Naomi Shihab Nye

"I want to be someone
making music with my coming."

Back in the 1970s, I was a loyal subscriber to the quarterly magazine Power: "Personal Reflections by Youth for Youth." Of course I was thrilled when some of my poems were accepted for publication; but that happened only three times.

On a more regular basis, however, I was filled with inspiration, searching the pages of each new issue for the latest poems by Naomi Shihab, a regular contributor at the time. Hers were always my favorites, so much so that I copied them all out by hand and made my own "Collected Poetry of Naomi Shihab." Certainly she was famous to me!

Those omnipresent Blue Books of my under-grad years, ever a symbol of fraught and fretful soul searching, were never put to better use. I have them with me to this day, and the poems inside, imprinted on my memory:

I would be no one.
I would have no head, no hair, no comb.

I would be the thin mist in the air of a cold morning;
I would rise and disappear early, before the sun
and the noisy streets and everyone moving.

I would hum and greet you when you awaken,
with no words, no face, no promise but my love,
like a river.

I would be here, be here, be here invisible, forever --
when all the braver ones have gone to hide --
when all these tears have years and years been dried.

Nowadays, unlike that olden era of pen to paper,
you can easily order
Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems
by Naomi Shihab Nye (b 1952)

and read the many Shihab Nye poems
scattered throughtout my blogs: ~ QK ~ FN ~ KL
as they have been throughout my life . . .

Where are you on
your spiritual journey?"
you ask, your sharp eyes
thumbtacking the question
on my heart.

What can I say?
I am somewhere beyond "go"
I have not stopped.

Years have shown me
the idea of travelling
is a game we play with ourselves
to pretend we're not home.

~ Naomi Shihab Nye ~

See SPIRITUAL JOURNEY,
Quotidian Kit, right - hand column,

Land Value Tax

Portrait of
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778)
by Charles Gleyre (1806 – 1874)

“The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows, 'Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.'” ~Rousseau

from the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1775)

*****************
If you agree with Rousseau, then you'll appreciate the research of Lars A. Doucet, who believes that it is "only a slight exaggeration to say that humanity's history is defined by a struggle over land" and we need to tax "those who gatekeep the most valuable locations and natural resourcs, things which were not brought into existence by anyone's hard work or investment" (xi, 160).

In his book, Land is a Big Deal Doucet reviews the work of Henry George (1839 - 1897), including his book Progress and Poverty (1879), his article "The Science of Political Economy" (1897), and his influence on the original version of the boardgame Monopoly.

If, like me, you were always the worst in your family at Monopoly and Settlers of Catan, allow Doucet to help you understand the intricacies of land acquisition. For example, "When you sell a piece of land to someone, you're participating in a chain of peacful land sales that began at some point in the past with a violent seizure" (xi). Doucet has a lot of fun with the phrase "By George" as he explains Georgism and Land Value Tax to the beginner.

A few highlights:

p 4: "If I had to summarize George's book in a single sentence, I would put it this way: "Poverty and wealth disparity appear to be perversely linked with progress; The Rent is Too Damn High, and it is all because of land."

p 6: "He [George] then explains why the existing system causes poverty to advance alongside progress, and why we see industrial depressions. Then, he identifies the root cause of the problem (land ownership and speculative rent) and presents his solution (the Land Value Tax)."

pp 7 - 8, 62: "If we finally have the necessary material conditions and technology for utopia, why this suffering, waste, and inefficiency? . . . the man lays the blame at the feet of progress itself . . . the resiliance of poverty, oppression, and inequality in the face of advancing econimic development is . . . an inescapable consequence of our socioeconomic system. . . . where the value of land is highest, civilization exhibits the greatest luxury side by side with the most piteous destitution."

[Likewise Karl Marx: "From day to day it thus becomes clearer . . . that in the selfsame relations in which wealth is produced, poverty is produced also; that in the selfsame relations in which there is a developent of the productive forces, there is also a force producing repression . . ."]

p 13 - 14: “Yes, greed, evil, and human nature will always be with us, but isn’t it weird that we haven’t eliminated these economic problems the same way we’ve eliminated Smallpox, Scurvy, and having to write your scathing polemics about Thomas Jefferson by candlelight with a goose feather?”

p 15 - 16: "By George, what is wealth?

Wealth is produced when nature's bounty is touched by human labor resulting in a tangible product that is the object of human desire. . . .

