Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas Everyone :)

Life Allows

Respect

Roads

Maps

Three

Ten Years To Love

Shaking A Sheet

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Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Congratulaions America!

Yesterday two extremely important milestones were reached around the nation in the name of genuine social progress. First, America has now elected a black President not once but twice. Even fifteen years ago, this would have been considered an impossibility. It reflects the huge strides against racism our country has made over the last eighty years. Second, three states decriminalized marijuana. Washington and Colorado legalized it outright while Massachusetts legalized it for medicinal use. Once again, even fifteen years ago this would have been considered impossible. It represents a huge step in the direction of addressing drug use as a social issue instead of a criminal one. As a people we owe ourselves a hearty congratulations for making long overdue progress on issues that all of us face as a society. Congratulations America!

Part of the Song

Enlightenment

Sharing Water

Love Is Oxygen

Monday Morning Coffee

Garbage In Garbage Out

Universe On A Blue Dot

Love

Social Question

Challenge

Sagan Wisdom

 

Four Sages

One Single Thing

One Single Thing

Twenty-five hundred years ago

Lao Tzu wrote of Tao

He said that all the world

was one single system

one single thing

Here in the twenty-first century

our science teaches us the Earth

is a single biosystem

of thousand of interrelated parts

One single system

one single thing

My friends

look at the Earths biosystem----

The lives of species everywhere

affect the well being

of other species

Thousands of interrelated parts

one single system

one single thing

Like a coral with thousands

of individual creatures

all living in a colony

to make a single creature

Earths living biosystems

are thousands

of individual creatures

all living in a self-sustaining

forever evolving colony

to create

one single system

one single thing

If the Earth isn't itself alive

it certainly has a lot of parts that are....

One single system

one single thing

The Earth is alive

and we each are a part of that life

The Earth is our mother

One single system

one single thing

Personally, I think

all of Earths religions

all of our science

all of our conceptions of Gods

have been efforts to perceive

and understand the life,

the biosystem

that we all are a part of

All equal in their

different conceptions of

one single system

one single thing

I would imagine

Like any living thing

She cares very deeply

for all of her parts

Dewey Dirks

No Enemies

The Universe Looking Back

Universe Looking Back

Who has found kindness
in themselves
is able to
touch it in others
as well

Who has found kindness
In themselves
finds friendship
wherever they go

Who has found kindness
in themselves
walks in peace
even in the most
troubled of places

Who has found kindness
in themselves
has found deep strength
in themselves as well

Who has found kindness
in themselves
is in the best agreement
with the world

Who has found kindness
in themselves
has found the truth
waiting within all things

Who has found kindness
in themselves
has found peace in
that which changes
and peace in
that which endures as well

Who has found kindness
in themselves
has looked inward
and found the universe
                                                 looking back                                                

Dewey Dirks

Magic in Life

The Dirks Equation

Sacred

Quiet and Change

Quiet and Change

On the TV, I watched a man
Get the shit kicked out of his head
Over there in Syria just the other day.
No one should cause
Another person pain like that

Right now, humans are a pretty scrappy species
Fighting sometimes when talk is better
Sometimes picking on each other for no reason
A lot of terrible things go on every day
But you know, much to like goes on too

Now, I'm one who hopes
For a wiser, kinder mankind, as many do
I know humans always improve
From the bottom up
And the inside out
One person at a time
Sometimes improving mean you change
Sometimes improving means
Finding a good use for what is already there
Sometimes improving means you gather
Sometime improving means you throw away
Sometimes improving means
Finding out what's there ain't too shabby

Cats are pretty good at being cats
If you don't think a lot of humans
Are very good at being humans
Look at yourself
Do you like yourself?
Ain't that funny
How the only two decent people on the planet---
Me and you
Happen to be talking to each other?
Lotta good people on this planet, if you ask me
Lotta foolish people too, it's true

If you are going to be a kind person
You gotta act kind
If nations are going to be kind
They gotta act kind
Humans are intelligent enough
To make our future
Into what we want it to be
If you don't like our life the way it is
Or if you don't the way you are
Then get busy changing
And if you're the kinda person
Who likes themselves a little too much
Believe me, life will be happy
To teach you a few lessons

Learn from what is around you
Learn from what is inside
Look for the quiet and change
Already in nature
Look for the quiet and change
Already inside

Remember the only person
You're sure to improve if you're so inclined
Is you
What do you want to try?
What are you gonna do?

