republican | The Direction of Intention

Golden Hour [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on November 7, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ~ Plato

We’ve planted tall grasses in both our front and back yards. This is our favorite time of year to watch the magic dance of the grasses. They put on their suits of warm autumn colors, yellow, orange and purple, and during golden hour, they literally glow while swaying in the breeze. It is sometimes shocking how beautiful they become in the golden hour.

I just learned that there are two meanings to the phrase “the golden hour.” The first refers to the quality of diffused warm light in the period shortly before sunset or just after sunrise. The second is new to me: “The term also has a separate, critical meaning in emergency medicine, referring to the first 60 minutes after a traumatic injury during which time is of the essence for surgical intervention.” (Wikipedia) The chances of survival are greater if treatment begins within the golden hour.

It was the phrase “willful ignorance” that stopped my scroll, landed me on Plato’s quote. It made me laugh. It is a phrase that, for me, now encapsulates the republican party, maga, and anyone who daily consumes fox news. It is one thing to be ignorant. It is another to choose ignorance. We are witness to the path of destruction wrought on our nation by people who are willfully ignorant, people who fear the light.

The results of the recent election read like both definitions of the golden hour. The injury to our nation has been substantial but our chances of survival just increased with a just-in-time intervention. And, what felt like a rapid descent into darkness just entered a golden hour. Time will tell if this period of warm, diffused light is a sunset or a new beginning: sunrise. My hope is for the latter, a new day guided by people who are not afraid and who welcome the light.

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE GRASSES

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Filed under: KS Friday, Metaphor, Possibility | Tagged: artistry, beauty, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, fear, golden hour, hope, ignorance, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, light, plato, republican, story, studio melange, sunrise, sunset, the melange | 1 Comment »

Interchangeable! [David’s blog on saturday morning smack-dab]

Posted on September 27, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

There’s a debate raging in the republican ranks. They are dropping the elephant as their branding mascot in favor of either a sheep or a lemming. If I had a vote I’d go with lemming.

The animal symbol most associated with cowardice is, of course, the chicken but the committee eliminated the chicken as a possibility since they did not want to create a possible rooster confusion. Roosters are symbols of great fighters and protectors and that would be misleading in the republican re-brand.

Think about it. In the past week we’ve seen the most egregious breach of the first amendment in modern history. We’ve witnessed the president publicly call for the prosecution of his enemies while simultaneously telling the assembled leaders of the UN that they are destroying their countries. There are crickets from the grand ole party. Not a word. Not a spine. And, through it all, the party of “family values” actively protects the identities of a legion of pedophiles lurking in the Epstein files. A complete abdication of responsibility; an abandonment of reason and morality.

Sheep? Lemmings? Both have merit. Maybe a chimera! A symbolic creature made from the parts of lemmings, sheep and chicken! A chilemshep. A lemchickpeep.

Supine: failing to act or protest as a result of moral weakness. Who knew that “supine” and “republican” were interchangeable words!

read Kerri’s blogpost about SUPINE

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Filed under: smack-dab | Tagged: artistry, branding, chicken, chimera, cowardice, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, lemming, morality, republican, sheep, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Make Belief [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on May 27, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“People must surely be afraid, without knowing it, that their hold upon reason and sanity is precarious, else they would not so resent being asked to look at visual experience in a new way, they would not be so afraid of not seeing the world as they have always seen it and in the general publicly agreed way of seeing it.” Joanna Field (Marion Milner), On Not Being Able To Paint

We saw the little green men at an antique fair. They come in peace. I wondered so asked the Oracle Google why aliens – peaceful or not – are always depicted as green. The AI master responded:

“Green has been associated with aliens in folklore and mythology for centuries…” Forest creatures, fairies and sprites. Leprechauns…

“The term “little green men” gained popularity in the 1950s, coinciding with reports of flying saucers. This imagery was further popularized by movies and other media.”

“In summary, the “green alien” trope is a creative and cultural construct rather than a scientific expectation. It reflects how we use our understanding of life on Earth to imagine possibilities on other planets.”

A cultural construct. Imagining the possibilities of life on other planets has brought us to the common agreement that green is the color of aliens.

The term “common sense” refers to practical, sound judgment. In practice, however, common sense need not make sense at all. Common sense is not so much about feasibility as it is about group agreement. It is “common” sense, meaning that it is consensus. It need not be factual or practical.

When faced with overwhelming evidence that the earth is round, there are people on this round earth who adamantly insist that the earth is flat. They claim that it is common sense; one need only look at a flat horizon.

Similarly, conspiracy theories are rooted in “common” sense. Mob mentality is not rooted in reason. Lemmings regularly run over cliffs.

Common sense is not necessarily a representative of truth. Common sense need not be rooted in fact. Common sense is just as easily an agreement built on fiction or fantasy. MAGA is an example: a group awash in an agreement of a reality that is sourced in make-believe. Make-believe: make-it-up-to-create-Belief.

Make-Belief. It is the fox’s game. Is there really any sense to be made from an orange man in a blue suit spewing balderdash? Common or not? Simple minds united under red hats of outrage? Do little green men really arrive in saucers that fly? No sense required; only group agreement awash in nonsense. Like the Republican Congress. Common.

read Kerri’s blogpost about ALIENS

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Filed under: Perspective, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, common, common sense, conspiracy theory, cultural construct, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, fantasy, fiction, Joanna Field, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Marion Milner, reason, republican, sense making, story, studio melange, the melange | 3 Comments »

Consistent [David’s blog on saturday morning smack-dab]

Posted on February 22, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

Every day – every single day – I read in the news, from the mouth of some republican, two words of justification for the systematic destruction of our democracy: in the name of “transparency and accountability”. All the while the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is shuttered, the Inspectors General are fired. An opaque curtain is thrown over the workings of the DOGE.

I have a suggestion for the new Republican motto: Do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do. Of course, if there was nothing to hide, if they were honest, they’d work their agenda through Congress rather than govern by cloak and dagger.

Yesterday we went to the polls to vote for the state Superintendent of Public Instruction. The republican candidate, someone with low-bar-no-bar qualifications, said that she intended to bring to the office “transparency and accountability.” I rolled my eyes. At least they are consistent in their prevarication*.

It brought to mind a twist on something Quinn used to say, “If someone has to tell you that they are accountable, they probably aren’t.”

*Prevarication is the act of avoiding the truth, especially in a sneaky way. It can also mean being vague or evasive.

Read Kerri’s blogpost about TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

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Filed under: smack-dab | Tagged: accountable, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, GAO, honesty, justification, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, lies, prevarication, republican, story, studio melange, the melange, transparent | Leave a comment »

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