Descant

I dance to a different rhythm

I march to a different drum

I am the descant; a bit ahead, a bit behind, higher, lower, harmonically minor. 

I follow the Third Road through the straights and tangents; I walk alone in spirit to the music of my soul. 

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 28 July 2018

Please take a Memo… (I'm going to get hate mail)

Take a Memo…

Dear Republicans:

Liberalism, Acceptance and Compassion are not dirty words, but Regressivism could be;
Social Justice is not anti-religion, Fairness is not Communism,
closed ears, eyes, and minds can lead to deadly results.

Dear Democrats:

Pragmatism, Moderation, and Progressivism are not dirty words, but Purity could be;

Wealth isn’t inherently evil; Businesses are not all corrupt,

Closed ears, eyes, and minds can lead to tragedy.

Dear Undecideds:

Taking a Stand is neither fundamentally wrong nor right;

Researching your chosen friends and your perceived enemies is required
if you opt to follow your desires, read and follow the rules of engagement within your district.

Non-Voters:

Ambivalence is understandable at times;
benefiting from or complaining about everyone else doing your Civic Responsibility is not.

If it is too bothersome to participate in the world you’re in, then move somewhere it’s forbidden.

Dear Everybody:

Getting what you want is less important than getting what you need;
Me-Centricism is much less important than the Common Good,

Education, Kindness, and Empathy are never over-rated,

Totalitarianism, Dictatorship, Theocracy, Oligarchy, and Fascism always are perilous miscalculations.

By the way… Name-Calling continues to go both ways, and Hatred is always a dirty word!

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 26 July 2018

Fantastickal (sic)

(With thanks to Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones)

I need to “try to remember” to breathe, to hydrate, to loosen my shoulders, and unkink my neck.

I need to discover things in my life that I can look forward to; things I can do on my own.

I need to find a position in which to sleep without awakening in discomfort.

I need to find a way to get through the day without gritting my teeth or girding my loins.

I need to find a way to have regrets about decisions, but not anger for having made them;
try to accept my discontent with my life, but not regret living it.

I need to learn to acknowledge that I will never have the things I desire;
or the contented lifestyle, surrounded by the beauty I strive for
and the comfortable surroundings for which I long.

I need to adjust to being who I am, not who I think I should be.

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 24 July 2018

I’m apparently not a carpenter, because I can’t seem to cope.

Where inside oneself does one look to find the cure for despondency and wretchedness?

When one is mentally sound, which is, of course, a good thing,
but that is the problem, ‘cause the whole world’s gone quite mad,
and there’s nought one can do to change even one’s own small part of it—

How is one supposed to cope, to stop thinking, to sleep?

How does one keep the tension from building up in one’s sinews, forming knots as hard as diamonds?

Is there a method to keep from running around,
hair a bird’s nest, with dead bouquets like a distraught Ophelia?

How does one overcome the gut-cold, sickness of fear for humanity, the world;
continue to get through the insanity of today’s daily life?

Are we now so, so devoid of reason, compassion, empathy, insight, conscious thought
that the only hope of Light at the end of the tunnel is being wiped out quickly by the oncoming trainwreck?

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 13 July 2018

In the Quietude

( with gratitude to Lori Lippitz)

I sit in the quiet; listening to the murmuring of meditations.

I need to, but how do I get

My mind straight and clearing, my body resilient and healing, my life grounded and secure, and my spirit free from
Anger

Fear

Sadness

Want

Loss and

Shame?

The quiet has answers if one is willing to just listen.

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 23 June 2018

Baroque and Blue

For Eddy, with love:

My family is a rainbow of different races, religions, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and political views.

Some are carnivores, some vegetarian, some drink ginger-ale and some booze,
some like Broadway and some play the Blues.

We agree, and we disagree about how we live our lives, teach our children,
gas or electric stoves and cars.

Some love animals, some are afraid, or allergic, or ambivalent;
none of us is abusive to other living things.

Some are far-sighted, some very, very myopic,
some are going blind, losing their hearing, balance, and wits,
but we are a family, and we love each other even if and when we disagree loudly, or only in silence.

This was brought into clarity for me this week by the loss of a loved one who hadn’t the chance to say goodbye.

Don’t waste precious time protesting the differences… there is never enough time.

Someday there won’t be another chance to say I love you, to say I’m sorry,
or the opportunity to say farewell.

The HUMAN family, the GLOBAL family needs to realise that we are one, while there is still any time.

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 5 June 2018

Vindicated or Vindictive?

I am astonished by kindness, awed by talent and beauty, and overwhelmed with anger and sadness by blatant, reckless thoughtlessness and unwarranted hate.

It seems, the older I get, and I’ve aged rapidly in the last couple of years, the worse people have become, and the less tolerant I’ve become of unabridged ignorance and unbridled animosity.

Maybe I’m just out of touch, but I remember a time when the public odium was not this prevalent; when we expected, not just hoped for the best in people. Once there wasn’t a 100 foot, unscaleable barrier between everyone; we didn’t discuss religion or politics with the singular intention of blame and ridicule, we didn’t call authorities on strangers because we disliked what they looked like or for what they believed…

Yes actually, people did, but that was supposed to have disappeared with the fall of the Third Reich, Tail Gunner Joe,  “No Irish, Jewish, Chinese, or Italian need apply”, along with forced segregation and Jim Crow Laws. What people didn’t do was threaten people by the calling in of false bomb threats, ‘Swatting,’ or bullying the helpless, hopeless, homeless, and victimised.

We didn’t let our children be killed on playgrounds, in schools, religious services, or in their homes by drive-by shootings and semi-automatic strafing planned to get the agitators’ names broadcast all over the media. We didn’t deliberately drive people off the road because we didn’t like their bumper stickers or their physical attributes. 

We didn’t spew vitriol to total strangers in public, whether in person or via forms of communication meant to bring people together instead of ripping them apart. We fought for each other, not with each other. We said please, thank you, helped strangers with directions that didn’t consist of curses and suggestions of impossible sexual acts; we ate together, talked to each other, greeted new neighbours with food or flowers and not fear and weapons.

Once we believed in the American Dream instead of the American Nightmare; once we were proud, respected, upwardly mobile, but now what is left to us other than embarrassment, fear, and hate?

Well, it's only my opinion, and no doubt I'll get plenty of other conflicting opinions giving me the diagrams for those impossible, physical acts.

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 7 June 2018