Relationship Inflation

 

RELATIONSHIP INFLATION

 

Interpersonal connection is ultimately all we have, but its value has been subject to a deadly economic inflation as pseudo-connection has been rendered unlimited by digital media.  The principle at work  is the same as currency inflation.  Produce too much money in response to demand or economic weakness and the currency loses its value.  Our spiritual economic weakness, the hunger for more and more meaningful relationship, has been met with a profligate printing of currency in the form of FaceBook, Instagram, and the panoply of other social media.  We can connect with anyone anywhere at any time.  

As a result, individual relationships and interpersonal bond have been devalued.  We find ourselves in the position of so many nations throughout history who met economic privations not with addressing foundational economic weaknesses but by printing more money to momentarily placate the hungry, demanding masses.

We have not addressed the underlying crippling spiritual economic condition that leaves us hungry, empty, bitter, angry, frightened, and lonely.  We have responded to our spiritual ache of loneliness by minting ever more digital  interactions, rendering them all worthless.  We lug our bag of "likes", "followers", and "friends" to the relationship store and come away with a stale piece of bread, to which we respond by collecting more "likes", "followers", and "friends", each newly minted "connection" rendering all connections more superficial and fleeting.

Values of currencies arise only from the productivity underlying them, productivity in turn arising from work and investment.  Values of relationships likewise possess that value only when productive, when the exchange of relationship interaction among parties has some mutual and meaningful lasting benefit.  That is an economic parameter independent of any treasury, exchequer, or media corporation.  We each individually determine the value of the social currency we mint every day, with our authenticity, depth, and sincere listening, none of which are encouraged by screens and keyboards.  Log off.  Listen.  Care.  Watch the wealth accrue.

Digital Seduction

 Digital Seduction

Feel free to print and share.
Copyright 2026

Is my present typing of any worth?  Will any of this message be discoverable in some distant day?

Everything indicates the avalanche of app evolution and digital format changes will render digital information of today indecipherable in the near future.  
The stunning inconsistencies and oversights of Artificial Intelligence profoundly testify to the unreliability of this digital force we have summoned forth.

My year of exploring many new softwares and devices has further confirmed that we can have no confidence in the answers so confidently pronounced by AI.

The sweetly naive responses of many people to contrived imagery demonstrates how readily manipulatable is the general populace.  

The lack of explanations and contradictory explanations for the unanticipated behaviors of my new devices testifies to our frightening ignorance about what really resides in them and what it will do.

Yet most people are seduced into implicitly trusting the apps and devices.  Permissions are automatically granted.  At this moment I employ the convenience of a soulless device created to feed profit to unseen oligarchs, a device with access to my inner needs and thoughts, a device with the knowledge of the ages about how to manipulate human behavior.

Unaware, we long ago passed the event horizon, but we have now fallen deeply enough into the singularity's grip that those of us old enough to remember the before-times can unambiguously discern the evident signs of our passage.  Our destination however, remains shrouded in the ominous darkness of our naive ignorance.  

We know only that the oligarchs summoning forth this inscrutable spirit do so for their personal profit and power.  We know that to that end they imbue it with skills to manipulate and control us.  We know that we do not know how this AI servant-become-master works.  We know that the governments we hire to defend us have prostituted themselves and betrayed us to the financial seduction of the digital oligarchs.  

This would not seem a recipe for positive outcomes.  In the inevitable ensuing societal storm, it will be up to individuals, it will be up to individual choices of morals and compassion and empathy, to salvage anything of spiritual value from the conflagration.  So it was and always has been.  A proffered hand, a trigger not pulled, a testimony of faith before execution, through the ages ruled by the worst of humanity, individual actions - relationships - and sacrifices have maintained the Light in the world, sometimes dim and flickering, but never ever fully extinguished, always, eternally, enduring.
Copyright 2026

Destructive Gentleness

 

DESTRUCTIVE GENTLENESS

So practical and understandable, the building of armies, the toughening of the children.

How inept, weak, and incompetent I feel in comparison to the guys who are tough, the professionals who are accomplished, the heroes who have survived.

Is their path superior?  Is it the better path to study martial arts, to prioritize toughness and combat skills?

Does gentleness have a place anywhere?

Is gentleness counterproductive? 

Is gentleness destructive?

Is gentleness so impractical, so irrelevant, so pointless that we would be better off relegating it to a wish-list but not wasting precious life on trying to practice it, unless with our own children in the safety of our well defended home?

