TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES - 2 August 2011

2nd August, 2011  
As a married couple and as collaborating artists, we are committed to truth and honesty. The former, of course, is open to enquiry; the latter is, I believe, a prerequisite for love and the foundation of reality. Either you are or are not doing, feeling, acting or thinking a particular thing.  Believe me, I am searching for clarity here!

It seems to me that truth lies in the moment - if you'll pardon the pun. E.g., it is raining now.Today is Tuesday. I am in Italy. And so on. Truth, in this manner equals facts, and as such is relatively easy to tell making honesty  easy to come by.  If however, I tell you I couldn't keep my lunch date with you because the rain caused all transportation to cease then I am lying, notwithstanding the rain. 

What am I trying to say? It has something to do with how we manipulate truth in order to avoid the pain of inconvenient feelings. For instance, while I have tried to be honest about that which I have communicated in these posts, I have not told you the complete truth. Why? Partly because we have been trying to seek out that which is beautiful in our daily lives, in order to give a sense of hope. But I realize that is false hope if not balanced with the whole truth. What I have not said is that everywhere we go people are communicating their fear about where our world is heading. I mean, really, everyone is talking about this: in the butchers, the fruit and vegetable shop, the farmers and retirees on the streets of our village, in the towns and cities, at the dinners I recently spoke of and at Gianni's house almost daily. We are all talking about the fragile state of the global economy, the dangerous state of global warming, and the pitiful state of government

I'm not one of the 2012 doomsday believers - although who am I to argue with the Mayan calendar? - but it would seem to me that many people, all over the world, in all walks of life, are coming to their senses. Or perhaps I should say, are willing to come to their senses as long as they have company. Hence one of the meanings of "common sense."  And yet common sense seems to be in short supply amongst our politicians and leaders.

It would seem to me that fear and common sense while usually running in opposite directions are nonetheless easily corralled. And of course where there is fear there is denial, and where there is denial there is no space for truth and therefore no common sense.

Over the course of the last few decades, perhaps starting with the shock of JFK's assassination - and there is nothing like shock to dull the senses - the growth of corporate power and its take-over of politics and the media has allowed the ability of a few to terrify the many. (While "feeding" them corn by-products and sugar further paralyzing already frightened brains, giving new meaning to corporate takeover.)

I realize I'm treading on very thin ice here as I am not an authority on any of the above, but common sense tells me we are in deep trouble. Yet lately I am becoming heartened. Not because I think we can avert whatever crisis is coming our way - be it financial collapse, earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear and biological warfare or some combination thereof - but because I'm seeing in these recent and ongoing conversations the possibility of a fair portion of humanity, by willingly admitting to the oncoming crisis, readying themselves to deal with the consequences. And at this point, unless you are already off the grid and have stockpiled ammunition there will be consequences.

So, why do I find myself comforted right now? Because in these daily interactions with all and sundry whom we engage in conversation I am experiencing something akin to the first, approximately, 3 weeks after 9/11, when to be in NYC was to experience communal caring and compassion. In what seemed then like a never-ending stretch of suspended time but which was in fact just a few short weeks, everyone spoke to everyone with genuine concern. It didn't matter who it was; the taxi driver, the shopkeeper, the cashier, the waiter, the banker, the lawyer, every situation where 2 strangers encountered each other prompted the same response: "Are you all right?  Did you lose anyone?"

This communal caring gave us all a glimpse of what life might be like lived in such a loving way. It was a powerful force that could have been built upon. Unfortunately we were also terrified. You could not sit at table with friends and family without the entire conversation being about "what to do?" Should we get gas masks? Tape for the windows? Stockpile food? Which would be the best exit out of the city when the next attack came? It was hard to know where the line between common sense and paranoia lay. And in rare cases these questions provided a good laugh. Such as when a friend who sometimes had to take car service or a taxi over the Brooklyn Bridge was afraid that the driver might have a bomb in the trunk ready to be detonated midway over the bridge, another friend suggested she start going to work with a suitcase that she could insist on putting in the trunk herself at which point she could give it the once over!

