LISTEN TO THE WIND

1.

Long ago, when I was a child, like you, my grandfather told me about the wind.

He pointed to a willow whose branches were dancing in the breeze and asked me what I heard.

           “Just the wind,” I answered.

           He smiled and ran his hand across the top of my head.

          “If you really listen,” he said, “you will hear spirits speaking to you. They live in the wind. Some day you will hear them.”

          “That would be nice,” I said.

          I was a very polite child.

2.

       When I was a child, like you, I was afraid of my own shadow. I was also afraid of everyone else’s shadow. I was afraid of the dog, the mailman, the refrigerator. I secretly knew that every stranger I met was the devil in disguise.
        I was actually quite a scaredy cat.
3.

One night, I thought I would try to be brave and sleep with the lights out.

Do you know how scared I was?

Too scared to get out of bed and turn on the light.

Too scared to call out to my parents.

Too scared to open my eyes.

Too scared to get up and close the window.

And so the wind came in…

4.

Be like me,

Said the wind blowing in,

Shake free of your fears,

Like leaves let them spin.

If you can outrun your demons,

They won’t chase you again,

Be like me,

Said the wind blowing in.

Be like me, child, said the wind,

And know that nothing in the dark

Can ever stop your breeze from blowing.

5.

When I was a child, like you, I had a special collection. I didn’t collect stamps or baseball cards like other children. I collected worries.

In fact, I had the largest collection of worries in America.

I was a very worried child.

6.

What were some of the things I worried about?

I worried about how much toothpaste to put on my toothbrush. I worried about light bulbs going out. I worried about rain. I worried about getting cavities. I worried about going blind, or deaf. I worried about getting lost at the movies. I even worried about my baby brother getting all my clothes before I was finished wearing them.

7.

One day I was so worried about my homework that I decided to tell my mother I was sick, and stay home from school.

I went outside to find her, and noticed the wind playing with the wash on our line.

I didn’t stop to worry about it.

I just listened…

8.

Be like me,

Said the wind racing ‘round,

Don’t let doubts fill your sails,

They’ll only slow you down.

Fly above all your worries,

Leave them stuck on the ground,

Be like me,

Said the wind racing ‘round.

Be like me, child, said the wind,

And never stop long enough

To let your worries catch up to you.

9.

When I was a child, like you, things always got in my way. Big things, little things, things that lasted a long time, things that came and went quickly.

My father said I was naturally attracted to obstacles.

That meant if I walked across an open field with my eyes closed, I would naturally walk into the only tree standing there.

10.

But trees weren’t the only obstacles that got in my way. There were bullies to pass on the way to school. Homework to do before I could watch TV. Chores to do before I could get my allowance.

If I wanted to join a basketball team, I’d be too short. Or too young. Or too something. If I wanted to go somewhere, I’d arrive too late, or go to the wrong place, or get there on the wrong day.

The world to me was a very difficult place in which to live.

11.

One day I especially remember. I was coming home early from the library. The reason I was coming home early was because the library wasn’t open that day.

          When I got home, the front door was locked and nobody was home. The reason nobody was home was because I wasn’t supposed to be home yet.

          I went around back, to the window box where we hid the extra house key. The reason the key wasn’t there was because I had gotten locked out the day before, used it, then forgot to put it back.

         That was enough to make me start crying. 

         Looking up, through my tears, I saw the wind shifting clouds around in the sky.

        “So what have you got to say about this?” I screamed.

12.

Be like me,

Said the wind on the fly,

Never run into walls,

Keep your breeze flying high.

Leave those obstacles below,

Where they can’t make you cry,

Be like me,

Said the wind on the fly.

Be like me, child, said the wind,

And pass quickly over the obstacles

In your life.

13.

Many years passed before I heard from the wind again. By then, I was no longer a child, like you. I was a man. An old man.

I had lived most of my life by then. I was famous. I was admired. I was asked to speak at schools. My picture appeared in newspapers and magazines.

All in all, I was pretty hot stuff.

14.

 Yes, this was the same person who was once too frightened to get out of bed and turn on a light.

            The same person who worried constantly about airplane crashes, and about having to pass on his pajamas to his brother.
           The very same person who walked into walls so often people thought it was a habit.
           I had forgotten all that. I was too busy signing autographs and talking on TV shows to remember stuff like that.
15.

