Akira and the Knife Visitors...

There once was a girl by the rhyme of Akira

She lived in the omelet between the Haley's of Eastam and Westam sandwich.  

She was a lonely little girl with only a few dozen close friends

A smattering of fiends 

And a fair number of acquaintances

Including, but not limited to, imaginary friends and ghosts. 

Close to the solstice time, when the day became short and the night was like long pants you stepped on when you walked,

Akira became lonely. 

All my fiends can go to Reykjavik (being the closest thing to hell on Earth she could think of)

All I want is some visitors to share this holy day with me

But alas, Akira was alone. 

Suddenly, a slow scraping noise was heard. 

Across the floor slid a butter knife. 

An ordinary, butter knife. 

Just as slowly a steak knife flew through the air and stuck in the wall. 

One by one, all the knifes in the house slid, flew, rolled or otherwise appeared

In the room with Akira. 

This is great said Akira, slicing her finger on a butcher knife. 

Now I am no longer alone. 

I have all these sharp knives to spend the holy day with. 

Every year after that, Akira washed and dried all the knives. 

She cleaned the silver ones, and laid the rest out. 

And none of her other fiends or acquaintances ever darkened her door on Solstice again. 

Get out...

A couple years ago I got up every morning and ran, biked, hiked or just walked and looked around every morning. Years before that I would feed the animals, garden, or have coffee watching wild geese. 

But a couple years ago I got sick and it was too hard to drag myself out of bed in the morning. I needed sleep. I really did. And that was OK and good.

But this morning, I walked out, as I have been for a while, and noticed how beautiful the world can be. I had missed being out. 

A few years (alright-many years) ago I prided myself on thinking radically and letting my mind wander. I meditated, did yoga, played music. 

But then I became focused on work, financial security and rest of the "faulty plan".  I stayed inside the box in my mind. This was less OK, but I can rationalize it as necessary. 

But recently I realized had imprisoned my mind in a box that didn't allow for other ways of thinking. I opened my mind and saw different ways of thinking about things. And I could accept and appreciate those ideas again. 

A few years ago (true confession-maybe never) I was brave and courageous to step out of my comfort zone. To meet new people from different cultures, to meet people if different faiths and with different backgrounds.  To consider, try out and adopt some new actions which better fit my life. 

But then I fell into complacency.  It was easier to join groups and hang out with people like me. Even when my wife and I adopted transracially, we sought out other couples with transracially adopted kids. It was just easier. But more importantly, that ease took up all of my energy and did not allow for other experiences and life. And that was not OK. 

So a few years ago (true again) I started CHOOSING to partake in things that were outside my comfort zone. Slowly at first. Talking to people you didn't know.  A running club. Different church groups. Rock climbing. Small steps, but steps. And it was nice. 

This has spread to other areas of my life. Doing some social justice things like food pantry donations or Christmas donations. Making the people at work give to Toys for Tots instead of Christmas gifts. I. have helped with soup kitchens.  I have tried to accept and help with larger social issues like horizontal drilling and climate change. 

But it all started with getting out of the house, the apartment, the trailer, the tent or whatever nest I was in. 

My journey has been long. It has been right for me. May yours be right for you. Just take the journey. 


Sent from my iPhone

How is it at 50?

A very close friend of mine recently asked me this question. I should state the friend is about 11 years younger. They are a different sex than me. We have many life similarities, as well as many differences. We both have very intense emotions. We both have small(ish) children and both are married. Our political views are similar, although not identical. We are not of the same ethnic background. The point is, the question was very pertinent because it was all about age and stages of life. Not at all about the differences or similarities of us as people. It really gave me pause. How is it at 50? 

Basically, I originally thought everything was the same. But slowly, as I thought about it, I realized this was not true. Eleven years makes a difference. As I will say, not a huge difference. But a perceptible difference. I have seen things in the last ten years I did not know. Or rather, I have recognized things I knew, but did not appreciate. 

What made this exceptionally interesting was discussing the question, or rather, the answers with some other folks of even younger ages. We discussed life stages, what we knew, yearned for, dreamed about. The patterns were unmistakable, although all of us had slightly different takes on the paths of life.  We all know these things intellectually, but...

So here goes...

 1. Mediocre people do exceptional things all the time. 

None of us is special. It is possible at any given time, in some given way, that any one of us may excel. But overall, people are a soft warm animals like all others and they are not special. At least the universe does not see us as special. It does not care if we are rich or poor. If we are educated or not. A man or a woman.

But that is not the end. In fact, because we are not special, we have an obligation to be humble and help try to make the world a good place. We must help each other through bad times and celebrate good times. We must take care of our surroundings. Live with intention. All the aphorisms we hear. 

And if we truly live, that is truly exceptional.

2. Truth is overrated.

It has become vogue to search for truth. Probably a result of the scientific age or an outgrowth of our neuroses over the fact we have lost so much control over our own lives.

But mystery, wonder and a good healthy dose of self delusion make life worth living! 

We all know the stark naked truth that those pants make you look fat is just cruel. But on a more subtle level, relentless truth devalues the whole. When you only see the painting as a collection of brushstrokes, you cannot see the artists passion. When the tree is phloem and xylem, it no longer is a place to rest. 

Even more subtly, mystery feeds desire and the desire to know other people produces association. 

 If all truth and honesty were evident at all times, it would be a very sterile environment indeed. 

I am suggesting a healthy dose of fantasy about how you are living the dream is much better than a constant reminder of all the objective failures you have had. And since it is inevitable you will fail, it is better to learn - and learn to cope and move on - than be trapped by the relentless weight of truth. I do not suggest that is easy. Or how or when it should be done. Just that the opposite is overrated.

Once in awhile, just take the blue pill. Even more importantly, once in awhile lose yourself in the blue pill. The real world will be there when you are done. 

3. There is no one right answer. 

There is not even one question. 

There is no single thing called "Love". 

The only real constant is change. And the fact is, things don't change all that much. (Remember the fact we all had similar life patterns?) In fact, it is only accumulated change that is noticeable. While such change certainly can be huge, it also requires patience and time to take place. It cannot be rushed. Some people say all things in their time, and this is so. Change will only come in its own time.

Assuming there is a "right" and a "wrong" assumes the status quo will change into something better. But things are the way they are for some reason or reasons. People are born, grow up, fall in love, become twisted and learn to hate, learn to forgive, learn to love fully and ultimately die over and over. That is what people do. 

Spring follows winter as surely as fall follows summer. 

These things change in space and time. They vary in intensity. But they are universal.

Patience is not a virtue: it is essential. In fact, it will be forced upon us by reality. 

Just as importantly, the reaction one way or another to a situation or a stimulus is simply a slight extension or change from where things were before. Every reaction. And in the greater scheme of the universe that reaction one way or another is simply so close to the other to be incapable of being "right" or "wrong". Even the greatest calamity of all time would be but a "blip" in cosmic history. 

So one choice or another is neither right nor wrong. The experiences are different, but each experience is unique. One may be better for a given family or person at a given time, but there simple is no one single "best" answer. 

This principle extends to everything. Things as simple as which way to drive to work and things as complex as whether to drive at all.

