Haibun: Political Rains
Things change as do my relationship to them. Take the impending rain in the clouds pictured below. Building the alchemy of grays and blues, the reality of a cold winter rain was dominating my thoughts, far from the flowering greens that rain would bring.
A cold rain poses the immediate threat. That feeling of threat can make me walk faster and change my whole route. It’s the initial panic feeling, that initial fear that reorders everything.
I find myself feeling the same thing in politics. When the side I disagree with refuses to shake my side’s hand on TV, or when the side I disagree with tears up the State of the Union Address, I get that feeling of panic. I panic because the decorum and order isn’t enough to stop “them” from advancing. I feel the immediacy of the action and want the rain to go away or someone to stop them.
As this starts to reorder my steps, far from my mind is the breathtaking beauty that comes from these rains. Far from my eyes and ears are thoughts that we, as a nation, have challenges ahead, so we all need to get there together.
Instead I walk faster, I push for my side to put the other side in their place: To show power to push the other side back or scare them away. Yet the rain will come no matter what I do or don’t do. It will rain because that is what it does and our leaders will show power no matter what I feel or don’t feel. They will display power because if they don’t, we will replace them as I’d replace my boots if they are no longer waterproof. Our leaders fall in line or someone else steps up to replace them. Our leaders will always be the symptoms to our illnesses and wellnesses, they are the long end of the tail to our hearts.
When in the face of fear, I, too, reorder my steps to feel some control against things I don’t want but have no chance to change.
clouds carry rain and green
blue grays for spring’s preen. someday.
yet now winter rain
A cold rain poses the immediate threat. That feeling of threat can make me walk faster and change my whole route. It’s the initial panic feeling, that initial fear that reorders everything.
I find myself feeling the same thing in politics. When the side I disagree with refuses to shake my side’s hand on TV, or when the side I disagree with tears up the State of the Union Address, I get that feeling of panic. I panic because the decorum and order isn’t enough to stop “them” from advancing. I feel the immediacy of the action and want the rain to go away or someone to stop them.
As this starts to reorder my steps, far from my mind is the breathtaking beauty that comes from these rains. Far from my eyes and ears are thoughts that we, as a nation, have challenges ahead, so we all need to get there together.
Instead I walk faster, I push for my side to put the other side in their place: To show power to push the other side back or scare them away. Yet the rain will come no matter what I do or don’t do. It will rain because that is what it does and our leaders will show power no matter what I feel or don’t feel. They will display power because if they don’t, we will replace them as I’d replace my boots if they are no longer waterproof. Our leaders fall in line or someone else steps up to replace them. Our leaders will always be the symptoms to our illnesses and wellnesses, they are the long end of the tail to our hearts.
When in the face of fear, I, too, reorder my steps to feel some control against things I don’t want but have no chance to change.
clouds carry rain and green
blue grays for spring’s preen. someday.
yet now winter rain
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| & Haiku: Rain or Preen |
