You can’t even sit out on the back porch, really, without thinking about Climate Change. Things are different. The weather is different. The temperature is higher or lower – extreme – wherever you might be. Here, in the Deepest South, it’s been warm – they say it’s the warmest July on record so far, in the warmest year. I know one thing: the bugs like it. Hell no, they love it. The tics, which have no regulation of their internal temperature that I know of, must be procreating like crazy in this nice, warm weather, because they’re all over.

All manner of bugs are proliferating. The scorpions – and I don’t know much about their mating habits or makeup – are finding their way into all manner of nook and cranny. (anyone know what a cranny is, by the way?) And, oh, the ants. It’s a yearly seasonal battle that has been getting just plain awful over the last few years. What the heck kind of power does that Queen Bee have, anyway!? I want to bottle it and sell it – and use it! She gets all those males and workers to do exactly what she decides she wants. They must have had a Queens’ meeting and decided that my house is a great party house. No matter if there’s food about or not, Lord, they just claim a free space and party. My Bug guy and I are on a first-name-come-for-coffee basis.

So, back to Climate Change. I actually like the term Climate Destabilization. Global Warming is a once-upon-a-time title, when we really didn’t know quite so much about what was happening…except the Biggies did. Exxon-Mobil knew. Big corporations dependent upon us not having a real clue as to the reality of Climate Change knew. But they couldn’t let us know; because they might have to change their dang profit-at-any-cost ways. I figure they’ve found another planet to live on already, so they can rape and pillage and plunder this planet at will because their progeny won’t be living here. They just keep on pushing the oil and smashing the possibilities of Solar, Air, and Wind….not quite enough profit in it, you see.

All that oil…petroleum…now we know we have to change our ways – get off the dang stuff. Okay, we might buy an electric car; or recycle plastic bottles (anyone ever consider buying glass, then repurposing, reusing it?) Hmmm…

So, here it comes; Friday’s question: How many things in your house and your life can you name that come from Oil/Petroleum? Whole or in part? Think about it. One? Thirty? Go outside and head to work. Then, when you’re done, it’s Friday. Go out and have a good time. Through which part of the day did you find you did not need to use or make use of a petroleum/oil-based thing.

It’s just one of the random thoughts you have when you’re rocking on the back porch, doing a favorite activity…thinking. I’d be interested in hearing from you, queridos. Thanks.

‘Til next time, I’ll be right here on the back porch waiting for you, with a beverage at the ready, and maybe we can chill and have a conversation.

Blues Vues Back Porch

Thunder rolling across the neighborwood

God’s bowling…my Gram used to tell me when I was little

As she held my hand tightly

Knowing it scared me.

There’s a different rhythm to rain and storms in the deep Summer South.

It’s hot

Humid

Sultry.

The kind of rain you can watch from the porch as you rock

Or make love to as the steam rises from the ground.

Heat hangs from the Willows and the Magnolias…plays through the Pines…

And the passion of the rain and thunder reminds us that Nature knows how to bring us a sensual afternoon.

BluesVues Back Porch

Thanks, Delta airlines, for giving a generous grant to ensure that the MLK Center would remain open in the face of the government shutdown.

Afterward, amongst other things, there will be a community discussion on bridging the racial divide.

I remember listening to Andrew Young and some others having a discussion a while ago about how Dr King was a guy that didn’t look for being at the Center…that he didn’t seek all that happened and he became…but he knew that – in each of us, all fallible humans – there is a Moment of Choice, when you are called to be more…called to be the change you say you want to see in the world. He answered.

There are forces and groups out there – and it’s done with many folks who step up- in the years after they’re gone – who actively work to whitewash (pun intended) the ones like Dr King – to make YOU/US think we could never be like them. It is deliberately done as a tool to make you sit down and do nothing, because you’ve been spun to believe you ‘cant .’ Hogwash.

Organize. Strategize. Stand up together.

Change the world. THIS is Love in Action.

Bernice King used ‘Love in Action’ in her talk. Yes.

LOVE IS AN ACTION VERB.

Time to stand up. Let’s honor Dr King and others by NOT believing the whitewashing efforts to render those who have stood up as something different. We are all One; and together we are powerful.

And that’s what scares those who divide us. 🌹

…And as the volume of raw information increases exponentially, at the same time the ability of both the news media and the intelligence community to analyze it and filter out the noise has dramatically decreased.

It has become utterly impossible to examine each piece of information in the detail we once did.

And as such, it is utterly impossible to ensure the quality and reliability and accuracy of that information.

