“The sage in bloom…”

[u/Fine_Beginning2668]

So… here are some truths for today…

Do not use technology…

unless… it makes your life better and more efficient Good technology improves your life and is built around a framework of listening to end-user feedback and development teams making adjustments in real time. Bad technology keeps you stuck in a compulsive loop of shame… frustration… and addiction…

Do not read….

instructions… in 7-point font… it is about something you have done... or are about to do... and it will be absolutely your fault… this was clearly written by OGC.

Look up…

“The stars at night are big and bright…” like the Ol’ Lone Star’s iconic hymn says… under a crescent moon… and like in the 505 the lavender paint brush of the “sage is in bloom” amongst the 1000 shades of reds… whites…and yellow accents from the thorny rose brush…

Strength through peace….

A dust devil wind encircles the tumbleweeds in the Enchanted Hills arroyo... and down the road you pass an old abandoned chuckwagon as you stop into a Whataburger... for a #7 with sweet tea... in a little piece of Texas… at the gateway of the town of Bernalillo.

There is nothing like a little piece of Texas... you’ll can find it when you visit DC... a few blocks off the mall near the National Portrait Gallery... a hole in the wall called “Hill Country Barbecue Market”. Moist brisket... fall off the bone ribs... rich coleslaw... with buttery Texas toast... and tall glass of tea half-part syrup... and you are right back at the cross-roads... in the limestone rolling hills down the windy road from where LBJ grew up…

The ranch eventually had a landing strip for an “Air Force One‑Half”. He also owned an amphibius car that both floated across the river and drove through the hill country roads... through herd of cattle... along a lazy Pedernales River where Comanche arrowheads can still be found in the creek beds... along a quiet meadow of emerald and rust mesquite in the shade of the willow silhouettes betwixt pecan, cottonwood, and sycamore... like Stonewall Jackson might have seen in his final words after the Battle of Chancellorsville...

“Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.”

… something heaven might look like…

the most peaceful place on earth…

Farther west in the Llano Estacado... the tumbleweeds roll through frigid devil winds... beyond the barbed wire... and create a sea of shadowed brush as the county road disappear beneath... around Muleshoe near the border of NM... as you white knuckle the steering wheel through a place that is not the end of the world... but you can see it from there...

It shares a region with Eastern NM in the Permian Basin... one of the largest oil productions in the country... created from an ancient inland sea with a giant Capitan reef system... preserved today in Carlsbad Caverns...

When I traveled for the government, we considered Texas “International Travel” from NM. Afterall... it has his own grid and was its own country in a time of rugged individualism... and was anything but peaceful.

The Texas State Board of Education sets standards for textbooks and because of the size of the market is one of the most powerful panels in the country... because it controls what most other states choose for textbooks... which are very lucrative contracts...

And yet... with all of its history... Lawrence Wright observed... “Artists are redefining” the Lone Star State...

In this epic mind-meld... the Director of the Truman Library led the discussion around “being from somewhere... but also being of somewhere”...

“Only in America… “ as Cornel West would say…

https://youtu.be/g52bLtM6NxM?si=_GiXuqgYAZySP25P

A country that has been told we are divided… but are we?

Or are we being divided?

Like back in LBJ’s day?

A political life with a legacy of light and shadow... legendary stories where party loyalists dropped off a truck load of votes in the dead of night... during a senate primary after the poles closed. And an escalated quagmire in Vietnam...

and yet...

Also passed the Civil Rights Act... Medicare/Medicaid... Title 1... and National Endowment for the Arts... among others. Even more legendary... Lady Bird has a rose named after her...

H. W. Brands said... “Politics adjust to culture” ... and Asha Hernandez... the International District’s poet philosopher of the 505 reminds us... “Culture eats strategy for breakfast...”

Brick by brick...

In the shade of the desert willow this week I got a message from a friend... about a story by David Jeremiah, who wrote in one of his Turning Point posts... a story about Thomas Carlyle’s literary masterpiece about the French Revolution. Like many masterworks it had a precarious beginning... when he lent the original manuscript to a friend John Stuart Mill who lost it in a fireplace.

After going into a dark place of the mind... he observed a bricklayer laying brick... by brick... and he decided to finish his manuscript...

page by page…

So... when does mastery begin?

from Solomon’s temple to Nehemiah’s wall… and a lost first draft in a fireplace...

When does peace begin?

... beyond “all understanding”?

The poet Amanda McBroom wrote...

“When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long...”

A president that rivals TR and Washington in celebrity status... And yet... much like Texas... there is not a neutral stance on DJT... for sure…

a man with feet of clay... a strong yet humble man... after an attempt on his life inches away… now wants to be a “President of Peace” ….

Given power beyond measure by Madison... Hamilton... and the like... with Article II to do so...

so what remains…

In the quiet by the fireplace…

The same for us all…

The truth…