davidrobinsoncreative.com | The Direction of Intention

The Warp And Woof [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on September 8, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Among the most toxic false divisions currently being foisted upon us is the idea that we are either exclusively conservative or progressive. We love our traditions AND want a better life for our descendants. Both/And. We are all progressive and conservative. We are more alike than we realize.

No bird flies if it only has a single wing; it needs the balance of a right wing AND a left. That is the genius of our system as it was initially conceived. A government that thrives on the honest debate of opposing points of view. Compromise is key. Compromise is balance and balance affords flight.

We are coming apart at the seams, not because we have divided into liberal or conservative camps but because we’ve lost the capacity for honest debate. It is not opposing points of view that plague us; it is a disbelief in substance, a disqualification of fact. A loss of balance. We do not share common truth. This bird cannot fly.

You’d think our division would be fairly easy to transcend. Shared facts are not so hard to establish. Observed, measurable, testable. Lately, our leaders can’t agree that ice forms when temperatures drop beneath 32 degrees. We are awash in “alternative facts” and purposely irreconcilable narratives. A disqualification of fact is a dedication to lies.

After encouragement from the president, a mob storms the Capitol. Is it an insurrection or peaceful tourists? Both interpretations are out there. Only one is rooted in observable, measurable, testable fact.

There were over 60 court challenges to the 2020 election, each was thrown out for lack of evidence. Yet, to this day we are still forced to swallow the narrative that the election was stolen even though all the evidence, all of the facts, substantiate that the election was free and fair.

A disqualification of fact. A dedication to lies.

A lie thrives on bluster and runs from proof whereas fact is quiet, independent of personal agenda or claim. Our capacity for honest debates is mired in personal agenda and drowning in a bucket of loud lies. We can only hope that someday soon integrity returns to our politics. We can only hope that proof and accountability find their way back in the executive office, the legislative chambers, and the judicial, the court Supremes.

Both Barney and the sweet potato vine he hosts are beautiful in their second chance. Barney was a rescue, a piano on the way to the scrap yard. The sweet potato vine was nearly dead, root-bound, when we intervened and gave it a bigger pot. Now it thrives.

Our nation is on the way to the scrap yard but it is not too late to intervene. It can be beautiful, a dynamic mix, a creative tension of old and new, progressive and conservative, a guardian of tradition that creates a better life for all of our descendants, a rich diverse nation that fulfills the promise upon which it was founded. We need not be lie-bound. We are nation of immigrants capable of creating a container big enough to hold a world of perspectives, strong enough to face the facts, sturdy enough to pursue the truth. We are made strong when we uphold our dedication to honest debate and compromise. Honest debate and the capacity to compromise is not the sole dominion of conservatives or progressives. It requires both.

That is our secret sauce.

A dynamic container capable of holding space for varied cultures and beliefs. A nation that offers a second chance to all newcomers. A energetic crossroads. Balanced weave of conservative and progressive, a nation unified by a deep embrace of a single fundamental truth: that all people are created equal.

read Kerri’s blog about SWEET POTATO BARNEY

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Filed under: Metaphor, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: alternative facts, artistry, balance, Compromise, conservative, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, division, fact, integrity, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, progressive, story, studio melange, the melange, truth | 1 Comment »

The Reason [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on September 7, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“[Teddy]Roosevelt had come to believe that a strong government must regulate business. “The absence of effective State, and, especially, national, restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power,” he said.

After all, he said, “[t]he object of government is the welfare of the people.” ~ Milwaukee Independent

It reads like copy from today yet it’s from a speech Roosevelt gave in 1912. The times have changed but the tension remains the same. The question is as it was then: is the object of government the welfare of the people – all of the people – or is it to protect the prosperity of the few?

Theodore Roosevelt believed that the purpose of government was to prosper the people. In today’s parlance that would make him a Democratic Socialist. Government must be strong in order to regulate corporations. Government is the firewall that protects the people from corporate greed and exploitation.

The current occupant of the White House and the contemporary republican party believe the opposite: The purpose of government is deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy few. It’s an agenda that serves a long debunked claim that wealth will trickle down. It doesn’t. It never has. It never will. It creates “…a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power.”

The purpose of DOGE was not to cut waste, fraud and abuse. The purpose of DOGE was to cut oversight and regulation of corporate activity. We are feeling the effects of a weakened government oversight in the grocery store, at the gas pump, in the gutting of healthcare and the social safety net.

