Allwearesayingis thebook (12) by Jim Walters

All We Are Saying Is . . . by

Jim Walters

The Creator created the People of the Earth into the Land at the beginning of Creation and gave us a way of life. This way of life has been passed down generationtogeneration since the beginning. We are a part of Creation; thus, if we break the Laws of Creation, we destroy ourselves. We, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, have no choice but to follow and uphold the Original Instructions, which sustains the continuity of Life. We recognize our umbilical connection to Mother Earth and understand that she is the source of life, not a resource to be exploited. We speak on behalf of all Creation today, to communicate an urgent message that man has gone too far, placing us in the state of survival. We warned that one day you would not be able to control what you have created. That day is here. This self destructive path has led to the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Gulf oil spill, tar sands devastation, pipeline failures, impacts of carbon dioxide emissions and the destruction of ground water through hydraulic fracking, just to name a few. In addition, these activities continue to cause the deterioration and destruction of sacred places and sacred waters that are vital for Life.

Indigenous Elders and Medicine Peoples Council

Introduction This book began to assemble itself in my mind the morning I was sitting in my library listening to John Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’. Although I’d listened to it many times over the years, this time I actually heard what John was saying. I began to imagine what it would take in order to to bring his words to fruition. Of course imagining is the easy part, but I decided to give it a go and write some of my ideas into a blog and eventually turn it into a book. Well, here it is in three sections . . . each begins with one of the three verses of the song and contains a compilation of essays, quotes and thoughts I had previously written on my blog: jjwaltersblog.wordpress.com.

Contents

1 Imagine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2 Imagine There’s No Heaven . . . . 13 3 Free Your Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 4 Open Your Heart . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 5 Enlightenment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 6 I want To Be Myself . . . . . . . . . . 25 7 Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 8 Hell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 9 Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 10 Ego . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 11 God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 12 Born Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 13 The Way Of An Acorn . . . . . . . .55 14 The Beauty Of Not Knowing . . .59 15 Had We Listened . . . . . . . . . . . 61 16 Spiritual Terrorism . . . . . . . . . . 65 17 Imagine No Country . . . . . . . . . 71 18 Mother Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 19 What Can I Do? . . . . . . . . . . . . .81 20 Free Your Body . . . . . . . . . . . . .85 21 Self Preservation . . . . . . . . . . . 89 22 Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91 23 The American Dream? . . . . . . . 93 24 Can We Handle The Truth? . . . 97 25 Part Two (above) . . . . . . . . . . . 101 26 New World Order . . . . . . . . . . . .105 27 Appalachian Mountaintop Removal . . . 111 28 On Warfare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115 29 Our Ocean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 30 When? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 31 Your Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 32 ShelterWaterFood . . . . . . . . . 135

33 Katrina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 34 Imagine No Possessions . . . . .145 35 Free Your Mind . . . . . . . . . . . .151 36 Follow Your Bliss . . . . . . . . . . 161 37 Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 38 Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167 39 The Corporate Conundrum . . . 169 40 Realist vs Dreamer . . . . . . . . . 173 41 Old Age And Choices . . . . . . . 177 42 A Bunch Of Baboons . . . . . . .183 43 Get Practical . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 44 Get Out Of Debt . . . . . . . . . . .187 45 Attitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191 46 Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195 47 Get A Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .199 48 The American Dream . . . . . . .201 49 American Indian Religion . . . . 205 50 Mom & Pop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 51 The Piano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Section One The Spirit

Imagine All change must first begin by imagining the change in our mind. Then the work of bringing it into the physical realm begins. The daydream one day becomes a reality. Many times the first action we must take is to free our mind from all preconceptions and start over because most of what has been taught us up to that point has proven itself to be bullshit. We begin to realize that over and over again we have been manipulated and trained by forces outside of ourselves. Mostly because of tradition or just plain laziness, we bought into the party line and never allowed ourselves to take a deeper look. We never reached within where the fulness of our potential lies. We just went along to get along. That no longer works for us. It’s time to wake up. I first heard John Lennon sing ‘Imagine’ way back in the sixties. Now that I am 71 years old and exhausted from running on societies rat wheel, the words to that song are taking on new meaning. I’m beginning to see the depth built into that rather simple ballad and realize what a visionary John actually was. John Lennon may some day be forgotten, but the words to that song will resonate forever within the minds of men who are not satisfied with the status quo and feel the tug of evolution upon their soul.

Following are John Lennon’s words to the song, ‘Imagine’ and my interpretation of what they mean to me. I can think of no better way to start this blog then this. . . . Imagine. Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today... Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace... You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world... You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one

Imagine There’s No Heaven Since time began God has been around in one form or another watching us. Depending on when, where, and what age we were born in, we would have received from our elders an entirely different picture of God. What is God anyway? Who is this multifaceted Father of the universe that, while declaring unending love for us, also demands our total worship or else? "It's heaven or hell Bubba, you better get your shit together or hell and damnation is waiting on you!" . . . Yikes! Now I know this stuff helps when a person is a child, but after one reaches maturity little Johnnie should be seeing things a bit clearer than that. It's time for him to drop the blinders and realize HE is the guy responsible for his actions. It's time for him to either fly . . . or crash to the ground. There are no magical formulas, no special alliances . . . only hard work. Man, both singly and corporately, creates his own heaven and burns in his own hell by the way he thinks and the actions he takes in daily life. What happens beyond the grave, nobody knows, but personally I doubt very much Dante's hell exists for any of us. I also highly doubt we will be walking on streets of gold and having lunch with Jesus either . . . John realized that when he wrote: Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try

No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today . . .

In our time, religious warfare has ravaged the planet. People of differing philosophies are killing one another to prove the point that they are the ‘chosen’ of the God of love and peace . . . What's up with that? It’s time we drop the nonsense and begin to realize the oneness we share with the rest of creation . . . flora, fauna, and especially our fellow human beings. It’s time to live in the present, time to fall in love with the entity that created this beautiful universe, not fear HIm. We are ALL chosen . . . We ALL share the gift of life . . . We ALL breathe the same air . . . We ALL are a part of the One. Imagine a world where everybody believed that. John did. You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope some day you'll join us And the world will be as one

Free Your Spirit I will start this segment on the spirit with a story I had previously written: The Tao of Coffee Two scholars spent the better part of an afternoon in a local Portland Starbucks arguing the theories of Evolution versus Creationism. Getting nowhere, they took the advice of the Chinese guy working there and decided to drive to the beach near Astoria to visit a sage named Chung Lee who reputedly had the answers. The following morning they took off for the beach. Upon arrival, they soon found his cottage hidden amongst the coastal dunes. Although the cottage was empty they spotted the old sage not far away sitting on a high dune facing out to sea. After approaching him, the old man turned, directed his eyes upon them and asked, “Where's the coffee?” The two became puzzled. “Sir, One said. We were told you could help us with the greatest philosophical dilemma of our age . . . perhaps even give us some insight into the theories of which we are about to speak.” “Yes, of course.” Chung Lee answered. “But go now, next time you come, bring me a cup of Starbucks 15

coffee, then we will speak of your theories.” Early the following morning they checked out of their motel and returned to the hill. One carried the large cup of Starbucks coffee that he’d purchased in town. After greetings, he handed the old sage the still hot coffee and sat in the sand beside his friend. They both opened their portfolios, each anticipating a quick and decisive victory. Chung Lee, while sipping his coffee, quickly went over each theory. He then handed the papers back, looked out to sea and finished the coffee before he began to speak. “The two theories are mere disciplines, and although seemingly opposing views, upon deeper reflection are one and the same. The difference lies in your interpretation and in your desire to understand the mystery. But alas, the mystery cannot be contained within a theory, so you are both beating your learned heads against a brick wall.” Going on he said. “Each theory is merely a doorway, and theory can never explain the goings on within the room. You need theory to find the doorway, but once opened this very same discipline becomes your stumbling block. Theory will never reveal truth, only the pathway to it. The two looked at each other, excused themselves and walked back to the car.

“This is a wise man?” One asked the other. “”He sends us for coffee, then he comes up with this gibberish?” “Yes, it is strange,” answered Two. “Yet his reputation is such that there has to be something we are missing. Let's give him a chance to prove himself.” The two went back to where the old man was sitting. “Sir, excuse us, but neither one of us understands. What are we missing?” The old man held up the empty cup. “This cup will always contain a mystery, but as you smell of it, sip of it, and enjoy the taste of it, you one day realize you don't really care HOW Starbucks made such a good cup of coffee, you are just glad they did. And thanks be to the mystery, as long as there are people like you seeking to understand it, I will never have to worry about getting my morning cup of coffee.” The old man dismissed them with a smile and returned his gaze to the sea. end This is why religion can never advance us along the pathway any more than it already has for ALL religions become a box at a certain point, and spirit refuses to be contained in a box. Therefore there must come a time when every seeker breaks free from the mold of their religion and begins to follow the long arduous path leading back to

themselves. For in the most simple of terms we are not learning when it comes to the spirit as it resides on it's own . . . we are awakening to it. The learning takes place within the trinity of mind body spirit as trinity seeks to manifest that which the spirit already knows. Sounds complicated, but really it isn't, it's just that words can't convey the mystery of God all that well . . . but kindness can.. . empathy can . . . love can . . .

Open Your Heart Everybody at some time in their life has a moment of truth, a life changing experience where they begin to see things differently than before it happened. Sometimes it is a huge catastrophic event, while others it may result from the simplest of things. I have had a few monster awakenings in my rather chaotic life, but the following is way strange for a guy like me, at least for the guy that I perhaps pretended to be. . . . . . . . . . . The housing project where I was born and raised sat on the tough side of town. If my dog died, if the big kid next door punched me in the nose, if practically anything happened to me I never cried, and if I did I made sure I was alone because cry babies in the projects were guaranteed to be at the bottom of the pecking order. I don’t know how it worked for others who have had one, but my first ‘awareness’ breakthrough came during the winter of 1968. A couple of us guys were sitting in the local bar one evening when we decided to drive on down to the country the following morning and hunt up some rabbits. we’d done pretty much the same thing every year we could get together since high school. Early morning came in cold and there was snow on the ground, perfect hunting weather. We packed up Tom’s old Ford with guns and a couple six packs and off we went down the back road to the farm where we always 19

hunted. Tom parked off the road. I grabbed my four ten out of the trucks cap and since I preferred hunting in total quiet, I showed the guys my heading and wandered off into the snow alone. I worked my way down one small hill, walked the ravine for a while and started up a larger hill on the other side. At the top I entered a cluster of naked trees and stopped. There were a few tracks in the snow, but everything was holed up and not moving much in the cold. I spotted a large brush pile with fresh tracks around it so I snuck up and kicked at it real good. There was a faint rustle on the other side and out popped a rabbit running hard and zig zagging across the small clearing. Aim . . . squeeze . . . BLAM! . . . YES! I ran up to the wounded rabbit that was lying on his side in a patch of reddening snow. Watched him kicking away in circles. Watched him slow down. Watched him give a few short shudders and stop. Watched as the brightness faded from his eyes. What the . . . ?! Huge crocodile tears streamed down my face. Sniff, Sniff . . . . I’m crying! What are the guys going to say if they find me standing here crying like a baby over a dumb ass rabbit! I’m a veteran for God's sake! A year or so ago I had been

stomping through Asian jungle in the Airborne Infantry. I am a lean, mean, crazy ass killing machine! What’s up with these tears? I worked hard at it, but finally quenched the sobbing and regained my composure. I picked up the rabbit and returned to the car. The other guys were already there pissing and moaning about how it was too cold to hunt. “You guys are a bunch of sissies,” I chided in my best macho. “Look at this!” I pulled the rabbit out of my pouch and showed them before I stashed my weapon and got into the truck. I may have bragged about that rabbit on the way home, but in these forty some odd years later I never went hunting again. The thrill of killing died alongside the rabbit that day. Good riddance. Although it took many years to fully blossom, that cold winter day had been the beginning of when my heart thawed and I began to realize a connection to the Earth far greater than I imagined there ever was. Since then I have changed my viewpoint about many things, and completely about the animals. In the school of life, I had graduated from conqueror to caretaker. Today I live in the middle of a couple thousand acres of Eastern forest where I spend a lot of time in the woods observing and trying to communicate with the many critters on my property. We feed the birds, leave brush piles for the small

critters and don’t mess with the deer and turkeys. If you saw me talking to a squirrel you might believe I am just a crazy old man with a white beard who’s gone off the edge. In my world I am having a great time walking the path I've created for myself. When I am angry or stressed out or even sick I go to the woods and I talk to my friends. Many times I come home healed. I understand reality though, the day I stumbled onto a baby rattle snake I didn't try to pet it, but neither did I hack it to pieces. I merely left it alone. The snake is as important to the ecosystem as I am, probably more so. Why kill it? Being at one with the animals is quite easy for me, but that is only one step in this ‘awareness’ evolution. I admit to having a much harder time connecting with my own species . . . people aren't so easy to understand.

Enlightenment If a true and lasting change must begin from within then what must we do to be changed? Do we find a Bodhi tree to sit under and meditate like the Buddha until it happens? Should we enroll in divinity school? Learn the proper incantations and rituals? What? We want to change, we're ready to go, but we need some direction. When I was a Christian I heard a lot about being born again. What does it mean to be born again? Does it mean to worship Jesus as savior of the world, get baptized, follow church doctrine, and do what the elders and self professed prophets tell you? Jesus may have been our teacher . . . or the Buddha . . . or Mohammad . . . or Moses . . . or the Hindu Veda . . . but isn’t the goal of any good teacher to teach? Doesn't their greatest joy come from watching us activate what they taught us? So what good does it do us to merely sit at teacher's feet and worship him? Are we not playing the pawn in the game of religion, when we were born to be the King? The process to being born again, enlightened, awakened, all mean pretty much the same thing. It appears to us individually and in various degrees. It began for me when I started to realize that this entire planet is a teaching tool for us, that we are NOT a body 23

containing a spirit . . . but we ARE a spirit in possession of a body. Our goal in life is to learn. Mostly through experience and the process of trial and error. The only boundaries we have in this process are the ones we have placed upon ourselves. Once awakened and we begin to realize our full potential, the trappings of this world lose their flavor as they are replaced by the desire for growth. We also realize this awakening is only the beginning of a very long journey, one that we are now excited to begin. The pathway to enlightenment has no magic, nor any short cuts. It’s a tough and grueling climb, but the view from the top of the mountain will have been worth it once we realize the truth that we have only been an individual in the flesh. That in the spiritual reality, not only are we our brothers keeper, but we are Spirit one and the same and always have been.

To Be Myself . . . But Who Am I? Recently I read a story about a women who had a near death experience. She died of cancer, went over, came back healed and now tells her story about it. She says above all else just be yourself. You are perfect just the way you are . . . the only judgement from the other side is that which you lay upon yourself . . . that's it . . . just be yourself. Her name is Anita Moorjani if you're interested. I want to be myself. . . but who am I? Am I the tough kid who was born in a housing project that learned to fight and to trust nobody except my friends by the time I was tall enough to reach the doorknob and escape from the hellhole called family? . . . no Am I the kid who grew up wanting to be an athlete but never made it beyond a third place finish? . . . no Am I the bad student who had a 130 IQ but always had his girlfriend do his homework for him and who loved to cheat on tests? . . . no Am I the lean mean airborne fighting machine who spent two years roaming Asia for God and country? . . . no, hell no! . . . that's why I become a government hater and a wanna be peace maker. Am I a peace maker? . . . no I was just another drug taker . . . 25

Am I a good born again Christian? No . . . I tried, but that thought died when I learned they lied. . . that's how I became a religion hater (I think Jesus is too, actually) Am I a wilderness wanderer who loved to go it alone in the Alaskan wilderness? . . . sorta . . . but I enjoyed coming in out of the cold . . . and pizza . . . and beer . . . and a women's soft body . . . too much What about a poet? . . . nahh Artist? . . . Musician? . . . Writer? . . . none of the above What the hell! Who am I? Well . . . I actually know the answer to that question. I AM the king of the world . . . and I am having one hell of a great time trying on all these uniforms. Isn't that what we ALL are doing?

Heaven I live in a small valley surrounded by wooded hills and deep beauty. Over the years I have grown used to the quiet tranquility of this place, but this morning as I walked the dogs I viewed it for what it actually could become. I walked down my drive and onto the narrow country road like I do every morning. The dogs peed on their favorite spots like they always do. We all started our two mile walk like we always do . . . but halfway down the lane I had what some may call a vision. As I walked through the area where large trees from either side of the lane touched one another, I looked up into the contrast between dark shade and bright sun and I thought, 'what could be more beautiful than this planet? Heaven? Not any future heaven I ever heard of could compete with what I have right here, right now.' This earth as far as beauty goes is all I need. The religious go on about a jeweled city with streets paved in gold . . . or 40 virgins . . . or plenty of food . . . or all sorts of other things. It seems they always want in their heaven the things they wish they had here. But for me? No thanks, I have the idea that I am in my heaven already. I am right where I belong . . . and this is where, as I travel through the revolving door of time and bodies, I will myself to be spending eternity. Now of course, the earth and nature as we know it is far from perfect, but then so are we far from perfect. The 27

cities are full of filth and mayhem. That beautiful wilderness area you visualize visiting is in reality a bug and snake infested world that can kill you a zillion ways. Beneath the serenity, lies the chaos in every aspect of every place on this planet, a guy would be nuts to claim this place as heaven . . . right? What if this whole creation we call home is responding to the law of duality because of us? What if we are so out of balance our planet is also? Can it be that the earth is not just a pile of rocks, but something more? Perhaps something much more than we can even fathom? The Christian bible says the whole creation groans in travail awaiting the manifestation of the sons of God . . . isn't that us? Can it be the earth is waiting for us to awaken so it can follow suit? The bible also says . . . in those days the lion shall lay down with the lamb and the child shall sit upon the hole of the asp and not be harmed . . . practically every prophet who has ever been quoted from the Christian, to the American Indian, to Buddha, to the elder prophets from practically every indigenous tribe in the world all seem to be saying the same thing . . . one day the earth will be perfected, but we, it's designated caretaker, must lead the way . . . We must be the first to evolve beyond duality and begin to realize God no longer as an individual, but as a state of being. We need to realize that the earth and all it's various life forms are waiting for us to set them free. It's

up to us to create the kingdom of Heaven right here on this earth. I know duality is a somewhat nebulous word that gets tossed around a lot, but basically it is just the opposite of whatever we are focused upon at the moment, it's the second terminal on the battery + , white/black, hot/cold, love/hate, joy/sorrow, yin/yang, etc. . . . (This is where it is really easy to get all ethereal and start spouting lots of new age conjecture, something I hope I am not doing) but I will give one simple explanation more and be done with it. Love as an emotion is locked into the law of duality with hate, they are different sides of the same coin. Being freed from duality the coin of love would be love/love. No matter which way it was flipped love would reveal itself . . . This coin would have evolved into 'oneness' and that may just be the next step in our evolution. This is what I mean when I say seeing God as an individual and not a state of being. When viewed as an individual this entity is locked into duality . . . God is love . . . God is hate. Therefore we live in fear of Gods wrath and do all sorts of crazy things to appease Him. All our lives, in every culture on Earth, this is how it has been done. Free God from duality and He becomes a state of being . . . God is love, period. We become one with Him, with Creation, with each other.

