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[:en]Collective Consciousness[:]

[:en] 

There are ways in which we are (ALL of us) already a Family.  Our connection with each other through Collective Consciousness … is one.

 

I spent four years at Maharishi International University (1976 – 1980).  It’s a Liberal Arts school where everyone (staff, students, faculty) participates regularly in the Transcendental Meditation Technique.  (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi brought TM to the west. The school is now named Maharishi University of Management)

Those years were among the ‘best’ in my life.  Wonderful people. A VERY uplifting environment.

And during those (4) years I was impressed (on numerous occasions) with the power and efficacy of the spiritual practices, which in that place, are made use of by all.

And – I learned some things.  One of which is – that (not only is consciousness a Real Thing, but) Collective Consciousness is also.

I was (it seems to me) forced to this conclusion by the research that was done then (on consciousness).  It was during that time when I was a student there – that a group of Governors of the Age of Enlightenment (that’s someone who is a TM teacher who is also a practitioner of the TM Sidhis Program.)  Anyway, during those days, a group of Governors went off to Atlanta, Georgia. When they arrived, they went to the Police Department and inquired as to what district of the city was experiencing the most crime.  Then they found (and rented) a facility (where they could, together, do their Program) and they simply DID their spiritual practices for a time (a week or two). Then again checked in with the Police. And they were told that crime in their area had gone down.  They inquired – “Where is crime the worst NOW?” And they were told. Then they found a new facility (in that new district) and again (simply) did their practices. And the crime (again) lessened in THAT district. They did this several times. And always with the same result..  And from THIS report, I felt I MUST conclude – that Collective Consciousness is REAL. (And the fact that it is evidently distance sensitive makes me wonder if it is also, like Newton’s “strength of gravitational force” subject to the “inverse square law” [that the force will vary inversely with the square of the distance … which, by the way, is simply how the intensity of light or sound will vary, farther from its source – according to the geometry of Expanding Spheres.  That’s all that is.])

 

Later I spent 17 years in a Religious Order in Arizona (Global Community Communications Alliance  < gcca.org > ) where I happened to learn that (while this IS a Fallen World) we nonetheless (every year, for a day or two, at Christmas time) shift into a categorically higher level of consciousness.  The ENTIRE planet. At that time, people (MANY people) are thinking of Others. They are thinking of God, and how God CAME to us (rascals). During those (perhaps two) days – we are living in the First Stage of Light & Life.  The Consciousness of the Whole of Humanity … SHIFTS onto a higher level.

 

And THAT is what contextualizes (makes sense of) the phenomena which have been mythologized and known as the Christmas Truce.  

(And, while I doubt that it occurred only in the First World War … I am so far unsuccessful in finding reports from other wars.  Reports then [especially in 1914, early in the war] are numerous.)

 

Most of the time, we are able to believe we have Enemies; and War somewhat makes sense to us.  But NOT AT CHRISTMAS. Christmas does not know : “Enemies & Hatred”.  It knows Love. It IS Love.

 

These Christmas Truces happen – because, at that time – WE are different.  Part of a Higher level of consciousness.  Mmm ?

 

We are now two weeks away from Christmas.  We’re well into Advent. But NOT because it’s a ‘church matter’ …  it seems to me a good thing – that we prepare ourselves spiritually.  So that we can contribute to our being (even briefly) in the First Stage of Light & Life … and so that we can enjoy it.                       (And perhaps, by and by … we’ll be able to sustain it.)

 

You may want to watch (besides “It’s a Wonderful Life”) … the film “Joyeux Noël” (2005), which is a fictional depiction of a 1914 Christmas Truce.  

                                                                          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyeux_No%C3%ABl

 

And you may wish to read a bit about the Christmas Truces –

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce

 

[As a courtesy, I’ll include much from these articles at the end of this essay.]

 

Also, you may want to look at what I’ve written before on these matters –

 

https://worldfamilytrading.com/blog/page/6/   

&

https://worldfamilytrading.com/christmas/

 

I should warn you that in the film Joyeux Noël (early in the movie) there is a sex scene … which I would not let my kids watch.  For adult viewers, I think it’s quite okay. Good even. But sex is not for kids. To sexualize them prematurely would be unkind and irresponsible.  (Humans have Mirror Neurons, you know. We empathize well. Probably don’t let your kids watch that particular bedroom scene.)

 

You may want to make use of the ritual … and/or the songs published with last year’s blog.

 

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Joyeux Noël

 

Joyeux Noël (”Merry Christmas”) is a 2005 epic war drama film based on the Christmas truce of December 1914, depicted through the eyes of French, Scottish, and German soldiers. It was written and directed by Christian Carion,[2] and screened out of competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.[3]

The film, which includes one of the last appearances of Ian Richardson before his death, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards. It is a fictionalised account of an actual event that took place in December 1914, when Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, sent the lead singer of the Berlin Imperial Opera company on a solo visit to the front line. Singing by the tenor, Walter Kirchhoff, to the 120th and 124th Württemberg regiments led French soldiers in their trenches to stand up and applaud.[4]

Contents

Plot[edit]

The story centres mainly upon six characters: Gordon (a Lieutenant of the Royal Scots Fusiliers); Audebert (a French Lieutenant in the 26th Infantry and reluctant son of a general); Horstmayer (a Jewish German Lieutenant of the 93rd Infantry); Father Palmer (a Scottish priest working as a chaplain and stretcher-bearer); and two famous opera stars, German tenor Nikolaus Sprink and his Danish fiancée, mezzo-soprano Anna Sørensen.

The film begins with scenes of schoolboys reciting patriotic speeches that both praise their countries and condemn their enemies. In Scotland, two young brothers, Jonathan and William, join up to fight, followed by their priest, Father Palmer, who becomes a chaplain. In Germany, Sprink is interrupted during a performance by a German officer announcing a reserve call up. French soldier Audebert looks at a photograph of his pregnant wife, whom he has had to leave behind (in the occupied part of France, just in front of his trench), and prepares to exit into the trenches for an Allied assault on German lines. However the assault fails, with the French and Scottish taking many casualties while William loses his life.

In Germany, Anna gets permission to perform for Crown Prince Wilhelm, and Sprink is allowed to accompany her. They spend a night together and then perform. Afterward, Sprink expresses bitterness at the comfort of the generals at their headquarters, and resolves to go back to the front to sing for the troops. Sprink initially opposes Anna’s decision to go with him, but he agrees shortly afterward.

The unofficial truce begins when the Scots begin to sing festive songs and songs from home, accompanied by bagpipes. Sprink and Sørensen arrive on the German front line, and Sprink sings for his comrades. As Sprink sings “Silent Night“, he is accompanied by Father Palmer’s bagpipes from the Scottish front line. Sprink responds to Palmer and exits his trench with a small Christmas tree, singing “Adeste Fideles“. Following Sprink’s lead Audebert, Horstmayer, and Gordon meet in no-man’s-land and agree on a cease-fire for the evening.

The various soldiers meet and wish each other “Joyeux Noël”, “Frohe Weihnachten”, and “Merry Christmas”. They exchange chocolate, champagne, and photographs of loved ones. Horstmayer gives Audebert back his wallet containing a photograph of his wife, which was lost in the attack a few days prior, and they connect over pre-war memories. Father Palmer celebrate a brief Mass for the soldiers (in Latin as was the practice in the Catholic Church at that time), and the soldiers retire deeply moved. However, Jonathan remains totally unmoved by the events around him, choosing to grieve for his brother. The following morning, the Lieutenants agree to extend the truce to allow each side to bury their dead, followed by cordial fraternisation for the rest of the day.

In the meantime, Horstmayer learns that Anna and Sprink left without the German superior’s assent to entertain fellow front soldiers and informs both that Sprink is going to be arrested for disobedience. Anna and Sprink then ask Audebert to take them as captives, in order to avoid separation.

Father Palmer is being sent back to his own parish and his battalion is disbanded as a mark of shame. Despite emphasising the humanity and goodwill of the truce, he is rebuked by the bishop, who then preaches an anti-German sermon to new recruits, in which he describes the Germans as inhumane and commands the recruits to kill every one of them. Father Palmer overhears the sermon and removes his cross as he leaves.

Back in the trenches, the Scots are ordered by a furious major (who is angered by the truce) to shoot a German soldier who is entering no-man’s-land and crossing towards French lines. All of the soldiers deliberately miss in response, except the bitter Jonathan, whose shoots the targeted German soldier. Audebert, hearing the familiar alarm clock ringing outside, rushes out and discovers that the soldier is a disguised Ponchel, his batman. With his dying words, Ponchel reveals he gained help from the German soldiers, visited his mother, and had coffee with her. He also informs Audebert that he has a young son named Henri.

Audebert is punished by being sent to Verdun, and he receives a dressing down from his father, a general. In a culminating rant, young Audebert upbraids his father, expressing no remorse at the fraternisation at the front, and his disgust for civilians and superiors who talk of sacrifice but know nothing of the struggle in the trenches. He also informs the general about his new grandson Henri. Moved by this revelation, the general then recommends they “both try and survive this war for him”.

Horstmayer and his troops, who are confined in a train, are informed by the German Crown Prince that they are to be shipped to the Eastern Front, without permission to see their families as they pass through Germany. He then stomps on Jörg’s harmonica and says that Horstmayer does not deserve his Iron Cross. As the train departs, the Germans start humming a Scottish carol they learned from the Scots, “L’Hymne des Fraternisés/ I’m Dreaming of Home”.

Cast[edit]

Critical reception[edit]

Stephen Holden, film critic for The New York Times, liked the motion picture and wrote, “If the film’s sentiments about the madness of war are impeccably high-minded, why then does Joyeux Noël …feel as squishy and vague as a handsome greeting card declaring peace on earth? Maybe it’s because the kind of wars being fought in the 21st century involve religious, ideological and economic differences that go much deeper and feel more resistant to resolution than the European territorial disputes and power struggles that precipitated World War I… Another reason is that the movie’s cross-section of soldiers from France, Scotland and Germany are so scrupulously depicted as equal-opportunity peacemakers that they never come fully to life as individuals.”[5]

Critic Roger Ebert also wrote about the sentimentality of the film, “Joyeux Noël has its share of bloodshed, especially in a deadly early charge, but the movie is about a respite from carnage, and it lacks the brutal details of films like Paths of Glory …Its sentimentality is muted by the thought that this moment of peace actually did take place, among men who were punished for it, and who mostly died soon enough afterward. But on one Christmas, they were able to express what has been called, perhaps too optimistically, the brotherhood of man.”[6]

Adaptations[edit]

Kevin Puts’ 2011 opera Silent Night is based on the Joyeux Noël screenplay.[7]

Ratings[edit]

The film was originally rated R in the USA. However, after Ebert criticised the rating, the MPAA officially changed the rating to PG-13.[original research?]

Soundtrack[edit]

Awards[edit]

Wins

Nominations

  • Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, France; 2006.
  • Golden Globes: Golden Globe, Best Foreign Language Film, France; 2006.
  • British Academy of Film and Television Arts: BAFTA Film Award, Best Film not in the English Language, Christophe Rossignon and Christian Carion; 2006.
  • César Awards, France: César, Best Costume Design (Meilleurs costumes), Alison Forbes-Meyler; Best Film (Meilleur film), Christian Carion; Best Music Written for a Film (Meilleure musique), Philippe Rombi; Best Production Design (Meilleurs décors), Jean-Michel Simonet; Best Supporting Actor (Meilleur second rôle masculin), Dany Boon; Best Writing – Original (Meilleur scénario original), Christian Carion; 2006.

 

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Christmas truce

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An artist’s impression from The Illustrated London News of 9 January 1915: “British and German Soldiers Arm-in-Arm Exchanging Headgear: A Christmas Truce between Opposing Trenches”

A cross, left in Saint-Yves (Saint-Yvon – Ploegsteert; Comines-Warneton in Belgium) in 1999, to commemorate the site of the Christmas Truce. The text reads:

“1914 – The Khaki Chum’s Christmas Truce – 1999 – 85 Years – Lest We Forget”

The Christmas truce (German: Weihnachtsfrieden; French: Trêve de Noël) was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of World War I around Christmas 1914.

The truce occurred during the relatively early period of the war (month 5 of 51). Hostilities had lulled as leadership on both sides reconsidered their strategies following the stalemate of the Race to the Sea and the indecisive result of the First Battle of Ypres. In the week leading up to the 25th, French, German, and British soldiers crossed trenches to exchange seasonal greetings and talk. In some areas, men from both sides ventured into no man’s land on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to mingle and exchange food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps, while several meetings ended in carol-singing. Men played games of football with one another,[1] creating one of the most memorable images of the truce. Fighting continued in some sectors, while in others the sides settled on little more than arrangements to recover bodies.

The following year, a few units arranged ceasefires but the truces were not nearly as widespread as in 1914; this was, in part, due to strongly worded orders from the high commands of both sides prohibiting truces. Soldiers were no longer amenable to truce by 1916. The war had become increasingly bitter after devastating human losses suffered during the battles of the Somme and Verdun, and the use of poison gas.

