Dec 29, 2011

From Endings, New Beginnings

“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” ~Oscar Wilde


 As 2011 draws to a close, I shudder at the depth & magnitude of what has happened/is happening to our society/world & what may await us in the year(s) to come. On a personal level, I am thankful for being here right now - breathing, thriving  & forever hoping - and pray that we can all escape the vortex of turmoil, greed, manipulation for power and possession & avarice. It's hard for me to be optimistic about what's going on in the world right now, but I will remain a prisoner of hope. I end the year & begin the new on the wise words of the great Uruguayan writer/poet, Eduardo Galeano. In many ways, his vision of a better world in this poem prefigured the countless souls the world over who dare challenge the madness of our condition :-


 The Right To Dream (slightly abridged)

Although we cannot imagine the time to come, 
At the very least we have the right to imagine how we would like it to be.
In 1948 and 1976 the United Nations proclaimed extensive declarations of human rights; 
But the vast majority of humanity possesses no rights other than those of 

watching, listening and remaining mute. 

What would it be like if we began to exercise the never proclaimed right to dream? 
What if we raved without constraints for a while?

Let us fix our eyes beyond infamy and imagine a possible world.

The air would be cleansed of all pollution, 
Except that which emanates from human fear and human passions.
In the streets automobiles would be run over by dogs;
People would neither be driven by cars nor programmed by computers 
Nor bought by supermarkets nor stared at by TV’s. 
The television would cease to be the most important member of the family; 
It would be treated like the iron or the washing machine.
People would work to live instead of living to work. 
The crime of stupidity would be added to the penal code, a crime committed by those 
Who live to accumulate or hoard rather than simply to live.


Economists will no longer measure standards of living by levels of consumption 
Nor the quality of life by how many things one owns. 
Cooks will no longer imagine that lobsters enjoy being boiled alive. 
Historians will no longer believe that countries appreciate being invaded. 
Politicians will no longer conclude that the poor are happy eating promises.
Solemnity will no longer be considered a virtue, 
& no one will take anyone seriously who cannot laugh at him or herself.
Death and money will lose their magic powers, 
& neither through death nor fortune will the criminal become a sainted knight.
The world will no longer go to war against the poor but against poverty. 
& the weapons industry will be forced to declare itself bankrupt.


Food will no longer be considered merchandise because food is a human right. 
No one will die of hunger because no one will die of obesity. 
Street children will no longer be treated as if they are garbage 
Because there will no longer be children living in the streets.
Rich children will no longer be treated like gold, because there won’t be any rich children. Education won’t be the privilege of those who can buy it. 
The police won’t be the curse of those who cannot buy them. 
Justice and freedom, those Siamese twins condemned to separation, 
Will finally be rejoined, back to back and inseparable.

The Church will also dictate another commandment, one that God forgot: 

"You will love nature, of which you are a part." 

The world’s deserts will be replanted, along with the deserts of the heart. 
We will be the compatriots and contemporaries of all those willing to work for justice&beauty, No matter where they were born or where they live. 
The frontiers of maps and of time will become meaningless. 
Perfection will continue to be the boring privilege of the gods,
But in this clumsy and messed up world, 
each night will be lived as if it were the last 
...& each day as if it were the first......







OneLove

:::MME:::

Dec 20, 2011

Peace & Good Tidings To You

M.M.E's Christmas Songbook II by MixMaster E on Grooveshark

Also check out the following Xmas selections by St. Lucia's own, Ronald Boo Hinkson & The Tru-Tones:
Boo Hinkson & The Tru-Tones - Happy Holidays from St Lucia by MixMaster E on Grooveshark



Pentecost

Better a jungle in the head
than rootless concrete.
Better to stand bewildered
by the fireflies' crooked street;

winter lamps do not show
where the sidewalk is lost,
nor can these tongues of snow
speak for the Holy Ghost;

the self-increasing silence
of words dropped from a roof
points along iron railings,
direction, in not proof.

But best is this night surf
with slow scriptures of sand,
that sends, not quite a seraph,
but a late cormorant,

whose fading cry propels
through phosphorescent shoal
what, in my childhood gospels,
used to be called the Soul.