“Over the past five decades, economic analyses indicate that roughly $50 trillion to $80 trillion in aggregate income and wealth has been redistributed upward or concentrated into the highest-earning brackets away from the bottom 90% of Americans.”

The cuts to healthcare, to Medicaid, to SNAP…to every program that served the welfare of the people pays for an enormous tax cut extended to the already morbidly wealthy. It is the centerpiece of the republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill. It balloons our national debt. Much of the damage is yet to be felt since they courageously (I’m being facetious) planned for the majority of the cuts to take effect AFTER the midterms.

Today is Labor Day. It has a history and a purpose: “Workers formed unions and held rallies. On September 5, 1882, the first Labor Day parade was held in New York City when 10,000 workers marched for better pay and conditions.”

Although the cost of living has escalated, the last raise to the minimum wage was in 2009.

The republicans under the current occupant of the White House have convinced many people at the bottom of the economic ladder that government is the problem. It’s not corporate greed. It’s not corporate influence in Washington D.C., it’s not that business driven policy and purchased-politicians that weaken the role of government… The MAGA cult famously votes – and continues to vote – for its own exploitation. They cheer the wreckage of the firewall built to protect them.

It’s Labor Day. It’s time for us to remember the reason why we gather this day and place our focus and intention on the workers. It’s time for us to remember that “the object of government is the welfare of the people.”

It is time for the people to reclaim their government from the small class of enormously wealthy people who exploit the people at every turn. And, more to the point, it is time for this nation to exit the question: is the object of government the welfare of the people – all of the people – or is it to protect the prosperity of the few? This nation has always prospered when the welfare of the people are the object of policy. It teeters when our government is hijacked and used to protect the wealth of the few.

We are a government of, by, and for the people. A government for the people. It’s in our founding documents. It is the reason why we vote, why we have the right to vote. It is the reason the republicans and this president are assaulting our right to vote from every direction.

It’s Labor Day. It’s time to remember that working people had to fight for their rights. They are not a given. They are tenuous. It’s time for us to realize how hard this administration is working to strip us of our rights, to gut the government whose purpose is to protect the welfare of the people while it is working overtime to protect “a small class of enormously wealthy people, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power.”

What will you do now and in November to protect your rights, especially your right to vote in free and fair election, given that this might be our last Labor Day celebrated by people governed by a system rooted in the belief that the people should choose their leaders – and not the other way around?

read Kerri’s blog post about LABOR DAY

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Filed under: Identity, Merely A Thought Monday, Perspective, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, DOGE, elections, exploitation, free and fair elections, government, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, labor day, regulation, rights, story, studio melange, the melange, Theodore Roosevelt, vote | 1 Comment »

Go To The River [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on September 4, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Siddhartha finds illumination sitting by the river. He realizes that it never stops moving. No two moments are the same. Just like life.

Narcissus and Goldmund seek the same thing. Illumination. One studies from the confines of a monastery. The other goes into the world and makes a mess of things. Which one do you suppose finds what he seeks?

I did not grow up around great bodies of water. I know the mountains so they do not intimidate me. The-lake-that-looks-like-an-ocean, on the other hand, is daunting. Alien. Each day we walk the path by the lake and I am taken by the mystery. I admire the sailors who seem so at home, so at peace and in their element, sailing on the mystery-water. I wonder if the power of the mountain seems unforgiving to them.

My dear Endless Enigma texted. His daughter is getting married. His son has already married but I could tell from his note that, for a dad, this passage is different. A father does not give his son away. Why is that? In our tradition, a father walks his daughter down the aisle to join her hands with her soon-to-be-husband. It is a ritual. He gives her away. For the father, the marriage of a daughter is a letting go. Has it always been this way with sons and daughters?

This water runs deep.

I cannot help but ask questions of tradition. For me, questioning tradition seems to be a tradition. It is perhaps why in my past life I needed to stir the pot. I needed to run at the edges and jump.

Time keeps moving.

Sometimes I wonder: did really I have a plan for my life? How did the path I walked compare with the clean-penciled-plan I once scribbled in the notebook? Have I at long last let go of my plan or am I making it up as I go?

I have at the very least learned that I control almost nothing. The river is so much bigger than I am.

I now see that I spent an inordinate amount of time swimming against the river. That was exhausting. I have discovered that it is so much better to give over and let the river carry me. Saul-the-Tai-Chi-master used to say, “Let the energy move you.” Kerri says, “Gear down”.

I do not really understand Narcissus and a life of study in a monastery. Goldmund, on the other hand, I know like the back of my hand. One can study the river from a book or one can go to the river.

