Blog Archives - Northern Overexposure

Mike Wallace on his Depression

4/9/2012

Veteran news reporter, Mike Wallace, died on Saturday at aged 93. He had a long and distinguished career and came out about his struggle with clinical depression some years ago. Embedded below is the interview with psychiatrist Dr. Borenstein on his experience of depression which included a suicide attempt.

Wallace encourages people to see their psychiatrist and get the help they need and overcome the stigma. It is a very interesting interview and the psychiatrist shares an anecdote in the transcript a quote from one of the greatest presidents in American history, Abraham Lincoln, who also struggled with clinical depression and thoughts of suicide. In one of his diary entries, Lincoln wrote:

I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell. I awfully forebode, I shall not.

Keep hope alive! And thank you Mike Wallace for your service to journalism.

Watch Mike Wallace: Depression on PBS. See more from Healthy Minds.

A Love Supreme - Happy Easter

4/8/2012

Happy Easter! In honour of Easter and its spiritual significance I have embedded the entirety of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme (mea culpa if I have violated any copyright - but if you enjoy go and purchase it!). If you are like me, you can only take A Love Supreme once in awhile. Easter is a good time. A Love Supreme reflects Coltrane's spiritual awakening and he expressed the meaning of this now classic album in the liner notes:

Dear Listener:

All Praise Be To God To Whom All Praise Is Due.

Let us pursue Him in the righteous path. Yes it is true; “seek and ye shall find.” Only through Him can we know the most wondrous bequeathal.

During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music. I feel this has been granted through His grace. ALL PRAISE TO GOD.

As time and events moved on, a period of irresolution did prevail. I entered into a phase which was contradictory to the pledge and away from the esteemed path; but thankfully, now and again through the unerring and merciful hand of God, I do perceive and have been duly re-informed of His OMNIPOTENCE, and of our need for, and dependence on Him. At this time I would like to tell you that NO MATTER WHAT…IT IS WITH GOD. HE IS GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL. HIS WAY IS IN LOVE, THROUGH WHICH WE ALL ARE . IT IS TRULY—A LOVE SUPREME--.

This album is a humble offering to Him. An attempt to say “THANK YOU GOD” through our work, even as we do in our hearts and with our tongues. May He help and strengthen all men in every good endeavor…

May we never forget that in the sunshine of our lives, through the storm and after the rain—it is all with God—in all ways forever.

ALL PRAISE TO GOD.

With love to all, I thank you,

John Coltrane

Coltrane spent his life in service to God through his music and this commitment is reflected in the deep spiritual energy that pervades his music and in particular this album, especially the last part, "Psalm". The last piece, "Psalm," is a musical rendition of the poem the poem, A Love Supreme, that Coltrane wrote in the liner notes:

A Love Supreme

I will do all I can to be worthy of Thee O Lord.
It all has to do with it.
Thank you God.
Peace.
There is none other.
God is. It is so beautiful.
Thank you God. God is all.
Help us to resolve our fears and weaknesses.
Thank you God.
In You all things are possible.
We know. God made us so.
Keep your eye on God.
God is. He always was. He always will be.
No matter what...it is God.
He is gracious and merciful.
It is most important that I know Thee.
Words, sounds, speech, men, memory, thoughts,
fears and emotions – time – all related ...
all made from one ... all made in one.
Blessed be His name.
Thought waves – heat waves-all vibrations –
all paths lead to God. Thank you God.

His way ... it is so lovely ... it is gracious.
It is merciful – thank you God.
One thought can produce millions of vibrations
and they all go back to God ... everything does.
Thank you God.
Have no fear ... believe ... thank you God.
The universe has many wonders. God is all. His way ... it is so wonderful.
Thoughts – deeds – vibrations, etc.
They all go back to God and He cleanses all.
He is gracious and merciful...thank you God.
Glory to God ... God is so alive.
God is.
God loves.
May I be acceptable in Thy sight.
We are all one in His grace.
The fact that we do exist is acknowledgement of Thee O Lord.
Thank you God.
God will wash away all our tears ...
He always has ...
He always will.
Seek Him everyday. In all ways seek God everyday.
Let us sing all songs to God
To whom all praise is due ... praise God.
No road is an easy one, but they all
go back to God.
With all we share God.
It is all with God.
It is all with Thee.
Obey the Lord.
Blessed is He.
We are from one thing ... the will of God ... thank you God.
I have seen God – I have seen ungodly –
none can be greater – none can compare to God.
Thank you God.
He will remake us ... He always has and He always will.
It is true – blessed be His name – thank you God.
God breathes through us so completely ...
so gently we hardly feel it ... yet,
it is our everything.
Thank you God.
ELATION-ELEGANCE-EXALTATION
All from God.
Thank you God. Amen.

JOHN COLTRANE - December, 1964

For this work. John Coltrane was named a saint by the African Orthodox church and an icon was written of him which I have reproduced below.