Aah yes....Given that I am away from the warm, festive delights of my beautiful island of St. Lucia this season, I chose the above poem by St Lucia's very own Nobel Laureate, Derek Walcott, out of a sense of deep nostalgia. This is primarily a poem about the nature of belonging. The Christmas season embodies this need to belong to something bigger than oneself (God, family, land...). Not to downplay the beauty of snow and the warmth of being inside with loved ones or playing outside in the snow, this poem highlights the power of the Caribbean sea/land on one's soul. For Walcott, and I would gather for many people of Caribbean descent, there is a strong contrast between spending Christmas in a cold Northern metropolis & spending it in the wild freedom of an island's landscape surrounded by childhood friends & family. Of course, Walcott's genius frames this contrast in the most beautiful way that few can imitate. 


I sincerely wish you all a safe, deeply meditative & enjoyable Christmas season and an auspicious 2012. 


OneLove


::::MME::::

Dec 18, 2011

Poet's Nook: "Tron" by Ursula Rucker











I was thinking
I want to do away with
the Technology Section of the newspaper
All talk of new-fangled/bigger/faster thingamajigs
I want the world to slow down

                                    look around
                                          take notice
To who's standing /living /breathing /struggling
Right next to you 

And i know this sounds like a naive old-fashioned pipe dream 
But I just can't stand how machines move forward
                      while people stand still


Are cell phones gonna bring about world peace?
Or stop the negative shit that happens in the street?
I realize we cannot escape or halt technological advance
But can we balance humanity with machinery?
Can we find a way to talk /to see /to spend time with each other
                         face to face
                        voice to voice
                        heart to heart
With no gadgets as the middlemen?


Can we find that...find ...balance between machinery and humanty?
Can we......can we......can we.......find that... find... find balance
Between machinery and humanity?


Can we......???


OneLove


:::MME:::

Farewell Christopher Hitchens (1949 - 2011)

Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant (Source)


I became a fan of Christopher Hitchens when I first picked up a copy of The Nation many moons ago (in the Minority Report bi-weekly column). The thing I discovered about Hitchens quite early, judging from his writings, was that he didn't give a f*** about what people thought--he said what he meant/meant what he said. That was something I had a problem with earlier as I didn't know where to place him. In one moment he was my intellectual hero when he tore into Henry Kissinger & aligned himself with another hero, the late great Edward Said, and in another moment I wanted to kick his ass for trashing Noam Chomsky, supporting Bush's foreign policy & pretending to know all that there was to know about religion (his over-reliance on pure reason in matters that can barely be explained by it, was deeply flawed & contradictory, in my view). Years later, it dawned on me that I was doing what most of us tend to do: idealizing & categorizing. The thing is, the people we most admire tend to disappoint (i.e they don't live up to the image we have constructed)& the ideas which we hold on to so tightly, frequently unravel with new information, re-imagination, observation, revelation--i.e, they turn to dust. Hitchens' independent thinking, which raged across the ideological spectrum, & his enmity towards people who were convinced of their absolute certainty, were exemplary.I may not have agreed with a lot of what he uttered/wrote (much of it quite crude & condescending)  , but I grudgingly respected his gumption which is sorely lacking in journalism that brims with the spineless, the complacent & the disingenuous. Below are some of my favorite quotes from Hitchens:

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.” 

“We live only a few conscious decades, and we fret ourselves enough for several lifetimes.”  

'Good people do good things. Evil people do evil things. If you want a good person to do an evil thing, that takes religion.'”

“What better way for a ruling class to claim and hold power than to pose as the defenders of the nation.”  

(On Henry Kissinger, but applies to many): “His own lonely impunity is rank; it smells to heaven. If it is allowed to persist then we shall shamefully vindicate the ancient philosopher Anacharsis, who maintained that laws were like cobwebs; strong enough to detain only the weak, and too weak to hold the strong. In the name of innumerable victims known and unknown, it is time for justice to take a hand."

“Hero­ism breaks its heart, and ide­al­ism its back, on the intran­si­gence of the cred­u­lous and the mediocre, manip­u­lated by the cyn­i­cal and the corrupt.”  

"I devoutly believe that words ought to be weapons. That is why I got into this business in the first place. I don't seek the title of 'inoffensive,' which I think is one of the nastiest things that could be said about an individual writer."

