…what is noble and what is base
is determined by what the time requires
–there is no absolute rule.

A battering ram
can be used to storm a city wall
but it cannot be used to fill a small hole.
–the uses of the implements
are different.

“therefore the saying,
‘Shall we not follow what is right
and reject what is wrong?
And follow order and banish disorder?’
shows a lack of understanding of
the principles of heaven and earth
and the nature of things in the world.

This would be to follow heaven
but disregard earth,
and to follow yin
and not to acknowledge yang.

It is clear that such a course
is not possible.
Still, people
continue to speak in this way.
They are either ignorant or deluded.

Zhuangzi, trans. by Hyunn Höchsmann and Yang Gurong, Book 17

Report from Minneapolis

I received a text from and old friend yesterday who participated in the citywide demonstration to stand against the Federal government’s deployment of ICE in Minnesota. Untrained, uniformed, armed, masked agents of the administration have dragged Minnesotans from cars, from homes, from schools for interrogation and possible deportation. In Minneapolis businesses, the University and public schools closed for the day, a mute witness of resistance to the violence perpetrated against employees and neighbors. She said the protesting crowd numbered in thousands. Her text said that it was necessary to retreat due to a threat of water cannons in the minus 20 degree cold…

Cohesiveness of Evil

Do you wonder at the solidarity shown by the Trump swag-wearing MAGA true believers, and millions of the “privileged” who cast a vote for him (more than once) and will likely do so again? What binds together so many of us? Zhuangzi suggests that habits of speech which aren’t self-critical and measured, is the taproot of this toxic tree. How do church-going Evangelicals and lifelong racists such as Stephen Miller, a disciple of Realpolitik — agree to hunt down, to murder, and to exile families that have helped us in so many ways?

Lazy, lax word-slop — easily combines ignorance, with a delusion that you know already – what is right and what is wrong. Spellbound by our own words!

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There’s time for a song. This one lifted my spirits this morning. Every Rose Has Its Thorn by Poison. To stand by truth means that we are going to suffer. Suffering is the price paid for embracing beauty, meaning, what is good.