democracy | The Direction of Intention

Send It Packing [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on April 16, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

There’s lots of silverware sets in the antique stores. The felt cases are deteriorating, the silver tarnished. They come from another era, dare I suggest, another mindset. We moderns are more interested in the latest-new. Unlike our ancestors, we’ve grown up in a world of planned obsolescence. We do not expect our appliances to last. Our children – like us – are not interested in grandma’s good china or in the fine silver. There is no place for it to go so it inevitably lands in the antique mall.

We have a different relationship with time than did our ancestors. We have a different relationship with the stuff of our lives. We need not make things last or make things that are intended to last. Central to our day-to-day functionality is technology and it rapidly changes, it is out-of-date the moment it arrives on the scene. If we are to keep up, if we are to be relevant in our world, we need to be more fluid than our predecessors. Making stuff that lasts, durability, is no longer high on the priority list. Changeability is the necessity.

I hear these questions a lot lately: How is it possible that I didn’t know that? How is it possible that I do not know the full history of this nation? It’s a question I ask myself almost daily. Oligarchs aligning with fascists to erase democracy is not new to our era. White nationalism is a river that runs through all the pages of our history book. Sadly, our present turmoil is not new. We’ve been here before. My hope is that we see it for what it is and treat it like an old silverware set. My hope is that this is the last cycle, that we are the generation that sends it packing to the antique mall. We’re not interested in passing it down or enabling another go-round. We’d like our children to have a future free of the rotting relic of racism.

Changeability is the necessity. A democracy free of the ugly hubris of the morbidly wealthy, a democracy that thrives on equality, is necessarily fluid, ever growing and adapting with the diverse nation it upholds. There is no useful place in our nation-home for the tarnished mindset of maga-white-nationalism. It is a relic. Its case is deteriorating. It needs to go.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE GOOD SILVER

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Filed under: Awakening, DR Thursday, Edges, Emergence | Tagged: antique, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, Diversity, equality, fixed, fluid, history, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, MAGA, mindset, racism, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Saddle Soap And Lavender [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on April 10, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Tom told stories of the phone his family had when he was a child. It was the kind with a crank. It required an operator, an actual person, to connect callers. It was a party line, meaning the single line was shared with multiple households. When I was a child, we were tethered to the phone by a cord. The phone was connected to the wall. It was possible to lift the extension – the other phone – and listen in. One line into the house with multiple phones sharing the line. And now we walk the world with our phones. They come with us everywhere we go. No sharing necessary. Considering how long it took humans to invent the wheel, the pace of change in our lifetime is breathtaking.

Tom also told me a story that is particularly poignant given our current state-of-the-union. When he was very young, an ancient woman would visit the ranch on Sundays. She had a driver and would remain in the back seat of her car. Tom’s mother would join her and they would chat for an hour. One Sunday the old woman opened the car door and asked Tom to join them. He was small and climbed onto her lap. She looked into his eyes and said, “I want to remember what I am about to tell you. When you are older it will matter. You are sitting in the lap of someone who sat in the lap of Abraham Lincoln.” She added, “He smelled of saddle soap and lavender.”

Skip a stone across time. My mentor told me a story about sitting in the lap of an woman who, as a child, sat in the lap of one of the most revered presidents in our history. I am merely three generations from that man and the republican party that he helped to create. A party formed to fight a war to end slavery, a party that believed in the promise of the Declaration of Independence, “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Their corruption and collapse has been sickening.

Take a moment and read The Declaration of Independence. Pay particular note to the list of grievances against the king. They read like a current list of abuses by the wannabe authoritarian who now sits behind and soils the resolute desk. “A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people”.

The man who smelled of saddle soap and lavender would not tolerate this tyrant. He would not sit in the same room with the men and women, the descendants of his republican party, who currently soil the of government, “of the people, by the people, for the people”. They are enablers of the same racist rot in our nation that Abraham Lincoln gave his life to defeat.

“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” ~ Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address

His words are not antiques. They are not out of style. They are as relevant today as the day he spoke them.

