A politician makes calculated decisions.

A leader makes moral ones.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

I have, as of yet, avoided caducuty.
Emotionally, creatively, I feel younger,
not older. Is it true that the older we
get, the more wisdom we accrue?
It seems that way to me. My scope is
broader, my vision paradoxically
keener, my understanding deeper,
my tolerance for intolerance
virtually extinct. I have never been
able to brook unkindness, cruelty in any
of its manifold manifestations. The
notions of differences among members
of the human race--e.g. degrees of social
status, the poor and the wealthy, one
IQ better than another--all and others
are specious, bootless. We all are one.
Our shared worth is within, not without.
I have gotten wiser, not older. While my
life has gotten longer, my patience for not
knowing right from wrong is shorter.
The years of my living that remain will be
like dances of insight and joy, not lugubrious
ones. I shall live them in the sunshine of
caring and sharing.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

It's one in the morning.
I almost fell asleep.
But I keep going on.
Been reading about
James Taylor. He and
I are livin' the same
life, it seems, 'cept
he's been married 3
times, and I have never
been. Went through hard
times, drugs and all.
He hooked on ******,
I took ******. Both
went to prep school,
he to Milton, I at
Andover. Both of us
found them mean.
I mean to say that
James and I are one.
He was in mental
hospitals, as was I.
We vere very young.
Then he started singing
and I began to write.
In the night of life,
we we were together,
seems, songs he wrote,
I poetry. Ups and down,
but stayed the course.
His guitar and voice,
my pen and paper. He
got famous;  both of us
got well. He made millions
from songs he sang. My
poems are priceless, though,
sacred and sublime. What the
hell! Everyone has his trials.
Our verdicts were the same.
He sang songs he wrote,
I treasure my words and
feelings. James and I have
kind of met. I think we are
good friends.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

**** Trump has embodied, for four years, the worst  behaviors ever endured by our citizens. He is a liar, a cheat, a racist, a misogynist, and a criminal. He is, in short, the most despicable human being I have ever encountered during my lifetime. The worst thing he has ever done--this is a tough choice--was his ordering the Border Patrol to rip children, even babies, from the arms of their mothers who had both the U.S. and international legal right to come to any of our borders, literally place one of their feet on U.S. soil and say they were here to seek political asylum (check out the laws). Instead, the traumatized children were put into cages and, in so many instances, never to see their mothers again. On November 3rd, we should be voting on whether **** Trump should be put into a prison cell for 40 years or for three lifetimes.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

My friend has had a sad and tragic life, and I do not know exactly why. Well educated was he, handsome as well, but never able to love a woman long enough. He has traveled the world, but beaches and oceans and birds and squirrels and a cat were all his best friends. I just read his book of poems, fraught with unrequited life as well as love. I am sorry and saddened for him.
I may be his only friend.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

So far, I've lived 2,396,736,000 seconds. For those of you who have trouble with numbers, that's two tillion three hundred and ninety-six billion and thirty-six million seconds, and I'm just getting started! Or to look at it in a somewhat different way, I could take each second I have lived and begin to divide it in half, and then each half by half, and continue doing the same infinitely. So you could posit that I, and all the rest of you, live infintely. We are, therefore, all ageless! The most important question ask now is what are we going to do with our ageless lives. I suggest loving, first yourself, then all others.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

All titles, positions, acquisitions are societal cosmetics, borne not of substance, but are inherently fraudulent, empty, worthless.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks