Kids in cowboy hats

This man of few words - but what he does with those few - even makes the boys from Liverpool go down smoother.



But you gotta admit. Tykes in cowboy hats make everything go better.



Sing it, kids.

Why kids still believe

You know why kids still believe, more than adults, so often, that life and the world can be better than it is, I think?

Because when kids are bullied or bully one another, they know that it's wrong.

But when adults bully one another, they call it whatever they please.

What Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Algeria and all the rest of us are deciding, right now, is:

"Is that really how we want it to be?"

Perhaps we can do a bit better

It's so funny watching this stupid, petty, godforesaken mess of humanity, these days. How much they try to get their hands on power and take credit for progress that generally happens despite them, more often than not, sadly. Stupidly. But sadly, still.

It's so funny to watch all the ego masquerading as something better than itself. All so it doesn't have to face it's own shittiness.

My own, too, of course. I've been guilty more times than I can count, honestly. Everyone has, is the truth. When we're not bullshitting. It's those who can't face that truth that you really need to be concerned about, honestly. Fred Phelps comes to mind. So does Kim Jong Il. And Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And that Chinese government. And the broadest swath of American politicians, these days. And most days, is the truth.

There are signs of hope. A Tunisian public that knows real oppression well enough to know that freedom isn't a four letter word. And Egyptians and Yemenis and Jordanians who know better than to wait on petty, sniping Americans to come save them. Even as Iraqis and Afghanis benefit from the half-ass bumbling of an American government and public too stupid and scared to just embrace the very cause they lost lives for in those conflicts. Many American soldiers, I've noticed, are not so stupid and scared, to embrace the freedom they fight for. A lot of teachers and firefighters and other such folk, too, I've noticed. A lot of cops seem to prefer more freedom for people, is my experience. But so few of us, today, seem willing to say so out loud.

For fear that the world will go to shit, if we do. I mean, far more shitty than we've already made it, of course. The fear that always rationalizes our worst instincts. Because we are far too shitty to ever stop imagining just how much far more shitty we could possibly be.

How stupid and mean and self-centered are we, you wonder? As stupid and mean and self-centered as we wanna be, is the truth. And, from there, springs all our problems, of course.

I guess I've decided that a humanity that behaves that way deserves its own misery, is the truth. Until they can face up to what jackasses they are. That's the only way I've ever learned, at least.

Perhaps we are more enamoured of our pride. But pride has consequences. Enjoy them, I suppose.

If humanity can't embrace it's better angels because it's too afraid of its own demons, it deserves the hell on earth it creates, I suppose.

Until it has the courage to embrace something better.

And no matter how many ways you talk your way around that one, that is the only courage that has ever been worthy of the name. Everything else, no matter how we talk ourselves around it, is the consequence of the alternative.

And everything else is what we get until we find that courage.

The only way around it is to put down the threats and the will to overpower and to be decent to one another.

But that will only happen when we find the courage to do just that.

Hitler and Stalin, as it turns out, were not so different from us as we flatter ourselves to believe, is the truth. They just were more committed to the logical endpoint of this very same reasoning.

They went to greater extremes, you might say. They were more radical. They were more consistent in their principles, as modern day would-be Stalins and Hitlers, on the right and the left, might say.

And that makes us so much better, let me tell ya.

Or perhaps it makes us not quite as shitty.

Either way, the way forward should clearly be in the other direction. When we aren't rationalizing our inner Hitlers and Stalins.

Humanity sets up the impossible task that all its members must be Jesus for them to stop falling short of Hitler and Stalin. And then spends the rest of its existence justifying why they just can't be that dude in their own lifetimes.

And makes a mess of itself in the meantime.

What a stupid way to run a species, don't you think?

Perhaps its the only way to run a species.

Or perhaps that's just one more line of bullshit in a long succession of bullshit.

Perhaps the reason we don't do better is because we're afraid of ourselves. And one another.

Perhaps we can do a bit better than that.

What do you do for a species too stubborn to listen?

Sometimes, all you can do for humanity is just let them all fall on their own swords.

If we'd stop being such dicks, that is

What do you do with a world, I've been asking myself, lately, where people have decided to perpetually act like dicks and ignore all the consequences from what perpetually acting like dicks results in in the world?


Gaffe-Prone Biden Embarrasses Nation Yet Again By Sneezing During Meeting

Been thinking a lot, lately, about how it's acting like dicks, and the constant and ever-creative-and-sophisticated-sounding justifications for acting like dicks, that is so clearly responsible for most of the world's avoidable misery, when you step back from it and aren't busy making ever-creative-and-sophisticated sounding justifications for doing so.

But in a world where people keep going down that path and can just pretend that they aren't responsible for any of the bullshit it creates, what do you do?

If everyone is doing it and they know that they just don't have to take responsibility for it if they don't wanna, and that they have some lame ass justification for it laying around here, somewhere, what the hell do you do with such lame asses, I've wondered.

If shaming, and jailing, and pressuring, and what-not not only does not keep them from being such pricks, until they're willing to give it up, but it makes us all into a bunch of callous pricks in the process - and a political and popular culture that reflects what shitheads we've all become - and always has, what can you do with all that prickishness, you have to wonder?

Talk about it honestly, is about the only thing I can think of. Write about it. Joke about it. And laugh about it. And what remarkable dumbasses we look like for doing it. How miserably it's failed to make things better.

And how it has so often - the economy comes to mind, right now, but really just about any issue you can name, right now - made everything we said we wanted to be better far worse in the process.

And, more importantly, makes us all far worse, in the process.

And do what you can to stay away from the dicks. And then let all those dicks fall on those swords they've been living by.

And spend time and stop taking for granted all the folks who love you, for real, no matter what.

Anyway, that's about all I can come up with, at this point.

Now I remember why I valued loving people, so much, as a kid. Because they're nicer people to be around, is the truth. Generally. When they're not being dicks, too, that is. Yeah, I know. Me, too. Thanks for reminding me, asshole.

It's really not all that complicated, when you get down to it. Dicks are shitty people to be around, is the truth. And they fuck up most of what is fucked up and could be otherwise in the world.

And if it weren't the entirety of the goddamn species, you'd give up on the whole lot of them. But since it is, until it isn't, what the fuck you gonna do, you know?

Hope that they don't blow themselves up, I suppose. And remind them that when the world gets shittier, it just might be the human species that's responsible. No matter where their stubby little fingers are pointed.

And maybe offer them a vision of the future that is a bit less shitty. And maybe even a pretty decent future. If we'd stop being such dicks, that is.

Real progress doesn't need permission

The scent of jasmine spreads

Tunisia protests: 'The fear has gone...I've been waiting 20 years for this day'

Egypt scene of chaos as protests escalate

Thousands in Yemen Protest Against the Government

Because real progress means less fear and repression. Not more.