"The fox knows many small things, whereas the hedgehog knows one big thing. Ronald Reagan was neither a fox nor a hedgehog. He was as dumb as a stump."

"To be in opposition is not to be a nihilist. And there is no decent or charted way of making a living at it. It is something you are, and not something you do." 

“The one thing that the racist can never manage is anything like discrimination: he is indiscriminate by definition.” 

"Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.”

What is it you most dislike? Stupidity, especially in its nastiest forms of racism and superstition.” 

“Organised religion is violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children.”  

“I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves.”  

Your favorite virtue? An appreciation for irony.”

“I have not been able to discover whether there exists a precise French equivalent for the common Anglo-American expression 'killing time.' It's a very crass and breezy expression, when you ponder it for a moment, considering that time, after all, is killing us.”  

“There can be no progress without head-on confrontation."

“He's a man [George W. Bush] who is lucky to be governor of Texas. He is a man who is unusually incurious, abnormally unintelligent, amazingly inarticulate, fantastically uncultured, extraordinarily uneducated, and apparently quite proud of all these things.”  

“Part of the function of memory is to forget; the omni-retentive mind will break down and produce at best an idiot savant who can recite a telephone book, and at worst a person to whom every grudge and slight is as yesterday's.” 

"The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species. "

"Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the ‘transcendent’ and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don’t be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you."


  ....& a video tribute to the irksome wit...



OneLove


:::MME:::

Dec 15, 2011

Musings

 
 
 
The global economic crisis serves these ends, as whatever remaining wealth the middle class holds is in the process of being eliminated, and as the crisis progresses, the middle classes of the world will suffer, while a great percentage of lower classes of the world, poverty-stricken even prior to the crisis, will suffer the greatest, most probably leading to a massive reduction in population levels, particularly in the "underdeveloped" or "Third World" states."

Andrew Gavin Marshall
 
 


(The growing evidence:  

Stay awake...
OneLove

:::MME:::



Dec 14, 2011

MME's (Double) Jam of The Day

Anthony Hamilton











Both of these excellent pieces are taken from Anthony Hamilton's latest release, Back To Love, which is quite a soulful, well-crafted product. Of all the cuts on this superb CD, "Pray For Me" & "Best of Me" stand out. The former (co-produced by Babyface), exposes a man's vulnerability to temptation & his deep, post-booty call remorse which prompts him to ask God to set things right again: “Thought I was something, really something/in the end who knew I’d end up with nothing? I was frontin’, truly, frontin’/Girl I really can’t be mad I had it coming.” This is grown folk music at its best! In my view, Anthony Hamilton is a cut above most R&B crooners in that instead of boasting about what he can do to the ladies after wining & dining them at the most expensive spots then taking them back to his yacht or suite (& possibly having them leave before the sun comes up), he sings of pain, disappointments, doubts & honest efforts to make a relationship work, and if the effort fails, absorbing the loss & moving on - that's real. He has that old soul vibe a la Major Harris or Bobby Womack which makes him stand out in a field of crowing balladeers who like to think of themselves as God's Gift to Women (they need to just quit). This brother keeps things sensible/believable & brutally sincere. Get the CD--Its' well worth it!


OneLove


:::MME:::

The Past As Prologue


Video from KarmaTube
At Carnegie Hall, gospel singer Wintley Phipps delivers perhaps the most powerful rendition of Amazing Grace ever recorded. He says, "A lot of people don't realize that just about all Negro spirituals are written on the black notes of the piano. Probably the most famous on this slave scale was written by John Newton, who used to be the captain of a slave ship, and many believe he heard this melody that sounds very much like a West African sorrow chant. And it has a haunting, haunting plaintive quality to it that reaches past your arrogance, past your pride, and it speaks to that part of you that's in bondage. And we feel it. We feel it. It's just one of the most amazing melodies in all of human history." After sharing the noteworthy history of the song, Mr. Phipps delivers a stirring performance that brings the audience to its feet!(Source)


This is not only a powerful rendition of one of the most beautiful hymns in gospel music, it is a music history course as well. Wintley Phipps does a masterful job & the audience is transfixed by his delivery. Every religion I have read about has its dark spots and bright spots. What I love most about the Christian tradition is the expressive love & joy of its faithful followers, especially in the sphere of music. 


