Late at night, when the work in the studio is done and Aaron Copland is playing into my soul from the monitors, I let my mind and heart wander. Tonight, after a slug-fest with a song, in multiple time signatures, that shows real likelihood for kicking my too-creative-for-my-britches arse, I listen to THE AARON, and humbly feel the world around me here, near the base and in the shadow of Mt. Tom: Coyotes, sage, skunks, sleeping humans, a thin-but-bright autumn moon, the upper elevations on the Sierra Crest, a few miles away and ten thousand feet above, still being tickled by flurry-remnants of the early season system that moved out this morning. The stars… the amazing infinite.
And the shift in the political wind is as tangible as any other thing in the natural world around me.
I feel Boone, my beloved late mutt, decomposing in his beautiful grave a mile-point-five West-Northwest. That, I can understand. He talks to me from beyond the grave all the time, but not nearly as loudly as my Dad…
To put this piece in context, my Dad (capitalized as always) bears some explaining: Oklahoma dust-bowl Depression-era kid, one of nine kids in his generation on a failing, starving farm, to South Pacific Navy WW II vet, to doctor of public administration, to true community leader, progenitor of many sensible things around us, from the three-tiered higher educational system in California, put in place based on recommendations from the think tank he chaired at UCB, and which has been copied by many other states, to consulting with Truman about a socialized national health care system and (maybe, who knows) almost having had a hand in bringing it about, had Truman’s efforts not been thwarted (as were the Clintons’)… this was still early on in Dad’s career.
Later, in the sixties, angry at drug abuse due to the unintentional O.D. of one of his sons (not me and not fatal, thankfully), he put the might of his balls and brilliance to the task of creating a new paradigm for treating drug abuse, on the community level, the law-enforcement level, the family level, and of course on the medical level. Because he lived, countless Americans have educations; because he lived, countless in the East Bay Area survived drugs; because he lived, I’m a “poet.”
Poetry isn’t really my thing, of course; my thing is Music (also capitalized)—the better, the better. What I am conjuring is one of my favorite quotes, from John Adams, the paraphrasing of which I learned at my Dad’s knee fairly early on: “I was a soldier, so that my son could be a farmer, so that HIS son could be a poet.” My Dad, both soldier and farmer, was greatly imbued with that perspective, and fought his entire career for its realization, in every area his career could touch. There is so much of what America really is in that quote, and in the history of my Dad’s life…
This country, more so than any other, makes possible the “provisioning” from generation to generation, and from culture to culture, like putting so many layers of duff over rocks, so each new generation can be more focused upon creating things like better diplomatic ties, better civil rights, better education, better health care, or the poetry (read: ARTS) to which Adams refers, rather than protecting themselves against those dumb stones. Each generation and their culture builds on bedrock, duff and ashes laid down by the ones before; it’s always been so, in every human culture. Every generation’s broken bones become the soft, moldering tree-branches underneath, in the duff, for the next. If pressed to provide a poster child for this phenomenon, I have two: Barack Obama, and my Dad. In no specific order.
In recent decades our country, famously, has seen too much anti-leadership, too little inspired guidance from those who actually see the way ahead. Too many pretenders to the oval; too few of the real thing. In due testimony to the resilience of America, we’re still here… but really, looking just a few decades ahead through the lens of potential, only just by a fingernail.
Now, we have a leader at the helm who can move the tiller for our children, who can lead us away from the edge; who will take us in the right direction. You know, that direction we NEED to go in.
God damn it, Dad, I wish you could have lived to see this. I see so much of you in this man, and I hear so many of your perspectives, your wisdom and even your voice in his words. He’s the real thing, Dad. We have another chance; it could work this time, really. You belong in his administration.
I guess, though, if I give it a moment’s thought… really, you are.
Those of us old enough to have seen this before know it for what it is: The times, they are a-changin’. We smell it clearly: The laying-down of a NEW high-water mark.
To those of you who are young, but have good instincts and are well-nostrilled and can smell it on the wind; I assure you: You’re not making this up. It’s real. Our country is moving toward a change greater in magnitude than the Clinton era was after Reagan/Bush-the-first. Remember that wild swing of the pendulum, from hard right to “sort of left?” It felt like liberation for every living thing on the planet, which in fact it was. But you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Anyway, I wish you were here Dad… but again, I guess if I give it a moment’s thought… really, you are.
