jeux avec frontieres

At first, I wanted the Colorado Rockies to be humbled as badly as was Cleveland, by the Red Sox. However, as that began to happen in Wednesday's first World Series game, I began to feel bad for the Rockies. If they had lost 7-1 or 6-0, I would have felt a little validated, that the BoSox are simply the better team. At 13-1, it was uncomfortable. However, these are all professional athletes, with pride and almost super-human physical abilities, and they are well-paid to undergo such public humiliation. So the Rockies came back last night, and held Boston to two runs. Alas, they still only scored one, and are now in an 0-2 hole in a best-of-seven series. Colorado fans, you can learn from us Cleveland fans: "wait 'til next year!"

deep breaths

In Miami, Florida, recent immigrants from Haiti
are looked down upon
by the immigrants from Guatemala,
because they are so much more impoverished,
and even newer than they are.
Let us take a deep breath for the Haitians.

The Guatemalan immigrants are looked down upon
by the Latinos, Latinas and Hispanics
whose families have been here for at least one generation.
Let us take a deep breath for the Guatemalans.

Some white people look down on all of them,
because their skin is brown and they speak a language other than English.
Let us take a breath for all Hispanic peoples.

Other whites look down on those whites
for expressing their prejudice and bigotry so blatantly.
Still other people
judge those whites
for not working harder to overcome their subtle forms of racism…
Let us take a deep breath for all people,
whatever their skin color,
whatever their level of prejudice,
whatever their level of self awareness.

And let us draw another breath,
for all of our human cousins
who struggle with religious differences,
or gender or sexuality or class differences,
or any of the other ways we separate and judge each other.

Let us take a deep breath for ourselves.

rainbow exhaust

Driving on *very* wet pavement, shortly after a heavy rain, but after the clouds had passed and the sun was quite bright, I saw a rainbow in my rearview mirror. In the spray kicked up by my tires, in that portable cloud every vehicle drags behind it in such wet conditions, a rainbow followed me. Sometimes faint, sometimes quite vivid, it kept me company for about 15 minutes.

impulse of evolution

"I’ll tell you what I think.
I think the [mystics and] sages are the growing tip
of the secret impulse of evolution.
I think they are the leading edge
of the self-transcending drive
that always goes beyond what went before.
I think the embody the very drive of the Kosmos
toward greater depth and expanding consciousness…

And I think they point to the same depth in you,
and in me,
and in all of us.
I think they are plugged into the All,
and the Kosmos sings through their voices,
and Spirit shines through their eyes.

I think they disclose the face of tomorrow,
they open us to the heart of our own destiny,
which is already right now
in the timelessness of this very moment,
and in that startling recognition
the voice of the sage becomes your voice,
the eyes of the sage become your eyes,
you speak with the tongues of angels
and are alight with the fire of a realization that never dawns nor ceases,
you recognize your own true Face in the mirror of the Kosmos itself:
your identity is indeed the All,
and you are no longer part of that stream,
you are that stream,
with the All unfolding not around you but in you.
The stars no longer shine out there, but in here.
Supernovas come into being within your heart,
and the sun shines inside your awareness.
Because you transcend all, you embrace all.
There is no final Whole here,
only an endless process,
and you are the opening or the clearing
or the pure Emptiness in which the entire process unfolds—
ceaselessly, miraculously, everlastingly, lightly.

The whole game is undone,
this [drama] of evolution,
and you are exactly where you were
prior to the beginning of the whole show.
With a sudden shock of the utterly obvious,
you recognize your own Original Face,
the face you had prior to the Big Bang,
the face of utter Emptiness
that smiles as all creation and sings as the entire Kosmos—
and it is all undone in that primal glance,
and all that is left is the smile,
and the reflection of the moon on a quiet pond,
late on a crystal clear night."

--Ken Wilber, from his Brief History of Everything.