So...how IS it at 50? 

Maddening. You have reached a point where you have glimpsed certain things. You have also realized those things are universal and not the only right answer. You know you have a lot to teach, and that you are ultimately incapable of teaching it. People will learn or not learn on their own time. You can look back over a long enough period to see patterns and yet have no idea how they will play out. And you have the nagging feeling you will probably never live long enough to see the subtle endings of what you have seen start.

And anyone who has read this also knows this is just my experience. So feel free to share yours and we will all learn.

Love

Love is the smell of your mother
Love is the smell of your child.
Love feels the warmth of skin
And the separation of miles.
Love is a knowing glance
A shared history and shared emotions.
Love takes time and wipes it away
Love is like tears in the oceans.
Love is exciting and familiar
It has been since before we were born
It can engulf, it can comfort, it can burn out
But it can still be felt long after it is gone.

Love is not a single emotion
Love is not an idea
Love is not a collection of biological impulses
Love is not the magnetism of north and south poles.

Freindship, hatred, lust, repulsion, generosity, jealousy
A cool reproach and a warm embrace.
Selfishness and selflessness, intimacy and detachment,
Fatigue, exhaustion and a heart that races

Love is what is left when all else fades...
When this life closes.  

Growth....

When I first saw her, I was smitten.

She was beautiful, soft, with light skin and brown eyes.

She was helpless, vulnerable.

I wanted to protect her and help her grow.

Intentionally, I opened my heart and took a risk.

It was not clear if she could or would stay with me

But as months went by our bond grew until parting

Would cause the greatest sorrow known to a man.

Years followed.  We grew closer.  We shared experiences

Sometimes they were together and sometimes they were

Apart with one as spectator and one as actor.

But always, the only thing she remembered was that I was there.

As we both grew older, we both grew

In age and love.

In silliness and in wisdom.

Sharing a love of Halloween and a hatred of plastic bottles.

But now, I had to share her. With other people, with other interests

With the passage of time and the inevitable pull of nature.

Our love was strong, but as day follows night, follows day,

We moved inexorably further and further apart.

And then, one day, it was time. She left me

Oh! Not emotionally or spiritually

But rather physically.

In that real, tangible…permanent…way that children leave their parents.

The pain was irrepressible, even though it was the most natural thing in the world.

There was no anger, no sadness, just and emptiness…

But an emptiness that was right.

Filled with the knowledge that your daughter was given wings.

11/17/2013

We'll always have Paris...

Sometimes in the miasma of space and time souls meet. 

They share a common reality 

They are together and yet separate. 

Sometimes in the short period of time we call life two people meet

They share a sense of the other

They are separate and yet together

But more often we just miss each other 

Alone, in the universe, even in a crowd 

We share not reality, or even a sense

We are separate to the extent of being alone

11/13/2013

All that wonders is not lost...

In a graveyard of lost souls, another one is always welcome

In the graveyard of the minds, souls collide. 

The resulting crash can echo for eons, blowing across time and across the graveyards....

Across the mountains like clouds.   

Emotions and Souls lost to time, lost to each other, 

All influenced by the collision but on paths trapped within life, within minds,

Their cries like the silence of space as they whoosh waiting for the next collision...and the next

Atoms, molecules, quarks and energy swirling. Their purpose nothing more than the next collision. 

11/13/2013

Today While Walking...

Today while walking I saw a flower

It was a light purple, lavender I guess

I thought on a bitter cold morning with frost about

How strong this delicate plant must be... But I digress

The walk was simply to an office. A box within which I could think of details and make small mouth noises

No love of life or fear of death

And yet my thoughts return to the flower

Was it just lucky not to have been frozen?   But my heart rejoices

That in the path of a simple walk

A day and world dominated and subjugated by human action

That nature and a beautiful flower

Can survive and impart a message, a thought, a feeling.... And cause a reaction. 

So I probably shouldn't keep this to myself.

For personal reasons, I took down this blog for a few days. I needed the introspection. I felt I had nothing to share.  Perhaps I do not.

But a friend helped me to see that it was not necessarily WHAT I shared, but the act of sharing, that was important. 

Thanks Anabel. Should have figured you would promote connections and growth. 

So I am placing this public again and will start with a little poem I wrote about a simple flower. It is "fluffy", but serves to remind us if our place in things.  

An interesting observation...

If happiness is about getting what you want, it appears that meaningfulness is about doing things that express yourself

I recently read this in an article. It was so interesting.  Part of this blog was to share, and yet I have also taken it down publicly. This makes me think about the change of expression that a blog implies and the holding back that taking it down accomplishes.  

A ten year old's train of thought...

My son is ten years old.  I would never call him "typical".  The following is a sotry he wrote sometime in October of 2013 for your enjoyment.

Wrestling is like two people get down and lean to each other and start to wrestle when the coach blows the wistle [sic] they will start wrestling and the coach will stay to see who will win the match who ever wins gets to face to face.  I hear people talking and playing game.  I feel a table and it has stuff like food or newpapers on it and books to read after supper.  I smell food on the table when I come in the house to play and eat supper.  I taste food and water in my mouth and I taste saliva and anything thats in my mouth.

Cool Nites.....

High grey clouds float in the cool sky
While all around the breezes fly
And thoughts and dreams are shared and crossed 
And leaves and smells are blown and tossed

The temperature is cool,
Not hot
The world is less a rock than not
Our lives are connected one and all
Our hopes and fears on a little ball

Of stardust.   Of imagination. Of love.  Of life
Of death and rebirth and of peace and strife
Of Mountains and clouds, of dark and lites 
But most of all, of cool ...
And Nites. 

Mist......

Light mist on a cool morning
Warm red sunset
White clouds in a blue sky. 

The beauty of everything around us

A soft sigh of lovers
The hearty laugh of friends
A giggle just because it feels good

The joy of life that sustains us

A new beginning
Freedom to choose and act
Peace, and unrest

The force of life within us. 

All things abide and all things change
Time and place just rearrange 

What we do with this life, and joy, and beauty is up to us. 

Imperfection....

Ideas are only half formed in my mind
It is like looking at an Escher or Picasso, where you only see in one dimension at any given point,
If you blur your eyes, or only view one slice or dimension, it all makes sense 

But as soon as the words are formed, they are wrong

Inaccurate

Imperfectly conveying or making an image that is both more complex and at the same time slipping away.  

I see clouds, but by the time I write that, the word conveys no texture, no meaning, no reality ... And the cloud is already gone. 

The same with love. 
I feel love, but by the time I form the thought, the feeling is more complex and at the same time it has changed and morphed into something different 

Still love, but imperfectly described by a simple four letter word. 

The Revolution will not be televised!
No, and I dare say it will not be spoken about, nor seen, nor heard except in the false way a persons life is boiled down to an obituary 

The words and the images are imperfect. 
The Revolution must be Lived!  
Each experience a fullness of life.

Rogue landscaping?

Check out this picture.  This is a bit of "rogue landscaping" noticed on a lamppost in Harrisburg, PA.  Now check out this...

Who says signs and lampposts have to be solely utilitarian?  Why can't we have some beauty also?  

