How much could we pay for old folks retirement and everybody's health care and education if we weren't paying interest on the national debt?

How much could we afford if we weren't trying to change governments of other countries?

Could we afford a more workable disaster response system?

What if, instead of investment vehicles, homes were for families to live in? What if the young people didn't have to compete with mutual funds and foreign investors and the folks down the street who have enough money to buy an investment property?

Would more families have a stable community to live in? Would more kids find their place and their peace?

Vera was just thinking.

-Auriel Ragmon

Sad day when the owls go away

The forest sang from inner sad voices;
Forest could be meadow soon, they knew.
Sang sadly, the owls did,
From high branches where owls safely perched.
Inner calm escaped with the sound of falling trees.
"Sad day when the owls go away,"
Voices in the forest say.

-Auriel Ragmon (1999)

"I don't mind reality so much; I just wish there weren't so many versions of it!"

- Vera Vague (close friend of Auriel Ragmon)

Sonata

The reality of the redemptive process never really is absent or unavailable to people as long as they live. People have beauty, creativity, wonderfulness about them, even in their darkest moments. This is what is so worthy of love - the intrinsic person.

I will never believe that there is a single person on the face of the earth who is beyond redemption or unworthy of love. The minute people declare another person unworthy, they sink themselves.

We are only allowed to look at ourselves in the great reflection of the divine and personal God, seeing our own self as unworthy, and seeing other people as very, very precious. Then, we learn about how we are precious in a believable way, whereas the way of denigrating others only harms ourselves.

The Sonata is missed, unheard under the cacaphony of self-righteous banter about Other People's sins and how Those People ruin decent society. What is not seen is the absolute incredible beauty of people. They are so delightful, so full of gifts. It is a wonderful thing to connect with this wonderfulness, and you miss it when you get on the blame train.

A Sonata is a musical work with various movements, each with a different mood and tempo. Sonatas are played by a group of people cooperating together to bring these moods and tempos into reality to be shared by them and the people they are playing for. Playing a sonata is a tribute and appreciation of the creator of such beautiful music.

Here, I will stop, quietly, gently, leaving each person to dream of a sonata they play with others, especially those that are rejected. I think it very likely that those who accept and love the rejected are rewarded with a deeply beautiful experience of the other, and find themselves loved and not rejected.

- Auriel Ragmon

A Prayer For Courage by Rabindranath Tagore

I found the poem. I also learned more about the incredibly wonderful writer Rabindranath Tagore. If you have never heard about him, go ye therefore and google. You should note that yes, I have immense respect for Tagore - I was making fun of me!

A Prayer For Courage

Rabindranath Tagore

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
But to be fearless in facing them.

Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,
But for the heart to conquer it.

Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield,
But to my own strength.

Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved,
But hope for the patience to win my freedom.

Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling your mercy in my success alone,
But let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure.

Sky Painter

Does anybody know what it means
when the Sky Painter dies?
And puts the sky away
in a little dark box?
And all the world goes on
as though the sky were just blue
except for you?

One day I thought I would be free,
silly me.

Crows know more than I;
They don’t bother themselves with why
the Sky Painter no longer paints the sky.

Auriel Ragmon
On the death of her Mother

The coward's retort - a reply to Rabinath Tagore's "A Courageous Poem"

The coward's retort - a reply to Rabinath Tagore's "A Courageous Poem"

(See subsequent post for the original - Auriel Ragmon)

Let me pray for God's sake to be sheltered from dangers.
I am too busy hiding under the bed to be fearless in facing them.

Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, I'd rather skip the pain thing, for I haven't the heart to conquer it.

Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield (since I don't have any friends).

And since I can't rely on my own strength anyway,
Let me not cave into silly impulses to do noble things.

Rather, let me in anxious fear hope to be saved without any effort of my own.
May I but hope for the patience I will need when the goobers don't appear to win my freedom.

Grant me that I may not be a foolish hero, feeling mercy in my imaginary success alone; But let me find the grasp of your hand in my peregrinations.

(Rubitin Samore)

First blog ever

Today in Olympia, Washington, the sun shone :>, but in Detroit the Seattle Seahawks lost :<. I spent most of my day listening to a talk on local geology and playing with the donkeys, llamas, and dogs. This is my very first blog entry, and I'm a bit of a Luddite - the accounts should get better with some practice!

I like thinking about what we could do here locally if we couldn't get things from China. We have farms, weavers, spinners, and there is even a shoe making school in Port Townsend. What can we trade? It's a naive bit of thinking, given the millions of people, but I very much like to relate on the village level. In a way, we have villages within the millions made up of the people we are able to come to know.

Music is a very nice way of achieving this. I have friends who play Old Time music. I am very happy to see that biodiesel is a going thing here. Now you can get biodiesel for home heating, very good. I should overcome my habit of nonsequitors! But it's late. Let's just see how this all goes. Best, Auriel Ragmon