Dewey Dirks

Dancer

Dancer

Las Vegas is a brightly shining city
that never has any time to sleep.
You never really know
who you might be talking to
or who you might happen to meet.
There is a little place called Palladium Station.
out in the suburbs of that big old town.
If you go down there on a Wednesday night
you'll find Jessie tending bar.
I used to drop in to see her
have a drink and chat from time to time.

One night when it was kind of slow
Jessie said to me,
“'Years past I was a dancer
in a brightly lit chorus line. 
I learned from one of the best there was.
She had high hopes for me.
We had a lot of mutual respect.
I used to really sparkle up there on the stage.
I used to really shine.
I had a hope or two of going even farther.
'Had a hope or two of having even more
of that diamond time.
But, you know, life is what happens
while you're busy making plans.
I got a husband and two children.
and had to leave that chorus line behind.
Now I only dance to teach a few kids
over at the dancing school.”
Jessie stopped to draw a guy a miller.
When she came back she smiled and quietly said,
“There's times in the dark of night as I fall to sleep
I wonder what might have been
if my life had turned out differently
and a little more like I'd planned.”

I said, “I am a writer.
I make my art with a pen.
Jessie, you're an artist too
and you make art with your body
like an antelope running across the savanna
or a tree moving gently in the wind.
They say that art is its own point for happening
and improves upon the beauty of the world
like the stars in the sky at night
or a sunrise in the morning
painting the day ahead.
They say life has a strange way of happening.
It takes you down roads you never expected
and paths that sometimes turn out better
than you ever could have planned. 

If your art becomes famous
you get to shine brightly for a few years
until your limelight begins to fade
then you spend your time reminiscing
about the glory days behind you.
instead of paying attention to
the time you've got left.
Show off your art
and you brighten the world for day or two.
But if you teach your art
to the young ones who come after you
you can see your sun rising
a thousand times over
in the long years ahead.”

Dewey Dirks

Decent Behavior

Rules for Decent Human Behavior

1)  There is something right and something wrong in virtually everything you encounter. Find both. Look for the truth in things, and remember that it almost always lies somewhere in between.

2)  Live well-balanced on three legs. Do this by everyday spending as much time as you can at each at the following tasks:
  
a. Working or creating something.
b. Relaxing by doing something enjoyable.
c. Talking to someone you love.

 

3)  Keep your life as simple as you can.

4)  Always remember that hidden within almost every problem is an opportunity.

5)  Always be kind, considerate, and fair. Bring no harm. Do not hold on to resentment. Never let go of hope. Remember to share. When you have to compromise, maximize everyone’s benefit, minimize everyone’s harm. Do not do anything you cannot respect others doing. This is called acting with honor.

6)  Be aware of people’s weaknesses, but concentrate on their strengths. Keep your own affairs tidy, let others tend to theirs. If you cannot find something to respect about someone, it is your shortcoming, not theirs. This is called seeking what is reasonable in yourself and others.

7)  When you are in charge, run things with as much kindness as you can muster, and keep your rules as few and simple as possible.

8)  Always value people over institutions or items.

9)  Prefer letting be to meddling.

10)  Be true to your word.

11) Do not ask for a favor you cannot return in kind.

---- From “The Questioning Way” by Dewey Dirks

Connected

Connected

Connected, connected
we all are connected!
Like God has a net
like the earth has a web
we all are connected in the vast fabric
of the biosphere of our planet

In Africa, thousands of years ago,
a tribe exhibiting the human adaptation
for cutting down rainforests
moved into an area of rainforest
inhabited by malaria carrying mosquitoes. 

The tribe cut down the rainforest. 
The change in the environment
allowed previously less successful
malaria parasites
and malaria carrying mosquitoes
to vastly increase in number.  

