Quantum Peace

The Fukushima Fifty

2011-04-17T22:38:00.000-07:00

(Note: I wrote this post last month, directly after the start of Japan's trouble. I waited to publish, as I did not want to add to the 'psychic terror of the situation.' The story, however, must be told. Now that this event is swept to the back pages of the news, I find it time to bring it back to the front.)

Japan's elder generation has seen both ends of nuclear 'power'. They experienced it's shattering inception as a weapon of war, and they lived with the so-called miracle of it's peacetime use. Japan prides itself upon it's technical expertise. Perhaps there is something in the Japanese soul that was healed by the concept of controlled nuclear power. Their culture quite literally rose from the ashes of WWII to become the modern apex of a high-tech society.

Standing stones placed upon mountainsides of Northwest Japan mark ancestral records of tsunami destruction. The carved text warns the coming generations to 'always live about this line'. Old legends sometimes turn out to be true. The ancestors did, indeed, leave a warning, but modern man is perhaps too enamored of his technology, and not enough in awe of the raw forces of nature.

Was it a surprise that Fukushima Daichi nuclear power station fell victim to the giant wave after the massive quake? And did they merely forget the carved warnings, or did greed add to the collective cultural amnesia?

The Bible tells tales of Solomon, our biblical and mythical Wisest King, who was able to seal horrible genies back into the bottle. Genies, (called djinn in the original language) were terrible magical beings who terrorized the human race. As we gaze into our own 'djinni' of nuclear power, will we realize that this particular power can never be contained? And who, today, is the Solomon who can seal it back into its bottle?

Enter the Fukushima 50.

The Fukushima 50 are the brave men who left family behind to stand on the front line— while the administrative world wrung and flung it's hands, these courageous souls didn't look over their shoulder for someone else to take on the job, they stepped into the breach, fighting the fire to hold down the Holocaust. To you I give my prayers, and my heartfelt gratitude.

I find it fascinating that the flagship of the greatest nuclear power on earth has pulled up anchor to move outside the radiation zone. That they fear to send men, men who gave their sworn oath that they would to give their lives in service for their country, into the heart of the growing nuclear catastrophe. These men would rather face bullets than face the hell that the Fukushima Fifty have not left yet. "Take care of yourself. one told his wife, as he stepped out for a phone call during his deadly rotation. "Do your best. I won't be home for a while. ..." Typically understated Japanese Love.

I can understand America's disinclination to die for someone else's mistake; however, last I heard, America was the inventor of 'peacetime nuclear power' while Japan was merely the purchaser of the power system. No one knows the extent of the damage. I thought we had un-manned drones we could fly? I've heard tell they use them to look for drugs on the border, or Bin Ladens in Turkestan. Why are these so absent from this nuclear battlefield? Are the accountants in charge still counting cost?

May whatever God you choose bless the Fukushima Fifty; who stand for the One Fifty now in rotation, who stand for the thousands in the surrounding towns, the millions in the cities, and the countries at the edge of the nuclear wind. They stand for the water elements below, the air elements above, and the fire within the shattered earth chalice of this our nuclear age. Goddess hold these men in your heart, and cause the radiation to spare them; and if not, take them up onto your Limitless Breast.

To those on the sidelines, worrying about trouble to come; I'd worry. These nuclear djinnis are everywhere. And management, in its current state, will consistently cut corners on safety for the bottom line every time. There's a reason the Devil card represents the Corporate State in the pantheon of the Tarot. God bless the 50, you won't see management on the front lines. No, middle management faces the press; the real money men have already climbed onto corporate jets and left the scene of the crime.

I remember ancient tales of Samurai, men honorable enough to fall upon their swords when they failed of their empire. Precious few left in high places these days, just crocodile tears from the perpetrators. The real Samurai in this case are the low-level, underpaid and under-trained contract workers left at the plant; warriors all, standing between nuclear oblivion and the rest of the world. And sure, maybe it won't fully explode and contaminate the entire earth. Maybe it will be just a local phenomena, just part of the cost of doing business. Does it make it any less catastrophic?

Fukushima 50, you have not lived in vain. We on the other side of the world? We can only contribute our heartfelt thanks, and our firm intent to rectify this Error of cataclysmic proportion. We in the rest of the world must affirm that the way we live our life is our response. We can choose to emulate the wealthy criminals, always crying for more; whose every decision echoes always the refrain ' it's someone else's job' to rectify their mistakes. The cowards at the top will sacrifice whomever needs to be; after all, they are competitors for the most gilded chariot in the race to the top of the highest and gated heap. (I think there really is a deeper place in Hell. It only looks gilded on the outside, and the heap is surely inverted.)

Saner Hearts; maybe we can pull for a slightly dusty heaven; live with less, and lay those nuclear djinni to rest. Nuclear Power? Hell, no, we won't go.

Goddess bless and sustain the Fukushima 50.

I struggle to remember in these trying times; a heart has never loved in vain, and great deeds are surely rewarded. May the Love that lifts and sustains these heroes in their darkest hour lift and sustain us all. In quantum peace.

We live in exciting times

2011-02-19T14:51:00.000-08:00

We live in exciting times. All over the world, the common people are rising up; people are rising up in peaceful revolution. People are rising up singing. People are rising up singing, saying, this, this is democracy. We are the people, and we are talking now. Things must change.

We live in exciting times. People are standing up with their neighbors and friends, people are standing for each other, and for the common welfare. They are marching, they are walking, some are even dying, singing Freedom's sweet refrain; Mothers, Fathers, Daughters and Sons, all good people marching, shouting, peaceful! Keep it peaceful now! We shall be free! People are standing up in peace and stepping forward for basic human rights; rights to shelter, warmth, food, a peaceful place to call home.

I learned about democracy in school: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

We live in exciting times. People are rising up singing, people are living out what our forefathers only dreamed of, before they, too, wrote out this charter. 'We the People'...

The charter of our democracy states: "When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Every day, around the world, the news feeds echo with politicians decreeing austerity measure for anyone else but themselves. Variations of 'There's been a market, er, correction, and the imaginary money we were playing with dissolved in some imaginary fashion, and you all owe us for your (non imaginary) existence...' Governments world-wide are cutting back on essential social services, food and aid to the poor; poor because there are no jobs, because of some core-pirate extended crap game on the stock market.

May I submit that the taxes that the poor of the nation pay every day, from their milk and margerine to the rented roof over their head; that if this tax is not, in return, spent for the welfare of said people, then that tax, by any standard of human decency, should be abolished. The welfare of the nation includes all of the people of the nation, rich, poor, or merely indigineous.

We don't need any more bombs, we don't need any more wars of security. The days of the mafia don government are over. We are not paying protection money any more. We are not secure, and your war is not helping. We need our hard earned tax dollar spent upon the social welfare, the common good; if my neighbor is hungry, there is no true security. Bombs and guns do not help this. Food and shelter do. This is the human contract, and this is the charter of a true democracy.

We don't need bigger weapons. If the alien invader bogey men come from the fifth dimension, your merely corporal weapons are of no use anyway, except to do the job for them. We don't need to spend our money on things that kill us. We need peace. Peace in the neighborhood, peace in which to grow our food, love our families, peace, that lets clean water rain down out of the sky, to water the crops that feed the families. This wide and grand biosphere that we all share, this floating spaceship in the sky,is the only functional biosphere for all humanity. We are certainly going through a period of unstable weather. Our common mother is, to put it politely, billions of years old. She's allowed to get a little cranky. But, in spite of any magical thinking you may have upon the subject, times of war will not get you through times of no food better than food will get you through times of no war.

To hyperfocus upon objects of desire is called 'obsession'. I put forth that the sign of a delinquent government is a hallmark of obsessive focus upon security; effectively taxing the poor to create weapons which are then employed to guard the many opulent halls of the weapon makers from their former clients. I put forth that a government that does not care for the needs of the people is a delinquent government. Democracy, that great Light to humanity, gives the common man the ability to redress grievances. Democracy IS the will of the people, and while this planet may not have seen true democracy yet, I'd hazard a bet that we are pretty close.

There is a tide that comes in the affairs of man, when the tide of Light is just right, and fortune and fate coincide. The people of the world are rising up; singing, in peaceful revolution. Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, Israel, US, Australia, Japan, China. Africa, England, Germany, all over. Don't let them tell you it's not happening. Don't let them tell you it's all over there somewhere. It's as down home as you and me.

The people of peace stand united in our concern for the common welfare. We haven't confused the map for the territory. We care for our friends, we care for our neighbors. We support the common welfare, you bet. If your mother was poor, would you cut out her winter fuel? You cannot call yourselves a legitimate government, by any human standard, if your people are poor and hungry. Everyone is someones' mother or father or brother or sister. We, the people, don't need any more of your so called security. We need the real thing. Keep your arms and your weapons and your terminator seeds. The people of peace need what we have always needed upon this earth, we need clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, clean food,and a place to live and work in Peace, with our family and our loved ones. This is our choice. Now you are hearing our voice, all over the world.

We live in exciting times. I'm with Joni Mitchell on this one: 'I dreamed I saw the bombers, riding shotgun in the sky, turning into butterflies above this nation.' And we're getting ourselves back to the Garden. Plot by plot, seed by seed.

When I was much younger than I am now, I listened to Judy Collins singing about Che Guevara: "continue with your work" she said, "continue with your talk. we have it in our hands, to own our lives, to own our lands."

Looks like Love's revolution to me. In quantum peace.

Hey, World! California calling!

2010-08-04T17:43:00.000-07:00

Hurray and joyeous day! Today we celebrate for the 'uncommonly good sense' judgement rendered today by California Supreme-Court Justice , Judge Vaughn Walker. Today, the fundamental human right to Love equally has been upheld under the civil and justicial code. Today Judge Walker upheld the appeal, granting the charter and code of protected civil rights to same-gendered weddings. May all beings know the Bliss of Divine Love.

*written in celebration of the reversal today of the bigoted, big money proposition 8, heretofore known as California's 'anti-gay-marriage amendment'. This strikes a 'blow' for equality for all sentient peoples, and further upholds the people's right to limit the amount of corporate campaign dollars to sway an election. (A major factor in the bills' former passing was the influx of 'political capital' from out-of-state Utah.) Step by step, and day by day, we shall all be Free, in Love's Resolution, In Quantum Peace.

Have We Had Enough Yet?

2010-06-03T13:19:00.000-07:00

Where would Israel be today, if the world had let Hitler and the Germans do what they pleased with the Warsaw ghetto, with the death camps? Germany was a democratically elected government—should we have stepped back from the horror of their inhumane treatment of the Poles just because they had a democracy? Does the suffering that the Jewish peoples endured in the 40's give them carte blanche for war crimes now? Why is it different, when the treatment is the same, but only the names have changed?

Evil endures. It wears different masks. The atrocity we stamped out in one generation recurs in the next. It seldom recurs in the same way. Yes, the Jewish peoples suffered massively in WWII. (They weren't the only ones, ask the Romany, ask the Russians, ask the French and the Belgians). Obviously, people who have suffered so much would not repeat the evil that they lived through at another's hands, would they?

And yet, modern science and psychology bears this out. Victims of violence often become perpetrators of the same. Without treatment, violent crimes are perpetuated through the generations, repeated upon new innocents. This is Israel's condition today. Israel was a nation founded by shell-shocked sufferers of PTSD. They didn't get treatment, they went to war again, this time against the indigenous peoples of Palestine, and it continues to this day. Should we let the innocents of Palestine suffer? Why do we let the world's largest ghetto, the largest open air prison, continue to exist? For this is certainly what Gaza is, Warsaw revisited. Why do we let the obviously traumatized Israelis continue to perpetrate violent acts of aggression against children, for Christ's sake! For there are children in Gaza, there are mothers there, and fathers, and all they want is what anyone wants, a chance for life, a chance for family, and ways and means to feed and keep them.

The blockade of Gaza is illegal, it is immoral, it is evil at it's shape-shifting best, all dressed up in fancy words and self-righteous indignation. Just because the Jewish people suffered in the 40's does not give them a right to turn around and give out a 'healthy dose' of the same. It certainly does not give them a right to board a boat in international waters, guns blazing, to kill peaceful peoples, who only were doing what they did for the Jews in WWII, trying to stop the madness, trying to stop the blockade, and to give humanitarian aid to distressed peoples.

What if the world had sat back and let Germany have its way? Think about it. But, the world did not sit back then, and we should not sit back now. Evil still wages war, it has patriotic words, and massive PR machines, and plenty of reasons to justify its actions. But its nature has not changed, and we are still fighting the same battle. However, we can't use the weapons of evil to win the war, or we face becoming what we fight.

The Turkish people who died on that convoy are heroes. As are the rest of the international crew. And the Israeli soldiers who opened fire on peaceful people are still war criminals and evil-doers, pawns or no. We can no longer stand back and let this continue. We didn't let Hitler's Germany get away with its treatment of Warsaw, and we cannot let Israel do the same to Gaza. Keep up the work, keep up the talk, keep trying to break the blockade. Write, talk, act, contact your representatives, make them listen. Vote, vote with your political choice, vote with your collective currency. Don't support the war machine, don't support politicians who stand back and do nothing, don't support the evil that is the Gaza blockade. Don't buy Israeli products until they lift the blockade. These are the peaceful choices we have, we who live too far from the conflict to try to cross the blockade. But we must make this choice, for the sake of the world, and for the sake of our children, everywhere.

In quantum peace.

Obama's War?

2009-12-03T12:05:00.001-08:00

Last night, it became Obama's war. I think that's a misnomer. I don't think it was ever his war to start with. He came into office with the war already in full bloom, saying, as I recall, that he would close gitmo (still going at this time). Did he ever really talk about Peace? Was it just a dream some of us had?

