Inauguration #46
“We must end this uncivil war.” — President Joe Biden, January 20, 2021
(for Charles Cameron, in memoriam)
i
In these upside-down and inside-out times
we need to gather together, to share
our hearts and minds, listen to each other
in ways we have not done for a long time.
ii
Now we learn to defend ourselves against
world-circling plagues —SARS, Ebola, Corona—
The virus incubates and mutates in us.
Science inoculates and intubates us.
Social space and mask-wearing are strictly
enforced. Isolation is protection.
And yet some folks insist it’s just a hoax.
They resist and despise what protects them.
Teilhard conceived the NoÖsphere spreading
through the biosphere, connecting every
conscious sentient being in a web of
universal love and understanding.
The web we got, the web we’re weaving is
electronic, amoral, ubiquitous.
Until we all become telepaths, this
world-wide web is the only tool we got.
Step by tentative step we go onward.
We want to build and live in Avalon.
What we build instead is called Babylon.
We enter our future looking backward.
iii
And that’s not all the dung hitting the fan.
Climate chaos is a more honest term.
The oceans warm, coral reefs collapse, fish
die as garbage gyres grow to island size.
Wildfire season grows longer. Drought and flood
alternate; earthquakes proliferate and
the air is foul more often than fair. Our
water? Toxic as the Nile red with blood.
The solution to the problem is clear:
profiting from pollution ends now, here.
Petroleum stays in the ground today
’til the temperature comes down to stay
and the atmospheric O2 goes back
to its ancient mix. Extinction will slow.
We shall convert to green economics
to honor Gaia, Terra, Mother Earth.
iv
Puzzles posed by Vico (the Heretic)
were elegantly resolved by Bucky
(the Maverick) and his ‘Fullerene’
models of the laws of distribution.
Here I digress to praise the tao of science.
Our curiosity is a quest for
patterns that repeat in time to tell us
when to sow, when to reap, rejoice and weep.
We watch the stars for signs of Providence,
but it’s a matter of stress against strength:
Dymaxion structures are ratios
of such complementary opposites.
Remember, whatever’s hot now will cool
when you do finally run out of fuel.
Trains, planes, cars and trucks that suck gas will stop.
Eventually. Everything. Will. Stop.
Dynamic exchange of information
maintains homeostasis in systems
subject to Galois’ Second Law, until
they run out of energy: Entropy.
The way resources and access to them
has evolved in modern times is obscene.
A “fortunate” few have all they can dream,
while the rest of us can barely get by.
Social structures display the State’s power
over resistance to the hierarchy.
Gender, race and class define your status
I rise with all indigenous people.
You are no victim, nor am I your foe.
Our enemy is a system of lies
corrupting democracy’s very soul,
a malignant tumor upon the eyes.
Guns and cars are lethal and obsolete.
Time to melt, smelt, recycle, and reset.
Look, the deal’s gone down, but it ain’t too late.
We’re in some deep dung: Grab the rope! Climb out.
v
Stop fighting! Grab the rope! Climb out! Ready?
When you’re centered and your breath is steady
see your experience from this angle,
as a case of mistaken identity.
Our unity hinges on opening
doors that lead us to know our true nature.
Peace is always present, as are our fears.
The choices we make have consequences.
A parlous time lies before us, we know.
We have the strength and clarity within
to do what we must and that is to trust
one another with our own children’s lives.
We are the Ones we have been waiting for
to correct the course of the ship of State.
Take your Golden Compass in hand and sail
the sea of truth. We won’t get fooled again! *
vi
Let’s consider where in space-time we are.
This living spinning rock circling a star
in a remote and quiet galaxy
spent billions of years learning how to breathe.
Our world is bathed in the spray of cosmic rays
as our spaceship Earth surfs gravity waves
in the turbulent wake of our lone star.
Behind your eyes a divine light shines.
Your goodwill will do as much good for you
as it does good for the receiver, me.
That’s how love is: it never subtracts or
divides, it only adds or multiplies.
We are the most beautiful, destructive,
and dangerous creatures to walk the land.
The most recent species to appear here,
We have not been good stewards of the earth.
Our sojourn is so brief compared to trees.
We count our time in thousands of days while
Sequoias will stand for millennia.
Show gratitude for the gift of each day.
It isn’t real when we lie, deceive or deride
the gravity of our collective plight.
This is our time to show up, to step up
and get the work done while there’s still some light.
vii
Here is my personal invitation
to play a part in the Revolution.
Go write a manifesto! Make the case
for the most radical transformation.
In these days of great perils and glories
we must gather together and open
our hearts to hear the stories we tell ourselves—
our rights and wrongs, our losses and triumphs.
The dark time that was foretold now passes.
The Light has not dimmed, nor will it ever.
Some think that it’s our rose-tinted glasses
that have shrouded our vision forever.
No more wicked lies. Time to recognize
and realize we face a common threat.
Let’s analyze, theorize, organize.
We shall mobilize: “Time to civilize!”
It’s time to summon the thaumaturges,
the marvel makers from every age,
Moses, Merlin, Joshua, and Jesus,
Buddha, and Francis, who dwell within us.
Can we give our all before we be gone?
We have nowhere to go but back to earth.