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE SAILBOAT

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Filed under: Awakening, Identity, KS Friday, Metaphor, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Hermann Hesse, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, metaphor, Narcissus and Goldmund, seekers, Siddhartha, story, studio melange, the melange, yearning | Leave a comment »

About Icky [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on September 3, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

I knew something was up when she emailed the photo to me. She was watching me out of the corner of her eye when I clicked on the file to open the photo. That’s never a good sign. Then, she was just a smidge too intense, one step away from a giggle, when she asked, “Do you notice anything odd about this photo?”

Some dads nickname their daughters “Peanut” or “Princess”. Kerri’s father nicknamed her “Brat”. I take some small comfort knowing that her tendency for mischief was known and acknowledged early in her life. I imagine – check that…I know her brat-hood has only grown more sophisticated over time.

“When I look at this photo, it makes me feel icky; motion sick,” she said, staring at me. That’s called blow back. Since meeting Kerri I’ve only driven the car a handful of times. She suffers from extreme motion sickness; riding in the passenger seat strikes terror in her heart. Sitting in the backseat of a car is more than she can bear. Driving the car is her only option. I have become an excellent passenger. Also, since I never drive, I’ve taken no responsibility for knowing where I am; I’ve lived in this town for 13 years and rarely know how to get from point A to point B. It’s been a zen-lesson in giving over. The photo was upside-down which stirred her motion sickness – but I pretended not to grok it.

Side note: It is too tempting to draw a parallel between Kerri’s marina-flip and the state of the nation. So I won’t do it other than to ask, “Do you notice anything odd about the government of this country?” It definitely makes me feel icky. Democracy upside-down is fascism and that can’t feel good to anyone with a soul.

Brat studied me as I studied the photograph. “Does it make you feel icky?” she asked, a bit too enthusiastically. Schadenfreude.

“No!” I replied. I’ve learned that the best defense against a brat-moment is to feign nonchalance. “It’s odd but it doesn’t make me feel icky.”

“It’s flipped over!” she cried! “It’s upside down. The reflection is at the top! How can that not make you feel icky?” She cried, indignant. “Didn’t you notice?” she frowned.

“Oh, wow!” I pretended to notice for the first time. “That’s cool. Why does that make you feel icky?” I asked.

“Because it’s upside-down!” she declared, outraged. Disappointed.

I should have confessed that the photo made me feel off-balance because, the top of the list in Kerri’s Brat Book of Rules is this: “If at first you don’t succeed, escalate.” Now I have to watch my back.

Side note: Oy! It is way-too tempting to draw a parallel between rule #1 in Kerri’s Brat Book of Rules and the state of the rogue government as we roll into the midterms. So far they haven’t succeeded in rigging the election so they are escalating. If we want our democracy to emerge intact, right-side-up, we have no choice but to watch our backs.

It all makes me feel icky.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE MARINA FLIP

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Random, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, blow back, brat, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, icky, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, mischief, motion sickness, story, studio melange, the melange, tricks, upside down | 1 Comment »

A Great Paradox [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on September 2, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.” ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

It’s a great paradox, is it not? We have the capacity and desire to send telescopes into deep space. The James Webb telescope captures miracle images, exploring the origins of the universe while also searching for other inhabited planets. At the same moment, we have the capacity to pour so much carbon into our atmosphere that we endanger life on our own planet.

Humanity.

Just so, we are capable of curing diseases that have plagued humankind for eons while also ignoring the gains of medical science and allowing deadly viruses to run rampant throughout our community.

Reality.

I suppose the reality-disparity depends upon which story we choose to embrace since we are, after all, a storytelling mammal. The daily flood of “information” contains wildly conflicting points of view, conspiracy theories, propaganda, AI videos and images…It’s enough to make a story-brain want to retreat to a simpler time of firelight and paintings in a cave.

Progress.

Out of the fire light of the cave came stories of our beginning. We emerged into the light from all manner of darkness. We’ve since storied ourselves with an abundance of spiritual teachers who deliver surprisingly similar messages though their respective followers can’t seem to get along. Love is the message though it seems who delivers the message is a point of contention.

Power.

We are certainly capable of telling stories of division and threat. We are also capable of telling stories of service and sacrifice. And what is the point of progress if not to improve lives? All lives. We serially confuse two concepts that appear to be related but are actually opposites: Power and Control.

Power is a group sport. It is relational and created between people. Power is given. It is shared. Powerful people empower others.

Control is the opposite. It is the dream of the individual. Control is taken from the many. It is hoarded. Controllers disempower others.

