Author Archive
God ends chapter 18 of CWG book 3 saying:
“Your Grandest ideas are as yet unexpressed, and your grandest vision unlived.
But wait! Look! Notice!! The days of your blossoming are at hand. The stalk has grown strong, and the petals are soon to open. And I tell you this: The beauty and the fragrance of your flowering shall fill the land, and you shall yet have your place in the Garden of the Gods.”
I’d like to lighten things up a bit today. No complaining. No calling people out.
Today I would like to compliment humanity! I’d like to take notice of what we are doing right…what is actually working!
Of course, the largest thing to point out is that there are so many of us having the conversations that could change our world! We are actively talking about spirituality in politics, we are talking about the environment and its economic and social impact. And we are doing more than talking. We are actually deciding that we are the ones who can do something about what we see.
We are doing things large and small. People like Marianne Williamson are moving from their comfort zones and entering the political fray. Housewives like me are moving out of the house and onto the blogosphere and into the streets and honoring our hippy heritage! We are turning off lights, installing water efficient toilets, walking, biking, driving fuel efficient cars. We are taking care of our bodies. I, personally, have not used shampoo (baking soda and water only!) for over a year; I do not drink soda, I have gone to a naturopath to lower my blood pressure instead of using drugs. We are recycling and re-using. We are noticing what the human impact is having on creatures large and small, and all of nature.
In other words, we are walking the walk, not just talking the talk. We are Being the change we wish to see…or at least more and more are doing so…and more than we know are doing so.
I know it may seem as though nothing we do will make any difference in the total scheme of things…but that would be a wrong thought. Everything we do makes a difference. There is no separating one another from what we do. There is no one whose effort, no matter how seemingly small, is less than. For, just as the ocean is made up of billions of individual drops of water, so, too, is global change made up of billions of small changes. Our living the change is going to demonstrate, to all who see, our understanding of who we are, and our Oneness, and invite them to examine a different way. Let’s not be arrogant and fall into the trap of thinking our way is the only way, but be open to all ideas.
I am patting us all on the head for starting the dialog, because all great change begins with small conversations, as Neale has pointed out in his most eloquent way. I am giving us all the thumbs up for doing our small part…for creating our places in the Garden of the Gods.
Today I leave you with a little poem that I wrote:
T.
DROP
A pool of deep,black,
Water,
Light glowing upon the
Surface,
Illuminating the endless
Circles,
Created by the single
Drop.
Do you see it?
Asked
God.
I said,
Yes.
Then, said
God,
Be
The
Drop.
~Therese
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
In the last year the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, has added to the dialog, and to the polarization of the world. It has become another contentious dialog between those who wish to see change vs. those who believe nothing should ever change; that the Bible is a tool of God vs. the indisputable word of God. It is the people who believe the Pope is the spiritual Head of the Church vs the Pope is the spiritual Head of the Church, but spirituality and politics don’t mix. It seems that talk about money/politics and faith are separate conversations, not one ongoing conversation.
This Pope has had the temerity to suggest, among many things, that we should be kind to homosexuals, review policies that exclude divorced couples from the sacraments, that we shouldn’t judge others, and, worst of all, has suggested that an equitable way of redistributing the worlds wealth should be sought!
We live in an age of ever increasing mechanization of labor, and still increasing population, and stagnant wages. Labor is told to get a job, but jobs are dwindling, and the real buying power of wages has shrunk dramatically. All the while the rich are getting disproportionately more wealthy.
The Pope sees this as against the teachings of Christ, around whom Christianity was born.
What is the response I have seen most often to this Pope’s stand on our world capitalist (Trickle down) economy model? The Pope is a Socialist! The Pope is a Communist! The Pope doesn’t “get it”, when it comes to Capitalism, because he took a vow of poverty and because he lived in a poor country! These are the cries I hear from people in the media…and from many people I speak to.
I, personally, think this means the Pope “gets it” more than any one of the media pundits, or anyone who lets others form their opinions for them. This Pope has seen first hand, and in grinding reality, what poverty really is, and how the “trickle down” economic model is not working. He has demonstrated that happiness comes from within not without. He has seen the effects of entitlement and separation from one another…and Divinity.
There is a whole discussion one could have right now on exactly what “Socialism” is, but I will only say that there is no one definition, and that it is a fluid thing, with, at its core, parity for all, with each culture defining what is of “value”, and what defines an individuals “value”.
