Bad news abounds, but so does good. I might wonder why people wish to hear the bad news if I didn’t know the answer. When we don’t know our own hearts, when we haven’t awakened to self, then we feel hopeless. Hopelessness thrives on negativity — makes it less painful.
More disturbing than bad news, however, is the acceptance of it, the acceptance of the negative, rotten things in life. Why does such acceptance happen? Many factors contribute to such a phenomenon; however, a basic one is education. Yes, I said education. Do you know why? The basic philosophy of the institution is designed to produce obedient and passive workers. Oh, there is the illusion of choice and throwing in some of the good-sounding verbiage that even I talk about, but the establishment’s use of it is a ruse. If you’ve never listened to George Carlin’s three minute “The American Dream” video, give it a try. It’s brilliant, but I do not agree with his nihilism. Hopelessness is not inevitable and the only future open to us, and maybe Carlin put the argument as he did because he wanted us to wake up. Awakening to self is THE answer to the current ethos of obedient passivity, in America, at least. Hearing and heeding Heart produces a life and spirit of hope. As with other societal phenomena, this is a learned pattern of thinking. Actually, it’s much more insidious than that, because the educational philosophy and framework is engineered. I have in my novel, Fellowship of the Heart, and in some of these posts referred to it as an informal conspiracy, at best. The foundational philosophy of education needs to change. We should not be producing workers, preparing pre-trained employees for multi-billion dollar conglomerates. That is exactly what is desired, and they make themselves sound as if they are concerned, magnanimous, and luminaries. Here’s the deal, in short, very short. Education, the concept, the institution, should be lived out as an organism in school buildings and in every classroom. I’m not even sure there should be set classrooms, but that’s another discussion. Whatever the foundational beliefs are will be played out in those classrooms, which means every individual child is conditioned by whatever the philosophy is. If the foundation is, as it now stands, one of pre-written, pre-set curriculum with pre-designed tests, those kids will learn to accept oppression and control, and if you think that is not dangerous, get the hell out. True, deep learning occurs when the ego is minimized and the heart is engaged. Oh, do you believe in that sweet, syrupy goodness of smiling school marms doing their self-sacrificial best for the kids? Wake up. Many educators have that mindset because they have been conditioned to it — obediently and passively accepting it. Bullshit. Hearts give that awakening to self-identity that allows us to thirst for ways, knowledge, and thinking to engage that core Self with the whole world — enthusiastically and actively. See the contrast? And the result of a heart-centered educational philosophy will be reflected in the classroom, affecting every student. I can spend a few days in a classroom and tell you exactly what a teacher believes about human potential, children, and the world based on their actions. Foundational beliefs, philosophy, whether consciously or subconsciously adopted or consciously or subconsciously practiced, will always be revealed. Maybe that is a bit tautological, but it is crucial to understand, because if the philosophy has been covertly diffused and passively accepted, guess what happens? No, really, you guess. Heart-centered education would radically change the face of society in any nation, let alone the classroom. Want proof that it’s ego-centered now — easy, peasy. Grades. Grades are egoic. Grades do nothing to create thinkers and true learners. They establish competition in an area where competition is not warranted, and they kill intrinsic motivation to learn. No grades in a heart-centered educational philosophy — period. Ego has control and manipulation built into it because that’s Ego. That means that the current ego-centered system leads to oppression and control. That means that at some point those who do, through no help of education, awaken to self and respond to Heart will understand and take action. Others, the masses who have heard the lullaby of being successful, accepted, good little workers, will start to feel the oppression when inequity arises, which it always will. Then, resentment erupts in an avalanche of social ills. We see it every day. The really great, super, intelligent, meaningful, significant good news is that self-awakening allows us to operate far above all of that. Notice I said operate, not disassociate, because those who live Heart love, love, love, but we also, as I quoted Maya last night, rise, rise, rise. Put me down for that and I hope put you down for that and watch the ethos, the zeitgeist, of a nation change!
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Hey, I’d like to give you an assignment. Sound good? Okay, Describe thirty-one characters who you feel would represent your culture today. Go!
