As My Heart Breaks

I've been consciously trying to avoid watching too much of the devastation in Haiti as every time I do I start to cry. Today I saw a clip of our soldiers giving water to kids that haven't eaten in days. The kids said a thank you that was absolutely believable. I am so struck by: 1) The contrast of these kids getting water and our kids who are so dissatisfied unless they have an iPhone with unlimited texting. and 2) How much of a better use of our might and money giving out water is than killing people in Afghanistan.

I'm watching the predictions that the Democrats might lose the senate race in Massachusetts. I must confess to a sense of gratitude about this. I hope she does lose. Not because I'm in favor of the Neanderthal that is running against her. But rather I hope it serves as a wake up call to the Obama administration. My very sad experience is that Obama has been only slightly better than "Bush light". He is indeed prettier and far more intelligent. He even knows how to speak the language. But in matters of real substance the Republican status quo prevails. There are now more Blackwater types in Afghanistan than in the Bush years. Wall Street firms have continued the same practices that brought about our devastation. Only now we're paying the bill while they get massive bonuses. The health care legislation is a bad joke that gives the major insurers 30 to 40 million more policies and forces people to buy them. The "financial reform" legislation is so watered down it is an insult. Democrats make really bad Republicans so I don't blame the people of Massachusetts for electing a real Republican. Obama promised us "transparency" in government. He promised us that the health care debate would be televised. While none of this happened it is becoming far more flagrant that it is the large corporations that are running the country.

I wonder what it will take to get the American people out of their comatose state. I still don't understand why people will vote against their own selfish best interests and exactly what it will take for us to stop the gross inequities in our system. It has been demonstrated that frogs will allow themselves to be cooked to death if the water is gradually heated around them. I wonder how bad it will have to get before us frogs begin to revolt.

Gaia Housecleaning

I've just spent the last 8 days in Costa Rica. It is gorgeous and the people are quite friendly. They have a wonderful sense of humor and love to laugh. I will never cease to be amazed and reminded how much joy I experience in underdeveloped countries. Much of Costa Rica is geared towards eco-tourism. As I've gone through the rain and tropical forests my guides have pointed out the extraordinary ways that nature has of protecting itself. For example some trees have grown sharp edges to prevent animals from climbing them. Others grow poisonous leaves at the bottom to protect their foliage.

Our arrogance in the world causes us to think that we are somehow above the innate intelligence in the universe. We repeatedly make short sighted decisions without regard for the consequences. Global warming along with wasting so many natural resources are the obvious examples. Within every eco-system whenever an imbalance occurs, as for example, when one predator's population becomes too large and threatens the balance, another predator enters the scene and soon re-establishes the balance that is needed for long term survival. On a micro level the coming emergence of China and India may be the new predators that will put the United States back into a position of of one of the countries of the planet rather than the bully. I'm now starting to wonder about the macro level. The eco system of the earth will soon become threatened by over population and pollution. Our arrogance and ignorance causes us to think that it is only the "enlightened" among us that are concerned about "the solution". I'm starting to think that there are probably forces that we cannot even imagine that are already gearing up to take care of "the problem". For those of us who don't believe in life after death this might be a good time to begin thinking about getting a few extra charge cards and begin to max them out. For every one else, it might be a good idea to keep your spiritual passports up to date as we might soon be going on a trip.

Seasons Greetings

Opportunity for growth often comes cloaked in tragedy and pain.

Our task is to grieve and then seek out the potential lesson to learn.

So often we are the co-creator of our experience and not merely the victim.

On the other hand, if 2012 is really Sarah’s year

Darwin was wrong and the Myans just might be right.