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE PHONE

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Filed under: KS Friday, Perspective | Tagged: Abraham Lincoln, artistry, corruption, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, equality, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, racism, republican, story, studio melange, The Declaration of Independence, The Gettysburg Address, the melange | 1 Comment »

If I Look For Them [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on April 7, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

If I look for them, there are signs of normalcy in these abnormal times. This week the striped squill popped up in the front yard. They are always the first comers, the flower-harbingers of spring. I am grateful that the plant life does its best to maintain nature’s routines. As far as the squill and day lilies are concerned it’s business as usual.

It’s a surprisingly powerful phrase: If I look for them. The striped squill would run amok in the front yard whether or not I decided to see them. They bring their promise of warmer times with or without my appreciation. Most years I look for them. I watch the patch of grass where they always first show themselves. I like to witness the pioneer squill, the early risers that poke through the winter grass and unfurl their striped-hope-petals. “Spring’s-a-comin’!” I sigh.

This year they surprised me. Lost in the daily crazy, the national nightmare, I simply forgot to look. In fact, I didn’t see them until the full striped squill chorus had arrived. There were so many that I couldn’t miss them. “Hello, old friends”.

This year, instead of being the augury of spring, they served a different purpose, perhaps a far more important purpose: a reminder of an age old lesson: I have the power to focus on hope just as I have to capacity to focus on all that is amiss in this nation. Both are necessary and it is far too easy to miss the hope in the onslaught of abuse. The assault on our democracy may be immediate but hope is by far more powerful.

If I look for them, I see the bearers of hope everywhere. I see them in the No Kings protesters, I see them in the volunteers at the food pantries, I see them in Marc Elias and Heather Cox Richardson, I see them in my friends and neighbors. Everyday I see multiple acts of kindness – but only if I decide to look for them. They are easy to miss, especially in the multiple acts of violence that dominate the media, the ubiquitous language of violence that permeates our politics. And yet, if I paid attention, if I counted and compared, the hope and kindness far outnumbers the ugliness.

The striped squill put me on notice: it is far too easy to get lost in the horror show. It is, indeed, important to pay attention to the arsonist’s fire burning through our democracy but it is equally important to keep sight of the many hundreds of thousands fighting the fire, the legions of people supporting the firefighters, calling out the lies, lending helping hands, stepping up to help in any way they can. They are everywhere, bearers of hope, believers in goodness, guardians of decency, heralds of the coming spring.

read Kerri’s blogpost about SQUILL

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Filed under: Gratitude, Seeing, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: appreciation, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, focus, Heather Cox Richardson, hope, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, kindness, Marc Elias, No Kings, seeing, story, studio melange, support, the melange | 1 Comment »

Weave [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on April 1, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

What are the odds that this wild daffodil will survive?

Context is everything. As is always true, to understand the big picture it is necessary to consider the circumstances. For instance, this seemingly healthy daffodil is bursting through the root ball of a recently fallen tree. It is suspended in air. Improbable. It is detached from solid ground. It was uprooted with the tree. Consider the full picture. What are the odds that it will survive?

Our word “context” comes from the Latin “contextus” which means “to weave together”. Weave together the facts.

This weekend we attended our local NO KINGS protest. Many of my fellow protestors asked (rhetorically) who is profiting from this orange-incompetent and his war-of-choice? Or, asked another way, “Why are we helping Russia undermine us again?”

The context is found in the word “again”.

With Robert Mueller’s passing we’ve had the opportunity to revisit the key findings in his investigation into Russia’s interference in our 2016 election. In addition to multiple indictments and convictions, overwhelming evidence of Russia’s interference, there is this: “A statement signed by over 1,000 former federal prosecutors concluded that if any other American engaged in the same efforts to impede federal proceedings the way Trump did, they would likely be indicted for multiple charges of obstruction of justice.”

The authroitarian-wannabe has lifted oil sanctions from Russia. Russia is now profiting mightily from the world’s oil crisis caused by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz. With their flow of money restored, Russia is both amping up its assault on Ukraine AND providing Iran with intelligence to better strike USA targets.

Weave. As the people took to the streets to protest NO KINGS, the administration welcomed a Russian delegation of lawmakers to Washington D.C. to begin normalizing relations.