Every dawn can be a revelation,
Let each day beget the revolution!
In these upside-down and inside-out times
we need to gather together, to share
our hearts and minds, listen to each other
in ways we have not done for a long time.
ii
Now we learn to defend ourselves against
world-circling plagues —SARS, Ebola, Corona—
The virus incubates and mutates in us.
Science inoculates and intubates us.
Social space and mask-wearing are strictly
enforced. Isolation is protection.
And yet some folks insist it’s just a hoax.
They resist and despise what protects them.
Teilhard conceived the NoÖsphere spreading
through the biosphere, connecting every
conscious sentient being in a web of
universal love and understanding.
The web we got, the web we’re weaving is
electronic, amoral, ubiquitous.
Until we all become telepaths, this
world-wide web is the only tool we got.
Step by tentative step we go onward.
We want to build and live in Avalon.
What we build instead is called Babylon.
We enter our future looking backward.
iii
And that’s not all the dung hitting the fan.
Climate chaos is a more honest term.
The oceans warm, coral reefs collapse, fish
die as garbage gyres grow to island size.
Wildfire season grows longer. Drought and flood
alternate; earthquakes proliferate and
the air is foul more often than fair. Our
water? Toxic as the Nile red with blood.
The solution to the problem is clear:
profiting from pollution ends now, here.
Petroleum stays in the ground today
’til the temperature comes down to stay
and the atmospheric O2 goes back
to its ancient mix. Extinction will slow.
We shall convert to green economics
to honor Gaia, Terra, Mother Earth.
iv
Puzzles posed by Vico (the Heretic)
were elegantly resolved by Bucky
(the Maverick) and his ‘Fullerene’
models of the laws of distribution.
Here I digress to praise the tao of science.
Our curiosity is a quest for
patterns that repeat in time to tell us
when to sow, when to reap, rejoice and weep.
We watch the stars for signs of Providence,
but it’s a matter of stress against strength:
Dymaxion structures are ratios
of such complementary opposites.
Remember, whatever’s hot now will cool
when you do finally run out of fuel.
Trains, planes, cars and trucks that suck gas will stop.
Eventually. Everything. Will. Stop.
Dynamic exchange of information
maintains homeostasis in systems
subject to Galois’ Second Law, until
they run out of energy: Entropy.
The way resources and access to them
has evolved in modern times is obscene.
A “fortunate” few have all they can dream,
while the rest of us can barely get by.
Social structures display the State’s power
over resistance to the hierarchy.
Gender, race and class define your status
I rise with all indigenous people.
You are no victim, nor am I your foe.
Our enemy is a system of lies
corrupting democracy’s very soul,
a malignant tumor upon the eyes.
Guns and cars are lethal and obsolete.
Time to melt, smelt, recycle, and reset.
Look, the deal’s gone down, but it ain’t too late.
We’re in some deep dung: Grab the rope! Climb out.
v
Stop fighting! Grab the rope! Climb out! Ready?
When you’re centered and your breath is steady
see your experience from this angle,
as a case of mistaken identity.
Our unity hinges on opening
doors that lead us to know our true nature.
Peace is always present, as are our fears.
The choices we make have consequences.
A parlous time lies before us, we know.
We have the strength and clarity within
to do what we must and that is to trust
one another with our own children’s lives.
We are the Ones we have been waiting for
to correct the course of the ship of State.
Take your Golden Compass in hand and sail
the sea of truth. We won’t get fooled again! *
vi
Let’s consider where in space-time we are.
This living spinning rock circling a star
in a remote and quiet galaxy
spent billions of years learning how to breathe.
Our world is bathed in the spray of cosmic rays
as our spaceship Earth surfs gravity waves
in the turbulent wake of our lone star.
Behind your eyes a divine light shines.
Your goodwill will do as much good for you
as it does good for the receiver, me.
That’s how love is: it never subtracts or
divides, it only adds or multiplies.
We are the most beautiful, destructive,
and dangerous creatures to walk the land.
The most recent species to appear here,
We have not been good stewards of the earth.
Our sojourn is so brief compared to trees.
We count our time in thousands of days while
Sequoias will stand for millennia.
Show gratitude for the gift of each day.
It isn’t real when we lie, deceive or deride
the gravity of our collective plight.
This is our time to show up, to step up
and get the work done while there’s still some light.
vii
Here is my personal invitation
to play a part in the Revolution.
Go write a manifesto! Make the case
for the most radical transformation.
In these days of great perils and glories
we must gather together and open
our hearts to hear the stories we tell ourselves—
our rights and wrongs, our losses and triumphs.
The dark time that was foretold now passes.
The Light has not dimmed, nor will it ever.
Some think that it’s our rose-tinted glasses
that have shrouded our vision forever.
No more wicked lies. Time to recognize
and realize we face a common threat.
Let’s analyze, theorize, organize.
We shall mobilize: “Time to civilize!”
It’s time to summon the thaumaturges,
the marvel makers from every age,
Moses, Merlin, Joshua, and Jesus,
Buddha, and Francis, who dwell within us.
Can we give our all before we be gone?
We have nowhere to go but back to earth.
Every dawn can be a revelation,
Let each day beget the revolution!
