Paula Stone Williams

Posted on December 24, 2019 by Les

My Gift To You

When I’m looking for inspiration, data, entertainment, or something to space-out with, I go to YouTube. And, when I’m looking for interesting subjects that expand my worldview, I look for TED and TEDx videos. Last night I stumbled on to Paula Stone Williams who has an uncommon life that provides insight into the lack of equality in Man-Woman dynamics.

Paula Stone Williams is a transgender person who transitioned from being a man to being a woman. Her experiences as a woman shed powerful light on what women have been trying to tell we males for centuries. That men don’t have a clue about what women face everyday.

Why does Paula have a message that men might be more willing to hear? Paul, as a man, was very successful in life, with family, children and loving parents. Paul was raised with all the expectations placed on males and he, excelled. He took his responsibilities seriously. He behaved as a regular man, not understanding the position of privilege and power he was born into. But at some point, he began to realize that he wasn’t masculine but feminine, born into the wrong body. He transitioned into being a female and begin to learn about the world that she was now in.

I found that Paula spoke from a plural point of view, being able to compare similar interactions authentically. Paula verified what women have telling guys for millennium. Women are fully functioning human beings who are equal to men in all aspects. Yes men and women have differences due to gender, but these are literally skin deep: muscle mass, gender features, stamina (women have the ability to sustain effort longer than men). But to the internal differences that making us human, women are our equals.

By the end of her 15 minute presentation at Tedx, I better understood the things that we guys take for granted and causes our oppressive and disrespectful behavior. Men are trapped in this cycle too. By renouncing our privileges, acting as partners and not authorities we stop our oppression of those that we love. We can change, indeed, we are changing, but we need to do it knowingly and with greater speed.

In the end, we won’t need a male filter to make us think. Rather, we will hear women as we hear other men, openly and with respect for what she is saying.

Here is the talk that enlightened me: Paula Stone Williams; I’ve Lived as a Man and a Woman, Here Is What I’ve Learned. There are more talks available.

Happy Holidays and may 2020 be a more peaceful and accepting year than 2019.

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Treason

Posted on December 18, 2019 by Les


** Correction; My apologies to the Cato Institute for lumping them in with propaganda think tanks. The Cato Institute is noted for its thoughtful conservative research and analysis. They are a good source for Conservative ideas.

As the House votes on the impeachment of President Trump, I watch with sorrow but not disbelief, the Republicans, one by one, commit treason. Tonight, was absolutely the last moment that the Grand Old Party could attempt to redeem itself. But as I see the count come in, the Republicans, in lock-step, march off the moral cliff, and betray our nation. There can be no doubt that the Republican Party has sold out our country in a gamble for absolute power.

For over 40 years, the GOP has been steering in this direction. Reagan was the start with his racism. Newt Gingrich declared the intent with his plan for an American Century and a Contract With America. And, every year since, regardless whether a Democratic or Republican administration, the GOP has undermined our nation with policies that attacked the poor, people of color, the ill, elderly, the young, and democracy itself. They have purged millions of legitimate voters from voting lists across America. They severely limited access to voting polls in areas where people of color and the poor live, and restricted time to vote. In some states they have gerrymandered the districts so that even a majority composed of Democrats still can not win the representation that they have fairly won.

The Supreme Court interfered in the 2000 election by imposing itself on Florida politics with the issue of hanging chads, rather than allow the recount to continue to its end. Thus giving the election to George W Bush. The Supreme Court’s perversion of the law continued with their voting for Citizens United which allowed companies to be identified as individuals equal to to living human beings and capable of donating vast sums of money that unfairly gave more power to the wealthy and corporations. Later, the Supreme Court would allow gerrymander as a state issue. making legal the devaluing of votes in districts considered enemies of the Republican Party.

At the same time, the GOP and their wealthy underwriters developed a massive propaganda machine, Fox News, as it’s primary instrument of disinformation and fear mongering. This network needed content, so they created “unbiased” or “bipartisan” think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute and many more, both in the US and world-wide. All devoted to skewing facts to support ever more authoritarian ideas.

In 2016, with the help of the Russian Government and Oligarchs in the US, the Republican plan for domination of the US political system came close to success. Since then, using a pitiful, witless mobster wannabe, the shrewd leadership, a quiet cadre of some of America’s wealthiest citizens, and power hungry Republican allies of the Russians, have been rushing to emasculate our government. Using propaganda and party policies to undermine faith in all of our American values and organizations.

