Maybe We Don't Want An Answer

Hello, I am back, but that doesn't matter.  I have been going through my own journey and you have been going through yours.  Sometimes we pause, and sometimes the larger questions seem to be completely without an answer, because frankly, no one wants to be 'told' anything.  In the beginning, there was Joseph Campbell's words that seemed to urge me on the "fool's staircase", venturing into an unknown world to discover for myself, that beliefs were created by others, but what my life's business was to find my own essence.  I wondered if I had put my faith in a man-made God or if there was a real one out there that was beyond any book ever written.  What about our myths?  Was Zeus real?  What about the Gods and Goddesses?  Where the hell did they come from?  When did men not need the gods?  Why do we keep looking for saviours?  Why do we keep looking for villains?  Do we still need this duality?  

So, I have been thinking a lot.  I have been doing a lot, but that's for a later time.  I went to a further question, perhaps one that will threaten a lot of people who hold positions in society.  Do we need the 'expert' anymore?  As this age matures, we really do have the power to learn every and anything, on our own.  Teachers won't like to be told that, but if we have the holy grail of information and technology at our hands, we do have the capacity to self-learn.  The most important grades will be at the lower levels where information acquisition and problem solving foundations are laid.  Yes, this is speculation, but if for a moment, we can set aside our fears and grasping for importance, there will be a time when we have an advisor to guide us through information.  If teachers are honest, they are just guides, and not the all knowing subject matter experts as information changes in our flow of time.  

My point is, not a one of us, in our heart of hearts wants to be told what is reality.  We are born into this one act play and we can't leave the stage until we have our death scene.  There is no rehearsal, there are no practice shots or 'do-overs'.   An apprenticeship to live that comes without degree or honors, it's only in the doing that we go forward.  

I was under the illusion that my journey was over.  If I was to try to pinpoint where I am on this chart, well, I would say that I have been all over the place.  We all are going through this journey.  Actually, when you think about life this way, doesn't it make it more real?  Every day, you wake up, in your day and age, to answer your inner call.  Initially, you make reject the call over and over again, until one day....you do something different.  Perhaps it's an act of kindness.  Perhaps you say something you have been holding back.  Perhaps, in a foolish moment of courage you do something that makes you a superhero.  Whatever it is, suddenly, you realize that returning to 'business as usual' is not going to work anymore.  

You know, sometimes, you wind up losing what you need to lose in order to have what you need to have.  You wind up trusting something bigger than yourself and you don't know how it happened.  You suddenly believed again, quite possibly at the biggest moment of a crisis of faith.  Or maybe what happened is you began to realize that no book can tell you how your life is supposed to be.  No book can live your life FOR you.  

There have been many sages, prophets, wise men, geniuses throughout the ages that merely discovered what was already there.  They could see it.  They found a new calling, to make others see what the world was blind to.  How many have said, "you can't think that way, it's crazy?"  No one has done it before!  Our limitations exist for what reason?  The laws of science say gravity holds everything in place, so we can't fly, so we found a different way.  We can't stay underwater, so we found a different way.  We can't breathe in space, so we found a different way.  We can't change time...

So we find a different way.  We change now.  Whenever there is a limiting factor in your life, remember this chart.  Where are you at in your Hero's Journey?  I look at it all of the time, because somehow, it gave my life some importance.  That I would be significant enough to matter in this world.  We all matter.  It only takes a moment to change in a person's life.  It's like love.  That intangible that hits you.  You make a choice to pursue or to retreat in a split second when you see that person.  You may be destroyed or you may be in for the ride of your life.  You don't know which, but you make a choice.  

Everyday, we are filled with opportunity.  Wherever we go, whatever we do, we should never lose that vision.  If we are getting presented with the same questions every day, we have to be prepared to give the answer ourselves.  No one should speak for you or me.  Discoveries...are only real when we make them.  Maybe we might know who we are and what we want if we take these journeys.

Facing what have we been afraid of

"We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive."  

Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior 

It's been a journey around the world to find that often we come right back to what we were afraid of all along.  There have been so many arrows of fear shot through us, at times, wondering deep inside what was it?  When you sit down and actually make a list of all of those things, it all seems to go right back to our responses to things.  Some people fear being needed.  For others, it has been about who is trying to have control over their lives, their thoughts, feelings, and self expression.  For others, the fear of having to move on with their careers, jobs, relationships, homes, cars, and cares. 

For many, just the thought of trying to hold on to what they have has caused their worlds to collapse all around them.  They consider the tool of money to be the most important thing in their life, giving all of their power over to a tool to make it some sort of 'god' in their life.  The mortgages, taxes, tuition, tolls, and consumer mentality to buy 'happiness'.  The more money you have, the happier you are supposed to be.  When money is given such status in society, in lives, friendships, religions (tithes and offerings anyone?), governments (taxations), and the bling of life, what does that really say about society? 

There are people who just want to see it all burn.  A lot of people who want to see a change but feel powerless to do anything about it. There are people who wonder if it ever was worth it all to begin with because they wanted to place their trust in systems that seemed to repeatedly fail them.  Yes, all negative and dark and gloomy for the moment.  We could look at it this way or we could look at it another way. If all of these systems are collapsing all around us, isn't this really an opportunity for people all over the world to create systems that work instead of recreating the same thing?  Many of my friends have talked to me about writing pieces about creating systems that actually don't use money.  It is a scary thing because of the things that have been used around the world, money systems seem to be a measure of exchange that rise up and fall down.  However, they never seem to be 'fair'.  If we look at what is happening all over the world, we see people who have played by the rules.

They did:  Invest, Save, Plan, Take Care of their Families, Give (Look at all of the non-profits that exist), and followed the advice of many experts (look at all of the books, programs, and money gurus that are out there!) that told people where they should put all of their money.  

Many people lost everything they had.  They went according to plan and were wiped out.  Yet, we have this spirit of optimism that somehow it will all work out.  I looked at a movie that was inspired by Orsen Welles, a black comedy of death, by Charlie Chaplin.  No other comedian has ever made such social commentary about things such as poverty, starvation, and dictatorships as Charlie did.  The poor celebrated him because he spoke up and made the invisible people visible to the rest of society that viewed the poor as sheep.  They were caught in a trap of just wanting.  

A friend of mine had written about how America had 'abused the maid' and it was 'time for her to go down'.  He wrote about defending her to his European friends for 30-plus years and now, he was giving up and staying in Europe.  Last time I looked, the world had become a global economy.  A careful domino effect of where we all need each other and currency markets change all of the time because they all rely on one thing and one thing alone.  BELIEF.  We have to believe in these systems.  We have to TRUST in them for them to exist.  Belief, trust and faith are words associated with religions and gods. 

Money was never meant to be an 'entity' as Suze Orman has called money.  The very words of "In God We Trust" is embedded as a statement of fact to support Suze Orman's claim.  There is a lot of anger right now over the hurt of losing everything.  Yet, there are those who are out there creating alternatives and feeding their energy into finally doing what they have wanted to do with their lives.  

So how do we get over our belief?  What ever happened to valuing people?  Whatever happened to the spirit that we had for each other in the west?  I am not trying to simplify things, but it really is telling when we see people gradually get handed their pink slips and see jobs get outsourced all around the world and hear of the exploitation of others, when we fail to realize our own history.  Exploitation of people that happened in Europe and America with the Industrial Revolution where we, had poor people routinely exploited in our factories and mills.  When we, as the people, rose up and demanded that children as young as 5 not be sold into the slavery system of the factories, and the hours and the conditions of our factories grew unbearable, because we had grown used to having 'jobs' to support our lives in previous generations.  We were developing and being studied to improve production and profits and disspirited lives.  The elite studied our ancestors and came up with diagrams to plan out fates and calculations for how long useful workers would last.  Eventually both European nations and America became consumer nations sending factories to South America, Asian countries, Africa, Pacific Island nations and the middle east.  As laws in our countries didn't apply there.  Our ancestors died and history was altered and not taught about this crucial time.

