the melange | The Direction of Intention

A Little Bit Of Hope [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on January 15, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

We were gifted a day with sunshine instead of the incessant rain promised by the forecast. We threw on our vests and headed for the trail. We stopped at every sun-soaked curve and drank in the warmth. “This will get us through the next few weeks,” she said. A little bit of sun in a dark, dark time generates a full tank of hope.

The rubber band disintegrated and the ancient roll of tracing paper unraveled. It revealed a crinkled and torn tracing of a painting I completed decades ago. I have no memory of making this tracing. I don’t trace my paintings. I must have wanted to keep a template or record of the lines. I must have been about to send the painting out into the world. In the spirit of experimentation, in a spontaneous moment of play, I adhered the crumpled ripped tracing to an old canvas, retraced the lines with the last bit of charcoal I had in the studio, sprayed it with hairspray in an attempt to fix the charcoal, and slathered it with acrylic medium. It was messy and fun and decidedly un-serious. I had no idea what would happen. It reminded me of how I worked when I was very young. No – not how. Why. It reminded me of why I ran to the edge of every idea and jumped without reservation or plan or parachute: to find out “what if”. Playing with that tracing paper was like the little bit of sun on the trail. I basked in it. It will carry me a long way.

I’ve been thinking about Renee Nicole Good. I am haunted by something in the video made by her executioner. In the last 25 seconds of her life, she told her soon-to-be murderer that she’s not mad at him. As a citizen of the United States, as someone who lived her entire life under First Amendment protections, as someone who believed in the freedom to protest and the rights afforded her in the Constitution, it never occurred to her – not for a moment – that her life was in danger. It never occurred to her that her rights were null and void in the eyes of the regime that employed and empowered the man in the mask. He was there, not to protect her rights, but to make her an example. He was there to strip her (and, therefore, us) of her/our rights. The hope? The people gathering on the streets blowing whistles, the people protecting each other by recording each outrage, the small acts and gestures of everyday people, like Renee Good, who believe in exercising the freedoms and values afforded us in the Constitution…are like that little bit of sun. Renee Good’s unwavering belief, like the people who show up on the streets for their neighbors, like the people marching against this tyranny – around the nation and the world – give me hope. And a little bit of hope in this very dark time can carry us a long way.

read Kerri’s blogpost about WINTER SHADOWS

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, Constitution, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, First Amendment, freedom, hope, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, protests, Renee Good, rights, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Even To The Point [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on January 14, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

I lay awake last night and listened to the chimes. They are a great source of comfort to me. There is something eternal in their sound which calms my busy mind. Guy gifted the chimes to us and I wonder if he knows what a enormous gift he gave to us: a soothing sound, a calm mind. In the warm months I sit close to them because I can feel the sound.

The earring stand belonged to Kerri’s mother. It stands on her dresser with a stuffed gingham heart at the base. Sometimes wandering through antique malls I am overwhelmed. The “things” have lost any connection to their storyteller, to the person who used them each day, and so are reduced to merely objects. Their value is no longer in their story but in their stuff-ness. The earring stand inspires a story, evokes a memory.

We’re slowly going through our stuff. There are piles in the basement. Each item in every pile has a story. The stories requires us to move slowly, deliberately. Sometimes the story requires us to hold on. Sometimes the story requires us to move it out as soon as possible. Sometimes the story has run its course and it’s time for us to move on. We need to break the connection. Sometimes we find pieces that we know would be meaningful to others, connections to lost loved ones or to long-ago cherished places. We box and ship these surprises, facilitating a re-union.

When my dad passed I wanted a few of of his shot glasses. He kept a collection, a shot-glass record of his travels and of ours since we always brought home a new addition to add to his collection. They were on shelves all over the house. They lined the mantel. My few shot glasses are prized possessions. If we had to pare down our world to the bare minimum the shot glasses would make the cut. Someday they will likely end up in an antique mall. People will see them as stuff, mere objects, and I suppose that is okay. The connection, the story, will disappear with me when I go. It will be lost to others because the connection is within me, I carry it, not the shot glasses.

