Do you think...?

Do you think when Einstein discovered his atomic secret he dropped to his knees, raised his eyes to the heavens above and asked why me?

Do you think he sat there for hours on end praying for absolution?

Perhaps that he picked up the dice at that moment and realized that God wasn’t playing with the universe?

Do you think he toiled with the idea of destroying his theory, his proofs and all his notes?

Do you think he looked at his books and wondered what colour smoke the fire would be if he just threw his books in and erased from this earth the horror he must have known he’d just unmasked?

Do you think that in the joy of discovery he shed a tear that stained like blood?

Do you think he even knew what he had done?

Do you think he was torn between the progress of humanity and the death of a planet?

Do you think his shooting star was more like an intellectual Hiroshima because he knew the vulgarity of the human mind?

I don’t know either.

SDM

October 29th, 2004 - Also Appropriate

My father said in a drunken rage a while back that he hated me. A statement that stung then and stings now. My father has not been an easy man to love, but I still do and always will. He is my father. HOWEVER, there are moments in life where we have to consider things we didn’t ever want to.

I have not been the perfect son but I’ve always tried to be there for him. Yesterday he sent me a third email, on a non-related matter and apologized again for his actions.

Fine.

HOWEVER, through his own actions he has caused my Mother, Brothers and Sisters and myself untold and unspoken pain.

He is a man (as am I) and must be accountable for his actions and to date I have not seen that. This causes no small measure of pain for me.

I’ve ALWAYS believed in him, even when others have not.

I have ALWAYS supported him, even when others have not.

It’s sad, confusing, heartbreaking and difficult.

SDM

October 19th, 2004 - Appropriate Today!

Children,

I wrote you yesterday as well - I guess I have a lot to say to you. As always I love you and you should know I always will. I love you Char! Most people would think it's foolish to write to you like this, but hey, they're not me.

Your Mom and I got into a tizzy last night,
Partially because of her extreme fatigue and partially because of me.

When your Mom and I first met I was not the man I am today.
Because of her strength, sacrifice, conviction and determination,
I have become a better man.

She has taught me the meaning of responsibility in life,
And relationship,
And here’s a shocker, something I haven't been,
the most responsible.

Last week your Mom and I got into a car accident in Delia.
Delia is your Mom's 1989 Red Cabriolet Convertible.

Fortunately no one but Delia was hurt.
Well, maybe a little of my pride,
but mainly Delia.

Currently, as for the past few years,
your Mom is a working actress;

HARD WORKING!

She often wakes up before the sunrise and goes to a job she loves.

Although you all know I'm a writer, today I am a floorwalker.
I hate it but responsibility says I, like your Mom,
have to work.

SO I DO!

I've been thinking about you a lot in recent days.
Trying to figure out how to best make sure,
that you all live up to your,
RESPONSIBILITIES.

Your Mom always has and always will.

I just wanted to let you know...

I love you all.

I love you Char.

Always,

(SDM) Dad
______________

Context, there is lots going on and lots of stress right now. I went to one of my old books to start inputting into the computer and this was the first one I saw.

SDM

This is the WORLD WE LIVE IN

This world,
the times we live in,
are like times we’ve known before,
not personally as we haven’t figured out space and time.
Today is the greatest day and ever more it will be as today is here NOW –
Today!
We have at our disposal all the collected knowledge of our species
and while we may not yet know how to use it someday we will.
As such,
with the gift of time we must be cautious in the use of the many gifts we have.
In spite of a unifying sagacity we must always embrace the pursuit of more.
Accept that the struggle for understanding will eventually lead to an inner peace
that will manifest itself outwardly
instantly creating in that realization
the world that dreamers have long dreamt of.
In that moment,
the rhyme and reason,
rhythm, harmony and melody of greatly admired musical movements
will take on new meaning as we celebrate our spiritual rebirth.
Nothing, save the eventual success of a true and lasting peace will ever exonerate our historical failures:
Death,
destruction,
terror and war.

Yet should we find that higher state of being,
the relative awareness of a new reality shaped by the horrors of history,
we will discover the divine plan!
Looking to the sky of blue learning about ourselves
and our place in this universe everything takes on new meaning
through the acquisition of self.
Our past replete with invisible scars
from the extensive beating of our ancestors
with the leather whips of Christian, Jew and Muslim conquerors
and our acceptance of it will remove the cuffs,
histories shackles as we seek truth.
We are not chained to our past by necessity
and we are not doomed to repeat it.
Yet the future is tempered by it
and as long as we unmask our veiled attempts at sugar coating our past failures
in the search for a better world we will ultimately succeed in healing age old wounds.
Yet that path is the road less taken.
Accept truth,
the lessons of history and that we create our future
and instantly the course of history blazes a heretofore unseen trail.

