ASK NOT what your country can do for you...

... ASK WHAT YOU can do for your country...

Sometimes words carry a feeling, a way to see life
and our place in it; a grand mosaic of dots linked by time
to create the face of humanity. In a moment- in each moment-
we have the potential to realize such a state of being;
a well placed gratitude for the life of liberty granted
by accident of birth in America.
It is enough to be thankful, to realize the grace of good fortune.
It is exceptional to act upon this amazing stage
and bring something greater that that which we found
The idea of progress is such, an empty canvas before each eye;
We can inscribe a lasting art that knows our name
or flinch away let waste
the simple wonder of time under the sun.

To contribute to a Nation,
is to connect the tiny life we have
with the limitless possibilities of a faith joined.
It is a faith in a better, more just tomorrow, in

precious wisdom, that tomorrow has already begun ...hdm

Inauguration Day

Inauguration Day was an anticlimax for me, probably for millions-- oh there was the staff Ball and the donor Balls, there was probably $300 million spent to celebrate the election which costs would exceed $3 Billion. But still for me, an anticlimax-- the joy was felt most  two days before the election when -in the critical aftermath of an epic storm- America blinked into focus, and the charlatan and all of his guise became transparent, there were people in the water, in dire peril;  and there was a hand reaching to them with sincerity and kindness-- and finally for America, the color of the hand became the color of rescue, of care, of love and compassion--the color of hope and faith, life in abundance-- yes all of these things have a color.

There was white fright, universal flight away from the rantings of a hollow man and suddenly we saw a human...He was there all the time, and many finally saw him as if for the first time.

Now, Inauguration Day was also Dr. King's Day and as I remember him, he would smile on this day, in his heart he would know, the could have been few better ways to celebrate the principles of his life, than to stand together and celebrate a vision of hope and change, set voyage to a place of greater abundance for all Americans.  It is the sad-sweet burden of men like Dr. King- they sacrificed so much so that we can be as good and bad as we choose-- freedom is that to do all things- to save lives, to collect machine guns and hope for a chance to use them-- yes, this is America, not as we wish it to be, but as it is...flawed and fabulous; cold and compassionate drunk in  anger and somehow loving in the sobered afterglow-- we are so many things and w ask so much of our leaders-- and none more than the man inaugurated  on King Day.   hdm