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Transcending Illusion

Transcending Illusion

(What to do after the Sky has Fallen)

by
Cynthia Adler

The stories are all there. Sometimes interchangeable. The loss of a home, a substantial fortune, a small fortune, a meager savings, a life’s work, a job that was counted on, a loss of face and faith and possibly a future…

The stories…they bubble up in the ether that was once the rarified air of America, the seemingly solid ground of patriotism and entitlement in a nation that took nothing less than the number one slot in the world’s billboard chart.

Until now. Now, we have been thrown into some kind of spinning Disney ride, and blown around until our molecules are no longer anchored in our spirit, and we find ourselves suddenly, in some strange alternate universe.

But here we are. Dust settling, hornets nests popping out all over, from a cracked and bizarre Government, to ponzi madness, to big banking bonuses and other emerging Corporate rip-offs and we wonder, who are we, and where have we landed, and most importantly…what are we to do?

The Buddhists say that when all around you is in chaos…just stop. Stop in your tracks and do nothing. Nothing. But we are Americans…we cannot do nothing! Nothing is not in our genetic make-up. We need a fix-it plan. We need to go into action immediately and shore up the dam, marshal the troops, and make it all go away.

But it’s not going away. Not right now. And maybe the Buddhists have something there…because when you stop, you can really see the landscape, what’s been going on all around you, and finally, just how long this has been coming on. And that realization, may possibly floor us.

For it hasn’t only been these past eight years that have gotten us to where we are today. It has been decades of drowning eco-systems and mass unconsciousness and elective passivity, with a Corporate system that has masterminded the running of this country for eons and a population that has chewed on false promises while choking itself on mindless hours of television, techno toys, and excess in everything from food, to things we never even wear or ever use.

So what do we do?

No one really knows the answer to that. But the best plan may be to look at this broken mountain as some cosmic opportunity to shift, to turn away from the fixed images of our lives and re-vision. To examine loss, and what that means to us on an individual basis and as a whole nation. And to take action. Not in the marches, not in the posters, but real action. Ah…and how do we do that?

Well…that is the real question now, isn’t it.

Wonder what the Buddhists would say about that one…

 
 
 
 

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Holding Pattern For 9/11

Holding Pattern
For 9/11

I am awakened
To the silent scent of
Ash
Paper ideologies
Drifting gently to the ground
In balletic surrender.

That morning,
The crystal morning,
That battered illusion
And ripped the remnant
Of a perceived safety
Has made us
One skin,
One nervous system,
Moving in molecular prayer
To transform the
Ancient rage
That shaped itself into
Taut missiles
And hurled itself into the looking glass,
When no one was looking.

We are a light show
Hyping the wattage
To force-feed the
Future,
While a band of soldiers plays with
Explosives and
Spores
And our surrogate fathers
Carry to term
A master plan
As we lay in their hands
Coiled in
Suspended meditation.

We are a nation of
Conditional beauty
And naive grace,
Shaken courage
And stunned silence
Kept at bay
With the deep distraction
Of techno toys
And tinker toys
And celebrity sightings
And the agendas of
Media management.

I am glued to the present,
Moving through crowds
With compassionate trepidation
And a deep love
For
My fellow traveler,
Bargaining and bartering
With the saints
To prevail
In this sea of unpredictable
Events.

I am hoping to stay
Balanced,
On the wall,
Not to crack,
Not to fall,
As I watch the heart
Try to repair
Economic lines,
Religious rancor
and self-obsession,
While the touching of colors in hands
And eyes
Move to the strains of
God bless America
And I wonder at
The irony
And why
It takes this,

To get here.

Cynthia Adler
November, Two-thousand and One

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Occupation

Occupation

Intensified collective
rising up.
A sea of oppressed
soul marchers
making way onto the
encrusted infrastructure
of a diseased corporate
takeover.

Pulling to task
the empty heartbeats and frozen veins
that have served
death warrants
onto the very lifelines of
a nation.

A slam bang chess game
played out
in secret halls,
on fattened hills
and greed-fueled exchanges,
using humans as
pawns and guinea pigs
while spinning
empty promises
leading up to a fast
and blindsided
checkmate.

The crowds will expand
in volume,
in voice,
and in controlled rage.
This frozen sand pile will never move
unless drowned
in its own underlying
whirlpool
wrenched from
its posts
pulled from its locked down
moorings
and stripped of its
power.

