IT'S NOW OR NEVER

IT'S NOW OR NEVER

Have any of you noticed lately that the frequency and intensity of natural disasters has been increasing steadily for the last decade and longer. If you add up the recent onslaught of deadly tornadoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes combined with man made crisis’ like the oil spills in the gulf and the nuclear plant failure following the tsunami in Japan to name a few recent disasters,  the evidence seems irrefutable. It also gives some credence to the idea that the earth itself has it’s own “balancing” system and when that system is threatened, it fights back for it’s own survival. And if that means getting rid of the species responsible, well-so be it.

There is a lot of scientific research and evidence that’s predicts, explains and cautions us, and there is also the intuitive, gut wrenching, perhaps mystical perspective that advocates the belief in the Gaia Principle which describes the earth as a whole living organism. Many scientists have been attempting to inform us that we need to heed the effects of our way of living, for years now but they have been ridiculed (alarmists doom and gloom) discredited and ignored  by administrations and their hired media, resulting in the majority of us ignoring the writing on the wall and carrying on the business of our lives as usual.  Since our natural tendency is to resist change and remain comfortable and complacent it doesn’t take much to convince or reassure us that everything is A-OK when it fact it is not.

  

 As individuals the many cancers and other diseases we suffer from are treatable, even curable if detected early enough. I think the same principle applies to the entire global ecosystem and all it’s intricate interconnections. And if this is the case then a slow and gradual reduction of air, ground and water pollution. Oil fuels dependency, token penalties and unenforced regulations of industries and the tons of toxic wastes they spew into the environment daily will be a case of “too little, too late”.  Goals like 20% reduction of energy reliance on oil by the year 2030 isn’t going to reverse the inertia of what appears to me to be an unacknowledged catastrophe of epic proportions no longer waiting just around the corner but smack in our faces, at least to those of us whose faces are no longer buried, heads in the sand. It is very possible that we are past the point of no return. 

The same sort of shortsighted self centered compulsion for more, better, newer, faster that led to the current global economic melt down is leading us to the end of the world as we know it. We can no longer live the A-More-I-Can Dream if we want to have a future worth dreaming. It is time, it is past time to sound the alarm. 

The world itself will renew itself; only humans have been able to impact nature intensely enough to change climates and pollute and over consume natural resources. With our extinction, systems will work to bring a return to homeostasis. Ironically, it is the so called “developed countries” that have wreaked havoc on the earth; it has taken great advances in technologies to do this much damage in such a short span of time. The past 100 years have changed the way we live in extreme ways only science fiction writers could imagine. 

The freedom guaranteed us by the constitution to the “pursuit of happiness” has literally manifested. We are lost in the “pursuit” and few of us have arrived at the intended target of happiness. The vast number of drugs we of the “developed” countries have to devour in order to simply cope with our pain, exhaustion, depression and great disillusionment attests to the fact that material wealth and external comforts do not bring us health, security and serenity. We are enslaved by the very luxuries that once obtained can no longer be lived without. We are captive to the artificial “needs” promulgated by ceaseless commercial marketing. Research has found measurements of personal contentment higher among people who are living remotely and in the harshest of climates than here in  Disneyland which we tout in yet another commercial as the “happiest place on earth”. If you’ve been to Main Street then you know the best part of the day is sitting down and resting your weary feet.

The rate of speed at which we are depleting or poisoning the few essential elements that sustain life for us all does not allow us the luxury of the slow, passive gestures we are making to fix the enormity of the real issues of the day. 

You may call me an alarmist, but I’m not the only one. I hope some day (soon!) you will join us, so the world can continue to go on.

“Imagine” that. Thank you John-

AMERICA'S DYSFUNCTION

               Greedy Republicans, Spineless Democrats and Annoying Tea Party Folks: 

                                      Can It Get Any More Dysfunctional? 

Interesting isn’t it? Unlike us mortal individuals whose credit limits are decreased when we are late or errant on our credit card payments, the government may simply raise their limits in response to defaulting on their own loan. We mere mortals, however, when we’ve lived beyond our means and the means to pay our debt back face collection agencies, bank foreclosures, liens on our salary and so on.  