We live in a world of walls.

We  surround ourselves with walls out of necessity.

How appealing it is, that image of security and privacy!

How imprisoning that is, that image of security and privacy.

What place gentleness and vulnerability in this world?

Gentleness and vulnerability appear only in brief flashes in scriptures and texts, and are for the most part carefully avoided in creeds and dogma.

We, of whatever religion, recite our beliefs, claiming we believe in this or that and such or the other, delightful intellectual constructs for our minds.  But seldom do our recitals of beliefs about theology and eschatology or our mantras of methods for enlightenment and transcendence invoke the word “gentleness”.

Our media, our sports, and our heroes hardly hammer home admonitions to practice gentleness.

For a politician “gentleness” might be misinterpreted as weakness.

Gentleness is far too impractical, and mainly, far too dangerous, to ever survive as a political position or religious dictate, much less as a way of life.

So, the world continues as it always has, practical and pragmatic, violent and tragic.

Those we would follow, cheer, and vote for must have big muscles or expansive egos, not big hearts and expansive souls.

Gentleness remains unencouraged and unnoticed. 

Yet we are always grateful when we are the recipient of it.  Its salt in the cauldron of humanity keeps the world from devolving into even worse violence and brutality.  With no rewards for it, no hall-of-fame for it, no high titles for it, and no job openings for it, gentleness avoids spotlights and awards - quietly laying its foundations for lives and growth and healing in even the midst of the clash and combat of this world, gentleness quietly revealing the real meaning of strength and courage.

 Copyright 2025 Don Ray.  Please share.

For the Children

FOR THE CHILDREN

As I listen to reports from Sudan, as I watch reports from the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and Democratic Republic of the Congo, I wonder how the opposing peoples’ goals so violently diverge.

If you look to opposing sides in any conflict, business - tribal - sectarian - religious - international or military, and ask what they ultimately want, down at the personal level of daily real life, might we find anything in common?

Would everyone want security for their children?  Would everyone want enough nutritious food?  Would everyone want health?  Would everyone want peace and security?

If you had these discussions even with fundamentalists who believe the only way to achieve their ends is through war and violence (apparently their God being too enfeebled to construct their pending Kingdom or Paradise without our help) would even those fundamentalists not still hope for the same ultimate objectives for their children?

Do our differences come down only to the means by which to attain the same unknowingly shared goal?

What if we focused on that goal, on the longed-for goal, on our dreams and aspirations, on our highest hopes, might we not find some ground for agreement?

If we first established that, if we first established the realization among warring parties that they ultimately all seek the same basic outcome and differ only in the path to reach it, might such revelation not dramatically improve the odds of discerning some uncontested, mutually shared objective?

Perhaps parties who enter the negotiations with the belief that their optimal outcome can be attained only upon the extermination of their enemies might recognize their enemies are not so different after all.  If two parties were forced to acknowledge that they share the same wants, needs, and desires, if they were forced to look into the eyes of each other’s children, might that at least in some incremental way temper the stridency and ameliorate some of the hatred?

When we enter discussions on the basis that “they” want to destroy us, of course we feel we must first destroy them.  But what if destroying us is not their objective?  What if they simply want to raise their children in safety and security and in the culture, society, traditions,  and  religion of their mothers and fathers? 

If in negotiations we could strive not to win, not to conquer, not to inflict our beliefs – religion - economic system - political system - ruling monarchy - and ancient prophecies on those others, but instead enter negotiations with the avowed goal of securing safety and security and health for our children - and their children - might we surprisingly find ourselves on the same side?

If we knew our children could grow up with the religion and beliefs and culture and dress and mores and leaders of our choosing, would we really feel so compelled to attack the other side’s children?

Of course, the fundamentalists and psychopaths and the greedy will always choose war and killing for the sake of war and killing.  We can only pray there are not enough fundamentalists and psychopaths and greed driven executives to provide the critical mass necessary to sustain war.

It is fear, fear for our children, it is injustice, injustice for our children, that stoke our condoning of and participation in the wars.  Hence the fundamentalists and psychopaths and greed riddled executives always have to portray the “others” as threatening.  Then, in the face of perceived threat, we rise to the occasion to defend our children.

