The Rock Jock And The Man On The Rock: Part Two

I've spent so much time pouring ink into the veins of a living tree that sometimes the vines of new life pop out a leaf on the overcrowded page. Standing back, the view becomes clear...invite other Poets with pens to the circle of constant need versus the addiction but dislike to change. Basically meaning, I've screamed toward God so many times he finally pushed aside the assumed rain cloud. Leadership is a subject covered so often and maybe too much. But that's what Artist's do. We paint what falls before the canvas. Painful or not the energy stroked into the curves of black meeting white which somehow evolves into a shade of mauve tainted with teal...the Artist's vision hangs not to dry but to embrace judgment. Julia Cameron says, "Let them display their art so that they can learn to ignore criticism." When does that numbness begin set in? Leadership... Arriving on two feet but no donkey. Hailing from the great mountains of Carolina with a soul that's been dipped in farther away places comes the creator of Connectingroad.com. Run! It's a Preacher! A man of the book! You're all going to Hell! Obviously you've never met Jonathan. This is one of those times where I can Arroe-ize my typical reaction, "For the love of God back down the motors that rev up your fears, reaction to denial and hatred toward all things that spit on your reasons for being you." Every week I'm going to network with Connectingroad.com. Not because my spiritual upbringing looks more like a chunk of rotted from inside out dried to the soul cheese...but because of a sentence that melted into the flat screen from the heat of these aging fingertips misting inspiration on the lids of your eyes ready to double click out but something says, "Wait! I'll give him one more sentence." Presidents don't change nations...we the people do. Through blogging you will change the world. The Rock Jock and The Man On The Rock... I'm gonna ask real frickin questions to an internally strong, brilliantly designed character but scrawny as can be with the weight of judgment kind of guy. He isn't about forcing you down the road toward the horizon. He ain't makin you paint a white picket fence smothered by the depths of effort that preacher people call sin. You give us two pages a week. I guarantee the silence fed in to the rivers belonging to those ocean sized mood swings will empty into the puke bucket your momma sat beside the bed when you were ten. Me: Now that the election has become part of history...divisions in decisions has created reasons to bring out an indifference. What is the best way to keep politics out of family gatherings Connectingroad.com: Family gatherings are tricky to begin with. If your goal is to keep politics out of family gatherings, then the best way is not to get your family together. It always happens, so suck it up and cope. The option of walking away from the conversation is always there, as is the option of not bringing it up--that's my preferred option. Right this very minute I have family members praying for me because of how they think I voted. One aunt got furious at me for a Facebook post where I asked if anyone else thought that Mitt Romney looked like Sam the Eagle from the Muppet Show (I also said that I thought his concession speech was a good and gracious piece of American politics). Ok, so I also put some Youtube links to Sam talking about his objections to nudity and I even transcribed that one for my FB friends. My aunt sent me a message telling me how disappointed she was in me, how disgusting it was for me to post something about nudity (from a Muppet!), how she used to be so proud of me--and she wanted me to know that she wanted "to help not hurt." Look, if my aunt is going to get that upset over a Muppet character, then what hope do we have? In parts of my family, they avoid talking politics by telling racist jokes, which is why I sometimes think that I should just eat Thanksgiving at Waffle House. Much of what makes this hard is the impulse to convert the "lost." It's harder to have a healthy dialogue or conversation when I feel like I'm being judged or when, worse, being yelled at. So my trick is to ask lots of questions; it keeps me from having to defend myself so much--every now and then I actually learn stuff. In my experience, unless your grandmother makes a decree that politics are off limits, you won't avoid it, but you can navigate more graciously and safely by asking lots of questions and detaching from the need to win conversations. In my beliefs, it's better to be gracious than right. Me: Where does healing truly begin? The White House or the family house? Connectingroad.com: Well, it depends on what needs healing. I might say that true healing begins in the doghouse since my dog loves me unconditionally, which is more than I can say for a lot of other relationships. Still, the Henley's alone don't have the resources to coordinate the response to a natural