Expectation, Disappointment and Responsibility

Every day, I see and read so many posts from people who are hurting, in one way or another. Whether it’s over a personal tragedy, natural disaster, or personal insult, we all end up in the soup at one time or another. Of course I am no exception, but I’ve found a pretty effective way of keeping my life more stress free with the following line of thinking. 

When I am disappointed, or upset or frustrated with anything that runs into or over my day, I need to stop and take inventory. Recognizing the whole adrenal system going off, I ask myself, what’s wrong? I identify the problem –whether it’s a physical situation, like the garbage needing to be taken out, or the fact that I can no longer see  something like a sliver under my skin to remove it, or the hurtful words of an angst-filled child…I try to call it by name. 

Once I’ve done that, I ask myself, what was my expectation? Perhaps I expected one of the other members of the household to take out the garbage. I expect that my eyes will focus, and work for me as long as I own this body.  I expect more respect from this child. When these expectations were not met, I am immediately frustrated. These expectations were not met, and I am now thoroughly disappointed. 

I now recognize that I have a choice in this matter – that I can write the ending to this, or any, scenario that has me tied up in angry knots. My first inclination is to blame. That darn kid! I told him to take out the garbage! Stupid MS! Why did I have to get it? That ungrateful child! After all I did for them! And no matter what the situation, I tend to do this. We curse the rain, the sun, our friend, our enemy, our boss, our food, our air, our government, our God…anyone but our self. And this stands to reason, given our cultural and religious upbringings. We are trained to accept a victim mentality. When we are the victims of crime and circumstances, we feel victimized, put upon, and assaulted on one level or another, and someone must pay for this infraction. An eye for an eye. I will now chastise said child with grounding or privilege removal, post some sad status about my poor health condition and beg for money to help fix it, and disown the vexed teenager until they apologize for all the shit they said to me. Yeah. Like this solves anything. Now I am a punitive parent, a pathetic patient, and a resentful mother. Sounds like a hot-bed for spiritual growth and world peace, doesn’t it? 

Choice number two: Accept responsibility. Yup. All of it. Wow…did you feel your defenses just jump to the challenge? How the hell am I supposed to take responsibility for the kid not taking out the garbage like I asked? What? I expected them to listen, didn’t I? They didn’t. Regardless of their reason for not doing it, they did not, and that disappointed my expectations of the situation. We do not have control over the choices and decisions of our children, no matter how much we may try to legislate and control them. This leaves us powerless, and blustering in the breeze about punishment and grounding and taking away their phone. It’s all we can do to be punitive, for it gives me the illusion of control. Why not change my focus to ME – and what I can do about it, so that I won’t be disappointed in the outcome? I can act accordingly. If it was important to take out the garbage, I can do it myself. If it can wait, save it for the child to take out next time they enter the room. Or I could bring the sodden bag up to their bedroom and politely ask them to take it outside, please. My point will be made – I will have taken control of the situation by lowering my expectations a bit. It doesn’t make me wrong…it’s just, now I know something. 

But what about a disease process in the body? How the hell am I supposed to take responsibility for that? I didn’t ask for it and certainly don’t want it. How am I to blame for this? Ah! Watch the words…this is NOT about blame. This is about responsibility. Break it down – response + ability. My ability to respond. We most often choose to blame – and that can be some third party abstract, or a chemical company, or bad water, or…or…or… But the truth is, I won’t ever know why I got it. But asking “Why me” is a statement of a victim, whereas asking “Why not me?” is the question of a person who is willing to accept responsibility. It’s not about having the disease, it’s about how I deal with the disease. It’s about my expectation of the human experience. We think we are not supposed to get diseases. For a million and one reasons, however, we do, and we know we do. We just don’t expect to. So when they show up, unannounced and unwelcome and disappoint  my expectations, maybe I need to look at what my expectation was, and more importantly, why I held it. I can’t change the fact of the disease, but I can change my expectations about not only having it, but what my response to it will be. This is, after all, MY life! How do I want to live it? As a victim of it? Or the owner/operator of it?  If I view my life and the body that houses it as simply the machine for my being, it becomes like unto a car – my vehicle. Oops. Malfunction. What cause it? Don’t know. What will it take to get it in running order for me to at least gimp along on my trip? Follow that lead. If I find that I can’t go more than 10 miles per hour, I can either curse the mechanism, blame the mechanic and manufacturer for producing a lemon, or I can sit up and pay attention to all that I would not normally see if I were jetting along at 65. Not a victim – the pleasantly surprised owner. My expectations have been changed – and I find myself no longer so disappointed. 