And no amount of bullshit will ever make that go away.

Your heart and the most essential truth, so says this heart

The most important wrestling we do in our life, I'm convinced, at this point, is the wrestling we do with ourselves. With our conscience. With our dreams. With our fears and insecurities. With our hearts. With our minds.

And at the end of all of that, if we're wise, I think, is making what can be better - in our lives and in the lives of other around us - better. For real.

And out of that wrestling is our best. Each of us. The best we have to offer. For ourselves and for everyone else.

The rest - the fighting, the threatening, the hurt imposed, the will to overpower, the self-centered efforts to get our way at the expense of others, the use of fear and force, except when real danger is present (and distinguishing between what is real and what is not is the essence of the strongest efforts to wrestle with one's conscience) - these are all both fruitless and self-involved.

And like all fruitless and self-involved things in the world, they make our lives worse rather than better.

We are welcome to them. And we are welcome to their consequences. And whether we take responsibility for the consequences or not, we are responsible for them.

But the real and wonderful opportunities in life, for ourselves and for others, come from wrestling with oneself and one's own thinking and acting in the world.

And once you've done that, the world is really not all that difficult to navigate, at all. It is just a matter of to thy own heart being true, as the English poet would say.

And no other greater wisdom could be truer. Until it proves itself otherwise to that same heart. As a matter of fact. And as a matter of fact of how the world should be.

And that is the most essential truth of any life. So says this heart.

A question for our cynicism

If we are so cynical that we do not care or pretend not to care about the consequences of our behavior on other human beings and the world outside of ourselves, does that, in fact, mean that our behavior has no consequences?

And do those consequences care that we do not care?

Do we?

Do I?



The better I understand, the more I care.

And the more I care, the better I understand.

And so goes the virtuous circle of life.

One life at a time.

The space between our ears

Some egos are so enormous, I'm learning, that very little decency or honest sense could possibly fit in the vast space within the ears or hearts they occupy.

'If maybe that fellow who was shooting everybody — if he had had some friends and family around him, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.'

I am in awe of the inspiring courage and grace of John Green, the father of 9-year-old Christina Green, who died in last week's tragedy in Tuscon, AZ.

As Jeff Jacoby eloquently writes:

"In the eight days since the deadly shootings in Arizona, the nation has been engulfed by a tidal wave of rhetoric and reaction, much of it unnecessary, ungracious, or unfortunate. But amid the flood of words, two voices have spoken with an uplifting decency and grace that should make them memorable long after the hue and cry of the past week has ended.

One of those voices was that of President Obama, whose remarks at the memorial service in Tucson Wednesday night were humane and eloquent, unmarred by the acrimony that has ricocheted back and forth in the political echo chamber. The president spoke movingly about each of the victims whose lives were cut short. He gratefully hailed by name those whose heroism and quick thinking prevented even more lives from being lost. And with no hint of self-interest or rationalization, he urged all Americans not to 'use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other.’

Not even the president, however, could match the goodness, dignity, and large-heartedness of John Green, whose 9-year-old daughter, Christina, was the youngest victim of suspect Jared Loughner’s rampage.

Speaking through tears as he was interviewed on NBC’s 'Today' show and on the Fox News Channel, Christina’s father refused to pin his daughter’s murder on the 'climate of hate' and 'vitriolic rhetoric' so many others were eager to indict. Unlike the local sheriff who seized the moment to smear Arizona as 'a mecca for prejudice and bigotry,' John Green said the killings were 'such a rare thing to happen in Tucson, Arizona, which is a wonderful city — and the northwest side is a wonderful community.'

The chattering class spent much of the past week calling for new laws and tighter regulations. There were proposals for (among other things) a ban on carrying guns within 1,000 feet of a member of Congress, resurrecting the long-discredited broadcast Fairness Doctrine, funding more outpatient clinics to treat the mentally ill, and prohibiting ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. John Green endorsed none of them. 'We don’t need any more restrictions on our society,’ he said. 'New laws and limitations cannot prevent every horror, and if we want to live in a country like the United States, where we are more free than anywhere else, we are subject to things like this happening.’

No one would have faulted Green if, in his heartbreak, he had raged against the monster who shot Christina. Instead he expressed gratitude for 'the friends and family we have surrounded ourselves with,’ and added, with almost incomprehensible generosity: 'If maybe that fellow who was shooting everybody — if he had had some friends and family around him, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.'

Americans talk too much and think too little, especially when it comes to the sins and sorrows of others. There is 'a time to keep silence and a time to speak,' Ecclesiastes teaches. When a tragedy like the one in Tucson strikes, most of us would do well to keep silence, and leave the speaking for those with the humanity and wisdom to say something meaningful."

In honor of Christina and John Green.

When we look for what's best

A reminder of what we can accomplish when we look for what is best in ourselves and each other.



All dark paths lie elsewhere.

Time to use our freedom for something worthwhile.

No more No more Mr. Nice Guy

World's awash in assholes. Time for something better in this world. For all our sakes.

Something beautiful

It's been beyond time, for a long time, that we took responsibility for the ugly direction our country and world has taken. Turn things around. Make the world genuinely better.









As I watch the blame game in full swing, might I suggest that in lieu of left or right, on this matter, that we consider the example of someone like Jack Johnson. Or Stephen Covey. Or their example, perhaps. Someone like Jesus of Nazareth.

And focus on the beams in our own eyes.

I'm as guilty as anyone else. I aspire for love and understanding. And I've fallen, too often, into anger and impatience. My whole purpose, at this point, is to help us all see how there is much to discover and understand from one another. And I've fallen short of that too often to count.









Jack Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were killed in a similarly scared, aggressive and hateful period.

Gabrielle Giffords avoided that fate, thankfully. Six others, including a 9-year-old girl, did not, sadly.

It is time we take responsibility for the ugliness. To give it up. And make the world something more beautiful. For real.

It is possible. It's just about us getting honest with ourselves about us.

And isn't that the most important truth of all.

Sing it, Jack.

On forgiveness

There is nothing more satisfying for the soul than facing someone who insults your dignity openly to your face, kicking the shit out of them several times over in your mind, and then forgiving them and yourself nonetheless.

Or perhaps there is nothing more satisfying for the soul than forgiving others and yourself.

Or so say those with satisfied souls.

High tide or low tide

Notice the low tides, here.

111th Congress Averaged 25% Approval, Among the Recent Lowest

111th Congress - Nancy Pelosi 23%
110th Congress - Nancy Pelosi 25%
103rd Congress - Tom Foley 25%
102nd Congress - Tom Foley 27%
109th Congress - Dennis Hastert 30%

Meaning, Democratic, up front, on the top 4. And with the 5th, those who most favored increased government intervention and power in the lives of Americans.

