the eyes of joy
Is the greatest blessing coming from every girl and boy.

But our world wants to toughen them up for "reality";
We share our adult problems they may never need to see.
Innocence taken from us can be hard to watch in others;
Preserving it should be the job of fathers and mothers.

Wanting our children as peers, we burden them with our pain;
In many people, the peaceful joy can never be regained.
Some have had it dimmed in the womb by drugs and alcohol,
Never having the innocence shine in them at all.

Can we feed the joy back into such damaged, starving souls?
Can they ever heal the scars that are wrapped around their souls?
When we start looking at differences with loving interest, instead of fear,
Our joy may "speak" to them loud enough for their souls to "hear".

Instead we look away and ridicule them behind their backs,
Pretending their is some "norm" that the "different" one lacks.
We attack their joy until their light is eventually snuffed out;
I don't think exclusion is what compassion is about.

I takes all kinds and beliefs to build a vibrant community
This is how a peaceful, healthy world is set up to be.
When we realize that all creation is part of Divine Energy,
We will be able to, from fear, set our Spirits free.

McCarthyism in Our Midst

We say that we are now color-blind, but ignore hatred.
We say we're standing up for justice that was belated.
What do we do to the groups we have always scorned,
Not in the group we accept and embrace as "the norm"?

When we try to punish, drug, and kill people for not fitting in;
This is where most justification of evil  seems to begin.
Those who disagree with "the norm" must be silenced;
There should be no thought of , for injustice, recompense.

We have entered a new age of religious McCarthyism.
Our religions and our government desperately need a schism.
The horrors of the old religious ways of controlling others
Makes enemies, masters, and slaves of sisters and brothers.

Have humans learned anything in three thousand years,
That lack of understanding is what begets most fears?
The thing most destructive is the fear-fueled aggression
That seems to be our nation's most dangerous obsession.

If there is a Spirit of Wholeness, it seems very plain to me
That this, not religion, is what we must pray for and seek.
The religious should go back to the words of Genesis,
Or admit that "In Our Image and Likeness" is a myth.