Now, here’s the important part, so pay attention: Our society, both the decision-makers who run it and the citizens who daily live in it, is habituated to having information processed, analyzed, and presented in a fashion where they can have reasonable confidence in that information.

And that information thus directly shapes our worldview.

****

Stonekettle Station

Truth

John Perkins came to my awareness via his “Diary of an Economic Hitman” – a brilliant must-read.

The video above is short, succinct, and true.

From the Back Porch, I bid you a blessed day.

So sad…

Why is it we are never given the full picture? Our belief systems should crave Awareness.

From the back porch, I send intentions for a blessed and aware day. 🌹

aje.io/nu968

The United States, a major ally of Israel, has cut more than $200m in economic aid to Palestinians, in a move that comes months after also drastically cutting its contribution to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

How timelessly political? – The 1st fact to know is the original title was ‘Sounds THAT Silence’. – 2nd is in the ’60s Simon and likeminded musicians and activists were condemning the same corporate oligarchy with the same economic/social/racial injustices gaining today. – Quite a while back I was looking up lyrics on a “song interpretations” site and contributed as a lark and/or an intellectual exercise. – Big surprise to those knowing me, huh? LOL – Here is my interpretation of ‘The Sound of Silence’ by Paul Simon

–

Hello darkness, my old friend

I’ve come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence

–

Verse By Verse Interpretation

1st: The poet/writer awakes to a predawn quiet and seems to enjoy the reflection it allows. – He welcomes the opportunity to explore consciously the thoughts his subconscious dream started. – His muse is lively when the mind is still. – Artistry/genius blooms in the absence of extraneous influences. – The “sounds that silence” (original title) are the messaging/media and other “noises” of the world competing for the focus/priorities of the individual.

– Only the non-striving/non-competitive mind brings introspective thought and consideration of the common good… but I am getting ahead of the song.

–

In restless dreams I walked alone

Narrow streets of cobblestone

Beneath the halo of a street lamp

I turned my collar to the cold and damp

When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light

That split the night

And touched the sound of silence

–

2nd Verse: The writer continues the mood with the feeling of being alone – He tells us it is natural to brace oneself and adapt (“turned my collar”) to loneliness/boredom. We all (mankind) are primed to desire companionship and dislike boredom so the neon light occupying the mind is addictively clung to. Unfortunately, the neon light (media/entertainment) and active thinking don’t mix.

We have resisted boredom with media/entertainment/technology to the point we have created a culture with so much input/noise/biases we do not have enough silence to have original and/or creative thoughts free from influence. This power of the TV (naked light) is described in the next verse.

–

And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more

People talking without speaking

People hearing without listening

People writing songs that voices never share

And no one dared

Disturb the sound of silence

–

3rd Verse: TV/Media is equivalent to “10,000 people maybe more”. – But there is no depth of companionship; no depth of communication, talking without speaking is media product without value, hearing without listening is our consumption of media/entertainment without any meaningful intent, not even personal growth, knowledge or improvement. – Songs never shared (the political expression of that poet/era), denotes suppression of political expression and discourse which might promote critical thinking and viable progress/change. – The government, the Corporate Oligarchy and the rich and powerful routinely mute activist voices throughout history. – History also shows this suppression gets worse as power consolidates as the next verse warns.

——

“Fools,” said I, “you do not know

Silence like a cancer grows

Hear my words that I might teach you

Take my arms that I might reach you”

But my words like silent raindrops fell

And echoed

In the wells of silence

Silence begets silence = People can be intimidated if they feel no one will back them up. When we fail to think for ourselves, declare our beliefs and/or be diligent in the search for truth a vacuum is created where a common reality should exist: – The media becomes a tool of the rich and powerful to spread a false message resisting change and propping up the system which made them rich and powerful.

You can’t expect the rich and powerful to change the system which made them the rich and powerful. – Genius voices fail to inspire amidst the clamor and noise insisting on the status quo. We are willing to believe in simple solutions and/or those insisting other people or other factions are preventing the easy answer(s).

The fraudulent noise (fake-news) of powerful people and factions seeking to maintain and increase power/influence are guiding us away from being personally, politically and culturally introspective.

And the people bowed and prayed

To the neon god they made

And the sign flashed out its warning

In the words that it was forming

And the signs said the words of the prophets

Are written on the subway walls

And tenement halls

And whispered in the sounds of silence

–

The media (sign in the song) even warns about itself (neon god). – Special interests and a corporate oligarchy influence in contradiction to a free society.

