Joy Shopping in Nogales, Mexico — Image by kenne
— kenne
Joy at Seven Falls (02/07/11) — Image by kenne
I first posted “The Demons of Fear” in December 2005 during the George W. Bush administration. What I was writing about twenty years ago is still very relevant today.
The Demons of Fear
Like many Americans, my formative years were at a time when communism was our only axis of evil. The reasons for qualifying as evil were many, e.g., starting wars against smaller countries, breaking international laws, torturing people, espionage organizations spying on their own people, controlling information, and building a giant prison industry, to name a few. Such reasons were easy to believe because of the simplistic notion that if communism (then) was evil, capitalism (we) was good. Therefore, we would never, never, never do such things. (Such acts are bad, and, of course, we are good!)
“Never say never!” Even more significantly, “. . . don’t make the mistake of believing your own lies.” Of course, in politics, the custom is “Never tell a lie when you can bullshit your way through.”
Truth cannot be found in talking points based on good vs. evil. This is the so-called “cowboy” mentality that our president and many in Congress have bottled and continue to sell to the American public.
Justifying acts based on false dichotomies only falsifies reality. But the convenient reversal of good and evil is an even bigger sin. One current example is our leadership’s support for the nomination of a judge based on his strict constitutionalist views while authorizing secret acts allowing spying on Americans.
Such secret executive decisions are troubling and represent an attitude of political convenience that considers nothing of treading on the basic liberties protected by our Constitution. Even after Congress passed the USA Patriot Act, which allowed our demons of fear to trespass on our liberties, the President pretentiously felt that additional infringements on the Constitution and our liberties were necessary.
Over three years ago, Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden (head of the National Security Agency) stated to a joint House-Senate inquiry on intelligence (ref. NY Times):
“We need to get it right. We have to find the right balance between protecting our security and protecting our liberty. “. . . What I really need you to do is talk to your constituents and find out where the American people want that line between security and liberty to be.”
Can we get it right? Can we bury our demons of fear? Can you! Can I?
For many, the politics of fear generates skepticism, which denies reliable access to an objective reality and “. . . therefore rejects the possibility of knowing how things truly are.” If reality has no inherent nature, then to “get it right,” each one of us must be true to our nature. Truth, like love, can exist only when the tombstones of our demons have been erected.
Joy In Her Existential Moment — Image by kenne
Ode to Reading
To read is to consent
to a kind of possession—
a consciousness overlapping yours,
momentarily indistinguishable.
Each sentence rearranges
your sense of the world,
as if the architecture of thought
could be borrowed,
then returned, slightly changed.
We call it solitude,
but it is not loneliness.
It is the purest form of dialogue—
one mind recognizing
the shape of another.
Books do not speak;
they inhabit.
You close one,
and still it whispers
behind your ribs.
Cruise Sunset (June 2023) — Joy Silhouette by kenne
— kenne
Joy, My Desert Rose — Image by kenne
A Red, Red Rose
O my Luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:
O my Luve’s like the melodie,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ ’twere ten thousand mile!
— Robert Burns
(Robert Burns’ works have transcended time, with modern musician Bob Dylan citing Burns’ poem A Red, Red Rose
as having the lyrics that have had the biggest effect on his life. Source: Scotland.org)
Today is Joy’s Birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, My Love
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
— Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Joy, Katelyn, and Dave, July 4, 2004
— Khalil Gibran
We Share Another Birthday, Together.
My Christmas Girl — Image by kenne
―
Joy — Image by kenne
Ode To Joy
Friedrich Schiller called Joy the spark of divinity
but she visits me on a regular basis,
and it doesn’t take much for her to appear—
the salt next to the pepper by the stove,
the garbage man ascending his station
on the back of the moving garbage truck,
or I’m just eating a banana
in the car and listening to Buddy Guy.
In other words, she seems down-to-earth,
like a girl getting off a bus with a suitcase
and no one’s there to meet her.
It’s a little after four in the afternoon,
one of the first warm days of spring.
She sits on her suitcase to wait
and slides on her sunglasses.
How do I know she’s listening to the birds?
— Billy Collins (In The Atlantic, November 2021)
Justin (the Photo Boomer), Joy, and Kenne, in Galveston — Image Scanned in 2006 from the Late 1980s
— kenne
Jill and Joy (Daughter and Mother) — Image by kenne
A White Rose To Joy On Our Anniversary — Photo-Artistry by kenne
The White Rose
Joy and Robin (Hannah, April 14, 2004) — Image by kenne
Been going through some old photos — it’s that time of year.
“Let’s Dance, Grandma” — James and Joy (October 2, 2021)
