Pornography: a poem about war

War as pornography is a concept I came upon while listening to a lecture by Chris Hedges.  The phrase struck me with great force and this poem came to me as my mind quickly rehashed the last five decades.


Fifty years ago being young and filled with the knowledge that the U.S. could do no wrong I did not question the right or wrong of the Vietnam war. I opposed it, but for selfish reasons.  I did not want to go.

Fifty years later that understanding which attributes virtue to acts of war has vanished. The revelations of the Pentagon Papers were the touchstone of reality.

The wars, based on lies presented to me in the mainstream media and which have been raging in the middle east for the last two decades have only served to instill a sense of dread in me.  

"How can we do this, how can we do this?" I keep asking myself.  It must be for the money and resources available is all I can come up with.

As I listened to Chris Hedges talk and heard the phrase "the pornography of war" a poem came to mind and I wrote it.  I titled it "Pornography".  I'm not pleased to have had to write it. The reality that provides the inspiration comprises the heart of darkness.

The photograph below was taken at the Vietnam War Memorial in Portland Oregon.  It is a somber, peaceful place that caused me much reflection and sadness when I visited in 2007.

Near the exit of the park is the memorial set aside for those still missing.

Pornography

The pornography of war

unfit for young eyes

shows the triple X news of the last 50 years

has been by persuasion with lies

supported by cheers.

Parents still cry for children they've lost,

but all involved have agreed,

some must fight and some must die,

some must stay at home and cry

so the marketplace is free.

Newsprint black magic,

spells cast with words

God and country the plea,

call it anything you want:

porn is what you see.

By David H. Roche (C) 2013

Intercessory Prayer: a video concerning the environment

As it turns out our way of life has accomplished many things.  This video was made to illustrate one of the things our way of life has succeeded in doing.  You can read it by clicking here.

I came across this information this morning and became sick at heart. So I made the video.  What will we do when the earth is no longer able to support life?

Those reading this will most likely have died by the time that happens.  Their children and grandchildren will be left to eat the bitter fruit of progress.

There is a protest song from the 1960's which seems appropriate.  Click here to listen to "Waist Deep In The Big Muddy".

Another video on the same ecological theme which I made in the last week.

The Last Week Of 2013 ( a poem)

The Last Week Of 2013

A week before the end of the month

there's no more butter,

no more ketchup

no more salt

and no more money.

In a big White House in another world

the President nibbles pieces of gingerbread,

wishing Merry Christmas to all

with a smile on his face.

(C) 2013 by David H. Roche

Advice For Kings: The Bible And Beer Stamps

The bible often has some down to earth advice.  Proverbs 31: 1-7 is a good example:

There were no Presidents, or Prime Ministers when, Solomon wrote this book of Wisdom.  But they did have kings to run things and Solomon was a king.  He was a powerfully literate and passionate person. He enjoyed poetry, pursuits of the intellect and spirit as well as the pleasures of the flesh. Apparently he paid very little heed to his mothers advice. 

He possessed virtually unlimited wealth. But it seems he had the same concerns the less well off have.  He questioned if man was any better off than an animal.  Like the author of the book of Job, Solomon asked the big questions wealth could not silence.

Solomon, Job, and the bible in general encounter the condition of poverty based misery and the seeming meaninglessness and lack of purpose for human life. When a person looks back over the decades and sees he or she is only deeper in debt and much more older and tired than when they started out the question of the purpose and meaning of life seems clear.  We exist to work and pay taxes to the government even though the result is debt and misery and finally death. Many chafe at this interpretation of life. Many cannot accept that such a condition is all that can be hoped for.  But it is the 'official' answer. Don't you think the human spirit deserves a better answer?


I can't recall in my lifetime a period of more misery in the U.S. and world in general as there is now. The current state of affairs is ripe for a righteous leader to stand up and see that the people get Beer Stamps.  

It is, after all, conditions such as those oppressing 99 % of the world today that make it plain that it is time to issue Beer Stamps. It's in the bible.  It's the kings job. Or for an American, its the Presidents job to see that the poor have enough beer to make them forget their troubles. That can only be accomplished through implementation of a nationwide Beer Stamp program similar to the food stamp program already in place for the economically disenfranchised.

Below is a video I made promoting a universal Beer Stamp program.  Enjoy.




Petition your lawmakers.  Alert the beer distributors in your area. Alert the restaurants and bars they serve. Talk to everyone you meet about the need for a universal Beer Stamp program.

Beer consumption is expected to increase a minimum of 400 percent if the Beer Stamp measure is approved. This will mean a huge boon for the entire industry.  Analysis shows that at first a spike in consumption twice that estimate is expected to be reached.  Then there will be a slow dropping off to the projected new 'normal'  level representing an increase of 4 times over the pre Beer Stamp era.

Everyone I've spoken with has thought it was a good idea. If there was ever a time for Beer Stamps it is now.