The Cross and the Lynching Tree

4/7/2012

The interview on PBS by Bill Moyers of James Cone entitled, "Strange Fruit - the Cross and the Lynching Tree" is a useful Good Friday meditation. James Cone is a black, systematic, liberation theologian at Harvard Divinity School. He was heavily influenced by Reinhold Niebuhr, the American Protestant theologian. I have Niebuhr's book, The Irony of American History which is very rich and good.

Here is a snippet of the exchange between Moyers and Cone:

BILL MOYERS: If the President asked you for one book of Niebuhr's, which would it be?

JAMES CONE: THE IRONY OF AMERICAN HISTORY. That would be the book.

BILL MOYERS: And the core of it is?

JAMES CONE: The core of it is, is helping America get over its innocence. Helping America to see itself through the eyes of people from the bottom. And you see, America likes to think of itself as innocent. And we are not. No human being is innocent. And so, I-- that would be the book I would recommend him to read. But since he's a Christian, I would especially recommend that he reads Beyond Tragedy. Niebuhr tells us that Christianity takes us through tragedy to beyond tragedy by way of the cross to victory in the cross.

BILL MOYERS: Meaning?

JAMES CONE: Meaning that the cross is victory out of defeat.

BILL MOYERS: And the lynching tree?

JAMES CONE: And the lynching tree is transcendent of defeat. And that's why the cross and the lynching tree belong together. That's why I have to talk about the lynching tree. Because Christians can't understand what's going on at the cross until they see it through the image of a lynching tree with black bodies hanging there.

BILL MOYERS: Why?

JAMES CONE: Because what the Christian Gospel is a transvaluation of values. Something you cannot anticipate in this world, in this history. But, it empowers the powerless. It is-- what do you mean by power in the powerless? That's what God is. Power in the powerless.

BILL MOYERS: But, the victims of lynchings are dead.

JAMES CONE: No. Their mothers and fathers aren't dead. Their brothers and sisters aren't dead. I'm alive. I have to give voice to those who did die. And all of us do. That's why we can't forget it.

BILL MOYERS: But, you know, Dr. Cone, I went online and-- and watched the video version of your speech at Harvard where you talked on Strange Fruit-- the Cross and the Lynching Tree. I must say that audience didn't seem very comfortable with that-- with that linkage, right?

JAMES CONE: No, they did not. No, because I said it at a divinity school. And that's mostly whites there. Blacks felt comfortable with it. They're-- they like that. They like that connection because it gives them a perspective on the lynching that empowers them rather than silences them.

Good Friday invites us all to look at our own guilt, collectively and individually. As Cone says, America likes to look at itself as being innocent. This is, obviously, not psychologically or spiritually healthy. It impedes the kind of growth necessary for expansion of consciousness. Although it is difficult to do, Good Friday invites us into this kind of desert.

Below is an image of Salvador Dali's The Christ of St. John of the Cross that inspired him. It is Dali's representation of the sixteenth century mystic's sketch of his vision of the cross.

Martin Luther King assassinated 44 years ago today

4/4/2012

44 years ago, today, April 4, 1968 Rev. Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. An inspiration to millions of people around the world including me, Martin Luther King's non-violent civil rights movement remains a testament to effective social justice. While the scars of race and other social divisions remain, we should keep the dream and hope alive. The day before his assassination he prophetically delivered his promised land speech. The speech was in Memphis and the context of the speech was a strike by sanitation workers. It is almost chilling and in retrospect you can see traces of grace.

In that speech, he alludes to the prayer "on earth as it is in heaven" and connects the work here below, with the work above. He talks about our responsibility to not just reflect on the world to come but the implications of our work in this world. The long white robes over yonder is an allusion to angels in heaven. The new Jerusalem is an allusion to the end times when there is a new heaven and new earth.

It's all right to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here! It's all right to talk about "streets flowing with milk and honey," but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God's preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.

What follows is the last part of that now famous speech.

Separation of Powers?

4/4/2012

President Obama publicly commented on the case that is currently under review by the Supreme Court. In a pre-emptive fashion, President Obama said that the court would be taking “an unprecedented, extraordinary step" if it ruled the Affordable Health Care Act unconstitutional. He added that it would be “judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint — that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law.”

One of the distinguishing features of American political governance is the concept of separation powers. The separation of powers basically means that there are three co-equal branches of government, the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. Each of these is a check on the others. It is not unusual for presidents to criticize the court but it is actually not very often, if ever, that a president openly challenges the supreme court in that fashion - particularly when there is a big pending case before them. Historically the Supreme Court has made some rulings that have supported injustice such as the Dred Scott decision in 1857 that found black slaves to not have standing to sue and that slaves were not citizens. That decision created fervent debate and Lincoln, the second Republican president, ran as an abolitionist. Consequently, the Supreme Court is, obviously, not infallible; nor is it immune from criticism. However, criticism should occur after and not before a ruling.

There has been a lot of discussion on the lack of civility in public life and the president is not providing a very positive example of civility when he openly criticizes a co-equal branch of government. This is the second time he has done so. Check out the video below where he publicly criticized and embarrassed the Supreme Court during a state of the union address. Remember that the Supreme Court are invited guests and are not obligated to be there. They are a co-equal branch of government and are not part of the legislative body.