I would bet you'd find a similar trend among Presidential approval ratings.

Meaning, either Democrats and the 109th Republican Congress are right that really what America needs more of is more government control and intervention in their lives, no matter what Americans have to say about the matter. Or that what they need is more Democratic control and intervention and not Republican control and intervention, an interpretation many lefists champion. Or that they need more Republican control and intervention, an interpretation that many right-wing folks favor.

Or that the American peoples' sense that Congresses that have increased government control and intervention in their lives - right and left - are moving in the wrong direction and that what they need is less government control and intervention in their lives is the best interpretation of events.

And I have to say that though I do not romanticize Americans and their politics, I do think that last interpretation is the strongest one.

And the one that will win the day, regardless, no matter how much we try to spin or leverage it otherwise.

Your teachers were right. There really are realities that exist quite independent of our opinions about them. And this is one of them.

And thank God, or whatever might tickle your fancy, we live in a relatively free country where we can voice those opinions as openly and freely, as possible.

So that something more genuine might win the day. And our hearts.

Win or lose, Nancy, Tom, and Denny, I'll still be with you, at least. No joke, homefries.

Sometimes, though, poorer ideas need to lose favor.

And stronger ideas, and the people who need them as much as those who offer them, need to thrive. So we can better look after everyone. For real.

Especially for those looking out for everyone.

Speaking of which. Lay it down, Jack.

The proof, and getting about the business of making better pudding

Tony Blankley has a poignant observation about the temper of the times that is the temper of every era where those who would entertain their baser impulse to overpower in lieu of honest engagement has taken hold.

A Public Voice for Private Virtue

"In that context, I was struck this weekend by the words of the great Christian theorist and historian of the last century Hilaire Belloc that I read in his book 'The Elements of the Great War, The Second Phase' (written in 1916.)

He observed that when the most profound issue may face a nation, there is the danger that 'the lesser should conquer the greater, the viler the more noble, the more changeable the more steadfast, the baser the more noble ... We know, upon the analogy of all historical things, small and great, that the less creative, the dullest and the worst elements may destroy, and has frequently attempted to destroy, the vital, the more creative and the best."

The proof is in the pudding, is the bottom line. And the pudding of this era of our romance with power is looking pretty curdled, at this point.

Perhaps better thought about such proof and getting about the business of making better pudding might be in order.

Our story

This is a story of needless tragedy. And what can be done to end it. It is a human story. As old as homo sapiens have been telling stories. And as long as they have been ignoring their own wisdom.

All matters are matters of the heart

"Most mistakes with our children, with our spouses, with all family members are not the result of bad intent. It's just that we really don't understand. We don't see clearly enough into one another's hearts.

If we did - if an entire family could develop the kind of openness we're talking about - over 90% of the difficulties and problems could be solved."

- Stephen Covey, speaking of humankind, not just the humankind we are related to

Please, Santa, bring someone who genuinely cares

It's so refreshing and beautiful to have someone write about politics like people really matter to them.

A Christmas wish

"My sister’s rental place was littered with signs of a more complicated truth than the one obscured by the easy headline. She had 24-hour Alcoholics Anonymous coins lying all over her house, on tables and in dishes. These coins are given out at meetings to mark a day of sobriety, and she attended meetings all the time. She had weights in the living room for her workouts. She always wanted to stay in shape. Religious, spiritual, and poetry books were scattered about with freshly underlined passages on faith, hope, and love. The food in the refrigerator was still fresh, and notes were posted on the door to remind her of the things she needed to do, amid pictures her kids had drawn for her. The movie The Bucket List was near her DVD player. She had either just watched it or was about to. It’s a wonderful film about preparing for death and enjoying life in the meantime.

And, of course, the Christmas list in her pocket. A piece of paper that reflected her love of her kids and the hope and joy that comes with giving.

No, President Obama isn’t a socialist. He isn’t trying to ruin the country, and he doesn’t hate America. Sarah Palin isn’t a dimwit without anything valuable to say or contribute to the country. Republicans aren’t all greedy and corporate stooges. Democrats aren’t all Big Government liberals and against capitalism. The news media (generally) aren’t a tool of the Left or the Right. And my sister wasn’t an uncaring addict who overdosed on a cold day in Michigan.

As we walk through life and deal with one another, we need to keep in mind that truth is not in the headline or the pithy sound bite but deeper in the hearts and souls of each of us—and in the good intentions that most of us carry with us every day, whether we’re bagging groceries, cleaning offices, defending our country, or negotiating a tax compromise.

Diving down to those depths, rather than just snorkeling in the shallows, might give us the bends. But it also might tell us a little more about each other and ourselves.

And maybe it would be good to consider the possibility that each of us, even on our bad days, is walking around with a Christmas list in our pocket."

Perhaps this should be the only way to write about anything that really matters.

Just how great?

Studying politics, like working with the meanest kids, has a tendency to sit heavy on the heart.

They're both similar activities. Both celebrating their meaner instincts. Politics, especially, in the last 10 years. Both pretending like their meaner instincts are their better instincts. Because it's easier than facing shortcomings, in both cases. And listening. And being decent. And having faith in people. And being better, generally.

All of the things we take for granted with nicer people. Loving people. The same people that the meanspirited scapegoat for the failures of their meaner impulses.

Because it's easier than having the courage to take responsibility for them, is the truth.

All of this has made the the world an enormous mess in the last 10 years.

And all of it weighs on the heart. Which is exactly what meaner folks count on to get their way when they want to do that. So it's not terribly surprising.

And the saddest consequence of all this for me and for the country, right now, I was realizing, tonight, is just how much it underestimates just how great each of us and all of us can be.

Given the one thing people have been desperately trying to avoid and more explicitly undermine than I have ever seen.

Our sense of common and higher purpose.

It's been a strange odyssey to watch a country and a world give up on its sense of common purpose. And to pretend like its baser impulses can somehow compensate for more genuine higher purpose.

And the saddest fact of all, in all of this, is how much this fails to appreciate just how great each of us and all of us can be. Given a commitment towards that end.

We may choose not to be great. Not to be good and decent to one another. Not to be generous and decent. To be courageous and humble. To be compassionate and thoughtful. To be forgiving and trustworthy. To be all of the values that we know, deep in our hearts, are humanity's and America's strongest legacy.

We can choose that.

And we can live with its fruits.

And we are, currently, living with those fruits.

And the craziness of it all is that it really does not have to be that way.

Because we can also support one another to aspire for our own greatness. And for greatness as a nation. And greatness in our commitment to the purposes of all humanity.

People really can be better. To let those who refuse to do so refuse. And to lead them in better directions. And to let those those take up the mantle of greatness lead us. And to aspire in the direction of greatness. Because it serves us better. Even when we fall short.

