And I realized after today why I need to carve out more time for reading!
I helped a student today who was writing an essay over a novel I have heard of but never read, Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. I skimmed two chapters and was blown away at the skill, crafting, and artistry of this man’s work. Obviously, I’m not reviewing a very unique novel — think Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio — after skimming two chapters. I will, however, share my takeaway and thoughts it prompted. Alexie deals with the situation of Native Americans in the context of a White power-based America, and he mentions other minority subcultures as they relate to the Whites. I perceived the message to be one of the character of justice and injustice. They are one and the same. Supposedly, justice is based on truth; however, truth is based on perception. It’s relative. It’s personal. This is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I wish to help others discover Self. I want them to come to know and define their own personal truth, which will color the way they look at the world, which includes facts. Facts happen, but when interpreted by individuals, the views of individuals impart a bias. That bias becomes what some call truth. Oh, most of us have seen it when occasionally, not always and not widespread, people are coerced, by some unscrupulous detective or prosecutor, into false confessions. The accusers have seen facts and decided on the truth of those facts. If they are in control and maintain power, their version of the truth is legitimized. In the novel chapters I read today, justice and injustice are equally true when observing the same facts. When a Native American warrior kills two soldiers, he is guilty of murder in the White court, which serves the power structure’s definition of justice. However, to the Native American, those soldiers were terrorists, and his action was justice. Sound familiar? Yeah, we live in a shitty world of sometimes consciously-lying hypocrites who justify their actions because they have the power to enact legislation. And power mongering egotists manipulate facts to become their truth, leaving most of us, whether we are operating via Ego or Heart for life-processing, to wonder what we should believe. The fact is we do have Ego or Heart to choose as our operating system. It’s also fact that even though I believe Heart will produce a happier life, living with the default system of Ego to interpret and live life is not wrong or sinful — just sadder, more confusing. When we don’t choose Heart, we don’t realize our fulness, our power, our significance. We will be living some mutated form of our own undiscovered truth on a subconscious level or, worse yet, someone else’s version of truth. Heart, though, allows me to do things like evaluate literature and world events based on my truth. And this is how I feel about the scenario above, about those in power who legitimize dehumanizing acts and ensure control and subordination of any other human beings: they are despicable. While living under Ego is not wrong, breaking the underlying Heart principles of life by degrading, destroying, and killing are things which social creatures like humans will not tolerate. Even though not all live by Heart, the beautiful words of the Declaration of Independence capture how we still must relate to Heart-principles: “…assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them…all men are created equal…with certain unalienable rights…” The whole Preamble applies to what I speak of here, but the important point is Heart is the operating system we came here to discover and live through. While everyone doesn’t, no one has the right to break the basic tenets of Heart. So when inequities happen like minorities being marginalized, like common people who happen to look and believe differently are disenfranchised, when monsters rule as in nations of the Middle East — Syria in particular this week — then all of those people perpetrating those atrocities and calling them logical, wise, and just become guilty to their own Heart. They will pay. On the other hand, those who suffer such injustices and respond in kind with defamation, death, and destruction act on the same principle, Ego, and they will pay. The only peace and truly logical and compassionate responses occur from those who live primarily via Heart, about which I have written quite a bit. Deeply wise and complex reasoning that obfuscates affronts to Heart-principles is nothing but smoke and mirrors. Who’s right about Trump, about Syria, about Russia, about national debt? Well, I only have one answer for me: I am righr based on my truth, and that is simplicity and idealism. I don’t and wouldn’t expect others who even know core Self to agree with me about issues, but we could speak, we could Heart-reason, we could arrive at decisions based not on political, logical, or business savvy but rather based on love and light. And to quickly end this, I worked with another student today who is exploring, in part, the dire lack of potable water for almost 700 million people on this Earth. His research shows that doesn’t have to be the case — research from the United Nations Global Issue Initiatives for one source. All of the economic and political crap can be used to justify many sides to the issues, but if they are not founded on love and light, they are worthless, no matter the degrees of the people spouting them. And thus I climb down from my soapbox. As one who lives Heart, I will from time to time comment on my views based on my personal truth about formal and informal conspiracies that promote misery to anyone. And I don’t apologize for calling some things injustices based on my personal truth. I must be careful, though, to use Heart-generated words, to shed light and not spread hate, to allow love and radiate love. Blessings!
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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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