Flawed Wednesday | The Direction of Intention

The Fog [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on May 21, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” ~ Helen Keller

A mile to the west it is 75 degrees and sunny. Here, by the lake, it is foggy and 10 degrees cooler. The inland heat meets the cool lake water and produces a layer of thick fog. Standing on our front porch we cannot see the end of the street.

It is quiet in our pocket of fog. Today I welcome the protective solitude it inspires. It provides a magical respite from the happenings of the world. Fog brings permission to unplug, some breathing space from the news of the day. Sitting on the back deck I imagine that we are on the shores of Avalon, disappearing into the mist, becoming invisible to the rest of the troubled, enraged world.

In the Arthurian legend, Avalon is a magical, mystical place. It is symbolic as a place of virtue.

Virtue requires vision. Choose any adjective that describes virtue – goodness, morality, integrity, dignity, honor… – all serve a clear ideal. A vision. A vision based on the capacity to discern between right and wrong, truth and lie, service and exploitation. A vision that follows a steadfast moral compass.

By this or any standard, our current leadership has sight but no vision. The milksop Republicans in Congress play cowboy while sacrificing themselves on an alter of greed. How else do we make sense of their dedicated impotence in the face of the worst constitutional crisis in our nation’s history? It’s a crisis that they could stop in a day if they honored their oath to the Constitution. If they did their jobs. The Republican president sells the national soul to the highest bidder, personal profit the glutton-master he and his peers serve. A fall from grace, our isle of vice is not disappearing into a fog of uncertainty, rather it reveals itself in the harsh light of moral indifference, it adorns itself in a festival blanket of foxy-lies producing angry maga-followers awash in a cultish brain fog. Sight without vision.

There is nothing mystical going on here. The unprincipled disavowal of ethics, the blatant bribery and unbridled greed, the hard right turn away from truth and democratic ideals – all happening in plain sight – renders us worse than blind.

Is it any wonder I welcome the fog and imagine myself disappearing into the quiet of the mystical island, a sanctuary symbolic of virtue?

read Kerri’s blogpost about FOG

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Metaphor, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, avalon, Congress, corruption, cowardice, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, dignity, goodness, greed, Helen Keller, integrity, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, morality, story, studio melange, the melange, uncertainty, virtue | 1 Comment »

Follow The Hummingbird [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on May 14, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

If you want to understand the power of story – if you care to discover how every cultural story is both universal and deeply personal, take the time to read and reread and reread Martín Prechtel’s small book, The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun. After telling the story, he peels back the layers of understanding, the story of the daughter’s disobedience is a roadmap to an intentional life. It is connective tissue to generational wisdom:

“…that though we as listeners have the illusion that we have jumped into the story, the story has actually jumped into us and uses our lives to tell out its story.”

Sitting in our backyard, the sun lowering in the sky, the hummingbird arrived. A hummingbird is featured prominently in the The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun and this little visitor brought the story to my mind. Like all deep-story-roots, it is a tale as relevant to us as it is to the Indigenous people who live it – to keep the story alive.

“This is a commentary on the inevitable human problem of tribalism and the tragic results of ethnocentricity. It reminds us that a preoccupation with purity is a sign that a people have lost their real stories, lost their place in history, lost their land and relationship with nature and in an effort to be “someone” they engineer mythologies that are rationalist inventions to corroborate a pure ancestry. This same rationalism probably killed their stories and their Indigenous relationship with the land to begin with.”

Have you ever read anything that so accurately describes our struggle in these un-United States? As we witness the scrubbing of DEI initiatives, the blatant and brutal whitewashing of our nation’s history in order to engineer and perpetuate a mythology of white male purity, a made-up tale planted in the shallow barren soil of nationalist Christianity…we see the undeniable sign that we have lost our real story.

As is true of all great storytellers, Martín guides us toward hope and renewal:

“The story of their cultural loss should be their story, and from that grief they could grow a new culture. If you go back far enough, all people are mixed no matter what they say, and that is no disgrace.”

There is a path. It begins with grieving our loss. Together. And then, there is this:

“The story also says that a peoples’ attachment to their homeland and customs is necessary, wonderful, and life-giving, but should never be allowed to fuel a destructive chauvinism that excludes the rest of the world’s love for its own life and land.”