The rub is that it means humbling ourselves. And facing how we fall short. To take up greatness in whatever pursuit once again.

Especially in the pursuit of being a great human being. Great children and parents. Great spouses and loved ones. Great people making great contributions to our families and communities and world and the lives of others.

If there is anything I regret at this point in my life it is losing track of this commitment in my own life, too often. And losing track of my commitment and need to aspire in this direction no matter what anyone else is doing. To let them lead their lives as they see fit. For good and for bad.

To take greatness seriously in my own life. To see greatness in others. To encourage them and myself in more loving and constructive directions.And to let people choose otherwise if they so choose. Except when they are dangerous to others.

Because the truth is that greatness is within our reach. Mine. Yours. All of us. One day at a time. One choice at a time. One moment at a time.

And the rest of my life is committed to seeing and encouraging that in myself and others. To knowing the limits of doing so for anyone other than myself. And to love and appreciate deeply people in my life no matter how this pans out for any of us.

Just how great can we be?

As great as we can imagine. And make real what it conceivable and able to be actualized.

That is just how great I aspire to be.

And doing so does not need me to bemoan the ways that the world falls short somewhat and perhaps substantially less than I am encouraging myself and the world in the direction of its biggest, greatest horizons.

Many will choose to forgo those horizons.

Until their pride gives way to a humble appreciation for what is possible.

For me. For others. For the world.

And that is the only way forward that really offers anything real to satisfy the deepest sense of purpose and satisfaction in life, I am convinced.

Just how great can I be?

Just how great can you be?

Now's as good as time as any to enlighten the rest of us.

Leadership is building commitment to doing the right thing

Poll: Support Drops for Afghanistan War


Something is amiss, these days, in America and the world.

And America's discussion about the war in Afghanistan should be the big red flag for everyone that this is so.

The Afghanistan war, for those who were never fully convinced - I include myself, here, when the war was initially declared - really was and is the war of self-defense. This is in contrast to the Iraq war, which was a worthy war of choice, I believe, with a far-less-than-worthy effort to persuade others of that fact.

After Al Queda attacked on September 11th, the means of capturing or killing remaining fighters, likely to strike again if not contained or killed, was limited by the their ability to find save haven. They had one in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan (and western Pakistan) with no recourse to capture or kill them given a Taliban government that was sympathetic to the cause of Al Queda and not likely willing, in any uncertain terms, to cooperate with the United States.

Absent a U.S. invasion, Afghanistan not only had one of the more brutal and oppressive regimes, over its own people whom had no say over the matter, and towards Muslim people, for those concerned about the fate of Islam under liberal or illiberal governents, in the world. More immediately threatening to U.S. interests, it was a safe haven for Al Queda fighters operating and planning future attacks on the United States and other targets with impunity.

In other words, without invading Afghanistan, the likelihood of Al Queda remaining on the offensive and attacking the United States again was very high. By invading, Al Queda played mouse to our cat and laid low in hiding (and we had a better chance of capturing Bin Laden and the lot) and a terribly ugly and brutal regime gets taken out, in the process, and Afghanis could elect a government of their choosing democratically. Just as we take for granted in the good ol' U.S. of A. as we debate the very issue.

Now, that is the argument that should have been made and debated in 2001, and was, in part, when America first invaded Afghanistan.

And the fact that we didn't discuss and debate this invasion or the invasion in Iraq nearly thoroughly, respectfully, open-heartedly, and open-mindedly enough - and with more focus on doing good than looking good - has everything to do with why the domestic politics is such a mess, on both this war and the war in Iraq and most issues America faces, right now.

So lots of fucking up in this war, the war in Iraq, and all around. And mostly, contrary to popular opinion, not around the military strategy - where America has always had overwhelming force - but around the political matters - in how we understand and engage the people issues, more honestly - and our failure to have an honest and respectful enough discussion and debate about all the people matters that matter.

And in a way where everyone did exactly what everyone is so loathe to do today.

To admit the only and most important honest thing they could possibly admit about anything of any import.

That they may not have all the answers. That they could be wrong. And that, thus, there was plenty to explore, with a genuinely open mind and heart, to arrive at better decisions.

All of this is true. And all of this has created an enormous clusterfuck in Afghanistan. And Iraq. And on most issues that America faces right now. Largely because we've all be acting like assholes and acting like acting like assholes has no consequences when it so clearly has.

So, now, that's where we're at, today.

Now, 9 years later, with nearly 10 years of emotional and upsetting debates about both these wars and any number of issues that matter to people, and with a long war with lots of Americans dying, people have grown war weary.

Understandable. Especially when a lot of folks are not completely clear on the stakes in this war. And many of them may just disagree with me, no matter how clear I am that the stakes are too high to just pull out and supposedly cut our losses.

What's not understandable is all of that meaning that America pulls out of the one situation where self-defense was and still is (as far as I know, Osama Bin Laden is still at large) the real legitimate reason to go to war. And to do so knowing that doing so will leave Afghanis to the devices of those brutal thugs who used to rule their country, in league with the very brutal thugs who killed our people and were the reason for us being there, in the first place, and will do so, again, as soon as they have the inkling they can get away with it.

What's not understandable, in other words, is quitting. Because it's hard.

All the while, pretending what tough little badasses we are to the rest of the world.

It's fuckin' weak, is what it is.

It's fuckin' pathetic.

And it is exactly what America has become in the early 21st century the more we march down this dark path we've been on.

America wants to prove how tough she is.

Stick it out and do the right thing.

And stop making excuses for why we don't wanna.

Or why the fact that we don't wanna somehow means that the people who do want to stick it out need to follow suit. All to suit your ego. And pride. And whatever damn fool impulse drives you, these days.

In other words, perhaps Afghanistan can be a genuine restart.

An opportunity for America to do what she has been failing to do for the last 10 years.

To lead.

And leadership meaning building commitment to doing the right thing.

Patiently. Honestly. The way real, sustainable commitment of any kind is built.

Even when all the popular winds point otherwise.

I don't care how weary we feel.

We went here for the right reasons. And we're fighting there, now, for the right reasons.

And if we leave, Afghanis go back to a brutal, barbaric existence.

All so we could pretend how tough we were.

But not really be tough when it counted.

Meaning, resigning ourselves to being a nation of whining little pussies.

All the while crowing about how fuckin' tough we are.

And then bailing, when the going gets tough.

Leadership is calling out that bullshit for what it is.

And building commitment to something genuinely better.

And we are all welcome to follow anything else that we please.

But pretending like doing so is really our best, or toughest, or most thoughtful selves is really just bullshit. No matter how you try to spin that one.

