Backyard Bougainvilla...

The last day of September

Poetry is

the dawdling of a mind that has

nothing else to do.

or maybe

is the brilliant something that

comes at last…

when left

alone for long enough time

to set up

and get

out there finally to be read

and seen.

Poetry is

necessary then for all of us

who look hard

at what’s 

inside waiting, wanting to get

out finally.

TREES today… and MOON last night…

I stand awe of these trees growing in San Diego.  They’ve been transferred or transplanted from Australia,.  The one that has bark that looks like bark is eucalyptus… the ones that seem to be made of paper are melaleuca. The name melaleuca is a combination of Greek words for black and white.  

I stood in awe of another familiar sight last night.  The moon disappeared slowly.  I waited with my camera, and when the bright moon disappeared, enough of it was left in the sky to make a picture.  Wow!  

Sunday Flowers... and backyard eucalyptus...

DON’T ASSUME

…because I spent most of my working life in independant/private schools that I like the charter school idea.  In the best of all possible worlds the poorest children would have in pubic schools educational programs at least as good as those in the very best public schools.  I’m not going to resent those people who can pay 30 thousand dollars-a-year for each school age child, but I believe everybody else, regardless of income level should have equal educational opportunities offered by the State.  As it has developed, the charter school plan is another scheme to divert public money into privately held schools, the charter schools, within a public school system… not best for the poorest families, the people who have least power to change things for themselves and their neighbors.  In America we live in communities of people who are most like the people that we are.  Doctors and lawyers live in neighborhoods where other doctors and lawyers live… or they live in neighborhoods where people earn as much or more than doctors and lawyers earn.

There are few families living in poverty in areas where doctors and lawyers live.  Poverty hurts children and the hurt goes on as the child grows.  It’s not a matter of which people are more intelligent, which can process abstractions more quickly.  Any teacher in any public school in any city’s poor neighborhood will acknowledge that a classroom full of kids from a poor neighborhood react differently to information given to them by a teacher than do children from affluent families. At any of the schools where I was headmaster, no child was surrounded by people who had experienced stultifying failure and the poverty that often follows failure to get or keep a job.  A job that pays no more than minimum wage doesn’t get a family out of poverty. A child who lives in a poor family is surrounded by other poor people. 

Drive along Sunset Boulevard from the Beach in Malibu to Highway 101 to get a look at the wide varieties of American neighborhoods. Go into any 7-11 market in any strip mall east of Old Hollywood High School and take a look at the people on the sidewalks and in the stores. If you see children, try to imagine what a classroom might be like with 30 to 45 of those children in it.

   

Blog: 09.25.15

It won’t get any better than this, so I’ll post my BLOG early.

POPE FRANCIS… MAN OF PEACE

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE POPE’S INTERFAITH SERVICE IN NEW YORK…

PRAYERS OFFERED: BUDDHIST, HINDU, MUSLIM, JEWISH, CHRISTIAN, SIKH… others

JEWISH:  IN THIS PLACE WHERE HORRENDOUS VIOLENCE WAS COMMITTED FALSELY in the name of God… We pray that the souls of all the first responders will :  A field hospital after a battle, to heal the wounds… We shall become instruments of peace…  

…where there is darkness let there be light…

MUSLIM:  HONOR EACH LIFE UNCONDITIONALLY… reading the Koran we are reminded that all life is sacred.  We are reminded of the best in humanity…  Let us embody unconditional peace…  

Micah 4:  Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they train for war. Each of them will sit under his vine And under his fig tree, With no one to make them afraid, For the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.  Though all the peoples walk Each in the name of his god…

The Beatitudes

…"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.…

Let there be peace on earth

And let it begin with me.

Let there be peace on earth

The peace that was meant to be.

With God as our Father

Brothers all are we.

Let me walk with my brother

In perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me

Let this be the moment now.

With every step I take

Let this be my solemn vow.

To take each moment

And live each moment

With peace eternally.

Let there be peace on earth,

And let it begin with me.

Let there be peace on earth

And let it begin with me.

Let there be peace on earth

The peace that was meant to be.

With God as our Father

Brothers all are we.

Let me walk with my brother

In perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me

Let this be the moment now.

With every step I take

Let this be my solemn vow.

To take each moment

And live each moment

Let there be peace on earth

And let it begin with me.

In the spirit of Peace on Earth... This orchid picture is for Lucas

Today's photo du jour has no explanation except that I liked the image even before I got my camera out of its case. The widow is in the stairwell at the Museum of Photographic Arts.  I was on my way down from my volunteer stint at the museum and there it was.  A few minutes later in Balboa Park some kind of festival was going on... I didn't understand any of it either,  but I got pictures.

