WWUUD stream

🔒
❌ About FreshRSS
There are new articles available, click to refresh the page.
☐ ☆ ✇ Quest for Meaning

Chaos and Concord

By: Timothy

Chaos and Concord battle in the collective mind.
Chaos whispers to every tribe, religion, and race

“Fear ‘the other’
They covet your power
They envy your advantage.”
She sings to each group,
“You’re the stronger, the higher, the better,
You’re the blessed. Privilege is your right.”

Concord’s small voice speaks of equity, justice and peace.

“Like us, ‘the other’ has tradition, history, community, art.
Like us, they are right to exist.”

“No,” cries Chaos.

“Only the strong, the worthy, the majority can rule.
The vote is your modern weapon for keeping them at bay.
If you cannot defeat them,
feign tolerance to hide your enmity while you bide your time.”

“Tolerance is not enough,” Concord interjects.

“We must be happy for them and their community.
Erasing a culture is not up for ballot.
We can’t hide our violence and bias behind popular votes.
It kills freedom, feeds Chaos, it is cruel.”

“Conquest and conformity,” Chaos asserts,

“is the only way to happiness.”

“Belief that, someday, all will accept the same beliefs,

the same god, the same history,
only perpetuates sadness and despair.”
Concord challenges,

“pursuit of happiness is not by forced acceptance.

Happiness grows

by being happy for each other,
by supporting each other’s spiritual growth,
by helping each other build meaning,
by trying to understand and encourage all those around us.”

May Concord’s voice be heard.

☐ ☆ ✇ Quest for Meaning

The Rainbow

By: Timothy

Timothy
CLF member, incarcerated in NY

I was walking in the yard.
He looked like a mob enforcer — probably because he was.
I’d seen him often, fierce and intimidating. We never spoke.
He was looking up. I turned to see a rainbow.
“You have to search for beauty. There is none here in prison.”
“Is that a double rainbow forming?”
“Yes, they are rare.”
“Gorgeous.”
We watched with reverence. It faded away too soon.
“As a kid I’d run out after a rain to look for a rainbow.”
“Did you find many?”
“No. Almost never. But I kept trying.”
“Looking for beauty is always worthwhile.”
We continued talking.
Sharing awe made us humble,
dissolving barriers,
allowing us to act like old friends.
It was beautiful.

☐ ☆ ✇ WWUUD?

Grace

By: Timothy

I know her
In times of turmoil she is unexpected respite
I cherish what she is, what I am not
Her countenance is hopeful
Her words are kind without rebuke
Hers is not charity, yet no debt is incurred
She assumes I am worthy. I am sure I am not

I know her, but I have never been her
When the turbulence passes
She departs with this wise impress
Do not wait for others to prove worthy
They are already
You are able to be Grace for them
Are you willing?

☐ ☆ ✇ WWUUD?

Dare to Try

By: Timothy

I make no mistakes. I do not err.
A charge of fault is so unfair.
While others protest in despair
I shift the blame with great fanfare,
then put on an innocent air.
I do not try, so mistakes are rare.

Mistakes are made by those who try,
those who work and question why.
They take their lumps, do not deny,
make no excuse, no alibi.
“I know more now” is their reply,
then move on without tear or sigh.

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211110144255/https://www.questformeaning.org/podcasts/20_06/05.mp3

☐ ☆ ✇ WWUUD?

Integrity’s Blemished Virtue

By: Timothy

Helen was revered as a good person, and I was happy to be her friend. She was a manager, a mother, an artist, a neighbor. My experiences with her were always warm and affirming. Everyone trusted her integrity because she lived her values.

But one day we find that she has done something horrible—something offending our moral code. In an instant, Helen becomes disturbing to me. How can I trust her? The experiences we shared are erased by a biting fear that all she was is a lie.

Then Hope—an acquaintance, not even a friend—steps forward with a gift of love. Hope and Helen talk, and affirm their relationship is still authentic. With this assurance, Hope is with Helen as she answers for the harm she created. Hope sees Helen as an artist, a manager, a neighbor and a person who violated a tenet. Hope insists we all are more than the worst thing we’ve done, and should not be carelessly discarded. She forces me to ask if integrity is only the memory of unblemished experience, or if it is simply capricious perception. Hope doesn’t say it, but I admit to myself: shame on me!

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211110135628/https://www.questformeaning.org/podcasts/20_05/04.mp3

☐ ☆ ✇ WWUUD?

Be a patriot

By: Timothy Snyder
Illustration of hand with match lighting the Statue of Liberty's torch.

Timothy Snyder

Twenty lessons for citizens of an imperiled democracy, from a scholar of twentieth-century catastrophes.

Illustration of hand with match lighting the Statue of Liberty's torch.

Timothy Snyder

Twenty lessons for citizens of an imperiled democracy, from a scholar of twentieth-century catastrophes.

❌