Bird Droppings September 30, 2026
Searching for integrity amidst the fogginess of reality
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe anything simply because many speak and rumor it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” Buddha
I watch the news and pundits lauding their integrity and truthfulness as they command hundred-thousand-dollar speaking fees and first-class accommodations. Then I think of a Hindu holy man who sat for twenty-seven years with his arm outstretched in honor of Vishnu, one of his Gods. In America, we say it is the American way, and many will pay to see that star-struck speaker who has little or nothing of any significance. I look back at that crazy holy man who, after all those years of piety, can no longer use his arm, and a bird nests in his hand, and a faint smile comes to his face as he has been of use. Who do I respect there, in all honesty, should not even be a question?
Over two thousand years ago, another holy man walked about and taught us to forgive our brothers. As their faith goes, he dies for all others’ sins so no one else would need to die. According to the writings that followed, he was to be a blood sacrifice for all of humanity. A man who disdained wealth, war, injustice, and greed, yet today those very things drive the faith that bears his name. How can we bastardize those founding concepts to the point where they are so far from what they were?
“Character is higher than intellect.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If we are ever in doubt about what to do, it is a good rule to ask ourselves what we shall wish on the morrow that we had done.” John Lubbock
“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.” James D. Miles
I have noticed things as I hurry out to drive away from the house the past two mornings. A partial moon greets me and fades as I drive down the dark roads, though today it was more of a drizzle. Yesterday, an Opossum scurried across the road, tail held high in defiance, as they dashed across. Little-known tidbit: an opossum will consume 5000 ticks a season. A few yards farther, an eastern box turtle sat near the edge of the road, just looking. It was an odd time for a turtle to be out, especially on the highway, as I pulled to the stop sign. As I stopped, someone else saw the turtle and moved it onto the grass. As it turns out, it was someone on a little tiny Vespa scooter, and coincidentally, we both ended up at the corner store. So, I wonder at these synchronistic events looking back, each only a brief second of my days, but each has stuck with me. Did they have meaning and significance, or would they have happened even if I hadn’t witnessed them?
A few summers ago, as I drove to a graduate class yesterday morning, I stopped, or planned to stop, at a specific store. This store is unique as its parking lot edge goes across a field into the mountains. It was designed for taking sunrise photos. As it would have, a glorious sunrise was coming up as I pulled in. It was a fantastic sight for five or six minutes, and as quickly as it appeared, clouds and rain rolled in. I got in the car and headed back toward class, only to find a rainbow across my path. A massive rainbow in front and sunrise behind me, and I thought a minute or two different, and I would have missed both.
“I thank thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed.” Matthew Henry
“My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.” Thomas Paine
“Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what’s right.” Isaac Asimov
Prior knowledge and/or experiences, which John Dewey refers to as a basis for education to build on. We build off that base and add to it, as if prior understandings are a foundation for further understanding. So, what if someone lives with criticism, will they be able to learn tolerance? If a child lives with hostility, will they ever be able to understand peace? If a child lives with ridicule, will they ever be able to understand or know praise? Can a child who lives with shame ever know forgiveness? I am loosely borrowing from Dr. Laura Nolte’s “Children Learn What They Live” poem from 1971. As I ponder that aspect of prior understanding and look towards some of our current society’s politics, I do wonder how people learn to be so self-centered and greedy. In his last speech to the UN, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said capitalism is in its death throes as we build a class of ultra-wealthy on everyone else’s carcasses. I look at Wall Street, which has always amazed me, and how fortunes are made owning nothing but paper and someone else’s desire to own that paper.
Many people talk about and write about how our society is going downhill. As I watch and read, I often feel that sociopathy and mental illness are the driving forces in that rhetoric, and that those who reap fortunes on gossip and innuendo. Our local paper has a spin meter and sorts each day the political spin that follows each politician and each piece of legislation. We talk of repealing healthcare, and I wonder how many parents of severely ill children will want that now that insurance companies cannot dump them or exclude them for preexisting conditions. I wonder how many breast cancer survivors will encourage their legislators to promote this plan, as preventive medicine is given and free mammograms are a part of the provisions. It all comes down to those who do not want to give up anything and see everyone else as a parasite. Sadly, we have moved from an understanding worldview to one of self-centeredness, and unfortunately, it appears we hold editions of that aloft.
“Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.” Aristotle
It has taken a long time to honor men and women who have shown bravery in combat. I recall some of the first Congressional Medal of Honor Winners awarded from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I’m curious why we often delay such events. I wonder why I see what I see, and others see nothing. I ponder daily why I can relate better to a Hindu holy man holding his arm aloft than to a politician or former politician getting paid a small fortune to chatter on about a version of reality that only they see. It leaves me with my daily credo: please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts, and always give thanks, namaste.
My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,
Mitakuye Oyasin
(We are all related)
docbird
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