Red Snapper - Loveboat

The Ocean - Roots & Locusts

It is not for us to resolve things that are not of this world
A world with God would be even more disturbing than a universe without him
For if He tolerates atrocities
If he condones such cruelty
Who would want to worship such a maker anyway?
They locked her up for 30 days
In a dark room under the roof
They broke her will with the cane
She'll remember everything
You are trying to save me, but perhaps I am not lost
It is not God that I do not accept
It's this world of God's, created by God, that I cannot agree to accept
I dragged myself out to the Ocean
And stared all night into the sky
The only lights I saw were far below me: Black waters full of life
I too lived on roots and locusts
I too have been in the wilderness
I too was striving to stand among the elect
Among the strong and the powerful
You are trying to save me, but perhaps I am not lost
It is not God that I do not accept
It's this world of God's, created by God, that I cannot agree to accept
I dragged myself out to the Ocean
And stared all night into the sky
The only lights I saw were far below me: Black waters full of life
I too lived on roots and locusts
I too lived on roots and locusts
I too lived on roots and locusts
I too prized the freedom with which Thou hast blessed us
But I woke up and would not serve madness
The kiss glows deep in his heart
But the old man adheres to his idea
But the old man adheres to his idea
But the old man adheres to his idea
But the old man adheres to his idea
But the old man adheres to his idea
But the old man adheres to his idea
It is not for us to resolve things that are not of this world
I too lived on roots and locusts
I too lived on roots and locusts
I too lived on roots and locusts
I too lived on roots and locusts
I too

The Ocean - She Was The Universe

"Man is weaker and baser by nature than Thou hast believed him!
By showing him so much respect, Thou didst, as it were, cease to feel for him, for Thou didst ask too much from him - Thou who hast loved him more than Thyself?
Respecting him less, Thou wouldst have asked less of him.
That would have been more like love, for his burden would have been lighter."
--[The Grand Inquisitor to Jesus, in Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov"]

I had a dream which was not all a dream
The sun was extinguished
And the stars wandered darkling in space
Rayless, and pathless
And the icy Earth swung blind and blackened in the moonless air
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; And all hearts were chilled into a selfish prayer for light: They did live by watchfires
And the thrones of crowned kings
Habitations of all things which dwell
Were burnt for beacons
Oh Lord, I lack the strength
To turn and leave you
There's no confidence
In my hesitation
Happy were those who dwelt in the eye of the volcanoes
Their mountain-torch: A fearful hope was all the world contained
Forests were set on fire
But hour by hour they fell and faded
The crackling trunks extinguished with a crash - And all was black
The brows of men by the despairing light wore an unearthly aspect
The flashes fell upon them; Some lay down and hid their eyes
And some did rest
Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smiled
Oh Lord, I lack the strength
To turn and leave you
There's no confidence
In my hesitation
And vipers crawled
And twined themselves among the multitude
Hissing, but stingless
They were slain for food
A meal was bought with blood
And each sated heart
Gorging himself in gloom: No love was left
Oh Lord, I lack the strength
To turn and leave you
There's no confidence
In my hesitation

From Exile - A Warm Place

Extremely competent EP of Nine Inch Nails' covers here:

http://fromexile.com/nin/

Non-violence In The New Century

Turning Swords Into Plowshares

And Albert Rosenfeld shall lead us. . .

Unexamined

Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living."

Here's how I'd say it:

If you don't examine your beliefs, they're not beliefs. And they're not yours.

Birds on our porch

So for the past week, we've been watching a pair or sparrows or finches (I don't really know what they are, but they're smallish) build a nest in one of our hanging plants on the front porch. The plants require watering every two or three days, or they become kind of wilted, so I've been trying to be careful. Yesterday, I noticed that I hadn't seen the pair, and so when I watered the plant, I pulled it down from the hook to see if there was anything inside. There is a tiny nest that could fit in the palm of your hand, and inside the nest is a small, speckled egg. I carefully rehung the basket, noting on which side the nest was, so I didn't cover it in water.

Then I noticed the concrete below the plant. There were the remains of a different, light blue, non-speckled egg, shattered around its dried yolk. Some other bird threw out the original pair's egg and stole the nest from them. I haven't seen the original pair again, and I also haven't seen the nest-stealing culprit. The egg remains.

There is an overwhelming part of me that tells me this is awful and wrong. But that's me applying my human morality to nature. The original pair worked hard for days to build that nest. They gathered weed stems and tender twigs. They plucked their own down feathers to line the inside. They gently placed the product of their love (see, there's some more anthropomorphism) inside that nest. And some other species that has learned to survive by conserving it's own energy and taking advantage of others destroyed that potential offspring and stole their spring home. Are these birds seething in rage? Are they plotting revenge? Should I lie in wait to find the intruder to enact justice? Or have they simply moved on?

