In Memory of Deforest

Today I went to a memorial service for a friend of mine who died last weekend. This blog is public so when I say this person was brilliant, kind, a true source of light and laughter, and one of the most creative people on the planet many might start searching their memories for the name of some celebrity that has died. Deforest Piper was not known in the tabloids. Other than home videos he wasn't in the movies. He never gave Katie Couric an interview-- although she should have interviewed him.

Deforest...

was a man who chose to play a beggar and his humor and kindness gave him the influence of a king,
dueled with bad jokes and puns,
let a treasure map be drawn on the back of his stubbly head,
made newcomers to the circle of friends feel welcome,
corrupted children with delight and nonsense,
wooed women,
wrote poetry,
and lived joyously without restraint-- by conscious choice.

Today approximately 50 people gathered to tell anecdotes and remember Deforest. There was candy, sugar cookies, and a whipped cream fight because he loved sweets. There was singing, poetry, tears, and smiles. And many bad jokes. Like "What does a fish say when it runs into a wall?-- Dam." Or "What is brown and sticky? A stick."

Deforest was beloved by many. Whenever anyone tried to tell him that he had it bad, he would smile, shake his head, and say that wasn't true because many people were worse off than he was. He had his friends and family. Deforest had many health issues and spent a great deal of time both in the hospital and in pain. When asked how he carried on so cheerfully, he would smile and say it was a choice and a better choice than the alternative. Deforest warmed the hearts of and gently supported many. When I decided to take up writing again he joined a writing group with myself and a few other friends. He gave me new ways to think about writing and tropes. He suggested books for me to read and we discussed the books.

For the last few hours I have been thinking about Deforest and his decision to live fully and be happy for the days of his life. We are all mortal. Life is fragile. He often pointed up the absurdity of things and how little they mattered. All the woes didn't matter so much because there were things like trees to climb, words to play with, cookies to eat, pictures to take, and more.

For today, and everyday, hug another person. See the wonder in everyday. Make great art. Write winning words. Be kind to strangers and even more kind to those you love. Smile and make others smile.

It's what Deforest would have done.

Unhappiest Workers

I recently read a Forbes article titled "The Unhappiest Jobs in America." In this article the jobs that were ranked as the most unhappy were security guard, teacher, nurse, sales engineer, product manager, and program manager. The article was also picked up and distributed on msn.com. I read through the comments on the msn.com site and reflected on the comments. Many expressed unhappiness in the commentators' jobs, sniped at teachers or nurses because they thought that these professions have it "easy," lamented not having a job and expressed that anyone who has a job should be grateful, etc.

After reading through these comments, what I think we need is a re-visioning and re-empowering of labor. When we empower more people economically it is a societally self-enlightened thing. In the past magnificent pieces of legislation were created to help workers, i.e. regular people, so that they could provide for their families and participate in our democracy. Social security, OSHA, a minimum wage, workers' Right to Know laws, union rights, and many other things for the people created by the people help to address problems of improper compensation, dangerous work environments, and more.

Why is it that there is this myth that if we create regulations it will kill business and destroy jobs? Because business says so. So if a child says they shouldn't have any restrictions from being able to go to the candy jar and take candy whenever they want, do we let them? Reagan's trickle down theory still is passed as gospel, even when the evidence of more than 400% increases in CEOs' salaries over the last few years while the average middle class Americans' salary has shrunk would say otherwise. Trickle down economics is just another way to redistribute the wealth-- to the most fortunate.

The job of government is to take care of its people, not to emulate business. Government can be a good thing if there is a participatory democracy where people are monitoring the actions of their representatives, voicing their opinions, and participating. An educated and active citizenry helps to keep corruption in check. Taking care of people so they can participate in government is a cyclical thing. People who have their basic needs for food, clean water, sanitation, housing, personal safety, and education can turn their minds to the business of participating in society. A blanket doctrine that less government is a good thing is fallacious. The wild, wild west of the early to mid 1800's in the United States was a place with little government-- and legendary crime and violence in the midst of the great US expansion. Native tribes of the west might be inclined to call it the great US massacre or exploitation. Do we want to create that kind of laissez-faire, to the-most-dominant-or-ruthless-go-the-spoils kind of environment where it is acceptable to prey on those who are weakest?

