The Long View, from the President

What Barack Obama said in an interview with David Remick:

I think we are born into this world and inherit all the grudges and rivalries and hatreds and sins of the past. But we also inherit the beauty and the joy and goodness of our forebears. And we’re on this planet a pretty short time, so that we cannot remake the world entirely during this little stretch that we have....But I think our decisions matter.  And I think America was very lucky that Abraham Lincoln was President when he was President. If he hadn’t been, the course of history would be very different. But I also think that, despite being the greatest President, in my mind, in our history, it took another hundred and fifty years before African-Americans had anything approaching formal equality, much less real equality. I think that doesn’t diminish Lincoln’s achievements, but it acknowledges that at the end of the day we’re part of a long-running story. We just try to get our paragraph right.

The Perfect Song

Usually, I post songs on Sunday, but I can’t wait.  This one is too perfect!

You Can't Be Cool"

"Never  try to look cool and learn something at the same time. You must have an awkward phase. All of us would like to skip that awkward phase. That is not how it works. Here is how it works: Get your ass in the water. Swim like me."  Na-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates (my favorite blogger) has been reading Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin, Timothy Snyder's book about millions of murders in Europe between 1933 and 1945.  The details shared by Coates are horrific.  The book lists so many atrocities, Coates worries it might numb the reader.  Still he says,

...I think Snyder frames the questions correctly--How can men commit such acts? The question is not answered by empty invocations of "evil" or vague invocations of "sociopathy." The question is not answered by memorializing victims (though this has its place) or the construction of national oaths (though that too might have its place.) On the contrary the question might best be answered, not by identifying with history greatest victims, but by identifying with its killers. This is in fact, as Snyder argues, the moral position.

He then quotes Snyder:

It is easy to sanctify policies or identities by the deaths of the victims. It is less appealing, but morally more urgent, to understand the actions of the perpetrators. The moral danger, after all, is never that one might become a victim but that one might be a perpetrator or a bystander.

Coates concludes,

I think that allows for a skeptical morality. I think that allows those of us on the socio-economic bottom to give up our righteousness, to understand that there is nothing super-moral, or blessed, or prophesied in being down here. The bottom is just the bottom. Can we truly say we'd be much different were we on top?

Yes You Can

For Christmas my daughter gave me a mix CD with a variety of songs.  The first time I listened to it, I was driving to meet with my meditation group.  In that frame of mind, I concluded that most of the songs she had selected were Zen songs, and I found the Zen label made "You Can't always Get..." more moving than usual.  The video, from 2013, is of mediocre quality, but I like that it is done with the University Of Southern California Thornton Chamber Choir as the first recording, released in 1969, was done with the London Bach Choir providing some of the background.  

Change the law. Change the numbers.

The chart above was posted today on The Dish and it shows one of the worst flaws of current drug policy.  Most sources say that blacks and whites use marijuana at about the same rates.  Yet, look at the above incarceration rates.  Let’s not raise the arrest numbers for whites; let’s reduce arrests. Period.

Me, Me, Me

From Pema Chödrön:

There is a saying that is the underlying principle of tonglen and slogan practice:  Gain and victory to others, loss and defeat to myself.”  The Tibetan word for pride or arrogance, which is nya-gyal, is literally in English “me-victorious.”  Me first.  Ego.  That kind of “me-victorious” attitude is the cause of all suffering.

She goes on to explain that “loss and defeat" does not mean allowing ourselves to be beat up.  It means “you can open your heart” to feeling bad and “know what defeat feels like."  It’s the me-victorious attitude that intrigues me.  It reminds me of times when even in a conversation about nothing very important, I was striving for victory.

The View from My Front Porch

Around 8:15 AM, January 5, 2014

In this example "Cool Ad" is not an oxymoron

Readers of The Dish chose the ad above as the second coolest ad of 2013.  The coolest ad is also good, but the ad above relates to one of the themes of this blog, the need for better gun laws. It has been called the "best gun control commercial ever produced" and makes an interesting point about the Second Amendment.

Different Democratic Manifestations

As a United States citizen, I tend to think of our two-party system as typical of democracy, even though I hear, from time-to-time, of many political parties existing in other democracies.  Frances Moore Lappé explains:

[I]t’s worth noting that our two-party stranglehold is an anomaly.  In Germany, five major parties participate in parliament; in Sweden, it’s seven parties; and in the Netherlands, eleven.  In fact, in most of Western Europe, the former Soviet Union, and in a majority of the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe, a party can win a certain minimum of the national vote—in some countries as low as 4 or 5 percent—and still participate in the government.

I'm jealous.