We will do this, but it must take place one person at a time until the law of duality weakens and the balance shifts towards an understanding of 'oneness'.

Hell I gotta wonder, how in the hell did we ever come up with this idea anyway? Why do we take such nonsense as our truth to begin with? I mean really, isn't this whole "accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior or spend eternity in hell" a bit lame when you research the scriptures from where all this stuff comes from? Now Jesus was a great teacher, perhaps even the greatest, but he was a TEACHER . . . and what greater gift can you give a teacher than to get an A on his test? He don't need you groveling at his feet he does need you to learn your lessons. Do your homework dammit! What kind of heavenly father would throw his kids into a dungeon and torture them for all eternity just because they didn't give him the respect he thought he deserved? My sons don't give me much respect, but I love them anyway and certainly would not punish them for it. Doesn't that make me more empathetic than God? So what happened? What changed God from a loving, nurturing creator into Moloch and his sacrificial fires? What made the god of love, mercy and grace turn upon His creation just when they needed Him the most? Well to begin with, a guy named Dante decided to paint a really horrible picture of fire, burning, and people screaming called his Inferno. This was his depiction of 31

what suffering in hell would be like to the unsaved. The Catholic Church liked the painting so much they thought, "wow this is a great way to get more converts, lets just scare the shit out of them and they will come marching down the isle in droves". And they did. And they still do. And they probably will continue to do so until someone or something unplugs their fear response and stops them. One question: Do we really need A savior . . . or do we really need to BE a savior? I have a brother in law who is dying from cancer at this moment. He has weeks to live. You know what his son who visits him once a week at the nursing home is telling him? This good, solid, southern Baptist Christian man is telling him he is going to go to hell because he was a drunk. He will get what he deserves. He actually says he loves this man. . . . How ridiculously stupid is that? I hear this shit I fear for the human race. We brag about our intellectualism and we get all cocky and proud as we strut about with a blue tooth stuck in our ear. We might as well be sitting in a cave hovered over a fire to ward off the enemies, that we fear will come in the night to kill and eat us. We are three piece suited aborigines, not far removed from the stone age when we believe this nonsense. Anyways this lake of fire stuff is bullshit, even the bible states pretty clearly that hell is the absence of the presence of God. So hell is actually depicted more like

being on the outside looking in. I don't even buy that one, but at least it gets us out of the fire and brimstone. I can not personally imagine a place where God was not present as He encompasses His entire creation. Hell is a human creation. Another question: Has God created us in HIS image . . . or have we created God in OUR image? Regardless, what takes place on the other side of life is probably so much different than ALL of us suppose that the best thing we can do IMO is to stick to this side. I am a firm believer that the earth and all matter is the physical image to a spiritual reality. All that means is that what is over there is also over here in the physical realm (like on the spiritual side lives the writer on this side the play is ongoing.) Kinda woo woo I know but there is definitely a connection between there and here and who can say that what we do here doesn't effect things over there? I think it does and this is my concern. YOU greedy, mentally deficient, knuckle dragging, money grubbing assholes are ruining my heaven by turning it into a junk yard. You are killing my oceans, the womb of creation, you are poisoning the water ways I drink from, you are poisoning the food I eat and the air I breathe, as well as things I don't even know about (and I am one of you which makes me really sad). . . all in the name of progress and profit. Profit for what? So you can have bragging rights to what? A bigger house, a faster car, a big screen TV? . .

. holy shit how ignorant is that when you can only sit in one room at a time, and only drive the speed limit, or watch Miley twerk her bony little ass on your fancy TV?. . . . And we honor you guys and your jets and your towers as if you are mini gods. "Oh if only I win the lottery I can be like the Donald"? . . . Ahhhh!! WTF is wrong with us? Have you gone begging to Jesus so you won't have to go to hell? Do you feel good about yourself cause you made it to the land of the faithful? GREAT . . . who cares? If licking a rock makes you feel good, do it. but PLEASE for Christs sake quit turning my heaven into your hell. My curse on all the people who are involved in this (and that mean most of us) is that we will have to come right back here and live in the filthy hole environment we have created, because as Joni Mitchell sang: They paved paradise Put up a parking lot With a pink hotel, a boutique And a swinging hot spot Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got till it's gone? They paved paradise Put up a parking lot They took all the trees Put 'em in a tree museum And they charged the people A dollar and a half just to see 'em

Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got till it's gone? They paved paradise Put up a parking lot Hey farmer, farmer Put away the DDT now Give me spots on my apples But leave me the birds and the bees, please Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got till it's gone? They paved paradise Put up a parking lot.

Creativity I am a creator. We all are. I create my tomorrows by acting upon the thoughts I have today. We all do. Creativity begins with a thought. Perhaps the universe was created in the same manner? In the beginning the creator/artist had a thought. Following the thought came a vision of the work in the artists mind. Following the vision came the gathering of materials. Following the gathering of materials came the process of creating. Following the process of creating came the actual creation. Whether the universe or a landscape painting it is the same process. What about the creator/artist? 37

Does he not reveal himself through His creation? How better to understand Renoir than to study one of his works. How better to understand God than to study His works? Only a criminal fool would destroy Renoir's Dance At Bougival. And yet man seemingly has no problem at all when it comes to destroying the mother of all beauty. The Mission If God sent Man out to search and destroy Then everything else makes sense. If Odin be He and warriors be we And He cared not the consequence. Then we well trained elite have skipped not a beat As we've ravaged and subdued the land. Turning flora to mud and fauna to crud We've met and exceeded God Odin’s demand. But what if this God that we cherish Were the artist who’d just done His best Not merely a fable that makes us not able To see the great danger in soiling His nest?

Ego During my Christian period in the seventies I belonged to one of the many charismatic movements of the day. We called ourselves the 'End Time Move of God.' Our doctrine was quite similar to the more established Pentecostal Church. Our main message was 'death to self'. The means to doing this was to physically remove ourselves from society and move to a remote wilderness where we would all live in communal bliss until we became at one with God and with each other. . . wow man . . . heady stuff for me at the time. Well, to make a long story short, it didn't work folks. It didn't work for our group, and it won't work for your group, whether Christian or not, either. To drop the ego and become one with the universe . . . or God . . . or anything else. is ethereal gumbo, it's bullshit. "Ego" is a Latin and Greek (ἑγώ) word meaning "I", often used in English to mean the "self", "identity" or other related concepts. The only way to kill the ego and accomplish death to self is the old fashioned way of committing suicide and getting your ass planted into the ground. So when you hear that your ego stands between you and God be forewarned. There are many religions/philosophies these days that advocate 'death to self' as if self is what is holding back your absorption into the oneness of creation. 39

You/I/me/we are not the problem. We are individuals for sure, but we were created individual for a purpose. We are unique in our gifts as well as our looks for a purpose. We are wonderful just the way we are. Ego is not the problem for us, false thinking brought about by listening to false teachers who don't know what they are talking about is. A teachers job is to help you through the process of realization, anything else, anybody else who places themselves between you and God is egotism on their part. If you hear the words, "God told me to tell you" . . . run the other way. Egotism is the feeling or belief that you are better, more important, more talented, etc., than other people . . . this is ignorance and this where the confusion comes in. Egotism is not at all the fullness of ego, it is merely the negative side of ego. Everything a healthy brain needs to know is programmed into the subconscious mind at birth. It's instinctual, like all animals. What makes things different for us humans is that we have a 'choose' button. Don't give control of that button to another person, use it to make the right decisions for yourself based upon love, mercy, grace, and kindness. It's our job and our responsibility to manifest the positive side of the ego, no one else's. First, we must learn to love ourselves and we must begin to realize what a powerful spiritual entity we are.

I AM . . . you're not! = egotism. I AM . . . and so are you . . . and so are we all = individuality molded into oneness . . . the drop of water recognizing the pond from which it came . . . the person reveling in his individuality while in realization that he/she is one string in this beautiful tapestry called life. This our mission . . . to remain the individual ego while at the same time being aware that we, as well as all other life forms, are one and the same. We live within a time frame while on this earth. Why waste that time trying to free ourselves from ego when as individuals we can relish, and enjoy, and learn, and experience, all that life has to offer? Why not jump into the river of life and swim instead?

God Since time began God has been around in one form or another. Depending on when, where, and what age you were born in, you would have received from your elders an entirely different picture of Him . . . Who is God anyway? This entity with the many names and personalities, this multifaceted Father of the Universe, this Creator declaring His love, yet demanding our worship or else. In our time, religious warfare has ravaged the planet. People of differing philosophies are killing one another to prove the point that they are the ‘chosen’ of the God of love and peace . . . What gives? Say you were born in the US to Baptist Christian parents. Now, there were others in your town such as the Catholics, Protestants, Pentecostals, etc. who were also Christians, but the others were only privy to part of the truth, your parents taught you that the Baptists had it all. They were the ‘chosen’, above the rest of the ‘chosen’, who were chosen above the other religions because they all held at least one truth in common, Jesus the Christ. The other guys, those religions and individuals that didn’t acknowledge Jesus as Lord, weren’t even in the running to be considered ‘chosen’. Pretty confusing to a kid, but after a few years of brainwashing, you took your place in the church, 43

accepted “it’s” version of the bible to be God’s holy word, learned your preachers denominational interpretation of all doctrinal issues such as ‘heaven and hell’ and thanked God for choosing you from amongst the billions of earthlings to reveal His truth to. Is there something wrong here? I grew up as a Protestant, but never thought much of it. My only remembrance of church was how I hated to get dressed up on Sunday and go. Jesus was just a sissy looking guy with long brown hair who got himself hung on a cross for some reason I couldn't quite understand. It was much later in life, after the army, after the free love ‘hippie’ days, that I began to give any serious thought to God. I had a bad experience on drugs one night with a Ouigi Board that scared me enough to seek some spiritual help. I asked an old guy in the neighborhood about God and he sent me down the street to the Pentecostal Church. This was where my religious adventure began. Born again, Spirit filled, tongue talking, hell and damnation preaching, loud praising, song singing, Pentecostalism. Years later, living a secluded life on a Christian communal farm, I began to wonder. I began to get an uneasy feeling about the whole thing and I left. I stopped listening to what people had to tell me about God and decided to risk hell fire and damnation and get to know Him on my own. No bible, no Jesus, no nothing. It was time to lay aside fear of backsliding, fear

of leaving the Church, and fear of everything else having to do with the Christian faith. I began to read other philosophies, especially Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, and American Indian thought. Soon, I put these aside also and took a walk in the woods. At first I found it difficult to deliver myself from years of religious conditioning, but as time went by, it became easier. I began to peek into forbidden areas, and began to make choices. I thought about Jesus, about the necessity for salvation, and about sin, and hell, and death . . . and I thought about God,the creator of it all. Today Jesus still has a role to play in my life, but not as a savior. Although I no longer worship him, I honor him as a great teacher, perhaps the greatest. His recorded life is an example of what life expects of me, and his sacrifices are deeply appreciated. He was a teacher who revealed through his nature, what I could become if I chose to follow his lead. If he was the savior of the world, just believing in him didn’t seem to make much sense. I can believe my math teacher is the greatest teacher on earth, but if I fail to learn what he has to teach, what does that make me? . . . a worshiper. If I absorb his teachings, I take him with me as I go into the world to become a teacher in my own right.

He will always be the Master and I his student, but as I build upon his foundation, it will no longer be necessary to sit at his feet. I will have taken on a mission of my own. All religions seem to have a fuzzy image of God, He’s called a trinity in Christian philosophy. He’s the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Kind of confusing. Other sects and religions have other names for Him, but none really pins Him down. He is the great I AM . . . and He doesn’t fit well into anybody’s preconceived box. I needed a deeper understanding of Him than what religious teaching had for me, so I took a walk in the woods. . . and there I met Him face to face. Simply put, God is not an individual entity, God is a state of being. Everything that lives, either animal, vegetable, or mineral is a part of God. He’s you, He’s me, the dog, the fly, and the leaf in the tree. We are surrounded by and engulfed in His omnipotence. We are Him, His breath is what keeps us upright, the flesh He created is but a vehicle to contain His presence. We are drops of water originating from the same wave. We appear for but a moment, make a flash in the sun and reenter. We are nothing . . . and yet we are everything. We, as the highest evolution of His person, have the power to choose, therefore we are creators in our own

right. As far as I know, we are the only life form having the ability to choose and to create according to our whim. We create our tomorrows by the thoughts and actions we take today, both individually and collectively. God didn’t create this chaos we live in, we did. Instead of ignoring negativity, we embraced it and made a place for it in our world. By doing so, we have created a state of dualism. Positivity/Negativity are battling for dominion and it seems the latter is in the lead. It will continue to grow, nothings going to stop it until, we as a whole, stop struggling to be amongst the ‘chosen’ and get down to the business of being our brothers keeper. I’ve often wondered why we were given this ability and can only figure that God/Life is also evolving. That nothing is stagnate, but forever growing, even God. Where are we going? Well, that remains to be seen. I don’t have a clue, but I’m convinced the teachings of Jesus, as well as others, are paths leading us to the next step in our evolution. Today I see God everywhere, but especially when I’m alone walking in the woods out of the earshot of men and their constant jabbering. Walk softly upon the Earth and you will hear His still, small voice quietly floating upon the breeze. Study the miracle within an acorn. Listen to what He has to say concerning the joy of simply being a part of it all, as well as to the futility involved in claiming personal ownership

to any of it.

Born Again . . . Or Brainwashed Again? My fatherinlaw was the only religious person I knew at the time I decided to go to church so I asked him for recommendations. “Well, Jim if it were me I’d go to that Apostolic Church down by Timkens. They say that preacher Bob is a real fire and brimstone Holy Ghost filled man of God. That’s where I’d go.” Austin was a true West Virginia hillbilly and proud of it. He was also the only father I had ever known so I accepted his recommendation without question, even if I didn't understand any of his religious jargon. Fire and brimstone? Holy Ghost? What the hell is that about? The following Sunday I drove to the tough side of town and found the small white church. I walked in, carefully checked out the scene, and sat in a pew by myself near the back so I could bolt if I wanted to. The place looked like it could hold about a hundred max and it was half empty so I’d say there was about fortyfive people there. They were all down front chatting it up when Pastor Smith walked in the back door and started to sing, “Jesus is the sweetest name I knowww, and he’s just the same, asss his holy name . . . “ He made his way to the small stage and stood before the podium and continued to sing his song until he was finished. He then welcomed everybody and chatted a bit about church stuff before opening his bible. Once that 49

bible opened though, things got serious. He read from it for a few minutes, found a phrase he particularly seemed to like and off he went on a long, verbal tirade. He mentioned Jesus a lot . . . and being born again . . . and sin . . . and hell . . . and death . . . and resurrection . . . and the baptism of the holy ghost . . . and speaking in tongues (huh?) . . . and being saved . . . and coming down to the altar . . . and all sorts of other stuff. At the end of his preaching he had what he called an ‘altar call.’ This was where he sang, cajoled, and pleaded for anyone who wanted to be saved to come down to the altar, get on their knees and meet Jesus. Since I was probably the only new guy in the church I figured it was all for me. I went. Brother Smith was there waiting for me. He directed me to kneel before the altar, which I did, and proceeded to pray over me about receiving Jesus into my heart, which I think I did. I may have even shed a tear or two while doing it. I was there for quite a while, but when I got up the congregation gathered around me and hugged me and said nice words to me and . . . I was hooked. At the next meeting I was baptized by total immersion in a freezing cold cement tub that Brother Bob had made himself in the corner of the church basement. I came out of that water a blue, half frozen newly born son of God . . . whoopie! I had arrived.

This world of warm smiles and soft hugs drew me in like a bug to a spotlight. My heart was filled with Jesus and I was loving it! Brother Bob took me under his wings and for a while all was well with the world. Then the rule book opened and it's many laws were revealed. To an outlaw this raises a huge red flag. Man, I thought this was all going to be easy till I found out that I had to quit doing practically every fun thing I was doing. I still needed to get the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. No tongues, no Holy Ghost. I needed to work on that. I needed to find my gift, and my ministry, and I needed to save the world for Jesus! I tried to speak in tongues and got prayed over many times for the Holy Ghost, but it never clicked with me. People, even God’s chosen people, get loud in my air space and I get spooked liked a trapped wolf . . . all I saw when they began to hover around me was the back door and my best way out of there . . . Every time there was a traveling ministry in town Brother Bob would introduce me to them as the druggy hippie he had saved from sin and perdition. It soon became obvious to me that he was using me to make himself look good and I didn't appreciate it. That was the first real entry into my soontobegrowing liabilities column. In actuality he was having a far more difficult time introducing me to the Holy Ghost then he put on to his

preacher buddies, so when I got the idea of coming to church at night when it was empty and trying on my own, he went along with it and gave me the key to the front door. The following night was dark and rainy and perfect for a Holy Ghost visit. About 1AM I decided to go on down to the church and meet Him. Once there, I fumbled in the dark with the key a bit, but soon opened the large front door and entered the darkness of the room. I could see nothing at all so I waited for my eyes to adjust before I began to walk down the aisle to the front of the spooky church where the altar was. I got on my knees at the altar, put my hands in the proverbial folded position and began to pray . . . and pray . . . and pray . . . to no avail. No tongue talking, no Holy Ghost, nothing. Jesus Christ, even my savior rejected me! Then I shut up and got real silent. I turned off the creaking room around me and began to focus on what I was doing there, and how bad I wanted to be baptized with the Holy Ghost. I remained that way for quite a while, then I began to pray again, but this time I was more intense. The tingling began in my throat and moved upward to my tongue, weird feeling, sort of like it would feel when my foot fell asleep. I tried to talk and my speech was garbled. I thought I was being baptized by the Holy

Ghost. (but I could also have been having a mini stroke I suppose.) By now I was sitting back on my butt laughing, and . . . walla . . . just like that, talking in tongues! Ha! That’s it! I had just received the Holy Ghost! I left the church totally pumped, went home and told Patti, but as I had to wake her up to tell her, she, true to form when being awakened, wasn't all that impressed. The next day I went to Brother Bob’s house and told him. He was pleased and assured me the visit from God was real and that now I was a full fledged member in the body of Christ. I soon began to realize how lucky I was to have been led to Brother Smith’s church, because according to him every other church denomination in town were walking in deception. We Apostolics were the true church because we believed in being baptized “in the name of Jesus” . . . that meant a lot to God he said,because without saying those magic words “I baptize you in the name of Jesus” your baptism wouldn't count and you would miss out when the ‘rapture” came . . . and by damn, I wanted to be in on that air lift, for sure! I don’t know what happened to me that night at the church as I kneeled there before the altar. There is no doubt at all that I had had an experience of some sort, but was it self induced? Did I actually hypnotize myself? . . . I don’t know.