That micro-revelation is the gift of cleaning out the house: I am – we are – keepers of connection. We are story collectors. Story weavers. Our possessions ring through us like the wind through the chimes, making us resonate with all that we hold dear, memories that define us even to the point of needing to let them go.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE EARRING STAND

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Gratitude, Identity, Story | Tagged: artistry, cleaning out, collector, connection, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, letting go, memory, memory trigger, possessions, sacred objects, story, story weaver, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Bill Moyers’ Question [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on January 13, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

I wish someone could explain to me how diminishing our position from global superpower to a regional hemispheric bully makes us great again.

I wish someone would explain to me how isolation in the world is preferable and more powerful than global alliances. Especially given that our prosperity is a function of a global economy.

I wish someone could help me understand how learning and education has become anathema to our national identity. How is it that ignorance is preferable to inquisitiveness?

I’d like to understand how so many of my fellow citizens doubt what is obvious, apparent, what is right before their eyes, and fervently grasp onto lies (also obvious) as their chosen reality. For that matter, where-oh-where has our free press gone?

I want to know why science, data and fact are eschewed in favor of quackery, falsehoods and spin? When did we sign up to be the poster-nation for penny-wise-pound-foolish? As Kerri says everyday after surveying the latest wreckage, “Well, at least our Froot Loops are gonna be safe.”

Although I am curious how we managed to elect and assemble a kakistocracy (government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state), I really wish someone could explain to me why they have not yet been tarred-and-feathered and run out of town. Protecting pedophiles, murdering citizens, threatening war both north and south, making a mockery of justice, profiteering, dismantling our constitution, weaponizing our data…why are they still being protected?

Lately, we walk our trails to unplug. To clear our minds from the latest horror of the nation-run-amok. To sort. To reclaim our attention span from the sharp fragments flying across our screens. To reaffirm what is real and what is not. To ground again in what is important.

On our latest loop I recalled, years ago, Joseph Campbell said that our mythology was dead. “You just have to read the newspapers,” he said as proof. Crime. Business-as-exploitation. A government increasingly protecting big business at the expense of the people.

A mythology is more than a cute story. Living mythologies reaffirm and reinvigorate the values of the people. They are the glue of society. Mythologies are “living” when the community lives the values reinforced in the stories. The Boston Tea Party is part of our national mythos. Paul Revere. Washington crossing the Delaware River. Rebels fighting for their freedom against an authoritarian king. Think about the value sets implicit in our founding story. We do not assemble on the 4th of July simply to coo at the nice fireworks. Or do we?

I wish someone could explain to me where our values have gone. We did not fight a world war against fascists only to become fascists. When did e pluribus unum, unity through diversity, become exclusive, ugly white nationalism? When did the shining city on the hill, a beacon for all, a land of promise and an aspiring moral exemplar, become the neighborhood thug?

Bill Moyers asked Joseph Campbell if a dead mythology could be revivified? Campbell paused and answered, “I don’t know.”

I guess it’s up to us to answer Bill Moyers’ question.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE WINTER TRAIL

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Filed under: Identity, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, Bill Moyers, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, fact, fiction, ignorance, Joseph Campbell, justice, kakistocracy, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, morality, mythology, questions, society, story, studio melange, the melange, values | 1 Comment »

Our Way Home [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on January 12, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

I bought the chair in the early 1980’s in a mountain town. It was the very first piece of furniture I purchased. I don’t remember the details except how odd it was that I was buying a chair. I was more-or-less a gypsy and moving a chair to-and-fro was out of character. It was an antique, mission style with a cane back though the caning had an imperfection, a slight tear. Even though it made no sense I had to have it.

It became my studio rocking chair. It was a fixture in every studio I’ve occupied – and there have been many – positioned directly across from my easel. I’ve spent countless hours of my life rocking in that chair, staring at works-in-progress.

It was the only piece of furniture in the truck when we closed my studio in Seattle for the move to Wisconsin. Paintings. Clothes. My easel. The chair. I had another rocker in my Seattle studio but gave it to PaTan. Her studio was across the hall from mine.