The original birds are without our attachments, and they will trudge on. If there is time in the season, they probably have already started a new nest and new egg somewhere else. And the intruder will trudge on as well. They do what they do. I still feel sadness at the way in which the world sometimes works, but there is a lesson that little bird family can teach me.

Black Mountain - Old Fangs

Is it safe for the cowards to do what they've already done?
When the sun is electric and sparkles its way through your heart
Is it foolish to know what you want before you've begun?

When they're milking you dry and bemoaning the magical farce
You explain to the law that you're slaving over simple regard

A vow, I'm straight laced forever
A bow, I'm straight laced forever

When the glory arrives and takes shape over what you've become
and your world closes in and the power is all that you love
Is it foolish to know what you want before you've begun?

Bloody visions of a world so torn
I'll play with what can burn

Slowly the empire smashed the din
We'll wait for the open tea
And hold it together man
Until it's time

Bloody visions of a world so torn
I'll play those death wish chords

Slowly the empire smashed the din
We'll wait for the circle storm
Treat this like forever

Is it safe for the cowards to do what they've already done?
When the sun is electric and sparkles its way through your heart

A vow, I'm straight laced forever
A bow, I'm straight laced forever

Alain Johannes - Endless Eyes

Oh my heart
That you stole so long ago
Has returned to me this day
So full and empty

Oh this dream
That we shared through all extremes
In a hunt for what it means
To heal by fire

Endless eyes
The immovable did bend
In the presence of your strength
In the gifted joy of your intent

It's killing me that I must go on living
Just to fill this cup of promise
With meaning
It's tearing me apart we're so connected
It's the you in me
Each day I'm resurrected

Truth and lies
Melt away when something's real
To be blinded by your eyes
That is so twisted

Never swayed
Look at all the seeds you layed
Shamelessly so unafraid
To face the devil

Endless eyes
The immovable did bend
In the presence of your strength
In the gifted joy of your intent

It's killing me that I must go on living
Just to fill this cup of promise
With meaning
It's tearing me apart we're so connected
It's the you in me
Each day I'm resurrected

Graveyard - Hisingen Blues

Julie Christmas - Bow

Queens Of The Stone Age - Make It Wit Chu

You wanna know if I know why?
I can't say that I do
Don't understand the evil eye
Or how one becomes two
I just can't recall what started it all
Or how to begin in the end
I ain't here to break it
Just see how far it will bend
Again and again, again and again

I wanna make it
I wanna make it wit chu
(Anytime, anywhere)

I wanna make it
I wanna make it witchu
(again and again and again)

Sometimes the same is different
But mostly it's the same
These mysteries of life
That just ain't my thing
If I told you that I knew about the sun and the moon
I'd be untrue
The only thing I know for sure
Is what I won't do
Anytime, anywhere and I say

I wanna make it
I wanna make it wit chu
(Anytime, Anywhere)

I wanna make it
(Again and again, yeah yeah)
I wanna make it wit chu

I wanna make it
I wanna make it wit chu
(Again and again)

I wanna make it
I wanna make it wit chu
(You)

I wanna make it
(Again and again, yeah yeah)
I wanna make it wit chu
(Anytime, anywhere)

I wanna make it
I wanna make it wit chu
Again and again and again and again and again)

I wanna make it

TV On The Radio - Will Do

It might be impractical
To seek out a new romance
We won't know the actual
If we never take the chance
I'd love to collapse with you
And ease you against this song
I think we're compatible
I see that you think I'm wrong

But anytime will do
My love
Anytime will do
No choice of words will break me from this rule
Anytime will do
My love
Anytime will do
What choice of words will take me back to you

Your love makes a fool of you
You can't seem to understand
Our heart doesn't play by rules
And love has it's own demands
But I'll be there to take care of you
If ever you should decide
But you don't want to waste your life
In the middle of a lovesick lullaby

Anytime will do
My love
Anytime will do
No choice of words will break me from this rule
Anytime will do
My love
Anytime will do
What choice of words will take me back to you

Oh my reddest rose, caldera, set it off
How your fire grows hermosa caldera glistening
Through your fussed blows careen your caldera set it off
As your body flows the second hand flashes passes
Over your skin like time

Anytime will do
My love
Anytime will do
My love
Anytime will do
My love
Anytime will do
My love
Anytime will do
No choice of words will break me from this rule
Anytime will do
No choice of words will break me from this rule
Anytime will do
No choice of words will break me from this rule
Anytime will do
No choice of words will break me from this rule
Anytime will do
What choice of words will take me back to you

Saul Williams - Explain My Heart

Saul Williams - Dance

Dalai Lama's panel discussion in Fayetteville

Currently waiting to watch the Dalai Lama's panel discussion on nonviolence, Turning Swords Into Plowshares: The Many Paths of Nonviolence, at the University of Arkansas Fayetteville. I'm sure there will be much to blog about later. Will update.

