[[ 41 ]] This is water.

My son-in-law shared this video with me a few days ago. I like the message, and appreciate it all the more, as shared by a young man barely in his 20's. He and I, despite being at very different stages of our lives and stories, relate to this understanding.

People with rigid hearts and stone-faced perspectives...  when did you forget that you were young, once? When did you start thinking your determination to lock out the world you don't prefer was the right decision?

That's like asking an umbrella to stop the rain. It may appear to keep you dry -- but all around you, change is happening. That change is natural, real and dynamically alive.

And your umbrella... your choice to alienate people and choose silence as a solution - is an illusion. For you are, like everyone else - still getting wet. Soaked with life.

You're not drowning because somebody else has chosen to swim.
And all the silence and separation in the world still won't change the truth -

It's just water.

-C.D.

The future which we hold in trust for our own children 
will be shaped by our fairness to other people's children.
- Marian Wright Edelman 

DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU.

[[ 40 ]] Mother's Day

To the mothers in my life - thank you.
You are unequivocally the best, most positive forces in my life.
To my mother - I miss you.
To the mothers to be that I know:  I love you and hope it all goes well!

And to women everywhere....  this:

More: 

- About Sketch Artist Gil Zamora

- See the beauty in Florence

*I don't work for Dove or particularly endorse their products, but I thought this was a pretty neat project.

Some people see women through filters of judgement. I try not to.
I see them through a combination of my intellect and empathy first, then by experiencing them as people. This allows me to perceive them as they are - not through the keyhole of my own fears, agendas and needs.

They are beautiful.
Their beauty has nothing to do with what I want.

It belongs to them.

-C.D.

And now -- just a few of my favorite "Mom" videos!

And to my mom: thank you for teaching me to stand up for what I believe. 

CLICK FOR VIDEO

[[ 39 ]] Railwalking

Real and rational Love is stronger than any dogma, resentment, prejudice or fear.  It compels me far more than any of my mortal flaws. I'd gather that this quest is the source of all that animates me. Thus, my life choices are about that only - not polyamory, or Humanist values, or any secular thing. While my sky does include all these beautiful clouds, my perception of those lofty visions shifts and roils as my journey continues. 

But if I had to choose one thing to champion, one message on which to hang my coat -- it would be the cause of Love. 

This revelation however, only dawned upon me after I'd lost so much of my old self. My old life. 

Now, I realize that even Science itself is merely dumb arithmetic without the grace of Love to imbue it. Aye.

We are passionate, irrational creatures - aloft in a world of facts and hopes... trying to discern the path we need to take. Trying to get from Here to There as reasonably intact and happy as possible.

We are all railwalking.  

- C.D.

All boundaries are conventions, waiting to be transcended. One may transcend any convention if only one can first conceive of doing so. 
Moments like this, I can feel your heart beating as clearly as I feel my own, and I know that separation is an illusion. 

My life extends far beyond the limitations of me.
- Robert Frobisher, speaking in Cloud Atlas

“Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

Haskell Moore: There is a natural order to this world, and those who try to upend it do not fare well. This movement will never survive... if you join them you and your entire family will be shunned. 

At best you will exist at pariah to be spat at and beaten, at worse to be lynched or crucified. 

And for what, for what, no matter what you do it will never amount to anything more than a single drop in a limitless ocean.

Adam Ewing: What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?