There I was surfing the Netflix for something life affirming
to help wash away a growing sense of Orwellian dystopia, and I found it. A documentary called "The Tiger and the Monk"
which told of the Buddhist temple in Thailand
that is a sanctuary for tigers, and showed the life they share with the
monks. It was beautiful, and
engaging. There was just this one
problem - Its a giant polished turd!
As I soon discovered when I Googled the place, the government stepped in and shut them down for
animal abuse & exploitation. The monks claim that since they are
prohibited from working for money, caring for the animals requires donations
from tourists who travel there for a selfie with a tiger. Truth is, the place was a "tiger mill" and the monks were
caught selling tiger cubs to
rich folks wanting exotic pets.
That's the exact problem that's led to the things we must
put up with everywhere we turn these days.
Nothing is real anymore, no
matter where you go it's just the same thing everywhere, giant polished turds!! It's
why there is so much glitter and gloss in media and advertising, no
substance. The traditional marketing
motto of "Sell the sizzle, not the
steak" has become "All
sizzle - no steak"
These times we are witnessing take their toll especially hard
upon the more spiritually oriented as we watch humanity being herded away from our
evolution as a species; into the corrals of conformity and obedience. It requires both courage and determination to
resist the creeping resignation and psychic numbing that sets in, encouraging
apathy and inaction. What keeps us going
day to day and month to month is something called "Stress
Inoculated Resilience" and kinda like the enamel on our teeth, it
helps protect us from overwhelming decay.
It's a matter of training the brain to resist the strain.
"These days if you aren't depressed, you're
not paying attention"
So, there I was, 2 days before Christmas, at the
local VA clinic for my annual checkup.
Two hours of poking & prodding, needles and
nonsense. Toward the end of the yearly
ordeal comes the list of questions I now know by heart; except this year they
have a new final question..."Are
you feeling depressed, like there is no hope for the future?" To which I replied, "Oh, you've been
reading my blog!" - "What I am is skeptical about the future, even pessimistic about the future when I see such widespread apathy
about the many and serious threats to the future." - "A month or so after I got my new
electric wheelchair, "ISIS
" deliberately targets people in
wheelchairs during the Paris attack. Kinda takes the enthusiasm out of going out
in public with my new mobility."
I mentioned that these days even without terrorists
there is an awful lot of hot lead in the air with the weekly police shootings
of unarmed citizens; all the more reason to shop online! I may also have made a
reference or two to Fukushima,
and the ongoing epidemic of dead marine mammals washing ashore here in California. It was clear to see that my comments had left
the doctor and attendant at a loss for words.
They stammered about a bit before
changing the subject.
I get that a lot, because I tend to speak without
filters, except the ones about needlessly hurting someone's feelings. Why must our daily dialogue with each other
always rely upon these filters and subconscious self monitoring of our thoughts
and feelings before we speak them?
Why do we so often conceal our true self, even from those closest
to us?
We use these filters and self censorship to form
the make believe protocol of consensus reality, and when we elect to
break that protocol it is considered rude!
Yes, yes, it's so very rude to speak of how things really are; and to speak your truth can be
costly. And by the way; money is not free speech, it's just worthless paper, and THAT
is what all the polished turds are hiding.
"The
longer I live, the stranger life gets"
- Jim Lassiter
-
Between the fall of the roman
empire and Columbus sailing it took 13 centuries to add 200 million souls to
the population of the planet. In the nervous now; that many are added
every 3 years! In the next 9 years 600 million new arrivals are going
to be expecting their own piece of this paradise. Think food, water, land &
resources.
There
are 360,000 births every day, that's 15,000 every hour, 250 births a minute,
that's
4 births every second of every day.
Now
compare that to departures:
There
are 151,600 deaths every day, 6,316 every hour, 150 deaths every minute,
that's
2 deaths every second of every day.
Black Friday posted a new all time record this
year: the most gun sales in a single
day.
The lines for guns were longer than those for the
new star wars movie. Might as well kill
"Christmas" and "Holidays" completely off and
from now on just call December "Black Month."
