KS Friday | The Direction of Intention

Ancient Oak Wisdom [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on April 25, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Oak may live for 1,000 years, although 600 may be more typical on many sites.”

It’s very possible that this oak tree is older than our nation. It stands in a field plowed and prepared for planting, visible from a trail that we recently explored. The trail passes through a stand of ancient oaks, gnarled and twisted with time.

There is wisdom in the oaks, something not found in our leaders who view the world exclusively through the lens of dollars and cents. Power people who play let’s-make-a-deal with the lives of others.

Even though we knew it was coming, even though it was a trumpeted intention in the fascist blueprint, Project 2025, the sale and privatization of our public lands for short-term profit has arrived like a surprise unwelcome visitor on our doorstep:

“Elon Musk is now effectively in charge of America’s public lands,” says Jennifer Rokala, executive director at the Center for Western Priorities. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum just issued an order ceding oversight of the Department of the Interior to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (which is not a government department at all)…”

The ruse is – of course – that our protected public lands, our national parks, are nothing more than waste, abuse and fraud. To the fundamentally greedy and terminally myopic, they are resources ripe and ready for exploitation. Destroying them, so the marketing spin goes, will not only save the nation money, it will make lots of money for the privileged few. And then there will be trickle down! (insert eye roll here).

Dollars. No sense.

“Project 2025 is a ‘wish list’ for the oil and gas and mining industries and private developers. It promotes opening up more of our federal land to energy development, rolling back protections on federal lands, and selling off more land to private developers.” ~ Heather Cox Richardson, Letters From An American, April 22, 2025

It is shortsighted hubris akin to the Taliban’s destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Two monumental statues carved in the 6th century in the Bamiyan valley in Afghanistan, a holy site for Buddhists, a cultural treasure for the people of Afghanistan, a UNESCO World Heritage site, destroyed [by the Taliban] in 2001, “..so that no one can worship or respect them in the future” Fundamentalists. Nationalists. Ideologues.

Islamic or Christian, nationalist fundamentalism, rigid ideology, leads to the same end. Purblind action, senseless destruction for short-term gain. Violence enacted on people and culture. Suppression of the many so the few might profit.

Purblind (adjective): having impaired or defective vision. Slow or unable to understand. Dimwitted.

Like the Buddhas of Bamiyan, once destroyed, our public lands, our Grand Canyon and Arches and Bears Ears, our old growth forests, our Yosemite and Yellowstone and Glacier National Park and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, our protected ocean shelf ecosystem…once mined and drilled and developed, will never come back. Our national inheritance, sacred sites, reduced to rubble for profit so that no one can worship or respect them in the future.

Wisdom is the province of the ancient oak, borne of an acorn of understanding that grows beyond knowledge, beyond information, and far beyond the accumulation of data. It cannot be attained through fundamentalism nor through righteous nationalism wrapped in greasy paper-thin religiosity. It cannot be bought or sold or legislated. Wisdom transcends passing ideology since it takes time and perspective. Wisdom is an open hand, not a tight fist.

It takes no time and requires little in the way of perspective to recognize that the destruction of the sacred in the name of private gain is nothing more or less than the avarice of the purblind, the action of the profoundly dimwitted.

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora (among others)

read Kerri’s blogpost about the OAK TREE

likesharecommentsupportsubscribe…thankyou.

Filed under: KS Friday, Metaphor, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, Buddhas of Bamiyan, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, fascism, fundamentalism, Heather Cox Richardson, ideology, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, National Parks, Project 2025, Public lands, Purblind, story, studio melange, Taliban, the melange, wisdom | 1 Comment »

All Of Us [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on April 18, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

There are some small cracks of light. Cory Booker’s marathon speech on the floor of the senate, the thousands attending Bernie Sanders and AOC’s rallies. And then recently, a possibility that finally – finally – carried an action-beyond-words, something that could impede this march to authoritarianism:

“The president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, Sean McGarvey, received a standing ovation when he said to a room full of his fellow union workers: “We need to make our voices heard. We’re not red, we’re not blue. We’re the building trades, the backbone of America. You want to build a $5 billion data center? Want more six-figure careers with health care, retirement, and no college debt? You don’t call Elon Musk, you call us!… And yeah, that means all of us. All of us. Including our brother [International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers] apprentice Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who we demand to be returned to us and his family now! Bring him home!” ~ Heather Cox Richardson. Letters from an American, April 13, 2025

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, wrongfully deported to prison in El Salvador, is a union brother, a sheet metal apprentice. His brothers and sisters in the union want him home. They want due process respected and restored. For all of us.

