Something there is that doesn’t love a “Civil War.”

(As though War could ever be Civil.)

And, speaking of Love…

Love, of course, is a major casualty of war. 

For every person killed, there are friends and families 

Who suffer the pain of loves lost as well. 

Check your local listings … 

There may be a “friends and family” discount! 

Truth!

And, speaking of truth…

“Truth is the first casualty of war.”

So they say. 

And, what do liars hope to gain by war?

I think they like to say: 

“Truth is the first casualty of war” 

To excuse

Lies. 

“This is war! Of course, we lie!” 

But you see, that is just exactly the delicious irony. 

War doesn’t kill truth. 

No, not at all.

War doesn’t kill truth. 

Truth remains truth. 

The earth still revolves around the sun

No matter how many you kill who say so.

And, COVID? 

It kills people just as dead no matter how many liars scream

Or how loudly they scream,

That it’s just a bad dream.

What dies is not truth, but honesty. 

The aggressors tell lies to start the wars.

The defenders tell lies to escape the aggressors. 

And, meanwhile…

All the time-energy-money that could have gone to 

Discover more truth

To save lives

To make lives richer

That energy-work-thought is directed instead to killing other human beings. 

Human beings. 

Soldiers. 

Among others. 

Because, as you probably know, 

(But maybe were conveniently trying to forget),

It isn’t only soldiers who die in war. 

As though twenty million soldiers were not enough,

WWII killed forty million civilians too. 

You may know some civilians yourself: 

Grandmothers, toddlers, babies, mothers, nurses, 

Oh, look, there’s one now!

A guy putting gas in his car.

A fit-looking woman jogging.

Oh, look! There’s another — two actually.

A grandmother, I’d say, pushing her granddaughter in a stroller. 

It’s so hard to count the dead accurately

And, God knows, we need to know accurately. 

Did only a little over 600,000 Americans die in our Civil War?

Or was it really more like 750,000? 

We really need to know. 

After all, if it is merely 618,000 dead, 

What’s the big deal? 

“In Flanders Field the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row.” 

“Between the crosses.” 

Nice line, that. 

Enough! Enough! 

No more “Golden Rule”

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

A rule that’s meant for your grandpa’s time!

A modern rhyme

Much more sublime 

Would keep the label but 

Cut out and then replace the gut: 

“Do unto others to maximize the profit!”

What matter if we come to kill 

All the sneetches

On all the world’s beaches?

Our ROI will top the sky!
And I will be the richest guy!
Even into space I’ll fly!

——————————-

The buzzing of the liar’s lies, 

Will be replaced by flocking flies, 

Humanity, they’ll maggotize. 

I think the trees won’t be surprised.

It is the fate hypothesized.

Our greedy branch grew oversized.

Yet Fate can turn upon a dime.
We need not slide into the slime.
Nor worship sin, corruption, crime.

Take a minute; take a day.

Take the time to love and play.

Just let the hateful — slip away. 

In Flanders Field the Poppies blow

They have a message: “Let us grow.”

Enough of war. Let heart love glow.

Enough of lies. Help truth to flow.

And, be sure to see Guernica.

——————

The Isle of Right

Come Together Right Now

Imagine All the People

Myths of the Veritas: The Orange Man

Myths of the Veritas: Stoned Soup

Author Page on Amazon

Every once in a while, 

Every so often,

It seems quite worth our while

To take a glance 

At what is outside our 

Usual reference Frame, 

That habitual way of seeing

And notice just this once instead

The very essence of our being.

In truth, you see,

We are each a universe of miracles.

After 4.5 billion years of trying, 

At last, long last, we now begin, 

Begin

To understand what we are spying. 

We are a universe of miracles

Surrounded by a sea of miracles:

The cat beside me;

The chair she lies upon

While she licks her fur —

With her dampish tongue of bur;

The house that holds us both;

The computer that I type upon; 

The internet that links me 

To you

And you

And you

And you

All across our common miracle:

That Eden

That garden of green and blue 

That whirling ball, 

Of ocean, river, stream, and waterfall. 

That garden filled with flowers

Which the prism of evolution 

(Or creation if you prefer)

Has refracted into a revolution 

Of colors, shapes, and sizes. 

There are no greater prizes; 

Nor more wondrous surprises.  

We are here. 

We are alive. 

Each of us:

Seventy trillion cells apiece. 

We are a universe of miracles.

The product of 4.5 billion years of trying.

Most of us — 

Cat be nimble;

Mouse be quick;

Human living in a house of brick;

Humans who have built the house, 

Every human being 

And every, every living being. 

We dance this dance together, 

Don’t you see? 

The music never ends, 

The dance will morph around a billion bends. 

And every move of every player, 

Telegraphs its fireworks display 

Like a soothsayer 

Like a prophet, 

Like a sinner, 

Like a saint. 

Ever-changing, 

Ever-ranging 

In our planet’s spiral dance

Across the utter and unspeakable vastness of space

Across the everywhere of place. 

Take a glance.

I know we buzz as busily as a bee

With little time to contemplate eternity. 

But take a glimpse every now and then, 

You might be shocked at what you see. 

Look beyond the daily grind 

And you will find

Millions of kinds of minds 

Of creatures large and small

And that’s not all!

They are dancing each and every one!

In that great and magic dance of life!

On and on the music goes.

On and on the rhythm flows. 

On and on the mystery grows.

Just because our own brief turn will end at last. 

That doesn’t end that endless dance divine!

No matter how you moan; no matter how you whine,

The earth will sing and spin even when your life has passed

(So fast). 

Just take a little peek and you at last will see

You change, you morph, you flash. 

But, regardless of your stash of cash

You won’t outlast infinity; 

You won’t outwit eternity.

Don’t plot & scheme to check & slay and fight & clash.

No, help our cousins on this great green spaceship earth.

Help make this dance more graceful, fine, & filled with mirth. 

You can dance your dance without destroying; 

You can do your thing without annoying.

You have a million ways to thrill 

Why pick out one instead to kill? 

The sun is sinking red and low 

The wind begins to blow and flow

Into the pines who dance with love

Inviting air and water, dirt and sun,

To join her in her laughing life-long dance

“You too can join in all the fun!

Become a part of me and you’ll have won!” 

Take the time to take a glance.

The ordinary world we live in is 

Extraordinary in every single way!

Every molecule of it sings.

Every moment has its million miracles! 

Take the hands on either side. 

Across the world, the world is wide. 

We’re divided just as far as we’ve decided we can be.

This division shows a silly decision; 

Not an ever-fixed reality.  

When we see the truth, 

We will have won.

The truth

Is that we’re one.

————————————-

Essays on America try to make sense of current politics in America though many of the issues extend beyond American borders.

Here’s a link, e.g., to an essay about how it can be hard to change your mind. 

The Myths of the Veritas is a fictional series that explores leadership, ethics, and empathy in another time and place. Our tale begins as the leader/shaman of the Veritas tribe seeks an eventual successor so she devises a series of increasingly difficult trials that mainly test empathy.

Here’s a link to The First Ring of Empathy.  

You might find value in this attempt to catalog “best practices” in teamwork and collaboration in the form of a Pattern Language. 

Here’s a link to the introduction.

Here’s a link to the index of Patterns.