And if America leaves Afghanistan. They deserve to be known for the fuckin' whiny, tough-talkin' little pussies they turned out to be.

And no amount of talking our way out of that one will make anything different from what it really is.

America is not a country of whiny, tough-talkin' little pussies.

Not for long, that is.

Because we have what it takes to be better than all that bullshit.

And we're gonna stick it out in Afghanistan and demonstrate that's true. And not just talk it.

Doubt that? Watch, motherfucker.

And you know why, captain?

Because nothing else would be worthy of the name American.

And, in my book, at least. That still means something.

Politics and progress (and opinions and assholes, it's all the same thing, after all)

I am convinced, at this point, the more I watch politics, and the utter failure of any political partisan to ever acknowledge any real failure, at all, that most progress in politics happens largely despite ourselves.



Despite our egos. And our stupid pride. And our failure to ever admit failure. Because we think by doing so we make it go away. Or, at least, not our problem.

Which explains most of the problems of liberal democratic politics, right now.

And, for that, we have only ourselves to blame.

What I know today that I did not realize more than 20 years ago, when I first started following American and international politics, is that political leaders are often the farthest thing from an example or role model for life that one could want. For one's children. And for anyone, for that matter.

Because political leaders so consistently fail to do the one thing that anyone would want out of a role model.

To admit their mistakes.

To themselves, at the very least. And to others, when they feel comfortable. A fact we make far less likely by making anyone, nevertheless those in politics, afraid of doing, for fear of the repercussions, even though it is the surest route to facilitating willingness to giving our mistakes up. So that we can move on and stop making them. The failure to do so being about the most damn fool way to live life possible. Because failing to admit your mistakes, of course, by any objective criteria of judgment, does not, in fact, mean that you are not making them. It just means you are repeating them. For as long as it takes for you to admit them.

Says the man to his mistakes.

There is no one in politics, these days - no one, not even one - person I look up to for this purpose. Which is how it should be, I suppose. Since the man I should be looking to for that purpose is myself, of course.

And if there is anything I have learned from politics in 20 years it is that there is so much to be learned, of any substance, from those in politics is of the variety of negative example. Sadly. And, these days, that is a more serious problem than I have ever witnessed it in my lifetime.

If you are looking for anyone to save you, outside of yourself, you are damned fool, is the bottom line, if you look to these people. They can barely take care of themselves, nevertheless you or your loved ones. And, after a time, if you are still looking to them to be a better judge of your life and what is best for you more than for yourself, you not only are a fool - because they can't do so, no matter how much you might wish differently, and, typically, are barely able to sufficiently do so in their own lives - but you really have no one else to blame but yourself for that foolishness.

Because there is no politician who is ever going to come down from on high and tell you:

"Most of the time, we're just doing our best to think of something and get elected. The truth is, we haven't thought nearly enough about this stuff, either. We have strong opinions. Just like so many of you. But just like so many of you, that really doesn't mean jack shit, in the real world, is the truth. Opinions are like assholes. And there's an awful lot of those, too, doing their damage in this tiny little world, now aren't there?"

It's the most profound thing I have to say on the matter, these days. Because I am so fully convinced that these idiots will never say so themselves. So someone has to say it.

The most important thing I have for my kids, for any kids, and for anyone in life, at this point, I'm convinced, is my example.

And the most important example I have to offer, right now, I'm convinced, is that if you want to be an idiot in life, it is all yours. Enjoy it. Because it's going to hard to enjoy anything else, given the mess you're likely to make of your life.

Says the man to his mess.

But I don't want to make a mess of life. And I know, without reservation, at this point, that the surest way to a tidier, self-respecting life I might love is to be the best man I know how to be. The best father. And husband. And son and brother. The best man I know. And to let the idiots have their idiocy. And to live a life I'm genuinely proud of.

Like opinions, anybody can be an asshole. Doesn't take much, frankly.

And anybody can have the damn fool life that comes with it.

I'll take something with more real love, myself.

And I just won't be settling for anything else, at this point.

No matter what gets laid on the table.



And that's the only kind of progress that could ever be worth anything even approaching anything real in my too short a lifetime.

In any lifetime, for that matter.

The lie that power sows

I'm weary of the lie.

The lie that my lying and cynicism is exactly what make me worthy of overpowering you.

Obama's Cynical Maneuvering on the Health-Care Mandate

"On page 25 of his decision, Judge Hudson writes, “Despite pre-enactment representations to the contrary by the Executive and Legislative branches, the Secretary now argues that the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision is, in essence, a ‘tax penalty.’

That’s a polite way of saying that the Obama administration willfully misled the public during the health-care debate. In fact, President Obama repeatedly denied that the mandate was a tax — but now, in order to pass constitutional muster, his administration is insisting it is. I urge you to watch the president’s interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos to see just how emphatic Obama was. When Stephanopoulos says that the mandate is a tax increase, Obama scolds Stephanopoulos. “That’s not true, George,” the president says. '[It] is absolutely not a tax increase.'

Now the president and his administration are arguing exactly the opposite."

Why would anyone look to such people and think to themselves:

Trustworthy. 

Not me. Not anymore.

I'm tired of the lie.

The lie that the lying and the armtwisting is the wave of the future.

The same lie that has plagued humanity since the beginning of humanity.

I'm tired of the lie.

The lie that the armtwisting makes us better. Makes others better. Makes any of us better.

And that the best of us, the best in us, is that which overpowers.

And the worst of us, the worst in us, thus, is that which treat others, more genuinely, the way we'd want to be treated.

I've grown weary of this lie.

And all the weary harvest it has reaped.

Time for something else. For me, at least. 

Even if it means I take my own road. And let everyone else find their own path.

My life is not up for negotiation.

No matter how much anyone offers.

Thanks for everything

If you slow down, enough, to hear it, as I've been, here, recently.



This guy is unbelievable.

Who I'd want my daughter to marry, at least.

Thanks, Jack. Thanks for everything

A song for the genuinely curious

At some point, in every person's life, we are faced with the choice.

Am I going to follow that herd? Even when they have stampeded down that dark path.

Or am I going to have courage to croon that ballad I sing quietly in my own soul?

The road less taken, says Frost.

To your own heart be true, sings the Bard.

And Jack. He thinks the answers could be found. We could learn from digging down. But no one ever seems to be digging.

And you. I'm curious. What verse might you have to share with the heartfelt world?

What secrets are whispered in your tell-tale heart.

What dreams hunger expression.

What love needs your heart to breathe.

Now that's a tune, if you ask nicely, I just might just be willing to give a listen. Or two, if you listen to the sad, lonely melody in mine.

What the fuck are you gonna do about it?

How awesome is it to basically tell everyone else in your business:



I am the smartest, sweetest, most beautiful motherfucker up in this joint.