In 2001 and 2003 during the Bush administration taxes cuts were made; keep in mind that this was at a time when we were already in one war and about to start a second one-very expensive wars. Does it make sense to cut government revenue when expenses are clearly about to increase.  In 2000 the national debt was 6 trillion dollars. By the end of the Bush years and 2 years into the wars and economic toilet bowl that Obama inherited, the debt rose to 13 trillion. If those tax cuts hadn’t been made, the initial 6 trillion would have been balanced. In other words, our debt wouldn’t have risen if our revenue wasn’t decreased. As recently as last December our representatives voted to renew the tax cuts even in light of our exploding debt. Who is it that’s driving this bus? 

So now instead of increasing revenue by raising taxes back to  previous levels on those who can painlessly afford it we choose to trim a trillion dollars from our debt by cutting jobs and unemploying even more Americans during the highest unemployment rate this country has seen since the Great Depression. More unemployment results in more foreclosures and the need for more unemployment checks going out to those whose jobs we just cut.  Are the drivers of this bus qualified to drive safely? Should we continue to trust them to take us where we want to go?

Further irony; government cuts in jobs and spending result in decreased tax revenues because less people are earning money. I don’t think I’m  exaggerating when I say that whoever is driving this bus must be drunk, stupid or insane because this bus ain’t goin no where fast. The bus has been wrecked and an insurance appraiser would judge it “totaled” ; take it to the scrap yard and build a new better bus, one preferably stupid-proof so anyone can drive it.

The really bad news? Nothing is going to change. The rich are going to remain financially secure (a while longer) while the rest of us common folk will struggle more. This trend is not new.

Quite a predicament we’ve gotten ourselves into and like an antagonistic and failing marriage, our politicians refuse to collaborate on solutions because they are too busy arguing over who is right and who is wrong so that they can convince the public to vote for them, thus insuring that they will stay employed for another couple years.

If our leaders need a little help and guidance I have a few suggestions we could start with that wouldn’t inflict any more damage on our already trashed educational system, social services and entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security, all of which we pay taxes into.

First and foremost I would advise that politicians reduce their salaries (good thing they’re not paid on results) and their ridiculously generous lifetime pensions and health programs (after just two years of service). 

Secondly, I would suggest that we stop worrying about setting up unsolicited democracies in oil rich countries and invest the cost of war into domestic research creating alternative, clean, renewable energy sources.  The Oil Age like the Ice Age is ended.  

Thirdly, I would raise the frigging taxes on the obscenely rich. Period. There is no justifiable reason not to. Underneath our guise of free market economy, we are beginning to resemble feudal Europe more and more. A few kingdoms and their royal families running the show and then the rest of us working our butts off and then, paying taxes to the royalty so that they can build themselves another newer bigger palace. 

Fourth, Campaign Reform.  Take the marketing out of this altogether. Establish times and venues for candidates to all offices to show up, get interviewed by unbiased journalists and/or college professors; we just want to hear where they stand on issues. Period. Let us determine who is lies the least.

Republicans..Democrats...Tea Party...hmmm?   I remember reading once about an authentic tea party that happened back around 1776; yep-The Boston Tea Party and the beginning of an American  Revolution whose founding cry was “No taxation without representation!” Do you feel represented lately? I sure don’t.

BLOOMING

when the known pain of being bound in the bud 

is greater than the unknown pain of blooming...

we bloom-

PEER PRESSURE

PEER PRESSURE 

He stood so still,

he went invisible 

on one leg like a flamingo

"Encephalopods"

said the 4 year old to the librarian.

“Huh?” 

said his father. 

Animals used to come to his wide open openness 

and curiosity. 

Butterflies rested safely on his shoulders..

He wrote and illustrated stories,

his life one great imagination.

Then came the great seducer. 

Standing in the herd,

the need for being heard. 

He imagined himself cool

and created perhaps a fool

for applause, for approval. 

He gained notoriety

and lost sobriety,

Everyone knew the him he invented

but in that inventing,

he lost himself.

We all do this.

 We trade ourselves away

for a measly back slap.

We abandon ourselves so that others won’t. 

We go missing..

Then a moment comes..

a quiet clarity

and we remember 

when everything in and on the 

great blue ball glistened and beckoned us. 

Everything I look at and touch in this world

becomes a part of me,

I am the size of all that i embrace. 

Perhaps it’s time to cut free from this cocoon of appearances, 

reopen to a world

infinite in possibilities and interests. 

Step out of the small construction you present to the world.

Open wide, embrace with fascination

all the world

as only the innocence 

of a child can. 

Return to the true you.