Normalizing relations! What?

Who is profiting from our nation’s economic and moral suicide? While we prevent Venezuelan and Mexican oil tankers from reaching Cuba, we somehow find it acceptable to allow Russian tankers through the blockade.

Weave.

The survival of our democracy is the reason that the people are taking to the streets. Given the context, the threat to our survival is abundantly clear and it currently sits at the resolute desk. It leads a party that has proven itself incapable of or uninterested in governing a democracy.

What are the odds that this wild daffodil will survive? The answer is up to us.

read Kerri’s blogpost about WILD DAFFODIL

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Identity, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, authoritarian, context, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, election interference, justice, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, No Kings, Robert Mueller, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

The Responsibility To Truth [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on March 31, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

I just finished my read of John Steinbeck‘s, The Winter Of Our Discontent. If you asked me what it’s about I’d answer, “It’s the story of what happens when the responsibility to truth collapses.” It is a troubling story. It is perhaps more relevant now than when it was written.

“Responsibility to truth is a moral and intellectual obligation to seek, uphold, and communicate reality, exposing lies and maintaining integrity even when uncomfortable. It demands that individuals prioritize accuracy over popularity, ensuring that personal and public actions align with verifiable truth to combat deception and build trust.” ~ AI

We have phrases that provide cover for the abdication of responsibility to truth. Business is business. Dog eat dog. The twin gods of profit, Efficiency and Effectiveness, are not at all concerned with truth. The movement of the markets motivate our actions far faster than any impulse to truth. If truth was important to us, if we felt any obligation to it at all, The Epstein Class would already be in prison as would the current occupant of the White House. If truth mattered at all would we tolerate any of the many propaganda purveyors who daily justify, defend and spin obvious lies and grift?

In the free press truth is a casualty of ratings. Remember: business is business. If you wonder how we got to this fascist threshold look no further than the amoral anti-intellectual dedication to gain via falsehood. Democracy is concerned with the will of the people and is vibrant when built upon a shared responsibility to truth. Authoritarianism is concerned with personal gain and is built upon the exploitation of people and wild fabrication.

I took my “responsibility to truth” phrase with me on our hike. Sometimes stepping onto a trail is the equivalent of stepping out of the madness. The ick falls away. The reappearance of tender green, the emergence of new life, fills me with an undeniable truth of spring. It attaches me to the eternal and puts into perspective the momentary sickness of human political shenanigans. We make up reasons to go to war, we pull and push to gain control of “the narrative”, we hoard wealth as if there is not enough to go around, we imagine a pyramid and will kill to stand on the top or at least be interred within, our mummified bodies surrounded by heaps of gold, our faces carved into stone…and none of it has anything to do with simple truth. None of it bears an iota of responsibility to truth or integrity or basic reality. The ritual return of the buds transcends all of our illusions. The impulse to life reaches through the crocus, a ritual that precedes us by a many millennia – and will burst through the soil a thousand years after our carvings in stone and piles of gold erode and return to sand.

It’s hard to deny the truth of new buds. Our illusions of grandeur are passing. When future archeologists unearth the remnants of our civilization they will speculate about our society. Will they find us civilized? Will they find evidence of our societal collapse, our brutality and embrace of lies, our dog-eat-dog demise? Or will they discover the story of our transcendence of self, the reawakening of our obligation to future generations, our reclamation of the responsibility to truth?

read Kerri’s blogpost about BUDS

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Filed under: Identity, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, authoritarianism, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, exploitation, John Steinbeck, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, obligation, responsibility, story, studio melange, The Epstein Class, the melange, trust, truth | 1 Comment »

Ready For It [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on March 24, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

For a bit of context it’s important to note that last week we were pummeled by ferocious winds and freezing rain, followed hard upon by a blizzard and icy cold. And then, for a few days, the temperatures rose. Stepping out the front door we were surprised to find Day Lilies poking their tiny green fingers above the ground. How is that possible?

Yesterday, driving home from the trail, Kerri said, “It feels like spring is trying hard to punch through.” During our hike the sun was warm but the breeze still carried the winter cold. Not so long ago the winter cold was dominant but yesterday the spring sun definitely took the match.

