Tag Archives: bridges

The Road to Diamond, Day 128: Walls and Wire

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, impediments, Inner Struggles, Personal goals, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

April 5, 2025- “Making bridges out of walls that keep us apart”-line from a 1970s Baha’i song.

A few things became clearer today, after two videos were shown of the situation at the border between the United States and Mexico. First, as I had suspected after my own visits to border communities, over the past thirty-seven years, the communities on either side of the frontier are tightly-knit, one to the other. This is not just true of First Nations communities, like the Tohono O’odham and Quechans. The two cities that are both called Nogales-one in Arizona, the other in Sonora-are no more easily divided than, say, the Kansas Cities, or the Niagara Falls. Borders,necessary as they are to our own contrived sense of social order, are essentially artificial. We need national borders, for our concept of organization to make sense-the same way we need family dwellings and property; towns and cities; counties, states, provinces, prefectures and oblasts.

The second instance of clarity is the futility of maintaining border as illusion. An octogenarian woman from southern Arizona walked segments of the border, in her video, and showed even a few militia members that there are both gaps in the iron wall and places where cartel members have dug underneath the bollocks and spires. The government can police entry and exit from this country to a certain extent, but no less a conservative voice than Phil Boas, of The Arizona Republic, has noted that the Mexican cartels have a presence in all 50 states, all parts of the Americas and the four other inhabited continents, as well.

There are two features of human life that are primarily feeding the strength of the cartels: The natural mobility of the human race and the perceived need of many for an external substance that can provide a sense of personal security/self-worth. It was pointed out that both of these factors have been turned into revenue sources, by the international criminal element-aided and abetted by certain of the international financial and political elite. Personal safety has been shaken, in many villages of Latin America and Africa, by the very same gangs who then offer transport to the United States or western Europe-at a premium. Substances, both natural and man-made, are trafficked by the same entities. All of these activities are promulgated at the point of a gun, or even more serious weapons, like armed drones and artillery.

Walls and wire are offered by the flip side of the same coin that is represented by the cartels. The one engages in disorder; then, the other comes in and offers to solve the problem, through a heavy hand. It’s a timeless story, and yet, we have failed, as a species, to put two and two together.

The solution is perhaps long to yet come, but it entails self-awareness; self-love and self-discipline. Only when the communities of the world are comprised primarily of emotionally and spiritually mature people, can we hope to cast off the twin controlling agents of autocracy. I am seeing glimmerings of hope, in that regard, with open resistance to overbearing governments, in countries across the globe (South Korea, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Poland, Syria and Brazil being recent examples) and more nascent, but still lively, resistance to the cartels, in certain communities of both the Americas and the “Old World”. We saw evidence of both, today, in all 50 states, every U.S. territory and in several other countries with large American diaspora.

Rising past autocracy takes personal discipline, and that takes self-love.

The Blind Dancer, and Other Marvels

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, distraction issues, Entertainment, impediments, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal goals, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

January 26, 2024- He danced with his beloved woman, confidently in her arms and with a serene expression, as Galactogogues gave another rousing and stellar performance, this evening. Blind since birth, the gentleman is an accomplished musician in his own right, and a regular at Raven Cafe. He is one of many marvels of our town, in his instrumentality and in his dancing.

A couple who have had a hard life, and have stuck together for over forty years, are monitoring me, since we had a disagreement about something, two months ago. They seem almost saintly, in and of themselves, yet inquire of mutual friends about my well-being, or so I’m told. It is something of a marvel, that this is even important to them. My life is not all that prominent in Prescott.

My work day began with an expectation, on my part, that this would be a quiet day, working with Special Needs children. The school is understaffed, though, and it was no surprise when I was informed by the Office Manager that my day would be split: Morning, teaching Music and Afternoon with a First grade class. After a dicey start, I was able to get access to the computer and video, in time to teach three groups of children about rhythm and tempo, using rhythm sticks, whilst listening to varying speeds of a video-based tune. Of course, they liked the prestissimo the best.  The middle school choir was self-directed, which was fortunate, as the teacher had not left plans for their class period. 

After some sober assessment of the overall situation, the OM decided that I should have an hour break, at lunch, and had me teach one more music class, using the same plan. Then there was First Grade, reading the chapter of “Charlotte’s Web, in which Wilbur decides he wants to try to spin a web of his own. Wilbur, for the unitiated, is a pig. The old “when pigs can fly” quip pretty much gives an idea of what happened next. Charlotte rightly points out that, as a domesticated animal, he is fed by the farmer, and so, is not in need of a web. A spider, on the other hand, must fend for self. The children got the point, that they are cared for, but that many people have to fend for themselves. Charlotte also compares her web to a bridge that people build-and with that, we segued into the topic of bridges. The afternoon was delightful.

Just before attending the latter part of the Galactogues concert, I joined an hour-long devotional, discussing the topic of Resurrection. We Baha’is see it as spiritual rebirth, rather than full-on re-emergence of a physical body, from the dead. I have had several dreams , over the years since Penny died, in which she had come back alive and I felt the need to re-arrange my life to accommodate her renewed presence. Realizing, upon waking, that this was only a dream, and that she is in a good place, I came to understand that her spirit is in a constant state of renewal and advancement. Indeed, whilst sitting at her grave site, in early December, I got affirmation that her spirit is pleased with, and had involvement in, my new friendship with another woman. I think that, as one of my primary spirit guides, Penny has made sure that I have all manner of friends, of both genders. One’s spiritual progress, after death, is probably the greatest of marvels.