Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun
Showing posts with label wisdom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wisdom. Show all posts

Monday, September 20, 2021

CAN WE BE FIXED? or STUMBLING TOWARD NIRVANA

 

Feathered Buddha by Lana Cochrun

        How would you explain our national mood to the "greatest generation," those who endured the "great depression" and who won a World War, defeating fascism and authoritarianism?

        Why and how in the span of our lifetime have we blown it so that now most of our traditions and institutions have been degraded and our culture has been vulgarized? 

        Professional politicos have trashed public service and turned governance and the selection of leaders into warfare. 

        What percentage of folks do you think even know the meaning of civility?

     We've elevated the trivial, and so much of what passes for human interaction is petty and mean. Stupid people have masses of followers and stupid ideas have trumped knowledge   and science. The lethality of this is recounted daily on your screen, large or handheld. 

        At a time of our greatest scientific knowledge, transportation and logistics, we fail to deliver existing inventories of vaccines to hundreds of millions on the planet.

        We have known for decades that forces were aligning to threaten life even to the point of extinction, and we mostly argue about it as a global doomsday clock ticks away.

       It exasperates many because we know better, we know what needs to be to "fix and make better." Instead we watch demise stalk us and we are not unlike that creature trapped in a spider's web, afraid of what is coming but unable to extract ourselves. 

        We are headed the wrong way on a bad road.

photo by Heath Johnson  Cal Trans

        George Will the conscience of modern conservatism says that movement has been hijacked by idiots and is no longer truly classical conservative thought or philosophy.
        Liberalism has also been hijacked by zealots and the illiberal and is no longer what it used to be. 
        Benjamin Storey and Jenna Silber Storey, political philosophy professor and director of the Tocqueville program at Furman University write that classical liberalism that began with John Locke in the 17th century is dead "because it was designed to solve a different anthropological problem from the ones we're facing."
        Will says conservatives simply tired of trying to
"conserve." Conservatives had gained control of the Republican party but their languor and electoral desperation permitted one issue zealots, racists, and eventually fascists to steal the party.
         The Democrats move to the right, begun by Bill Clinton, sent their progressive wing into high gear and you get a Bernie Sanders and the less politic Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez trying to shove the party. The trouble as the Storey's point out, liberal ideals were set for when people committed to churches, towns, professions, families, but all of those frames and norms have been busted by rapid change and disruption.
        In a digital world, commitment means something different than it did. We are not the nation we were. 


        Change has accelerated and in most cases there has been little forethought to consequences.

        Faith is a progenitor force in the history of the republic, including among the indiginous who had their land and nations stolen from them. Today faith is on the skids and, it is telling, so too is our republic and most of western "civilization." 

        One of the reasons I bristle when I hear people spar accusing liberals or conservatives of this or that, is because, like the society or anthropology from which they sprang, they no longer exist, or have changed so much there is no veracity or credibility in the definitions. They are ghost divides.

        We are stuck with old frameworks and strap ourselves to tired categories, but they are empty and meaningless. 
        We have abandoned values, virtues, and disciplines that served us well, until recently. It is intellectual laziness, on a mass scale, clouding our ability to see new horizons.


           The 20th century third rate romance between politicos and television, now social media has produced a bastard spawn that abuses the aspirations of our constitutional bones and the patience of the increasingly diminishing population of thinking citizens. Stress point is "thinking."

         We've even elevated the powerful tool of changing your mind into a kind of dunce cap calling people "flip floppers." To be sure there are politicians who flip flop for expediency, Kevin McCarthy for example on the topic of his party boss, or the insurrection and such. 
        Hucksters like that are disingenuous. But all people should be able to learn, adjust their thinking by new information, science, or experience and not be subjected to the sophomoric peals of mindless media.


        A future post will examine current media practices including the very damaging and even dangerous false equivalency. 
        Suffice it to say you need to be your own editor. If you have found a "news by flavor" favorite, you should pay attention to an opposite "flavor."  Better to get your information from multiple sources and still think about what you see, hear and read.
        Until we get unstuck from our echo chamber or silo form of news consumption, we are going to stay silly, and continue our slide away from greatness.


