Veracity – 1, Verbosity – 0

I am currently about a third of the way through a book that is designed to embolden and invigorate writers in “Just thirty days” which I purchased online to aid in my reentering of the world of being a full time scribe. Today, this thirty day dude says to “write who you are” which is uncanny because that is exactly what I was planning to do when I sat down at the keyboard. I am sitting here working on two hours sleep supported by a $5.00 “Pumpkin Spiced Late” from that bastion of Yuppiedom, Starbucks. The hour is one that is unheard of in my realm as it is what passes normally as the middle of the night for me. 9:55 AM. I heeded the Weather Channel with its tale of a soon to arrive instance of deluge, destruction, and devastation of biblical flood proportion by taking a trek to the nearest Wal-Mart to restock the shelves with necessities and some chocolate covered cherries that are now on the shelves in expectation of the approaching holidays. (Phew, that was a long damn sentence)

Since resuming my dissemination of thoughts, dreams, and words of wit I have discovered that I, rhetorically speaking, turned the machine on and broke the key off in the ignition. I have ideas and thoughts flying everywhere which I am attempting to place properly, relearning the ins and outs of writing in the age of the Cyber God, and yearning for the days when it was just a natural event that happened every day. I am surrendering to the idea of marketing my words and reaching as many people as possible. I have the audacity within me that might possibly delude me into believing that others will benefit from reading what I generate, and that there should be remuneration for such efforts.

In other words…I am happy as a pig in shit!

Vulgarity aside, I have a conviction in me that it is not something that just popped out of the air. After the death of my Sweet Deifiúr Paula I sat my ass in a recliner and stared at the computer for two and a half years. I would first remind myself that I need to write. I had friends e-mail me that same sentiment, others continually asked about my efforts at penmanship. I told them all that it wasn’t there but that it would come back. I prayed for God to give me back this “gift” which others told me I possess. I thought of story ideas and read blogs from writers I respect. I even opened files occasionally to edit the “Next Great American Novel” which is still languishing untouched.

Then I had a serious talk with God…and He answered.

I lead a simple life as a general practice. Being medically retired has left me with much time to pursue differing matters. First, there are the 200+ satellite channels on my HDTV. Social media has become a regular part of my life with all its ensuing nonsense and excrement.

Then there is God.

I am in recovery and recently celebrated 20 years in a spiritual Twelve Step program. About four years ago I found it necessary to change sponsors. Sponsors being persons in the program who act as a guide through the Steps and Spiritual life one will engage in as a member of this Fellowship. I was at a particularly low place in my life and needed a…well…something.

The sponsor I had was a wonderful man who lived about a two hour ride away. The telephone is all fine and well, but face to face is really the best paradigm for sponsorship. The gentleman I asked to act as a replacement is, on the outside, quite an unlikely choice. If you ever hear the word “cowboy” then you are speaking of my sponsor. Many aspire to that title while this wonderful man lives it in every aspect of his life. He raises, buys, sells, transports, and depends on for his livelihood the “What’s for dinner” meat. He rides horses and runs fence lines, and can swing his beautiful wife around a country dance floor like no one I have ever seen.

We are both well known in our small constituency of folks seeking recovery in the same manner as the two of us. He has 30 years and with my 20 that translates to a reasonable amount of experience, strength, and hope, to share with other recovering addicts. We both think of it as a privilege to help others and never doubt our commitment. As I said we are an unlikely pair. He is George Jones to my Frank Zappa. Yet we have a common denominator.

Our God!

He pursues his relationship with the Almighty through attendance at a church. I pursue my knowledge of the divine through reading and personal encounters. We, many time find that we are in exactly the same place regardless of the manner in which we worship our God.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!

We text each other bible verses and spiritual messages about recovery on a regular basis. This morning we did so, and he texted a query on why was I even awake. He knows my schedule and knows that I should have been asleep. I call him and we talked for a few minutes before my journey to the store. His bible verse this morning struck a particular note with me and responded back with a heartfelt appreciativeness. It was:

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7

He had been at a church revival this week and got this idea out of that attendance. I received the same message to the extent that is has kept me awake. He asked the guy leading the revival about where in the bible he got his theme and was told that he (the preacher) did not know if it was in the bible. It was just the way he felt. I knew just exactly what that meant. My sponsor found it in the bible and sent it to me, but really he was in the same place that the preacher, and myself both existed.

We don’t know where the feeling came from, but we sure do like it.

The revelation that this belief is around the cosmos in many ways and fashions is not surprising. We are all meant to do something and be something. Whatever that is, wherever it comes from, the knowledge that it is there is sufficient. My friend and I believe that it ultimately comes from God with the caveat that it is our duty to perform some deed to receive it. Not like a reward, but simply because that is the way it is. To quote that wise Sage, Earl Hickey (My Name is Earl):

 “Do good things and good things happen.”