The truces were not unique to the Christmas period, and reflected a mood of “live and let live“, where infantry close together would stop overtly aggressive behaviour and often engage in small-scale fraternisation, engaging in conversation or bartering for cigarettes. In some sectors, there were occasional ceasefires to allow soldiers to go between the lines and recover wounded or dead comrades; in others, there was a tacit agreement not to shoot while men rested, exercised or worked in view of the enemy. The Christmas truces were particularly significant due to the number of men involved and the level of their participation—even in very peaceful sectors, dozens of men openly congregating in daylight was remarkable—and are often seen as a symbolic moment of peace and humanity amidst one of the most violent events of human history.

Contents

Background[edit]

During the first eight months of World War I, the German attack through Belgium into France had been repelled outside Paris by French and British troops at the Battle of the Marne in early September 1914. The Germans fell back to the Aisne valley, where they prepared defensive positions. In the subsequent Battle of the Aisne, the Allied forces were unable to push through the German line, and the fighting quickly degenerated into a stalemate; neither side was willing to give ground, and both started to develop fortified systems of trenches. To the north, on the right of the German army, there had been no defined front line, and both sides quickly began to try to use this gap to outflank one another. In the ensuing “Race to the Sea“, the two sides repeatedly clashed, each trying to push forward and threaten the end of the other’s line. After several months of fighting, during which the British forces were withdrawn from the Aisne and sent north into Flanders, the northern flank had developed into a similar stalemate. By November, there was a continuous front line running from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier, occupied on both sides by armies in prepared defensive positions.[2]

In the lead up to Christmas 1914, there were several peace initiatives. The Open Christmas Letter was a public message for peace addressed “To the Women of Germany and Austria“, signed by a group of 101 British women suffragettes at the end of 1914 as the first Christmas of World War I approached.[3][4] Pope Benedict XV, on 7 December 1914, had begged for an official truce between the warring governments.[5] He asked “that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang.”[6] This attempt was officially rebuffed.[7]

Fraternisation[edit]

Main article: Live and let live

Fraternisation—peaceful and sometimes friendly interactions between opposing forces—was a regular feature in quiet front-line sectors of the Western Front. In some areas, it manifested as a passive inactivity, where both sides would refrain from overtly aggressive or threatening behaviour, while in other cases it extended to regular conversation or even visits from one trench to another.[8]

Truces between British and German units can be dated to early November 1914, around the time opposing armies had begun static trench warfare. At this time, both sides’ rations were brought up to the front line after dusk, and soldiers on both sides noted a period of peace while they collected their food.[9] By 1 December, a British soldier could record a friendly visit from a German sergeant one morning “to see how we were getting on”.[10] Relations between French and German units were generally more tense, but the same phenomenon began to emerge. In early December, a German surgeon recorded a regular half-hourly truce each evening to recover dead soldiers for burial, during which French and German soldiers exchanged newspapers.[11] This behaviour was often challenged by junior and senior officers; the young Charles de Gaulle wrote on 7 December of the “lamentable” desire of French infantrymen to leave the enemy in peace, while the commander of 10th Army, Victor d’Urbal, wrote of the “unfortunate consequences” when men “become familiar with their neighbours opposite”.[11] Other truces could be enforced on both sides by weather conditions, especially when trench lines flooded in low-lying areas,[11] though these often lasted after the weather had cleared.[12] On the Eastern Front, Fritz Kreisler reported incidents of spontaneous truces and fraternisation between the Austro-Hungarians and Russians in the first few weeks of the war.[13]

The proximity of trench lines made it easy for soldiers to shout greetings to each other, and this may have been the most common method of arranging informal truces during 1914.[14] Men would frequently exchange news or greetings, helped by a common language; many German soldiers had lived in England, particularly London, and were familiar with the language and the culture. Several British soldiers recorded instances of Germans asking about news from the football leagues, while other conversations could be as banal as discussions of the weather or as plaintive as messages for a sweetheart.[15] One unusual phenomenon that grew in intensity was music; in peaceful sectors, it was not uncommon for units to sing in the evenings, sometimes deliberately with an eye towards entertaining or gently taunting their opposite numbers. This shaded gently into more festive activity; in early December, Sir Edward Hulse of the Scots Guards wrote that he was planning to organise a concert party for Christmas Day, which would “give the enemy every conceivable form of song in harmony” in response to frequent choruses of Deutschland Über Alles.[16]

Christmas 1914[edit]

British and German troops meeting in no man’s land during the unofficial truce (British troops from the Northumberland Hussars, 7th Division, Bridoux-Rouge Banc Sector)

Roughly 100,000 British and German troops were involved in the unofficial cessations of hostility along the Western Front.[17] The first truce started on Christmas Eve 1914, when German troops decorated the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium and particularly in Saint-Yvon (called Saint-Yves, in Plugstreet/Ploegsteert – Comines-Warneton), where Capt. Bruce Bairnsfather described the truce.[18]

The Germans placed candles on their trenches and on Christmas trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols. The British responded by singing carols of their own. The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were excursions across No Man’s Land, where small gifts were exchanged, such as food, tobacco and alcohol, and souvenirs such as buttons and hats. The artillery in the region fell silent. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently killed soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties. Joint services were held. In many sectors, the truce lasted through Christmas night, continuing until New Year’s Day in others.[7]

On Christmas Day, Brigadier-General Walter Congreve, then commanding 18 Infantry Brigade, stationed near Neuve Chapelle, wrote a letter recalling the Germans initiated by calling a truce for the day. One of his brigade’s men bravely lifted his head above the parapet and others from both sides walked onto no man’s land. Officers and men shook hands and exchanged cigarettes and cigars, one of his captains “smoked a cigar with the best shot in the German army”, the latter no more than 18 years old. Congreve admitted he was reluctant to personally witness the scene of the truce for fear he would be a prime target for German snipers.[19]

Bruce Bairnsfather, who served throughout the war, wrote:

I wouldn’t have missed that unique and weird Christmas Day for anything…. I spotted a German officer, some sort of lieutenant I should think, and being a bit of a collector, I intimated to him that I had taken a fancy to some of his buttons…. I brought out my wire clippers and, with a few deft snips, removed a couple of his buttons and put them in my pocket. I then gave him two of mine in exchange…. The last I saw was one of my machine gunners, who was a bit of an amateur hairdresser in civil life, cutting the unnaturally long hair of a docile Boche, who was patiently kneeling on the ground whilst the automatic clippers crept up the back of his neck.[20][21]

Future nature writer Henry Williamson, then a nineteen-year-old private in the London Rifle Brigade, wrote to his mother on Boxing Day:

Dear Mother, I am writing from the trenches. It is 11 o’clock in the morning. Beside me is a coke fire, opposite me a ‘dug-out’ (wet) with straw in it. The ground is sloppy in the actual trench, but frozen elsewhere. In my mouth is a pipe presented by the Princess Mary. In the pipe is tobacco. Of course, you say. But wait. In the pipe is German tobacco. Haha, you say, from a prisoner or found in a captured trench. Oh dear, no! From a German soldier. Yes a live German soldier from his own trench. Yesterday the British & Germans met & shook hands in the Ground between the trenches, & exchanged souvenirs, & shook hands. Yes, all day Xmas day, & as I write. Marvellous, isn’t it?[22]

Captain Sir Edward Hulse reported how the first interpreter he met from the German lines was from Suffolk, where he[who?] had left his girlfriend and a 3.5 hp motorcycle. Hulse described a sing-song which “ended up with ‘Auld lang syne‘ which we all, English, Scots, Irish, Prussians, Württenbergers, etc, joined in. It was absolutely astounding, and if I had seen it on a cinematograph film I should have sworn that it was faked!”[23]

Captain Robert Patrick Miles, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, who was attached to the Royal Irish Rifles recalled in an edited letter that was published in both the Daily Mail and the Wellington Journal & Shrewsbury News in January 1915, following his death in action on 30 December 1914:

Friday (Christmas Day). We are having the most extraordinary Christmas Day imaginable. A sort of unarranged and quite unauthorized but perfectly understood and scrupulously observed truce exists between us and our friends in front. The funny thing is it only seems to exist in this part of the battle line – on our right and left we can all hear them firing away as cheerfully as ever. The thing started last night – a bitter cold night, with white frost – soon after dusk when the Germans started shouting ‘Merry Christmas, Englishmen’ to us. Of course our fellows shouted back and presently large numbers of both sides had left their trenches, unarmed, and met in the debatable, shot-riddled, no man’s land between the lines. Here the agreement – all on their own – came to be made that we should not fire at each other until after midnight tonight. The men were all fraternizing in the middle (we naturally did not allow them too close to our line) and swapped cigarettes and lies in the utmost good fellowship. Not a shot was fired all night.

Of the Germans he wrote: “They are distinctly bored with the war…. In fact, one of them wanted to know what on earth we were doing here fighting them.” The truce in that sector continued into Boxing Day; he commented about the Germans, “The beggars simply disregard all our warnings to get down from off their parapet, so things are at a deadlock. We can’t shoot them in cold blood…. I cannot see how we can get them to return to business.”[24]

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (24 and 25 December) 1914, Alfred Anderson’s unit of the 1st/5th Battalion of the Black Watch was billeted in a farmhouse away from the front line. In a later interview (2003), Anderson, the last known surviving Scottish veteran of the war, vividly recalled Christmas Day and said:

I remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence. Only the guards were on duty. We all went outside the farm buildings and just stood listening. And, of course, thinking of people back home. All I’d heard for two months in the trenches was the hissing, cracking and whining of bullets in flight, machinegun fire and distant German voices. But there was a dead silence that morning, right across the land as far as you could see. We shouted ‘Merry Christmas’, even though nobody felt merry. The silence ended early in the afternoon and the killing started again. It was a short peace in a terrible war.[25]

Nor were the observations confined to the British. German Lieutenant Johannes Niemann wrote: “grabbed my binoculars and looking cautiously over the parapet saw the incredible sight of our soldiers exchanging cigarettes, schnapps and chocolate with the enemy.”[26]

General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, commander of the British II Corps, issued orders forbidding friendly communication with the opposing German troops.[17] Adolf Hitler, then a young corporal of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry, was also an opponent of the truce.[17]

In the Comines sector of the front there was an early fraternization between German and French soldiers in December 1914, during a short truce,[27] and there are at least two other testimonials, from French soldiers, of similar behaviours in sectors where German and French companies opposed each other. Gervais Morillon wrote to his parents: ‘The Boches waved a white flag and shouted “Kamarades, Kamarades, rendez-vous.” When we didn’t move they came towards us unarmed, led by an officer. Although we are not clean they are disgustingly filthy. I am telling you this but don’t speak of it to anyone. We must not mention it even to other soldiers.’ Gustave Berthier wrote: ‘On Christmas Day the Boches made a sign showing they wished to speak to us. They said they didn’t want to shoot. … They were tired of making war, they were married like me, they didn’t have any differences with the French but with the English.’[28][29]

In sections of the front where German and Belgian troops faced each other in December 1914, there was at least one such instance when a truce was achieved at the request of Belgian soldiers who wished to send letters back to their families, over the German-occupied parts of their own country.[30]

Richard Schirrmann, who was in a German regiment holding a position on the Bernhardstein, one of the mountains of the Vosges, wrote an account of events in December 1915: “When the Christmas bells sounded in the villages of the Vosges behind the lines… something fantastically unmilitary occurred. German and French troops spontaneously made peace and ceased hostilities; they visited each other through disused trench tunnels, and exchanged wine, cognac and cigarettes for Westphalian black bread, biscuits and ham. This suited them so well that they remained good friends even after Christmas was over.” He was separated from the French troops by a narrow No Man’s Land and described the landscape as: “Strewn with shattered trees, the ground ploughed up by shellfire, a wilderness of earth, tree-roots and tattered uniforms.” Military discipline was soon restored, but Schirrmann pondered over the incident, and whether “thoughtful young people of all countries could be provided with suitable meeting places where they could get to know each other.” He went on to found the German Youth Hostel Association in 1919.[31]

Football matches[edit]

Many accounts of the battle involve one or more football matches played in no-man’s land. This was mentioned in some of the earliest reports, with a letter written by a doctor attached to the Rifle Brigade, published in The Times on 1 January 1915, reported “a football match… played between them and us in front of the trench”.[32] A wide range of similar stories have been told over the years, often naming specific units or a precise score. Some accounts of the game bring in elements of fiction by Robert Graves, a British poet and writer (and an officer on the front at the time)[33] who reconstructed the encounter in a story published in 1962; in Graves’s version, the score was 3–2 to the Germans.[32]

However, the truth of the accounts has been disputed by some historians; in 1984, Malcolm Brown and Shirley Seaton concluded that there were probably attempts to play organised matches which failed due to the state of the ground, but that the contemporary reports were either hearsay or refer to “kick-about” matches with “made-up footballs” such as a bully-beef tin.[34] Chris Baker, former chairman of The Western Front Association and author of The Truce: The Day the War Stopped[35] is also sceptical, but says that although there is little hard evidence, the most likely place that an organised match could have taken place was near the village of Messines: “There are two references to a game being played on the British side, but nothing from the Germans. If somebody one day found a letter from a German soldier who was in that area, then we would have something credible.”[36] In fact, there is a German reference. Lieutenant Kurt Zehmisch of Germany’s 134th Saxons Infantry Regiment said that the English “brought a soccer ball from their trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued. How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was”.[37] In 2011, Mike Dash concluded that “there is plenty of evidence that football was played that Christmas Day—mostly by men of the same nationality, but in at least three or four places between troops from the opposing armies”.[32]