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# May 1, 2012, 11:46 pm o'clock |
[…] […]
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#1 March 30, 2012, 11:49 pm o'clock |
[…] PLEASE SUBSCRIBE!! Please visit: www.ggnonline.com for the latest news commentary by Global Government News. Please donate to GGN www.paypal.com because it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. HEADLINES WITH LINKS: Americans stuck in low-wage jobs (1:19) reut.rs Raw Video: ‘Santa’ Jailed for Throwing Rock bit.ly UK recession will be ‘far worse than we thought,’ admit experts bit.ly Britain is in the grip of an austerity crime-wave with two thirds rise in burglaries in parts of the country bit.ly US Consumers Take on More Debt on.wsj.com BIS Calls for Hyperinflationary Depression? bit.ly US Worried IMF Loans To Europe Could Lead To Losses huff.to EU may face breakup, unrest: US Gen. bit.ly The ‘United States Of Europe’ Beckons yhoo.it Four police officers who ’stole cash from street beggars’ are suspended bit.ly Obama Leads as Fundraiser From Business bloom.bg Top Contributors bit.ly Project Vote Obama 2012, ACORN, Obama 2012 Campaign stop at nothing strategy, 2008 election fraud bit.ly Free Markets, Carbon Tax Best Way to Fight Climate Change: View bloom.bg Kyoto extended in Durban climate deal bit.ly UN Floats Global ‘Climate Court’ stratrisks.com Children as young as five could be taught about personal finances at school bit.ly One in three will go into debt to pay for Christmas presents bit.ly Store Santa Clauses taught to size up recession-hit parents’ wealth and manage children’s gift expectations bit.ly The mysterious St. Nicholas. No evidence that he existed … PLEASE SUBSCRIBE!! Please visit: www.ggnonline.com for the latest news commentary by Global Government News. Please donate to GGN www.paypal.com because it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. HEADLINES WITH LINKS: Americans stuck in low-wage jobs (1:19) reut.rs Raw Video: ‘Santa’ Jailed for Throwing Rock bit.ly UK recession will be ‘far t:left;margin:5px;”>PLEASE SUBSCRIBE!! Please visit: www.ggnonline.com for the latest news commentary by Global Government News. Please donate to GGN www.paypal.com because it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. HEADLINES WITH LINKS: Americans stuck in low-wage jobs (1:19) reut.rs Raw Video: ‘Santa’ Jailed for Throwing Rock bit.ly UK recession will be ‘far worse than we thought,’ admit experts bit.ly Britain is in the grip of an austerity crime-wave with two thirds rise in burglaries in parts of the country bit.ly US Consumers Take on More Debt on.wsj.com BIS Calls for Hyperinflationary Depression? bit.ly US Worried IMF Loans To Europe Could Lead To Losses huff.to EU may face breakup, unrest: US Gen. bit.ly The ‘United States Of Europe’ Beckons yhoo.it Four police officers who ’stole cash from street beggars’ are suspended bit.ly Obama Leads as Fundraiser From Business bloom.bg Top Contributors bit.ly Project Vote Obama 2012, ACORN, Obama 2012 Campaign stop at nothing strategy, 2008 election fraud bit.ly Free Markets, Carbon Tax Best Way to Fight Climate Change: View bloom.bg Kyoto extended in Durban climate deal bit.ly UN Floats Global ‘Climate Court’ stratrisks.com Children as young as five could be taught about personal finances at school bit.ly One in three will go into debt to pay for Christmas presents bit.ly Store Santa Clauses taught to size up recession-hit parents’ wealth and manage children’s gift expectations bit.ly The mysterious St. Nicholas. No evidence that he existed … WordPress › Error html { background: #f9f9f9; } body { background: #fff; color: #333; font-family: sans-serif; margin: 2em auto; padding: 1em 2em; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid #dfdfdf; max-width: 700px; } #error-page { margin-top: 50px; } #error-page p { font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5; margin: 25px 0 20px; } #error-page code { font-family: Consolas, Monaco, monospace; } ul li { margin-bottom: 10px; font-size: 14px ; } a { color: #21759B; text-decoration: none; } a:hover { color: #D54E21; } .button { font-family: sans-serif; text-decoration: none; font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 16px; padding: 6px 12px; cursor: pointer; border: 1px solid #bbb; color: #464646; -webkit-border-radius: 15px; border-radius: 15px; -moz-box-sizing: content-box; -webkit-box-sizing: content-box; box-sizing: content-box; background-color: #f5f5f5; background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff, #f2f2f2); background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff, #f2f2f2); background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff, #f2f2f2); background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#ffffff), to(#f2f2f2)); background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff, #f2f2f2); background-image: linear-gradient(top, #ffffff, #f2f2f2); } .button:hover { color: #000; border-color: #666; } .button:active { background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #f2f2f2, #ffffff); background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #f2f2f2, #ffffff); background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #f2f2f2, #ffffff); background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#f2f2f2), to(#ffffff)); background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #f2f2f2, #ffffff); background-image: linear-gradient(top, #f2f2f2, #ffffff); } […]
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#2 March 25, 2012, 7:53 pm o'clock |
