Swami Uptown

Thought for….a good long time

Swami Uptown — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 21:39:00 +0000

It was then that I got up to leave
But she said, "Don't forget,
Everybody must give something back
For something they get."

--Bob Dylan, “Fourth Time Around”

Quittin’ Time

Swami Uptown — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 21:35:00 +0000

Cherish every word of this one, kids, because that’s all he wrote--Swami closes his doors with this column, though I will return to Beliefnet from time to time in the persona of Jesse Kornbluth to opine on matters spiritual.

I’m stopping for a very simple reason: I’ve said it all.

I’ve said it all, and it’s worked out pretty much the way I said it would, and by now that’s certainly clear to most of you who show up here, so why not get out of the way and let someone else have the floor before I bore you--and myself?

Which is to say: We have finally devolved to about the 14^th century.

In a single week--last week--we saw the Pope make an ill-advised historical reference to Islam. And what did he get for his erudition? One dead nun and some bombings. Who knew these Muslims were so sensitive? Now the Pope has had to issue a first-ever contemporaneous apology--or spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder to see if he’s being stalked by a suicide swordsman on a flying carpet. Score one for the 14^th century.

Also last week, George Bush confessed his love of torture, a l4th-century art. He wants to know--like a frat boy on a date with a girl from a junior college--just how far he can go. Can he squeeze the testicles…just a little? How much water is too much? And is Megadeath cruel and unusual? The right answer, of course, is that all of this stuff is against everything we believe. (And, worse, that it doesn’t work.) But that answer only applies to those with an appreciation of the soul--the torturer’s as well as the so-called terrorist’s. If your head is in the 14^th century, however, who cares? Score two for the 14^th century.

And the war. You may have seen it in the news: They’re going to dig a ditch around Baghdad, the better to keep the bad guys out. But that’s just preamble. They’ll need water. And gates. And, later, helmets (not that the Bushies will actually get them to our soldiers.) And then we’ll have a perfect Middle Ages kingdom inside those walls--with children rushing out to swim in the moat during the day. Score three for the 14^th century.

Kinda depressing. Especially for those of us who said, again and again, only crazy people turn the clock back. Not that it would have mattered if the entire nation had shouted--these guys are not just wrong, they’re cracked. They could give a damn about you (and that includes the idiots among you who voted for them).

Bush, for the record, may not be entirely committed to the 14^th century. Last week, he seemed pretty rhapsodic about re-creating the 19^th century….which lasted until l960, as he and I both recall.

As Bush put it:

“A lot of people in America see this as a confrontation between good and evil, including me. There was a stark change between the culture of the '50s and the '60s--boom--and I think there's change happening here. It seems to me that there's a Third Awakening.”

And there we complete the circle. Some of you think I have sex on the brain--and why not? It’s a good place for sex to start--but I come back to my theory that these dull white Christian men are a bunch of lousy lays, and they know it, and they want revenge on the world, which would take the form of making sure nobody gets any.

The jihadists hate women. So do far-right Christians in America.

The jihadists see only one path to God. So do far-right Christians in America.

And so on.

A long time ago (the '60s), in an institution far away (Harvard), I learned that enemies tended to resemble one another. Well, it took Bush almost six years, but he’s now made it clear to pretty much everyone who’s not too scared to think: He hates your freedom--of every kind--just as much as the people he says he’s trying to protect you from.

Frankly, it demeans me to write a column, week after week, about a guy that addled and damaged.

And yet I have. Didn’t plan to--I showed up, hoping to explore what committed Buddhism would look like in the millennium--but once I saw what was happening to my country, I had to change focus. You can’t have a spiritual conversation in a language that’s debased. Ideas and words must match.

But the White House and the Religious Right have declared war against language and ideas, so I joined the battle in the place where it was being fought. And I could go on and fight that battle some more in this column--I’ve got items of interest about Scholastic and that dreadful ABC 9/11 movie, and a new documentary about camps for Christian kids, and Katie Couric’s spectacular calves (kidding; just wanted to see if you were really reading)--but why? Those items are merely anecdotal. You get the big picture. If you don’t by now, no way can I help you.

