Health Care and the New Federalism

This article actually comes from another blog, written by a law professor named Paul Balkin, the url below takes you to the original in case you would like to see more of what he has to say. He quite adeptly points out that it is cheaper to insure EVERYONE, than to have those without health care using emergency rooms as their clinics. Read it. It is a GOOD idea, whose time has come, THIS is the direction health care reform must take. Michael Moore’s documentary Sicko touches on this idea but this states the case as clearly as anything I’ve read. I like it. This issue CAN be left to the states, but the states need leaders, and people to point these truths out. Be one of those. Share this. Thank you. much love, :^) gene

Health Care and the New Federalism

In the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries state governments led the nation in developing progressive public policy initiatives. There were experiments in democracy including state laws abolishing slavery, passing civil rights laws, banning child labor, regulating wages and hours, and expanding suffrage to black men and later to women. From the late 1930s through at least the 1990s the nation stepped away from the idea that the states should be the leaders in setting public policy. Instead, we came to rely on the national government to set the standard, with a federal minimum wage, social security, national civil rights laws, and medicare. Since the 1990s the Congress, controlled or stymied by Republicans, has done little to expand social policy. Thus, the United States remains the only western nation without some sort of national health care or health insurance.

It is time for the states to step in, as they did a century ago. As Justice Brandeis noted, “there must be power in the States and the Nation to remold, through experimentation, our economic practices and institutions to meet changing social and economic needs.” This is now beginning to take place in the field of health care. Massachusetts has required that all adults have health insurance. With state backing insurance carriers will be forced to insure all people, and with all people insured the rates can be rationalized. Under such a program health care costs ought to decrease, because those who previously did not have health insurance will no longer be relying on emergency rooms for what little health care they could obtain. San Francisco has embarked on a plan to give subsidized for free health care to all uninsured adults in the city. The program seems generous, but in fact, if managed carefully, it could save the city money. It is much cheaper to give people primary care when they are just starting to get sick then give them emergency care down the road. An ounce of prevention – or a dollop of cash for early health care – will indeed be worth many pounds and many dollars of cures later on. San Francisco will also require that all businesses with more than twenty employees provide health insurance.

We may soon see a new bifurcated America: states and cities where people have access to health care and places where they do not. This will be like the US in 1850 – states with slavery and states where there was no slavery. Or the US in 1910 – states with child labor and those without child labor. If these experiences are any guideline, the states and cities with progressive health care will be more prosperous than those without decent health care. Many states will reject such reforms, arguing that mandatory health insurance is bad for business. But, many states and cities will refuse to join the race to the bottom. Eventually the slaggards will be brought along, by a federal program, no doubt, just as eventually Congress banned child labor. The states today can learn much from the progressive reformers of the last century. Local programs that lead to a healthier, better educated, more secure work force paid off in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. The free states and the states that banned child labor were far more prosperous than those that did not.

As more states and cities take the lead the pressure will increase for those in Washington — even the die-hard conservatives in the Bush administration and in Congress — to realize that we have a health care crisis which must be solved. The next administration will hopefully have a Congress to work with on the issue, pointing out that the states are already on the march, and it is time for the national government to get in step. Ultimately, fighting against health care will be a losing issue, just as fighting social security and medicare proved to be a losing issue. Just as the states can learn from the history of state initiatives, so too might the Bush administration and its allies in Congress learn from their party’s lost and futile attacks on social security and medicare. Perhaps instead of ranting about the costs and claims of big government, the conservatives will come to the table with ideas and suggestions that can create a national system for health coverage. Meanwhile, the brave and creative states will push forward, creating a healthy America for some while in other places health care will remain problematic.

THIS WONDROUS WORLD

From Steve Goodier. I swear I should rename this site, the Steve Goodier library, giggle. His isn’t the longest term newsletter I get but it must be very close. There are some techie things I’ve been getting longer, but I believe I was introduced to Steve by someone from the old CWG list at Spiritweb. In the first years, it was a daily, but for the past several, it has been when he can. And I am always glad when he can. Hell, I’m glad when I can, lol. I’m going to tell you a little personal story of the perils of stairways after it – just in time for those of you who might be putting things away for the season, hiding things away for the season or maybe just going on down to change the furnace filter, lol. First, Steve. :^)

Not everyone has a good grip of science. But these children’s
scientific musings at least show humor and creativity!

To explain nuclear reactions, one child said, “When they broke open
molecules, the found they were only stuffed with atoms. But when they
broke open atoms, they found them stuffed with explosions.”

Concerning astronomy, one child said, “Most books now say our sun is a
star. But it still knows how to change back into a sun in the
day-time.” And another said, “Some people can tell what time it is by
looking at the sun. But I have never been able to make out the
numbers.”

“Vacuums are nothings,” said a young physics student. “We only mention
them to let them know we know they’re there.”

“Evaporation gets blamed for a lot of things people forget to put the
top on,” one child observed.

“Rain is often known as soft water, oppositely known as hail,”
reported a budding meteorologist. Another added, “Thunder is a rich
source of loudness.”

Other children added these observations: “Isotherms and isobars are
even more important than their names sound.” And, “It is so hot in
some places that the people there have to live in other places.” And,
“The wind is like the air, only pushier.”

These children have a way to go in their quest for more knowledge, but
I applaud their efforts to learn more about the universe.

Unfortunately, the reputation of science suffers in some circles.
There are those who feel that a scientific mindset and a spiritual
outlook are contrary to one another. They believe that facts revealed
by science contradict spiritual truths. Not so!

William Bragg, a pioneer in the field of X-ray crystallography, made
the point well. He was asked whether science and theology are opposed
to one another. “Yes, but in the sense that my thumb and forefinger
are opposed to one another — between science and theology, we
cannot grasp everything, but surely the combination reveals more of
the cosmic mystery than either can touch alone.” They need each other.

If you love the universe — if you love life, then learn about it.
Learn about it from every place possible. Learn from science. Learn
from the spiritual disciplines. Learn and keep an open mind, for that
is the only way to truth. And the more you learn, the more you’ll
discover that there is nothing so enchanting or wondrous as this world
in which we live!

– Steve Goodier

It is rare that I think Steve misses anything, but I occasionally have a word to add. And do tonight. For one thing, I want to point out, again, that he is an ordained minister. I’ve never known one personally with such an open mind. His is a church I might even attend – once at least, just to shake his hand on the way out if nothing else. If whatever his denomination is does that. I’m a little fuzzy-headed and either finally need new glasses or am having a bit of double vision going on. I’ve had the same pair since 1995. :^). Fortunately my vision stopped detiorating when Vision World came out with flexon frames, giggle. I have a lop-sided nose, quite my own fault, as I may some day tell some of you, and have done some, the extremist in me got me into trouble once upon a time – thank gawd THAT phase seems to have passed. Mostly. Anyway, the point is that made it really hard to get glasses that would fit, they rub a hole on one side of my nose or the either. Well this wondrous young woman, whom I told about this problem, heated these up and bent them perfectly. They have NEVER been uncomfortable in the slightest. And I can’t break them, the flexon is permanently shaped to my particular nose. She did tell me I would probably need bifocals soon and I guess I did almost as soon as I got out the darn door. But since I refuse to believe that, and these seem to be going to last forever, I have never gone back to do anything with them, or had my eyes checked since. I mean I still SEE distance as well as ever. Or did until today. Might have been since Wednesday but today is the first day I was out and about and needed them really. I just don’t wear them when I read or am on the computer – solves the bifocal problem without bifocals. :^) American ingenuity at its best. Or Swedish-American stubbornness at its worst. Might be either. Or both. Probably both. :^)

The only thing Steve says above with which I take issue is that there is nothing so enchanting or wondrous as this world upon which we live. Because I have seen another so much grander that it puts even this wonderful oasis of life to shame. The tiniest glimpse I’ve had of it, proves that to me, I know it deep within my very soul. And I love this place with all of me, it is only that I am completely certain this is NOT the epitome of our experience. Which doesn’t lessen what he has to say at all, really, while we’re here we might as well enjoy it. I mean, considering the options available? Even if this is second best, it is still pretty darn good. And there is no argument between religion and science nor should there have ever been. I’ve known THAT virtually all of my life. Lying on my back looking up at the night sky as a child the sense of awe and wonder that overcame every time, still holds me in thrall, though I can no longer see the night sky of my youth. Not even up where I grew up, lol. I went up there a few months ago one night and the city lights have so encroached that what was, is no more. I knew from virtually my first reading of Genesis, in concert with what I SAW as the scale of the universe, that when God said He did something in a day, that He was not talking 24 hours of my time. Since then, I’ve just viewed the literalists, as silly. Who the bleep knows what a “day” is to a being that could, did, make a universe of the scale of this one? One we know is roughly 15 BILLION years old. The very idea is silly. So I’ve never seen science and religion as at odds, except for those odd balls who insist Genesis happened in one earth week. Nothing in religion, in my mind, is incompatible with science in the slightest.

That it could all just be some sort of cosmic accident? Life, I mean, even one red blood cell, even blue-green algae the original “food” on this planet, an accident? No. That I didn’t buy, still don’t. I believe God set in motion the processes that are evolution, and has watched His creation blossom in as much fascination and love as we do the lilies of the field. Steve is right though in that science and religion DO need each other, neither stands complete without the other. Nothing does here in the realm of duality. Up must have down, for up to exist. Hot must have cold, for hot to exist. Science and religion are opposite sides of the same coin of the realm, giggle. That’s all. :^)

Now then, as to my double vision, this is probably coincidence, and I’d be sure of that but for the not believing in coincidences part, giggle. And I doubt I suddenly need a new prescription. Why would one suddenly need one after, 12 years or so? Apart from the bifocals. Which I do not need and do not want. I do NOT mind taking my glasses off to read, or work here, the only problem I EVER have with that, is remembering where I put them. I mean, I can call my cell and find it – not that I have to do that much, giggle. So what I am wondering is, just how hard a conk on the head does one need to have double vision? Because I have had one of those. Last Wednesday evening, late, around 11 I took Cisco out for his last bathroom break though my garage, and on my way back in with him, I saw my bike. Now, I had been meaning to bring it in for a couple weeks and put it in the basement for the winter, it was just that when I thought of that I was always somewhere else, and it never occurred to me when I was actually IN the garage with it. But it did Wednesday night. So I thought, well, hey just do it now.