These are just a few of the lessons carried within an ancient Mayan tale. They are relevant to us today. We need only care enough to open our hearts and listen. And listen again. And then simmer in the slow opportunity that avails itself in the land beyond “problem-solving”.

The promise of our crossroads nation: to grow a new culture. Isn’t that the heart of our matter? Out of many, one.

There’s a hummingbird that can show us the way.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE HUMMINGBIRD

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Identity, Metaphor, Story | Tagged: ancestry, artistry, culture, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, hummingbird, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, life giving, loss, martin prechtel, relationship, story, studio melange, the melange, tribalism | 1 Comment »

Cartoon Worthy? [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on May 7, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

It was unusual. The vine coiled around the tree like a boa constrictor. It seemed in no hurry to squeeze the life from its captive, content with the threat of imminent constriction. “Now, that’s a happy thought,” she said.

I’m bumping into a problem I’ve never before encountered. MM is prompting me with many great cartoon ideas borne of the daily outrage from the baggy blue suit and his clown car cabinet. My problem is twofold. First, they lampoon themselves so completely that every drawing seems like been-there-done-that. Since they are already dedicated made-for-tv-cartoon-characters, a kakistocracy (governance by the least competent), the challenge seems less about poking fun and more about cartooning cartoons. It’s dangerously redundant. How does one lampoon a president who posts pictures of himself as the Pope or a Jedi knight? He’s doing an excellent job of making a fool of himself. As is his cheering squad.

Second, their entire media strategy is meant to keep us outraged. Outrage is a very potent drug. Outraged people do not think clearly. They react. They hunker down in their reptile brain. I’m having an inner debate about my part in fueling the outrage. I’d love to draw cartoons that moved folks forward into their neocortex and engage their higher order thinking. Critical thinking is, after all, the enemy to MAGA, the fox, and this Republican administration. “Stop and think about it” is exactly what this administration and their propaganda machine does not want us to do. We might then see what is actually happening behind their comedy-chaos-curtain.

Stop. And think about it:

We have a Republican party whose characters strut like cowboys (even the cowgirls don bulletproof vests and pull their rhetorical pistols at the least sign of altercation) and yet, day after day we witness events like the vomit-inducing-sycophancy of the most recent cabinet meeting. Really. Stop and think about it: emasculation is the price Republicans pay for playing the role of cowboy for their leader. This lean, mean, destruction machine is all strut and no cajones.

Republican cowboys’ self-castration might be a worthy cartoon.

Hypodermic needles filled with outrage might be a worthy cartoon. A drug den of people screaming at each other while the dealer makes off with their wallets and purses.

Legislators who preach free markets but prohibit free thinking – that might be a a worthy cartoon.

The party that loudly promotes itself up as champions of limited government while imposing draconian limits on the rights of the many to give unlimited privilege to the few – that might be worthy. Imagine armored knights high atop war horses trampling unarmed peasant farmers while patting themselves on the back for their strength and courage.

Oops. I’ve worked a circle back to outrage. Outrageous.

One wonders when the red hats will move out of their reptilian brains and recognize that they are wrapped by a boa constrictor. They, too, strut like cowboys and do not see how they castrate themselves. Cartoon worthy? Or simply too sad to stop and think about?

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE VINE

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Perspective, Seeing | Tagged: artistry, cartoons, castration, constriction, critical thinking, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, limits, outrage, reptilian brain, story, studio melange, sycophant, the melange | 6 Comments »

Mutually [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on April 30, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Objects are such only with respect to other objects, they are nodes where bridges meet. The world is a perspectival game, a play of mirrors that exist only as reflections of and in each other.” ~ Carlo Rovelli via The Marginalian, April 27, 2025

The tree stands beyond our back fence, its limbs spiral and twist, sculpted by time and the force of the winds roaring off the lake. Looking at her photograph, a silhouette against an evening blue sky, I remarked, “It’s a Jackson Pollock painting.” She looked again at her photograph through the lens of my remark, nodding.

Nature sculpts the tree that catches the photographer’s eye, her photograph invokes images of a drip painting. “…interaction is the fundamental reality of the universe, that there are no entities as such…”

We do ourselves a great disservice ignoring interconnection in service to our separation.

