Implicit Trust

This post-industrial world of high flying 
technological innovations has created 
disproportionate wealth for its entrepreneurs 
unimaginable in the past, where founders 
gain the vaunted status of imperial celebrity 
with fortunes built on the substance of belief
in the wares and futures of intelligence in a 
world where mere physical labour has become
passe. Under the imprimatur of one of the 
world's most impressive cutting-edge 
communications systems appears a public 
appeal assuring the skeptical that the founder 
pledges his multinational with its octopus 
arms firmly lodged in all advanced countries 
of the globe has no goal other than to fulfill
the needs of its clients, a formidable task
for which the giant corporation's skills and 
experience are confidently suited. Who could 
possibly doubt the integrity and full disclosure 
of a man with such a brilliant mind humbling 
himself with this appeal reminding readers 
of past reliability in successfully achieving 
goals, now prepared to extend its army of  
technicians for the latest of such goals to 
bring prosperity to all nations recognizing 
the wisdom of engaging it in the latest advance
toward a future of global communications
endowed with speed and breadth of coverage 
none can rival? All that is lacking alas, is trust 
that this group's brilliant technology does not 
become an entry portal for mass surveillance 
and espionage by a massive nation whose own 
performance in both have become internationally 
notorious much less its penchant for co-opting 
the allegiance of its multitudinous state aligned
corporations sweeping the world of commerce.

Winter Transformation

To all things on Earth there are those
seasons that Nature is so attached to as
their proprietor, setting the stage for each in
her inimitable manner then calling forth
her elements to add their vital touches
that so clearly distinguish those seasons.
The elements propose and Nature disposes
as she sees fit and occasionally she cannot
choose between order and disorder beyond
the impulse to waver between the two in
occasional cranky moods when nothing quite
serves to suit the purpose she has not yet
herself decided upon. And so it was with
this winter day in the forest, a woodland
enchanted with itself in its winter robes
of sparkling white as befits an icy landscape
flaunting its unrivalled beauty like an aloof 
aristocrat, not yet aware that the stillness 
of the wood under a snow-clouded afternoon 
was on schedule to alternate wildly from 
clear to cloud as the sun glanced brilliant 
light shafts above the forest canopy in brazen
contest with assertive clouds prepared to 
release their burden. A powerful ally of the 
cold and the clouds roared its allegiance 
blasting the forest to become invisible hidden 
by the opaque screen of white crystals
released from the trees to shroud the
atmosphere in howling gusts of wind.

Humanity

In the ancient world of emerging
communities of co-located peoples
anthropogeography now identifies as
ethnic groups specific to geographic
locations in their scholarly studies
in Africa, the Middle East and Asia
where there arose civilizations of local
origins followed by Europe leaving the
world with a legacy of primary historic
achievements and advances that still
now reverberate -- from astronomy to
arts and the sciences building upon
what archaic humanity in its random
genius understood and formulated
from inventing language, the wheel
and forging steel to philosophical
gains in setting behavioral standards
upon which cultures advanced their way
to the future. How strange and how
devastatingly frightening it is to note
that those forerunners who factored
civility into human life now represent
the most reprehensible totalitarian
states feeding on corruption and
endlessly beating war drums as they
devastate their own geographies and
extend the courtesy of resource rapine
to that of others' even as they indulge
in reducing their populations' futures
to that of barbaric, primitive survival.

Poland, With Love

The final truth of Hitler's Final Solution
revealed at last, thanks to Poland's discerning
prime minister exonerating 'the Nazis' as the
cause of the Holocaust and naming in its
stead Germans for the horrors visited upon
a population its European hosts were all too
generously complicit in annihilating under 
duress for fear they too might become targets 
of mass obliteration in the malign machinery
of genocide. Fascism, then was merely an
expression of ideology manipulated by a
political charlatan who was after all Austrian
upon whom adulation and trust fell by the
German public, inheritors of civilization
achieving the pinnacle of the arts and
sciences, much of it through the genius of
Jews. Poland is restive at the besmirching
of its honour, history linking it inextricably
with Germany's agenda. Outraged that the finger
of plausibility points to complicity for after
all did not Poland suffer? The indignity of
being regarded as fully disposable as Jews in
the machinery of death stings. If memory serves
was not Poland the fount of historic tribulations
visited upon Jews, blood libels, pogroms, all
manner of deadly indignities leading German
fascists to assess that placing death camps in
Poland to be entirely appropriate? But oh
yes, Mr. Polish prime minister, Poland was
a victim and it is Germany at fault, Nazi fascism
simply incidental since anti-Semitism can
and does flourish unhampered everywhere.

