Although I would prefer that a two-ton potato not fall on my head, I’m grateful to be reasonably unattached to whether I’m alive or not. It makes it easier to decline to participate in our nation’s wacky and profoundly harmful approach to health care.
It is my intention never to agree to pay out-of-pocket for any essential medical service. If that means I’m refused care, so be it. Maybe I’ll change my mind if I’m in excruciating pain, and if I do, I’ll learn something about myself. But it won’t alter my commitment to resist a way of thinking about so-called human health that is at odds with human dignity. I’m speaking of the view that medical treatment is not a right but a privilege, and that it’s okay for someone to become financially devastated because of his or her health. As George Carlin said about America, we’re a great country but a strange culture.
Continue reading "SINGING MEANINGFUL SONGS" »
[a story for thanksgiving]
Thirteen words that shape the world.
His name is Corky Burr, age mid-sixties by my calculations. He and I were high school classmates. I don’t believe our paths have crossed since, and we really didn’t know each other well then. I have no memories of him, just a single impression: a small sparkle of kindness. By “small” I mean his physical size, not quality of light. Recently we became Facebook friends, which, as millions of us know, means mostly we get to glimpse at whatever sliver of a person’s life they wish to share with their Facebook companions. The very first statement of Corky’s I was privileged to read was this: “I have 16 more days before I marry the love of my life.”
Continue reading "Corky Burr and the Keepers of Awe" »
It was such a sad thing to feel the despair in Michael Jordan as he said in conjunction with his induction to the Basketball Hall of Fame that nothing in his life would fulfill him as much as playing basketball. Think about it. How would he know? Is he so visionary, so mystical, so in tune with the ultimate nature of things that he grasps the limitless possibility of the universe to surprise and challenge––and finds it wanting?
What he’s saying without realizing it, my guess is, is that he can’t conceive of anything providing him the rapture he has experienced playing basketball––and since he can’t conceive it, it must not be possible. And there Mr. Jordan demonstrates the great delusion common to us all until we choose to look at things differently. The delusion that the boundaries of our understanding are the boundaries of understanding itself.
Continue reading "NONE OF US IS WHO WE THINK WE ARE" »
No doubt by now Ted Kennedy and Michael Jackson have shared a little fist bump in the great beyond. They had so much in common in their most recent incarnation. They were born under the star named “Go Big or Stay Home.” They were dramatic reminders to millions that we are all multi-dimensional beings––animated by nobility and ignorance: able to heal and inspire, as well as harm and confuse.
Continue reading "Ted, Michael and the Price of Joy" »