How would you do with that? What if I gave you a year, maybe? Would it help? Perhaps, but it really doesn’t matter because I have an ulterior motive. That motive is about the value of literature, and how undervalued it is in most of today’s modern world. The assignment I suggested illustrates the value of literature. How? This is exactly what Geoffrey Chaucer started in 1387 with The Canterbury Tales. In his thirty-one characters, he crafted a microcosm of the late Middle Age society of England, so masterfully, so accurately, so entreatingly and engagingly, even though he never finished the work over the last thirteen years of his life, he is still considered the Father of English Poetry. I’ll get to my point. For several millennia, literature in various forms communicated the big ideas of the day and the great thinkers, politicians, rulers, and complete cultures depended on literature in various forms for many things, the most important things, about their society. Modern society seems to have little apprehension of how important literature was in the past, recording characteristics of culture and civilization, how it provided the basis of decisions and actions of everyday life, and how they even memorized it, especially poems. I’m glad that there are still many prizes given out recognizing powerful works that give insight into the human condition, especially the Nobel Prize. There are many more prizes, but, unfortunately, not much influence from the literature itself. Now, some consideration comes — thank goodness for NPR — and I believe such influence will increase. We simply cannot afford otherwise. Why? Writers, way more significant than me, explore life in deep ways, not simply describing life but exploring the significance of humanity, the ethos of cultures. And whether we agree or disagree with them, they make us think, evaluate, analyze, and draw conclusions, and such actions forge connections. If policy-makers, leaders, and governments heard and understood the ethos, the deep underlying basis of it, how it was created, and true heart needs of people, AND acted on them, this could all be better. I want to point out, though, that such evaluation, appreciation, and understanding depends on Heart. Some great writers, well, at least influential, have undoubtedly written from Ego, but that is what we explore. In this world where all around seems to be focused increasingly on ego concerns, what “I” get or how “I” profit, and less on longer term Heart propositions, we must listen to the great thinkers, like Maya Angelou — (Yes, I literally just heard the poem I’m referring to tonight used in another commercial. I acknowledge it last night, but not tonight!) “Still I Rise,” presents a commentary on the attitudes of society at large concerning African Americans and how such attitudes, any negative attitudes, may be processed, and it’s through Heart, not angry ego. No matter what history has done, what society assigns to her race, or what the future holds, Maya gives the message that anyone should be able to identify with, at least anyone who has suffered or experienced oppression and suppression. This is one mark of great literature: the applicability, the broad scope of people who may be touched by it, whether in discovering identity, feeling solace, acknowledging shortcomings, or any of a thousand possible responses. Having experienced oppression, the individual must hear Heart and live it, whether actions are perceived as weakness, strength, or defiance of those who have systemically and organizationally sought to squash people. This is what Maya addresses in her poem when she defiantly presents the treatment of her race, the attitudes toward her race, the prejudicial expectations, the hatred and ill will of white ethos, and ultimately, her varied responses to it all. Historically, the account written by those instrumental in the oppression is “bitter, twisted lies,” and their intention she experienced was to “trod me in the very dirt.” Her response? Basically, it’s this: I will give no credence to your actions, assholes. “I rise.” How? She asks, “Does my sassiness upset you?” Oh, too bad; does it make you sad? “Why are you beset with gloom?” It’s taunting, and I love it because I can hear staid, conservative, self-righteous, oh-so-holy jerks resent it. Her inspiration, those elements that speak to her Heart and give the response? Nature. How many times have I noted this? “Just like the moon and like suns, / With the certainty of tides…” Nature shows things, if we look with Heart, the way they should be. How do oppressors want to maintain power? By keeping the oppressed fearful and defeated: “Did you want to see me broken? / Bowed head and lowered eyes? / Shoulders falling down like teardrops, / Weakened by my soulful cries?” Any policies, laws, or institutionalized efforts to create these effects, ever so discreetly, should be clearly exposed and not only rejected but also scoffed at. Yes, even civil, non-lethal, non-destructive disobedience. Dr. King would approve. Once again, can’t and won’t do the whole poem here, so maybe listen to the commercial! The final response, already established throughout the nine stanzas is this: “Leaving behind nights of terror and fear / I rise / Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear / I rise / Bringing the gifts my ancestors gave, / I am the dream and the hope of the slave. / I rise / I rise / I rise.” How? Through one individual, oppressed woman who heard her heart, came to know herself, and live her dreams, passions, and life purpose. When we do that, when anyone does that, they rise. Rise. Rise. I am thankful that Maya Angelou rose in response to her heart and created and fulfilled her purpose, and the effect of that shot waves and oceans of her love to all who experience suppression and oppression from those who live their ego. Heart, always choose heart, because that is where the victory is — onward and upward — Rise! Yes, literature can inform us mightily. Those living, controlling, manipulating, ruling, and demeaning others, any others, need to be extinguished by those who, one by one, choose to live Heart. I swear that I did not engineer Morning Pages today. My focus in my mind was to bring together, synthesize, ideas about our interrelatedness as human beings, despite nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, culture, and all that good stuff. I began thinking about the ideas, quotes, people I would bring to bear on it, and then, I found myself thinking about what I wrote yesterday and how all the maze of ideas I had really exemplified the “condition” known as Attention Deficit Disorder.