[quoting Henry George 1897] 'It is never the amount of labor that has been exerted in bringing a thing into being that determines its value, but always the amount of labor that will be rendered in exchange for it.' In other words, 'a thing's value is whatever someone is willing to pay for it.' "

89: "Does this mean that there can never be profitable landlords ever again? Of course not -- they just have to earn their living honesty like everyone else." [See also, Evicted]

p 102, 167, 247: "The purpose of Land Value Tax is not just to raise revenue, but to end speculation, rent - seeking, unaffordable housing, and wasteful, environmentally damaging sprawl. LVT is worth doing for those good effects alone. . . . By George, a Land Value Tax would solve this! . . . [because] Land can't run or hide. Best of all, you can't evade Land Value Taxes by obscuring land ownership though shell corporations, because the tax doesn't care who owns it."

246: "The right question is not 'can the rich game this system?' but rather, 'can they game it less than the existing one?' This is why we should keep standardized tests, even though rich people can and do game them. (The evidence shows that, on balance, standardized tets are one of the few ways a minority student from a poor background even has a chance to move upwards) . . . "

247: "Finally, defeatism is corruption's best friend. If you believe everything I'm saying here, and your only obstacle is fear of corruption, and you accept that LVT's vulnerability to corruption is not any worse than the status quo's -- then why not just get out there and fight for the world you want to see? Nothing good ever came without a struggle."

See also: Liberty and Justice For All
& Is There A World You Long To See?

The Spirit of Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau
leads them to the Immortality Temple
Anonymous, French School, ca 1794

Adam Gopnik: "As Tocqueville saw half a century later, home-making, which ought to make people more selfish, makes them less so; it gives them a stake in other people’s houses. It is not so much the establishment of a garden but the ownership of a gate that moves people from liking a society based on favors to one based on rights. Enclosing his garden broadened Voltaire’s circle of compassion. When people were dragged from their gardens to be tortured and killed in the name of faith, he began to take it, as they say, personally.

from "Voltaire's Garden: The Philosopher as a Campaigner for Human Rights"

With Liberty and Justice for All

I have not identified as a Nazarene for many years;
however, it's almost as tough being a former Nazarene
as it was being a current one, way back in the day,
when you could barely be straight, let alone gay.

So, yes . . .

Previous Posts of Spiritual Introspection
&
Photography by Thomas Oord

40: "Nazarenes often cite a line attributed to Phineas F. Bresee: 'In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity.'"

~ worth repeating ~
60: "Far better to follow the advice of Phineas Bresee and many others: 'On essentials, we seek unity. On nonessentials we allow freedom. In all things we seek to love.'"

66: "What won't happen is that every single member of the Church of the Nazarene awakes one morning and simultaneously says, 'we should change the statement on human sexuality and marriage today.' Instead, change takes time."

74: "As we look at the scripture we find numerous examples of those who questioned the Status Quo, including Jesus. Both then and now we find that the 97% are not always on the right side of history or of the God who loves and justifies . . . and promote[s] relationships over rules."

88: "Both institutions [Wesley Biblical Seminary, Mississippi; and Kentucky Mountain Bible College] claim the original documents of the Bible are inerrant. That's not what we find in the Church of the Nazarene's Manual. The idea that the original biblical autographs are inerrant is not only unverifiable. It's the kind of claim you'll find in Calvinist-oriented institutions like Wheaton."

above quotations found in
My Defense: Responding to the Charges
that I Fully Affirm LGBTQ+ People

Yet another topic of inequity . . .

"Finally, defeatism is corruption's best friend.
If you believe everything I'm saying here,
and your only obstacle is fear of corruption . . .
then why not just get out there and fight
for the world you want to see?
Nothing good ever came without a struggle."
~ Lars A. Doucet ~

Is There A World You Long To See?

To be continued . . .

Professor Walton

Margaret's Book
by James H. "Jay" Walton
September 23, 1937 – April 8, 2012

Facebook Post ~ February 20 2024

As I have mentioned before, Jay Walton was one of my major professors at Notre Dame, as was Pete's dad, Joe Buttigieg. Out of curiosity, and respect for Walton's work, Margaret's Book had long been on my "to read" list. A few summers ago, it had worked its way to the top, so I went to amazon, found the paperback at Better World Books, and clicked on "buy now." Imagine my surprise when my "used like new" copy arrived a few days later and I opened the flyleaf to discover that it was the copy that Professor Walton had inscribed to Pete Buttigieg! Sadly, no date is given.

Perhaps this is not the most sensational of all the amazing flyleaf inscription stories floating around out there, but I think it is a pretty good one. And it will be even better if Pete becomes President one day! In one of his 2019 speeches, Pete said that an occupational hazard of being a young politician is that all the grown women want to pat him on the head. Awwwww! That's when it occurred to me that I probably did pat Pete on the head, when he was a toddler and came to the office with his dad every now and then. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that! You will just have to believe me!