“Let’s be very clear about exactly what’s happening here: President Donald J. Trump is claiming the power to ignore the due process of the law guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, declare someone is a criminal, kidnap them, send them to prison in a third country, and then claim that there is no way to get that person back.” ~ Letters from an American, April 13, 2025

In case it’s not clear, we are experiencing a Constitutional crisis. The administration is ignoring the judicial branch. The elimination of due process is the straw that breaks democracy’s back.

As individuals we have no recourse beyond our vote – and it is currently not clear that we will have another chance to exercise that basic right. We can speak. We can gather and rally but have no leverage with an executive that refuses to acknowledge or adhere to the law. He is supported by a Congress that refuses to perform its duty as check-and-balance to the executive. His hand-picked Attorney General, in the midst of egregious and obvious crimes by this administration, is great at playing hear-no-evil, see-no-evil but is otherwise a useless toady. The Supremes rolled over and died when granting presidential immunity. Is anyone surprised that the executive is ignoring their ruling?

Keep in mind, due process is a basic right – as is voting in a free and fair election. Any administration that suspends due process under the law will need to either corrupt the election system (as is currently happening) or terminate voting altogether – by invoking the Insurrection Act (as is currently being discussed).

In the midst of so much darkness, union president Sean McGarvey opened a small crack of light. Unions leverage power by stopping work. They shut down the machinery of production until power is willing to listen.

I gave myself permission to dream: we could stop this nonsense now if we joined a nationwide union work-stoppage. If we made clear to our government that they should fear us; we should not fear them (as the elimination of due process is meant to achieve). As Sean McGarvey said, “We need to make our voices heard. We’re not red, we’re not blue…”

We are – all of us – the citizens of the United States, the backbone and beating heart of America, a democracy, guaranteed fundamental rights in our Constitution.

We need not be passive during the assault on our basic rights as guaranteed in The Constitution. We do, however, need to recognize that we are neither red nor blue; we all lose equally if Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not brought home. We lose all – if the basic rights guaranteed in the Constitution are not honored and extended equally to all people.

It is way past time for the backbone of America to step off the job and sit for a spell. If Congress and the courts cannot – or will not – do their jobs, perhaps the citizens should follow their lead and stop doing their jobs. Perhaps we should cease productivity – all of us – until the oligarchs and the authoritarian-wanna-be, the hapless Congress and kowtowing Supreme Court recognize that working people are the engine that fuels democracy – and capitalistic democracy is the system that feeds their out-of-proportion prosperity. And, more to the point, remind them that they work for us – all of us – and not the other way around.

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about LIGHT

likesharecommentsupportsubscribe…thankyou.

Filed under: KS Friday, Possibility | Tagged: AOC, artistry, authoritarianism, Bernie Sanders, Constitutional crisis, Cory Booker, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, hope, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Kilmar Agrego Garcia, Sean McGarvey, story, studio melange, the melange, unions, workers | 1 Comment »

Where Are You? [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on April 11, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

For Congressman Bryan Steil:

The space on the card asks me to articulate my single, most pressing issue, so here it is: Please uphold your oath and protect the Constitution.

On the backside of the card I’m given space for more detail with the prompt, “Why this issue?” I confess to staring at the question with some minor disbelief. The answer should be obvious but just in case, here goes:

You swore an oath to protect and serve the Constitution of The United States, not a political party or a man. The Constitution prescribes the role and duties of Congress as it does the other two branches of our government. To date, you and your colleagues have abdicated your responsibilities and allowed the executive to both circumvent you and consolidate power, essentially stepping over the checks-and-balances built into our system to prevent the consolidation of power. Where are you?