        Real analysis is not commentary, opinion nor snark. There is very little of the former and more than we need of the latter.

    We doom ourselves by our chronic feuding while a significant number of potential voters live in a fantasy of lies. They appear to be impervious to not only truth and history, but to help for their own survivability. Again refer to the Covid mortality tables.
    The only cure is to wipe them out electorally and to go about the work of disinfecting with reason, rational debate, political negotiation and abandoning the death maiden's embrace of a winner take all or zero sum game theory.     
    Politics is about the art of compromise, and statesmanship. 
    

        It's a tough chop out there. I consider my own sense of being at this age and can't begin to imagine the daily reality of being President of the US at this time. Pandemic, economy, the Republican devolution to running dog fascists, rebuilding foreign policy, stridency in his own party, stopping an endless war, anarchy and insurrection, domestic terrorism, cyber attacks, and an electorate that is increasingly divided between urban and rural, educated and ignorant, those who trust science and those who take horse dewormer, those who know the truth and those who believe in fairy tales and lies. 
        While he is moving strategically to deal with China he blew it by not notifying our ally France that the new Australian initiative was coming. France has every right to be angry, not only were they left out of the protocol, but US defense contractors just took some 66 $ billion off the French table. The move was handled stupidly and it is surprising coming from an administration with as much foreign policy experience.
        Chief of Staff Ron Klain and the boss need a mountain top one on one. This administration should not make such boneheaded mistakes.
        They also need to include a conversation about the Covid mandates. While we are in unusual and even emergency times, there is a genuine debate about the authority to do so. Should have been better finessed. 
        Yes, they have a lot on the agenda, but we are at an existential passage in the republic. There is little room for errors, especially stupid mistakes. 
       
        It is also time for the Republicans to heal themselves and divorce the fascist mindset that has robbed them of principle and a belief in America. There have been a few peeps from some in the Senate, but they need to rise up and act with integrity. It is time for a movement, more than a media blitz from the Lincoln project. It is time to put into action a movement to restore the party to worthiness. Until then the republican party will remain a party of Trump's whores and cowards. 

        I mean no disrespect because the Buddhist concept of Nirvana is akin to the aspirations and inner spirit of other faith practices, prayers, disciplines and states. But as bipeds on this blue marble, fixed with brains, and souls we seem to be tripping ourselves up. 
        We seem to be looking down and not inward or up. 
        We seem to be thumbing and stabbing our way through screens, and not seeing the reality of the world, and not lending a hand. 
        I'm curious what wisdom are we seeking to live by.

        There was a time when people of differing philosophy, politics and belief systems could either share or respect a wisdom. There was a time. Can we make it so again?


now, for something entirely different
 

       This is just a recent daily presentation from Lana's crop. They are not large, disappointing to her, but they are tasty. 
          She's already begun planning a new spot for next year's crop. 
        The yellow/orange cherries are off the chart delicious.
        I've used the San Marzano and red variety in sauces. Great flavor, but the skins are a little tough. 
        The large yellow in mid frame is an heirloom Kentucky Beefsteak. It's a new variety to us.  This years crop is small by Indiana standards in size, and even to last years. But everyday such a sight appears in the kitchen.  I'm not complaining.

        See you down the trail.


Tuesday, October 7, 2014

SERVING TRUTH-TOPPING MORRO ROCK-EATING IN A BARN

WISDOM FROM A YOUNG MAN
   "The highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself…In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation."
                     John Kennedy October 25, 1963

MORRO BAY TOPPING
    Morro Rock is perpetually fascinating in an infinite variety of light or cloud.
     It is one of "seven sisters-" tectonic/volcanic mounts that ridge the central coast from Morro Bay to south of San Luis Obispo.
   On our first trip to this area in 1969 we stopped to pick up fish and oysters on the docks of the fishing port next to what we called "the big rock."
   The cars and people in the foreground give you a perspective to its size.
BLUE DUTY
BARN DINNER
     In coaxing brother John and I into the world of good manners Mom would offer "Mind your table manners. You're not eating in a barn" a variation of "Close the door, you weren't born in a barn" which made sense as she was a farm girl in her youth.
     Mom would get a delight in this. I relied on those manners, including which fork and knife for what course, recently in a barn!