disaster, nor do we have the resources to make healthcare affordable. It took action from the White House to enact civil rights legislation in the 50s and 60s or to end Don't Ask, Don't Tell. On the other hand, when I am with some of my cousins, aunts, and uncles I feel more like my real self, I feel more at home, than almost anywhere. My wife, kids, and dog watched the election returns with me the other night; I couldn't get away from the real knowledge that what they give me heals me more than the results of the election. Me: Can two political parties sleep together in the same bed? Connectingroad.com: Well, sure two political parties CAN sleep together in the same bed--any two "parties" can choose to sleep together. Do they both have to keep one foot on the floor? Are they there to sleep? Do they still have their socks on? Did they turn off their cell phones? If you're asking about whether or not two parties can coexist, then sure they can. It's a choice, though. It's hard to choose to let yourself be shaped in part by a difference of opinion. The problem in any relationship is when one party is so convinced that they are right that they no longer see the other party as even being human. THAT is not just arrogant, it's crazy arrogant and can be deadly. Most of us don't enjoy relationships in which we are treated like fools. Both political parties have important philosophical perspectives, but they communicate like children much of the time. There is a kind of vulnerability in sleeping together and neither party seems emotionally secure enough to enter into that kind of intimate relationship. Healthy "sleeping together" is about creating, not controlling or dehumanizing, though the friction and the rub of ideas is what makes it more fun, life-giving, creative, and valuable. Unfortunately, right now, political ads are like philosophical porn, narrowly focusing only on the most over-the-top, sensationalized, primal, unreal, and extreme desires and fears. It's hard to heal a relationship when both parties are only out to exploit and mock each other's weaknesses, injuries, and mistakes. A good "sleeping" relationship has to be somewhat failure friendly, free to, um, explore ideas. What ends up happening in American politics is that ideas are rejected out of hand because of who presents the ideas, not the merits of the ideas. I kind of think that that "rush to judgment" mentality is beneath us, but this relationship has degenerated into a competition, not a collaboration. Different people see different things. Sometimes we just don't see clearly, and we would do well to find the humility to admit it. Humility is kind of a key because it also permits us to laugh. The big time politicians seldom show much of a sense of irony other than sarcasm (a word that, in its origin, means to separate flesh from bone). If two parties are going to "sleep together," then it helps to have a sense of the ironic along with good comic timing--that stuff is funny, though intense. Me: What song best represents the current emotions in America and why? Connectingroad.com: Hmm, there are a lot of songs, but there are a lot of emotions, too. We're pretty complex. But, at the risk of being cliché, I'd say "Hunger Strike" by Temple of the Dog (aka Pearl Jam+Soundgarden). One of the primary emotional impulses of the election this year was that most folks "don't mind stealing bread from the mouths of decadence." For all of our desire to chase the American dream, we always hold on to this primal sense of fairness and justice, along with compassion. But, the key line to the song is much more emotional than it is economic. Our hearts are kind of starving mostly because our emotional and spiritual meals are seldom balanced. In that case, our culture needs those who are spiritually well-fed to share what they have. As a culture we're going hungry--and there are people in the northeast right now who are cold, displaced, tired, and living off of the compassion of others. Sometimes I just feel hungry. I'm a politics junkie. I watch till the bitter end and am sad when it's over (weird, huh?). But I love the moments after the winner has been declared because acceptance and concession speeches are the best places to hear the candidates say something with some substance . It's like they spend the whole campaign looking busy in the kitchen, but only serving warmed over tv dinners. And after all of the media barrage, after being promised a good meal, we stay hungry for something deeper, something more meaningful. So, while I revel in the moments when our national dialogue rises to the level of importance it deserves, those moments are too rare. The emotions of our country are all over the place, but I think that we still hunger for things worth digesting--community, connection, something real, honesty, love, adventure, courage, trust, friendship, expression, freedom. This stuff is almost foreign to the media, whose job is to sell saccharin. I'm going hungry.