Joy along the way

From my dear friend Steve Goodier’s newsletter. Worth a look, I’ll be back after.

JOY ALONG THE WAY

A senator once took Will Rogers to the White House to meet President
Coolidge. He warned the humorist that Coolidge never smiled. Rogers
replied, “I’ll make him smile.” Inside the Oval Office, the senator
introduced the two men.

“Will Rogers,” he said, “I’d like you to meet President Coolidge.”

Deadpan, Rogers quipped, “I’m sorry, but I didn’t catch the name.”

Coolidge smiled.

A sense of humor is a marvelous gift to have. It is one of the most
important means we possess to face the difficulties of life. And
sometimes life can be difficult.

I deal professionally with issues which are critical: relationships
breaking apart, people losing jobs, people facing serious illness or
agonizing with someone close who is suffering, addictions, grief and
heartache. Without a sense of humor about my own life, I don’t know if
I could survive! I take what I do seriously, but I try not to take
myself too seriously. Like the New York City cab driver who said,
“It’s not the work that I enjoy so much, but the people I run into!”

Here is an experiment: look for and find as much joy as possible for
one full day. Try to enjoy the people you run into, the work you do,
your leisure time and your relationships. Don’t forget to enjoy
yourself – and take enough time to enjoy God. I believe that if you
try this experiment for one full day, by evening you will bask in the
glow of a rekindled spirit.

It just takes a day to find joy along the way.

Steve Goodier

In my working life I deal with many of those same issues, not from a ministerial vantage point, as does Steve, but real issues, filled with real pain, nonetheless. Some times, some days, it takes a little longer to find the joy. This is one of them, but I know its out there waiting for me to find it. That certainty brings comfort. And the best thing is, it is free for all of us, free for the taking, requires no payment of any kind, it is built into the very fabric of this wonderful universe our Creator gave us in which to live and ponder such things – while we pay bills, wipe runny noises, and butts, giggle. And look each day for the joy along the way. That is the important thing, no matter how bleak the landscape, look for the joy, it IS there, I promise. much love, :^) gene

Still in love with CornflowerBlue, :^)

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

Anne Frank

I was led, in the oddest way today, TWICE, to the same place, both times quite by accident, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It is a place well worth looking at. Especially since it seems a good portion of the world is involved in the creation of a new Holocaust, not yet reaching the level of that which devastated Europe and European Jews in century previous, but it seems we are striving mightily to revisit that time in our own new and terrible ways. I decided that there must be a reason I’ve been brought to this site twice today. So I’m sharing it here with you too.

The story of Anne Frank is well known, here, at this site, you may learn much more of her, and you can hear some of her most poignant writings for yourself. I will be here much of this evening.

US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Anne Frank

Would that more people of that time had chosen to be bringers of the light, than of the darkness that swept the world in those days, and threatens to do so again. Would that more people of THIS time, would choose so too. much love, gene

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

Lets talk billions and sense

As opposed to dollars and cents. Because I’ve been holding on to a couple of articles for a few days now, just thinking about them. And they make no sense to me. We all know the foreclosure rate across the country is just decimating the middle class of America. Actually I think our middle class has three classes within it, that we are a five class society now, maybe six. This is not good as in a five star hotel. If that IS good, I wouldn’t actually know that either, having never been in one, let alone stayed at one. Probably still have bedbugs. :^)

Okay, the first article was in last Friday’s Minneapolis StarTribune, yes, they like it like that, one word, it is an affectation they picked up when they merged the morning and afternoon papers many years ago, which were, of course, the Minneapolis Tribune and Minneapolis Star. That was to assure we readers that the new paper would retain the best of both, which it actually did for a few minutes. :^). So now it is just the Strib to most of us. Anyway, this article was by a man named David Cho and the article was from the Washington Post originally. It says the subprime mortgage crisis hasn’t been all bad news. Three men, managers of what are called hedge funds, managed to do a bit more than all right. John Paulson earned 3.7 Billion dollars last year betting the subprime market would collapse. Yes, billion. George Soros made a tidy 2.9 billion and James Simons a mere 2.8 billion. Dollars. Each. Individually.

