An open letter to thr Republican National Committee

Dear RNC,
    Yesterday, I recieved a very well thought out flyer from my county supervisor of elections, inviting me to come and vote in the Republican primary next week. This raises a huge problem for me. I need to vote in order to demonstrate to my teenage daughter, that, we can still have faith in our political process.
    However I see no viable choices on the list they sent me to think about. Isn't that kind of ridiculous? This should be your year! The incumbent has for the most part been a do nothing President who will take credit for things he didn't do, like getting us out of Iraq (following a plan set down by his predecessor's administration) or the economic recover (no President should ever be allowed to take credit or blame for the economy and if you look at his record he hasn't even made a single move to change the economic circumstances we are in.
    He did manage to pass a health care reform bill, during his "honeymoon" days, which is slowly revealing itself to be one of the most onerous pieces of legislation ever. Beyond taxing people for not having health insurance, it was revealed last week that it can dictate terms to religious organizations for instance even though the Catholic church doesn't believe in birth control it must offer to pay for it for its employees through insurance. How that is not a violation of church and state separation, I will never know.
    But you blew it, your offering nothing, windbags knifing each other over non-ideas. If this is the best you can do then please for America's sake do what's right. Disband the Republican party and urge the democrats to follow your example. You won't though and that's okay, do what you want. As for me I am voting for the Bull Moose party this year.

The last love poem

The last love poem

She is there

Urging me

Forward

Following my dream

Only she knows

Caressing my hopes

Always there

Tenderly

Enslaving

The Bradbury Hypothesis

The Bradbury Hypothesis

To begin with you should know that I reserve the right to change this story, revise, rewrite, reform, just as I reserve the right to change my life and who I am as a person.

 It happened today, but it started some time ago, it has been building at an irregular rate, sometimes not at all then abruptly running high speed towards the precipice, until, today it fell off the edge. I was driving home from school and the radio DJ was spewing forth about the BCS game and how it has once and for all proven blah blah blah, so I switched the station. Here I found something new and innovative, a country singer telling me about how great it was growing up in his hometown. Apparently he lived in the only town in the world where teenagers liked to drink beer, drive too fast, and attempt in vain to lose their virginity while in high school. I got so disgusted I turned the radio and drove home accompanied only by my thoughts until I began wordless humming The sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel.  

This has been coming for some time it really has, my complete and utter contempt with the amount of noise we fill the world with. Listen to me very carefully and observe just one incident in my life. I am on nursing school and not a private we will admit anyone who can get financing school, but a state college the kind of place where you have to bust your hump and compete for admittance, the kind of place where you should find some of the brightest people hoping to learn this challenging career. Any time the professor stops to take a deep breath, 10 conversations start amongst people throughout the room. I really want to put on my boots and my Senior Chief face and stomp in amongst them swearing and kicking until they comply.

Yesterday it occurred to me that these people are the product of the video age. Television was their babysitter,  Facebook is their confessor, they don’t know what it is like to not be enveloped in a cloud of noise. I think perhaps the idea of being alone is the scariest demon they might ever face and they won’t ever be alone if they can help it. It brought to mind a Ray Bradbury story called Almost the end of the world. I was going to tell you about it, but decided I would do you the bigger favor of letting you read and enjoy it for yourself.

My point is this. I don’t want to be in this noise anymore. I don’t want to watch tv.  I don’t want to IM. I don’t want to read. I don’t want to be entertained. I want to try and listen to myself and find out if it drives me to insanity. I am alone now.

New Years Revolutions

Well it is New Year’s Eve again and I suppose I should chirp up with a few words about the day and our upcoming year. I don’t actually see New Years as a cause to celebrate, I do enjoy a good party, but the day in itself is nothing special to those of the warrior clan.

What does it celebrate? New beginnings, hell I find a new beginning every day. When I close my eyes at night the day is done, when the light creeps in my window each morning I have a fresh new start. We don’t need to wait 364 days to dispose of crappy days and bad memories. 

