A Quick Note to Email Subscribers

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Kyle Kimberlin

There was a glitch with Metaphor’s email subscriptions. Emails started appearing to be from a “no reply” address instead of my address.

I think I found a fix for this, deep in the settings at Feedburner, the site which has ably delivered Metaphor subscriptions for quite a while. But we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see.

If you receive your email from Metaphor and it’s from a No Reply address, please let me know in Comments or by email.

Not sure why it happened, except that – like so many companies – Feedburner is now owned by Google. As is Blogger, on which this blog is hosted. And which I also started using before Google subsumed it.

Hooray anyway! (Do not piss off The Google; dissent will not be tolerated.)

The Free Ride for Poor People is Over

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Kyle Kimberlin

http://goo.gl/V0s2q

Punished

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Kyle Kimberlin

Here’s something to ponder.

Precisely to the degree that you have loved something:
a house, a woman, a bird, this tree, anything at all,
you are punished by time.

Here’s the whole poem, and more, at Writer’s’ Almanac.

Separate Is Not Equal

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Kyle Kimberlin

This video really surprised me. I thought the question of separate schools for black and white children in the United States was resolved with Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

But here we have the Koch Brothers, through their racist front group, Americans for Prosperity, trying to buy a board of education in NC. Why? So they can force black students to stay in their own “neighborhood schools.”

The Koch brothers also own a very bad political theatre company called the Tea Party.

I recommend watching the entire 11 minutes. You won’t get the story if you don’t. And it’s worth it.

Full screen version: http://www.youtube.com/v/2mbJhjCbwo8

The Monday Word

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Kyle Kimberlin

I was just going to shut off the PC and hit the hay. I noticed an email had arrived bearing my Word of the Day from wordsmith.org. And the word of the day for Monday is …

coronary

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Of or relating to the crown.
2. Of or relating to the heart.
3. Of or relating to the arteries or veins of the heart.
noun:
4. A heart attack.
5. The office of a coroner.

So I have decided there is just one appropriate course of action to take. I'm going to bed. And if, to misquote Cormac McCarthy, the right and God-made sun does rise for all and without distinction, the first thing I'm going to do tomorrow is go right back to bed.

The rest of you are on your own. Good night.

I am

Posted on August 13, 2011 by Kyle Kimberlin

This video goes out to everybody, because I just got reminded that change doesn’t come from there, change comes from here.

http://www.youtube.com/v/3svpH63qrX0

Whittling

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Kyle Kimberlin

Today's Writer's Almanac poem is good. It's different, as most poems are, and that's always good. The metaphor strikes true in my life.

Whittling: The Last Class by John Stone

A Free Country

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Kyle Kimberlin

By a free country, I mean a country where people are allowed, so long as they do not hurt their neighbors, to do as they like. I do not mean a country where six men may make five men do exactly as they like.
– Robert Cecil

This quote seems prescient of the discord and disarray plaguing the US today. Somehow, too many of US have gotten the idea that, if they can draw a big enough crowd, then they get to bully society into their own image. That’s not democracy. For example, the Constitution says we don’t have a state religion, but we’ve come close pretty often. And we’re headed back that way.

Which begs the question: Where do the pilgrims go next, seeking sanctuary from religious persecution, when we can’t find it here anymore?

I am by the grace of God a Christian man, by by acts a great sinner. [Link] But the arrogant and self-righteous right wing of America is practicing a variation of my religion with which I am not familiar.

Luke 18:9-14

Throwing Stones

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Kyle Kimberlin

Sometimes I’m amazed by how beautifully song lyrics and poems find their relevance in my life. Especially songs by The Grateful Dead.

I was riding my bike today and listening to Throwing Stones on the trusty iPod. I thought Yes! There we are! “So it goes, we make what we made since the world began.”

Here’s a video of the boys playing that song, March 1993, with some of the lyrics.

http://www.youtube.com/v/mSC6m4LPW1Y

Commissars and pin-stripe bosses
Roll the dice.
Any way they fall,
Guess who gets to pay the price.
Money green or proletarian gray,
Selling guns ‘stead of food today.

So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And the politicians throwin’ stones,
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

Heartless powers try to tell us
What to think.
If the spirit’s sleeping,
Then the flesh is ink
History’s page will thus be carved in stone.
And we are here, and we are on our own
On our own.
On our own.
On our own.

Blowing In The Wind

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Kyle Kimberlin

Here’s a link to a video of Peter, Paul and Mary, singing Blowing In The Wind and Give Peace a Chance at a Washington Peace March in 1971:

Click here to watch the video.

Look for John Denver singing along on Give Peace A Chance. And the guy in the suit is Daniel Ellsberg, I believe.

Beautiful, and an amazing piece of history.

“For all the war dead.”

Google Plus Invites

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Kyle Kimberlin

Get 'em while they're hot, 'cause Google + is cool. I like it a little better than Facebook because "circles" makes sense. It's more like real life. Plus there's none of that Big Brother feeling. Here's a link to sign up. Don't forget to add me to a circle.

https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3D9FPlSoXZNeE%3ApTF87dDJ6xU

Dog’s Birthday

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Kyle Kimberlin

Those who have been reading Metaphor quite a while know that I used to have a little dog named Tasha. When she came to live with me, her former owners said she was about 14 months old. It was October,1991. So not knowing her exact birthday, I decided we would celebrate it on the first Saturday in August every year.

That idea found it’s way into the poem below. You can tell it was written a while back, because of the references to then-current events.

You can see a video of Tasha eating a cookie on her last birthday, August 2005, by clicking here. There’s a bunch of photos of her and a tribute too.

Today is the first Saturday in August.

Happy birthday, old friend, wherever in the Heaven of Dogs you are playing today. I still miss you, always will. Remember to show up at the bridge on time, OK?

Stormlight

Stand facing the ocean
with your back to the railroad tracks.
Stand there even if a train goes by,
a long, thundering freight. Stand
even when the sun is rising or setting.
Stand facing the ocean in the rain.

If the air is still in your shaded patio
play the windchimes by hand.
Cast a big reflection
of your joy across the yard.
Stop to watch a lizard sleeping
on a stone. It’s bad to awaken
reptiles, who dart into the jasmine
with their tails flickering.

Pray for peace in eastern Europe
for sobriety and a cure for AIDS.
Slow down passing graveyards,
hospitals, nursing homes.
Cross yourself or bow your head. Do this
also passing the tavern and the jail.
If tears come, believe in them.

Choose a Saturday, declare it Dog’s Birthday.
Buy squeaky toys, chewy things, party hats
and candles. Put off washing the car.
Take the dog out and stand facing
the ocean, with your back to America
and your face in the stormlight,
in the awesome churning of solitude,
until it’s time to turn again for home.

____________________________________

Stormlight by J. Kyle Kimberlin is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Feel free to copy and share!