Category Archives: distraction issues

The Summer of the Rising Tides, Day 73: Grasping at Straws

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, distraction issues, impediments, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Uncategorized

August 12, 2020-

I am sensing an ennui,

among the people who

comment, investigate

and postulate about

the whos, whats and whys

behind serious matters,

and more quotidian fare.

There is less concern

these days,

with fact,

than with

titillating innuendo.

There is less willingness

to work through an issue,

than to hand off

the matter to

one of the “favoured few”.

There is a joy,

when one finds “clickbait”

on an individual

whom one claims to loathe.

It’s easier to issue

an armchair condemnation,

than to call out the person

and insist on specific steps

that s(he) could take,

in order to rectify

one’s legitimate grievances.

Building legitimacy,

though, is hard work.

The Summer of the Rising Tides, Day 69: Lions Gate

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, distraction issues, impediments, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

August 8, 2020-

The eighth day of the eigth month of the year finds our Sun in alignment with Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. This arrangement is believed, by astrologers, to generate an energetic effect across Earth, as this planet is also aligned with Sirius, at this point in time. As the zodiac is now in the sign of Leo (Lion), this alignment is known as the Lion’s Gate.

Baha’is believe that Divine Teachings constitute all the necessary portals or gates one needs to advance, spiritually. We are discouraged from placing much stock in astrology, as well as from dabbling in the supernatural or in psychic phenomena. These are primarily intended for use in the next level of life, beyond the present physical realm.

Energy does present itself to us, however, and often comes on numerically auspicious days, such as the “doubles”: 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, et cetera or the “triples”: 1/11 and 2/22, These may be individual events. For example, Penny and I were married on 6/6 (1982) and our son was born on 7/7 (1988). They may also be days of societal significance-as 6/6 also marks the D-Day Invasion of Normandy, during World War II and a quadrupal numerical date, 11/11 (1918), marks the Armistice that halted World War I.

Numerology in the Baha’i Faith assigns numerical values to alphabetical letters, according to the order in which they appear in the alphabet. So, the numerical value of A is always 1; that of B is 2; that of Z is 26, and so on. 9, the largest number to have value, in and of itself, is a sumbol of unity and completion. Numerology has an esoteric quality to it, as does astrology, so that in and of itself, it has no scriptural or divine authority.

There is much talk of this or that portal, to increasing spiritual understanding. As said above, though, energy portals are intended for Light Beings, who have left their physical bodies behind. They would be cumbersome, indeed, for corporeal beings, such as us humans, to attempt to cross, back and forth.

The eighth day of the eighth month passed quietly, and pleasantly for me: A Farmers Market visit was again beneficial; I got a fresh tray of Wheatgrass from an organic farming friend; I paid a visit to Synergy Cafe, in Sedona, as the owner is back from a much-needed vacation.

Auspicousness is sometimes merely what you make it.

The Summer of the Rising Tides, Day 68: Staying Authentic

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

August 7, 2020-

There is a fact of life, especially in today’s America, that owning one’s viewpoint, life choices and spirituality comes at a cost. There are always going to be those who think they know your needs better than you yourself know them. Being in charge of own life is not a cakewalk. Others, especially online, will appear, with demands, expectations and preferences, which may or may not dovetail with what one has planned.

You may say, “Well, isn’t that how it is, in ANY social situation?” Yes, and with seven billion and umpty-ump million people on the surface of the Earth, it will get more intensely so. The fact remains, however, that at the end of the day, it is whether I can look in the mirror and honestly say that I lived the day in a state of integrity, hopefully tempered with humility, that makes the day well-spent, or not.