[…] Blog - A Map of Human-Dwelling Microbes (technologyreview.com) The deep symbiosis between bacteria and their human hosts is forcing scientists to ask: Are we organisms or living ecosystems? As soon as we are born, bacteria move in. They stake claims in our digestive and respiratory tracts, our teeth, our skin. They establish increasingly complex communities, like a forest that are born, bacteria move in. They stake claims in our digestive and respiratory tracts, our teeth, our skin. They establish increasingly complex communities, like a forest that gradually takes over a clearing. By the time we’re a few years old, these communities have matured, and we carry them with us, more or less, for our entire lives. Our bodies harbor 100 trillion bacterial cells, outnumbering our human cells 10 to one. It’s easy to ignore this astonishing fact. Bacteria are tiny in comparison to human cells; they contribute just a few pounds to our weight and remain invisible to us. It’s also been easy for science to overlook their role in our bodies and our health. Researchers have largely concerned themselves with bacteria’s negative role as pathogens: The devastating effects of a handful of infectious organisms have always seemed more urgent than what has been considered a benign and relatively unimportant relationship with “good” bacteria. In the intestine, the bacterial hub of the body that teems with trillions of microbes, they have traditionally been called “commensal” organisms?—?literally, eating at the same table. The moniker suggests that while we’ve known for decades that gut bacteria help digestion and prevent infections, they are little more than ever-present dinner guests. But there’s a growing consensus among scientists that the relationship between us and our microbes is much more of a two-way street. With new technologies that allow scientists to better identify and study the organisms that live in and on us, we’ve become aware that bacteria, though tiny, are powerful chemical factories that fundamentally affect how the human body functions. They are not simply random squatters, but organized communities that evolve with us and are passed down from generation to generation. Through research that has blurred the boundary between medical and environmental microbiology, we’re beginning to understand that because the human body constitutes their environment, these microbial communities have been forced to adapt to changes in our diets, health, and lifestyle choices. Yet they, in turn, are also part of our environments, and our bodies have adapted to them. Our dinner guests, it seems, have shaped the very path of human evolution. In October, researchers in several countries launched the International Human Microbiome Consortium, an effort to characterize the role of microbes in the human body. Just over a year ago, the National Institutes of Health also launched its own Human Microbiome Project. These new efforts represent a formal recognition of bacteria’s far-reaching influence, including their contributions to human health and certain illnesses. “This could be the basis of a whole new way of looking at disease,” said microbiologist Margaret McFall-Ngai at the 108th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston last June. But the emerging science of human-microbe symbiosis has an even greater implication. “Human beings are not really individuals; they’re communities of organisms,” says McFall-Ngai. It’s not just that our bodies serve as a habitat for other organisms; it’s also that we function with them as a collective. As the profound interrelationship between humans and microbes becomes more apparent, the distinction between host and hosted has become both less clear and less important?—?together we operate as a constantly evolving man-microbe kibbutz. Which raises a startling implication: If being Homo sapiens through and through implied a certain authority over our corporeal selves, we are now forced to relinquish some of that control to our inner-dwelling microbes. Ironically, the human ingenuity that drives us to understand more about ourselves is revealing that we’re much less “human” than we once thought. To find a biological answer to the question “Who are we?” we might look to the human genome. Certainly, when the Human Genome Project first produced a draft of the 3 billion-base-pair sequence, it was touted as a blueprint for human life. Less than a decade later, however, most experts recognize that our genomes capture only a part of who we are. Researchers have become aware, for example, of the influence of epigenetic phenomena?—?imprinting, maternal effects, and gene silencing, among others?—?in determining how genetic material is ultimately expressed. Now comes the notion that the genomes of microbes within us must also be considered. Our bodies are, after all, composites of human and bacterial cells, with microbes together contributing at least 1,000 times more genes to the whole. As we discover more and more roles that microbes play, it has become impossible to ignore the contribution of bacteria to the pool of genes we define as ourselves. Indeed, several scientists have begun to refer to the human body as a “superorganism” whose complexity extends far beyond what is encoded in a single genome. The physiology of a superorganism would likely look very different from traditional human physiology. There has been a great deal of research into the dynamics of communities among plants, insect colonies, and even in human society. What new insights could we gain by applying some of that knowledge to the workings of communities in our own bodies? Certain body functions could be the result of negotiations between several partners, and diseases the result of small changes in group dynamics?—?or of a breakdown in communication between symbiotic partners. Read more . . . […]