Not quite on a par with graffiti, and probably more legal (although who knows), placing a knitted "cozy" in a public space or using the earth itself as "art" is certainly a subversive act that no one can really stop. 

I encourage everyone to plant some flowers in random public places, knit a lamppost cozy (or maybe some hats for random people if you just can't stop knitting). 

Let's bring some color to the world!  

NFU 4

     As I sit here and watch Bugs Bunny and listen to Kraaftwerk on the stereo one thing come to my mind, communication.  What do I hear?  Why do I miss some things?  It could be that I'm just stupid.  Or that I'm not paying attention.  Or ... it could be that I'm not supposed to notice.

That's right!

I'm not supposed to notice.

     Sometimes very important things seem to get lost in the multitude of information that is being fed to humanity today.  Bugs Bunny is good simply because the lack of any thing serious in it.  I don't pay attention or get anything out of it, but then I'm not supposed to.

     Kraaftwerk is good too, but wait a minute,
                           maybe I do get something out of them both!

     Some times I see Bugs as a picture of all humankind.  Ole Elmer chasin' round after Bugs, and Daffy always getting shot in the end.  Isn't that the way it always is?  Some third party always gets injured.

     And Kraaftwerk, the hypnotic beat doesn't seem to ever stop, am I being told never to stop?  Is this a critique, or a result of modern life?

There's really no way to tell.

     But then, if that's just the little I've learned consciously, God only knows how much was subliminally fed into my mine.
     Not enough time is spent indoctrinating the children.


...much later now, and I've learned that it's true.  There hasn't been enough time in my life for me to have learned everything I know.
But now that I relize the power of subliminal teaching, the question is how do I harness it and use it for my good.
I mean, as long as people are being taught subliminally, why have them memorizing old reruns of Gilligan's Isle?

NFU #3

THIS

Is an attempt at a more or less
       (more more than less)
                                                       decentralized type of
organization.

It shouldn't be terrific  ,
                                         or,
                                                anything  like that.
                                                                                  But,
                                             there's
no
                                             question
whether
its fun.

Essays from the Underground: #2

     For any purpose to be accomplished in a society organization is essential.  This is true no matter what the purpose.  Reactionary or actionary, Conservative or Liberal, or even purely static;  all purposes are dependent upon organization.  In a similar manner many organizations are products of the purposes they serve.

Is the cake done?

Ideas are only half formed in my mind

It is like looking at an Escher or Picasso, where you only see in one dimension at any given point,

If you blur your eyes, or only view one slice or dimension, it all makes sense 

But as soon as the words are formed, they are wrong

Inaccurate

Imperfectly conveying or making an image that is both more complex and at the same time slipping away. 

I see clouds, but by the time I write that, the word conveys no texture, no meaning, no reality ... And the cloud is already gone. 

The same with love. 

I feel love, but by the time I form the thought, the feeling is more complex and at the same time it has changed and morphed into something different 

Still love, but imperfectly described by a simple four letter word. 

The Revolution will not be televised!

No, and I dare say it will not be spoken about, nor seen, nor heard except in the false way a persons life is boiled down to an obituary 

The words and the images are imperfect.

 

The Revolution must be Lived! 

Each experience a fullness of life. 

Dashes and spaces.

I love graveyards, the rows and clumps of headstones, the quiet

No one bothers you in a graveyard, they are afraid you actually may tell them why you are there

It is not the deaths that facscinate me, although that is a story itself

It is all the lives represented by the stones

Each stone is a life - an artificial measurement between taking a first breath and taking a last

We all know life is a process beginning before the first breath and ending after the last. 

The heart beats before the first breath, and the cells continue to work even after death.  

But still we reduce a life to the dash between the dates.  Or even a space.  

Someone said a hole was just an empty space waiting to be filled

I say clutter is just a hole waiting to be discovered

Funny how lives most full can be just a dash, a space.  Or a hole

8/2/2013

Essays From the Underground: #1...

     I used to live in a free society.  The key phrase in that sentence is "used to live".  At one time, freedom, was respected and privacy was revered.  Persons in the United States were once free to be individuals.  In fact, it was the lack of personal and individual freedom which irritated the founding fathers so much that when the United States was formed these freedoms were given exalted status.
    To be sure, people were not free to commit rape, murder, and robbery.  But these were terrible crimes which no one person in society condoned.  Almost unanimously, these crimes were condemned by society and persons who committed them were punished.  The "Law of the West" not withstanding, murder and other crimes so strongly impinge upon the freedom of others that they cannot be tolerated.  These crimes were termed "malum in se" by lawyers and others who spoke Latin but had trouble expressing themselves in English.
     Soon however, the environment this personal freedom fostered became so prosperous and desireable that others flocked to the United States.  These others were not equipped to be responsible for themselves (and no one is suggesting people are now).  These people were used to following and did not wish to change their traditions and beliefs.  Not content to follow their own ideas in freedom, they were afraid that this new freedom would allow their children, and their children's children, and their spouses and friends to change their behaviour and actions.  Thus, in order ro preserve their world view, new laws were needed.  I am NOT speaking of laws "respecting religion" which are prohibited by the Constitution.  I AM speaking of laws which impinge personal freedom in the name of the police power.  They are well-known.  They are the ones that protect health, safety, welfare and morals.
     There are two types of police power laws.  There are those like the crimes mentioned before and similar laws such as those against drunken driving.  Again, the consequences of breaking these laws are so dire that limits had to be placed on the personal freedoms of individuals.  Then there are those like the laws against prostitution or the now-repealed law against drinking.  These laws protect no one but the person who is made the criminal by them.  The prostitute harms no one, except maybe him or herself, when the crime is committed.  A drinker who has a drink at home has only hurt him or herself, if anyone at all.
     The only possible harm to anyone only comes when these people come in contact with someone in a different way.  For example, when a prostitute transmits a communicable disease or the drinkier kills someone while driving drunk.  The law then, seems more logically to be one which makes it a crime to transmit the disease or drive drunk.  In other words, the crime should be that which causes the harm to the other's freedoms.
     But there lies the problem.  The writers of these laws are not attempting to address a harm to society.  They are trying to promote a world view that says prostitution is wrong, or drinking is wrong.  The facade of using the police power is justified by saying that the protection of the individual is protection of society.  The tenuous connection is the ripples through society when such a crime is committed, or when the ultimate results of continued such action occur.  The protection of the family and all that jaxx.  Another concrete example:  punishment of attempted suicide.  THere is a tenuous link to say the family is harmed and that the state has a vested interest in keeping it's citizens alive.  Even if it is only going to send them to die in a war.
     The question now must be asked, "what about the person or family which doesn't share the same view of this protection?"  The prostitute whose family is NOT shattered because a parent is a prostitute is NOT being protected.  Perhaps they share the world view of the prostitute, not the lawmakers.  The family of a drinker may not be abused, neglected, or ruined.  They may share the drinker's world view.  Crimes should be actions casing harm:  not actions which challenge the world view of the lawmakers.
     This ideal is not how the world now operates.  Many laws restricting personal freedoms are really protecting not concrete harms, but rather the emotional frailties of people sho cannot stand to have their was of thinking challenged.  To be sure, smoking can scientifically be linked to a harm caused by secondary smoke.  But can we say that by making it a criminla offense, by subjecting smokers to such degradation which may very well "rock the family", that we have PREVENTED a harm?  The REAL crime is in forcing others to passively smoke, not smoking itself.  Smoking marijauna was not even approached as a crime because of this type of harm.  Smoking marijuana was made a crime to protect the very families whose lives are daily and routinely ruined by making their members criminals and outcasts from society.
     No, I used to live in a free society, and I may again.  But for now I have to endure, and work against the imposition of someone else's ideas of freedom.    