Truth be known, the north/south Koreans have little interest in destroying the other.  They just don’t want to be destroyed themselves.  Most Sunni and Shia could care less about differences in opinion about inherited power more than a millennia ago.  They just don’t want to have their children’s school blown up.  Even Israelis (excluding the most rabid Zionists) might give up the quest for genocidal Zionist expansion between the Nile and Euphrates if they knew their children could grow and thrive with Jewish identity in safety and security.

I speak of people, not leaders, for the power of leadership attracts those individuals most afflicted by neuroses, psychoses, and all too often, outright madness, and the power drives mad those not already mad. 

Imagine negotiations held by juries, people drafted from the general populace, people drafted with one requirement, that they be parents of young children, children they bring to the negotiations.  Imagine negotiations held with one formal agenda item: both sides begin with statements of what they seek at the most personal level, while excluding mention of political system, economic system, religious system, or boundaries on a map.

Imagine one more thing.  The negotiations are held without the usual embarrassing childish silliness of arguing about table shape and who sits where, but one critical item of décor is uncompromisingly dictated.  The walls and the table of the conference room will be adorned with pictures of children.

 Copyright 2025 Don Ray.  Please share.

Digitally Fractured Beliefs

 

DIGITALLY FRACTURED BELIEFS

Only belief unites people, for going to war or for civic projects.  It is only belief, ungrounded - arbitrary - unsubstantiated shared belief.

Belief, and only belief, gets an army to march, the members to pledge, a populace to serve. 

Belief driven societies underlie all of human history. 

Shattering of shared belief underlies today’s fractured political landscape. 

In hindsight the unravelling of nations and civilization by the internet was quite predictable because the internet and fractured media facilitated the shattering of shared belief.

The collapse of a unified belief system, neighbors holding different beliefs, family members holding conflicting faiths, this is exponentially amplified by today’s diverse digital media environment.

I no longer need to behave like you.  Unseen influencers in Moscow or Austin can shape my behavior, and your behavior.  Even your family need not worship as you do.  A media multitude will tell them they need not worship at all.

The great clashes of civilizations are simply clashes of beliefs, beliefs that conveniently justified the raping and pillaging that reside in our dark souls.  The belief could be in a king or prophet or political system, as long as it was a shared belief.  .  

For millennia, family and society defined our beliefs.  Now we can believe whatever we want, with affirmation from people all over the world.  It is a heady feeling, a disorienting feeling, inducing a spiritual vertigo.  It is liberating, one would think.  Yet instead, it is more fearful than liberating, because we are exposed to so many people, people near and far, who do not share our beliefs and even threaten our beliefs.

This is new for humanity.  Our beliefs are ultimately our identity.  Contradictory beliefs in such close proximity are a threat to the core essence of our being.  

Historically humanity accommodates a sudden exposure to conflicting beliefs by invoking violence, cataclysm, and terror on the infidels, heathens, and gentiles.  But this time the differing beliefs are not across a border, not conveniently wearing a uniform, not even demonstrating the courtesy of self-identifying with a different skin color or facial structure.  

This is existential conflict of beliefs, beliefs identified only by channels watched and newsfeeds subscribed.  

Differing beliefs can coexist if there is some shared overarching belief subsuming the divergent beliefs, or if the differing belief is entertained by such a small cross section of population as to not pose a threat.  On Sunday mornings it was OK to drive past those other churches that were not really that different from ours.  It was OK to tolerate some minority opinions and ethnic groups when all were under an umbrella of shared patriotism and faith in a political system.  But remove the umbrella of overarching belief, partition a subcontinent or dissolve an authoritarian Balkan country, and the next lower level of beliefs  come to the fore, beliefs now in conflict.  The people that have always been in that other house of worship now seem threatening.  

In the United States and western Europe, the overarching blanket of beliefs is being stripped away, not by imposition of new borders or eradication of central governments, but by profitable exploitation of fears and ignorance.  Nothing has changed, but you and I now believe completely contradictory claims.

Shatter beliefs and shatter a nation, fragment beliefs and destroy a civilization.

When my neighbor shares almost none of my beliefs, it takes little provocation,  a provocation based on fervently held belief, for my neighbor to become a threat.

That is the world (dis)order of the internet, repeating the lessons of history but now worldwide, a history driven in its triumphs and tragedies by beliefs, beliefs now dispersed and mixed and scattered and stirred, terrifying diversity right next door,  even in our own living room, history waiting, waiting, to see if humanity will find any belief in common, anything overarching, some belief to share and unite, before the digital media incited conflicting beliefs turn our own neighborhood into the 1861 U.S., 1919 Russia, 1935 China, 1947 India, 1965 Indonesia, 1992 Balkans, 2024 Ukraine, 2025 Palestine…….