For instance, the imposition of tariffs is under the purview of Congress. As is the creation and funding of the many programs and agencies that are currently being decimated and eliminated. DOGE has no authority to shut down programs or cancel federal funds. That is your job. Again, where are you?

I am aware, as are you, that the executive is manufacturing “crises” that grant him temporary authority to implement his tariffs. He has also manufactured a crisis that allows mass deportation of people without due process. Until now, ‘innocent until proven guilty’ has been a fundamental principle at the heart of our legal system. In fact, it is the basic right, the actual line between civilized society and barbarism. Where are you?

This brings me to my answer to the next question on the card, “Why now?” The executive is one-manufactured-crisis away from claiming the power to use the military against citizens. When invoking the Insurrection Act, he will complete his trifecta and we will officially be an authoritarian state. It is now – right now – that we need you and your colleagues to show up and honor your oath to protect and preserve our democracy. So, where are you?

I understand that you fear losing your seat in Congress. We are told that is the reason for Republican silence. I’d like to check your logic if, indeed, saving your seat is more important than saving democracy. First, you are already afraid to face your constituents. If our democracy survives to the midterm elections you will, more than likely, lose your seat because you have lost your voice (our voice). Second, if our democracy does not survive – as it now seems – you will most likely have job security since our elections will be shams (as they are in Russia or Hungary); you will have your seat but you will represent only one person. You, in fact, will be a servant to an authoritarian instead a servant of the people. In your silence, you lose either way. In your silence, we lose either way. Who are you?

Your logic is deeply flawed. In fact, it is not logic at all since it is based in fear. Your silence is testament to your cowardice.

The only way you retain your seat and our respect is to find your voice. You are our voice and you were sent to Congress to do the job of Congress and not the bidding of a dictator-wannabe. I understand that this will require that you muster some courage. There has never been a more pressing moment. You, Congress, are the only remaining wall between us and authoritarian take-over. It’s happening fast; finding your voice and your courage three months from now will be too late.

Finally, I’m composing this to you as my wife and I walk a beloved trail. The trees are just beginning to bud, a hopeful return of spring. Yesterday we attended a Hands Off rally. The consensus among the crowd is that you will remain silent and that we-the-people may never again have a free and fair election. In other words, no one believes that you have courage. No one believes that you will break from the party or take seriously your oath. Retention of your seat is all. You are awol.

It’s spring. The executive is already signaling his desire to invoke the Insurrection Act. By summer, unless you act, we will be under martial law. In case you think my assertions are exaggerated, may I remind you that he evoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in order to bypass Congress (you) and impose his tariffs. He manufactured a “crisis” at the southern border so he might invoke the National Emergencies Act and deport people without due process to El Salvador. In other words, he’s bypassing the judicial branch as well. He is, in effect, ignoring the Constitution. Where are you?

The final question on the card reads, “What would you like Representative Steil to do?” This one is easy: Show up. Honor your oath. Do your job. Our path to this historic moment is littered with shortsighted cowards. A few courageous Republican voices could make the difference. Where are you?

read Kerri’s blogpost about NEW BUD

likesharecommentsupportsubscribe…thankyou.

Filed under: Edges, KS Friday | Tagged: artistry, authoritarian, AWOL, Brian Steil, Congress, cowardice, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, due process, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, silence, story, studio melange, tariffs, The Constitution of The United States, the melange | 2 Comments »

Barnacles And All [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on April 4, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” ~ Thomas Merton

If you visited our house you’d immediately notice that Kerri’s design style is “well-worn and well-loved.” Rather than mask the wear-and-tear of age, she revels in it. Our dining room is a wonder, made beautiful by the marks left when she removed wallpaper. Rather than paint over the marks she recognized their unique beauty and showcased them. A happy accident. I stopped in my tracks the first time I walked into the dining room, asking, “How did you do that?”

I love our backdoor. The pressure of our hands on the door has overtime peeled and revealed the white underlayer beneath the black paint. It’s the story of our comings-and-goings. It is the mark of our human hands pressing on an old door that swells with the humidity and shrinks with the cold. It is our personal hand-print-petroglyph.

