I have not, however been lazy about my reading. I have finished a couple of books in Paradise Lost, Finished Farewell to Arms, got through Dante’s Divine Comedy (sort of), and have a lot of notes in my journal about the story that I want to write. Really, when it comes down to it, I forget about the fact that I have the power of the blog at my fingertips. And by power, I simply mean that I write for its own sake, and maybe a person or two will read it.

I also came back from a long vacation with Rachelle, and it was very epic. We went to Montana, Yellowstone, Arches and Canyonlands. All said and done, we were in 4 states in two weeks for a grand total of almost 3000 miles. I got to camp, which I love. I still want to find a campsite somewhere in the middle of nowhere so that I have no choice but to focus on reading, writing, character development and contemplation. This is why I am reading Thoreau; I want to feel the power of solitude without doing it myself.

Maybe someday I will become a regular customer here, but we will see.

It’s easier to acclimate hands to the cold,
Than the pain of falling
Like a suddenly limp-winged bird.
Interacting with the icy winter world,
Increases the risk losing body—fingers and toes;
These bits may freeze in the fall
In an effort to protect the heart.
Our nature knows that the core of each child
Should be the last
Thing to freeze.

———
I have always thought that poetry can be fairly straightforward and accessible. I thought that if I brought in elements of fun childhood things, such as zipping your hands inside you coat on a winter day, or even pop culture ( I have a poem based upon how much I wanted wolverine’s claws), that I could make poetry appealing to people who normally wouldn’t pay attention to it.
Poetry is music without music, and can bring out valid points and invoke strong emotion and inspiration. I think that if people would read it more, they would find that it is rewarding to unravel what is written. But, a lot of poetry is intentionally obscure, and it turns people off. That kind of pretentiousness about art in general is what makes people think that it is not worth school funding! At least, I kind of think it is :)

Emotional waves sweeping all children: lifting, ascending but dropping so boldly,

In parenthesis together.

Multiple it by the mortality rate of relationships long treasured and
Divide by the perception of death’s ascension.
Add possessions until you are a pinned on a map

,a long flightless butterfly,

before Subtracting yourself from other’s equations.

I suppose that this should be followed with some kind of factoid: she has one of the most conservative voices that I have ever heard.

How do you reconcile these two things?  I would say hypocrisy, but that isn’t exactly it.  This is like protesting outside of a bank that took TARP money, but not being able to go to all the rallies because of the fact that you bank with one of the branches being protested.  It’s not hypocrisy, but more of a failure to see the value in something.

**Side note:  Now, I understand protesting to change the system, but doesn’t it seem like part of that protest should be abstaining from giving business to someone (or using the service) that you find so wrong; This is especially true if your argument is that the effect of said product, service, or company is stifling freedoms and/or treading on the individual?

Value.  How can you see the value in something without ever experiencing the conditions to need it? That is a very hard thing.  When you always have had a job, it’s easy to judge government unemployment insurance or welfare.  When you’ve never hit your lifetime cap of $2,000,000 for health insurance and had them stop paying your claims, it’s hard to see the need for healthcare reform.  Experience is a very powerful thing.  You can even hear this sentiment in our cliches. Every heard that you learn more from your mistakes than from your successes?  Experience.

Now you can’t give every experience to everyone.  There is no way. I think that one of the most undervalued things in our society can help to give a taste of this experience to everyone: the liberal arts. I gained a lot of compassion and understanding, and ultimately became a compassionate “bleeding heart” (if you will) through the liberal arts.  Books, poetry and art give a window to the world.  If you take them seriously, and really read a book, or study art and poetry without bias, you can step through the paper and experience something.

Try it.  Go experience a thrill, or a different culture, or the life of a person who is not as well off as you.  Try and understand them, and their situation as if they are real.  Try and feel the passion behind the a piece of art, and understand the artist’s motivation.  If you can do this, maybe you can get a feeling for the other side of an argument, and, at the very least, understand how it could have value.

I would end it there, but I can’t.  I feel like I have to meet an anticipated argument before it begins.  I know that the examples that I have used are liberally biased.  I understand that I have this bias.  I also understand the highly educated people, and liberal arts majors, have a stigma for being ultra liberal.  I am not advocating a liberal agenda here, I am advocating understanding.

