Change can be strange – with so much new, it wasn’t so surprizing, yet felt WRONG finding a set of 3 beloved CLASSIC CRACKERJACK BOXES CONTAINING NOT A TOY BUT AN INVITE TO BLIPP THE BALLGAME. An app – no toy to figure out – get thee back to thy computer to play! And art? Buy a calming COLORING BOOK, won’t you? No sketching allowed; just copy work to calm the jangled nerves you have from not doing anything but sitting at your desk (or standing at your standup if you’ve evolved.)

Crazy world we’re living in – horrific wars in the Middle East, Kim Jong Il keeps over 100k of his people in jail many because they want to leave, catastrophic floods come with global warming; the Koch Brothers/BIG OIL, pontificating (along with Donald Trump) that Climate Crisis doesn’t exist (hurts their bottom line) and the link between these billionaires and many of our worst economic and ecological challenges is clear, as well as, to top that – we’re aging! Friends need us to take the edge off fears and give advice and a sense of humor is a very good idea!

Fantasy is needed, too, to balance the horrors life slings our way. We turn to magazines, TV/film (wheres the line between these with Netflix sending movies/producing its own shows?), museums, music. Currently watching Mr. Robot and Silicon Valley partly to keep up with our techie kids; partly curiosity and wanting to make the most of our time on earth. Whole newish language, apps and algorythmns. Heard on Fresh Air that Mr. Robot seems to be leaving the Save the World scenario for the Dark Side, but producers say “the series isn’t over”. So we have hope.

Our parents noted the need for art, for imagination, for nature, endless trips to Chicago Art Institute (where my parents met), weekend drives to the Forest Preserves of Illinois, which my Dad championed late in life, having a trail named after him following his work in preserving it. We left home to engage with culture and nature. Good stuff!

Sigh and sigh again. Though here on Oasis Farm, am currently making banana bread for the crew building the barn (community barn/dance hall) and about to serve lunch of enchilada and salad with many ingredients from our land. Many antidotes to – what it is? – sameness, corporate take over of our minds, hearts, even, shall I say it? Souls. No real work when the robots take over? Only the GIG part-time economy? Who will buy these $700,000 houses?!? Perhaps they will remain empty while low income folk roam the streets seeking cardboard to sleep upon? Wish it weren’t a remote possibility.

MY POEM ON THE ALL: (have from time to time invoked Mother Superior in poems though raised sort of Protestant and not really attending Methodist Church; several uncles and a grandfather were ministers, though.)

And Where Are We NOW, Mother Superior?

Crackerjacks still come inside the classic box,
Traditional flavor, intense sugar crystal crunch –
The PRIZE inside is an APP?
“Bring the ballpark to life! Catch me if you can!”
Blipp the ballgame!

So WHERE Are We Now, Mother Superior?

Our direction, our sense of society
When masses of starving children “over there”
And equally or more starving parents,
Cousins, uncles, aunts on boats
And in the water the sky’s full of drones?

I know its hard to face a child
Hungry near you.
Bella comes everyday and says
“Grandma, can I have something to Eeeeat?!?
The bottomless pit is three and never missed a meal.

So we’re different, you and I and Bella,
From those starving masses, huddled and cold.
We have a roof, I assume?
One friend has only his truck
Yet remains a friend and learned
Not to grumble and alienate those
Who help. Many among our friends feeling the ravages
of age will need our support and sympathy from now on.

What is help?
Outlaw Citizens United,that aberation of a law where
BIG MONEY buys elections.
Must sideline, somehow, those Koch Brothers and
Nefarious BIG OIL COMPANIES.
Fossil fuels, major culprit in these crimes against nature.

Make way for Enlightenment when we make it
Past Global Catastrophe, realizing we are All One,
That we could live with solar, wind, and other energy in
A Maker world where
The Millennials create
Rather than merely fill in the blanks
In numerous coloring books
To calm themselves
In the midst of a world
Gone mad.

Are You Listening, Mother Superior?
Don’t want to be alone here.