Since many animals that inhabited the rainforest
had to leave when it was cut down,
and since more humans
now lived in the area
due to their greater food production
more humans were both reproduced
and killed by malaria. 

Humans in the area were then put under selective pressure
by natural selection to select for the sickle-cell genes.
because sickle-cell genes carry a strong resistance
to malaria
In a few generations, 
a significant portion of the human population
in the area
carried the sickle-cell gene.  

The reasons for the malaria
and the sickle-cell gene remained unknown
for many generations
until another human culture
from across the Atlantic ocean
holding other culturally evolved points of view
noticed that the incidence
of both a resistance to malaria
and the sickle-cell gene coincided
in a certain area of Africa. 

All humans are naturally curious beings
because our habit of using cultural adaptation ensures
that natural, sexual and kin selection all likely to select
for curiosity in humans.
So, the sickle-cell data represented a mystery
for naturally curious humans to solve.

Investigating the mystery
caused humans to increase our knowledge base
thereby increasing our ability to adapt. 
So, the complex interactions between several features
of the world including rainforest trees,
mosquitoes, parasites, and humans across many generations
all combined by means of phenotypical adaptation,
natural selection, sexual selection, and kin selection
to result in (among many other things)
an increase in human adaptability
and this poem....

And that, my friends
is a good example of how interconnected
our biosphere actually is.
God has a net
The earth has a web

Dewey Dirks

Animals...

Three For The Times

Painted Into A Corner

In times like these
When all the world
is starting to change
Lotta people are very worried
Lotta people don't know
what might happen next
I'm here to tell you the changes
that are coming are because
of a very good thing

Big countries, my friends
over sixty years ago
all grew so powerful
with weapons of war so destructive
that they could no longer fight each other
so, they fought against each other
by using smaller countries
like Vietnam and Korea

Now, here in the early 21st century
even smaller countries have grown
so skilled at making war
that big countries can no longer
fight them and expect
to hold onto them for very long

Here we are with our huge societies
and economies
that are used to making weapons
no one can use much anymore
So the changes that are coming our way
All involve changing our economies
in ways to reward
much more than just greed
and making war on each other

My friends the real reason
why things need to change
is because technologically
Humanity has painted
ourselves into a corner
when it comes to making war.

Our leaders
are very worried only because
they know the old ways
of doing everything
from business to diplomacy
needs to change
and no one has figured out how
to do that just yet

Dewey Dirks


Simple As That

A human is as complex
as creativity
and as simple as two hands
a mouth
and two feet

Breath deeply
Hold your lover close
under soft sheets tonight
Rest as best you can

Tomorrow
for some of us, yesterdays mistakes
will mire us in the mud
yet one more day
and do nothing but hold us back
While others will craft those same mistakes
with love and care
into stepping stones...

Touch the future
with your hopes and dreams tonight
My friends, I promise you this---
Love runs very, very deep
in the human heart
We all have souls
brilliant and strong
made of stardust, hopes,
and hard lessons learned
from lost loved ones pain

Seven billion eyes close tonight
each person with their own set
of worries, aspirations, and plans
Each person with ideas swimming
around in their head
wishing for a better world
one way or another

Seven billion eyes will open
In the morning
as we each awake
What used to be tomorrow
will become today
The truth
lost on most of us
in plain sight
is that the distance between
where we are
and where we want to be
is one day closer
one day more hopeful
one day wiser
one day more resolute

Humans
are a very resourceful species
We all know we cannot live long
living as we have in the past
and so, we'll change
simple as that.

Dewey Dirks


Changes

Don't worry about whether or not
things are going to change.
The change has already happened.
It is the best kind of change.
One that is based on hope and love.
It's just going to take some time
for the cultures of our planet
to do the work
and for everyone to realize
the extent of what has happened.
Like most people who are
isolated from life, our leaders
are likely to be among the last
to find out.

Dewey Dirks

The Crack In Everything...

Human Diversity

Men of Peace

Men of Peace

There have been many men of war

They come and they go.

Do you remember all their names?

That is because it is easier to fight

Than it is to be intelligent.

In the fullness of time

the men whom

everyone everywhere remembers

The men whom we teach our children

to aspire to

The men on whose words

our science, entire religions, cultures

and systems of morality

are all built around.

