Two Books: A Paragraph and a Song
And then, lo and behold, a poem shows up too.
This is how things go for me of late. Random and unrelated things, like random pieces of different puzzles that have no business being together, come together to make a new kind of sense. There was no connection between the two books other than the fact I owned both, purchased years apart and in much different contexts.
Here’s the thing of it that brought these things together.
You see, I continue to ponder and wonder how we’ll recover from this “hyper-tribalistic,” us vs them plague—this disdainful era modeled and led and embodied in the person of our current president/felon in chief. I do believe there will be an “us” when he is finally gone from this world, how long it will take to recoup that feeling of unity and come back together (at least for some semblance of together) is anyone’s guess. I do believe we have the capacity to re-unite and recreate a country based upon the characteristics of our better angels (you know, compassion, empathy, care, service, abundance, support) as opposed to the base characteristics of evil intent that currently prevail (you can name them yourself—just read the news).
This is where two books: a paragraph and a song, showed up in my life. Oh, and the poem too.
Book I: The Paragraph
I was finishing an excellent, 480 page book and came across one paragraph that summarized rather well one of, if not THE, existential problem we are facing in our world right now. It details something common to this world’s political, cultural, societal, relational, environmental, and maybe even spiritual malaise. Whether we are concerned with the insane and ignorant policies of our current “president;” the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and anywhere else man is taking violent arms against his fellow man (use of the word “man” is intentional—show me a conflict right now, a war, being led by or started by, a woman—I’ll wait. I’ll be waiting a LOOOONG time); the degradation of our climate, forests, oceans, rivers, wildlife habitat, and prairies; the competition of religions with “mine” being the only true one1 (to all “non-believers” of my own belief, to hell with you, you heretics!); to the tearing apart of the social fabric of our communities, neighborhoods, and social services networks; or insert your own problem here—yes, although these problems are complex, multi-faceted, and spread across the planet, I believe they share some root causes. The paragraph in the book I was reading, “Indigenous Healing Psychology: Honoring the Wisdom of the First Peoples” by psychologist Dr. Richard Katz, slammed into my psyche. And an auditory “clicking” of pieces fell together as if a new clarity did away with the clouds of obscurity and distraction. Let’s see if you see what I saw, or heard:
When scarcity prevails, valuable resources are perceived as if, and then function as if, they are scarce. In fact, their value often depends upon their scarcity. Competition among individuals, and individuals and communities, is encouraged because there is a limited amount of the desired resource. Access to the resource is typically determined by power and prestige, so that those in power and with privilege get there first and continue getting there until the resource is used up. Clearly, what is good for one then conflicts with and takes away from the good for all.
(p. 353)
Remarkably, but accurately, Dr. Katz states that this “scarcity paradigm” has infiltrated just about every single component of our Western (almost global, but not quite), lives. I do believe it is one of the very few root causes of our present day predicament.
This scarcity paradigm…, is a logical, almost necessary expression of twenty-first century Western capitalism which extolls the commercialization of all resources, even unlikely ones such as healing, so that they become commodities and therefore more easily bought and sold.
(p. 354)
Stop a moment to let this settle in. EVERY thing has become a commodity—it’s easy to picture the acceptable things: groceries, agriculture, automobiles, fuel, minerals; harder to accept the ones we don’t think of when speaking of commodities: healthcare, insurance, treatment, choice of doctors/hospitals, funeral arrangements, streaming services, smartphones, wifi providers, weight loss drugs (which, by the way, had their start, you’ll remember, as treatments for diabetes—but when one of the side effects turned out to be dramatic weight loss, the wheels of capitalism spun into reverse. More people are obese than have diabetes, hence the larger potential customer base—it’s simple math in the minds of capitalists).