I’ve decided I’ll do better fighting a culture war in the culture itself. I’m going to throw more energy into HeadButler.com. And I like to think I’ve got some other tricks up my sleeve. Please contact me there if you have thoughts to share, or even the random hello.

“There are few things about which one can say with pleasure, ‘This is the end,’ ” Samuel Johnson said, and the dictionary-maker and moralist was never wiser than when he wrote those words. Even when I’ve been in a blind rage, I’ve enjoyed this forum. Thanks to my saintly Beliefnet editors and enablers--so you don’t get sent to Gitmo, I won’t name you here. Thanks to Mrs. U and the Little One, who got turned into copy fodder far too often. And thanks to you, who are the reason I came. Here’s hoping we all make it through, safe and healthy and sane. And loved, loved more than we know, by a God we can dimly perceive. That, yes, most of all. Hugs. Amen.

Schooling Tim Russert

Swami Uptown — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:03:00 +0000

He's too much of a hack to learn, but let me show you how it's done--or how it could be done if the lords of media didn't think that journalists need politicians more than pols need journalists. Or if I got a TV show. Or if "House" were a real person.

As you may know, there was yet another definitive report released on Friday: NO connection between 9/11 and Saddam. On Sunday morning, Dick Cheney went on Meet the Press." And there he said:

CHENEY: You’ve got Iraq and al-Qaeda, testimony from the director of CIA that there was indeed a relationship, Zarqawi in Baghdad, etc. Then the third...

RUSSERT: The committee said that there was no relationship. In fact...

CHENEY: Well, I haven’t seen the report; I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but the fact is...

And that was it. Russert moved on--it's his crowning skill. What should he have done? This:

Really, Mr. Vice President? It's Sunday morning, 36 hours after that report was issued. Surely you knew I'd ask about this. And by the nature of your job, this is important information. Were you not briefed?

(Cheney responds with some evasion.)

Well, then, perhaps you could tell us: What's a day like in your office? Take us through your day.

(Cheney blows more smoke.)

Don Corleone--I'm not making an analogy--always wanted to hear the bad news first. Considering how often the administration has linked 9/11 and Iraq, this new report sure looks like bad news. Is there someone in your office who has the job of telling you what you don't want to hear?

(Cheney does whatever.)

So let's see. Not much interest in a dialogue with the media. No intrusion of bad news. Tell me, Mr. Vice President, what American institutions do you respect?

(Cheney blathers.)

I've got some other questions to ask, but I'd rather explore this. Let me read you the relevant passages from the report, and then perhaps you'll comment....

I know: too much to hope for. Cheney would never appear again. Gee, wouldn't that be just awful?

Thought for the Week

Swami Uptown — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:16:00 +0000

I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that phase.
Even your emotions had an echo
In so much space

And when you're out there
Without care,
Yeah, I was out of touch
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough
I just knew too much

Does that make me crazy
Does that make me crazy
Does that make me crazy
Probably

And I hope that you are having the time of your life
But think twice, that's my only advice
Come on now, who do you think you are,
Ha ha ha bless your soul
You really think you're in control

Well, I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
Just like me

My heroes had the heart to lose their lives out on a limb
And all I remember is thinking, I want to be like them
Ever since I was little, it looked like fun
And it's no coincidence I've come
And I can die when I'm done

Maybe I'm crazy
Maybe you're crazy
Maybe we're crazy
Probably

--the lyrics for "Crazy" (the song of the summer), by Gnarls Barkley

Can We Have a Little Privacy in Here?

Swami Uptown — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:11:00 +0000

Ok, maybe I'm self-congratulatory because I got 9/11 out of the way last week--in a piece about the importance of photography and the relative unimportance of words. But of course, I didn't get it out of the way. I'm writing about it now. Or, to be accurate, writing about talking about it.

Everybody East of the Mississippi has a good 9/11 story, and I do too. I dealt with it in public ages ago. I'm done. I would have thought, five years in, lots of us would be done.

I don't mean done grieving. That goes on. And so, I now see, does the media. And the politiciking. But to stand on the ashes of the martyred dead and talk platitudes, to have ignored explicit warnings and done nothing and then show up to mourn the forever lost--that takes some kind of nerve. The usual suspects have that nerve. And more.

