poor old Michael Finnegan, begin again

 poor old Michael Finnegan, begin again  

Today I begin another news fast. Ten days, I promise myself: ten days at least. It’s like turning off a game between rivals in a year when one is so much better than the other and it decides humiliation is the better part of gamesmanship: I am embarrassed for both the conquered and the conqueror - it's too painful to watch. The news has become that bitterly adversarial; commentators have become like divorce lawyers.

I invoke Ganesha.

     According to one account, Parvati formed Ganesha from the rubbings of her body after making love with Shiva; then she posted him to stand guard at her door whenever she bathed. When Shiva arrived, he was angry at being kept from her, and, unaware that the guard was his son, he lopped off his head. To console Parvati, Shiva promised to replace it with the head of the first living creature he saw. This was an elephant.

     Ganesha, also Ganesh or Ganapati, is the remover of obstacles.  Thus, he is seen at entrances; he is appealed to at the beginning of a new project.

Here is a poem by my friend Rick Dietrich, called “Pascal’s Diner”: “It’s the difference between East and West, isn’t it?” he says, “Or, perhaps between women and men, what we expect of our gods, what we expect - or don’t - in exchange for our worship?” The poem is illustrated with m ball’s Ganesh with a Blue Head.

10.28.17