I pity President Obama. I was telling a friend that I thought he must be caught between the generals and the deep blue sea. I remember watching a short of Obama getting home from somewhere far away, and his daughter running up to him and throwing her arms around him. I remember wondering about how it must feel to be in the spotlight like that, and I was grateful that I wasn't there with my boy. God bless his courage.

I've heard that Obama is listening to his advisers. Are these the same advisers that have brought us white phosphorus bombs, depleted uranium munitions, fleschettes, and other deadly and quite thorough ways to commit bodily mayhem? The same advisers that don't understand that we live in a finite ecosystem, and that nothing is ever safely buried far far away? The ones that don't seem to understand fundamental concepts like how the radioactive dust that is aloft on the tradewinds of Africa migrates across the sea to rain down on the unsuspecting here at home? Where do they think most of these cancers come from? Forgive me if I fail to put my trust in death-dealers.

I don't know of any way to stop a war by making more war. If you are engaging in offensive operations, you are engaging in warfare. Last I looked, peace wasn't found on a battlefield. When can we stop the madness, and how?

They say we are a free market economy. I guess that means we're free to fund their war. They say it costs a million dollars a year to keep a soldier overseas, and that's not counting the bill for the private contractors. Why are we paying them? And for what? We had a budget surplus in this country, until we started war. Why do we have money for war, and not for, say, healthcare? Who wrote those rules? I don't remember seeing them in the constitution.

There is something there about Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. War negates all three. I think war is unconstitutional by it's premise. You can argue the details about the amendments, and Defense of the Common Good all you want, in my mind there's no such thing as a 'good war'.

Speaking of defense, we had no defense at all on 9/11. This was a huge strategic blunder. The 'best army in the world' got caught with it's collective pants down. We have the largest military budget in the world, and we couldn't stop, what, 14 guys with box-cutters? I guess the money was mis-spent. Unfortunately, rather than addressing the root cause of terrorism, we then collectively hiked up our pants, and went on the offensive. We were now a nation at war—and the Devil himself couldn't have had a better outcome than that. Seems like we gave the terrorists legitimacy in our over-reaction; now they had a huge cause to fight. We could have rebuilt the towers and put in gardens, and passed health-care for all in honor of the victims of 9/11. We could have created a lasting Peace from a tragedy of monumental (pardon the pun) proportion. No, we let the arms-makers make the deal, and now we all bear a collective responsibility for our countries' actions since then.

They say that communities all over the country are suffering, because there is no money, in the government or otherwise, to care for their ills. There is no money for health-care, there are cuts in essential services and cuts in education. Could we but see it, we would understand that here is our collective Karma; when we let the warmongers call the shots, they take it all—all our wealth, all our resources, and the lives of our bright sons and daughters that will return no more. I say that bill is too high to pay, and we should not pay it.

They say we live in a free market economy. A close look at the numbers says death is far more expensive than life. Maybe we could get smarter about our budget. We could pay for healthcare for the entire world on just a portion of our arms budget. Imagine what we could do at home. They say we live in a free market economy, and that we live in a democracy. Let's make it work. I say, tax the arms-makers, the war wagers, tax them until they can't afford to wage war any more. Boycott the companies that produce arms, that provide raw materials to the arms-makers. Boycott the government that wages war. How about an amendment to let us decide where our taxes go? I say Health-care, not Warfare. An armament is only as good as the person that delivers it. Don't pick up the weapon, don't program the computer, don't put any more energy into the obscene profits of impotent old men. One by one, we can stop this.

I can't face myself in the mirror if I say that this can continue. I couldn't look in the eyes of my child, and not know I didn't do everything in my power to bring the world to Peace. His life, and the lives of all of our children, depend upon it, Here, Now, and Tomorrow.

Last night, it became Obama's war, according to the press. By definition, it is all of our war, we are the people, and we are responsible. Won't you join the Peace revolution? Bread, not bombs, music not munitions, and death to taxes that only fund more carnage. Call your congressperson today, and vote with your heart, your wallet, and your voice.

In quantum peace.

The Good Thing About Climate Change.

2009-10-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

Last year for blog action day, I logged on with a piece about free seeds. No response. I reckon really poor folk can't get to a computer, and those that can get to a computer don't need seeds....

This year, it's about climate change. That's a big subject. I can't even call the climate in the different parts of my garden from year to year, much less really know about the macro world. Tell you the truth, I'm not sure that the scientists really know, either. They use a computer, after all, and a computer is only as good as your input.

Luckily, the world is not a computer—leastways, not one built by man. So it may be premature to think that we are the kingpin of civilization, or the master of the change, or, possibly, even, the architects of our destruction.

There were fabled tales of a northwest passage that the Vikings followed. Greenland was once, indeed, a green land. It is now covered in—albeit—melting ice. My point is that this has happened before, and it will happen again. We will have as little control over it now as we did then. Our genius is not in control of the the environment so much as it is in rolling with it's punches. We are a migratory species, just like the birds. We are supposed to follow the sun, and grow with the plants in the warming places. What's arbitrary are national borders. Lines on paper, really, but, hey, that's something you really can control. Just make more guns, bombs, guard those lines and those resources. Control! At last! ? Is there a Devil laughing somewhere, maybe not so quietly?

The problem with historical records is that they are so often lost or misunderstood. The problem with prophecy in any form is that the prophet is so often wrong. To tell you the truth, all this talk about global warming almost makes me really suspect the opposite. What's the deal about oil? It rather boils down to control of the environment. More oil, more control. It costs more to heat than it does to cool...leastways it does in my neighborhood. And the planet has a rather grim record of heating suddenly, and cooling just as swiftly. Our government hasn't exactly given me huge reasons to trust it lately. Yes, Global change may be happening. (It has never stopped). It may also be going the other way...any decent mathametician will tell you that from a certain perspective, the equations balance, and it's difficult to see whether you are on the positive or negative end of the spectrum.

The good thing about global climate change? It may just force us to truly work with our neighbors, in every way. No time like the present, to start.

So, it's all about perspective, and all about balance. I can't work the macrocosm. I can't affect it in any way. But I do have many choices in the microworld. And all of them start with peace. It is the only way that we, as a species, can roll with the environmental punches, and emerge, peacefully victorious, on the other side.

Good luck in your efforts, and remember, you may end up having to lay down your arms and grab a hoe anyway. Either way, hot or cold, climate change makes it harder for food production, and hungry neighbors don't make for peaceable ones. Farm small, farm organic, trade out your produce, feed you neighbors, give them peaceful places to grow their food in, and teach them how to do it as well. Sooner than later is best. You may find you're just too busy to fight a damn war anyway.

In quantum peace

From One Who Loved You

2009-06-09T17:19:00.001-07:00

I didn't cry
when I heard of his passing
his Presence this morning
on the edge of a dream
was stronger than it had ever been

less of him to hug
more of him to Know

I cried later
that was from frustration
I'd rather know less
and hug more

The sun is hiding today
I think he's ashamed
to steal our Friend like that

HIs Teahouse of the Mullah's Donkey
was our haven
a place where we all learned to love

His Teahouse of the Mullah's Donkey
is a place somewhere in time
and maybe that Place will come again
in the scent of coffee on the morning breeze
with the wild gypsy music wafting
and the happy greeting of good friends
awaiting that smiling visage.

while we're waiting,
we'll raise our mugs high

then get back to work
and keep at Creating
our Meeting Place of the Heart

In memory of Don Wendell Brown
who died today in the loving arms of his friends
He will be sadly missed by many.
In Quantum Peace.

Is this Warsaw Redux?

2008-12-31T14:03:00.000-08:00

In Warsaw, they built a wall to keep the Jews in the ghetto. They cut them off from from the outside world, they stopped incoming food, and many people starved, and died. There was a resistance that formed to fight for freedom. The tolls were terrible, the Nazis had a policy of shooting 10 poles for every German killed. This was one of the reasons that the US joined WWII, the last 'good war'. The Jewish state of Israel was established in part, because of this holocaust, the massive war against the Jews. Never again was genocide to be practiced.

Fast forward to the present. Another wall has been built. Another ethnic group has been sequestered, and they are starving. After a short cease fire, the embargo was not lifted; there was still wide spread starvation. Finally, again, some home made rockets were lobbed; in the tradition of resistance fighters, the battle was on. People in Gaza were dying from lack of food and medical care. Can we really blame Hamas, the elected government, for fighting back? What would you do, faced with starving children?

What has happened to Israel, the builders of the new wall? Is it true that we become what we fight? Have the leaders of Israel become the Nazis they professed to hate? What possesses them? I understand not wanting rockets to fall on innocents. But the casualties of this war echo the ten to one of the Nazis. This is not an 'eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth'—this is wholesale slaughter.

I have read that Israel has elections coming up. Is this war truly an electoral bid? If so, what must we do to get the war-mongers out of office? I am hearing from people on various lists, who contribute from inside Israel, that this is not a popular war, but that they feel powerless against the state. Only one by one are we powerless. Join with your neighbors, call your friends. Take your elections, take to the streets. Vote. Vote for peace. Vote with your heart and with your feet, vote with your actions and with your wallet. Lay down your arms. Rain bread, not bombs. It's not too late.

Not yet.

In quantum peace

Obama, We're Holding Your Feet to the Fire.

2008-11-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

How does a peacenik hold a politician's feet to the fire? Vote! Vote your conscience, vote your choice, vote for hope, and take a chance on change.

It's Election Day, here in America. Thought it would never get here. November 4th! It’s going to be D-day, Deliverance Day from the insane neo-con nightmare of the last eight years.

The moon is in Aquarius on election day, that’s gonna be some kind of revolution there for sure. I think we really have a chance to turf out the incumbents, and replace them with actual living, breathing, and, most importantly, thinking beings. Right now it’s looking up to be a win for Obama, but the Rethug-dirty-trick-vote-suppressing-vote-flipping-central-counting-computer-techno-chad-fiasco-machine is still active, and waiting in the wings to take a stake in how it all shakes down.

For these thugs, it's ID day, as in " Do you have an ID that I recognize?" It's D day, as in "Diebold" counts the votes." It's E day, as in "End of the day, sorry about all the mix-ups and the long lines." Stay tuned, stay awake folks, and don’t go to sleep NOW! ALL HANDS ON DECK!

Back in the bad old days when they were stealing the second selection for dubya, I about dropped my jaw to my knees when I heard some politician quote, just prior to the election on national TV (in front of the white-house no less!) “It doesn’t matter who votes, it matters who counts it.” I thought for sure the media would pick it up then, but apparently Cheney had all their kids in his undisclosed location or something, because we never heard a peep about it until the mighty blog-o-sphere started adding up all the bits and pieces of the coup. (Bless you Bart Cop, Smirking Chimp, Media Whores Online, Common Dreams,andBuzzflash, among the many.) So remember this, and make your vote count; check in with your neighbors, and make their vote count. Then check in with the county, and then the state. Keep watching, and keep them honest.

Obama was not my first choice for president, but right now, he's our only choice. We need a landslide for Obama, a clear mandate against monkey-business-as-usual. We need a clear mandate against the rape of our commonwealth. The last eight years of idiocracy have mobilized the vote, we the people are on the move. Obama, and the rest of America, have done a heck of a job getting out the vote. We the people need to follow through, and exercise our democratic mandate. We can’t stop there though, we have to make sure our votes are counted and counted correctly.

Don’t take no for an answer. Don’t believe them when they say the election is too close. It’s really not. I’ve heard things in the last couple of days from dyed in the wool red-necks, lumberjacks, loggers, farmers, housewives, business people, gas station workers, waitresses, you name it, everyone is talking about it. I’ve had life-long republicans say to me I can’t vote for McCain Palin, I don’t know who else to vote for, so I’ll vote Obama. People are tired of politics as usual, and they are voting for change. Let’s see that they get it.

Democracy isn’t a one day event, folks. First we have to get the vote out, get it counted, and get Washington to stick to it. That’s why we need that landslide on November fourth. But then we have to make sure Obama takes office. Someone’s gotta get Cheney outta that bunker. I don’t care if you believe in the Invisible Cloud Being or not, I figure we should all utilize our powers of visualization, and visualize Obama taking office. (Is it too much to ask for to have the thugs indicted on the way out?)

Obama was not my first choice for president. But he’s our only choice right now, so after we get him into office, we gotta hold his feet to the fire. We need him to act, not to shift the war over the border, but to shift the war to over, and bring the troops home. Let’s hold his feet to the fire over the bailout, just so he can pass it on to wall street. Trickle down economics is some form of Republican bathroom humor, so tell Obama not to let the corporations piss all over us. If we’re going to have welfare for the rich, then Obama needs to take away their non-essential toys. Let’s give the taxpayers the golden parachutes, and tell the greedy CEOs to go to hell, or, better yet, to get a job.

We’re going to have to do our part as citizens and voters, and make our mandate heard. We are America, of, for, and by the people. And you know what? We the people have a chance to take our country back. So, Obama? We’re holding your feet to the fire. We don’t mind sacrifice, so long as everybody makes one. We don’t mind working for the common good. But we aren’t going to take politics as usual, ’cause we the people got no place left to go, our backs are against the wall. So, stay in it folks. Stay awake. Vote, make your voice heard, make it stick and then keep the President’s (and Congress’s) feet to the fire with your telephone and email wire. Democracy is both a participatory and a contact sport. Place your bets, and take your places!

Astrologically, this election’s all about revolution. These are exciting days— E-day, D-day, let’s go get ‘em!

In quantum peace

On Edit. Reuters reports Barak Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, died from cancer today, in Hawaii. By all reports, she was a wonderful woman who did a great job raising her children. She died knowing her grandson was probably going to be the next president of the United States. God bless her, and blessings and condolences to the Obama family upon their loss.