I have been questioned, recently, as to why I might agree with points raised by conservatives, on one day; then agree with points raised by progressives, another day. The answer is easier than it looks. Neither group is qualitatively engaged in refuting the other’s points, with regard to those points with which I am agreeing. For example, if I say an unborn child ‘s life is worthy of EVERY reasonable effort at maintaining its efficacy, that does not mean I am advocating vicious hounding of a woman who is heading into an abortion clinic. In reality, that person should not be HOUNDED or pressured by EITHER faction in the matter. She should be enveloped, bathed, in love and have all options presented to her, in a pressure-free, NON-MERCENARY atmosphere.

If someone asks me to approve or disapprove of the current sitting President, I can honestly say I approve of his work in stemming the trafficking of women and children. I honestly approve of his working with the governments of Latin American countries, in stopping the flood of people from out of those countries and stemming the influence and aggressive behaviour of gangs-especially in Central America. There are other policies of his, of which I vehemently disapprove- such as the sending of a large corps of armed DHS agents into some of our cities-without first coordinating the effort with local governments. That situation seems to be getting more consultation-based. The COVID-19 response is a whole other can of worms-and much of the difficulty lies in both individual mindsets and in the diversity of local situations, across the country-but I digress.

Essentially, my life is not meant to be lived by going about and seeking to be a font of agreement, with each person, on each issue. I have, however, the conviction that each person who crosses my path does have points to offer, that may well be of help, in making my life more authentic. This life is still a work in progress, as is everyone else’s.

My Faith will remain as is; my heart for people will stay in place; my mind will remain flexible, as we have learned that anything can happen.

The Summer of the Rising Tides, Day 65: Hot Pavement Holds, Beirut Explosions and Neo-Nazi Arsonist

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Posted by on in children, Community, distraction issues, impediments, Personal Values, Social, Striving

August 4, 2020-

The weather here is the same, day in and day out. There is NO rain forecast for the entirety of Arizona until after Labor Day. So, we go on with our lives, ration water (individually, not by statute) and thank God for the breezes that bring some relief. The smoke from the fire in southern California is also blotting out the sun, just a bit-but we could do without that sort of overcast.

I opened my screen today, to three things-all disconcerting. First, a Black family was detained, because a dispatcher in Aurora, CO told the police that the license plate on their vehicle matched a stolen plate. Left out of that call were: The plate was from another state and that the stolen vehicle was a motorcycle. The family was in an SUV and were sitting in a shopping center parking lot, minding their own business. They had stolen nothing. Within minutes, though, two children, a teenager and an adult were on the ground-or rather, on the hot pavement. There were four officers, at least in the photo. This was yesterday; so far, the accountability is forthcoming.

It was another hot day in the Middle East-and with the added horror of an explosion, in Beirut’s Port District, that looked, for all the world, like a cross between Hiroshima and the second World Trade Center attacks. Fifty people are known dead and over 3,000 injured. Initial reports say the first detonated building had been used to store explosives. I have prayed for the dead and wounded, and am staying tuned.

Lastly, a suspect in the torching of the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct has been arrested. He is from St. Paul, and is-are you ready- a neo-Nazi. While no one is saying ALL the protestors are angels, they are apparently not arsonists, either. There is a football field-sized space for miscreants from all points on the political spectrum to make hay while the sun shines, and are they ever taking full advantage!

August is shaping up to be another year, masquerading as a month.

The Summer of the Rising Tides, Day 63: Mental Health

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, impediments, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Personal goals, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

August 2, 2020-

It turns out that the individual who torched the Arizona Democratic Headquarters, over a week ago, is mentally ill. Republicans, and others, who read only the part about his being a member of the Democratic Party are, predictably, chortling about how this just goes to show that it’s a big farce, orchestrated to bring down President Trump-because, hey, what else is there in the world?

The individual is mentally ill. I know, firsthand, how that feels. Everything is about “MEEE”. Imagined slights take on a reality that knows no bounds. Good people become viewed as monsters-for any number of reasons-most of which are contrived by a mind in pain. So, it came about, that an individual acted to destroy that which he deemed inperfect, and, thus, expendable.