I do know that from that day forward I was a man on a mission and I had no intention other than going all the way with it. No holds barred, no just good enough. I wanted the golden ring. I was once an elite airborne soldier, but this time instead of being “all the way!” in the army of uncle Sam . . . I was “all the way!” in the army of God.

The Way Of An Acorn This is a passage from the KJV, it’s taken out of Romans 1832, that famous few verses where God pretty much includes everything and everybody into His wrath because of their idolatrous nature. That’s not what I’m talking about though because, well, below verse 20 lies Pandora’s idolatry box and I’m not interested in opening it. I AM interested in verses 1820 though because these three verses seem to precede the argument and are actually the reason for all the angst in the first place. Verses 1820 IMO are widely overlooked because of man’s proclivity to throw stones at Pandora in the remaining verses. Romans 1:1832 King James Version (KJV) 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse

Ok, lets pretend I’m God and I’m trying to tell you guys something, but your pissing me off because you ain’t listening. Me: Ok guys look here. This planet I made is for you. Now the reasons why I made it is none of your business, but I want you to know what I expect you do with it. you: Oh most holy God we could never understand the glory and the greatness and the wonder and . . . Me: Shut up and listen to me will you?! This is important, dammit! I need your full and undivided attention here. you: silence Me: Creating a physical presence out of spiritual nothingness is tricky business, but I am very proud to say I have accomplished it. This planet is one beautiful place . . . but it is not perfect. That part I left up to you guys. Now, listen up. The reason I created you guys in the first place is that I need you to be my caretakers . . . your duties will be to TAKE CARE of everything I made and keep it in order. That means everything that is alive. You also have been given the power to create. That means this whole project can become your heaven or if you go stupid on me . . . your hell.

you: Oh thank you great and wonderful and wise and holy . . . Me: You guys testing me?? . . . Now, the way it works is that everything that is alive is ME . . . just take my word for it . . . that means as you study the environment, the flora, the fauna, and all the creeping things and all the animals . . . you are studying, and getting to know, ME. This is the only way we can communicate and the only way we will ever communicate. You cannot come to me because I AM already here. I am also YOU. When you are asked my name by your children and your children’s children just tell them I AM . . . Ok . . . I love you, I will always be you . . . now get busy! you: Oh thank you great and wonderful and wise and holy . . . Me . . . silence . . . . . . you: GOD!! Where are you?? . . . Quick set up an altar! Pray . . .Pray! . . . Pray!! . . . WHERE IS HE? We are so afraid! Hurry we must subdue this planet . . . Kill all these animals and sacrifice them . . . Get rid of these damn trees! OH MY GOD! WE forgot what He said already . . . write a book! . . . Build a temple! . . . We need an image! . . .

We need something or someone to worship! . . . we need . . . We Need . . . WE NEED!! Off in the distance a cloud formed dark and ominous and full of lightning and thunder. It grew until it encompassed the entire ocean. It moved inland towards the frightened caretakers as they bowed before their altars and prayed for deliverance. The cloud burst upon them and pummeled them with rain for forty days and forty nights until every vestige of humanity had been erased off the planet. Man had once again drowned in his own ignorance. . . . by his own choice. God wept, but through his tears he began again to create anew.

The Beauty Of Not Knowing I used to think that I needed to know everything concerning spiritual matters. I had to know all about death. I had to know all about God. Who, What, Where, When, and Why? . . . am I? The reason for this or that was pretty important to me and I spent a whole lot of years studying everything I could in order to KNOW. I knew the bible practically verbatim, I understood New Age, Spiritualism, Eastern, Western religions. In various degrees I either believed or disregarded all the input and ultimately came about creating my own Way of understanding. Great! I now had my own doctrine and could begin to teach my ultimate “truth” to the rest of the world. (or at least the people around me) Yeah, right. Just what everybody needed, another halfbaked prophet entering the mix. As if it wasn't already loaded with enough bullshit to sink an aircraft carrier. Then one day I began to wonder why I needed to know all this stuff anyways. I knew for certain that Cause and Effect . . . Karma . . . Law of Sowing and Reaping or whatever else you wanted to call it worked cause it proves itself daily in our lives. (to anyone willing to look around a bit) Karl Jung's synchronicity certainly made sense. Who 59

hasn't experienced the double witness affect in their life or heard a still small voice just at the right time? The other stuff? I don't know. Do I really NEED to know anyways? I began to wonder and decided, no. What is, is. What will be will be, regardless whether I believe in it or not. Does anybody really believe that just because a person does not profess to a certain magical equation or take part in ritual that he is certain to go to a reported Hell after he dies? I mean just because I didn't particularly like my father did that make him NOT my father? Wouldn't a loving father love his son regardless? My religion focuses on inner balance and awareness. If I was to ask you what "oneness" means to you it probably would be a different answer that the one I'd give because the "oneness' I see comes from experiences that I've had during my life journey. If I were to proselytize my belief to you and you chose to believe me it may just knock you off your own path. Not a good thing. so I can say "the Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao" because although my proselytization would be perhaps true for me it may be poison for you. Anyway as a true practitioner I would not bring up religion at all.

Had We Listened To The Indians? Following are some American Indian quotes concerning their beliefs when it comes to nature. What do you think would have happened if we had actually listened to the Indian when we arrived in their country instead of killing them? Native American Quotes about Nature Honor the sacred. Honor the Earth, our Mother. Honor the Elders. Honor all with whom we share the Earth: Fourleggeds, twoleggeds, winged ones, Swimmers, crawlers, plant and rock people. Walk in balance and beauty.

~ Native American Elder ~ Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.

~ Ancient Indian Proverb ~ Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.

~ Chief Seattle, 1854 ~

When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money.

~ Cree Prophecy ~ I do not think the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings of concrete are, But rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man.

~ Sun Bear of the Chippewa Tribe ~ Thanksgiving We return thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us. We return thanks to the rivers and streams, which supply us with water. We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases. We return thanks to the moon and stars, which have given to us their light when the sun was gone. We return thanks to the sun, that has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye. Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit, in Whom is embodied all goodness, and Who directs all things for the good of Her children.

~ Iroquois ~ Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.

~Standing Bear ~ You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin.

Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.

~ Unknown ~

Spiritual Terrorism (a spoof from The Onion)

WASHINGTON—In a 45minute video posted on Tibetan websites Thursday, Tsuglag Rinpoche, leader of the Buddhist extremist group Kammaṭṭhāna, threatened to soon inflict a wave of peace and tranquility on the West. Speaking in front of a nondescript altar surrounded by candles, burning sticks of incense, and a small golden statue of the Buddha, Rinpoche did not specify when or where an assault of profound inner stillness would occur, but stated in no uncertain terms that the fundamentalist Buddhist cell plans to target all Western suffering. “In the name of the Great Teacher, we will stop at nothing to unleash a firestorm of empathy, compassion, and true selflessness upon the West,” said Rinpoche, adding that all enemies of a freely flowing, unfettered state of mind will be “besieged with pure, everlasting happiness.” “No city will be spared from spiritual harmony. We will bring about the end to all Western pain and anxiety, to all destructive cravings, to all greed, delusion, and misplaced desire. Indeed, we will bring the entire United States to its knees in deep meditation.” “Wisdom and virtue to America!” continued Rinpoche. “Wisdom and virtue to all living things on earth!” According to reports, Rinpoche stressed throughout his 65

address that Kammaṭṭhāna soldiers would continue waging a tireless holy war on Western feelings of emptiness and negativity for as long as necessary, noting that “a jug fills drop by drop” and that “it is better to travel well than to arrive.” The extremist leader specifically criticized the United States for its “blatant disregard of karmic balance within the universe” and ominously claimed that Americans will “one day soon” experience the highest form of metaphysical equilibrium through a union of both body and mind. Rinpoche also said all Western nations would “pay a heavy price in negative thinking and selfdoubt” if they do not immediately engage in serious introspection and true spiritual liberation. “From New York City to London, Madrid, and Paris, we will not cease until every major metropolis is left in a state of total nirvana,” said Rinpoche, brandishing a pink lotus flower before claiming that Kammaṭṭhāna will seize any opportunity to aggressively instill a deepseated sense of oneness in all Westerners. “We offered the unenlightened governments of America and Europe a chance to embrace the Eightfold Path, but you have refused. Now, we have no choice but to impose a peaceful spiritual reawakening upon you.” “And if you think even for a moment that we will ever relent, remember this: Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened,” Rinpoche added. “You have been warned.”

Kammaṭṭhāna, a radical Mahāyāna Buddhism movement, was founded in Nepal in the late 1970s with the explicit mission to spread a fundamentalist interpretation of the Four Noble Truths to all nonbelievers. According to experts, the multinational organization operates somewhere in a remote region of the Himalayas, though the current whereabouts of Rinpoche and Kammaṭṭhāna’s other highranking members are reportedly unknown. Kammaṭṭhāna first came to international prominence in 1997, when five of its members boarded a New York City subway car and held 42 hostages in a state of transcendent serenity for seven hours while performing atonal syllabic chants. The group then claimed responsibility for a severe 2004 outbreak of interconnectedness in central London, later traced to a 23yearold Kammaṭṭhāna sleeper cell operative who sat crosslegged in Trafalgar Square and read aloud from The Gateless Gate collection of 13thcentury Zen koans. Kammaṭṭhāna claims to gain “thousands of newly reincarnated followers each day” and is reportedly known to recruit many young Buddhists from around the world, training them in tranquil insurgency tactics at covert monasteries across Eastern Asia. “I want to assure all Americans that we are fully aware of these threats from Kammaṭṭhāna, and they will not be taken lightly,” acting Secretary of Homeland Security Rand Beers said at a press conference shortly after Rinpoche’s video surfaced, adding that several U.S.

cities have been placed on high alert and authorities are watching closely for any suspicious peaceful activity in densely populated areas. “We do believe that Kammaṭṭhāna currently possesses the means to inflict widespread balance in the collective subconscious of an American city. However, we are doing absolutely everything in our power to prevent that from happening.” “The danger of total enlightenment is very real,” Beers added. “And we must be prepared.” At press time, sources confirmed that President Obama has authorized a preemptive strike on Kammaṭṭhāna and deployed a fleet of predator drones to bomb Tibet.

Section Two The Body

Imagine There’s No Countries In Johns second verse he asks us to: Imagine there’s no countries It isn’t hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace . . .

Sounds like a pipe dream, right? Well, I don’t think so. Everything I have personally experienced and read about from others, tells me that all common people, regardless of race or country, are pretty much the same. They have the same needs and pretty much want the same things as I do. Give them food, water, a roof over their head, a small plot of land, enough freedom to raise a family in peace and you will have a happy person. So what’s the problem? We DO have plenty of space don't we? As I see it there are only two classes of people on this planet . . . the simple folks I am talking about in the previous paragraph and the power hungry folks who want to use them for their own gain. One class just wants to be left alone to raise their pigs and tend their rice paddy . . . the other class, the one’s led by the desire for power, position, and possession

can never be satisfied by anything and always want more. Reminds me of a story: The businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The businessman complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked, "how long did it take you to catch them?" The fisherman replied, "Senor, there are many fish in these waters, it takes no time at all to catch the family dinner." The businessman then asked, "why don't you stay out longer and catch even more fish?" "Senor, my family can only eat so much, what's left would rot in the sun." . "But what do you do with the rest of your time?" "Well Senor, I play with my children, maybe take a siesta with my wife, and each evening right after dinner I go to the village and sip wine and play guitar with my amigos." I am a happy man, señor." The businessman scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and I could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats; eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats." The fisherman asked, "But señor, how long will this all take?" "Probably 1520 years."

"But what then, señor?" "You will become a rich man and have power and influence in this village, perhaps even the entire district." "Then what senor?" "Then you could retire. You could sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos." "But senor, isn't that what I'm doing right now?"

Author Unknown The problem begins for us when, because of our laziness and inattention, we give them rule over us. They con us with the promise of peace, prosperity and freedom, the very things we already had. Instead they give us war and discontent, the very things we do not want. What the hell is that all about! How many major wars in the last century have been fought because of business interests? . . . All of them. Peasants fight amongst themselves also of course, this is the human condition, but they usually fight over someone stealing a pig or something like that. Only the wealthy can promote a major war, and their wars are fought for other, more dubious, reasons. The worst part is that the cowards won’t fight their wars themselves. They con us into fighting for them. Their media uses words like hero, sacrifice, glory for God and 73

country, etc. to get YOU blinded enough by their bullshit to send YOUR kids into their meat grinder. Don’t believe me, research it for yourselves. Here’s the hard truth. You are sacrificing your children upon the alter of Baal . . . just like the old testament story. Only today Baal has a few new names and ‘military industrial complex’ is one of them. Do you really believe this terrorist threat stuff? Research it from a neutral source and you may be surprised. We got hit on 911 because we were asleep at the wheel. (or it was a conspiracy as many think) Regardless I don't feel losing all my rights to this homeland security crap is the answer anyway you look at it. Want to know why we go to war so often? Follow the money trail and see where it ends up. Check out Halliburton and some of the other top players in our war machine. How much did they profit from the gulf wars? An obscene amount of loot went into their coffers. Where's THEIR patriotic sacrifice? I am a veteran of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Today I ask myself more than ever, why did seventeen hundred kids in my brigade have to die in Vietnam? What did that war accomplish? Nothing that I can see, Vietnam is now our friendly trading partner . . . as is Japan . . . as is Germany. Seems as if every mortal enemy we go to war with ends up becoming a friend. Why not sit down and make

friends BEFORE we decide to kill them? What personal sacrifice did anybody in big business or the government make in ANY of these wars? Time to smarten up and let those old bastards in Washington hear loud and clear that we ain’t going to war no more. And last, but not least is the greatest war starting machine of all time, religion. Study your history and you’ll see that religion has been the root cause of more killing and maiming than anything else known to man. . . and the religious wars for our time haven't even begun yet. Remember Christopher Columbus that great explorer who discovered the America’s in the name of the holy trinity? He was, in the real world, responsible for the greatest mass extermination of human beings of all time . . . even Adolph himself must have been envious of his record. Yet he is honored each year with a holiday . . . ask any American Indian how they celebrate Columbus Day. It’s not hard for me to imagine doing away with borders, doing away with wars, and doing away with religion. My question would be: "why the hell do we want to keep them?" They say "change is impossible, things are what they are, you people are nuts." Evolution of the human species demands we get aboard the change train or we will go extinct. All we need do for now is to unite in our opposition to the blatant disassembling of our constitutional

freedoms and stop feeding at the enemies trough. Quit borrowing, quit buying. Back corporations who are concerned with ecological preservation. Companies who care about animal rights and clean food and water and tell the others to go to hell! It can be done. It must be done. You may say I’m a dreamer But I’m not the only one I hope some day you’ll join us And the world will live as one

Mother Earth I saw a bumper sticker in a store once that had a colored picture of our Earth on it. Following the planet's contour were the words “Love Your Mother”. I thought the play on words was pretty cool so I bought the thing and glued it onto the back window of my old work truck. LOVE YOUR MOTHER . . . I wonder how many people would treat their birth mother the way they treat their Earth mother. If they did I wonder how long it would take before birth mother tossed the little brat out the window. Not many I suppose, for as a rule birth mothers are quite long suffering when it comes to their children. She is willing to take a huge load of crap from little Johnnie before she reacts and even then it's usually a few pats on the behind and a time out in the kitchen corner. Well, when it comes to our Earth mother, at least since the Industrial revolution when little Johnnie really began giving her a hard time, she has been quiet and long suffering when it comes to disciplining him. How long she is willing to hold back the paddle is anybodies guess, but today I find myself looking around for a place to hide because once Earth mom gets riled she can really raise holy hell, and not just on the deserving brat either. Everybody in the house gets a piece of the action once she goes over the edge and starts swinging.

Like a lot of kids I grew up knowing mom was always going to be there for me. She would feed me, clothe me and protect me without question, even give me some cash some time when I asked, that's just the way it was. She was my mom, that's what moms do. One day long after I moved out on my own I came back to visit mom and saw that she was not getting around so good. Her hair had grayed and she was beginning to forget stuff. I was kinda shocked cause my mom was invincible in her youth. Nothing I did bothered her much and she always had a way of making things better and easier for me. Now, for the first time I realized that the times had changed and I would need to start taking care of her as she was running low on energy. Our Earth mom has the same problem today as my birth mom had then. She has not said a whole lot about the callous treatment, but the last hundred years or so have been very hard on her and it's beginning to show. If you understand this you can actually feel her pain. As you watch the oil spill into the gulf you can visualize the internal bleeding as it floods her womb and slowly destroys the birthing place of her entire creation. As you watch the coal companies in Appalachia scalp her mountains you see the ugly scars left behind and you feel her pain. All over her Earth rampant destruction is taking place as one country after another rapes and pillages our mother in search of the minerals she has hidden within

her soil and the worthless paper they can provide them. It's sickening to sit and watch. I sat and watched my birth mother die a horrible death. Stroke had left her unable to speak, or eat, or even drink. She lay that way for ages it seemed before she gave a huge final sigh . . . and died. I don't want to see my Earth mother go the same way, but unless there is a huge shift in our thinking it's inevitable that some day, perhaps after we deplete her ozone, she also will shudder and burn up in the heat of the sun. Of course this time she takes her children with her.