It’s human: we need to make sense of things so we compartmentalize. We object-ify, detaching tree from time and wind from photographer, assigning all to discrete little box-identities, placing emphasis on the noun rather than on the interplay, the intertwining verb. In our minds we stop the motion, sever interrelationship into distinct pieces, so that we might convince ourselves that we have a grasp on “reality”. In creating objective “reality” we blind ourselves to the greater mutuality.

Science dissected the world-body into parts which led to the smallest objective part, called a quantum, and discovered it’s a slippery devil, energy, that can only be described subjectively. It can only be known through its relationships. Mutuality.

I’ve yet to hear an adequate definition of the word “woke”. Maga world flings it liberally and with sharp derision to describe all manner of “progressive” ideals, yet stutters when asked what it means. It’s an umbrella term, a catch-all, like the grainy photograph of the Loch Ness monster, shaky proof of something to be feared but mostly unknown. In fox land, this Loch Ness monster is called “socialism”.

To Maga world I offer this definition of Woke: greater mutuality. Woke, like a quantum, cannot be objectified just as compassion cannot be fully defined. It can be experienced. It is an energy, connective tissue.

Woke flies the flag of equality. Woke understands that the suspension of due process for any single person is the suspension of due process for all people. Woke understands that prosperity reserved for the few means poverty for the many. Woke intends shared prosperity, an equal playing field, helping hands. “Float all boats” is a Woke ideology. Woke is not a hand-out, it is a help-up. A moral center – also known as mutuality – is Woke; we can be our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper or we can be their persecutor. Keeper or persecutor: both describe a kind of relationship.

Woke is what defines Maga just as Maga is now clarifying Woke. Maga desires separation. It strives for elevation above others; legislated privilege. Woke desires equality. It strives for a more perfect union: legislated inclusion. The promise of possibility.

We do ourselves a great disservice: we are neither red nor blue. We are not conservative nor progressive. We are not Woke or Maga. Those terms are boxes that ignore the fundamental truth of our – or any – nation. We are interconnected. We are a relationship.

Remove environmental protections and all of the air we breathe and the water we drink will be polluted. Remove election watchdogs and all of our elections will be corrupted. Remove a commitment to truth and lies will define us and pull us apart.

After all, Maga is a made-up-media term just as is Woke. They are boxes meant to give us an enemy, the illusion of separation.

Democracy is not a “thing”, an object. It is a movement, a quantum. We know it by our interactions as defined in our Constitution. We know it as a place where bridges meet. Where people from many places come together.

Whether Maga or Woke, we will feel the loss of democracy equally just as we feel the disintegration of our values, our shared narrative, our aspiration for justice-for-all; mutually.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE TREE

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Identity | Tagged: artistry, Carlo Rovelli, compassion, connective tissue, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, equality, interaction, interconnected, interplay, interrelated, intertwine, Jackson Pollock, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, mutuality, objectivity, quantum, relationship, story, studio melange, subject/object, The Marginalian, the melange, woke | 1 Comment »

Just Look Around [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on April 23, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

If you seek levity, if you are in want of a giggle, may I suggest that you follow Kerri and me through the grocery store and politely eavesdrop on our commentary.

I’m aware that for most people grocery shopping is a chore, a routine obligation. For us it evokes our inner stand-up-comic. Grocery stores tickle our whimsy and unleash tsunamis of sarcasm or impromptu songs. There’s so much material to work with!

“Baby Bok Choy is fun to say,” I mention as Kerri scrutinizes the baby bok choy options. Never one to let an alliteration pass her by, she launches into a lyric, a pseudo-rap personifying the virtues and exploits of the leafy green cabbage. The aisle clears as other shoppers find spontaneous public art dangerous.

Later, using her big, outdoor voice, she reads aloud the list of ingredients on a jar, proclaiming, “Trans-fats! Uh-OH! Get ready! Those MAGA Republicans are going to pop-a-gasket over this one!” Reading on she asks the entire world, “Does anybody really know what butylated hydroxyanisole is, anyway! Who would eat this stuff?”

“What does it meant to be butylated?” I ask, using my quiet indoor voice to model appropriate volume control.