In our efforts to reveal honestly our failures
we no longer need to be concealing the very real feelings we are feeling.
Read more;
Listen more,
help an old lady cross the street.
Smile often and brightly and allow your soul to shine.
Be real,
first to yourself, then to those around you,
act accordingly as that is what true freedom is –
Being real!
The strength and promise of our species,
all one humanity,
lay in rediscovering the value and benefit of positive self love
which will rear its head in every moment
incredibly changing the scope of our history:
Permanently promising peace.

SDM

63rd Anniversary of D- Day

To all those that gave their lives in the ultimate sacrifice so that tyranny did not rule the day I remember you.
To all those that returned home broken never to recover I wish I could give you a hug and make it all okay.
To all those that returned home and made it their mission to ensure the horror would not be repeated I celebrate you.
To all those that suffered indignity, iniquity and endless suffering I wish I could turn back the hands of time and make it all okay, in the absence of that ability let me make a solemn promise; I WILL NEVER FORGET and I WILL LAY DOWN MY LIFE trying to make this world a better place.
To all those reading this are you aware of the sacrifice,
are you aware of the price,
are you aware of what happened then that shaped today?

Take a moment to reflect, say a prayer, be silent and then realize just how fortunate we are that the greatest generation paid the price for freedom.

Thank you will never be enough, but from the bottom of my heart, veterans and the families which too sacrificed; thank you.

THANK YOU!

Understanding Freedom

This morning I awoke to the moderately annoying buzz of my digital alarm clock, I can’t even tell you who makes it, but that’s okay, those that made it couldn’t tell me from a hole in the wall either. But that’s neither here nor there. So, after hitting the snooze a couple of times I sleepily crawled from my bed to make a delicious cup of coffee for me and my baby, to be honest she started it, I just poured the boiling water. As she got ready for work I added the cream and sugar to our travel mugs and came back to our room. After a few moments and a couple of sips I went to the car, started it, allowing it to warm up so that when she emerged the cool chill of the early spring morning would not reach her bones. So I drove her to work and returned home, turned on the TV and enjoyed more coffee. This sounds like a million peoples day, normal by collective agreement.

But why?

Freedom: The choice to decide the course of my own actions. The ability and right to choose and what is the price of my freedom and ostensibly yours as well – Nothing! My freedom and yours comes at what price, the purchase of an alarm clock, coffee or a car – No we, from the comfort of our homes are writing cheques from accounts that were put in our trust. Our freedom shows completely that we are trust fund babies with silver spoons in our mouths. That’s right, trust fund babies with no regard for the actual price of things – especially freedom.

In North America and indeed all places where the liberty bell of freedom rings we enjoy benefits we ourselves didn’t earn. Perhaps our parents or grandparents, cut from a different cloth, truly earned their freedom and it did have a price – A large one.

World War II blatantly exposed the horrible possibilities of power unchecked and unopposed. It opened the eyes of generations to the brutal inhuman potential of angry evil men. Yet in spite of this my freedom and yours too was won on battlefields where blood was like a tsunami and bodies were stacked hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, anonymously to rid the world of sheer terror. Oh, my freedom certainly came at a price, but not mine, or yours, save the loss of loved ones that we never knew.

So as you enjoy the full and wonderful benefits of freedom take account of your actions to ensure that those that gave their lives so we could have ours – paid the ultimate price – did not, did not write a cheque that will bounce because of our attitudinal laxity toward freedom.

SDM

What Would Kids Do?

As many of you know I am an IDEALIST. I don't know exactly where and when that word became a bad thing but I am proud to be an idealist and hope that I maintain until my dying day. I've been thinking for years as to how I could put myself to work for the betterment of the planet. For the past few months I've been working on this idea I call; What Would Kids Do?

As we grow up we lose our innocence and our ability to see the world from a pure point of view. This skews our ability to effect massive and necessary changes to perpetuate not only our species but the planet.

