Keeping America Good

I have often thought that the name of this project might be disconcerting to some as it seems to imply that there is nothing wrong with how America has been going about the business of being America.  This is not the case, and I am not that naive.  However, I do believe that at the core of us all is goodness.   We are not, and cannot be separate from God. I also recognize that I live in the Americas (yes, plural) , and that covers a vast terrain and several nations.  However, I do want to take a stand against the catchy phrase, "Make America Great Again."  That phrase has done far more harm than good.  It has set up and bolstered the idea that there are those who are keeping America from being great and they must be kept out at the border and at the polls.  How can great be defined?  Greatness is an illusion that the ego will tenaciously cling to even in the midst of destruction.  We need to be a nation of good. We are not a nation of equality, and I do not think we have been since the arrival of the European American.  However, I do believe that in every generation there have been those who have been working to establish equilibrium.  Thank goodness the work continues.     

In  Ellen Grace O'Brian's book, The Jewel of Abundance, She writes: 

We live in an awakening world, in a time of individual and global awakening to the great truth that life is One, and that life is God. As life is God in expression, it is whole, complete, abundant, and lacks nothing.  Awakening to this wholeness brings the experience of radical prosperity, or sufficiency, and with it, a new way of living. There is enough for all in God's economy. It is time for us to shed the idea that one person's good is another's loss and to rise to the truth that all can, and must, prosper. It is time to free ourselves and our world - our children and our grandchildren - from the specter of scarcity....

 

We are awakening to our potential to create a prospering world that works for everyone - evolving from an egocentric model of life to a spiritually based one. As long as we remain in the egocentric system, and unaware of wholeness, there will be lack, fear, and scarcity arising from the collective consciousness.  That unawakened consciousness cannot see that we are connected to one another, to the earth and nature, and to God (38-39).     

Mark Nepo in his book, The Book of Awakening, reminds us of the story of Odysseus, who was yearning to "return to his glory days at sea." He experiences a dream where a soothsayer tells him to "Take your favorite oar and go inland until no one has heard of you, and then go farther until no one has heard of an oar or the sea. Plant your oar there and start a garden (335)."  

   

It is time to plant our glory day oars and begin the work of becoming a nation, not of conquest and hoarding, but a land awakening to the call to care for all beings.          

   

#keepingamericagood  

If you are on Facebook, please go to the Keeping America Good Facebook page and click like.  Thank you.  We are a movement.   And please, do not vote for any candidate who claims that climate change is a hoax and that gun regulation will bring about our demise.   

   

    

Finding Our Way

"No one walks so safely as one who walks humbly and harmlessly with great love and great faith. For such a person gets through to the good in others (and there is good in everyone), and therefore cannot be harmed. This works between individuals, it works between groups, and it would work between nations if nations had the courage to try it." 

Peace Pilgrim

From Plough, Daily Dig August 13 2019.

Photograph: One of my good neighbors here in San Leandro. August 12, 2019. It lives in the parking lot of a church. It used to have a trash can underneath it, which always bothered me. The church finally moved the trash to another place in the lot. I am grateful. 

May we all have courage to live in peace today, and always, despite whatever fear our government may try to stir up today. We are more than that. We are #keepingamericagood 

At the Top of the List

I will shortly begin creating a list of tenets that I believe are at the heart of keeping America good, but holding life as sacred is certainly at the top of the list. As we have witnessed here and around the world, the quest for greatness imposes a heavy burden on all life. What we are asked to hold as great is a destructive ego that can never be satiated. Goodness is stewardship of all life.

“There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.”  Wendell Berry

Let us not be a desecrated nation.

If you are on Facebook and are so inclined, please befriend the Keeping America Good page.           

This photograph was taken in Santa Cruz in October, 2018  

#keepingamericagood      

    

Noticings

Yesterday, I found myself admiring a small flower garden that is growing in front of a house I really have never paid much attention to, partly because when the neighborhood school is in session, I tend to walk in another direction to avoid the traffic.  As I took in the beautiful shapes and colors, I noticed that this modest grey house has a very nice front porch. I found the simplicity of this one story house quite inviting.  Later that morning I drove down a street lined with high density housing after taking over an hour and a half to make my way through about 36 miles of high density traffic.  I could see no flowers. The cost of living and working in this area is very high indeed.  

   

I found this poem in my drafts this morning.  Always good to have a poem around, waiting to be shared.  Always good to notice and remember what brings us peace.      

 

To Look at Any Thing
 
To look at any thing,
If you would know that thing,
You must look at it long:
To look at this green and say,
"I have seen spring in these woods,"
Will not do - you must
Be the thing you see:
You must be the dark snakes of
Stems and ferny plumes of leaves,
You must enter in
To the small silences between
The leaves,
You must take your time
And touch the very peace
They issue from.
 
~ John Moffitt ~
 
(Teaching With Fire, edited by S. M. Intrator and M. Scribner)   

shared by Panhala  

 

photographs:  San Leandro, July 2019 

#keepingamericagood

  

Get the Word Out

Yesterday I saw William (not his real name) at the bus stop.  When I am out walking the dog, this is where our paths cross.   He is a quiet and gentle man with upright posture. He has no house, but lives on the ridge on the other side of the freeway. Because Tyler hikes there, he met William before I did.  For years I never even heard his voice; we have simply smiled and nodded at one another. We may be about the same age, but it is hard to tell.   When, by bay area standards, it grew cold, I became concerned. When I next saw him, I mentioned the cold and asked if he needed anything.  As I expected, he shook his head no.  However, he surprised me by replying that it was much colder "down here" and pointed to the sidewalk.  

  

After than, we began saying good morning when we see one another. The dog pays little attention to him and I am grateful for that calm acceptance.  Yesterday was a surprise because William spoke first, and almost excitedly he told me that the grey overcast sky was only down here; from higher up the sky was clear and one could see clear across the bay. I was taken aback, but managed to respond something about the beauty of the bay.  He enthusiastically nodded in agreement.  When I began to walk away,  I said, "Have a great day," a comment I immediately regretted.  Not that I think William cannot have a great day.  Obviously seeing a sparkling bay rather than a gray sky is pretty great.  No, it is that I am tired of that word.  I paused, turned around and said, "Better yet, have a really good day."  He actually grinned and gave me a thumbs up.   

As I walked, I thought about the word good.  It truly seems to imply an unlimited resource.  People do good things all the time.  They tend to their children, help their neighbors, share their food, plant gardens, pick up trash, recycle,  adopt stray animals, recommit themselves to their work, their sobriety, their marriages, their communities.  They embrace new beginnings. They volunteer. They make music and create art. They lend an ear when there is trouble or sorrow. They pray, cry, and laugh with one another. They hold this life as sacred and worth nurturing. The list goes on.  It seems that instead of trying to make America great, we should concentrate on keeping America good.  A good nation resides in the heart of the people.  To feel compelled to be a great nation is a product of ego. Consequently, it instills a hunger that can never be satiated.  With those four words, "Make America Great Again" a campaign slogan launched us on a path that is nationalistic, racist, even fascist.  It is time to pause and rethink who we are as people, not only of this nation, but what it means to be part of humanity. To talk about not what makes us great because that divides and separates us, but rather share what is good, and what can make our communities better for all.  It is time for a richer vocabulary and a better view.   

 

   

#keepingamericagood 

photograph:  Lake Chabot, January 2019