And what of the verbal assault on my person? The unjust comments and verbal violence that people spew in their victimization? The physical abuse of another toward ourselves? These are responsible for more human misery than we may want to admit. We perpetuate unforgiveness, and revenge, and a resentful heart toward any or all who have wronged us. Clearly, they were wrong in hurting us in any way. It is an outrage to suggest that I need to take responsibility for the wrongs done to me, the hurt that it has caused me, the damage that has been done. Once again…what was my expectation? And why? And what can I do about the fact that my expectations were not met? I can take responsibility – take control of the situation, and see it for what it is: A THEM thing. THEY have a problem with something, and are taking it out on ME. I have a responsibility to respond in a way that is in keeping with who I am. Am I angry, unforgiving and resentful? Or am I, at the height of my self, happy, forgiving and loving? Am I in control of me? Or will I allow my offender to be in control of me? This is my responsibility. 

I have found that in a world where ones expectations have been lowered, they will be pleasantly surprised at how often life begins to exceed your expectations.

The Human Being

What does it mean to be human? Do we know who and what we really are? 

Looking around me these days it seems like more of us than not would ramble on a bit before admitting we don’t really know the answers to those questions. So, as is my custom, I gave these questions some brain space lately, and have come up with my answer. Perhaps it can help you answer the questions for yourself. 

First, I noticed that “human” and “being” are two separate words. We tend to think of all that we are as one entity, but clearly, we are not. If you are lying on a slab minus a pulse and brain waves with a tag on your toe, you are still human. At a core level, a human is a mass of trillions of cells all vibrating at different frequencies, making up the parts of the body. This is not rocket science…it’s 7^th grade science. We have actually dug far deeper into inner space, but for the sake of this discourse, let’s just apply the basic science to the idea. 

So, human we are. Each as unique as a snowflake, but all human. Different colors, shapes, sizes, and genetics, but no less human for our individuality. What, then does it MEAN to be human? It means we are a species on the planet – like a tree or a fish or a rock or a bear or a bee or a lizard. Part of the synergy of this planet in space. We are not bigger, or better than anything in nature at a core level. We are a part of the equation, not the creator of the equation. Nature treats us all the same, and we are subject to the laws thereof. Our species has grown a bigger, more complex brain over the years of necessity. Among the species of the planet, we are actually rather disadvantaged. We are born naked and helpless. We require protection from the elements. We are not quite as hardy as most species. Our brains enabled us to think, to reason, to figure out how to use tools, and fire and iron and wheels. They have been used to invent ways to manipulate elements of nature to our survival advantage. This makes us unique, and rather special. 

Enter the second word: BEING. Human Being is not a compound word…it is two totally separate words. One is human...discussed above. But what of this other word: Being? What is that? Simply stated, it is the animating force which couples up with a body sometime before its birth. It is the intangible element that is the difference between alive and dead. A human is a human, but a human without its being is a dead human. A human with its being is ALIVE! 

Whatever this force is, it combines with the physical elements of a human body and produces a personality, thoughts, ideas, movement, emotion, and feeling. It brings the cells of the body to life, and interprets, via the brain, sensations of the human senses: Sight, touch, taste, sound, smell, pain and pleasure. It is this element of the human being that we need to explore if we are to live our full potential. 

We are not unaware of any of this, either. Goodness, whatever people have thought of this essence in time past has got its own religion, to be sure. We call it soul, spirit, higher consciousness, higher mind and a host of others. Pick what works for your vocabulary, I guess. What we need to remember is that we are all trying to define the same thing.

So, just what IS this being? How far down the rabbit hole should we look? Let’s just try and keep this to what we can know about it. What we do know is that a human does not function without one. We can keep a human body alive, but the being brings it to life – to conscious uniqueness. To a body that says, “Hi!”, and recognizes the world and people around it. They work in tandem.  However, if we watch a human being in action, can we tell what comes from the human, and what comes from the being? Can we separate these two, if only for the sake of clarity? I think we should try. 

If a human being likes carrots…who likes the carrots? The human, or the being? I think the human is largely responsible for it. The carrot is tasted in the mouth, smelled with the nose, crunched with the teeth, digested by the alimentary system and the cells of the human feel energized. So yup…it’s the body that likes carrots. Oh..but wait. What if you give carrots to a lifeless human? It  doesn’t seem to enjoy them very much. Why is that? I hypothesize that the BEING took all the sensations of eating a carrot, and relayed them throughout the body and said, “This series of synapses is good!”. And so it is.