Poverty and Greed

2008-10-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

There seems to be two types of poverty, poverty created by the planet, in the form of drought, tsunamis, earthquakes, or other disasters, and man made poverty, created by greed.

Sometimes I think God was in a hurry when God made this portion of the universe. There's a lot of uncertainty out there, earthquakes, fires, comets, quasars, who knows? Life is definitely one exciting adventure. Sometimes I think, when God periodically got back to checking his creation out, that he took a look, and he said "Hey, things are out of whack there, where there used to be paradise, there's poverty...." I think that's when God inspires some of the great religions that seize upon the hearts of men from time to time, motivating people to do great things.

One of the hallmarks of all religions is Charity, giving alms to the poor. This is one of the duties that God put on us as a people—whether he was doing damage control or not! So, in one sense, poverty, when it is seen, is a question from God— "What are you going to do about this?"

Poverty happens within the context of communities. You can pretty much tell the depth of a society, or whether they are rising or falling on the scale of evolution, by how they treat the least among them. The hallmark of a great society is when communities respond to poverty— when they help the needy, when they band together in the name of common good, when they help reestablish systems, homes, food, or places for families and neighbors who have been marginalized by the planet's extreme weather, or just bad luck.

There is a theory, somewhat popular with those who combine philosophy and the study of the quantum field, that says if enough of us achieve harmony on the planet, the planet is healed, and stability comes, and that we can mitigate some of the effects of our extreme weather, which can mitigate some of the resultant poverty. Our thoughts and our actions can help create that stability, sounding the note of harmony that heals.

Now, how can the poor sing that note? It's hard, they don't have a living, they don't have food, and they don't have shelter, so we, as giving beings, people of God's plan, need to help them strike that note, and we need to help them to help themselves. The Creator gave everyone on the planet, inalienable rights; water that comes from the sky or that flows from the ground, clean air, and the Mother Earth that gives us our food. We all have the right to til the soil, to use the water, and to plant our seeds. How can we make this available for everyone? How can we share our harvest?

Poverty, when dealt with as a community, lifts everyone. Everyone works together, the communities come together, the arts flourish, the hearts flourish, and civilization, as Creator dreamed it, flourishes.

The other type of poverty is caused by greed. Greed is the opposite of charity, in many respects. Greed says, I'm better than you, and I deserve more than you. Greed takes you outside of Creators plan. The native americans knew this. They stated 'how can anyone own the Mother Earth?' They were not a greedy people. Their civilization, while low—according to technological standards— flourished for thousands of years.

It's hard to fight that greed, keyword being fight. Most greed eventually leads to war, because when a man starts acquiring more and more resources, past the point of what he can use and stopping short of the point of giving back to creation, then wars are fought . When wars are fought, it's a contagion, everyone starts hoarding resources, hoarding food, hoarding water. Wars must be fought, because the haves will create the have-nots with their disparate wealth. The greedy own larger and larger tracts, which they must back up with armies which they conscript from the poor. They lay waste to towns, to countrysides, they poison the water, they poison the air, they poison the fields, they poison the people, creating yet more poverty.

War is the handmaiden to greed, and poverty is their misbegotten child. War attacks community at it's foundation, leaving community unable to respond. It's an age old question, and an age old war, and yet, we stand at the brink of ancient promises fulfilled. We can do something about poverty in the world. We can feed the people. We can have clean air, clean water, and good food that the mother earth brings forth. We may have to adopt new ways, and maybe do with a little less ourselves, but we can respond, as a community, to poverty.

But first, we must kill, we must kill greed. Those of us caught in the wars of the greedy must lay down our arms. We must be brave enough to take a stand, and say enough! We must say I will war no more. We must embrace Charity, embrace the giving world, embrace Creators plan—and from that quantum field, we go forth. That harmony will sound, and we will create a common good, of the people, by the people, and for the people.

In quantum peace.

Peace Fatigue

2008-08-18T01:35:00.000-07:00

The crickets are singing tonight, outside in the warm summer night. I'm slaving over the alembic, making lavender hydrosol and oil. A whole years harvest in a small still is nothing that's gonna get me rich, but working long into the night, watching over the process, gives me lots of time to think.

It was so quiet tonight, you could hear the military jets flying way up high. I wonder where they're off to, and what they're up to. I read an article today about the soldiers who control the predator drones. It said they had kill by remote control capability. That's hard for me to fathom. I would be hoping that we could all come to our senses here, and lay off the remote. Darn couch potato soldiers.

War by remote. What an American invention. Almost antiseptic, wouldn't you say? Rather like a video game, except that the blood is real. It's getting hard to keep up with all of the news, most of it is bad, sketchy at best, and outright propaganda at it's worst. I turned off the satellite TV...it gives me one more tank of gas in a month, and less of a distraction in my life.

I get so fatigued, trying to keep up with it all. I get so fatigued, trying to do the daily prayers for all sentient beings, to hold the light for mother earth, to hold the love for humanity. I've got a bad case of peace fatigue. Too many wars, too much confusion, and not enough seeming progress. Surely, surely the world will wake up and we can get some rest? Surely we can have peace in the valley tonight? Surely we can have peace on the mountain tonight? And if we can have peace here, can we send it around the world?

It's hard to say, with the slight-of-hand media-machine, exactly what's going on in Georgia, Ossetia, et al. More of what Kipling used to call the Great Game, redux, for the techno-generation, I guess. Turns out both Israel and the US were shipping arms to Georgia in the name of 'freedom'. Too bad our classical education is sorely neglected, apparently in more than just this country, otherwise folks would both remember and learn from the phrase, "beware of Greeks bearing gifts." Or, to put it another way, beware of US bringing freedom. This seems to be the exact same set-up that got Saddam Hussein in trouble with his former allies. For the alphabet soup folks, it's just another enemy, another target, another covert operation, pitting neighbors against each other in some penny ante super deluxe version of what? Call it what you want, patriotism, freedom, it still seems like just another greedy justification to indulge in chaos. Why is it that war drives the economy? Why is greed the basis of our GNP? What ever happened to good old fashioned human decency? The banality of evil (was it Agatha Christie who mentioned this in one of her novels?) is the sheer predictablility of it. Got oil? Too bad, unless you, like Russia, have lots of arms to hang onto it with. America has lost her moral imperative, even to the politically naive, and much has been coming out about some of our government's distressing tendency to 'give the gift of freedom' by covert ops and planned mayhem.

When I was (MUCH) younger, I thought if we can just outlive these bastards, we will bankrupt the robber barons, and move off of fiat currency into something that is a little more real. I thought that one really couldn't eat gold...You know, if we keep up these insane wars, we may reach that goal. War is unsustainable by nature, and a country that indulges in it on a consistent basis, no matter the justification, must surely be insane.

We've mistaken the map for the territory. The road map to peace? It's in each of our brains. And it's up to each one of us to pull it out, and to dust it off, and to make it work.

A Sufi told me once that just a little bit of positivity can outweigh any negative impact. It's hard some days to see the positive, but I think we must create it in our minds, even if we can't see it. What does peace look like? What does it feel like, what does it sound like? Sounds of peace. I had a thought a while back, that maybe soldiers couldn't hear the sounds of peace anymore, and that if they could, it might help them to see their way clear from war. War is an option, not a mandatory sentence, and it's certainly a failure of diplomacy. I think that we all have a duty to resist going to war, and to wage peace instead.

I hae a theory about the coming cosmic alignment, the much heralded end of the mayan calendar. I know that it marks the winter solstice point as it lines up with 'galactic center". I think that this gravitational field is intense, and that the force exerted uon our poor psyches is a large part of what brings civilizations down. It may be that the vibe makes us all a little crazy, and it's important to remember that it's only really intense for a (cosmically) short time. But we must hang on to our humanity during that time, and we must not project our darkest nightmares upon our neighbors. We are human, we can live in peace.

And maybe we can develop a vitamin for peace fatigue ;-)

The Truth of Peace

2008-06-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

Briana Waters is a friend of mine. Let me start out by saying that. I met her at the Renaissance Faire, where she played wild gypsy violin. We were all studying music there, under an old Persian music master who held court on Zantour, a form of hammered dulcimer. I was torturing the doumbek, a hand drum, trying to keep up with these haunting and intricate melodies played with such ease by our master and Briana. Eventually we developed the easy camaraderie shared by those who perform together, and, in the breaks between sets or in the long summer night, we would tell each other the tales of our lives.

Time passed, I was already raising a family, and Briana got married, and had a kid. We continued to meet at the different events we worked, and shared good family time together. Turns out Briana went to Evergreen college, where she was a peace advocate, and an environmentalist. Briana loved a young hothead, who, like other hotheaded young men before him dreamed of revolution in a glorious cause.
Briana heard about a valley up north, where there were loggers going broke, and homesteaders going broke, and a big logging company coming through like some glad handed politician, with promises and allusions to future benefit. The logging company wanted to clear cut the area.

Now, I don't know if you've ever seen a clear cut, but it's like the hand of satan came through and played 52 pick up with the forest. Havoc reigns supreme, and nothing lives, other than the 'lucky' tortured matchsticks that are left. Talk about the original terrorists. Imagine, a whole forest full of living things eradicated in the space of a day or six. Imagine the devastation to the very architecture of the forest. Now image you are a poor isolated valley that would flood from the previous years clear-cuts, and mudslides would come after that to cut off this small town from 'civilization'. The last thing these poor people needed to hit their back yard was one more clear cut.

Now imagine these people approached by some corporate logging firm. Imagine they were glad-handed, and promised future progress and unspecified benefits, in return for letting these corporate goons decimate their ability to make a living or even merely eat out of the forest. That's right, they wanted another clear-cut. As is the way of corporate raiders, they had each 'side' of the valley, the loggers and the homesteaders, pointing fingers at the other side, and claiming each other was evading progress, or threatening the other's livelihoods. Divide and conquer at it's finest.

Well, youth is fleeting, precious and precocious. Don't'cha know it, Briana, for a senior project in school took a film crew and make a documentary about the peace process. Through the sheer bravado of youth, along with some incredible music from her violin, Briana got the sides to talk to each other, and, ya know what? They were a lot more alike, those folks , then they thought. They each had families, and people they loved, and a living to make from the forest. They started talking to each other,working together, and by golly, the valley was saved. That's the kind of person Briana is. She just thinks about what needs to be done, and does it with style.

Now I'm a pernicious person, and I've been known to tear the paint off of the broad side of a barn with my tongue (even when it's firmly planted in my cheek;-). Occasionally, as tiredness overtakes control, I've been know to say some pretty stupid and thoughtless things. I never heard one word of violence out of Briana, ever. She is one of the most peaceful people I know, both in word and deed.

Anyway, peaceful Briana loved a young hothead who was enamored with the ELF, that's the Earth Liberation Front, to the uninitiated. These young hotheads, as is the way of young hotheads everywhere wanted to use all that excess adrenaline to good use, and would create confrontational solutions to their perceived problems of rampant environmental degredation. Well, Briana went about her business, starting to teach the violin and all, and young hothead heard about a supposed lab at the UofW which was supposed to contain embryonic GMO trees, or at least the fixin's. Young hotheads decided to burn the lab to the ground. In retrospect, of course, there had to have been better solutions. Turns out it was the wrong building, and they did millions of dollars worth of damage to the University.

Well, young hotheads need to be brought to justice, and these certainly were. They were duly questioned by the FBI, and were asked for any accomplices, in exchange for the usual plea bargaining to a lighter sentence.

No one mentioned Briana in the first round of questioning. Of course, because emerging fascist societies (surely this doesn't describe us?) need an enemies list, the feds weren't satisfied with the initial confessions. Surely there must be something more? Seems like Briana's name came out of the hat in the second or third round. Well, she was subpoenaed, and showed up in court. She, thinking of her youthful experiences, thought, 'well, I'll just go tell them I'm innocent then".

What happened next shouldn't happen in a free society, although mistakes are made, I hear tell. I think the big difference between a free and fair society and one which is closing down is that the free one will seek to correct it's mistakes, and then fix things so these mistakes don't happen again. Anyway, Briana got her trial, taking her carpenter husband and her three year old baby to Seattle with her.
Briana had physical evidence to prove she was elsewhere, and, quite frankly, I've never known her to lie, and she never said she did this thing. Facts were tossed back and forth, the evidence was mostly circumstantial and hearsay. The jury adjourned for deliberation.

Funny. If you can call it that. During the deliberation portion of the trial, a block of brand new, but unsold, ecologically 'green' homes burned to the ground. Someone conveniently left a sign on a piece of four by eight that somehow escaped the inferno. It was signed ELF. Maybe there's more members out there, I wouldn't know, I was never one of them, but I don't think that someone who is so careful of trees would do something like that to someone like Briana. Doesn't seem to add up somehow.

I can understand, however, that if I was a fascist in the slightly-past-nascent-takeover-phase, that one of the scariest things to my regime would be someone who enabled people to talk to each other. I can see how Briana (who weighs maybe 130 in fighting violin) could be so dangerous that they would have to manipulate the perception of reality like this. Of course, it's probably not really personal, with Briana, at all. They aren't convicting Briana-the-actually-bad, they are symbolically scape-goating the innocent, so the hopefully entranced public will see the shadow puppet and not the stark reality of more corporate loss of both freedom and environment.

I have had this on my mind for some time, but I promised I wouldn't write about this until Briana's sentencing.

Briana was sentenced today for 6 years hard time. Her daughter will be near 10 years old when she gets out, if appeal fails. Thankfully, Briana is being moved to Dublin, California, closer to family and home. I have hope that we here in the great state can bring justice to an innocent woman. Because if we can't, who's to bring justice to us, when the knock comes upon our own door?

