dream conception

Life is a dream I cannot conceive of. There are paths I travel that foment a taste of truth yet torment because the flavors are so quickly digested and a new hunger stirred at each fork on the trail. I have full assurance and total peace for the future yet no knowledge and a steady bombardment of questions for each day. I feel no doubt in my total trust of security and millions of doubts for the persons I meet and even recognize from other trails. The end of the trail is powerfully true, and as I take each step closer I begin to realize the fork I chose was laid out long before I could see it over the hill or around the bend yet as I reach a new fork I know the choice is mine. Is it a choice I made before the dream and discover along the way, or a careful plan mapped out by one much wiser? The hilarity on this exercise is that the answer truly does not matter, yet the answer is what I seek.

The more I work with young children the more I discover they are owners of truth we have long ago discarded because of some perverse need to mold them into ourselves. The child feels joy not at the expense of others, but in the quest of discovery. A child has no need to seek innocence, plainness, or simplicity.

The neurons we have decided to call thoughts cannot be contained. I see them in an oleander bush and the space of time is so infinitesimal that it seems almost simultaneously to bounce off the rear of my skull into an area of my brain that forms something fleetingly concrete that will disappear from the moment and from forever unless captured onto paper for further study. The amount of time utilized to construct a full sentence evaporated the power of the song experienced while viewing the oleander. A child, however, would remember the tune and the color, absorb the mystery and become one with it.

Even my contemplations are not my truth, but the truths of all those who have over the years molded me with their truths. My grammar is not the grammar I spoke as a discoverer, but the grammar of those who insisted that they needed to understand me so I must be forced to speak their language and imitate their grammar. If I expressed the truths I was experiencing I was scolded and made to feel inferior, a simpleton. When I chose to daydream I was written upon for my eternity, “a very bright but lazy student.” When I chose to speak with friends and enjoy their discoveries and quests the report said “Could be a bright child if he could stop talking with the other children during class.” When I tried to take these lessons I read and re-read to heart and try to be what they wanted me to be my next report was “a very shy child who has the potential to be bright if he would open up.” And so on infinitum.

A child learns quickly not to express the truth. Especially the truth of what they are feeling. If you tell Aunt Joanie that it hurts when she hugs you so hard everyone looks at you with stern faces, not at the person who hugged you so hard. The stern faces tell you that what you said was somehow wrong, even though it was true. Later mom will say, Aunt Joanie really means well.” Sure, maybe, but, damnit, it still hurts. The good news is that Aunt Joanie’s fragile ego was so hurt by your hurtful comment that she never hugs you again. She also never sends you $5 for your birthday ever again, and soon you realize you haven’t even seen her for 35 years. Time, as a concept, never stops. And you accidentally hug a child too hard. He’s 5, you’re 40. Our strength seems as nothing to you. What will be your reaction when the child tells you the truth? The path of choice. Your choice has been established, yet you do not know it. Your choice defines you. Love the child or leave the child forever etched in your mind as your mortal enemy.

This simple story ferments an earlier thought into a full glass of deep, dark, wisely aged petite sirah and lets me know an earlier truth is so easily negated. Earlier I discovered thoughts cannot be contained, yet I realize with just as much clarity that those who harbor hatred toward a child have perfected the craft of containing thought. A contained thought is not free. A contained thought cannot explore. But it is obvious that thoughts can be contained. This hypocrisy excites me because both statements contain absolute truth. And can live within the same person at absolutely the same time. Life is a vision I cannot visualize.

Bush equates Vietnam and Iraq

President George W Bush has warned a US withdrawal from Iraq could trigger the kind of upheaval seen in South East Asia after US forces quit Vietnam.

"The price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens," he told war veterans in Missouri.

Mr Bush said the Vietnam War had taught the need for US patience over Iraq.

His speech comes amid an apparent rift with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, but Mr Bush said Mr Maliki was a "good man with a difficult job".

Hours earlier, Mr Maliki called recent US criticism of his work "discourteous".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Sheesh. I didn't think there was one person left on earth who believed we did the right thing by intervening in Vietnam in the first place. Even the guy who sent us there made a movie apologizing for his lack of fore site. Now we have a president who completely ignores history and says our only mistake was not staying longer. What we need is someone willing to start a no citizen left behind act. We the people do not want this man to lead us anymore, nor do we want a congress so weak they can't impeach him for war crimes. Even the President of Iraq has said publicly he believes the United States is guilty of war crimes.

The very least someone could do is declare the president and his Vice President and their cabinet insane.

Nope, that's not fair, because the military is just as much at fault for following illegal and immoral orders. And we are at fault for allowing the improper voting to happen in the last two elections. And, with all the research coming out about the new voting machines and how easily they are manipulated, I would not be surprised if those in power allowed them to be utilized anyway.

Well, it's obvious from what I'm reading in the literature about the future of education in our country that our government is planning very soon for a huge influx of Chinese speakers, so I'm sure all this worry about our current form of government is moot. Someone is planning some big changes in the very near future. Look closely at both these lists: US DEPT OF ED 2007 & US DEPT OF ED 2006. Unfortunately the lists of classes have been removed from 2006, but you can still read about the main focus. Admittedly there are a lot less about Chinese in 2007, but they are still there, and they still vastly outnumber the workshops on hispanic and black children. In fact, there were none (unless the government is doing it's irrational best to lump them all as low-achieving students, which is a lie much like the NCLB), of which it offers one workshop. Curiously, this year there was also a Hindi workshop. Notice the severe lack of workshops on Muslims, or anything regarding the middle east. Ignore them and maybe they'll go away seems to be the prevailing attitude. Our government is in severe need of drastic change.

LOL!!!

President Bush is using blunter language than in the past.

"Will the [Maliki] government respond to the demands of the people?" he asked on Tuesday, during a visit to Canada.

If it does not, he added pointedly, the people will replace it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Oh me. Oh my. Bush should know that his own presence in the world negates his very statements. He is not responding to the demands of the people of the United States, and he seems to have enough bad stuff on every enough members of congress to be sure that the people will not replace him. What a farce!

At least when Clinton played these games we could see his tongue in his cheek. This Bush guy seems to believe that what he says is true. Or, he's just a really good actor.