Hallowed Caste

How starkly peculiar and unpredictably
perplexing is the human mind. How better to
confront its puzzling pathology than to
imagine one segment of society portraying
itself as the absolute height of human
achievement in all spheres of accomplishment
then turning to another portion of the human
race to identify it as proto-human, unfit
for habitation among certifiably outstanding
humanity excelling in all areas of physical
and cerebral functioning when all the
while from ancient history to the very
present the scorned peoples have been the
essence of sustained civility, among whom
have arisen the most creative minds that
ever existed, a people whose achievements
in the arts and sciences have been unrivalled
and whose discoveries have led the world
to genuine progress, a people who at the
dawn of literacy wrote a legendary text
instructing the essence of good to prevail
which in itself inspired a religious revival
and even so those exemplars of decency and
peace among all were reviled, slandered and
subjected to an existential threat developed
to destroy their entire existence. Decimated
they yet prevail pursuing a primal mandate to
exist, quietly restoring and redeeming their
place despite a revival of that undercurrent
of desolating hatred breeding new threats.

Isms vs Democracy

Those among us of sound mind and acute
cerebral function know this to be true:
matters are not always as they seem.
Take, for example, the universal concern
over improving the human condition
through manipulating societal values
and governmental administration
focused on human rights, equality of
opportunity and entitlement as a first
order of business to achieve social and
economic Utopia. Various ideologies
subscribe to a process to elevate the
aggregate of humankind to realize the
full potential of existence beginning
with essentials;  the provision of liberty
of choice, of all the conditions making
the necessities of life available and in
the process a life of dignity promised to
all. The choices are various but in fact
no choice at all, rather the happenstance
of geographic location and poverty of
actual opportunity to thrive. Tyrants
interpret opportunity as their personal
monopoly to be doled out as required
to ensure loyalty within an ideology
that expresses itself as having the best
interests of 'the people' uppermost in
mind. Their exclusive membership of
elitism in the club of dictatorships 
deplores the alternative where 'the people' 
appoint by common consent a political 
hierarchy to do the peoples' will. This 
the benevolent dictatorship of the people 
removes by common consensus those 
who fail, as opposed to the harsh dictates 
of their opposites whose control by force 
leaves the governed in a state of perpetual 
fear deprived of hope, punished by the 
fate of circumstances, hapless victims.

Mass Psychosis

Somehow it escaped the notice of the
hordes fascinated and thrilled by the
prospect held out to them by that charismatic 
psychopath promising to lead the German 
people to their fabled Valhalla that the Fuhrer 
did not the least resemble the Nordic god 
figure of sublime manhood represented by 
Aryans preparing them for world conquest
as he led the Axis group of world fascists
into the Second World War and Hitler fussed 
over the well-being of his people steering 
them off health-impairing crutches like drugs
alcohol and tobacco, urging good food choices 
by hausfrau whose place was kinder, kuche
and kirche. As his henchmen burned books 
declared to hold ideas harmful to human 
development, in his personal library was an 
assemblage of reports and statistics and 
formulae to rid the world of the pestilence of 
Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, political deviants
and the physically and mentally unfit whose
presence was so degrading to the concept of 
good governance, virility and conquest. A 
much misunderstood leader, a genius in league 
with the Angel of Death, prepared to deliver 
in wholesale atrocities thus cleansing the
world of the unclean and disposables and
all in the interests of advancing humanity.

 

Landscape

Nature, famously given to excess
chose today to flaunt her superb artistry
and had you ventured into her woods
a sight to capture breath would have
been privileged you where a constant
exquisite skein of crystalline stars
crowded the atmosphere with the
brightness of light though under a
dusky sky heaped with clouds intent
on releasing their light burden of snow
in the creation of a winter landscape
whose beauty cannot be rivalled
where gentle mounds of snow hump
the forest floor and stumps of trees
heaped high with snow resemble a
child's imaginative construction of a
snowman with all the attributes of a
friendly ghost. Snow dappling the air
gracefully marbling branches and tree
trunks like a mother tenderly arranging
a coverlet over her sleeping child.

Beloved Intruder

Greater love hath no woman for her
man whom she permits without
a twinge of regret into that most
sacred of her inner sancta sanctorum
where her loving hands prepares
food for her family, baking
cooking, concocting recipes
written indelibly in memory
throughout the length and breadth
of a life raising a family and
hoping her example will set the
standards for their progeny. So
when their father becomes seized
with the magic of technology
that allows him to bake breads
that rival in his opinion those his
wife produced for their dinner
table kneading the dough in the
time-honoured manner of those
gone before barely a sigh escapes
her lips as she girds in forbearance
of another venture into territory
once thought her prerogative while
he pursued interests she had none in.
Now praise must spill from her
lips to his ears as he extracts one
after another of bread variants that
pride gilds with the gift of creation
as he turns that old adage of the
hen asking for help in assembling
the constituents of bread and none are
forthcoming, by critically consuming
just some and no more of his much
acclaimed bakery production. Sigh.

