February 18, 2009
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Khaki
That is such a cool word. It looks cool, it sounds cool and it's cool when you're wearing it too. I like Khaki but it's not clothing I want to talk about, it's people. You, me and the other guy who we like to pretend is nothing like you and me. If you've ever opened your eyes enough to see what's in front of your face you already know we're seriously screwed up. Oh yeah, I know the rap about all the good people and the good, noble things they do, but I'm not talking about a person. I'm talking about people, in general, which is the only way you can talk about people. If you want specificity you have to talk about a person which is different from people. Enough with the grammar lesson! We didn't get so screwed up all by ourselves. We learned it from other people when we were too young to know better or resist their rot. So did they. It keeps getting passed on from one generation to the next like Original Sin. I leave the links for you to make it easier for you. Why? Heh, it's not because I'm a good, noble person. It's because I want you to understand what I'm saying. All the songs say we need love, and we do, but we'll never get it without understanding. You can understand more and better than you now do, but you have to work at it. Check out the links. *smile*Some folks are saying we made history by electing a black (or some other politically correct word) President. This is the kind of crazy lame thinking that gets us into trouble. As if it mattered, Obama isn't black or African. He's khaki. Our sad, sick and twisted history of racism had many different words for people who were not pure. I know, lame, but there it is. Ever heard the term high yellow? Even if you have it's still a good read. Mulatto is a word that, even today, makes some persons' heads spin like Regan's in The Exorcist. It's not just Americans who have a sad, sick and twisted history of racism and slavery. It goes back to prehistory with people because we're broken but don't know it in any meaningful way. A meaningful way would be a way that woke us up long enough to see the truth, the terror of the situation and inspired us to do something about it. Not in other people but in each individual. We wake up but then somehow get hypnotized by life again and forget what it was we thought was so important before the hypnosis dazed us. It's like heading from the kitchen to the pantry to get something you need. It's not far, it doesn't take long but we get into the pantry, look around and say to ourselves, What did I come in here for? That kind of hypnosis that we excuse in ourselves by saying it wasn't that important or we got distracted by someone or something. Blah, blah, blah. We're so full of excuses for why we are the way we are we have little or no chance of ever becoming some other way. Some better way. Some way that helps us to look at one another with more understanding. We'll never learn to love one another if we can't understand one another.
If we had more understanding we could see that people are doing the only thing they can do with the limited understanding they have. We could see that we too are doing all we can do with our limited understanding. The truth of the matter is we understand almost nothing correctly, as it actually is. Why? Because we don't know how it is. We only know how we think it is and by and large we're too proud to admit it. Do you actually believe that because the man in the oval office is Khaki that all of our problems are going to go away in a few years? Then why are people so jacked up about it? Why did so many people from all over the world travel to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration ceremony? The Great Khaki Hope? Sorry, but this is racism. It goes both ways. The only ones who don't know it are the racists. We're people. Screwed up, hypnotized people who need to pull our heads out of the past and get busy working on our own individual selves if anything is every going to change in a positive way. Apologies in advance to the racists of any shade who got their knickers in a knot over any of this. If you don't understand what I'm saying the lack is in you not in me.
Comments (35)
You and I seem to have been more or less scratching the same itch! I hope you read my morning blog of today, James.
There is wisdom in your comment, "we are broken but don't know it in any meaningful way." Therein lies the challenge.
Thanks for writing and wage PEACE.
james, the older i get the more i think asking people to change (including me! i include me!) is hopeless. nothing makes any sense to me at all. none of the ways people cope with the senselessness make sense, either. oh, ugh.
James, you wrote that so well. That resonated (I can not put my fingers on a better word, sorry) with me this morning. I also enjoy Charlotte's comment in closing "waging peace".
Inspiring.
Thank you.
@Smarticus -
I hear you, Smarty. I've felt hopeless. I agree that what we (people) do doesn't make sense. It's why history keeps repeating itself, though I don't think it's history that repeats itself, but rather we who repeat our insanity over and over making any real outer change impossible. Often it does look impossible. We may not be able to change. What if we could just get rid of some of the grime that covers us? Would we find something real underneath it all? Something less grimy? There is a way.
Yes, I give it about a year or two and everyone will go back to sleep again, and keep on going as they always have done. It's the nature of the beast. As for Khaki... I don't really give a hoot what color people are. I'm just happy he's smart, and he's taking charge! Something this country has been lacking for quite a few years!
queenie rec'd ya ... great thoughts ... too much truth ...
thought provoking post...people are always interested in my heritage since i ~look~ biracial and they're always happy when i can provide a ~reason~ why. that's strange all by itself. (just for the record, most of my heritage is from Louisiana and i'm sure if we went back far enough there would be creole/black in there, heck, if we go back far enough in ANYONE'S heritage that would apply!)
i'm just glad we have a LEADER now, black, white or purple.
@queenie -
Go on! Resonated is a great word! It's one of my favorite words for saying something about internal stuff that can't be said. I feel you. *smile*
@spinner_mom -
A couple years!? Too late.
@Southland -
I hear if we go back far enough we'll find pond scum. That would explain a lot. LOL!
Wait. Something is wrong. I'm seeing clear thinking, appropriate grammar, clever writing. Why didn't I know about you? Thanks a billion times to southland for reccing you.
@TheLoquaciousLady -
Thank you for the kind words. I've been hiding here in plain sight since 12/23/2000. It appears the majority doesn't find those attributes as interesting as you do. From my perspective that speaks much of you.
Bravo...well said! {v }
Exactly!