Even though the inscription is undated, it seems (knowing that Walton died in 2012, and I ordered the book in 2021) that this book found it's way to my library at least a decade after Walton presented it to Pete. I'm not sure if the condition of prior connection makes a coincidence greater or less, but I'm counting this one as a surprisingly appropriate literary coincidence. Better World Books is situated in Mishawaka, Indiana, right next door to South Bend, so it makes perfect sense that a book from Notre Dame would end up there. Still, I wonder if it was donated intentionally? Perhaps it was given away by accident when Prof. Buttigieg died (May 20, 1947 - January 27, 2019); maybe Pete doesn’t even know it’s gone; maybe he would like it back!

Now, about actually reading Margaret's Book, I'm sorry to confess that despite its brevity (150 pp), I struggled with it for a week or so. For one thing, aside from Margaret, the main female characters are named Estelle, Ellie, Elaine, Esther / Essie, Ella, Elizabeth. Can you believe?! I don't know if it's some kind of gimmick or subtle motif, but it meant that I was perpetually re-reading, trying to figure out which woman I was reading about because I could not keep them straight in my head!

"Same reason I don't keep up with the Kardashians,"
said my friend Neil. Haha!

A few excerpts, including
this excellent readerly advice:
always keep a book close at hand,
no matter what you're doing . . .
37: ". . . he would lie for hours before the television set, unreading (though always with a book beside him) . . ."

And some writerly advice:
don't expect your favorite authors
to be good people, just good writers . . .
72: "One doesn't write, he replied, to accomplish or accumulate or impress. That was for people who became the sum of their accomplishments or acquisitions, who had no authentic core of self. She must have forgotten their conversation about freedom. 'People like us,' he said (meaning intellectual or artistic people), 'think too much of what a whole life might add up to. We spend so much time among the great -- the great minds, great imaginations, great wills -- that we can't think of our life as worth anything unless we get some of that greatness for ourselves. But Charlotte Bronte and Thackeray; Dickens and even George Eliot; Henry James and Joyce; these were not good people, Margaret. If we knew them personally we wouldn't like them. Their personalities,' he said, reaching for something of Engelhardt's, about Conrad, 'Their personalities would leap at us like tigers!'"

And some nostalgia . . .
76: "The prematurely warm day in March seemed all that he needed to complete his recovery. Southend's main street was as quiet, bare, and bright as on the best - remembered summer afternoons of his childhood."

~ South Bend, Indiana ~

On the Road With John Steinbeck

Favorite passages from
Travels With Charley:
In Search of America, 1962

by John Steinbeck
(February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968)
From previous post
And a New One Just Begun

1. "I thought I might do some writing along the way, perhaps essays, surely notes, certainly letters, I took paper, carbon, typewriter, pencils, notebooks, and not only those but dictionaries, a compact encyclopedia, and a dozen other reference books, heavy ones. I suppose our capacity for self-delusions is boundless. I knew very well that I rarely make notes, and if I do I either lose them or can't read them. . . . And in spirit of this self-knowledge I [packed] enough writing material to take care of ten volumes. I also laid in a hundred and fifty pounds of those books one hasn't got around to reading -- and of course those are the books one isn't ever going to get around to reading. . . . I judge now that I carried about four times too much of everything" (11, emphasis added).

2. In this passage, Steinbeck is being detained at the American - Canadian border and having to endure a pile of hassle. He doesn't sass back, but later he thinks about it . . .

"Before I went to sleep I went over all the things I wished I had
said . . . and some of them were incredibly clever and cutting" (88; cf. L'esprit de l'escalier).

***************

From Previous Post
A Kind of Dream Farm

"Long ago at Easter I had a looking-egg. Peering in a little porthole at the end, I saw a lovely little farm, a kind of dream farm, and on the farmhouse chimney a stork sitting on a nest. I regarded this as a fairy-tale farm as surely imagined as gnomes sitting under toadstools. And then in Denmark I saw that farm or its brother, and it was true, just as it had been in the looking-egg. And in Salinas, California, where I grew up, although we had some frost the climate was cool and foggy. When we saw colored pictures of a Vermont autumn forest it was another fairy thing and we frankly didn't believe it. In school we memorized "Snowbound" and little poems about Old Jack Frost and his paintbrush, but the only thing Jack Frost did for us was put a thin skin of ice on the watering trough, and that rarely. To find not only that this bedlam of color was true but that the pictures were pale and inaccurate translations, was to me startling. I can't even imagine the forest colors when I am not seeing them. I wondered whether constant association could cause inattention, and asked a native New Hampshire woman about it. She said the autumn never failed to amaze her; to elate. "It is a glory," she said, "and can't be remembered, so that it always comes as a surprise" (36 - 37, emphasis added).

