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Two days worth of rain at the end of last week resulted in some overflow at the west end of the pond. That little bit of flooding will actually be good for the "butterfly & hummingbird" bag of seeds that Chloe spread last week, in anticipation of a close family friend coming to sit near the pond for an extended time in June.
I could adjust the drain on the west side to allow the water to flow out faster, but the small area that has been flooded is in danger of having soil erode. Instead, I will simply move the two chairs there towards the eastern end of the pond, where there is higher ground.
Last week’s rain has resulted in a tremendous amount of green: the trees and bushes, and the grass in the fields are all looking much different than they did just a few days before the rain. Everything is alive, and as I sit down with this journal, I am treated to the sound, then sight, of a tiny humming bird going to the feeder that the girls hung from a low branch of a tree. Things are good.
I watched President Obama speak at Notre Dame yesterday. I think that he has a good understanding of how to use what Gandhi and King referred to as "creative tension" to his best advantage. Of course, being inside the government does not allow him to make use of it in exactly the way that they did. But one can apply certain basic concepts to a wide range of situations.
How different Obama is from the last fellow who sat in the Oval Office was evident in his approach to the situation at Notre Dame. There was, as the corporate media made sure everyone would know, the elements of a gathering storm when this school selected Barack Obama to speak and to honor. But what the rigid right-wingers had hoped would cause a major flooding of the streets turned out to be a gentle rain that dampened the ground to the west of the campus. Despite the protesters’ intentions, this only improved conditions for Obama to spread seeds – which should be the ultimate goal of any educational institution – and helped to focus national attention on his presentation.
Compare this to the approach of George W. Bush, who fits the definition of a malignant, narcissistic-exploitive character as outlined by Erich Fromm. Bush believes that only his view is correct, and hence has merit. Those with opposing views are, be definition, the enemy, who warrant no respect, and simply must be crushed. Thomas Merton also wrote about this form of malignant personality, as being so insecure in their beliefs, that they feel the need to punish anyone who would dare question them. They are threatened by an actual discussion, and instead seek only echoes. Hence, George Bush generally spoke only to audiences that had been selected to applaud his every line.
There are no absolutes, Fromm wrote, except that every human being born eventually dies. For the rigid mind, that provides no security; rather, it leads to attempts to control everything around it, and those attempts always end in failure.
Those who do not suffer from this form of intellectual rigor mortis appreciate that uncertainly allows for many options in life, and that these options are what allow us to reach that higher ground – both as individuals and as a community. Not by violent force, not by imposing our beliefs upon others, but by comparing ideas, finding consensus, and in respecting that other people are sincere in viewing things differently than ourselves. This does not mean that we should compromise our values, but rather, that we should be confident that if we plant them today, they will flower tomorrow.
There are, of course, a percentage of people who find this concept unacceptable. They are those who are over the top, and who attempt to disrupt the community’s discussion. They eventually walk out, or are escorted out, and create the puddles of discontent on the outside that the corporate media always focuses on. But they will, by their own nature, dry up when the sun shines upon them.
This is a strange time in our nation’s history. But that strangeness provides us with many opportunities.
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