March 27, 2021

01

The ruthlessness of fascism
has to be met with
the ruthlessness of compassion.

Compassion has to be as ruthless
in the service of the good
as fascism is in the service of evil.

Fascism has turned compassion 
against itself
by telling people of color,
for instance,
that they "just have to be patient."

Compassion has to call BS
instead of meekly turning the other cheek
for the 10 billion billionth time.

Now is the time for equity across the board,
skin color-wise,
gender-wise,
sexual preference-wise,
etc.,
across all divisions
and bases of discrimination and prejudice,
culture-wide.

Let the fine people on both sides
come together in denouncing inequality,
misogyny,
racial hatred and injustice,
religious hatred and injustice,
GBLT-ETC hatred and injustice,
and all other forms of hatred and injustice--
and declaring themselves to stand for
the liberties and justice the Flag stands for
every time they stand for the Flag.

And let them work together
for the good of all people everywhere
in the spirit of the one who said,
"In as much as you have done it,
or not done it,
to the least of my brothers and sisters,
you have done it,
or not done it,
unto me!"

And let there be no concessions extended
to those who refuse/fail to live in good faith
with one another and all others,
who add to the burden of others,
torment and malign others,
shame, belittle, ridicule, denounce and exclude others
from the common rights and services
of society,
but let that society expect, demand and insist upon
kindness and compassion
in the relentless service 
of doing right by one another
and living toward the end
of the true good of all humanity,
now and forever.

–0–

02

We walk two paths at the same time.
And, we have to do that consciously,
intentionally, deliberately, conscientiously,
reliably, relentlessly,knowingly
every day.

We do that by mindfully separating the two paths,
and keeping one eye fixed on the other path,
while our other eye is fixed on the path we are on.

We have to have something that serves
as a decompression chamber
as we move from one path to the other.

I spend most of my time driving 45 miles an hour
taking care of business,
running errands,
on the secondary roads
connecting me to my destinations
in rural South Carolina
and urban Charlotte, North Carolina.

When life calls me and my wife onto
the interstate highways,
I have to consciously "put on
my Interstate Driver Face"
as I accelerate down the ramp
into another world.

We move between worlds 
on a regular basis,
and change "faces" all the time.
We have to do that with full awareness
of what we are doing and undoing,
ramping up and slowing down
as is appropriate to the occasion.

Coming down from,
or out of,
the fast-paced word
into the slow-paced world,
requires its own decompression time,
as we move ourselves back in to 
being able to breathe slowly and deeply,
relaxing and restoring our connection with
the peace of balance and harmony.

It is a physical, emotional, psychological
and spiritual adjustment
from one world to the other,
and without taking the time
to detach from one and attach to the other,
we live at a pace out of sync with our surroundings.
And that makes for disharmony and imbalance.

We have to be where we are
in ways that are fitting and proper
to our curcumstances
on all levels of our existence
all of the time
by consciously making the transition
every time it needs to be made.