WE ARE UNITED IN OUR DISCOURAGEMENT

There is this....we are obviously divided in the "who" and the "how" we will improve conditions on our country, but there is a commonality that does unite us all it is this; everybody on both sides of the dividing line is sick and tired of NOT BEING REPRESENTED by our government. Trump and Clinton supporters alike know that the criminal and corruptly "purchased" democracy that has been making decisions for us all has served primarily the top 1% only. Corporations have been controlling legislative policy making for a long long while and we appear to be at a point where the vast majority of us realize that our values and principles are not and have not been represented. We revolted against England years ago for the very reason that we should be revolting against our government today; "Unfair taxation without representation". Trumps win is a sign of that revolt. The machinery (DNC) in their smug complacency missed the cue during the primaries. If they had had open eyes, ears and minds they might have seen that Bernie Sanders was speaking for "the people" and had our overwhelming support. Bernie Sanders spoke to every issue we are concerned about and he did it with intelligence, grace and compassion. When I think of the Democratic party today I want to puke. Let's not forget that when the Dems had controlling numbers the first two years of Obamas administration, they deserted their own leader. And more recently it appears that they were so certain that the Republican party had

destroyed itself that they didn't note that in their own party had become impotent. There will be much to learn going forward; much to learn for all of us on all sides of the fence. Culturally we have been behaving as compulsive and out of control as any individual addict does. And addicts have to hit a bottom before they can make a choice to recover. My hope is that if we are not yet there, we will be soon. We need to to recover from our addictions to power, to control, to the worlds resources and to financial profit above and beyond the concern for all of humanity within and without our borders. We have a lot of waking up to do. Until we realize that we are no longer a planet of separate nations and that every decision each country makes impacts every human (animal and plant) on this fragile assaulted globe we will continue to point fingers and demonize one another. Leonard Cohen is dead. Long ago while we were revolting against the establish in the sixties he had the clarity to point out that the "revolution is within". The world changes as the individual changes and i don't believe ultimately that anything short of individual spiritual awakening will lead to healing future for mankind. Nothing short of embracing our own shadows and shortcomings and consciously working to think and act with loving intentions instead of fear towards any and all who appear different to us, will save our souls..

A WARRIOR'S CREED

I have no home...I make awareness my home.

I have no body...I make endurance my body.

I have no means...I make commitment my means.

I have no magic secrets...I make character my magic secrets.

I have no designs...I make "seizing opportunity" my design.

I have no enemy...I make apathy my enemy.

I have no armor...I make "trust my heart" my armor.

I have no castle...I make integrity my castle.

I have no strategy...I make love my strategy.

I have no tactics..I make spontaneity my tactics.

I have no miracles...I make everything my miracle.

PURSUING HAPPINESS

                                        THE UNENDING PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

  I think it’s unfortunate that we here in the good ol U.S of A. have a holiday designated to remind us once a year to be grateful for all we have and are provided with. I think of the prior Native American cultures and their practice of thanking plants, animals, water, wind, etc. for nurturing and sustaining their lives and those of their families; every day of the year was Thanksgiving.  Their simple acknowledgement of the interconnections between themselves and Earth’s abundant resources providing for them resulted in the ritual expression of gratitude and prayer.

I think the practice of gratitude has far reaching effects on the lives of those who entertain it. I personally was raised with the “glass half empty” perspective and have spent a large part of my adult life letting go of the scarcity point of view and trading it for a “half full” point of view. The one results in a genuine and sustainable happiness, the other in discontent and restlessness. It initially surprised me to learn that gratitude precedes joy and not the other way around.

The pursuit of happiness promised us in the Constitution seems to have become a self fulfilling prophecy. Our culture is indeed addicted to a sense of scarcity and results in an  addiction to consuming more and more. The adage “looking for love in all the wrong places” can be substituted with our futile search for “happiness” in all the wrong places.   We are in fact, addicted and driven by marketing and societal brainwashing to continuously pursue happiness and briefly if ever, obtain it. Usually our happiness is superficial because it comes from a sort of temporary glow over our brand new, upgraded cell phone, laptop, car, shoes, etc. you fill in the blank. These purchases and accumulations don’t really get to the heart of our hearts resulting in the deeper joy and satisfaction we long for.

I have trouble with Christmas itself. The Scrooge is the icon for stingy self- centeredness. The Grinch another American “humbug” character. I wouldn’t be surprised if the origin of the Grinch was dreamt up by some marketing executive in a moment of inspiration. Let’s guilt the public into buying gifts for others in the name of generosity of spirit, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you really contemplate it, do you think Christ would be promoting a once a year, buying and giving spree  rather then a continuous generosity born of genuine affection rooted in a daily spirit of love and appreciation?

Are we so consumed by the modern frenzy and speed of life on an average day? Alvin  Toffler wrote “Future Shock” way back in the early sixties. Have we stopped to notice the effects on our own health and well being of others from our over stimulated, compulsive “doing” and manically over-achieving society?  The symptoms of depression and anxiety are seen in our ever growing dependence on pharmaceuticals to mask and manage these symptoms. 

How would life here be different for us all if we began to be satisfied with owning the same car for 8 or ten years? Buying a house just large enough for the size and needs of our families instead of some extravagant castle?  Working only 40 hours a week and leaving ourselves time and energy to spend with our families in activities that nurture our bodies and souls?

Is it time to wake up neighbors? Wake up perhaps and see that the solution to the dilemmas we face economically, environmentally, physically, psychologically and spiritually are driven by our unbalanced manic racing towards “more, better, faster”.  When is enough enough? How is your peace and serenity doing?

Another obvious and fatal result of our frenzied lifestyle in our alleged ”developed nations” is our life threatening addictions like drinking, smoking, lusting and over eating to name just a few. On the other end of our dis-ease we are greeted by debilitating and/or fatal afflictions such as heart attacks, cancer and the myriad forms of illness that all to some degree or another suffer from. 

We are the only animals on this planet that do harm to ourselves, that knowingly practice unhealthy behaviors. How bad do things have to get for us all before we are willing to collectively stop, and take a united and realistic assessment of how our behaviors, beliefs and habitual ways of thinking are driving us toward extinction?  Call me an alarmist or a curmudgeon like Scrooge and keep your head buried in the sand  but if we don’t awaken to our unmindful self defeating actions now, we will continue to pay the price until perhaps we are no longer around to pay at all.

re-edited Nov. 2016.

The American Dream

Somewhere in this patriotic and compulsive pursuit of happiness and other somewhat ambiguous qualities and ideals we Americans seem to have lost the ability to perceive and appreciate simple reality. The American Dream which we have projected upon the entire globe (read; our dream must also be your dream), is just that-a dream, and dreams are not real, nor are they achievable, nor even necessarily desirable.

How appropriate that our politics and politicians have less to do with vision, ethics and leadership than with image management and marketing. How perfect that we now vote for Hollywood actors to be our leaders, governors and presidents; Hollywood, the factory from which all fantasies and dreams are issued.

What does it say about who we have become; that the only qualifications we require from our leaders is that they can look a camera square in the eye and spout rhetoric written by dramatists intended to create a sense of security by mezmorinizing us with a few deft impassioned clichés-commercial hooks, really?

We are already hypnotized, we are asleep on our feet and in the voting booths. We wouldn’t be able to identify the truth when we did hear it because it is impossible to wade through all the fiction that bombards us in the guise of journalism each day. So we end up looking at somebody’s smiling face and deciding from our gut if we believe in this or that guy or gal.

The dream making machinery has come so far; there used to be a warning, “Don’t believe everything you read in print”. Now we have electronic print and words spoken or read still hold sway with enormous power.

Meanwhile…now that so many of us have bought and own the American Dream; now that we have 2.5 children and a 3 car garage and a 4 bedroom home in a clean and safe development with decent schools, why are we still aching for what we thought the dream would fulfill? Why are we not serene and secure? Why are we not satisfied and fulfilled?

What do we really value after all? Ask people what they want and they usually answer, “stuff”. Along with all the stuff we work so hard to obtain comes pills and therapies and divorces to maintain our functioning so we can keep working to get more stuff. Maybe I got the wrong stuff! Now Ill go buy the “right stuff” and this will make me happy and content.

I am addicted to the dream along with most others. I am addicted to what is not real. I am addicted to a promise of happiness, excitement, sexual fulfillment, security, health, family accord. If I just but the right “stuff”. If I drink the right beer I will get laid a lot and with the right car I will feel excited and virile and if I buy some new hair and take Viagra I can have a sustainable romance with my darling wife who just rebuilt her boobs and ass.

There is no room in the American Dream for reality; for who we really are under the clothes and fake body parts and pretigious jobs and cars-the true frightened souls who just don’t feel serene with themselves.

