My claim of Sovereignty and the sovereignty of my son
A claim to my body and my life and the body and life of my son.
January 29th, 2011
Hear Ye, Hear Ye, all public and private entities and people. I, Damon Brink, being of human mind and body hereby declare, warn and accept that my life and body belong to no other man or entity, only to me. My life and body belong to me.
I hereby declare, warn and accept that the body and life of my son, until he reaches an age of willing consent and consents, belongs only to me and my wife. Until the time of consent and on behalf of my son as a sovereign and exalted human body and life, I reject any and all claims on his life or his body.
Suicide
I was sick in my normal way
passing the time
passing the day
meandering and calling it creativity
as if a mountain stream could be
creative
as if an avalanche could be
creative
and my monster was behind the fence
slashing and gnashing his teeth
claws ripping at the wood, rabid
splinters of bone and wood and blood
and the foam from my monsters
ferocity
flew flavors of violence and silence
was murdered after it’s start
my heart thick in my chest
pit dark and damp
meandering is slandering and pandering
with hopes to bring the prize
the cries of sacred lies
look to share the rooms of familiar eyes
and I would call it suicide
now. And then too, only I didn’t know it
Krugmans Incoherent Moral Stance
Krugmans Incoherent Moral Stance.
Boy oh boy…there’s a lot of people reading and believing in Krugman…
The Answer
What about the way we live.
Who’s to blame for the shooting?
What has facilitated the need for such drastic differences of opinion?
What if both sides are right and that’s the point?
In movies, in video games, in cartoons, in children’s books, on billboards, in magazines, in music, in stores, on products…every where you look today there is death, murder, celebration of violence, objectification of violence, objectification of the worst in humans. Everywhere you look. Everywhere you turn. And yet so many people are blaming each other, blaming this side or that side for saying this or writing that. As if those people are so important.
And is that the point. Isn’t that the point with politics. That one side is very very important. That the people involved in politicking are somehow more important than everyone, anyone else. That the world could not continue, that humans would simply burst, spontaneously and screaming into flames before quickly turning to ash and blowing away in the wind. And can you guess what a bunch of people who think they are the most important people in the world spawn? They spawn other people who comment on them who think that by commenting on the people who think they are the most important people in the world they, themselves become the most important people in the world.
And here we are, on January 12, 2011 and everyone is talking about Jared Loughner as though he is some kind of anomaly. And the really really important people are doing what they do, trying to be the most important. And we live in a world where children play murder every day, their eyes, their brains blind to anything else. And we isolate and objectify the killing of the senator and the 9 year old and we so much want to solve it, please, we say, please we must know why, why, why, why and in that dreadful search for the answer we continue to lay the foundation for all our problems. My god. Does anyone see? I mean I know that some people see, some people see for sure, but what about the rest of you. Do you see yet? Can you see what is really happening to our human race? Are you courageous enough to be honest with yourself?
My god. Jared Loughner is the reason for all the death and destruction and confusion in the world. And the important people continue to bray. There are others though, I am one, are you? Have you found the answer your looking for.
My response
I don’t care
to share
my life with them
I don’t care for
their despair
I don’t care
to share
my life with them
I don’t care
They do not live
as I live
they do not
show me
what I don’t
already know
they do not
live the way
I live
I don’t care
which way they go
I do not care
to share my
life with them
I don’t care
to share
my care
they do not live
the way I want
to live
they do not
care to
find it so
I do not care
to share
their despair
nor find
myself
in their crosshair
although
I may not have
the choice I choose
the choice I choose
will be my muse
and will celebrate
my different shoes
to walk a different
path then they
I don’t care
to enter their
foray.
