Not Yet Nirvana

The pampered middle class suburbanite that I am, complaining of back pain as those of us who are of a certain age often do I dragged myself to work. I work the afternoon shift. I managed to stop at a convenience store to pick up a sandwich and coffee. I bought a lottery ticket. My wife and I are not poor we are middle class, barely. But with two years, four months until I retire at sixty-five, a lottery win would erase all anxiety about our retirement years. Are we not driven to wish a better life for our loved ones? Our spouses, our children, grandchildren, our parents, if they are still alive, these are the people we would first like to help with a windfall. That was my altruistic view when I paid for my food, drink and chance at being a hero. Laden down with my wares and my car keys, I exited the store. A dishevelled man of indeterminate age, dirty looking, with bad teeth, uncombed hair and beard asked me for change. Honestly, I had no change. I paid for my stuff with a c...

I love movies. I always have, so naturally, I took a course in film arts and though I’ve forgotten the intricacies, (the year was 1973); I still appreciate the art form. For instance, the mood or tone of a movie begins with the opening music and credits. That whole thing has been crafted to set what the director thinks the tone of the movie should convey. The goal of a film is to convince you, as the viewer, to willingly suspend your disbelief. The colour, texture, the music, camera angles and even the pace of the edit and scene changes, all conspire with the actors, the dialogue and the costumes, to make you lose your ascetic distance and become part of the experience. You, as the viewer, are persuaded to be part of the film and not apart from it. Movie viewing is intended as an inclusive experience. The part of the bargain, the quid pro quo , when you pay for a ticket or a rental fee, is that you will put aside your cynicism and critique and allow the film the opportunity to c...

The room is packed with people sitting in cheap white plastic chairs. The walls are painted an off white, a non-color, bland to the point of non-existence, and there’s an irritating yet unrecognizable music playing at low volume. The general murmur of other people is not as loud as it should be given the number of bodies present. They sit in the chairs mainly staring straight ahead, some wring their hands, and I can almost taste the adrenalin as their fear courses through their bodies. There are four desks partitioned one from the other off to the side and occasionally names are called and people walk up to these desks, sit, and answer questions. I cannot hear what the questions are. But it strikes me that while I have been here for more than forty-five minutes, and have seen a dozen or so people walk up to the desks, I haven’t seen anyone leave the room. When they are finished with the questioning, the people stand and are escorted further back behind the desks by white clad ass...

Of all the ridiculous accusations coming from this administration and conservatives in general is the idea that religion is under attack. No reasonably intelligent person can come to such a conclusion unless of course by attack they mean a mounted defense against the systemic discrimination of all who do not fit religion’s narrow definition of who should be included in this society. In fact, the very definition and composition of society may be what theists are trying to change with this absurd executive order being issued by Trump at the behest of his uber-religious vice-president, Pence. No one is suggesting that religious people cannot practice their religion, observe their holy days, or pray in public. What is being contested and protested is the discrimination of the LGBTQ community, atheists, agnostics, and any who do not subscribe to the faith of those theists who contemptuously and arrogantly want all people to subscribe to their religious tenets. With that said it is my ...

To recap: Since Trump was sworn in, we've had a Muslim ban that caused trauma to thousands of people and the legality of which was questionable at best as it is now tied up in the courts and extremely unlikely to reappear as law. Three high-ranking Trump supporters have had to step down or recuse themselves of their duties due specifically to ties to Russia and the Russian intelligence service. This was brought about by the public marching in the streets and calling their congressmen, proving protesting the status quo has an effect. An MI-5 agent has a dossier suggesting Trump has been compromised by the Russians. There are allegations that Trump gained the presidency due to Russian cyber activity. This is not confined to the USA, other countries have claimed Russian hacks including, Germany, France, Georgia, Estonia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Norway and the Netherlands. Certainly, this should deserve a high level investigation if only to prove it false! Mexico is not...

When you reach a certain age, the activities of your youth, the folly of being young, the derring-do attitude of days gone-by that resulted in all manner of bumps, bruises and broken limbs, tend to haunt you. This is especially so upon waking. The last few weeks have taken a particularly tasking toll on me. The damp weather, the up and down temperatures; one day its winter, the next, a forty degree rise in temperature, and then two days later it’s fifteen degrees cooler and rainy. The intense political climate and the churned up existential angst accompanying it, is partly responsible as well, I am sure. Back issues, shoulder surgery, knee surgery, all my joints that ever experienced acute articulation from decades studying martial arts, make it impossible for me to spring out of bed and get stuck into the days activities. It has, I must admit, been sometime since I have sprung into anything, at anytime of day or night. Oh, there are medications. That too comes with being a certa...

These days, politics takes up a lot of our time, especially those of us on social media. We argue with those who disparage the political  party we support, scream at our computer screens and televisions when we see a member of the opposition spinning news events, and exhaust ourselves ferreting out real news from “fake” news. There is a division in American society, which has only two viable political parties, the left and the right, the quintessential either/or philosophical fallacy. Lines are drawn. Dogma becomes amour that facts cannot breach on either side. America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, seems to be slipping into the land of the freaks and the home of the knave. Presidential press conferences look more like episodes from Jerry Springer. And the gravitas, so hard won by America in decades past, appears to be diminishing. It is painful to witness. It should anger us, regardless of our politics, for this is an assault on the essence of that which...