The beauty of age. The patterns of rust. The celebration of the flaw. Most people would scramble to cover the cracks or repair the damage. I have occasionally earned her Irish ire by repairing something she thought was aesthetically interesting. I have learned to ask.

Standing on our deck, Columbus was concerned that the exposed unsealed wood was disintegrating. “You oughta’ stain this,” he said. “It needs protecting.” I told him of the time Kerri pressure washed the deck, removing the patina of age. Even though with time the rough hewn look returned, she has yet to forgive herself for her pressure-washing-indiscretion.

“Kerri likes it this way,” I replied. “She doesn’t like the way it looks when it’s neat and stained.”

“Well I guess that’s the way it’s gotta be!” he smiled, knowingly.

Our house is an ever evolving work of art. A perfect home for two artists. Nothing matches yet everything goes together. It’s filled with visual and repurposed surprises. It is warm, sometimes a cocoon where we shut out the world and sometimes a place for our community to gather. It is the sanctuary where we have come to discover and appreciate ourselves, barnacles and all, while steadily growing into something we could never have imaged.

(I love this piece by Kerri)

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about RUST

likesharesupportsubscribecomment…thankyou.

Filed under: Art, Creativity, Gratitude, Identity, KS Friday | Tagged: age, appreciation, art, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, design, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, story, studio melange, the melange, Thomas Merton, two artists, worn | 4 Comments »

The Tiniest Ray [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on March 28, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” ~ Martin Luther

Master Marsh tipped me over the edge. He sent a basket-load of cartoon ideas and encouraged me to draw a few. Prior to the arrival of his basket I’d been considering channeling some of my national-dismay into cartoons. Drawing them makes me laugh. Laughter fills me with hope. Hope shines a bright light into the dark age in which we find ourselves.

The gift of the current administration (I use the term loosely) and the clown car of billionaire appointees is that they lampoon themselves. It’s a confederacy of dunces so cartooning comes easy. It’s why in only a few short weeks Master Marsh was able to harvest a full basket of material.

Sometimes laughter is the only path through despair to find hope.

Charles Dickens could not have created a line-up of more despicable characters. A president and an oligarch ravaging social safety nets to give billionaires a tax cut. A Director of Homeland Security infamous for shooting her puppy in the face.

Prior to Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense né fox television personality, spilling highly secret attack plans on a social media platform, my favorite evil-stupid-award was held by Howard Lutnick, the billionaire Secretary of Commerce who said, “Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month — my mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain,” Lutnick told All-In Podcast host Chamath Palihapitiya. “A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling, and complaining.” The Secretary of Commerce must not know that, “Based on a fact sheet published by the Social Security Administration, more than 7 million Americans 65 and older receive at least 90% of their income from benefits checks.” Since they paid into Social Security their entire working lives, it’s safe to assume the fraudster and crook in the equation is the billionaire attempting to take away their Social Security.

Socrates or Plato suggested that humor is often derived from the misfortune of others. The man slips on a banana peel. The woman walks into the glass door. Laughter based on the pain of others. Humor is also invoked from shared pain. We need to laugh at our communal misfortune: a rapist, felon, liar, grifter, lover of autocrats, tv personality, dancing to Rupert Murdoch’s fiddle, is elevated to the seat of power by the mega-rich and is surrounded by Congressional apologists and Supreme Court enablers.

If we stacked the malicious stupidity manufactured in just two months, it might reach to the moon and back. It’s too easy to lampoon. Baskets and baskets full of nonsense.

There are a few signs of hope. The thousands upon thousands of people attending Bernie Sanders rallies – people who do not find malice and ignorance funny – give me hope. The very few Republicans breaking ranks with the silently-stupid-and-complicit-republican-congress give me hope. May my rough drafts bring you a smile and, perhaps, the tiniest ray of hope:

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about HOPE

likesharesupportlaughsubscribegigglecomment…thank you

Filed under: Creativity, KS Friday | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, humor, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, laughter, story, studio melange, the melange | 3 Comments »

Naturally [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on March 21, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

Before sleeping we usually watch thru-hikes, video journals of people walking the Pacific Crest Trail, The Continental Divide Trail, or The Appalachian Trail. The Hayduke. Early in their journey the hikers experience the unnatural aggression and excessive pace of regular life drop away and a more natural rhythm emerges.

