“We need acts of restoration, not only for polluted waters and degraded lands, but also for our relationship to the world. We need to restore honor to the way we live, so that when we walk through the world we don’t have to avert our eyes with shame, so that we can hold our heads up high and receive the respectful acknowledgment of the rest of the earth’s beings.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer, in Braiding Sweetgrass
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.” – Patrick Henry (1788)
A Story's End
by Michael Doyle
A story must be told through its end
However little we think that we can defend
As the hero struggles to free himself from chains
While holding onto the dreams of the morning rains
It's hard to cut through the blur of tired eyes
Knowing that only a lifetime of pain comes to recognize
The price of tickets being paid in full to paradise
It's even higher when no one knows the truth from attendant lies
These are the lies that bring us to our maturity
Knowing that ignorance brings its sense of security
When what is needed to know is the offense
Of giving up only to agree to the majority's pretense
That all of life might yet become known
Through traveling the hidden roads yet to be shown
However far we travel, there is further still to grow
Life's secrets are given in the tease that flows
It is anger and fear that strips us of our humanity
As the charade of life kills off our remaining vanity
We think on all we have dreamed we might have had
If we'd fought harder, never succumbing to feeling sad
The truth is that the world holds mostly lies
That, though transparent, are veiled before our eyes
As we push forward, hoping to live out our dreams
While feeling that we are coming apart at the seams
The expense for this comes from our search within
As we are filled with a lost void of lived-out sins
These lands are as vast as the depths of our hearts
With one void ending where yet another quietly begins
However much we act with what we believe to be diligence
We cannot help but guard ourselves, hiding with vigilance
When we finally stand up to what we believe are our fears
We will come to be better than the sum of our years
Our bravery becomes and writes the pages of our tale
Even as we learn that we've created our own Hells
In life's waters, we stare at our shimmered reflections
And know the future past is made from our creation
The connections on which we will build our tomorrows
As we dare to dream of some sort of end to our sorrows
And yet we wake again to our nightmares lived instead
And we find we are shaped by the falsehoods in our heads
(c) November 17, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Coming Back Again
by Michael Doyle
In the killing school
I met my limits and won
That is life's only rule
To never be done -
There's a storm inside
That burns like a fire
Somewhere beyond the walls of pride
It flows like a river of desire
Pushing further than my edge
To push further than possible
Walking myself beyond the ledge
And finding out that I was capable
Of moving beyond feelings like pain
While keeping my eyes on the prize
Blocking out all but the gain
Determined to greet the new sunrise
The most unpleasant fight
Will not be my end
As I move beyond the blackest night
And find myself coming back again
(c) November 17, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
“It is a just observation that the people commonly intend the Public Good. This often applies to their very errors. But their good sense would despise the adulator who should pretend they always reason right about the means of promoting it.” – Alexander Hamilton (1788)
“What a child can do today with assistance, she will be able to do by herself tomorrow.” – Lev S. Vygotsky
Through Fevered Eyes
by Michael Doyle
Heard even from the criminally rejected
Comes the kindness otherwise neglected
Neglected by those who have more than needed
All of the many lessons too seldom heeded
Helping the poor brings about true prosperity
The type of prosperity of an unknown majesty
These are the riddles of child's play
And they shuffle in cycles into our better days
In life, one man's monstrosity is another's glory
Such are the stories that tell life as if a made-up story
This is among the many lessons that we need to learn
The truth is needed however hard it is to discern
We find the circles we wander into become family
As chosen friends bring us comfort with a trace of comedy
And we learn to laugh hard at ourselves and at life
In doing this, we find our way to peace despite the strife
And from this, we separate our darkness that unfolds
From all the little horrors that our private Hells hold
We search hard for the miracles that God must deliver
To us all from the fevered sights that have made us shiver
(c) November 16, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
“The cost of charging equipment and charging losses, averaged out over 10 years and 120,000 miles, is $1.38 per gallon equivalent on top of [the $1.21 per gallon cost claimed by EV advocates]. Adding the costs of the subsidies to the true cost of fueling an EV would equate to an EV owner paying $17.33 per gallon of gasoline.” – Texas Public Policy Institute
It seems that if we calculate the true costs of fuel for an EV, these are not really ready for prime time or even the market for the average person absent huge amounts of governmental intervention and subsidies. As it turns out, for the time being carbon based energy is again the superior option. Don’t believe this without researching the data found here:
2023-10-TrueCostofEVs-BennettIsaac.pdf (texaspolicy.com)
“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.” – Thomas Jefferson (1824)
If the Truth...
by Michael Doyle
If the truth is to be unpleasant
Let it be spoken in a bold voice
Keeping focused on the present
Not a stumbled mumble as if not a choice
It is better that the disagreeable
Be out there and quickly done
Then, to leave it somehow conceivable
That a victory might yet be won
Don't leave the truth nibbling my ear
Bit by bit, in some cycle of deception
That is meant to pacify my fears
Do they think it will find a ready reception?
Truth, wisdom, and love seek out reasons
While malice only seeks the cause
Everything is a matter of seasons
Such is the way of nature's dearest laws
I know only the quick use of each moment
While avoiding quickly seizing on the bad
Time well used in avoidance of life's torments
Makes life far happier than being sad
With a steady gaze, I look for life's elegance
Determined to make each step count as it must
Keeping my jaw firm and a smile on my countenance
Finding that it is only in God that I can truly trust
(c) November 15, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
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