Psalm 56

The Holy Bible: King James Version. 2000.
The Psalms
56

A Prayer of Trust
To the chief Musician upon Jonath–e'lem–recho'kim, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath. 1.1--0.1 ; 0.21 ; 3.15


  Be merciful unto me, O God:
       
for man would swallow me up;
he fighting daily oppresseth me.
  Mine enemies would daily swallow me up:
       
for they be many that fight against me, O thou Most High.
  What time I am afraid,
       
I will trust in thee.
  In God I will praise his word,
       
in God I have put my trust;
I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
  Every day they wrest my words:
       
all their thoughts are against me for evil.
  They gather themselves together,
       
they hide themselves,
they mark my steps,
when they wait for my soul.
  Shall they escape by iniquity?
       
In thine anger cast down the people, O God.
  Thou tellest my wanderings:
       
put thou my tears into thy bottle:
are they not in thy book?
  When I cry unto thee,
       
then shall mine enemies turn back:
this I know; for God is for me.
  In God will I praise his word:
       
in the LORD will I praise his word.
  In God have I put my trust:
       
I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
  Thy vows are upon me, O God:
       
I will render praises unto thee.
  For thou hast delivered my soul from death:
       
wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling,
that I may walk before God in the light of the living?

massive attack - what your soul sings

The above video has been taken down due to "copyright" infringement. It is a sad commentary on the state of the world. You see, the above video modeled compassion, kindness, empathy, and realistic portrayals of the current state of struggling human beings just trying to live from one day to the next in collective understanding of each an every one of us's responsibility to honor each and every human being as precious and unique. The video was a statement of unification rather than dualistic, good/bad - like/hate - accept/judge - coexist/destroy 'otherness.'

Here is another version I found:

There are almost no public figures and certainly no media in the world today that model compassion, kindness, empathy, understanding, humanistic morality and ethics. Everywhere I turn there is yelling and fighting and bullying and name calling - from Fox News to MSNBC to every gossip show and radio DJ. No one is teaching the patience of whole-personhood. There is only malice, meanness, anger, hate, and it is a cancer that is destroying this world.


Took out some of the '99 audio CD's that I had made and found an oldy but a goody. Found this version on YouTube. There are some good computer graphic student videos to this song on YouTube. Correction. Some of the '04 CD's in there as well, which is where I found the version with Sinead.

Joni Mitchell - Woman of Heart and Mind Documentary (Excerpt 3 - Blue a...

Joni Mitchell takes me to the place of transcendent creative source coding. When i listen to her melodies, her lyrics, her words and her voice, I am taken to that Other place, where mysterious mists encircle me, free of my physical body and embraced by an open awareness of all senses, known and unknown. Sometimes, when I am truly free, in space, in nature particularly, on top of a tall mountain I’ve usually climbed alone, at that peak, in the clouds, I feel a vibration that connects me to my own source: the Art that I was born attuned to, the metaphysical mother wonder where I create, unhindered, and my sensual gifts are at their peak. If only I had a place, a soul to transmit, to conduit with, the connections I’ve missed. I mourn deeply. What for? I mean, really, this sensual curiosity that compels me? The heart of my deepest secrets of intimacy. I give it all the work, I have no other place, person, thing I trust with it.

President Obama: "I'm Really Proud of All of You."

This is the video I was talking about in my last post. The man is true blue - for every American.

Rachel Maddow - Time for the right to leave the bubble

Here you go, as promised: Maddow's Marvelous Monologue

Rachel Maddow's Brilliant Diatribe about Fact and Fiction, Dem's and Gop's

It's not on Youtube yet, but what Maddow just said on tonight's show will go down in history as one of the most -if not the most- succinct checklist of what the American people DO want, and what American's do NOT want. Also, her fistfull of facts monologue about popping the warm, fuzzy, feel goody bubble that the GOP has occupied throughout the 2012 election season/campaign was so precise, onpoint, witty, and freakin' amazing for the direction and energy she gallantly gauntleted the Republican party to throw down and start engaging in, as in real math, actual facts, and human-centered solutions, that I just have to find a copy of it and post it here asap.  You go girl!

The Incomparable, Edward P. Jones

My favorite short story writers are Edward P. Jones and Jhumpa Lahiri. Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies" from the book of the same name, is just brilliant. Of Jones' stories, my favorite by far (I haven't read Lost in the City, yet) is "Adam Robinson." I chose this story, first published by the The New Yorker in the December 2004 issue, for a short fiction class I took in college. My peers were peeved because it is a rather long story and we all had to read each other's picks and discuss...but, after reading it, most were glad that they had.

I bring up this story, because the Royksopp video I posted earlier reminds me of the sparsity and cavernous tone of Adam Robinson. Both have a heart and soul that feels, to me, to be holding to a kind of life force taproot as they navigate the post-modern, sort of dystopian, world that exists today (for me). There is this take your breath away, small and quiet witness to the end of old ways; an agoraphobic free fall setting in "Robinson" that I pick up also watching and listening to "Drug." It's like a zombie apocalypse, right before the first zombie staggers out; only the zombies are in the wrong movie. They are in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, loping largely, not undetected, but opaquely. Integrating  infecting, overtaking, absorbing the small, brilliant red and beating hearts of the old ways.

I find comfort in both works of art. There is a connective thread, for me.  

Röyksopp "The Drug" video competition winner

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The drug is the music
The temple is the body
The Universe is the soul
The playground is the imagination
The dance is the conduit to the One
All is...

It's a dance off. Come, join me in the dance.

Nick Mount on It's A Good Life, If You Don't Weaken

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Another brilliant lecture by Nick Mount. Tears fall down my throat, in pathetically desperate gulps, as I listen.

Start at the beginning, or, start at
17:40 and then peer into my own soul, too.

20:22 - Quest of my poetry, also.

22:37 - That voice, which is also versioned in my head. The one whose will asserts itself over my life, slapping my cold fingers as they tentatively flutter up toward the sun for their small share of warmth.

26:00 - is the key to the paradox. A culture that is a plastic diorama of an older culture...

28:09 - Yes, yes; that is why I seek cathartic relief from writing.

30:00 - Seth resonates with my soul. The one birch tree. My mother's wallpaper...a past that never welcomed me, but that which I continue to figure out the password for.

Nick Mount on It's A Good Life, If You Don't Weaken

Another brilliant lecture by Nick Mount. Tears fall down my throat, in pathetically desperate gulps, as I listen.

Start at the beginning, or, start at
17:40 and then peer into my own soul, too.

20:22 - Quest of my poetry, also.

22:37 - That voice, which is also versioned in my head. The one whose will asserts itself over my life, slapping my cold fingers as they tentatively flutter up toward the sun for their small share of warmth.

26:00 - is the key to the paradox. A culture that is a plastic diorama of an older culture...

28:09 - Yes, yes; that is why I seek cathartic relief from writing.