So I did, should have moved my car, cuz I had to wrangle around it some and that annoyed me, and delayed Cisco’s treat – since he was a baby (and he turned 12 on 11/14) he has gotten a treat EVERY time he goes potty outside. He knows this. And gets impatient if I dawdle, talking to neighbors or whatever, giggle. That door to the garage is spring-loaded but doesn’t always shut all the way, and I’ll be talking to my neighbor when I see the kitchen light through it, and then hear that roar – which is just his way of saying, “I’m waiting”. :^). Anyway, his treats are behind the door that goes to the basement so he was sort of in my way as I wrangled with the bike. And I have some stuff on the steps, not much, but a few things, and I was going to get the bike down there THEN give him his treat. Well, somewhere around a quarter of the way down, something happened, still not sure what, it might have been HIM, or it might have been me trying to carry the darn bike, but I suddenly found myself in free fall, it felt sort of weightless almost except for the cement floor rushing up at me part. I had this image flash in me of landing on one of those handle bars (should NOT have gone to see the Body Worlds exhibit when it was here, giggle, I KNOW how many organs are crammed in there) and decided that was probably not a good thing, so I somehow managed to twist so that I landed on rear, down to my shoulders – still holding on to that damn bike, and then my head hit. Well, whenever I do something like that, Cisco figures it his fault and he heads for the hills. I thought about belling the cat, you know? Putting a cell or something on his collar, but it would never work, because he won’t come near me when I do something like that, not until I can get up and prove I’m not mad at him anyway, giggle.

So after that thump, I lay there for a bit, thinking, hmmm, okay, I wonder what is still working. My grandpa broke his hip for the first time around my age, for the last time 35 years later, so that didn’t worry me too much, but I wasn’t sure I could move for a little bit there. So I ran a systems check of sorts, okay, shoulders wiggle, don’t hurt, toes move, though one of them sure hurt, hips seemed okay, right leg fine, left knee done in, moving that one hurt (that is the one I did NOT have cartilage taken out of two years, the good one dang it) like, well, heck. In case there are kids reading this, giggle. If there are? Welcome. :^). So I pushed the bike off me, rolled to one side and got up. I could stand, left knee and big toe really hurt but I could put weight on them, so I figured no structural damage, just routine owies.

Sat the bike back upright, hobbled up the stairs to find Cisco hiding behind the living room table (which he only does when he knows he has done something wrong, giggle. All those doggie psychiatrists who tell you that you have to correct them within a couple minutes or they’ll not know what your on about? Are full of it. ALL his life, he has greeted me in the same spot when I come in, EVERY flipping time, except when he’s done something he knows he isn’t supposed to during the day, THEN he is hiding behind the living room table, peering at me from under it. There have been times when it took me two days to figure out what he did, but that he forgot he did it? NEVER happened. If I didn’t cranky right away, when I did find it, he’d just look at me like, what? That was DAYS ago – that part is true, giggle. But when he’d been naughty, it was almost always my fault anyway, leaving something he couldn’t resist out, stuff like that – except his first three years, three months, labs and lab mixes have horrible separation anxiety and they will chew ANYTHING when left alone – yeah I know this is getting to be quite a digression giggle, and he did. I went online to read about it, a woman there said labs chew till they are three. She locked hers in the kitchen where there wasn’t anything to chew and he ate a hole in her poured floor, giggle. I mean after the first year, when Brandon died, I had NO choice, I had to leave him alone when I went to work – I could hear him just howl when I’d get in the car in the morning, it just broke my heart, but I had no choice – so he’d chew anything. I soon learned about not leaving shoes out, but he chewed every piece of furniture I had, couch, love seat, rocker, wood work, living room chairs, wallboard. How he could even do that I have no idea, the cord off my vaccum. Well you’ve got the picture – but you really don’t, you cannot believe the things I would come home to some days – with him hiding behind the living room table, giggle. When he turned three, I told him okay, buddy, THAT is it. Didn’t matter. It was three more months before he stopped. I guess he finally believed that no matter when I left, I WOULD always come back. So far I always have. Even if he is hiding behind the living room table) so I assured him he had done nothing wrong, and I had his doggie snack for him.

Went to bed, woke up with my left knee blown up to twice its size and I am pretty sure I am going to lose the nail on that big toe. Could NOT get both a sock and a shoe on, so had to take Cisco out with just a shoe on my left foot, I could walk on the knee though it looked bad, and he was good to me, didn’t make me go down the hill to the road to keep him on the “right” side of the sidewalk, the “wrong” side is city property and subject to leash laws, so a kind young officer informed a few months ago. He said he must not have ever noticed us down there before in the morning, though we have BEEN down there AT that time virtually every morning for going on 11 years together. But he was good, looked at me, I said no, and he came back up to me. So Ibuprofen did in the swelling and ice, so felt pretty good, most of the weekend, turns out it is a lot harder to sit at a desk for 8 hours than lie on the couch with a bag of ice, so it got darn sore today and the ibuprofen didn’t do much. I went straight to the 800 mg, which a doctor advised me a while back to do, since when they prescribe it for inflammation they do so at that dosage, he said I could just do that myself and maybe save myself a visit – HMO’s don’t you just love ‘em, they really like seeing you in there, lol, NOT. Got through the day but on the way home, I drove in today for some reason, I noticed I was NOT seeing well. I had to get a lot closer to things before I could make them out, a weird sort of double vision, almost double, more unclear edges. But I haven’t had a head ache, apart from that original thump that never hurt at all. So now I am wondering what that is all about. Maybe it is a miracle and my eyes are healing and tomorrow I’ll wake up not needing glasses at all anymore. I think I am going to go with that, for a few days anyway, giggle. Unless the knee stays sore enough to make me think I should do an mri, but I don’t want more knee surgery, I only have the one good one and I want it to stay good, so that isn’t my first choice and besides the copays on those procedures have just gotten out of hand and I don’t want to reward bad behavior. Do you think I have this rationalized well enough? giggle. maybe I ought to go do a few sudoku’s just to be sure I am thinking straight, giggle. So, well, that was thanksgiving. I shudder to think what christmas might have in store for me.

And, at least the damn bike is finally in the basement. much love, :^) gene

Enemies

This is from Steve Goodier, who though I have never met him, I consider to be quite a good friend.  This is both an amusing and truthful look at this issue.  And I have an idea about this that he did not mention.  So I will once you’ve since his story.  :^)

SO YOU HAVE ENEMIES?

A knight returned to his castle at twilight. He was a mess. His armor
was dented, his helmet askew, his face was bloody, his horse was
limping and he listed to one side in the saddle. His lord met him at
the gate, asking, “What has befallen you, Sir Knight?”

Straightening himself up as best he could, he replied, “Oh, Sire, I
have been laboring in your service, robbing and burning and pillaging
your enemies to the west.”

“You have been what?” cried the startled nobleman. “But I haven’t any
enemies to the west!”

“Oh!” said the knight. And then, after a pause, “Well, I think you do
now.”

What about you? Enemies to the west? Or the north, or the south, or
the east? None of us will calmly sail through our lives in perfect
harmony with everyone we meet. And though most conflict can be
resolved along the way, and most of our bruised re­lationships can
eventually be healed, some passionate issues may threaten to drive a
per­manent wedge between people. Heartfelt moral and political
stances, especially, can polar­ize folks who just as passionately hold
differing positions.

Former U.S. Ambassador Claire Booth Luce once observed: “I don’t have
a warm per­sonal enemy left. They’ve all died off. I miss them
terribly because they helped define me.”

So-called “enemies” can serve a valuable purpose. If we let them, they
can teach us about ourselves. By holding a mirror before us, they can
help us see what we may have missed. By disa­gree­ing with our
heartfelt convictions, they can sharpen our points of view. And, if
we allow it, they can unwittingly help us practice strength and
compas­sion in the face of criticism.

If enemies cannot become friends, they can become teachers. If we
listen, they will teach us what our friends cannot.

– Steve Goodier

I just want to point out that enemies need not be people.  In all truth, I think most often they are not.  They are parts of ourselves we do not understand nor love.  It is in finding these hidden parts of ourselves, understanding them, loving them into our existence that we become fully conscious creatures capable of moving mountains.  We’ll all get there one day.  And what a day THAT will be.  I hope you’ve all had a marvelous holiday and an equally wonderful season to come.  much love, :^) gene

The thing with a blog

Is that you get to say whatever you want, whenever you want. I sort of like that – which those of you who have read my main site and understood, or at least know, what my Ansir profile is, understand. I love Bones, the show. As I’ve said before it is mostly about two people pretending not to know they are in love with each other. But it is so much more than that. Ryan O’Neal has been resurrected, over the last two seasons, a talent far greater than he ever got credit for. But even that isn’t it. Whatever the writers are on strike for? They deserve. The show tonight made me cry like a baby, not once, but four separate times. i think that must be a record for me. No – it isn’t all CWG, some of it is just life. tears trickling down our cheeks and all. much love, :^) gene

I’m not that naive.

In a different mood tonight, life sometimes weighs on us all, I guess that is sort of the point of the journey. What I dislike most though isn’t when I don’t feel right, it is when someone I love doesn’t. And that’s my spot tonight. It isn’t EVER easy being us. But, right now, it is hardest being him. So, tonight, for Evan, with all my love, I know its not easy being you right now, but you are a hero, my son, and you have the right to bleed sometimes. You have always been, since 10:16 pm on 7/31/74, Superman in my eyes, and you will always be, I am SO proud of the man you’ve become. The bleeding WILL stop and you’ll fly again, I promise. :^) dad

It’s not that easy

I can’t stand to fly, I’m not that naive
I’m just out to find the better part of me
I’m more than a bird, I’m more than a plane
I’m more than some pretty face beside a train,
and it’s not easy to be me

I wish that I could cry, fall upon my knees
Find a way to lie about a home I’ll never see
It may sound absurd, but don’t be naive
Even heroes have the right to bleed
I may be disturbed, but wont you conceive
Even heroes have the right to dream, and it’s
not easy to be me

Up ahead, away away from me
Well it’s all right, you can all sleep sound tonight
I’m not crazy, or anything

I can’t stand to fly, I’m not that naive
Men weren’t meant to ride with clouds between their knees
I’m only a man in a silly red sheet, digging for
Kryptonite on this one way street
Only a man in a funny red sheet looking for
special things inside of me, inside of me, inside of me,
inside of me, inside of me

I’m only a man in a funny red sheet
I’m only a man looking for a dream
I’m only a man in a funny red sheet, and
it’s not easy
It’s not easy to be me

Synchronicity

Which I am pretty sure is not an actual word. :^). But it is in my lexicon, nonetheless. As I do not believe in coincidence, yet things seems to come together in unusual ways for me, I use synchronicity as my name for events that relate to each other. We’ve been delving into CWG, book 2 recently, but haven’t gotten deeply into it – at least not as deeply as I intend to go. Because near the end of it God proposes a series of ideas that He says would, could, lead this planet toward a real civilization. That, defined, is one in which no one would have anything that comes at a cost to another. And, that means, no more taking what is not ours, no exploitation, fair dealings with all, at all times, true transparency in our public affairs. And a lot more.