We age and grow old and weak and sickly. We also grow wiser sometimes but America doesn’t value elder wisdom. As our bodies deteriorate we come closer to spirit but America has no need for spirituality. The only prophets valued here are econmic profits. The irony is printed on our coins, “In God we trust”. If the truth were printed on coins it would say, “In this coin, we trust”.

"WHO"?

"WHO"?

who is it that beats this drum?

if you think it is you then

leave this circle,

you are not ready for truth,

who is it that fills these lungs?

if you think it’s you

you do not sit in this circle,

but trapped within yourself,

that beating drum 

within your chest,

that flute played with your breath…

gifts, all gifts..

the drum, the flute, this breath

now this breath too, 

gifts, all gifts,

 each present moment.

who is it that gives you these gifts? 

if you do not know, 

find out!

REMEMBER?

this grand event of sitting still, serene,

grinning lazily while channeling the warmth,

light and joy of simply being alive?

that incredibly gentle loving breeze

that tickles the skin,

the hairs on your arm fluff and flutter

while glee creeps wickedly up your spine..

so delicious!

We look for these things,

these reasons and ways to reconnect

with the wonder that keeps us rising at dawn,

heaving ourselves heavily out of merciful slumber,

resurrecting ourselves and rejoining the mundane routines

of our uncertain beings,

what happens outside of us

and to us

is not of any import at all.

It is all in how we connect

with what is,

it is all in how we see and feel what surrounds us.

What is it that you and I need

that keeps us rising and wandering and wondering?

We seekers of love

lost outside our own throbbing boiling cores,

continue to search and reach outward

for that which is central within us.

We seekers of peace

cry out at the world of grief

that reminds us time and again

that we cannot embrace one another

until we learn to embrace ourselves

completely and finally..

Can I find the promised land

within me?

The uncontested sacred space,

so tranquil and protected

that nothing outside me,

nothing outside us,

can penetrate the boundaries

of the one true sanctuary?

GRIEF

I weep for this world,

I am a part of this world,

I am a part of that small hungry child

on the other side of the world,

At some unconscious level,

I feel the pain of a woman 

whose husband has died to violence,

I weep for her,

I weep for them,

I grieve for us all,

I must grieve for myself.

Some of us feel everything,

We cannot help it,

If you cannot feel the pain of others,

It still affects you,

It still becomes an illness of sorts,

A sense of unease.

There is no solution for the empathetic life.

It is the grieving that opens me to my heart, 

To my compassion for others, 

and in certain hopeless moments,

I touch compassion even for my self. 

CHEERLEADING FOR THE SOUL

CHEERLEADING FOR THE SOUL

For men who fight death daily,

Whose minds are their own worst enemy,

Breathe in an army of Angels,

Fight self loathing barbs

With sweet loving kindness,

Accept first, your ruthless hatred

Of your self

And overwhelm it

With acceptance,

Embrace your meanness tenderly

Forgive it-

It is not you,

It is your sickness,

And the shame that chokes you

Is its way of keeping you sick.

Applaud your smallest victory

And fight this fight continuously,

If your mind will not sleep

You must swing your weary sacred sword

Until your arms fall off,

And then continuing swinging

With the relentless beat

Of your loving heart.

Stand up alone in the deepest center

Of your truest self

And scream at the top

Of your breathing lungs,

“You will not win!”

“Intruder, phantom, liar, fake!

Get out, get out, get out!!”

My true life loving self

Demands to love the birdsong.

All the divine sounds

That beauty sends to bless me

Sound like noise

When I am trying to save myself with thinking.

Someone else’s music,

Children’s laughter,

Riotous bird song and whistle,

“I can not hear myself think!”

And you banish the beauty from your life

And secure the sickness even more.

Still Spirit continues to whistle to you

Through one insistent bird

Who loves you far more

Than you love yourself.

Wake up soul baby,

Wake up soldier of love,

Wake up and grasp life

And breath in beauty-

Pull it deeply in,

Make room,

Throw out

All the struggling

And suffering;

ideas of who you think you ought to be..

Your thoughts are wrong,

Your thoughts are lies,

You are not who

You think you are,

You are so much more,

Now stop

And let a quiet tear

Of grief

Roll down your sweet

Deserving cheek

Relax

And fight no more

Surrender

Lay down your arms

Give up

Be still,

Weep for your defeat

And let what comes arrive.

Wail and cry

Let die

This tiny little “I”

Be brave

Let go

Who knows

What love may come to fill the place

Your forgiving heart

Has just erased.

Have faith

Sweet child,

Have faith.

Otter

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