The Lure Of Black Friday, The Blackening Of Hearts

Fresh from his latest run for office with the Green Party of Connecticut, Richard Duffee brings to this evening's Barnes and Noble’s Open Mic program a mix of whimsical wordplay, intriguing dream-inspired writing and unflinching dissections into the irrational, yet oddly enthralling, priorities that keep us in the mutual death grip of exploitation and inequality.

In particular, when forced recently to crash a candidate forum at the Yerwood Center in order to debate five other candidates for the Board of Education, the profound association between Richard’s political insight and this latter aspect of his creative ouvre was made clear.

While others spoke in customary itemized fashion regarding budgetary, facilities allocation and other issues, Richard’s responses, as with the first volume of his cross-cultural/cross-time passages in The Slow News of Need (2008, see "Collections and Anthologies" section below), suggested an integrated and fundamental approach that subtly questioned the self-limiting assumptions implicit in the very questions posed by the representative from the Stamford Parent Teacher Council.

Rather than favoring a tony quick-fix to bullying or anxiety (like fitting student cell phones with a special teen help-line “app”), Richard proposed constructive departures from the conflict and competitive fallout associated with youth “snitch” culture that would generate so much misery to begin with, learned from his involvement in the Quaker Alternatives to Violence Project, during his years of creative writing and legal justice instruction in youth and adult detention settings in the Northeast.

With each new sermon from his satirically-charged series, “The Unified High Church of Money”—a popular and highly participatory staple at PoemAlley—Richard further explicates what he’s observed from many years in India and other countries on how the roots of the dysfunction and suffering in human affairs at all levels and ages originates with the conflicting roles we are conditioned to play from the personal, economic, social and political dimensions as members of society. Tonight being three weeks out from “Black Friday”, the example below is especially appropriate:

Liturgy #2: On Meaning

Priest: Oh, my children, I heard a horrible complaint is circulating among you. It grieves my heart to hear it.

Congregation: What is it, Father? You know we hate to see you in pain.

P: I can hardly bear to speak it, it is so foul, so over-the-top, so unworthy of you.

C: Tell us, let us bear the burden with you.

P: I’m not sure I should, Children. After all, it may only be a few of you, a few possessed by some demon, a few who are so misguided.

C: Tell us, Father, we’ll take care of them. People like that, if we see them, well, you know what we do [drawing their fingers across their throats.]

P: All right, all right, I will entrust you with it.

C: Please, Father, we hate to see you suffer.

P: I’m sure it must only be a few of you, maybe even only those of you who do not attend the services regularly, maybe even only parishioners who are not here in person today.

C: It’s all right, Father, whoever it is, we’ll deal with them.

P: Well, children, this complaint is of lack of meaning.

[A hush falls on the cathedral. Then, out of the silence:]

Parishioner: Lack of meaning? Whatever can that mean? How can someone lack meaning?

P: I have been pondering just that. Why, when there is meaning everywhere, how can someone lack it?

C: Yes, Father, explain to us.

P: I was as shocked as you, Children. I went into the holy vault to meditate. There I listened quietly to Money.

C: What did it say, Father?

P: It said, “Meaning? I give you all the meaning you will ever need. Look at all you can sell!”

C: Yes, that’s it! Of course!

P: That’s what I heard. It said, “Every exchange is meaningful. Don’t your customers find meaning in what they buy?”

C: “We do, we do!”

P: Every exchange is meaningful. Think of the joy of buying jewels! The joy of buying stocks and futures, the joy of derivatives! Do these people mean to say they do not want to give others this joy?”

C: Who are they? Tell us who they are, these selfish bastards!”

P: Oh, please, Children, let us not talk that way in this holy place. Never should those two words be joined.

C: Sorry, Father, sorry.

P: There are people who do not want to sell. But just think, if no one sells, no one can buy! And then no wonder they have no meaning!”

C: How can they be so stupid, Father?

P: This is what I went to the holy vault to understand. And the vault said, “I give you meaning every minute! Here, you want meaning? Do I not give you everything in Macy’s to sell and buy? And what of Sears? Of Walmart? Why look at Lord and Taylor! You want meaning? Look at any convenience store? What do you see there but a thousand things that people seek, all the things that fill their lives—the Coca Colas, the Cap’n Crunch, the T-shirts, the gas additives! There’s meaning everywhere!

C: Tell us where, Father!

P: Why look at any country. Say you’re in Colombia. We give you your flag, your national animal, your national song, everything you desire! Or say you’re in Singapore. We ship you things from all around the world so you can add value to them and ship them back. Meaning, meaning everywhere, in everything you touch!

A hundred years ago where was there meaning in Singapore? Now it has camera parts, computer modules, woofers and tweeters everywhere!

C: How ungrateful these people must be!

P: Yes, they can’t see what’s in front of their faces! They cannot see the joy of things!

C: They have no hearts!

P: Exactly! And we give them everything! With just a little loyalty and honesty and a little work, they can sell whatever they want! Freedom and plenty! They can sell whatever can be bought from us! And they can buy and buy! Buy anything we sell!

C: A cornucopia of plenty!

P: Yes, an endless vault! Endless and infinite! Let us pray.

C: Dear Father, let us have all the goods we can earn.

P: Yes, dear Children, and we’ll give you all the credit you can carry, and even more at times.

C: Thank you, Father, thank you.

P: Go in peace, my Children, but forget not to compete. Remember, you must earn. Only if each of us earns can others earn, and only if each of us earns can we buy. Go thou then and buy. Go forth to earn and buy. There is thy meaning.                                         

Material from “The Unified High Church of Money” is currently being adapted into a stage production by local architectural preservationist and Loft Artists Association member, Renee Kahn.

Check out Richard’s thoughts, videos, writing (including such essays as “The Common Sense of the Right to Live in the Age of Weapons of Mass Destruction” and “The Outlines of Joyce's Perception of Social Power”, as well as information on past political activities at his website www.richardduffee.com.

Hosted by Frank Chambers and PoemAlley's Nick Miele, the Barnes & Noble's Open Mic Poetry program meets the second Monday of each month in the cookbook section on the main floor of the bookstore (located in the Stamford Down Center), beginning at 7:15 p.m.

  

For more information, contact:

Barnes & Noble

100 Greyrock Place Suite H009

Stamford, CT 06901

203-323-1248