Do you know...

Do you know
What dying means?
Have you lived
In a land of dreams?
Shadows fall
On the wall
That's all.

Shadows of the past
Drift by so fast.
Things that I've seen
Have never been.
Shadows fall
Oh so slow
Do you know?

Shadows yet to come
I don't know where from.
Things that I see
Things that will be.
Shadows rise
In the skies
Telling lies.

Do you know
What dying means?
Have you lived
In a land of dreams?
Shadows fall
On the wall
That's all.

Untitled 6/9/1982...

NOTE:  across the top of this writing were the words, "6-9-82   10:54 - Brand new watch.  Nice night!"

     Turn the page:  don't ask the question.

How many times must I ask to be alone before it happens?
How many times must I talk on the phone before I find the wrappins,
For the life I feel,
The needs I have,
And the life I crave.

When will the life and the life-giving force rage?
In order to being the best to life and the worst to ruin
To advance the thought and retard the death
Of all that is noble and true.

Freedom is but a state of mind,
Advanced by those in bondage.
Not part of my world and, I hope, not part of yours.
But reality, none the less.

Untitled 8/4/1979...

NOTE:  Most of the recent posts, including this one, were written years ago.  Most were notes to myself that I wanted to write about later, and never did.  I am publishing them here without any editing just for the fun of it.
     Why.  This statement has only one basic refute necessary.  Although others possibly can be used one can always be used and should require no further explanation. 
     This reply, or refute, etc. is, quite simply, why not?
     Basically the difference between these two is minimal.  The former asks for justification as to the reasons for something and the latter asks for justification as to the reasons against the same something.
     Both questions are actually unnecessary because if the person they are addressed to wished the asker of the question to have justification the former would simply have told the latter.
     Ever since man has learned to say why and understand it intelligibly some smart aleck has answered why not.  Isn't it time man realizes there are not always simple justifications as to the reasons for or against something and quits asking?  Every man should realize that the answer to why or why not might be a gut feeling and nor a logic of any sort.  Logic is a useful tool and if used as a means of evaluation it is priceless.  I must stress, thought, that the use of logic to justify something which one does not believe is a bad use and can only lead to trouble. 
     Now that I have expounded on the follies of why and why not, I believe I should also state that these two questions are also a basic part of human nature.  It is natural for a person ro ask these questions because humans are inquisitive and have been given the ability to reason.  Because of this ability, man has suppressed his primitive instincts and replaced them with logic.  Logic tells us that for every phenomenon there is a reason.
     I say, "Not so."  I don't believe everything that happens has a simple reason, or even a comlex one for that matter.  Maybe these [the text simply ends here.]

Untitled, 1978-1979

     -I can't do that, of course I can.  Yes that's what I want, it conveys better meaning.  Meaning in a graveyard scene?
     I saw the white gravestones rising from the ground and floating around my head.
     -Oh yeah!  meaning.
     They were covered with epitaphs and names.  I had a strange desire...
     -Funny I have a desire right now.  Food!  Where'd I put that sandwich?
     ...to look for mine.
     -Yes, MY sandwich.
     There's a dead tree there.  I remembered...
     -My sandwich.
     ...a tree like that where my dad put a swing.
     -If I can't eat it I'll write about it.
     My dad made it out of a breadbox and the ropes were from cords that hung beef in the butcher shop.
     -Ready made hamburg.  Very rare, though.
     I opened my eyes, I was not sure if I had been sleeping.  I was in a grave.  It had been dug newly, the ground was still wet.  I started sinking in the water...
    -Really, I'm thirsty after my hamburg.
     or rather, the water was rising up above me.  It was cold.  As it reached my head I started swimming.
     -Boy, this is wierd.
     Good thing the water came, I swam out of the grave.
    -"Pool."  Add humor.  Hah!  Why?
    It was a very small grave, possibly a child's.  In fact, I could almost see the child's small ghost guarding it.  The trees waved...
      -"Goodbye as if to mean you'll die," Oh, very poetique, I am SO fantastic
     .... Hello like the old witch in Hansel and Gretel.
     -Not peotique but better than being morbid.  That's another joke, avoid being morbid in a graveyard.
     Nearby, an old morgue stood abandoned with chain clanging spirits flying above.
     -I hope it's witches.  Chap. 1:  witches.  Women who ___ don't get ignorant, back to the story.
     They were spirits of the people whose bones now danced...
     -"Beneath the saves,"  That sounds like a sea story, waves of earth, that's better.
     ...beneath the waves of earth.  The earth was actually like waves, I almost felt seasick.
     -More and more like a sea story.
     They actually began undulating slightly and the ground looked much like water.
     -Walking on water, just like God.  Hard work makes you tired, I want a cup of coffee.  Where'd the maid leave that?  Left shelf, dummy.  Three tablespoonfuls per pot.  Use four, I like it strong.  I want a more comfortable chair.  Oh no! spilled.  Clean it up, back to the story, boring as it is,  Boring!  I should say perfect, after all, I an.  I can't create anything less than perfect.  Perfection's relative.  Year, heh, and I'm relatively perfect. 
     The moon turned a pale blue, and I felt a shudder.  The blueness of the moon against the pitch black sky cast a pervading blue mist over the graveyard.  The old gate creaked noisily in the soft Northern wind.  The wind howled.  Or was it a coyote perhaps.
     -Prob'ly a drunk.  They're going to think this is a master piece.  If only they could hear what I'm thinking.  If they could I'd be broke from now 'till my reincarnation.
     A crow landed on the mortuary's roof.  The morgue was dark and foreboding.  A huge iron door, which was chained shut, guarded the entrance.  Many times since then I have wondered why the necessity of the chain.
     -So do I.  Was it to keep things from getting in, or from getting out?  Leave it.  Let other people decide since I can't. 
     It was said the chain guarded the treasures within from those withour who would want the treasures found in a morgue while at the same time guarding those outside from the consequences of gaining those treasures. 
     -That's a petty way of getting out of it.  I'm so great I should have been a politician.  Criminal?  Analogous. 

How to Accomplish Anarchy...

The following post is a paper I wrote for no particular reason when I was about 17.  I would have been in 8th grade or so the year (yes, I am dating myself) would have been 1980.  It is possible it was 1978 or 79, but it really matters little.  I do not claim this has any great inherent value.  IN fact, parts of it I now disagree with completely.  I also apologize for the poor grammer.  However, the piece does give a glimpse into what adolescents at that time may have thought about the theory of anarchy.

