i feel compelled
to discipline myself a bit
and get some righteous thoughts
up into the cloud and down on paper.
nevertheless, i am not so disciplined
as to complete this task
in compliance with the structured form
of the assignment this week
from Creekside Poets, which was
ten lines,
ten syllables per lines, and
a rhyme scheme of ababbccdcd.
lo siento.
…………………………………………………..
i do appreciate my catholic nun teachers
(especially the young and pretty carmelites from mexico
who came to devine to help us learn
in the hot, humid summers,
before air-conditioning)
but …
Richard Guajardo may remember it differently.
however, my memory of Richard’s arguments
with that poor nun one wednesday eve in 1958 or 1959
was over a need, or not,
for more social justice
and less hypocrisy
within our holy roman catholic church.
“don’t worry, fellow catholics!
most of us are married to catholics.
therefore, (unjust) lack of respect
for the religions of others (the unredeemed, the infidels),
shouldn’t really bother us catholics.”
young Richard argued that the non-catholic halves of our parents
were not sinners because of their differing state of belief
and that he and i would not be sinners as catholics
simply because we attend the protestant services indulged by our parents.
i do love my seguin, texas tennis buddies
and our camaraderie on Saturday mornings,
but ….
heard on the tennis court this past weekend2,
“don’t worry, you proud white americans
of these great united states.
we only brought in about 400,000 slaves
or only about six percent of the Africans
shipped to the americas.
(and we can’t worry about the ninety percent who died in route.
that’s water under the bridge!)
besides, slavery proliferated humanwide
way back after the worst mistake of humankind3.
(that mistake was agriculture.)
and we have treated our africans relatively well.
therefore, don’t be concerned about this itty-bitty original sin.
no need for any guilt, reparations, or affirmative actions.
and, oh yes,
maintain those Jim Crow monuments!”
i consider many who are politically right of center
to be friends
but …
how can they agree with con-man trump?
and his pooh-poohing (a measly) 200,000+ deaths
(less than 0.06 percent of our U.S. population)
from COVID-19,
which should be even less of a worry
because most of these dead humans were old
(and of color).
(and, why do we honor
the relatively few who died in wars??)
i do love it
when i occasionally meet my neighbor
the mayor of seguin on the streets
and he greets me with pleasantries
but …
in discussing on facebook
recent thefts of his holy trump signs and trumpster flag,
our esteemed mayor,
in Trumpian fashion,
blamed the thefts on
the “deranged mind[s] of liberals who must destroy the opposition”
and who are “low-life’s” [sic].
(i do love him and his lovely wife!)
why don’t we all get along, Rodney King?
we are extremely poor at communicating.
we really don’t make enough of a concerted effort
at tearing down walls
and removing religious, tribal, socio-political barriers
to justice and real love.
there is a paucity in the world
of open-mindedness, empathy, and compassion
and adherence to the golden rule4.
pbm 9/22/20
( 7 S’s / VV->66 )
……………………………
1 Ecologically connected. All is connected.
2 Paraphrased.
3 https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race
4 An ethic of reciprocity.