Happy Holidays

With love,

Bob

Hillary: A Second Chance for Redemption

I have been angry with Hillary Clinton ever since she didn't leave Bill for that Monica Lewinski thing. What Bill does with his cigars is really none of our business. An individual's approach to fidelity is really none of our business (just ask Tiger). What should have been our concern was that Bill's sin was an abuse of power and position. It was a boundary violation that pervades many aspects of our society. But I digress. I was angry with Hillary for staying with Bill after it became public knowledge. What kind of message did she give her daughter? How did her inaction in any way support the truth that women are capable of supporting themselves and being "some one" even without a man. But now she has a second chance.
The events of last week have removed the notion from my mind that President Obama is a wimp. The decision to increase our troop strength in Afghanistan along with the defeat of the drug re-importation bill, the removal of the Medicare 55 and older buy-in, and no public option, for me reveal a very different reality. I previously thought that Obama was able to win the election because of an amazing convergence of unique forces: Bush sucked, the economy was tanking, and Palin was removing any chance that McCain could win. I am now beginning to believe that Obama was allowed to win because he represented no threat to the real powers behind the throne. His policies have rewarded Wall Street. His "healthcare reform" will reward the industry with 30 million more customers. The defense contractors are running at full steam. There are now more Blackwater types in Iraq and Afghanistan than under the Bush Administration. None of our constitutional rights have been restored. The new Attorney General has a brain yet chooses to not pursue prosecution of all the abuses of the past administration or even replace the obvious political appointees across the country. What works in the good cop/bad cop scenarios is that we are lured into the false belief that the good guy is our friend. Obama's pursuit of "bipartisan support" actually gives him cover to appear to have a different agenda and a "bad cop" to point to when the end result is so disappointing to the fooled masses. Well the thrill is gone and the honeymoon is over. Mr. President, I am no longer seduced by your words.
Madame Secretary of State I ask you to make a statement by resigning your position. You've been great in the position. Please do what Colin Powell didn't have the guts to do. Obama pummeled you with his not voting for the Iraq war. Now it's your opportunity to vote no. Healthcare reform was your baby and this administration has made a mockery of it. This administration has done nothing to help the working people. I realize that quitting would mean giving up a marvelous opportunity and that in your present position you may be able to do some outstanding work. However I am still very much in touch with the passion that was aroused in me and many others by candidate Obama. I saw how our youth were able to come out of their narcissistic entitlement for a moment and actively work towards a dream of change. As it becomes more apparent how much of a mass hallucination candidate Obama was my passion is turning into anger and disappointment and our youth will not so easily be fooled or mobilized in the future.
Your candidacy aroused a great deal of passion among your supporters. I believe that the liberal/progressive people of our country will soon be quite angry. It would be a great service to love, decency, compassion, and just the right thing to do, if you could take this moment in time and help direct that anger towards truly correcting the gross inequities in our society. Quit and declare your candidacy for 2012. Start working towards the election of candidates across the country who will provide us with real reform. I realize that my scenario sounds like a ridiculous pipe dream. It's almost as bizarre as thinking in 2005 of electing a Black president with a middle name of Hussein.

GHOST IN THE ALLEY

Early morning is an exquisitely magical time in India; meditation begins at 4 a.m., worship at sunrise. There is a calm in the streets that is sprinkled with the bells of bicycle rickshaws and the glow of kerosene lamps. At the right time of the year the air is cool. This shot was taken around 3:30 a.m. during March of 2003. It is a side alley off of the main bazaar of Varanasi. If you look carefully you will see "a ghost" just to the right of the light at the end of the alley. This "ghost" is a man who was walking his bicycle. When he turned the corner into the alley he saw me and my camera on a tripod. He stopped as he didn't want to ruin my shot.

This shot is a 3 1/2 minute time exposure. The man was only in the scene for about the last 20 seconds. Because the illumination was so dark the 20 seconds resulted in the ghost like appearance of the man. For those of you interested in the photographic process, the blue in the shade is not something that I added. Blue is the color of shade. Most of the time we don't see the blue because human perception is not an objective process. What we "see" is frequently determined by what we have learned and not merely an accurate translation of the image on our retinas.

GOD, INC.

For reasons that are still quite unclear to me I was born a Jew this time around. Judaism has certainly been very much a beloved part of my cultural experience but it has never fed me spiritually. As a child I would go to temple alone, not because of any parental pressure. Quite the contrary, as my father would frequently state that “God is wherever you find him” he didn’t need to go “to shul”. (The sub-text was that since he experienced himself as God, going to temple would be redundant.) Today my re-occurring experience of a typical service is that the front of the room is a race to see how fast everything can be said and done and the back of the room is a great place to catch up on social events and do some business. What I have learned over time is that I am much more interested in the direct experience of the divine rather than the prescriptions. As such I don’t really practice any religion but since Hinduism comes the closest to what has evolved for me I am officially a Hinjew. I bore you with these too many words just to set a context for what follows. I have absolutely no axe to grind with any religion’s fundamental beliefs as written, except to the extent that any religion believes that their way is the only way to God or salvation. I do have a great deal of difficulty with many religions as practiced.

