#1 INVISIBLE BOREDOM

INVISIBLE BOREDOM


Is something you can’t see still there?
Yes. Like love, fear and anxiety--all moods
created in your mind by your own mind: all states of mind, invisible to the naked eye
but palpable to the creator.

However, there is an exception here and it is boredom, that is, whether it is real as created by you or merely named such as imagined by you. Here it is a question of time, that is, before I started writing this paper on “boredom,” I may have been bored; but after I got the first words down, I was no longer bored but involved and the more so as I contiued along.

So, my boredom was short-lived and, certainly, not long-lasting. In that sense, it can be considered “invisible boredom” since it disappearred immediately.

That is one kind of boredom, the minor kind.
The other kind is the serious kind, othwer-wise known as “ennui” or “weltschmertz,”
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that is world-weariness, engendering and ending in fatalistic depression, the kind that suicides are made of--”to be or not to be.” If one is genuinely tired of his world and nothing has any meaning and he becomes bored with his very existence, then it is no longer “boredom” that is operating here but, rather, clinical depression where the mind and the body are frozen in initiating any speech or action. One has gone beyond boredom to the invisible chains of darkest melancholia.

Finally, if one is considered a “boring person,” then he has nothing interesting to say but merely indulges his limited ego upon his limited self, repeating in extended verbosity what he considers “gems” but which are, in fact, merely empty cliches.

Is ‘boredom” real or invisible? Mostly invisible until it manifests itself in laziness, madness or insignificance.

#2--THE INVISIBLE FORCE

There are powerful forces which drive us to exhibit passions we even know not of. For instance, what makes one sketch-outlines endlessly for hours on blank pieces of paper except that one finds himself doing it over and over again to the point where he
”has to do it” and cannot explain why.

Why does anyone paint, dance, compose, write, teach with all one’s being except that he “has to do it.” And he may not even be that good at it, but he thinks he is. What drives our deepest desires and can one serve two masters at once: can one be so deeply in-love with another person that that person becomes the be-all and end-all of his entire life and all he creates? Does one passion draw from and suffer from the other passion? Yes and no.





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If one’s love, one’s mate can anchor and, thus, support the creative artist, if he depends on her for his life-sustaining faith in and extolling of his talent and virtues, then, yes, an artist can serve two masters--simul-
taneously and completely. Without her, he cannot create or even want to create; she is the force that through her total love and devotion drives the ink or the paint in his veins. She is the reason why he chooses to create, to glorify and to give meaning to her temporal life; she will die someday, with him, and he wants to create for her an eternal memory of her in his work.

Other artists say “no”: one cannot create art and create the love of his life. One will dominate and distract and subtract from the other. The artist’s mind will always be divided between his mate and his magic.
One must dominate and must have free reign beyond whatever she says or demands of her creative spirit. The two forces split apart rather than unite.
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Which way supercedes the other way and which produces the greater art?

If one is a romantic, then and by definition,
your world, especially your creative world, is romance, love, the ideal in search of another ideal, your mate, your masterpiece, your life for whom you create and dedicate your art to--the woman who gives meaning to your life and who makes you want to create as an inspiration to her beauty, love and devotion.

If one is an existentialist and one who believes in only himself and his art, then “the other” is in conflict with the practice of his creative spirit with the mundanity of her daily existence (unless one is joined to another creative spirit, as the Brownings were and the Rossetis were in Victorian England). Otherwise, one is a lone wolf, creating only for himself and for anyone else in the world who admires what he does but never dictates what he should do.
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One could probably name as many artists who serve one master as those who can serve two. Therefore, examples cannot prove your point-of-view. Only one thing can, and that is the energy that the loner and the mated creator can muster and expend without succumbing to despair, someone to urge him on if for nothing else but for their dedication to each other.

If art is the greatest gift that any man can give to his fellow-man, then the greatest gift that any mate can give to her creator is her belief in and support of this frail human being who exhausts himself in his struggle with his inner demons--for what? For passing notice and occasional tribute from an audinece not really interested in what he has to say. Better to have one devoted and obsessive fan than many fickle ones.

#3--VISIBLE RACISM

The more racism is subdued and repressed, the more virulent it is. In the outspoken racist past, “whites only,” was clear, i.e., if you are not white, then you are not allowed entry. Today, “exclusive for members only” switches the racism from above ground to
disguised euphemism underground, i.e., can “a black member” be allowed entry or how is “member” defined--in terms of money or in terms of color?

The more confusing and obfuscated the hidden racist rules are in a society that hates blacks more than it ever has in its white-dominated past, the more hate can be silently led against the black leader.

Take MLK whom J.Edgar Hoover believed to be the “most dangerous man in America” while Hoover was in power and, so, volu-
minous files were secretly kept on this Communist Negro who was trying to undermine America’s good white values with Socialist Negro though and actions.
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But Hoover was a paranoid and closeted homosexual who thought everyone of any celebrity status was not only out to get him but to get his precious country as well. He had secret files on everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt to FDR to JFK to Marilyn Monroe to Charlie Chaplin which were never found after his death through his dying wishes to his most faithful secretary of some thirty years.

Today, we have no overt files as such but we do have voluminous service records of just about anyone who has served the country in any possile and positive way and in not so noble ways. Alll politicians, especially the black ones, have records yards long, ostensibly for thei own protecion against those who would do them harm.




