Reset, reboot, restart,

How many times?

How many lives do I have left?

“They” tell me not to question, 

But that’s just what I do,

Always swimming upstream,

Marching up that mountain,

At least until I fall,

It all comes crashing down,

But usually not for long,

Get myself back up,

And learn to sing again,

How many lives do I have left?

Many thoughts but little time,

Try to catch a passing rhyme,

Try to make the rhythm swing,

Make a lyric fit to sing,

Started out without a clue,

Just the way I usually do,

Just a little pressure here,

Get me past that blank page fear,

Wasn’t sure I’d write tonight,

The day has been an awful fright,

Still I found some words to say,

Just an aging mind at play.

Another stanza? Guess I can,

Charge ahead without a plan,

Glad I felt the need to write,

Now it’s time to say good night.

In the setting of the sun,

Like so many days before,

Memories come calling me,

Maybe I need nothing more,

There were times when life was hard,

Felt I didn’t have a friend,

Sweeter days came time to time,

How I wished they wouldn’t end,

It’s just the journey after all,

That brings us now from then,

Looking back at all that was,

I would do it all again.

Looked up an old and  hopeless song, 

Something from a darker day, 

When lonely times were all I knew, 

 It seemed the only way, 

Life, a crooked gambling house, 

No way that I could win, 

Then one night I heard your song, 

I began to live again, 

A song that woke the sleeping muse, 

A faint voice calling me, 

Saying “see the beauty of the world, 

And let it set you free”, 

Yes, the world is full of pain, 

But it’s full of wonder too, 

The way that all this makes you feel, 

Is really up to you,

Everyone needs someone, 

To fix them when they break, 

To kiss away the tears, 

And forgive one more mistake, 

When they finally show up, 

Handle them with care, 

Fix them if they’re broken, 

Teach yourself to share,                                              

It’s a shaky one way drive, 

On a bumpy two way street, 

Try to show your loving side, 

To the people that you meet, 

Some will treat you badly, 

If you need to, turn away, 

When it’s clear they’ll hurt you, 

Nothing says you have to stay,     

Forgiveness is a blessing, 

One that anyone can give, 

Even if you have to walk away, 

Yours is not their life to live, 

To share your love to those who hate, 

Takes the greatest strength of all, 

But the healing that it gives the soul, 

Comes from answering the call, 

The truth that hate just causes pain, 

Some folks will never learn, 

We take one trip on this old street, 

When it’s over none return.

Were I known as Merlin, 

My Nimue you would be, 

Sharing dreams and magic, 

Beside me at my knee. 

Capturing my very soul,                          

Making me yield all control, 

Everything I thought was mine, 

Right down to my very soul

Sometimes there’s no right turn, 

It’s just that everybody’s wrong, 

Just one kiss I dreamed for years, 

But I’d have only gave you tears, 

Instead you ended up with him, 

And got the same tears anyway, 

We both found our different ways, 

And many years of better days.

Hi Folks, 

War is the ultimate form of insanity.  Perhaps it is evidence of some kind of collective psychosis in humankind and a few other primates.  The time for war has long passed.  Our poor fragile planet is sustaining more than enough damage from our otherwise peaceable activities 

For this blog I will offer a few more thoughts about the tragic insanity of war.   There are  few points here, I will try to be brief. 

War has become a commercial enterprise.  The wealthy and powerful gain more wealth on the backs or the taxpayers of both sides and the bodies of soldiers and residents of the countries where they fight.  The oligarchs that profit are well insulated from the negative consequences of their actions. 

The mainstream media outlets are heavily financed by these oligarchs and accordingly spend much of their vast resources promoting and glorifying war. With modern technology the news outlets have made war a spectator sport.  The entertainment outlets spend a great deal of their resources on glorifying war, focusing their narrow lenses mostly on the excitement and heroism of battle. Precious little is spent on the heartbreaking outcomes for the common people. 

War wastes lives, resources and the environment.  When it was just primates (us included), attacking or being attacked by rival tribes the environment suffered much less grievous damage.  Our current state of art weaponry consumes vast quantities of resources and destroys great swaths of the environment.  Such waste is written off as “collateral damage” and the cost of doing business. 

I do not believe there is simple solution to this tragedy on the grand scale.  Probably the best solution is for individuals to wake up and take a leaf from the late Phil Ochs and say “I Ain’t Marching Anymore”. 

Thank you for listening. Please, please seek non-violent alternatives to killing our people and our planet.

Don’t thank me for my service.  You have no concept of the things I’ve seen. 

Don’t thank me for my service.  You have no clue what I did. 

Don’t thank me for my service.  You have no understanding of the things I did. 

Don’t thank me for my service.  You have no idea what it was really like. 

Don’t thank me for my service.   Unless you’d like to share my demons. 

Don’t thank me for my service. 

Just don’t.

I might be now an elder, 

Or just an ancient fool, 

Never dreamt I’d live this long, 

Still learning in life’s school, 

Some lessons come with lots of pain, 

And cause a lasting change, 

Some are found to be for naught, 

Just to show that life is strange, 

Sometimes it’s down to pass or fail, 

Other times it’s open book, 

Still some people fail at this, 

I guess they didn’t look.