What “Socialism” isn’t is an end to individualism, nor does it necessarily mean the government runs the whole thing. It is a fluid thing. What it means is that we can decide what our unique version of “Socialism” looks like, and then declare what we value and deem “productive” or having “value”…and isn’t that the same thing as deciding how we wish to express Divinity in our lives? America can invent and refine and define what “Socialism” means in America, other countries can determine how it would work for them.
Socialism does mean a shift back to production for use, not strictly for capital gains. It means that we will have to re-examine just how influenced by the attitudes of buy, buy, buy and begin to know that there is enough for everyone…and understand who benefits, and who does not, if these attitudes change. It means that a thing or persons value is determined by its usefulness, not by its exchange value. It means that when enough of a thing has been produced, we may have to share and repair!
Who, we must ask ourselves, is feeling the heat from the words of a Pope who also believes there is enough for all if we have the will to see life as being filled from within, and not from without?
So many of the issues that this Pope has brought up, and which are getting so much reaction, are also those that effect the marginalized or some minority… women, the poor, gays and lesbians. Why is it so upsetting to so many? What would happen if these suppressed groups changed their minds about themselves…what power do they possess?
This Pope says to welcome the immigrant, which usually translates to “the poor”, who will not, in economic terms, “contribute” in the short term fiscal picture. I believe very person of any strata of society in any contributes to the “system”, if not through income tax, then through sales taxes, labor, knowledge, spirituality, and even, simply, the belief in something better. None of these are small things, and most people do not see, minus the immigrant, their country would not look like it does today. The idea that the immigrant population pollutes the pure genetic strain is ridiculous and completely denies that we are all One. I don’t believe for one moment that different skin colors were created by Divinity as a social ranking tool, but merely as a means to know who we are through contrast, in this human experience….and I believe this Pope sees exactly that.
I ask…who and what is your God? Does your God represent all or just the privileged? Does your God ask you to fear change and your fellow man, or to know it is all God? Does this Pope create fear in you, or anticipation? Should this Pope stick to strictly “spiritual” issues, or is, as CWG says politics our spirituality expressed?
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
Here we go again. The good old death penalty has reared its ugly head here in the United States in horrific fashion.
The Associated Press headline read: “Okla. inmate dies of heart attack in botched execution”
The story recounted how, using a new, untested, lethal injection drug resulted in Clayton Lockett “writhing and clenching his teeth on the gurney Tuesday, leading prison officials to halt the proceedings before the inmate’s eventual death from a heart attack.”
It went on to say that “The blinds were eventually lowered to prevent those in the viewing gallery from watching what was happening in the death chamber, and the state’s top prison official eventually called a halt to the proceedings.”
“It was a horrible thing to witness. This was totally botched,” said Lockett’s attorney, David Autry.
Oh, so many thoughts are dancing around in my mind. I think of how Christians have been told to leave the old ways behind (old testament, an eye for an eye) and
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
Then I move into CWG mode with excerpts from “Conversations With God, Book 1”
“Should societies use killing as a response to those who violate behavioral codes? . . . Is there a difference between killing and murder? . . .
Society would have you believe that killing to punish those who commit certain offenses (these have changed through the years) is perfectly defensible. In fact, society must have you take its word for it in order to exist as an entity of power. . . .
Do you believe these positions are correct? Have you taken another’s word for it? What does your Self have to say? There is no “right” or “wrong” in these matters. But by your decisions you paint a portrait of Who You Are. . . .”
It is the last statement that jumps out at me.
“But by your decisions you paint a portrait of Who You Are. . . .”
The United States paints, at best, a confusing portrait of who it is, and the rest of the world wants us to make up our minds, and is doing its part to help us make a decision. How? They are refusing to sell us the drugs required to execute.
As a recent New York Post article put it:
“EU nations are notorious for disagreeing on just about everything when it comes to common policy, but they all strongly — and proudly — agree on one thing: abolishing capital punishment.
Europe saw totalitarian regimes abuse the death penalty as recently as the 20th century, and public opinion across the bloc is therefore staunchly opposed to it.
The EU’s uncompromising stance has set off a cat-and-mouse game, with U.S. corrections departments devising new ways to carry out lethal injections only to hit updated export restrictions within months.”
“Our political task is to push for an abolition of the death penalty, not facilitate its procedure,” said Barba Lochbihler, chairwoman of the European Parliament’s subcommittee on human rights.
The United States seems to not see that it is in violation of Human Rights.
I think that anyone who is for the death penalty must ask themselves these questions:
If the blinds had to be “eventually lowered to prevent those in the viewing gallery from watching what was happening in the death chamber”, what does that say about the “rightness” of what was going on behind those blinds?