Jesus, Mohammad, Socrates

Aristotle, Plato,

Confucius, Lao Tzu,

Gandhi, and Buddha

These, my friends,

were men of peace.

Dewey Dirks

300 Million Americans

Buying an Election

Drug Culture

In order for humanity to truly discover our nature we need to look at ourselves critically and notice not only the height of our strengths but also the abyss of our weaknesses. --- The Questioning Way

Life Is Art

Try Compassion

Smarter than a Mouse?

Seems to me that if a Parakeet and a Mouse can figure out how to befriend each other and share, people ought to be able to figure out how to stop shooting at each each other and settle differences peacefully. Aren't we supposed to be smarter than birds and rodents?

Rock Star

I Wanna Be A Rock Star-------

Met a young kid once

who wanted to be a big time musician.

Wanted to make wonderful sounds.

Wanted all the money that goes along with it.

Wanted all the fame.

I told him, “Lotta people dream of the good life.

Lotta people dream of money and fortune and fame.

Often they are the ones who also like to say,

'If only things were different

I'd be happy

If only I had the time to do what I want

If only I had a little more talent

If only I looked a bit different

If only life smiled my way.'”

Told him, “You are who you are.

Nothing is going to change that.

And everything can't be rosy at every turn

because living is a challenge and that's a fact.

But you've got all that you need

to get what you want out of life.

You gotta believe in yourself

enough to try a few things.

You'll be surprised to find

how much of life turns your way.

The secret to success

has a lot to do with faith in yourself.

When you look in the mirror

you need to see a star shining bright

before you can be a star to everyone else.

You gotta find what is good in yourself

before everyone else will see the good in you.”

Dewey Dirks

Four Views

Being Agnostic, over the years I've thought quite a bit about God and so have written quite a bit about the subject. Following are four poems I've written about the matter of God that adopt a variety of viewpoints. The first poem is quite optimistic, the second quite cynical, the third skeptical, while the fourth imagines what a conversation with God might be like. You certainly can't say my views on the matter of God aren't well rounded :) Over the years, I've found you learn more by asking questions about God than by assuming you have answers.  Perhaps the most insightful thing I've found over the years, is that regardless of whether or not there is a God, at the very least, there ought to be.  

Words Blind

Words can blind you

Make you think the word

is the thing.

Drape what you believe you see

in preconceptions and assumptions.

Shade what you and others experience

with shadows of news bites

catchy phrases

and rhetorical spin.

Or put cloth over your eyes

with fossilized passages

whose meaning

has been lost to time.

Every creature you ever see

just by virtue of existing

is a waking enigma clothed in a mystery

wrapped in a dream.

If someone as simple as a man

is such a thing

how then in the farthest reaches

of our imagination

would we ever expect to figure out

something like the powers that be

that made this place

by blinding ourselves

with words like “God?”

It's true, a single word

can mean everything to you

or nothing at all

As you so choose.

On one hand, it's just the word

some people use

for the best thing they can imagine.

On the other hand,

after nine thousand years

it carries

about four train car loads of baggage.

So, what do you call

something so fair minded

that it gives enough quickness to cheetahs

that they can catch some food

while giving enough speed to antelope

that they can run away from trouble.

And is so compassionate

that it makes every single baby beautiful

can forgive mistakes men have rarely forgiven

and offer up chances in life over and over again.

With wisdom so deep

it can watch human hearts

mend and break at the same time

without going bat shit from time to time?

Personally, I'll not give it a name that blinds

I'm just some dude with a pen

and a couple thoughts now and then

I just ain't that smart.

