Vatican Highs; Catholic Lows

The current Pope is a Jesuit -- from Argentina. But a Jesuit.  That has made a significant difference in breaking down the Roman Curia and muscling the "old guard" corruption out of Vatican policy, Vatican politics, Vatican corruption. Pope Francis has administered this "modern Church" better than anyone thought possible-- yet the many, many problems of the Church remain.

The Catholic Church has polarized itself around one issue -- for different fragments of the Church that issue may be different: the rights of women in the Church, birth control as sin (procreation is the only goal of marriage), abortion (it is what I say it is when I say it is).  These three issues alone have bifurcated the Church for centuries and continue to do so. Now we have added sexual controversies:
the pedophilia of the Catholic clergy, transgenders as humans, bisexuals/gays/etc. as willful sinners or gender anomalies. These three additional problems go confusedly unsolved by the Church and its thinkers. Once again the Church is polarized by sex!

The Catholic Church cannot truly be "my" Church (and here I speak not for just myself but millions of others) until it really thinks these problem areas through and rethinks the meaning of sin, free will, sex and normalcy, and the modern world. The Church does not ever have to adapt and adjust to a secular world -- but it at least needs to consider its own inertia on all the issues that affects and devalues the Church itself. 

Being Employed (WORKING) in America

In most ways the United States of America is the greatest place to work. Salaries on a world standard are consistently high in most professions -- though the reality of a "minimum wage" pours cold water on the entire system. If I were living in a country other than the USA I would be striving to emigrate there.

Opportunity, freedom of travel, education on a relatively inexpensive level, training for specific jobs usually available, the rights guaranteed by our Constitution, a relatively high standard of living -- all are possible here. But most Americans still complain -- and struggle with the realities they are facing. Perhaps it is the nature of human beings to be dissatisfied. Yesterday a young man from America (Illinois by way of Minnesota and California) died in Syria/Iraq fighting for ISIS!  That is a tragedy.

The immorality of war is heightened by the return to medieval standards dictated by backwards-facing religions cults. ISIS, the new Caliphate, is a sham -- an insult to civilization and humanity, to say nothing of its ridiculous posturing as the "true Muslim" faith. Everyone in the world who has a brain, including disaffected Americans, should be labelling ISIS for what it is: evil, consummate evil, masquerading as truth. There is no valid "other" opinion.

Dying for the ideals of ISIS is dying for nothing!   

Shattered or Sheltered

There is a "war" on for the hearts, minds and sensibilities of those in Eastern Europe: the Western-style capitalism (with its good and bad points), and the Putin-style oligarchy of the "shadow-USSR" era. Who will win? What will win over the minds of the people whose needs are much, much simpler.

People want a chance for a good life: freedom, or at least clarity in the pursuit of freedom; success beyond niggardly survival; satisfaction beyond the "minimum allowed by law." Absolutes used to rule the world. Everything was either "good" or "bad," "right" or "wrong," freedom or slavery, happiness or despair.

Now it appears "nothing is absolute!" And that phrase is the linchpin of the "new absolutes." Nothing is absolute; nothings is absolute; nothing is absolute.  Change is our only mantra; it is our only possibility. And adaptation is the only course that most of us can take.

Michael Brown Rest In Peace

His Mother said she felt his presence at his funeral this morning. I believe that is true. His presence invades the whole issue of young black men in America -- why are so many of them in prison, why are so many of them nearly unemployable, why are so many at risk for gang activities/drugs/violence?

Is it "of their nature" as many racists would have you believe? Is it because races are inferior or superior to other races? Is it because our schools are slanted to one style of education, one set of reference points, one point of view? What does it mean to be "young, gifted and black" in America these days? Nina Simone wrote a song with that title -- but the reference goes well beyond the song!

We see young black successful men in sports, in pockets of the business world, in communities that have succeeded to cultivating its resources for the good of all. We have seen young black men become successful community leader, successful ministers, successful Fathers, successful businessmen. What we have not seen is the dissipation of "white fear!"  Whites have been afraid of black success, and envious of it, for many decades in America. Whites are not so much racist as they are blinded by their own fears. It has been that way well beyond my lifetime. 

Are People Forgetting: Donetsk, Ukraine, Putin?

The front burner of world interest seems to last about a week or so -- no matter how many people are being killed -- when any new frightening disaster takes over the public interest.  At this moment, since an American newsman was "beheaded" by barbaric ISIS members, even our domestic racial riots in/near St. Louis are off the front pages for a time.