“I’m ready for it,” I responded.

I sighed with relief when I saw the tender green Day Lilies break through. This winter’s siege has been metaphoric as well as actual. ICE. Epstein. A war of choice. Nonsense tariffs. The ugly return of 19th century imperialism, the whitewash of history, the eye-rolling invocation of the man-o-sphere and equally brain-numbing summons of the return-of-the-tradwife. An icy wind. A hard brain freeze. A fantasy fit for the stunted mentality of middle-school-bullies or white nationalists (same thing).

With the sun, sense is returning. Eyes dedicated to being closed are at last blinking open. Lies are fragmenting. Truth is breaking through the crusty soil and reaching for the warm air. It is a promise, a hope, that will one-day-soon blossom, a vibrant garden of veracity. The people have had enough of winter’s nonsense.

I don’t know about you but I am ready for it.

read Kerri’s blogpost about DAY LILIES

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Filed under: Emergence, Metaphor, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, cold, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, hope, ice, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, metaphor, promise, sense, story, studio melange, the melange, truth, veracity, warmth, winter | 1 Comment »

Feigning Blindness [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on March 23, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Conscious avoidance, often termed “willful blindness,” is a legal doctrine where a person is held legally responsible as if they had actual knowledge of a fact because they deliberately avoided confirming it.” ~ AI

I was having some fun at the expense of the republicans-in-congress, imagining the endless fodder they inspire for cartoons. These self-proclaimed cowboys strut through the halls of government yet quake in their boots at the prospect of independent thought. They fear acting or speaking without first seeking permission from their authoritarian-wannabe. These pretend cowboys will not mount their horses without first seeking approval of El Taco.

It would be hysterical if it were not so destructive to our democracy.

Conscious avoidance is a term in criminal law: “It requires that the individual subjectively believed a high probability of illegal activity existed but took deliberate actions to avoid learning the truth.” If they were not protected by law it would be an easy-peasy no-brainer to prosecute the entire Grand Old Party for their conscious avoidance of the grift, their see-no-evil antics providing cover for The Epstein Class, for their “Deliberate Indifference” to the war crimes currently enacted by this administration.

There are many ways of defining conscious avoidance but my favorite is this: “Acting with “eyes wide shut” to avoid confirming a suspicious fact.” It’s yet another possible cartoon: the elephant , like an ostrich, buries its head in the sand.

And what about criminality beyond deliberate indifference? The sham otherwise known as The Save America Act is a prime example. They are doing more than willfully blinding themselves, they are holding the gun during the robbery. They are actively and specifically attempting to disenfranchise voters. They are no witnesses but are active participants. This is criminality beyond indifference. It is corruption. El Taco is in trouble and wants his coward-posse to stop the democracy train. Instead of rugged cowboys these republicans are cut from the same cloth as Barney Fife. Only, as Kerri just cautioned me, Barney Fife was harmless. These clowns are dangerous.

While they are busy feigning blindness to the obvious destruction, we will remind them with our votes and our protests that we see them clearly. As a democratic nation, as a community, we refuse to blind ourselves or look the other way.

read Kerri’s blogpost about CONSCIOUS AVOIDANCE

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Filed under: Merely A Thought Monday | Tagged: artistry, Barney Fife, conscious avoidance, corruption, cowards, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, deliberate indifference, democracy, eyes wide shut, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Save America Act, story, studio melange, taco, the melange, voiceless, willful blindness | 1 Comment »

Ready To Drop [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on March 19, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

When Albert was discouraged about the state of humanity he’d say, “Just drop the bomb.” Although I haven’t seen him in years I heard myself whisper his discouragement-phrase this morning. How is it possible in a democracy that one of the major parties, after their gerrymander scheme backfired, would actually legislate to make it impossibly hard for citizens to vote? The news aptly reported, “It’s a solution looking for a problem.” Voter fraud is literally nonexistent in the USA. On the other hand fearmongering is alive and well. Lying has been elevated to an art form.

“They’ve lost the plot,” I murmured. “Just drop the bomb.”