2002 was the first year hedge fund compensation was tracked, the top 25 managers earned 2.8 billion combined. Mr. Paulson started 2007 managing a fund that was itself worth “only” 6 billion dollars. Over the course of the year, one of his funds earned a 590 per cent return, and 353 per cent. The total value by the end of the year was $28 billion dollars. The way this works is by something called “short sales”. An investor borrows securities, in this instance, subprime mortgages owned by bank, brokerages and other investors, then sells them later to another buyer. Later the investor must buy those securities back and return them to the original lender. As the subprime market collapsed, the value of the securities fell, and Mr. Paulson was able to pocket the difference.

Hedge funds themselves are composed of pools of private money, largely made up of funds from wealthy individuals, pension funds, endowments, etc., and used for a wide variety of investments. Normally 80% of gains are distributed to the investors and the manager of the fund retains 20%, plus an annual fee. You see the math here? :^) Congress last year really tried to jump on these guys. Several bills were introduced that would raise the tax rate, 15%, that fund managers pay on their gains. Not one of those bills became law.

So, the subprime market, which this same Strib has been spotlighting the past week only in the terms of individual woes, people who were scammed, led to believe things that were not true, induced into illegal activities and just plain hoodwinked, while being disastrous for individuals, banks, etc., and the country as a whole hasn’t been all bad. At least for a few.

Remember a bit ago when I said we are a five class society now? I take it back. We’re a nine class society, if indeed some of us can be said to have any class whatsoever. The dirt poor, the poor, the just above poor but a paycheck missed away from disaster, the lower middle class which is just a notch above the just above poor, the middle middle class, those with some savings but a medical bill away from financial disaster, the upper middle class, who are doing well, but are largely two income families who can be brought to disaster by one ill-timed medical crisis, one ill-timed layoff or merger, or any serious accident – which can bring any of these six groups to their knees, and put most of them onto one form of assistance or another. Then we have three variations of the upper class, the wealthy small business owners, those flirting with real money for the first time, highly paid employees, but employees just the same. Then the middle group, secure business owners in secure industries, the upper echelon of legal and medical workers, the highest paid people in the country. Then our top 1%, the uber wealthy, with so much money they couldn’t spend it in many life times. I think we’d put Mr’s. Paulson, Soros, and Simons in this group, along with, around the world, a relative handful of such in each country, even the poorest of countries.

Am I saying they didn’t earn it? No. I am saying it is inequitable and arguably immoral that the gap between the poorest and the richest has grown to be as large as it is. How I can make that statement we’ll talk about in another post. And, yes, it is because God said so, giggle. Well, He didn’t actually say that, He said, such situations demonstrate what humanity thinks of itself and what it really values in the way it treats its people. This is more than a red state blue state issue and we’ll talk about why in that post. It is what has been building in the stillness of the past month.

But before we get to that, before I leave this, I want to mention something else I saw in the Strib. This is how our tax dollars are spent so I’m going to make it a nice little list. :^)

42.2 cents to the Military
22.1 cents to Health Care
10.2 cents to Nonmilitary interests – foreign aid? Not sure.
8.7 cents to anti-poverty efforts
4.4 cents to education
3.9 cents to government and law enforcement
3.3 cents to housing and community development
2.6 cents to environment, energy and science
1.5 cents to transportation, commerce and agriculture
1 cent to internal affairs

So what do those numbers say about what we care about? What our national priorities are? Are we REALLY that afraid? Need we be? What would the world look like if we made a few changes to those numbers, in concert with the rest of the world. We are, by the way, as one of my previous posts pointed out, far and away the largest spender on military items. Very much fear-based living, isn’t it? What if we chose again? What if we all chose again? What might we do then? THAT is the post we’ll come to shortly. God has quite a reasonable plan laid out in book 2. I’d like to see it become the driving force behind peace, environmental and political agendas the world over. We need change. The three men to whom I introduced you at the beginning of this post might disagree, but I think we out number them. :^). At some point, we have to ask ourselves, when is enough, enough? That is a reasonable question. And it is one reasonable people deserve an answer to. The solution does not lie in a 75% tax rate either – God actually proposes a tithe, a voluntary tithe at that. There, that’s the teaser to the end game in this little political diatribe. All is not lost and we don’t need to bring the mighty to the ground nor burn them, or anyone, at the stake. Love can do this all. And it will if enough of us want it to. I do. much love, :^) gene

Deepskyblue tonight, because this covers us all.

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

Keep the motor idling

I’ve got another from Steve Goodier and it is just marvelous. Had it stuck in draft and forgotten about until tonight. Take a look at a neat story. I’ll be back after. :^)

KEEPING THE MOTOR IDLING

I relate well to the comment made by Barbara Johnson: “Patience
is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping
your gears.” I know that if I can keep the motor idling, it will
be ready to go when I need it.

A kindergarten teacher practiced keeping her motor idling. A
story has it that she was helping one of her students put his
snow boots on. He asked for help and she could see why. With her
pulling and him pushing, they finally succeeded and she had by
now worked up a sweat. She almost whimpered when the little boy
said, “They’re on the wrong feet.”

She looked and, sure enough, they were. It wasn’t any easier
pulling the boots off, and then she had to wrestle the stubborn
boots on again.

Just as she finished lacing them he announced, “These aren’t my
boots.” She bit her tongue to keep from screaming, “Why didn’t
you say so?”

Once again she struggled to pull off the ill-fitting boots. He
then calmly added, “They’re my brother’s boots. My mom made me
wear them.” She began to realize how close she was to stripping
her gears as she struggled with the boots yet again.

When they were finally laced, she said, “Now, where are your
mittens?”

“I stuffed them in the toes of my boots,” he said.

She may have been the same teacher who once commented about a
particularly difficult child in her class, “Not only is he my
worst behaved child this year, but he also has a perfect
attendance record.

A Dutch proverb observes, “A handful of patience is worth more
than a bushel of brains.” I may never have to worry about having
a bushel of brains, but I can sometimes muster a handful of
patience. And that should be enough.

– Steve Goodier

I think I could safely say that about me, lol. Not only am I my worst behaved child, but I also have a perfect attendance record. In the stillness, I have had flooding through me memories, of times and places long ago. I’ve been trying to make sense of some things, life, the why of the lights and the look into home I’ve been given. And I’ve had the oddest amalgamation of two songs running through my head for weeks. Parts of Answer, from the wonderful Sarah and a bit of Mad As Hell from the Dixie Chicks. I’ve talked about my admiration for Sarah many times here, as an artist and as a person. I feel the same sort of affection for the Dixie Chicks, who were not only unafraid to exercise their constitutional right to free speech but to unabashedly pay the price exacted for doing so. Part of Mad As Hell, not the part I’m interested in, says:

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

What is there to add to that? Those aren’t just words in a song, they are examples of how Americans reacted to the words of a young woman who dared criticize George W. Bush and his insane foreign policy, his futile hunt for weapons of mass destruction while reducing Iraq to rubble and creating a new generation of jihadists who will hate the great satan all of their days – unless somehow they see the light. And realize it isn’t a bomb. That’s my dream. :^) Always look on the sunny side of life, from an old movie. Not always easy but it isn’t impossible either. I think I’ve cried more tears in the 11 years since Brandon died than I did in the 47 that preceded it. Not always tears of sadness, in the early years, yes, but things have seemed to affect me so strongly emotionally since then, that the tears just come, unbidden, unhidden. I’ve learned to take kleenex to movies or have them handy while I watch tv or read because I just can’t tell when something is going to reach in and touch my heart so deeply that I am going to cry from joy or sadness, or both. I don’t mind at all. I caught the last half hour of Winn Dixie the other night and cried like a baby. That little girl, I have no idea her name, was SO perfect in that movie, for that role, Jeff Daniels was at his wonderful best and it all came together in a crescendo of love that sent me to bed damp but smiling at what we can be when we but try, just the littlest bit.

So this amalgamation I mentioned just above is pieces of two songs. They, too, come unbidden, jen just starts playing one or the other, sometimes mixing them in my head, so that I’m not sure which is from what but I always know what she means. Not the whole songs, just a couple verses. These four verses:

First, From Mad As Hell:

Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I’m not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I’m still waiting

I’m through with doubt
There’s nothing left for me to figure out
I’ve paid a price
And I’ll keep paying

Then, from Answer:

I will be there for you while you take the time
In the burning of uncertainty
I will be your solid ground
I will hold the balance if you can’t look down

If it takes my whole life
I won’t break, I won’t bend
It’ll all be worth it
Worth it in the end

Over and over. All jumbled up and sometimes perfectly clear. The thing that has come to me in the stillness of the past month is my own truth. I am through with doubt, there is nothing left to figure out, and if it takes my whole life, I won’t break, I won’t bend, it’ll all be worth it, worth it in the end. I believe that. I know it. It IS my truth, I have figured it out, or she has with me, for me. We’ll talk about that too one day, but that day is a bit off, much between now and then. For the moment, much, love, :^) gene

I don’t know that anyone notices but I pick different colors for the salutation, often, because I love the names so, this one is cornflower blue. I’ve never seen one, but I believe in them. As I believe in these words.

