Retail Worker’s Lament: An Original Poem

Retail Worker’s Lament        by Patrick Ryanball

(after Elliott Kahlil Wilson’s Wedding Vows)  Note: These are not the intended line breaks

I like being stepped on.  I have no need for personal space.   Feel free to reach across me without saying a word.  I want that.  Assume I will move for you like a weather vane moves for the wind.  That your time is more valuable than mine.  Assume I’m uneducated.  That I have nothing better to give to the world but my cracked and soiled hands.  All my time.   Emptied for you to fill.

Please call me a strange name even though I wear a name tag like a clear day wears sunlight and the night pins on the moon.   And go ahead, ask me where the bananas are, I will tell you with some joy born out of pithy revenge that they are the bright yellow things right in front of you, and the both of us will laugh.

I have nothing better to do right now than to serve you.  I’m always ready to go the extra mile.  I’ll do it with a smile slapped across my face.  I’m as flexible as taffy.  Stretch me as far as I can go.  I am not yet broken.   And pay no mind to the mess you’re making.  Once you walk away, it vanishes you know.

Minimum wage is just fine.  In fact, I wouldn’t accept anything less.  I’m not interested in paying my bills this month.  Let me work for the holy gift of health insurance and fair pay.  I can wait years.   I’m as patient as a fire alarm for it.  I will lose my house for this job.  My dignity.  My free time.  All of my relationships.   I am that committed to this company.

Want to know my retirement plan?  I will work up to the day I die, poor and anonymous.

 

For Those With Ears To Hear: An Original Poem

For Those With Ears To Hear     by Patrick Ryanball

 

Listen,      things are not as whole as they seem.   There are broken

pieces of everything filling the half-lit streets

all across America.

 

Churches with cracked foundations.  See how they settle

for anything.   Talking snakes, a boat full of two of everything,

a man who lived inside a whale, and that other beast

we call the protestant work ethic.

 

I say most who worship under steeples worship with their eyes closed.

Their sight narrow      their ears hushed

to the screaming this half-whole world makes.

 

But to those able to hear, there is one resounding voice

scratching at their ears.  Over and over again

it says   This world

at best       is half way glorious.

 

…Been a while.

Okay, it’s been too long.  Dubya was still in office when I last posted.  That makes me a bad blogger, I know.  But I’m coming back.  Soon.

 

Bush to Observe a Moment of Silence on 7th Anniversary of 9/11

George W Bush is to observe a moment of silence in recognition of the 7th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedies.

Hey! Isn’t that what he did in 2001, also?

 

The No-So-Daily Muse 09.08.08

Jesus was a community organizer, and Pontias Pilate was a governor. –A commenter on the Alaskan blog, Mudflats.

 

The Hypocrisy of the GOP

This a brilliant piece from The Daily Show.  Upon the news that Sarah Palin would be McCain’s VP, the GOP began, blatantly, contradicting themselves–especially when it came to their past rhetoric about Hillary Clinton as well as former Democratic VP prospect Tim Kaine.  This piece shows the hypocrisy of the GOP simply by recalling their own words.

more about “Sarah Palin Gender Card | The Daily S…“, posted with vodpod

 

Huckabee, McCain, Palin: Only the GOP Can Fix What the GOP Has Done

Jon Stewart had Mike Huckabee on as the guest of last night’s The Daily Show. They talked about how the GOP will bring badly needed change to Washington. (I thought the Obama campaign took out a copyright on change. Maybe not.) McCain said the same thing in his acceptance speech Thursday–that he’ll bring change to Washington, and Palin had the balls to say it Wednesday night. In fact, isn’t that what everybody who spoke at the GOP convention said? How perplexing is this message?

Well, it’s this perplexing (the very last exchange of the interview):

Jon: So you feel like your party is the only party who can fix what your party has done.

Mike: Yeah.

 

My New Relationship With 24/7 News

After my last post, the one about how Jon Stewart called 24/7 cable news “brutish, low witted beasts” and other names, I decided to revisit my own relationship with cable news.

I’ve actually decided to cut ties with cable news altogether. No mas. That’s right, I no longer watch them–MSNBC, CNN, FNC, doesn’t matter which one, I have now decided to tune out entirely. This decision to let go of cable news is not a boycott or anything crazy like that, but rather a new spiritual practice for me.

Recently, I have been studying Buddhism in the hopes of quieting my mind, simplifying my lifestyle, cleaning the clutter, and centering on what is elemental and essential and slowly walking away from the rest. And this spiritual practice of walking away from wall-to-wall news has become the main behavior modification that I have decided to make. That’s part of the reason why I haven’t posted much in recent weeks.

After more than a week of making the decision to tune out cable news, I definitely feel less anxious. One of the things Jon Stewart has said about cable news is that it creates a false sense of urgency. Anything and everything reported on in 24/7 news is made into a crisis by those who report it. From legitimate crises like hurricanes and the people affected by them all the way down to the stupid stuff like high speed car chases, everything on cable news is spun into frenzy.

So, enough. Enough for me. I’m a week into my new way of engaging the world. Instead of 24/7 news, I now choose to tune into more responsible ways of staying up-to-date. I get my news now from Jim Lehrer at PBS, BBC, and NPR websites. And sometimes from the Huffington Post.

And suddenly it seems right to digest the entire day’s news in 30-minute summaries at the end of the day. You know, The Daily Show way.

 

Jon Stewart’s Prophetic Utterances from the DNC

Speaking at a Monday morning breakfast in Denver, Jon Stewart, with his above-the-fray habit of telling the truth no matter who it offends, said this:

I’m stunned to see Karl Rove on a news network as an analyst,” said Stewart, adding “Barack Obama could cure cancer and Fox News would figure out a way to frame it as an economic disaster.”

Stewart has always said that 24-hour news channels have created a false sense of urgency, and I agree. Cable news has turned the daily news (what used to only take 30 minutes at 6 pm) into a constant, deafening stream of all-day, repetitious, dumbed-down nonsense. And too many people, including me, have watched hours and hours of it with glazed-over eyes.

In other prophetic utterances, Jon Stewart has had this to share:

* Fox’s ‘fair and balanced’ slogan is an insult to people with brains

* The cable news networks are a brutish, slow-witted beast.

* Fox News is an appendage of the Republican Party.

We all knew it, but Jon said it.

 

The Daily Show Preps for the GOP Convention

Here’s their billboard in Minneapolis…

A billboard in Minneapolis, the sight of next week's GOP Convention

 

The Daily Muse 08.21.08

Believe nothing,

No matter where you read it,

Or who has said it,

Not even if I have said it,

Unless it agrees with your own reason

And your own common sense

-The Buddha

 

A Buddhist Nun Reflects on the Teachings of Jesus

This is an insightful and very personal and profound exploration of the Gospels by a Buddhist Nun who, before taking her vows, was a Christian who became deeply dissatisfied with her life of faith.

Having tried with sincerity to approach my Christian journey in a way that was meaningful within the context of everyday life, I had reached a point of deep weariness and despair. I was weary with the apparent complexity of it all; despair had arisen because I was not able to find any way of working with the less helpful states that would creep, unbidden, into the mind: the worry, jealousy, grumpiness, and so on. And even positive states could turn around and transform themselves into pride or conceit, which were of course equally unwanted.

Looking back at the Gospels as a Buddhist nun, she sees them in an entirely different way. It’s a great exploration into Jesus’ humanity as well as the spiritual similarities of Jesus’ life, death, and teaching and Buddhist teaching and philosophy.

 

The Daily Muse 08.16.08

We are modern mystics – living in monasteries without walls. The entire planet is our heaven on earth. Instead of being overly dependent on anyone else, we must be leaders and seers. — Lama Surya Das, from Awakening the Buddha Within

 

The Daily Muse 08.14.08

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it. — Abraham Lincoln

 

The Daily Muse 08.12.08

Distance does not decide who is your brother and who is not. The church is going to have to become the conscience of the free market if it’s to have any meaning in this world – and stop being its apologist. — Bono

 

Obama, Sarcastic Doesn’t Look Good on You

In TIME Magazine this week, Joe Klein wrote an article about the, shall we say, less-than-presidential campaign ads that John McCain has put out lately. Klein also lays out a no-brainer response strategy for the Obama campaign.

Obama’s demeanor will show well on the debate stage; McCain’s feistiness may not. And so Obama would be wise to change course now: challenge McCain to town-hall debates on the Sunday nights after each convention–one before a military audience, another with hard-pressed Rust Belt workers. He’d be wise to make this a campaign about issues instead of ads as soon as possible. It is true that debates often turn on one-liners and flubs, but more often they turn on sustained, vivid demonstrations of character.

But with Barack Obama’s new campaign ad, it doesn’t look like the high road is a part of the Obama campaign travel plan. In the aftermath of Parisgate, Barack Obama could have took that high road. He could have stuck to the issues that matter most: energy policy, tax breaks, economy, Iraq, presidential character, you name it.

But instead, with this new attack ad, Obama has decided to join McCain in the idiot bin. This ad makes some good points about policy but quickly slides into lampooning John McCain. The circus music in the background is nothing but sarcastic.

I hoped for better from Barack Obama. I expected more. But mostly, I trusted him to continue to respect voter intelligence. But, instead, we get to watch this for the next 3 months…

more about “Wonkette: The D.C. Gossip » Blog Arch…“, posted with vodpod

 

The Daily Muse 08.11.08

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. — Jimi Hendrix

 

The Daily Muse 08.10.08

It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government. But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is not an answer. Neither is resignation. Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment. — Elie Wiesel

 

The Daily Muse 08.09.08

Don’t be misled by history, or any other unreliable source. — Will Rogers

 

The Daily Muse 08.08.08

I’m hardly the kind of person to talk about world peace. I’ll leave that up to the contestants of beauty pageants. (“Oh, isn’t that cute, she wants world peace!”)

Like everyone else, I think that world peace would be a wonderful thing to realize, but if our world’s history is the best indication of both its present and future, none of us should hold our breath.

With all of that being said, today is the opening day of the Olympic Games, and if there are any signs of hope that the world one day could come together in peace, it’s on a day like this. Tonight’s opening ceremonies, like the ceremonies of past Olympic Games, give the world’s audience a rare opportunity to witness the awakening spirits of camaraderie, oneness, hope, and joy the world over.

So, I have decided today on a quote from Mother Teresa, who also, in her own humanity, was a person who we all claim to be our own.

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

– Mother Theresa (1910-1997)