Yes, the system of work will make you free.  Freedom of the human spirit to actually come into one's own.  The dreams of most are simple.  A home, a family and good health.  We have seen all of those attacked on various fronts, and in a weird twist, it is like seeing Aldus Huxley's Brave New World come to life with the amount of Pharma traffic that has come out, not in the name of wellness, but in profit.  I knew many of my friends that had gone into Pharma sales and all they spoke of was how much money they were making.  This concerned me, because I began to see people that needed pills to avoid the pains of life.  I personally rebelled on several occasions preferring the thoughts in my own head when I had to deal with pain rather than to have them masked.  I grew stronger instead of weaker.  I saw peoples bloated from steroids; dazed from mood altering anti-depressants; and all sorts of cocktails for wide spread cancer treatments.  I had never seen so many sick people who never smoked or drank in their lives.  I have had my own dances with death and preferred to take source medications from nature, possessing enough knowledge and friends to help me when I had my own encounters.  To see that the body can and does heal itself, I became distrustful of hospitals that seemed more interest in finding illnesses and keeping people sick than actually curing them.  The oaths that doctors take are seldom referred to anymore, because that would mean that people would have to come first.  

I was shocked by the outrage over universal healthcare in America.  People saw it as a challenge to freedom and shouted about cost.  In all equations to our universal progress, cost continues to become the ONLY obstacle to ending poverty, clean energy, health, and shelter for all.  We have given money so much power that the rich cling to it and the poor ignore a meal that is handed to them and would rather have the sound of clicking coins in a beggar's bowl (never mind the fact that the meal is worth more than the coins).  

We all know these things instinctively.  We know we can't continue on this way so we have been looking for that mythical 'someone' that has all of the answers.  We don't dare look in the mirror.  We can't stand our own reflection because we think of all of the small businesses we put out of business by going to the mass produced outlets we all know and have frequented because of their low prices.  The thought of paying little for much filled us with greed and we started to accumulate 'stuff'.  Most of the 'stuff' we purchased was not in cash.  No, the 'stuff' was anything and everything we wanted on our shiny plastic credit cards.  The tools were expanded like a long rope that many started to hang themselves with.  Emergency funds and savings accounts shrank, and a new phenomena started to happen, debt living.  Debt living is where people actually were so used to living on credit that their incomes were used to pay their credit cards, utilities, mortgages, and so very little money actually even existed.  We all have sinned.  Debtor clubs rose up trying to deal with this problem that seemingly everyone had.  School loans, just never seemed to be paid down enough.  Again that was called good debt.  

Debt is debt.  Good debt is having no debt.  We forgot the rules of our high school economic courses and slowly but surely the people began to all drink the water.  If everyone is doing it, it becomes the social norm.  Banks were making profits, the economy was artificial, but no one was complaining and it didn't seem like it was going to change any time soon.  

I won't rehash my hatred of numbers, because accountants turned turn coat against many peoples of the world with 'creative' accounting that seemed to spread like a cancer into all sectors.  The lies got bigger, the slush funds fatter and the cats were licking their whiskers as they looked at all of those heavy pension fund accounts.  Greed set into the psyche of our wonderful caretakers.  Argentina was sucked up with it when their accounts went public and people were given personalized accounts to track their individual value.  Citigroup was a huge offender of that public's trust.  Argentina is recovering and it has taken them a long time to get out of the poor house.  

Citigroup advisors have flaunted to their elite investors about how all they had to fear was one lowly problem with the people.  This one problem that at first people didn't understand.  The power of the vote.  Well, what good was the vote anymore if politicians were being placed in power by corporations?  The people scratched their heads.  What power?  The vote?  Why should any corporation be afraid of the people?  