Peace

The Hatriotism of the Horridly Horrid

This begins a series of posts I shall be presenting on subjects that I find especially irksome, first of which being hate and the depths to which  this emotion/behavior/paradigm  has beguiled our society and planet.  To wit – let us look at the particular aspects of this most shameful of sentiments as it applies to our political mentality. I will take the middle fork in the road by utilizing some of the more questionable yet seemingly (to me) accurate reference points designed for the more discerning denizens of the modern day thinking man’s realm. Let us Speak of Hatriotism

Wikality, the Truthiness Encyclopedia believes it is;

“…a form of patriotism that is defined not by what a person loves, but instead by what the person hates.”

Urban Dictionary has it more specifically defined as;

“Proving your patriotism by hating the people the government tells you to hate.

As a maniacally zealous Liberal (Liberal, not necessarily Democrat) I will admit to the practice of this vileness in some form. I find no respite in this confession or offer no apology, explanation, reason, or rationale. I can simply report that I possess the requisite human emotion/frailty to hate. I am somewhat prejudice in the manner in which I hate, abhor, abominate, despise, detest, execrate, loathe, or otherwise dislike. I hold and otherwise find this personal bother to be abhorrent, abominable, repellent, repugnant, revolting, sickening, ghastly, sordid, nauseating, repulsive, revulsive, offensive, vile, atrocious, and dreadfully diabolical in spirit and action.

All of which, on any given day, and at any given moment can I find myself guilty of in direct contradiction of my better perceptions and convictions. This admission of that frailest of character defects is an uncomfortable position to find myself. I would like to stand on the tallest peak and bellow to the heavens, find the tallest soap box on the busiest street corner in the most giant of cities and roar out my personal mandate of love and understanding, reach the largest readership to proclaim my rage against this vilest of practices. All of which can only serve to emerge as an ill desired goal in the face of the reality that I am guilty of what I accuse others of being.

“When one person makes an accusation, check to be sure he himself is not the guilty one. Sometimes it is those whose case is weak who make the most clamor.” Piers Anthony

To what extent am I guilty? Any soul fortunate enough, or unfortunate, who has read my blogs, or followed me on social media, will tell you that I am the most moral of men, and that I champion causes that promote that wonderment of topics and feelings; love. My God commands me to love. Most of my favorite music puts words and melodies to this most fabulous of feelings. John Lennon sang of it being all we need. Todd Rundgren instructs us that it is the answer.

However, all is not flowers and fondue. My admission, confession, concession, revelation, acknowledgment, declaration, assertion, statement, and definitive declaration of guilt which haunts me is:

I hate people who hate!

As a verb, most online dictionaries define hate as a feeling and as such, it is an action. Webster maintains that it is an “intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, of a sense of injury.” It is hostility which, being an action, creates the problem. We listen to it every day, or read about it in newspapers and magazines, in online content, and in misunderstood gossip from our neighbors. It is in all of the television we watch (even Disney) it is the fuel that feeds the flames of national policy. It is what is listened to more than love, and it is the main source behind the misinterpretations of facts on events of import.

It is hate that stills allows sound bites and column inches on things such as the Presidents religious due to his name

It is the driving force behind county clerks who refuse to issue marriage licenses in defiance of their appointed duties and blame in on religious beliefs while ignoring the Commandment of their God to love all.

It is the driving force behind the rioting and violence in black neighborhoods in response to actual or perceived bigotry that results in death and destruction in their communities.

It is the driving force for the senate and congress to cut or defund food stamp benefits in the face of juvenile poverty being at a staggering 25% in the richest economy in the world.

It is the driving force in the ignoring of embezzlement and thievery perpetrated by banks and Wall Street while ruining people’s lives by driving them into poverty and homelessness when their minimum wage incomes create foreclosures and evictions.

It is in the outrage of executive salaries and bonuses where employees are forced to live on poverty level incomes requiring them to apply social services such as food stamps and are told that they are lazy, inefficient, and criminal.

And,

It is in the commitment of religious leaders from the Christian Right to snub the words of their God and the Constitution of the United States of America by preaching animosity towards religions who do not believe as they do.

These are but a few of the examples of situations that are bereft of reason as it applies to humanity. It is but a minuscule cross section of what might be the most threatening trouble we face in America. It is horrid and the main perpetrator and proponent of this abomination is the Government of the United States. It is most definitely in an ineffective and ignorant Legislative branch, it is in the politically driven Judicial branch, and it is in the savagely besieged Executive branch. All of these entities are charged with the duty to ensure our well being.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Preamble, US Constitution.

How are they doing this? Let’s take a look at their ineptitude:

“…form a more perfect Union…” How is this being accomplished when we have a political party, in control of congress, whose legislative agenda is to thwart the President at every turn?

“…establish Justice…” How is this being accomplished when the highest court in the land proclaims as constitutional blatant and rampant corporate and legislative graft?