Henri Estienne said in Les Premices in 1594; "Si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait {If youth but knew, if old age but could}"

Well I think youth does know and I think old age can. And I'm willing to try and I think that all of you are willing to try to. So what am I asking; Please go check out http://whatwouldkidsdo.blogspot.com and check out what it is about. Then please send your friends and family to it to check it out and post. I'm happy to speak with anyone about where I see this going and all the elements I think it entails. This is going to be a lifelong project for me.

On Monday because the school year is almost over I intend to post a summer homework assignment. That gives us three months to pick up some steam on this thing. I appreciate any and all help that you can be. I hope to see or speak with you all soon.

SDM

Difference ACCEPTED... Apply within

How many volumes written in the course of human history on the subjects of love, harmony, peace and respect?

Each piece a valuable and important legacy of our search for something better. That something in the solitude of my soul is always in sight but just beyond reach – We grasp the importance of the search and feel compelled to continue on despite the many obstacles standing in the way of our collective liberation of the soul. Our freedom to choose and ability to discern between right and wrong often stands in the way of our realization of that better world.

Rarely able to put others before ourselves, not necessarily an expression of our lack of understanding rather an inherent confusion of the soul, distracted.

No matter our time and space, democracy or communism, Canada or China, to save our souls we must start a movement of revolutionary proportions without streams that run the colour of blood. No this movement must start with self, an internal dialogue to break down the barriers of confusion, to truly seek new paradigms so that we may shift to a new awakening.

We must learn to accept our differences, we must embrace the fact that there is much we know and much more that we don’t. We must learn to love learning, the acquisition of knowledge to eradicate finally, once and for all ignorance and hate. We must teach each other that although difficult we have a responsibility to hold our tongues if we have nothing nice to say and to scream loudly even if with only one voice in the face of all iniquity. Time bears witness that even a muffled or muted soul inspired can not be held in place. Time and again, volume after volume teach us this very thing.

So my question to you is this: If one voice, one person, one man, one woman or child can change the world imagine how easy it would be to achieve love, harmony, peace and respect if each of us stands to lift our voice for a better world. Our volume, so deafening, would have to be heard:

Rise up!

SDM

History

HISTORY

Before today was yesterday and tomorrow will be shaped by both.
Therefore, is it not time to explore humanities history highlighting our failure.
Spending careful attention on the SINS OF OUR FATHERS
so they can help develop the ethics of our SONS and DAUGHTERS.
Teach them just how wrong we’ve been and how often
so they don’t repeat OUR foolish ways.
I feel as if history has been thrown away, as a general rule,
and I FEAR that the key to our salvation lay in understanding our history.

SDM

Sweet Love

Facing the uncertainty of following your passion
rather than the comfort of the mundane is what sets you apart.
Looking in the eye all those you meet and greet
while chasing your dream facing infinitely more than most will ever know.
Yet, with smile raging, furiously, fantastically you face the proverbial music,
trying, no succeeding, in learning the lesson that sometimes is obvious,
but more often, like the diamond in the rough, needs to be discovered, examined and polished.
Learning anew each day the power of following your heart
the lessons reveal to your inspired eye the charting of this course –
Specifically unspecific,
lacking not design or direction but instead plotting an inspired course.
Inspired indeed.
With strength, courage, conviction, determination and skill,
you chart each day anew seeking…
You are the embodiment of passions travels
and a true wanderer of the heart
and that my love,
sweet love is what sets you
aloft and apart.

She is

You are a unique spirit –
free and curious,
seeking beauty in even the darkest hour
and with your Phoenix soul finding it,
capturing it
and releasing it selflessly so many others may enjoy.
While sitting beneath the golden rays of an dazzling sun,
atop the thick frozen sheet,
which in spring is Lake Simcoe,
I am struck by the surrounding beauty and reminded,
indeed rejoicing in the love which shines from your glorious soul.
You are THE muse,
an inspiration, mine,
as days go by,
I discover more about innocence, purity and truth,
this love we share with the exuberance of youth
yet the wisdom of all star sages –
attracted by unique spirits,
each other,
committed through faith, bound by belief –
Though times may be periodically rocky,
with the majestic strength and courage of the Phoenix,
this love reemerges each day;
Precious and more vital,
with each new days rebirth –
Thank you for being the inspiration and realization of these words.