 

Unravelling God

Of course that's the thing about faith
in an absolute Divine Spirit that one
cannot question for the creator of 
everything simply is and those who
doubt spurn the simple trust and belief
that the faithful wrap their lives within.
It is, of course, most convenient that
from primal antiquity to the present
god is portrayed as masculine. On the
other hand, those who believe that the
creator of all things is simply the nature
of all things identify as female, fecund
and nurturing. The tension between the
two is that of science unravelling the
mysteries of nature's creation versus
the lofty guiding hand of a Supreme
Being who saw fit to design human
creatures in his image, then considered
the practicality of an understudy and
enabler upon whom the labour of birth
would fall while the original choice
would set forth to wage war against 
all refusing to acknowledge the supreme
nature of the divinity whose benevolence
oversees the affairs of humankind
now and again dabbling in genocide
but always returning to the roots of their
inspiration reminding womankind in
the process of her subservient role.

Birthday Wishes

Today is my little brother's birthday.
Which is to say, 'little. in the sense of 
time and space. He was Billy when I
changed his diapers. Much later he 
became Bill but never William. To me
Billy he will always remain, the sweet
pudgy infant whose tentative first steps
I was witness to, whose cap of curly
hair made him look downright angelic.
Adulthood took him a fair distance but
we would on occasion have reason to
close that geographic gap and each time
his presence as a mature man dissolved
back into that much earlier version we
were both quite comfortable with. The
wide gap of years between us along with
the geographic distance failed to estrange
us but a more recent distance has created
a vacuum resistant to temporary warmth
in each other's company. I could dispatch
a birthday wish into that void but should
I wish to proffer a gift it would fail any
impression much less restore him to life.

Unbecoming Hosts

We view it as a small gesture of
mere courtesy from one member of
the vast animal kingdom to others
in these bitterly cold and windy
winter days and nights to set out
nuts and seeds and cubes of buttered
bread for the wildlife we share this
landscape with. Our pleasure at their
consequent presence is immense
and greatly satisfying. Until two small
black gadflies in the guise of spoiled
little dogs sense the presence of
challengers to the attention they are
accustomed to, to stand at the door
in the comfort of the home we share
berating the birds and squirrels that
arrive during daylight hours and the
raccoons and rabbits that haunt the
dark hours of night, barking threats
of entitled territoriality despite our
constant and useless orders to cease
and desist. Just as well the outdoor
creatures have grown accustomed to
raucous noise greeting their presence
settling down to eat their fill in the
process gratifying our sense of being.

 

This Is Nature

This is the season of short days
and long dark nights where
prevailing cold seeps into every
orifice until the forest's
snowpack is sufficiently
elevated to offer meager but
effective haven to its creatures
seeking to isolate themselves
from the inclemency of
winter. The icier the atmosphere
the more prevalent skies of
cerulean blue and a sun
sailing low on the horizon
its rays penetrating tantalizingly
through a denuded forest canopy
to illuminate tree trunks
skeletal and dark against the
snow that has infiltrated the
forest raising the level of the
forest floor its virgin whiteness
guiding predators to the presence
of their hapless victims as
nature in its truest form
raw and impermanent advantages
the bold and fails the vulnerable.
But in that brief interval when
daylight reigns what wonders
to be seen in the landscape
what incomparable beauty.

 Natural History

And then there's that tenderest of kind
and gentle, well-meaning urban legends
that has us nodding our heads in general
agreement that all men are created equal.
A myth reborn, not quite as ancient as
the human construct of a benevolent spirit
whose purpose is to glance down from the
heavens above at his creation, all that
exists with the crowning creation needless
to say that of humankind. Toward which
a hand-me-down set of civilized rules by
which to govern ourselves both singly
and collectively has pacified the beast
within on occasion while on other occasions
that beast has glorified barbaric mass
slaughter a dedicated sacrifice to that god
who himself from time to time reverts to
savagery. As for the pious assertion of
equality among men, it is but that, an
assertion of good will lacking evidence as
science requires for nature has produced a
vast offspring of amazing differentiation
endowing some with clearly superior assets
while others languish, their endowments
beyond modest. The conclusion is one of
nuanced intention in hopes of forming the
best of all possible worlds to correct a critical
balance that god has neglected, and to offer
to the unequally endowed opportunities so
readily available to those naturally gravitating
to entitlement. Yet even there failure blooms
eternal for we are but creatures of imperfect
dimensions -- on the one hand willing and
ob the other temperamentally disinclined.

Planning a Comeback

An obvious addiction to flamboyant
showmanship motivated the man's
entry into the political arena just as much
as his commitment to human rights and
rigorous principle. He would be someone
to watch, and he most certainly was; the
delight of the news media in portraying
the latest of his madcap escapades himself
at the centre of the stage choreographed to
embarrass those countries of the world and
their leaders who failed to observe those
most basic of governing attributes; fairness
rule of law and the desire to improve life
in every conceivable civil matrix one
might imagine. Firebrand, he was called
inciting him to ever greater spectacles of
one man braving potential slapback from
enraged politicians of the right who were
clearly wrong in all their miserable initiatives
as he wound his way through a litany of
international discrepancies in observing the
most basic of human rights and obligations.
He alone bore the distinction of a member
of Parliament refused entry to nations whose
records he deplored, even once bodily pitched
back onto a plane he had just deboarded.
Effervescent personality, celebrated orator
he strode the world stage rather than confine
himself to the boredom of Parliament. Until
one fateful day when he was observed lifting
and pocketing a luxury diamond ring he
meant to gift for his husband's birthday.

Finding Death

Just as the blind cannot see and the
deaf do not hear it is downright uncanny 
how predictable it is that one's perverseness 
to logic in outcomes becomes their inevitable 
downfall. The childish propensity to seek 
out the forbidden is nowhere more prevalent 
than in the minds of those dissatisfied with 
limits placed upon their experience when
restless souls nourishing a robust sense of 
entitlement and imbued with an intense 
rebellious streak medicine recognizes as 
oppositional defiance disorder, brooking 
no authority over their choices break free. 
As a lifestyle addiction does not bode well 
for any recognizable quality of happy future
leading to criminal acts of desperation and 
declining interest in quality of life, in lock
step with the decline in health, both 
psychological and physical. How else 
explain the decision to venture abroad, a
free soul eager to explore the very countries 
where free enterprise has been distorted to 
favour generous incomes in manufacturing 
and distributing narcotics in a background 
of endemic gang violence? There, in the 
comfort of a blurred psyche and an irresistible 
craving to join the enterprise and forfeit 
life by a competing rival or perchance when
a trial finds for guilt and a court rules death.


 

Pampered Oblivion

That couple you so admire for
their dedication to their three dogs
one of which is a 'rescue' which just
goes to show how decent and caring
they are, is quite the example of
nice. Nice people that is. All societies
need nice. The nicer the better after
all. Those three dogs, all the same
breed of high intelligence specifically
bred as working dogs obey them instantly.
Among their many attributes that
couple, is the affinity they have for
animals, their sensitivity to their needs
their understanding of how they react
their compassion. The kind of people
that will offer to help in your time of
need. They're off for a winter vacation
to an island nation with no winters.
Their trio of super-intelligent dogs
have not yet been informed they will
be left in a kennel; hearing the word
will instantly inform them so they refrain
from speaking it aloud. Nothing at all
unpleasant will mar their holiday plans.
Their ocean getaway is securely secluded
no locals permitted thus no exposure
in direct form to poverty and insecurity
much less crime. The world turns as 
it must for the unprivileged and the
fortunate nice among us, does it not?

Frankly

Is it ego or principle
when you claim forthrightness
and an aversion to avoidance
through circumlocution
and simply cut through any
obfuscating drivel
taking you feel the high road
in baldly stating your
unerring perceptions with
no sign of ambivalence
or weighing of circumstances
much less accounting for
the emotional frailties of others
as you shatter their
illusions, upset their
beliefs, criticize their
options and leave them in
the despair of public shame
critical to their vulnerability
to uncertainty? I ask only
because as a student of human
interaction bemused by the
strident self-righteousness
that strides so confidently
through the psyches of others
I wish to be enlightened
and perhaps my question
might conceivably give pause
to reconsider....?