What Can I Do? Ok, I understand what's going on in the world. I even somewhat understand what needs to be done to remedy the situation . . . but I am just one person, what in the world can I do about it? How can one person have any affect at all when it comes to real honest to God change in this society? Well, that's the question we all ask ourselves when we consider this stuff. Who needs even one more prophet of doom wandering the halls of cyberspace anyways? Truth is nobody wants your wisdom . . . nobody wants your knowledge . . . nor does anybody particularly need it. (assuming you actually have any to begin with) They have all spent a vast amount of time building up the particular facade you are now attempting to destroy, and are actually quite annoyed when you begin chopping away at it. Truth is most people find it much easier to blame others for their problems anyways, so forget about it. People in this country crave diversion, they flock to it like beetles running to a freshly laid dog turd. You want popularity? You want a large readership on your blog? Stick to the simple stuff, throw in as much sex as you can, and you will someday become king of blog hill. People in this country live in fear. Many don't even recognize the fear, they are just simply not ready for what you have to give them. You will just make it worse 81

for them. So back to the question: How can one person have any affect at all when it comes to real honest to God change in our society? The simple answer is that you can’t. The only power you really have anyway is the power to change yourself, and the good news is, you can start doing that right now, this very moment. Forget about the preaching. Drop the visions of grandeur. Forget about all that outward bound bullshit and just simply shut up and begin to work on changing yourself. Once you do that, in all earnest, you will come face to face with a power you never knew existed . . . YOU. It’s not difficult either, you can start the awakening process with just one simple thought in mind . . . BE KIND. Forget about all that religious or new age stuff. Forget about buying tickets to the latest emotionally charged seminar or retreat. You heard it all before, right? Why continually waste your time and money learning how to be a spiritual phony anyways? Get off the rat wheel. Forget about everything out there and begin the work in here, that quiet inner place you've avoided for so long. That work will make a huge difference in your life, for you, as well as others.

As your vibration changes, people will stop seeing you as an annoyance and enjoy hanging with you. Your quietness will attract more attention than your demand ever did. All that good stuff happens by merely taking one ‘KIND’ step at a time. Of course you may have to force it at first. Instead of giving the finger to the guy crowding you on the freeway you may have to force a smile, or open the door for the lady who just bumped you with her grocery cart, but . . . The good news is that on any given day you will have many opportunities to force yourself to be kind, and you know the old saying: practice makes perfect! Keep forcing and one day it will become natural. You will realize it and you will be proud of your hard work. This will give you the incentive to go further down that road . . . until one day love will no longer be an attention drawing emotion, but a way of life.

Free Your Body Barack Obama, the first black man to be elected President of the Unites States rode into office on the winds of promised change. I liked Obama, his ideas sounded good to me. I also considered his term a last chance effort to dig this country out of the ditch the previous administration had dug for us. I was not so happy with our new president later on though, when I realized he may just go down in history as one of the worst presidents we ever had. Why do you think so many of us who voted for his promise of change ultimately gave up on him? How come his presidency did not work? Once upon a time I was sitting alone having coffee at a sidewalk cafe when a Volkswagen pulled up to the curb in front of me and parked. The door swung open and a very fat man went about the chore of extricating himself from the small vehicle. First his leg came out, then his head. Then using his leg and left arm for leverage he managed to get his hand on the door sill and begin to pull his large body out from behind the steering wheel. After a few grunts and a few tugs, he was out and ambling on down the sidewalk to his destination. As I watched all this, I could think only of how much of a prisoner the man had become. His prison even more confining than one with guards and bars. 85

I don’t think I had any special insight into this man’s predicament. I think most people who contained a normal amount of empathy would see the same thing. I believe Obama would also see this and want to do something about it. The question is what would he do? I may be wrong here, but following the trend in today’s mindset I can see him buying the guy a larger car to fit all his fat into and believing he had done the right thing, . . . but had he? This is where it gets tricky because, what would be the purpose? The man would still be imprisoned within a body that was slowly choking itself to death, wouldn’t he? We make larger furniture, larger beds, larger airplane seats, larger portions of food at the restaurant in order to fill the patrons increasingly larger bellies. Our rate of obesity is through the roof for our adults as well as our children. It is unbelievable how far we’ve traveled this fatisus highway. How much larger and super sized are we going to get before somebody applies the brakes? That is why Obama's “give something for nothing” philosophy is so dangerous to this country and to the people caught up in his increasingly more popular easy fix syndrome. The mind needs a healthy body in order to operate at

it’s best. Destroy the body and the mind will soon follow. We don’t want that to happen. We cannot wait on somebody else to apply the brakes. We must do it ourselves. We don’t need a personal trainer or any of the expensive stuff, we can get ourselves into good physical condition all on our own. It takes nothing but hard work and the guts to do it. Being on a spiritual quest is a great thing, everybody should be doing it . . . but I believe it would be far easier if everybody realized that we humans are a three part entity . . . Mindbodyspirit . . . and all three must come into order or we, as well as the fat man in the Volkswagen, will just be pissing into the wind until we do. You cannot shun your body and expect anything but trouble. . . . that’s just the way it is. Forget the teeth whitenings, the hair pieces, the manicures and the face lifts. Get healthy, balanced, and proud . . . you’ll be pretty as you can be.

Self Preservation Self preservation is the #1 motivational instinct in all life forms, including us. We are born with the instinct, live our lives steeped in it, and we die fighting to stay alive. Only love (or perhaps hate) can override the survival instinct. As far as I know ours is the only species lazy enough to expect someone else other than our self to help us survive. We look to leaders, governments, religious figures, magic . . . all sorts of stuff. Many times these “helpers” hinder more than help, so instead of looking for help outside of ourselves and expecting someone or something to care for us, how about we get smart, look within, and realize we have been given the personal task of caring for ourselves? Loving Jesus while stuffing our fat face with Twinkies may help us in the afterlife, but it sure as all hell will do us no good when our arteries collapse and we choke to death for lack of oxygen. I don’t care how many prayer circles our wife belongs to, we did it to ourselves and we are gonna pay the price . . . period. Why is it that the young are the only ones who take physical exercise seriously? Why is it us older folks would rather sit on our asses, drink beer and stare at the new flat screen TV when we reach the time in our life when we actually NEED to stay in shape? When did life sit us down and tell us it was now OK to get fat and lazy anyways? If self preservation is our #1 89

instinct, don’t you think we ought to remember that in order to survive we MUST start living like we realize it? This is hardly the time to lay our burden down and think because now that we are old, people are going to feel sorry for us and care for us. They won’t. Truth is that, in the real world, people are too busy caring for themselves. We’re (most of us) on our own brother, we better quit whining and complaining about our illnesses and get with the program because the next time we go shuffling through the Walmart parking lot we may be setting our self up for a painful, heart felt reality check. Time to get back in the game. Forget the teeth whitenings, the hair pieces, the manicures and the face lifts. Get healthy, balanced, and proud. . . . you’ll be pretty as you can be.

Conversation In learning the art of story writing one of the fundamental truths we are taught is to “show not tell” our story. This applies to practically any genre that we choose to write about. Merely telling a story, even if it’s a good one, puts us in danger of losing our audience before the second chapter. It will become boring to them, and boredom is a sure killer to a writer’s work. To SHOW the story as well as TELL it has the power to draw our audience in and get them involved with our characters and the outcome of whatever plot line we have designed for them. All the great writers from Hemingway to Mark Twain used this principle in their stories. Using ‘show not tell’ as an example I have recently realized another truth that we all should be aware of as we attempt to change ourselves into a less aggressive and more caring person. In our conversations with one another we must learn to talk TO the party involved and not AT the party involved. There is a huge difference in attitude when we INCLUDE the other as opposed to merely TELLING him. As an example we parents spend a lot of time telling our kids stuff, we talk at them. Talking at someone is an authoritative thing, it does not include listening or give and taking. It’s basically loving the sound of our own voice so much that we are using our children as a sounding board rather than seeing them as a viable thinking person, a person that very well could be just as 91

smart and as interesting as we see ourselves to be. If we find the goal of every conversation we enter is to come out on top, we may have found the reason why so many others seem to be evading our speeches. Interaction among family members have a tendency to follow this course, but the same principle applies when speaking to our friends and coworkers. Even online if we're not careful our conversations can become a military exercise. How much better if we talk TO that son or daughter, or brother or sister than AT them. How much better if we include them in our story than just telling them? Try it. Ask a question or two . . . be really interested in the reply. Think about what they said instead of thinking your own talking points while they are talking . . . listen to them. That’s what I’m going to start doing and maybe they’ll quit calling me a knowitall?

Was This The American Dream? Eleven o’clock on a summer morning and the place was seemingly deserted, no dogs, nothing. Where’s everybody at? Where’s the kids? I slowly drove past one house after another in the upscale housing development. I gazed upon one perfectly manicured lawn after another, each bisected by ribbons of clean concrete drives and sidewalks. There probably wasn't a dandelion in the whole allotment. This carefully designed scene, instead of evoking envy, made me feel creeped out and sad, especially for the chubby kids that must be inside huddling around their TV’s and computers breathing stale, conditioned air. Kids who’ve never heard of kick the can, or knew the pleasure of playing hide and seek outside after dark. Kids who’ve never danced in the warm summer rain. or got into a good fist fight. To me, this atmosphere was cold, sterile, and alien. Day after day, aside from the occasional guy who still mowed his own lawn, or his wife coming and going in her new S.U.V., I rarely saw anyone. The only noise in the neighborhood was the sound of construction around the new overpriced homes we were building. I thought about my own childhood days growing up in the housing project and realized how lucky I’d been. There, in the summer, small dandelion cluttered yards would be full of barefoot kids playing games in the 93

grass. On the blacktop sidewalks they’d be riding bikes, or skipping ropes while their mothers huddled together on the front porch stoops gabbing amongst themselves. I remembered the laughter, crying, barking dogs, smells of food cooking, back yards full of clothes hanging on lines and drying in the hot sun. We were a tribe of poor, noisy, blue collar common folk, but we were alive, and we had fun. No music blared from boom boxes, no guns, gangs, or drugs. That would all come later, after corporate greed stripped us of our jobs and traded us for the welfare that stripped us of our pride. The point of this stereotypical story is that as we’ve sought to better ourselves by improving our social position, we have also lost the need for each other. We have perverted the herding instinct by choosing to live in close proximity to, yet totally separate from our neighbors. We’ve broken away from the tribe and have decided to go it alone. These modern developments are a shining example of our separation. We surround ourselves with every modern convenience we can afford, close the doors to our large, self contained homes and spend our days locked within our minicastles. Instead of a moat and drawbridge, we have a security system. Instead of Knights in shining armor to protect us, we have a uniformed police force waiting close by

to apprehend any neighbors foolish enough to break the thin red line. Have we created a modern version of Camelot and are regressing back to the Middle Ages? If we seek change in ourselves and this nation we must, in my opinion, give this lifestyle thing some serious attention. I don’t know, maybe I’m just getting old, but I sure do miss my friends and those lovely, sunny bright medicinal flowers that have become a curse . . . as have their neighbors.

Can We Handle The Truth? (part one) Seems all I hear these days is folks arguing about the government. Usually the argument ends in a finger pointing diatribe about the other guys and how stupid they are. If only THEY could see the light as we do everything would change. The evil doers would be reigned in, and this great republic would fullfill the commission placed upon it by our forefathers when they designed the country. The Constitution those men wrote up for the United States of America was good. If properly instituted it would have been excellent, but sadly, putting words to action proved far more difficult than writing them. Truth be known, the state of the union could hardly be worse then it is today. Today the United States of America, regardless of initual intent, is a far cry from what John Hancock was probably thinking when he grabbed that pen and put his life on the line just by signing it. We can call ourselves anything we like. A democratic republic of the people, by the people, and for the people sounds pretty good . . . but in all reality this country has probably never been a true democracy, and if it was it sure isn't today. Today our government is a democracy in name only. In practice we are a perverted mixture of national socialism and fascism that many would call 97

corporatism. We the workers man their factories. We make the stuff they tell us we need using the wages they paid us for making it. This is all nice and cozy . . . as long as everybody follows the rules. We all know the capitalist lives and breathes profit. That’s fine as long as he provides us with an honest share of that profit. When that happens all gears mesh and the economy keeps on chugging, but in all reality, corporatism works only as long as jobs are plentiful and the owners don’t succumb to greed. We the people have been conned by a very good PR campaign into believing that we, on our own, actually have something to say about how this government runs . . . we don’t. We like to think we have a vote that counts in choosing a leader, and that once elected they are going to work for us. That is a pipe dream . . . they won’t. Today no man can even run for government office unless the corporation backs him. It’s a moneyed game and they have the money. That means it is rigged folks. Time to wake up and smell the coffee. Talk of armed revolution is stupid. The worst thing that can happen to a country usually happens after the armed revolution succeeds. We don’t want to destroy the corporation, nor do we want to bring down the government. Our system works fine when all the gears

are in alignment. We need to see that those gears are realigned. Does anybody remember the great union movement of the thirties when men actually shoved their heels into the turf and told the corporation, “Enough of the bullshit, we ain't gonna take it anymore!?” Maybe it’s time for a rerun. Those men, mostly uneducated, mostly dirt poor, some even afraid, knew their enemy far better than we know ours. They sang their protest songs, they took their beatings, they stood together . . . and ultimately they prevailed. The movement grew fast and became so powerful that at the height of it’s rein, it had the corporation shaking in it’s boots at the first sign of a walk out . . . It’s time to walk out on corporate owned Washington. Why are we willing to look the other way while the Washington/Corporation cartel robs us? Why are we willing to bail them out when they get caught with their greedy hands in the cookie jar? We say, “Oh the corporation is too big to fail, we must bail them out.” If that was not a good enough sign for us to see that democracy, if there ever was such a thing, is dead, nothing will. In a capitalist democracy the corporations would have been ALLOWED to fail. Why are we willing to fight for the corporation? Why do we sacrifice our children’s lives in these profiteering

wars? What does the corporation sacrifice? NOTHING . . . war is very profitable for the corporation. What do we the people get? . . . free body bags for our kids. The impotence and ignorance of the people in this country today is pathetic. Where are the Woody Guthrie's of this generation? Where are the people willing to take a stand against the robber baron and his hacks in Washington and tell them to "fuck off, you don't get no bailout and you sure as all hell ain't getting my kid!?" Nowhere I can see. I think we have probably gone too far out of balance to even imagine that a good union movement is all that is needed these days to right the ship of state and get it back on course. That ship is sinking . . . but that doesn't mean we have to just sit in our lazy boy and go down with it. There are options. We can simply stop participating and move in a different direction for starters. There are a whole lot of people working on that scenario right now. In part 2 we will go deeper into discussing our way, legally and on a personal level, out of the mess.

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Can We Handle The Truth? (part two) The first part of this essay may have been discouraging to some, as peering into a mirror often is. We humans have a way of mixing fantasy into our reality and creating visions of grandeur for ourselves that we don't deserve. That is what we have done with this country, because the truth is not quite as acceptable as our perceived reality. There IS much hope for our future, but only if we change course. In order to do that, we must first, in a very real way, turn our back on this viewpoint that we humans are here to conquer and subdue the earth. This basic belief that originated from the bible . . . " "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." . . . is either mistranslated or just plain bullshit. Ruler should be replaced by caretaker. "Let them be caretakers over all the earth" makes far more sense. In all reality 'God' is a mystery to all of us regardless how much we can convince ourselves otherwise. Does anybody actually believe that the creator of all heaven and earth would have to write a book to get his word across to his creation? Is not the common artist known by the works which he has made? How much more the great artist? My God reveals himself through His works. The earth is 101

a place of indescribable beauty. Most of it's ugliness has been created by mankind. I personally would not give the men running this world, in this time, charge of a pig pen let alone my greatest artistic work. So let's just say if we were given stewardship over the earth we are doing a damn poor job of it and get on with the story. . . . What can we do? First, a change is coming, we must find our place in it. Second, we must begin to realize how powerful we are and how well adapted we are to fulfilling our caretaker duties. We must begin to see that if there is to ever be a heaven on earth, it will be created by us. Once we get the message of just who we are, and understand our job classification, we will find that we already have the power to make it happen, but first we must rid ourselves of those who are destroying our planet. Not by killing them, but ignoring them. We can ignore the fools who live only for wealth and power by simply jumping off their rat wheel. We must find a way back to our future and teach ourselves to walk softly upon this planet. When they see what we have done they will destroy their system on their own and come and join us. These bankers, and corrupt politicians, and industrialists, and war mongers, are also our brothers. When they see the light they will run to it like moths to a spotlight for they have the same calling we do. Our enemy is not them, our enemy is their ignorance. And above ALL else we must learn to love ourselves,

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and that can only happen in a real way once we have aligned ourselves to the mystery that created this whole thing in the first place.

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New World Order Or . . . New Order For The World I think everybody by now has an idea as to what the New World Order is, and that idea usually is formed around a personal perception that could range anywhere from a vast world wide conspiracy by a few very rich and powerful families, to George Bush's thousand points of light. Whatever you believe is fine, my goal is not to save you from anything, it is merely to get you thinking about something a little more substantial than American Idol or presidential promises. I gotta say that my personal viewpoint of all this vacillates so much that I really don't know what form the New World Order will take. I do feel very strongly though, that whatever is looming over the horizon is not going to make me very happy. I feel a sense of foreboding akin to what I felt that day I was hiking alone in the Alaskan wilderness and came upon a large pile of steaming bear shit. I never saw the bear, never even heard it, but for the rest of the trip I remained on heightened alert. I believe it's time for us to wake up and educate ourselves to the things going on in the world and start asking some questions. Time to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. Today, I feel pretty edgy, much the same way I felt in grizzly bear country. Do we really need to be arming our police with battle wagons and combat gear? Do we 105

really need to be giving up one constitutional right after another in the name of national security? Why are we training combat troops in this country for crowd control? Why has homeland security purchased millions of rounds of ammunition? What’s with the drone I saw flying over my place this summer? Why? . . . Why? . . . Why? I don't know why, and that's why I am preparing my family and myself to survive if this thing turns ugly as they say it will. Following I will use myself as an example knowing that every circumstance is different, as is every individual. Live in the country? The city? Young? old? Each person has to sit down and figure it out on their own, my only advice would be to do it and get started on it now, before the net closes and you become a victim of circumstance. You don’t need to go out on a limb, either. Use your common sense. New Order For The World Every since life began to form on this planet survival has been an absolute necessity. All living things have had to immediately come to grips with that reality or perish. Evolution of the species is, in large part, merely life choosing to adapt in order to guarantee its survival. Today in the U.S. we face the greatest social upheaval any of us have ever faced. Our way of life, for many reasons, is drastically changing. The huge bubble we have created for ourselves and filled with “stuff” that we

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deemed absolutely necessary in order to survive and be happy in this country is bursting as I write this. Trying to hold on to it will soon be futile. You may as well try grasping the wind. Is this the end? No. This is the beginning. The beginning of something perhaps far more enjoyable than your plush little bubble ever was. I can't advise anyone else what to do because our circumstances are all so different, but I will share with you what I did, what I am in the process of doing and what I expect to do in the future. Ultimately it will be up to you to choose the best way to implement your particular survival. Once upon a time I had a lovely cottage sitting on a pristine lake in the midst of one of the only old growth forest regions left in the state of Ohio. I loved the place, but as lake front became more popular and my land more valuable we decided to sell and move further South where the cost of living would be a whole lot less. It seemed the right thing to do as I was near retiring, the EPA was about to force us to rebuild our ancient dam and I was a little apprehensive as to what was taking place in the home building business I was a part of as well as the country at large. We put the lakefront place up for sale and sold it a week later for three and a half times what we paid for it. The couple who bought it immediately tore the old cottage down and replaced it with a McMansionesque nightmare . That's what they were doing during the boom time. The money spigot was wide open and the

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banks were, what can I say? Drunk? My wife and I then bought the acreage we now live on. I built the 1700 square foot cabin with loft that we now live in. I also built a smaller 200 + square foot cabin, two outbuildings and a storage shed from the lakefront profits. We also paid off two vehicles, credit cards and every other bill we had. Our goal was to just, after everything was finished, break even. And that we did. We now live on Social Security exclusively. My wife gets Medicare and I am a life time member of the VA hospital care program so we don't have to buy expensive health insurance. I don't know how long it will last, but for now life is good. It took plenty of thought to get here though, and as we look back, we were also very, very lucky because it was no more than six months later that property values plummeted. Had we waited just a bit longer we would have been stuck holding the bag. Down here we have two deep springs and are fairly secure when it comes to a water supply if the frackers don't ruin it. This we will be able to share with our few neighbors if/when the power goes out. The small cabin is decked out for burning wood and we have oil lamps for light. I am going to dig an outhouse as well just in case. I have built a clay oven that sits outside along the tree line for baking bread and pizza's, anything that will bake actually.