Capitalism in and of itself isn’t necessarily problematic (though I’m not much of a fan); the problem is WHO’s behind it all and driving the vehicle of this “supply/demand,” scarcity paradigmatic, capitalistic economy. Dr. Katz calls them out: those in power and who control the levers of influence in our culture—whether they be oligarchs; the billionaire class; the faceless mega-corporations; hedge fund CEOs, and even social media influencers and some celebrities. Here’s a personal example: I am turning down an eye therapy procedure because the cost is 100% out-of-pocket—eg not covered by my health insurance. Think Elon Musk worries about that? Or LeBron James? Or Kylie Jenner? Think Donald Trump cares? At all? (Full disclosure: he doesn’t as evidenced by the “just today” passing out of Congress of his “Big Beautiful Bill.”) I won’t ask you if the CEO’s of any of the health insurance companies care—they don’t even need the health insurance from the companies they lead. Likely like you, I too have delayed surgeries or therapies because they are commodities that I cannot afford if my health insurance won’t cover them.
Book II: The Song
A Post or two ago, I dropped the name of a contemporary poet, song-writer, and folk singer named
. I‘m not exactly sure how, let alone why, I first came across this intensely soulful artist, but I know I searched for her after on YouTube—and discovered a muse to the mystic. My wife and I have seen Newcomer in concert—just her, her guitar, a pianist, and the intimate setting of a local Unitarian Universalist church. We’ll see her again if she tours near, or we find ourselves near to her. I love Newcomer’s work—her voice, art, depth, style, and manner of singing is not of this current time. It’s rather timeless and on par with the best of the all-time singers of Soul whose words, rhyme, lyrics, and melodies serve as portals to and from a place we’d all like to stay, but can only visit during the short time of its hearing.At the concert, as some artists do, she was offering some of her work for sale. Some of that work included books of hers that included poetry and essays. And song lyrics. I can’t help myself when I’m staring at table of books that are speaking to me, saying “You need this, Kert. And you know you will regret not taking me home when you get home. So, stop the internal dialogue and hand over the card already.” Nowadays, I listen to directives like that, especially after swearing off Amazon, thus making it less convenient for me to satiate a desire (but feeling the better for it for no longer padding the pockets of a tone-deaf billionaire). I don’t see purchases like that, that are directly from the artist herself, as part of society’s capitalistic poisons—instead, I see exchanges like that as part of the abundant, gift economy of reciprocity. My monetary gift is the dana2 to her gift of sharing a teaching with the world.
At my desk, as I was finishing Indigenous Healing Psychology, and browsing for what was to be next, I spied Newcomer’s book “the beautiful not yet” and realized I needed to move it to my TBRSoon stack since I hadn’t read it yet. I have to tell you in all honesty, when I thumbed open the book, it was to page 92, a page devoted to the song lyrics to one of her more famous and soul-grounding songs. Now, this was synchronous in three ways: 1. Because it is one of my favorite songs of Newcomer and I come back to it, and the YouTube video produced from it, often; 2. Because Newcomer is a long-time collaborator and dear friend of another of my cherished teachers,
, who was one of my most important mentors and Sages when I was a professional educator—(I’ve never (yet) had the honor of meeting Mr. Palmer, but he recently joined Substack so I’m enjoying learning new things and old things anew here, from him, in this space); and 3. Because it complimented that paragraph above by way of providing what likely is THE only solution to the problem of a fear-based scarcity paradigm that has become THE malignant cancer of our times. Here, I’ll let Carrie Newcomer herself speak to it in the preface to her song “Sanctuary”:This song was written after a conversation with my friend Parker J. Palmer. I asked him, “What can we do when we are personally or politically heartbroken?” He responded, “We take sanctuary. We gather with those we love, in places like Brown Chapel. We remember, we share stories or we sit in silence until we can go on.”
Sanctuary by Carrie Newcomer
[The Refrain} Will you be my refuge My haven in the storm Will you keep the embers warm When my fire's all but gone? Will you remember And bring me sprigs of rosemary Be my sanctuary 'Til I can carry on Carry on Carry on This one knocked me to the ground This one dropped me to my knees I should have seen it coming But it surprised me [refrain] In a state of true believers On streets called us and them It's gonna take some time 'Til the world feels safe again [refrain] You can rest here in Brown Chapel Or with a circle of friends Or quiet grove of trees Or between two bookends Will you be my refuge My haven in the storm Will you keep the embers warm When my fire's all but gone? Will you remember And bring me sprigs of rosemary Be my sanctuary 'Til I can carry on Carry on Carry on Carry on
Look, all of this is my opinion, or my hope. But since I don’t believe in hope, it’s more likely a straw I was finally able to grasp, after grasping at them for quite some time, as I struggle to envision how we will get ourselves out of this ugly and divisive quagmire. I’d like to say we’ve been here before, and in a much worse way, with ways showing success of how we wove ourselves back together. But even though our country experienced a Civil War, a war that pitted Americans against Americans (sound familiar?), and that ultimately claimed the life of maybe our dearest President, with a rational, thorough and wide reading of its history and aftermath, including Reconstruction, it can legitimately be concluded we in fact haven’t repaired that wound, we haven’t come back together. What the Civil War did was expose the depth of the ugliness of slavery, racism, hatred, power, separation, prejudice, corruption, bigotry, and lawlessness. All those characteristics following the War never went away—they just went underground (to different depths too—some are easier to expose than others, but all remain). And most have resurfaced in present day 2025 America (thereby making America “great” again, by god!).