Public interest is so very fickle that no story, no horrible reality, no crisis, can hold our attention for very long. What determines public interest? Is it the newness -- or is it the fatigue factor at work on/during the current crisis? Are we all so shallow that we cannot hold several problems in our attention span at the same time?

"Network" -- the movie, got it right!  The New Thing -- no matter what it is -- is the most popular thing; the New Thing commands our interest almost completely until the next Newer Thing slides into view. It is an atrocious and sickening process -- as we slide from crisis to crisis, from tragedy to tragedy, until we are finally glutted from all such news, and withdraw and retreat. 

Are the deaths and injuries suffered in Donetsk not as important as Ferguson, MO? Does the beheading of one American journalist in the Middle East count for more than any number of lives elsewhere?  Are we just running out of compassion, and thus interest, in the rest of the world?

Metaphysics

What is -- beyond death? Beyond time? In my mind's eye? In the distortions of memory? In fantasy?
In deeply held beliefs? In the "place beyond normal?" In the sense of deja vu?

Who is -- God? My friend who died? My dead spouse? Those who think of me often? Those who think of me not-at-all? Me?

How can I justify the pain I feel in life? The sense of hope-without-end that inflicts the slow passage of time? The understanding of brevity that tortures those brief moments of happiness?

The Hipster Culture -- Same as Before

The recession and general disgust with what Baby Boomers have done with the world has brought about the long attenuated rise of the "new Hipster" culture.  In the past there were always offbeat, alternative styles of music, dress, food, living styles, etc. that belonged to the "out of power" class -- they were the "Hipsters" whether they were called Bohemians, Beat, Flower Children, or Hippies. 

They held to a certain unique style in most everything -- even when that style was derivative, or similar to, or even copied from some previous outlier. The problem with elements of culture that are "\Hipster" -- like gastronomy, or dance, or even theatre -- is that unless the "Hipster" can draw in bigger numbers, it is forever doomed to be a small offshoot rather than the main root. So "grunge" bands never became dominant, even in the rarefied rock world. And food flavors reduced by extreme cold to a vapor, or an ice cream; will never rise to make "mashed potatoes and gravy" ice cream any more than a sense-fooling novelty. 

And so it is with theatre. Violence without great writing: eventually will be recognized by all as vapid. Sex without soul, without real emotion, without love: equally vapid. And dynamism without humanity lent by real life experiences (not staged-life reality):  the same stale vapidity. The truth is in ourselves, not in our constructs! 

On the Intransigence of Pain

It never goes away -- that gnawing feeling that you have made a mistake; that sense that you have hurt someone unintentionally; that awful recollection that life is shallow and you are worth nothing; that incomprehensible vision of meaninglessness.

I don't like feeling that I am a useless creature. I work at overcoming that sensation and contributing to others. But often I fail. Or I am too arrogant in succeeding. Or something.

And then the sensation of anxious pain floods back in. I know it is the human condition. But it is not the best of conditions. Plato was perhaps right in many of his observations-- about life, about purpose, about a proper ending. Thinking and examining does give me solace. But very little else ever does. And the pain will always be there --intransigent, but not triumphant.   

ANXIETY

It is the ultimate human killer.  It can become panic, or it can be reduced to mere worry.  It can force us to do -- things we don't want to do (or think we don't want to do).  It is "stress incarnate" -- it is the "people killer." It is our curse.

Robin Williams: the Death of a Generation

Amidst all the war, the disease, the political quackery, and the seeming doom of "life as we know it" -- comes another blow, the suicide by hanging of Robin Williams. I have "seen" Robin Williams many times: in films, on television, even in person. But his talent -- his persona -- marks a different kind of passing. It is harder now to stay positive, knowing that a man who had so much would throw it all away (which he has a right to do). If he could do this -- what should we do? 

Are we stronger, or better suited, or more balanced -- than he was? We are certainly not as talented, not as connected, not as bright and active as he was. He was a kind of symbol of the best of us, the boomers, the Vietnam generation, the post WWII optimists! It's going to be a lot harder to remain an
optimist now -- knowing that the brightest among us have chosen to "cash it" and leave the table. 

