unable to write
the perfect essay
for today,
the essay
that would not only keep power
from Donald Trump and his would-be collaborators,
but would more fundamentally
move the mass of our collective feeling/thinking/acting
towards a
joyful, grateful, honest, thoughtful
reinvigoration of our shared democratic republic
and the universal values and spiritual Love underlying
the proposition
that all humans are created equal —–
unable to come up with the great essay we in great
panic and longing and fear and trembling
seek,
we began to consider Tenacious D’s tribute to the best song ever written.
Could something like that work here?
Perhaps if we could write down what essay we think would help here and now — what insights and informations it would have to contain, and what impact it would have to have on individual readers and on the wider shared discourse:
Maybe, we thought, maybe
an essay about the essay that would actually help us all right here and right now:
Maybe that essay about the helpful essay
could be of some help.
ughgh! hmmph!
enough preambling,
the water is cool
the creek floor is silty soft
sink down worn creek sneakers worn because of bits of sharp steel and jagged glass here and there
sliding smooth sneaker soles over smooth water-worn algae-fringed stones
merrily chasing terrified crawdads with outstretched hand and styrofoam cup
now knowing what I know
I wish the little segmented beasties the safety of the warm mudbank.
I don’t want them trapped in the reckless hands of my foolish youth

The essay we seek will sink
all the evil
It’ll show the spirit
of democracy —
a spiritual good
that allows us all
to protect what’s
most sacred to each
by agreeing to agree
where we already agree:
aware, clear, honest,
accurate, competent,
loving-kind,
joyfully-together
we build and maintain
systems that
reward good stewardship
with temporary
shared and constrained
power
and refuse power to those
who cheat, lie, break, steal,
who would plunder
our shared government
to king themselves
and checkmate the rest of us suckers.
strange self-appointed
political gods
who trade our freedom to speak without fear
for new rules that say
might is right and We’re the might!,
that
true and false are weapons
and nothing more
so you better shut up and
get with the program

The essay we seek will show
the nation and world
what Trump has done,
what his would-be collaborators
have schemed,
and
what we risk
by handing this man with those schemes
and cronies
the keys —
what risk we run with Trump;
and how outsized it is
in comparison to the risk we run
by running from Trump,
by turning aside
his id and the attitudes and ideas
that would strengthen
the weapons that would
from the inside out
dismantle
the rules, norms, institutions, and laws
that keep the people
at the helm
of their own ship of state

The essay we seek will make
this moment clear to all
will make Bill Barr remember
will make Mike Johnson recall
will make the guy with his arm on the bench back see
that democracy is good for us all
and Trump and MAGA have harmed and
will likely endanger and exhaust
and could possibly undo
our shared democracy,
which is a spiritual good
because it allows we the people
to serve as a final check against
madness, corruption, and evil in government.
By preventing tyranny,
democracy allows leaders and citizens alike to be decent, happy, and successful all at once! —
rather than constantly forcing the corrupt land’s choice:
“You’re fealty or your success and safety, and that of your family’s!”

The essay we seek will remind
us all that the way to make
things better is not by
destroying the systems that allow
us to jointly steer our shared fate.
The way towards
better
is found by a gentle refusal
to harm what is good or denigrate what helps
us all
think and feel
together.

Within a system of
equality under the law
that
lends limited power
from the governed to their leaders
for limited times,
we citizens of this
democratic republic
can share
enough Reality
— We are all in this together; bound in and through and for the Love without which nothing is OK, and with which everything is OK; and should seek, think, feel, and act accordingly (only to the degree I follow this inward path, are any of my feelings, thoughts or actions meaningful to me; and within this path is the insight that you and I are fundamentally the same) —
&
enough reality
— let us feel/think/act aware, clear, honest, accurate, competent, loving-kind, joyfully-together (only to the degree we follow these universal values are our feeling, thoughts, or actions are meaningful to any of us) —
to
meaningfully share
both conversation and government.

We cannot share the Law
by telling each other how to find our ways to the Law.
That just encourages us all to lie about the most sacred things to ourselves and to others.
We share the Law
by sharing the rules, norms, and laws
that admit that no human is the Law,
and that all humans
have a duty
and a right
to seek the Law
in ways meaningful to them,
to follow the Light
where It leads them,
to speak Love as it moves them.
This is not radical permissiveness.
It is anchored in a system that allows individuals their freedom,
but not the freedom to hurt others or the shared rules, norms, and laws that keep us all safe by keeping tyranny at bay and by selecting for honesty, clarity, competency, and good faith.

The essay we seek
oh God
where is the essay
that would right this moment?
clarify these confusions,
remove this poisoned pill
from out our collective belly?
Where????

Would-be Author of this would-be work: Bartleby Willard
His Editor: Amble Whistletown
The copyright holder: Andrew M. Watson
Their hopes: broken, flailing, tortured upon the stretching rack and the twisting wheel — oh ye old fashioned methods for proving what is True and what is Good and what is HOLY!
What a convincing proof!
Not a valid one, just a convincing one.

About
Trump
and those who would encourage his dishonest destructive politicking:
Let’s not do anything about these desperate violent overreaches
except gently remove power and sway
from visions disconnected from the
Beauty
of a nation dedicated to the proposition
that all humans
are created equal
and
in this equality
deserve to share the rights and responsibilities
of a free people
freely speaking their thoughts, electing their representative, dreaming their world up together

That’s the beauty of democracy!
Peaceful gentle transitions of power — no one above the law; no one allowed to force his will upon the wider world, but all subject to the same norms, rules, and laws:
We hold these truths to be self-evident that all humans are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, including but not limited to, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That’s the Beauty
we’re seeking
alone and together
in this
funny joke
about humans
finally
building and maintaining
a system of government
based on the Truth of fundamental universal equality — the kind that could only exist if Pure Love really was God of all.

*Review

*(for we’re all always a collection of forces tumbling towards more or less wisdom — with more wisdom equalling better syncing one’s feeling/thinking/acting up with the Pure Love shining through everything, including each conscious moment)