But what of something a little more complex, like feelings, and emotions? No body hates another body based on its cellular structure. No fights at the morgue, y’know? So why does one human irritate, enrage or otherwise despise another human? More importantly, why do we love other human beings so ferociously?  I’d have to deduce that it’s the Being – in concert with the environmental and physical factors – that call this shot. If you have hurt my human, it will register a negative picture of you in its brain. It will fire all my adrenals when I see you, and instigate a fight-or-flight response in my physicality. Just like most other species, we then lash out instinctively at whatever it is that is threatening to us and the life of our human. Animals do not kill each other for the fun of it. They have vestigial reasons, like food and the territory thereof. As do we. The body does not like to have its functions disrupted. It’s an amazing machine, perfectly tuned and aligned to life on planet earth, and wants to continue to experience it. But what gives any meaning to the cellular, biological responses is, in fact, the Being. 

An oversimplification to be sure – but ponder this a while. We have a Being inside of us – it in fact IS us. It is subjected to the structure we have called the body. If the body is born without arms, or with a neuromuscular disorder, the Being is subject to that cellular and genetic circumstance. It is subjected to the environment and conditions of that body also. If the body gets too cold, and the cells begin to die, the Being will lose its host.  So, how much influence does the being have over the body, itself? We don’t really know, but based upon human behavior, I think it has about as much say in the matter as we allow it to. 

This has been taught in Christianity as spirit and the flesh. I kinda like that…good word picture. We often quote the Bible, “…the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The apostle Paul laments his conflict in wanting to do one thing, but doing another instead.  Who can’t relate to this? We know we shouldn’t overeat, but damn! That tasted so good! Our senses would like another bite, please. Our Being is telling us, not such a hot idea. A more dicey example might be in the sexual arena, where what we want in our physical body is perhaps not what our spirit is telling us to do. 

So, again, what is this spirit, and where did it come from and where does it go when It’s done with its human? I have the answer to that…and so do you. Because the Spirit IS you. Ask your Being. Your dead body doesn’t care if it’s raining, or if you get poked with a stick – your spirit-enhanced body does, because you have thoughts on the matter. The old, “I think…therefore, I AM.” True story!

Now, we have unfortunately been influenced by cultures and religions that would have us believe that certain things about the human and its impulses and energy are somehow bad. As if the less-than-wise choices we make, such as overeating or too much alcohol or socially inappropriate sex, are somehow wrong, or “sinful”, or an intrinsic  error in the system. Not true. The human is NOT flawed. Even the bodies that were born of a “less than perfect” nature are not flawed. They are the perfect vessel for the Being within it. Chosen, as Christ’s was, before the foundation of the world. It is our culture that teaches such things from early on, and we register this in our brain for the Being to deal with. We think we are sinners, so when we act upon a moral value not accepted in our culture, we feel shame and guilt, and can shuck any responsibility, because ‘I was born this way’. Your spirit, I believe, begs to differ. 

You always have a choice. And there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ choice. There are only consequences of your choice. If you choose to be unfaithful to your spouse, you will deal with the emotional blowback. Own it. You chose it. If you can’t seem to put your fork down, you will deal with poor health. Your choice. The body doesn’t really have too much power when certain choices have been made…but the Being does. If you let it.  If you eat too much, your body cannot help but collect fat. That’s what it does. It is your Being, however, that is telling you to stop eating so much. If you cheat on your spouse and your family explodes, your body will be on high-alert fight-or-flight for one hell of a ride…but your Being will have better directions for you to take. 

We are all, at one time, both victims and owners of our very lives. Your human is pretty much a victim. You got the genes you got. You got the environment and family and values you got. Over such things, you really had no choice – according to your body. If we don’t realize who or what we really are, we tend to spend our humans life griping and moaning about our victim status. Life becomes one great big done-me-wrong song. He made me… she made me… the devil made me… god made me…ad infinitum, ad nauseum. I’ll say it again: You always have a choice. Even the darkest of your human’s experiences can be redeemed by the Being, if you allow it. 

Your Being does not have its origins in the planet. No amount of Mother Nature’s bounty is needed to keep the Being alive. Your Being is not tied to this planet. Your Being and your human have in insanely personal relationship – for this season only. The human is finite – but the Being is infinite. The Being is eternal. It is energy, and black holes notwithstanding, energy cannot be destroyed. It can be changed, but will never cease to BE. As such, the Being seeks for the highest good at all times in all things. Your Being does not want it’s human to live as a victim of its planet. When the human is hurt, the Being seeks to heal. When the human is helped, the Being manifests love in its members. This is not exactly a new concept. Our Beings are ALL ONE. We are members of one body. Christ was not talking about our physical humans. He was talking about our spiritual BEINGS. Our Beings very much want everything to work out in order and peace, to the evolution of our Being.

Our humans have been culturally conditioned to a valuation system that decries this. We place value on what the human does, what the human has, and what the human accumulates in terms of wealth and knowledge and power over other humans. The Being sees no distinction. This is where we need to connect the dots and remember what and who we are. 