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All that we've done so far is just common sense stuff that would be smart to do if you live in the country like we do regardless of the situation. We have not gone overboard, nor do we brag about anything (well at least not till now:)) This is as far as we will go until the situation warrants a change. But we are ready for anything. What we've done to this point has little to do with your own lives because, as I've stated earlier, everybody's circumstances are so different. The one thing we share in common though, are the principles involved. The principles of survival are pretty much the same regardless of where, when, why you find yourself needing to. And the first most important principle is your mindset. Where's yours?

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Appalachian Mountaintop Removal During the late sixties when my wife and I decided to take a vacation we always went to West Virginia. Patti was born in Elkins and most of her family still lived there, so going “down home” was inexpensive, as well as a guaranteed, joyful holiday for the both of us. <!more>Once we left NE Ohio and headed south the scenery slowly morphed from industrial ugliness to lovely farms, pastures, and tree covered hills. A few miles south of the state line the landscape changed yet again, this time it became hilly and far more interesting than the flatland we’d left behind. The deeper we drove into ‘Mountains Momma’ the more beautiful she became. Her roads got windier, her hills higher and her valleys deeper, her forests thicker and her waterways faster and cleaner. The 480 million years old Appalachian mountains are a wonderland of awesomeness that is easily available for anybody who loves nature . . . To get to Grandma White’s farm we had to drive through the small college town of Elkins and beyond into the countryside for a piece. Turning off the main road, a narrow lane led back to the old farmhouse that looked pretty much the same as all the other farms dotting the area. Grandma White was always waiting for us and always had an empty bedroom in her home for us to sleep in, but she never treated us like guests. Once there, we 111

were family, and we moved about the house just as if we lived there, nothing fancy, no big deal . . . I loved the old lady for being that way. Both Grandma and Grandma White worked for the local creamery. They would rise early in the morning and travel the backroads to isolated farms in the county and pick up the cream from their cows. I went with Grandpa a few time while I was there to help them out and check out the back country scenery. I can only say that in all the places I had been to that point in my life, nowhere compared to the beauty of West Virginia. I wonder what it looks like back there now. I haven’t been back since the seventies and from what I have been reading I think it would be a great shock to my system to see five hundred or so mountains skinned down like the Sunday rabbit and shining in the dust shrouded sun. I can only imagine how long Grandma White’s prayers would be these days if she was here to witness this catastrophe being caused by corporate greed and government neglect. I guess the coal companies finally got their way when Bush got in office and dropped all the environmental nonsense that was barring them from their constant and wanton destruction of all that I hold dear about West Virginia. I can only reminisce today what the long drive and hike to the top of one of those mountains was like . . . cause

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I sure as all hell don’t want to see them now. This scenario MUST change.

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On Warfare There's an old favorite Calvin and Hobbes cartoon hanging in my office. It starts with the two of them walking through the woods on a bright, sunny, winter day. Calvin, being mesmerized by the beauty of it all, stops and gives a long dissertation questioning why mankind had chosen in the first place to sequester himself in houses and cars while living in such overpowering beauty. Turning to Hobbes he asks. “ That's why I want to ask you, as a tiger, a wild animal close to nature, what you think we're put here on earth to do . . . What's our purpose in life? Why are we here?” Hobbes thinks for a moment, smiles, raises his arms in the old Italian gesture and replies, “We're here to devour each other alive.” Then he walks away. Calvin watches Hobbes leave, looks straight ahead at the viewer, looks up at the sky. Then he makes a beeline for his house where he fearfully turns up all his lights and raises the heat in hopes of alleviating the fear instilled by Hobbes choice wording. I have always loved that cartoon because it shows so well and so simply the struggle each of us every day must make to stay alive in this very chaotic and cruel environment we find ourselves in. Regardless of our status, be it wealthy, poor, high 115

brow, low brow, African aborigine or American blue blood, this basic survival instinct is prevalent in all of us. It's the lub in our very first heartbeat, leading us down the pathway of our years until it's final dub. The way of survival is not merely what one needs to do in order to make it through a social/economic pinch. It's also on a far deeper level the evolutionary trail a life form has taken through the ages in order to remain viable. In our breed it manifests a zillion different ways on a zillion avenues, but the struggle is there in all our lives pushing and prodding us into our various chosen paths. Some, like the guys who have chosen the power/position/possession path, struggle through hard work and dedication to become our leaders and our heroes. Some, like the criminal, having also chosen the power, position, possession path seek to circumvent the learning curve of hard work and get right to the wealthy part. These glib tongued fools hide themselves among our true leaders like weeds in a vegetable garden. When they should be wallowing in a cage somewhere, we allow them to reek havoc from behind a podium. Some muddle along content to just have enough to feed themselves and their family. These people, whether they live in a small house in a Cleveland suburb or a thatched hut in a jungle clearing are basically, regardless of color or religious persuasion, all of the

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same mind set. They struggle to live within their inherited environment in peace much the same way as everybody else in the world. And yet, the question that lies forever in my mind, is why we, the core foundation of this life form called humanity, allow the wealthy and neerdowells of this planet to manipulate us, through religious and political means, into taking up arms against one another when we ought to be confronting the manipulators. This thought literally blows my mind and causes me to fear that the human race will never evolve on a spiritual level much further than it already has. Personally I have never feared much about a wild animal devouring me like Calvin does or perhaps my predecessors have. What I do fear is 'us' being manipulated by a group of so called leaders into believing our survival is contingent upon the killing of THEIR enemy. I believe until there is fundamental change in the way we think about our social makeup we will forever be at war with those we should be calling brother instead of 'the enemy'.

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Our Ocean I am not writing this essay for any other reason than I am scared shitless about what I am reading concerning the state of our ocean and what overfishing, pollution, and now Nakashima is doing to it. Frightened, and sad, and in despair . . . that's the best I can explain my feelings. I am not an alarmist, I don't run around shouting "the sky is falling!" . . . and I am really not afraid of much of anything, save ignorance and the people who seem to be in love with it. The other day someone posted an article on his blog called 'The Ocean Is Broken.' It was a link so I went over and read it. What I came away with was not what I expected. I mean we read 'there's a bad moon on the rise' in one degree or another all the time. I expected another one of those doomsday reports. What I got instead was a sailor writing an experience he encountered while sailing in waters he had previously sailed ten years earlier. He wrote about the differences he encountered this time around and they were strikingly different. Because of my background in the fishing industry I sensed he was not bullshitting, but telling it exactly as he saw it . . . and what he saw is what scared me . . . and still does. Excerpt from the article by Ivan Macfadyen the skipper 119

of Funnel Web: It was the silence that made this voyage different from all of those before it. Not the absence of sound, exactly. The wind still whipped the sails and whistled in the rigging. The waves still sloshed against the fiberglass hull. And there were plenty of other noises: muffled thuds and bumps and scrapes as the boat knocked against pieces of debris. What was missing was the cries of the seabirds which, on all previous similar voyages, had surrounded the boat. The birds were missing because the fish were missing.

(reporter news) : Exactly 10 years before, when Newcastle yachtsman Ivan Macfadyen had sailed exactly the same course from Melbourne to Osaka, all he'd had to do to catch a fish from the ocean between Brisbane and Japan was throw out a baited line. "There was not one of the 28 days on that portion of the trip when we didn't catch a goodsized fish to cook up and eat with some rice," Macfadyen recalled. But this time, on that whole long leg of sea journey, the total catch was two. No fish. No birds. Hardly a sign of life at all. "In years gone by I'd gotten used to all the birds and their noises," he said. "They'd be following the boat, sometimes resting on the mast before taking off again. You'd see flocks of them wheeling over the surface of the sea in the distance, feeding on pilchards."

But in March and April this year, only silence and desolation surrounded his boat, Funnel Web, as it sped across the surface of a haunted ocean. (end) In the early eighties I commercial fished the waters of

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Prince William Sound in Alaska and even back then the King Crab were pretty well fished out. It was very discouraging at the time to pull in one pot after another and only have a few crab large enough to keep. I blame all this over fishing on the advancement of technology and the lack of oversight. Today, the boats are larger and their electronics more advanced. Fish finders have evolved to the point whereas before when you had to have skill and good luck to find the crab, now you can pretty much see them. It's the same thing on the oceans with the fish as it was on the prairies with the buffalo. The American Indian could have lived forever off the buffalo using their way of catching them, but white man brought his weaponry on the scene and within a few years the buffalo were extinct. Seems no one except the Indian even cared. We make me sick. Fishing is the same way, we will hunt them down with our electronics, catch every damn one of them, and THEN cry about their demise . . . as well the trees . . . and everything else we can make a buck off of. We make me sick. Anyways, this whole scenario is about to bite us on our ignorant asses because as the ocean goes so goes mankind. It gets worse . . . Excerpt:

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North of the equator, up above New Guinea, the oceanracers saw a big fishing boat working a reef in the distance. "All day it was there, trawling back and forth. It was a big ship, like a mothership," he said. And all night it worked too, under bright floodlights. And in the morning Macfadyen was awoken by his crewman calling out, urgently, that the ship had launched a speedboat. "Obviously I was worried. We were unarmed and pirates are a real worry in those waters. I thought, if these guys had weapons then we were in deep trouble." But they weren't pirates, not in the conventional sense, at least. The speedboat came alongside and the Melanesian men aboard offered gifts of fruit and jars of jam and preserves. "And they gave us five big sugarbags full of fish," he said. "They were good, big fish, of all kinds. Some were fresh, but others had obviously been in the sun for a while. "We told them there was no way we could possibly use all those fish. There were just two of us, with no real place to store or keep them. They just shrugged and told us to tip them overboard. That's what they would have done with them anyway, they said. "They told us that this was just a small fraction of one day's bycatch. That they were only interested in tuna and to them, everything else was rubbish. It was all killed, all dumped. They just trawled that reef day and night and stripped it of

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every living thing."

Macfadyen felt sick to his heart. That was one fishing boat among countless more working unseen beyond the horizon, many of them doing exactly the same thing. No wonder the sea was dead. No wonder his baited lines caught nothing. There was nothing to catch. When I was fishing in Alaska, the state was having problems with foreign fishing factory ships coming into US waters and fishing. (I believe they finally extended the boundary) One story they were telling back then was about the Ak fisherman who pulled his small fishing boat up beside one of the huge Russian fish factories and shot the boat with his shotgun while the russians peered overboard at the crazy American. That shows how deeply frustrated they were up there at the time. On the open sea there is very little anybody can, or is willing to do, to stop this overfishing by the various countries involved in it. It gets worse . . . Excerpt: The next leg of the long voyage was from Osaka to San Francisco and for most of that trip the desolation was tinged with nauseous horror and a degree of fear.

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"After we left Japan, it felt as if the ocean itself was dead," Macfadyen said. "We hardly saw any living things. We saw one whale, sort of rolling helplessly on the surface with what looked like a big tumour on its head. It was pretty sickening. "I've done a lot of miles on the ocean in my life and I'm used to seeing turtles, dolphins, sharks and big flurries of feeding birds. But this time, for 3000 nautical miles there was nothing alive to be seen." In place of the missing life was garbage in astounding volumes. "Part of it was the aftermath of the tsunami that hit Japan a couple of years ago. The wave came in over the land, picked up an unbelievable load of stuff and carried it out to sea. And it's still out there, everywhere you look."

Ivan's brother, Glenn, who boarded at Hawaii for the run into the United States, marvelled at the "thousands on thousands" of yellow plastic buoys. The huge tangles of synthetic rope, fishing lines and nets. Pieces of polystyrene foam by the million. And slicks of oil and petrol, everywhere. Countless hundreds of wooden power poles are out there, snapped off by the killer wave and still trailing their wires in the middle of the sea. "In years gone by, when you were becalmed by lack of wind, you'd just start your engine and motor on," Ivan said.

Not this time.

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"In a lot of places we couldn't start our motor for fear of entangling the propeller in the mass of pieces of rope and cable. That's an unheard of situation, out in the ocean. "If we did decide to motor we couldn't do it at night, only in the daytime with a lookout on the bow, watching for rubbish. "On the bow, in the waters above Hawaii, you could see right down into the depths. I could see that the debris isn't just on the surface, it's all the way down. And it's all sizes, from a softdrink bottle to pieces the size of a big car or truck. "We saw a factory chimney sticking out of the water, with some kind of boiler thing still attached below the surface. We saw a big containertype thing, just rolling over and over on the waves. "We were weaving around these pieces of debris. It was like sailing through a garbage tip. "Below decks you were constantly hearing things hitting against the hull, and you were constantly afraid of hitting something really big. As it was, the hull was scratched and dented all over the place from bits and pieces we never saw."

Plastic was ubiquitous. Bottles, bags and every kind of throwaway domestic item you can imagine, from broken chairs to dustpans, toys and utensils. And something else. The boat's vivid yellow paint job, never faded by sun or sea in years gone past, reacted with something in the water off Japan, losing its sheen in a strange and unprecedented way. BACK in Newcastle, Ivan Macfadyen is still coming to terms with the shock and horror of the voyage. 125

"The ocean is broken," he said, shaking his head in stunned disbelief.

Recognizing the problem is vast, and that no organisations or governments appear to have a particular interest in doing anything about it, Macfadyen is looking for ideas. He plans to lobby government ministers, hoping they might help. More immediately, he will approach the organisers of Australia's major ocean races, trying to enlist yachties into an international scheme that uses volunteer yachtsmen to monitor debris and marine life. Macfadyen signed up to this scheme while he was in the US, responding to an approach by US academics who asked yachties to fill in daily survey forms and collect samples for radiation testing a significant concern in the wake of the tsunami and consequent nuclear power station failure in Japan. "I asked them why don't we push for a fleet to go and clean up the mess," he said. "But they said they'd calculated that the environmental damage from burning the fuel to do that job would be worse than just leaving the debris there."

We are sooooo screwed! . . . and that's what is so sad about this thing and why I believe even the media is not touching it . . . there is nothing we can do except learn

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how to eat our money like the wise old Indian said.

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When? OH MY GOD!! . . . The greatest storm ever recorded! . . . 10,000 dead and growing . . . Entire villages flushed away . . . Death, death, and more death. I see concern from the media, hear it from from everybody I talk to. “Oh, my! Those poor people in the Philippines! God help them . . . Should we send a contribution”? I heard the same thing during the tsunami in Thailand . . . Nakashima, Japan . . . The storms on the East Coast . . . The earthquakes, volcanoes, fires, and floods across the whole planet. I hear this same shit all the time, Crops drying up, drought, people being slaughtered in wars that make no sense. Poor ignorant countries being fed guns by the rich, well fed ones so they can kill each other even better.

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I hear this same shit all the time. . . All the time . . . All the time. We check our tv’s for body counts like Westmoreland checking the day,s battle report in Vietnam . . . How many dead? Oh, WOW, man, that’s unbelievable!! Man we got to do something about it. . . We got to do something about it . . . We got to do something about it! About it!!! WHEN??

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Your Way Do you have one? What are you doing to secure yourself and your family for the coming social/economic/environmental crisis? Anything? Do you even believe there is a problem? If you do, are you just sitting around praying it will all be over soon so you can go back to life the way it was before all these environmental issues began pummeling the planet? Or before our industrial base took a slow boat to China? Are you praying for work to pick up? The oceans to heal themselves? How is that going to happen? Praying the slump will be over? Without decent jobs? Praying global warming is a joke despite the evidence? . . . never happen. Praying Jesus will come soon to whisk you away in the rapture? Ha! Praying the right people will get elected and straighten up the whole mess that has taken us at least 45 years to create? Double HA! Whatever you believe and however you pray is your own business. You have that right. But if you take the 131

time to study some of these social/economic/environmental trends (and there is a plethora of information out there) it's not difficult to see the net is closing around us as we swim like a school of salmon in a smaller, smaller circle. The guy in the middle of the net doesn't feel a lot of pressure yet, but the guy against the ropes is totally freaked out and in a virtual panic as he senses he is about to be trapped, hauled in, dropped in a hold to suffocate and eventually be eaten. Are you having a hard time breathing yet? Right now it depends on where you live I suppose, but I predict that eventually the whole country will be kicking and splashing around gasping for air . . . all except, perhaps, the guys who have prepared. Wasn't that the boy scout motto? Be Prepared. Anyways it's smart to do something to get your life under control right now, regardless of whether you continue your tiptoe through the tulips or not. So why don't you just sit down with your family, remain positive, and figure out what you can do just in case this old nut knows what he's talking about? To merely survive the coming crisis, but to survive and be left standing in dead corpses we could have kept alive is unacceptable. We must do this thing together. We must adapt to and enjoy the ride together. That way when it's all over we will be standing, perhaps in a different environment, but it will have been one hell of a

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wild and merry ride that produced lots of stories to tell the grand kids. So how are we gonna do it? As a start the most important thing to do when on a survival path is to first get your mind fine tuned and under control, because every thought you act upon from now on will be creating either a stepping stone or a stumbling block for you. Every step you take down this path will have far reaching consequences. Only the strong in mind and body will survive once the safety net has been shot full of holes.