Tonight, the GOP has ceased to be an American political party. Top Republicans, party and elected officials at all levels in the US, have had many chances to stand up for the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, Rule of Law, and Government “by and for the people.” They have failed miserably and have chosen their own success and increased power over our nation and all citizens, including their grass root supporters.

Tonight, the campaigns of lies, denial, vilification, and scapegoating have come to this. Treason. The GOP has lost its last chance to do the right thing. The Senate is locked down by people who put their faith in tyranny and will not do their sworn duty to protect our nation from all enemies foreign and domestic, just as the House authoritarians ignored theirs.

The days between now and Election Day next November are all that is left for the American People to unite and rise up as single voice, a clinched fist, to deny the Evil that is trying to turn us into slaves: like the Fascists in Germany and Italy, the Communists in Russia, and the Imperialists in Japan.

We have run out of time to to idly stand by and try to find common ground with those who have no intent but to dominate. Anything less than determined nation-wide, lawful resistance is appeasement. World War II tells us how that worked.

Our goal must be complete accountability for every official, party or elected or appointed, who has assisted in this attempt at a coup.

What happens to the rank and file supporters depends on them. If they are willing to live peacefully with the rest of us, then they are free to join the us in making a better American Society. If, however, citizens decide to use violence or try to oppress the rights of others, then they should be held accountable through the Rule of Law.

We must act in accordance to our American values, legally and, where possible, with compassion.

May the United States remain the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.

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Letter From Santa

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Les

This is a re-post of a letter from Santa I received last year. It seems even more appropriate this year than last.

To All of My Children

Every year I receive millions of letters from boys and girls around the world. These letters are simple and endearing, although I’ve seen more and more of them saying only “give me” this and that. I also get letters from parents who ask for help because they are unable to provide their children with gifts, or a home or food or safety. Year after year, decade after decade, century after century I get these letters. They make me very sad at the time when we should be joyous.

In the last 450 years or so, the time that I have been Santa, I have written letters back, when someone needed my counseling. But this year is the first time when I feel it necessary to write a letter to all of you; Humanity.

My dear children, young and old. I’ve watched you grow up generation after generation. I’ve seen you when you were small, squirming things with that baby smell that tells adults that you are special and need love and comfort. I’ve watched you take your first steps, speak your first words, go to school, fall in love, have little helpless things or your own, and raise them. I’ve watched you age become frail and die. I have celebrated your birth and mourned your passing.

I understand that you think of me as a myth and that I’m only for the little ones who have not learned much of the world. But, I’m more than a logo or a seasonal decoration. I’m the spirit of Peace and Good Will, a reminder of your better nature. My spirit is intended to be shared year-round.

For all these centuries, I’ve seen your good. You have done wondrous things, cured horrible disease like smallpox and polio. You have discovered art and writing, music and dancing. You have learned how to cooperate with each other and do great things. You have created religion and science to help you explain the world. You have done so much good.

And yet, you have been equally bad. You’ve discovered the addictions of war, greed, and domination. You have learned how to lie and steal. You have forgotten that you are one great family and are willfully cruel. You have turned the greatest gift of all, your home, Earth, into an open sewer. You can do such bad things, sometimes thoughtlessly, sometimes with intent.

Even though I’m an Elf, I’ve considered all of you my children, no matter your age. So, it causes me great pain to see you fight and abuse each other. I feel an even greater sorrow as you turn your cruelty towards Earth and her other children.
I’ve sat you on my knee, told you stories, flown through arctic gales to give you dreams and wishes.

But now, you have lost your way. You have become a danger to yourselves and every other living thing.

You are destroying my home and killing my friends the polar bears, seals, walrus and wolves. Around the world, you kill and abuse each other, turning children and the poor into slaves for pleasure or work. You do these terrible things because as you’ve grown up and you have forgotten the simple rules of life:

Share what you have. All those toys in the box are for everyone. You’ll all get a chance to enjoy them. Remember, that there is plenty when you share. There is little when you hoard.

Do not waste what you have, respect it. Earth is our small fragile home. It’s a spaceship traveling through our immense universe. The air, water, and earth, and climate are our life support systems. If we destroy them, our wondrous voyage will end and the gifts of knowledge and wisdom will be lost.

Don’t pick on your little brothers and sisters. They want to love you, if you let them. You can love them too, if you let yourself. Everyone is a big brother or sister to someone and have the awesome responsibility to help raise and protect them. It is one of the most noble things you can do. When you do, you become the spirit of Peace and Goodwill.