A few years ago, I had mentioned that the American constitution could allow us to break from our union.  People were afraid.  They called me 'unAmerican'.  They were kind of looking at me like I was crazy.  I smiled and said, "Really? How on earth is that crazy?"  Eyes glazed over because we like to have faith in our systems and as time passed more people rose up to spout off about all of these legal injustices without realizing they could end this at anytime they wanted to.

At anytime.

With the succession votes going on around the country, I would say this.  It is about being free again, but also it is a notice for us to really sit down and look at what needs to be created as a unified force and not one of division.  Many good people work for corporations and this is an obstacle of fear.  The more that unemployed rolls rise, the more that they realize they have an actual reason now to fear the people.  Oil companies would lose their power over us at last and we might actually be able to start reconciliation and peaceful programs of exchange globally.  We wouldn't have to be worried about micro-chipping, and we actually might get things included like equality for all.  We would have to look at what makes a citizen.  We would have to identify our strengths, weaknesses, fears, hopes and dreams.  We would have to look at the intentions of laws and perhaps, maybe, just maybe we could stop suing each other, killing each other, using each other for our own self interests.  Perhaps governments would stop taking children from homes.  Perhaps we might actually look at ways to stop being afraid of our neighbors.  Perhaps we would form a more 'perfect' union.  Remembering always that perfection is never a destination, but a journey along the way.

I know some people might view this as radical.  I am not going to lie.  It is radical to take down a god we have all served, because if truth is told.  The idea of what America could be kind of died when credit cards were born.  Tools are meant to be used, not abused.

The people are responsible for their government.  We have to step up and BE the people and responsible for the government now.  To abolish this existing federal government to CHANGE it is precisely what we the people were tasked with if you have watched President Obama's speeches and saw how his actions went counter his words.  There is a difference.  Obama was placed in office by the people.  FOR CHANGE.  President Obama is trying, but he can only do so much.  The Federal Reserve is ABOVE the law.  We can't abolish the Federal Reserve.  We have to abolish the federal government and recreate it in order to create our system.  A system that is of the people, for the people and BY the people.  We have that RIGHT.  

To be afraid to talk about it is to IGNORE our Constitution.  Non violently, we can do this all together. We don't have to have target practice on politicians!!  We don't have to accept that monies from the Federal Reserve are drained into foreign held interests.  We all know this but remain silent waiting for Paul Revere to tell us the British are coming.  Well, we once again have to say that we need and want our freedom.  That is the first step.  Sorting out our economic redevelopment is our next step to restore our people.

Now, here is the great fear.  The great fear is that we will revert to being fat, lazy, dumb Americans.  Well, look in the mirror and actually think about it.  We have got to get our act together because when we HAD prosperity what did we do with it?  Who did we emulate?  Pop stars?  Television stars?  Reality moments?  Game shows?  We gave away our imaginations and decided we just couldn't compete with what was already produced for us on television.  Turn the damn thing off already!  Yes, it is also a tool, but when you just watch and don't create anything, you find yourself having a beer or 12.  (Thank you for that Prisoner moment).  

I think we all have been awake for sometime.  Even if my words are only read by a handful of people, I am NOT the first NOR will I be the last to say these words.  Slavery does not know an age, gender, religion or creed.  Slavery can be anyone and it is simple to see that many will tie this into even America's past use of  slaves.  America is not alone.  Egypt, Isreal, Africa, China, Russia, Europe, South America and it goes on where the wealthy have always employed the use of slavery.  You can be a servant in the house or in the slave quarters.  Slavery is slavery and has always been with humanity.

What we decide to do as a people has to largely depend on the following:

Our love for each other and NOT self interest.

Our belief that we will not abuse our power as a people.

Our unity to realize that we will all have our individual pursuits of happiness, freedom and belief systems which means that in all reality, religions do not serve us, but our individual beliefs are our right.  We should never force our beliefs on any other human.  We all have them and some people are willing to die for what they believe in.  However, we have to acknowledge the fact that not all people will force their beliefs on others.

