MLK | The Direction of Intention

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.

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE MIRAGE.

likesharespeakcommentsupportinformyourselfgivevoicebepeace…thankyou.

Filed under: KS Friday, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, aspiration, be peace, courage, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, Edmund Pettus Bridge, fascism, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Lake Tahoe, mahatma gandhi, MLK, moral compass, peace, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Two Idioms [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on January 20, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“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 Declaration of Independence of The United States of America, Congress, July 4, 1776

Today in the Rotunda, the symbolic center of our nation’s capitol, we bear witness to our nation willingly and publicly soiling itself. Our founding documents rendered little more than toilet tissue by a career-criminal swearing an oath to the Constitution that he has no intention of keeping. The oath administered by a Supreme Court judge who violated his oath to the Constitution by ruling the tyrant was immune from justice and, therefore, a king.

The tyrant did not arrive to the dais unassisted. A corrupted justice system, the complete moral collapse of the once grand old party, a gullible and/or apathetic* citizenry unwilling or incapable of discerning fact from fox-fantasy.

As we soil ourselves, we soil the world.

“Every man for himself!” is an idiom used in two distinct circumstances: 1) the moment when the ship is going down and no hope remains, and 2) when the rot of self-interest corrupts the heart of a community. “Every man for himself!” is the battle cry of giddy robber-barons plundering the public. Today, with the elevation of the tyrant, with the election of the oligarchy, we bear witness to both uses of the idiom. The ship of public service founders in a hog trough of personal gain.

It is no small irony that today we also celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., champion of The Civil Rights Movement, the voice of the nation’s conscience, protesting the racial discrimination written into our laws. An eloquent moral compass. A man with a dream guided by another idiom, “I am my brother’s and sister’s keeper.”

The line of division in our nation is now crystal clear, made symbolic by the two idioms colliding on our public calendar. Today there is no middle ground; we necessarily choose sides.

I believe more of us identify with, follow and uphold the example set by MLK. Today we can choose to celebrate the best of us. Today we can choose to be keepers of the dream.

Or, we can choose to applaud the worst of us. The man is unfit. He knows it. We the people know it. We need not resign ourselves to jump aboard an already stinking ship of thieves declaring loyalty to a character-less man with no greater vision than that of public plunder. Every man for himself. The idiomatic killer of the dream.

Today we can choose to be our brother’s and sister’s keeper. We. The People. Keepers of the dream.

Our sacred documents were written to prevent this moment of public debasement. It is astonishing on this day to see our founding documents, our highest ideals, so easily and with great ceremony flushed by the very people sworn to protect them.

*Approximately 90 million eligible voters did not vote in 2024, 36% of the electorate simply did not show up. Since DJT won the election with 77 million votes, slightly less than 50% of votes cast, he ascends the dais with less than 32% of the electorate. Less people voted for the despot than those who couldn’t be bothered to vote and stayed home. A sad and cautionary tale.

read Kerri’s blogpost about WE THE PEOPLE

sharesharesharelikecommentlikesupport…thankyou.

Filed under: Edges, Identity, Merely A Thought Monday | Tagged: artistry, corruption, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, inauguration, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Martin Luther King Day, MLK, Sacred, sacred documents, story, studio melange, The Constitution of The United States, The Declaration of Independence, the melange, tyrant | 3 Comments »

Speak Truth To Rot [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on January 8, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

The morning is cold and it snowed last night. The world is coated in white. A raucous murder of crows brought me to the kitchen window. I found the black birds cawing on the white snow both beautiful and foreboding. Edgar Allan Poe stepped in the room. Dostoyevsky. I have a dubious history with crows so they are at once fascinating and spine-chilling.

When I heard the crows I was reading about the fall of Rome. I’m not sure how I came to be reading about ancient Rome since I was searching for something else. I got snagged, followed the thread and went down a rabbit hole. I stopped on the phrase “political rot.” A poet’s phrase.

An Alice-in-Wonderland reference is apt for how I feel of the politics of our time: down a rabbit hole. Yesterday Kerri asked if a politician-in-the-news was a democrat or a republican and I answered, “I’m not sure anymore what a republican is…” Not an answer to her question; more a sad statement of our predicament. We will fall, like Rome, not because of the thunder-lies spewed by an angry man who would be emperor, but because of the complicity of those who remain silent so they, too, might stay in power. The very definition of political rot.

400 years separate Martin Luther and Martin Luther King. The first could no longer remain silent to the corruption of the church so he nailed his 95 Theses to the door. The second, Martin Luther King, could no longer remain silent to the horrors perpetuated on black citizens in “the land of the free…” For speaking out, Martin Luther was excommunicated by the church and condemned as an outlaw by the king. Martin Luther King was assassinated for giving voice to our national shame.

It takes courage to speak truth to rot. Rot never takes kindly to the voices of veracity.

Take heart. Rot always falls while truth reveals itself through the smoke and devastation.

Consider these words, spoken by Martin Luther and 400 years later by his namesake:

“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.” ~ Martin Luther

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

So much silence.

In my Roman read, two other phrases caught my eye, the very blossoms of political rot: “Civic pride waned…” and “Roman citizens lost their trust in leadership.” In complicit silence, history has no alternative but to repeat itself.

read Kerri’s blogpost about SILENCE

comment. share. like. support. all are appreciated

buymeacoffee is an invention with roots that reach back to Rome: a wild and wholly concept akin to patronage of the arts.