Lest we forget the trajectory of how this country (the United States) came to be, it is always good to revisit the past in order to make sense of what is going on today. This country was built on the blood, sweat & tears of slaves under the most cruel, dehumanizing circumstances. It is truly a miracle that out of this bloomed the most beautiful music that the world has ever heard.Most of the music we hear today is rooted in the style, rhythm and soul of the enslaved Africans. Plantation owners thought the singing helped the slaves to be more productive. so they allowed it. Unbeknownst to them, their singing & hums were plaintive cries of an unbroken spirit, yearning for relief, praying for freedom.

Although they came from different regions & understood little of each others language, customs, etc, the enslaved were able to channel their emotions/spirits through song/chant. Even when the white missionaries attempted to break them by corrupting the Christian faith for the purposes of nation-building, the slaves creatively worked around this by morphing the church hymns they were taught into their native chanting rhythms--out of this came the first American music, the Negro Spiritual.This led to the Blues, Jazz, Rock, R&B, Pop, Hip Hop & Modern Gospel (which has brought the evolution of American music full circle back to the Negro spirituals) We owe an incalculable debt to the unbroken spirit of the enslaved, chanting for release...Knowing this history allows us to experience the fullness of our humanity & connectedness. Wintley Phipps aptly demonstrated this point in the above clip.
 

Cnntinuing along the theme of music which expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent (Victor Hugo), the movie Amistad had some brilliant moments that seemed to capture what it must have been like for our dehumanized brothers & sisters. A few scenes, like the journey through the Middle Passage  and the court scene  left a powerful visual impression on many, especially on the descendents of the African slaves. The score to this movie was equally as impressive in resurrecting ancient memories of our collective unconscious..the psychic wounds still run deep....Take a listen & join me in honoring the spirits of our ancestors...





Music



OneLove


:::MME:::

Dear Taxpayer - You've Been Punk'd



The movement of people combating the status quo all over the world is an inspiring chapter in our collective consciousness/evolution. As the saying by William Cullen Bryant goes -


Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again;
Th' eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies among his worshippers.


(More details here....here.....here....here..& here)

Stay awake!

OneLove

:::MME:::

Dec 12, 2011

The Fake Ones



The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity
-Andre Gide 

Fake people are a pain in the ass. To go through all the motions of fakin' the funk is such a colossal waste of time & energy--why do it at all? Fundamentally, I think some people are this way because of some unreconciled anxiety, fear, denial or monstrous delusion. Thankfully, many of us have Bullshit Detectors that can discern real folk from fake-ass gumps. (Wouldn't it be great if we could side-step social mores & back-slap the shit out of the plastic-smilin' poseurs?) There are fakes around every corner, so here's my shortlist of how to spot 'em:

(1) The fake ones hate your success--Watch their body language when you report on some good news that benefited you.

(2) If they smile a bit too wide or laugh a little too hard, be cautious.  Of course, it's possible that they may be showing the world how good they think they look when they smile (maybe their teeth just got cleaned) or they're flirting with the person behind you.  

(3) If they appear to display a subtle, malicious joy in your misery--like if you lost your job--realize that they may find comfort in thinking that they may be doing relatively better than you financially & feel somewhat above you.

(4) If you notice a pattern of folks always coming around when they want something or when they get into a jam, it's likely that you're being used. The minute they're back on their feet, you probably won't hear from them in a while...What gets to me about folks like this is they often lack gratitude.

(5) If they're always complaining/gossiping about something/someone, chances are they're just seeking an echo chamber for their miserable lives. If you find yourself mirroring their repulsive behavior by gossiping/complaining more when around them, you need to check yourself & hold your peace. 

(6) If they encourage you to do dumb shit - perhaps with the intention of talking about you behind your back - chances are they don't have your best interests in mind.

(7) If you discover that what you told Person X in private somehow boomerangs and slaps you upside the head a few months later when someone you rarely speak to repeats what you had stated, then Person X needs to be dismissed.

(8) Observe how people look at other people they know when they're not looking -  the truth is in the eyes. How many of us have caught people at sporting events, meetings, etc cold-staring at a person sitting close to them, but when that person turned around to speak to them, the gaze shifted lightning-quick to one of acceptance & friendliness? The acting is Oscar-worthy.