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

All about choices.

This comes from Steve Goodier’s Life Support newsletter and it has a telling point. If you don’t make your choices sometimes they get made for you and you may not always be happy with the outcome. Life’s like that, isn’t it? I’ll be back after with a couple thoughts. :^)

MAKING CHOICES

Joseph Henry was an American scientist who served as the first
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He used to tell a rather
strange story about his childhood. His grandmother, who raised him,
once paid a cobbler to make him a pair of shoes.

The man measured his feet and told Joseph that he could choose between
two styles: a rounded toe or a square toe. Little Joseph couldn’t
decide. It seemed to be such a huge decision; after all, they would
become his only pair of shoes for a long time.

The cobbler allowed him to take a couple of days to make up his mind.
Day after day, Joseph went into the shop, sometimes three or four
times a day! Each time he looked over the cobbler’s shoes and tried to
decide. The round-toed shoes were more practical, but the square toes
looked more fashionable. He continued to procrastinate. He wanted to
make up his mind, but he just couldn’t decide!

Finally, one day he went into the shop and the cobbler handed him a
parcel wrapped in brown paper. His new shoes! He raced home. He tore
off the wrapping and found a beautiful pair of leather shoes – one
with a rounded toe and the other with a square toe.

I can learn a lesson here…a lesson about decisions: if I don’t make
decisions myself, others will probably make them for me. Better that
I make them myself.

And if I choose poorly from time to time, that’s okay, too. At least
I won’t have to wear shoes that don’t match. Besides, I’ll probably
do better the next time.

– Steve Goodier

Last week I watched the Idol Gives Back show, yes, still hopelessly addicted to American Idol or at least I have it on, I’m not much affected by anyone on the current season but last year, and I want to be sure to give Fox Broadcasting (not an outfit I am particularly enamored of as you might surmise) props for this idea. All television shows make money. Or they wouldn’t be on television, or aren’t long. I didn’t begin watching Idol until its fourth season – I have in internal bias against reality shows, I think they emphasize the worst in humanity rather than bring out the best, which I would like to see something as powerful, that reaches as many people as television does, do MORE of. Television, and the other branches of media, seem to believe that, for the most part, the only news that is fit to be seen, heard or printed is bad news. The question is what can they scare us with today? It often isn’t anything tangible so it is coached in “could” terms, such and such a thing COULD happen to YOU. Thank God, most of the time, those things never do, but when something dread does happen, there are they are like happy little vultures, the crows of the human world, only they don’t clean up messes like our little black-feather friends, this bunch just wants to stir the pot.

Now, I’ve mentioned this before so won’t go over all that again, at least not tonight, if you have interest you can find a post in which I wrote about one of my favorite movies, The American President, starring Michael Douglas and Annette Benning – he made one of the most stirring speeches I have ever heard in that movie. The part I’m talking about specifically tonight is when he said that the fear-mongers, and I include all forms of media in that phrase, aren’t the least bit interested in fixing problems, they only want to point them out, point out who is to blame for them and to keep you afraid, because your fear is their power.

Now, he didn’t say it quite that way, giggle, but he did say it, and God says it too in Book 1 when Neale asks him why the world is the way it is. We’ll come back to that, perhaps tomorrow night. I’ve other things on my mind tonight and to do yet. But I did want to do this first – so my fingers are flying and I am sure you, most of you, will forgive the typos and tense issues, giggle. We can all learn to relax a little bit, can’t we?

Anyway, I wanted to congratulate Fox Broadcasting, and specifically American Idol for something they started doing last year. The season I began watch, four, was the year Carrie Underwood one, and I had her picked as my favorite from her first audition. It was a compelling year, great competition, Bo Bice was the other finalist and I actually think if he had done his acapella song during the finale, he might have won the title. But he didn’t, Carrie was wonderful and has gone on to enormous success while retaining the humbleness of her roots and NEVER forgetting where she came from. She is still the same sweet girl now she was then, oh wiser in the ways of the world, no doubt, but she gives credit where it is due and shows up ON the show at least twice every year as payback. Given her schedule that is a hard thing to do, but she does it and she never stops thanking AI for giving her the break she needed. I admire that.

Now, as I said earlier, television shows are about making money. Lots of money in the entertainment industry, obscene amounts of money, and, well, we won’t go there at the moment, :^), but Fox and AI are the only ones who have chosen to give something back. Last year’s Idol Gives Back show had great music, compelling videos and raised more than $77 million dollars for charities here in America and in Africa. This year they are spotlighting 6 specific charities, all most deserving. And they donated two and a half hours of their air time to doing so again this year. The stories they showed were as compelling as last years, as sad, and the children and people every bit as much in need. I am proud to support that effort and would urge everyone to do so, it isn’t too late, Idol Gives Back has a place where you can still make a donation, if you are so inclined. What I like SO much about this, is that people really are giving of themselves, their time and talent, as well as their money. We are so blessed to have been born in this country. It is wonderful to see an industry that is about making money, lots and lots of it, give some back in such pleasant and compelling ways.

The first thing I think should be supported is any organization that says “first, war no more.” Since there aren’t many of those on the agenda, the six charities Idol chose are indeed worthy. And the statistics just as horrifying. Every 30 seconds a child in Africa dies of malaria (while I was in Viet Nam, I took a little white pill daily to avoid that disease, and used mosquito netting – which did not prevent friends from contracting it, but most of us managed to avoid it) the cost of one mosquito net is $10. And what DO we spend our money on? Bombs, weapons of mass destruction, guns, and ammunition, mines and machinery with which to deliver these tools of horror. Last week I talked about what our world might look like if every church in America was armed, with basements full of weapons, as seems to be the case in the Middle East, well, this week I ask a different question. What would our world look like if we pledged War No More, and turned our attention and defense budgets to bettering the human condition regardless the particular faith or lack thereof of any particular people? New Orleans could be rebuilt in nothing flat, safely, most dread diseases, including AIDS which kills thousands of African children daily, could be wiped out virtually over night.

Idol Gives Back is a beginning, not an end. I want to see that spirit carried forward until all that would harm these “least of His children” are no more. There are good people the world over, who care about each other, but our media feed us a never-ending stream of bad news. Let’s change that. Let’s make a new choice. Please. much love, :^) gene

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

The Bi-Centennial Man, and others.

I’m not sure where that “others” part will take us and at the moment I’m not too concerned about that either. :^). Though there is a destination, I know not what it is. In my experience, in my mind’s eye, or through Jenna, I’ve been there, done that, seen that a thousand times and more, and have yet to “be” any of that, in my experience. How’s that for a conundrum?

Part of my being “still” has been anything but. Jenna has had me delving into some very old things, hell, I am a very old thing, but she’s taken me to places I’ve not visited since my long ago youth. One of the things she has had me do is pull out some old books, books I’ve not been in, in many years, she’s taken me through them to specific passages and explained what they mean. Why I was led to them in the first place. Not all of these, indeed many of these, are things I saw but did not see as I went through the material the first time. I’m a rapid reader, giggle. Not pages per second, but fast, and I remember what i read, not photographically exactly, but I DO remember where on a page a particular thing is, if not the page. This can be annoying. And useful. As I scan a book, I will only look at particular spots on the left hand or right hand page, until I find what I knew was there. I am usually able to begin “near” the page I want. Not always. She says I’ll get better at that with time, and I ask, what time? I’m 58 years old. Time to her is not a thing, but it is to me. She just says as I need to. And I sigh. Often, our conversations have that component somewhere in them.

So – this particular bi-centennial man, he of the title, is not who you think he is. He is, however, based upon who some of you might think he is, coming from the novel by Isaac Asimov. Dr. Asimov was an amazing man. He and his counterpart, Robert Heinlein, an equally amazing man, were contemporaries, rivals, and I hope friends, were an exceptionally prescient pair. Neale Donald Walsch in his acknowledgments section in book 1, pays homage to the novels of Robert Heinlein. And well he should, because Robert was not only a prolific writer but one of the leading “futurist” thinkers of our, or any, time. I loved his novels. I grew up on them really as I discovered him in my teens when he was still relatively newly writing novels – he began his career writing science fiction for something I don’t remember but dimly, magazines of a sort, the size of the former TV Guide, short stories really, the occasional novella, a sort of pulp fiction. When I found him, or better said, when Jen led me to him (long before I knew who she was let alone that she was in me) he was in the business of expanding many of those original short stories into novels, marketed primarily to teens, though his subject matter grew increasingly adult and left the teen market forever with Stranger in a Strange Land. I didn’t always agree with Robert. I just inhaled him.