We are HUMAN BEINGS. We are not human DOINGS, we are not human ACTINGs, and we are not human HOLDINGs.  If this were true, if your human were to suddenly be unable to perform its tasks which bring it supposed value, you would cease to exist. Your activities are dead, so would you be. You are not your activities. If you lost all your money, prestige, and power, you would cease to exist. You would be nothing more than a human body. Toe tags optional.

But you are not any of these things. You are a human BEING, and as such, you have no equal. There is no opposite to BEING. All other definitions of human have an opposite – doing or not doing; action or inaction, wealth or poverty, power or powerlessness…to BE is simply that. There is no such thing as not being. 

Are you getting  a small glimpse of just who you ARE? You are part of the eternal. The infinite, indefinable, life force of forever. Yes, you. Not flawed, not sinful, not useless. Do yourself a favor. Next time you have the opportunity, hold a newborn human in your arms. Behold its wonder and beauty and perfection. A newly married couple - Human and Being…with all the hope and promise of happiness and LIFE itself. Relish the thoughts. Then remember: THIS IS YOU, TOO. All that you were as a new born human being – you still are! Same being – human all grown up and influenced by your environment. Had abusive parents, perhaps? Human then hates daddy or mommy, or maybe even all men or women for this. It was hurt deeply and profoundly.This creates conflict in the human, because Being sees the abusive parents as the Beings that they are: grown up human beings who were influenced by their culture and environment and did not take good care of you. They were acting out of human experience, not out of Being wisdom, and have perpetuated a cycle of hate and hurt. Your Being will tell you that this should end with you – if you will let it. Your Being will give you the most blessed gift of the experience of forgiveness if you will accept it. Talk to survivors of such parental atrocities. They gave it to their Being to deal with, and not only survived, but thrived. Not always a happily-ever-after picture to the human eye, to be sure, but they live with a peace of mind – a healed human…Being.

Our culture has indoctrinated us into “an eye for an eye” mentality. Our human resonates with that on a guttural level. Our Being is pushed into the background as we march our human into battle. But look at what this has created! Nothing good, that’s for sure. Humans dying, hurt, sad, angry…perpetuating the violence for no reason the Being can even understand. Bringing it into a different light, if you knew you could not die, how afraid of bullets are you? If you know that you are connected to the source of all life, how concerned can you be with acquisition of your daily provisions? How differently your human would live its life, if it knows how powerful and eternal its Being truly was.

Digest that. YOUR BEING IS ETERNAL. Nothing on this planet can affect your BEING. Only your human. 

When you find yourself in an unthinkable situation – hard times – difficult places….remember this! You can turn the reigns over to your BEING – your Higher Self – your Spirit – Your Soul – your Life Force – the impenetrable, incorruptible BEING you are, and your human will cope a lot better. I KNOW this to be true. I have actively experienced the peace that comes from cooperating with your Being in times of terrible stress. In fact, it is through these stresses and struggles that our Being grows stronger in its influence over our human –and the quality of our life improves. Maybe not circumstantially, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Your Being enables you to rise to a place of thought where you can see the whole picture, and you realize that your Being rises far above it, in a place of infinite peace. And when you have tasted that peace, it’s all you can do to try and NOT turn into a complete peace freak. You want everyone to know this peace. Because it is the end of all strife on the planet. It is, in fact, the Peace of God. 

Regardless of what any religion in our world teaches, I have come to realize that we – our BEINGS – ARE GOD. The Being in you was outlined in wonderful detail in the story of Christ. Same, same. Everything He did, you can do. Everything He was, You Are. We have unfortunately assumed that all the love, comfort, strength and peace that we pray for is somehow outside of ourselves, and we spend lifetimes struggling to find it, to feel it, to know it. But we already have it, right there in your name: 

HUMAN BEING.

To understand this is to open the lock on all that has held us back in fear, anger, hatred and war, and opens the door to the Peace that Passes HUMAN understanding. 

Awareness

I talk a lot about awareness. We all do, really. But it’s one of those words that needs a context in order to really mean anything. For example, we want to raise awareness about diseases that affect our lives. Breast cancer, MD, MS, ALS, and thousands of others. More often than not, those seeking to make you aware of a particular disease are those who are in some way affected by it. They come down with it themselves, or have family or friends who do, and suddenly, they see behind the veil what happens in a dreaded disease process. They see the horrors it wreaks on a family, a person or a community, and they want it to stop. And they can’t do it alone. They want help. But no one is even aware that there is a problem…so no one does anything. Enter the awareness campaign. If I tell everyone I know about this problem, surely when they see the gravity and severity of this situation, they will be generous and do something to help.