Truth is hard. It requires a responsibility to oneself and others. Peace can only come through truth. Briana Waters, la Paloma, you will be free, in quantum peace.

update: Briana Waters was moved to a correctional institution on the East Coast, far away from her family. Apparently there are so many green scare prisoners that all the west coast prisons were taken—homeland security will not let them stay in the same prison, as they are accounted terrorists, and must be kept seperate. This makes it extremely difficult for Briana's family to visit, and for the appeals process. Letters to your favorite politician would be appreciated.

UPDATE! October 14th, 2010. Briana Waters has won her right to appeal, and is released from federal prison, and back in the arms of her family today. This is a great wrong that has been righted, and while nothing can give Briana back the time that she lost with her young daughter, the fact that the great federal machinery of justice moved at all is a miracle. Thanks to God, and may Briana experience nothing but the quiet love of her family and freedom hereafter.

In quantum peace...

Time to Stop and Think About It

2008-04-24T14:31:00.000-07:00

Here in the states, over in God Fearin' Texas in the USofA , we are hearing reports about some 400 odd children who are currently languishing in the custody of the Law through having been judicially separated from their mothers. The children were the progeny of an offshoot of the Mormon religion —FLDS; apparently their fathers believed in (among other things) multiple wives, and marrying younger girls to older men. The story is that a teenage girl called out for help, saying she was forced to wed an older man against her will, and have two children by him by the age of 15. The compound was raided, fathers were carted off to jail, and the mothers and children were staying in custody for awhile. I can heartily agree with breaking this sort of thing up; early (and forced) marriage is certainly not respecting a child's right to both come of age and have a choice in one's life-partner. However, it was recently decided to separate the mothers and children—for their own good, of course. Some of the clearly devastated mothers broke long-standing traditions of years of social isolation to come onto TV to talk about being torn away from their kids. From what I understand of the situation, many of the mothers were born into that system, and were also abused by it. Does it make sense to punish these women by taking away their children? Isn't this a little like blaming the victim?

It makes no sense whatsoever to separate a mother and child, if both are victims of trauma. These people, who have been raised to believe that outsiders are a threat to their way of life, will certainly not feel any better about this society, especially since it's fundamental fears have now been newly-founded, as it were. I fear we may find that there is more trouble created as a reaction to this poorly planned intervention—when you separate a loving mother from a loved child, you just create more damage to the psyches of both, and this can in no way be considered a positive effect. If society truly has a better way, surely we can properly educate these now doubly traumatized families. If you must heal the children, you must not steal the children; rather we must find a way to heal these bonds by nurturing both mother and child together. We must certainly educate their men about genetics, at the very least! We must educate them to respect a woman's choice, and a woman's value. It is only in this way that the cycle of abuse and violence is broken.

It is an ancient Chinese wisdom passed down from healer to healer— in order to heal the son, you must treat the mother. To cure the daughter, you must heal the father. You don't treat a mother by ripping her away from her child, any more than you treat a child by ripping it away from it's mother. Pornographic perpetrators of violence do these things. Enlightened societies do not. An enlightened society will treat mother and child, father and daughter. An enlightened society will stand close enough to monitor both relationships; if there is a fear of harm, they will be present to guide and lead by example into a better life. If succor is needed for the child, it is needed for the parents as well, and the parent child bond should be sacred.

If a 'so called' society insists on irrevocably altering this fundamental relationship, it will do so to it's peril; there is a natural backlash that occurs as the displaced children come of age, and it is these psychically fractured and emotionally traumatized children who are easily swayed into acts of violence and mayhem, and are easy prey for cannon fodder for the corporate wars of state.

Nazis, fascists and other totalitarians always attack this fundamental familial bond, for that is the bedrock of the corporate, as opposed to the natural state. The child's natural bond is to family, and the family's to the child. The fascist graft can only succeed when this core value is subverted. When you rip a family apart, you commit psychic rape and torture. When you go to war, it's manifestly physical rape and torture. The looks of the traumatized are glamorously portrayed, like Princess Di, or Brittany Spears, or kept to lower corners of the paper, another statistic of Iraqi orphaned, or splashed across the headlines, like the FLDS. The traumatized can be made to switch this subverted allegiance to the state or other authority, but it still doesn't make it ethical, or even Right. (That's why we Left, for the jokester activists among ya.).

An enlightened society would not compound the error that the issue addressed in the first place; If these people needed help, then so be it, it is societies' long stated duty to help them, but these women needed rescue, they did not need to lose their children, and have their social virginity (like their physical virginity) sacrificed to fear one more time.

History will judge the success of a society based upon how it treated it's citizens, it's children, and it's resources. (Surely we will be judged as fools for a long time to come, if current events are any indication. Surely there is still time to alter our fundamental condition of folly). Jesus, who is held up as a mark of behavior in Texas, said "suffer the little children to come unto me." I think that meant we should look out for the kids. "What you do to the least of them, you do to me also". I think that means look out for the parents, or the poor and traumatized. I'm pretty sure that "I give you dominion over all the earth" doesn't mean 'I made you the final arbiter and overlord in this life and the next'. Dominion is derived from 'Lord's property' , so we're rather caretakers, aren't we? So, we could very well ask 'how well do you keep your valleys that shelter you? How well do you keep the people who are around you?' We are all linked together on this little tiny ship of Life, our Titanic, as it were. We still have time to slow down our ship of state, or step back from the precipice, and make sure we act in keeping with these fundamental commandments—which all major religions of both the East and West claim sacred . We must keep these commandments at the peril of our Souls, or so we are told. Perhaps we need more than lip service?

Over in Palestine and Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan, life is a little more stark— there's bombs and madness to contend with. They lose their children every day in ways I can't even begin to comprehend. Surely we can approach these conflicts with the same intent. Heal the children, heal the mothers, heal the fathers. Heal by grouping together, and upholding the family unit, not by separating it and causing more chaos with separation, with guns and warfare.

The aboriginals of Australia reputedly tell a tale of Time, which stretches back in their oral tradition for a span of 30,000 years or so. They say one day a rift opened in the sky, and these 'interdimensional beings' came pouring through, and this is where our troubles started, and this is the cause of our wars. It's an interesting story, and bears some thought. What if it were true? What if beings that we couldn't really quite see were masquerading here on earth? What if they could only influence hearts and minds? What better way to conquer than to create situations to get the native inhabitants of the world to look at each other, as if each were the enemy? What better way to ineradicably alter an environment than by the wholesale and misbegotten production of war? There is a war on, it just may not be the one we think we are in.

When will this madness stop? When will we stop it? Is it really so hard, to take care of the children? Surely we can all agree to this. Surely we can find a better way. There's still a little time, and still a little place, a time to Stop, and think about it. Take the mother from the child? No, that leads to war. That's so old hat. Don't you know, in a more enlightened society, they take care of the women and children first. Not just your child, not just my child, but all the children, now, all the mothers now, and all the world in time. This is our dominion, this is our care, and this is our keeping.

We can lay down our weapons, and join our arms

In quantum peace

It ain't over, til the fat lady sings...

2008-02-28T18:10:00.000-08:00

Gee Al, I don't really think that a political endorsement is proper on this blog at this time. There are other people who think that perhaps Barack is too good to be true. My own family remembers the time that swept Hitler into power. We remember that Hitler started out as a charismatic, and that he was elected with great fanfare and appeal by a people desperate for change at any cost. Now I'm not casting aspersions as to who or who is not Hitler. After all, we're still living through the Bush regime. I am simply saying that we live in such perilous times as that now.

They say you can judge a man by the company he keeps. I don't know all that much about Barak, other than that he is young, handsome, and a perfect 'hook' for the zeitgeist of the times. But because Barack has not yet shown me what he will do, I can only judge him by his associates, and Zbigniew Brzynski is a name that still haunts me from, was it the Nixon Administration? (Carter, corrects my historian mother!) Great hope, or Manchurian candidate? Time will tell.

I judge Hilary by her works, and by her daughter, who, for all her being raised in the limelight, is in all respects as far as I can tell a wonderful human being. I can't say what is true about Obama at all, because he has not been on the scene long enough. His voting record is not exactly inspiring; in spite of his rhetoric, he has upheld corporate interests over that of the common man.

Each candidate has skeletons in the closet, because you don't come through old Chicago Politics if you don't, and Hillary's old bones have been trotted out ad nauseum for quite some time now. Most of them are gnawed clean these days.

I wish McCain had some of his old fire, and a little more integrity.

I ran into John Trudell the other day in the cafe. He has a lovely health care proposal which neither politician has, and he stated that both politicians platforms for health care would fail. He told me his, I'm paraphrasing here; women and children first. I think it is doable, and we the people need to work together to see it through. Check it out here; http://www.givelovegivelife.net

I asked John Trudell who he thought he'd like to see for president. He liked Barack too. I asked him what he thought about Barack misusing a Hopi Prophecy like that. He looked at me through his owlish eyes, and said "which one?" I said "he only used a piece of "We are the ones we are waiting for". You see, if you only have a piece of the prophecy, ya really shouldn't go slinging it around like a slogan. It's just not right. Anyway, I digress.

What John said to me next will always stay with me. "you have to remember", he said, "that all politicians lie. They may think they are telling themselves the truth, but they are still lying."

We need to remember this, and not get swept away by the zeitgeist. Fascism is clothed in the sweeping generalizations and golden oratory of the 'chosen one', the puppet in the brilliant limelight a perfect foil for darker distractions. We need heartfelt and conscious rational clarity right now, not another populistic Madison Avenue rush to the precipice .

Here's an idea for the world and the political party. Each candidate has said the other one is worthy. Let's create a constitutional provisional presidency with the both of them. We'll give them four years to work together to put their platforms in order. If we the people think it's a good thing, we'll either reelect them both, or one will outshine the other, or we'll throw da bums out of office. Either way, with the Office of Provisional President, we the people will have time to consider what's really best for the country.

Check out John Trudell's website here: www.givelovegivelife.net

I was going to post more on this later, I'm trying to finish pruning the grapes and getting ready for spring.

More grist for the mill,
in quantum peace

Obama's America

2008-02-24T23:11:00.000-08:00

It's late February. Primary season is winding down. John McCain, senator from Arizona is the nominee apparent for the Republican party.

On the democrat side, Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama are moving into the final stage of the contest. It could be decided on March 4th. I'm guessing that it will.

So, let's talk just a little bit about our man of the hour, Barak Obama.

There's the race narrative. I love that everybody's calling him "black" or "African American." Eventually people will figure out that he actually has both a white and black parent. In short, this man is an American. I look forward to when this is The Story.

I like that he's a deliberative team player. He seems to know who to go to for advice and can arrive at a wiser decision as a result. I read recently his position statement regarding the potential side-effects of an Iraqi invasion. It was critical of the invasion. This was written before the invasion actually began.

He predicted greater threats from terrorism arising from Iraq, increased resentment of American presence in the middle-east, and many of the other things that have actually happened.

He was able to do this because he was listening to experts in the field, not friends from the party or home-state. That's what I like about this guy. I like his process. That matters to me.

I can't know which position is the right one, but with some effort placed on the problem, anything can be workable. The key point is I believe that Obama can work with people. I perceive him as a team player and expert administrator too.

Getting elected is a good test of a candidate as an administrator while dealing with unusually high amounts of general stress. It really is nature's way of vetting the candidate and Barak's organization has been extremely effective. Amazingly so.

So, go Barak, you have my highest prayers with you. I really do believe that yes, we can.

Incidentally, it isn't Barak who put this hope in me. It was always there, but in my lifetime, I've never seen a presidential candidate who had so much potential to realize that hope. Most candidates are begrudgingly elected. Barak is someone I can vote for with a clear conscience.

Honestly, it's a pity that John McCain probably doesn't have a chance against Barak. John McCain is really a pretty good choice, though I wish he would have won eight years ago.

Death in America

2008-01-26T03:33:00.000-08:00

My father died this week. It was not unexpected, nor was it sudden. He lived in another state with his wife of some years, and had Multiple Sclerosis, which affected not only his muscles and organs, but his brain. He had dementia, uncontrollable temper, fading charm, he tried to gamble away his social security check, bought new cars and invested in improbable internet schemes and inventions....a naive impaired prey, ripe for plucking by the bottom feeders off our 'society'. HIs much-put-upon wife put him in hospital care, when finally the job of taking care of him grew too great.

My father, who—in retrospect -—probably had PTSD from his childhood in Belgium during WWII's brutal nazi occupation , did what any self respecting prisoner of war would do—he tried to escape the joint. Several times. You have to admire spirit like that. They had to transfer him to a high security nursing home, where he was electronically banded.

Last time I saw him was a couple of years ago. I took my son to see his grandpa, and we took Dad out to lunch at a lovely Chinese Restaurant. He was fighting with his wife then, and didn't want her to talk to us, so we ended up sneaking him out of the house to eat, and then back again. He smoked one of his big stogies, and looked me dead in the eye, and said "Well, Alwyn, I guess the next time you see me I'll be dead." I said no, dad, I'll see you before that.

When we heard that he was being made a ward of the state, I flirted with the idea of rescuing him. The problem with his version of MS is that it was made worse by the heat, and our summers are brutal. So's the summer in Reno, where he lived, but they had air conditioning, Our shared solar system will not carry that load, and I could not imagine how a man, now in a wheelchair, was supposed to navigate our country dirt and wooden steps, so I just figured he would be better off where he was...It seemed right at the time. You know how life is, you always think you will have time to do what is right, or even necessary. One thing led to another, and I got tied up with the custody battle, but I kept telling my brother,or my sister, who would also tell me, you know we really should go out and see Dad.

