The Glacial Pace of Change

The frustrating thing for me is how little we humans really change. Here we still are, fighting and feuding with one another, trying to be big shots and make our mark before death claims us, learning little, changing less, self-destructively flying in the face of reason or lying in an open grave of reasonableness.

George W. Bush is president of the United States for Christ's sake!

The "7 Up" series of films, which tracks a group of British children throughout their lives every seven years is based on this premise:

"Show me the child at seven and I will show you the man."

How depressingly accurate.

When will we ever learn?

The Horror of Heaven

When I was a very little kid I could actually scare the hell out of myself just by contemplating heaven. I was terrified not of hell but of that Pie in the Sky Christer paradise. I would willfully contemplate eternity, never-ending life in heaven, and repeat the word “forever” over and over until I was literally frozen in horror at the idea of ceaseless existence, no matter how happy, in a city of gold and light and endless celebration: billions upon billions of aeons crawling by with no end, no terminus (and no point) in sight.

The Innermost Chamber

One of my very earliest memories is holding a big conch shell up to my ear and listening to the “sound of the ocean” in it. Studying the shell I intuited that the external scrolling shape must continue to wind inward and that deep inside there must be an ultimate place of refuge. That innermost chamber, I imagined, must be a cozy and safe place indeed. I remember experiencing a powerful desire to shrink myself down to a tiny size and make my way into that protected chamber, into a place so snug and secure that they couldn’t get me. I was no more than five at the time. I don’t recall asking myself who “they” were. Maybe I didn’t have to. Maybe “they” were everybody.

Bend Like a Willow...the lyrics

All my life I’ve tried to find a place where I could be
Secure within a center that was calm and trouble-free
Thought the peace I sought was realizing this desire
Tried so hard to get there but my hope began to tire

Then I learned the secret’s simply letting what is be
Accepting what the wind of life is blowing down to me
Going with the flow I find the peace that’s bound to last
Now is all the time I have to love before it’s past

I’ve got to bend like a willow
In the wind that’s blowing free
I’ve got to bow to the current…that we call reality

Like a child I thought that life should give me what I want
Every wish be granted and no difficulty haunt
I believed that one day when I realized this dream
I’d be oh so happy in this fickle changing scheme

What we call reality is right here in the now
And when I don’t accept it doesn’t change it anyhow
All that non-acceptance does is bring on fear and hate
Insane is the one who cannot face the fruits of fate

I’ve got to bend like a willow
In the wind that’s blowing free
I’ve got to bow to the current…that we call reality


More than once I’ve raised my fist and shook it at the sky
Cursed this path of seeking out the wherefore and the why
Longing for the dawn while clinging to a starless night
Girding for the battle and then running from the fight

Life is like the wind it’s sometimes gentle sometimes rough
And any time I hate the way it is well that’s just tough
When I can allow what is to be I’ve found the way
When I can embrace the now I rise above the fray

I’ve got to bend like a willow
In the wind that’s blowing free
I’ve got to bow to the current…that we call reality