When the wind blows hard across the plain, the long grass may bend with each gust, but between gusts, it is already rising again. When the farmer comes to cut that field, because its roots have been tested and grown deep into the soil, it grows back. When the farmer comes and digs up its roots and throws it on the now empty plain to let it shrivel in the bleaching sun, it’s seeds have already spread to oh so many other places.

© words by Daniel DeMarle

Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit

Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad

Creativity is finding a way to put it in a fruit salad that works

Artistry is putting tomato and other fruits on a shishkabob and making it look gorgeous

© words by Daniel DeMarle 8/13/2020

Everything you have likely heard about voting is wrong. Voting is the single most important and powerful thing you can do to change your life, improve your neighborhood, and ensure a better future for your children, grandchildren, and relatives. The second most important and powerful thing is the fill out your census form. Now you may have heard all the lies and bullshit about ‘your vote does not matter’, ‘both candidates are crooks’, ‘its a broken system’, etc…etc…etc… The people telling you those things are not your friends. The people telling you those things and other lies are idiots or secretly want to keep you down. Voting is pure power. There are millions and millions of dollars being spent right now with the simple goal to keep you from voting, and if that does not work, to get you to not vote for a specific candidate. Why would people spend millions and the country billions to get you to not vote, if it was not important? Voting is pure power, again voting is pure superpower. Don’t let anyone take your power away from you. Don’t buy that poisoned pill from the neighborhood dealer. They want to keep you down and under their feet.

© words by Dan DeMarle 7/2020

For everyone posting tips on how to bypass FB, here is the real deal. Get off of FB. Call a friend or loved one, better yet visit them. Go talk to your neighbor. Take public transportation. Volunteer in your community. Go out and work for a candidate. Go to some protests. Get a dog, and meet all the other dog walkers, most of them are nice people. Believe me, you will be so busy having real conversations that you will long for the time FB controlled your views so you only see the same 5 fools every time you log in.

© words by Dan DeMarle 7/2020

I often want to ask everyone including you (you reading this) have you ever been to a protest, a civil action, a sit-in, and/or put yourself at risk? Life is short. Is there nothing that has enraged, angered, cried out for justice, that you have seen, heard, experienced in your life that made you mad, angry, sad enough to go out and march, scream, yell? I often wonder for my religious friends, if you believe that God placed you on this earth, did God do that so you could sit and watch Netflix? Do you think that maybe God wanted you to, you know, do what Jesus did? Confront and challenge power? Confront the money lenders in the temple? Heal the sick? Comfort the poor? Jesus was a refugee fleeing political oppression (the king killed all the baby boys born), do you think that was an accident? Do you not think that that was for a reason?  There are children in the same situation today (they are literally at our borders). The words of Warsan Shire “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.” Don’t they make you want to do something?  My joke is the man or woman dies and for you Christians goes to heaven and sees St. Peter at the Gate. 

St. Peter asks “so what did you do?

You – “Do about what? 

St. Peter smiles a little and says “Oh come on? you know?” 

You – “Know what?” 

St. Peter “I’ll make it easy on you, I’m a little bored, what did you do on May 26th, 2020?”

You – I don’t know watched Tiger King on Netflix.”

St. Peter – “And?

You – “I’ve got nothing.”

St. Peter – “the 27th, 28th, 29th, the rest of May, first few weeks in June?”

You – “more Netflix, there was a coronavirus pandemic you know stay at home, blah, blah, blah.”

You “Why? What’s special about May 25th?”

St. Peter – “Oh you know the day George Floyd was murdered.”

You, “so…oh yeah, I was really upset about that.”

St. Peter sighing a little relief “So good then you did something about it.”

You – ‘Oh yeah I turned my FB icon black”

St. Peter – “you also posted a meme about All lives Matter.”

You – “Well yes of course they all do…including black people,…and everyone else.”

St. Peter -“Yes I see, and yet you were a meat eater”

You – “Yeah”

St. Peter – “Yeah, well you know ALL lives matter, that includes animals. Did you think humans were the only creatures God cares about on earth?”

You – “Well, I didn’t know”

St. Peter – “And all the people dying in wars – they are people they are part of “All”

You – “well yeah but they were far away.”