***************

From Previous Post
Anyplace Away From Here

“I saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every part of the nation -- a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any Here. They spoke quietly of how they wanted to go someday, to move about, free and unanchored, not toward something but away from something. I saw this look and heard this yearning everywhere in every state I visited. Nearly every American hungers to move. . . . nearly all Americans move away, or want to” (10, emphasis added; 99).

***************

From previous post
Memorial Day Mural

I wish any two states could get together on a speed limit. Just about the time you get used to fifty miles an hour you cross a state line and it’s sixty-five. I wonder why they can’t settle down and agree. However, in one matter all states agree — each one admits it is the finest of all and announces that fact in huge letters as you cross the state line. Among nearly forty I didn’t see a single state that hadn’t a good word to say for itself. It seemed a little indelicate. It might be better to let visitors find out for themselves. But maybe we wouldn’t if it weren’t drawn to our attention" (42).

"We know, of course, that each of our states is an individual and proud of it. Not content with their names, they take descriptive titles also — the Empire State, the Garden State, the Granite State — titles proudly borne and little given to understatement. But now for the first time I became aware that each state had also its in dividual prose style, made sharply evident in its highway signs. Crossing state lines one is aware of this change of language. The New England states use a terse form of instruction, a tight-lipped, laconic style sheet, wasting no words and few letters. New York State shouts at you the whole time. Do this. Do that. Squeeze left. Squeeze right. Every few feet an imperious command. In Ohio the signs are more benign. They offer friendly advice, and are more like suggestions. Some states use a turgid style which can get you lost with the greatest ease. There are states which tell you what you may expect to find in the way of road conditions ahead, while others let you find out for yourself. Nearly all have abandoned the adverb for the adjective. Drive Slow. Drive Safe" (79 - 80).

On Amazon

Full Text

Swimmingly

Swimming books for the upcoming season:

Haunts of Black Masseur
by Charles Sprawson

Swimming as Meditation: Part memoir, part art history & literary analysis: “a scholarly look at the true character of swimmers – isolated souls that somehow find fulfillment in a lonely sensory-deprived act.”

“At a very young age, I began to form a vague conception of the swimmer as someone rather remote and divorced from everyday life, devoted to a mode of exercise where most of the body remains submerged and self-absorbed. It seemed to me that it appealed to the introverted and eccentric, individualists involved in a mental world of their own.” (5)

Why We Swim
by Bonnie Tsui

"The breaths, then, make swimming like moving meditation. We take a breath. We hold. We pull, and glide. We take another breath. In between breaths, the thinking happens—about each stroke, each kick, each breath. As we become better swimmers, there is less conscious thinking about swimming and our thoughts are released, free to wander as they may. All the while, the body works. We notice things: how the water moves, what the temperature is like, whether the swimming feels easy or difficult. We are at once hyper-aware and loosed from our bodily constraints.

. . . one thing that distinguishes swimming from all other forms of exercise . . . People enjoy it a lot more . . . this is where swimming has a huge benefit and advantage. . . . people place the highest enjoyment in swimming . . . people keep swimming because they like it. Swimming is the second most popular recreational activity in America, outranked only by walking. But swimming is the one that quite literally takes us out of our element. . . . Swimming is a way for us to remember how to play." (108-09)

When the Emperor Was Divine
The Buddha in the Attic
Swimmers
all 3
by Julia Otsuka

Okay, Emperor and Buddha are not about swimming, nor is the second half of Swimmers; it's about dementia and assisted living.* Still, I suggest that you read these novels as a trilogy. They are short, and you will enjoy their cohesion and relish the swimming segments in the first half of:

"The shock of the water -- there is nothing like it on land. The cool clear liquid flowing over every inch of your skin. The temporary reprieve from gravity. The miracle of your own buoyancy as you glide, unhindered, across the glossy blue surface of the pool. It’s just like flying. The pure pleasure of being in motion. The dissipation of all want. I’m free. You are suddenly aloft. Adrift. Ecstatic. Euphoric. In a rapturous and trancelike state of bliss. And if you swim for long enough you no longer know where your own body ends and the water begins and there is no boundary between you and the world. It’s nirvana." (17-18)

"If you run into a fellow member of the pool unexpectedly . . . you may find yourself blushing awkwardly, as though meeting for the first time, even though you may have seen this person every day, sopping wet, practically naked, for more than ten years. I didn't recognize her in her clothes, you may think to yourself." (24)

~ Heart-Shaped Pool ~

At the Villa Independente
In the south of France

*From Part Two of The Swimmers

"Things from your life before that you will have no use for at Belavista include: your expired Ralphs Rewards card (you will not be going grocery shopping again anytime soon), your oversized reinforced umbrella with the white clouds on the underside (nor will you soon be encountering 'real weather'), your wedding ring (guaranteed to go missing within days), your quilted nylon jacket (indoor - living attire only . . . ), your prized collection of bits of string (no comment) and your week At - a Glance day planner . . . ." (113).