“…insure domestic Tranquility…” How is this being accomplished when it is incapable of protecting the population from mass shootings because effective legislation might cause them to lose re-election due to a lack of payoffs from gun lobbies and a population that has universally misinterpreted the 2nd Amendment?

“…provide for the common defence…” How is this being accomplished when we almost universally send our armed forces all over the world to fight wars that are none of our business, and suffer the retribution of constant threat of terroristic retribution?

“…promote the general Welfare…” How is this being accomplished when we spend millions on politically driven conspiracy investigations while denying our children a decent education not driven by arbitrary competitions to do well on standardized tests against other countries?

“…and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…” How is this being done…at all? What exactly are “the Blessings of Liberty?”

In what way is it ever going to change? Why has this been allowed to become real in this great country? It will change when people have enough. It will change when people other than those who hate get out and vote. It will change when it becomes important enough.

You might say this is bold talk from someone who aids in the propagation of hate. My personal enmity must certainly change and I must find a way to swallow my basest of desires for things such as reprisal, retribution, retaliation, and simple vengeance. I must cease the proliferation of poisonous thoughts, feelings, and actions of a negative, or hate inspiring demeanor. Why not just do as Jesus, My God, told me to:

“But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.” Luke 6:27

This might certainly prove a towering mandate to undertake for a thick headed Irish mutt such as myself. How about some help? What do you say? Who’s the first rotten son of a bitch who’ll go get a cup of coffee with me? It’s on me. Starbucks anyone?

Peace

Me 2.2 or three or four or whatever…

“I do not think that I know what I do not know.” Socrates

I discovered a sad and amazing thing recently. I have a passion in my very being which had turned lukewarm and needed to be either downgrade to a simple interest, or have a fire set under its ass to bring it up to temp. Sort of like an old bicycle that you had a wreck on, tossed into the garage, and neglected for a long time until life showed up requiring action. Say your car engine blew up, or it got repossessed and you found yourself in need of transportation. Perhaps you stepped on a scale and realized, “Oh shit!” I need to get some exercise. Perhaps life without passion just plain sucked.

I am a writer, and I have not been writing for a while. Well, not in the way I crave. Many of you have read my stuff and, hopefully enjoyed it. Others reading this will not know who I am and, again, hopefully you also will enjoy what you read.

This is a revamped version of a blog that I have had for a number of years when I started back to writing recently. I am having some trouble chiseling off the petrified cobwebs in my brain to get at some knowledge about internet/computer skills. I have found a rather large brick wall in the way of posting. In this skirmish with the inanimate object on my desk which speaks in 1’s and 0’s I have discovered a different approach is crucial in this grand battle.

Like the old, beat up bicycle in desperate need of repair, so to must I repair my skill and approach to my passion. Just as the bike will need new spokes for the wheels, oil for the chain, a new seat, and air in the tires, so to do I need to fix some things and put a new coat of paint on the who, what, where, when, and why of my writing.

A new look, a new name, and perhaps a new method of corresponding that which life has taught me is the answer I have come up with. Some things might change, and some things might stay the same. I cannot tell because I have not written is yet. All I can say is that the cold has already begun to be more bearable, and the brain is not as bored as it was.

I will share what my passion is made up of. Words. I have for the last sixty years been in love with words and have always been enthralled with the way, shape, and form in which they are put together and how they form coherent and incoherent thoughts. Incoherent, you ask? Of course this must be there. The best part of words, for me, is figuring out what order they go in and when I read or write something incoherent it is just a little more flame to stoke the fire.

I confess to having some affectation in my writing. I have been accused of verbosity, and “Hifalutin foolishness, or “Too many big words.” I think this is something all writers have in common to one extent or another. We write because it is in us to do so. It is also in us to hope that what we write impresses. I stopped asking people about what they think of something I wrote because I have never found any solace or affirmation that I find useful. I have let people read pieces I penned and they began by grading the piece as to grammar and structure as if it were a classroom assignment. Well, I am a retired school teacher and not in need of that kind of instruction.

I have an affinity for alliteration which Wikipedia reports, “is a stylistic literary device identified by the repeated sound of the first consonant in a series of multiple words, or the repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables.” I know not where I got this writing whim, but I like it and use it regularly and repeatedly.

So, what you will find, if you stay and read further is a location which is made up of essays, compositions, articles, dissertations, theses, or treatises on my personal life, thoughts, opinions, feelings, judgments, beliefs, points of view, considerations, contemplations, reflections, notions, inspirations, philosophies,  and all sorts of other bullshit that occurs to me.

My final thought on this portentous preface is to welcome or welcome back those who wish to read my words. I will be searching for publishing opportunities which have the word “paid” associated in the description. I have been published in both the fiction and non-fiction world with a particular propensity toward the made-up story section within the world of words.

I have left the previous blog posts on the site for those who might be interested, and I hope you who enter my world find it pleasing, and if you don’t, I am sure there are other places you can find that uses smaller words.

Peace