What makes this kind of killing somehow more “wrong” than with the other death cocktail?
Might there be something about ourselves, and our connection to everyone that we deny whenever we rationalize the taking of another life, for whatever reason? What is the death penalty really about?
Why keep testing for the best way to kill someone rather investing in how to allow someone to live a life in which they would never even think of killing?
What portrait are we painting of ourselves as individuals, and as a nation?
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
“…The power to create is derived from the inner strength that is produced through unity.
Stop thinking of yourself as separate, and all the true power that comes from the inner strength of unity is yours-as a worldwide society, and as an individual part of that whole—to wield as you wish.”
(CWG book 3, p.43)
When I read books like CWG, I like to to do the “my life” test. Are they just nice words, or do they somehow have meaning in my life. Can I see how the words might have already proven to be true in my life.
These words have. Let me tell you a little story.
One day, about 7 years ago, I went to a homeowners meeting in my neighborhood, and I asked if our neighborhood had considered a program for recycling. The President of the HOA said it was likely a question that should be asked of our local water district, at their Board meetings…and asked me if I would be the “committee” that went to the next meeting, and asked the question, representing our neighborhood. I decided I would, since it was clear that the others in attendance were also in favor of recycling.
So, I went to the Water Board and asked them if they would consider recycling. They kindly informed me that they had looked into it about 5 years before, but no one was interested. I then simply said, “I’m interested.” They said they would look again, and told me to come back in a month to the next meeting.
So I did…and they had forgotten to look into it. So I told them I was still interested. They said they would look into it, and come back next month.
So I did…and I brought with me facts and figures that I had found on the internet that supported the need for recycling. (At that time the U.S. actually threw away enough aluminum to rebuild the entire U.S. commercial air fleet!) The Board had looked into it this time, and had some preliminary pricing, and possible vendors! The Board then said they would consider it, and asked me to come back next month.
So I did! This time they discussed it in the open meeting. This time they voted on it…and approved it! We had recycling! Not only did we have recycling in my neighborhood, we had it in the whole water district. Not only did we have it, but they had a fund surplus and the first year was going to be paid for by the surplus.
I was stunned that one person, sitting patiently, simply letting her Water Board know that she was sincerely interested in recycling, took only 4 months to achieve her goal.
That was my ego talking, of course, because right after that last meeting one of the Board members took me aside and said that he had been trying to get recycling for years, and thanked me for coming to the meetings, month after month, to show that I was serious, and get the Board to act.
I realized that I was the person put in the right place at the right time to join with him in achieving his goal that had become mine as well. This, in addition to the President of the HOA who empowered my purpose by giving me the “committee” status, and the other homeowners who united with me in purpose at that same meeting.
I understood, then, that one person really does have the power to achieve great things in their world…especially if they realize they are never really alone, and actively work with others to achieve those great things! And I understand now that the words of CWG above pass the “my life” test.
The question I now ask of you: What little change might you be able to make in your home, neighborhood, or city, (or office, church and more!) that would come to life, if only someone were willing to give it voice? How can you join in someone else’s goal? How can you demonstrate that one is really ONE? How can you/have you test(ed) the words you read in your life?
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
CWG says that everything…everything…is an opportunity to decide, declare and to demonstrate who we really are. Even, and especially, the things that seem most devastating and tragic. Such as the loss of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Over on another of the CWG sites, The CWG Helping Outreach, we had a discussion about what messages, to us as individuals, and the world, might be gleaned in the wake of this still only “apparent” crash.
We discussed several things. Transparency, or the lack thereof, of governments and their agencies immediately after the disappearance. (CWG says we should live in a world of transparency.) The need for updated tracking capabilities in aircraft. (It would seem you and I can be more readily tracked via our cellphones than can an airplane!) How the media handles such things. (Can we say speculation and sensationalism?) The Spiritual knowing that no one does anything that isn’t, at a soul level, of their own choosing, including dying. That we all, those of us observing, and those of us who participated in the event, may now decide who we are in connection to it.
It would appear that one reason they haven’t been able to find the flight, and the reason it is still an “apparent” crash, is because the searchers were sidetracked by all of the trash we, as a human race, have thrown into the ocean.
An article in CBCnews Technology & Science describes the extent of our ocean trash.
“‘Basically, the world’s oceans are plasticized,” says Marcus Eriksen, executive director of the 5 Gyres Institute, a conservation group that researches the amount of plastic pollution in the planet’s seas.’”
