Reading Merton on the Way to San Diego

Crimes Against the State

"I confess that I am sitting under a pine tree doing absolutely nothing.
I have done nothing for one hour and firmly intend to continue to do
nothing for an indefinite period. I have taken my shoes off. I confess
that I have been listening to a mockingbird. Yes, I admit that it is a
mockingbird. I hear him singing in those cedars, and I am very sorry. It
is probably my fault. He is singing again. This kind of thing goes on
all the time. Whenever I am. I find myself the center of reactionary
plots like this one." (The Behavior of Titans-Thomas Merton)-----
------------------------------------------------
And I confess I have read about 50s music, Smokey Joe's Cafe, Living in
Nevada, Master Magician Lance Burton, and have worn my mp3 player out
listening to Krall, Sinatra, Steve Tyrell, the Beegies, and Monica
Mancini, between a buffet of Southwest peanuts and oriole cookies
filtered through an ocean of tomato juice.

And I have committed crimes against the state by being silent, listening
to words not on the Fox News, and being the first to throw the stone
from the hidden place where no one could have seen me. And when I
prayed, I faked it --taking a shortcut pass the solitude and silence and
tempting quietness with a mouthful of piety wrapped in sparkled magic,
the message being a product of sound bites for heaven and meticulous
images clothed in sex and sleezy lies.

LORD FORGIVE !! (Dan's Confession)