Keep that in mind when you watch the news; the art of drama is alive and well:  Man vs. Nature, man vs man and man vs. the government, (or depending on the newscast and current ruling body, government vs man).

It’s almost as if our government is set up to maximize this. Big, bold, headlines: REPUBLICANS VS DEMOCRATS. When you watch the news, the format for the political pundits is almost the same:  here is what one party is doing, and here is why the other disagrees with it.  I have heard those words, almost verbatim, from a news program before.

I get it, though.  They need to get their name out, and they need to make people hear their voice. Each side, and each person, needs to make a name for themselves.  Democrats and Republicans have to be unique entities with unique ideas, and thus must see the world in different ways, and they have to be heard.  Unfortunately, the only way to do this is to cause a ruckus. Yes, a ruckus. For those less blue collar than myself, a “ruckus” is a ”noisy commotion,” or more  apt for this situation, “a heated controversy.”  This ruckus is inherently divisive–or if you prefer metaphors–the issues are used as a grappling point to drive a wedgie into the brown heart of the American buttocks.  Sure, they get our attention, but at what cost?

Can you appreciate the picture that I am painting?

I think that Carl Jung put it wonderfully in The Undiscovered Self.  So much so, in fact, that I have a picture of the page in which this passage was written on my cell phone:

“If for ‘person’ we substitute ‘modern society,’ it is evident that the latter is suffering from a mental disassociation, ie, a neurotic disturbance. In view of this, it does not help matters of one party pulls obstinately to the right and the other to the left. This is what happens in every neurotic psyche, to its own deep distress, and it is is just this distress that brings the patient to the doctor.”

Where do we go from here?  The only solution I have is to listen to both sides.  Broken record, much?  Maybe.  Truly listening to both sides means understanding where they are coming from.  Also, we all need to pay attention to what is being said.  Are they barking to draw attention to a rabbit hole, or are they offering solutions?  To put it another way:  are they arguing just for the sake of arguing?  Are they hitting on issues that are meant to drive that rug burn home and make  it an atomic wedgie? If they can manage it, the underwear will be pulled up our heads and down over our eyes.

In a play, the lesson is learned by the folly–and most likely the death–of the characters. Do we have to it in us to learn from this? I am not suggesting that we agree on everything (why can’t i support Leno AND Conan?), but disagree with some grace.  Driving home the division, and only the division, in our politics is what divides us. It is a bad guy’s foot on a neck in a Jackie Chan movie.  We can fight back.  We can pull some snake-like-twisting-no-stuntman-Jackie Chan maneuver.  That complex maneuver begins with a single movement: understand that we are more alike than different.

A test to see if I can write.  A test to see if I will write.

The idea behind “The Middle” is simple: Middle Child Syndrome.  I don’t know whether that is scientifically proven or not, but it sounds good; people understand it.  I crave attention, I want to be heard, but I feel lost in my familial position. Dealing with the bigger, stronger, smarter older brother and the can-do-no-wrong younger sister takes a lot out of a person.  I don’t expect most people to understand, because (statistically speaking) only 1 in 3 of you will be a middle child.

The Middle is more than a syndrome that costs $150/hour to diagnose.  It is the embodiment of where I stand.  ”Middle of the Road” can describe my politics, religious standpoint, ideas about foreign policy, and position in the world.  I am the 3rd party in a tug-of-war: the rope.  Instead of static points on either side of the muddy divide, the rope traverses without committing one side.  That rhymed.  Unintentional.  I can be shades of sense and sensibility, with hints of liberal and conservatism, and tinges of spirituality and rationalism.  I can be Hawkeye Pierce, Sheldon Cooper, Lloyd Christmas, or Spock.

In the words of Whitman, I contain multitudes.

My position is far from unique among my peers.  We are constantly trying to be heard, and constantly pulled–much like the rope.  We spent our childhood without computers, and our teenage years with.  We feel the influences of post-war baby boomer children and the pull of the digital world.  The stability and pride of  a lifetime career has been replaced by the constant need to make more money, and gain notoriety: to do something that others see as meaningful.  We are told that we are members of the greatest Country in the world, but our politics divide us as we watch other countries grow to rival ours.

This is a test. I am trying to find my voice, and in doing so, find our voice.