  But then one day I was standing on a hill. I was standing on the exact spot where they planned to put up a statue of me.

 That’s how big a big shot I was!

 I was standing there, looking down into the valley, thinking about how small everyone else was. How small they all looked from up here. How small they all seemed compared to me.
Then, all of a sudden, I wasn’t standing on a hill. I wasn’t standing anywhere. I was lying on the ground. A strong gust of wind had blown me over.
What else could I do?

I sat up and listened…

16.

Be like me,

Said the wind standing tall,

If you puff yourself up,

Then be ready to fall.

Don’t go looking for praise,

When you answer a call,

Be like me,

Said the wind standing tall.

Be like me, child, said the wind,

And know that every tree you bend down

Will straighten itself once you’re gone.

17.

Long ago, when I was a child, like you, my grandfather told me about the wind.

He told me there were spirits who lived in the wind, and I would hear them if I listened.

Since then, I have listened to the wind. And I have grown from being a child to a man to an old man in my time.

Now I have spent all my days and I no longer listen to the wind.

18.

           Now, I am the wind.

Declaration of Interdependence


WE THE PEOPLE of the free and independent United States herby declare our interconnectedness and responsibility for one another. Recognizing that we were originally formed as a political unit to throw off the cruelties and deprivations of a despotic ruler, we re-commit ourselves to those principles which set us apart from nations whose inhumanity and enrichment of their ruling classes have repressed and inflicted undue harm upon their general populations from time immemorial.
In light of recent activities and political maneuverings by the moneyed classes of our society, we feel the need to once again state those values we believe are embodied or implied in both our nation’s Constitution and Declaration of Independence, namely that…

       • All citizens are entitled to unhindered access to those essentials necessary in a modern society to foster Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, including (but not limited to) a healthy diet, safe and affordable housing, an advanced education, an unbiased political system, freedom from fear or repression, and a government committed as an overriding philosophy to the avoidance of war and the pursuit of peace.

       • To secure such essentials, it is necessary to immediately develop and institute such rules of behavior and political jurisprudence that acknowledge and reestablish the equality of all individuals in our society; those actions to include…

-Removing the power and influence of money from all democratic institutions and political activities, understanding that, far from engendering free speech, the unfettered flow of money only allows moneyed interests to drown out the voices of those with lesser wealth or influence;

– Restoring a fair and equitable tax system that recognizes all individuals benefit equally from systems, protections and services provided by our  national and local governments, and that more should be expected from those who because of circumstance or dint of effort have a preponderance of a nation’s wealth, while less should be taken from those who have little enough for themselves;

– Restoring equal justice and punishment to those at all levels of our society, so that those who  caused economic chaos and destruction in pursuit of their own selfish outcomes, as well as those who unleashed the dogs of war for no good cause, and those who authorized or committed acts of torture, are given a fair and impartial trial before the eyes of the world, as a lesson to others and a clear indicator of our commitment to the rule of law, even for the most powerful among us;
– Gradually reducing the country’s dependence on, and thrall to, the military industrial complex. Recognizing that, as we’ve recently seen, weak-minded or short-sighted leaders can make unfortunate military decisions that often result in unnecessary death, destruction and wasteful expenditure of national wealth. Also recognizing that the maintenance of a large global military footprint not only increases the likelihood of a country being drawn into war, but significantly reduces those assets available for keeping commitments to its citizens at all levels of the socio-economic ladder.

We offer the above Declaration of Interdependence as a road map for our country to begin returning to its rightful path, to once again become a beacon on a hill to other nations, a paragon of virtue among world powers, driven equally by principle and compassion, and untroubled by the internal strife that rules public debate when blind self-interest and self-righteous bravado hold sway.

So offered for consideration on this Fourth of July, 2012.