Democracy is progress. It is based on a fundamental belief in empowering people. Government of, by and for the people.

Authoritarianism is a throwback. Feudal. It is deeply-rooted in the need to control. Control rests with one person or a small elite. Government of concentrated control demanding blind obedience from a powerless people.

What is the point of progress? Power or control? I suppose it depends upon which story we choose. Adherents of power-stories send telescopes into deep space for the betterment of humankind. Adherents of control-stories pour carbon into the atmosphere for personal gain.

Power created together leads to expansive love, inclusion. Control generates reductive hate, exclusion.

Which story will win the day? It’s a choice. It’s a great paradox, is it not?

read Kerri’s blogpost about DIVERGENT PATHS

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Identity, Metaphor, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, autocracy, community, control, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, division, humanity, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, love, paradox, power, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Standing At The Intersection [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on September 1, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

It never fails when we pass this point on our walk, I am taken by the meeting of the compass and the call of the horizon. The history of western civilization might be written at the intersection of horizon and compass.

We are the children of explorers. Our ancestors sailed into the unknown, developing a relationship with the stars so they might locate themselves in their travels. So they might someday find their way home. They evolved tools of measurement and directionality. For the western mind, the horizon necessitated the creation of the compass.

It seems to me that we explore so we might know who we are. We map so we might better locate ourselves.

People come to the compass-at-the-lake to stand at the rail and stare at the horizon. They lose themselves in their memories or in their imaginings. They feel safe behind the rail yet pulled to reach beyond it. It’s rife with paradox. It’s a good place to feel the breezes from the lake while sorting personal truth or getting lost in the questions.

They also come to the compass to take a selfie. To locate themselves in a picture-moment and share it with their friends. “Right now, I am here.” Explorers all, in a constant state of asking, “Where am I?”

And the greatest paradox of them all: if we happen to answer the question, if we happen to locate ourselves with any sense of permanence, we will grow restless and immediately look to the horizon and ask, “I wonder what’s over there?”

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE COMPASS AND THE HORIZON

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Filed under: Identity, Metaphor, Possibility, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, compass, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, exploration, horizon, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, locate, mystery, question, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Walk In Dolly’s Shadow [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on August 31, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

This morning it occurred to me that, since the sitting president likes to slap his name on everything, we ought to lean into his need and help him out. Trump Cyclospora. Trump Measles. Trump SNAP Elimination. Trump Healthcare Calamity. Trump Food Chain Collapse, Trump Housing Crisis. Trump Un-Affordability Campaign. Trump D.C. Defilement, Trump Superpower Suicide, Trump Military Misuse…There are so many! More and more every day. Trump Global Humiliation.

I learned in kindergarten that it was appropriate to give credit where credit is due.

Walking the path that connects the marina to the channel, the rocks of the seawall are periodically painted with slogans and messages. I saw, “NO KINGS!” “Be Happy!” and “Be Kind.” All messages were the same color so I’m assuming they came from the same graffiti writer. The NO KINGS rock was directly related to the Be Kind and Be Happy rocks.

To be (verb): to exist, to have a specific identity or quality, or to occupy a place. “To be” is a verb. It is an action. We are what we do. To be kind is to do acts of kindness. Same-same.

Kindness is a choice.

Viktor Frankl wrote that happiness follows: chasing happiness is folly since it is the blossom of acts of kindness or generosity. Happiness arises when we focus on something outside ourselves, like helping another person, or committing action to a greater purpose (service to others). To be kind is a doorway to being happy.

If you have not read Heather Delaney Reese’s post (8.26.26) comparing the 80 years of actions, the 80 years of choices, made by Dolly Parton with the 80 years of actions and choices of Donald Trump, it’s worth a read. Dolly’s being was kind and happy because her actions were considerate and generous. The other guy, the sitting president, accumulates stuff while stamping his name on everything. His being is mean-spirited and selfish. He can’t seem to find the happiness he’s looking for.

It’s a comparison that illuminates the gap between our nation’s rhetoric and our current actions. It is a comparison that begs the question who we’d rather model, whose example we’d rather follow?