“Don’t be a hydroxy-ANISOL,” she says and smiles. And then: “Someone butylated the baby bok choy…” she declares in mock alarm, unaware that the aisle has once again emptied of shoppers.

I push the cart so I regularly discover that I am holding conversations with myself. When she doesn’t respond to my commentary I realize that some odd grocery item two aisles back caught her fancy. I navigate a u-turn and find her standing incredulous before a multi-layered pastel cake. “Did you seeeee this?!” she exclaims.

“No.” I say.

“Oh. My. God!”

“What is it?”

“Have you ever seen anything so hideous?” she looks at me, wide-eyed.

“What is it?”

“The thought of eating this makes my teeth hurt! Doesn’t it make your teeth hurt?”

“What is it?”

“Who would ever think this was a good idea?”

“What is it?”

“And they made it Easter colors so people would buy it? Do you think people actually buy this?”

“What is it?”

“No wonder this nation is in trouble. People will eat anything!”

“Oh, it’s fox news!” I blurt, “In a cake!” A revelation.

She looks at me as if I haven’t been listening, “It’s a cotton-candy-cake!” she says, a new alliteration rising.

“Yeah. That’s what I just said. Fox news.”

“Who eats this stuff,” she asks, wrinkling her face.

“Just look around.” I say. “Sad.”

It makes my teeth hurt.

read Kerri’s blogpost about COTTON CANDY CAKE

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Filed under: Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, Flawed Wednesday, Language, Metaphor | Tagged: alliteration, artistry, baby bock choy, commentary, cotton candy cake, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, grocery shopping, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, lyrics, poetry, story, studio melange, the melange, whimsy | Leave a comment »

No Words [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on April 16, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

With markers in hand, we stared at the blank poster board. We wanted to make signs to carry to the Hands Off rally but couldn’t decide which egregious offense by the current administration and their pet billionaire warranted signage. All were worthy. All were immediate. In the end, we went sign-less to the rally.

We know what we stand for and could not begin to reduce into a single slogan all that we stand against.

This morning I confess to again being rendered speechless. After reading and fully comprehending how completely the tech billionaires/fascists have invaded, compromised, and intend to use our personal information, I was disheartened. And then I read that the two people “advising” the executive branch on whether or not to invoke the Insurrection Act are a former fox news talking head (famous for his rampant alcoholism and sexual abuse) and a past-governor who reveled in shooting her puppy in the face. That’s when words failed me.

Congress rolls over. The Judicial has no teeth. Checkmate. Democracy falls. At least temporarily.

A “civil” war is so named because it is between citizens of the same country. I find it ironic that another definition of the word “civil is “quiet and peaceful behavior”. We should all wish that we were capable of a quiet and peaceful war. A paradox. That does not appear to be the case.

Words fail. Democracies fall. Experiments fail. The poster board remains blank.

A couple of Sandhill Cranes just flew over our house. Their call, prehistoric and beautiful, beckoned me back to the moment. Sun streams in the window. The cranes will continue to migrate long past the time that we play out this story. They are not really concerned. They require no words.

read Kerri’s blog about POSTER BOARD

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Language, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, civil, Civil War, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, Hands Off, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, paradox, peaceful, sandhill crane, signs, speechless, story, studio melange, the melange, words | 3 Comments »

Some Necessary Perspective [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on April 9, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

A hot flash drove her from the kitchen and onto the back deck. We were making dinner when she exclaimed, “I’m burning up! I have to go outside!” Dogga and I followed but before we made it through the back door she rushed back into the house. “I have to get my camera!”

The evening light was gorgeous. Directly above us a half moon peeked through the clouds. Even with all the visual beauty, the thing that most impacted me was the stillness. There wasn’t a whisper of breeze. It felt as if time was standing still. I felt as if I could breathe. So I did.

Until that moment I wasn’t aware that I was holding my breath.

Earlier in the day we’d attended a Hands-Off rally. The energy of the crowd was vibrant and angry. Prior to the rally we’d read warnings from the organizers not to engage with any maga counter-protestors or to incite violence. The pot is boiling, the circumstance is increasingly volatile. Peaceful protest is our right so keep it peaceful.