That we are witnessing our government protect an international ring of pedophiles, bomb a nation to smithereens (kill people) without a reason, assault the once-free-press because they dare to report the news, isolate itself in a global economy (otherwise known as commit economic suicide), mountain-ize our national debt to give the morbidly-wealthy more wealth while simultaneously eliminating services and erecting obstacles for the citizenry, assault the very epicenter: our right to vote in a free and fair election…it begs the question: Did they ever really believed in government by, for, and of the people? This depth of depravity did not spring fully formed from the thigh of Zeus; it took decades of dedicated decomposition to achieve this degree of stink.

Last week, before the blizzard, before the power outage, before the impossibly bent power mast, the shattered roof shingles, the driving rain that found its way into the sun room, we sat in chairs on the patio and faced the setting sun. A rare day of warmth. We knew the storms were coming so we put off our work and banked some vitamin-D. The sun dropped behind the garage. It remained pleasant. In the waning light we ate dinner on the deck.

Those moments in the sun, the decision to delay work and take advantage of the precious warmth, gave us ample fuel to weather the cold and violent storm. It refilled our hope.

Albert’s famous phrase had an attachment. He’d follow “Just drop the bomb,” with, “We don’t deserve it.” When I asked him what he meant by “it”, he’d gesture, sweeping his arms in a wide arc. “All of it.” The beauty and majesty of life. The gift of each other.

After I heard myself utter, “Just drop the bomb,” I caught myself. “We do deserve it.” We deserve decency and honesty in our leaders. We not only deserve it but should expect it. We deserve media that does not whip up straw-men to intentionally divide us. We deserve a government that serves us rather than exploits us. They have, indeed, lost the plot.

Perhaps, as history suggests, we will survive this chapter when we recognize – when our government recognizes – that the people they are meant to serve ARE the bomb. They are in our sights and we are ready to drop.

We deserve better.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE SETTING SUN

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Edges, Power | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, decency, democracy, Epstein Class, government, honesty, hope, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, majesty, media, story, studio melange, the melange, We the People | 1 Comment »

Low Information Nightmare [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on March 17, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

We took down the chimes because we knew the blizzard was coming. We watched the monster winds , sleet and snow, approach on radar. I am forever grateful to have immediate access to weather radar so I know what’s coming. It saved us once-upon-a-time when we were caught in a tornado. Just after the winds lifted our car from the ground, we huddled behind a restaurant and watched the radar for a small break in the storm so we could make a run for safety.

Last night as the blizzard buffeted the house, as we ate bananas at 3am, we talked about all the things in the world about which we know nothing. Does ice on the tracks impact how the trains run? How do they move Anselm Kiefer’s monumental paintings from his studio to a gallery? In the age of Goggle it is possible to find out how to lay bricks but would I really know how to do it until I’d studied with a master bricklayer? At what point is abstract knowledge actually useful? At what point do we know what we are talking about?

Yesterday I heard a phrase roll through the news cycle that I’m coming to detest: low information voter. It’s sanitized language and brings up a number of questions for me. The first is obvious: are we mislabeling an intentionally misinformed voter as a low information voter? I’ve watched dozens of interviews with “low information voters” who are quite capable of regurgitating pat-phrases seeded into their brains from their source of misinformation. Are they then a low information voter?

The ghost of Neil Postman whispered in my ear:

“The question is not, Does or doesn’t public schooling create a public? The question is, What kind of public does it create? A conglomerate of self-indulgent consumers? Angry, soulless, directionless masses? Indifferent, confused citizens? Or a public imbued with confidence, a sense of purpose, a respect for learning, and tolerance? The answer to this question has nothing whatever to do with computers, with testing, with teacher accountability, with class size, and with the other details of managing schools. The right answer depends on two things and two things alone: the existence of shared narratives and the capacity of such narratives to provide an inspired reason for schooling.” ~ Neil Postman, The End of Education

Shared narratives. An inspired reason to ask questions and to seek greater understanding. These two things actually form a feedback loop. They are fluid and not fixed: greater understanding informs and evolves shared narrative which opens new questions. You might think that shared narrative and pursuit of greater understanding would be essential concerns for our democracy but we are learning – I am learning, much to my surprise – that is not true. Our narrative is intentionally divided. The current republican party openly and intentionally demonizes learning. Low information voters are easily manipulated and a political party empty of ideas and ideals relies exclusively on a voting public that readily swallows their rubbish.