“Oceanographer Charles Moore, who works with the Algalita Marine Research Institute in Long Beach, Calif., estimates there could be 200 million tonnes of plastic debris floating in the seas. This calculation is based on the belief that 2.5 per cent of the world’s plastic lands in the ocean.”
“These estimates don’t include the detritus that’s sitting at the bottom of the oceans, which, as he says, is “virtually unknown.”
Also from cbcnews/ World, this graphic is disturbing to me:
There is overwhelming evidence of the destruction to marine life caused by our trash. Yet we continue to thoughtlessly consume and dispose.
I must now make a confession. I got lazy. I lived in Taiwan and Denmark, and each of those countries charged for plastic bags, so I got into the habit of either reusing those bags, or bringing my own, reusable, bag. I carried them with me in my purse at all times. Then, after moving back to my home country, the U.S.A., I gradually got out of that habit.
So I have decided, and am declaring, that I will now recommit myself to always having at least one reusable bag in my purse, and always have a bag of reusable bags in my vehicle…my demonstration of who I am. This is one of the remembrances I have been caused to notice because of flight MH370.
I will, further, encourage all others to do so, both with my words and with my actions. I will also agree publicly with those who wish to charge for plastic bags. I will continue to support organizations and people who wish to create a change in how we use and dispose of our resources.
It is my feeling that one of the reasons the Malaysian flight was created and agreed to, on a soul level, by these wonderful souls, was to cause us to look at what we are doing to our world. The end of their lives is, realistically, just a blip on the radar of human experience, but…drawing attention to what is contributing to the possible end of the entire human race would give immense glory and meaning to these deaths. Perhaps, if we let it, this flight might just be looked at in history books as the beginning of true environmental change.
That is what I have come up with, so far, regarding the “meaning” or “purpose” of the disappearance of flight MH370. What have you decided? Remember, nothing has any meaning, save that which you give it!
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
Today, Tuesday, March 25th, is my husband’s birthday. When I asked him a few days ago what he wanted for his birthday, he answered, “World peace.” So, being the loving wife that I am, I am going to see what I can do to fulfill his request.
I have been thinking lately about how the premise of this site is that the root cause of the problems of the world is our separation theology, and thinking about how that manifests, not in the obvious things, like war, violent crime, etc., but in things that touch our lives every day. And that word, “touch” seems to me to be a key.
We have made touch, the most basic and fundamental human connection possible, suspect, and all but impossible too often. In Korea it is getting a little less strict I am told, but when I lived there in the mid 1990’s, a woman didn’t even hold hands with a man until he was her fiance. In order to receive the human touch craved, men held hands with men, and women with women…I witnessed soldiers lined up in pairs as security for a Michael Jackson concert holding hands.
I had a Japanese foreign exchange student shyly tell us that she had a very traditional father who never touched her, and after having my husband include her in the cuddles with our daughters, she realized how much she not only missed her father’s touch, but needed it.
My own father, (and many fathers of daughters of his generation onward), upon the noticing that my body was transforming from girl to woman, stopped touching and hugging me, lest he be labeled as a perverted father.
My mother observed that hers was a “proper” British family where displays of affection, public or otherwise, were simply not expected.
I think that it is little wonder that the sex trade is burgeoning with touch being so regulated, and women and men now constantly on the lookout for inappropriate touch…so much so that we now do not touch one another with any affection for fear of being charged with harassment.
Do not for one moment get me wrong, though, women, and men have been subjected to genuine harassment and this was truly an issue that was rightfully dealt with. I have very intimate knowledge of “inappropriate” touch. But there has been equally genuine, in my view, collateral damage caused by the “fix”. Touch became off limits entirely, in any workplace or casual setting. One often deems it too dangerous to figure out where the line between okay and not okay is, and we perpetuate our physical isolation out of fear of litigation.
Because of this lack of, but, none the less requirement for, touch, massage, an acceptable way of being touched, has burgeoned as well, thank goodness, but it is not enough. It is still only the touch of a stranger.
I’m moving closer to my gift to my husband, I promise you!
I am a hugger. Oh, how I like to hug! I didn’t know I liked to hug until, at age 19, when I was in a church folk group, the group visited a Charismatic church of another denomination, and everyone hugged! I returned home and began hugging everyone! This was not in the comfort zone, to be sure, and 40 years later there is still one brother whom I hug, but much more formally, because it remains uncomfortable for him. BUT…one day, a while after I began hugging, my mother thanked me for bringing hugging back into the family. She had missed it.