But I’ve been talking about the idea of a world government for a very long time. Much longer than I have been involved with CWG. I came to the idea in my teens, when I first found the novels of Robert Heinlein, which most often, have at their core, the idea of a one world government, or even a planetary federation – though that idea is developed much more thoroughly in the works of Isaac Asimov – and of course, the Star Trek series and movies. So it has long seemed to me that the only way this planet can rid itself of its worst curse, war, is for there to be a federal republic of some sort, likely based on the United Nations concept, but with teeth, composed of nation-states, free elections, worldwide legal jurisdiction, separation of powers, and that individual countries would still be free to form their own form of local government, much as do the individual states of the United States, though some powers are reserved to the federal government, many are left up to the local level.

I don’t see a reason why this can’t work on a global scale. Indeed, the NAME of my website, derives from this idea. We are not 197 separate peoples/countries, we are ONE people on ONE world. And we need to find ways to resolve our differences legally, peacefully and fairly. No one region should be allowed to exploit other regions, no people should be allowed to do so either. The only way to achieve that sort of ultimate fairness is to have a world government, probably based on a parliamentary system since that is what most of the world uses now, but it could be a form like that in the US too. There would be no more war, the world would have disarm, and give over police powers to the governing body, individual “states” with disputes, would submit them to an impartial court and abide by its rulings. This would require a planetary constitution.

Well, what to my wandering eyes should appear, giggle, but a BIG, little book, Planethood, written sometime in the 1980’s primarily, I think, by two men, Benjamin Ferencz, who as a young lawyer was involved in prosecuting the aftermath of WWII as a prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials and is law professor now along with Ken Keyes, Jr., who wrote a book of some repute, the Hundredth Monkey. Eight steps to planetary safety, freedom, and prosperity. I am about halfway through it at the moment, but what I’ve read so far dovetails beautifully with what is proposed in Book 2. Which, as I said, I will be coming back to. Often, giggle.

For the moment though, I just want to point out a couple simple things. Primarily because I know that the first time the idea of a worldwide government is broached seriously, there will be an outcry, around the world, not just in the United States, that it will “steal” our sovereignty. There will be people so afraid of losing their power that they will fight this idea with every breath they have. They will be wrong, and ultimately, they will lose, because we are no longer the little place we were, in the days of horse and buggies, but have grown to be one large mostly urban planet. We are talking here about adding one layer of government. Just one. In the United States we already have four layers: city, county, state and national. We have those because those are necessary to prevent anarchy, to pass and enforce laws that ensure, or try to, a level playing field for everyone. All that is left to do is broaden the powers and change the structure of the United Nations a bit. It must have real power to pass legislation and to enforce it. The world court must have the power to have its decisions enforced every bit as strongly as does our own Supreme Court. Quoting from this little wonder, which is quoting Harry Truman, “When Kansas and Colorado have a quarrel over water in the Arkansas River, they don’t call out the National Guard in each state and go to war over it. They bring suit in the Supreme Court of the United States and abide by the decision.” THAT, is what I am talking about on a global basis. We will go to war no more. I’m going to quote another piece here, that must stand alone:

“This statement is for all those who fear that it unpatriotic to have a government greater than their own. There is no greater patriotic duty than to preserve your own nation and its freedoms. It is that we must retain our freedoms when we unite into one federation, except for the freedom to make war. Just as our own 50 states have turned this task over to our national government, so must however many join, turn over war making and defense to the world federation. I live in Cherry Hills, Colorado, and I think it is the finest city in the world. I live in Arapahoe County, and I think it is finest county in the world. I live in the state of Colorado and I think it is the greatest state in the world. I live in the United States of America, and I think it is the greatest country in the world. But I also live on Planet Earth, and it does not detract one iota from my patriotism to my city, my county, my state and my country for me to feel that this planet is the greatest in the universe and that I will defend it against all perils to the best of my ability. What we need in the is world is a pledge of allegiance to Planet Earth by every citizen of the world.” Tom Hudgens in his book, Let’s Abolish War.
The essentials of a World Constitution must guarantee:

A bill of rights
A popularly elected legislature to enact world laws.
A World court to interpret those laws, with compulsory jurisdiction over world disputes.
A civilian executive branch with the power to enforce world laws directly upon individuals.
A system of checks and balances to prevent the abuse of power by any branch of government.
The control of all weapons of mass destruction by the world government, with the disarmament of all nations, under careful inspection down to the level required for internal policing.
Carefully defined and limited power of taxation to support those functions necessary to world peace and the solution of problems affecting, to a vital degree, the welfare of all mankind.
Reasonable provision for amendments.
Participation in the world federal government to be open at all times to all nations.
All power not expressly delegated to the world government to be reserved to the nations and their peoples, thus leaving each nation to choose its own political, social, and economic systems

This part is taken from the American Movement for World Government, based in New York City.

Quoting further: “When we are protected by international laws, courts, and effective enforcement, we can at last safely disarm this bristling world. This would include destroying all mass killing machines. Those deadly bomber, missiles, tanks, submarines and battleships are not needed to maintain law and order inside a nation. No more armies, navies, air forces, or Star Wars! They would not be needed. The United Nations would instead have a staff of well-trained and well-equipped air and ground peace-keeping forces to keep order among the nation-states of the world. Think of all the money and lives this would save. Instead of many millions of soldiers in national armies that have NOT kept world order, a few hundred thousand world “policemen” cold preserve planetary law and order.

Do you recall a few days ago, a chart I produced here that showed that the world spent 1100 BILLION dollars on “defense” in 2004? What could we do with that money, for ALL of the world, were it not “needed” for standing armies, navies and air forces? How much MORE money, other than direct defense spending, is currently put into wars of aggression, economic wars, “intelligence” gathering and interference in the internal political doings of other countries. What if we didn’t have to spend ANY of that money in such counter-productive to human growth and development ways? What could we achieve then in medicine, in technology, in prosperity across the planet? It seems to me quite a lot, giggle. And we’re, well, I am certainly, going to take this a lot farther over the next couple weeks.There are so many groups working toward world peace right now, many whose vision is large enough to encompass this truth – if we do not stop doing what we are doing, we will never get anything but what we are getting. When we are ALL ensured personal freedom, what need will be there for terrorism? What need will there be for war? When every person is afforded equal opportunity for personal growth and development through education and the guarantee of a peaceful life style, what might we achieve as a people, as a world? There is no weight large enough that it cannot be lifted with a fulcrum large enough. Let the will of we, the people, be that fulcrum and we can lift this planet to greatness, while ensuring fair treatment, equal opportunity and the chance for each soul to reach as high as it is able. We CAN do this. I believe we MUST do this, eventually. I hope we can come to it peacefully. I hope it doesn’t require a nuclear carnage and devastation of our planet for us to see THIS is the answer we have been seeking to our individual differences. We can learn to live together peacefully, we can tolerate differences in political structure within states, we can learn that love is the answer to every question. So let’s do that? Okay? much love, :^) gene

If today brings even one choice your way
choose to be a bringer of the light :^) gene

Purpose – or the purposeful life

Maybe they are the same thing. Maybe not. What I’m going to do here tonight though is jump back in time, giggle, those of you who have read Book 2, will know I am simply stepping back onto a sheaf of paper on the spindle upon which I have before rested. :^). Those of you who haven’t, well, I’m going to quote from Book 2, a section prior to that which I wrote about last night, though it begins with essentially the same question posed by Neale to God.

Neale: “Why did Hitler go to heaven? (I know you have just tried to explain this but somehow I need more.) And what is the purpose behind all events? And how does this Larger Purpose relate to Hitler and other despots.” gene inserts, not necessarily despots alone!

God: “Lets go to Purpose first.
All events, all experiences, have as their purpose the creating of opportunity. Events and experiences are Opportunities. Nothing more, nothing less.
It wold be a a mistake to judge them as “works of the devil”, “punishments from God,” “rewards from Heaven,” or anything in between. They are simply Events and Experiences – things that happen.
It is what we think of them, do about them, be in response to them, that gives them meaning.
Events and experiences are opportunities drawn to you – created by you individually or collectively, through consciousness. Consciousness creates experience. You are attempting to raise your consciousness. you have drawn these opportunities to you in order that you might use them as tools in the creation and experiencing of Who You Are. Who You Are is a being of higher consciousness than you are now exhibiting.
Because it is My Will that you should know, and experience, Who You Are, I allow you to draw to yourself whatever event or experience you choose to create in order to do that.
Other Players in the Universal Game join you from time to time – either as Brief Encounters, Peripheral Participants, Temporary Teammates, Long-Term Inter-actors, Relatives and Family, Dearly Loved Ones, or Life Path Partners.
These souls are drawn to you by you. You are drawn to them by them. It is a mutually creative experience, expressing the choices and desires of both.

No one comes to you by accident.
There is no such thing as coincidence.
Nothing occurs at random.
Life is not a product of chance.

Events, like people, are drawn to you, by you, for your own purposes. Larger planetary experiences and developments are the result of group consciousness. They are drawn to your group as a whole as a result of the choices and desires of the group.”

Neale: “What do you mean by the term “your group”?

God: “Group consciousness is something that is not widely understood – yet it is extremely powerful and can, if you are not careful, often overcome individual consciousness. You must always, therefore, endeavor to create group consciousness wherever you go, and with whatever you do, if you wish your larger life experience on the planet to be harmonious.
If you are in a group whose consciousness does not reflect your own, and you are unable to at this time to effectively alter the group consciousness, it is wise to leave the group, or the group could lead you. It will go where it wants to go, regardless where you want to go.
If you cannot find a group whose consciousness matches your own, be the source of one. Others of like consciousness will be drawn to you.
Individuals and smaller groups must affect larger groups – and, ultimately, the largest group of all, which is ALL humankind – for there to be permanent and significant change on your planet.
Your world, and the condition it is in, is a reflection of the total, combined consciousness of everyone living there.
As you can see by looking around you, much work is left to be done. Unless, of course, you are satisfied with your world as it is.
Surprisingly, most people are. That is why the world does not change.
Most people are satisfied with a world in which differences, not similarities, are honored, and disagreements are settled by conflict and war.
Most people are satisfied with a world in which survival is for the fittest, “might is right”, competition is required, and winning is called the highest good.
If such a system also happens to produce “losers” – so be it – so long as you are not among them.
Most people are satisfied, even though such a model produces people who are often killed when they are judged “wrong”, starved and rendered homeless when they are “losers”, oppressed and exploited when they are not “strong.”
Most people define “wrong” as that which is different from them. Religious differences, in particular, are not tolerated, nor are many social, economic, or cultural differences.
Exploitation of the underclass is justified by the self-congratulatory pronouncements from the upper class of how much better off their victims are now than they were before these exploitations. By this measure the upper class can ignore the issue of how all people ought to be treated if one were being truly fair, rather than merely making a horrible situation a tiny bit better – and profiting obscenely in the bargain.
Most people laugh when one suggests any kind of system other than the one currently in place, saying that behaviors such as competing and killing and the “victor taking the spoils” are what makes their civilization great! Most people even think there is no other natural way to be, that is the nature of humans to behave in this manner, and that to act any other way wold kill the inner spirit that drives man to succeed. (No one asks the question, succeed at what?
Difficult as it is for truly enlightened beings to understand, most people on your planet believe in this philosophy, and that is why most people don’t care about the suffering masses, the oppression of minorities, the anger of the underclass, or the survival needs of anyone but themselves and their immediate families.
Most people do not see that they are destroying their Earth – the very planet which gives them Life – because their actions seek only to enhance their quality of life. Amazingly, they are not far-sighted enough to observe that short-term gains can produce long-term losses, and often do, and will.
Most people are threatened by group consciousness, a concept such as the collective good, a one-world overview, or a God who exists in unity with all creation, rather than separate from it.
The fear of anything leading to unification and your planet’s glorification of All That Separates produces division, disharmony, discord – yet you do not seem to have the ability even to learn from your own experience, and so you continue your behaviors, with the same results.
The inability to experience the suffering of another as one’s own is what allows such suffering to continue.
Separation breeds indifference, false superiority. Unity produces compassion, genuine equality.
The events which occur on your planet – which have occurred regularly for 3000 years – are, as I’ve said, a reflection of the Collective Consciousness of “your group” – the whole group on your planet.
That level of consciousness could be best be described as primitive”.

And that, my loves, leads us to where yesterday’s post began. Again, much to think about. But is there anything here with which one can honestly disagree? Is this NOT the way of life on Earth as we know it? Is it NOT separation, division, differences that keep us from unity? Is the reason we war because we have been wronged? Or is it because “they” are different than “we”? “They” believe something different than “we”. Is not the entire war on terrorism based on this one simple fact? Is not the 1.5 trillion dollars the United States has poured down this particular rat hole all because “they” believe something different than do “we”? Did we NOT go to them and foment rebellion amongst them? Did we not plant agents and provocateurs among them to bring dissension to the Muslim world? Was not our purpose to make them become like “us”. Is there not now a cabal in THIS country dedicated to enforcing the rule of christianity over the entire globe? And are those people not willing sacrifice whatever amount of money and lives it takes to do that? How are “we” any different than “they”.

It will only be when we realize that we are ONE people, on ONE world, that we are all the SAME under our multi-hued skins, that we will begin to address and heal the divisions between us. It will require bringing religion to its knees. Collective religion, I mean, and by that I mean, ALL of them. Religion’s time has passed and it is time for a New Age of spirituality that acknowledges the divine in each soul on this planet.

I often quote Steve Goodier, a Christian minister, in this space, yesterday’s article was wonderful, but I didn’t use it. I am instead today going to use just one paragraph from it. Namaste. He used it this way: “Namaste” is a polite Indian gesture of greeting or farewell. From Hindi, the word literally means “bowing to you.” Namaste has also been used to mean “I honor the sacred that is within you.” What a remarkable thing it would be to actually honor the sacred that is within each person we meet! Even strangers. Nobody would go unnoticed and everybody would count.

I first heard the term on the CWG list at Spiritweb 9 years ago. There someone defined it as the divine in me honors the divine in you. However it is defined, religion, must adopt this word, this theology as its core message, or it will pass into the past as surely as any other extinct species. Division, separation, our way is right, all else are wrong, MUST end. We all come from the same place and to it we will return. The place I describe on my main site, that I have mentioned here as recently as yesterday, that I glimpsed in the presence of the white and golden globes. Maybe that is my only purpose here on earth. Or maybe that is my soul purpose – to put up a website people could find and read about the truth of us. Learn that we are more than we seem and that at least one of us here has seen that. Maybe now that I’ve done that, am doing that as the number of people who are finding that site continues to grow and astonish me, I’ve done my part. Maybe that is worth pondering too. So I think I’ll do that for a couple days. There are yet things I want to bring here from book 2, but I am thinking that being a “witness” is more what I came her for than to agree, mostly with Neale Donald Walsch and his wonderful conversation with our Creator. There are small parts above with which I do not agree, my Jenna points those out to me, but I’m not sure that matters much to anyone but me, and then even but a little. So maybe my time of “witness” is drawing down. Or at least the active part of it is. That’s the pondering. Anyway, I hope those who have gotten through these past two days see the truth in these words and make raising the collective consciousness an active part of your own lives, in whatever way you can. God is SO right. It is so easy not to see the suffering, not to see the homeless, not to see those without, to walk past them without even noticing they are they are. That is a crime against a humanity and an affront to our soul, I think. Thank God, there are people here now with eyes to see and voices to speak. May they triumph in the end. May our planet become a civilization. I’ve heard that described, civilization that is, as a place where no one will have something that comes at the expense of another. I’m pretty sure that is in one of Neale’s books. But wherever it comes from is unimportant, for to me, it is the truth. We are a good long way from that place. And there is much to do to come to that place. I am confident the souls on this planet now, the bringers of the light, will prevail. I feel the mass consciousness moving as if it were my own pulse. Love will prevail. And I’ll be its witness. Namaste and much love, :^) gene

If today brings even one choice your way
choose to be a bringer of the light :^) gene

Hitler went to Heaven?

How do you suppose he managed that? Well, I, or rather God, through Neale Donald Walsch, am going to tell you. Trust me this leads to the path I choose to walk, it is a bit of a digression, at least from the treatment this question gets in CWG, Book 1, but, it is expanded here in a way that I understand, that resonates as truth within me, a larger truth, I guess I mean. Your mileage may vary, :^). And fair warning, the mileage tonight is substantial. But the trip is worth its weight in love.

Our story tonight begins on page 53 of Book 2, with God having responded in a rather roundabout way to a question Neale posed earlier, one we’ll come back to, probably tomorrow, about the “group” or “collective” consciousness, the undercurrent of thought, in a way of ALL of us together, sort of the consciousness that creates the atmosphere globally. You’ve all heard, or most of you, it said that Jesus said that anything is possible where two or more are gathered in His name. This idea, the collective consciousness, or UNconsciousness, is that amplified by the 6 billion minds presently incarnated on this planet. It considers what might happen if all of them turned toward one idea, what the power of those minds might create – intentionally or not. That is a most interesting conversation and we will have it later, but this night this is what has my interest, and since I am doing the typing, well, you can see where this is going, giggle. Neale suggests that God has digressed actually, to which God responds:

“Not really. You asked about Hitler. The Hitler Experience was made possible as a result of group consciousness. Many people want to say that Hitler manipulated a group – in this case, his countrymen – through the cunning and mastery of his rhetoric. But this conveniently lays all the blame at Hitler’s feet – which is exactly where the mass of the people want it.
But Hitler could do nothing without the the cooperation and support and willing submission of millions of people. The subgroup which called itself Germans must assume an enormous burden for the Holocaust. As must, to some degree, the larger group called Humans, which, if it did nothing else, allowed itself to remain indifferent and apathetic to the suffering in Germany until it reached so massive a scale that even the most cold-hearted isolationists could not longer ignore it. (gene inserts parenthetically, there is a novel, A Princess in Berlin, by a man named Arthur Solmssen, which creates such a picture of post WWI in Germany, that one can understand how conditions came to be so ripe for the National Socialist movement of Adolf Hitler – not justifyingly so at all, but how harshly were the Germans punished by the world that social conditions deteriorated to the point where ANYONE who could point to a way out of the pit was able to gain an audience – the story itself is a heart-wrenching star-crossed love story, but its main value is the stark picture it paints of how Hitler came to power legitimately – for the most detailed version of the conditions leading toward WWII, I can’t recommend strongly enough two novels of Herman Wouk, Winds of War and War and Remembrance, read them, you will never be the same again, you WILL understand that period in more detail than any history course or text could possibly provide)
You see, it was collective consciousness which provided fertile soil for the growth of the Nazi movement. Hitler seized the moment, but he did not create it.
It’s important to understand the lesson here. A group consciousness which speaks constantly of separation and superiority produces loss of compassion on a massive scale, and loss of compassion is inevitably followed by loss of conscience.
A collective concept rooted in strict nationalism ignores the plights of others, yet makes everyone else responsible for yours, thus justifying retaliation, “rectification”, and war.
Auschwitz was the Nazi solution to – an attempt to “rectify” – the “Jewish Problem”.
The horror of the Hitler Experience was not that he perpetrated it on the human race, but that the human race allowed him to.
The astonishment is not only that a Hitler came along, but that so many others went along.
The shame is not only that Hitler killed millions of Jews, but also that millions of Jews hadto be killed before Hitler was stopped.
The purpose of the Hitler Experience was to show humanity to itself.
Throughout history you have had remarkable teachers, each presenting extraordinary opportunities to remember Who You Really Are. These teachers have shown you the highest and the lowest of the human potential. (gene inserts, and the opportunity to choose, each time which we wish to be)
They have presented vivid, breathtaking examples of what it can mean to be human – of where one can go with the experience, of where the lot of you can and will go, given your consciousness.
The thing to remember: Consciousness is everything, and creates your experience. Group consciousness is powerful and produces outcomes of unspeakable beauty or ugliness. The choice is always yours.
If you are not satisfied with the consciousness of your group, seek to change it.
The best way to change the consciousness of others is by your example.
If your example is not enough, form your own group, – yoube the source of the consciousness you wish others to experience. They will – when you do.
It begins with you. Everything. All things.
You want the world to change. Change things in your own world.
Hitler gave you a golden opportunity to do that. The Hitler Experience – like the Christ Experience – is profound in its implications and the truths it revealed to you about you. Yet those larger awarenesses live – in the case of Hitler or Buddha, Genghis Kahn or Hare Krishna, Attila the Hun or Jesus the Christ – only so long as your memories of them live.
That is why the Jews build monuments to the Holocaust and ask you never to forget it. For there is a little bit of Hitler in all of you – and it is only a matter of degree. Wiping out a people is wiping out a people, whether at Auschwitz or Wounded Knee.”

Neale: “So Hitler was sent to us to provide us a lesson about the horrors man can commit, the levels to which man can sink?”

God: “Hitler was not sent to you. Hitler was created byyou. He arose out of your Collective Consciousness, and could not have existed without it. That is the lesson.
The consciousness of separation, segregation, superiority – of “we” versus “they”,of “us” and “them” – is what creates the Hitler Experience.
The consciousness of Divine Brotherhood, of unity, of Oneness, of “ours” rather than “yours/mine”, is what creates the Christ Experience.
When the pain is “ours”, not just “yours”, when the joy is “ours”, not just “mine”, when the whole life experience is Ours, then it is at last truly that – a Whole Life Experience.”

Neale: “Why did Hitler go to heaven?”

God: Because Hitler did nothing “wrong.” Hitler simply did what he did. I remind you again that for many years millions thought he was “right”. How, then, could he help but think so?
If you float out a crazy idea, and ten million people agree with you, you might not think you are so crazy.
The world decided – finally – that Hitler was “wrong”. That is to say, the world’s people made a new assessment of Who They Are, and Who They Chose to Be, in relationship to the Hitler Experience.
He held up a yardstick! He set a parameter, a border against which we could measure and limit our ideas about ourselves. Christ did the same the thing, at the other end of the spectrum.
There have been other Christs, and other Hitlers. And there will be again. Be ever vigilant then. For people of both high and low consciousness walk among you, even as you walk among others. Which consciousness do you take with you?”

Neale: “I still don’t understand how Hitler could have gone to heaven; how could he have been rewarded for what he did?”

God: “First understand that death is not an end, but a beginning; not a horror, but a joy. It is not a closing down, but an opening up.
The happiest moment of your life will be the moment it ends.
That’s because it doesn’t end but only goes on in ways so magnificent, so full of peace and wisdom and joy, as to make it difficult to describe and impossible for you to comprehend.
So the first thing you have to understand – as I’ve already explained to you – is that Hitler didn’t hurt anyone. In a sense, he didn’t inflict suffering, he ended it.
It was the Buddha who said “Life is suffering.” The Buddha was right.”

Neale: “But even if I accept that – Hitler didn’t know he was actually doing good. He thought he was doing bad!“

God: “No, he didn’t think he was doing something “bad.” He actually thought he was helping his people. And that’s what you don’t understand.
No one does anything that is “wrong,” given their model of the universe. If you think Hitler acted insanely and all the while knew that he was insane, then you understand nothing of the complexity of the human experience.
Hitler thought he was doing good for his people. And his people thought so, too! That was the insanity of it! The largest part of the nation agreed with him!
You have declared that Hitler was “wrong.” Good. By this measure you have come to define yourself, know more about yourself. Good. But don’t condemn Hitler for showing you that.
Someone had to.
You cannot know cold unless there is hot, up unless there is down, left unless there is right. Do not condemn the one and bless the other. To do so is to fail to understand.
For centuries people have been condemning Adam and Eve. They are said to have committed Original Sin. I tell you this: It was the Original Blessing. For without this event, the partaking of the knowledge of good and evil, you would not even know the two possibilities existed! Indeed, before the so-called Fall of Adam, these two possibilities did not exist. There was no “evil”. Everyone and everything existed in a state of constant perfection. It was, literally, paradise. Yet you didn’t know it was paradise – could not experience it as perfection – because you knew nothing else.
Shall you then condemn Adam and Eve, or thank them?
And what, say you, shall I do with Hitler?
I tell you this: God’s love and God’s compassion, God’s wisdom and God’s forgiveness, God’s intention and God’s purpose, are large enough to include the most heinous crime and the most heinous criminal.
You may not agree with this, but it does not matter.
You have just learned what you came here to discover.”

Okayyyyy. Well, hmmm. There is a bit there to think about, isn’t there? And I think that is what I’ll leave you to do. In a moment, giggle. I have been thinking about this for a very long time. Since Book 1 came into my hands two weeks to the day after my youngest son’s suicide at age 21. It took ME some time to come terms with a lot of what is in these books, but I tell you the first comforting thought, feeling, I had while reading book 1, was this part about Hitler going to heaven, because there is NO other place to go. It lifted from my mind and heart the fear I felt for my son. Completely. And that fear has never returned. That it was the happiest day of his life? As God says above, well, I hope so. It wasn’t so for anyone remaining here. But when God says that it IS the happiest day, when He talks about the state of constant perfection, well, I KNOW that place, it was what I glimpsed in the presence of the white and golden globes. THAT is the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve (figuratively our forebears) did not “fall”, they descended, as do we all, from “home”, that place where love is all there is, to this place, the realm of the relative experience. I KNOW how wonderful that place, our true home is, because I saw it, I felt it, I experienced it but for moments. But I would not have understood it AS such for a second, had I NOT the experience of this life I have, am, living.

It goes beyond Hitler, beyond Jesus, this knowing. We don’t all have Hitler or Christ experiences. Most of us operate on a smaller scale, but we all understand suffering. We all understand poverty. We all understand abuse. We all understand EVERYTHING God talked about above, separation, segregation, yours, mine, ours. What we do with those understandings, how we use them as we grow through our lives is all that matters in the end, and then, only to each of us as we have this individual experience, having forgotten the truth of us, come here veiled from the real truth of us, that in the end, we are all One. I think that is the purpose of being here, in as many lifetimes as we choose to come, to forget and re-member again. I think each remembrance may be sweeter than the one before for many of us, else we would not do this more than once. Some of us, me, will do this only once. That is what my Jenna tells me, giggle. I have packed a lot of experience into this lifetime, I will admit to that. But the reason this website exists, is to tell each of you who come across it, that what Neale Donald Walsch, and God, have written in these marvelous books about “home” is truth. I have seen it. I have felt it. And I know it as surely as anything I have ever known in any part of my life. Those experiences are as real as any I had this day, or any day of my life, and they are truth. Fear of death is not something we need carry. I grant the experience of it may not be as we might all like but there is nothing wasted in any such experience, not for any of us, and I do believe that in the moment we step again behind the curtain into that state of absolute love and joy IS the happiest day of our lives. I’m sure of it. I SAW it and I FELT it and I KNOW it. So, as Sarah sings, perhaps my only purpose here is as a witness, Make me a Witness, take me out, out of darkness, out of doubt. If I can do that for even one of you. I can feel my day is done. This day. much love, :^) gene

If today brings even one choice your way
choose to be a bringer of the light :^) gene

A small change in the itinerary, :^)

I’ve had a request – to not exactly change anything but to shift gears for a bit, a request I am going to honor. Jen’s asked me to go through book 2 with her this week, re-read it, re-member it, before I say much about social change, let alone social justice. So I’m going to do that but I’m going to chatter some along the way.

One of the things I’ve talked about previously, from an idea in Book 1, is the idea about whether we wish to be the cause of our life or the effect of it. That is in connection with, conjunction with, the choices we make each day in how we live our lives, as creators or reactors. So, what I’m going to do here tonight, is talk about, quote a hatsful of nuggets from early on in Book 2. Things, I’ve known but not thought about for some time, it is important to re-acquaint ourselves with our souls from time to time, lest they feel unappreciated, lol.

So: God asks Neale on page 18 to look at two words that really define the human experience.

REACTIVE
CREATIVE

And, He says, “Notice they are the same word. Only the “C” has been moved! When you “C” things correctly, you become Creative, rather than Reactive.”

They go on to have a conversation we will come back to in time, but I want to skip a bit ahead to an exchange that has always left me a little breathless. And still does. Neale has been telling God that it is hard to be without God’s guidance and God is explaining that we never are. On page 24 of book 2, Neale says, well, he can’t be carrying around a yellow pad and pen all the time, which is how they were communicating as Neale wrote the books, and God says, well, if THAT was all you had to do, to be in constant touch with Me, woud you not do it? And Neale says, “Well, yes, of course.

God responds: “…I am with you always. I don’t live in the pen. I live in you.”

Neale: “That is true isn’t it…I mean, I can really believe that, can’t I?”

God responds: “Of course you can believe it. it’s what I’ve been asking you to believe from the beginning. It’s what ever Master, including Jesus, has said to you. It is the central teaching. It it the ultimate truth.
I am with you always, even unto the end of time.
Do you believe this?”

Neale: “Yes, now I do. More than ever, I mean.”

God responds: “Good. Then use Me. If it works for you to get out a pad and a pen…then, take out a pad and a pen. More often. Every day. Every hour, if you have to.
Get close to Me. Get close to Me! Do What you can. Do what you have to do. Do what it takes.
Say a rosary. Kiss a stone. Bow to the East. Chant a chant. Swing a pendulum. Test a muscle.
Or write a book.
Do what it takes.
Each of you has your own construction. Each you has understood Me – created Me – in your own way.
To some of you I am a man. To some of you I am a woman. To some, I am both. To some, I am neither.
To some of you I am pure energy. To some, the ultimate feeling, which you call love. And some of you have no idea what I am. You simply know that I AM.
And so it is.
I AM.
I am the wind which rustles your hair. I am the sun which warms your body. I am the rain which dances on your face. I am the smell of flowers in the air, and I am the flowers which send their fragrance upward. I am the air which carries the fragrance.
I am the beginning of your first thought. I am the end of your last. I am the idea which sparked your most brilliant moment. I am the glory of its fulfillment. I am the feeling which fueled the most loving thing you ever did. I am the part of you which yearns for that feeling again and again.
Whatever works for you, whatever makes it happen – whatever ritual, ceremony, demonstration, meditation, thought, song, word or action it takes for you to “reconnect” – do this.
Do this in remembrance of Me.”

Then, a bit further on, Neale and God have another exchange. And it is this exchange that describes what I felt in the presence of the white and golden globes as well as anything in either book, so I want to close this movement into Book 2, with this piece. They have been talking about humanity’s propensity to do terrible things and not blame God, as the creator of all things, but rather human inventions, like the devil, to make God less than He is, but creating a way for His expressed will for us, the full experience of His love in every moment, to not take place though He has willed it be so, and to excuse this lack by blaming other actors. So let’s pick up at the bottom of page 39, with Neale saying: “I didn’t say You can’t control the devil. You can control everything. You’re God! It’s just that you choose not to. You allow the devil to tempt us, to try to win our souls.”