A wide variety of units were reported in contemporary accounts to have taken part in games; Dash listed the 133rd Royal Saxon Regiment pitched against “Scottish troops”; the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders against unidentified Germans (with the Scots reported to have won 4–1); the Royal Field Artillery against “Prussians and Hanovers” near Ypres; and the Lancashire Fusiliers, based near Le Touquet, with the specific detail of a bully beef ration tin as the “ball”.[32] One recent writer has identified 29 separate reports of football, though does not give substantive details.[38] Colonel J. E. B. Seely recorded in his diary for Christmas Day that he had been “Invited to football match between Saxons and English on New Year’s Day”, but this does not appear to have taken place.[39]

Eastern Front[edit]

A separate manifestation of the Christmas truce in December 1914 occurred on the Eastern front, where the first move originated from the Austro-Hungarian commanders, at some uncertain level of the military hierarchy. The Russians responded positively and soldiers eventually met in no man’s land.[40]

Public awareness[edit]

The events of the truce were not reported for a week, in an unofficial press embargo which was eventually broken by The New York Times, published in the then-neutral United States, on 31 December. The British papers quickly followed, printing numerous first-hand accounts from soldiers in the field, taken from letters home to their families, and editorials on “one of the greatest surprises of a surprising war”. By 8 January pictures had made their way to the press, and both the Mirror and Sketch printed front-page photographs of British and German troops mingling and singing between the lines. The tone of the reporting was strongly positive, with the Times endorsing the “lack of malice” felt by both sides and the Mirror regretting that the “absurdity and the tragedy” would begin again.[41]

Coverage in Germany was more muted, with some newspapers strongly criticising those who had taken part, and no pictures published. In France, meanwhile, the greater level of press censorship ensured that the only word that spread of the truce came from soldiers at the front or first-hand accounts told by wounded men in hospitals.[42] The press was eventually forced to respond to the growing rumours by reprinting a government notice that fraternising with the enemy constituted treason, and in early January an official statement on the truce was published, claiming it had happened on restricted sectors of the British front, and amounted to little more than an exchange of songs which quickly degenerated into shooting.[43]

The press of then-neutral Italy published a few articles on the events of the truce, usually reporting the articles of the foreign press.[44] On 30 December 1914, Corriere della Sera printed a report about a fraternization between the opposing trenches.[45] The Florentine newspaper La Nazione published a first-hand account about a football match played in the no man’s land.[46] In Italy, the lack of interest in the truce probably depended on the occurrence of other events, such as the Italian occupation of Vlorë, the debut of the Garibaldi Legion on the front of the Argonne and, finally, the earthquake in Avezzano.

Later truces[edit]

British and German troops burying the bodies of those killed in the attack of 18 December.

After Christmas 1914, sporadic attempts were made at seasonal truces; a German unit attempted to leave their trenches under a flag of truce on Easter Sunday 1915, but were warned off by the British opposite them, and later in the year, in November, a Saxon unit briefly fraternised with a Liverpool battalion. In December 1915, there were explicit orders by the Allied commanders to forestall any repeat of the previous Christmas truce. Individual units were encouraged to mount raids and harass the enemy line, whilst communicating with the enemy was discouraged by artillery barrages along the front line throughout the day. The prohibition was not completely effective, however, and a small number of brief truces occurred.[47][48]

An eyewitness account of one truce, by Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, recorded that after a night of exchanging carols, dawn on Christmas Day saw a “rush of men from both sides… [and] a feverish exchange of souvenirs” before the men were quickly called back by their officers, with offers to hold a ceasefire for the day and to play a football match. It came to nothing, as the brigade commander threatened repercussions for the lack of discipline, and insisted on a resumption of firing in the afternoon.[49] Nevertheless, another member of Griffith’s battalion, Bertie Felstead, later recalled that one man had produced a football, resulting in “a free-for-all; there could have been 50 on each side”, before they were ordered back.[50][51] Another unnamed participant reported in a letter home: “The Germans seem to be very nice chaps, and said they were awfully sick of the war.”[52] In the evening, according to Robert Keating, another eyewitness, “The Germans were sending up star lights and singing – they stopped, so we cheered them & we began singing Land of Hope and Glory – Men of Harlech et cetera – we stopped and they cheered us. So we went on till the early hours of the morning.”[53]

In an adjacent sector, a short truce to bury the dead between the lines led to official repercussions; a company commander, Sir Iain Colquhoun of the Scots Guards, was court-martialled for defying standing orders to the contrary. While he was found guilty and reprimanded, the punishment was annulled by General Haig and Colquhoun remained in his position; the official leniency may perhaps have been because his wife’s uncle was H. H. Asquith, the Prime Minister.[54][55]

In the Decembers of 1916 and 1917, German overtures to the British for truces were recorded without any success.[56] In some French sectors, singing and an exchange of thrown gifts was occasionally recorded, though these may simply have reflected a seasonal extension of the live-and-let-live approach common in the trenches.[57]

At Easter 1915 there were recorded instances of truces between Orthodox troops of opposing sides on the Eastern front. The Bulgarian writer Yordan Yovkov, serving as an officer near the Greek border at the Mesta river, witnessed one such truce. It inspired his short story “Holy Night”, translated into English in 2013 by Krastu Banaev.[58]

On 24 May 1915, ANZAC and Turkish troops at Gallipoli agreed to a 9 hour truce to retrieve and bury their dead, during which opposing troops “exchang(ed) smiles and cigarettes“.[59]

Legacy and historical significance[edit]

British and German descendants of Great War veterans

Although the popular tendency has been to see the December 1914 Christmas Truces as unique and therefore of romantic rather than political significance, they have also been interpreted as part of the widespread spirit of non-co-operation with the war and conduct by serving soldiers.[60] In his book on trench warfare, historian Tony Ashworth describes what he calls the ‘live and let live system’. Complicated local truces and agreements not to fire at each other were developed by men along the front throughout the war. These often began with agreement not to attack each other at tea, meal or washing times, and in some places became so developed that whole sections of the front would see few casualties for extended periods of time. This system, Ashworth argues, ‘gave soldiers some control over the conditions of their existence.’[61] The December 1914 Christmas Truces then can be seen as not unique, but as the most dramatic example of spirit of non-co-operation with the war that included refusal to fight, unofficial truces, mutinies, strikes, and peace protests.

  • In the 1933 play Petermann schließt Frieden oder Das Gleichnis vom deutschen Opfer (Petermann makes peace: or, the parable of German sacrifice), written by Nazi writer and World War I veteran Heinz Steguweit [de], a German soldier, accompanied by Christmas carols sung by his comrades, erects an illuminated Christmas tree between the trenches, but is shot dead by the enemy. Later, when the fellow soldiers find his body, they notice in horror that enemy snipers have shot down every single Christmas light from the tree.[62]
  • The 1967 song “Snoopy’s Christmas” by the Royal Guardsmen was based on the Christmas truce. It is the Red Baron, Germany’s ace pilot and war hero, who initiates the truce with the fictitious Snoopy.
  • The 1969 film Oh! What a Lovely War includes a scene of a Christmas truce with British and German soldiers sharing jokes, alcohol and songs.
  • The video for the 1983 song “Pipes of Peace” by Paul McCartney depicts a fictionalised version of the Christmas truce.[63]
  • John McCutcheon‘s 1984 song, Christmas in the Trenches, tells the story of the 1914 truce through the eyes of a fictional soldier.[64] Performing the song he met German veterans of the truce.[65]
  • The final episode of the BBC television series Blackadder Goes Forth references the Christmas truce, with the main character Edmund Blackadder having played in a football match. He is also seen being annoyed at having had a goal disallowed for offside.[66]
  • The song “All Together Now” by Liverpool band The Farm took its inspiration from the Christmas Day Truce of 1914. The song has been re-recorded by The Peace Collective for release in December 2014 to mark the centenary of the event.[67]
  • The 1996 song “It Could Happen Again” by country artist Collin Raye, which tells the story of the Christmas truce, is included on his Christmas album Christmas: The Gift, with a spoken intro by Johnny Cash giving the history behind the event.
  • The 1997 song “Belleau Wood” by American country music artist Garth Brooks is a fictional account based on the Christmas truce.
  • The truce is dramatised in the 2005 French film Joyeux Noël (English: Merry Christmas), depicted through the eyes of French, British and German soldiers.[68] The film, written and directed by Christian Carion,[69] was screened out of competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.[70]
  • In 2008, the truce was depicted on stage at the Pantages Theater in Minneapolis, in the radio musical drama All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914. It was created and directed by Peter Rothstein, and co-produced by Theater Latté Da and the vocal ensemble Cantus, both Minneapolis-based organisations. It has continued to play at the Pantages Theater each December since its premiere.
  • On November 12, 2011, the opera “Silent Night”, commissioned by the Minnesota Opera, had its world premiere at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota. With libretto by Mark Campbell, based on the screenplay of the film “Joyeux Noel”, and with music by Kevin Puts, it won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Music, and has been performed or scheduled for more than 20 productions around the world as of 2018’s 100th anniversary of the Armistice.
  • Ahead of the centenary of the truce (December 2014), English composer Chris Eaton and singer Abby Scott produced the song, 1914 – The Carol of Christmas, to benefit British armed forces charities. At 5 December 2014, it had reached top of the iTunes Christmas chart.[71]
  • In 2014, the Northumbria and Newcastle Universities Martin Luther King Peace Committee[72] produced resources to enable schools and churches to mark the December 1914 Christmas Truces. These included lesson plans, hand-outs, worksheets, PowerPoint slide shows, and full plans for assemblies, and carol services/Christmas productions. The authors explained that their purpose was both to enable schoolteachers to help children learn about the remarkable events of December 1914, but also to use the theme of Christmas to provide a counterpoint to the UK government’s glorification of the First World War as heroic. As the Peace Committee argues, “These spontaneous acts of festive goodwill directly contradicted orders from high command, and offered an evocative and hopeful – albeit brief – recognition of shared humanity”[73] – and thereby, they argue, give a rereading of the traditional Christmas message of “on earth peace, good will toward men.”[74]
  • The grocery chain Sainsbury’s produced a short film for the 2014 Christmas season as an advertisement re-enacting the events of the Christmas truce, primarily following a young English soldier in the trenches.[75][76]
  • In the Doctor Who 2017 Christmas Special “Twice Upon a Time“, the First and Twelfth Doctors become unwittingly involved in the fate of a British captain who is seemingly destined to die in a confrontation in No Man’s Land before he is taken out of time, only for the Twelfth Doctor to bend the rules and return the captain — revealed to be an ancestor of his friend and ally Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart — to a point a couple of hours after he was taken out of time. This slight bending of the rules results in the captain being returned to history at the beginning of the Christmas truce, allowing the captain to live and request aid for his would-be killer, the Twelfth Doctor musing that such a truce was the only time such a thing happened in history but it never hurts to ensure that there will be a couple of fewer dead people on a battlefield.

Monuments[edit]

A Christmas truce memorial was unveiled in Frelinghien, France, on 11 November 2008. Also on that day, at the spot where, on Christmas Day 1914, their regimental ancestors came out from their trenches to play football, men from the 1st Battalion, The Royal Welch Fusiliers played a football match with the German Battalion 371. The Germans won 2–1.[77]

On 12 December 2014, a memorial was unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, England by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and the England national football team manager Roy Hodgson.[78] The Football Remembers memorial was designed by a ten-year-old schoolboy, Spencer Turner, after a UK-wide competition.[78]

Annual re-enactments[edit]

The Midway Village in Rockford, Illinois has hosted re-enactments of the Christmas Truce.[:]

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[:en]Having What You Want[:]

[:en] 

 

Life can only be understood backwards;

but it must be lived forwards.

                                         –    Søren Kierkegaard

 

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.

                                                                                    –    Steve Jobs

 

 

For a ship with no destination

no wind is favorable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only about one quarter of adults (in the US and Europe) even enjoy their work; and only about three percent have the life they want.

 

Bob Proctor says this is because they do not know how to get to where they want to go (with their life) … and because they do not decide / (commit to what they want).

 

Proctor says that everything is connected … that the whole universe is vibration.  And if we’re stuck at (some level) … it’s because our thinking (and the action that flows from that thinking) is at that level.

 

He says the way to attain a goal (which is at a higher level of vibration) we need to become that person.  We need to think and feel at that higher level  … as though we were already there.

 

Here are a couple of his videos –

                                                       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz2NpjEX5TM    (Bob Proctor, on ‘Manifesting’)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-ET3rMFxAM    (Think on a Higher Frequency / ‘Decision’ –  Bob Proctor)

When a vision (a goal … something we want to have or be) comes to us … he would say – that it comes from a Real Place (that is: a real Frequency, a higher vibration).  And if we will completely attune to it, it will take us there.

