Skip to main content

Eulogy for Rusty Sharpe

Rush Limbaugh is a relative of mine. A very, very distant relative. I have never spoken to him and I am certain as I can be that he didn't know I exist. I only know we are related because my great uncle is a historian of "pioneer" history which includes our family. Anyway, I remember learning that he was my grandpa's third cousin (or something like that) as a kid and -- knowing only that he was some measure of "successful" -- being sincerely appalled that he wasn't doing anything to help me and my cousins pay for college. ba dum ba.

For reasons I don't entirely understand, I feel compelled to claim him. I have no interest in denying or downplaying the very real harm he willfully ignited or his commitment to moral decrepitude. But I very genuinely hope he finds peace.


May you rest

May your heart break open

May your fear become ridiculous to you

May the hatred you gripped tightly now slip through your fingers

May your deceptions become heavy to those who hold them that they might be set down

May your pain become sweet to you held now in the embrace of All Things

May the love you knew in life overwhelm your form

May you feel Unconditional Forgiveness

May you find peace




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

wise bodies

without tests and treatments, we remembered how to listen to our wise bodies. wise sour stomachs whisper for peppermint and ginger. wise nervous systems call for skullcap, turmeric, and pepper. wise feet take our wise backs for walks. wise hands planted rosemary last spring that they may now crush sticky green needles in offering to the tension in our wise temples. ha! and then we remembered to release the tension in our Temples. movement offerings to align our chakras and cleanse our meridians. meditation offerings to rest our minds and stretch our spirits. from each according to their ability to each according to their need we healed. abandoned by “the health care system,” we sought diagnoses in the wisdom of our bodies and treatment in the generosity of the flora and fauna about us. this wisdom has been cultivated through so much careful, measured research carried out over centuries… millennia! — the long way — the slow way — the way things grow when we are patient. sustainably. har...

the necessity of your joy

Pain is a signal from our bodies to tell our brains that we should probably check something out. It is also a reminder that, after we have addressed the issue, we are still in repair and should not overdo it. This pain is helpful. Thank you, pain. Sometimes pain lingers and treatment is not available or available treatment is ineffective. This pain sits and reminds you to do a task that can’t be completed. Sometimes, pain continues even though there is no evident reason for it. This pain reminds you to do a task that doesn’t need doing. This type of pain is harder to thank. But its existence cannot be changed. Do you remember that time your hand got slammed in a door and someone asked if you were okay but you couldn’t respond because there were only red diamonds and magma light? There wasn’t much to do about it but eventually that pain faded. Do you know what you would be like if it didn’t? Can you accept something you cannot thank? How many impossible things can you believe before bre...

i am breaking open.

i am breaking open. i am breaking open. my cells ache to break apart. this corporeal manifestation longing to be dust. i'm not sure how much more i can transmute. a musty filter in a decaying house. i'm not sure how much more i can weather. a dry tree sweating against wild fire. every bit of my willingness strained to avoid rotting or burning up without any awareness what is in between disassociation and fury. i want to offer you something to help you keep going. i want to offer you something to help me keep going. i want to write the words that bring understanding. that invite love. that breed courage. that melt hatred and fear. i want, with gentleness, the goo of transformation, the digestion of the parts of ourselves that now only wound, that now only inhibit, that we do not need. the transformation of white supremacy and manifest destiny and doctrine of discovery and nationalism and all these confused ideas, naïve misunderstandings of purpose held onto into an adulthood arr...