God says: “But why? Why would I do that If I don’t want to have you not return to me?”

Neale: Because you want us to come to you out of choice, not because there is no choice. You set up Heaven and Hell so there could be a choice. So we act out of choosing and out of simply following a path because there is no other.”

God say: “I can see how you’ve come to this idea. That’s how I’ve set it up in your world, and so think that’s how it must be in Mine.
In your reality, good cannot exist without bad. So you believe it must be the same in Mine.
Yet I tell you this: There is no “bad” where I am. And there is no Evil. There is only the All of Everything. The Oneness. And the Awareness, the Experience, of that.
Mine is the Realm of the Absolute, where One thing does not exist in relationship to Another, but quite independent of anything.
Mine is the place where All there Is is Love.

We’ll come back to this again. And again. And probably yet again. Because, as I talked about the lights on the main site, THIS is precisely the feeling, the words I was searching for to describe the feeling I had as those lights emerged from me. There was NO fear, no anger, nothing really at all, but this overwhelming sense of wholeness, of LOVE. Of peace, warm, safe, complete. I glimpsed where God is in those moments. That’s why the main site exists. To tell people that, just that. To let them know that THIS is not all there is, that there is another place to which we are all indelibly and permanently connected, from which we came and to which we will ALL certainly return. Home. The place where Love is all there is. THAT is our ultimate truth. That there are things to do here is undeniable, else we would not be here, but we need not FEAR our creator, we need not heed those who would teach us through various religions that ours is an angry God, a jealous God, one would condemn us for eternity if we do not manage to stumble onto the one “true” path, the one “true” religion and recognize it as such. God takes religion to task rather severely in Book 2. Those of you who have read book 1, might think He did there, but that was scratching the surface, giggle.

He begins book 2 with these words on page 4 as He and Neale talk about the upcoming work and He says: “Except that in this book I’ll bring up some subjects myself, without you asking. I didn’t do much of that in the first book, as you know.”

Neale: “Yes. Why are you adding that twist here?”.

God: “Because this book is being written at My request. I asked you here – as you’ve pointed out. The first book was a project you started by yourself.
With the first book you had an agenda. With this book, you have no agenda, except to do My will.”

Neale: “Yes, that’s correct.”

God: “That, Neale, is a very good place to be. I hope you – and others – will go to that place often.:

Neale: “But I thought Your Will was my will. How can I notdo Your will if it’s the same as mine?”

God: ” That is an intricate question – and not a bad place at all for us to begin this dialogue.”

That is where WE will pick the conversation back up. Or you may yourself if have Book 2. God does indeed have an agenda in Book 2 and He proposes multiple solutions to multiple social conditions – solutions that could be enacted, practically immediately. Reasonable, wise, humane and loving. Could we, should we, expect less of He who lives in a place where Love is all there is? And who considers that place our home as much as His? No. We shouldn’t. Which doesn’t mean some of His ideas aren’t are a hard sell. But that is only because so many of us have learned to live with hardened hearts. When we let our hard hearts soak, just a little while, in love, anything becomes possible. And there is no objection, no obstacle that God has not considered in proposing His ideas for what we might do to avert the coming global warming crisis, the religious wars we are now engaged in around the world and the overwhelming poverty and hunger that holds so many of our brothers and sisters in abject slavery, generational poverty exists across the world. There is enough here to take care of that, to see to it that everyone’s basic needs are met and that all have an opportunity to find and use their talents in ways that enhance and strengthen us all. It IS possible. It WILL come. It IS worth working for.

So I’m going to insert here, just one graphic and then ask just one, maybe two questions about it. This is a list of worldwide military spending, please note that the number is 1100 BILLION dollars. That the rest of the world COMBINED spends 500 billion dollars and that we, the United States, spend 623 BILLION dollars all by our lonesome, with the next closest country coming in at 65 billion dollars – China, we spend 10 times MORE than China. What POSSIBLE reason could there be to outspend the rest of the ENTIRE world, of what can we be SO afraid? And why? With a few, very small changes, and agreements we could change the world overnight, by redirecting some of those funds, not only in our country, but in all countries. It is THAT about which we are going to be talking as I move through book 2 over the next couple weeks and discuss the ideas God laid out for Neale more than 10 years – the latest editions of book 2 contain an updated forward noting the events of 9/11, but the proposals God made 8 years before that to Neale are as rock solid now as they were then. I hope you will look forward to this conversation as much as I am. For me it is like greeting an old friend, giggle, for most of you it will be new, probably. What I do know for certain is that it is doable, reasonable, and timely. We may never make this place “feel” like “home – where Love is all there is”, but we CAN try. much love, :^) gene

I also want to note that I only copied in countries that spend at least a billion – the rest of the list, indeed this whole graphic is at: World Military Spending

World Wide Military Expenditures
Country	Military expenditures – dollar figure	Budget Period
World	$1100 billion	2004 est. [see Note 4]
Rest-of-World [all but USA]	$500 billion	2004 est. [see Note 4]
United States	$623 billion	FY08 budget [see Note 6]
China	$65.0 billion	2004 [see Note 1]
Russia	$50.0 billion	[see Note 5]
France	$45.0 billion	2005
United Kingdom	$42.8 billion	2005 est.
Japan	$41.75 billion	2007
Germany	$35.1 billion	2003
Italy	$28.2 billion	2003
South Korea	$21.1 billion	2003 est.
India	$19.0 billion	2005 est.
Saudi Arabia	$18.0 billion	2005 est.
Australia	$16.9 billion	2006
Turkey	$12.2 billion	2003
Brazil	$9.9 billion	2005 est.
Spain	$9.9 billion	2003
Canada	$9.8 billion	2003
Israel	$9.4 billion	FY06 [see Note 7]
Netherlands	$9.4 billion	2004
Taiwan	$7.9 billion	2005 est.
Mexico	$6.1 billion	2005 est.
Greece	$5.9 billion	2004
Singapore	$5.6 billion	2005
Sweden	$5.5 billion	2005 est.
North Korea	$5.0 billion	FY02
Iran	$4.3 billion	2003 est.
Pakistan	$4.3 billion	2005 est.
Belgium	$4.0 billion	2003
Norway	$4.0 billion	2003
Chile	$3.9 billion	2005 est.
Colombia	$3.5 billion	2005
Poland	$3.5 billion	2002
Portugal	$3.5 billion	2003
South Africa	$3.5 billion	2005 est.
Denmark	$3.3 billion	2003
Vietnam	$3.2 billion	2005
Algeria	$3.0 billion	2005 est.
Kuwait	$3.0 billion	2005 est. [see Note 2]
United Arab Emirates	$2.7 billion	2005
Egypt	$2.5 billion	2005
Malaysia	$2.5 billion	2005
Switzerland	$2.5 billion	2005 est.
Morocco	$2.3 billion	2005 est.
Czech Republic	$2.2 billion	2004
Qatar	$2.2 billion	2005
Thailand	$2.0 billion	2005
Angola	$2.0 billion	2005 est.
Finland	$1.8 billion	FY98/99
Argentina	$1.8 billion	2005
Venezuela	$1.6 billion	2005 est.
Austria	$1.5 billion	FY01/02
Romania	$1.5 billion	2005
Jordan	$1.4 billion	2005 est.
Indonesia	$1.3 billion	2004
Iraq	$1.3 billion	2005 est.
Hungary	$1.1 billion	2002 est.
New Zealand	$1.1 billion	2005 est.
Bangladesh	$1.0 billion	2005 est.

Day after day

Sometimes music, okay, most times, makes more sense than we do.  I heard this song this afternoon, for the first time in a long time, and it just moved my soul.  So for tonight…  listen.  :^) gene

Day after day I’m more confused
But I look for the light through the pouring rain
You know that’s a game that I hate to lose
Now I’m feeling the strain
Aint it a shame?

(Chorus)
Oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll
And drift away
Give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll
And drift away

Beginning to think that I’m wasting time
I don’t understand the things I do
The world outside looks so unkind
I’m counting on you
To carry me through

(Chorus)

And when my mind is free you know melody can move me
And when I’m feeling blue the guitar’s coming through to soothe me
Thanks for the joy that you’ve given me
I want you to know I believe in your song
Your rhythm and rhyme and harmony
You’ve helped me along
You’re making me strong

(Chorus)

(Repeat chorus 2 times)

Now now now won’t you take me?
Oh oh take me
Fly high…

Referendums and children

Well, the elections have come and gone, and, it seems for the most part, the people have decided to make up for what the penuriousness of legislatures past has caused – the dire cuts in programs and services that children need to become well-rounded citizens. Here in my district, the two most important pieces passed, but such frivolities as reducing activity fees, which as I pointed out in an earlier post, are already the highest in the seven county greater metropolitan area, did not, pricing poor families out of athletics and other extra-curricular opportunities. The pools will not be reopened, more kids are going to have to walk up to two miles to their schools, and upgrading the technology labs so that our kids can be trained on the cutting edge equipment they will need to use in their work lives failed as well. But the schools will stay open. When, I wonder still, will the legislature honor its obligation to provide quality educational opportunities to all of Minnesota’s children? It may be a while.

Things are still tight for school districts but I saw something in todays paper while on the bus that made me realize that although things are hard here for kids, our kids are still far better off than children unfortunate enough to have been born in other parts of the world. I read an article about a man, Dr. David Parker, who is concentrating his efforts on children elsewhere and in the reading picked up some astonishing, disheartening information. He spends his vacations traveling the world documenting photographically the plight of the world’s children, and in my view, all children are our children, how can it possibly be otherwise? He has taken pictures of child soldiers in Sierra Leone, children working in the Indian brick kilns, he tried to get pictures of the child prostitutes in Bangkok but was unable as apparently there had been some negative publicity shortly before his visit, I can’t imagine why, and he found those doors locked to him. We are complicit in this activity, Americans participate on their “vacations” in the “pleasures” of using children as sexual objects. More Americans than anyone suspects or would believe.

He says that in the late 70’s it was estimated that about 80 million children were involved in child labor and back then people predicted that would be halved by the year 2000. Instead it has grown, today the number is 320 million children working, breaking coal, picking cotton, working in brick factories, endless hours under horrid conditions. He says it is a larger issue than simply working them half to death. Those children are not being educated, especially young girls who he says will suffer greatly. Without education to prepare them for life, they will not know that they don’t need to have nine children, or be taught how to have a healthy family. Education empowers people and these children have no voice and are essentially lost to the mainstream, to the rest of the world. What future waits them?

