It's Okay

Because the simple life will be the repetitive life.
But when living within our means is what we repeat
there is practicality and virtue in such repetition. 

 

The True Story Of The Boston Tea Party

In the accepted explanation of the Boston Tea Party,
the tea in the port was thrown into the sea by rebels,
rebelling against the high taxes imposed by George III,
on the British colony where those who told the story
try to present the idea that the colonised would have accepted
being an under-represented, were they charged far less tax. 

Whereas the true story was that those who threw the tea into the sea
were rebelling against both the British and the colonial authorities.
They did not want to be taxed and felt no need of representation,
before any authority, refusing even the policing of the colony.
They wanted to be the pirate-government that others would defer to,
they wanted to be the authority that taxed and subordinated others.

Pirate kings in and of  their own lawless domain.

This idea is being tested to the max with the Trump system of tariffs,
where many feel the boats, their booty, and the trade are all intact,
and have long left the harbour for other markets.

Thoughts And Prayers

Some prayers are just words
some words can be more than they seem.
Other words are less than their presenters
present those words as being. On the whole
I prefer the silences that lead to the thoughts
that open us up to the choice of change for the better,
that cannot be reversed by circumstance when adopted. 

La-La-Land

The longer I live alone,
when the landline does not ring,
the better I feel about the silence.

The isolation began when neighbours
who I thought wanted to know me
encouraged contact via facebook,
rather than conversing in person.

Then we moved to message by whatsapp
when they began to have even less to say
than they had when they had me use facebook.

It felt to me like they had moved away,
perhaps in their heads they had,
when they found a freer life in video games
where they met better neighbours
and went to live on La-La-Land.  

False/True Negatives

I used to believe that I was not part of my birth family
-that they only wanted me when I was of material use to them,
and called it 'cupboard love' when I sought acceptance. 

In my utopianism I imagined that I could choose
who I might be liked by, who would accept me, 
no question asked. But Covid severed too many connections....

Looking back at the time I still lived in hope.
There were many hopes that made me feel better,
they extended to use of words like 'homophobia',
with the many variants, where it's sponsors hoped
the changes they fostered were positive and permanent,
A reset of reality that could not be reversed.

I was almost convinced that through language alone
the world might be changed forever. But not quite.

Part of me knew that government is a matter
of legal mechanisms, 'Levers of power' where such levers
can be used in different combinations, to different effects,
regarding wealth, choice, and power across the strata of society.

But everyone in my chosen family avoided asking 
what might happen when an unrepentant fascist
grasped the use of state power and spoke and acted
with no sense of being even slightly capable of error,
or in need of the need to seek forgiveness.

In such times every statement from every 'great leader',
take your pick from Trump, Sisi, Putin, Orban, many others,
is more right because of whoever the speaker is, than wrong
and damning with their crude and weak grasp of the details.

Thoughts In Retreat

In a new world built on shoutiness
where the loudest world leaders
cut through the most, using propaganda
to promote the newest weapons of war,
when we can't trust a word they tell us
- particularly when they speak
in the tongues of hybrid warfare,
I find my best thoughts in firm retreat
from the noise of warfare that surrounds me. 

Such Economy With Language

'There is actually almost no detail about how it [the twenty point peace plan] is going to be implemented.

President Trump essentially stated the destination, but he did not state how to get there. That seems to be his style.

It is important to get some clarity about what the deal is and what it isn't.

It is not a peace deal. It is not a peace process. It is a ceasefire and hostage agreement.

That is a considerable achievement in itself, and it tries to go on to state where it wants to go on to, but it does get there. And that is the real problem.

I listened to every word Trump had to say yesterday and it was like the process had not been even started.

And Trump, I listened to all he said yesterday, Trump is talking as if the deal is done when it has not even started. At Sharm El-Sheikh [in Egypt] they* signed something they called The Trump Declaration For Enduring Peace and Prosperity. It is full of aspirations [Bowen audibly swerved his way past the word 'waffle' before he said 'aspirations'] but once again it is almost devoid of  content.'. 

- Jeremy Bowen, international editor for the BBC, summarizing the biggest world news story of the last few days. 

*Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, U.S. President Donald Trump, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan