My first circle of communication

My great grandparents -- Ira & Rachel Cooperider -- my mother, Martha Elder Blackstone -- my father, Wayne Blackstone -- and my grandmother, Carrie Elizabeth Cooperider Blackstone (My grandfather Jerry Blackstone took the photo.)


My grandfather Jerry and my father Wayne


My mother, father, my younger brother Brent and I

The View from the Moon

" When you see the Earth from the moon, you realize how fragile it is and just how limited the resources are. We're all astronauts on this spaceship Earth -- about six or seven billion of us -- and we have to live and work together."

--Captain James Lovell (NASA astronaut)

The Meaning of Life

When I was a young child, I was told many things. I heard that my name was Brad Blackstone, that in my hometown my family was a good family, well respected and important. I also heard that I was an American, that the "American way" was very special, and that Americans on the world stage were well respected and important. I also attended church, learned that I was a Christian, and heard that Christians were good people, well respected and important among the religious people on the earth.

As I grew older into my teenage years, I wondered about what I had learned, and I tried to discern between the facts and opinions. I looked at the world around me, observed people and images on TV, in movies, amongst my schoolmates, teachers, relatives and my neighbors. I listened closely to the leaders of my country and to other leaders in the world. I read news, analysis, history and literature, and I began to wonder how I could measure the truth of what I had learned in the light of what I had observed. I passed my teenage years during the height of America's conflict with Vietnam (a real war) and the Soviet Union (the so-called Cold War), I witnessed the loss of leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Kennedy brothers, and I grew restless during the youth movement of the 1960s. I became inspired by the march for "civil rights" and by the advance of both the environmental and anti-war movements.

It was at that juncture, sometime during my mid to late teens, that I became interested in seeing the world for myself. I wanted to test my developing hypotheses, political, social, economic and cultural, with my own senses.I was no longer content to just follow my elders. I wanted to seize the day.

Since that time, I have covered lots of territory. Since leaving the comfort of my small hometown in Ohio, I have studied in a big American metropolis (Columbus, Ohio) and in the capital of the Soviet Union (Moscow). I have lived and worked in America, Portugal, Malaysia, Japan, and now Singapore. I have met many new friends, loved and been loved, raised my own family and suffered the loss of loved ones. Many people have taught me many things, both good and bad, wondrous and ugly. I have, in a sense, learned the ways of the world. So what then gives this life meaning for me?

Among other important people, you do. Our paths now run side by side. For this moment in time, we are sharing air.

Every positive encounter that we have, every bright person we meet, every new dream that we hear, each breathes life into our lungs and light into our souls. We can be as enthralled by a fruitful, personal exchange as we are by the sunrise and sunset of each day. Of course, we must lament the tragedies of this life, the inequity, the degradation, the crushed hopes. But with enlightened purpose, you and I can act in balance, counteract the negative, and bring more good to the world.

In this context, I "teach" so as to "learn," but also so as to help others explore the horizons that I have seen, to facilitate their observations, to assist someone like you in unraveling his or her own truths. In that way, as our common understanding evolves, as our "being" is enriched, our humanity --- our spirit --- can go beyond skin.

That's all. And maybe that's enough.

What to believe?

"All the world is my country and all mankind are my brethren, and to
do good is my religion." ~ Thomas Paine

“I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

Drivin' Down the Berm

miles of road strewn with shoes
not daring to be worn
night upon night sirens flood
for the children never born
and the light upon the moon
a reflection, that's all
of the embers as they burn
in the furnace of your mind
encirclin' these thoughts
you go drivin' down the berm

rear view mirrors double vision
it's all the same to me
day by day landmarks fall
every way that you can see
and the dance of the sun
a reflection, that's all
of the embers as they burn
on the pavement of your heart
swirlin' now like ash
you go drivin' down the berm

(chorus)
head upon the highway
distant rollin' thunder
old songs how they simmer
heels to be awanderin'
like an old tambourine
day breaks on a dime
everyone's up and gone
suitcases packed with time
and here I stand alone
_____

some words will set you free
hope's a rig breath an engine
but page after page after page
each fades in locomotion
and the light upon the moon
a reflection, that's all
of the ride that we once shared
on the edge of a dream
encircling these thoughts
you go drivin' down the berm

==repeat chorus==

Angel of Darkness (in the circus of light)

woe cried the muse,
my tears started at the sound,
woe cried the muse,
grief perched upon my brow
and thought embraced her

what does this mean, I cried
what does this mean, I cried

woe cried the muse,
when summer spread her plumes,
woe cried the muse,
she turned her notes around me,
joy fanned its wings
and golden pleasures beamed
about my head

what does this mean, I cried
what does this mean, I cried

til mute attention struck my ear,
it spoke as if to bid farewell,
the winds their sad complainings bore
and love, in infant bud,
vanished

is this the heart of hearts
all disappeared?

woe cried the muse,
then struck her deepest string,
woe cried the muse,
with sympathy up my nerves,
trembling,
every face of doubt burst out
to sing
round the darkening sky

what does this mean, I cried
what does this mean, I cried

woe cried the muse,
then a rude thunder closed my eyes,
woe cried the muse,
laid the lilied beauties at my green,
the dance was broke,
a flower plucked, but not far blown

what does this mean, I cried
what does this mean, I cried

til mute attention struck my ear,
it spoke as if to bid farewell,
the winds their sad complainings bore
and love in infant bud, vanished

is this the heart of hearts
all disappeared?

ever from my sight
an angel of darkness
in the circus of light

The Kitten's Coat

Dusk was passing, and while admiring the colors,
those variations of green in the banana leaves
through the philodendron and amidst the jasmine's
blossoms, an old man became so engrossed
that he missed the moment sharp
when Darkness arrived.

Darkness -- the kitten's coat was endless sheen,
its pitch eclipsing rainbow hues with a brilliance
everlasting -- and through her love for this old man
she'd sponged and glossed her every hair, up
from front paws to phantom tail just for
that evening's meeting, and when her friend
leaned to his cane, she stole along the garden
wall as if to know one sound might break
on either leaf ot twig or snail
the strongest concentration.

And so the kitten crept and climbed, from ground
to rock to empty pot, onto a shelf of money plants
and through a maze of vines and string
until she reached like stairs past stars
the stone wall's top, her world's rough edge,
and with a leap of faith she then found shoulder
she'd been aiming for, she found the nape
and licked it dear, as old man slumped, as cane
fell clear, and through the night she held him there

That coat in all its brilliance ....