Paint it Black
“Is anyone else wondering if all the moral indignation and outrage we're feeling, supposed to feel,
and click in response to others' feeling is spreading us out a bit thin?”
L. Sharapan, FB, October 2017
We were sunk the moment the grassy knoll lit up with carbine fire, grasshopper. We threw a parade, remember?
We’ve seen this all before. And we cried. Many of us died. We’ve been through collective disbelief and self-doubt and horror-turned-to-outrage on a grand scale. Fifty short years ago, from Vietnam to Kent State, Bobby and Martin and Malcom to Watts, Newark and Detroit - with many conflagrations in between - we’ve seen and felt the bitter fruits of ignorance and injustice.
(I’m trying hard not to sermonize...)
Once again the head of the beast now being raised is truly ugly.
I’m finished gathering data points and yes, I am wearing thin. I don’t need to torture myself - wondering if this is actually happening (Puerto Rico was the final act for me, not that I had doubts before that). I can only try to stay awake and point to where hope may be found.
We peered into the abyss back then and somehow found the hope and courage to resist and continue on through the work, words and music of artists, activists, monks, intellectuals and everyday heros - many of whom are still with us.
(...and I sure don’t want to romanticize.)
Today the darkness seems thick(er) and black(er). We need both old and new voices more than ever. It stinks that we don’t have Lennon or Ginsburg or Carlin around. It stinks that things seem so fragmented and diffused even as we are able to span the globe in real time with a few mouse clicks.
One avenue is to find our own voice - our own indignation - and live it large. We can channel our own Timothy Leary or Dick Gregory or Nina Simone. I’m certain that today’s way-showers and visionaries will appear in this drama, too.
Another way is to be silent, go within and gather energy for good intent whatever one’s station in life. Cultivate love - tap into the Source - give it away fearlessly, heedlessly. It's all designed to blow your mind, anyway, as the song goes.
Be love to your neighbors. Refuse to hate. Refuse to live in fear. Be warriors against ignorance and may our hearts be refuge one for another. Try to sit loose in the saddle sisters and brothers - it's going to be a long ride.
(The intent is to harmonize.)
digital / slightly rendered / fall 2017
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