There were all those times, in my distant past, and in more recent years, when autism led to the bouts of self-centeredness, mild delusion and not a little paranoia. It took a good deal of self-work to separate my mother’s high bar of expectations, itself grounded in love, from the blistering criticisms of some of my peers, who left no room for error-or in a few instances, even humanness. Through meditation, correcting my diet, my wife’s love, and adoption of a Faith that actually lived the love prescribed by Jesus the Christ, but ignored by so many of His followers, I achieved a sense of equilibrium.

There have been relapses, and setbacks, mostly in times of high stress. There are those who were present during those times-and who remember, all too well, how things went down. I am grateful that forgiveness, and securing my word that such behaviours will not be repeated, were their responses.

Conversely, I have striven, when confronted with other mentally-ill people, to do right by them. In one case, the person was able to get a leg up and straighten out his life. In two other cases, that was not the result, as of the last time I heard from either one. I felt the need to cut one loose, for personal safety reasons and the other, because of an increasing stridency and level of verbal harassment on his part.

It’s taken time to begin to overcome the tension I have felt, when seeing a small, older model of RV driving around or when starting up my phone, and getting more than one Instant Messenger “ping”. Realizing that these are left-over post-traumatic reactions has helped greatly.

I am ever grateful to all who have, either consciously or unconsciously, helped me put my own demons to bed. In all this time of relative aloneness, I have been able to soothe those ills, and make myself a far more useful person, amenable to this comforting society around me.

The Summer of the Rising Tides, Day 56: Defiance

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, impediments, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

July 26, 2020-

Defiance is not just a city in Ohio. There comes a time when an individual must stand up and say, even holler, “No more!” There comes a time when a community, a society, a nation-even a planet full of people, must stand up and say with one voice. “NO MORE!”

After sitting in my home base apartment, most of yesterday,and responding to those with different takes on the murder of Bernell Trammell and the stabbing of Drew Duncomb. Unless and until these acts of violence are given the weight of investigation they warrant, there is, as BLM members say, “No justice, no peace”. Ditto, for the burning of the Headquarters of the Arizona Democratic Party-and I would say the same for any torching of Republican offices.

I have begun reading “Democracy In Chains”, by Nancy McLean, and am learning of a clever and insidious campaign, inspired by the life’s work of the misanthropic John C. Calhoun, initiated by one James Buchanan, late of the University of Virginia and George Mason University, and perfected by Charles Koch. Remember ALEC , the American Legislative Exchange Council? That was, and maybe still is, part of the game plan. Take power away from the common people,the reasoning goes. ‘Power belongs to those with money, with investment capital. The hoi polloi have no idea how life should be. Why trust THEM?’

So we see Senator Mitt Romney, saying that Social Security should be cut, from the oldest senior to the youngest disabled person. I do not intend this as an ad hominem attack-but Mitt Romney has his. So does every other person who has signed on to the chaining of democracy.

I do not wish to take a dime, from those who have earned it-no matter how gargantuan their fortune is. In turn, no one gets to take a dime, from me and mine. I pay my taxes. I pay my rent and utilities. I honour my debts. I give to those in need, as best I can, without becoming one of them.

So, the defiance starts there. It continues:

I honour the health protocols recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with respect to wearing a clean, well-fitting mask, when in proximity to other people; when standing in line and keeping a six-foot distance. On my own, I am not leaving the State of Arizona, barring an emergency, until mid-October-at minimum. I draw the line at taking a vaccine whose contents I do not know. That is a fight for another day, though. Immunity to a disease may be accomplished through rigourous holistic health practices: Organic diet, maintaining vitamins, minerals and essential oils; drinking alkaline water, regular deep breathing. That is my immunization plan, for the foreseeable future.

I will not bow or kneel to an ad hoc authority- no matter how well-armed, no matter how loud the voice, no matter how “popular”. I am an American citizen who follows the rule of law-not of any man, hiding behind interpretation of law. I am a World Citizen, who obeys codified law, wherever I might be.