 

If this approach is too unscientific for you, you may want to watch a physicist explain about the existence of “extra dimensions” (meaning – beyond the three dimensions we all believe in) –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJUnw8CHzsk    (Lisa Randall – Are there Extra Dimensions?)

Bob Proctor’s world view may be a bit simplistic.  I’m rather inclined to make sense of things – by concluding that we are multi-dimensional beings … and that we live in a multidimensional universe.  Which is to say – that I am more impressed by the categorical (and obvious) differences between, say, our physical body (our bodies are notably heavy) … and our thoughts or experiences (which are notably “light”).  If we have a (sleeping) dream – about “feathers” … our head does not weigh less than when we’re having a dream about (the metal) “lead”. Our head does not smash down on our pillow when we begin dreaming about something that’s heavy.  

To me – it makes better sense (as a First Approximation) – to acknowledge that there is DIScontinuity between mind and matter.  To me that seems obvious.

 

Proctor does not seem troubled by – “What is the Field of Consciousness” (and how does it fit in to the other fields of reality, such as the Electromagnetic Spectrum). He seems content to think of the world as a single (continuous) field of Frequencies.

 And perhaps it does not matter.

Proctor is known, after all, as “The man who created hundreds of millionaires”.  He says – “I could sit down with anyone and show them how to become a millionaire.”

 

Besides, Einstein gave us E=mc²   – which tells us that even though energy and matter do not APPEAR to be related … they are.

Also – Paper 42 of The Urantia Book is titled “Energy – Mind and Matter”; and it explains the relationship between these two (apparently different) manifestations.

.

No sensible person would choose to know about digesting one’s food – to being able to actually DO it.

 

As the Rig Veda says – “One who knows the territory tells the direction to him who asks the way.”

 

If someone can make you into a millionaire (and that’s what you want to be) … it’s completely sensible to follow their recipe.  It’s the result that you want … not an elegant theory as to why the result occurs.

 

If their technique is efficacious, that’s what counts.  The theory (correct or not) is the Booby Prize.[:]

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[:en]Gratitude[:]

[:en] 

The Fifteen Acres

 

I

 

I cling and swing

On a branch, or sing

Through the cool, clear hush of Morning, O!

Or fling my wing

On the air, and bring

To sleepier birds a warning, O!

That the night’s in flight,

And the sun’s in sight,

And the dew is the grass adorning, O!

And the green leaves swing

As I sing, sing, sing,

Up by the river,

Down the dell,

To the little wee nest,

Where the big tree fell,

So early in the morning, O!

 

 

II

 

I flit and twit

In the sun for a bit

When his light so bright is shining, O!

Or sit and fit

My plumes, or knit

Straw plaits for the nest’s nice lining, O!

And she with glee

Shows unto me

Underneath her wings reclining, O!

And I sing that Peg

Has an egg, egg, egg,

Up by the oat-field,

Round by the mill,

Past the meadow,

Down the hill,

So early in the morning, O! 

 

III

 

I stoop and swoop

On the air, or loop

Through the trees, and then go soaring, O!

To group with a troop

On the gusty poop

While the wind behind is roaring, O!

I skim and swim

By a cloud’s red rim

And up the the azure flooring, O!

And my wide wings drip

As I slip, slip, slip,

Down through the raindrops,

Back where Peg

Broods in the nest

On the little white egg,

So early in the morning, O!

                                     –  James Stephens

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out of respect for Thanksgiving (which is virtually upon us) I wish to say a few words about gratitude … its importance … and particularly   – WHY we need it. Why we should cultivate it.

 

Western Civilization imagines that we live in a material universe … a BIG MACHINE.  This notion is(at once) one of the most essential beliefs of our society … and one of our biggest (philosophical) ‘mistakes’.  It puts us at a tremendous disadvantage.

 

[The pharmaceutical industry is now over a TRILLION dollar industry (worldwide … and nearly half of that is in the U.S.)  Should we suppose that they do not know – that they ‘have a dog in this race’? They CONSTANTLY tell us – that our bodies are MACHINES; and when it malfunctions, we should INGEST SOMETHING (which they will kindly make available to us, thank goodness).  Would you care to arm wrestle with the marketing arm of Big Pharma?  Even so – this is no time to forget about the Great War of Ideas.]

 

Let me say some things about our relationship with the cold.  It turns out that one of the most important aspects of this –  is our emotionality, our feelings – our attitude toward the cold (being in cold weather).  [One of the most eloquent treatments of this may be found in Tom Brown Jr.’s book – “The Search”  in his chapter on ‘Cold Training’]  

 

Our attitudes ‘fall out’ of our beliefs.  We evidently regard ourselves as Strangers here (in this world).  The fact that we throw tons of trash out our car windows … is a clear indicator of this.  If we saw ourselves as the earth’s beloved children … well, we would NOT DO such a thing     to our Dear Mother!  

     

Isn’t that right?

We do NOT feel connected.  (We are alienated)     Mmm?

 

My best friend grew up on a ranch in Montana.  And he told me that it’s NOT a good idea to bundle up as soon as the cold weather comes.  It DOESN’T WORK. You’ll be cold all winter! You need to let yourself get cold when the cold weather comes.  Then, you can wear a light jacket … and be warm all winter.

Well, when we were living together in Seattle, we decided we would TEST THIS.  You might think that Seattle has mild winters; and I wouldn’t argue that. But, it’s often rainy … and it might be windy.  So it’s enough. If you’ve a mind to get cold, you can do it … even in Seattle. Anyway, here’s what we did. We made a point of NOT wearing warm clothes when we’d go out.  We exposed ourselves  to the cold … whatever there was (and there WAS some).  And – here’s what we found. After a few weeks of deliberate exposure, we found we were pretty COMFORTABLE in ‘the weather’.  And it was NOT just psychological. We were ACTUALLY warmer. Our bodies changed.  It was quite clear.  Dramatic even. We found we’d never been so comfortable in the cold.

 

And here’s what it means.

 

It means that we have (all) been given a physiology which will MAKE SEASONAL ADAPTATIONS … IF WE LET IT.

It means that WE ARE NOT STRANGERS HERE.  We BELONG here!

 

There is continuity.  There is connection – between the world (which gave rise to our bodies) … and our bodies that we now show up with.

 

There is (certainly) a (physical / material) dialog which goes on between our bodies … and the world, when the cold weather comes.

But … there’s more.

 

I believe that there’s ALSO an emotional component.  A language, if you will – of EMOTIONS.  And it’s common – BOTH to us (creatures) AND to the CREATION (which produced us, and in which we live)

 

And THAT’S why we need Gratitude.

 

Gratitude is both an emotion … and an attitude.  (It’s the attitude of Grace) It acknowledges the connection between us (creatures) and the Creation … and the Love which flows between us.  [Just like – my mother and father love me … then I love my Mother & Father]   Mmm?

 

Here is a story (by Holly R.) which was emailed to me (by Rhonda Byrne) nearly 2 years ago:

 

                                         Gratitude is Magic

I have always been an active believer in The Secret since its release, but I sometimes needed a shake in the right direction to get back on track.

Two years ago my husband and I had two big dreams; to sell our house and move into a bigger one and to have a second child. To get The Secret working in our favor, I wrote down everything I wanted in a dream house. The shape, size, features, even the neighborhood we wanted to live in. I began to imagine a child in my belly. I felt the sensations of a baby kicking and envisioned a positive pregnancy test. Suddenly the house that I’d been dreaming of appeared in my real estate listings and it was even better than I’d ever imagined. We placed a bid without hesitation and were accepted, pending the sale of our current home. That same week I discovered I was pregnant. All was looking great.

Just two weeks later our house received an offer. We set a close date and began to make plans. However, suddenly the offer fell through and things started to crumble. The vendors of our dream house began to lose faith in us. Then to my disbelief, I miscarried the baby. I was devastated. I had lost faith and things were disappearing from my life.

As part of our recovery, we decided to take a family trip. I felt compelled to buy “The Magic” on our travels, and I found the book after a chance stop. I began to practice the daily activities immediately. My favorite was the activity to list ten reasons why you are grateful for when something goes wrong. I managed to find ten reasons why I was glad the house deal had fallen through, and even ten for why I was grateful that I miscarried. I focused on things like timing, and the baby’s health, reasoning that it was all for a bigger purpose. At my work I began a staff “Thank You” project where my co-workers filled out thank you slips for each other, thanking them for any and every little thing. Every month I did a draw where two lucky people who had been thanked, won a small prize. Then I distributed all the thank you slips to their recipients. The ripple effect was amazing! Everyone loved being appreciated and each month the number of slips being given grew and grew!

Just two short weeks after I finished up The Magic practices, something amazing happened. A new potential buyer wanted to view our current house. I sprinkled Magic Dust on the stairs at the entrance as I left before she arrived. It worked! We got another bid on our house and this time it went through. We went for another viewing of our dream house and this time, I really visualized living in it. I touched door knobs and light switches, transporting myself to the future when doing these things would just be part of my regular day. I wrote my name with new address over and over again. I could feel the vibration of the attraction frequency and when we contacted the vendors, we managed to convince them to accept another offer from us. While we waited to hear back from our realtor, I felt nauseated, so we purchased a pregnancy test. Within an hour of each other, we found out we were pregnant and that our house deal was finally done!

Now I sit in that dream house, just as I envisioned, while my new baby sleeps down the hall. I know that The Magic got these things for me and that I can turn negative circumstances completely upside down. Now I practice The Magic activities as part of my daily routine and know that as long as faith is stronger than fear, the sky is the limit to what I can have!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Gratitude makes relationships flourish. As you increase your gratitude for any relationship, you will magically receive an abundance of happiness and good things in that relationship.”

                                                     —from The Magic, by Rhonda Byrne

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

In the (famous) Double-Slit experiment, it is observed that – when photons (or electrons) are fired (even one-at-a-time) at an opaque plate containing two slits (such that the particle must pass through one slit or the other) and then strikes a recording screen … a pattern is observed on the screen as though the particles were not particles but a wave.  But since individual electrons (or photons, or molecules) can NOT interact with each other if they are fired one at a time, then the  pattern found on the screen is considered to be a probability wave.

However, if detectors are placed at the slits, (such that it is KNOWN which slit the particle passes through, when it is fired) then no probability wave will be generated.

This is shocking – because it means that the experimenter has an influential role in the outcome of the experiment.  It was thought that the role of an observer is merely a passive one, and would NOT influence the outcome. But in quantum mechanical phenomena, this turns out NOT to be so.  The observer plays a role in the phenomenon being studied … unavoidably.

 

I would suggest that this is because the Field of Consciousness really IS the ‘Field of All Possibilities’ (as Maharishi so many times told us).  If the Field of Consciousness is an omnipresent field, inter-permeating all … then perhaps it is in constant interaction with all quantum mechanical phenomena (what we call ‘the world’) … and (automatically) influences HOW the world arises … (what happens)!

           

[  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment ]

 

And our emotions and attitudes will be a part of that  (of determining / causing what happens) !

By the way, the reason I chose Stephens’ poem (The Fifteen Acres) as the epigram for this essay … is because I wanted to show you that the world we live in is (much) more than a big machine.  It’s full of consciousness … full of emotions. And besides … the poem is a fine example of Gratitude.

[:]

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[:en]The 7 Questions[:]

[:en] 

“If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks’ vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days.”

                                                                      –  Dorothy Canfield Fisher        

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

 

“Put your ear down close to your

soul    and listen hard.”

 

                          –  Anne Sexton

 

 

 

I want to share with you the Seven Personal Goal-setting Questions  (which my friend Jeff Goebel shared with me some years ago. I consider Jeff to be a High Soul, and an embodiment of progressive [and helpful] thinking.      I’ll put his site info at the end of this essay.

The poems & quotes are my additions.)

 

 

  1. What are the 5 things that you value most in life?    (– the foundation for all the other goals we set in life)   

 

2.  Take 30 seconds – and write down the 3 most important goals in your life right now.

 

3.  What would you do if you won a million dollars in the lottery tomorrow?   Answer this as though you have NO mental or physical limitations.  

(Anything you wrote as an answer to this question – you can be, have, or do.  The very fact that you can write the answer means that you are capable of accomplishing.)

4.  What would you do and how would you spend your time if you found out you have only 6 months to live?   [perfect health]    

(The answer to this will tell you what you value most in your life.)

 

“Your life feels different to you, once you greet death and understand your heart’s position. You wear your life like a garment from the mission bundle sale ever after – lightly because you realize you never paid nothing for it, cherishing because you know you won’t ever come by such a bargain again.”    

                                                                                         –    Louise Erdrich  

 

                                                                                  

5.  What have you always wanted to do but have been afraid to           attempt?                                                  

(Habits hold us back … the fear of failure.  These have nothing to do with reality. Remember David Beckham’s counsel:  

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in a world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it.  Impossible is not a fact, It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”   

 

6.   Looking back at all the things you have done in your life, what               sort of things have given you the feeling of greatest importance /         self esteem / self worth ?                                                  

       (This is an indicator of your area of excellence – of what gives               you  the   greatest pleasure and self-esteem.   Steer toward this.)      