The lyrics promote an underground/grassroots defense of our Liberty(s) : – (‘Prophets’/Activists of the subway/tenement class) Speaking truth and demanding equal justice in opposition to corruption. – “The word of the prophets”, (truth, righteousness, and reality) tell us; No Justice = No Peace.

– Thankfully; free people are not long deceived and never fully acquiesce. – “Whispered” calls for truth/justice will continue despite The Sounds THAT Silence.

https://www.facebook.com/RockAndRollvideo/videos/2053342951660665/ – Version/Cover by “Disturbed”

Being Ghosted for My Heresy by MAGA Christians

A must read REAL Christian Story

Credit to The Elephant Journal – a really cool site you might check out, sign up, and enjoy.  I thank them for running this.  Please take a moment and read it.  After Tony Bourdain’s death, I think about how his shows became more about the reality of the everyday person and how they live; what is done to them; and the utter lack of need, other than greed and profit and control, to do those things.

Perhaps he came to see the world in such a stark reality – and people’s attempts to still find joy and happiness admidst the warmonger, fearmongering “elite” and their oppressions – that his Spirit just decided it was enough.  We’ll never know until we, ourselves, are in spirit.  But I for damn well am going to sit down and have a drink with him.  Tony…wherever you are…you rock.

Blue

A piece on Tony Bourdain from the Elephant Journal

Yesterday, I was planning to write my remembrances of the day Bobby Kennedy was murdered.  I thought, no, I’ll wait a day until all the nice things are said, and talk about my own feelings that early, early morning sitting on the side of my bed watching TV as it happened, so many years ago.

I’ll still write it.  However, today I’m watching about someone else having left us.  Anthony Bourdain – a guy I’ve watched and followed; read about; all these years.  I admired him. I admired his honesty, his openness, and his caring about others.  To me, he had a real handle on what the world is like.  Maybe that’s why he left.

But he left behind a message.  So have others who have committed Suicide…and we damn well better listen.

There will be some who not only won’t listen, but they’ll get behind their computers, and – using their anonymous and brave keyboards – they’ll spout off about how these people should have gotten help, they had money, they this, they that.  Well, the fact is this:  if you are spewing non-sense and holier-than-thou crap from behind the anonymity of a computer screen,

You are one of those afflicted with some form of Mental Illness.

There is precious little help for anyone who is mentally disturbed/challenged/ill/hurting.  We’d rather jail them, it seems.  After all, the Prison-Industrial complex has stated clearly that in order to make a profit and stay in business, they have to have more than 90% of their beds filled, yes?  So, we certainly accommodate them.  Something stinks.

Stars like Tony Bourdain and Kate Spade and others who have left us this way get looked at either with sympathy or disdain.  Empathy appears to have left us – at least in the Western World.  It’s all I can speak to.  Severely Religious folks and some others believe that committing Suicide is a ‘Sin.’  Maybe they’ll ‘burn in hell.’ Yeah right.  Save that judgement for your Selves, please.

What I do believe is that we are all Spirits in human experience, expressing an Experience of God/Life/Universe.  You don’t need to believe that – after all, it’s my belief, not yours.  But just like our children dying all the time across the world – from Poverty, Neglect, War, and more – they are sending us a message and we are not listening.  So many claim Religion, yet turn away from the ‘hard’ problems; blame it on ‘others;’ and go to church/synagogue/mosque/wherever and thank our gods that it’s not us.

But, it is us.  The everyday person has more pressures now than ever.

Now, support systems of all and every kind are being ripped away from the fabric of a political system that used to, at least, provide some semblance of well-being to its citizens at the most basic level.  Support is being taken away from those already promised it and trying to live on it.  Mental Health assistance is virtually non-existent.  Medical care is being dismantled – even as it wasn’t the best, unless you have a lot of money, then it is.  The United States is one of the worst in the Western ‘developed’ world at caring for its citizens.

Yet, we are so completely and adeptly spun that we believe otherwise.

Tony Bourdain’s shows showed Reality.  He, more and more, addressed issues of the Everyday Person around the world, through food…culture.

I’ll miss you, Tony.  I hope we listen…

Blue

 

 

Mind and Passion…

The Parents of all who live Life fully; creatively; on their own terms, as much as they are able.

I have always seen you that way, querido…

Passion controlled
Is still Passion

Mind constantly learning
Is Passion’s Breath

Breathe me in;
Loosen control

The Dance of Mind and Passion
Is hot, slow
And sweet

Feel the Rhythm
Hear the Beat

Shall we dance?

The Music that is us, beckons.

Blue