There was a moment yesterday when I paused. I was happy and contented. There was warmth on my face, and I was with the great love of my life. It was a perfect moment in the place that over and over again in my life has been a point of beginning, learning, evolution and dreaming. The place of new beginnings and the land of imagination has a name that is famous the world over.
California.
There was a poem that captured an era a lifetime or two ago. It has always stirred me in the direction of respect and achievement with immense gratitude for the achievements of our ancestors, who are constantly denigrated under a kaleidoscope of weakness and stupidity that pronounces itself as virtuous. Let us change the words of an old poem for a new day in America:
Bring me women to match my mountains
Bring me women to match my mountains,
Bring me women to match my plains,
Women with empires in their purpose
And new eras in their brains.
Bring me women to match my prairies,
Women to match my inland seas,
Women whose thoughts shall pave a highway
Up to ampler destinies,
Pioneers to cleanse thought's marshlands,
And to cleanse old error's fen;
Bring me women to match my mountains--
Bring me women!
Bring me women to match my forests,
Strong to fight the storm and beast,
Branching toward the skyey future,
Rooted on the futile past.
Bring me women to match my valleys,
Tolerant of rain and snow,
Women within whose fruitful purpose
Time's consummate blooms shall grow,
Women to tame the tigerish instincts
Of the lair and cave and den,
Cleanse the dragon slime of nature--
Bring me women!
Bring me women to match my rivers,
Continent cleansers, flowing free,
Drawn by eternal madness,
To be mingled with the sea--
Women of oceanic impulse,
Women whose moral currents sweep
Toward the wide, infolding ocean
Of an undiscovered deep--
Women who feel the strong pulsation
Of the central sea, and then
Time their currents by its earth throbs--
Should there not be change and evolution in America?
Should there not be a new season of rebellion against a broken politics that declares the career politician a new version of an English Lord with all the entitlements, privileges and protections that come from a rigged system where the privileged are
anointed at birth, not by the merit awarded from struggle, failure and achievement?
Should there not be a rebellion against a great toxic fog of division spewed forth as the billion dollar bile of a great disunion economy that monetizes strife and disharmony at the expense of unity and understanding?
Should there not be an argument for new, better and different within our corrupted, sclerotic and appalling national conversation?
It was 3 pm, and my love told me it was time to write for today.
I said I had no idea what happened in the news today. It didn’t really seem to matter. Isn’t that the point?
I love going to America’s National Parks. They are divine. I love seeing the wildlife within them. I love seeing the elk, reindeer, cougars, moose and black, grizzly and polar bears that reign in America’s last wild places. When I have encountered these magnificent creatures I have never failed to be awed and humbled. I always hope to encounter evidence of God’s magnificence, omniscience and majesty in nature. When I don’t, I don’t count it as evidence of absence around his majesty.
In other words, while I hope to see a Karen attack on any given flight or Starbucks line I know that the Karen is not ubiquitous, but rare.
Are they dangerous? Not really, but sure, ok. They are deadly like a grizzly bear. The question should be asked though around how many people are actually killed by grizzly bears, rattlesnakes, sharks, tigers and lions. It’s some, but not many.
Shouldn’t we embrace this concept as a society?
What was happening in America yesterday? Almost nothing anyone saw on cable news, Instagram, TicTok or any other empty vessel or mirror of our pathetic age.
What happened yesterday? Maybe what happened is what happened right in front of your face. What happened for me was this: I remembered how lucky I am to be with the most beautiful person I’ve ever known. For that I was grateful. I’m in love and deeply lucky.
That’s what happened for me yesterday. Maybe what happened for you was found on CNN or in The New York Times. If it was, good for you.
For the rest of us, I always think about these lyrics by John Denver as the days pass by: “A poor man I’d be if I never saw an eagle fly.”
Grateful for love. Grateful for my wife. Grateful for my kids and family. Grateful for America. Grateful for tomorrow. Grateful for friendship and for the fight to make it all better.
I’m grateful for you today in telling your truth. I had a wonderful weekend with my love as well as we navigate through the process of healing from my breast cancer diagnosis. We’re people who get our energy through nature and hiking, beauty in art and music, writing, and reading history. So, your loves speak to me this morning. Thank you. Stay safe. Safe grounded. Stay on top of your game.
We need more to voice sentiments like this, Steve. We are not making enough progress. ✌️
“…in spite of these spectacular strides in science and technology, and still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.” - Martin Luther King Jr. 12/11/64