   Hope you can read the menu, because the Halter Ranch Wine Club Ancestor Dinner was first class.




   The lemon-pine nut pot de creme' desert, that I failed to photograph, was served with vin de paille.  The frame below is vin de paille in the making. Vin de paille, or straw wine, is similar to ice wine.  The grapes are permitted to dry for an extended time, building up the sugar content.  
    Another Paso Robles wine maker uses a syrah grape, dried in the vineyard.  La Vigne's Amerone is a superb wine too. The Paso appellation is rich with creativity and great wine.

   Lest those of you in other climes come to think that Epicurean delights are all Cambrians pursue, here's an update.
    Sunday morning a group presented a personal account of a recent back packing adventure across an 11 thousand foot passage on the John Muir trail in the high Sierra.
     The trek was not without incident, some got lost which raised the very real thoughts of life's fragility. It all ended well and each of the team presented personal insights, observations and reflections. It was a meaningful and enlightening time.
                              HOME TOWN POLITICS
                                           

   A standing room only crowd filled the Unitarian Universalist Community meeting room to see the six candidates for the Community Service District board of directors election. Two of the incumbents are up reelection and face 4 challengers.
  The CCSD board serves as the government in this village where everyone has an at least one opinion and where everyone is correct and knows the absolute right way things should be. Just ask anyone!
   Water is a big issue in year three of a drought. So too is growth in this village, the last population of significance on the Pacific Coast Highway between here and Carmel. It's good of these neighbors-everyone is a neighbor in a village of this size-to put themselves out there.
    Stay tuned. In the meantime my favorite Cambria heroes are the artists in this enclave of originality.

   See you down the trail.

Monday, September 8, 2014

DESPITE THE CLIMATE DIVIDE--NOT WHAT IT SEEMS--DIVINE COLOR?

Warning-this post includes notes on climate science.
TREES AS ART
    Cambria artist Bruce Marchese said he was experimenting with an abstract work. Bruce is best known for his rich color and realistic capture of people and scenes so I was intrigued. His vivid abstract piece now hangs at the Art Center. It's a brilliant representation of Eucalyptus bark. I see why he was so captivated.
    These Eucalyptus stand in a grove at San Simeon state park. They have competition in the color department though.
    This living abstract is the peeling bark of a Madrone.
   Hey Bruce, if you have success with the Eucalyptus you might consider the Madrone as your next model!
NEW WORRIES IN CLIMATE CHANGE
   This grand citizen of planet earth is one of the largest living things and one of the oldest.
     The only place in the world where you find these 2,000 to 3,000 year Sequoias is in the Sierra Nevada. Jim Robbins of the New York Times has published an article linked here that details the concern of biologists that climate change, especially longer or more frequent droughts, may peril the existence of these masters of the mountains.
    Sequoias, a type of redwood, have no disease or insect enemies and they can survive fire, but they need water, either in rain or snow melt.
    I've pondered if there isn't a message in this for humankind. Could there be something in the bark or essence of the largest and oldest living things on earth that could provide a molecular blessing?  Disease free, survive fire? What other living thing has such a resume?
    There is something else to these living spires. I am never  in a redwood forest or among the Sequoias that I don't sense a palpable spirit. Yes, there are differences on questions of the Divine, spirituality and faith, the degree and nature of climate change, but there can be no dissent on the overwhelming awesomeness of the power and survivability of the big trees. I think of them as the planet's silent sentries. What wisdom do they hold?

 See you down the trail.