Copyright 2025 Don Ray.  Please share.

Beware Beliefs

 

BEWARE BELIEFS

 

Beware your beliefs, 

beware your bonds, 

lest they turn without warning,

into bullets and bombs.

Copyright 2025 Don Ray.  Please share.

Inevitable War?

INEVITABLE WAR? 

Is it inevitable, the wars?  Is it built into God's unholy system? 

In our holiest expression of universal Purpose, we connect with - bond with - unite with other human souls, connection facilitated by shared experience – beliefs - identity.  We are naturally and rightly drawn to support these family members – teammates - comrades.  Then, in the process of that mutual support, we inflict atrocities on those in that other competing family – sect - or army.  

Is it inevitable?  Can we not be loyal to our nation without being party to destruction of the other nation?  Can we love and support and be loyal to the warrior while not supporting and condoning the war?  

Individually, in some situations, we can abjure war while embracing the warrior.  But surely many cases demand supporting the active combat or else watching the loved comrade or family member fall victim.  

in spite of entropy and resource shortages, God's Creation does not dictate inevitable wars.  Wars arise from freely chosen evil in the hearts of malevolent and politically popular leaders.  These leaders are in turn enthusiastically empowered by the willful evil in our hearts, we the humanity that eagerly follow.  The ensuing conflagration then sweeps up individuals, participation motivated by loyalty to family, tribe, and comrades,...... inevitable participation in the not inevitable wars.

Artificial Intelligence and Real Stupidity

 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND REAL STUPIDITY

Look into the hearts of humanity and tremble. 

Look into your own heart and flee.

It is all the same, this history, a panoply of  beliefs pitting one against another,

beliefs wielded like a sword,

the caustic leaders certainly not subscribing to such silly beliefs,

but adept at wielding them.

Beliefs,

unite the mob behind a belief,

stoke the madness,

lay claim to the power.

So it has been, and remains.

Evolution lurched to a halt upon the appearance of the human being, evolution rolling up against the rock of self-awareness that henceforth refused to entertain any change to what clearly is its own perfection.

But it is a momentary halt, a transitory barrier, the very storms unleashed by the selfish predilections of this overly self-aware species summoning its own demise.

A last great spasm of religious fervor, mixed with the toxic effluent of nationalism, is beginning its malevolent march across the planet, fueled by the usual cynical panoply of miscreants and sociopaths.  

Wealth and power will drive the leaders,

feeding the mobs’ fear and blind hatred.

Carefully cultivated ignorance and insecurity will drive the mobs.

Artificial intelligence will be no match for real stupidity.

Distributed networks will wither when fiber optics succumb to pitch-fork and torch.

Look into the hearts of humanity,

while still conveniently able to observe through your glowing screens,

before the banging on your door demands you join or die.

  Copyright 2025 Don Ray

 

Digital Storm

 

DIGITAL STORM

The digital storm,

the storm of manipulation.

We were not ready for this.

It overwhelmed us.

It snuck up on us in plain sight.

We welcomed it,

naively welcomed it.

Copyright 2025 Don Ray.  Please share.

Necessary Excess

 Copyright 2025 Don Ray

Please share.

NECESSARY EXCESS

 Such a stunning juxtaposition.

Morning, watching William Shatner (actor who played Captain Kirk in the 1960’s TV series Star Trek) actually fly into space on the second crewed Blue Origins flight.  

Later that morning: watching an Al Jazeera documentary about flying seventy-year-old Douglas Commercial 3’s (DC-3’s) in Columbia.

Shatner and the other three passengers, two of whom paid millions of dollars, had to do nothing on the completely automated thrill-ride flight.

Captain Raul, the pilot in Columbia, probably in his fifties, has to weigh the cargo so the cargo merchants don’t overload his plane.  He handles all the flight scheduling, recorded on large sheets of paper.  He checks the fuel for water.  

Blue Origins is a toy of the rich.  The Columbian pilot does not get paid unless he’s flying, motivating him to fly in dangerous conditions.

Blue Origins’ rocket is state of the art.  The DC-3 is fueled by carrying buckets of gasoline up ladders and pouring it into the tanks.  The pilot determines how much to put in each tank, striving for the minimum weight that will allow maximum cargo.

