endless lesson

the words came back through flora purim
same as I heard them one night
soon after the record came out
1972 - return to forever:

look around you my people
if you look then you will see
how to love – life is paradise
all together
what game shall we play today

and in my fragrant bath on a scorching hot day
i realized this song embodies the most benevolent
aspect of my dear outrageously honest tom dodd
who gave me hope when I was young as did the song

here we are all together
free to have and do and be
what we see – for the first time
all together
what game shall we play today

the song the singer the teacher
insisted upon joyous creativity
when like now so much
seemed hemmed by madness

for tom the notion of boredom
was insufferably wasteful
nonsense of the numbest
and least engaging

there were
there are
no un-marvelous
or uninspiring
chapters

you
are
here

arwulf arwulf
july 2013

"The deliberate cultivation, nay, inculcation of ignorance, the premeditated breeding of stupidity has brought our bright planet to the brink of irrecoverable night...The general impression is that stupidity is a natural condition easily measured and rated by intelligence tests, a quasi genetic quality. But I tell you that stupidity is  an unnatural condition, that each of us has all the equipment necessary to sharply observe and conclude, to imagine and calculate, and that the degree to which this capacity is or is not realized is a matter of social responsibility."

Julian Beck
New York City
Doctor's Hospital
April 1st 1984

thomas dodd

educator, progressive thinker & role model

Kitty Carlisle
Photograph by Carl Van Vechten (1933)

http://www.autoscopia.net/pages/Arwulf_Arwulf.html

Hanes Walton, Jr. 1941-2013 - rest in peace, and thanks for context! I extend to the family and all his many friends my heartfelt condolences. He was one of my heroes, and was always a pleasure to work with. I will miss him terribly, as will so many of us here in Ann Arbor. Knowing and listening to Hanes Walton, Jr. was one of the great blessings in this life. Please let's remember the passion, intelligent insights and joyously outspoken presence of this great man. Follow his example by expanding the dialogue and serving humanity by working to understand and illuminate the truth.

rob urbanik,
lifelong friend
and confidant

Probably one of my very first role models

after I got to Ann Arbor in 1968:

Hiawatha Bailey