Bob Schwartz

This post has nothing to hide. Obviously, since it is here for the world to read. It has no reason to hide, being only some thoughts on whether or not we should be concerned that something we say might be seen as trouble, and get us in trouble.

America is in theory, and mostly in practice, a model of individual freedom, because it was born out of the opposite. Yet there have been times and circumstances to the contrary. The list of instances where civil liberties gave way, arguably with or without good reason, is long. War—actual or purported or made up—has been just one such situation.

Globally and historically, the price of speaking up, truth to power, is very high. Less so in America, but not unknown. So in America, which example should we heed? Should we think in troubled times that speaking up about those troubles will be protected? Or should we think, as citizens around the world have had to consider for so long, that someone is watching, listening and reading, and what we see as legitimate commentary or call to action others in authority see as threat and danger?

This is something we should talk about. Or maybe not.

Asleep

I fell asleep standing up
Leaning against the shelf
Books as pillow and pillar.
Too tired to be uncomfortable
I felt at peace.
I should have moved
To a chair, to bed
But that was beyond me.
Besides, the books will cover me
If I get cold
Soothe and comfort me
If I dream badly
Catch me
If I fall
Asleep.

Three Silences

Keep silent outside
Though inside
The conversation never ends.
Keep silent inside
Though distant whispers
Try to engage you.
Abandon silence
Where everything
Is said and heard.

The Round Trip

“Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.”
Heart Sutra

The trip to Emptiness took hours
Or was it days or years
I can’t tell.
The ticket was lost
(Just misplaced it turns out)
The line for security was long
ID shown
Pockets emptied
Shoes off.
They took my bags apart
What’s this?
What’s this?
Once I put it all back together
And got on the plane
The flight seemed like every other
The seat
The blah blah blah
The shuttle to the hotel.
In the room on the table
A local magazine called Emptiness
On the cover
A picture of the city
That could be any city.
On the desk a welcome note:
“emptiness is form”
I lay down
And fell asleep
And woke up.

Or was I still sleeping?
Or had I already returned?

He might have said the c-word. Or the p-word. Or any of the other bad words he knows. Instead he said that the U.S. doesn’t need Europe or NATO. That he was going to steal another country’s oil. That the free press is an enemy of the state.

Whatever he says, officials are busy telling the world that Donnie doesn’t mean any of it. That he doesn’t understand what he’s saying. That he’s basically a good boy.

Except…

Donnie is not a junior high school kid. He’s a grown man. And the most powerful grown man in the world. And, as far as his limited knowledge goes (he may not be the brightest in the class), he means every word.

Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former American officials.
New York Times

This news is not surprising, which itself says something. But even though it is not surprising, it still manages to catapult us into some cosmic surreality where all of previous history seems to be a long preface to the fantasy novel that follows—and is still spinning out. Except it is real.

How real? How surreal? Just read that sentence again. And again.

Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former American officials.

Studying the unknowable. Speaking the ineffable. Explaining the unexplainable. Why go there?

The reason is simple some. It is the clichéd reason that climbers give for scaling the most challenging mountains. Because it is there.

For many others, who find mountain climbing an unnecessarily arduous, dangerous and time-wasting pursuit, there is an answer too. Because it is there. That is, there is the unknowable, ineffable and unexplainable, and the sooner you have even a slight familiarity with this phenomenon, the more realistically humble you will be about what you can know, say and explain. Even if you only amble in the foothills, when you look up to the impossibly high peaks obscured by clouds, you will know you are small. Maybe you walk on and up, maybe you don’t. But just the acknowledgement is something essential.

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