Can't imagine a world without love....

My year end thoughts

Hollywood and
Madison Avenue are good
at what they do,
one must admit,
they train our minds,
make us laugh
and cry
as they stick
it to us,
the neon gods

We are branded meat

Mr. Big
is feasting on us
but don't worry
there is a pill
for heartburn

How about a pill
for heartbreak?

MB and I have been singing the blues for the past week.  I play an old blues three-chord progression on my guitar and we make up stories about our 'moving' experiences as we sing along.  It's been a wonderful gift and a great way to stay close and let go of tension.

We are packing, weeding out stuff, slimming down - getting ready for our small apartment in Brunswick.  We've done dump runs, countless trips to Goodwill and even the Restore.  It's a good process and one that should be done while you still have the energy for it.  One reason we are not politically free people is because the system has got us consuming and collecting.  It keeps us all in a prison of sorts.

The Addams-Melman House, after 12 wonderful years, is hard to let go of.  Not only for us but also for many of our friends.  The community here over time really got a strong hold on alot of people.

I'd like to call our new upstairs apartment, in an old farm house which was converted to five apartments, the AMH annex.  Not annexed by Russia - no Putin was not responsible for us selling the AMH.  Although the local BIW establishment will be glad to get us out of town.

But don't worry because Brunswick is only 10 miles from Bath.  So I'll be back. I'm a circuit riding activist - sharing the words of the people.  Shut it down - this global extraction operation is killing our mother.  Some want to go terraform Mars, I just want to take care of the home spaceship.

Brunswick is a junior Ivy-league college town - 20,000 people.  MB can walk a couple blocks and take the bus to work in Portland - and with winter here she will appreciate not driving in the snow.

Bowdoin College will be a block away and I hope to watch some basketball games there.  There is not alot of energetic political activity at the college - might want to work on that a bit.

I can't get no satisfaction out of this political world I live in.  Needless to say I am driven to speak out - no matter the condition we might be in.  I've wondered alot during my life about where this drive comes from?

In the end it comes from a deep sense of outrage because I grew up on military bases and went to their schools.  They taught me about freedom, democracy, liberty, consumerism, cynicism and a fierce sense of justice.  Once I figured out that it was a lie on behalf of Mr. Big I became determined that I had to challenge the power.

Early on I wanted to be a policeman or FBI agent.  Then I saw cops busting heads of anti-war protesters on black-and-white TV and I saw the FBI gunning down the Black Panthers.  I gave up on that career path but made a promise to myself I'd find some way to fight the mobsters.

I end the year grateful to all who support the work I and others do to make the 'founding words' real in our current world.  I appreciate all that find some way to rattle their chains.

Let's make it ring in 2019.  I can't imagine living in a world without love.

Bruce