He recommends, as a first step, that companies who do business overseas, institute and enforce policies prohibiting their employees from participating, in any way, in the trafficking of women and children for sex, no second chances, a violation of that policy and they are sent packing. I’d rather recommend jail, but getting them the hell away from those kids IS the first priority. Their predation is likelier to be found out here. I’d go further than this. I would like to see the United States engage the United Nations in an effort to eradicate human trafficking and make and enforce child labor laws, buy NOTHING from any country that uses its children so badly. If we need to lead the world, could we do it in some way OTHER than in arms exports and wars of aggression? Could we do it by NOT supporting countries who do not enact and enforce laws that guarantee basic rights to children? We need statespeople and what we have are actors. People who promise everything and deliver nothing. People who look pretty on the campaign trail and as evil as evil can be in the back rooms where deals are cut and children and the poor sold out for more tax cuts that heap more money on already unspendable, in anyone’s lifetime, piles of cash. Could we, for a change, lead in something other than bellicose talk? That is where I’d like to see us go and what I’m going to talk about this weekend as I’ve near completed my updating and reading. 2008 MUST be the year that marks a real change in America, and Americans. I hope we learn a few things this next campaign season and come up a bit out of the morass of death-dealing we have sunk into. I hope we start moving toward the light that we can be should we put our minds to it. We need a global consciousness-raising and I think it must start here. So I plan to blog about it a lot. And support candidates who can persuade me they are about more than money, that they are about bettering the lives of people. They ARE out there. Let’s help them take control of our countries infrastructure and political apparatus. Do something right for the first time in a long time. 911 was a great national tragedy, but it was not the worst thing that ever happened, maybe HERE it was, but worse things are happening around the planet every day. And we have done very little right since that horrid day. Bush has squandered all the goodwill freely given us in the aftermath of that day, it is time to start making amends. It is time to become a beacon of hope and back our flowery words up with loving action. Give food, medicine and books to others, give of our time and talents, stop exporting fear and death, start exporting love and healing. We CAN. It is my prayer that we DO. much love, :^) gene

If today brings even one choice your way
choose to be a bringer of the light :^) gene

I am continually amazed!

Which is not an unusual state for me. Those who are bothering to read this will remember that the reason it exists, not this blog, but the main website, is that although my inner voice, jenna, tried to push me out here in this way, i did nothing with that push, until a friend convinced me that I should put my experiences out here for people to find. I admit jenna agreed with this, or I would not have done it. Even so, learning how to do what I did on the main site was SO hard, I needed the support of real people, and I feel so bad for saying that because jen IS real people, but, well, we persevered, all of us, lol. And it isn’t as though this means anything, but jenna told me that SHE would lead ppl here, that ppl needed to know this, which just seems ridiculous to me, but, then, I DID post these stories everywhere for years, and none of that meant anything. jen always said that, she would say it was okay to post at a specific place but that was all. She always said that the important thing was that people HEAR this. I thought I was done with THAT when I left the CWG list and after posting on funky websites for a few years. The idea for this website, well, she gave me that then, and I just wouldn’t. I just wouldn’t. So she found a way to push me into doing this. A compelling way. A way I could NOT ignore. So I did it. Now, I posted these stats a few days ago. I will never post them here again. But this just amazes me. She said she would lead ppl to them. The stories I mean. Me, is not important, what I saw is. And just look. She is doing what she promised. I don’t KNOW that many people, and have NOT told that many people about my site, I mean literally less than 10 real people that this is even here, not even yet, especially not, my own family. Though I will. But, you know, I have no idea what that all this means. Or why. But it still amazes me. I love you jen. My other half, my twin flame, my guide and myself. Life is SO amazing. much love, :^) gene

Summary by Month
Month	Daily Avg				Monthly Totals
	Hits	Files	Pages	Visits	Sites	KBytes	Visits	Pages	Files	Hits
Nov 2007	390	212	87	45	75	37862	225	436	1063	1954
Oct 2007	307	216	113	53	248	254371	1646	3504	6704	9542
Sep 2007	227	190	88	38	35	19316	116	265	572	682
Totals						311549	1987	4205	8339	12178

Faith at work

Okay I am not even going to try to guess at the synchronicity of this. After I wrote the first post, I moved on to check my mail and found this. Draw your own conclusions. But I will say – the after does not have to have anything to do with the now. A young friend of mine has reminded me of this from time to time, that though my glimpse into what is “not” here, is important, it also important to remember that while we are here, what we do, and don’t, matters. I will no longer deny her the truth of that statement. So, with love from Steve Goodier:

FAITH AT WORK

It’s one thing to goof. But it’s another thing to do it in front of a
stadium full of people! In their book Oops (The Rutledge Press, 1981),
authors Richard Smith and Edward Decter tell of such slip-ups. One
occurred during a soccer match between two Brazilian teams. (To
protect the player involved, I won’t name the teams.) The first goal
was scored within three seconds after kickoff. What made the score
particularly hard for the team’s fans to take was the fact that it was
made while their goalie was still on one knee with head bowed in
prayer.

There is certainly a time for prayer, but this poor man learned the
hard way that there is also a time for action. In fact, both are
necessary in a well-lived life. As Gandhi once said, “I have so much
to accomplish today, I will have to meditate two hours instead of
one.”

Often, however, the best spirituality begins with the prayer of the
heart, and then moves to that prayer which is lived throughout the
rest of the day.

Several years ago a bomb was detonated outside the huge oak doors of a
Greek Catholic church in Jerusalem. The heavy doors were blown inward
so that they careened up to the front of the sanctuary and destroyed
the chancel area. Windows were blown out, pews were destroyed, and the
balcony collapsed.

Dr. Ken Bailey, a Presbyterian missionary scholar and friend of the
priest of the Greek Church, stopped by to assess the damage. It took
little time to determine that the priest was in shock and unable to
make necessary decisions. So Dr. Bailey took it upon himself to ask
seminary administrators at the school where he taught to close
classes, and he invited students to join him in helping the priest.
They cleaned the church and boarded the windows to prevent looting.

The next day, Bailey again called on his friend. The maid confided in
him that the priest did not cry at the bomb’s destruction. However,
she added, “He did cry when you and your friends helped clean up the
mess it made.”

Dr. Bailey has since remarked, “I did not teach any theology that
afternoon – or did I?” If theology is about love in action, he held
one of his best classes that day.

The truth is…faith is never so beautiful as when it has its working
clothes on.

And that is the truth. Faith is wonderful, it is something to hold on to, it can prove to us, through our own individual experiences that there is a truth out “there” larger than ourselves, but I am not sure that here, wearing these human skins, it ever gets much richer than this story. much love, :^) gene

If today brings even one choice your way
choose to be a bringer of the light :^) gene

Faith in what?

I mean if you have faith, exactly what is it that means? Have had occasion to be thinking about this of late. I’ve mentioned some of the difficulties my eldest son, has been having, and as a parent, my heart goes out to him, along with my love and money, giggle. What is it though that keeps some people going through the toughest of times? It isn’t religion, well, okay for some it it, but for most it is not. One can’t talk about “fairness” when it comes to the game of “life” because there is no rule book – and don’t even start with me about the bible or the koran or any any other “sacred” text written by humans, at this stage in our species evolution, by male humans.

Because fairness only works when there is someone enforcing the rules of the game. And rules that are agreed upon by the players, in advance of beginning the game. I mean rules the participants KNOW they have agreed to. There are those, CWG, is in this group, who allege the agreements came before our entry to the relative universe, and this may be so, but how then are those “rules”? If you can’t remember what they are, how can they possibly be rules? There are some things that seem to be inherent – for instance, murder, most of us not only find that morally repugnant, but physically impossible. I mean, I do not believe I could make myself do that to another human except under the most dire of circumstances. Yet there are those who feel no particular wrong involved with strapping explosives to themselves and walking into a restaurant and detonating them. There are those who feel no particular moral problem involved with ordering airplanes half a world away to deliver bombs that kill hundreds, in at least two instance, scores of thousands, in the name of the right cause.

This is where my most recent pondering of this moral conundrum has led me. People, the world over, are crying out for fairness but no one is determining what exactly that means. No one is even really asking that question. Oh, they are arguing semantics and disagreeing, disagreeably about theology and philosophy, but no one is saying, lets figure out what FAIR means, and then DO that. It seems impossible for reasonable people to sit down somewhere and figure out what would be fair for all, and then agree to do that. Self-interest, personal or national, gets in the way and we seem unable to leave that behind. I would like to think the United Nations was envisioned as a body which could represent the world, ALL of it, fairly. And in some respects it does, but in many other respects it is nothing more than a shadow.

Robert Heinlein, whom I have mentioned here before, often posited a world that was ruled by “one” government, comprised of nation states, but subject to world-wide rules. Now, I will admit, not one of those stories was Utopian. There were real issues involved in all parts of the world, parochial issues, such as we have now, but the truth of the story was that people in every corner of the world had, if nothing else, the same gripes about government we do now, only they could find kindred souls anywhere because government was the same everywhere. Based on free elections, representatives made decisions and brokered deals in the same manner as do free governments now, and with about as much effectiveness, lol. I would like to recommend to all who might wander across this, one of his books which deals with how a free state is formed, and the pitfalls along the way, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, is a treatise on revolutionary government that is years ahead of its time, centuries perhaps. Even though it is also a history lesson. :^). Fairness was at the heart of that book.

We, the people, want so much for something to believe in. That “need” is so obvious, it is there in the earliest fossil remains we have found, people, the first people, buried their dead. Why do that? Why care about that? The only reason I can think of is faith. In something beyond what we see.

So what form does that faith take? It can’t be based on fairness, or at least not on any definition of such that I have ever read. Fairness demands rules and an impartial arbiter to enforce those rules. Fairness would not leave George W. Bush in charge of the most powerful nation on the planet, sending guns, planes, bombs and young martyrs to his cause off to die in places that not many of us would ever pay to visit. Fairness would not result in a young man or woman wanting nothing more than to care for his or her family having to make choices between buying health insurance or tires for their aging vehicle. Fairness would not result in corporations deciding that because they do not have to pay benefits to part time employees, firing their full time employees and hiring them back as part timers without the niceties of pension, vacation, sick leave or health insurance.

