Crossing Nebraska

“You’ll never reach your destination if you stop to throw rocks at every dog that barks at you” is an aphorism often attributed to Winston Churchill. I hope nobody reading this is so hounded by critics that they need to heed this advice as it’s usually intended, but if we tweak it just a bit, it becomes advice for us all to follow in these current times. You see, there are so many outrageous things being said and done by the current POTUS, his administration, and his enablers that we would be well-served to consider a variation: “We’ll never successfully resist fascism if we fritter away our energy being outraged at everything there is to be outraged about. Ferocious dog superimposed on Presidential portrait I’m not suggesting we ignore injustice, turn a blind eye toward inhumanity, or normalize authoritarianism. I am suggesting, however, that we risk burning ourselves out, harming our mental health, or otherwise losing our joy when we get caught up in every inane or downright evil...

As I’m running past the cornfields near our home, I often notice stunted specimens growing closer to the road. Sprouted from seed fallen just outside the farmer’s field, these plants must work their roots into untilled soil, stand largely alone beneath the scorching sun, and make do without the fertilizer provided to the other plants of the field. They may still bear fruit, though perhaps not as large as their advantaged neighbors, or they may use up all their energy simply staying alive. Nature always does her best, but life is seldom fair. Edge of the Cornfield Each time I notice something like this, I think of a beautiful teaching from the Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, which I’ll paraphrase here: If the lettuce you planted isn’t growing well, it doesn’t help to blame it. You look for reasons it’s not doing well. It may need fertilizer, more water, or less sun. On the other hand, if we have problems with our friends or family, we often blame the other person. Blaming doesn’t help...

Democracy in the U.S. is circling the drain. The Grand Old Party has become unabashedly fascist,  Congress has abdicated its constitutional power of oversight, and the Supreme Court has turned into a supreme enabler of authoritarianism. But it’s not just our elected and appointed officials who’ve lost track of what democracy is and what it requires. Many who voted in the last election seem to be living in an alternate reality, and those who sat it out seem strangely incapable of realizing what’s at stake until some executive order hits them on the head like a cudgel. At least at the present time, however, there appears to be enough pro-democracy voters out there (from both parties) who are politically engaged and of sound enough mind that a winning coalition might be assembled. Why then can’t the Democrats seem to get it together? Democratic Party logo surrounded by question marks A big part of the problem, as I see it, is that the Democratic Party has an image problem related to...

  Title notwithstanding, I’m not a fan of the expression “blood and treasure.” It strikes me as coarse and archaic and coldly calculating about matters of life and death. It evokes a barbaric age that should remain forever in our past. Sadly, though, it’s not. I first recall hearing “blood and treasure” spoken of within the context of the Iraq War and the quagmire that so many foresaw it would become. Once the adrenaline rush of the first bombardment and invasion wore off, we began to realize what a long slog the ground war was going to be. The loss of life and exorbitant monetary cost began to become apparent. It took years, but we eventually realized that that war wasn’t worth the blood and treasure it took to fight it, not that any are. In an earlier post, I recalled some of my earlier antiwar activism. I mentioned attending protests in St. Louis, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. in a failed collective attempt to try to stop the Iraq War. While some may have forgotten and some ot...

  We’re in a dangerous place here in the United States at present. Unconscionable pardons of convicted criminals and political firings of those who’ve assembled cases contrary to the interests of those now in power threaten to erode faith in our justice system. Government agencies have been gutted or dismantled to the point where reasonable concern exists whether any assistance or meaningful oversight will be available in times of disaster, famine, pandemic, or economic downturn. The balance of power between branches of government has become so lopsided that our form of democracy is now all but unrecognizable. More fundamentally, though, elections, science, and even truth itself have been called into question so frequently and forcefully as to leave us without an agreed upon objective reality from which to begin rational policy-making discussions.  It's enough to leave one apathetic and disengaged, or even clinically depressed for that matter. It’s enough to make one cynical...

If you’re a spiritual practitioner, I hope you’re “blessed” from time to time with an encouraging sign that you’re on the right path. Whether it be with an insight, observation, opening, understanding, felt sense, embodied knowing, or what have you I wish for you assurance that you’re moving toward whatever wholeness and authenticity mean for you. We Zen practitioners are not inclined to speak much about such experiences. We’re warned against putting too much stock in them, becoming attached to them, striving to repeat them, or thinking they result from our specialness. That notwithstanding, for the sake of this two-part series, I’d like to relate how certain practice-related experiences have prompted me to toward activism. Arrest of the Buddha In the first post of this two-part series , I stated: “The emptiness [ sunyata ] of all phenomena does not mean they are illusory. The emptiness of all phenomena merely means that all “things” are without any separate and abiding existence.” ...

  It’s been over twenty years now since we gathered with our signs on a busy street in downtown St. Louis in an attempt to keep the Iraq War from beginning. In those days, if enough people gathered in one place to protest something, local reporters would likely show up and cover it for the nightly news. Notwithstanding that possibility, we hoped at least to get the attention of the many motorists making their way to and from the Grand Center Arts District for their evening of entertainment.  “Where are all the Buddhists?” I recall the protest leader enquiring over his megaphone in between the antiwar chants of the day. He was a Catholic activist in the mold of Dorothy Day , and I got the distinct impression that he wasn’t expecting anyone to answer. Nevertheless, we did. “We’re over here!” three of us Zen Buddhists called out from halfway down the block, although noble silence would have been a very Zen response! Arrest of the Buddha I’m surmising that the protest leader wa...