Isn't it possible, sometimes, for love to precede understanding? Or is that a different state of being for which I do not know the word? Sometimes I think I feel love -not romantic, more all encompassing than that restricted to one person. Anyways, feeling that particular state sometimes makes me more motivated to try to understand another. Blessings abound
@epeemom -
Sure, it's possible. It may not be the most lasting way to get there but it's possible to visit I reckon.
How is it that I keep missing your posts??? I am subbed to you, I should stumble across them when I go through my subbs. I don't get it.
I'm going to have to go back through and catch up with all that I've missed. Simple as that.
Hope you're doing well!!!
It is so interesting the way people have held our new President on a pedestal. From what I have seen however, it isn't because of racism, reverse or otherwise, I have experienced first hand what he has inspired, He is just one in a long line of hard working American people who have worked hard to overcome their adversities and reach their goal, their American Dream. He has given America a fresh look at life, a boost.
It has been much too long since we have had an inspirational leader. It has not been in my lifetime, and even though I am quite young, 24 years is too long to be uninspired.
Americans have been "fine" for too long. We need someone to shake us up, challenge our habits, thoughts, and stressed out lives.
In the early 1900's our goal was to protect ourselves, to learn science, math, chemistry, and physics to the best our abilities. We needed these to make sophisticated weaponry to protect ourselves from the other powers of the world.
In the late 1900's our goal had changed. We need to learn the art of comfort, the art of indulgence. We needed to learn how to be selfish and lavish.
We learned that. We accomplished those goals. Now society once again has a new goal. Our goal has changed. Our language has changed. Our paradigms have been shifted. And now we have someone to show us and help us reach this next goal.
Our new goal is to learn how to care. Care for the earth, our society, our home, ourselves, but most importantly each other. There are those out there who are against this. The ones who are stuck in the lavish me stage. But just like the Farmers who were scared of technology in the early 1900's, they will change. Like the racists of the mid-1900's they will change.
We have someone to boost us. To give us hope. These people don't come very often, and while in the present they may look like just another ordinary trouble maker, they will change the world. We have only to look at the repeated history, to know that while it does repeat, things within those repetitions change. In the end it will be a bittersweet symphony with many variations, but the same common theme, the American Dream.
@nidan -
I'm well, Jimmy, thanks.
On a filthy hot day, I long for the southerly breeze.
In America, your people have been longing for any breeze, to catch a breath of fresh air, no matter what direction it blows in from {*_*}
Even breezes and high winds have labels attached and those labels are not used to discriminate, simply describe ... for a clearer vision of direction and sustainability ... and I don't consider Obama just hot air - LOL.
"Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again." Andre Gide
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." Albert Einstein.
Somewhere between those two is the place where there is all that I freely admit I don't understand what or how it is, though that admission in and of itself doesn't help me to understand any more than before I made it. *smile*
Khaki is cool but my favorite color is clear. It goes with everything.
I don't care what color the President is, but I am afraid that "Khaki" is not the answer....
@Timantec_II -
Cool. Then you and the emperor should get along fine.
@James -
Indeed, so. *smile*
Different man, same system. What change?
Interesting post, as always James. I don't think I can add much more than what everyone else has already said.
Clarify for me, everyone who went to Washington was a racist? Perhaps some were just so happy for a change. Of course who knows what change will bring. I'm hopeful though.
I see change in people, greedier I think. Less morals I think.
@The_Queen_Of_Swords -
Yup. How come it's so hard for some people to see that? Never mind, I know why.
@BLB -
I have no idea who the people were who went to Washington. Does it have to be either, or? Is there no middle ground? What I heard was that it was one of the largest turnouts ever. People always want change. We simply do not wish to change ourselves.
Changing ourselves is just too hard. I know the 69 yrs. I've been around is so hard to un-do.
@BLB -
Yes, it's very difficult but not impossible. It can be done if one knows how, has the proper tools and is motivated enough.
'Khaki' was a word the British stole during their occupation of India. It means 'dust' and refers to the color of the terrain when dry, From khaki we have come, to khaki will we return.
I've gotten into the study of human (and near-human) genetic roots. The full human genome was done several years ago; now the Neanderthal genome has also been finished. Many people get into such studies hoping to show some of their ancestors were Native American, a taint that their ancestors went out of their way to conceal. Perhaps it is a romantic idea or perhaps they simply want to get in on the windfall coming out of the casinos. Others, once proud racists, are discovering that their ancestors were a motley lot, all of whom came out of Africa (if, indeed, they left) about 70,000 to 80,000 years ago. The skin color we call 'white' is a fairly recent event, dating back not much farther than the most recent ice age maximum.
At one point, the human race was reduced to about 10,000 individuals by volcanism and the resulting air pollution, much worse than any ever seen in Los Angeles. We all come from those 10,000 . . . and none of us know which ones they came from. We now know we aren't closely related to the Neanderthal, that they were indeed a separate race. Nor are we closely related to bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas or orangutans, which are also separate races. The only race we belong to is the human race.
And to the khaki that blows across all our lands and settles on our furniture.
kind of got all these thoughts inside me and helped me word them out...I am having a hard time expressing any of it and sick to the gills with all the blahblah about it...very well written and thank you so much for sharing...especially the bittersweet symphony - the American Dream...but if people can't dream....then...okay I am starting to circle again...hugs, Sassy
@Sassenach_org -
I reckon I'll have to write something about that dream/hope business. There isn't just one kind.
@WordJames -
I don't think I've told you lately how much I enjoy your input, James. You bring so much to the table I'm glad I still write here so I can interact with you about these things. Thank you for every word, thought and idea you share with us. You are a jewel.
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