They become different people as they begin to see other people differently. The steely individuality of their urban identity dissolves. The hikers realize that they need other people. They realize that they are dependent upon the kindness of strangers. In fact, they come to understand that without the support of others their trail-walk would be impossible to complete. They begin to rely on – to count on – kindness.

And they are rarely disappointed. The kindness that they hope for always appears. And, as they enter the reality – the necessity – of their interdependence, they more freely offer their support to strangers. They become the kindness others hope for.

Periodically the hikers come across trail angels; people who come to the trail with the sole intention of making life better for the hikers. The angels prepare food or snacks. They offer shade, a cool drink, a place to sit and rejuvenate. They give rides to town. Other angels make sure there is water available at caches across the desert. Others provide places to stay. Almost all of the trail angels were themselves hikers who were recipients of the extraordinary generosity of angels. So, they became angels for others. Naturally.

The hikers always speak fondly of the culture that exists on the trail. A culture of support. Most hikers, after they finish their months-long adventure, remark that their walk was made memorable, transformative, because of generous people they met along the way.

We watch thru-hikers because they give us hope. In a time of national darkness punctuated by ill-intention, self-serving oligarchs, the celebration of mean-spirits, cowardice…it is heartening to know that there is a community of people out there who’ve stepped into nature and out of the unnatural aggression of our nation, and what they find there – and find in themselves – is a natural reliance on others. A feedback loop of generosity. Kindness. People helping people, not for gain, but because they know the value of helping. It’s called humanity. They know that their walk in this life is made better – made more meaningful – by the dance of giving and receiving support, helping others and accepting a helping hand from others. Naturally.

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE TRAIL

likesharesupportcommentsubscribe…thankyou

Filed under: Identity, KS Friday, Metaphor | Tagged: artistry, culture, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, generosity, humanity, interdependence, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, kindness, natural rhythm, nature, story, studio melange, support, the melange, thru-hike, trail angels | 1 Comment »

Our Mistake [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on March 14, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

I was grateful for the unseasonably warm day. I needed it. Earlier in the day we positioned Adirondack chairs for maximum sun and we literally soaked it up. I felt the marrow of my bones sigh with warm pleasure. We took a very slow late afternoon hike.

It was the kind of day that beckons presence. We knew it was coming so we cleared the calendar. We purposefully lost the to-do list. As evening set in we sat on the deck while Dogga pranced around the yard. The neighbors tree glowed orange. I was so captivated by the color that I didn’t see the moon above the tree until Kerri showed me her photograph. We agreed, life does not get better than this.

Earlier in the day I’d sent Yaki an email. He’d been the conductor/music director of The Portland Chamber Orchestra for years and I saw that the company announced a new music director. It concerned me since the last time we spoke he told me of his cancer diagnosis. In my email I wished him well and hoped he was in good health.

The temperatures were dropping so we came in from the deck. I was telling Kerri about my collaborations with Yaki, what a pleasure he was to work with. She asked a question about his age so I pulled up his Wikipedia page. It showed a birth date and a death date. Yaki had passed away.

It was the kind of moment that beckons presence.

Today I grieve my friend. Grief is a great giver of perspective. It is a reminder not to make assumptions. Not much bothers me today since relative to his loss everything seems minor, insignificant.

I was supposed to do a performance with him in the spring of 2023. The script was already written but a contract snag tripped up the process. We agreed to find a future date. We both believed that there would be a future date. That was our mistake.

Isn’t it always our mistake? Passing up what life offers us today, delaying it until some imagined future date?

Today I am grateful for Yaki. And, I am so glad that yesterday Kerri and I cleared the calendar, lost the all-important to-do list, and held hands while we soaked in a rare day of sun.