UPDATE (again): Well, something happened on Blogger, and my update I posted yesterday was deleted, so I'll try to recreate it.

The panel discussion also featured Dr. Vincent Harding, a civil rights activist and professor that wrote the speech that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered about the US involvement in Vietnam in 1967, and Sister Helen Prejean, a nun that has worked in the prison system and wrote "Dead Man Walking".

These were the points I took away from the panel:

1. Our actions have motivations for them to become actions. We need to have our motivation be compassion, instead of fear, anger or hatred, like is so common in our culture right now. Compassion must come from within and be genuine. It is not pity. It is a general understanding and wish that all beings find peace and happiness. Nonviolence can be achieved by having compassion be our motivation for our actions. It does not entail that we "roll over" for our enemies either. We must still sometimes prevent wrongdoing, but we should still hold compassion for our enemies, or the cycle of violence will continue.

2. Our enemies are our teachers. In order to practice compassion and forgiveness, we must engage in productive ways with our enemies. It is easy to be compassionate and forgiving to our friends, family, etc., but it is hard to do this with your enemies. We must understand one another, and that all of us want basically the same things. In finding the commonalities, in finding that our enemies are not "demons", but humans with motivations and emotions and makeup similar to our own, it will be easier to find compassion and forgiveness. But this cannot happen if we do not bother to engage in a meaningful way with our enemies.

3. Holding on to fear, anger, hatred, etc. takes time and energy. This energy is better spent on simply trying to do good things; helping people (even if it's just one person); making things better. If you instead try to do good, you simply will not have time for hatred.

I can't help but feel like what I wrote yesterday was better, but the basics were the same. As soon as I can find some video and/or transcripts of the talks, I will post that as well.

Some brief thoughts on celebrating death

So after about a decade and a half of being on the Most Wanted list, Osama Bin Laden has been killed. Without really finding a delicate way to say what I'd like to say about such a passionate subject, I'll just pose some questions and brief thoughts.

Is the world really better off without this man? I have no doubt that he was at least, misguided, and at worst, despicably evil. I understand the emotions surrounding his death at U.S. hands. While I know no one personally, directly affected by what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, that event did hurt us all. We all felt it in a rare moment of national (perhaps international) emotional gestalt. I understand the human need to place blame and seek vengeance. I'm pretty sure I would kill to protect people I love without pausing to feel conflicted about it. These are natural, human reactions, and we're all human. And I understand that.

But what happens later? Why must we always think and react with the reptilian part of our brains? While I could no doubt kill someone intending my loved ones harm, I can't as certainly proclaim that it wouldn't haunt me later. This is what you should be thinking about when you get patriotic about our servicemen. That they kept you from having to make those decisions that may haunt you for the rest of your life.

While I believe it was probably an unavoidable blow that had to be given, I hope it has the meaning that we wanted it to have. I hope that it becomes a goal that was worth all the time, money and lives spent in achieving it. I am not a nationalistic chest beater, but I see the importance (and maybe even the necessity of this event). But what saddens me is seeing how people react to it. Whenever I would see some third world country's streets full of revelers over the death of some overthrown or assassinated leader, beating effigies or burning flags, I always thought, "How primitive." And now I see that we have shown the world our primitive side too. It's no wonder that we can't get along better when we run through the streets in exuberant celebration of someone's death.

I understand it, and I empathize, but I'm not sure it's the right response. I don't want to deny anyone healing that needs it, but taking pleasure in the death of someone (no matter how despicable), and in some cases going even further to wish your particular brand of eternal damnation on a being, seems like a dark blemish on the soul, not a healing salve. When dealing with loss, do we assemble totems that will bring the object of our loss back to us, or do we instead find a way to accept and move on. To live our lives well, as the saying goes.

Please ask yourselves some of these things as you think about current events, and if you feel like dancing in the streets, maybe try this celebration in it's place: Here's to living our lives well. Here's to being better. And here's to hope that we can all heal our wounds without inflicting new wounds on others.

Be good to one another.