Is it for resolutions to make changes? Why, wait today is the day, if you really need a change just go out and make it happen. We only get one life so learn how to make changes on the fly or you will never, ever, be on target. 

Do you harken back to the pagan days of winter solstices and praying for the sun to return? Here is an idea, be your own light, even better be a light for others. Energy (the laws of thermodynamics say) is neither lost nor gained, it merely changes state, and most energy is released in the form of heat and light. Therefore if you expend some energy doing something good for someone else, you will be releasing your own energy as light for all to see. Why not start today and make every day as bright as the summer solstice?

Of course I know that not everyone is just able to break out of there ruts and fly, so for you folks I have a few suggestions for change in no particular order. 

·         Read Getting Right with Tao by Ron Hogan

·         Practice winking in the mirror this morning, then wink lasciviously at one attractive stranger today.

·         Drink a beer with a friend at least once a week

·         Prepare a list of smart ass remarks for every occasion

·         Go to a religious service of a different denomination (no those aren’t foot rests in the Catholic churches)

·         Don’t sweat the petty

·         Always pet the sweaty

·         Stop reading this and follow your heart

Good luck kiddies it’s a jungle out there!

Atrofey

Atrofey

31 December 2011: Designer Ralph Laurence announced the release of his new fragrance line today. The first fragrance line ever designed for post-menopausal women, Atrofey promises to revolutionize the fragrance industry. Evoking a complex, but subtle blend of lavender and moth balls with just a hint of Ben-Gay Atrofey promises to be the hot new line for 2012. Marketed under the slogan Atrofey, because you’re not using it any way. Atrofey will be available at all major department stores on Tuesday January 3^rd.

my art rant

  Emily told me she wanted a trip to the Salvador Dali museum for her Christmas present, and I just about burst from pride. Who know that all those years of throwing random cultural events at her would take hold? Not me, but you better believe I am taking credit for it. The new museum is somehow not as much fun as the old building though, too cramped, the architecture is kind of pretentious and it clashes with the beautiful Tampa bay vista, but still, the art remains as beautiful and stirring as ever. Just one thing reared it's ugly head to scuff my normally calm demeanor, but it was a big thing, so buckle in kiddies.

  The Salvador Dali  museum offers free of charge these little MP3 headset deals, so you can take a self guided tour. I thought this might be a great idea for the uninitiated until I saw them ( the slack jawed yokels I mean). Artwork's greatest value is in how it touches you. Being touched depends on you, seeing, interpreting, and feeling. It is nice of course to have a commentator to offer opinions or even the artist's own interpretation, but for God's sake learn to enjoy the work for yourself first.

  They stirred around like a giant herd of cattle, empty eyes boring straight into the picture, as they looked for whatever the voice on the tape told them to see. Oh yes they stepped in front of you or on you without looking, but that was not their greatest offense. Those bored vacant eyes, that was their shame. That dirty little secret of modern education, I NEVER LEARNED TO THINK FOR MYSELF!
 
  What ails you people, are you really so ignorant, so callous to beauty and art and ideas that you treat a trip to the museum like a  game of Halo? I wanted to scream and yell and rip the headsets off people and fling them down the massive helical staircase.I wanted to raise the alarm, I wanted to call the humanities professors of the world to begin administering spankings.

  Listen to me my friends, I am begging you please, sometime this month, go to a fine arts museum and just enjoy the art, don't follow the docent, don't read the plaques, just enjoy and then report back to me and let me know if it made a difference in that day of your life.

  If you live here in the Tampa area may I humbly suggest; the Ringling Museum in Sarasota (home to one of the nations largest collections of baroque art), the St Pete museum of fine art (they are having an Egyptian exhibit until mid April) or the Salvador Dali museum. No matter where you live I know you will find something worth seeing.

Still (a poem about smoking)

Still 

after all this time

the days like drips of water

forming the rushing river of years

still I see you and I want you,

My heart cries out when I see you with him

adjusting his fedora, turning up his collar

he takes you in his hand sets you aflame 

draws you into his body.

With every fiber of my being I want you

I want you

still