Anarchy is a form of government in which government has no form.  This contradictory statement means simply that the only government in anarchism is the individual governing that people impose between themselves and without any organized structure.  This form, or rather lack of form, is seem by many as an ideal form of government.  The problem arises on how to affect the changeover from the exisitng forms of government to that of anarchism.  Anarchy can be accomplished by destroying the credibility of the existing forms of government, organizing the people into a political party based on pure democracy, and overthrowing the existing government by means of concensus.

The first step in establishing anarchy is to discredit the existing form of government and destroy any faith the people may have in it.  Propaganda is an essential tool.  One work in the right place can cause a person to lose faith in his government.  Capital manipulation is another good way to discredit the administration in power.  Controlling the wealth, or large blocs of this wealth, in order to cause inflated prices and bribe government officials coupled with propaganda blaming the inflated prices on the greed of the bribed official catering to special interest groups is a difficult blow for a government to recover from.  Many experiments in destroying credibility have become famous.  The inability of the Russian politburoto feed its people, the break in at the Watergate building in America, and the world wide problem of inflation are three of the most famous examples. 

The second step in accomplishing anarchy is the formation of the masses into a political party.  This party must have a loose form and in reality only has two rules:  everyone votes on everything and majority rules.  These two rules make the party purely democratic and allows a broad basis for the overrthrow of the existing government.  All that is needed is a maority to take control.  THis party should be ready at all times to vote and should have no fear of making decisions contrary to those of the existing government.  The best known examples of this organization, or disorganization, taking precedence is in the draft resistance during the Vietnam Was and the recent labor strikes in Poland. 

The final step toward anarchy is the actual overthrow of the existing government.  A majority of all of the members of the party must vote that the form of government in power at that time no longer have power.  The party members then proceed to actualize this by refusal to comply with the government policies and open defiance in strikes, demonstrations, and other forms of civil disobedience.  In case the government reacts violently the party should be prepared to overthrow and destroy the government by force.  It has been shown that existing governments can be smashed by miliraty force since ancient times and Mohatma Ghandi has shown the world how civil disobedience can topple a government.

The realization of an anarchical form of government is a long process often involving physical danger which should be undertaken only after considerable study and thought.  If all the steps are taken, in the proper order, for a revolution vefore it was demonstrated anything was wrong with the existing government woudl be senseless, anarchy can be accomplished.   

Another contradiction...

So I spent a whole post trying to make the reader envision a four dimensional model of... (of what?)... possibilities.  I started with the bell curve, proceeded to a three dimensional nipple, converted it into a three dimensional sphere, and then caused it to move in time and space.  But this, in and of itself, is nothing new.  It is complex, but not entirely outside of experience. We are familiar with something similar.  

But let's take a point on that ball. Every point on that ball is just another ball.  And every ball is just another point on a bigger ball.  This is also complex, but not outside of our experience.  It is the theory of each of our solar system being just an atom in the larger solar system.  I don't really want the reader to think about it that way, but I am trying to make it seem more concrete by using familiar examples.

So now take the balls within balls, points flowing in and out between balls and the balls all moving...

And realize these are only the construct and possibilities in YOUR imagination.  Each person, every animal, every blade of grass, every living thing (we can debate the guardrail theory of the living universe later)  has a set of possibilities.  They float around and bump into everyone else's possibilities.  In fact, they are not balls at all, but the balls stretch, elongate, flatten and fatten as they move.  As your range of possibilities are limited for whatever reason, or expanded for whatever reason, the shape of the constructs making up your world changes into unrecognizable shapes.  You could say they were no longer shapes at all....and you would be right.

In the smaller person, this means that decisions, actions and possibilities are not this or that, or even one side of a three dimensional continuum or not.  Rather possibilities are limited by what you can imagine as a possibility.

Of course, now you tell me, "But I cannot fly!"  True enough.  because in a more complex system possibilities are also limited by what OTHERS imagine as a possibility.  In its most elemental form this can take a physical shape, as when people are violent and limit the freedom, actions and possibilities of others.  In a more intellectual sphere it can include manipulation and coercion.  It could be unfeeling and unthinking.  The universe itself might just not have thought about us flying yet.  It doesn't really matter to some extent.  Some possibilities are foreclosed at some times.  The point also is some are opened at some times.

So back to the visuals. We now have possibilities that are floating around seemingly at random being pushed and pulled, and decisions and issues that no longer resemble in any way what we can imagine based on our understanding.  Think about it.  Who knows what the biggest problems were to the dinosaurs?  Their issues have been lost in the mists of time.  For years, people have worked on freeing their mind and imagining better futures.  Even working along those small cross sections of temporal issues that will disappear.  This is a good thing.  We all want to make our part of the universe as we perceive better and there is no higher purpose.

Or is there?  Based on this ebb and flow model, working within the confines of the cross sections of temporal issues does NOT anticipate the movement of the world.  It does NOT plan for anything "better", but only something marginally not worse than stagnation.  This is where it gets tricky.  We must identify and share possibilities.  We cannot simply theorize in our ivory castle.  We need to bump our thoughts into others and force our collective spheres of possibilities into an egg, a pancake, a decision tree with nodes and spikes and, ultimately, press it into the next collection of possibilities that it will inevitably become.

Part of that process is simply seeing the possibility.

Oh, and by the way, the trick is on you.  By the time you have read this....my world of possibilities has already forgotten it and moved somewhere else.  Thanks for listening.

Contradictions....

 My world is full of contradictions.  Or seeming contradictions.  Consider that the typical view of ideas, concepts, political positions, intelligence or pretty much anything is the “Bell Curve”.  A bell curve is defined as

a symmetrical bell-shaped curve that represents the distribution of values, frequencies or probabilities of a set of data.  It slopes downward from a point in the middle corresponding to the mean value, or the maximum probability.  Data that reflect the aggregate outcome of large numbers of unrelated events tend to result in bell curve distributions.  The Gaussian or normal distribution is a mathematically well-defined bell curve used in statistics and science generally. 

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.  This is a useful concept to define what is “mean”, “typical” or “(more value –laden) “normal”.

The interesting thing is that this bell curve also reflects our society.  The Yin and Yan, the right and left, and the polarization of issues.  It leads to the proposition that the middle can be defined only by and with reference to, the extremes.  The result of such a proposition is tension, struggle, and (in the best of circumstances) compromise.  This is a social practice of the philosophical thesis, antithesis and synthesis that most people can superficially relate to. 

I would like to challenge the reader with some thoughts.  Not yet fully formed, but half baking through my foggy brain.  Close your eyes and imagine no longer a bell curve, but a baby bottle nipple.  The very tip of the nipple is the “mean”.  The edges of the nipple represent the outlying “extremes”.  There are no longer two solutions, but are an infinite variation of solutions.  In fact, there are many more solutions in the three dimensional model than in the two dimensional.  The outlying solutions even have a greater relative number to the typical than found in the bell curve.  The relationship between extreme and typical is altered, although only slightly.  Of course, two solutions near each other on the edge are similar and “lumpers” will tend to argue they should be put together, but such is irrelevant for my purposes. 

