I can’t breathe – T.B.P.I.K.

I find it both criminal and heartbreaking that over five years have gone by since I first shared this post and that things have exploded into the current state of affairs. My son is relieved that I’m so far away as he knows I would be on the frontlines with the protesters. We are long past due for the pendulum to swing and this time to go in the direction that is needed. Let it swing for love, understanding and compassion. 

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“Parents and schools should place great emphasis on the idea that it is all right to be different. Racism and all the other ‘isms’ grow from primitive tribalism, the instinctive hostility against those of another tribe, race, religion, nationality, class, or whatever. You are a lucky child if your parents taught you to accept diversity.”     – Roger Ebert

“I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.”  –  Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird (Character – Scout)

 

“The Holocaust illustrates the consequences of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping on a society. It forces us to examine the responsibilities of citizenship and confront the powerful ramifications of indifference and inaction.” – Tim Holden

                                                                                *

 

                                                                           T.B.P.I.K.

 

Yes, that is how

They do it

All of them

The black people I know

They put on their pants

First one leg and then

The other

They hold down jobs – frequently

More than one – to survive

Blacks often are paid less

They eat, sleep, and shop

Cooking meals for family

Inviting friends in

Taking a hot dish

To someone whose been ill

They work in hospitals, search and

Rescue, give to charity,

Donate blood – you may have

It in you now

In a crisis – do you refuse?

They are expected to remain calm

As one more is profiled

Gunned down, targeted

Until the scapegoat paradigm

Chooses to target someone else

Momentarily

They read books, write poems

Dream dreams, large and small

They reach out their hands

In pain and in friendship

THE BLACK PEOPLE I KNOW

 

 

Bisous et solidarité,

Léa

EFFERVESCENT INGREDIENTS – Marilyn Armstrong

SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH

I should be peppy and lively. I should be able to find the ingredients to get the laundry done, to go take a few pictures. Something.

I’m too beat up to find anything remotely effervescent in me right now. It has been a grueling few months. Not always in a bad way, but still exhausting and the crazy humid heat has not helped. I also suspect that my tolerance for extremes of weather is diminishing with the years because I’m far less energetic now than I was even a few months ago.

The combination of personal crises, national calamities, climate change, and a general sense that everything I worked for and cared about is being undone in such a short time, my head is spinning. The best part of the summer has been our winning baseball team. You know life has gotten awfully rough when you cling to sports as…

View original post 625 more words

I talk to myself. Who doesn’t!

Thanks Jack. If we are honest, many of us talk to ourselves. Writing is another form of talking to oneself. It is also a sign of intelligence. Some do so that is audible to others, some of us are quiet so even the cats can barely hear us… 

Have We Had Help?

Years ago when I was a small boy I witnessed something which might explain a few things about me, if you are at all interested…

My mother and I were walking into Beccles where I still live today from the farm we lived on in the village of Barsham. Armed with our ration books in mum’s purse we were going for the weekly ration pickup (two real eggs, two ounces of marg, either four paper-thin slices of bacon or what used to pass for a half-dozen sausages, mainly containing gristle and suet). From memory the latter were bloody awful! So much so that it was years before I could face a proper sausage. This weekly ritual was a hangover from the Second World War still in operation.

But I digress…

We passed an old man on the road walking the other way towards Bungay who was talking to himself. I…

View original post 270 more words

I can’t breathe – T.B.P.I.K.

“Parents and schools should place great emphasis on the idea that it is all right to be different. Racism and all the other ‘isms’ grow from primitive tribalism, the instinctive hostility against those of another tribe, race, religion, nationality, class or whatever. You are a lucky child if your parents taught you to accept diversity.”     – Roger Ebert

“I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.”  –  Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird (Character – Scout)

 

“The Holocaust illustrates the consequences of prejudice, racism and stereotyping on a society. It forces us to examine the responsibilities of citizenship and confront the powerful ramifications of indifference and inaction.” – Tim Holden

*

 

T.B.P.I.K.

 

Yes, that is how

They do it

All of them

The black people I know

 

They put on their pants

First one leg and then

The other

They hold down jobs – frequently

More than one – to survive

Blacks often are paid less

 

They eat, sleep, and shop

Cooking meals for family

Inviting friends in

Taking a hot dish

To someone whose been ill

 

They work in hospitals, search and

Rescue, give to charity,

Donate blood – you may have

It in you now

In crisis – do you refuse?

 

They are expected to remain calm

As one more is profiled

Gunned down, targeted

Until the scapegoat paradigm

Chooses to target someone else

Momentarily

 

They read books, write poems

Dream dreams, large and small

They reach out their hands

In pain and in friendship

THE BLACK PEOPLE I KNOW

 

Bisous et solidarité,

Léa

Damned!

“My Alma mater was books, a good library… I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.”   – Malcolm X

 

“We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.”    –  B. F. Skinner

 

“You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.”   – Dr. Seuss

 

Damned!

 

Damned!

Again and again

You introduce me

To another author

I haven’t read before

Before now

Before this discovery

Something in a title

Or description

Catches my eye

Inflames my curiosity

And the world

Of another author

Is opened to me

Perhaps this one

Will hook me

And more of

Their work

Lines my

Overcrowded shelves

Can’t you hear them groan

DEMANDING

To be read?

Piled so high they

LEAN over edges

Hunger for more

Les livres

Well loved stories

Searching for what else

The author has written

Words, stories, poems

I never could keep

This addiction secret

Hooked so young

A passion often key

In forming new friendships

Yes, that is me

I am damned

Damned to a life

Of books

Merci beaucoup!

*

Bisous

Léa

Intelligence Divine

“Love is three quarters curiosity.”   – Giacomo Casanova

 

“Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.”   –  James Stephens

 

*

Intelligence Divine

An old adage points the finger

Laying blame like a heavy

Tapestry – perhaps a cover-up?

The cat was not killed

By curiosity

It was curiosity

That set the cat free

Set it on the path

Where secrets lie

Skeletons

Are hidden

Curiosity

Leads it to that

Less traveled path

For those who have the

Courage – courage to find

Trésors caches de la vie

Le Chat

Worshipped in

Ancient Egypt

Curiosité

A mark of intelligence

*

Bisous,

Léa