A friend recently posted something on Facebook that indicated hugs longer than 20 seconds do wonderful things to our bodies, akin to falling in love! I understand that completely, and I think most of us innately do. I have had this demonstrated to me on more than one occasion. I was once, for instance, at a gathering with old friends in Taiwan, and, with the wait staff formally lined up outside in the hall, I hugged every old friend as I said goodbye to them. When the last of my friends was properly hugged, I looked over at the wait staff, and one of them put out her hands in a gesture that said, “Me, too?” No English involved, only the power of touch…and each and every staff person stepped into my arms for their hug of appreciation, and connection!
Two days ago was also my 41st wedding anniversary, and talking about touch reminds me of when, after I had been married just over a year, my husband asked me if I still loved him. I was stunned! I asked him what would make him ask such a thing, and his response was, “You hardly ever touch me any more.” That was the moment that I recognized that the way I was raised, with touch being minimal, was being passed on through me. I consciously changed that. In fact, just last week an old friend of mine commented that she liked being around us because we still laugh…and we still touch one another affectionately!
In another exampling instance, I gave my husband a hug in the grocery store a couple of weeks ago. I was simply happy to be with him after being on an extended trip away from him. A few minutes later a man tapped me on the shoulder and told me how wonderful it was that I did that, and in public, and actually thanked me!
So, here I am, after remembering all of these things, and thinking about what this site is all about, and what my husband’s birthday wish is…and I am going to ask all who read to look at their own lives and see where simple human touch is lacking. I am going to ask all to be open to falling in love with another person for twenty seconds and give a meaningful hug…to your child, to your parents, to your spouse, or even to a stranger that you can just sense needs a hug.
I am going to ask you to be open enough, to be vulnerable enough to ask someone for a hug when you need it. It could literally be the beginning of reaching out, knowing you are not alone, that saves your life.
I am going to ask you to stop some of the separateness in our world, by stopping, literally, some of the physical separation in your world. I have observed that when we feel physically connected, we feel an impulse to connect in even more profound ways.
I am asking you to transform the world through the power of touch…that I may give my husband World Peace for his birthday.
Happy Birthday, sweetie…I love you hugely!
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
Here in the United States there is a commercial for a luxury car model (Cadillac ELR) that has people moving to their respective corners once again. The nasty names have once again started flying..liberal, conservative, right winger, lefty, commie, socialist, anti-American, anti-hard work…and on and on and on.
I would first like to present the text of the advertisement and then comment:
(Man standing looking over his swimming pool)
Why do we work so hard? For what? For this? For stuff? Other countries, they work, they stroll home, they stop by the cafe, they take August off. Off. Why aren’t you like that? Why aren’t we like that?
(Strolls into his upscale home, past his studying children in the den, through the kitchen where he gives a low high five to his wife towards bedroom.)
Because we’re crazy, driven, hardworking believers. Those other countries think we’re nuts. Whatever. Were the Wright Brothers insane? Bill Gates? Les Paul? Ali? Were we nuts when we pointed to the moon? That’s right. We went up there, and you know what we got? Bored. So we left. Got a car up there, left the keys in it. Do you know why? Because we’re the only ones going back up there, that’s why.
(Goes into bedroom, changes from casual clothes into business suit, comes out saying…)
But I digress. It’s pretty simple. You work hard, you create your own luck, and you gotta believe anything is possible.
(Strolls out to driveway, unplugs his electric car and gets in.)
As for all the stuff, that’s the upside of only taking two weeks off in August. N’est-ce pas?
(Winks conspiratorially)
It’s pretty easy to see why there is some polarity here. What’s wrong with “stuff”? Nothing, in and of itself. What’s wrong with working hard? Nothing, in and of itself.
What’s “wrong” for me here, is wrapped up in the illusions of humans as set out in “Conversations With God”, and the illusion that is glaring at me here is the illusion of “Superiority”.
This commercial says that one way is better than another way, not in terms of what works for me vs. what works for you, but in a way that diminishes what works for you. It defines one way of being “American”, as the “right” way…the superior way. It insinuates that other ways of being and doing things, in other parts of the world, are inferior, lazy, not valuable.
From “What God Said” pg. 154-155
Life’s Greatest Seduction
I have learned and I have experienced that there is nothing more seductive in human life than the idea of superiority. …
It turns out that all of us are equal in the eyes of God—a statement that is astonishingly and breathtakingly true, but a statement that the world’s religions cannot accept, cannot embrace, cannot endorse, and dare not suggest to anyone. For all of the world’s religions, and all the world’s political parties for that matter, and certainly the world’s so-called upper classes, depend for their very existence on the notion that somehow, in some way, they are “better” than another religion, party, or class. Take away superiority and you take away that which many people and groups feel is special about themselves.
