THIS TRANSITORY WORLD: A Two-Part Response to Viral Vexation
Part 1: Gilding the Thorns: Making the Best Out of What Seems “Bad”
THIS FIRST PART IS GOING TO BE SOME STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS SMUDGINGS about the way my mind is working at the moment regarding things which seem to be going viral. So, if you are interested, please just go with the flow along with me. You are welcome. This first part of the piece is a kind of journey inwards; whereas the second part below will be more of an outward expedition. (Though, in a sense, inwards-outwards — it’s all the same to me! 😉).
I woke up with the title, “Gilding the Thorns”, in my head (as often happens — either that or a single line of a verse or refrain). So that is my starting point in this first part. What will come underneath these words is whatever comes out. Right now, I don’t really know where this will go, apart from wanting to cover any thorns with gold — not because the thorns have no intrinsic value (after all, even with gold they will still prick the skin!), or to deny that thorns exist, but simply because thorns look more lovely when gilded than not gilded.
Creatively, I am on some kind of a full-pelt roll at the moment; which is not surprising during a time of uncertainty and unrest (one could also say dis-ease). This is an immensely positive element if one is wondering about how one will cope with being somewhat socially isolated. Get creative! Frankly, such isolation is normally how I live. It’s always such a relief to get back “home” from the supermarket or wherever! So, I am Read the rest of this entry »
LIVING-ROOM VIDEO #46: “Blonde for a Day”
LIVING-ROOM VIDEO #46: “Blonde for a Day”. Please enjoy this exuberantly direct song which I’ve just written. (Well, I enjoyed writing it!). The social context is all in the introduction on the video. Hope it resonates. The lyrics are below. Love to one and all… 💝
Read the rest of this entry »
Israel: The Making of a Terrorist Nation-State
BELOW IS A 2009 MAILING that I sent out to my “news and views” email list (since discontinued) of some 1500 worldwide subscribers. I just rediscovered it on an old external hard drive and reckon it has as much relevance today as it did then. So I publish it here unchanged.
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Dear Friends:
Having read my earlier article, “Abraham our Father: Jerusalem our Mother”, which overturned the false claim that modern Israel is a land promised by God for Jewish people today, a subscriber asked me recently if Israel therefore has any right to exist as a nation-state. It is high time for a little update on my thoughts about this matter, so this is what I want to address here. (I would respectfully ask that you look at all the weblinks too as they contain much explanatory and supporting information).
Previously, I have taken a kind of semi-neutral stance on this specific subject of a nation’s right to exist, and I haven’t really gone into it in very much detail. One of the reasons for this was because in my original lengthy article about Israel, I was providing specifically a theological examination of the whole aspect of Israel and did not want to allow any Read the rest of this entry »
I Am Everything and Everyone [new poem]
I am the poem that no one wants to read
the bird-shit on the washing on the line
the friend with whom your parents disagreed
the nips and tucks performed by Frankenstein
I am the wet dream junkie’s wishful thought
the stuff in which no human wants to tread Read the rest of this entry »
“If You Can Answer Yes” [Living-Room Video #45]
“IF YOU CAN ANSWER ‘YES’!”, Living-Room Video #45. This is a song about real connection in relationships. As I recently wrote: “I would never get into a relationship unless it was based on a mutual desire to create a masterpiece”. In this song you can see the brush-strokes behind such a masterpiece. I would even say that this song is a vivid example of verbal foreplay. (That should freak a few folks out! 😉). . Click above to watch the video. Here are the lyrics: Read the rest of this entry »
Thought for the Day…
This is my Thought for the Day. You will either love it (identify 1000% with it) or be embarrassedly triggered by it. Either way, may it be a revealing reflection…
Spiritual Kidnap
In which we learn about Nathan’s curiosity, his imaginary friends, and Livinia’s teaching about the pre-eminence of moral fulfilment over human law (not to mention Nathan’s epiphany about who Livinia really is)
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It was the yearly meeting of the UK region of the twelve Reluctant Angels (RAGS) who administered localised groups around the country. As the members gradually trooped into the room — which was the renovated barn of a member’s house in the countryside near Ashburton in deepest Devon — Nathan could not help noticing that Livinia Soares was looking distinctly more male than female this evening. Not that Livinia had developed facial stubble or anything of that nature. But there was a presence of authority and leadership which came through her face and general body language when Livinia was leading meetings such as this. It was as if Livinia could morph between one or the other according to the occasion. Or was it that gender did not apply to Livinia? To his knowledge, no one had asked about this; but someday Nathan was going to do so. Read the rest of this entry »
🎭Who or What Pulls Your Strings?🎭 The Keys to Fruitful Relationship
PROLOGUE: A Free Mind Grows Fruitful Relationships
THE LEADING PREMISE BEHIND THIS LITTLE ARTICLE is that it is impossible to have a fruitful relationship — whether with a good friend, a lover, a ‘partner’ or a spouse — if one or both parties are overtly or secretly being controlled by something or someone else. Human relationships flourish in situations of shared loving freedom rather than a controlling coercion which excludes the other. There can certainly be some kind of low level relationship between those who are not free from external controls. But one can only have a full-bodied, fruitful relationship with the mind of another which is free, and if one is free oneself from any kind of external control or unhealthy internal constraint. This is common sense really; but it seems so little understood that it would be worth going into it a little. Read the rest of this entry »
“Just Rise Above It All” [new song video with lyrics]
🎞LIVING-ROOM VIDEO #44🎞: “Just Rise Above It All”. This is a video of a song I just wrote. It woke me up the night before last and wouldn’t let me go back to sleep until I’d written down the first verse. I finished it yesterday. I hope it gives comfort to some. Here are the lyrics: Read the rest of this entry »
War is Who we Are! [poem]
War, the wanton mascot of a catastrophic aeon;
disfigured, numb, decaying, steeped in slime.
Barely having climbed out from the swamp,
we dumbly think that if we don a suit and tie
we earn the right to peer down our noses at the
cockroaches and flies we claim in all our ersatz glory
to have overtaken long ago and left behind.
But we are worse by far than they will ever be, Read the rest of this entry »
The Naked Troubadour 