St. Peter – frowns “Ok back to George Floyd. He’s here now you know”

St. Peter – “Ok, so what about all the other deaths, the riots, the rising sea level, the melting glaciers, the President sending the Gestapo to Portland, withdrawing the US from the Paris Climate Treaty, the failure to put the ERA in the constitution, the treatment of migrants, all the people getting evicted, the banning of refugees, that’s just stuff in the US, we haven’t even gotten to the rest of the world yet,   ….. Oh I see.”

You – shrug

St. Peter – “More netflix?”

You – “Well there was some really funny stuff on Instagram and Twitter, let alone Tic Toc. Have you seen Sarah Cooper?”

St. Peter – “So you lived in one of the most consequential times, with the battle of good versus evil going on all around you, I mean angels and demons all over the place, and people literally dying and you did nothing?”

You – “Well that’s not fair!”

St. Peter – “So….Why do you think God put you down there? You had all those chances to get involved to make a difference, did you never ask yourself, why you? Why now?”

© words by Daniel DeMarle 7/20/2020

Hey bicycle man,

I came to ride with you today.

We had a date,

you may not remember.

I know you’ve been busy.

We set this date back a year ago.

You were already dying of cancer.

We both knew it,

but we didn’t talk about it,

at least not directly.

It was a beautiful ride along the shore in Vermont

Vermont, your adopted State.

You love it there.

Funny after all those miles you rode over more than one continent

You ended up riding in the mountains in Vermont.

Of course, you also skied,

Lots and lots of skiing,

but hey this is my story so keep your skiing out of it.

So we had this date,

I clearly said,

I was looking forward to doing this ride in two years with you,

when we both knew the grains in your hourglass did not have that much sand left.

Remember, we stopped at the store run by that very old brother and sister.

My wife, oh yes, she was on the ride as well,

smiled because she was always amazed,

how easily you could just get people to start talking.

You played their very out of tune piano.

It seems I was always getting you to play very out of tune pianos.

The reason was,

you could.

You could pick up your life and reinvent it,

just like you could always find a tune on a busted down keyboard.

Your fingers would find a way around the stuck or sticky keys.

You were always somewhat elfish, or dwarvish that way.

Maybe that was part of your magic,

and you have some magic in you, we could all see it in your eyes.

Regardless, you always had a way,

a way to make beautiful music, ok, at least passable music,

out of a piano or out of the life you were given,

and the life you made it into.

Like you did in Vermont.

It was clear, because even despite the dogs,

Your house was filled with love,

Ok, I give you the dogs, they clearly loved you,

and you them.

So now, I’m here.

It is the appointed time.

The sun is just setting,

the first stars are coming out,

a premature early fall chill is in the air.

I place my feet on my peddles,

and out of the corner of my eye,

I see you briefly.

Your head is turned and you are throwing back a kiss,

to the woman and the daughter you loved.

From even here,

I can hear their hearts cry out,

ride safe.

Yes, my friend,

ride safe.

Ride safe, on all those glorious hills and valleys you now get to ride.

Ride safe.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 7/13/2020 – In memory of James Reda

Attorney General Bill Barr used a classic racist and sexist strategy yesterday when asked if his policies favor the President. Instead of answering he took each case one by one and discussed his decision in each. So you ask yourself so, how is that racist or sexist? So let’s analyze this taking for example People of color, it works the same for women as well, and for many other groups. One thousand applicants apply for 500 jobs. Of the applicants, 500 are people of whiteness and 500 are equally qualified people of color. Now assume getting the job is like rolling dice. Now because of historic issues, the person of color gets hired if a roll of 5 or 6 occurs. If there is a 1 through 4 the white candidate gets hired. So all 1000 people are processed for the job. They are all asked the same questions and in each case, the employer writes down why they were hired and why they were not hired. You review each case on an individual basis and you say “Ok I guess that was a non-biased decision.” The dice show a number of 1 – 4. In the end, you review the results and all 500 jobs were filled by a person of whiteness. So when you look at each individual decision, you can’t see the racism. But if you think of it, what it means is that a dice was rolled 500 times and there was never a roll of 5 or 6. Try that? Now your look at the whole company and you notice there are no people of color. There has never been a 5 or 6 rolled. This is what is called systemic racism. If you look at each individual case you can’t see it, but when you step back and look it is obvious. So when Barr says let’s look at each case, your like “hmmm” but when you look at the pattern it tells a different story. So what do you do? Well, you grab that dice and you look and guess what? There are no 5 or 6s on that damn dice. So its time to either get new dice, or tear it all the f down.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 6/26/2020