I will repeat just a bit of this morning’s ideas. ADD was studied, labeled, and diagnosed because kids who think a lot won’t sit passively in a classroom. Education is the entity that should be studied, labeled, and diagnosed as deficient, not meeting the requirements of broad, varied, and deep thinkers who can analyze, synthesize, and connect and contrast so many concepts of life. The fact that such students don’t achieve high grades means they don’t meet the standards used to judge more passive students, who educators prefer because it’s easier to deal with docile masses. It’s also stupid; as I said, the educational philosophy and practice are deficient, not so-called ADD students. And BOOM! I’m done with that. Over the last two years, the racial tensions in the United States have been highlighted and energized by lots of attention — both positive and negative. I am tempted here to say something about my background, but you know what? It doesn’t mean a damn thing, in this case, because my point is this: the essence of each individual human of any race is the heart, and hearts are spirit — no color. If you insist on color creating problems, you have perpetuated the problem, not skin color. Now, I would say I enjoy diversity when it is not used as a weapon to further raise racial tensions or create divisions. I love hearing other perspectives, learning about other cultures that make me appreciate them, and celebrating life because of those who look, live, and believe differently than I do. No diversity efforts should ever, regardless of perspective, force or require others to participate in or adopt any one culture. The sharing should always create appreciation for and understanding of one another. In addition, society should not be engineered to favor one culture over another, especially in terms of opportunity or expression of culture. Why am I passionate about this right now? Several reasons, but one of the big ones is the wonderful diversity I have seen in my new Instagram friends. I love it, love seeing pictures and comments about their lives and beliefs and cultures, especially when most of the them just share with no insistence on belief. And having said that, I don’t even mind if someone says everyone should support one cause or another; that’s okay, but don’t expect me to do it, except for the cause of self-awakening, of listening to Heart, which ultimately results in expressing love to the world. Hearts create love because we can love when we know and live Self in a fulfilled, significant life when we heed our heart. Heart links to eternal Spirit, pure love. Haters are living insignificant or unfulfilled lives or both. Heeding the Heart changes all that. That’s why I call the principle my Grand Unified Theory of Humanity, actually it may be the Theory of Everything of Humanity. And this brings me to the poem I desperately wanted to get to by Maya Angelou. It’s one of her well-known poems. How can such beauty be ignored in such troubled times — both racially and politically right now? “Human Family” begins with a bit of irony, because a reader might expect an African American woman to point out obvious differences in race. But no, not Maya: “I note the obvious differences / in the human family. / Some of us are serious, / some thrive on comedy.” Love it! I want to point out that Maya had an amazing sense of language and its power to communicate heart concepts. Her words need the spirit of the physical human to relay those deeper ideas and ideals, which is why her poetry jiggles, jumps, glides, oozes, and does dozens of other things when read aloud: “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper shades of meaning.” Try reading “Human Family” aloud, or pull up someone reading it on YouTube. She does get to racial themes in the poem: “The variety of our skin tones / can confuse, bemuse, delight…” As with other poems, I wish I were a YouTuber and could link you in here and read the whole poem, but since this is not so, let me get to the greater theme. In the sixth stanza, Maya says, “Mirror twins are different / although their features jibe…” Just because someone looks just like us does not mean they are the same. What do we do with such knowledge? Can differences be tolerated? Not only tolerated, but noted and celebrated as she does in the poem: “In minor ways we differ, / in major we’re the same. // I note the obvious differences between each sort and type,…” And then