Martin LeFevre

The Enlightentment of Hillary

Martin LeFevre — 2008-04-25T19:55:00Z

The most interesting thing said so far during the torturous Democratic campaign came, improbably, from that sage, Hillary Clinton. Intoning in Pennsylvania on Obama's remarks in San Francisco about people “clinging to guns and religion,” she said, “I don't think it helps to divide our country into one America that is enlightened and one that is not.”

She's been consulting with the philosopher in California with whom I had a discussion around this same subject before her husband become president, I thought. We were talking about the possibility of a psychological revolution in our lifetimes, and this fellow, a Marxist, said, “that would divide people into those who are enlightened, and those who aren't.” (...)

The Action of Unknowing

Martin LeFevre — 2008-04-25T19:50:00Z

It's amazingly quiet for a Saturday afternoon in the municipal park, even at the upper end, furthest from the city center. A nice place overlooking the stream is unoccupied, and I sit down with my back to the sun, surrounded by the new foliage of spring.

A pair of mallards, who obviously make their home at this spot, nonchalantly drift downstream as I walk up, but stop in an eddy only 20 meters away. A quarter hour later, obviously feeling the human is safe, they paddle back upstream to clean, preen, sit, and sleep directly across from me. (...)

The Origin and Operation of Evil

Martin LeFevre — 2008-04-17T21:12:00Z

One of the greatest impediments to the inward and intellectual growth of Homo sapiens is the illusion that we humans are evolving positively. It simply isn't so that we are progressing as a species, except scientifically and technologically.

However the need to believe it, and our Western conditioning (indeed, probably the nature of thought itself) keeps convincing people, against all evidence, that ‘the light is overcoming the darkness.' (...)

The Flowering of Humanity

Martin LeFevre — 2008-04-17T06:45:00Z

Spring is at its zenith in the canyon beyond town. Above the narrow gorge that cuts through the half- mile wide canyon, there is a rocky field covered with orange poppies and blue lupines. Walking through it, there is nothing but that color, and the heart is cleansed and made new again. (...) -

The Roots of War

Martin LeFevre — 2008-04-17T06:40:00Z

A large band of male chimpanzees gathers in a clearing in a reserve in Uganda. They have a common goal, and groom each other with great intensity, communicating through touch the desire of their group mind. Suddenly, on some inscrutable cue, they silently head off toward the trees to isolate and murder a member of an adjoining troop. (...) -

Presidential Campaign Blues

Martin LeFevre — 2008-04-17T06:35:00Z

Politics is much too serious a business not to have fun doing it. But how long ago three months seem, when the choices were fresh and the races exciting. Now, popping up alongside the flowers of spring, are the same old poisonous fungi of backbiting and smallness of mind. (...) -

What Went Wrong Jesus?

Martin LeFevre — 2008-04-17T06:30:00Z

Today is Good Friday, the most solemn day in the Christian calendar. On this day believers commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus, seeing it as the ultimate sacrifice and the fulfillment of his mission. Nothing could be further from the truth. (...) -

Regarding Texts, Traditions, and Truth

Martin LeFevre — 2008-04-17T06:25:00Z

It was the strangest and most beautiful sky I'd ever seen. After witnessing three dramatic changes in weather within an hour, I stood transfixed looking back on the sycamore I sat under. Its white bark gleamed in the bright, setting sun, with an intensely blue-black sky as a backdrop to the east. (...) -

The Dimension Beyond Time

Martin LeFevre — 2008-04-17T06:20:00Z

A high, thin layer of clouds fills the western sky, blunting the warmth of the sun and giving the land a subtly somber cast. The little stream on the edge of town is now full enough to create a cascade over a step of rocks, as it wends it way along its gentle slope through the Central Valley. (...) -

Bleeding from Flag Pins

Martin LeFevre — 2008-04-17T06:16:00Z

To the cry, ‘we want our country back!' thousands flock and dozens faint at Obama rallies, which resemble those huge gatherings of evangelical Christians in football stadiums. (...) -

Of Eclipses and Sacred Places

Martin LeFevre — 2008-02-29T20:35:00Z

Not knowing there was a total eclipse of the moon this evening, I'm surprised to see a wine-colored moon in the eastern sky, with a mother of pearl rim around its upper right quadrant. (...) -

The Worst President's Day

Martin LeFevre — 2008-02-29T20:30:00Z

Today is Presidents' Day in the USA. George Bush is in Africa on his second trip to the continent. He's not even making an appearance in neighboring strife-torn Kenya, and he's ignoring the slaughter in Darfur that his administration labeled genocide. (...) -

Campaign, Movement, or Revolution?

Martin LeFevre — 2008-02-29T20:29:00Z

The presidential race in America grows more exciting by the week, at least on the Democratic side. (The Republicans, fearing the polyglot, have begun building their monolith around septuagenarian John McCain.) The question is: Does all this excitement spell real change, or does it confirm that hope springs infernal? (...) -

America's Spiritual War Zone

Martin LeFevre — 2008-02-11T10:35:00Z

Like the terrible tornadoes that wreaked havoc throughout much of the South the night of the national primaries, the ground has been laid bare in America. We're down to the spiritual and political essence.

The fight to regain America's soul is taking place in the Democratic Party, while the Republicans, trumpeted by carnivores like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, are cannibalizing themselves. (...)

The Politics of Gender

Martin LeFevre — 2008-02-04T09:20:00Z

“Women are the culture bearers” used to be a common saying in anthropology. Though the expression now seems quaint, it still contains a lot of truth.

A female friend and I have been talking a lot lately about what is going on with women and men in America. My observation is that women, being the stronger sex emotionally, have continued standing, while most men have quit and literally lied down, and become couch potatoes. (...)