Given this type reflection, we do violence to ourselves by foreclosing our options in a two viewpoint world.  It is not a question of right or wrong, but of where on a continuum do we want our actions to be?  Applying this to driving a car, it is not whether we drive a car or not and where on the bell curve do we fall with the amount of car use we are willing to accept.  Rather, there are legs, bicycles, motorcycles, busses, trains, planes and automobiles and the individual mix of use may depend not only on the curve of what you are willing or able to use, but on the circumstances surrounding the situation (one wants to get to a hospital FAST, as opposed to simply enjoying some scenery around the yard or neighborhood). 

A simple concept, but hard to grasp in practice as it can always be lumped or reduced to two choices.  Not a subject here, but I would suggest that is short sighted.  A military survival manual once instructed me that when faced with a problem, you should come up with three solutions.  Less, and you ignore facts.  More and there is too much to make a decision.  While I may not agree totally, this illustrates the fact that too much lumping simply does not meet the needs of society. 

Now, I would like to challenge the reader further.  Close your eyes again.  The nipple now closes upon itself and becomes a ball.  The edges are the outer surface, and the “mean” is the middle.  Denser and heavier in the middle, more spread out and loosely connected on the outer edge.  The range of options has now expanded dramatically.  We have put decision making in three dimensions.  Right and left have become irrelevant.  One still defines the normal by reference to the outside in the sense that you cannot find the middle without the extremes.  This is really just an extension of the nipple, but one I think about for a reason.  It has three dimensions.  It is not yet too far outside our realm of thinking. 

Finally, take the last leap.  Put the ball in the fourth dimension of space time.  THE BALL MOVES!  The middle and the edges flow inward and outward.  They are not static.  The yin and the yan are inextricably the same.  As the ball moves whole new ideas which were not within the original ball are covered, and whole modes of thinking are no longer part of the ball.  Ideas grow which were never thought of before and old ideas disappear from reality.  The “norm” is not static in any way. 

Critics may say my thoughts reduce things to relativism.  I tend to think not.  There is, after all, still a ball in space.  But is it not much more difficult to argue, or even hate, an idea or person when you realize that the idea or person is temporal?  Is it not easier to accept other people, other ideas, and discard things that are no longer useful when you see that it is a normal part of the universe?  And in so doing any negative feelings that normally accompany such things also are temporal and can be put in perspective. 

Think of any problem you need to deal with, get away from yes or no, in or out, on or off.  Open yourself to the world of possibilities and see if there is something different that works for you and know that if it works for you, it is not wrong. 

Peace, and unrest.

Who is an anarchist to tell you what to do?

I am sitting here on my front porch at 8:39 on the evening of June 1, 2013.  It is only now truly bearable to be outside, as it was a very hot day.  The third of three hot days.  It was probably only 92 or 93 today e in Harrisburg, PA.  But to me, at 50 years old, that is some of the hottest weather I remember this early in the year.  Especially three days in a row.  It is still getting cold at night, so I have little room to complain, but I do make the observation.

I would like to start out by saying I have a gas mower, I am strongly considering an electric mower.  I am driving to Philadelphia tomorrow.  Our home has two LP gas fireplaces and a heat pump.  We do have a solar hot water heater, we also have an electric back up.  Of course, since we use well water, we need a well pump.  All of that is by way of telling the reader, that my family and I are by no means divorced from society.  We are not "off the grid".  We do not live a no-impact lifestyle.  In fact, my electric bill comes every month telling me I use more energy than 60 or 60 percent of my neighbors (never mind most of them are two person empty nester households and we have a teenage daughter and 9 year old son).

But I am also in the midst of a long term experiment with reel mowers.  First, of all, reel mowers are NOT for everyone.  It is not that they are that difficult to use, per se.  In fact, the 16 pound reel mower is probably easier to push around the hill that is our yard than the self-propelled gas mower.  But it does require a fair amount of raw muscle power in muscles I do not normally use (the shoulders and lower back in particular).  In addition, it requires a fair amount of maintenance to keep it sharp.  Finally, a reel mower requires an investment in time.  It simply takes longer to mow the grass.  Almost directly this is a product of the fact a muscle powered mower is smaller than a gas powered one.  The cutting deck is 16 inches as opposed to 22 inches.  It takes a little over 2 hours instead of a little over one hour to mow the yard.  For those who do not have the time, this investment is not acceptable.  FOR ME, when I do not have the time, this will not be acceptable.  As it gets dark earlier, mowing will become increasingly difficult.

On the up side, it is the best workout I ever got without working out.  I do not go to the gym on the days I mow.  Or the day after.  In addition, it is so quiet, I can actually carry on a conversation or listen to a podcast while I am mowing.  This also means that if I chose to mow in the early morning (when it is not so hot) or at night, I would not annoy the neighbors.  Finally, using a reel mower gives me a chance to think.  Yes, for two hours while mowing, but also NOW.  Right here.  I am still reaping the benefits by recognizing I am not tied to fossil fuels.  I do not HAVE to sit in the air conditioning all the time.  I do not HAVE to drive a car everywhere.

Oh!  I have written before about my days not driving.  Well, today was another.  Not only did I not drive, but I also did not even get IN a car.  I did not sit at home being a hermit and Luddite.  I went and filled a prescription, rode to my office, went to Fort Hunter Park and played with my son and came home.  Nineteen miles in all.  Could have gone more, but I had nowhere to go.

So.....I come to the title of this blog.  I am anarchist in theory.  I like to believe people will take care of people and will do the right things without a government telling them what to do.  Someone recently told me that coercion never makes lasting change, only understanding.  Since governments are inherently coercive, I have little use for them.  I am not AGAINST them, necessarily, just don't really see much point.  Thomas Jefferson is credited with saying "The Revolution was won, before the war began."  Truth is all around us if we know where to look.

So do not listen to me tell you what to do.  I cannot.  Change, if there is to be change, has to come from within.  There have to be more of us sitting at night thinking how it is hotter than it used to be and how good it is to feel a relationship with work, and to feel the happiness of slowing down on a bike or walking.  No there is nothing an anarchist can tell you........

.......but maybe, if you are willing to slow down and look around, I can show you.

Don't drive Day....Part II....

OK, so I felt a little smug.  I thought, I won't ride in a car this Sunday.  I had it all planned out, I would ride my bike to church, I would hang around the house, dinner plans with a couple down the road. 

Well, the day before, this 50 year old man went running.  Now, I run from time to time.  I can run a good 5k with no problem.  I can run a 10k.  I can run 10 miles.  But what I did was, I ran 17 miles.  What in the world possessed me, I don't know.  I had company, it was slow and pleasant.  However, did I mention I am 50?  Oh boy, did I pay the next morning.

The next morning, the Don't Drive Sunday, I awoke to rain.  I wanted to go to church to honor some high school graduates, one of whom was the daughter of a friend of mine.  I could not ride.  Heck, I had trouble walking.  So I accepted a ride in my wife's hybrid.  Now I could have felt really bad, and I was not happy.  However, I also knew there was nothing I could do about it. 

