Crossing Nebraska

I’ve long wondered about the increasing polarization of politics. How is it that virtually everything is decided by votes falling so predictably along party lines? How is it that so many reasonably intelligent people can look at the same set of facts regarding a problem in need of solving with half deciding this needs to be done and half deciding that needs to be done, and, lo and behold, those two halves just happen to be this party and that party, respectively? An apple pie like Mom used to make! Certainly, the increase in political tribalism can help explain this. When tribal affiliation is stronger than respect for the principles that once held this country together, maintaining group membership means more than so many things that used to matter in the political world and in society at large. Intellectual honesty and consistency of thought becomes secondary. Being seen as a hypocrite or having done something shameful means little. It’s what your tribe thinks that matters. Tribal af...

   What do we do? We shut shit down! What do we do? We shut shit down! What do we do? We shut shit down!   ~ a chant heard at a Black Lives Matter protest     This past weekend saw the largest one-day mobilization so far against our new POTUS and his billionaire and Congressional enablers. It’s been estimated that the Hands Off! protests drew millions of people worldwide. Even in a county that’s about 75% red, our little heartland town had a reported turnout of some 150 people on a cold and rainy day. Good job! And I also appreciate that there seemed to be less of a “let’s pat ourselves on the backs for conducting a peaceful protest” vibe circulating in the wake of this action when compared to some previous largely White-led protests. Judging a protest on the basis of its perceived peacefulness is an inherently privileged thing to do—and privileged is really just another way of saying empowered. Admittedly, there’s a lot to unpack in that pr...

The Sanskrit word  karma  has essentially become part of the English lexicon, taking on a “what goes around comes around” sort of meaning in everyday parlance. That’s not too bad a definition, as far as it goes, but there’s actually quite a range of thought about the nature of this thing we call  karma . On one hand, for instance, we have the very precise definition that karma is the result of action done with intention. On the other hand, we have the metaphysical implications of what one’s accumulated karma means for their subsequent rebirth. Karma is also sometimes referred to rather simply as a law of cause and effect. Every thought or action helps create the ground or causes and conditions from which the next thought or action arises. Which brings us to  patterns  of thought or action. The word karma derives from the Sanskrit root  kri , which carries with it connotations of doing, making, and creating. And where there is doing, making, and creat...