God is not going to solve this problem for us peeps. Sorry. If anything ought be obvious THAT should be. What has it been? 4000 years since He last spoke to one of us? And then as a burning bush? giggle. Which makes me wonder if mushrooms, not sage, might have been involved in that particular fire. I like what He says in CWG, but there is nothing in there that suggests He plans to arbitrate fairness for us either. We are going to have to figure a way to do that for ourselves. And a way to enforce it. The name of this site is not an accident. One people, one world is the truth of us, no matter how much we’d like to pretend it is not.

I am not saying take this on my word, because, hell, what do I know? I’ve had three inexplicable light experiences and one inexplicable awakening experience but I am none the wiser for them. I can’t do anything special. I can’t even say anything special. And what faith I have is limited to a certainty, that through those experiences, THIS is not all there is. But how does THAT translate to making life a particle better for anyone here, including me? If faith matters, and according to most scripture, and other ’sacred’ writings it does, than it should be able to produce a measurable result. Well, in my thinking anyway, but it doesn’t. It doesn’t seem to mean anything. Which is where the title of this came from. I have faith that this is not all there is but that doesn’t seem to matter a whit in terms of the experience I have here. I guess the question I have been pondering, that has been worrying me like a dog with a bone of late, is why not? Why bother giving me something so incredible and nothing else? I could blame mushrooms here too but I’d not heard of them at 7, nor at 15 and even at 46 had avoided hallucinogenics like the plague, because they scared me. :^). Yes, something scared the extremist, giggle. But what that was, was loss of control, loss of being in charge of my experience. Even though, until then, and continuing to this moment, that experience has not exactly been silver-spoon, lol. Yet I KNOW something, damn it. Why do I know it? What does THAT mean? Maybe I should stick to sudoku, giggle. The easy ones. And figuring a way to help my son with his life too. And those few who depend on me in other ways and for other reasons. I am NOT saying those things, those people, are not important, on the contrary, they ARE my life in every real way possible. I am asking why give me a gift that doesn’t mean anything, that doesn’t allow me to improve life for those whom I love so much – and I am not restricting THAT phrase to my immediate family and friends either, but to the broader group whom I also love, all of us.

So, I’ve been in this odd little place of late. Which is why I’ve been so quiet here. Am still working on, okay – I HAVE it the other piece I’ve talked about, I’m just in a smaller place than I need to be to posit a larger solution. I think I need to figure out how to work things on a micro scale before I start talking about how to help things work on a macro scale. I’m not very good at either for the moment. Or at least that is how it feels. All those people who have now seen my main site, and not one with an idea for me. Which is also what jen told me would happen, but still. Faith. Sometimes I can’t believe in ME, let alone anything beyond that. Maybe that is the point of the experience? Humility. Knowing what we are not. If so? I get the point, let up already wouldya? Ah well, still some thinking to do, and with that comes growth, one hopes all this leads somewhere. Else, as Jodie’s dad says in Contact, it would be awful waste of space. For humanity, I translate that to a waste of potential. Maybe that is the faith we are lacking. Maybe that is key that turns on our ability to access all parts of what is already alive within us and waiting for our awakening call. If you find that key? Give me a buzz. I’ll do the same, promise. much love, :^) gene

If today brings even one choice your way,
choose to be a bringer of the light. much love, :^) gene

Mary

Not the Mary you are thinking of, if you are a reader here. This is Sarah’s Mary. What brought me to Sarah was “Angel”, through the movie. But it was never that. It was Mary. :^). Always Mary. I think every song Sarah has ever recorded but this one is on the web, on youtube. I don’t know why I am so attracted to this song. jen says I will know, but I don’t yet. It just haunts me. She sings it to me ALL the time. And this young chinese woman who tries her best to sing it too. There is a synchronicity here that I am missing. So what I’m going to do is just post the lyrics.

Mary walks
down to the water’s edge
and there she hangs her head
to find herself faded
a shadow of what she once was
She said “How long have I been sleeping
and why do I feel so old
why do I feel so cold
my heart is saying one thing but my body won’t let go”
With trembling hands she reaches up
a stranger’s flesh is offered
and I would be the last to know
I would be the last the let it show
I would be the last to go

Take her hand
she will lead you through the fire
give you back hope
and hope that you won’t take too much
respecting what is left
she cradled us
she held us in her arms
unselfish in her suffering she could not understand
that no one seemed to have the time
to cherish what was given
and I would be the last to know
and I would be the last to let it show
I would be the last to go…
Mary walks.

I believe, ultimately, this is the woman who will lead us through the fire, unselfishly. Perhaps, okay definitely, not yet born, :^). But her day will come.  Mary.   gawd i love this song…

Life Support

Today, well, I’m not quite in the mood for writing. Life has its way of catching up with us once in a while, for some reason I do not understand, Halloween this year brought with it a sadness I haven’t felt in some time, surrounding my son, Brandon. We had a blizzard here one Halloween, long ago now, but it was a real snow storm even for this area. We were, the boys and I, living at a place named Silver Oaks, we were there only one year, they declined to renew our acquaintanceship, because of, well, yes, Brandon. The same reason we’d left the last place we had lived – he was having his terrible twos reincarnated by several powers of ten, and it wasn’t just one year, but that year was among the hardest. But it wasn’t that I’ve been feeling, it was this sense of missing him. That’s never really gone, of course, but this was a little different somehow. And, my thoughts have been with my oldest son, well, my only remaining child, who has been having an extended period of bad timing, bad luck, and bad, well, just about everything, I’d of said karma, but THAT I don’t believe in, and am supported in this belief by jen. Which I know is very anti-New Age, and I am nothing if not of a New Age. So who said life, and those in it, couldn’t sometimes be contradictory? Is not life itself? So the mood for this hasn’t been, well, not what I want it to be when I write here. But tonight I do want to say a couple things – hey, I heard that boo! :^)

I do have this thing I’m working on for here, and it is sort of big, so I’m gathering ammo, giggle, okay, loading my squirt gun, because I’m going to talk about how we could change the world. Overnight. The idea itself comes from the very last part of book 2 in the CWG series, which I’ve barely talked about at all here, but it fits with the issues in education I talked about earlier this week. What I’m doing is updating the numbers, which is surprisingly easy, and not. So things are sort of percolating there and will for another couple days, I think. But in the meantime, I got this little newsletter from Steve Goodier, reproduced with permission, as always. Steve, when I first started getting his newsletter, many years back, did it daily, other obligations grew for him and so it is now periodic, and not necessarily even weekly, sometimes a couple weeks will go by, but he is always welcome in my mailbox, for that matter, he’d be welcomed in my home, though he be a minister, giggle, not one with whom I’d normally be in sync with, as for the most part, organized religion and I are sort of on the outs, I am in many ways the antithesis of organized religion and may yet be its bane. But never its enemy. I love Steve’s wisdom, I love what catches his eye. And rather than forward his newsletter as I have in the past, I sometimes put it in here – yes, with permission, in case anyone wonders, lol. This one is both amusing and wise. So take a look. I’ll be back after. For a bit.

AIN’T NOTHIN’ YOU CAN DO

Jewish humor has it that a rookie recruit for the New York City Police
had passed all of his examinations except public health. The police
surgeon said, “Well, Murphy, you’ve done very well. I’ll ask you one
question and if you do all right on that, you can become a cop.”

He wanted to ask him how he would respond if a rabid dog bit somebody;
for instance, what does he know about the disease, how would he treat
the victim, whom would he call and so forth. The doctor said, “Now,
tell me, what is rabies, and what are you going to do about it?”

“Well, Captain,” Murphy replied, “rabies is Jewish priests, and there
ain’t nothin’ you can do about it.”

There “ain’t nothin’ you can do” about quite a few situations! And
it’s true with people, too. There ain’t nothin’ you can do about the
way they are, so it is fruitless to try to change them into something
else. You are wise to learn to accept them without conditions,
understand them the best you can and love them anyway. For they
probably won’t change much and there just ain’t nothin’ you can do
about it.

Sam Keen Christine said, “We come to love, not by finding a perfect
person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.” It’s
all about acceptance. — Steve Goodier

It is, isn’t it? All about acceptance? What else could matter more? What else could do more for this poor world, in this very moment, then acceptance? No more hating anything different, no more prejudice, no more fighting over whose idea of God is best, or bestest, no more killing each other over ideas that not one of us can prove without question. Acceptance. Then too, the idea embodied in that last quote is the essence of wisdom, is it not? “We come to love, not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.” We all have our blemishes, those who love us do not see them. Maybe we could learn to do that on a broader scale. Maybe we could learn that as we teach our children it is impolite to stare at someone differently abled, it is impolite to consider anyone differently abled. Maybe we could learn to love each other as we are, not as we wish we were, nor as we wish “they” were, as we/they ARE. Wouldn’t that be a nice first step toward civilization? much love, :^) gene

p.s. I said on my main site, that I’ve posted the light stories many times over the years, in many places, and always have met interesting people, but no one with the same or similar experience. Jen always told me I’d never find another, but that it was okay to look. I did meet a lot of people, but, as I think back, look back, through my saved mails and such, a relative handful of people would have seen them. The idea of doing a website came to me a long time ago, I have a version of what is on the main page sketched into a book from 9 years ago. I sort of was “pushed” into finally doing this. What I find interesting is that the site was up for a bit of August and all of September, but I didn’t submit it anywhere until mid-September. This little graphic below is from my web host’s statistical software and shows the number of people, not bots, actual people who found and saw the stories on my main site. Jen said she’d bring people to them. And she wasn’t lying. 1646 unique visitors to the site. 9542 hits on the site from search engines, but 1646 people. You can tell they didn’t read everything, lol, but hey, jen was right all along. Just put it out there and they will come. No point beyond that. This isn’t Field of Dreams, well, not really. But it is still ironically amusing to me. Maybe to you too. :^)

Month	Daily Avg				Monthly Totals
	Hits	Files	Pages	Visits	Sites	KBytes	Visits	Pages	Files	Hits

Oct 2007

307

216

113

53

248

254371

1646

3504

6704

9542

pp.s. giggle. or is that p.p.s? Or neither? Doesn’t matter. I don’t know that anyone but me has noticed this, and why would you, lol, but I am on the search for the perfect blue. I have color charts, beware, giggle, and each of my siggies, of late has featured a different shade of blue. This one is royal blue. Still not right. So, I’ll keep looking. Looking is half the fun anyway, isn’t it? :^)

If today brings even one choice your way
choose to be a bringer of the light :^) gene