My performance of The Creatures of Prometheus with the PCO, Yaki Bergman conducting. 2008

Kerri originally wrote this piece for breast cancer research, cancer survivorship. It generalizes to any fight against darkness: “Fight for others, even if they don’t know who you are.”

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE ORANGE TREE

likesharesupportlivecommentlovesubscribe…thankyou.

Filed under: Gratitude, Heroes, KS Friday | Tagged: appreciation, artistry, celebration of life, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, grief, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, portland chamber orchestra, presence, story, studio melange, the melange, yaacov bergman | Leave a comment »

Face It [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on March 7, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Reality is one of the possibilities I cannot afford to ignore.” ~ Leonard Cohen, Beautiful Losers

Given the collapsing farm markets with the annihilation of USAID, tariffs imposed on our allies, with Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security in the DOGE crosshairs, the dedication of tax dollars to prop up crypto-currency, the Department of Education on the chopping block…the folks in my bubble ask this question each and every day: “How bad does it have to get before they realize they’ve been had?”

I, myself, have often asked this question. Today, on our trail, as we watched the sun struggle to burn through the clouds, I came to a blindingly obvious realization: consistently discarding reality is the single requirement necessary to support the despot-wannabe. Consider all that had to be ignored: rapist, felon, insurrectionist, an estimated 461,000 excess deaths from a bumbling response to the pandemic, pathological liar, twice impeached, rated among the worst presidents in our history…This is a short list of a very long, long catalogue of reality-to-disregard. In other words, the red-hats will never realize that they’ve been had because they would rather swallow a fire hose of “alternative facts” than plug into substantive reality.

I understand the desire, the hope that our family members and fox-hypnotized community members will reclaim their capacity to discern fact from fantasy but I am now convinced that we should stop waiting or hoping or investing any energy in trying to reach them. We need to stop ignoring the reality that they have no interest in fact or data or verifiable truth. They simply do not care. They simply do not want to care. To borrow a phrase from Stephen Colbert, they are so far down the “stupid hole” that no amount of rope will reach them.

We should also stop waiting for members of the Republican party to honor their oath to the Constitution. They, too, are engaged in a fantasy world of “hear no evil, see no evil.” They are studied apologists for every outrage. If rape was not a bridge-too-far, if colluding with Russia is not a deal-breaker, if the tyrannical boast about “getting things done” without the participation of Congress doesn’t set off every constitutional alarm bell in their caucus, then there is no desecration that they will not swallow, excuse or justify.

A few nights ago, in commencing his tariffs on our allies, a move that will further wreck the farm economy and our alliances, the tawny tyrant tweeted for farmers to “Have fun.”

“Of course he wrote that,” I thought. Amidst all the fun that farmers are about to have, I am certain of one reality: when they lose their farms they’ll blame Biden or Obama or the woke or the Democrats or DEI for their pain because they’ll never turn away from the fox-cult and face the fact that they’ve been had.

“Been had” is an informal idiom that means to be tricked, cheated, or deceived by someone.

reality (noun): the world or the state of things as they actually exist.

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about REALITY

likesharecommentsubscribesupport…thankyou.

Filed under: KS Friday, Perspective | Tagged: alternative facts, artistry, authoritarian, been had, blame, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, discernment, fact, fantasy, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, reality, story, studio melange, taking stock, tariffs, The Constitution of The United States, the melange, truth, USAID | 1 Comment »

The Interim [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on February 28, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“You are in this time of the interim/ Where everything seems withheld./The path you took to get here has washed out;/ The way forward is still concealed from you.” John O’Donohue, Benedictus

Persephone has returned to the Underworld. Demeter, her mother, mourns and so the earth is cold. Nothing grows. It is the time of waiting. According to the bargain, after six months, Persephone will return to the upper world, Demeter will rejoice at the homecoming of her daughter, plants will flower, trees will bud, life will be restored.

It is not an accident that Persephone, the goddess who presides over death is also the goddess of fertility and new life. One complete cycle. It’s an archetype found in many cultures across our tiny planet.