what? Demonstrations? Riots? Discriminatory practices? Lesser quality of care in all arenas of life? No, not in Maya’s thinking, for she makes a response of the Heart unequivocally clear by ending with this statement repeated three times: “…we are more alike, my friends, / than we are unalike.” God, I wish I could have known her and shared a meal and conversation with her. So, no matter my color or your color, my faith or your faith, my ethnicity or your ethnicity, my culture or your culture, we are more alike because at essence, we are Heart. The problems come when we play on the differences to establish “otherness” instead of celebrating, which is exactly when we are walking in ego and not heeding our heart. If any would say I, personally, don’t understand because I am privileged or I am not the right color or whatever, I call bullshit. “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.” This is the logic, the spirit, the drive, the guidelines that politicians, educators, social workers, every thinking leader and policy-setter should be tucking away in their hearts and minds and unfolding in their discussions and decisions. We cannot afford anything less during these times. “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.” My Morning Pages this morning undoubtedly tasted trite. Who hasn’t heard of the analogy of trying to make puzzle pieces fit into the wrong space being like us trying to fit in somewhere or do something for which we are just not suited?
This past weekend as I watched my two year old grandson putting a little puzzle together, I was amused at how he tried to place a piece into its spot, but it was turned the wrong way. He quickly turned it 180º, tried again, and it still didn’t go. He turned it over, pushed extra hard, but no luck. He quickly, nonchalantly, just brushed it aside, grabbed another piece for another hole, and bingo, fit it right in. He knew his puzzle; he knew what he had not mastered. He figured out he wouldn’t waste effort on something he didn’t know and he would use the energy on the piece that he had mastered. I could draw many analogies from this — puzzles just work out great that way — but I learned from my grandson. Even though at first I may have wished he figured out that one piece, I thought about it. Why? It didn’t serve him; he knew he didn’t know how to get it, and he moved on. And there’s point number one. How much easier could we make our lives and how much energy could be channeled into strengths if we knew ourselves? Of course, that is the big question: who am I, really? What has my heart communicated to me? Children have an intuitive advantage until they are taught that core Self doesn’t usually conform to society norms, and ego takes over primary work. We must come to know self and use that spiritual energy to make that self known through our life purpose, which we create, and dream the vision and form the mission to execute the dream, the vision. And what does that do? Allows us to express our love to a world in desperate need of it. If this is what we wish to do, then the corollary to knowing Self and, therefore, knowing where to put our energies — manipulating the puzzle pieces we know we should be using — is to create our own puzzle. Don’t let others try to squeeze you into their puzzles; we don’t have to conform. We can design our own puzzle — no forcing pieces, then. (Don’t take this too far, though, because sometimes we can express Self as a piece in someone else’s puzzle, as it were.) This is why I think coming to know core Self through the Fellowship of the Heart is basic; otherwise, we spend life energy trying to fit ourselves into other people’s puzzles where we don’t fit. Why would we wish to live in frustration and be unfulfilled? When we know Self, we can make our own puzzle, fill in the pieces that are us, and see who the Universe sends along to help complete our vision. Whether we work to express Self in a puzzle of our own design or whether we do that in someone else’s, we always are working to complete our vision, not our core Self. It really isn’t too puzzling, is it? Much love and blessings. The goodness of life depends on the way we view it — no, not really. That is a vague statement. Let me be more accurate. How good my life — or your life — is depends on the value I perceive in it for myself. No one else’s valuation matters. I choose. You choose. Nothing new, nothing you or I have not heard before.
