Before saving the world I like to save myself from and for it

Dear Aha,

I'll stay short and (bitter)sweet.

Last night, I ended my day by reading front-page Sunday NY Times account of a Bronx gang-battering of gays so brutal that I found myself running out of cheeks to turn and wanting to famish sudden blood-thirst with steely-eyed, in-your-face broom-handle sodomies of macho straights.

This morning, I begin, or long to begin, for a return to the golden, or hearts-of-gold, standard. We are about to need the capital of compassion, forbearance and love. That is what I mean by the hearts-of-gold standard: the stubborn, ineradicable residuum of virtue. Adopt this standard--even if you are the only one you know who does so. Nothing, a Buddhist I listened to the other morning, feels and does as much good as ungovernable faith in mankind. Goodness is the flesh and bone of such being and beings. That was his working definition of hope. Mine is to return to CCP class on Wednesday against all odds of succeeding.

What was it I was thinking when I awoke the other morning? "The heart is the only chakra you will need from this point on." That's a central bank with God-backed unlimited funds from which you can draw night and day. No foreclosure signs on that earth overlooked by its cloudless blue-sky horizon.

The daily commute is this--from zero to One. As zeroes, we swig oil and anti-depressants, keep the Metamucil handy to soften our bowels, worry about being down to our last $5 million and scratch in the hard earth for soft touches and present ease. There is no present tense as long as we are tense. As Ones, we are taken by giving, given into taking pause, and able to laugh every time Kinky the Parrot interrupts our latest fetishistic appeasement of god or guilt with squawks of "Schmuck!"

Back to the daily transport from lost-in-hate to lost-in-love with greeting from Han Shan:

Cartographers of body, heart, mind and soul: Get thy bearings straight!

Love,

David