So, no one gets to order me to stay home. I have eyes, ears and love in my heart for the people. I will know when it’s safe to leave and where it is safe to go. I don’t need to kowtow to anyone’s fear.

No one gets to order me to believe a certain way. I have my undying Faith in God, through the teachings of Baha’u’llah, al-Bab, Mohammad, Jesus the Christ, Moses, Gautama Siddhartha, Zarathustra, Krishna and Whoever founded the pure, initial forms of Wicca, various Native American beliefs and African faiths. I have my undying respect and love for conservative and progressive, alike. Those who savage one another, based on ideology, are being duped and are on a fool’s errand, with no ultimate winners. The only “winner” in this case, will be one whose mindset is founded on lies.

I will not bow to a puppetmaster-ANY puppetmaster.

Namaste and Godspeed.

The Summer of the Rising Tides, Day 55: Day Out of Time

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Posted by on in distraction issues, impediments, Personal Values, Social, Striving, Uncategorized

July 25, 2020-

Today, in a Celestial Calendar, that has 13 months of 28 days, with one end day, July 25, which is called Day Out of Time.

Is there such a thing as Black Saturday?

Today might have qualified.

Nothing bad happened TO me,

but around my perimeter, and beyond.

I am sick of the social blindness,

the distractions,

the attacks on innocent people

that are keeping us from

accomplishing what is necessary

as a people, as a nation.

I am sick of obfuscation, gaslighting,

demands that everyone follow

the Party Line.

I am furious at the carnage,

the fake fires, the murders

and attempted murders,

all in the name of “security”

or “purity”.

I stayed mostly around home

and off the pay-per-view

Unify festivities.

Enough is enough,

and tomorrow will be

nicer.

The Summer of the Rising Tides, Day 54: Cumulosity

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Posted by on in Community, distraction issues, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Striving

July 24, 2020-

For days, this week, thick cumulus clouds have circled around our town, dropping some precipitation on outlying areas, but skipping Prescott and the other towns closest to us.

While I was occupied with a Zoom session on whale songs and meditation, I sensed that the whales aimed to give the Prescott area a good soaking. Whether there was a cetacean connection or not, we got soaked this afternoon, and as I write this, we’re getting soaked again.

There is a lot that is genuinely monsoonal, in the summer rains that usually bless the Southwest. There was some concern, with climate change, that the rains would be a thing of the past. That is not true, so far this year, though. The storms we’ve had have been doozies and have not been spaced as far apart, as they were in the past five years.

It set me to thinking, in the decades and centuries to come, perhaps the technology will become available to naturally seed rain clouds and/ or to have continent-wide canals that will move water from areas where it is in danger of causing regular seasonal floods, to areas constantly beset by drought.

Pipe dreams, I know, but as COVID concerns and the rain keep me in my cozy Home Base, it’s fun to dream big.

The Summer of the Rising Tides, Day 51: Bad Moon Rising

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, distraction issues, Education, Historical, impediments, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

July 21, 2020-

I am re-reading Joy DeGruy’s “Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome”, an enlightening account of the effects of both two hundred forty six years of slavery, and nearly one hundred fifty-five years of its aftermath, on the psyches of African-Americans. There are a variety of ways that people who are descended from the enslaved have adapted to modern American society, just as there are a variety of ways that people who are descended from historically “free” people, or who are descended from First Nations people-they who were not technically enslaved, but who were most definitely not free, following the Trail of Tears and Black Hawk War, have adapted.

One of those ways, common to many, regardless of ethnicity, legal status or the historical background, is what Dr. De Gruy calls vacant esteem. The listless, the self-limiting, the soporific, the “crabs in a barrel”-all work overtime to keep both themselves and those around them in a state of suspended animation, or at least on a very basic level of achievement.