Filed under: Merely A Thought Monday, Pattern, Perspective | Tagged: Alice In Wonderland, artistry, church, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democrat, Dostoyevsky, history, history repeats itself, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Martin Luther, martin luther king, MLK, poe, political rot, politics, republican, Roman Empire, Rome, rot, story, studio melange, The Fall of Rome, the melange, veracity | 1 Comment »

Grok The Rule [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on January 2, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

“A good poem looks life straight in the face, unflinching, sincere, equal to revelation through loss or gain.” ~ David Whyte

A good rule of thumb in the visual arts: areas of high contrast, in color-or-value, come forward while areas of low contrast retreat. Landscape painters use this rule to create the illusion of foreground and distance. Abstract painters use this rule to move the eye around a composition.

Storytellers and poets use the same rule. High contrast creates interest. It grabs attention. Low contrast sets the environment, the mood. “Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing/ kept flickering in with the tide/ and looking around./ Black as a fisherman’s boot, with a white belly…” Dogfish by Mary Oliver.

Misused, it’s the rule-behind-the-reason that most of our news is “Breaking News!” False contrast. Hype. It’s the reason our national portrait is continually painted as divisive. High contrast pulls focus. The money follows the ratings so attention-grabbing is highly prized. Low contrast – like agreement, collaboration, sameness, community…truth – doesn’t generate the same level of interest or income.

Like all rules, there are worthy reasons to wield them. In the arts, the contrast principle is used to illuminate unity. To break an individual through to the experience of something bigger. To open questions. In our news-of-the-day, the rule is used to whistle a song-and-dance of discord and distraction. To separate into tribes. To manufacture the illusion of depth while sitting in shallow water.

The reasons to wield the rule are diametrically opposed.

It was a sad day when the young man, standing in our living room, told me that he would educate his child at home. His reason? He didn’t want his son to be stuffed with ideas. “Just the facts,” he said. “Just the facts.”

“Poor souls,” I thought of this man and his young child. How will they ever stare into the fiery face of democracy – an ongoing idea born of high contrast and wild ideas – the artistic kind, meant to bring people together in one nation under every possible god – like a poem. They won’t recognize democracy’s death when without question it slips like ashes through the fact of their fingers.

As for me, I’ll stick with the high and low contrast of Rumi, MLK, Shakespeare, Kahlil Gibran, Mary Oliver, Maya Angelou…

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ~ Rumi

[another worthy rule of thumb: never read the headlines prior to writing a post. All the icky-mush rushes to the foreground and permeates my brain]

read Kerri’s blogpost about FOG

like. share. support. comment. let us know you are out there.

buymeacoffee is a counterintuitive, highly appreciated, offering of support amidst a high contrast environment that keeps the artists among us hopping and hoping.

Filed under: Art, Edges, Metaphor, Perspective, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, barriers, color, community, contrast, contrast principle, david robinson, David Whyte, davidrobinsoncreative.com, discord, distraction, false contrast, hue, hype, ideals, ideas, illusion, Kahlil Gibran, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, love, Mary Oliver, maya angelou, MLK, poems, revelation, Rumi, separation, story, studio melange, the melange, unity, value, worth | 1 Comment »

Surface The Pattern [on DR Thursday]

Posted on September 23, 2021 by davidrobinsoncreative

Steve read my book and said he didn’t really understand the thing about pattern. His comment at first surprised me but then I realized he was actually reinforcing the point: we are unconscious to our patterning. We think in patterns. We see in patterns. Culture is pattern. Pattern is invisible and making it visible is a necessary first step in change processes.

The people who surface pattern are often seen by the mainstream as deviant or rebellious. Women demanding equal pay are attempting to make a pattern visible. The BLM movement is attempting to make a cultural pattern visible. Shining a light on longstanding oppression is never welcome in the halls of power.

The people who work to repress the visibility of cultural pattern, conserve the norms, generally claim a righteous superiority. They are keepers of the culture and feel threatened, even victimized, by the sudden visibility of cultural pattern. Exposure is always a threat to the existing pattern and no one relinquishes power or privilege without a fight. The current raft of voter suppression laws – made possible by the fantasy of a stolen election – is a great example. The Big Lie is a textbook example of how far people in power will go to hide a privilege-norm. It is, for us in these un-united states, not a new phenomenon; it is a longstanding well-guarded pattern.

Change happens when the patterns are surfaced. There will always be a tide that rises to extinguish the light of exposure. In the long run, those hardy voices that were, at first, branded as deviant or dangerous, we come to honor and respect. They refused to be silenced. We claim them as our heroes. MLK. Gandhi. Rosa Parks. Cesar Chavez. Susan B. Anthony. There are so many. It is no easy task to surface the patterns. The path of a light-shiner is dangerous and difficult.

John Lewis gave great advice for those dedicated to surfacing unconscious patterns: “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” He also said that, “…transformation will not happen right away. Change takes time.”

Opening eyes to unconscious pattern, to what is obvious yet unseen, is an artist’s path. Seeing beyond what you think you see…seeing beyond your field-of-dedicated-belief, being curious enough to question what you are being told – can you imagine anything more necessary – more vital – in our age of rabid-misinformation and desperate-pattern-suppression?

read Kerri’s blog post about PATTERN