September 17. 2005 Visiting Ram Dass at his Maui home I noticed that (as had been rumored) he does keep a photo of George W. Bush on his altar. That photo reminded me, as it does him, that it is essential for all of us to pray that the current "world's most powerful man" will be guided to make the best decisions possible. In fact, it behooves all of us to strive mightily to entreat the Celestial Powers-that-Be to render astute our head of state.

Perhaps it would be too much to request Providence to encourage those of our "leaders" who actively identify themselves as Christians to actively follow the path that Christ laid out for his disciples, e.g. to sell all that they have and give the proceeds to the poor, to turn the other cheek at every slight, and the like. Jesus advised us not to judge, lest we be judged, and being myself no paragon of Christ-like virtues I have no business judging anyone (even W). Of course, I also try to keep my personal beliefs private, rather than trying to drag Jesus into politics the way many of these "leaders" do; and this current politicization of Christ (a problem which has dogged Christianity almost since its inception) does I believe warrant comment.

For example, how can one simultaneously claim to follow the Golden Rule ("do unto others as you would have them do unto you") and also actively promote the doctrine of "preemptive war" ("do unto others BEFORE they do unto you")?

Or, consider the words of Jesus as reported in Matthew 5:43-44:

"Ye have heard that it has been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."

I freely admit that, as of yet, I have been unable to love all my enemies, and to do good to each of those who mean to do ill to me. I have however found it immensely worthwhile to set these principles as my goals, and try to live up to these high standards that Jesus instructed us to attempt to meet-norms that make it injudicious for anyone (even W) to condemn anyone else (even W).

Which forces me to ask the question of why, when we have been thus unmistakably directed to love our enemies, is so much hate being so publicly directed toward those who are currently our enemies? (Setting aside for the moment the issue of, if Osama & Saddam were so clearly evil, what caused us to support them as "allies" for so long.) If we pray for our foes, why have we not yet had a national day of prayer with an Osama focus? Why before Saddam was overthrown was he routinely demonized, rather than "loved" and "blessed"? Why is the "do good to them that hate you" option never even hinted at by the "Beltway born-again" in the context of fundamentalist Islam? Shouldn't such a clear directive receive at least a public hearing among "public Christians," if only to offer counterpoints to the Muslim-baiting agitprop that has become so popular? Couldn't this option also present a positive Christian perspective that would be as comprehensive in its compassion as the ultra-sectarian Muslim world-view is comprehensive in its detestation of all non-Muslims?

Made briefly despondent by this line of inquiry I hied me to Manhattan's St. Patrick's Cathedral, where a concert on its magnificent instrument by noted organist Ross Wood restored my spirits (to some degree). Though Ross was one of my closest GPGC friends, we had lost contact with one another thereafter, and our meeting at Union Square's Zen Palate two afternoons before the concert was our first face to face in more than three decades.

After his excellent recital Ross, who has for some years been music librarian at Wellesley (only the second male in that institution's history to serve in that position), herded me & mother Madeleine & partner Steve & fellow organist Gregory over to the St. Regis Hotel & its Old King Cole Bar, for drinks and discussion. Maxfield Parrish created the fabulous image behind the bar, of a gleeful Cole Rex in slippers, flanked by two smirking guards exchanging knowing sidelong glances. The pipe & bowl enter on platters from Cole's right; the three fiddlers stand at his right, bows in hand, ready to burst into melody at a moment's notice. Behind them an archetypal Italian hill town (Orvieto, perhaps?) perches precariously atop a hill that is impossibly small for it; and all that mars the gaiety of the tableau are the two young boys at the throne's foot, one of whose features bear an expression of inconsolable woe.

Time passed so swiftly under Cole's gaze that I got back to the Patanjali Yoga Shala only after the evening program had begun. This visit to NYC coincided with the annual "revitalization" of Broome Street's sole Ganesha temple, and I count myself thoroughly fortunate to have been able to sit in front of Ganesha for about six hours a day for five days with the likes of Sri Eddie Stern, Sri Ramachandra Atreya, and Sri Rami Sivan, reciting mantras, making offerings, performing abhisheka and alankara, and generally making merry for the young elephant-boy's benefit. It was Ramachandra and Rami who had during September 2001 established the image in the temple, and though I have met both before (in Australia where both live: Ramachandra once, briefly, a decade back; Rami several times, most recently less than a year ago), this was the first time that we had actually sat to perform rituals together. Great fun was had by all; a reprise has been proposed. That the annual Ganesha festival began during this five-day span of ceremonies was an added treat ...

After a late night in West Camp, NY, involving dinner with Krishna Das at the home of the inimitable Shyamdas, and a lecture at Shakti Yoga in Woodstock the next night, I proceeded to Kripalu, and then to Saratoga Springs, before returning to roast in the late summer Texas heat. Out under the moon on the night of its fullness, the night after the Ganesha Festival's conclusion, I watched high altitude (stratospheric?) clouds stream lickety-split from SW to NE high above my head, in profound contrast to the motionless air mass at ground level. Walking back in a black floral shirt a lady police officer stops me to make sure I am in no difficulty. When I tell her that I am fine, and enjoy walking at night, she advises me to wear reflective clothing when next I venture out ...

