The Holy of It
To face the warmth of a rising sun
To hear songs in a meadow no human could sing
To catch the wafting scent of lavender on a summer breeze
To stalk a trout in the riffles of a stream
To savor cardamom and vanilla and lemon and chai
To share kindness with a stranger’s eyes
To see into a heart who loves yours too
To hold the hand of a child against a world of troubles
To know life with a sense of enduring grace
This is the holy of it
The “holy of it” is not for everybody, it is just for the rest of us. For Putin and Xi and Kim and Khamenei and Netanyahu and Trump, the holy of it conflicts with their quest for power; bloodlust finds no home in holy. For those who believe bullets and bombs make peace, may God have mercy upon your soul. To the innocents who fall victim to evil—especially the children—may your souls soar above all others.
In America, we are now facing another “Now what?” moment. “Now what?,” is the question we ask when we should have asked, “Then what?,” before we did what we did to prompt the question, “Now what?” Anyone who has been educated in the complexities of international relations and foreign policy knows that “Then what?” is the most important question asked in any strategic planning session along with questions like “So what?” and “Which means that … ?”. These questions tie actions to consequences while taking responsibility for outcomes. All must be considered against the standard of our national interest.
Questions like “Then what?” are so simple and yet so often ignored. (See the Vietnam War and the War in Iraq and Afghanistan.) Leaders who have big egos and big bombs easily get their countries in trouble—sometimes for decades to come (See George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin). Every branch and every leaf on the strategic tree must be considered. These questions are critical to avoiding the “Now what?” trap, which more often than not carries the preamble “Oh shit”; as in, “Oh shit, now what?” They require a keen intellect, relentless curiosity, and high humility. In these matters, one must always be willing to be wrong and to be extraordinarily nimble in demeanor and decision-discipline.
Just five months into his second presidency, I do not see any of theses disciplines or attributes in Donald Trump. It is not clear he asks any questions at all, let alone the correct questions. He does not strike me as a curious man. Bloated by conceit, he dithers in apparent blissful ignorance while he surrounds himself with profoundly incompetent people who are more focused on affixing their lips to his backside than they are in telling the truth. The war in Ukraine did not end “on day one,” nor have we seen ninety new trade deals “in ninety days,” and in spite of accounting trickery and treachery his “big beautiful bill” will explode the deficit beyond any hope of recovery rendering the dollar and American power a story for our […]
Vitapoise: Mastery of Being
In an age when our country seems dominated by petulant bumbling billionaires and their sycophants, it can be challenging to sort through the noise of animus and deceit to find a working compass with a steady needle. In America, staying on a course denominated in reason and virtue may never be harder than it is today. There seem to be two worlds colliding. An objective one based in truth and reality and a performative one […]
The Power of Sorrow
There is much sadness in the world today. Sometimes I wonder if God isn’t sad, too. Although, if He actually exists, and is as He has always been purported to be, I doubt He regards us as much more than the latest iteration of the fallen. We are certainly not the first bunch to disappoint. The great religious texts of all flavors are loaded with the lamentations of man before his many gods. The entire […]
Becoming
In my last post, “Believing and Belonging,” it begins with a narrative about another “B”: Becoming. I explained that becoming is that moment, somewhere splashed in our formative years, that “is as if a new sun has risen that reveals something we have never seen before. It is our whole self, mind and body and spirit as one unique offering—as a fully differentiated being. A self that is just us.” Further, becoming can either […]
Believing & Belonging
There is a moment in time in each of our lives when our oneness is realized. For most, it arrives in our late teens or early twenties. It is that moment when you realize that no one knows where you are or what you are doing; not your parents, or teachers, or siblings, or anyone. You are not just alone; you are on your own—at least in that moment. We spend our young life being […]
Stop the Stupid
“Never again” happens over and over, again.
That is the sad state of humanity. We learn, then we forget. We are painfully reminded, then we forget once again. Meanwhile, we admonish each other for bringing history to today’s table when we draw historical comparisons. How dare we compare what is happening today to Nazi Germany?! Those were different times! Indeed, they were. But were they different enough?
We are intoxicated by our specialness, of our arrogance that […]
Riding the Rainbow
Last summer, I shared two posts on resilience and reverence. The first, “Three Steps to Resilience” was a how-to narrative. Then, I re-wrote that piece as a poem in “Reverence for Me.” Over the last few years, I have used this technique as a challenge to improve my writing; prose to poem, or poem to prose. Unlike analytical narrative, which does not encourage interpretation, poetry demands it. This is poetry’s power: interpretation prompts […]