Most of our questions had no answers. Common sense told us there was no way of knowing how, what, where or when another attack would arrive. Best to, as the Brits used to say in WWII "Stay Calm and Carry On." And I think we all understood implicitly that the "carry on" part meant not only with work and chores but with loving and supporting each other. But, as I said, under it all we were terrified. And the power of terror is in how it infantalizes us, so that we will do whatever a "parental" figure tells us to do in the belief that it will make the boo-boo better. So, when Bush the Junior told us to shop, by golly we did. When he and his cronies said we must invade Afghanistan most of us agreed. As did, if we're to be honest, the majority of Americans believe that Iraq was responsible for 9/11 so lets go to war there, too.

Common sense went out the window and became the common lie. Common sense had told we New Yorkers that there was nothing more important than caring for each other and breaking bread together. (Common sense also told some of us that the terrorism of 9/11 and other terrorist acts would never be solved by arbitrary wars but by counter-intelligence, but by now we had all become speed junkies - counter-intelligence takes time and patience.) But to be willing to not take misguided, impetuous action would also have meant being willing to experience our helplessness - which, if truth be told, is what we are most of the time anyway. Whereas if we went shopping, we could pretend we were helping the economy, when really what we were doing was funding 2 wars. By going to war we could tell ourselves we were courageous and we could believe what we wanted to be true, instead of what was really the truth, which is that we aren't safe. Nor ever have been. Really, do you think it was less terrifying back in the dark ages when your neighbor chased you across the tundra with a spiked truncheon?

I saw a headline recently that blared something like "Al Qaueda Is Diminishing".  As though that was good news. Joel and I had a good laugh over that. The truth is Al Qaeda doesn't need to terrify us anymore. Mission Accomplished. Diabolically brilliant, they hit us where it hurts the most: 2 darts right into the bull's eye of the Almighty Dollar. And we've been falling and failing ever since.

What to do?  Frankly I don't know. We're coming to our senses too late to reverse what's coming, I think. But I do know that when it comes I'd like to be part of the tribe I belonged to on September 11, 2001: the tribe that helped each other, fed each other, loved each other. I do believe that love is a more powerful force that hate. I do believe we can grow the loving tribe. And I believe we do this by talking to each other, by telling each other the truth: that we are frightened, that we need each other.

I recently finished a book wherein the main character was dead throughout the whole novel. Her character was gradually brought to life by those in the community who had known her. She was someone who always did the right thing in any given situation until the last right thing she did was rewarded by a bullet in the back of the head in a concentration camp.

I don't know if I'm capable of that kind of courage, but I have decided to take a small risk and share these thoughts with those of you who have been so loyally following our blog. You could say we are a tribe of sorts and as such I invite you to comment on this somewhat disjointed and far from resolved essay. Your thoughts, feelings, beliefs and honesty would be comforting.  And who knows, could lead to positive action.

P.S  Since I wrote this piece I have had further conversations with 3 people who all said they would like to become more active but don't know where to start.  And then yesterday I received an email from a friend urging me to forward it to at least 20 people.  I am attaching the body of the email below. I would further suggest that it would be important to send this email to your local congress person as well as to anyone you might know in the media. With thanks. 

Subject: WE MUST DO THIS

No matter what your political party, I think we are all pretty sick of Congress's shenanigans.  Maybe if they were brought down a peg, they might feel more like taking better care of the American people instead of themselves and their next election chances.  I think this email is filled with excellent ideas, so I am passing it on. 

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971... Before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc. 

I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise. 

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around. 

Congressional Reform Act of 2011 

1. No Tenure / No Pension. 
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office. 

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. 
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do. 

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. 

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people. 

6. Congress must equally abide byall laws they impose on the American people. 

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. 
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work. 

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people, it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe it is time. 

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!
If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete. You are one of my 20+. Please keep it going