I don’t care
to share
my life
with them
I don’t care
just what
they do
I don’t care
to open my eyes
to them
I don’t care
just what
they do
I care
for my life
and for those
like me
who believe
that humans
majestically
are gods
and creators
all the same
until they
choose a
life of shame
and even then
there’s always
choice
to bring you
back to love
rejoice
but them, they, those
that fight and yell
and propagate
authority
for the sake of fear
to dominate
are ones
that I have left behind
my life is not
worth their kind
and even though
we live together
meaning
on this planet
earth
I will stoop to them
no more, my son
for they know
not
what
they’re worth
I don’t care
to share
my life
with them
I don’t care
just what
they do
I don’t care
to share
my life
with them
They are
destruction
through
and
through
Thank You Henry David Thoreau…
I love this quote by HDT and was inspired to write today after reading it again.
“…and instead of studying how to make it worth men’s while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them.”
from the chapter “Economy” in Walden, H.D. Thoreau
And so this is my wish, pipe dream though it may be. I have a child now and naturally am becoming more of a child myself; recognizing what is never lost but only covered by convention and fear. And so I wonder, as I sit and type my music on this glorious, blue-cold winter day, watching my son explore, I wonder what he can expect from society and I think to myself…nothing…if I do my job right as a father, as a parent, he will expect nothing.
I think I am done with wondering why people do a certain thing, why life and times are the way the are. I think yelling and anger about perceived (or real) ills is the best solution for not changing them. I think I’ve probably spent too much time in the comfort of my anger and indignation and been rewarded with the consequences of that comfort – more of the same.
I have awoken into a world that has forgotten what it is to live. Into a world where magnificence is just a word, a world where technology is held up above the human spirit, a world where paying for life is now the norm. I can leave the questions for my son, the “why’s” the “how did you allow this”; I don’t deserve them. The world is the way it is today because we’ve all decided that this is what we want. It is not complicated. I think about what I can do, what action I can take to help align the world to my values and then, thankfully, I catch myself, chuckle and grin at my beautiful ego and all it thinks possible. Align the world to myself, HA! As if there is an alignment possible that will somehow relieve me of my own responsibility in living. Of my responsibility to the recognition of my values and my value. Of the responsibility to uphold my values no matter what the world looks like. How many of us have used the excuse of the world to justify our actions, to allow compromise in ourselves…it’s no wonder we live in the world we do today. And yet there is the most tremendous beauty. Still. Always. In everything, everywhere.
I think where we have forgotten ourselves is in our compromise and there is no despair necessary to correct this. I have no doubt (and little consolation) that we small and infinite people have been like the frog in the pot. There has been someone at the stove controlling the temperature, turning it up, slowly, it’s been hard to notice, especially for those multitudes who have been taught from such a young age to take authority as truth. After all what foundation is there to be discovered if one doesn’t know to check underneath the foundation.
And so I look into my young son’s eyes and there is only the staggering joy of life staring back at me and I am either open or closed to it. I choose to be open and in that openness to the joy of life I see many things, many things; some painful, some pleasurable and all, all joyful. There is one thing I don’t see however. I don’t see authority for authorities sake, I don’t see control for powers sake and I don’t see selling for money’s sake. And with this my friends I wish for you peace and good fortune but I know that you…we…will all get what we want regardless of my wishes.
Let’s see where it all goes.
Hello Vermont
Hello Vermont
Hello country roads
Hello community greens
Hello small schools woven like blood vessels
our hearts
Hello farms, courageous innovators
Hello mountains and rivers and sugarbush
Hello townspeople under one roof
trying to make sense of the non-sense
Hello Vermont
what choices
will you make today
Hello Vermont
is there only one path
only one path
Hello Vermont
I am a child
and I am not afraid
do not cover me
with your fear
do not cover me
I do not live well
when covered
I must be able
to move, freely
I must be able to
exclaim loudly
and walk anywhere
on the earth
and show my children
what it means to live
Hello Vermont
will we be as wild as you
will we step off the path
and lose ourselves in your woods
in your mountains
in your spirit
will we step off the path
and realize we are ok
and then realize we have
much work to do
and many children to love
will we step off the path
and lose ourselves
and be on our way
finally
finally
finally
to being found.
My god! My God!
will we step off the path!