(9)  If folks don't honor their word & offer no apology, your best bet is to hold them at a distance as you're being taken for granted.

(10) Fake ones oftentimes contradict themselves trying to please the whole damn world.  In their quest to be liked/valued/included, they talk out their ass. Like many (not all) politicians, they have no redeeming qualities. 

(11) Fake ones are always trying to keep up with the Joneses like their life depended on it. Even if they don't have shit, they will act like they do just to give a 'good impression'. 

(12) If you're speaking to someone & he/she is staring at you with a glazed-over look, either he/she is not listening (maybe you're boring to them) or they're thinking of the next clever thing to say. It's highly probable that your opinion is being ignored. 

These are just a few observations I culled from my own experiences--I am sure there are many more tell-tale signs of detecting the fake ones , but the bottom-line is to never let your guard down & risk becoming fake yourself. Speak your truth as clearly & honestly as you can, and if you find that difficult to do, simply hold your peace.


OneLove


:::MME:::

Dec 7, 2011

Trippin' Through The Universe



This is a dazzling 3D journey through a tiny slice of what is known about the Universe. After looking at this, you have to feel that we are one lucky bunch! Out of the vastness of space, you are but one person among 7 billion people, on one planet among 8 planets, in one star system among 100 billion star systems, in one galaxy among 100 billion galaxies....An Earth-like planet was found recently just outside our solar system & it is highly likely that it harbors some form of life. It's extremely unlikely that we are the only planet with life & will one day come face to face with something we've always suspected (hopefully they won't look like this).


OneLove


:::MME::::

MME's Jam Of The Day

Bobby Mcferrin




Freedom is a voice....That's the term I associate with the legendary Bobby Mcferrin. His whole aspect, like that of Alice Walker, Sade, Dalai Lama & Youssou N'Dour, speaks of freedom and its' manifestations- power, a sound mind, spiritual boldness, curiosity & imaginative flights to uncharted territory.  In our collective memory, Mcferrin is hitched to his only blockbuster hit, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”, which is a shame as he has done so much more. A couple of years ago, Mcferrin lent his voice & expertise to the World Science Festival's Notes and Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus & one writer, on the anniversary of his "Don't Worry.." hit, broke the song down to its neuropsychological components which was quite interesting. Here are some more great compositions that you may have missed....


MME Presents: The Legendary Bobby McFerrin by MixMaster E on Grooveshark

OneLove


:::MME:::

Dec 6, 2011

The Insistence of Life: A Cinematic Vision of Afghanistan



This film is both tragic & beautiful for obvious reasons. The following poem is from an Afghan poet writing in the imagined voice of a 10 year old girl from Kandahar reflecting on 10 years of U.S./NATO warfare in Afghanistan:


Who says this must be so?
Who cares that this is so?
I shudder that the raids and bombs
have made us less than human.
I wish to go to our deserted schools
to understand why we are like this.

I used to dream of spaces,
blue skies and gentler people.
I heard mother through her burqa
pleading please ‘Stop!’
‘Stop the money. Stop the killing.
Stop.’

Another local explosion,
more international lies.
Our global problem is that
guns impose greater force
than common sense
or vision, which tells me
that my mother’s world is crashing.



It's crazy what is happening to the people of Afghanistan--the United States continues to afflict them with vile maneuvers to control their resources, perpetuate violence as a justification for maintaining its operating bases, the building of a U.S. Embassy soon to become the largest in the world, three major prisons & an unspecified number of detention sites. What a shame that our economic system has to continue to maintain itself on the blood, sweat, tears and resources of others with such reckless impunity. Call it imperialism, neocolonialism or the sorrows of empire--I call it just plain evil.


OneLove


:::MME:::



Musings





OneLove


:::MME:::

An Attempt At Making Sense Of It All




(NOTE: If you are easily offended by colorful language, do not watch this presentation)


What is reality? Depends on the observer, I guess....There is a NBC trailer for the movie Awake which flirts with this question. It is about a detective who phases in and out of two different versions of his own life via sleeping and waking. Each reality shows an equally grim outcome to a tragic car accident, one resulting in the death of his teenage son, the other in the death of his wife. I'm not much of a TV watcher, but I will check this one out--Check the trailer here.