I took solace in the fact it was a hybrid.  I did not ride, drive or use a car the rest of the day.  I even carried a crock pot full of soup down the hill for dinner.  Just as importantly, I spent two nights using a reel mower (no gas, electric, or whatever) to mow our 1/3 acre lot.  Saved about a gallon of gas.  Probably more than my wife's hybrid used to take us to church. 

So although do not drive day was not perfect, the idea was.  It was intentional.  It forced me to think about my fossil fuel consumption (the wife in the couple at dinner took great delight in turning the lights on and saying "Now you are using fossil fuels" and then turning them off and saying "Now you are not"!).  All in all I feel this is the greatest success of all.  I cannot simply stop the world and go back to the stone age.  Nor would I want to.  But I can be mindful. 

I cannot wait for the next great experiment!

Don't just vote ... COMPLAIN!

I have been reading the usual spate of writers telling you that if you don't vote, you shouldn't complain.  Well, that seems downright un-American. Remember, the whole War for Independence (or "revolution" depending on where you stood) was about complaining without voting. Also inalienable rights. Inalienable whether one votes or not.

And what about people who pay taxes but cannot vote?  They contribute.  Why can't they have a say in how the money is wasted?  I think Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson would say they should.

It seems to me, it is one's duty and obligation to complain about injustice.  I refuse to believe that a prerequisite for complaining is casting a vote for a Republicrat, bought and sold by the same people. Or even voting for a third party and being coopted and marginalized. 

Dissent is alive and well and no amount of self congratulations about voting can change that.  I VOTE.  And I welcome complainers, dissenters, protesters and people of all kind to the public debate. What are we afraid of?

Money is a Tool....Part II...

Money is power.  Or so the saying goes.  The problem is, we have lost sight of the fact there are numerous other ways to gain and hold power.  There is the power of the ballot box.  There is the power of religion, of organization and the power of ideas.  All of these latter powers have one great difference with the "power" of money.  That is that each one is personal to the person or organization utilizing the power.  Money is completely and utterly fungible.  It can be used to finance water treatment systems for refugees or to buy cocaine.

True enough, horrible things have been done in the name of religion.  Union organizations have created problems for the very workers they were to protect.  And ideas can be utterly wrong.  However,the purpose of religion, organization and ideas is universally positive.  Not in the sense that positive is right, legal and moral.  But positive in the sense that religion, organization and ideas are meant to promote some general idea.  Money, on the other hand, is completely lacking in any ambition.  It is only something to be used or not.

I previously discussed the fallibility of collecting billions of "tools" instead of actually using the tool.  Now I would like to consider the fallibility of money as power.  The thing is, money itself is nothing more than a measurement.   It is an imperfect approximation of value.  True power lies in the importance that the citizens give to money.  If the people of the world give value, then money has the value it is given.  Consider, if all the people of the world simply decided not to accept the value of money, then it would be worthless.

Now, we all know that is unlikely.  Getting 20 people to accept the value of money as worthless would be quite a feat.  But, consider the concept that a large group of people exercising their power of religion, organization and ideas could use money to their advantage.  For instance, during the depression and throughout World War II, citizen consumers used the power of not purchasing from some businesses to force those businesses to hold prices and to hire African Americans.  Essentially, they used their "money" to support their organizations and ideas. To be clear, religious organizations played a key role in many of these activities, as they did in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

For reasons I cannot currently explain or understand, we have lost this sense.  It seems that Americans are totally different in most aspect except one.  Americans value individuality and the concept of the free market so much they are willing to give up the greatest powers they have to organizations that neither share their values, nor have any morals or ethics.

It is time Americans began to use their power again.  Climate change is an opportunity.  Stop mindlessly using fossil fuels.  If we all just quite driving for one day....but that is the subject of a different story.  However, there are many other opportunities to make a statement using money.  Refuse to invest in fossil fuels.  Switch electric suppliers to a "clean energy" alternative.  Use public transportation.  Do not purchase things wrapped in huge amounts of needless plastic and request the stores you shop in to change suppliers.  No one is suggesting we freeze.  But recognizing when we are using fossil fuels and when we do not is a huge step.  Saving those fossil fuels is even bigger. 

Another opportunity is reforming the political finance system.  Find out who the big donors are.  Stop using their products and divest our 401(k)s of their stocks.  Even if it these actions are simply done for a short while or by a select group, the message will be given and received.  A recent story told of EQT shareholders who questioned whether their donations to political campaigns really raised the company's bottom line and increased their dividends and value.  These questions should be made obselete. 

The key to both of these exercises of power is to make sure that there is a clear link up of the message to the action.   There is power in organization.  There is also power in decentralized organization and individual action.  Using the tool of money in ways such as outlined above, each of us individually can contribute a little, or a lot, to an organization that never needs to meet, has no leaders and cannot therefore be attacked.  In other words, we simply vote with our dollars.

This is the real power of money.  Unfortunately, we have become all too accustomed to abdicating this power to the sexiest advertising campaign.  I urge us to think and find ways to exercise our power to achieve the world we want, rather than simply investing in what we are offered.  Add any ideas to this blog, meet each other in private messages and start something.  We owe it to ourselves.

TAR SANDS IN THE US....

Anyone who has followed the Keystone XL environmental disaster knows the environmental damage caused by mining and refining tar sands.  One gallon of oil is used to make every three.  The land is decimated as bad as a large strip mine.  The tarbit is transported under extreme pressure and is not taxed due to a loophole in the law. 

Now it is being proposed to occur in the US, as well as Canada. salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50874/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=7989  The fossil fuel industry is not interested in retrofitting to clean energy.  They are not interested in the 90 percent of scientists who agree climate change is occurring or the 82 percent who believe human activity is a contributing factor.  (This is based on a 2009 survey of more than 3,000 scientists by the University of Illinois researcher Peter Doran.) 

We cannot all attend everything, but consider getting involved.  It is time we act in our own best interests.  Even if you are among one of the persons on the fence about climate change (and some people may legitimately be), it is still clear that we are rapidly reaching the point where technology is costing more in terms of environmental damage and quality of life that the fossil fuel energy we are gleaning.  We need to move toward a sustainable and renewable energy grid. 

My personal "Do Not Drive" Day.....

Today, I did something out of the ordinary for me.  I did not drive.  In fact, I did not get in a car.  By the way, my son almost made it, too.  But he is nine and was extremely tired and did accept a ride of two miles home from the playground with a neighbor.  I can't say I blame him.  In some ways, filling the car was a responsible thing to do. 

Such a day is not unique.  Although for the life of me, I can't think of a day when I haven't at least been in a car.  Nonetheless, I am sure there have been other days like this, but it is not the norm. 

So, what did we do?  What did we learn?  Well, we relaxed in the morning.  We read, watched TV, ate, watched the animals outside, generally had a good low key time.  Then, early in the afternoon, we decided to take a bike ride with no general place in mind.  We stopped at a neighbor's house and played with their kids for awhile, then rode with some other neighbors to a local park where there was a festival. 

The festival was wonderful!  We saw snapping turtles (they are BIG), tadpoles (they are small) and frogs and snakes and other stuff.  We talked to a woman who walked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia through Tennessee, Kentucky, North Caroline and Virginia.  She and her husband took off three months to do this together.  I asked her what kind of job she had that she could do that and she explained that they both were employed and had to save up vacation and negotiate the time with their employers but - and here is the important part - if there is something you really want to do, you will find a way to do it. 

