Open Letter to Friends and Readers

Dear friends and readers,
You have been gracious and patient in letting me think out loud and share my ramblings with you. If I have offended anyone, I apologize. If you do not want to receive notices of postings, PLEASE tell me  and I will remove your address from my address book. I have had two objectives from the beginning. (1) to force myself to think clearly and express myself in an understandable way, and (2) to generate thoughtful, respectful, challenging dialogue. I have not desired agreement with everything I have said. I like to be challenged to consider alternatives. None of us is infallible or has a corner on the market of truth. I prefer to get out of my comfortable shell, listen to what others think and why, and evaluate my assumptions. I began as a rabid fundamentalist and have long ago left that intellectual desert. I remain to the left on social issues BUT have become more fiscally conservative in the last ten years [ I do not think we can continue escalating expenses for Social Security or military spending for just two examples. ]
My two most memorable courses at Clemson were English 101 and Logic 101. Every Friday Dr. Hill required us to write an essay on a topic of her choosing. She taught and demanded clarity of thought, organization, and expression. She was wonderful! I don't remember the professor's name in Logic but I clearly remember the list and discussion of errors and pitfalls to logical thinking. I especially remember the professor saying that what so often happens when the strength of our argument is weak or non-existent, we resort to attacking our opponent personally rather than seek answers to his/her argument. I confess I have not always followed that advice but still think it is a worthy principle.
My promise to you, if you continue to tolerate me, is to be faithful to my objectives, to respect you and your opinions, and to "listen" as carefully as I hope to be listened to.
Thank you so very much!   Peace, Hal

Fall: One of My Four Favorite Seasons

Fall is one of my favorite seasons of the year. There are three others, but they will come in due time. And that's the point. I love every season, and fortunately I am usually getting tired of one just when it's time for the next to burst on the scene with all its magnificent uniqueness.
Dappled floral carpet, speckled canopy, unduplicated palette, breathless beauty, crisp air, forgotten smells wafting up to fill the nostrils and transport me to tranquil ecstasy. Count the colors underfoot and get lost in matchless beauty. Verdant, azure, rouge, and amber. Orange, sienna, royal purple, and baby pink. Green merging with yellow, outlined in black and brown. While the squirrel scampers out of reach, jaws packed with winter's nourishment, to sit on the out stretched limb chattering her displeasure at my disrupting presence.
Sit by the babbling brook watching the slender minnows dart to and fro or hold their positions in the never-still water. The sun sparkles on the rushing surface as the gentle breeze shifts the leaves to yield a cinema of light and shadow. How did that moss manage to fasten itself to that slippery rock? Doesn't that leaf on the low hanging branch tirelessly sipping from crystal nectar ever quench its thirst?
If I'm still long enough the chipmunks accept my admiration and continue their tasks as if I belong in their world. Little feet scurrying noiselessly from gnarled stump to piles of gray, lichened twigs, one eye upward, ever cautious. Out of the corner of my eye a doe, twitching ears, flickering tail, with fawn in tow, stealthily tiptoes, nibbling as she goes.
Clouds, sun, wind, and muted silence enfold me in the bosom of Mother Earth. What lessons this world has to teach me !

God's love is like water

Ancient Daoism used water as a metaphor for finding harmony in the world, with nature, with one another, within one's self. I find it soothing and helpful.As the Tao Te Ching describes it, water finds its level and fills every nook and cranny. There is no place water can not find and silently and efficiently fill with its goodness. Left alone to patiently wait, muddy water comes to clarity, settles debris, and calms confusion. Water is soft and supple, yet supports heaviness and lifts and carries obstacles. A single drop of water, steady and consistent, over sufficient time will crack the densest rock.
For me, God, the indescribable that surrounds/upholds/leans toward goodness/yearns for wholeness/that which is/experienced as love, that God's love is like water. God's love waits indefinitely patiently; it never gives up. It is there before I ever come to consciousness. And the moment there is the slightest crack (hope? plea? need? surrender?) it flows into our lives without reservation or precondition. God's love will fill every dark corner of my hatred, prejudice, selfcenteredness, greed, delusion of ego and grandeur. God's love will lift me up and support me in acceptance of my already-goodness that was forgotten in the cachaphony of distractions around me. With patience, focused inwardness, the world's oneness become clear as the origin and goal of this love. God's love, our love breaks down walls of separation, dissolves hatred, finds meaning in service to others and compassion for the disadvantaged. In the presence of this love everyone, everyone is accepted as valid, of infinite worth, loving and deserving of love.
What if we saw God's face in the face of EVERY stranger? How would we respond?

Absence of critical thinking

This bumper sticker used to amuse me: "America's OTHER deficit--lack of critical thinking," but not any longer. Given the "look at Me" press conferences, shameless repetition of lies and misinformation, and repetition of senseless votes expecting a different result, I am convinced we have the largest gathering of morons in any one location in recent history. Ignorance and myopic morality are incarnated in Tea Party representatives and Republican leadership of both Houses. Most of us have heard most of the examples before, but they deserve repeating.
1) What do they NOT understand? the 2009 Congress passed the ACA, the President signed it, and the Supreme Court upheld it. IT IS LAW!
2) Sen. Ted Cruz, articulate and charismatic, is stupid and irrational---or he thinks we are. Instead of offering funding legislation void of the attempt to defund Obamacare, he suggests voting on budget items piece by piece. Think about it! The result will be the same. The government will get funded and Obamacare will remain in tact. Why not offer a total package without the stipulation concerning ACA and get on about the business of addressing the debt ceiling, solving the financial crisis long term, and SAVE the jobs being lost daily and costing OUR government over $200 million a day. Real lives are impacted, children are going hungry, national security is jeopardized, etc. despite what the mindless idiots on Fox News say. ex. Hannity said his income wasn't being hurt by the shut down. How insensitive can you be!
3) Siding with greedy business and dismantling the EPA, approving fracking for example, threatens our lives and health as well as that of our children and grandchildren. But they are willing to surrender the future for short term, personal hedonism.
4) They argue for less government in our lives and turn right around and want the government to tell us who we can marry and what women can do with their own bodies..
5) The one government controlled entity they mindlessly support and continue to give a blank check is the military industrial complex. This only demonstrates their lack of compassion for the disadvantaged and their commitment to violence. You don't keep having sexual intercourse to preserve virginity!
People get the government they tolerate. Silence is complicity. It's time to put a government in place that cares for all citizens and addresses human needs.