…But then I got high.

Got my implant put in at the oral surgeon yesterday. There’s nothing quite like nitrous oxide to let you understand, by tone of voice alone, just how much a douchebag someone is.

I love men, but there’s a Cranky Old White Bastard subset that I just don’t favor.

Speaking of nitrous, how’s this for an effect of growing up in what’s fundamentally still a Puritan country: I felt like I had to periodically make a point to show the doctor and nurse that I was breathing out of my mouth, and not the happy-gas nose tube, so they wouldn’t think I was “enjoying” the nitrous too much.

Because they’d laugh at me, and think I was a druggie…while they drilled into my jawbone.

Sssnnnnniiiiffffffff…

Keep Your Peanut Butter Out of My Chocolate

No, not everything is peachy-fine. Not everything is hunky-dory. But everything WILL be.

Not because Comrade Obama will crap unicorns for us. And not because of any tea retards are throwing into their local suburban retaining ponds. It will be okay, because of this great universal truth:

Nothing ever lasts.

I am sorry that some of you have lost your homes and your salaries. If I had a home, or a non-food-service job myself, I’d probably be pretty worried, too. But I don’t, yet. I will. And so will you again, too. Meanwhile take a look around rock bottom. There’s more freedom, more possibility, more potential for true joy here than you might ever have been taught.

Should this have happened? Should things be this way? Of course not. But they are.

I realize that most people are just putting their heads down and doing what needs to be done to pull through. Like it or not, we’re all Americans, and we are all in this together. And it’s the combined efforts of people that keep focused on what’s really important, that will pull us through this. I have nothing but gratitude for patriots like that.

But for all of you fanning the flames, please die in a fire. Nobody’s head should be put on a pike, not really. Most of you’d lose your lunch if you actually saw that happen.

And you Right-of-Republicans, divesting yourself so determinedly of any scrap of reasonable discourse…do yourself a favor and put the friggin’ guns down. You will not win an armed insurrection against the U.S. military. You will not be remembered as patriots. You will be remembered with pity and embarrassment. Find another way.

I’m as patriotic as you are, as much a taxpayer, as interested in upholding the Constitution. But I’m also realistic. This is not 1789. You won’t win.

We all need to get a grip. Whether there’s “gonna be riots” or not, nothing is a better weapon right now than a sense of calm perspective. Get it through prayer, get it through humor, get it through looking at the new buds springing out on all the plants. But get it.

Because if you let panic, fearmongering, and doomsday prophecies take root in your head, you’ve already lost the most important thing worth having in life.

And if you let that poison infect you, don’t be surprised when you’re shunned by those who’ve resisted.

photo uploaded to Flickr by the catalyst…

Spring In Florida

In Support of Tibet

Today is the 50th anniversary of the failed Tibetan revolt against the Chinese that led to the Dalai Lama’s exile. He has made a speech, reported on the BBC website, that likened the Tibetan people’s experience since then to “hell on earth”.

I don’t have anything to say about this occupation that hasn’t already been said by much more articulate and informed people than myself. I only want to offer my tiny bit of support to this unique, irreplaceable, and nearly-extinct culture.

The good guys don’t always win, it seems. It makes our recent bloodless revolution—and deeply-appreciated transfer of power—all the more precious to me. We still have the right to protest, here in America; we still have the ability to throw out bad leadership. I wish deeply that all nations were that lucky.

Peace to everyone involved in this conflict.

The Way Things Ought to Be…And Are

Mockery is often two-directional. You can thank the Founding Fathers for that.

I remember being fifteen, watching this cartoon, in 1993. It seemed so natural that people like Rush should be mocked. It seemed self-evident that hypocritical blowhards should be figures of fun.

And it wasn’t because I was raised in a totally liberal household. Copies of The Way Things Ought to Be and See, I Told You So sat on the family bookshelves, and dinnertime often involved some rather heated political disputes. It was never a coddling atmosphere in which to be a budding liberal.

But you see, conservatives haven’t got a lock on strength. Liberals have it too. In fact, counter to the blood ‘n’ guns vision of power we’ve all been inoculated with, liberals may in fact have more genuine stamina than Republicans. We have an endurance based on creativity; forgiveness; and faith in, and alignment with, inexorable human progress.

We endured the Clinton witch-hunts, we lived through eight years of Bush’s stumbling destructiveness, and we’ll deal with the anti-Obama howling provoked now, by those who have no other options. We’ll even face any criticisms we share with each other about Obama, because that’s what we do. We learn. We get better. We keep winning.

I know void-mouthpieces like Rush, and Ann C—-er, and Hannity, and that weepy Beck douche everybody’s tuned into now, their whole philosophy is a lie—the lie that liberals are enraged, sobbingly out of ideas, contemptibly demanding. All the things Republicans, unfortunately, are. “Liberal rage, liberal hate, liberals are screaming”, etc. etc. Do you know what’s really dangerous? What they’re really trying to distract people from?

Liberal humor.

The lighthearted hope, the sense of positive purpose, the respect for equality, the hand we already have in the future.

This isn’t just about two parties against each other. It isn’t even about being “for” or “against” America. It’s about the welfare of humanity, which now depends on us trying something different.

It’s a free country, and you can choose to be against these things. But what kind of person would?

photo uploaded to Flickr by the catalyst…

2009 Desktop #2

The first Peep of the season

photo uploaded to Flickr by the catalyst…