DEFENDING WITH COMPASSION and THE BACK BAY

      A casual safe harbor sits back bay in Los Osos and Baywood.

  A cove on Morro Bay, tucked in by the "spit."

    A peaceful harbor, within a bay on the Pacific on California's central coast.

pacific thoughts

     I heard the phrase "inestimable compassion" in the context of a radical spiritual intellection. 

    Just the day before my heart, head, and spiritual operating system were infused with a dose of love and caring by means of a radical homiletic exercise shown joyfully in the documentary, Wont You Be My Neighbor.
    The two occurrences launched a train of thought. First, a little context.

    You may not have been as aware of the great human progression and kindness displayed by Fred Rogers as were your children. Seeing film of him at the beginning in the 1960's, through his final commencement address is reason alone to upgrade your estimation of the human race and its potential.

    I thank every one of my friends who continued to encourage us to see it. An extended running at the Palm in San Luis Obispo resolved our schedule snafu. Even after playing for several weeks, the mid afternoon crowd was near capacity. This film is doing a lot of love bombing and it talks sense by way of example.

    This is an horrendous time in our national existence. The majority of US voters are someplace between depressed and ballistic in their disapproval of the administration, the atmosphere and the damage that is inflicted daily on the politics, culture and values of the society. The anger is understandable. It may even be worse for those who had been Republicans, traditional Republicans. The majority of those who presently so self identify have simply enabled the toxic leadership and destructive culture. Democrats, liberals and progressives as well as traditional conservatives are not only offended by the freak show, but wonder when and how the disease will end.
     So in the interim, until we get another shot at the ballot box, or until we see how much the Russians rigged the election and who was in bed with them, what is there to do?
    This brings us back to where we started. 
    Compassion, caring, and loving are part of a radical tool kit to use in pressing the idea of resistance. Donald Trump fails the human evolution matrix. Most people have a greater sense of decency, civility, intelligence, caring and the capacity to love than he or his base. Most people are not "me first." Most people achieve a higher sense of reasoning and a desire to help. So it's time to unleash a radical good. In fact we are seeing evidence; acts of kindness, support, volunteering, marching, letter writing, petition signing, calls,  teens registering other teens who will come of voting age in 2020 or in these mid terms. 
     The frustration, anger, worry, and fear can be offered up as our brokenness, in a type of transformative discipline, to be the fodder and source of resurgence. The present discontent drives the coming repudiation of this era and becomes the drive wheel of progress, improvement and a dismantling of this coarse empire of vanity. We will undo the Trump toxin. The pendulum swings. For every action a reaction. The law of Karma.
     For those who believe, the "inestimable compassion" is a radical conversion; a bodhisattva, the great peace, a universal light, Brahman, the faith of Abraham, the Christ. Patterns of justice, mercy and hope pervade all of our foundations of faith, in an unimaginable diversity, as unique as each one of us.
     Defeating the haters, the selfish, the mean, the bullies is the challenge of each of us and it is a simple as being as kind, conscientious, loving and radical as Mr. Rogers. Or as personal as listening to your guru, rabbi, teacher, pastor, priest, ecclesiast, shepherd, conscience, universe or heart.
     Safe harbors, mentors, wise women and men, servants, transformers, compassionate humans, and people of light are all around us. Light wins, always. 

    See you down the trail.
     
      

     

     

     

    

PERPETUITY and AN INNER MEASURE

Sequoia National Park

      Being in the presence of an ancient can do a lot to widen your view. Beholding a 2-3 thousand year old tree puts a perspective on human endeavors and foibles.

 Audubon Society Sweet Springs Nature Preserve Los Osos Ca.

    Even a less august eucalyptus grove displays endurance,  the contortions, changes and adjustments demanded of life. 

     Are humans any less subject?

 Sweet Springs Preserve

    And we are grateful for green spaces, preserves, national and state parks where that which is older is paid respect. And where we can rest, focus and gain clarity.

    Do you think we'd see a different behavior if House and Senate members did a nature centered retreat-a kind of outward bound recess? I like to think that a thread of decency would appear even in the contemptible Mitch McConnell.

    He's even more of a "gloomy Gus" these days, a weakened and failed leader who has presided over a colossal failure and collapse of majority politics. 

    It is good for all of us the mean spirited and punitive Republican Health Care plan seems to be dying. Surprising that a party that controls everything-White House, Senate, House and that has been shrilly condemning the Affordable Health Care Act for 6 years, can't govern, can't legislate and has no vision for America and can't do what they said they would do "on day 1." It is a disastrous administration and nations see us as weaker and unreliable.

    So maybe a couple of weeks of hiking and camping in Yosemite, or the Bridger Teton Wilderness or in Denali could do our Senators and Representatives a world of good, and us too.

    I wish we could get our bloated, sexual predator and lying tweeter in chief into the wilds. Oh boy, could you imagine? But that would probably result in a blown body part and would sadly end the camp out.

    Being in nature however clarifies an undeniable truth. Behind our politics, regardless of stripe or affiliation is an assumption about the power of human life and its durability. We move through our days owning an attitude of perpetuity. It ain't so!

    We are merely passing through. The best we can hope for is 7-9 decades. We are all amazed at how quickly it passes. 

    So why do we behave the way we do? We damage, scar, despoil, deplete our planet. And we brutalize, terrorize, destroy and kill, including each other. And for what ends?

     The health care plan is a case in point. Since all of us, even the most healthy, have limited days how can we be punitive or restrictive? 

      Providing health care to everyone is right. Arguing "there have always been the poor," or the fact that some can't afford coverage is "just the price of modern life" or "the way it is," is wrong.  Politics that enshrine those attitudes are mean and venal.

     Health care should not be a political doctrine, it is a matter of health, and if it is not a right, then it is our responsibility to each other. There is also the deep and complicated topic of the role of "profit" in the practice of health and healing. 

     I am one of those who believe our higher aspirations and greater good is to be just and merciful. Any thing else is delusional bull shit, the sort of which that leads humanity to our inhumane treatment of each other and our only planet.

     See you down the trail. 

    

    

    

BEAUTIFUL DWARF PYGMYS & SHRINK CAMPAIGN $

GET THE BIG $ OUT OF POLITICS

     Frequent readers may recall my plea for getting big money out of campaigns.  Well, here's a great idea from writer Jim Worth.

DRONE FOLLOW UP

    Blogger Bob Christy posted this extraordinary story after

reading my post  about trying to get a drone into operation

in my news shop.

DAY BOOK

A PLACE FOR THE ANCIENTS

     This extraordinary creature is a 600-800 year old  dwarfed pygmy oak residing in the Los Osos Oaks State Reserve. The 85 acres of ancient sand dune is south of Morro Bay and just east of Los Osos off Los Osos Valley Road in San Luis Obispo County. Chumash Indians once lived where the historic trees have been saved. 

      It is a small reserve but has managed to protect living
links to the 11th century.  When these oaks were saplings, 

   European court society had not yet sent explorers toward
what they would call North America. The Chumash camped
on this land.  Some of the preserve is on a Chumash midden.

      Lace lichen streamers decorate some of the old stand. Historians say Chumash mothers used the lichen as wraps for their infants.

Three hiking trails take you beneath the old growth oaks. The eastern edge of the preserve runs along a stand of old sycamore, willow, laurel and cottonwood trees. Between Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo you can time travel.

See you down the trail.