A Little More Introspection

Not a love poem this time, just one that is how I feel... not that anyone cares, but after all, this is the place where I toss little pieces of me to the winds, perhaps hoping that they will coalesce into some sort of covering to warm my heart and protect me from harm and/or any more hurt or unhappiness. Why do I do it? The answer is one that almost every writer gives: Because I have to.

Learning...

I have learned from my own and other's failures
In many things, perhaps even motherhood,
How to roll with the punches, take the blows
And often rise above the whole damned thing.
To forget and forgive: family, friends, enemies,
For there is more to life, and fighting is useless.

Further, I have learned that war is useless,
Feckless, futile, ineffectual, hopeless and a waste.
How have I learned this? By living through
So many, of my own making, and my country's,
So many that I do not want ever to hear
The ludicrous ranting of some useless leader
Who cares so little about peace and prosperity,
About the life and death of his country's people,
That he will simply avoid diplomacy and declare war.

Anti-war Better Than Mine...

I never particularly liked Bob Dylan...always felt he was just imitating Woodie Guthrie (they all copied Woodie) whom I adore (love Arlo also), but this song is one I wish I had written:

With God On Our Side

Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
the country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And the land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

The Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

The First World War, boys
It came and it went
The reason for fighting
I never did get
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And then we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war comes
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If god's on our side
he'll stop the next war.

© Bob Dylan

So I leave you in tears of rage, with no one to blame for we are all to blame, I fear, for who is so perfect as not to be at some time? Not I.

No MAN For Me

Funny, I find McCain such a typical MAN. He would never be able to see a woman’s point of view, while I think Obama does, for he seems to have a softer sensibility somehow, and he is stronger mentally. McCain adores Hemingway, the ‘hero’ of “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Of course. I dislike Hemingway and most guys who think he is the best -- they are usually basic wimps who would like to be the big tough MAN, as poor old Ernest did They have nothing to attract me.

As I read of all the great leaders, past and present (Newsweek, July 14, 2008), who admire Lincoln I realize that Lincoln was not like many of them (or Hemingway), but had a kinder, much more thoughtful nature and didn’t spend all his time being a MAN, or I should say, trying to be a MAN, for that is what most of them do. Not that I am throwing rocks at men in general, just at the false ones...and I certainly consider McCain a false one, along with ‘doc’ robo & philll of my AOL group, and Kristol, cheney, dubya, etc. of the PNAC and bush gangs, for they are the ones who would use power, superior strength, hubris, lies and false pride to try to gain what they want, particularly with women, when they even consider them. A big gun in the pocket or on the shoulder is more their speed.

And to the men who claim that ‘war is good,’ or ‘God does not hate war, after all there were good wars in the bible,’ or other fundamentalist’s arguments for war, I say this: Most of the real men I know have grown enough, studied, and learned enough to realize that religion is a crutch and man-made thing, that the great prophet of ‘Christianity,’ Jesus, did not believe in war (read the NEW Testament, dears, not the folk tales of the Old), and no war in history has ever been a ‘good’ thing. Those who still argue for war should listen to, and hear, Dylan’s song “With God On Our Side,” one of the best arguments against war I have ever heard.

Meanwhile the bright men in my AOL group; my dear friends Colin, Mel, Bud, Bruno, John and Mike; my darling son, and my own love, K, use an innate kindness, inner strength and intelligence to reason and figure out the correct solution to problems and do not immediately sweep in with a pretend sword or a specious argument to attempt to kill their adversaries before they even know what the problem is. And so, they are the ones I turn to, or even argue with once in awhile, for I know I will be listened to and my argument treated fairly. For this I give thanks, and for this I also have hope for MANkind.
Peggy Cartwright, 7/2/08