NOTE:  Having lived in China for the past year, I witnessed NO religious persecution.  Which means people were free to believe whatever they wanted individually, but NOT free to broadcast their beliefs to others to recruit them for whatever purpose there was.  In other words NO Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Christians or Buddhists were persecuted for what they believed.  And NO televised evangelism existed in the nation, which meant that the only thing that was illegal was to try to force your belief system on someone else.  In order to protect religious freedom, a sect has to acknowledge how much blood has been shed over trying to control society.  Freedom is not about control.  People should be able to be free to believe in whatever they like, mythologies do contain lessons along the way, however one size does not fit all.  Our intolerance basically incites the belief that only one perception is the correct one.

The people ultimately have to decide and it takes us all to just look and engage our leadership in a positive way to ask questions about how to have the leadership of all of our states come together.  The people will need to be involved with the process from top to bottom and decide what they want on ALL issues.  

War.  Is it over?  Can we forgive and move on like many other nations are ABLE to?

Nuclear weapons.  How do we deal with them so we can prevent proliferation like Russia had after the wall came down?

Currency.  What do we base it on and how do we get people restored?  

Banking systems.

Farming.

Environment

Handling corporations so we do not wind up with another system where corporate interests takes control of our government ever again and pick us apart like they have been doing.

We have to be ready to do this and fill in our OWN objective or SOMEONE else will do it for us.  We have to refine what the American Dream is.  

Other countries have already taken the lead.  Sudan is just one example.

We have to say this as a people.  We are BIG enough to reorganize a system where the reset button MUST be collectively pushed together.  

Please realize we do have the power and we are in new territory where we actually are in a situation where we are backed into a corner.  Will there be a day when we do not HAVE this right?  Well, if the corporations will have their way, they would rather us engage each other in a civil war and have us kill our OWN people off.  

Don't think its possible?  Germany.  Brundi.  Rwanda.  All nations with differing stories.  In all cases, hate and division were used against the population to starve, divide, and rule and in all cases a piece of paper, called money was used.  So what kind of peaceful future do we want?  What kind of courage does it take to say we need a new beginning?

Well, I have been reading a lot of comments from all over the world and it is a collective need.  It is saner than acting like animals and killing each other.  Can the union be held together?  Now that will be up to all of us to decide.  We also may have to realize there may be some who just can't let go of an old system.  To them, we will have to say, we have to let go.  Each state may have to make a choice OR the states collectively as a UNION could come together and all at once by one popular vote so each voice counted to say, together that we are the people and we need it changed.

It is our country.  This is what liberty and freedom is all about.  Courage.  The courage to act bloodlessly.  The courage to create something better.  Haven't we seen enough of the American nightmare?  We, as a people, have to decide what we need to do.  

Remember, it was the idle words of Marie Antoinette (true or not) that were spread to the masses of, "Let them eat cake." that stirred a public into a blood thirsty mob.  We had better pay attention and listen to the world all around us and to change for the cause of humanity while we can through our rights as defined in our constitutions.  

"Move Along Folks...There's Nothing To See Here"

Going...going...gone.  Another second, minute, hour, day, week, month and year.   Buttons to push.  Teeth to brush and be thankful for.  Hair to comb and a face to wash.  A reflection to look at.  Air to breathe and lungs that expand and collapse.  A body to dress with a message to the outside world.  My biggest decision today...to do or not to do a thing.  It is the choice we make everyday.  A small kitten crying stirs me and I look at the helpless thing who runs off in fear.  It has no knowledge of my intention to help so I have to let it run off.  I can't force my help on it, the poor thing is skin and bones, a new born and afraid of the world.  It was born afraid.

I wonder about this new generation of kids.  They were born afraid too.  They see through the politics and frankly, like I am, they are tired of it.  We realize the media can't be trusted anymore.  So let's start asking the establishment for its due...but perhaps it is time to stop listening.  Frankly it is enough.  Imagine a news report that would start as follows, "There is nothing to report today.  There is no conflict.  All is well.  The world ended its problems and for some odd reason there really seems to be no reason to have conflict.  Experts are baffled by this problem.  They expect the world to be bored to death if we don't start something soon."  