So what then does it really mean to be aware? To be conscious of something. To have knowledge of something. To have something brought into your conscious thoughts, such as thoughts regarding what you do and where you go and what you see, hear and understand. Example: When you are driving, you are aware of many things. You are conscious of the road ahead of you, the placement of your hands on the wheel to keep the car between the lines. As you are driving, your passenger points to a deer standing in a field you are driving by. Surely, you would have missed it, because you were not paying attention to the expanses of green on either side of you. Your eyes were on the road. Your companion made you aware, you look, and you are now conscious of the deer in the field.

From your awareness comes thoughts, and from your thoughts you bring forth actions. This is universal truth. Example: You become aware of a sensation in your stomach. You are familiar with it. You think, “I’m hungry. I would like something to eat.” You then think about what your options are for satiating your appetite. You choose one and then act on it. You go to the fridge, the café, the store or the garden. This is how we live our lives. The minute I make you aware of a fly in your milk, you will think, “Gross…I can’t drink that,” and act – either plucking out the fly or dumping the milk out. Think about it. Once something is brought into our awareness, we WILL think about it, and we WILL act upon those thoughts.

Sometimes, your action is to do nothing. You hear a plea for money for research to a disease, and you may think, “I don’t really care. It doesn’t affect me.” And you will do nothing.

And that’s okay…not everyone has to put your charity first. We don’t say that out loud, but we’d be dishonest if we did not admit that that is what we are really saying. Let’s keep this an honest assessment.

But let’s face it. There are things we would rather not be aware of. What if I just don’t want to think about someone else’s pet disease? Maybe I don’t want to know that we are killing the environment or slaughtering baby seals. These things make me think sad thoughts and bad things, and I don’t want to think these things. If you bring them to my awareness, they will enter my consciousness, and if I feel that there is nothing more I can do to alleviate the problem other than giving money I don’t have, then I really don’t want to hear about it at all. If I know up front that my action will be compete inaction, the time I spent entertaining the issue was time wasted. Whether we admit this or not, we see that belief manifested in the way we skip over any articles, stories, conversations or internet posts about stuff we don’t really want to know. We instinctively know this will be a waste of our time.

But sometimes, we don’t really have a choice. Example: Your little normal-looking son is diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Huh? You are suddenly very aware of something you really didn’t want to know about. If you thought that it was no big deal and you didn't have to think about it, you are in for a rude awakening. However, in most cases, think about it you do, and you act accordingly. You research what it means, what you can expect, and what you can do for your son to prolong his life. If you did not do this –as they actually can’t in some countries with little or no medical care – this disease left to run its course unimpeded will result in a poor physical quality, shortened life. The awareness you didn’t want, brought into your conscious thought life on a daily basis usually results in a life revolving around the disease process, and proactive measures to do all you can to add both quality and quantity to a person’s life. Do you understand? You can choose not to be aware of anything you want. But sometimes, our intentional denial is to our own hurt.

Now, there are billions of bits of information at any given moment vying for your attention. And in this day and age, we are virtually and literally bombarded with information that someone, somewhere would like us to be aware of. Be aware of my product! Be aware of my widget! Be aware of my pleasure! Be aware of my pain! Be aware of this gossip! Be aware of political viewpoints! Good grief…how do we choose? We are already aware of our own need for food and a bathroom and our kids and our families and our cars and our jobs and our homes and our money…what else can you ask me to put on my mental plate? We are exhausted! And so what do we do? We tune out anything that might require even another ounce of mental energy. We turn on the TV and tune out. We tune into problems that aren’t ours via reality shows, sit-coms, and dramas. When we turn off the TV, they go away! Miraculous! Now since the problems have been unplugged, we can go to bed and wake up tomorrow to the same daily grind and dash for the cash. I understand that.

I only want to concern myself with what concerns me and mine. I am aware today of my households need for toilet paper and dish soap, and the ingredients I need for dinner tonight. I am conscious of my need to go to the bank and pay a few bills. I am aware my daughter needs some supplies for a school project and I need to schedule a parent/teacher meeting for my son. We are aware of the need to reduce a cord of wood into manageable chunks for my stove, and that if it frosts tonight we need to cover the tomatoes. Beyond that, I guess I’d rather not be bothered. Are you with me?

Now, it’s an election year here in America, and we have no shortage of input regarding same. And we are all aware of political discussions all around us, and the general tone is not good. Most people, regardless of the party they support, are disgusted with the state of this nation in one form or another. We all wanted change, and the little change we did get was not what we wanted. So we either blather anemically about our party’s logic, or we eschew the whole thing and elect not to even talk about it. We are urged to believe that our political action or inaction will make or break what is left of this nation. But in the core of our being, we feel that we – the one – the separate entity – are powerless to do anything but live our own life one day at a time. So we reduce our involvement to words and opinions before we switch it all off and go to bed.