And what do we get out of it? A wallow of feel-bad emotion. Some wimpy moralizing. If you came away from the 9/11 media orgy feeling better about anything, I have to wonder what you do when the words and motions aren't synthetic.

I have come to the conclusion--how reactionary is this?--that privacy is the answer. My first wife, the really rich one, had known this all her life: "All money can do is buy you privacy." My current and final wife knows that lesson by instinct--when we got married, she nixed the idea of a New York Times profile. If you've got nothing to sell, shut up--that's my life lesson.

I was on the elliptical trainer at the gym this morning when the ceremonies were held in the pit of the World Trade Center. I was listening to Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde"--in troubled times, always vote for a genius. I tried not to watch the TV screens, but who turns away from a trainwreck or grief?

I think it's great that the friends and families of the 9/11 victims got together--they had lots to offer one another. We brought nothing to the event but our voyeurism. Common decency should have made us turn away.

But it's not just 9/11, it's all media, all the time. In England in the 19th century, they put straw on the street in front of houses where someone had just died, so the horses' hooves clicking on pavement wouldn't distract the mourners from their important mission. And I remember how many friends have told me, after funerals of close friends or family, they felt compelled to have sex--the hotter the better. I understand: grief is a private matter. It's not to be shared with civilians.

Grief--active grief--takes many forms, including the twisted and raw. So spare me the solemnity of a Rudy Giuliani speech. Give me a screaming widow. A family holding itself together as they do in ancient Italian portraits. And, yes, a man or woman sobbing on the way to orgasm. Any of that--all of that--is one way to shake a fist at God, to curse Him out, to poke death in the eye, to cast a big vote for life and the future. Mourning: a beautiful process. Just keep it out of prime time.

Thought for the Week

Swami Uptown — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 21:41:00 +0000

I'm sure there are people who thought it was a mistake to fight the Civil War to its end and to insist that the emancipation of slaves would hold. I know there were people who said, 'Why don't we get out of this now, take a peace with the South, but leave the South with slaves?'

--Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Essence magazine, comparing the war in Iraq with the American Civil War and explaining why slavery might have lasted longer if the North had decided to end the fight early.

Runner-Up Thought for the Week

Swami Uptown — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 21:39:00 +0000

You know what I'm gonna tell those Jews when I get to Israel, don't you? I'm telling 'em they're all going to hell.

--George W. Bush, as governor of Texas, in conversation with a reporter for the Austin American-Statesman. Quoted in Raw Story

Why Osama Hearts George Bush

Swami Uptown — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 21:36:00 +0000

From ABC News:

“The Pakistani military will no longer operate in the area where Osama bin Laden and other top al Qaeda operatives are believed to be hiding, according to terms of what the Pakistan government calls a "peace deal," signed today with militant tribal groups allied to the Taliban and al Qaeda.”

“Under the agreement, the Pakistan military will stop monitoring the activity of the militants, who will pledge to "live like good citizens," General Sultan said. More than 30 militant prisoners have been released, and the military will pay compensation for property destroyed during the fighting.”

Seems only fair. George Bush couldn’t be bothered finishing Osama off at Tora Bora. Later, Bush said he rarely thinks about Osama and that we shouldn’t pay so much to one guy. And, later, Osama returned the favor by making an announcement--just before the ’04 election--that the Republicans could spin to Bush’s advantage.

But after all that, the Pakistanis never quite got the message. They persisted in thinking we wanted Osama. Silly Pakis--they’re just soooo 9/11.

Just a Few Things About Israel

Swami Uptown — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 21:33:00 +0000

You know how sports coaches tell you to play your hardest right up to the end of the game? Armies do the same thing. At least, the Israeli Armed Forces do. From the Financial Times:

"The United Nations described as 'shocking and immoral' the fact that Israel dropped well over 90 percent of its cluster munitions in Lebanon during the last three days of the conflict--when it was already clear there would be a cessation of hostilities.”

"Israel intensified its military offensive in southern Lebanon in the 72 hours between Security Resolution 1701 being signed in New York and the ceasefire on August 14.”

"Cluster weapons contain dozens of small explosives which spread over a wide area and are either air-dropped or ground launched. The U.N. said it had identified 359 cluster bomb-strike locations, and that 102,000 unexploded small bombs continued to maim and kill people every day.”