              

 

7.  If you were granted one wish – what one thing would you do – if           you knew you could not fail?        

 

Pick one major definite purpose … and FOCUS on it.

 

“Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness.  It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”

                                                                –  Helen Keller    

 

“The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet. There is nothing to be done about it but ignore it, or see. And then you walk fearlessly, eating what you must, growing wherever you can.”

                                                                                         –   Annie Dillard

 

“She’d teach them [her children] these things are nothing, the clothes, toys, and furniture.  These things fool people into thinking they must stay where the things are. Leave it all, she’d teach them even . . .  all your dreams of safe, calm places. Go with what is most terrifying. … Always choose love over safety, if you can tell the difference.” 

                                                    – Josephine Humphreys         Dreams of Sleep 

 

 

LISTEN, ARE YOU BREATHING JUST A LITTLE, AND CALLING IT A LIFE?

                                                            –  Mary Oliver     
 

 

“If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for.  Between these two answers you can determine the identity of any person. The better the answer he has, the more of a person he is.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         – Thomas Merton       
                   

 

 

                                                                   

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies

and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting  –

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

                                                       –  Mary Oliver

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jeff Goebel     www.aboutlistening.com

 [:]

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[:en]Changing[:]

[:en] 

 

“Archaic Torso of Apollo”

We have no idea what his fantastic head

was like, where the eyeballs were slowly swelling.  But

his body now is glowing like a lamp

whose inner eyes, only turned down a little,

hold their flame, shine.  If there weren’t light, the curve

of the breast wouldn’t blind you, and in the swerve

if the thighs a smile wouldn’t keep on going

towards the place where the seeds are.

If there weren’t light, this stone would look cut off

where it drops so clearly from the shoulders,

its skin wouldn’t gleam like the fur of a wild animal,

and the body wouldn’t send out light from every edge

as a star does … for there is no place at all

that isn’t looking at you.  You must change your life.

                                             –   Rainer Maria Rilke   
                                                                       (transl: Robert Bly)

 

 

 

If our lives should get better, it will NOT be because of some change in our surroundings … it will be because WE change.

 

Personally, I am not satisfied with my life … as it is.

 

How about you?      You done?       You tired?       Satisfied?

 

In the film ‘16 Blocks’  (2006 – Bruce Willis, Yasiin Bey, David Morse)  an aging alcoholic cop is assigned the task of escorting a witness in police custody to the courthouse sixteen blocks away, where he is expected to testify before a jury – in regard to police corruption.

 

The viewer does not realize (at first) that Jack Mosley (Willis) was CHOSEN because they believed he could be counted on to “do what he always does” –  look away. (He was a drunk, and was considered spineless) Nor do we know (at first) that Mosley himself had been a participant in the corruption.

 

But that’s what makes it a good story … because (in the middle of the 16-block transfer) Mosley has a change of heart.  He ‘changes his mind’, and decides NOT to cooperate!

 

So, you see  – it’s a story about “doing the wrong thing” (and getting used to it), but then changing.

 

[so – it’s not just a good story … it’s an important story.

We LIVE, after all, in a society actively involved in a program of pursuing self-genocide … and  whose laws support planetary destruction!  (Culture ALWAYS trumps Law … Does it not?)]

 

Also – in the film ‘The Last Castle’ (2001 – Robert Redford, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo) a (three-star) General Irwin (Redford) finds himself in a military prison.  (He had made a decision, in a battle situation, which resulted in the death of eight American soldiers.)

“The only difference between you and me,” he says to some other inmates, “is that I know I’m guilty.”  

But twice in the past year, Irwin learns – the warden, Col. Winter (Gandolfini) gave an order (a hand signal) to shoot certain prisoners in the head, which, even with rubber bullets, is likely to be fatal … and was fatal.

When it becomes clear to Irwin that Winter is abusing the power of his situation, he cites to him the pertinent sections from the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and (technically) relieves him of his command.

The warden does not comply.

 

Without seeking leadership (among his inmates) the other prisoners respect him, and, increasingly, look to him as their leader.

And, with the warden refusing to resign his position, Irwin decides to take it from him.

 

But the reason this is “not just a good story, but an important one as well” is because of the character of Yates, one of the prisoners (Mark Ruffalo).  Yates is smart and capable and (if my memory serves me right – a West Point graduate)  But the prisoners know – that Yates takes bets (on whatever) happens there in the prison.  (He makes no attempt to make life better for himself or for his inmates)

And one day (when no one else is around) Irwin says to him – “I know who you are, Yates.  You’re hiding.”

The moral struggles  that Yates goes through (after those few words from Irwin) make Yates the main character of the story.

 

[A main character is NOT the same as the hero of a story.  The main character is put there (in the story) as a proxy for the reader.  We’re meant to understand that the choices that the main character is struggling with… are essentially the same choices that WE need to deal with.]

 

I think I will NOT tell about the decisions that Yates finally makes, but they are crucial to the battle (as Yates knows how to fly a helicopter)

 

There is more than a little chaos …  but it’s a satisfying story.

 

I recommend you watch both these films.

 

(keeping in mind … that there may be changes WE need to make)

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Casida de la rosa”

 

La rosa 

no buscaba la aurora: 

Casi eterna en su ramo 

buscaba otra cosa. 

 

La rosa 

no buscaba ni ciencia ni sombra: 

Confín de carne y sueño 

buscaba otra cosa. 

 

La rosa 

no buscaba la rosa: 

Inmóvil por el cielo 

¡buscaba otra cosa!

                                    –   Federico García Lorca

 

 

Casida of the Rose

 

The rose

was not searching for the sunrise:

almost eternal on its branch,

it was searching for something else.

 

The rose

was not searching for darkness or science:

borderline of flesh and dream,

it was searching for something else.

 

The rose

was not searching for the rose.

Motionless in the sky

it was searching for something else.

 

                     –    Federico Garcia Lorca

[:]

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[:en]Are We Lazy?[:]

[:en] 

Laziness, n.  Unwarranted repose of manner

                               in a person of low degree.

                                 –   Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

 

Our Mr. Bierce means, of course, that the ‘repose of manner’ is deplorable because the person is riff-raff.  Mmm? (A rich man exhibiting the same behavior would not elicit our disapproval)

 

But let’s for now forget about ‘the low life’ … (and about social commentary, in general) … and have a look at our own laziness.

 

I recently came to the (unpleasant) conclusion that I am lazy.

 

[The reason I am willing to embarrass myself in front of people I don’t know … is because I believe that any of us may legitimately represent all of us.         (So – it’s for teaching)]

 

In about 1972 I was in the Navy (on a submarine tender, tied up at Ballast Point, a Naval Base in San Diego) … living ‘on the beach’.  In this case: in La Mesa, about a half hour inland. I was living with a woman and her two daughters (aged 7 & 9). Also sharing that house that we were renting – were a couple other shipmates.  Friends.

I think we generally managed to be good and to enjoy ourselves.  We were, I would say – a fairly decent lot.  And we often shared our evening meal.

I would often take responsibility for “putting the kitchen to bed.”  But in those days my routine included putting all the dishes in the sink … and (merely) soaking them.

And one day I received a letter (which my sweetheart had taken the trouble to write to me) … in which she referred to this practice of mine – of soaking the dishes (for her to wash next morning)  And when, shortly after the letter, we actually discussed the matter … I was defensive.  And I’m not proud of that either.

What was the problem?

 

The problem was me.  My laziness. I did not want to be bothered.  Did not want to put myself out.  Work.   Be of service.

 

Simply  –  lazy …   ease seeking.   Mmm?

 

(And – whether, in this case, I managed to repent and do better … I honestly do not remember.                    But I bet she does.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When I was a kid, in Ohio, I went through the (whole) Scouting program: Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts (I became a Life scout, a rank shy of Eagle) … Assistant Scoutmaster.

For many years I was Troop 37’s Senior Patrol Leader, which is an elected position (by the boys of the troop).  And – for as many years, the Assistant Senior Patrol Leader was Ian.  (This is an appointed position.  The Sr. Patrol Leader simply chooses him.)  Well I always chose Ian, and without having to think about it.  He was a year younger than me … and we were close friends. [Ian is not his real name.  I withhold that … to protect him.]

 

Anyway, one Saturday Ian was over at my house … and I encouraged him to have a ride on our (old Allis Chalmers) farm tractor.  It had a hand-crank starter; but I considered it pretty easy to handle. I was about 16, and Ian 15.

He had never driven a tractor before … all the more reason to do it, I thought.  Well I got him to do it, and he was driving it around our go cart track, which we had built    just beyond the back yard.

I should have made him throttle it down some, for I could see he was ‘over-driving’.  He wasn’t used to it … and was going a little too fast for his skill level … and he ran it into an elm tree.  This didn’t hurt him, I don’t think … but it hurt the tractor. The collision cracked the long cast iron drive-shaft housing (between the engine and the transmission)  A big, major, structural piece.

My dad (the owner of the tractor, and father of three sons himself) repaired the old tractor.  But he made Ian pay for the new bell housing ($100 or maybe $200). I think Ian worked off the debt by doing work for my dad … (I don’t remember.  Heck, I hardly remembered the incident at all … but I happened to get in touch with Ian after we had grown up (this was in about 1998). And THIS EVENT (of wrecking our tractor) was something he REMEMBERED and TOLD ME ABOUT … many years past its occurrence.

 

I was shocked.

 

There is no doubt that I was complicit in that mishap. 

WHY, then,  did I not insist on helping Ian work off his debt?

 

I should NEVER have talked into doing something … and then hung him out to dry    when it went south.

 

The First Approximation analysis of this situation (my Lack of Character) – would be to say that I lacked COURAGE.  But (going a little deeper) we would say that (inside my lack of courage) was LAZINESS. (I didn’t want to be bothered … nor to share in his humiliation)  

I didn’t have to.  So I didn’t.

 

I was lazy.

 

The issue here is –  DOES LAZINESS PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN OUR FAILINGS OF CHARACTER?

 

I think it does.

 

We know that Americans spend more on ENTERTAINMENT… than on Education & Healthcare COMBINED !

 

Is this because we DON’T KNOW that our great-grandchildren are in Trouble?  (that the Earth is in Deep Trouble)?

 

No.

 

I don’t buy it.

 

We know.

 

We just don’t want to DEAL with it.

 

Shall Nero be our role model and our hero?  (the one who played his fiddle WHILE Rome was burning)?

 

 

We’re EASE SEEKING.

 

We’re lazy.

 

Me too.[:]

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[:en]Making Apple Cider[:de]M[:]

[:en] 

 

I grew up in semi-rural northwest Ohio, where there’s quite a few apple trees, and family cider presses are not rare.  Anyway, we had one  – a two-basket press (smaller than but similar to the one in this video) –

                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tx1ZXbXHTU  

 

I will say – that the old press in this video is exceptionally nice.  It’s well designed and well restored. (and it works great)

And, as you can see, when you make cider with a press of this sort  – it’s best done with lots of help. It’s (naturally) a clan function, or a community function.  (and this, in itself, is worth something. You know – Cooperation.  Teamwork. Everybody pitches in, and everybody enjoys the cider.

 

About five years ago, I was able to obtain an old cider press (at a yard sale in southwest Washington)  It’s pretty similar to the one that our family had, when I was a kid. The mill has patent dates cast into the front end plate.  (It’s about 140 years old.)

I had to do quite a bit of rebuilding on it, and replaced many of the wooden parts.  Anyway, it works. I’ve already used it three times this year, and I’ll probably use it three more.

 

We’ll use it tomorrow evening for the Halloween party (the Suttle Lodge staff party … where I work)

Then, on November 2nd, we’ll use it again.  Just a cider-making party (and potluck dinner) with friends.

 

But – here’s the thing.

 

I’ve been on a keto diet now for four months (which means: no sugar or carbs, which means no fruit or fruit juice)    So, currently, I’m not drinking cider.  But (I notice that) my enthusiasm for making it is pretty much undiminished.

 

Why is that?

 

Well, it’s because – the main reason I like to do it … is so that people (participating, preferably) can have the experience of seeing the cider come gushing out of the trough, when the pressing screw comes down.  (There are a few shots of this in the above video, though I must say – that it’s better “in person”)

 

You see –  apple trees grow on a planet the way apples grow on an apple tree.  And people grow on a planet in quite the same way.  Mmm?

 

We are CHILDREN of this World … of the Great Mother.  Mmm?

We belong here.  And our Mother loves us.

 

Well – anyone who sees the cider gush from the press (and then drinks some) has just had a first-hand experience of the Love and Generosity of the Great Mother.

 

EXPERIENCE is primary.

 

(And, while I expect to some time drink cider again …) the drinking of it is NOT really the Main WHY that I make it.

 

(Don’t get me wrong.  I love apple cider … especially when it comes right out of the press.  It’s just that right now … I’m not drinking it.           But that’s just a detail.)

 

Gandhi has counseled us – to be the change we wish to see in the world.