Perhaps an overly simplistic characterization of the American political landscape is that our government has become the shill for multinational corporations. The work of our legislators appears to be the pursuit of the legalization of how much the corporations can take before the population will revolt. There is no secret that the legislators owe their jobs to the large contributions their corporate benefactors have bestowed upon them. (For some reason the names of Joe Lieberman and almost everyone else who is about to vote against a real public option or single payer insurance system in America come to mind). As reprehensible as this political prostitution is to me I am far more offended when I experience the same kind of dynamic in a religious context.

What is prompting this particular diatribe is an article that I read in the Canadian Globe and Mail newspaper when I was in Vancouver last month. On page A10 in the October 1, 2009 edition was a story that started with, "A Roman Catholic bishop who oversaw an historic settlement with victims of past sexual abuse by priests in Nova Scotia has been charged with possessing and importing child pornography." (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/catholic-bishop-facing-child-porn-charges/article1307530/) What outrages me is not the imperfections of people. As a therapist I am constantly educated and reminded about the creative ingenuity of people to devise new and improved ways of hurting each other. This is perhaps an inevitable outgrowth of our own internal wounds and may indeed be a necessary ingredient of our growth and development (a subject for another post).

What outrages me is the way the upper echelons of the church have responded to the revelations about the abuse of parishioners by priests. It appears to me that the Church's response is the same as the tobacco industry's to cancer or Exxon to oil spills: deny, delay, use lawyers to make the process both expensive and painful, attempt to blame the victim. But most of all never truly admit guilt or wrong doing and protect our assets at all costs. Don't fire offending employees just transfer them to other branches. In such a "holy environment" how could we ever expect the morality of the populace to exceed that of the "moral authorities"? As America is now beginning to fancy itself a "Christian Nation" how can we expect our politicians to not follow the lead of their religious leaders.

Imagine a story in which a woman is savagely raped and beaten by a policeman. She is left by her attacker and begins to weakly call out for help. At long last another policeman arrives as the woman struggles to stay alive and sane. At that moment the second policeman blames her for the crime and rapes her again. That is what it is like to be a victim of childhood sexual abuse by a priest and then have the leaders of the church do practically nothing or deny the events even took place. If this is how the Pope acts how can we expect anything more from Glenn Beck?

I again want to emphasize that I am not criticizing Roman Catholicism at all. There is so much of beauty in what Christ was and had to teach us. I just find it hard to believe that he died for our sins so that Bishop Raymond Lahey of the archdiocese of Antigonish could get his child porn in peace.

FOOT MITON

My son and I arrived in Hanoi during November of 2007. Our first night we walked across a park and were transfixed by some young adults playing badmiton. The staggering part was that the bird was considerably larger than what we are used to and they were not using racquets. Instead they were kicking the bird over the net. But even that wasn't the really cool part. They would allow the bird to go over their heads and then somehow kick it back over the net from behind themselves. Needless to say I had to try it and I was as good as Steven Hawkings. Now we fast forward a month and we're now in Cambodia. One of my most favorite things to do is rent a motorcycle and go off to the middle of nowhere. One morning I did just that and found a very small village that I'm sure I was the first gringo to ever enter. Some young kids were playing badmiton so I joined them. By this time I had learned that using my feet would always be useless so instead I used my hands. In a very short period of time we became the entertainment for the entire village. No one spoke English and I spoke no Cambodian yet we all had a blast. Here I was in the middle of nowhere without any concerns for my safety. It was a joy to be able to share the moment with them. After the game I walked through the village taking pictures. One of the perks of using digital equipment is that I can take a shot and immediately show it. I have found people all over the world so eager to be a part of such moments. Here are two shots taken after the game of some younger children that were spectators. Look at what kids look like who are deprived of video games and cell phones.