Always tell the truth. Your honesty allows people to trust you. From trust comes respect and love. Trust is a special bond that takes deeds and time to build. It only takes one betrayal, lie or cheat to destroy what has taken so much to build.

Play nice and no hitting or threatening or calling each other names. Violence solves nothing, it destroys goodwill and trust, leaving you alone. Remember violence is like a disease. Once started, it spreads and guarantees more violence.

There is so much more I can say, but you get my point.

Right now, my children, you are having a hard time and things look bleak. Peace and Goodwill may seem far away, impossible even. But that is an illusion. Each one of you holds the spirit to be Santa. Regardless of your faith, political party, where you live, whether you’re rich or poor, or whatever you think divides you from others, you can become the gift of Peace and Goodwill.

You can do so much good. Simply remember, Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All.

Until next year,

Santa

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Life

Posted on November 14, 2019 by Les
Potato Left Sitting On the Windowsill For Several Months

I left a potato on the kitchen windowsill for over 3 months. I had been getting ready to bake it when I noticed a single green sprout emerging from an eye. I wondered what would happen if I let it sit for a while.

A couple of weeks later there were more sprouts, but nothing dramatic. I could have baked it even then. But I waited to see what would happen next. It became a project, to allow this lowly tuber to fill whatever its destiny might be.

More sprouts appeared and small trees began to form. The potato began to show wrinkles as the sprouts consumed it in their struggle to live. I realized that, like every seed, the germ of life was supplied with all it needed to get a foothold and evolve into its own self. Just as eggs provide nourishment to the embryo sheltered inside.

I had broken the natural cycle. The sprouts, deprived of soil, had nowhere to go. They were trapped on a disappearing egg.

This got me thinking about our home, Earth, our egg. It is rich in nutrients, minerals, and other vital components that allow us to grow and thrive. It is a giant egg that appears infinite. But it isn’t. There are limits, and, like the potato sprouts, we have been hollowing out our resources without a destination where we can grow. or continue the cycle of life.

Unlike the potato, which has no self-awareness or ability to alter its fate, we humans do. We can imagine the future by observing the past and present then visualize scenarios of what could happen. We can be wise, when we want to be. We can build the knowledge that we need to build the tools we can use to shape our future.

We can clearly see our resources being depleted and turned into poisons. Our Earth is shrinking, withering. Yet, we still refuse to act. We resist looking into the Probable and constructing the Could Be.

Amazing technologies can help us stop some of our parasitic consumption. Yet technology can also be dangerous, it can offer the illusion of quick solutions with little cost to ourselves.

Building spaceships to go to the Moon and Mars is an impressive and worthwhile endeavor. However, only the wealthiest will be able to use these lifeboats. But that doesn’t stop the rest of us from getting the Power Ball delusion. Somehow, we will win the lottery and get a coveted seat on ride out of town. It is a fantasy that can be manipulated to take our eyes off of the truth and acting to save ourselves by saving our Earth.

We don’t realize that we are the vampires and that we need to change our behavior. Otherwise, we continue to create an ever-growing sinkhole beneath that eventually swallows the thin crust above it and we tumble in.

Life is tenacious. It is resilient, able to grow from the ashes. Still there are limits to what Life can do. The potato on my windowsill will run out of its bounty, the sprouts will die and whatever remains will rot into its constituent elements; Lifeless.

We have little time to save our potato, our egg. Already some of us are withering. Decay spreads unchecked.

We can be wise when we want to be. We can accept our part in this dead-end journey and create the scenarios that lead us to a better future. Just as we have visualized a dystopian future, we can imagine one that is verdant and teaming with Life. Not an Eden, but a better place to live in than were we are now.

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The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait

Posted on November 10, 2019 by Les

Van Eych’s – Arnolfini Wedding Portrait – 1434
National Museum, UK

I’ve mentioned before that I start off my day by reading and reciting a poem.  A couple of days ago, I read The Wedding by Francine Conley. It got me thinking. Here is what I wrote in my journal.

Often Francine’s introduction to her poem is a reference to a painting or a quote. I find it online and study it. Trying to absorb as much as I can before diving into her poem.

The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait is often included in art history books. It is amazing, proto-photorealism from the 15th century. This is the painting with the mirror on the back wall, showing the couple from behind and then beyond to people looking at the couple. The distant observers are indistinct. We could be the viewers, from 500 years in the future.

