As long as the focus remains on the individual, the “nuclear” family surrounding the individual, violence will have free reign – if you have to protect your family from the outside, if you have to back inside to retreat – you must be armed! As long as we retreat (or feel we can retreat) inward, inside the houses we build, the dinners we serve, the self-contained, self-sufficient existence we believe we have with our little families, well, we are armed.
The family, the tribe, the ethnic group, the nation, the clan, the country, the war, the self, the family and so on and on and on. Perpetual motion of the lesser values. We must produce for all these people, work, consume, survive for all these people. We must defend ourselves against that which is alien to us and against that which threatens the safety of our tribe. Must we not?
And I say, we must not! The threshold I imagine is the unimaginable threshold of no frontier – the place where you enter the household of intimacy – to come inside not to be safe from, but to go towards intimacy, this homestead of the soul. The world outside the place inside meshed into one – the thread leading from one to the other dissolved, worn out. The workplace as the place of home, the home as the workplace, the family as the world, the stranger as the family. EW now and then 3/8/00
Professional armies I did not know then, they would fall out of the skies… skin briefcases to hold their fall, contact lenses, retina implants, tricks of memory - they did fall out of the skies. c.e.o's, cooks, cleaners, speculators and snake oil peddlers, electricians, magicians just arriving to set up their gear for breakfast birthday parties, dark haired children, hispanicos, women in veils and blond black soldiers, they, the godless, devout, monogamous, polygamous, loving, hating, earnest, alive, childless, dogless, motherless, fatherless, humanless earthless, like bombs they fell out of the skies like stars like meteors and mutations professional armies they keep on falling out of the skies. EW, Excerpts from the book of Poems about peace Late in September 2001
And yet we must continue to defend joy as a right!
Defensa de la alegría
Defender la alegría como una trinchera defenderla del escándalo y la rutina de la miseria y los miserables de las ausencias transitorias y las definitivas defender la alegría como un principio defenderla del pasmo y las pesadillas de los neutrales y de los neutrones de las dulces infamias y los graves diagnósticos defender la alegría como una bandera defenderla del rayo y la melancolía de los ingenuos y de los canallas de la retórica y los paros cardiacos de las endemias y las academias defender la alegría como un destino defenderla del fuego y de los bomberos de los suicidas y los homicidas de las vacaciones y del agobio de la obligación de estar alegres defender la alegría como una certeza defenderla del óxido y la roña de la famosa pátina del tiempo del relente y del oportunismo de los proxenetas de la risa defender la alegría como un derecho defenderla de dios y del invierno de las mayúsculas y de la muerte de los apellidos y las lástimas del azar y también de la alegría. Mario Benedetti Defense of joy Defend joy as a trench defend it from scandal and routine from misery and from the miserable from transient departures and from definitive ones defend joy as a principle defend it from wonders and from the nightmares of the neutrals and the neutrons from sweet infamies and grave diagnosis defend joy as a flag defend it from lightning and melancholy from naïves and from rogues from rethorics and heart attacks from endemics and academics defend joy as a destiny defend it from fire and firemen from suicidal and homicidal from holidays and stress from the duty of being joyful defend joy as a certainty defend it from rust and dirt from the famed patina of time from fog and opportunism from the pimps of laughter defend joy as a right defend it from god and winter from capital letters and death from surnames and pity from chance and also from joy. https://lyricstranslate.com with a few tweaks
And here is a marvelous Rising Appalachia brief presentation at the 2023 Bioneers’ encounter. I hope the link connects.
This is all what I have to share, after my brief break from publishing. Hard to come back and feel I have to reconcile war and peace, once again. You can help by liking, and sharing my posts. Thank you for reading!
Coming soon, in about two weeks: What did I really do in my vacation?
This gave me hope and encouragement.
What is the origin of this distinction between inside and outside? From what or whom does the system need to defend itself? I very much like to post, especially Professional Armies.