I spent a bit of time researching his condition. It was progressive, and probably could have been brought on quite young. It may be that the brain lesions were there the whole time, and this is why he was periodically raging, violent, tormenting, and neglectful at the same time. We never knew what was going to happen next in my family, or who would be voted off the island next, as our nuclear family had a core meltdown. As I look back, I wonder about the chicken and egg thing...which came first, PTSD, or MS? I'm thinking that PTSD was the prime cause, that and the malnutrition during the war years, creating one more casualty of the warmongers' drive for dominance. My father's temperament is one of the things that drove me to research healing in the first place, first as I tried to heal myself as the next casualty of his trauma, and then, as I tried to work with others. I've had various successes over the years, and some glaring failures. I feel like my dad is one of them, the failures, that is. I must say, however, that the task of telling my father (whose taste ran to cigars, fine wine, and red meat), to try a vegetarian lifestyle to help cope with the MS, was daunting. He laughed, and said he'd rather take his chances. I never could tell him anything, really, although periodically I would try. I always felt like I was the parent anyway.

I wished I was a better healer than I am— you always have that "what if" in the back of your mind. What if he was different? What if I had not taken no for an answer? (How come I'm not Jesus with the power to raise the sick and create 1000 years of peace, for that matter, as long as I'm wishing anyway ;-) Truth is, it was hard to forgive the old man for a lot of what he did, but he's still my father, and I owe him for my arising, as Gurdjieff was wont to say.

My sister called, and said he had a stroke, and that he couldn't swallow. We talked about when we could go, she thought maybe the weekend after next, I thought maybe he wouldn't have that much time, she thought maybe not, we'd better go this weekend, so we met up at her place in Sac'to, my brother, sister, and I , and set out for the drive over the pass into Reno.

I have to say that I'm in the fortunate position of not knowing too many people who have died. I lost a couple of kids, pets buried out in the garden, and some of our faire folke have gone on, and, you know,on second thought, maybe I have known a lot of death, and I've just managed to not confront it, or keep it in mind. And maybe that's the problem in America, our ability to leave death in someone else's back yard. What does that make us, the NIMBY's of the spiritual set? Maybe that's why we spend so much time with such violent films, where we confront death boldly, graphically, and antiseptically; the blood never spatters us, the patient always dies in someone elses jurisdiction, and
the war is always in someone else's country, never in ours.

We reached the hospice home in Reno after the usual family squabble on the drive in. We entered a clean, scrupulously sanitary environment, tastefully decorated. My impression of the establishment was permanently altered when we saw all these incredibly comatose people strapped to their wheelchairs, in sets of four around the lunchroom. I guess the rules said you feed the people at four, whether they are taking in nourishment, or are conscious,or not. My brother spotted my dad there. He tried to talk to him, and then told him we would come back after he 'ate'.

We high tailed it out to a casino for lunch, and fortified for the coming battle by taking the last half hour of his lunch break over the slots. I managed to win enough to pay for gas. ON this note, we went back to the hospice. Dad looked about the same as he had over lunch. Zoned out, and unresponsive. Brother and Sis started to talk to him. He was not responding. We talked to the nurse in charge. She said that he had refused to eat, and that his wife did not want him forced.

The native americans say that when an elder refuses to eat, you have to respect that. Son of a gun, the old so and so was taking a warrior's way out. We walked back to where my father was strapped to his chair. I whipped out the aromatherapy and held it under his nose. I whispered in his ear "hey, I guess they got you on really good drugs here, eh Dad?" I got a lopsided grin. Contact. We played him some Beethoven on the I-pod, while his frail hands waved about...he used to love to 'conduct' the orchestra, and he had a beatific expression on his face. My sister and brother continued to talk to him. I stood back, and watched. He was so gone, you couldn't see any spark when the kids talked about coming back. While they talked about memories, I said the prayers for LIght, and Healing, and Guidance. He responded enough to try a couple of sips of water that brother had offered, but he couldn't keep any down. He kept feebly trying to get out of that wheelchair, though, defiant and still going for freedom.

We had a couple of hours with him. Sister said it was time to go, before the snow shut down the highway. She had work to do the next day. I stayed behind while she talked to the nurses. I said the prayer of opening, the Fatiha for him. I leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Don't be hanging on for us, dad." I said. "I know you're in pain, and I know you want to be free. If I were you, I'd get the heck out of here while I had the chance, nobody should have to live like this." I told him that Angels or Family would be waiting for him on the other side. I kissed the top of his head, and right before I released his too-thin shoulders, I heard "I love you." "I love you too, Dad." I walked down the corridor to leave the AT perfume with the nurse. When I looked back over my shoulder, he was back in his null zone.

ON the way home, I felt like I hadn't done enough, that I had failed as a healer. I wanted to go back, and break him out of the hospice, and throw him in the back of the truck so his last view on earth should be of free sky. I didn't have a mattress in the back, and wasn't sure how I was supposed to get around the electronic bracelet. I called my brother, who convinced me to let it be. I questioned my faith. Should I have tried harder to get him to heal, when I had the chance? Did I fail some test? Should I have convinced him to try to hang on? What if those angels are a figment of my imagination and my faith just a shot in the dark?

We got the call that he died five days later.

That's death in America. Sanitary. No muss, no fuss, nothing to do but go to the wake. Hardly real. And maybe that's why we have so much war, because it's sanitized for us too. Just another flickering image on another flickering screen, nothing to see here folks, just move along.

I know I'm ahead of the game, here. I got to say goodbye, I got to look death in the eye. My 'disappeared one' was expected, and clean—unlike the bloody casualties of war. There's more to the story, though.

My sister's daughter, who knew my father better than me these days, woke up the night he died. The music box in her room started playing, just like that, out of the blue, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I guess dad got home after all.

Requiem

2008-01-16T23:34:00.000-08:00

I walked with you amongst the fields of golden hue,
our steps left no mark upon the mountain
childhood is brief,
and life left us no repose

you are close to the wind now,
way up on the mountain,
your body barely contains
your stubborn will to live

did you ever think your body would betray you
the way a bad lover leaves you
heart-broken and gasping for air?

maybe some loves are best left alone
it's the grapes left to rot upon the vine
that bring the sweetest Vintage

you stand on the precipice of eternity
you who never believed in the hereafter
does the Hereafter believe in you?

and will the deepening evening
gather you close, a welcoming Friend at last?

There were dark times between us
and things best left unsaid
and yet, I'll remember you and I
walked amongst the fields of golden hue

our steps left no mark upon the mountain

Happy Hannuchristmadhakwanstice!

2007-12-25T23:38:00.000-08:00

Have I got everyone's wholly-Holy-holly days covered now?

It's Christmas day, a high holy day for Christians, and it's just a few days after winter's Solstice for the Wiccans, after Eid al Adha for the Muslims, a bit after Channukah for my Jewish friends, and coming up into Kwanzaa—everyone has a reason to celebrate right about now. We celebrate the birth of the Savior, we celebrate the Festival of Lights, we rejoice in the coming of Christ, the annointed one, and in the Festival of the Sacrifice. We celebrate our families and our communities, we reflect upon our past labors, and contemplate our coming journey out of the winter's dark towards the deepening warmth and light of Spring. Here's to the Holy days of winter, here's to the Solstice, the sun return for the Northern Hemisphere, the Son return in the Embodied Christ. We humans all shiver in the cold of winter, and we all suffer through the dark of ignorance. We all cope with the dark days or pray in our own ways, waiting for the coming of the Light. We all have so much in common, why must we fight over dogma?

There is no sound of gunfire today, either on the mountain or in the valley, everyone has laid down their arms. Life is simple, today, and good. Could we be like this always? Can we remember not just the holidays, but all-our-days, and keep them peaceful and holy? Can we remember the giving we practice now, and extend it throughout the year? Can we just learn to get along, and to help each other out? It's just a small planet, really, in the great dark of space. We must hold our Heart Lights, and hold together, and help each other out, and not give in to the madness that would take us all down the dark ways to oblivion.

This one is for the Friends, all Life's little saints, the quietly unnoticed, unremarked and unknown to society, but Beloved by God and simple people everywhere. May we be fortunate in their company, and may we all be like those small candles in the quiet Niche of Allahs' heart. So, here's to the Saints of the common people, the quiet ones who get things done, here's to a friend of a lifetime or of a moment, of a word in the the ear, a nudge on the shoulder, a quick joke for a flagging morale, or maybe just a Light, lit for a moment, in the darkness. Here's to their great company, and to their God..."by their works shall you know them" and "better works than these shall you do also". Here's to learning those works, and acting in simple kindness. Here's to the Kindling of that Light.

It's cold outside, and I'm grateful for the warmth of the fire, of kith and kin, as they say, and I'm prayerful for the ones who don't have this much. Take care of those without, God. God notes the sparrows fall, they say, so for those wee little ones who are caught far from Home, in a bitter, cruel land without shelter, keep them, Allah, near to Your Thoughts, and gather them close to your Loving Hearth.

In bright beauty,
Waiting for the sun's return
in quantum peace.

On the Wrong List

2007-12-05T10:50:00.000-08:00

What do you think that all of the following countries have in common?

Harboring terrorists? Radical Religious types? Champions of human rights? Just browse through this list. See if you can get a sense of what they all have in common. The answer which follows this list may surprise you.

AFGHANISTAN
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
BAHAMAS
BAHRAIN
BANGLADESH
BARBADOS
BELARUS
BELIZE
BOTSWANA
BURUNDI
CAMEROON
CHAD
CHINA
COMOROS
CONGO (Dem. Rep.)
CUBA
DOMINICA
EGYPT
EQUATORIAL GUINEA
ERITREA
ETHIOPIA
GABON
GHANA
GUATEMALA
GUINEA
GUYANA
INDIA
INDONESIA
IRAN
IRAQ
JAMAICA
JAPAN
JORDAN
KAZAKSTAN
KOREA (North)
KOREA (South)
KUWAIT
KYRGYZSTAN
LAOS

LEBANON
LESOTHO
LIBERIA
LIBYA
MALAWI
MALAYSIA
MONGOLIA
MOROCCO
MYANMAR
NIGERIA
OMAN
PAKISTAN
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
PHILIPPINES
QATAR
RWANDA
SAINT CHRISTOPHER & NEVIS
SAINT LUCIA
SAINT VINCENT & GRENADINES
SAUDI ARABIA
SIERRA LEONE
SINGAPORE
SOMALIA
SUDAN
SWAZILAND
SYRIA
TAIWAN
TAJIKISTAN
TANZANIA
THAILAND
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
UGANDA
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
UZBEKISTAN
VIET NAM
YEMEN
ZAMBIA
ZIMBABWE

This is not an especially good list to be on. Let's add the one country that I purposely left off: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

These are the countries that have the death penalty. That's what they all have in common. The USA is so sure that we represent the highest form of civil and human rights, and yet we have made this list. [Source]

I have to admit that in my past, my personal fears and frustrations made me a believer and supporter of the death penalty. Then, I was asked to serve in a jury pool. The crime was a murder with "special circumstances" for which the death penalty could be chosen by the jury.

They gave us a very long questionnaire in hopes of determining how we felt about the death penalty prior to being invited to serve on this jury. When it became clear that I was being asked to have a direct hand in the execution of another human being, I found that I could not do it. I was not asked to be on the jury and since then, I have been against the death penalty. I can not in good conscience support my country in the death penalty if I cannot do it myself.

I can kill, I can kill in defense of something of value such as other human lives. I don't have a moral problem with this. I'm sure that I wouldn't sleep well for a while, but I could do it. However the death penalty is not self-defense when you consider the fact that life in prison is an option.

Let's get off this list and on to the others that have come into the 21st century, shall we?

On the Road...

2007-10-21T00:28:00.000-07:00

I picked up a hitch-hiker today. It was pouring down rain, and I was headed down the highway to pick up the last load from my last show. I wouldn't leave a skunk in that downpour, so I pulled over , and this old geezer crawled into the truck. He was wheezing up a storm, could barely breath for walking to get into the truck. I allowed as that was quite a sickness he had going. He said Emphysema. I asked how you got something like that. He said agent orange. I said 'in these hills or Viet Nam"?

"Nam", he said.

"Got healthcare?'"

"Nah, no pension neither."

I talked about a couple of herbs and things to draw out heavy metals, long as we were sittin' there together. He told me about how he used to go down country in the jungle. He said he was a short timer over there when he got a red cross worker telling him his wife and kid had been killed by a drunk driver back in the states. He says the next thing he remembers is waking up, with his army buddies holdin' on to his shoulders and his britches, yelling to the red cross worker to "run, keep runnin' , you almost got kilt. " He re-upped, hopin' to come home in a body bag. Got blowed up instead.

He allowed as how he might have had a little PTSD.

We talked about weapons. He said he didn't carry any any more, 'cause it was too easy to use them...I told him I didn't have any either, cause I wasn't sure I could resist the temptation to do a little frontier justice. I allowed as how it was probably stupid, living in the country and all, but I just yelled at the bears, and, so far, they leave me alone. He laughed, and said that one time he was sleeping in his tent, and his cat came racing in, followed by a big brown bear head sniffing right behind it. He said he grabbed his knife, and told the bear," look, you can probably take me, but I'm gonna make sure you remember me." He said that was enough for the bear..

I allowed as how a good knife was invaluable, and that I knew a good knife maker, one J. S. He was in 'Nam too.

He'd heard of him. I asked him if he wanted me to pass a message on, that S. liked to hear from the men he knew. He said "naa...I only really knowed him to look at him onc't or twice." He told some tall tale about being in a detail with someone named Bush (the elder), and some shennagins that went down. Funny, a guy like him, out of the rain, death rattles comin' outta his lungs. You wouldn't believe the tales some people tell.