Superiority wouldn’t be so bad if we did not use it as justification for discriminating against others—to say nothing about warring with others. But the idea of superiority is so ultimately ugly that it cannot produce anything save ultimately ugly results. …”
According to Craig Bierley, Cadillac’s advertising director this ad was aimed at a strictly American audience and, according to an AdAge article “Rather than millionaires, the spot’s targeted at customers who make around $200,000 a year. They’re consumers with a ‘little bit of grit under their fingernails.’ Right up front, Mr. McDonough dismisses the idea the reason American work so hard is to buy “stuff.” What he’s really saying is that Americans work hard because that’s what they love to do.” It is very hard to justify that the ad isn’t about promoting superiority when the product isn’t mentioned once in the text the actor reads, and isn’t even seen in the commercial until the very last few seconds. Further, any ad executive who believes that, in this world of instant global communication, an ad like this is going to remain viewed by only an American audience is either lying or exceedingly naive.
For me, the message of the commercial isn’t about selling a product, it is about selling the lie, which will sell the product. It is asking you to define yourself though outside things, like the car, the house, the pool, the stuff, and view yourself superior to those who define themselves differently, or do not have those things.
And what happens when we begin to view ourselves as superior? We separate. We become us vs. them. “They” no longer hold the same value as “us” and it becomes easier to do harm to another because we no longer believe that in harming that other we harm ourselves as well. We move into a world of justification and rationalization that skews our views and removes us from seeing the total picture of our actions.
This commercial is, again to me, a sign that those who believe in “ours is just another way, not a better way” are being heard. This commercial tells me that the strong appearance of what I do not wish to create means that what I DO wish to create is there, if not fully seen. That the powers that be see the pushback and are pushing harder to overwhelm the pushers with shiny messages intended to divert.
Right now Superiority is producing some very ugly results, and this commercial does nothing but highlight that ugliness, even as it cloaks the ugliness cleverly in the seductions of the current, old, paradigm.
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
The gladiators stand in the tunnel surveying the crowd, awaiting their fate, hoping to have some control of the outcome. The crowd, that fickle crowd, will decide, in the end, the death or the glory of the gladiator.
Bones crunch, heads snap, bodies bleed, when body hits body at full speed. The gladiator rises, again and again, to meet the onslaught of his opponent. Sweating, cursing his body for not doing what he thought he had trained it to do in preparation for this day, this event. He’s done this before…fought for his life and his glory before, but today that crowd is different. It’s not on his side today.
He’s known this day would come for as long as he could remember. As a youth he knew his ability in the games of youth set him apart, but he could see what happened to those lesser bodies that succumbed to even minor injuries. Thumbs down. His physical presence was destined to raise him above his social circumstances, but he also knew he would one day pay the price.
When his tendon snapped, and his knee bent backward with the onslaught of the physical wall, he knew this would be the day he would pay that price. This was the thumbs down day he dreaded. This was the day his life, as he knew it, would end.
The crowd gasped. The crowd applauded his lifelong effort to survive and entertain them….and then the crowd turned their thumbs down and walked away, because, in their secret heart of hearts, this was exactly what they came to see…the falling of the best of the best. The mighty fallen.
Sound like a story of ancient Rome? It should, but it is also the same sad game being played out in arenas today, even though it is called something different. In America one of the the most violent incarnations is called Football.
Football is arena war. Football is using the young, raising them up, and then abandoning them when they can no longer entertain. Too many players with identities caught up exclusively in the sport. Football glorifies violence, just as does the military, and says that the positive things it instills, like teamwork and discipline, supersede the foundational premise of the game. This is the public relations lie. Domination, winner vs. loser, bragging rights…superiority. It is among the accepted ways of channeling testosterone when there is no war, and working testosterone into a frenzy of camaraderie when there is.
Beyond even that, sports, like football, (I am staying with one sport, knowing there are definitely others that can be mentioned!) say to the player and the watcher that the physical is more important than the mind and spirit of that player. When we identify with that scenario, the scenario of only the strong survive, might makes right, outward vs. inward, we play our part in the manipulation of the world paradigm. This paradigm says that the strong in any way (physical, wealth, mental) are entitled to dominate, and manipulate to get what they desire. In fact, the thought, in some religions is just that… they are chosen by God to have that entitlement.