I never felt a desire to delve any further into science fiction, my few attempts were rebuffed, by the writers whose work I found ridiculous. Hard to read a book you think is silly to start with. But, in the mid-1980’s, a friend more or less accidentally introduced me to Isaac Asimov – now I knew who he was – he had a little quiz thing in the daily paper, which I found quite amusing and intriguing, when he died, that continued but with no flair, no fun, and I left it then – he, my friend, saw me carrying a copy of a wonderful book, in fact, I think, THE treatise on revolution, democracy and government that EVERY politician ought commit to heart, and if they shed no tear while reading it be immediately and forever disqualified from holding public office. Oops, okay that was a digression, and I do know that annoys some of my readers, giggle. But I’m sorry, it IS how my mind works, and you will have to either put up with it (it is okay to point out my shortcomings however you like, I will not take that personally, probably, as some of you already do – but that guarantees only that I will have a discourse with you, not that I will change anything. I am not entirely in control of this ship) or move on by. So, this friend, asked if I had ever read the Asimov Foundation Trilogy. I said no. So he brought me a copy of it. I knew Asimov, as I said, from the paper, I knew he was a sci-fi writer, but until then I had no idea of his true talent, nor his prescience.

The trilogy was but the beginning. Robert was far ahead of the times in his thinking, Isaac was millennia ahead. The Foundation series describes a “settled” Milky Way Galaxy, as we know a “settled” earth. Humanity has sprung loose from Earth and expanded through the galaxy – it is an amazing, I keep saying that, but there is no better word for it, series. One of my traits, I tried to write faults and jen would not let me so I sneaked it in this way, giggle, is that when I stumble (there are NO coincidences in this world, or any other) upon an author I enjoy, I immediately research him, or her, and then go back to the beginning and read everything they wrote. And that is how I came upon the bicentennial man. The future, Isaac describes in the Foundation trilogy (an aside, he wrote those in the 50’s and for the next 30 years people tried to persuade him to continue the story on, he relented 30 years later and produced three more astoundingly accurate (as Jen tells me) books in that series) WILL come to be. Humanity cannot stay on Earth. This sun, our sun, will die. That is not the reason humanity leaves earth in either Isaac’s or Robert’s novels, but it is the reason humanity will leave Earth in truth, not fiction. The universe is not a stable system, it is a living system, and eventually our sun will die, and we with it, if we find no way to move on. Isaac describes a galaxy so settled that the “home world” is forgotten, thought to be myth, giggle. That could happen. I don’t care if it does. But humanity will spread through the galaxy, not as a virus, though some could honestly characterize it so because as is often the case with humanity, some of it will be ugly, we will not always be able to be at our best, there will be situations in which some of what has played out on this planet will be played out again. It sounds like an endless loop and maybe it is. But I don’t think so. That’s for another time. :^)

This time is about what happened when I researched Isaac, having discovered that I loved his writing and creativity (please remember ALL of this is long before I knew about jen) and sought out his other works. He is most famous for his Robot series, one of which was made into an unfortunate movie with Will Smith, called, I, Robot, which was the title of the movie and the last resemblance to the book. I do not normally like movies based on books if I have first read the book. Too much is left out for me. And the rascals create wormholes where once was solid story. This happened with Contact, a wonderful novel by Carl Sagan, his only novel, where they turned the story inside out, but that was with his blessing as he was actively involved with the film, dying near its filming end. Carl is another we’ll talk about but not today. :^).

So, the bicentennial man, a wonderful Asimov (what an intellect we lost when he passed), story became a movie starring Robin Williams. I had some trouble with that. Not that I don’t like Robin Williams, he is a funny man, but I didn’t find this a funny story. And, of course, it was mangled. Nonetheless, a few weeks ago, one night Jen had me sit down and start looking at the movie channels, I didn’t want to, I wanted to read and she just would not let me concentrate and I finally gave up and asked her what she wanted me to do and she said watch a movie. So I did, started flipping, and saw bicentennial man, she said THIS MOVIE, gene. I saw the connection but not the reason but arguing with her is like arguing with air, you just can’t win, you can’t get hold of her, you can’t stop her, you can’t even make her be quiet, well that last part isn’t entirely true, she will let me do that now, now that I know she’s there, but not forever, she will only agree to a period of quiet. I think I hear the people with nets knocking on my door, giggle. That actually used to worry me, in the earliest days of my having shared her with the “world”, but the world I shared her with believed me, believed her. I’ve never been more surprised in my life. I wanted SO much to tell them and was SO scared that all the love we’d built between us would vanish if I did, and she pushed and told me NO, it wouldn’t, and she was, as freaking always right. Sorry, digression again, giggle. Hey it is my blog and you don’t have to read. :^)

So, I stopped on that channel and started watching. It wasn’t the story I read. But Robin Williams was VERY good in the role. There was some humor, but there was so much more. The first hour was set up, back story, but beginning with the second half of the movie, I began crying and I cried for the next hour. Every moment was heart wrenching. I know about such moments. If this is your first reading in my blog, well, you will need to do as I have always done, if you’ve gotten this far, then you are interested in either what I am saying or how I am saying it, and you will need to go back to the beginning and start there. There is a beginning. And there is an ending. It is the stuff in the middle that constitutes a life. The bicentennial man began life as a household appliance, bound by the famous three laws of robotics that Isaac was so proud of, and rightly so. They are laws we would all do well to live by.

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Now if you substituted human for robot in each of those three laws, tell me, would we still need TEN commandments?

He was purchased by a family, the details of that are not important, though they do set up the second half of the movie. He is an anomaly. The factory made, what they consider a mistake, in his positronic brain, and he becomes self-aware. Now THIS is a concept that runs through all of Isaac’s Robot novels, all of which are magnificent reading by the way, but never, okay that isn’t right; what I was going to say was never so poignantly as this, but that isn’t true, there is a situation in one of the robot novels in which a robot falls in love with a human being – that part was sort of stolen for this story, so there is an element of unrequited love here, at least for a while. Once he becomes self-aware, he becomes interested in other things of human invention, some that are not adequately, or even possibly described in words. He has emotions. Which in humans are simply chemical reactions, but as in all of science, action produces reaction. This movie becomes a profound story of the search for love and freedom. And it makes me cry. Literally. Kleenex, hmmm, well, whomever invented them, I owe a debt of gratitude to, because either my clothing would be horribly crusty or my laundry bill abhorrently high, or both. Probably both. This is why I am here, partially, to understand and experience this, because where I come from, where we all come from, it is not possible to know this feeling. So, what that makes me wonder, is perfection, imperfect? That we must have such a place to come to in order to know how glorious where we are is, because here we can see, feel, and experience what glory is not? Makes me crabby. giggle. Or in words from this movie, when Robin intervenes inappropriately, between a human and his robot, it chaps my ass. :^) I may not ever know the answer to that question here.

But thinking about it here IS important, because it informs who I am, who I will be, and my interactions with other souls every bit as solidly undercover as am I. None of us remember home. If we did, what would be the point? We come as we are, veiled, so that we may know what we are by virtue of here demonstrating what we are not. Is that reasonable? I think that is the question I came here to ponder. I don’t think there is any way to ponder it other than from here. I don’t think I could ponder it from home. The best I could do there is think about it. But at some point, thinking becomes pointless, and experience becomes necessary. That is what Neale’s books are about. :^) and me too. more to come…

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

Be Still

This is from Steve Goodier – all I have to say at the moment, life has its way of enveloping us and I need myself be still a bit longer, a little more of that after Steve. :^)

BE STILL

I have noticed that the best way for me to get a few minutes of
solitude at the end of the day is to start washing the dishes! And a
few minutes of solitude is something I need frequently. A time to be
alone. A time to reflect.

I think there is a difference between aloneness and loneliness.
Aloneness is necessary for the soul to thrive – even to come alive.
Not loneliness.

German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested and
eventually hanged for opposing Hitler. While in prison, he wrote
letters to his fiancée. The last letter she received was dated
Christmas 1944. Speaking of the war that separated them, Bonhoeffer
wrote this:

“These will be quiet days in our homes, but I have had the
experience over and over again that the quieter it is around me,
the clearer do I feel a connection to you. It is as though in
solitude the soul develops senses which we hardly know in everyday
life. Therefore I have not felt lonely or abandoned for one
moment.”

I can be alone without being lonely. In fact, those times of solitude
are necessary respite for a beleaguered soul, set upon by the
pressures of life. I need to take whatever moments I can to just be
still.

Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted, ” says Hans
Margolius. “Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.”

So I’ll find time to … be still.

– Steve Goodier

From Book 1, page 101:

Neale asks God if He could explain what God means by saying, “Passion is the love of turning being into action”?

God responds: “Beingness is the highest state of existence. It is the pure essence. It the “now-not now,” the “all-not all,” the “always – never” aspect of God.
Pure being is pure God-ing.
Yet it has never been enough for us to simply be.
We have always yearned to experience What We Are – and that requires a whole other aspect of Divinity, called doing.
Let us say that you are, at the core of your wonderful Self, that aspect of divinity called love. (This is, by the way, the Truth of you.)
Now it is one to be love – and quite another thing to do something loving. The soul longs todosomething about what it is, in order that it might know itself in its own experience. So it will seek to realize its highest idea through action.
This urge to do this is called passion. Kill passion and you kill God. Passion is God wanting to say “hi.”
But, you see, once God (or God-in-you) does that loving thing, God has realized itself, and needs nothing more.
Man, on the other hand, often feels he needs a return on his investment. If we’re going to love somebody, fine, but we’d better get some love back. That sort of thing.
This is not passion. This is expectation.
This is the greatest source of man’s unhappiness. It is what separates man from God.
The renunciate seeks to end this separation through the experience some Eastern mystics have called samadhi. That is, oneness and union with God; a melding with and melting into divinity.
The renunciate therefore renounces results – but never, ever renounces passion. Indeed, the Master knows intuitively that passion is the path. It is the way to Self realization.
Even in earthly terms it can be fairly said that if you have a passion for nothing, you have no life at all.

Now then, do you see the similarity between these two seemingly disparate treatises? In a way, what I have been about is what Steve said, “I can be alone without being lonely. In fact, those times of solitude are necessary respite for a beleaguered soul, set upon by the pressures of life. I need to take whatever moments I can to just be still.” And, in another way, I have been letting the fire of passion fill me. It is possible to do both at once. It has never been, will never be, enough for me to simply “be”. It was not at “home”, it is not here. I can be still and be filled with passion. I can do both without contradiction. Passion without action, is inert, not living, not being. But even when filled with the greatest desire to experience a thing, whatever that thing might be at any given moment, there needs be time to be still and know that I am God, or that part of Him, that lives in gene. Without that faith, life here can be very difficult, with it, nothing cannot be borne, experienced, loved for what it is. And what is that? Experiencing life in the realm of the flesh, the physical realm of relativity, what we came here to do, at least partially. To BE here, as well as to be here. It is how God can say as, He will later, there is no such as right or wrong. Because that is the truth. In the stillness within, we can know that.

I don’t mean meditation though some would call it that, giggle, particularly Eastern “masters” or followers of them who have brought that particular philosophy to the west, not purely, but with their own spin. I mean, listening to the stillness within, to the soft voice that lives there and holds the truth of you while you forget that truth and experience life here in the relative universe with all its bombast and with all its bombs. Even in the most difficult of times, it is possible to find peace within, it is then that we are least likely to think to do so however, because we think we ARE what we are doing and forget who we are being in the same moment. They cannot be separated, though eternally we try. There are those who think that wisdom comes only to those who sit in the lotus position on mountaintops and make pronouncements for others to follow. There are those who think wisdom comes only with living, with experience. And there are those who know the Truth, that we were born sufficient unto ourselves, incarnate and wailing as we enter this life. It is what we do with the passion we are born with that defines the experience we will have here. We’ll come back to this too – because, of course, the conditions that we are born into and the guardians we choose play a role as well, a role we’ll talk about in depth. There’s no entrance exam for this role as there is no final exam as we exit stage relativity, giggle. But there are no coincidences here either. So what, then, are we all on about? Discovery. Experience. Passion. And, always, though sometimes obliviously, love. More later, much love, :^) gene

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