OneLove



:::MME:::

Dec 5, 2011

Beyond The Matrix



(People were bound to smell a rat sooner or later..)


OneLove


:::MME:::

Soul On Fire

Tell your heart to beat again...to dream again...to laugh again...to forgive again...to create again...to love again...to be excited about life again...to be joyful again...to love yourself again...tell your heart..
 
OneLove
::::::MME::::::

Dec 2, 2011

Readiing Rant: "Blessed Unrest" by Paul Hawken



Paul Hawken's book, Blessed Unrest, is a fascinating read. It's one of those books you can re-read for its refreshing perspectives and sheer poetry. Like any book that attempts to define a movement or propose change, this book tends to lean towards oversimplification especially in the sphere of politics. For example, he states that many social change organizations agree at the level of principles and values. Let's face it: If you go to a sufficiently high level of abstraction, all groups would agree on everything that is life-sustaining & egalitarian. Politics is way more complex - it's about getting and protecting and giving which involves that old devil, power. 

 Hawken writes beautifully & his quotes & references, obviously selective, lend themselves to his central idea which is (in a nutshell):

I now believe there are over one -- and maybe even two -- million organizations working toward ecological sustainability and social justice.
By any conventional definition, this vast collection of committed individuals does not constitute a movement. Movements have leaders and ideologies. People join movements, study their tracts, and identify themselves with a group. . . . This movement, however, doesn’t fit the standard model. It is dispersed, inchoate, and fiercely independent. It has no manifesto or doctrine, no overriding authority to check with. It is taking shape in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, companies, deserts, fisheries, slums -- and yes, even fancy New York hotels. . . . Rather than a movement in the conventional sense, could it be an instinctive, collective response to threat? Is it atomized for reasons that are innate to its purpose? . . . .
I sought a name for the movement, but none exists. I met people who wanted to structure or organize it -- a difficult task, since it would easily be the most complex association of human beings ever assembled. Many outside the movement critique it as powerless, but that assessment does not stop its growth.

Reading this, I had to ask: What's the point of having all of these organizations if in the long-term corporations continue to pollute our water, skies, soil & minds? What's being achieved outside of a narrow sense of self-satisfaction? This is where politics comes in - as journalist Matt Bai puts it in his book The Argument
Successful political movements aren’t built on the common values that all Americans share, but on the arguments that lay out how, as a country, we can best live up to them. . . . It’s not enough to tell people that they ought to have health care and good schools and lots of jobs; they already know this. The point of a political movement is to explain why these things are lacking and to advance an argument about how we should adapt to the larger forces that led us here.

What I liked most about the book besides Hawken's  beautiful prose & heart-felt desire to be trans formative, is the Appendix which consists of an elaborate list of issues that nonprofit groups are working on - from poverty alleviation to gender equality. Hawken's vision may fall short when it comes to direct political action, but he does scatter the seeds for its growth even if that may not have been his intent. This book is well worth the time to read and absorb so check it out!

I recently read Paul Hawken's commencement address to the Class of 2009 (University of Portland) which is just outstanding. Check it out here.

OneLove

:::MME:::

Dec 1, 2011

.....& now, a message from Billion Dollar Bill....






















(See John Perkin's "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" for the grisly details..)

OneLove


:::MME:::

Musings





Fundamental Benignity


The mysterious manner in which this growing sense of unity commingles with a sense of utter goodness is worth noting. It arises by no effort of mine; rather does it come to me out of I know not where. Harmony appears gradually and flows through my whole being like music. An infinite tenderness takes possession of me, smoothing away the harsh cynicism which a reiterated experience of human ingratitude and human treachery has driven deeply into my temperament. I feel the fundamental benignity of Nature despite the apparent manifestation of ferocity. Like the sounds of every instrument in an orchestra that is in tune, all things and all people seem to drop into the sweet relationship that subsists within the Great Mother’s own heart.



Paul Brunton (Hermit in the Himalayas: The Journal of a Lonely Exile)

OneLove


:::MME:::

The New Corporation

  The New Corporation ​is a 2020 documentary directed by Jennifer Abbott and Joel Bakan, law professor at the University of British Columb...