In the first
336 days of 2015 there were 356 mass shootings.
88 people die from gun violence every
day in the United States. Doesn't sound very united to me, but
that can change,
If we really want it to.
In the 3 years since Sandy
Hook; 555 children under 12 have
died from gun violence,
That's
one child every other day for 3 years!
What about the microbiologist brain drain? Over 125
dead in last 14 years, most died within the first 3 years after 911... just astronomical
odds. Likewise the over 800
environmental activists who have died just in the last ten years. Have you never wondered who is killing the
microbiologists and environmental activists?
It's strangely funny how the global warming deniers
have all changed their tune. Our weather going from record highs to
record snows in just one week is maybe part of the reason why. Twisters for Christmas throughout the Midwest,
19 states under flood alert, as a four year drought rages on in California.
Then there is that big giant methane leak at the
fracking operation near L.A.
that the mainstream media isn't telling you about. Seems they fracked their way right into a
massive underground methane reservoir...and can't stop the leak. Sound familiar? In case you don't know; methane is 22 times more
harmful to our environment than co2 is, yet very little is actually said about
that; ignore that man behind the curtain.
We've become addicted to our earthbound creature
comforts, we're more concerned with having than being. We're good little consumers, who wants a hover
board?? How about your very own
drone, more than a half million were sold during the Christmas buying season,
and by the way, there is a $25,000 dollar fine for flying an unregistered
drone.
As I struggle to comprehend all I see unfolding
around me, I'm reminded that life consumes life at every level of nature, not
just ours. Conflict and aggression are
just part of the way this place is.
There are few instances in nature where different species co-exist
peacefully; in fact most wild creatures kill their own kind on a regular basis. It is perhaps enlightened to walk a peaceful
path, and a bit unrealistic to believe the day will come when everyone
does. I don't think we're there yet. Not even close.
I see my own thought processes changing recently as
there is a growing list of things I simply cannot abide around me, such as
violence, conflict, politics, and movies with subtitles. I feel myself detaching more from the
material world, and growing weary of pointing out all the looming threats to
humanities future. I am well aware that
the rubble from all the decay must be swept away before new foundations can be
built; it just seems like the collapse of this dying paradigm is happening in
slow motion as the spin doctors feverishly polish their turds.
The powers that shouldn't be prefer that we
all remain in a constant state of fear and self limitation because it just
makes their job so much easier that way.
They don't want us getting creative or curious, just complacent. A mind gripped in fear only knows fear, not
much else gets through. We can reject
all that if it leaves a bad taste in the unconscious mind, and liberate
ourselves from fear. It's a simple
choice, a decision to be more engaged with life and those closest to us. It is choosing to engage life and either finding
or creating your own happiness without waiting for the world to fall into lock
step with us. It's about being
pro-active in creating the world we would have our progeny inherit; regardless
of what the turd polishers are up to.
We can reject the dying paradigm of giant polished
turds and government by terrorism whenever the pain of remaining the same
becomes greater than the fear of changing.
We can choose to make people & relationships more important than money. I'm not suggesting we get rid of money, just
that we quit elevating it's acquisition to our highest priority in this
incarnation. There are some hopeful
signs in the ethers; such as the prince of pills Martin Shkreli getting
arrested for fraud. He was the ass clown
who increased the cost of cancer meds from $13.50 to $700.00 a pill. Another example, Bill Cosby finally got arrested; So there is some justice!
"The
cosmos is unfolding precisely as it should ~
Our understanding, is
not a requirement."
There are more connections in the human brain than
there are stars in the milky way galaxy!
The galaxy is comprised of roughly 80 billion stars while the human
brain has over 100 trillion brain cells...and we currently are only using just
ten percent of that total capacity.
The Milky Way produces about seven new stars a year;
an all time low as the galaxy we live in ages to the point where new stars can
no longer come to life. I mention this
because what goes on down here on Earth is mostly of little concern to the rest
of the cosmos. I find it helpful to keep
that in mind, helps the perspective as we endeavor to find and create meaning
in our little ant lives.
© 2015 full re-post with permission only
...So, should we now take out your family?