I WENT DOWN TO THE SAN DIEGO AIRPORT TODAY to meet Clyde's and Dave's plane from Montana by way of Salt Lake City.  I always like taking a look at San Diego Bay to see what is different.  The difference today was that water was bluer and the sky seemed clearer... but any difference may have been in me.  What a wonderful place San Diego is.  Of course, the problems related to homelessness are worse, and The Donald is still out there somewhere saying America must be restored to it's original purity.  Neither The Donald nor America have been pure in some past time.

I watched Pope Francis in Washington D.C. make his way from the Papal Embassy (in a little Fiat) and then in a specially-made Pope-mobile to the White House for a visit with the Obamas. Here is a man who seems to know that problems of the world can't be solved by spouting B.S.   I like Pope Francis.  I was especially impressed by his saying that he looked first at the shoes of clergy persons, and if they had no dirt on them (from the slums where real people live) then he knows they are not doing their job.

Sitting by San Diego Bay and watching the water and the city is always a good thing to do.  I am renewed by imagining what the world can be...

POOLS OF LIGHT

Under a cloud canopy that hinted of rain I headed out toward the ocean on my bike this morning.  As I got closer to the river and to the bike path that extends all the way out to the Pacific I thought again how beautiful the world is…  how full of promise the pools of light seem, with the river under a cloudy sky… how full of promise of good for all mankind it seems for the last few miles before it flows into the ocean.  

Today I’ve watched on television as the plane carrying Pope Francis landed in the U.S.  I saw The President and his family greet The Pope, and I watched as The Pope got into a small Italian Fiat and drove away toward Washington, D.C.  Tomorrow we will see if American lawmakers behave themselves. Now sitting at my computer with my late friend Ben Christensen’s favorite saying “God is the Good in Humankind” penciled onto a page in front of me, I am convinced that peace is possible on earth.

And Carry a big...

While waiting for the wedding festivities to begin yesterday at Adams House on the Malibu Coast, Margaret and I visited the Getty Villa a few miles south of where we had to go at two o’clock.  We hadn’t been to the Villa since the majority of the art treasures were moved over to the main campus by Interstate 405.  Wow!  The old Villa was left with the art treasures of the ancient world, all displayed in a setting partly moved and generally recreated from a villa in Herculaneum that had been covered and generally left intact by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.  I haven’t been to the site of Herculaneum, but I have been to a poorer sister city, Pompeii, that was also destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius.  

Across from Naples, Herculaneum, of course was named for the Roman Hero Hercules who was the counterpart of the Greek hero Herakles.  Not all, but some of the treasures at the Villa in Malibu were salvaged from Herculaneum.  Others were collected by J. Paul Getty from individual collections around the world.  All in a setting that reminds a visitor that the human experience has changed not very much in the couple of thousand years since Vesuvius’ big bang,  I was reminded yesterday when Dr. Benjamin Carson made the political mistake of believing his own mythology is more important than Muslim mythology. 

I’m staying close to home today, so the photographs today are from yesterday morning’s visit to the Getty Villa.  You can have the kind of fun I had reviewing the players in the run-up to next year's election. There ain't no Europa or Antiope here, but Hillary or carly... Maybe...  Definitely you will find Rubio and perhaps Cruz...

The ancient Greeks were the myth makers of Europe.  Much of Dr. Carson’s Christianity can be traced to Ancient Greece.  Around 400 BCE the Athenian philosopher Plato coined the word mythology, he said to distinguish between imaginative accounts of divine actions and factual descriptions of events.  Plato’s time was becoming more scientific, but he recognized that religion is a problem for people who tend to believe every detail related about gods and goddesses.  The “holy” text in Dr. Carson’s case is the Constitution of the United States of America. He also happens to be an Evangelical Christian.  Because he is one of the sixteen mortals, fifteen males and one female (all described by their supporters as the appropriate next leader of “the free world,”) media savants, and especially Tea Party Americans (who also happen to be mostly Evangelical by Christian persuasion) are hanging on his every word.  He made the political gaff yesterday of saying a Muslim should never be allowed to occupy the seat of highest honor at the White House in Washington, D.C.  That belief lies in direct conflict with The Constitution.  Watching the conflict play out is a bit like reviewing history. I was back at home in San Diego reading the morning edition of the L.A. Times and Listening to T.V. news priests and priestesses tell us what we should believe about the situation.  I decided to review my pictures from yesterday’s visit to the Getty Villa.