Wallkill NWR July 25, 2017

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P1N Pequannock Watershed July 23, 2017

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talking about people

A new book on human behavior asserts

Two thirds of speech is talking about other people

As I read the review in a science magazine

That says it’s all gossip and mostly negative.

Of course we talk about people with each other

But Webster’s definition of a gossip is not neutral

A person who reveals information shared in confidence

Betrays the trust placed in them.

I like that my business partner forbids any gossip

Addressing a meeting of the entire company

Making the point that saying nothing is complicity

If you hear someone spreading what should be kept confidential.

We try to eliminate it from our work environment

To facilitate a place of universal mutual respect.

The result of gossip is division and a breakdown of solidarity

Like an infiltrator disrupting the mission.

With me conversations can reverberate long afterwards

When some unkind words rankle against my brain

Or there’s an undercurrent of secret misdeeds sensed

Or reasons given that are less than completely truthful.

This matches the public discourse on social policies today

The purposeful obfuscation of what should be obvious

Covering their hidden agenda behind meaningless statements

Reducing our language to a heap of disinformation.

When everything is fake and nothing is real

Words can no longer grasp honest content.

When war is peace and military aggression is defense

It can feel like our very existence is a lie.

Perhaps that’s the intended outcome

To make us discouraged about the goodness of people

To despair that we are powerless against nonsense

As if human nature itself will bring us down.

We know that’s not true, we who resist

Having been uplifted as idealists coming together.

Speaking truth to power is itself liberating;

A much better world is ready to emerge.

Imagine if all the people were freed from stupidity

Making junk that nobody really needs or worse

Slaves to the irrational dictates of capitalism

That demands scarcity to inflate profits.

Suppose we just decide to do what needs to be done

Removing the rule of wealth interests

Stopping and reversing all forms of pollution

Allowing abundance through healthy production.

Gossip may originate in envy based in inequality

Eliminated when there’s more than enough for everyone

To live a good life in harmony with all life on earth

Made possible by the intelligence and creativity of people.

Poets Walk Round Pond July 21, 2017

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