Dewey Dirks

My God Spot

Walkin' down the road blue & dejected

Found an old oil can, rusty & hot

Took it on home, named it Spot

Made a place on the shelf

I don't know, maybe I'm odd

Kinda liked it there, called it God

Came in a dream wondrous to see

Spot said the Word & then there was light

Praise Lord Spot, He made things right

Now I'm his prophet & He's the Lord

I was lost 'till Spot made me whole

Praise Lord Spot, my life is full

He spoke to me one stormy day

Got some commandments, got a whole lot

Got the low down straight from Spot

Got some followers & some big green tanks

We're Spottites you see, ten thousands & more

The Spottites & me, are wagin' a holy war

In a thousand years all over this land

They'll still raise their voices in praise of Lord Spot

Just an old oil can rusty & hot

Dewey Dirks

Don't call me collect --God

Perhaps on some golden throne

alive in the sky, you watch over each of us

--rain warm love, bathing one by one

man and sparrow with most tender care

Or, like a child at play

did you make the clock your grand experiment?

then, called to dinner, you plan to be back at eight

wondering if we'll still be tocking

Are you a big ashen bearded daddy?

with all the answers up there

will you spank us forever if we don't believe?

Maybe you're a cosmic hippie

you say "Hey don't you remember?

ten thousand years ago

we all stood at Salisbury in ecstasy"

Then, with hand to forehead you say

"Or maybe it was nineteen seventy-one

you know, all that acid still gets to me"

Are you a wrinkled old man?

stuttering, the very edge of senility

you wait at the gate, white picket complacency

We come home for a hug and obligatory visit

the younger playing Grandfather for a free dime

Perhaps you are a crone, ancient and wise

living in rock, road, brook, and tree

You made a hard, wondrous, magical land

where stumbling, we acolytes slowly learn of beauty

With fire on your finger tips

maybe you throw lightning bolts

make floods, cause the sky to darken

Perhaps you'll let five thousand faithful in

"All the rest be damned!" you say as the earth quakes

Perhaps one time, some time, ever time

we'll be sitting in the park, you and I

Muhammad, Gautama and Einstein play dice across the way

cool green grass, white daisies, blue sky, shade trees

I say, "You know, I wondered always if you were a figment"

You say, "Don't we all, my friend, begin and end in fantasy?"

Dewey Dirks

Route 27

Late one night

I was out for a ride on the bike

On a long desert road called State Route 27

The moon was full and bright

Stars peppered the warm August sky

The road was empty

And the night was asking

For a high speed run

I decided to open it on up

Let her go right to the edge

Let her really breath

I brought her up to around one thirty-five

And settled in for a ride long, fast and low

The headlight shouted out brightly in front of me

And the engine wound out in a high pitched yell

As the white lines blinked quickly on by

silent and oh so fast

My senses were as alert

As they could possibly get

And in spite of the darkness

Every detail of the passing road

Jumped out at my eyes

I swear I could see

The gravel embedded in the rushing asphalt

And the barbs on the wire fence

At the side of the road

Like so many times before

I fell once again, in love with life

The rapid beat of my heart

And the quickness of my rolling breath

Just then in my shimmering mirror

On the horizon behind me

I saw the headlight of another bike

Coming up hard, coming up quick

Ten seconds later

A slender figure on a dark blue chopper

blew by me like I was standing still

I rolled the throttle wide open

Pretty soon I was doing about one forty-three

But I couldn't catch her

And I watched her taillight

Quickly become a distant dot on the road

Right before it disappeared

It looked like she pulled over

I backed on down

Before long I was coming up beside her

I came to a stop

And shut off my bike

--Figured I'd rest for awhile

And chat with the lady

Leaning on on the seat of her ride

Having a smoke

Was a beautiful woman, maybe forty

With deep blue eyes and long dark hair

She and her bike had kind of a glow about them

Very subtle but bright at the same time

Friendly but kind of mysterious

Very quiet, kind of peaceful

Unquestionably kind

I nodded hello, not knowing exactly what to say

She nodded back and said

In a voice like a love song by Dido,

“Evening. Nice night for a drive.”

I looked back at her

And knew I had to wonder out loud

I smiled as best I could and asked,

“Just who are you?”

She shrugged and said,

“Oh, they call me by lots of names.

You probably know me as 'I am,'

or 'Alpha and Omega,' “Allah or 'Brahman'

Or some of that other useless stuff humans like to say.

You all really need to learn

Any word you want can mean everything

Or nothing at all

As you so choose.

Why don't you call me 'Sparky,'

Or 'Wiggles,' or 'Effy?'