In every story there needs to be a villain and someone to save the day.  We need the villain to assure ourselves that we are good and will make good choices.  We want to be safe.  We need to be aware of the dangers in life so we have a lot of people telling us what could make us sick and kill us, because our mortality is right at the forefront of our thoughts.  Death walks amongst the living in many forms.  We have people who make a living in professions of fear and violence.  We gotta get the bad guy.  We think what we are doing is a public service.  We even extend our fear factories into the afterlife.  How exciting!

Just imagine how bored we will be playing harps and singing praises.  Or, well, then again, we could be continuously devoured by darkness.  Oh hurray!!!  What kind of choices are those?  Who dreams this stuff?  We are told by others...who shared their visions of their expectations of what joy, bliss, hell is.  And we were all told that we HAD to believe them, for they were the only ones capable of getting messages from their god.  Bullshit!  After all it must be the same for each one and since there is absolutely zero risk of being wrong we can keep this game going for a long time and profit from it at the same time.

Take for example this mass speculation that is fueled off of the 17 calendars of prophecy.  We must ascend!  We must transcend!  We must do what exactly?  If I seem to have a 'lower vibration' than you or a 'higher one' than you...or believe this, that or the other kind of dream you pacify yourself with to hide from yourself....yawn.  Sweeping the hair out of my eyes so I can see a bit better...and keeping all of this 'reality' and 'otherspeak' in check...to get people to realize it is time for you to please think.  To ask questions.  To not blindly trust gurus and messiahs.  Let me nudge you for a moment...out of your deep meditative states.  Check your water, your food, you mentality, look at your medications, the amount of electronic input you have...and check one more thing...your brain.  Be careful, people FIGHT for what they believe in, EVEN if those beliefs are based on imagination.  We tie our identities to strongly held beliefs.  That is our greatest mistake, it is our greatest weakness.  We don't trust ourselves.  We trust others.  We trust experts.  We trust teachers, preachers, gods, devils, religions and politicians.  We are patriotic missionary visionaries!  FOLLOW, but never dear one, ever lead.

Why don't people trust themselves anymore?  I thought about this question for a long time.  Why have we given over our voices to 'experts'?  Passively or violently we seem to be somehow pulled to the extremes...trying to figure out how to make this all work.  We WANT to believe someone, in something to justify our actions.  Sometimes we do need to close our eyes and feel the manipulation of our senses and decide to take control of them for ourselves.  Our blood pressure will go down and we might be able to see.  Is it that we don't want to be responsible for our own lives?

I am not trying to convince anyone of anything.  I don't need to save a single person.  You must think for yourself and those that need to shield themselves with a god or a religion might have to ask themselves why.  Why?  Aren't you good enough?  If your creator is perfect, then why are you flawed? But, you didn't know about sin until some adult told you about it...and when you believed the adult, you then sinned.  Isn't that how it works?  We are taught from the beginning to trust and then told to not trust.

One day...without pills, without drama...we might grow up and be brave enough to see, none of this has to be this way.  I don't expect you to change at all.  No, I believe I am responsible for my own life, my own development, and no I really don't care much for any group or guru that needs followers.  That is a fearful place for a lot of people.  When it comes right down to it, you have to teach yourself and let the world teach you as well.


What can you learn from the world?  That is easy.  It just is.  When you realize that part, well, you just keep moving along...there isn't anything to see.  Everyone has a lesson to learn along the way.  No one can do it for you or save you from it.

You just have to be yourself, it may take as long as a lifetime to learn how, but once you are, I believe that is when you are enlightened.   Perhaps you can actually be of some use in this world.  Anything else...well who needs another copy?  We have enough brands posing as people walking around this world, they say they want your love, but really it's just your money they want.  Ah, love...that is another post...it will wait.