Contact your representatives and get the ball, or in this instance the keg,  rolling.

(C) 2013 David H. Roche

"Furnace of Affliction" Some thoughts about suffering and a new video

I made a video titled “Furnace of Affliction”.    Just click the title it goes to 'Dimensions' my YouTube channel. It took longer than it should have to settle on a title.  I finally decided to use the bible verse I had included in the video.  Isaiah 48: 10.  You can read the entire chapter here.  It is set in a specific historical context but the meaning I draw from it has little to do with the historical  or current context.

I interpret this passage in a spiritual way enabling an expanded vision to appear.  While reading the chapter I remembered how in the New Testament it is written that Jesus spoke truth to the church authorities with verses like this.  He showed them no quarter and declared them dead wrong and dangerous.

I had been fascinated by the references in the bible using fire as a means of describing God’s being. The bush burning mysteriously in the desert, and God's spirit  is described as a flame of fire. Fire has a mystical as well as practical side. It is that consideration of fire I'm thinking of.

Think about the flame.  What you are seeing ceases to exist upon your seeing it.  The flame is what happens during a change of state.

What we see in the writhing flames is the struggle for extinction. The top of the flame is the end of the game for the flame... poof' its gone.





However if you look down to the fire below it seems to be much the same and if you look back to the top, there it is, about to extinguish itself.

What's going on?
Why does flame rush continually toward extinction,
but there is always more flame?


Along with this inexplicable activity of the flame I have also been wondering about 'human suffering'.  Many have wondered about this, some have given up their religion as a result of God not responding to their suffering in a way they felt God should with endless questions such as "If God is a God of love, why did this happen, why did that happen..." " Why?" becomes the biggest and toughest question ever asked.

Here's how I understand it. Life is supposed to hurt.  It's not supposed to hurt because that's the way God intended it, it's supposed to hurt because reality demands that it hurt. It's hard to buck reality.  Can you imagine life in a society created by an economic system built on interest / debt and taxation that did not hurt? So it must hurt.  Those are the rules.

Both Jesus and Buddha  recognized the universal problem of suffering. Both provided an unlikely antidote to suffering.  In this antidote you are set on a course of self discovery.  

The parables of Jesus are a deep mine of spiritual treasure. You can read them here. CLICK

There is a short book of wisdom attributed to the Buddha.  The Dhammapada.  The Dhammapada  can be read here.  CLICK.  Upon reading these two works of spiritual insight you will realize their, Jesus and Buddha's, approach to the endurance, end and experience of suffering is unexpected to say the least.  Their ideas are quite similar none the less. Each teacher maintains that being transformed by a radically different conception of self identity is the only way out.


The apostle Paul describes the solution as a mystery.  

"to make all men see
what is the fellowship of the mystery
which from the beginning of the world
hath been hid in God,"

The art and video was made by myself.  I wrote the article.  

Links to external sites are links to information other people have provided I make no claim to ownership.

David H. Roche (C) 2013

a Clear Running Water state of mind

Mysteries And Dreams From Before Time

The images in the video,with the exception of my stock characters and backgrounds, were made in the month of December 2013. They are the result of mediating on the meaning of the "Kingdom of God" Jesus spoke about. I began to consider the topic as it is associated with the spiritual nature of the human being.

Jesus was apolitical.  He demonstrated that position several times.  One of them was in his encounter in the desert and the temptations of Satan. Another in his 'render unto Caesar' statement. I always had the idea that Jesus was not the least bit concerned with the existential turmoils in day to day life.  He offhandedly dismisses the problems of life with the thought that each day comes with all the trouble you need.  As if to say; "Well yes life is made up of a lot of suffering.  Did you expect something different?"

I have come away from reading his statements feeling as if Jesus was in possession of information he desperately wished to communicate. It didn't seem to bother him that he was homeless. He felt he was in possession of information so important he must spread it until he was executed.  He insisted his knowledge was something which abrogated and transcended temporal political, social matters. He repeatedly said his Kingdom was not of this world.  What world was it of? What did he mean?

The ancient literature from many cultures represents the physical world as being in the midst of, helped by and often at the mercy of spiritual beings. Literally, these spiritual powers are said to be all around us.

How are such realities described in 21 century jargon?  The gains in the knowledge and recognition of 'consciousness' as the basis of being for all things may be helpful in understanding what Jesus understood as the basis of the message hidden in his parables.

Jesus, as Christ and Lord, is represented by Paul the Apostle as being the sum of all knowledge, which is a fitting way to describe the origin of all things. These of course are metaphors.  Metaphors of something Paul also said was so real no one has ever imagined, or begun to imagine what it, the spiritual world, is like.  But, Paul claimed, it is more real and better than can be imagined.

All of these mysteries point to the ultimate mystery of 'being': the place before time where dreams come from.