The US government has never been a pure philosophy. There are lofty ideals of freedom and democracy that sometimes get used to set a patriotic tone without being completely defined. These lofty ideals sometimes are used to make it difficult to sort out what priorities are being advanced. For instance it is easy to eliminate protest for a war without justification if the government wraps the war in notions of "freedom" and "democracy." The US governing system has never been purely democratic. The US has a representative democracy. It has never been solely capitalistic. It combines elements of representative democracy, socialism, and capitalism. Removing regulation and cutting government programs hurts people. How many lost significant portions of their retirement accounts or were foreclosed upon because of the economic crash of 2008-09? A crash in part brought on because of deregulation of the banking industry that happened during the Clinton administration. This loss to so many people of their retirement funds and the opportunity for equity in their homes will have significant ramifications for the next several decades-- way beyond the more than $800 billion short term bailout to the financial industry. The tax cuts of George W. Bush's administration did not significantly help the US economy or the average middle class citizen. They did make it "necessary" to cut social programs to "balance" the budget when the economy crashed because once the cuts that benefitted mostly corporations and the wealthy were in place it was hard to reimpose them. Politicians rarely campaign on increasing taxes or cutting the military. These are taboo ideas in American politics. Government budget cuts have done more to eliminate jobs than anything else in recent history. This has stagnated the US recovery from the Great Economic Recession making it harder for middle class citizens to recover retirement funds or buy another home because the money that could be paying salaries to people to provide government services that benefit citizens is not circulating in our economy and the jobless rate has stayed depressingly high. Who really has benefited from deregulation and tax cuts?

Certainly not the teachers, nurses, security guards, programmers and other middle class occupations. In spite of the unsubstantiated assertions of the Tea Party, we need our government to be "of the people and for the people" and we need more collective government involvement and regulation to make that happen.

New Month, New Post

I have been absent from posting for roughly the last month. I am sorry I have been away and distracted.

July is a brand new month and a brand new start. Time to once again pick myself up, dust myself off, and set to it.

Actually I was thinking this morning that every day, every moment is a brand new start. There is always the potential to start again, to renew a friendship, to embark on a journey, to start a grand endeavor, to heal a past wound, to rekindle a relationship-- whatever.

What stands in the way? What creates blank page syndrome? What kills desire and good intention? What are the obstacles to be overcome?

I have had a number of disappointments over the last several months. Actually the last few years have been rough for me, as they have for a huge portion of the population. Currently, to help me learn from the experiences of these disappointing moments and life events and to keep persevering, I have been reading a book about shamanism. One chapter talks about the challenges to overcome to accomplish goals. The listed challenges are: ignorance, outside obstacles/limitations that others impose, confusion, procrastination, anger, fear, and doubt. It occurred to me as I was reading that 6 out of 7 of these are potentially in the control of the person trying to accomplish the goal-- and the seventh challenge is subject to the ingenuity and problem solving capability of the person.

Learning and being willing to learn can overcome ignorance.

Contemplation and an ordering of priorities can eliminate confusion.

Following Nike's advice and "just doing it" can blow through procrastination. I read a brilliant article not long ago that talked about how frequently human beings pause and talk themselves out of starting projects, exercise programs, and more when if they just begin, they can do it. Lately, even if I am totally demoralized, I have been making it a point of doing one small thing to add to my efforts to accomplish my life goals. For me this is a matter of intent. The way I figure it, even on the worse days, I can set one small task and "just do it."

Anger. Anger is a tricky emotion. It takes time and energy to work through it, but really anger is a choice.

I have been thinking about fear a great deal lately. Fear has a positive side. A person can use their fear, it can be a motivator. Fear is a warning system. It can also be a clue to determining what a person's priorities are, where obstacles might lie, and more. When fear stands in the way of accomplishing tasks, examining the nature of the fear can lend information for problem solving. I don't think fear should be feared. It should be embraced for what it can tell.

Doubt can be countered by creating a clearer vision of the goal and breaking goals into smaller steps. I may not be able to become the greatest writer of this century. I can write a thousand words a day that will cumulate to become a novel. I can make a goal to seek out others to critique my work and learn to communicate better. I can persist in submitting my novel for publication while I start on the next novel.

The only item on the list of seven obstacles that is not in direct control of the person setting the goal is that of the obstacles that other people put in the way. I can submit a novel to be published and an editor can reject it. I can interview for a job and the employer may hire someone else. With this item there are still options: I can submit the novel to another publisher; I can seek feedback on my interviewing; and I can try again.

For today, July 1, I want to celebrate what a wonderful thing it is that every moment has the potential to be a new beginning. This is such a wonderful gift from the Universe.