In Kenosha, my studio is in the basement of our nearly 100 year old house. One night last year, in the middle of the night, a water pipe broke directly above my chair. My hardcover sketchbook was on the seat of my rocker. By the time we heard the waterfall in the basement, the next morning, the sketchbook was literally mush. The original straw stuffing in the seat, older than our house, was sodden and ruined. The force of the water blew out the caning in the back.

At first it felt like a gut punch. We salvaged the pieces, storing them in a corner so we could clean up the mess and decide what to do. The chair sat in the corner for a year before I knew it was time to let it go. Someone out there, with the right skills, could properly repair it and bring it back to life. They would love it back into existence. I would open space, let go of the old and welcome in a new era.

When we brought the pieces upstairs to photograph, Kerri found the stamp from the original maker. It stopped us in our tracks. The chair was was made in Wisconsin, just up the road from where we live. It had traveled with me all of my adult life from Colorado to California to Seattle and places in between. And, in the end I was startled to discover that I’d brought it home – just as now I believe – it brought me home.

It makes sense why that younger version of myself had to have it. That chair understood my destiny and somehow knew that sooner or later, together, we’d rock our way across the country and, someday, find our way home.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE CHAIR

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Filed under: Gratitude, Merely A Thought Monday, Metaphor, Story | Tagged: antique, artistry, coming home, companion, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, destiny, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, kismet, revelation, rocking chair, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Hold Up The Light [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on January 9, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

about this week: there is a peril, it seems, to writing ahead these days. we had decided that this week – the first full week of a new year – we wished to use images of light as our prompts, we wished to linger on the possibility of light, of hope, of goodness. though our blogposts might stray from that as we pen them, it was without constant nod to the constant updating of current events – a mass of indefensible, unconscionable acts. we pondered what to do about these blogposts we had written and decided to keep them. we hope that – whether or not any absence of the happenings of the day, whether or not the chance these written words seem somewhat inane at this moment – you might know that those events – of corruption, illegality, immorality, and now murder – do not distill or distort our intention – to bring light and hope to this new year – the first days of which bring more insanity and unnerving instability. we are still holding space for light.

I learned something new about the Statue of Liberty. There are broken chains and shackles at her feet. “Sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi incorporated these elements to represent liberty breaking free from servitude, a powerful message about emancipation.” (Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Foundation) The name of the statue standing in NY Harbor is “Liberty Enlightening the World”.

We are witness to what happens when a nation, when a people, grow so accustomed to their symbols that they forget – or take for granted – their meaning. It’s times like these that the symbol is either reinvigorated or emptied.

Especially during the dark winter months, we light candles every evening. They are comforting, calming. If you asked me what they symbolize to me I’d answer, “Hope”. I used to meditate every day and I’d begin my meditation with lighting a candle: a beacon for concentration and connection. Peace. We light candles on days that significant people in our lives have passed. The flame is a call to memory, to gratitude and, again, connection.

Light that calls to us to peace. Light that evokes hope within us. Light that encourages us and connects us. Light that guides us home.

In the past I kept a candle burning in my studio while I was working. It was a companion or perhaps a signal to the muse that I was ready. Now I have a salt lamp that serves the same purpose.

Lady Liberty holds a torch. She has broken chains and shackles at her feet. Truly, it’s times like these that our symbol is either reinvigorated or reversed, made to mean the exact opposite of what it originally represented. Will it serve to evoke in us a call to create/defend freedom and justice for all or will we turn our backs on our symbol and allow it to descend into a curiosity, a bit of bygone americana. In this historical moment we have the choice of embodying the symbol as it was originally intended, holding up the light of liberty to guide ourselves through this dark night – or to flip it over, plunge the torch into the harbor and step willingly into the shackles of authoritarianism.

[I wrote this on the morning that the current occupant of the white house, without participation or knowledge of Congress, invaded Venezuela, a resource grab not unlike Putin’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine. I’m editing this on the morning after an ICE agent murdered Renee Good in Minneapolis. It seems we have arrived at our moment of choice: to fully embody our symbols and defend our dedication to freedom and justice for all – or not. This is not an abstraction. It is not hyperbole. It is immediate.]