I ask forgiveness for him -- if that is a real issue -- but more than that; I ask forgiveness for all of us who labor and falter in the same way(s). Robin: as you experience time without time, think of us still in a place, needing forgiveness. For what, I am not sure!

Slough of Despond or Just Monday

How trivial is one's own life? Does loneliness create more loneliness? Does the "weather" factor into our mood, our sense of hope, our joy?

The "slough of despond" was a phrase I have always remembered and held onto from my days in "Pilgrim" Literature -- Bunyan, Hawthorne,et al. The world is a horrible place; the human soul is born in sin and degradation; even "faith" is barely enough (with Christian belief) to save us. 

Monday morning's are the worst -- seemingly sapping all  hope before the week has even begun! We need to be saved -- but from what? Sin, life, being alone, being unconnected, love? Just what is it we need saving from? What is even possible, given this kind of beginning to our week? 

Brand Loyalty

Several times in my life I developed a "comic monologue" or "standup routine" for use in clubs and plays. One jokeline I used to work in was this: "I was born Democrat, Polish, Catholic and male -- not necessarily in that order!" It was a local joke for Milwaukee/Chicago and played off the fact that everyone born in a certain area of Milwaukee (and a different area of Chicago) were all of those things -- usually in a non-separated way. 

Those terms amounted to my "brand" -- my thought-package of self-description at the time. Since those times I have dropped "Catholic" as an adjective, have substituted other words for Polish and Democrat (since I am clearly not defined any longer by either of them). Even "male" is in doubt these days as I age into a more asexual mode of life. 

So too are world brands: are we truly Zionist or anti-Semitic any longer; or does that articulation work only for those who are categorical non-thinkers? Are we truly Palestinians, or Shi-ites, or Muslims, or Christians -- or do those "categories" slip away depending on our actions? The world is in "shambles" yet we insist on age-old time-honored and time-disgraced polarities!  A Chevrolet, after all, is not the best car in the world merely because I prefer it, or because I always buy one.

There should be no brand loyalty unless there is proof through action that the brand is still viable -- and the term(s) have not been falsified or corrupted by simple repitition.   

My Friend from Donetsk

The world is trembling at the war going on in Eastern Ukraine.  Families who are Russian-speaking, though consider themselves Ukrainian, are under fire from both the regular Ukrainian army/police, and from the Russian separatists who inhabit many of the towns in the area. It is a de facto civil war.

Or is it? Could it be that Russia herself is behind these "separatists" and is supplying them with guns, manpower, ammunition, high-tech missiles, and what-have-you military support to help lay the groundwork for a Russian takeover (as in the Crimea). Now that a civilian aircraft has been shot down over the the disputed territory -- the game of war intensifies.

Many Ukrainians on both sides of this issue are suffering -- and will continue to suffer as supplies of everything: (food, products, gasoline, heating oil, etc.) will continue to be in short supply. A "siege mentality" may be put in place until all factions (including the US, the EU, and all contiguous countries) beg for a solution -- and that solution could be Russian rule.

My "friend from Donetsk" is a scholar, a teacher, now also an American; but she is also a child of Ukraine, Donetsk, and her parents who bore her and still manage to survive there.

Putin -- let your higher brain take over; let there be peace!

Shambles

The world is in "shambles." That is not just my world, but your world, his world, her world, everyone's world... We have rampant senseless though always justified war going on in a dozen places in the world (or more) with threats of more wars inching forward.

ISIS, Syria, Afghanistan, Gaza, Israel, Sudan, Ukraine,Libya, Central Africa, Congress (specifically the Congress versus the White House), and more ... are all a concern! Russia wants to be a world power again -- and willingly bullies its way to that title. ISIS wants an Islamic State where women, children and all infidels are of no value! Northern Sudan wants to exterminate Southern Sudan (now a separate country)! Everywhere the chimes of war, underpinned by the endless cries of "fatwa" and "sharia law" ring out.

And then there is "Ebola"--a disease so frightening billionaires scream at doctors to keep those infected out of "our country." As if a disease can read borders; as if somehow we in America are not deserving of such a horror!

Religious fervor and intolerance seem more to echo the political bipolarity rampant in the US. The culture war in America has become a moral war -- verging on violence over issues such as abortion, gay marriage, privacy, the death penalty, contraception, health care, support for the poor, unemployment, social security, aging, illness, and "you name it!"

The world is in a shambles; how can we fix it? Can we fix it? Can we do anything?