Now that we have a president who intentionally stokes the embers (sorry to mix metaphors there!) of the ugliness, each of those things are unburying themselves with the help of hard-hearted, easily fooled and manipulated followers. Maybe it’s naive to think we should come together at some point in the future, let alone believe we will, or can. Maybe America IS fundamentally changed—or maybe what was always there is simply more out in the open, ironically making our country more authentic. Regardless, it frames THE essential and existential question we will have to resolve in some way, in some future, in some form: Is THIS who we really are?
Random and unrelated things, like random pieces of different puzzles, books that have no connection other than the fact I own them, paragraphs in one, song lyric in the other, a poem in a third, each that have no business being together, come together to make a new kind of sense when one’s heart is open, yearning, and ready to cultivate disparate but potent seeds that need only to germinate in…
… the broken open heart of a person looking for answers.
Oh, about that poem. It entered my life just a couple days ago. I do not think I’ve ever read or come across it prior. But it too seemed to point the same direction. William Stafford wrote this in the 1990’s. He could have wrote it yesterday.
A Ritual to Read to Each Other
(BY WILLIAM E. STAFFORD)
If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.
For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dike.
And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,
but if one wanders the circus won't find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.
And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider—
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.
For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.If we stand any chance of realizing the better angels of our nature, our true natures, when we come out of whatever evil and deep darkness that currently surrounds us, and we will, I have a sense it won’t be so much that we meet each other in sanctuary somewhere, but rather that we become sanctuary ourselves, for each other—welcoming, as hard as it will be, even that which is most unwelcome at this time.
Welcoming it all into our hearts.
More on this later, perhaps.
Always and Ubuntu,
~ k
🙏🏼 💙
I’m using a rhetorical device here in case you made an assumption. I’m not religious; I’m nonreligious, or atheist, or a “none,” or a nonbeliever—choose whichever label you must, if you must. That being the case, there are literally thousands of sects, belief structures, dogma, congregations, traditions, and religions in the world with most believing only theirs is the one and only Truth. Religious belief is THE primary cause of almost all wars—how’s THAT for following God’s law?
Dana (pronounced like the name “Donna”), is a Buddhist concept of acknowledgment and gratitude. Most of the time, teachers in the various Buddhist traditions, when giving classes, workshops, or retreats, do so without being formally payed by either a salary or stipend. They offer of themselves freely with no transactional strings attached at the outset. Instead, they rely upon the dana, the gift freely given by those receiving the teachings, as their only form of compensation. No specific amounts are ever discussed or shared—the giver gives from their heart out of gratitude in recognition of how deeply felt the teachings have become. The receiver always receives the gifts, again with deep gratitude and humility, no matter the amount. It’s the best of reciprocity. The gifts flow both ways—and both are enhanced and enriched because of the relational exchange of gratefulness.
Kert, thank you once again for sharing your insights and introducing me to books, artists, and poetry that help me to navigate the messiness of this life. Which currently often feels like a mosh pit of ugliness.
As a new yoga and meditation teacher, I was also introduced to The Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer. It has served as a guiding light on my journey. Before I changed the name of my publication, the previous two versions included the word 'sanctuary' in their titles, as that is what I wanted to create for my readers. While I feel comfortable with the new title, the intention of creating a sanctuary remains. Thanks for reminding me of its importance.
Sanctuary stations,
places of refuge from harm.
Serve as oases.