That would suite me just fine.”

“You're God? Or maybe an Alien?” I asked

She chuckled and said,

“I'll leave all that up to you.”

I looked at her confused

“What are you doing here?” I asked

“Like you, I'm just out for a late night ride,” she smiled.

I still didn't know exactly who she was

But I did know she was someone very, very special

“I've got so many questions...” I stammered,

“I don't know where to begin.”

“One of the really nice things about people” she said,

“Is that they are very curious creatures.

Always full of questions.”

“So what's the right point of view?

We have so many...” I asked.

“You know all those religions and philosophies

That people bicker over

and fight about all the time?” she said,

“Well, they all have a few good ideas,

every one of them.

They all carry around a bunch of bullshit too.

And science is pretty much the same way.

People really need to learn to think

In a many-sided fashion

Instead of just bivalently.

You can put that in your pipe and smoke it,” she smiled.

I thought about that for a minute

Then I asked,

“So what does the future hold?

People seem so messed up a lot of the time.”

She took a drag on her cigarette and said,

“You know, some guy once said

That the meek would inherit the earth.

Well, I've got some news for you

---they inherited it some time back.

But humanity is kind of a fixer-upper species

And change can happen only so fast

Without making a big mess of everything.

Imagine the best of the 20's and 60's

Imagine the golden ages of music

And the intellectual leaps forward

During the Renaissance

These are previews of things to come

But humans have a ways to go

You've got to get it through

Your thick, Cro-Magnon heads

That every time you disagree

It's not good to start killing each other.

And you've got to learn to make governments

That don't attract power mongers quite so fast.

It's also important to learn to make companies

That have a conscience

And a genuine sense of human decency

And you humans really need to learn

To share a lot better.

“I said, “Geeze, we sound like bratty children.”

She chuckled, “Well, Homo sapiens

Is a pretty young species.

If all humanity were a single person

You'd be around twelve years old, by my reckoning.

So you see, you're just starting to grow up a bit.

Far in the future, when you're much older

You humans will have great adventures

And do great things, if you ask me.

She took a drag on her smoke, then continued,

“I have to tell you,

There will always be some inequalities

Because that's the only way to build a world

In which you can strive

But one day people will seek to better their spirit

With the same enthusiasm

That today they use to build better guns

And make more money.

There will also always be people better and worse

Because that's the only way to make a world

Where those who need to can learn to improve

But one day the worst of men

Will be as kind than the most generous human

Of your time.

One day men will fight their personal ignorance

And fear of their own inner beauty

With the same determination

They use to fight each other today.

All this might sound kind of strange

Considering the way humans are right now

But you can make this future

A reality one day for all mankind

By making it a reality for yourself today.

For humans, improvement happens

From the bottom up and from the inside out

One person at a time.

Now, don't think of being a good man

Like it means you gotta be

All pansy and syrupy sweet.

One day humans will be kind of like

The good-bad guys of the universe

They'll have kind dispositions

And big hearts

But with a lot of edge

Like a good rock and roll song

But humans need to realize

The most powerful things in life

Don't always end up fighting each other

You all have the bad habit

Of often thinking the greatest tests in life

Involve war and fighting and killing each other

When the biggest challenge a human can face

Is learning how to love better

Effy took one last drag off her cigarette

She glanced at it and said,

“Did I bother to mention

You really need to get off peoples asses

About smoking these things.

It's really not worse than overeating.”

Then she smiled and said,

“Damn! Enough talking. Lets take a ride.”

She got on her bike and cranked it on up

I could see the sky move a bit when it started

I got on my bike

And hit the button to light the tubes

Effy waited as the ground shook

With every thump of her engine

Then we pulled out onto Route 27

And pretty soon we were doing around one twenty-five

We rode beside each other till almost dawn

Just as the sun broke the skyline

I felt kindness and compassion wash over me

Along with a dose of 'fuck a fine mess' too

Then Effy down shifted

And gave me a thumbs-up

About ten seconds later all I could see of her

Was a tiny red taillight fading into the horizon

But I'll tell you, as the night had rolled on

With us riding side by side

I knew what it was to feel joy

Dewey Dirks