"'Civilians will die disproportionately again, after the war,' [Jan Egeland, U.N. humanitarian chief] said. 'This should not have happened. It’s an outrage.'”

No, I don’t think I’ll be planting any trees in Israel this holiday season. And considering what my brethren did in the war’s last days, I don’t think I have much to atone for later this month. I do think I’ll up my contribution to Doctors Without Borders, though--in the hopes that Jewish doctors will be treating Lebanese children. Now that’s heartwarming!

You Don't Even Have to Read the Story

Swami Uptown — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 21:31:00 +0000

The headline and subhead say it all. From The New York Times:

40 Bodies Found in Baghdad on Violent Day

The violence occurred on a day when Iraqi officials announced a plan to take over operational command of Iraq’s army from the U.S. next week

Well, Actually, There Is More

Swami Uptown — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 21:30:00 +0000

“The bodies of 40 people, including 25 who were found blindfolded and shot at close range, were found in Baghdad today, an Interior Ministry official said.”

But Wait, There Is Still More

Swami Uptown — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 21:29:00 +0000

“The Iraqi government also announced that two of its most senior officials are scheduled to travel to Iran on Tuesday, a state visit that raises the possibility that Mr. Maliki could also visit the country, its powerful and predominantly Shiite eastern neighbor.”

“The two officials traveling on Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih and the national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, will discuss ways to enhance economic ties and resolve political problems, including border security, according to Mr. Maliki’s spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh.”

Scorecard: The Iraqi security forces can’t do their job. Violence is so prevalent in Baghdad as to be almost random. And “democracy” has produced a government in Iraq who want to get tight with the target of our next war. Three strikes–but we’re not out.

Oops, There’s Even More

Swami Uptown — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 21:27:00 +0000

Still from that Times piece:

“In a news conference today, Mr. Askary, the Defense Ministry spokesman, said Sunni Arab insurgents had started renting apartments and store fronts in Baghdad and packing them with explosives.”

“The insurgents used new ways like renting apartments and shops to booby-trap them by remote control,” he said in a news conference. Iraqi security officials, he added, have warned shop owners and real-estate agents to more carefully screen potential tenants.

Strike Four: The insurgents are smarter than we are, too.

A Terrible Beauty

Swami Uptown — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 21:18:00 +0000

A few days after 9/11, Joel Meyerowitz--famed for landscapes of extreme beauty and serenity--went to the site of the World Trade Center and started taking pictures. He stayed there, day and night, for nine months, until the workers left and only “the pit” remained. During that time, he was the only photographer on site. Just those facts tell you that the 8,500 pictures he took--whatever he took--were remarkable.

Two years ago, my wife and I went to a show of this work. Like most other people, we walked through the exhibit in stunned silence, not knowing what to think. The images were completely brutal and oddly beautiful, challenging beyond our immediate ability to respond. Beyond my ability, anyway--as we left, my wife knew her mind well enough to say she thought we should buy one.

We never fight. We never yell. But I found myself on the sidewalk, screaming at Karen: “Are you out of your mind? How could you stand to see that horror every day? No one can live with that!”

We did not buy the picture. But time has changed me. I can no longer read about the people who died on 9/11. I can't look at the movies. Simply, I'm done with narratives that others create; I need to put 9/11 into my head my own way. And that leads me to photography. Yes, “every picture tells a story”--but not until I tell it to myself.

So the guy who couldn't bear these photographs on a wall was among the first to buy the massive book--15” x 11” pages, some double-spread, some that fold out--of these pictures. 340 pages of these pictures. Eight-and-a-half pounds of these pictures.

To see some of these pictures and learn about Joel Meyerowitz’s remarkable book, click here.

Thought for the Week

Swami Uptown — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 20:59:00 +0000

The hour is early
The whole world is quiet
A beautiful morning's about to ignite
I'm ready for danger
I'm ready for fire
I'm ready for something to lift me up higher

Life's been good, I guess
My ragged old heart's been blessed
With so much more than meets the eye
I've got a past I won't soon forget
You ain't seen nothing yet
I'm still learning how to fly...

-- Rodney Crowel l, "Fate's Right Hand"