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE CANDLE

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Filed under: Identity, KS Friday, Metaphor | Tagged: artistry, authoritarianism, connection, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, freedom, guide star, hope, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, light, peace, Statue of Liberty, story, studio melange, symbol, symbols, the melange | 1 Comment »

Come See This! [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on January 8, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

about this week: there is a peril, it seems, to writing ahead these days. we had decided that this week – the first full week of a new year – we wished to use images of light as our prompts, we wished to linger on the possibility of light, of hope, of goodness. though our blogposts might stray from that as we pen them, it was without constant nod to the constant updating of current events – a mass of indefensible, unconscionable acts. we pondered what to do about these blogposts we had written and decided to keep them. we hope that – whether or not any absence of the happenings of the day, whether or not the chance these written words seem somewhat inane at this moment – you might know that those events – of corruption, illegality, immorality – do not distill or distort our intention – to bring light and hope to this new year – the first days of which bring more insanity and unnerving instability. we are still holding space for light.

The theme uniting this week’s Melange photo-prompts is light. My response to the prompts are surprisingly (to me) amalgamated: the illumination discovered through differing points of view. A birds-eye-view versus the view from the ground; inviting the outside furniture inside the house, and vice-versa. We have a chiminea in our sunroom and a piano in our backyard.

What opens our eyes to new possibilities? What opens our eyes to what is unseen and right in front of us?

“You have to come see this!” she exclaimed. We stood on the front porch in the bitter cold and watched the full roll-call of winter sunset colors, from vivid to pastel. Warm-cold.

A new year. A year gone by. What do I hope will happen? What did I learn from what just happened? What do I think I can control that I cannot? What can I control that I do not?

What is important now that Dogga is growing old? What is he helping me to see?

What is important now that I am aging? What do I fundamentally understand about importance that I did not understand even three years ago? Has importance changed or have I? The smallest things now seem the most profound. They call me to life, fill me with light. Not so long ago I overlooked the small things in pursuit of lofty dreams. What a waste!

Can I share what calls me to life? Beyond reporting or narrating? Can I be like the sunset, calling others out of their locked doors to marvel at the roll-call of life’s colors?

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE SUNSET

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Filed under: Awakening, DR Thursday, Identity | Tagged: aging, appreciation, artistry, awe, color, control, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, dogga, dreams, importance, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, light, marvel, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Come Down To Earth [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on January 7, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Oh, NO!! You have the curse, too!” he laughed and shook his head. The curse is perceiving life from 30,000 feet, global thinking, looking down on the landscape-of-life, seeing possible connections where other people might not. Although life in the overview has its usefulness, I now understand to my core the dilemma of Cassandra: no one believes you when you tell them what you see.

I’ve also learned, through too many experiences to count, that looking down on the landscape distorts what is perceived. What seems to provide a clear overview also generates a warped vision; just as a tree looks very different from the ground than it does from above, so too does an organization or a nation or any form of relationship. It is very useful to come down to earth. “Gear down!” Kerri regularly says to me. She knows that I often have my head in the clouds.

I just cut the post I wrote for today. It was a Cassandra-rant. I wrote about billionaires like Peter Thiel, Curtis Yarvin, Elon Musk…men who’ve climbed to the tippy-top of the pyramid of democratic capitalism, and, once on top, somehow come to believe that capitalism is incompatible with democracy. Completely ignoring the fact of their own success, they espouse – and actively work for – the abolition of democracy so that a select few might determine the course of the nation and of humanity. Of course, no surprise, they believe that they themselves are the select few.

This belief is a step backward to feudalism. It’s a step toward fascism. Dictatorship.

The view from the tippy-top of the pyramid is not the same as the view from the ground. The reality at the tippy-top is not the same as the day-to-day reality from the ground. To the tech-bros who would be kings, who believe that capitalism is a form of governance, I’d like to suggest that they gear down. Come down to earth and hang with we-the-people. Attend a barbecue with folks in the park. Although it probably feels nice to cast yourself in the role of king, please consider that no one dreams of being a serf.