SDM

Benign Neglect and A Dream Once Dreamed

Benign neglect,
People wasting away on the street,
Cold and tired,
Hungry and wet,
Dying of starvation, a lack of shelter,
A societal lack of support,
Its more than that,
Ghettos,
Girdles of steel and brick,
Built by the cheapest bidder,
Schools,
Rat infested and asbestos laden,
Its hard to care when you're conditioned to believe that no one else does,
Purple, blue, red, yellow, black and white,
Puddles filled with caps of each,
Representing our fallen youth,
Lies,
Presented as truth,
An arrogant matter of factness,
From our comfortable ivory towers,
Recreation centers,
The breeding ground for both good and bad,
Morality decided by shades of gray,
No black or white,
We complain,
Yet most of us don’t even vote,
And when we do,
Who are we really electing?
Do you know the faces behind the suit, have you ever stopped to ask?
How about where they get their information and the very words that come out of their mouths?
And yet…
Look at the power you give them and look at what they’ve done,
Do none of you see?
Do none of you have the same fears?
Osama is not THE ‘terror,’
Merely one face of it,
A coward that hides behind faulty logic and misrepresented theology,
Driven by hate.
But make no mistake, there are a million more driven by hate and fear.
National populations suffer from starvation – When is the last time you didn’t finish a meal?
Drought, a lack of access to education,
Technology and science, my education undervalued,
My technology underused and the Advil I take for a hangover could serve a much better purpose.
Prejudice, ignorance and fear blinding society to the clear reality of life on earth today.
Milosevic killed without prejudice any that got in his way –
Racial cleansing,
It sound so institutional doesn’t it?
So scientific, lets call it what it is, not make it easy to say –
Damn political correctness –
Lets call a spade a spade,
Those mass graves and the videos we’ve seen represent the decision of a sick man
for the wholesale slaughtering, murdering and destruction of Muslims in his Oprichnina.

Through time, the poet, the artist, the dreamer, the playwright, actor, director, novelist, philosopher, student,
Any truly inspired by passion have dreamed of a better place –
And maybe,
Just maybe,
We’ve seen bits and pieces,
But there is so much more to go…

SDM

True Power Reveals Itself... If you can see!

Its strange as the two sides battle themselves,
I’m curious,
Optimism and pragmatism,
Light and dark,
Millennia of battles fought,
With little really won,
Scraping over acres and oil,
Really nothing more,
Many standing up and paying the ultimate price,
Because there are no abrupt turns in history, right?
Wrong,
So many times reading about, learning about and encountering magnificently good people,
All with a dream,
A vision of a better tomorrow,
That all our lives be enhanced,
And they have been,
On their example,
With them as our foundation
And each other as our strength,
Our conviction unshakable,
Lets show that we can change,
The world one person at a time,
The time has come,
And there in lies our power.

SDM

180 Days

180 days,
march 11th,
the world has changed,
on a pruned green lawn,
the center of power for the free world,
170 countries line up in support,
terror our new enemy,
Bin Laden its current face,
As our economic towers,
Of Babel fell,
We watched,
Horrified,
CNN’s screen filled with breaking news,
Bodies falling like rain,
Torn and twisted metal,
Throwing shrapnel into our consciousness,
Collective,
Resolute,
But more importantly,
For the first time in my memory;
Afraid!
Lets use this fear,
Wash away our ignorance,
Willful or otherwise,
Create a new power,
The will power of this new coalition,
For peace,
From this page to your mind,
Lets unite in hope.

SDM

A New Day

Hello All,

I have hidden behind fear for a long time. Well no more. I will post here some of the things that I have written and hope that you enjoy.

Here is the first;

Someday,
Many years from today,
You my children, however many you are,
Your eyes will fall on these words,
Written at an inspired moment because of a strong woman you all know well;
In my dreams she came to me,
Escorted by an angelic choir,
Her eyes taking hold of my soul,
Embracing it with a youthful touch,
I’d never known before,
Her amazing intelligence in the most glorious way,
An ever present thirst,
An overwhelming hunger to learn everyday,
Her magnificent soul,
Accepting her calling to touch in a good way all that she encounters,
Her spirit,
Flighty and innocent, free from the same constraints as most,
Her identity,
Strong, independent and elegant,
The very definition of grace;
Her compassion,
Unending and powerful,
Think of your mothers hug;
The warmth, the positivity, the love, joy and energy,
She has given all this to me with her touch,
Her support is unyielding and her impact on our lives can never be understated.
Appreciate her, no only as your mother,
But as the awe inspiring, positive powerful woman that she is;
I love her today;
I will love her more tomorrow and ever more,
With out her none of this would be possible,
Nor you,
Her significance to our lives is paramount,
So ensure that everyday, as I have,
You thank her.

I love you all

SDM