September 3, 2005 Airline snafus caused Carmen to depart from Hawaii & reach California with Sarada & me but without her baggage, and a certain proportion of her time at Esalen was invested in trying to retrieve it before her return to Argentina (the bags eventually caught up with her in Buenos Aires some days after she landed there). Esalen at least was as magically healing as usual, and it was as before a great treat to have the Blossom family there as well. As last year, I spent my favorite moments there this trip late one night in the cliff-face hot-spring-fed pools.

After a few pleasant post-Esalen days in Berkeley, Sonoma, and La Mirada, I returned to Texas to find summer nearly as hot as usual, symbolized celestially by the close proximity of Mars to the Pleiades (which is, in Jyotisha, ruled by Kartikkeya, Shiva's seriously Martian elder son). One night as I walked near the now deserted old hospital I watched a possum climb the handsome tree that stands just next to the old physiotherapy building, and was heartened at how quickly Nature reclaims spaces abandoned by humans. A striking image that night was of a firefly caught in an almost- invisible web, the web's planarity as obvious as could be despite its near un-seeable-ness.

Two days after my arrival my mother & I hosted a visitor: Mr. Erdem Erdenen, an affable, clever young native of Istanbul who has endeared himself to me & several of my friends. Erdem, who has just moved to Austin with fiancée Holly, particularly enjoyed the Pecan Park, offering his appreciation to those far-sighted park founders who had planted fruit trees to promote the delight of pecan-loving townspeople.

Farsightedness was in short supply in Louisiana after Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast. Having been through four hurricanes growing up, I thought I had seen a lot-but Katrina offered so much more. Most of my personal friends made it out in time, though Nancy Marshall, a dear friend from GPGC, has not yet reported in. Robert Assaf's mother went "missing" for eight days before being "discovered" by a host family in Texas City; her husband Arno, despite many entreaties, had decided to "ride it out," and was eventually culled from his waterlogged house three days after the storm. The couple has since been reunited, and they are now safe and (more or less) sound in Texas City.

Much has been and will be said about responses to the tragedy; Robert Assaf put it this way:

"Coming through all of this, our experience has been that people-volunteers of the Red Cross and other NGOs-have been wonderful, kind, and efficient, and went well out of their way to be helpful. Government organizations, from local to state to federal (in that order) were overwhelmed, ineffectual, and dangerous (in that order)."

For a relatively objective media perspective on the situation we must look outside the USA; perhaps the headline of the September 10th issue of the well-known UK weekly The Economist, no bleeding-heart liberal rag it, said it best: "The Shaming of America." Here are a couple of excerpts:

"America's vulnerabilities, in almost every region of social policy, have been ... ruthlessly exposed." (p. 28)

From the lead editorial (p. 11):

"Since Hurricane Katrina, the world's view of America has changed. The disaster has exposed some shocking truths about the place: the bitterness of its sharp racial divide, the abandonment of the dispossessed, the weakness of critical infrastructure. But the most astonishing and most shaming revelation as been of its government's failure to bring succor to its people at their time of greatest need."

While acknowledging that local government's ineptitude was greatly to blame, the editorialist was forced to conclude that, "Still, Washington is mostly at fault. The responsibility for mobilizing the response to a disaster lies squarely with the federal government. And the responsibility for galvanizing the federal government lies squarely with the president."

Initially, "George Bush was listless and confused." Later, "Mr. Bush then added disingenuity to leaden-footedness, declaring that nobody had anticipated the breaching of the levees-even though people have been worrying about the possibility for years, and an official report published in 2001 warned of impending disaster."

Returning to this side of the Atlantic:

"How this could be-how the president of the United States could have even less "situational awareness," as they say in the military, than the average American about the worst natural disaster in a century-is one of the more perplexing and troubling chapters in a story that, despite moments of heroism and acts of great generosity, ranks as a national disgrace." - Newsweek, September 19, 2005

How could it be? Maybe, at least in part, it had to do with how he was raised. W's mother comments about the displaced from LA that have reached TX:

"What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them." Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on hurricane refugees in the Astrodome, quoted in Newsweek, September 19, 2005

A curious idea, that sharing a stadium with 10,000 other displaced people could "work well" for anyone, could be a "step up" from being merely underprivileged; as a comment, it has a certain sort of "let them eat cake" kind of flavor ...

When he was president, Harry S. Truman kept a sign on his desk: The Buck Stops Here. It reminded him that, while lesser mortals can pass the buck, can send blame up the organizational chart, the President of the United States is at the top of the chart, and has to be prepared to accept responsibility when things go wrong. This W finally did-about two weeks too late. Maybe it will be the start of a trend, as there are plenty of other calamitous misdeeds that it is way past time for him to 'fess up to ...

Link to News of the Past