Wow.  There's a lesson. 

We biked to a local pizza place where we met up with the neighbors and had dinner.  We learned that all that riding can make you tired, hungry and thirsty.  Ok, so fuel is fuel.  But in general I think food is better fuel than oil. 

However, lesson learned.  You simply cannot live without fuel of some sort. 

We then went across the street to my son's school where we had a wonderful time playing at his playground.  I learned that bikesketball (a sort of basketball played on bikes) is both exhilarating and a little dangerous.  I also realized there really was nothing else at that moment that I would rather have been doing.  To say it was nice is an understatement.  Simply playing outside on a beautiful day was almost the only thing one really could do of true value.  As someone who is rarely "content", this was superbe. 

I also learned the limitations.  I could not get ice cream home on my bike.  It simply would melt.  I could not ride to get a large shopping order at all.  It would be simple enough to get one or two things, but a week's worth of groceries would not be easy.  That fuel thing again, but in a different way. 

I could not have added a quick trip to the library.  It is too far away.  I could not haul topsoil in to fill up the tracks in my yard from the tractor that removed the tree this winter.  Of course, if I had driven to do any of those things far from home, I would have missed the opportunities close at hand in the local park and the local playground. 

So I guess there is still room for some other kinds of fuel in my life.  It would be nice to say I learned I could do without a car, without driving, etc.  But that is not yet true.  But learning the simple happiness of being without one for awhile can be freeing. 

Patriot News Article April 23, 2013 "The Force of Green"...

The article on Tuesday, April 23, 2013 regarding the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry view of green energy (The Force of Green http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/04/for_business_climate_change_ho.html ) was informing. We now know that the Chamber's view of Green Energy is that it should compete in the marketplace with fossil fuels, particularly natural gas. Of course, the relative regulatory and tax structure favoring fossil fuels is ignored.  The Chamber decries the slowness of coal fired power plant permits, but the article ignores the reasons. The Chamber states that electricity rates have lowered due to shale gas, when the PUC's website indicates rates will rise in August. The Chamber indicates there is a rising petrochemical industry in Pennsylvania. Far from building infrastructure and jobs in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania is a net gas exporter. The Chamber's representative inaccurately stated there is a "lack of concensus" in the scientific community that humans are responsible for global warming. The article should have challenged these statements with balanced viewpoints. The Citizen's Climate Lobby and the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters both have local representatives and can be easily searched online.

Articles such as this do a disservice to readers.  Without opposing viewpoints and fact based reporting, citizen consumers cannot make informed decisions about what to believe and what choices to make.They cannot understand the depth of the fossil fuel miasma we are in, nor can they appreciate the results of their choices to pay for clean energy, buy higher mileage vehicles or energy efficient appliances.  We get what we pay for, and if we hear only one side about how Pennsylvania's future lies with fossil fuels, we will continue to pay for last century's limited fuel source. 

Landowner rights in the Commonwealth in jeopardy from gas company...

Gas companies are running rampant all over the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  For the most part, these are companies in search of profits, and while one can blame them or not, that is the free market system.  However, the gas companies have become reckless.  They have begun to claim that they are above the law of contracts.  Their mantra has been that if they "own" the oil and gas, they have a "right" to access that oil and gas in any manner THEY deem reasonable.

This belief is based on an interpretation of the case of Belden and Blake v. Commonwealth, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, 600 Pa. 559, 969 A.2d 528 (Pa. 2009).  Belden and Blake was about a Commonwealth agency trying to exert powers over and above those of a private landowner under the guise of Pennsylvania's Environmental Amendment. The court found in favor of the gas company, but cited Chartiers Block Coal Company, 152 Pa. 286, 25 A.597 (Pa. 1893) for the proposition that an oil and gas owner has a right to access their reserves.

The problem is, Chartiers Block did not involve a surface owner, or even a question of split estates.  Chartiers Block was a lawsuit by an owner of a coal estate to stop an owner of oil and gas estate from drilling through the coal to reach the oil and gas.  A lower court Chancellor, noting the difficulties of the decision, decided to allow the oil and gas estate to be accessed, noting that any damage could be paid for later.  The Court was troubled by its holding, stating:

This is a new question, and one that is full of difficulty.  The discovery of new sources of wealth, and the springing up of new industries which were never dreamed of half a century ago, sometimes present questions to which it is difficult to apply the law, as it has heretofore existed.  It is the crowning merit of the common law, however, that it is not composed of ironclad rules, but may be modified to a reasonable extent to meet new questions as they arise.  This may be called the ‘expansive property of the common law.’  Mining rights are peculiar, and exist from necessity, and the necessity must be recognized, and the rights of mine and land owners adjusted and protected accordingly.

Id., at 294, 295.

The Supreme Court, on appeal, noted these problems, adopted the findings of the Chancellor and refused to disturb the decision on appeal.  This is not a resounding decision that oil and gas estate owners have a "right" to access oil and gas, as referenced in the dicta of Belden and Blake.

In fact, these cases really have nothing to do with the intent of the parties, or the protection of a ladowner's right to contract.  Chartiers Block turned on the balancing of competing rights in portions of the subsurface estate and Belden and Blake turned on the fact the Commonwealth as a landowner enjoyed no more rights than a private landowner.  But in neither case did the courts address a situation where a landowner specifically limited the estate granted to an oil and gas company.    

Despite these facts, the oil and gas industry has decided to push this alleged "right" to the hilt.  Knowing that most landowners cannot afford to fight back, the oil and gas industry has drilled first and dared landowners to sue.  One very well known company has even challenged the Commonwealth to file suit to stop it from drilling.  When the Commonwealth indicated it did not agree with the position of the company, the company decided it would drill from off the property in dispute.  They went so far as to permit a well two properties away (so they would not have to give notice under DEP regulations).  When the Commonwealth sued, the company had the temerity to argue that a restriction on methods of production stating that only methods ordinarily in use in 1928 could be used actually was to protect the "surface owner" from the methods in use in 1850.  Of course, gas was not discovered until Drake's well in 1859.

The Supreme Court in Chartiers Block cried out for a legislative solution.  Perhaps it is now time for the people of the Commonwealth to demand their rights to contract and protect themselves from the gas companies.  Gas companies should not be given super powers (any more than the Commonwealth) to walk all over landowners and dare landowners to sue to stop the gas company.  Gas companies are not above the law.  If gas companies improperly act and are challenged, they should be penalized.  Attorney's fees should be allowed to give incentive to attorneys to represent landowners who often are land rich and cash poor.  Common law nuisance should be utilized when "tremors" shake the ground. 

The gas companies have money to take care of themselves.  Exxon Mobile was the number one company in 2012.  Google the amount of campaign contributions these companies make.  The number is so high that EQT shareholders are actually questioning if it is prudent.

If you are a landowner in the Commonwealth, you are at risk. Associate with other landowners, become vigilant discuss these issues with your legislators.  There is too much to lose if we abdicate our private property rights to gas companies.