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ShelterWaterFood In any survival situation the basics are overall pretty much the same. You find yourself in a predicament. You have for some reason, from civil war to the latest storm of the century, had your normal lifestyle pulled out from under you and are in a state of panic as to what to do about it. Now what? What am I gonna do? Why me? On and on the questioning comes, like twenty foot waves crashing against a ten foot boat. Where’s the Red Cross? Where’s FEMA? Where’s the food, water and shelter the government promised? My wife is injured! I’m hungry! My kids are hungry!! Now, before anything bad happens, is the time to sit down somewhere and begin charting out a plan of action. In dire emergencies (remember Katrina) you cannot just sit on your ass and wait for the help that may be overwhelmed to the point of uselessness. Basic survival 101 says you need shelter, water, and food to survive. You need the first two ASAP while the food can wait a few days or so, but if you don't replenish your energy soon, you're gonna be dead. Life itself becomes very simple when all the peripherals melt away and the big three take over your entire focus. Your particular situation will dictate your action when it comes to the three necessities. Living in the country, I would research the edible food 135

sources that grown naturally in the area, both plant and animal. I would find, if any, where the springs were and where and what kind of medicinal herbs grew in the area. It makes no sense to rely on survival formula's that you learned in a long ago jungle or desert. All that counts is what exists in your immediate vicinity. If you find it an impossible situation, pack up and move when the time is right to a place where you CAN survive. If you are in a Northern climate it all depends on what time of the year the disaster strikes, as to what is available for you to eat. In the winter, guess what? You must have a food supply cached away in a safe place because the large animals will disappear quickly under the guns of a zillion hunters . . . then the small critters will disappear . . . birds, rodents, everything. During the great Pol Pot experiment in Cambodia during the seventies many thousands of people were left living on bugs alone. Learn what insects are edible in your area. Living in the city would bring on an entire different set of circumstances. What will you do when the grocery shelves are empty? When the bottled water is gone? When the utility has cut your power and heat? You gotta do something. Personally I don't have a clue as to what I'd do except flee the city. That, if you wait too long, will turn you into a refugee and subject to all the ills that follow. . . . Not a good idea. I can visualize serious difficulties above and beyond

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anyone’s comprehension in the major cities of this country if it gets bad enough. I'm not sure there is an answer to the question except get out of the city. It’s just the last few generations that have been conned into thinking all they have to do is sit back and wait for assistance from a benevolent government. Before WW2 people knew how to take care of themselves and their families. You must relearn what they knew and do what they did if you have any hope of surviving a long term grid collapse or a nuke attack or a Katrina type disaster. You don’t have to goof out like those ‘preppers’ on National Geographic channel, but you do need to prepare.

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Katrina A while ago I watched a documentary about Katrina. WOW! If the way the government handled that situation wouldn't wake you up to it's ineptitude nothing would, nor would it ever. The Feds totally blew it. The State totally blew it. The City totally blew it. And all those people who were waiting around for those guys to come to the rescue . . . some even still waiting? They are totally blowing it. Lookit, we gotta get off our collective asses, ban together and help ourselves if anything large and disastrous goes down (or at least prepare to) because that empty road in front of our houses may not be filling up with repair trucks any time soon. The help may be there all right, but, using Katrina as an example, the repair trucks will be up in the rich man’s neighborhood. You people know what triage means? That means that in any disaster if you make it back to the field hospital after being wounded the doctor does a quick check to see how bad the wound is. If in his opinion you are about to die, they wheel you behind the tent to make room for the guys who have a better chance of pulling through. Guess where the guys in the lower ninth ward were? And that extremely large Charity Hospital that’s [still!] just sitting there empty after all these years? Wasn't that the hospital where most of the poor folks went for their health care? Well, bad news, the government 139

abandoned it and is still arguing about whether rebuilding it would be worthwhile because it would cost so much money, in fact millions of dollars. Those poor people need to understand that when our government is creating billions of dollars a month to shore up Wall Street and multi other billions to fight their silly wars, they’re gonna be a bit strapped when it comes to them. They are expendable. Wall Street, Iraq, Afghanistan, got a nice cot and a hot cup of coffee inside the triage tent . . . sorry. The fact is that in a situation as large and as bad and as catastrophic as Katrina was, in spite of the advertisement, government is too large, too cumbersome, too disorganized to really do much to alleviate your situation. Unless you are a person of means you are written off untill, like the old black man said, “I never seen that woman (local council women for his district) till election day. Then she's down here knocking on my door looking for votes.” . . . That about says it all. Now let’s take Katrina as an example and ask ourselves what would happen in this country were we to be attacked with a nuke, or the grid gets shut down by a foreign nation? Who we gonna call? The Feds? The State? The County? Ghostbusters? . . . We better get our collective minds straight BEFORE the deed goes down and get this stuff figured out. Have a plan of action. Don't sit around relying on Uncle Sam.

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It's your ass on the firing line. Preserve it. Find your Way to survive without them. No need to go over the top. Common sense is good . . . and so is that stash of food and supplies you have sitting in the basement.

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Section Three The Mind

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Imagine No Possessions Janis Joplin sang, "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." . . . That's the first thought I had when contemplating the first sentence of the last verse of Lennon's 'Imagine'. The complete verse goes like this: Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world

What would we do if we lost all our possessions? How could we be happy? How could we show our personal value? What if we were forced to drive an old car, or wear Goodwill clothes, or eat simple foods and live in a small common looking house? What could be worse than becoming a nondescript nobody of a human being in a country that judges it's citizenry by the 'stuff' they possess. A country where the guy with the most toys, or the gal with the largest closet full of shoes, is considered a winner, and the rest? . . . well the little people are just losers, of course. What if the bubble broke completely and we ended up down and out on Skid Row sleeping under a bridge? Wow man, that would put a wrinkle in our thousand dollar suit wouldn't it? What could be worse than that?

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Well, actually a lot of things. What if those possessions you worship have become your prison? A tight, white walled bubble that keeps you separated from the rest of humanity and the simple joys of life? What if you have so many things that you have become prideful, and arrogant, and self serving towards anyone beneath you? If that was the case perhaps it would actually be a blessing for you to lose everything. Then you could start over and this time you may take the different tack and not waste your entire life acquiring things of little long term meaning and begin to learn the life lessons concerning love, mercy, grace, and empathy. Of course it is not impossible for a rich man to experience these human attributes, and many do, but I can imagine it would be far more difficult not to allow self righteousness to completely remove you from all reality and put a good screwing to your priorities. Just a thought as I have never had enough money at one time to be tempted by it. I've never saved, rarely borrowed, but as I look back I am in love with the life I have lived up to this point. There was a time during the hippie days when all I had was a bicycle and my old army duffel bag full of clothes. I was in a strange city with little money and on my own. Because of the circumstance I instinctively knew I needed help, or I was gonna get really hungry and cold. That help came by the buckets full from the human beings around me who found themselves in much the

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same position as I myself was in. We all helped each other and it was a new and vibrant way to live. The 'tune in, turn on, drop out' generation instinctively knew it would be easier to go together than to go it alone. In the neighborhood I gravitated to there were what was called 'crash pads.' These were usually rented houses where you could find a couch, a closet or floor to sleep on for a night or two. There were young people living in practically every house and most all were willing to help get you on your feet. There was a barmaid friend who gave me a free Steward sandwich every morning and one before she quit for the evening. And there was Fred Adams, the half Seminole Indian I will always consider a brother though I haven't seen him since 1970. Those days were special to me, they proved to be the greatest and most exciting times in a life filled with it. Who needed stuff in those days when we had each other. You needed something? You borrowed it. Everybody loved everybody . . . until the meth dealers showed up that is. Then what had already taken root in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco gravitated north to Portland and the whole thing went to hell in a handbasket. Hard drugs killed the grand experiment and the new alternate social order collapsed. Too bad. In today's world when it comes to greed and hunger for

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more, this country is dying of over consumption. Our many toys have made us uncaring and self serving gluttons, but we don't see it. We still want more. Even though our bellies are fat and our asses flat, we continue this mad dash down the isle of consumerism pushing our bellies before us . . . where are we going anyways? Boy, Dylan was right, the times they are a changin . . . What would happen if, instead of losing all our stuff in some calamitous event, we willingly gave everything we had in excess away to those in need? "What?! Are you kidding me! That's MY stuff, I earned it! Get out of here you . . ." As the story goes the Buddha did just that . . . as did Jesus Christ and many others. . . and by doing so they gained the whole world. Were these men all some sort of specially made super beings? I don't think so. Actually, I believe only Jesus was given that distinction, and well . . . who really knows? I see this idea having far more power anyways if accomplished by a normal person. One possessing all the frailties of a common man. That thought gives me hope to believe we ALL have the power within ourselves to do such a thing. Why not join the hundreds of thousands of those of us who are fed up with with the status quo and want real

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change in this society as well as the world at large, not just more politically inspired bullshit coming from politically inspired bullshitters. You might say we are dreamers But we aren't the only ones Why don't you come and join us And the world can be as one

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Free Your Mind This blog has two goals. One is to lay out a personal plan for meaningful change and what it will take for us to do it. The other is to reveal, in as simple a way as possible, the reality of just what sort of fix we, as well as this entire planet are in. We all want to raise our families in peace and freedom. We should all realize by now that relying on a governmental system, regardless of what it is called, or a religion, regardless of what it is called, or anything else, regardless of what it is called, will not do the trick for us. These entities are not even capable of creating a just and lasting change in the human condition. They just can’t do it. God knows they have been trying and promising change throughout modern history, and none of them have yet to succeed to any measured degree that I can see. Don’t you think it’s about time to shift gears and realize that any lasting change MUST come from within us? That we are personally responsible for our actions and are the only ones with the power to change ourselves? The main obstacles standing between us and success are these corrupt governmental and religious systems we submit ourselves to. When every one of them has feet of clay why do we adhere to them so strongly? Why do we kill and die for them in the first place? What are we afraid of? Ourselves? 151

This national sociopathic insanity has got to stop before we can begin to realize even the most basic concepts concerning the brotherhood of humanity . . . or our ultimate purpose . . . or any other meaningful thing. These systems we adhere to and their faulty teachings can only delay and hinder us in our attempt. Believe it or not that is the simple truth, change comes from within. In order to begin the process we must free our minds from all outer conditionings and begin the inner search. Does that mean we need to physically extricate ourselves from the US or any other country in the world? No, of course not. What we need to do is to stop absorbing their bullshit as if it were the oracle of God. It's not that difficult to do once we decide to wake up to reality and begin to have faith in ourselves rather than 'them' and their system . . . If you don't understand what I am saying or you don't even believe what I am saying, there are plenty of brightly clad pied pipers on the job already who will gladly lead you over their particular spot on the cliff. You will be born, you will live your life worshipping at the altar of the unknown God, you will die . . . never knowing what the hell it was all about in the first place. If that's what you want, have at it, but if you want more, you must begin the journey towards self discovery alone. There is no easy fix and there is no other way.

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There are those who make things happen. The United States is a representative democracy, right? What is a representative democracy anyways? Well I would say a representative democracy is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. In the US we elect representatives from among our peers to speak and vote on our behalf. Looks good on paper, but does it actually work? Well, from what I understand it worked well enough until sometime around the administration of Woodrow Wilson. It was then that the centralized Federal Reserve banking act was voted in. The shit soon hit the fan. Wilson realizing he was duped by the ultra wealthy globalists of the time when he signed the act into law, later wrote this: Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know there is power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it. President Woodrow Wilson Later in the forties FDR was noted as writing:

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The real truth of it is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson. President Franklin D. Roosevelt What? Who are these past presidents talking about? I thought they ran the country while they were in office. Now I know differently. I realize that we are now a democracy in name only and in all reality somewhat of a fascist state similar to Mussolini's Italy. Fascism (from the dictionary) A political regime, having totalitarian aspirations, ideologically based on a relationship between business and the centralized government, businessandgovernment control of the market place, repression of criticism or opposition, a leader cult and exalting the state and/or religion above individual rights.

Add a relationship between business, banking and a centralized government and you have corporatism our true governmental system. We are being duped by the corporate state in practically every aspect of our lives. Want to know why we go to war so often? Follow the money trail and see where it leads. Check out Halliburton and some of the other top players in our war machine. How much did they profit from the gulf wars? An obscene amount of loot went into their coffers. We sacrificed our children in the name of patriotic duty, where’s THEIR patriotic sacrifice? What personal sacrifice did anybody in big business or the government 154

make in ANY of these wars? Lao Tsu said, “Know your enemy.” Well here he is, allow me to introduce you. Sometime during the beginning of the last century a congressionally approved central banking system was installed in this country called The Federal Reserve Bank. This bank, though it sounds to be owned and operated by our federal government, is not. The bank is run and operated in private by a cartel of international bankers who work in conjunction with the governments of every country in the world except for a very few. This much feared cartel is made up of the ultra wealthy, the globalist, the guys with the bucks, the banks, and the power to do pretty much as they please through the buying of governments and the financing of wars. They even print our money. The Rothschild family . . . the Rockefellers . . . the Warburgs . . . the Morgans are a few of the major players in this cartel. There are many others. As a whole we will call them the globalists. The globalist agenda is based upon a theory of Sigmund Freud's that says the common man is incapable, because of his base nature, of governing himself. He needs guidance else he will wallow forever in his own waste. Basically this theory is akin to the German Third Reich and their philosophy concerning the superiority of the

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Aryan race. If you can visualize the globalist in that light you get the picture. Believing this stuff gives them the moral justification to follow the philosophy that 'the end justifies the means’ when it comes to us, the sub human element of the species. Now, the globalist is no more evil than the southern white was in his regard to the Negro slaves he owned. I'm sure they are nice people at times and assholes at other times just like the rest of us. He IS deceived though. Because of his wealth and perfect table manners he mistakenly believes he is superior to us common folks. He is dangerous to us because he has forgotten who he is, and that his base nature is no different than ours. He fails to realize we are all cut from the same cloth. Because of this, his ‘new world order’ is doomed to failure as surely as every other empire that ever existed on this planet was doomed. His religions won’t work long. His economic systems won’t work long. His governmental systems won’t work long. Nothing can work for him any longer than it does for us . . .We ALL need a nature change. He may live in a guilded cage, but it is just as tight and imprisoning as our own. So that’s our enemy, just another dope with a god

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complex. I have revealed him to you so that if you sincerely want to attack this ‘change’ thing it will be much easier for you to begin by disassociating yourself from him and his ignorance. Don’t hate the elitist or anybody else . . . hate his ignorance, first in yourself then perhaps later on you can help others shed theirs. You must watch ‘Ethos: the movie.’ I posted a preview of this well made documentary on my blog. You can watch it on Netflix or Amazon and probably buy a dvd at their web site. Regardless it is well worth the watching, and it will reveal in color what I am trying to explain in black and white. There are those who watch things happen. This is the idealist crowd. The freedom lover, the independance seeker, the writer, the artist, the poet, the creative genius. The dreamer who writes songs like Lennon's ‘Imagine’. These are the people who actually make life worth living for the rest of us. They are the soul of this planet. The intellectual lives here as well as the thinker. They sit along the sidelines of life observing the times and trends of their fellows, but only occasionally do they join in. They are the loners. They follow trends and visualize futures. They would rather reveal themselves through their works and shun the bright lights of fame and

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fortune . . . for they know what a whore she can become. There are those who wonder what happened These are the vast majority of us. The common folks who are only concerned with having food, shelter, water, a plot of land to live on and a job. They are more concerned with keeping up with their neighbors than anything else, give them something to entertain their fallow minds and they will be quite content. These people are the globalists true patriot, they still believe in the greatness of this country and in our commission from God to be a beacon of light to the rest of the world. They believe in their government. They believe what their TV tells them. They believe the speeches, They believe the bullshit. They are the true believers. As long as their stuff is not being disturbed, they will follow the will of their master without question. Stir them up and their anger is capable of large scale mayhem . . . the globalist knows this. Keeping them occupied and satisfied is of the highest order on his list of priorities. These are the guys the globalist loves. They do his work in every country on the planet. They pay into his coffers just like they are told. They eat at his trough, just

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like they are told. Without them, the globalist and his assets soon dry up. These are the ones who need to wake up and start watching for themselves, in order to see for themselves what is actually going on. If they do that they will change the life pattern for everybody as they possess the power to create change like no other. The Makers, the Watchers, the Wonderers, ALL have in common the necessity to change and the ability to do so. For the man in the gilded cage, the poet, the common man, are in essence . . . the same man.

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Follow Your Bliss Joseph Campbell was being interviewed by Bill Moyers on the PBS “Power of Myth“ series when I first heard his phrase “follow your bliss”. In his viewpoint this undertaking must happen if a man were to experience fulfillment in his lifetime. Joseph Campbell was a very wise man, but just what does it mean to follow one’s bliss? Well, in my opinion it means merely to be balanced enough to know your gift and be willing enough to work towards bringing it to fruition. An artist creating a work. A businessman creating a new business. A teacher creating wonder and hope in young minds. A philanthropist in the creative stage of giving. On an on it goes, different for each individual yet having the same affect on all of them by bringing purpose into their lives. Did you catch the major theme through all this dream following? Creativity. Being a creative human being is what it’s all about. After all what are we if not creators? Followers. Now, following is not bad nor necessarily wrong. Without leadership we would be living extremely chaotic lives on this planet, and in all reality would probably 161

have gone extinct some time ago. But there is a balance that must be maintained while following or else you may just deny your gift and ultimately lose yourself in another’s cause. What’s your dream? (it is normally tied into your gift) Everybody who has not been beaten down or brainwashed by the society he lives in has one. What do you need to do in order to fulfill it? I would say also that in order to follow your dream you must be realistic in your goals. Otherwise a man will spend his valuable youth chasing after someone else’s dream, be he/she a scholar, a movie star, a musician or a magician, it doesn’t matter. He will merely be living as a copycat who will never be as good as what he copies. Why? It’s not his. He is just fantasizing it is. Has anybody ever made Mozart’s music as good as Mozart himself? No, of course not. He may be good enough to copy and be almost equal to Mozart, but never will he surpass him. It’s impossible. My gift is not in the music field and I know it, yet I still enjoy playing an instrument. Nor am I a painter, yet I enjoy painting a picture. We can do a lot of really cool stuff without activating our gift. Those who excel, the gifted ones who seemingly are heads above the rest of us, these guys are the ones I’m talking about. I know my gift and when it’s working I am in another place. A place where nothing can touch me, nor harm me, spiritually speaking anyways. When I am in my gift,

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I am at one with the earth. That’s the best I can explain it. I’m sure Joseph could do better. I fundamentally believe that each person born into this world has a gift of some sort programmed into his DNA and his goal, in order to be happy, is to find that gift and use it to the betterment of himself as well as his fellows. The problem I see, at least in this country, is that in order to create anything of value you first must follow a learning curve of dedication, commitment, discipline and practice. All the things that seem to be out of vogue in this “hurry up I want it now!” society we live in. As a practical matter we need to have a place of quiet solitude where we can meditate upon these questions and resolve them in our own minds before we even begin. Then we need to move forward to practice them. Thich Nhat Hanh (a Vietnamese Buddhist monk) is a great example of a man following his bliss. In the midst of the Vietnam War while the Americans were bombing the hell out of his country, he and his organization were busily rebuilding bombed villages, setting up schools and medical clinics, and helping through non violent means all he could to alleviate the plight of the citizens of his country. For doing that he was ultimately forced out of his country and banned from ever returning. Nothing stopped him however and he remains practicing peace

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to this day in Plum Village somewhere in France. Hopefully as/if things get worse for you in this country nothing will stop you either because what takes place on the outside is nothing to be compared to the power within once you find and follow your bliss. . . . Go for it! You’ll be glad that you did.