Mysteries And Dreams From Before Time

I Remember You ( a reading of a Christmas story )

I posted the story in text and it has gotten a lot of  readings since November 18.  I decided to make an audio version with art to reveal the Christmas experience.  If you would like to download it to share I have made a podcast of it at Buzzsprout.  You can get to it by clicking here

The story should be understood as a commentary of current events.  Consider the Pawn Broker Goldfarb to be the banksters who have removed hope from all who live on earth. They are the ones who put people on the street, starving, cold and homeless.  They are heartless, bloodless bastards, but considered to have all the rights of living, breathing, suffering human beings by the United States Supreme Court. This means you are screwed.

Christmas is a time of hope and peace.  Your can still have hope.

The President is eating well this Christmas season and has heat in his house.  Is that your experience?  Are you able to afford the necessities of life?

May Christ be a light in your heart this season. There is no hope in this world controlled by the people who control it now.

The President Has Trimmed The Christmas Tree ( a poem) UPDATE

The President Has Trimmed The Christmas Tree

The President has trimmed the Christmas tree

a symbol of hope

for those so cold it hurts.

Poverty hurts,

unemployment

and hunger hurts too.

Congress took food from the mouth of the poor

and now it hurts even more

since the President has trimmed the Christmas tree.

a poem by David H. Roche



After writing this poem, which I edited this morning, I got an email from the White House telling me all about the wonderful Christmas and good food the President and his family would have.  This note came along with it.  

Here's what we're doing for the holidays:

Folks across the country are getting ready for the holidays. We're celebrating here at the White House, too -- and we want you to be a part of it.

We've launched our 2013 Holidays page. Check it out for exclusive videos, recipes, and more.

Go ahead and look at it.  It looks to me like there will be a lot of good food to eat. I didn't notice any ice on the White House windows.  That means he can afford to heat as well as eat.  Not everyone in this country can afford both. He must be doing well for himself.

I woke up this morning with an old Bobby Darin tune "Artificial Flowers" running through my mind.  Take a listen.

Sunrise On A December Morning (art by nature, photography and video by me)

Ice frozen on the windows makes a surreal forest like scene. Each time the temperature cooperates these fantastic designs appear overnight. I took the pictures, but the design is made completely by nature.

I worked on them some and turned it into a video.

A Funny Thing Hppened On The Way To The Grave (a video)

Ballroom of the Moon: a video Christmas Card From Jack and Qkjea (update)

Christmas is a time when a large number of those living on the earth make special note of the spiritual dimension of life.

In the Christian worldview there is understood to have taken place a dramatic breakthrough from one dimension, the spiritual, into another dimension, this one.

This has had startling and long lasting effects. Christians understand Christmas is a time when God is represented as having come to aid and bring relief to those living on earth.  It is a story of hope, peace and joy.

I made a video with Jack and Qkjea titled "Ballroom of the Moon".




It's a fanciful peace built around the spiritual suppositions that arise from the teaching of the Kingdom of God which Christ re-introduced into the human meme pool in a most astonishing and tragic way.

Christ brought knowledge he scattered like seed throughout the consciousness of the human mind in the first century.  It is still bearing fruit to this day. It has a liberating, refreshing, rejuvenating impact on those in whom his teaching is cultivated.

The purpose of inserting this knowledge into human consciousness was so that the mind might be transformed  by knowledge and understanding and its possessor transferred into the spiritual dimension.

It may be necessary to let go of church and doctrine before recognizing Christ's voice.  Doctrines often function like obstacles limiting your ability to come in contact with the life and vitality Jesus said were in his words.

Christmas, by virtue of its reminder of God's solidarity with the world of flesh and blood, allows the opportunity to consider the meaning of your life, the fact that you exist.

How did that happen? How is it you are even reading this page?  How do you know you are reading this page?  The answer is: Because "I am." 

Because "You Are". The Christ in Christmas opens up this mystery. But he's hard to discover in doctrinally constructed belief systems.

Christ is a Spirit

Spirit is like knowledge, it is intangible and at the same time real. Spirit is like water, it will get into anything given enough time.

If you are real God must be too. The only earthborn critters known to vocalize about God have been humans. What is God?  God is that which is recognized as having existence prior to us and knowledge beyond our comprehension but which we imagine exists. The concept of LOGOS is a starting place to begin the inquiry. You'll see how nicely the concept of LOGOS moves through human inquiry fitting into the meaning attributed to Christ. You may be able to intuit how this is spiritual and why the universe is ultimately a friendly place.

Update:

Below is a video I made with the thought found in Revelation 13 verse 8.  Jesus is said to be the "Lamb" slain from the foundation of the world.  This statement by John indicates the eternal purpose of God is one of peace, and reconciliation.  Atonement.  The video fits in with the Christmas theme.  The babe in the manger has not expressed the extent of God's commitment to the created order until he is revealed as the slaughtered Lamb of God.

Merry Christmas