To Create a Space for Women's Creativity

A post for the conclusion of
Women's History Month,
in recognition of the woman of Kenya
who are sharing their narratives
of struggle, progress, and hope.

Thanks to my friend Mumbi Gakuo
and to her friend Lydia W. Gaitirira
for sending these three books, each one a project by
AMKA -- Space for Women's Creativity
and Goethe - Institut Kenya

AMKA (meaning "wake up" in Kiswahili)
is an NGO, based and registered in Kenya,
concerned with pushing and encouraging creativity,
and facilitating and nurturing women writers.
1. Fresh Paint: Literary Vignettes by Kenyan Women (Volume 1, 2011) opens with an explanation of the need

" . . . to harness creative talent in girls and women in a hitherto male dominated socio-economic domain. This anthology of poems and short stories . . . will hopefully contribute to the discourse on whether socially created patriarchal attitides continue to dominate the thinking of society or whether these have been changed by the women's movement."
~Lydia W. Gaitirira, Director

2. Similarly, in Fresh Paint: Telling Our Stories into the 21st Century (Volume 2, 2015), Gaitirira explains the ongoing effort to allow women to speak for themselves in their own voices:

"A lot of work remains to be done to improve the lot of women in Kenya. Even with the rising number of women in Parliament, county assemblies, and other decision making organs, the impact is far from satisfactory. Loyalty to political parties led and owned by men continues to influence their choices negatively when they need to put women's concerns first."

3. The most recent volume, Resilience is a series of interviews by young women journalists, with women of all ages who work in the street markets of Nairobi, selling fresh produce, prepared meals, snacks and beverages, used clothing, home decor, handicrafts, toilet tissue. Others earn money by shining shoes or helping people compute their height, weight, and BMI. The essays showcase both the creativity of the entreprenuers and that of the writers:

"While there are different perceptions held of the hawkers and their trade, this collection shows that they are essentially honest citizens trying to eke a living in bad economic times. . . . Creativity also has another dimension that is well represented in this collection: that of writing and telling stories, or retelling them in heart-warming ways, and with empathy for their subjects."
~ Lydia W. Gaitirira

Volumes 1 and 2 of Fresh Paint are filled with numerous narratives that are fresh and refreshing, alongside others that are disturbing and distressing, all of which deserve the reader's thoughtful attention on the journey to a raised consciousness. Of the many selections from which to choose (e.g., see more examples on my post Maganjo), here are two that capture the spirit of speaking truth to power:

excerpts from
The Poet's Voice

A poet's voice --
With innate articulation
And deep expression
Of intense emotion,
The swirl of words
And the use of tense . . .

In time we are spun
Into the future from the past
To the secrets of history
And the promise of the future . . .

The beauty of the woman
The chivalry of the man
The innocence of the baby
The cruelty of the thing
The fate of life
The smile of luck
The kiss of death
Are all intertwined
For it is
With a poet's pen
That the feeling is felt.

~ by Wanjiku Mwaurah (in volume 1, 42 - 44)


It's Our Time

Speak now! Or forever be silent.
The aged ones have spoken
and some are long gone
into timeless silence.
They had their time
and spoke their lines.
They read their part
in faithful loyalty to their era.
Now it is our time to say
what's been silently witnessed,
Carelessly overlooked,
unfairly veiled,
or only half-told.
The blooming edges
of this wonder world
are almost bursting
at the weight of demand
that more must be told.
We must go forward
To churn up new waves of truth
And fight old fears that inhibit the mind.

~ by Edna Aluoc (in Volume 2, 32)

In closing, please remember that
not only during Women's History Month,
but throughout the year, the motto of AMKA remains:
To Create a Space for Women's Creativity

******************

An old favorite of mine from the U.S.A.

JUST TO BELIEVE IN THE STORY OF ONE'S LIFE. (just that)
to always believe in your voice. (just that)

"Literary Women on Paper"
by Graphic Artist Janeen Koconis
Card by KOCO NY