Funny thing is, I heard something in a similar vein from S. You wouldn't believe the tales some people tell. Doesn't mean they're not true.

Maybe he's homeless, maybe he's broke...he's pretty old. You wouldn't think much to look at him, just another broken contract in the social fabric of the US-of-A. The truth doesn't look like much, some days.
But he, who has seen much and lost much, carries no weapons, and he has mastered the violence in his heart. He lives simply, but he lives in peace.

I let him off at the bus stop south of town.

Rumi, a Mevlevi poet used to talk about dervishes as men of God. The dervishes were wandering mendicants, and often wore patched and tattered robes...sometimes they were soldiers, sometime scholars, sometimes paupers, sometimes a prince. Rumi said "the man of God is a king 'neath a dervish robe"

I think I just met nobility
here in quantum peace.

Jihad in the Custody Courts

2007-10-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

Lao Tze used to say "how do I know it's this way in the halls of government? Because it's this way in the family. How do I know it's this way in the family? Because it's this way in the halls of government."

It's an interesting take on macro- and microcosms.

If I look at the state of government in the USA today, it could be said that we have a sociopathic government, in that it deals in lies and obfuscations (just look at what passes for news out of the Beltway these days!) has rampant and profligate spending habits, (trillions in debt, and still counting) and a lack of conscience and empathy (guantanamo and children's health care, not to mention Iraq and New Orleans anyone?). There seems to be no foresight with regards to cause and effect upon the generations to follow, and the department of justice is a joke.

Using Lao Tze's maxim, I look at my family situation, and see the same types of corruption. I've recently been in custody court with my ex, whom I took to court because of child endangerment and support issues, including extreme neglect by the new step-mother. Let's just say that it didn't go well, and that I had neither the proper lawyer nor the general luck; I went to war with the 'army I had'... and I was—although forewarned—emotionally unprepared for the onslaught of outright lies. My son has now been put into the partial custody of people who have abused him in the past, and, when I state my unwillingness to just tamely go along with the judgment and cooperate in giving my son to abusers, I am called bi-polar, living in the past, and other fun and crazy-making names.

There is something primal about the mother-child bond, and the motherbear wants to come out and rend those who threaten my son. Civilization dictates I must act otherwise. The mother-son civil contract dictates that I must continue the fight, but how?

What do you do when you confront injustice, and the courts fail? I can certainly feel the pain of those who wish to avenge their children's loss, and I have certainly confronted my own murderous thoughts. If looks could kill, my ex's new wife would be history.

It's time for me to wage Jihad—which, by the way, means to slay the Inner demons— those that drive one to mayhem, madness and more. It's time to wage Jihad upon my tongue, which says things unthinkingly, Jihad upon my heart, which wishes the worst, and Jihad upon my soul, that I let it be taken over by petty tyrants and inhabited by hate.

This is the only battle there is. And until I can win this one with myself, it's no use taking the battle 'out there', I'm only battling the shadow in my soul until I do.

I pray to the Divine Cause that the sword of Truth comes swiftly, guided by the Light of Love, to illuminate the Path to Quantum Peace.

Happy hunting, my fellow jihadis....

War & Peace @ Google Trends

2007-08-07T08:04:00.000-07:00

Which do you think is a more popular search at google? War or peace?

Not surprisingly, it is war. War makes for better TV, it sells more movie tickets, and attracts more eyeballs and eardrums (until they're either blinded or deafened by the real thing, of course). War is a much easier sell than peace. Nobody is questioning that. It's like the old newspaper adage that dog-bites-man is not a headline, but man-bites-dog is.

Let's compare some of the search trends for terms such as "war" and "peace".

As you can see, war remains a more popular search term than peace. But what else can we see from this graph?

While searches for "peace" remain somewhat constant over time, the searches for "war" spike with news events.

The spike just to the right of the flag "B" is the breaking "Abu Ghraib" story. I'm not quite sure what searchers were thinking when they googled "war" rather than the more specific "Abu Ghraib" when that story came out. It obviously had no effect on the number of searches for "peace". Just as telling is the lack of searches that follow. Is that dip that follows "news fatigue" or is it burying one's head in the sand? Hard to say at this point.

Let's compare trends for searches for fear and hate. Interesting to see a few spikes that actually appear together.

The flag "E" corresponds with a perfect storm of fear and hate. An alleged terror plot in New York subways foiled, and the ongoing headlines of the end-of-the-world via the bird flu.

As far as I've been able to determine, the spikes of fear in the second half of 2005 (denoted above with the orange line) followed a few bombings in the UK, but surprisingly, I have been unable to locate any one news event. I may not be looking in the right place, though. One clue may be where these searches are taking place.

Here's the top ten locations for hate and fear searches:

Look at how, in the English speaking world of industrialized nations, fear (orange) and hate (blue) are roughly equal. While in smaller countries we see there is much more google searches for fear than hate. Does speaking English cause hate? Weird, huh!

So, who's searching for love (compared to hate in orange)?

Wonder what's going on in the Philippines? I'm all intrigued now. :)

So, do these graphs tell us anything that we didn't already know? With the exception of love in the Philippines, I think not. Still, it seems that as long as we're so easily manipulated by those with a vested interest in war, we'll continue to see these kinds of trends in search criteria as well as the ongoing imbalances between tax dollars spent on war and the scanty expenditures spent on peace.

An Extraordinary Documentary

2007-08-01T16:31:00.000-07:00

Take television's "The View" and set it in the Arabic/Islamic world. "Dishing Democracy" is an episode of PBS' Wide Angle.

Its playing right now (July 31, 2007), however if you read this later, go to pbs.org's "Wide Angle" because it will be available online too.

These are four women representing divergent opinions and discussing topics of stupefying insight and importance. Truly inspiring, it brought tears to my eyes. I wish Barbara Walters and our View gang could match these women.

Though I couldn't shake the feeling that what they were saying applies here too. They come out against many traditional religious values such as ignorance, prejudice, violence, while at the same time reminding the viewership that Islam is also a path of compassion and peace.

Let's hope that this feminine perspective can take root in the Middle East as well as the Midwest.

Taking the Pledge

2007-07-28T23:13:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is ___________ , and I'm a gun addict. I have an addiction to guns, and will use them at any opportunity. I would spend all my time and money on guns. I would throw over my family and my community for guns. Confronted with the chance to use a gun, I would totally lose all control. I began to only spend time with those who had guns and a war to use them in. I reached bottom in _______________ as I really had a look at what guns had done to my life. I had to confess that I was powerless in the face of my addiction. I realize that I will always be a gun addict, and that, given the choice, I will pick one up. I realized the addiction was too much for me. I had to give it up to a higher power. Today, with prayer and the support of my fellow addicts, I am gun free. I tell myself when the compulsion comes over me that just for this moment, just for today, I will not use a gun. I will not take up arms against my fellow man, no matter what the provocation or temptation to give into my weakness. Just this once, I can be gun free.

In quantum peace.

An Arab Woman's Blues, An American Woman's, Too.

2007-07-22T00:35:00.000-07:00

Another courageous Arab Woman, Layla Anwar blogs in excruciating detail about the occupation of Iraq here. If you haven't read this one—well—it's stark, bleak, and illuminating. How can this not make our evening news? Why don't we hear these all too ordinary (and therefore all the more horrifying) tales of devastation? Perhaps because if good people truly listened and were aware, the liars and the purveyors of lies would lose their hold on the populace, and we would wage war no more.

What does it take to wake people up? And then again, since everyone, and I mean EVERYONE I talk to out here in California thinks that this war is a horror, a travesty, and an excruciating miscarriage of justice, why do not our opinions prevail?

Perhaps it is because we don't really live in a democracy any more. I mean, they still call it a democracy, but it seems as if it is shifting into something a little more bleak, a little more fascist, a little more totalitarian. This is the ultimate Madison Avenue government. We've bought the label, 'the Land of the Free'. Says so right there on the box. So this must be a democracy, right? They taught us this in school; it says 'We the People' on our Bill of Rights. It says we have a Constitution "Of the People, By the People, and For the People." Unless you are pResident Bush, to whom, apparently, the Constitution is "just a piece of paper."

So why, if we the people do not want war, are we still fighting one? Why does our government pass laws outlawing protest, freedom of speech, or the right to assemble? In the name of terror, our inalienable rights have become an alien. Persona-non-gratis.

My husband says that we lost our rights in 1968 when they didn't allow us to have freedom of speech at the Democratic convention...we've just had a holo bill of rights, as it were. (Remember the holo deck from Star Trek? You could see anything there...)

Maybe the Matrix movie was right. Maybe we're all sound asleep over here, dreaming. Maybe we need to take the little wake-up pill (if only there were one)! And then again, perhaps, in dreaming, there is power. Can we awaken IN the dream, and maybe, together, can we change it?

Hoping your dreams are of peace...

iPhone Launches

2007-06-30T00:45:00.000-07:00

Mercy. I caught the news tonight. The big issue was the launch of the new iPhone. Our semi-local broadcast news (San Francisco) reported from many different locations. Big News! Only so many! Limited edition! Will you get yours?

It's a sad commentary on our society. The world is going to hell in a handbasket, and all we need to know is who got the latest super-ultra-high-tech-gadget-of-the-moment. You know, the one that can replace several other super-ultra-high-tech-gadgets of yesterday's moments. What do we do with the stuff this thing will replace? How did we get to be so commercially oriented that this passes for news?

Two mercedes found in London today, packed with explosives. They didn't go off, but they will certainly add fuel to clamor for the police state being created over there—just one more thing to contribute to people's uncertainty and fear. It's a funny slight of hand; the fear mongers want us to trade in our basic human rights and freedoms for protection from some yet-to-be-named terror. I think there are not enough choices here. How about we keep our rights and y'all can work on that terrorist thing y'all seem so concerned about?

I read that the North Atlantic current stopped briefly, recently, and that they think this contributed to the flooding from the huge rainstorms over England and the continent. Weather may be bigger than terrorism in this brave new age. We may just find that we are puny in the face of nature after all.

But at least we'll have our iPhone.

Super Cells in the Heartland

2007-05-06T23:46:00.000-07:00

I was spending some time alone this weekend, thinking about the world, praying for peace, and just generally praying for strength to carry on. Some days I feel I could just lay down, and not get up again. I'm just slightly too ornery to do that, though...and mothers don't really get to, anyway.

I turned on the evening news just in time to catch a picture of a town called Greensburg, Kansas; there was a picture of devastation worthy of the worst of Iraq. It looked like some kind of mad bomb had gone off, trees were stripped to bare limb, tree-limbs were broken like matchsticks, and shell shocked people were crawling out of their holes. How will they live when the environment around them has been obliterated?

I saw a brief picture of the tornado that some hardy soul had captured on their videocam. It looked like some strange Kachina, striding across the sky with black light and howling winds, a mad finger touching down to erase an entire landscape.

I hope these people will be treated better than the Katrina victims, I hope their government really is there for them. I hope they can put the shattered pieces of their lives back together again. It is miraculous that so few died.

Now, imagine this scene multiplied, hundreds of times. Imagine the scope of the devastation increased geometrically, and you might begin to understand the horror of Iraq. I can't see any point to anyone suffering like this, and I can't help but wonder if the horror in the heartland is enough to make people stop and think. Nature can be devastating all on her own, why should we hurry the process along?

I don't believe in a vengeful God. But I couldn't help but look at that scene and wonder a little. Maybe this is the wind from the proverbial Chaos Butterfly's wings. We have raised the Winds of War in the Middle East, it's hard not to see this as blowback. We have Super-Cells in the heartland, 200mph of sheer destructive fury. We may all soon be too busy to wage war. I'm not sure but what this is a good thing.

Women's Week

2007-03-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

I heard on the radio about it being women's week. I don't get radio in the house, so the only way I get to catch up is when I'm driving my son to school, or making some other appointment. Just another humdrum task, one of the many small things that mothers everywhere do for their children everyday, everywhere in the world, anytime they can. Women's week is one of those UN sanctioned weeks, supposedly so designated that we may commemorate the daily unsung contributions of we, the gentler sex.

It was with no small sense of irony that I came across this link: " http://www.uruknet.de/?p=30781", the latest of Riverbend's blog entitled "The Rape of Sabrine". It seems that Sabrine Al-Janabi was taken from her home by Iraqi security forces and repeatedly raped while being 'interrogated in custody'. What is notable about this story is the fact that the woman lived to tell about it on national tv (Al Jazeera) . River called her "the bravest woman in Iraq." She used her real name, she told her story with heart-rending simplicity .The cultural consequences she will bear for telling the truth can be horrendous. Even in our own supposedly enlightened world, too many women victims of rape are made to go through the further hell of the 'blame-the-victim' routine. How much greater is the humiliation Sabrine will face? Who will support her in this ordeal? She asked the camera, "why"? And River and all good people everywhere ask "why" with her.

Why, in women's week, or any other for that matter, was she taken from her home? Why is this culture of rape acceptable? Is this called Democracy? Is this our best gift to the Middle East?

I don't know much about the culture of Iraq or Afghanistan, but I have some friends who do. They tell me that, whatever the conflict, whatever the political consequence, women and children were, heretofore, sacrosanct. They tell me that the true measure of a man and his honor is based upon the welfare of his family. They tell me the greeting between people was 'as salaam aleikum', may peace be with you, because it was only in a culture of peace that the family could flourish. Are we the Romans protecting the empire, or are we the visigoths, tearing down an ancient culture we have barely begun to understand? It seems as if now the Iraqis have had the benefits of Western culture their women are just as equal as the men. They can be tortured too. And this is progress?