This winter we’ve descended into a an especially dark season. With the firing of the military leadership, replaced by nincompoops loyal to a man rather than the constitution, the authoritarian takeover is nearly complete. Yesterday, by executive order, congress lost its power-of-the-purse. The last traces of democracy are being summarily scrubbed. The way forward?

History has taught us that these authoritarians are stuck in their adolescence. They have a bottomless hole where their hearts should be. They attempt to fill the the hole with sex or money or power or fame or alcohol or clothes or cars…It is a void that only maturity can satisfy. Maturity comes with the revelation that service to others rather than self-aggrandizement fills the hole. True to pattern, they will ultimately be consumed by the dark void in their chests, turning their power-lust on each other in a festival of self-destruction, perhaps taking our democracy with them.

And then Persephone will return.

We are in the interim. The path forward is unclear. Yet, it is still not too late to wrangle these child-minds into containment and return mature adults to the hill. Or, we can stay silent and let the children run the show. Lord of the Flies.

Either way, as order follows chaos, courage will reemerge. A new generation of leaders will find their moral center, value decency and join together, connected by service to the nation rather than self-interest. They will set about cleaning up the wreckage, sweeping up the mess. Persephone will return, Demeter will rejoice, life will bud, and perhaps our fragile democracy will be rekindled.

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about ICE

likesharecommentsupportsubscribe…thankyou.

Filed under: KS Friday, Metaphor, Perspective | Tagged: archetypes, artistry, authoritarian, chaos, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Demeter, democracy, John O"Donohue, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Lord of the Flies, maturity, mythology, order, Persephone, service, story, studio melange, the melange, void | 1 Comment »

Be Peace [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on February 21, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

Coming over the pass, the first glimpse of the lake seemed a mirage. It beckoned.

I always travel with my sketchbook though I rarely take it out and draw. I am more of an “intuitive” artist – feeling my way forward – so the impulse to draw scenes from nature rarely occurs for me. Rather than capture images I more often write ideas or capture snippets of conversation. I capture interesting shapes. I draw images that come to mind. Like the lake, the images first appear as mirages, calling me closer.

Rooting around in my bag, my sketchbook fell open to the very first page. I was surprised by the notes I found there. I’d forgotten a conversation Kerri and I had months ago about the difference between being-at-peace and keeping-the-peace. This is a bit of my note: All my life I have tried to keep the peace – which means to keep silent – to NOT say – to not stir the pot – to be more concerned with how others feel than how I feel. Being at peace is different. It means being solidly in my center and giving voice to what’s vital for me; not swirling in circumstance like a ‘Peacekeeper’ does. And then I captured a quote from Kerri: “To be peaceful is not about keeping other people’s peace, it is keeping my own.”

Driving toward the lake I thought about what I’d written.

Peace-full means to take responsibility for how I walk and speak in the world, regardless of circumstance.

Peace is amorphous when looked at from afar; it is a mirage when it is an aspiration. In the heat of the moment, when lived, peace is a solid center, immovable like a mountain, as clear as the crystal waters of the lake.

A mantra I learned long ago rolled through my mind: Peace is not the absence of violence. It is what we do in the face of violence. It is Gandhi and MLK. It is a mass of people joining together and walking in peace toward violence, refusing to be silent, refusing to hide, refusing to become violent.

We are now living in a violent time. White supremacy is once again rearing its ugly head. The fascists have the reins. With a rapist in the white house, a cabinet unique in their lack of experience and rejection of the constitution, an oligarch dedicated to self-interest and to destroying democracy…misogyny, racism and hate are having a moment. This is no time to keep the peace. This is a time to be the peace: to join. To give voice and call out the lies. To root firmly in our shared belief in equality and tradition of the rule of law.

As JB Pritzker just wrote, “Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage.” It takes courage to be peace in the face of hate.

The Republicans having lost their spines, minds and their moral compass and the Democrats having lost their rudder and will-to-act, we find ourselves called to show the courage and commitment that believers in peace not-so-long-ago showed on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Peace is a solid center, immovable like a mountain, as clear as the crystal waters of the lake. Our democracy demands that we link arms, be peace, and take responsibility for how we walk in the world and for our democracy before it swirls down the drain.