What the fuck are you gonna do about it?

Jack Johnson. Loving the fuck out of everyone. And that means you, too, bitch.

Food for thought

If we opt for life to become like prison - where the most aggressive can bully to get what they want - are we willing to live with prison conditions?

Where everyone becomes more and more aggressive to ward off potential retaliation and where aggression and retaliation make everyone feel unsafe, and too insecure to give it all up?

Or, to put it a bit more simply:

Do you really want life to be like prison?

Or should we save prison for the truly dangerous?

And the rest of us just learn to behave better? And stop acting like prisonyard bullies?

Something to chew on.

Outside the gruel they serve around here.

It's been that kinda day

Maybe the world really doesn't have anything better to offer.



 Maybe tragedy is the only language we will ever speak.

Or maybe.

ZenHabits - What's Wrong With the World? Not a Damn Thing.

This is your moment of Zen.

The stakes in this discussion

Nobel head: Liu's prize based on universal values

"The Nobel Peace Prize panel on Thursday defended its award to jailed dissident Liu Xiabaobo as based on 'universal values,' rejecting Beijing's accusation that it is trying force Western ideas on China.

China maintained its combative tone on the eve of the prize ceremony in Oslo, and announced the award of its own 'Confucius Peace Prize' to former Taiwan vice-president Lien Chan, though his office said he was unaware of the award.

China jailed Liu last Christmas Day for 11 years for subversion of state power and for being the lead author of Charter 08, a manifesto calling for democratic reform in the one-party state.

Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland told a news conference the award of the prize to Liu was not a protest.

'It is a signal to China that it would be very important for China's future to combine economic development with political reforms and support for those in China fighting for basic human rights,' he said.

'This prize conveys the understanding that these are universal rights and universal values, they are not Western standards,' he added.

His comments were unlikely to placate Beijing, where Communist Party ideologists consider 'universal values' to be codewords for Western liberalization...

...Chinese state-run media accused the West of 'launching a new round of China-bashing.'

A number of countries and international human rights organizations have criticized Beijing for its sweeping crackdown on dissent ahead of the Oslo ceremony, preventing Liu's friends and family from attending.

'The Chinese government should be celebrating this global recognition of a Chinese writer and activist,' said Salil Shetty, secretary general of rights group Amnesty International.

'Instead, the government's very public tantrum has generated even more critical attention inside and outside China -- and, ironically, emphasized the significance of Liu Xiaobo's message of respect for human rights,' Shetty said.

Beijing has briefly blacked out BBC and CNN reports on Liu and his supporters over the past few days, though foreign news channels are generally only available in upmarket hotels and apartment buildings mostly inhabited by foreigners."

Do you let bullies off the hook because it stings their thin little skins?

Or do you call them out for their bullying?

Do we get honest about the bullying? And about our own bullying?

Or do we resign ourselves to it? And the long and tragic history that it has had for humanity. And reverse every single sign of real progress that human history has ever known.

And, in doing so, reinforce the repressive instincts of every authoritarian government and culture around the globe.

Or do we get honest that our most recent path reverses that more real progress that comes with freedom, democracy, liberalization and liberal democratic values?

Those are the stakes here.

Choose wisely.

Lot of peoples' lives and freedoms on the line.

Dear American partisans: Thank you, from the bottom of my heart

Dear American partisans (Left and Right, and whichever rock you hide under),

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

For shitting all over my country.

Thank you for what an insane mess you've made of America.

Though how terribly strange and sad and small of you that you behave like this and call it anything even resembling good or decent or honest or anything of the sort.

How thoroughly mindless and weaselly that you shut down all reasonable discussion and understanding, and lately, our short term economic fortunes, and take no responsibility for the consequences of any of it. All while you destroy others for their own failures. And for your own purposes.

Whether you admit it or not, Mr. and Mrs. Left or Right Wingnut, you are responsible for the mess this country is in.

And no one cares what your excuses are anymore.

I certainly don't.

The Wiemar Republic quickly became the Third Reich when left-wing and right-wing partisans did the same to the German government and economy in the 1930's.

Thankfully, in America, we take our right to think and speak for ourselves more seriously than all that bullshit.

But thank you, just the same, for fucking up my country and acting like no big whoop.

And thank you for continuing the legacy that has killed, oppressed, and made miserable the lives of more human beings than any other legacy that our species has to offer.

And telling the world, "What the fuck are you gonna do about it?" while you shit all over it.

In other words:

Fuck you. You mindless bullies.

And get used to that refrain. That will be my response to anything you ask for. At all. Ever. Anymore. For as long as we know one another.

You don't like that. Humble thyself.

If not, enjoy the consequences.

I don't care about your causes, anymore. Not until you stop being shitheads.

My patience is finally worn.

Sincerely,

You Know Who

Doesn't progress mean things get better?

Quick question.

Doesn't progress mean things get better?

Talk amongst yourselves.

Making peace (when nothing else will do)

After a weekend of some honest reflection on my life, I'm wanting to take a slightly different turn with my life, from here on out, I think.



I've been too angry for too long with a world too stubborn and foolish to give up the unnecessary tragedy. A world of homo sapiens, especially, who bully and kill and oppress and hurt one another for no real useful purpose. A species that, too the contrary, creates most of its own tragedy. And gives ammunition to the excuses of all its friends and especially its enemies. All in the name of avoiding that same tragedy. Or so it says.



I'm tired of the theatrics and tired drama of the Hominidae. The liberal and the illiberal variations. Their politics and their money. Their violence and their power envy. Their popular and their higher culture. Or so they say. And all the rest of the world that all the rest of the world is focussed on.



I want to make a difference, is the truth. I want to contribute what might make the world a better place to live.

Some honest and loving understanding on all of it might offer something along those lines, I hope. Can't do worse than all the alternatives, I reckon.

I just appreciate this sort of contribution better, is the truth. Jack's quiet reflections on life. On a world consumed with itself, to be sure. A world consumed with one another. A world consumed and consumed with consuming.

And a life reflecting on life, with my own heart, with friends and family, with a wife and kids, with everyone we love, without the theatrics and tired drama we so often choose. In lieu of something more loving and understanding. A little life more full of love and understanding.



Be a damn shame, wouldn't it?

A world more loving and understanding. Lives more thoughtful and full of love. Respecting each others' limits and learning and consciences.

Be a goddamn shame, wouldn't it?



Not possible, say cynics. Because of cynics like us, say the same. Or at least those other cynics on the other side of this godforsaken garden.

Maybe not tomorrow, says yours truly. But maybe not impossible, either, says the same. If we stop making all the excuses, that is. For us. And our failures. And all the rest.

For my children's sakes. And for their children. And for their children. And all the rest.