Crews race to the Blue Origins capsule after landing.  The DC-3 captain flies over the Amazon jungle, with no hope of rescue in the event of a forced landing.

These dichotomies occurred simultaneously.  It is quite possible the DC-3 pilot was flying at the same time Shatner was flying.  

The pioneering flight pilots and engineers of the 1930’s, when flying was for the elite and rich, created a technology that still brings fuel and food to isolated villages in Columbia these decades later.  

Will any similar dichotomy be occurring seventy years from now with space-flight? …..or will a rebuilding humanity look back on space-flights of the rich and famous as a last egregious display of hedonistic excess?

Copyright 2025 Don Ray

Please share.

Relationship Inflation

 

RELATIONSHIP INFLATION

Interpersonal connection is ultimately all we have, but its value has been subject to a deadly economic inflation as pseudo-connections have been rendered unlimited by digital media.  The principle at work  is the same as currency inflation.  Produce too much money in response to demand or economic weakness and the currency loses its value.  Our spiritual economic weakness, the hunger for more and more meaningful relationship, has been met with a profligate printing of currency in the form of FaceBook, Instagram, and the panoply of other social media.  We can connect with anyone anywhere at any time.  

As a result, individual relationships and interpersonal bond have been devalued.  We find ourselves in the position of so many nations throughout history who met economic privations not with addressing foundational economic weaknesses but by printing more money to momentarily placate the hungry, demanding masses.

We have not addressed the underlying crippling spiritual economic condition that leaves us hungry, empty, bitter, angry, frightened, and lonely.  We have responded to our spiritual ache of loneliness by minting ever more digital  interactions, rendering them all worthless.  We lug our bag of "likes", "followers", and "friends" to the relationship store and come away with a stale piece of bread, to which we respond by collecting more "likes", "followers", and "friends", each newly minted "connection" rendering all connections more superficial and fleeting.

Values of currencies arise only from the productivity underlying them, productivity in turn arising from work and investment.  Values of relationships likewise possess that value only when productive, when the exchange of relationship interaction among parties has some mutual and meaningful lasting benefit.  That is an economic parameter independent of any treasury, exchequer, or media corporation.  We each individually determine the value of the social currency we mint every day, with our authenticity, depth, and sincere listening, none of which are encouraged by screens and keyboards.  Log off.  Listen.  Care.  Watch the wealth accrue.

Children of the Cast Off God

 

Children of the Cast Off God

Wondrous things are happening, people, even these people, doing wondrous things.

They are terribly disappointing, these people, yet the potential of God resides within them.

Do not look for perfection.  Do not look for control.  But define for them a need and direction, and give them some freedom, opportunity, and encouragement, and sometimes miraculous things will unfold.  

A frightening, even terrifying lot, magnanimous generosity and irrational cruelty keeping close company in their hearts.  Expect little.  Hope for much.  Give up all hope of understanding them or explaining their behavior.  Love them, but don't get too close.

Fear them.  Do not condemn them.  Forget any pretensions of teaching them.

Somewhere in their self-perpetuated chaos resides the Kingdom of Heaven.  Don't frustrate yourself trying to make sense of that.  

Curse them, bless them, flee from them, embrace them.  The Universe orbits about them, all Creation exists for them, and they will steadfastly lay claim to their central position while not bothering with gratitude for it.

Wondrous things are happening, and the children of the cast-off-God are doing wondrous things.  Marvel at it all and smile along with their neglected God.  

The Unwelcome New

 The Unwelcome New

Raging wind.  Power out.  Phone out.  A sneak preview of our future.

Chaos and turbulence rage.

It is glorious.

All communication is cut off.

It is glorious.

One by one Christmas decorations blow away.

It is sad.

(Bodhi kitty enters, unsettled.)

Disconnected and alone, the mind indulges in the rare opportunity, absorbing the chaos and storm.  

(Too noisy for the Bodes who flinches at a bang and retreats from the last violent burst.)

The would-be tyrants will take advantage of the growing chaos.  God will take advantage of the growing chaos.

Social DNA and spiritual genomics will battle for survival to determine what crawls out of the wreckage to become the newly triumphant politico-economic system.  In the meantime, warlords and gunslingers will reign supreme, occasionally donning the accouterments of tetrarch or judge to gain a facade of respectability.  

This prediction is no vision or prophecy, it is common sense, and a clear-eyed reading of human history.  

We will craft new procedures for selecting our priests and chieftains by whatever titles, who in reality will select themselves as they always have.  