Civil unrest is not an abstraction for us. It has not been so long ago that our city was under martial law during the riots that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The night we heard gunshots we were sitting on the deck, listening to the sounds of the rioters, scrolling for news, our go-bag packed and ready: Kyle Rittenhouse murdered two protestors and maimed a third mere blocks from our house.

Kerri showed me her photos of the sky. Her shots of the half moon. I took another deep breath.

The sky has always been a great perspective-giver. If I ever fool myself into thinking I’m-all-that, I need only look at the night sky to put myself into proper context. When I feel blue or frightened I find a sunset or sunrise a healing balm. This, too, shall pass. The drama of humankind is not the bigger picture.

“I think we have a bit of ptsd,” she said, reading my mind.

“I think you’re right,” I agreed, adding, “And, I think we have to prepare for what’s coming.”

Taking one more deep breath, breathing in the balm of the sunset, we went back inside to finish making our dinner. Grounding the chaotic abnormal in the stable normal, the sky once again provided some necessary and welcome perspective.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE SKY

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Hands Off, jacob blake, Kenosha Riots, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Kyle Rittenhouse, Peaceful Protest, perspective, perspective giver, ptsd, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

An Outrageous Fantasy [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on April 2, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

To fuel our escape fantasy of a thru-hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, we periodically wander around REI and fake-shop for backpacks and sleeping bags. We test shoes and ask questions about sun shirts. We scrutinize hiker stoves and sporks and water filtration options. We discuss the merits of tents. And, since we have no actual knowledge about any of it, we laugh at our made-up opinions. We delight in pretending.

I’m updating one of my favorite Horatio observations. He’s said (and I’ve oft-quoted) that the tension in these un-United States is between those who espouse an “every man for himself” philosophy and those who maintain that “I am my brother’s/sister’s keeper”. My update? The every-man-for himself crowd is actually, more accurately, believers that some-people-are-better-than-others. The tension as revealed in our present day is between those who believe in equality and those who do not. We are witness to the struggle between those who think government should work for everyone (brother’s/sister’s keeper) and those who believe government need work only for the superior few.

Consider the full-court-press now underway to demonize and eliminate DEI and the lifting of federal building bans on segregation. Consider the inundation of legislation aimed at inhibiting a woman’s right to vote. Witness the explicit dismantling of social programs and the social safety net in order to provide massive tax cuts to the wealthiest citizens. The whitewashing of history. The ugly and empty rhetoric about restoring “merit-based” hiring, implying that all people of color, all women, advance and have advanced not because of their skill or talent but because of their skin color or gender. In other words, an agenda firmly rooted in advancing the mythos of white male superiority.

The privileged few pushing down the many in order to elevate themselves. It’s Ayn Randian nonsense. Pushing others down is the first action of a drowning man. It’s an arrogant fantasy, laughable, like trickle-down-economics, shackling the majority to uplift the make-believe-white-superiority of the corrupt few. My long-ago colleague, Ana, called it “vampiring”.

It’s white fragility.

At REI we inevitably wander over to the section beneath the corrugated sign, “EAT”. We discuss eating dehydrated meals. Eventually we conclude that on the trail we’ll require a chef to drone in our meals each day. A basket will arrive in the morning with baked goods, scrambled eggs, and hot coffee. There will also be a sack lunch in the morning delivery. It would be too much to ask the chef to make three deliveries a day. At night, a hot meal arrives – with wine, of course – since the chef can accurately track our location.

We laugh at our outrageous fantasy since we know it is an outrageous fantasy.

We wonder why the red-hat crowd remains blind to their outrageous maga-fantasy. They’re laughing as their heads are being systemically – and obviously – pushed beneath the water by an oligarch and a weak flim-flam-man. Vampires, both. How long before the red-hat-crowd realize that they are being sucked dry, that their outrageous fantasy is not laughable, that the not-so-funny joke is on them, too?

read Kerri’s blogpost about EAT

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Seeing | Tagged: artistry, Ayn Rand, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, DEI, fantasy, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, MAGA, merit based, rei, story, studio melange, the melange, vampire, voter rights, white fragility | 1 Comment »

Follow The Cairns [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on March 26, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

Cairns are trail markers. They show the way.

