Inappropriate Content

There must be a time lag if I can call the resident of the White House a shithead and still be called PG-13. Bush, on the other hand, should be rated X for all the violence and degradation he has unleashed on the world. Just saying.

Oh, in case there is any confusion, I offer the Dhammapada as encouragement for us all, including myself. I certainly don't live up to it or to the injunctions of Jesus.

This might be a reasonable time to reprise an old poem.

The Pleasing Boy

The pleasing boy
who played by the rules
earned the smug toleration
of the unimaginative—
not affection, respect, or love
(perhaps a quiet admiration
for his ability
to tolerate crap)

It’s not enough,
he concluded tardily,
and decided to take his soul back,
to color outside the lines
and follow his imagination,
to take risks and live
with the consequent failures
as well as exhilarating successes,
to let fly the snarky comment
and show disapproval
as well as bestow
the wonted compliments

He’s gone back to dancing
in streets and hallways,
singing out loud,
drawing on sidewalks with chalk,
naming bullshit,
laughing too loudly,
playing with children and elders—
and even the occasional midlifer
who has begun to wake up
and wants to play too



17 October 2003

Update: the PG is for 2 occurrences of crap and 1 of queer. Interesting. And very queer.

--the BB