But what happens when there is something we really do need to be aware of, en masse? And what would be important enough to stop and think about it long enough to see that we need to take action? What would be important enough for everyone in a nation to sit up and take into their awareness, with the express purpose of getting tangible action?

Well, in keeping with our way of thinking, it would have to affect me, personally. It would have to affect my toilet paper and dish soap supply, my dinner ingredients, my money, my kids school projects and appointments, my wood supply, the weather and my garden. Then you just might have my attention.

And it does.

And what is IT – that should be commandeering the awareness and consciousness of this, our entire nation?

IT is WAR.

Do you have any idea how close we are right this minute, October 2, 2012, to world war three? Do you understand what is happening in the world that is sucking us into an epic world war? If you watch nothing but the mainstream media, you will be scoffing at this and suggesting that we’ve been warring for years and years. Yes…war is entertainment these days. Just check out the XBOX games. More of the same, more of the same. Blah, blah, blah…I have work to do.

The USA is holding out at this time. Starting wars during a popularity contest is never in good form. But the minute a false flag goes down, it will be go-time, and our lives here will change forever. It may happen slowly. It may all literally blow up in our faces. But it’s time you become aware of the iceberg – now behind us – and conscious of the fact that the ship is sinking. What does that mean to you?

How about gas prices upwards of $10 a gallon? Talk to someone old enough to remember rationing during world war two. How about food stamps for EVERYONE…limited purchasing power across the board. Has it occurred to you that both China and Russia are not real keen on us taking on Iran? You don’t even have to be terribly politically or geographically astute to know that spells trouble.

We have a way of life in this country that we are quite accustomed to, and are poorly equipped at this time to live without a majority of our creature comforts, including the freedom to hop in our cars and go - wherever, whatever. And if that ends? We are used to pocket change and eating out. We are used to supermarkets that are stocked to over-flowing at all times with perfect produce and dentless cans. And if that changes drastically? How well are you and your family prepared to cope with such a change?

Will we rise to the challenges, or freak out? Will we face the changes head on, or will we panic in mass hysteria, necessitating martial law, FEMA and the National Guard to keep us sane? Will you be able to feed yourself and your family in this context?

Do you think we are somehow immune to the horrors of war here on our own soil? Have we learned nothing from history? Empires rise, and empires fall, and paper money has failed every time in the history of the world. Did you know that? Research it. Fascinating. Frightening.

I am also sure that on some level, you have heard all this already. But do you take a “well, I hope it will all blow over…” stance? Then you are in intentional denial, or are simply unaware of the severity of the crises that lie before us in the not-too-distant future. Oh, it will ultimately blow over all right…and it will make Katrina look like a gentle spring breeze. Are we ready to rebuild? It will be a very different landscape. A different paradigm. We are being called to wake up – to become aware of just what is happening to our lives, our planet, our species.

If you are like me, however, the biggest irritation and most pressing question is, “What, exactly, am I supposed to do?” We want to be lead…we want someone to tell us what the magic bullet is to bring about change, or peace, or to prepare for economic hardship. We feel the urgency and tend to run willy-nilly into protests or movements with no solid agenda, or simply say, “Screw it” and carry on as if life will stay static forever and ever. So…what ARE we supposed to DO?

You already have the answer to that. We all do. Understand, no one can tell you what YOU should do. This is a question we have to ask ourselves in the context of our own life. Ghandi said it best: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” All change starts with you – the one.

Remember – thoughts beget actions. If you think about it, you will take some action – even if it’s conscious inaction. If you are aware of something, you think about it, and in thinking about it, you will take action in line with what you believe about it.

It’s no fun to be made aware of negative, scary, evil things. It is however, necessary if we are to change them. You need to be aware of the negative situation in order to facilitate a POSITIVE response to it. If you don’t know there’s a snake in your boot, you won’t take evasive action. If you do know, you can turn the situation around with an informed, positive decision for appropriate action.

I would love nothing more than to spread positivity through my actions all day long, and as far as it depends on me, I do. I overuse “I love you”, and employ lots of physical affection to the people, animals and the world around me. I give everything I do my very best effort at the time, however feeble it may look. I try to really listen when spoken to, and I try to speak a little less. I have recently been made aware of my own tendency toward verbal violence and name-calling – even on a light-hearted basis. Having been made aware of that, I have been able to catch myself before my mouth goes off, and I think that what I’m about to say is not profitable for anything other than venting my spleen. And I just smile instead.