Besides, the world has been-there-done-that.

I’d also suggest that they read and consider the data in Steven Pinker’s book The Better Angels of Our Nature: although it might not feel like it, violence in the world has declined dramatically with the rise of democracy. Stability is a necessary ingredient for functional capitalism. It turns out that capitalism flourishes where the seeds of democracy are planted. Civil rights and the protections of individual rights are intertwined. Individual ownership is not contrary to governance by the people and the rule of law – they sprout from the same seed.

The American dream is built upon the vision of equality-for-all. Although the dream sometimes seems impossible, it is not pie-in-the-sky and is very easy to see from the ground, from the place where people work and collaborate and learn and communicate and recognize the value of debating differing opinions – of considering other points-of-view. It’s easy to see when values like honesty and humility are respected – and expected, especially from our leaders.

Here on the ground, we-the-people dreamed into existence a government – known as democracy. In the dream prosperity is within reach of everyone. In the dream basic human rights are not only valued but central to who we know ourselves to be. We protect them for everyone, citizen or not. We invite you, the morbidly wealthy, to take a break from the lofty heights of your Gatsby Party, come down to earth and sit for a spell. Put your feet on the ground. It’ll be good for you to remember that the very system that you are attempting to dismantle is the foundation of your pyramid. We are the pyramid.

*****

about this week: there is a peril, it seems, to writing ahead these days. we had decided that this week – the first full week of a new year – we wished to use images of light as our prompts, we wished to linger on the possibility of light, of hope, of goodness. though our blogposts might stray from that as we pen them, it was without constant nod to the constant updating of current events – a mass of indefensible, unconscionable acts. we pondered what to do about these blogposts we had written and decided to keep them. we hope that – whether or not any absence of the happenings of the day, whether or not the chance these written words seem somewhat inane at this moment – you might know that those events – of corruption, illegality, immorality – do not distill or distort our intention – to bring light and hope to this new year – the first days of which bring more insanity and unnerving instability. we are still holding space for light.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE OVERVIEW

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Identity, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, capitalism, Curtis Yarvin, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, fascism, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Peter Thiel, stability, steven pinker, story, studio melange, The American Dream, the melange | Leave a comment »

For Every Little Thing [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on January 6, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

If you came to our house over the holidays you’d find trees, trees, trees everywhere. Trees of all shapes and sizes. Some wrapped in lights. Some adorned by a single silver ornament. Some without adornment of any kind. The outside invited inside. Until recently, when we moved it to the back deck, a large tree-sized branch wrapped in happy lights dominated our living room, 24/7, 365 days a year.

It should not then come as a surprise that last year we moved the aging wooden glider from the deck into the living room. It now sports fuzzy white pillows. Dogga knows that when we say, “Let’s go to Minturn!” it means we are headed for the glider. He meets us there.

Our most recent outside-in addition is the chiminea. It was a wedding present and over the past decade we’ve loved it and used it often. Sitting on the deck one night this past summer, Kerri was eyeing the chiminea. “What?” I asked.

“In the fall, when the weather turns cold, I think we should move it inside,” she said.

And, so, we did. The chiminea now lives in our sun room with a plant sitting atop the chimney. Happy lights pop on within the burn chamber at sunset. Each evening at snack-time we sit at our bistro table and enjoy the warmth of the light glowing from within the natural clay.

20 recently said, ‘I hope you two appreciate each other.” We laughed and reassured him, we literally recounted for him, the many ways that we, each-and-every-day, express our appreciation for each other. She thanks me for making breakfast. I thank her for washing our clothes. We have, in our past lives, taken for granted the daily kindnesses that others offered us and that we offered to others. We’d somehow allowed the myriad tiny-generosities of our past relationships to lapse into the mundane. We learned from our mistake.

In this, life’s second chance, we take advantage of every opportunity to express our appreciation.

