W. Grey Champion
From the Moleskine
My Moleskine accompanies me everywhere, for the purpose of catching those elusive thoughts that bombard one’s consciousness and may or may not be worthy of elaboration. I have shared these musings on my blog, From the Moleskine, each week for many years. Originally a Google blog, I moved it to this website when my third book was released. In The Weekly will be recent reflections I seek to record and to share with readers. Described here are other headings, also updated weekly.
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Dokusan: In Japan, dokusan is a private meeting of a Zen student with his master. For background, readers must see my book, Conjuring Archangel: Chronicle of a Journey on the Path, because the conjuring continues.
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In the Courtyard: As my collaborator on the blog, my friend Anna reports under this heading from her frequent forays to the village. We often meet in the courtyard for croissants and hazelnut coffee from the French bakery.
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The Carriage Lamp: Evocative of those bygone, romantic days of horses and carriages, Anna and I, Sherlockians both, will on occasion include original poems, either hers or mine. The most recent will be at the top.
Click on the titles below to read the most recent weekly posts. If you wish to be alerted to weekly themes, join the Friends of Grey by leaving your email address.
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The Weekly
God help us!
I have heard it said that even an atheist, finding himself in imminent danger, will pray to God, and as a Buddhist I do not consider that either hypocritical or unusual. There is in human consciousness a deep intuition of a greater power behind that consciousness which might be called up at such times by one’s earnest supplication. And indeed on the streets of today’s America I keep hearing that plea, “God help us!” History teaches that authoritarians capture a democracy by legal means, then change the rules to ensure they will never be removed. This is the process playing out here in the States, with but the barest possibility of its being halted in the next election. Yet at this stage many partisan true believers are wavering as they face utter ruin due to policies of the despotic regime - the farmers, the small businesses, countless enterprises that depend on migrant labor.
By no means should anyone assume the majority of independent voters here approve of what’s happening: the draconian evisceration of federal resources, the casting off of the constitution and the rule of law onto the tender mercies of courts. Rest assured many repent their vote. But will the majority be heard when leaders of both parties are cowed into submission, and any voice of opposition is bullied into silence by threats? Will governors in blue states be rounded up and imprisoned for resisting the deployment of their own state troops to their own cities for the alleged aim of protecting federal gestapo? God bless Governor Pritzker of Illinois for calling a spade a spade. Indeed we must pray to God to grant such courage to other leaders, and further to arouse the conscience of those in seats of power blithely rubber stamping the blitzkrieg of illegal actions.
Can there be a more evil person alive today than this man Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, trumpeting his power to traumatize fellow citizens? Even Mr. Putin conceals his relish of such power. Vought is better compared to Count Voivode of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But one ray of hope! None other than that Georgia peach of the white chinchilla, Marjorie Taylor Greene, breaks ranks on behalf of poor constituents in danger of losing health insurance. Praise be to thee, oh God!
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