What the world needs now is people who want to effect POSITIVE change. In order for that to happen, we need to first be aware. 
Awareness – thoughts – action. 

This is the beginning.

Have You Ever Been Lied to?

Have you ever been lied to? 

Has anyone ever made you a promise, and then flagrantly bailed on you? And to further add insult to injury, have they sat there and straight-facedly made up nonsensical excuses as to why they left you twisting in the wind and gone so far as to suggest that it might even be your fault that they let you down…after insisting that you could count on them? 

Have you ever trusted someone with something you held very dear, only to have them ruin it utterly, with no intention of replacing it, and not only no apology for what their careless treatment of your property resulted in, but the gall to send you a bill for the damage?

Have you ever had someone steal your property, and when caught with it tries to insist that it was theirs and they had a right to it?

HOW DID IT FEEL? Take a moment and ponder that.

I assume you are getting a picture in your mind, and I’m going to hazard a guess that this does not describe a person that you are currently close to – or that you even allow in your home anymore. And if you do, I’d be willing to bet further that the other people in your life are telling you that you are not wise to associate with someone who treats others so very poorly. 

If I am right on this point – that the majority of people prefer not to be treated in the above manner – then I don’t get it. 

I don’t get how we can sit and even consider for a nanosecond voting for anyone in this current election – or why, indeed, we have allowed our nation to be taken over by a system that treats us –DAILY and EXACTLY – the way I have described above. Repetitively. As if we have no choice. As if voting for the “lesser of two evils” is a legitimate vote. Something like, how would you like to die: Being stabbed or shot in the heart? Take your pick! Not even offering something more humane like lethal injection. 

I am not a democrat. I am not a republican. I would be ashamed to be aligned with either one of these “parties”. They lie. They cheat. They steal. They do so forcefully and unapologetically. They view the public as the “huddled masses” and treat them as such. They are preparing places to herd the public when we have had enough of their bullshit, and realize that we have sold our birthright for a bowl of their stew.

Now, it’s not like anything I’m saying is new. You’ve heard it all before. You know it’s true. So….what are you going to do about it? Seriously…what are WE going to do about it? At some point someone has to step away from the gaming table and expose the fact that the dice are loaded. They are…we know it. But we are just having such fun arguing over who stacked the deck, aren’t we?   

We have as a nation become fat, lazy, ignorant, and drunk. Yes…even the white collar workers who did such oh-so-important jobs today, pushing pencils and papers and computer keys so that they could bring home the bacon and subsequently send it back out - plus interest – to the banks for their cars and homes and educations and insurance and utilities and toys if there was anything left over. And of course while you are totally preoccupied and consumed with your consumer lifestyle, more has been stolen out from underneath you. 

But it’s not just you that’s been ripped off. It’s your children and your grandchildren. Have we become so short sighted that we think that if we continue in this direction there will be ANYTHING even remotely resembling the life you have enjoyed left for them? Do the math…there won’t be. 

So let’s review. Our monetary system is completely shot, and I do mean completely. It is a debt structure that mathematically speaking can never, ever, ever, ever, ever….be paid up. Ever. It is a debt that keeps on taking. Research it if you don’t believe me. 

Our political system is criminal. It’s unfair, unsafe, heartless, and costs way too much. We need representation from “THE PEOPLE” – someone who works a job like everyone else, goes to Washington to represent their neighbors, and comes home and goes back to work. Pay politicians a minimum wage for the hours we need them, give them the two $10 meals per day voucher that they so generously give to the Medicare recipients, a $60 a night motel voucher and let them have the same public health benefits they have bestowed on us, and see who REALLY wants to be a politician. Let me tell you, it wouldn’t be worth the headache for the career politicians we have now. 

Our brand of capitalism has gone horribly, horribly wrong, to the extent that we are invading other countries and killing human beings in the name of it. That is a worship of the worst order, and don’t’ kid yourselves – we worship our worthless money. 

Our stewardship of this – the one and only planet that we have – is beyond shocking. I, too, giggled at Al Gore’s attempt to wake us up to this…until I dug a little deeper. We are at a frightening precipice environmentally and at risk of planetary suicide.  And we don’t seem to give a shit.

Our educational system was great for the Prussian Army – but is and continues to be an EPIC FAIL when it comes to educating our people. And we’ve politicized the whole sorry mess to the point that the PTA is nothing more than a coffee klatch. Even the kids get that it’s a tremendous joke and are starting to feel ripped off. 

Okay – the list is much longer, but you get the point – and I’m asking again: WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? 

Here are a few options for you:

#1: “Oh, it’s not so bad. You are just having a bad year. Things will get better. Just you wait and see. By the way, did you know that the new television season starts in September? Some really cool shows on!” 