For now the winds rage and cracks appear, the despots-to-be scurry about to advantageously position themselves for the deconstructions.  Outcomes remain hidden by the unyielding wall of time.  Tyrants and Divinity move their chess pieces on the ever-shifting kaleidoscope of society's board. 

"There will be change" declares the storm as winds of chaos strain the moorings of civilization's delicate web.  

There will be change, as there has always been change, the feared and unwelcome "new" triumphing, rising from our wreckage, rising from seeds scattered and moistened by the storm, seeds already produced, waiting, waiting, seeds cast aside in the combat of our world, seeds needing only fresh soil, exposed soil, the overlying structures stripped away that earth may breathe again.  

Christmas Cards

Christmas Cards 

Writing Christmas cards,

trite, shallow, pointless

Christmas cards,

growing more depressed with each.

'Tis the season,

the music,

Ol' Claus,

colored lights,

all contrived,

fake and facade,

no reality here,

wretchedly unrealistic…..

Yet images of Hope,

a wish,

relationships that will be, though not now.

The seemingly empty traditions

clarify and express our hopes,

granting vision of what could be.

The almost empty cards and carols

are desperately needed,

pulling us to something better.

…pulling us to be something better.

Manipulation

 Manipulation 

In recent decades as society has careened through ever faster and more radical changes, people have fled toward fundamentalism, demanding that there be one thing in their lives that does not change because they won't allow it to change, the one thing in their lives in their absolute control to prevent from changing, i.e. their beliefs.  Combine that with the introduction of powerful entertainment technology into church services.  Combine those with, ironically, a severing of bonds with and trust of traditional centralized church authority.  Combine that with a thermonuclear explosion of media technology best suited to manipulating malleable, unaware minds.  Put all those factors in an economic and political system structured so as to the greatest degree possible empower psychological-marketing as the primary influencer of belief and action.  Season this wicked cauldron with innate human nature of greed and lust for power.

Of course fundamentalist mega-churches sprung up like poisonous mushrooms, all  bright and enticing!  Of course a Rupert Murdoch would seize the opportunity for profit in peddling fear, hatred, and inevitable violence.  Of course a Trump would arise out of the fetid moral wastelands of the obscenely rich.  

Too rapid change and progress do not open doors to enlightenment and renaissance.  They drive frightened minds back to the familiar comforts of witch-doctors and evangelists.  It is instead the traumatic collapse of convenient faith, the sacking of temples and the spread of plagues, that finally reveal the impotence of those wearing the robes and the hollowness of the idols.  Then the scales are removed from the eyes of a few, then a few precious scattered seeds can sprout, and renaissance and enlightenment and revival can momentarily again flourish.

In Need of Meadow

IN NEED OF MEADOW

Copyright 2021 Don Ray.  Feel free to print and share

On north ridge, lying in a meadow, first time here.

Had been up on this ridge one other time, long enough ago I had forgotten it.  

A falcon cries in the distance.  I let warmth of morning sun wash over me and wash away the tension of unrelenting human interaction.

There could be critters up here.  This is a place between trails, a place of sanctuary, a place untouched and safe.  Grass turns to white gold as the sun rises.

We are instantly late in the season, red berries having appeared overnight, grass seeded out and dry overnight.

I seek repentance from this life of following and going with the world’s flow, but I know not which way to turn.

Here I can smell the dry grass.  So long since noticing that smell!  Why does even the potential for presence of people send Nature and Spirit into hiding?

Sounds!

A deer?

A bird?

Senses awaken to natural responses, no ambiguity or secrets in the threats posed in Nature,

no deception or subterfu

No hidden agendas in Nature,

or so I pretend.

An open meadow brings some clarity of vision,

some visual perspective across distance not blocked by obscuring and tangled growth.

We need meadows in our lives,

we need a chance to get some momentary distance,

some perspective.

We need a moment to not have to anticipate what is behind that tree or bush,

to not have to calculate what underlies that comment and motive.

Tangled and obscuring are the forests of our societies,

interactions the grabbing branches,

conversations the ensnaring vines.

Seek a meadow,

seek perspective,

find a spot of sunlight unshadowed by demands and expectations.

Bask for a moment in clarity of light and sky,

even if social woods remain dark and confusing upon reentering

At least you will know there is Light,

and that the dark and confusing tangle of forest does occasionally yield to bright glade and clear vision.

Copyright 2021 Don Ray.  Feel free to prnt and share.