For all the children that are bigger than us and our opinions. About ourselves and one another. Even if we won't be.



For my children, in the meantime. And for all the rest, while I'm at it.

America: As lame as we wanna be

The one thing that the left and right agree on, these days.

Whether it's business, government, the press, or whomever gettin' their macho on, these days.

They sure as hell aren't responsible for any of the messes America finds itself in, today.

America: As lame as we wanna be. As long as someone else is doing the real heavy lifting.

Liberal democracy and Barbara Streissand make me a tiny bit fahklumpt and little meschuge in the keppie

A kind-hearted yiddish response to Charles Krauthammer's sweet-natured musings.

From our own Linda Richmond:

Da Wikileaps dumps, like leaks to mainstream media, aw good fah freedom and demaw-cracy. And America. Talk amongst ya-selves.



Freedom and democracy: It's like da bread and da butta.

Happy Hanukah, bubbellahs.

What it means to be a grown-up

A serious sign of just how bad things have gotten in America. This guy, I mean.



When an FCC commissioner starts talking about regulating the content of news and journalism, you know respect for the spirit and the letter of the First Amendment face serious threats.

Liberal my ass, Michael. You need to spend some more time figuring out what that word means, Commissioner.

In the meantime, go fuck yourself, Mr. FCC.

The grownups in this country will sort this out just fine without your oversight.

Exactly what it means to be a grownup in the free world.

Expecting better

Thomas P. Barnett has the strongest reflections on the WikiLeaks mess and the lessons it offers for American foreign policy that I've seen.

Wikileaks and Obama's False Utopia

"So the Obama administration says America's relations with our allies around the world can survive the latest WikiLeaks dump of U.S. diplomatic cables, and I'm inclined to agree. Truth is, the whole thing reads like a booze-addled Thanksgiving argument spun out of control, and nothing more. So the Middle East's corrupt autocrats hate each other and constantly goad the White House into taking out their garbage — big deal! God only knows the same good ol' boys will be the first to condemn us once things get tough and we choose to act. (To say nothing of Julian Assange's impending lawsuit.) In the meantime, sell the bad guys a few anti-missile defense systems and tell 'em to shut the hell up, because President Obama has one helluva lot more on his plate right now than just Iran, or North Korea, or Pakistan, or... you get the point.

But here's the bigger point: What really screams out from all these very much undiplomatic cables is how little Obama ever really broke from the Bush doctrine. I mean, in a certain way, he never really broke from it at all. Yes, there's been a laudable break from Cheney's Toughonics in terms of rhetoric, but in spirit, Obama still hasn't gotten realistic with his foreign-policy ambitions all that much. The president is constantly lecturing us about how America can't do it all, and yet consider how many plates he's trying to spin around the world. He keeps talking about how we need to accept this new world and how we can't solve any big problems on our own, but he hasn't acted like that's the case — not enough, anyway. And, quite frankly, Obama's lack of adjustment to his own articulation of a global future is starting to make America look weaker than we really are.

If I might be so bold as to warn of a strategic trilemma here: America can't simultaneously be about stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and promoting democratic regime change and unwinding our wars in a responsible fashion. Something's got to give, on multiple fronts...

...It's high time, then, for Obama to put his Nobel in the closet, get his inner Nixon on, and get to work in the one arena where John Boehner and Mitch McConnell don't share his bed. If we really want to move the ball forward instead of just keeping a bunch in the air, compromise had better start sooner than the hunt for some Australian "journalist" with a fancy Web site."

I highly recommend reading his entire thought process.

He's right.

The weakness of the Administration is not that it is too soft. Or compassionate. Or any other damn fool notion of weakness.

It is too much hubris. And ambition. As with his domestic policy. And American policy, domestic and international, writ large.

The weakness of American international and domestic policy is not too little muscle.

It is too little humility.

What weakness looks like in any serious human endeavor. For those for whom strength has meaning beyond their own egos.

And ignoring that fact just entails more failure.

Have at it, boys. I say. I'm sure it will make all that failure go away.

Just like North Korea. Or Iran. Or Cuba. Or Zimbabwe.

Or any government organized primarily around power rather than around freedom.

Failure is nothing new to the cynics who manipulate for power.

What is new is the notion that no one should be listening to their excuses.

No how matter how many ways they spin it. Or try to talk their way around the failure.

Strength is humility in the face of failure.

And a commitment to real success. When making excuses is easier.

Says the man to his excuses.

Perhaps something stronger is in order.

Love thy neighbor would be a good start. To understand him or her.

Respect for freedom of conscience would help us learn and comprehend the world better.

And the liberty and democratic self-determination that flow from those principles, for peoples as much as for individuals, would center all of our efforts more effectively.

And the proof is in the rotten pudding made of its alternatives.

Enjoy that pudding, folks

Myself. I'll just be expecting something better.

Where our hearts are centered

A reminder of where my heart is centered.



In a world with too many, too often, hostile to any center at all.

Pity the poor asshole

Miley. Forgive Andrew for being such an asshole. Someone has to.



Else the world will be full of assholes like Andrew.

And what a fucked up world that would be.

Because dicks say so

I just won't do what dicks say so just because they say so, anymore. No matter who they are. I'm sorry if that disappoints dicks who would prefer otherwise. I don't feel beholden to their inclinations any longer.

Waitin' for a Superman

And then the heavy passes.

Homo sapien, from the Latin "lovable, to be sure, but a damn stubborn fool"

Homo sapien. Latin translation for "wise man". "Clever man". "All-too-clever man." And the most ridiculous mess of stubborn foolishness that humankind, so called, has ever known.

Quick question: If you bully Galileo into recanting a heliocentric solar system, or any other fact of the known or unknown universe, does that, in fact, mean that the known universe revolves around the earth? Or the pope? Or your bank account? Or your powerful perch? Or whatever selfish impulse suits you, that afternoon?

If homo sapiens bully those other homo sapiens who tell you that bullying homo sapiens to solve their problems, generally, makes those problems and those homo sapiens worse, does that, in fact, make those homo sapiens and those problems and the state of the species better? If you bully those who tell you that bullying, punishing, and otherwise aggressively leveraging problems from our midst does not, in fact, resolve them, often makes them more difficult and painful, and often makes life quite needlessly destructive and tragic, does that, in fact, resolve those problems by pretending them from their midst?

If you are a member of the only remaining species from the animal family Hominidae, circa its entire known existence, perhaps you might be so foolish to pay cash money for that bullshit.

Homo sapiens sapiens. The only species on earth that can contemplate the depth of such questions of their existence and, simultaneously, dramatically and destructively, fail such questions and all the real and meaningful matters they touch by failing to seriously contemplate them at all.

Until the rest of the human species figures out what just how stupid and stubborn the rest of the human species really is.