The voices are growing
and they will shake
the demonic giants
who have planted poison,
raped, pillaged, gagged
and cut the flow of
human dignity.

The people are collecting
muscle,
mass,
infusing the
airwaves
and
holding fast
for an end
to
this endless
nightmare.

 

But what will they do
as winter’s air rushes in,
as encampments freeze
and long for shelter.

The mad dogs are waiting…
waiting
for the mass retreat,
the slinky back down,
for the faceless ones
to finally
go home.

So the people must move…
into second phase
stronger,
more daring,
shaking the foundation,
roaring into the ears
of the lions and bulls
that change is here…
game over.

by Cynthia Adler

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The Myth of the Movies and Aging…in America

The Myth of the Movies
and Aging…
in America

by
Cynthia Adler

“Age is on the page, my man,
and because I don’t believe…I
retrieve… any year I want!’
Man D. Kool
“Rapper”

 

Let’s just start with the biggest myth of all: “It ain’t gonna happen to me!”

How many times did we catch ourselves in a mirror and go, “who are you?!” And that’s only when we hit nine years old, after we got so used to our eight year old face which still had some baby fat left on it!

We are a country obsessed with youth.

And that is why in this culture, we cannot bear to see our movie stars age. They are our idols… mirrors of who we are…and mirrors, of where we are going. And this is why so many film stars go through some painful and complicated processes to try to fend off those passing years. Some, have wonderful results. And some… fairly devastating ones. Those, unfortunately, find it hard to get cast in front of a camera anymore.

And often, many of those procedures are not reversible.

So, why is it unacceptable to see our film stars age? Simply because it forces us to see our own progression in years, and in this country, it isn’t fun to do that. So, what kind of a society would make it a crime for our movie stars to be human, to have a certain lifespan, and to change with the years as they progress, with humor, dignity and a sense of acceptance?

America. The United States…

Take a look at France, Italy, and England for instance. As their stars age, they are revered, given many good parts and are never judged by a TMZ or a rag magazine for an uneven jaw line or some creases in the skin. What would Anna Magnani, a long ago Italian iconic movie star, have done if she were thrown off the cinema map because she never had plastic surgery? Magnani remained a star in Italy till the end of her life. (With some sexy roles, by the way…) George Clooney put it so beautifully when he wrote an article about plastic surgery on male movie stars in this country today and said that some of them were “frighteningly unrecognizable”…And what if Maggie Smith were born in this country? Would she remain in the public’s eyes as brilliantly revered as she is today? Does anyone talk about her physical appearance or that she needs plastic surgery to be accepted on a screen? How about Helen Mirrin, Charlotte Rampling? Women allowed to age beautifully without the full knife, without being judged or ending up on the cover of a rag magazine, or worse, becoming the butt end of a bad joke.

Nope…it’s a bit of a wicked double standard here… and women in this country suffer from it the most. It’s no wonder that so many girls are getting surgery at younger and younger ages. They are getting the message fast…”you must not age here…it is a crime”…and if you do, “no one will want to look at you.” So, what are we telling these girls? And what are we telling ourselves.

We are frightened to death of the inevitable! And looking at our idols age, makes us unbearably frightened. Because to us…they are the mirrors of where we are all going. And that, in this country…is just unacceptable!!

Movie stars who are no longer with us, if they have gone at an early age, their image has the best advantage. Marilyn Monroe is still one of the most adored sex symbols of our time. But what if she had lived. Where would she be now? In her late 70’s and wrinkled but perhaps enhanced? And lets face it…would tons of men be drooling over her body parts, looking at her old movies or publicity shots?

Uh uh…I don’t think so.

It’s a bit of a ratty game, and we buy into it to the max.

The beauty of accepting ourselves and the process we call life, might change a lot of things…There’s nothing wrong with a bit of a tuck here and there, but an unrecognizable face can kill more than a career…Just ask some of the movie stars who did it and lost.

Life is inevitable. Moving time is inevitable. But loving yourself and accepting the passage of time…if enough of us did it, it might just give Hollywood a message…”Wake the f—- up, and honor the passage of time in your stars! Talent gets even stronger as the years move on. Talent doesn’t age…the inner spirit and lust for life doesn’t age…it’s just the outer cover that does.

And that is the inevitable…
for everyone.

 

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