O Antiphons Outside Advent

O Antiphons outside Advent

They stole the sign-

Arbeit Macht Frei

(work sets you free).

Where is the O Antiphon

To chorus through such misery?

A root of Jessie to break soil

And entangle such theft.

Are Wiseman afoot  making

Way to the scene?

Will it show up in someone’s

Basement to shameful to see

Sunlight outside

Its original mooring?

Will it be returned

No questions, to the gate?

Will it show up as a selfie on Facebook?

A rite of passage that needs no reminding.

O come O come Emanuel and ransom captive….

When I wrote the above poem I wondered how I would connect the stolen sign at Auschwitz with Christian preparation music in Advent. I see the sign as remembrance and ask:  How can someone steal it? It has been stolen before. I thought about the root of Jessie coming to the aid of the Jews. Wise men awake and always on the move, not necessarily for the baby Jesus but alive to retrieve the sign over a death camp. And finally: O come O come Emanuel and ransom captives not yet born some dead three quarters of a century.

The selfies Jewish kids take at  death camps bothers me but maybe it makes them feel alive. I see the three kings as avengers first not just worshipers.

ESPOUSED

I have been called to this place to espouse. To espouse what exactly? Those falsehoods that abound in advertising. Just recently I read that we don't need advertising and I wonder if that is the result of the permeation of many falsehoods. That what we see in bold print is not true and we are too tired to read the fine print. Big is good and small is bad. That is what advertising on TV begets. On radio the small print is the fast voice like a grease eraser over ink. Why am I called to espouse on this? I don't see myself as a prophet of truth. If the medium is the message then that straight path John the Baptist speaks of are now massive switch backs that lead to nowhere. TIVO helps to rush through ads. and if I stop to read the fine print it is covered by some timeline on the TIVO. The ads. that make me most angry are about drugs, they work off of the fear and pain of the viewer. I see a scale that weighs the emotion and risk of belonging. The good life of breathing better MAYBE or performing sexually MAYBE. Pharmaceuticals see it as a good risk for the patient. Wheres the doctor in all this? The ad. will make me seem smart to go to my doctor with this information. There are full page ads. in the paper for cellphones and buying shoes to watch on TV. Yet the paper can only have one local editorial and one national. I have said to many people just follow the money. These companies want us to pay to be healthy, pay to be connected. Just this week Anhausier  Busch  bought a local brewery There are no choices. Follow that stream of beer back to it source. We can complain to Congress but they are so far away. We have Facebook that keeps churning stories but do they go anywhere? No. I am the kid in the crowd in the Emperor's New Cloths. He is naked but nobody notices. He had good ad. men and power. But he is still naked.
The soap box on the street corner lasted longer than the pony express. I got educated away from the box and onto the fast moving horse. Now we get instant messaging and junk in our mail box. no taking pliers to the TV to change the station There were no gigs in the Magnovox. Truth telling does not make it right. Being caught in a lie does not me you are wrong you just got caught. Do I want the drug that might help or risk the consequences? Unsure? They can mail you a sample.

This last week I awoke to a story about a charter school in Utah. I don't know a lot about such schools but I voted for it in the state I live in. Believing that more diverse education is a good thing.This school in Utah wants to teach about business using the fable Ant and the Grasshopper. I knew the fable well from a book I own. I was shocked. the version I have is not a fable of business ethics but on how not treat your neighbor. The first stanza of the fable leads one to believe that singing (arts) lead to hunger and hurt. The second stanza of the fable is the grasshopper who is humble and knows the value of a vow. He is also honest and vulnerable. A good question for the eager to learn students might be:what does it mean to be a neighbor? The third stanza of the fable we meet the ant. There is no mincing of words she hears the grasshopper and repeats his tale back to him. He sang for his supper and will now reap that benefit by starving. An ant does not lend and is not sympathetic/empathetic, but is shaming. Fourth Stanza. there is a sense of relief from the ant that the grasshopper is done in by his own gift, his volition. Winter is a dead season and now he will pay. On might want to read the story Frederick by Leo Lionni to see the gift of the artist in a fable, especially in winter. there is also the story of the Good Samaritan. And there is a parable that Jesus tells about the kingdom of heaven, that in his brilliance is the opposite! what children need are stories, it sustains and moves us forward. The Ant and the Grasshopper is a cautionary fable not a business model. Beware what one might unleash in the wrong arena.