We ArE NaKeD uNdEr OuR cLoThEs

Is it really that bad?  Often when people look back on their lives, some of the happiest moments they recall was when they were down and out and had nothing to lose.  They were going in the direction of their dreams and desires and perhaps were a bit 'skint'.  Perhaps they had to get creative and figure out how they could live off of 'impossible' sums of money, but that didn't bother them.  Why?  They just kept going forward, believing that someday they would get the life they wanted.

Years later, people look back, often wishing for those days when they didn't know it all.  Somehow those days seemed to have more magic and made people seem more alive.  It was easier to tell who your real friends were.  No one seemed to be into you for anything they could get out of you, and somehow life seemed to have somehow changed.  Physically, mentally, emotionally or even financially you are at a difference place.  There are people that say they wouldn't want to be 20 again because they didn't know who they were at the time.  A lot of people say they hated the struggles they went through.  Others, though, have that glimmer in their eyes and talk about the adventure it was.

Have you noticed when reading the old biographies of the rich and famous, many of them came up out of 'impossible' circumstances.  Even some of the most powerful people in the world who came into power, seemed to have come up from nowhere, just with a little dream that kept cycling in their heads about how things could be better.  The characteristics of love and gratitude and really caring about others were common threads that ran through these lives.  What makes a person believe they can get past the 'Oh Shit" stage of life?

This really isn't a 'forbidden question', but more of a question of what makes people get out of the ruts they are in.  Do you believe enough in yourself to get to that path, that 'destiny' you have planned for yourself?  At what point do you tell yourself there has to be more?  Is there more?  Do you know?

We all wrestle with these things and it all comes back to really identifying what you want.  Is it just about having a job?  Having money?  Having things?

Or is the right question really about what you can give along the way.  It's easy to destroy our hopes and dreams.  It's easy to feel like we aren't what others want or need...but whoever said that is what we had to be?  The hardest thing for most people to be is exactly who they are and to realize that in order to achieve the dreams they have, it requires an act of faith to keep going.  There will always be people who say you can't do it.

You are the only one who has to say you can.  It's your naked life.

Peace It is possible...isn't it?

In all of my years of studying symbols and myths, I came across this symbol, which is actually the peace symbol, based on the tree of life.  How much do symbols impact us?  Well when you consider that the 'peace' symbol that has been circulating for years actually means death, it kind of resonated with me.  Everyone remembers the Vietnam war protests and just about any war protest that you think about usually results in some form of violence.  The question of the day, that stumps my logic:  How do we equate peace with war? 

Go for a walk sometime.  Look at the world around you.  Really look.  In the cities with our concrete surroundings, perhaps there might be nature surrounding community.  Perhaps there is a park to take a walk in.  Perhaps there is nothing around you for acres and you can actually look up and see the stars at night.  Now just listen.  Silence doesn't exist.  Your heart beats, you breathe, perhaps you can still hear the traffic or the sound of nature.  That is called life.  We don't notice it enough, but right now it feels like we really need to notice life, and what matters.  What really matters is ending all of the games and realizing we need to take care of what is all around us.  Forget about the agendas of others trying to stir up hate and fear.  We need to get to a place of peace within and heal ourselves from our mentality of having to have it all.  There is no way we can digest money if there are no crops.  There is no way we can educate our children if we just teach to a test.  There is no way we can understand each other if we are driven to hate each other.  There is no way any mother, father, wife, brother or sister needs to send someone they love off to fight in wars that are about fear and global domination. 

 

So how do we stop this hate and fear treadmill we are on?  Take a look around you.  You start with you.  Perhaps you need to go into a hall of mirrors and look at yourself.  Do you love yourself enough to start with being at peace with who you are?  Do you really need to control or dominate the people around you?  I thought we were human and doesn't that mean we can reason with each other?  Or are we animals still?  It is amazing what we can create. 

It is only out of fear and greed we destroy.  

Peace is not an expletive, it is a state of being.

