Thinkage

Everyone knows that God drives a powder blue Caddy, smokes Marlboros, and keeps things whirling along reasonably well, except on Thursdays. -- Porterhouse - Jive

To get to the root of our collective trouble, we might reasonably ask what stories we're telling ourselves and to what end. -- As If Hope Matters: A Critique of Modern Storytelling

You are afraid of what I'll become / but I'll make you better as I beat my drum -- Parnassus On Wheels (Musical)

In the classic era of studio flmmaking, the hard-won wisdom and admonishment was, “Simple plot, complex characters.” It tends to be flagrantly ignored these days, but that doesn't make it any less true. Star Trek (2009) fails in the most common modern way: by flip-fopping those adjectives. Avatar replaces “characters” with “technology.” It fails to engage a fully actualized team of sentient beings, so it can't make the most of its resonant theme. -- Ensemble: Possibilities

Anyone who chooses to live in rough and lonesome territory probably has a variety of social quirks, but these are seldom manifest in reckless driving. You either become proficient at tracking the pitch and yaw of the roads or you find yourself merging onto the ramp marked ETERNITY. -- The Turnout Concept

The discovery of a pink squiggle in a Yellowstone hot spring eventually launched the exhilirating expansion of DNA forensics and genomics over the last 30 years. -- A Natural History of Hot Springs

Trilobitten on a petrified / sea floor I squirm through shallow / millennia stretched beyond knowing / to the root of life -- Chump Chowder

Zeke and this bear hung out companionably from time to time. It just goes to show that you can end up with all kinds of friends if you learn the discretion trick. -- The Art of the Mountain Mutt

Light of air the eye / Step of path the ear / Mood of weight the hands -- Nonet (yes, yes)

Another nagging poet silenced. Even one who is not so much different as more down-to-the-bone, one with a credo as simple as “walk, read, write, live simply” must struggle in relative obscurity and then be struck down. In our accelerating insanity, few understand the high-impact death of a low-impact life. -- Everything Worth Having: The Life and Art of Liz Caile

The town was Denver, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, Universe, Lint, Navel, Bad-tempered Minor Deity. -- Porterhouse - Jive

As spiritual as we might like to be, we must still make the Earthly journey. The best we can do is try to discern the fine line between “prosperity consciousness” and greed; self-help and narcissism; healing and blaming; deliverance and distraction; faith and naivete. Joseph Campbell said true poetry comes only from the poet, poetry overdone comes from the prophet, and poetry done to death comes from the priest. Be careful with the words of the prophet and the priest. -- What's New About the New Age?

Stories can follow, but they should also lead. -- As If Hope Matters: A Critique of Modern Storytelling

pausing as we do in / vesper half-light, waiting / for more, feeling / only else, abiding shyly to / be known and not heard -- Enough Sky

Ultra-marathoners probably scoff at a mere 17 miles at rugged altitude, but behaviors I've acted out and witnessed attest that it's a stout morning's work for most of us -- Mean Imogene

The creative process is both the analyzing and synthesizing of information. Cycling iteratively through each process refines the microscope and telescope of the mind. It builds imagination. A wide range of imaginative experience provides a framework for anticipating change. And the ability to anticipate change is VISION. -- The Corporate Poet

I could gather this smell of warm pine / with bright pledge of hollow moon / sticky clean and deep -- Now and Then

Dogs have a real fetish for acknowledgment. It’s why they don’t grok the get-out-of-the-way concept. -- The Art of the Mountain Mutt

5,000 kilometers beneath our feet is an unquenchable sun, as big as the moon. And it’s surrounded by a molten core as big as Mars. -- Inside Out: The Story of Geothermal Energy

Many of us in the Rockies are smug about where we live and call it “God's country.” But that description has taken on an ironic meaning of late, as even here those who would dress up their fear as the will of their god invert the teachings they too ardently claim to follow. -- Fear and Loathing in "God's Country"

I tried to keep the aural feedback on the jovial end of the spectrum, but abject terror was occasionally conveyed. Still, through it all, no one suggested by word or deed that our assumptions and approach might be trifle cavalier. As with all mountain adventures, there was the sheer entertainment value to consider. Assuming we lived. -- Courageous Pulls Through

I don’t require happy endings, but cannot endure a systematic dismantling of the mainspring of hope that pulls me out of bed every morning. -- As If Hope Matters: A Critique of Modern Storytelling

Slack-jawed, glistening, in / thunderous whispering, we / blur and dissolve, blur / and dissolve to mist and chatter -- Prism Falls

Forgiveness is a doorway. We tend to think of it in terms of being magnanimous towards others -- forgiving them for who they are or what they've done. We're graciously allowing them in from the cold; allowing them to enjoy our good opinion again. But we too need to cross the threshold, to emerge from old patterns of behavior. Shame still blocks the way unless we first forgive ourselves. For judging. For being afraid. For being human. -- Chaos to Connection: Shimmer DVD

Turn off the hate. Crank up the love. Now is the time for YES.