Truth/Lie

I wont deny that i watch enough television to rush through the commercials on my TIVO. But the amount of times that I see advertisements that boldly claim truths and in small print deny or lie. To make matters worse the small print is not held long enough on the small screen to read the "fine print." I have become so used to it ie hypnotized by this speed to move on to the show I'm watching that I should be numb. But I have this quirk that makes me have to decide (we all have this and can use it if you are not asleep) and complain that this advertising especially for seniors (count me as one) is scary. The boldness to even announce the bad results for drugs that might kill someone or make the cure worse than the disease makes me think that another step has been taken in blinding people because: I've got this and I want a pill to stop it. Or the banks that tell you good news but the word Restrictions is in the fine print. We sign papers to buy a home (if we can nowadays) or a car. And that Caveat to read those details. We can't even start on the small screen. So ask questions just because they say they will be helpful and we should trust them is not enough. Go to you bank talk one on one, the same with your doctor. Television is good for many things but not to impart truths to those who need them most.

Doppelganger

I was reminded that I have not written here for quite awhile. So a quick update. I got divorced and moved to Seattle and some healing. My latest book Tell them that you saw me but you didn't see me saw is being published by Moon Pie Press at the end of the month. Two pieces below about my Doppelganger Two Flags.


Back When

Two flags woke up next to the evangelical church. Above him the sign read: Praise God in all situations! He remembers laughing at that sign earlier, thinking, there are lots of things god might do, like the prophet Elisah showing his backside and God was a whirlwind. Dusting off his blue jeans making it look like a ritual and not wakeup on the street. Two Flags tried to reconstruct the night before; he had been drinking, not alone, thank you, but they were strangers. The bar was on a strip in downtown Portland, next to Chinatown. He had family here for a long time. He could recollect the interim of belches from Mount St. Helens, as he and his girl walked the Grotto. The elevator to the saints and the rosary laid out by someone in the sky. Those roses a relief in their smells from sinners that wander the park.


Dr. Two Flags
When Two Flags that grasshoppers were going to swarm east of the mountains, he took out his Hopewell pipe (shaped like a bear) and puffed Borkin Riff and blessed the six ways. Grasshoppers have a cycle and they know how to party thought Two Flags. He’d been among them, even took a shovel and pounded the ground missing as many as he could, and saying “sorry brother” if he hit a few.
The garage he lived in, in Lake City had a yearly infestation of caterpillars lining one sided like a velvet yellow rug. The trees to the south had nests holding leaves and branches in a funny death. Taking his broom he’d sweep the a swath he could reach and stop knowing this is not a renters job. Getting up early and walking outside with coffee he could look at what he didn’t own. His place in Yakima was his domicile, sweat lodge, bar, love shack. His friend JC was keeping an eye on it while Two Flags worked to get enough money to pay utilities. He would borrow the electricity and put his hose on another’s faucet when necessary. That seemed like always.
He lived in a two car garage; two very tiny cars. But he liked two! Plumed for a shower and toilet. All the furniture was the owners except a TV with rabbit ears. It was not cable ready but he would grab his crotch and shout: “I’m cable ready!” His work at Children’s Hospital was moving trash and staying out of the way and pretending to understand his Philippine super. His bus was like a golden pass and he has more scrubs than a surgeon.

Doppelganger

I was reminded that I have not written here for quite awhile. So a quick update. I got divorced and moved to Seattle and some healing. My latest book Tell them that you saw me but you didn't see me saw is being published by Moon Pie Press at the end of the month. Two pieces below about my Doppelganger Two Flags.