The poem describes the painting through its objects and symbolism. I find that poetry can have infinite interpretations.  Each of us live in a unique universe, created by the Big Bang of our conception and then evolving, from the energy and dust, our lives.  We live in our own bubble universes.  

We, the viewers, know from history that the man is Giovanni Arnolfini. But who is his bride? Immediately, she becomes a possession, perfectly normal for the 15th century and all the centuries up until now. No name and his bride.

They stand in their bedroom, heavy crimson pillows, bed spread, and canopy, foreshadowing the virgin’s sacrifice. Francine captures the nuance of longing and delay that has built to this moment. But there is an undercurrent.

To the left, by the man’s foot is a pair of small wooden shoes. Francine refers to them as shackles. As a man, I immediately interpret them as the “old ball and chain” that men, jokingly, call their wives. But, the longer I stare at them, cast off in the first act of intimacy, I begin to see that they are her shackles. Temporarily removed to end their delay and longing. These restraints were put on her at birth and are meant to contain her life. Such as, keeping her legs together, maintaining her value, until she is acquired by the right man.

She and Giovanni have been in chains their entire lives. Intended to fulfill useful roles. However, Giovanni’s chains have loosened over time. He has been allowed to sample the world and learn to be a property owner. She has learned how to be property.

The chains lie on the floor. She is free to be used and made useful. He is free to be the user and fulfill his purpose. Soon the shackles will be clamped back into place. Her freedom is short and exists so she can be used and useful.

There are so many elements in the painting that deserve attention, but I will only mention one more. She is wearing a green dress, rich in detail and, in the style of the times, with the fabric bunched in front. She rests one hand on the mound of verdant green material.

The dress is a statement of her usefulness.  Her hand rests lightly on the mound as if she was already soothing a child in her womb.

I’ll stop there and leave you to make your own story from the galactic dust of your experiences.

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Intent

Posted on October 25, 2019 by Les
Intending to write.








It’s 2-fer Friday and here is post number 2.
It’s not my typical post.
It’s down the rabbit hole.

This morning, as I enjoyed the sunshine’s intimate touch on the back of my hand, I saw a bee bumping against the glass. It was trapped and trying to find a way to go out to where it belonged.

I felt sad. I knew what that creature was facing, dying stranded in an alien place. I decided to catch it and take it outside. My empathy created my intent to save an insect which had no value to me. My intent was to be kind and caring. 

I attempted repeatedly to capture it. But regardless of my attempts, it continued to elude me and struggle to escape. It could not know my benevolent intent. The bee saw me as an imminent threat intent on its destruction. I was about to try again when it disappeared. Vanished without a trace. It was gone.

I rose to leave preforming one last time search with the same result. I found nothing. Perhaps it had fallen into my open backpack propped against the window. Maybe it had taken shelter there? I sealed my pack and went home where I sat on my back steps. I opened my pack, removed its contents, and propped open its pockets. I looked for the bee and found nothing. I opened my binders and notebooks thinking it may have found refuge in them. No. I repacked my bag and went inside. My effort to save the bee had been fruitless. It could have led its death.  

I began thinking about my intent and the results of my actions. Such an insignificant thing, the life of a bee, yet it triggered my questioning. What was intent and does it have value?

Intent is the urge to act. It is generated by an emotion, followed quickly by a conscious attempt to justify the need to act. The emotion sparking it is an impulse either benign or malevolent. Physics shows that for any action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Yet the potential of that happening never crossed my mind. I was doing good. But as the old saying goes, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”

Intent is intangible. Does it have an intrinsic value? The value comes from the actions it promotes. So, if I have the urge to donate to a charity and I don’t follow through, that’s an action and nothing appears to happen; value zero? The charity needs donations to continue its good. Not acting deprives it of the support it needs. The charity may have to cut back services due to the lack of donations.  Intent does have an intrinsic value, whether it is enacted or not.

Action makes the intangible, tangible. The urge becomes a force setting things in motion.

Actions come with no guarantees of success. It is a force in a maelstrom of forces, with the certainty that it will collide with other forces, creating more forces.  A butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, does it cause a storm in China?

I’ve decided that an emotional urge binds me to act and, after consciously considering its possibilities, try to steer towards my desired outcome, knowing I have no idea of the all the ramifications.

That’s life. No guarantees. No way to see all the forces released. Forced to act.

The lesson, do the best I can, try to think it through and take responsibility for the results. The very same thing my folks told me when I was 10 years old.

I could have saved a lot of time, listening to my folks. But then, what might have happened?

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