FootprintsintheWind.com

Not knowing
is more pregnant
than knowing

:- Doug.

Who are the responsible?—all of us, especially the ordinary folks, the many. The one. Where are we? When are we? What times are these? What are the decisions we are called upon to make? War to peace: do we just have to live through a 50 year period of war, or can we be agents? Immigration: we have built a world growing smaller, closer together, easy to travel, and more importantly we have learned to see other places as in our back yard. So we should not be surprised when others want to come and work with us. We have more than enough; do we not have a responsibility to share? Do we not have a responsibility to hear these others, to learn from them, to welcome the stranger in our midst? Poverty and hunger: We have the means, do we not then have the responsibility? Health care: we have the means, do we not then have the responsibility? Do we have some ingenuity we can put to work on the task? And if others are then fed and able and whole, do we not gain more than if we clutch our miserly purse? Which way do our children and grandchildren gain?

:- Doug.

You have a responsibility
This responsibility frees you

:- Doug.

Our prisons are large inhuman machines. Steel and concrete. The only thing that means you is a threat. What if we used a model of smallness? Get personal. Small groups. Work on what went wrong. Reflect. Have we tried the experiment? Some peoples have: community circles. Meet. Soul-naked. Even solitary quests. Do they work? Can we learn? Are we too busy to care?

:- Doug.

We carry out our responsibility to the world publicly and privately. They feed each other. Each feeds the flow of the world.

:- Doug.

We have a responsibility
to the ones with whom we live
our descendants
our ancestors
our humanity
our world
to search out our responsibility
and then to persist in fulfilling
these ours

:- Doug.

Our names are on the history being written today: is this what we want?

:- Doug.

I don’t have the answers, but we do.

:- Doug.

We can do better.

:- Doug.

There is at work in you something larger.

:- Doug.

We want to be
intimate with the world
What if?
We could be
soon and already

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 717

People want to connect. People want to contribute. People want to do the larger good. Work here.

Please pass it on.

© c 2007, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/291-0022, or by e-mail to mailto:Doug AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com

“Adam knew Eve and she conceived.” Here is a lesson of lessons. When we are intimate, then we conceive—new ideas, new plans, new life. When we hide nothing, share everything, then we are able. When we are intimate again, we bring forth again. We are prolific, whatever our age.

:- Doug.

What are the conversations of conversations? See a web of webs, a universe of universes. What do you see? Who are we now?

:- Doug.

What is true now? It is hazy outside. A thin fog is settling down, moving around like a dog to find the best place on the pillow. It is near 50 degrees, there is a drizzle. I feel like fog, settling, settling, ready for rest, ready for softness, ready to flow.

Fog flows gently, turns aside or soaks anything in its path: it does not matter, there is a place. Fog has its ways. Fog is good. Fog causes us to stop our thinking, to go slower, to drop our agendas. To an agenda, fog gets in the way. Fog does not bother itself about agendas, they are and they are not, and either way, it matters not to fog. What good is an agenda anyway, especially if you cannot enjoy the fog?

Somewhere the rain is making ping ping ping. The rain on the roof tells me everything is OK, everything is as it should be, everyping. God right here, fog in my fog.

This little maple, naked in the late autumn fog, seems pleased to have this loose fitting garment to hug. Pitter patter.

:- Doug.

I am seeking for your ping in every. I am seeking everyping!

:- Doug.

Anger, a politician told me, gets people to the polls. But I wonder do they vote well? Are their votes informed? Do they try to decide what is best for their neighbors? I suspect they do take it seriously, more seriously than the politicians treat them as being.

Angry voters vote as well as they can, but they are treated, not as people, but things. They are treated as objects to be manipulated.

It is not just an affront: if voters are things to be manipulated, then constituents are soon ignoramuses to be avoided, cattle to be herded. Who cares if you cheat them? They are not real, anyway.

Angry voters vote: this says volumes about the speaker. For to him, these are voters: labels, things. Far from people.

Of course, we help to bring this on ourselves. We talk about “those people in Washington,” and influencing “the Congressman.” We don’t see them as real persons, either.

So what is the answer? Would that we could sit down and have a heart to heart with this man or woman representing us, while in office, while a candidate. We cannot do that easily: there are too many of us. (But think if Barbara Walters or a skilled conversationalist engaged them on a television show, and got their first person fears and quandaries and dreams out.) We cannot do that easily: the habits of how we interact with public officials get in the way: we are so used to debate and yelling that we think there is no other way. There is.

:- Doug.

I do not know
if I am a seeker:
I am a finder
of G*d all about
Maybe I am a seeker
for G*d in more people
in more places

:- Doug.

Be the good
Be the fruit
Be the water
What can this mean?
Water flows
Good is
Fruit nourishes
Still. Reflect.
There is more
Flow Be Real

:- Doug.

What have you read recently that challenged you?

:- Doug.

Water flows
water knows
there are ways
nothing stays
even rock
does not block
water flows
sometimes splashes

:- Doug.

Breaking preoccupations: Is there more? Is there a larger picture? What do you see? What might Einstein, Jesus, Lincoln see? What are we doing right now? Could we do something to improve the lot of others?

That is: Look up, look out.

:- Doug.

People don’t think they need conversation. But when do we need conversation?

:- Doug.