(From Democracy's Edge)

Be Here Now

Eckhart Tolle says,

A vital question to ask yourself frequently is:  What is my relationship with the present moment?  Then become alert to find out the answer.  Am I treating the Now as no more than a means to an end?  Do I see it as an obstacle?  Am I making it into an enemy?  Since the present moment is all you ever have, since Life is inseparable from the Now, what the question really means is:  What is my relationship with Life?

Try Awe!

I am intrigued by this report on the benefits of awe.

People increasingly report feeling time-starved, which exacts a toll on health and well-being," states the study. Using three experiments, researchers Melanie Rudd and Jennifer Aaker of the Stanford University, and Kathleen Vohs of the University of Minnesota, examined whether awe can expand perceptions of time availability. They found that participants "who felt awe, relative to other emotions, felt they had more time available, were less impatient, were more willing to volunteer their time to help others, and more strongly preferred experiences over material goods.

Another idea originating at The Dish.

We are here...

From Annie Dillard:

We are here to abet creation and to witness it, to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed. Together we notice not only each mountain shadow and each stone on the beach but we notice each other's beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house.

Developing Empathy

I spend about eight years of my life waiting tables, and there was much I liked about the job.  I grew up before sports was promoted for women, so waitressing seemed like my first athletic success.  Also, when the restaurant got really busy, being in the present moment was the only possibility.  Worries, if only for the shift, disappeared.  When I’m at a restaurant with someone who gives rude orders to the staff, I assume they have never waited tables.  I sometimes think everybody should have a turn as wait-staff.

Everybody Dies

Recently, Andrew Sullivan reported on his blog that he had the flu and was dividing his time between writing and shitting.  I like Sullivan, but I filed this under too-much-information.

I understand it better today.  Yesterday, I had a colonoscopy.  I had a lot of time to consider my colon, its function, and its products.  First there was the “prep.”  Then there was procedure itself and the many kind people at the clinic who were concerned with my comfort but also concerned that  my prep had produced a “clean” colon.

Complaining, Cont'd

Everything I've written about complaining and its lack of usefulness feels true.  Now I have this heightened sensitivity to my own complains (which are often silent).  So I am now—after all these years—surprised at how unbidden my complaints are—surprised sometimes at the self-righteous pleasure they can provide—amused at how often I complain about the complaints of others.

When I began practicing meditation, it seems I was always hearing, “You are not your thoughts.”  Thank goodness for that.

How Many People Have Been Killed by Guns Since Newtown?

I have posted statistics before from the above named website.  The answer to that question today is 11,449.  But now the Slate sponsors of this site discuss why their numbers are not accurate.  Their statistics report on gun deaths reported in the media.  Suicides are not usually reported in the media and have therefore been missing from Slate’s numbers.  They estimate their chart is missing 20,000 gun deaths.

Truth and Reconciliation

In an interesting article at the Daily Beast, Peter Beinart criticizes the American media for focusing on Nelson Mandela’s capacity for forgiveness while ignoring his insistence that those guilty needed to acknowledge that guilt in the process called Truth and Reconciliation.  Deinart quotes Bishop Desmond Tutu who says,

True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the hurt, the truth…because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing. Superficial reconciliation can bring only superficial healing.

It seems there is something important in this for the United States. It also seems an appropriate addendum to the racial history explored in 12 Years a Slave. I recommend Beinart’s entire article.

12 Years a Slave

I saw 12 Years a Slave two nights ago.  I was reluctant to see what I had heard was a difficult film to view.  It was that.  But I walked out of the theater feeling as if I had seen an explanation for much of the craziness that exists even now in this country.  Slaves were brutalized by their “owners.”  And the owners may have gotten rich from slave labor, but they were not made happy.  The movie made it clear that trying to own another human being was a constant stress, and while the master might control the slave’s behavior, he could not own the person.  So all lived in painful insanity.  And we live with the legacy of that insanity still today.

There is a way that I knew most of the facts contained in the film.  However, the film conveyed the tension between slave and master in such a way, that I left thinking, yes, that’s how it would have to have been.  There was a visceral understanding of what was before mostly intellectual.  Before the movie, I picked up the idea that I needed to see this movie to understand something important about my country.  I believe this is true and highly recommend this movie.

The review from the Guardian is here.  If you live near Three Oaks, Michigan, you have until December 15 to see this film at The Vickers.

The Dark Side of My Computer

I stopped downtown yesterday at a computer repair shop to see if anything could be done to make my laptop operate more reliably. 

The short answer was no.

The long answer was something like this:

• Computers are complicated machines, and they don’t last forever.  (Even can openers don’t last forever.)
• One day your computer will shut down and you won’t be able to get your documents back.  This can happen with a new computer too.
• If you don’t like this, you can use a typewriter.
• Save.