In fact, the idea behind our Minturn, the force that brought the chiminea inside, is the creation of opportunities for appreciation. They are spaces we create, places we stop so we can sit solidly in the moment, sharing a simple snack of bread and cheese, sipping a glass of wine, and feeling the full abundance of our lives. And, the greatest abundance of all is the conscious cultivation of appreciation for every-little-thing, especially cherishing the time we have together on this earth and the opportunity to fill each moment with appreciation for each other.

*****

about this week: there is a peril, it seems, to writing ahead these days. we had decided that this week – the first full week of a new year – we wished to use images of light as our prompts, we wished to linger on the possibility of light, of hope, of goodness. though our blogposts might stray from that as we pen them, it was without constant nod to the constant updating of current events – a mass of indefensible, unconscionable acts. we pondered what to do about these blogposts we had written and decided to keep them. we hope that – whether or not any absence of the happenings of the day, whether or not the chance these written words seem somewhat inane at this moment – you might know that those events – of corruption, illegality, immorality – do not distill or distort our intention – to bring light and hope to this new year – the first days of which bring more insanity and unnerving instability. we are still holding space for light.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE CHIMINEA

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Filed under: Gratitude, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: appreciation, artistry, chiminea, cultivate surprise, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, generosity, Gratitude, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, second chances, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Take A Peek [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on January 5, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power.” ~ James Baldwin

At first glance, this birds-eye-view of our luminaria looks to me like a tear in the fabric of time. It seems a peek into another time so that the other-time is also capable of peeking into our time.

Historian Timothy Snyder defines freedom, not as the removal of a limit, rather freedom is something we continually create together. Our creation of freedom is an expression of shared values. Follow the thought, examine the history and we learn (over and over again) that no one can be free unless everyone is free, and freedom doesn’t just happen.

Isn’t freedom-and-justice-for-all a statement – an expression – of a shared value? I protect your freedom because your freedom is also mine. If your freedom is revoked, mine is revoked also. From a birds-eye view, from the rip in the fabric of time, it’s easy to see that we lost our freedom when the Supremes suspended due process. We tossed away our freedom when they somehow ruled that one man was above the law.

Have you noticed that ICE is less and less concerned about the citizenship of the people they snatch off the streets?

Authoritarians objectify segments of the population (woke, scum, snowflake, illegals…). They objectify in order to define them as “Other”, as less-than-human. It’s easier and more palatable to take freedom from an object than it is to strip it from a living, breathing human being, an equal. The problem is, the history is, that objectification-of-others spreads like an aggressive cancer. It takes over the body. It kills the body. It snuffs the freedom of all.

The misguided notion of freedom-and-justice-for-some becomes a prison for all. No one sleeps easily.

Our democracy is young. It tugs on the rope between freedom-for-all and freedom-for-the-select. Yet, we (currently objectifying each other as maga AND woke) tell ourselves over and over again the story of freedom-for-all winning against the brutal authoritarians, the believers in freedom-for-the-select-few.

In our movies, the bad guys are always believers in freedom-for-the-select. The Emperor wants a slave class and unlimited power. Luke and Obi Wan are believers in freedom-for-all. Even though they are outgunned, they have virtue on their side – and the virtue they embody, the driver of their rebellion, is a belief in freedom-and-justice-for-all. We cheer when they win in the end. Frodo and company, against all odds, must return the corrupting ring of power to Mount Doom, ending once-and-for-all the authoritarian control of Sauron. Even though the task seems impossible, they have good on their side and they win. And what is their definition of good? To live peacefully according to their will. We cheer when the good King returns to power; he is good because he serves the people and not the other way around. David slays Goliath. Kilmar Abrego Garcia stands against a vindictive authoritarian administration. The Epstein survivors fight for decades, against all odds, to bring down the monstrous Epstein class of rich and powerful believers of freedom-for-the-select.

The story of freedom-for-all triumphant over freedom-for-the-select is our nation’s founding story. Rebels in the colonies, believers in rule-by-the-people-and-for-the-people, believers in the rule of law over the king’s rule, broke free of an authoritarian. Since then it has been our task to create and recreate freedom, to extend and protect the rights and freedoms we value, edging ever closer to freedom-for-all in our diverse nation.