Leda and the Swan

The power and the majesty of art can
transport us into an ecstasy of delight
that the human mind is capable of
producing literature, art and melodies
whose transcendent value is unsurpassed
by any other medium. But what is art?
Are the fantastic stories of gods and
goddesses and the myths of ancient
civilizations explicating phenomena
that bedevil humankind to be classed 
as great literature? All the emotions and
foibles, the jealousies and the pleasures
and liberties permitted by Olympian
residents in a royal mirror image of
humanity's condition, do they not then
represent exploits mere mortals yearn
to experience, and if the gods indulge
then why not lesser beings? So then in
the portrayal of a god coveting the allure
of a human transforming himself into a
bull or a swan to consummate the union
of god and human do we observe sublime
art or ancient pornography in the melting
flesh of a naked beauty and the lust of
the swan guided toward its goal by the
worshipful indulgence of humanity?

Extraordinary Neighbour

The presence of such extraordinary
people cannot go unnoticed for their
character stands quite out of the ordinary
for the quality of their citizenship. Take
for example the old man down the street
who took such obvious pride in his home
ownership of a house he had lived in for
decades since emigrating from Europe.
At an earlier time in his immigrant status
his then-neighbours marvelled at the care
taken in mowing his perfect green lawn
no foliage left to litter it in the fall, the
walk swept neat and clean when snow
fell. The pride he took second only to
that of his wife polishing windows to a
eye-popping sheen. They loved animals
happy to oblige when someone needed
temporary care for a pet. If a child stepped
on the manicured lawn that was all right
children do such things after all and don't 
we love them all? So when a mysterious
group drove up one day and took him away
the neighbourhood was abuzz with puzzled
anxiety. That lovely old man? What on
earth could it mean? Only later revealed 
his role as an SS guard in a series of Nazi 
era concentration and death camps when 
eyewitnesses still among the living like 
him, came forward at trial to reveal his 
zeal in 'obeying orders' and much beyond
in the annihilation of Jews, Gypsies, Gays
political adversaries of the Third Reich.

It Is Written

As Islamic scholars they are entrusted 
with the authority of interpretation of the 
sacred. They solemnly speak in the fullness
of their scholarship and the faithful listen. 
They speak of the mission of Islam, to 
rescue the world from its blasphemous 
disinterest in surrendering to the word of 
Almighty Allah whose blessed messenger 
brought the sacred texts to humankind 
with the expectation that the vision and the 
truth of the sole religion representing peace
and unity in belief must of necessity rule 
the world, transform the unbelievers into 
believers. Those whom corrupt ungodly
Islamophobes characterize as terrorists 
must be called to account for those in jihad
are obedient to the call, they must be revered
honoured and emulated for they do the 
holy work of God, spreading His commands
declaring loyalty as warriors of Islam. And 
those who claim the faith who yet shrink 
squeamishly with revulsion at the spilling of 
blood are in reality unbelievers themselves.
Apostates for whom the penalty is death, for
jihad is the undeniably sacred duty of all
who believe. So is it written, so must it be.

That Man

There is nothing affected about his
courtly manner. His chivalry is quite
spontaneous, simply part of his most
charming character. Our infrequent
meetings are elevated with the spirit
of his gracious and wholly authentic
pleasure at seeing you and you cannot
but reciprocate. Tall, lean, his smile
wide and voice confident his attention
to your presence sparks pure delight.
By turns tender, then teasing his attitude
is one of familiarity for you've known
him a long time. Yet do you really know
this man? Yes, he has informed you
over the years of details of his personal
life as well as matters of health but his
tone is light and unburdened as of one
for whom life always has been and will
go on representing the opportunity to
broadcast his unique sense of value
found in the presence of others, in the
process attaching his effervescent
view of life to others with gossamer
threads of spirited devotion to empathy
through encounters so few and so very
random you don't even know his name.

Oh, The Pain of it!

It's true, after all, that we are destined and
doomed to relive childhood in our elder years
but not necessarily in the puckish way that
is meant as a reversion to childish ways.
Consider the stark terror felt seventy years
ago as a child when you were informed a
visit to the school dentist had been scheduled
that panic-inducing, inescapable venture
on the part of a progressive school board
determined that children from unprivileged
backgrounds deserved dental treatment as
a human right, one those targeted children
would happily, joyfully have foregone had
they the wits to convince their parents. The
clumsy, uncaring hands of the Orde Street
Public School dentist in whose orbit other
schools fell resulted in fear, pain and blood
a pitiful sight that he may have for all we
know, enjoyed as a consummate sadist. Now
in our golden years a concerned medical
establishment deems it an absolute requirement
that shots for dread pneumonia, as well as
a vaccine meant for tetanus, diphtheria and
pertussis must be mandated for the elderly
health-vulnerable with the result that this
protocol invokes in them old memories and
a new dread; one shot in each upper arm
administered by the smiling, well meaning
yet inordinately clumsy nurse tasked to it
armed with the manual dexterity of an ox.