 

Want to be a child of the Great Mother?  … to be a Member of the Great Family?

 

One of the ways to do that – is to MAKE APPLE CIDER.

 

Get a cider press.

Find your Tribe.

MAKE CIDER

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75r-UU0_nSI    (Real West Country British cider)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOBQslIY8ng    (A Countryman’s cydermaking 1970’s)

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

 The Family Is All There Is

 

Think of those old, enduring connections

found in all flesh–the channeling

wires and threads, vacuoles, granules,

plasma and pods, purple veins, ascending

boles and coral sapwood (sugar-

and light-filled), those common ligaments,

filaments, fibers and canals.

Seminal to all kin also is the open

mouth–in heart urchin and octopus belly,

in catfish, moonfish, forest lily,

and rugosa rose, in thirsty magpie,

wailing cat cub, barker, yodeler,

yawning coati.

And there is a pervasive clasping

common to the clan–the hard nails

of lichen and ivy sucker

on the church wall, the bean tendril

and the taproot, the bolted coupling

of crane flies, the hold of the shearwater

on its morning squid, guanine

to cytosine, adenine to thymine,

fingers around fingers, the grip

of the voice on presence, the grasp

of the self on place.

Remember the same hair on pygmy

dormouse and yellow-necked caterpillar,

covering red baboon, thistle seed

and willow herb? Remember the similar

snorts of warthog, walrus, male moose

and sumo wrestler? Remember the familiar

whinny and shimmer found in river birches,

bay mares and bullfrog tadpoles,

in children playing at shoulder tag

on a summer lawn?

The family–weavers, reachers, winders

and connivers, pumpers, runners, air

and bubble riders, rock-sitters, wave-gliders,

wire-wobblers, soothers, flagellators–all

brothers, sisters, all there is.

Name something else.    

 

                   

                                            –     Pattiann Rogers

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[:en]Our Tetrahedron[:]

[:en] 

 

Our successes and failures

Are less important than

Our aspirations and habits.

 

 

 

Imagine a shape.  A solid shape. Flat faces.  Straight edges.

One on which you can NOT orient yourself, because

All the faces are the same,

All the edges are the same, and

All the points are the same.

 

How MANY such shapes are there?

An infinite number perhaps?

 

No.

Far from it.

There are five.

 

Now, always, forever … 5.

 

This (special) family of shapes is referred to as the Platonic Solids, or

The Regular Solids :

 

Tetrahedron

Hexahedron (or cube)

Octahedron

Dodecahedron

Icosahedron

Number two has squares for faces (6 of them).  Number four has pentagons for faces (12 of them).  The other three all have triangular faces (equilateral triangles, of course.  4, 8, and 20).

 

The simplest shape of the family (the first on the list) is the tetrahedron.  (6 edges, 4 faces, and 4 points.)

A pyramid with a triangular base

It’s the only shape (that I know of) which has the SAME number of points as faces.

 

And consequently, it’s the only shape which can TWIN perfectly

A TWINNED TETRAHEDRON is known as a Merkabah.

(Students of Sacred Geometry have a lot to say about the Merkabah)

 

If you turn a tetrahedron (causing it to rest on a new base) – you find that it looks just like it did before you turned it.  (And, of course, this is true of all the regular solids)

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

For the past year or so I have given considerable thought to what I want … my goals … my desires.  But only fairly recently did I come up with a symbolic depiction of my Desire Structure which seems appropriate and believable.

And – the main reason I’m sharing this with you … is that you may find it believable for you as well.  (And if it is NOT, then you should, of course, alter it … till it seems right for you)

 

Anyway … we do not want just ONE thing in this life.

No.  We want several.

 

And (for me, at least) I am, for now, satisfied – that they are these:

 

Love

Health

Wealth

Service

 

Service would seem to be the ultimate life goal … but I find I cannot accomplish it without a certain amount of wealth.  And love / a happy family life. And without good health – very little is possible.

 

Many people put Wealth as the number one goal in their life.  I think this is a serious mistake. Eventually we come to realize that wealth (career, and power) does not provide fulfillment.  It’s not enough (to satisfy a Human Being).

 

Health – certainly is fundamental.  It’s basic to all other achievement.  And there are those who make fitness (and athletics) into a career.  In our (modern) society there are many professional athletes. But I am afraid that many of these people are out of balance (though not all.  As a culture, we are not particularly thoughtful.

As Dorothy Canfield Fisher points out –

 

If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks’ vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days.

 

One of my best friends was born a bit crippled.  When he was in utero, his mom was in a (mild) car accident, in which she was thrown against the arm rest (in the back seat).  This injured the child growing inside her. He was born – with one foot pointing backwards. This defect was soon corrected by surgery, but one leg was a little longer than the other, and his feet were different enough, so that he’s always had to buy two pairs of shoes, when most of us just buy one.

His doctors said he’d never walk right, and probably NEVER run.  But this was not so. I’ve played baseball with him a number of times.  He’s the ablest cripple I’ve ever known.

The thing is – he was passionate about baseball, (but it was learned, through privileged sources) – that if he had NOT been crippled (in the womb), he would probably have spent his life playing baseball, and there were beings who wanted more from him than that.  (They did not want him to waste his life. Mmm?)

 

And we should realize that Health is not just physical … that it also has a spiritual component.

[I would commend to you the film – “Meetings with Remarkable Men”, about the early life of the (Russian) spiritual teacher – Gurdgieff]

 

Myself, I put Love at the top of my list (of goals), because, it seems to me, that not even Health is worth much without Love.  NOTHING is.

 

As Rumi says – 

Someone who does not run

toward the allure of love

walks a road where nothing

lives.  But this dove here

senses the love hawk floating

above, and waits, and will not

be driven or scared to safety

 

 

Ernest Becker says that we (all) have an Immortality Project.  It’s the legacy we want to leave the world. We want our lives to have counted for something.

 

For me – I feel I must do what I can to try to keep the Human Family from wandering off the cliff of Self-Genocide.  For we seem determined to destroy the planet we live on.

 

Anyway, I feel these four goals are inter-related and intertwined enough – so that it makes sense to symbolize them with a tetrahedron … with one goal represented by one of its four points.  (rather than assigning a face to a goal. Because that way, one goal would always be hidden – when the tetrahedron is resting on that face)

 

And what does our tetrahedron rest ON?

 

I imagine that it rests on four discs.  And the topmost one is –

 

 the disc of – OUR HABITS.

 

It is our HABITS  (what we do) which will get us where we want to go.

(or … if they are NOT aligned with our goals ,,, then they will take us somewhere else)  so

we must see to it – that our habits are in accordance with what we most want.

 

I am what I repeatedly do.

                    

                                                       –  Aristotle              

 

 

The next disc down (a little larger than the top one)

Is the disc of our Economy & Culture  –

We are each the beneficiaries of all.

Some of us build houses, some make clothes, some build power stations, some teach our kids, some raise food, some build or maintain our roads.

But we ALL get to live in a house (or at least, most of us do);  we all get to wear clothes, and use electricity, and get educated, and eat food, and use our roads.

 

Specialization & Giving (service to the whole)

That’s how a tree works … and it’s how an economy works.

 

And the next one down is – the disc of the World.    

The sun, the earth, the rain, the soil, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere (all the water), the whole biosphere, the great forests (the lungs of the earth).

Many politicians do not realize that we live FIRST in a biological system … and THEN in a political system. 

ALL activities are upheld by the World itself. All political systems, corporate systems, economic systems. All such things happen on the basis of the Great Biological System … and the Planet Herself.   

 

Now, I realize that many (intelligent & educated) people would consider that we just now described the bottom-most disc …

 

But I think that there is yet  one more – the disc of God and the whole spirit world.

There’s a lot goin’ on.  And we do NOT see the greater part of it.

 

We are like flies crawling across the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel: we cannot see what angels and gods lie underneath the threshold of our perceptions.  We do not live in reality; we live in our paradigms, our habituated perceptions, our illusions; the illusions we share through culture we call reality; but the true historical reality of our condition is invisible to us.

                                                       –    William Irwin Thompson     

 

What we can see … is upheld by what we cannot see.

 

So – make a stack.  Put down a quarter, then (on top of that) a nickel, then a penny, then a dime.

[then, on top of this stack – is our tetrahedron.   Mmm?

except it should be bigger – maybe a 3 1/2″ tetrahedron resting on a stack of discs, 4″ – 5 1/2″ in diameter … something like that}

 

From bottom to top, then:

 

 the spirit world … then 

the material / biological world (Gaia, the Earth) … then 

the economy (everybody helping everybody else) … then

 what I do (or what we do) …

 

And upon this stack – rests the tetrahedron of our goals / our Life

 (or – the things we value the most highly, and which we wish to nurture and to foster)

 

Mmm?[:]

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[:en]The 3 Strange Angels[:]

[:en] 

 

[I just now did a google search on my name.  And I noticed there’s a (pdf) talk by me posted on Academia.edu/     Now, I did not post this there. But I re-read it, and I decided I should post it here (on WorldFamilyTrading)

I wrote it in April, 2014.  I have not, as yet, made it into a video. (It’s still text only.)

Talk 1  IS a video; and may be viewed on YouTube.

Here’s the link for the Trailer  

                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlfqsL3hTK0

 

Look at the end of this posting for some tips on viewing Talk 1.]

 

Anyway, here is Talk 2 –

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

This is the second talk in a series about the Human Family on the Cliff-Edge.     

(That is, this is a draft  preliminary to Talk 2.)

In the first talk we discussed what Philosophy is    and its role in the planetary crises we’re facing. And since (for now) I’m defining Philosophy as “the mind-stuff that connects us to the world or to reality”, it falls out  that Philosophy’s role in these great crises is the same as it is in everyday life. That is, there are two ‘worlds’ — the world as we see it or understand it and the world as it actually is.  Our basic philosophical task (in any situation) is — to bring our understanding of the situation to one which bears a high level of resemblance to the actual world so that we can participate effectively in the flow of events.  

This might seem a little bit difficult to say; but it is most certainly easier to say than to do when we’re trying to understand and deal with something as complex as a Planetary Crisis. 

Also (in Talk 1) I offered a brief argument –  that our immediate perceptions deserve to be categorized as part of our ‘philosophy’.  And once one sees the truth of this, it’s not hard to understand why everybody in the world tends to think that their view of reality is the way things really are.    

 

          

I want to open this talk with a quote by Woody Allen: 

 

 “More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads.  One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction.  Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”

 

Now, if you’re like me, it is not immediately clear what he’s trying to tell us here.  I had to puzzle about this for quite a while.  But here’s what I think he means. First of all, he’s saying that the path we’re currently on is the one leading to annihilation … and we’re on it because we’re avoiding the other one.  And why are we avoiding it? (the one that goes toward survival)?  We’re avoiding it because it would be painful to go that way.       (We’re talking here about ‘psychic pain’)

Let me offer an example.  One evening not long ago, I was walking in downtown Portland.  It was cold and wet and windy. I had just crossed the street at a busy intersection when I looked back at the people crossing the other street.  And one of them was a man wrapped in a packing quilt. He had it wrapped over his head as well as around his body. It seemed pretty likely that he would be spending the night somewhere (on the street) wrapped in that same blanket.  (This sort of thing just makes me crazy. To think that we tolerate homelessness and the suffering that it entails.) But why did I have such a strong impulse to turn away from him?  The answer is simple.  If I can just Not Look At Him.  If I can Just FORGET ABOUT HIM,   then, just like magic, my PAIN (about him, which is psychic and vicarious)  just GOES AWAY !

 

This is what we’re doing  – as a whole race – we’re ignoring a problem, a BIG problem, because NOT TO  would be painful.  Everybody knows (everybody who thinks about it  knows) that our great great great great grandchildren are in big trouble:  because we are NOT taking care of Business.  We are NOT as a race committed to the welfare of our (distant) progeny.  We have NOT reached a point where we are RESOLUTE that our children, seven generations down, are going to inherit from us a world with life support systems which are intact and healthy.  Why not? It’s not that we don’t know.  It’s not that we don’t care.  It’s not even the money … or the time and work that would be required to deal with the problem.       IT’S the PAIN. 

 

      (Therefore, Woody Allen’s description of us, of our situation, is basically accurate.)

 

Ever spend Halloween with a two-year-old  or a three-year-old? It’s so interesting — you put your mask on, and they’re frightened.  You take your mask off, and they’re okay Put your mask back on and they’re frightened again.  A person so young has not had time to accumulate a huge data base … so they are overwhelmed by their sense impressions.  They are, in effect, (relatively) mindless.   This is the way we are behaving. 

 

 Maybe we’re in our ‘Fish Brain’. 