#2: “Oh, my god! Grab your pitchforks and torches! Let’s start a riot!” 

#3: I’m glad to see someone finally said it. I agree. Now, I’m just a common person here in America, but this is the truth and we need to do something about it. We need to wake up and speak about this stuff while we still have free speech. We need to talk to our neighbors, our Facebook friends…our network of people. We need to start discussing this stuff. NOT arguing – we already have that within our fucked up two-party system. No, what we need now is discussion. We can have different opinions – and a great discussion contains lots of them and the intelligent minds behind them have the chance to explain why they believe what they believe, and have the chance to compare the logic and reason. No insults, no threats, no mud-slinging. We are intelligent people, and in the face of a crisis, we need to keep our heads together to find solutions for the WHOLE. Think Red Cross, here.

Well, yeah, I’ve chosen door number three. Things need to change and here’s where the tone is going to change. It’s not all doom and gloom. Yeah – there’s a fair amount of that. But I am not without HOPE. 

I have HOPE because I look back at the history of this nation. We ARE the greatest experiment in humanity ever. Look at what we were able to accomplish with our creativity and minds! A chart of our technological advances is mind-bogglingly exponential in it’s growth, and why will that stop? It won’t, unless we suppress the great up-and-coming ideas, inventions and innovations, or destroy the very planet upon which we live, either by depletion or war. Barring that, we will continue to think great thoughts, and invent great things. 

But what things? Example: We need to reduce and ultimately replace the combustion engine. It’s using up oil, which is a limited resource, and in the process of our overuse of oil, we are killing our atmosphere. Who do know wants to invent a new kind of transportation? 

Sticking with this example, who knew – we already have numerous proposals out there. You’ve probably even heard of or seen them. Then why don’t we utilize them? What’s with the hush-up? You know, the presidential limo has indestructible tires. Why don’t we all? 

Well, because Firestone and Goodyear have probably bought and paid for political representation to prevent anyone for dipping into their profits by offering a more sensible replacement. 

The oil industry is the primary motivation behind most of the wars ongoing on the PLANET. The military machine is also a money machine. (Google the Carlyle Group). 

Good people of the planet, we are being sung a soothing lullaby by the media which has also been bought and paid for by the financial and political powers that be. We are blissfully – or perhaps intentionally – unaware of the stranglehold we are in. How long will you stay asleep? 

Here’s a fun experiment. How about NOBODY votes this year? Hypothetically, if nobody voted, what do you think would happen? There is, after all, no real choice here. The political powers have fed us the divisions of the parties  to keep us bickering amongst ourselves, but have ignored the ways in which they are both the same: To control the people, the world, and it’s resources and finances. 

What if we want something completely different? If we do, we need to figure out just what that might be, and get together on a plan of action. Yes…there are a LOT of problems to be solved – but you know what? WE are a LOT of people, and there are a lot of brains and creativity among us to do the job: 

IF we are allowed to.

 IF we will wake up to the problem.

 IF we will turn off our TVs and tune out the mainstream media.

 IF we will put aside our differences for the good of the whole. 

IF we will come, and reason together. 

Start by educating yourself. Share your knowledge. Start a discussion group. Start a co-op. Talk to your neighbors. Be willing to be viewed as a bit crazy…(trust me, it’s not so bad, and you get used to it)…knowing that the wise before you were proven not to be such fools.

  

Realize – and I know you do – that one man does not run this country. It’s a cartel of very wealthy corporations that have purchased your leader for their interests, most of which are destroying the planet we call home and the people we call family for corporate gain. 

There is only one thing that will stop that, and that’s an educated, unified, aware We The People – who are not democrats nor republicans, but AMERICANS who want their country back.

 We want to establish justice without all the inane laws that only make lawyers rich; secure domestic tranquility with having to lock up people who are utilizing their right to free speech; provide for the common defense without having to take all the guns away and implement martial law; promote the general welfare by diverting some of the wealth to care for our aged and infirm, exploring cures to diseases without having to sell our souls to the FDA; and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity by giving our children not only an education that educates the whole person instead of just their left brain, but also by preserving the planet and resources upon which we depend.

I’m only one person – but I am part of the whole. America is just another empire in the history of the world, and just because you may not be feeling any pain from your lazy boy or your computer screen does not mean it’s not about the fall, and fall hard. Ignoring it will not stop it. Waking up to it, and doing your individual part just might. I can’t tell you what that is, but I can tell you it’s NOT scenario #1 above. 

In case you haven’t heard it before:

 If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten.

To do the same thing repetitively and expect different results is the very definition of insanity.

America is not changing direction…it has already changed. 

Wake up. 

Think about it.