Tonight, as I sit in my backyard, I choose how to see my little slice of the world. I could complain and list grievances against the destruction of some elements of the natural world, or I could rejoice in the peaceful coexistence, connection, and unity of Nature and humanity. Make no mistake; sometimes, we humans are destructive, greedy, and stupid. However, as I sit here composing this on my computer, untethered to an outlet, and preparing to send this out for virtually anyone in the world to read via electricity, cables, satellites, and radio waves, I am enjoying the chirping of crickets and cicadas, the late evening ritual of the birds tucking themselves in to roost, and fireflies flicking their bioluminescence throughout the shrubs, plants, and trees I can see from right where I sit. We can make sense of and enjoy this life, by choice. My heart chooses to enjoy. Sometimes, the greed and shortsightedness of humans spurred by ego to wholesale, selfish destruction of Nature for personal gain would be another heart issue, and one my heart deals with definitively and harshly. However, tonight I speak of my current, common environment, and I am at peace as I feel the organic flow of Nature and her forces used by humans for the creation of a progressing civilization and my place in it. And these thoughts bring me to Walt Whitman’s epic “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” which was meant to be my focus today. My old friend Walt had this view of Self in the midst of and in relation to Nature and creations of humanity, a view harmonizing the three entities through Heart. Whatever heart view might be — observations positive or critical — it is not drenched in bitterness, despair, and hopelessness — even when remedies are in order. No, Walt views his life and traces the movement of Spirit in all, and his heart mediates with Spirit to yield the interconnectedness of all in this earth. How do I know this? In Section 5, as I find him in the environs of New York (remember in the mid-19th century it was much different than now!), he says in his view of life and the connections which he wishes to experience and live, “What is it then between us? / What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us? / Whatever it is, it avails not — distance avails not, and place avails not, / I too lived, Brooklyn of ample hills was mine, / I too walk’d the streets of Manhattan island…I too had been struck from the float forever held in solution, / I too had received identity by my body…” I marvel at this, and yet I know the reality of it. An eternal being, one of the Spirit, with the Spirit, now in a mortal world, experiencing and knowing eternity in this mortal body and recognizing that all around me — and not just now but past and future, too — consists of that same Spirit. All around me has taken different forms in expressing Spirit, but all “struck from the float forever held in solution,” the solution of eternal Spirit awaiting physical expression. Absolutely, amazingly incredible. Then, he, as I, decides to relate to everyday experiences, people, objects, processes, everything in recognition of that Spirit in all. In Section 8, Walt says, “Ah, what can be more stately and admirable to me than mast-bemm’d Manhattan? / River and sunset and scalloped-edg’d waves…the sea gulls, the hay-boat…We understand then, do we not?” that “which fuses me into you now, and pours my meaning into you.” The harmony and unity of Self, Nature, and human Constructs as expression of and vibrating with the energies of the spirit of life. We are in this together. Walt says of the buildings around him as he closes the poem, “We use you, and do not cast you aside — we plant you permanently within us, / We fathom you not — we love you — there is perfection in you also, / You furnish your parts toward eternity, / Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the soul.” He says that they cannot hide as spiritless globs but are part of this spiritual world as they have been created into it. We can choose to view them this way, to view life this way, to identify in unity with all. How do you view your everyday life? Do you see it in terms of eternity? Do you commonly get down, despairing, confused? Try choosing Heart to see all around in harmony, for Heart mediates with Spirit, and our heart is our identity, our core Self, in relationship — not dejected isolation — to all. Our choice in how we view and relate to everyday life, things, people, and Spirit determines our reality. We get to choose, and the slightest movement towards appreciating nature or a sidewalk or architecture — just a simple “Wow” or “That’s cool” — can begin that cascade of joy in unity with life. |
Questions to consider:How many times have you asked yourself or simply thought about the following questions?
Who am I, really? What is my truth? How do my actions reveal what I really feel and believe? What would I do with my life if I could do anything? What is my passion? Why am I here? How can I discover answers to any of these questions? If you have considered any of these questions, I hope that my experiences and writing will give you some guidance. Please read my blog and comment and share your thoughts. I would love to hear from you! Archives
December 2019
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