FootprintsintheWind.com

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1028

We are the terrorists
We have done this to ourselves
Our police
Our captains, presidents, experts
Our metal detectors and electronic stripping machines
Our airlines, blankets, pillows and policies
Engender and nurse the terror among us
Terror we can see is not in bombs
But is a virus we ourselves give each other

I was reflecting on the decision to ban tailgating at the Super Bowl. I imagine the reason is that it makes it easier for the police to scan the area, patrol it, walk with explosive detecting dogs. But this also makes their job harder: the bombers, if they are there, are forced to be more circumspect. Their actions are more hidden. If they had the relaxation of moving about more freely, they might more easily give themselves away by their actions. Profiling might be easier for the police. Clearing the aisles only makes it easier to do the patrolling that will not catch nor concern those intent on doing harm. It serves most to increase the feeling of terror among us.

And of course there are those who profit by the terror—those who make the metal detectors, train the dogs, plan ways to keep people in orderly lines between the velvet covered chains.

Please pass it on.

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Wholing means bringing us forth out of the whole.

:- Doug.

When we are in the womb growing our arms and legs they come out of the whole, and are not assembled together and made into us. This is indeed how we see the world, and indeed how it is. We are not like mechanical robots where you pull an arm off the shelf and bolt it on a body, and then insert a computer. Biological process starts with a whole, then develops.

So these structure-preserving changes are how we develop physically, and how we do socially: little pieces of each other help us all grow, and we are community before we are individuals. We develop, like images on a photographic paper—already there, becoming more and more distinct as we grow.

:- Doug.

Conversational deepener: What is the mystery of life?

:- Doug.