So it begins

In my dream, I was painting a large rather abstracted portrait of a man. He was a little like a painting I created forty years ago of a man crouching, his hands folded over his knees, very impressionistic. This one was less dark with many bright, very intense colors. As I worked a bit on his hands, I realized the painting had created images I hadn't planned. First I saw a ghostly group of four cowboys looking into the distance, lined up as though waiting for something or seeing a sunset.

When I looked to another part of the painting, I saw it all change. It was as though whatever line you saw first, that made the painting into something else and this time I saw a young woman sitting in the corner of a kitchen with two small children across the room from her.

If I tried to make the man clearer, the other images would be lost; so I settled for trying to make the abstract painting work, not look for the images and then when it was done, hope they would all be there or maybe different ones.

Except in a dream, no painting like that would really be possible, not even with digital. Trying to make other images be hidden is a common trick in painting but this was bigger than that. It was what happened, not what you made happen as the artist.

The dream was likely impacted by my own painting right now but more about the way the world appears to be. It is like a big mosaic of color and wherever you look, that is where you see the absolute, total and only truth. Except if you look elsewhere, center yourself there, don't look away, the truth shifts and it's not the same one. We think we know the truth and so does everybody else who sees it differently.

I am excited about Barack Obama having enough delegates to secure the nomination for the presidency. I am excited that many people looked at him for who he was, not his skin color and voted for him. I am not excited that many people looked at his skin color alone and found a reason to not vote for him.

The battle to change this country has just begun. The election process this fall will be brutal. The lies will be everywhere. I have heard a lot of them and it amazes me that anybody believes any of it. Barack Obama is not just multiracial, he is multicultural. That scares many people. They trust what they know. They did that when they voted for George Bush.

So those, who want our next president to be Barack, have to donate what money and time they can to the cause of getting him elected. They have to bat down the brutal and vicious lies that are going to come at them. Research research research. Good things don't come easy. When those emails come in with the charges that are intended to frighten or anger, look for whether they are true before passing them on. Don't doubt for a second they will be coming because it has worked before.

For those who believe in prayer, pray that there will be protection for Obama. For those who believe in white light protection, think of it around him whenever it comes to your mind. Don't allow anybody to repeat anything that could encourage violence-- not even in a joke. I have seen enough political assassinations to know that there are those who see that as the answer to anything that frightens or seems to threaten their existing order.

The distortions are ridiculous that we hear even from the mainstream media. They become fixated on something like a flag pin. It takes a lot to get genuine information on any subject. The internet is a good place to bypass the mainstream medias, but it takes being discerning even there. It's an obvious truth but bears repeating to ourselves every so often-- not every written word is truth.

On one of the current arguments going around that Hillary Clinton won the most popular votes; therefore she at the least should be Vice President. It ignores some states do caucuses, that Rush Limbaugh was encouraging some of his fans to vote for her to create chaos in the nominating process. It is a silly thing to say anyway, but silly things work if people are easily led. A coach said something that put that argument in perspective. From now on, he suggested, each season let's just count up the total points scored at the end and regardless of games won or lost, the team with the most points wins. I liked that. I also would remind voters that Al Gore had 3 million more votes in 2000 than George Bush. Who was president next?

So it's a good day and a day to be proud. I hadn't thought of it but one of the pundits said this is the first western type nation to select an African-American to run for their leader. He's not there yet and it's a long road ahead, but it is surprising that for all the bigotry we are accused of, we would be the first nation to look beyond a man's skin color and vote for him on his abilities. They say young people are more like that anyway, not letting superficial differences cloud their judgment about who someone is. Sure some voted for him because he was black but they weren't enough to bring him to this point. So it is a day to feel good but it's a long way from over.