This paradigm manipulates us into living externally…the right clothes, all you can eat to the detriment of your body, bigger, better, shinier, this vodka will get you the guy/girl, this beer is macho, this car…don’t stop to feel, think. If you did, you might not really see yourself in your own life any more.
I can no longer watch games of dominance with a passive eye. There is room for individualism even in the win-win model. A person can “win” by simply knowing that on this day their skill worked to give them their desired result. Others can know they did not lose, they merely had the opportunity to enjoy, use, and know their bodies, and the result of scoring the most points was not met. No shame, no dominations, but still knowing who you are as an individual even in the physical arena.
Surely humanity can accept and develop games and challenges that do not require mimicking war. Surely we can know ourselves as strong and capable without requiring certain physical jeopardy to do so. Surely we, as the observers, can do so without the desire to see blood and defeat…and surely we observers can extend an embrace rather than a thumbs down to those who did not meet their desired result.
The new Gladiator knows that he/she is valued for all they are. Valued for the perfection of body, valued for the openness of their hearts, and valued for their Spirit which knows only Love, and never even thinks about a thumbs down. Even when the game ends. Especially when the game ends.
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
My heart is aching. My heart is aching for men and women all over the world who have ever been asked to kill for their country or their god.
On every medium I chance upon these days, there is some message urging support of our troops. Or support of our veterans. Or telling me of the horrible things veterans endured for my freedom. Or urging me to send money, letters, packages to active duty soldiers.
I watch television (I know, that might just be my first mistake, right?), and I see war, and violence and the glorification of dying for a “cause”. Every time I do, I see painfully accurate portrayals of what I have seen in my life. I see “that look” in the eyes of a man who has had to kill and who must bury what he really felt in order to survive. I see stories similar to when a friend of mine, after being home from Vietnam for a number of years, could not contain his secret within himself any longer…he had to unburden having videoed himself, as a gunner on a helicopter, shooting the “enemy”. I see television shows and movies putting on little “morality” plays over and over, laying out before us the real damage done by asking a person to harm another…most recently in the show “Homeland”, where a main character is actually relieved to be released from the torture in his mind from the things his country asked him to commit, and this relief shows on his face as he is hung in a public square. They show us these things over and over, but all that seems to stick is that it is good to die for your country, or your cause…the personal results are yours, as an individual, to deal with.
Then I look around and I see the literally wounded in my community. I see the statistics of the number of soldiers of recent conflicts suffering from a myriad of mental and physical diseases. I see stories of ex military snapping. I see the statistics of homeless veterans. I hear from a man who recruits for the Houston Police Department that they rarely recruit military any more because they are too damaged and too violent. I witnessed, as a juror in traffic court, a young man so traumatized by his tours in Afghanistan that even watching the video of being ticketed by a police officer caused him to tremble and fight back his tears…and this while on antidepressant and anti anxiety medication!
Fast forward from other times, from past conflicts, and I see aging veterans with military bumper stickers identifying the branch of the military they served in, and wearing baseball hats emblazoned with the war they served in whilst in military service. They join lodges, they have reunions of those with similar experiences…and, of course, they have to do this, because how else can they “speak” of the things that torture them, except by not having to speak at all, because all surrounding them know exactly what they know. It is also who they identify themselves as being, as powerfully as they identify themselves as being father, husband, son or daughter.
The United States (indeed, the world!) has done a good job of indoctrination. They have created a “brotherhood” (and now sisterhood), that lasts a lifetime. This brotherhood, in our current world, with relationships of all kind being ripped asunder…parents from children, husband from wife, teachers not trusted any longer…having one thing, one brotherhood, they can count on, is immensely appealing. I get that. The military teaches so many things, like discipline, selflessness, loyalty, patriotism, duty,…and that most illusive of all things, how to keep your room clean! I get that it seems to be necessary these days, but why? How is it that this mystique has been built up so successfully around killing and death? How has it become honorable to kill and die for your country?
What have we done?! What have we done to the young that one of the main bonding arenas in this world is found in institutions that promote these things? Why are we willing to sacrifice our young for patriotism? or money? or land? or God?
Further, why would I even consider asking someone to die for my freedom to be against killing…if I am not willing to stand, unarmed, passively, and die for what I believe. In other words, how can I ask someone to defend what I believe, by doing that in which I do not believe?
Because we believe it is what God does. Because we believe it is what God asks of us. “Onward Christian Soldiers” and jihad, might makes right, and all of the similar things that have been placed into our consciousness from the time we were little.