“If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow.” The Dhammapada

Happiness followed Dolly like a shadow. The other guy? Well…

I don’t know about you but I’d rather walk in Dolly’s shadow.

read Kerri’s blogpost about KINDNESS

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Filed under: Identity, Language, Merely A Thought Monday, Uncategorized | Tagged: actions, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Dolly Parton, happiness, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, kind, kindness, service, story, studio melange, the melange, to be, Viktor Frankl | Leave a comment »

An Aspiration [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on August 28, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

One of the first things I noticed on the day I met Kerri, the day that I first stepped foot in the house, was the abundance of peace signs. There was a peace sign dangling from the rearview mirror of LittleBabyScion. There was a peace sign decal on the back of LBS. There were peace sign necklaces hanging from the bathroom mirror. Peace sign ornaments hung from doorknobs and in front of windows. Peace signs were integrated in the kitchen and the living room. She had surrounded herself with an aspiration, a dedication to peace. The house felt like a sanctuary.

We’ve added a few more since my arrival. Peace has found its way into the garden, prominent in winter while in the summer it peeks from behind the tall grasses.

I wondered about the origins of this ubiquitous-in-our-house symbol. I thought I’d find something ancient but instead learned that it reaches back less than a century. “..its very design was inspired by naval semaphore code. Semaphore is traditionally employed by seafarers who use flags held in different positions to communicate across distances…“ The peace sign is an integration of the “N” and the “D” of semaphore code. “N” and “D” signaled nuclear disarmament.

When I was in elementary school we practiced drills, crawling beneath our desks in case a nuke was dropped nearby. I’m certain the desk would not have protected us from annihilation but at least our last moments on earth would be an attempt to live. “In the United States, along with the underlying threat of the Cold War and nuclear disaster, additional tensions brought on by the Vietnam War and the fight for Civil Rights ramped up the movement for peace. Anti-War and Civil Rights activists took on the symbol for nuclear disarmament as a symbol for all peaceful causes.”

The peace symbols that surround us in our sanctuary home have taken on new import lately. Actually, it is not new import, it is renewed import. An aspiration for peace is much more than quaint. During the Cold War, when a little version of me was crawling beneath my desk, people took to the streets to protest very real threats. Nuclear holocaust in the world and racist inequity at home. It is ironic that the man currently pretending to be president has willy-nilly tossed us into a war with the excuse of preventing Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon. A made-up boogeyman. A non-existent threat. And, the children in Iran who perished died at our hands and had no time to crawl beneath their desks.

Masked men who objectively answer only to the pretender-in-chief (not the law) roam the streets, shooting citizens while snapping up black and brown women, men, children and old people, whisking them away to concentration camps. Right here in the USA. Here, in the land of the free and the home of the brave. We are in a war with ourselves, enacting horror on a daily basis to address problems that do not really exist but have been whipped up to divide us. To assault our peace.

Is there not an immediate need to reignite and rally behind the symbol of peace? “N” + “D”?

The elementary school children today practice a survival drill necessitated, not from a foreign enemy, but from an internal threat. A young man with a military grade weapon who has more protected rights than do the children and teachers he will kill. The desk, the door, the teacher will not protect the scrambling children from annihilation but at least their last moments on earth will be an attempt to live.

Not so long ago this nation prided itself as being a beacon of hope. We aspired to be “The shining city on the hill.” A place where people of all backgrounds might come to make a better life for themselves. A sanctuary. Although glacial, we’ve moved ever closer to the equality promised in our Declaration of Independence from a tyrant king.

Today, our national body hosts a fast-moving cancer, a tyrant-cult, that eats our guts from the inside. We have one remaining shot at survival and it is to use the only tool left to us, the primary tool of governance by the people: vote. Vote for the restoration of peace. Vote for the end of this corruption and abuse. Vote. Ducking beneath the desk and hoping that we will survive is, as it has always been, an illusion meant to distract the children, giving them something to occupy their minds before the end.

We cannot act like children. Vote. Protect your vote rather than hide beneath your desk. Is there not an immediate need to reignite and rally behind the symbol of peace? Are we not standing on deck waving our flags over and over again: “N” + “D”? Is there not an imperative to remember what we stand for, what ideals populate our founding documents? Isn’t it time to reclaim who we aspire to be?

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about PEACE

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Filed under: KS Friday, Metaphor, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, boundaries, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, hope, ideals, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, nuclear disarmament, peace, sanctuary, story, studio melange, symbol, the melange, vote | 1 Comment »

Who We Are Not [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on August 27, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

For a few short weeks, peeking from beneath the tall grasses in the front yard, we had a single yellow flower. A volunteer. A bright yellow visitor that perked up our days. The question of what type of flower remains. “It’s definitely not mules-ears,” Kerri said, comparing the results of her Google search to the photograph.

We do not know what it is but we do know what it is not.

