"I of my own knowledge…"

A few days ago I wrote a post called “A War on Hatred” and later it occurred to me that, although I had said more or less what I wanted to say, I had also fallen into the trap that has distorted our lives since at least 1940: The metaphor is, of course, that we need “a war on…”

Think how well we’ve done, following that emotional line. [That, friends, is sarcasm!] I was going to list examples, but perhaps it’s best to leave you to make your own lists. Intrinsic to the metaphor is that there are two antagonistic sides (at least!), one of which (at least!) must lose.

It is the essence of division, and division comes always ultimately from fear. Engage on war against fear and you assure that fear will increase, because war can only be waged from a sense of division. It is true that sometimes we engage in war out of love of those we are protecting; still, war is war and as General Sherman pointed out, it is all hell. (more…)

On this Veteran’s Day, a somber note.

I asked a friend who is a decorated Vietnam War vet what he thought of my blog entry, “Aanenson’s Sacrifice,” knowing him as a lifetime soldier who speaks from experience, and a good enough friend that he would tell me what he really thinks.

I have to agree with his conclusions, except perhaps that I am less judgmental about the American public. Betrayed by the “news” and entertainment media and by the politicians, and by so many factors conspiring against them learning what is really going on around them, they are as much sinned against as sinning. To expect the American people today to understand the causes and effects of the American Empire is to expect the German people of the 1930s to have understood the causes and effects of the Nazi empire. Some few do, most don’t and can’t really be expected to.

In any case, I share with my friend his grave view of our current prospects. Saddest of all is that such dark use has been made of the willing sacrifices of so many soldiers who only wanted to do the right thing. (more…)

Did you watch the Ken Burns film series on PBS called “The War”? If not, probably you should. This series doesn’t glorify war, or glamorize it, or paint our soldiers as angels and the soldiers on the opposite side as devils. It doesn’t pretend that war is good for children or other living things. Nor does it concentrate on strategy or tactics, such topics having been covered often and sometimes excellently in the past half century. (I think, for instance, of the films called “Victory at Sea.”) Instead, “The War” concentrates on the human side, civilian as well as military, of a society at war.

I have heard that some people decided not to watch it because they disapprove of war. But it seems to me that if that generation could go through it, we can go through watching it.

It makes painful watching.

I began reading about the war while I was still in my early teens, as the first spate of histories were coming out. After so much reading, I would have thought that all I could learn at this point would be detail. But until I watched an ex-fighter pilot named Quentin Aanenson talk about his experiences, I never fully understood that the boys who had to fight were scarred not just by what had happened to them, but by what they had had to do. (more…)

By way of the PEERS network. This message is available online at http://www.WantToKnow.info/071106heartmathchanges

“HeartMath’s research shows that emotions work much faster, and are more powerful, than thoughts. And that-when it comes to the human body-the heart is much more important than the brain to overall health and well-being-even cognitive function-than anyone but poets believed. Briefly re-experiencing a cherished memory creates synchronization in your heart rhythm in mere seconds. Through its research, the Institute of HeartMath proves that health starts with love.”
– Ode Magazine, June 2005 Issue

Dear friends,
The Institute of HeartMath (http://www.heartmath.org) has conducted extensive research showing that good health starts with love, and that love can reduce stress. Simple, quick exercises such as re-imagining a cherished memory can significantly improve your health when done on a regular basis. With a client list which now includes such leading companies as Hewlett Packard, Shell, Unilever, Cisco Systems, and Boeing, the HeartMath Institute has developed a powerful track record in helping managers and employees to decrease stress and increase joy in their lives and work.

In the space of less than 15 years, the HeartMath Institute has published a large body of scientific research in established and respected publications such as the Harvard Business Review and the American Journal of Cardiology. I highly recommend the HeartMath exercises and a visit to their inspiring website. The below, highly inspirational article on HeartMath was published in the excellent magazine, Ode. Every issue of Ode is filled with stories which deeply inspire and empower. As stated in the below article, may we all remember that we can change the world, starting with ourselves.

With heartfelt love and best wishes,
Fred Burks for the inspiring and educational PEERS websites

(more…)

“My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to commune with the spirit of the universe, to be intoxicated even with the fumes, call it, of that divine nectar, to bear my head through atmospheres and over heights unknown to my feet, is perennial and constant.”

 – Henry Thoreau in his journal, February 9, 1851

“I catch myself philosophizing most abstractly when first returning to consciousness in the night or morning. I make the truest observations then, when the will is yet wholly asleep and the mind works like a machine without friction. I am conscious of having, in my sleep, transcended the limits of the individual, and made observations and carried on conversations which in my waking hours I can neither recall nor appreciate. As if in sleep our individual fell into the infinite mind, and at the momet of awakening we found ourselves on the confines of the latter. On awakening, we resume our enterprise, take up our bodies and become limited mind again…. There is a moment in the dawn, when the darkness of the night is dissipated and before the exhalations of the day commence to rise, when we see things more truly than at any other time. The light is more trustworthy, since our senses are purer and the atmosphere is less gross. By afternoon all objects are seen in mirage. 

 – Henry Thoreau in his journal,  March 17, 1852

I hope this doesn’t come out too preachy. It’s been on my mind for a while now.

Against my wishes, I hear a certain amount of the on-going political campaign, which may be summarized, as usual, thus: “It’s us against them, and this year they’re better financed than ever. We need your help to save the republic from ____ [fill in the blank depending on which party or ideology you identify with]. Do you want [demons du jour] running the country, making the laws, subverting the constitution? If not, you have to be with US!”

The lyrics vary from time to time, but not the tune. (more…)

The Charlottesville newspaper’s obituary for George Gordon Ritchie Jr. M.D., 84, of Irvington, Virginia, who died Monday, October 29, 2007, among other things says this:

He was a physician, speaker and author and a graduate of the University of Richmond, Medical College of Virginia and served his residency in Psychiatry at the University of Virginia. During his residency, he won the William James Research Award for Research in Psychiatry and helped found the David C. Wilson Hospital in Charlottesville and was president of the Universal Youth Corporation for 20 years….

What this leaves unsaid is the greater part of his life.

In 1943, age 20, George died, was met by Jesus, and was given a guided tour of earth, heaven and hell. (I am saying this not tongue in cheek but straightforwardly, just as George very bravely did for more than 60 years.) (more…)

A friend emailed me, “I would love to hear TGU’s take on the matter.” I replied, “The difference between me and TGU isn’t very great these days. But I will give them the keyboard and see if they have anything to say that I have not:”

What follows is TGU on choice.

The one thing we would add is that you would all benefit by reminding yourselves that there are no victims, no villains, except in a frame of reference that defines them so. You create your own reality decision by decision, choice by choice, and then you play out the results of those choices and reinforce the choices, or contradict them, or go off in a totally new direction, or whatever you want to do. The difficulties arise because you continually choose, then choose something contradictory, then perhaps choose the original again, then something tangential, then another contradiction, etc. (Obviously we don’t mean just the two of you, but people in 3D mostly.) To the extent that you choose ONE way and keep choosing that way, the path smoothes and magic happens. So, if you know what you want and you keep moving in that direction, you need fear no sabotage or unnecessary obstacle – for how can anyone else get closer to your reality than you yourselves? But if the specter of others leads you to second-guess yourselves, or cripple your own impact, it can look like the work of others – but whose work is it really? “Oh ye of little faith,” so to speak.