I want to stack a series of giant cairns for the red-hats who are lost in the land of foxy misinformation. They have lost their way. I’m reminded that in our Revolutionary War, the struggle for our independence, the forces of the crown were known as red coats. The patriots wore blue. History definitely repeats itself, at least in color identification. The red-hats are fighting for the reestablishment of the crown.

The red-hats vehemently support their wanna-be-king, a servant to the oligarchs. He intends to tax the poor to fill the coffers of the rich. His army of red-hats have not awakened to the reality that they are the targets of his taxation. They are the indentured servants of his dreams. They are the dupes in his plan.

Usury inevitably reveals itself and slaps awake even the most deluded follower (Rudy Giuliani not withstanding).

I can state this with absolute certainty: if hear one more bloated Republican bloviate that government has no meaningful role to play in our society I’m going to vomit. Think for a moment: they want the poor to carry the tax burden but be exempt themselves. While they bully universities into ignorance, annihilate public education, actively cut social services to the 90%, attack Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security…while simultaneously removing any regulation and/or oversight to their business plunder. Their north star is embarrassingly shallow: permanent tax cuts for the wealthy few. All of this, of course, requires a government to enact. It’s not the absence of government that the reds slobber for; it is a government dedicated to exploiting the many for the sake of the few. They are disingenuous at best. Sadistic is probably a more honest adjective.

It’s not government that they despise – it’s a government that serves ALL people that they wish to eradicate.

There are glimmers of hope. Our nation has a few vocal cairns emerging. Bernie Sanders and AOC are holding rallies that draw thousands: people wearing blue (metaphorically). People who believe in democracy. People who value learning above ignorance, truth above fox-fantasy. People who know that the chicken-little running around the barnyard screaming, “Socialism” or “DEI” is the puppet of wealthy elites attempting to scare the fox-hypnotized-gullible-maga-masses with scary straw men.

The blues aren’t buying a word of it. They’re following the cairns that lead to a healthy tradition of awakening the American spirit – the same spirit that gave us the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere, Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Cesar Chavez…The Constitution, the Bill of Rights…and a democracy worth fighting for.

read Kerri’s blogpost about CAIRNS

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Filed under: Awakening, Flawed Wednesday, Identity | Tagged: AOC, artistry, Bernie Sanders, Besty Ross, Boston Tea Party, cairns, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, DEI, democracy, government, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, patriot, Paul Revere, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

A Real Stumper [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on March 12, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart….live in the question.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

I just learned something new. There are two definitions of the word poser. The first is familiar: an exhibitionist, an attention-seeker. To varying degrees social media has made posers of us all. Self-publicists. Perhaps that is why our politicians grand-stand at every turn: negative attention is still attention. Substance is no longer a requirement for dominating the news cycle. Every relationship a transaction.

The second definition took me by surprise: a difficult or perplexing problem. A brain-teaser. A riddle. An enigma.

It invoked the obvious statement: The current circus of political posers poses a real poser!

It’s a knotty problem. Vexed. A tough one to crack. Bad behavior, outrageous statements, outright lies… garner the attention, capture the media. The spotlight swings to the most despicable, the greatest train wreck, and since ratings-are-the-game, since “likes” are the prize, is it any wonder that we are on a fast track to the vapid bottom?

Truth, generosity, courtesy…are not the actions of a poser. Since they are their own reward, people who value these actions do not seek the spotlight. And, since the people who value these actions are generally focused on benefiting others – a surprisingly simple intention – they are not difficult to understand. Kindness is never a mystery. Good deeds are rarely puzzles. They are never transactions.

The poser-in-chief intends to eliminate all-things-woke and he needs to in order to achieve his transactional goals. Lies cannot stand up to truth. Meanness is laid bare when next to generosity. Common courtesy exposes the poser. Care for others throws a harsh light on our current national trajectory. Care for others must be vilified and removed if his authoritarian aims are to be successful.

What to do with this poser and his tribe of posers? It’s a real poser for we woke lovers of democracy and stewards of the tradition: of the people, by the people and for the people. It’s a tough one, a real stumper. And there is no better question – no more important question – for us to live-in, to ask in earnest so that, “…this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” ~ President Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

read Kerri’s blogpost about POSERS