LEST ANYONE FORGET (A Chronicle in Song of the Bush Years)

From Those Wonderful Folks Who Brought You The Bush Years! It’s shocking how easily one forgets the scandals perpetrated, the treasury looted, the elections stolen, the bodies tortured, the Justice Department perverted. And oh how they’d like you to forget.  Forget an unwarranted war, Harriet Miers, Alberto Gonzalez, Valerie Plame, Scooter Libby, Abu Ghraib, Mission UnAccomplished, hanging chads, Donald Rumsfeld, Halliburton, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, and on and on it goes. Well, my friends, you won’t have to remember it all, because I’ve put much of it down in a song, “The Ballad Of The Republicans”, then filmed myself singing it to a somewhat hostile audience (there were more boos than you hear at the end of the video). So, please, pardon the rough presentation, but don’t let yourselves ever forget what happened the last time the American public voted in a Republican administration (or came close enough for the Supreme Court to steal the ball in the last seconds of the game). Feel free to sing along, or to do everything in your power to prevent these corrupters, thieves and liars from ever regaining control of our government.

The Last Will And New Testament Of Henry J. Worthmore, Jr.

I, Henry J. Worthmore, Jr., being of sound mind and failing health in my 73rd year do hereby set down in words this final and irrefutable disposal of all my worldly goods.

No matter what anyone may say to the contrary, this document represents my true wishes, written without undue influence except perhaps by the uncomfortably close and ever-looming shadow of my Maker. May He prove to be the first honest and faithful authority I encounter in a lifetime of lonely, self-reliant struggle. And may He understand that what transpired in my lifetime, much of which may appear of questionable humanitarian purpose, was merely a matter of good business practice and never anything personal.

Oh, damn . . . ! No sooner do I write those words than a soft, unfamiliar voice (could it be my conscience after all these years?) whispers, “Is that entirely true, Henry? Good business practice and never anything personal?”

What right does a conscience have to speak to me now–answer me that–after a lifetime spent in silence?

I know what’s wrong, and why I suffer myself to sit up in my sick bed scribbling to replace a will previously drawn and re-drawn half a dozen times. This very morning, awaking from a dream in which I’d been dragging dead weights across the floor of the Boston Stock Exchange, I looked over at my nightstand to find amidst the panoply of pills and potions a thin, black vinyl-covered copy of The New Testament. Left, no doubt, by an overzealous nurse or one of you, my dear children, desperate for a larger share of my appreciation and, ultimately, my fortune.

Well, no complaints there. That’s the way I brought you up and I have no right to complain if you prove apt pupils in the end. I suppose I should even be proud, but I raised you so damn well in my own image I can’t stand the sight of you.

And now all of you—my five progeny, my attorneys, my associates, even my ex-wives—will laugh, and with good reason, to hear that Henry J. Worthmore, Jr. woke up on his death bed to find the New Testament staring at him like a snake placed in his path by an ironic deity. Funnier still, that when I angrily picked it up to fling across the room, my eye—still sharp as ever–was caught by a saying from the text that went right to my heart and stayed my hand from its angry gesture.

And for those critics who implied otherwise, I hereby affirm that I, Henry J. Worthmore, Jr., did actually have a heart. Not my fault if it was so small most people naturally overlooked it.

But I digress, and there is little time for diversions. I feel the shadows closing in and can barely write as my fingers struggle to grip the pen.

The words that caught my eye, from the Gospel of Luke, caused something magical, or maybe I should say mystical, to happen. In an instant, I saw that this fragile life to which I was clinging was only one of many lives my spirit had taken on. And when the time soon came for me to die, that same spirit would not vaporize into nothingness but rather take on a shiny new body and a lifetime of yet-to-be-sampled experiences.

Now laugh if you want, but the funniest part is still to come, because I also saw that everything I did in this incarnation would have consequences in the next. And, as most of you know better than I, mine was a life spent far from the fields of brotherly love and higher ideals.

And so, if you look below you’ll find a long list of charities to which I bequeath my entire fortune down to the last penny, yacht and offshore tax shelter.

As for you, my children, I leave the wisdom garnered in these last fateful moments of my existence. And my apologies for abandoning your needs to once again serve my own selfish purposes.

But there’s a lesson in this worth more than the $350 million dollars you almost inherited. And that is, to make sure you never go anywhere in life, or death, without adequate insurance. I knew I had almost failed to provide such insurance for myself—call it travel insurance–when I read those fateful words from Jesus, “Give, and it shall be given unto you . . .”

As a tired old man completing his last piece of business in this lifetime, I just wish Jesus had given me more detailed instructions.