May 11: Atoms and Molecules, Relationships, Interconnectivity

And the stolen spaceship Heart of Gold sails on through the galaxy . . .

The Heart of Gold fled silently through the night of space, now on conventional photon drive.  Its crew of four were ill at ease knowing that they had been brought together not of their own volition or by simple coincidence, but by some curious perversion of physics--as if relationships between people were susceptible to the same laws that governed relationships between atoms and molecules.

As the ship's artificial night closed in they were each grateful to retire to separate cabins and try to rationalize their thoughts.

Relationships between people were susceptible to the same laws that governed relationships between atoms and molecules.  I sort of like that notion.  The very fabric of the universe governed by relationships, which is pretty accurate, I guess.  Electrons in relationships with protons in relationships with neutrons in relationships with atoms in relationships with molecules in relationships with elements in relationships with compounds in relationship with . . . Well, you get the idea.  Eventually, if I continued that list, I would get to human beings in relationships to human beings in relationships to the environment in relationships to the planet Earth in relationships to the galaxy in relationships to the universe in relationships to space in relationships to the mind of God.  (I stole that last one from Thornton Wilder's Our Town.)

I love that idea of interconnectivity.  In fact, I firmly believe in it.  Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  You get the idea.  This morning, when I woke up, I sent texts to two of my best friends, letting them know that I was thinking of them.  A short while later, I received a response back from one of them, reaffirming her love and friendship.  Relationships.  They are so important.

Today, my daughter is going to the prom with her boyfriend of two years.  It's going to be a day of preparation.  After I'm done typing this blog post, I'm going to go wash and vacuum out my car.  Then I'm going to clean my house, because my daughter is bringing home some of her friends to spend the night after the prom is over.  They're going to have a fire in the backyard in a fire pit I purchased yesterday.  That fire pit has to be assembled today, as well.  (I'm leaving that one up to my daughter's boyfriend.)  For my daughter, this whole day is going to be about relationships.

In a couple of weeks, my daughter will be graduating from high school, and her relationship to her whole life is going to change.  She's smart, beautiful, compassionate, and hard-working.  I know she'll do well.  I also know that my relationship with her will change, as well.  I'm not going to be able to protect her as much from the bumps and bruises of the world.  She's going to face struggles and heartbreaks, and all that I'll be able to do is offer advice, maybe a little wisdom, and a lot of love.

That is the thing that I've been learning these last few weeks.  Relationships are very fluid.  They change.  They adapt.  They change again.  (For my constant readers out there, you know how much I enjoy change.)  Yet, in the end, strong bonds endure.  They're elemental.  Subatomic even.  It's pretty difficult to break apart atoms.  If you try, the results are Hiroshima or Nagasaki.  War.  Famine.  Climate change.  Refugees.  Poverty.  Homelessness.  Divorce.

Today, I'm sailing along in my Heart of Gold, watching as my relationships in the universe shift again.

Keep an eye on Facebook.  Saint Marty will post pictures when he gets to his destination.

May 26: Old Saying, Carol Ann Duffy, "History"

There's an old saying that if you don't know history, you are bound to repeat it.  Something like that.

I believe that statement is true.  It's true for people, for countries, for the whole human race.  We need to learn from our mistakes.  Wars that we've fought.  Genocides.  Slavery.  Famine.  Drought.  Poverty.  Climate change.  We need to learn from all of the things that humanity has wrought on this little chunk of rock we call home.

If we don't learn, we will kill each other.

'Nuff said from Saint Marty tonight.

History

by:  Carol Ann Duffy

She woke up old at last, alone,
bones in a bed, not a tooth
in her head, half dead, shuffled
and limped downstairs
in the rag of her nightdress,
smelling of pee.

Slurped tea, stared
at her hand- twigs, stained gloves-
wheezed and coughed, pulled on
the coat that hung from a hook
on the door, lay on the sofa,
dozed, snored.

She was History.
She'd seen them ease him down
from the Cross, his mother gasping
for breath, as though his death
was a difficult birth, the soldiers spitting,
spears in the earth;

been there
when the fisherman swore he was back
from the dead; seen the basilicas rise
in Jerusalem, Constantinople, Sicily; watched
for a hundred years as the air of Rome
turned into stone;

witnessed the wars,
the bloody crusades, knew them by date
and by name, Bannockburn, Passchendaele,
Babi Yar, Vietnam. She'd heard the last words
of the martyrs burnt at the stake, the murderers
hung by the neck,

seen up-close
how the saint whistled and spat in the flames,
how the dictator strutting and stuttering film
blew out his brains, how the children waved
their little hands from the trains. She woke again,
cold, in the dark,

in the empty house.
Bricks through the window now, thieves
in the night. When they rang on her bell
there was nobody there; fresh graffiti sprayed
on her door, shit wrapped in a newspaper posted
onto the floor.