I’ve often heard that in our democracy, we must redefine ourselves every day. Democracy is a living thing. It is a relationship. Governance of, by and for the people is, well, dynamic. We rarely know with certainty who we are – by design. We are, by design, a diverse nation, fluid in our aspirations – not fixed as is the case in authoritarian regimes. However, in these times, it is increasingly apparent, and vitally important, to know who and what we are not.

We are not maga. We are not a cult of personality.

We are not supremacists, white or otherwise.

We are not fully conservative or wholly progressive.

We may currently be lost in the woods but we are not arsonists who would burn down the forest.

We may be gullible but we are not stupid.

We pride ourselves on our individualism. It is high time that the party of red, those who tout themselves as the guardians of individual rights, recognize what they have become. They no longer know who they are. They most certainly have become what they claim that they are not. Afraid of speaking truth. Afraid of acting independently. Followers of a man rather than stewards of a nation of laws. They followed a liar into the swamp but are they lemmings who will follow him over the fascist cliff?

Those wearing red hats with hearts full of fear have helped me know who I am by showing me unequivocally what I am not. I believe they are doing the same for the majority of this nation. At this juncture, amidst the wreckage and global humiliation, we may not know who we are but we are rock-solid certain in knowing who we are not.

In Prayer, 67″x64″ mixed media on canvas

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE YELLOW FLOWER

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Identity, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, aspiration, contrast principle, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, governance, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, MAGA, story, studio melange, the melange | Leave a comment »

An Avalanche of Change [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on August 26, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Who knows why the mind associates one thing with another? Synapse firing often seems senseless. Sitting in the backyard, the warm orange and yellow sunset reflecting on the back fence, calling attention to the rusty sunflower, I was transported back in time to the Little Theatre, a converted mechanics shop tucked beside the maintenance yard on a high school campus. I ran a summer theatre program in that ramshackle-yet-sacred building for several years.

The memory that caught me while staring at the ferns and sunflowers at sunset was the day I arrived in town and found students stripping the asbestos insulation from the wiring of all the lighting instruments. Their teacher, the woman who taught theatre during the regular school year, had recently read an article about the dangers of asbestos. Since the lighting instruments were old and likely insulated with asbestos, she thought it was a good idea to have her students remove the insulation from the instruments.

I was gobsmacked. Asbestos is not dangerous until disturbed. Lighting instruments, like all things electrical become dangerous when the wiring is exposed and stripped of insulation. Not only was she exposing her students to the danger that she was trying to avoid but she was rendering the electrical equipment dangerous and a deadly fire hazard. She had good intentions. She had no idea what she was doing. In one fell swoop, she endangered her students lives on multiple fronts while ruining every single lighting instrument in the theatre.

I don’t know how ferns and sunflowers evoked that memory but I know where it took me: it immediately became a useful analogy for the current administration. Since they’ve cut and stripped regulations and oversight protections, Cyclospora, salmonella and eColi are run amok in our food chain. Measles are back with a vengeance. The Navy can’t feed its sailors as we fight a war without a reason. The oil reserves are disappearing. The healthcare system is collapsing. The justice department is soiling itself. Inflation is rising, but not nearly as fast as the national debt. They do not know what they are doing. They are stripping the asbestos from the lighting instruments. They let loose The Doge, elevated the Sycophants and are daily placing us in harms way while hampering our capacity to function. They are like the theatre teacher though not so well-meaning. This group is self-serving in its ineptitude.

Thankfully, my analogy doesn’t stop at the destruction. The actions of the theatre teacher ultimately served to remove her from her position. It was easy to see that she was a danger to her students and herself. The immediate necessity of having to resurrect or replace the lighting equipment was a tiny pebble that began an avalanche of change. In a few years there was a new theatre building with rehearsal space and shop space and updated technology. Our capacity to function not only improved, it opened doors to previously unimaginable possibilities.

That is my hope as I watch this kakistocracy systematically strip the insulation from our democratic wires. It’s becoming easier and easier to see that they are a danger to the people, the nation and to themselves. Ultimately, they will be removed and held accountable. The immediate necessity of fixing what they broke will lead to an avalanche of change that will prevent incompetence from every again grabbing the reins of the nation, and will open doors to previously unimaginable possibilities.

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(During my time at the Little Theatre I would often take a break at sunset, climb to the roof and watch the world bath in warm orange and yellow light. I would take a breath in a busy day before climbing back down the ladder into the vibrant creative space – my laboratory space – that was a small black box theatre made from a converted mechanics shop. Sacred space. Maybe those synapses make sense after all.)

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE SUNFLOWER SUNSET