These soldiers are not monsters! They do what they do because they sincerely and completely believe they are doing the honorable thing. In fact, they ARE honorable…but are they being honorably informed and motivated? I do not believe so.
I think that we can certainly find evidence of new forms of information available to us, guiding us to our inner knowing of killing one another for “honor” of any kind is not our true nature, but we all tend to gravitate to what we know…after we have been told what we believe. Which means, to me, that we must inform the informers that their information is, as CWG says, incomplete.
Support and love the veteran now that he/she has given their gift to you…but give them a gift in return. Go to your places of worship and question out loud how a merciful, all loving, God would ever ask anyone to die for It. Ask yourself, consciously, how harming your child in any way, could ever be what God would ask of you, or direct you to do. Go to your schools and question the history books. Become involved in Spiritual Politics, requiring your elected representatives to have a broad understanding of Oneness. Suggest to elected officials that soldiers can be of “service” in many more ways than those requiring killing…natural disaster relief comes to mind.
Why? How is this your gift for their service? It is your gift, because you will refuse to ask their children to die.
I read an article recently about a pilot who, many years after his plane was shot down, met the man who shot him down. He ends the story of this reunion with this:
“There’s so much misunderstanding in the world resulting in unnecessary sorrow. Having…—a positive, joyful family—in my life has altered my perspective. It may sound trite, but if only there were a way for all the religious, cultural, and ethnic groups of the world to meet and get to know one another in a meaningful way—the way (he) and I have—how could we ever go to war again?”
Good question…how could we? Why do we? When will we give men and women something better to identify with for a lifetime?
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
Ahhh…good old, poor old, Justin Bieber. He has landed himself smack dab in the middle of the convergence of several double standards, hasn’t he?
Here’s my take…
On the one hand we raised him up, from the time he was little, and told him just how special he was. We told him that because he was so special, and did such a good job of entertaining us that he could do virtually anything he desired…and we were going to give him the money to do so!
Ooops! Then we told him that, despite the fact that there were surely people who knew exactly the behavior he was getting caught up in, it is not okay to do this thing. We love you, but there are invisible rules to the game that he should have just known don’t get covered and ignored because of his status as special!
At the same time he got special status, because he is so special, and got allowed, as a Canadian National, into the United States to work and live, so that now he gets to be the target/example/representative of what is wrong with American immigration and deportation policies.
Let’s not forget that because he is so special, and because he makes so much money and entertains us so well, it is entirely possible he will be treated in a manner very different than any other 19 year old citizen, but without money, in this country…and this is before throwing in that lovely wild card of skin color.
Wow! wouldn’t we all like to be so special?
Our relationship with celebrity (or anyone who we perceive as “successful”) reminds me of our relationship with God. In these cases WE are God…and we act as we have had demonstrated to us God acts.
So just what has been demonstrated of God’s love and approval to us?
First we are told how loved and lovable we are.
Then we act as if we are as we were told, lovable and perfect in the Creators eyes, and we experiment with Life to figure out who we are.
But then we cross that invisible line that says, whoa! you’re special, but not THAT special! Better watch out or there could be some pretty dramatic results in the end…eternal results!
So, we give being special another go, but we keep an eye out for where that invisible line is, because we now know it is there…and, even though we don’t know it is what we are feeling, we are feeling just a little bit less special every time we stumble upon that line with God, and risk damnation with our next move.
This is the little play we act out with people like Justin Bieber, or any of the others in the news lately. We love to play God, and have the opportunity, finally, to be the one condemning rather than being the condemned.
Here’s a twist, however…I have no problem with anyone “playing God”! The problem I have is with how the part of God gets played by we Humans most of the time! Yes, I capitalized “Human” in the same sentence as “God”. I happen to believe we are individuations of the Divine, which gives us the opportunity to actually use our Humanity in a Divine manner. We are not doing so.
All of that aside, in my view, all that we consider “entertaining” is actually nothing more than “diverting”. Turning our attention away from something to something else. We hand our power to something other than ourselves.
I think it is obvious what our attention is turned to, but from what? At its core, quite simply, away from ourselves…away from our own thoughts, and our own Love. We place it all outside of ourselves, and we reach out to find what will fill us, instead of looking in, with gratitude, at the great gift of this human experience that has been provided by Divinity.
The outside is great! If we view it all through the eyes of our Divine connection. So let’s go one more step…let’s look at Justin Bieber as part of that Divine connection, and even while we notice what isn’t working in his life, love all that he is…because we did co-create the circumstances that resulted in this moment, didn’t we?
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