Sometimes, people are blinded by power and are enticed to the dark side. They choose the wrong team. Darth Vader, in the end of the story, is confronted by the loss of his moral compass. Watching the grotesque Emperor torture of his son, he sees, maybe for the first time, the truth of the cancer he serves. He is confronted by his ultimate loss of freedom, the sacrifice of his son, Luke. Seeing the truth, Darth Vader intervenes, he saves his son. Sacrificing his own life, he throws the Emperor, the authoritarian, into the abyss. He redeems himself. He re-enters the good, the unifying force.

These stories are our metaphors. They are expressions of our values. They are the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.

From a birds-eye view, from the stories we continue to tell to each other, we are undeniably believers in freedom-for-all. A hundred years from now, through the rip in the fabric of time called history, we’ll know whether or not WE THE PEOPLE defeated the evil within our nation or fell into a corrupt regime, a cancerous state goosestepping to the whims of an immoral emperor who ruled over a universe of slaves.

about this week: there is a peril, it seems, to writing ahead these days. we had decided that this week – the first full week of a new year – we wished to use images of light as our prompts, we wished to linger on the possibility of light, of hope, of goodness. though our blogposts might stray from that as we pen them, it was without constant nod to the constant updating of current events – a mass of indefensible, unconscionable acts. we pondered what to do about these blogposts we had written and decided to keep them. we hope that – whether or not any absence of the happenings of the day, whether or not the chance these written words seem somewhat inane at this moment – you might know that those events – of corruption, illegality, immorality – do not distill or distort our intention – to bring light and hope to this new year – the first days of which bring more insanity and unnerving instability. we are still holding space for light.

read Kerri’s blogpost about LUMINARIA

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On The Day of “How?” [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on January 2, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Thoughts from the trail on day number 2 of a new year:

In my distant past I led workshops and retreats. Attendees, after having a significant revelation, would inevitably ask, “How do I take what I now know back into my day-to-day life?” At the time I generally threw the question back at them. “How do you take it back?” There is no formula.

How do we integrate new wisdom into ancient patterns? How do we weave our dreams into our white-knuckle-grip on reality?

There are ubiquitous platitudes that offer not-very-helpful-advice: “Out with the old and in with the new.” “Just do it.” “Pull up your bootstraps.” “Put on your big-boy pants.” These bromides are built upon faulty notions that 1) change is a one-and-done achievement rather than an ongoing process, 2) change is a linear path, and 3) change is something done all-by-yourself in a vacuum.

We only know ourselves in relationship to others. There is no arrival platform in this ever-changing life. Although we would like it to be otherwise, learning (change) is cyclical – it is never linear – and has no end (well, there is one definitive hard-stop).

I could have responded to my attendees with a question like this: To what story are you married? What makes your new insight a threat to the old story? Can you relax, breathe and detach from parts of the old story? I might have suggested that the question “how” presumes needing to know before acting. Is it possible that knowing “how to do it” is something seen after the fact? What if the “how” of taking a revelation back into life can only be understood after it is experienced? And what if “how” is a series of discoveries that never end?

I worked with a man who preached that people only change when, “The pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of making the change.” There is some truth to his belief. Pain is a potent motivator. Not-knowing can be unpleasant and very few people willingly walk into discomfort. Discord is a prerequisite of concord. And, vice versa.

Yearning is painful. Holding a dream can be excruciating. Stepping toward a vision can be scary as well as exhilarating. Staying the course in the face of internal opposition is a choice that is made again and again with each new step. And, each new step reveals previously unseen possibilities.

Revelations create new images, updated visions. What if the only thing that matters is stepping toward the vision – especially knowing that each new step will inform and alter the vision? And, what if standing still or temporarily turning away is actually an action: moving toward rather than running from? There is grace in recognizing readiness.

Thoughts to myself from the trail on day number 2 of a new year. It is the day that the fog of holiday celebrations clear and we begin to doubt our resolutions and question the strength of our revelations. It is the day we ask, “How?”