The Fear of The Sexual Women

Sex. An electric trigger for some and for others a flood of images overtake the senses when you mention the word.  Is sex a weapon?  Is sex used for manipulation? For power?  Or is it a form of exploration of the limitations of intimacy?  It's elevation or abasement seems to have been riddled through out the ages in art, war, and the control of how societies differ in accepting or rejecting the very act that women have been so central to.  Many people run away from the topic.  Others are told by certain belief systems that to enjoy sex, you are then an unworthy or unholy creature. 

Just the sight of an uncovered woman has been said to cause men to be weak, cause them to take irrational actions in their lives, or worse, cause them to fall into the deepest pits of desire.  All of this self hatred caused by rigid thinking 'flesh', and so I decided to at least address our human nature and wonder why women are the cause of so much scorn amongst the male population.  They want the illusions of innocence and yes, society pushes those illusions to create a false image of what 'love' is.  One myth a lot of women struggled with was the requirement to love the person they were in an intimate relationship with.  The vulnerable nature of sex, for both genders has often been something of a comedy of gymnastic positions that range from the animalistic enjoyment of our physical drives to the depth of human connection interlaced with the depth of a tantric kundalini experience that the west tries to capture from eastern practices.  One might argue that the very suppression of sex inhibits the opening of our root chakra and stagnates our ability to connect all of our energy points within our bodies.  Just give it some thought.  If we deny one part of our body we reject the whole of our being and imprison ourselves.  The church knows this.

However, society seems to take in stride in some cultures an openness about sexuality that stirs the hearts and imaginations of those that indulge their pleasures to the maximum effect.  We study sex, hide it, display it, ignore it or acknowledge that we all are products of a sexual union.  Some are controlled by their appetites and yet others fear the surrender of their body over to another.  Others claim they are free, while others are enslaved by negative attitudes or fear of it.

What I have often observed is an extraordinary massive amount of hatred towards the subject because of fear (family, social, religious).  We tend to fear the discovery and yet be driven by the impulse.   For those who are embarrassed to talk about the subject, we socially engineer through books and movies to know what is or isn't acceptable.  A woman's heart and character are judged by the relationships she establishes, whereas a man, by the number of virgins he deflowers along the way.

And yet we call it ruining a woman's reputation, holding up a virgin as a standard.  Not that there is anything wrong with virginity, but a woman ought to have full knowledge of herself in all aspects before she surrenders herself to an institution like marriage.  We continue to foster this fantasy through our myths and fairy tales.  

There is also the great question as to why the churches chose to elevate money over the nature.  It wasn't out of any sort of divine writings that the Catholic Church chose to abolish the institution of marriage for their priests and nuns.  They made all of the men and women that chose to serve surrender their choice to marry in order to preserve the wealth of the churches, to prevent claims from the children of priests in the 11th century.  It was all a matter of property and power to centralize wealth and authority. 

The denial of human nature (and the need to be touched) manifested itself in numerous sexual problems, and only further created the very problems that exist in the Catholic church.  Sexual abuse of the very people they were sent to minister to and then creating the lies to try to hide the very existence of these problems.  Children and women were the victimized throughout the world.  The endless stream of victim reports has been compared to a witch hunt by the papacy seems laughable in light of the bloody history of the church throughout the ages to deify a man who was just trying to tell people to love others as they loved themselves.

But apparently, no one got the memo, and instead decided to create religions that divided us along the way.  The truth will always be simple, clear and concise.  There is nothing wrong with sex, nothing to fear about it.  We just make it that way and hate the woman who enjoys it.  Just think of it this way gentlemen, wouldn't you rather be in bed with a woman who enjoyed being pleasured by you and giving pleasure to you instead of being afraid of your touch?

Now, we might be getting somewhere...for the sexual union was never meant to be a place of fear, but a place of love.

Be an Agent of Peace

In memory of SSG Lilian Clemons.  For your family, and for your son who looked me in the eyes and asked me if your death was right.  For which I found no words to respond truthfully, so I went to find the truth.  We can only bring about peace by being peace and not fighting for it.  You didn't die in vain, you changed my life.

"And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am"  

-Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls

Alone, I am just one.  Together, we are the voices of many.  We outnumber them.