Doublespeak, 21st Century Gangster-Style

The best guarantor of a free press is a government that shuts it the fuck down.



Progress is killing this little bitch called freedom once and for all.

New discoveries for our own personal star maps

There are days when something so simple makes all the difference. And makes you remember why you teach. This was one of those days.



I've been feeling seriously burned out on the job, frankly. All the various legal requirements and outside bureaucracy that persistently get in the way of me - and most of my colleagues, honestly, if you ask them and, perhaps, care or give some thought what they might think on the matter - bringing a commitment of excellence in education and not just the mandated "free and adequate public education" that so often encourages and enforces diminishing expectations in public education - "a rising tide of mediocrity," as one man spoke of it - in my field have really been weighing heavy on me, this semester.

So much time that could be spent preparing really meaningful lessons eaten up by requirements, many of which are dedicated to explaining away failure with kids who have failed far more than most, rather than committing ourselves to their success. And the ways it distorts more honest understandings of what is going on with kids and adults and schools and ways to create the best opportunities for all of them.

A class I have at the local university, in particular, has been eating at me, given the professor's more conventional commitment to making excuses for failure rather than facing it honestly, learning about its honest sources and committing kids and adults to success and more meaningful understandings of the world around them.

The strongest liberal education, in other words. The kind that matters. To those who believe that it matters. People like me, at least.

The prospect of resigning myself to this nonsense and all of the ways that its mandated variations are out of my control was getting too much, as of late. Given opportunities to leave the field and mark a path for greatness, or at least an independent working existence, elsewhere.

And, last night, in my mental and emotional exhaustion and my lack of inspiration for original lesson ideas for the week, I decided to do something very simple that made all the difference, today.

I decided to have a conversation with the kids.

The question that got the ball rolling was very straightforward and at the heart of all of my anguishing about the distance between why I became a teacher and what education had devolved into, in an age when government fiat too often trumps the commitment of liberal education to develop conscience, freely and honestly. What that liberal in "liberal education" stands for. Liberty, namely. And the commitment to the development of a free and independent conscience that it implies.

The question I asked the kids was, "Does it matter to learn something, to know something, about this world?"

Outside of the assessments - the DBQ's, or Document-Based Questions, as the kids, with half-hearted inspiration and dread, simultaneously, know them - outside of the requirement to take history classes, outside even of the legal compulsion to be at school. Outside of parents and teachers and other adults and all the people who tell them that they should get an education and that education is their future and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And out of that question, the kids and I had really remarkably profound conversations, today. About the nature of learning and knowing and education. Every class had lively and, at times, passionate opinions on the matter (except for a few in 2nd hour, where a couple of kids opted for napping, all efforts to engage them to the contrary). Even the one girl who argued in 6th hour that education did not matter did so thoughtfully and thoroughly immersed in the discussion (the most involved in that class, ironically).

So many interesting directions with this conversation. The nature of success and education's role in that journey and destination. The nature of education and learning and all those places it shows up. The relationship between street smarts and book smarts and which mattered most in life. Whether learning mattered independent of whether it advances our ambitions or wealth or opportunities.

And my favorite insight from Noah in 4th hour. That so much of school and life gets bogged down in ways peoples' various insecurities - smart people and not-so-smart people, good folks and not-so-good folks, good-looking and the not-terribly-pretty, the more and less talented, the petty-minded and the bigger-minded folks of the world, and down the line - how all of this is constantly getting in the way of people being able to keep focus on this much more fundamental question.

Does it matter to learn, to grow, to develop, to mature, for it's own sake? No matter from where in life we come from. And no matter what stations in life we aspire to.



It was really extraordinary, actually. A bunch of fairly terribly behaved teenage kids, almost all of whom have been in more serious trouble with the law or with school, in one form or another. Many of whose ability to read and reason have been, otherwise, cast in more serious doubt. Many of whom adults have variously given up on. All having a very serious and well-reasoned and, often enough, passionate conversation about whether education matters for its own sake. Completely independent of what it does for each of us tangibly.

It was really insightful for me because it got me much more square with my own insecurities. The same insecurities I work with the kids on. Whether I'm smart enough. Or good enough. Or successful enough. Or whatever enough to warrant peoples' love and respect. And the ways that my own insecurities play out in the classroom, as much as my relationships, or my life, or anywhere else.

We talked about Jack Johnson, of course. Since he's my musical hero, and all.

What was so profound about it, for me, was that in a world that is consumed in those insecurities - in its politics, in the world of high finance and average everyday work-a-day business, in its sports and entertainment industries, especially the world of popular music, and most certainly in its press and media and in its universities and think tanks, in almost every facet of life in America and in the world - these kids, generally thought of as intellectually incapable, even by many of their own teachers, and often thought beyond the pale, even by many of their own parents and family members, were getting underneath some of the more profound truths of human nature and life on this third planet from the sun. And I was learning with them, too. About the world and people. About myself, as much as anything else.

And, to boot, they were enjoying it. I don't know if I had ever seen them appreciate a abstract classroom conversation nearly as well before. And I don't know if I've ever learned so much from kids in one day, from the whole experience. I don't know if I've learned so much from anyone in one day, nevertheless these kids.

It was all really pretty profound for me. A fundamental conversation about the nature of education. And a reminder of why I got into this work, in the first place.

The only and best therapy for my eduction blues.

If this becomes a regular feature of my life as a teacher, I don't know how I can quit, is the truth. It almost felt like I was getting through, today. I'm sure that will fade, tomorrow. But, maybe, like the tide, it will return and perhaps, with it, bring the promise of something else over that moonlit horizon.

I don't want kids who will settle for good or smart after being thought delinquent or retarded and otherwise incapable.

I expect greatness. And genius.

And today we got a little closer to constellations never conceived before on these kids' sky maps.



And that, if you're wondering, is why I do this work.

What a real man sounds like

For those who do not yet know better.

Real progress leads by example

Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi released

And waits patiently for the world to catch up.

Hot cocoa for the frostbitten heart

All you ever needed to know about the cold, cold world.



Warm words for the bitter chill that chafes at a broken heart.

The light over that dark horizon

In a world that celebrates its cowardice and pettiness and dark impulses, say those who carry candlesticks, we can either offer our own portion, or we can envision a brighter horizon. Dark can give way to light. If we take time to notice just how dark it has gotten.



Perhaps ugly is not the only impulse that can find a home in our hearts. Perhaps there is no home, at all, in our hearts, as long as it does.

Amidst the celebration - mine, yours, all of us, when we are honest - of the small and base in our natures, perhaps we might consider what kind of world we have made for ourselves and our children in consequence.



And, then, perhaps, there might be hope for something more beautiful for the ones we love, after all.