Society has largely answered this phenomenon with outwardly loving, but ultimately debilitating, practices like “the Self-Esteem movement”, participation awards, and worst of all-the simplified curriculum. We are seeing what these have brought- Along with the spread of a mindset that anything not perfect merits destruction, (the ULTIMATE crabs in a barrel mentality), the sense that “my ignorance is as good as your intellect” has brought us to the Age of Confusion.

It is in this clime, that opposites may be switched: Up is now down; black is white; good is evil; hatred is love. Into this setting come the notions- that anyone who thinks differently than oneself is demonic and deserves death; that one must dither and accommodate every single idea that is proposed, in the name of “fairness”; that rapid change must be opposed at all costs, or, conversely, that anyone opposing change needs to be pushed aside. It is not long in coming, when such attitudes, collectively, result in chaos, that authoritarian thinking, on BOTH sides of the divide, gains primacy.

We are seeing the seed sof this, here and now. Generations of authoritarian policing, (hardly everywhere, but in a critical mass of public experience), combined with long-standing authoritarian executive thinking-at the county and state levels in both “Liberal” and “Conservative” jurisdictions and at the municipal level in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, have resulted in a certain public sclerosis in thought, as to how change should be brought about. This has been countered by academic authoritarianism, so that ANY adherence to conventional ways of thinking about the nature of this country and its past, or about HUMAN nature, is subject to being uprooted-violently if necessary. The academics who push this agenda are failing their acolytes.

The violent pushback that has shown its face in Portland, OR will spread, not the least because conservative people are still as sensitive, still as subject to fear, as are Liberals and will support THEIR authoritarians, in suppressing the authoritarian forces on the Left. It will spread because of overkill, overreach- the cries for toppling statues of ALL of the Founding Fathers, of ALL religious figures, of ANYONE who ever uttered an unkind sentiment about someone of a different skin tone, sexual orientation, gender status, creed or social class; the calls for putting someone like J.K. Rowling TO DEATH!

Such authoritarianism will be, deservedly, opposed by those who don’t want its equal and opposite reaction. The demonstrations in Portland, prior to the deployment of plainclothed Federal agents, were for the most part mellowing, according to people who LIVE there. The hornets were settling in their nest, but once the nest was whacked-well, “torch the Courthouse” was not long in following. Thus, the self-fulfilling prophecy, that only FEDERAL FORCE will crush the spirits of those on the Left, gains currency among those in the socioemotional Heartland.

I love too many, especially of the younger generations, to sit on my hands with this one. It is time, with a very narrow window, for the neofascists in academia to let up and stop agitating those who know and feel the need for social change. It is also time, with an equally narrow window, for the Old Guard Fascists, who seem so set on flooding the streets with their forces of occupation, to pull back and to ENGAGE with those currently tasked with leading our cities and states.

Engage, and be specific with your expectations, the way parents, teachers and community leaders at the grassroots level have to be.

The clock is ticking, and it’s not made in China-yet.

The Summer of the Rising Tides, Day 50: Bingeing

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Posted by on in collaborating, distraction issues, Entertainment, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social

July 20, 2020-

I only occasionally binge watch Netflix or Amazon Prime. It takes a special character, usually a spunky kid or a compelling character, to get my extended attention. Likewise, in following a blog site, I may lose track of someone i’m following, but when I catch back up, the tendency is to at least read a month’s worth, and comment on every single post. If the blogger sees this and thinks I’m Spam Stalker, I guess I’ve had that coming-but that’s never my intention.

Bingeing is rare occurrence, precisely because, even in this time of not working, there are all sorts of expectations from online and real time friends, family and Instant Family-the last group being people who address me as “Brother” or even “Father”, even though we’ve never met. I’m always glad to lend a hand, when time allows. Budgeting, though, even with time, is still key to living a full life-of one’s own. God knows, there are plenty of people out there who will gladly have me living THEIR lives.

So, to the blogger of whose posts I read and commented on 30 posts, this afternoon, know that it was done out of appreciation for your extraordinary writing. No harm, no foul.