Woman's week. Here in the U.S. of A, we've been taught that we are an example of human rights to the rest of the world, and that this great democracy really honors women and the family. So how is it that our own women soldiers aren't safe from their own comrades in arms? Democracy Now reports that women soldiers stationed in Iraq have to be armed at all times, and use the buddy system, even when they're going out to the latrines, otherwise they face rape and assault— from their own side! This is the culture of war, and this is the price of liberation at the point of a gun. No one is safe, and all are harmed. Is this what we represent as a nation?

Women's week. Lots of us women, sitting over here in relative safety. But for how long? Abu Ghraib was notable for both Lyndie England, who gained notoriety as one of the rare females actively involved in torture, and an investigation that blamed only some minor soldiers and one token woman commander. The government touted this as 'an isolated incident.' Please! These are everyday occurences in the war zone. Also, a government that can wink at atrocities overseas is just as likely to commit them at home. Are we truly safe here? Ask the women of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, post-Katrina. And what do we do at the return of our soldiers? Does violence stop because the perpetrator crosses an ocean? Not likely. Who will heal their shattered bodies and souls? Probably some woman, some mother, if they're lucky. Who is at the forefront of abuse, in this healing? Lucky women.

We are all in this together. We share one fragile world. We must confront violence head on, but how? If war creates death, torture, rape, and other secret atrocities, then you cannot fight a war with the very weapons that create the battle. We must and can join together and raise our voices, we must confront the violence, we must march, scream and shout, this is wrong! This must stop! Not in my name, not in our name! If we truly want to honor our women we will lay down our arms. If we truly want to honor our women, we will create a culture of peace. We will make it possible for women to do their hum drum, unsung work: raising the children, keeping the hearth and holding the heart of the family together. Little by little, day by day.

Woman's week. It's not just a slogan. It's not just for a week. It's a life's work. May as well start now.

In quantum peace.

Nothing Else Matters

2007-01-28T00:42:00.000-08:00

Nothing else matters but this, the care of the children.
It doesn't matter if you have any or not
All that matters is what happens to those you run across,
those in your care and those not
We are our brother's keeper...

There's a war on,
in the airwaves, on the land,
seems like everyone's fighting,
fighting for a higher position in the mountains of hell

There's a war on
on our hearts, on our heads, on our perception of reality
Now is not the time to be faint-hearted

Nothing else matters but this, the care of the children
It doesn't matter if you have any or not
All that matters is what happens to those you run across,
those in your care and those not
We are our brother's keeper...

Lay down your arms, we need no weapons
For ours is the Love that endures beyond time
They will always have a bigger weapon
We may only have a bigger Heart

In quantum peace

Open letter to Senator Barbara Boxer

2007-01-19T02:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Sen. Boxer:

Thank you for going to bat for the children of America, and the children of the world. One of the really important issues of the day, which, in many ways, is a thread through your whole platform is the issue of DU, or depleted uranium armaments.
Through the indiscriminate use of these weapons of mass destruction, the health, well being, and sustainability of our future is in jeapordy. We are, indeed, a small planet. The DU that Haliburton, the Dept. of Defense and others of that ilk launches into the desert in the Middle East gets caught on the sub-saharan winds and lofted onto the trade wind currents, and then gets distributed all over the planet. This radioactive dust threatens our food supply, the genetic integrity of our troops, and their generations to come. It has gone deep into the germ plasm of friend and foe alike. Elevated levels of radioactive isotopes have been recorded in the north of England, the East coast of China, and the west coast of the Pacific northwest. We must understand the most basic of the Christian tenets that this nation professes to follow. "What ye do to the least of these children, you do unto Me." The earth that we poison 'over there' comes back around to poison us here. The process we use to kill the children 'over there' results in a malady that will kill our children here at home. We must stop this madness now, stop this war now, stop these insane war profiteers from poisoning the very air we breathe.

Thank you for addressing these concerns.

How to Stop a War

2007-01-11T22:21:00.000-08:00

Don't pick up a gun. Don't go. Just say no. Got any other ideas?

Let's Turn Out the Lights for Baby Jesus

2006-12-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

Well, it's late at night, and there's just the supper dishes
to remind me of the bustle of the day.
And I wonder, sometimes, is it worth it
to carry on in such a crazy way

And I'm tired, Lord, but you know me, I'm grateful
for this the blessing of our winter's feast.
And I wonder, as I turn out the Christmas lights
is this what Jesus wanted for this, the night of nights?

When shepherds watched their flocks by night,
the Angels sang on high,
the wise men followed their Star.
And peace was on the valley
when Mary came to rest
and Joseph caught the baby's new born cry

But over in the Holy Land they're fighting
saying this is how we keep the peace
I'll say again, let's turn out the Christmas lights
Is this what Jesus wanted for this, the night of nights.

So let's turn out the lights for baby Jesus
We can let the Arabs keep their oil
Let's turn out the lights for baby Jesus,
Let the Chinese factories cease their toil.
Let's turn out the lights for baby Jesus
We can do it one night of the year
And remember that the giving is the reason for the season
So give the gift of peace that starts right here,
Once upon a midnight, dark and clear.

Merry Christmas, all. I hope you find peace in the new year.

River from Baghdad

2006-11-08T01:34:00.000-08:00

Just about everyone today has heard of River, the blogger from Baghdad. I always thought that if Anne Frank had the internet, she just might be River. River's been on my mind lately. She's been the focus of a lot of prayer, because she's the voice of the Iraqi people for many of us over here, and it has been her story that has moved so many to view the human cost of the war there.

I write folk songs, some impulse towards a Guthrie-esque political education for folks. Mostly I end up preaching to the choir, although I managed to put a few bugs in people's ear that sort of rattled around, and you could see the lights starting to turn on. One of the songs that most haunted me from it's conception to performance was the one about River.

I finally sent River her song today. War is chancey as hell, and I don't know that she will ever get it, but, speaking of second chances, hey, life is short, and none of us could be here tomorrow.

Now protocol dictates that y'all are spared the MP3, but the words of the song, that's what I'm passing along to you.

I read a woman's story
It came from far away
I came across it on the 'net one day
In the cyberspacial eddy
You dial up on the phone
Haven't heard from her yet today

She lives near a Riverbend
That's how she signs her name
She can't write real often
Just when she gets a way to turn the power on

River lives in Baghdad
In the middle of a war
And she wonders just what brought it on.
She writes of the stories
The people pass along
Keeps writing til the electricity is gone.

River saw the sky was burning all across the town
Had to get the message out
and so she wrote it down and sent it on.

River in Baghdad
Do you receive?
California calling
River in Baghdad
Do you receive?
River in Baghdad?
she signed River Burning

Won't hear it on the radio
Can't see it on the news
It's just a whisper when it should be a shout
In the electoral fallout that's the evening news
You're under the radar, though your story will get out

River in Baghdad, do you receive?
California calling
River in Baghdad, did you hear the sea?
Mother Earth's falling too
River in Baghdad,
We are here with thee
This is our Calling you
River in Baghdad
Peace will be with thee
River in Baghdad,
This is the Heart of Love Returning...

So, good news electorally speaking, from the House, and lookin' like good news from the Senate, and good news for River and her people, I hope. We have to stay on our toes here, it's not time to go to sleep yet. But keep on dreaming, and keep on working...

...In quantum peace

The Line Blurs

2006-11-05T22:38:00.000-08:00

Deep beneath our watchful eyes, electromagnetism of each molecule pulls at one and pushes at another giving rise to the hardened structure we call The World.

In a quantum world it isn't quite as clear where one ends and another begins, and the love that we feel for another is difficult to separate from the love of creation for itself.

Stars twinkle regardless of whether or not we bend our necks to notice.

Grass bends beneath our feet to reveal its sweet scents even while we're wearing shoes.

Traditional cultures reach forward into the scientific future while developed nations look backwards to find their soul.

My cup overflows with emptiness, poverty is my wealth.

I feel your pain as I feel my own.

And we are the richer for it.

sometimes we're given a second chance

2006-11-04T11:36:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we're given a second chance
a second chance at love
at life

a chance to take a stand
and do what's right
and do what's kind and loving

Sometimes, you can dodge the bullet for a while
convince yourself you're special or something
and keep the game running

you know,
the game

where we pretend this doesn't matter,
that Life is not the question
(But Death always the final Answer)

and on this quantum spinning sphere
this 'sound and fury' quoth the Bard
'signifying nothing'?

This laughing quantum carnival
thrill a minute ride of your life?
Bet your Life you come out at the end of this ride
chilled scared straight?

or will you be flushed with the rush of the Ride
Love by your side?

'Place your bets' calls the Barker
'the wheels in motion'
got to declare, before it all winds down

I'm a gambler by nature
I'm bettin on Love

and I'll greet you in quantum Peace

Peace When Your Heart is Breaking

2006-10-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

It's late October,
It's still War out there
The casualty rate is pretty high

Not just the body count,
but the emotional burnout
the hearts cast adrift on the other side

Some blows seem too mortal to bear

And yet daily, my heart bids me rise again
Face the day anew, pick up the shattered pieces

Chop wood, carry water
the zen koan moves me through
Pick up the pieces, pretend my heart is whole.

Chop wood, carry water
from whence, in this digital age?

And where, in the vast reach of time, shall we reach our lovers haven?

Is Life Faire?

2006-09-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

Life has been flying by, not much time to post lately. I'm currently working the Renaissance Faire in Gilroy. This particular show has been going on since the sixties, (although not at this location) and is the origen of the genre. We're all like family at this show, and have watched our fair share (pun intended) of births, deaths, weddings, divorces, and all the minor and major dramas that humans are subject to.

We started out a family owned show, and made it 30 years until we went broke, and a corporation bought us out. Funny about those corporations, they all seem to operate in the same manner. First they fired anyone who actually knew what they were doing, and kept all the people who could talk a good game, but didn't actually know much about the travelling circus that we were. After a few good shows, and then a few bad ones, the cor-pirate types decided we weren't profitable enough in Gilroy, and cut us loose.

Turned out to be a lucky break for us. The plucky Lisa Stehl decided we could do better on our own. So we started the only crafter/employee owned Renaissance Faire in the country. We hit profit on our second year, and seem to be holding our own in this, our third year.

I'm writing about this now for a couple of reasons. One is, I think that this could be a good model for coming out from under the corporate yoke, and one which I understand has worked quite well in some third world countries. I seem to remember a tale from Argentina, that after a corporation abandoned a factory which was sustaining an entire town, the townspeople got together and started it up on their own, running it at a profit. Of course, once it was running at a profit, the corporation wanted back in, but that's another story... But, if it worked there, it can work here, and so far we're proving the point. It does, however, take a community to commit to an undertaking like this, and we were lucky in having an established group.

The other point is that while this community has been together for almost 40 years, it has been a very peaceful one. Many people bear arms (of the Renaissance period, lots of dirks, knives and rapiers but not too much black powder) but somehow we just don't use them on each other. We're merchants, crafters, horsemen, dancers and performers, all coming together to celebrate another harvest, another birth or marriage, or to mourn the loss of one of our old-timers. It just seems that if we can pull this off peacefully, then it may be possible for others as well. Maybe we need more faire, and less politicking...

Well, back to work. Got product to make, and sleep to catch up on. Hope your life is peaceful today.

Commitment to nonviolence

2006-09-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

"Commitment to nonviolence and its profound view that all souls without exception were created by God and destined to achieve spiritual enlightenment and liberation." (Satguru Subramuniyaswami).

The above quote demonstrates a truth that can set us free from the crazy disturbances on this planet. If we believe that our body is the encasing for the soul then we just have to keep polishing our inner self. Through working on ourself we can connect more with the light of our nonviolent, inner nature.

What is our purpose for taking birth? Surely it isn't to kill our neighbor or fight with our spouse. We're here to achieve liberation, and I for one.....will keep trying, no matter who I have to argue or fight with, until I get there.

A Rose By Any Other Name

2006-08-31T01:02:00.000-07:00

I was speaking, in an earlier post, about that quantum lattice of light, that Intelligent Continuum that nurtures us all. Many of the great sages speak of the Nature of God, and most of the journeys toward what these days is so casually called enlightenment consist of learning to apprehend the movement of these creative, quantum moments. Here, NOW, is where the body of light dances in the innermost reaches of space, where we enter the realm of the improbably possible. Here, NOW, is where spontaneous healing arises, and here, NOW, we learn to live in quantum Peace.

Oh, don't look, quick! Oh no, something (what was it?) got away from me there. And so slides the slippery Zen Moment, receding back into the obscure recesses of the habitually conditioned mind. Some of the sufi saints say that it is one thing to apprehend these Moments, it is entirely another range of ability which will enable one to Work withIN these Moments. Apparently it's all about the right action at the right time— always, of course, remembering one's service to Humanity.

Humanity, now there's an interesting word. You see, the root of the word human contains one of the ancient Arabic words for God, Hu. Hu-man, God-man. (Notice who gets top billing here ;-). Hu-man. God in man. Closer to us than our jugular, as the Christians are wont to quote that itinerant carpenter, Jesus. And, if we truly look at that word, Human, why, there we all are, all of us Hu-man beings, all of us God-man together. Together we weave our Drama here on this spinning sphere of planet Earth. All of us are human here, by virtue of our birth on this planet, and all of us are part of God; and most of us waste our precious time fighting over the interpretation of Hu? God. Allah, Yahweh, Creator, Adonai, Christos, Buddha. Goddess. Gaia. Ishtar, Ninkazi. Mary. Ceres. White Buffalo Woman. So many different names for the same quantum Face.

The world truly is a big place with many different cultures, many different peoples, and many different languages. We've learned to enjoy each other's food. Maybe we can learn to enjoy each other's language, and rejoice in the many names of Creator.

