Taking Offense and Offending Others

    Sometimes we do it ignorantly.

    Some of us do it more than others.

    We open up our big, fat, mouths. Yup. I certainly do.

    Some jokes or thoughts or dumb words are better left unsaid.

    Yup.

    Don't do it.

    Don't be dumb, don't be mean.

    Be funny, but at the right time.

    Don't offend. Don't hurt others.

    Don't, don't, don't.

    

    But if you do: 

    Be sorry.

    Apologize.

    Be repentant.

    Or penitent.

    Be sincere.

    Be nice.

    Be nice.

    Be loving.

    And love.

    And forgive.

    And love.

 The Power of Personal Conversion

    When one person becomes convinced of a thing, a notion, idea, movement, person, God, power, story, it is incredibly powerful.

    Convinced.

    Determined.

    Resolved or resolute.

    Devoted.

    Dedicated.

    When one missionary, only with his or her words, message, heartfelt approach, convinces another human being to believe in his or her words, which are of the Master Jesus Christ in the Christian context, or Buddha in the Buddhist context, or Marx or another in the Communist context, then there is a power set alight, a firm foundation that will not easily extinguish as a light or flame, but will join other voices and wills and should grow and extend.

    Just from one personal conversion.

    Is it yours? Who else shares it?

 Andema kana Sagheer

    Andema kana sagheer

    Andema kana weled wa tifl

    Andema kana yashrib haleeb min el -um

    Andema kana sagheer

    Il ikhwan ou il akheerin 

    Qatla al nas

    wa kana fi almania

    wa huna

    fi Amereeka wa fi kulu mukaan

 Pessimism is Not Correct

    I started this blog post a week or so ago, after a pessimistic poem that I wrote.

    It's okay. Realism and optimism are good things.

    Hope escaped from Pandora's box, too.

    A million or more people are dying of starvation and malnutrition in South Sudan tonight.

    Not enough people care.

    Some day we will.

    Optimism.

    Realism? Take a seat, Donald Trump, Mao Zedong, and George Orwell.

    Or even J.D. Salinger.

 Eight Billion Stories, Tonight and Tomorrow

    There are many of us across the planet. Human beings.

    I spoke today of human psychology. That is most of it.

    But there are millions of of non-human psychologies, too. They count, too.

    Right? Some of them hunt us, or get run over by us. They lick us and slobber on us. They bit us, and each other.

    The foxes scream while the dogs yap, in front of the house of down the hill.

    Many billions of inner thinkers with their brains, like the whales in the sea.

    The old barren mother who doesn't go to Hawai'i to mate any more. She stays and feeds in Alaska.

    There is that brain psychology, too.

 Poems Say Things

    Yes, obvious, no?

    Yeah, poetry.

    It does not have notes

    Like the elegiac songs of past and present

    That so many memorize and cherish.

    Some poems go tossed and waylaid

    Like forgotten seeds, lost, that never make it to the good earth or eventual fruit.

    They wither and die.

    Their molecules convert into other elements, some day creating another 

    Substance 

    For us to chew on.

    Masticate.

    Suck on, sometimes swallow, or at times spew.

    Wherever those substances go...

    Back into poetry, 

    And here we are.

 The Pessimist's Poem

    She is tired of me

    She is bored with me

    I offend her

    I don't inspire her

    She is sick of me

    She wants to escape

    Go to other countries

    Other streets, other homes

    Places without me.

    She used to like me more

    I lost something

    We lost something

    I eroded away

    I am not who I was

    Or maybe I never was who I thought I was

    Who she thought I could be

    

    She loves God,

    She loves Jesus

    She knows that they love her unconditionally 

    But I am far from, and have a harder time accessing that Perfect Grace

    I am far from

    I try, I step, I move, but likely not fast enough

    Not steady enough

    I try, but likely not hard enough.

    Not enough.

    She dislikes all that

    And I will try.

    But only God can help us.

    And that is my prayer,

    

    Even as a pessimist.

    However, I am not a pessimist, truly,

    I am a realist and an optimist.

    Who am I?

    All of the above

    None of the above

    I am me most of the times 

    But not always

    Not always constant

    Not always the same

    Changing

    Cambiante, in Spanish

    A language of many cultures that I know decently well

    

    For a gringo

    Gringo, not tonto.

    Tonto, not imbecil.

    But realistically, I should be more optimistic.

    Yes, I should be.

    Yet, I always love her.

    That does not change.

   

    I love the Father and His Son, too.

    We pray for their Spirit. Always.

    And love. And Kindness. And mercy.

    Those are always there.