If our democracy took itself seriously, would we tolerate highly profitable sources of misinformation? Would we so easily polish “ignorance” into a shiny phrase: low information voter? If we took our democracy seriously and intended to protect it, wouldn’t “low information voting” be unacceptable since the responsibility of casting a ballot is predicated upon knowing what you are voting for?

I live in the age of Google. I can see storms coming and that informs my choices: I take down the chimes. I secure anything that the wind will destroy.

I live in the age of Google. I can -and do – in a moment fact check any assertion that comes my way. For instance, I know that the Save America Act is not what it appears to be. It is a storm coming. It does the opposite of what it purports to do. It has nothing to do with voter ID and everything to do with preventing voters from voting. It is a straw man; incidence of voter fraud in the United States is statistically zero. Do low information voters know that? This wind will destroy our democracy.

The woke folk on my side of the divide read Project 2025 and learned from the chaos and grift of the first four years of the authoritarian wannabe. We screamed, “There’s a storm coming!” The necessary information – like weather radar – was readily available. It was easy to see. Low information is, in actuality, the unwillingness to look.

What’s happening now in our nation is not a surprise. The campaign to create low information voters was -and is – successful. Eliminate education. Demonize truth as a hoax. Create “alternative” facts (legitimize lies) while labeling actual news “fake”. Split the people.

If we survive the attempted take down of our democracy, an item high on my list of things to address is the elimination of the possibility of the low information voter. One need not have a mass of information in their brain to be educated, they only need the desire to question, the dedication to discern what is true from what is dross. One need only understand the need to check the radar and act accordingly.

“Because we are imperfect souls, our knowledge is imperfect. The history of learning is an adventure in overcoming our errors. There is no sin in being wrong. The sin is in our unwillingness to examine our own beliefs, and in believing that our authorities cannot be wrong.” Neil Postman, The End of Education

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE CHIMES

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Filed under: Perspective, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, education, information, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, misinformation, Neil Postman, questions, SAVE act, shared narrative, story, studio melange, The End of Education, the melange, truth, vote | 1 Comment »

The Naked Truth [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on March 12, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Watching a time-lapse of the vine you’d swear it was a conscious creature. Tendril arms search for supports, stretching. seeking and grasping, it knots itself around leaves and stems of competitors, twisting to strengthen its grip, competing to secure its place in the sun. It begs the question, how might we humans be in the world if we understood that plants were conscious, like us, awake and aware of their surroundings? Would we be more awake and aware of our surroundings? Or would we fear green consciousness and fill our mythos-minds with a Little Shop of Horrors? Feed Me!

This vine evokes The Gordian Knot. It is a tale in three parts. The first is the existence of an impossible problem. The second is the ease of the unforeseen solution. The third is the fulfillment of promise and prophesy. It seems in these times we have in these un-United States a substantial Gordian Knot. I am anxiously awaiting the unforeseen solution.

A Gordian Knot suggests that bold action is necessary to cut through a complex problem. In our case bold action is not a sword but the voices of innocence: in the story an innocent punched through the chorus of enablers by telling the emperor the truth. He is, in fact, naked. His majesty is make-believe. Our emperor already knows he is naked but surrounds himself with loud sycophants and bullies his fear-driven court to sing the praises of his imaginary cloak. The decades-long rape of innocents, the recent bombing of innocents, is a sharp sword cutting through the illusion.

Truth-telling in the face of rampant pathological lies is a bold action. It fits the bill. Truth-telling is, after all, surprisingly easy and, in time, always slices the hard knot of misinformation. It is now the only way for us to protect and fulfill the promise of our democracy against the would-be-fascists (republicans). The sharp truth, the voice of the innocents, calling out and cutting through the Gordian Knot of the Epstein Class and those who are afraid of shining light on the naked truth.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE VINE