Simple Gifts

2006-08-25T22:19:00.000-07:00

Simple Gifts

“Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free, tis a gift to come down where we ought to be.
And when we find ourselves in a place just right, it will be in a valley of love and delight.”

Traditional Quaker tune.

Every day we see the images of war and chaos multiplied mercilessly through the phantasmagoric prism of the media. What can the average person do in the face of this? Our all too frail human sensibilities are constantly bombarded with extraordinary events over which we have no control, and the chronically chaotic images of death and dismemberment do their work to numb us to any of the finer human sensibilities. This media circus of horrors is like a huge quantum magnet, in that our attention is daily riveted to our televisions, and all we ever see is more and more images of destruction. Or maybe it acts like some insane black hole, sucking up any good news that dares to announce itself anywhere on the news horizon. Our media blitz is a double edged sword, for, if not for the free flow of information, how would we know what is going on across the other side of the world? And, by the same token, how can we be sold a war, if not by the deft manipulation of propaganda?

One of the very adept teachers I have known, Paul Crockett, summed up the effects of quantum workings with the following phrase; “What you put your attention on, grows.” I know this works with plants—I’ve seen the results of what happens when I put my time and energy into my garden, and certainly I have watched people blossom through attention. But the quality of what goes into that attention must be integral to the operation. For instance, when I complain about the nature of my work, it seems to drag on forever, and makes me want to do just about anything else but what is in front of me. However, when I consider my work from a slightly different viewpoint (at the least one of non-resistance, and at the best, joy in my job) then the energy flows, and the days fly swiftly by. So, if my attention is the fertilizer for the garden, so to speak, then the crops that grow are a direct result of my efforts and intent.

A Shaman friend of mine likes to remind me, when confronted with some of my more tortuous personal dramas, that “simple is good. Simple is easy.” It is easy to lose sight of the simple, ordinary events of life when one is looking into the maelstrom of the media-enabled chaos of war and terror. Simple, small happenings, such as the glory of a sunset, or the bird song at dawn, perhaps a smile from a stranger, a common kindness, or just a gleam of blue sky lightening the cityscape— all these ordinary, everyday things are all too easy to lose sight of in the passing of time, especially when one is confronted with larger worries. And yet, it is these small simple things that make up the very fabric of heaven here on earth, that quantum connection of light that illuminates our human drama.

I may not be able to stop war all on my own, but I do know that if I let my attention be drawn off into these things over which I have no control, then I may miss being able to participate in the things which I can contribute to. And who knows? If I can extend a smile, a common courtesy to a stranger, and perhaps draw our communal attention to these small things, then, by the simple force of attention, we’ll have more of these kind of moments. And, God knows, the world needs all the kind moments it can get right now. It's a small thing, but it's one thing that I can do.

So, here’s to these simple gifts. May you have more of them in your life today.

Jambolaya Syriana

2006-08-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

Just saw the movie Syriana. It looks at a variety of geopolitical causes for terrorism, political assassinations, greed, energy, power. Its got everything but sex. A nice primer into the forces at play in the middle east and our part in it all. I especially enjoyed the name of the oil company described in this movie. "Connex - Killen"

The movie itself is a bit confusing because of its interwoven story line and ensemble cast. If you haven't seen it yet, I would encourage reading its synopsis first so when you see it for real, you can better follow it. I was told that it might be difficult to keep the players' story lines clear and so I paid extra special attention. I never really got lost, but when I read that synopsis, it filled in some gaps that I hadn't previously realized were there.

Something else that I like about this movie is that on its DVD and website it proposes some local actions that people can take in order to become part of the solution.

Question Authority

2006-08-20T11:56:00.000-07:00

While we're all praying for peace, observing tranquility, and otherwise guiding the Tao of man toward a return to The Garden, I'd like to offer one particular point that I believe is core to a larger shift in consciousness.

As a study, it is called "media criticism". The goal here is to simply question authority.

Those who may have tripped across this blog might raise their fists cursing the angry pseudo-logic of Bill O'Reilly, the talking point manipulations of Karl Rove, or the rationalizations of the energy industry's massive profits of late.

But it doesn't stop there in the seats of power. Criticism of any message from every source is necessary. Conspiracy theorists are no more credible simply because of their alternative view. Religious leaders have no more insight than any of God's sentient creations.

The important thing to remember is that the job of the media is not to inform, but to attract eyeballs or eardrums. That's their bottom line. Their job is assumed to provide unbiased information but if that information doesn't produce an emotional response, chances are not very good that you'll want to tune in.

Even the so-called liberal media such as NPR radio wants you to feel guilty or sorry for victims of war. When Hezbollah and Israel were dropping bombs on each other, stories favored Lebanese victims compared to Israeli victims. They often do this. Victims of war are equal. Wouldn't it be interesting to remove any identifying words to describe what side the victims come from? Probably wouldn't work, though. Every story needs a good guy and a bad guy. Without that moral compass, the viewer or listener may become uncomfortable with the ambiguity.

An uncomfortable audience doesn't stick around and media has a problem with that. You may suggest that NPR being aired only on non-commercial radio doesn't care about ratings. That's not entirely true. Ask yourself why their fund drives always happen while many of their stars are on vacation? Because these are the two week periods in between ratings sweeps.

In major markets (fancy media term for "big cities") listenership and viewership are being logged throughout most of the year. However there are something like four 2-week periods per year in which nobody is filling out their ratings diaries. These are the periods when the important anchors take their vacations and it is during these periods that the fund drives take place so they don't otherwise damage their ratings. Those ratings do translate into "underwriting" dollars.

But can we ever have all the information to know which side to root for? Can we really consider ourselves informed with only two sides of a given issue? Are "sides" of an issue really just an attempt to differentiate shades of gray into black and white?

Ultimately, we can't know it all, but we can seek to know ourselves. Do we generate fantasies of getting even with the heathens/infidels/sinners? Or do our thoughts seek to build bridges, lay pipes, and eradicate ignorance?

If a Woman Blogs in the Forest

2006-08-17T23:13:00.000-07:00

I’m not really internet savvy. Perhaps it’s because I don’t have a teenager in the house yet.
In fact, I just learned how to open a blog at the christening of this one. While the internet is a wonderful medium for the free flow of information, if you don’t know the e-highways and bi-ways, you may truly demonstrate that maxim about the tree falling in the forest; ergo, if a woman writes a blog, and there’s no one there to read it, is there really a blog?

One of the things some of the crazy sages I have worked with over the years taught me is that the true ether-net is the one that surrounds us on the unseen, that quantum level where magic and science intersect. And that, while you can’t change the whole world there, you can create minor eddies that can influence local events. And sometimes, in the right place, you can tap right into the planetary etheric grid. Here is where the butterfly raises its' wing, and a wind will blow in the Sahara. Or a sweet dream can be sent to someone in a war torn land.

We are all connected on this level, this energetic lattice of spiraling dancing, DNA light. Here’s where you learn the truth of Jesus’ words. “What you do unto the least of these, you do unto me.” Truly we are all one.

I live up a mountain in the woods. In the dark night, you can look out across the immensity of space, and feel as if you could almost touch the stars. In that kind of quiet, you can dream strong dreams, and sometimes you hear the other side of the world. It is a terrible, helpless feeling, hearing the echoes of war through the ether. It’s worse, hearing them before they happen, and knowing there’s not much you can do about it. Except send small prayers out through the night, a small bit of calm for someone’s breaking heart.

And sometimes, you can send a powerful dream out. Sometimes, I sing a song, and send it down the mountain, like spring rain welling into the creeks, rushing down the river to the sea. Sleep well tonight, I’ll sing. Dream of peace. If you have the choice, and you do, lay down your arms.

In quantum peace...

How hard is peace?

2006-08-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

Peace can be really, really hard.

I should know. I live on the same 40 acres as my ex-husband and his new wife. There are many days when that 40 acres isn’t big enough. There are times when I am threatened with the loss of my son, my livelihood, and certainly my sanity. There are times when I am extraordinarily glad that I do not own a gun. There are moments when I’d like to take a grenade to the whole thing, or run screaming down the mountain. There are times when the dialogue breaks down, and it seems that violence is the only answer.

I have a friend who is a Quaker. I first met her when she was mediating our custody case. She is a quiet, soft-spoken woman with a true gift for finding the middle ground between people. She very much "walks her talk" as the Native Americans say, and made local headlines when she went over to Palestine to observe the elections there. She is the one who, through example, made me realize that non-violence is not merely not owning weapons, but resides in the words that you speak, and the actions that you do. I try to remember her example when there is too much craziness , or the sound of automatic weapons in the hands of our local feral teenagers makes me a little too jumpy.

My husband, who has post-traumatic-stress-disorder, and consequently yells alot, taught me that peace involves really listening to the other person. Because somewhere under the yelling and the anger lies a place where truth trembles in the dark. And if you can find that truth, you can heal, and be healed.

A Sufi I read, Sayed Omar Ali Shah, says that there is something called the "oil-spot" technique. The name came from the process of scattering oil drops onto a paper. At first, there is just random patterning, but eventually the oil, because of it's nature, spreads across the whole page.
He says that creating harmony is much like this. In the beginning there are only small, separate islands of peace, but through holding that harmonic eventually they all connect. He also talks about "keeping the memory", where you remember the places of harmony that you have experienced, and recreate, through intent, that same feeling in the present moment. So, although the observer acts upon the observed, it seems more accurate to state that on the same quantum level the observer creates the observed. And this just may be the key to creating peace.

So, how hard is peace? For me, it's pretty hard just with the petty every day meanness that goes on between people. I can't imagine how hard it must be where the stakes are much higher. But I tell myself, if I cannot create peace here, where can I? So, I get up in the morning, determined to smile and start again. And spread my little oil spot a little farther up the mountain.

What're YOU looking at?

2006-08-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

In a quantum universe, things are what we think they are.

In fact, it appears that if a tree falls in a forest, but there's nobody there to hear it, not only does it not make a sound, but it never even existed.

There's a flaw in there. The forest existed long before man had even arisen from the primordial ooze. This is probably because we are not the only consciousness observing the universe.

It is written that God created the heavens and earth. The fact that the Universe has taken on a manifestation may be considered proof of some sort of larger consciousness that notices it all.

If the powers of observation from a few scientists can cause a sub-atomic particle to show up in two places at once, imagine the size of consciousness that must be paying attention to the universe to bring it into existence. Imagine the size of the observer who can cause a galaxy to happen, or a cluster of galaxies, or more.

It seems to me that quantum physics is about to prove the existence of God. Unfortunately, this theory has very little to say about what or who God is. It says nothing of what God wants from us and it says nothing about which side of any given political conflict God is rooting for. It says nothing but that there is something larger out there observing it all.

In my opinion this brings us back to taking personal responsibility for our wars and our peaces. Everyone involved even remotely seem to be playing a part in how this is unfolding. We push the buttons of the rocket launchers and drop the bombs from above. We vote in those who would take our countries into war, and we convince ourselves that it is right based on a narrow projection of "what God wants."

My projection of "what God wants" is peace and harmony. That is what I chose to observe into existence. I don't know for sure how that is done, but I do know that it is up to me to notice.

-al.

Letters from the Middle-East

2006-08-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

Occasionally in my net life, I make contact with some wonderful people. Here is a back and forth exchange with Mira AlHussein, who published "An Open Letter to President Bush" which seemed to require some response from someone on our side of the Atlantic!

Dear Mira,

I'm writing to you in response to your letter. I wanted to tell you that the American people that I talk to here are in no way behind the totally reprehensible actions of the crazies who have taken over our government. There is no apology for them. I want them to know the sorrow that the good people of Lebanon know, those who have lost their loved ones in this insane war.

Please please note that we are protesting, writing, singing, talking, trying everything to get these idiots to lay down their arms. I am only someone who has no power, I don't own a gun or have a lot of money. But I spare no effort to try to inform people of what is going on over there. I don't know how to take down our government by myself. But I would if I could, to spare the world this madness.

I am sending you the words to a song I wrote. I've sent this off to radio, getting local play. I pray for a swift end to this conflilct, and healing to come to your people.

On Aug 3, 2006, at 1:33 PM, Mira AlHussein wrote:

Dear Alwyn,

What a wonderful letter - thank you!

Please know that I speak for most Arabs and Muslims when I say that we
do realize that your government does not represent you. We do know that
many Americans are against these wars that the Bush administration is
sponsoring all around the world. For that, we respect and admire your
courage and strong sense of judgment.

You do not need to be armed with a gun or rich with money - you are rich
by having a living conscience, and you are armed with truth. This is
all we and you need to win this battle against greed and corruption.

Alwyn, please allow me to share your poem with family and friends. I
actually would like to post it on an Arabic public forum. I'm sure a
lot of people here would love to read your poignant and powerful poem.

God bless you and your people.

Mira

Is There No Balm for Lebanon?

2006-08-12T20:36:00.000-07:00

Is there no balm for Lebanon to soothe the wounds of war?
No cooling breath of Spring to stir the heart's awakening?
To save the children, we must all lay down our arms.

Across the fields we laid to waste we'll greet our fellow man
Offer the healing gifts, bring cool water to our lips
Drink it down, and pass the glass around

And raise a toast to the folly of it all, what fal-de-rol
And raise a glass to the folly of it all.

We'll catch the light of the setting sun, in the corner of our eye
Let fall the salty tears as sorrow leaves our hearts
So mote it be, as Peace becomes our art.

We'll plant a living garden here where once we fought our fears
And share the fruits of harvest and our labors here, my dear
Sharing the earth, we'll watch heaven draw near.

And raise a glass to the folly of it all, what fal-de-rol
And raise a glass to the beauty of it all.

Alwyn L'hoir, July 22, 2006