 Here’s what happens if you put a fish in a “Skinner Box”with two identical feeding stations – A and B.  Each feeding station has a lever which the fish bumps with his nose; and this causes a pellet of food to be dispensed.  And these stations are adjustable by the experimenter. Now suppose you adjust these two stations such that at ‘A’ the fish is rewarded / (fed) 60% of the time  (that is, if the fish bumps the lever a hundred times he’ll receive 60 food pellets) … and ‘B’ is adjusted to 40%. What happens? Does the fish give up on station B, where his efforts are clearly less productive?  No. He’ll still work them both. He’ll work station A 60% of the time, and B 40% of the time (or in whatever ratios the stations have been adjusted and set). This is Fish Brain. And it is now well understood that our brain has evolved (over much time) through a series of augmentations.  When a ‘new brain’ gets added, all the previous brains are kept.  So we (literally do) still have our Fish Brain.  Are we to suppose that we never use it?  It isn’t like that.  The fact, for example, that we are so inclined to find the motivation for completing some task — in proportion (inverse proportion) to the time remaining before the deadline … doesn’t that seem a little fishy to you?

 

In any case, no parent in the world would consider it ‘okay’ to treat their (own, living, in-their-face) children with the level of neglect with which we (as a race and as individuals, consistently and universally) treat our own (distant) progeny.

But does it even make any sense – to commit to the welfare of our (distant) children … when we don’t even know (with full clarity) what we must do to take care of them?   

 

Well, whether it makes sense or not (and whether it’s painful or not),  we need to do it.     Of course we may try our best and fail.  But if we don’t even try … we’re goin’ down.

 

Let me share with you a certain poem by D. H. Lawrence : 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   “Song of a Man Who Has Come Through”

 

Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me! 

A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time, 

If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me!

If only I am sensitive, subtle, oh, delicate, a winged gift! 

If only, most lovely of all, I yield myself and am borrowed 

By the the fine, fine wind that takes its course through the chaos of the world 

Like a fine, an exquisite chisel, a wedge-blade inserted; 

If only I am keen and hard like the sheer tip of a wedge 

Driven by invisible blows, 

The rock will split, 

         we shall come at the wonder, 

                  we shall find the Hesperides.

Oh, for the wonder that bubbles into my soul, 

I would be a good fountain, a good well-head, 

Would blur no whisper, spoil no expression.

What is the knocking? What is the knocking at the door in the night? 

It is somebody wants to do us harm.

No, no, it is the three strange angels. 

Admit them, admit them.

 

—   — —   — — —   — — — —   –

 

While I apparently do have the audacity –  to presume to finish this poem (or at least, to interpret it for Lawrence, on his behalf and in his absence), I would like to talk a little, first, about Theater.

 

I expect I was in my twenties by the time I came across something which helped me understand what Theater is and how it functions in a society.  The purpose of Theater is to ‘hold up a mirror’ so that we can see ourselves in it, so that we can see what we are doing, how we are living, what choices we are making … (or maybe even try to add clarity or depth, as does “Into the Woods” to our understanding of our Situation itself)  I will offer a couple of examples.

 

Many years ago, on Thanksgiving, I happened to hear Steve Martin (on TV) share some things he was thankful for.  He said,

“I’m thankful I’ve been given the means to be able to help people less fortunate than myself. Now all I need is the desire.” 

He’s not just ‘being himself’ here. We’re meant to see ourselves in what he’s offering us.  That’s Theater.

(He also said, “I’m thankful for the Atlantic Ocean; otherwise, Portuguese people would be walking right into New York City.”   Maybe this is funny, but it’s not Theater; it’s just silly. But the first one — that’s Theater – great theater, in my view).

 

Jack Benny (who was very droll) used to pretend to be a stingy person.  He developed this Personna deliberately over time. In one skit I saw, he was preparing to go out for the evening.  

Rochester, his black butler, was assisting him as usual.  Jack’s trousers had been laid out on the bed. Jack picks them up to put them on.  Then he (simply) hefts them a couple times.  And he calls out (as the butler had gone out of the room) –  “Rochester, did you take a dime out of my pants pocket?”  Rochester comes in then rather flustered, and explains. He admits that he had taken the dime (for some legitimate purpose). 

Here Benny was posing to us a world wherein someone (himself) was so stingy, that he would notice when his pants, unexpectedly, happened to be too light to contain the dime which he knew had been there. 

So he developed this ‘Stingy’ persona.  But it’s in a later skit that he really cashes in on it. 

In this skit he’s walking down the street one night in New York City, when he’s accosted by a mugger.  A man steps out of the shadows, sticks a gun in his ribs and says, “Your money or your life!”. Jack does nothing, so he says it again –

“Your money or your LIFE !”  Jack replies, “I’m thinking.”

 

This is theater. 

 

And it’s accurate.  (Except that we’re already worse than that) 

This is what we’re like in our headlong pursuit of material wealth. 

 

A current saying is, “Money isn’t everything, but it’s way ahead of whatever’s in second place.”  And this gets reflected in how we do business (and in our Foreign Policy).

 

In the United States of America we spend more money on Entertainment than we spend on Education and Health Care combined. (We are determined to distract ourselves.  Mmm?) Shouldn’t we perhaps be just a little embarrassed by this? 

 

In his “Devil’s Dictionary” Ambrose Bierce defines ‘Economy’ as – “Purchasing the barrel of whiskey that you do not need for the price of the cow that you cannot afford.”  

(If we can understand that we are not highly rational beings, it will probably help us.) 

  

I’m not opposed to affluence or even materialism.  We could (in good conscience) still do (most) everything we’re already doing, but we should Take Care of Business first.

 

Freud said,

“Life as we find it is too hard for us; it entails too much pain, too many disappointments, impossible tasks.  We cannot do without palliative remedies.  

There are perhaps three of these means: 

powerful diversions of interest, which lead us to care little about our misery; 

substitutive gratifications, which lessen it; and 

intoxicating substances, which make us insensitive to it.  

Something of this kind is indispensable.”

 

Juli Duncan says, 

       “Life is a rock.  And a hard place.”

 

So, just having a Human Life puts us under considerable pressure to (as Freud says: distract ourselves, have fun, or resort to drugs and alcohol)  turn to denial, rather than tackling the problems that beset us.  

Our hope lies, however, in our finding the wherewithal to overcome these temptations

.

 

In his (Pulitzer Prize) book “The Denial Of Death” Ernest Becker takes a hard look at the Human Situation.  Becker has a compassionate attitude towards human beings in our (heavy) use of Denial. He understands it as an attempt to move toward health and wholeness.  He sees that even (we) “healthy” people, walking around loose, are neurotic – because we lie to ourselves about ourselves and about life.      

 Anyone who is more than casually interested in understanding the human component of our Planetary Crises would find Becker’s book worth reading.  Here is an excerpt:

 

 “How does one transcend himself; how does he open himself to new possibility?  By realizing the truth of his situation, by dispelling the lie of his character, by breaking his spirit out of its conditioned prison.  The enemy, for Kierkegaard as for Freud, is the Oedipus complex. The child has built up strategies and techniques for keeping his self-esteem in the face of the terror of his situation.  These techniques become an armor that holds the person prisoner. The very defenses that he needs in order to move about with self-confidence and self-esteem become his life-long trap. In order to transcend himself, he must break down that which he needs in order to live.  Like Lear, he must throw off all his “cultural lendings” and stand naked in the storm of life. Kierkegaard had no illusions about man’s urge to freedom. He knew how comfortable people were inside the prisons of their character defenses. Like many prisoners they are comfortable in their limited and protected routines, and the idea of a parole into the wide world of chance, accident, and choice terrifies them.”

 

Someone who actually undertakes the inner and personal dismantling that Becker refers to above – better have a good reason for doing it.  For it is wonderfully painful. Ego Death must be near the top of the (psychic) pain chart. But a Human Being can tolerate considerable pain, if it has Meaning, that is  –  when it counts for something.  

Abraham Lincoln said,

“I have found that most men can withstand adversity.  If you would test a man’s character, give him power.”  

 

I think this brings us back around to Lawrence’s ‘three strange angels’.

 

 We manage to keep our self-respect in the face of our failure to do what we must to survive – that is – to take care of our own distant children)  

How?  

By ignoring that failure … by not looking at it, because to do so would be too painful.  

 

Therefore, the name of the first angel needs to be  ‘Suffering’ – ( that is, ‘The Willingness to Suffer’ )

[or, alternatively, I suppose this angel’s name could be ‘Pinocchio’     because Pinocchio decided he wanted “to be a real human being – however hard it is.”]

 

 If we do not manage to ‘open the door’ to this angel, we are (as Woody Allen warns us) sunk.  We’re goin’ over the cliff. There won’t even be any people seven generations from now. 

 

We need to contemplate … and consider trading in our Indolence (no pain) for Authenticity.

 

 

I am aware that shame and guilt  these days are not highly approved of; nonetheless, I declare that the name of the second angel is   — ‘Shame and Guilt’. 

 

Shame used to be regarded as a high virtue.  It was seen as an essential aspect of humility – an appreciation of one’s limits … one’s smallness and fallibility.  The only remnant of this, that I know of, is still recognizable in the term “shameless”. This might refer to some act which might not have been committed if the person had possessed a better sense of his own limits.  In this American culture humility has generally fallen into disfavor. Look at the way we expect our (grown up) professional athletes (included certainly, among our role models) to behave after scoring a touchdown (any touchdown … in any game, regardless of that game’s lack of potential for making the world better.)     

Consider the Titanic … or the Great Dust Bowl  – an ecological disaster of enormous proportions.  Didn’t these happen because of Human Arrogance?  And as such, aren’t they dripping with shamelessness?  

We need to get real regarding our own arrogance.  If we cannot admit to and own our own shame and guilt when and where they are real … if we cannot let this second angel into our house, we’re goin’ down.  We will go over the cliff.  And whatever the condition of this planet two hundred years from now (seriously debilitated maybe) there will be no one to inherit it. 

 

Before moving on I want to say something more on behalf of Shame.  Many times in my life I have done something … which (later) I was ashamed of having done.  But when we do something wrong, we should be ashamed of having done it.  By the time I am ashamed of myself, I am a (little bit) of a better person than I was when I did it.  I am then a bit less likely to do that sort of thing in the future, the next time I am tempted to.  

Shame is essential to our character development, which is, after all, a long business.

 

And the third angel?  It wasn’t so long ago that I had nothing good to say about Anger.  But I’m afraid that’s the third angel – ‘Anger’. But not the kind of anger that blames you for my problems. It’s the sort of anger that looks inward and says, “I’ve had enough (of this low way of living).  I am fed up. I am done! This anger we need. And I’m afraid that without it, we’ll go down.

 

These then are the three strange angels.  (Suffering, shame & guilt, and anger.)  

They are angels because they have the power to deliver us … 

and strange because our first reaction to them is a negative one.  

We fear them.  

(Look at the poem   and look within yourself.)

 

This brings me to the central image of this talk.  It’s the take-away. It’s what I hope you’ll remember if you only remember one thing:

  

    The Big Meeting

 

What if –   the people of two hundred years from now were to invite us to meet with them.  And our attendance was compulsory. We have to go.  

So we go to this Big Meeting.  It lasts a day, and has two parts.  In the morning part, everybody (all the ‘thens’ and all the ‘nows’) – we all meet (electronically) in the “same room”.  Their leaders will have some questions to put to us. Questions like “What were you thinking? Why did you abandon us? You knew the importance of clean air and clean water.  How could you let it get so bad? You knew of the importance of biodiversity. Why did you permit the extermination of millions of species? For money? Really?” 

But the morning meeting will be fun compared to the afternoon session. 

In the afternoon everyone will meet in small groups.  This will be our chance to meet (not electronically, but physically) with our direct descendants.  Face to face. And in most cases genetic continuity will be apparent and obvious. They will look like our own family members.  (They are, of course.) 

 

 This could be a very tough day. 

 

What will we be able to say to them?  To people with similar (family) mannerisms and physical features?  

What will we do with their begging and weeping?  

What if they’re really angry with us? 

Are we going to just explain to them that we would have taken care of them … only   it would have been uncomfortable?  

Or that we didn’t have time?  

What will we be able to say to them?

 

Would we live our lives any differently if, say, every morning we were to spend some time imagining we’re at the Big Meeting?  Before we get out of bed in the morning? If there were such a meeting, what would take place there? How would it go? How would it make you feel?

Wanna try it?

 

Here is a comment by Graham Greene:

“Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim.  It is, one is told, the unforgivable sin, but it is the sin the corrupt or evil man never practices. He always has hope.  He never reaches the freezing point of absolute failure. Only the man of goodwill carries always in his heart this capacity for damnation.”

 

I found out (from John Bradshaw, in his video series on The Family) – that a Functional family is not a ‘family with no problems’.  All families have problems.  A functional family is one which deals with their problems.  A Dysfunctional family is one which does not deal with their problems.  Like the rap song says (from Mark Twain, actually):

“Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.”

 

 Personally, I happen to believe that all of Humanity / (all the people on this planet) is actually a Family.  

 It is, however, a dysfunctional family.

 

But let’s suppose that it goes well.  Let’s suppose we change. That we own up to our responsibilities.  Then, looking back on this current age from the future, this time will be known as “The Time of Fooling Around”.  Or (if things go really well, it will be known) as “The PreFamily Period”. 

 

 

SO –

Let’s assume you have looked inside yourself … and you have come to the realization that you are willing to feel whatever pain may present itself along the (still nebulous) path to Survival.  Let me offer you a suggestion or two that may make Choosing That Path more doable.

