Love Poem: Felt Facts We Unlearn
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Written by: Gerald Dillenbeck

Felt Facts We Unlearn

What are some things you learned
along life's way
better before you went to school
as compared to after?

Oh, you mean like love
of cooperative natural-spiritual learning
rather than
mistrusting ego's essential competitive nature,
divorced from cooperative spirit,
required to out-perform my siblings
and friends
and neighborhood peer groups?

Yes, that is a viral one.
But, if you think that's bad,
listen to this:
My mother always taught,
and both my grandmother and mother nearly always mentored,
there is no hurt
love can't and won't ultimately heal.
But,
in first grade
I heard from some of my more troubling classmates
that their moms taught them
there is no anger or fear weaker than love's strength 
to survive,
including ravages of domestically violent patriarchal rule.
It was like I had learned a life sentence
when and where
these unfortunates were given an avoid death sentence.

That intersects with my own confusion
about love of learning as full healthy living
and fear of failing
as negatively devolutionary learning competitive-behavioral theory
myths and Evil Devil Stories of vengeful angry-fear-mongering 
monoculturing Gods of Omnipotent SpiritStrength
and not so much Goddesses of Polyphonic Nature-Nurture
emerging polypathic deductive challenges to save patriarchal face
and inductive invitations to share love's healing grace.

My mother was my preschool teacher.
She taught me love is highest and best use
for living and for learning,
while grade school teachers
didn't disagree,
they merely were paid
to help us notice
differences between (0)Sum WinLose competitions
and (0)Soul WinWin cooperative ownership
of love's nurturing powers
to cooperatively heal all EarthTribe's sacred hurts.

I wish either Mother Earth or Mother Mom
or even Mother Grandmom
had taught me why you nearly always find sexism where you find racism,
but not necessarily racism where you find sexism's patriarchal remnants.

I think at least one of my grandmothers
taught me the cooperative economics of gender diversity
are more lovingly powerful, and healthy,
than the competing politics of monoculturing racist theory.

Really! African or Native American?

Maybe both?

Creolizing all three in sacred one.
I learned that in school,
eighth grade biology.

I don't know.
I think I hear an older teaching
swelling into here and there,
both before and after school.