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Diversity Although we can be related by blood or formed into various groups, each one of us lives in our own reality and perceives this existence we all share a wee bit differently. Expecting others to share, exchange for, or even believe, OUR reality has always been a major cause of conflict in this world, and yet we continue walking this same beaten and worn out path throughout history. Diversity is what creates the magic. Traveling to various exotic places is far more exciting than visiting the local coffee shop. Having pizza in Naples is far more exciting than going over to Dominoes for it. Killing diversity is the same as exchanging paradise for a parking lot. Do that and what do we get? . . . boredom!

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Perception What is truth? My answer would be that . . . personal experience is the only truth and everything else is hearsay . . . but is that thought even true to anyone except me? We can argue till the cows come home and in the end it’s just my perception of truth. So, I’m wondering if there is really ‘truth’ in this whole existence . . . and wondering that, I’m also wondering why everybody is so adamant and willing to kill about stuff that is usually unknowable in the first place. Why would I take offense to the nonacceptance of my perceived version of truth anyways? I could be wrong. Besides, a person's opinion is important to me. On the flip side, people who argue using quotes from their favorite leader irritate me. I am not interested in someone else’s perception, only theirs. To me, it’s like they feel weak and need a backup or something. There are no photo’s of my favorite guru on my meditation alter either, there is a small crystal ball, an acorn, and a bible. In the crystal I see my own image . . . in the acorn I see God’s image. . . and in the bible I see perception.

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The Corporate Conundrum In Western Christian belief a baby is born in sin. Right off the bat the child has two strikes against him and the only hope for the kid is that before he strikes out and ends up in hell he finds personal salvation. In the Eastern Zen Buddhist belief a baby is born pure and learns to be evil because of the hellishness in the world. His salvation comes from self realization. I follow the Eastern Way. I believe that in the right circumstances all people are capable of committing heroic deeds, but in the wrong circumstances all people are quite capable of propagating all forms of evil upon themselves as well as their fellows. Take war for instance. War is evil personified and yet men swarm to it like beetles skittering to a dog turd. Take an incident like 911 when the towers went down. We would have a hard time counting the heroics that took place that day as strangers died trying to save other strangers while a whole country mourned openly. It seems humans are at their best when there is a catastrophe in the making. It behooves us all then to make good choices for ourselves as we seem to be directly affected by the circumstances we find ourselves in. The conundrum: How can people be so good individually while at the same time be so bad corporately? How can the bank be cold and aloof as it forecloses on your home when it is filled with warm 169

hearted individuals? How can a doctor dedicated to healing turn away a patient just because their insurance denied the claim? How could the insurance company deny said claim to begin with knowing the person would die without treatment? What's up with this? Fact is the corporation has become an entity far more important than the individual it was created to serve. We created these monsters out of brick and stone. We gave them names. We gave them life. We bowed down before them. We serve them. We are no different than our Aztec fathers who offered human sacrifice to the sun god upon the altar at the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan. How'd that work for them? How's it working for us? Time for a change don't you think? What would happen if we pulled the plug on this bullshit and began to manifest the greatness and the empathy we possess . . . to ourselves, to each other, as well as the Earth we live on? Wouldn't that be a novel idea? That simple and direct act alone would create great change in this world. That is something we can all do right now by simply taking ourselves and our families back to a time before the corporation stole our humanity. Nobody here is advocating a jungle hut in the Amazon. We can still have our businesses. We can still have nice stuff. This could all be done simply by getting smart and putting more focus on the human being and

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far less on the corporation monster. . . . It's all about us, not them. The earth is screaming for balance and we can give it to her by fighting back against the polluters and every corporate entity that refuses to go green. Not by getting involved in the commercial yuppy faddy way with all its bullshit slogans and PR . . . but by taking a real and honest effort to go green and begin to put the earth first in everything we do. All we really have to do is ignore the corporation and not buy it's product. Use businesses that care, deny those that don't. The bottom line for any corporation can no longer be their profit margin. Find the companies that believe as we do, and even if it costs a few more bucks to buy their product isn't it worth it? . . . Humanity first! Earth first! What's so hard about that?

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Realist vs Dreamer There are two basic types of believers . . . the realist and the dreamer. The realist sees himself standing with both feet on the ground facing life as it is and making the best of it. He has a hard time buying into the dreamer's world because many times the dreamer has no foundation under his dreams, they are merely just hopes and wishes. The realist is the glue that holds societies together. He seeks to improve upon the foundation already laid, and has no desire to try and decipher the ethereal plane of the dreamer. On the other hand the dreamer lives in a world of 'what if's'. His feet are not so solidly planted, and his head is often in a cloud. He sees things as they are, but also what they could become if only . . . The dreamer is the artist, the poet, the visionary, it is he who brings beauty and excitement to the world. His imaginings often become reality, but if they do, it will be the realist who does the actual work of producing them. Together, in a partnership that has extended throughout time, the realist and the dreamer have created the world in which we now live. Here is a comment I recently received from a realist to one of my recent writings : "War is a natural part of nature. If you go into nature you will see the struggle and fighting, everything fighting for life, deathlife always in the balance. Heraclitus says 173

“strife is justice” which is to say that through war everything becomes." My reply: As to warfare being a natural state? Your half right. Given that in order to survive it sometimes means you must fight and kill an aggressor, (as in a home or land invasion). . . but warfare as a whole, especially in this day and age? No, nothing natural about it. . . war is an abomination, it happens because of corruption in the human condition. This is something that needs to change. . . . Neither of us is totally correct in our assumptions, it's just the way we perceive reality. Another comment by a realist: "Even in small tribes where people share everything , etc. it was found that those people are resentful and have negative, even hateful feelings for each other. They are forced into communal behavior in order for the tribe to survive and when asked they will admit this. I think your ideas are nice but unrealistic. I don’t believe that sharing and caring is our natural way of behaving". . . . it goes on, but that's good enough a picture of what the person was saying. My reply to him: What I see is a realistic viewpoint of the human condition. What you say IS what is, . . . . the best duality can offer us is balance. . . . the question is: Do we have to remain in duality? Who says so?

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Oneness is merely coming to the awareness that we are not only called to be our brothers keeper . .. but we ARE our brother. . . . pie in the sky to a realist perhaps, but an absolute to a dreamer. . . we are not all that we can be, not even close. . . one man sees God as an individual entity, one man sees God as a state of being. Are these 'realists' dumb or misinformed? No, of course not. The realist sees things as they are, and no one, including me, can argue that what they say and see is not true. I, on the other hand, am a dreamer. This is something I openly admit to, and even take pride (often to the chagrin of my wife) in. I am the one who imagines what could be were we, all of us, to make different choices in our lives. I see John Lennon's song "Imagine" as something doable, not just a nice melody. I have lived a pretty rough and tumble life, have many times witnessed guys, as well as myself, at their worst. I don't believe any of us acted that way by instinct, as if we were cats instinctively torturing a chipmunk. We knew we could get away with it and chose to do it. If we could choose to be evil, we damn sure could have chosen to be good also. Humanity gives us the option of choice that the rest of the animals don't have, that's the one thing separating us from them, and the one thing that has the potential of making us even worse than them. So when I speak of these changes I envision, I know

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they are not here in the now, I know they are still pipe dreams, but I also know that without a doubt, the potential is there to make these things happen . . . and without a vision of them they never will. Sitting within your castle looking out at the countryside and bitching about how bad the lawn looks will never help anything. Get up off your ass, go outside, grab a mower and fix it up . . . that's all, it 's not all that difficult. The key to success is to work on yourself first. You already have the power and the ability to choose a new path for yourself. That may be all you accomplish in this life, but it will be a great start in bringing the realist and the dreamer together in one accord. . . . imagine that!

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Old Age And Choices In his book, Lightening Bolt, Hyemeyohsts Storm wrote, "In our youth the river of life flows towards us; in our old age the river flows from us." As I pondered upon this passage I began to understand the reason why so many of our elders have been pushed aside. Why, instead of given a place of honor in a family member’s home, they’re shipped off to a nursing facility where they spend their few remaining years in solitude and selfpity. The river of life that flows from them is stagnant, polluted by many years of spiritual neglect and selfindulgence. Instead of being a vast storehouse of wisdom they have nothing to share except bitterness. No wonder the fear of old age is so prevalent in our society. I then began to see in my mind’s eye two women. Both were old, wrinkled, and bent from their many years, yet so very different.

Jane was sitting in a chair with her head in her hands staring at the floor in despair. As I approached, she raised her eyes to meet mine. Her eyes were dull, seemingly void of all life. Her toothless mouth opened . . . and closed again. Without saying a word it returned to a thin, crooked gash separating the point where her nose almost touched her chin. She slowly lowered her 177

head back to her hands and returned to her preoccupation with the floor. A shiver rushed through my body. I wondered what tragedy had entered her life to cause a woman who was once so beautiful, to turn this ugly. What had life done to Jane? Or in another sense, what had Jane done with her life?

I watched as the ninetythree year old women walked cautiously down the path towards the TV cameras. It seemed as if a bad hip or something caused her slow gait, but she was smiling as the camera zoomed in upon her leathery face. The first thing I noticed were her eyes. They were deep and vibrant, within them I saw intelligence, and kindness. This woman, who probably had not been much to look at in her youth, radiated in her old age an inner beauty far beyond the physical. As I examined her wrinkled skin I noticed how all the lines seemed to turn up at their ends. When she smiled I understood why. I immediately felt drawn to her. Here was a person I would truly enjoy spending time with, one from whom I could glean much wisdom and plenty of good conversation. Although I don’t remember her name I’ll call her Joyce, because that’s my wife’s name and I pray that when she gets older, my wife will resemble this woman.

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Both women had been born into wealthy families. Each had received the best education and benefits their social position had to offer. Each had made choices throughout their lives . . . and each in their old age were composites of those choices. As the carefully contrived facade of youthful personality had slipped away, each women revealed to the world their true nature. The choices they had made were etched upon their faces, easier to read than a Dick and Jane primer for children.

Jane had chosen a life of frivolous indulgence. As an only child her parents doted upon her every whim and she quickly became entrenched in the center of her own selfish universe. While in college, men awed by her physical beauty stumbled over each other to get next to her. She was the life of every party. Attention, alcohol, and sex were her main sources of enjoyment. She lived to dance. After college she married and had two children. Five years later she tired of marriage, divorced her husband, and deserted the kids. Free once again to do her own thing, the lovely socialite slowly devolved through the years to giving quickies in the parking lot to anybody willing to pay the price of another drink. Her mind, kidneys, and liver slowly burned out from

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fighting the ravages of alcohol. Now, her life nearly over, she sat in the nursing home waiting fearfully to take her last dance with the devil.

Joyce had chosen a life of service. As the cameras rolled, she explained that after graduating from college with a teaching degree, she sought a way to share her wealth and knowledge with underprivileged girls. Because of her love for nature she purchased the summer camp sitting along a beautiful lake in coastal Maine where she now stood. Here, she took the girls in and taught them to walk a different path, a better one, void of the temptations of inner city life. She taught them to be in control of their lives. That it didn't matter where they were born or how much money they had, their lives were in their own hands and they had no one to blame if it went sour except themselves. They created their futures . . . by the individual choices they were making in the present. She also lent money to any of the girls who wished to go to college. This she would require after graduation to be paid back in full so that it would be available for the next girl. She told the TV camera that in all the years she had been holding the camps and loaning money, only twice had the tuition not been paid back. She was now retiring and passing the reigns of her camp to her daughter. She would remain in an advisory position, but she wanted to take some time to write a

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book. Even in her advanced age, she was looking forward to the future. Here was a woman who, when the time came, would peacefully exit this world without fear or remorse. One who would leave behind nothing but the love and admiration of the grateful many she’d helped during the years she’d walked among them. It’s all about choices, think of that next time you find yourself behind the eight ball. The next time you’re looking for someone to blame for your circumstances. If you are honest with yourself, you’ll be able to trace your way back to the foolish decision that put you there.

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A Bunch Of Baboons I remember watching an experiment involving a family of baboons once on television. The researchers observed and filmed the group of peaceful primates as they spent their days grooming one another and playing in a small clearing within their territory. The baboons had plenty of food growing around them and seemed quite content in their environment. One morning the researchers put five oranges into the clearing before they arrived. Soon the baboons came out of hiding. The first thing they did was to gather around the strange round objects. One baboon began rolling and playing with one of them. It wasn't long until the entire family was squabbling and fighting over the oranges. A terrible battle ensued and the researchers were forced to chase the baboons away and take back the oranges. Once the researchers and their oranges were gone, the baboons returned to their peaceful ways. It even seemed like they were apologizing to one another for fighting over the fragrant round objects.

Men identify with, and judge themselves by three criteria: Power, Position, and Possession. As long as the oranges are fragrant and lovely to look upon, we will struggle among ourselves to possess them in order to satisfy our ego and our greed.

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Hopefully, one day we will learn to share before the brightness of the sun turns our fruit to rot. Hopefully, one day we'll get a whiff of our true nature and realize that Greed is NOT good. But not this day. This day we fight on, as we always have, to possess something that will give us power and position over our fellows. Amazing how little we differ from our baboon brothers.

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Let’s Get Practical Our oceans are dying. Our earth and air is polluted. Our food is being poisoned. Mass media heralds one killer storm, earthquake, tsunami, forest fire, flood, famine after another. . . I am beginning to wonder, are the American Indians correct when they say we European invaders are so stupid that we are doing all this to ourselves? What the hell is going on anyways? Has our earth mother finally had enough of us? Are we about to be evicted? I started this book with a theme of ‘change’ on my mind based upon the song Imagine by John Lennon. I believe in that song. I believe in the brotherhood of man as well as a day when all that John imagined will come to pass. I also believe that the coming dark age may just become the motivating influence to get us there. Otherwise we would probably play these religious games we love to play forever with no change in direction, but . . . first we need to survive the storm. This survival I'm talking about has little to do with the “survivalist” movement going on in this country as I write this. I am not going to focus on stocking guns and ammo, nor is this going to be an ultimate guide to killing my neighbor. To the contrary it is all about getting reacquainted with my neighbor, and the two of us learning to survive this thing together. It’s coming folks, to what degree, and in what manner is 185

up for debate, but everybody I know has a sense of foreboding. I know I do. It’s time to get practical.

The Practical Way Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, and Lieh Tzu were walking together along a forested path one day when they came upon a fast flowing river that barred their way. Immediately Lieh Tzu sat down on the bank of the river and meditated upon the eternal Tao. Ten minutes later he stood up and proceeded to walk on the water to the other side. Next, Chuang Tzu sat in the lotus posture for twenty minutes, whereupon he stood up and also walked across the river. Lao Tzu, watching this in amazement, shrugged his shoulders, sat down on the river bank like the others and meditated for over an hour. Finally, with complete trust in the Tao, he closed his eyes, took one step into the river, and fell in up to his chest. On the other shore, Chuang Tzu laughed, turned to Lieh Tzu and asked, "Should we tell him where the rocks are?" Tao does not believe in any nonsense. It is very pragmatic, practical, and down to earth.

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Get Out Of Debt Years ago we were all suckered into the game called ‘buy now, pay later.’ If we followed the rules and had what the bank called good credit, we would no longer be required, like our parents had been, to sweat and save up our money in order to buy that item. Now we just signed on the bottom line and took it home with us. “Whoopee! Far out! I can get me a new car today!” . . . and away we went, diving head first into the slave masters back pocket. We never even realized how ignorant that was because we were so pumped about the “stuff” he allowed us to buy on his credit. Last time I looked at a credit card the interest rate was 29.99% if you defaulted and missed a payment. Now this sorta thing would have made Tony Soprano blush, but not the bankers. Hell no, it’s all good business to them, and by the way, you were forewarned . . . right? Didn’t you remember to read that itsy bitsy print on the brochure? Or were you just too excited to get your paws on that new wide screen TV to bother? Old grandpa would be rolling over in his grave right now if he knew. The system is rigged because of the interest the bank charges us, not because it loans us money. The whole thing could work pretty good for everybody involved if it were done on the up and up, but it isn’t, it’s a loser bet, more so that a Vegas slot machine.

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Well now is the time to get smart and get out of debt anyway you can. I did it by selling out and downscaling. It was easy for me to do because I didn't use credit cards much to begin with. I had one and paid it off before the month was out. That is smart, it helps you out at times and still keeps you ahead of the game. From the web: Credit Card Usage Statistics Americans are addicted to the convenience of shopping with credit cards. Today 74.9% of all households have a credit card, 46.2% of all families carries a credit balance. The average household has $7,0008,000 in credit card debt and pays 14.29% of disposable income for consumer debt payments. This debt is dragging down the household savings rate. As long as we only pay the minimum payment and continue to charge, we will never get out of debt. Here is an example showing how interest rates affect your credit card payment. $8,000 balance. $200 minimum payment. 18% APR 360 months to pay off Pay $11,615.32 in interest 9% APR 218 months to pay off Pay $3,345.20 in interest

The average household credit card debt in the U.S. doesn’t matter. What does matter is YOUR credit card debt and your ability to pay it off. In the days ahead that pretty much, on its own, makes you a winner or a loser when it comes to the highly touted credit rating system. You might get this message one of these days . . . “Warning! We're gonna ruin your credit rating!”