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And the most hated and revered political figure of our time is our current president for no other reason that he is black and the first black president in our country’s history.

When Republican leaders state, clearly and unequivocally, that their fist job as representatives of the people is to get Obama out of office, one can sense that they do not like him and that something is wrong in the halls of the legislature.

Their worst dream has come true--a slave has come to lead them. And they do not want to be led in any direction, so they “just
say no” to eveything that he proposes, stalling the wheels of progress with an unprincipled obstructionism, all jusified on race and a sense of white superiority.





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Like the roaches before them, race-haters have all gone underground to breed, to plot and to wait for that time when they can emerge safely again into a truly racist society where signs are hung with precision and mean what they say:

“No Blacks; only Whites may apply.”

And that time may not be too far away.

#4--POLITICAL POSING

“If you vote for me, I will do this
for you...and this...and this...”

Then and when the time comes to deliver,
the promises change or are forgotten entirely. Therefore, losing the trust of the people in all political poseurs and dismissing them as charlatans (note the current lowest rating of Congress in our history and the
divided approval of our President who was
unrealistically popular four years ago).

Today and tonight in New Hampshire, we have six poseurs, each claiming his right to win and to govern our country as the “best
possible choice” who will either disengage us from all foreign wars or support and en-tangle us further; who will support gays and abortion as private issues or deny outright and prejudicially our right to choose our mates and when we want to have children.

And they all speak with convincing fervor about their positions when they know that
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they are just pandering to a manipulated crowd of hopeful who have placed their trust in one person.

And so, all politicians--by definition, that is, “political” meaning “what works at the time and at the least political cost”--are posing and preening peacocks fluttering their feathers in front of their handpicked flocks

The system, then, breaks down and stalls in one party’s obstructing the other and nothing gets done, and party competition is not pursued “in the name of the people” but “in the name of power and money” and very narrow “majorities.”

To even run for office requires a fortune, either personal or publically based that runs into the millions and, so, elections can be outright bought by the candidate with the biggest “war chest.”



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Therefore, the running, the process and the outcome are thoroughly corrupt and the democratic ideal of “governance by and for the people” is lost, this time irretrievably, or so it appears.

What can be done about the bastardisation of our political system? Only the creation of a third party system where anyone can run and where all contributions are limited and fairly divided. But the Supreme Court has already ruled against this as the “right of corporations to support their candidate as protected under the First Amendment of Free Speech.” The Court has also been bought by the monied interests of this dying capitalist system where only the top 1% of the population control 99% of the wealth.
And the vast remainder of the nation is forgotten and/or deprived into despair.

Why even go to college when you already know that it will not make a difference when it comes time for you to get a job?
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You might as well become a criminal or a member of Wall Street’s “organized crime
syndicate” because that’s where the money
is and if the robber barons can have their say, it will stay, with no outsiders allowed in.

“Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” But posing for positions of power is the first step in achieving absolute power.

Further, the deck is stacked even against the “honest politician,” like a Barack Obama
who came into power with the people behind him and his good intentions in front of him. But the big corporations were too much for him to battle and, so, he capitula-
ted to where he believed he could “bring the warring parties together” (as he had done in his editorship of the Harvard Law Review and in his “community organizing” in Chicago).

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But Washington was the major leagues and a rookie didn’t stand a chance here once the word got out that they had a “do-good
black man” on their hands. So, everyone set out to get the new “black messiah,” even some within his own party and everyone in the other opposing party. The “great black hope” had to compromise and to compro-
mise just to hold onto any of his measures (like unemployment insurance and health-care).

And so, the new young leader began to lose the confidence of his former followers until a majority of his constituency turned against him and started to blame him for everything from the financial crisis he had inherited form the former President to his continuing engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq, which he also inherited.




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Now, it is time for him to run again--and to win again but this time with a difference: an upfront statement that he will no longer try to be the “peacemaker” between what he sees as the right way and his opposition’s obstructionism to his power. He must roll out his pen and the power of the “executive order” as his predecesor had done hundreds of times without consulting anyone.

A good politican cannot pose, he cannot hide; he must act and his opposition be damned.

#5 -- MAGGIE THE CAT

Sexy, frustrated, snarling
Against mendacitiy and
“All lies and liars”
Pulling up her black nylons
In the Mississippi heat while
Scratching at Brick’s door
For him to let her back into
His life and into his bed.

Maggie survives by
“Just staying on that
hot tin roof,” hanging on
By her claws and her
Will in her husband and
Her belief in the truth--

“There will be no more lies
in this house anymore, Maggie”--
And Maggie lay down and
Purred.

#6--THE CAT WHO ISN'T THERE

A coal-black cat creeps in 'n out
Of dark spaces--inside corners of closets
under tables and chairs and beds--
Speeding away whenever a stranger enters her realm,
Be it a relative, a neighbor, a friend
She does not exist in their eyes
Because no one has ever seen her run and hide.

Only her MOTHER knows who and where she is
At every minute of every day
As if they were tied together in each other's arms, which they are.

And so "the invisible cat" slinks 'n wanders around her rooms
Seen only to each other--and to one other
Person who can swear that she exists: her DADDY
Who also loves her very miuch and who has
SEEN and FELT her blue-blackl velvet fur agains his hands and arms.

"EBONY, the CAT WHO ISN'T THERE" is there
But only to two special people--and that's enough.