Judge for yourselves the appropriateness of his comments in this clip.

Carlo Carretto on the Church

4/4/2012

Cardinal Dolan quoted the following moving passage from Carlo Caretto, the mystic who was a leader in Catholic Action Movement in Italy and who later became a brother and wrote a book entitled Letters from the Desert. It is a fitting Lenten meditation. It is entitled Letter to the Church.

"How much I must criticize you, my church, and yet how much I love you! You have made me suffer more than anyone and yet I owe more to you than to anyone. I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence. You have given me much scandal and yet you alone have made me understand holiness. Never in this world have I seen anything more compromised, more false, yet never have I touched anything more pure, more generous or more beautiful. Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face--and yet, every night, I have prayed that I might die in your sure arms! No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you, even if not completely you. Then too--where would I go? To build another church? But I could not build one without the same defects, for they are my defects. And again, if I were to build another church, it would be my church, not Christ's church. No, I am old enough, I know better."

Coded Language - Saul Williams

4/1/2012

This poem by Saul Williams is rich in poetic imagery. Further, his dramatic delivery adds to the entire thrust of the poem and gives voice to the pulsating freedom that it represents. It begins as declarative statement in conventional form. It is like a the preamble to a constitution that eventually falls to the floor as he taps into the consciousness of the gestalt the artistic impulse of humanity.His homage to all those who stood for what he is giving voice to is like a secular litany of the saints.

The declaration falling to the floor as the poem continues its flow dramatically captures the fact that the artistic spirit transcends and continues well beyond the reified formulations that attempt to capture it and freeze it in time.

I have included the text here but the visual is well worth the four minutes even if it is slightly halting in places.

Whereas break beats have been the missing link
Connecting the Diasporic community to its drum woven past
Whereas the quantized drum has allowed the whirling
Mathematicians to calculate the ever changing distance
Between rock and stardom

We do hereby declare reality unkempt by the changing
Standards of dialog, statements such as 'Keep it real'
Especially when punctuating or anticipating modes
Of ultra-violence inflicted psychologically or physically or depicting
An unchanging rule of events will hence forth be seen as retro-active
And not representative of the individually determined is

Motherfuckers better realize now is the time to self-actualize
Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face
Of the unchanging the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth
Equate rhyme with reason, sun with season, reject mediocrity

Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that
Which as been given for you to understand
The current standard is the equivalent
Of an adolescent restricted to the diet of an infant
The rapidly changing body would acquire dysfunctional
And deformative symptoms and could not properly mature
On a diet of apple sauce and crushed pears

Light years are interchangeable with years of living in darkness
The role of darkness is not to be seen as or equated with ignorance
But with the unknown and the mysteries of the unseen
Thus, in the name of

Robeson, God's Son, Hurston, Ahkenaton
Hathsheput, Blackfoot, Helen, Lennon, Khalo
Kali, The Three Maria's, Tara, Lilithe, Lourde
Whitman, Baldwin, Ginsberg, Kaufman, Lumumba

Ghandi, Gibran, Shabazz, Shabazz, Siddhartha
Medusa, Guevara, Gurdsieff, Rand, Wright, Banneker
Tubman, Hamer, Holiday, Davis, Coltrane
Morrison, Joplin, Dubois, Clarke, Shakespeare

Rachmninov, Ellington, Carter, Gaye, Hathoway
Hendrix, Kutl, Dickerson, Ripperton, Mary, Isis
Theresa, Hensbury, Justlove, Plath, Rumi, Fellini
Michaux, Nostradamus, Nefertiti, La Rock, Shiva

Ganesha, Yemaja, Oshun, Obatala, Ogun, Kennedy
King, Four Little Girls, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Keller
Biko, Perone, Marley, Magalin, Cosby, Shakur
Those who burnt, those still aflamed and the countless unnamed

We claim the present as the pre-sent, as the hereafter
We are unraveling our navels so that we may ingest the sun
We are not afraid of the darkness, we trust that the moon shall guide us
We are determining the future at this very moment
We now know that the heart is the philosophers' stone

Our music is our alchemy, we stand as the manifested
Equivalent of three buckets of water and a hand full of minerals
Thus realizing that those very buckets turned upside down
Supply the percussion factor of forever, if you must count
To keep the beat then count

Find you mantra and awaken your subconscious
Curve you circles counterclockwise, use your cipher to decipher
Coded Language, man made laws, climb waterfalls and trees
Commune with nature, snakes and bees let your children
Name themselves and claim themselves as the new day, for today

We are determined to be the channelers of these changing
Frequencies into songs, paintings, writings, dance, drama
Photography, carpentry, crafts, love and love, we enlist every instrument
Acoustic, electronic every so called race, gender and sexual preference
Every person as beings of sound to acknowledge their responsibility
To uplift the consciousness of the entire fucking world

Any utterance unaimed will be disclaimed
Will be named Two Rappers Slain
Any utterance unaimed will be disclaimed
Will be named Two Rappers Slain

The Sunday Funnies

4/1/2012

My old fave - Dr. Katz. Ben and his dad come to an understanding of their relationship.