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You might say, “Go ahead, who gives a shit. That may be just what it takes for me to wizen up and jump off your rat wheel.” But if you do that they can also lean your house, and attach your wages, and a bunch of other stuff I don't even know about. The smart answer: Research it, talk to them, kiss their ass, do the best you can do to get the things paid off. Then BURN the suckers and start saving like Grandma did. You might just save your house and your sanity, even if you do have to wait on purchasing that newer computer. Saving up for something is GOOD for you!

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Attitude Well, let’s say we have gone about as far as we can go in the natural world with this survival stuff and are now prepared for the day that may never come. Now can we get back to normal and relax a bit? Well maybe, but first we need to discuss one more very important thing. . . . If the worse case scenario happens and we really do have to go into survival mode how are we going to cope? In order to survive, our coveted lives of quiet privacy has quickly become a thing of the past. We are now forced into living a communal lifestyle under the same roof with friends and family. OK now what? What are we going to do if the grid goes down? Think about it. Everything we do is tied into that electric power line. Entertainment, utilities, appliances, phones, practically everything. Shut it down and we are instantly thrown back to the rural thirties. Generators are good for a short time, but they waste precious fuel and are often a noisy pain in the ass. Does the scenario of sitting in a darkened, cold room with ten other people bother us? Are we spiritually prepared for such a thing? How are we going to contain our impulse to choke old uncle Fred if he farts just one more time? Now that we are able to survive, do we really want to? HA! Sure we do, we just need an attitude adjustment, that's all.

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Many family members these days never really talk to each other. They watch TV together. They sometimes eat together. They play computer games or listen to music or a zillion other things to entertain themselves, but they seldom sit down at the table and have a good conversation. All that TV, computer game, mp3 player stuff goes when the power goes and the batteries die. We can read. We can play music on a real instrument. We can write using a pencil and paper. But to really entertain ourselves we will have to do it together by playing cards, board games, and stuff like that. We can relearn the art of storytelling, drop the social networking and have real open dialog with each other for a change. We can relearn the art of just plain jaw jacking and bullshitting. We will have a lot of free time on our hands. Cutting firewood only takes up so much of it and food preparation? How many hands does it take to boil rice? There will be long hours for us to either sit and stare at each other or get creative and have some fun. Fun is important. If we can laugh at ourselves and our circumstance we will have the battle half licked at least. If you believe Christianity is the only game in town, that's cool, but please dear God don't be proselytizing it

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to me while you have me cornered in our ten person room. I'll be stressed out enough. That goes for Judaism, Buddhism, Moslemism, Jingoism and every other ism know to man. I follow the Zen philosophy of life. My Way may not be your Way, but it works for me. I would rather sit at the table and study an acorn than listen to you quote from your book of rules. Whoops! see how easy it will be to get into an argument? Gotta be careful to always be on our toes in the brave new world. I believe that this social/economic crisis can be great fun if we begin to realize the only goal to life is experiencing the path we are currently on . . . and we don't spend all our time crying and bitching about our lost "stuff". The past, it lies behind us. The future lies ahead. Live life in the moment. Or live among the dead.

Believe that and this whole thing can become one great adventure.

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Mind The number one requirement for any kind of survival is to have control of our mind. Without that we might as well just go out and jump off a cliff. We will save ourselves a whole lot of hard work because we’re not going to be successful anyhow. So let's discuss mind a bit. I have an idea concerning mind that works quite well for me, I'll share it with you knowing full well that ultimately we must use our own facilities of reason and creativity if we have any hope of understanding mind. We can listen to others, we can be of one mind with others, but the final decision before we act must always be our own. Some people argue that the brain created the mind. Some people argue that the mind created the brain. It all depends on how we look at it and how we were taught, but I go decidedly with the latter. Before the brain there existed the mind. The American Indian called this mind the Great Mystery. The various religions of today call it some version of the word God. Though I take the American Indians explanation, it's all the same thing, and after about forty years of reading and studying the works of others concerning it, I am of the persuasion that few really know what the hell they are talking about anyways. The one thing I know is that everybody from the car salesman to the prophet of God is in the act of attempting to steal our mind. What's the purpose of any 195

advertisement? To steal our mind. What's the purpose of government spin? To steal our mind. What's the purpose of religious doctrine? To steal our mind. What's the purpose of anyone who tries to convince us of practically anything? To steal our mind. What is seemingly the greatest joy of most people on this planet? To give it up to them. It is a troublesome and huge pain in the ass to have to reason within ourselves and to make our own decisions. It's also quite frightening to realize we and we alone will be held responsible for any decisions we do make. And to make it all worse yet, most people in the real world believe themselves inadequate to do the job of policing their own mind anyways. Fearing our own creative capability we most humbly take the advice of others and many times find ourselves on a path to nowhere pissing and moaning all the way over the edge of a cliff. It doesn't have to be this way. We are powerful spiritual beings in possession of the greatest tool the Mystery/God has for us . . . our own mind. We must not be afraid of it. We must learn to use it. It's our greatest weapon. But like all powerful weapons we must be careful how we use it. There are rules. Break them and the price we must pay is very heavy. Follow them and the joy they bring us is beyond measure, in this world and beyond.

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A simple explanation for all this would be: The first time we do something evil our conscience throws up a red flag, STOP! . . . we do it anyways. The next time we do the same thing our conscience throws up a red flag, but not quite as high, “stop!”. . . we do it anyways. The next time, lower still, “stop.” . . . we do it anyways. The next time . . . “nothing”. FINALLY! We can do it with impunity. Our conscience, now compromised, has finally stopped bothering us. It doesn't give up though, conscience takes another route called Karma and we have in essence, just created a whole lot of hurt for ourselves. The good news is that the effects of Karma go both ways. And the GREAT news is that once we decide to use our own mind we soon begin to realize this. By realizing this, we will also realize just how powerful we actually are. We will see ourselves as creators in our own right. We have the power to create our future by the thoughts and actions we take today. Misery or joy? Our choice. It's not just a nice thing to feed the hungry, or help out the old lady down the street, or have compassion on those without by sharing what we have with them. It's not about just getting a bunch of bullshit accolades from the church we attend or our name in gold on the pew. It's about EVERYTHING we are and EVERYTHING we

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will ever become. It's all about US and how we use our own mind to create either harmony or discord in the world around us. So as we read the signs of the times and begin to fear the results of losing our “stuff” . . . we must also realize that this may just be the beginning to the first time in our lives we will be fully alive.

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Get A Job . . . You Enjoy The importance of this little story is not to tell you why I am a carpenter. It goes deeper than that. If you are young and rebellious and discouraged as I was when I left the military and joined the work force, fear not. There is a place for you. All you need to do is not be afraid to search and find it. When I was a young man I quit every job I had within a very short time. I never had a deep love for money and I hated to go to work because it interfered with my partying. I said, "the hell with that, “I’ll be a bum,” . . . and I pretty much was. But I was also too proud to take handouts . . . so I reluctantly became a working bum. I worked odd jobs, took care of myself, never asked anybody for anything, but in my heart I didn't have what it took to be a bum. I didn't know what I wanted actually, and for the few years before and after 1970 I just existed. Then one day after taking an odd job I discovered how much I loved pounding nails and building things. From that time on I was a carpenter. . . and proud of it. I enjoyed getting up early in the morning and driving to the job site. I enjoyed the ruggedness, the camaraderie, the long hours in freezing temperatures or baking in the hot sun. . . it was me, it was mine. I had found my path. They told me that in order to be to be a journeyman 199

carpenter I had to join the union and become an apprentice for four years. I said, “the hell with that.” I went to the library and spent one whole Alaskan winter studying the craft of carpentry. The following Spring when building picked up, I bull shitted my way onto a framing crew building houses and never looked back. I worked hard, continued my studies, and after a lot of onthejob training, I learned all the various phases of carpentry and became a home builder in my own right. I started my own company and built houses for many years . . . then I moved to furniture, music instruments, and various other things. Today as a retired gentleman of leisure, I am as busy as ever, but now I create things out of wood strictly for the fun of it. I want to encourage anyone reading this that you can do the same things I did. It will make your life so much more enjoyable if you do.

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The American Dream I was recently asked in a forum of construction workers a question by a conservative guy who occasionally posts there after I made a derogatory remark concerning this country. “Why do you hate America?” I took the question to heart, thought about it, and following is my answer. I was born at a time when every morning before class the entire assembly placed their right hand over their heart and recited the “Pledge of Allegiance.” I was raised on John Wayne movies and heroism. When I was old enough, I joined the military because I thought standing in the gap for this country was the highest of honors. I wanted to be the best because I believed I was a part of the best. Living the experience eventually put a huge hole in the bubble that my elders had carefully blown up for me as I began to get a glimpse of reality. Now in my old age there is little left of the kid who once stood proudly before the Stars and Stripes reciting: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one nation under God indivisible, with liberty and justice for 201

all.” What happened? America, after conquering the continent and surviving the civil war, grew in leaps and bounds during the Industrial Revolution. She emerged from the ashes of WW2 victorious, head and shoulders above everybody. No one can dispute that we had saved Europe from the German fascist nor Asia from the Emperor of Japan. No one can dispute the fact that we had created the greatest war machine and economy the world had ever seen. We were at the helm of seemingly everything. We led in the sciences. We led in the arts. In industry. In giving. The world looked upon us in awe and a large majority of her went to bed at night dreaming of one day being a part of the melting pot. We were at the cusp of greatness, our potential was unfathomable. If ever in the human experience there was a country who could change the flow of world history it was us. Our constitution promised it. Our religion promised it. Our military might promised it . . . What happened? Like the allegory of the Prodigal Son in the Christian bible we squandered our inheritance on selfrighteous greed and instead of leading the world towards

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prosperity, we became just another Empire with a beginning, a middle, and a soon to be ending, not much different than the Greeks and Romans before us. Me, Myself, and I has become the law of the land as we slowly drown ourselves in our own waste. Today everywhere I look I see decay. Oh, there are those who still strive for greatness and are willing to sacrifice to get it, but the flow of history is going against them. Most will die with the dream lying dormant in their hearts. I hear the bravado. I hear the hero talk and the call to patriotic sacrifice. But giving your life for your country these days has a decidedly hollow ring to it. Since the glory days of WW2 when have our children sacrificed their lives for a worthy cause? Korea? Vietnam? Iraq? Afghanistan? What good has any of these deaths accomplished? Who has benefited from them? Simple. Follow the money and see who's getting rich. I guess to answer the initial question, “Why do I hate America?” I gotta say, “ Well, I once loved her. I felt married to her. I laid my life on the line for her. I lived with her and partook of her many blessings. Then one day, when I least expected it, she decided to go out and screw my best friend. Do I hate the American dream? No. Do I hate what we've done to it? Yes.

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I am perhaps an embittered old man, but we had such an opportunity . . . we actually could have lived up to the PR. We weren't just contenders, we were the champs........damn it!

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American Indian Religion I am a firm believer that we can not tiptoe into the future while bearing the heavy burdens of our past . . . it just won't work. The theme of this blog is 'change' but I don't believe change is even possible until we begin to face the reality of our belief systems. One of those most cherished is our religion, another is cultural superiority. We are an arrogant bunch and it is often hard for us to see our failings, individually as well as corporately, so from time to time I will post things to try and jar us out of our superiority complex . . . this is one of them. The question behind this post is: What if we would have listened and learned from the American Indian in the very beginning and decided to assimilate and coexist instead of conquer? What kind of society would we have today had we done so? The American Indian Final Solution For the US government, it was a solution to the socalled Indian problem. For the tens of thousands of Indians who went to boarding schools, it's largely remembered as a time of abuse and desecration of culture. 'Kill the Indian ... Save the Man The federal government began sending American 205

Indians to offreservation boarding schools in the 1870's. The Army officer who founded the first of these schools said, "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one. In a sense, I agree with that sentiment, but only in this way: "Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." Fifty years later, the founder's philosophy was still common practice. In 1945, Bill Wright, a Pattwin Indian, was sent to the Stewart Indian School in Nevada when he was 6 years old. He remembers matrons bathing him in kerosene and shaving his head. He remembers that all the students at the boarding school were forbidden to express their culture. Everything from wearing long hair to speaking a single Indian word. Wright said he lost not only his language, but also his Indian name. (something very important to an American Indian) "I remember coming home and my grandma asked me to talk Indian to her and I said, 'Grandma, I don't understand you,' " Wright says. "She said, 'Then who are you?' " Wright says he told her his name was Billy. " 'Your name's not Billy. Your name's 'TAHrruhm,' " she told him. " And I replied, 'That's not what they told me.' " Tsianina Lomawaima, head of the American Indian Studies program at the University of Arizona, says that from the start the government's objective was to "erase

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and replace" Indian culture. "Language, religion, family structure, economics, the way you make a living, the way you express emotion, everything," says Lomawaima. Following is a link to one of the few books written about Indian religion before the Whites arrived. I am amazed, having never read this book, how closely this book resonates with my own beliefs. Beliefs I've discovered on my own after I left the Christian church and began many years of inner searching for the truth and meaning of my existence . . . https://docs.google.com/document/d/1APfdcYFAGkDH pH4ADVrqpJFVTy7EuvNHBYBRIsoxwmw/edit?usp=sh aring

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Mom And Pop I got into a discussion with some people concerning their parents the other day and although, after going through much of the same with my mother I could feel their pain, I could also hear them crying for a quick fix. This was my reply: Much of this thread I have played the devils advocate using myself as the goading force in a pretty deep subject: The elderly and their stubborn ways. But really, how DO we deal with them? They are too stubborn, they are selfish, they are causing us problems, we love them BUT they are driving us nuts! We justify, we piss and moan, look for answers where there are none, and we tell our horror stories to the multi nods of a zillion kids with the same problem. For the "me first" generation, it's simple . . . there is no answer. The closest thing to an answer is above when I talked about social structure. Bottom line, we have created a society based on gain rather than one based on people. That means that power, position, and possession are foremost in a capitalistic democracy . . . everything else (including people and social issues) is secondary. They are important, but not as important as the corporation and their profit margin. 209

We are a 'throw away' society that always goes for the quick fix. We do our best to heal the ‘symptom’ rather than the ‘cause’ in everything from medical practice to operating our government and our military. "Kick the can down the road" is the mantra as we battle one problem after another using PR and spin rather than taking the time to get to, and fixing, the cause of the problem. We live separate lives, we do our own thing, we love our parents from a distance, or not at all. We are an intelligent people caught in the trap of our own cunning . . . but when we begin to feel jaws closing in on us, rather than trying to get to the root of the problem we piss and moan as to why we have one. That's us in a nutshell . . . we are our greatest enemy. I see this separation as a huge problem for our society. In a lot of countries the elderly are revered for their wisdom and they live in the same compound as the young . . . they are the storytellers and babysitters. They spend their old age in safety and in peace . . . In America most live separate lives and sometimes only get together on holidays. No one listens to the old folks so they sit like shadows on the wall and watch the kids play around them until it's time to leave and go back to their lonely existence. The ways of the tribe have been completely forgotten, but the way of the tribe is the only way life works for humanity . . .

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So, in essence, we need to change things. we must build a society where the people and their well being take center stage . . . it's that simple. What to do with mom and dad? It’s too late for the easy fix. You enter the killzone of an ambush and then wonder what to do? Suffer, that's it. Do your best and take the pain. Not only you guys, us old people are also to blame. We are ALL in the same fix, but nothing changes till we quit seeking the quick fix and begin to work on the foundational problems plaguing this country. Until then endure and take the pain . . . that's just the way it is. Too bad when we had the opportunity to assimilate and learn from the American Indian, we chose to kill him and take his land instead. . . Karma IS a bitch. (after you’re done rolling your eyes) Please, take a moment to actually think about what I just said and make the change in your family before momma goes crackers on you, or pop tells you to fuck off when you try to coax him down off the roof . . . after he falls it will be too late.

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The Piano When I designed and built this cabin my wife and I now live in, I added onto it a 12x14 foot library. It has an arched entry from the main room, two walls of windows, and one wall full of books on shelves. Taking up most of the wall facing the interior of the cabin there sat a mahogany piano that we bought on a whim while shopping for furnishings. The piano was old, but top of the line. It’s tone reminded one of Vaudeville and the glory days of a honky tonk saloon. It looked good, fit well into the informality of the room, but there was one thing wrong . . . it was a very sad piano. Day after day she sat there along the back wall of the sunlit room, alone and forlorn, silently waiting for somebody to at least run their fingers across her keys . . . but nobody did. When I walked by on the way to a book I could feel her sadness, but as I was too busy doing other things, I ignored her anyway. Besides that, we also have a cello in the same predicament, and a dulcimer, and at least four guitars, and various other instruments all the way down to a didgeridoo. No one pays much attention to them either. The musical instruments in our cabin live a miserable existence. They have become ornaments hanging out in a library just to make it look good . . . how sad is that? Anyways, the other day I asked my wife if we ought to sell the piano in order to free up the back wall to make 213

more room for the record albums. She agreed and went off to town to talk to a friend who teaches music to see if he wanted it and how much it was worth. Long story short, the guy says he knows a little girl whose parents are rather poor and that perhaps she would like to have it. My wife comes home and tells me and I, being me, said, “free? What the hell, I thought we were going to SELL it! We paid a lot of money for the thing we ought to at least . . . “ I give stuff away all the time, I really do, but a piano? That was kinda out of my give away range, but I relinquished after my wife told me the whole story about the little girl and how much she loved playing and how good she already was and she might even be one of those gifted few if only she had the opportunity and . . . “‘Ahh ok, what the hell, it is Christmas,” I said. We agreed to give the little girl the piano. A week later the dad showed up with two friends and between the four of us we managed to get the piano out the door and down the steps to the waiting trailer he had hooked to his pickup truck. The guys were nice, it all went smoothly and I had a good feeling about the whole thing. The little girl gets a piano, I get the extra room in the library for the shelf unit I wanted to build . . . win, win situation all around. The other day my wife saw the teacher in town and he told her how much the little girl loves the piano and how ecstatic she was when she saw it. He said she plays it

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constantly and at five years old he has never seen anybody play so well. “She is just a natural,” he said. As I sit here in front of the fireplace thinking about the piano and the little girl, and how absolutely wonderful I feel regarding the fact that we gave it to her. . . . not sappy wonderful, just a really, really good feeling wonderful, kinda like I just made a splash in the river of life or something . . . can’t explain it any better than that. No accolades necessary, I doubt the little girl even knows our name and yet we all have connected in such a profound way. . . . I’m sure that the piano is content now also in it’s new love affair with the little girl . . . but wait! I believe I just heard a long sigh coming from the library. I think it’s coming from the old cello and she is really pissed off . . . I may have to do something about that also.

The End

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