 

When the Revolutionary War broke out, Thomas Jefferson said, “Let’s assume we’ve won the war.”  Then he got busy designing the social systems he knew would be needed if we did win. 

This is what we should do  – something similar. We need to adopt Working Assumptions which can help us not get overwhelmed (by whatever).  We should assume that whatever we do – may be just enough …  just what was necessary for the Whole Thing to come out okay. 

Also, expect yourself to do better as you do more and as time goes on.  It’s okay to start small. It’s okay that The Path is still unclear. (It’s gonna have to be okay,  Mmm?)  

A philosopher though, becomes accustomed to the non-immediacy of understanding-gratification  –  the satisfaction you get when you finally understand something that you’ve been trying to wrap your mind around for a long time.

  

 The Truth is, of course, that we don’t know whether or not “success” is possible … whether or not any hope at all is warranted. 

But if there ever was a time for Faith, this is that time.  We must give ourselves … and our Children  the Benefit of the Doubt. We must have faith.  We must (as Dhyani Ywahoo says) – Hold the Form (the thought-form).

Not as self-delusion … but as a Working Assumption.

 

Besides, Realities exist in this universe that we know not of.  (Or, if we ‘know’ of them, we don’t know much about them … and so we’re inclined to deny them, or ignore them.

 

As Hazel Henderson points out:

“If we can recognize that change and uncertainty are basic principles, we can greet the future and the transformation we are undergoing with the understanding that we do not know enough to be pessimistic.”

 

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.  Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.  All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.   

 

   Whatever you can do,                or dream you can,     begin it.   

      Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.      

                                                                         –   Goethe      

 

                                                                                                                                                                                 

A quote by Thoreau: 

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” 

 

And let us not be overly concerned by the fact that we do not know how to accomplish our Task (COMMITMENT needs to come first);  but let us take counsel from Rumi :

 

                                        ZERO CIRCLE

    Be helpless, dumbfounded,    Unable to say yes or no.    

Then a stretcher will come from grace    to gather us up.    

We are too dull-eyed to see that beauty.     

If we say we can, we’re lying.     

If we say No, we don’t see it,    

That No will behead us    And shut tight our window onto spirit.    

So let us rather not be sure of anything,   

Beside ourselves, and only that, so   

Miraculous beings come running to help.    

Crazed, lying in a zero circle, mute,     

We shall be saying finally,    

With tremendous eloquence, 

Lead us.

    When we have totally surrendered to that beauty,    

    We shall be a mighty kindness.                                                 

                                                          (version:  Coleman Barks)  

 

               

 

And let me share with you an incident from my own life. 

 

I was in my twenties.  I was on a bus, travelling from Lima, Ohio   to Chicago.   

Everything was snow-covered; the road too was covered with hard-packed snow.  

Somewhere, in some little town (in Indiana, probably) the bus stopped at a cafe. 

I left my bags and coat on the bus and went into the restaurant.  

When we got off, the driver announced how long the stop would be … 15 minutes, I suppose.   Rather near the end of our break I went to the restroom.  

When I came out, the bus was gone.  

I went out.  

I could see the bus, proceeding westward, perhaps a quarter mile down the empty road.   

There was no reason for me to believe I would be able to catch the bus,

 but I ran after it anyway.  

I ran hard.  

Presently a woman driving a station wagon came from behind and  pulled up along side me.  

She was offering me a ride. 

I got into her car; and  we overtook the bus.  

It stopped and I got back on.

~ ~ ~ ~

I once heard Maharishi say,

“When he finds he is late for school, the wise boy will run and pray.”

 

So, when you can, consider reading Becker’s “Denial of Death” .

 

 You might like to have a look at “Sunbeams a Book of Quotations”  and “Paper Lanterns” (more quotations), both edited by Sy Safransky (who publishes The SUN  magazine.) 

Here are collections of quotes of extraordinary quality  –  capable of helping us more deeply comprehend the humanity that we all share.

After only a couple pages, I felt I had read enough to convince me  that there is more to life than meets the eye … a lot more.  Wonderful. 

 

And maybe get (from any library  or access it online) a copy of “The Urantia Book” and read paper 72 : ‘Government on a Neighboring Planet’  (about 13 pages). It’s an unusual paper, describing a culture with roughly the same advantages and disadvantages as we have.  But they are definitely ahead of us. Consider it as a study of a society which has made up its mind to succeed … to survive.  

You will see how different it is from the society we live in.  

(Here, we do not expect to survive.   But if we are to survive, we need to expect survival … and to plan for it.)  So I consider that paper quite pertinent to our situation.

 

We need people who are ready to say,  “If we fail to save our (7-generations) grandchildren, it will not be because we did not try.  It will not be simply because I did not do what was in my power to do.”

 

Let us remember the words of Margaret Mead:

 

 “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

E. B. White said:

 “But I wake up each morning torn between a desire to save the world  and a desire to savor the world. This makes it very hard to plan the day.”

 

I think this is sound.

 

Still  – – 

 

What is the knocking?

What is the knocking at the door in the night? It is somebody wants to do us harm.

No, no, it is the three strange angels. 

Admit them, admit them.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

In Talk 1 – (besides the trailer)  there are 6 segments –

(1.a     through   1.f       in alphabetical order).

 

Sometimes the “next” segment will come up by itself

but not every time.

 

So just keep track

and when something other than the ‘next segment’ starts to load

just locate the next one and Click on it.

 

(as a ‘back-up’ … here are all  the links) :

trailer = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlfqsL3hTK0

 

1.a = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBqIyIlIb9E

 

1.b = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYLM3tXAkMc

 

1.c = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBWHbp08q9I

 

1.d = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsgBZ1Y47-w

 

1.e = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvWpgXNIpK8

 

1.f = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muRoPmS2q8E      (Sailor’s Prayer)

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

https://www.urantia.org/urantia-book-standardized/paper-72-government-neighboring-planet?term=%2272%22#U72_0_0

 

~ ~ ~ ~

Book :  The Denial of Death     by  Ernest Becker

 

Book :  Voices of Our Ancestors: Cherokee Teachings from the Wisdom Fire

              by Dhyani Ywahoo

~ ~ ~ ~
Film:  Into The Woods (2014   w/ Meryl Streep  et al.)

[:]

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[:en]Are We Brats?[:]

[:en] 

 

In this world   WOMEN

    Do ⅔ of the work

          Bring home 10% of the pay, and

                Own 1% of the property.

                                                                                        –   NPR

 

 

Every stone that you have ever seen was

right then

in the middle of a long journey.

                                                                                      –  A’Journe

 

 

 

 

A few minutes ago I asked my computer –  “How much solid waste does the US produce?

And (from the 155,000,000 search results) here’s what floated to the top:

 

Garbage— Solid Waste. Every year, the United States generates approximately 230 million tons of “trash“–about 4.6 pounds per person per day. Less than one-quarter of it is recycled; the rest is incinerated or buried in landfills.

I have been doing Recycling for 20 years or so (and have talked with many people about it) … and it is my belief that OUR DESCENDENTS (if we live that long) will be MINING our LANDFILLS.

 

If this is true … it means that WE ARE BRATS.

 

While we usually think of a brat as a young kid … but (in any case) what we mean by “a brat” – is someone who makes messes (for others to clean up) and who generally causes trouble.

(We do NOT mean that they are, in their heart, EVIL.  We just mean that they are thoughtless and impulsive … and probably oblivious about the results of their behavior … probably from just being young)

A three-year old, who pulls the pots out of the cupboard … does cause some trouble by doing that, but we do NOT think of them as a brat.  This is because we realize that they are living in a completely different reality.  (They NEVER use a pot to cook something. They can not yet do that. To them cooking pots are just these curious, clangy THINGS which are small enough to be handled and moved)

But by the time a person is 8 or 10, we consider that they (essentially) live in the same reality as WE do.  And so, the messes that THEY make  we ascribe to impulsiveness, self-absorption, and (general) obliviousness.  We hope that they will learn to take care of the people around them (and NOT make so much noise, and messes for others to clean up.  But, till they DO … we consider them a brat.  Mmm?)

 

I used to live in British Columbia, on Quadra Island (about halfway up the inland side of Vancouver Island).  To go to Quadra, you will probably take a ferry from Campbell River, which is on Vancouver Island. 

Well, the NEXT island to the east … is Cortes Island.  It takes most of an hour (on another ferry) to get there from Quadra.

Well … the folks who live on Cortes do a pretty good job of taking proper care of their trash.  As far as I know they have NO landfill, NOR do they haul trash off their island.

(they DO haul RECYCLING off … but not trash)  They just work hard at the 3 R’s (Reducing, Reusing, & Recycling)

If you look here

  http://ourcortes.com/our-community/cortes-cares-and-caring-for-cortes/

&

http://www.cortesisland.com/tideline/show12b/Cortes_Waste_Management_Centre

you will see photos of their Free Store, etc.

 

Impressive, I think.      Good.

 

But more impressive still is the village of Kamikatsu in Japan.

Not long ago, the people there thought of trash the same way MOST of us think of it  – WITHOUT THINKING about it. Everyone burned their trash (or dumped it in Nature); but because of the resulting smoke and pollution, they decided to CHANGE.  In 2003 they made a ‘Zero Waste Declaration’ (that everything would have to be recycled)

They now have 45 categories of recyclables.

The transition was not comfortable and easy, but they DID it.

They have learned – TO BE CONSCIOUS … and to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY (for their environment … and their STUFF)

 

They learned to be MINDFUL, organized, and cooperative.

 

Watch this (4-minute) video

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS9uhASKyjA&t=4s         (Kamikatsu / Zero Waste)

and/or

this (5-minute one)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eym10GGidQU    (re Kamikatsu, no-waste village)

 

Buckminster Fuller (surely) did not invent the idea that the earth is finite, fragile, and keeps us alive: (that it’s our Spaceship) … but he did understand and appreciate the importance of this truth.  And (in 1968) published 

     Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth     

              ISBN 0-8093-2461-X

 

On a (normal) spaceship there are NO mines.   Whatever you have with you on board … THAT’S IT.  

You must make do with it. 

 

One of our ‘problems’ is that we are unaccustomed to thinking of the past   and future (the continuity) of objects. We tend to think  in the short term.

This problem is mentioned in the ‘play’ :  “Vine Maple Preschool Student Interviews” (which I wrote in 2013).  

    

Here is the excerpt   (from p.3):

Hi. What’s your name?

You know my name, Nancy. 

I know. But this is an interview. People we’ll never meet may hear it. 

Oh. Okay. My name is Samantha Goodwin. 

Do you like it here, Samantha? At Vine Maple? 

Oh, yes. 

What do you like about it?

 I like it that we get to do so much music and dance. 

Me too. 

And I like that mind game that we play. What do we call it? … ­­ “Where Was This?”. That’s it. You know ­­ the teacher holds up some object and says. “Where was this?” Then we all take turns saying where we think it was … and then where it was before that, and so on. Then after we get used to doing it backwards, we do it forwards in time too ­­ talking about where we think it will be. It helps break down your static view of the world. And it’s fun. 

Yeah. I like that game too. …

 

About 45 years ago I was told (by two students of the Ascended Masters) – that the Van Allen radiation belts were PUT HERE  … to prevent the negativity which we collectively generate from infecting the ‘neighborhood’ … that WE approximate the thinking of the 4-year old who’s now pulling the pots out of the cupboard (and otherwise causing trouble).  It’s a form of quarantine. The belts are there as a shield.

Mmm ?   [It may be so.  It makes sense to me.]

 

It wasn’t that long ago (on this planet)  that women were regarded basically as property.   Mmm?

And, from its inception, Western Civilization has been  a Warrior Cult … and an Old Boy’s Club … and deeply Materialistic.

And, while I have no intention or desire to minimize the progress we’ve made in recent years  (for example – women have had the right to vote [in the US] since 1920 [with the ratification of the 19th Amendment].  Nearly 100 years) – we’re still a long way from gender balance.

Ask any woman – if the playing field is level … and fair.

We STILL live in a male-dominated society.

And the way we treat our women (the mothers of our children) … is the way we treat our planet  – The Great Mother (the Mother of us all). Mmm ?

 

 

I put before you – that we have a CHOICE.

We can continue as we have been behaving  – like selfish and self-absorbed children (who do not realize the Importance of The Mother) … like BRATS

OR

We can choose a higher way  – one which leads to our Survival.  Conscious.  Caring.  Knowing what is what.  Decent.  Loving.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU2L5nTSHtc    (the tree of forty fruit  – Sam Van Aken)

https://www.charitywater.org/    (Clean water  [not for 90%, but] for ALL)

[film]:   Iron Jawed Angels  (2004, w/ Hilary Swank  –  about the struggle for women’s suffrage)

http://www.traffickedmovie.com/                                                Trafficked  (2017  w/ Ashley Judd et al.  –  film about human trafficking)

In 2016 sex traffickers made $100 billion in profits … (more than was made by Intel, Microsoft, Nike, Google, and Starbucks    COMBINED)

                                                                                                                          –  Siddhartha Kara

 

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/modern-slavery-trafficking-persons-one-in-200

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